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Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri has been selected for the Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy for 2023.
The Nritya Kalanidhi award for dance will go to Vasanthalakshmi Narasimhachari.
The executive committee of the Music Academy at its meeting on Sunday, unanimously decided to confer the awards,” N. Murali, president of the academy.
Ms. Jayashri attributed her success in her career and awards to the blessings of her violinist guru, the late Lalgudi G. Jayaraman. “That he was my guru itself was a blessing,” she said while acknowledging the support of her parents and family.
Mr. Murali conveyed the message about the award to her in London, and she thanked the academy. Ms. Jayashri also thanked the musicians who would accompany her in concerts. “Music is a concerted effort and we created music together.
Vasanthalakshmi Narasimhachari excels both in Bharathanatyam and Kuchipudi.
Editorial
Slow steps to India-China border tranquillity (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
India and China appear to be moving towards a new modus vivendi to maintain peace and tranquillity along their disputed 4,000 kilometre border.
In 2020, the older arrangements, shaped by the agreements of 1993, 1996, 2005 and 2013, came apart in Ladakh after the Chinese massed troops in Tibet and established blockades at six points on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to prevent Indian troops from patrolling the border.
A clash at Galwan in June 2020 led to the deaths of 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, the first such losses on the LAC since 1975.
The Sino-Indian clash, in December 2022, at Yangtse, north-east of Tawang, suggests that new measures may be needed across the LAC, and not just in Ladakh.
There are reported to have been important discussions that took place when Shilpak Ambule, Joint Secretary of the East Asia Division of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the Office of the External Affairs Minister, and Hong Liang, Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China, met in Beijing for the 26th Meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on China-India Border Affairs, on February 22, 2023.
This was the first in-person meeting of the WMCC that had held the previous 11 rounds since the 2020 events by video conference.
In the last three years, through patient negotiation, the two sides managed to disengage in four of the six points — Galwan, Pangong Tso, Gogra Post and near Jianan Pass (PP15).
But two key areas remain unsettled, i.e., the Depsang Bulge and the Charding Ninglung Junction in the Demchok area involving nearly 1,000 square kilometres.
The Indian press release after the meeting said the proposals for disengagement in the “remaining areas” were discussed “in an open and constructive manner” which could “create conditions for restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations”.
Moving forward with a newer concept of UHC (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Do we believe in health as a basic human right, which India’s Constitution guarantees under right to life? In contrast, we believe in the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health: a certain totality of health to the realms of mental and social well-being and happiness beyond physical fitness, and an absence of disease and disability.
This means that we cannot achieve health in its wider definition without addressing health determinants. This necessitates a need for an intersectoral convergence beyond medical and health departments such as women and child development, food and nutrition, agriculture and animal husbandry, civil supplies, rural water supply and sanitation, social welfare, tribal welfare, education, forestry.
We all subscribed to the slogan “Health for All by 2000” that was proposed by Halfdan Mahler and endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 1977.
This slogan had an inherent implication, i.e., “for All”, which means universalisation. Thus, nobody is denied this and everybody is eligible without being discriminated against on the basis of financial status, gender, race, place of residence, affordability to pay or any other factors.
Universal Health Care/coverage (UHC) was implied as early as 1977. India, through its National Health Policy 1983, committed itself to the ‘Health for All’ goal by 2000.
When and where then did partial coverage of the population and partial responsibility of the ruling government to pay for health care come in?
The International Conference on Primary Health Care, at Alma Ata, 1978, listed eight components of minimum care for all citizens.
It mandated all health promotion activities, and the prevention of diseases including vaccinations and treatment of minor illnesses and accidents to be free for all using government resources, especially for the poor.
Any non-communicable disease, chronic disease including mental illnesses, and its investigations and treatment were almost excluded from primary health care.
When it came to secondary and tertiary care, it was left to the individual to either seek it from a limited number of public hospitals or from the private sector by paying from their own pockets.
News
Background radiation high in Kerala, but no risk, says study (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
In parts of Kerala, background radiation levels, or that emitted from natural sources such as rocks, sand or mountains, are nearly three times more than what’s been assumed, a pan-India study by scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has found.
This does not, however, translate to an elevated health risk. Radiation results from the disintegrating nucleus of an unstable element and these can be from anywhere, including from inside our bodies to the constituents of matter.
Gamma rays are a kind of radiation that can pass unobstructed through matter. Though extremely energetic, they are harmless unless present in large concentrated doses. It’s similar to heat from a fire feeling pleasant until a sustained, concentrated burst can scald or worse, ignite.
Especially around nuclear plants, gamma radiation levels are monitored as also the average quantity of radiation that plant workers are exposed to.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) specifies maximum radiation exposure levels and this has also been adopted by India’s atomic energy establishment.
Public exposure should not exceed 1 milli-Sievert every year, those who work in plants or are by virtue of their occupation shouldn’t be exposed to over 30 milli-Sievert every year.
The present study found that average natural background levels of gamma radiation in India was 94 nGy/hr (nano Gray per hour) (or roughly 0.8 milli sievert/year).
The last such study, conducted in 1986, computed such radiation to be 89 nGy/hr. 1 Gray is equivalent to 1 Sievert, though one unit refers to radiation emitted and the other to biological exposure.