chakravarthy

[ Based on an article written by Indrani Bagchi, published in The Times of India dated 07th February, 2018 (Wednesday) ]. Maldives is in the grip of another internal crisis. President Abdulla Yameen, a thinly veiled autocrat, has thrown a blanket of emergency on the island nation after the Supreme Court ordered the release and re-trial of 12 high profile political prisoners including a former President and Vice-President. The Chief Justice is behind bars as is Yameen's half-brother and former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Others will likely follow, as Yameen seems hell bent on populating his prisons with his opponents. There are calls for India to 'act'. Why should we not be a big power and show muscle in the shape of warships and fighters to cut panda-hugging Yameen down to size? A reprise of Op Cactus? Or sanctions? Something, anything! India would be monumentally stupid to take any of these actions at present. Maldivs has been in a state of low level instability fo...

Humans will actually be very happy to meet aliens, according to new research. Hollywood might have led us to expect that an alien invasion would be greeted with tanks and guns. But some of the first serious research into how people would feel about meeting extra-terrestrials shows that we would be far more positive than you might think. "If we came face to face with life outside of Earth, we would be pretty upbeat about it", said Arizona State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Michael Varnum. To explore how people might react, scientists had them read news reports about a number of potential alien discoveries. They then found out how they were feeling by using a special software programme that could analyse people's language. Their reactions were very positive, the researchers found. Another study divided into people two groups, and had them read stories about the potential discovery of alien life or the possible creation of synthetic human life in a lab. It ...

Women who suffer from depression, anxiety, and fatigue are more likely to be injured at work, a study has found. The study found that these health factors significantly affected women's risk of injury but not men's risk. "The findings of our study demonstrate that keeping workers safe requires more than your typical safety programme. It requires an integrated approach that connects health, well-being, and safety", said Natalie Schwatka, Assistant Professor at University of Colorado Boulder in the United States. Researchers examined the insurance claims data of 314 businesses from a range of industries. Close to 17,000 employees ranging from executives to labourers were represented in the study published in the 'Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine'. - Challapalli Srnivas Chakravarthy - -----------------------------------------------------------------

The Indian Council of Medical Research has observed that the prevalence of anaemia continues to be 58 percent in children and 53 percent in women and stated that the efforts to reduce anaemia are insufficient to meet the Global Nutrition Target for 2025. In the reproductive age group anaemia continues to be as high as 48.1 percent. National Family Health Survey 4 of 2015-16 shows that 53 percent of women in the age group of 15 to 49 years continue to suffer from anaemia because iron supplementation intake continues to be low. A task force has been constituted to address the issue state wise to achieve the average anaemia reduction rates. It was found that 30 percent pregnant women took Folic Acid for 100 days only. The lack of compliance and gaps in implementation of various government programmes has resulted in anaemia not getting reduced. Dr. B.S. Raju, Senior General Physician explained, "Iron supplementation addresses the problem by 50 to 60 percent. However this approach ...

[ Courtesy: Solomon Kumar in The Times of India dated 06th October, 2017 (Friday) ]. Even after playing first-class cricket for over a decade, former Hyderabad pacer Devraj Govindraj is struggling for recognition. The 70-year-old Govindraj has been knocking at the doors of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the last years but the cricket mandarins have no time for a veteran. Govindraj, who was a member of the victorious Indian team which toured England and the West Indies in 1970-71 season, is seeking to know the number of first-class games he has played. He has written to the BCCI several times and also personally contacted the erstwhile top brass but till date there has been no answer to his query. A couple of years ago, the BCCI had announced a one-time payment of Rs. 25 lakh to all those cricketers who had played 75 or more first-class games. Though Govindraj is eligible, the BCCI, for reasons best known to the administrators, is yet to get his dues. He does g...

[ Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle dated 21st October, 2008 (Tuesday) ]. Elephants are extraordinary creatures. They have been present in our mythology (Ganesha) and in our forests for as long as most of us can remember. No wonder then, that scientific research on elephants is so vast. What we know about elephants can actually fill an entire book! For instance, we know that elephants live until ripe old ages. They are highly social animals and the size and durability of their social network is a phenomenon that is rare in the animal kingdom. Behavioural Patterns : The brain of an elephant is a phenomenon in itself. At nearly five kilos, it is the largest among both living and extinct terrestrial mammals, which means that its capacity for data storage is equally huge - nearly three times larger than that of the human brain. Their ability to remember is also amazing, as they are able to retain the scents and voices of individuals and places for not just days or months, but entire decades...

Sun's protective bubble that shields the Earth from harmful interstellar radiation is shrinking and getting weaker, according to NASA scientists. In fact, new data has revealed that heliosphere - the protective shield of energy that surrounds our solar system - has weakened by 25 percent over the past decade and is at it lowest level since the space race began 50 years ago. Now the scientists are to launch a new mission called the Interstellar Boundary Explorer to study the heliosphere. The Ibex will be launched from the aircraft on Pegasus rocket into an orbit 1,50,000 miles above the Earth where it will listen for the shock wave which forms as our solar system meets the inter-stellar radiation. The interstellar medium which is part of the galaxy as a whole is actually quite a harsh environment. There is a very high energy galactic radiation that is very dangerous to living things. Around 90 percent of the galactic cosmic radiation is deflected by our heliosphere, so the bound...