Short read: Mumbai’s BMC is running schools offering free Cambridge and IB education, and parents are lining up
One area where Indians excel is in creating caste systems. So, within a generation of the economy being opened up to the wider world, India created a three-tier education. The lowest tier is free government schools for the poor. The second tier consists of fee-paying schools affiliated to Indian boards like CBSE, SSC and ICSSE. […]
Short read: The inspiring and tragic story of Mabel Stark, America’s most famous female tiger trainer
Some of us might have come to know about Joe Exotic the Tiger King in the Netflix documentary during the lockdowns. Long before him, there is an inspiring story of a woman who became a tiger trainer, a profession considered the domain of men. “Taking a vacation in California from her job as a nurse, […]
Short read: Neanderthal men mated with Homo sapiens women. It was a matter of preference, study finds
For many years biologists have been puzzled by the fact that “the X chromosome in modern humans has a minimal amount of Neanderthal DNA. The X chromosome is one of the sex chromosomes. Women have two X chromosomes, while men have an X and a Y chromosome. “In contrast, autosomes—the non-sex chromosomes numbered 1 through […]
Long read: India’s LPG Crisis Has An Indigenous Fix. It’s Been Waiting Since 2020.
India’s vulnerabilities emanating from its energy imports have been thoroughly exposed in the recent past from Trump’s trade negotiations involving use of Russian oil to the recent US-Israel-Iran war induced LPG crisis. Whilst we have made significant strides in adding renewable capacity, we are a long way off from energy security. But as this article […]
Long read: Claude AI helped bomb Iran. But how exactly?
Over the past fortnight several news articles have mentioned that the American forces in the Middle East have used Claude to bomb Iran. Obviously therefore we are all keen to understand how exactly does AI help improve the odds of success on the battlefield. (Claude had also been used by the US Marines who captured […]
Long read: Sorry, Football. Cricket Read Your Business Plan and Fixed It
Last Sunday, the Indian cricket team extended its dominance of the shortest format of the game – T20, to become the first ever team to win consecutive world cups. The fact that they won something like 85% of their games in between the two world cups underlines that domination. Indeed, Siddharth Monga argued in the […]
Short read: The war on Iran and the war on Anthropic
If there is anyone who knows a thing or two about the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity, it is Daron Acemoglu who in 2024 won the Nobel Prize for his work on exactly this subject. In this article, he tears into how Trump through two of his decisions in the past week […]
Like Mohammed Siraj, Rinku Singh’s father left too soon, his sacrifices never witnessed the fame they helped build
In a country where jobs are increasingly scarce even for well-educated graduates from middle class families, for youngsters from less affluent families the avenues for gainful employment are fewer still. In such a country, the IPL has been godsend for the children of the less affluent – it offers them a ticket to prosperity with […]
Short read: Novartis settles with Henrietta Lacks’ estate over use of her ‘stolen’ cells to advance medicine
Henrietta Lacks’ tragic death did not stop her from leaving behind a legacy so profound and powerful that it changed medicine forever. Now, her family is ensuring that that legacy is remembered, celebrated and rewarded properly. Here in brief is her remarkable story: Henrietta “Lacks was a poor tobacco farmer from southern Virginia who married […]
Long read: What Happens When Everything Can Be Bet On?
Predictions are hard, especially the ones about the future”, a quote often attributed to Niels Bohr, the Nobel winning physicist, was meant to suggest the futility of forecasting. Unless, if you can use the wisdom of crowds or even better inside information. Turns out, there is now a legitimate business that combines both and is […]
Long read: The AI Disruption: From Doomsday Destruction to Do-Nothing Bots!
There’s been plenty of feedback, mostly criticism in the public domain of the doomsday report by Citrini research which shook the markets last week. Much of the criticism is by the way of the critics providing their own scenarios as more likely. Given how fast the space is evolving and most couldn’t have been predicted […]
Long read: Can Israel Transfer Iron Dome and Iron Beam Tech to India?
Since finding itself bereft of international support during Operation Sindoor, the Government of India seems to have gone into an international overdrive to build friendships with other middle powers such as France, Canada and Israel. At least part of this outreach is with a view to acquire advanced weaponry of the sort Pakistan was able […]
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