ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends At the outset wishing all our readers and the nation a GREAT & PEACEFUL NEW YEAR full of sustained growth with equity. Looking back over the last month’s happening, there was this touching article – close to 1000 words – in 'The Hindu' by one of the most respected judicial luminaries, Justice V R Krishna Iyer, on the reported statement by the Attorney General Goolam Essaji Vahanvati in the Supreme Court, to the bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia himself. Responding to the writ petition questioning the appointment of C.V.C., the Attorney General made this extra-ordinary oral statement on behalf of the central government, “If the criterion of impeccable integrity has to be included, then every judicial appointment can be subject to scrutiny. Every judicial appointment will be challenged”. It is only fair that Justice Iyer felt deeply outraged at this impudent utterance from the top legal spokesman of the Union government and by extension, of the country. His sa

CORRUPTION Can there ever be a way out? “Of the world’s 100 largest economies reportedly, 51 are now corporations, only 49 are nation states. The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the gross domestic product of the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa, and Wal-Mart now has a turnover higher than the revenues of most of the states of Eastern Europe. Yet few of us understand fully the growing dominance of big business, of how corporations across the world manipulate and pressure governments by means both legal and illegal, and how corporations are taking over from the state responsibility for everything from providing technology for schools to health care for the community”, commented publisher Harper Collins on the book “The Silent Takeover” by the economist Dr Noreena Hertz, an Associate Director at the Centre for International Business at the Cambridge University. “The Silent Takeover” according to them asks us to recognise the growing contradictions of a world divided between

So, said, Dr Mahesh Joshi Ladies and Gentlemen It is my great privilege to address this august gathering because of many reasons. For one, as a representative of electronic media I bow my head in respect to many doyens of print media here, who are considered as elder brothers of electronic media, in terms of both their experience and expertise. Secondly, in my long and trying association with Doordarshan, I have witnessed the birth of many newspapers, tabloids, magazines and journals. While, I have been invited for the ‘naming ceremony’, hardly there were further invitations for the first or second birth days. Therefore, the tenth birthday of a unique magazine, namely Issues & Concerns, deserves laudation and applause. As the Bhishmacharya of Indian press, Padmabhushan Dr. M.V.Kamath has rightly said in the 10th anniversary special of the magazine, “Ten years is a long term in the life of a magazine, especially a magazine like Issues and Concerns.” My hearty congratulations to it

Performativity Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36, Modern medicine, people believe, is very scientific; evidence based, and has a very robust research backing. That idea gets dinned into our heads, thanks to the medical claptrap. I would also like to believe that but, my fecund experiences inside the arena for five decades do not permit me intellectually accept it in Toto. The science of modern medicine is only statistical, evidence base is evidence burdened, and the research is repetitive and, many a time, is fraudulent. We are lost in labeling patients with a diagnosis; which seems to be central to all our actions there after, unmindful of the complex individuality of the owner of that diagnosis. The latter, our patient, should be our focus of attention and not so much his/her disease. “Do it-fix it” seems to be the goal, hereinafter called, performativity. Fixing w

.... cont. from last month INCLUSIVE GROWTH IN INDIA: WHY STILL A MIRAGE? - Dr. K. Shanker Shetty THE REMEDIES 1. It must be admitted in all fairness that it is the ultra – conservative approach of RBI, that has been hindering the process of bringing banking to remote areas. There is also a hesitancy and lukewarm attitude on their part to extend branches, banking correspondents and opt for technological options. There is a disturbing trend that in extending financial facilities, technology has been given backseat v/s safety in clitism and it needs to be reviewed. 2. Government when it talks of socialistic pattern and welfare society must not rest with only policy formulation as a populist weapon of vote bank politics. It is such an hypocricy under the shadow of democracy, that despite of budgetary allocation of thousands of crores of rupees since 1950s, on Health, insurances and pensions; social security schemes and welfare; employment generation etc. that such w

Garlic oil ‘may prevent heart disease in diabetics’ Washington: A new study has revealed that garlic has enormous potential to prevent cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease that is a leading cause of death in people with diabetes. Wei-Wen Kuo and colleagues note that diabetics have at least twice the risk of death from heart disease as others, with heart disease accounting for 80 percent of all diabetes-related deaths. Especially dangerous is diabetic cardiomyopathy, which inflames and weakens the heart’s muscle tissue. The study results indicated that garlic might help control the abnormally high blood sugar levels that occur in diabetes. They found that rats given garlic oil experienced beneficial changes associated with protection against heart damage. The changes appeared to be associated with the potent antioxidant properties of garlic oil, the scientists say, adding that they identified more than 20 substances in garlic oil that may contribute to the effect. The find appears in

Tantrik manages PAN, Passport Mumbai: The J J Marg police have seized a fake passport, a fake election card and a fake PAN card in the name of Mehdi Hasan, the Bengali tantrik Baba held for multiple rapes, all dating back to 1998 from his Kalyan residence in the metropolitan magistrate’s court in Mazgaon. Confirming that the 37-year-old had in his possession a fake election card and a fake PAN card bearing the address of his flat at Doodh Naka in Kalyan, sources said, “Following the discovery, the police have charged Hasan with forgery under IPC section 464 (dishonestly or fraudulently executing a document).” Hasan was arrested for allegedly raping seven women, including four minors and three others for the last five years. Apparently the girls underwent abortion on three occasions, following which one of them gained enough courage to inform her father. “The clinics where the abortions took place are a matter of probe and if these medical centres are found complicit in the crime, they

RTI paper shows cops in poor light Mumbai: A Right to Information Act (RTI) document unearthed by a non-government organisation Praja has brought to light startling statistics of the poor performance of the city police force. The 89 odd police stations in the city have collectively failed to contain crime in the last two years, the document said. Stating that in comparison to last year 2010 saw a rise in the number of cases of murder, molestation, housebreaking, chain-snatching, theft and vehicle-lifting, founder Nitai Mehta said at a press conference, “In the past two years till March 2010, there are 364 and 303 cases of rape and molestation respectively registered with the Mumbai police. While the number of rape cases between April 2008 and March 2009 came down by 64, this year the number of molestation cases has risen. Molestation cases between April 2008 and March 2009 were 105, but between April 2009 and March 2010 the same has risen to 198”. Sonia stops car to help injured siblin

Lazy brits lost three million jobs to immigrants London: Lazy and incapable Britons have lost nearly three million newly-created jobs to immigrants since 1997, a senior government official has said. Work and Pensions Secretary Lain Duncan Smith said it was a “sin” to give millions of jobs to foreigners. At least 70 percent of the four million jobs, created since 1997, had gone to immigrants because British people were not ‘capable or able’ to do them, the ‘Daily Express’ quoted Smith as saying. He said a new system would be put in place that would have tougher penalties for those who refused to take jobs. A programme will be introduced to help people return to the workforce, with some long-term jobless people required to do unpaid community work. But unemployed people who persistently fail to turn up for jobs or turn them down and refuse to apply will lose their 65 pound-a-week jobseeker’s allowance. The allowance will be removed for three months on a first offence, six months the seco

A journey down melody lane: Raju Bharatan M.V.Kamath For all one knows, there must be several in India who have lived through the times of New Theatre and Prabhat Talkies and are familiar with the songs of K.L. Saigal and Manna Day. And many more, perhaps who have followed the careers of the likes of Mohamed Rafi, Talat Mahmood and Hemant Kumar, not to speak of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar and Geeta Dutt. And one may be sure there are knowledgeable cine experts who can speak, if not authoritatively certainly with some finesse of an O.P. Nayyar, a Naushad, a C. Ramachandra and a pair like Laxmikant-Pyarelal. And who among them wouldn’t have heard of S. N. Tripathi and a Vasant Desai? All these are names deeply embedded in the hearts if not minds of film goers. And just sing one line like sawaan ke nazaree hain aaha aaha or Diwali phir aagayee sajnee or bol Radha bol sangam or mera jootha hai Japani or bole re paphihara and very likely there will be many who will sing the