ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends, We are into the month heralding the inset of monsoon. Hope as you read this, rain God must have arrived in the coastal district with his usual grand entry full of sparks and noises followed by torrent from the heavens. Met men have predicted ‘Normal to Excess’ rainfall all over India. Parched land in the Deccan is waiting to be quenched of its thirst. Hope, we do not have to wait for long, it comes soon and in plenty. NDA led by BJP and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has completed 3 years of its 5 yeas term on 26th of May. Hence, it is but natural for a balance sheet to be presented to the nation, although it’s more than half of its period, it is still too early to pass a judgement. There have been many initiatives, which is not likely to yield result yet. May be just before the completion of 5th year, a balance sheet of achievements and failures is in order. However looking back, it is possible to have list of positives and negatives of this 36 months of Modi governme...

  JAMMU&KASHMIR: The report in The Hindu, “Valley seethes at officer’s killing” , conveyed it all. Similar selective outrage has been the problem with Pakistan handling of its own terror groups. It is a case of ‘chicken coming home to roost’. Leadership, which is orchestrating the Valley’s response to unrest there, is learning it the hard way. Terrorism cannot be condoned if you think it helps you. The story of Valley supporting separatists and their hobnobbing with Pak based terror groups like Hizbul Mujahideen and LeT will come back to haunt them. Valley has been always selective in responding to security forces by pushing small children and its youth, and now college girls, to pelt stones at security forces. Now that one of their very own has been gunned down in their own midst by the same people they supported, will haunt them forever. Valley did not react when Pakistan made Gilgit Baltistan part of POK as Pakistan’s 5th state. Clearly it has shown the Muslim dimension ...

As usual 'Focus' in Issues & Concerns (May Issue) is both entertaining and informative. Your assessment of the likely Presidential candidates is balanced, detailed and dispassionate. And, I for one, wholeheartedly endorse your choice of a Technocrat in the person of Azim Premjee, someone who is eminently qualified and capable of providing the Government balanced and farsighted advice whenever compulsions of populist politics overtake long term interest of our nation.      -Norbert Shenoy, Mangalooru, Via Email I have been reading your English monthly “ISSUES&CONCERNS” regularly since more than about a decade. Since then it is my observation that the magazine has been maintaining the same standard quality with its issue based articles and other news bits. For a enthusiast reader it is like a tasty meal with many mouth watering dishes for a hungry man. ‘Long Live ISSUES&CONCENS’-    K Sharada Bhat, Udupi I am an avid reader of “Issues...

From One for the Road to None for the Road: A case of Judicial Overreach! J. Shriyan Disposing off petition to ban liquor vending on highways, the Supreme Court on 15th Dec. 2016, passed an order of around 8000 words running into 21 pages, while taking into account the unexpired period of vending licences. Quote “The states apprehend that premature termination may lead to claims for refund of licence fee for the unexpired term, with large financial implications. Hence we would direct that current licences may continue for the existing term but not later than 1 April 2017. We accordingly hereby direct and order as follows: (i) All states and union territories shall forthwith cease and desist from granting licences for the sale of liquor along national and state highways; (ii) The prohibition contained in (i) above shall extend to and include stretches of such highways which fall within the limits of a municipal corporation, city, town or local authority; (iii) The exist...

Black buck stops and makes it her home Nashik: You cannot miss the cute, little animal. She moves round the village, in a care-free manner, without fear of poachers. For the past few months, a blackbuck has made Mamdapur village of Yeola tehsil in Nashik district her home. And the villagers zealously guard the blackbuck like any other pets. They feed the animal and keep a watch on its activities, lest the deer strays out of the hamlet. “Blackbucks are easy targets for poachers and the villagers ensure that the deer is always around,” said social worker Prakash Gudaghe. Blackbucks are routinely poached in and around the area. One such case was reported in 2009. It was the villagers who caught the poacher and handed him over to the police. So, how did the deer land up in the village? Yeola tehsil is a drought-prone region and wild animals and birds come here in search of water. This deer came to the village a year back and has stayed put ever since. Farmers feed the animal and...

Does baby aspirin bring on heart attacks? Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com   “OF the terrible doubt of appearances, Of the uncertainty after all-that we may be deluded, That may-be reliance and hope are but speculations after all.” Walt Whitman It has been a fashion to prescribe baby aspirin (50-75 mg) daily in healthy people above the age of 30 for preventing a heart attack. A couple of decades ago Professor Cleland, cardiology professor at Southampton University had analysed the data and had clearly shown that while aspirin might or might not prevent non-fatal heart attacks, it definitely increases fatal cerebral haemorrhagic stroke in them by ten per cent! This did not deter the drug industry from coming out with their infamous “poly-pill” with the same aspirin in addition to rat doses of many other drugs in a single pill with lots of fanfare and propaganda claiming that a daily pill of this cocktail will keep death at a distance from the consumer. Thank God t...

Achievement under extreme hardship Harihara: She is Sushmitha, scored 90.5% in PUC science section. It’s been 13 years that she lost her father. They stay in a rented house in Vijayanagara and her mother Nagarathna has been everything to her. Though lost her husband, without losing her confidence gave good education to her two daughters, never making them feel the lack of love of their father. She is determined to give them higher education to make them stand on their feet. She prepares phenyl at home and sells it, whatever the money she gets out of it spends it for her daughters' education. Sushmitha, studied at Vidyadayini Institute. By studying hard without any tuition, her achievement is great. Sushmitha has written CET and NEET and would like to take up medicine if financial condition permits. ‘Everything up to mother’ says Sushmitha.                  Full Name: Sushmitha GM Son made his father forget the hard labour Kunigal: ...

Building home quickly Boston: MIT scientists have designed a new robotic system that can 3D print the basic structure of an entire building, an advance that would make building houses a faster, less expensive process.  The building could also be completely customised to the needs of a particular site and the desires of its maker. Even the internal structure could be modified in new ways, researchers said.  Different materials could be incorporated as the process goes along, and material density could be varied for optimum combinations of strength, insulation, or other properties.  "Ultimately, this approach could enable the design and construction of new kinds of buildings that would not be feasible with traditional building methods, said Steven Keating, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.  The system consists of a tracked vehicle that carries a large, industrial robotic arm, which has a smaller, precision-motion robotic arm at i...

Vaastu in IIT curriculum! Kolkata: Believe it or not, IIT-Kharagpur, one of the premium scientific institutions in the country, has plans to introduce Vaastu Shastra in its curriculum soon. “We wish to introduce Vaastu in our architecture syllabus so that it can be taught in classes,” the institute’s Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management (RCGSIDM) head Prof Joy Sen said. Vastu Shastra had its beginnings in the Rig Veda. “The science of Vaastu is the science of mathematics. Today, the whole world is looking at the concept of Vaastu which talks about the synergy between nature and civilisation. We want to make young generations aware of that,” Prof Sen added. Sen, who is also a professor in the department of architecture and regional planning of IIT-Kharagpur, said across the globe there is renewed interest in ancient Indian science. “So we are bringing up these theories before our students in class room lectures already. But we wish to formal...

Despite Political Power Sikhs are racially discriminated in Canada Toronto: A Sikh police officer in Canada had been denied a promotion into the senior ranks because of his race and cultural background, a media report has said. Staff sergeant Baljiwan Sandhu, a decorated officer with 28 years of service on the Peel police force, had sought a promotion to inspector in 2013, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario said that not only he had been denied a promotion but that Peel Regional Police did not consider the portion of work in diversity relations as “real police work.” The tribunal found that the officer’s cultural and linguistic background resulted in his superiors routinely seconding him for assignments involving the South Asian community.

Who will be the Next President of India? P M Kamath Who will be the next President of India? As long as the question is in the realm of speculation, any name is good enough to be considered. Constitution of India prescribes only a few qualifications to be a President. From the point of view this piece, first, he (wherever he is used, invariably it also means she), is to be a citizen of India. Unlike the American Constitution, it doesn’t prescribe him to be a ‘natural born’ citizen. Second, he ought to be 35 years of age and third, he needs to be qualified to be elected as a member of the Lok Sabha. So formally, very simple qualifications have to be fulfilled by any aspirant to be the next President of India. There is thus, no academic qualifications prescribed; as an example, late Gyani Zail Singh though a non-matriculate, became the President of India. According to Indira Gandhi’s Private Secretary, P C Alexander, Mrs Gandhi chose him for his loyalty to her; he had publicly s...

THE PERSISTENCE OF CASTE The Political Economy of Atrocities The Shaping of The Macabre Spectacle Anand Teltumbde After the transfer of power from the British to the Indian nationalist elite in 1947, the bourgeois-landlord state that came into being represented a compromise between the interests both of the bourgeoisie in undertaking modernization and of the landlords in preserving their control over rural India. Although under the stewardship of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, the state gained an overridingly modernist character, it could not disturb this balance beyond a point. A modernist constitution provided it a distinct vision for establishing an egalitarian order but was restrained in implementation by the imperatives of power dynamics. Capitalism, which elsewhere catalysed the fading of feudalism, had in India adjusted itself with pre-capitalist institutions such as caste, religious bodies and tribal custom - rather than confront them, it put the...

Zealandia, the new continent! Melbourne: A hidden realm as big as the Indian subcontinent that is submerged under the Pacific Ocean deserves to be recognised as a new continent ‘Zealandia’, according to a new study released. The 4.9 million kilometre region of the southwest Pacific Ocean is made up of continental crust, researchers said. The region is elevated relative to surrounding oceanic crust, has diverse and silica-rich rocks and a relatively thick and low-velocity crustal structure. Its isolation from Australia and large area support its definition as a continent – Zealandia. Today it is 94 per cent submerged, mainly as a result of widespread Late Cretaceous crustal thinning preceding supercontinent breakup and consequent isostatic balance. According to researchers including those from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and University of Sydney in Australia, the identification of Zealandia as a geological continent, rather than a collection of continenta...

Coast Guard caught not guarding Mumbai: A globe-trotting Russian couple on a yacht successfully dodged the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard and dropped anchor barely 500 metres from the Gateway of India. All this at a time when Mumbai has come under attack several times from the Arabian Sea and the authorities have been making tall claims that the city coastline has now been secured. The couple — Orlov Demitry (45) and Orlova Elena (39)—were on an adventure mission, but this is the same manner in which Ajmal Kasab and Co. landed in Mumbai in 2008 and butchered over 150 people. “The Russian couple claims to have contacted the Indian Navy as well as the Coast Guard before entering Mumbai waters. But they did not get a reply from either of these two agencies,” said Vijay Raghunath Dhopavkar, senior inspector of Colaba police station. It was local fishermen, who are now the eyes and ears of the security agencies, spotted the Russian duo and informed the Colaba police. The couple had...