Jan 02 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Pollutants making Taj yellow identified

Amit Bhattacharya

New Delhi:





Particles From Burning Of Fossil Fuels To Blame: Study

India's white marvel, the Taj Mahal, is slowly turning brownish-yellow because of air pollution, says an Indo-US study which also identifies the pollutants responsible for the effect.It says the Taj is changing colour due to deposition of dust and carbon-containing particles emitted in the burning of fossil fuels, biomass and garbage. The study confirms what has been suspected for long -that Agra's poor air quality is impacting India's most celebrated monument.
The research was conducted by experts from US universities -Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Wisconsin -as well as the Indian Institute of Technology , Kanpur and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The paper was published in the Environmental Science & Technology journal in December.
The findings can lead to targeted strategies to curb air pollution in and around Agra and more effective ways to cleanse the marble surface of the 366-year-old mausoleum, which remains by far the most visited man-made structure in the country with more than six million footfalls in 2013.
The researchers first analysed air samples at the site for roughly a year using filters and found high concentrations of suspended particles that could potentially discolour the Taj's surface. Clean marble samples were then placed at various points on the monument accessible only by ASI staff. After two months of exposure, the samples were analysed using electron microscope and X-ray spectroscope.
The pollutants deposited on the marble were identified through these investigations. Researchers found 3% of the deposits to be black carbon, around 30% organic carbon (or brown carbon) and most of the rest dust. Black carbon is emitted by vehicles and other machines that burn fossil fuels. Brown carbon is typically released by burning of biomass and garbage, a common practice in the region.
S N Tripathi of IIT Kanpur, one of the authors, said the team used a novel approach to estimate how these particles would impact light reflecting off the marble surface. “We found that black carbon gives a greyish colour to the surface while the presence of brown carbon and dust results in yellowish-brown hues,“ he said.
“Results indicate that deposited light absorbing dust and carbonaceous particles are responsible for the surface discolouration of the Taj Mahal,“ the study concludes.

Jan 02 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

More girls being born, but fewer surviving

Subodh Varma





Uptick In Sex Ratio At Birth, Decline In 0-4 Age Group

There is good news and bad news on one of the key problems that haunts India -survival of the girl child.Sex ratio at birth, that is, number of girls born for every 1,000 boys born, has inched up from 906 to 909 between 2007 and 2013. This suggests that female feticide, the monstrous practice of killing off the girl baby in the mothers' womb has been somewhat checked.That's the good news.
The bad news is that the child sex ratio, that is, number of girls in the 0-4 year age group for every 1,000 boys in the same age group, has declined from 914 to 909 in the same period.
Information on sex ratios is made available by the Census office based on their sample registration system (SRS) annual surveys over the years. The latest release was last week.
Experts and activists say that the slight increase in sex ratio at birth is not very significant though it is a welcome trend. They feel that laws prohibiting sex selection are not very effective.
“Perhaps, in cities, there is some prevention of sex selection due to laws but there is spread of this heinous practice in rural areas and in regions where earlier it was not there,“ argues Kirti Singh, lawyer and women's rights activist.
Ravinder Kaur, professor at IIT Delhi who has studied sex ratios and related family issues also said that laws and campaigns have not contrib uted much in controlling sex selection. “Sex determination services are still available for those who seek them. The change is due more to complex social changes happening including fertility decline, improvements in socio-eco nomic circumstances, etc.“
But the slight uptick in sex ratio at birth is negated by what happens to girls who are born and survive. Neglect, discrimination and in extreme cases even killing of very young girls is behind dipping child sex ratio. “There is a tendency to give the girl less food, or not treat her sickness with the same urgency as a boy's. There are many court cases on deaths of small girls.All this points to deep discrimination against girls,“ Kirti Singh said.
The increases and decreases are small at the country level but at the state level sharper trends are visible. Again, these are good and bad.
The good news is that Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, which were the worst four states in terms of sex ratios both at birth and at the 0-4 age group, are the only states in the country where sex ratios at both levels are improving. Clearly , social outrage backed by better regulation has had some effect.In all four states, sex ratios are still below 900, pointing to the long road ahead.
But in six states -Assam, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal -sex ratio both at birth and in the 0-4 age group are going down.
This is worrisome because these are states which had better sex ratios and now appear to be heading the way some of the north Indian states went earlier.
Apart from the six states above, sex ratio at birth has also declined in Andhra Pradesh (pre-division), Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Himachal Pradesh. Child sex ratio has declined in Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, besides the six states.
“There is no common explanation for the decline in some of the eastern and southern states; again a mix of fertility shifts, rise of son preference due to spread of dowry in some of these states etc. are decisive factors,“ Ravinder Kaur said.

Dear Reader

 *The Boarding on Flight ? 2015 has been announced .*


*Our luggage should only contain the best souvenirs from 2014. Leave the bad and sad moments in the garbage. The duration of the flight will be 12 months. So, tighten your seat belt. *

*The next stop-overs will be = Health, Love, Joy, Harmony, Well-Being and Peace. Wish the following menu to be served during the flight: A Cocktail of Friendship A Supreme of Health A Gratin of Prosperity A Bowl of Excellent News A salad of Success A Cake of Happiness All accompanied by bursts of laughter. I and my Family Wish you and your family an enjoyable trip on board of flight ? 2015.*

Wish You A Very Happy New Year

Bibhuti

Modi stands for 'Murder of Democratic India', says Jairam Ramesh

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the country has been "trapped" in a culture of 'NAMO', meaning 'No Action, Message Only', since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power.
"The country is now trapped in 'NAMO' or 'No Action, Message Only'," Ramesh said while reacting to the prime minister's recent jibe at the way the government system works through ABCD (Avoid, Bypass, Confuse, Delay). Modi had said it should be replaced by 'ROAD' i.e 'Responsibility, Ownership, Accountability, Discipline'.
Stressing on collective decision-making, Modi had, at a day-long workshop on the 'Make in India' campaign on Monday, said that silos in government functioning have been demolished.

Government is generally trapped in 'ABCD' culture from top to bottom... A means Avoid, B-Bypass, C-Confuse and D-Delay. Our effort is to move from this culture to 'ROAD' where R stands for Responsibility, O-Ownership, A-Accountability, D-Discipline. We are committed to moving towards this roadmap," Modi had said.

Ramesh, who was the Union minister for rural development when the UPA passed the land acquisition Bill, also reacted strongly to the government taking the ordinance route to implement major changes in the law.
"Now 'MODI' stands for 'Murder of Democratic India'," he said. Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her government will not implement land act amendments.
Terming the land ordinance a "black ordinance" and "unjust", Banerjee said, "They will snatch your land at gun point. I throw this challenge. We will not allow this in Bengal. They will have to do this over my dead body."
Claiming that the situation under the Modi government was "worse than Emergency", Banerjee said this government is bulldozing democracy across the country. She was addressing a public meeting at Kharagpur College ground in Kharagpur, West Bengal.
Her outburst came a day after the Centre recommended promulgation of an ordinance making significant changes in the Land Acquisition Act, including removal of consent clause for acquiring land for five areas of industrial corridors, PPP projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing and defence.

Human Rights: Basic Issues

The government’s decision to set up a National Human Rights Commission is a significant indication of its being able to read the signs of the times. The Prime Minister has made the eloquent claim about his government’s commitment to upholding human rights: “We must send a clear message that we do not tolerate violation  of human rights.” He at the same time conceded that “there is need to identify the weaknesses, the gaps between pronouncements and action, and between legislation and its implementation”.

There is a veritable wave on the global plane today for the assertion of human rights. This is part of the democratic upsurge on a world scale. Long before the present groundswell for human rights in many parts of the world, it is worth recalling that our country has had a long tradition of struggle for human rights. Before independence, this was known as the movement for civil liberties. In fact, this was an offshoot of the freedom struggle, because one of the tenets of the Indian independence movement was that it never deviated in its commitment to democracy, and, therefore, its leaders upheld civil liberties.

In the thirties, Jawaharlal Nehru himself was once the President of the All India Civil Liberties’ Union. This was not a party outfit of the Congress—its separate identity was always respected just as it could attract many personalities of a liberal disposition who would not toe the Congress line at that time. The Civil Liberties’ Union survived after independence though its complexion was perceptibly changed by then; the ruling Congress establishment lapsed into inactivity, while the radical and Left critics of the government became more prominent in it, and only a handful of liberals who could keep their rapport with the radical activists, only they stayed on in the Civil Liberties’ Union. Chakkarai Chettiar, a grand old liberal from the South, was its last President, sometime about 1950-51. After that the organisation was hardly heard of, and it ceased to be even a letter-head organisation.

With the promulgation of the Constitution and the setting up of elected governments both at the Centre and the States, the impression went round that a civil liberties organisation would have little to do in the new democratic dispensation ushered  in by the new Constitution. This was not a very far-fetched impression, particularly in the first two decades after independence. There prevailed in the country what can be termed as the Nehru stamp on our political functioning, and this spread over the entire public life. Cases of repression were few and far between in that period.

The scenario changed to a large extent after that period. Roughly it was from the mid-sixties that one could discern a perceptible change. An important area of conflict could be identified in the rural sector. Roughly this was the period of the Green Revolution. Alongwith increased food production, the Green Revolution brought about a significant change in agrarian relations. The increased food production as a result of the new agricultural technique set by the Green Revolution was not evenly distributed. It was cornered by the rich farmer community who owned the land and had the means to exploit the new facilities offered by the intensive cultivation prescribed by the Green Revolution. At the other end, the poor  peasant and the agricultural labourer were reduced to the category of wage-earners. The old feudal relations were replaced by the more palpable class antagonism of the modern market. Clashes and tensions spread in many parts of the countryside.

This was the objective backdrop of the wave of militant activism in the rural sector, symbolised by what has come to be known as Naxalism. The rich farmer, more powerful than his effete zamindar predecessor, could afford to keep his armed gang in place of the old lathials, and the militant activist also resorted to the gun—inspired at the beginning by Mao’s teachings and clung on to them even when Maoism was dethroned on its native soil. It is worth recalling that about this time, a Union Home Ministry in-house survey of the new surge of armed conflicts in the countryside, delivered a very significant warning that the Green Revolution “might turn red”.

At the national political level, the scene had changed considerably by then. The old monolith of power that the Congress had been at the time of independence was broken. The party began to lose power in different parts of the country, and with the onset of the seventies, the party itself got split. Followed a new phase of lacerated politics, in which all sorts of permutations and combi-nations among political parties led to almost chronic instability. Regional parties got an opening and the entire political spectrum became a veritable mosaic of motley combinations.

The inexorable climax was reached by Indira Gandhi’s imposition of the Emergency, when democratic liberties were snuffed out and for the first time since independence, an authoritarian rule emerged in this country. The Emergency itself was the barometer of the political insecurity that gripped Indira Gandhi, and it meant the total suppression of all civil liberties. Human rights became an anathema for the new establishment.

The experience of the Emergency made large sections of public opinion aware of the need for a movement of civil liberties and democratic rights, and the collapse of the Emergency provided the necessary fillip for such a movement. That was how there came up immediately after the 1977 general elections, a whole host of organi-sations and initiatives among political workers, social activists, lawyers, journalists and among the youth which led to the formation of active human rights organisations in this country.

It was in this new awareness in concerned sections of the public, coupled with an alerted press, that many of the blatant violations of human rights got exposed. The exposure of the killing of activists in custody with the pretence of their being victims of encounters with the police got widespread publicity and in some cases even judicial strictures. The barbarous torture of suspects in police lock-up; the inhuman incarceration of undertrial prisoners for years, sometimes for decades; the infamous Bhagalpur blinding—all these and many other forms of atrocity, the climax reaching with the pogrom of the Sikh community in November 1984— all these could be highlighted in a systematic manner through the services of human rights organisations.

With the proliferation of social evils like dowry deaths, caste oppression and the revival of some of the superstitious practices, the role and responsi-bility of the human rights movements has grown tremendously in our country.

With the spread of violent confrontation between militant groups and the armed forces of the state involving largely police and paramolitary  forces apart from the Army at some places, new challenges confronted the human rights organi-sations. These armed confrontations have inter-national dimension as in the case of Kashmir and Punjab. Naturally, in such confrontations innocent people become the victim in many cases. This raises a very complex question before the human rights activists: should those who observe no human rights principles in dealing with their adversaries in open armed combat, be entitled to the protection of the human rights movement? In other words, should human rights be extended to those who in practice violate human rights in dealing with their adversaries?

This is a question which baffled many a society over the centuries. Much can be said in favour of it or in opposing it, and such debates can go on endlessly until the cattle come home.

There is the more fundamental question which has confronted many all over the world. In a society where there is blatant inequity, and a large section of the population is condemned, for no fault of their own, to a life of persecution and constant deprivation, would not any talk of defending human rights be reduced to a luxury of the rich and the powerful? The Black in the USA or South Africa, the Harijan in India, or the underdog in any of the developed societies—is he or she not entitled to the Right to be Human before one talks of human rights to them? But there is another way of looking at the same question: if human rights are enforced and democratic liberties ensured, that itself helps to a large measure the fight against social injustice.

One hopes that the National Human Rights Commission, when it is set up, will take up its mission with such basic issues in mind, and not reduce itself to a post office for complaints and grievances.

Major Scientific Breakthroughs in the year 2014

2014 is about to end, so how about having a glance at the major scientific achievements that took place throughout the year, around the world. This New Year let’s celebrate by acknowledging the enthralling streak of recent science breakthroughs.

The journey of 2014 has been spectacular, covered a wide spectrum of milestones, ranging from isolation of magnetic interactions of electrons to discovery of an earth sized planet in Goldilock’s zone.

Physicists have measured the magnetism at the shortest length scale and have successfully observed the weak magnetic interactions between two isolated electrons.

The discovered earth-sized planet, 490 light years away from us, is the best case for a habitable planet found till date.

The list also comprises of discovery of a new meson, which is a type of unstable particle made of one quark and one antiquark. Quarks are basically the subatomic particles.

Adding to it, a new enzyme, capable of preventing certain genetic diseases was identified by scientists.

Creation in Nuclear Physics being a tiny nuclear fusion plant which would enable us to make compact nuclear fusion reactors, a major breakthrough by Lockheed Martin, an American global advanced technology company with worldwide interests.

In Biology, the researchers clone human cells, with the same technique used for cloning of the Dolly sheep, biologists succeeded in generating stem cells cloned from two adult men.

The second big in the same domain being the hacking of photosynthesis; there is a probability with strong implications on food production efficiency; the genetic modifications may improve the rates of photosynthesis.   

All these glorious inventions have made 2014 take a marvelous leap in Science in this era. Let’s continue the culture of discovering and innovating beyond the limits and cultivate a trend of such achievements that glorify our grasp and influence in the science field.

Happy New Year!

New Year's resolutions may be more procrastination than motivation

People seeking to get or stay fit in 2015 might do better to start today rather than rely on a New Year's resolution to shape up tomorrow, fitness experts say.

Losing weight and getting fit and healthy are among the top five resolutions every year, even though most of winter's great expectations wither by spring.

"The New Year's resolution is a kind of grand, glorified, long-term goal that people, for societal reasons, tend to begin on the first day of the calendar year," said Gregory Chertok, a sports psychology consultant with the American College of Sports Medicine.

"'I'd like to cut down on junk food a little bit,' is a goal more likely to be accomplished than 'I'll completely revamp my lifestyle,' which is the kind of goal we set as a New Year's resolutions," Mr. Chertok said.

Dr. Michele Olson, professor of exercise science at Auburn University Montgomery said a resolution can be a way of putting off what can be done today.

"If there is a fitness need, such as to increase strength or decrease body fat, I say, 'Let's make a plan now,'" Dr. Olson said, adding that what is essential is to set a long-term plan with short-term goals.

"This is why athletes stay in shape year-round. They have a program scheduled and planned over an entire year with variation, rest days, more-intense and less-intense workout periods," she said. "It's like one's job: there's very little vacation time."

Dr. Cedric X. Bryant, chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, said the New Year may be the worst time to make a lifestyle change.

"For many it's the busiest, most hectic time," he said, "and most people have an all-or-nothing mentality."

Dr. Bryant said people who succeed focus on progress, not perfection, and plan for the inevitable slip-up.