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Globally, 12.6 million people die every year from diseases and injuries attributable to the environments in which they live and work. Simply put, 1 in every 4 persons die of unhealthy work environment. These deaths, including from air, water and soil pollution, radiation, chemical exposure and unsafe workplaces, make up 23% of the total number of fatalities each year, and 26% of deaths in children below five years of age, a new report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. These conditions are responsible for 100 diseases and injuries reported from work place. The report “”Preventing Diseases Through Health Environments: A Global assessment of the Burden of Disease from Environmantal Risk’’ estimates that in the WHO South-East Asia Region 3.8 million deaths can be attributed to diseases linked to the environment. While there has been progress in increasing access to improved drinking water, a large burden of diarrheal disease remains due to issues related to safety of drinking water, poor sanitation and waste management.

It is vital that we continue with efforts to ensure safer water and sanitation for all. At the same time, deaths from infectious diseases, such as diarrhoea and malaria, often related to poor water, sanitation and waste management have declined. Increases in access to safe water and sanitation have been key contributors to this decline, alongside better access to immunization, insecticide-treated mosquito nets and essential medicines, the report says. Environmental risks take their greatest toll on young children and older people, the report finds, with children under 5 and adults aged 50 to 75 years most impacted. Yearly, the deaths of 1.7 million children under 5 and 4.9 million adults aged 50 to 75 could be prevented through better environmental management. Lower respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases mostly impact children under 5, while older people are most impacted by NCDs.

Everyone is aware of the growing Region-wide burden of non-communicable diseases that are being caused by the environment. Last year the Region was reported to be home to 14 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, with air pollution leading to increases in cardiovascular diseases such as strokes and ischaemic heart disease, as well as cancer. Household air pollution from the burning of solid fuels such as wood, animal dung and crop waste for cooking purposes, meanwhile, results in 1.69 million premature deaths in the Region annually and is responsible for half of the pneumonia deaths in children under 5 years of age. Unsafe environments, the report says, are taking their toll in many other ways, and affect the elderly and the young disproportionately. Road accidents and related injuries are a major cause of death every year while unsafe working conditions contribute to an unnecessary burden of ill-health, injury and disease, with occupational cancer and unintentional poisonings a distinctive feature for the South-East Asian region. Armed with this data and a better understanding of the interactions between the environment and our health we can do much to save lives and reduce pain and suffering. Effective and simple interventions exist to help us do this.

Effective planning, the report says, can better organize towns and cities to manage the pressures of urbanization and facilitate positive health outcomes. Air pollution from vehicles and industry can be better managed through multi-sector planning and commitment, while exposure to household air pollution can be mitigated by increasing access to cleaner fuels. Some of these measures are already being rolled-out across the Region. Further, raising the living standards of the poor and marginalized and enhancing access to clean water and adequate sanitation will also diminish the prevalence of infectious diseases and contribute greatly to a community’s health.

“”Similarly, strong legislation can dis-incentivize the cutting of corners with regards to workplace safety and instead promote the highest attainable standard of health as an imperative that bows to no interests. Labor must be protected from hazards in the work environment such as harmful chemicals or inadequately maintained machinery that can result in fatal diseases and injuries. Labor must also be afforded the personal protective equipment necessary to stay safe and healthy at work,”” Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, South-East Asia Region of WHO says. Creating healthy environments is something that is beyond an individual’s responsibility. With informed planning and firm commitment at multiple levels in society we can create healthy environments in our communities, workplaces and cities and avoid unnecessary deaths and ill-health. This is an outcome that must be pursued, Dr Singh says.”

Famous artisan Babbu Khan gives final touches to “gulal gotas” ahead of Holi in Jaipur. “Gulal gota” is a thin layered lac container which is filled with ‘gulal’ or scented colored powder. On Holi this is thrown on people standing at a distance and when it breaks, the ‘gulal’ spreads all over the other person’s body without causing any harm to him. During earlier days, it was extensively used by the royals who would ride on their horses and meander through the streets tossing ‘gulal gotas’ on the masses to mark Holi. Interestingly ‘gulal gotas’ are used by Hindus but have always been prepared by Muslim artisans.

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Which of the Dravidian parties will rule Tamil Nadu when the state goes to polls on May 16 for the 234-member Assembly? The election which will witness a high decibel battle, will essentially be between the two powerful Dravidian duos, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Will AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa return to power and script a history in Tamil Nadu or will the people vote for the DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi at the ballot royale is the question on every mind. Tamil Nadu has been two party state ever since the DMK came to power in 1967 and elections have been about these two powerful parties.

With the actor-turned- politician Vijayakanth’s announcement on March 10 that his party Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) would go alone in the May 16 Tamil Nadu polls, the entire equation has changed in the state. The current situation is that six smaller outfits which have traditionally been allies by alternating between AIADMK and DMK have chosen to stay clear and fight on their own. At the moment, a multi-cornered contest appears to at the moment among AIADMK, DMK-Congress combine, BJP, People’s Welfare Front comprising CPI (M), CPI, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK). The logical question that emerges is who would reap the benefit of such a multi-cornered contest? In a shot to the AIADMK, seven outfits including the existing allies of Jayalalithaa on March 13 extended their support to the ruling party.

Kongu Laignar Peravai, Tamizhaga Vazhurimai Katchi, Tamil Maanila Muslim League, Indian Thoueed Jamaath and Samathuva Makkal Kazgagam reaffirmed their support to Jayalalithaa. According to poll pundits, AIADMK has a slight edge at this year’s elections because of its higher percentage of vote share in the last assembly polls with the party securing over 41 per cent while DMK a little over 22 percent votes. In the 2011 assembly elections, AIADMK bagged 150 of the 234 seats and the DMK only 23 seats. The AIADMK had won in 1977, 1980 and 1984. After M.G. Ramachandran’s death in 1987, no political parties has won two consecutive terms in the state. Alliances have also been crucial in Tamil Nadu politics. The DMK in February cobbled up an alliance with the Congress, reviving a partnership three years after they parted ways in 2013 protesting UPA government’s stand on the Sri Lankan human rights issue at the United Nations.

The party was part of the UPA for nine years. In order to boost its morale after it suffered a major bolt during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls–where DMK drew a blank– the party has also patched up an alliance with minor players to take on its rival Jayalalithaa. But the DMK has been plagued by infighting and accused by many party members of trying to promote nepotism and start a political dynasty. The DMK leaders are also critical of the rise of M K Stalin and Karunanidhi has been criticised for allowing his other son Azhagiri to function as an extra constitutional authority in Mudurai. Anger is simmering among the Tamil Nadu people over the AIADMK-led government’s apathy towards revamping the economic performance and the way the administration poorly organised relief and rehabilitations during the December floods in Chennai, Kanchipuram, Cuddalore, Tuticorin and Thiruvallur, which killed over 400 people and displaced thousands.

The burgeoning problems of liquor, what was once considered as an “ignominy” among the populace has also been a source of many ills with the middle class people in the state. The DMK will cash on these issues during the campaign. Jayalalithaa will be looking to hold on the power in the state while Karunanidhi will desperately try to stage a comeback after his party’s defeat at the last assembly elections and poor showing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The election is especially important for DMK as its leader is seen to be readying for a generational change to hand over the affairs of the party to Stalin. Of course, there is no similar change in the case of AIADMK with Jayalalitha going strong despite corruption charges in the court. Jayalalithaa was acquitted by the Karnataka High Court in the disproportionate assets case on May 11, 2015 and she was subsequently disqualified as the Chief Minister. She was on May 23 last year re-instated as the Chief Minister after her acquittal.

The arithmetic will decide who will retain the Fort Saint George (the seat of power in Tamil Nadu).“

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Parliament has passed The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 with the Lok Sabha rejecting all five amendments made by the Rajya Sabha. The Bill was certified a money bill by the Speaker and passed in the Lok Sabha. The Bill will provide for “”good governance, efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services””, the expenditure of which is incurred from the Consolidated Fund of India to individuals residing in India through assigning of unique identity numbers to such individuals. The bill seeks to make the use of aadhaar mandatory for availing government subsidies but at the same time tries to address concerns regarding privacy and protection of personal information.

Violation of privacy and protection of biometric data has been one of the main criticism of the Adhaar programme. The proposed legislation will also address the uncertainty surrounding the project after the Supreme Court restricted the use of the Aadhaar number until a constitution bench delivers its verdict on a number of case challenging the mandatory use of Aadhaar in government schemes systems and rules on the issue of privacy violation. In the absence of a credible system to authenticate identity of beneficiaries, it is difficult to ensure that the subsidies, benefits and services reach to the intended beneficiaries, the bill says while seeking to address many provisions related to privacy and security of the biometric information provided.

Earlier, the Rajya Sabha had returned it to the Lok Sabha with five amendments. The amendments were moved by the Congress and included the one to make Aadhaar voluntary and barring its use for purposes other than subsidies. Trinamool Congress, BSP and BJD had walked out of the House in protest. The Opposition had also demanded that the Bill be referred to the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha. Finance Minister Arun Jaitely explained that since money is being spent from consolidated fund for providing subsidies, it makes it a money bill. He claimed, the present bill is an improvement over the one drafted by UPA government in 2010 and have strict provisions to protect individual privacy. The only ground on which personal information can be shared with any authority is national security.”

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Indians seem to be increasingly becoming unhappy as the country dropped by one notch in the World Happiness Report 2016 as compared to 2015 when it ranked 117 in the list of 157 countries. This year’s update has put India at 118th rank with 4.404 points on a scale of 0-10 where happier people have more points. India ranks below Ethiopia, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, and Palestine. Pakistan at rank 92 is much ahead of India. The top 10 happiest countries are: Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. The ten ‘unhappiest’ countries are: Burundi, Syria, Togo, Afghanistan, Benin, Rwanda, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania and Madagascar. The report makes primary use of people’s own reports of the quality of their lives, as measured on a scale with 10 representing the best possible life and 0 the worst.

Their reports were averaged for the years 2013 to 2015 based on a typical national sample size of 3,000. This data was then ranked for 157 countries. In the top 10 countries, life evaluations average 7.4 on the 0 to 10 scale, while for the bottom 10 the average is less than half that, at 3.4. The lowest countries are typically marked by low values on all of the six variables used here to explain international differences – GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, generosity and absence of corruption – and often subject in addition to violence and disease. Of the 4-point gap between the 10 top and 10 bottom countries, more than three-quarters is accounted for by differences in the six variables, with GDP per capita, social support and healthy life expectancy the largest contributors. For the Commonwealth of Independent States, the gains arise from improvements in all six variables.

For Western Europe, meanwhile, expected gains from improvements in healthy life expectancy and corruption combined with no GDP growth and declines in the other three variables to explain more than half of the actual change of 0.23 points. The largest regional drop (-0.6 points) was in South Asia, in which India has by far the largest population share, and is unexplained by the model, which shows an expected gain based on improvements in five of the six variables, offset by a drop in social support. The report gives new attention to the inequality of happiness across individuals. The distribution of world happiness is presented first by global and regional charts showing the distribution of answers, from roughly 3,000 respondents in each of more than 150 countries, to a question asking them to evaluate their current lives on a ladder where 0 represents the worst possible life and 10, the best possible.

For the world as a whole, the distribution is very normally distributed about the median answer of 5, with the population-weighted mean being 5.4. When the global population is split into ten geographic regions, the resulting distributions vary greatly in both shape and average values. Only two regions—the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean— have more unequally distributed happiness than does the world as a whole. Average levels of happiness also differ across regions and countries. A difference of four points in average life evaluations, on a scale that runs from zero to ten, separates the ten happiest countries from the ten least happy countries. Three-quarters of the differences among countries, and also among regions, are accounted for by differences in six key variables.”

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The election bugle has been sounded for126-member Assam Assembly which will be a do-or-die battle for the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party will be desperate to expand its footprint in this northeastern state. Assam will witness two phase polling with the first being on April 4 when 61 constituencies will be covered, and second on April 11 when 65 constituencies will go to the polls. For the Congress, where Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is battling anti-incumbency after staying in power for 15 years, this will be a crucial election. Congress has no tie up with any other party this time. The Congress has not won a single state election after its disastrous performance in the 2014 general election though it took some solace in November last year’s victory in Bihar being part of the Grand Alliance. Gogoi is generally considered to be competent but there is a palpable yearning for a new face as the Chief Minister. In 2011 assembly elections, the Congress had won 78 seats.

On the other hand, the BJP will make all out efforts to make its presence felt in this northeastern state after its performance in Assam in the 2014 Lok Sabha election where it bagged seven of the14 seats. Riding on the wave of Narendra Modi’s popularity in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP snatched some big wins in Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and formed government in Jammu and Kashmir as junior partner. The party which will pose a huge challenge has declared its quest to win two-thirds majority in elections under its Mission 84. This time, the BJP has stitched together a formidable alliance with Asom Gana Parishad. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who made the announcement in New Delhi on March 3, said the “”massive infiltration”” in Assam and the “”collusion of patronage”” of the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government will be their main poll issue. The BJP has already entered in a tie up with Bodoland People’s Front, which will contest 16 seats, in addition to two other outfits representing local tribes.

An alliance with the AGP, which is now a much weaker force but retains some influence, will help BJP which emerged the largest party in 2014 general elections. In a first, the BJP named its state unit president and Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, as its Chief Ministerial candidate in Assam. The party seems to have learnt tough lesson in Delhi and Bihar losses. The saffron party has embraced 10 Congress MLAs led by Himanta Biswas Sharma, who was an influential minister in the Gogoi cabinet after their defections. The BJP will be banking heavily on the experience of Sharma, who oversaw the last assembly elections and engineered the Congress’ astounding victory when the political pundits were writing the obituary of the grand old party during the elections in the state. But there has been a dip in the popularity of Modi as he has struggled to implement any of his much flaunted promises.

Early, the BJP’s growth in Assam has been largely at the expense of AGP. Interestingly, both the parties have fared badly whenever they entered in alliance in the past. Their first attempt to come together ended in a catastrophe in 2001 as the ruling AGP was unseated by the Congress. The AGP had managed just 20 seats where as BJP bagged eight while Congress romped home with 71 seats. The two parties again decided to forge an alliance and made up in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls but the decision boomeranged on the AGP which won just one seat and BJP got four. In the 2011 assembly elections, both the AGP and the BJP contested separately. It remains to be seen whether the BJP will succeed in Mission 84 or if Congress continues to have its hold on Assam.”

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Health activists have welcomed the withdrawal of approval the market of fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs that affect patient safety and undermine public health. These are FDCs that the Indian industry has developed to either circumvent price control and/or push their individual brands as better that their competitors, a statement issued by Leena Menghaney, a lawyer who has been working on access to medicines and public health since 2002.

“”Since the issuance of Gazette Notification, more than 20 pharmaceutical companies (including Pfizer, Abbott, Macleods) have approached the Delhi High Court to grant stay on the order. But the Indian judiciary should be cautious in its approach in granting interim injunctions. It could undo years of technical work that a number of expert committees did – despite the pressure from industry – to move the Central drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) to a more scientific and evidence based approach to approving and regulating FDCs for the Indian market,”” she said in her  statement.

The legal resolution of the dispute over the Gazette notification that withdraws approval for a number of irrational FDCs should be based on technical evidence, which is now well highlighted in medical journal articles and expert committee reports and not on the objections of the pharmaceutical industry, she added. 

Fixed Dose Combinations (FDC) are particularly useful in the management of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), malaria and tuberculosis, which are considered to be the foremost infectious disease threats in the world today. They are part of WHO and national treatment guidelines playing a role in reducing pill burden, simplifying treatment in resource poor settings, improving adherence and reducing the cost of procurement. But this is not what the Indian Ministry of Health and FDA (Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) is seeking to remove from the Indian market through its gazette notification issued on 10th March 2016 Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. It is clear from the list of FDCs in the Gazette Notification that the CDSCO is taking action against those that compromise patient safety and public health, Ms Menghaney said.

Fixed Dose Medicines (pain and fever) that expose patients to increased risk of adverse reactions, for instance, formulations of nimesulide and paracetamol (increased hepatotoxic effects) which is basically combination of paracetamol with other analgesics.

Similarly, FDCs of quinolones and nitroimidazoles (Norfloxacin and metronidazole, ofloxacin and ornidazole) which have not been recommended in any standard treatment guidelines, but continue to be heavily prescribed drugs for many infections. This kind of indiscriminate use contributes to antimicrobial resistance or drug resistance – a global public health challenge. In fact, the antibiotic drug linezolid that is usually preserved for serious infections like MRSA and Drug Resistant TB by many countries is available as a FDC (Cefixime + Linezolid) in India. Linezolid has been called a “”reserve antibiotic”” – one that should be used sparingly so that it will remain effective as a drug of last resort.

The third category are FDCs containing the anti diabetic drug metformin. According to a prominent article in the Lancet (2015) given the constant monitoring and rapid adjustment of treatment regimens required to maintain adequate glycemic control, metformin FDCs are not recommended by international or national treatment guidelines for the management of type2  diabetes (T2DM). However, Ms Menghaney says patient and their families should not panic if they are using a particular FDC. The medicines are available as a single ingredient formulation (like metformin) and should approach their treatment provider on how to adjust their prescription.”

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heic1605a_625Astronomers have identified nine monster stars which are over 100 times the mass of the Sun using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The discovery of the star cluster named R136 is the largest sample of very massive stars identified to date and has raised many new questions about the formation of massive stars. The international team of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Sheffield, combined images taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 with the unprecedented ultraviolet spatial resolution of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) to successfully dissect the young star cluster in the ultraviolet for the first time.

R136 is only a few light-years across and is located in the Tarantula Nebula within the Large Magellanic Cloud about 170,000 light-years away. The young cluster hosts many extremely massive, hot and luminous stars whose energy is mostly radiated in the ultra violet – which is why the scientists probed the ultraviolet emission of the cluster. As well as finding a total of nine very massive stars, over 100 times more massive than the sun, the new study also revealed dozens of stars exceeding 50 solar masses. The detected stars are not only extremely massive, but also exceptionally bright and together the nine massive stars outshine the Sun by a factor of 30 million.

Professor Paul Crowther, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and lead author of the study, said: “Once again, our work demonstrates that, despite being in orbit for over 25 years, there are some areas of science for which Hubble is still uniquely capable. “The ability to distinguish ultraviolet light from such an exceptionally crowded region into its component parts, resolving the signatures of individual stars, was only made possible with the instruments aboard Hubble.“Together with my colleagues, I would like to acknowledge the invaluable work done by astronauts during Hubble’s last servicing mission: they restored STIS and put their own lives at risk for the sake of future science.”

In 2010 Professor Crowther and international team of collaborators showed the existence of four stars within R136, each with over 150 times the mass of the sun. At that time the extreme properties of these stars came as a surprise as they exceeded the upper-mass limit for stars that was generally accepted at the time. Now, this census, published in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,  has shown that there are five more stars with more than 100 solar masses in R136 raising many new questions about the formation of massive stars as the origin of these huge creations remains unclear.

Saida Caballero-Nieves, also from the University of Sheffield and co-author of the study, said: “There have been suggestions that these monsters result from the merger of less extreme stars in close binary systems. From what we know about the frequency of massive mergers, this scenario can’t account for all the really massive stars that we see in R136, so it would appear that such stars can originate from the star formation process.”

In order to find answers about the origin of these stars the team will continue to analyse the datasets gathered. An analysis of new optical STIS observations will also allow them to search for close binary systems in R136, which could produce massive black hole binaries which would ultimately merge, producing gravitational waves. Despite the new discovery the current record holder R136a1 does keep its place as the most massive star known in the Universe at over 250 solar masses. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

The results were published in the paper “The R136 star cluster dissected with Hubble Space Telescope/STIS. I. Far-ultraviolet spectroscopic census and the origin of Heii λ1640 in young star clusters” in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.”

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Things to know about India Aviation Exhibition & Conference 2016 at Hyderabad:

• Indian civil aviation sector grew at14 per cent over the past decade.
• Indian set to emerge as the third largest aviation market by 2020
• By 2020, the total air passenger traffic likely to touch 421 million.
• It is estimated that India will need 800 aircraft to meet this increase in passenger traffic.
• Draft civil aviation policy is likely to be approved and made operational in April 2016
• Of a 350 million strong middle class population only 70 million fly to their destinations, potential for growth is phenomenal.
• Civil Aviation minister Ashok Gajpathi Raju says the government is committed to make flights affordable and boost regional connectivity that will be a game changer.
• There are 350 airstrips lying unused which will be turned into no frills small airports in next few years.
• Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facilities to be given big boost to get the domestic business as well as from South East Asian countries, total potential of business in MRO may touch two billion dollars.
• Government will make MRO attractive by giving concessions in taxes and spares.
• Both Airbus and Boeing have predicted tremendous growth for the Indian civil aviation sector over the next 15 years.
• The five-day show was inaugurated by the President Pranab Mukherjee on March 16.
• This is the fifth edition of India Aviation and Exhibition Conference which is held every alternate year.
• More than 200 exhibitors and leading airlines are participating in the mega show.
• On static display are: Super jumbo A 380 of Emirates, A 350 of Qatar Airways and a number of business jets by companies like Embraer, Gulfstream and Bombardier

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The two-day Women’s International Networking or WIN Conference that concluded here on Friday pledged to make extra efforts to push for women’s rights in the country and ensure their participation in decision-making process across sectors, be it government, non-government or corporate. Leaders from corporate and social sectors highlighted the role of such conferences in promoting women’s role in the society. Kicking off the prestigious event, Kristin Engvig, CEO and Founder of WIN, highlighted how business and politics alike need to understand that the key to a thriving future lies in having women in decision-making roles and work creation.

It is evident that the empowerment of women and partnership with the men has never been more important. Speaking at the conference, which brought together a host of women leaders from corporations, NGOs and politics from India and across the globe, Rekha Mody, Founder of ‘Streeshakti, The Parallel Force’ stated that women and men are on this exciting journey together towards a larger cause of creating a thriving future for women in India. She said certain legislation in recent years like the Inheritance Law has empowered women and added that India would see rapid progress in overall empowerment and development of women. She also noted how political parties have woken up to women’s issues and were now giving importance to women’s issues in their election manifestos and policy-making process.

Shazia Ilmi, Spokesperson for BJP & Brand Ambassador for Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, said said women in India and around the world were now breaking shackles and leading the way in various industries and fields. However, there is a lot more work that needs to be done. Women represent only 12 per cent of the Indian Parliament, a huge gender disparity and such dialogues like the WINConference need to take place frequently that would help in women’s empowerment. Women are endlessly fighting conditioning and they need to have a conversation with themselves and also support and develop other classes in India. True leadership is about creating more leaders, she added. The conference also featured a WIN documentary film – ‘In the Right Light’ – that showcased how people are interconnected and as they connect to evolve, they need to remember to see each other ‘In the Right Light’. The documentary explores stories and the WIN journey through the integrated feminine, authentic contribution, global leadership and by creating together.”