Prashant Shukla

It looks like that there is a slight reduction in the numbers of COVID-19 patients in India due to lockdown and social distancing, but how accurate it is, nothing is known. There are millions of people who do not even know whether they are infected or not? Millions of people in rural India do not have access to testing. They are not going to the doctors only because health and medical services almost collapsed. The condition of hospitals is that wealthy businessmen and women, retired defence personals, retired ambassadors, well-known film stars and even families of civil servants and political leaders are dying in waiting for hospitalisation. Regrettably, people are dying due to a lack of oxygen, and at the same time, black marketing of oxygen cylinders is happening.  Indian health services providers and experts need to draw strategies and initiate stricter, science guided mitigation steps to curb the spread of COVID-19 and ensure accurate reporting of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Pe...

I am writing this when I am receiving messages of untimely deaths of 3-6 people each day, whom I know directly or indirectly. Like many others who live abroad, I am deeply terrified for the well being of our family members, friends, and our communities in India.  The most anticipated second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic devastated Indian families. The healthcare system is currently almost collapsed. Until recently, not only India had managed to contain the pandemic with two effective vaccines. India also supplied vaccine to both developing and developed countries. Today, a piece of positive news came that the United States pledges to India its support. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said "Our hearts go out to the Indian people in the midst of the horrific Covid-19 outbreak. We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India's healthcare heroes". This is a time when people...

New Education Policy recently published in India allowed foreign universities to open their campuses in India. Would this policy enhance cooperation with foreign universities and increase the standards of education and help in developing a higher education hub in India . New Education Policy 2020 allowing foreign universities to set up their campuses in India, it may change the dynamics of higher education in India. It would save significant amounts of Indian foreign exchange and, over time, also become a source of foreign exchange earnings if overseas students choose to study in India.  Recent data  Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) estimates that 10.9 million Indian students are studying in foreign universities. MEA also estimated that the average 200,000 to 300,000 fresh students go abroad every year. India is the second-largest source of overseas students in the world after China.  Indian students spend between $7 billion and $12 billion a year on tuition, boarding, ...

The Chinese have continuously deceived India in the name of peace and trade. In times of crisis, the Chinese government and its military have succeeded in instilling a false sense of trust in the Indian government and its agencies because of Indian desire to settle the matters peacefully. Whenever the Chinese government engaged in any negotiations with India, they were also scheming to seize Indian territories and, it has not only proven with India but also in case of Tibet and all other neighbouring countries of China. We can see in past and present all Chinese actions in a way a conspiracy towards India.  Whenever the Chinese government engaged in any negotiations with India, they were also scheming to seize Indian territories Sadly, Tibetans believed in India as they have chosen India for their guidance and protection of their cultural and territorial integrity, perhaps, India successfully protected their cultural and traditional values but have failed to free them from the clut...

During the COVID-19, medicine, health experts and industry might consider systematic changes. Although doctors who are treating through audio/video for a long time, the way the physical distancing has become part of our life, its scope has increased. Globally Virtual consultations are increasing,   the market will expand to 158 million sessions in 2020 The Deloitte recently compiled a report and highlighted that one in six doctor visits’ are now virtual. Tractica in the United States of America reported that the extent of virtual video consultations across the globe is increasing. Starting 19.7 million consultations in 2014 and Tractica forecasted that the market will expand to 158 million sessions in 2020. At the time COVID-19, patient or service user's safety is at risk and infection risk could be avoided if video consultations are substituted for face-to-face consultations.  In the Lancet ranking of countries around the world in the availability of healthcare facilities, In...

Gandhi's Peaceful Protest in 1934 and Violent Protest in 2020  The mass gathering at a time of COVID19 epidemic, looting, breaking windows, burning property, and stealing goods in the name of humanity in major American cities is equally disturbing as the inhuman killing of George Floyd. The peace-loving and law-abiding citizens can not support this lawlessness. The institutional racial discrimination is a menace and world need to have a priority in eradicating it.  The importance of Gandhian non-violence is increasing day by day. These days even superpowers feel insecure, the universal presence of injustice, terrorism, religious fanatism makes people realise that powerful states are failing to their fundamental duty to protect their citizens.  Gandhi's non-violence tool become a mass movement which defeated powerful colonial powers that liberated millions This is a time we need to go back to Gandhian values, as Gandhi used non-violence as a powerful tool at individual and...

Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that India will be sending humans into space by December 2021. The ISRO Chairman K.K. Sivan said that ISRO's plan to make Chandrayaan-2 'lander' Vikram a 'soft landing' on the lunar surface could not be completed, but it would not have any impact on the 'Gaganyaan' mission. He said that the orbiter of Chandrayaan-2 will give data for seven and a half years. Mr Sivan further said that all technologies of lunar mission proved accurate except soft landings.   India will be the fourth country in the world to do so. So far, only America, Russia and China have succeeded in sending their manned spacecraft to space. Three Indians have gone into space. In 1984, Rakesh Sharma went to space with the help of Soviet Russia. Apart from this, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita William of India have also illuminated the name of India in this area. According to ISRO's plan, a Gaganyaan with a weight of 7 tons, 7 me...