Dear Express Explained Reader, We are still on our knees after being bludgeoned by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in April and mid-May, and there is already discussion about a “third wave”. The Principal Scientific Advisor to the government qualified his statement after initially saying a third wave was inevitable — but officials have continued to talk about one, sometimes adding dire (and so far scientifically unexplained) predictions that children would bear the brunt this time around. So what is a ‘wave’ in an epidemic? When does it come, and how does it pass? Is it a local, regional, or national phenomenon? Will India indeed see a third wave, and will it be worse than the second? Amitabh Sinha answered some of these questions. Pune-based MyLab Discovery Solutions this week announced India’s first home self-test kit for Covid-19. It’s a rapid antigen test, therefore not as accurate as RT-PCR, but the advantages of a quick, cheap, convenient test that you and I can do at home can be game-changing. Anuradha Mascarenhas wrote the news report on the CoviSelf kit, and Tabassum Barnagarwala dived deeper to answer the most important and relevant questions around the announcement. After years of a tense calm, the Palestinian-Israeli war has flared up again. This is the world’s longest-running, most intractable conflict, and the positions on both sides are so hard and uncompromising — and rooted in such fundamental questions of faith and identity — that it is impossible to imagine anyone stepping back to create space for a lasting resolution to emerge. India’s stand on the dispute has moved from being unequivocally pro-Palestine for the first four decades after Independence, to seeking a balance with its three-decade-old friendly ties with Israel. In recent years, New Delhi has been perceived as being pro-Israel. Nirupama Subramanian summarised India’s changing position on Israel and Palestine, tracing the contours of a diplomatic and strategic work in progress, and placing it in the context of New Delhi’s evolving national and global priorities. (For those who want to know more about the latest clashes, Nirupama wrote last week about the tinderbox that Jerusalem has been of late, and the trigger that coincided with the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.) The government this week increased the subsidy on the popular di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser by a massive 137 per cent, taking on an additional financial burden of almost Rs 15,000 crore in the coming kharif season alone. Strong political and economic compulsions drove the government, of course — but how are fertiliser subsidies calculated in the first place? Which fertilisers are subsidised, and to what extent? Parthasarathi Biswas and Harish Damodaran broke down the costs, literally bag-by-bag. Do read. Finally, I would like to nudge you to read what was personally my favourite explainer this week — Kabir Firaque explained the fascinating science behind a terrible tragedy: the freak natural phenomenon in which a single bolt of lightning killed as many as 18 elephants in Assam. Stay safe and (double) masked. Do not be lulled by the flattening Covid curves in many states. We made that mistake over the winter and spring, and are paying a catastrophic price now. For the vast majority of Indians, the vaccine is still several months away. We cannot, must not, relax. Sincerely, Monojit (monojit.majumdar@expressindia.com) If you received this newsletter as a forward, you can subscribe to it here | Do read our Explained articles here | .png)
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