ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends, The old order changeth, yielding place to the new. The 2016 old man was flogged to welcome the New Year 2017. So, at the outset WISHING ALL OUR READERS, PATRONS & WELL WISHERS A GREAT NEW YEAR. 2016, has been an epochal year by any stretch of imagination, besides the usual ups and downs in politics, economics and of course the social tremors becoming slowly an essential concomitant of our day to day life. Looking back over the 12 months that has passed by, in January 2016 Donald Trump had made that audacious demand of banning entry of Muslims into the U.S. And come to think of it, U.S. voters have overwhelmingly voted the controversial real-estate baron into the WHITE HOUSE. Yes, the first coloured man Barak Hussain Obama, is vacating the American Presidential Palace this month after 8 years in the most powerful address in the world. He is the first coloured man to have occupied the 'whites-only' territory of Capitol Hill in Washington. Joe Klein of the TIME, c...

NEW DELHI: Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (IC AI) was in the news, post demonetization. They had issued an advisory that members of the institutes should refrain from ‘sharing or writing any negative personal views by way of an article or interview on any platform regarding demonetization’ This was thought to be proper as ICAI is part of Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and therefore of Government of India. But then ICAI is only technically part of MCA, and it has global membership. Being chartered accountants, they are certainly better placed than most people to appreciate or criticize the demonetization move. Their critical inputs -both positive and negative- could have only enlivened the public space and contributed positively to the ongoing debate on demonetization, all over the country. Thus the latest report ‘ICAI issues new advisory, removes controversial diktat’ is a welcome development. Hope these members of ICAI contribute positively on the raging debate. ...

"Universal (Uniform) Civil Code vis-a- vis Human Dignity& Where does the religion come in!?"(I&C Dec 2016) I couldn't agree more. See the following quote “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” said Dante Alighieri. -Prof. B.M Hegde, Former V.C. Manipal University. "DEMONETISATION" (I&C Dec 2016) Timely and well-written, as always . -Dr. Ravishankar Rao, Professor of English and Director,  International Students Centre, Mangalore University. My congratulations to you and your team for bringing out the 200th issue of your magazine. The event to commemorate this was very well organised and had a warmth to it. The sharing of thoughts by both Justice Santosh Hegde and Dr B M Hegde was very interesting. I was happy to be a part of this event and my good wishes to you and your team. -Kiran Navinchandra, Nitte University. "Universal (Uniform) Civil Code vis-a- vis Human D...

Fidel Castro & His Relevance to India A look at Cuban Health & Education Policies J. Shriyan All leaders the world over, have their share of admirers and those who despise them including those who hate them. These are human feelings and therefore it will be multi dimensional, like degree of likes, dislikes, hatred, etc. There is no exception to this aspect of public life. All leaders, who can be truly regarded as those who have left indelible footprints on the sands of time, surely for varieties of reasons, from Abraham Lincoln to Mahatma Gandhi to the latest victim of time Fidel Castro, there will be loads of positives as well as portions of negatives. None will be fully without criticism, since despite their superior contribution to the time they lived, they too are humans and therefore could have been victims of some human failings. But it is the larger picture that truly matters. In that sense, Fidel Castro, who passed away some weeks ago, was a towering personality wh...

Can we comprehend much more than we can grasp? Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com Science should try and understand Nature. That is the main purpose of science. Technology, on the other hand is for making money. It has brought lots of personal comforts to mankind. Therefore, it is venerated by all. Unfortunately, technology is pushing science beyond its calling of understanding nature to trying to teach nature a lesson or two to get the industry make a faster buck! In this bargain many scientists are being pushed to make science bend to the wishes of the vested interests, engineered by the greedy industry, unbeknownst to the scientists. A few scientists also join hands with the industry in their clandestine designs. This today is the bane of science. Basic science has changed a lot and has almost come closer to spirituality and eastern philosophy but the technocrats are resisting that wisdom to come to common knowledge. Our dilemma today is due to the confusion of having...

Terminally ill child dies thinking of X’mas in Santa’s arms Chicago: A terminally ill 5-year-old boy in the US state of Tennessee had his last wish fulfilled, dying in the arms of Santa Claus after he was afraid that he would miss Christmas. Eric Schmitt-Matzen, whose 136-kg frame and real white beard and curled mustache make him a popular Santa in Knoxville city. “When I got there, it was my job to make sure he got Christmas,” Schmitt-Matzen told NBC affiliate WBIR channel through tears. Schmitt-Matzen said he had just returned home from work about a month and a half ago  when a nurse at a local hospital called him and said she had a very sick child who wanted to see Santa. “He was more concerned about missing Christmas, than dying,” Schmitt-Matzen said. After he arrived at the hospital room within 15 minutes, Schmitt-Matzen asked the boy, “What’s this I hear you’re going to be missing Christmas this year?” That’s when the boy told him he heard he was going to die. “Well, y...

‘Samajhdaar Jodidaar’, the change with the changing mindset Suchismita Pai, Solapur Injustice is something that Ambika Umakant Gadve, 25, simply can’t tolerate. As she looks at the water pumps piled up in one corner of the panchayat office in Boregaon, she says, “My colleague and I have confiscated these. Water is for everyone and in this village each family gets equitable access to it. Installing a jet pump to steal more than one’s share is wrong and we will not allow it.” Gadve, a mother of two daughters, was voted to power as sarpanch (panchayat chief) of Boregaon in Maharashtra’s Solapur District in 2012 and ever since then she has turned her once backward hamlet into a model village where everyone has equal rights and a stake in the progress. So then what was it that brought about the remarkable transformation? How did Gadve decide to fight elections, defying years of status quo? What made the locals repose their trust in a female leader? It all began in 2010 when the Cen...

Titanic locker key sold for £85,000 London:  A key which opened a life-jacket locker on the ill-fated Titanic has been sold for a whopping 85,000 pounds at one of the biggest auctions involving Titanic memorabilia in recent years.  It was among 200 items from the liner sold at an auction in Devizes. The key had been predicted to fetch up to £50,000. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said the amount the key finally sold for “reflected its importance and unique nature”. The locker key had belonged to third-class steward Sidney Sedunary, from Berkshire, who perished when the Titanic went down in April 1912, after hitting an iceberg. Aldridge said “Without a doubt [he saved lives]. Here’s a man who sacrificed his life to save others.” The auction in Devizes was one of the biggest involving Titanic memorabilia for many years. RMS Titanic had been four days into a week-long transatlantic crossing from Southampton to New York when the supposedly “unsinkable” ship struck an iceberg ...

The above cheques represent the permanent subscription from 3 more of our earliest readers. While thanking these gentlemen for the trust reposed in the integrity of Issues&Concerns, we most humbly submit that, this amount of Rs. 10,000/- is being planned as seed money for a proposed setting up of co-operative society of subscribers. So that readers become the owners of I&C in due course.  As and when it happens, within the next 2/3 years, this amount shall be taken as share capital. The proposal is open to all subscribers.             -EDITOR

NASA growing lettuce in space Washington: NASA has planted lettuce on the International Space Station (ISS) to learn how to grow fresh food in space – which may help prepare astronauts for the future manned mission to Mars. Just as farmers on Earth are planting leafy greens for the fall growing season, astronauts aboard the ISS are planting their third on-orbit crop of red romaine lettuce, NASA said. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough initiated the Veg-03 experiment, one of his first science assignments as a new crew member aboard the orbiting laboratory. The study is a validation of the tools and procedures necessary to grow plants to provide fresh food for astronauts. As Kimbrough worked, members of the Veggie team watched from their consoles in the Experiment Monitoring Area located in Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. A live video downlink from the orbiting laboratory allowed the scientists to remotely watch Kimbrough’s actions an...

Sachin Janardhan Mandon, a BE with an MBA, is an Associate V.P with ICICI Lombard, his life partner Bhavana, a BE with also an MBA, a Regional Marketing Manager with MERCK International, and their only child Siddhant, a 1st std. student at Nahar International School are a happy and contented family of Hum Do Hamare Ek. Obviously they are comfortably placed professionals. Despite the level of comforts, they have made a conscious decision to limit their family to 3 only. They want to give their child the best they can give, with limited free time available at their disposal and comfortable resource capability for long term stability. Hats off to their vision. Indeed theirs is a silent service to the nation, as a model family with no demands on the nation’s resources. Small family is an empowered family. We at I&C wish them all the very best and a promising future to the blossoming Siddhant.                           ...

Robot to help patients walk Beijing: Scientists have designed a wearable lower-limb robot exoskeleton that features natural knee movement to help stroke and spinal cord injury patients regain ability to walk and strengthen their muscles. Wearable “robot-assisted training” is quickly emerging as a method that helps improve gait rehabilitation. Now, researchers from Beihang University in China and Aalborg University in Denmark have designed a lower-limb robot exoskeleton – a wearable robot – that features natural knee movement to greatly improve patients’ comfort and willingness to wear it for gait rehab. The robotic exoskeleton is intended to help, stroke patients strengthen their physical fitness, aid the rehabilitation training of paralysed patients, or to assist those who need help, performing daily activities. The team focused on the knee joint, one of the most complex mechanical systems within the human body and a critical player during gait. The knee joint’s motion is a...

THE PERSISTENCE OF CASTE A HISTORICAL OUTLINE Anand Teltumbde In their wake, however, the untouchables also articulated their rebellion, not only against Brahmins, but against caste in its entirety. The earliest form of the dalit anti-caste movement was in terms of a rejection of the theory of the so-called ‘superiority of the Aryan race.’ This was expressed by the assertion of dalit aboriginal identity as a highly civilized and peaceful people, once dominant in the country but later subjugated and enslaved through Aryan conquest. This movement took root in several parts of India, mostly independently. There was the Adi Hindu movement in the region now known as the state of Uttar Pradesh, the AD Dharm movement in South India, all making equalitarian tradition. The reverberations were felt even in regions where a movement with an explicit adi prefix had not arisen. In Bombay province, for instance, a pre Ambedkar dalit leader, Kisan Fagoji Bansode (1870-1946), emphasized points...

Probiotics may help you beat stress New York: Common probiotics sold in supplements and yogurt can decrease stress-related behaviour and anxiety, suggests new research, says IANS. “Our study has shown that simple probiotics that we normally use to keep our digestive tract in sync, could be beneficial to reducing our stress levels as well,” said Aaron Ericsson from University of Missouri in the US. In a series of studies, researchers tested how zebrafish behaved after doses of Lactobacillus plant arum, common bacteria found in yogurt and probiotic supplements. Studying how gut bacteria affect behaviour in zebrafish could lead to a better understanding of how probiotics may affect the central nervous system in humans. “Zebrafish are an emerging model species for neurobehavioral studies and their use is well-established in drug-screening,” Ericsson noted. In their first experiment, scientists added the bacteria to certain tanks housing zebra fish; other tanks of zebra fish receiv...

Talk on cash crunch but garland of new notes Lucknow: When BSP legislator Iqbal Ahmed from Chandpur assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnore district slammed demonetization and the problems it caused to the common people while addressing a public meeting, many in the crowd were shocked. What shocked them was not the legislator’s words but the garlands of new currency of Rs. 2000 and Rs 500 demonetization around his neck as he spoke. According to reports, Iqbal Ahmed, also a contractor, was garlanded with new currency by his supporters at a programme organized to celebrate his acquittal in a case. The matter came to light when photographs showing the BSP legislator’s smiling face with a garland of new currency went viral on social networking sites. The photographs showed Ahmed surrounded by his supporters with a garland of new currency. While the Opposition parties reacted strongly and demanded action against the MLA, Ahmed said that he had done no wrong. “My supp...