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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 9:59:04 pm

Fatal Negligence

Newborns dying in a fire inside a government hospital is a devastating indictment of a system that is supposed to protect its most vulnerable patients. The Amravati District Women’s Hospital tragedy, where a blaze killed three infants, joins a long list of preventable institutional failures. Thirty-nine babies were inside the three-compartment facility when the fire erupted after a ventilator in the neonatal unit caught fire. Thirty-six were eventually rescued. Parents and eyewitnesses have...

Fatal Negligence

Newborns dying in a fire inside a government hospital is a devastating indictment of a system that is supposed to protect its most vulnerable patients. The Amravati District Women’s Hospital tragedy, where a blaze killed three infants, joins a long list of preventable institutional failures. Thirty-nine babies were inside the three-compartment facility when the fire erupted after a ventilator in the neonatal unit caught fire. Thirty-six were eventually rescued. Parents and eyewitnesses have alleged that the fire alarms did not sound and the automatic sprinklers failed to activate even as the district administration has said the hospital underwent regular fire audits and had applied for this year’s audit. An audit is meaningful only if it establishes that equipment works when lives depend on it. Maharashtra has already witnessed the deadly consequences of fire-safety failures in public hospitals. In 2021, eleven Covid-19 patients died in a fire at the Ahmednagar district hospital even though a fire audit conducted months earlier had recommended a firefighting system. The Amravati tragedy demands more than the familiar ritual of a high-level inquiry, compensation and promises of “strictest action”. The announcement of ex gratia payments cannot compensate parents who have lost a child they had barely begun to know. The investigation must establish not merely what ignited the fire, but why it was allowed to become fatal. Was the ventilator properly maintained? Were electrical and medical devices routinely inspected? Did alarms function? Were sprinklers operational? Was the NICU appropriately located and equipped for evacuation? Were staff trained and drills conducted? And most importantly, who was responsible for ensuring that every safeguard worked? There is another troubling detail: the neonatal unit was reportedly housed on the third floor, rather than at ground level, and questions have arisen over whether the unit was part of the building’s original plan. The state has built an elaborate architecture of laws and child-protection standards which seldom matches the situation on ground. Whether in government hospitals, schools or anganwadis, safety has become a box to be ticked rather than a responsibility to be lived. The most vulnerable children are consequently left dependent not on systems, but on the vigilance and heroism of individual staff members. That is an appalling way to run the childcare infrastructure of one India’s most developed states. A NICU is perhaps the worst possible place for institutional complacency: its patients are immobile, medically dependent and extraordinarily vulnerable to smoke, heat and even brief disruption of life-support equipment. The government must ensure that the Amravati deaths do not become another entry in the grim ledger of hospital tragedies followed by inquiries, outrage and forgetting. The real test will be whether the state can prevent the next newborn from dying in a hospital that was supposed to save him.

Chess Troika Inspires A Generation

Celebrating National Youth Day today, we look at three young chess stalwarts - World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi. After performing well in the Global Chess League in Mumbai held from December 14-23, 2025, at the Royal Opera House, they participated in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships held in Doha, Qatar, from December 26-30, 2025 where Arjun won a bronze medal in each category.


Gukesh Dommaraju from Chennai became the youngest world chess champion at 18 years, beating Ding Liren for the crown in December 2024 in Singapore, shattering the previous record of 22 years which was set by GM Garry Kasparov in 1985.


A chess prodigy, Gukesh earned the Grand Master title at 12 years, becoming the second youngest to do so. Gukesh became the challenger to the world championship in April 2024 by winning the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament with a score of 9/14 which also made him the youngest-ever Candidates Tournament winner.


“Going into the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Doha, Qatar, I had some good practice from the Global Chess League in Mumbai recently; played a few rapid games against some very strong opponents. My strategy would be to just play fast and try to focus on each game and make the most of it,” said the 19-year-old, who had defeated Magnus Carlsen in the Norway Chess tournament earlier in 2025.


After starting playing chess at the age of seven, Gukesh won the under-12 title at the World Youth Chess Championship in 2018. He followed it up with multiple gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championship. He became an International Master in March 2017.


His rise in the chess world has been truly phenomenal. In 2019, after becoming the second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game, after Sergey Karjakin, he was part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in the men’s team competition.


An easily approachable, well-mannered and humble world chess champion, Gukesh won the team bronze and the individual gold medal at the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022.


This remarkable string of successes earned Gukesh the top-rated Indian player spot in the September 2023 rating list, ending Viswanathan Anand’s 37-year record.


In the 45th Chess Olympiad in 2024, he won both team and individual gold medals. In his early playing days, Gukesh’s father, an ENT surgeon in Chennai, quit his job to accompany and encourage his son during chess tournaments.


Fetched Fame

Twenty-year-old prodigious Indian chess Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (often called R. Praggnanandhaa or Pragg), clinched the Global Chess League 2025 title, beating defending Champions Triveni Continental Kings in the finals.


The young chess star from Chennai, famous for defeating Magnus Carlsen multiple times in rapid/online formats, including early wins as a child. He has secured a Candidates spot for 2026 by being the top FIDE Circuit player.


Known for his aggressive style, he became the second Indian ever to cross the 2700 rating mark. He says, “I’m ambitious. I want to win tournaments when I’m playing, after all the hard work that I’ve been putting in for years.”


An Arjuna Award winner, Pragg won the World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 title in 2013, earning him the title of FIDE Master. He won the under-10 title in 2015. In 2016, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest international master in history, at the age of 10.


Being introduced to chess by his elder sister Vaishali, they are the first brother and sister to earn grandmaster titles, with Praggnanandhaa doing so in 2018 and his sister doing so in 2023. They are also the first brother and sister to qualify for the prestigious Candidates Tournament.


A chess prodigy, Pragg won the second place in the 2023 Chess World Cup. He was also part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in the men’s team competition, and the gold medal in the open section at the 45th Chess Olympiad in 2024.


Flying High

The 22-year-old Arjun Erigaisi, from Warangal, Telangana, kept the Indian flag flying high in Doha during the 2025 World Rapid and Blitz Championships, where he won a bronze in both categories. Congratulating him on his wins, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “His skills, patience and passion are exemplary.”


Arjun Erigaisi has been growing from strength to strength. In 2021, he became the first Indian to qualify for the Goldmoney Asian Rapid of the Champions Chess Tour 2021.


In November 2021, Arjun emerged third out of 82 players in the Lindores Abbey Blitz Tournament at Riga. In March 2022, he was crowned the Indian National Champion by winning the 58th MPL National Championship of India 2022 with a score of 8½/11. He went on to win the 19th Delhi Open, in the same month.


At the Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September 2024, his performance rating of 2968 earned him an individual gold medal and helped India to win their first ever team gold medal at the Olympiad.



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