On India Meteorological Department using statistical models instead of dynamical ones for forecasting Tell me which dynamical model has given correct forecasts for India? The forecasts for Indian monsoons given by the US, UK and Europe in April this year (using dynamical models) threw up different predictions. None of them could predict monsoons would be so low. But the India Meteorological
back in the 20th century, when nation-building was not a foul term and public-private partnership was not a keyword, children grew up with the ideal of becoming doctors and engineers. Medicine was a noble profession. With changing times, commerce has become more reliable as an instrument of healthcare than nobility; medical insurance sounds more reasonable than the Hippocratic oath. But the
There has been an animated debate in the past three years over the supply of food in the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) programme. Supplementary nutrition has been provided to all children under the age of six since the inception of the programme more than three decades ago. This was done with the recognition that the nutrition gap (between what children should be
The ICDS programme launched in the 1970s was based on the results of extensive surveys which identified rampant child under-nutrition in India. Using the weight-for-age and height-for-age criteria, only 10 per cent children under five could be classified normal. And 15-20 per cent were underweight even when they were short. The situation has not improved in the past 35 years despite
Schooling the national imagination by Shalini Advani, Oxford University Press, Rs 575 How do textbooks define social roles and influence the way people look at themselves and others? Discussing the national education policy, Advani tracks the trajectory of state-produced school textbooks Amulya Reddy, Citizen Scientist by S Ravi Rajan, Orient Blackswan, Rs 795 Amulya K N Reddy was a
Civil society and the media are unfairly blaming a government nutrition programme I have been a political journalist for over three decades. Only recently have I become familiar with the nitty gritty of development reporting. The manner in which malnutrition is covered by a section of the media has come as an eye opener. It appears those who report on the subject generally confine
A new bill in Tamil Nadu puts farmers at the thrall of agriculture university graduates On the last day of its budget session the Tamil Nadu assembly passed 30 bills without any discussion. One of them was without parallel. If the governer signs the bill, writings of Thiruvalluavar, Oovaiyar and many more poets would become unlawful as they have several things to say about farming. Let
