Day: March 17, 2021

Too Much Information- Source of your stress?

Input overloading. Information overload concept. Young woman running away from information stream. Concept of person overwhelmed by information. Colorful vector illustration in flat style

Too much information is harmful for us, yes you read that right. In this age of internet, we are surrounded by so much information on all sides, its actually adding onto our stress levels. With so many sources of information just at the palm of your hand be it work related, entertainment or political, we do not even realize how little of it is actually important for us.

“We are now so preoccupied with keeping up with the bombardment of new facts, new developments, and new points of view that we have no time to listen to the past, or reflect on even the most recent history, much less to make a judicious reckoning of its significance.”

-Regis McKenna, public relations specialist.

Due to information overload in workplace, the employees have to deal with tension between work colleagues and loss of job satisfaction. This amount of stress is affecting the health of the employees and even their personal relationships suffer.

Having too much information interferes people’s ability to make decisions and most of the time is wasted in collecting and searching information. Many people believe that internet is the prime cause of information overload over the years. Wherever you go on social media, be it a social networking site or even our e-mail accounts, it is all filled with so much content totally irrelevant, but we scroll through it anyway, reading and taking in most of it anyway even after knowing that it would be of no use to us.

We should be smart enough to decide how much information we actually need. The key is to ‘filter’ and be selective in our information intake. We know it very well that it’s impossible to gather and analyze all the information related to your work and doing so would leave us no time to complete our necessary task.

Most of the information we absorb on a daily basis is largely irrelevant, both to our business and to our personal lives. So much of it is either sensational or celebrity focused, earlier most of the people depended on it to kill their boredom, but now when we are already so busy, we don’t even have the time to be bored but yet continue to do so.

All we need to do is a social media detox and save some time by cutting low content media from our diet and make sure the content that we are following is beneficial to us in some way. Keeping only the useful and content of our interest will help us to keep our stress levels in control, after all we use the internet as way to release our stress so it should definitely not be a source of it.

EAM S Jaishankar to make statements in both houses today regarding India’s Vaccine Maitri Initiative

External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar will make statements in both the houses of Parliament today regarding India’s Vaccine Maitri Initiative. In Rajyasabha the discussions will be held on the working of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Ministry of Tourism.

In Lok Sabha, the discussion and voting will be held on the demands for Grants of Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for 2021-22.

Meanwhile, it is reported that the Bharatiya Janata Party has issued a whip to all its members in the Lok Sabha to be present in the House throughout the day today.

Education Minister describes New Education Policy as foundation stone for Atma Nirbhar Bharat

Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has described the New Education Policy as the foundation stone for Atma Nirbhar Bharat. Replying to the discussion on the demands for grants of the Ministry of Education for 2021-22, in Lok Sabha yesterday, he said, developed countries have flourished with education in Mother Tongue.  Keeping this in mind, emphasis has been given in the NEP to promote education in 22 Indian languages. He also said, for the first time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been incorporated in the school curriculum.

The Minister said, 50 thousand crore rupees have been allocated for the National Research Foundation over five years to boost the research ecosystem in the country. The Minister refuted the allegations by the opposition, that the budget for the education sector was reduced.  

He said, in the IITs, the seats for girls is increase by twenty percent. Listing out several measures during the Covid pandemic, the Minister said, the government has successfully conducted online classes, board examinations, and prestigious JEE and NEET entrance exams during the peak of the pandemic.

Earlier, participating in the discussion, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor welcomed the Government’s decision to bring in National Education Policy. However, he alleged that education is not a priority of the government at the Centre as budgetary allocations for several educational schemes have been reduced, which will hamper the quality and affordability of education.

Raising the issue of digital divide during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tharoor said, online education in its current form is exclusionary and discriminatory. He stressed on the need to bridge the digital divide gap by allocating more funds on key educational schemes.

BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal said that budgetary allocations have been increased manifold during the NDA regime in the education sector. Terming the NEP as a revolution in the education system in Independent India, BJP MP, Tejaswi Surya said, during the pandemic when the countries across the world came to standstill, education did not stop in India.

He highlighted the success of PM e-Vidya, with over One Lakh Crore page hits, that made study materials available for the students, in various languages.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant while congratulating the Government for New Educational Policy said that more focus should be given to infrastructure at primary level. Ritesh Pandey of BSP said, only 21 percent of women are going for higher education due to various social and financial constraints.

Faizal Mohammad of NCP suggested that interactive educational equipment in every classroom would help students learn in a better way. Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference appealed to the government to ensure that schools are not disturbed due to political or calamity reasons.

Parliament passes bill providing outer limit of 24 weeks for Medical Termination of Pregnancy

Parliament has passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 with the Rajya Sabha approving it yesterday. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill in March last year. The Bill provides for an outer limit of 24 weeks for medical termination of pregnancy.

The limit is in sync with the advancements in medical technology that allows for the removal of foetus at a relatively advanced stage of pregnancy.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman says all banks will not be privatised; Assures to protect interest of employees during privatisation

The Finance Minister said that all banks will not be privatised and assured that wherever it happens, every interest of the employees and staff will be protected.

Ms. Sitharaman emphasised that even those banks which are likely to be privatised, the institutions too will continue to function after privatisation and every interest of the workers will be taken care of, be it salary or pension.

Cabinet approves bill to set up DFI with initial capital of Rs 20 thousand crore

The Union Cabinet has approved a bill to set up Development Finance Institution (DFI)  with an initial capital infusion of 20 thousand crore rupees. The bill will be tabled in Parliament during the current Budget Session.

DFI is expected to raise long-term funds for infrastructure development projects in the country. Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the initial grant to the DFI will be  5 thousand crore rupees and additional increments of grants will be made within the limit of 5 thousand crore rupees.

PM Modi says, India has taken care of domestic as well as global requirement of medicines and other essentials during Covid-19 pandemic

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India has taken care of domestic as well as global requirement of medicines and other essentials during  Covid-19 pandemic.  

Speaking at the India-Finland Virtual Summit, Mr Modi said India sent medicines and other essentials to more than 150 countries last year. He highlighted that in recent weeks, more than 58 million doses of Made in India vaccines reached about 70 countries.

The Prime Minister emphasised that both Finland and India believe in a rule-based, transparent, humanitarian and democratic global order. Both countries have strong cooperation in areas like technology, innovation, clean energy, environment, and education.

Mr. Modi said India has targeted 450 GigaWatt installed capacity by 2030 in renewable energy. Prime Minister said initiatives like International Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure have been taken to increase international cooperation.

Mr. Modi urged Finland to join both ISA and CDRI saying these international institutions will benefit from Finland’s ability and expertise.

Mr Modi was happy to note that both nations have announced a new partnership in the field of ICT, mobile technology and digital education.

Wastewater Pollutants and Treatment

Wastewater is used water. It includes substances such as human waste, food scraps, oils, soaps and chemicals. In homes, this includes water from sinks, showers, bathtubs, toilets, washing machines and dishwashers. Businesses and industries also contribute their share of used water that must be cleaned. We consider wastewater treatment as a water use because it is so interconnected with the other uses of water. Much of the water used by homes, industries, and businesses must be treated before it is released back to the environment.

The term “wastewater treatment” is also known as “sewage treatment.” Nature has an amazing ability to cope with small amounts of water wastes and pollution, but it would be overwhelmed if we didn’t treat the billions of gallons of wastewater and sewage produced every day before releasing it back to the environment. Treatment plants reduce pollutants in wastewater to a level nature can handle.

Wastewater also includes storm runoff. Although some people assume that the rain that runs down the street during a storm is fairly clean, it isn’t. Harmful substances that wash off roads, parking lots, and rooftops can harm our rivers and lakes. Hence, treating wastewater is a matter of caring for our environment and for our own health. There are a lot of good reasons why keeping our water clean is an important priority.

Clean water is critical to plants and animals that live in water. This is important to the fishing industry, sport fishing enthusiasts, and future generations. Our rivers and ocean waters teem with life that depends on shoreline, beaches and marshes. They are critical habitats for hundreds of species of fish and other aquatic life. Migratory water birds use the areas for resting and feeding. Water is a great playground  for us all. The scenic and recreational values of our waters are reasons many people choose to live where they do. Visitors are drawn to water activities such as swimming, fishing, boating and picnicking. If it is not properly cleaned, water can carry disease. Since we live, work and play so close to water, harmful bacteria have to be removed to make water safe.

If wastewater is not properly treated, then the environment and human health can be negatively impacted. These impacts can include harm to fish and wildlife populations, oxygen depletion, beach closures and other restrictions on recreational water use, restrictions on fish and shellfish harvesting and contamination of drinking water. Here are some examples of pollutants that can be found in wastewater and the potentially harmful effects these substances can have on ecosystems and human health:

  • Decaying organic matter and debris can use up the dissolved oxygen in a lake so fish and other aquatic biota cannot survive;
  • Excessive nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, can cause eutrophication, or over-fertilization of receiving waters, which can be toxic to aquatic organisms, promote excessive plant growth, reduce available oxygen, harm spawning grounds, alter habitat and lead to a decline in certain species;
  • Chlorine compounds and inorganic chloramines can be toxic to aquatic invertebrates, algae and fish;
  • Bacteria, viruses and disease-causing pathogens can pollute beaches and contaminate shellfish populations, leading to restrictions on human recreation, drinking water consumption and shellfish consumption;
  • Metals, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium and arsenic can have acute and chronic toxic effects on species.
  • Other substances such as some pharmaceutical and personal care products, primarily entering the environment in wastewater effluents, may also pose threats to human health, aquatic life and wildlife.

The major aim of wastewater treatment is to remove as much of the suspended solids as possible before the remaining water, called effluent, is discharged back to the environment. As solid material decays, it uses up oxygen, which is needed by the plants and animals living in the water.

“Primary treatment” removes about 60 percent of suspended solids from wastewater. This treatment also involves aerating (stirring up) the wastewater, to put oxygen back in. Secondary treatment removes more than 90 percent of suspended solids.