The telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal observatory form a virtual mirror of 130 metres in diameter, and a previous attempt to link the telescopes last March had failed.

 The link-up was the system’s scientific verification, which was the final step before scientific work starts.

 Linking all four units of the VLT is expected to give scientists a much more detailed look at the universe as compared to previous experiments using just two or three telescopes to create a virtual mirror.

 The process that links separate telescopes together is known as interferometry. In this mode, the VLT becomes the biggest ground-based optical telescope on earth.

 Besides creating a gigantic virtual mirror, interferometry also greatly improves the telescope’s spatial resolution and zooming capabilities.

FOR MORE READING. . 

But the Congress’ main worry will be on the popular reaction in UP, not only because it is the biggest state which is seen to indicate who will rule in Delhi but also because the party’s heir-apparent, Rahul Gandhi, has invested so much of his own and his party’s political capital on achieving success in the state. If the party falters, it cannot but undermine Rahul’s chances of rising further up the political ladder.

Of the two factors – caste and corruption – which are crucial in UP, Rahul’s focus has been mainly on the latter although the fact that he is not averse to playing the caste card was evident when he reminded the audience that Sam Pitroda, chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, was born in a carpenter’s family.

The Congress has also been trying to wean away the Most Backward Castes (MBCs) – Koeris, Lohars, Nishads, Mallahs and so on – from the Yadav-dominated Other Backward Castes (OBCs) to undercut Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the ati-Dalits (where ‘ati’ stands for extreme) like Passis, Koris, Doms and others from the Jatav or Chamar-dominated Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) of Chief Minister Mayawati.

But since the corruption charges against her government have been the focal point of the Congress’ campaign, the Supreme Court’s verdict cannot but deflate the Congress to a large extent. It isn’t only that the allocation of a precious natural resource was “stage-managed”, as the court has said, but the prime minister and the finance minister acted apparently like helpless spectators as their rogue cabinet colleague ran amok.

It is this failure of governance, which has made a mockery of the hallowed principles of collective responsibility and the prime minister’s status as the primus inter pares (first among equals) which will provide excellent grist to the opposition’s mill. The BJP will undoubtedly make the most of it. However, it is doubtful to what extent its diatribes will sway the UP voters outside its own support base in the mofussil areas because of its limited influence in the state.

At the national level, of course, the BJP will make the most of the judgment even if it is still running scared of how the scandals involving its former Uttarakhand chief minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank”, will be reflected in the ballot boxes when they are opened next month. It will also be aware that the Congress will continue to harp on the fact that the first-come-first-served process of spectrum allocations began in 2003 when the BJP was in power at the centre. Even then, the BJP has received a golden opportunity to carry on its anti-corruption campaign against the Congress as when it shared a platform with Anna Hazare.

Where UP is concerned, the BSP will be most pleased because the judgment will take some of the heat of its own follies which made Mayawati sack 21 of her ministers and spend millions of rupees on the construction of her own statues and of her party’s election symbol, the elephant, which have been a constant target of Rahul Gandhi’s jibes. Now, with the Congress running for cover, she can breathe easy. Of the others, the Samajwadi Party will gloat in silence because the discomfiture of a prospective ally with whom it can form a government will place it in a stronger position.

None of the parties is likely to spend much time on the implications of the judgment on the mobile services because the subject is largely beyond the layman’s ken. In any event, it will be months before the fallout in terms of prices and portability is known. There will probably be a belief that the government will try to ensure that the mobiles, which have become such an indispensable item of daily life, remain affordable, not least because a large section of the less privileged – vendors, washermen and autorickshaw drivers – use them.

However, more than the corruption charges that have battered the government for more than a year and were seen to infect many sectors apart from the telecom department – the Commonwealth Games, Adarsh housing society etc – what the latest judicial indictment has done is to hugely diminish the prime minister’s stature. Even if he has been personally “exonerated”, as Subramanian Swamy has noted, the electoral impact of the disclosure that he held the wheels of the government with a limp hand cannot but hurt the Congress.

“India should be aggressive on energy efficiency. If energy is used differently, if energy demand is managed properly, you don’t need to build as many power plants as you need today,” Yumkella, who was in India, told IANS in an interview.

“If you promote the three principles of access, efficiency and increase in the share of renewable energy, India can be one of the global leaders in the energy revolution going forward in the next two decades,” he added.

The Indian government has started doing its bit. It is today among the top five countries in wind energy. The ministry of new and renewable energy has set an ambitious target of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020. The government is also promoting biomass plants that can produce one to two MW of power to change the energy mix.

Yumkella, who was in New Delhi to attend the “Delhi Sustainable Development Summit”, said companies and funds would be interested to invest in green infrastructure in India, if the government frames promotional policies for the sector.

“There are two sources for funds. We have almost three trillion dollars in cash in a number of companies, funds around the world, which are hesitant to invest because of the global financial crisis. I believe with well-defined policies countries like India with a huge market can attract a huge amount of that cash,” Yumkella said.

Clean energy investments in India reached $10.3 billion in 2011, about 52 percent higher than the $6.8 billion invested in 2010. This was the highest growth figure of any significant economy in the world and had been put down to improving cost-competitiveness of wind and solar, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

Yumkella suggested that India should export its green technology solutions to developing countries in Africa and Latin America.

“India has some good programmes like to use waste, biomass to generate electricity and others. These can be scaled up and this would become useful to the rest of the world.

“I should add that your Prime Minister in particular has been a chief driver of South- South corporation. As I speak, my agency is working with Indian firms and taking these energy solutions to Africa.”

Industry experts say India with its technology base should accelerate the development of green technologies. Otherwise, it would just be a captive market for developed countries’ green industry and its costly technologies.

Agrees Yumkella. “It’s a win-win business model where Western companies are making money here which is helping their bottom line in their home base.”

Yumkella also praised India for the role it played in the recently concluded United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa.

“India has been a solid voice in all these negotiations and representing the interest and views of developing countries to grow and to create jobs. India’s voice has that balanced view for sustainable energy.”

The participating countries are Denamrk, Hungary, Egypt, Morocco and India. The festival is being organised by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Sondorgo of Hungary, one of the Europe’s most versatile bands, will present their new album “Tamburising – Lost Music of the Balkans” with singer and actress Katya Tompos Feb 6. Their aim is to foster and preserve Southern Slavic traditions of the Serbs and Croats as found in various settlements in Hungary.

The Orient West Choir from Denmark is a contemporary interpretation of the musical connections between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The troupe that will perform Feb 7 combines Gregorain chants with middle eastern music. The band features music from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Palestine and Israel.

Marouane Hajji, a Sufi musician from the Moroccan spiritual capital at Fes, will present refined music of the Tijani and Skali – one of the higher forms of Moroccan Sufi music.

Five troupes will represent the Indian Sufi music traditions. They are the Kashmir Music Society Group, Baul Fakiri Qawaali Music Group from West Bengal, and Delhi’s Nizami Khusro Bandhu, Dhruv Sangari & Group and the Yusouf Khan Nizami Qawaali Group.

“I am honored to release this special edition – the first draft manuscript of Tagore’s work which is a part of the Rothenstein Collection that is preserved in the Houghton Library of Harvard University in the US,” Mukherjee said after releasing the book.

“It is indeed very sentimental to have a look and feel of the diary in which Tagore wrote the English translation in his own hand. Though the (Harvard) university has permitted to make replicas, their copyright does not allow us to sell them,” said Mukherjee, who unveiled the book at the Asiatic Society established in 1784 in the city.

This year also marks 100 years of Gitanjali – a collection of prose translations made by the author from the original Bangla and published in 1912. Tagore was given the Nobel for it a year later.

Mukherjee, who chairs the National Implementation Committee (NIC) constituted for guiding the celebrations of Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary, also unveiled another book titled “Nameless Recognition: The Impact of Rabindranath Tagore on Indian Literaturse”, which is a compilation of papers delivered at the National Conference on ‘The Impact of Tagore on Other Indian Literatures’ held earlier.

Among a host of projects by the NIC for the celebrations is a printed bibliography of Tagore in English and other Indian languages prepared by the National Library.

“Rabindra Nattayan Project”, a collaborative effort in playwriting by Indian and Bangladeshi writers, has also been included as a part of the programmes, aimed at dramitising the poems, short stories and novels of Tagore.

Announcing that a musical will be held Feb 12 to honour the veteran singer on his completing a golden jubilee as a singer, Baby told a press conference that the short film on Yesudas would be jointly produced by Kairali TV and Swaralaya, a music reality show.

Yesudas, 71, has sung over 35,000 songs in 14 languages.

“We know that documentation of the entire history of Yesudas is not an easy task, but we will be failing in our duty if we do not make an attempt. Kairali TV has in its possession lot of visuals of the singer but that is not enough,” Baby told reporters.

“We will also ask people to give us the songs sung by Yesudas if they have in a book form because during yesteryears, song books of Yesudas hits were commonly available. This will help us to document all the songs sung by the veteran, as even Yesudas himself does not have a record of how many songs he has rendered,” added Baby.

For the musical night, the organisers are bringing together singers like P.Susheela, S.Janaki, M.Jayachandran who have sung with Yesudas.

“We have decided to classify the veteran singer’s career into five decades and from each decade four hit songs will be selected through people’s choice. A total of 20 songs would be sung that day,” said Thiruvananthapuram Municiapal Corporation Mayor K.Chandrika, who is also heads the organising committee of the musical.

Yesudas has been conferred with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan besides seven national and 17 state film awards.

1. “Bollywood’s Top 20: Superstars of Indian Cinema”; Edited by Bhaichand Patel; Published by Penguin India; Priced at Rs.599

Cinema has been mainstay of popular entertainment for almost a century now. Visually arresting, Bollywood has enthralled moviegoers over the decades with its melodious music, colourful drama and lively plotlines. At the heart of the mystique is the towering presence of its galaxy of stars. “Bollywood’s Top 20″ is an exciting collection of new essays by renowned writers that pays tribute to Hindi cinema’s biggest stars of all time – Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Madhubala to Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Kareena Kapoor – who are indispensable to the Bollywood pantheon. Each piece offers unique insights into the lives of Bollywood’s most exceptional legends – their struggles and triumphs, downfalls and scandals.

2. “On Safari: The Tiger & The Baobab Tree”; Written by Babi Nobis; Published by Om Books International; Priced at Rs.2,995

Trailing tigers with his lens on the rugged terrains of Kanha, Ranthambore, Bandhavgarh, Corbett, Nepal and, of course, the Sunderbans, and lions, cheetahs, buffaloes, rhinos, elephants, wildebeest and more in Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa over the last two decades, renowned wildlife photographer Babi Nobis shares with the reader the alluring magic of wilderness and its majestic inhabitants, in over 250 stunning visuals. Babi Nobis is a well-known tea exporter, a gold medal-winning trap shooter as well as a natural history enthusiast.

3. “Hira Mandi”; Written by Claudine Le Tourneur D’lson; Published by Roli Books; Priced at Rs.195

Very few French writers have ventured to write on the social religious, political and cultural issues of the Pakistani society. In “Hira Mandi”, the traditional “red light country” of Lahore, the writer looks at the history of flesh trade in the historic city through the portrayal of a dancer-prostitute’s son who seeks to escape his milieu as he dreams of becoming an artist. Based on a true story, this gripping novel handles its subject with realism and sensitivity, mingling human emotions with history’s macabre dance in the partition of India.

4. “Encyclopadia of Hinduism”; Edited by Dr. Kapil Kapoor; Published by Rupa & Co; Priced at Rs.21,000

A joint initiative by Rupa Publications and the India Heritage Research Foundation, the volume is a comprehensive guide to one of the world’s oldest, richest and most diverse faiths – Hinduism. The encyclopedia contains information about the theory and practice of Sanatana Dharma, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. It is meant for people of all ages and across regions. The full-color illustrations are a ready guide for all those who want to know about the culture and traditions of Aryavarta.

5. “Anna: 13 Days That Shook India”; Written by Ashutosh; Published by Harper-Collins-India; Priced at Rs.199

Anna Hazare’s fast unto death, demanding the implementation of a strong Lokpal bill, was a watershed moment in post-independence India. Coming soon after a slew of corruption exposes, the movement galvanised an increasingly disenchanted middle class. Well-known Hindi journalist Ashutosh weaves together the story of the thirteen days in 2011 that changed India. He had a ringside view of the developments, stationed at the Ramlila ground in New Delhi, the venue of the fast, and had an intimate access to the two warring parties: the Congress government at the centre and Team Anna. Ashutosh evokes the Jayaprakash Narayan movement and Gandhi’s satyagraha, and mines the history of India’s post-independence politics to understand the phenomenon called Anna Hazare.

With the enforcement of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the livelihood of the kalandar community — a nomadic gypsy tribe — was rendered illegal.

To rehabilitate the rescued bears, Wildlife SOS, an animal welfare organisation, along with government agencies, opened the first bear rescue centre near Agra in 2002. And the first occupant of the Agra Bear Rescue Facility (ABRF) was Rani.

Malnourished, injured and stressed — like most other dancing bears — she was given medical treatment, food and, most importantly, freedom from the rope tied around her nose and the compulsion to move within the 2×2 feet radii it was confined to.

But simply rescuing the bears would not have ended this cruel trade. So the kalandars were roped in too.
“It’s very easy to demonise the kalandars. But the community comes from an impoverished background with no access to health facilities and education. So we have to rehabilitate the kalandars too,” Wildlife SOS India co-founder Geeta Seshamani said.

Thus, a kalandar rehabilitation programme was also started under which a package of Rs.50,000 is given to the owner upon peaceful surrendering of a bear.

But what is even more heartening is that a large of number of kalandar boys, whose fathers were once in the trade, are now working in the facility, looking after the bears and campaigning against the practice.

“It was thanks to Rani that our kitchen fire kept burning. We would make her entertain the crowd and earn about Rs.600 per day,” Aashiq, 29, told IANS.

“But we knew it was unlawful. There were campaigns in our village and one day my father surrendered Rani and took a job at ABRF,” he added.

Aashiq too works at the centre which houses 270 sloth bears. He is a kitchen chef.

“I knew the bear’s eating habits; so this was an apt job for me. I was taught the dietary supplements they require. We feed them thrice a day,” he said.

Mohammad Rizwan is another kalandar boy at the facility.

“We are from Uttar Pradesh, but I have grown up in West Bengal. Every 10 days our community, which constitute about 10-15 families, would move from one village to another,” Rizwan told IANS.

“With the bear, our daily income was around Rs.500. With my brothers in petty businesses, it’s around the same now. But we are not chased by the law and have a stable life,” he added. The kalandar boys earn Rs.6,000-7,000 per month at the centre.

According to Wildlife SOS India founder Kartick Satyanarayan, around 40 percent of its staff is from the kalandar community. However, he says it’s not easy bringing them to the mainstream because they are “used to the begging culture”.

“We have to be patient and give them confidence. We also provide education to the community’s children which is important to uproot any malpractice,” Satyanarayan said.

Mohammad Hussain, another bearkeeper of the community, says the motivation to work comes when they realise the animal’s pain.

A cub, barely a month old, is stolen from its mother by the poacher and is bundled in a gunny sack. Traumatised and ill fed, it’s sold to a kalandar. Many don’t survive the ordeal and the ones that do have their delicate snouts pierced by a hot iron rod and a rope being pulled through.

Their canines and claws are broken and they are tied by a rope. So much is the stress that once rescued, a bear has to be quarantined for three months, its wounds are tended to, surgeries are performed and ample food is given.

“To a bear, man stands for cruelty. By the time he is rescued, he loses his animal instincts; so it’s not wise to leave them in the wild,” said S. Ilairaja, a veterinary doctor at ABRF.

With the tables turned, a number of kalandar boys also work as informers for the organisation, keeping them posted on any poaching activity.

“We have rescued around 550 dancing bears from across India. The last known dancing bear, Raju, was rescued in 2009. There have been no reports of dancing bears since then. However, we suspect there are some in Nepal and there may be attempts to bring them in through the India-Nepal border,” Satyanarayan said.

“The state government is promoting herb culture in a big way so that besides using herbs in ayurvedic medicines the income of farmers could be supplemented,” Dhumal said at a regional conference of Arogya Bharti in Una town, 150 km from here.

He said the government had initiated a number of programmes to strengthen the ayurveda system of medicines. “To provide medical treatment to people at their doorstep, the state has given relaxation up to 53 years to ayurvedic doctors for recruitment.”

Himachal Pradesh is known to be a grower of herbs and a large number of people depend on the cultivation and collection of herbs for their livelihood.

The government is also promoting the plantation of indigenous species, especially medicinal plants on a large scale, to transform the hill state into a herbal zone.

In 2009, the government launched a herbal plantation campaign under which the farmers across the state were provided over one crore herbal saplings of more than 50 indigenous species like neem, banyan, jamun and peepal free of cost for plantation.

China has spent 3.8 percent of the GDP in 2009 to clean up the environment, the China Green National Accounting Study Report 2009 said.

“The damage to the environment not only results in health problems, but in financial loss as well,” the Global Times Saturday quoted Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based NGO Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, as saying.

“It’s a vicious circle if we continue to strive for economic prosperity at the cost of huge energy consumption and environmental pollution, and it’s time we wake up and curb the trend,” Ma said.

The average cost of China’s resources output is $320 to $350 per tonne, far below that of developed economies, which is between $2,500 to $3,500 per tonne, and it is still decreasing, according to the report by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning.

“This means we are consuming about 10 times more energy than the developed economies for the same amount,” he said.

“I want to make a film about saving the environment and bring about a change. I don’t know if anyone of you is willing to fund a movie like this, but I plan to act in it,” Abhishek, who is busy shooting for Rohit Shetty’s “Bol Bachchan”, told IANS.

But the challenge lies in finding an engaging story that can convey the message in an interesting manner and help in bringing footfalls to the theatres.

“The challenge is to get a story that is compelling enough for Indian audiences to see. I know there are one or two films like ‘Day After Tomorrow’ that have been successful in the West and people came out thinking what if this actually happens tomorrow,” said Abhishek.

“If I make a film just talking about climate change, it would be boring to watch. The real challenge is to make a film that would be engrossing enough for the audiences to come out and watch and deal with the issues. If we come across something like that, I am on and I’ll sign on the dotted line any day,” he added.

A bevy of Bollywood stars have associated themselves with various social causes and Abhishek is one of them. He has been honoured with the Green Globe award for his efforts towards creating a greener environment.

The actor, who featured in films like “Yuva” and “Guru”, feels celebrities can bring about a change by lending their voice for causes.

“I am not talking about myself, but a lot of my colleagues the world over have lent their voice for saving the environment or other social issues. I think if a celebrity has the ability to make a difference and influence even two people, then he should help…,” the 35-year-old told IANS.

“There is some kind of purpose to so-called celebrityhood; hopefully some people would listen and follow suit…I think if a celebrity has a voice, one should go out there and make it work. Thankfully, if one of us shows up, we have the media writing about it, and media is the actual agent to bring about a change the world over,” he added.

Youth can play an important role in bringing about a change, feels Abhishek, as youngsters know what they want.

“I really feel that youth will make the change. Youth are not willing to be told what they have to do because they are very sure what they need to do. So more to the youth of the nation as they would play an important role in bringing a change,” he said.

He has been doing his bit towards creating a cleaner, greener and energy-efficient future by creating awareness through various endeavours on issues affecting the earth.

Each monkey is getting a moderate dose of about 50 grams of Cahors wine a day, mixed with piping hot water and served with apples, lemon and sugar, the Tengrinews.kz website reported.

The monkeys enjoy their drink, said Svetlana Pilyuk, deputy director of the zoo in Karaganda city, around 190 km from Kazakh capital Astana.

“That’s normal practice. They always get to drink something relaxing when it’s cold or when they’re being transferred to another zoo or from summer to winter cages,” Pilyuk said.

“In the wild, primates also consume alcohol-containing plants that disinhibit their nerve system and give them some release,” she said.

Cahors, popular across all former Soviet Union states, has an alcohol level of 16 percent. It is the communion wine of the Orthodox Christian church, though its secular consumption is also considerable.

Kazakhstan has been hit by a cold wave that has blanketed most of western Eurasia. Temperatures in Karaganda stood at minus 33 to minus 38 degrees Celsius this week and the forecast promised minus 40 to minus 45 degrees over the weekend.

The information ministry is drafting the law in accordance with international and regional norms, Xinhua quoted the daily New Light of Myanmar as saying.

Both sides will hold a discussion on the proposed law that guarantee press freedom, responsibility and accountability in promoting democracy.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar Writers and Journalists Association (MWJA) and Singapore’s Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) Monday jointly organised a workshop here on media development in democratic society. Representatives from Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the US took part.

The workshop discussed media-related laws and publication.

Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School say that the hormone works through two kinds of neurons, steroidogenic factor-1 (SF-1) and pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), in the hypothalamus part of the brain.

They found that the neurons play different but important roles in metabolism, fat distribution and appetite control, according to the February issue of the Baylor College of Medicine news.

“Before menopause, women are protected from obesity and associated disorders by estrogen,” Xinhua reported quoting author of the study Yong Xu.

After menopause, the risk of obesity in women rises, while the risks of estrogen replacement therapy outweigh its effect on reducing obesity, Xu said.

Researchers studied four different kinds of mice to determine the effect of estrogen and focused their work on neurons in the hypothalamus that carry an estrogen receptor alpha.

The hypothalamus links the nervous system to the endocrine system to regulate multiple physiological processes, including those controlling bodyweight.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the cabinet to approve the plan and earmark funding for the project, space agency chief Hamid Fazeli said.

RIA Novosti reported that earlier Friday, Iran successfully launched an observation satellite, Navid (Harbinger), to take pictures of the Earth at low altitudes of 250 to 370 km.

Tehran launched its first domestically-produced satellite Omid (Hope) in 2009, an endeavour which made it the ninth country having the capability to launch satellites.

Iran also plans to launch the country’s first manned mission into space by 2019.

According to an estimate by the World Health Organisation (WHO), depression will become the second largest illness in terms of morbidity in another decade. It already affects one out of every five women and one in every 12 men.

“Social awakening towards mental diseases and their cure has finally started to come,” Anindita Paul, director of Sanjivini Society for Mental Health, told IANS.

“In terms of the urban society, there is lot of awakening which is coming now. Still as a country a lot more needs to be done,” says Paul.

Globally, mental disorders account for 13 percent of the burden of diseases. In India, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the prevalence of schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder, is prevalent among 1.1 percent of the total population while the overall lifetime prevalence rate of mental disorders is 10-12 percent.

While the government has a separate programme for mental health, the segment is marred by lack of adequate doctors and infrastructure.

According to latest figures provided by the health ministry, India has a mere 4,500 psychiatrists.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) member P.C. Sharma says lack of proper care for mental patients is a major cause of concern.

“In today’s world, everyone is living under constant stress. Still we have just 40 major mental health institutes,” Sharma told IANS.

Sharma said he had personally called the chief of the Medical Council of India and requested him to consider making psychiatry compulsory for all medical students.

“The mental institutions are in a pathetic condition and the common perception is that these are ‘mad houses’,” he says.

Paul agrees, but adds that the perspective is changing. “More rehabilitation centres are coming up, but the government needs to take up major steps,” she says.

The WHO preamble states that “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”, suggesting there is no health without mental health.

Stress is seen as a major cause of worry as far as mental health is concerned, with studies showing a constant increase in stress, especially in urban population.

The WHO, in its 130th session of its executive board, adopted a resolution on ‘Global Burden of Mental Disorders and the need for a comprehensive, coordinated response from health and social sectors at the country level’.

The draft resolution in the matter was moved by India Jan 20.

Sanjivini runs counselling centres, a rehabilitation centre and group consultations for those suffering from mental problems ranging from stress, depression, social problems to severe mental illness. According to figures tabulated by the organisation, of all the patients who have come to them in the last nine years, some 19 percent came to discuss issues pertaining to problems with people around them.

Another 17 percent came to discuss their marital issues, 15 percent for problems related to their personality, 18 percent suffered from different mental ailments while one percent had suicidal tendencies.

Statistics also show women are more vulnerable to mental health-related problems as compared to men. Some 57 percent of the patients in the last nine years have been women.

In 1982, India launched a special National Mental Health Programme to ensure the availability of minimum mental healthcare, encourage application of mental health knowledge in general healthcare and in social development and to promote community participation in mental health service.

“We are still somewhere in the middle of totally destigmatising mental illness. There is a need to understand that mental patients can be treated and can lead a normal life again,” Paul told IANS.

“Employed with an infrastructure consultancy, I used to work on a laptop with a bent neck. The back pain went on increasing and finally my situation was so bad that I could not even move my neck,” she said.

Arya is one of the many young people suffering from spondylitis (a form of arthritis that affects your spine), a disease which is affecting more and more people in the lower age bracket.

“My doctor told me that while working on a laptop, the back should be straight and eyes should be on the same level as the computer screen. He said this problem developed due to my bad posture,” said Arya.

Long working hours on the computer, a desk job and lack of physical activities are a grim reality today, and so are increasing back problems and spondylitis. Doctors say a sharp increase has been noted in the number of young patients falling prey to spondylitis.

“Over the years the number of patients suffering from arthritis, especially spondylitis, has been increasing,” said doctor S.K.S. Marya, an orthopaedic surgeon at Max Hospital in south Delhi’s Saket.

According to the orthopaedic department of Max Hospital, at least 20 fresh cases of spondylitis are reported every week where patients are below 30 years of age. If compared with the numbers a decade ago, the increase is almost three-fold.
Spondylitis is a chronic inflammation of the spine and joints in the lower back, causing stiffness and pain.

“A sedentary lifestyle leads to joint and muscle deformities. Spondylitis has become very common among people as young as 25 years who sit in front of computer screens for a long duration. It has all happened since the MNCs and call centres have come in,” said Marya.

Doctor G.P. Dureja, director of Delhi Pain Management Centre, said after osteoarthritis of the knee (that occurs in people older than 40 years), spondylitis is the most common form of arthritis among Indians.

“Lack of exercise, bad posture while working in office, sitting with a bent back while watching TV and obesity – all are reasons for an increasing number of spondylitis cases,” Dureja told IANS.

Among Indians, osteoarthritis of the knee is the most common. It is the degeneration of joints which occurs gradually in people older than 40 years. Spondylitis is the next stage. These could happen to anyone who doesn’t have a healthy lifestyle, irrespective of his or her age.

“People in India do not have a culture of exercise. Even on holidays they prefer sitting at home rather than going out and enjoying the sun,” said doctor Partap Chauhan, director, Jiva Ayurveda.

The lack of nutrition is also a factor responsible for these ailments. “Working people don’t care about their diet. They take in junk food which is rich only in carbohydrates. Their nutrition levels are low, which make their body weak and less immune and thereby more vulnerable to arthritis,” said Chauhan.

Orthopaedics suggest that regular exercise with a healthy but light diet were two simple ways of avoiding arthritis or at least delaying its occurrence.

Arya too has discovered the secret of exercise. “Now, I do a little bit of regular exercise, about 5-10 minutes in the morning and evening. That is enough to control my spondylitis,” she said.

“A regular brisk walk for 10 minutes, stretching muscles once in a while at the work place, eating a calcium- and protein-rich diet is all that one has to do to keep any form of arthritis at bay,” said Dureja.

Police said the influential but controversial politician had stated that the IP address from which the email account vijaysardesai4fatorda@gmail.com was hacked originated in Honduras and Thailand.

“The hacking occurred between Jan 28 and 30. And the hackers sent across a lot of email saying untoward things from the email address,” a police official said.

New evidence shows that the sex hormones – testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone – act in a key region of the brain, switching certain genes on and others off.

When researchers tinkered with each of these genes one by one, animals showed subtle but important shifts in gender-specific behaviours, such as how males mate or females care for their pups, the journal Cell reports.

“What this means is that complex behaviours like male mating or maternal care in mice can be deconstructed at the genetic level,” said Nirao Shah of the University of California, San Francisco.

Researchers focused specifically on the hypothalamus, a brain region governing sex-specific behaviours. They singled out 16 genes with clear sex differences in distinct neurons (brain cells) in the hypothalamus, according to a California statement.

Surprisingly, Shah’s team found that many of these genes also show sex differences in the amygdala, a part of the brain important for emotions.

Mice missing only one of these 16 genes seemed to behave normally. But upon closer observation, these mice showed significant differences in sex-specific behaviours.

For instance, Shah, who led the study, explained, females mutant for one gene took longer to return their pups to the nest and to fight off intruders. “They still take care of their pups, but less effectively,” he said.

In other experiments, deletion of a single gene produced females that were two-fold less receptive to mating with males. Similarly, males mutant for another gene were less interested in females.

Barry D. Bruce, professor of biochemistry at the University of Tennessee, worked with researchers from MIT and Ecole Polytechnique Federale, Switzerland to develop a process to improve the efficiency of generating electric power using molecular structures from plants.

To produce the energy, the scientists harnessed the power of a key component of photosynthesis known as photosystem-I (PSI) from blue-green algae.

This complex was then bioengineered to specifically interact with a semi-conductor so that, when illuminated, the process of photosynthesis produced electricity.

“This system is a preferred method of sustainable energy because it is clean and it is potentially very efficient,” said Bruce, named one of “Ten Revolutionaries that May Change the World” by Forbes magazine in 2007 for his early work, which first demonstrated biosolar electricity generation.

“As opposed to conventional photovoltaic solar power systems, we are using renewable biological materials rather than toxic chemicals to generate energy,” said Bruce, reported the journal Nature: Scientific Reports, citing a Tennessee varsity statement.

“Likewise, our system will require less time, land, water and input of fossil fuels to produce energy than most biofuels,” he added.

Because of the engineered properties, the system self-assembles and is much easier to re-create than Bruce’s earlier work. In fact, the approach is simple enough that it can be replicated in most labs-allowing others around the world to work toward further optimization.

“Because the system is so cheap and simple, my hope is that this system will develop with additional improvements to lead to a green, sustainable energy source,” said Bruce.

Collective problem solving can provide benefits over individual decisions as we are able to share our information and experiences, said a new study from Wellcome Trust’s Centre for Neuroimaging at the University College London.

Now researchers have shown that the testosterone has the opposite effect — it makes people act less cooperative and more egocentric, the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B reported.

Researcher Nick Wright and colleagues at the Centre for Neuroimaging carried out a series of tests using 17 pairs of female volunteers who had previously never met. The test took place over two days, spaced a week apart, a university statement said.

“When we are making decisions in groups, we tread a fine line between cooperation and self-interest: too much cooperation and we may never get our way, but if we are too self-orientated, we are likely to ignore people who have real insight,” explained Wright.

On one of the days, both volunteers in each pair were given a testosterone supplement; on the other day, they were given a placebo.

Researchers found that as expected, cooperation enabled the group to perform much better than the individuals alone when individuals had received only the placebo. But, when given a testosterone supplement, the benefit of cooperation was markedly reduced.

In fact, higher levels of testosterone were associated with individuals behaving egocentrically and deciding in favour of their own selection over their partner’s.

University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers reviewed 3,291 patient records and looked at both procedural (incomplete, unclear medication orders) and clinical (wrong dose, wrong drug) errors, and rated the potential severity of the errors (minor to serious).

Researchers found that procedural prescribing error rates fell by more than 90 percent, and the most serious prescribing errors declined by 44 percent, the journal Public Library of Science reports.

“The study provides persuasive evidence of the value of commercial e-prescribing systems to significantly and substantially reduce a range of prescribing errors,” said study leader Johanna Westbrook, professor from UNSW’s Australian Institute of Health Innovation.

The six percent reduction was far beyond anything anticipated. Previous attempts to reduce such errors, had resulted in an improvement of only around four percent, Westbrook said, according to a UNSW statement.

“Prescribing errors are among the top hazards faced in a hospital setting,” said Ric Day, professor of pharmacology, who helped implement a commercial e-prescribing system at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital.

“Most of this technology was developed in the US with the big medical centres designing their own customised systems,” Westbrook said.

It receives about 90 percent of the light that the earth receives from the sun. But most of this incoming light is infrared, and so more of it will be absorbed by the planet, says Chris Tinney, professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

“This means that overall the planet absorbs about the same amount of energy from its star as the Earth absorbs from the Sun: so that would give the planet the right temperature, if it has a rocky surface and a wet atmosphere, to host liquid water,” said Tinney.

“And liquid water is seen as an essential pre-condition for the development of life,” said Tinney, who co-authored the study with Jeremy Bailey and Rob Wittenmyer, the Astrophysical Journal Letters reports.

The planet, GJ 667Cc, circles a relatively cool star (GJ667C), has an orbital period of 28.15 days and a minimum mass of 4.5 times that of Earth, according to an UNSW statement.

“This discovery shows that habitable planets could form in a greater variety of environments than we previously considered,” said Simon O’Toole of the Australian Astronomical Observatory, another team member.

The planet was discovered using the “Doppler wobble” technique, which detects the slight movements of a star as its orbiting planets tug it to and fro in space.

The child prodigy died Jan 16 following complications resulting from an epileptic stroke, the Geo News reported.

The stamp’s launching by the Pakistan Post coincided with the young prodigy’s birthday (Feb 2).

With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of the Earth, the planet orbits within the star’s “habitable zone”, where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface, Xinhua reported.

The researchers found evidence of at least one and possibly two or three additional planets orbiting the star, which is about 22 light-years from Earth, according to a study published Thursday in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The host star is a member of a triple-star system and has a different makeup than our Sun, with a much lower abundance of elements heavier than helium, such as iron, carbon, and silicon.

This discovery indicates that potentially habitable planets can occur in a greater variety of environment than previously believed.

Researchers from the University of California and the Carnegie Institution for Science and astronomers conducted the study.

Officers say it will help in their zero-tolerance approach to motoring offences.

But critics say Dorset police are using the equipment to “maximise the number of offences” simply to raise funds.

The 12,500-pound Concept II is fitted with laser speed-detection equipment and a powerful camera that can capture motorists in the “act” of using a mobile phone while driving or not wearing a seat belt.

The resolution is sharp enough to pick out an unbuckled belt at ranges of up to 600 metres and records image and video evidence to DVD, the newspaper said.

Project manager Brian Austin said: “Bizarrely, officers at one of the sites in Dorchester were stunned to see a driver pass them while playing a harmonica using both hands.

“He claimed that he thought he was driving while playing the harmonica quite successfully.”

Officers will be able to use the pictures as evidence to secure a conviction.

One whole face of the Moon can never be seen from Earth because it constantly faces away from our planet. But now one of the twin GRAIL spacecraft launched by NASA last September has returned its first video of the Moon’s hidden side.

The video scans the barren, dusty face – the oldest part of the moon – all the way from north to south poles, revealing a landscape scarred by countless collisions with comets and asteroids, the newspaper said.

Among the geographical features it picks up are the 149 km wide Drygalski crater, which features a star-shaped formation in its centre and can be seen to the left of centre near the bottom of the screen as the video reaches the south pole.

The footage was taken as part of a project for middle school students, who will pick out areas such as craters which they want to study in more detail, and is intended to inspire the next generation of space scientists.

Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator, said: “The quality of the video is excellent and should energise our students as they prepare to explore the Moon.”

The smartphone, called ‘ADzero’, is expected to launch later this year. Made from four-year-old organically grown bamboo that has been treated to improve its durability, the phone runs Google’s Android operating system.

Kieron Scott-Woodhouse, from Shepherds Bush in London, designed the phone because he was frustrated that so many existing models looked similar to each other.

He is a student of Middlesex University. A technology entrepreneur had contacted him after he posted designs online.

The phone was initially intended for the Chinese market but an enthusiastic reception in Britain means it will go on sale in design retailers later this year, the newspaper said.

Nov 29, 2008: Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking sanction to prosecute Raja under the Prevention of Corruption Act

May 4, 2009: Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) receives complaints on irregularities in spectrum allocation to Loop Telecom

May 2010: NGO Centre for Public Interest litigation (CPIL) moves Delhi High Court seeking CBI probe into scam

Sep 13, 2010: Supreme Court asks Raja and central government to respond within 10 days to three petitions of CPIL and others on allegation there was a Rs.70,000 crore scam

Sep 24, 10: Swamy goes to SC seeking direction to the PM to sanction Raja’s prosecution

Oct 8, 10: SC seeks government’s response on CAG’s report on the scam

Oct 29, 10: CBI pulled up by SC for its slow probe in the scam

Nov 10, 10: CAG pegs loss to exchequer at Rs.1.76 lakh crore

Nov 11, 10: DoT questions CAG’s authority to question policy decision on 2G licences in SC by filing an affidavit

Nov 14, 10: Raja resigns from the post of Telecom Minister

Nov 20, 10: Rejecting charge of inaction on Swamy’s complaint, PM files affidavit in SC

Nov 25, 10: CBI pulled down by SC for not questioning Raja

Dec 2, 10: SC comes down heavily on Raja for bypassing PM’s advice to put off allocation of 2G spectrum by a few days

Dec 8, 10: SC favours probe into spectrum allocation since 2001 when first-come-first-served was the norm for spectrum allocation

Dec 8, 10: SC orders setting up of a special court to look into 2G scam

Feb 2 2011: Raja arrested

Sep 15, 11: Swamy goes to CBI court seeking Chidambaram to be made a co-accused

Sep 22, 11: CBI blames telecom department and defends Chidambaram in SC

Oct 10, 11: SC reserves order on Swamy’s plea for a probe into the alleged role of Chidambaram in the 2G scam

Oct 22, 11: Special CBI court frames charges against all 17 accused including Raja

Nov, 11: Except Raja and Behura, 12 others get bail

Dec 12, 11: CBI submits third charge sheet including names of Essar promoters Anshuman, Ravi Ruia, Essar Group director strategy and planning Vikas Saraf, Loop Telecom promoters Kiran Khaitan and her husband I.P. Khaitan as accused

Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Tele Holding also recognised as accused

Jan 31, 12: SC accepts Swamy’s petition against the PMO says filing complaint under the Prevention of Corruption Act is a constitutional right

Feb 2: Supreme Court orders cancellation of 122 licenses given in 2008, gives companies four months to cease operations

- Total subscribers (wireless and fixed-line) in December: 926.53 million

- One of fastest growing markets in the world

- Total players: 15

- Dominant players: Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone, Idea Cellular

- India held auctions of 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum in 2010, raising about $20 billion

- 4G services expected to be launched by end of 2012 with fresh guidelines

- Exit policy for telecom players being framed

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) teased out a molecular profile of these genes whose expression in the prostate gland is tied to vigorous exercise.

“Vigorous physical activity may provide clinical benefits for men diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer,” said study author June Chan, professor at the UCSF.

The finding is based on two studies conducted earlier by the UCSF and the Harvard School of Public Health that compared the activity of 20,000 genes in healthy prostate tissue biopsied from dozens of patients, according to a statement from the UCSF.

They showed that brisk walking or vigorous exercise such as jogging for three or more hours a week was linked to a lowered risk of prostate cancer progression and death after diagnosis, but offered no explanation as to why.

Understanding how the activity of these genes was impacted by vigorous exercise and how this might translate to a lowered risk of prostate cancer progression may help reveal new ways to manage the disease, said Chan.

Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the US. More than 217,000 men are diagnosed with the disease, and some 32,000 men die from prostate cancer, each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The study led by researcher David Brown, professor School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, simulated a customer search and evaluation of 184 retrieved sites using evaluation tools focusing on quality and safe medicine use.

Results showed that a potential purchaser of statins (cholesterol busting drugs) is likely to encounter websites from a wide geographical base of generally poor quality, the journal of Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety reported.

General contra-indications (condition which makes a particular treatment or procedure inadvisable) were absent in 92.4 percent of sites and contra-indicated medicines were absent in 47.3 percent, according to a university statement.

Key warnings on the appearance of symptoms associated with myopathy, liver disease, hypersensitivity and pancreatitis were absent in 37, 48.4, 91.3, and 96.2 percent of sites, respectively.

Most websites presented a chaotic and incomplete list of known side effects; just 13 (7.1 percent) presented a list compatible with current prescribing information. Only two thirds (65.8 percent) attempted to describe any side effects in lay language.

“Websites offering statins for sale contain little information on the safety of these drugs, which are intended as prescription only medicines,” Brown noted.

“There is an inherent danger in patients seeking to self-medicate in this way without consulting a healthcare professional and being appraised of ways to use the medicine safely,” added Brown.

The study, led by researcher George Bittner, professor at University of Texas, used a cellular mechanism similar to that of many invertebrates to repair damage to axons, an extension of the nerve cell that chats with other nerve cells or with muscles.

“We have developed a procedure which can repair severed nerves within minutes so that the behaviour they control can be partially restored within days and often largely restored within two to four weeks,” said Bittner, the Journal of Neuroscience Research reported.

“If further developed in clinical trials this approach would be a great advance on current procedures that usually imperfectly restore lost function within months at best,” added Bittner, according to a university statement.

This research success arises from Bittner’s discovery that nerve axons of invertebrates severed from their cell body do not degenerate within days, as happens with mammals, but can survive for months, or even years.

“Severed invertebrate nerve axons can reconnect…within seven days, allowing a rate of behavioural recovery that is far superior to mammals,” said Bittner.

Bittner’s team were able to repair severed sciatic nerves in the upper thigh, with results showing the rats were able to use their limb within a week and had much function restored within two to four weeks, in some cases to almost full function.

“Our study demonstrates for the first time that heart failure and thinning of bones go hand in hand,” said Sumit Majumdar, University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, who led the study.

“Understanding the mechanism between heart failure and osteoporosis might lead to new treatments for both conditions,” added Majumdar, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism reports.

“Part of screening for osteoporosis should involve looking at chest X-rays of patients with heart failure,” he said, according to a university statement.

“Heart failure patients get a lot of X-rays and they often incidentally show many fractures of the spine that would automatically provide an indication of severe osteoporosis and need for treatment.”

Researchers conducted a population cohort study comprising 45,509 adults undergoing bone mineral density testing for the first time and followed them for up to 10 years. Of them, 1,841 had recent onset of heart failure.

After adjusting for traditional osteoporosis risk factors, researchers found that heart failure was associated with a 30 percent increase in major fractures.

This deficiency has also been a risk factor for diseases like osteoporosis, or the thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density over time.

After analysing numerous studies, the Austrian physicians Barbara Obermayer-Pietsch and Elisabeth Lerchbaum found that vitamin D level was associated with the production of male hormones. More specifically, there was a link between vitamin D and the increase in testosterone levels, subsequently the semen quality, Xinhua reported.

The finding has been published in the European Journal of Endocrinology’s latest issue.

According to Obermayer-Pietsch, as vitamin D plays an important role in hormone production also in women, low levels of vitamin D often lead to too much testosterone, which therefore could increase the risk of infertility among women.

The scientists will continue to conduct further scientific studies to find out new therapeutic approaches, including the reproduction of vitamin D.

Global sugar consumption has tripled over the past 50 years and its intake should be curtailed, like alcohol and tobacco, to protect the public from the deleterious effects of obesity, they said.

These health hazards largely mirror the effects of drinking too much alcohol, which is the distillation of sugar, point out study co-authors Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis, from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

This would help explain why 40 percent of people with metabolic syndrome — the key metabolic changes that lead to diabetes, heart disease and cancer — are not clinically obese, according to the journal Nature.

The study co-authors argue that sugar’s potential for abuse, coupled with its toxicity and pervasiveness in the western diet make it a primary culprit of this worldwide health crisis.

Significantly, diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer now pose a greater health burden globally than infectious diseases, they said, according to a university statement.

“As long as the public thinks that sugar is just empty calories, we have no chance in solving this,” said Lustig, professor of paediatrics, at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

“There are good calories and bad calories, just as there are good fats and bad fats, good amino acids and bad amino acids, good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates, but sugar is toxic beyond its calories,” Lustig said.

“In a three-day conference starting Feb 3, the NABI and experts from NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority) will discuss management of burn disasters. Our main focus will be on managing chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear disasters,” said Vinay Kumar Tiwari, consultant, department of burns, plastic and maxillofacial surgery at the Safdarjung Hospital.

“We have seen loss of life in case of AMRI hospital fire. So we want to train nurses and paramedics who will specialise in burn care and management,” Tiwari, president of NABI, added.

The fire at Kolkata’s AMRI hospital broke out Dec 9, 2011. The ravaging blaze, one of the worst hospital tragedies in the country, left 94 patients and staffers dead.

The conference will see participation from international delegates and specialists from all across the country, other than live surgeries of burn patients and showcasing of new technologies in burn care.

The national conference of NABI will be organised by department of burns of Safdarjung Hospital Feb 3-5.

The department, with a bed capacity of 64, is considered to be the busiest in the country with nearly 5,000 burn cases coming to it every year.

This device, known as frontal near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), could offer hospital physicians a safe and low-cost way to monitor strokes in real time, suggests a study.

A stroke is a sudden interruption in the blood supply to the brain. Most strokes are caused by an abrupt blockage of arteries leading to the brain.

“About one-third of stroke patients in the hospital suffer another stroke, and we have few options for constantly monitoring patients for such recurrences,” says senior study investigator William Freeman, associate professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic, the journal Neurosurgical Focus reports.

Currently, nurses monitor patients for new strokes and if one is suspected, patients must be moved to a hospital’s radiology unit for a test known as a CT perfusion scan, which is the standard way to measure blood flow and oxygenation, according to a Mayo statement.

The entire procedure can sometimes cause side-effects such as excess radiation exposure if repeated scans are required. Also, potential kidney and airway damage can result from the contrast medium.

Alternately, for the sickest patients, physicians can insert an oxygen probe inside the brain to measure blood and oxygen flow, but this procedure is invasive and measures only a limited brain region, Freeman says.

“We plan to study this device more extensively and hope that this bedside tool offers significant benefit to patients by helping physicians detect strokes earlier and manage recovery better,” he says.

This NIRS device, which emits near-infrared light that penetrates the scalp and underlying brain tissue, has been used in animals to study brain blood.

Danish researchers have found that sleep deprivation causes healthy children, aged between eight and 12 years, to urinate more frequently, excrete more sodium in their urine, have altered regulation of the hormones important for excretion, and have higher blood pressure and heart rates.

The study was conducted by researchers B. Mahler, K. Kamperis, M. Schroeder, J. Frokiaer, J. C. Djurhuus, and S. Rittig, all of Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.

A group of healthy children from both the genders underwent two consecutive 24-hour stays at the hospital, the American Journal of Physiology – Renal Physiology reported.

The first day was used to register baseline values, including urine data, blood pressure and heart rate, and other physiological measures, a university statement said.

The second day was used to register these values during and following sleep deprivation. The information was subsequently compared with everyday life records submitted by the parents.

On both evenings the children were required to be in a supine position in bed in a dimly lit room at 8:00 p.m. Physical activity, food and fluid intake were not allowed till 7:00 a.m.

In addition, on the second night, the children were kept awake as long as possible throughout the night, if they were willing, by telling them stories, doing small tasks such as word and memory games, or making crafts. Daytime sleep was not allowed.

Sleep deprivation had a dramatic effect on night time urine excretion, with an average increase of 68 percent among the participants. The amount of sodium in the urine from the sleep-deprived night was almost a third greater than it was during the normal-sleep night.

The levels of hormones linked with water and sodium excretion had numerous differences after the sleep-deprivation, and blood pressure and heart rate were significantly higher. The findings were similar between boys and girls.

“People who die after stroke may have worse underlying disease prior to stroke, said M. Maria Glymour, senior study author and assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“This suggests early disease is accumulating and that something is happening to these people before they are diagnosed with clinical stroke,” Glymour added.

“We’re most surprised that people who died after strokes had such sharp memory declines years before stroke onset,” said Qianyi Wang, Glymor’s graduate student at Harvard, who led the study, according to a university statement.

Researchers examined 11,814 people aged 50 years and older every two years for signs of declining memory. Study participants were stroke-free at enrollment and were followed up to 10 years. They continued in the study if they survived a stroke.

The study reported 1,820 strokes, including 364 individuals who died after stroke but before the next memory assessment. People who survived had worse average memory even before the stroke compared to similar individuals who never had a stroke during follow-up.

At the time of stroke, memory function dropped an average 0.321 points. This difference is about the same as the average memory decline associated with growing 4.1 years older among those who remained stroke free.

Because of the large stroke-related declines, memory impairment was common among stroke survivors.

The deadly strain of MRSA called USA300 passes easily through skin-to-skin contact. It can survive on surfaces and so has the potential to be picked up on buses and tubes.

It was first seen in the US but cases are now being reported in the community and not just hospitals in Britain, the newspaper said Thursday.

Ruth Massey, from the department of biology and biochemistry at the University of Bath, said extra vigilance was required around this and similar MRSA bugs known as PVL-positive community acquired strains.

The USA300 is resistant to treatment by several antibiotics and can cause large boils on the skin. In severe cases, it can lead to fatal blood poisoning or a form of pneumonia that can eat away at lung tissue.

Massey said there were 1,000 cases of PVL-positive community acquired MRSA in England in the last year, of which 200 were USA300 strains.

“Projects with an environment dimension to them would be given preference in terms of expedited government clearance and other non-financial benefits,” said state Environment Secretary Valsa Nair-Singh.

Addressing a conference on Green Co – The Next Wave for Sustaining Growth, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), she noted that the central government will be funding state governments based on Environment Protection Index, constituted by the Planning Commission, subject to the state government spending 2 percent of the funds on environment-related activities.

In addition to promoting eco-friendly industrial and other construction projects, she said the state government provides funds to foster research in environment protection and sponsors M.Phil and PhD candidates.

CII Maharashtra state council chairperson, Leena Nair of Hindustan Unilever Ltd reiterated the need to focus on maintaining inter-generational equity.

“Our resource consumption should not add burden to our next generation. If we consume at the rate we are doing, we need five planets to sustain over the next 100 years,” Nair said.

She informed that the CII has been driving several initiatives in the area of green buildings and climate change and developed a Code for Ecologically Sustainable Business Growth, which has attracted voluntary commitment from 450 organisations.

Speaking at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, Natarjan said: “There is no doubt that the global regime for protecting biodiversity has to be ambitious but it has to be firmly rooted, at the same time, in Rio principles.

“The principle of common but differentiated responsibility and equity is something that is extremely relevant when we talk of global environmental agreements and their effective implementation. They are vital to the success of any global agreement in the field of environment,” she said.

Talking about the outcome at climate change talks in Durban last year, she said: “In Durban, we took some very important decisions to advance the international actions on global climate change.

“Our goal should be to ensure that the outcome of the ensuing negotiations under Durban platform is firmly founded on these principles and that we avoid pitfalls in implementation that such agreements have suffered in the past,” she added.

“No one in EU argues against that India — with a 1.2 billion population with 400 million still without power — has a right to grow and emissions will continue to grow in India. We don’t want real, substantial cuts but deviation from business as usual,” she told reporters here.

Clarifying on single legally binding regime demanded by the EU, Hedegaard said that all the countries should be equally bound to whatever they commit.

Over half a million turtles arrive and congregate in the shallow coastal waters of the Bay of Bengal from October to November and nest from December to March. Most hatchlings emerge by May.

Officials at the Bhitarkanika wildlife sanctuary in Kendrapada district which houses Gahirmatha, 174 km from here, said the turtles were already found mating in the shallow coastal water, but the nesting time may get delayed due to adverse weather conditions.

“Nesting time may be delayed due to climate change. One of the main reasons is that the accretion of sand on the nesting beach is continuing due to the northerly winds,” Divisional Forest Officer Manoj Mohapatra told IANS.

“The turtles always prefer to nest after the accretion of new sand that occurs around this time. If they nest during the accretion, the eggs will get buried and hatchling success will be reduced,” he said.

“The beach condition is governed by climate change. Probably climate change has delayed the stabilisation of the beach,” he added.

Mohapatra said the delay in nesting is not a new phenomenon and such delay was also observed in the past.

“The carcasses of about 274 Olive Ridley turtles have been spotted since Nov 1 last year at various places on the coast near Gahirmatha,” he said.

Although he did not predict when the mass nesting will take place, he said adequate protection measures were in place to provide the turtles a trouble-free environment.

He said over 500 people were arrested and over 140 trawlers seized during the past three months for entering into the prohibited area of the nesting site.

The authorities have set up about 16 camps along the beach and the turtles are being monitored by nearly 100 activists and officials. As a result the turtle mortality has not increased, he said.

During the last three months about 900 turtles were found dead on the beach. The number is almost the same as last year’s figure around this time, the officer said.

While some turtles were killed after being hit by fishing trawlers, some died due to stress as they travel very long distance in sea. There were also many other reasons behind the mortality, he said.

An Olive Ridley on an average lays about 120 to 150 eggs from which hatchlings emerge after about 45 days.

The eggs are under threat from natural predators such as dogs, jackals, wild boars, crows and eagles and subject to being washed away due to beach erosion.

Like tigers and elephants, Olive Ridley turtles are protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Trapping, killing or selling of the species could result in a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment.

The so-called ‘supergiant’ – a type of amphipod – was discovered more than four miles below the surface in waters north of New Zealand.

Most amphipods are usually 0.8in-1.2in long. But the new specimen, found by a team from the University of Aberdeen, was 10 times the size, the newspaper said.

Using submergence cameras and a large trap designed by the university’s Oceanlab, the crew was able to explore to depths of six miles.

They were hoping to find specimens of deep-sea snailfish, which have been photographed before but have not been seen since the 1950s.

Expedition leader Alan Jamieson said: “The moment the traps came on deck, we were elated at the sight of the snailfish as we have been after these fish for years.

“However, seconds later I stopped and thought ‘What on earth is that?’ whilst catching a glimpse of an amphipod far bigger than I ever thought possible.

“It’s a bit like finding a foot-long cockroach.”

“The government has inventorised greenhouse gas emission for assessing the carbon footprints. The carbon footprint per capita in the state has been assessed at 1.4 tonne per capita against the national average of 1.57 tonne per capita,” Dhumal said at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by The Energy and Resource Institute.

The state has signed a pact with the World Bank for harnessing carbon credits to generate carbon revenue amounting to Rs.20 crores for 20 years under “Bio Carbon Projects” in 10 districts of the state.

The Rs.365-crore Himachal Pradesh Mid-Himalayan Watershed Project being co-funded by the World Bank, is the first project in India registered for carbon credits.

The chief minister advocated the market-based instrument “payment for eco-system services” for maintenance, conservation and expansion of pristine Himalayan flora and fauna.

The state has prepared an environment master plan for guidelines in environmental protection, and would soon set up a centre on climate change in Shimla for coordinating research on climate change, added Dhumal.

The World Wetlands Day was observed Feb 2.

The country’s natural wetland reserves have decreased by over 8,000 sq km over the past three decades, a study by the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications said Thursday.

Poorly-protected wetland areas are mainly located in west and southwest China, some coastal regions, as well as along the Yangtze river, Xinhua reported.

Only 15 percent of the wetlands found along the Songhuajiang river in northeast China’s Jilin province are well protected.

The study called for wetland protection legislation, remote-sensing supervision and industrial restructuring in areas near the reserves.

Currently, China has 614 natural wetland reserves.

“This is good news and can be termed as one of the best average populations,” said herpetofauna researcher Jayaditya Purkayastha after release of his book “Urban Herpetofauna: Amphibians and Reptiles of Guwahati” on World Wetland Day Thursday.

The book, which aims at generating interest and inform school students regarding herpetofauna, was released by Saibal Sengupta, considered to be an authority on the subject here.

“The fact that we have 63-odd species, including 17 species in the Deepor Beel — the lone Ramsar site in Assam — is a good one compared to the global statistics,” he said, adding that there are only 6,800 species of herpetofauna globally.

According to International Union for Conservation of Nature data, there are only 16,318 herpetofauna species worldwide — 9,547 species of reptiles and 6,771 species of amphibians.

“There has been rapid habitat alteration for every species and it is a global phenomenon due to development in various sectors. We cannot stop that as development is necessary,” Purkayastha told IANS.

“However, if urbanization continues at the present rate, the population will be affected in our region too very soon,” he said.

The young researcher also rued the fact that the northeastern region, which has been identified as one of the two biographic hotspots after the Western Ghats, is still data deficient regarding the herpetofauna population.

Not many studies have been conducted in this part of the country to record the amphibian and reptile population scientifically. “I am sure many new species will be recorded in states like Arunachal Pradesh once there is a scientific study,” he added.

He said misinformation, superstitions and lack of interest among people in these animals is hindering the conservation process.

Speaking at the 12th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) here, Manmohan Singh said there is a need for equity as the per capita emission of developed countries continues to be 10-12 times that of the developing world.

“India will play a constructive role in ongoing talks as far as it is based on fair and equitable agreement,” he said.

Commending the progress made at the UN climate change talks in Durban, the prime minister said: “The 17th Conference of Parties (CoP) at Durban did achieve significant progress by agreeing to the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol.”

He said the ensuing climate talks should be based on the principles of equitable access to resources and common but differentiated responsibility.

“Durban must build on the Bali Action plan and we must find a solution to the problem keeping in mind that developing countries have the right to develop,” he added.

Sultan, who was 16 and weighed about 230 kg, was donated to the zoo in April 2011 by the Renato Circus and had become a star attraction.

The tiger was given to the zoo after it sustained injuries in a fight with another tiger, leading its owners to believe it might be crippled, the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat said.

The tiger was injured during a tour of Honduras and the circus decided to donate him to the zoo in the Central American country’s capital.

Sultan was treated extensively and recovered fully, but he reinjured himself about a month ago, veterinarian Diana Echeverria said.

The tiger was euthanized Tuesday to end his pain and suffering.

Sultan will be stuffed and placed on display at the zoo, officials said.

The introductory episodes titled “Tiger Dynasty” was launched Wednesday.

The documentary, filmed by acclaimed wildlife cinematographer S. Nallamuthu, tells the story of five translocated tigers from Ranthambore National Park, also in Rajasthan, to Sariska Tiger Reserve, an expanse of 800 sq km in the picturesque Aravalli range.

The extermination of Sariska’s tigers by poachers had come to light in 2004.

Nallamuthu says of the five translocated tigers he is fond of Baghani, a tigress portrayed in the documentary. “I have been filming her with my good friend and field assistant, Hemraj Meena, since she was a cub,” he says.

“When the Rajasthan government and the Wild Life Institute of India decided to translocate her, I wanted to follow her journey. In a sense we both began our journey in a similar fashion – blindfolded,” Nallamuthu told IANS.

“Days went by before I even caught a glimpse of this magnificent tigress,” he said of the tigress after her translocation to Sariska.

In 2010, Nallamuthu had made the “Tiger Queen”, a moving tale of rivalry and betrayal in a tiger family in Ranthambore. It was India’s first full length wildlife film shot in a high definition (HD) format.

The film shows Machli, the tigress, who ruled the fort for over a decade, was overthrown in a battle by one of her daughters.

Baghani, portrayed in Tiger Dynasty, is one of her daughters.

Today, the population of prey animals in Sariska went up in the absence of major predators. The park now boasts a significant number of prey animals, including spotted deer, sambar, nilgai and wild boar.

Leopards, another key predator in the food chain, began to make a comeback into areas where the tigers had once ruled. They are their main competitors in Sariska today.

Coming back to his favourite subject, Baghani, Nallamuthu says, “At least I knew some of the dangers that were possibly going to trouble her – tiger land is now a playing field for leopards, the villagers lay claim to critical parts of the forests and the lurking sinister dangers of poachers.”

“We all fretted and prayed – would she make it? She of course knew nothing of this – all she knew was that she was in unfamiliar territory – she was wild, she was a tigress – and she honed her skills to survive in this park…It’s true when they say that the journey is the destination,” said Nallamuthu who has captured the unfolding events on camera like no one has ever before in India.

The film also portrays the conflict between leopards and villagers in the reserve.

“The film is mainly shot on HD, (but) infra red cameras have also been used,” said Nallamuthu, who has also captured the conflict between tigers and leopards in Sariska.

Bihar has perhaps spun its first homegrown thriller, a Western style potboiler, by son-of-the soil writer Hemant Kumar. A former journalist and corporate honcho, Kumar’s novel “Prey By The Ganges (Wisdom Tree)” was released by MP Shatrughan Sinha in the capital Thursday.

The book explores the darkest depths of human consciousness, a morass which engulfed post-independence Bihar where might was right.

“I lived in Bihar for 17 years of my life. Even after I left Bihar in 1976 and travelled all over the country and abroad, the story kept playing on my mind. I kept going back to the state as journalist to report elections and politics,” Hemant Kumar told IANS.

He said “the sexually attractive and handsome thakur with his magnetic evil aura was the face of feudal Bihar of the late 1940s, 50s and 60s when oppression and crime were widespread”.

“It is still there,” Kumar said.

The malevolent thakur Gajanan Singh echoes a character the writer had met several years ago. “I used to know a man … a feudal landlord in a place near Ranchi (now in Jharkhand, but then in Bihar). He was a very good looking and an evil man, who picked up women like snacks on the way,” Kumar recalled.

The action follows the trail of the meandering Ganges that sweeps past Patna city into dense jungles, sandflats and slides to form a strange arc — often called the badlands of the wild east.

“I used to stroll along and across the Ganges when I vacationed in Patna every year. The Ganges was full of stories because of the crime that thrived around its banks. Robbery, treachery, rape and wife-snatching, the river was a hive of dark acts. But the darkest of them was rape,” Kumar said.

In the book, rape becomes a symbol of caste and social status — used as a tool of oppression.

The writer is working on a sequel on a much broader canvas. “It will be pure fiction without caste, society or politics,” Kumar said. “Bihar has more intellect than it is given credit for.”

Sobhit Arya, founder and publisher of Wisdom Tree, said: “‘Prey By The Ganges’ is the second book in the Chlorophyll series that we have launched to promote contemporary Indian and sub-continental fiction.”

The third book in the series, “Breath of Death”, a thriller by Pakistan-based writer and neurosurgeon Saad Shafqat, who co-wrote cricketer Javed Miandad’s autobiography, will be published soon.

Bihar has perhaps spun its first homegrown thriller, a Western style potboiler, by son-of-the soil writer Hemant Kumar. A former journalist and corporate honcho, Kumar’s novel “Prey By The Ganges (Wisdom Tree)” was released by MP Shatrughan Sinha in the capital Thursday.

The book explores the darkest depths of human consciousness, a morass which engulfed post-independence Bihar where might was right.

“I lived in Bihar for 17 years of my life. Even after I left Bihar in 1976 and travelled all over the country and abroad, the story kept playing on my mind. I kept going back to the state as journalist to report elections and politics,” Hemant Kumar told IANS.

He said “the sexually attractive and handsome thakur with his magnetic evil aura was the face of feudal Bihar of the late 1940s, 50s and 60s when oppression and crime were widespread”.

“It is still there,” Kumar said.

The malevolent thakur Gajanan Singh echoes a character the writer had met several years ago. “I used to know a man … a feudal landlord in a place near Ranchi (now in Jharkhand, but then in Bihar). He was a very good looking and an evil man, who picked up women like snacks on the way,” Kumar recalled.

The action follows the trail of the meandering Ganges that sweeps past Patna city into dense jungles, sandflats and slides to form a strange arc — often called the badlands of the wild east.

“I used to stroll along and across the Ganges when I vacationed in Patna every year. The Ganges was full of stories because of the crime that thrived around its banks. Robbery, treachery, rape and wife-snatching, the river was a hive of dark acts. But the darkest of them was rape,” Kumar said.

In the book, rape becomes a symbol of caste and social status — used as a tool of oppression.

The writer is working on a sequel on a much broader canvas. “It will be pure fiction without caste, society or politics,” Kumar said. “Bihar has more intellect than it is given credit for.”

Sobhit Arya, founder and publisher of Wisdom Tree, said: “‘Prey By The Ganges’ is the second book in the Chlorophyll series that we have launched to promote contemporary Indian and sub-continental fiction.”

The third book in the series, “Breath of Death”, a thriller by Pakistan-based writer and neurosurgeon Saad Shafqat, who co-wrote cricketer Javed Miandad’s autobiography, will be published soon.

Bihar has perhaps spun its first homegrown thriller, a Western style potboiler, by son-of-the soil writer Hemant Kumar. A former journalist and corporate honcho, Kumar’s novel “Prey By The Ganges (Wisdom Tree)” was released by MP Shatrughan Sinha in the capital Thursday.

The book explores the darkest depths of human consciousness, a morass which engulfed post-independence Bihar where might was right.

“I lived in Bihar for 17 years of my life. Even after I left Bihar in 1976 and travelled all over the country and abroad, the story kept playing on my mind. I kept going back to the state as journalist to report elections and politics,” Hemant Kumar told IANS.

He said “the sexually attractive and handsome thakur with his magnetic evil aura was the face of feudal Bihar of the late 1940s, 50s and 60s when oppression and crime were widespread”.

“It is still there,” Kumar said.

The malevolent thakur Gajanan Singh echoes a character the writer had met several years ago. “I used to know a man … a feudal landlord in a place near Ranchi (now in Jharkhand, but then in Bihar). He was a very good looking and an evil man, who picked up women like snacks on the way,” Kumar recalled.

The action follows the trail of the meandering Ganges that sweeps past Patna city into dense jungles, sandflats and slides to form a strange arc — often called the badlands of the wild east.

“I used to stroll along and across the Ganges when I vacationed in Patna every year. The Ganges was full of stories because of the crime that thrived around its banks. Robbery, treachery, rape and wife-snatching, the river was a hive of dark acts. But the darkest of them was rape,” Kumar said.

In the book, rape becomes a symbol of caste and social status — used as a tool of oppression.

The writer is working on a sequel on a much broader canvas. “It will be pure fiction without caste, society or politics,” Kumar said. “Bihar has more intellect than it is given credit for.”

Sobhit Arya, founder and publisher of Wisdom Tree, said: “‘Prey By The Ganges’ is the second book in the Chlorophyll series that we have launched to promote contemporary Indian and sub-continental fiction.”

The third book in the series, “Breath of Death”, a thriller by Pakistan-based writer and neurosurgeon Saad Shafqat, who co-wrote cricketer Javed Miandad’s autobiography, will be published soon.

This is one of the first examples in infectious disease of where an individual’s genetic profile can determine which drug will work best for them – the idea of personalised medicine that is gradually becoming familiar in cancer medicine.

The scientists found that people generate an immune response to tuberculosis that is ‘too much’, ‘too little’ or ‘just right’, according to what versions they have of the LTA4H gene.

The findings indicate that patients are likely to benefit from different drug treatments depending on their LTA4H gene profile.

Furthermore, the researchers show that steroids used as part of the standard treatment for the most severe form of tuberculosis, TB meningitis, only benefit some patients.

The results of the study, part-funded by the Wellcome Trust, are published in the journal Cell.

Tuberculosis is a major cause of death worldwide, with an estimated 9.4 million cases and 1.7 million deaths in 2009. The disease is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria and differs according to where the infection takes hold. Most TB affects the lungs, but around 40% of cases involve disease elsewhere. In perhaps 1-2% of cases, TB affects the brain. This form of the disease, TB meningitis, is the most serious. It is hard to diagnose and treat, and even with treatment it is often fatal.

The standard treatment for TB meningitis involves a range of antibiotics to try and kill the bacteria, and the steroid dexamethasone to dampen inflammation – the body’s response to tuberculosis infection that can be almost as much of a problem.

The new study combines work in zebrafish at the University of Washington, Seattle to identify genes and biological pathways involved in the immune response to TB, with clinical research work in collaboration with Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam.

The scientists identified a gene in zebrafish associated with susceptibility to tuberculosis, which controlled the balance of the inflammatory response. Variations in the DNA code in this gene could alter different biological pathways, leading either to too much inflammation or too little. Both too much and too little inflammation were problems, allowing the tuberculosis bacteria to thrive and multiply.

The researchers showed that blocking the appropriate biological pathway with drugs could restore just the right level of inflammatory response.

The researchers based in Vietnam then went back to samples from a previous clinical trial in over 500 patients with TB meningitis. They showed changes at a single position in the human LTA4H gene were associated with treatment response.

Only those having LTA4H genes that led to too much inflammation benefitted from the use of the steroid dexamethasone.

There is some suggestion that the steroid could have an adverse effect for those whose LTA4H genes already lead them to have a reduced inflammatory response, though the result is not statistically significant.

Dr Sarah Dunstan, Head of Human Genetics of Oxford University Vietnam, explained: ‘It’s like a “Goldilocks” gene. Depending on what versions of the LTA4H gene you have inherited, you could see an inflammatory response to tuberculosis that is “too much”, “too little”, or “just right”. You are likely to benefit most from a treatment tailored to your own genes.’

Dr Guy Thwaites of King’s College London, who led the clinical study in Vietnam on a Wellcome Trust Fellowship, said: ‘This is a fundamental discovery. It is now possible to think about the use of simple but rapid genetic tests to determine how people will respond to tuberculosis infection and whether they would benefit from steroids.’

‘The findings could apply much more widely than just in TB meningitis, or other forms of tuberculosis,’ adds Dr Thwaites. ‘Since the inflammation pathways governed by the LTA4H gene are central to many infections, there could be implications for many diseases.’

Professor Jeremy Farrar, who leads the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, said: ‘This study highlights the power of really good clinical research supported through Wellcome Trust Fellowships and linked with some of the very best scientists in the world in Vietnam and the USA, which can bring immediate benefits to patients and also point the way to develop better, more targeted drugs to treat people with tuberculosis in the future.’

‘The idea that a patient’s genes can determine what treatment they will benefit from is pretty novel outside of cancer. Nothing like this has been seen before in infectious disease. Now we need to see if we can use this to help patients with this devastating disease.’

Cancer is responsible for close to 13% of deaths worldwide, accounting for 7.6 million deaths in 2008. On World Cancer Day (4 February) this year, WHO is focusing on screening and vaccination. Increased access to cost-effective vaccinations to prevent infections associated with cancers and cost-effective cancer-screening programmes can help to reduce the number cancer deaths.

WHO and IARC promote screening and vaccination

Increased access to cost-effective vaccinations to prevent infections associated with cancers as well as the availability of cost-effective cancer-screening programmes for everyone can help to reduce cancer mortality.

Cost-effective vaccination prevents infections

Vaccination is available against cervical cancer, caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) and liver cancer caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV).

Cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide and over 500 000 new cases are diagnosed every year. HPV vaccines are recommended for use in girls aged 9 to 13 years old and can prevent infection with HPV types 16 and 18, which are together responsible for approximately 70% of cervical cancer cases globally

Liver cancer

Liver cancer killed 700 000 people in 2008. Together, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) account for 78% of liver cancer cases. A vaccine against hepatitis B has been available since 1982 and was the first vaccine against a major human cancer.

Early diagnosis reduces cancer mortality

Cancer mortality can also be reduced if cases are detected and treated early through early diagnosis and screening programmes. Early diagnosis is promoted by educating the public about early signs and symptoms of cancers. This is particularly relevant in low-resource settings where the majority of patients are diagnosed and treated in very late stages. Screening programmes use tests across a healthy population to detect signs for cancer or pre-cancer and allow to promptly refer affected persons for diagnosis and treatment. Effective screening programmes are for example available for breast cancer and for cervical cancer.

Cancer prevention

At least one-third of all cancer cases are preventable. Prevention offers the most cost-effective long-term strategy for the control of cancer.

Tobacco

Tobacco use is the single greatest avoidable risk factor for cancer mortality worldwide, causing an estimated 22% of cancer deaths per year. In 2004, 1.6 million of the 7.4 million cancer deaths were due to tobacco use.

Tobacco smoking causes many types of cancer, including cancers of the lung, esophagus, larynx (voice box), mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, pancreas, stomach and cervix. About 70% of the lung cancer burden can be attributed to smoking alone. Second-hand smoke (SHS), also known as environmental tobacco smoke, has been proven to cause lung cancer in nonsmoking adults. Smokeless tobacco (also called oral tobacco, chewing tobacco or snuff) causes oral, esophageal and pancreatic cancer.

• Tobacco and cancer: evidence and monitoring
• Implementation tools
• Tobacco Free Initiative

Physical inactivity, dietary factors, obesity and being overweight

Dietary modification is another important approach to cancer control. There is a link between overweight and obesity to many types of cancer such as oesophagus, colorectum, breast, endometrium and kidney. Diets high in fruits and vegetables may have a protective effect against many cancers. Conversely, excess consumption of red and preserved meat may be associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. In addition, healthy eating habits that prevent the development of diet-associated cancers will also lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Regular physical activity and the maintenance of a healthy body weight, along with a healthy diet, will considerably reduce cancer risk. National policies and programmes should be implemented to raise awareness and reduce exposure to cancer risk factors, and to ensure that people are provided with the information and support they need to adopt healthy lifestyles.

• WHO global strategy on diet, physical activity and health

Alcohol use

Alcohol use is a risk factor for many cancer types including cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colorectum and breast. Risk of cancer increases with the amount of alcohol consumed. The risk from heavy drinking for several cancer types (e.g. oral cavity, pharynx, larynx and oesophagus) substantially increases if the person is also a heavy smoker. Attributable fractions vary between men and women for certain types of alcohol-related cancer, mainly because of differences in average levels of consumption. For example, 22% of mouth and oropharynx cancers in men are attributable to alcohol whereas in women the attributable burden drops to 9%. A similar sex difference exists for oesophageal and liver cancers (Rehm et al., 2004).

• Global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol

Infections

Infectious agents are responsible for almost 22% of cancer deaths in the developing world and 6% in industrialized countries. Viral hepatitis B and C cause cancer of the liver; human papilloma virus infection causes cervical cancer; the bacterium Helicobacter pylori increases the risk of stomach cancer. In some countries the parasitic infection schistosomiasis increases the risk of bladder cancer and in other countries the liver fluke increases the risk of cholangiocarcinoma of the bile ducts. Preventive measures include vaccination and prevention of infection and infestation.

• Infectious diseases health topics

Environmental pollution

Environmental pollution of air, water and soil with carcinogenic chemicals accounts for 1–4% of all cancers (IARC/WHO, 2003). Exposure to carcinogenic chemicals in the environment can occur through drinking water or pollution of indoor and ambient air. In Bangladesh, 5–10% of all cancer deaths in an arsenic-contaminated region were attributable to arsenic exposure (Smith, Lingas & Rahman, 2000). Exposure to carcinogens also occurs via the contamination of food by chemicals, such as afl atoxins or dioxins. Indoor air pollution from coal fires doubles the risk of lung cancer, particularly among non-smoking women (Smith, Mehta & Feuz, 2004). Worldwide, indoor air pollution from domestic coal fires is responsible for approximately 1.5% of all lung cancer deaths. Coal use in households is particularly widespread in Asia.

Occupational carcinogens

More than 40 agents, mixtures and exposure circumstances in the working environment are carcinogenic to humans and are classified as occupational carcinogens (Siemiatycki et al., 2004). That occupational carcinogens are causally related to cancer of the lung, bladder, larynx and skin, leukaemia and nasopharyngeal cancer is well documented. Mesothelioma (cancer of the outer lining of the lung or chest cavity) is to a large extent caused by work-related exposure to asbestos.

Occupational cancers are concentrated among specific groups of the working population, for whom the risk of developing a particular form of cancer may be much higher than for the general population. About 20–30% of the male and 5–20% of the female working-age population (people aged 15–64 years) may have been exposed to lung carcinogens during their working lives, accounting for about 10% of lung cancers worldwide. About 2% of leukaemia cases worldwide are attributable to occupational exposures.

Radiation

Ionizing radiation is carcinogenic to humans. Knowledge on radiation risk has been mainly acquired from epidemiological studies of the Japanese A-bomb survivors as well as from studies of medical and occupational radiation exposure cohorts. Ionizing radiation can induce leukaemia and a number of solid tumours, with higher risks at young age at exposure. Residential exposure to radon gas from soil and building materials is estimated to cause between 3% and 14% of all lung cancers, making it the second cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoke. Radon levels in homes can be reduced by improving the ventilation and sealing floors and walls. Ionizing radiation is an essential diagnostic and therapeutic tool. To guarantee that benefits exceed potential radiation risks radiological medical procedures should be appropriately prescribed and properly performed, to reduce unnecessary radiation doses, particularly in children.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and in particular solar radiation, is carcinogenic to humans, causing all major types of skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma. Globally in 2000, over 200 000 cases of melanoma were diagnosed and there were 65 000 melanoma-associated deaths. Avoiding excessive exposure, use of sunscreen and protective clothing are effective preventive measures. UV-emitting tanning devices are now also classified as carcinogenic to humans based on their association with skin and ocular melanoma cancers.

• Ionizing radiation
• Ultraviolet radiation

Early detection of cancer

Early detection of cancer greatly increases the chances for successful treatment. There are two major components of early detection of cancer: education to promote early diagnosis and screening.

Recognizing possible warning signs of cancer and taking prompt action leads to early diagnosis. Increased awareness of possible warning signs of cancer, among physicians, nurses and other health care providers as well as among the general public, can have a great impact on the disease. Some early signs of cancer include lumps, sores that fail to heal, abnormal bleeding, persistent indigestion, and chronic hoarseness. Early diagnosis is particularly relevant for cancers of the breast, cervix, mouth, larynx, colon and rectum, and skin.

Screening

Screening refers to the use of simple tests across a healthy population in order to identify individuals who have disease, but do not yet have symptoms. Examples include breast cancer screening using mammography and cervical cancer screening using cytology screening methods, including Pap smears. Screening programmes should be undertaken only when their effectiveness has been demonstrated, when resources (personnel, equipment, etc.) are sufficient to cover nearly all of the target group, when facilities exist for confirming diagnoses and for treatment and follow-up of those with abnormal results, and when prevalence of the disease is high enough to justify the effort and costs of screening.

Based on the existing evidence, mass population screening can be advocated only for breast and cervical cancer, using mammography screening and cytology screening, in countries where resources are available for wide coverage of the population. Several ongoings studies are currently evaluating low cost approaches to screening that can be implemented and sustained in low-resource settings. For example visual inspection with acetic acid may prove to be an effective screening method for cervical cancer in the near future. More studies that evaluate low cost alternative methods to mammography screening, such as clinical breast examination, are needed.

More information on screening for cancer

• Screening for various cancers
• Breast cancer: prevention and control
• Screening for cervical cancer
• Screening for colorectal cancer
• Screening for oral cancer

Treatment of cancer

Cancer treatment programmes

The main goals of a cancer diagnosis and treatment programme are to cure or considerably prolong the life of patients and to ensure the best possible quality of life to cancer survivors.

The most effective and efficient treatment programmes are those that: a) are provided in a sustained and equitable way; b) are linked to early detection; and c) adhere to evidence-based standards of care and a multidisciplinary approach.

Such programmes also ensure adequate therapy for cancer types that, although not amenable to early detection, have high potential for being cured (such as metastatic seminoma and acute lymphatic leukaemia in children), or have a good chance of prolonging survival in a significant way (such as breast cancer and advanced lymphomas).

Diagnosis

The first critical step in the management of cancer is to establish the diagnosis based on pathological examination. A range of tests is necessary to determine the spread of the tumour. Staging often requires substantial resources that can be prohibitive in low-resource settings. Because of late diagnosis, however, a consequence of poor access to care, most patients have advanced disease in such settings.

Once the diagnosis and degree of spread of the tumour have been established, to the extent possible, a decision must be made regarding the most effective cancer treatment in the given socioeconomic setting.

Major treatment modalities

This requires a careful selection of one or more of the major treatment modalities – surgery, radiotherapy and systemic therapy – a selection that should be based on evidence of the best existing treatment given the resources available. Surgery alone, and sometimes radiation alone, is only likely to be highly successful when the tumour is localized and small in size. Chemotherapy alone can be effective for a small number of cancers, such as haematological neoplasms (leukaemias and lymphomas), which can generally be considered to be widespread from the outset. Combined modality therapy requires close collaboration among the entire cancer care team.

Palliative care

Palliative care is an essential part of cancer control and can be provided relatively simply and inexpensively.

Palliative care for children represents a special, albeit closely related field to adult palliative care. Palliative care for children is the active total care of the child’s body, mind and spirit, and also involves giving support to the family. It begins when illness is diagnosed, and continues regardless of whether or not a child receives treatment directed at the disease. Health providers must evaluate and alleviate a child’s physical, psychological, and social distress. Effective palliative care requires a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and makes use of available community resources; it can be successfully implemented even if resources are limited. It can be provided in tertiary care facilities, in community health centres and even in children’s homes.

Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and families who face life-threatening illness, by providing pain and symptom relief, spiritual and psychosocial support to from diagnosis to the end of life and bereavement.

Palliative care

• provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
• affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
• intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
• integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
• offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
• offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement;
• uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
• will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness;
• is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.

In most of the world, the majority of cancer patients are in advances stages of cancer when first seen by a medical professional. For them, the only realistic treatment option is pain relief and palliative care. Effective approaches to palliative care are available to improve the quality of life for cancer patients.

The WHO ladder for cancer pain is a relatively inexpensive yet effective method for relieving cancer pain in about 90% of patients.

Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2010

Description of the global burden of NCDs, their risk factors and determinants

Publication details

Editors: World Health Organization
Number of pages: 176
Publication date: April 2011
Languages: English
ISBN: 978 92 4 156422 9

Downloads

• Full report in English
  pdf, 3.09 Mb
• Executive summary in English
  pdf, 143kb

Outlining its growth strategy in a filing made online with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, Facebook said it “continued to focus on growing its user base across all geographies, including relatively less-penetrated, large markets such as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea.”

Noting that its active users had grown substantially in the past several years, it said: “We experienced growth across different geographies, with users in Brazil and India representing a key source of growth.”

As of December 31, 2011, it had 845 million active users, an increase of 39 percent from the same date last year, including 161 million active users in the United States, an increase of 16 percent and 37 million active users in Brazil, an increase of 268 percent from the prior year.

“Additionally, we had 46 million MAUs in India as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 132 percent from the prior year,” it said.

Facebook, which has one of its four regional support centres in Hyderabad, India, noted that it competed with other, largely regional, social networks that have strong positions in particular countries, including Cyworld in South Korea, Mixi in Japan, Orkut (owned by Google) in Brazil and India, and vKontakte in Russia.

“We intend to grow our user base by continuing our marketing and user acquisition efforts and enhancing our products, including mobile apps, in order to make Facebook more accessible and useful,” Facebook said.

“There are more than two billion global Internet users, according to an industry source, and we aim to connect all of them” it said noting it had achieved varying levels of penetration within the population of Internet users in different countries with estimated penetration rates of about 20-30 percent in Brazil, Germany, and India.

“There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, in a letter that accompanied the filing.

Zuckerberg, now 27, famously started Facebook when he was a student at Harvard University in 2004.

His radial (wrist) arteries were also calcified and had lesser capacity to bear with an incision, with tests showing that nothing wider than 1.7 mm could enter the arteries.

Thus, it was difficult for him to undergo angiography, in which a tube (called sheath) and another smaller tube (catheter), together measuring at least 2.8 mm, are inserted in the arteries.

It was then that Shah came to know about a new technique called “sheathless” angiography, which is also less painful.

“Not everyone is in a position to undergo angiography, which can be painful owing to the size of insertion required in the arteries,” Narayan Gadkar, a doctor from Jupiter Hospital in Thane, near Mumbai, who started performing the new procedure in 2010, told IANS.

In sheathless angiography, the catheter is directly introduced in the arteries.

Gadkar, among the pioneers of the technique, has done nearly 400 sheathless angiography tests so far, but the procedure is still not well known.

“Angiography is a medical imaging technique used to visualise the inside or lumen of blood vessels and organs of the body with a particular interest in the arteries, veins and the heart chambers. A pipe-like object known as sheath is inserted in the arteries, through which the catheter, 1.8 millimetres ( mm) in diameter, is inserted,” he explains.

“It is a painful experience, specially for Indian patients, as they have narrow arteries,” he added.

“Generally, after puncturing the artery with a wire, we introduce a sheath, through which we put a catheter, which is painful. But in the method we use, we put in a catheter without the sheath, which ensures one millimetre of less invasion,” said Gadkar.

“Traditionally, it was done through groin arteries. The puncture made on the wrist is much smaller than usual,” he said.

The puncture on the wrist is also easier than the groin procedure, which involves complications like immobilisation, Gadkar added.

According to figures released by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 60 percent of the world’s cardio-vascular patients are expected to be in India by 2016. The country already has more than 100 million heart patients.

With a high number of young adults being affected by heart problems, angiography is one of the most widely used methods to diagnose heart problems and blockages at an initial stage.

“People are usually afraid of angiography and they keep on avoiding it. This results in heart attacks,” the doctor adds.

To better the social health and economic conditions of women and children, the Government has adopted a number of programmes and initiatives. Many of these centrally-sponsored schemes, like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Reproductive and Child Health Programme, the National Rural Health Mission and the Integrated Child Development Services have increased public resources to key sectors. However, the main challenge to be overcome in these sectors is to deliver these commitments and initiatives into results that can be measured.

ICDS Restructured

It is against this background that the paradigm shift of the Ministry of Women & Child Development in its approach to social sector issues assumes significance. The variance in approach signifies a replacement of the earlier solely only welfare oriented methodology with the aim of the holistic empowerment of women and child.

            The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, launched in 1975 is the major component of these programmes. It has been expanded in three phases in the years 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2008-09.

Under the scheme, 6771 ICDS Projects and 12.95 lakh AWCs (Anganwadi Centers) are working as at present. Their services are being availed by more than nine and a half crore beneficiaries.  The number of AWCs has increased by more than half a crore during 2010 – 2011.

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)

Another important development in this respect has been the Union Government’s decision to formulate a national policy and curriculum framework on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). This policy is to be put into operation through the strengthened and restructured ICDS. This will result in the AWCs being re positioned as the Early Childhood Development Centres. Thesecentres, in turn, will function as an enabling environment for promotion of early childhood development, with a sharp focus on delivering quality ECCE.

Information Kit for Rural Mothers.

It is against these developments that Information, Communication and Education (ICE) packages fro the Indian Rural Women have to be formulated. The following are some of the major points that will be covered by such packages.

• No marriage before the girl is eighteen years old.
• Breast feeding the child is equally important for the health and immunity – not only of the child, but also of the mother.
• The mile stones of the child development must be watched for and noted. It is the responsibility of not only the health worker, or the mother! Rather it is the responsibility of the whole family!! (Important milestones include the fixing of the head, sight and hearing abilities, appropriate increase in weight etc).
• The immunization schedule for the child should be strictly followed. The immunization card provided by the rural health worker can be of great aid in providing an added vigour to following the schedule.
• The father of the child has an equally important role in the growth of the child. It is he who provides the fledgling child with a sense of security and confidence to take on life as part of a society. The rate of the growth of intelligence of a child increases when the child is brought up by both the father and the mother rather than when by a single parent.

(PIB Feature).

A Norwegian court ruled that the two children would stay in two different foster homes until the age of 18 and their natural parents would be allowed to meet them only for an hour once a year.

Shockingly, the court adds that only if the couple separated, could the custody of the children be given to the natural father, who has been employed as a geoscientist in Norway. After an international media outcry and a personal meeting of grandparents Monotosh and Shikha Chakravarty with President Pratibha Patil to seek her intervention in getting their two grandchildren back from foster care in Norway, a headway is reported. Now Norway has agreed to hand over the children to their uncle in India.

Earlier letters sent to the Norwegian government by the Ministry of External Affairs on December 28, 2011, and January 5, 2012, did not elicit any response. With the visas of Bhattacharyas expiring in March, they dread leaving the country without their loved ones. The happening, sorrowfully true, is appalling.

FOR MORE READING. . .

Click here for a .pdf of the Supreme Court order

Holding that spectrum was a natural resource, the court said natural resources “are vested with the government as a matter of trust in the name of the people of India, and it is the solemn duty of the state to protect the national interest, and natural resources must always be used in the interests of the country and not private interests.”

FOR MORE READING

Sayed Irshad Ali, from Udaipur district in Rajasthan, is in Bhopal these days to showcase his contemporary art work, including hoardings and posters, in various public places.

He compares two major industrial disasters — the 1984 Bhopal tragedy and 2010′s oil leak from British Petroleum’s underwater drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the US coast.

“I am raising two main points through my artwork. Firstly, I am comparing these two manmade tragedies. In the first case, human beings died, and in the other, fish. The families of 500,000 Bhopal gas victims, even after 27 years, are still waiting for justice, whereas the US made BP pay a compensation of $20 billion for dead fish and environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico,” Ali told IANS.

“This artwork will raise questions such as how important are human lives in our country and do we really care enough?” he said.

The second issue he is highlighting is the “hypocrisy” of Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide, and its “tainted” sponsorship of this year’s London Olympics.

“Dow Chemicals inherited a criminal by buying Union Carbide in 2001, but at the same time it didn’t take any liabilities of the Bhopal tragedy, like cleanup of the site. The people of Bhopal are still drinking contaminated water and thousands are routinely exposed to cancer and birth defects,” he said.

He said the company which is responsible for the “destruction of both human lives and nature” should not be allowed to be associated with a prestigious event like the Olympics.

“I appeal to the Indian government and people to boycott the London Olympics till the Dow Chemicals sponsorship is not taken back by the Olympics committee,” he said.

On the intervening night of Dec 2-3, 1984, tonnes of poisonous methyl isocyanate leaked from the then Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, killing over 3,000 people instantly and around 25,000 over the years. A total of 500,000 people have been affected by the tragedy.

This is Ali’s sixth series of work focussing on social issues. His first work “Astitva”, on Udaipur Lakes, and “Shoe Men’s Property 1 & 2″, on Iraq and Afghanistan, were well received.

“It is good that such young people and artists are coming forward for the Bhopal cause and presenting their point of view. It is in fact a kind of help and support to the fight for justice,” Abdul Jabbar, convenor of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udhyog Sangathan, told IANS.

The latest to succumb to the easy lure of caste politics is ironically widely seen as a post-caste politician, none other than India’s prime minister-in-waiting and Congress party general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Even more ironically, the man whose example Gandhi is so expediently exploiting was until recently defined entirely by his world-class technological accomplishments – Sam Pitroda.

What began as an apparently calculated move in December last year at a rally in Akbarpur area of Ramabai Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, has now become received wisdom in the Congress in the context of state assembly elections. The media has been quick to pick up on the move in calling Pitroda the “OBC face” of the party.

At the Akbarpur rally Gandhi was quoted as saying, “Twenty years ago Rajiv Gandhi thought of bringing mobile phones to India. Do you know who brought them? Sam Pitroda, who is a Vishwakarma, ‘barahi’ (carpenter). He brought mobile phones to your houses.”

Pitroda has tried to make the best of a bad situation by adding nuance to Gandhi’s comments. “The intention has been to convey to the people of Uttar Pradesh and India that if son of a carpenter like me could use education and technology to overcome centuries of social injustices, anyone can. Personally, I have never been either conscious of or defensive about the fact that I come from the margins of society. Technology gave me an identity that is agnostic to such classifications. That said, it would be wrong to read too much into what Rahul has said other than a genuine wish to inspire others,” Pitroda said.

Notwithstanding that explanation, the fact remains that Gandhi resorted to the caste construct so unselfconsciously. What makes it particularly galling is that his comments came across as reflexive. It is possible that his comments were not even remotely motivated by condescension, but they sounded as if he was suggesting that whatever Pitroda might have accomplished in life should be seen from the prism of his arbitrarily defined social origin.

At the heart of everything that Gandhi has been doing in Uttar Pradesh is fuelled by a wish to win the assembly elections, an outcome that he might see as the signature accomplishment of his political career so far. But that does not extenuate his use of this egregious nomenclature. There are those who might reasonably argue that what Gandhi did is entirely in keeping with the realpolitik of India’s peculiarly structured electoral landscape, but that is precisely the problem with it.

If it is Gandhi’s desire to cast himself as a modern politician free from the cynical perpetuation and exploitation of this centuries old nonsense, then he should have known better than to use Pitroda’s so-called caste. It is up to young leaders like Gandhi and many others cutting across party lines to liberate India’s politics from the skullduggeries which the older leaders have so routinely indulged in.

It is disheartening that someone who has distinguished himself globally for over four decades in the world of cutting edge technology has now been dragged down and given a label that India as a civilisation ought to reject. Unless the country’s young leaders once and for all erase such regressive and often bigoted constructs from political discourse, there is little hope that those whom they seek to inspire would ever rise above them.

No time for fitness, bad food, increased tobacco and alcohol consumption and lifestyle changes like late marriage are the perfect recipe for breast cancer.

“The cancer registries’ data shows that urban women are at almost double the risk of breast cancer than rural women. The incidence of breast cancer is much more in urban areas,” P.K. Julka, senior oncologist from the department of radiation oncology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), told IANS.

According to the Delhi Cancer Registry data, the number of cancer cases in rural areas is 14.5 per 100,000, whereas in urban areas, it is 26.9 per 100,000.

With breast cancer growing at alarming rates among urban women in India, lifestyle changes such as delayed reproductive activity, prolonged reproductive period playing hormonal havoc and lack of phsyical work are being cited as key factors.

Julka said the psycho-social taboo regarding breast cancer is a major cause why the majority of women never come for treatment in early stages.

“In India, almost 80 percent of patients are in advanced stages when they come to hospitals, whereas in the West the number is just 20 percent. Many times social taboos regarding breast cancer prevent women from talking to their friends and families, let alone doctors,” he said.

“The need of the hour is to create awareness and bring out a media campaign on this disease so that there’s an acceptance and awareness about the disease and its cure,” Julka added.

Doctors point out that treatment techniques are also reaching new dimensions.

“The treatment of breast cancer has developed greatly these days. For similar-sized lumps in different patients, we could give different medications these days,” Anupama Hooda, chief medical oncologist at Max Healthcare in Saket, told IANS.

“Even the treatment has become highly specific. Earlier we used techniques like restructuring, but now we do breast conservation, where we try to conserve as much of the tissue as possible,” Hooda added.

For women over 40, doctors advise an annual checkup by a doctor and self-examination every month. But for women with a genetic history of cancer, regular checkups are a must once they turn 35.

The good thing is breast cancer is one of the few forms of the disease that can be cured completely.
“Breast cancer is one among the few cancers that can be cured completely. But the treatment needs proper planning,” said Anshuman Kumar, surgical oncologist at the Dharamshila Cancer Hospital and Research Centre.

“The major issue pertaining to the treatment of breast cancer is that it is considered a simple form of cancer that can be treated in every hospital by any physician – and that is a misconception. It should be handled by an oncologist,” Kumar said.

“The facilities available at health centres from where a patient receives treatment is also very important,” he said.

Cogeneration or production of electricity in combination with another industrial process is not limited to sugar mills alone. There are several other industries such as paper and pulp, textile, fertilizer, petroleum, petrochemicals and food processing which require electrical as well as thermal energy for their operations and therefore can use cogeneration as a process. The total fuel consumption is significantly reduced when “co-generation” or “combined heat and power” (CHP) is applied. The overall efficiency of energy use in cogeneration mode can be up to 85 per cent and above in some cases.

In the present scenario, where price of fossil fuels is shooting up and there is shortage and non-availability of coal, cogeneration appears to be a promising development. The thrust on distributed generation and increasing awareness for cutting green house gases emissions increases the need of processes like cogeneration. Also it helps in controlling pollution from fossil fuels.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is promoting cogeneration through various incentive based schemes. Biomass Cogeneration programme in India is currently divided into two components (i) Bagasse based (ii) Non-Bagasse based . While bagasse cogeneration is essentially sugar mills oriented non-bagasse biomass cogeneration can be used in biomass industry.

Bagasse Based Cogeneration

As already explained, the bagasse based cogeneration is mainly centred in sugar mills. India is the world’s second biggest producer of sugarcane. Indian sugarcane production during 2010-11 is estimated at 340 million tonnes. India’s 527 working sugar mills crush around 240 million tonnes of cane per year and generate 80 million tonnes of wet bagasse (50% moisture), of which they consume around 70 million tonnes for meeting captive requirements  of power and steam. Thus, electricity production through cogeneration in sugar mills in India is an important avenue for supplying low cost, non-conventional power.

Indian efforts for promotion of bagasse cogeneration started with two pilot projects taken up in cooperative sugar mills in Tamil Nadu in 1988-89 for generation of surplus power and feeding it to the grid. Though possibilities of additional power generation through cogeneration in sugar industry has been known for long, but their usage started in a significant manner only after 1994, after announcement of programme on bagasse based cogeneration by the Government.

A capacity of around 1854 MW of surplus power generation has so far been commissioned in 170 sugar mills in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. More than 200 MW of projects in about 20 private sector sugar mills are under construction. Optimum bagasse cogeneration benefits not only the sugar mills but also the sugarcane farmers as the value addition to their cane is enhanced and thus they can realise more money for it.

Power Cogeneration in Industries (Non-Bagasse) Programme 

The industrial sector today consumes approximately 35% of total electricity generated in the country. At the same time, high quality stable power is required to attain the higher growth rate projected for this sector. Majority of industries in India require both electrical and thermal energy. Today, they either buy power from the State Electricity Boards, or generate their own power largely through diesel generators and meet their thermal energy requirements through captive means mostly utilizing fossil fuels such as coal, oil or natural gas. As fossil fuels are limited, and have adverse environmental impact, it would be appropriate to use non-conventional energy sources including biomass resources such as crop residues and agro-industrial wastes for generation of energy in the industries mainly through biomass gasification technology for meeting their total/partial requirements for both electrical and thermal energy.

Industrial co-generation has in the past not received adequate attention, as cheap power and fuel were abundantly available. However, with increasing tariffs, and unreliable supply of grid power, there is considerable opportunity for the industrial sector to tap the potential for producing electricity and thermal energy in the co-generation mode. In particular, there is significant potential in breweries, caustic soda plants, textile mills, distilleries, fertilizer plants, paper and pulp industry, solvent extraction units, rice mills, petrochemical plants, etc. Furthermore, co-generation projects based on conventional fuels such as coal, oil, lignite, gas and un/semi-utilized wastes/rejects like dolochar, coal rejects and refinery mud, etc. can also be installed in industry for meeting their power and energy requirements.

To meet the requirement of captive power and thermal energy, the installation of biomass cogeneration projects (excluding bagasse co-generation ) is  being promoted in industry, with at least 50% of power for captive use, and a provision for the surplus power to be exported to the grid. This has increased the use of non-conventional energy sources and conserves the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. Use of maximum of 25% conventional fuels has been allowed in such projects. The promotional schemes also provide for Grants-in-Aid to State Nodal Agencies, NGOs and other concerned institutions for organizing seminars, workshops, training/orientation programmes, technology validation, strategic studies, industry-wise sectoral studies and performance monitoring & evaluation, etc.

New Initiatives for Promotion of Cogeneration in India

BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer) Model Cogeneration Projects in Cooperative Sugar Mills: Provision for Central Financial Assistance has been made for bagasse cogeneration projects taken up through BOOT model in cooperative sector sugar mills set up by Special Purpose Vehicle or an Independent Power Producer. In this case, the investment in cogeneration power plant with concurrent modernisation is done by BOOT developers. This model has advantage in terms of non-requirement of equity and loans by cooperative sugar mills and nil liability to repay and limited risks. The cogeneration plant and assets after BOOT period are to be handed over to cooperative sugar mills. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has supported the BOOT model projects in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.  BOOT model projects in 12 Co-operative Public sector sugars mills in Tamil Nadu of aggregate capacity 180 MW and BOOT model cogeneration projects in two cooperative sugar mills of Maharashtra of total capacity 80 MW are under implementation. The Ministry plans to extend this effort in the Co-operative/Public sector sugar mills in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat & Uttar Pradesh, during the next two to three years.

Boiler Modification in Cooperative Sugar Mills: A number of recently installed cooperative sugar mills have already employed the configurations to enable them to undertake cogeneration power projects with minimum investment through modification of existing boiler and matching turbine. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has modified the scheme for providing Central Financial Assistance for boiler upgradation of cogeneration project in such sugar mills.

The incentive based schemes and the technical support to the industry by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for installing cogeneration based projects is expected to give a big push to the non-conventional energy programme during the twelfth Plan Period. (PIB Feature).

The scheme in Sikkim is supervised by the State Rural Management and Development Department and monitored by the Human Resource  Development Department, Sikkim. The Department has appointed 28 teachers as Panchayat Education Assistant, out of which four are from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, for the Mission. The panchayat members are also engaged in proper implementation of this scheme with the panchayat ward under Singbel Gram Panchayat Unit (GPU) of Khamdong Block performing well.

The Thasa ward under Singbel GPU has three centres with nearly 100 beneficiaries, most of whom are small farmers and lumbermen living Below Poverty Line. The learners are from the age group of 25 to 80 years and the participation of women folk is also encouraging in these centres.

Female literacy is given special importance by the Shakshar Bharat Mission for social development and to empower the Indian woman in every field. At Khamdong, the centre is running from the rented premises in Gurung Gaon and starts every morning at 10 am and continues till 1 pm. The classes in Lingdong ICDS and Lingham ICDS centres are being run from 1 pm to 3 pm.

The learning materials have been designed and provided by the State Human Resource Development Department, Sikkim, as per the guidelines of the National Literacy Mission for Shakshar Bharat to literate and non-literate learner of Sikkim.

Speaking about her experience, Miss Januka Bhattarai, who has been deputed in the adult education centre at Thasa Ward under Singbel GPU said, “It’s difficult to teach adult than the children. Their memory power is almost less due to the old age but we are putting all our efforts to teach them as a result, now they are capable of writing their names, identifying alphabets and numbers. The beneficiaries those are availing education at the centers have forgotten to use thumb impression.”

Similarly, one of the beneficiaries Passingkit Lepcha, 41 years, said that she is availing the facility since its inception. The mother of three children, Mrs Lepcha is very much happy today as she can easily write her name today.

Sujata Lepcha, 25 years, who is a drop-out, is continuing her education in the centre and happy to be in the education centre. Mukhia Lepcha, 59 years, and Kami Lepcha, 77 years, recall their past saying that they couldn’t study due to poverty. “But we are lucky that we have got an opportunity to be literate in this age”, they said on a happy note. (PIB Feature.)

Researchers are suggesting that there is a link between the number of friends you have and the size of the region of the brain – known as the orbital prefrontal cortex – that is found just above the eyes.

A new study shows that this brain region is bigger in people who have a larger number of friendships. Their study is published on 1 February 2012 in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The research was carried out as part of the British Academy Centenary ‘Lucy to Language’ project, led by Professor Robin Dunbar of the University of Oxford in a collaboration with Dr Joanne Powell and Dr Marta Garcia-Finana at Liverpool University, Dr Penny Lewis at the University of Manchester and Professor Neil Roberts at Edinburgh University.

The study suggests that we need to employ a set of cognitive skills to maintain a number of friends (and the keyword is ‘friends’ as opposed to just the total number of people we know).

These skills are described by social scientists as ‘mentalising’ or ‘mind-reading’- a capacity to understand what another person is thinking, which is crucial to our ability to handle our complex social world, including the ability to hold conversations with one another. This study, for the first time, suggests that our competency in these skills is determined by the size of key regions of our brains (in particular, the frontal lobe).

Professor Dunbar, from the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, explained: ‘”Mentalising” is where one individual is able to follow a natural hierarchy involving other individuals’ mind states. For example, in the playOthello, Shakespeare manages to keep track of five separate mental states: heintended that his audience believes that Iago wants Othello to suppose that Desdemona loves Cassio.

‘Being able to maintain five separate individuals’ mental states is the natural upper limit for most adults.’

The researchers took anatomical MR images of the brains of 40 volunteers at the Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre at the University of Liverpool to measure the size of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain used in high-level thinking. Participants were asked to make a list of everyone they had had engaged with socially, as opposed to professionally, over the previous seven days. They also took a test to determine their competency in mentalising.

Professor Robin Dunbar, said: ‘We found that individuals who had more friends did better on mentalising tasks and had more neural volume in the orbital frontal cortex, the part of the forebrain immediately above the eyes.

Understanding this link between an individual’s brain size and the number of friends they have helps us understand the mechanisms that have led to humans developing bigger brains than other primate species. The frontal lobes of the brain, in particular, have enlarged dramatically in humans over the last half million years.’

These questions were posed to leading Gandhians in the Taj city Monday, his death anniversary. Most said it was a huge national tragedy. Gandhiji’s presence after independence would have made a world of difference to India’s politics and governance, they felt.

Surely Gandhiji would have played a crucial role in bridging the communal divide following partition. His presence would have helped evolve a growth model that would have really empowered the rural masses, the Gandhians said.

“If only Gandhiji had lived for another 10 years or so, conditions would have been different. The assassin who killed the Mahatma obviously failed in his mission and objectives. What have the fanatics achieved except getting a tarnished image that they have not been able to get rid of till this day?” Gandhian and senior Congress leader Satish Chandra Gupta, 86, who was a legislator in 1985, told IANS.

It was Jan 30, 1948 when Gandhiji fell to the bullets of Nathuram Godse.

Southeast Asia specialist and commentator Paras Nath Choudhary told IANS that “looking back it now appears that the killer of the Mahatma was an agent of the corrupt ruling elite that took over the reins of governance and in later decades played havoc with political morality”.

“If only Gandhiji had lived a couple of years more, the Congress would have either been disbanded, paving the way for realignment of political forces, or gone through a restructuring of a fundamental nature.”

Jitendra Raghvanshi, the national general secretary of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), told IANS: “Definitely, if Gandhiji had lived a little longer, the agony of partition would have been minimised and the presence of a moral authority would surely have kept power brokers and tainted politicians in check.

“Nelson Mandela in South Africa was able to keep the nation together and avoid a split on racial lines. Mahatma Gandhi too would have made sure that the ill-effects of the two-nation theory were drastically contained and the peoples of the two countries lived in harmony.”

The debate continues, as people wonder why Gandhiji was assassinated and what have been the net gains to fundamentalists. IANS talked to some students too.

Manoj, a journalism student, said “the foreign-trained rulers did not like Gandhiji’s lifestyle and his moral preachings. Such elements must have rejoiced over his death.”

Neha Rajaura said: “Had Gandhiji lived longer, he would have been been sidelined by power-hungry politicians.”

Ashok Kulshreshtra, a prominent leader of the Braj Prant Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), said: “Nobody has gained anything from the assassination of Gandhiji. If he had lived a little longer a lot of distortions in body politik would have been rectified. Gandhiji always experimented, learnt from his mistakes and revised. The RSS has never supported violence in any form.”

Affording best quality education for children has burnt hole in the pocket of parents,  this year parents will keep aside an average budget of over Rs. 2 Lakhs to 4 Lakhs before the primary schools begins due to the heavy fee charged by the private schools, a survey conducted by industry body ASSOCHAM said.

Parents’ applying for primary schools have increased their budget from Rs 2 Lakh in 2009 to Rs 4 Lakhs in 2012 on items and activities integral to the school curriculum, such as fees, transport, books, uniforms, stationery, building fund, educational trips, tuition, extracurricular activities and the heavy amount spent on prospectus, reveals an Assocham survey.

In a country wide survey undertaken by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) about 2,000 parents, with a minimum salary of Rs 3 to 9 lakh annually, were interviewed in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahemdabad, Lucknow, Dehradun, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai Chandigarh etc in which it came to limelight that parents find difficult in meeting their ward’s education cost and planning to break the funds for admission process.

The cost of education is increasing every year, parallel to the inflation, it added. The parents’ annual income, on an average, has risen up to 40% in the past six years but on the other hand education cost has increased by over 200% in the last six years, points out the survey. Majority of parents believe it is difficult for a single parent to fund a child’s education.

Over 88% parents in one-member-earning families often find it impossible to pay even for one child’s education. So, the demand of dual income is very common to fulfill the education cost these days.

The survey points out that school expenses including tuition fees have also doubled during 2010 to 2012 on a single child. The school-related expenses have also increased in the last 5 year.

The average fees of private day schools are Rs. 50,000 to 3 Lakh per annum, which is much higher in metropolitan cities. Transport costs an average of 10,000-25,000 per child per year. Parents nearly spend 4,000 to 10,000/- per child on school uniform.

School bag and shoes cost Rs 8,000 -12,000/- per child while footwear works out as being more expensive than textbooks. In the absence of competition, schools often force the parents to buy uniform, text book, stationery, shoes etc. from school shops only which is higher three times higher than the normal price.

According to the survey, 85% of parents spend more than half of their take-home pay on their children’s education, extra coaching and extra-curricular activities, placing significant burden on their family budget.

The survey showed that parents invest an average 40% of their income in their children’s education. The cost of education is increasing every year, parallel to inflation, said Mr D S Rawat, secretary general, Assocham.

While 56% of the parents complain they are forced to make their children quit extra-curricular activities such as dancing, music or art lessons, sports or foreign language tutoring due to cost factor and time constraint, 65% feel they spend more than half their take-home pay on their children’s education, extra co-curricular activities and insurance policy also placing significant burden on their family budget. Moreover, 90% parents believe that they cannot afford to provide education to their children if both of them are not working.

The average expenditure on single child education is nearly 65% of the total income earned by a family. The expenses further increase by 30% if there is only one earning member in the family, the study of The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industries of India (ASSOCHAM) reveals.

Mr. Rawat further said, “Education in private schools has drastically become expensive due to which middle class families are finding it difficult to bear the extra burden.”

Hiked school fees schools which decreases the opportunities of giving good education is a serious problem. Majority of the people in our society are from middle class families. The fees should be equivalent to the facilities provided by the school. As times have changed and life has become more challenging, it becomes necessary to make educational opportunities be available to the poor also, added Mr. Rawat.

FINANCIAL PLAN FOR NURSERY ADMISSION:

AVERAGE EXPENSES FOR SINGLE PARENT IN THE YEAR 2012

Cost	Annual Cost- For One Child	Annual Cost- For Two Children
School Expenses
Nursery Admission Forms	5,0000 to 20,000	10,000 to 40,000
Shirt/ Trousers/ Skirts	8,000	16,000
Shoes	4,000	8,000
Bag / Bottles	2,500	4,000
Sports Kit	3,500	7000
Text books	10,000	8500
School trips	5000	7000
School Clubs	2500	4000
Computer	2500	3800
Pack lunches + Transport + Tution  ()	25,000	75,000
Building Fund	50,000-75,000	1,50,000
Fairs	3500	5500
Stationery/ Newspaper	3000	5600
Tuition/ coaching Expenses
Primary Level	3,000	6,000
Extra Co-curricular Expense
Primary Level	2,000	4,000

]]> http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/nursery-admission-to-cost-parents-between-rs-2-to-4-lakh-this-year/feed/ 0 http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/use-of-natural-rubber-modified-bitumen-in-road-construction/ http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/use-of-natural-rubber-modified-bitumen-in-road-construction/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:09:11 +0000 India Current Affairs http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/?p=109040 The Union Government has formulated a strategy for use of natural rubber in roads as recommended by experts. The use of natural rubber modified bitumen has been specified by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways for binder courses and wearing courses laid on National Highways. The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) has tested the technology for use of modified bitumen including natural rubber modified bitumen in construction and maintenance of roads under Ministry’s sponsored research scheme. Accordingly to the findings of the study, natural rubber modified bitumen improves the durability of roads by reducing susceptibility towards temperature variations and improving the desirable properties of bitumen thereby giving overall better performance.

As per the policy of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways , the modified bitumen can be used for the entire surfacing of the National Highways.

1. Even while recognizing that the States have the right to frame suitable policies, laws and regulations on water, the draft NWP, 2012 lays emphasis on the need for a national water framework law, comprehensive legislation for optimum development of inter-State rivers and river valleys, public trust doctrine, amendment of the Indian Easements Act, 1882, etc.

1. Basic minimum quantity for essential health & hygiene and sustenance of ecology has been defined as pre-emptive need, which must be ensured. Water has been recognized as economic good, over and above pre-emptive need, for the first time, which would promote maximization of value of water and its conservation and efficient use.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 presents a holistic picture of ecological need of the river rather than restricting it to only minimum flow requirement. It states that the ecological needs of the river should be determined recognizing that river flows are characterized by low or no flows, small floods (freshets), large floods and flow variability and should accommodate development needs. A portion of river flows should be kept aside to meet ecological needs ensuring that the proportional low and high flow releases correspond in time closely to the natural flow regime.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 recognizes the need to adapt to climate change scenario in planning and implementation of water resources projects. Coping strategies for designing and management of water resources structures and review of acceptability criteria has been emphasized.

1. Need and approaches towards enhancing water availability have been stipulated. Direct use of rainfall and avoidance of inadvertent evapo-transpiration have been proposed as the new additional strategies for augmenting utilizable water resources.

1. Mapping of the aquifers to know the quantum and quality of ground water resources (replenishable as well as non-replenishable) in the country has been proposed with provision of periodic updation.

1. Water use efficiency has been emphasized. A system to evolve benchmarks for water uses for different purposes, i.e., water footprints, and water auditing should be developed to ensure efficient use of water. Project financing has been suggested as a tool to incentivize efficient & economic use of water.

1. Provision of setting up of Water Regulatory Authority and adequate water pricing to incentivize recycle and re-use has been specified.

1. Water Users Associations should be given statutory powers to collect and retain a portion of water charges, manage the volumetric quantum of water allotted to them and maintain the distribution system in their jurisdiction.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 proposes reversal of heavy under-pricing of electricity, which leads to wasteful use of both electricity and water.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 recognizes encroachment and diversion of water bodies and emphasizes the need for their restoration with community participation.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 proposes setting aside a suitable percentage of the costs of infrastructure development, which along with collected water charges, may be utilized for repair and maintenance. Contract for construction of projects should have inbuilt provision for longer periods of proper maintenance and handing over back the infrastructure in good condition.

1. Pari-passu planning and execution of all components of water resources projects have been proposed so that intended benefits start accruing immediately after completion and there is no gap between potential created and potential utilized.

1. All water resources projects, including hydro power projects, should be planned to the extent feasible as multi-purpose projects with provision of storage to derive maximum benefit from available topology and water resources.

1. Project affected families to be made partners in progress and given a share in the benefits comparable to project benefitted families, who may bear part of the cost of resettlement & rehabilitation through adequate pricing.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 lays emphasis on preparedness for flood / drought with coping up mechanisms as an option. Frequency based flood inundation maps should be prepared to evolve coping strategies.

1. There is a need to remove the large disparity between stipulations for water supply in urban areas and in rural areas to bring equality between rural and urban people.

1. The draft NWP, 2012 proposes a forum at the national level to deliberate upon issues relating to water and evolve consensus, co-operation and reconciliation amongst party States. A similar mechanism should be established within each State to amicably resolve differences in competing demands for water amongst different users of water, as also between different parts of the State.

1. The “Service Provider” role of the state should be gradually shifted to that of a regulator of services and facilitator for strengthening the institutions responsible for planning, implementation and management of water resources. The water related services should be transferred to community and / or private sector with appropriate “Public Private Partnership” model.

1. Appropriate institutional arrangements for each river basin should be developed to collect and collate all data on regular basis with regard to rainfall, river flows, area irrigated by crops and by source, utilizations for various uses by both surface and ground water and to publish water accounts on ten daily basis every year for each river basin with appropriate water budgets and water accounts based on the hydrologic balances.

1. The darft NWP, 2012 proposes negotiations about sharing and management of water of international rivers on bilateral basis in consultative association with riparian States keeping paramount the national interests.

1. All hydrological data other than those classified as secret on national security consideration should be in public domain. Setting up of a National Water Informatics Center has been proposed.

1. Continuing research and advancement in technology should be promoted to address the issues in water sector in a scientific manner. Innovations in water resources sector should be recognized and awarded. A center for research in water policy should also be established to evolve policy directives for changing scenario of water resources.

1. It is necessary to give adequate grants to the States to update technology, design practices, planning and management practices, preparation of annual water balances and accounts for the site and basin, preparation of hydrologic balances for water systems, and benchmarking and performance evaluation.

The series of consultation meetings held to evolve the draft policy were as follows;

1.       With Hon’ble Members of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources, Consultative Committee for Ministry of Water Resources and Parliamentary Forum on Water Conservation and Management on 28^th July, 2010, at New Delhi.

2.       With Academia, Experts and Professionals on 26^th October, 2010 at New Delhi.

3.       With Non-Governmental Organizations held on 11^th & 12^th January, 2011 at New Delhi.

4.       With Corporate Sector held on 21^st March, 2011 at New Delhi.

5.       With representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions on 16^th June, 2011 at Hyderabad, on 30^th June, 2011 atShillong, on 14^th July, 2011 at Jaipur and on 2^nd November, 2011 at Pune.

The Drafting Committee comprising of Dr. S.R. Hashim, former Member, Planning Commission and Chairman, Union Public Service Commission; Prof. Subhash Chander, former Professor, IIT, Delhi; Shri A.D. Mohile, former Chairman, Central Water Commission; and Shri S.C. Jain, an expert from an NGO was constituted for drafting of the National Water Policy.       This Committee was supported by a team of officers from Ministry of Water Resources, Central Water Commission, Central Ground Water Board, National Rainfed Area Authority; National Institute of Hydrology and Planning Commission.

            Considering the recommendations and feedback received during various consultation meetings, the Drafting Committee identified basic concerns in water resources sector and adopted basic principles which should be followed to address those concerns, and accordingly, evolved draft policy recommendations.

The draft National Water Policy (2012) has also been put up on the website of Ministry of Water Resources http://wrmin.nic.in and arrangement is being made to facilitate posting of online comments/suggestions. The comments may also be mailed to nwp2012-mowr@nic.in.

The draft National Water Policy, 2012 shall remain open for comments till 29^th February, 2012. After carrying necessary modifications, it would be placed before National Water Board and National Water Resources Council for finalization and adoption.

The Committee of experts headed by Justice (Retd.) D.M.Dharmadhikari, former Judge, Supreme Court of India was constituted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Other Members of the Committee are Prof. Ravindra H. Dholakia, IIM, Ahmedabad, Shri Rajeshwar Dayal, expert on PSU service matters and Shri Syed Nasir Ali, Member-Secretary in May 2011. The Committee was scheduled to give its recommendations within six months. After interaction with all the stakeholders, including various Unions/Associations of the Companies and the Management, it submitted its Report today.

The Report submitted to the Minister, shall be examined in the Ministry and the future course of action will subsequently be decided. The Report is expected to solve long-standing HR issues which remained inconclusive even after five years of the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India.

Hotel and Tourism related industry has been declared as high priority industry and Foreign Direct Investment upto 100%, under the automatic route is permitted in ‘Hotels & Tourism Sector’, subject to applicable laws/regulations, security and other conditionalties.

To encourage the growth of hotels, on the request of Ministry of Tourism, a five Year Tax Holiday was announced in the Budget of 2008-09 for two, three & four star hotels that are established in specified districts which have UNESCO declared ‘World Heritage Sites’ except the revenue districts of Mumbai and Delhi. The hotel should be constructed and start functioning during the period April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2013.

The Government has also announced the extension of Investment Linked Tax incentive under Section 35 AD of the Income Tax Act to new hotels of 2-Star Category and above anywhere in India.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also issued revised Guidelines on Classification of exposures as Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Exposures. Thus, RBI has classified exposures to hotels outside the CRE Exposure.

The Department of School Education and Literacy (MHRD) has initiated a new project for revamping Teacher education. The Teacher Education Bureau of the MHRD, had two meetings at Calcutta and New Delhi, covering all the states to create awareness about the revised TE project, where the states came up with the idea that they should have a Teacher Education Journal for highlighting the activities as well as innovations going on in the field of Teacher Education and other developments such as the new scheme for Teacher Education. The professionals present there from TISS; Jamia MilliaIslamia; Vidya Bhawan Society and Homi Bhaba Centre for Science Education, took up the responsibility, for the same, to bring out four quarterly issues.

The first web based issue has been brought out.  It contains articles on Institutes of Advanced Studies in Education (IASEs), Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs) and District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs); State Curriculum Reforms; Professional Development of Teachers in the States; Issues around DIETs; Teacher Training Management system in UP as well as the revised Government of India Scheme for revamping Teacher Education.

The Journal “Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators” is an in house professional effort of the teacher educators. The inaugural web based issue was edited by Prof Janaki Rajan from Jamia Millia Islamia and Dr Hriday Kant Dewan from the Vidya Bhawan Society. The next issue will be edited by the professionals from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Thereafter it will be brought out on a quarterly basis by the experts from Jamia Millia Islamia; TISS; Vidya Bhawan Society and Azim Premji Foundation.

The Teacher Education Bureau has prepared a comprehensive website: www.teindia.nic.in for creating greater awareness on the issue of teacher education and to facilitate the effective implementation of the scheme.

The site provides detailed guidelines about the scheme; all reports on teacher education; review of the teacher education projects as well as research reports on the same.

It has all the Acts and Regulations on Teacher Education. In addition there is detailed information on National Curriculum Framework 2005 as well as the National Curriculum Framework 2009 and Model Curriculum for D.El. Ed; B. Ed;M.Ed studies, to guide the states in implementing the scheme.

There is detailed information on the revised teacher Education Scheme and what the states are expected to do to effectively implement the same.

The Supreme Court Thursday cancelled all 122 licences granted to telecom companies during the tenure of former communications minister A. Raja.

The Supreme Court has cancelled all 122 2G licences handed out in India. Eighty-five out of the 122 licences are outside the eligibility criteria. The TRAI must go in for a fresh issue of licences, ruled the Supreme Court.

In another critical judgment, the Supreme Court referred the matter of whether the role of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram should be probed back to the trial court. This represents a breather for Chidambaram, but it does not lift the cloud over him.

The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly said but for the initiative of enlightened citizens looking for clean governance, unsuspecting citizens would not have known the misuse and arbitrary manner in which second-generation (2G) telecom licences were granted.

The court said the companies whose licences stand to be cancelled will continue to offer their services for four months during which time the telecom regulator will look into the matter and make recommendations for the fresh auction.

The court, taking note of the arbitrary manner in which licences were granted, slapped a cost of Rs.5 crore each on Unitech, Swan Telecom and Tata Teleservices and said half of that will go to the court’s legal aid services and the remaining to defence services.

Varying costs have been imposed on other companies also.

The verdict came on a plea by Janta Party president Subramanian Swamy’s plea seeking an investigation into the alleged role of Chidambaram, who was finance minister when these 122 licences were issued to these companies.

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan had also filed a petition seeking cancellation of licences.

The two-member bench said the trial court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) can determine if Chidambaram needed to be investigated, but declined another plea to form a special investigative team for that.

CBI to submit 2G probe reports to Central Vigilance Commission : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court Thursday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would submit status reports on its probe into the 2G spectrum scam to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

The CVC, after examining the report, would give its report to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover, the apex court said on a plea to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for day-to-day monitoring of the CBI probe into the scam.

The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) had filed the plea seeking the setting up of an expert committee comprising retired judges and investigators.

Income inequality in the U.S. is currently the highest it has been since the 1920s, with the 400 richest Americans (who are all billionaires) having as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of Americans combined. And as it turns out, just one wealthy family has managed to amass a fortune equal to that of the combined net worth of the bottom 30 percent of Americans — the Waltons, heirs to the WalMart fortune, as Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist at the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, found:

The triennial Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is one of the best sources for data on wealth in the U.S. And, of course the Forbes 400 estimates the worth of the wealthiest —all 400 wouldn’t be captured in the SCF. If we look at both the SCF and the Forbes 400 we glean some interesting insights. In 2007 (the most recent SCF) the cumulative wealth of the Forbes 400 was $1.54 trillion or roughly the same amount of wealth held by the entire bottom fifty percent of American families. This is a stunning statistic to be sure. Upon closer inspection, the Forbes list reveals that six Waltons—all children (one daughter-in-law) of Sam or James “Bud” Walton the founders of Wal-Mart—were on the list. The combined worth of the Walton six was $69.7 billion in 2007—which equalled the total wealth of the entire bottom thirty percent!

Not only have the Waltons gathered a fortune equal to that of the bottom third of the country, but they spend it lobbying to cut their own taxes. For years, the Waltons have been supporting efforts to cut the estate tax, the tax levied on inheritance. Conservatives intent on cutting this tax — which they’ve brilliantly dubbed the “death tax” — led to President Obama agreeing to a “compromise” last year that lowered the rate and increased the tax-free exemption, giving a senseless tax break to extremely wealthy families.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, “for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income, average real after-tax household income grew by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007,” while it grew by just 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent of the income scale. In a given year, the richest ten percent of the country takes home about one quarter of total income. But Congress still saw fit last year to give a tax break to the very richest families, who have collected fortunes that dwarf anything the rest of the country will ever see.

( Source:ThinkProgress )

Now, also consider this: a recent report of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) says that in 2009-10 nearly 3.8 crore persons were employed in the trade sector of which 82% were in retail trade, 13% in wholesale trade and the remaining in sale, repair and maintenance of motor vehicles.

Of the 3.1 crore persons employed in retail trade, about 1.6 crore persons, that is, about 52% of the total, worked in urban areas. This would translate to over 6.4 crore people if you count the families.

And finally think about this: in 2009-10, gross domestic product generated by trade was an astonishing Rs.9.2 lakh crore according to the latest National Accounts Statistics released by the government. What is notable is that almost three fourths of it – Rs.6.9 lakh crore – was in the unorganized sector, that is, small retail shops or the mom-and-pop stores. It provided over Rs.72 thousand crores as wages to its employees, which often include families of owners themselves.

The entry of giant multinational retail chains like Walmart and Carrefour will destroy a substantial chunk of this massive local retail sector. As the examples of Brazil and Thailand show, there is no holding back the global retail giants once they get a toe-hold in a country. They were allowed entry in both these countries ten years ago and already they have 38% of the Brazilian and 32% of the Thai retail market under their control. The real crunch will however come in two crucial ways: employment and prices to producers and suppliers. Let us look at the experience of other countries on these two fronts. There are dozens of studies in Western countries on the impact of Walmart and other retail giants on surrounding areas.

Jobs

One study by David Neumark of the University of California and his colleagues in 2007, concluded that for every job created by big box retail, 1.4 jobs are lost from smaller retail stores in the neighborhood. That’s a net loss of 0.4 jobs. In other words opening a Walmart store with say 10 people working in it will mean that at least 14 people might lose jobs in the surrounding areas due to small shops closing down.

Another study by Emek Basker of Missouri University in 2005 concluded that up to 60 jobs might be lost in 5-6 years for every Walmart store that opens. On the other hand, the much publicized study by Russel Sobel and Andrea Dean of the University of West Virginia found that there was no impact of big retail chains on size or profitability of small businesses in US. However, later it was shown by Basker that Sobel and Dean’s study did not follow a correct method of comparisons. Hence it was flawed and its conclusions could not be trusted.

Both these studies were analyzing US counties with an average population of 78,000 (during 1977-1998). In India, the population is much more, it is much poorer and the number of people trying to eke out a living by selling something (peanuts, vegetables, pan-cigarettes, etc. to provisions, and other commodities) is huge. The impact will be surely magnified here.

Prices

There are two myths being propagated about global retail chains: thatt they provide cheaper rates to customers and better rates to their suppliers, which may include farmers. In the short term this may happen. Because of their deep pockets, the retail giants like Walmart can afford to buy in bulk, transport goods faster and sell to customers cheaper. But as time passes and they get a hold over the market, things may begin to change. The squeeze is put on suppliers and producers because they are now dependent on Walmart to buy their product (like garments) or produce (like vegetables). Studies show that very soon Walmart becomes the main client of these small suppliers and they cannot afford to lose it. In this vulnerable position, they are forced to accept more and more stringent conditions – including lower rates, harsh time-tables and other conditions.

It should also be noted that giant chains like Walmart will buy from suppliers around the world. So, they may be buying from other cheap sources, effectively giving them a platform to compete with Indian producers and suppliers. This may drive down prices but it will ultimately destroy small producers. The retail monopoly will force consolidation and birth of monopolies down the line.

Wages

About 9 lakh Wal-Mart workers, or 65% of its U. S. workforce, are paid less than $12 an hour. More than one-fifth earn less than $9 an hour. Overall, Wal-Mart’s hourly workers earn 12.4 percent less than retail workers as a whole. These are the findings of a study by the University of California, Berkeley, released earlier this year. An earlier study by the same university had concluded that Walmart was responsible for a loss of $4.5 billion in the year 2000 due to its effect in depressing wages in the surrounding areas.

This is the kind of record in the past in places where retail giants have been allowed a free hand. It will not be surprising that in India, with its weak regulatory system and a ruling class that is hell-bent on pleasing corporate power, entry of these giants will have a hugely destructive effect.

As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS – 3) conducted in 2005 -06 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 46% of the children in our country were underweight. Data from UNICEF show that 47% children under three in India are underweight; around one third of the world’s malnourished children live in India. NFHS -3 also found that the percentage of children aged 6 – 35 months suffering from anaemia has actually increased to 79% from 74% in NFHS – 2 (1998 – 99). Prevalence of anaemia increased from 52% to 56% among married women and from 50% to 58% among pregnant women during this period. NHFS – 3 also shows that 38.4% of children below 3 years of age are stunted, i.e. too short for their age and 46% are wasted, i.e. too thin for their age. Prevalence of malnutrition is significantly higher among children from poor families, particularly those belonging to SC, ST and Muslim households. Such is the condition of the children and women in our country 64 years after independence; clearly children are not in the priority list of the rulers who dream of the country emerging as a global economic power under the neoliberal regime.

Was the Prime Minister not aware of these facts all these years? Has it suddenly dawned upon him that ‘we cannot hope for a healthy future for our country with a large number of malnourished children’? Why were effective measures not taken to improve the conditions of our children?

One of the major interventions that the government made to address the high incidence of infant mortality, maternal mortality, child malnutrition, anaemia etc was the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme. The ICDS was started experimentally in 1975 and has established its efficacy, as revealed by several studies including by National Institute for Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD), National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), UNICEF etc. But the government failed to take measures to realise its full potential by allocating adequate funds. It has been administering it on an ad hoc basis. India spends less than 1% of its GDP on public health and much less on child welfare. In fact, the 2G spectrum scam alone accounts for more than 17 times the meagre allocations to ICDS.

The Prime Minster heads the National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges, but no concrete measures were taken to address the serious challenge of malnutrition. On 28th November 2001, the Supreme Court directed the government to universalise ICDS and provide all the services of ICDS to all children below six years and all pregnant and lactating mothers. Virtually nothing was done by the government till 2004 when the Supreme Court ordered to increase the number of anganwadi centres to 14 lakhs for universalisation. Though not at its own initiative, the government ultimately sanctioned the needed anganwadi centres. But even today, more than ten years after the Supreme Court order for universalisation, more than 110000 anganwadi centres sanctioned on paper remain non operational.

In more than 73000 ‘operational’ centres, anganwadi workers have not been appointed. Around one-third supervisors’ posts have not been filled up. Even after the so called ‘universalisation’, as per government records, less than half the total 16 crores below six years in our country are covered by ICDS. The spread of anganwadi centres is uneven. While new centres are being opened where already anganwadi centres exist leading to crowding, there are no anganwadi centres in many areas, particularly where SC/ ST population predominates.

The conditions of anganwadi centres continue to be pathetic. Most of the anganwadi centres do not have own buildings and many even today function from open spaces. Nearly half do not have toilet and drinking water facilities. On the pretext of community participation, food supply, preparation and distribution are being privatised resulting in irregular supplies of food which is often inadequate and of bad quality, unfit for consumption. The type of community participation being practiced results in harmful intervention in the functioning of anganwadi centres by a host of people including NGOs, local political leaders, panchayat members, ‘Mothers’ committees’, self help groups etc leading not to improved service delivery but harassment of the anganwadi employees and deteriorating functioning of the centres.

A bizarre argument has been put forward by a representative of the NGO who conducted the study that malnutrition in India was not due to poverty or hunger but is about ‘eating and feeding practices’. Even at the officially defined poverty line, which is ridiculously low, 31 crores of our people are shown to be poor according to the Human Development Report of the Planning Commission. The overall per capita intake of calories and pulses has come down during the neoliberal regime. India is placed at 67th position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) out of the 84 countries ranked by it. GHI scores countries on the basis of the proportion of undernourished population, proportion of underweight children under five and the mortality rate of children under the age of five. As per the India specific survey in 2008 that covered 17 states with 95% of the country’s population, no state in the country is exempt from hunger, including the states like Punjab considered to be rich. In 12 states the situation was ‘alarming’ while in Madhya Pradesh it was ‘extremely alarming’. With the escalating prices of food articles including pulses, eggs, meat etc since then, families are not able to afford nutritious food. Children in these families are fed ‘almost all carbohydrates’ out of the desperate need to feed them something to somehow keep hunger at bay and not by choice. In such cases, what is immediately necessary to bring people out of poverty by providing decent jobs; to provide them some immediate relief by strengthening the public distribution system that provides cheap food, not only rice and wheat but also pulses, edible oils, etc at cheap prices and ensuring regular supply of nutritious food in adequate quantities to all the children, pregnant and lactating mothers at the anganwadi centres; education and communication programmes involving corporate houses and film stars may generate hype but would not yield results at the ground level.

The cat is out of the bag when Prime Minister reveals the hidden agenda by saying “we can no longer rely solely on ICDS to fight malnutrition”. Since the advent of neoliberal policies, the government has been trying to privatise ICDS and somehow divest itself of its responsibility. In the name of community involvement, supply, preparation, distribution of supplementary nutrition and management of anganwadi centres are being handed over to panchayats, self help groups, mothers’ committees, NGOs (including the corporate NGO that conducted the present study) and even big corporate houses like Vedanta. This has worsened the functioning of the anganwadi centres, not improved them in any way. In several states, nutrition centres, nursery centres etc are being opened on temporary basis by different government departments just in the vicinity of anganwadi centres catering to the same children and creating unhealthy competition for the same beneficiaries and resulting in wastage of public money.

The anganwadi workers and helpers, the most vital functionaries of ICDS at the grass root level, the ‘backbone of ICDS , are treated most shabbily. While their workload is being increased by allotting all sorts of village level work of different government departments, often unrelated to ICDS, they are not even paid minimum wages. The government refuses them to provide any social security benefits like gratuity, pension etc on the plea that they are only ‘social workers’, even as it forces them to ‘retire’ on reaching 58 – 60 years after working for 30 – 35 years. Very often they are at the receiving end for the failure of the government administration in providing the benefits at the anganwadi centres.

Reacting to the findings of the report, the Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister said that the ministry plans to ‘restructure’ ICDS. Any restructuring of ICDS should be to strengthen it through adequate budgetary allocations but not for its privatisation.. It is regrettable that while the revised plan outlay for ICDS in 11th Five Year Plan was Rs. 72, 877.52 crores, only around half this amount was allocated for the entire period. The WCD Minister said that her ministry has asked for an allocation of Rs 2 lakh crores for ICDS for the next five years for improving its functioning and infrastructure facilities. Considering that the revenue foregone through tax concessions for the few corporates and the rich in the last three years alone was a whopping Rs 1428028 crores, this amount for the benefit of the 16 crores children and crores of pregnant and lactating women should not be denied by the Finance Ministry. Besides, financial allocations should also be made for the regularisation of anganwadi employees, providing them minimum wages and social security benefits including pension etc. It will be truly a national shame if a scheme like ICDS is restructured/abandoned at the behest of corporates and NGOs is being suited by the govt. If the Prime Minister sincerely feels that such high incidence of malnourishment and stunting among our children is unacceptable and a ‘national shame’ he should take immediate steps to ensure that adequate financial resources are allocated to ICDS in the ensuing budget.

Phobos-Grunt, Russia’s most ambitious planetary mission in decades, was launched Nov 9, however, it was lost due to propulsion failure and fell back to Earth Jan 15.

“We are holding consultations with the ESA about Russia’s participation in the ExoMars project… If no deal is reached, we will repeat the attempt [to launch a Phobos mission],” Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said.

During the ExoMars mission, ESA plans to send an orbital spacecraft, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, to Mars in 2016 and a robot rover two years later.

The rover will be able to cover several km in search of possible past and present signs of life, take samples from the surface and dig to the depth of two meters (six feet).

The ExoMars program was run jointly by NASA and ESA but the US space agency later said it would cut its participation in the project and will not provide its Atlas carrier for the launch.

The software — called “Unfriend Finder” — also alerts users when someone rejects or ignores a friend request.

It is free, and till date has been downloaded 44 million times, the Daily Mail reported.

The script works in browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Users see a red counter in their menu bar which comes up “-1″ when someone unfriends them.

Facebook itself does not have the option of alerting people when they are removed from the friends list.

Vandana Suryawanshi of Vidya Valley School in Maharashtra is a middle school educator who has been teaching biology, earth science and general science for 20 years. She joins 19 other outstanding educators selected for their active promotion of space and science education.

The new flight of Teacher Liaisons will serve as advocates for space-themed education across the curriculum and will use Space Foundation-provided training and resources to further integrate space principles into the classroom, the Colorado Springs based non-profit leader in space awareness activities, educational programmes announced.

The highly regarded Space Foundation Teacher Liaison programme has more than 270 active participants.

The teachers are selected by a panel comprising experienced Teacher Liaisons and representatives from the space industry and the military.

The 2012 Teacher Liaisons will be publicly recognized at the Space Foundation’s 28th National Space Symposium, which is being held April 16-19 at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In addition to the recognition activities, the 2012 Teacher Liaisons will participate in workshops and education programmes at the 28th National Space Symposium.

Following the symposium, Teacher Liaisons can take advantage of specialised training and instruction at Space Foundation and NASA workshops with optional graduate-level credit; exclusive science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professional development experiences with optional continuing education credit; and special space-oriented student programmes created just for Teacher Liaisons.

Besides the many known benefits of milk, from bone health to cardiovascular health, the potential to stave off mental decline would potentially benefit an aging population.

Adults who drank more milk scored significantly higher on memory and other brain function tests than those who drank little to no milk. They were five times less likely to “fail” the test, compared to non-milk drinkers, the International Dairy Journal reports.

University of Maine researchers put more than 900 men and women ages 23 to 98 through a series of tests, spatial, verbal and working memory tests and tracked their milk consumption habits.

In the series of eight different measures of mental performance, regardless of age and through all tests, those who drank at least one glass of milk each day had an advantage, according to a Maine statement.

The highest scores for all eight outcomes were observed for those with the highest intakes of milk and milk products compared to those with low and infrequent milk intakes.

The benefits persisted even after controlling for other factors that can affect brain health, including cardiovascular health and other lifestyle and diet factors.

Study co-authors suggest some of milk’s nutrients may have a direct effect on brain function and that “easily implemented lifestyle changes that individuals can make present an opportunity to slow or prevent neuropsychological dysfunction.”

The pink, yellow and purple carrots and deep purple and black tomatoes will be displayed at a major exposition in Israel’s southern Arava valley, home to dozens of farms, producers and marketers.

The tomato breed — dubbed “Black Galaxy” — has been developed by a firm named Technological Seeds DM.

They have a higher level of antioxidants, believed to slow the effects of aging, as well as more vitamin C, the company’s production manager and developer, Moshe Gutman, told Xinhua news agency.

Gutman said the colour was “photosensitive”. The part of the tomatoes exposed to the sun turn deep purple or even black as they ripen while the shaded side turns to the usual red.

Tomatoes lying partially beneath leaves could even turn out “tiger-striped”, he said.

The multi-coloured vegetables will make their debut at the southern Negev desert’s Arava Agricultural R&D Exhibition, according to the Ynet news website.

The commission, which submitted its final report to the head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency Vladimir Popovkin late Monday, concluded that the main cause of the failure was “a programming error which led to a simultaneous reboot of two working channels of an onboard computer”.

Investigators have ruled out any “external or foreign influence” on the spacecraft, including the alleged emissions from a US radar in the Pacific Ocean.

“The US radar theory was deemed ungrounded after a series of tests showed that the electronics similar to those onboard the Phobos-Grunt had withstood the highest possible level of electromagnetic radiation,” the Kommersant source said.

The report will be presented to Russia’s new Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the probe.

Phobos-Grunt, Russia’s most ambitious planetary mission in decades, was launched Nov 9 but it was lost due to a propulsion failure and fell back to Earth Jan 15.

Soon after the failed launch, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said a rocket motor should have started up to push the probe into higher orbit, but it failed to fire for unknown reasons.

According to NASA, Russia has failed in all 17 of its attempts to study the Red Planet close-up since 1960. The most recent failure before November last year occurred in 1996, when Russia lost its Mars-96 orbiter during launch.

Scientists found that the wall of the aorta, the largest blood vessel carrying blood from the heart, exhibits ferroelectricity, a response to an electric field known to exist in inorganic and synthetic materials.

A ferroelectric material is an electrically polar molecule with one side positively charged and the other negatively charged, whose polarity can be reversed by applying an electrical field, the journal Physical Review Letters reports.

“The result is exciting for scientific reasons. But it could also have biomedical implications,” said Jiangyu Li, University of Washington associate professor of mechanical engineering, who led the study.

“We can imagine if we could manipulate the polarity of the artery wall, if we could switch it one way or the other, then we might, for example, better understand the deposition of cholesterol which leads to the thickening and hardening of the artery wall,” Li said.

Ferroelectricity is common in synthetic materials and used for displays, memory storage, and sensors, according to a University of Washington statement.

Li collaborated with co-author Katherine Zhang at Boston University to explore the phenomenon in biological tissues. The findings show clear evidence of ferroelectricity in a sample of a pig aorta. They believe the findings would also apply to human tissue.

In subsequent yet to be published work, they divided the sample into fibrous collagen and springy elastin and studied each one on its own.

“The elastin network is what gives the artery the mechanical property of elasticity, which of course is a very important function,” Li said. Ferroelectricity may, therefore, play a role in how the body responds to sugar or fat.

Another possible application is to treat a condition in which cholesterol molecules stick to the inside of the channel, eventually closing it off.

“It’s complicated,” says Juergen Rehm, director of social and epidemiological research at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), who conducted the meta-analysis into the link between alcohol consumption and heart disease.

“While a cardioprotective association between alcohol use and ischaemic heart disease exists, it cannot be assumed for all drinkers, even at low levels of intake,” says Rehm, the journal Addiction reports.

Ischaemic heart disease (reduced blood supply to heart) is a common cause of illness and death in the Western world, according to a CAMH statement.

Symptoms include angina, heart pain, and heart failure. Based on 44 studies, the analyses used 38,627 ischaemic heart disease events (including deaths) among 957,684 people.

“We see substantial variation across studies, in particular for an average consumption of one to two drinks a day,” says Rehm. The protective association may vary by gender, drinking patterns, and the specific health effects of interest.

Even at low levels, alcohol intake can have a detrimental effect on many other disease outcomes, including on several cancers.

“Even one drink a day increases risk of breast cancer, for example,” says Rehm. “However, with as little as one drink a day, the net effect on mortality is still beneficial. After this, the net risk increases with every drink.”

“If someone binge drinks even once a month, any health benefits from light to moderate drinking disappear.”

Binge drinking is defined more than four drinks on one occasion for women, and more than five for men.

“Findings from this study support current low-risk drinking guidelines, if these recognize lower drinking limits for women.”

Research by the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, is the first to show that changes in this critical region of children’s brain anatomy are linked to a mother’s nurturing.

“This study validates something that seems to be intuitive, which is just how important nurturing parents are to creating adaptive human beings,” says study co-author Joan L. Luby, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition reports.

For the current study, researchers conducted brain scans on 92 school children who had had symptoms of depression or were mentally healthy when they were preschoolers, according to a Washington School of Medicine statement.

The imaging revealed that children without depression who had been lovingly nurtured had a hippocampus almost 10 percent larger that children whose mothers were not as nurturing.

“But most of those studies have looked at psychosocial factors or school performance. This study, to my knowledge, is the first that actually shows an anatomical change in the brain. Having a hippocampus that’s almost 10 percent larger just provides concrete evidence of nurturing’s powerful effect,” Luby concluded.

Damian Dowling of Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences and Leigh Simmons, professor at the University of Western Australia, have investigated the trade-off between sperm quality and immunity.

“Males that invested heavily in their sperm paid the price of being more likely to succumb to a bacterial infection,” said Dowling, the journal Public Library of Science ONE reports.

“This study challenges the traditional view that sex, and sperm production, come cheaply to males,” he added, according to a Monash University statement.

“Here we show that the costs are in fact large, and these costs dictate how much effort a male will devote into any given sexual encounter,” he added.

Dowling said investigations into life history trade-offs — investment in reproduction versus future reproduction and survival prospects — have historically focused on females.

Researchers used the Teleogryllus oceanicus Australian field cricket to prove that the production of quality sperm is expensive and males are strategic about investing energy in the biological process.

The crickets were housed either with sexually immature females, sexually mature females incapable of reproduction, or sexually mature females capable of reproduction. Sperm quality was measured twice and immune function once during the experiment.

Dowling said the male crickets were more likely to produce high quality sperm when housed with sexually mature females with whom they could mate, indicating a strategic investment of energy.

The researchers also found that production of quality sperm seemed to compromise the crickets’ immune systems.

Michigan State University sociologist Hui Liu, who led the study said “that we need more social and family support for the younger divorced groups.”

“This could include divorce counselling to help people handle the stress, or offering marital therapy or prevention programs to maintain marital satisfaction,” added Hui, the journal Social Science & Medicine reports.

Hui analyzed the self-reported health of 1,282 participants in Americans’ Changing Lives, a long-term national survey,
according to a Michigan statement.

She measured the gap in health status between those who remained married during the 15-year study period and those who transitioned from marriage to divorce, at certain ages and among different birth cohorts, or generations.

Hui found the gap was wider at younger ages. For example, among people born in the 1950s, those who got divorced between the ages of 35 and 41 reported more health problems in relation to their continuously married counterparts than those who got divorced in the 44 to 50 age range.

From a generational perspective, the negative health impact was stronger for baby boomers than it was for older generations – a finding that surprised Hui.

“I would have expected divorce to carry less stress for the younger generation, since divorce is more prevalent for
them,” she said.

USIBC President Ron Somers is leading the mission, which will explore ways for US and Indian companies to enhance collaboration in innovation and biotech research and development, according to the trade advocacy group with about 400 top US and Indian companies.

The high-level delegation will be comprised of USIBC member companies including Abbott Healthcare, Agilent Technology, Baxter Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Merck, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Merck, Covidien, Biogen, Riddhi IP, and Cannon Design, among others, a USIBC release said.

“India is rich with bright minds and unparalleled talent in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotech sectors,” Somers said.

“USIBC companies are eager to invest in India’s economy, bringing with them technical expertise, investment tools, and research and development capabilities that will enable India to be the innovation nation of the 21st century.”

The USIBC mission will convene select meetings with key government officials in New Delhi and Bangalore.

The mission will participate in tours of medical, biotech, and pharmaceutical facilities in India, and take part in roundtable discussions on key policy issues with Indian stakeholders, including FICCI and CII.

In Bangalore, the delegation will meet the Chief Minister and other senior Karnataka government officials.

Conversely, it would require only 100,000 generations for very large creatures to regress into dwarfs, says the first ever computation of large scale evolution mammals.

The computation, led by Alistair Evans of Monash University, describes increases and decreases in mammal size following the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports.

Evans, evolutionary biologist from Monash School of Biological Sciences, led a team of 20 biologists and palaeontologists which made the discovery.

Evans said the study was unique because most previous work had focused on micro-evolution, the small changes that occur within a species, according to a Monash statement.

“Instead we concentrated on large-scale changes in body size,” said Evans. The paper looked at 28 different groups of mammals, including elephants, primates and whales, from various continents and ocean basins over the past 70 million years.

“The huge difference in rates for getting smaller and getting bigger is really astounding – we certainly never expected it could happen so fast,” Evans said.

“When you do get smaller, you need less food and can reproduce faster, which are real advantages on small islands,” Evans said.

The chemical plant executives were accused of releasing Cadmium, an industrial waste, into the Longjiang river. The pollutants were first detected Jan 15.

Cadmium concentration near the Lalang reservoir was 80 times higher than the official limit of 0.005 milligrams per liter, China Daily quoted Feng Zhennian, an official with the regional environment department, as saying Tuesday.

Environmental protection workers have been dumping neutralizers, made from dissolved aluminum chloride, at six locations along the river to dissolve the contaminants.

The source of the pollution was reportedly contained Saturday, as cadmium concentration at Lalang reservoir, where the pollution was first detected, had returned to normal.

The pollution belt was now near the downstream Luodong hydropower station where the cadmium concentration levels were still 25 times higher than the official limit.

He said the pollutants were flowing downstream and were close to a major drinking water source for Liujiang city, home to 1.5 million people.

The Arctic has been warming at three times the global average and the loss of sea ice, which had melted faster in summer than predicted, was linked tentatively to recent extreme cold winters in Europe.

But there’s more to come and in a manner that has not been highlighted before.

University of Western Australia researchers say the Arctic region is fast approaching a series of imminent “tipping points” that could trigger an abrupt domino effect of large-scale climate change across the entire planet, the Swedish journal AMBIO and Nature Climate Change report.

“There is evidence that these forces are starting to be set in motion. This has major consequences for the future of humankind as climate change progresses,” said Carlos Duarte, professor and director of the university’s Oceans Institute.

Researchers suggest that the loss of Arctic summer sea ice, most likely over the next four decades, if not before, was expected to have abrupt knock-on effects on cities including Beijing, Tokyo, London, Moscow, Berlin and New York, according to a varsity statement.

Duarte, winner of last year’s prestigious Prix d’Excellence awarded by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, said Arctic records showed unambiguously that sea ice volume had declined dramatically over the past two decades.

The MoU for the programme will be signed between the cultural ministries of India and France, the ministry said in a statement.

The two countries last week inked an arts understanding relating to expertise and capacity enhancement, exchange of professionals and collaborative exhibitions during Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja’s four-day visit to Paris Jan 26-29.

The arrangement involves the Paris-based Louvre Museum, the National Museum and the National Gallery of Modern Art.

A similar MoU was signed with the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Library in June 2010 for cooperation in arts.

Selja held a high level meeting with the French Minister of Culture and Communications Frederic Mitterrand to discuss cultural cooperation.

In the joint statement issued by the two ministers after the meeting, they expressed satisfaction at the cultural relations between the two countries, particularly the festivals “Bon Jour India” and “Namaste France” held in the recent past.

The ministers agreed to work for further widening and deepening of the cultural relations and welcomed the Indian initiative of establishing a Cultural Centre in Paris.

In another meeting with Henri Loyerette, president-director of the Louvre Museum, Selja stressed the importance of collaboration at institution-to-institution level.

The minister also inaugurated an exhibition of Tagore Paintings at the Petit Palais Museum in Paris Jan 26, to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.

Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe graced the opening. Paris is one of the nine international venues where Tagore exhibitions are being held and it holds a special place as Tagore had held his first-ever international exhibition of paintings in Paris in May 1930. Expositions of Tagore paintings are currently on at various archives across the world including Victoria and Albert Museum, London and at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Speaking at the inauguration, Selja brought to light the multifarious talents of Tagore and his choice of non-verbal communication in the form of paintings in latter part of his life.

“We are ashamed for yesterday’s incident. What happened was shameful. We had also apologised to Imran Khan. He had said that it was a small incident and was not at all an issue for him,” general secretary of the Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Guild Tridib Chattopadhaya said.

However, he evaded numerous queries on whether the blackout was intentional or an electricity failure.

“I don’t want any controversy on what I said yesterday and what I am saying today. You can interpret anything… I will not say anything on the issue,” said Chattopadhaya.

He had Monday said power supply was “intentionally” switched off to stop the programme as it was continuing beyond the scheduled time.

The blackout lasted for some four-five minutes during the discussion programme ‘Captaining a nation’ where Imran Khan was the main speaker.

The site may lose its 5A class due to poor management, the China Daily reported.

The findings came to light during an undercover investigation by the National Tourism Administration. The local administration has been ordered to address the problems.

Zheng Shumin, director of the temple’s publicity department, said the management is cooperating with the government to rectify the problem.

The temple is located in Zhengzhou in Henan province.

“Now that we have put a government in place and working on a new Constitution, we have crossed the major hurdle. There is a new cultural language of the younger generation that Egypt is listening to,” ambassador Khaled El Bakly said here Monday evening.

The culture gala that set the mood for the week reflected the new spirit of the country that witnessed a revolution throughout 2011, leading to the ouster of the Hosni Mubarak government.

The culture festival opened at the Kamani theatre with a performance of modern Egyptian jazz followed by a contemporary dance choreography by a deaf and mute ensemble. It ended with an orchestra of Nubian drums, Egyptian tabla and a gypsy dance.

The genre of contemporary jazz music in Egypt has travelled an eclectic path to cobble together a fusion of the Arab, European, American, Indian and North African repertoire and sounds.

Cairo-based Amro Salah, who heads the Eftekasat jazz project – a world fusion music programme – describes his music as the new sound of Egypt.

“It is contemporary world jazz. We are trying to bring world cultures together through music. Our sounds are influenced by Indian culture, North African music, Balkan music and local Egyptian music,” said Salah, the director of the Cairo Jazz Festival.

His six-member troupe, however, does not forget the American roots of jazz. “I have been influenced by American jazz composer Joe Sample.”

“Egypt has a very vibrant jazz scene – especially in Cairo. One should keep in mind that the history of jazz in Egypt – a cultural melting pot – dates back to the 1930s with the evolution of modern cinema and the world wars,” Salah told IANS.

Several foreign communities like the Italian, Greek and Germans lived in cities like Cairo and Alexandria, he added.

“They brought with them the early jazz music. Jazz also featured in Egyptian cinema in the 1840s-1950s. And legends like Duke Ellington, Herbie Hancock, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie have performed in Cairo,” the musician said.

He said “a new wave of music was emerging in Egypt after the revolution”.

“The large number of artists who came out to join the Tahrir Square protest in 2011 are talking about issues like freedom, change and the beauty of revolution through their music,” Salah said.

The dance ensemble, “Egyptian Deaf Dance Theatre Company”, which presented an act on “Cleopatra: The Queen of Queens”, is planning a new choreography on Hosni Mubarak, the former president of Egypt.

The 12-member troupe from El-Mallaha-el-Qubra led by dancer Reda Abdel Aziz performs dance theatres sourced from historical narratives.

“It is difficult but we teach our mute dancers – all below 20 years of age – by tapping rhythms on to their bodies,” he said.

The traditional Nubian drummers presented a variety of Egyptian percussions including the tabla.

This is the first culture package to come out of Egypt to India after the political upheaval. “Egyptians like Indians respect old traditions – the new judgement comes from there. We (India and Egypt) have been friends and we will remain so,” the Egyptian envoy said.

The Egyptian Culture Week in India will end Feb 2.

Revamp Of MCA And MCA21 Portal

• The revamped portal is more user friendly and explanatory for a user visiting MCA21 for the first time.
• The Portal has defined sections related to the most frequently used functionalities of MCA21 and a detailed step wise process has been defined to assist the user.
• The user’s who are well acquainted with MCA21 portal functionalities have been provided with Quick Links within all the sections.
• A special tab ‘Investor Services’ was also added keeping in mind the protection of the interests of investors. This tab consists of link to all relevant websites like IEPF which help protect the interest of investors.

Mandating Electronic Stamping For The Whole of India

• Estamping through the MCA21 system has been mandated for all the states and union territories in India.

Certain eForms To Be Processed Under STP Mode (Straight ThroughProcessing), That Is The Same Shall Not Be Processed By The RoC User

• Form 2 and Form 3 regarding return of allotment of shares
• Form 18 for change in registered office by an existing company
• Form 32 for change in directors, etc. details by an existing company
• Form 8 and 17 in respect of charges (other than condonation of delay cases).
• Form 1A for name availability by a new company (this included simplification of the Name Availability Guidelines as well)

Marking Of Certain Companies As Dormant Companies And Restricting Their eFiling

• The companies which had defaulted in filing their annual returns and balance sheets for a continuous period of three years, have been moved into a separate basket as “Dormant“ –companies. Such companies are restricted from doing their eFilings unless the default in filing is made good by them.
• The companies which had defaulted in filing their annual returns and/ or balance sheets for any one year or more, have been marked as “Defaulting“ companies. Such companies and their directors are restricted from doing anyeFilings unless the default in filing is made good by them.
• A detailed Complaint Monitoring system has been implemented in the MCA21 system for the MCA21 stake holders. The users can raise complaints, issues, queries, suggestions through the same and they are provided a unique ticket reference for the same. They can track the status of the same to completion using the ticket reference.
• Earlier RoC officers used to manually sign the various certificates and send the same by post to the company. Now, the process of digital signing of various certificates by the MCA21 system has been introduced, where there is no manual intervention. Further the digitally signed certificates are sent by email to the company and are also made available on the MCA21 FO portal for verification.
• The process of allotment of Director Identification Number (DIN) by MCA has been made completely paperless. This has been done by doing away with the requirement to file physical proofs; and instead the same are scanned to the DIN application itself. Also, providing Income-tax PAN has been made mandatory for all Indian directors. Further, the DIN application is processed by the system itself based on certification by the practising professional.
• MCA had separate systems for allotment of DIN under Companies Act and for allotment of Designated Partner Identification Number (DPIN) under LLP Act. Now, MCA has integrated the two systems by having the common identifier as DIN only.

Marking Of Certain Companies As Defaulting Companies And Restricting Their eFiling

Implementation Of Comprehensive Complaint Monitoring system

Digital Signing Of Certificates By The System

Process For Allotment Of DIN Made Paperless And Online; And Integration Of    DIN-  DPIN

Integration With Other Government Departments – Income-Tax And Trademark

In a process of implementation of joined up services, integration with the following departments was done –

• With Income-tax system for verifying particulars of the directors, etc. with their respective Income-tax PAN details
• With Trademark system for providing search facility on the TMR database to both internal (RoC offices) as well as to the external stake holders (Company, professionals)

Integration With Banks For Opening Of Corporate Accounts

• In a process of integration with various banks, MCA has introduced a facility for the corporate to open a bank account through MCA21 system itself. The company is required to fill an electronic form on the MCA21 system itself and certain details, documents in respect of the company are sent to the concerned bank by the MCA21 system itself.

Introduction Of NEFT Option For Making Payments

• Earlier MCA21 payments were allowed via Credit Card, Internet Banking & Physical Challan. Internet banking is restricted to 5 banks only. In order to eliminate inconveniences caused due to payment processing delays, MCA introduced payment of MCA fees via NEFT (National Electronic Fund Transfer) mode. Through this option stake holder can make payment of MCA21 fees through any bank which allows NEFT
• Facility to make payment for various MCA21 services through the physical option (payment through challan at the bank counter) has been restricted only in case the amount payable is more than or equal to Rs. 50,000
• Filing of financial statements by certain class of companies through Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has been implemented in the MCA21 system. This system entails tagging of the financial statements to the MCA XBRL taxonomy. MCA21 system has provided a tool to the stake holders to validate the XBRL documents before filing. Further the machine readable XBRL instance documents are converted to human readable pdf format by the MCA21 system.
• Earlier while processing a work item by the MCA user, there was a facility to mark a work item as urgent to bypass the First in First Out (FIFO) processing. However, in order to bring in more transparency, this functionality has been stopped. The work items will be processed in the order of their filings only.
• Earlier there was no process in MCA21 for refund of fees wrongly paid by the stakeholder while availing various services at MCA 21. Hence, Ministry has decided to refund the statutory fees paid for certain services.  New refundeForm needs to be filed by the stakeholder applying for refund and upon processing of the same the refund request shall be approved or rejected.
• The refund of MCA21 fees is available in the following cases: a) Multiple Payments of Form 1, Form 5; b) Incorrect Payments and c) Excess Payment
• Refund process is not applicable for certain services/ eForms like Public Inspection of documents, Request for Certified Copies, Payment for transfer deeds, Stamp duty fee (D series SRN), IEPF Payment, STP Forms, DINeForm, etc.

Payment Through Physical Challan Mode Restricted

Implementation Of XBRL For Filing Of Financial Statements By Certain Class Of Companies

Disabling Mark Urgent Functionality

Introduction Of Refund Process