Hygiene is very important in life. Lack of it besets one with a lot of health, psychological and social problems. But hygiene means different things to people of different cultures, explains A. Radhakrishnan. Defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as ‘the things that you do to keep yourself and your surroundings clean in order to maintain good health’, hygiene incidentally includes, apart from ‘cleanliness’, all circumstances and practices, lifestyle issues, premises and commodities that engender a safe and healthy environment. The word is derived from the Greek Goddess of health ‘Hygeia’. Ill health risks are reduced through hygienic practices, but…
Author: oiop
We live in a world intrinsically connected. Bad practices in one sphere of life can affect another. Thus, overburning of fossil fuels raise the carbondioxide levels in the atmosphere, which settle on the ocean surface, turning it acidic. This in turn affects the marine creatures and hence, the food chain. We should act fast lest we reach the point of no return, cautions Vineeta Ghosh. Ocean acidification is relatively a new environmental concern. It’s of concern primarily for its potential of changing the chemistry of our marine water bodies, and consequently, its negative impact on all other stages of ‘ecosystem…
The oceans are the last sink and repository of data for climate change. The undisturbed sediments or microfossils in the ocean tell many stories, says Dr. Rajani Panchang, who studies them to arrive at credible climate data. The first thing that I am asked as an oceanographer is “Wow! Do you dive? Have you seen whales?” and most of the questions that follow are those on marine life. There are mixed reactions when I tell them I send instruments into the oceans from aboard a ship, to bring back cores of sediments, so that I can study past climates. I…
Revolutionary literateur (1949– 2014) In the end, it is Namdeo Dhasal’s poetry that defines him, defines his political initiatives and actions. Though without the fire that raged in him about the life and conditions of not only Dalits, but also the working class of Mumbai, his poetry would not have throbbed and disturbed the way it did. Reading him was never and is not an experience to calm the nerves, reading him is to be left shaken and provoked, perhaps to even have many of your fond illusions brutally shattered. He did that with great style and sophistication; make no…
In recent months, certain incidents have led us to question Indian society’s tolerance and openness. When the Leslie Udwin documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ was banned by the Indian government, it led to an outcry from the liberal sections of society. This documentary is based on reconstructing and analysing the horrific gang rape that took place in New Delhi on 16 December 2012. It was another matter that the filmmaker was given permission to meet and interview one of the rapists inside Tihar Jail by the Central Government, albeit the previous one. So it was not even a clandestine meeting.Then the AIB…
Most companies have a Human Resources (HR) department, but with a limited role. Mature is the management which can make the shift to a larger context and meaning for its HR department. Called Transformational HR, this ensures that HR actively helps script a better growth, environment and prospects for the company, says Amrita Nair. The human resources (HR) department has existed since the First World War though under different names like Personnel Administration, Industrial Relations, Labour Relations and so on. They denoted the different areas that required special focus which were all related to workers. As it stands today, HR…
The cuts in social sector spending in the recent Union Budget have flagged many concerns. It is expected that the individual state governments will pick up the slack as their share of Central taxes has increased. But whether this will really happen, remains to be seen. The Union Budget for fiscal year 2015-16 introduced very high and unprecedented cuts in high social priority programmes like the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services), midday meals, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (school education), Indira Awas Yojna (rural housing) and women’s welfare. The cut-back in RKVY from Rs. 8,444 to Rs.…
What was it about prisons that brought the best creative work out of our leaders like Tilak, Gandhi, Nehru and Patel? Did the prison sojourns give them the reflective space necessary for deep introspection? Tushar Gandhi analyses the cause and effect of these prison stays on our freedom movement. Prisons are also called Correctional Facilities, meaning where a flaw in a person is detected and it is corrected, while that person is kept in isolation from society. Many a times, this is true only in philosophy; in reality, prisons, due to their inherent brutality, harden and criminalise more than they…
Overcrowding in Indian prisons is a reality. But not if you are a “VVVIP”, when the prisons will follow your diktat, says V. Gangadhar. Now that Spring and April have arrived in England, the English poet can well sing, ‘O to be in England, now that April is there’. We being poor Indians see nothing special in Indian summer and Indian April which is only less hot than May. Of late,weather Gods are unkind to India. Floods in April, heat wave in Mumbai during March, summer in winter, winter in summer and so on.Where does prison and prison life fit…
Deep in the African jungles, he is known as the Ghost Who Walks. The Phantom, as generations of readers all over the world know him, hails from a long line of crimefighters; he is actually the 21st Phantom, who has vowed, like the others before him, to fight greed, piracy, cruelty and injustice of any kind. The Phantom first appeared in a newspaper comic strip way back in 1936. Even then, stories of masked crime-fighters like Zorro were popular. However, the Phantom was the first masked hero to appear in a comic strip. He was also the first to wear…