Viewpoint

AI may have finally tipped the scales in favour of nuclear energy again

If fuel is reprocessed, it can be reused. But the reprocessing turns it into weapons-grade fuel, which means it can also be used to make big bangs

Devangshu Datta: Mean machines

Anybody who has ever handled a horse and a car would testify that horse management is more difficult

Devangshu Datta: Ignoramuses aplenty

It becomes a problem when it's displayed by policymakers and people of some influence

Devangshu Datta: Privacy in peril

Start-up is a private B2B concern, which offers to verify employees and clients for its customers

Devangshu Datta: Peddling fake news

It is easy for those who understand social media to make a living peddling falsehoods

Devangshu Datta: Countering climate change

There is near-absolute scientific consensus that climate change is proceeding apace

Devangshu Datta: The cost of cashlessness

Govt makes far larger profits, service-providers collect fees, and users pay much higher costs

Devangshu Datta: The consequences of notebandi

By the time cash is back in the system, the power and the desire to consume may well have been reduced

Devangshu Datta: If it doesn't work, try once again; then quit

India will survive these rinse and repeat schemes. But it will probably revert to the fabled Hindu rate of growth (around 2-3 per cent of GDP)

Devangshu Datta: Queuing for character

Everyone queued for everything.... We were told all this queuing would, in some mysterious fashion, strengthen the nation

Devangshu Datta: The ticking identity theft bomb

The scamming of Americans by Indians pretending to be officials of US govt departments has been going on for a long time

Devangshu Datta: The fringe, centre-stage

This presidential candidate's preferred "style of seduction" is to grab those organs without bothering to ask for permission

Devangshu Datta: The cost of winning a war

The town of Berwick-upon-Tweed lies on the border of Scotland and England. It changed hands many times in the Anglo-Scots wars

Devangshu Datta: Singularity draws closer

The industrial revolution swept across Europe and was exported to the rest of the world, in what now seems like slow motion

Devangshu Datta: On the surrogacy debate

One official estimate is that about 2,000 foreign surrogate babies were delivered per annum until foreign surrogacy was banned in 2015

Devangshu Datta: The liaisoning sport

The real purpose of an Indian sports body is to liaison with the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs and derive as much by way of benefits from that liaison as possible

Devangshu Datta: 'Civilising' the natives

In 2008, the Australian government made an official apology for a 70-year programme of civilising the natives, which was colloquially known as "screwing them white". Only, Aussies being Aussies, they used another word as a synonym for "screwing".By the early 1900s, the Australian government knew that the native Australians, the so-called Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders did not fit into the Australian mainstream on many counts. First of all, the locals were the wrong colour. On top of that, the immigrants thought that these peoples had strange lifestyles. They were, by and large, nomads. They spoke their own languages (which lacked scripts). They ate anything that moved, which is useful in a dry, desert land. They used interesting psychotropic drugs for religious purposes, and all-round entertainment, rather than sticking to good old alcohol (which they had not learnt to distil). They tended to avoid transactions involving money, preferring to barter instead.Perhaps worst of all

Devangshu Datta: The majoritarianism paradox

The defining paradox of majoritarianism is that it's generally espoused by folks who are scared that they will soon become a minority

Devangshu Datta: World War III

In a quiet, unacknowledged way, World War III (WWIII) has been work-in-progress for at least 15 years. WWIII is very different from its predecessors

Devangshu Datta: Sports streaming beats TV

The internet now offers a live viewership experience that beats TV hollow. I wonder how effectively this will be monetised