Day: March 11, 2022

THE CURSE OF DEPRESSION

For some people, depression may mean showing a sad face all the time, not responding to anyone, sitting in a room all day, and more. Depression is not always a combination of all these symptoms, some people are depressed but still, show happy faces. We must clearly understand what it actually means and must get out of it before it is too late.

Photo by Fredrick Eankels on Pexels.com

Common Symptoms of Depression

  1. Trouble in Concentrating : People with depression may feel difficulty or trouble in concentrating on their jobs. They even feel extremely hard to even take simple decisions due to lack of concentration.
  2. Insomnia : Insomnia is one of the most common symptoms of depression. They either sleep for long number of hours or never sleep at all. It varies with person to person. Even sometimes they wake at early morning without knowing.
  3. Guilty Feeling : Depressed state can also happen due to inability or failure to do an important job. It starts with feeling guilty all the time thinking about the work and stressing themselves too much. It makes them feel helpless and alone all the time even they are always being surrounded by friends , family or relatives.
  4. Lose of Interest : People start to lose interest over things that are once their favourite one. It may be hobbies like drawing, dancing, singing or even visiting places that are their favourite ones initially.
  5. Restlessness : Inability to relax or inability to make your mind calm and peace is called Restlessness. It happens due to over stress, thinking about something all the time and excess usage of devices like Mobile Phones, Laptop and television etc.
  6. Overeating/ Appetite Loss : It happens in two ways , either feeling of hunger at all times or feeling full at all time. It is also a symptom of depression which most people fail to address it at early stages of their life.
  7. Unbalanced feelings : Sometimes they feel too happy, sometimes too sad, sometimes too anxious with no meaning, sometimes too angry without knowing. Their feelings become unpredictable and meaningless during their depressed state of mind.
  8. Digestive problems : Even stomach ache for a long period of time , without reacting to medicines is a symptom of depression.

Most of these symptoms are the common ones, the failure to address them for a long period may lead to suicidal thoughts or suicidal attempts.

Ways to overcome depression

  1. Surround yourself with motivation
  2. Do yoga and meditation
  3. Always ask for help without hesitation.
  4. Go out to new places for refreshment.
  5. Take breaks during job to avoid stress.
  6. Eat healthy food like fresh fruits and vegetables.
  7. Create new hobbies
  8. Do activities that keeps both our mind and body calm.
  9. Focus on people who will be there for you during both good and bad times.
  10. Always get minimum six hours of sleep daily.
  11. It’s okay to say ‘no’ to works which is either stressful or not possible.

“Don’t let life discourage you everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.”

Richard L. Evans

The rising population of India as an asset

With the continuous rise in the young Indian population, India is growing younger. There is a “demographic dividend” that needs to be exploited. As per the findings of the ‘State of the Urban Youth, India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills,’ a report published by IRIS Knowledge Foundation in collaboration with UN-HABITAT, every third person in an Indian city today is a youth. In about seven years, the median individual age in India will be 29 years, very likely a city-dweller, making it the youngest country in the world.

No discussion in India about the environment, health, employment, and various other issues can be carried away by skipping the burning issue of the rising population. With a 1.2 Billion population (17% of the entire world population) India is the second most populated country after the People’s Republic of China. However, set to be utilized in a channelized manner Indian Population will prove to be a valuable asset rather than a liability.

Rising population and asset, how?

The youth segment of India’s population is growing rapidly and is projected to continue to do so for the next 30 years. This demographic dividend has the potential to inject new dynamism into the country’s flagging economy if the state acts quickly on health, education, and employment. Right now more than 50% of India’s population is below 25 which can be tapped for all-around socio-economic growth of the nation as the young workforce has more innovative minds.

Except for China, no country in the world has such big manpower as India has which is indeed a blessing for the country. Such a huge and skilled manpower coupled with resources needs to be regarded as an asset. The huge population offers a bigger pool of human resources and hence a bigger consumer market. Our population will remain our strength only when we have the power, strength, and will to feed the people, provide them clothing and shelter, good education, health care, and jobs. In the past decade, India has emerged as a major back office to the world with global firms outsourcing work to take advantage of the country’s less expensive, educated, young English-speaking workforce. India produces 2.5 million IT, engineering and life sciences graduates a year, besides about 650,000 postgraduates in science and IT-related subjects. The IT sector alone employs about 850,000 graduates and professionals while the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors are snapping up others.

Near about 402 million Indians are aged between 15 and 59 – the working-age – and this number is expected to grow to 820 million by 2020.

For the all-round progress of a large nation, its entire population must contribute significantly to diverse areas and sectors of the economy. A talented and hard-working population can easily emerge as a source of national development. A country like India can use vast natural resources coupled with huge manpower to make the country progress in the right direction. In India, there are more workers than dependents, which is good for the development of any economy.

How to channelize the continuously rising population?

No capital in the world can substitute human capital, the Indian state and the government need to properly utilize its skilled and talented population. There is a need for an increase in employment opportunities in the rural areas to make productive use of people’s skills. We cannot talk about the rising population without taking into account the problems of corruption, poverty, and illiteracy which go hand in hand and have been creating hurdles in the country’s progress as a whole. There is a need for the implementation of the government schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the rural areas at a massive scale so that more and more people can join the national mainstream. There is no doubt that India has one of the most highly skilled populations and these skills need to be used for employment generation.

There is a need to make the rural population of the country more and more literate and bring them out of poverty. The schools in the villages need to be made more developed with the curriculum and education system matching with that of the schools in the cities. The schemes like Mid Day meal need to be implemented properly and honestly and the education system in the rural areas should be made more attractive so that the rural children are attracted towards studies.  The public schemes targeting the poor need to be implemented properly and honestly because after that it would be easy to bring a large chunk of the country’s population into the national mainstream so that they can play a decisive role in nation-building. There is a need for various job schemes in the interior regions where there is not much industrial activity.

Conclusion

The advantages of such a large population can be had for the making the country more developed and to achieve these goal policies must be made to harness the potential of country’s youth population, which will certainly help in galloping the economy ahead in the double digits.  A huge population creates demand which is also a major indicator of the economic growth of a country. The need is to provide the right share of employment opportunities, education, a proper meal, and a corruption-free environment.

Analyzing Mid-day Meal: India’s School Lunch System

Official Logo of Mid-day Meal Scheme

Introduction

Food is a basic need of life.  And Education is important to make the life affluent. A hungry stomach cannot grasp the teachings of Education at school, there to provide better Education, schools all around the world, offer lunch to the students. In India, the system of school lunch is referred to as Mid-day Meal. In today’s editorial, we’re going to share insights about the system of Mid-day Meal in India.

Coverage of Mid-day Meal Scheme in India

Brief Idea of What Mid-day Meal Is

The Midday Meal Scheme, launched in 1995  by former Prime Minister of India, P.V. Narsimha Rao, under the Ministry of Education, is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional  standing of school-age children nationwide. The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madarsa  and Maqtabs  supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan , and National Child Labour Project schools run by the Ministry of Labour. Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.

Students having Mid-day Meal at a School in India

Objectives of Mid-day Meal Scheme

  • To increase the enrolment in the schools of children who belong to disadvantaged sections of the society .
  • To increase attendance of students in Government and Government aided schools.
  • To retain the children studying in class I to VIII.
  • To give nutritional support to the children studying in the elementary level, specially in drought-prone areas.
  • To address hunger and malnutrition and increase socialization among the castes.
Mid-day Meal Scheme Timeline in India

Features of Mid-day Meal Scheme

  • It is one of the world’s largest school meal programs intended to achieve the goal of universalization of primary education.
  • For the implementation of the scheme, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development is the authorized body to implement the scheme.
  • It is a centre-sponsored scheme, so, the cost is shared between the states and the centre. Where the share of the centre is 60 percent.
  • The first state to implement the midday meal scheme was Kerala in 1984.
  • Till 2002, the scheme is designed especially for the government, government-aided and local body schools. But later on, the benefit of the mid-day meal scheme is extended to those children who were studying in educational guaranteed scheme centres or Alternative & Educational Centres.
  • In 2004, the scheme is again revised, and central assistance is offered for the cooking cost.  Apart from that, the transport subsidy included for all states, maximum of Rs 100 per quintal is provided to the special category states and Rs 75 per quintal for other states.
  • The provision of serving mid-day meals during summer vacation to the children in drought-affected areas was also added.
  • In 2006, the cooking cost was enhanced to Rs 1.80 per child/ school day for states in North Eastern Region and Rs 1.50 per child/ school day for other states and UTs.
  • In 2007, the scheme benefit is also extended to the children studying in the educationally Backwards Blocks.
  • Apart from the calories and food intake, for micronutrients (tablets and deworming medicines), each child is entitled to receive the amount provided for in the school health program of the National Rural Health Mission.
  • Meals provided under the Mid-day Meal Scheme
Food Norms under Mid-day Meal Scheme
  • The quantity of food items provided under this scheme per child per school day is as follows:
Food itemsPrimary level (Class I-V)Upper level (Class VI-VIII)
Food Grains100 gms150 gms
Pulses20 gms30 gms
Vegetables (leafy also)50 gms75 gms
Oil & fat5 gms7.5 gms
Salt & condimentsAs per needAs per need
Calories IntakePrimaryUpper Primary
Energy450 calories700 calories
Protein12 grams20 grams
Serving of Mid-day Meal

Advantages of Mid-day Meal

  • It satisfies the hunger of many children.
  • Supplying nutrition to children of the poor section helps them in concentrating on their studies better.
  • Students come to government schools daily and won’t be asked to do labour work.
  • Addresses the issue of malnutrition.
PM POSHAN SHAKTI NIRMAN

Recent Improvisation of Mid-day Meal Scheme

During the celebration of India’s 75th Independence Day as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Cabinet approved for the implementation of PM POSHAN SHAKTI NIRMAN for next 5 years i.e. 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that school is the only place that contributes to the socio-economic development of society. Here children from various backgrounds come together for promoting the culture of unity and brotherhood. The education they receive at school prepares them to achieve their goals and lead a successful life. When we talk about government schools, here children mostly come from economically challenged backgrounds. So, even though education schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan are being implemented, the difficult financial conditions force these children to skip school and go on work. In such kind of circumstances,  the real potential of mid-day meal surfaces. Mid-day meal acts as an attractive incentive for parents to send their children to school with the sole hope that the young ones will receive at least one plate full of the meal for the day. 

Social Media Management

In this highly digital era that we live in, every company is trying to make use of social media to increase its presence and gain clients. At this point, social media management is something every management student and prospective job seeker should be knowing about.

Social Media Management is the process of using social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to create, publish and then analyze content for a company. It includes analyzing social media audiences and developing a strategy to create and distribute content for social media profiles, and engage with users. Efficient and well-organized management of social media actually gives many good opportunities for companies to profit more. Brands and companies can use social media to increase brand awareness and store visits. In a company, a Social Media Manager takes on the task of social media management. Social media managers need to be skilled professionals at social media marketing, management and advertising so that the company can reach its goals such as increasing social media revenue and user engagement. They could be working as a consultant or an in-house employee.

  • Social media helps brands engage with users all over the world. This is something traditional marketing and advertising cannot achieve as well as social media networks. Certain platforms like Instagram and Pinterest also help brands connect with niche audiences.
  • With this kind of extensive reach, the brand can now align their marketing initiatives with user behaviour.
  • Not to mention how convenient and cost-effective a social media initiative is. Setting up an account, posting content and engaging with users through chats and comments are all free of cost. Advertising on social media is a very profitable way of building a strong online following.

Major social media platforms used by brands and companies include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. There are several paid and unpaid tools that help in managing social media networks by scheduling posts, content, responding to inquiries and comments, etc.  

Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Here are 3 essential steps that will help a brand gain useful information about its social media strategy and direct it through the right path:

Reviewing the company’s social media through an audit:

Conducting a social media audit will help a company understand how effective its marketing strategy is. The audit would include listing all the social media profiles of the company and reviewing social media analytics regarding top-performing posts, engagement, publishing frequency follower growth, traffic sources, average response time, audience interests and demographics. Analyzing this data and reviewing competitor’s social media presence aids the brand in improving its social media management and identifying where it might be wasting its resources.

Researching Target Audience:

Having a good idea about who your audience is, is essential for efficiently managing social media. It helps in creating relevant content and boosting customer relationships. Without knowing your target audience you are basically wasting a lot of time, money and resources.

Determining the Right Social Media Platforms:

While a company should definitely have social media profiles on top networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it should put most effort on networks that is used most by its audience. Not every platform may work well for the brand’s vision and marketing strategy. It should prioritize and put in effort for every platform according to how frequently its audience uses them. Brands that cater to a niche audience can also make use of such platforms that connect with its specific audience demographics.    

Palak Muchhal : Sound behind 1000s of Hearts….

Indian playback singer Palak Muchhal was born on 30 March 1992 in Indore. Her mother, Amita Muchhal, is homemaker and her father Rajkumar Muchhal, works for private firm. She has younger brother, Palash Muchhal. In May 2013, she stated that she was doing her final year of B.Com from a college in Indore.

She started social work by earning money from singing in 1999 when she was just 7 years old. During the Kargil War of 1999, she spent a week singing at shops in her home city, Indore, to raise funds for the families of deceased Indian soldiers. Her efforts received substantial coverage in Indian media and she raised ₹25,000.

Her decision to use her voice to help others was triggered when she saw poor children using their clothes to clean train compartments.

Palak Muchhal as a Cardiac Surgeon

In 2001, she raised over one million rupees for the victims of the Gujarat earthquake. Later in July 2003, Palak offered financial assistance through her charity funds to the parents of a two-year-old Pakistani girl who had a hole in the heart. Her charity organization is named “Palak Muchhal Heart Foundation”. Her foundation made more than 2000 heart surgeries.

In2011, she entered in Bollywood as a professional playback singer. She uses her money received by singing for heart patients. As of 2020, she with her brother has saved the lives of 2200 children.

In 2000, she received Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar. In 2013, Palak has made an entry in both the Guinness Book of World Records and Limca Book of World Records for her social work. CBSE and Maharashtra board has included Palak’s achievement in the textbook of seventh standard moral science from 2021. In 2021, she also received the Honorary Doctorate from the American University, the USA for Global Peace.

Ballistic missiles – History, Application and Working

The history of rocketry dates back to around 900 C.E., but the use of rockets as highly destructive missiles able to carry large payloads of explosives was not feasible until the late 1930s. War has been the catalyst for many inventions, both benevolent and destructive. The ballistic missile is intriguing because it can be both of these things. It has made possible some of the greatest deeds mankind has ever achieved, and also some of the worst. German Walter Dornberger and his team began developing rockets in 1938, but it was not until 1944 that the first ballistic missile, the aggregate-4 or V-2 rocket, was ready for use. V-2 was used extensively by the Nazis at the end of World War II, primarily as an error weapon against civilian targets. They were powerful and imposing: 46 feet (14m) long, able to reach speeds of around 3,500 miles per hour (5600 kph) and deliver a warhead of around 2,200 pounds (1000 kg) at a range of 200 miles (320 km).

Ballistic missiles follow a ballistic flight path, determined by the brief initial powered phase of the missile’s flight. This is unlike guided missiles, such as cruise missiles, which are essentially unmanned airplanes packed with explosives. This meant that the early V-2 flew inaccurately, so they were of most use in attacking large, city sized targets such as London, Paris, and Antwerp. The Nazi ballistic missile program has had both a great and a terrible legacy. Ballistic missiles such as the V-2 were scaled up to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles with a variety of warheads, but also the craft that have carried people into space. Ballistic missiles may have led us to the point of self destruction, but to venture beyond our atmosphere.

 Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) were first developed by the United States in 1959. It is a guided ballistic missile with a minimum range of 5500 kilometers primarily designed for nuclear weapon. United States, China, France, India, United Kingdom and North Korea are the only countries that have operational ICBMs. The ICBMs has a three stage booster, during the boost phase the rocket get the missile airborne, this phase last around 2 to 5 minutes until the ICBM has reached space. ICBMs have up to three rocket phases with each one ejected or discarded after it burns out. They use either liquid or solid propellant. The Liquid fuel rockets tend to burn longer in the boost phase than the solid propellant. The second phase of the ICBMs is the point where the rocket has reached space, here it continues along is ballistic trajectory. At this point the rocket will be travelling anywhere from 24,140 and 27,360 kilometers an hour. The final phase is the ICBM’s final separation and re- entry into earth’s atmosphere. The nose cone section carrying the warhead separates from the final rocket booster and drops back to earth. If the ICBM has rocket thrusters, those will be used at this point to orient itself towards the target. It is important that ICBMs have adequate heat shields to survive reentry, if not they burn up and fall apart. It’s important to note that although countries have ICBMs, none have ever been fired in anger against another country.

“This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation that of space travel.” –  Walter Dornberger

Optics – Application, Laser optics, Fiber optics communication

The formal study of light began as an effort to explain vision. Early Greek thinkers associated with a ray emitted from the human eye. A surviving work from Euclid, the Greek geometrician, laid out basic concepts of perspective, using straight lines to show why objects at a distance appear shorter or slower than they actually are. Eleventh-century Islamic scholar Abu Ali al Hasan Ibn Al-Haytham known also by the Latinized name Alhazen revisited the work done by Euclid and Ptolemy and advanced the study of reflection, refraction, and color. He argued that light moves out in all directions from illuminated objects and that vision results when light enters the eye. In the late 16th and 17th centuries, researches including Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snel noticed that light bent as it passed through a lens or fluid. Although he believed the speed of light to be infinite, Danish astronomer Ole Romar in 1676 used telescopic observations of Jupiter moons to estimate the speed of light as 140,000 miles a second. Around the same time, Sir Isaac Newton used prisms to demonstrate that white light could be separated into a spectrum of basics colors. He believed that light was made of particles, where as Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens described light as a wave.

The particle versus the wave debate advanced in the 1800s. English physician Thomas young’s experiments with vision suggested wavelike behavior, since sources of light seemed to cancel out or reinforce each other. Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxell’s research united the forces of electromagnetism fell along a single spectrum. Te arrival of quantum physics in late 19th and early 20th century prompted the next leap in understanding light. By studying the emission of electrons from a grid hit by a beam of light known as the photoelectric effect Albert Einstein concluded that light came from what he called photons, emitted as electrons changed their orbit around an atomic nucleus and then jumped back to their original state. Through Einstein’s finding seemed to favor the particle theory of light, further experiments showed that light and matter itself behave both as waves and as particles.

How do lasers work?

Einstein’s work on the photoelectric effect led to the laser, an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission radiation.” As electrons are exited from one quantum state to another, they emit a single photon when jumping back. But Einstein predicted that when an already excited atom was hit with the right type of stimulus, it would give off two identical photons. Subsequent experiments showed that certain source materials, such as ruby, not only did that but also emitted photons that were perfectly coherent-not scattered like the emissions of a flashlight, but all of the same wavelength and amplitude. These powerfully focused beams are now common-place, found in grocery store scanners, handheld pointers, and cutting instruments from the hospital operating room to the shop floors of heavy industry.

Future trends in fiber optics communication

Fiber optics communication is definitely the future of data communication. The evolution of fiber optic communication has been driven by advancement in technology and increased demand for fiber optic communication. It is expected to continue into the future, with the development of new and more advanced communication technology.

Another future trend will be the extension of present semiconductor lasers to a wider variety of lasing wavelengths. Shorter wavelength lasers with very high input powers are of interest in some high density optical applications. Presently, laser sources which are spectrally shaped through chirp managing to compensate for chromatic dispersion are available. Chirp managing means that the laser is controlled such that it undergoes a sudden change in its wavelength when firing a pulse, such that the chromatic dispersion experienced by the pulse is reduced. There is need to develop instruments to be used to characterize such lasers. Also, single mode tunable lasers are of great importance for future coherent optical systems. These tunable lasers laser in a single longitudinal mode that can be tuned to a range of different frequencies.

“Music is the arithmetic of sounds as optics is the geometry of light.” – Claude Debussy

Does sneezing stops your heart?

Most of us have experienced it while in our class, meeting or at any other important commitments. Yes, sneezing, especially when we were suffering from some allergies, we can’t control it, but why do we sneeze? What’s the reason behind it? Well a sneeze is officially called as Sternutation. Sneezing is an involuntary activity of our body to clear our nose. Whenever a foreign matter such as dust, dirt, germs or anything that shouldn’t be there enters your nostrils, the nose get irritated and it sends a message to your brain. Then to remove the particle your brain sends a message to all of your muscles for a sudden exhalation process called a sneeze, and it would take only milliseconds for your brain to process this. In 2002, a study at Denmark’s department of Otorhinolaryngology at Rigshospitalet showed that 95% of people sneeze four times or less each day. Worldwide, we could be sneezing upwards of 7.8 billion times a day.

Shot of an attractive young woman feeling ill and blowing her nose with a tissue at home

Cultural beliefs about sneezing

          Many people think that sneeze is a sign of good luck, while others think it’s a bad sign. People in ancient Greece, 400BC believed these sneezes are favorable sign from the gods. During the 6th century, the plague killed 200 million people all over the world; sneeze is also one of the symptoms of this disease. So people started to believe that sneeze is a sign of death and by saying “bless you” they thought it may prevent them from being infected and some used to consider as a final blessing. That’s why still some people say “God bless you” when someone sneeze.

Does really sneeze stops our heart?

        Do you know? Your sneeze can create 100,000 droplets and it can travel up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) an hour. Yes it’s more likely a faster way to spread diseases than a cough. So while sneezing, our heart stops for a second and start after that? Well it seems like it takes a break but, it’s not the case. Usually we inhale deeply before sneezing; this increases the pressure in your chest and slows down the blood flow to your heart. The heart compensates this by changing to its regular beat right after we sneeze. So it only reduces the heart rate for a short period of time rather than stopping it. Do you know? The heart can continue to beat for a short time after being removed from the body because; it has its own electrical system that can pump blood as long as it gets oxygen. So a sneeze won’t stop the electrical activity of our heart.

Is holding your sneeze dangerous?

       Most of us hate sneezing in awkward situations, it makes us embarrassed. Did you ever tried to hold your sneeze? If you did, the following incident will show why you should not. A 34 year old man has admitted to a hospital in the UK for serious neck infection. Doctors found that the pressure built from the sneeze cant able to escape as he blocked his nose and mouth. It causes rupture in the cavity that connects our nose and mouth called pharynx. It seems that he is trying to hold his sneeze every time for the last 30 years because, he feels that it would be unhygienic to sneeze into the atmosphere. He was hospitalized for a week and doctors treated him with the necessary antibiotics to cure the infection.

      Sneezing is one of the primary defense systems in our body to get rid of harmful irritants in our nose. The entered irritant somehow should have to go out. So, don’t try to hold it, just let it happen.

“I used to wake up at 4 AM and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness”.     – James Thurber.