ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends, Month of May has gone leaving most parts of the country high and literally dry. Water Crisis all over India did cause a major concern. There has been unscheduled rain in different parts of the country for just a day or two. While it did help, with rise in some ground water level, it also helped mercury level to go down. Hope it was not only a passing respite. The Month of June supposedly herald the onset of monsoon. Meteorological men have predicted more than normal monsoon. They were even very specific by saying it will be 4% more than normal. While they said, last week of May as the possible time of south-west monsoon to set in, now they have changed it to the 2nd week of June for the onset of monsoon. So what to take or what not to take is left to the reader. In any case the uncertainty is truly causing concerns. We need rain to come, soon and in plenty.  Month that went by saw elections to many states. Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu have seen elections t...

HARYANA: The recent Jat agitation for r eservation in government jobs etc has cost the nation thousands of crores in destroyed properties. The destruction of public property and loss of honour for some women folks has been due to many factors including the non-performance of both the police and official machinery of the state government. The Prakash Singh Committee which probed the Jat agitation has only proved the obvious. It has come up pretty fast with its report. Reportedly it has charged some 90 officers, both among police as well as government officials. Of course, the Committee has no punitive powers. It is for the government of CM Khattar to take the call. All are aware, Jat is a dominant and well off community in Haryana. There are bound to be many, who are Jats, both in Police and in State machinery, who not only remained plain onlookers but in some instance were party to the breakdown of law and order. It goes without saying that the duty of police and govt. machinery is ...

KASHMIR & PAKISTANI PERFIDY Two things happened since 31st March 2016. India lost to West Indies in the T20 cricket Semi Final in Wankhade Stadium in Mumbai. All over India, there was a feeling of little sadness, at least among cricket loving section of Indians, over this loss to the Caribeans. Indians were clear favourites for varieties of credits in their favour. But then cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties and as luck would have it, men in maroon pulled it off to the utter chagrin of Indians. It was a magnificent team effort. Hence the sadness of Indians, certainly the Indian team, was clearly palpable. In contrast to what happened in India, a group of students in NIT Srinagar, celebrated the Indian defeat rather than the victory of West Indies. They appeared to be clearly relishing the Indians loss. Why were they celebrating the Indian defeat? Do they also want India to lose in other spear as well? Do they also want India to lose to Pakistan, not just in Cricket, b...

Quantum World View Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com Science is the biggest enterprise that man ever created. Of all the living things on this planet man is the only one that seems to have started thinking about how this world works. To understand that he started this new adventure, called science, which was originally meant just to understand how this world works. Some exceptionally brilliant minds did accidentally tumble upon some understanding of the world’s laws, like gravity, buoyancy, and others. Next step was to find out how the world works by doing some experiments. That was the stage the western churches started obstructing their work as this kind of scientific enquiry, they thought, might interfere with the religious belief. That is where the first conflict between religion and science started. The fall out was that the scientists subconsciously developed an aversion to the God concept in religion and thus God was kept out of the scientific realm. Now that has...

Milk adulteration may be thing of the past NEW DELHI: The number of those adulterating milk in India, endangering lives of lakhs of children, are over. The Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) at Pilani in Rajasthan have developed a portable instrument that automatically scans milk samples within 45 second to detect detergent, urea, soap, soda and salt without the need to employ technicians. The scanner costs Rs 1 lakh and can detect the contaminants at a cost of less than Re 1 per sample. So far the milk samples were routinely tested through a range of commercial instruments that typically cost Rs 4.5 lakh and require technicians with chemistry skills to assess milk quality. The government has already put the new instrument in market with the help of a Jaipur firm. It was designed by CEERI as a challenge thrown up by the Niti Aayog (from Planning Commission) to the Indian scientists to develop a way of detecting adulteration in milk within three minutes ...

High-dose statin treatment can help restore sight London: A common cholesterol-lowering drug statin can restore vision in the patients with a hard-to-treat version of the leading cause of blindness in the developed world, according to a new research, reports ANI. Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School and the University of Crete have conducted a phase I/II clinical trial investigating the efficacy of statins for the treatment of patients with the dry form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The researchers found evidence that treatment with high-dose atorvastatin (80mg) is associated with regression of lipid deposits and improvement in visual acuity, without progression to advanced disease, in high-risk AMD patients. Their findings not only further the connection between lipids, AMD and atherosclerosis, but also present a potential therapy for some patients with dry AMD. Researcher Joan W. Miller said that they found that intensive doses of st...

Indians Understood Shakespeare Better Than United Kingdom London: William Shakespeare is understood far better in India than his birth country and the iconic playwright’s popularity in the emerging economies exceeds his fame in the UK, a new survey released recently has found. The YouGov poll for the British Council covered 18,000 people across 15 countries to mark the 400th death anniversary of the Bard this month. According to the report titled “All the World’s”, as many as 83 per cent of Indians said they understood Shakespeare, compared to just 58 per cent of Britons. The iconic playwright proved more popular in almost all emerging economies than in the UK. In Mexico, 88 per cent said they liked Shakespeare, compared with only 59 per cent of British people and 84 per cent of Brazilians said they found him relevant to today’s world, compared with just 57 per cent in the UK. More than a third of people questioned said Shakespeare made them feel more positive about the ...

INDIAN IN COWBOY COUNTRY THE HUNT Satish felt like a stranger on the campus where he had spent over ten years. Familiar security guards who a few months ago had waved him through now checked his credentials and called Billy’s office to ensure that he had an appointment. Though his visitor badge said that he needed to be escorted, in his case, they made an exception. He did not meet with Tim before his meeting with Billy, saying that he had a tight schedule. He told him that he would be happy to visit with him after his meeting. Tim offered to fill in the details on the telephone, but Satish politely declined to hear anything about it, saying he preferred to hear the details from Billy. Tim told him that he had just snubbed his best friend at Clark. “Never thought I’d see the day when you were so sensitive, Tim. I’ll see you as soon as I finish with Billy; that is, if you want to see me,” Satish replied. Tim bit his tongue and said, “Yes. Come by as soon as you are done. ...

Story of a sweeper- B.com, MA, M. Phil Mumbai: Beating all odds, a street sweeper employed with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) swept his way to success by securing an MPhil degree. After being awarded the degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), 36-year-old Sunil Yadav, who is deployed at Nana Chowk in Central Mumbai for the cleaning job, now aims to pursue a PhD degree to understand the problems plaguing the sweeper class and wants to find solutions to it. "I am elated on securing my MPhil. By doing PhD, I want to deeply study the social system that has marginalised our (sweeper) class in the society," Yadav, who secured seventh rank in his post masters' degree with 'Globalisation and Labour' as the subject, said. Even after securing a good rank, Yadav wants to continue with his job as a sweeper. Chronicling his arduous journey, Yadav said, "I got sweeper's job on compensatory grounds as my father, a BMC employee, wa...