ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends Looking back over the shoulder, at the road traversed, has its own sense of joy and the stillness of those haunting memories of trials and tribulations. We have just completed a major milestone at No: 15. Fifteen years that have gone-by, has no-doubt tried our spirit of endurance. But that has only made us stronger to face the future with fortitude. It has been a year since we have lost our dear MV Kamath, our friend, philosopher and guide. We do miss his benevolent presence. But then what can’t be cured has to be endured. So life goes on. The completion of 15th year has also changed our subscription profile. Paid readership has seen overall improvement, but not very encouraging, also those patrons who supported us initially shall be due for renewal on completion of 15 years. Hope they all will renew. 15th Annual issue was released by Prof BM Hegde, our editorial board member and former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University along with Dr Ronald Fernandese, President of ...

NEW DELHI: Since last fortnight or so, media is, almost on a daily basis, coming up with stories of literacy awards being returned by recipients. This is sequel to the alleged attack on litterateurs, especially post Kannada writer Prof Kalaburgi’s killing so also the alleged acts of violence on minorities and the alleged non-response of authorities (read Modi). We are a democracy alright, but we are a democracy for the haves and have nots are involved only on the voting day. And those who can talk or act, do it when they think they should. Fair enough. But are they victims of some set pattern of thinking! And media, being media, has its own agenda of promoting one set against the other. Objectivity was always the victim of this hype. Hence truth was not available in the public space. There were many who went with the awardees logic of returning the award and there were those who questioned their motive and its futility to convey the intended message. And here comes the controversi...

I read at least half a dozen periodicals but none of them as frank and bold like “ISSUES & CONCERNS”. Many hidden and unheard news items to know. This makes me to understand that the Editor and his team are well read and informed on day to day happenings around the Globe. I also admire the frankness and advice of Prof. B.M. Hegde in his articles particularly in respect of Medical Profession and Multinational Pharma Companies. In the September 2015 issue on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the People’s President, the Missile Man and a fitting man to receive Bharat Ratna country's highest award, is apprecialted. Wishing Good luck to you and your entire team of ISSUES & CONCERNS. Ambrose A Monis, Mumbai, via email. Dear All Ardent Readers of the Issues and Concern. It is indeed a triumph of personal endeavours to achieve what ordinary mortals like me cannot even dream to tread. Shri Shriyan has achieved an important milestone in his journey to create an awareness about the re...

COW: What is @ stake? Is there a scope for Give & Take! In the context of human civilization, cow has always been an animal which gave milk, which in turn helped us produce different products like butter etc. These have been the single most important sources of proteins for humans. There isn’t therefore, any dispute on this utilitarian aspect of cow-across the human spectrum. But it is also true that man in his masculine superiority always usurped things, which truly speaking not his. In this case, the milk that cow has, is the rightful claim of its calf, but man being man, in his terms of trade, denied this claim of calf and usurped it all for himself and his people. Of course, this arrangement of complete subjugation of cow and calf to the demands of man, is from the beginning of co-habitation of man and other domestic animals. No question asked. Besides the milk and its allied products, cow was reduced to the palate at the dining table, largely because it is a cheaper...

President Abdul Kalam has become immortal! Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com "Do something worth writing about or write something worth reading to become immortal." So wrote Benjamin Franklin. If that yardstick is applied Late President Abdul Kalam has already become immortal by both those two counts. In addition he lives in the hearts of every Indian child and youth because he loved them both most sincerely. Death, be not proud that you have been able to snatch him from our midst but alas, he lives in our midst. His childlike innocence, his transparent sincerity, his disarming universal smile, and his love for his motherland have made him the most popular President in recent times. Of course, there were great Presidents like Rajen Babu and Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan in the past. Probably the one unfulfilled wish in Kalam's life was his dream of becoming a professor in an IIT or Anna University and settle in Chennai after exiting the Rastrapathi Bhavan. That ...

15th Annual edition release of ISSUES & CONCERNS held in SDM College of Business Management, Mangalore. “Journalism supposed to serve the truth, but in India it seem to serve an interest” commented Prof B.M Hegde, former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University, after releasing the 15th Annual edition of ISSUES & CONCERNS, held at S.D.M. College of Business Management on 9th Oct 2015. Congratulating I&C for its non-stop persistence in publishing the magazine, month after month, year after year, for all the 15 long years, he remarked “it’s a miracle in Indian journalism, that almost a one man periodical could have travelled so long and that too in style”. Issues & Concerns has done pretty well in its concerns about Issues without fail for all these years. The courage shown to writing about the wrongs in public space is exemplary and therefore it deserves support of all participative readers. Stating “Do something worth writing about or write something worth reading to ...

INDIAN IN COWBOY COUNTRY TWO LINES “I don’t know why I spend so much time looking for coupons and saving money, and I don’t know why I send you to the grocery store. All you do is buy useless stuff and waste money.” She put the accursed plastic container in the refrigerator with a thud of displeasure, Seeta briefly looked puzzled. She wondered, for an instant, why her mother was so upset but went back to play with her toys on the kitchen floor. Normally, Satish would have reacted to his wife’s well-intended criticism and leaped into a rebuttal, arguing that, occasionally, he was allowed to make some impulsive purchase. Instead, he said nothing. He sat still as a slight, almost invisible smile of awareness crept across his face. He thought about Harry’s loss, Joe’s layoff and Quynh’s life when a phrase from his native Tamil, “Iru Kodugal,” crossed his mind. It literally meant “two lines,” but was commonly used to convey two unequal lines, one long and one short. The phrase wa...

Cells that re-generate liver without cancer risk New York: Scientists have discovered new type of cells which are an important part of liver regeneration, reports IANS. When healthy liver cells are depleted by long-term exposure to toxic chemicals, the newly discovered cells, known as hybrid hepatocytes, generate new tissue more efficiently than normal liver cells. Importantly, they divide and grow without causing cancer, which tends to be a risk with rapid cell division. “Hybrid hepotocytes represent not only the most effective way to repair a diseased liver, but also the safest way to prevent fatal liver failure by cell transplantation,” lead researcher professor Michael Karin from University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of medicine. The liver is the only organ regenerates after being damaged. Exactly how it repairs itself remained a mystery until recently, when researchers discovered a type of cell in mice essential to the process. The researchers also found simil...

Teen brilliance makes robotic arm New York: 17-year-old Indian-origin teenager has won accolades for an inexpensive robotic arm he created for his school science fair project in California State of the US. Nilay Mehta was awarded a blue ribbon award- an accolade that recognizes a student’s academic excellence in US schools – for his project. His project qualified for the Orange County Science and Engineering Fair where he won four first-place awards, Daily Pilot newspaper reported recently. Nilay, a student of Irvine Public School in California, spent over four months building and programming the robotic arm to replicate the movement of a human hand. “First I was confused about what direction I would go to, but I knew I wanted to do something in prosthetics. One issue I saw is that there were no lower-cost options,” Nilay said.   

Court should respond to collective cry of society: SC New Delhi: A court, while imposing sentence, has a duty to respond to the "collective cry" of the society as people await with patience to see that justice is done, the Supreme Court said as it quashed a High Court order to allow three persons to walk free in a case of abetment to suicide. The apex court termed as "casual and fanciful", the order of the high court to reduce the sentence of three years jail term of the three convicts to the period of nearly four months and 20 days, already undergone by them. "A court, while imposing sentence, has a duty to respond to the collective cry of the society. The legislature in its wisdom has conferred discretion on the Court but the duty of the court in such a situation becomes more difficult and complex. It has to exercise discretion on reasonable and rational parameters. The discretion cannot be allowed to yield to fancy or notion. "A judge has to ke...

Android Nanodegree scholarships New Delhi: Search giant Google and Tata Trusts launched a programme in partnership with Udacity under which 1,000 Android Nanodegree scholarships will be offered to developers. The Android Nanodegree is an education credential that is designed to help developers learn new skills and advance their careers in a few months from anywhere on any device at their own pace. Google said India being the second largest developer population in the world with three million software developers, has the potential to become the #1 (number one) developers population by 2018, with four million developers. “While India has millions of software developers, we still lag behind in creating world-class apps. Today, only 2 percent of apps built in India feature in the 1,000 apps globally and our goal is to raise this to 10 percent in the next three years,” Google South East Asia and India, VP and Managing Director, Rajan Anandan said in a statement. The Udacity Android...

In Gadchiroli Maoists are anti-development The death of Patru Durge, pro-development Dalit leader and deputy sarpanch of Damrancha Grampanchayat in a remote area of the Gadchiroli district, has asked his son Prithviraj Durge to step into his father’s shoes. Durge had been working relentlessly for the implementation of a lift irrigation project in the area and was allegedly killed by Maoists on April 19 this year. Since Durge’s death hopes for the lift irrigation project seemed to have dimmed. However, his son has now taken up the battle for development. A few other activists are also backing the said project, which is expected to bring development to the area and inspire others to promote development in Naxal-affected regions. According to locals, Durge had travelled to the state capital — Mumbai —and submitted a memorandum to authorities at the chief minister’s office, finance and water resource minister’s office for the implementation of the lift irrigation project in his vi...

A ‘bridge’ brings teenage girls closer to schooling Kulsum Mustafa Shabbo, 12, hailing from a nondescript village in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh (UP), had completely given up on her dreams after she, the eldest of five sisters, was pulled out of school barely two months after joining it. Her father Baitullah, a labourer earned just Rs 50-60 per day and could not afford the school fee. With a heavy heart she joined the other village girls, who worked at a nearby Zardozi (traditional embroidery done with gold and silver threads) centre. Ardous labour of seven to eight hours a day fetched her a meager sum, barely enough to ensure a square meal a day for the family. The fact that the work affected her vision and the fine needles punctured her fingers hardly seemed to matter to anyone. Not even to Shabbo, who worked through the day and even at night without a break, without any rest – weaving dreams in shiny threads for others, while she herself was bereft of any hope. The only luxary sh...