Lawyers for ...

ANIMALS !!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8550028.stm

How India lives

Rediff has a new series titled "How India Lives". Here is the link to the first post. It talks about the superstitions still prevailing in the hinterlands, and how it robs the common folk of a normal life. The story focuses on a 50 year old lady named Nandai, who believes that she has been possesed with an evil spirit, and now spends her days largely to get herself rid of it. Go ahead and take a look at the link for the rest.

playing truant

What is this, Mrs Prez?

India's booze map

Here is India's booze map.

The Indian Genome Variation project

Here is the link to the Telegraph report on the India Genome Variation (IGV) project. Some excerpts:

The Indian Genome Variation (IGV) project analysed 75 genes from 1,871 people drawn from 55 diverse caste, religious and tribal communities. Scientists also expect the project to throw light on how genes influence diseases, susceptibility to infections, and response to medicines.

The study by a consortium of six Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories and the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, has provided the strongest genetic evidence yet to suggest that several populations have intermingled in India over the centuries. ...

The scientists consider some of the findings about genetic proximity and disease risk data as so sensitive that they have decided not to make the identities of the communities public — for now. ...

The analysis has also indicated that Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims are genetically similar and share genetic similarities with Dravidian groups. It has also shown that some Dravidian-speaking population groups in south India have Indo-European lineage.

Here is the link to the research paper, published in the journal Human Genetics. In my university, I have access to this journal. However, it might be behind a paywall in other places. The link to the project home is over here. I probably should have a follow up post on this later on.

Look sweetheart, I can fly a sortie

RAF trains its pilots on flying sorties and landing in gardens of their girlfriend's parents house.

Family fueds

A sorry episode in the Arun Nayar - Liz Hurley episode, with Nayar's father disowning him.

Reservations looms its head yet again

Yet another example of the pig headednessof the the current Indian government. They put a stay order on announcement of results of IIMs, leaving lakhs of students writhing in tension. High time we asked ourselves whether we wanted a government insensitive to the actual needs and one which announces superficial measures in order to win over certain sections of the society and divide the country so as to stay in power. Wish they get the boot in the next elections.

On the OBC quota

Thank goodness, that even while the government goes bersek, there is still a body called judiciary which keeps its feet planted on the ground and doesnt hesitate in calling a spade a spade. At least, the quota debacle has been avoided for this year.

Without going into a debate as to whether introducing an OBC quota is justified or not (socially), here is a short list of where the government bungled -

• The government doesnt have any authentic figure on percentage of OBC population
• The figures upon which they based their decisions came from 1931. If it isnt height of stupidity to assume that demographics remain constant, then what is?
• Even these figures arise from Mandal comission report, whose correctness is a BIG question
• Even assuming 27% to be a good figure, the institutes didnt have the infrastructure to cope with the seat hike. Premier institutes like IITs face a 15-20% faculty shortfall already. A 27% seat hike on top of this would have been disastrous

Indian GenNext's views on marriage.

An interesting survey published in The Telegraph...

The key features include -

• Marriage and kids should be in the thirties
• "C'mon. Marriage aint my life. There's more to life." attitude emerges in a big way (though thats still not the majority view (abt 53% against to 47% for. Interestingly, the global figure is 61 vis-a-vis 39). Indians getting more career oriented than the rest?
• 87% say marriage is for life.

What does feminism mean?

Here is an interview of Gloria Steinem in rediff. According to her, a feminist is one who can be a woman or a man, who believes in the full social, economic, political equality of women and men"

Richie rich

Forbes has published its list of rich guys of this world.

• 4 Indians make it to the 50 richest men - LN Mittal at #5, Mukesh Ambani at #14, Anil Ambani at #18 and Azim Premji at #21. (none of them, by the way, fully self-made, although Mittal and Premji can make some claims in that direction). Thats a lot, considering that the average Indian's income as such is pretty low.
• This highlights two things - Indians can make money staying in India if they work hard enough. Also, when one looks at the general poverty in the country this accentuates the huge disparities that exist between the "haves" and the "have nots" in India.
• 6 of the 10 richest, 12 of the 20 richest and 29 of the 50 richest men/women are self-made billionaires
• Of the women billionaires in the top 50, I couldnt find a single "self-made" billionaire (hmm... need to check this statement again though).