Panorama

Maneka Sanjay Gandhi Candida auris, a dangerous fungal infection that emerged in 2009 in Japan, has now spread worldwide, especially in hospitals. It is a superbug: a germ that has evolved defences against all medicines. These include antifungals such as fluconazole (Diflucan), the antifungal drug of choice in many countries, and recently introduced antifungals known as echinocandins. It is responsible …

Lalita Panicker Every time a high profile politician or businessman is sent to jail, stories start cascading about the poor conditions in jails, the denial of home cooked food to the alleged offender, and his inability to meet as many visitors as he would like. The debates centre round whether or not the prisoner should get television sets, newspapers, pedestal …

Frederick Noronha Of all the expat diasporic Goan communities, those who opted to shift to Karachi and other parts of Sindh must be the most sinned against. The pun here might have been funny, if it wasn’t for their sad reality. Many decades after they chose to migrate, their children and grandchildren are still even deprived of the basic right …

The rightward shift in the Indian polity is unmistakable. While this process has been underway for decades, its clear manifestation has been visible only after the pivotal elections of 2014. It is not an exaggeration to say that, for the first time, a strong Hindu-oriented government is ruling from Delhi. This government is the product of the century-long movement of …

TENSING RODRIGUES Standing on the summit of the Sahyadri mountain, Parsuram beheld the ocean and ordered it to recede. The ocean did likewise, and lo there was land, about 39 kilometres wide and about 1,288 kilometres long, stretching from Kanyakumari to Nasik-Tryambakesvar. A little earlier, in the chapter Citpavanbramhanotpati [SHKG, 120; SHKD, 303], Parsuramksetra is delimited differently; it sets the …

CP Surendran Though a much-rewarded scholar, translator, and an exceptionally gifted poet, Ramanujan was disposed to self doubt, anxiety, and depression till his death in 1993. His battle with himself began early. One of his first diary entries (19 March, 1951) when he had just set out as a lecturer in English in Quilon, Kerala, reads: ‘All my wavering and indecision …

Luis Dias If a word is written down, how should it be pronounced? As the writer intended, you might say. But what if the writer is long dead, and it is in a language the writer may or may not have been very familiar with? I’ve often wondered this when reading the works of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). Having been born …

The delicate looking woman robot with doe-brown eyes and long fluttering eyelashes, who mesmerised the world when she was activated in 2016, is getting smarter by the day She is fashioned after Audrey Hepburn, can walk, talk and emote too. And now, Sophia, the world’s first robot citizen who came calling here this week, can also draw sketches, contextualise a …

SANCHITA SHARMA Green crackers are less polluting and cheaper than the standard ones, but will the firework display be as bright and beautiful as the real thing? That’s a question every fireworks enthusiast is asking after the eco-friendly e-crackers failed spectacularly last year because they seemed like a bad recording of fireworks going off. The minister for health, science and …

Maradona’s growing fame coincided with football becoming flush with riches. It has got richer, but generations after him have built mighty walls and fortresses to insulate themselves. Footballers live in a bubble today. Maradona came to Naples in search of peace but lived in full public glare Dhiman Sarkar One consequence of revisiting the life of someone who has left …