One-dollar labs for the ‘citizen scientist’

Frugality(economical,कमखर्ची), crafting inexpensive knock-offs and making do with little may be the ethos(character,प्रकृति) of India’s pharmaceutical industry, its manufacturing sector and the spirit with which our scientists conduct their research but an Indian-origin bio-engineer at Stanford University has just won one of America’s grandest prizes — the MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant — worth Rs.4 crore for designing a $1 microscope.

Towards do-it-yourself science

Manu Prakash from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh and an engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, has made a name for fashioning ingenious(simple,सरल) devices that make the essence of science — observation and experiments — accessible to those who can’t afford expensive instruments.

His best-known is the ‘Foldscope’, a microscope that can be fashioned out of paper that comes pre-fixed like in a jigsaw puzzle set. Most of these kits have been distributed free so far and the aim is to have it cost less than a dollar. The kits come with a glass slide that can be slipped into the do-it-yourself microscope and can be used to check for microbes in a soil or water sample, closely observe the anatomy of a water lily or the striations of an earthworm.

Another of his inventions, according to a press statement from the MacArthur Foundation, is a sticker-like microfluid chip that can be used to collect thousands of nanolitre-sized droplets of saliva from mosquito bites in order to test for pathogens. Dr. Prakash also recently demonstrated a novel diagnostic tool, a “water computer”, which involves building a computer out of tiny(small,छोटा) air bubbles travelling in a microfluidic channel.

India has been an early adopter of his devices. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has signed a Rs.1.5-crore agreement with the Prakash Lab at Stanford University to procure 10,000 Foldscopes that could then be given to schools, colleges, forest field officers and help encourage an interest in field observation and research. Already workshops with schools, students and colleges in Delhi, Guwahati and Kaziranga (Assam) have enthused students and teachers, says Shailja Gupta, a DBT official who coordinates the Foldscope programme. “I’ve used it, my daughter likes it. The charm of the device is that anyone can use it to see their surroundings differently… the microbes on your food for instance,” she says.

Earlier this year, Dr. Prakash’s lab came up with a new device that modifies a child’s toy, whirligig, into a device called a ‘paperfuge’ that — he and his colleagues claimed in a June research paper — could be used to “isolate malaria parasites in 15 minutes from whole human blood”. The device can be used to separate pure plasma in less than 90 seconds.

Just what India needs

Expanding the materials used could mean new kinds of devices that don’t need electricity to develop point-of-care diagnostics, especially in resource-poor settings, the paper added. India accounts for over 17 per cent of the world’s population while spending less than 1 per cent of the world’s total health expenditure.

The healthcare expenditure stands at 4.1 per cent of its GDP, which is among the lowest in the world, and dealing with challenges like these requires affordable interventions, something that both public and private healthcare experts have repeatedly emphasised through the years. “If there were more devices like Prakash’s, there’d be uses for them that we can’t yet envisage(imagine,विचारना),” says Ms. Gupta, adding, “We are exploring options like a manufacturing facility to scale up these devices.”

Dr. Prakash’s approach to engineering allows a wider range of professionals to become so-called ‘citizen scientists’ and bring new facts about nature and solutions to technical problems to the fore. The Foldscope allows images of samples to be relayed via an app to a central site that stores information, about an intriguing(fascinating,लुभावना) microbe or a new earthworm or the beginnings of a new plant infection from a place that may be otherwise inaccessible to scientists.

“It certainly isn’t a replacement for the lab microscope,” says Vibha Narang, coordinator of the Botany Department, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, Delhi, “but we saw a lot of fervor(enthusiasm,उत्साह) among school students.”

Her college was part of a workshop organised by the DBT and Dr. Prakash to explain the Foldscope. “But for collecting samples during a field trip or a quick survey, I think this is a very handy device,” she adds.

courtesy:the hindu

click here for official link

download monthly pdf of august

dalit is right enough

On July 11, 2016, a video of cow vigilantes mercilessly beating up seven Dalit men for skinning a dead cow in Una district, Gujarat, came to light. In protest against the incident, many Dalits have refused to handle cow carcasses(body,शवो). The gau rakshaks should be happy, but they are not. Non-Dalits, presumably including gau rakshaks, have retaliated(react,प्रतिकार) with more violence against Dalits — this time for not picking up cow carcasses — in Samter (August 16), Bhavra (August 20) and Rajkot (August 24), all in Gujarat.

Herein lies the Dalit dilemma(doubt,दुविधा) — he is damned if he does and he is damned if he doesn’t.

The bane of Hindu society is varna, the four-tier arrangement said to be sanctified(holy,पवित्र) by the scriptures. The arrangement encompassed the majority and assigned them places, but it also excluded a large number. The excluded were the outcasts or the untouchables. Inequality by birth was the basis of the arrangement. That inequality stayed with you throughout your life. Violence against Dalits is the punishment for disobeying the rules of the arrangement. Rohith Vemula summed it up: “My birth is my fatal accident.”

×

The Dalit Mobilisation

The Dalits have decided that enough is enough. They have decided to mobilise. The scale of social mobilisation of Dalits in Gujarat and Maharashtra, and to some extent in other parts of the country, has not been seen in recent times. Although much of the media is not covering them, massive rallies and marches are being held. There is palpable(clear,स्पस्थ)anger in the community because of the sense of impunity(free from blame,दंडमुक्ति) with which they are being subjected to violence in certain parts of the country. According to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, in 2015, Gujarat reported the highest crime rate against Dalits, followed by Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Dalits are angry about the hollowness(falseness,खोखलापन) of the current hyper-nationalism where everything about India is called great and every criticism is labelled as anti-national. They are angry about the way the Una incident and other such incidents are being dismissed as isolated or as conspiracies. It is noteworthy that the boycott of cow carcasses, the rallies and the marches have happened through social, not political, mobilisation.

After a long period of silence, the Prime Minister spoke on August 6. He said, “I get so angry at those who are into the gau rakshak business… I have seen that some people are into crimes all night and wear the garb of gau rakshaks in the day.” The very next day, at a rally, he said, “You can shoot me rather than target the Dalits.” This is a strange statement for a Prime Minister: he should use the enormous(big,बड़ा) powers of his office to punish the perpetrators(criminal,अपराधी) of violence.

Change Agonisingly(painful,पीड़ाजनक) Slow

Change is taking place, but it is agonisingly slow. In urban areas, where economic and professional identities usually take precedence(priority,तरजीह), and in parts of India where social movements have brought about change, a majority of Hindus do not feel passionate about the caste order. Many Hindus may still prefer marriages within the caste, but have friends among Dalits. Many may express angst about the reservation system, but do not begrudge(envy,ईर्ष्या) the limited preference to Dalits in educational institutions and in some jobs.

However, there is a section of Hindu society that continues to look back with nostalgia(regret,खिन्नता) at the days of caste domination. Many of them have read a sign of approval in the BJP’s victory in 2014. The cow vigilantes are the latest manifestation of centuries of a supremacist ideology. The flurry of bans on cow slaughter and beef consumption, and the aggressive majoritarian narrative, have given them fresh wind.

Few people saw the casteist agenda more clearly than Dr Ambedkar and ‘Periyar’ E V Ramasamy. Both were pessimistic(negative,निराशावादी) about the reformation of Hindu society. Dr Ambedkar did not think that Dalits could find dignity within the fold of the Hindu religion and urged(forced,मजबूर) them to convert to Buddhism. Periyar’s way was atheism and rationalism. The third way is reform of the Hindu social order and accelerating the trends that will usher(show,दिखाना) in a new social order — education, industrialisation, urbanisation, communication and technological advance.

The Constitutional Goal

For the Hindu hyper-nationalists, the idea of a ‘Hindu’ nation is superior to the idea of a constitutional democratic republic. They will sweep the pains of caste history under the carpet. They think that to uphold the idea of a ‘Hindu’ nation it is necessary to underplay its flaws and hide the price that is paid by millions of Dalits and the minorities. On the other hand, the Constitution-makers did not deny the existence of these problems: they acknowledged the prevalence(spreading,प्रसार) of caste differences and discrimination(unfair,भेदभाव) and formulated what they believed would be intermediate solutions, such as reservation for the Scheduled Castes and rights of minorities.

The real focus of the Constitution is to secure a set of natural rights that every Indian should enjoy, irrespective of the historical injustices. It is to make caste, religion and gender irrelevant to citizenship and citizens’ rights.

The project of creating this sense of equal citizenship is still a work-in-progress in this vast and complex land. Hindu hyper-nationalism, which is a form of majoritarianism, is at odds with the constitutional project. The conflict(battle,विवाद) is playing out, in an increasingly violent manner, before our eyes. The consequences(result,परिणाम) of a long-drawn conflict will be terrible for the country and its progress toward the goal of a peaceful and prosperous nation.

courtesy:indian express

click here for official link

The Roll-out Challenge

Canada’s Constitution explicitly(clearly,स्पस्थ्तया) mandates the free flow of goods and services within the vast country. But its bureaucracy has devised ways of slowing down internal trade by creating the need for licenses and permits from every municipality and utility company. According to the Canadian Senate’s Banking Committee, the annual losses from internal trade barriers is approximately $99 billion. The cost of trade barriers in India could turn out to be equally shocking.

There is a near unanimity(full agreement,मतैक्य) on the potential of GST as a gamechanger. On the one hand the government is encouraging enterprise through initiatives like Make in India, Start-up India and a focus on improving “ease of doing business” and on the other hand it is bringing in changes in labour laws, the direct tax code to replace the archaic(old,पुराना) Income Tax Act of 1961 and a new bankruptcy law to protect the interests of key stakeholders.

The current labyrinthine(complex,जटिल) tax structure is an important reason why logistics costs in India, at around 14 per cent of the value of goods, are among the most expensive in the world. Trucks are idle for about 40 per cent of the time — queuing up, filling forms and paying CST and octroi at numerous(many,बहुत से) check-posts. A check-post free movement can bring down the transportation time and cost by 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. In practice, however, this may be wishful thinking. Since there are a number of goods that are outside the GST — sin goods, for example — check-posts will continue at least at state borders. Moreover, the state transport departments will continue to have check-posts for non-tax checks like vehicle registrations and road permits. Coordination between the transport departments across states could be an innovative way forward. The use of technology will be imperative(obligatory,अनिवार्य) in facilitating information flow between the states. Smart tags and scanners could alleviate(reduce,कम) some of the pain. The true gains of the GST will be realised only if there is a seamless movement of goods and services amongst states.

×

The GST Network is the most critical component in ensuring successful implementation of the GST. It will facilitate online registration, GST credits, tax payment and return filing seamlessly amongst multiple stakeholders. “Blockchain” technology offers a historic opportunity to develop a GSTN based on “distributed ledgers”, in a true spirit of cooperative federalism.

The April 2017 deadline set for the rollout of GST is going to be challenging. The GST Council has to be formed within 60 days of the Presidential assent to the bill, it has to agree and make recommendations on modern GST laws and rates. The states have to pass their own legislations. The endless bargaining of large versus small, consuming versus producing states, and the ever elusive(deceptive,भ्रामक) RNR will be gigantic(huge,विशाल) stumbling blocks. The GST council is an interesting innovation with veto powers to both the Centre and collectively to the states. The centre has one-third and all the state governments have two-thirds weight and decisions have to be taken with at least three-fourths majority. So dogmatically(clearly,स्पस्थ रूप से), states can never reach the magic figure of 75 per cent without the Centre’s help and similarly, the Centre needs the support of at least 19 states. Interestingly, the BJP and its allies have governments in 15 states. However, the GST council only has recommendatory powers, it cannot override the states’ right to set taxes given in the Constitution.

GST provides a chance to draft a modern law aligned with the technological advancements of the 21st century. The tax administration has to implement a truly modern tax law, the foundation of which, unlike earlier ones, is laid on trust.

The PM’s clarion(loud,बिगुल) call that the GST will end “tax terrorism” will be realised only if a “consumer first” strategy with a strong dose of technology is made central to the implementation plan. Otherwise, “one country, one tax, one market” could remain an unrealised dream.

courtesy:indian express

click here for official link

know your english

How is the word ‘albeit’ pronounced? (J Sunitha, Hyderabad)

The first syllable sounds like the word ‘all’ and the third like the word ‘it’. The ‘be’ in the second is pronounced like the word ‘bee’. The word is pronounced ‘all-BEE-it’ with the stress on the second syllable. This rather formal word has the same meaning as ‘even though’ and ‘although’. In the early twentieth century, experts on usage believed that this old fashioned word would die a natural death, but it continues to be used fairly frequently in writing even today. Albeit, in Robert Burchfield’s opinion, is “one of the persistent archaic sounding words in the language.”

Rahul tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to give up eating sweets.
The teacher paid me a compliment, albeit grudgingly.

What is the meaning of ‘the devil is in the detail’? (A Myilsami, Coimbatore)

The earlier expression was ‘God is in the detail’. Sometimes, we may fail to perform what appears to be a simple task because we have not paid sufficient attention to the minor details. The expression ‘the devil is in the detail(s)’ is frequently used to sound a note of caution to someone. You are telling or warning the individual that if he chooses to overlook the minor details, his attempt to do something will result in failure. The expression is also used to suggest that something that looks simple may not necessarily be so — the steps required to accomplish the task may be complicated.

Meera thought she could write the instructions in an hour. It took her all day. The devil was in the details.
It’s not as easy as it looks. The devil is in the detail.

What is the difference between ‘conceited’ and ‘proud’? (R Ganesh, Vellore)

The word ‘conceited’ always has a negative connotation. A conceited person thinks very highly of himself and may refuse to mingle with those around him. When he does talk, it will always be about himself — his achievements, his hobbies, his abilities, etc. He tends to be an ‘I’ specialist! Unlike ‘conceited’, the word ‘proud’ can be used to show both approval and disapproval. It has both a positive and a negative meaning. A person who is pleased with his achievement can say that he is ‘proud’ of it. Unlike an individual who is conceited, a person can be proud of someone else’s achievements as well. ‘Proud’, like ‘conceited’, can also be used to refer to someone who thinks no end of himself. There is, however, a difference in degree. Some dictionaries define conceited as being ‘excessively proud’.

I refuse to team up with that conceited man.
Damini is a proud and arrogant woman.
I’m proud to win this championship for the sixth time.

What is the meaning of ‘all but’? (Mohit Somani, Bhilwara)

The expression seems to have two different meanings. It can be used to mean ‘almost nearly/completely’ and ‘all except’. Here are a few examples.

He was a star once upon a time. But now, his name is all but forgotten.
We managed to rescue all but one of the miners.

* * *

Those who like me, raise your hands. Those who don’t, raise your standards. — Unknown

courtesy:the hindu

click here for official link