80 INSCRIPTIONS TO DISAPPEAR PERMANENTLY

Gold coat to hide Tirumala carvings

Tirupati: The glorious history of the reigning deity of Tirumala, Lord Venkateswara, and of the richest shrine is known to the world, thanks to hundreds of inscriptions engraved on the walls of Tirumala as well as in other TTD-run temples here. But blame it on TTD’s mega Ananda Nilayam Anantha Swarnamayam (gold coating) project of the temple, about 80 inscriptions are going to disappear permanently from the public view.
It was Mahant Prayagdas who started it all by doing a thorough research on the inscriptions in 1920. Later, epigraphist and archaeologist Sadhu Subramanya Shastri took over the mantle as he did research for a period of 11 years from 1922 to 1933 by translating hundreds of Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada inscriptions to English, using the ‘eye copy’ technique. Shastri brought to light several inscriptions engraved on temple walls, pillars and gopurams. About 640 inscriptions in Tirumala shrine, 340 in Sri Govindaraja Swamy temple, 170 in almost half a dozen temples of TTD located in and around Tirupati saw the light of the day.
All these 1,150 inscriptions were later brought out in the form of books by Shastri, which is considered one of the greatest works done on the Tirumala inscriptions as yet. Of these, 236 belonged to the Pallava, Chola and Pandya dynasties, while
169 belonged to the age of Saluva dynasty. While 251 belonged to Achutaraya period, 130 to Sadasivaraya period and another 135 originated in Aravidu dynasty.
A majority of these inscriptions are in Tamil, followed by Kannada and a few in Telugu. The inscription belonging to 830 AD during the time of Pallava king Vijayadanti Verman is considered the oldest one. With the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) launching the gold coating work last year, doubts cropped up over the safety of the inscriptions. However, the TTD took care to digitise all the inscriptions present inside the walls of sanctum of first prakaram and handed over the estampage works to the Archaeological Survey of India, Mysore.
S e n i o r epigraphist K Muniratnam Reddy said 80 inscriptions engraved on the north, south and west walls of first prakara inside the sanctorum have been estampaged (taking the imprints of the inscriptions before gold malam works are done) for the purpose. “We have done the process on 80 inscriptions. Of which, 43 measured over 16 ft in length so that the letters engraved on them would not be destroyed. Of the 80 inscriptions, 55 are in Tamil, 15 in Kannada and 10 in Telugu, which include the enumerable and precious donations by Pallava Samavai (9 AD), Pridhivi Mahendra Verman, Cholas of Tamil Nadu, Vijayanagara rulers of Andhra and Karnataka,” Muniratnam said.

Drive for organ donor clause in licences

Chennai: In a novel attempt to create large-scale awareness on organ donation, members of Mohan (Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network) Foundation has received 2,500 signatures in a campaign to push for the inclusion of an organ donor clause in driving licenses.
Speaking at a function here on Sunday, Dr Sunil Shroff, managing trustee, Mohan Foundation, said, “Today, there are 1 million people in India who suffer from diabetes and 8 million from hypertension. Endstage kidney failure is the next big epidemic that is waiting to happen in the country. At this point, the requirement for organs will be huge,” he said. Dr Shroff said that there were only 0.08 donors per million population in India. Though the state government passed a GO last year (for doctors to compulsorily declare cases of brain death), there is a need to create large scale awareness on the issue. We thought the best way to do this would be to include a clause: ‘I wish to donate my organs after my death. Yes/No’ in documents like driving licenses or PAN cards. We are meeting a representative from the central government later this week to see if we can introduce this in the national ID cards as well,” he said.
Tamil Nadu’s additional chief secretary Syed Munir Hooda said, “Since no religion prohibits the concept of organ donation, Mohan Foundation could organise a conference of all the religious heads to take the message across to members of their community.” Principal secretary and Transport Commissioner S Machendranathan said the campaign was well-timed as the state was on the brink of implementing a ‘smart card’ system for driving licenses. “The government will take note of this initiative,” he added.
Actor Revathy, who was the first registered organ donor with Mohan Foundation in 1997, said it was important for family members accept an individual’s intention to donate organs. Six rallyists, who covered a distance of 2,000 km on their motorbikes to create awareness about organ donation, were felicitated at the event.

SUPPORTING A CAUSE: Actor Revathy shows her Organ Donor card at a function organised to campaign for the inclusion of ‘Organ Donation Clause’ in driving licences

rural stud lag behind?

Urban school kids in India hooked online

As per a survey of Indian school children conducted by TCS, majority of school kids in ubran areas are pretty active online.

Some highlights from the survey:

* 63% of urban students spend over an hour online daily
* 93% are aware of social networking
* Orkut and Facebook are most popular online destinations
* 46% use online sources to access news; TV, Newspaper users at 25%
* 62% have a personal computer at home
* 1 in 4 students own lap-tops in metros; 2 of 3 own music players
* IT and engineering remain overwhelming popular career choices
* Media & Entertainment, Travel and Tourism are emerging careers
* USA, UK top list of international destinations for higher studies


The survey was conducted across 14000 high school kids between the ages of 12-18 in 12 cities across India during 2008-2009. This is by far, one of the largest surveys in this age demographic that I’ve personally seen.

Amongst other things, one additional intesting highlight is the fact that 80% of the kids surveyed said that they have access to mobile phones.

Another interesting highlight: 41% of the kids cite Google as their most preferred source of information — print (26%) and TV(25%) came in 2nd and 3rd.

People who multitask often bad at it, says varsity study

Washington: The people who multitask the most are the ones who are worst at it. That’s the surprising conclusion of researchers at Stanford University, who found multitaskers are more easily distracted and less able to ignore irrelevant information than people who do less multitasking.
“The huge finding is, the more media people use the worse they are at using any media. We were totally shocked,” Clifford Nass, a professor at Stanford’s communications department, said in a telephone interview.
The researchers studied 262 college undergraduates, dividing them into high and low multitasking groups and comparing such things as memory, ability to switch from one task to another and being able to focus on a task. Their findings are reported in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
When it came to such essential abilities, people who did a lot of multitasking didn’t score as well as others, Nass said. Still to be answered is why the folks who are worst at multitasking are the ones doing it the most.
It’s sort of a chicken-oregg question.
“Is multitasking causing them to be lousy at multitasking, or is their lousiness at multitasking causing them to be multitaskers?” Nass wondered. “Is it born or learned?” In a society that seems to encourage more and more multitasking, the findings have social implications, Nass observed. Multitasking is already blamed for car crashes as several states restrict the use of cell phones while driving.
Lawyers or advertisers can try to use irrelevant information to distract and refocus people to influence their decisions.
In the study, the researchers first had to figure out who are the heavy and light multitaskers. They gave the students a form listing a variety of media such as print, television, computer-based video, music, computer games, telephone voice or text, and so forth.
The students were asked, for each form of media, which other forms they used at the same time always, often, sometimes or never. AP

Diet for blood pressure patients

Avoid cereals, pulses and milk products for first three months of detection of BP problems. As the digestion improves and BP normalises, start taking cereals in moderation


HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE Hypertension is the result of unhygienic habits of living
Obesity is the cause associated with it Recommended foods: Apples: They have a rapid and considerable diuretic effect causing increased secretion of urine and thus bringing down blood pressure to normal. Lemon: It is a rich source of Vitamin C and strengthens the arteries if consumed in moderation. Garlic: One of the most effective remedies to lower the blood pressure. It benefits more when taken raw.
Slows the pulse
Modifies the heart rhythm
Relieves dizziness, shortness of breath and formation of gas
Has the effect of making the blood vessels wider, thereby reducing the pressure Brown rice: Calcium present in brown rice soothes and relaxes the nervous system leading to a very low rate of hypertension Beet root: Excellent solvent for calcium deposits. Helpful in treating hypertension. Can be taken in salads. LOW BLOOD PRESSURE
Happens due to anaemia
In woman due to excessive bleeding during menses
Due to depression Recommended foods: Banana stem: Its juice is very alkaline and clears the arteries dissolving any toxic substance in the blood vessels. Bilva: Also known as bel patta, is a good blood purifier and can be taken in juice form. Do’s and Dont’s
Amla and aloevera juice should be taken daily in the morning to flush body toxins
Avoid cereals, pulses, gram, milk and milk products for first three months of detection of BP problems. As the digestion improves and BP normalises, start taking cereals etc in moderation
Avoid fried, processed and refined foods
Fasting on coconut water along with fresh fruits for 2-3 days minimum in two weeks
Vegetables raw/boiled or soups are also recommended
Eat at least 3 hours before sleeping
Avoid tea, coffee, soft drinks etc. If the total approach is adopted towards restoration of good health, the blood pressure will become normal in about 3 months

Engg colleges charge govt quota students higher fees


Chennai: Making a mockery of merit-based admissions made under the government quota, some selffinancing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu are demanding astronomical sums as fees from students allotted BE/ BTech seats through the single window counselling.
As per the fee fixed by a committee headed by retired Madras high court Judge N V Balasubramanian, constituted under directions from the Supreme Court, students admitted to BE/ BTech courses under the government quota have to pay only Rs 40,000 as tuition fees. If the course is not accredited by the National Board of Accreditation, then they have to pay just Rs 32,500 per annum.
However, several students who turn up at the admission offices of some self-financing engineering colleges in different parts of Tamil Nadu with the government quota allotment order are finding to their dismay that the managements are demanding much higher fees. In some cases, the amount demanded is over Rs 80,000.
The colleges are collecting the excess fee in black and refusing to reflect the entire amount collected in the receipts issued to students. As a result, students are unable to lodge complaints with proof of the monetary exploitation. Secondly, they are unable to raise education loans through banks for the entire sum because the excess money is not accounted for.
“When I went to a college in Namakkal district where my son was allotted a BE (Information Technology) seat, the college demanded Rs 95,000 from us. The staff told us that Rs 75,000 was the fees and Rs 20,000 must be paid for books. But they offered a receipt for only Rs 40,000,” complained Hamsavardhan (name changed), a resident of Chennai. “There was no use protesting, because when we raised questions, the staff said we were free to lodge a complaint anywhere,” he added.
Similarly, many colleges located in and around Chennai too are demanding up to Rs 80,000 as fees from government quota students.
When this correspondent called up a couple of colleges introducing himself as the guardian of a government quota student and sought to know the fee structure, the staff refused to disclose it. “You can come to our admission cell with the allotment card and we will tell you the fees,” said a lady staff at a college in Namakkal. When the correspondent contacted another staff of the same college and argued that knowing the fee structure will help in arranging cash when the student is admitted, he said “You don’t worry about that. If you run short of cash here, we will give you a week’s time to arrange it.”
Tamil Nadu higher education principal secretary K Ganesan said it was illegal for colleges to collect excess fees than what has been fixed by the Judge Balasubramanian committee. “It is normal for colleges to collect fees towards caution deposit, transportation, sports activities and so on. But they cannot collect excess tuition fee without justification. Students and parents can pass on information about monetary exploitation to me, the commissioner for technical education or the government constituted monitoring committee and we will certainly take action,” he assured.

INVASION OF THE AEDES
Shift in mosquito population
Malaria-Causing Vectors Replaced By Those Causing Dengue & Chikungunya


Chennai: There might have been a 49% decrease in the cases of malaria since 2005, but the directorate of public health forecasts an increase in the cases of either dengue or chikungunya this monsoon. It has even devised strategies and plans for civic bodies to tackle the breeding of vectors to prevent their spread.
“The forecast is based on some scientific data we have at hand,” says director of public health Dr S Elango. “In the last few months, our entomologists have seen a drift in the mosquito population across the state. The malaria-causing anopheles, which formed nearly 80% of the diseasespreading vectors, have been replaced by another genre, aedes, which causes chikungunya or dengue,” he said. The cases of malaria in TN recorded an all-time low in 2009.
In 2005, the state recorded nearly 40,000 cases of malaria, which came down to about 28,000 in 2006. “That year
changed the monsoon-disease dynamics even in the city. It was a year that saw maximum number of chikungunya cases,” points out Chennai Corporation health officer Dr P Kuganandam. Chennai, which records about 80% of the state’s malaria cases, has also recorded a drastic decline.
In 2006, there were 64,802 cases of chikungunya in Tamil Nadu, while dengue cases fell from 1,150 to 477. In 2007, dengue rose to 700 while malaria was down to 22,000 cases. Last year, the number of dengue cases was 650 and malaria 21,000. In 2009, until June, 483 malaria cases were recorded as against 326 dengue and 440 chikungunya cases. In July alone, the state recorded 114 chikungunya cases and 37 dengue cases. The data for malaria is yet to be assessed. “But it is surely not higher than 50,” said an analyst at the directorate of public health.
Entomologists have noticed stephensi being increasingly replaced by aedes aegypti in the most common places they were earlier sighted. “We don’t know why this happened,” says state’s chief entomologist Dr S Sridharan. “It is possibly like how the American variety of the cockroach called periplaneta americana, the brown ones that we see commonly, replaced the native Indian striped grey variety we see no more.” The department, he said, will be studying the sudden population shift with the assistance of the Institute of Vector Control and Zoonoses in Hosur.
BEWARE of the BITE
There are approximately 3,500 species of mosquitoes, grouped into 41 genera. They are vectors causing several diseases, mostly after rains, that include malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis and filariasis. The female mosquitoes draw blood, which has the protein required by them to lay their eggs AEDES: Commonly spotted species are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. The flight range for this vector is 100 m from the breeding site and hence the disease it causes, be it dengue or chikungunya, is always seen in clusters
They are day biting mosquitoes, active in late morning and early evening
They are anthroprophilic, which means they feed only on human blood. But they change hosts frequently. One meal often comes from 4-5 persons
They breed in artificial containers like pots of water, holes in trees, coconut shells and all other places that have no soil content
In the case of dengue, the virus is even passed on to the progeny
ANOPHELES:
Commonly spotted species are Anopheles stephensi and Anopheles culicifacies. The flight range is up to half a kilometer from the breeding site — the reason why malarial outbreaks happen in a wider region
They are night biting mosquitos, active in early mornings and late evenings
While stephensi predominantly goes for the human blood, cuclifaces draws blood from humans as well as animals
The vector pierces into the skin with its stylus and sucks out the blood
Stephensi breeds in clear water, wells and irrigation tanks where there is no organic pollution, while culicifacies can survive in mildly saline water

Aedes aegypti


Anopheles


What is malaria?
It is caused by a parasite called plasmodium, which is transmitted through the bite of infected female anopheles.
Parasites multiply in the liver and infect red blood cells. Fever, headache and vomiting usually appear 10-15 days after the bite. Can become life-threatening


What is dengue?
It is transmitted by the bite of an aedes infected with one of the four dengue viruses. Symptoms range from mild to incapacitating high fever, with severe headache and pain in muscles and joints. Dengue haemorrhagic fever is potentially lethal, affecting mainly children


What is chikungunya?
It is a mosquito-borne viral disease characterised by abrupt onset of fever and debilitating joint pain. Recovery takes a few days or weeks, but joint pain may persist for several months or even years

Need to avoid tis prod to save our ppl n nation!!!

Coca-Cola, Pepsi on Beijing's worst polluter list: Govt

BEIJING: The Beijing plants of US soft drink giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been listed as among the top 12 factories causing major water


pollution in China's capital, the city government has announced.

The list issued by the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, the capital's economic planning agency, was published along with the top 15 energy users in the capital, which included the Beijing Benz-DaimlerChrysler plant.

China has set a goal of reducing average energy consumption by 20 percent from 2006 to 2010. This means it has to cut average consumption by four percent annually over the five-year period, a target it has so far failed to meet.

"2009 is a key year for fulfilling our energy-saving and pollution-reduction goals," the commission said in a statement on its website, cited by the Beijing News today.

The 27 entities will be subject to increased supervision and asked to submit plans to reduce energy use and pollution emissions, the commission said.

PepsiCo-Beijing and Coca-Cola-Beijing refused immediate comment on the issue when contacted by AFP today.

The Beijing News quoted Beijing Benz-DaimlerChrysler as saying it would this year "step up the scope of reducing energy use and emissions, saving energy and treating waste water and waste through technological upgrading".

Went is wil come into action???

India must invest in green technology: PM

NEW DELHI: India's prime minister said on Tuesday the country must invest in its own environmentally friendly technologies, the latest in myriad


pledges from one of the world's biggest polluters to fight climate change.

Manmohan Singh's comments underlined how India was seeking to undercut demands by rich nations for it to do more to curb carbon emissions. New Delhi has constantly resisted emissions targets, saying it will take its own unilateral action to cut pollution.

Global negotiations for a new U.N. agreement on climate change are stuck on the question of how much cash or technology rich nations will provide the poorer countries.

Singh's comments also signaled that India, the world's fourth-largest polluter, was willing to put in money to develop expensive clean technologies to supplement what it might get from rich countries.

"Our growth strategy can be different. It must be different," the prime minister said, referring to the western world's decades of industrialization that is blamed for climate change.

He said India's energy use will rise sharply in the coming decades as it tries to lift a multitude out of poverty, but stressed a different development path must be walked.

"For this we need access to new technologies that are already available with developed countries. We must also make our own investments in new environment-friendly technologies," he told a national conference on environment and forests in New Delhi.

India has already announced several steps to fight global warming, such as ramping up solar power investment, expanding forest cover and bringing in domestic energy efficiency trading.

"In dealing with the challenge of climate change and environmental degradation we face the unfair burden of past mistakes not of our making," Singh said.

"However, as we go forward in the march of development we have the opportunity not to repeat those mistakes."

With about 500 million people, or about half the population lacking access to electricity and relying on dirty coal to expand the power grid, India's booming economy has huge potential to leap-frog to a low-carbon future.

But it says it needs a little hand-holding by rich countries to keep it on the right path.