Micro-post of the week, in which I wonder why the “Popular Book Shop”, located inside the Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum had a loud “Mulberry Bush” nursery rhyme playing in the background, “..This is the way we go to Church, go to Church, go to Church…”.
And find it odd (and saddening) that Acharya  J C Bose barely finds a small mention…(not to forget Sir C V Raman).  No photograph of Wing Cmdr Rakesh Sharma either. And no trace or mention of our own achievements in Science and Technology from ancient …

Start this weekend reading about “Maccha Yantra” – which might have been the precursor to the mariner’s compass of today…
Next, read former Governor of J&K, Jagmohan’s account of  his trek to Amarnath…
…and finally, ponder over Chandan Mitra’s provocative piece on the purpose of history
Excerpts from all the three articles below, as always.

Many of you must have read a report in The Hindu from a few weeks ago by unnamed “Eminent Historians” titled, “From ‘India Shining’ to ‘India was Shining’“. The report (dt. 3rd May) appeared to be an amateurish attempt at trashing some of the claims made in the BJP’s manifesto regarding India’s past and heritage.
It had excerpts from the BJP’s manifesto and brief counter-points dismissing the claims and assertions. Curiously – in spite of being authored by “Eminent Historians” – it was surprisingly light on references and historical sources.
Dr. …

From a recent article in VC Circle:
Global warming, air pollution and other problems related to the emission of Co2 (carbon dioxide) may partially get solved as a group of five scientists from four institutes have discovered a low cost method of converting carbon dioxide into calcium carbonate (CaCo3), a useful building material.
…The scientists have discovered naturally occurring bacteria that can be used to convert Co2 into CaCo3, that can be used in cement or limestone aggregate for building roads. When used as an enzyme, biomolecules that speed up the chemical …

At first glance, Nandan Nilekani’s “Imagining India” is daunting.
500+ pages, densely packed with statistics, policy prescriptions and anecdotes do not make for easy bedtime reading…yet I found it highly engaging and written in a very readable style. If there was ever a book you wished that reflected a bird’s eye of what ails India, “Imagining India” would come pretty close to it.
On the very first page, in the preface, Nandan Nilekani recalls a conversation with a visitor in which he was asked:
“Why don’t people like you get into politics?”
Nilekani’s …

A few hours ago, ISRO put “Chandrayaan-I”  into transfer orbit around the earth, heralding its “Mission to Moon”.
This is a proud moment for the team at ISRO working tirelessly for the last several months, sometimes right through the night.
It is also a proud moment for India’s indigenous space research programme and more broadly, India’s indigenous R&D efforts - the seeds of which were planted barely a few decades ago.
But questions are being asked…and doubts are being raised.
“Was this the best use of the country’s limited resources?”, “What will this mission really achieve?”, “Will it have any impact on …

Like most of you, I watched and read about the proceedings of the last few days with a sense of sadness and great shame…Amidst all this, these words by Radha Rajan touched a raw nerve… Please read and think…(emphasis added)
*** The Nation as Draupadi ***
Parliament on 22nd July resembled the court of the Kauravas with the Speaker playing Dritharashtra. Every individual in parliament on that day, notwithstanding the party to which he or she belonged, was some character in the shameful court and I was the nation.
When the Prime Minister …

I recently came across an interesting article by Mark Fidelman provocatively titled, “Where Are India’s Innovative Companies, Products and Solutions?”
I would encourage all of you to have a look…Feldman has written persuasively about what ails innovation in India…but the real “action” is in the comments…one of which caught my eye and provided the inspiration for the title of this post. Bhamy V Shenoy commented on May 15 (emphasis mine):
“…The biggest problem (in India) in my view is the non-functioning governance system because of (the) indifference (of) educated people who …

Many of you may have come across this information about “Ancient Indian Scientists” before. I received it in a chain email but I shall be most grateful if any reader(s) have links or references to the original source(s).
There are many assertions and statements here that have not been verified or explained (see e.g. the entry on Acharya Bharadwaj who is credited with advances in aviation technology*). We need to source and evidence these it to make it more credible.
Some excerpts below (statements on which I need help are marked …

Ashutosh Sheshabalaya ,whom I quoted in my earlier post, has followed up with another brilliant piece of writing in The Globalist in which he talks about Nano and India’s impact on the larger global economy…
Some excerpts:
…And yet, all that Western media manage to see is that  the planet is doomed once millions of Indians and Chinese get their own cars  - even though there is only one car for approximately every 1,000 Indians, while in the United States the ratio is three cars for every four people.
…Such ingrained Marie Antoinettesque …