Ayodhya Sound and Light Show: For Elections And Beyond

USUALLY in a sound and light show, the two occur in the same place. On April 17, 2024, at the still under-construction Ram Temple at Ayodhya, at exactly 12 noon on the occasion of Ram Navami, light from the sun was focused through a set of mirrors and lenses on the forehead of the idol of infant Ram or Ram Lalla.

Green Credit Programme: About Money or Environment?

A GREEN Credit Programme (GCP) was notified by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) on October 12, 2023 covering a range of activities by corporates or other entities that would be eligible for “green credits.” This came and came to the fore again recently when the first set of rules pertaining to one of the major activities covered, namely afforestation, were notified on February 26, 2024.

AI Kill-lists Drive Israeli Genocide in Gaza

AN investigation conducted by Israeli-Palestinian magazine “+972” has made explosive revelations about Israel’s use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated “kill lists” to target supposed Palestinian militants in Gaza through bombing attacks that resulted in mass civilian casualties during its genocidal campaign in Gaza since 7 October, 2023. The report states that an AI computer programme called “Lavender” played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war.

Climate Change and Extreme Events: An Update

THE UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) last month released its State of the Climate Report 2023, which not only confirms the fears of most observers that global warming has reached alarming levels, but also offers much evidence that climate change and its attendant impacts are advancing much faster than earlier thought.RECORD-BREAKING YEAR The WMO Report shows that “the year 2023 broke every single climate indicator.” The global average temperature in 2023 was 1.45 deg C ± 0.12 C above the 1850-1900 industrial era average.

Manufacturing History: Hindutva and Rakhigarhi

NCERT is relentlessly changing school curricula and revising text books to push pre-determined Hindutva ideological positions. Deletions were made earlier in biology and other subjects’ syllabi and text books for Grades 7, 8, 9 and 10 to deny students knowledge of evolution theory, genetics, biodiversity, forests, natural and mineral resources of India etc.

Dual-Use Dilemma: AI and the Future of Protein Design

GIVEN current artificial intelligence (AI) generative and transformative tools, the potential to design proteins in a quick and easy way has increased the possibility of using such synthetic proteins as bio weapons. Concerned about this scenario, a group of scientists initiated a campaign advocating for the responsible and ethical application of protein design.In October 2023, David Baker of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, USA, organised an AI safety summit to assess the risks associated with the malicious utilisation of designer proteins.

Establishing a Digital Surveillance and Censorship Regime

MODI government is systematically working to set up a surveillance and censorship framework for the digital domain, which seeks to undermine our fundamental rights of free speech and privacy. The genesis of many of these initiatives predated the Modi government.

Amended Water Act Permits Pollution by Corporates

THE government has secured the latest in a series of enactments seriously diluting earlier legislation on environmental issues, this time on water pollution. As has become customary with the Modi government, objections by the opposition were brushed aside, and there was virtually no discussion in either house of parliament.

India’s MIRV Missile: Double-Edged Gain

ON March 11, 2024 India successfully conducted its first test of a new Agni-V missile with Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology, together termed the “Divyastra (celestial weapon) Mission.” To those unfamiliar with the arcane world and terminology of nuclear weapons and missiles for their delivery, a MIRV missile carries on a single rocket several warheads, each of which can be programmed to travel in different directions at varying speeds to strike at multiple targets several hundreds of kilometers apart.

Kolkata Declaration: Scientific Temper in the Current Context

A Statement on Scientific Temper was drafted through an iterative process involving leading scientists and social scientists at the initiative of the All India Peoples Science Network. The following is an edited version of the Declaration signed by around 200 Scientists adopted at a Convention on Scientific Temper held at Kolkata on 28 February 2024.

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