politicodiary

It is going to take India longer than expected to get its inoculation drive become a success. Here is why.... Photo courtesy: NDTV It is getting strange that India has more vaccine vials that takers right now.  The situation is becoming something like in Hungary and Sweden where people are refusing to take the Chinese vaccine candidate. There is fear and uncertainty lurking in the minds of the common man. Too much (mis)information has also done its bit. Multiple vaccine candidates are already creating confusion.  For India, as a country of the largest population after China, it is getting to be a huge challenge to convince people to get themselves vaccinated. India is a strange democracy. A herd mentality works here. People can’t think for themselves; they believe half baked information quickly. They don’t read and inform themselves well, because what is being fed to them is (mis) information anyway. They discus and as Chinese whispers, the real, the truth is lost in translati...

Looking at the eminent threat that the environment poses on the sheer existence of the human race, a joint consortium of European nations are opting to go back to the TEE The traditional electric powered TEE provided only first class service between major capital cities of Europe Europe continues to find ways and means to reduce the carbon emission rates. For this, the bloc has finally decided to revive the Trans Europe Express (TEE), that it believes can significantly reduce the carbon emission rates.  The doing away of the coal engine was a sure shot way to reduce the gas emissions that would happen due to combustion. As mankind has continued to burn wood or use coal to meet its heating needs, the amounts of emissions have also multiplied that much more. Now, the resurrection of the service that ran in the 1960s is being seen as a great way to reduce the carbon emissions. The Trans Europe Express, as the name suggests, ran between major European country states. As short haul...

Continuous dose of sound leadership is what Germany is looking forward to sail through the aftermath of the Covid-19 effect   Armin Laschet mirrors outgoing Merkel's thought and leadership  German chancellor Angela Merkel is going to be replaced by someone who comes from her own league- that is saving grace for Germany. Merkel's center-right party has finally elected Armin Laschet. He is considered a ‘pragmatic governor’ of Germany's most populous state. He brings in the message of continuity months before an election in which voters will decide who becomes the new chancellor. The sense of stability does not go away for Germany that has enjoyed sound and stable governance under a woman’s leadership to close to two decades. If it wasn’t for Angela Merkel deciding not to contest elections again in 2016, she might as well have been running a third term. The two other who were promising didn’t stand a chance and were moved out of an online voting battle. That included Fri...

Children's clothing is seeing innovative sustainable solutions One of the biggest problems with preventing pollution is controlling clothes landfills. Cloth related garbage dumps are the most menacing problem facing human kind today.  It has become a challenge to keep unused and even fresh garments or textiles out of landfills. As fashion changes rapidly, people's desire to up thier fashion and therefore dispose off clothes that are not even worn twice, is a sad situation. But most countries worldwide are faced with this challenge. There are now designers that are trying to make use of shreds or old fabric to create something new. The buzz word doing rounds is 'sustainable fashion'. But the challenge is worst when it comes to facilitating for children's fashion. Their sizes continue to change as they grow their maximum between the age of 5-12 years.  In order to address this situation, a company has now come out of a novice idea.  Petit Pli is one such company that ...

EU Commission is in for a surprise as the Irish government goes ahead with a fossil fuel car ban announcement for 2030 The Irish government has surprisingly, not informed the European Union Commission about what it is going to do with its cars using fossil fuel. It apparently, has decided to ban sale of all vehicles making use of fossil fuels till 2030. So, while the Irish government has done what looks like a favour to the Irish environment, it is actually not. It might jeopardize the automotive sector, without having found an alternative to totally wiping out the coffers of companies that have not shifted to any other renewable form of energy mode.    This does become jarring because the Irish government is to inform the EU before taking such a decision.  The Irish government announced last year its intention to implement the law by the beginning of December 2020 — setting a 10-year countdown for the legal sale of petrol and diesel cars.  This is a problem bec...

The popular chatting application Whatsapp might land up using its user base under the new integration decision with its new parent company Facebook Social media is precariously becoming intrusive. The Whatsapp social interaction platform is going to lose its charm as it integrates itself with Facebook, threatening its userbase’s data privacy.   A lot of people are not clear what this means for the privacy of their chats on Whatsapp. While Whatsapp is making it clear that it does not intend to intrude into the privacy of people’s chats, the integration will have some kind of effect on the sense of privacy of the users. The new policy is a reflection of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s thought about the ‘interoperability’ of all his parent company’s entities. He stressed about this in 2019 when he expressed his vision of a cross-platform communication. This would spread across Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. However, this integration will also be helpful to Facebook from a com...

People are making use of the Covid-19 situation in many value creating ways. Here is another novice example of creativity put to good use... Geert van der Vossen felt compelled to do something meaningful for those departed in the fight with Covid-19 virus The pandemic left the world speechless. Locked indoors, everyone came down to the same level. There were no conglomerates and no bigger economies that could kill or defeat this unknown enemy. What could defeat it would be human spirit to respect and nurture the very nature we have been working against.  Everything got redefined- the way we consume news, the way we eat and work and the way our children are now being educated. It also redefined our perception of medical staff and their invaluable contribution of keeping the world going, as we struggled to survive each day without a vaccine in sight.  Amidst all this, an artist in Sweden was feeling compelled to show his solidarity and sympathy for those who had lost their lives...

With India Covid-19 cases on the rise, it is possible India might not be able to keep its side of the bargain to share its indigenous vaccine with the rest of the world India is on its way to a massive inoculation drive, as the Centre approves the indigenously made Covaxin. The Serum Institute of India has also been told to keep 100 doses ready for Indian use. But does this justify India's sudden change of stance over not allowing Serum Institute to continue with its export commitments? The same issue has also cropped up with the European Union, where critics are holding the European commission responsible for not timing itself right. While the EU Commission was busy trying to figure out the right vaccine candidate for its people, Germany led Biontech had already started to send off its doses into the world. UK had struck a deal with the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine candidate and is also confident that mutating strain can be managed with the dose.  But the doses are now falling short in...