Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages.

The politician sidetracked the reporter with a story about duck hunting instead of a direct response to the question that was asked.

... the research policy paradigm was already well embedded in a competitiveness/innovation oriented understanding and an understanding of the so-called European paradox, that is, the conjecture that EU member states play a leading global role in terms of top-level scientific output, but lag behind in the ability of converting this strength into wealth-generating innovations.

The masculine functions as the negative term in the opposition, i.e. when the gender is not defined, the masculine is used.