Editor,
Every human being has the potentiality to become a great person if she/ he gets the opportunity, just like a small seed has a blueprint within it to grow up to become a very big tree. But two things are necessary for their survival and growth. The first is definitely material ones (water, fertiliser etc.) that can be seen. And the second thing is mental/ spiritual in nature (love, care etc.) that can be felt. The combination of these two things can work magic by developing India’s huge human resources and bringing success in every field of activity from sports to education to science and technology etc,
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata
North East Time Zone
Editor,
Every place in the world has its natural local time. However, time zones are decided by Daylight Saving Time (DST) standards, international and national conventions. In India the time difference is around 2 hours between the westernmost Gujarat (68°E) and the easternmost Arunachal Pradesh (97°E). The time difference between 2 longitudes is (24×60)/360 i.e. 4 minutes. India accepts longitude (82.5°E) as their Standard Time UTC+5:30 (Coordinated universal Time). UTC is successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). GMT is a time zone and UTC is a time standard. Kolkata and Mumbai retained their local time until 1948 and 1955 respectively. Government should consider the woes of North eastern states that have been raising their voices on this issue for long.
NE India region is closer to Dhaka, which is 30 minutes ahead of New Delhi. It shares borders with China, Myanmar and Bhutan as well as Bangladesh. India would have saved huge units of electricity by shifting IST meridian eastwards from 82.5°E longitude to 90°E. Daylight time constraints often hamper international events in our region. Does Bangladesh offer quality manpower because of UTC 06:00?Gujarat pushed back working hours by an hour. Even banks follow state guidelines. Rajasthan went ahead with half an hour. The British adopted a time zone for tea plantations, where ‘bagan time’ started one hour ahead to make the most of the daylight. The delay over availability and usability of daylight has resulted in loss of working hours. North East is at loggerheads with the rest of India over this critical issue.
Advancing the clock or adjusting it back by an hour is not a new thing for the world. NE must reset the clock an hour or two ahead of IST. Even a five day week will work wonders in saving electricity. Railways, Defence have their own working hours in each region. The US follows nine time zones for its 4800 km longitude. India stretches 3000 km from east to west and it makes sense to have a separate time zone. Now China follows one ‘Beijing time’ to enhance national unity. The UK is not on GMT throughout the year, it uses British Summer Time (BST) one hour ahead of GMT. And Arab clock begins at sunset. Hope India will give serious thought to this issue and examine the merits of a separate time zone to save precious DST for the North East as well as the western region.
Yours etc.
Kamal Baruah
Guwahati
Sugar – the hidden enemy!
Editor,
Sugar consumption is increasing in the world, passing from 5.1 kg/capita at the beginning of the 20th century to an average of 24 kg/capita in 2014. A big contrast is observed between developing and developed countries. With the globalization of the economy and the increase of free trade among nations, sugar has been rapidly commercialized as a cheap available product. Significant part of sugar use comes from soft drink consumption that include sugar-sweetened, high-sugar categories carbonates, juice and sports energy drinks, and the sugar substitutes with colourings preservatives and other ingredients. With the diversity of meals and recipes, the sweet taste is controlling the nutrition of millions of people around the globe. Although sugar consumption is essential for the body, soft drink consumption must be regulated. High sugar intake increases the chance of obesity and obesity related ailments, like diabetes, cancer etc.. It abnormally impacts mental behaviour and has negative impact on the local environment. WHO recommends a daily maximum of 10% of calories from free sugars.
Sugar is being added to all dishes and drinks creating nutrition imbalance among the consumers. US is one of highest sugar consumption countries per capita. Big multi-national food companies like Coca-cola and PepsiCo spent 7.27 billion US$ in advertisement in 2013. The omnipresence of these companies in the strategic sector of nutrition is changing the availability, affordability, and desirability of soft drinks, thereby reshaping sugar consumption patterns across the globe.
The economic agreements between nations in North America (NAFTA) resulted in the preferential elimination of tariffs on soft-drink imports. Furthermore, the stronger protections for US investors, is giving companies free pass to reshape world nutrition patterns from diversity to a uniform, unhealthy and unbalanced diet. Significant correlation has been established between sugar consumption and the annual rate of depression. Comparing the effect of coffee and soft drinks on depression of US citizens, frequent consumption of sweetened beverages (1-4 cans/day) can slightly increase the risk of depression, while coffee consumption slightly lowers the risk of depression. Furthermore, an addition of sweeteners in beverage, coffee or teas increases the depression risk.
A study on a UK- based soft drink industry identified five sectors (packaging, ingredients, manufacturing, waste management, and transport) on greenhouse gas emission (GHG) with large impact in the environment. Based on their findings, carbonated drinks in the UK produced over 1.5 million tons of CO2 eq. greenhouse gas (GHG) per year; which represented 13% of the GHG emissions from the whole food and drink sector in 2010. This is equivalent to the emissions generated from burning 3390 barrels of oil which contribute to global warming that affect the survival of ecosystem. Furthermore, the use of artificial sweeteners in soft drinks is raising concerns because these products pass undigested and end up in stored water.
Presence of several artificial sweeteners in the aquatic environment has been documented around the globe. As a consequence, aquatic organisms are subjected to long-term exposures which could have a negative impact on the natural ecological systems. The large amount of unmetabolized artificial sweetener in rivers are likely to negatively impact the local environment, natural biodiversity and endanger several aquatic organisms. The negative relation between frequent soft drink consumption and prevalence of diseases is a serious issue from the perspective of public health and needs immediate attention. It is therefore important to impose a ban on soft drink advertisements and to put a statutory health warning on all soft drink bottles and cans for making public aware of the risks associated with soft drink consumption.
Yours etc.,
Saikat Kumar Basu
Lethbridge AB Canada T1J 4B3