India not having permanent seat on UNSC is absurd: Elon Musk
New York (PTI): Billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk has said it is "absurd" that India does not have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council despite being the most populous country on Earth, as he called for an overhaul of the United Nations organs.
The remarks by Tesla CEO came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised concerns about the absence of any African nation from the list of permanent members of the UNSC.
"How can we accept that Africa still lacks a single Permanent Member in the Security Council?"
"Institutions must reflect today's world, not that of 80 years ago. September's Summit of the Future will be an opportunity to consider global governance reforms & re-build trust," Guterres wrote on X, which is owned by Musk.
Responding to Guterres' post, Michael Eisenberg, a US-born Israeli venture capitalist, raised the issue of India's representation.
Musk also jumped into the debate and said that the current structure of the UN does not adequately represent the world's most populous nations.
"At some point, there needs to be a revision of the UN bodies," he said.
"The problem is that those with excess power don't want to give it up. India not having a permanent seat on the Security Council, despite being the most populous country on Earth, is absurd," Musk, 52, said in his response on X.
India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, saying it rightly deserves a place as a permanent member at the UN high table, which in its current form does not represent the geo-political realities of the 21st Century.
Currently, the UNSC has five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Only a permanent member has the power to veto any substantive resolution.
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Bhopal gas tragedy: Effects of leak seen in next generation of survivors, says ex-forensic doctor
Bhopal (PTI): The effects of poisonous gases that leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal 40 years ago were seen in the next generations of those who survived the tragedy, a former government forensic doctor has said.
At least 3,787 people were killed, and more than five lakh were affected after a toxic gas leaked from the pesticide factory in the city on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984.
Speaking at an event held by organisations of gas tragedy survivors on Saturday, Dr D K Satpathy, former head of the forensics department of Bhopal's Gandhi Medical College, said he performed 875 post-mortems on the first day of the disaster and witnessed 18,000 autopsies the next five years.
Sathpathy claimed Union Carbide had denied questions about the effects of poisonous gases on unborn children of women survivors and said effects would not cross the placental barrier in the womb in any condition.
He said blood samples of pregnant women who died in the tragedy were examined, and it was found that 50 per cent of poisonous substances found in the mother were also found in the child in her womb.
Children born to surviving mothers had the poisonous substances in their system, and this affected the health of the next generation, Sathpathy claimed and questioned why research on this was stopped.
Such effects will continue for generations, he said.
Satpathy said it was said that MIC gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant, and when it came in contact with water, thousands of gases were formed, and some of these caused cancer, blood pressure and liver damage.
Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action said Satpathy, who carried out most autopsies, and other first responders in the 1984 disaster, including the senior doctors in the emergency ward and persons involved in mass burials, narrated their experiences during the event.
Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, a poster exhibition covering every aspect of the disaster will be held till December 4 to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy.
An anniversary rally will be organised, with focus on global corporate crimes such as industrial pollution and climate change, she said.
