Kesavan Rajasekharan Nayar
Countercurrents.org
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Past articles by Kesavan:
The ‘Great Stink’ : Waste Disposal And Sanitary Behaviour Of People In Kerala| Countercurrents
One of the serious problems which became explicitly visible during post-COVID days is that of such wastes. Huge quantity of wastes are piling up in common → Read More
The Myth of Hardness: Public Sciences and Jugglery
The present world is dominated by a scientific world view which places undue focus on practicality mainly arising out of a market-oriented economic philosophy. Technological advancements have definitely helped the present society in many ways especially communication sector, education, health, travel etc. Of course, in this ‘new world’, basic sciences have become marginal and this has tremendous… → Read More
Life after 2020: Need for a new vision on health
A futuristic vision was very much evident in India at different points of time starting with the Bhore committee report. At the international context, a futuristic orientation in health and wellbeing was discernible from an official and institutional framework related to proclamation of goals, firstly the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), followed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).… → Read More
Current COVIDIAN trends and Popular Epidemiology
A cursory observation and popular perceptions reveal a ‘fatigue’ with respect to the current trends. In plain language, people are fed-up with the unusual control on their lives and this is especially severe among young people and the children. The fatigued also include parents who have to manage the dichotomy with respect to professional and personal lives with extra efforts[Read More...] → Read More
Slower than the snail: Health care policy process and reforms in India
We have heard about ‘at a snail’s pace’ which normally describes slow action or movement especially when we think that doing it faster would be much more better. These days snails move faster than the State. It is possible to come to this conclusion even before the introduction if we assess the way our health system functions. We have a[Read More...] → Read More
Tuberculosis and the Indian Poor: The present and the future
Co-Written by K Rajasekharan Nayar; Arathi P Rao; Lekha D Bhat; Anant Kumar and Parul Malik The World Health Organization has recently published the latest World Tuberculosis Report (2020) and there are many trends which are of serious concern regarding elimination of this age-old disease from the world (1). At one time, the Tuberculosis did not even spare some very[Read More...] → Read More
Knowledge society, the ‘KAP GAP’ and the way forward
Knowledge society, information society and industrial society are all interlinked concepts with a particular ideology which places undue faith on science, technology and development. The origin of the terms especially knowledge society is attributed to various scholars culminating in the description of ‘post-industrial societies’ which depend on material production as a key to growth and human… → Read More
New possibilities in pedagogy: Some meandered musings
During this pandemic period, virtuality has taken over many facets of our life and especially education although it could be a temporary phase. But the academic world may be realizing the immense potential as well as drawbacks of the virtual medium in the ‘give and take’ process of education. It is a near certainty that the hardest hit is pre-primary[Read More...] → Read More
Is Universal Health Care a ‘proxy’ for an Insurance-based selective health care to the people?
According to WHO, “Universal Health Care (UHC) means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. It includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. UHC does not mean free coverage for all possible health interventions,… → Read More
Can India sustain a safe sanitary culture?
People wear masks and use handwash to keep the virus away as a result of fear of infection. One may also find this new behaviour as a formality among many persons and as a result of legalities. And this is happening in a society which is least concerned about sanitary practices. In this new sanitary culture, the prominent internalised attitude[Read More...] → Read More
The Disappearing collegiality in Pedagogy: The COVIDian times
The online teaching due to the lockdown is a new experience for many students in the country. It has gone through many glitches due to lack of facilities, lack of expertise among teachers, and lack of exposure to the new medium devoid of collegiality, lack of interpersonal exchanges that people are used to in class room teaching. This has resulted[Read More...] → Read More
COVID and the World of Probabilities
The world is still examining probabilities and there are many of them. We are yet to decide on the confidence intervals of many of the Corona scenarios whether it is 99 or 95 percent confidence or even less. But one thing is sure, the virus measuring 80 billionths of a meter in diameter could humble humans beyond any words and[Read More...] → Read More
Unknown virus behaviour, an unsteady human behaviour and community masking: A public health challenge
Co-authored by K Rajasekharan Nayar, Anant Kumar, Arathi P Rao, and Lekha D. Bhat When unknown entities affect humans, they become unsteady especially during crucial times. This leads to ambiguous decision-making with respect to a number of key issues and factors. What happened when COVID-19 struck the world in the form of a pandemic is not different. A number of[Read More...] → Read More
Vaccine development and immunity for COVID-19: Some thoughts and doubts
Co-Written by K. Rajasekharan Nayar and Arathi P. Rao The possibility of developing vaccines and drugs against COVID-19 is being closely watched by the world. The journal ‘Nature’ reports that there are about 115 vaccine development initiatives in the world of which 78 are confirmed as active and 37 are unconfirmed and of the 78 confirmed active projects, 73 are[Read More...] → Read More
Disease control: A post-COVID scenario in Kerala
Co-Written by K Rajasekharan Nayar, Bindhya Vijayan & Muhammed Shaffi The proactive strategies adopted by the Government of Kerala for controlling the COVID 19 pandemic have been appreciated world-wide. The strict enforcement of the age-old strategies and the almost near compliance by the people are exemplary. These may help in sailing through the pandemic to the next stage. Unfortunately,… → Read More
A Friendly Note on the virus – Countercurrents
Please do not think that this is a note which supports the virus in any way but it is examining the behaviour of the virus differently in different contexts and the changes or status quo that it brought on humans. Various hypotheses are already going around regarding the virus which actually made the writing of this note a bit cumbersome[Read More...] → Read More
The Science, Arts and Politics of COVID – Countercurrents
Co-Written by K Rajasekharan Nayar, Muhammed Shaffi & Anant Kumar When human beings face uncertainties, they invent justifications to overcome the anxieties that accompany them. The COVID pandemic is especially characterized by such a phenomenon which affected not just ordinary people but even the scientists and governments. The science of the infection played a major role in shaping our… → Read More
The ‘silent spring’ again: Where have all the people gone? – Countercurrents
In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote the book named ‘Silent Spring’ which influenced lots of academics and environmentalists also leading to environmental movements in the US and elsewhere against human onslaughts on nature. It appeared a romantic view on environment but highlighted the negative impacts of the pesticide use in agriculture and generated debates especially when the world was trying… → Read More
Jumping in to conclusions on COVID: People, State and the Scientists – Countercurrents
Unusual behavioural or emotional responses are normally expressed when abnormal situations like emergencies or tragedies happen in our society. Some try to justify such situations by attributing them to supernatural powers, our own past conduct, or even past life. But in the case of the present pandemic, we have sometimes gone to the extreme- a new syndrome, a pandemic of[Read More...] → Read More