No white elephants please! Where not to invest RBI surplus of Rs 1.76 lakh crore

Bimal Jalan panel’s decision to recommend transfer of Rs 1.76 lakh crore of RBI’s reserves and excess provisions to the government of India has rightly raised a host of questions about where the money would be deployed. Just as brazenly the Centre managed to transfer the reserves, the expectation was that their deployment would be equally transparent. If there were hopes from finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s press conference in Pune to throw light on the question, those were dashed. But more than where they are deployed, it’s important to understand…

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Cancer rarely affects elephants, here’s the real reason behind it

Researchers have identified a “zombie” gene that protects elephants from cancer, a finding that may pave the way for a new treatment for humans. Globally, nearly 1 in 6 human deaths occur due to cancer, whereas less than 5% of captive elephants — who also live for about 70 years, and have about 100 times as many potentially cancerous cells as humans — die of the disease. Humans and elephants have one copy of the master tumour suppressor gene p53, which recognises unrepaired DNA damage — a precursor of cancer and…

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