People feared trapped in Mumbai hospital fire A major fire broke out on Monday at hospital where some people were feared trapped, an official said. No casualty has been reported so far, he said. The fire brigade got a call around 4pm about the blaze at the government-run ESIC Kamgar Hospital located at Marol in suburban Andheri, the official from the city civic body’s disaster management cell … Read More
Wall cry brings White House closer to partial shutdown Pushing the government to the brink of a partial shutdown, the White House is insisting that Congress provide $5 billion to build a wall along the US-Mexico border despite lawmaker resistance from both parties. Without a resolution, parts of the federal government will shut down at midnight on Friday. “We’re going to do whatever is necessary to build the border … Read More
US conducts 6 airstrikes against Somalia extremists, 62 dead The United States military’s Africa Command says that it has carried out six airstrikes in the Gandarshe area of Somalia, which killed a total of 62 extremists from the al-Shabab rebel group. In a statement issued on Monday, the US military said it carried out four strikes on December 15 in which 34 people were killed and two more on … Read More
Your chaiwala will change his tone We turned away. We turned away from each other. But I am changing my tone now. I am not you. I am not part of this “we”. I am separate. I am removed. I am above. Remember. I am Mahadeb. What did you ever think of me? That I was a chaiwala? A chaiwala aspiring to be, someday, TheChaiwala? Just … Read More
A chat with the very very special Laxman His teammates still call him ‘Very Very Special Laxman’ and it is only on meeting him does one realise why they do — a perfect gentleman with a word of gratitude for everyone who has played a role in his cricket journey. VVS Laxman was in Calcutta to launch his book 281 and Beyond (published by Westland Sports, Rs 699) … Read More
How Robert Clive raided India for East India Company Even in his lifetime Robert Clive attracted great controversy, and over the nearly two-and-a-half centuries since his death in London in mysterious circumstances, he has attracted much more. While still a schoolboy, growing up in the midlands and northwest of England, his uncle complained that he was “out of measure addicted to fighting”. Wherever he went to school, he made … Read More
The tradition of Dasara dolls is no idle worship Dasara is how we call it, the annual festivity that concluded a while ago. The celebrations have long been dissolved in Mysore, famous for its Dasara jamboree, and every other city across Karnataka, but my mother drew the final curtain on the event only recently. She had been busy rolling dolls made of clay, plaster of Paris and wood in … Read More
Cloud on anaemia numbers in India India’s nationwide anaemia counts are under question with medical researchers telling the Union health ministry that it is relying on a haemoglobin measurement method that is easy to use but has been shown to be unreliable. The researchers have said the health ministry’s National Family Health Surveys have used a measurement method that can overestimate or underestimate haemoglobin levels and … Read More
Delhi High Court awards Congress’s Sajjan Kumar life term for role in 1984 anti-Sikh riots The Delhi High Court on Monday convicted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for conspiracy to commit murder in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and sentenced him to imprisonment for life. The bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and Vinod Goel convicted Kumar of criminal conspiracy and of promoting enmity and acts against communal harmony. The high court said Kumar’s imprisonment will be … Read More
Right to gag: A government turned against itself Governments go all out for transparency, as long as it is not theirs. Otherwise, Central and state governments would not have continued to file cases against the Central Information Commission for ordering disclosure of information under the Right to Information Act. According to the programme coordinator for access to information at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, the cases began to … Read More