Remote controls are identified as technical devices which are used for various purposes ranging from the launching of space-ships to the monitoring of toy cars. But of late, these devices are being used to direct policies for nation states which are formally sovereign. We speak here of the powerful lobby of international credit rating agencies like Standard and Poor's (S&P), which has just delivered its sermon that India is no longer...
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Wal-Mart in bribe scandal
-The Telegraph The New York Times has reported that Wal-Mart, the US-based retail giant, hushed up an internal investigation sometime after the company was told of a bribery campaign to obtain licences and facilitate rapid expansion in Mexico. Some of the alleged instances of bribery are certain to ring a bell in India where it is not too difficult to bend rules for a price. The New York Times said its “examination...
More »Two years after BP oil spill, disaster not over
-AFP NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: Two years after the worst maritime oil spill in history, fishermen, scientists, and environmentalists up and down the US Gulf Coast warn that the disaster may be far from over. Dead dolphins keep washing up on shore in unprecedented numbers. Oil-coated coral reefs are dying in the deepwater. Eyeless shrimp and crabs with holes in their shells are showing up in relatively empty fishing nets while killifish,...
More »Is the number of earthquakes increasing?-Subodh Varma
-The Times of India That’s what it appears. Just yesterday (11 April 2012) there were two powerful quakes off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, and two more in Mexico. In recent memory, there have been massive earthquakes in Japan last year (which caused the tsunami and the Fukushima meltdown), in Chile and Haiti in 2010, in Samoa and Sumatra in 2009, in China in 2008 and so on. But it's not true...
More »India swine flu toll rises to 21
-BBC The death toll in a swine flu outbreak in India since the beginning of this year has risen to 21, officials say. Most of the deaths have been reported from the western state of Maharashtra. Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have also reported deaths. Over 300 others have been infected with the virus, and many of them admitted to hospitals. The cause of the sudden outbreak is not clear. The virus killed more...
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