When lack of sleep turns a nightmare

Obesity, diabetes, heart ailments linked to sleep disorders

Today is World Sleep Day. Experts acknowledge that sleep-related disorders are fast becoming public health issues. Doctors handling patients with sleep disorders say there needs to be more awareness about the link between sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes and heart ailments.

Senior doctors say sleep deprivation has the potential to negatively impact brain function, the immune system, metabolism and hormonal balance. “Sacrificing sleep for three days at one go could increase the levels of fatty acids in blood levels that lower the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugar, ultimately setting patients up for diabetes,” says a statement issued by doctors on Thursday.

“Diabetes predisposes persons to sleep disorders and makes them vulnerable to hypertension and heart diseases. When an obese individual struggles with diabetes, Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA), a sleep disorder, in which patients have pauses in their breath during sleep, can be the culprit. About 30-40 per cent of diabetics can suffer from OSA,” endocrinologist K.D Modi says. Obesity is also a major cause for sleep-related disorders.

“In India, obesity will make Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome (OSAS) a public health issue. Obese individuals, irrespective of their age and sex have nearly four times higher risk of having OSA. It has been found that hypothyroidism, a secondary cause of obesity, also predisposes an individual to OSA,” says professor and head of Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders at AIIMS, Randeep Guleria.

Doctors add that a large number of OSA cases in the country go untreated, which highlights the need to spread awareness about such ailments among the general public.

Keywords: World Sleep Day, Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, sleep disorders

I'll ask Modi to intervene in TIFR director crisis, says Bharat Ratna Rao

Mumbai Mirror Bureau mirrorfeedback@timesgroup.com TWEETS @_MumbaiMirror





Eminent scientist worried by PMO's rejection of heads appointed to lead India's top research institutions

Distressed by the manner in which the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has rejected the appoint ment of the heads of several pre eminent scientific institutes in the country, including, most recently, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bharat Ratna recipient and renowned scientist Dr C N R Rao has sought PM Narendra Modi's intervention.“For several months, there has been no head of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISR). The appointment of heads of my own institution, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), as well as of TIFR, is held up. I don't know who it is in the PMO or the Cabinet who is insisting on a new procedure that is holding up appointments on technical grounds,“ he told Mumbai Mirror. Dr Rao is Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President at JNCASR.
On Wednesday, he publicly expressed his disappointment with the PMO rejecting the appointment of theoretical physicist Sandip Trivedi as the director of TIFR ­ no reason was furnished for the decision, other than “technical grounds“.
“I hope to talk to PM Modi and convince him to intervene. The government is saying we did not follow procedure by not releasing advertisements [inviting candidates to apply for the position] in the papers,“ he said. “Should the heads of the country's premier scientific institutes be selected by the same procedures that are used to recruit policemen or schoolteachers?“ TIFR authorities confirmed that the PMO had rejected the appointment of Trivedi, a distinguished physicist and the winner of several awards including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in The Physical Sciences, 2005, and the Infosys Prize in Physical Sciences, 2010. “As of now, Prof Trivedi will continue to serve as officiating director. The selection process is being reinstated and the outcome of that process will decide if the next director will be Prof Trivedi or someone else,“ said Antony George, registrar at the institute.
Dr Rao, who serves on the selection committee appointed by the Ratan Tatachaired TIFR council of management, emphatically defended the selection of Trivedi to the post, calling him a “very brilliant man“ and “the best theoretical physicist in the country“. Besides Rao, the committee included senior scientists such as Dr K Kasturirangan and Dr Srikumar Banerjee.
At TIFR, students backed the choice of Trivedi, who has been a professor at the institute for over a decade. “He is proactive and student friendly. He started a new practice of holding a Director's Lunch every Thursday to help resolve students' issues and also took the initiative of holding a general body meeting to address grievances regarding the delay in hike of fellowships,“ said research scholar Anand Kant Das. Prof Trivedi was not available for comment.

IIT to tighten screws on plagiarism, malpractices

Vikrant Dadawala TWEETS @_MumbaiMirror





Strict guidelines proposed, including fail grades, community service for copying, to suspension for two semesters for more serious offences

In an open house meeting held with student representatives and faculty members on Thursday, the ethics committee of IITBombay has proposed strict guidelines regarding academic malpractices. Punishments -including a fail grade, community service and suspension for two semesters -are set to become part of institute rules, if cleared at a meeting next month.The premier engineering institute has been under pressure to tackle problems of plagiarism from published research, and cheating in projects and take-home assignments, after an internal survey two years ago revealed a significant number of students felt that ethical standards were low and needed improvement.
A survey of outgoing students, conducted last year by the student magazine Insight, had painted a grim picture, with more than 50% confessing to cheating during their course.Another survey found that exchange students from foreign countries did not have a high opinion of students' ethics ­ with around 75% saying yes to the query “Is the average student at IIT-B more likely to use unfair means than one at your home institute?“ Only 15% of exchange students felt that teachers at IIT-B were as strict in punishing cheating, while 40% said IIT-B teachers were more lax (the rest selected the `Can't say' option).
In two years since the internal survey, individual departments have adopted a stricter attitude towards malpractices, but no common rules for the entire institute were agreed upon. According to students, while some professors made use of plagiarism detecting software compulsory, others had not.
The punishments proposed at Thursday's meeting ranged from a fail grade plus community service for offences such as copying in exams or assignments, to suspension for two semesters for serious offences such as impersonating another student in an examination.Student representatives plan to conduct a referendum to solicit opinion regarding the rules.
“This is a positive move, though one that took time in coming. Plagiarism devalues all our efforts and the establishment of common rules will help create a general culture of ethics,“ said a student who attended the open house discussion.
“While we may not have reached the high standards of the West, it is widely known that the problem of cheating is far less at IIT-B compared to other Indian universities. The proposed rules reflect how serious students and faculty are about tackling the issue,“ said a research scholar.

Vedanta - This Too Shall Pass

SANT RAJINDER SINGH





One moment, something good happens to us and we are joyful. The next moment, we receive bad news and we start feeling sad. Then, we get a cheque in the mail and we are happy again. Next, on the way home, someone cuts us off on the highway and we are enraged.When we get home and find our children received honours in school, we are overjoyed.Thus, if we select any one day in our life, we will find a variety of moods and emotions playing out.
How are saints and mystics different than us? Saints realise that the soul is eternal and changeless.
Life is a pass ing show and the soul is an observer.
Sometimes we see happy periods and at other times, sad periods. When we identify with the passing illusion or show, we experience ups and downs in life.
Instead of reacting to happy and sad moods as the play of our life unfolds, we can learn to remain calm. We can avoid the ups and downs of life by realising they will all pass. We should, instead, keep our attention on God and spend time daily in meditation. This way , we can remain in a calm state.
Then, like the seeker, we too can experience joy and laughter because we know that whatever happens is but a passing dark cloud that will blow away to leave the skies clear once again.

Greenbacks For Greening

Naina Lal Kidwai





India needs a finance system that promotes ecologically sustainable industry

As the world journeys towards the Paris conference at the end of this year to build a global climate change architecture post 2020, and to finalise the sustainable development goals that will replace the millennium development goals from 2015 onwards, financing becomes the critical pillar to move towards these global goal posts. India is racing ahead to set its own vision and domestic ambitions, scaling up its clean energy targets, planning 100 smart cities, setting strong energy efficiency measures.Fixing financing needs incrementally, in a piecemeal manner, would not be sufficient in the context of scaled up targets. The ambitious targets set by Prime Minister Modi for the next five years would require the financial regulatory architecture to undergo a massive change.
A vibrant corporate bond market is key for financing of the renewable sector, indeed for all infrastructure financing.As the banking sector is up to its limits in power sector exposure, i fear renewables will get squeezed out. Ideally the banking sector should provide early stage finance with the takeout being through the issue of bonds in the capital markets.
We would need to align the financial sector towards a green agenda. Clean energy is an imperative for energy security and access. While we need massive funding to flow into this sector, the paradigm shift would come from creating a sustainable framework for the financial sector that would change the rules of the game for financial institutions and create the appeal for financing `green'. Emphasis needs to be put on debt and equity products, as also the banking sector and capital markets.
Efforts must be made to establish a market-based mechanism that channels private capital investments into protection of the environment. This would require the government, RBI, Sebi and Irda to work together to formulate the policies that foster this development.
Restricting excessive investments in polluting sectors and incentivising pri vate investments in green industries, as well as leveraging the magnifying effect of limited government funding so that private green investments can snowball to several or even over ten times of the government contribution, will be the key to promoting green economic growth, facilitating structural transition, reducing pollution and fostering new growth drivers.
We should expedite the development of a green finance system for directing private investments to green industries and projects. We need to direct our pension funds and insurance companies to hold some green investments as is the case with global funds in these sectors.Green ratings, green stock indices and mandatory disclosures can help steer funds into green industries. We also need to set norms for our banks on the style of the Equator Principles which ensure that minimum standards for environmentally sound projects are set and that companies which do not meet this standard cannot access finance.
The business case for financing of sustainability has to be created. The UNEP In quiry on Designing a Sustainable Financial System along with FICCI has set up an India Advisory Council to propose practical solutions for creating a framework for sustainable financing. In its interim report, the Council creates the argument for developing a sustainability oriented market framework that would eventually catalyse capital flow towards clean energy and other sustainable development priorities.
There are some bottlenecks that impede the flow of finance into the sustainability sector which require attention.We need bankable projects, and credit en hancement products will help make such projects more readily financeable. Building stronger green development financing institutions such as the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency by increasing its bank book size, garnering additional lines of credit and long tenor financing, and making it well positioned to deploy global green funding, would enhance financial flows to clean energy.
India has an extensive regulatory framework for the financial sector. Indian banking regulations and RBI directives hold the power to direct credit to specific sectors and further influence interest rates, exposure limits, incentives, security and other terms and conditions of lending to various sectors. We should direct priority sector lending policy towards funding of `sustainable' businesses by allowing them to qualify for priority sector lending. As of now, 40% of bank lending in India is directed into sectors that qualify for priority sector lending, but renewables and energy efficiency are not included in this definition.
Another key priority in the effort to align financial architecture towards a green agenda would be enabling the institutional finance ecosystem through measures such as green flagging investments into companies that are transparent and resource efficient. This will ensure financing is effectively channelled to those that are ahead of the greening threshold.
We could channel global climate finance into existing public expenditures on climate mitigation and adaptation to augment the ongoing effort under central and state government budgets.
The global green bond market saw $34 billion of issuance last year, growing rapidly from only $10 billion the previous year. Green bonds could provide innovative routes for green project financing.The market for these innovative products needs to be developed with urgency to allow long term finance into sustainable development priorities. The green asset class will emerge as the raison d'etre of the future corporation. It is time the financial sector realigns itself towards the green asset class and the green economic agenda of the future.
The writer is Chairperson, HSBC India

EPF may be cut on entire pay package, not just basic

Sidhartha

New Delhi:





The government is looking at sweeping changes to the law governing Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and has suggested doing away with the mandatory 12% contribution by employees in certain cases, while retaining the employers' share.At the same time, the labour ministry is expanding the scope of wages beyond the basic salary to include all allowances, such as those paid for authorized leave, strikes and layoffs or other allowances that are paid at intervals not exceeding two months.
The move proposed in the draft legislation, circulated internally , was proposed a couple of years ago as well but had to be dropped after industry chambers protested against it, citing higher salary burden on companies.
The Centre is now trying to reintroduce the proposal, which will result in higher transfer to the provident fund but will reduce the takehome salary . This can be tackled by allowing employees in certain industry segments or companies -to be notified by the government -to make lower contribution.
The draft legislation also seeks to increase the coverage of EPF to companies that employ less than 20 employees, again a proposal that has been discussed in the past.
Further, there are also proposals to strengthen the appellate tribunal, tone up recovery in case of defaulting companies and increase the penalty that can be levied.
The draft bill has run up against a wall of protest from trade unions, which fear a decline in their influence. A source familiar with the proposals said the government has suggested that the structure of the EPF Organization's Central Board of Trustees be reworked with five representatives each of employers and employees and two external experts. It also wants to restrict the tenure of board members to two consecutive terms.
As a result, the unions are now demanding “detailed discussions“ on the bill with representatives from the labour and finance ministries.

Workshop on inclusive education

The Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) has a programme called ‘Teachers Education for Persons with Special Education Needs’ (TEPSE) in universities across the country. Forty universities have courses directly being run by departments other than departments of special education or departments of education, said RCI, New Delhi chairperson Sudesh Mukhopadhyay.

She was delivering the keynote address on ‘Inclusive education of persons with disabilities — journey and miles ahead’ at a two-day international conference on Inclusive education-perspective and challenges’ organized by the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU).
Mukhopadhyay said TEPSE is meant for assisting departments of education to launch a special teacher preparation programme for B Ed and M Ed courses. The scheme encourages universities to start M Ed courses in addition to a salary grant a maximum of Rs 2 lakh onwards towards procurement of books and appliances and Rs 4 lakh if both B Ed and M Ed courses are held.

However, these grants can be sanctioned only if staff has been appointed by the universities. She appealed to participants to lobby with respective states to access these funds for special students.
At present, the scheme is in very few universities in the country. RCI-recognized institutes need this financial support to deliver quality education and also it is high time the University Grant Commission (UGC) plays a proactive role. It needs to work on committees constituted for the purpose, she added.
Delivering the inaugural address, the University of Mysore vice-chancellor KS Rangappa said according to the 2011 census, over 26.8 million people in the country are afflicted by some disability or the other.

Many children in rural areas may not get identified as disabilities are not visible and need skilled personnel to identify the special needs.
In order to achieve the goal of education for all, inclusive education needs inclusive policies, culture and practice. There is still a gap in achieving goal as there is a shortage of teachers in inclusive education, he added. In the two-day conference, experts from India and abroad share experiences in inclusive education from the philosophical, technical, pedagogical and sociological perspective.