Naresh Kumar Vaid, Director , Vaids ICS

THE latest discovery, a metatarsal of Australopithecus afarensis at Hadar, Ethiopia reported in the Science (Feb 11, 2011) by Carl Ward et al . of University of Missouri, goes a long way in enlightening us about evolution of erect posture. AUSTRALOPITHECUS ( Australo = Southern , Pithecus = ape), first discovered in South Africa by Ramond Dart in 1924, is considered the first hominid ancestor of modern man, the Homo sapiens . Many species of Australopithecus are known today but the species that generated interest in human evolution the most is Australopithecus afarensis . The poster girl of the species is Lucy, discovered by Johnson in 1974 is the oldest (3.2 million year old) almost complete fossil of a hominid ancestor. Lucy's fossils account for 40% of her bones and almost 80% of her body but foot bones were conspicuous in their absence. BEFORE the present discovery, the bio-mechanical researches of the last decade concluded that Australopithecus had a shuffling shifting ...

THESE days are the most happening in terms of international events but here I intend to be US-centric. We are witnessing the US in its true colours THE first relates to Tri Valley fiasco. More than two thousand students, a large number from India were duped by an unscrupulous university in the US and the students have been declared persona non grata their stay in US declared illegal and about a score of them radio tagged more than three weeks ago. The attitude and role of Indian authorities, including foreign minister SM Krishna, is highly deplorable. They did nothing to comfort our student. The US authorities claim that the students knew the antecedents of the university and yet they joined it. The students have suffered in tree ways : duped by agents of the university, fooled by the university and coerced by the US laws. This raises several questions : 1. Had US authorities behaved with students in the same manner if any of them were related to any minister of UPA or a Congress le...

THESE days we are witnessing dummy wrestling (Noora Kushti ) between the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister on the one hand and National Advisory Council (super cabinet) headed by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi over Food Security Bill. While the NAC is for providing this security in terms of cheap wheat, rice and millet to almost 90% of rural India and almost 50% of urban India, the Cabinet is dead against it as it will inflate subsidies by almost 40,000 crore rupees. The Rangarajan committee, constituted be the government to go into the recommendations of NAC, is against many of its recommendations including general category (or APL) in the list of beneficiaries. THERE is also discord between the two with respect to the figures of total population, off take, procurement and the total cost involved. NAC opines that not more than 90% of beneficiaries will avail of this right while Rangarajan has calculated on the basis of 100% usage. MEANWHILE, M. S. Swaminathan (in HT, today) has strongly advoca...