ISSUES AND CONCERNS ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಕ್ಷಕಿರಣ

Yogi Adityanath Backs Salman Gorakhpur: Under attack for his comments in support of Pakistani actors working in Bollywood, Salman Khan has found an unlikely ally in firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath, who too has said India’s fight is against terrorists and “not against art and culture”. “Our fight is not against art and culture, it is against terrorism,” Adityanath said here. Adityanath, who is also the head priest of Gorakhnath Peeth, voiced his views on the issue during an informal chat with reporters.

Public Sector to take 49% stake in Adani Group’s Dhamra LNG project New Delhi: State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and gas utility GAIL India Ltd signed pacts to take 49 per cent stake in Adani Group’s Rs 6,000-crore Dhamra LNG project in Odisha. IOC will initially take 39 per cent and GAIL another 11 per cent equity in Dhamra LNG Terminal Pvt Ltd and the remaining 50 per cent will be with Adani Group. “Going forward, IOC and Adani Group will each divest 1 per cent of their respective stake to a credible financial institution which will then have 2 per cent stake in the terminal,” IOC Chairman B Ashok said at the MoU signing ceremony. The 5-million tonne a year liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal is targeted to be built by 2020. “Apart from equity, IOC and GAIL intend to book regasification capacity of 3 and 1.5 million tons per annum respectively in the terminal,” he said. Gas imported at the terminal would feed IOC’s three oil refineries at Barauni in ...

He forced on a 90 year old Widow Kollam (Kerala): In a shocking incident, a 90-year-old widow, who is a cancer patient, has been raped here in Kerala by a man who was armed with a knife, police said. The woman too told the media that the crime was committed by someone who knew the layout of her house. “The accused entered my house through the back door. This can be done only by someone who knows the house well,” she said. “I pleaded with him not to harm me but he did not listen… I want the police to arrest the accused,” she said. Kollam Rural Superintendent of Police Ajitha Begum told the media that police officials had taken the victim’s statement. “An FIR has been registered. We will probe the incident,” said Begum.

Making a Difference Bhavana Uchil Mumbai: Contrary to the belief that municipal schools lack good teachers, we find teachers from the city’s municipal schools go out of their way to give a better quality of education to their students. Rajesh D. Bujad, Principal, Bajaj Road BMC Marathi School, Kandivali West, a teacher for the past 24 years, Bujad goes from Aurangabad, Pune, Latur to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in search of the best ways to teach children in his school. His school is one of the 200-odd BMC schools in the city which have started using the activity-based learning method of teaching children. His chamber has a stock of materials needed for teaching in this method called ‘constructivism’. “We teachers mostly spend from our own pockets for getting these materials,” he says pointing to jars full of colourful beads of different shapes and colours. He has also made a blog which is useful for teachers. Called ‘Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika Shikshak Mitra’, in the two mo...

On a busy road man stabs with a scissor & nobody stopped him New Delhi: A Delhi court sent a man to police custody for four days for allegedly murdering a 21 year-old woman by stabbing her 22 times on a busy road here in front of hoard of onlookers. Metropolitan Magistrate Muneesh Garg remanded 34-year-old Surender Singh to police custody after the cops produced him before the court and apprised him about his crime. The brutal murder, which was captured in CCTV camera, took place when the victim, Karuna Kumar, a teacher in a North Delhi school, was going for her work, police said adding that Surender had been stalking her for over 18 months. Police said Karuna, along with her cousin Neha, was on her way to work when Surender attacked her with a pair of scissors near Labour Chowk in Burari. As Surender caught Karuna off guard and plunged the single blade of scissors in her body, a man rushed to stop him but soon backed off fearing attack on himself. Within about three minutes...

THE PERSISTENCE OF CASTE A HISTORICAL OUTLINE Anand Teltumbde An often-overlooked feature of caste society is that it did not actually include every member of a given population. No matter the despised position of those at the lowest end of the varna spectrum, to not find even such ‘inclusion’ was no blessing. Caste society did not cover India’s geographically isolated adivasis (its indigenous tribes people, who lived in forests and in inaccessible mountain regions), and those who, though part of the economic system in terms of labour relationships, were excluded from all other interaction because they were ‘untouchable’ and even ‘unseeable’. Any contact with members of this group, even their sight, sometimes even their shadow, was held to be ritually polluting and abhorrent; elaborate purifications would be undertaken if such occurred. To this group were assigned tasks such as the removal of waste (including human excrement from dry latrines), butchery, the flaying of anima...

Fixed thoughts can cause insomnia & worsen pain London: Individual beliefs can play a potential role in worsening insomnia and pain experiences in patients with chronic pain conditions like back pain, fibromyalgia and arthritis, a team of researchers has found. “I won’t be able to cope with my pain if I don’t sleep well,” is the common way patients with chronic pain conditions think, the researchers said, reports IANS. “Thoughts can have a direct and/or indirect impact on our emotion, behaviour and even physiology. The way how we think about sleep and its interaction with pain can influence the way how we cope with pain and manage sleeplessness,” said Nicole Tang from the University of Warwick in Britain. While some of these beliefs are healthy and useful, others are rigid and misinformed. Such conditions can be effectively managed by cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), the study added. Based on these beliefs, the team developed a scale — pain-related beliefs and atti...