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Tag Archives: Prime Minister Narendra Modi
To be Indian is to set records
For all the ways in which the Indian people are divided these days, they’re seemingly united in their desire to set records. On January 22, a tinkerer named Sohan Rai, a.k.a. “Zikiguy”, said on Instagram that he and his team … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Science
Tagged Bharatiya Janata Party, gigantism, Guinness Book of World Records, Limca Book of Records, postcolonial identity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Republic Day, Samanth Subramanian, Shubhanshu Shukla, Sohan Rai, space programme, Vinay Lal, world records
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Trade rift today, cryogenic tech yesterday
US President Donald Trump recently imposed substantial tariffs on Indian goods, explicitly in response to India’s continued purchase of Russian oil during the ongoing Ukraine conflict. These penalties, reaching an unprecedented cumulative rate of 50% on targeted Indian exports, have … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged cryogenic engines, Donald Trump, intercontinental ballistic missiles, Missile Technology Control Regime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russia-Ukraine war, trade war, weapons of mass destruction
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Time for proof is now, Mr. Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi is free to voice himself but on the question of the Election Commission “stealing votes”, as he has been claiming to the press, he needs to offer the proof he claims he has right away. By repeatedly claiming … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Op-eds
Tagged Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar Assembly elections, Election Commission of India, electoral fraud, electronic voting machines, Maharashtra Assembly elections, Model Code of Conduct, political capture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, public trust, Rahul Gandhi, voter list inflation
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Watch the celebrations, on mute
Right now, Shubhanshu Shukla is on his way back to Earth from the International Space Station. Am I proud he’s been the first Indian up there? I don’t know. It’s not clear. The whole thing seemed to be stage-managed. Shukla … Continue reading
Enfeebling the Indian space programme
There’s no denying that there currently prevails a public culture in India that equates criticism, even well-reasoned, with pooh-poohing. It’s especially pronounced in certain geographies where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys majority support as well as vis-à-vis institutions that … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged Axiom Space, Axiom-4, Bharatiya Janata Party, Board of Control for Cricket in India, Chandrayaan 2, Covaxin, Department of Space, Election Commission of India, Falcon 9, HUNOR, Indian Space Research Organisation, K Sivan, NASA, political capture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, S Somanath, Shubhanshu Shukla, SpaceX, V Narayanan, VG Somani, Vikram lander
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India’s next man in space
NASA/SpaceX/Axiom will make their next attempt to launch the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station on June 11. Axiom Space’s tagline for the mission is “Realizing the Return”, alluding to three of the mission’s four crew members, including India’s … Continue reading
The fever dream of ‘technological sovereignty’
I recently came across an initiative called “Industrial47”. Someone had shared a link to it on a group I’m part of, and when its card loaded, the image was of a nuclear weapon going off. I found on LinkedIn that … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds, Science
Tagged air pollution, air purifier, Brahmaputra river, farm fires, genius, Gita Chadha, Homi Bhabha, Indian Space Research Organisation, Industrial47, investment fund, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leona Woods, LinkedIn, nuclear weapon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reason of state, scientific superpower, scope creep, smokeless chulha, social harm, Social welfare, solar cooker, technological sovereignty, technologisation, The Hindu, Three Gorges dam, Walchand Hirachand, Yarlung Tsangpo river
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The party-spirited cricket World Cup
Sharda Ugra’s essay and the BCCI-BJP combine’s presumption of zero resistance at the ICC Cricket World Cup Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged Amit Shah, Asia Cup 2022, Bharatiya Janata Party, Board of Control for Cricket in India, International Cricket Council, Jay Shah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Narendra Modi stadium, orange jersey, Pepsi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ram Siya Ram, Sharda Ugra, Star Sports, Wisden Almanack, World Cup 2023
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Justice delayed but a ton of bricks await
From ‘SC declines Ramdev, Patanjali apology; expresses concern over FMCGs taking gullible consumers ‘up and down the garden path’’, The Hindu, April 10, 2024: The Supreme Court has refused to accept the unconditional apology from Patanjali co-founder Baba Ramdev and … Continue reading
The missile test before the polls
On March 27, 2019, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted ‘Mission Shakti’: India’s first anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test. After the event, the national broadcaster broadcast an hour-long speech by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since the Election Commission’s restrictions … Continue reading