Harish Rana & meaning of compassion

On March 11, a two-judge bench showed us what it looks like when the Supreme Court performs the function it is meant to. In a masterfully written judgment, a pleasure for lawyers and doctors alike to read, judges clarified the legal position on withholding/withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. They gave relief and closure to Harish Rana’s family….

Read More

The source code of artificial intelligence

By Deepak Ranade In his very inimitable style that blends clarity, with a dash of provocation, Nobel laureate and physicist Richard Feynman remarked:“If our small minds, through some convenience, divide this world, into pieces – physics, biology, geology, astronomy , psychology, and so forth – keep in mind that nature is unaware of it!” Human…

Read More

Mad Math

Iran’s hurt, but war isn’t going well for US, its Arab allies, and the rest of us. Numbers show the pain ahead  What if this isn’t really a big war, but just a “little excursion,” like Donald Trump told Republican leaders on Monday? Almost like someone going on a short hunting trip. That might explain…

Read More

Bangladesh revolution and election

In the elections that were finally held in Bangladesh (“BD”), the Bangladesh National Party (“BNP”) won a two-thirds majority. BD voters undoubtedly rejected the Jamaat Party, paving the way for Mr Tarique Rahman to become the new prime minister. Despite the recent chilling relations, India was represented at the swearing-in ceremony by Lok Sabha Speaker…

Read More

Why skills matter in the global economy

Last month, tense negotiations between two major economies over critical minerals nearly stalled the global supply of essential technology components, sending shockwaves through industries from automotive to electronics. This high-stakes standoff spotlighted how the future of international commerce can hinge on the skills of trade diplomats working behind the scenes. As the global economy grows,…

Read More

Building trustworthy AI systems

If you were asked the following questions in an interview, how would you handle them? I am providing my answers today so you can build on them. Why is there a concern about trust in AI and Gen AI? The machine learning model creation approximates the relationship between inputs and outputs. Models are probabilistic by…

Read More

On All Cylinders

Stopping LPG black market requires commercial supply restoration, market pricing, distributor audits Officially, there’s no shortage of LPG. Anecdotally, cylinders are selling for twice the official price. That means we have a black market in gas now. This is not surprising when LPG supply to commercial kitchens has been curbed. There’s logic behind govt’s order:…

Read More

Iran, Persia and me

‘Epic Fury’ could learn from real epic  How do I and my fellow Parsis react to the present insanity involving our original motherland, nucleus of  two far-flung Zoroastrian empires, Cyrus the Great’s Achaemenid and the later Sassanian? Obviously we didn’t support the repressive regressive Ayatollah Khomeini who in 1979 ousted Pahlavi Reza Shah. The tall,…

Read More

Chinese Checkers & Trump’s Iran War

In the prevailing logic of great power competition, Iran seems to have a valuable function for China. For every dollar US spends, defending commercial shipping lanes in Red Sea, from Houthi anti-ship missiles, and for every multi-billion-dollar carrier strike group tethered to Persian Gulf, to deter Iranian aggression, there’s resource unavailable for deployment in Indo-Pacific….

Read More