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MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLES OF THE

DAY – 24/07/2023

hat kind of a global power will India be?” There are those who argue that India should aspire to be a great

W power and assert its growing power internationally; others argue that India should focus on the uplift of
millions of its people above the poverty line, improve governance and reconcile within the country before
venturing into making a better world. It is a false binary. Notwithstanding the (equally faulty) hyper¬nationalist and
deeply¬pessimistic narratives, the story of the rise of India, and the attendant challenges, must
be proactively and critically engaged — for the kind of power India would become will not only
define the future of the world in important ways, but, most definitely, shape the destiny of its 1.4
billion (and growing) citizens. Ignoring or dismissing the global consequences of a rising India’s
power is unwise, but doing so without being rooted in the realities of the country’s inherent
limitations would be a strategic blunder.

Power and its consequences

Let us start with the India of 1991 — a weak, poor, and deeply beleaguered country with a foreign
exchange reserve of $5.8 billion and a nominal GDP of $270.11 billion. For a population of 846
million, around 50% of whom were poor, those were miserable fi•gures. Despite efforts to
diffuse fears of a nuclear war, prospects of an India¬Pakistan clash loomed, and violence in
Kashmir was at its peak. The collapse of India’s trusted partner, the Soviet Union on the one
hand, and strained relations with the United States on the other further weighed on the country’s
ruling elite. American offi•cials kept a close watch on India and Pakistan and their nuclear plans, and occasionally
travelled to the subcontinent to counsel the cantankerous neighbours. Fast forward three decades to 2023. India’s
foreign exchange reserve has grown to around $600 billion, and a war with Pakistan is not something Indian leaders
lose sleep over — China has taken that place though — and there is a general sense of foreign policy optimism. The
reforms initiated after the 1991 economic crisis not only led to higher GDP growth but also significant poverty
reduction. Ranked as the world’s fi•fth largest economy, India’s nominal GDP could soon touch $4 trillion; it has one
of the largest militaries in the world with over a hundred nuclear weapons. The U.S. is now one of India’s closest
friends, and New Delhi enjoys strong relationships with several powerful states around the world. The visionary
investments made over the past several decades are now beginning to bear fruit with a permissive external atmosphere
for the country’s rise. India is also one of the pivotal swing powers of the contemporary international system,
strategically located, and often playing both sides with great elan. The great power politics around the Ukraine war
brought renewed focus on India’s role in world politics. The U.S. and the wealthy West want India to be on their side.
An embattled Russian Federation is doing everything it can to ensure India does not turn its back on Moscow. There
are serious suggestions that India should mediate between Ukraine and Russia to bring an end to the war. New Delhi,
increasingly, uses the language of mediation in global crises and being a bridge between the north and south and east
and west, indirectly indicating that it is a major ‘pole’ in world politics. Although tens of millions of people in India
still live in poverty, the country’s national power has increased dramatically, making it a force with system¬shaping
capabilities and intentions. Whether New Delhi is actually punching above its weight or not is something only time
will tell.

Other side of the great power story

Despite being the fifth largest economy in the world, its GDP per capita was $1,947 in 2021 whereas that of
Bangladesh, at $2,227, was more than that of India even though Bangladesh is only the 40th largest military in the
world. The argument from this comparison is a well¬known one: GDP and military strength do not equal the well-
being of a country’s citizens. But at the same time, the well¬being of a country’s population does not equal to the gross

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material power that a state can bring to bear in its foreign and security policies. India is also
beset with major infrastructural and governance issues: ease of doing business may have
improved, but starting a business without a bribe is still not easy. A few days of rain brings the
national capital to its knees, year after year. Regional, caste, ethnic and religious divisions run
deep. India’s domestic challenges will continue to distract the attention of its political leaders
from attending to global problems. For the Indian politician, foreign policy is a luxury she/he
cannot afford. One of the most pressing concerns for India’s political class is to reduce poverty
and improve the well¬being of millions of Indians living under the poverty line, a task that is
bound to divert its attention from serious external engagements. When the political class gives
scant attention to the country’s foreign and security policy, as it usually happens in the case of
India, it is managed by career bureaucrats who usually do not diverge from precedents and avoid
taking even remotely risky decisions. Without political will, foreign policy tends to be on
autopilot. The presence of a weak economy also tempers the Indian elite’s appetite for external
engagement. Over time, the appetite has grown, but that does not change the fact that the
political class can only allocate so much attention to foreign and security policies if the country
is economically weak and large sections of the population are living in poverty. More so, a weak domestic economy
prevents politicians from allocating adequate resources for foreign policy objectives. For instance, the Parliamentary
Committee on External Affairs (2022¬23) observed that “despite an increase in the overall budget allocation of the
Government of India, the allocation made to MEA [the Ministry of External Affairs] in percentage terms has witnessed
a downward turn during the last four years and during 2022¬23 it is only 0.44% of the Government of India’s overall
Budget.” The committee further said we “do not find such allocation in consonance with the country’s rising
aspirations and growing global stature”. Perhaps the country is simply unable to do so. The combined effect of such
domestic challenges is likely to be a political elite distracted by more immediate domestic considerations rather than
the grandeur of great power status.

Embrace power
So, should India refrain from shaping the global order until its domestic challenges are resolved, as the pessimists
would have it? Or should India continue to assert its place in the world and aspire to be a great power? Even though
India’s domestic inabilities will continue to moderate its ability to influence the world order befitting of its size and
ambition, being unwilling to engage and shape it would be a strategic blunder. If you are not a rule shaper, you are a
rule taker. India has no choice but to influence and shape the global order to meet its foreign policy objectives which
would have significant impact on its economic growth, security environment and geopolitical and geo economic
interests. Be it debt restructuring, climate change, global trade or non¬proliferation, New Delhi can ill afford to let
someone else make the rules and abide by them. Whether it likes it or not, India’s impact on the world order is a given,
and, in a globalised world, the relationship between a state’s global influence and domestic growth is an unavoidable
one. India’s ability to shape international politics must also be a reflection of its domestic context, and its global
engagement must necessarily be geared towards the well¬being of its people. Neither is strategic autarky an option
nor is India’s assertiveness on the global stage a matter of nationalistic hubris or officious vanity.

fter hitting a record $775 billion in 2022¬ 23, India’s exports are off to a rocky start this year. Outbound

A shipments of goods, that had crossed $450 billion last year, have contracted 15.1% through the April to June
2023 quarter. June’s provisional export tally, just shy of $33 billion, was the lowest figure in eight months and
reflected a 22% drop year¬on¬year, a scale of contraction last seen amid the initial months of the COVID-19
lockdowns. There has been a decline in the import bill as well over the first quarter, albeit at a slower pace than exports.
This 12.7% dip is largely driven by the prevalence of lower commodity prices this year compared to the same quarter
last year, when the import bill had shot up 44.5% after the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted. Excluding gold and oil
imports, the value of shipments coming into the country is down 10.5% in the first quarter. Sequentially, the decline
in non¬oil, non-gold imports has accelerated from 2% in May to 16.7% in June, indicating that domestic demand
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triggers are also ebbing. While this implies the goods trade deficit may not widen as it had last year, it does not augur
well for domestic growth impulses that form India’s key armour against the gathering global slowdown. Services
exports are still growing but at a far more sombre pace. That IT majors, who drive most of these intangible exports,
have been tentative and decidedly downcast about their earnings guidance for this year, indicates the tide may get
worse. Frail global demand may not just impact trade flows but also hurt foreign direct investments even as tightening
monetary policies could exacerbate financial market volatility. As the Finance Ministry noted recently, if these trends
deepen, the 6.5% growth hopes for the year could wobble. But retail sales in the U.K. have improved in June, although
fractionally. The U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has exuded confidence that a recession in the world’s largest
economy may be averted after all. Inflation numbers have eased in Europe and the U.S., triggering hopes of interest
rate pauses instead of further tightening to throttle demand and activity. While driving on the hills, one has to prioritise
the movement of vehicles climbing up, even if that means reversing a descending automobile up to a point of safe
passage. Within the overall downhill trend of exports, the few bright spots such as rising shipments of electronic goods
must flourish while trade curbs or obstacles affecting other products must be reviewed. Indian policymakers should
redouble efforts to improve competitiveness vis-à-vis rivals such as Vietnam, and keep a closer watch on divergent
trends in different markets to help exporters capture incremental, even if fractional, global demand.

A
rtificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots are having a seminal moment. Large Language Models (LLMs) are fuelling
chatbots that converse like human experts, sometimes doing a better job than the best of us in summarising a
complex idea or writing an essay. ChatGPT’s bulleted response reminds us of examination answers by
A¬grade students. While Internet search required us to learn the art of keywords, LLMs require us to master prompts.
Prompts are archetype user¬generated questions as well as instructions by software
programmers which elicit a desired response from the algorithm. Prompt engineering is
becoming a sought¬after job to train Chatbots to act more like efficient human beings.
Computer scientist Alan Turing had proposed an imitation game to test a machine’s ability
to demonstrate intelligent behaviour that is indistinguishable from that of a human. In our
willing suspension of disbelief, will we forget that we are conversing with a machine? Yes,
on some occasions, we will anthropomorphise the model. On other occasions, we will simply
not know, and the machine would have passed the Turing test. Even if we do not fall into an
emotional or financial trap, anthropomorphous chatbots will muddy our sense of reality.

Giving AI a gender
Lawmakers are divided over the question of attributing a legal personhood to AI. This
becomes more complicated with autonomous machines. But there is consensus that
misrepresentation of identity by AI feels like manipulation. Experts suggest that restricting AI from using first person
pronouns as well as other human pronouns may reduce cases of AI’s mistaken identity. This way, it would be easier
to identify text entirely produced by a machine. This is important because pronouns have everything to do with identity
today. Writers like me struggle with using pronouns for AI in their writing. I tend to use the inanimate pronoun ‘it’,
even as ‘it’ is no longer strictly used for inanimate nouns. Fiction writers lean on conventional gender¬based pronouns
for AI characters that are scripted as self¬aware. Yet, in the real world, AI is no sentient being. Therefore, AI can
easily avoid using ‘I’ in the fi•rst person. Even ChatGPT believes that ‘giving AI a distinct identity can help clarify
its role and prevent it from being confused with human beings’. We also need to avoid attributing gender¬based second
and third person pronouns to AI. Apple typecast Siri in a feminine sounding voice. Although Siri has alternative
masculine and gender-neutral voices, the default is feminine. We give AI a gender to foster an emotional connection
with users. In the long run, this would reap the benefits of greater engagement, and hence, a robust revenue stream.
Historically, the pronoun ‘he’ was loosely attributed to any student, which tended to create a mental image of a male
student. The initial version of Siri in its default mode betrayed our gender assumptions about a preference for a more
submissive feminine assistant. Nevertheless, technology companies are cautious with pronouns. Google’s Smart
Compose technology, which autocompletes sentences on Gmail, is careful not to predict pronouns, to avoid exposing
unconscious gender biases in the AI model. Google dismissed an employee who famously claimed that his AI model

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had become sentient and had preferred pronouns. AI need not have gender. Some argue that AI
should use a gender¬neutral pronoun such as ‘it’ or ‘they’. This will depersonalise AI. Yet, a
non¬binary identity may be construed as non-inclusive. Giving AI a contemporary pronoun
would trigger popular demand for more diversity in chatbots, as was the case with avatars and
emojis. Besides, AI requires pronouns to establish an identity that is distinct from that of
humans. Presumably, for ethical and security reasons, it is our right to know that we are indeed
conversing with a bot. In the English language, pronouns have evolved based on changes in
cultural norms. ‘You’ started to be used for singular and plural second person pronouns from
the early modern period, when social interactions became less formal. In literature, the first
known use of ‘they” as a singular gender¬neutral pronoun was in a 14th century French poem.
Historically, we were not entirely satisfied with the pronouns used at the time. There have been
brief attempts at inventing and using a gender¬neutral third-person singular pronoun such as
‘thon’ in the 1880s — meaning ‘that one’. Kelly Ann Sippell’s thesis in 1991 has a long list of
gender¬neutral pronouns in singular third person that were proposed in the past 150 years.
These include hes, hiser, hem, ons, e, heer, he’er, hesh, se, heesh, herim, co, tey, per, na, en,
herm, em, hir, and shey. This is not even a complete list.

Use in the technology industry

Pronoun usage has entered the technology industry discourse in recent times, especially as models become
sophisticated enough to pass the Turing test. Suggestions include using the first-person neopronouns such as ‘xe’ or
‘ze’. But they are already used by people who identify as gender neutral. Therefore, we should invent an entirely
different set of pronouns for AI. Regulators should not squander the opportunity to fix this problem at this early stage
before conventional pronouns for AI catch on. To have a structured approach, regulators need to work with
lexicographers and linguists to set a standard for the major languages to start with. Mandates related to pronouns can
then be added to style guides for prompt engineering of AI models. Arguably, even if we were to lose an emotional
connection with AI, we would build a trusted and transparent online environment.

n the parliamentary elections in May, Thai voters sent a clear message to the country’s conservative military

I establishment, which had wrested power from an elected government in 2014. The reformist Move Forward and
the pro¬democracy Pheu Thai parties emerged as the largest parties, while all the pro¬establishment parties did
poorly. Yet, the Thai military went after the architect of the Opposition victory, the 42¬ year¬old Pita Limjaroenrat.
During the campaign, he had promised to end the “cycle of coups”, scrap the military¬drafted constitution and amend
the controversial lèse¬majesté law, which criminalises any public criticism of the monarchy. His reformist views
helped him connect with the masses and lead his party to victory, but also made him a target of the military. After the
elections, eight Opposition parties, including the Move Forward and Pheu Thai, came together to form a bloc, which
had a majority in the 500¬ member elected House. The bloc nominated Mr. Pita as their prime ministerial candidate.
But in Thailand’s 750-member bicameral Parliament (500 elected MPs and 250 Senators appointed by the military), a
candidate needs the support of 376 lawmakers to form the government. In Mr. Pita’s first attempt, he got only 13 votes
from the Senate. Thailand’s Constitutional Court also suspended him from Parliament in a case involving allegations
that he had violated electoral laws by not disclosing his shares in a media company. This is not the first time the
establishment is going after popular parties. In 2019, the reformist Future Forward Party, which emerged as the third
largest bloc, was dissolved and its leaders banned from politics. What the generals fail to understand is that the
crackdown on pro¬democracy parties has not helped sway public mood. The Move Forward emerged from this
vacuum and became the largest party in Parliament in four years. Thailand has also seen widespread pro¬democracy
protests; though crushed by the junta, the embers of public resentment still burn. The May election results were an
opportunity for the junta to cede power to a legitimate government. But by blocking the winner from forming the
government and suspending him from Parliament, the generals have made it clear that they will not tolerate any call
for reforms. This is a dangerous move that has taken Thailand a step closer to the Myanmar model, where the military
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coup in 2021 saw the arrest of democratically elected leaders, and civil war. The Thai Opposition should stay united
in the face of the military’s pressure tactics and continue to push the Senate to support the candidate who has the
backing of the most elected lawmakers.

I
n a major setback to Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthilbalaji, the Madras High Court on July 14 upheld the legality
of his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and his subsequent remand in judicial custody in a
money¬laundering case linked to a cash¬for¬jobs scam. Justice C.V. Karthikeyan, in his order as the third judge
after a two¬member Bench gave a split verdict, ruled that the ED can subject any person accused in a case booked
under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, to custodial
interrogation and that the Minister can be taken into custody even after the
expiry of 15 days from his arrest. Mr. Balaji and his wife have since then
moved the Supreme Court to challenge the HC verdict upholding his arrest.

What did the High Court rule?

The central question of the case was whether the ED has the power to seek
custody of a person arrested. The judge accepted senior advocate Kapil Sibal’s
argument on behalf of the petitioner that ED officials are not police officers as
per the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary
versus Union of India (2022). However, he noted that the sessions judge
remanded Balaji to judicial custody as per Section 167 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure (CrPC). Since Section 65 of the PMLA stipulates that the provisions
of the CrPC shall apply subject to the condition that the same are not
inconsistent with those of the PMLA, Section 167 CrPC should be applicable mutatis mutandis (making necessary
changes without altering the essence) and that the word ‘police’ has to be read as Investigating Agency or the
Enforcement Directorate. It was also observed that the Court designated ED officials to not be police officers only for
the reason that the statements given to the latter in any criminal case would not be admissible in evidence before the
trial court under the CrPC, whereas statements given to the former were admissible in evidence under the PMLA.
However, this observation could not be stretched to the extent of denying the ED an opportunity to subject the accused
to custodial interrogation for unearthing crucial facts related to the alleged crime, the judge added. The court also took
into consideration the Supreme Court’s ruling in Y. Balaji versus Karthik Desai (2023) where the court refused to
discharge Mr. Balaji in the cash¬for-jobs scam in May this year by stating that when the accused and the complainant
arrived at a compromise, they also compromised on ‘justice, fair¬play, good conscience and the fundamental principles
of criminal jurisprudence.’

What has the SC held in the past about the PMLA?

In its landmark 2022 ruling on Vijay Madanlal Choudhary versus Union of India, the Supreme Court upheld various
provisions of the PMLA which relate to the powers of arrest, attachment, search, and seizure conferred upon the ED.
The court was of the opinion that all the provisions under PMLA have a reasonable nexus with the objects sought to
be achieved by the Act to effectively prevent money¬laundering. Section 19 of the PMLA lays down the manner in
which the arrest of a person involved in money¬laundering can be effected. The provision had been challenged on the
ground that it confers unequivocal power of arrest without a warrant. Dismissing such a contention, the court ruled
that the provision has been structured with inbuilt safeguards that prevent the possibility of abuse of power by ED
officials. The court added that, ‘The purposes and objects of the 2002 Act... is not limited to punishment for offence

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of money- laundering, but also to provide measures for prevention of money¬ laundering. ... This Act is also to compel
the banking companies, financial institutions, and intermediaries to maintain records of the transactions and to furnish
information of such transactions within the prescribed time in terms of Chapter IV of the 2002 Act. Considering the
above, it is unfathomable as to how the authorities referred to in Section 48 can be described as police officer.’
Furthermore, in P. Chidambaram versus Directorate of Enforcement (2019), the Supreme Court rejected a prayer for
anticipatory bail with respect to an offence of money¬laundering and proceeded to grant custody to the ED. The court
reasoned that in a case of money¬laundering which involves many stages of placement and layering of funds, a
‘systematic and analysed’ investigation is required which would be frustrated if pre¬arrest bail is granted. The court
also cautioned that it must only exercise its inherent powers under Section 482 of the CrPC to interfere in an
investigation into a cognisable offence if it is convinced that the power of the investigating officer is exercised mala
fide or where there is an abuse of power and non-compliance with the provisions of the CrPC. “It is not the function
of the court to monitor the investigation process so long as the investigation does not violate any provision of law. It
must be left to the discretion of the investigating agency to decide the course of investigation,” the court added.

B
edaquiline has now become the cornerstone to cure drug¬resistant tuberculosis (DR¬TB). Last week, a major
barrier for drug resistant TB care ended, when Johnson & Johnson’s patent on bedaquiline expired on July 18.
This long¬awaited expiry will allow generic manufacturers to supply the drug, but J&J appears intent on
maintaining its monopoly over the bedaquiline market.

What has J&J done?

J&J has filed secondary patents over bedaquiline till 2027, which were granted in 66 low¬and middle¬income
countries. It includes 34 countries with high burden of TB, multidrug¬resistant TB (MDR¬TB), and TB/HIV. Over
the past week, J&J has faced public outrage for seeking to extend its patent on bedaquiline. A first of its kind deal
between J&J and the Global Drug Facility (GDF), a non-profit distribution agency housed in the WHO, could expand
access to the drug. Researchers estimate that, with the introduction of competition from India, the price of bedaquiline
will reduce in the range of $48-$102 for a six¬month treatment course — which is three to six times lower than the
current globally negotiated price paid by countries ($272) when it is procured through the GDF.

What is the threat from tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis was the world’s deadliest infectious disease, as declared by the WHO, before COVID¬19 swept the
world. Each year, nearly half a million people develop drug-resistant TB and nearly 10.4 million people develop
drug¬sensitive TB. One¬third of the world’s population has latent TB, a version of the disease that can turn active as
immunity falls. Nearly 2.8 million patients, the most in the world, live in India making it a national public health
emergency. Globally, DR-TB is a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance and continues to be a public health
threat.

Who made bedaquiline?

Janssen Pharmaceutical (a subsidiary of J&J) made bedaquiline around 2002. Several of the phase I and II clinical
trials — where the safety and efficacy of the drug is established before the drug’s registration—were sponsored by
public and philanthropic organisations such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the TB Alliance. Following the 2012 approval of bedaquiline based on phase II
data, several research institutes, treatment providers, including national TB programmes and medical humanitarian
organisations, have put in resources in additional trials, operational research, and pharmacovigilance to further

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document the safety, efficacy and optimal use of bedaquiline in DR¬TB regimens. The recent WHO recommendation
of bedaquiline being a core drug for the treatment of DR-TB is largely based on the evidence produced through these
collective efforts. However, J&J has claimed sole ownership of it, protected by its aggressive patenting strategies.

Will the drug be available in India?

Other DR¬TB drugs like linezolid have decreased in prices by over 90% with generic competition once Pfizer’s patent
expired in 2015. Therefore, national TB programmes are waiting for the generic supply of bedaquiline from Indian
manufacturers to reduce prices. In India, a ‘pre¬grant opposition’ was filed by a patient group and two TB survivors
— Nandita Venkatesan from India, and Phumeza Tisile from South Africa — both of whom had to endure the more
toxic DR-TB treatments that lasted up to two years and caused excruciating side effects: they both lost their hearing.
As a result of their legal challenge, in a landmark decision before World TB Day, the Indian Patent Office rejected the
U.S. corporation J&J’s secondary patent which would have extended its monopoly for four more years. Indian
manufacturers will now be able to supply affordable, quality assured generic versions of bedaquiline in India as the
primary patent expired on July 18. Vidya Krishnan is a health reporter and Leena Menghaney is Global IP Advisor to
the MSF Access Campaign.

t’s alive! It’s alive!” These lines by actor Colin Clive’s character, seeing his creation coming alive, from the 1931

I film Frankenstein, are so iconic that they are regarded as one of Hollywood’s greatest quotes by the American
Film Institute. Contrary to what many believe, Frankenstein was not the name of the monster created by the
scientist, but is the name of the creator himself. Terminology matters because until 1834, a scientist was usually known
as a ‘cultivator of science’, ‘natural philosopher’ or the prejudicial ‘man of science’. Modelled after ‘artist’, the term
‘scientist’ was borrowed from the Latin word scientia (“knowledge”). No wonder they are often compared with the
Greek god Prometheus who defied the Olympian gods by stealing
fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology,
knowledge, and more generally, civilisation. Interestingly,
Frankenstein is based on the novel The Modern Prometheus, while
Christopher Nolan’s latest film Oppenheimer is based on a
biography titled American Prometheus. With the recent release of
Oppenheimer, we look at scientists and their portrayal in cinema.

Where it all began

The Lumière brothers in 1895 were the first to present projected
moving pictures to a paying audience using their invention, the
Cinématographe, which was a camera, a projector and a film printer
all in one. There are often credited as being the inventors of cinema.
In the same year, they made La Charcuterie mécanique (The
Mechanical Butcher) which is considered to be the first
sciencefiction film and so began a genre. Subsequently, the 1910’s
Frankenstein and 1913’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde introduced the
concept of mad scientists and their terrible creations, thereby
creating an overlap between the genres of science fiction and horror.
The 30s and 40s banked on this genre of
‘experiments¬gone¬wrong’ with titles like The Vampire Bat, The

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Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein, Doctor X and Dr.Cyclops. During World War II, the development of the atomic
bomb increased interest in science fiction. Coincidentally, Oppenheimer is based on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the
theoretical physicist who helped develop the first nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project during this time.
While sci¬fi literature flourished between 1938 to 1946, in films, until the 60s, the genre consisted mainly of low-
budget B movies. This is also when the sci¬fi genre added space and alien films to its list; it took Stanley Kubrick’s
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for the genre to be taken seriously, and the success of Star Wars (1977) made it
mainstream.

The ‘science’ stereotypes

After the 80s, a slew of films that had scientists in tertiary roles were typecast in a certain way. Despite specialising in
a specific field, they were shown to be specialists in everything from geology to alien technology. Albert Einstein’s
theory of relativity (E = mc2) was the solution to every technical issue, and colourful liquids in every possible shape
of beakers and test tubes would adorn their desks. And if the scientists weren’t white, they were most probably Asian
with an accent. Then came the questionable humour — from how clumsy they are (Brackish Okun from Independence
Day) to body¬shaming (Professor Keenbean from Richie Rich) to silly tropes that lead to their Eureka moments (Ray
Stantz from Ghostbusters). If that wasn’t enough, there were also a slew of brilliant masterminds who found themselves
on the wrong side of the law, like Dr. Octopus (Spider-Man 2), Dr. Doom (Fantastic Four ), Arnim Zola (Captain
America: The Winter Soldier ), Poison Ivy (Batman & Robin) and Dr. Henry Wu (Jurassic Park). Not only are the
scientists ridiculed, but science itself, at times, is taken for granted. There are cinematic liberties and then there are
scientific inaccuracies that would make Einstein, Newton, Tesla, Curie and Darwin roll in their graves. The 2014 film
Lucy had its entire premise based on the futile claim that humans use only 10% of the brain; we defeated aliens in
Independence Day (1996) by uploading a computer virus into their spaceship; and in Die Another Day (2002), the
villain tries to replace every gene in his body to look different. Speaking of stereotypes, the ‘mad scientist’ character
is infamous for his features and traits. For starters, they’re almost always male, with messy hair, a lab coat, maniacal
laughter and a weird fascination for either world domination or annihilation. Post¬World War II, the mad scientist
trope became more conspicuous. The invention of the atomic bomb, the sadistic experimentation on humans by the
Nazis, and the scientific and technological breakthrough during the Cold War gave the general public an impression
that science and technology had gone out of control. Unsurprisingly, mad scientists became a common trope in films
during this period. According to a survey of 1,000 horror films distributed in the U.K. between the 1930s and 1980s,
mad scientists or their creations have been the villains of 30% of the films; scientific research has produced 39% of
the threats, and, by contrast, scientists have been the heroes of a mere 11%. This trope, somehow, has remained a
staple for decades now.

Women of science through the lens

Dr. Eva Flicker, in her 2002 article, pointed out that men make up 82% of all film scientists while women are
predominantly given the role of scientists in films falling under the action, adventure and comedy genres. For years,
women scientist roles were sidelined as assistants and sexual characters written for the male gaze. Thankfully, there’s
been a considerable improvement in the way they have been written, since the since the first female scientist in the
1929 film Woman in the Moon. The 2013 film Gravity by Alfonso Cuarón, starring Sandra Bullock, not only proved
that well¬written women characters will be welcomed with open hands by scifi genre lovers, but it also showed how
a woman can anchor an action-packed blockbuster that does not have to include violence. Other examples of such
well-written characters in films include Arrival (2016) and Hidden Figures (2016). Black Panther (2018) starred Letitia
Wright as Princess Shuri, a young, Black woman who is the mastermind behind harnessing the power of vibranium,
specifically in the creation of the Black Panther suit. The real-life consequences of such positive representations are
proved by the Scully Effect, which theorises that The X-Files character Dana Scully motivated young women to pursue
science careers.

Long due recognition

In contemporary entertainment media, predominantly because of superhero films, the positive portrayal of scientists
is at an all¬time high. From playing important supportive characters, Hollywood has finally embraced the idea of
scientists being the film’s protagonists. Probably the best example of a positive science character that we all can

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recollect has to be Doc Brown from The Back to the Future franchise. Scientists playing the lead role is a phenomenon
that has been seen more abundantly and frequently in recent times. While we’ve had Star Trek’s Spock and Alan Grant
in Jurassic Park, only recently have we got characters like Robert Neville in I Am Legend, Chiwetel Ejiofor in 2012,
and the primary characters of The Big Bang Theory. We also have the entourage from the superhero world like
Professor Xavier and Dr McCoy in X¬Men, Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, and Reed Richards and Sue Storm
in The Fantastic Four.

The importance of biopics

One of the earliest biographical movies for a scientist was The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) followed by one for
Thomas Edison, titled Edison, the Man (1940). Then came the biopic of physicist Marie Curie titled Madame Curie
(1947) and again in 2016 as Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge, and once again in 2019 as Radioactive. The
turn of the millennium saw a rise in such biopics. Charles Darwin’s story was retold in Creation (2009) and Stephen
Hawking’s biographical The Theory of Everything was released in 2014. Nikola Tesla got his due quite late — his
biopic was made only in 2020 — and the same year also gave us Ammonite, which was loosely inspired by the life of
British palaeontologist Mary Anning. Close to home, Srinivasan Ramanujan’s story was adapted into The Man Who
Knew Infinity (2015). Meanwhile, the web¬series Rocket Boys (2022) offered an insight into the lives of physicists
Homi Bhaba and Vikram Sarabhai. The 2019 film Mission Mangal shared the story of the team of ISRO scientists
who worked towards making India’s first interplanetary enterprise to Mars a success, and Rocketry showed us the
trials and tribulations of aerospace engineer and former scientist Nambi Narayanan. Similar to many such real¬life
stories, Oppenheimer, which is about the theoretical physicist, is not the story of another inventor. Oppenheimer
headed the team that invented the nuclear bomb and taken aback by the after-effects of the test bombings, he tried his
best to undo the damage. Who better than Christopher Nolan then, to potentially give us one of the greatest films the
genre has ever seen?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recovering in a hospital on Sunday

after an emergency heart procedure, while opposition to his government’s
contentious judicial overhaul plan reached a fever pitch and unrest gripped the
country. Mr. Netanyahu’s doctors said on Sunday the heart pacemaker implantation
went smoothly. According to his office, he was expected to be discharged later in
the day. But tensions were surging as lawmakers began a marathon debate over the
first major piece of the overhaul, ahead of a vote in parliament enshrining it into law
on Monday.

Mass protests Mass protests

continued, part of seven straight months of the most intense demonstrations the
country has ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across
Israel on Saturday night, while thousands marched into Jerusalem and camped out
near the Knesset, or parliament, ahead of Monday’s vote. Mr. Netanyahu’s sudden hospitalisation added another twist
to an already dramatic series of events that are certain to shape Israel’s future. It comes as the longest¬serving Israeli
leader faces the worst domestic crisis of his lengthy tenure, which has shaken the economy, forged cracks in the
military and tested the delicate social fabric that holds the polarised country together. Lawmakers began their debate
despite the hospitalisation. Launching the session, Simcha Rothman, a main driver of the overhaul, denounced the
courts, saying they damaged Israel’s democratic fundamentals by arbitrarily striking down government decisions.
“This small clause is meant to restore democracy to the state of Israel,” he said. “I call on Knesset members to approve
the Bill.”

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Twitter owner Elon Musk hinted late on Saturday night that he may ditch the social media network’s blue cartoon bird
branding — and soon — for an edgier logo based on an “everything app” he has long alluded to called ‘X’. “Soon we
shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” he tweeted around midnight, implying an end to the
imagery from where the very word “tweet” stems. “Like this but X,” the billionaire SpaceX boss said, above a picture
of the Twitter bird over a black and white marbled background. “To embody the imperfections in us all that make us
unique,” he replied to the post. Twitter, founded in 2006 and whose name is a play on the sound of birds chattering,
has used avian branding since its early days, when the company bought a stock symbol of a light blue bird for $15,
according to the design website Creative Bloq. The 52¬year¬old Tesla founder has previously said that his rocky
takeover of Twitter last year was “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”, a reference to the X.com company
he founded in 1999, a later version of which went on to become PayPal. Such an app could still function as a social
media platform, and also include messaging and mobile payments. Mr. Musk has already named Twitter’s parent
company the X Corporation. “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make (it) go live worldwide tomorrow,”
he said. Mr. Musk went on to make several other X¬related comments, saying a new emblem should be “of course,
Art Deco” style and that under the site’s new identity a post would be called “an X.” Twitter is thought to have around
200 million daily active users, but it has suffered repeated technical failures since the tycoon bought the so¬called bird
app for $44 billion in 2022 and sacked much of its staff. Since then, many users and advertisers alike have soured on
the social media site thanks to the charges introduced for previously free services, changes to content moderation and
the return of the previously banne

T he 1.5 degrees Celsius warming target has received considerable press along with the El Niño this year. Reports
claim that the planet could soon cross this temperature threshold due to this natural climate phenomenon. But
even if the world’s average surface temperature warms by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius for a year, nothing
dramatically different may happen – other than the heatwaves, floods, droughts, and similar events that are already
happening. The bigger question is: where is all the end¬of¬the-world messaging coming from? Humankind might do
well with less hyperbole about the climate crisis. It is a serious challenge today, yes, but a constant drumbeat of alarmist
messages may only exacerbate climate anxiety and leave people feeling helpless – especially the young ones, who
should be dreaming about saving the planet (or space travel) instead.

A questionable target
The target agreed to in the Paris Agreement, to keep the planet’s surface from warming by 2 degrees Celsius by the
end of this century, has been touted as a monumental achievement, and it may well be if we actually manage to achieve
this goal by 2100. But we must bear two things in mind. First, despite negotiations among the representatives of the
world’s countries for more than two decades, global carbon emissions have shown no signs of slowing down. Second,
the 2 degrees Celsius target was not derived scientifically. The economics Nobel laureate William Nordhaus cautiously
noted in the 1970s that a warming of 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level could render the planet warmer
than it has ever been in several hundred-thousand years. He followed this claim up with a model of the socioeconomic
impacts of crossing this threshold. Some European politicians found this round number to be appealing as something
to aim for in the 1990s, followed by climate scientists retrofi•tting their projected climate impacts to this warming

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level. Indeed, no sooner was this figure enshrined in the

Paris Agreement than the Alliance of Small Island States
demanded that it be lowered to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Once
again, the climate community, now together with the
socioeconomic¬modelling community, retrofitted future
scenarios to meet this so¬called “aspirational” target.
Bringing science to serve society is a very noble goal,
particularly when government officials demand scientific
inputs for their decision¬making. But many
governments’ planned reliance on bioenergy and
carbon¬capture technologies to accomplish these goals do not consider the potential consequences of climate change
on food and water security, for example – let alone the possibility that such promises have a long way to go before
becoming viable.

Earth system models

It is also not entirely clear whether the earth system models (ESMs) that scientists use to prepare climate projections
can reliably reproduce the consequences of a world that has warmed by 2 degrees Celsius but at the scale of the Indian
subcontinent. As of today, they certainly cannot do so accurately at scales smaller than the subcontinent, particularly
for rainfall. So the question automatically arises: can they really distinguish between worlds warmer by 1.5 and 2
degrees Celsius? The answer is ‘no’, at least at the scales required to inform climate adaptation policy. The
uncertainties in climate projections will be dominated by ESM deficiencies for the next decade or two. For the decades
beyond two, the assumed scenarios for radiative forcing, resulting from greenhouse gas emissions and socioeconomic
choices, determine the warming levels and rates.

Uncertainties for India

This brings us to the next point: the impacts of the COVID¬19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have made
it abundantly clear that it is very difficult for us to imagine all the possible socioeconomic and geopolitical events that
matter to the well¬being of our world, including its people. Even population projections may not hold considering
China’s population is currently peaking and India is en route. The physicist Niels Bohr once said that prediction is
very difficult, especially if it is about the future. The best¬case scenario, against this quote, is that climate projections
cover all eventualities as well as all technological promises pan out, dragging the world’s emission rates down
considerably by 2030, giving us a reasonable chance of staying below the 2¬degree mark by 2100. The inherent
uncertainties, however, leave India, and the economically developing world, with some tough choices. This group of
countries needs to develop its own tools to determine the crisis’s local impacts, especially for adaptation plans that
deal with unavoidable consequences. India’s engagement with the international community on climate mitigation, to
try and avoid the unmanageable, should also keep an eye on any Frankenstein’s¬monster experiments by richer
countries, such as spraying dust in the upper atmosphere (a climate geoengineering solution that scientists know carries
an unreasonable risk of droughts and crop losses).

India in front
More importantly, India should continue its leadership role by demanding that the community centred on the U.N.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) be prepared to improve projections that quantify impacts at local
scales. The IPCC and India must also track climate change and its consequences continuously at the socially relevant
timescale of a few years. There is a real threat here of India ‘agreeing’ to colonise the future with imperfect models
and unrealistic scenarios – especially when the paths to certain outcomes are based on technical and economic
feasibilities and dubious concepts like “negative emission technologies”. The country must consider non¬market
goods such as equity, well¬being, and biodiversity more deliberately. As things stand today, reducing emissions as a
paradigm for tackling climate change has essentially failed. Decarbonising the system is more likely to save us from
ourselves. India can cash in on these opportunities and grow its economy by focusing on green technologies to
decarbonise the future. Raghu Murtugudde is a visiting professor at IIT Bombay and an emeritus professor at the
University of Maryland.

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