In February 2000, Senior Scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), Dr. Bruce Robinson, encountered an unusual creature during a 8, 576 feet deep dive offshore of Monterey Bay that he had yet to see in his many years in the profession. Described as a “gelatinous blob [that] had a giant hood at one end, fingerlike projections at the other and colourful internal organs in between”, Dr. Robinson admitted to the New York Times, “we had no idea what it was.”
Over two decades of study later (which included the observation and examination of over 100 similar organisms), in November 2024, Dr. Robinson and his colleagues at the MBARI, finally landed on a conclusion: it’s a sea slug.
What makes the discovery startling to the American researchers however, is that it swims, lives in a deep water column and traps its food using its hood like structure. These features are only remarkable when we consider that other sea slugs (known as nudibranchs) typically crawl, float near the surface and consume food with a tongue-like projection.
The creature has now been newly christened ‘Bathydevius caudactylus’ and its remarkable characteristics led marine biologists to develop a brand new category of the nudibranch family (a mid-sentence exclamation point in parenthesis (!) to convey the thrill of such a development) to better understand and classify the organism.
Lastly, I can almost hear some curious readers muse, how did they land on this particular name? While ‘Bathys’ is the Greek word for ‘deep’, according to the MBRI, the latter portion of the name is to reflect the ““devious” nature of an animal that fooled scientists with odd features that pointed to anything but what normally constitutes a nudibranch.”
Dare I say we have a budding group of Dr. Robinsons in the midst of the Takshashila community too, dear reader? Our Pakistan Studies team has committed to doggedly exploring the deep-sea depths of Pakistan’s political power struggles, security dynamics, and foreign policy, and have neatly classified their findings in a brand new newsletter: Pakistan Paigham.
Follow the link for their maiden post analysing the 30-hour-long hijacking of the Jaffar Express en route from Quetta to Peshawar on March 11 by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), and keep an eye on their fortnightly releases - many more incisive pieces of commentary to come!
P.S.: Care to see the neutrally buoyant Bathydevius caudactylus in action? Follow this link.
Let’s Take on Tariffs…
In his latest column in The Mint, Takshashila Co-Founder, Narayan Ramachandran, tackles the unwieldy world of reciprocal tariffs. He argues:
The US should be the last country in the world to impose tariffs, even if other countries have such import barriers. The Trump tariff era is therefore a dangerous and ill-informed experiment. If it ends up being implemented, it will prove to be very costly for Americans. For other countries, the outcome of the US’s new trade policy will depend on which type of tariff the country is subject to.
To take a closer look at his timely analysis, follow this link.
The Vexed Nature of the India-China Relationship…
…is a result of two fundamental factors, opines Takshashila Chairperson for Indo-Pacific Studies Programme, Manoj Kewalramani, in his recent Op-Ed in The Indian Express where he tackles the India-China bilateral relationship.
Manoj ever insightfully observes:
First, there is clearly a difference in how both sides view the nature of the standoff in Eastern Ladakh and the broader boundary issue. For India, peace and tranquility at the border remains a prerequisite for building a stable relationship. Beijing, meanwhile, has talked about its intent to work with India to “jointly preserve the peace and tranquillity in the border areas”. However, its officials have also said that “we should never allow bilateral relations to be defined by the boundary question, or let specific differences affect the overall picture of our bilateral ties.”
Just like China seeks a new balance with the US, there is also a need for a new balance between the India-China relationship too. This is the second factor that makes deals on evidently straight-forward issues difficult.
And where does the analogy of the dragon and the elephant resonate amidst the rhetoric exchanged between both countries on the nature of their relationship with the other? To learn all this and more, follow the link provided.
A Rose by Any Other Name: All Things Policy Episode of the Week…
This week’s All Things Policy Episode of the Week we’d like to highlight is a sweet-smelling conversation (you’ll see in due course why this is) between Shambhavi Naik (Takshashila Chairperson of the Advanced Biology programme) Dr. Bob Allkin (Royal Botanic Gardens) and Dr. Megha and Varun (The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology).
Listen in to their fascinating discussion on medicinal plants including cultural context around the naming and use of such plants, regulation around its use and why the word ‘ambiguous’ comes up so often in their discussion.
Follow this link to listen in.
Takshashila Tabletop Trove!
As you may well know, this section is intended to be a virtual repository of the books that sit at a high-table located in Takshashila’s physical office space in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
This week’s Tabletop Trove of Dispatch is largely self-adulating, dear reader, and we’re featuring many of our very own Takshashila scholars, under the theme: Borderline Policy Syndrome, as curated by our Communications Managers, Wini Gurung and Sourav Mannaraprayil.
We The Citizens (Anupam Manur, Pranay Kotasthane, Khyati Pathak)
Smokeless War- China's Quest for Geopolitical Dominance (Manoj Kewalaramani)
The Sheathed Sword (Lt Gen Prakash Menon and Aditya Ramanathan)
Nitopadesha (Nitin Pai)
The Weirdest People in the World (Joseph Henrich)
But Wait! There’s More…
We have good news to share, dear reader. Our 4-week Introduction to Geospatial Science and Technology Expert Capsule Course is back on offer!
This online course begins on June 14 and offers you the opportunity to learn everything from geodesy (to accurately measure Earth's shape, size, and positioning) and key principles of geospatial policymaking to the fundamentals of cartography and how to interpret and create maps for various applications.
Apply here before April 30 and avail of an ‘early-bird’ scholarship!
This edition of the Dispatch was written by Kripa Koshy, Programme Manager for Takshashila’s Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy.