MONTH THAT WAS

Gandhian on hunger strike dies

Jaipur: Former Janata Dal MLA Gurcharan Chabbra, who was on a fast unto death demanding liquor ban and strengthening of Lokayukta in Rajasthan, died at a hospital. Chabbra, 65, breathed his last at 4:30 am, Additional Superintendent of SMS Hospital, Ajit Singh told PTI. He was in a coma for the past couple of days and put on ventilator support, Singh said.

In a statement here, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the anti-liquor crusader died due to the “insensitive” attitude of the Rajasthan government.

“Had Rajasthan Chief Minister tried to meet him and persuaded him to end fast, Chabbra might have been saved,” Gehlot said. “A medical board of doctors which was formed to take care of Chhabra had decided to airlift him to a hospital in Gurgaon but before that, he died,” Rathore said. Chabbra’s family members have decided to donate the body to SMS hospital, he added. Deceased’s eyes have been donated after the death, he said.  PCC president Sachin Pilot also condoled the death of ex-MLA. “It is very unfortunate that a Gandhian leader died due to anshan which he began on October 2. The government had promised him to look into his demand but no step was initiated by the government,” Pilot said.

Burst Prevention Tech for Tyres:

Bhubaneswar: An accident usually occurs when the tyre of a speeding car bursts or blows up. There are technologies that help limit the impacts of punctures, but there is no solution to decrease the chances of tyres bursting due to overheating. However, a novel innovation has not only decreased the possibilities of tyres bursting but also takes care of punctures, dynamic wheel balancing, increasing fuel efficiency and its life. The invention of the burst prevention and puncture curative technology (BPPC) by TycheeJuno project, headed by an Odisha based innovator, has found its place among the top ten most popular entries in the Create the Future Design Contest 2015 NASA Tech Brief in New York on November 6. NASA Tech Brief is a joint effort of NASA and Society of Automobile Engineers International.“It has clocked more than 40,000 hours… and can also be retrofitted in any tubeless, self supported or auxiliary supported tyre,” TycheeJuno team leader Sameer Panda, who is doing his PhD from VSS University of Technology in Odisha’s Sambalpur district, said.

Udit Bondia, KN Panda and Smitiparna Satpathy are the other members of the team. The innovation may prove crucial in India, where 3,371 people were killed and and 9,081 were injured in 2014. The technology has an environmental advantage too. Panda said with TycheeJuno’s technology in 10 million vehicles, reduction in carbon emission due to decreased tyre replacement would be 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide per annum. “Improved fuel efficiency will result in the reduction of 200 million gallons of gasoline consumption, which means 1.634 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) and 500 tons of cancer causing carcinogenic lead (RoHS material) can be avoided,” said Panda.

Panda is now looking for strategic partners and investments to successfully commercialize the technology globally to save thousands of lives and decrease carbon footprints.

Thousands of young scientists from 60 countries participated in the international competition. Eight teams received the awards and 32 inventions found a place in NASA’s official publication in the special issue of November.

FDI norms in Defence: 

National Consensus Paramount

Noting that “there is no national consensus” on easing of FDI norms in the defence sector, the Congress  said it would not support the move as “we cannot have those checks removed” in such a sensitive sector. Senior Congress  leader Anand Sharma told reporters, “We make it clear this will not be supported, there is no national consensus. We are for FDI, we are for FDI in defence also but we cannot have those checks removed in a sensitive sector like defence. We cannot have scrutiny and cabinet committee approval done away with.” He said the UPA-II government had increased FDI in defence to 49 per cent but there was a condition that there would be scrutiny by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and Cabinet Committee of Security (CCS) approval.

Men and women in OECD countries live longer

 Paris : Rich countries have gained more than 10 years in life expectancy on average since 1970, a study released by the OECD said, but the United States ranked near the bottom in the latest ranking for 2013.

  Averaged across men and women, the US — at 78.8 years — was 27th in life expectancy at birth among the 34 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the intergovernmental organisation said.

Forty years ago, Americans lived a year longer than the OECD average, but today they have fallen well below the median, it said.

At the same time, the US outstripped other nations in per capita health expenditure, spending two-and-a-half times more than the average within the OECD, which also includes a handful of emerging economies such as Mexico and Turkey.

Life expectancy at birth measures, how long someone born today would live if current mortality rates continued to apply.

In reality, improvements in medicine means that age spans are likely to increase over time. Average lifespan across all OECD nations reached 80.5 years in 2013, an increase of more than 10 years since 1970.

Gutkha, pan masala: Celebrities on notice

Mumbai : The Global Adult Tobacco Survey of India (2009-10) has revealed that 31% of population above age-group of 15 consume chewable tobacco (gutkha, pan masala) whereas 7% of the population smoke cigarettes. Further, FDA Commissioner Harshadeep Kamble stated that like in the case of Nestle’s Maggi, actors who endorse gutkha and pan masala in advertisements will be given notices and an inquiry will be initiated.

In order to understand the opinions and issues of people in the states where chewable tobacco is banned, John Haffkine University Bloomberg School of Public Health Institute of Global Tobacco Control conducted surveys in Asaam, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Delhi. They learnt that while 81% population supported the gutkha ban in these states, 99% agreed that gutkha ban is for people’s benefit.

The survey also revealed that the Gutkha shops have said that the consumption of guthka has decreased among people, however, they have now shifted to cigarettes. Meanwhile, Kamble stated that advertising companies are misleading people by promoting gutkha and pan masala as mouth fresheners and also adding to the worries is the fact that there are no pictorial warnings about its harmful effects.

He said that notices will be sent to actors Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan, Govinda and Manoj Bajpai for starring in guthka advertisements, and added that their side of the story will be heard and they will be given a chance to explain themselves.

Karnataka Government Fails to Connect Students

Bengaluru: It was click-started with a bang, but computer education in government schools in Karnataka has failed to connect with students.

The State government, which wants to ensure enrolment of more number of students in government schools, has failed to provide adequate facilities like computers in schools. As a result, students of these schools have been left behind in terms of quality education.

According to a recent report of the District Information System of Education (DISE), only 55.74 per cent of the schools had computers, of these 30.68 per cent had Internet connectivity. The report was released by the National University of Education Planning and Administration in association with the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development.During a visit to many high schools in the city, it was found that even schools with computers made little use of them. And there were no trained computer teachers. Even though the Mahiti Sindhu project was envisaged in 2001 to impart computer education and provide Internet facilities, a majority of the schools lag behind sanctioned computer education in another 480 secondary schools during 2005-06, which was implemented in 2007-08. The project was hit by legal hurdles. He said the legal issues have now been sorted out and computers and internet facility would be provided to the schools soon.

But I smoked all my life & no cancer

New York: Researchers have identified a set of genetic markers that help even smokers live longer and protect them from deadly diseases such as cancer, reports IANS. “We identified a set of genetic markers that together seem to promote longevity,” said corresponding author of the study Morgan Levine from University of California-Los Angeles. The  study identified a network of single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (a DNA sequence variation occurring commonly within a population) that allow certain individuals to better withstand environmental damage (like smoking) and mitigate damage.“There is evidence that these genes may facilitate lifespan extension by increasing cellular maintenance and repair,” Levine noted. “Therefore, even though some individuals are exposed to high levels of biological stressors, like those found in cigarette smoke, their bodies may be better set up to cope with and repair the damage,”  Levine pointed out. Smoking has been shown to have drastic consequences for lifespan and disease progression, and it has been suggested that cigarette exposure may impact the risk of death and disease via its acceleration of the ageing process.

The new findings suggest that longevity, rather than being entirely determined by environmental factors, may be under the regulation of complex genetic networks which influence stress resistance and genomic stability.Genomic instability also happens to be one of the hallmarks of cancer pathogenesis, and so the same genes that may promote survival among smokers may also be important for cancer prevention.  This is consistent with the findings of the study, which showed that the genes identified were associated with nearly 11 percent lower cancer prevalence. The findings appeared in the ‘The Journals of Gerontology’, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.