India Narrative

  The June 23-24 BRICS summit sends many messages about how India is coping with the global changes that are taking place, at the center of which is the rise of China, the sharp deterioration of US-China ties, the building up of US-Russia confrontation even before the eruption of the Ukraine crisis, but which has now assumed the character of a proxy war by US-led NATO against Russia with consequences that have not been played out fully yet. The sanctions imposed by the West and Japan on Russia have disrupted the global economy, caused a spike in oil prices, shortages of food and fertilisers, and fueled inflation, which have badly strained the economies of the developing countries, with a blowback on the western economies too. The situation in Afghanistan continues to be parlous. The hopes for progress on restoring the Iran nuclear deal are also being belied. On top of it, India-China tensions on the border following China’s aggression in Ladakh have not been fully abated, with troops o

Bacteria causing Typhoid fever are becoming increasingly resistant to some of the most important antibiotics used to treat the disease, according to a study published in The Lancet Microbe journal. The study which constitutes the largest genome analysis of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) also shows that resistant strains — almost all originating in South Asia — have spread to other countries as well. Antibiotics can be used to successfully treat typhoid fever infections, but their effectiveness is threatened by the emergence of resistant S. Typhi strains, the study observes. “The speed at which highly-resistant strains of S. Typhi have emerged and spread in recent years is a real cause for concern, and highlights the need to urgently expand prevention measures, particularly in countries at greatest risk,” said the study’s lead author, Jason Andrews, from Stanford University in the USA. While typhoid is most prevalent in South Asia – which accounts for 70 per cent of the gl

Even dim light can disturb sleep, increasing the risk of serious health problems such as blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity in older adults, according to a new study carried out in the USA.   The findings of the research were published in the journal 'SLEEP'. In a sample of older men and women ages, 63 to 84, those who were exposed to any amount of light while sleeping at night were significantly more likely to be obese, and have high blood pressure and diabetes compared to adults who were not exposed to any light during the night, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. Light exposure was measured with a wrist-worn device and tracked over seven days. This is a real-world (not experimental) study demonstrating the prevalence of any light exposure at night being linked to higher obesity, high blood pressure (known as hypertension) and diabetes among older adults. It will be published on June 22 in the journal SLEEP. Read more

Human beings are mortally afraid of snakes and more so from those whose venom is lethal! Yet, on the flip side their poison can trigger prompt action of stopping bleeding as per a report in smithsonianmag.com. Scientists from Australia’s University of Queensland who deal in biomaterials have made a gel which can make blood clot not in minutes but in seconds! When available for use, this can be very beneficial for paramedics and armed forces personnel to check flow of blood from grievous injuries especially when the patient or the injured is being rushed for treatment. Now what makes this gel so effective? The answer is the venom of not one but two of the world’s deadliest snakes. One is eastern brown snake or Pseudonaja textilis, a highly venomous viper found in the central and eastern regions of Australia and also southern New Guinea. The other is the saw-scaled viper or Echis carinatus whose habitat is spread over Asia, Africa and West Asia. This relatively tiny reptile with very pot

Lord Rami Ranger has seen unparalleled success despite serious setbacks in life. He was born two months after the assassination of his father Nanak Singh who was killed for opposing the partition of the country. Forced to relocate to a refugee camp in Punjab after the death of her husband and the Partition of India, Lord Ranger's mother, Harbans Kaur raised eight children all alone ensuring that they reached the pinnacle of success. Being an educated woman helped her in looking after the children—a fact that has marshalled Lord Ranger towards speaking about women empowerment among the diaspora in the UK. In an exclusive interview to India Narrative at the House of Lords, Lord Ranger does not shy away from discussing contentious issues. Made a Lord in 2019, he talks about his vision of the 'idea of India', his support for The Kashmir Files, the role of the Sikh gurus during tumultuous medieval times and the issue of Khalistan. Excerpts from the interview: The idea of India i

The world’s oldest tree located in the Chilean Andes may be mute but is witness to history of thousands of years. The ancient alerce is called “Gran Abuelo” or great grandfather whose age has been calculated to be 5,400 years by a new computer model, states a report in sciencealert.com. On the confirmation of its age, this coniferous tree will be 600 years older to the one which is the official record holder – the Great Basin bristlecone pine called “Methuselah” in California. The real age of the tree is disputed since its dendrochronology is incomplete. This method analyses the rings of the tree and is considered as the gold standard for determining the age. The data for the model has neither been given to a peer-reviewed journal nor released in the public domain. According to the researcher who created the model, Jonathan Barichivich, irrespective of the age, this ancient tree is in danger and needs protection. Barichivich is a climate and global ecology scientist at Paris’ Climate a

One of India's oldest Urdu newspapers, The Daily Milap has an interesting history that spans three countries—India, Pakistan and even the UK. The newspaper and its owner-editors also share an intricate weave and weft with that of the growth of the country and the evolution of Indian society. Interestingly and perplexingly, the change is not much reflected in the readership of the Urdu press, which still remains anchored to the days of yore. India Narrative catches up with Navin Suri, Chief Editor of The Daily Milap at his office on the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, often called India's Fleet Street. The newspaper has entered its 100th year, which is an achievement in tech-driven times where established publications, and even late entrants, have been falling like ninepins. With more than four decades behind him as editor, Suri talks at length about the fading sheen of the Urdu media, challenges from the ever-evolving technology and Milap's journey through the decades. Excerpts fr

History is full of twists and turns, making one wonder if events in future can be ever predicted. Take for instance the movement of indentured Indian labourers to Suriname, a tropical country located on the north eastern Atlantic coast of South America, a majority of whom refused to return even after the expiry of their contract! With the Netherlands abolishing slavery on July 1, 1863, the plantations in Suriname – a Dutch colony – faced huge labour shortage. Consequently, the Dutch colonialists tapped imperial Britain to make up for the shortfall at the farms. The result -- an immigration treaty between the two was drafted in 1870 to streamline flow of Indian labour to the Caribbean. It was on June 5, 1873, 149 years ago, that the first ship Lalla Rookh with 399 emigrants from Calcutta landed at Suriname’s Nieuw Amsterdam. For the next 50 years these ships went ahead with their perilous voyages, during which Indians mainly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, landed in the Dutch colony bravi

On Monday, when the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken dialled Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, the two had quite a bit on their plate other than just synchronizing their watches on the situation in Ukraine, Yemen and Iran's nuclear programme.   With a massive 376-metre long oil tanker at risk of leaking, spilling, or exploding at any time in one of the world's vital shipping lanes, both top officials knew time's running out to avoid a catastrophe. Blinken, as stated by the US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price later, discussed efforts to avert the economic, environmental, and humanitarian threats posed by the Safer oil tanker in the Red Sea region. The Safer, a rapidly decaying and unstable supertanker, threatens to spill more than 1 million barrels of oil into the Red Sea, devastating the coast, destroying livelihoods, depleting fisheries and potentially disrupting traffic through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Constructed in

Our perception of a volcano is reddish fire and destruction, which is conditioned by the images of molten lava wreaking havoc on human settlements and animal habitats. Yet, there is more to volcanoes than that, as pointed out by a report in sciencenews.org which states that a new study suggests how two billion years ago such volcanic eruptions on the moon led to water vapour becoming ice on its poles. The details of this study have been reported in the Planetary Science Journal of May month. The presence of ice on the moon was confirmed in 2009 and since then it has been argued as to how it came into being on the moon. The options discussed included comets, charged atoms carried by the solar wind, asteroids or that it originated on the moon itself because of eruptions in volcanoes between 4 to 2 billion years ago. Planetary scientists from University of Colorado, Boulder Andrew Wilcoski observed: “It’s a really interesting question how those volatiles [such as water] got there. We stil