Rich get richer, Poor get poorer

 There is a popular dialogue from the Tamil movie Sivaji, starring Superstar Rajinikanth “Rich get richer, poor get poorer” {Thalaiva! 😎}. Without even drawing on the backdrop of black money that Rajini looks to portray through this dialogue, the line by itself cannot be more true.

Income inequality has been talked about for decades but the COVID-19 pandemic has made the situation much, much worse. White collared workers largely escaped the wrath of the lockdowns and restrictions which hit blue-collar workers manifold. Alas, if you earn your pay at the end of every day and you can’t show up, there is no pay to earn. Income is not unidimensional- it affects access to healthcare and formal education; things considered essential for societal wellbeing. Loss of income has a debilitating impact on lower income households, where there is barely any scope for savings that can be used to push through difficult times.

The Vaccine Conundrum

Just as a new COVID strain ravages Europe, the Indian drug regulator has approved two vaccine candidates for use in differing capacities. One is based on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, called Covishield. The second vaccine, Covaxin has been developed by homegrown company Bharat Biotech in association with ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research).

The tortoise doesn't win here

We might have come across reports about 5G rollout in "developed" countries in recent times. Popular YouTubers have also given their takes on the mind blowing speeds (albeit limited coverage) on mobile data using 5G technology. Notably, Qualcomm, Nokia and Ericsson already have 5G equipment up and running in multiple parts of the world and leading consumer electronic companies like Apple, Samsung and OnePlus have launched mobile phones that support this advancement.

Telecom giants in India like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have also promised roll outs of the cutting edge technology in different phases in 2021. Now, in sharp contrast to these developments is the recent announcement from the state run telecom enterprise- BSNL.

The real deal

It has been over a couple hours since the sun set after beating down on the city’s hapless inhabitants, giving way to a cool breeze. A mélange of shops line the left side of the road, with neon lights and the hustle and bustle of an evening market. There is a brisk flow of hungry people walking into a brightly lit restaurant with an equal amount of people strolling out, their tummies full and hearts content. Just beyond the restaurant's parking space is a makeshift table covered with a blue tarpaulin sheet, on top of which sit a heap of jasmine buds and a sole short strand of flowers that have been deftly tied together with a wafer-thin string. Sitting behind the bench is a tired old lady with a crease on her brow, patiently looking at all the bikes whooshing by and the pedestrians zigzagging through the thoroughfare.

Look to the other side of the street and there is a bank that is winding down for the day; the staff pulling down the grey shutters, mentally getting ready to go back to their homes and families.

All the Light We Cannot See: A Glimpse

 No one envies a writer, or an orator for that matter, who has to deliver content that the audience don't relate to naturally. It is particularly onerous to convey anachronistic content. Would a Gen Z kid appreciate the momentous time the telephone was discovered? Probably not.

Anthony Doerr does this incredibly well. Born in the late 90's, it is hard for me to understand the humane aspects of war but the book, All the Light we Cannot See, brings to the fore multiple undercurrents that might otherwise be brushed over.

The Far-Reaching Dragon

Little history before we begin- the Sino-Indian War of 1962 started primarily on two counts: the border dispute and the alleged Indian role in weakening of Chinese dominance in Tibet. After about a month of fighting, then Chinese premier, Zhou Enlai declared a unilateral ceasefire which India decided not to upset.

Fast forwarding to June 2020, clashes erupted between the Chinese and Indian troops that media houses have dubbed as the deadliest in the region in decades. Efforts have been on to resolve the standoff at multiple levels between the armies, but with little to show.

Money matters. But is that all?

Recently, Bayer, a pharmaceuticals and chemicals behemoth, agreed to pay $10 billion to settle with thousands of claimants who had filed in court against the role of Roundup (a weedkiller product of the company) in inducing cancer. One would believe that if a company is shelling out such a huge sum, it reflects an obvious admission of the claims. But the company has maintained that the product is safe and better than alternatives.

The only reasons behind the settlement seem to be that the company wishes to do away with the negative publicity and the battering the stock price has taken. Purely transactional, one might say.

The Big Bang comes to an End

The Big Bang theory is a theory (no need to sigh now) in Physics that seeks to explain the origins of the universe. How the universe, as we know it today (maybe without the hole in the Ozone), came to exist. And that pretty much concludes everything I know about the cosmological theory.

A search on - of course Google, what else – presents us with fifteen or so results that come up, out of which just one talks of the theory (dear Wikipedia). All other links and media point to The Big Bang Theory- the sitcom.

With Great Power comes Great Responsibility

Spread of misinformation and fake news is rampant today. On one hand, social media platforms are becoming mainstay as a source of news and announcements from political leaders and on the other they are (inadvertently?) acting as sources of unverified and ill-researched opinion that tend to be construed as news/facts.

In the aftermath of the 2016 USA Presidential elections, alleged Russian interference by means of Twitter and Facebook triggered multiple Congressional hearings on the issue of the companies’ platforms being used as a means to spread misinformation.

The not-so-noticeable side of the covid epidemic

A set of phrases are commonplace today, you see it in the news, the print media, social networks, everywhere: unprecedented crisis, mounting death toll, economic impact and accelerated vaccine development to name a few.

With this “unprecedented crisis”, we, as a global community are advised to follow some guidelines. The most important of which is to avoid contact as far as possible. Given the characteristics of the virus, this is a no brainer.

While the battle against the virus rages in the world under the spotlight of global media, there is an undertone to the whole exercise: the”unprecedented” increase in hours spent in front of digital screens.