Last year, I was on a family holiday to the United States (US). As the heatwave raged across Texas, we took a break on the beach. We also decided to retrofit the car windows with tint. We found a dealer who showed us a selection of brands of tint films. “This one,” the dealer said, “is from India.” As we drove-off with the sun control on the glass surfaces, we felt proud of sporting a “Made in India” brand. This month, I decided to start my car’s engine after two months of hibernation. On...

Beating the statistics: With a population of over a billion, high population density with overcrowding especially in metropolis and underdeveloped health infrastructure, the projections for corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic were not in favour of India. Most statistical models had predicted over 5 lakh cases and more than 38,000 deaths and warned that India must prepare for a tsunami of COVID-19 cases. The situation appeared to be grimmer given that the incidence of diabetes,...

The fact that the sudden spurt in COVID-19 positive cases on Monday and Tuesday is attributed to Tablighi Jamaat, a large congregation with its headquarters in Nizamuddin West, gives rise to some questions about the group, its belief, and its activities. Over 3,000 of them, preachers and followers from about a dozen countries and from almost all parts of India had gathered for three days, from 13-15 March at Nizamuddin Markaz Masjid. Several people who attended an event in Nizamuddin have...

What happens on 15 April when the 21-day national lockdown period ends? Will the lockdown be lifted? Will graded exit plan come into existence? These are the foremost questions people are asking themselves and informally enquring anong other, family friends, acquaintances and office groups. After the conclusion of fourth meeting of 15-minister informal Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh government sources said a lot of state governments as well as experts are...

For a change, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram is supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the measures the Central Government has taken to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The former finance minister is suddenly playing the role of a constructive opposition leader. He is not vitriolic, not unduly critical and not seeing it in black and white as he is generally used to be on anything relating to Modi and his government. File image of P Chidambaram. PTI Note what the former...