The big data analytics envisaged by Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission could promote private insurance and big tech firms at the cost of patient outcomes and privacy.
'Gandhi was aware that intellectual labour was necessary for the culture of the mind and accepted the necessity of a division of labour, but not the idea that bodily labour had to be confined to one class and intellectual labour to another class.'
The pursuit of 'excellence' at AIIMS has become a rush towards greater specialisation, foiling the institute's founding mandate to produce doctors to serve India's masses.
India has the talent for research, but to realise the potential we need greater outlays, a transformation of the environment, loosening of government control and a recognition, especially in medical science, of the contribution of CSOs and the private sector.
The long-term trajectory of COVID-19 will see the disease becoming endemic with the occasional flare up and frequent booster shots having to be given. We must understand the consequences of this path and reach a consensus on the level of risk we can live with.
The informal sector is not made up of tax dodgers but largely of enterprises struggling to survive. It will take a structural transformation for the informal to become formal. The recent contraction of the informal was only a pandemic-induced shock.
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The promise and perils of competence without comprehension
Trained on our mega digital footprint, Large Language Models ‘imitate’ human behaviour and can provide ‘plausible’ completion of any text prompt. Some are optimistic about AI reaching general human intelligence; others are terrified by the potential misuses.
The Karnataka bill on conversions goes much further than the laws enacted in other states in its infraction of liberty and it contains a raft of illegitimate provisions. Its intentions have been laid bare by the belligerence that has accompanied its advocacy.
The pandemic forced a fraction of India's salaried workers to fall back on self-employment or casual work, or to withdraw from the workforce entirely. It was only the salaried who held secure and regular positions who were able to hold on to their jobs.
Was John Orth a self-proclaimed ‘guru’ in the US in the early 20th century, or a one-time rug-dealer suspected of being a Russian spy, or perhaps the Austro-Hungarian archduke Johann Salvator himself? A story across many continents of many lives and claims.
A homage by a disciple to John le Carre', the Master of spy fiction, in the form of a beginning of a new novel ‘The Spy Without a Country’. Readers can complete the novel and share the royalties with the author.
We must grieve for the millions who died in 2021 from Covid-19; we must also feel rage that the State was not responsive to their suffering. Groups of citizens stepped in to care for each other; that gives us hope we can move to a new place of kindness.
AFSPA and the incarceration of justice in Nagaland
AFSPA keeps apart ideas of law and justice; a separation that makes the Nagas 'killable', as in Oting. The law incorporates them into the Indian nation-state as rights-deprived subjects — and, in the process, reveals the dark side of Indian democracy.
The BJP may well return to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2022. But if a rejuvenated opposition manages to limit the incumbent's victory tally, that could reshape the contours of the 2024 national elections.
Chennai's floods are embedded within inequality and the wider ecology of disasters in low-income settlements. Seeing their regularity purely as planning and engineering problems neglects this complexity.
"Tiffin" is a snack that keeps you going until the next meal. Tiffin also conveys the sense of an occasion where you engage in friendly conversation and discussion. In that spirit, “Tiffin”-- also linked to our acronym TIF -- is a new section that will offer articles covering topics other than “contemporary issues”.
