ISSUES AND CONCERNS ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಕ್ಷಕಿರಣ

THOUGHTS ON SIBLINGS Beijing: In the very beginning of 2016, China bid farewell to its decades-long one-child policy, allowing all couples to have a second child. The change will surely affect the lives of millions of Chinese families, especially those already with a kid. What do China’s little boys and girls think of the likelihood with a younger brother or sister? Recently, an elementary school in China’s Guangdong province asked its third-graders to answer the following question in a Chinese exam: “What if your parents come to tell you that they hope to have one more baby in the family? What will you say to them? Give your reasons.”Among all the 134 students who took the exam, 71 percent said they would like to have a sibling. 42 students even specified which gender they prefer, according to Xinhua news agency. Meanwhile, 35 children, which made up 26 percent of all the respondents, said explicitly that they don’t want their parents to have a second child at all.Be...

Four year old punished to sit on hot iron slide  Eluru (Andhra Pradesh): In a shocking case of corporal punishment, a four-year-old student sustained serious burns on her private parts after she was made to sit on an iron playground slide – burning hot in the sun – by her teacher in Andhra Pradesh.  The only fault of the four-year-old girl was that she urinated in her classroom. The girl is a kindergarten student at the Hope English Medium School in Eluru town. On learning about the incident, angry kin of the student and locals reached the school and protested against the school authorities. They demanded an explanation from the school management but got none, following which the parents of the girl lodged a complaint with the police. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Saritha said a case was immediately registered under relevant sections in this regard.  “As per our police inquiry, we have registered a case and we will continue the inquiry. It is...

Worst than Chambal dacoits New Delhi: Lashing out at regional transport offices (RTOs), Union Minister Nitin Gadkari termed them as the most corrupt in the country and said they indulge in loots bigger than those of dacoits of Chambal. “RTO is the most corrupt organisation in the country. They are indulged in loot surpassing even what the dacoits did in the forests of Chambal,” Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said while giving vent to his anger over large scale corruption at RTOs.  Peeved at delay in implementation of the new motor law, he said once the Road Transport and Safety Bill is enacted, it will reform the entire sector. The vested interests opposed to transparency and computerisation in the transport sector are against the new bill and “I am pained to say” that RTO officials have provoked ministers in the states to oppose the bill, he said at the Jagran Forum of Dainik Jagran here.  “I feel guilty conscious… Nowhere driving li...

U.K moving towards true Secularism London: Britain is undergoing a post-religion era with most of its citizens not following any religion, according to a new survey, reports PTI.  The poll, conducted by YouGov last month with a sample of 1,500 across the British population, including recent immigrants, found almost half (46 per cent) have no religion, up from 42 per cent in February 2015 and from 37 per cent in January 2013.   The figure rises to more than 50 per cent among white British, The Sunday Times reported. The increase in agnosticism is most pronounced among those aged under 40.  “There has been a revolutionary generational change in our religious identity from the norm being Christian to the norm being ‘no religion’,” said Linda Woodhead, professor in the sociology of religion at Lancaster University, who will officially unveil the figures at the British Academy lecture. In her address, “Why ‘no religion’ is the new religion,” she will argu...

Tax planning for New Year A N Shanbhag Most taxpayers tend to defer their tax saving investments till March and then rush into putting their money into something with the sole objective of saving tax for the current year. The result of this is, at the end of the day, you end up tax saving but not tax planning. Take for example Sec. 80C which is anyway the only meaningful deduction left. Under this section, as most of you would know, any investment up to Rs. 1.50 lakh made in certain specified instruments can be reduced from your taxable income. There is a long list of eligible investments including an employee’s provident fund contribution, tuition fees paid for children, principal portion of housing loan installments, investments made in Public Provident Fund (PPF), Equity Linked Saving Scheme (ELSS), National Savings Certificates (NSC), Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, Post Office Term Deposits, Life Insurance Premiums paid etc. Using 80C optimally So how should an inv...

Mt Everest Shrinks 28% Beijing: Glaciers on Mount Everest, source of major Asian rivers like Brahmaputra, have shrunk by 28 per cent over the past 40 years due to climate change, according to a report. The glacial shrinkage area is compared to the measurements taken in the 1970s in the report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Hunan University of Science and Technology, and Mount Qomolangma Snow Leopard Conservation Centre. The glacier area on the south slope of the world's highest mountain, in Nepal, has decreased 26 per cent since the 1980s, the report said. Part of the report, which was released now, also said Mt Everest, known as Mount Qomolangma in Tibet, has been getting warmer for the past 50 years. Kang Shichang, a researcher with the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences under the CAS, said the data was based on long-term remote sensing and on-site monitoring. At present, there are 1,476 glaciers in China's Mt Qomolangma...

WHEN SPELLING ERROR TURNED INTO TERROR London: A spelling mistake landed a 10-year-old boy in the UK in trouble. The boy, who has not been identified, was questioned by the police in North West England for mistakenly writing that he lives in a “terrorist house” instead of “terraced house” during an English lesson in school. It emerged that it was a spelling error as he meant to write terraced house, in reference to an architectural style in England of rows of identical homes with shared side walls. The boy was interviewed by Lancashire Police at his home in Accrington the following day and the family laptop was examined. “There were not thought to be any areas for concern and no further action was required by any agency,” a Lancashire Police statement later said. The UK government’s anti-radicalisation strategy and the 2015 Counter Terrorism and Security Act place statutory duty on schools and colleges to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. Teachers have been ...