ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends, So, we are into the new financial year, beginning 1st April, the all fools day. Unlike other years, we have finished with the discussion on annual budget last month itself. Budget proposals can become operative from this month onward. There is lot to look forward to, in the month and the year ahead. Month that has passed has been a bit of roller coaster with election results causing bit of upheavals among political parties. We are all aware that most political parties are ganged up against the leader of the ruling combine at the centre. When the results started pouring in, it was a minor tsunami. Most political parties were swept off by the gushing BJP. Details are not needed to be repeated here. How this new political arithmetic is going to unravel itself has to be seen. Month-in-Perspective has been as usual. Many were left uncovered for want of space. The bizarre issue of former Madras High Court judge Justice Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan is taking weird dimension. A...

Jammu & Kashmir: Judiciary’s actions and inactions have been subject of debates for varieties of reasons. More often they end up giving judgement rather than justice. Judgements depend upon evidence provided. Again there too, it depends what is acceptable to judges, in their interpretation of what constitutes reasonable. Salman Khan was acquitted despite the statement of star witness, because, the star witness had died in the meanwhile and judge in his wisdom thought it cannot be taken on the face value. This was despite the lower court taking cognizance of star witness statement as conclusive evidence, since he was sitting next to the driver Salman Khan. Such judgements forces general public to think that there may be factors at work which help forces working for the accused. Similar case happened in Kashmir. Three minor girls had accused a self styled faith healer Gulzar Ahmed Bhatt alias Gulzar Peer, of having sexually exploited them at his Budgam Seminary. He was arrested on...

Khairlanji: Shame of a Nation Story of Bhotmange Family Massacre Speaking to the nation, on the eve of Independence Day on 14th Aug. last year, President Pranab Mukharji, among other issues, touched upon the “Attacks on weaker sections that militate against our national ethos, are aberrations that need to be dealt with firmly”. He was generally commenting on the status of dalits vis-à-vis the violence perpetrated on them in different parts of the country by members of the upper caste. Some weeks earlier, visuals of four dalit youths in Una in Gujarat, made to stand in line and beaten with sticks and rods for the ‘crime’ of skinning a dead cow, had gone viral. It had greatly disturbed the national consciousness. But then this has always happened for all these post independent years of close to seven decades.  Yes, there have been well meaning laws meant to protect disadvantaged sections of our society. Despite legislations, attacks on and suffering of, dalits have continued un...

Happiness is to make others happy. Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com “Happiness is ecstatic as a scientist who had just discovered the key to immortality.” Susan Fromberg Schaeffer I needed a house keeper and it was so difficult to get one. In the bargain I ended up telling many of my friends to help me to get one. I have such wonderful neighbours that they keep feeding me when I do not have any caretaker in the house. I was in a Catch 22 situation three days ago. Three of my friends got me servants on the same day. All of them were assured of my job by my friends. I could not afford three servants with my non-pensionable retired life. But I could not have denied any of them a job as they were very much looking forward to a job. If I put myself in their position I could imagine how each one of them was hoping to build his/ her career based on my job. I chose one of them for my job and assured the other two a job within a couple of days and had all of them with me ...

Taking Chances: Why & How Washington D.C: A new study has shed light on what’s going on inside our heads as we decide whether or not a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis located a region of the brain involved in decisions made under conditions of uncertainty, and identified some of the cells involved in the decision-making process. The work could lead to treatments for psychological and psychiatric disorders that involve misjudging risk, such as problem gambling and anxiety disorders. “We know from human imaging studies that certain parts of the brain are more or less active in risk-seeking people, but the neural circuits involved are largely unknown,” said senior author Ilya Monosov. “We found a population of value-coding neurons that are specifically suppressed when animals make a risky choice.” Value-coding neurons are cells whose activity reflects the value of a stimulus – in this study, the...

Pollution deaths: China, India leading New Delhi: Over half of the deaths across the world caused by air pollution were in India and China where 2.2 million people died in 2015, a study said. Air pollution contributed to 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2015, making air pollution the fifth highest cause of death among all health risks, including smoking, diet, and high blood pressure, the report published by the Health Effects Institute has said. “The analysis found that China and India together were responsible for over half of the total global attributable deaths,” the first annual State of Global Air Report by the institute said. “The study also finds that increasing exposure and a growing and aging population have meant that India now rivals China among the highest air pollution health burdens in the world, with both countries facing some 1.1 million early deaths from air pollution in 2015,” India’s New Delhi and China’s Beijing are the world’s most polluted c...

Indian Civilisation The ancient civilisation of India founded itself very expressly upon four human interests; first, desire and enjoyment, next, material, economic and other aims and needs of the mind and body, thirdly, ethical conduct and the right law of individual and social life, and, lastly spiritual liberation; kama, artha, dharma, moksha. The business of culture and social organisation was to lead, to satisfy, to support these things in man and to build some harmony of their forms and motives. Except in very rare cases the satisfaction of the three mundane objects must run before the other; fullness of life must precede the surpassing of life. The debt to the family, the community and the gods could not be scamped; earth must have her due and the relative its play, even if beyond it there was the glory of heaven or the peace of the Absolute. There was no preaching of a general rush to the cave and the hermitage. But it is perfectly true that Indian culture has always s...

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Dairy products with Vitamin D prevent bone loss Boston: Consumption of dairy products like milk, cheese and yogurt along with Vitamin D supplements may protect against bone loss among older adults, researchers including one of Indian origin have claimed. Researchers found that vitamin D stimulates calcium absorption, which is beneficial for building bones and preventing bone loss overtime. The findings, by researchers including those from University of Massachusetts Lowell in the US, could lead to better care for people over 50 years of age diagnosed with osteoporosis, a disease characterised by low bone mass and progressive deterioration of bone tissue. For those affected, osteoporosis can lead to increased risk of fracture, loss of physical function, decreased quality of life, and even death, researchers said. “This study is significant because in addition to milk intake, it also examined the association of other dairy foods such as yogurt, cheese and cream with bone mineral...

Vision of vision to millions Los Angeles: Scientists have developed a new eye implant, using arrays of silicon nanowires that sense light and electrically stimulate the retina, which may help restore vision in millions of people worldwide. The advance brings us a step closer to restoring the ability of neurons in the retina to respond to light. The researchers from University of California San Diego and US-based startup Nanovision Biosciences showed response to light in a rat retina interfacing with a prototype of the device in vitro. The technology could help tens of millions of people worldwide suffering from neurodegenerative diseases that affect eyesight, including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and loss of vision due to diabetes. Performance of current retinal prostheses to help the blind regain functional vision is still limited. “We want to create a new class of devices with drastically improved capabilities to help people with impaired vision,” said Gabriel...

THE PERSISTENCE OF CASTE Beyond Varna: CASTE IN THE 21ST CENTURY Anand Teltumbde An Ancient Imperative At one level, Khairlanji is not unique. It could even be termed an unconscious reenactment of the primordial punishment of the shudras, and, by implication, of the untouchables, ordained in scripture two millennia ago. The crime of the Bhotmanges was simple- they were dalits who dared to assert their dignity. In so doing, they breached a code that ideologizes and rigidifies inequality by divine sanction, with divine wrath following all transgression. Contrary to the image of India as a nonviolent society, violence has always been intrinsic to the Hindu societal structure- it is not for nothing that Hindu gods are depicted in temple sculptures and in popular calendar art bearing deadly weapons and engaged in macabre acts of destruction. Hinduism’s adherents would argue that this violence is against evil and is reassuring to those who are virtuous. The definition of w...

30 million to remain single Beijing: About 30 million Chinese men will have to look for brides outside China in the coming decades or end up single, a researcher warned. The number of unmarried Chinese men aged between 35 and 59 will reach 15 million in 2020 and 30 million in 2050, Wang Guangzhou, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said. Poorly educated lower class men are far more likely to end up single, he told state-run People’s Daily. This is because males who only have a primary education or below increased to 15 per cent in 2010. Yuan Xin, a professor at Nankai University and expert on family planning policy, told state-run Global Times that the number will likely exceed 30 million in 2050, as gender bias in favour of males at birth is still high in China. The national gender ratio between males and females at birth peaked at 121.2 males to 100 females in China since 2000, while the standard ratio set by the UN is between 103 and 107 males for every ...

Political workers on Private-sector payroll Mumbai: The Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has been caught in a trouble with social activist Anjali Damania accusing that Thackeray’s driver and domestic workers of ‘Matoshree’ were on payroll of Cambata Aviation. Vinayak Raut, Sena’s Member of Parliament and president of Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS) admitted that the driver and other workers were on the payroll of Cambata. Raut added they too have lost their salaries. Damania alleged that along with the driver, six other people working at ‘Matoshree,’ the official residence of Thackerays and 15 Sena workers were paid salaries by Cambata Aviation without working for that company. Damania further alleged, “Initially we did not have a proof. Now we have the salary slips of all these people. It makes me feel sick. How compromised these people are? See the way they talk in their rallies and in actual life, all they do is loot.” She further accused the Sena’s Union of not sparing the inn...