Mehr Gill
Articles By Mehr Gill
Explained: What Henley Passport Index tells us about mobility of an Indian passport
Last year, an Indian passport holder had visa-free access to 60 countries; this year, she has access to 58.
Explained: Why the One Nation, One Ration Card scheme could be a boon for poor migrants
A ration card is issued to the head of the family. It is used by households to get essential food grains at subsidised prices from designated ration shops (also called fair price shops) under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
Explained: Can Pakistan get the ICJ to undo India’s decision on J&K’s special status?
Tensions between India and Pakistan soured ever since India abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.
Explained: What are microplastics, the new pollutant you are breathing
Microplastics, which are defined as shreds of plastic less than 5 mm in length. The researchers found huge amounts of them in the Arctic snow; their study claims to be the first that contains data on contamination of snow by microplastics.
What happened at Batla House, the subject of a new film?
At least 21 people were killed and over 100 were injured in the blasts that rocked the national capital a few days prior to the encounter in 2008.
Explained: Congo’s Ebola outbreak may be controllable now. Here’s how
The virus derives its name from the 250-km long Ebola river which flows through Congo and at a point is over 60-km from Yambuku, the rural Congolese area where some of the first patients of the disease were reported.
Explained: Why Goa is cracking down on fraudulent name changes
The existing law was brought to ensure that names that had Portuguese spellings and pronunciations were corrected when translated to English.
Explained: Who’s impacted by Trump’s modified immigration regulations?
Immigrants should be able to support themselves without using public resources to meet their needs, and rely on their own potential or have a person in the United States who can assure that the individual will not need public support, and thereby not be a burden on the taxpayer.
Explained: Why Kashmiri Pandit bodies overseas are rejoicing over govt’s J&K move
The IEKF, which is based in London and Geneva, hailed the decision in Jammu and Kashmir as a decisive step to bring justice to Kashmiri Pandits, who were driven out of their ancestral homes and lands in 1989-90.
Explained: The multi-crore ‘scam’ flagged by SC Monitoring Committee in Delhi
Unauthorised colonies are a result of unplanned growth, but since they are often densely populated and offer large vote banks, politicians are inclined to get them "regularised".
Explained: What transgenders’ rights Bill passed by Lok Sabha says
The Bill prohibits discrimination against a transgender person on grounds including denial, discontinuation or unfair treatment in educational establishments, services, employment, healthcare.
Explained: The significance of 1846 in the modern history of Jammu and Kashmir
The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir came into existence on March 16, 1846, the day the Treaty of Amritsar was signed between the British East India Company and the Dogra ruler Maharaja Gulab Singh.
Explained: Govt suspends Jammu and Kashmir’s Machail Yatra – what is this pilgrimage
While the Amarnath Yatra is perhaps more widely known, the Machail Yatra too is an important event that draws tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the country every year.
TOI 270: new planetary system about 73 light years away from Earth
In this system, TOI 270 b is the innermost planet. Researchers expect it to be a rocky world about 25 per cent bigger than Earth.
Explained: What is RoboBee X-Wing?
In a recently published paper in Nature, researchers from the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory in Cambridge have claimed to have made possible the “lightest insect-scale aerial vehicle so far to have achieved sustained, untethered flight.”
Explained: What is deepfake?
The debate around “deepfakes” has been rekindled recently with the popularity of applications such as FaceApp (for photo-editing) and DeepNude ( that produces fake nudes of women).
Explained: The long journey from West Bengal to Bangla
Over the years, several demands have been made, for reasons that could be either political or administrative, to change the name of West Bengal.
Explained: What is Tiangong-2?
Unlike Tiangong-1, scientists were always in control of Tiangong-2. The space lab, which China had never intended to be a permanent post in space, was visited by an uncrewed mission in April 2017.
‘Nek Chand was a man with a big heart’: Manmohan Jolly
“Nek Chand was a man with a big heart. Once he became your friend, he couldn’t refuse anything. That was his nature. He was completely dedicated to his work and wanted it to be perfect,” shares Manmohan Jolly.
‘Nek Chand’s creations symbolise his memory’
Nek Chand's wife Satinder says that the creator of the Rock Garden thought it to be a good idea to gift them these sculptures since they would represent Chandigarh’s Rock Garden in Delhi.
