NEW DELHI: Seventy-five years after the 1942 Quit India movement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the movement’s spirit should be rekindled for a movement for nation building between 2017 and 2022. 
“Poverty, lack of education and malnutrition – these are big challenges our nation faces. We need to bring a positive change in this regard,” Mr Modi said in the Lok Sabha during a special discussion on the occasion of 75th anniversary of Quit India movement.
In 1942, Mr. Modi said, the clarion call was “Karenge Ya Marenge (Do or Die)” today the call should be “Karenge aur Karke Rahenge (Will do and will definitely achieve).  
He said that the recollection of movements such as the Quit India Movement, is a source of inspiration, and added that the current generation has a responsibility of passing on the legacy of such movements, to the future generations.
The Prime Minister recalled that even as  senior leaders like Mahatma Gandhi were jailed at the beginning of the Quit India Movement, a new generation of leaders emerged to fill the vacuum and take the movement forward.
The Prime Minister noted that the freedom struggle went through several phases, and recalled various leaders and movements that emerged at various points since 1857. He added that the Quit India Movement that began in 1942, was a decisive movement. 
Quoting Gandhiji, the Prime Minister said that all sections of people joined in, responding to Mahatma Gandhi’s clarion call of “Do or Die.” He said that from political leaders to the common man, everyone was imbued with this spirit. Five years was all it took to achieve the objective of independence, once the entire country shared this common resolve, the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister quoted the writer Ramvriksha Benipuri, and the poet Sohanlal Dwivedi to describe the mood that prevailed at that time.
The Prime Minister noted that corruption, poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition are challenges that India now needs to overcome. He also mentioned the role played by women in the freedom struggle, and said that women can add immense strength to our common objectives, even today.
Speaking about rights and duties, the Prime Minister said that while we are well aware of our rights, we cannot forget our duties, and these too, must become part of our way of life.
The Prime Minister said that colonialism began in India, and its end too, began with India’s independence, which was soon followed by the fall of colonialism across Asia and Africa.
In 1942, conditions internationally became favourable for India to get independence, the Prime Minister said, noting that today again, the global conditions are favourable for India. He said, that from 1857 to 1942, the move towards freedom was incremental, but the years from 1942 to 1947, were transformative, and delivered on the objective. 
The Prime Minister urged the Members of Parliament to rise above differences, and join in a common effort to create an India of the dreams of the freedom fighters in the next five years, from 2017 to 2022, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of independence.
He said the next five years should also be about “Sankalp se Siddhi” – a resolve which will lead us to accomplishment.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan  said while the spirit of Quit India movement was to urge the colonial rulers to leave India, in the present time the appeal should be for “uniting India”.
“There is a need for a movement now so that from Kashmir to Kanyakumari we can build up a strong and well organised India.Our freedom fighters had envisioned a dream of an inclusive India,” she said.

NEW DELHI: Since the formation of the BJP government, led by Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana, Barala family has only managed to gain in its influence and clout in the state. 

Being the State President of the BJP in Haryana, Subhash Barala’s Twitter handle is replete with praises of the party president Amit Shah’s routine proceedings. In one of his tweets, he is also remembering the former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. However, there was no tweet against the alleged conduct of of son or on the safety of the girls. 

Now he appeared on the national television calling Varnika Kundu like his daughter and assuring action against his son Vikas Barala and the other accused Ashish. Both of them have joined investigation being carried out by the Chandigarh Police. Now this is very obvious. The state BJP chief would never have thought that one day the wrongdoings of his family’s ‘chirag’ will be maligning his political image and will be struggling to get the crisis managed by any PR team he had hired for his social media campaign. 

With pressure mounting, he spoke with a view to calm down the national outrage and anger, “The law should take its own course. The BJP is a party that believes in women’s rights and freedom. Neither I nor BJP is pressuring anyone in this matter.”

Subhash Barala has said that action will be taken. But how? All the 9 CCTV footage of the route, which Vikas Barala choose to chase and harass Varnika Kundu, are missing, as the UT police said. Chandigarh is considered a very posh and modern city. It is highly suspecting that all the 9 close circuit cameras stopped functioning at one time in a posh sector like sector 7 to the Housing Board traffic light point. 

The BJP’s central leadership, is still silent on this issue.  Apart from Shaina NC, Kirron Kher  and Babul Supriyo, none have spoken. Haryana continues to claim the infamous badge when it comes to women’s safety, girl child killing and rapes. In May, 83 girls from Rewari went on an indefinite hunger strike, demanding upgrade their school and to fight against eve teasing and harassment. After a week, the Haryana government intervened and the protesting girls called off their strike. 

PM Modi’s flagship program of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ seems pointless in such a scenario. Manohar Lal Khattar associated Olympic medal winner Sakshi Malik as the brand ambassador for the campaign, ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. Now a girl of similar age is being stalked in Chandigarh city who managed to escape the threat of abduction. 

The time has come to start a debate for education of boys, who pose a danger to civilised norms of a peaceful, harmonious society. 

Amid this uproar, neither the top brass of the BJP government have come out in the support of Varnika Kundu. Spokespersons of the BJP shout out their throats on TV debates on nationalism but the silence on Varnika Kundu looks very disappointing. It shows the temperament that the party leadership is not very serious with its flagship campaigns for girls’ safety and protection when the country is boiling with fury against Vikas Barala. Law should indeed take its own course and swiftly in this case lest the people begin having serious doubts over the country’s already overburdened and inefficient criminal justice system. 

(The views expressed by the writer are personal.)   

Committed to eliminate measles and control rubella/congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) by 2020, India will include Measles-Rubella (MR) campaign in its universal immunization programme (UIP).

The vaccination is given to the children in the age group of 9 months to less than 15 years in a phased manner. This is going to be the largest ever vaccination campaign worldwide and will will replace measles vaccine, currently given at 9-12 months and 16-24 months of age of child.

The first phase of measles-rubella vaccination campaign has been successfully completed in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep and Puducherry when more than 3.3 crore children were vaccinated, reaching out to 97% of the intended age group. The campaign was carried out in schools, community centers and health facilities. The next round began on August 1, in 8 states/UTs (Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Telangana and Uttarakhand) from August 2017, aiming to cover 3.4 crore children.

The campaign aims to rapidly build up immunity for both measles and rubella diseases in the community so as to knock out the disease, therefore, all the children should receive MR vaccine during the campaign. For those children who have already received such vaccination, the campaign dose would provide additional boosting to them, a statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said.  

The Measles-Rubella campaign is a part of global efforts to reduce illness and deaths due to measles and rubella/CRS in the country. Measles immunization directly contributes to the reduction of under-five child mortality, and in combination with rubella vaccine, it will control rubella and prevent CRS.

Measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children, despite the fact that a safe and effective vaccine has been available for over 40 years. It is a highly a contagious disease, caused by virus of the paramyxovirus family and spreads through coughing and sneezing of an infected person.

Measles is commonly recognizable as a visible red rash with high fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes. Children who do not have sufficient immunity contract the disease, if exposed and can make a child vulnerable to life threatening complications such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and brain infection.

Globally, an estimated 1,34,200 deaths were caused from measles in 2015, even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available. Measles killed an estimated 49,200 children in 2015 in India, contributing nearly 36% to the global figures.

There has been a 79% global decline in measles deaths from 2000 to 2015 credited to the measles vaccine. The estimated cases and estimated deaths in country, 2015 were 27,68,032 and 49,200 respectively.

Rubella, although a mild viral illness, can lead to serious consequences if infected during early pregnancy, leading to abortion, miscarriage, still birth, and set of congenital anomalies in the foetus and newborns known as Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS), which is a cause of public health concern.

CRS is characterized by multiple defects, particularly affecting the eyes (glaucoma, cataract), ears (hearing loss), brain (microcephaly, mental retardation) and heart defects- many of which are lifelong disabilities, requiring treatment, surgeries and other expensive care throughout life.

In 2010, an estimated 1,03,000 children were born with CRS (congenital rubella syndrome) globally, of which nearly 47,000, i.e. 46% were in South-East Asia Region. An estimated 30,000 children are born with congenital rubella syndrome India.

The measles and rubella vaccines are live, attenuated vaccines. These vaccines are safe and effective vaccine, available for more than 40 years. To provide greater protection, 161 WHO member countries are providing measles second dose in their national immunization programme and rubella vaccine has been introduced in 149 countries.

The MR vaccine used in both the campaign and in routine immunization is WHO-requalified, manufactured in India and is considered very safe and highly effective. Over 33.5 million children have already received the MR vaccine through this campaign. In private sector, parents are charged between Rs. 400 – 900 for MMR vaccination but is given free of cost to benefit all children.

New Delhi : A neglected and old anti-parasitic drug used during the World War II is emerging as a new weapon in the fight against malaria as malaria parasite becomes resistant to currently available drugs.

A group of Indian researchers have resurrected acriflavine or ACF which was used as an anti-parasite drug in the last century, and have found it to be effective against malaria parasite. Now they are working to make this molecule more effective using nanotechnology.  

Researchers at the Special Centre for Molecular Medicine at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have got a patent for antimalarial properties of ACF. They have now joined hands with scientists at the National Institute of Immunology (NII) to develop a nano-formulation of the dug and to study its potential in animal models. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is funding this joint effort.

ACF was previously used as a trypanocidal agent against a range of infections during World War II. But due to preferential use of chloroquine for treatment of malaria, its antimalarial activity was never investigated. “It was used as an antibacterial and anti-parasitical agent but it was not known as antimalarial agent. We have found that it is effective as an antimalarial molecule also,” said Prof Suman Dhar of JNU. “We believe nanoformulation of ACF will help release the molecule slowly into the host. This will increase its stability, and it will be then conjugated with specific antibodies to make it more specific.”

The researchers have already shown that ACF inhibits the growth of both chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant strains of human malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. It was also found to clear malarial infection from bloodstreams of mice infected with Plasmodium berghei. In addition, they have found that ACF is preferentially accumulated in the parasitized red blood cells. 

Chloroquine and pyrimethamine, which were used as primary chemotherapeutic drugs, are of little use now since the parasite has developed resistance to them. Though there is a decline in global burden of malaria continues to be a major health problem in many countries. Recent reports of resistance to artemisinin, the only effective antimalarial drug at present, are causing concern among health agencies globally. 

The team of researchers includes Prof Suman Dhar from Special Center for Molecular Medicine at JNU; Dr Jaydeep Bhattacharya and Dr Deepak Gaur from School of Biotechnology at JNU; and Dr Agam P. Singh from NII, New Delhi.  (Indian Science Wire)

As Haryana BJP State President Subhash Barala’s son Vikas Barala and his friend landed into a controversy of allegedly stalking and attempting to kidnap Dj Varnika Kundu, daughter of a senior IAS officer, chasing her by his SUV, he must not be feared that the girl who he is behind of is trained in Choi Kwang- Do, which motivated her to teach a lesson to the stalker. She didn’t resort to hide her identity. She called SOS and tried to file a complaint of kidnapping and stalking. Initially, Chandigarh UT police booked the men under charges of Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 345 D (Stalking) and Section 185 (Motor Vehicle Act Drunken Driving) as well as serious non-bailable offences under Sections 365 (Kidnapping, 511  (attempt to commit offences punishable with imprisonment) and 341 (Wrongful Restraint). Later as the reports suggest, the two charges were reduced and the accused got bail. 
Varnika Kundu wrote on Facebook that the men blocked her way, banged on her windows and even tried to forceful door open. A police patrol team came, responding to her SOS. The daughter of senior IAS officer said that she feels lucky to not lying raped or murdered in ditch somewhere. Speaking to a private news channel she said, “After being caught the two said that it was a mistake but I ask that a mistake cannot be stretched for kilometers. The cops should not have to come to stop you.”
Subhash Barala’s Deputy Ramveer Bhatti targeted the girl for roaming at night. The BJP leader aide also said that her parents must not allow them to roam at night and keep a watch on them so that they could return home on time. Well, it also applies with boys. Varnika resorted back, “It is none of his business, it is my business and my family’s what I do and where…..If it was not for men like these, I would not be unsafe going out..whether it is 12 am or 2 am.”
Every time after such harassment takes place, the powerful goons are set free because of their approach in the political sphere and power to manipulate the FIR report.  When nothing is left to defend the accused, the relatives jump into character assassination of the victim. They take big shameless advantage of feudal mindset and the patriarchal division. And the same is being reflected in Varnika’s case. Defenders are digging out her old facebook posts where she is allegedly enjoying a party time with her friends.
The Chandigarh UT police are in major controversy to drop two serious charges against the two accused who got bail after that. Initially, Chandigarh police had said there was no CCTV footage of the incident. Deputy Superintendent of Police Mr. Satish Kumar had said that they tried to get footage along the route, from Sector 7 to Housing Board traffic light point, but all CCTVs were found out of order.
Amid the allegations upon the police to shield and cover up the Haryana BJP Chief son and for the weaker action of the UT police, the opposition is targeting the Manohar Lal Khattar led BJP state government and mounting pressure on the Subhash Barala to resign in the wake of the incident. CM Khattar said, “I came to know about this incident. Chandigarh Police has filed the complaint and I believe they will take appropriate action. This matter is not related with Subhash Barala but with an individual. So action would be taken against his son.”
“On one hand, the BJP boasts about its various schemes for women and giving them honour, and on the other hand we have a BJP leader whose son is stalking a woman. It is very embarrassing,” Shiv Sena leader Manish Kayande told ANI. Congress leader M. Afzal also demanded Barala’s resignation on moral grounds. (Courtesy, NDTV) 
Senior Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka said, “The girl has handled a nightmarish situation very bravely. To deter such occurrences in the future, the criminal justice process must be fast-tracked. The brave father should not be victimized for the support to his brave daughter. The political party must demonstrate determination in Beti Bachao through real action.”

“The Union home ministry, which directly controls UT Administration and UT Police of Chandigarh, is conspiring to hush up the entire matter so as to protect the Haryana State BJP president and his son,” said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. BJP refuted the allegations made by the Congress party.
Senior BJP MP Subramanian Swamy alleged the UT police of doing a “somersault” on the case Chandigarh Stalking case. He tweeted, “With my associate lawyer AP Jagga on attempted abduction of an IAS officer’s daughter by two drunken goons, I will file a PIL in Chandigarh.”

(Views are personal.)

To create awareness about the advantages of mother’s milk; nurses from the hospital prepared posters that mentioned the importance of breastfeeding. As it is the most nutritional and safe form of milk for the child, the creative posters were exhibited within the hospital premises. Demonstrations on various lactation methods were also provided for mothers who find it difficult to breastfeed. Also the nurses had created the trending Sonu song ‘Aai Stanpan war bharosa nai kai!’ to make new moms understand about benefits of breastfeeding.
Not only medical facilities, but also mother’s milk is required for babies to recuperate. Breast milk is not only rich in proteins but also provides better immunity to the baby. Milk banks come to the aid of these pre-term children in case their mothers are unable to feed them.
 Â“Wadia Hospital’s milk bank reserves 500 litres of milk every year. Each day, approximately 15 to 20 preterm babies benefit from this milk bank facility. All infants should be given mother’s milk as it has long term benefits for the baby and will also help in the child’s health. The milk bank benefits those mothers who are unable to feed their babies. Consent is obtained from donors and families of recipient children who are fed this milk,” said Dr Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO, Wadia hospitals.

Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm in India as per World Health Organization (WHO). Not all hospitals are well equipped to handle premature babies, leading to nearly 1 million deaths in 2015. A 150 bedded Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Nowrosjee Wadia Maternity Hospital cares for approximately 1100 preterm babies every year. At Wadia Hospital’s milk bank service, trained nurses extract, process, store and feed the milk to babies. Excess milk is put in cold storage between 2-4° C for 3 days, during which time it is bacteriologically tested. Later pasteurized at 67° C, it is put in cold storage at -8° C. It stays consumable up to 100 days. Mothers are counseled to donate their excess milk to the bank. The Gynecology department at Wadia Hospital focused on the enhancement and fortification of minimal access surgery. Often high risk patients require endoscopy, as it hardly leaves any scar and is becoming the trend. They are also focusing on poor patients to be able to avail this service and hence are introducing new machines and equipment that can enhance the minimal access surgery in Gynecology.

The Forum to Engage Men (FEM), a national level alliance of organisations and institutions working with men towards gender justice, has opposed the Ministry of Women and Child Development Ministry’s recommendation to the National Commission for Women (NCW) to open a window for men to register complaints of false cases against them in the NCWs online complaint system.
It has demanded withdrawal of the WCD Ministry’s directive to the NCW and has also opposed other recent attempts to dilute laws for women, such as the directive by Supreme Court to set up an extra legal body -the Family Welfare Centre /Committee– to examine and filter every complaint under Section 498a of the IPC before action is taken by authorities. “The FEM would like to point out that there is absolutely no data to back the concern by a vociferous section of men that they are increasingly being victimised by women through misuse of the law. In fact, data shows that violence against women has been increasing and the hard-fought laws in support of women’s rights provide a huge umbrella of protection to women against domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment and harassment for dowry, among many other gender-based crimes,” the organization has said in a letter to Ms Maneka Gandhi, the Union WCD Minister.
These laws already provide enough safeguards and remedies for the accused to prove their innocence. Giving further safeguards to men and other accused will make the laws ineffective for the protection of women and result in a victory of patriarchal forces that brand women as liars and downplay the severity of crimes against them. The low conviction rates of these cases, cited to support the argument that the cases are largely false, does not stand as all crimes have low conviction rates and there is no reason to only single out cases related to crimes against women, the letter has said.
The FEM stands in solidarity with women’s rights organisations that are demanding better law enforcement and strengthening of the criminal justice system and is in favor of the government resisting pressure by a group of’ ‘aggrieved’ men, according to Satish Kumar Singh, Convener, Forum to Engage Men (FEM) – Working with Men and Boys to Achieve Gender Equality.

NEW DELHI: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday recalled the crucial role played by eminent author Khushwant Singh in defusing tensions in Punjab in the wake of Operation Bluestar in June 1984.
Turning nostalgic as he recounted several of his personal interactions with Khushwant Singh while launching a book on the well-known writer and editor at the Press Club of India here, the Chief Minister said a general feeling of bitterness prevailed in the state at that time and a team was appointed to bring down tempers, with Khushwant being a prominent member of it.
One of the important legacies left behind by Khushwant Singh was that he believed in truth, and what he wrote was simply truth, said Captain Amarinder, adding that Khushwant and his books would live in the hearts and minds of people till posterity.
In response to a question on Khushwant’s decision to support the imposition of emergency and sterilisation in India, the Chief Minister said while one could agree or disagree with the methods adopted at that time, the fact is that population is a matter of serious concern and needs to be dealt with. Khushwant was a man who spoke straight from his heart and that was a quality everyone admired, said Captain Amarinder.
The Chief Minister, who released Vitasta Publishing’s new book ‘Khushwant Singh: In Wisdom and in Jest’, co-authored by Vijay Narain Shankar and Onkar Singh, described Khushwant as a man who could get away with the most outrageous of statements.
Taking part in a discussion after the book launch, the Chief Minister said he did not endorse Khushwant’s projection as an agnostic and believed it to be his mere public posturing, considering that he was well versed with the Sikh religious paaths (prayers) of `Jap ji Sahib’’. In fact, said Captain Amarinder Singh said that Khushwant’s translation of `Jaapji Sahib’ was the best he had come across. He also cited from the book to point out that the author used to visit Bangla Sahib gurdwara at night, indicating that he did believe in religion though he was opposed to ritualism.
Captain Amarinder, who was joined on the dais by former Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, said he had known Khushwant for a long time and the book did full justice to the man. He remembered how he went to Khushwant’s house after becoming chief minister for the first time and was turned back as he was late by an hour and a half. Not one to mince his words, Khushwant refused to welcome him into the house as it was his dinner time when Captain Amarinder came for this much-delayed meeting.
The Chief Minister recalled another incident when Khushwant did not spare him out of any sense of politeness. On the release of Captain’s book on the Lahore Darbar, the author told him “this is the first book of that period where I have not been quoted,” recalled the Chief Minister.
Soli Sorabjee described Khushwant as an extraordinary person who could crack jokes on Sikhs despite being a follower of the Sikh religion. He was a rare gem with the strong courage of conviction, along with a great sense of humour, said Sorabjee. 
Montek Singh said Khushwant had enriched Delhi in many ways and was much admired by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Considering that he had not achieved much till the age of 40, Montek said he was an ideal for youngsters who could learn from his example that success could come at any age.

NEW DELHI: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday condemned the alleged incident of stalking of a young girl in Chandigarh by the son of Haryana BJP President and said that no attempt should be made to dilute the charges against the accused.
Talking to journalists after a book release function at the Press Club of India here, the Chief Minister said that the girl had clearly stated that there was an attempt to abduct her, hence charges should be registered under the relevant sections of the law.
Describing such incidents as extremely unfortunate, he said that he admired the courage shown by the young girl who is daughter of a senior IAS officer. The stalking incident has hit newspaper headlines and grabbed attention of all major television news networks over the past two days, highlighting the vital issue of women’s safety and security in cities. 
In response to a question on Chandigarh police’s claim that CCTV footage of the alleged stalking incident was not available as the cameras were “non-functional”, the chief minister, “so what if the footage is not available. The girl has made her statement and the police must act on it”.
Referring to the issue of safety of women in Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh said that his government was taking steps to curb petty street crimes like snatching to make roads safe for the women. He said that drug addiction in Punjab had led to a rise in such petty crimes, making streets unsafe for women.
“We have cracked down on drugs and are constantly increasing police presence on the roads to make women feel safe,” he said, adding that his government had cut down on VVIP security in a big way and put policemen back on the streets for public duty. 

Kumari S. Aparna, an IAS officer from Gujarat cadre and the Principal Secretary to the state Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, has been appointed as the Executive Director, World Bank headquartered in Washington DC, United States. She will represent India and its neighboring countries Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka for three years period. The order was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (Dopt). 
Apart from Principal Secretary, she served as Economic Affairs, Surat Municipal Commissioner and Joint Secretary, Urban Development at the centre. At the top financial institution, she will replace Subhash Garg, who was recently appointed as Economic Affairs Secretary, Ministry of Finance.