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IN 2011, a 15-year-old girl from Madurai was admitted to hospital for diabetes ketoacidosis. It is a life-threatening condition that develops when cells in the body are unable to get the sugar (glucose) they need due to the lack of insulin. Krishnan Swaminathan, an endocrinologist and president of the Coimbatore-based Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital, saw that the girl was not responding to treatment. “We reinvestigated the case and found high residues of an organophosphate (OP) insecticide in her blood and urine samples. When we asked her parents, they told us she had consumed the insecticide because she had scored less marks in her school examination,” he says. Derived from phosphoric acid, OPs are a popular class of pesticides. They are also notorious as the poison chosen by farmers to commit suicide. Around the time, the case of a 12-year-old boy suffering from a similar condition was reported from Mysuru, Karnataka. The boy had eaten tomatoes from a field without washing them ...

The slowdown, albeit temporary, will not alter country’s long-term economic tempo, says Indian-origin Kishore Mahbubani. Indian economy will grow faster than China despite the temporary slowdown created by demonetisation, an Indian—origin academic and former Singaporean diplomat said at a conference of leading world universities here today. “Even if the demonetisation created a slowdown, it is not going to change the long-term momentum of where India is going with its economic growth,” said Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. ‘Will be good in the long-term’ Concluding a three-day conference attended by educators from leading universities from across the world that make up the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, Mr. Mahbubani said demonetisation was good for Indian economy in the long-term. “I think demonetisation is a good thing for a lot of [black] money has come back into the...

This status puts India on par with the closest allies and partners India and the U.S. on Thursday finalised the specifications for designating India a ‘Major Defence Partner’ of the U.S. This status puts India on a par with the closest allies and partners of the U.S.. The agreement was reached between Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and U.S. Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter in Delhi. India was accorded this status during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington in June. “The designation as a ‘Major Defence Partner’ is a status unique to India and institutionalises the progress made to facilitate defence trade and technology sharing with India to a level at par with that of the United States’ closest allies and partners, and ensures enduring cooperation into the future,” a joint statement issued after the talks said. The finalisation reached pertains to U.S. licensing rules and stipulations on which non-papers were exchanged by both sides. This status is bestowed upon the...

As 2016 draws to a close after Brexit in the U.K. and the election of Donald Trump in the U.S., it is tempting to label it the Year of Resurgent Nationalism. Yet in its dying gasp the global season of elections has produced two surprise results, in Austria and Italy, which give pause. Last weekend Austria rejected far-right candidate Norbert Hofer in its presidential election, instead placing confidence in Alexander Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green Party who has said he would be an “open-minded, liberal-minded and above all a pro-European president.” In Italy a more mixed result was delivered, with voters resoundingly defeating a referendum driven by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to change Italy’s constitution by reducing the numbers and power of the Senate. While some in Italy’s political right have seized upon the result as a big victory for anti-establishment forces, the vote defies the simplistic narrative of a “populist revolt against globalisation and elites” that has ...

Survey shows Norwich has highest proportion of residents describing themselves as having no religion Discovering how many people in a given city believe in God (or not) is an almost superhuman task. In territories controlled or influenced by Islamic State, for example, the risks to declared non-believers are drastic and obvious. On the other side of the coin, the state atheism promulgated by the leaders of the Soviet Union meant that believers were stigmatised at best, persecuted at worst. As sociology professor Phil Zuckerman pointed out in an essay in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism , even the terminology of religious belief can throw up roadblocks to understanding. If my idea of religious practice is a good deal looser than yours, can we have a meaningful conversation about which cities are godless and which are not? Naturally, the methodological hurdles have not prevented researchers from making the leap. According to the 2011 Census of England and Wales, Norwich had the highes...

Lowers the Gross Value Added growth projection for 2016-17 to 7.1 per cent from 7.6 per cent. The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday kept the base rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent. This was announced at its bi-monthly monetary policy review. This, being the first monetary policy review after the demonetisation of old Rs.500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, there were wide expectations of a rate cut as banks saw a surge in deposits. But the central bank said all Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members voted in favour of keeping the interest rate unchanged. "The decision of the MPC is consistent with the accomodative stance of the policy in consonance with the objective of achieving 5% CPI inflation by Q4 of FY17," the RBI said. The RBI has lowered the Gross Value Added (GVA) growth projection for 2016-17 to 7.1 per cent from 7.6 per cent. It said it was withdrawing incremental Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) with effect from December 10. On demonetisation Deputy Governor R. Gandhi...

Chair of judges praises 31—year—old artist, who recently won Hepworth prize, for baffling sculptural work which ‘reflects the condition of the world’ Helen Marten has sealed her position as one of the U.K.’s most exciting young artists after being named the winner of the 2016 Turner prize, her second big award in the space of a month. The 31-year-old artist, who was born in Macclesfield, was presented with her £25,000 prize by the writer Ben Okri at a ceremony at London’s Tate Britain gallery. It comes only weeks after she won the £30,000 Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. On that occasion Ms. Marten announced from the stage that she would be sharing the winnings with her fellow artists and she later confirmed she would be doing the same thing with the Turner Prize. “I don’t feel I need to politicise that gesture,” she said. “I can do it quietly.” She won for work which baffles gallery goers as much as it grips and delights them. Ms. Marten creates complex sculptures from a bewildering arr...

Lodha panel’s recommendations seem to be aimed at weakening the organisation, Anurag Thakur tells SC BCCI president Anurag Thakur has said “great chaos” will ensue if the Supreme Court implements the Justice R.M. Lodha Committee’s recommendation to remove the top bosses of the Board and State cricket associations. In an affidavit before the Supreme Court, Mr. Thakur said “the removal of democratically-elected office bearers of the BCCI or State cricket associations will not result in any benefit to the game and shall instead paralyse the administration.” Their removal would directly impact the BCCI among organisations like the International Cricket Council. Lodha panel’s recommendations seemed to aim at making BCCI a “weak organisation,” he alleged. Shifting responsibility Mr. Thakur said the Lodha Committee’s suggestion to the Supreme Court to appoint former Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai as auditor was an attempt to shift responsibility to a third party. “Lodha Committee cannot sh...

The demand is not so much as to what the repo rate will be on Wednesday, but what the monetary policy committee, including RBI governor Urjit Patel (second from right), thinks growth and inflation will be six months or even a year down the road. Photo: PTI The monetary policy committee (MPC) will start its two-day meeting on Tuesday to discuss and vote on what the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should do with its policy rates. There are no ready solutions to the monetary shock posed by demonetization, which purged 86% of the currency (by value) in circulation. That said, a thread of clarity over growth and inflation has emerged over the days since Rs1,000 and Rs500 banknotes ceased to be legal tender on 9 November. It is clear that the move will dent consumer demand and hurt growth over the remaining part of fiscal year 2017. Inflation is likely to ease because of depressed demand conditions, but a forecast on inflation is tricky as delays in the sowing of the rabi crop could potentially...

PM Modi, Narendra Modi, Modi-Ghani, Narendra Modi-Ashraf Ghani, India-Afghanistan, Heart of Asia conference, India news, Indian Express Amritsar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Afghanistan’ President Ashraf Ghani wave during a visit to Golden temple on the eve of the Heart of Asia Conference on Saturday. (PTI Photo) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday held bilateral talks focusing on a range of key issues including boosting trade and investment, India’s reconstruction activities in the war-ravaged country and ways to strengthen defence and security partnership. The issue of firming up an air cargo service pact between the two countries is understood to have figured in the talks which will give India a leverage in Afghanistan as Pakistan continued to deny transit link through its territory. Ghani arrived in Amritsar last evening to attend the Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process conference which began on Saturday. In the meeting, Modi assu...

New Delhi: The levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10, most dominant pollutants in Delhi’s air, have consistently violated the prescribed standards by about four times each over the last ten days, official data shows. The average levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 over an eleven-day period from 21 November to 1 December were 194 and 438 micrograms per cubic metre, as against the corresponding safe limits of 60 and 100 respectively. Although, these readings show no major difference when compared to the data collated over the same period last year, the city government said. In fact, the average level of these ultrafine particulates over the same period were higher at 264 and 518 last year. This year the situation has marginally improved riding on the back of strong wind movement for about a fortnight. Meanwhile, the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) air quality index (24-hour average) was in the ‘very poor’ category on Friday, with a reading of 378. on Thursday, it was ‘severe’ at 403. The 24-hour-a...

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to spell out measures taken to ease the sufferings and inconvenience of people in rural areas, who are mostly dependent on co-operative banks, post-demonetisation. A bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud, while hearing a batch of pleas challenging various aspects of demonetisation, said all the parties should sit together and prepare a list of categories of cases which could be referred to high courts and those that could be heard by the aAttorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, said that the government is aware of the situation in co-operative banks which lack proper infrastructure and mechanism as compared to scheduled banks. “Entire chapter in the additional affidavit filed by the Centre is dedicated to the issue of co-operative banks. It is not that we are not aware of the situation but these (the co-operative banks) lack proper facilities, mechanism and proper infrastructure as compared to sched...

Humanity’s best bet at detecting aliens is a giant silver Chinese dish the size of 30 football fields — one that simultaneously showcases Beijing’s abilities to deploy cutting-edge technologies and ignore objectors’ rights as it seeks global prominence. The five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in the country’s southwest, which began operations in September and cost 1.2 billion yuan ($180 million) to build, is the world’s largest radio telescope. Once fully operational, FAST will be able to peer deeper into space than ever before, examining pulsars, dark matter and gravitational waves — and searching for signs of life. But it comes at the cost of forcibly displacing about 9,000 villagers who called the site in Pingtang county their home. Many were outraged at being forced to leave the valley surrounded by forested karst hills and hundreds of families are now suing the government, with some cases being heard this week. Octogenarian Han Jingfu drank pesticide day...