“Can a woman give birth to 100 children in one lifetime? Mahabharata says, 100 eggs were fertilised and put into 100 earthen pots. Are they not test tube babies? We had hundreds of Kauravas from one mother because of stem cell research and test tube baby technology. It happened a few thousand years ago. This was science in this country.”

G. Nageshwar Rao, Andhra University vice chancellor, delivering a lecture at the Indian Science Congress (January 4)

“While my son or CM HD Kumaraswamy or Deputy CM G Parameshwara’s children can study in English medium schools, you cannot ask the poor and rural populace to study only in Kannada medium. There cannot be two laws for the rich and the poor. Let the Sahitya Sammelana resolve to close down all English-medium schools and say all the rich and poor students should go to only Kannada-medium schools and I will give my assent to such a resolution.”

H.D. Revanna, Karnataka PWD minister, on the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana’s resolution to oppose government English medium schools (January 7)

“You can get yourself a degree and still not learn anything. You may not have a degree in life, and yet you can learn so much. Education should not be equated with degrees. It should be equated with learning, observation, understanding what’s good and what’s bad. Curiosity doesn’t require a degree.”

Rahul Dravid, former India test cricket star, reacting to the misogynist remarks made by cricketers Hardik Pandya and K.L. Rahul on a television chat show (Times of India, January 22)

“We can all agree that growth with equality is better than without. But India’s history shows that equality without growth can be worse than growth with inequality. Rapid growth has been a better antidote to poverty than soaking the rich.”

Swaminathan Iyer, well-known economics writer, on Oxfam’s India Inequality Report 2018 (Times of India, January 27)