Lancet Journal – Pollution the Global Burden of Guilt

Who has to bear the Global Burden Of Disease ?

This year the annual festival of Diwali in India is influencing the country’s social and geological climate long after it’s actual date of 19^th  October 2017. After the Supreme Court of India had banned the sale of Diwali Crackers^[1] [2] in the National Capital Region of Delhi, the topic was the subject of a lot of debate in India coupled with curiosity regarding the impact of the ban on the ambient air quality.

TV Grab of Media Highlighting the Pollution Levels in Delhi after Diwali

Shortly after Diwali, the media started reporting some reduction in levels as compared to 2016, but cautioned that the levels were still high. The fact that the high pollutions levels were also attributable to the still weather, was not adequately highlighted ^[3]. In fact when the region started experiencing favorable weather conditions, the air quality improved. At the same time the Center for Science and Environment^[4] argued that the situation could have been worse without the Diwali crackers ban.

“There was a definite decline in burning of firecrackers because of the ban. But the high moisture content and calm winds on Friday (the day after Diwali) trapped pollutants, making some parts of Delhi more polluted than others,” – Central Pollution Control Board member-secretary A Sudhakar.

As if to reprimand the people in Delhi (NCR) of their obstinate behavior, news of a “study published in the Lancet Journal” was reported by most media houses ^[5][6]. By clubbing it in context of the rise in pollution levels after Diwali, it was indirectly implied that bursting Diwali Crackers may cause the death of millions of people in India.

This prompted me to actually read the Lancet Report so as to understand what the study was really all about.

The report of the Lancet Commission on pollution and health comments on data in 2015. It is a two-year project .More than 40 international health and environmental authors led by environmental scientist Philip Landrigan ^[7] were involved. Prominent authors from India include:

•    Member of Parliament, Economist and politician (Indian National Congress), former Minister of State for Environment, Mr. Jairam Ramesh ^[8]

•  Prof. Mukesh Khare ^[9], IIT Delhi, Chairman of State Environment Impact Assessment Authority.

Interestingly, Prof.Khare was also part of the following study  ^[10] regarding the influence of odd–even car trial on fine and coarse particles in Delhi, which concluded:

“Any further trial will need to be planned very carefully if an effect due to traffic alone is to be differentiated from the larger effect caused by changes in meteorology and especially wind direction.”

READ THE REST OF THE BLOG HERE

 

REFERENCES

1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/09/indias-supreme-court-bans-diwali-fireworks-in-delhi-to-tackle-pollution

[2] http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/fwznyZ9bJVLnMwUFpL3KSO/Clean-air-for-our-children.html

[3] http://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/less-pollution-this-diwali-but-delhi-s-air-quality-has-entered-severe-zone/story-x6V8pJkoceZppxqDpHUBpI.html

[4] http://www.cseindia.org/node/214

[5] http://www.livemint.com/Science/6j9LCCGcUiOVgG0gHCkr0O/25-million-died-due-to-pollution-in-India-in-2015-Lancet-s.html

[6] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/at-2-5-million-india-tops-list-of-pollution-linked-deaths-study-4898337/

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Landrigan

[8]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jairam_Ramesh

[9] http://civil.iitd.ac.in/File.pdf/Mukesh%20Khare_bio_7_04_2016.pdf

[10] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314287697_The_influence_of_odd-even_car_trial_on_fine_and_coarse_particles_in_Delhi

FIR AGAINST AIB (TANMAY BHAT) FOR PM MEME

The truly rotten facets of the AIB’s offensive post

The question is not whether AIB had the courage to keep the post live, but whether the Government has the courage to act against AIB

All India Bakchod (AIB)  an Indian comedy group, is known to court controversy over the crass and morbid statements, posts and videos they(and their members) regularly upload on social media. I have written extensively exposing the rotten truth and malicious and malafide intentions behind the group and the plethora of powerful organisations who back this group.

• Tanmay Bhat is being slowly resurrected – but by whom?
• Who is Tanmay Bhat? [EPIC]
• 4 Counter Questions to Media Experts regarding Tanmay Bhat

It’s founders (Tanmay Bhat, Gursimran Khamba,  Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya) consist of innocent looking people, who tweet, instagram or snapchat content under the garb of humor/sattire, but which directly attacks the sensibilities and social etiquette of a large section of the population. 

The ploy is usually to post the offensive content, create an uproar and then simply delete it, knowing full well that by that time, several websites would have re-posted the offensive content. The large number of likes/ follows or comments are used by them to show advertisers their brand domination. Thereafter, they simply sit back and enjoy the windfall gains, while powerful media news channels go through outstanding pains and dedicate gigabytes of web space and weeks of precious airtime to defend the group.

Offensive morphed image of PM Narendra Modi Tweeted by AIB and later removed.

In line with this Standard Operating Procedure, AIB chose to post a morphed picture of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a snapchat dog filter, making it look offensive and vulgar.

As a result, the real life drama is currently playing out and may continue to play out exactly as per the AIB script:

HERE is the link to the rest of the blog

NDTV Nidhi Razdan – intolerant anchor?

When news anchors with a partisan agenda take things too far

Screenshot Nidhi Razdan

NDTV‘s known dislike for the Indian political party currently in power – the Bhartiya Janata Party, is known even to novice or occasional news watchers. Through firebrand anchors like Barkha Dutt, Shekhar Gupta, Nidhi Razdan and many others, the news channel works overtime as spin doctors, nitpicking everything the current dispensation does.

But the reason why Nidhi is able to stand out from the rest is her sheer shallow and incompetent role as an anchor. While Headlines Today had recruited and promoted ruthlessly biased, anti BJP anchors like Rajdeep Sardesai and Karan Thapar, the anchors were able to display at least a hint of professionalism, objectivity and neutrality by either granting the BJP representatives at least 10-15 seconds of uninterrupted air time (Karan allowed even more) or by asking, intelligently masked insinuating questions.Occasionally they even came up with somewhat brilliant comebacks to the responses by the BJP members. Similarly anti Trump CNN news anchors like Don Lemon, neither shout over, nor interrupt, nor reduce air time of the Trump supporters. Whenever they want to criticize the Government, they do so with some basis(factual or otherwise) and are never hesitant to allow the Government spokespersons to express themselves clearly. 

Nidhi is apparently unable to do so, not because she doesn’t want to but apparently because she can’t. Her whole concept of the requirement of being an anchor appears to be the  ability to express herself in limited English and her hair style, while at the same time constantly interrupting and badgering BJP spokespersons.After watching the show for numerous years, it is apparent to me, that appointing such a mediocre anchor for such an important show has been NDTV’s unfortunate mistake. The show in itself, appears to raise important issues, but is sunk like the Titanic every night Nidhi Razdan is at the helm.

Arnab Goswami has already murdered panel discussions and debates and Nidhi Razdan is closely following his footsteps. Arnab however, at least betrays some sense of intelligence in the few seconds that we are able to hear what’s going on. Herein lies the problem. People switch over to NDTV in the hope of being able to get away from the cacophony and expect to hear at least some words of intelligence. Some of us even want to use our own intelligence by being able to hear and judge for ourselves whether the person speaking is validating his arguments with facts. We don’t need an ill informed self gloated Nidhi Razdan, interrupting every word in the desperate hope of hogging all the air time. 

Nidhi joined NDTV in 1999 . Her claim to fame however appears to be her ” alleged” affair with former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah . It is alleged that this was the reason for Nidhi Razdan to divorce Neelesh Mishra in 2007. 

Her association as program anchor of Left Right and Center seems to have started in 2012, but this may need correction. The search for earliest videos of the program on NDTV website lists 2013 and 2014.

She has been awarded Teacher’s achievement award for communication(2011); Ramnath Goenka award for Excellence in Journalism for reporting from Jammu and Kashmir and North East India(2013);The Jammu and Kashmir State government award for excellence in journalism(2013) – No prizes for guessing how that happened.

Read the rest of the blog HERE

Right to Privacy- Who is really tracking me ?

Has our privacy already been “invaded”? Who is the invader?

Who is really spying on me?

The Right to Privacy is considered by some to be as important as the Right to Live. A nine judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of  India is contemplating it’s importance – as to whether the Right to Privacy is a fundamental right. In the past, 2 constitution bench of judges have ruled that Right to Privacy is not a fundamental right. Today’s ruling will have a bearing on the larger debate of the Government of India’s push to link Aadhar numbers   (numbers assigned to Indians based on their biometric and demographic data) with various services and schemes such a mobile numbers, filing of income tax returns (PAN) etc. But what’s the fuss about?

Big data is now big business. Without getting too technical, it is the process of collecting, storing and analyzing huge amounts of data (related to human behavior, processes, events etc.) to predict certain outcomes. It helps businesses beat competitions, prevent diseases, Governments frame policies and even help predict and identity potential frauds or terrorists. It’s also a brutal invasion of privacy. In the hands of the powerful, it has the potential to be an invaluable tool. But in order for it to do so, the agency needs data in the first place. This data collection can be done probably in 3 ways :

•       With your knowledge and consent – You register your personal mobile number and address while applying for a credit card
•       With your knowledge but without your consent – You are asked to provide your personal details while applying for a loan. You don’t want to provide them, but have to in order for the process to be completed.
•       Without your knowledge and consent – This is a grey area and what is discussed in this blog. It’s a grey area, because the data collectors do intimate you that they are collecting your data, but in a surreptitious/ discreet manner.

Visualization created by IBM of daily Wikipedia edits . At multipleterabytes in size, the text and images of Wikipedia are an example of big data.Courtesy : Wikipedia/Author:Fernanda B.Viegas

Big data is said to have helped large organizations achieve outstanding results. As per information in the public domain :

1. Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign was a success        largely on account of Big Data Analysis.
2. Big Data analysis also gave the Bhartiya Janata Party an edge in winning the 2014 elections in India.
3. The Indian Government is also said to utilize Big Data to understand the electorates’ response to it’s policies and modify them accordingly.

Various sectors worldwide rely on Big Data analysis such as manufacturing, healthcare, education, internet of yhings,technology, banking, real estate, sports, research and media. The point is , your “privacy” (depending on which aspects of your life and interactions you consider private) has apparently already been compromised. Here is a list of your very own personal potential “invaders”:

MEDIA

The Media it appears uses extensive data mining and personalized tracking not just for marketing and distribution but also for creating and shaping content. Since it is commerce driven, it appears to be one of the largest trackers of your personal information. These may include not just your address and email, but also your browsing habits, likes and dislikes as well. Imagine an artificial super intelligence, which is mapping your every move on the internet. What you click on, what time you logon to the internet, which articles you read, which movies you watch, which music you heard, which posts you liked. Your entire behavior is being mapped and then conveyed to strategists who target what kind of products you may buy based on your behavior.
What is interesting is that a lot of such trackers are apparently embedded along with news sites. Yes, the same news media channel which raises privacy concerns for you when the Government wants to link your PAN number with your AADHAR Card Number. So it appears that in all their hypocrisy, they will make you paranoid about letting the Government associate your bio-metric data with your financial details, but are happy to smugly siphon off your personal and most intimate details.

After installing anti tracking extensions and ad blockers on a few web browsers, here are some results : – READ THE REST OF THE BLOG HERE

Also Read : THE MATRIX: SIGNS YOU MAY BE PART OF IT.