Month: July 2021

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee

डॉ. श्यामा प्रसाद मुखर्जी

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee is an example of great leadership and political milestone. He was the independent India’s first Minister of Industry and Supply and founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Shyama Prasad was a qualified barrister and was passionate about education.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was born in a Bengali family on July 6 in 1901. His father Ashutosh Mukherjee was a judge of the Calcutta High Court. He started his initial education in Bhawanipur’s Mitra Institution in 1906. He passed his matriculation exam and was admitted to Presidency College. He stood seventeenth in the Inter-Arts Examination in 1916 and graduated in English, securing the first position in first class in 1921. He lost his father in 1924, the same year he enrolled as an advocate in Calcutta High Court.

At the age of 33, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee became the youngest vice-chancellor of Calcutta University in 1934. During Mukherjee’s term as Vice-Chancellor, Rabindranath Tagore delivered the university convocation address in Bengali for the first time, and the Indian vernacular was introduced as a subject for the highest examination.

He would have preferred to spend a lifetime in the hallowed portal of goddess Saraswati. However, the perilous political situation in undivided Bengal in the late 1930s compelled him to pursue active politics. Over the ensuing 14 years, he came to occupy an important place in national politics, wrote the Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu in The Pioneer.

Mukherjee demanded the partition of Bengal in 1946 to prevent the inclusion of its Hindu-majority areas in a Muslim-dominated East Pakistan. A meeting held by the Mahasabha on April 15, 1947, in Tarakeshwar, authorised him to take steps for ensuring partition of Bengal. In May 1947, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee wrote a letter to Lord Mountbatten telling him that Bengal must be partitioned even if India was not. He also opposed a failed bid for a united but independent Bengal made in 1947 by Sarat Bose, the brother of Subhas Chandra Bose, and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Bengali Muslim politician. It was a great move of Shyama Prasadji because of his anticipation, lives of many bangali Hindus were saved and Bengal became a inseparable part of our India.

After he left the Indian National Congress due to difference of opinion with the then-Prime Minister Dr Jawaharlal Nehru on Jammu and Kashmir issues, he co- founded Janata Party in the year 1977-1979, which later on became the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee founded Bharatiya Jana Sangh that later became the BJP. The political Right has been opposing Article 370 since the Jan Sangh days. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who was known to be a harsh critic of the Congress party in independent India, was against Article 370 and had expressed his displeasure at special status for J&K.

Shyama Prasad Mukherjee questioned why Jammu and Kashmir was kept out of the President’s jurisdiction and why the Congress agreed to a need for special permit to enter J&K. He also questioned why J&K has a ‘sadar-e-riyasat’ instead of governors and a prime minister instead of chief ministers like other states.

After J&K’s merger into Indian Union was passed, a slogan was coined, “Ek desh mein do Vidhan, do Pradhan aur do Nishan nahi chalenge

India had been at war with Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir and while there was a ceasefire, the conditions were still “unusual and abnormal. Part of the erstwhile state’s territory was still in the hands of “rebels and enemies.

One could not enter Jammu and Kashmir without an official permit. In order to protest and build national awareness for J&K’s complete integration, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, along with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, travelled across the country and entered J&K on 11 May, 1953, without any permit.

Mukherjee was arrested there by the J&K Police. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee died after 40 days of being arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir State police for entering the state without permit. He passed away in jail under mysterious circumstances.

With Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement in Parliament to revoke Article 370 that gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has finally realised the dream of its founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. By scrapping Article 370, BJP has fulfilled its founder’s dreams.

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique

CRSPR-Cas9 technology is a famous gene editing technique. This technology is used to cut the target DNA at a specific site and after that the gene can be left totally destroyed or can be altered because of the body’s natural repair mechanism. Because, The repair mechanism is prone to errors and may induce mutations or alter the genome.

The basis of this technology resides in the bacterial Immunity. Bacterias get infected by the phages. And the phage DNA gets fused to the bacterial genome as natural process. If the bacteria survives the attack, the fused genome forms CRISPR or clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. Transcription will produce CRISPR-RNA which can bind to the phage genome because it is complementary to that. Cas9 is a protein type called nuclease which has the capacity to cleave the nucleotide strand, that is DNA and also can be easily programmed to bind to any target sequence. The combination of CRISPR-RNA and cas9 act as a certain type of memory which helps the bacteria to kill the phage if it attacks again. The CRISPR-RNA binds to the phage genome, and the cas9 cuts it, making sure that the phage will be destroyed.

The same procedure is used to edit the genomes of other species. The procedure of CRISPR-Cas9 first involves the production of CRISPR-RNA which is complementary to the target site. The combination of the CRISPR-RNA and cas9 protein is introduced into the cell. Both cas9 and CRISPR-RNA are programmed to bind to the target site. Once the RNA binds to the target site, the Cas9 protein gets activated. Now, there are sites on the genome called PAM sites. Cas9 protein cleaves DNA at this specific PAM sites on both the strands. Now bodies natural repair mechanism tries to repair the cleaved site. During this process some mutations can happen or alteration in the genome can happen. This alteration may result in the deactivation of the entire gene, or changes in the products of that gene.

Not only gene editing, CRISPR-Cas9 can also be used to do selective transcription where only selected part of the gene is transcribed. It can also be used to inhibit the same. This technique can also be used to marking or live imaging of the target gene. All these can be done by just deactivating the cas9 protein.

disease control with crispr technology
  • This technology can be used to treat cancer by modifying the immune T cells of the patient.
  • It can also be used to treat beta-thalassemia, a blood disorder by editing the bone marrow cells of the patient to produce hemoglobin.
  • It can also be used to treat blindness by editing a single gene causing the problem.
  • It can also be used to treat cystic fibrosis by treating the CFTR genes.

crispr gene editing in space

NASA astronauts have performed first in space CRISPR gene editing, They used this technology to modify the yeast genome as if it mimics the damage caused by the radiation. This will help to study the damages to human body in space and the ways to prevent them. The idea is first proposed by students named David Li, Arthi vijaykumar, Rebecca Li and Michelle Sung in Genes in space contest. Christiana Koch and Nick Hauge carried out this experiment.

Colourism in India

Colourism entered the Indian society through British rule. The British people would often prefer light skin Indians as candidates for important roles. Even the European or the Mughals were relatively light-skinned people. This made Indians start looking at light skin as a sign of superiority.

Even today the obsession with white skin tone continues. A lot of girls from a young age have to go through things like:

“you should apply turmeric and saffron paste to make your skin fair”

“you should do a particular type of wax which removes tan”

“he married her despite her being dark”

“you should use light skin makeup to look fair”

Well, these are a few of the thousands of sentences that a person with dark skin goes through. Growing up sentences like these make the person feel insecure about their colour. Nobody is born with insecurities; a child will never differentiate between a skin tone. It’s the people around us that make us like a particular skin tone.

The media never fails to make money out of the beliefs of people. People consider white skin good, so they decided to bring products like fair & lovely. There are so many more products and creams which say things like natural fairness, or natural white to attract consumers. Many young men and women use these products daily. What they don’t realise is that these products contain bleach, steroids, and other harmful ingredients that lead to skin cancer and liver damage in the long term.

After #blacklivesmatter, products like fair and lovely were trolled so they decided to change the name into glow & lovely. But it is still the same product that was built to support light skin.

A lot of other brands also did initiatives like Johnson & Johnson stopped their line of skin lightening products. They also told how they will include all shades of skin colour in their band-aids.

 Changing the name of the product doesn’t mean that people won’t buy it and use it as a fairness cream. But, let’s still appreciate the little changes the multinational companies made. But, there is still a long way to go.

 Another thing you must have noticed is the matrimonial ads in your newspaper. If I got money every time I saw the word “fair” I would be a billionaire.  

What people fail to understand is that our skin tone depends on the geographic conditions, that is how exposed we are to direct sunlight. In places that are sun-soaked people have a dark skin tone. This is because their skin is rich in the pigment melanin. Melanin creates a shield from the radiation of the sun.

This is why when light-skinned people visit places with a lot of sunlight they experience sunburn because they don’t have enough melanin to protect them from the sun.

Our skin colour solely depends on how far we are from the equator. So, I don’t really understand why light-skinned people are given superiority when clearly this isn’t something we can control. Our skins are built of a certain tone to protect us from the environment we live in.

Next time if someone around you shames you or anyone for their skin colour make sure to correct them scientifically and also tell them how much money white people spend on tanning regularly. White people tan for hours, buy lotions, get spray tans to get the colour that we have. I am not stating this to hate on them, I just want to point out how they spend money on tanning while we bleach out our tan.

Powers and functions of the President of India

Executive Powers :

🌟He appoints the Prime Minister and the other members of the Council of Ministers, distributing portfolios to them on the advice of the Prime Minister.
🌟The appointment of Governors of the States, the Chief Justice and other Judge of the Supreme Court and high Courts,the attorney General,the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners the Chairman and other Members of the Union Public Service Commission Ambassadors and high Commissioners to other countries.
🌟He is the Supreme commander of the defense force of India,in this capacity the president appoint Army,Navy,and Air chiefs.

Legislative Powers :

🌟He inaugurates the session of the parliament in addressing it after the General election and also at the beginning of the first session each year.
🌟All bills passed by the Parliament become “Laws of Acts” only after getting assent of the President.
🌟Money bills cannot be introduced in the parliament without his approval. President terminates the sessions of both or any of the House of Parliament. He can even dissolve the Lok Sabha before the expiry of the term of the House.
🌟He nominates 12 persons to the Rajya Sabha and two persons belonging to Anglo – Indian Community.

Financial Powers:

🌟Money bill can be introduced in the Parliament only with his prior recommendation.
🌟The annual Budget of the is presented before the Lok Sabha only with the permission of the President.


🌟He can make advances out of the contingency fund of India to meet any unexpected expenditure.
🌟He constitutes a finance commission after every five years to recommend the distribution of revenue between the centre and the State .

Judicial Powers:

🌟Article 72 confers on the President Powers to grant pardons,replies,respite or the sentence of any person convicted of an offence.
🌟The President is not answerable to any court of law for excercise of his/her power.

Military Powers:

🌟Article 53(2) lays down that “the Supreme commander of the Defense Force ofv5he Union shall be vested in the President and the excercise thereof shall be regulated by law “.
🌟The President is thus declared to be the Supreme Commander of the defense Force of the country.

Diplomatic Powers:

🌟The President appoints Indian diplomats to other countries and receives foreign diplomats posted to India.
🌟The ambassador designate becomes ambassador after calling on the President and presenting his credentials.

Emergency Powers:

🌟The President has been empowered by 5he Constitution to proclaim Emergency.
🌟Article 352 confres power on the President to make a proclamation of Emergency on the grounds of war ,external aggression,or armed rebellion. This is known as National Emergency.


🌟Article 356 confres power on the President to make a proclamation of State Emergency by declaring that the Government in a state cannot be run on in accordance of the provisions of the Constitution.
🌟Under Article 360, the President is vested with the power to proclaim Financial Emergency, if he is satisfied that the financial stability or,the credit of India or any part of India is threatened, by any reason.

Misogyny vs Feminism in Osborne’s ‘Look Back in Anger’

“Why don’t we have a little game? Let’s pretend that we’re human beings, and that we’re actually alive.”

John Osborne

Look Back in Anger is a realist play written by John Osborne and Published in the year 1956. Set in an economy that has been diminished by the war, it follows the story of a young couple Jimmy and Alison Porter. Being from two different social classes, Jimmy being a working- class man and Alison being an upper-class, the two have trouble navigating through the class conflict present between themselves. The play focuses largely on Jimmy’s anger against the upper-class and particularly the upper-class women.

During the time of the play’s production, The Women’s Movement had already started taking shape in Britain and hence can be read as a reaction against the growing feminist movement of the time. It is evident from the play that Jimmy hates women and has strong misogynistic views. He blames women for his lack of power and impotence even though there is no coherent logic behind that argument. His wife Alison is the main victim of his hatred. Through her, he takes out all his anger against the establishments, the upper-class, Alison’s family and all women in general. His marriage to her was in itself a statement of rebellion against the bourgeoise and he himself states that ‘he took her hostage’. His motive for the marriage was never love and it was simply his need to assert his working-class masculinity over her.

“A refined sort of butcher, a woman is.”

-John Osborne

Where Alison is an aristocrat in terms of her class status, Jimmy is an aristocrat in terms of his gender identity and the only way he can get his anger and frustration against the bourgeoise out is by sexually mastering the upper-class women. He exploits his aristocracy as a male to compensate for his lack of status in terms of class, and he translates his class hatred into a sexual hatred. Here, Femininity is associated with the upper class and masculinity to that of the lower class and this act of attributing characteristics of gender to the classes is seen throughout the play. Despite being immensely flawed himself, Jimmy’s standards for women are highly unrealistic and he needs women only for his own selfish reasons. While Alison suffers to make their relationship work, Jimmy simply complains and puts a strain on them. He contradicts himself when he lashes out against Alison for being too silent but at the same time, he complains that she is like a python that is out to devour him whole with reference to her sexual aggression. The only two women that Jimmy seems to respect are Madeline (His ex-lover) and Mrs. Tanner (A working-class woman who helped him set up his sweet shop). He holds her as an ideal working-class woman as opposed to his own and Alison’s mother who are upper-class.

Although the driving force of the story is Jimmy’s anger, both Helena and Alison have made choices of their own to leave him. Even Alison who acts like a passive pushover has had her own choices and decisions in life. It was her choice to rebel against her parents and to marry Jimmy and leave her upper-class status, it was her choice to leave him and it was also her choice to come back to him in the final scene. Even when Jimmy calls her ‘Lady Pusillanimous’, she chooses to be silent so as to not give him the satisfaction of eliciting a reaction from her. Being silent is actually her way of retaliating against his dominance. On the other hand, Helena is one of the characters who is more expressively strong and feministic. She is unfazed by his threats and slaps him which shatters his façade and brings out his vulnerability. •            Even when Alison chose to come back to Jimmy, Helena is unwilling to confirm to his demanding views on what a woman should be and boldly walks out on him because she is determined that she doesn’t want to go through pain and suffering just to be with him.

Look Back in Anger is thus riddled with undaunting and scathing misogyny and sexism. Although Osborne denied any anti-feministic overtones, we see that there’s an erasure of women I the male dominated dynamic in the play.

Failure Life’s Biggest Lesson

Failure a seven-letter word that has travel seven continents of the world. Failure comes across in every person’s life. In life failure is inevitable and everybody should taste failure because it teaches you the importance of everything that made you fail. Like for if you had invested money in some stock market and it failed then it teaches you the value of money, the same goes when you failed to pass an exam it teaches you the importance of time when you fail in your relationship it teaches you the value of the person you were with and the list can go on and on because failure can come even when a baby falls when he tries to stand for the first time to a startup by a young entrepreneur which fails and everyone in life has a different meaning of failure/ has a different meaning of failure in life and no one can tell you what’s failure to you and them because it’s different for everybody.

A person who has never failed in life is a real failure. Everyone thinks heroes are those who win but I feel heroes are those who have lost because they only know the real value of the win. This goes the same in the life one cannot get successful without getting failure. Failure is a part of success and also leads you to success.

Failing in anything makes you a loser in the eyes of the world. Society judges you only on your outcome. It’s like the stigma that one cannot fail in something but that’s not true everyone fails in any of the ways in life at a certain point. Rather than getting failure in something people are more concerned about what if I failed and what would people say about it and this makes you the real failure.
Rather than demotivating or making fun of someone’s failure, we should help them to overcome it.

On the other hand, telling someone to never give up is terrible advice. Successful people give up all the time. If something is not working, smart people don’t repeat it endlessly. They revise. They adjust. They pivot. They quit. As the saying goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Success vs failure is only decided when you lose the persistence and determination to keep trying. Circumstances can only specify the amount of time and effort which it will take to achieve your goal and perhaps there are some goals you will never achieve in your life but your attempts and experience you got from it will help you in living your life.

Failure teaches you to be ready for similar situations that come in the future making you better than before. It makes you learn through the experience of a situation so that you will not fail the next time when you are in a similar situation. Failure makes you a wise person. It helps you to make wise and careful decisions about important aspects of your life so that you will not commit the same mistake twice.

So, failure is not just about not working hard or not giving your 100% percent, or not putting in the extra effort. You should also realize that it is about the decisions you take and the choices you make. It is about the responsibilities and the things you believe in.

To try and to fail is a part of success.

MEANING OF PERSONALITY

personality

The word ‘personality’ is derived from the Latin word ‘Persona’, which means ‘mask’ . A mask was worn by various actors in dramas in those days of ancient Greek civilization. Personality usually means that an individual is much more than his outer appearance . Personality is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that influence his/her cognitions, emotions, motivations and behaviors in various situations. Personality also refers to the patterns of thoughts, feelings, social adjustments and behaviors persistently exhibited over time that strongly influences one’s expectations . self-perceptions, attitudes and values . Till now there is no universal consensus on the definition of personality in psychology . However, the following definitions can be beneficial for us to understand the clear cut meaning of personality.

  1. According to Munn, ”Personality is the most characteristic integration of an individual’s structures, modes of interest, attitudes, behaviors, capacitis, abilities and aptitudes.”
  2. According to Morton Prince, ”Personality is the sum total of all the biological innate dispositions, impulses, tendencies, appetities and instincts of the individual and the disposition and tendencies acquired by experience,”
  3. According to Allport ,”personality is the dynamic organization of those psychophysical systems that determine an individual’s adjustment to his environment.”
  4. According to MC Dougall, ”Personality is a synthetic unity of all mental and physical functions in their intimate interplay”
  5. According to Burgess, ”Personality is the integration of all habits which determines the role and status of the person in society,”
  6. According to Freeman, ”Personality is the integrated organization of all cognitive, conative, affective and physical characteristics that impose on individual and his uniqueness”.
  7. According to Warren , “Personality is the entire organization of a human being at any stage of his development”.

As a matter of fact , all the above mentioned definition do not define personality completely .These definitions only explain the meaning of personality . It can be concluded that the personality of an individual is very broad . All the characteristics such as physical , mental , social , intellectual , emotional , etc., are included in personality which makes him extraordinary and are expressed from time to time in daily life , It can also be said that personality is the sum of inner and outer capabilities of an individual .

Eye of Fire – Marine disasters

Introduction

A recent picture of fire on the ocean, called ‘eye of fire’ has been going viral. This picture was captured in the west of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula on 2nd July 2021. The reason for this fire was a gas leak of an underwater pipeline of the state oil company known as Pemex. The origin of the fire was an underwater pipeline that connects to a platform at the Ku Maloob Zaap oil development. The fire took more than five hours to put out. The company Pemex has a long history of major industrial accidents at their facilities. The fire was put out using Nitrogen by the company workers. Such incidents keep making us wonder about the marine ecosystem and how these activities keep endangering it. Although this was an accident of gas leak from inside, it reminds us of the many oil spills that keep occurring and the effect they have on the marine ecosystem.

Mauritius Oil Spill

On July 25, 2020, a Japanese-operated ship named MV Wakshio hit a coral reef on the coast of Mauritius. The vessel carried 4000 tonnes of crude oil out of which more than 1000 tonnes of oil leaked from the crack in an environmentally sensitive region which polluted the coral reefs, beaches, and lagoons of the island, and an environmental emergency was declared by the Prime Minister of Mauritius. This leak has caused a lot of damage and will continue to for years because of its location being near two environmentally protected marine ecosystems and the Blue Bay Marine Park reserve. These oil spills don’t just affect for the time being till they are cleaned up, the soluble compounds of the oil dissolve in the water and form a layer on the surface of the water which affects the whole marine ecosystem. The toxic hydrocarbons released from the spill bleach the coral reefs which are a very important part of Mauritius, and because of this bleaching, they will eventually die. The oil is less dense than the saltwater so it floats over the water which ends up sticking to the fur and feather of the marine animals and the birds which harms the water-repelling properties of their skin which can then expose them to the cold. Moreover, swallowing the oil can poison them.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

This spill of 2010 is known as the biggest oil spill in the United States with a spill of more than 200 million gallons of oil. It was found that the spill changed the amount of sediment collection on the bottom of the sea and choked them of oxygen. The reef fish changed after the spill, it absorbed some of the oil-source contaminants. This spill endangered the food chain and more than 400 species. It also severely affected dolphins of the area, there were a lot of stillbirths or baby dolphins with abnormal or underdeveloped lungs and seriously ill adult dolphins with drastically low blood sugar, low weight, and some were found with liver cancer and lung cancer.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

This disaster was caused by an oil tanker named Exxon Valdez which spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. It killed around 2,50,000 sea birds, 3000 otters, 300 seals, 250 bald eagles, and 22 killer whales. It also played a role in the collapse of salmon and herring fisheries which resulted in fishermen going bankrupt and the economy suffering.

Environmental Effects

Seeing three important cases of Oil spills above we can discuss the major environmental effects of an oil spill:

  • Big impact on temporary animal
  • Fish loss of habitat
  • Affects organism functions like respiration, feeding, and thermo-regulation
  • The cleaning of oil spills ends up damaging the remaining plants.
  • Bleaching of coral reefs
  • Depletes oxygen content in water
  • Failure in the reproductive system of sea animals (as seen in dolphins above)

Responsible Bodies

The MARPOL convention of 1973 covers pollution of the marine environment by ships, it also lists forms of marine pollution caused by harmful substances, oil, sewage, and garbage from ships. The key international bodies that take care of oil spills are International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC), and United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC). Other than these, every country has its government agency to take care of the spills. India has a National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP).

Conclusion

With all the use of natural resources, the environment is being affected but adding to that is the leaks of these natural resources which further destroys the environment. The first step for acting on anything is to get to know about the history of incidents and the effect that has had on the environment.

References

HOW TO HAVE A PRODUCTIVE WEEKEND

Nothing brings a human joy more than a weekend. Friday evening, when you logout of your office and take a huge sigh of relief, nothing could beat that. We often make huge plans for the weekend but end up curled up in bed doing the bare minimum. And this is a universal phenomenon. Weekend brings a wave of laziness with it and we give into it. Although weekends are made for resting but doing something productive could be a cherry on the cake.

Some things you can try to do to get something extra out of your weekends are listed below:
1. Firstly, to do anything you need to have a plan. You must figure out what tasks you have to complete in those two days and the amount of time then left for all the rest and leisure activities.
2. Household chores always come at top of the list. These are the only two days when you can oversee everything.
3. Next do something you have been putting of for a long time. For example- exercising, meditating, gardening, etc.
4. Some people like to go out every once in a while. Weekends are the perfect opportunity to go out and meet your friends and family.
5. Some people like spending this time alone and honestly, that is the best use of the weekend. You need to give yourself time to rejuvenate from the chaotic week you had.
6. Lastly, take the trip you have been delaying for so long. Go to your nearest spot, have a picnic and make a day out of it.

The most important thing you can and should do is disconnect yourself from social media. Just for two days, try being away from the world. We use this time for rest but if we stay on our phones all the time watching useless videos then what’s the point of it all. Instead of letting social media dictate how you spend your weekend, keep your phone aside and go outside. Go for a long drive, eat at a restaurant, go to the gym, just do anything that would keep you away from those adorable cat videos on the internet. Another thing to keep in mind is that you not only need to disconnect from social media but the world all together. Stop being available for people on the weekends unless it’s an emergency. Use this time to be with yourself. You must set boundaries especially with your work colleagues. You can check your messages once in a day but letting people think you are available will only take away your weekend joy.

The above tips were for people who like to do things according to a plan but there are a lot of people who are spontaneous. I need not tell them how to spend their weekends. They will go wherever their heart takes them. It could be a short trip, a weekend long party, a get together, etc. These are the people who know how to unwind properly. You must rest but you should also do something productive before you head into another hectic week. Spending your weekend doing nothing will only lead to regret in the coming week while accomplishing even a single task will keep you satisfied and you can look forward to another fun filled weekend. Lastly, weekends are a great opportunity to plan ahead for the coming week and ensure you stay productive throughout the week.

Go ahead, have some fun, it’s the WEEKEND!

Impact of Poverty on the environment

Poverty and environment are closely interrelated. … It also highlights the impact of poverty on environmental health.Poverty is a condition of having insufficient resources of income.It is a lack of basic human needs such as adequate nutritious food, clothing, housing,clean water and health services.Extreme poverty can cause terrible suffering and death.They often suffer from severe malnutrition, epidemic disease outbreaks.

The effects of poverty may also include poor nutrition,mental illness,drug dependence and crime.

Extreme poverty which threatens people’s health or lives and is known as absolute poverty.And a condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country when compared to world-wide averages is known as the relative poverty.

The cycle of Poverty,illness and limited opportunities becomes a self substaining process that passes from one generation to another.

Poverty and environmental issues

The increase in population and poverty has made an impact on natural resources and the environment in many regions.In many parts of the world, environmental degradation-the deterioration of natural environment including the atmosphere,bodies of water,soil,forest is an impact cause of poverty.

Environmental problems have led to shortage of food,clean water, materials for shelter,and other essential resources.As forests,land,air and water are degraded,people who depend upon these natural resources are adversely affected.

Various measures to eradicate poverty in human being include the following

⭐ Achieving self sufficiency by intensifying agriculture,argumenting green revolution, in increasing crop productivity through modern genetic and bio technological approaches.

⭐Increasing land and water resources.Expanding the area of cultivable lands, transforming dry lands into productive lands through irrigation water sheds development.

⭐ Prevention of land and water pollution by minimizing the usage of chemical pesticides and adopting biological control strategies for pest eradication.

⭐Establishment of industries and technologies and creating more avenues for employment and man power utilization.

⭐Establishing more primary health centres , hospital and orphanages for destitutes and diseased.

Pregnant womens eligible for COVID- 19 vaccination

The pregnant womens are now eligible for COVID 19 vaccination after the recommendation of NITAG (National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group) which is an advisory committee responsible for providing information related to vaccine to the national government of different country, as they follow evidence based work approach and play significant role in the whole pandemic situation. The decision got approved by the Union Health Ministry.


The centre has issued operational guidelines for the vaccination of pregnant women and the healthcare professionals who are responsible for the process. There is high risk of COVID 19 infection in case of pregnant women, which can impact the health of both the mother and the baby. The priority is to inform all such women about the risk, benefit, side effect and then get vaccinated. After most of the people getting vaccinated the centre’s decision on vaccination of pregnant women will surely strengthen the vaccination drive. Now they can register themselves on COVIN or directly visit the vaccination centre.

India and vaccination drive
India started with its vaccination drive in January 2021. It started when two indigenous vaccine Covisheild by Serum institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat biotech passed the trials and got approval. It is India’s first ever adult vaccination drive.
In the first phase of Vaccination drive, all the Frontline workers and healthcare staff got vaccinated and gradually, dividing the population into the category of 45+ and 18+ the vaccination drive begin for the public as well. Apart from this vaccination trials were performed on children as it is forecasted that the third wave is likely to affect children more than adults.


The challenges and progress
India is one of the largest and most populated country in the world. The government of India is running the biggest vaccination drive while they face many challenges which include-

  • Lack of participation
  • Wastage of vaccine
  • Lack of awareness
    While these are some of the most common yet the most difficult obstacles that made it difficult to run the vaccination process and to reach a greater number of people specially the illiterate and rural population of the country. The government planned the strategy from local to national level and made tremendous offers towards making the drive successful by –
  • Eliminating vaccine hesitation
  • Ensuring COVID protocols are followed including mandatory vaccination.
  • Encouraging participation in the vaccine drive

Conclusion
A smooth functioning of the vaccination drive is necessary in order to make sure that maximum number of people get benefited. India has already gone through the worst condition in the second wave where the nation witnessed oxygen shortage, no beds in hospital and medicines running out of stock. Not only this the but, the financial loss and shortage of resources, loss of livelihood in the time of pandemic left the common man shattered.
The pandemic also showed us the reality of our healthcare system and faulty administration. The medical infrastructure is still not well equipped with some of the most basic facility which is a matter of concern.

Being a parent to someone needs the same DNA?

LOVE, CARE AND AFFECTION ; THESE WORDS HOLD A GREAT MEANING. A CHILD IS A PRECIOUS CREATION OF THE ALMIGHTY. PARENTS ARE LIKE WATER TO THE SAPLINGS CALLED CHILDREN.

SOME PEOPLE DISOWN THEIR CHILDREN AND SEND THEM TO ORPHANAGES.SOME DO THIS DUE TO FINANCIAL PRESSURE, SOME DUE TO FAMILY ISSUES AND SOME DUE TO BIRTH OF A GIRL CHILD, WHOM THEY CONSIDER TO BE A BURDEN.

ANGELS ARE THOSE WHO ADOPT THESE CHILDREN AND LOVE THEM LIKE THEIR OWN. TO THEM DNA DOES NOT MATTER BUT WHAT MATTERS TO THEM IS THE CHILD. THEY PROVIDE THE CHILD WITH ABUNDUNT LOVE AND AFFECTION WHICH THE CHILD HAD BEEN DEPRIVING OF.

DNA, DOES THAT MATTER ? FOR THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT THE CHILD AND HIS/HER EMOTIONS, THESE THINGS WONT MATTER. A PERSON WHO WOULD LOVE THE CHILD AND WOULD WANT TO RAISE THE CHILD LIKE THEIR OWN, FOR THEM NOTHING ELSE APART FROM THE CHILD’S CONSENT WOULD MATTER.

RAISING A CHILD HAS ITS OWN BEAUTY. APPRECIATE THOSE WHO RAISE A CHILD WHOSE DNA DOES NOT MATCH WITH THEIR CHILDREN BUT THEIR LOVE AND HEART DOES.

Bear Market

What Is a Bear Market?

A bear market is when a market experiences prolonged price declines. It typically describes a condition in which securities prices fall 20% or more from recent highs amid widespread pessimism and negative investor sentiment.

Bear markets are often associated with declines in an overall market,  but individual securities or commodities can also be considered to be in a bear market if they experience a decline of 20% or more over a sustained period of time—typically two months or more. Bear markets also may accompany general economic downturns such as a recession. Bear markets may be contrasted with upward-trending bull markets.

Understanding Bear Markets

Stock prices generally reflect future expectations of cash flows and profits from companies. As growth prospects wane, and expectations are dashed, prices of stocks can decline. Herd behavior, fear, and a rush to protect downside losses can lead to prolonged periods of depressed asset prices.

One definition of a bear market says markets are in bear territory when stocks, on average, fall at least 20% off their high. But 20% is an arbitrary number, just as a 10% decline is an arbitrary benchmark for a correction. Another definition of a bear market is when investors are more risk-averse than risk-seeking. This kind of bear market can last for months or years as investors shun speculation in favor of boring, sure bets.

The causes of a bear market often vary, but in general, a weak or slowing or sluggish economy will bring with it a bear market. The signs of a weak or slowing economy are typically low employment, low disposable income, weak productivity, and a drop in business profits. In addition, any intervention by the government in the economy can also trigger a bear market.

For example, changes in the tax rate or in the federal funds rate can lead to a bear market. Similarly, a drop in investor confidence may also signal the onset of a bear market. When investors believe something is about to happen, they will take action—in this case, selling off shares to avoid losses. 

Bear markets can last for multiple years or just several weeks. A secular bear market can last anywhere from 10 to 20 years and is characterized by below-average returns on a sustained basis. There may be rallies within secular bear markets where stocks or indexes rally for a period, but the gains are not sustained, and prices revert to lower levels. A cyclical bear market, on the other hand, can last anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

The U.S. major market indexes were close to bear market territory on December 24, 2018, falling just shy of a 20% drawdown. More recently, major indexes including the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply into bear market territory between March 11 and March 12, 2020. Prior to that, the last prolonged bear market in the United States occurred between 2007 and 2009 during the Financial crisis and lasted for roughly 17 months. The S&P 500 lost 50% of its value during that time.

In February 2020, global stocks entered a sudden bear market in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic, sending the DJIA down 38% from its all-time high on February 12 (29,568.77) to a low on March 23 (18,213.65) in just over one month. However, both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 made new highs by August 2020.

INCREDIBLE INDIA

Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief system, political systems, artifactcs and technologies that originated in or are associated with the Indian subcontinent. Over the centuries, there has been a significant fusion of cultures between Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jain, sikhs and various tribal population in India.

>Importance of Indian Culture :

Indians are proud of its culture. In our country it is traditional to respect elders, be truthful and honest and also to help out others in need. It is also considered traditional to celebrate our cultural festivals and religious activities with the family and neighbours.

>Indian culture and values :

The two most tenents of Indian culture are Human Values and Holism. Human values refer to moral, spiritual and ethical values whereas Holism means unity.

>Features of Indian culture :

Unity in diversity, tolerance , longevity and continuity , amalgamation of spirituality and materialism.

India is the land of ‘UNITY IN DIVERSITY’, and our dances are no different. Different forms of dances find origin of different parts of the country, and they are a way of representation of the particular culture from which they originate.

UNITY

INDIAN CULTURE IS VERY RICH AND DIVERSE AND TEACHES US TO BE TOLERANT TO OTHERS.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE

•India and World Cultural Heritage

•India’s intangible cultural heritage

MENSTRUAL HYGIENE

Menstrual Health

Menstruation is one of the most significant processes a woman’s body undergoes. Therefore, it is no wonder that we tend to get flustered with the idea of getting our very first period, often forgetting to pay attention to the need for ensuring good menstrual hygiene. A UNICEF study shows that in India, inadequate awareness about menstrual hygiene compels 23% girls to drop out of schools after they start menstruating. This is a stage where girls are often confused and scared as to how to go about their first period since knowledge on basic hygienic practices towards menstruation is often not well addressed. Menstrual health and cleanliness are often neglected but they are extremely important for the health of any woman.

Some Important Factors

  • From sanitary pads, tampons to menstrual cups, each woman should choose a product that provides her maximum comfort. It must be kept in mind that only one method of sanitation must be used at a time; using multiple ones can lead to rashes, infections or even Toxic Shock Syndrome.
  • Girls getting their periods for the first time are bound to have a lot of concerns, which should be addressed right away. It is crucial to understand that they will require proper guidance to navigate their way towards comprehending the significance of menstrual hygiene. Approaching an expert or a doctor is always the right way to go about this.
  • Ensure that your body is relaxed and comfortable at all times. Choose comfort and be well-rested. Try to look past any age-old perceptions which indicate that women should not indulge in activities during these days. We must encourage women to be active and prove that periods do not get in the way of living lives. Comfort and hygiene can still go hand-in-hand during periods with the availability of an array of services and products in the market.
  • Bathe and wash yourself regularly. Bathing regularly during periods is important as it removes the excess blood that could cause an infection. It can also help alleviate the mood and reduce menstrual cramps. You can also relieve your period pain through mild heat therapy. For cleansing, a gentle foaming cleanser can be used to eliminate infection-causing bacteria, while preserving the good ones you need for a healthy vulva.
  • It is always beneficial to be ready beforehand with all the necessary supplies that you would require. Carrying a multi-purpose pouch containing intimate care kits will surely serve the need of the hour for ultimate comfort and convenience. After your first period, it is best to keep a track of the next period date through apps, which will regularly monitor your cycles

Menstrual Hygiene Day

World Menstrual Hygiene Day is observed on May 28. The main idea behind marking this day is to change the social stigma associated with menstruation. The date May 28 was chosen to observe the day because on an average the menstrual cycle for most women is 28 days and the menstruation period for most women is for five days. Hence, the date was kept as 28/5.  Never consider menstruation as a problem but never neglect hygiene during menstruation to stay happy and healthy.