MONTH THAT WAS

When doctors and nurse left a newborn to die

Mumbai : A newborn was charred to death after it was abandoned by the doctor and the nurse, who were travelling with it in an ambulance that caught fire due to sparking in the CNG kit of the vehicle. The shocking incident happened in Vartak Nagar in Thane. The sparking was followed by an explosion. The doctor and the nurse who were accompanying the infant jumped out of the ambulance when they saw the sparks flying out of the CNG cylinder, leaving the child behind in the vehicle. The Vartak Nagar police have filed an Accidental Death Report and are investigating the case to determine the role of the doctor and the nurse and the glitches in the ambulance that led to the horrific incident. They will also try to ascertain whether the CNG kit was faulty.

The baby boy, who was born at a Bhiwandi-based hospital, had been shifted to Vedant hospital in Vartak Nagar when its health started deteriorating. However, when there was no improvement in his parameters at Vedant hospital, the doctors asked the parents to shift him to Surya hospital. Following this, the services of an ambulance from Surya hospital were requisitioned; the ambulance with a doctor and nurse reached the hospital at 11pm. As the ambulance was about to leave for Mumbai with the infant in it, the doctor and the nurse, who had also boarded the vehicle, noticed sparking in the oxygen cylinder. In a state of  panic, they jumped out of the vehicle leaving the baby behind, said Thane civic body’s Regional Disaster Management cell chief Santosh Kadam. He added that soon after the vehicle caught fire and the baby died in the mishap; the doctor sustained 21 percent burns and the nurse 7 percent; they are both recuperating in the Thane Civil Hospital. The Vartak Nagar police are investigating the case to ascertain whether there was a malfunction in the CNG kit or poor maintenance that led to the mishap. “Since we do not have any clarity about who is the accused or what led to the fire, we have filed an ADR for now. Our probe is underway, following which we will take a final decision in the case,” said a senior police inspector from Vartak Nagar police station.”

Police Officer becomes Ambassador 

Mumbai : Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmad Javed has been appointed as the next ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of External Affairs announced on Friday. He is expected to take up his assignment shortly. Javed was appointed the city police chief on September 8 after his high-profile predecessor Rakesh Maria was shunted out because of the extra interest he was showing in the Sheena Bora murder case. He had even personally interrogated the accused in the case, which is unusual action on a police chief’s part. Javed is an upright officer and wears a different shade of khaki, literally and figuratively. Born into a royal family, Ahmed may have led a privileged life — he graduated from Delhi’s prestigious St Stephen’s college and joined the Indian Police Service in 1980 — but he is no stranger to the rough and tumble of Mumbai’s crime world. 

The city saw bomb blasts at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar during his tenure as additional CP (law and order). He also served the Delhi Police between 1983 and 1985 when the capital burned during the anti-Sikh riots in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

Can ‘Sin Tax’ become unviable? 

New Delhi : Beverages major Coca-Cola India said it will have to shut down some factories in India if the government accepts a proposal to impose 40 per cent ‘sin tax’ on aerated beverages. This is the first major case of a big company raising red flag against any provision of the proposed GST which is as such stuck in the political deadlock. “An acceptance of the Arvind Subramanian committee recommendations with regard to GST rate of 40 per cent on aerated beverages, will have a negative ripple effect on the entire beverage ecosystem…It will lead to a sharp decline in consumer purchase and for a demand driven industry it will mean a significant rationalisation of manufacturing capacity.

“In these circumstances, we will have no option but to consider shutting down certain factories,” Coca-Cola India and South West Asia Vice President, Public Affairs & Communication Ishteyaque Amjad said in a statement. “Arvind Subramanian Committee recommendations of including soft drinks in the 40 per cent GST category will make our industry unviable,” he added.Reiterating the India is one of its important markets, the company said: “The Coca-Cola Company believes in India and identifies it as one of its strategic growth markets. The Coca-Cola system in India has already invested more than USD 2.5 billion…Our system is on course to invest another USD 5 billion in India by the end of 2020.” A panel headed by Arvind Subramanian had recommended a three-rate goods and services tax (GST) structure of 12–17/18 – 40 per cent, the last category being for products like tobacco and luxury cars.However, beverages and snacks major PepsiCo said that though the tax rate of 40 per cent was high, it was confident that government will take a balanced view.

Police Arrests Suo Moto; the accused  

Chandigarh : A 21-year-old man was arrested for assaulting an elderly couple at their mobile shop in Chandigarh’s Sector 18 market, police said. Though many people were present in the market at that time, no one intervened to come to the rescue of the couple.

The assault on the couple, Joginder Pal Soni and his wife Santosh, was recorded on CCTV cameras and went viral on social networking sites and news channels, forcing the police to act.

The assaulter, Rajiv Kashyap, who is a neighbour of the couple, was allegedly drunk when he attacked them.

The couple, including the woman, was slapped over a dozen times. Kashyap also forcefully butted the elderly man on the nose with his head. He also damaged their shop and abused them.

“He hit me and my husband very badly. He broke my teeth. My whole face is swollen. My husband suffered a fracture in the hand. We were helpless. No one in the market came to help or save us from the assault,” Santosh told media persons after the incident.

“After the incident, we got the medical examination of the couple done. The entire incident was caught on CCTV footage. Both sides, under pressure from others, wanted to go for a compromise. But in view of the CCTV footage, which was so provocative and objectionable, the police took the initiative and registered a case (against the assaulter),” Chandigarh’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) R.P. Upadhyay told media persons here.

e-book regulation by SEBI

New Delhi: Capital markets regulator Sebi proposed norms to make electronic book mandatory for all private placement issues on debt basis, having a threshold of Rs 500-1,000 crore. The proposals are aimed at improving the "efficiency, transparency of the price discovery mechanism and also reduction of cost and time taken for such issuance." The move comes after the board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), approved a proposal to introduce primary market debt offering through private placement on electronic book. To begin with, the electronic book may be provided as an alternative to the existing mechanism. Subsequently, based on the performance and acceptability of such a book, this could be made mandatory for all issuers for issuance of privately placed Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs), which are proposed to be listed.

Muslim women demand ban on Polygamy

New Delhi : Seeking “justice and equality for Muslim women”, a Muslim group has demanded a ban on polygamy and compulsory registration of marriages to secure equality and dignity for Muslim women. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) said that Indian Muslims needed to have their own codified personal law “which ensures equality and dignity to Muslim women”.

“Almost all Muslim countries world over such as Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and even Bangladesh and Pakistan have codified personal laws governing marriage and family matters,” the group said.

“Thanks to the self-appointed conservative leaders, Indian Muslims are denied this opportunity. As a result, we see instances of triple talaq and polygamy in our society,” it said.

About three weeks ago, Supreme Court judges Anil Dave and Adarsh Kumar Goel asked the National Legal Services Authority of India to reply whether gender discrimination suffered by Muslim women should not be considered a violation of the fundamental rights under articles 14, 15 and 21 of the constitution and international covenants.

The letter to Modi said that from the Shah Bano case in 1985, Muslim women had never been heard in matters concerning their lives “thanks to the politics in our country.

“Certain orthodox and patriarchal males have dominated the debate on the rights of Muslim women and have stone-walled any attempt towards reform in Muslim personal law.

“In the process, the Muslim women have been denied their Quranic rights as well as their rights as equal Indian citizens,” it said.

It said justice for Indian Muslim women can be enabled through amendments to the Shariat Application Act, 1937, and the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 or a completely new enactment of Muslim personal law.It said the minimum age of marriage of girls should be 18 years and for boys, 21 years. The consent of both parties must be obtained without force or fraud.

Health camps & unethical practices

London : The sprouting “free health check-up camps” in India are just a tactic of pharmaceutical companies to push their products and are in violation of Medical Council of India guidelines, says a special investigative report in the British Medical Journal, reports IANS.

“Free” health camps for poor people in India have grown popular where local residents are invited to these camps that may include medical testing done by pharma representatives or technicians. However, the practice is unauthorised, as according to the Medical Council of India, only a registered medical practitioner can perform screening and diagnostic tests.

“We have evidence that unlicensed employees from several Indian pharmaceutical firms and from the Indian arms of Abbott, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, and Sanofi have tested patients at health camps,” said study author Frederik Joelving, a journalist based in Denmark.

Cipla acknowledged that its employees test patients, Joelving said. A Roche spokesperson said that Roche Diabetes Care India donates testing supplies to diabetes education camps but added that “people with diabetes who attend the camp test on their own, after having signed a written consent”. “Our sales representatives are not permitted to perform tests on patients in India,” Ransom D’Souza, a GlaxoSmithKline India spokesperson, was quoted as saying.

D’Souza added that last year the company removed individual sales targets for its representatives. Tests by untrained professionals can be dangerous. “This kind of behaviour can actually lead to harm to patients — over-diagnosis, misclassification [of healthy people as sick], iatrogenic harm of drugs,” Glyn Elwyn, a primary care clinician-researcher at the Dartmouth Centre for Health Care Delivery Science in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA, was quoted as saying.

The Indian subsidiaries of Abbott Laboratories have been particularly active in the push for screening, said Joelving, with each of the company’s business divisions organising health camps.In 2011 alone, the company says it screened more than 240,000 people for thyroid disorders. Meanwhile, sales of its flagship product Thyronorm (thyroxine) raced ahead of cheaper competitors in India.According to Leena Menghaney, a lawyer and India manager of Doctors Without Borders access campaign,