New Delhi : The ‘BIMARU’ Indian states – Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – have the highest numbers of partially immunized and non-immunized children, according to UN bodies WHO and Unicef.

According to data shared by the UN bodies on Monday, the national average for full immunization is 62 per cent, for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine (DTP3) coverage is 78.4 per cent and for measles first dose 81.1 per cent.

According to them, a record 123 million children were immunized globally in 2017.

“(As many as) 9 out of every 10 children received at least one dose of DTP vaccine in 2017, gaining protection against these deadly diseases. An additional 4.6 million infants were vaccinated globally in 2017 compared to 2010, due to global population growth,” it said.

However, the report also suggested that almost 20 million children did not receive the benefits of full immunization in 2017. Of these, almost 8 million (40 per cent) live in fragile or humanitarian settings, including countries affected by conflict. 

“(A total of) 167 countries included a second dose of measles vaccine as part of their routine vaccination schedule and 162 countries now use rubella vaccines. As a result, global coverage against measles and rubella increased from 35 per cent in 2010 to 52 per cent,” it said.

In addition, the report said that a growing share are from middle-income countries, where inequity and marginalization, particularly among the urban poor, prevent many from getting immunized.

“To reach all children with much-needed vaccines, the world will need to vaccinate an estimated 20 million additional children every year with three doses of the DTP3; 45 million with a second dose of measles vaccine; and 76 million children with 3 doses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine,” it said.

Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved an increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for Kharif crops for the 2018-19 marketing season.  Subsequently, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) released its price policy report for Kharif crops for the marketing season 2018-19.

The central government notifies MSPs based on the recommendations of the CACP.  These recommendations are made separately for the Kharif marketing season (KMS) and the Rabi marketing season (RMS).  Post harvesting, the government procures crops from farmers at the MSP notified for that season, in order to ensure remunerative prices to farmers for their produce.

In this blog post, we look at how MSPs are determined, changes brought in them over time, and their effectiveness for farmers across different states.

How are Minimum Support Prices determined?

The CACP considers various factors such as the cost of cultivation and production, productivity of crops, and market prices for the determination of MSPs.  The National Commission on Farmers(Chair: Prof. M. S. Swaminathan) in 2006 had recommended that MSPs must be at least 50% more than the cost of production.  In this year’s budget speech, the Finance Minister said that MSPs would be fixed at least at 50% more than the cost of production.

The CACP calculates cost of production at three levels: (i) A2, which includes cost of inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, labour; (ii) A2+FL, which includes the implied cost of family labour (FL); and (iii) C2, which includes the implied rent on land and interest on capital assets over and above A2+FL.

The cost of production as calculated by the CACP and the approved MSPs for KMS 2018-19.  For paddy (common), the MSP was increased from Rs 1,550/quintal in 2017-18 to Rs 1,750/quintal in 2018-19.  This price would give a farmer a profit of 50.1% on the cost of production A2+FL.  However, the profit calculated on the cost of production C2 would be 12.2%.  It has been argued that the cost of production should be taken as C2 for calculating MSPs.  In such a scenario, this would have increased the MSP to Rs 2,340/quintal, much above the current MSP of Rs 1,750/quintal.

Which are the major crops that are procured at MSPs?

Every year, MSPs are announced for 23 crops.  However, public procurement is limited to a few crops such as paddy, wheat and, to a limited extent.

The procurement is also limited to a few states.  Three states which produce 49% of the national wheat output account for 93% of procurement.  For paddy, six states with 40% production share have 77% share of the procurement.  As a result, in these states, farmers focus on cultivating these crops over other crops such as pulses, oilseeds, and coarse grains.

Due to limitations on the procurement side (both crop-wise and state-wise), all farmers do not receive benefits of increase in MSPs.  The CACP has noted in its 2018-19 price policy report that the inability of farmers to sell at MSPs is one of the key areas of concern.  Farmers who are unable to sell their produce at MSPs have to sell it at market prices, which may be much lower than the MSPs.

How have MSPs for major crops changed over time?

Higher procurement of paddy and wheat, as compared to other crops at MSPs tilts the production cycle towards these crops.  In order to balance this and encourage the production of pulses, there is a larger proportional increase in the MSPs of pulses over the years .  In addition to this, it is also used as a measure to encourage farmers to shift from water-intensive crops such as paddy and wheat to pulses, which relatively require less water for irrigation.

What is the effectiveness of MSPs across states?

The MSP fixed for each crop is uniform for the entire country.  However, the production cost of crops vary across states. The MSP of paddy and the variation in its cost of production across states in 2018-19.

For example, production cost for paddy at the A2+FL level is Rs 702/quintal in Punjab and Rs 2,102/quintal in Maharashtra.  Due to this differentiation, while the MSP of Rs 1,750/quintal of paddy will result in a profit of 149% to a farmer in Punjab, it will result in a loss of 17% to a farmer in Maharashtra.  Similarly, at the C2 level, the production cost for paddy is Rs 1,174/quintal in Punjab and Rs 2,481/quintal in Maharashtra.  In this scenario, a farmer in Punjab may get 49% return, while his counterpart in Maharashtra may make a loss of 29%.

Figure 4 highlights the MSP of wheat and the variation in its cost of production across states in 2017-18. In the case of wheat, the cost of production in Maharashtra and West Bengal is much more than the cost in rest of the states.  At the A2+FL level, the cost of production in West Bengal is Rs 1,777/quintal.  This is significantly higher than in states like Haryana and Punjab, where the cost is Rs 736/quintal and Rs 642/quintal, respectively.  In this case, while a wheat growing farmer suffers a loss of 2% in West Bengal, a farmer in Haryana makes a profit of 136%.  The return in Punjab is even higher at 1.5 times or more the cost of production.

Source – PRS Blog

What a week it has been for sport! Assams Hima Das created history becoming the first Indian to win a track gold at a world meet and shared headline space with tiny Croatia entering the World Cup final, Roger Federer getting knocked out of Wimbledon and the Indian cricket team starting their tour of Ireland-England on a high note.

It was not an unexpected gold for Hima, the first by Indian woman athlete at the World Under-20 Track and Field Championships, though Delhi discus thrower Neeraj Chopra is the first athlete to win gold at the championships in 2016, but in a field event at Bydgoszcz in Poland. 

She went to Tampere, Finland, as a favourite, having clocked her best 51.13 seconds at the Inter-State Championships, her timing being better than that of her nearest competitor, Symone Mason of the US, whose personal best was 51.53 seconds.

The other two Indians to win medals at the World Juniors were women athletes, both discus throwers and bronze medallists — Seema Punia at the Kingston World Junior Chamionships in 2002 and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, US, in 2014.

Hima, the last of five children of a rice-growing farmer in Kandhulimari village, about five kilometers from Dhing town of Nowgaon district in central Assam, has a story to narrate like all poor children coming from rural India. What’s more important about her is that she took to serious running two years ago when she also had the feel of running spikes.

She spent her childhood playing football and cricket with boys in the neighbourhood. Seeing her running on the paddy and dusty football fields, two years ago, she saw the athlete’s spikes when she came under the wings of Nipon Das, the athletics coach with the Directorate of Sports and Youth Welfare. In the last year or so she has had a roller-coaster ride, but she has been on the move, each race taking her to newer heights. 

Once she got serious about track running, she journeyed by a passenger train daily from her native village to Guwahati to train using the facilities in the state capital. Nipon prevailed upon her to shift to the state capital and once she made the move, was no looking back. 

Come to think of it, she started with 100 and 200 metres and has taken to running 400 metres less than a year ago. It’s remarkable of her to have gone on to win a world gold. 

She need not worry about her future as an athlete as the Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is a former Union Sports Minister. 

Hima is sure to go places if she takes the advice of that great quarter-miler Milkha Singh, who wants someone to push her hard. P.T. Usha is another who can do her bit in seeing Hima on the right track.

India’s cricket captain Virat Kohli is one of the many to hail Hima’s gold-winning run. His own team is on a song on its tour of Ireland-England.

After their 2-0 Twenty20 triumph in Ireland, India wrapped the three-match series 2-1 in England and literally hammered them by eight wickets in the first of the three-match One-Day series, prompting former England captain Michael Vaughan to quip: “Can we have Australia back, please?”

Vaughan was recalling how England, who toyed with Australia, posting the highest ODI toal 481 for three at Trent Bridge last month, seeing the same team struggle against the Indian spinners.

The England batsmen just can’t read Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav. Their top-order batsmen tried everything but still had no clue. Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, their best batsmen along with Jos Buttler, who are better players of spin, fell not one but twice to Kuldeep, who had a five-for in the first T20 and a six-for in the first ODI.

In the T20s, they tried to negotiate Yadav’s spin playing forward and were stumped and in the ODI the played back and were leg before at their favourite Trent Bridge, Nottingham, pitch. Kuldeep picked all the top-order batsmen, Jason Roy, Bairstow, Root, Ben Stokes and Buttler, as also Moeen Ali, who has five hundreds in Tests and three in ODIs.

Rohit Sharma is the batsman who continues his liking for the shorter formats. He has hit his third hundred in T20s and the 18th in the ODIs to fight for his Test place in the process.

Coming to the biggest global sport football, most Indians might have thought or fervently hoped that Argentina and Brazil would be in the final, failing which one of them playing Germany or France to see different styles of play. Only France survived and few would have expected them to be taking on Croatia, one of the youngest footballing nations.

Unlike other top teams, which solely depended on their super stars, Croatia did not tax their stars Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic too much as everyone contributed their mite, running hard. They gave a lesson not only to England in the semi-finals but also to their media who condescendingly wrote the Croats off.

In the final, Croatia will have to deal with France, who have a big star in Kylian Mbappé. At 19, he is so exciting with his speed running, controlling the ball. 

Now everyone sees Croatia as underdogs and want them to win the final. The Croats can do it, too.

Finally, Roger Federer has lost not for the first time at a Grand Slam a match he had won when he had a match point in the third set against South African Kevin Anderson.

Anderson fought back to take it in five sets, the decider at 13-11. He was back for another marathon match, this time the big-serving American John Isner, who like him was a US collegiate champion, winning it after battling it out for six hours 35 minutes, the second longest match at Wimbledon. The scores say it all — 7-6 (8-6) 6-7 (5-7) 6-7 (9-11) 6-4 26-24, the final set alone lasting two hours and 50 minutes.

Some tennis and some physical fitness!

(IANS)

New Delhi : As as been rightly said, “Nothing lasts forever”, especially at the workplace. To stay relevant in the industry and at the workplace, upgrade to skills which are newer and designed for modern business.

Employers look for people who are ready to adapt to new technology and can do the work with an eye for what they might do in the near future. Some of the skills have always been in demand, you just need to up-skill in that.

Here’s how to go about it:

* Communication skills: In most discussions of HR managers, recruiters and CEOs, communication tops the list. If you are a good communicator you can make a clear point while you’re talking in a meeting, giving a presentation or simply having a discussion at the office party — so communicating better at work is one of the basic skills to add on. Spoken English skills for developing relations and representing the company is a must.

* Social media literacy: In today’s world, social media is the king. Between Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and the like, social media is changing the way companies do business, which is why it’s important to understand how these tools work and also be able to use them effectively for business purposes. This is one of the top skills employers are seeking in new hires. Job seekers who have developed robust online personal brands using social media and content marketing have a clear advantage over candidates that have limited experience with social marketing.

* Learning specialist skills: Become a specialist in one thing and hone your skill every day. New businesses often hire generalists because they can perform in so many different roles. As organisations grow, however, specialists are often hired to focus on key areas. Think strategically about what type of skills your organisation needs. Work on building these skills to become a specialist. The more knowledgeable and skillfull you become in a particular area, the more likely you are to be noticed for your work.

* Talent to organise and prioritise: A lot of people confuse cleanliness with keeping things organised. Being organised is different from being neat. To organise and prioritise means to classify assortments of things, ideas and clear your thoughts that which one is more important and urgent to be addressed, select the order the elements of a group according to its importance, you cannot do everything in a day. It is another important skill which will make you stand out among your peers.

* Be ambivert and network: Balance is the key, neither be too reserved nor be too extroverted. Being ambivert is an added skill. If you take out time to build and nurture relationships with the people around you, you’ll build a network that can help you get assigned to interesting, significant, or eye-catching projects. It can open up opportunities that might not have been available to you if you were among who don’t like much interaction.

(Inputs from Agency)

Treatment with hormone testosterone could be effective at combating a condition of loss of body mass in cancer patients and improving the quality of life, say researchers.

Approximately 20 per cent of cancer related deaths are attributed to the syndrome of cachexia, which in cancer patients is often characterised by a rapid or loss of fat and skeletal muscle.

These findings are important, as there are currently no established therapies targeting this loss of skeletal muscle, and without an intervention, patients lose muscle function and become fatigued and weakened.

“We hoped to demonstrate these patients would go from not feeling well enough to even get out of bed to at least being able to have some basic quality of life that allows them to take care of themselves and receive therapy,” said Melinda Sheffield-Moore, Professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, in the US.

She said previous nutrition-focused treatment failed to combat this severe loss of body mass.

“We already know that testosterone builds skeletal muscle in healthy individuals, so we tried using it in a population at a high risk of muscle loss, so these patients could maintain their strength and performance status to be able to receive standard cancer therapies.” Sheffield-Moore said.

For the study, published in the Journal of Cachexia, patients with a type of cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma were treated with standard of care chemotherapy and/or radiation in addition to seven weeks of treatment with either testosterone or placebo.

Those receiving testosterone maintained total body mass and increased lean body mass by 3.2 per cent.

Sustaining body mass is important considering most patients experience a 20 per cent decrease in body mass or more depending upon the type of cancer.

Patients also demonstrated enhanced physical activity.

“They felt well enough to get up and take care of some of their basic activities of daily living, like cooking, cleaning and bathing themselves,” Sheffield-Moore said.

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister who was arrested late on Friday has been shifted to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, while his daughter Maryam Nawaz was sent to Seihala Rest House, declared as temporary sub-jail.

The Accountability Court, according to Geo News, has issued imprisonment warrants for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam.

Sharif, along with Maryam, was arrested as they returned to eastern city of Lahore from London to serve a 10-year and seven-year jail term, respectively, on corruption charges, officials said.

Sharif, a three-time Prime Minister, and his daughter were in London to look after his ailing wife when an anti-graft court convicted them of corruption and handed down prison terms.

A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team took Sharif and Maryam in its custody from the aircraft, while their passports were confiscated by officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Airport security official surrounded the Sharifs and led them to another plane to take them to a jail in Rawalpindi city near capital Islamabad.

Earlier, angry supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the party of Sharif, clashed with the riot police in Lahore, the capital city of Punjab province, when they were prevented from proceeding towards the airport to welcome their leader.

Police had blocked all roads to the airport to stop the PML-N activists and banned political gatherings.

Shahbaz Sharif, the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who now heads the PML-N, was leading the procession to the airport.

The Accountability Court, Pakistan’s anti-corruption court, had ruled on July 6 that Nawaz Sharif owns assets beyond his income and concealed his property abroad.

The court imposed an 8-million pound penalty on Nawaz Sharif and a 2-million pound fine on Maryam Nawaz.

Sharif’s son-in-law Mohammad Safdar was also awarded a one-year sentence. 

On July 28, 2017, Sharif had to resign as Prime Minister after the Supreme Court disqualified him from holding any public office for concealing his earnings.

In April the apex court disqualified Sharif for lifetime from the parliament and also barred him from heading a political party.

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Friday was told that just as the statue of Bamiyan Buddha was destroyed by the Afghan Taliban, similarly the Hindu Taliban razed the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

“Just as Bamiyan Buddha was destroyed by Afghan Taliban, same way Babri Masjid was destroyed by Hindu Taliban,” the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer was told by senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan. 

“No faith has a right to destroy a mosque,” Dhavan said, assailing the argument by the Hindu side that no equity survived once the mosque had gone (razed). 

“It can’t be, should not be argued that no equity lies and there is nothing left to be decided once it (mosque) has been destroyed,” Dhavan told the bench.

Dhavan said this to the three-judge bench while advancing arguments that the 1994 top court judgment that had said that offering namaz in a mosque was not an essential practice of Islam needed to be revisited.

“The question of essential practice was totally alien to the case before the top court bench in 1994,” he said.

Appearing for the lead petitioner M. Siddiqui represented by his legal heir, Dhavan assailed the Uttar Pradesh government for abandoning its neutrality and pointing fingers at Muslim litigants for making “belated efforts” seeking a relook at the 1994 Ismail Farooqui judgment that had said that mosques were not an integral part of religious practice of offering prayers.

He told the court that the neutrality had been broken by the Uttar Pradesh government which was represented by the Additional Solicitor General – a law officer of the Central government which is the receiver of the disputed land.

Describing the shift in the stand of the Uttar Pradesh government as a “breach of faith”, Dhavan said that there was no delay on the part of the Muslim litigants in flagging the issue and they did it in the first instance when the opportunity arose. 

It were the Hindu litigants who had relied upon the 1994 judgment during the hearing of the title suit of the disputed site before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court. 

The senior counsel took exception to senior counsel K. Parasaran telling the court on May 17 that for Muslims “Makkah and Madinah alone are places of particular significance” as pilgrimage centres but such was not the case with Ayodhya/Babri Masjid.

Describing it as invidious argument, Dhavan said this meant that for the Muslims and Christians, their centre of pilgrimages were overseas and thousands of churches and mosques could be closed.

This also amounted to saying that Hindus were protected by the Article 25 of the constitution but not the Muslims and Christians and “We (the Hindus) are superior and everything belongs to us”. 

Dhavan described as an indulgent act of “charity” the offer by the Shia Waqf Board to move out of the disputed site in return for a site for a new mosque. 

He said the 1994 judgment needed to be revisited as the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court relied on this in deciding the Ayodhya title suit by which the disputed 2.77 acres site was ordered to be divided between the Nirmohi Akhara, the Lord Ram deity and the Sunni Waqf Board.

The top court is hearing a batch of cross petitions challenging the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment by which it had divided the disputed 2.77 acres site between the Nirmohi Akhara, the Lord Ram deity and the Sunni Waqf Board.

(With Inputs from Agency)

Starting late July, the Anamalai hills near Munnar in Kerala will be resplendent, clad in a purplish blue carpet. The famed Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) will burst into flower – a phenomenon that occurs once in 12 years. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to flock to the Munnar hills to behold the spectacle that lasts up until October.

Munnar is home to the highest concentration of neelakurinji plants in the country – spread over 3,000 hectares of rolling hills. Each shrub reproduces once in its life time and dies after flowering. It takes another 12 years for the seeds to sprout again and grow up to 30 to 60 centimetres high, for another glorious bloom.

The neelakurinji belongs to the genus Strobilanthes, which is a tropical plant species found in Asia and Australia. There are about 450 species of Strobilanthes in the world, of which 146 are found in India and of them, about 43, in Kerala.

The blooming of neelakurunji this year has ensured the fourth most important place for the Western Ghats in the Lonely Planet’s 2018 Best in Asia.

According to Prasad Ambattu, a journalist and a resident of Munnar, there are two 12-year cycles simultaneously going on in the Anamalai hills. In one cycle, the last neelakurinji bloom was in 2006 and the next one is now, in 2018. In the other cycle, the last bloom was in 2014.

The mass flowering neelakurinji provides a feast for butterflies, honeybees and other insects. The purple flowers hold a large amount of nectar, which especially attract the eastern honeybee (Apis cerana).

“This honey from the neelakurinji is very special. It lasts for about 15 years without getting spoilt,” said G. Rajkumar, chief coordinator of the NGO Save Kurinji Campaign Council. He added that the honey is supposed to have medicinal properties.

Rajkumar also said that the ecosystem that supports the kurinji plants plays a major role in bringing water to the Amaravati river which is a tributary of the Kaveri river, a main water source for Tamil Nadu. “The Kurinji reserve is in the catchment area of Amaravati river,” he said.

The tourist boom begins

The forest department expects a large number of tourists to arrive in Munnar during this season, said Lekshmi Rajeshwari, forest range officer at Devikulam, which is part of the Eravikulam National Park, the prime destination where neelakurinji will bloom.

“One million tourists, including travellers from Europe and the United States, are expected to visit this amazing place this year,” she said. 

Last October, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had communicated through a social media post that around eight lakh (0.8 million) tourists are expected for the bloom season and the state government aims to introduce a series of measures to protect the Eravikulam National Park. As an unprecedented number of tourists will visit the region, the government plans to restrict the numbers entering the park and the amount of time they spend there, said Vijayan’s post. Action on waste management and required tourist facilities are to be in place to safeguard the national park.

Encroachment on the neelakuri habitats

The Kurinjimala Sanctuary was declared in 2006, during the previous mass flowering to protecting the neelakurinji and its habitat. “This sanctuary gives the rarest, most spectacular view of neelakurinji,” said G. Baburaj, an environmentalist. “But it is eyed by many,” he added, elaborating that the area is being encroached on by resorts, hotels, plantations and small farms.

To put an end to the encroachments, the Kerala government passed an ordinance in 2006, for protecting the Kurinjimala Sanctuary. Since a number of settlements came under the area in the sanctuary, which was raising a stir among locals, the government, in the ordinance, authorised a sub-collector to adjudicate land claims after hearing complaints.

The proposed land that came under this ordinance included 2,041 houses, more than 53 government offices, 12 schools, 62 temples, churches and even banks. There were allegations against local politicians for forging title deeds of land ownership in the areas declared as protected.

However, for Kurinjimala to be declared as a wildlife sanctuary permanently under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, there is need for the settlement officer (in this case the Devikulam sub-collector) to go through the settlement of rights process for those who have inhabited or have rights over the land. This has now happened.

In November 2017, the Kerala Government decided to redraw the boundaries of the Kurinjimala Sanctuary – a move which had invited criticism alleging that it was to support the encroachers.

Following the controversy, Pinarayi Vijayan had promised that the reserve’s area will not be reduced at any cost. He told media representatives that a committee will be formed to study the issues at the reserve and it will look in to the settlement concerns.

There is also a case pending in the Kerala High Court, demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry into the involvement of the local member of Parliament in fabricating documents for the land. Similarly, there are hundreds of such encroachments in the reserve, claims environmentalist G. Baburaj.

Protection for neelakurinji habitat finally declared

Now, in the latest decision as of April 2018, the Kerala cabinet has decided to ensure that the proposed Neelakurinji Sanctuary will have a minimum of 3,200 hectares. Though the cabinet had decided not to evict people with title deeds, it plans to redraw the boundaries in cooperation with the revenue department.

The cabinet decision includes appointing a settlement officer, conducting drone-based survey to identify the forest land and amending The Kerala Promotion of Tree Growth In Non-Forest Areas Act 2005 to prevent growing acacia and eucalyptus in the reserve forest area, all meant to benefit the Kurinjimala Sanctuary.

(IANS)

Some popular apps on your Android phone may be actively listening to you, monitoring your habits and even secretly taking screenshots of your activity and sending them to third parties, a new study has found.

These screenshots and videos of your activity on the screen could include usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and other important personal information, the researchers said.

“We found that every app has the ability to record your screen and anything you type,” said David Choffnes, a Professor at Boston’s Northeastern University. 

The findings will be presented at the Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium Conference in Barcelona.

For the study, the team analysed more than 17,000 of the most popular apps on the Android operating system, using an automated test programme written by the students. 

In all, 9,000 of the 17,000 apps showed the potential to take screenshots.

“There were no audio leaks at all. Not a single app activated the microphone,” said Christo Wilson, Professor at the varsity. 

“Then we started seeing things we didn’t expect. Apps were automatically taking screenshots of themselves and sending them to third parties.”

Although these privacy breaches appeared to be benign, they emphasised how easily a phone’s privacy window could be exploited for profit.

“This opening will almost certainly be used for malicious purposes. It’s simple to install and collect this information. And what’s most disturbing is that this occurs with no notification to or permission by users,” Wilson noted. 

Although the study was conducted on Android phones, there is no reason to believe that other phone operating systems would be less vulnerable, the researchers said.

Another study, published in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, found that apps developed to help people track their migraine pain often share information with third parties, posing privacy risks partly because there are few legal protections against the sale or disclosure of data from medical apps to third parties.

“In 2018, it is estimated that nearly half of 3.4 billion smartphone users will use health related apps, and currently, there are a wide range of apps on the market for various neurologic and pain conditions,” said lead author Mia Minen, from the New York University Langone Medical Center in the US. 

“We think our study may have widespread implications for people suffering from various chronic conditions,” Minen added.

(IANS)

Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen said the lack of attention on social sectors had taken a “quantum jump in the wrong direction” since the BJP came to power and that despite the visible prominence of backwardness in India, the political dispensation was diverting attention from the core issues.

“Things have gone pretty badly wrong. Even previously before this government, we did not do enough on education and health. But it has taken a quantum jump in the wrong direction since 2014,” Amartya Sen said on Saturday during a discussion on his new book “Bharat Aur Uske Virodhabhas” (India and its Contradictions), co-authored with economist Jean Dreze.

Pointing out the contradiction in India getting backward while also being the fastest growing economy in the world, the Nobel Laureate said: “Twenty years ago, of the six countries in this region, India was the second best after Sri Lanka. Now it is the second worst.”

“And because of Pakistan’s problems, Pakistan has managed to shield us from being the worst,” he said.

He added that while people should take pride in the things that India has, they must be critical of those things of which they have reason to be ashamed.

“Despite the easy prominence of backwardness in India… now if you try to draw attention to that, the way to deflect it is to say: now think about the great pride of India,” Sen said. 

He said despite the enormous inequalities, it was possible to distract attention.

“A great writer who I admire, V.S. Naipaul, who wrote such a novel like ‘A House for Mr Biswas’, could also write that what happened after the 13th century was destruction of Hindu temples and Hindu civilisation, overlooking that this is also when new ideas were coming in.

“If you can distract V.S. Naipaul’s attention then you can distract the attention of most intelligent people,” the Nobel Laureate said.

“The result is that there has been deflection. When there has been this deflection, we have to do something anti-deflection,” he added.

Dreze, who co-authored the book, said while India, in the last few years, had got some success in its quest to become the fastest growing economy — “helped partly by slowdown in China’s growth and partly by some jugglery of numbers” — there is a significant difference between growth and development. 

“While development is the goal, economic growth is the medium to achieve that goal. And it’s something to think about that despite 7 per cent GDP growth, the income of the rural labourer has remained the same and yet no one speaks about it,” he said.

He added that while economic growth can help in achieving development, it needs to be accompanied by public action. 

“If we talk about health, India is way behind even Bangladesh despite being economically ahead of it. And that is because of lack of public action in India compared to Bangladesh.

“Similarly public action is crucial for education, nutrition, social security, ensuring equality, and environmental protection,” he said.