Monday, May 1, 2023
Labour Day 2023
Friday, April 7, 2023
Monday, February 20, 2023
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
- Unused antimicrobials
- Water and waste segregation that does not focus on the leaching of medicines into the environment
- 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.
- 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.
Monday, February 13, 2023
Happy Birthday Smt. Sarojini Naidu!
Sunday, September 25, 2022
From Darkness to (moon)Light - India's Services Sector in Need of Enlightenment
Sunday, August 15, 2021
Happy 75th Independence Day
all the North Eastern States will be connected by rail to the rest of the country Assembly elections soon in Jammu & Kashmir; all districts including tribal districts declared for accelerated development
Mother-tongue to be prioritized Sports have been made a mainstream part of curriculum
Sunday, April 25, 2021
COVID, India and multilateralism!
India is struggling with a huge spike in COVID cases in the last few weeks
plus dealing with variant versions of the virus. This is not a unique problem
to the country, but something all nations are facing. However, the huge
population and less than ideal healthcare scenario in some states and pockets
have led to current problems. Many of the variants of the virus were not
originally from India, but from UK and South Africa. As viruses do, there is
however continuous mutations and we no longer know which version we are dealing
with or how many versions are going around.
I had feared such eventual results from the start of this pandemic for my country, just due to its sheer population and my fears have now come true. India had handled the pandemic with panache so far and supplied vaccines and other medicines to the rest of the world including HCQ to the US. Many of these were to developing countries at no or very little cost. Some countries of EU had contractual agreements for supply of vaccines as well and these are the countries who started having panic attacks seeing the crisis now in India. Understandable, but their reaction at a time of global emergency is not forgivable. Chancellor Merkel completely forgot to diplomatically sympathize with the people of India, while enquiring about the promised vaccines. Her poor choice of words shocked me and apparently a good many people and governments around the world.
In case you missed it, here is what she said: “The truth is, we haven’t treated our pharmaceutical industry so well for many years…I am glad that we still have pharmaceutical production in Belgium, Holland, Germany.” Highlighting the issue of vaccine shortage, she said, “We now have a situation with India where, in connection with the emergency situation of the pandemic, we are worried whether the pharmaceutical products will still come to us.”
Merkel also cautioned, “Of course, we have only allowed India to
become such a large pharmaceutical producer in the first place, also from the
European side, in the expectation that this should then also be complied with.
If that is not the case now, we will have to rethink.”
I would very much like to know how Germany and EU have "allowed"
India to become a pharmaceutical producer? Did they come up with extraordinary
contracts, privileges, tax exemptions on imports and exports or special
sanctions? And such criticism after India along with other countries have
repeatedly requested and proposed to WTO to suspend the IP rights over COVID
medical supplies. This was blocked by the USA and EU among other developed
countries. maybe if they did not care so much about profits, India can
manufacture and supply more vaccines? USA has blocked a lot of the necessary
ingredients being exported to India which affects the vaccine production. So,
who is to blame really?
Clearly the Indian government, its people and many around the world did not
see Merkel's comments as appropriate or the threat acceptable. Many geopolitics experts around the world have found her comments extremely patronizing and very backwards in thought. The Minister of
External Affairs of the Government of India sent out a subtle tweet regarding
multilateralism. The Embassy of Germany too sprang into action with a series of
tweets expressing concern for the situation and promising full cooperation to
fight the pandemic. Of course, they also claimed responsibility and bragging
rights for two private companies Linde and TATA coming together to secure and
airlift 24 oxygen transport tanks! Few hours ago, the Chancellor herself
announced that Germany was in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a
mission of support. What kind of support is not clear yet, but the pressure to
support is exposed?
On the other hand, the Biden/Harris government has been under heavy
scrutiny for their silence to acknowledge the crisis in India or offer any kind
of support. Over the weekend, after being trolled mercilessly on social media
for their tepid response to India's situation, the US government has finally
released a statement of support and is working to send PPE kits, rapid
diagnostic kits and ventilators. I still do not hear about suspending the IP
rights to help in producing more vaccines or unblocking export of important
ingredients for vaccine production, but hoping good sense and common sense will
ultimately prevail! Even American citizens are tweeting their support and
asking their government to release unused vaccines in storage and release
patents, enabling easier manufacture of vaccines elsewhere. At least at the
time of a global pandemic, one would think this should be fast tracked,
approved and implemented without much discussion.
Good luck India in combating this pandemic. This too shall pass and you
will once again come out with flying colours. Stay strong!
#India #COVID #Germany #EU #Merkel #Biden #KamalaHarris #USA #Vaccine
#vaccinemaitri #pharmaceuticals #SJaishankar #GoI #Externalaffairs
#multilateralism #news #politics
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Web series - "Delhi Crime" my review
Sunday, December 20, 2020
Catch-up
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Prime Minister's address on Indian dogs
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Even Republicans endorse a Democrat this election!
Monday, August 24, 2020
Daggers drawn for the Duchess of Sussex as usual
Sunday, August 23, 2020
India's 'Grand Old Party's' impending changes
Friday, August 21, 2020
Dr. Shyamala Gopalan - a thank you
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Nationality for Gods!
Thursday, July 9, 2020
Little Sisters of the poor? I don't think so!
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Women leaders in the news
It is a well written article regarding countries with women leaders and how they have handled the response to COVID-19 most successfully. The words empathy, humane, simple, innovative, originality, clarity and decisiveness jumped out at me through the article.
I also loved the way the write-up ended. The author wrote "there have been years of research timidly suggesting that women's leadership styles might be different and beneficial". The word 'timidly' seems like a small word, but actually means so much. Why are we afraid to recognize that women have different styles of leadership and that is ok? Not just ok, but even quite successful? Why can't we agree that both genders can learn from each other and yet have differences? Why can't we agree to disagree and see that it is a good thing? It is indeed time to recognize this and elect more women to various corporate boards, decision making committees and even government offices throughout the world.
Full link here for people who want to read the article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2020/04/13/what-do-countries-with-the-best-coronavirus-reponses-have-in-common-women-leaders/#50e087883dec
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
In the news Dec 5th, 2012
Interesting article.
Even more interesting to note that Rwanda, generally considered to be one of the backward African countries has 50 % women in parliment. The country is also doing very well in reducing poverty and child mortality rates. Can we say this about most developing and developed countries?
Another interesting fact to note in the article is that women even if elected to administrative positions will not make much difference if they are dependent on their fathers or husbands financially. In India this is the biggest problem. In the first place the government has only so many seats 'reserved' for women. Of that percentage, the wives or other female relatives of corrupt politicians are elected to occupy a majority.
These surveys are helpful and serve as eye-openers, but what use are they of if we continue electing useless people to power? People who do not have the brains or concern to worry about the development of the country or people of the country!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Taliban office in my locality!
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=479278&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56
I didn't know that organization such as this could
- Open an office
- Open an office in another country
- Open an office to negotiate with another country's government!
Whatever happened to the famous US dialogue that they will never negotiate with terrorists? We have been tortured on any travel around the world in the name of security for the last decade or more due to this organization and today they are opening an office.
Icing on the cake- this office is going to be in Qatar where I happen to live! The safe feeling is priceless. Happy New Year everybody!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Responsible reporting?
What more can be said about Indira Gandhi, who, almost three decades after her death, still continues to inspire people and instill this tremendous pride in fellow Indians/fellow women?
This article by a Bangladeshi war veteran captures very clearly, the views of a neighbor on India and her political views in history. We have always been a secular democracy, standing up against terrorism and it continues to this day. Hats off to great politicians like Indira Gandhi and her predecessors for setting these initial policies in place. While I was busy reading this article with pride on this great international recognition, the main headlines had not failed to grab my attention.
The new terrorist on the block, Norwegian Breivik, has hailed India’s Hindu Nationalist movement apparently and his manifesto has a lot of nonsense which I don’t want to mention in my blog as there is no need to publicize their terrorist movement. What is amazing is the depth of detail that media chooses to publish the same in! The details include the various countries which could participate, the organizations justifications, and acknowledgements of lives that will be lost etc., much like reporting a political leader’s opinions. One might wonder if it is a campaign for joining this group in their erroneous beliefs! The only good thing that the media have captured is the note on their racists’ beliefs that in spite of wanting to work with extremists from other countries, they hold Asians participating in the long term to be acting as laborers in their future plans. At least it puts everything in perspective for a very naïve person reading the article! He is just basically a Nazi in another era; just to be sentenced for life imprisonment or death rather than publish their manifesto and his smug face all over the news. I really wish journalists and media would practice responsible reporting. All the speculation, wrong reporting, and sensationalized reporting are hurting the world and it is about time to put a stop to this.
I liked this article in the Hindu very much for a fresh and very true analysis of the various political extremists groups and for once even the comments section has very interesting feedback and discussions http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2290619.ece .
Various democracies of the world should stay united and educated in the constant fight against these kinds of extremist terrorists and they should not be given such a big voice by the media in further publicizing their ideals. The strength of India lies in secularism and one can only hope the Hindu extremists do not get too encouraged with this global audience and hints of collaboration with these terrorist groups for “getting Muslims out of India”. They are fellow Indians and have the same rights as any one else in the country. Nothing can be accomplished by killing hundreds of innocent people in the name of religion, race and colour. At least a portion of these troubles can be eliminated by responsible reporting, which is of primary importance. We really request the media not to give a global platform for terrorists and extremists as this is what they wanted, which is being achieved through the media. Due to their irresponsible and sensationalized reporting!
While there are many expectations for improvements in our world health, due to promises in AI, innovations in omics technologies, materials & nanotechnology etc., the actual realization of excellence in healthcare will boil down to getting some basics right!
Not only excellence in treatment of common ailments, but also on improvement of diagnostic tools and preventive health care/wellness, including:
· Availability of vaccines of all kinds to general public
· Regular, mandatory screening programs for common issues like blood pressure, diabetes as well as cancers & other diseases
· Increase in rehabilitation resources for recovering patients from various illnesses including development of communities where people & families can find the necessary support
· Accessibility & resources promoting inclusivity of people with disabilities
· Quality childcare where children are taken care of and also provided with quality stimulation and excellent nutrition for growth
· Women’s and children’s health - more research and research funding allocation
· Rare diseases research and funding allocation has to increase exponentially
· Organ donation - universal improvements in policies, procedures and their implementation
· Neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases – increased workforce, research and sensitization
· Geriatric population studies
· Health, fitness and wellness education; nutrition & exercise physiology
· Mental health research, improvement in international policies and sensitization
Some of the biggest challenges will be in implementing all of the above in addition to latest trends in treatment & diagnostics equally among all countries. Ensuring such accessibility, equity and ethics would remain the biggest challenge in our future. Unless new tools and technologies are monitored for safety & ethics, and made available equally for every man, woman and child, we can unfortunately never claim healthcare for all!