Brain stimulation may help treat Alzheimer's disease: Study

A study, published in the journal PLoS One, found that Magnetic stimulation of the brain improves working memory that may lead to a new therapy for individuals living with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
Functional megnetic resonance imaging...

The study found that healthy younger and older adults who received repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) therapy performed better on a memory task than those who received placebo.

Working memory is the process of recalling and then using relevant information while performing a task. It is a key component of day-to-day tasks like driving to a new location, making a recipe, or following instructions.

Lysianne Beynel, a postdoctoral associate at Duke University in the US said the study relies on highly individualised parameters, from the selection of the stimulated target, based on fMRI activation, to the selection of the difficulty, titrated according to subjects' performance.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow.Beynel said "since these specific parameters can improve performance in healthy subjects, we will be able to extend it to populations with memory deficits."

Researchers said individuals with Alzheimer's disease, which will more than double by 2050, and other forms of dementia, experience progressive loss of working memory and other forms of cognition. This leads to a greater risk of injury or death and reduces their ability to function without home care, they said.

Twenty-nine young adults and 18 older adults completed the study, which involved trying to remember and then reproduce a series of letters in alphabetical order. Participants of all ages who received rTMS performed better than those who received the rTMS-like placebo.

Simon W Davis from Duke University said, "The brain stimulation applied in our study shows that older adults benefited just as much as the young.

RBI relaxes External Commercial Borrowing norms for corporates, non-banking lenders

The more liquidity easing measures, the Reserve Bank has liberalised the end-use stipulations for the External Commercial Borrowings both for corporates as well as liquidity starved non-banking lenders.

The central bank in a statement yesterday said that liberalisation will be applicable to ECBs taken for working capital, general corporate purpose loans or repayment of rupee loans.

Corporate borrowers will be able to avail of ECBs to repay rupee loans taken for Capital expenditures if they are into manufacturing or infrastructure building and classified as Special Mention Account, SMA-2 or Non-Performing Asset, under any one-time settlement arrangement with lenders.

The RBI also issued a revised circular for bankers capturing the changes.

Consumer Protection Bill, Code of Wages Bill passed in Lok Sabha

Sabha today passed the Consumer Protection Bill, 2019 that aims at protecting the interests of consumers by establishing authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ dispute.

It has a provision for Central government to set up a Central Consumer Protection Authority to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers.

The authority will have the power to impose a penalty on a manufacturer or an endorser of up to 10 lakh rupees and imprisonment for up to two years for a false or misleading advertisement.

The Bill also has provision to set up Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions at the district, state, and national levels. Moving the Bill, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Raosaheb Patil Danve said the Bill aims to simplify a number of rules.

He said consumers do not get quick redressal of their complaints and with the passage of the Bill, consumers will be able to get speedy justice. He said the government aims to simplify the entire process of redressal of consumer grievances.

Taking part in the discussion, BJP’s Rajendra Agarwal termed the Bill as comprehensive. He said the nature of business has changed and consumers may easily be exploited as it is the age of e-commerce. He said the Bill will provide comprehensive security to consumers. Protima Mondal of Trinamool Congress said the Bill seeks to establish a strong mechanism to shield the consumer.

She said bringing e-commerce under the ambit of the Bill is a big step forward.
Lok Sabha has also passed the Code on Wages Bill, 2019 that seeks to regulate wage and bonus payments in all employments where any industry, trade, business, or manufacture is carried out.

According to the Code, the Central government will fix a floor wage, taking into account the living standards of workers.

Parliament passes Triple Talaq Bill; Prez, PM term it as a victory for gender justice

Parliament has passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 or Triple Talaq bill, with the Rajya Sabha approving it this evening.

99 members voted in favour of the bill while 84 against it. The Lok Sabha has already passed the bill.

The bill seeks to declare the practice of instant Triple Talaq as void and illegal and makes it a cognizable offence. It also provides allowance to women victims and their dependent children.

The offence is made compoundable with the permission of the Magistrate at the instance of the married Muslim woman upon whom talaq is pronounced. 

The Rajya Sabha also rejected the Opposition’s resolution referring the bill to Select Committee for further scrutiny. During the division, 100 members voted against it and 84 in favour.

Parties, including Congress, DMK, TMC, Left and  NCP voted against the bill while JD(U), AIADMK, TDP, TRS and BSP staged a walkout and did not participate in voting.

Replying to the debate on the bill, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, it has been brought to protect the rights of Muslim women and not to target any particular community. He said, the offence has been made compoundable and bailable.

He asserted that the bill is for gender justice, dignity and equality.

Mr Prasad said, among the cases related to Triple Talaq which have come to light after the Supreme Court’s judgment, 75 per cent of the victims are from poor families. He questioned the Congress as to why fingers are being raised on the intent of the bill, saying the Congress government, during its rule, made the provisions of imprisonment in Hindu Marriage Act and Dowry Prohibition Act.

Participating in the debate, Leader of the Opposition, Ghulam Nabi Azad attacked the government, accusing it of targeting the family set up among Muslims. He said the Triple Talaq Bill does not have provisions for the protection of victim women and their maintenance. He said the government is citing a minority judgment of the Supreme Court to justify the Triple Talaq Bill which is not good. He alleged that the Bill is politically motivated.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have lauded the passing of the bill banning instant triple talaq.

In a series of tweets, the President said it completes Parliament's approval of a ban on the inequitable practice of triple talaq. He said, it is a milestone in the quest for gender justice and a moment of satisfaction for the entire country.

In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed it as a victory of gender justice that will further equality in society. He said, a historic wrong done to Muslim women has been corrected and an archaic and medieval practice has been confined to the dustbin of history.

Saying India rejoices today, the Prime Minister thanked all parties and MPs who supported the passing of the bill in Parliament.

Mr Modi said, it is an occasion to salute the remarkable courage of those Muslim women who have suffered great wrongs due to the practice of triple talaq. He said, the abolition of the practice will contribute to women's empowerment and give women the dignity they deserve in society.

Home Minister Amit Shah said the legislation will free Muslim women from the curse of the regressive practice.

In a series of tweets, Mr Shah described the passing of the bill by Parliament as a great day for India's democracy. He congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling his commitment and ensuring a law to ban triple talaq.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, in a tweet, said it is a historic day as the bill which was being resisted in Rajya Sabha for long has finally been passed, ensuring justice for Muslim women. He said, there was an impression that the Upper House will block the bill but that myth has collapsed today.

In a tweet, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, it is a glorious day for the constitution, democracy and parliamentary history of the country.

Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said the passage of the bill is a victory for millions of Muslim women.

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The inscrutable design that weaves a web of desires

The intense conversation between Sage Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi, on the notions of love, desire and possessiveness, and the inexplicable connect one feels sometimes with another, is at the heart of the concept of the Self expounded in the Brihadarayanka Upanishad.  Yajnavalkya is preparing to leave his householder responsibilities towards the close of his middle years and embark on Vanaprastha, the renunciate stage of life and wants to settle all family affairs between his two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani.

Even as Yajnavalkya begins to explain his intent of dividing all of his property equally between the two women, Maitreyi startles him by asking whether this wealth that she will acquire will give to her a permanent state of happiness and joy. Yajnavalkya is taken aback, but Maitreyi persists with her question. Yajnavalkya tells her bluntly that though this wealth will give her material comforts, the satisfaction she will derive from material possessions will be only temporary; the state of happiness which Maitreyi is alluding to is not possible through such possessions. Maitreyi then expresses her disillusionment with this material settlement and requests Yajnavalkya to tell her of the way by which an unbroken state of happiness can be all way.

Yajnavalkya now expands the concept of wealth and explains how a comfortable state of mind operates. The mind derives its comfort through the physical acquisition of wealth or feels satisfied through attaining a particular social status. This conditioning of mind gives rise to our sense of possessiveness with that external object and draws a veil on the temporality of that external object as well as our own temporariness. But this external acquisition does give us happiness  for we still want to own, possess, desire, enjoy and feel this happiness, however temporary or imagined it may be. Why does this happen?

Yajnavalkya points to an inscrutable design working behind desires that grip our mind from time to time and which give us satisfaction and happiness when those desires get fulfilled.

The samvad, dialogue, between husband and wife picks up pace, as Yajnavalkya puts across his exposition of the inscrutable design behind each desire, longing, each possession and behind the need to love and be loved. Behind the mind’s desire for a particular thing or person is the desire to be one, to be united with that external object, however impossible it is in practicality. Yajnavalkya goes deeper behind this peculiar condition of mind to be united with externalities and points to an inner longing to be one with our inner Self, without which we feel restless, unsatiated and incomplete. The mind twists this inner longing to make it seem as if happiness could be achieved through external means.

Similarly, the love expressed between spouses, between man and woman, parents and children, between any two humans, are all part of a search for that love which alone will make us complete and impart to us a permanent state of happiness. The search for love, Yajnavalkya says, is the search for the Self, which alone can satiate us completely. No relationship can be dearer than the one we forge with our inner Self. Having initiated Maitreyi into this inscrutable principle of life, Yajnavalkya walks away into the great forest.

Newton law and new addition

More than 100 years after Albert Einstein published his iconic theory of general relativity, it is beginning to show signs of age. Now, following the most comprehensive test of general relativity yet near the monstrous black hole at the centre of our galaxy, University of California’s Professor Andrea Ghez has announced that Einstein’s theory of general relativity holds up – for now. Professor Ghez said: ”Einstein’s right, at least for now. We can absolutely rule out Newton’s law of gravity. “Our observations are consistent with Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

The inscrutable design that weaves a web of desires

The intense conversation between Sage Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi, on the notions of love, desire and possessiveness, and the inexplicable connect one feels sometimes with another, is at the heart of the concept of the Self expounded in the Brihadarayanka Upanishad.  Yajnavalkya is preparing to leave his householder responsibilities towards the close of his middle years and embark on Vanaprastha, the renunciate stage of life and wants to settle all family affairs between his two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani.

Even as Yajnavalkya begins to explain his intent of dividing all of his property equally between the two women, Maitreyi startles him by asking whether this wealth that she will acquire will give to her a permanent state of happiness and joy. Yajnavalkya is taken aback, but Maitreyi persists with her question. Yajnavalkya tells her bluntly that though this wealth will give her material comforts, the satisfaction she will derive from material possessions will be only temporary; the state of happiness which Maitreyi is alluding to is not possible through such possessions. Maitreyi then expresses her disillusionment with this material settlement and requests Yajnavalkya to tell her of the way by which an unbroken state of happiness can be acquired.