MyVoice: Views of our readers 15th November 2026

Visa gaffe can malign India’s democratic image

I wish to draw attention to the controversy surrounding the Bharat Summit 2026 in Hyderabad, which unfortunately shifted public attention from international dialogue to questions of visa transparency, press freedom and political interference.

The two-day international gathering, organised by the Telangana government and the Samruddha Bharat Foundation, under the theme “Forging a New World”, is endeavoured to bring together political leaders, policymakers, economists and civil society representatives from different countries. Its discussions on artificial intelligence, climate change, economic justice, electoral integrity and the future of democracy are particularly relevant at a time when the world faces complex political and economic challenges.

However, the reported visa cancellations involving foreign delegates have cast a shadow over the event. Particularly disturbing is the case of Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng

Svendsen of Dagsavisen, who was invited to speak on the future of media and press freedom. She has alleged that her visa was cancelled barely ten minutes before she was due to leave for the airport, despite having received the necessary visa and political clearances. The timing has raised uncomfortable questions, especially since she had earlier questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Oslo in May 2026. The Editors Guild of India has also expressed concern and sought clarification and reversal of the decision. While the Union government has every right to regulate the entry of foreign nationals in accordance with the law and national security requirements, such powers must be exercised transparently and consistently.

When a visa is granted and is subsequently withdrawn without a publicly explained reason, it creates avoidable uncertainty and damages confidence in India’s institutional processes. Any genuine security concerns should be communicated through appropriate official channels rather than left to speculation. The Union government should therefore clarify the circumstances behind the reported visa cancellations, particularly that of the Norwegian journalist, and ensure that legitimate security considerations do not become a source of unnecessary controversy.

Hyderabad’s international gathering should ultimately be remembered for the quality of its discussions and ideas, not for administrative disputes and political acrimony.

Vidyasagar Reddy Kethiri, Hanumakonda-506009

English teaching standards are deplorable

The harsh truth is that the quality of English language teaching in the country is substandard. A basic degree holder is often burdened with the enormous responsibility of hammering the intricacies of the language into the minds of children. Both private and government schools are equally to blame. Influence, rather than a lack of merit, is the main reason for the shortage of qualified English teachers. Socioeconomic considerations, while picking teachers, are also a factor behind the subpar skills of English teachers. The quality of English in students, tutored by unqualified teachers, is bound to lag as they grow. This does not mean there is a dearth of youngsters who can eagerly take on the English teacher’s role. However, the zeal, commitment and seriousness from the government and management to search for such a teacher is missing. Proficiency in reading, understanding, speaking, and communicating in English is a fundamental requirement for an English teacher. The cardinal sin of English teachers is using overly complicated words and translating directly from their mother tongue. Today’s fluent student is tomorrow’s eloquent teacher, and the cycle continues.

Dr Ganapathi Bhat, Akola

CM’s doublespeak is ridiculous

Media reports say that the Chief Minister of Telangana had felicitated actor Akkineni Nagarjuna at an event where he inaugurated the newly restored 30-acre Thammidikunta lake in Madhapur on November 11. This news is both amusing and shocking to put it in unequivocal terms. On assuming charge, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy ordered his officials to demolish N Convention alleging illegal encroachment of government land and lake by Nagarjuna. Within less than three years, the head of the state publicly felicitates the same individual for voluntarily handing over two acres of the same land to the government. In fact, the Chief Minister described the actor as a hero in real life. One smells a rat in this matter for the changed version of Revanth Reddy. The public memory is not too short

wherein they can forget the recent happenings.

It is not befitting the stature of a CM to nke such a u-tun. Transparency in administration contributes to the credibility of a politician with enhanced popularity. “Yadha Raja, Thadha Praja”. A young CM, aspiring for a second term and planning to don the role of a national leader, should be a role model in ethical values to strengthen his public image. He should aim to provide good governance with all its attendant benefits to the society.

M V Nagavender Rao, Hyderabad-4

AI boosting health initiatives

Artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating World Health Day goals by decentralising diagnostics, expanding universal access, and reducing clinical burdens globally. As global health initiatives focus heavily on equity, preventative care, and resilient public health infrastructure, AI implementations have shifted from experimental models to direct, frontline clinical and community tools. Deep learning algorithms are integrated into radiology workflows to scan chest X-rays (for tuberculosis and pneumonia), mammograms, and retinal imaging (for diabetic retinopathy). These tools flag irregularities and triage urgent scans, extending specialist-level screening to remote primary health centres lacking resident radiologists. Portable, AI-enabled handheld ultrasound devices and diagnostic smartphone apps allow community health workers to perform maternal health checks, cardiac screenings, and skin evaluations in underserved areas. Multimodal conversational agents provide localized health advice in multiple languages to overcome literacy and language barriers. Machine learning models analyse real-time data—including clinic admission patterns, climate data, wastewater testing, and mobility metrics—to forecast localised disease outbreaks (such as dengue, malaria, and respiratory pathogens), enabling proactive resource distribution before hospital systems become overwhelmed. Generative AI scribes capture real-time physician-patient dialogues to automate clinical documentation, summaries, and billing workflows. Reducing administrative burden directly curbs healthcare worker burnout, allowing clinicians to spend more focused, empathetic time on direct patient care. Generative molecular models and protein-folding systems have compressed early-stage drug target identification from years into weeks, drastically lowering the R&D cost curve for neglected tropical diseases and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. In line with World Health Organization (WHO) frameworks, current implementations emphasize bias mitigation across diverse demographic groups, stringent patient data privacy, and keeping human clinicians firmly in control of diagnostic decisions.

C K Ramanathan, Navi Mumbai 5

Building public trust in science

Science plays an important role in improving human life. From developing life-saving medicines and vaccines to detecting diseases and protecting the environment, scientific discoveries have helped societies overcome many challenges. However, scientific progress alone is not enough; people must also understand and trust it. Recognising this need, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched a global movement called “Together for Science and Health” on November 10 to strengthen public confidence in science and improve health worldwide. More than 240 organisations have joined this initiative, bringing together scientists, healthcare professionals, policymakers and young people. The movement focuses on connecting science with society, encouraging governments to make evidence-based decisions and communicating research findings in simple language. It also promotes public participation, open discussions and scientific awareness. India can contribute through its progress in healthcare, biotechnology, space research and digital technology. Schools and colleges can encourage scientific curiosity, while doctors, teachers and media organisations can help people understand scientific developments. Science can transform society only when people understand it, trust it and benefit from it. Building that trust is a shared responsibility of everyone.

Dr Krishna Kumar Vepakomma, Hyderabad

MS outage props up the illusion of redundancy

The November 12-13 global Microsoft outage, which disrupted Outlook, Teams, and Copilot across 70 countries for more than 24-hours, highlights the illusion of redundancy when modern organisations rely on tightly coupled cloud ecosystems. While businesses often believe they have alternatives and backups in place, major cloud failures expose the structural fallacy in how digital resilience is usually built. Organisations treat apps as having multiple ways to communicate, but Microsoft 365 failed as a single system built around a shared mail-and-scheduling hub. When that core hub went down, dependent tools like Copilot and Teams live events failed simultaneously, proving that spreading work across different apps inside the same ecosystem adds features rather than true backup. Cloud infrastructure is designed with automated systems meant to isolate faulty hardware and reroute traffic. However, during this latest outage, the automated orchestration pulled unresponsive servers, triggering a global cascading failure. The very mechanism meant to prevent an outage amplified it. When a live identity or communication layer freezes, workers cannot authenticate and send urgent messages or access active workflows -- leaving businesses at a standstill even if their underlying data is completely safe. To move past the fallacy of redundancy, organisations generally need to decouple their emergency operations from their primary vendor. All said and done, the vulnerability of technology dependence every minute of the day in modern living was amply demonstrated following the Microsoft outage.

Govardhana Myneedu, Vijayawada

Nvidia episode is a wakeup call

The Nvidia episode must serve as a vital lesson, and wakeup call in terms of safeguarding nascent technologies that are under progressive and systematic development from falling into the hands of hostile competitors. Matters of extramarital affairs and irrational links with girlfriends which might seem exaggerated machismo could cost a company and its shareholders. All technology giants in the pursuit of AI have been spending billions to grab market share and capture the global IT space. The high-end chip making has already attracted the Indian attention under the present government. Such complicated and complex chits are to be made in India to beat the global trend, so that India cannot be elbowed out in the race. Our perceptions earlier about chips were confined to PCs and the automobile sector – the relevance of which has almost touched the sky – in the use of complex space shuttles and satellites of different kinds.

K R Venkata Narasimhan, Madurai

Keep your tryst with libraries

To appreciate the importance of reading and making knowledge accessible to everyone, people all over India celebrate the “National Library Week” from November 14 to 20 every year Indian Library Association took the initiative of National Library Week in 1968 to bring awareness on the power of using libraries, under whose shadow raw individuals transform into refined citizens. These weeklong celebrations highlight the valuable role of libraries, librarians, and library maintenance staff in changing our lives and strengthening our communities around the globe.

Among the visionaries of the library movement in the country, librarian S R Ranganathan is considered as the “Father of Library Science” for his outstanding contributions towards library science. Ayyanki Venkata Ramayana is hailed as the “Architect of Public Library Movement in India”. He was instrumental in the formation of “AP Library Association”. He was conferred the “Granthalaya Pithamaha” honour and the Padma Shr.

Book is a lifelong trusted friend. They leave a deep impact on mankind and are responsible for enhancing our mood and knowledge. Book reading is one of the best hobbies that one can have. It is an indispensable skill that can help explore life from different perspectives.

Meanwhile, the National Library Week activities can include storytelling, quiz, book review, mass reading, book exhibitions, recognising authors/famous readers/librarians during this week. It encourages people to read in their leisure time to improve their income and health awareness and foster a happy family life. Book reading not only boosts our confidence levels but also our overall personality.

In the digital age information, reading has its own charm. It our responsibility to advise children to go to libraries to improve their reading skills and transform their lives.

Dr Burra Madhusudhan Reddy, Karimnagar

‘Indecent’ Kallakurichi MLA should be shunned

The disturbing allegations that an MLA from Kallakurichi in Tamil Nadu sent sexually explicit messages to the District Collector and attempted trespass at her residence represent a severe breach of administrative decorum. The alleged harassment of a senior woman IAS officer demands far more than closed-door party reprimands.

Equally indefensible is the prolonged inaction of Chief Minister Joseph Vijay and the TVK leadership. Shielding an elected representative rather than initiating a transparent, independent investigation erodes the safety and dignity of women in public service. Beyond the reputation of any political party, such brazen misconduct tarnishes the image of Tamil Nadu, a State long respected for administrative integrity. If a District Collector can allegedly face such intimidation without swift accountability, citizens are left questioning their own protection. The Chief Minister must order an impartial probe immediately to restore public trust.

Ranganathan Sivakumar, Chennai-603210

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The Hans India