Aurobindo's Integral Yoga

PULKIT SHARMA





The purpose of human life is not to succumb to passivity and hopelessness but to experience heavenly life on earth, said Aurobindo. Our final goal is to realise that heaven and earth are one. Adverse forces confronting us are not ultimate reality; they are like a shadow waiting to be overpowered by light. Light does not depend on shadow for its existence; shadow needs light to be defined.The existence of such negativity in our lives is a sign that there is hope, for immense positivity. Stop looking at the shadow and find the light. This shadow will disappear and get replaced by goodness, perfection and cognisance when the Divine light manifests completely .
In the epic poem Savitri, Sri Aurobindo explains that the occurrence of evil and suffering is not a random happening but a part of Divine plan. God uses pain and suffering as a tool to help man connect with divine consciousness -just as the naïve prince Siddhartha needed to experience suffering so that he could blossom into the enlightened Buddha.
Contrary to our belief, the shadow, therefore, is an affirmation of divine love. We should conceptualise all negativity , adversities and challenges as opportunities in disguise. So, overcoming the shadow may seem impossible but Aurobindo assures us that when the Divine gives us a task, we are also blessed with all that is needed to execute it to perfection.The change we need to bring within us is to completely surrender to the Divine and then `the crown of conscious immortality' will be on our head.

Inspired by Stephen Hawking, Bihar boy makes voice-controlled wheelchair

Moved by his octogenarian grandfather’s insistence on wanting to maintain his independence in the twilight years of his life, a young man from Bihar has created a voice-controlled, battery-operated wheelchair.

“My grandfather hates it when somebody tries to help him with his daily chores or holds his hand to help him walk. I am sure there are many more like him. I wanted to do something for them,” said Ashutosh Prakash, a final semester student at the Birla Institute of Technology, Patna, about the source of his inspiration.

Prakash came up with the idea during his internship at the Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, three years ago. “My internship guide, Dr Atul Thakur, helped me realise the idea,” he said.

The wheelchair, which is being compared with the one used by acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking, is a traditional wheelchair that responds to voice command for four basic movements — left, right, forward and reverse; it even stops when it encounters an obstacle or approaches a staircase. “It senses unevenness on the floor, near a staircase and stops, ensuring the safety of the person using it,” he said.

The wheelchair has been fitted with a voice-processor, microcontrollers to amplify control signals, motor and battery, besides microchips. The existing wheelchair is fit for a person weighing up to 80 kgs and costs just `20,000. “Depending on the weight of the person using it, the wheelchair may need stronger battery and motor, adding to its cost,” Prakash said.

Born to teacher Pramod Kumar Mishra and homemaker Renu Mishra, the Darbhanga boy has kept the design open-ended and wants other people to improve on it. He explained his objective is to not make profit, but to help people like his grandfather.

This is not the first time Prakash has used technology to improve lives of those in need. Earlier, he had designed an inexpensive prosthetic limb that would respond to brain signals.

Govt plans to unleash `Blue Revolution'

Vishwa Mohan

New Delhi:





Move Aimed At Trebling Export Of Fish & Fish Products In Next Five Years

Laying roads for `Blue Revolution' through an ambitious target, the Centre has decided to work for increasing the country's export earnings from fish and fish products from Rs 33,441 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 1,00,000 crore in the next five years.The agriculture ministry will next month come out with a new national policy on fisheries, paving the way to achieve this target through implementation of an umbrella scheme for integrated development and management of fisheries. The private sector will also be involved to achieve the objective.
The new policy will cover development and management of inland fisheries, aquaculture, marine fisheries including deep sea fishing and all activities undertaken by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) towards realising a `Blue Revolution' in the country.
“The new policy on fisheries is ready for release early next month. The ministry will on that occasion specify how it would go for nearly three-fold increase in the country's export earnings from fish and fish products in next five years through various policy intervention with an outlay of Rs 3,000 crore for a period of five years,“ said an official.
He said, “Focus on fisheries, particularly the inland ones, will also help in realising the goal of doubling the income of farmers in next five-six year through involving them in allied activities by tapping various water bodies including newly dug up ponds across the country .“
India's fish production has increased from 7.5 lakh tonnes in 1950-51 to 100.70 lakh tonnes during 2014-15, while the export earnings touched Rs 33,441crore. It accounts for around 18% of export earnings from the agricultural sector.
India is at present the second largest producer of fish in the world after China. More than 50 different types of fish and shellfish products are exported to 75 countries.
Currently , the USA is the largest market for Indian seafood products with a share of 26.46% in terms of India's export of marine products followed by South East Asian countries (25.71%) and European Union nations (20.08%).
Asked how the country would achieve the ambitious target of three-fold increase in export earnings in the next five years, the official said the ministry had already proposed to merge all existing schemes in the fisheries sector that would mainly focus on increasing production and productivity from aquaculture and fisheries resources -both inland and marine.
Besides the increase in fish production, the integrated scheme would stimulate growth of the subsidiary and allied industries and growth of other related economic activities, especially in the coastal regions, leading to many direct and indirect benefits to the entire fisheries sector.

Source: Times of India, 20-06-2016

Judges' vacancies not sole reason for pending cases

Pradeep Thakur





Shortage of judges may not be the predominant factor behind the large pendency of cases in courts across the country as much as their efficiency, says a study commissioned by the law ministry after the Chief Justice of India recently attributed over three crore pending cases to a huge gap in the judge-population ratio. The CJI had sought 70,000 more judges to clear the backlog.The study , which compiled data between 2005 and 2015, lists several states with higher judge-population ratio -such as Delhi (47 judges per million population) and Gujarat (32 judges) -which are still struggling to dispose of cases.
Conversely , states such as Tamil Nadu (14 judges per million population) and Punjab (24 judges) have among the lowest pendency rates, according to the study. The findings also show a huge variation in the av erage number of cases disposed by a judge in a year in different states. In Kerala and Tripura, for instance, the rate of disposal per judge is as high as over 3,000 and 2,800 cases respectively per year while in states such as Jharkhand and Bihar, it is merely 255 and 274 cases respectively as per the working strength. India has an average 17 judges per million population on the current sanctioned strength, though there are over 44% vacancies in 24 high courts and 23% in subordinate judiciary . The current sanctioned strength of the subordinate judiciary is 20,214 judges while that of the 24 high courts is 1,056. The pendency of cases has remained abnormally high at 3.10 crore, as per the last estimates.
“There is no direct relation between judge-popula tion ratio and the pending cases,“ said the study , pointing out how states such as Tamil Nadu and Punjab which ranked lower in terms of judge-population ratio also ranked lower in terms of the number of pending cases.
The highest pendency of cases per million population are in the states of Delhi, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Tripura, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Bihar--all having judge-population ratio above the national average of 17. The top five states have a judge-population ratio in the range of 20 to 47 judges per million population, but still have one of the highest pendency of cases per million population.
Quoting from a previous Law Commission report, the law ministry study said the judge-population ratio was a poor substitute for sound scientific analysis to arrive at the real reasons behind huge pendency.

Source: Times of India, 20-06-2016

India ranked 141 in global peace index, Syria least peaceful

India was on Wednesday ranked 141 on a Global Peace Index -- making it less peaceful than countries like Burundi, Serbia and Burkina Faso -- with violence taking a 680-billion dollor toll on its economy in 2015.

In a ranking of 163 countries, compiled by global think tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Syria has been named the least peaceful, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

On the other hand, Iceland was ranked as the world’s most peaceful country, followed by Denmark and Austria.

India has moved up two position, from 141st last year, but the study said the country’s peace score has “deteriorated” over the past year -- which means the slight rise in ranking could be due to worse performance of others.

The report said that in the last decade, India’s position deteriorated when it came to peace “by 5 % largely due to deteriorations in the indicators measuring UN peacekeeping funding and the level of political terror”.

Within South Asia, Bhutan was ranked best (13th overall rank), while India was fifth followed by Pakistan at sixth (overall 153rd) and Afghanistan at sixth place (global 160th).

The report said, “India’s scores for ongoing domestic and international conflict and militarisation have deteriorated slightly. The country remains vulnerable to acts of terror and security threats at its shared border with Pakistan.

“As such, the number of deaths caused by externally organised terror strikes has risen over the year.”

At the same time, Sri Lanka saw the greatest upswing in its score in the region and the report attributed the country’s increased peacefulness to “better relations with neighbouring countries, particularly India”.

The GPI 2016 ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness.

It further said that “violence impacted India’s economy by USD 679.80 billion in 2016, 9 % of India’s GDP, or USD 525 per person”.

The economic impact of violence on the global economy touched USD 13.6 trillion or 13.3 % of gross world product. The amount is also equivalent to 11 times the size of global foreign direct investment, it added.

According to the report, world became a less peaceful in 2016, mainly on account of increased terrorism and higher levels of political instability.

Rankings of 81 countries have improved but deterioration in another 79 outweighed these gains.

IEP Founder and Executive Chairman Steve Killelea said increasing internationalisation of internal conflicts has coincided with UN peacekeeping funding reaching record highs in 2016.

However, peace building and peacekeeping spending remains proportionately small compared to the economic impact of violence, representing just two % of global losses from armed conflict, he noted.

“In 2015, violence containment expenditure in India totalled USD 679.8 billion PPP, an increase of 7 % from 2008. At 9 % of GDP this was ranked 65th in the world,” Killelea said.

As per the report, addressing the global disparity in peace and achieving an overall 10 % decrease in the economic impact of violence would produce a peace dividend of USD 1.36 trillion. This is approximately equivalent to the size of world food exports.

Source: Hindustan Times, 10-06-2016

Students accuse TISS of abruptly terminating prof's contract

Ankita Bhatkhande





Resentment is brewing among the students on the Deonar campus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences after the administration decided to discontinue the services of an associate professor. The students on Thursday night started a campaign on social media to bring back the professor.The students have alleged TISS abruptly terminated the contract of Sanober Keshwar (in pic), who was handling modules on law and social work since 2009. In a post on Facebook, they said Dr Sanober was informed about the “termination“ only in mid-May. “Sanober's phone was disconnected, her email ID blocked by the administration without any written or spoken word. How are others putting up so silently? Is this how TISS admin is honouring hard working profs who have an ideology and a spine to speak up?“ wrote a student.
The students have demanded immediate reinstatement of the professor and appointment of an external committee to look into the “termination“. TISS administration cited fund crunch as the only reason for its decision and denied that Dr Sanober was terminated. An associate professor on contract is paid nearly Rs 90,000, said sources. Mirror could not independently verify the figure.The institute has issued a statement saying it did not renew the contracts of a few temporary faculty. “The authorities have spoken to the faculty members concerned before the contracts were allowed to lapse.“
It said the TISS campus also houses the Maharashtra National Law University. The authorities have not been able to renew the contracts of two law professors, read the statement.~

Source: Mumbai Mirror, 10-06-2016

Overcome Addiction

R VENKATESAN





The reason why many indulge in substance abuse is because they are unable to deal with life's problems. Or their expectations are unrealistic. Depression and anger, sadness and frustration are further fuelled by drug-dependency , alcoholism or both. Daniel Goleman in Emotional Intelligence says that it is the lack of application of intelligence to emotions that makes one lonely and depressed, angry , unruly , prone to worry , more impulsive and aggressive. A scientific assessment of the emotional and spiritual mind has emerged more recently , trying to understand why we can be reasonable one moment and irrational the very next moment.Goleman attributed it to two minds: one emotional and the other rational; one that feels and one that thinks. He argues that emotional mind is far quicker than the rational mind, making split-second decisions without reflection of the consequences that can be bewildering to the analytically inclined rational mind.Spiritual teachers like Buddha and Jesus touched their disciples' hearts by speaking the language of emotions. Why is improving the emotional quotient (EQ) or imbibing spiritual intelligence (SQ) important? Because it helps us deal with problems in a constructive manner, and deflects us getting addicted to harmful habits like substance abuse.According to Zohar, SQ can be improved by Hinduism's Kundalini Yoga or explained in terms of the lotus model with its centre and six petals.