ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends, We are into the last month of the financial year 2015-16, supposedly the month of Budget – both Railway and General Union Budget, for 2016-17. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has presented his 2nd budget as Railway Minister on 25th Feb. Indeed for the 2nd time the incumbent Railway Minister presented his budget without any political colour. It was always the accepted practice of all former Railway Ministers to shower rail gifts for their States and Constituencies. Minister Prabhu has been professional. In many ways, its been a positive budget. There has been no raise in the passenger fare and freight charges. It has made both aam aadmi and Trade & Industry happy. Budget focused on overall safety of passengers with special emphasis on women. It also sought to provide all classes of passengers more travel options, like Antyodaya Express, a long distance fully unreserved super fast train service to benefit aam aadmi, besides other trains like HumSafar, Tejas & Uday. ...

NEW DELHI: ‘Rajnath Singh, meets Muslim clerics’ , was a news datelined New Delhi. Union Home Minister had reportedly called a meeting of these clerics to discuss about the growing danger of ISIS and its bad effects on India. These Muslim clerics were mostly from North, who could freely talk in Hindi and Urdu. Report informed that even those from South would be similarly met in the near future, including MIM chief and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi. This is indeed a wise move. It pays to bring these clerics on board while debating ISIS and related issues. It must provide open fora for all to allay their fears and concerns. Only then we can build bridges of understanding. Of course, there are cantankerous elements everywhere, who should be effectively asked to keep quiet and allow moderates everywhere with appropriate sense of proportion to debate. This is certainly a confidence building measure. It is heartening to note in the report that Muslim leaders have said that “the...

“National Herald and DDCA, Question of Answers”, (I&C Feb-16).  Both are interesting pieces, well-written. Author has an excellent ability to neatly summarise an issue. Quite comprehensive, yet pithily written.                                     -Dr. Ravishankar Rao, Professor of English and Director, International Students Centre, MangaloreUniversity . Mr. Editor, you are subtly transforming readers interested in I&C. The growing feedback response is the proof. And you are fair enough even to put the distressing comments. Glory to God. Feedback thoughts are always fodder thoughts. We all chew the cuds what we ate…. Differences of thoughts are free flowing in democratic (Demo-critic) set up. I sincerely appreciate you for what you have been trying, to bring change metamorphically. Prof. B.M Hegde’s articles always have an extra appeal though they appear to stick out like a t...

In the name of Freedom Is there any living being, from flora to fauna to the homosapiens, who does not crave for freedom!? Every living being blooms well when there is freedom. But like every activity in the living world, there are perimeters, borders, margins within which, it grows. Growth is inevitable until the day it stops when lifelessness or stillness creeps into the life. It is so for all, with life breathing in & out.  Among all living, flora, the animal kingdom, and humans, it is the last one, who has a sense of rational thinking, or a sense of distinguishing right from the wrong. This capacity is unique to only humans. Having accepted freedom as the sine-qua-non for the fuller and better growth of all living beings, it is very pertinent to ponder, since the capacity of man to be extreme, in either direction of evolution, there is a need to draw the line, an L.O.C or a Line of Control. While everybody likes to have a beautifully tended garden outside his ...

What is normal blood pressure? Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com “When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves-they threaten their own self-esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true.” Cheryl Hughes I have been wondering about this normal blood pressure for the last sixty years ever since I joined the I MBBS class in 1956. In the physiology class I was wondering what this normal blood pressure was and how did they find out the normal level in the first place? My teacher was not able to answer that to my satisfaction although she did not like my interference. Luckily those days the normal levels were much higher than now. I grew up in medicine and at some stage became a member of the International Society of Hypertension and met some of the “top” hypertensionologists to rub shoulders with them on an equal footing. None of them could quench my thirst. In t...

Electricity from Paper and Pencil Geneva: A small device made from household materials such as paper, pencil and a teflon tape can generate enough electricity to operate a remote control, says PTI. A team from EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) in Switzerland, working with researchers from the University of Tokyo, used these everyday materials to make a tiny device that can generate more than 3 volts of power. The simple, eco-friendly and inexpensive system can produce the same current as two AA batteries – enough to operate a remote control, researchers said. The principle underlying this system is well known: static electricity. When two insulators like paper and teflon come into contact, they gain or lose electrons. The system is made up of two small cards, where one side of each card is covered in pencil. The carbon serves as the electrode. Teflon is then applied to the opposite side of one of the cards. When brought together, they make a sandwich: tw...

Herbal drug & Lower cholesterol New Delhi: A cocktail of black pepper, grape seed and red yeast rice powders combined with a heart-friendly lifestyle can lower blood cholesterol by up to 30 per cent, a clinical trial in Medanta, The Medicity, a private hospital in Gurgaon near Delhi, has suggested. The trial, although based on a small number of human volunteers, has found that a 12-week course of treatment with a pill containing these herbal products and two vitamins lowered cholesterol to levels comparable with reductions observed through statin therapy. Dr Ravi Kasliwal, the chairman of clinical and preventive cardiology at Medanta and doctors from seven Indian hospitals who participated in the trial, documented it in Nutrition, an international research journal. Cardiologists have underscored the need to validate its results through larger studies, but say these preliminary findings suggest the pill – sold in the US as a nutritional supplement – could serve as ...

INDIAN IN COWBOY COUNTRY THE HUNT “I can understand being slightly off, but this is drastic.” “No, it is not,” retorted his wife. “It just happens to be larger than what you thought of yourself. You don’t know this, but there are certain chores you enjoy doing. There are others you don’t, but you do them with the same diligence that you do anything,” Monica said. “I learned it by observing my father. He has two simple rules. One, anything worth doing is worth doing well. Two, do it right the first time; you won’t have time to do it again,” he said. Monica continued, “And that’s why you took the tests, and did them honestly. Now we have the results, and I am sure you want to take advantage of them. That’s you, Satish; you will focus and do things well, not half-heartedly, even if you don’t enjoy it. But how long will you do things you don’t enjoy? Think about it.”  She held his hand firmly to show her support, and that she was not being judgmental. “Satis...