Bezos and Musk: Heralding a New Space Age or a Space Grab?

THE space race was once between the Soviet Union and the United States. It is now – on the surface – between the three billionaires, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. Two of them rode their sub-orbital flights, meaning that they cannot be considered as space flights as they did not reach a stable orbit around the earth. Branson’s ambitions are limited, more for a market for developing the exotica of space tourism. Elon Musk and his SpaceX have been playing for the long haul, with a series of rockets and launches including to the International Space Station.

Pegasus: Dangerous for Democracy

THE winged horse of the Greek fable Pegasus is haunting the Modi government once again. 17 news organisations including The Wire, Washington Post, The Guardian along with two NGO's – Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories – have spent months examining a possible list of 50,000 phone numbers from 45-50 countries. They have found out who could indeed be possible targets of cyber attacks in these countries. They then forensically examined the phones on the target list of some of the people who were willing to have their phones tested.

Billionnaires’ Space Race

A NEW space race is on, not between superpowers, but between three billionaire businessmen with their space-based enterprises. Their goal, each in their own way, is to pioneer space tourism and to move space travel away from an exclusive activity involving select, rigorously trained astronauts often with military backgrounds to one in which, theoretically, ordinary people can participate.

Viewing Covid-19 Pandemic Naturally, Not Conspiratorially

COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has been one of the most devastating pandemics. It has exposed the dark underbelly of the health systems in many developed countries with a dominant privatised system. There has been a massive loss of lives and livelihoods in the US, India, Brazil and several countries. It has also shown that countries with strong public health systems like China and Cuba have withstood the onslaught much better.

India’s Deep Ocean Mission: Perilous Potential

THE cabinet committee on economic affairs last week approved a Deep Ocean Mission proposed by the ministry of earth sciences at a cost of Rs 4,077 crore over a period of five years, with funding of Rs 2,823.4 crore for the first three years 2021-24. Allocation of Rs 4,000 crore had earlier been announced in the union budget.

From Vaccine Apartheid to Vaccine Neocolonialism?

THE prime minister in his speech on June 7, partially reversed his widely criticised Covid-19 vaccine policy. What concerns us here is that he also went on to give a false account of India’s vaccine history: that it had not been able to vaccinate its people earlier and could not manufacture vaccines indigenously. It is only now – according to Mr Modi – that India had manufactured two vaccines indigenously.

Urgently Expand Public & Private Sector Production of Vaccines: AIPSN

NEARLY 215 scientists, academics, and doctors of the country endorsed and released a press statement prepared by AIPSN on May 31, urging the central government to expand the production of vaccines.

Lakshadweep Happenings: the Big Plot

WORLD Environment Day falls on June 5, each year and the theme for the coming decade has been declared as “Ecological Restoration.” It is indeed a tragedy that this article, written in commemoration of the Day draws attention to the ecological and human disaster unfolding in the Lakshadweep archipelago in the Arabian Sea, as well as in the Andaman & Nicobar island chain on the eastern flank of peninsular India in the Indian Ocean, in the name of “island development.”

Ramdev’s Bogus Claims to Sell Patanjali Products Combines with BJP’s anti-Science Nationalism

ALL publicity is good publicity—so the old marketing slogan goes. Is that why Ramdev courts controversy by laughing at Covid-19 victims gasping for air on his Astha channel? His attack on allopathic medicine as “stupid science” and false claims that “10,000 doctors have died” after two shots of the vaccine are recent ones.

Why is India Failing to Vaccinate its People With the Biggest Vaccine Capacity in the World?

OUR first concept of self-reliance came out of our struggle for independence. It meant developing the indigenous capacity of our people, institutions and industry against the colonial control of the economy. The second self-reliance – Modi’s slogan of atmanirbhar Bharat – means only local manufacturing. Without the other elements of self-reliance, it has failed to deliver even the vaccines that we need so urgently today.

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