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HIGHLIGHTS BY SUMA KATRAGADDA, SUB- EDITOR 1. Tragic death of comic genius leased. Be on the lookout people! Robin Williams brings attention 5. The Big Bang Theory Season to depression and bipolar disor- 8 will be starting on September der. The immensely gifted enter- 22, 2014. Kaley Cuoco reveals tainer was found dead at his that "Leonard and Penny wedCalifornia home on Sunday, sui- ding", not happening anytime cide by asphyxiation has been soon. cited as the probable cause. RIP 6. The Fault in Our Stars retains the No. 1 spot at the box-office Robin Williams. 2. Salman Khan Starrer Kick en- during its opening weekend, and tered the 100 crore club and grossed over $266 million worldthanks to this movie, he has man- wide against its budget of $12 aged to create a new record of million. being the first actor to have the 7. Mad Max Architecture- Justin most number of 100 crore films Plunkett's Con/struct series blends the real with the fabriand the record number is 7. 3. Microsoft to unveil the selfie cated. The South African dephone in the first week of Sep- signer and creative director has layered several images together tember. 4. Flappy Bird is back with a and combined them with comcouple of catches: It’s a multi- puter generated illustration to player game, and only available create a Mad Max style poston the Amazon Fire TV. There's apocalyptic world. no word as to when a regular An- 8. Rooney gets captain's job at droid and IOS version will be re- Manchester United. New Man-
chester United manager Louis van Gaal has given England striker Wayne Rooney the role of team captain and made Scotland midfielder Darren Fletcher his vice-captain. 9. Twitter unveils video ads Twitter unveiled a new advertising program that delivers "promoted videos" to the tweet stream of users of the popular messaging platform. 10. Soon you can use the noise from traffic, music, chants from a football ground and even your own voice to charge your smart phone. Scientists from Queen Mary University of London and Nokia have created an energyharvesting prototype (a nanogenerator that could be used to charge a cell phone using everyday background noise - such as traffic, music, and our own voices).
ENIGMATIC EUTHANASIA BY MONICA PRASAD, JOURNALIST Article 21 of our constitution confers the right to live, but does one hold the right to die? Keep reading to find out more about the debate around EUTHANASIA and its legalization. Euthanasia is the practice of terminating the life of a terminally ill person in a painless or minimally painful way. A section of society agrees euthanasia to be the most practical approach to deal with incurable terminal diseases. However there are people who find this unethical and as an encouragement to legalized crime. Over the years, many countries have accepted passive euthanasia which is withholding of medical treatment for continuance of one’s life. Active euthanasia which can be simply stated as assisted suicide, is about introducing a lethal substance into the patient’s body and this has been highly criticized and not accepted by many countries. In our country where basic human rights and health services are often left unaddressed, Euthanasia might seem irrelevant to many. But after several pleas and constant demands by pro-euthanasia organizations (like death with dignity) for years, the Supreme Court of India in March, 2011 took the nation by surprise when passive euthanasia was legalized with broad guidelines set accordingly. However, it was stated
as the law of the land until the Indian parliament enacts a suitable law. The Supreme Court has recently issued notices to states and union territories to legalize the use of passive euthanasia and hence resurfacing the issue
yet again. The modern world is quickly accepting this sensitive issue and this is far more prevalent today than it was a few years ago. Active euthanasia is legal in a few nations like Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and a few states in the USA. Belgium in February, 2014 legalized it for children by lifting the age restriction for the usage of active euthanasia and hence becoming the first country to do so. The growth in medical science is clearly reflected in the advancement of treatments today, but are these treatments good enough to completely cure the disease and make a person fit and healthy? The answer to this question is not certain and hence the prolonged suffering of the patient to these terminally ill diseases comes into picture. For a financially constrained family, the constant medication for years which just increases
the life span of a patient in a vegetative state is a huge burden. Also people who suffer from painful diseases might consider embracing death rather than face the trauma every single day. However legalizing euthanasia has been opposed by several religious groups and medical practitioners who find this method against their ethicsas they believe, one should always be encouraged to live rather than to give up their life. The thought of being a burden might affect the patients psychologically more than anything else and there might be cases of them being forced into euthanasia. The argument is that the term ‘euthanasia’ is ambiguous and being terminally ill hasn’t been predefined anywhere. The fear that this might slip into unwanted legalized crime is something that holds this group from supporting euthanasia. Can this be practiced so that a person can live as well as die with dignity? Can this be implemented in a way not to be misused? Is it against the ethics? Or are ethics in the case of such painful situations immaterial? The answers to these questions have been conflicting and the debate seems to be a never ending one. With several pleas and cases that remain pending, Euthanasia is something that has to be dealt with sensitivity and very carefully laid guidelines for a strict practice.
SELFIES AND USFIES BY D. RISHIKA REDDY, SUB-EDITOR “Smile” and “Say Cheers” are two of the most commonly heard phrases in today’s digital world. Today’s generation enjoys capturing each and every moment of their life .Several techniques have been developed which enable us to capture the essence of our emotions in the best way possible. However, it is the selfies and the usfies that have taken the world by storm. Facebook and instagram sparked off this trend of selfies which the world couldn’t resist. Everyone from Pope Francis to President Barack Obama have gone the selfie way. How can we forget to mention the much acclaimed Oscar selfie that created such a stir in the social media? Surprisingly, selfies have started to play a prominent role in
young people’s therapy sessions. In case where the patients find it hard to open about issues, selfies could be a wayfor therapists to break the ice and start a dialogue about what the teen was feeling when the self portrait was
taken or why he snapped the picture in the first place. Every new trend or phenomenon is associated with its share of advantages as well as disadvantages. Selfies are no exception, thanks to this culture the internet is no
longer a medium to share information but purely a medium to gain attention. The Daily Mirror recently reported the story of teenager Danny Bowman, an aspiring model who attempted suicide because he wasn’t satisfied with the quality of his selfies. This is only one instance, selfie addiction has now become a new pathology. Psychiatrists are beginning to consider the compulsion to take selfies as a health problem. Birmingham Business School study recently found that people who post a lot of selfies have more shallow relationships. Teens should make sure this habit doesn’t turn into an obsession and teens should be taught net etiquette at an early age which helps them avoid facing such situations.
INFLATION-RBI GETS SUPPORT FROM GOVERNMENT BY SWATHI YARABOLU, JOURNALIST The Reserve Bank of higher growth, lower inflation and India, which wants to bring retail sustainable balances, against the inflation down to 6 per cent, on back drop of economic growth Sunday received conditional sup- slipping below 5 percent in the port for this target from Finance last two years. Minister Arun Jaitley who is putIn January, a RBI panel ting emphasis on stronger eco- headed by deputy bank governor nomic growth. Raghuram Rajan's Urjit Patel recommended a policy efforts to make 'inflation target- framework that would lead to 6 ing' the cornerstone of Indian percent consumer price inflation monetary policy drew support from the Indian government on August 10th.The country is on the course to meet the bank's targets on reduced inflation, as the bank had started discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on a monetary policy framework that includes measures to control inflation. The meeting by 2016. Consumer price inflacomes after Rajan's commitment tion spiked to 11.2 percent last to lower consumer inflation risk- November before three interest ing it with the new government. rate hikes ordered by Rajan However he succeeded helped bring inflation down to 7.3 in receiving conditional support percent in June. The panel also from the finance minister Arun proposed that government reduce Jaitley and he will need to tread its fiscal deficit to 3 percent of carefully in pushing the governgross domestic product by March ment into action. "We will be dis2017 from 4.1 percent projected cussing monetary policy framework through the course of in the current fiscal year. The sucthe year. Just now we have started cess of that effort lies beyond a preliminary discussion", RBI Rajan's control as subsidies stoke governor Dr Raghuram Rajan government spending, which said at a news conference after a poses a risk to the inflation fight. meeting of the Reserve Bank of The current policy rates, at 8 per India's board in New Delhi . The cent, are on target as credit deRBI kept its policy rate un- mand is also expected to remain changed for the third time in a muted despite a cut in banks' minrow at 8 percent, and set a target imum bond holding requirements, to bring down retail inflation to 6 known as the SLR, by half a perpercent by January 2016. Policy centage point to 22.0 percent, Dris being geared towards attaining Rajan said.
D R ONES TO C ROW D I ND I AN SK IE S BY IQRA LODHI Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are aircrafts controlled by pilots from the ground or autonomously controlled by pre-programmed missions. This ingenious invention was initially developed for surveillance, intelligence gathering and weapons during wars. But now it is being commercialized for various purposes which are much more peaceful. From pizza delivery, capturing of poachers, safeguarding a nation’s boundaries to unraveling murders and so much more, UAVs are being used by the authorities in India for tackling varied situations. The usage of drones is akin to having eyes in the sky and this is being proven critical in monitoring rallies during election season, surveillance of the crowd during protests and disaster management. Even though people do have mixed feelings about the extensive usage of these sci-fi spy heads due to their intrusive nature, in the end, critics of UAVs have to admit that here the pros outweigh the cons. During festivals, religious processions and national holidays when a magnanimous group of people come out on the roads to celebrate with joy, for security purposes and traffic control these unmanned aerial heads are being dispatched into the skies. This has made thejobofthe militaryveryeasy asthey can keep an eye on the people while simply sitting in a console room, operating safety switches and viewing the images and videos transmitted by the aircraft. UAVs are also aiding in crime scene investigations. The body of the murdered engineer, Uma Maheshwari, an employee of TCS was re-
covered in thick foliage about 30 km east of the city of Chennai, nine days after she was reported missing. The police of Tamil Nadu utilized the expertise of a drone and brought an end to the gruesome mystery.
Drones do not necessarily come in a rocket shaped style; they vary in shapes, sizes and speeds. Modified versions of UAVs will very soon be utilized by scientists and doctors as well to send into the body for the study of internal organs and also into the deep dark seas to study the rich biodiversity underneath. Recently, drones have been applied for study of avalanches and snow. In frigid regions of the world where movement of man is difficult these man made devices are making a great break through. Back in 2013, during the deadly Uttarakhand floods using these great gizmos the survivors were located after rigorous scouring of the affected areas. These aerial vehicles have been very useful in helping with the collection of intelligence, for surveillance activities, traffic control and what not. It might seem a bit invasive but which invention today isn’t? To all the critics out there, don’t worry, your privacy is safe and your lives aren’t at risk, plus you know what the best part is? You won’t have to wait a long time for that pizza that you ordered because there are no traffic hassles! 15 minutes and it’s all yours.