Ranvir Nayar, Author at Media India Group

Hurun Global Rich List & LSE: Inequality shoots up in pandemic

March 3, 2021

The year 2020 was disastrous for the global economy as the GDP in practically every country collapsed by record numbers mainly due to the lockdowns that were imposed across the globe. Close to 500 million jobs may have been lost and hundreds of millions pushed into poverty. Howev...

Covid-19 increases hazards of biomedical waste

March 1, 2021

Even though the world seems to have begun a pushback against the Covid-19 pandemic with the launch of intensive vaccination drives in several countries, the battle is far from won. And even when humanity conquers the virus, which it must and will, the pandemic would have left sev...

Circular economy goes around in circles

February 27, 2021

Every decade or so, roughly, corporate boardrooms come up with new buzzwords that are meant to define not just how the world would evolve and what the world needs, but also, more crucially how they are becoming or already have become very responsible corporate citizens despite al...

Islamogauchisme: French education minister fans Islamophobia

February 26, 2021

At first appearance, the drama could very well be playing out in India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Ruling party members and none less than the education minister accuses campuses across the nation, especially the most prestigious ones, of being ‘infested’ by schola...

Lyon school canteens going vegetarian: The meat of the matter

February 23, 2021

Barely back in France from a visit to India, French ecological transition minister Barbara Pompili plunged headlong into one of the hottest discussions going on across France today – meatless meals in school canteens. “I regret a lot that on this issue we are falling into a p...

Can India feel ripples of British Supreme Court ruling on Uber

February 21, 2021

Ride hailing app Uber faces an existential challenge in the United Kingdom following a landmark order by the Supreme Court which upheld the orders of lower courts that its drivers were its employees, not independent contractors as the company calls them. The court said as the wor...

After New START extension, time for Russia & US to look at other arms

February 20, 2021

The Doomsday Clock ought to be set back, for the first time in several years, when the time for its review comes at the end of 2021, much to the relief of watchers of nuclear weapons scenario globally. The clock is maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, an association o...

Loi Separatisme: French society sharply divided over controversial law passed by National Assembly

February 18, 2021

With a comfortable majority, 351 votings for, 151 against and 65 absentees, Loi Separatisme, one of the most controversial laws to have been proposed by the French government in years was passed by the Assemblée Nationale in a vote on Tuesday (February 16th) night. The bill will...

UK court ruling on Shell good news for India

February 16, 2021

Though it is not directly connected, a ruling by the United Kingdom Supreme Court last week holding petroleum giant Royal Dutch Shell responsible for the actions of its subsidiary in Nigeria could open a pandora’s box for subsidiaries of hundreds of large multinationals who hav...

Ladakh peace deal: Enter the Dragon

February 13, 2021

A satisfactory outcome of any negotiation is when you end up with more than what you had before, or the other party loses more than you do. Maybe it is time that the powers that be in Delhi learnt the art of negotiations again and preferably from the Chinese who seem to best thei...

Privatisation is not the magic pill

February 11, 2021

In her budget speech on February 1, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman outlined the government’s ambitious plans for privatisation, both in the current year as well as a government policy. She said that the government will privatise all public sector enterprises, other t...

World Wetlands Day: Construction equals destruction

February 8, 2021

Mumbai Coastal Road and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train. Two of the most high-profile and highly controversial projects in Mumbai have one thing in common, besides extra-large budgets. Both pose severe threat to the bustling metropolis’ once thriving wetlands, which are now f...