Law passed in Parliament: Leprosy no longer grounds for divorce

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February 13, 2019

Parliament on Wednesday passed a Bill removing leprosy as a ground for divorce under five personal laws including the Hindu Marriage Act. The Rajya Sabha on the last day of the Budget session passed the Bill without debate after consensus on the issue.

However, consensus eluded on the Consumer Protection Bill which the government sought to push on Wednesday. The Upper House first passed The Personal Laws amendment Bill 2018 by voice vote and then Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu took up the Consumer Protection Bill but the same was met by vociferous protest from TMC and Left parties forcing a 10-minute adjournment of proceedings.

When the House reassembled, Naidu said there was a communication gap on the Consumer Protection Bill and the same would not be taken up. The Consumer Protection Bill 2018, which will replace the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, seeks to strengthen the rights of consumers and also provides a mechanism for redressal of complaints regarding defects in goods and deficiency in services. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha in December 2018.

While opposing the passage of the Bill without debate, TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said the proposed law would weaken the state consumer forums by giving disproportionate powers to the central consumer body. Left parties also opposed passage of the Bill without debate.

The Personal Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 seeks to remove leprosy as a ground for divorce in five personal laws — Hindu Marriage Act, Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, Divorce Act (for Christians), Special Marriage Act and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act.

The Law Commission in its report had recommended repeal of laws and provisions which were discriminatory against leprosy affected people. Besides, India is a signatory to a UN Resolution which calls for elimination of discrimination against persons suffering from leprosy. In 2014, the Supreme Court had also asked the Centre and the state governments to take steps for rehabilitation and integration of leprosy affected people into the mainstream.

Bharat Forge Q3 profit up 36% at Rs 310 crore

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Web Team

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February 13, 2019

Auto component major Bharat Forge on Wednesday reported 35.79 percent increase in standalone net profit at Rs 309.83 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2018. The company had reported a profit of Rs 228.17 crore in the same quarter last fiscal, Bharat Forge said in a regulatory filing.

Total income during the quarter under review stood at Rs 1,740.37 crore as against Rs 1,412.47 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

Bharat Forge Chairman and Managing Director B N Kalyani said the growth in revenue and profit in the third quarter was on the back of strong performance across key verticals and all geographies. Key highlights during the quarter include quarterly revenues from oil and gas verticals and the aerospace and defence verticals. The company secured new orders worth $ 6.5 million from commercial vehicle (CV) and industrial sectors.

On the outlook, Kalyani said that the company expects demand to sustain in the fourth quarter at the current levels. The domestic CV sector is witnessing some softness in demand because of de-stocking and we expect it to become normal in the next few months.

The company also said that its board has approved reappointment of Amit B Kalyani as Executive Director of the company for a period of five years with effect from May 11, 2019. Amit Kalyani is the son of the company’s CMD B N Kalyani.

I’m sure there will be some other version of ‘Harry Potter’ in future: Radcliffe

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Web Team

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February 13, 2019

Daniel Radcliffe has predicted that there will be future adaptations of JK Rowlings famous “Harry Potter” book series.

The 29-year-old actor, who was catapulted to fame after playing the title character in the film series based on Rowling’s books, told media in an interview that he is certain someone else will definitely play the role in the future.

“I’m sure there will be some other version of it; I know I’m not the last Harry Potter I’m gonna see in my lifetime – we’ve already got a few more,” he said while referring to the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” play.

“It will be interesting to see how long those films stay. It feels like there’s a sacredness around them at the moment, but that’ll go, the shine will wear off at some point. It’ll be interesting if they reboot them and just do the films again or do a series; I’m fascinated to watch,” he added.

The actor was promoting his new TBS comedy series “Miracle Workers”, where he is playing the lead.

Scientists discover flying squirrels that turn hot-pink

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Web Team

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February 13, 2019

Squirrels are cute, and it turns out that one flying type of squirrel also turns pink. A new study reveals that scientists have discovered that the North American flying squirrel or Glaucomys turn pink at night.

The study in the Journal of Mammology describes that these flying squirrels fluoresce at night. It was during an investigation led by Jon Martin, a professor in the forestry department at Wisconsin’s Northland College, who was scanning his backyard with an ultraviolet flashlight to see which lichens, mosses and plants fluoresced, Cnet reported.

The flying squirrel was spotted then, which glowed hot pink under the ultraviolet light. This led to further research leading to the discovery of all North American flying squirrel species fluoresced.

It is unclear as to why these flying squirrels fluoresce, but researchers attribute it to the survival instinct. The bright night flashes may be to alert other squirrels as they glide through trees.

Climate change may destroy Bengal tiger’s home, study suggests

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Web Team

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February 13, 2019

Last coastal stronghold of an iconic predator, the endangered Bengal tiger, could be destroyed by climate change and rising sea levels over the next 50 years, a recent study claims.

According to Bill Laurance, lead researcher of the study, fewer than 4,000 Bengal tigers are alive today. That’s a really low number for the world’s biggest cat, which used to be far more abundant but today is mainly confined to small areas of India and Bangladesh.

“Spanning more than 10,000 square kilometres, the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh and India is the biggest mangrove forest on Earth, and also the most critical area for Bengal tiger survival,” said Sharif Mukul, lead author of the study.

Explaining the findings of their research Mukul said, “What is most terrifying is that our analyses suggest tiger habitats in the Sundarbans will vanish entirely by 2070.”

Finding of the study were published in the journal of Science of The Total Environment.

The researchers used computer simulations to assess the future suitability of the low-lying Sundarban region for tigers and their prey species, using mainstream estimates of climatic trends from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their analyses included factors such as extreme weather events and sea-level rise.

“Beyond climate change, the Sundarbans are under growing pressure from industrial developments, new roads, and greater poaching. So, tigers are getting a double whammy — greater human encroachment on the one hand and a worsening climate and associated sea-level rises on the other,” said Laurance.

The researchers stated that the more of the Sundarbans that can be conserved — via new protected areas and reducing illegal poaching — the more resilient it will be to future climatic extremes and rising sea levels.

“Our analyses are a preliminary picture of what could happen if we don’t start to look after Bengal tigers and their critical habitats,” said Mukul.

“There is no other place like the Sundarbans left on Earth. We have to look after this iconic ecosystem if we want amazing animals like the Bengal tiger to have a chance of survival,” added Laurance.

Oldest evidence of mobility on Earth discovered by scientists

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Web Team

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February 13, 2019

A team of international scientists have discovered ancient fossils of the first ever organisms to exhibit movement.

The fossils, discovered in rocks in Gabon and dating back approximately 2.1 billion years, suggest the existence of a cluster of single cells that came together to form a slug-like multicellular organism that moved through the mud in search of a more favourable environment.

The team state that the new discovery places the first ever evidence of mobility on Earth to more than 1.5 billion years earlier than previously thought.

It raises new questions regarding the history of life.

Previous discoveries dated the earliest traces of locomotion in complex organisms in much younger rocks dated at around 570 million years ago from various localities.

In a new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team report finding similar trace movements for complex organisms that thrived 2.1 billion years ago in the Francevillian inland Sea.

The fossils are preserved as tubular structures running through the rock in thin layers with a consistent diameter of a few millimetres. Located next to these tubular structures were fossilised microbial biofilms which, the researchers believe, acted as grazing grounds for the multicellular organisms.

Speaking about it, co-author of the study Dr Ernest Chi Fru, said, “It is plausible that the organisms behind this phenomenon moved in search of nutrients and oxygen that were produced by bacteria mats on the seafloor-water interface,” adding, “The results raise a number of fascinating questions about the history of life on Earth, and how and when organisms began to move. Was this a primitive biological innovation, a prelude to more perfected forms of locomotion seen around us today, or was this simply an experiment that was cut short?”

Visiting Mars next frontier in space: Ex-astronaut Charles Duke

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Web Team

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February 13, 2019

The next big step in space will be the landing of human beings on Mars, and any Indian can do this, said Charles Duke, the youngest spaceologist to walk on the moon at the age of 36.

Duke, now 83, was in Jaipur on Tuesday to address the students of Gyan Vihar University.

Sharing his experiences, the American astronaut said he along with his two companions had landed on the moon in 1972 via Apollo 16, the 10th manned mission in the US Apollo space programme, and the fifth and penultimate to land on the moon, and the first to land in the lunar highlands.

Duke and stayed on the moon for about 20 hours and 15 minutes.

Talking to students, he said: “I completed my education from MIT and then started working in NASA. I got involved with the Apollo programme from the very beginning. During Apollo 11, I was given the responsibility of the control room and was later selected for Apollo 16.”

Duke, who retired as a Brigadier General in the US army, shared the emotional moments of putting his foot on the moon with students.

He had travelled in a rocket named ‘Saturn’, and was the youngest scientist to visit the moon. Duke said he joined the Mission as a Lunar module pilot in the Apollo 16 campaign. Apollo 16 was a big, and one of the most important scientific initiative being taken on the moon.

“Whenever I recall those thrilling moments, I become emotional,” he said.

He spoke about how his hammer fell on the moon’s surface while collecting rock and soil samples, and how much difficulty he faced to lift it up. Understanding the difference of gravity is not at all easy, he said citing this example.

Duke said he weighed just 27 kg and travelled around 5 km at a speed of 17 km per hour. He left a photo of his family on the moon for remembrance.

“Maintaining body temperature on the moon was a big challenge and I had to make many efforts to save myself,” he said.

On the occasion, university Chairman Sunil Sharma said the conference hall would be named after Charles Duke.

Shutdown in Kashmir: Separatists warn authorities

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Web Team

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February 13, 2019

Normal life was hit in Kashmir on Wednesday due to a shutdown called by separatists to protest against the legal challenge to Article 35-A and Article 370 of the Constitution, which grant special privileges to Jammu and Kashmir. Petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutional validity of the articles.

The two-day shutdown, which began on Wednesday, has been called by the Joint Resistance Leadership, comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments were shut in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, while public transport was off the roads. However, private vehicles could be seen plying in several areas of the city, official said.

The separatists, under the banner of JRL on Tuesday called for the shutdown, saying that the legal challenge to the articles is an “extremely critical issue” of the very existence as a people and of “our disputed status”. However, the officials said that the reports of shutdown were received from other district headquarters in the Valley. Articles 35-A and 370 grant special status to Jammu and Kashmir and special rights and privileges to its “permanent residents”, respectively.

The JRL in a statement has said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir will forcefully resist every challenge by New Delhi to change the demography of the state by rolling back hereditary state subject laws of 1927 (protected by Article 35-A of the Constitution), being contested in the Supreme Court of India through their agents.

They warned the authorities that “if anything adverse to the interests of the people of J-K and its disputed status is announced through the courts, a mass people’s agitation will be started instantly across the state and the responsibility of the consequences of that will be entirely on those forcing us to react”.

This Valentines, gift your loved ones a gift of togetherness & timeless love

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C K Subramaniam

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February 13, 2019

Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14. It is a festival of romantic love and many people give cards, letters, flowers or present to their spouse or partner. They may also arrange a romantic meal in a restaurant or night in a hotel. Common symbols of Valentine’s Day are hearts, red roses, and Cupid. Expensive restaurant bookings made a month in advance, the last-minute rush to buy gifts and the demands of trying to plan the perfect romantic evening are all part and parcel of that large marketing event we know as Valentine’s Day. Sure, if you boil the day down to its basics, it’s a time when you and your partner can get together and spend some quality time.

The Hindu culture contradicts many of the western world’s ideals. Valentine’s Day celebrations are known to clash with India’s conservative religious background. Just like most people in the world, many men and women of India, particularly young couples, celebrate Valentine’s Day in a big way. Valentine day is a great day for lovers to celebrate their love. According to history, it’s a western festival but now people are celebrating it in India also. Political parties which issue a ban on d Valentine’s Day every year, with due respect to them in a very simple way.

We are adopting a theme to celebrate Valentine’s Day every year. It is indeed a great feeling to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your beloved wife by going to eat out to McDonald’s and have ice cream and spend the night out in a wonderful way. It is indeed a day of roses. The fragrance of red roses gives an auspicious start to a hectic day. We live in Rose of Heaven and our mind mingles around the nicety of mankind/womankind and the meaningful life lived by us. Lotus can be a substitute to Red Roses but lotus is not easily available.

Relationship with your father or mother, wife or children and even with friends blossom into a new world on this fantastic period. There is no need of worrying about lost relations but it is a day to renew the old relationship and establish a new relationship. It is indeed a playful day. We forget about the old enmity and desperate to form a frantic one. The love game starts with “Love All”. The red roses are handy to handover and get the best out of it. It is needless to say that the unscrupulous elements try to play dirty games on that day and try to make it a fateful one. We are not following Western culture blindly. We are adopting the cream of the theme to our advantage.

Love is blind is true as far as the saying goes. But the fact is that both the young and the old couples need a special day like Valentine’s Day to express their love for each other. On this particular day, oldies and the youngsters feel that it is their prerogative to celebrate this day in a simple way. At the same time, a certain section of the society and a certain section of the people take a different stand and they have other ideas. It’s time to keep the mind-body connection — the relationship between stress and disease. Among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with friends but it was a serious thought.

My love for newspapers blooms on Valentine’s Day. My love for newspaper vendor goes a long way in the last 22 years. When I meet newspaper vendors and the newspaper media unite us with each other. We in India love to celebrate all the festivals in general and Valentine’s Day in particular. There is nothing wrong in following Western culture, so long as the spirit of the India custom is well and truly maintained within the stipulated limit. We Indians love simple living and high thinking. There is no harm exchanging greeting cards, gifts or flowers. The society has to undergo positive change without making a big hue and cry. This year’s Valentine’s Day promises love and affection. Further this Valentine’s Day, gift your loved ones a gift of togetherness and timeless love.

Concentrating & learning about Cong structure: Priyanka Gandhi

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Web Team

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February 13, 2019

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, whose husband Robert Vadra is being questioned by the ED, said on Wednesday that these things will keep happening, but she will concentrate on her work. The remark by the party’s general secretary for east Uttar Pradesh came after she was asked about the ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe in connection with a money laundering case against Vadra.

On Tuesday, Gandhi had accompanied Vadra to the ED’s Jaipur office where he was grilled by the probe agency in a separate case related to an alleged land scam in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district. “These things will keep on going, I’m doing my own work,” she said early this morning after holding a marathon meeting with party workers.

Vadra was interrogated for over eight hours by the Enforcement Directorate in Jaipur on Tuesday and his mother Maureen Vadra, was also present. The businessman is being questioned on Wednesday as well. On her meeting with party workers, Priyanka said that she is happy to see the enthusiasm of party workers.

“I am learning a lot about the organisation and how it is structured. I am getting views on how to fight the elections,” she concluded.