‘Ojass the superhero of Shyamavali’ is a trending new book, released by renowned Indian author Swapnil Saurav and published by Ekapress Publishers, Hyderabad.
Since  2018, there has been an influx in independent authors, making it hard for a new publication to get noticed and easy for them to get lost in the sea of independent publications. Introducing ‘Ojass the Superhero of Shyamavali’, a new publication by popular Indian author Swapnil Saurav, has been making waves on social media – reaching its audience in India and more recently in the US due to the huge success of a recent event surrounding the release of the book.
The book release event was held, by Swapnil Saurav, on the 27th of January 2020 at the Replay Social Cafe, Hyderabad.  The occasion was graced by the presence of special guests Shri Dayanath Jha, Dr Surya Kaladhar and Shri Chandra Mohan Karn. The success of the event and the presence of such distinguished guests garnered mass support for the release of the book, both locally and online across social media, even causing the release of the book to gain viral status online. The event was anchored by Pooja Desai, with Arun Kumar being the keynote speaker, who spoke about the importance of reading books especially for kids. Other speakers attending the event were distinguished writers Manoj Shandilya, Meenakshi Choudhary and Devika Das. They praised the author’s work and reverberated a common emotion that “writing books for kids is no kids play”. Gunjan Shri read a chapter from the Maithili version of the book. Mahboob Hussain gave the vote of thanks and author Swapnil spoke about how his son Ojass inspired him to write the book. There were various performances by kids scheduled at the event. Ritisha and Manya rendered classical songs and Devesh performed a dance. Magician Sreenivas entertained the audience with his show, much to the glee of all the kids present. The event concluded with a very special dinner.
Author Swapnil Saurav has recently been gaining much notoriety and a modest following on social media due to the success of the event and following the release of his new book. ‘Ojass the superhero of Shyamavali’ itself,  has been gaining likes and shares all over social media due to its inspiring nature. It has been a hit with international audiences as well and has led to the book being translated into several different languages such as Hindi, Maithili, Telugu, French, Portuguese and Chinese, apart from the original version in English 
Be sure to keep up to date with trending author Swapnil Saurav on his various social media accounts as he pens new words to inspire us all as we progress into the year 2020, a year of positivity and inspiration.
The Book ‘Ojass the Superhero of Shyamavali’ is now available for purchase via all major digital book distribution outlets, including Amazon.
ASSOCIATED SITES:www.amazon.com/author/swapnil
MEDIA CONTACT:www.ekapress.org

Born and brought up in India, Abhishek is a model who thrives in the race of Fashion & Fitness Modeling and has created a landmark in these fields with his zeal to put cent percent in every work, and his scrupulous actions make it all look perfect. 

Forthwith, residing in London, He’s someone your eyes wouldn’t miss! When it comes to looks, he’s all ravishing and striking on his front and his appalling body fitness is something many looks up to as their role model. 

He’s also a Super Cars fanatic and finds thrill in driving. 

With his extra-ordinary photogenic physique and pictures, he has done commendable work in the field of modeling. More than that, he clicks his photographs that tell us about the excellent capable photographer that he is. And, not just stills, Abhishek has a knack for filming as well. 

He dreams of working on a ‘fitness plan’ that helps people achieve their body goals and shift to a healthier lifestyle at a reasonable price. 

Apart from Fashion & Fitness, Abhishek is also a Watch Model which is very much prevailing from his marvelous pictures. 

Being an advocate of a healthy lifestyle, Abhishek puts his heart in cooking his meals that are healthy and adds to his lifestyle. And, his areas of interest just don’t end here. He’s a gymnast who is super flexible and plays football at National Level in India.  Heart of a wild child, he’s someone very venturesome and ready to experience daredevil sports at absolutely any time of the year. 

Moreover, not just talent & skills, Abhishek likes to perform social service at NGO’s in his free time, back in his hometown. He’s someone who inspires people on a day to day basis, be it fitness, photography, a healthy lifestyle, or just keeping up with morals. 

He’s a perfectionist who’s a believer of the philosophy that this world is his empty canvas.

With much of the U.S. in shutdown mode to limit the spread of the Covid-19 disease, a debate has sprung up about when the country might “reopen” commerce, to limit economic fallout from the pandemic. But as a new study co-authored by an MIT economist shows, taking care of public health first is precisely what generates a stronger economic rebound later.

The study, using data from the flu pandemic that swept the U.S. in 1918-1919, finds cities that acted more emphatically to limit social and civic interactions had more economic growth following the period of restrictions.

Indeed, cities that implemented social-distancing and other public health interventions just 10 days earlier than their counterparts saw a 5 percent relative increase in manufacturing employment after the pandemic ended, through 1923. Similarly, an extra 50 days of social distancing was worth a 6.5 percent increase in manufacturing employment, in a given city.

“We find no evidence that cities that acted more aggressively in public health terms performed worse in economic terms,” says Emil Verner, an assistant professor in the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a new paper detailing the findings. “If anything, the cities that acted more aggressively performed better.”

With that in mind, he observes, the idea of a “trade-off” between public health and economic activity does not hold up to scrutiny; places that are harder hit by a pandemic are unlikely to rebuild their economic capacities as quickly, compared to areas that are more intact.

“It casts doubt on the idea there is a trade-off between addressing the impact of the virus, on the one hand, and economic activity, on the other hand, because the pandemic itself is so destructive for the economy,” Verner says.

The study, “Pandemics Depress the Economy, Public Health Interventions Do Not: Evidence from the 1918 Flu,” was posted to the Social Science Research Network as a working paper on March 26. In addition to Verner, the co-authors are Sergio Correia, an economist with the U.S. Federal Reserve, and Stephen Luck, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Evaluating economic consequences

To conduct the research, the three scholars examined mortality statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), historical economic data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and banking statistics compiled by finance economist Mark D. Flood, using the “Annual Reports of the Comptroller of Currency,” a government publication.

As Verner notes, the researchers were motivated to investigate the 1918-1919 flu pandemic to see what lessons from it might be applicable to the current crisis.

“The genesis of the study is that we’re interested in what the expected economic impacts of today’s coronavirus are going to be, and what is the right way to think about the economic consequences of the public health and social distancing interventions we’re seeing all around the world,” Verner says.

Scholars have known that the varying use of “nonpharmaceutical interventions,” or social-distancing measures, correlated to varying health outcomes across cities in 1918 and 1919. When that pandemic hit, U.S. cities that shut down schools earlier, such as St. Louis, fared better against the flu than places implementing shutdowns later, such as Philadelphia. The current study extends that framework to economic activity.

Quite a bit like today, social distancing measures back then included school and theater closures, bans on public gatherings, and restricted business activity.

“The nonpharmaceutical interventions that were implemented in 1918 interestingly resemble many of the policies that are being used today to reduce the spread of Covid-19,” Verner says.

Overall, the study indicates, the economic impact of the pandemic was severe. Using state-level data, the researchers find an 18 percent drop in manufacturing output through 1923, well after the last wave of the flu hit in 1919.

Looking at the effect across 43 cities, however, the researchers found significantly different economic outcomes, linked to different social distancing policies. The best-performing cities included Oakland, California; Omaha, Nebraska; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, which all enforced over 120 days of social distancing in 1918. Cities that instituted fewer than 60 days of social distancing in 1918, and saw manufacturing struggle afterward, include Philadelphia; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Lowell, Massachusetts.

“What we find is that areas that were more severely affected in the 1918 flu pandemic see a sharp and persistent decline in a number of measures of economic activity, including manufacturing employment, manufacturing output, bank loans, and the stock of consumer durables,” Verner says.

Banking issues

As far as banking goes, the study included banking write-downs as an indicator of economic health, because “banks were recognizing losses from loans that households and businesses were defaulting on, due to the economic disruption caused by the pandemic,” Verner says.

The researchers found that in Albany, New York; Birmingham, Alabama; Boston; and Syracuse, New York — all of which also had fewer than 60 days of social distancing in 1918 — the banking sector struggled more than anywhere else in the country.

As the authors note in the paper, the economic struggles that followed the 1918-1919 flu pandemic reduced the ability of firms to manufacture goods — but the reduction in employment meant that people had less purchasing power as well.

“The evidence that we have in our paper … suggests that the pandemic creates both a supply-side problem and a demand-side problem,” Verner notes.

As Verner readily acknowledges, the composition of the U.S. economy has evolved since 1918-1919, with relatively less manufacturing today and relatively more activity in services. The 1918-1919 pandemic was also especially deadly for prime working-age adults, making its economic impact particularly severe. Still, the economists think the dynamics of the previous pandemic are readily applicable to our ongoing crisis.

“The structure of the economy is of course different,” Verner notes. However, he adds, “While one shouldn’t extrapolate too directly from history, we can learn some of the lessons that may be relevant to us today.” First among those lessons, he emphasizes: “Pandemic economics are different than normal economics.”

Faiz Qureshi, a well-known personality of film and fashion industry, he is known for organized international fashion shows and Beauty pageants, He is a producer Casting director of Bollywood also founder and CEO of Reddwings production”, his production house is a well known international fashion show and film production

27 years Faiz Qureshi born in Meerut Uttar Pradesh Did 12th complete from guru Tegh bahadur public school Meerut, and complete graduation from graphic era university Dehradun, he belongs to well set higher Business family his father is top leather businessman, Faiz Qureshi is run his own company Reddwings productions and with that, he is producer casting director and writer he launched lots of new face on television and Bollywood film industry 

He started his career as a model and he was done Print shoot calendar shoot. and he won the title of Mr. Uttarakhand in 2014.

In 2015 he was playing as an actor Lead role in short film  DEFINING LOVE which was made for Film festival, after that he was done an International video album song CAN I SHARE as a model. in 2016,’ he starts work with magnet production as a Director/organiser and organized Mrs. India globe international beauty pageant for married women and Mr and Miss India globe international Beauty pageant. 

He was Cast and produced Video album song GIRLFRIEND singer Vikrant Dhaka featuring Ekta rai in 2017. he started His company in 2018 Reddwings productions In 2019, Faiz Qureshi casting Punjabi video album song OK REPORT singer Virinder Singh featuring Mahima hora which was released on all music television channels, In 2019 he was done Bollywood movie Mehak Sugand as a Casting Director. Faiz Qureshi company Reddwings production organized fashion and talent show for married women in Dubai UAE in 2019. which was telecast on star plus Dubai UAE, Faiz Qureshi did 20 plus Fashion show and beauty contest as an organiser and judge 150 plus show as a celebrity judge..he was done lots of E-commerce shoots for brands as a casting director, still, Faiz Qureshi cast going on for 2 web series 1 bollywood feature film and tvc adds. he was done album song as a casting director “ Sajna tere bina , with Bollywood singer mohd danish. 

Now Faiz Qureshi going to shoot as a producer 2 song Catwalk & Habibi with Bollywood singer Mohd danish again in the month of May, also Faiz Qureshi produced New web series Greed shooting start in the month of June at Delhi and Jaipur casting is totally complete. 

We wish all the best to Faiz Qureshi for his upcoming projects, and we also wish he bring happiness to young models and actors life with his Reddwings productions

The COVID-19 pandemic is straining health systems worldwide. The rapidly increasing demand on health facilities and health care workers threatens to leave some health systems overstretched and unable to operate effectively.

Previous outbreaks have demonstrated that when health systems are overwhelmed, mortality from vaccine-preventable and other treatable conditions can also increase dramatically. During the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak, the increased number of deaths caused by measles, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis attributable to health system failures exceeded deaths from Ebola.

“The best defense against any outbreak is a strong health system,” stressed WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “COVID-19 is revealing how fragile many of the world’s health systems and services are, forcing countries to make difficult choices on how to best meet the needs of their people.”

To help countries navigate through these challenges, the World Health Organization (WHO) has updated operational planning guidelines in balancing the demands of responding directly to COVID-19 while maintaining essential health service delivery, and mitigating the risk of system collapse. This includes a set of targeted immediate actions that countries should consider at national, regional, and local level to reorganize and maintain access to high-quality essential health services for all.

Countries should identify essential services that will be prioritized in their efforts to maintain continuity of service delivery and make strategic shifts to ensure that increasingly limited resources provide maximum benefit for the population. They also need to comply with the highest standard in precautions, especially in hygiene practices, and the provision of adequate supplies including personal protective equipment This requires robust planning and coordinated actions between governments and health facilities and their managers.

Some examples of essential services include: routine vaccination; reproductive health services including care during pregnancy and childbirth; care of young infants and older adults; management of mental health conditions as well as noncommunicable diseases and infectious diseases like HIV, malaria and TB; critical inpatient therapies; management of emergency health conditions; auxiliary services like basic diagnostic imaging, laboratory services, and blood bank services, among others.

Well-organized and prepared health systems can continue to provide equitable access to essential service delivery throughout an emergency, limiting direct mortality and avoiding increased indirect mortality.   

The guidelines stress the importance of keeping up-to-date information. This requires frequent transparent communications with the public, and strong community engagements so the public can maintain trust in the system to safely meet their essential needs and to control infection risk in health facilities. This will help ensure that people continue to seek care when appropriate, and adhere to public health advice.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati has been providing scientific support, extension of sophisticated instrument facilities as well as involved in the immediate development of life-saving equipment to Assam State and Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

Since the initial days of this outbreak, IIT Guwahati has prepared hand sanitizers at its various departments and academic centres and is in the process of preparing at least 5000 sanitizer bottles and provide them to GMCH and Assam government. The Institute has provided two real-time PCR machines to GMCH for the diagnosis of Coronavirus. These machines would help in ramping the testing process by analysing 1000 samples if run for 12 hours continuously and 2000 samples in 24 hours, a statement issued by the Institute said.

On the research front, multiple efforts are being made for vaccine development at the Department of Bioscience & Bioengineering. Various other departments are involved in developing multiple routes to have a diagnostic and therapeutic approach for the early detection of various viral infections. The faculty members of Bioscience & Bioengineering and Chemistry Departments and Center for Nanotechnology have also initiated research proposals to combat COVID-19 against the urgent calls of the Government of India.

In addition, the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electronics & Electrical Engineering are making efforts to develop several state-of-the-art technologies which include, robot-based drug/food carrying unit to work in isolation wards and robot-based screening units, large and high capacity autoclave machine, handheld temperature measuring units, hospital beds including ICU beds, ventilators, medical waste disposal in the isolation wards, shower for disinfection, WHO specified masks and hand sanitizers. The Departments of Chemistry and Bioscience & Bioengineering are developing prototype protective gears with antiviral and superhydrophobic coatings while the Department of Chemical Engineering is working to develop Biodegradable plastic based Medical Textile. The Department of Design has developed a prototype 3D printed full face shield including head gear which can be scaled up immediately, the statement added.

Further, faculty members also have developed a PCR machine in-house which has been patented and is ready for commercialization whereas portable OFET sensors fabricated at the Institute could be integrated for COVID diagnosis. In addition, the Institute is also in the process of setting up an advanced research centre (BSL-III/IV laboratory) for COVID-19 analysis, which would help the entire Northeast region to test for COVID-19 and other dreadful virus detection and diagnosis.

Talking about setting up a research centre for COVID-19 analysis, Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “Our idea is to make this a state-of-the-art facility for the entire Northeast region. This centre in future would help to develop highly competent manpower for diagnosis of different infectious diseases in the early stage of infection and thus its prevention too”.

Faiz Qureshi is a popular name among the entertainment circles in Delhi and the kind of success he has achieved at such a young age, makes him a case study for aspiring youngsters all over the country. With his upcoming web series, “Greed”, Faiz is all set to launch a new chapter in his life as a producer. 

Born on March 7, 1993, this 26-year-old lad is doing it all, from producing albums to casting for projects and organizing international fashion shows, Faiz is a busy guy! However, that is not all! Yes! He is also a successful entrepreneur and writer besides being the brains behind “Reddwings Productions.”

Hailing from a small town like Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, Faiz has come a long way in his career and established himself as a force to reckon with in the Delhi circle. He has been working since the year 2010, when he started his career as a print model. Soon after, in 2012, he won the title of “Mr. Uttarakhand.” And then, as they say, there was no stopping him!

He played the lead role in a short film, “Defining Love,” in 2013 and the film was released on YouTube in 2014. Since then, he has done an international video album “Can I Share”, as a model. He was also cast in and produced a video album “Girlfriend” featuring Ekta Rai. The song was sung by Vikrant Dhaka. 

In 2014 itself, Faiz also started working for the Magnat Production, where he worked as an organizer and ended up organizing the Mrs India Globe International for married women and Mr. & Miss India Globe International beauty pageants.

After gaining a vast experience for himself in such a short time, Faiz ended up launching his own company – Reddwings Productions – in the year 2018. So far, under its banner, he has produced video albums, a Bollywood movie and fashion & talent shows for married women in Dubai. This talent show was telecast on StarPlus Dubai channel. 

Even today, Faiz remains busy working as a casting director for e-commerce shoots for various brands. He is soon going to start shooting for ‘Catwalk’ and ‘Habibi’ – two songs with renowned Bollywood singer, Mohd. Danish. And then, there is the web series, of course!

India is currently in the second stage of the Covid-19 crisis. The cases till now have been mostly related to travel abroad and transmission between family members and close contacts. But if the virus spreads into the general population, which is called “community transmission” and is labelled Stage-3 of the pandemic, there will be a very rapid increase of Covid-19 cases. Experts believe that it is an eventuality that must very rigorously be prepared for even while we are in this 21-day lock-down period to prevent the virus from spreading. Apart from India, the whole world faces the same threat and it is inevitable that many countries will be unable to control the virus in the second stage and it will progress into the general population. The 3rd stage is a period in which the number of infected people increase exponentially – their number doubling every few days until, if not stopped by some means, 60% to 80% of the population is infected – which would mean millions would be infected in any country where this happens, and in India it would mean hundreds of millions. While it is fervently to be hoped that our prompt actions would prevent that from happening, we must prepare for that possibility. Even if we ourselves are providentially spared, we must be prepared to help others in the world who may not be so fortunate.

The Covid-19 virus has a strangely varied effect on different people it infects. Some barely show symptoms and may not even realize that they are infected, while they still pass on the virus to others who may be more seriously affected. Others show symptoms after a few days even while in the interim they are passing on the infection to others. Of those infected, it is estimated that up to 85% will have mostly mild symptoms and will recover within two weeks. Of the remaining 15% who may need hospitalization, around one-third, i.e., 5% of the total infected persons, would pose the greatest challenge. They would develop respiratory difficulties for which ventilators for assisted breathing will become necessary. It is with regard to these ventilators that the rest of this article will focus. 

A Ventilator is a device designed to force breathable air into the lungs of patients who are unable to breathe for themselves. Modern ventilators are very expensive and sophisticated devices, which are generally found only in the ICUs of large hospitals. The most sophisticated ventilators, with computer controls, etc., cost around Rs. 40 lakhs, more modest foreign-made ones cost around Rs. 15 lakhs, Indian-made ones around Rs. 6 lakhs. There are around 40,000 ventilators in India right now, mostly in the private hospitals. The Indian industry has a manufacturing capacity of at most 6000 units per month, but even the Indian-made devices use a lot of foreign-made parts whose availability would now be uncertain, when every country would be maximizing their own ventilator production. 

Let us now consider the requirements in the case the Covid-19 crisis reaches Stage-3 in India. Assuming a low 6% infection rate, in case COVID-19 advancement in India continues, in the Indian population of 1.3 Billion, that would mean that around 80 million people would get affected. (Please note we are avoiding the more alarming 60-80% infection rate proposed by most models of a general Stage-3 epidemic. To get those figures just multiply our figures by ten). Of these 80 million, at least 5% would require ventilators, i.e., 4 million. Each of these 4 million patients would need the ventilators for around 21 days, thereby blocking that machine for at least that amount of time. Further, the machines are not portable and are found only in high-end hospitals in large cities, so patients from villages would need to be transported to these cities, which would be a logistics problem of unimaginable complexity. It is quite clear that even a mild 6% Stage-3 would overwhelm the country’s capacity to a devastating degree. Even if the Indian Industry was at peak production it could manufacture only another 60,000 machines in the next 10 months, at a cost of 3600 Crores. Therefore, the total number of ventilators would barely be 1 lakh devices – at a time when millions of machines may be needed. It is clear that we cannot depend of the conventional ventilators for a solution to this crisis.

Yet, even with these grim figures, there is hope. While the conventional ventilators are expensive, hard to produce, and not portable, there are small devices which are used to deliver breathing support in emergency situations that are inexpensive, easy to produce, and portable – which therefore have every quality that is required in this crisis. The most common of these devices is the bag valve mask, often called by the propriety name of Ambu Bag, that is used for resuscitation in emergency situations. Such devices are hand-powered and therefore not suitable for continuous use as a ventilator. However, it would be easy to design a similar device powered by an electrical source, which could be a car battery, say, apart from the conventional power supply.  It could be made portable, and therefore could be used in villages and areas without a power supply, and be inexpensive enough to manufacture in bulk. Our estimate of the cost is that it can be manufactured for less than Rs 5000, i.e., one-hundredth the cost of a conventional machine.  The cost of manufacturing 6 million of these devices will be probably less than that of the inadequate number of 60,000 conventional machines mentioned above. The cost is so low that it can be considered a single-use device that will be given over to single patient, and never used again. It needs to be manufactured, however, on an industrial scale, in millions, within a short time of a few months. 

It must be mentioned that this idea is not new. In the past few weeks, many countries have come up with this idea of manufacture of low-cost ventilators, and have even started competitions where the winning design would be declared open-source, i.e., not patented, and given free for anyone to copy if so inclined. Several designs are already available for 3-D printing, and so can be manufactured on a small scale on a 3-D printer. There have been several designs proposed within India itself, with IIT Hyderabad having at least one proposed design. While this is reassuring, we mention that there are some caveats involved – these designs are untested, and uncertified. Even if inexpensive, the designed devices should be capable of continuous and faultless 24×7 operation for at least one month – which requires very high performance both of the design and the manufactured components.   Also, while 3-D printing could be part of the manufacturing solution, conventional manufacturing may be much more effective for making the millions of devices in the most rapid and cost-effective way. It is on the steps required for this manufacture we will now focus.

We are proposing that the Government of India (through the DST/DRDO, or some other nodal organization) constitute a highly empowered task force which will carry out the tasks needed to start the production of these low-cost ventilators, within a maximum time-frame of 2 months. The production rate thereafter would need to be of several lakh units per week, so the preparation has to be done at a war-footing, under the direct scrutiny of the highest levels of Government.

We believe that such a plan is completely within the reach of our nation, but should be conducted with the utmost speed and efficiency to be useful at the time of the direst need. In the happy circumstance that the millions of devices so manufactured are not needed, i.e., if the virus is contained in Stage-2, say, India could then give these devices to other nations who may not be so fortunate. Even otherwise, due to the low costs involved, India can manufacture them beyond its own requirements for distribution to other nations. It is the least we can do for humanity in such dire circumstances.

A new report on mental health has recommended that India should establish a National Steering Committee to ensure implementation of the process of long-term institutionalization to the community-based living of mental health issues.

A report `National Strategy for Inclusive and Community based Living for Persons with Mental Health Issues’ prepared by the Hans Foundation on the recommendations of the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Social Justice and Empowerment has suggested that the National Steering Committee –under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – should function as leadership and stakeholder collective to pursue shared visions of moving from long-term institutionalization to community-based alternatives. 

It has suggested that the Committee should create and implement an expansive Community Care System that allies with the Social Care Sector to keep pace with supports needed when people move out of hospitals and decisively alter progressions and re-entry into homelessness and long-term institutionalisation.

Designate investments for defined pathways out of hospitals with accompanying legislative and policy support, particularly to support discharges into community living alternatives. It has also recommended financial support also for such people.  

Some other recommendations made in the report are to align efforts of community placements with key social entitlements linked to the Community Care System – disability allowance, voting rights, banking access, ration card – that can positively impact social inclusion and long-term sustainability of placements. 

Overhaul the Institutional Care System to embrace effective, appropriate, high quality, rights-based emergency and acute care, the report has said while asking for re-imagining care by separating it from ‘control’ and ‘management’ and enhance quality across domains from personal grooming and menstrual hygiene choices to access to diverse choice-based work engagement options. 

In addition to enhancing staff capacities so that they can embrace contemporary modes of care, the report has also suggested decentralising bed capacities from hyper-segregated, large facilities to localised services in District – and Taluk-level hospitals. 

“Introduce a Family Assistance Scheme or Cash Transfers to support Family Placements when households face socio-economic distress. Set up a national network online with a database management system to record, monitor, track, update status with a view to enabling a robust aftercare system in place,’’ the report has said.

It is imperative to recognize and urgently restore the right of people with psychosocial disabilities to live in the community, with flexible support that enables them to make choices about and exercise agency over their care and daily living, and engage in lived experiences with personal meaning, the report has said. For this right to become a reality, governments need to increase financial investment defined by policy and accompanying National Scheme for Personal Assistance and Housing Options to promote community living for people with long-term care needs, the report has said. 

A national-level movement for inclusive living options for people living for extended periods in state mental hospitals has the potential to contribute to social justice and human rights, alter stigmatizing notions of mental ill-health and change the landscape of mental health care in the country, the report says. 

The aim of this study was to evolve a comprehensive national strategy for inclusive and community based living for persons with mental health issues.

In the Indian context, where 10.6% of the population is estimated to be living with mental health issues, 13.7% have experienced a mental illness at some point during their life. Consistent with global trends, those with low educational attainment (less than primary level schooling) and low-income households have higher rates of prevalence. Income disparities lead to stark biases in health including mental health – low-income households are estimated to have a 40% higher prevalence rate of mental disorders than households in the highest income quintile.14 Among the 150 million Indians in need of mental health services, fewer than one in ten with common disorders and only 40- 50% of those with serious mental disorders are receiving any form of care.15 There are only 0.8 mental health nurses, 0.06 social workers, 0.07 psychologists, and 0.29 psychiatrists, per 100,000 people.16 The number of mental health hospital beds is around 2 per 100,000, well below the world average of 6.5 per 100,000.17 Only 1.3% of health expenditure in India is set aside for mental health, mainly concentrated in upgrading tertiary care, state mental hospitals into Centres of Excellence.

Nature conservation has been a matter of concern for many years. With the unfortunate COVID-19 outbreak, it seems that the Earth has taken a break from humans and is getting purified. The novel coronavirus has shaken the entire globe. Looking at the situation, India is in its complete lockdown for 21 days which began from March 25, 2020 midnight. Wildlife photographer Tapan Sheth based in Rajkot is enjoying his quarantine time with family in Gujarat. The photographer had earlier even revealed that the forest is his second home and he loves to spend time amongst the flora and fauna.  

His portfolio includes some of the breathtaking pictures of nature and other wildlife animals including Vultures, Peacocks, Asiatic Lions and other species. Speaking about his self-quarantine time at home, Tapan quoted, “I am totally following what the honorable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi Ji said in his announcement. The 21-day lockdown will make people bored and will also affect businesses big time. But I am keeping myself occupied and I have finally got time to spend with my family as well. This is the time I have got to look at the progress I have made with my work so far. Everything can wait because safety comes above everything.”  

Sheth besides being a photographer also owns Sakshi Infoway Pvt. Ltd, a leading web design company in Rajkot. His work as a freelance photographer is appreciated by various giants like BBC and Apple. The wildlife pictures clicked by him were earlier also featured by Natgeo and National Geographic respectively. Away from forests, Tapan Sheth is currently making the most of his time at home. Giving a final piece of advice, he said, “Let’s all be united together at this critical moment. It is a tough phase for everyone in the country and the world. I would just say to people to stay at home and completely avoid going out until and unless there is an emergency. We will fight coronavirus and will emerge as winners”. That’s the spirit every Indian must have to curb against this deadly virus.