New gender detection technique: gift or curse for girls in India?
By Ariana Wardak
Researchers in South Korea have developed a blood test that can determine the sex of a foetus as early as five weeks but not everyone may be gung-ho about the discovery, fearing it might be misused for sex selection in South Asian countries such as India where boys are prized over girls.
While the ability to determine the gender of a baby through a simple and cheap blood test may be seen as a blessing in the scientific community, the technique might prove lethal to baby girls in India where there is already a great difference in gender ratio with 933 females for every thousand males.
Until three decades ago, female infanticide — the killing a newborn baby girl — was widespread in India but due to advancement in technology, it is now possible to determine the gender in the womb itself, leading to a higher number of abortions.
The ultrasound test is currently the most commonly used procedure for finding the gender of the baby but it cannot be done before five months of pregnancy whereas an invasive test that carries a one to two percent risk of miscarriage must be done after 11 weeks.
“(The new test could) reduce the need for invasive procedures in pregnant women carrying an X-linked chromosomal abnormality and clarify inconclusive readings by ultrasound,” lead researcher Hyun Mee Ryu said.
The scientists said the method “might promote the potential for sex selection” and warned “there should be careful consideration about the use of this analytical tool in clinical situations”.
from Photographers Blog:
Rushdie, Oprah and disappointment
By Altaf Bhat
When I set off from Delhi to cover the Jaipur Literature Festival (my first art beat assignment) I was full of enthusiasm as controversial British-Indian author Salman Rushdie was expected to participate in the event. I had planned a sequence of photographs on the growing "Lit Fest" but all my planning turned out to be the proverbial "castle in the air".
The festival's invitation to Rushdie, whose 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" is banned in India, sparked protests from some Muslim groups who said he had offended their religious sentiments. Rushdie made headlines in Indian media much before his arrival in the country. Muslim organizations in Jaipur threatened to hold protests if Rushdie was allowed into the country, and permitted to speak at the festival. The author and the organizers of the event maintained that Rushdie would participate.
The situation was shaping into a face-off between the literary circles and the Muslim organization and I was hoping to get a few good pictures. With shoe-throwing becoming the fad form of protest in India – Rahul Gandhi, heir-apparent of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, being the latest victim – I readied myself to get the best shot if Rushdie faced a similar fate during his presence at the event.
Indians furious at Jay Leno joke on Sikhism’s holiest shrine
By Ariana Wardak
American host Jay Leno has sparked anger among Sikhs with a joke about their holiest shrine and the Indian government is making its displeasure known.
In his ‘Tonight Show’ last week, the comedian poked fun at the wealth of U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney, suggesting that Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, was his vacation home.
A complaint against Leno will be officially filed by India’s ambassador to the United States, Nirupama Rao, after 2,000 people signed an online petition.
“The Right to Speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution excludes defamation and spreading hate, incitement and false advertising,” the petition urged.
Leno’s Golden Temple jibe comes just as India is juggling with another clash between religious sensitivities and freedom of speech.
On Tuesday, the Jaipur Literature Festival cancelled a video-link speech by author Salman Rushdie just minutes before it was scheduled to begin, after death threats to the organisers and fears of violent riots at the event by Muslim groups. Rushdie, whose 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” is banned in India, last week cancelled plans to travel to Jaipur to address the festival in person after reported assassination threats against him.
What Great Parliment doesn’t realize is that the US is no longer a colonynofn theirs. I am Irish Catholic and we are made fun of in England everyday. Let’s face reality. England is the United States largest colony and has no right to dictate to any country, let alone the US. England needs to get a life. As far as the India Indians go, the same goes for them!
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India’s busy Auto Expo and the risk of an industry believing its own publicity
After fighting through the sea of camera-wielding car enthusiasts clutching their bags filled with corporate gifts to meet with Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman of the Mahindra group, it was difficult to argue with his rosy view of India’s car industry.
“Just look at all these people,” said Mahindra. “If these crowds translate into market appetite, it’s not much of a slowdown,” he added, shaking his head at the view from a glass-walled office high above the teeming masses at the India Auto Expo on Friday.
Mahindra has reason to be cheerful. Sales of cars by his group’s autos arm have remained strong this year. But he wasn’t the only executive shrugging off a slump in India’s car industry with glib comments about the sharp elbows of hundreds of thousands of excited punters that thronged the India Auto Expo this weekend.
The data is much less encouraging. Come April, the same executives could likely be digesting a year that saw sales volumes fall. Just a year previously, they were toasting 30 percent growth. But the Auto Show, held every two years in the capital, didn’t give the impression of an industry filled with ideas to tackle the slide.
SUVs, green technology vehicles and cutting-edge concept cars stole the headlines and drew in the crowds, aside from the free calendars and the chance to catch a glimpse of a Bollywood star or two.
But conspicuous by its absence amongst a sea of oversized SUVs was a new offering for the low-cost compact space, the segment that has accounted for most of the sales slump, as first-time buyers and those requiring financing baulk at high interest rates and rising fuel costs.
Editor’s choice: Top 10 India stories of 2011
From the launch of the world’s cheapest tablet to the superbug discovery in Delhi’s water, here’s a list of our favourite 10 India-related stories from an eventful 2011, in no particular order:
The extraordinary story of 66-year-old Ziona Chana who has 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren in the year when the world’s population hit 7 billion.
More than Lokpal, does Anna need a speech writer?
The self-styled crusader against corruption, the “modern Gandhi” — Anna Hazare — has managed to pick on one of the most marginalized sections of Indian society. While pitching for a strong Lokpal Bill on Tuesday, Hazare resorted to an unfortunate idiom about childless women, when he said, “Banjh kya jaane prasuti vedana (what would an infertile woman know about labour pain)?”
However the word in Hindi, “banjh”, does not have the same clean and scientific connotation as “infertile” or “sterile”. It means “barren” and is used as a derogatory term for women who fail to bear children. A woman who does not produce a child loses her social status inside and outside the house. While the ostracism in urban India may not be as obvious, contempt for childless women is reinforced through colloquialism and Bollywood.
Popular culture still depicts women who don’t reproduce, even if it is out of choice, as incomplete and good-for-nothing. It is not uncommon for infertile women to be barred from baby shower or child-naming ceremonies as they are considered the harbingers of ill-omen. Even if the husband is infertile, the wife ends up shouldering the blame for a childless marriage and is often subjected to treatments ranging from exorcism to numerology. Subordination, violence and estrangement are all likely consequences of infertility for a woman.
74-year-old Anna Hazare, who has spent most of his life in rural India, would certainly be aware of the stigma a “banjh” carries. And, while he promises to push India towards a glorious, evil-free future, how can he sustain a campaign on the back of older-India’s prejudices?
Neither has this been Hazare’s only controversial statement. Lately, he has come up with remarks that should alarm any self-respecting non-violent activist — advocating flogging for alcoholics and death penalty for the corrupt.
Maybe it is time that the “Gandhian” in Hazare actually took a leaf out of Mahatma Gandhi’s book who worked towards both political and social emancipation. Or maybe, he just needs a new speech-writer.
you should cut him some slack.
humans do mistakes and he’s not a machine. 
infact you should contribute to the movement by writing an article on how govt is doing all in its power to deny us, the citizens , a clean governance.
By all means “Indian of the Year 2011 must go to ANNA.”
Congratulate Virender Sehwag
Virender Sehwag has registered the highest individual score (219 runs) in 50-over cricket, blasting seven sixes and 25 fours during his 149-ball stay to light up Indore’s Holkar Cricket Stadium.
Playing his 240th one-day international, the 33-year-old right-handed batsman overtook compatriot Sachin Tendulkar, a player he was often compared to early in his career.
Here’s your chance to congratulate Sehwag. Post your messages in the comments below.
Congratulations Sehwag. I thought, it will take sometime to undo Sachin’s record of 200ton in ODI. Sehwag: you rock buddy.
We are flying, without salary: Kingfisher pilots to passengers
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Passengers onboard Kingfisher Airlines flights are being treated to more than run-of-the-mill announcements for the past couple of days. Pilots employed by the beleaguered airline have devised a unique form of protest.
Just before passengers deplaned, Kingfisher pilots announced they have not been paid for two months and they are still flying purely due to a “sense of duty towards the guest”, local media reported on Thursday.
A civil aviation ministry official travelling on one of those flights went to the cockpit and congratulated the pilots for not resorting to “industrial action”, the Economic Times newspaper said citing a pilot.
This shows a couple of things — the tolerance level of employees at debt-laden airlines in India has not yet reached its peak, and that unless the industry comes up with a plan to run the ailing sector more effectively, it is only a matter of time before things go totally out of hand.
An NDTV story said the announcement by pilots came after a bumpy landing. The two are not related, of course, but parallels have already been drawn online.
Twitter user Sanjay Mehta wrote, “#Kingfisher pilots announce on flight that they’re not paid for 2 months. And? Next is a pilots welfare fund box as passengers exit out??”
Let me share some ground realities. My batchmate works as a Cabin Appearance Officer with Kingfisher. He told me once that Dr Mallya was least bothered about the airline- he has enough revenue to splurge and lead a lavish lifestyle from his booze business. The top level management of the airline made a fortune out of the airline and left. This had to happen. Also, Kingfisher’s trouble dont reflect reality of India’s aviation sector. We should keep in mind that a few months back ‘Indigo’ ordered a record number of passenger jets.
Dr Mallya should take his airlines business seriously. The airhostesses he recruits are not meant serve beer to his guests on his personal yatch.
If Indian society develops an efficient way to prevent the birth of females, they will soon be unable to reproduce, thus relegating their bizarre belief system to the annals of historical curiosities.