The Dani Post

21/09/2023

Officially changed in the Metropolitan

10/03/2023

The on Wednesday issued a ban against begging on streets till April 30th, with city police chief Amitesh Kumar citing the upcoming G20 Summit in the city, and beggars becoming a “public nuisance” by obstructing traffic and pedestrian movement, Times of India reported. The order highlights how city “beautification” projects are often carried out at the expense of the poor. Instead of reflecting on its inability to prevent poverty, the state chooses to violently erase the public existence of poor people. ⁠
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This is not the first time this has happened. In 2020, when the-then American President Donald Trump visited Ahmedabad, the city administration chose to hide its slums with a wall. In 2017, the police in Hyderabad made begging illegal ahead of Ivanka Trump’s visit to the city. These examples show that the Indian administration views the poor as people who need to be managed, whose appearance and visibility need to be controlled. Human Rights activist Usha Ramanathan writes in the Economic and Political Weekly of the inhumanity of laws that criminalize poverty, noting laws “relating to begging and ostensible poverty is insupportable as well as unconstitutional, and must be either repealed, or struck down by a court which possesses the power to test a legislation for its constitutionality.”⁠
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In 2018, the Delhi High Court had refused to criminalize begging in the National Capital, observing that “people in this stratum do not have access to necessities such as food, shelter, and health, and in addition criminalizing them denies them the basic fundamental right to communicate and seek to deal with their plight.” The court had further held that not being able to stop people from begging wasn’t the fault of those begging but of the state in failing to provide its most vulnerable citizens with the most basic of necessities.

17/02/2023

On Tuesday, two incidents of murder catapulted live-in relationships into the limelight once again. In Delhi, a man, Sahil Gehlot, allegedly killed his partner, Nikki Yadav, and married someone else the same day. Meanwhile, in Maharashtra’s Nalasopara, a similar incident took place where a man, Hardik Shah, allegedly killed his live-in partner Megha Dhansingh Torvi and attempted to flee the site soon after. While both suspects have been arrested, the incidents have reignited the debate on women’s safety in live-in relationships, even prompting the chief of the National Commission for Women (NCW), Rekha Sharma, to state, “Girls are not safe in a live-in relationship.” ⁠
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In India, there is no law that specifically addresses and governs live-in relationships – but as such, many courts have recognized the legality of live-in relationships. In 2006 and 2010, the Supreme Court reiterated this view, noting, "A live-in relationship between two consenting adults of heterogenic s*x does not amount to any offense (with the obvious exception of 'adultery'), even though it may be perceived as immoral.” Since then, adultery, too, has been decriminalized. The legality of live-in relationships in the country, then, stems from previous judgements and interpretations of Article 21 that guarantees the protection of right to life and personal liberty. ⁠
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In some instances, protections boil down to the question of whether they’re similar to marriages. In 2010, the SC had laid out criteria for live-in relationships to come under “relationship in the nature of marriage” and be deemed valid. These included: The couple must hold themselves out to society as being akin to spouses; They must be of legal age to marry; They must be otherwise qualified to enter into a legal marriage, including being unmarried; They must have voluntarily cohabited and held themselves out to the world as being akin to spouses for a significant period of time. In cases where one of the partners is married, however, protections aren’t as easily applicable, as it violates the clause of relationships having to be “in the nature of marriage.”

17/02/2023

The Internet is rejoicing over a new study that showed the average p***s size has increased by 24% over the last 29 years. But experts are wary: as such, any changes in reproductive health should be met with concern about the underlying causes.

Published in The World's Journal of Men's Health, the study compiled data from 75 studies from 1942 to 2021, which included nearly 56,000 men across the world. “Given the trends we’d seen in other measures of men’s reproductive health, we thought there could be a decline in pe**le length due to the same environmental pressures,” Dr Michael Eisenberg, lead author and professor of urology at Stanford Medicine, said in a press release. The study’s findings thus surprised researchers, as they run contradictory to expectations – but we don’t exactly know why. Amid other measures like declining s***m count across the world, such changes could signal a public health concern. “I think this is another signal that something is wrong with the globe and that we need to do something about it,” Prof Hagai Levine, the lead author of a study on declining s***m count, told PTI last year. Environmental factors, such as chemical exposure to pesticides and hygiene products, pollution as well as poor diet and sedentary lifestyles are interfering with our hormonal systems, says Eisenberg. “Any overall change in development is concerning, because our reproductive system is one of the most important pieces of human biology.”

Studies about size have been criticized for preying on insecurities over p***s length and fertility. “We give men such bad press all the time and the one thing that scares them is that size matters,” said Sheena Lewis from Queen’s University Belfast. The main takeaway is that such research should encourage discussions about male reproductive health, and the need for regular testing and better lifestyle choices. But intersecting cultural anxieties around p***s size could impact how such research is received. “If the findings [about size] were the opposite… everybody would be freaking out,” Dr. James Hotaling, an infertility specialist at the University of Utah Health, told USA Today.

01/02/2023

Carbon inequalities, or the difference in carbon emissions, between the rich and poor in the same country is now greater than the carbon emission differences between countries, according to the Climate Inequality Report 2023. This jarring finding serves to drive home the widening gap between the polluting activities of the rich that are fuelling the climate crisis, and the relatively lower carbon footprints of the remaining population that must still bear the brunt of climate change impacts.

The report released by the World Inequality Lab found that “the consumption and investment patterns of a relatively small group of the population” are disproportionately contributing to the rise in greenhouse gas emissions. While the differences in carbon emissions between countries is large, within country inequalities now account for a bulk – approximately two-thirds – of the total global emissions inequality. Peter Newell, professor of international relations at the University of Suss*x, told The Guardian, “Inequalities in emissions matter because carbon inequality within countries accounts for the bulk of global carbon emissions inequality between those generating the emissions and those suffering the worst effects of global heating and who have the least capacity to adapt.”

These findings have vast implications for climate action and reinforce the call for differentiated responsibility – where a reduction of emissions by the rich would allow the poor to increase theirs in order to break out of the cycles of poverty. This would also signal a shift away from global climate conversations, in which nation-states are stakeholders, overshadowing the impact of individual consumption among the wealthy. Thus, according to the report, poverty alleviation does not necessarily involve overshooting global carbon budgets, provided adequate taxation and policy interventions hold the rich accountable.

31/01/2023

More than 200 individuals belonging to Scheduled Caste communities mobilized to enter a temple in the Tiruvannamalai district on Monday, amid protests by dominant caste communities in the region. This marks the first time Dalits entered the temple after a de-facto ban imposed by dominant castes seven decades ago. Of the 1,700 families who currently reside in the village, 500 are Dalit, according to NewsClick. 30th January also marks the date when the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister administered an anti-untouchability pledge to members of the cabinet. "We've established the constitutional rights of scheduled castes. It's a seventy-year-old temple. It's a different egalitarian era. We can't allow this. We will bring about a change of mindset,” said District Collector P Murugesh, according to NDTV. The act of defying casteist barriers to religious spaces marks an important milestone in anti-caste resistance. Several parts of the country continue to impose dehumanizing norms of segregation and untouchability – recently, the Pudukottai district in Tamil Nadu saw dominant caste communities contaminate a water tank predominantly used by Dalit communities. “Tamil Nadu remains a hotbed of violent inter-caste riots and clashes, often between Dalits and other non-Dalit, non-Brahmin lower castes. As scholar Gail Omvedt wrote, ‘caste conflicts in southern Tamil Nadu show the persistence of the casteist attitude among even poor OBCs… In spite of the formal openness and some social mobility, caste continues to be highly correlated to both occupation and political power,’” wrote , about how Dalit communities face and resist caste-oppression across the country. Tap the link in bio to read The Dani Post’s piece from the archives.

31/01/2023

The fallout of Hindenburg Research’s report that cast doubt on Adani Group’s dealings are being reflected in the stock market. The group’s stock values have fallen, leading to losses to the tune of $65 billion, reported Reuters. After the release of the report, investors’ wealth plummeted by ₹3.19 trillion. When allegations of fraud surface against businessmen and billionaires, it turns out that it’s middle-class Indian investors – and taxpayers – who suffer the most.
In 2018, diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi used fraudulent Letters of Undertaking, leaving Punjab National Bank Rs. 14,000 crore poorer. Once the scam broke, the bank’s market capitalisation eroded by 40% in the immediate aftermath, The Hindu reported. Corporate loan defaults have posed a serious threat to government-owned banks. To keep these public sector banks afloat, the government injects funds into the system. “Every rupee that goes into these banks is taken away from more important areas like agriculture, education, health and defense,” noted a BBC report.
Vijay Mallya, accused of fraud and money laundering, had debts of Rs. 9,000 crore piled up – money that he owed to Indian banks. Loans that fail to be retrieved from the debtor are written off as non-performing assets, depleting the bank’s assets. This influences how funds collected from tax-paying citizens are utilized – not towards socio-economic development, but to bail out a banking system weighed down by bad loans.

30/01/2023

In a historic first, an AI-powered legal assistant will advise a defendant in a US court next month, reported New Scientist. Dubbed as the world’s first “robot lawyer,” the artificial intelligence algorithm – created by the startup DoNotPay – will run on a smartphone, listen in on arguments being made in court and then advise the defendant on what to say through an ear-piece. Amid the raging debate around what the world may look like in an AI-dominated world, the experiment not only reveals AI’s potential applications in the justice system, but may also give new impetus to fears surrounding AI pushing certain professions to obsoletion. ⁠
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The potential for biases filtering into the justice system with the use of AI has led many to state that AI systems reaching a stage where they effectively replace lawyers or judges is still a while away. However, DoNotPay’s experiment may be a step in this direction. In fact, the company’s initial AI chatbot has already successfully contested 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York, The Guardian reported in 2016. ⁠
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Still, while this is the first instance of AI entering the courtroom to perform the role of a lawyer, there has already been significant conversation around AI’s application in the judicial system. For instance, Malaysian courts have been mulling over the introduction of AI as a tool to assist judges in the decision-making process – the technology is already in place to help judges decide on drug possession cases in two Malaysian states. In India, the Supreme Court instituted the Artificial Intelligence Committee that, according to the Minister of Law and Justice, Kiren Rijiju, “…identified application of AI technology in Translation of judicial documents; Legal research assistance and Process automation.” ⁠
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While the experiment may tie in with DoNotPay’s aim to “fight corporations, beat bureaucracy and sue anyone at the press of a button,” it also raises questions about the future of AI in courts – one where AI is no longer just a tool, but plays a more active role in the judicial system.

30/01/2023

Hindenburg Research, the investment research firm that accused the Adani Group of fraudulent activities and stock manipulation, has replied to Adani’s 413-page response, stating that the group has “predictably tried to lead the focus away from substantive issues and instead stoked a nationalist narrative, claiming our report amounted to a ‘calculated attack on India.’” According to the firm, only 30 pages of Adani Group’s response focused on issues raised by their report, while failing to answer 62 of the 88 questions. ⁠
Adani Group had earlier claimed Hindenburg’s allegations were “nothing but a lie,” prompted by ulterior motives that would allow the US-based firm to make financial gains, reported PTI. The Group further suggested that the report was a calculated attack on “the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and the growth story and ambition of India.” However, Hindenburg Research has stuck by its accusations, stating “...fraud is fraud, even when it’s perpetrated by one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.” In their latest response, the research firm claimed that Adani Group’s response has either largely confirmed their findings or attempted to sidestep allegations, while attempting to conflate the group’s rise and Gautam Adani’s wealth with the success of India itself. ⁠
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“To be clear, we believe India is a vibrant democracy and an emerging superpower with an exciting future. We also believe India’s future is being held back by the Adani Group, which has draped itself in the Indian flag while systematically looting the nation,” the firm added.

30/01/2023

Trial courts in India sentenced 165 people to death in 2022 – the highest annual count in the last two decades, according to the latest annual statistics report published by Project 39A at NLU, Delhi. This number has risen from the 146 prisoners awarded death sentences in 2021. Almost a third of the individuals sentenced to death last year were perpetrators of s*xual crimes. ⁠
The rising numbers of death sentences comes against the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s attempts to reform administration of the death penalty. In May 2022, the Supreme Court recognized the “arbitrariness and subjective patterns” in awarding death sentences, and required “mitigating circumstances” to be taken into account at hearings, including psychological evaluations, family circumstances, and education levels, reported The Indian Express last year. Anup Surendranath, executive director of Project 39A, said, “Trial courts have resumed imposing a high number of death sentences since the dip in 2020 due to the pandemic.” ⁠
The high number of prisoners on death row is another issue Surendranath flagged to The Times of India, stating that while appellate courts commute or acquit a majority of the death penalty cases, the volume of death sentences issued by trial courts is too high. At the end of 2022, 539 individuals were on death row, the highest since 2016. “All of this highlights the crisis in India’s death penalty regime and forces us to ask the question whether it is a punishment that can ever be administered in a constitutionally acceptable manner,” he said.

30/01/2023

Actor Rajinikanth is the latest celebrity to raise concerns over the unauthorized use of his name, image, voice, and personality for commercial purposes. In a notice issued yesterday, the actor stated that any individual found to be violating it would be subject to criminal action. Rajinikanth’s iconography remains ubiquitous – ranging from merchandise to advertising to even politics. Previously, Amitabh Bachchan won a “personality rights” case – in which the Delhi High Court granted interim protection to his name, voice, and “unique style of dialogue delivery.” This was in response to Bachchan’s counsel pointing out that several mobile applications and websites monetized these aspects of Bachchan’s personality without his consent. This is an issue that extends posthumously too. In 2021, late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s father moved the Delhi High Court to prevent the use of his son’s image or likenesses in upcoming films. Lately, concerns over who owns a celebrity’s image have become even more fraught – especially in the age of artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, The Guardian reported on a deepfake comedy starring AI Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Nicki Minaj, and others – with ethicists pointing out the problems with using celebrity likenesses to make people do and say things they’ve never done – or consented to. The issue speaks to how the rights of celebrities over their personhood are often taken for granted – and how their personalities often turn into saleable commodities.

27/01/2023

Vadivel Gopal and Masi Sadaiyan from Tamil Nadu were jointly conferred the Padma Shri award for social work on Thursday. Gopal and Sadaiyan are members of the Irular Snake Catchers' Cooperative society in Chennai, and engage in the practice of catching snakes for anti-venom extraction, as well as international awareness and advocacy around snake-human conflicts. The Irula community is historically associated with healing, traditional medicine, and snake catching -- Gopal and Sadaiyan themselves learnt the profession from their families, according to reports. However, media headlines on Gopal and Sadaiyan's achievement have predominantly focused on calling them "snake-catchers" instead of using their names -- a term that inadvertently reinforces caste stereotypes around community identity and labor.⁠
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The Irula community, or the Irular, is designated as a Scheduled Tribe community and carries historical baggage for its work and culture. Members of the community continue to be stigmatized like many other Adivasi communities -- a legacy of the Habitual Offenders Act, 1952 that criminalized these tribes. Although they are now classified under the "Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups" category in Tamil Nadu, Irular continue to be subject to criminalization and police brutality -- a reality that the recent film Jai Bhim depicted, based on a real story of custodial torture. Often, the criminalization of indigenous communities is rooted in their association with certain forms of labor. ⁠
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Moreover, the overuse of the label "snake-catchers" when it comes to describing members of the community also warrants scrutiny for how it undermines Irular traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and anti-venom treatments. In 1978, the formation of the Irula Snake Catchers Industrial Co-Operative Society led to the community being one of the only authorized entities to provide anti-venom in India. In a country with a high burden of snake-bite mortality, the Irula community's expertise and knowledge are invaluable to saving lives.

26/01/2023

Women from various branches within the Army, including Intelligence Corps, Army Air Defence, and Electrical & Mechanical Engineers are being evaluated against 108 vacancies for the rank of Colonel, announced Indian Army officials. In total, 244 women officers are currently being considered for promotion. A special selection board, conducted from January 9-22 2023, will increase their ranks from Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel—on par with their male counterparts. ⁠
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In an effort to ensure equal opportunities for women officers, the Indian Army has also granted Permanent Commission (PC) to women, enabling their aspirations for further promotions and responsibilities. All women with PC are undergoing specialized training courses to empower their leadership potential— they have the potential to lead Army units for the first time.⁠
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“We have considerably stepped up the role of our women soldiers in various UN Peacekeeping missions,” said officials. This action is also in line with the United Nations’ Gender Parity Strategy, which aims to create an “enabling environment for uniformed women personnel,” both on the field and off. ⁠
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However, women are still not eligible for pure combat divisions, like Infantry, Mechanised Infantry and Armoured Corps, Indian Express reported. ⁠
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On the flipside, women in high-ranking positions in the military is a divided issue among feminists. As The Dani Post noted in 2021: “non-military voices contend that a more inclusive military does not challenge gender roles but merely legitimizes the masculinization of the military under a different disguise. Further, with several peace activists advocating for demilitarization, a feminist critique argues that more women being admitted into the military spells more harm than good, since it legitimizes the violence of war.”

26/01/2023

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a report warning that five billion people across the world are exposed to trans fat, which puts them at risk of heart disease, and even death. Ever since the WHO called for the elimination of industrially produced trans fat, worldwide in 2018, its usage has declined. Despite this, however, five billion people continue to be at risk due to the large-scale usage of trans fats in the food industry.⁠
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Trans fats occur naturally in milk and meat products. However, in fried and baked food items -- like cakes, pizza, fries, and samosas, among others -- it is artificially generated during hydrogenation, an industrial process that uses hydrogen to solidify vegetable oils. While it makes food taste better, last longer, and remain affordable, it is also linked to high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. In fact, according to the WHO, the consumption of trans fat is responsible for about 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease every year, across the globe.⁠
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In 2017, India had implemented a rule limiting the percentage of trans fats in foods to 5%. Subsequently, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) placed a 3% cap on the permissible amount of trans fatty acids in oils and fats in 2021, and changed it to 2% in 2022. ⁠
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“Trans fat has no known benefit, and huge health risks that incur huge costs for health systems… By contrast, eliminating trans fat is cost-effective and has enormous benefits for health. Put simply, trans fat is a toxic chemical that kills, and should have no place in food,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of WHO, noted. “It’s time to get rid of it once and for all.”

12/12/2022

Mumbai: According to IMD's five-day prediction, the city and certain areas of Mumbai, Thane may see light rain and thundershowers on December 12-13 along with an overcast sky.
Mumbai woke up to another chilly day as the lowest temperature, 18 degrees (measured at IMD's Santacruz observatory), was one degree below average.

According to the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research, the city's overall air quality index (AQI) on Sunday was 245, which was better than last week when it had above the 300 threshold while being in a bad category (SAFAR).

In line with this indication, the IMD’s regional met centre in Mumbai has predicted thunderstorms and lightning over Coastal Maharashtra, Madhya Maharashtra, and Vidarbha from Sunday to Tuesday (December 11-13) and Marathwada on Sunday and Monday (December 11-12).
With the use of this information, the regional met office for the IMD in Mumbai predicted thunderstorms and lightning for the days of Sunday through Tuesday (December 11–13) over Coastal Maharashtra, Madhya Maharashtra, and Vidarbha, as well as for the following Sunday and Monday in Marathwada (December 11-12).
As a result, these subdivisions have been placed on a yellow watch for the three-day forecast period, with the alert warning inhabitants to "be aware" of the thunderstorm activity.

The start of next week might see a few thundershowers and light drizzles in Mumbai, the state capital. The Cyclone Mandous remnant's development and path will determine how this forecast pans out, according to IMD officials.
QI between 0 and 50 is considered "good"; 51 to 100 is "satisfactory", 101 to 200 is "moderate", 201 to 300 "poor", 301 to 400 "very poor", and 401 to 500 "severe".

12/12/2022

The Google Doodle today celebrates the life of Maria Telkes, a Hungarian-American physical chemist best known for her invention of the solar distiller and creating the first solar-powered heating system for homes.
Dr Telkes was one of the greatest pioneers of solar energy who came to be immortalised as the “Sun Queen”.

06/12/2022

06/12/2022

New Delhi: Neuralink, a medical device company, owned by Elon Musk is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths, according to a report by news agency Reuters.

Neuralink Corp is developing a brain implant that hopes will help paralyzed people walk again and cure other neurological ailments.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General at the request of a federal prosecutor opened a federal investigation against the company. The probe allegedly focuses on violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which governs how researchers treat and test some animals.

Notably, this investigation has been begun amid growing employee dissent about Neuralink’s animal testing, including complaints that pressure from CEO Musk has led them to accelerate development which has resulted in botched experiments and cruelty against animals.

According to the report following this many failed tests have had to be repeated, increasing the number of animals being tested and killed. The company documents include previously unreported messages, audio recordings, emails, presentations, and reports.

The report also states that so far, about 1,500 animals including over 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys have been killed following Neuralink experiments since 2018. US regulations, which don’t state how many animals can be used for research by a company, have also come to light due to the matter. It is not yet clear how many of these deaths were caused directly due to the surgical implant.

06/12/2022

Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani and two other Indian billionaires Shiv Nadar and Ashok Soota have featured on Forbes' philanthropy list this year.

Malaysian-Indian businessman Brahmal Vasudevan and his lawyer wife Shanthi Kandiah were also named in the 16th edition of Forbes Asia's Heroes of Philanthropy list released on Tuesday.

26/11/2022

Happiest Bbirthday Uncle Ji

19/10/2022

New Delhi: A recent study published by the American Heart Association has revealed that poisonous and toxic chemicals enter the bloodstream of young teenagers, causing electrical disturbances in the heart muscles.

The study has asked youngsters, especially teenagers to take extra precautions with the rising pollution levels, especially around Diwali, as toxic air may cause their hearts to skip a beat within two hours after exposure.

Irregular heart rhythms, known as arrhythmias, during adolescence are instrumental in developing heart disease in adulthood.

According to the State of India's Environment Report 2019, air pollution should be considered a national emergency as it kills nearly one lakh children under the age of five in India every year, and is responsible for 12.5 percent of all deaths in the country.

"While relatively rare, irregular heart rhythms can lead to sudden cardiac death in otherwise healthy adolescents and young adults. Our findings linking air pollution to irregular heart rhythms suggest that particulate matter may contribute to the risk of sudden cardiac death among youth," said Fan He, Ph.D., lead author of the study by AHA and an instructor in public health sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The study has also examined the impact of breathing fine particulate matter on the heart rhythms of adolescents.

Fine particulates (PM2.5) are less than 2.5 microns in size and can easily be inhaled deep into the lungs and even enter the bloodstream. Particles smaller than 2.5 microns are usually related to fuel combustion, such as particles from car exhaust or wildfires.
Once inhaled, the pollutants irritate the lungs and blood vessels around the heart, and previous research has suggested that over time, pollutants increase the process of disease in the arteries.