New sexual assault directives

In July 2020, the Madhya Pradesh High Court granted bail to a rape accused. The conditions of his bail: The victim had to tie a rakhi on him, and he had to pay her a certain sum of money. The Supreme Court has overturned that ruling: “Using rakhi-tying as a condition for bail transforms a molester into a brother by a judicial mandate.” And it issued a series of directives to lower courts—mainly aimed at preventing other such instances of gross misogyny. The following claims were deemed irrelevant to all future bail applications:

• The survivor had in the past consented to such or similar acts.
• She had behaved promiscuously.
• She provoked the sexual assault by her acts or clothing.
• She had behaved in a manner unbecoming of a chaste “Indian” woman.
• She brought the situation upon herself by her behaviour.

The Court also explicitly prohibited imposing conditions that implicitly condoned the actions of the accused. The Telegraph has those details.

Cadbury India is corrupt?

The Central Bureau of Investigation has accused Cadbury India of corruption and misrepresentation of facts to fraudulently avail tax benefits amounting to Rs 241 crore in Himachal Pradesh—where its unit manufactures 5 Star bars and Gems. 

“For availing the same, some members of the executive board of the company, along with key managers, collectively decided to manipulate records, engage intermediaries to route bribes and cover up all the evidence that had surfaced during the internal investigation.”

For some reason, our inner child feels betrayed. (NDTV)

‘Professor’ Nita Ambani is unwelcome

Students at Banaras Hindu University are up in arms over news that Nita Ambani has been invited to become a visiting professor at the Centre for Women’s Studies and Development. A senior faculty member confirmed the invitation, but now the university insists there has been no official order issued on the matter. And Nita-bhabhi’s spokesperson denies receiving any such invite—calling it fake news. The most amusing part of this story: the faculty is also considering conferring similar honours on Priti Adani, and Usha Mittal (of Lakshmi Mittal fame). BHU, home to the world’s most exclusive First Billionaire Wives Club.  (The Wire)

In other college-related news: Mint Lounge has the must-read story on Rajendra College in Bihar which has been thrown into turmoil because a bunch of faculty members broke into an impromptu, innocent jig—when pressed by students at the end of a college dinner. Now, a number of them have been suspended, and the vice chancellor is under investigation. This is a fascinating story about politics, culture clash and corruption in small town India. You can see the inoffensive clip that caused the controversy below:

The great pandemic: A quick update

• India numbers are up. The daily new cases hit 40,000 yesterday—the highest in ten months. The worst hit: Maharashtra with 25,883 new cases, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic! A distant second: Punjab (2,369).
• Meanwhile, lack of planning is leading to vaccine wastage across the country. The national average is 6.5%—but soaring way past that mark are Telangana (17.6%), Andhra Pradesh (11.6%) and Uttar Pradesh (9.4%).

• The European Medicines Agency has reviewed the Oxford vaccine, and declared it safe to use. As a result, all EU nations will resume rolling out the vaccine. A related good read: Science magazine looks at the alarming and unusual blood clotting that raised alarm about the vaccine. PS: it's also been seen in people who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
• Tanzania’s president John Magufuli has died after a mysterious two week absence from public life. And everyone’s convinced that the Covid-denying leaders finally succumbed to the disease. The Guardian has this strange story.
• A woman—who received the first jab of the Moderna vaccine during pregnancy—has given birth to the first baby born with Covid antibodies.
• In the US, the California and UK variants are in a race to determine which will emerge as the dominant one. Needless to say, there are no real winners here, but if you’re placing bets, the local variant is 20% more transmissible.
• Speaking of variants, 400 people in India have been infected so far with the three ‘variants of concern’—UK, South Africa and Brazil.
• New research shows that the elderly are more prone to being infected a second time. People under age 65 are about 80% protected from reinfection, but that number drops to 47% for the 65-plus. Also: the big reason why they need to be vaccinated asap. 
• Donald Trump has encouraged his supporters to take the vaccine: “I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly. It's a great vaccine, it's a safe vaccine and it's something that works.” This marks a rare departure from the usual insanity.
• Speaking of US politicians, American Airlines is investigating John Kerry who was spotted temporarily without his mask. He’s calling it “momentary.” 

Doctors replicate start of life

In a breakthrough achievement, scientists have created “hollow balls of cells that closely resemble embryos at the stage when they usually implant in the womb.” The research will offer critical knowledge of early human development—which is usually hidden within a woman’s body—and help prevent birth defects, miscarriages and other fertility problems. And while these “first complete models of a human embryo” will never produce a viable foetus, it is expected to raise moral and ethical unease, experts say:

"This work is absolutely unnerving for many people because it really challenges our tidy categories of what life is and when life begins. This is what I call the biological-metaphysical time machine."

NPR has this must-read story. Also, the model looks like this:

Four cool animal things

Gamestop redditors ❤️ gorillas: The crazy folks who drove up the stock of an offline games retailer (explained here) are in the news for a very sane and lovely reason: saving gorillas. It all started when one user posted an “adoption certificate”—the kind you get when you donate money to an NGO to help pay expenses for an animal—for a gorilla named Urungano, and listed GameStop as its sponsor. It inspired a flood of similar donations, and wildlife organisations have since received $350,000. FYI: Below is baby Urungano who kicked off the goodness. (BBC News)

Get ready for Brood X: The United States is bracing for a tsunami of cicadas—who have been living underground for 17 years: “They're in the dark, they're feeding on roots⁠, just living their best lives until the time is right.” Billions of these insects—last seen in 2004—will emerge in a few weeks. So what are cicadas like? Fairfax County Parks sums it up: “They are harmless. They are loud. They are high in protein, if you're into that. They don't social distance.” NBC News has more. FYI: if you’re into that kind of thing and in the neighbourhood, you can even take a Cicada Safari. Also, it looks like this:

Seaweed for bovines: A new study shows that adding small quantities of seaweed to a cow’s diet actually reduces its methane emissions (burps and farts) by 82%! Why this matters: methane is a major greenhouse gas that is 30X more effective than carbon dioxide in trapping heat—and hence a big cause of climate change. (The Guardian)

Hello, Salmon! Ok, this isn’t really an animal thing but still very fun: Several Taiwanese people have changed their names to include the Chinese characters for “salmon” (鮭魚). The reason: it will get them free khana at a well-known conveyor belt sushi restaurant. The promotion also sparked alarm in some quarters:

“The incident prompted the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to remind the public on Wednesday (March 17) that a person can only change their name three times and that a miscalculation will result in the name becoming permanent.”

Maybe someone should tell the college student who changed her name to “Salmon Donburi Guo” (郭鮭魚丼飯). (Taiwan News)