Earth Day 2024

Here we are, marking yet another Earth Day! Some of us might question if our individual choices truly matter in the grand scheme of things!

But, there are many ways an individual can contribute to making the planet a better place, especially in relation to Earth Day 2024. Here are some impactful actions:

1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Practice responsible waste management by reducing consumption, reusing items, and recycling materials whenever possible.

2. Conserve Energy: Use energy-efficient appliances and lighting, turn off lights and electronics when not in use, and consider renewable energy sources like solar or wind power.

3. Save Water: Conserve water by fixing leaks, taking shorter showers, using water-efficient appliances, and collecting rainwater for gardening.

4. Support Sustainable Transportation: Use public transport, carpool, bike, or walk whenever feasible to reduce carbon emissions from transportation.

5. Choose Sustainable Products: Opt for eco-friendly products, such as organic foods, biodegradable cleaning supplies, and items made from recycled materials.

6. Plant Trees and Native Plants: Participate in tree planting initiatives and cultivate native plants in gardens to support biodiversity and combat climate change.

7. Reduce Plastic Use: Minimize single-use plastics by using reusable bags, bottles, containers, and utensils. Properly dispose of plastic waste and participate in clean-up activities.

8. Support Conservation Efforts: Donate to or volunteer with organizations dedicated to protecting wildlife, habitats, and natural resources.

9. Raise Awareness: Educate others about environmental issues, advocate for sustainable practices in your community, and participate in Earth Day events and campaigns.

10. Lead by Example: Be a role model for sustainable living by integrating eco-friendly habits into your daily life and encouraging others to join in conservation efforts.

By taking proactive steps and fostering a culture of environmental stewardship, individuals can make a significant positive impact on the planet and contribute to a better future for all.

#EarthDay #EarthDay2024 #earthdayeveryday #earthdayactivities #earth #conservation #sustainability #recycle #saynotoplastic #awareness #environment #ReduceReuseRecycle #reducewaste #sunithashyam #Veritadyne

Happy Tamil New Year

மகிழ்ச்சி, அமைதி மற்றும் செழிப்பு நிறைந்த ஆண்டாக அமைய வாழ்த்துக்கள். இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்!

Wishing you a year filled with happiness, peace, and prosperity. Happy Tamil New Year!

#tamil #tamilnewyear #puthandu 

Eid Mubarak 2024

"Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon; How much it can fill your room depends on its windows." - Rumi

Let's open our hearts and homes to the blessings and joys of Eid and may our lives be filled with the radiance of the heavens.

#EidUlFitr #EidAlFitr #eidmubarak #eid2024 #ramadankareem #ramzanmubarak #veritadyne

To New Beginnings!

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” - Arthur Ashe 

What better way to start than by gathering together and celebrating our rich culture and enlightened heritage of diversity, as the symphony of summer unfolds with opportunities for new beginnings!

#newbeginnings #symphonyofsummer #chaitranavratri #gudipadwa #navreh #navratri #navaratri #sajibucheiraoba #ugadi #ugadi2024 #Veritadyne

Happy Women's Day 2024

Happy International Women’s Day to all the amazing women and the brilliant, supportive men out there!

As individuals, it's crucial to recognize, appreciate, and actively promote the inclusion of women and girls, in line with the campaign theme for International Women's Day 2024 which is ‘Inspire Inclusion’. Sharing this understanding, support, and encouragement with others is equally vital.

Collectively, organizations and groups can champion inclusion through various actions, such as:

• Ensuring access to quality education and training for women & girls

• Empowering women economically and financially

• Facilitating women & girls' involvement in leadership, decision-making, business, and STEM fields

• Providing informed health choices for women & girls

• Recruiting, nurturing, and advancing diverse talent

• Engaging women & girls in sustainability initiatives, including agriculture and food security initiatives

• Designing infrastructure that meets the specific needs of women & girls

• Enhancing women & girls' participation and success in sports

• Promoting the creative and artistic endeavors of women & girls

By taking concerted action in these areas and addressing any additional areas vital for the progress of women & girls, organizations and groups can actively foster a more inclusive and equitable society for women and girls.

Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress!

#InternationalWomensDay #WomensDay2024 #women #girls #inclusion #progress #health #society #equality #empowerher #empoweringwomen #empowerment #SupportHer #understanding #encouragement #veritadyne

World Cancer Day!

This World Cancer Day, let us renew our commitment to raise awareness, take preventive actions, continue researching and developing effective as well as affordable treatments, and widen access to timely detection, advanced therapeutics, and quality palliative care.

First steps?

• Cultivate thoughtfulness
• Live sustainably
• Eat mindfully

Your health is in your hands!


#Cancer #cancerday #cancerawareness #WorldCancerDay #prevention #treatment #mindfulness #sustainability #veritadyne

Labour Day 2023

"It is only through labour and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things." - Theodore Roosevelt

#Veritadyne #Labourday #labourday2023 #laborday #Laborday2023 #workersday #workers #work #working #mayday

Image: Paolo Nicolello

Jamshedji Tata - an inspiration!

Commemorating the life & legacy of Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata - a man of extraordinary vision, prodigious fortitude, and unyielding industriousness - at 184.

In the words of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, who called him a 'One Man Planning Commission' - "When you have to give the lead in action, in ideas – a lead which does not fit in with the very climate of opinion – that is true courage, physical or mental or spiritual, call it what you like, and it is this type of courage and vision that Jamshedji Tata showed. It is right that we should honour his memory and remember him as one of the big founders of modern India."

#JamshedjiTata#JamdetjiTata #JNTata #tata #Jamshedpur #India #Industry #Steel #tatasteel #founders #planning

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

This year marks the Indian presidency of the G20. India plans to use this to create a unified global health accelerator whereby the world is united in its health preparedness to tackle global emergencies efficiently.

One of the first tweets that I have seen from the government rightfully focussed on antimicrobial resistance and creating an awareness about it in the form of a quiz. Since this is such an important topic, I am writing this article to put down some thoughts on AMR, causes and effective ways of dealing with it. 

What is antimicrobial resistance (AMR)? 

AMR happens when microbes of any kind (bacterial, viral or fungal) develop mechanisms that help them to evolve, thereby resisting the effects of the antimicrobial medicine used against them. That means they can't be easily destroyed and treating them in a patient becomes very hard or sometimes impossible, leading unfortunately to death!

Main cause of AMR?

Mainly overuse or misuse of antimicrobials by individuals for themselves, in farming and livestock rearing are all causes. 

Another major cause is improper disposal of:

• Unused antimicrobials
• Water and waste segregation that does not focus on the leaching of medicines into the environment

Why is AMR a cause for concern?

From data in 2019, about 700,000 people die of infections caused due to resistant pathogens every year world over.

In addition to this, the pollution of our environment and water due to improper disposal of unused antimicrobials is also another big problem, leading to further AMR being developed by all kind of microbes leading to creation of 'superbugs'. 

What corrective measures/awareness is required in an individual capacity?

1. Antibiotics should only be consumed when absolutely required and prescribed by a doctor. They should also be taken in the right way, the right dosage and completion of a full course, as not doing this could also lead to AMR. 
2. Disposal of antimicrobial drugs - Please read more about the individual drug and manufacturer's recommendations. Some have take-back policies, some have collection sites to receive drugs back, mail-back programs, or recommended safe options to discard at home. 

However, not all countries have these options and many governments do not require pharmaceutical companies to take responsibility for the proper disposal of unused/expired medicines. 

Need of the hour?

Humankind now needs governments, with their policies in place and pharma companies, with their moral & ethical responsibility to step up and do the needful. 

In India for example, The Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) Rules, 2016 categorises expired drugs rightfully as 'domestic hazardous waste' and mandates that they be segregated, stored in separate bins and disposed in line with the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016 that mandate that the drugs be incinerated at high temperatures.

Unfortunately, due to poor enforcement of the MSWM policies, there is poor management of hazardous waste, including unused/expired drugs & antimicrobials in the country. Waste segregation is an important area for the country where there is a lot of improvement, but policies have to be made clear and their implementation tight to bring everything together to fruition. 

Shared responsibility:

This responsibility for safe discarding of medicines however cannot begin and end with governments alone. Pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers and distributers of medicines, hospitals and any other relevant industry partners should step up and this should be considered a legal responsibility. Very importantly, this properly defined method/flow of medicines will also prevent illegal secondary trade of controlled use medicines.

Other important government stakeholders like pollution control boards, drug regulation boards and other important groups in society are also going to play a vital role in proper implementation of responsibility on the ground! Transparent and well-defined policies and procedures will be vital if this is to be successful.

The above issues are true of many developed and most developing countries, and one would hope that the efforts of the G20 in unifying healthcare response also tastes success in implementing certain universal policies such as safe disposal of antimicrobials to safeguard our environment.

#G20 #G20health #antimicrobials #antimicrobialresistance #antibiotics #antibioticresistance #AMR #governments #policies #law #legal #responsibility #sustainability #socialresponsibility #India #water #land #environment #pollution #waste #wastesegregation #pharmaceuticals #health #implementation #management

Happy Birthday Smt. Sarojini Naidu!

A proponent of civil rights, women's emancipation, and anti-imperialistic ideas, Smt Bharat Kokila Sarojini Naidu was not only an important person in India's struggle for independence from colonial rule but remains one of the most inspiring role models across the world!

Fierce nationalist; freedom fighter; women's emancipation, social welfare, & civil rights proponent; writer; poet; and India's first woman governor!

Tireless crusader and architect of modern India! These below pictures speak volumes about her capabilities and achievements.

#sarojininaidu #civilrights #nationalist #governor #poet #writer #socialwelfare #society #India #rolemodel

From Darkness to (moon)Light - India's Services Sector in Need of Enlightenment

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." - Oscar Wilde

What is Moonlighting? 

Very simply put, people taking up extra work other than their full-time job, which is traditionally expected to be 9 to 5, without informing their current employer, is called moonlighting. 

Recently this whole discussion came to the fore in India when Wipro's chairman Rishad Premji tweeted "There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry. This is cheating - plain and simple."

Following this, last week, Wipro also sacked 300 employees stating the same reason, further explaining that they also worked for Wipro's competitors. Following suit, TCS, Infosys and IBM have also warned their employees that moonlighting is unethical and will lead to disciplinary action or even termination. 

However, Tech Mahindra CEO, C P Gurnani, recently said that it is required to change with the times and also said, "I welcome disruption in the ways we work". 

India's Union minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, yesterday joined this debate by tweeting in support of employees moonlighting if they wish to use their skills and time to expand their work, which will also help the country with talent deficit. He has strongly recommended companies to embrace this change and not to suppress talent & the very intention to innovate.

Satya Nadella, the CEO of Micrsoft, went one step further and coined a new term "Productivity Paranoia", which is companies feeling their employees are not being their productive best, leading to unwelcome activities such as spying on the employees. Microsoft firmly believes that employee surveillance is just wrong and in today's hybrid work models, to bridge the gap between what employers and employees want is of utmost importance. Employers should in fact be more concerned about employee burn-out as worktime and 'other' time have completely blurred following the imposed WFH culture due to the pandemic.

It is my opinion that people must have the freedom to work on what they want in their own time (i.e. time not paid for by an employer). Most companies do have 'Non-disclosure' agreements (NDAs) and ‘Non-compete’ clauses (NCCs) in work contracts which employees commit to, which should cover any ethical concerns. Employees on the other hand could avoid conscientiously working for a direct competitor and should definitely not engage in unethical practices which will only spoil it for everyone as seen in the case of Wipro. 

Of concern, however, is in the loose definition of 'competitor'. Big conglomerates could even consider a start-up as competition and thus stop employees from utilising their private time to work pretty much anywhere within a sector which would otherwise benefit from access to their skills. This could be the primary reason for employees to leave other work undisclosed. 

It should be deemed unethical for companies to have a blanket contract that prohibits employees from taking up any other paid work. Not only is this treatment of employees as bonded labour antediluvian, but it is also plain unconscionable and does not fit in a digitally mobile world, especially post COVID! Employees must stand up for their rights, including that of privacy, and reject such contracts. NDAs and NCCs, on the other hand, need to be rational and clearly articulate a company’s terms, which must be explained to prospective/current employees, giving them a fair chance to accept, come clean, or reject the terms. Such mechanism can help mitigate perceived threats of moonlighting and develop an atmosphere of trust in which employees are self-motivated to ensure ethical conduct and can feel safe disclosing their other commitments. 

 More than policies and policing, it is a company’s culture which will define whether moonlighting becomes a threat or an engine of positive transformation for both employer and the employee.

Tamil Nadu school events this summer!

Teaching – a calling which I have always been passionate about, and an important aspect of my academic and professional journey thus far – is central to fostering a cultivated society. And despite pandemic-induced disruptions and the proliferation of new modes of teaching, schools remain indispensable centres of vital interactions, knowledge exchange, and holistic learning that students carry with them all their lives.

This summer I had the privilege of being invited for two school events in Tamil Nadu, India. 

As the guest of honour at a vision health camp for students at Government High School - Karunkuzhi, in Tamil Nadu's Kancheepuram district (an important seat of learning since time immemorial), I was delighted to have the opportunity to interact with students from grades 10 to 12.

My address, to have been delivered in the school auditorium, was instead - by delightful happenstance - conducted outdoors to accommodate the wider student body. Under the shade of beautiful trees and amidst the buzz of young minds, I engaged with them across a broad spectrum of topics including the process of education and pathways to learning, higher education in India and abroad, traditional and non-traditional career options, research and technology, and so much more.

What I really enjoyed were the interactions with various student groups and individuals who I found to be extremely bright, confident, and very well informed about regional, national, and international developments. During these discussions we spoke on pertinent aspects including social responsibility, women's health, substance abuse, and confronting socio-economic challenges. I was pleasantly delighted to hear of one student discussing in front of the whole audience her dreams of becoming a dancer. I was very happy to see her not shying away from discussing her question in public and was even more surprised to hear how she had already started making international enquiries to unlikely countries as far as South Korea! She knew of scholarship possibilities and was ready to go if she was lucky to get one!

In my interactions with the Headmistress and faculty, I commended them on their academia-related undertakings and also for effectively fulfilling a variety of administrative requirements that are being meticulously followed-up and assessed by the state government. While there is a huge scope of improvement in Government funded schools, I understood all the many challenges that the school administration and staff face and some of the steps they take to perform better. 

It was also a privilege to be invited as an honoured guest of the Social Education and Rural Development (SERD) Trust, in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram district, for their recent student outreach initiative supporting the National Securities Depository Limited’s (NSDL) nation-wide ‘Chalo, School Chale’ campaign. As part of this campaign, NSDL is providing under-privileged students with educational kits comprising essential items to supplement their learning.

It was amazing to see the energy and excitement of young students who truly cherish their time at school among friends. What more could I say to this electric bunch other than to stay excited and reach for the stars…come what may!

Being actively and very successfully rolled-out by NSDL across Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata, Mangalore, and also across various sub-urban areas, SERD is to be congratulated for their efforts in helping this meaningful campaign find its way to a small rural school in Kancheepuram dist.

#school #schools #education #chennai #learn #learning #tamilnadu #chengalpet #kanchipuram #serd #nsdl #government #governmentschools #teaching #teachers #challenges #interactions #women #girl #student #students #privilege #opportunity