chakravarthy

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu took several Rail Bhawan mandates to task within hours of the latest tragedy on the tracks. Thirteen coaches of the Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express derailed at Khatauli, near Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 23 people. A portion of the track had been disjointed and was being welded in order to be put back in place as part of 'routine maintenance'. But no one bothered to put a traffic blockade in place, as required, and the welding could not be completed before the train passed through. A probe by the Commissioner of Railway Safety may reveal whether this was a systematic communication failure or an instance of a casual approach to a task that needed to be done but could have waited if traffic blocks were not feasible that day. Reposing confidence in the inquiry process may appear difficult as the CRS is yet to conclude its investigation into one of the deadliest railway mishaps in the past decade: the Indore-Patna Express crash near ...

"It is not easy to compose a lyric for a duet without knowing the given situation, more so if it is a dream song. It is a difficult task to weave words from thin air, and allure the audience". This was the lament of lyricist Gona Vijayarathnam during the course of an interview while narrating his own experience. The teacher-turned-lyricist was assigned by writer-producer-director Giduthuri Suryam the job of writing a song for his movie, Kathanayukudu (1971). Vijayarathnam was then in the august company of literary luminaries like Sri Sri, Arudra, Sunkara Satyanarayana and Elchuri Subramanyam to write lyrics for the film and he was eager to prove himself. Suryam gave him the dream song to be shot on the film's lead pair - Sobhan Babu and Vansiri. Even after a week and the lyricist having come up with about forty pallavis (opening lines of a song), music director Akula Appala Raju alias A.A. Raj was not satisfied. He had started his career as a violist with Saluru Raje...

K. Sudhakar Yadav, Guinness World record holder for "The Largest Tricycle" in the world, and known for his wacky car creations has made a unique 'National Flag Car' to celebrate India's seventieth Independence Day. Powered by a 150CC engine, the single-seater car can travel at a speed of 40 kmph. It has 33 wheels and a length of 80 ft and a height of eight ft. It took Mr. Yadav four months to design and build the vehicle. This new car too joined the other 54 innovative cars of the Sudha Cars museum. "My wish is to make at least 100 such wacky cars", says Mr. Yadav. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 

Mallesh Naini, tenth class student of Telangana Tribal-Welfare Residential School, Asifabad, did his alma mater proud and joined a select group of students from the social and tribal welfare educational institutions who have defied under-privileged backgrounds and climbed some of the world's highest mountains. Belonging to the Mannevar Primitive Tribal group (PGT), Naini, along with thirteen other members from India and under the mentorship of mountaineer Sekhar Babu unfurled the 100-ft tri-colour on 14th August midnight atop Mt. Kilimanjaro. He and his team began their climb on 10th August and reached the peak on the eve of the seventieth Independence Day celebrations. The daredevil mountaineering team also sang the national anthem after successfully conquering the mountain, which is Africa's highest mountain at 5,895 metres height. "I never imagined that I would one day board a flight and would go on mountaineering expedition considering my family's poor backgro...

One of the most significant trends visible in wildlife conservation and management today is the increased use of 'technology'. Camera traps, for instance, have provided new evidence of tiger presence in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa and of the Asiatic wildcat in Bandhavgarh, Madhya Pradesh; radio collars have helped solve the mystery of tiger deaths in Bandipur in Karnataka and Chandrapur district of Maharashtra; and satellite telemetry promises to provide new insights into the behaviour and movement patterns of the Great Indian Bustard in Gujarat, which includes its journeys across the border to Pakistan. New software and sophisticated surveillance technologies are being operationalised to keep an eye on developments across large landscapes and the use of contraceptives has been suggested to contain runaway populations of animals ranging from the monkey in large parts of India to the elephant in Africa. Within easy reach : We may not be able to escape such a technol...

In Charlottesville, Virginia, a crowd of angry protestors marched on 12th August, 2017 in a manner reminiscent of Nazi para-military gatherings. Most of them were white men protesting the removal of iconic statues of generals from the American Civil War who fought to preserve slavery. Their appearance mimicked the famed Ku Klux Klan mobs united in their desire to keep black Americans in their place through violence and intimidation. Their anger escalated to encompass Jews and immigrants through chants like, "Jews shall not replace us", and "Blood and Soil" (a popular Nazi slogan). A member of this angry community drove his car into a group of peaceful counter-demonstrations and killed a young woman. Events in Charlottesville saddened America, but what shocked it was Prsident Donald Trump's refusal to criticise this collection of Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups. He continues to equate these groups inciting angry white men with peaceful counter-demonstrations, ...

The middle of August, 2017 has seen an extraordinary exchange of rhetoric between North Korea and the United States. In response to UN Security Council resolutions tightening sanctions on North Korea after its two missile tests in July, 2017. Kim Jong-Un said that he would fire four missiles over Japan into the waters off Guam and destroy the US territory in 'enveloping fire'. President Donald Trump retorted that his forces were 'locked and loaded' and he would launch 'fire and fury' at his enemy. Behind the verbal sabre-rattling lies a long and convoluted narrative of US-North Korea ties, when the two sides have an occasion taken tentative steps to address their differences, only to fall into a quagmire of mutual mistrust, name-calling and military brinkmanship. The two countries had entered into solid agreements in the 1990s, when North Korea had agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons programme in return for US support for its civilian nuclear programme and ma...

Why is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) such a challenge to India? Conventional wisdom has it that India is worried about CPEC at its two ends: Gwadar, where the Chinese are building a maritime presence, and Pakistan-occupied segments of the former kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, where Pakistani and Chinese territorial and military frontiers are merging. However, there is a deeper issue, one that has hitherto underpinned India's long-term Pakistan strategy. The very fundamentals of that strategy are now under question. Indeed, CPEC is rewriting the economic geography and regional integrity of the subcontinent in a manner that will require more than a tactical, episodic response. Historically and across the world, trade routes have tended to flow from north to south. There have been exceptions, such as when Britain/northern Europe became an economic power and a significant consumer of commodities, and trade routes moved south to north. Yet, for the most part that trajecto...

[ Based on an article written by Vandana Shiva, Executive Director of Navodaya Trust, published in Deccan Chronicle dated 02nd January, 2017 (Monday), Oped. p. 11 ]. As 2017 begins and we flounder in our mad rush to force all of India into a digital economy overnight, it is worth pausing and reflecting on what the digital economy is, who controls the platforms and lines as well as some basic concepts about money and technology which have moulded our lives and freedoms, based on patented systems that are failing the people of 'West'. Obsolete systems are moulding our patterns of work and our well-being - as a very large country, and as an ancient  civilisation - into a cast that is observably too small. We live in times where the non-working rent collectors and speculators have emerged  as the richest billionaires. Meanwhile, the hard working honest people, like farmers, workers in self-organised economies (mistakenly called unorganised and informal) are not just being pu...

Whether you prefer the neon orange dust of Cheetos, try to keep things relatively healthy with pretzels, or firmly believe in the impossibility of eating just one Lay's potato chip, your snack choices all have one thing in common: their packaging. With the exception of Pringles, almost all chips come in a crinkly polymer bag. Your chief complaint about those bags may be how they are only filled about halfway, but that's on purpose - the bags are filled with nitrogen to create an air cushion that helps protect the delicate snacks within.  Another part of the bag design that's completely intentional: the noise it makes. Research ha shown that the crinkly, crunchy noise produced by the polymer increases the user's sensory experience, leading snackers to feel that the chips are crispier, crunchier and fresher than those not served in the bag. But there is a tipping point to the effect, as Fritto Lay inadvertently discovered. In 2010, the company introduced a new, compos...

Children born to older mothers tend to be taller, healthier and better educated than siblings who were born before them. Those were the findings of new study by Mikko Myrskyla of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Kieron Barclay of the London School of Economics, published in May 2016 in the Population and Development Review . Barclay and Myrskyla looked at data from more than 1.5 million Swedish men and women born between 1960 and 1991, examining the relationship between a mother's age at time of birth, and height, fitness and educational attainment of her children. They found that, as years progress, people are getting steadily healthier and education opportunities are improving - and thus it pays to be born later. The researchers compared siblings who shared the same parents and who grew up in the same household environment. "By comparing siblings who grew up in the same family it was possible for us to pinpoint the importance of maternal age at the...

Great Barrier Reef : Home to thousands of species of fish and other creatures, the world's largest coral reef is highly sensitive to many of the climate changes. Higher temperatures threaten to accelerate reef decay - bleaching the coral and depriving it of nutrients, leading finally to its demise. Venice : The historic city of Venice is already sinking at a rate of 10 centimeters (four inches) a century as its lagoon expands and sediment settles, according to UNESCO. In the 20th century, it lost an extra 10-13 centimeters due to industry using water from the lagoon. Kilimanjaro : The glaciers of Tanzania's dormant volcanic Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain at 5,895 metres (19,341 feet) above sea level have lost 80 percent of their surface in the 20th century because of the impact of climate change abd changing human activity. Machu Picchu : The melting glacier could alter water supplies and affect animal and plant species around the ruins of the citadel, m...

How often do we come across a place that boasts of cultural and architectural heritage along with undisturbed  wilderness? Naya Qila, or New Fort, in Hyderabad is one such a place. It is an extended portion of the famous Golconda Fort. Built by Abdullah Qutb Shah as a defence against the Mughal armies, the place has other structures like Bagh-e-Qutb, Mulla Kahyali and Mustafa Khan mosques and the Naya Qila Talab. Naya Qila also has the biggest African Baobab tree in India. The locals call it, Hathiyan ka Jhad (Elephant Tree), as it resembles an elephant. The tree was introduced by the African mercenaries who served in the Abyssinian Royal Guard. It is more than 400 years old - Baobab trees ahve a life span of more than thousand years. The truck diameter of this tree is around 27 metres.  Today the entrance of the Naya Qila is fiercely guarded by security personnel. Although visitor entry is still permitted, one is asked to write their name and mobile number in the book pr...

[ Based on an article written by Manish Tiwari, lawyer and a former Union Minister, published in Deccan Chronicle dated 25th June, 2017 (Sunday) ].  As I complete three years of my fortnightly tryst with this newspaper, I would like to focus on something completely apolitical. Let us discuss certain universal trends and what they tell us about the world that we live in. The first trend is the ubiquitous earphone or headphone. In any city or village, both in India and abroad, you see both young and old thrust earphones deep into their ears as they go about their daily lives. Some of these contraptions are wired and others wireless, but the one thing that is common to these gizmos is the bubble in which their wearers live. In public spaces, metros, trams, airport lounges you have an entire bunch of people who are like zombies, either talking into those little microphones embedded into the wire of their earphones or laughing to themselves over a joke or an anecdote that resonates ...