Editorial Snapshot: 09-July-2025

 

Stop the slaughter: On Trump, Israel and the Gaza war 

Trump must use his leverage to force Israel to end the war in Gaza. In his third White House visit in six months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,  on Monday (July 7, 2025), heaped (1) praise on U.S. President Donald Trump for his  “pursuit (2) of peace and security… in the Middle East” and even nominated him for a  Nobel Peace Prize but stopped short of making any commitment on the most pressing  (3) issue in West Asia today — a ceasefire in Gaza. While indirect talks between Hamas  representatives and Israel continue in Doha, Israel appears to be readying the forcible  (4) relocation of Palestinians to the south of Gaza. Defence Minister Israel Katz says he  has instructed the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to come up with a plan to relocate the  entire population of Gaza, of 2.3 million people, to the ruins of Rafah, which the Israelis  call a “new humanitarian (5) city”. There were reports in the Israeli media about the IDF  chief, Eyal Zamir, opposing the plan, saying that “the hungry and angry (6)”  Palestinians “could turn on the IDF”. The IDF killing dozens of Palestinians, including  children, in Gaza is a daily occurrence; starving (7) civilians are shot down in aid  centres. Doctors who served in Gaza in the past 20 months have horror (8) stories of  babies being starved to death or bodies of children being brought to hospitals with  sniper wounds in their heads. None of this moves Mr. Netanyahu and his backers in the  West, including Mr. Trump, who calls himself “a man of peace”. Mr. Trump had said before the meeting that he would be “very firm (9)” with Mr.  Netanyahu on the need for a ceasefire. But words alone are not enough. Mr. Trump has  the leverage (10) to compel Israel to accept a ceasefire in Gaza. He demonstrated his  influence in the final hours of the Iran-Israel war, publicly demanding that Tel Aviv turn  back its fighter jets that had taken off to bomb Iran. Israel complied, after carrying out  only a symbolic strike. Today’s Israel is dependent on the U.S. as ever before. During  the war on Iran, Israel had to rely on America for offensive and defensive support. Israel  needs American weapons to continue its devastating war in Gaza. And Mr. Netanyahu,  who is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and  crimes against humanity, needs American political and diplomatic backing to continue  his wars across West Asia with impunity. If the U.S. continues to support Israel and  refuses to use its leverage to end the Gaza war, it will be condemned by future historians and fact-finders as a country that was complicit in Israel’s crimes against  Palestinians. There are no excuses for Israel to prolong this brutal war, which has killed  an estimated 70,000 people in 20 months. The slaughter must stop, and Israel must be  held accountable for its crimes.

Quick fix: On India’s Research Development and Innovation scheme Budgetary allowances alone won’t solve India’s R&D problem 

The Union Cabinet recently approved a ₹1-lakh crore Research Development and  Innovation (RDI) scheme that aims to incentivise (1) the private sector to invest in basic  research. The scheme will primarily consist of a special purpose fund established  within the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), which will act as the  custodian (2) of funds. The funds will be in the form of low-interest loans. The ANRF is  conceived (3) as an independent institutional body, with oversight by the Science Ministry, to allocate funds for basic research and to incentivise private sector  participation in core research. The involvement of the ANRF here is a novel (4) move as  the newly created organisation is meant to be the equivalent of a single-window  clearance mechanism for funding research and development for universities and  academic institutions. It is also expected to get about 70% of its budget from private  sources. In sum, through the RDI and the ANRF, the government is looking to stake the  bold (5) claim that it has played its part and that it is now up to the private sector to  come forward and reverse the ratio from where the government today accounts for  about 70% of India’s R&D spend. However, already incipient (6) in the government’s tall  ambitions are traces of what has caused previous such schemes to falter (7). The first  of these is conservatism (8). It turns out that a condition for availing funds is that only products that have reached a  certain level of development and market potential or, what are called Technology  Readiness Level-4 (TRL-4) projects, would be eligible. There are nine TRL levels, a  hierarchy that was first conceived by the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space  Administration (NASA) in the 1970s. TRL-1 represents a basic level of research and  TRL-9 a state of advanced readiness. TRL-4 appears to be an arbitrary (9) decision to  support any promising research that has progressed halfway. Were there such a magic  sauce, venture capital industries, premised on the fickleness (10) of predicting the ‘next  big thing’, would not exist. The scheme also seems to forget that technologically  advanced countries have become what they are because of their military industrial  complexes — where the spectre of war incentivises the development of technology that  is risky and expensive but, over time, may prove to be of immense civilian value — examples are the Internet or the Global Positioning System. India continues to  haemorrhage scientists to the West due to the lack of opportunities commensurate with  their training. Finally, it lacks a deeply skilled manufacturing sector that can make the  products that scientists conceive of. Budgetary allowances cannot overnight fix that  which requires major surgery.

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