The Gamechangers are the Brandmakers

“Dhoni finishes off in style. A magnificent strike into the crowd! India lift the World Cup after 28 years!” screamed Ravi Shastri on Air on April 2 nd 2011. Every Indian cricket fans would feel the nail biting situation in their life Hence there comes our hero gamechangers decides the winning or declining of the match.

Every morning the sun rises up in the East and sets in West. Like 1000+ of emerging and disappearing companies everyday .
How to strengthen up the purpose of your business in the huge marketing minds and to build a strong bond to influence customers to you.

Yes, Branding is the key to unlock the identity of your dreams, your hardwork, your ideas and to mark your position in the marketing minds.

Brand Experience
A cyclical movement of a Promise and a Proof to your own business creates a Branding Experiences. The loyalty between the customers ensure the product to another person where it creates a branding Experiences to the businessman.
Branding experience is a type of experiential marketing that incorporates a holistic set of conditions created by a company to influence the feeling a customer has about a particular product or company name- Ref. Margaret Rose
Customers view on Brand names their tagline speaks more about the product. Meanwhile the attributes of that company provides the framework for their products and it takes a major part in branding. The catchy slogans, logos, newsletters, brand ambassadors, discounts ,online presence on social media and Advertisements should make a unique path for Brands.

Celebrate the joy of happiness🙂
The Emotional Connect of Indians which is the branding pattern of the Cadbury sweets in Indian markets. The Cadbury strategically occupied the occasions of consumption like Diwali, Christmas , valentine’s day, Friendship day and to all those sweet and sad moments of our life to begin with their Cadbury product and it also attracted by all the age groups. Hence Cadbury is now trusted chocolate brand in all over the country.
For many years now, Cadbury Diary Milk has represented a plethora of emotions, from shared values such as family togetherness, to shared good feeling and collective joy.
In today’s fast paced world, most of us tend to overlook the goodness and kindness inherent in us. As a brand , we wanted to shine the spotlight on these spontaneous little acts, celebrate them and the wonderful human connections says Mr.Anil Viswanathan to Economic Times. Cadbury also holds the campaign was customised to suit regional sensibilities and culture specific campaigns like Cadbury Mishti in West Bengal and Cadbury sweet kondattam in Tamilnadu.

The Postive Game move
Cadbury followed the game strategy of spreading the positivity through the emotional connect to Indians. Till now Cadbury is the most popularised brand in India . Design your brand, spread up the positivity of your products through the catchy lines, hashtag, trends , Advertisements in social media and so on be the game changer, hero of the war field in your unique way.
Your brand is what other people say, about you when you’re not in the room ” says Mr. Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO

  • Dharshini N

“Can Wormhole – Be Someday a Bypass to New Possibilities”?

Science and technologies have helped humans to survive and life their lifestyle with utmost comfort and facilities. These have not only opened opportunities to new ideas but also have made things possible which at times were even difficult to imagine. Every individual has their own dreams and wishes which they want to be true one day. But the fantasy and desire which each individual has in their life especially in their childhood to travel to space and see how life’s out there, irrespective of the thought and difficulties attached to it. But man with the development of ideas and better technology have been able to bring this dream to something practical and was able to send things to space in the late 50’s. But what initially got the attraction was the man’s first landing on the natural satelliteMoon in the late 60’s , which transformed the technology and the way every individual saw space to different phases. With this we humans were able to accomplish various other achievements like that of satellites, space exploration and the most important, International Space Station. With all these space missions and human interference as common visit to space opened the door to the thought of space travel and people were and are really keen to visit space ones in their lifetime and even to other planets be in this galaxy or other. “But is it really possible” ? 

Man has been figuring out different ways and ideas to reach to different planets, not only in this galaxy but also to the other. All help from various satellites to visualise different space objects and phenomena. There are many possibilities of life on most of the planet but it’s difficult to reach these planets as these are various light years apart. Which surely means that to reach these planets we must manufacture a spacecraft traveling at a speed of light or more, which contradicts the statement of Einstein and limits our reach. According to Einstein theory or the famous Theory of Relativity, any object which has a certain mass cannot travel with the speed of light, as it would require an enormous amount of energy or the ideal system to produce energy which won’t get exhausted soon. So it surely makes it ideally impossible to reach out these planet at these distance. 

But still there are possibilities to reach out these planets as per different theories even without breaking the Theory of Relativity. The existence of Wormholes, still a questionable part and still exists only in theories. As per the general relativity theory by Einstein, it tells about how gravity really works and why it works. According to his theory, gravitation works by the bending of space due to the weight of the planets and stars. It thus forms a curved path, which helps them to revolve around each other. So more the weight of the planet or object, the more it will bend the space. So the main belief which Einstein had in this theory was that, it is possible to create a shortcut between any two objects as they “Create bend in space  thus connecting those through an invisible path connecting them both through space and time. So it brought out the possibility to travel in space, by bending it”. 

So is it really possible to travel through these Wormholes, there are things which do contradict travelling through it. Since no significant occurrence of these have been observed in our nearest surroundings. Also it is believed that these are really small which might not fit the space ship or spacecraft into it. So we need to expand it so as to travel through them. Exotic matter can be a way out in such condition. Exotic matter is something which also has no existence but scientists are into making it. Exotic matter is totally different from the normal matter. It is believed that exotic matter has negative energy density and pressure. So This could be used to push back the walls of the wormhole and create enough space for the spacecraft to enter it.But it’s believed  that as soon as we enter a wormhole, the wormhole can destroy and thus we would die in it . Also there are possibilities which barely makes it difficult for us to return back to our time period, as we would travel to different times. Also the existence of another wormhole would still be a matter of thought and not sure would exist or not. 

 

“It’s really fascinating to hear about all this and know about the research going in this field, it might seem to be dangerous but still we are into making it possible through our technological aspects as well as through various research in space. It’s still a question to doubt time travel or space travelling to other planets is possible or not and will be able to do so. But it’s also believed that anything which is mathematically driven, is possible. So let’s wait for better beat to enter a new era of possibilities”.

The Never-Ending Relationship Between Nepal And India

Last month as soon as the news of  Narendra  Modi inaugurating  80 km (50 mile road) Lipulekh Road , which lies at a three way junction with Tibet and china, started doing rounds Nepal called for talks with India .The road serves as the shortest route between Delhi and the Kailash Mansarovar, the Hindu Pilgrimage. It’s also the most feasible trade route between China and India .As per the talks made, solutions were to be sought by way of negotiations. The Govt. of India has been refrained from carrying out any activity  related to the road till then.

The Nepal Government have now passed new Constitutional Amendment Bill in a move to update their National Emblem, which shows the new map of Nepal now including Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura. This bill was passed by 258 members, out of a total of 275 members. Around two-third of the majority  have voted for it. The map  was  passed by the National Assembly, the Upper Chamber of Parliament and approved by Devi Bhandari, Nepal’s President  before making part of the constitution.

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Government of India reacted to this by saying that it was totally self-centred and myopic decision on part of Nepal’s Government, as it fails to reflect any type if seriousness .New Delhi on the other hand have always focused on willingness to mutually solve the issue in a conducive environment. This artificial claim by Nepal seem to be not tenable. It’s violative of the understanding of the outstanding boundary talks.

Let’s Jump into History!

Back in the year 1817,Nepal had clanned to the area of Nabhi, Kuthi, Tinkar and Chhangru villages. Tinkar and Chhangru were returned to Nepal since they fell to the east of River Kali, while the other two villages were refused to be returned. According to the then Governor General , and the Treaty of Sugulai, the dispute regarding whether Kuthi, Yanki and Lipugadh stream flows into the Kali River or not, was resolved .But now the current claims  that these three areas are part of Nepal’s Map are contrary to the protocol and treaty signed by China.

At the time when Sonia Gandhi had been denied entry to the Pashupatinath Temple, on grounds that she was not a Hindu, made Rajiv Gandhi impose blockade on Nepal. Since then China used Nepal against us in it’s conspiracy, and the ties worsened between the two countries forever.

Since the two countries  have a 1880 km long open border, Nepal has increased it’s troop presence. Around 30 Indians were planning  to cross the Nepal territory , when the Nepal troop stopped them mid-way and asked them to return. People chose to hurt them by throwing bricks. As a reflect action, 15 rounds of ammunition, out of which 10 rounds were fired in the air. Three Indians got injured , out of which one died. They’ve even detained one person .The Indians are trying to talk to their Nepali counterparts, to solve the matter and not stretch it further.ave

India has been for long supportive of supplying medical aids in the form of hydroxychloroquine tablets, test-kits in the fight towards the Pandemic. All this has led India to a situation, where we’ll have to make a choice between resolving the matter through negotiations , or settle down by talking with Kathmandu. Recent news show that New Delhi is willing to talk to Kathmandu, so they’ve been asked to pause the process of the new Map.

Nepal has no other option than maintain good relation with India , because it is landlocked by India from three sides, and if India reiterates, it would have a adverse impact on the economy of Nepal. China is not an alternative for India, because China accounts for only 14% of the total imports, whereas India on the other hand accounts for nearly two-third of the imports .And, as far as the exports are concerned,India receives around 60 % of Nepal’s export, while China being self –reliant receives just 2% of the total Nepal’s export.

Japan’s economy in turmoil

The Bank of Japan has expanded the total size of its funding packages for cash-strapped companies from about $700 billion reported last month to $1 trillion. While they announced on Tuesday that they would keep monetary conditions stable and hold on to their expectation that the economy would slowly rebound from the coronavirus pandemic on it’s on, suggesting that they have taken ample measures to sustain recovery for now. The BOJ remains focused on steps to ease corporate funding strain.

“Given markets have calmed down and the economy appears to be bottoming out, there’s no reason for the BOJ to take action anytime soon,” said Hiroshi Shiraishi, senior economist at BNP Paribas Securities.

“Fiscal policy will play a main role in responding to the virus fallout, so the central bank will continue to indirectly help the government by keeping borrowing costs low,” he said.

The BOJ kept its yield curve control targets at -0.1 per cent for short-term interest rates and 0 per cent for long-term rates in a widely expected move. The central bank has also made no significant improvements to its programmes to alleviate the pressures of corporate finance, including a loan facility aimed at channeling funds to businesses.

Due to the way it is designed, the amount of money to be pumped out via the programmes will reach 110 trillion yen ($1 trillion) if more loans are taken out via government schemes, the central bank said.That was larger than an estimate of 75 trillion yen made in May, as the government expanded the range of eligible loans under a second stimulus package.

Japan’s economy appears to have hit bottom and is eyeing a recovery from the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, its finance minister said, underscoring cautious optimism spreading among policymakers after the relaxation of lockdown measures.

“We’ve succeeded in putting a floor on the economy, which seems to have hit bottom. How strong the recovery will be depends not just on domestic conditions but overseas developments,” Finance Minister Taro Aso told parliament on Friday.

In April, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proclaimed a state of emergency telling enterprises to shut down and people to remain at home, a development that dealt a serious blow to income and sales by corporations. Although the state of emergency was lifted in late May, economists estimate that in the current year, after falling into recession in January-March, the economy experienced more than a 20 percent annualized contraction.

Last year, Japan was a tourist mecca welcoming 31.9 million foreign visitors. That was a peak after seven consecutive years of growth.But in a sudden turn of events, prolonged coronavirus travel bans have brought Japan’s tourism industry to a standstill, with a 99.9 percent fall in tourists in April, the high time for cherry blossom viewings.The tourism Industry in almost all countries around the world have been devastatingly affected due to the pandemic.

However, the new domestic travel improving initiative from the government — the “Go To” program unveiled last month — has since been delayed after reports of an unsustainable administrative and office expense allocation. The “Go To” program is a collaborative public-private partnership that provides consumers purchasing travel goods from approved distributors in the four groups, tentatively named Go To Ride, Go To Eat, Go To Case, and Go To Shopping Strips, discount vouchers of 50 to 20 percent off. The initiative was dubbed “murky” and “untransparent” by the opposition.

Adding to the controversy is the bidding method the government adopted to attract business contractors. Before the official bidding start date, the Ministry of Economy had interviewed Japanese global advertising giant Dentsu 10 times. But the minister for economy explained that meetings had been held with 50 businesses along with Dentsu and that the 10 interviews with Dentsu had been consultations for reference due to the company’s experience in “implementing projects of unprecedented scale.”

In response to criticisms the government said it would suspend the open recruitment for business contractors and would revise the budget from the ground up to ensure unnecessary expenses are removed. The tourism recovery campaign was expected to launch in July, but to the disappointment of struggling local businesses a new start date has yet to be determined.

Source: 1.https://in.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj/bank-of-japan-holds-fire-pledges-1-trillion-to-struggling-firms-idINKBN23N0D5

2.https://japantoday.com/category/politics/Japan’s-economy-bottoming-out-says-Aso

3.https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/japans-campaign-to-revive-virus-hit-tourism-sector-postponed-amid-cost-controversy/

Mental Health: Children, Young People, and Families

Mental health is a widely overlooked aspect of a person’s health. People don’t consider it as important as their physical health, mostly because the injuries are not visible. However, they often forget that the signs are always there. Mental health problems are often directly proportional to the day-to-day happenings in our lives. Most mental health problems start developing at a very young age, but parents often ignore the warning signs. At such an impressionable age, children need to be taught about their mental well being too. It is imperative that we address the issue of mental health among children, young people, and families.

Children and Young People

It is seen many-a-times that the physical needs of a child are obvious, but his or her mental needs may be neglected. Even when the red flags are identified, there is a stigma associated with mental illness.

Some problems that children suffer from are ADHD, autism, anxiety, anorexia (eating disorder), depression, and bipolar disorder. Warning signs include intense mood swings, self-harm, substance abuse, sudden appetite loss, fidgeting, and continuous nightmares.

health

A few suggestions to nurture a child or adolescent’s mental health could include talking to them about their day; asking them if they are facing any problems at school. This strengthens your bond with them and they start trusting you more. As a parent, make sure that your ward eats a healthy and balanced diet, is physically fit, and takes part in outdoor activities.

Provide children with a healthy environment at home; a child should feel secure in his surroundings. Help them build their self-esteem and confidence while talking to them. Encourage their first steps towards new interests. This would enable them to open up more and express their feelings and doubts. And most importantly, don’t condemn them when they do something wrong. Instead, let them know their mistake and work together to improve it.

Families

It is obvious that an individual’s mental health problems will have consequences for others within his social networks and most importantly his family. When it comes to mental illness, the emotional and behavioral consequences for family members go largely ignored along with having a huge impact on their financial component.

menheal

Family life often becomes unsettled and unpredictable as the needs of the ill become paramount day by day. The afflicted often feels that he’s isolating those close to him. Children may find it difficult to understand why their parent is not his/her usual self. Therefore, many tend to blame themselves and grow up feeling abandoned, lonely, and isolated.

In case a family member suffers from a mental health problem, you should not let him feel dismissed and disregarded. Instead, you could try to understand what he is going through, his inner turmoil, and try to help him cope with that. Children need special care at this time as they are perplexed by the happenings in their lives.

You should try to mend the broken relations, leave the toxic people in your lives behind, and create a positive impact on others’ lives.

Image Courtesy: Google

LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT

The level of management is an important classification needed for an organization to work smoothly and operationally to complete the needed work and all the employees working in an organization/institution can be divided into two categories:

                             1. Managerial Members

                             2. Non-Managerial Members

1. Managerial Members

 In this category, all such persons are included who manage somebody, they are called managers because they manage some of the other people. Thus they have all the subordinates. The Chief Executive officer or CEO ranks higher in this hierarchy and departmental managers are subordinate to the CEO. Supervisors work under the departmental managers and so they are subordinate to them. In the same manner, workers are subordinate to supervisors. Except for workers, all others are called managers irrespective of their designation. He is the manager only who builds managerial levels. “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” 

Employees working in an organization build a chain of hierarchy and that is known as “ Chain of Authority”. This chain links all ranks in a vertical form. In this manner, this chain from top to bottom builds many managerial posts, which are termed as managerial levels. The term level of management refers to a line of demarcation between various management positions in an organization. As we move from top to bottom the degree of authorities goes on decreasing. In the top management, the members who occupy the seat are entrusted with the responsibility of planning and executing broad policy decisions. Manages of all major activities areas can be referred to as top management. The top management generally performs the following functions:

  1. Laying down guidelines for the various departmental heads.
  2. Organizing the business into various sections and departments for the accomplishment of predetermined goals.
  3. Setting out general objectives and policies.
  4. Making appointments to top positions such as appointments of managing director, secretary, departmental heads, etc.
  5. Reviewing the work of executives and ensuring their performance at different levels.
  6. Budgets prepared by different managers are given final shape i.e., approval is given to the budget.
  7. To understand the interlocking of departments in major policies.
  8. To ensure that there is coordination between the different parts of the organization.
  9. To build the company spirit where all are working to provide a product or service wanted by others.
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2. Non-Managerial Members

In this category, those employees are included who work directly on the job. The place at which such employees work is known as a platform area. Since they are at the lowest level of the chain in an organization, they do not have any subordinates, that is why they cannot be called as managers. For this very this they are not counted among the level of management and that is why they form the Non-Managerial level. They are the main base or the building block for the organization as the company depends upon their work to run the company smoothly and efficiently and greater the workforce the greater the productivity.

“Dyanamics of change in india”

Anatomically modern humans First arrived on the soil of India from Africa between 73000 and 55000 years ago by the 4500 BCE the life begins to spread with proficiency and gradually evolved into the ‘Indus Valley Civilization’ civilization was flourishing with its full might but due to drought floods etc. Indus valley population starts to migrate from large urban shelters to the villages. Aryans tribes shifted to Punjab migrated from northwest then came the Vedic period marked with the significance of Vedas preexisting religious cultures traditions gives birth to a significant Religion HINDUISM caste system was introduced with categorization of groups. Janapadas were came into existence more Urbanisation took place but amid of it JAINISM AND BUDDHISM with unique religious concept and practices came into existence. then emergence of Maurya empire ,Gupta empire known to be the golden age of India during this period the culture administration religious activities perspectives of Indian civilization spread within its territory but abroad too in Asia and beyond it. Southern part of Subcontinent witness the emergence of Cholas, Pallava, Chera, Pandyan etc. it was 1192 when due the foolishness of our own people ‘Jayachanda’ who met with the first Islamic invader to defeat the great warrior “Prithvi Raj Chauhan” his son in law to take his revenge this was the first ever defeat Indian soil witness by any foreign Invader otherwise India was flourishing with its economic capability and military might and Cholas went to Columbia to Cumbodia to flourish its flag. But India never bent down down before any foreign invader protests keeps going on across the country wether it was Maharana Pratap, In ‘Rajputana’ leading Mewar wether it was rise of Maratha Shivaji the Maratha Vijayanagar empire Ahom dynasty and Gajapati etc. across every part of the Subcontinent battle and protests keeps going on to save the Motherland India from foreign invasions. Even with small fleets with limited arms but with great patriotism towards their land Indian Warriors challenged foreigners at every point because they want change they did not like to flourish the flag of any foreign invader. Mughals were given Tough challenges and suffered defeat also Wether by Shivaji , Mysoreans, nawabs of Bengal etc. Instead of great and powerful invaders India produces change by sacrificing by bravery by Devotion of great Warriors but We Came across change, and therefore Islamic invaders were failed to conquer whole of India because every part puts effort to change. During mid 18th and mid 19th century East India company annexed large regions of India but they also faced the great might of Indian warriors faced tough challenges given by them Mangal Pandey ignite the light of change against cartage made up of cow beef Vellore mutiny produce a great significance of change, then after it “THE RISE OF GREAT REVOLT OF 1857” ‘Rani Laxmi Bai’ , ‘Nana ji Deshmukh’ etc. leads the way to challenge the British empire to progress the way for change. then it was great ‘Subhash Chandra Bose’ with the rise of AAZAD HIND FOUJ ‘Bhagat Singh’ ‘Chandra Sekhar Aazad’ and many more sacrifices their lives for the change with the rise of ‘Aazad Hind Fouj’ Britishers got indications to leave India because Macauley once said the India rise to its military might it will be the indication to leave India exactly what happened was the same because history of India clearly mentions that it is very tough to challenge them physically. And India Witness the biggest change on 15th of august 1947 when India awake to its freedom and life. And even after independence we had witness great revolutions in infrastructure or foundation for modern India one of interesting incident a form of change Ocurred in Mrs. Indra Gandhi tenure as prime minister after the emergency when elections were declared Europe Russia Usa all predicted that without any doubt Indira is going to win the elections because the democracy flourished where Stomach are full people are educated but Indira Gandhi was defeated his son also suffers the defeat whole country witness a change , and one of significant change which open many doors of economic prosperity was Occured during tenure of Narshima Rao government when India ends Licence raj open its market for foreign direct investment made market economy the core gave up his socialism and a profound change came India grew at 9% GDP after post independence but the man who produce change for the prosperous India suffers change in his election he gets defeated Throughly his party strength was reduced to half. and in our current Scenerio we had seen the change prime minister Narendra Modi swept twice became first non congress Pm to win Consecutively. But can he bring some significant change ?

(2) Looking for romantic, binge-worthy Hindi TV shows? Here are my top 6 recommendations.

Hey everyone! So as I promised, the Part 2 is here. And without any further delay, let’s get started!

3) Pyaar Lafzon Mein Kahan
This one is actually a Turkish drama which went on to become the most popular drama in Asia. Dubbed in Urdu as well, it was on-air in Pakistan. All the episodes are available on YouTube. Murat Sarsilmaz is a rich businessman and his junior assistant is Hayat Uzun who has forged her identity as Suna Pektas, for the sake of the job else she would have to leave the city. Through a series of pretty romantic twists and turns, they quite organically fall in love with each other and she finds it difficult to confess the truth about her identity to him because he is a truthful guy of high moral values. They still get married and watch to find out more. It’s again a must watch. The chemistry is sizzling given the fact that the leads are extremely good looking (Burak Deniz & Hande Ercel). The boss-employee love blossoming in a workplace is a treat to watch. They get jealous too often and honestly, its kind of cute. Scenes are very well written keeping the *realistic approach* in mind and it’s a nice engaging show, in general.

Picture selection was too tough, ahh

4) NAVYA…Naye Dhadkan Naye Sawaal
A Shaheer Sheikh starrer alongside Somya Seth; this one is a fresh college love story between the oh-so-cute chocolate boy Anant Bajpai and shy-and-sensible Navya Mishra. There are such beautiful, intimate scenes depicting college romance and the innocent chemistry between the leads will make your heads turn, for sure. The show goes on to be quite boring and the family drama creeps in post their marriage, so if you wish you can discontinue watching right there. The musical track too is fresh and soothing. Give it a try on Disney+Hotstar. I am sure the innocence will

5) Jijaji Chhat Per Hain
This one’s a rom-com genre show set in Delhi. Elaichi, played by Hiba Nawab is a happy-go-lucky and carefree girl who is the talk of the town for her mischiefs and good looks. She is impressed by the innocent, mild-natured and meek Pancham played by Nikhil Khurana who is the salesman at her father’s lehenga shop. Pancham denies Elaichi’s advances which make her fall for him even more. The episodes are amusing and flirtatious, watching Pancham fall a prey to Elaichi’s pranks everytime until finally marrying her is cute. The chemistry is sweet with Nazm Nazm playing in the background. It’s a pleasing love story. You can watch it on Sony LIV or MX Player and on even SAB TV as they are re-airing the show which ended just before the lockdown began.

6) Yeh Pyaar Nahi To Kya Hai
This one is a short series of 120 odd episodes available on Sony LIV. Siddhant Sinha and Anushka Reddy are childhood sweethearts. Due to a misunderstanding, she goes abroad for higher studies comes back after a long gap. She finally meets him and the sparks fly again as Siddhant is working at the Reddy’s. Anushka’s paternal multinational company. The regular interactions and sweet conversations rekindle that old love between them and it’s beautiful to watch. Namit Khanna has been a gem of an actor here, the personality, voice, everything has been so intriguing and his chemistry with Palak Jain stole the show. And the title song by Rahul Jain is beyond words! Go hear it!

Okay so that’s it! Hope you’ll start watching your favourite one out of these six recommendations. Also, I have ranked them in the order of my preference. Have fun binge-watching.

In search of a new life: The Mars planet

Life has been existing over for 3.5 billion years ago. There were significant events in the past, like the extinction of dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. We also know about the start of agriculture, human-made tools used for several purposes. Now in the 21st century, we’ve accomplished a lot of achievements. Still, yes, we are slowly destroying the planet Earth. The nature around us earlier was so satisfying maybe a decade or before that. Suddenly, humanity started constructing buildings, complexes, resorts, artificial reservoirs, etc. This list never ends. They are even cutting down the trees to get more residential areas leading to deforestation. After all, this will all lead to a concrete jungle in the future, there will be no oxygen for survival, the animals will start disappearing, and soon everything will come to an end. This sequence of incidents can be a nightmare for someone, but this can turn into a reality. It’s in our hands to save the planet.

A dinosaur statue.
A dinosaur statue.

On the other side, they’re positive things going around the globe. Scientists and researchers have continuously been looking for existence in life in the other planets. Several space programs have been successfully executed and are still in progress. We know our solar system consisting of eight planets, but we’ve been more interested in the planet Mars. The first mission on Mars on 14th July 1965, Mariner 4, followed by Mariner 9, entered into the orbit. Though the first landing was by Mars 2 but crashed due to a malfunction which later on 2nd December 1971, Mars 3 became the first spacecraft to land on the Mars surface, that too interrupted after 14.5 seconds after its signal transmission failed.

A Mars rover.
An animated Mars rover.

Now in search of water on Mars, there are several types of research claiming that it is in the form of ice caps and many more theories. Still, of these findings, scientists, namely John G. MacDonald, Karien Rodriguez, and Stephen Quirk, developed something unique by which plants can be grown. You heard it right, a polymer through which it can deliver oxygen for the germinating sprout. They claim that regolith has nutrients for plant growth, but not oxygen, the prior requirement of a sapling as 95% of the Martian atmosphere is carbon dioxide. They described two methods of extracting oxygen, either from the metal oxides pre-existing in the regolith and electrolysis, but both processes are time-consuming. The proposed idea is that when the polymer combines with sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide, it becomes an oxygen infused foamed hydrogel. It has the potential to deliver controlled amounts of gaseous oxygen. The foamed matrix, along with regolith, can form the base or be directly coated around the seed to grow plants.

A plant is in a hand.
A person is holding a plant.

The most crucial mission among them was MOM, an interplanetary mission by ISRO, India called Mangalyaan, orbiting since 24th September 2014, becoming the 4th space agency to reach the planet Mars with the lowest cost. This mission has fascinated the kids in India, it got picturised in a movie called “Mission Mangal” in the Hindi language, premiered on 13th August 2019 in theaters. Imagination never ends, everything has a route, and hence it becomes a success, a part of the movie’s storyline. I hope you adhere the same in reality.

For more details about the research, you can visit the site mentioned below:

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2019.2056

Health facilities in life support

There is constant fear among the frontline health workers in India that the system is under severe stress and can crumble anytime in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. India is a country that spends just over 1% of its GDP in health infrastructure. Hundreds of people lining up from different parts of the country outside hospitals like AIIMS, RML, GTB etc. is testament to our governments failing to provide affordable basic healthcare facilities to people. Even before the pandemic hit the country, there was 82% shortage of specialists and professionals in all government hospitals. Same goes for lab technicians, nurses and pharmacists.

Now, the covid-19 pandemic has tested and even defeated the health facilities of countries that provide the best healthcare in the world. Even in countries like Italy, Spain, United States and France; hospitals were continuously running out of staff, beds, oxygen cylinders, ventilators, medicines and many other essentials. There was a severe shortage of doctors, nurses and other medical staff to attend the admitted patients and then treatment was eventually handed out in priority basis.

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Wedding halls in Delhi being converted into corona isolation wards

Now consider the nightmare scenario India is currently in. Already the number of positive cases are rising exponentially with no signs of slowing down or even flattening. The ICUs and general wards of Delhi and Mumbai hospitals are almost full. Patients are being denied admission and treatment even for the most serious cases.  There are harrowing reports of people struggling to get a hospital bed including many grieving relatives saying that their loved ones died at the doorsteps of hospitals. In some cases, people even visited 6-7 hospitals and were still denied admission citing non availability of beds.

Nearly 70% beds vacant in COVID-19 hospitals run by Delhi govt, private facilities almost full
Patients waiting for their admission in a hospital in Delhi

And the misery persists even after death. Dozens of grieving men and women keep waiting outside hospitals throughout the day to identify the bodies of their loved ones who died due to COVID-19. Bodies are pilling up in hospital wards. There are chilling visuals of dead bodies left unattended by the hospital staff along with the patients. The relatives are handed over wrong bodies and patients are dangling out of their beds. These sights are becoming increasingly common in government hospitals all across the country.

After receiving hundreds of public interest litigations and taking suo moto cognizance after looking at numerous reports of gross violations of human rights, the high courts and the Supreme Court have come down heavily on central and state governments. The Supreme Court said that the situation is “horrendous” with respect to the handling of Covid-19 patients in Delhi, the capital city, and that the patients are being treated “worse than animals”. The court also slammed the Delhi government on mishandling of the situation and asked them why do the patients have to undergo such pathetic conditions in the hospitals. The situation is more or less the same in the rest of the country too. In Maharashtra, the state which has the maximum number of coronavirus cases, the high court had to direct the government to conduct more tests and increase the number of beds. Many doctors and health experts have said that Mumbai, the financial capital of India, has less than 30 ICU beds remaining.