/blog/ Recent content in Blog on Suvrat Raju Hugo -- gohugo.io en © 2026 Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:46:26 +0530 /blog/2026-06-01-measuring-cross-lingual-gaps-in-llms/ Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:46:26 +0530 /blog/2026-06-01-measuring-cross-lingual-gaps-in-llms/ On the arXiv today, with Purvam Jain, Preethi Jyothi and Vihari Piratla. Modern LLMs have become increasingly good at a variety of languages. How does one detect cross lingual gaps in their abilities? We propose a set… /blog/2026-03-14-imperial-overreach-in-iran/ Sat, 14 Mar 2026 09:09:54 +0530 /blog/2026-03-14-imperial-overreach-in-iran/ This is an article I wrote 7 years ago analyzing the allegations against the Iranian nuclear program and the history of the conflict between the US and Iran. Reading it again, I think it is still useful to understand… /blog/2026-02-09-seeing-the-page-curve-with-blinders-on/ Mon, 09 Feb 2026 08:16:19 +0530 /blog/2026-02-09-seeing-the-page-curve-with-blinders-on/ Today, with Hao, Andreas, Mark, Lisa and Carlos: We tried to ensure that our main points are clear from the intro, even for a non-expert. I encourage you to click through and read at least the first few pages. Here is… /blog/2026-01-23-public-events-in-hyderabad/ Fri, 23 Jan 2026 18:57:26 +0530 /blog/2026-01-23-public-events-in-hyderabad/ If you are in Hyderabad over the weekend, here are a couple of fun events that I’ll be part of on Saturday. A panel discussion at the Hyderabad Lit. Fest and then a public outreach lecture at Lamakaan. Both events are… /blog/2026-01-22-a-model-of-errors-for-llms/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:37:30 +0530 /blog/2026-01-22-a-model-of-errors-for-llms/ Here is something different, with Praneeth Netrapalli. LLMs have made spectacular progress over the past few years. Yet they still make errors on relatively simple tasks and we don’t have a good understanding of why… /blog/2025-09-10-the-debate-over-israel-s-suspension-from-the-ioaa/ Wed, 10 Sep 2025 11:48:58 +0530 /blog/2025-09-10-the-debate-over-israel-s-suspension-from-the-ioaa/ There has been debate on the suspension of Israel from the IOAA. Alok and I wrote this oped for the Hindu today, which can be read here: I would also recommend the article by Madhu and Aditi in the Scroll that appeared… /blog/2025-08-26-review-of-the-ai-con/ Tue, 26 Aug 2025 21:11:54 +0530 /blog/2025-08-26-review-of-the-ai-con/ I wanted to think through various issues at the interface of science and society in relation to recent progress in AI/ML. So I reviewed “The AI Con” by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna for The India Forum. If people get a… /blog/2025-08-20-israel-suspended-from-the-ioaa/ Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:30:08 +0530 /blog/2025-08-20-israel-suspended-from-the-ioaa/ Israel has been suspended from the International Olympiad on Astrononomy and Astrophysics (IOAA). The IOAA is part of a network of science Olympiads that seek to identify the most talented high-school students in each… /blog/2025-08-01-summer-school-with-scientists-for-palestine/ Fri, 01 Aug 2025 02:05:17 +0530 /blog/2025-08-01-summer-school-with-scientists-for-palestine/ Very privileged to have attended the Advanced Summer School on Quantum Physics organized by Scientists for Palestine. I learned a lot from the courageous and generous Palestinian students who attended the event despite… /blog/2025-06-10-indiapakistan-academics-dialogue/ Tue, 10 Jun 2025 21:56:19 +0530 /blog/2025-06-10-indiapakistan-academics-dialogue/ Please join us for an interaction between academics from India and Pakistan on Thursday evening. See below for details and Zoom link. This meeting is open to everyone. 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚-𝐏𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞 When nations are… /blog/2025-04-05-discussion-on-the-ugc-draft-regulations/ Sat, 05 Apr 2025 17:44:06 +0530 /blog/2025-04-05-discussion-on-the-ugc-draft-regulations/ Academics for Democratic Rights ( and India Academic Freedom Network ( are organizing a virtual discussion on the UGC Draft Regulations tomorrow: Sunday, 6 April at 3 pm. The discussion will be led by Dr. Furqan Qamar… /blog/2025-04-03-academic-freedom-at-harvard/ Thu, 03 Apr 2025 22:34:23 +0530 /blog/2025-04-03-academic-freedom-at-harvard/ I am surprised at how rapidly elite U.S. Universities have crumbled under pressure from the Trump administration and are cracking down on pro-Palestinian activism. Here is an email I sent to Harvard’s president today… /blog/2025-02-13-nuclear-liability-and-dangerous-concessions-to-reactor-vendors/ Thu, 13 Feb 2025 17:05:58 +0530 /blog/2025-02-13-nuclear-liability-and-dangerous-concessions-to-reactor-vendors/ In her budget speech earlier this month, the Finance Minister slipped in a seemingly unrelated remark: the government plans to amend the Indian nuclear liability act. This was deliberately timed so that the Prime… /blog/2025-01-24-introductory-quantum-field-theory-lectures/ Fri, 24 Jan 2025 19:31:42 +0530 /blog/2025-01-24-introductory-quantum-field-theory-lectures/ Lectures from my introductory QFT course last year: This is a fairly standard course that we offer at ICTS annually. I don’t think I said much that was new. We keep the Moodle open for anyone to join and view. A few… /blog/2024-12-31-locality-and-observers-in-quantum-gravity/ Tue, 31 Dec 2024 09:57:19 +0530 /blog/2024-12-31-locality-and-observers-in-quantum-gravity/ New paper to end the year with Kristan and Antony. Last year, with Jonathan, Antony and Kristan studied quantum information measures for subregions in gravitational theories. Some of their results might appear puzzling… /blog/2024-12-17-scholasticide-and-genocide-in-palestine/ Tue, 17 Dec 2024 15:11:42 +0530 /blog/2024-12-17-scholasticide-and-genocide-in-palestine/ Last month, as part of Academics for Democratic Rights, we organized a talk by Sundos Hammad and Ahmad Sabobeh who are part of the Right to Education campaign at Birzeit University in Palestine. The talk was titled… /blog/2024-11-17-achin-vanaik-in-bengaluru-palestine-and-the-crisis-in-west-asia/ Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:53:04 +0530 /blog/2024-11-17-achin-vanaik-in-bengaluru-palestine-and-the-crisis-in-west-asia/ Achin Vanaik will be in Bengaluru to talk about the genocide in Palestine and the crisis in West Asia. We are having a talk at ICTS on Tuesday, 19 November 3:30-5 pm as part of our general talk series. Then, later in… /blog/2024-09-22-opposing-the-indiaisrael-business-summit-at-iisc/ Sun, 22 Sep 2024 18:17:05 +0530 /blog/2024-09-22-opposing-the-indiaisrael-business-summit-at-iisc/ IISc seems to think that this is the right time to promote an India-Israel business summit. More than 1500 students and faculty members from across the country, and other members of civil society have written to the… /blog/2024-08-13-phymaths-podcast-a-conversation-with-hassaan-saleem/ Tue, 13 Aug 2024 22:10:25 +0530 /blog/2024-08-13-phymaths-podcast-a-conversation-with-hassaan-saleem/ Fun podcast discussion with Hassaan Saleem. We discussed physics and life and some politics and some other questions! /blog/2024-05-09-an-email-to-harvard-on-student-protests-and-gaza/ Thu, 09 May 2024 20:52:17 +0530 /blog/2024-05-09-an-email-to-harvard-on-student-protests-and-gaza/ An email that I sent to Harvard’s interim president, Alan Garber, today. /blog/2024-04-25-letter-to-columbia-university-in-support-of-student-protesters/ Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:54:20 +0530 /blog/2024-04-25-letter-to-columbia-university-in-support-of-student-protesters/ Some of us have drafted a letter to the President of Columbia University. The letter is available here: If you would like to endorse this letter, please use this Google Form: We plan to send it off to Shafik by the… /blog/2024-03-09-are-page-curves-relevant-for-real-black-holes/ Sat, 09 Mar 2024 17:11:43 +0530 /blog/2024-03-09-are-page-curves-relevant-for-real-black-holes/ Vasudev Shyam got Geoff Penington and me to be part of a podcast discussion today morning. We discussed whether islands and the Page curve are relevant for realistic black holes. As Geoff pointed out at the end, it is… /blog/2024-01-22-what-does-same-place-mean-over-time/ Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:55:17 +0530 /blog/2024-01-22-what-does-same-place-mean-over-time/ Since I spend some of my time thinking about how to localize observations in gravity, I couldn’t help thinking about this question today. How do we decide that a structure we build today is at the same spatial location… /blog/2023-11-16-theoretical-physicists-statement-on-palestine/ Thu, 16 Nov 2023 21:19:01 +0530 /blog/2023-11-16-theoretical-physicists-statement-on-palestine/ A statement issued by an international group of theoretical physicists on the crisis in Palestine: /blog/2023-10-30-a-candlelight-call-for-palestine-in-bengaluru/ Mon, 30 Oct 2023 22:29:57 +0530 /blog/2023-10-30-a-candlelight-call-for-palestine-in-bengaluru/ The Karnataka government continues its appalling policy of preventing any public events in solidarity with Palestine. In Bengaluru, police shows up at venues before organizers do and even film screenings have been… /blog/2023-10-28-karnataka-s-ban-on-pro-palestine-protests/ Sat, 28 Oct 2023 08:23:10 +0530 /blog/2023-10-28-karnataka-s-ban-on-pro-palestine-protests/ The Karnataka government has clamped down completely on protests for Palestine. In any case, in Bengaluru, space for protests is sharply restricted and protests are allowed only in Freedom park. For those who haven’t… /blog/2023-08-06-oppenheimer-hiroshima-and-the-use-of-the-atomic-bomb/ Sun, 06 Aug 2023 13:55:33 +0530 /blog/2023-08-06-oppenheimer-hiroshima-and-the-use-of-the-atomic-bomb/ Today is Hiroshima day. I was troubled by the discourse around “Oppenheimer” as we approached this anniversary. Here is my dissenting take on the movie. The movie glosses over the fact that, during the second world… /blog/2023-07-14-scientists-need-the-oxygen-of-free-speech/ Fri, 14 Jul 2023 19:24:28 +0530 /blog/2023-07-14-scientists-need-the-oxygen-of-free-speech/ an article on the recent events in IISc and IISER Mohali. /blog/2023-07-03-academics-protest-iisc-s-cancellation-of-the-uapa-discussion/ Mon, 03 Jul 2023 19:19:00 +0530 /blog/2023-07-03-academics-protest-iisc-s-cancellation-of-the-uapa-discussion/ A letter from members of the academic community to the director of IISc protesting the events that I described in my last post. This was signed by more than 500 academics and scientists, including several members of… /blog/2023-06-28-iisc-cancels-a-discussion-on-the-uapa/ Wed, 28 Jun 2023 22:39:18 +0530 /blog/2023-06-28-iisc-cancels-a-discussion-on-the-uapa/ An update on the talks on the UAPA by Natasha and Devangana I posted about a few days ago. We had a talk at ICTS on Monday without incident. A talk was supposed to take place in IISc today but, at the last minute, the… /blog/2023-06-22-talks-by-natasha-narwal-and-devangana-kalita-on-the-uapa/ Thu, 22 Jun 2023 18:48:02 +0530 /blog/2023-06-22-talks-by-natasha-narwal-and-devangana-kalita-on-the-uapa/ Next week, we are planning to have three talks by Natasha and Devangana who will discuss the UAPA and its misuse through the lens of their own experience. Two of the talks are aimed at students in ICTS and IISc—a… /blog/2023-06-02-some-thoughts-about-reviewing/ Fri, 02 Jun 2023 07:45:09 +0530 /blog/2023-06-02-some-thoughts-about-reviewing/ I have always found the Nature publishing model distasteful. Fortunately, in high-energy theory we have rid ourselves of these scientific gatekeepers and publication is largely via the arXiv, with peer-review being… /blog/2023-03-30-holography-of-information-in-de-sitter-space/ Thu, 30 Mar 2023 13:09:41 +0530 /blog/2023-03-30-holography-of-information-in-de-sitter-space/ And here is the second one (again with Tuneer, Joydeep, Victor, and Priyadarshi. ) The question we ask and answer here is: how does the holography of information work in de Sitter space. The background to this is the… /blog/2023-03-30-the-hilbert-space-of-de-sitter-quantum-gravity/ Thu, 30 Mar 2023 13:07:38 +0530 /blog/2023-03-30-the-hilbert-space-of-de-sitter-quantum-gravity/ I am quite excited about a pair of papers that we put out today with Tuneer, Joydeep, Victor, and Priyadarshi. Here is the first one: The question we ask and answer here is: “What is the right Hilbert space for quantum… /blog/2023-02-03-academic-statement-against-blocking-the-bbc-modi-documentary/ Fri, 03 Feb 2023 15:04:22 +0530 /blog/2023-02-03-academic-statement-against-blocking-the-bbc-modi-documentary/ Our recent statement expressing our dismay at the government’s decision to block the BBC Documentary, India: the Modi question. Some news coverage is here: and here: and a few other places. /blog/2022-11-13-recent-black-hole-information-debates/ Sun, 13 Nov 2022 21:56:12 +0530 /blog/2022-11-13-recent-black-hole-information-debates/ nice non-technical summary by Nirmalya Kajuri of some of the recent debates on black-hole information. /blog/2022-10-06-magic-cards/ Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:08:01 +0530 /blog/2022-10-06-magic-cards/ I’m often struck by how differently children think. My 9.5 year old son is fond of playing the following “magic trick” on his friends. The magician asks the subject to think of a number between, say, 1 and 63. Then the… /blog/2022-09-16-a-short-video-on-black-hole-information/ Fri, 16 Sep 2022 17:22:54 +0530 /blog/2022-09-16-a-short-video-on-black-hole-information/ A small outreach video on black hole information that we prepared recently. Many thanks to Anupam Ghosh and the ICTS outreach team for putting this together. Let me know if you have comments. (Even if they are… /blog/2022-07-01-excess-mortality-during-india-s-covid-19-pandemic/ Fri, 01 Jul 2022 09:44:21 +0530 /blog/2022-07-01-excess-mortality-during-india-s-covid-19-pandemic/ Recorded video of an important discussion hosted by the Indian Scientists Response to COVID-19. The panel had Rukmini S, Shankar and Prabhat Jha and discussed estimates of excess mortality during the pandemic. I… /blog/2022-03-25-recent-popular-media-coverage-of-black-hole-information/ Fri, 25 Mar 2022 11:10:09 +0530 /blog/2022-03-25-recent-popular-media-coverage-of-black-hole-information/ This is a post about the recent popular media coverage of the black hole information paradox. It is a post that I would have preferred not to make. However, I care about public outreach of science and I think that when… /blog/2022-03-12-eleven-years-after-fukushima/ Sat, 12 Mar 2022 08:35:46 +0530 /blog/2022-03-12-eleven-years-after-fukushima/ With Mv Ramana in The Hindu today on the eleventh anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. /blog/2022-03-08-the-sci-hub-case-and-the-future-of-scientific-publishing/ Tue, 08 Mar 2022 11:16:22 +0530 /blog/2022-03-08-the-sci-hub-case-and-the-future-of-scientific-publishing/ As many of you know, some time back Elsevier, Wiley and the American Chemical Society filed a suit against Sci-Hub in the Delhi High Court. A group of scientists, of which I am a part, filed an intervention petition in… /blog/2021-12-09-ias-talk-split-property-and-the-information-paradox/ Thu, 09 Dec 2021 16:14:15 +0530 /blog/2021-12-09-ias-talk-split-property-and-the-information-paradox/ Another talk on the split property and the information paradox at the Institute for Advanced Study workshop on Quantum Information and Spacetime. A little shorter than previous talks, so perhaps easier to follow. /blog/2021-11-19-pi-colloquium-split-property-and-the-information-paradox/ Fri, 19 Nov 2021 12:22:33 +0530 /blog/2021-11-19-pi-colloquium-split-property-and-the-information-paradox/ A colloquium I gave at the Perimeter Institute a few days ago. The idea was to target a broad theoretical physics audience and so much of it is relatively non-technical. The abstract below is hopefully self… /blog/2021-10-12-failure-of-the-split-property-in-gravity/ Tue, 12 Oct 2021 13:15:37 +0530 /blog/2021-10-12-failure-of-the-split-property-in-gravity/ The CQG journal is bringing out a special issue on the recent developments on the Page curve and the editors invited me to contribute something. So I took the excuse to write a “perspective essay” on the topic that… /blog/2021-09-26-cndp-statement-on-aukus-and-the-quad/ Sun, 26 Sep 2021 15:58:10 +0530 /blog/2021-09-26-cndp-statement-on-aukus-and-the-quad/ Our statement, as part of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), on AUKUS and the Quad dialogue. The full text is available here: /blog/2021-09-23-questions-about-pandemic-models/ Thu, 23 Sep 2021 12:01:38 +0530 /blog/2021-09-23-questions-about-pandemic-models/ If you are around today at 7 pm, please come for this discussion hosted by BSS Karnataka. We will discuss the public discourse around mathematical models that have been used for the pandemic in India. The talk will be… /blog/2021-08-02-holography-from-the-wheelerdewitt-equation/ Mon, 02 Aug 2021 07:32:48 +0530 /blog/2021-08-02-holography-from-the-wheelerdewitt-equation/ In a paper today, with Chandramouli Chowdhury, Victor Godet and Olga Papadoulaki, we establish a link between two famous but seemingly different approaches to quantum gravity. On one hand, we have the Wheeler-DeWitt… /blog/2021-07-09-inconsistency-of-islands-in-long-range-gravity/ Fri, 09 Jul 2021 09:44:43 +0530 /blog/2021-07-09-inconsistency-of-islands-in-long-range-gravity/ We report a surprising result today with Hao Geng, Andreas Karch, Carlos Pérez, Lisa Randall, Marcos Riojas and Sanjit Shashi. We show that the island rule leads to inconsistent results in standard theories of long… /blog/2021-04-18-black-hole-information-paradox-course-archive/ Sun, 18 Apr 2021 17:51:56 +0530 /blog/2021-04-18-black-hole-information-paradox-course-archive/ We have archived our recent ICTS course on the black hole information paradox. This was a research-level topical course covering several recent developments. The lecture archive is here: and some more resources… /blog/2021-04-03-the-black-hole-wars/ Sat, 03 Apr 2021 20:08:50 +0530 /blog/2021-04-03-the-black-hole-wars/ I was part of a “podcast with video” series on the “Black Hole Wars” that the students at DAMTP organized as part of the 2021 Cambridge Festival. This was the concluding episode in a series exploring the information… /blog/2021-02-08-caste-and-skin-colour-in-the-mahabharata/ Mon, 08 Feb 2021 18:59:49 +0530 /blog/2021-02-08-caste-and-skin-colour-in-the-mahabharata/ This is pretty far afield from the topics that I usually write about but after reading Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s article on “Dharma and Caste in the Mahabharata” in the India Forum I felt that perhaps a brief response was… /blog/2021-01-15-the-citizenship-amendment-act-and-academic-freedom/ Fri, 15 Jan 2021 19:24:20 +0530 /blog/2021-01-15-the-citizenship-amendment-act-and-academic-freedom/ An opinion piece I wrote for the Scientific American describing our response, as members of the Indian scientific community, to the Citizenship Amendment Act. Members of the scientific community have also spoken out on… /blog/2020-12-22-black-holes-and-the-reversibility-of-time/ Tue, 22 Dec 2020 19:57:22 +0530 /blog/2020-12-22-black-holes-and-the-reversibility-of-time/ A popular-level talk on Black Holes and the Reversibility of Time that I gave today to start off the new ICTS outreach series called the Vigyan Adda. I even talked about the principle of holography of information at… /blog/2020-12-11-lessons-from-the-information-paradox/ Fri, 11 Dec 2020 19:48:34 +0530 /blog/2020-12-11-lessons-from-the-information-paradox/ Here is another article that appeared today, reviewing some of the lessons that I think the information paradox teaches us about broader aspects of quantum gravity. I started this article with the plan of writing up… /blog/2020-12-10-information-transfer-with-a-gravitating-bath/ Thu, 10 Dec 2020 21:32:37 +0530 /blog/2020-12-10-information-transfer-with-a-gravitating-bath/ We have (in my unbiased opinion :-) ) an interesting paper out today: with Hao Geng, Andreas Karch, Carlos Perez-Pardavila, Lisa Randall, Marcos Riojas, and Sanjit Shashi. One of the significant problems we managed to… /blog/2020-11-04-bhi-talk/ Wed, 04 Nov 2020 07:55:34 +0530 /blog/2020-11-04-bhi-talk/ I’ve never physically been in the U.S. on the day of a presidential election, but at least I got to be there virtually yesterday at the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard! /blog/2020-10-07-holography-of-information-talks-at-stanford-and-perimeter/ Wed, 07 Oct 2020 12:51:50 +0530 /blog/2020-10-07-holography-of-information-talks-at-stanford-and-perimeter/ Here are some talks I gave at Stanford and at Perimeter in the past couple of weeks on the “Holography of Information from semiclassical gravity.” The talks cover somewhat similar ground, but the emphasis is slightly… /blog/2020-09-03-eradicate-nuclear-weapons-before-they-eradicate-us/ Thu, 03 Sep 2020 22:33:11 +0530 /blog/2020-09-03-eradicate-nuclear-weapons-before-they-eradicate-us/ Tomorrow (4 Sept), I’m going to speak at a webinar titled “Lets eradicate nuclear weapons before they eradicate us.” This is jointly organized by Rotary clubs in Cochin, Karachi and Michigan. I think there are a number… /blog/2020-09-02-qastm-seminar/ Wed, 02 Sep 2020 20:38:36 +0530 /blog/2020-09-02-qastm-seminar/ I’m going to describe some of our recent work in the QASTM seminar hosted by Sayantan tomorrow. I’ll try and keep the discussion as simple as possible, so please come and ask questions. (update: recorded video here /blog/2020-08-16-recording-asking-questions-about-mathematical-models/ Sun, 16 Aug 2020 19:27:59 +0530 /blog/2020-08-16-recording-asking-questions-about-mathematical-models/ The recorded video for the Chai and Why discussion today on “Asking questions about mathematical models” is available here: Thanks very much to Chai and Why? and to March For Science Mumbai for organizing the event… /blog/2020-08-15-asking-questions-about-mathematical-models/ Sat, 15 Aug 2020 09:56:18 +0530 /blog/2020-08-15-asking-questions-about-mathematical-models/ I’m going to lead a virtual discussion tomorrow (Sunday, 16 Aug, 11 AM) as part of the TIFR Chai and Why series titled: “Asking questions about mathematical models”. I promise to keep the discussion very simple. So if… /blog/2020-08-07-extracting-bulk-information-from-the-ads-boundary/ Fri, 07 Aug 2020 08:06:21 +0530 /blog/2020-08-07-extracting-bulk-information-from-the-ads-boundary/ With Chandramouli and Olga: “A physical protocol for observers near the boundary to obtain bulk information in quantum gravity”. Think of observers who live near the boundary of global AdS and can only explore the… /blog/2020-08-05-hiroshima-day-discussions-on-nuclear-disarmament/ Wed, 05 Aug 2020 21:41:26 +0530 /blog/2020-08-05-hiroshima-day-discussions-on-nuclear-disarmament/ I will be part of some panel discussions tomorrow (6 August). 1) The first is organized by the All India Peace and Solidarity Organization (MP). The topic is “75वें हिरोशिमा दिवस पर वेब-चर्चा” and I will speak about… /blog/2020-07-07-black-hole-information-at-strings-2020/ Tue, 07 Jul 2020 21:55:55 +0530 /blog/2020-07-07-black-hole-information-at-strings-2020/ A talk that I gave at the Strings 2020 conference: Since the Strings-conference audience is very broad, it was intended for people who are not directly thinking about the same questions, and provides a quick summary of… /blog/2020-06-27-did-india-s-lockdown-avert-covid-19-deaths/ Sat, 27 Jun 2020 08:19:43 +0530 /blog/2020-06-27-did-india-s-lockdown-avert-covid-19-deaths/ About a month ago, the government conducted a press-conference reporting the results of various “studies”, each claiming that the lockdown had saved thousands of lives. A few days later, some independent scientists… /blog/2020-05-29-india-s-lockdown-has-failed/ Fri, 29 May 2020 16:49:24 +0530 /blog/2020-05-29-india-s-lockdown-has-failed/ The government would like to claim that the lockdown has “saved lives”. But in this article for the Wire, I tried to explain why it makes no sense to gauge the efficacy of the lockdown by blindly comparing the current… /blog/2020-05-22-the-pandemic-hegemony-and-disarmament/ Fri, 22 May 2020 07:23:28 +0530 /blog/2020-05-22-the-pandemic-hegemony-and-disarmament/ Abolition 2000, which is a global network of nuclear disarmament groups asked 9 disarmament-campaigners across the world to record short videos in advance of its AGM that takes place on the weekend. The question we… /blog/2020-04-28-accountability-during-a-crisis/ Tue, 28 Apr 2020 06:17:10 +0530 /blog/2020-04-28-accountability-during-a-crisis/ An op-ed I wrote for the Hindu on the importance of accountability during a crisis. /blog/2020-04-25-virtual-seminars-and-a-talk-at-the-albert-einstein-institute/ Sat, 25 Apr 2020 14:58:52 +0530 /blog/2020-04-25-virtual-seminars-and-a-talk-at-the-albert-einstein-institute/ A virtual seminar I gave at the Albert Einstein Institute at Potsdam a few days ago A few comments on the topic of virtual seminars, which have become the norm over the past few weeks. Michal Heller invited me to give… /blog/2020-04-02-misleading-mathematical-models/ Thu, 02 Apr 2020 17:40:05 +0530 /blog/2020-04-02-misleading-mathematical-models/ This is an unusual post. I was reluctant to make it, but it seems to be necessary. A few days ago, the paper appeared, with various suggestions for controlling the epidemic in India: a lockdown of 49 days or a lockdown… /blog/2020-03-31-scientists-statement-on-the-lockdown/ Tue, 31 Mar 2020 10:31:29 +0530 /blog/2020-03-31-scientists-statement-on-the-lockdown/ Some of us have prepared a statement on the current lockdown and Covid-19 epidemic. It states that the lockdown, by itself, is not a permanent cure and so urges the government to prepare a post-lockdown plan. It also… /blog/2020-03-03-why-india-should-not-import-u-s-nuclear-reactors/ Tue, 03 Mar 2020 07:22:23 +0530 /blog/2020-03-03-why-india-should-not-import-u-s-nuclear-reactors/ Op-ed with Mv Ramana for the Hindu today: The idea that India should import reactors from the United States is a zombie idea that should have been dead long ago but keeps rearing its head from time to time. This… /blog/2020-02-07-the-holographic-nature-of-null-infinity/ Fri, 07 Feb 2020 09:58:30 +0530 /blog/2020-02-07-the-holographic-nature-of-null-infinity/ The holographic nature of null infinity! With Alok, Siddharth and Pushkal. I think that we have some exciting and interesting results. We clarify an important aspect of how holography should work in flat space — the… /blog/2020-01-25-anti-caa-protests/ Sat, 25 Jan 2020 08:04:09 +0530 /blog/2020-01-25-anti-caa-protests/ An interview that I did with rediff.com a few days ago: Its mostly just a set of simple questions and answers but some aspects might still be of interest. /blog/2020-01-07-iisc-student-march/ Tue, 07 Jan 2020 21:45:05 +0530 /blog/2020-01-07-iisc-student-march/ An absolutely incredible march organized by IISc students yesterday night, in which at least several hundred students marched through the campus. The video is very poor because I’m a poor videographer and because the… /blog/2019-10-09-a-quantum-test-for-smooth-horizons/ Wed, 09 Oct 2019 09:11:01 +0530 /blog/2019-10-09-a-quantum-test-for-smooth-horizons/ A simple quantum test for smooth horizons, with Kyriakos and Pushkal. We use the short distance behaviour of the two-point function to set out some very general necessary conditions for a quantum state of the fields to… /blog/2019-09-22-academics-speak-out-on-kashmir/ Sun, 22 Sep 2019 09:01:10 +0530 /blog/2019-09-22-academics-speak-out-on-kashmir/ Many of us have been disturbed by what is happening in Kashmir, and have felt helpless at our inability to do anything about it. Some of us felt that it would be very useful to have a statement from members of the… /blog/2019-07-05-talking-sanctions-endangering-peace/ Fri, 05 Jul 2019 03:04:11 +0530 /blog/2019-07-05-talking-sanctions-endangering-peace/ This is an op-ed I wrote for the Hindu on the U.S.-Iran conflict. /blog/2019-06-27-understanding-the-u-s-iran-conflict/ Thu, 27 Jun 2019 22:43:50 +0530 /blog/2019-06-27-understanding-the-u-s-iran-conflict/ My views on what is happening in Iran (for the blog and next issue of Aspects of India’s Economy). This piece is a little long — 6500 words — but I’ll try and write a shorter summary soon. (Update: see Hindu op-ed… /blog/2019-03-28-is-holography-implicit-in-canonical-gravity/ Thu, 28 Mar 2019 08:21:58 +0530 /blog/2019-03-28-is-holography-implicit-in-canonical-gravity/ New essay asking “Is Holography Implicit in Canonical Gravity?” The precise conjecture is that if two solutions of the Wheeler-deWitt equation coincide near the boundary of anti-de Sitter space at one point of time… /blog/2019-03-22-foxing-stockfirst-solution/ Fri, 22 Mar 2019 19:48:51 +0530 /blog/2019-03-22-foxing-stockfirst-solution/ After the chess puzzle in my previous post, there was a lot of discussion about chess programs, but no one seems to have attempted the puzzle itself :-) Its a difficult puzzle, but the solution is also really beautiful… /blog/2019-03-17-foxing-stockfish/ Sun, 17 Mar 2019 20:02:44 +0530 /blog/2019-03-17-foxing-stockfish/ At my son’s children’s chess tournaments, I sometimes meet a gentleman who rails against the recent advances in artificial intelligence. “Machines lie”, he roars. “Even in chess, they have no positional understanding."… /blog/2019-03-09-a-talk-on-a-toy-model-for-the-information-paradox/ Sat, 09 Mar 2019 08:32:32 +0530 /blog/2019-03-09-a-talk-on-a-toy-model-for-the-information-paradox/ Following the last post, I got a number of additional questions about the paper presenting a toy model for the information paradox. This is a talk I gave at a workshop in Princeton some time ago. The organizers at the… /blog/2019-03-05-bell-correlators-and-the-amps-paradox/ Tue, 05 Mar 2019 07:05:35 +0530 /blog/2019-03-05-bell-correlators-and-the-amps-paradox/ Not a new paper but, in this version, I’ve added some comments on the difference between gauge theories and gravity and the relevance to the AMPS paradox, about which I got a number a questions. It seems to have been… /blog/2019-03-01-a-conversation-in-delhi/ Fri, 01 Mar 2019 07:07:12 +0530 /blog/2019-03-01-a-conversation-in-delhi/ I had a sad and startling conversation with a taxi driver the day before yesterday. I had gone to Ashoka University to give a talk, and the ride to Delhi airport is almost a couple of hours. I hadn’t seen the news in… /blog/2019-02-20-bounds-on-thermal-relativistic-correlators/ Wed, 20 Feb 2019 08:29:05 +0530 /blog/2019-02-20-bounds-on-thermal-relativistic-correlators/ We considered relativistic correlation functions at finite temperature in the limit where the momenta of the operators become spacelike and large. Surprisingly, these correlators are bounded by a beautiful geometric… /blog/2019-02-17-the-crisis-in-venezuela/ Sun, 17 Feb 2019 17:06:03 +0530 /blog/2019-02-17-the-crisis-in-venezuela/ some thoughts on the situation in Venezuela.