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In a plush, tree-lined bylane of Alwarpet, in a neighbourhood accustomed to buttery croissants and French- pressed coffee, sits a little corner mess where you can have unlimited portions of rice, dried fish sambal, meen kuzhambu, chicken curry, rasam, sambar, kootu and poriyal for just ₹160. At lunch on a heat-stricken weekday, all five tables under a quietly humming AC are full. “It is heartening to see walk-ins from every demographic: from security guards to executives in huge SUVs,” says 30-year-old Vikram Reddy, one of the four entrepreneurs behind Kaaram Karaikudi Mess. He pauses mid-conversation to bid adieu to an elderly guest with a cane, being helped out gently by a young companion — the duo has been a regular ever since the two-week-old restaurant opened. Repeat customers — and the patronage of established chefs and some celebrities — are Vikram’s proof that he was right in his basic business premise: “Everyone misses simple traditional food, and wants to eat it in … [Read more...] about Chennai’s young restaurateurs celebrate street food and home-style meals

The statement issued by Sri Lanka’s newly appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was nothing short of an intimation, nay confirmation, of the apocalyptic economic crisis that the island nation confronts. The numbers thrown by Mr Wickremesinghe are self-explanatory of the mess that he will need to clean up to put Sri Lanka back on track. Government revenues cover only 40 per cent of the expenditure being incurred. The fiscal deficit is around 13 per cent of GDP. The foreign exchange reserves are virtually non-existent. According to Wickremesinghe, “It is a challenge for the treasury to find USD 1 million.” Petrol stocks are down to just one day. Sri Lanka is looking at power cuts of around 15 hours a day because a quarter of the electricity is produced from oil which the government has no money to buy. There are huge shortages of medicines. Shortages of virtually every other commodity, including food, are inescapable. With the government being “compelled to print money” to pay … [Read more...] about India Must Lead Quad Effort to Pull Out Sri Lanka from Clutches of China’s Debt Trap Diplomacy

Amid the Russia-Ukraine war and all the ruckus about Russian energy imports, the West is emerging as a champion in doublespeak. Even as it wished for India to not buy Russian oil at a discount, the West has vacillated on the issue of buying Russian energy itself, leading to an increase in imports. The European Union is in a particularly hypocritical position, divided by Russia’s ‘blackmailing’ tactics. Not only is it far from weaning off Russian energy imports, but the EU is also on its way to complying with Russia’s ruble payment condition. If media headlines are anything to go by, if at one moment the EU is imposing sanctions on Russian gas imports so as to not bankroll Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in the next moment, it is scrambling to circumvent the same sanctions and bankroll Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, the bloc is divided over how far its boycott of Russian gas can go and Putin’s “pay in ruble” curveball did the rest of the damage. But after hoodwinking EU countries … [Read more...] about Putin is Winning the Energy War as Europe’s Paradoxical Drama on Russian Gas Imports Rages on

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm moved Wednesday to jump-start plans for the 27-nation bloc to abandon Russian energy amid the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, proposing a nearly 300 billion-euro ($315 billion) package that includes more efficient use of fuels and faster rollout of renewable power. The European Commission’s investment initiative is meant to help the 27 EU countries start weaning themselves off Russian fossil fuels this year. The goal is to deprive Russia, the EU’s main supplier of oil, natural gas and coal, of tens of billions in revenue and strengthen EU climate policies. “We are taking our ambition to yet another level to make sure that we become independent from Russian fossil fuels as quickly as possible,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels when announcing the package, dubbed REPowerEU. With no end in sight to Russia’s war in Ukraine and European energy security shaken, the EU is rushing to align its geopolitical … [Read more...] about EU rushes out $300 billion roadmap to ditch Russian energy

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Four European Union countries plan to build North Sea wind farms capable of producing at least 150 gigawatts of energy by 2050 to help cut carbon emissions that cause climate change, Danish media reported Wednesday. Under the plan, wind turbines would be raised off the coasts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, daily Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten said. The project would mean a tenfold increase in the EU's current offshore wind capacity. “The North Sea can do a lot," Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen told the newspaper, adding the close cooperation between the four EU nations "must start now.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo are scheduled to attend a North Sea Summit on Wednesday in Esbjerg, 260 … [Read more...] about Reports: 4 European nations to build North Sea wind farms

After inflation hit a 40-year high of 9 per cent today, Conservative MPs, including some ministers, are again pointing the finger of blame at the Bank of England and its governor Andrew Bailey for raising interest rates too slowly. Worryingly, some senior Tories are even raising the question of whether the Bank should lose its operational independence on monetary policy,  threatening the 25-year consensus since Gordon Brown ceded the politicians’ control of interest rates to the Bank. Liam Fox, the former cabinet minister, argues the Bank should stick to its “day job” of hitting the government’s 2 per cent inflation target, rather than worrying about political matters such as climate change (though Rishi Sunak added that to the Bank’s mandate last year). Fox said : “There is a distinct feeling that those who should be protecting us from the debasement of our currency, the erosion of our earnings and the devaluation of our savings, have had their minds too much … [Read more...] about Giving the government control over interest rates would be a disaster

The U.S. has now reached the once unthinkable toll of 1 million deaths from COVID-19 . How could this happen in the wealthiest country in the world? In a word, because of poverty—and the policy choices that perpetuate it. Our task now is to make different choices. Americans across the country have suffered during this pandemic. But new research by the Poor People's Campaign strongly suggests the poor and low-income have suffered the most. Even controlling for vaccination rates, they found that COVID-19 death rates in poorer U.S. counties were nearly double those in wealthier counties. During the deadliest phases of the pandemic, it rose to five times as many. White Americans still make up the largest share of America's poor and those who've died from COVID-19. But Black, Hispanic and Indigenous Americans are significantly overrepresented in America's poorest counties, and COVID-19 casualty rates run significantly higher for many communities of color. Poor Americans are … [Read more...] about One million COVID-19 deaths is a searing indictment of inequality in America | Opinion

Why can millions of hairs grow from our heads, and yet our palms and the soles of our feet are as bare as anything? It all comes down to a special molecule in our bodies, according to the scientists who have found it. The hairless regions of our skin secrete a special type of molecule known as an inhibitor. This particular one is a protein named Dickkopf 2 (DKK2). These effectively brick-up the WNT pathway, which is in charge of triggering hair growth in our bodies. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine believe certain animals have evolved to produce DKK2 in certain parts of their bodies, depending on what will best help different creatures to survive. "In this study, we've shown the skin in hairless regions naturally produces an inhibitor that stops WNT from doing its job," Professor Sarah E. Millar, an author of the study published in the journal Cell Reports , commented. Millar, who is a professor in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania … [Read more...] about Why does hair grow in some places and not others? Scientists have a new answer

Electric vehicle charging station operator Electrify America has entered into a 15-year virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with Terra-Gen. The contract makes Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, is the largest open network in North America to enter into a VPPA. The agreement will see the parties build a solar photovoltaic renewable energy generation project in San Bernardino County, California. The deal may be extended at the option of Terra-Gen to include a co-located battery energy storage system that would be designed to store energy during lower requirement times, then deliver it to the grid at a later time. According to the California Energy Commissions, solar PV and solar thermal power plants produced 29,450 Gita watt-hours (GWh) of energy in 2021. This was 15.42 percent of California's in-state generation portfolio. There were 771 operation solar power plants tabulated for that year, with an installed capacity of about 14,060 MW. The project, called … [Read more...] about A new plan allows electric vehicles to charge using 100% renewable energy

In June last year, Madkam Hidme from Gumpad village in the dense forests of Sukma in South Chhattisgarh, was raped and killed, allegedly by security forces. She was 23. The governing authorities of Bastar celebrated Madkam’s death, calling it the killing of a hardcore Maoist. For the people of Gumpad, this compounded the tragedy. Who could they turn to for justice? They sent a message to Soni Sori, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in Bastar. Soni quickly launched and led a sustained public campaign to secure justice for Madkam’s family. The case was taken to the Chhattisgarh High Court, which ordered the exhuming of the woman’s body for a second autopsy and, subsequently, a judicial probe. Soni did not stop there. She launched a ‘tiranga yatra’ (tricolour march) from Dantewada to Gumpad — part of the Red Corridor — and hoisted the national flag on Independence Day 2016, something even heavily armed security forces have been unable to do in the past years. How did this former … [Read more...] about My method is a mix of Gandhi and Bhagat Singh: Soni Sori