Random thoughts on science, technology, culture, education, research, and hydrology. Views are personal.
Mumbai
Joined October 2020
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Basudev Biswal retweeted
Shocked and horrified by the brazen threats to @ajeetbharti from a public platform. To single him out for his Brahmin identity and then to threaten to skin him alive, is unacceptable. The state must provide him adequate security immediately.
Stay safe, Ajeet. We stand with you.
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Since the 1999 Super Cyclone, #Odisha has braved nature’s fury with courage and conviction, driven by the sole principle-every life is precious. #Odisha’s transformation from vulnerability to global leadership in disaster management is not just about systems, it is the unwavering focus on people, planning and purpose which turned Odisha from vulnerability into a beacon of resilience. On #InternationalDayForDisasterRiskReduction, let’s pledge to further bolster the famed resilience and readiness to protect every precious life.
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Team Bharat supports the IIT Bombay professor who was wrongfully accused of caste biased.
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Greek philosophy is downstream of Indian philosophy, transhipped through Phoenician ports.
Around 950 BC, Hiram of Tyre and Solomon of Israel signed a treaty to send joint fleets down the Red Sea to the Gujarat coast, and for a full century the ships ran on a three-year cycle. Phoenician crews wintered in India for months waiting for monsoon winds to change. Their trading counterparts were Jain merchants, already teaching atomism, impermanence and that every living thing has a soul.
Ships returning to Sidon carried gold, ivory, peacocks, cinnamon and Indian ideas. Two generations later Kanada was teaching atomism at Dwarka on the Gujarat coast, and by the fifth century BC Leucippus was teaching it in Miletus, on the Ionian one. Democritus, who worked the theory out in detail, is recorded by Diogenes Laertius as having "made acquaintance with the Gymnosophists in India."
Greek philosophers who followed, worked in the same ports where the Phoenician ships berthed. Thales, born to a Phoenician family in Miletus, taught that the world was made of water and floated on it in the manner of a ship. Anaximander taught that air was the breath that animates each life, close to the Upanishadic vayu and prana. By the fifth century BC the animal and human sacrifice that filled Homer’s epics had gone silent in mainland Greece and the doctrine that stopped it had travelled on Phoenician ships from a coast where it had already stopped.
Textbooks call the coincidence a Greek Miracle. Historians should talk of cause and effect - not miracles.
Link to full Substack essay with sources in the replies below.
Basudev Biswal retweeted
It's time for judicial review of the amendments made in 2018 to SC/ST Atrocities Act which removed the safeguards laid down by the Supreme Court to check its rampant misuse.The Amendments have made it worse. Every affected party must prefer a constitutional challenge to the Act.
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Irrespective of whether you agree or disagree with @ajeetbharti ; it is our duty to stand by him.
We have figured out the govt is 'match fixing' with certain groups who were "allowed to protest;" they did not face FIRs when they beat up Delhi Police, two Union Ministers went on thier knees and made this group a star & then the same group members were "conveniently attacked" in Rajasthan on the very day GC students & youngsters were protesting at Jantar Mantar Delhi to divert attention from the RHA andolan.
Those who did violence againt our cops faced no charges, but Ajeet Bharati has an FIR!
Are we Fools! It is our duty to stand up to this bullying !
Basudev Biswal retweeted
चंद्रशेखर आज़ाद की माँ शाहजहांपुर की सड़कों पर भीख मांगते हुए मर गईं क्योंकि कुछ कांग्रेसी ने उन्हें गद्दार की माँ कहा था। शाहजहांपुर में कुछ लोग यह भी दावा करते हैं कि नेहरू ने आज़ाद पर शूटआउट की साज़िश रची थी।
एक भारतीय, सोभा सिंह (मशहूर लेखक खुशवंत सिंह के पिता) भगत सिंह के खिलाफ ब्रिटिश कोर्ट में आईविटनेस के तौर पर खड़े हुए, जिसकी वजह से भगत सिंह को फांसी हो गई। बाद में अंग्रेजों ने सोभा सिंह को 'सर' टाइटल से सम्मानित किया। दिल्ली में उनके नाम पर सचमुच कई एकड़ ज़मीन हो गई।
करण थापर और रोमिला थापर के दादा कुंज बिहारी थापर ने रिटायरमेंट के बाद जलियांवाला बाग हत्याकांड के मास्टरमाइंड माइकल ओ'डायर के लिए 1.75 लाख रुपये जमा किए थे। उन्हें दीवान बहादुर के टाइटल से सम्मानित किया गया और उनकी वफ़ादारी के लिए 1920 में उन्हें ऑर्डर ऑफ़ द ब्रिटिश एम्पायर (MBE) का मेंबर बनाया गया।
चिमनलाल हरिलाल सीतलवाड़, सिविल राइट्स एक्टिविस्ट और जर्नलिस्ट तीस्ता सीतलवाड़ के परदादा थे। वह एक बैरिस्टर थे और हंटर कमीशन में थे जिसने जलियांवाला बाग हत्याकांड के लिए माइकल ड्वायर को क्लीन चिट दी थी।
अगर बहादुरी की 10,000 कहानियाँ हैं तो धोखे की भी उतनी ही कहानियाँ हैं।
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Thank you for making the case for a stronger FCRA regime. This, right here, is the real #DeepState.
Christians have been in India since St. Thomas the Apostle traveled to the Malabar Coast just decades after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But despite this long Christian history, India’s Parliament is considering amending Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment (FCRA) rules to permit government takeovers of churches and religious charities.
This is a clear attack against Christians. If this bill proceeds in this way, it would be a point of major concern in our bilateral relationship with India.
Basudev Biswal retweeted
They won't learn. Ever. They will continue to sow the seeds for balkanization of this country through more atrocity literature and reservations, and leave it to future generations to clean up the mess. By which time it will be too late.
"BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Tuesday claimed that Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke would contest elections on a Bhim Army ticket in the future, as every mass movement produces political leaders"
"This movement, however, still considers Prime Minister Narendra Modi its leader and looks to him for solving its issues, said the MP from Godda in Jharkhand"
Read more at: deccanherald.com/india/abhij…
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Anthropic's latest models available worldwide. In other words, Chinese open source models posed a serious enough threat to market share.
In a different context, an Indian customer of some of our products told me recently "A big Microsoft Office license renewal came up and they hiked the price drastically. We told them we are looking at the Zoho office suite and they dropped the price by 90%" - he thanked me for saving them big money, even without buying our office suite. If you are facing renewal of Microsoft Office license, I suggest you mention Zoho.
Some history: Microsoft is a convicted monoplist by a US Federal Court (April 2000) and the monopoly finding but not the suggested remedy was upheld by the U.S Court of Appeals (DC circuit) in 2001. Microsoft has a long illustrious history of milking the customer dry (see the AI link below for details).
Competition is always important. The fact that American AI models have serious competition from China is important for India and other countries.
Finally, I am now confident that India will catch up in AI models. There is no reason to be despondent. There are multiple efforts going on in academia and industry and the cost to train AI models is starting to fall. Recently I met people from the BharatGen team (IIT Bombay) and they are making great progress. I will write more about BharatGen soon.
Claude Fable 5 will be available again globally tomorrow.
After a series of productive conversations with the US government, we're redeploying the model with a new set of classifiers to target and block more cybersecurity tasks. In the near term, some routine tasks like coding and debugging will fall back to Opus 4.8. We’ll continue to refine these classifiers over the coming weeks to reduce false positives and better distinguish genuine misuse from legitimate requests.
We’ve also begun drafting a consensus framework—with Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and other Glasswing partners—for assessing the severity of AI jailbreaks and how AI developers should respond to them. We invite other industry partners and model providers to join us in this effort.
Finally, we’re scaling up our collaboration with the US government on model testing and safeguards. This will include pre-release access to models and safeguards for evaluation, information sharing on jailbreaks and misuse, and dedicated resources for joint research.
Thank you to our users for your patience, and to our partners across the government, industry, and the research community who worked alongside us to make Fable 5 available again.
Read our full blog: anthropic.com/news/redeployi…
Basudev Biswal retweeted
'Why don't you want IUML handling education ministry in Kerala?'
Well, for starters...
They celebrate Tipu Sultan. The barbarian who pillaged my home district and destroyed the Kerala School of Mathematics. The last indigenous scientific effort in India. Tipu destroyed the legacy and destiny of Kerala. The last Kerala Mathematician Sankara Varman had to flee for his life from Malabar to British Madras. Even Madhava of Sangamagrama's personal Krishna shrine was burned down and the family repaired it only a century later.
You want these guys to control the Education system of Kerala? Do you think they care about the intellectual and philosophical legacy of Kerala? No Malayali with historical literacy and self respect can forgive this cave man with a crown. But then again, Malayalis do not have literacy in things that matter most long term.
Won't be long before you see official Tipu Jayanti celebrations in Kerala. Bright future ahead! Intellectual destiny lost. And now demographic and political destiny also in free fall...
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Kharavela, who avenged Ashoka’s genocide and ended the Mauryan empire, will now be given due importance in Odisha
Odisha plans to transform the 2,200-year-old Khandagiri & Udayagiri caves, dating back to the 2nd century BCE, into a world-class heritage tourism destination. (Media reports)
A ₹100 crore proposal has been submitted for comprehensive development, including grand statues of Kalinga rulers including Mahameghavahana Kharavela.
Plans include walking parks, musical fountains, modern lighting, ramps/lifts for elderly & differently-abled visitors, an open-air amphitheater with lecture center, and dedicated heritage pathways.
To protect the heritage site, existing roads passing through the hills may be permanently closed. #Odisha
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Imagine spitting at the sun and think the spit has landed. BJP attacking India’s great son, Shri Biju Patnaik is a disgrace and an apology is due
Biju Patnaik was an Airforce pilot with Royal Indian Airforce and with Indian Airforce post Independence. When Pakistani backed tribals invaded Kashmir in Oct 1947 Indian Government organised airlift of India troops from Delhi to defend Kashmir . The airlift started morning on 27th Oct after signing of Instrument of Accession . Biju Patnaik was amongst the first set of pilots who landed their Dakota at Srinagar Airport in middle of fight without any intelligence whether the airfield was in enemy's control or still in forces control . This airlift by brave pilots of IAF helped stop the advancement of enemy and saved Kashmir
Biju Patnaik on request of PM Nehru flew to Jakarta and landed on an improvised airstrip using left-over fuel from abandoned Japanese military dumps, Patnaik took off with Indonesian political leaders such as Sutan Sjahrir and Sukarno, for a secret meeting with Nehru at New Delhi reaching India via Singapore on 24 July 1947.
During 1962 war when Sh. Biju Patnaik was CM of Orissa, PM Nehru asked him to help India setup a China monitoring Air Unit at
Charbatia Air Base near Cuttack . This Aviation Research Centre (ARC), a covert wing of the Intelligence Bureau and help with intelligence gathering against China and still functions under R&AW .
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Biju Patnaik shared a crucial partnership in strengthening India's defense, centered on the establishment of the Wheeler Island (later named Dr Kalam Missile Testing Range) missile testing facility near Balasore In 1993, then-Odisha CM Patnaik allotted the land to DRDO on the condition that Kalam would develop advanced missiles there to safeguard India. Patnaik's decision to hand over the land for free to the DRDO was based on his visionary desire to ensure India was robust against external threats. The island became the crucial site for testing major Indian missiles like Agni ,Akash Prithvi, Brahmos etc
And BJP instead of honouring him with a Bharat Ratna has the audacity to call him a CIA AGENT!
Basudev Biswal retweeted
In the zero hour today raised the issue of judicial over reach in the case of banning Professor Michel Danino and two academics from any role receiving public funds for including a chapter on judicial corruption in NCERT Class 8 textbooks
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Calculus the ganita of differential equations invented by 5th c. Aryabhata.
Backward Christian Europeans couldn't grasp even PRIMARY-SCHOOL Indian arithmetic ("Arabic numerals" from Muslim Europeans in Spain) till 19th c. bcoz of their v. silly religious superstition they were"superior" hence so was their primitive pebble arithmetic!🤣 (pic1)
These dishonest idiots are going to tell us how to "understand" Indian-origin calculus using Newton's laughable fluxions or sillier "real" numbers!? (pic2)🤣
ALT Morgan, Augustus de. On the Study and Difficulties of Mathematics. New Ed. Open Court Pub, 1898, p. 72 (or pp 70-71 in some editions).
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Speaking at the Nyaya Nirmaan 2025, a landmark dialogue hosted by the General Counsels’ Association of India, Sanjeev Sanyal, member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council on Sept 20 said that India’s judicial system is the single biggest roadblock to the country’s ambition of becoming a developed economy.
Read more: barandbench.com/news/judicia…
#LatestNews #judiciary #ViksitBharat
Basudev Biswal retweeted
Judicial reform isn’t optional; it’s foundational to unlocking growth, justice, and civilizational renewal. @sanjeevsanyal
Basudev Biswal retweeted
GROW-N Talk 3 is here!
Join us for a session with Prof. Rajagopalan Balaji (CU Boulder) on emerging challenges in water & infrastructure in India
🗓️ 26 June 2025 | 🕒 3:00-5:00 PM IST | 📍 Online
🔗 Link via GROW-N Google Group
#GROWN #WaterResources #CivilEngineering
Basudev Biswal retweeted
GROW-N Panel Discussion | #AWaRe2025
Exploring the need for an India-centric research community and collaboration in water research.
📌 Full recording ▶️ See first comment for YouTube link
#GROWN #AWaRe2025 #WaterResearch #Collaboration #ResearchCommunity