Govind Gujar: entomologist's journey to understand the Society we live in

Dear Dr He,                     Hope you are doing fine, where-ever you are. Just few days back (in the first week of August  2020), I heard about Russian vaccine against coronavirus, Covid19 that is causing pandemic all over the world. So far, Covid19 infection has risen to more than 24 millions and taken a toll of about 824, 000+ deaths all over the world. India is the 3rd largest country with more than 3.2 million cases of Covid19 infection and about 60000 deaths so far. Brazil ranks 2nd in the list and USA tops. It is a bit of consolation for me.                          So, the news of Russian vaccine is a welcome one. An internet search shows that human trials  on this vaccine were completed in mid-July by Sechenov University's medical centre. And hence  followup of large scale production and vaccination is to be expected. Some ...

       Just few days (that is on 4 th August), my friend Devakumar commented that “The CCFI ridiculing organic farming may eat a humble pie” on Facebook post related to the IT grad making a big money (Rs 15.2 million) by selling organic ginger and turmeric (thebetterindia.com  3 rd Aug 2020). I did not understand the context in which he had made these remarks, and hence, he guided me to the link that happened to be perfect storm related to pesticide use. Just to give a background for those who are not aware, it started with a big advertorial (Business Standard 29 July 2020) of Nirmala Pathrawal, an Executive Director of Crop Care Foundation of India (CCFI), an NGO of the pesticide lobby. The advertorial is one that gives an impression of news or opinion but actually a mouthpiece of those who can get it published in the newspaper.  So, Nirmala Pathrawal of CCFI published a big advertorial with a catchy title “Beware of foreign funded environmental NGOs: T...