Mangalyaan Success: Putting it in Perspective

ON September 24, 2014 when the Mangalyaan spacecraft was inserted into Martian orbit as planned, with Prime Minister Modi present at ISRO’s Mission Control Centre in Bangalore, ISRO declared its maiden interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), a complete success. The Liquid Fuel Engine was fired at the right time as programmed, and the spacecraft was slowed down sufficiently to enable Mars to “capture” it within its orbit.

‘India should not Succumb to US Pressures on IPR Policy’

A GROUP of individuals and organisations has expressed concerns over the central government’s move to review India’s positions on the issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States.

India's Mars Mission Enter its Final Phase

INDIA'S Mars Orbiter mission – the Mangalyaan – is now moving into its last and most critical phase. The Mars Orbiter is going to be transferred on September 24 from its current heliocentric or sun-centric orbit and into a Mars-centric one. This is no mean feat, as this phase has defeated many an earlier mission. If it succeeds, India's ISRO will be the fourth space agency to manage such a feat; the others are US's NASA, the Russian and the EU space agencies.

Ministry Against Environment & Forests?

DURING his election campaign, prime minister Modi repeatedly assailed the environmental regulation prevalent in the country at the time for obstructing development and damaging India’s economic growth.

Hepatitis and the Thousand Dollar Pill

CAPITAL’S greed to maximise profits respects very few boundaries. If the pharmaceutical industry were to be used as an example, it would seem that greed that is predicated on the helplessness of the sick and the ailing knows no bounds at all. Recent evidence for this comes from the marketing of a drug, called Sovaldi, by the US based company, Gilead.

Ebola Epidemic Exposes the Pathology of the Capitalist System

ON August 8, the World Health Organisation declared the West African Ebola outbreak a 'public health emergency of international concern'. The declaration came four months after the WHO reported a major Ebola outbreak in Guinea in Western Africa. Researchers traced the outbreak to a two-year old child who died on December 6, 2013. The epidemic, which broke in Guinea and spread to 3 of its neighbours – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria – is known to have already affected 2,240 people and killed 1,229.

Food Insecurity and Trade Hallucination

THE financial press, across the globe, continues to castigate India for the collapse of the recent WTO negotiations in Geneva. Given the huge misinformation campaign, much of which has been echoed by the capitalist press in India, it is necessary to nail the lies, canards and half-truths that are being peddled every day.

MH17 Tragedy: Missing Evidence

THE shooting down on July 17 of the Malaysian airliner MH17, killing all the 283 passengers and 15 crew members, undoubtedly is one of the most unfortunate consequences of the civil war in Ukraine. The world should have responded with an independent investigation, possibly under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) or any international agency. Instead, the tragic incident is being used by the US and its allies in tandem with Ukraine's Poroshenko regime to launch a vicious attack on Russia and the federalists in Ukraine. What is missing in all this is a shred of evidence.

Trading Away Access to Public Services

A CONSPIRACY was hatched, at the behest of the global elite, in Geneva in 2012 that has far reaching implications for the welfare and well being of billions of people across the world. The conspiracy involves the commencement of secret negotiations, called the ‘Trade in Services Agreement (TISA)’ that seeks to convert all forms of services across the world into tradable commodities. The latest round of negotiations in this process concluded in Geneva in June 2014.

Ethanol Again… Flogging A Dead Horse

WITHIN days of the BJP-led government coming to power, announcement was made of an enhanced policy thrust on ethanol-blending of petrol. While the earlier biofuels policy of the government, initiated by the Vajpayee-led NDA government and followed through by the UPA, mandated 5% blending of ethanol in petrol, the Modi-led government announced its intention to ratchet up the mandatory blending to 10%. There are still some procedural steps to be taken before the policy declaration comes into force but indications are that the government is serious about this new policy push.

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