chakravarthy

Teaching is an extremely rewarding profession, but stressful as well, emotionally and physically. A classroom is definitely a high-pressured environment, what with naughty, adamant students talking loudly, leaving their seats and refusing to obey. Constant class disruptions and tantrums coupled with a stubborn lack of motivation to learn can drive the most composed of teachers up the wall. It gets difficult for teachers to keep their cool amidst the incessant stress, worries and frustration. Some yell, others punish - but there is no end to the students' behavioural problems. In fact, emotional responses only further aggravate the situation as students defiantly challenge the imposed authority. Teachers may even lose control leading to further deterioration of the classroom ambience. Tough as it may sound, educators have a moral responsibility to control their temper when interacting with students. Angry outbursts seem normal, but can inflict irreparable damage on the young min...

How many monarchies still exist to this day ? With the growth of parliamentary authority during the 19th century and the rise of communism after the First World War, most most monarchies have ceased to exist, they are in most cases just ceremonial heads of states, while the power to rule and hence make law is vested with elected legislatures. There are 43 or 44 countries that have monarchies as the ceremonial or the real head of the state, depending on whether or not the Vatican is counted among them. Of these, 7 (including the Vatican) are absolute monarchies, 16 are Commonwealth realms and the remaining 21 are constitutional monarchies. Which countries have absolute monarchies ? In Vatican City, Brunei, Swaziland, Saudi Arabia and Oman absolute power is vested in a single person and the monarch is the head of the state as well as the government. Qatar is also an absolute monarchy, but the head of state and head of the government are different persons. The UAE is a federal preside...

In 2014, Sarah Fortune, a marine ecologist at the University of British Columbia, Canada, was trying to tag bow-head whales with transmitters so she could study their feeding habits. But the whales kept swimming into a small, shallow bay with large boulders, where at least one removed a transmitter by rubbing against the rocks. Though she didn't know it at the time, the mystery of the rock-rubbing whales dates back at least 170 years, with several papers noting the behaviour and usually concluding the whales were using the rocks to rest. But Fortune noticed that large pieces of skin were peeling off some of the whales. Perhaps, she thought, they were "using these rocks like humans using pumice stones, to get rid of calluses or dead skin".  Fortune and a team of researchers published a paper in 'PLOS One' on 22nd November, 2017 (Wednesday) that seems to confirm her suspicions. Overhead footage of whales taken in 2016 - part of another study - reveals the animal...

Last year Erin Bligh, the proprietor of Dancing Goats Dairy in the US, planned to introduce a new cheese - hard, with spicy peppers - called Madam President, in what she assumed would be a fromage homage to a historic election. After the unexpected result, she renamed the cheese General Leia Organa, after the Rebel Alliance leader in 'Star Wars', and sent chunks to fortify friends attending the women's march in Boston. "This is my small piece of the resistance", a local customer told her, brandishing a wedge. Soon thereafter she decided to name cheeses after Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Cheddary, enrobed in black) and Josephine Baker (Sardo-style, with a natural rind and slightly sweet). "We have got a Marie Curie", she said, "We are just releasing our Jane Goodall, and we had an Amelia Earhart - two wheels of it and it sold out in a second, because everyone's like, 'Yeah, that's my girl'". Along with all the noisier revolutions of ...

Credit risk is a big deal these days. What we fail to grasp is the inherent complexity in the credit business. it might help to remain realistic amidst all the sensational din surrounding defaults. Formal lending practices make reasonable assumptions about the future prospects of the borrower. Working capital loans assumes reasonable values of current assets; personal and credit card loans make assumptions about future personal income; and home loans and asset-based loans assume that the future value of the asset will cover the loan. Lenders use past data and analysis of businesses to make assumptions. There are no guarantees here. It is important that care and diligence are exercised before a loan is made. Regulations prescribe the processes, disclosures and penalties to ring-fence this risky business. The risk of unexpected events, including changes in the ability and willingness of the lender to choose well and the borrower to keep commitments is always present. Can this risk be m...

Making Bharat a Vishwa Guru - a reformer and teacher to the entire world - is a grand endeavour. The BJP-RSS combine adopted this courageous mission more than a decade ago. But the chances are they will fail. Their quest is rooted in India's past, not her present, and it lacks a practical approach. Instead of utilising the tremendous strengths offered the country by its glorious past, their tactics are squandering them. This is not helping the world solve its problems of the day. Being a Vishwa Guru would make all Indians proud. We all yearn for glory of those days when our people reached the pinnacle of thought, achieved great understanding of the divine, and invented excellent ways of living. However, India cannot simply reclaim such a position; it must be earned afresh. Our people will have to do the necessary tapasya once again, with new thinking for modern times. We can be guru only if the global community acknowledges us as such; we cannot thrust our gurudom upon them. Wh...

After some back and forth, Patidar quota leader Hardik Patel and Congress have finally agreed to quota formula for Patidars and other non-reserved castes in Gujarat. Congress is hoping this will bring in the promised Patidar support in the coming Gujarat polls. Reportedly, the formula worked out envisages reservations for Patidars under Article. 31(C) of the Constitution of India. The latter clause is the fountainhead for the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution where laws are parked to keep courts from examining their legality. In the present case it means Patidars will be given reservations in government jobs and education under a special category that will allow the state government to breach the 50% cap set by the Supreme Court. It remains to be seen whether Congress will be able to circumvent  the SC-mandated quota cap if it comes to power in Gujarat. After all, the courts have struck down similar attempts by state governments in Rajasthan and Maharashtra to raise quotas beyon...

Enforcement Directorate (ED) is India's front-line agency to tackle foreign exchange violations and money laundering Karnal Singh, Director, ED, who was earlier Head of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police combating terrorist networks, spoke to Pradeep Thakur on white collar crime. The interview was published in The Times of India dated 24th November, 2017 (Friday). (Q). ED probes both foreign exchange violations and money laundering, but are we seeing more domestic cases being booked? (A). We are pursuing both Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases with the same rigour. In the last three years we have registered more FEMA cases than PMLA. The reason any such impression goes out is because FEMA is a civil case and PMLA is criminal case where we arrest an accused and attach his or her properties. Therefore, the actions taken under PMLA are more visible. In the last three years alone the value of provisional property attachmen...

Assam Health and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's rationalisation of cancer as 'divine justice' for sins committed is callous and insensitive. It may be that there are limits to what governments can do to relieve the suffering of cancer victims. But it  doesn't follow that a health minister should proceed to rub salt into their wounds by blaming them for their plight. Rather than withdraw these irrational comments and express regret, Sarma took misplaced refuge in Hindu philosophy and Karmic beliefs to hold his ground. In the current political climate where disease is mystified and vaccination is being vilified, science is becoming the casualty. We have seen that politicians often resort to blaming the victim in cases of crimes - such as lynchings by cow vigilantes or assaults on women - as a rationalisation of their own failure to uphold the Rule of Law. If Sarma's statement is meant to be a rationalisation of state failure in upholding public health, then ...

Gandhi's Quit India Movement of 1942 had much to do with making Pakistan practical politics for Jinnah, the vein, cold-hearted, clever, impressive demagogue, himself so little Muslim that apparently he had not mastered the prayer ritual. How much Nehru's famous gaffe at a press conference decided, or enabled, Jinnah to turn the agitation for Pakistan from a commitment for a separate sovereign Muslim state can be left to the historians. It is enough to say here that after both Congress and the Muslim League, following on the Attlee government's decision in July or August 1945 to give India Independence as soon as possible and to send Cripps and two other ministers out to India to arrange the terms, had accepted the British Cabinet Mission's plan of a centre with control over defence, foreign affairs, and communications, while other matters were to be left to the control of Muslim provinces and non-Muslim provinces, Nehru, following Azad as President of Congress, sudden...

Fighting for the rights of women suffering from HIV, rallying hundreds of mothers to put an end to a civil war, respecting the environment as being a loan from future generations - these and more were stories of how humanity comes alive through simple actions. Inspiring millions to do their best, nine women were recognised for their humanitarian work at the second Sri Sathya Sai Award for Human Excellence, held at Sri Sathya Sai Grama, Muddenahalli, near Bengaluru, on 23rd November, 2017 (Thursday). The award highlighted the contribution of women across seven categories. Hosted by the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Trust, the ceremony also marked the 92nd birth anniversary of Sathya Sai Baba. Fostering values of love, compassion, generosity and respect for humanity, promoting peace and non-violence, respect for religion and culture; advancement of the marginalised sections of the society and building human values in the younger generation were the deciding factors. Speaking on behalf of th...

Mexican scientists have found a new use for the country's national drink, tequila: turning it into diamonds! And are seeking ways to use their discovery as the crystals are too small to be used in jewellery. The tequils diamonds can be used to 'detect radiation, coat cutting tools or, above all, as a substitute for silicon in the computer chips of the future', according to Miguel Apatiga, one of three researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico who made the discovery. The scientists found that the heated vapour from tequila blanco, when deposited on a stainless steel base, can form diamond films. They began experimenting some 13 years ago with synthetic diamonds - made by a technological process, as opposed to natural diamonds, produced by geological process - from gases like methane. The research team later produced diamonds from liquids, and then noticed that the ideal compound of 40 percent ethanol and 60 percent water was similar to the proportion ...

(1). A man receives a phone call from his doctor. The doctor says, "I have some good news and some bad news". The man says, "OK, give me the good news first". The doctor says, "The good news is, you have 24 hours to live". The man replies, "Oh no! If that is the good news, then what is the bad news?" The doctor says, "The bad news is, I forgot to call you yesterday". (2). Man: I could go to the end of the world for you. Woman: Yes, but would you stay there? Man: I offer you myself. Woman: I am sorry. I never accept cheap gifts. Man: I want to share everything with you. Woman: Let's start from your bank account. (3). Teacher: Tell me a sentence that starts with an 'I'. Student: I is the... Teacher: Stop! Never put 'is' after an 'I'. Always put 'am' after an 'I'. Student: OK. I am the ninth letter of the alphabet. (4). A: I have the perfect son. B: Does he smoke? A: N...

Ever wondered how the computer mouse got its name? Back in 1963, Douglas Engelbart of Stanford Research Institute gave this nomenclature to a computer pointing device that had a cord attached to its rear part, resembling the rodent of the same name. This invention was part of his work on augmenting human intellect. In its initial days, the mouse was a bulky device with two wheels perpendicular to each other with each wheel enabling motion along a single axis. The first ball-based computer mouse was launched by Telefuken, a German company in 1968. The idea was adopted from a trackball-like device used in the military. In 1973, Xerox Alto became the first computer made for individuals to use the mouse-driven graphical user interface. The first PC compatible mouse was developed by none other than Microsoft in 1982. This concept was later adapted by Macintosh in 1984. Jean-Daniel Nicoud, a Swiss scientist, came out with a computer mouse with an optical encoder. The presence of a single...

As a part of a host of banking reforms, the Central government has approved a Bill in June, 2017 to enact a new law framing rules for the resolution of failing banks, whose details that surfaced on social media made all bank depositors a worried lot. If the government goes ahead with this move, it will give enormous 'bail-in' powers to a proposed rescuing body called Resolution Corporation (RC). The corporation will be set up under the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill and can invoke bail-in provisions for saving a bank which is on the verge of collapse. For those uninitiated with financial lexicon, the bail-in is method used for rescuing a financial institution, which is on the brink of failure by making its creditors and depositors take a loss on their share holdings or deposits. A bail-in is the opposite of bail-out, which involves the rescue of a financial institution by external parties, typically governments using taxpayers' money. However, the Naren...