Current Affairs Essays

"It is the obligation of the Stale to ensure everyone the right to adequate food, education and enjoyment of highest attainable standards of physical and mental health. These rights have to be respected and made available to the citizens by the State". —Justice Anand Chairperson Human Rights Commisson Human rights violation have become very common now-a-days .The Newspapers and T.V. tell us that every day and at every moment, somewhere in the world, Human Right are being violated. Broadly speaking 'Human Right' means right to life, liberty, equality, and the dignity of an individual irrespective of caste, creed or sex. These human rights are natural rights, required to be protected for peaceful existence of a person. Our Constitution safeguards the human rights, but inspite of all such provisions, the violation of these rights is very frequently taking place. The protection and preservation of Human Rights is a great challenge to every country in the world. Cases of violence, murder, torture, rape, child abuse, death due to starvation, death due to dowry, sexual harassment, and custodial death have become rampant in the society. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been able touch the tip of iceberg of the problem of Human Rights violation. But NHRC can't be blamed, when the entire society is culpable in respect of Human Rights violations in one way or the other. It is not possible NHRL to keep vigil on every human being in the country. The Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, Dr. Justice A.S. Anand has emphasized that it is the obligation of the State to ensure everyone the right to adequate food, education and enjoyment of highest attainable standards of physical and mental health. These rights have to be respected and made available to the citizens by the State, said Justice Anand while inaugurating the two-day Capacity Building Workshop on "Economic, Social and Cultural Rights" jointly organized by the National Human Rights Commission and the Indian Institute of Public Administration. Under the International Covenant on economic, social and cultural rights a State party is obliged to use all steps to achieve progressively full realization of the rights recognized in the covenant. Justice Anand said, these include adoption of legislative means, to be exercised on a non-discriminatory basis, "India being a signatory to Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international instruments, is legally as well as morally committed to ensure basic human rights to all its citizens and enact laws accordingly", he said. With every passing year, conviction has grown in the Commission that for right to live with human dignity, it is essential to focus in equal measures on economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights. The indivisibility and interrelated nature of these rights is a reality and there is a symbiosis between them. Those in the field must, therefore, ensure that the concern and anxiety, which they show for political and social rights, are also manifested in economic, more...

  In India, we have inherited the cultural legacy of having strong son-preference among all communities, religious groups and citizens of varied socio-economic backgrounds. Patrilocality, patrilineage and patriarchal attitudes manifest in women and girls having subordinate position in the family, discrimination in property rights and low paid or unpaid jobs. Women's work is limited to household duties. At the lime of marriage, dowry is given by the bride's family to the groom's for shouldering 'the burden of the bride'. In many communities as a custom female babies are killed immediately after birth either by the mother or by elderly women of the family to relieve themselves from the life of humiliation, rejection and suffering. Social discrimination against women results in systematic neglect of women's health, from womb to tomb. Female infanticide and female foeticide are widely practiced in many States. The overall sex ratio, at present, is favorable to women in Kerala. But in Kerala also, in the 0-6 age group, the sex ratio was 963 as per 2001 census. Out of total 36.5 lakh 0-6 Age group population 18.6 lakhs were male babies and 17.9 lakhs female babies. Thus, 79760 female babies and infants were missing in 2001 in Kerala. This masculanisation of sex ratio is as a result of selective abortion of female foetuses after the use of ultrasound techniques of sex determination. The reason of female infanticide can be linked with the evil of dowry, hyper gamy, prevailing in our society. A more degrading and disparaging feature of the society has seen existing for the last two decades is the immense love for male child and elimination of female foetus. With invention of new technologies to monitor that 'Foetal' health, it was expected to be used for taking care of the health of the unborn  child, but became terminator of female foetus. Are female foetus being deliberate eliminated or aborted, is the question? To a great extent, yes! is the answer.  Are the technologies (ultrasonography, amniocentesis, chorian villai biopsy, foetoscopy, material serum analysis etc.) assisting in elimination ? Again the answer is; yes, to a great extent. The answer is well supported by the trends that surfaced in the 2001 Census. The following statistics reveal the truth: &Census              -     Girl child/ male child ratio in 0-6 age group l981                        -    962 Girls/1000 Boys 1991                       -    945 Girls/1000 Boys 2001                       -    927 Girls/1000 Boys Biologically girls are stronger and with all the thrust on the well being of  girl child, the 1981 trends should have at least continued, but in the past 20 years ]; ratio has dropped considerably.  While there can be no moral or ethical justification for foeticide still. continues to be practiced. In fact sex determination which was mainly restricted! Metres only now, are prevalent in villages as well. If sex determination tests are allowe to proliferate, and the elimination female foetuses allowed, the society should be to pay for this sin, after around two decades.  The greatest supporters of a more...

Sproxil Inc, a world-class brand protection company recently announced the launch of its operations in India. With the help of its brand protection product, Mobile Product    Authentication™    (MPA™) the company will focus to check the growing drug counterfeiting in India. The announcement was made by Dr Ashifi Gogo, CEO, Sproxil Inc. It enables consumers to verify the authenticity of a pharmaceutical product by sending the unique code on the drug as a free text message to the manufacturers, in real time.  "Our MPA™ architecture combines secure interlocking technologies and makes counterfeiting unprofitable," said Dr Gogo. "This operation will be launched in Mumbai and Bengaluru initially, as more than 80 per cent of the Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers are based in the West and the South of India," said Dr Gogo. Brand and product pirates in Indian markets pose a significant risk to legitimate Indian manufacturers, leading to brand degradation, decrease in sales and consumer purchasing apprehension. Through Sproxil's offerings, companies can protect consumers from harmful products.

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd has announced that it has received final approval from the US PDA to manufacture and market alprazolam extended-release tablets in the quantities of 0.5 mg, 1 ing, 2 nig and 3 mg. Alprazolam extended release tablets that would be manufactured and marketed by Aurobindo pharma is the generic equivalent to the reference listed drug Xanax® XR Tablets 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 2 mg and 3mg of Pharmacia and Upjohn. These tablets are used for the treatment of panic disorder, with 01 without agoraphobia and fall under the Central Nervous System (CNS) therapeutic segment. The product has a market size of approximately $26.5 million for the twelve months ending September 2010 according to IMS and will be launched soon.

Six Indian pharma majors will be entering the US generic market for Levaquin (levofloxacin), an antibiotic approved for treating bacterial infections. Oral and injectable forms of levofloxacin  have been approved from 12 manufacturers, including six Indian  companies; Aurobindo, Dr Reddy's, Glenmark, Lupin, Torrent and Wockhardt. Levaquin reported annual sales of $1.3 billion in 2010 and $422 million in the first quarter of 2011. Levofloxacin is used to treat mild, moderate or severe bacterial infections of the skin, sinuses, kidneys, bladder and prostate caused by specific germs, and those which causes bronchitis or pneumonia. It is used to treat those exposed to inhalational anthrax. "FDA-approved generic drugs must meet rigorous standards and are required to be of high quality," said Keith Webber, Deputy Director Pharmaceutical Science, USFDA - Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Dr Reddy's and Lupin have announced the launch of the tablets in the strengths of 250 mg, 500 mg and 750 mg.

The moment the last paper is over, I am going to step outside the examination hall and give out the loudest yell that I can muster. This will be the yell that will tell the world that the examinations are over. The months of toil, sweat and tension have ended and it is time for joy and celebration. Then, my friends and I will head straight to our favourite Mall to just chill out- This will mark the beginning of my celebrations of the end of these cruel examinations.  When I would reach home after all this fun, I would get hold of a largo cardboard box into which I would dump all my textbooks, revision books, exercise books and other paraphernalia. No reminder of the past months of slogging would be allowed to remain on my table. Instead 1 would put a vase of flowers, some novels and other general books on the table. The box of school books would be put into the remotest corner of my room and left there for as long as possible, preferably forever. After tiding up my room I would go to the video shop and borrow ail the CDs 1 wanted to watch but did not had the time to watch earlier then I will spend the next few days doing nothing but watching these CDs. I only hope my eyes can holdout that long. My friends and I have already planned to go camping for a week after the examinations, This, we would do, only after I have watched all the CDs that I wanted to- We would cycle to the seaside that is about twenty miles from our town, There, we would spend one whole glorious week frolicking under the sun. I must be careful not to get sunburned, as happened the last time I went camping, it was a painful experience. So this time 1 would ensure that I have ample supply of suncreen lotion. Of course, we would have to bring all the necessary things for camping, like tents, sleeping bags. cooking utensils and the most important of all, food. I have no explanations for the fact that camping always seems to make me hungry all the time. So we would take along enough food to last us a week. By the end of the week, we would be nicely tanned, or burned, and we would all be very tired. On reaching home there would be only one sensible thing to do, that is to take a nice long rest in bed. for a day or so. This would allow me to recover my strength for the final item in my celebration list—the tour of the whole country. I have always wanted to visit the famous places in my country. I have not done so because I was too young. However, since this would probably be my last year in school, my parents have allowed me to go hitch-hiking around the country, on condition that I have a more...