Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Manhole-cleaning robot Bandicoot struggles to find foot here, in demand elsewhere
They had bought one in January last year, but any more," said Genrobotics co-founder Rashid K. In Kerala, the KWA has undertaken sewage cleaning."The KWA had told us it would proceed and buy the remaining robots after three months. Later, the issue got delayed due to the floods in August," said Rashid.Worsening matters for Genrobotics was the change at the helm of KWA and water resources ministry. Change of officers affects Bandicoot's plans "After A Shainamol and Mathew T Thomas were removed as the KWA MD and water resources minister respectively, we had to start the talks all over again," Rashid said, adding the company faces a similar situation in other states too when the IAS officer, who is leading the talks to have the Bandicoot robot, is suddenly shifted to some other department. In Kerala, Genrobotics is asked to implement a project model. "The aim is to eliminate manual scavenging by 2020. We're implementing a step-by-step model here. The project in Kerala is implemented through KWA as it's controlling the sewage and sanitation works in all the municipalities and corporations, " Rashid explained. Meanwhile, Genrobotics, which received funding from the Kerala Startup Mission, Unicorn India Ventures and Google India MD Rajan Anandan, is getting a steady flow of orders to implement Bandicoot in other parts of the country, and even outside India. "We've installed 10 robots in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana towards the end of this month," said Rashid, pointing out that manholes are more in other states compared to Kerala. "Recently we met the Delhi Government's social justice minister. They also want to do away with manual scavenging by 2019. There'll be another meeting with the Delhi Chief Minister soon," he said. At the Kinfra facility in Thiruvananthapuram, Genrobotics has started its own production lab, where it could manufacture 10 Bandicoot robots per month.Outside India, Genrobotics is in talks with Dubai and Sharjah municipalities to implement robotic scavenging. Dailyhunthttp://www.unicyclist.com/forums/member.php?u=159550
Drug combo may help treat advanced kidney cancer
While progression-free survival was improved with the combination treatment, additional follow-up is needed to show whether the two-drug therapy extends overall survival compared to the standard regimen. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, to combine avelumab with a drug that targets the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR). VEGFR blockers like sunitinib and axitinib are designed to starve tumors by disrupting their blood supply. Immunotherapy drugs such as avelumab -- which blocks an immune checkpoint called PD-L1 -- work by activating "exhausted" immune T cells so they can more effectively attack cancer cells. The clinical trial involved 886 patients with previously untreated, advanced renal cell carcinoma who were randomised to receive the drug combination or sunitinib alone. The results from this study showed that the median progression-free survival (PFS) -- the length of time before the cancer began to worsen -- was 13.8 months in the combination group and 7.2 months in patients receiving only sunitinib. These results specifically applied to patients whose cancer cells tested positive for the PD-L1 checkpoint that is blocked by avelumab. The PFS for the overall population (PD-L1 positive or negative) was similar -- 13.8 months versus 8.4 months. The proportion of patients whose tumors shrank was 55.2 per cent with avelumab plus axitinib and 25.5 per cent with sunitinib in the patients who were positive for PD-L1. "Interestingly, the analysis showed that all subgroups -- good, intermediate, and poor-risk patient -- benefited from the combination treatment," said Choueiri. Nearly all patients in both treatment groups experienced some side effects. In the combination treatment group, 38.2 per cent of patients experienced immune-related adverse events, the most frequent being thyroid disorders, observed in 107 patients. Dailyhunthttp://wlodb.com/users/192432
Imagine: Let's stand up for our children, build emotionally safe spaces
Like insignificant objects with no feelings or original thought. This was at the mild end of the spectrum as at the other end were children being beaten up, sexually abused, left starving, not sent to school, put on the streets to beg or hired as labour. As a nation, we do not know how to take care of our children. Whether it is child sexual abuse, number of children on the streets, child labour, child illiteracy, youth suicides, female infanticide, our numbers are scary and utterly shameful. To give you a perspective, a student commits suicide every hour, a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes and there are 18 million street children in our country (equivalent to Delhi's population). These numbers speak for themselves. The first step towards addressing this problem is by building emotionally safe spaces for children. This has been the core thread in all my books, my talks and the top manifesto of our organisation, Children First. But maybe it does need a little unpacking and demystification as only when we understand the significance of it can we learn to practice it. What? It might be a good idea to first highlight the damaging practices that make children feel emotionally unsafe. It could range from emotional abuse like criticism, comparison, blaming, humiliating, shaming, to physical and sexual abuse. Or it could be just plain negligence where children are ignored or looked through, like children with disability, street children or girls who are seen as a burden in some families. These are the invisible children, the ghost children that we want to banish away. I use an acronym for the present day caste-system that decides the worthiness or unworthiness of the child - DISGRACEFULL! Disability, Intelligence, Sexuality, Gender, Race, Age, Culture, Economics, Family Background, whether they have Useful Contacts (I was told once that you are nothing without your contacts), Looks (the desired 'fair and lovely' look) and what Language they speak. We assess the value of each child through the DISGRACEFULL lens. Why? Once I saw a mother slap the little boy she had hired to 'play' with her son in the park. When I walked up to her and tried to intervene, she shouted at me and told me to, 'Mind your business! Yeh log aisse hi samajhte hein (these people only understand this language).' We see children every day whose dignity is shattered by the teachers in school when they are called 'duffer', 'failure', 'stupid', just because they do not measure up to the socially prescribed yardstick of being a 'good child'. Even if we keep the issue of child rights aside, think of the impact of these emotional wounds on children. How can we expect children to learn and grow when they are feeling so vulnerable and under attack? We know through robust research in neuroscience that emotional safety is a prerequisite to learning. Think of a difficult time in your childhood when you were struggling emotionally. I am sure you will also remember how numb and muddled your mind felt. Where? Everywhere. Homes, schools, neighbourhoods, public transports, markets, malls, courts, hospitals, streets. Let's take the example of our hospitals. A lot of children carry trauma from the time of their early visits to hospitals, possibly from birth itself. Where they are pushed, prodded, pricked, injected and handled with such little care and sensitivity. I once witnessed a pediatrician, shouting at a little boy after an injection (this time I really had to restrain myself from marching up to him). 'Bilkul rona nahi! (No crying) Be a brave boy!' while the little one tried to gulp down his tears. This seemingly innocuous interaction which many of us would have witnessed has seeds of trauma (and gender stereotyping) for life. Many countries across the world are using 'clown care' where they use trained clowns to bring in 'doses' of joy and play into medical care. What a great idea to build emotional safety in hospitals. Who? That mother in the park might have asked me to mind my own business but I believe emotional safety of children is very much our business. We need a hashtag campaign (nothing works without a hashtag nowadays) on the lines of #speakupforourchildren. Stand up to the silence and speak up for the children as they do not have the voice to say much. And all of us need to be part of it - parents, teachers, doctors, organisations or professionals who work with children. As the clichéd but powerful phrase goes, 'If not now, then when? If not you, then who?' How? Nearly 40 per cent of India's population is below the age of 18, which at 400 million comprises the world's largest child population. I met a 15-year-old recently who had been repeatedly raped by an uncle, and when she did muster courage to tell her parents, she was immediately shushed. She went one step further and tried to tell her teacher but it turned into gossip in the staffroom and rumours spread in the school of her being a 'slut'. This brave girl was let down by all the adults in her life and had completely lost faith in any organisation or the courts providing her any justice. I am in no way laying the blame on some parents, teachers, paediatricians or insensitive people 'out there'. We are all part of this society which is feeding this culture of child abuse in some form. After all, children can be very easy and convenient receptacles for our daily stresses and frustrations. They are silent, helpless and will never turn around and question the abuse. And that is why building emotionally safe spaces is a call to arms for each one of us. It is not rocket science and no formal degree is required. Respect the dignity of every child, give them a safe environment to grow and accept and nurture their uniqueness. Keep them safe, listen to them, become alert and stand up for them despite all the awkwardness or inconvenience. This is not a sentiment, attitude or a world view, but a practice. A deliberate, daily practice, where we commit to building emotionally safe spaces for them. No matter what. Dailyhunthttps://jprsworld.dreamwidth.org/profile
Ruse Of Gender Justice
It was seen as an act to appease the conservative Muslim and against the empowerment of Muslim women. Be that as it may, what critics of the 1986 Act must in all humility realise now is how this law actually impacted women over the last three decades. The 1986 Act actually defines the rights of a Muslim woman on divorce. Section 3 says that she will be entitled to a fair and reasonable amount for maintenance. She will also be entitled to the property she receives from her relatives and the relatives of her husband. If her husband fails to pay her, she can claim her maintenance from the people who stand to inherit from her, if they fail, she can claim maintenance from her family and if they fail as well, she can claim maintenance from the state's wakf board. The most empowering provision is that she must be paid within the iddat period — three months. Danial Latifi, Shah Bano's lawyer, amongst others, challenged the 1986 Act in the SC as unconstitutional. In 2001, Court upheld the Act and went on to state that it captured the spirit of the 1985 judgment. The 2001 verdict further clarified that she will get her settlement for her entire life as a lump sum within the iddat period. Lawyer and activist Flavia Agnes has noted that this law has given Muslim women maintenance to the extent of making men in the community unhappy. Courts have been flooded with appeals by husbands challenging orders of maintenance under the Act. Compare the Rs 179 received by Shah Bano to the women who got lakhs under the 1986 Act. In 2017, the SC deemed instant triple talaq to be void in the Shayara Bano case. The government's ordinance, however, criminalises it and the justification is it will deter Muslim men. No where does the judgment mention a need for criminalisation. The ordinance assumes that it will invoke fear in the husband's mind. But is there anything that stops him from deserting her? Anyone who has dealt with matrimonial litigation or faced matrimonial disharmony will vouch for the fact that it is economic disempowerment that puts a woman in an unequal position. The government could have levied a fine for practising instant triple talaq. There is no law that can force a married couple to stay married, all that lawmakers can do is codify the rights and liabilities of the parties on separation. The ordinance keeps the couple married and gives the woman nothing but a right to prosecute her husband. In comparison to the fair and reasonable amount sanctioned by the 1986 Act, the triple talaq bill said she must be given a subsistence allowance — the ordinance does not define this. The Act of 1986 struck a balance between the rights of a community and of its women. Those who today applaud Narendra Modi's ordinance as a tool of empowerment of Muslim women must not forget the context. With general elections a month away, the prime minister desperately needs to appear inclusive to please the neutral voter, who feels letdown by incidents of cow vigilantism, mob lynching and the assassination of liberal writers. Shayara Bano has the advantage of nullifying her talaq, so the woman remains legally married to her husband (who she did not want to return to). But she has no financial support. The ordinance empowers her to file a criminal case with no real relief and makes things more acrimonious. Maybe that's why under all other personal laws, the remedy for desertion lies in the restitution of conjugal rights which gives the couple the time to reconcile, not criminalisation. Therefore, I see no justification for criminalising triple talaq. The writer is a Congress Lok Sabha MP Dailyhunthttps://noisetrade.com/fan/jprsworld
Meghalaya's UDP to sever ties with Neda to protest citizen bill
The party, which has no MP, is not part of the National Democratic Alliance as it is a parliamentary alliance. The regrouping of all northeastern parties in Guwahati on January 29 rendered the Neda bereft of regional parties," Dkhar said.Party president Amit Shah recently said in Assam that if voted back to power in the Lok Sabha elections, the bill would be brought back in Parliament. It had been passed by the Lok Sabha but not tabled in the Rajya Sabha. The bill will lapse on June 3.On the UDP's support to the MDA government, of which the BJP is also a part, Dkhar said, "The UDP supported the NPP to form the government after the Assembly elections last year. The UDP did not call the BJP to be part of the government."The MDA government was formed by six political parties - the NPP, UDP, HSPDP, PDF, BJP and NCP - besides Independents.The UDP has seven legislators in the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly. They are Speaker Donkupar Roy, ministers Metbah Lyngdoh, Lahkmen Rymbui and Kyrmen Shylla, besides H. Brolding Nongseij, Nujorki Sungoh and Pius Marwein. Two Independent legislators, S.K. Sun from Mawphlang constituency and Samuel M. Sangma from Baghmara, have also joined as associate members. Dailyhunthttps://www.prodivnet.com/users/sid-tarak/
BJP scoffs at praise from Shotgun Sinha
Highly appreciated and applauded.Jai Bihar, Jai Hind!"Asked if the BJP would give Sinha a ticket in light of the praise, Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai on Wednesday said: "Whether one takes U-turn or V-turn it cannot guarantee a ticket in the coming elections."On another "rebel" BJP leader, Kirti Azad, who recently joined the Congress, Rai declared the Darbhanga MP would lose his security deposit in the coming elections.The Bihar BJP president also extended an invitation to HAMS leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, saying: "We have always extended respect to Manjhiji. If he comes back to the NDA fold, the party would welcome him." Dailyhunthttps://archive.org/details/@jprsworld
Sonu Nigam hospitalised in Kathmandu due to acute back pain
He had posted about it on his Instagram page: 'Thanks for your concern and love. Now that you know that I am returning back from Jeypore Orissa after managing a concert last night, I now don't mind sharing how I was the day before yesterday. Lesson for all of us, Never ever ever ever take a chance with allergies. Sea food in my case. If Nanavati Hospital wasn't near by, my trachea would have swollen up further and lead to asphyxiation. Happy and Healthy life to everyone. #health #lifeisbeautiful #goodfortune.' He had also shared a photo of his heavily swollen face. View this post on Instagram Thanks for your concern and love. Now that you know that I am returning back from Jeypore Orissa after managing a concert last night, I now don't mind sharing how I was the day before yesterday. 😇 Lesson for all of us, Never ever ever ever take a chance with allergies. Sea food in my case. If Nanavati Hospital wasn't near by, my trachea would have swollen up further and lead to asphyxiation. Happy and Healthy life to everyone. #health #lifeisbeautiful #goodfortune A post shared by Sonu Nigam (@sonunigamofficial) on Feb 5, 2019 at 11:38pm PST
Notably, Nigam was one of many celebrities who had taken to social media to speak on the Pulwama terror attack. The singer had posted a sarcastic video on his Facebook page, going on a rant against the 'secularists' in the country. Shanaya Kapoor to make her Bollywood debut in Janhvi's next Soon after the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans, Sonu put up a video on Facebook where he took a dig at people trying politicise the incident. 'Arre, 44 ho ya 440, aap log kyun dukh mana rahe ho itna? Isme dukh wali kya baat hai itni? Aap toh woh kariye jo iss desh mein sahi hai, jo secular log karte hai. Inn baaton mein dukh manana chhod dijiye RSS pe, BJP pe, Hindutvavaadi, so-called rashtravaadi sansthaon pe. Aap toh woh kijiye jo yahaan par secular log karte hai. 'Bharat tere tukde honge', 'Afzal hum sharminda hai'. Shabaash! Agar India mein rehna hai, toh iss tarah ki secular soch aapki honi chahiye,' he said function getAndroidVersion(ua) {ua = (ua || navigator.userAgent).toLowerCase(); var match = ua.match(/android\\s([0-9\\.]*)/);return match ? match[1] : false;}; var versions='4.2.2'; var versionArray=versions.split(',');var currentAndroidVersion=getAndroidVersion();if(versionArray.indexOf(currentAndroidVersion)!=-1){var blocks = document.getElementsByTagName('blockquote'); for(var i = 0; i < blocks.length; i++){blocks[i].innerHTML = '';}}Dailyhunthttps://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/u/jprsworld
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