ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends The last month of the calendar 2015 is around. Indeed as usual, one that begins has to reach its culmination. Most of the 12 months of 2015, has been a roller coaster ride for world in general, and India in particular. Alarming rise of terrorist outfit ISIS has been a very dangerous development. Something is fundamentally wrong with the whole philosophy of this sickening outfit. Its cruelty has seen macabre dimension. The members, or can we call them animals involved in this outfit, are only driven by revenge for imagined or in some cases apparently real causes. Supposedly they are of Sunni denomination of Islam. But the forms of cruelty they adopt is most sickening. Fortunately for the world, the Ulema, all over the world, including those from Sunni group, has openly disowned and have exhorted the youth not to join this organization. Latest of the horror perpetrated by ISIS was the attack on Paris where close to 200 were killed and about a thousand injured. Reacting shar...

New Delhi: The mild tremor in the BJP headquarters, post Bihar election result, has to be taken seriously for the general well being of BJP. Just because, elders in the family are not contributing to the family kitty, they are not thrown out. This is Indian culture. Hence, if L.K Advani & company have asked for accountability of the Bihar debacle, it has to be addressed. The party in its own interest should have a brain-storming session. Or else, the erosion that has set in, will eventually impact the party nationally. It is an open secret that there is an unspoken discussion within the leadership so also rank & file of BJP on the way, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his chosen party president, treat their party leaders and functionaries. If the 2014 victory has gone into the head of Modi; as invincible, the Delhi defeat has not made him humble. Now that Bihar exploded almost on his face, it should have made him and his party president- chastened. Starting with sidelin...

Your comments under the caption ‘Patels, Ansari and Kalam’ (p16) in the issue dated October 2015 on Vice President Dr.Hamid Ansari’s address were very unfair, to say the least. As a citizen of this country I deem it my duty towards both the Muslim brethren and the learned Dr.Ansari to articulate my disagreement with your conclusions. First about the lecture. It was very informed, reasoned and without any rancour. There was no demand for reservation as you claim. Holding a constitutional position did not deter him from speaking on very sensitive issues of the challenges before the community (from which he incidentally hails) and the strategies to overcome them. He had called upon the leaders of his own community to adapt to a changing society. What he said, according to me, would be equally applicable to the Hindus. Dr.Hamid Ansari in the first part of his speech traced the historical perspective of the Muslims in India, their role in the Independence movement, the aftermath of the p...

BIHAR-ELECTION 2015 & THE WAY FORWARD I&C in its editorial extension, Month-in-Perspective of November 2015, had expressed its views, on the, then ongoing electoral battle in Bihar, and we quote, “It’s all out war in Bihar. Prime Minister Modi appears to be on a long term election mode. It is as if, ‘if he is not travelling abroad then he is at an election rally.’ His attack appeared to be, no holds barred. He is using his gift of gab, which none of the Prime Ministers of the past had, to the NDA advantage. But will it really be advantageous or prove antagonistic in the ultimate analysis! All political leaders try to mudsling at opponents, especially during election time. Some may stick and some may not stick. But the bad taste can linger. As a Prime Minister of the country, his responsibility at a sense of proportion, is far higher, than say Nitish Kumar or Lalu Prasad. Hence his ‘no holds-barred’ attack on all and sundry, especially Nitish & Lalu can have the B...

Humane definition of Health. Prof. B. M. Hegde, "It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it." I was attending a big conference, called the symposium, at the University of Central Florida Medical School, which had in attendance some of the leading lights of western scientific reductionist (vivisectionist) research. They ranged from those touched by Her Majesty's sword (Sir), or were Fellows of Isaac Newton's Royal Society to those that were nominated for the Nobel and are very soon to get it! Most of them talked about inflammation as the root cause of atherosclerosis! At the end it was my turn, a villager from India, to talk about definition of health. Who is interested in that dry subject where there is nothing to get at the end of the day? If all became healthy where is this trillion dollar business, the medi-business ? One by one the great researchers left the auditorium when I started and some ...

For Cultural reasons Horse Slaughter banned New York: Everyone has his ‘sacred cow’, even the American who ridicules the Indian’s opposition to cow slaughter. Only the American’s ‘sacred cow’ is the horse. Horse slaughter is effectively banned in the US through a convoluted budget tactic while two bills are pending before the US Congress to make it permanent. While the bill for an outright ban works its way through Congress, the present backdoor horse slaughter ban works like this: The budget that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama last year prohibited the Agriculture Department from spending money on inspecting horse slaughter houses. Without inspections, the slaughter houses cannot operate legally and that effectively banned horse slaughter. Twenty Republican and 50 Democratic representatives jointly introduced a bill in the lower house in April for an outright ban on horse slaughter and its export for butchering. Two senators from each of...

Coming together to fight hunger The government of India welcomed the Zero Huner Initiative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and was committed to supporting it, said Union minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs, Venkaiah Naidu. He was speaking at a session on Policy and Political Support for achieving the Zero Hunger Challenge during an international conference held at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai. The Zero Hunger Challenge launched by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012 encapsulates his vision for the future - a world free from hunger and malnutrition, where all people enjoy the fundamental Right to Food; and people’s livelihoods and food systems are resilient and able to withstand a changing climate. As the world takes on the challenge of achieving Zero Hunger by 2025, countries around the globe are committed to fre...

Pulses: India’s abject failure S S Tarapore Pulses are the main form of protein for the masses, yet it is no secret that per capita consumption of pulses has shown a singular decline from 70 grams per day  in 1961 to 30 grams in 2001; thereafter it rose to 43 grams in 2011 and has stagnated since then. Given that there would be skewed consumption across the income strata, there must be large tracts of the population which just cannot afford to buy pulses. With all the fancy data coming out about how deep is the penetration of cell phones in the rural areas, surely we need to give importance to what proportion of the population goes without any protein content in their consumption. It does not need a skilled medical practitioner to tell us that without any protein content in the diet, child development would be stunted. Of course, an elitist response would be that after all, there can be consumption of protein other than pulses- a Marie Antoinette approach. Such a callous app...

INDIAN IN COWBOY COUNTRY THE HUNT “Well,” Satish said, “What favor were you talking about?” “Even though you did not ask for a severance package, we are going to give you one. Billy has always liked you, and when you left his office, he insisted that I run after you and let you know that you have one,” Tim said. Satish, his arms still crossed and his chair slightly tilted back, said, “So, what’s my severance package? Two weeks?” Tim, who was perturbed that he and his good friend were on opposite sides of the table, said, “No, you get six months?” He almost lost his balance on the tilted chair, “What? Six months? I thought that’s what people with employment contracts were given. Senior executives.” Tim looked down at the table and whispered, “It does not end there, Satish.” “We are also going to give you access to an outplacement service that will help you in your job search,” he added. “Pour moi? For poor little Satish? What have I done to deserve this benevolence?...

Doctor grows new ears when there were none Washington: An Indian-origin doctor in the US has successfully grown outer ears from rib cartilage in an 8-year-old boy after a series of ‘miraculous’ surgeries.   Elijah Bell, a second-grade student at Frazer Elementary in Canton, Ohio, was born with bilateral atresia microtia, a rare birth defect where the outer ears are undeveloped, and, in Elijah’s case, had no openings to the middle and inner ear. On July 28, Elijah completed a final round of surgeries at Akron Children’s Hospital to craft a set of outer ears. Dr Ananth Murthy, director of plastic surgery at the hospital, made ears from Elijah’s rib cartilage. “We consider it to be a miracle in our family,” said Colleen Bell, Elijah’s mom.  “The changes we’ve seen in Elijah are really remarkable,” Bell said, adding that her son has a new outlook on life. Elijah’s middle and inner ear developed normally, giving him the ability to hear. But the lack of an opening meant tha...

Kids too have self-esteem Washington: By age five children have a sense of self-esteem comparable in strength to that of adults, according to a new study.  Since self-esteem tends to remain relatively stable across one’s lifespan, the study suggests that this important personality trait is already in place before children begin kindergarten, reports PTI.  “Our work provides the earliest glimpse to date of how preschoolers sense their selves,” said lead author Dario Cvencek, a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS). “We found that as young as 5 years of age self-esteem is established strongly enough to be measured and we can measure it using sensitive techniques,” said Cvencek. Researchers used a newly developed test to assess implicit self-esteem in more than 200 five-year-old children – the youngest age yet to be measured. “Some scientists consider preschoolers too young to have developed a positive...

Dead man wakes up before post-mortem Mumbai: The Sion hospital authorities have brushed aside all allegations of negligence and have put the entire blame on the police in the case of a 45-year-old man who woke up minutes before post-mortem at the hospital on Sunday. In fact, the hospital dean stated they found out the doctors were asked by the police to hurry up as they were busy with security preparations for the PM’s visit to the city. The chaotic situation and pressure from the police led to the doctor making the mistake. Dr Suleiman Merchant, dean of the hospital, said: “After investigation, we got to know that the doctors were under great pressure from the police and therefore the doctor committed a mistake owing to huge confusion. Also, the police didn’t even allow the doctor to keep the patient in the casualty section. The available doctor was a junior owing to non-availability of senior medical officer.” The patient was found by the Sion police near the ST bus stop a...