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By:

Anil D. Salve

21 March 2026 at 8:11:09 pm

A Drought of Wisdom in an Ocean of Information

We live in an age where information is everywhere. With a single click, we can access news from across the world, thousands of opinions, countless videos and endless claims. Knowledge has never been so accessible. Yet, in this overwhelming flow of information, something increasingly scarce is discernment-the ability to distinguish what deserves our belief from what deserves our doubt. Information and knowledge are not the same. Reading, watching or hearing something does not automatically...

A Drought of Wisdom in an Ocean of Information

We live in an age where information is everywhere. With a single click, we can access news from across the world, thousands of opinions, countless videos and endless claims. Knowledge has never been so accessible. Yet, in this overwhelming flow of information, something increasingly scarce is discernment-the ability to distinguish what deserves our belief from what deserves our doubt. Information and knowledge are not the same. Reading, watching or hearing something does not automatically make it true. We need the ability to verify information, understand its context, recognise its purpose and only then form an opinion. In the digital age, this ability has become one of the most important forms of wisdom. Social media has transformed the way information travels. WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms have made communication faster, wider and more accessible. But the same speed that connects society can also overwhelm it. Information often reaches us before facts do. A headline is read before the full story. A short video is watched without knowing what happened before or after it. A photograph is circulated without its original context. A message arrives with the familiar words, “Forwarded as received,” and within minutes it may reach thousands of people. By the time the truth catches up, the rumour may already have done its work. The problem becomes even more serious when misinformation is deliberately created and circulated. Rumours may be planted not merely to mislead individuals but to divert public attention from an important issue, create suspicion, damage someone's reputation or push society towards a particular narrative. A distraction does not always need to be completely false. Sometimes a small piece of truth is mixed with exaggeration, selective facts or emotional language. The result can be more powerful than an outright lie because it appears believable. This is how narratives are manufactured. Social media platforms can become powerful tools in this process. A repeated claim begins to look familiar, and familiarity is often mistaken for truth. A provocative post attracts attention. Thousands of reactions create the impression that “everyone” believes it. One emotional video triggers another, comments intensify the mood, and before facts have an opportunity to speak, public sentiment may have already shifted. This is where mob psychology enters the picture. A society can move from calm to anger, suspicion to trust, or optimism to fear with surprising speed. People who would ordinarily think carefully may react differently when they see thousands of others expressing outrage, fear or hostility. The individual begins to follow the crowd, and the crowd begins to reinforce the individual. The danger is not limited to negative emotions. The same mechanism can also be used positively-to mobilise people for social causes, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, public awareness and community action. Technology itself is neither wise nor foolish. Its impact depends on how information is created, amplified and consumed. The greatest danger, therefore, is not that we have too much information. It is that we may lose the habit of thinking while consuming it. We are increasingly becoming consumers of information rather than creators of thought. Everyone has access to information today, but access does not necessarily mean understanding. The boundaries between a rumour and a report, an opinion and a fact, popularity and truth are becoming increasingly blurred. A post does not become true because thousands of people have liked it. A video does not become evidence merely because it has gone viral. An opinion does not become a fact because it is expressed confidently. An idea does not become correct simply because it confirms what we already believe. This last point deserves particular attention. We often accept information not because it is accurate, but because it is comfortable. We are naturally attracted to information that confirms our existing beliefs and suspicious of information that challenges them. In the digital world, this tendency can be amplified by algorithms that repeatedly expose us to content similar to what we have already watched, liked or shared. Gradually, we may find ourselves living inside an information bubble where we hear many voices-but mostly voices that agree with us. That is not diversity of information. It is an illusion of certainty. Discernment does not mean doubting everything. It means thinking before believing. It means asking simple but powerful questions: Who is saying this? What is the evidence? What is the context? What may be missing? Who benefits if I believe it? And have I heard the other side? These questions may take only a few seconds, but they can prevent hours, days or even years of misunderstanding. This responsibility is particularly important for the younger generation. Children today are growing up in an environment of unprecedented information exposure. They can encounter more information in a few hours than earlier generations might have encountered in weeks. Therefore, education cannot merely teach students how to collect, remember and reproduce information. It must teach them how to question, verify, analyse and interpret it. A student who can write the correct answer in an examination may be academically successful. But a student who knows how to ask the right question is better prepared for life. The classroom of the future must therefore produce not merely informed students, but thinking citizens. They must learn that forwarding a message is also a form of responsibility. Sharing a post is not an innocent act when it can affect someone's reputation, create public fear or influence social behaviour. The challenge becomes even greater in the age of Artificial Intelligence. AI can generate information, images, audio and video with extraordinary speed and sophistication. The distinction between what is real and what merely appears real may become increasingly difficult. In such a world, human judgment becomes more valuable, not less. Technology can produce an answer in seconds. It cannot automatically tell us whether that answer deserves our trust. Some answers require experience. Some require context. Many require the ability to think independently. We have more information, more technology and more connectivity than any previous generation. Yet our real challenge is to preserve something technology cannot manufacture for us: the capacity to think for ourselves. The ocean of information will only become larger. The question will no longer be, “How much information do we have?” The more important questions will be: What should we accept? What should we question? What should we verify? And what should we reject? No technology can completely answer these questions for us. No number of likes can substitute for evidence. No viral trend can replace judgment. No majority can turn misinformation into truth. That responsibility belongs to human beings. Information can tell us what happened. Discernment helps us understand what it means, why it happened, what may be missing from the story and how we should respond. Perhaps, therefore, the greatest educational challenge of our time is not to teach people how to find more information. They already know how to do that. The greater challenge is to teach them how to pause-to pause before believing, to pause before reacting, to pause before forwarding and to pause before joining the crowd. Because sometimes the most intelligent response to information is not an immediate reaction, but a moment of reflection. The ocean is already around us. It is growing deeper every day. What we need now is not more information to swim through it-but the wisdom to know which direction to take. (The writer is the Principal of Podar International School, Ausa, Latur. Views personal.)

Tackling Biomedical Waste, Made in India

Writer: Dr. Sanjay Joshi
Dr. Sanjay Joshi
Sep 12, 2025
3 min read

While machines like Srjanam promise the future, NGOs like Enviro-Vigil have quietly ensured safer present-day practices.

In my previous article, I discussed the technologies hospitals use to safely treat biomedical waste — from microwaves and hydroclaves to autoclaves — each with its own strengths and limitations. While these systems have played an important role globally, questions of cost, scalability, and accessibility remain central challenges for Indian healthcare facilities. Building on that discussion, this week I turn to some exciting new developments and success stories in biomedical waste management closer to home.


One important driver of innovation in this field has been the Make in India initiative, which has also left its mark on biomedical waste management. In February 2025, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, inaugurated Srjanam—India’s first indigenously developed automated biomedical waste treatment plant, or rig, at AIIMS, New Delhi.


This innovative and environmentally friendly technology has been developed by CSIR–NIIST (National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram). It represents a significant step forward in the sustainable management of biomedical waste. The Srjanam rig can disinfect pathogenic waste, such as blood, urine, sputum, and laboratory disposables, without relying on costly, energy-intensive incinerators. Remarkably, it also leaves behind a pleasant fragrance, masking the otherwise noxious odours of toxic waste.


Once validated, the technology will be ready for large-scale deployment, pending approval from the relevant authorities.


Managing Thane’s Hospital Waste: How Enviro-Vigil’s Common Biomedical Waste Facility Became a Success Story

While Srjanam represents the future of cutting-edge biomedical waste management, equally inspiring are grassroots efforts that have quietly but effectively tackled the problem for years. One such example comes from Thane, where the NGO Enviro-Vigil has pioneered community-driven solutions.


Before concluding this series on hospital waste management, I would like to highlight the sustained efforts of a Thane-based NGO, Enviro-Vigil (Paryavaran Dakshata Mandal), which has been managing the city’s hospital waste for nearly two decades.


Enviro-Vigil was originally founded in the 1990s by a group of industrialists from Navi Mumbai. For reasons of their own, they later entrusted the organisation to us so that its environmental activities could continue. In 1998–99, Prof. Walavalkar and I, from Bandodkar Science College, Thane, together with Dr Vikas Hajirnis, a medical practitioner serving the poor in Chendani Koliwada, assumed responsibility for carrying the work forward. We were later joined by Mr Ravi Kadam and Mr Prasad Date.


Our initial focus was on raising public awareness in Thane, particularly around household waste management. Around this time, we also attended a two-day workshop on hospital solid waste management at Veer Jijamata Institute of Technology (VJTI) in Mumbai. The expert discussions and presentations proved invaluable for our later work.


By then, the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, had come into effect, placing the responsibility for establishing common facilities for the collection and treatment of biomedical waste with urban local bodies. Accordingly, Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) was tasked with creating such a facility for all government and private hospitals within its jurisdiction.


In 2000, Mr K. P. Bakshi (IAS), then Commissioner of TMC, entrusted us with conducting a survey to quantify the category-wise biomedical waste generated across hospitals. Aware of our previous work in waste management, he placed confidence in us to carry out the task. With full sincerity and with the active involvement of our college students, we conducted a comprehensive survey and submitted an exhaustive report. Following this, Enviro-Vigil was formally awarded the project of establishing a common facility for the treatment and disposal of biomedical waste—a responsibility we undertook as an NGO.


Read more about this in my next article. Until then, have a nice weekend.


(The author is an environmentalist.)

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