As the light fades over the village in the winter evening, the residents of Charotar return home after a day’s work. They’re careful with their routes. It’s almost the end of February and they know that their village (including their own backyards) has turned into a safe space for mugger crocodile mothers.
Using data collected over the last three decades, a team of scientists from IIT Kharagpur and other collaborating institutes has created the first digital soil map for India. The digitally accessible resource provides information about properties like soil’s pH, texture, and the amount of organic carbon in the soil.
The RSS, or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is the new reality in Indian politics. The organisation that used to remain in the shadows is now in the open. It is a well-known fact that the body that used to claim to be cultural organisation with no political ambitions is responsible for the growth and sustenance of a new brand of aggressive right-wing politics in India
New Delhi-based filmmaker and writer, Vandana Kohli’s new book, Hinge, on emotional and mental wellness, comes as a timely reminder. It prods you to pause, to now and then connect with your ‘centre’ or your innermost self.
The much-awaited anime series, Dragon’s Blood, based on cash-rich esports Dota 2, is finally out. The YouTube trailer had garnered over 1.9 million views till March 25, the day of its release, which speaks volumes of the excitement the esports adaptation has generated among viewers.
Pissurlem is one of many villages affected by iron-ore mining in Goa’s eastern belt. The once self-sufficient, water-rich villages, teeming with springs, streams and wells, brimming with water, have been sucked dry.
Campaigning is on in full swing even as the first phase of West Bengal assembly elections concluded Saturday. Surprisingly, even as media reports abound on which political rally attracts a bigger crowd, there is little cognizance of the use of environmentally hazardous materials such as flex and single-use plastic, and noise pollution during public rallies.
The unexpected sighting of an otter in the lake waters of the Uppalapadu Bird Sanctuary, on the outskirts of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh recently, has generated excitement among birders, conservationists and the public. The smooth-coated otter, locally called Neeti Kukka or water dog, made its appearance at the end of January this year, at the sanctuary important for the near-threatened spot-billed pelicans (Pelecanus philippensis). “We have reports that there are about 15 of the otters in the wetland of the sanctuary that spreads across eight to nine acres now,” said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), G. Siva Prasad.
These days the old adage of fact being stranger than fiction is living itself out so commonly, that a lot of fiction no longer surprises. Pandemics killing off huge sections of humanity have been the stuff of dystopian science fiction or doomsday predictions, but what the COVID-19 virus did was stranger and more dramatic than them all. And so when I opened Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2020 novel, Ministry for the Future, I was not looking for too many ‘oh wow’ moments, but just expecting a good science fiction read (having read his Mars trilogy).
Alarmed by the indiscriminate use of steroids by physicians to treat COVID patients, Dr Randeep Guleria, a member of the national COVID-19 task force and director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, has cautioned that it could lead to “faster viral replication and severe viral pneumonia.”
Al Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam. The mosque sits inside a 35-acre site known by Muslims as Haram Al Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, and by Jews as the Temple Mount. The site is sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) may have approved Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) ‘medicine’ for “emergency use” in treating COVID patients, but health experts are apprehensive about using the drug since they argue its utility has not been established yet.
The day 1 of lockdown in Karnataka was chaotic, to say the least, as cops used force to implement the ‘military-like regulations’, inviting protests from all quarters of the society.
Parva, the 7.5 hour long Kannada play, an adaptation of the Mahabharata opened to an enthusiastic response in Mysuru earlier this week. Director Prakash Belavadi remained loyal to the text and faithful to writer S L Bhyrappa’s interpretation of the epic.
The raging forest fires in Odisha are garnering a lot of attention, but every day small fires in our cities go unnoticed just because of their decentralized nature. Along with garbage, we also burn dry leaves during the spring season, which is a direct cause of air pollution and a huge resource drain in terms of vital organic carbon lost from the soil.
Land-use changes in the western Himalayan forests, a global biodiversity hotspot with huge numbers of endemic species, have resulted in a massive decline in forest birds in the region, new research shows.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) delayed taking action on the rampant corruption and asset stripping that was happening in Yes Bank for at least five years, before the inevitable collapse of the bank in March 2020, according to a new book on the story of Rana Kapoor, who created and destroyed the bank
The last one year has been unprecedented due to a global pandemic, which brought the world to a standstill and made people introspect. The privilege of WFH ( 'work from home') for millions of working professionals, all over the world, seemed like a welcome change but it soon made one feel like a part of one of those Indian television serials, which has no end and stopped making sense
Mysuru-based Nataka Karnataka Rangayana – the lone state-owned theatre repertory in the country – is all set to stage “Parva”, the Kannada literary classic by renowned writer SL Bhyrappa which is a modern retelling of the Mahabharata
Vidhya Bhaskaran is back home in her village Salamanatham in Tamil Nadu from three days of training for the self-help group (SHG) members at Yercaud, a hill station in the state. The SHG in her village, that she is part of, is engaged in creating livelihood opportunities, like tailoring, cattle rearing and making agarbatti (incense sticks) and appala (papad), for women. In the last few years, Bhaskaran has got busier, becoming somewhat of a real-life influencer in her village. She is one among 1200 women in Vellore district in Tamil Nadu who played a stellar role in transforming their villages from arid, parched pieces of land to mosaics of green that are now water abundant.
Excited about the games I was discovering, I’d attempt to share my hobby at school. However, when talking about games at school, it became quickly apparent that most girls didn’t play games even if they had a computer at home. It was apparently a "boy" thing.
Los Angeles: Hollywood's Dolby Theatre has been the home of the Oscars since 2001 and the organisers say the upcoming show will keep that tradition, but they will enlist a supporting cast of venues. A spokesperson said the ceremony will broadcast live from multiple locations on April 25.
The much-awaited FAU-G (Fearless and United – Guardians) has finally been released. The game was considered a promising contender to fill the gap of the banned PUBG mobile
Gomoh station, named as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Junction was the last place where he was seen alive in India before world came to know about his escape. It’s one of the most exciting tales of escape of all times; from Gomoh to Delhi it was history on wheels.
Walking into a popular pizzeria one weekend, I looked at the advert asking customers to try out the ‘unthinkable pizza’. A couple of jokes later, my friends and I found ourselves ordering the dish. It took us by surprise. The ‘unthinkable pizza’ is made out of plant-based meat. The ingredients are completely vegetarian but designed to taste like me...
No one is perfect, least of all your parents! This is broadly the theme of filmmaker Renuka Shahane’s directorial venture, Tribhanga, a Netflix original, where she explores the harmful consequences of parental choices on children by chronicling the lives of three women.
The all-white, freshly painted two storey structure surrounded by lush green gardens and flowers, is all decked up. Senior government officers have taken stock of the details for the big day — Netaji Jayanti on January 23.
The venue is Janakinath Bhawan in Odia Bazar locality of Odisha’s cultural and business hub, Cuttack. It’s where Subhas Chan...
Munawar Faruqui turns 30 on January 28, a day after his judicial custody in Indore comes to an end. On the other hand, a UP court waits to take him into custody in connection with a case filed in April 2020. All of this began with a show that was interrupted before it started and for jokes, the audience confirms, he did not crack. As per the dates on his tour schedule, released earlier this year, Munawar was due to perform in Chennai on January 16, the day this piece was written.
The insurmountable conquest of the 8,611-metre (28,251 ft) high K2, the second-highest peak in the world after Everest, by 10 Nepali Sherpas on January 16, has reignited the debate about the magnetic allure of the Himalayan peaks notwithstanding the dangers they pose, and the lives they have claimed over the years.
The recent summit is particula...
Lohri, observed in Punjab on January 13 every year, a night before Makar Sankranti, is known by different names in other parts of India — Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Makar Sankranti in Bengal, Magha Bihu in Assam and Tai Pongal in Kerala.
The origins of this bonfire festival of Lohri are lost in the mists of antiquity but it is certainly as old as the...
The year has witnessed over a million deaths and caused enormous despair across the globe due to COVID-19. However, the year of the pandemic has also left examples of grit and hope.
On a chilly afternoon in November 2019, the whole hamlet of Turtuk in Ladakh was covered with golden leaves of apricot and willows; magnificent mountains were shining under the sun and the sky was crystal clear and blue.
Srinivasa Ramanujan's story is unconventional. A self-taught mathematical genius, in a short but prolific life of just 32 years, he published about 4,000 theorems on many areas in mathematics.
