Researchers have found that two-thirds of the birds breeding in poultry farms in Punjab carry extended-spectrum beta-lactamase or ESBL enzymes that are resistant to most penicillin and cephalosporin-based antibiotics.

The study was done on 18 poultry farms in Punjab where approximately 50,000 birds each are being raised. Of the birds tested randomly, 87 per cent carried the superbug. The poultry in these farms was meant for meat consumption, the study published in the Environmental Health Perspective journal has said.

“This study has serious implications, not only for India but globally,” said study author Ramanan Laxminarayan, director at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy in a statement. “We must remove antibiotics from the human food chain, except to treat sick animals, or face the increasingly real prospect of a post-antibiotic world,” he said.

Of these 16 farms which were surveyed, the owners used medicines to treat sick birds and to prevent diseases while two-thirds used the drugs to spur chick growth. The drug use was compared with the levels of resistance present in 1,556 E.coli specimen collected from more than 500 birds.

Chicken is the most consumed meat in India, particularly among the younger generation, and is cheaper as compared to meats. Its consumption is growing annually.

Samples from the farms, which reported using antibiotics, were three times more likely to be multidrug-resistant than samples from farms that did not use antibiotics to promote growth, the researchers said.

The team found reservoirs of resistance across both types of farms but meat farms had twice the rates of antimicrobial resistance than egg-producing farms as well as high rates of multidrug resistance. The study also found high levels of multidrug resistance, ranging from 39 per cent for ciprofloxacin, used to treat endocarditis, gastroenteritis, cellulitis and other infections, to 86 per cent for nalidixic acid, a common treatment for urinary tract infections.

 Â“Our findings suggest that antimicrobial use for growth promotion promoted the development of reservoirs of highly resistant bacteria on the studied farms, with potentially serious implications for human health,” Laxminarayan and colleagues wrote in the study.

Farmers who handle the birds often wear open-toe shoes, providing “a conduit of entry for resistant bacteria and resistance genes into the community and hospitals, where further person-to-person transmission is possible,” the authors said. Withdrawal of non-therapeutic use of agricultural antimicrobials in India would be prudent to protect public health,” they added.

Easy access to antibiotics, indiscriminate use and lack of awareness about antibiotic use are major issues in India and is approaching epidemic proportions. Estimates suggest more than 56,000 newborns die every year in India because of blood stream infections that cannot be cured by first-line antibiotics.

More countries have implemented tobacco control policies, covering 4.7 billion people of 63% of the world’s population by at least one comprehensive measure, a latest WHO report on global tobacco epidemic has said. The number of people covered under the tobacco control prices has quadrupled since 2007 when only 1 billion people and 15% of the world’s population, were covered. Strategies to implement such policies have saved millions of people from an early death, the report said.
However, the tobacco industry continues to hamper government efforts to fully implement life- and cost-saving interventions, according to the new WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2017.
“Governments around the world must waste no time in incorporating all the provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control into their national tobacco control programmes and policies,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “They must also clamp down on the illicit tobacco trade, which is exacerbating the global tobacco epidemic and its related health and socio economic consequences.”
“Working together, countries can prevent millions of people from dying each year from preventable tobacco-related illness, and save billions of dollars a year in avoidable health-care expenditures and productivity losses,” Dr Tedros added.
Today, 4.7 billion people  are protected by at least one “best practice” tobacco control measure from the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), 3.6 billion more than in 2007, according to the report. This progress has been made possible because governments have intensified action to implement key measures of the WHO FCTC.
Strategies to support implementation of tobacco demand reduction measures in the WHO FCTC, like the “MPOWER” measures, have saved millions of people from an early death, as well as hundreds of billions of dollars in the past decade. MPOWER was established in 2008 to promote government action on six tobacco control strategies in line with the WHO FCTC to monitor tobacco use and prevention policies,  protect people from tobacco smoke, offer help to quit tobacco use, and raise taxes on tobacco among other things. Â“One in ten deaths around the world is caused by tobacco, but we can change that through MPOWER tobacco control measures, which have proven highly effective,” says Michael R. Bloomberg, WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“The progress that has been made worldwide – and documented throughout this report – shows that it is possible for countries to turn the tide. Bloomberg Philanthropies looks forward to working with Director-General Ghebreyesus and continuing our work with the WHO,’’ he added.
The new report, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, focuses on monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. It finds one-third of countries have comprehensive systems to monitor tobacco use. While this is up from one-quarter of countries monitoring tobacco use at recommended levels in 2007, governments still need to do more to prioritize or finance this area of work.
Even countries with limited resources can monitor tobacco use and implement prevention policies. By generating data on youth and adults, countries can, in turn, promote health, save healthcare costs and generate revenues for government services, the report finds. It adds that systematic monitoring of tobacco industry interference in government policymaking protects public health by shedding light on tobacco industry tactics. These include exaggerating the economic importance of the tobacco industry, discrediting proven science and using litigation to intimidate governments.  Tobacco use is the leading single preventable cause of death worldwide, killing over 7 million people each year. Its economic costs are also enormous, totalling more than US$1.4 trillion in healthcare costs and lost productivity.
Controlling tobacco use is a key part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda includes targets to strengthen national implementation of the WHO FCTC and a one-third reduction in premature deaths from NCDs, including heart and lung diseases, cancer and diabetes. Tobacco use is a leading common risk factor for NCDs, which kill 40 million people each year, equivalent to 70% of all deaths globally, including 15 million people aged between 30 and 69. Over 80% of these “premature” deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.
According to this report,   eight countries, including five low- and middle-income, have implemented four or more MPOWER measures at the highest level (Brazil, Islamic Republic of Iran, Ireland, Madagascar, Malta, Panama, Turkey and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). Nepal, India and the Philippines are among countries that conducted WHO-backed initiatives to monitor tobacco use and then implemented measures to protect people from tobacco with Nepal introducing the world’s largest health warnings on tobacco packaging surfaces (covering 90% of the package) in May 2015 after using a set of household tobacco survey questions that allowed authorities to detect a high prevalence of adult male smokers and users of smokeless products. India launched a nationwide tobacco cessation programme and toll-free quit line in 2016 after conducting a “global adult tobacco survey” in 2009-10 that revealed high interest among almost one in two smokers and users of smokeless products to quit eventually while Philippines’ landmark Sin Tax Reform Law was passed in 2012 after its 2009 global adult tobacco survey showed high smoking rates among men (47.4%) and boys (12.9%). Such strong tobacco demand reduction measures have contributed to declining tobacco use, according to its 2015 adult tobacco survey results. A comprehensive smoke-free legislation is currently in place for almost 1.5 billion people in 55 countries. Since 2007, dramatic progress has been witnessed in low- and middle-income countries, 35 of which have adopted a complete smoke-free law since 2007, and an appropriate cessation treatment is in place for 2.4 billion people in 26 countries. More people are protected by strong graphic pack warnings than by any other MPOWER measure, covering almost 3.5 billion people in 78 countries – almost half the global population (47%), according to the report.
Several countries have bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship interfere with the tobacco industry’s ability to promote and sell its products, and reduce tobacco use. But only 15% of the world’s population is currently covered by a comprehensive ban while the report recommends raising taxes to increase tobacco product prices as the most effective and cost-effective means to reduce tobacco use and encourage users to quit.

NEW DELHI: Ram Nath Kovind was on Thursday declared elected as the next President of India. He will be sworn in on July 25 at a ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament, taking over as the country’s 14th President from Pranab Mukherjee. 
Mr. Kovind, 71,  scored an easy win over the combined opposition-backed candidate Meira Kumar, former Lok Sabha Speaker. He will be the second Dalit President of the country after K. R. Narayanan. 
“I never aspired to be the president; my win is a message to those discharging their duties with integrity,’’ he said in first comments after his electoral victory. He won tw-third of the votes cast by an electoral college comprising MPs and state legislators. Mr. Kovind was the surprise choice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to run for the presidency. At the time of his nomination as the BJP-led NDA’s presidential candidate, he was occupying the Bihar Raj Bhawan as the State Governor. He has also served two terms as a member of the Rajya Sabha. 
Hailing from a humble background from rural area of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Kovind had taken up legal profession and appeared in a number of cases in Delhi High Court as well as the Supreme Court. He had joined the BJP and has well-entrenched background of the party’s ideological mentor, RSS. He belongs to a family of farmers and is known to be a low-profile person of simple lifestyle
“It is a great responsibility, my job will be to uphold and protect the Constitution. My election to this post is a sign of the greatness of India’s democracy,”  Mr Kovind said. 
While polling in the presidential elections had taken place in Parliament and State Assemblies, counting began at 11 a.m. when the ballot box of MPs was opened first, followed by those received from the States in alphabetical order. 
After the election of senior BJP leader and Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu as the country’s next Vice President on August 5, it would be for the first time in the past seven decades that three top posts in the country – President, Vice President and the Prime Minister – would have gone to persons with RSS-BJP background. The BJP never had it so good in the mainstream political life of the country. Mr. Kovind’s candidature was supported by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) which broke away from the ranks of the Opposition parties. 
The ruling BJP has not only tried to bolster its pro-poor image as a party devoted to the uplift of sections of Dalits, downtrodden, deprived and backward but also made an attempt to strike a balance between North and South by picking Mr. Naidu for the country’s second highest constitutional post. 

NEW DELHI : PM Modi today held a meeting with top scientific officials of the Government of India. These included Dr. V.K. Saraswat – Member, NITI Aayog; Dr. R. Chidambaram – Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India; and Secretaries related to scientific departments in the Union Government.

Officials briefed Prime Minister on progress in various areas of scientific research.

The PM asserted that science, technology and innovation are the keys to progress and prosperity of India. He said that the Government’s priority in the science and technology sector is to apply science to solve our country’s problems.

Giving the example of talent spotting in sports, the Prime Minister said that mechanisms should be made to identify the brightest and best science talent among school students.

He said that a lot of innovation is happening at the grassroots level. Urging officials to break silos, the Prime Minister strongly emphasized that a mechanism should be formed to document and replicate successful innovations at the grassroots level. In this context, he also mentioned innovations being done by defence personnel.

In the agriculture sector, the Prime Minister identified high-protein pulses, fortified foods, and value addition in castor, as priority areas which needed to be speeded up.

In the energy sector, the Prime Minister said that the possibilities of solar energy should be pursued to the maximum, to reduce dependence on energy imports.

Expressing confidence in the abilities of Indian scientists to rise up to the challenges, and provide solutions to improve the lives of the common man in India, the Prime Minister asked the officials to draw up clear targets to be achieved by 2022, the 75^th year of independence.

Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu declared NDA’s vice-presidential candidate 

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will be the NDA candidate for the post of Vice President. The announcement was made by BJP President Amit Shah in New Delhi this evening after the Party Parliamentary Board meeting.

Voting concludes to elect 14th President of India

Voting was held today to elect the 14th President of India as members of Parliament and legislative assemblies exercised their franchise at designated centers at Parliament House and state assemblies complex.

A total of 714 MPs voted in the Presidential polls in Parliament House. Briefing media in New Delhi, Secretary General, Lok Sabha and returning officer for Presidential elections, Anoop Mishra said, four MLAs also voted in Parliament house and 54 MPs exercised their franchise in their states.

GST Council decides to hike cess on cigarettes

GST Council has decided to hike cess on cigarettes in its meeting held in New Delhi this evening. The council took the decision after reviewing the compensation cess rates on cigarattes. 

The new rate will come into effect from midnight tonight. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that Cess on cigarettes of up to 65 mm has been raised by 485 rupees per thousand sticks and on those exceeding 65 mm by 792 rupees per thousand sticks. 

The change in cess would fetch five thousand crore rupees additional revenue. He said, the next meeting will take place in first week of next month to review progress of new indirect tax regime GST.

Roger Federer lifts a record 8th Wimbledon title beating Marin Cilic in Men’s singles

Roger Federer won a record eighth Wimbledon title and became the tournament’s oldest champion today with a straight-sets victory over Marin Cilic. 

Federer claimed his 19th Grand Slam title beating Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. The 36-year old Federer is also Wimbledon’s oldest men’s winner of the modern era, succeeding Arthur Ashe, who was almost 32 when he won in 1976.

Monsoon session of Parliament begins; Both Houses adjourned

The Monsoon session of Parliament began today and both Houses paid tributes to the departed sitting and former members and the victims of Amarnath terror attack before adjourning till tomorrow.

As soon as the Lok Sabha met, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan read the condolence message over the death of sitting MP Vinod Khanna and some former members of the House.

MoU Signed between Department of Defence Production and BEL 

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a Navratna Schedule ‘A’ Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the financial year 2017-18 with the Ministry. The annual MoU was signed between Secretary (Defence Production) Shri Ashok Kumar Gupta on behalf of the Ministry of Defence and Chairman and Managing Director, BEL Shri MV Gowtama. 

The revenue from operations has been targeted at Rs. 9000 crore. The Operating Profit to Revenue from Operations target has been set at 14 percent and PAT to Average Networth has been set at 15 percent. 

News Source – newsonair

NEW DELHI: It will be combined opposition’s Gopal Krishna Gandhi versus NDA’s M. Venkaiah Naidu in the direct contest to elect India’s 13^th Vice-President next month.

The BJP Parliamentary Board which met here on Monday evening put the seal of approval unanimously on the name of Venkaiah Naidu, Union Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting Minister and a senior party leader to be the NDA’s nominee for the election of the Vice President. The decision was announced by BJP President Amit Shah at the party headquarters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after the meeting, tweeted that he had known the 68-year-old politician for years and had always admired his tenacity and hard work. Mr. Naidu has also closely worked with former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and former Deputy PM and Home Minister L. K. Advani and to some extent has been cast in Vajpayee-Advani mould.

Hailing from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Naidu had begun his career in student politics and in 1980 served as BJP’s leader of the legislative party, headed party’s state unit before moving to the national capital to manage the party’s affairs as its general secretary and spokesperson during 1993-2000 period. He also headed the party as its national president between 2002 and 2004. He is currently in his fourth term in the Rajya Sabha, this time from Rajasthan.

Mr. Naidu had ruled himself out in May from the race for either the president or vice-president, saying he was “happy being Usha Pati’’, referring to his wife Usha.

He has honed himself as a good orator who never fails to come up quick, witty phrases and interventions in and outside Parliament. As the Vice-President is also Chairman of the Rajya Sabha where the BJP is still short of a majority, it would be Mr. Naidu’s managerial and oratorical skills that would come to his aid in running the House. His admirers, well-wishers and friends cut across party affiliations and so his goodwill.

With Mr. Naidu’s choice as the Vice Presidential candidate, the BJP has also given a broad hint about expanding its footprint in the Southern States. In choosing Mr. Ramnath Kovind as the President and Mr. Naidu as Vice-President candidates, the BJP has ensured that its core leaders get to occupy the top posts in the country. The opposition has claimed that it is contesting the two elections as ideological battle. Given the composition of both the Houses, it is almost certain that Mr. Naidu would succeed M. Hamid Ansari whose second term to the country’s second highest constitutional post comes to an end on August 10.

All members of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, including nominated members, form the electoral college for electing the Vice President. 

The ruling BJP-led NDA coalition is confident of getting 500 to 550 votes in favour of its Vice Presidential candidate. While in the current Lok Sabha, the NDA has 335 members, making for 62 per cent of the total members, in the Rajya Sabha the ruling dispensation has about 59 per cent members. While Rajya Sabha has 233 elected and 12 nominated members, Lok Sabha has 543 elected and 2 nominated members, taking the total strength to 790.

While the JD (U) has supported the NDA’s  Presidential candidate, it has already announced that it would back UPA’s Vice-Presidential nominee Gopal Krishna Gandhi for election as the country’s 13th Vice President. Polling and counting of votes is scheduled to be held on August 5. 

The value of each vote in the Vice-Presidential election is one. Ballot paper, containing names of the contesting candidate, is used for the election. The ballot paper does not contain any party symbol. It has two columns — one containing the name of the candidate and the second for marking the order of preference.

As per the number of contesting candidates, the voters can mark as many preferences against the names of the candidates as they want. The winning candidate has to get a required quota of votes, which is 50% of the total valid votes +1. With three vacancies, the total strength of the electoral college this time would be 787.

NEW DELHI : Doctors have long been using biopsy to diagnose liver fibrosis. A new study says it may be possible to diagnose the liver disease with a blood test in future.

Researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi, working in collaboration with Justus Liebig University, Giessen in Germany, have identified diagnostic markers for liver fibrosis. With these markers, it will be possible to diagnose liver fibrosis from blood samples. It will make diagnosis easier to perform, non-invasive, and less prone to sampling errors, researchers say in their study published in journal Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology. 

The new study has reported that patients of liver fibrosis have elevated levels of two proteins- Cathepsin L and Cathepsin B – in liver tissues as well as blood plasma, compared to healthy people. The increased levels of these two proteins open the possibility of designing a new and better diagnosis for liver disease. There is progressive increase in concentrations of the two proteins with advancement in the stages of liver cirrhosis, making them potential diagnostic tools. 

The observation was first made in animals and then humans. It was seen that the two proteins are elevated in kidney, heart, and lung fibrosis, which led to the idea of testing their diagnostic relevance in liver disorder. Since the findings are based on blood samples from 51 patients, researchers have recommended studies involving larger group of patients to further validate their work.

However, an expert working in the same field pointed out that “previous studies have also reported biomarkers for liver fibrosis. The challenge is to find a marker that can differentiate between mild and severe stages of the disease in addition to distinguishing between healthy and severely ill conditions.”

Liver fibrosis is caused by several factors including alcohol consumption, viral infection, and metabolic disorders. It is also congenital in some cases. It is marked by the formation of scars and nodules in the liver, which is due to accumulation of specific proteins.

The study team included Mansi Manchanda, Prasenjit Das, Gaurav Gahlot, Ratnakar Singh, Elke Roeb, Martin Roderfeld, Siddhartha Datta Gupta, Anoop Saraya, R M Pandey and Shyam S Chauhan. (India Science Wire) 

The opposition providing some food for thought for the Narendra Modi government having announced its Vice Presidential nominee well in advance. Opposition believes nominating Gopal Gandhi as its Vice Presidential nominee puts the Modi Government in a spot.

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent shock waves by choosing barrister and low key Dalit politician Ram Nath Kovind from Uttar Pradesh for the highest Constitutional office of President, the 18-party opposition has given some food for thought to the BJP led NDA by picking former West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi as its Vice Presidential nominee well in advance. 

On its part the NDA is not unduly concerned about the critical arithmetic required as it has the numbers in the electoral college to get its nominee elected as the Vice President despite being in a minority in the Rajya Sabha. 

The Lotus party is expected to enjoy the rare distinction of occupying the highest Constitutional office of President as well as that of the Vice President for the first time since the BJP was formed in 1980. This is on account of the numbers stacked in its favour. 

Going by precedent the ruling party at the Centre has its nominee as President and the opposition invariably occupies the office of Vice President, who is the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. 

These niceties are the least of Modi’s concerns keen as he is to snuff out the opposition in the country in pursuit of the rather difficult proposition of striving for a “Congress mukt Bharat” in the near future.  

Earlier, Gopal Gandhi was also considered by the Opposition for the office of President. However, that was not to be. The choice of Kovind for the office of the Head of State compelled the opposition to field former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, a Dalit and daughter of the late Babu Jagjivan Ram who had served as the Deputy Prime Minister. 

Gopal Gandhi has been described as a worthy successor to outgoing Vice President Hamid Ansari even though the Congress and other 17 parties do not have the required number of MPs in the electoral college to ensure his win.  

As Governor of West Bengal from 2004 to 2009, Gopal Gandhi had won many admirers with his bold criticism of the Left government’s handling of the Nandigram protests. He has spoken out whenever an occasion demanded — be it the partisan role of the CBI, which he has described as “a government hatchet”, or mob violence in the name of cow protection. 

The BJP is bound to be guarded about its Vice Presidential nominee. As the Vice President heads the Rajya Sabha, where the Lotus party still cannot push through crucial legislation in the absence of sufficient numbers, the party may take care not to field a lightweight who could upset political calculations. 

The BJP might be hard put to match the opposition choice. The Left backed Gopal Gandhi wholeheartedly for the post of Vice President. CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury “hoped he (Gopal Gandhi) will be elected unanimously”. 

The combined strength of elected members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha make up the electoral college for the office of Vice President and the Modi government enjoys a clear majority in the August five elections.   

On the other hand the opposition is essentially banking on Gopal Gandhi’s stature hoping that the fence sitters like BJD’s Naveen Patnaik who has backed the NDA candidate for President would find it difficult to openly oppose him. 

Accepting the nomination, Gopal Gandhi said “I accept the nomination and applaud the unity and conviction with which the opposition parties have asked me to be their candidate for the vice-presidentship.”  

He viewed himself as a citizen weighed down by anxieties and even fears about “out collective future in these violent and retributive times but who nevertheless refuses to give up hope, faith, trust in our Republican Constitution, independent judiciary, free press, the institutions of parliamentary democracy and above all the robust good sense of the people of India”. Interestingly, as the Tamil Nadu’s ruling party the AIADMK will find it difficult to oppose Gopal Gandhi as he is half Tamil and made Chennai his home after demitting public office. The opposition feels it has outsmarted the BJP by announcing Gopal Gandhi’s candidature well in advance besides denying the JD (U) the elbow room to rethink. 

( T R Ramachandran is senior journalist and commentator. The views are personal.) 

NEW DELHI: Indian kids have reasonable knowledge about lifestyle diseases and their risk factors, but this knowledge does not translate into preventive action, a new study has revealed.
For instance, adolescent children know that unhealthy food is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) yet they indulge in eating junk food and unhealthy snacks.
In spite of better awareness, there is huge knowledge-practice gap among teenagers, the study done among school children in Kolkata has found. Most of these teenagers (who are aware) showed poor and unhealthy eating lifestyles like more than three major meals a day, frequent snacking (more than four times in a day) and consumption of street food. The trend of poor eating habits was visible more in older students and those belonging to affluent families as compared to students from low or middle-class socio-economic status. 
The study, published in journal BMC Public Health recently, was conducted jointly by hospitals in Kolkata along with Mission Arogya Health and Information Technology Research Foundation and the University of California. It was led by Dr. Tanmay Mahapatra. It included over 1600 ninth grade students in urban Kolkata.
Researchers collected data on knowledge about lifestyle diseases, physical activity, and eating patterns from these adolescents. They found that about 20% of the participants reported a family history of CVDs while a majority had little information about heart disorders. Boys tended more to be involved in physical activity (adequate physical activity as one hour every day) along with those who had better knowledge about risk factors. 
About 82% of the adolescents did not perceive themselves to be at risk for future CVDs and even those who perceived the risk showed poor dietary practices. One of the probable explanations might be that adolescents considered CVDs to be problem of the aged, and underestimated their own future risks, researchers said. “Promotion of school-based cardiovascular health programs might be crucial in dispelling myths and misconceptions with eventual prevention of early onset atherosclerotic changes in arterial walls,” the study has suggested.
“Compared to the West, in India, the transition from predominantly infectious disease to non-communicable diseases has happened over a rather brief period of time. Solutions require strategies such as emphasis on prevention, early detection, treatment using both conventional and innovative techniques along with effective implementation of evidence-based policy” suggested Amjad Husain, professor of life sciences at Glocal University. He is not connected with the study.
“Healthy eating habits and lifestyle behaviour inculcated at adolescent age can prevent a lot of diseases like obesity, hypertension, early onset of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, diseases of spine and joints etc.” says Dr. Vijay Malhotra, President, Delhi Medical Association. He suggests that relevant information and knowledge about lifestyle diseases should be made a part of the curriculum in secondary classes. (India Science Wire)

Centre needs to act fast in seizing control before it too late. Coordinated security and civil response needed for peace to return to the Valley. 
 The terrorist attack on unarmed Amarnath yatris in the Valley in Jammu and Kashmir last Monday might well be indicative of a bigger flare up in the country. It has shattered the deceptive calm in the wake of the first death anniversary of Kashmir’s poster boy Burhan Wani, a local militant leader killed last year. 
Shockingly this attack on Shiva bhakts has broken the unwritten rule followed over the last 15 years with terrorists steering clear of aiming their guns at unarmed pilgrims. That was the critical difference this time. 
There is no doubt a coordinated security and civil response is required to help peace return to the Valley. There are indications of 2017 being the deadliest year in the last decade in J&K. The latest attack specifically targets the innocent aimed at sparking a wider conflagration. 
Impartial observers believe Kashmir’s militancy appears to have taken on religious sentiments at least on this occasion by masterminds from across the border. It also showed an increasing desperation on the part of the militants amid indications that militancy in Kashmir might have taken a drastic turn. 
There has been an inexplicable and inevitable drift in the efforts by the Centre to find a solution to the protracted and complex Kashmir problem. At the same time there could not have been a bigger rebuff to the terrorist attack on the Amarnath yatris than the determination of the pilgrims to visit the shrine in the face of violence seeking to target them. 
The way ahead is to go by Kashmiriyat and its emphasis on social harmony. At the same time civil society played a positive role in checking the spillover of emotions. It was upfront in condemning the death of the innocent including women. 
Even as J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti rushed to Anantnag to meet the survivors of the ambush, she felt the attack was a blot on Kashmir. 
The unthinkable coming together of the PDP and the BJP in forming a coalition government in the only Muslim majority state in the country needs to live up to its promise when it assumed office in 2015 : to bridge the chasms in the sensitive border state among its regions, communities and aspirations. 
As the mentor of the BJP the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh has made some noises before its meeting in Jammu that the saffron brigade should break its alliance with the PDP. However, party general secretary incharge of J&K Ram Mahdav is hopeful of the BJP ironing out its differences with the PDP. 
The holy pilgrimage of the Amarnath yatra is not only related to the faith of the Hindu community but plays a key role in the survival of the local economy. From time immemorial Kashmir is linked with its Shaivite traditions and syncretic roots. 
The terrorists aided and abetted by neighbouring Pakistan are trying to provoke communal riots in this country by driving a wedge between Hindus and Muslims.   
The decision to continue the yatra till August four sends a significant message: the people will not give in to terror. The top most priority for the Centre is to ensure security for the pilgrims. This was not a spur of the moment attack as there were specific intelligence inputs and warning about such an assault. The bus from Gujarat that was attacked by terrorists had not followed proper security protocol. It was neither registeredwith the Amarnath Shrine Board not did it adhere to the security detail compulsory for pilgrims because of the security threat. 
With militants targetting Amarnath pilgrims, the entire paradigm has changed. They have given cause to the security forces to step up the fight. 
There is a strong section of opinion calling for Governor’s rule in J&K. It would serve two purposes of cooling frayed tempers in the Valley and lead to better coordination as well as tightening the administration.  
Maintaining status quo and a policy of merely reacting to events will have dangerous consequences in the Valley along with jeopardising peace across the country. This assumes importance with the terrorists signalling their intent to target Hindus. 
The Centre needs to act fast in a determined and effective manner for seizing control before it is too late. Neutralisation of a larger violent radical Islamic movement requires reaching out to the locals to reduce the support to insurgency in Kashmir. 
Meanwhile, Union Home minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will be apprising opposition leaders today about the situation in J&K and the stand off in Doklam sector between India and China in an effort to soften the attack against the Modi government during the winter session of Parliament beginning Monday, July 17. 

( T R Ramachandran is senior journalist and commentator. The views are personal.)