She toiled and managed her time well

Multifaceted Raksha Edited School Newspaper, Took Part In Model United Nations

Unlike lakhs of others, it was no less than a VIP telephone call that delivered the news of her performance in CBSE's Class XII exams to Raksha Gopal on Sunday . As she was trying to log in and find out how she had done, a call came. At the other end was union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar congratulating her for having topped the allIndia list.“I freaked out,“ recalled an elated Raksha later in the day .“The minister was very proud that someone from the humanities stream had left the others behind. When I told him I want to get a degree in political science, he welcomed me to the subject.“
She may have obtained 99.6%, but the 17-year-old chose to be modest, saying luck also played a part in her performance. But most others knew that she had toiled hard for her marks, including the maximums she got in English, political science and economics. Not surprisingly , her teachers at Noida's Amity International School weren't too surprised by her rank.
Monila Sarkar, Raksha's class teacher, said they had identified the girl for her capability early enough and included her in the school's `enrichment classes'. Another teacher, Debanjali Ganguly , the topper's economics teacher, testified to the teenager's enthusiasm for both academics and extra-curricular activities. “She submitted her assignments regularly and was always in school for the enrichment classes, even as she participated in the school's Model United Nations and edited the school newspaper,“ said Ganguly .
But Raksha is a not nerd with her nose in the books all the time.She is a keyboard player with a Grade V certificate from Trinity College, London. “The keyboard helps me deal with stress at ex am times too,“ said the young Noida resident. She is also learning French, and recently completed a superior course from Al liance Francaise in Delhi and hopes to study another language, perhaps Spanish.
Her parents are obviously proud of their second daughter.Gopal Pallipuram Srinivasan, her father and chief financial officer of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation, beamed, “Raksha has always been a diligent girl.Her greatest strength is how she manages time so systematically.“ Their older daughter, Prerna, who also studied in the same school, is currently doing a biochemistry course in DU's Institute of Home Economics.
The 17-year-old is keen on a political science degree. So while admission into any college would be a cakewalk for her with her marks, she has her eyes on Delhi's Lady Shri Ram, Miranda House and Jesus & Mary College as these institutions offer political science as a subject. Raksha's practicality perhaps reflects the grounded upbringing she has had, exemplified by her mother, Ranjani Gopal, who quietly advised her daughter on her day of triumph: “Don't get carried away with the limelight. Stay focused on the future.“

Source: Times of India, 29-05-2017

Why do we need a World Turtle Day?

In an attempt to raise awareness on conservation of tortoise and turtles, and on illegal trafficking, May 23 is celebrated as World Turtle Day. We take a look at various threats faced by the reptiles in India and the initiatives taken to save the animal.

Smuggling

One of the greatest threats facing turtles and tortoises in India is smuggling to East Asian and Southeast Asian markets. Many freshwater turtles and tortoises are considered delicacies just across the Bay of Bengal in Southeast Asia.

This has led to the creation of massive smuggling rings on the east coast of India that send live turtles to those countries. Some of these turtles are also smuggled to be kept as pets. In 2016 alone, 30,000 live turtles were confiscated from smugglers by the Indian government. In addition to live specimens, thousands of sea turtle eggs are dug up and sold as delicacies in Southeast Asian countries.

West Bengal has become a focal point of the turtle smuggling trade as many of the turtles make their way to Kolkata before being shipped off. The Indian government has worked hard to prevent smuggling through screening of shipments, confiscation, and arresting smugglers, but turtle smuggling is still a lucrative business in India.

Other Threats

In addition to smuggling, turtles face a variety of man-made issues that threaten their existence. One major threat, as with all other animal species, is habitat destruction. The Ganges and other major rivers of India sustain turtle life. As these rivers become more and more polluted, the turtles are beginning to die off at greater rates. The hatchlings are born deformed; adults are dying from eating plastic; and the food sources are disappearing.

Sea turtles are also suffering as seas and beaches are becoming polluted. Discarded plastic, toxic to sea turtles, often gets ingested. Many sea turtle hatchlings get caught in trash on the beach and are eaten by predators. Large fishing trawlers also sometimes catch sea turtles, cut off their flippers to get them out of the net, and then leave them to die. These issues must be dealt with to ensure these magnificent animals continue to have a future.

Conservation

On a more positive note, there is also a lot of work done for the conservation of turtles in India. One well known and effective venture has focussed on the protection of Olive Ridley sea turtles on the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Sea turtles always return to the beach they were born on in order to lay their eggs. These eggs and hatchlings often come under threat from humans and predators like stray dogs. A major conservation effort has been "turtle walks". The “turtle walks” involve many local people who carefully dig up the nests along the beaches and take the eggs to a protected spot to make sure the eggs are not stolen or eaten.

When the eggs hatch, volunteers move the hatchlings to the sea so they are not killed crossing the beach. These turtle walks have proven effective as they get the local community involved and endear the sea turtles to the people of the area. Other conservation efforts include the creation of protected areas on the Ganges where endangered river turtles are kept secluded from the greater environment in order to protect them from smugglers and monitor their breeding. Many of the turtles confiscated from smugglers also often go into rehabilitation and then captive breeding programs to help create a stable captive population of the rare turtle species of India.

Source: The Hindu, 23-05-2017

What does public choice theory mean?

Public choice theory employs the tools of economics to explain real-world political behaviour. In particular, it seeks to examine politicians as individuals guided by their own selfish interests — rather than as benevolent promoters of the common good — to better design public policy. Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan, a co-founder of the theory with Gordon Tullock, defined it as “politics without romance”. Tullock applied the theory to electoral politics to often arrive at controversial conclusions — including why voting is a waste of time, and why voters have no incentive to make informed decisions.

Promoting crop alternatives for tobacco will save lives and livelihoods

One million out of the global seven million annual tobacco-related deaths occur in India. To fight tobacco control measures is therefore a fallacy, and instead another solution needs to be found

Hoardings of a teary farmer thanking the government with folded hands for protecting farmers’ livelihood cropped up in Lutyen’s Delhi last week. It’s not loan waivers or subsidies that farmers are grateful for. The farmer in the advertisement is thanking government for taking action against NGOs receiving foreign funds, referring to the recent Ministry of Home Affairs order cancelling FCRA registrations of at least three NGOs working in the area of tobacco-control in states cultivating tobacco.

All three – Institute of Health, Voluntary Health Association of India (Assam), and Public Health Foundation of India – were running tobacco-control projects in Andhra, Assam, Gujarat and Karnataka, which are among India’s 13 tobacco-growing states, says the Tobacco Institute of India (TII), which represents farmers, manufacturers, exporters and ancillaries of the cigarette industry.

Though cigarettes account for just 11% of tobacco use in India – bidis, chewing and smokeless tobacco constitute the rest – TII says India’s tobacco-control efforts have lowered domestic demand for home-grown Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV) and pushed up illegal cigarette trade, leading to farmers’ earnings dropping around Rs 1,500 crore between 2014 and 2016. “Our fellow farmers have committed suicide due to their acts,” states the advertisement.

More than highlighting farmers’ loss of income from lowered demand for tobacco, the hoardings advertise the effectiveness of India’s efforts to lower use and prevent tobacco-related diseases and deaths. Tobacco is highly addictive and kills half of its users. One million of the seven million annual deaths worldwide from tobacco-related diseases such as cancers, lung diseases, heart disease and stroke occur in India. Against this public health challenge, arguing that preventing disease and deaths will lead to farmers’ suicides is a fallacy.

India is the world’s second largest producer of tobacco, with 60% of its annual production of 800 million kg being exported. Domestic demand accounts for just 40% of FCV cultivated in India, so the gains from improved health and lives saved from shrinking domestic demand clearly outweighs losses to farmers.

Increasing export of this highly addictive crop is not an ethical option. The challenge then is to ensure that farmers have viable substitutes for a tobacco crop. India took a lead in the inclusion of Article 17 in the world Health Organisation’s Framework Convention of Tobacco Control, the world’s first public health treaty that mandates countries support economically-viable alternative for workers, growers and sellers. Instead of fighting tobacco-control measures, India must save farmers’ livelihoods by promoting viable crop alternatives to tobacco.

Source: Hindustan Times, 24-05-2017

God in Your Living Room

SWAMI KRIYANANDA





It is easier to visualise God in the starry heavens than in our own homes. The stars, so remote from our humdrum earthly existence, suggest to our minds infinite stillness, harmony and wisdom. By contrast, our homes are often scenes of strife.To the extent that we hold God aloof from our daily realities, we alienate Him from the life we know. We need a concept of God that will bring Him into our kitchens, our bedrooms, our living rooms -yes, even when those living rooms are crowded with guests.
If God is everywhere, He must be quite as near as He is far away . We should make Him our immediate reality . We should seek His guidance and inspiration in our most intimate thoughts and feelings; relate to Him when the world is most demanding of our attention; seek His influence in every lightest undertaking. If we don't see our need for Him simply in order to exist, we reduce Him to a mental abstraction: useful in mathematics, perhaps, but without any closer, more personal significance.
Ultimately , God alone can satisfy every personal need. In our dealings with other people, He is our conscience. In our labour, He is the satisfaction it gives us. When we read a good book, or listen to uplifting music, He is our inspiration. In everything we do from the performance of duty to the most trivial pursuit, He is there; watching, joining in if we invite Him to, and giving us our strength.To ignore Him means to go stumbling blindly through life, unaware that there are innumerable pitfalls before us.

Reform Prisons





Reduce incarceration periods for undertrials who have not been convicted

The Law Commission is reported to have finalised recommen dations for reform in bail jurisprudence. Specifically , the commission is expected to recommend release of undertrials who have served one-third of their maximum possible sentence.This will be a welcome reform of India's dysfunctional criminal justice system which moves at a glacial pace, and the government should accept it. India's jails are overcrowded and a majority of prisoners are undertrials. Providing relief to them will not only be a humane move, it will reform today's counterproductive system where long periods of incarceration for alleged petty crimes give rise to hardened criminals.An undertrial is a prisoner in jail during an investigation, an unconvicted prisoner. At the end of 2015, Indian jails had 2.82 lakh undertrials.
Close to half of them are below the age of 30, often with limited education. A little over a decade ago, the criminal procedure code was amended to provide for their release on a personal bond if they had served half of their term. But this law is seldom followed.In 2014 the Supreme Court had to direct the criminal justice system to follow the law.
Therefore, on this occasion the government should not only accept the recommendation but also nudge different parts of the criminal justice system to comply . As states oversee prisons there is a lot they can do to ease the burden of a burgeoning undertrial population. For example, Tamil Nadu allows people arrested to be released on their bond till a charge-sheet is filed. Subsequently , the state's legal aid tries to help impoverished prisoners in for petty crimes.However, the last decade's experience shows that it is not enough just to change the law. The justice system must also follow suit.
Source: Times of India, 25-05-2017

What Upsets Your Peace And Harmony?

Ramesh Balsekar





There have been moments in almost everyone's life when one has experienced the true joy of living, and calm, peace and tranquility . What disturbed such moments are usually memories of something one has done or not done or what one should have done. A load of guilt and shame, carried by the ego and relived in memory every now and then, makes one extremely uncomfortable. Or, it could be something that someone else did that affected one adversely one way or other: a load of hatred or jealousy for someone! So those rare moments of the sheer joy of Being are suddenly disturbed by thoughts of blaming oneself or someone else for something. What would the position be if one could have been absolutely convinced that no action is anyone's doing, that all actions were merely a happening that simply had to happen? That is what spiritual seeking is all about. Masters may talk about enlightenment or Self-realisation, but what does it really mean in one's daily life? It can have no meaning unless Self-realisation brings with it the peace and tranquility that the sage enjoys in his life.A sage is considered a sage because he seems to be anchored in peace and tranquility while facing the usual pains and pleasures of daily living in his chosen field of activity, like any other ordinary person. We are attracted to the sage for this very reason.
What does `Self-realisation' mean to the sage? Both the sage and the ordinary person respond to their respective names being called. In both cases, there is identification with the body and the name as an individual entity separate from all others. The sage, unlike an ordinary individual, totally accepts that every action is a happening according to a Cosmic Law and not something `done' by an individual human being. He therefore does not blame anyone for whatever happens through any body-mind organism. Hence, he is anchored in peace and harmony: he is continuously comfortable with himself and also comfortable with others.
Consciousness is the subjec tive and dynamic perceiving aspect of the static Conscious ness, while the objective aspect is the perceived, dreamed and discriminated element. In other words, the dream that is the phenomenal manifestation occurs in Consciousness. It is perceived and cognised in Cons ciousness and is interpreted by Consciousness through the duality that is the basis for all phenomenal manifestation: the subject-object relationship.
This does not mean that you do not deal with practical matters that involve the past and future. The concept of the `thinking and working mind' is a great help. The `working mind' is concerned with resolving a practical problem in the present moment. The mischievous `thinking mind' dips into the past, projects itself into future uncertainties and interrupts the smooth and efficient functioning of the `working mind' in the present moment.
To prevent this, let not the thinking mind have any sustenance. Purpose, effort, hope and belief become the inspiration but when one pursues these values, one is usually unaware of the interconnected opposites to which they are inevitably attached: hopelessness, confusion, failure, frustration.
In relying on one's personal effort, one should not forget the basic principle in every religion, “Thy Will Be Done; Inshah Allah; Thou art the Doer and Thou art the Experiencer.“