Ramana Gove

We see torrential rains lashing the cities, at times breaking century’s old records creating     havoc and almost paralysing civic life.Scenes of cities inundated, roads washed off, lives and livelihoods affected, bunds breached,and many rendered homeless and seeking shelter are common during such spells.This has been the scene of many cities as and when it rains cats and dogs.The most recent instance in the city of Hyderabad is an example when the city reported about 192 mm of rain fall in just 24 hours.The water so available is enough to serve the needs of population of the city for more than 90 days if we take the per capita recommended water need as 135 litres per day for all uses.   All this is just with the rain fall in one day and one city.Then a logical extrapolation to the huge loss of one of the most precious natural resources ( water ) is simply mind boggling when we think of such a large country as ours and it is high time we take measures on a war footing to ...

With hectic trials to roll out vaccine at the earliest, the major issue of global concern is its availability, accessibility and affordability to all. The term availability is meant the number of doses required to reach the global population of about 780 crores.Since a lengthy timeline is needed for such a massive production and supply, the terms accessibility and affordability assume significance since the basic law that governs the markets is the demand supply scenario ! It is said that the rich nations are in the first line.The advanced countries are pumping funds to manufacturers globally.If reports are to go by, wealthy nations have already locked up more than a billion doses of vaccines. The probable monopolisation of supply by the wealthier countries as was the situation in the swine flu pandemic seems a cause for concerns among poor nations. In the case of Covid -19,the access is important to the most needy for the safety of every one let alone ethical or humanitarian concerns ...

For a long time I used to work with an assembled table top system.There were occasions when the system used to go defunct abruptly ! One or two instances I would like to present to substantiate my conclusion. Once the display was off all of a sudden ! I called the local servicing man who carried a hand bag with tools such as a brush, a few PCBs, power supply units, a volume of CDs to do the anti virus scanning.The man came all the way ,sat before the table, turned off the system and drew the CPU from its slot out.He unwound the screws and opened it.He then took the brush and gently brushed every nook and corner and then wielded the cloth. Keeping the box opened, he again turned on the system.There it is ! The screen illuminated by the bright bluish tinge of light for a while started behaving well. There was my system right in front of me in full working condition with normal vigour.   Just after two years of warranty period, all of a sudden there were vertical coloured bands with n...

The announcement of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus made me wield my pen today. The award carries a gold medal and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor [over Rs 8.22 crore]. The event will run through October 12 by which the Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics too would have been announced. The hepatitis C virus is a blood borne virus . It   is the cause of Hepatitis C ,a liver disease and some cancers such as liver cancer and lymphomas.As per WHO more than 70 million cases of virus are around the globe and cause over 4 lakh deaths every year. The discovery made possible blood tests and new medicines  that have saved millions of lives   At a time when a new virus is ruling the roost having claimed more than 10 lakh lives all over the globe, the work is a source of inspiration and hope for the mankind in general and the scientists in particular. The world is greatly indebted to this s...

A fine is imposed or collected to mend the misconduct.Right from the time we are a child going to the school to the stage where we play the role of governing many we come across various instances of a fine being imposed on us or collected by us.Instances like a student going late to the school or persons violating traffic rules or not wearing a mask or not maintaining social distancing are a few to mention ! In all of these cases it is not for the sake of money that a fine or penalty is being imposed but rather for compliance of rules for a collective well being.   Compliance of rules is of two kinds: voluntary and   forced.It is in the second type that a fine plays key rule when there is a scope for rumbling and grumbling.However forced compliance without fine is also possible at least in select cases with simple practices by citizens.   Look at social vaccine ! There are still   countless instances of violation. Here I suggest an alternative to imposing fines which...

  In continuation of parts I & II: With the technological development of ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) the catastrophic consequences can be spread over continents and wipe away entire countries ! These are designed for delivering nuclear weapons.They have a minimum range of about 5000 km.Some ICBMs have a range of more than 12000 km.A single such missile can carry more than one nuclear warhead and each one can strike a different target. Focus on protection : In the event of an explosion, steps for protection and survival are: to get behind a barrier * to get into the inner part of a building ( thick concrete offers good protection )- underground if possible* to stay near the centre    of the building in a room with thick walls *to stay inside for 24 hours  depending upon the   instructions of the authorities such as when to evacuate, how far and how long to stay etc. ***Three things in one’s hand that can offer protection from radiation ar...

In continuation of Part-I   O n 6 th Aug 1945 Hiroshima in Japan was destroyed by one atomic bomb and a couple of days later,Nagasaki was destroyed by another one.The two bombs killed about 2 lakh people.Some of them died instantaneously while others  within a few months. Another 2 lakh people who survived, suffered severely from the long lasting effects of radiation exposure and had physical and mental agony too ! Over 2000 nuclear weapons have been used in nuclear tests so far above and below the ground.Such tests cause long lasting damage to the environment and public health too.   There are nine countries possessing nuclear weapons and are:the US, the UK,Russia,France, China,Israel, India,Pakistan and North Korea. There are now about 14,000 nuclear weapons.These are enough to end life on the planet. As per SIPRI [ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute ],the total number of nuclear warheads with different nations as of January 2020 is: USA (5800) Russia (637...