Stray dog culling – Good judgment

The Bombay High Court ruled in a majority verdict that stray dogs which creates public nuisance can be killed. Good move indeed. The public was waiting eagerly for the judgment. Every nook and corner of Mumbai is infested by the stray dogs and because of the pending judgment (since 1999) nothing could be done. Only pets with proper licenses should be permitted in the city.

Millions of Rupees can be saved by stopping the “so-called” sterilization programs for the dogs by some NGOs. Now, the government need not spend another few millions in building Dog Shelters. The money can be spent on building kindergartens or schools for children and ensure quality healthcare for the rural population.

As per a 2008 census carried out by the BMC and the State Government (as reported in the press), there are 70,182 stray dogs in the Mumbai city and roughly 45,000 incidents of dog bites are reported each year! It is shocking.

If one can export meat (of goat, sheep and other animals) to other countries, why not export dog meat to some countries (where dog meat is a delicacy) and get some revenues?

Security for VIPs/VVIPS

Common man in India is always under threat, either due to terrorists from out-side the country or political terrorists from inside the country. No security is provided for him, even if it is there, it is only on paper. The so-called VIPs or VVIPs s are: politicians, their relatives, film personalities, “goonda” elements, senior cops, judges, etc, etc. The security cover is given based on threat perception. The risk perception is decided by some “well-planned” threatening email or phone call or pre-fabricated attacks. There are different category types, X, Y and Z. Everyone is trying to get the Z or Zplus category, the highest type, where the VIP is protected by 55-250 security personnel! It has become a status symbol! At whose cost? Crores and Crores of tax payer’s money is spent on these fellows. One can watch politicians of the type Mayawati surrounded by an entourage of gun-wielding commandos.

There is an urgent need to review the necessity of the cover and the type. Only the minimum type of cover should be provided, that too with only lathis or condemned guns used by the policemen in Mumbai during the terror attacks. Anyway, the politicians are not seen around during the crisis of the kind witnessed recently in Mumbai. So what is need of providing them security cover? Only, the national leaders like Prime Minister and President should be made eligible for Zplus. Where ever possible, the protected should be made to pay, fully or partly, for the expenses incurred. The laws applicable to the terrorists should be made applicable to the political terrorism also. No security cover should be provided by the government for persons involved in political terrorism. Citizens need commandos to protect national properties and the common man.

Health care – pathetic in India

The Indian Health Minister is doing all things except those which are directly related to his ministry, such as ban on smoking, and now try to stop consumption of alcohol. It is true that the tobacco smoke and alcohol are proved carcinogenic substances. For that matter, the exhaust of automobiles contains many carcinogenic organic compounds in it. The environmental concentrations of such chemicals in Indian cities are generally higher than the standards prescribed by environmental safety regulators. Cancer is poised to become the leading cause of death world-wide by 2010 as per the report by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Caner (IARC).

Health care statistics in India is reported to be pathetic. It is strongly felt that the minister should concentrate on health care centers in rural areas so that the medical care is available to the rural population, particularly women and children. There are acute shortage of health care centers, life-saving medicines, vaccines and even the doctors. Instead of concentrating on public image-building issues, the minister should improve the rural health situation and concentrate on health awareness programs.

Local politicians should be pressurized by the public to build hospitals instead of temples or mosques.

Life insurance coverage for deaths in clinical trials

India is a booming market for Clinical trials by Pharmaceutical companies. Many potential drugs and vaccines are tried on infants and on the poor population. The population in general is not aware of the provisions and the regulatory aspects of the clinical trials. Who regulates the clinical trials in India? Drug Controller General of India? Recently, there were several deaths of infants due to faulty clinical trials. The corporate world and other concerned (?) authorities are insensitive to such tragic incidents. Medical ethics is totally missing in this highly lucrative business of clinical trials.

What we need today is transparency in the clinical trial business. The results and the contact details of the investigators should be properly and adequately documented for verification. What about the insurance cover for such clinical trial deaths or disabilities? There are many questions which need answers from the companies and the national regulators. There is an urgent need for building up public confidence.

India salutes martyrs – terrorist war on Mumbai

The war on Mumbai by handful of terrorists is just over. India is in the process of saluting the heroes from armed forces, who laid their lives for Mumbai to live on. The best of the quotes came from a retreating NSG. To a question from a media person, he said “nothing is impossible for us”. That is the right spirit and every Indian should keep these words in mind. India salutes the martyrs. Unfortunately, Indian governments, past or present, never really tried to prevent or prepare for terrorist attacks in any seriousness.

Now at least, after the humiliation suffered in the hands of a few 20-year old terrorists, the governments should wake-up to seriously review and update the existing (if any) crisis infrastructure to meet this type of situations. Any preparedness made should be practicable with clear-cut assigned responsibilities for implementation in short notice. Indian coasts (over 8000 km) are potential infiltration points for terrorists. In addition to meeting the surveillance/physical barrier requirements of the shores, it is also necessary to hire services of “informers” (Kabri) in the coastal villages to report to the authorities any unusual activities on the shores. All the fishing boats should be registered with the police. Any complaints of missing boats should be verified. Locally elected Corporator should be made answerable for any unusual activities in his jurisdiction.

War on Mumbai – All the terrorists dead - after 57 hours!

Indians world-over, are very angry with the political, administrative, and all the corrupt systems prevailing in the country, which is truly responsible for this national shame. Handful of terrorists has brought the country to its knees. The question is: From where the terrorists got the stock of arms/ammunitions to keep the NSGs at bay for 57 hours? For over 57 hours, more than a billion of Indians world-over, are watching the live-coverage with their heads down in shame. The political system is “impotent”.

The Indians are still taking all this shame lying down! All appreciated the Times-Now channel for refusing to entertain politicians visiting the terror sites showing lip-sympathy.

I strongly feel that for next three days, all the media (press & TV) should boycott completely all the speeches the sympathies likely to be expressed by these politicians. These are purely vote catching gimmicks which on one should not support. How the government at Delhi can have talks with the perpetrators of the very crimes, that too at the time it is being committed on Indian soil? It is a shame. However, the Indians should be proud of their armed forces. They should feel safe only in the hands of their elite NSGs. Hats-off to them.

These types of situations are likely to occur in the future also. The need of the hour is to develop Crisis Infrastructure (as Ratan Tata says) to manage these types of emergency situations. The infrastructure should be in place at all levels - local, regional, state and national level, so that the consequences are kept to minimum. What can not be prevented - be prepared for.

Congratulations Obama, You have made history

Obama will be the 44th President of United States of America. Most of the nations in the world are happily welcoming the great winner who will also be the first Black President of USA. As everybody said “Any thing is possible in America”.

Now, from Indian context, one has to see the fate of the Nuclear Deal with US, which was signed very recently. Whether Obama will call for a review of the conditions of the deal?

What happens to the outsourcing of jobs to the countries like India.? Obama declared that he wants to create more jobs for the Americans. How? As it looks, the country may need support system from Asian countries to tide over the financial crisis and the on-going recession condition.

One would know when the dust settles down.

Voting age – 16 years

A voting age is a minimum age established by law that a person must attain in order to be eligible to vote in a public election. The vast majority of countries in the world have established a voting age considering that those of an age lower than the chosen threshold lack the necessary capacity to independently decide how to cast a vote. The voting age is often of such importance that it is set by means of a constitutional provision.

In the past, voting age used to be 21. In the 1970s, widespread reform led to a reduction to 18 in a large number of countries. As of now, the voting age across the world is typically 18. In some countries, however, the voting age is different depending upon whether the person is married, employed or educated. In some countries, at 16, one can choose a career and pay taxes, leave home, join the armed forces, and make lots of decisions about one’s future. At 16, persons were taught how to become citizens but they are denied the chance to put it into practice.

Debate is currently underway in many countries on proposals to reduce the voting age below 18, in view of the availability of vast knowledge base, such as internet at early age, and increased exposure of the young ones to the outside world. In order to encourage young people to take part in democracy and take crucial decisions on the destiny of their country, the basic right of the citizens should not be denied beyond the age of 16 years. Recently, Austria set an example by lowering the voting age to 16 years. For that matter, the eligibility to get a driving license should also be lowered to 18 years.

Bio-fuel policy - India

Government of India is planning to discuss in the cabinet the bio-fuel policy, by which a National Bio-fuel Coordination Committee headed by the Prime Minster himself. The high power committee is expected to give the necessary impetus to support the growth of this sector hoping to serve about 10% of the total transport fuel demand through bio-fuels by 2017. Many countries now use a mix of fossil fuel and bio-fuel from environmental considerations. Oil is also becoming dearer by the day.

The other side of the story is not very encouraging. Right now, the world is going through a phase of acute food shortage. The bio-fuel crops are grown in preference to the food crops in view of the better monetary gains. Corn crops are diverted to make bio-fuels, mainly ethanol.

There should be regulatory infrastructure to over-see the bio-fuel production, pricing and supply across different states in the country. Government should ensure that farm land should not used to produce crops for bio-fuels. Food crops should be given priority over the production of bio-fuel crops. Already the countries like US are blaming India for food shortage world-wide. It is wise to watch the situation for a while before India joins the controversial bio-fuel band-wagon in a big way.

Thank god – India won an individual gold medal in Olympics!

Every Indian will be proud today that Mr. Abhinav Bindra won a first ever individual Olympic gold medal for India, in 10 m air rifle shooting at Beijing. Congratulations Abhinav.

It took a few decades for India to get one individual medal in Olympics!!
As it looks, Indian sports scenario is pathetic and stagnant for years. There is a Sports Ministry at the Centre and a ministry in every state. India has won gold medals in hockey several times earlier and this time, India could not even qualify to take part in the games! Mr. Suresh Kalmadi is sitting over the Indian Olympic Association now for years! He only talks rubbish. No action. India with more than a billion people could not produce a few good athletes to bring glory to the country in international sports? India should learn something from China.

There are several reasons: corruption at all levels, favoritism, regionalism, etc, etc. The governments are not serious enough to focus on competitive sports. Money is spent on officials traveling world-wide to study the facilities existing elsewhere! Heads of sports associations are immune to any changes. They behave like virtual dictators!

The only way is to change the system. The selection and decisions with regards to sports should be taken out of the government hands to some extent. The tenure of any sports-head should not be more than five years. Corporate houses should be encouraged to adopt one game to one corporate house basis. For example: Tatas can adopt Foot ball, Reliance – Athletics, Birlas – Hockey and the Indian Government can support Kabaddi, Kho-Kho like Indian games.

Let us hope somebody powerful at the top is reading this blog and do some thing.

China Olympics – Most spectacular show on earth

Billions of people world-over, just witnessed the most spectacular show on earth, never witnessed before in any Olympics. The show is the inauguration of the Olympics Games in Beijing, China.

It was the excellent blend of Chinese past, the present and the future. The biggest asset of the country, i.e., the man power was used splendidly with color to give a superb visual display of Chinese cultural heritage, grit, discipline and determination to show the world their ultimate capability to excel. The Games opening show was witness by an unprecedented 80 Heads of State! The world fell in love with China.

The Bombay High Court judgment - no for late-abortion

As per the existing Indian abortion laws on medical termination of pregnancy (MTP), the Bombay High Court judgment on refusal to abort 25-week old fetus baby with a congenital heart blockage is justified. It is a typical case of “Andha Kanoon”. It is high time that the government of India reviews all the laws, some of them are dating back to fifties and sixties so that the changes taken place over the years in the perceptions of right and wrong are addressed for.

In this case, the judgment is justified for the simple reason that the fetus is over 20 weeks old and the abnormality is related with the congenital blockage of arteries for which medical management is readily available in almost every Indian city. But, the same may not be applicable if the new-born is going to have a congenital severe mental or physical disability. In that case, the new-born will be too much burden on the family and the society in general. But, it amounts to mercy killing. Are we ready for it?

Dirty politics - India

The political parties in India are engaged in hand-to-hand combat and using all unethical means to garner the support of MPs for the crucial trust vote in New Delhi. Betting community is busy. MPs are offered bribes in tens of crore rupees, offered ministerial posts, and anything they ask for! Six MP convicts who were jailed for serious charges are also being wooed by political parties! For a BJP MP who is bedridden and in pain, a special plane is sent to bring him to Delhi for the trust vote. Splinter political groups are demanding plum posts, positions and favours to their own people in the government departments. One party is demanding removal of Union Finance Minister, Minister for Petroleum and recall of some IFS officers, to vote for the existing government. Mayawati (UP Chief Minister) is offered nothing less than the Prime Ministerial post! Mayawati is the one who gave religious color to the nuclear deal! Suddenly she said the deal is "anti-muslim". Muslims were surprised as to why the deal is anti-muslim.

Indo-US Nuclear deal is forgotten for a while. Rightly, Left parties are being held responsible for the political mess India is in today.

Under such pathetic situations, whether it is really worth supporting any government at the centre? What sort of governance one can expect from such a bunch of people – called Members of Parliament?

India’s Energy Security

According to the India government’s spokesman, 24 of the 35 nuclear power plants under construction in the world are in Asia. India has 6 nuclear plants under construction. Right now, India gets less than 3% of its electricity from nuclear. It is stressed that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal is necessary for guaranteeing India’s energy security. But, how?

As per the latest projections up to 2030 given in International Energy Outlook published by Energy Information Agency (EIA) of US Department of Energy, Nuclear power will contribute barely 5% of India’s total installed capacity of 398,000MW in 2030

The Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation and opening of the atomic energy to the private sector is going to change this scenario a bit. The estimate of 20,000 MW nuclear by 2017 would still constitute only 6.7% of the country’s total installed capacity. The EIS projections suggest that coal still remains the primary fuel for power accounting for over 43% in 2030. Fastest growth is projected for gas-based plants, providing one-third of the total capacity. The demand for the gas is estimated to be 114 billion cubic meter, of which sizable quantity of the natural gas would need to be imported. May be from Iran? India government should ensure that the nuclear deal with America should not affect the India-Iran relationship.

Un-authorized colleges?

The All India Council of Technical Education recently published list 32 institutions in the Mumbai city that run unauthorized courses on it’s website (www.dte.org.in) as a warning to discontinue the courses or face action! This information was given in response to a Public Interest Litigation filed in 2005. These institutes are duping gullible students, offering them seats for a large amount of money.

Can somebody say what happens now to the students who unknowingly paid large amount of money and joined these institutes? will the degree awarded by these institutions be recognized? There are some names of so-called reputed institutes in the list. Who is regulating these educational institutes or coaching classes which are so expensive? Can the Education Ministry come forward and give convincing replies to these questions?

Hungry millions to feed

There will be millions of hungry people around the world during the very near-foreseeable future. Reasons quoted are: the surging demand for quality food from the millions of prosperous, “bulging” middle class in India and China; increasing food prices and non-affordability of poor to buy the food items; discontinued export of food grains from these countries; us of farmlands for growing raw materials for bio-fuels in western and European countries; drop in food crop yields due to global warming and loss/wastage of food grains due to climate change disasters all over the world.

The immediate measures by governmental and other responsible agencies are required to boost food security particularly in poor nations. The agriculture sector should be bolstered with government and public investment to increase production of food crops, bio-fuel production should not be permitted in farm lands and finally, the public distribution system should be cleansed of corruption and upgraded so that the poor section of population is able to get the full benefit of the government subsidy.

Cop's dilemma

Job of police personnel anywhere in the world is very demanding. The job is generally low paid and hence, there is large scale corruption in the profession. In countries such as India and Pakistan, they collect large amount of cash daily and the ill-gotten money is spent on clubs, drinks and other vices. There is always a fear of getting caught while receiving the bribe or when the money is spent beyond the expected means. There are very few police personnel who do not consume tobacco in some form or the other.

The work load on the policeman is too tiring and the waiting or the watching job is boring and often they are on duty for over 12 hours a day. Due to lack of enough sleep and proper exercise, they are prone to health problems like hypertension, diabetes, etc. Family life of a cop is genrally in a mess. Frustration and depression is commonly experienced by most of the police personnel. He feels that he is not wanted anywhere.

Above all these, the policeman has to work under political pressure and often against their wish. They can be transferred anywhere any time at the whims and fancies of the higher ups. At any level, they will not be able to work independently and without any bias or fear.

None is surprised when one hears about policeman committing suicide, shoots himself or shoots his superior. Finally, an award or a medal is bestowed, posthumously!

What actually a cop needs is a decent salary, a good work culture, timely rewards for good work done and compulsory exercise, yoga training and meditation facilities at workplaces.

Consumer's dilema - Improper storage of vaccines/medicines

It is frequently reported in the Indian media that children die after vaccination and inoculation. On investigation of the samples from the batch shows nothing wrong with the vaccines. It is in everybody’s knowledge that there are frequent power failures all over the country, and the medicines/vaccines for the treatment/prevention of deadly disease such as small pox, typhoid are supposed to be stored under certain deep freeze temperatures. In the absence of 100% back-up power supply, the deep freeze requirement for storage might not have met. Financial implications take precedence over the ethical issue of knowingly not complying with the requirements.

It may be true that the main distributor of the medicines/vaccines is well equipped as per the requirement. But, what if the smaller stockiest /distributors who are not so well-equipped and may even be ignorant of the stringent requirement of low temperature for storage of these special medicines/vaccines.

It is the responsibility of the government department concerned to educate the concerned persons at various levels, including the end-user, inspect the storage facilities and ensure that the life-saving medicines/vaccines are stored under specified environmental conditions so as to ensure the safety of the consumer.

Global food crisis

As per the published reports, there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. This number is higher than the entire population of USA. The growing nutrition demand and the need of better quality food by this group of middle class population are some of the reasons quoted by US for the food shortage world wide. As such, the per capita food consumption by an American is five times higher than an Indian. There are already incidents of floods and draught in several regions’ claimed to be due to the global warming. Also, the evolution of bio-fuel policy in several countries are diverting the agricultural land for growing crops to produce bio-fuels, which yield better financial returns. Some of the food grains, like corn is used to produce ethanol, a gasoline substitute/mix to comply with the regulations of transportation fuel composition. Countries should stop producing fuel in competition with food.

Food reserves are falling down. Food price index has risen by over 40%. Today, we have additional requirement of food security to ensure feeding the millions in case of any large scale unexpected natural calamity occurring anywhere in the world.

PSLV launch - Congratulations

The Indian-made four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launched 10 satellites at one go from Sriharikota, South India. Of the ten satellites, two are from India and the eight nano satellites belong to other countries. The total weight of the satellites was 820 kg. It is a great achievement and India thus becomes the second country in the world to do so. Russia launched 13 satellites in April 2007.

The concerned scientists need to be congratulated for the feat. In spite of the disappointing 6th Pay Commission recommendations, the scientists from the government laboratories have proved to be concerned more about the national prestige than the shrinking pay packet of the middle-level working officials.

There are concerns about the heavy traffic in space. It is reported that there are thousands of debris, related to the space activities moving around in the space, and the renewed apace activities world-wide will create apprehension amongst the public about the safety in space. The countries should also be ready with the emergency preparedness plans to handle any type of incidents in space which will affect the humans on earth. From global warming considerations, we are also burning a lot of fuel in space and discharging greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

Cheerleaders and cricket

Cheerleaders, performing at the Indian IPL T20 cricket matches is a new trend in India. As usual, the self–styled moral brigade, purists, including some political parties are objecting to the performance as obscene. Their main hue and cry is against the scanty dresses worn by the cheerleaders. Too much exposure to young minds watching the cricket matches!

The cheerleaders are going to have designer look. They are likely to perform in the Hyderabad venue with designer’s dresses to fully cover their body. This is ridiculous and foolish by any standard. Women of glam, the stars, item-girls in reality shows are all performing more vulgar movements or dances and every one including the younger ones seem to be enjoying it. The media is full of the so-called vulgar display of women body. Naked men are shown on TV, advertising for branded under-wears, that too with their hard-on bulges! Why this extra-special opposition to the cheerleaders performing in the cricket matches? This type of moral policing by politicians should be stopped. There is no law to ban the performance of cheerleaders. If there is a law, then it should be applicable to Rakhi Sawant, Bipasa Basu, Malaika-Arora-Khan and Mallika Sheravat also.

Government freezes sex education

The title above was one of the important headlines in one of the Indian well-read newspapers. The state government wanted to introduce the sex education in Standards IX to XI across Maharashtra State. The proposal remained controversial for long. There was lot of opposition from the legislators and elders for the move. It was felt that the education is against the cultural and social background of students in the state.

The opposing members are of the opinion that there is already a lot of awareness about sex among the school children. As such, the children are exposed enough through internet, magazines, news papers, HIV awareness programs, films and entertainment shows on the television. Additional sex education, which may promote avoidable sexual acts among teenagers, seems to be unnecessary. The members are now calling for a debate among experts and academicians on the issue. Parent Teacher Associations can play a major role to draw up an acceptable sex education syllabus for children of different age groups, keeping cultural diversity in mind. It is a tough job indeed.

There are many incidents reported on the atrocities on girl students by senior students and even by teachers. There are many parents advocating sex education in schools so as to empower the children with the knowledge of what constitutes sexual abuse and harassment, and make them understand what actions are unacceptable. The subject should be put in the right perspective so that the children should not hesitate to discuss the sex related issues with the parents.

Doctors on strike

The resident doctors across the Maharashtra state went on strike protesting against the dip in the number of post-graduate seats. Patients thronging the public hospitals suffered the most due to the strike. Seats were reduced because some of the courses recognized by the state-level Medical Council are not recognized by the national Medical Council of India. The courses were derecognized because of the inadequate teacher:patient ratio or poor infrastructure available in the medical colleges. The doctors called off the 4-day strike after the state government assured them that problems would be sorted out soon. The doctors apologized to patients inconvenienced by the strike.

Can the striking doctors turn away emergency cases such as the one reported widely, i.e., turning away a woman gone into labour. The woman gave birth to a baby in a taxi. Surgeries were postponed; dialysis had been stopped, serious cases such as a child suffering from acute diarrhea, was not admitted, there were not enough people for post-surgery care. There were many more of such incidents. Private clinics made money in the process.

Who should be blamed for this? The doctors who toil day in and day out in the hospitals without much rewards? Even the post-graduate courses they have taken up may not be recognized!

As usual, the government takes the resident doctors for granted and care less about their living conditions in the hospitals and not paid enough even to take care of themselves. The media, television and news papers are busy chasing the cricketers and film-stars, highlighting their incomes in crores of rupees.

The doctors are left in the lurch by everyone.

Your carbon footprint

Alexandra Shimo –Barry in her new book, The Environment Equation, teaches readers how to calculate your carbon footprint. Eight Multiplication factors are provided to multiply the various bills, number of flights undertaken, etc and add them up to get your carbon footprint. Many attempts are made to scale back on energy use.

For example, the multiplication factor for monthly electricity bill is 105, the monthly oil bill by 113, the number of flights undertaken (4 hours or less) by 1,100, etc. A number below 6,000 (reflected in pounds per year) excellent and over 22,000 not so great. Good is anywhere from 6000 to 15,999.

Beijing Olympic Torch Rally peaceful in India

The Olympic Torch Rally was peaceful in Delhi, India on 17/4/08. The capital city of India kept the Olympic spirit alive. Disruption was expected in India in view of the fact that India has been home to over 150,000 Tibetan refugees over the past fifty years as well as for Dalai Lama. China has been looking suspiciously at India as the country which is responsible for the unrest in Tibet, to destabilize China’s hold over Tibet.

Unfortunately, a film star’s photograph, holding the Torch was shown in the front page of one of the widely circulated dailies. Media to be blamed. The news paper could have published P.T. Usha carrying the Torch. Why Amir Khan? There were two Bollywood stars amongst the 49 participated in the relay. There were 21,000 security personnel to guard the torch and the runners and 1,500 protesters. The protesters had a lighted-lamp carrying campaign, which was peaceful. The length of the run was 2.3 km.

For one, the participants in the rally should have been only sportspersons and no celebrities like film stars and politicians. It should not be made to look like a ramp walk. They got in only for cheap publicity. Already, the game is being politicalized a lot. Any way, Tibetans do have a genuine reason to protest in view of the human rights violation issues concerning Tibetans. In the right spirit the Tibetans protested peacefully in true Gandhian way. Let us dream of “One World” – one day.

Stray dogs – a costly global problem?

Stray dogs are one of the major eyesores of cities like Mumbai in India. There is a ban on killing stray dogs by the courts because of animal rights-activists. Typically, in Mumbai, the municipality is unable to tackle this problem in spite of spending millions of rupees on sterilization programs entrusted to some NGOs. Now, the municipality is building Dog Shelters to house the stray dogs. There are about 600,000 stray dogs in Mumbai alone.It is reported that two plots totally measuring 47acres were earmarked for the purpose. The municipal Corporation is going to spend 90 million rupees on catching the dogs, transporting them to the shelters and feeding them.

A parallel situation was reported from Moscow, Russia. Moscow is spending $64 million to castrate as many as 50,000 stray dogs because rising number of attacks on people. More than 22,000 people were bitten last year, with one-third of those were hospitalized with severe injuries. The city is building 15 shelters to house 30,000 dogs by the end of next year. The dogs will be sterilized and returned to the place where they were caught.

People with common sense and a business mind say: This is madness. It is better to spend that money on building kindergartens or schools for children. Is it ethical when there are thousands of people in Mumbai sleeping on the footpath, and the stray dogs will sleep in cozy shelters? If one can export meat (of goat, sheep and other animals) to other countries, why not export dog meat to some countries (where dog meat is a delicacy) and get some revenues?

"Quota" Raj in India

In India, every other community wants to be included in the specified list to get the innumerable benefits of Reservation in education and employment. Reservation or Quota system in education was started initially to benefit the so-called deprived/suppressed/disadvantaged communities so as to improve their quality of life. But, soon the governments at the centre realized that the RESERVATION based on the caste system is the buzz word for getting elected to the legislature or parliament. So, the reservation policy started in early fifties continued for the past few decades. Today, may be more than 50% of the voting population belongs to this reserved categories.

The supreme court of India, on 10/04/08 has upheld the 27% additional quota for “other backward classes”, OBCs) in educational institutions. The court also asked to exclude children from “creamy layer” (whose family’s annual income exceeding 2.5 Lakh rupees as well as children of big farmers) in the OBC quota. This shows that the he apex court is against a few privileged among the backwards hogging all the quota benefits. The court also stipulated that the quotas will not apply to post-graduate courses, and the continuation of the reservation policy should be reviewed every five years.

The court’s verdict has created confusion in the premier educational institutions like IITs, IIMs and AIIMS. Admission processes are under hold in some institutions.

Sixty years after independence, it is time that one should look beyond caste. The caste system was based on a hierarchy of occupations and used to dictate whether a person belonged to a socially and educationally advanced class or not. The situation is no more remains the same. Old social hierarchies based on occupations are becoming irrelevant. Occupations are changing. Public policy should recognize these social changes.

Sometime in the future, the reservation policy, based purely on caste and creed should be scraped. Let there be adequate number of good quality colleges and institutions so that children and parents don’t have to go after these quota seats. However, economically backward class will continue to remain in view of the exorbitant fees charged by these quality institutions. I am sure that nobody wants to become poor to get the quota benefits.

XXIX Olympaid – Beijing Olympic Torch Rally

The Slogan of the Beijing Olympaid is: One World – One Dream. It expresses the common wishes of people all over the world. One of the most recognized symbols - the Olympic emblem is truly international. The five rings represent five continents of the world and the six colors combined represent all the countries in the world.

The 29th world games are slated to start on August 8, 2008 at Beijing, China. The Olympic Torch Relay started on March 24 at Olympia and it has just concluded (April 7) the fifth leg of the relay at Eiffel Towers, Paris, France. The relay in Paris was disrupted repeatedly by the pro-Tibet activists and campaigners protesting against the human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party. There are concerns over the potential for boycotts of the games from pro-Tibetan organizations. China has also been battling problems with air pollution both in the city of Beijing and in neighboring areas, which needs remediation before the games.

The true spirit of Olympic movement seems to have taken a beating due to the disruptions caused to the relay. The Relay may see more of these disruptions on its way to China. In view of the disruptions, the International Olympic Committee president called for unity in the worldwide Olympic movement.

Yes, it time that politicians should stop politicizing the sports, particularly the international events like Olympic Games. Violence in whatever form and for whatever reason is not compatible with the values of the Torch Rally and the Olympic Games. Let us strive for One World – One Dream.

No Honking Day in Mumbai on April 7, the World Health Day

On Monday April, 7 all of us driving vehicles will have to observe No Honking Day as per Mumbai Traffic Police. Mumbai has 1.5 million vehicles. The permissible decibel limit of horns is 90-100 decibels. As per the Motor Vehicles Act, motorists in Mumbai can be fined for using the horn needlessly. Generally, Silence Zones in the city cover 100 meters from each of these places: educational institutions, hospitals, courts and residential zones.

Experts say that continuous hearing of the honking harms the ear. Doctors estimate that 50 percent of cases of impaired hearing are because of noise pollution.

India is short of 6 lakh doctors!

It is reported that India faces an acute shortage of manpower in healthcare sector. The shortfall in the country is as follows:

Doctors – 6 lakhs; Dentists – 2 lakhs and Nurses - 10 lakhs

The patient – doctor ratio (number of doctors for 10,000 people) is 1 for India, while for developed countries, the ratio varies from 548 (USA), 209 (Canada) and 166 (UK). The situation in India is pathetic. However, about 60,000 India doctors are estimated to be working in these countries. For example: 5 in every 100 doctors in the US and UK are India physicians. The Health Ministry estimated that there should be one nurse for every 500 people. As such India needs 21 lakh nurses in 2007 and only 11 lakh nurses were available. The government is envisages the setting up of 6 AIIMS-like institutions and upgrading 13 existing medical institutes in the 11th Five-year Plan. Is this enough?

There are also very great demand for medical and paramedical personnel such as, lab technicians, radiologists and physiotherapists abroad and the “export” potential for such manpower is very high.

The only solution seems to be to open more and more colleges, particularly in smaller cities and towns. Government should open up the medical education sector for private participation, particularly big industrial houses. Public-private partnership should be encouraged. The question is: How to motivate bright students to take up medicine in comparison with other lucrative sectors like IT, Manufacturing and Finance? It takes about 10 years for a full post graduate super specialized course to complete and the earnings (except a few) of medical doctors are not tempting commercially.

Greenpeace study predicts watery grave for Mumbai

A study titled “Blue Alert” was commissioned by International Greenpeace and prepared by an IIT – Chennai Humanities Professor S.C. Rajan predicts global temperature rise of the order of 4 to 5 degree C by the year 2100 if the present rate of greenhouse gas emissions continues. It is reported that the data is provided by NASA.

The report resulted in wide coverage in the Indian newspapers. Papers report 5 to 10 meters rise in the sea levels by 2100. According to the Indian organization, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) authored study; the impact of the climate change may result in the sea level rise of 0.8 meters by 2100. The spokesperson from NEERI says that the Greenpeace figures were exaggerated. However, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate change (IPCC) estimates a rise in sea level by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees C by 2100. Whatever one looks at the numbers, there is bound to be rise in the sea levels and the low-elevation coastal areas worldwide are going to be submerged under the sea. The Greenpeace organization is already launched a campaign to mobilize public opinion and awareness on the issue.

The coastal areas and reclaimed land in many India cities are expected to be submerged. In Mumbai, areas such as Colaba, Bandra, Worli, Marine Drive and Gateway of India are all under the threat. Other cities which are going to be affected are Chennai, Kolkata, Goa and Cochin. The report is bound to create unwarranted mass hysteria. The Geological Survey of India has been keeping track of 50 glaciers on a regular basis and their findings show that none of the glaciers has shown any high rate of retreat. The fallout of the coastal submersion and submersion of the agricultural land and forests is the management of millions of the displaced people from the country, and migration of the similarly affected people from other neighboring counties such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to India.

The practical approach to such a situation is adaptation to the scenario, and be ready with a comprehensive plan of action at every level, to minimize the consequences, including threat to national security by the migrating population and possible submergence of defense establishments generally located in the coastal areas.

Climate change and CO2 level

Many scientists say that the recent harsh global winter witnessed around the world in no way undermines the enormous body of evidence pointing to a warming world with disrupted weather patterns. If one considers IPCC's view that a doubling of CO2 will result in a warming likely to be in the range 2 to 4.5°C with a best estimate of about 3°C, it is long time before we witness that type of concentration rise. However, as per some UN report, a 2-degree rise in temperature would result in 15-17%fall in rise and wheat yields. This is matter of grave concern since we need to grow more and more food crops to feed ever increasing population growth in under-developed and developing countries.

As per some reported data there is 30 ppm (380 ppm – 350 ppm) rise in the measured atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration between 1990 and 2006. There is a tendency in the relationship to be linear-quadratic and all efforts need to be made to keep the linear relationship for the concentration vs time. Let us look seriously at all the possibilities and techniques, including reforestation and use of seaweed and algae to remove CO2 from the environment/ocean waters.

However, it is unscientific to blame the CO2 level alone to the present climate change. Natural events are also taking place periodically and results in warming and cooling of the environment. Every citizen of the world is looking at the United Nations Organization to make realistic assessment of the environmental impact of the greenhouse gas concentrations in the air and the extent of the warming caused. Is the warming so caused is only responsible for the climate change?

Maharashtra (Mumbai) Cadaver Donation Day

March 27 is observed as the Cadaver Donation Day in Maharashtra State with the aim of increasing awareness amongst the people so that more and more people come forward to donate their organs after death. Case studies have shown that the cadaver transplants work almost as well as donations from live donors. Law permitting cadaver donations came into being 14 years ago. The Law permits three types of organ donations: related living, unrelated living and cadaveric donations. As per the Transplant Protocol, everyone can donate eyes, skin and bones within 6 hours of death. However, only persons who are brain-dead can donate solid organs such as kidneys, liver and heart.

The numbers have been increasing slowly from single digit to double digits. The organ donations, in general, are just a fraction of what is needed for the lakhs of patients with kidney or liver diseases and undergoing costly treatments. Due to the acute shortage, illegal kidney bazaars are thriving in the country. In India, 15,000 people require a liver transplant every year and only 150 get lucky in getting a donor. Overall, India requires 22,000 donors annually. From where, this number of donations will come?

The government is considering “presumed consent” from serious /brain-dead patients in hospitals. Of course, this presumed consent goes against the premise of voluntary donation. It is advised that each hospital can have a transplant coordinator to identify and counsel the family of potential donors. Typically, there is a Zonal Transplantation Coordination Centre (ZTCC), a quasi-government organization coordinating diseased donor transplants in Mumbai, located at Sion Hospital.

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Climate Change and human evolution

The climate changes which we are witnessing today are assumed to be mainly due to the global warming caused by man-made activities. There are some recent evidences in various scientific forums in the internet (The environment site.org) to show that the presumption of the climate changes was due to GHG emissions and the resultant global warming is a hoax. New data challenges the above reasoning.

Some environmentalist has warned that the melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau would turn the Ganga and Yangtze rivers into seasonal rivers that dry up in summers and could eventually lead to unmanageable food shortages. The projections were based on the fact that China and India are the world’s leading producers of wheat and rice, the staple food for the billions. Glacier experts feel that loss of glaciers would take away a summertime source of river water, drinking water and hydroelectric power in populous, relatively poor places like South Asia and the cities along the western slope of the Andes.

There is a cyclic behavior seen in the natural events which are occurring over hundreds of years in the past. One can expect much more severe natural events in the future. In the event of any such catastrophe, “doomsday vault” was designed and is getting ready at Norway for inauguration. The vault (Svalbard Global Seed Vault), made up of three cold chambers each measuring 27 x 10 metres tunnel bored into the sandstone and limestone in a remote Arctic mountain, 1000 km from the North Pole. The facility has the capacity to hold up to 4.5 million batches of seeds from all known varieties of the planet’s main food crops. This will make it possible to reestablish the plants if they are destroyed by any major disasters.

Studies also have shown that the new human species were evolved over millions of years during which the climate was highly variable, such as formation and vanishing of giant lakes, periods of extreme heat, severe drought, etc.

In the name of carbon dioxide, let us not throttle the industrial revolutiion which is taking place in countries like India and China.

Online evils - Privacy is lost

Tim Berners-Lee, who invented World Wide Web (www) two decades ago, cautions the surfers to be aware of indiscretion on the internet. It has grown much beyond the expectations and has become a massive and permanent data “archives” in human history. The www was started to facilitate information-sharing among researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory known as CERN. However, the destructive potential of the invention is also unlimited. The privacy of the personal data put on the web can never be guaranteed. Whatever is being typed on the web can be read by everybody else too – is causing a lot of anxiety among the net users. Individual privacy is lost, particularly through social networking sites. The feeling is that one is being made “naked” and studied in detail!

Big business houses are using the net for total commercialization. They are able to snoop on the surfers / consumers, and their surfing habits. He also said that the internet service providers should provide neutral service and not commercially exploit the personal data, such as medical records and credit card information, of the consumers without their knowledge.

Do we have any foolproof method of maintaining the personal information provided in the net for a specific cause, as personal?

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Kidneys are responsible for filtering waste products from the blood. When the kidney function is impaired, the waste starts accumulating, leading finally to a rise in bad cholesterol levels. This means the CKD patients have more risk of dying from a heart attack. It is important that the kidney patients need to control their blood pressure, LDL bad cholesterol and diabetic status. Epidemiological studies showed that the CKD increased the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, even amongst early kidney ailments. It is known for long that the number of kidney patients suffering a heart attack is more as compared to patients without any kidney problems.

In India, over 7.5 lakh people suffer from CKD. The treatments for kidney damage available are dialysis or kidney transplantation. Dialysis is a very expensive procedure. It is method of removing toxic substances from the blood using a machine when the kidneys are unable to do so due to failure of their function. Depending upon the extent of the damage, each dialysis session may last for 6-8 hours, 5-7 times a week. At present, 1.5 lakh new patients suffer from the end-stage renal failure annually. Of this, only 3500 get kidney transplants and 6000 undergo dialysis. Depending on the condition, one has to spend about 3 to 4 thousand rupees for each dialysis session in private clinics. Kidney transplantation is also an expensive proposition which can be afforded by the rich only.

It is reported that there is an acute shortage of dialysis centers and nephrologists (kidney specialists) in India for management of kidney diseases. Kidney donors are hard to come by. Cadaver donations are very rare. Cadaver donations should be legally supported to make it mandatory for the hospitals to convince the relatives of the patients for donation of the organs from brain-dead patients. Media can play a major role in public awareness by sensitizing the issue and facilitate organ donations. The Health Ministry should seriously look into the medico-legal aspects of the stem cell research for producing new cell lines for the treatment of such diseases. Stem cell banking should be made easily affordable as part of long-term program.

Today’s women-empowered

There is really no word to describe today’s women, empowered and independent and demanding. She gets what she wants. The change has taken place very fast. Everybody hoped that she will still retain the basic instincts of family and values relationships.

It is true that once upon a time her opinion was no opinion. It will be generally vetoed by the men in the family. Today’s woman has her opinion and she also dares to defend it. If she is right, she wins and if she loses, still she wins. Today’s women prefer economic independence and go for jobs to earn money. She is well educated oozes with sexuality. She dares to prefer job instead of marriage. She also prefers to choose her own soul mate. If things do not click to her satisfaction, she is prepared to part ways. She wants to enjoy life at any cost, in filmy style. Technologies, consumer goods and automobiles are feminized to target the new liberated women.

But, what we witnessed on the Women’s Day shocked us. I quote the two incidents to which I and my wife were the witnesses on the Women’s Day.

1. Scene: A car parked in front of a Mall. The car was locked, the parking lights were on. One mobile phone was on the dashboard. A small girl, may be of one and half years, was sitting in the front seat and crying loudly which could be heard even through the closed windows. One lady in pants, about 35 years old, probably the girl’s mother, was talking to the girl through the glass window, asking the girl to stop crying. She was telling the child that her dad is going to come within two minutes. I too was waiting for my car, to load the grocery bags from the trolley. I was there for full 15 minutes. They were still waiting for the child’s dad to open the locked car. All this time, the child was crying and the lady was trying to console her. My queries as to what happened remained unanswered. My vehicle came and I went away wondering when the small girl’s papa will come and release the girl from her confinement. I could only pity the girl child and couldn’t sleep that night. Flashes of the child shouting, with tears rolling was haunting me. Do we have any laws to tackle such type of irresponsible parents?

2. Scene: A higher income group housing society. Time about 9 p.m. Two children 2 years and 8 years old are standing near the main entrance to the building. A watchman was doing his duty of opening and closing of the gates as the cars come inside the compound. We too happened to come back at that time after our evening stroll. We saw two familiar faces of the children looking at us, and we just wished them. The younger of the two said that their parents have gone out to drop somebody at the railway station and have not yet returned. He also said that he was feeling hungry. We didn’t have anything to offer at that time for the hungry children. We went home and my wife took a pack of cream biscuits and went down again to give to the children.

Very innocently, the children first refused the biscuits, but the smaller one just couldn’t control his hunger and grabbed the biscuits from my wife’s hands and started eating. The elder one was not willing to take initially, and then accepted saying thanks. Then he also told us not to tell this to their parents and requested us to leave them alone lest their parents will see us giving them biscuits. Again, the incident of a young mother enjoying herself leaving the small hungry children to fend themselves was haunting me for some time.

Later on, we came to know that this is the common practice with many young couples of leaving children in the building and go away for fun drives. These incidents may be of very minor nature and least traumatizing type which we witnessed. We realized that the new liberated women are capable of much more ruthless acts against their children.

Society needs women who are educated and liberated, but still caring for relationships, be loved for love sake and have the emotions which are binding her with her family. That will be the ideal woman. What you think?

Salt pans around Mumbai soon to be gobbled up

Mumbai politicians are all set to get about 5500 acres of salt pan land released in connivance with the builders lobby for development as real estate. Mumbai is surrounded by thousands of acres of salt pans and mangroves and any development work results in destroying the mangroves. During monsoon months, these salt pans are flooded by rain water and serve as natural reservoirs.

These areas are leased out by the government to a few families for use as salt pans and lack of space for housing made these salt pans as potential for real estate development. Powerful builders-politicians lobby is working to get these areas released from the protection of eco-sensitive stringent Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), which prohibits any construction close to creeks, mangroves and the high tide line. Mumbai has seen worst floods in the recent years.

Geologists are of the opinion that the salt pan plots are not suitable for reclamation since the soil in these mudflats is weakened by the continuous production of salt over the years. Any construction over these lands will need very deep foundations. Mass housing projects are likely to come up.

In spite of the resistance from some NGOs, the government (salt department) is likely to fall in line with the builders lobby and the city will loose its much open flat space encircling the city. It will be an environmental disaster.

Global warming or cooling?

The climate change which we are witnessing today is presumed to be due to the global warming caused by man-made activities and resulting emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide. Billions of US dollars were spent on the so-called research in the field of climate change supposed to have caused by global warming.

World over, winter in 2007-08 was very severe. China had its coldest winter in 100 years. Bagdad saw its first snow in all history. North America had the most snow cover in 50 years. The normally warm city like Mumbai in India witnessed record low temperature for the month of February this year. Northern India is under the spell of record low temperatures and snow-falls.

There was a news flash in the Indian daily ”The Times of India”, which I quote here: “Wither global warming? New data challenges theory”. It is reported that the data released by four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadleys, Nasa’s GISS, UAH and RSS) show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously. The total amount of cooling, over the period under consideration, ranged from 0.65 degreeC up to 0.75degreeC – a value, an expert says, large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. Hundreds of people might have died, not by global warming, but from cold weather hazards.

The so-called highly developed countries are using the gimmick of “greenhouse gas” to thwart the efforts of some developing countries to industrialize and come in par with the developed countries, and threaten their own position globally. Ultimately, it will be proved that the climate changes witnessed in the recent past are not due to the global warming, but simply natural cyclic events which will pass off.

Suicide figures alarming

Stress has become a fact of life. However, stress beyond a certain level is harmful. Suicidal tendencies, over aggressiveness of youngsters and road brawls are witnessed almost everyday. Unreleased stress, over period of time causes psychosomatic diseases like diabetic, hypertension, skin ailments, etc.

It is reported that Maharashtra State in India ranks among the top two or three among all 28 states in suicides by house-wives, students, jobless youth, farmers and even pensioners. The suicide figures for the year 2006 in the state are: Framers in debt – 4453; Housewives – 3653; Students – 883; Jobless youth – 944 and Pensioners – 140. A total of 15,494 persons have committed suicides in a year! The male to female ratio is 2:1. More than 100,000 persons committed suicides in India in the year 2006.

High aspirations, increasingly materialistic life style in the cities, economic and health-related problems, non-availability of adequate number of psychiatrists, societal stigma attached to psychiatric treatment in the country are some of the reasons attributed for the rising suicide rates. Early consultation with psychiatrics would have saved lot of lives.

Yoga and meditation are the simple techniques by which one can control the unavoidable stress level. The techniques develop a person as a whole, body and mind. Yogic postures keep your body healthy and meditation control the thought process of the mind and keep the stress level under check. There are Yoga Schools and consultants who impart yogic knowledge for the needy. There are also many meditation techniques available. Most of the meditation techniques can be practiced at home after initiation. It is reported that even a brief meditation can boost concentration and curb stress level.

Thalassemic kid faces cure or kill treatment

It will be bio-tec’s biggest breakthrough if the cord blood transplant treatment which began in Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital on a Thalassemic (a genetic blood disorder) 4-year old child Damini Mhatre. This could be the first patient in India to be cured of the genetic condition. The hospital stay for the treatment is going to last for about 2 months. The treatment is very expensive, may cost a few lakhs of rupees.

Generally, thalassemias are prevalent in populations that evolved in humid climates where malaria was endemic, but affects all races. Thalassemic conditions are particularly associated with Arab-Americans, people of Mediterranean origin, and Asians.

The usual treatment for thalassemia is a bone marrow transplant from a donor or stem cells. There are only two hospitals in India which use unrelated cord blood cells to treat leukemia and aplastic anaemia. This may be the first time that it is being used for thalassemia. It is reported that the condition may be cured and Damini will be able to live normal life. However, the parents of the child are also being cautioned about the high chances of rejection/infections occurring in the treatment.

It is the responsibility of all to ensure that the high-tech treatment is encouraged in all the major hospitals in the country and put in place the necessary regulatory framework for the stem cell research. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should ensure availability of adequate funding for the research and subsidize the treatment for economically poor children. Can one expect to see the thalassemic patients living the normal life again in the near future?

Kidney Racket

An international kidney racket was busted at Mumbai by the police. Many surgeons are found to be involved in the intercity racket. Since August 2003, five kidney rackets were busted in India. The kidney racket kingpin (so-called Dr. Amit Kumar) is absconding and international alert has been issued to track him down. It is also reported that he was arrested in 1994 and jumped bail and absconding since and operating under different names in different states in collusion with the local doctors. These surgeons are extremely skillful, but the greed for more and more money is driving them into this criminal activities. Often, poor patients who are admitted for some other ailments are operated upon to retrieve their kidneys. In some cases, poverty drives the poor to sell their kidneys for money. It is estimated that about 1.5 lakh patients have kidney failure every year in India. Only about 3500receive an organ for transplantation. Similar disparity is seen in cases of other organs such as cornea, liver, etc. Virtually there are no donors. The gap between the supply and \demand is too high and hence the organ trading rackets are mushrooming everywhere. The donor rates have to be increased. There is no centralized registry that can connect potential donors and recipients.

It is time that the government should felicitate establishment of donor centres. One has to sensitize the ICU doctors in hospitals to encourage organs donation of brain-dead patients and victims of road accidents. Laws need to be appropriately amended to facilitate this. One cadaver can benefit 10 patients by retrieval of heart, liver, kidney, cornea, pancreas, lungs and intestine. There were only 700 cadaver donors in India in the last 14 years. Public awareness programs with respect to organ donation should be shown as audio-visuals to clear many doubts such as medico-legal issues in the minds of the public with regards to the organs donation. Online registration with all the relevant details and establishment of central registry will immensely help in availability of organs for transplantation.

Medicines sold over the counter (OTC)

In many parts of the world, medicines, including the so-called Schedule H Drugs (to be sold by retail on the prescription of a Registered Medical Practitioner only), can be just bought over the counter. Indian scenario is not better. Many of the drugs are banned in western countries, but the pharmaceutical companies are selling the drugs in India with immunity! Even the parents, for conditions such as cold and cough just go to any medical store and buy any cough syrup and start giving to the children. Sometimes, the self medication works, but most of the time there is a danger of lethal side effects in children. The medicines may be fake and dispensed in unhygienic conditions.

Awareness of the public is built up only through the eye-catching TV advertisements. Doctors are not consulted. The reasons for not consulting are many, such as there is no time to waste in consultation, afraid that the doctors will swindle money by prescribing too many tests and examinations, lack of adequate number of good doctors, etc.

Recently, US Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory warning parents against giving over the counter cold and cough medicines to small children because of “serious and potentially life-threatening side-effects”. Medicines like phenyl propanolamine (PPA) are globally banned because of its dangerous side effects. Self medication based purely on the symptoms is not advised.

Governments should wake up to this reality and bring in legislation, if necessary, to tighten the situations such as Pharmacies selling drugs OTC without proper prescription, prevention of manufacture of fake medicines, adulteration in medicines, selling medicines after the expiry date, use of banned drugs, etc.

The deadly cigarettes

Nicotine is a deadly poison in high doses. On an average, about 70 mg can kill an average adult. Worldwide, tobacco kills one human being every six seconds. It is reported that one out of ten Indian adults is dying of tobacco related diseases. In addition to nicotine, tobacco used in the cigarettes contains 230 toxic chemicals, both organic and inorganic, some of them are carcinogenic. There are traces of inorganic elements present in cigarettes, which are radioactive (Polonium-210/Lead-210). It is estimated that over a billion cigarettes are smoked every day in India. Continued consumption of the infamous “Gutka” in India leads to Oral sub-mucous fibrosis, a pre-cancerous disease that is a first step for the formation of cancer. It is specially affecting the young.

It is reported that nicotine in cigarettes smokers typically inhale rose by 11% since 1998 as per the analysis carried out by a Harvard study. Truth can be that the companies must be deliberately increasing the nicotine content to make it more addictive (physical and psychological dependence), which is a dangerous from the public health point of view. Governments should provide medical assistance for the addicts who want to quit tobacco consumption, in any form.

It is high time that the nicotine content in cigarettes should be regulated by fixing a limit on the total content by world health organization. The nicotine content should be brought down to levels which may be considered safer. Sooner it take place is better for the potential smokers.

Ratan Tata’s dream car

The Indian industrialist, Ratan Tata has achieved which others only promised for years. He kept his promise. He brought out a “dream come true” four wheeler at the rate of a two-wheeler. The dream car is called Nano, rightly so in the current world of nano-technology. The car will be priced at Rupees one lakh (US$2500), the cheapest ever for a new four wheeler in India which can be afforded by a lower middle class family. He said that the image of the man on a scooter – the elder kid standing in front of the driver-father and the wife riding pillion with a baby on her lap, prompted him to design a small car for the family.

The engine, placed horizontally at the rear is a 623cc twin-cylinder SOHC unit featuring multi-point fuel injection with about 34bhp on tap and anti-vibe balancer shaft. A lot of weight saving measures, in terms of design and material selection were taken to get good fuel efficiency (20 kmpl) and speed (105kmph). The engine drives the rear wheels via a four speed transaxle. The world will now look seriously at the Indian capability in manufacturing technology.

Mr. Tata indicated that there was lot of resistance against the small car by the vested interests. Competitors scoffed at the idea. Besides, there are other issues such as crowded roads in cities like Mumbai city where there are about 8 lakh two-wheelers and 4.36 lakhs four-wheelers criss-crossing 1900 km of the roads. The reduced price will encourage rich to buy multiple cars (for each family member and also for servants) putting a lot of constraint on the limited parking space. Already there is no walking space for pedestrians due to haphazard parking on road sides. Road accidents are increasing by the day. Increased pollution levels in the cities will only enhance the global warming concerns. Nano is the car for smaller cities and towns in India and for EXPORTS. Three Cheers to all concerned.

Sir Edmund Hillary is no more

The New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary (born July 29, 1919) was the first to set foot on world’s tallest peak, Mount Everest, on May 29, 1953 along with his co-climber Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa from Darjeeling, India. On reaching the top, he said “To my great delight I realized we were on top of Mount Everest and the whole world spread out below us”.

He started a NGO Himalayan Trust in 1961 to for the welfare of the Sherpa community and was proud of the good work the Trust has been doing in Nepal. The Trust has started schools, provided medical care, drinking water systems and scholarships for studies for the Sherpa children. Hillary also campaigned for a cleaner and environment-friendly Himalayas which he loved till the last day. Nepal conferred honorary citizenship upon Hillary in 2003 during celebration of the 50th year of the Everest conquest. Hillary became the first living New Zealander to appear on a bank note (5 dollar note) in 1990.

Hillary’s first marriage was with Louise Rose in 1953, who along with youngest of the three sons died in a plane crash in Kathmandu in 1975. Sir Ed is no more. His second wife June Hillary from Auckland said that she will single-handedly continue her husband’s great mission - upliftment of the Sherpa community, for which he dedicated 40 years of his life.

Global warming and natural events

The climate change which we are witnessing today is presumed to be due to the global warming caused by man-made activities and resulting emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide. In fact, the main reason for the climate change may be due to global warming caused by other natural, earthly and solar events such as eruption of volcanoes, cyclic sun storms, etc. However, one can only try to minimize the contribution from man-made activities for global warming such as use of fossil fuels for electricity generation and for fueling transportation vehicles including aircrafts and space vehicles. It is difficult to believe that a fractional rise in the ambient and ocean temperature can cause the great meltdown of large Greenland and west Antarctica glaciers.

It is also possible that the actual gravity of the situation was not told to the world in time by the responsible organizations, or there are yet unknown natural reasons such as effect of variations in the geothermal energy for the climate change.

The responsible developed countries such as USA and the organizations such as United Nations should wake up to this reality of new climate cycle and upgrade the environmental monitoring systems and the computer models to reassess the scenario before major part of the globe gets submerged by the rising sea levels. Serious attempts also should be made to reduce the existing carbon dioxide and methane inventory in the atmosphere by use of appropriate technology.

Anti-Child Labour Drive

In many of the developing countries, child labour is rampant. Child Rights Organizations and other NGOs are fighting for stringent anti-child labour laws and the local governments are trying hard to sustain anti-child labour campaigns in cities where the children are lured to work in hazardous industries and in unsafe conditions in zari. leather, tea-stalls, metal works and garages thriving legally or illegally in the slums. Tuberculosis is the common disease prevailing amongst the children.

Small children are employed for house-hold works in many affluent families. Typically, in Mumbai, the thousands of children from poor families from the northern states form a major cheap work force. The children are treated badly and often made to work for hours together in unhygienic conditions without proper food and shelter. Generally, employers do not like the children keeping contact with their parents or strangers.

Legally, one can not be listed in any workforce if one is below 18 years of age. But the poverty and in the absence of any other options, parents do not mind sending their children for earning a living and support their family. Their idea is anything is better than starvation. Education is out of bounds for most of these small children.

Governments are trying to rescue these children during frequent so-called sustained anti-child labour campaigns. Rehabilitation of the “rescued” children is an arduous task indeed. Often, the children do not want to go back to their families and the hard life back home. The children feel that they are better off in the city than at home in villages.

The local government plan is to offer families of the rescued children “scholarships” for the child’s education. Many questions are raised, such as ensuring the proper use of the funds for the purpose of education, medical care for the children, providing skilled job opportunities, etc. What sort of future we are planning for these children?