Railway Budget: A First Reaction

The railway minister Suresh Prabhu has presented his first railway budget. The budget differs from previous railway budgets in that it has very few numbers. It also does not take the populist route of announcing hundreds of new trains. It focusses on the vision Prabhu has for Indian Railways. It speaks of consolidation and implementing concrete steps to upgrade the existing infrastructure. Emphasis is given to increasing train speed, track doubling and tripling, gauge conversion and electrification. Trainsets are proposed to be introduced in a few lines on an experimental basis. A trainset is a set of 8-12 coaches with powercars at either end. They are fast in accelerating and breaking and no time is lost in the turnarounds.

Wake Up, Pollution Control Board!

Instead of transporting city's garbage to landfills, MCC workers continue to burn garbage on every street. In Chamundipuram where I live, you can see such fires every hundred feet. Needless to say, this is causing terrible pollution and releasing dangerous gases such as dioxin into the atmosphere. Since the garbage is piled up next to the nearest compound, the burning also causes disfigurement and damage to the compound. If there is no nearby compound, the garbage is lit next to a roadside tree, causing irreparable damage to the tree.

Good News For High BP Patients

Till now, any blood pressure value above 140/90 (systolic/diastolic pressures) was considered "high" and the person was put on medication to lower it. But the expert committee (called the Joint National Committee JNC-8) appointed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of USA has recommended that persons older than 60 years should wait till the BP reaches 150/90 before beginning treatment. It went through all the published research and found no additional benefit to lowering the blood pressure below 150/90 in this age group in terms of coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure or death. On the other hand, it noted that aggressive BP treatment in this age group does have several potential adverse consequences (such as impotence, dizzy spells, light headedness, weakness). If the recommendation of JNC-8 is followed, lakhs and possibly crores of BP patients will be spared the expense of treatment.

Another Welcome Decision By The Consumer Forum

It was recently reported in the media that Mysore District Consumer Forum sentenced A.L. Nanjundaraje Urs, managing partner of Chanakya Finance Corporation (CFC) to three years in prison for not returning the deposits of customers. Now, in a more sweeping judgement given on 17-1-15, the Forum has sentenced all the nine partners of CFC to three years in jail and also fined them 10,000 rupees for the same offence.