Calling Ramdev’s yogic bluff

Our medical establishment is among the world’s most corrupt. If it’s not hospitals and diagnostics laboratories taking patients for a ride, then there are yoga gurus beaming from television channels, promising to cure everything from HIV/AIDS to obesity. We discuss only the medical treatment of ailments, not how to stay healthy. Because there is not profit—hence no market—in providing good health.

Reforming the cyber nation

Mid-December last year, I posted a few excited messages on Facebook about a forthcoming holiday to Australia. My page saw a steady invasion of ads from travel operators, some extolling the beauties of Australia.

From the blurbs

Environment, Technology And Development: Critical And Subversive Essays edited by Rohan D’Souza, Orient Blackswan, Rs 495 Drawn from the rich archival holdings of the Economic and Political Weekly, the essays in this volume capture intense discussions in India on problems and questions over the environment, technology and development. They also discuss how ideas on these subjects were shaped in various political discourses in India, notably from the 1970s onwards.

Centuries-old obsession

The festive season is over. Many of us are scurrying to the Internet to check out the Atkins or GM diet to shed the kilos accumulated during the three months of feasting, beginning with Dussehra in October. Some have made new year’s resolution to lose weight.

Animal rights primer

Animal rights is a much obfuscated term. Does it mean animals do have rights and are these like human rights? Should all animals have the same rights? These questions fox not just the uninitiated, but also the battle-scarred activists. There is help at hand.

From the blurbs

The politics of climate change and the global crisis: mortgaging our future by Praful Bidwai, Orient Blackswan, Rs 750 This book has dual focus: one, impacts of climate change and the politics of international negotiations; two, lndia as an example of an “emerging economy” major polluter, which can both aid or obstruct the fight against climate change. It analyses the role of the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) grouping and the short-term calculations of other major players in the climate talks.

My genetic profile

In the early years of this century, companies such as deCODEme and 23andMe launched personal gene profiling services, heralding the era of consumer genetics. Their operations are subjects of investigation of Danish science writer Lone Frank’s new book, My Beautiful Genome. The investigation allows Frank to come to terms with a few personal demons: a family history of depression, alcoholism and breast cancer.

Genocide of farmers

FOR week upon week, for months and years on end, farmers have been taking their own lives, adding up to a horrifying figure of over a quarter million suicides in the last 16 years. This is described as “the largest recorded wave of suicides in human history”. Most of the farmers who kill themselves are cotton cultivators and sadly, much of it occurs in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra where cotton once reigned supreme as white gold. Although the country is now familiar with these grim statistics, there has been very little media focus on the reasons that have driven farmers to this grim end despite some landmark studies by economists.

From the blurbs

Environment, an illustrated journey by R Rajagopalan, OUP, Rs 295 The author uses real-life environmental stories from India and abroad not just to illustrate the many problems we encounter in our daily lives, but to suggest remedies. Illustrations bring alive the immediacy of disappearing forests, depleting natural resources and escalating pollution. Interlacing water and human health, case studies from south Asia edited by Anjal Prakash, V S Saravanan and Jayati Chourey, Sage, Rs 995

Old wine in new bottle

Niall Ferguson’s works often elicit sharp responses. Some scholars regard him as the court historian of the American right, a supporter of imperialism. Others believe he is among the few historians who have stepped down from the ivory towers of academia to popularise history.