METRO MART-JANUARY 2019

Volume 8 Issue 7 January 2019

`50

Ayurvedic

solutions

to modern lifestyle disorders

January 2019

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EDUCATION & CAREER

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January 2019

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Volume 8 - Issue 07 - January 2019

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AYURVEDIC SOLUTIONS TO MODERN LIFESTYLE DISORDERS

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CIVILIAN AWARDS OF INDIA

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Metro Mart is a monthly journal published from Trivandrum, Views and opinions expressed in the journal are not necessarily those of the Publishers.

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RNI No: KERENG/2011/40037

Contents 18

Bio-diversity, Traditional Knowledge (TK), Bioprospecting and Human Civilizations through Ages

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Data ProtectionThe Key Issue

26

The Livelihood Sustainability Prospects under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006

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Medical Updates

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On a Morning Pleasure of Men

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Enriched UX of e-Office through Innovative Enhancements

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Kerala State Co-Operative Federation for Fisheries Development Limited (MATSYAFED)

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EDUCATION & CAREER

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Ayurvedic

solutions A

to modern lifestyle disorders

yurveda - the wisdom of the sages always had a holistic approach to life and lifestyle.

In the great books of Ayurveda there are chapters dedicated to how one should eat, drink, sleep, exercise and even cook one’s food not because they thought we didn’t know how to do it, but to do them the right way to avoid illness and to promote health. This holistic approach of Ayurveda is very relevant in today’s society, because we have a lot of lifestyle disorders, which are becoming common from a very young age.

days. Let’s discuss obesity, which is a rampant problem among young and old.

According to WHO: “ Obesity/ overweight is defined as abnormal/excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.”

ARE YOU OBESE? In a crude population, the measure of obesity is the body mass index/BMI.

A person with a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese. A person with BMI Obesity, heart diseases, diabetes, immune disorders are a few of the most equal to or more than 25 is considcommonly seen health problems these ered overweight.

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EDUCATION & CAREER

RISKS OF OBESITY: Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for most of the chronic diseases, which are now called lifestyle diseases. Obesity is also an important cause of osteoarthritis, which is an inflammatory disease of joints.

WHY IS THE PREVALENCE OF OBESITY ON THE RISE? Today’s trend in eating is like today’s lifestyle! -‘FAST’. ‘Fast-food’ is the ‘inthing’ these days, and that is the main culprit for all our health problems.

Another reason for overweight is the way we eat, either we are in a hurry so we don’t chew our food well or we eat standing up or in front of computer or TV. Overeating, lack of exercise and sedentary lifestyle are also reasons for the rise in number of people with obesity.

STRATEGIES TO PREVENT OBESITY: According to Ayurveda, one should never eat a full stomach. Ideally, half of the stomach capacity should be filled with solid foods; quarter by liquids and the remaining part should be left empty for accommodating air.

Heavy foods that take long time to digest should be consumed till half of the satiation level. Foods that are light to digest should be consumed just before the stage of satiation. The right amount of food is that which undergoes digestion before the next mealtime.

To lose weight, it is recommended to have water before a meal. There is 10

January 2019

evidence to the fact that people, who eat fast, gain weight. So chew your food thoroughly, relish and savor it and practice ‘mindful eating’. Always remember that your stomach is an ‘expandable’ organ, the more you eat, the more it will accommodate, so reduce the quantity of the food you eat gradually. One technique is to select a smaller plate to eat your food and smaller spoon to serve. Another fact you need to keep in mind is that, even food that is healthy should be consumed in moderation.

Ayurvedic Therapies to lose weight: 1. Udwarthana: A herbal powder massage, which helps to “burn” subcutaneous fat/ cellulite, that reduce weight and increase firmness of the underlying muscles.

2. Abhyanga: An oil massage, which helps to improve blood circulation and thereby improve metabolism.

3.Panchakarma: This five-fold therapy helps in flushing out metabolic wastes and toxins from the body whereby cleansing the system and correcting your metabolism.

The key to losing weight is having a balanced lifestyle- one that includes good eating habits, exercise and rest.

Make a decision to work towards a healthy lifestyle, even if change is not always easy. Remember, “ To change your body you must first change your mind”.

Tips to Healthy Eating!

• Reduce carbohydrates, sweets and energy drinks.

• Include more fiber in your meal; they make you feel fuller faster!

• Includes nut, seeds in your daily diet: they increase the glycemic index and improve fat metabolism. (*Research has proved ‘ nut- eaters’ has lower waistline) • Use coconut oil or sesame oil for cooking: they improve your metabolic rate.

• Some foods that improve metabolism and ‘burn fat’ - Horse gram/ Muthira, Black cumin - Ginger, Garlic, Tomato, Shallots/small onion • Reduce dairy products viz. Cheese, yoghurt

Recipe for a ”fat burning” Soup!

Ingredients

Horsegram/Muthira – 50 gms (soaked overnight) Black cumin- 10gm Garlic – 3 cloves Ginger – 1” pieces Red onion/Shallots-6 Tomato -2 Lemon juice, salt to taste

Method Cook the horse gram in 2 -3 glasses of water in a pressure cooker for 3 whistles. In a pan add a little oil and put the black cumin, crushed garlic and ginger paste, add the sliced onion and sauté. Then add the chopped tomato and sauté till it becomes soft. Now add the cooked horsegram without the water and stir for 2 minutes.

Then add the water of the horsegram and simmer for 5-8 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice.

Serve hot as starter or as a meal!

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CIVILIAN HONOUR

Civilian Awards of India

N.Vijayagopalan

T

he Padma Awards announced annually on the eve of Republic Day are one of the highest civilian honours of India. The awards are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. They are given in various disciplines/fields of activities, viz.- art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc., where an element of public service is involved.

These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President of India has approved

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conferment of 112 Padma Awards including one duo case (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one) as per list below. The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 14 Padma Bhushan and 94 Padma Shri Awards.

21 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 11 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/ OCI, 3 Posthumous awardees and 1 transgender person.

The Padma Awards are conferred on the recommendations made by the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The nomination process is open to the public. Even selfnomination can be made.

History and Relevance The Government of India instituted

two civilian awards-Bharat Ratna & Padma Vibhushan in 1954. The latter had three classes namely Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg.

These were subsequently renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri vide Presidential Notification issued on January 8, 1955.

Bharat Ratna Bharat Ratna is the highest civilian award of the country. It is awarded in recognition of exceptional service/performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour. It is treated on a different footing from Padma Award. The recommendations for Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President of India. No formal recommendations for Bharat Ratna are necessary. The number of Bharat Ratna Awards is restricted to a maximum of three in a particular year. Government has conferred Bharat Ratna Award on 45 persons till date.

Padma Awards Padma Awards, which were instituted in the year 1954, is announced every year on the occasion of Republic Day except for brief interruption(s) during the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997.

The award is given in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan for exceptional and distinguished service; Padma Bhushan for distinguished service of a high order; and Padma Shri for distinguished service.

All persons without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex are eligible for these awards. However, Government servants including those working with PSUs, except doctors and scientists, are not eligible for these Awards.

The award seeks to recognize works of distinction and is given for distinguished and exceptional achievements/service in all fields of activities/disciplines. An illustrative list of the fields is as under: 1. Art (includes Music, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Cinema, Theatre etc.)

2. Social work (includes social service, charitable

Shri Nanaji Deshmukh (Posthumously)

Dr Bhupen Hazarika (Posthumously)

Shri Pranab Mukherjee January 2019

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service, contribution in community projects etc.)

3. Public Affairs (includes Law, Public Life, Politics etc.)

4. Science & Engineering (includes Space Engineering, Nuclear Science, Information Technology, Research & Development in Science & its allied subjects etc.)

5. Trade & Industry (includes Banking, Economic Activities, Management, Promotion of Tourism, Business etc.)

6. Medicine (includes medical research, distinction/specialization in Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Sidhha, Allopathy, Naturopathy etc.)

7. Literature & Education (includes Journalism, Teaching, Book composing, Literature, Poetry, Promotion of education, Promotion of literacy, Education Reforms etc.)

8. Civil Service (includes distinction/ excellence in administration etc. by Government Servants) 9. Sports (includes popular Sports, Athletics, Adventure, Mountaineering, promotion of sports, Yoga etc.)

10. Others (fields not covered above and may include propagation of Indian Culture, protection of Human Rights, Wild Life protection/ conservation etc.)

The award is normally not conferred posthumously. However, in highly deserving cases, the Government could consider giving an award posthumously.

A higher category of Padma award can be conferred on a person only where a period of at least five years 14

January 2019

has elapsed since conferment of the earlier Padma award. However, in highly deserving cases, a relaxation can be made by the Awards Committee.

The awards are presented by the President of India usually in the month of March/April every year where the awardees are presented a Sanad (certificate) signed by the President and a medallion.

The recipients are also given a small replica of the medallion, which they can wear during any ceremonial/State functions etc., if the awardees so desire. The names of the awardees are published in the Gazette of India on the day of the presentation ceremony.

The total number of awards to be given in a year (excluding posthumous awards and to NRI/ foreigners/OCIs) should not be more than 120.

The award does not amount to a title and cannot be used as a suffix or prefix to the awardees’ name.

Who decides All nominations received for Padma Awards are placed before the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The Padma Awards Committee is headed by the Cabinet Secretary and includes Home Secretary, Secretary to the President and four to six eminent persons as members. The recommendations of the committee are submitted to the Prime Minister and the President of India for approval.

2019 Awardees

(Details of 2019 Awardees announced on 25-1-2019) Bharat Ratna

1. Shri Nanaji Deshmukh (posthumously) (Social Activist) 2. Dr Bhupen Hazarika (posthumously) (Playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker) 3. Shri Pranab Mukherjee (Former President of India)

17. Shri V K Shunglu (Civil Service, Delhi) 18. Shri Hukumdev Narayan Yadav (Public Affairs, Bihar)

Padma Shri (94)

19. Shri Rajeshwar Acharya (ArtVocal-Hindustani, Uttar Pradesh) 20. Shri Bangaru Adigalar (OthersSpiritualism, Tamil Nadu) Padma Vibhushan 21. Shri Illias Ali (Medicine-Surgery, 1. Ms. Teejan Bai (Art-Vocals-Folk, Assam) Chhattisgarh) 2. Shri Ismail Omar Guelleh (Foreigner) 22. Shri Manoj Bajpayee (Art-ActingFilms, Maharashtra) (Public Affairs, Djibouti) 3. Shri Anilkumar Manibhai Naik (Trade 23. Shri Uddhab Kumar Bharali & Industry, Infrastructure, Maharashtra) (Science & Engineering, Grassroots Innovation, Assam) 4. Shri Balwant Moreshwar Purandare 24. Shri Omesh Kumar Bharti (Art-Acting-Theatre, Maharashtra) (Medicine-Rabies, Himachal Pradesh) Padma Bhushan (14) 25. Shri Pritam Bhartwan (Art-Vocals5. Shri John Chambers (Foreigner) Folk, Uttarakhand) (Trade & Industry, Technology, USA) 26. Shri Jyoti Bhatt (Art-Painting, 6. Shri Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (Public Gujarat) Affairs, Punjab) 27. Shri Dilip Chakravarty (Others7. Shri Pravin Gordhan (Foreigner) Archaeology, Delhi) Public Affairs South Africa 28. Shri Mammen Chandy (Medicine8. Shri Mahashay Dharam Pal Gulati Hematology, West Bengal) Trade & IndustryFood Processing Delhi 29. Shri Swapan Chaudhuri (Art9. Shri Darshan Lal Jain Social Work Music-Tabla, West Bengal) Haryana 30. Shri Kanwal Singh Chauhan 10. Shri Ashok Laxmanrao Kukade (Others-Agriculture, Haryana) Medicine-Affordable Healthcare 31. Shri Sunil Chhetri (SportsMaharashtra Football, Telangana) 11. Shri Kariya Munda Public Affairs 32. Shri Dinyar Contractor (ArtJharkhand Acting-Theatre, Maharashtra) 12. Shri Budhaditya Mukherjee Art33. Ms. Muktaben Pankajkumar Music-Sitar West Bengal Dagli (Social Work-Divyang Welfare, 13. Shri Mohanlal Viswanathan Nair Gujarat) (Art-Acting-Film, Kerala) 34. Shri Babulal Dahiya (Others14. Shri S Nambi Narayan (Science & Agriculture, Madhya Pradesh) Engineering-Space, Kerala) 35. Shri Thanga Darlong (Art-Music15. Shri Kuldip Nayar (Posthumous) Flute, Tripura) (Literature & Education (Journalism) 36. Shri Prabhu Deva (Art-Dance, Delhi) Karnataka) 16. Ms. Bachendri Pal (Sports37. Ms. Rajkumari Devi (OthersMountaineering Uttarakhand) January 2019

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Agriculture, Bihar) 38. Ms. Bhagirathi Devi (Public Affairs, Bihar) 39. Shri Baldev Singh Dhillon (Science & Engineering, Agriculture, Punjab) 40. Ms. Harika Dronavalli (SportsChess, Andhra Pradesh) 41. Ms. Godawari Dutta (Art-Painting, Bihar) 42. Shri Gautam Gambhir (SportsCricket, Delhi) 43. Ms. Draupadi Ghimiray (Social Work-Divyang Welfare, Sikkim) 44. Ms. Rohini Godbole (Science & Engineering-Nuclear, Karnataka) 45. Shri Sandeep Guleria (MedicineSurgery, Delhi) 46. Shri Pratap Singh Hardia (Medicine-Ophthmology, Madhya Pradesh) 47. Shri Bulu Imam (Social WorkCulture, Jharkhand) 48. Ms. Friederike Irina (Foreigner) (Social Work-Animal Welfare, Germany) 49. Shri Joravarsinh Jadav (Art-Dance Folk, Gujarat) 50. Shri S Jaishankar (Civil Service, Delhi) 51. Shri Narsingh Dev Jamwal (Literature & Education, Jammu & Kashmir) 52. Shri Fayaz Ahmad Jan (Art-CraftPapier Mache, Jammu & Kashmir) 53. Shri K G Jayan (Art-Music-Bhakti, Kerala) 54. Shri Subhash Kak (Foreigner) (Science & Engineering, Technology, USA) 55. Shri Sharath Kamal (Sports-Table Tennis, Tamil Nadu) 56. Shri Rajani Kant (Social Work, Uttar Pradesh) 57. Shri Sudam Kate (Medicine-Sickle Cell Maharashtra) 58. Shri Waman Kendre (Art-Acting16

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Theatre, Maharashtra) 59. Shri Kader Khan (PosthumousForeigner) (Art-Acting-Films Canada) 60. Shri Abdul Gafur Khatri (ArtPainting, Gujarat) 61. Shri Ravindra Kolhe (Duo)* (Medicine-Affordable Healthcare, Maharashtra & Ms. Smita Kolhe (Duo)* (MedicineAffordable Healthcare, Maharashtra) 62. Ms. Bombayla Devi Laishram (Sports-Archery, Manipur) 63. Shri Kailash Madbaiya (Literature & Education, Madhya Pradesh) 64. Shri Ramesh Babaji Maharaj (Social Work-Animal Welfare, Uttar Pradesh) 65. Shri Vallabhbhai Vasrambhai Marvaniya (Others-Agriculture, Gujarat) 66. Ms. Gita Mehta (Foreigner) (Literature & Education, USA) 67. Shri Shadab Mohammad (Medicine-Dentistry, Uttar Pradesh) 68. Shri K K Muhammed (OthersArchaeology, Kerala) 69. Shri Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Medicine-Affordable Healthcare, Jharkhand 70. Shri Daitari Naik (Social Work, Odisha) 71. Shri Shankar Mahadevan Narayan (Art-Vocals-Films Maharashtra) 72. Shri Shantanu Narayen (Foreigner) (Trade & Industry, Technology, USA) 73. Nartaki Natraj Art (DanceBharatnatyam, Tamil Nadu) 74. Shri Tsering Norboo (MedicineSurgery, Jammu & Kashmir) 75. Shri Anup Ranjan Pandey (ArtMusic, Chhattisgarh) 76. Shri Jagdish Prasad Parikh (Others-Agriculture, Rajasthan) 77. Shri Ganpatbhai Patel (Foreigner)

(Literature & Education, USA) 78. Shri Bimal Patel (OthersArchitecture, Gujarat) 79. Shri Hukumchand Patidar (OthersAgriculture, Rajasthan) 80. Shri Harvinder Singh Phoolka (Public Affairs, Punjab) 81. Ms. Madurai Chinna Pillai (Social Work-Microfinance, Tamil Nadu) 82. Ms. Tao Porchon-Lynch (Foreigner) (Others-Yoga, USA) 83. Ms. Kamala Pujhari (OthersAgriculture, Odisha) 84. Shri Bajrang Punia (SportsWrestling, Haryana) 85. Shri Jagat Ram (MedicineOphthalmology, Chandigarh) 86. Shri R V Ramani (MedicineOphthalmology, Tamil Nadu) 87. Shri Devarapalli Prakash Rao (Social Work-Affordable Education, Odisha) 88. Shri Anup Sah (Art-Photography, Uttarakhand) 89. Ms. Milena Salvini (Foreigner) (ArtDance-Kathakali, France) 90. Shri Nagindas Sanghavi (Literature & Education-Journalism, Maharashtra) 91. Shri Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry (Art-Lyrics, Telangana) 92. Shri Shabbir Sayyad (Social WorkAnimal Welfare, Maharashtra) 93. Shri Mahesh Sharma (Social WorkTribal Welfar, Madhya Pradesh) 94. Shri Mohammad Hanif Khan Shastri (Literature & Education Delhi) 95. Shri Brijesh Kumar Shukla (Literature & Education Uttar Pradesh) 96. Shri Narendra Singh (OthersAnimal Husbandry, Haryana) 97. Ms. Prashanti Singh (SportsBasketball, Uttar Pradesh) 98. Shri Sultan Singh (Others-Animal Husbandry, Haryana) 99. Shri Jyoti Kumar Sinha (Social Work-Affordable Education. Bihar)

100. Shri Anandan Sivamani (ArtMusic, Tamil Nadu) 101. Ms. Sharada Srinivasan (Others-Archaeology, Karnataka) 102. Shri Devendra Swarup (Posthumous) (Literature & Education-Journalism Uttar Pradesh) 103. Shri Ajay Thakur (SportsKabaddi, Himachal Pradesh) 104. Shri Rajeev Tharanath (ArtMusic-Sarod, Karnataka) 105. Ms. Saalumarada Thimmakka (Social Work-Environment, Karnataka) 106. Ms. Jamuna Tudu (Social Work, Environment Jharkhand) 107. Shri Bharat Bhushan Tyagi (Others-Agriculture, Uttar Pradesh) 108. Shri Ramaswami Venkataswami (Medicine-Surgery, Tamil Nadu) 109. Shri Ram Saran Verma (Others-Agriculture, Uttar Pradesh) 110. Shri Swami Vishudhananda (Others-Spiritualism, Kerala) 111. Shri Hiralal Yadav (Art-VocalsFolk, Uttar Pradesh) 112. Shri Venkateswara Rao Yadlapalli (Others-Agriculture, Andhra Pradesh) Note: * indicates duo case. (counted as one award) Annulment of awards While there are no specific criteria for withdrawing a Padma award, the President of India, per the awards’ statutes, may cancel and annul any award in the case of any misconduct committed by the recipient. At least three awards of the Padma Shri have been so annulled, twice in 1958 for recipients residing in the state of Punjab and once in 1974 for a recipient residing in the state of Gujarat.

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LIFE SCIENCE

Bio-diversity,

Traditional Knowledge (TK), Bioprospecting and Human Civilizations through Ages Dr. P. Pushpangadan

B

iodiversity is the biological capital of the planet Earth and forms the foundation upon which the human civilization is built.

The success of a nation depends upon the capability of her people to convert the biodiversity and other natural resources into wealth in an ecologically sound and economically rewarding and sustainable manner with the intervention of science and technology. India has about 126,756 species of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms already identified and classified. And, it is likely that there could be another 400,000 species, most of them microbes or lower invertebrates, yet to be identified and described taxonomically. The flora of India

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is both rich and diverse due to wide range of variations in climate, altitude and ecological habitats.

It is estimated that the floristic spectrum of India comprises of over 30000 species (excluding fungi, which are now being treated as a separate kingdom), of which the flowering plants with about 17,500 species constitute the dominant group- representing about 7% of the flowering plant species of the world.

Endemism in Indian flora is now almost well documented. There are estimated to be over 18,000 species of flowering plants in India, which constitute some 6-7 percent of the total plant species in the world.

India is home to more than 50,000 species of plants, including a variety

of endemics. There are more than 3000 Indian plant species officially documented as possessing into eight main floristic regions: Western Himalayas, Eastern Himalayas, Assam, Indus plain, Ganges plain, the Deccan, Malabar and the Andaman Islands (BGCI Website, 2015). The Indian gene centre harbours at least 166 species of native cultivated plants. The crops with primary, secondary and regional centers of diversity represent a part of native and introduced species which account for over 480 species. Diverse agroclimatic and agricultural practices have led to the rich diversity of crops species in the form of land races and cultivars. Besides, the centre has over 320 wild relatives and their diverse gene pools. Diverse agro climatic and edaphic variations resulted in evolving innumerable genetic and ecological variants. The genetic diversity is some plant species runs in 10,000 or more.

The crop species are accessible for collection in fields, orchards, gardens, markets and with farmers. On the contrary, the wild relatives are difficult to locate as they grow in their natural habitats with other wild plants. India has entered 21st century riding bullock –carts as well as jet crafts and using both the sickle and mechanical harvester. The independent India proclaimed freedom to all its citizens offering opportunity for leading a wholesome happy and prosperous life. But even after 71 years we could not achieve the goal.

In early years of evolution As early as 3500 BC we find a highly advanced and well organized city civilization emerging at Mohan jo Daro and Harappa in the Indian sub

Many communities selected the best nourishing food items. In fact the brain development of humans was closely associated with certain specific proteins/amino acids and fatty acids. continent. All these civilization were built by agricultural societies who got more leisure time that stimulated them to build material culture and civilization. But by the turn of the 10th century human communities in the world over have selected over 10,000 plant species as source of his food. These included many grains, millets, tuber and rhizomes which formed his main energy source and lentils, pulses, nuts, fruits, leaves of many plant species. These plants provided him proteins, fat, vitamins, minerals etc.

The nutritional requirements were further supplemented by fish and meat. Many communities selected the best nourishing food items.

In fact the brain development of humans was closely associated with certain specific proteins/amino acids and fatty acids. Communities who settled in a particular environment/ habitat began to select certain plants and perfected them by trial, error, empirical reasoning or experience January 2019

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which was time and again improved.

The innovative and enterprising members of the community went on generating new knowledge and these were passed on to successive generations which is now known as traditional diet or ethnic food items. It was with colonization which started in 16th century that led to globalization of food and diet. During 18th and 19th centuries the colonial powers of the West who reached the biodiversity rich South countries began to make intercontinental exchange of plants, which predominantly included the edible plants. This globalization of food and nutrition had its advantage as well as disadvantages. Most undesirable out of this globalization of food was the narrowing down of the food basket by the world population.

The whole world humans began to be fed by 20 edible plants by the turn of the 19th century against over 7,000 or more species that provided food and nutrition to the humans till the turn of the 18th century. With the increasing scientific knowledge and understanding on the food and nutrition, it is now well known that the

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location specific and climate specific food are best suited to humans.

The history of human culture and civilization is all about the management and utilization of the resources around him. Since the dawn of human civilization resources particularly the bio-resources has been utilized by diverse human communities. Human beings started their life in the forest as an integral part of the forest ecosystem. Living close to nature he has acquired unique knowledge about the ambient biodiversity by instinct, trial or error and experimentation and used a variety of plants and animals to meet his essential requirements like food, medicine, fuel, fibre, etc. Being an intelligent and innovative organism he very soon built a material civilization of his own and carved out a separate habitat for himself utilizing the resources around him. Many human communities later established civilizations and began to live in villages, towns and cities built by him. However, a good majority of the human communities still

continue to live in and around the forest ecosystems. The communities who left the forest and began to live in modern towns and cities gradually lost close touch with nature and forest and lost the precious knowledge about most of the wild plants which their forefathers had. By the turn of the 20th century, the peaceful life of the traditional communities who used to live in and around the forest was also disturbed and disrupted and that led to the decline and destabilization of these people causing imminent danger of extinction of the precious/ peculiar life style, culture and knowledge system.

The incredible ability of humankind in exploring the natural resources around him to his advantage has indeed made human species as the most successful/powerful organism on planet earth. The history of human culture and civilization is all about the management and utilization of the resources around him. Since the dawn of human civilization resources particularly the bioresources has been utilized by diverse human communities. Human beings started their life in the forest as an integral part of the forest ecosystem. Living close to nature he has acquired unique knowledge about the ambient biodiversity by instinct, trial or error and experimentation and used a variety of plants and animals to meet his essential requirements like food, medicine, fuel, fibre, etc. Being an intelligent and innovative organism he

very soon built a material civilization of his own and carved out a separate habitat for himself utilizing the resources around him. Many human communities later established civilizations and began to live in villages, towns and cities built by him. However, a good majority of the human communities still continue to live in and around the forest ecosystems. The communities who left the forest and began to live in modern towns and cities gradually lost close touch with nature and forest and lost the precious knowledge about most of the wild plants which their forefathers had.

By the turn of the 20th century, the peaceful life of the traditional communities who used to live in and around the forest was also disturbed and disrupted and that led to the decline and destabilization of these people causing imminent danger of extinction of the precious/peculiar life style, culture and knowledge system (Pushpangadan, 2005, Pushpangadan, 2010).

Traditional Knowledge (TK) TK is a community based system of knowledge that has been developed, preserved and maintained over generations by the local and indigenous communities through their continuous interactions, observations and experimentations with their surrounding environment (Pushpangadan & Narayanan Nair 2005). It is unique to a given culture or society and is developed January 2019

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as a result of the co-evolution and co-existence of both the indigenous cultures and their traditional practices of resource use and ecosystem management. The accumulated wisdom, knowledge belief and practices embodied in the TK system were handed down to generation by an unbroken tradition and culture. The medical wisdom of such traditional communities are the target of drug hunters as an effective short cut for locating new and useful compounds of great pharmaceutical value. It is now well known that the possibility of finding a potential bioactive compound through random screening of plant samples is 1 in 10,000 and that of hitting a marketable drug 1 to 4 of such potential hits. In contrast, the success rate of finding a bioactive compounds through selective screening based on TK is 1 in 100 and that the discovery of a marketable drug is 1 in 2. Many plant derived drugs employed in modern medicine were first discovered through ethnopharmacological investigations.

It may be mentioned here that the classical systems of medicine (Ayurved, Siddha, Unani, Amchi etc.) makes use of only 2500 plants where as we have a database on

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10,000 plants which requires further scientific validation. Out of this 8000 wild plant species used by the tribals for medicinal purposes, about 950 are found to be new claims and worthy of scientific scrutiny.The Himalayas catered to the needs of the people who lived not only in its villages and foothills but also of the people who lived in far away cities and villages.

The Indian Himalaya is divided in to three main regions north western Himalaya, western Himalaya and eastern Himalaya. The north western Himalaya (Ladakh plateau and Gilgit District) is characterized by mild summer and severely cold winter. Vegetation is alpine type which is represented by species like Achillea millefolium, Bunium persicum, Picrorhiza kurroa, Juniperus communis, Ephedra gerardiana etc.

In the western Himalaya (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Garwal and Kumaon Himalaya) the climate is warm humid during summer and cold humid during winter. The medicinal flora represented by Saussurea costus, Cochicum luteum, Atropa acuminate, Physochlaina praealta etc. The eastern Himalaya (Darjeeling, Sikkim, north part of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh) the climate is characterized by warm summer and cool winter. Vegetation is represented by Aquilaria malaccensis, Coptis teeta, Panax pseudoginseng

etc.

The TK in India functions through two social streams particularly the Traditional medicine .One is the local folk stream which is prevalent in rural and tribal villages of India. The carriers of these traditions are millions of house wives, thousands of traditional birth attendants, bone setters, practitioners skilled in acupressure, treatment of eyes, snake bites etc. and the traditional village level herbal physicians “the vaidyas� or tribal physicians in the tribal areas. These local health traditions thus represent an autonomous community supported system of health delivery at the village level which runs parallel to the state supported system. Its potential goes largely unnoticed because of the dominant western medicines.

The second level of traditional health system is the scientific or classical systems. This consists of the codified and organized medical wisdom with sophisticated theoretical foundations and philosophical explanations which are expressed in thousands of classical and regional manuscripts covering treatises on all branches of medicine and surgery. Systems like Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Amchi, Tibetan etc. are the expressions of this stream.

Both the above streams of medicine are deeply rooted in the tradition, culture, civilization and religion of our land and people. Ayurveda the ancient science of life had its origin in the northern centres of learning and slowly this system attained a preeminent position in the entire country. Siddha system, believed to be originated by the sage Agasthya remained mainly in South India particularly among the Tamil speaking population of

India. The Amchi and the Tibetan systems were popularized by the Buddhist monks in the Himalayan region of India. Unani system which was brought by the Mughal rulers gained popularity among the Urudu speaking populations in the country.

A significant aspect of ethnobotany in medicine (ethnomedicine) is its self reliant nature. Ethnomedine is entirely autonomous in character and rooted deep in the communities social tradition and knowledge system.

This multi institutional and multidisciplinary project was operated in about 27 centres by over 600 scientific personnel located in the different institutions spread over the length and breadth of the country. AICRPE during the course of its operation (19821998) recorded information on the multidimensional perspectives of the life, culture, tradition and knowledge system associated with biotic and abiotic resources of the 550 tribal communities comprising over 104 million people belonging to the diverse ethnic group. In India there are 550 communities of 227 ethnic groups. There are 116 different dialects of 227 subsidiary dialects spoken by tribals of India. The knowledge of these communities on the use of wild plants for food, medicine and for meeting many other material requirements are now considered to be potential information for appropriate S&T intervention for developing value added commercially marketable products. The TK are oral in character and not qualified for the formal IPR system. The vast information collected by the AICRPE January 2019

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team is locked up as unattended reports for want of proper resources.

TK of about 10,000 plants have been collected during the course of the project. It may be mentioned here that the classical systems of medicine (Ayurved, Siddha, Unani, Amchi etc.) makes use of only 2500 plants where as we have a database on 10,000 plants which requires further scientific validation. Out of this 8000 wild plant species used by the tribals for medicinal purposes, about 950 are found to be new claims and worthy of scientific scrutiny. 3900 or more wild plant species are used as edible subsidiary food /vegetable by tribals.

About 8000 are new informations and at least 250 of them are worthy of investigation. Out of the 400 plant species used as fodder, 100 are worthy of recommending for wider use and out of 300 wild species used by tribals as piscides or pesticides, atleast 175 are quite promising to be developed as safe pesticides (Pushpangadan, 1995) Bioprospecting of TK Bioprospecting of TK can contribute significantly towards sustainable development, if managed within the strictures of national and international laws and policies. Despite the criticism on bioprospecting as one way of commercial exploitation of bioresource with the only motive of economic returns and protection of industrial properties, the scope and utility of bioprospecting are many, particularly for the biodiversity – rich countries of the tropics. The new international legal instruments such as CBD could facilitate bioprospecting an equitable partnership that would be socially, economically a biologically 24

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sustainable. Tropical rain forests and marine biomes supporting coral reefs are potential natural resources bases that constitute the biological capital for successful bioprospecting endeavors. The diversity of indigenous cultures and the treasure of indigenous knowledge systems also provide vital leads to undertake sustainable bioprospecting programmes in the tropical developing countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, etc.

The genetic diversity and chemical polymorphisms displayed by tropical biota represent an untapped resource wealth. Harnessing this genetic wealth through modern chemical and gene prospecting methods form the focus of the drug and pharmaceutical programmes initiated by several multinational biotech or biomedical firms like Glaxo International, Merck & Co. Inc. National Cancer Institute, U.S.A., Pfizer, etc. Gene prospecting aimed at production of improved varieties of plants, livestock, transgenic organisms are also yet another aspect of bioprospecting. Chemical and gene prospecting of wild biological resources of actual or potential values will have significant application in agriculture, medicine and industry. Bioprospecting can bringforth substantial economic returns from the products and processes to be derived from biodiversity and biotechnology.

For an example, in an analysis Mendelsohn & Balick (1995) estimated that a complete collection and screening of all tropical higher plant species (i.e. 125,000 spp.) should be worth about $ 3 – 4

billion to a private pharmaceutical company and about $ 147 billion to a society as a whole. Their analysis also predicted that the higher plants in the world’s tropical forests would contain 375 potential pharmaceuticals of which 48 has already been discovered. Similar estimates on the value of several others unexplored or untapped resources of NWFPs (Non – Wood Forest Products) of tropical forests would indicate the scope and magnitude of possible economic benefits this biome could render to humanity.

Bioprospecting TK helps mobilizing funds to conserve biodiversity in both protected and unprotected wilderness areas, value addition and assigning economic value to biodiversity; enhance human resource development, capacity building in chemical and gene prospecting and other relevant biotechnologies; protection of IPRs, Farmers Rights, Traditional Resources rights of local and ethnic communities; economic development of the country – particularly the rural and tribal communities by improving their source of income and living standards through location specific production

and processing technologies based on local biogenetic resources; and to evolve environmentally friendly policies and programmes on biodiversity conservation and bioprospecting.

21st century is now acclaimed as the century of biology- The advancements made in Biological Sciences if applied appropriately can transform the biodiversity rich nations like India to economic powers. Indian is blessed with a uniquely rich and varied biodiversity rich TK system and above all a literate /skilled and intelligent human capital is well placed to make such a transformations to happen.

Acknowledgement The author expresses his sincere thanks to the Hon’ble Founder President Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan and to Dr. Atul Chauhan Chancellor, Amity University and President, Ritnand Balved Education Foundation for their valuable support and for providing the facilities for carrying out this work.

I also want to express my thanks to Mrs. Sunija C George for patiently typing this manuscript.

References 1. BGCI Website (2015), National Wildlife Database of Wildlife Institute of India Forest Survey of India State of Forest Report.

2. Mendelsohn, R and Balick, M.J.1995. The value of undiscovered pharmaceuticals in tropical forests. Economic Botany 49(2):223-228.

3.Pushpangadan P (2005) The concept of Golden Triangle, Herbal Tech Industry Vol 1(5) March 2005, pp 12-15 4. P. Pushpangadan (2010) Guest Editor, Editorial, Ethnomedical studies. Indian J. Traditional Knowledge. 9 (1) pp.3-4

5. Pushpangadan.P and Narayanan Nair.K (2005) Value Addition and commercialization of Biodiversity and Associated Traditional Knowledge in the context of the Intellectual Property Regime Journal of Intellectual Property Rights 10: 441-453.

6. Pushpangadan, P (1995). Prospect of Horticulture in Kerala with special reference to ornamental medicinal and aromatic plants. Science and Technology for Development, Govt. of Kerala, State Committee on Science, Technology and Environment. pp. 240-253.

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LEGISLATION

The Livelihood Sustainability Prospects under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers

(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 Kavya Nair P J

T

he Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, was passed on 18 December 2006 and notified into effect a year later on 31 December 2007. The legislation is a landmark as it tries to rectify the “historical injustices� suffered by the tribals.

The legislation is unique as it not only recognises the rights of tribals and traditional forest dwellers (those residing for over 75 years or three generations in the respective area) but also their contribution through sustainable forest management practises.

The tribals who enjoyed freedom of living and livelihood during the pre-colonial era became scapegoats to evictions, torture and destitution during British and post-independent India. The Forest Charter 1855, Indian Forest Act of 1878 and 1927 divided forests into protected, village and reserved forests for commercial pursuits sacrificed the livelihood and conservation practises of tribals in India. The Forest Policy of 1952, Wildlife Protection Act 1972, Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980 separated preservation of forests and

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biodiversity from the existence of tribals and supported the former at the expense of the latter. The interesting fact is that though all legislations of pre-and postindependent India mentioned on the settlement of rights of tribes evicted from protected forests, they failed to address the issue of settlement most often. Though National Forest Policy of 1988 provided for the well-being of forest dwellers through constituting the Joint Forest management committees, the forest bureaucracy always underplayed the role of tribals. Thus, the Forest Rights Act 2006 tries to address these historical injustices while taking into account the mutual coexistence between tribals and ecology and their intellectual property rights over traditional knowledge developed over generations. The individual forest rights allows tribals to live in and cultivate upto four hectares of land cultivated till 13 December 2005and non-tribals has to prove the residence of family in the land for 75 years till December 2005. The community forest rights recognises rights of Gram Sabhas over forest land within village boundaries or

seasonal use of landscape for pastoral communities, access of minor forest produce, grazing land, water bodies and preservation of community reserves. The process of submission and acceptance of claims include Gram Sabhas, sub-district level and district level committees. Section 3(1) (i) of the Forest Rights Act has created a scope for the legal recognition of these traditional community conservation initiatives in forest land, Section 3(1)(k) of the Forest Rights Act, which provides the right of access to biodiversity and a community right to intellectual property and traditional knowledge, Section (3) (1)(e) of the Act, which provides for communal tenure rights for the particularly vulnerable tribal groups over their habitats provide evidence of the scope of the Act when properly implemented.

The total forest cover of India as per India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2015 is 701673 sq.km which constitute 21.34% of the geographical area of the country. According to Rights and Resources Initiative, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate

Change, there are about 150 million forest dwellers, Scheduled tribes account for 8.6% of India’s populations and nine out of ten of them live in or near forests.

The Act can play dual role here through sustaining and conserving the livelihood of tribals and actively participating them in the conservation of forests by utilising their age-old practises. The Act, if properly implemented can ensure sustainable development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs and ecological conservation. The community forest management with a vocal Gram Sabhas can put an end to the commercial extraction of resources and developmental activities in forests which have harmed hectares of forest land.

The path breaking work in institutional economics by Nobel prize winning economist Elinor Ostrom contradicts the theory of the tragedy of the commons and states that rational individuals devise sensible plans to conserve January 2019

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community resources. This is true when it comes to conservation practises by tribals being more effective than the ones undertaken by government. In Brazil between 2000 – 2012, the deforestation in forests managed by indigenous population was less than 1% while it was 7% in other villages. Likewise, the success stories within India where Joint Forest Management was conducted with full involvement of tribals such as the case with the Arabari forest range in the west Midnapore district of West Bengal not only resulted in restoration of forest cover but also the livelihood of people.

The Act has received mixed response from all sections of society with forest department and environmentalists raising criticisms and tribal people and their organisations being supportive of the act in the midst of several lingering issues to be addressed. The implementation also was delayed in many states and submerged in many problems and bureaucratic impediments especially in rejecting community claims in areas of development activities. The Act is smeared with many issues. There are

instances of ignoring community claims, rejection of claims in protected areas or when the group practises shifting cultivation.

The forest bureaucrats take over the entire procedure and deny representation to elected tribals.

The deadlines don’t provide enough time for awareness or mitigation of complexities around titles on submitting claims etc.

The legislation has innovative ways in restoring the mutual coexistence of nature and tribals rather than the preceding ones that brought nature against tribals.

The government should ensure that mismanagement by the forest bureaucracy is unacceptable. The little progress in implementation is through close coordination between tribal departments, district administrations and civil society.

There is need to strengthen the nodal tribal departments, encourage civil society actors and provide clear instructions to the State and district administrations. The implementation of the act while solving these issues can make this legislation a landmark in real sense.

References: • Agrawal Rakesh (2014) : “ No Rights To Live in the Forest “,Economic and Political Weekly, 49 (1).

• Bandi Madhusudan (2016) : “ Forest Rights Act Is There an Underlying Pattern in Implementation”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol LI No 19, pp 16-17 • Dash Tushar (2010): “The Forest Rights Act: Redefining Biodiversity Conservation in India”, http://fra.org.in/document/ pg%2033-40%20-%20tushar.pdf • Reddy,M Gopinath, K Anil Kumar, P Trinatha Rao and Oliver Springate Baginski (2011) : “ Issues Related to

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Implementation of the Forest Rights Act in Andhra Pradesh “, Economic and Political Weekly ,46 (18),pp 73-81 • Seetharaman G (2015) : “How community rights under the Forest Rights Act could transform the lives of millions of forest dwellers” • //economictimes.indiatimes.com/ articleshow/48405279.cms?utm_ source=contentofinterest&utm_ medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst • https://forestrightsact.com/what-isthis-act-about/

TECH TRENDS

Data ProtectionThe Key Issue

D

EKL Desk

igital technologies are a key enabler in the globalization of business, which dramatically enhance our ability to communicate, share and store information, and connect with colleagues and clients. New technologies bring new capabilities and, with new capabilities, comes an increased risk of unauthorized data disclosure. This reality has prompted a number of regulators to increase data privacy constraints, including limits on international cross-border transfers of personal data, and to specify information security

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requirements designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of business and personal information.

A strong business reputation depends on a robust data protection and information security program.

Corporates across the world are increasingly viewing data protection and information security as fundamental components of doing business and believe that a solid data protection and information security program is an essential component of a leading professional services organization.

With the explosion in the amount of data being created and stored, companies of all sizes, including SMEs are realizing the significance of having more robust and complete data protection strategies and plans. Despite that high profile data breaches around the world is becoming rampant. Experts in the field find the necessity of companies developing a new mindset on data protection.

Today, organisations are being more thorough about their data protection policies, procedures and ultimately the solutions they deploy, whether it is about their compliance and regulatory requirements, or for commercial wellbeing. The emphasis is also on having data ‘available’ not just on protection. With businesses needing to run around the clock, any downtime is detrimental so business continuity, having a solid disaster recovery plan to ensure as much data as always or instantly available are key business drivers, and this is where data protection is moving. Another key trend is consolidation and management of data across a mixed environment – encompassing physical, virtual and cloud components. Cloud based offerings are more prominent and organizations adding this as part of their infrastructure and solution but they are increasingly looking at vendors who can tick all these boxes rather than deploy different point solutions, in order to reduce complexity and maximize return on their limited IT dollars.

There are valid reasons why companies need to develop a new mindset on data protection. One of the key reasons is that data protection

The key reason is that any downtime associated with data loss, is financially detrimental to the organization. In an ‘always-on’ society companies need to be functioning and seen to be functioning all the time. has and continues to evolve. Data is a cornerstone of a business and more and more organizations are realizing this and it is not just about having a copy of data somewhere, the need is to have data as available as possible and to recover from any potential failure as quickly as possible. The mindset is shifting towards business continuity, not just disaster recovery but how to avoid the disaster in the first place.

Another factor is that with the introduction of different solutions, organizations need to be more aware and educated of what suits them best. There have been many high profile data breaches around the world and businesses are very weary of the potential threats and the focus on data protection is now part of the top level business agenda, for example, culmination in Data Security Officer roles being added to the more traditional CTO January 2019

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requires a preventative and not just a reactive approach to data management.

Arcserve UDP is There are many tools available to organizations to help them track offered as software, and evaluate data usage and utilize appliance and hybrid the amount of user data that’s being generated. From the basic tools that cloud. Arcserve UDP provide insights into how much data is being created by whom, how often can also integrate it is being used, accessibility, where it with the key pillars resides etc to much more advanced solutions around ‘Big Data’, Business of modern day data intelligence, data mining, predictive analytics that enable organizations centre comprising of to create policies and procedures on physical, virtual and information management and usage.

These types of solutions provide modern storage. the capability for organizations to make business decisions and plans by using the information much more or CIO positions. Compliance and intelligently. regulatory requirements have also That solutions for the organisations influenced the way organizations to safeguard the data assume think and plan for data protection and high significance does not require management. over emphasis. Arcserve Unified There are multiple reasons why Data Protection platform provides organisations need to pay attention 360 degrees data management to data loss as preventative and capabilities. Arcserve UDP is offered not reactive. The key reason is that as software, appliance and hybrid any downtime associated with data cloud. Arcserve UDP can also loss, is financially detrimental to the integrate with the key pillars of organization. In an ‘always-on’ society modern day data centre comprising companies need to be functioning of physical, virtual and modern and seen to be functioning all the storage. Arcserve UDP Appliances time. Secondly, any data loss or are ideal systems for branch and breaches create a lot of negative decentralized offices, or as the publicity which can take a long primary backup, deduplication, time to repair, so brand reputation disaster recovery, and cloud gateway is also more important than ever, appliance for organizations whose with news being shared in real-time resources are stretched. across social media and the internet.

Firms marketing data protection Therefore, ensuring a continuous software solutions are working out operation, seamless interaction with specific strategies to target the customers and other key stakeholders, market in the upcoming years. maintaining a competitive edge, (Courtesy : CXO Today) 32

January 2019

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MEDICAL SCIENCE

Medical Updates Seafood rich in omega-3 may promote healthy aging

A new study by a team of scientists from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, MA, investigated the link between high consumption of omega-3-rich seafood and healthy aging. The team defines “healthy aging” as “meaningful lifespan without chronic diseases and with intact physical and mental function.” The analysis revealed that people having high seafood consumption were 24 percent less likely to age unhealthily than those who consumed the least.

tissue damage is well underway in the brain. Now, scientists propose that specific psychiatric symptoms – such as depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, and loss of appetite – may serve as markers of very early brain changes in Alzheimer’s. They noted that such markers could help doctors to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease much earlier and thus increase opportunities for slowing its progress, they note.

Heart surgery: Does it impact cognitive ability?

A recent systematic review and metaanalysis concluded that, following open heart surgery, a person’s cognitive ability might be reduced — at least in the short-term. As people age, their cognitive ability tends Alzheimer’s: These to decline, so understanding how psychiatric symptoms heart surgery might further impact may be an early sign cognitive ability is crucial. Overall, the A study by investigators at the researchers conclude that individuals University of California in San who undergo heart valve surgery are Francisco (UCSF) revealed that likely to have reduced cognitive ability psychiatric symptoms are not the for the first few months after the cause of Alzheimer’s, but more likely procedure. Although mental ability early indicators of the disease. By the is likely to return to normal within 6 time that the symptoms of dementia months, this is a matter for further emerge in Alzheimer’s disease, research.

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Antidepressants could stave off dementia

People with a diagnosis of dementia can also face depression. For this reason, they may end up taking antidepressant drugs. Now, a study

by University of Waterloo researchers has found that these drugs may be able to treat not just depression, but dementia itself. Current treatments for Alzheimer’s disease focus on managing its symptoms, but none, as yet, act on the underlying mechanism.

Furthermore, developing new drugs for Alzheimer’s can be very costly and time-consuming. The above finding may give more insights into the preventive as well as curative aspects of dementia.

Perfectionism affects one’s mental) health Sure, saying you’re a perfectionist may sound good in a job interview, but does striving for perfection make you feel good about yourself? Studies by a researchers at the University of Bath and York St. John University of UK show that constantly chasing the specter of perfection may seriously harm your mental health, physical health and well-being. Anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation are only some of the mental health problems that specialists have repeatedly linked with extreme form of perfectionism.

New type of nerve stimulation relieves chronic back pain

A study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago revealed that a new type of nerve stimulation therapy could provide long-term relief for chronic back pain that has not responded to other treatments,

including spinal cord stimulation. It could also help certain people who need a non-drug form of pain therapy.

The new therapy is called dorsal root ganglion (DRG) stimulation, and it works by targeting only the nerve fibers carrying signals from the source of pain. Unlike spinal cord stimulation, it avoids nerve fibers that convey messages from non-painful regions.

Aspirin may reduce liver cancer risk

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have found consumption of aspirin on a regular basis can significantly and progressively lower the risk of developing liver cancer or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The scientists defined “a regular basis” as taking two or more 325-milligram tablets per week for 5 years or more.

Impact of sleep on your brain

The largest sleep study ever concludes that sleeping too little or too much has a negative impact on our cognitive ability, but not on our short-term memory. It took the scientists by surprise that getting 7–8 hours of sleep each night was associated with the highest cognitive functioning. Both shorter and longer duration of sleep caused a dip in performance. One of the most surprising findings from the cognitive tests was that people who slept for 4 hours or under each night performed as though they were almost 8 years older. It was found that the optimum amount of sleep to keep your brain performing at its best is 7 to 8 hours every night. The research also revealed that people who slept more than that amount were equally

impaired as those who slept too little.

(Courtesy: Medical News Today)

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BRANDS

On a Morning

Pleasure of

Men G.B.Sharma

A

smooth shave in the morning is a luxury for men.

(Bearded folks please excuse).

Shaving started long long ago. Prehistoric cave drawings show that clam shells, shark’s teeth, and sharpened flints were used as shaving implements.

Solid gold and copper razors have been found in Egyptian tombs of the 4th millennium BCE. According to the Roman historian Livy, razor was introduced in Rome in the 6th century BCE by Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, legendary king of Rome; but shaving did not become customary until the 5th century BCE. Steel straightedge razor was created in England in the 1700s. But shaving with this sharp, unprotected blade was dangerous.

In fact, shaving was a nightmare till the beginning of twentieth

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King Camp Gillette century. It was King Camp Gillette, born on this day (January 5) in 1855 in Wisconsin, U S. made shaving a pleasure. Thanks to his invention of the safety razor with disposable blades.

Gillette was brought up in Chicago. He was forced to work as his family lost everything in a fire in 1871. He commenced working as a travelling salesman and did many other jobs for a living. Once he was working with a bottle cap maker who invented a cap that could be thrown away after use and replaced by a new one when required.

William Painter, his friend and fellow worker in the bottle cap company who noted Gillette’s innovative thinking and flair on mechanical engineering advised him to invent “something that would be used and thrown away” so that the customer would keep coming back. This ignited Gillette to think on those lines.

In 1895, while holding a straightedge razor, a

new idea dawned upon Gillette.

He thought of a double edged thin steel blade placed between two plates and held in place by a ‘T’ handle. Instead of being sharpened, the removable blade could be simply thrown away once it became dull. The straight-edged razor needed constant sharpening by rubbing it against a leather belt or a sharpening stone. It needed some expertise too. Usually people took the help of barbers to get their razors sharpened.

With no background in metallurgy, this self-taught engineer ventured into manufacturing such a blade and made his first sale in 1903!

The most difficult part of development was engineering the blades. Thin, cheap steel was difficult to work on and sharpen. This caused the delay between the product’s conception and production. Steven Porter, a machinist working with Gillette, used Gillette’s drawings to create the first disposable razor that worked. William Emery Nickerson, an expert machinist and partner of Gillette, changed the original model, improving the handle and frame so that it could better support the thin steel blade.

Nickerson designed the machinery for mass-production of blades.

Gillette founded the American Safety Razor Company on September 28, 1901 which was renamed as Gillette Safety Razor Company in July 1902. He also obtained a trademark registration for his portrait and signature on the packaging.

Production began in 1903 and he

sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. By the end of 1904, his sale was a whopping 90,000 razors and 12,400,000 blades!! He adopted an innovative sales strategy too.

He sold razors for a loss and made his profits on the blades. His new venture was a grand success.

Gillette died on July 9, 1932 in Los Angeles, California. He was interred in the lower levels of the Begonia Corridor in the Great Mausoleum located at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Gillette has been at the heart of men’s grooming for over 100 years.

Each day, more than 1000 million men around planet earth trust their faces and skin to Gillette’s innovative razor and shaving products.

After several mergers, take over and other business deals, presently the company is owned by Proctor & Gamble. With two R&D centres – in Boston, USA and Reading, UK, Gillette continues as one of the world’s super brands.

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IT

Enriched UX of e-Office through

Innovative Enhancements Dr. Chithra IAS (Director-Kerala State IT Mission)

W

ith the objective of establishing a unified Work Flow System for all Kerala State Government departments, e-Office -Digital Work Flow management system was piloted in the Finance Department of Secretariat in the year 2013. Based on the feedbacks received, and after evaluating the ease, efficiency and effectiveness, Government decided for rapid implementation of e-Office across all departments of Secretariat and thereafter to all the peripheral departments upto grass root level. Figure-1 below indicates the implementation timeline with milestones.

A series of interactive workshops were conducted with the end-users of various departments to collect their feedback and suggestions for improving the User Experience (UX) of e-Office. The requested functionalities were collated, meticulously categorized and prioritized and implemented in a phased manner on mission mode.

One of the major requirements that had emerged was to enable the communication between departments to ward off a silo mentality. This requirement posed as a huge challenge to the existing architecture. e-Office is hosted in a cloud environment of Kerala State Data Centre (KSDC) and securely connected through the Government owned private network Kerala State Wide

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Area Network (KSWAN). Multi-tenant virtual instances of independent cloud deployment are used for Secretariat as well as for each individual department outside Secretariat to meet the tailor-made requirements requested by them. As the e-Office had an inorganic growth with each instance working independently, to meet the intra departmental requirements, inter-instance communication or data exchange was not possible. Hence the last mile of the inter departmental communications and data exchange continued in the conventional formats (paper and emails). This necessitated redundant data entry and data storage brought in the inefficiencies to the inter departmental data/ information exchange that existed prior to digital world.

With these recent interactive innovations, departments are not in silos anymore and they enabled seamless interaction of departments.

The innovations went ahead and connected even departments without e-Office. Also an online interface was provided to the Citizens to do their submission to e-Office.

Consequently, the impact of this reengineering process brought a digital transformation.

a) E-Application – Online Interface to e-Office for Citizens e-Office took a big leap from its conventional G2G to become G2C also by enhancing the availability of the Government window from

Figure 1- Timeline Milestone depiction of e-Office Implementation 7/24 to 24X7 – 7 hours in a day to 24 hours,enabling the Citizens to submit and track their submissions online. Since it is electronic, there are minimal chances of tampering and other malpractices. Further, the online status of files brought accountability and transparency. “e-Office for Government offices” has become “e-Office for all” and will be a boon to the Citizens In this digital world, Citizens can do a quick registration and will be authenticated through an OTP. Using their own credentials can submit their applications to their appropriate departments either by typing or uploading a scanned document. Further, they could even track the status of their receipts online.

This innovative citizen centric approach has improved the UX of Citizen considerably as listed below: a) Citizens’ hardship of physically visiting various departments for handing over their submissions have been done away with, as now they can do this on their own from the comfort of their homes.

b) Citizens can submit and access their application anytime from anywhere and through any device. c) Process streamlined helped in improving the responsiveness, accountability and transparency through instant Receipt number generation and sharing the same online as well as through SMS. d) Citizens can track the status of their submission and information about the seat where it is pending. e) There could be unfortunate situations where citizen submits their submission to a wrong department, may be due to ignorance. In those events, the department has the facility to redirect/ forward the application to the right department (through e-Office Intra Instance communication). f) Bureaucrats will always have 360-degree view of the applications received, closed and the actions taken.

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despatch transfer of e-Office had made G2G communication better and more transparent. Communication between different e-Offices instances of Government department avoided the redundant email, data storage and brought accountability and transparency in the system. Also had accelerated our dream of moving from “less- paper” to “paper-less” Government.

This green e-Governance initiative of integrating all e-Offices for better electronic communication provides various benefits: a) All departments are seamlessly interconnected through e-Office for quicker file processing. b) Files/Receipts/Despatch can be transferred from one office to another and can be effortlessly tracked. c) Work load at the receiving and despatching unit of departments is considerably reduced as it is automated, and the documents are not printed or scanned anymore. d) e-Post (which is like our telegram in the digital world) had been integrated to e-Office for acknowledgements. e) Carbon footprints have been reduced to a greater extent by making the offices “paper-less”.

Irrespective of Office having e-Office or not, Tapals/Receipts/Inward and Despatch will be through e-Office. It comes with a bundle of advantages: a) Dashboard providing details of processed, to be replied, priority etc. of Tapals/Receipts/Inward for their quick reference. b) Despatch Statistics provides vital information like missed due dates etc. c) It would easier to implement e-Office full File Flow Management System as offices have already the lighter version.

d) Real Time Governance Report

An array of real time Governance reports and graphs had been bundled with e-Office for status tracking, decision making, auditing and so on. For instance, MIS graph reports had clearly shown that efficiency of handling Files had improved month after month after implementing the real time Governance report. It had brought innumerable benefits to the system: a) e-File efficiency provides the average number of files processed by a seat, by a section and by a department. b) Reports are dynamic and can be c) Connected even Offices that drilled down from the top till the seat. do not have e-Office c) Reports in local language and A default user e-Office (for receiving conforming all audit requirements and despatching) is created for every made e-Office truly electronic Office office that do not use e-Office File d) Physical Registers like Personal Flow system, which would act as the Register, Monthly Business statement single point of receiving receipts from etc. are all replaced by electronic other departments. This initiative will reports. act as an electronic post connecting e) Graphical reports make the trends all Government offices literally, until all more clear for the bureaucrats to the offices use the full file flow system make decisions. of e-Office.

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GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE

Kerala State Co-Operative Federation for

Fisheries Development Limited (MATSYAFED) Dr.Lawrence Harold Ph.D. (IIT) (MD, MATSYAFED)

K

erala State Co-Operative Federation for Fisheries Development Limited (MATSYAFED) has been doing a selfless service over the years in promoting production, procurement, processing and marketing of fish and fishery products for the total development - economic, social and cultural - of fishermen community in Kerala. The fisheries sector contributes 1.46% of the total GDP of Kerala.

OUR MISSION

To help the traditional fisherfolk of Kerala to improve their social and economic well being and widen their cultured outlook through direct interventions in production procurement, marketing, technological advancements and capacity building.

OUR VISION

Our vision is to pave the way for an integrated development of the traditional fisheries sector of the State by partnering with Kerala Fisherfolk to build a sustainable fishery which is tech savvy while being environment friendly and producer driven.

OUR STRATEGIES

Over the last three decades, MATSYAFED has implemented programs aimed at achieving this mission and fulfilling the vision. But the realization that we

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have longer way to go, keeps growing the more we involve in the process.

Acknowledging the developments already facilitated in this sector, MATSYAFED is now planning a paradigm shift in strategies for fulfilling this vision, with the support of State Government.

• Strengthening and sprucing the cooperative set up as a whole to ensure felt need by fisherfolk.

• Timely and adequate interest free funding to fishermen for purchase of fishing implements.

• Introduction & popularization of new eco-friendly fishing implements such as Diesel Petrol powered Out Board Motors for curbing pollution.

• Ensuring safety at sea with better designed fishing crafts, which will also be more efficient.

• Enhancing production through environment friendly regulatory measures.

• Enhancing the market efficiency of domestic fish marketing by direct marketing of fish from coast to market.

• Ensuring availability of safe and uncontaminated fish to fish consumers of the State.

• Availability of adequate fuel and good quality lubricants for enhancing the life of fishing implements • CSR programmes for social & cultural development of the community • Capacity building initiatives for modernization of the sector as a whole.

A PROFILE

Fisheries has developed as a major industry in India providing sustenance and livelihood to about one million fisherfolk. The importance given to the sector is evident from the increase in fish production at the national level from 0.75 million ton in 1950-51 to about 11 million tons during 2015-16.

The peninsular State of Kerala is renowned for its fishery, which contributes to 28% of the total fish production of India. 19% of India’s exports comes from the tiny state of Kerala with a coastal belt of 590 km out of the India’s total coastline of 8129 km. About 10 lakh people earn their livelihood through fisheries and allied works in the State, which has an exclusive economic zone of 2.19 lakhs sq.meters. The Marine Fisheries sector of the State contributes about 5-6 lakh MT and the inland sector about 2 lakh MT fish per annum.

Kerala has the second highest per capita consumption of fish compared to all other states of India.

The state has also got an extensive matrix of backwaters and inland waterways which supports more than 2 lakh fishermen. Despite the substantial contribution of the sector which forms 1.46% of the total GDP of the State, the community continues to remain one of the most economically backward sections of the society, mainly due to ravages of nature and the occupational hazards.

Over the years MATSYAFED, the Kerala State Co-Operative Federation

for Fisheries Development Ltd., established in 1984, has emerged as a pillar of strength and support for the fisherfolk of the State. The Apex Federation of 651 primary co-operative societies aims at promoting production, procurement, processing and marketing of fish and fish products, through its four wheel strategy of credit, technology, marketing and capacity building.

PROJECT DIVISION

MATSYAFED has organized beach level auction through primary cooperative societies for ensuring the first right of sale of the produce to the producer fishermen. This system has helped the fishermen to realize better value for their catch while ensuring that their loan amounts are repaid regularly and promptly from their sales proceeds thereby enhancing their social and economic status and credit-worthiness. 233 primary societies are presently facilitating beach level auction for their member fishermen.

NCDC Assisted Integrated Fisheries Development Project : MATSYAFED is implementing IFDP projects with financial assistance from National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC) since 1985 for providing assistance to the fishermen for procuring fishing inputs, working capital etc. So far, projects worth Rs.44614.11 lakh have been implemented by MATSYAFED with the assistance of NCDC. Last year around 53322 tonnes of fish, worth 386.32 crores was auctioned January 2019

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MATSYAFED has organized beach level auction through primary co-operative societies for ensuring the first right of sale of the produce to the producer fishermen. through the primary co-operative societies. 19th project, IFDP 2017-18 is being implemented at present as interest free loan with an outlay of 4504.80 lakhs.

NBCFDC & NMDFC Self Employment Loan Schemes & Microfinance Programme: Schemes for providing term loans for self employment and microfinance loans with financial assistance of National Backward Classes Finance & Development Corporation (NBCFDC) and National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMDFC) are being implemented by the federation since 1997. For the implementation of self employment schemes of NMDFC/NBCFDC, the financial agencies release 85% of the total unit cost, 10% of the outlay is envisaged as State Government contribution and the balance 5% shall be the beneficiary contribution.

The loan assistance from NBCFDC and NMDFC has been utilized for implementing the scheme interest free loan also.

Microfinance Schemes : MATSYAFED 44

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has been implementing Microfinance Schemes of NBCFDC and NMDFC among the fishermen of Self Help Groups organized under primary fishermen co-operatives. The maximum loan limit to individual is Rs.50,000 with a repayment period of maximum 2 years @6% interest with 1% margin to the implementing society. An amount of Rs.60 crores is distributed towards microfinance annually. A sum of Rs.526.00 crores was invested so far as microfinance.

Interest Free Loan to fisher women or fish vending : MATSYAFED has been implementing the scheme interest free loan for fisher-women for fish vending since 2008-09.

The scheme is being implemented through nearly 400 primary fishermen Co-operatives affiliated to MATSYAFED in 9 coastal districts and 1 inland (Kottayam) district. 8 phases of year wise schemes have been continuously implemented with prompt repayment of each loan by the beneficiaries. So far 65,500 fisher women are being continuously assisted under the scheme. They are assisted initially with Rs.10,000/- and subsequently with Rs.20,000/- This scheme is very much beneficial to fisherfolk families and has much popularity among the beneficiaries.

An amount of Rs.262.00 crors has been released as interest free loan.

(For more information, please visit our website www.matsyafed.in E-mail : matsyafed@matsyafed.in Phone : 0471-2458606, 2457756. Fax: 0471-2457752)

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