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Despite the arrest of one more person last week in connection with the August 20, 2013 killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, questions remain about the manner in which the case is being handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation. On August 18, the CBI arrested Sachin Andhure of Aurangabad and identified Continue reading The Bombay high court criticised the central and state agencies probing the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, chiding the slow progress despite the country being in a “tragic phase”. Coming down heavily on Central and state agencies probing the killings of rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, the Continue reading Aurangabad/Mumbai:Former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Sunday in connection with the seizure of crude bombs and weapons from different parts of the state between August 9 and 11, an ATS official said. Pangarkar was arrested under the Explosives Act, the Explosive Substances Act and Continue reading As similarities between the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Communist leader Govind Pansare in Maharashtra, progressive thinker M.M. Kalburgi in Karnataka, and Tuesdays murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh are being discussed, details have emerged that not only journalists, but even an investigating officer probing the Dabholkar murder case is being watched. Continue reading Exactly five years ago, on August 20, 2013, Narendra Dabholkar, Maharashtras best known and most vocal anti-superstition activist and rationalist, was shot dead in Pune. In February 2015, Govind Pansare, another rationalist from the same state, was killed in almost identical fashion. In August that year, Prof M M Kalburgi, former Vice-Chancellor of Continue reading Two apparently unrelated yet deeply interconnected events of July invite serious reflection. One belongs to an unending story of crime, the other a not-so-interesting bureaucratic muddle. One will continue to fetch headlines for long and the other will survive, if it does at all, in footnotes for researchers. Yet, both are of a Continue reading A studypublished in the journalNeuropsychologiahas shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and opennessa psychology term that describes Continue reading The All Pervading Superstition Our country is steeped in superstition. We imbibe too many dos and donts since our childhood, almost all of them irrational and we are not even aware of it. We get up in the morning thinking of what day it is. If it happens to be Continue reading On Friday, after unusually intense rainfall caused Kerala to be inundated by worst floods it had experienced in a century, a tweet by newly appointed Reserve Bank of India board member S Gurumurthy sparked horror. The co-convenor of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch suggested that the disaster may have been a manifestation of the Continue reading A ping on my phone told me that I had been added to the NSTD Mumbai Whatsapp group. NSTD? National Scientific Temper Day, 20 August, as I soon figured out. Id never heard of it before, so I thought Id do a quick check: 20August isSadhbhavana Divas(connected to Rajiv Gandhi) andAkshay Urja Divas(for Continue reading Thousands of scientists, academics and students staged a March for Science in August 2017 and April 2018 all over India. Inspired by a global movement, these marches were also a protest against the growing evidence of a lack of respect for science in the political discourse in recent years. This years Continue reading Should the Indian media pay as much attention as it does to our politicians pseudoscientific claims?The Printhad posed this question to me recently making an apparent reference to the debate between those who say we should simply focus on good science and reinforce its traits and those who believe bad science is an Continue reading |