Pallikkutam August 2021 issue is focussed on gamification in education. Games are known to improve critical thinking, problem solving and cognitive skills in all age groups. It has been increasingly used in industry, by governments and other organisations to spread important messages or create behavioural changes such as reduce vaccine hesitancy. Now it is increasingly being used in education through serious games which are either digital or non-digital. With this issue gamificaiton evangelist, Dr Manu Melwin Joy of CUSAT begins a new column titled Playskool to focus on different gamification apps and tools that can be used in education. Children share their expereinces playing board games and leading business journalist Joe Scaria writes on the positive and negative side of liberalisation of Indian economy while Limca record holder and caricaturist Sajjive Balakrishnan remembers his Malayalam language teacher who found out he had sent a post card seeking blessings of Sree Papaya Bhagavathy. In sports, we take a look at important events of July including the World Cup Football and Tokyo Olympics. What is wrong with our science communications through main stream media? And all the regular columns.