Wal-Mart enters India

Though many people are enthusiastic about this, I am very sure that the Walmart Guys are going to get the shock of their life in Tamil Nadu.

May be Walmart(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal-mart) can capture some market in Mumbai and Chandigarh, but in Tamil Nadu, the company is going to be another Enron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron)

The Retail Market in Tamil Nadu is very complex and Walmart cannot enter here as easily as they hope.

There is one small difference between Tamilians and Americans

Americans will buy milk, grocery with cash and house and car on loan
Tamilians will buy milk, grocery with loan and house and car with Cash !!!!

Wait and watch

Update :

They seem to be struggling in almost all countries other than America. With such a trend, I am at loss to understand as to how they venture into India. Common Guys, Your market survey of Delhi and Pune reflects less than 3 % of Indian Population. As per Wikipedia

Wal-Mart has struggled in other foreign markets. For example, in Germany, Wal-Mart had captured just 2% of German food sales following its entry into the market in 1997 and had remained "a secondary player" compared to competitor Aldi which boasts 19% share of the German market.[32] In July 2006, Wal-Mart announced its withdrawal of operations from Germany because of sustained losses. Wal-Mart's stores are to be sold to German company METRO AG[22] In China, Wal-Mart is "a small fish" as its strategy of "everyday low prices" has not been successful against "Chinese mom-and-pop shops that are used to cutthroat pricing."[33] In May 2006, Wal-Mart withdrew from the South Korean market when it agreed to sell all 16 of its South Korean outlets to Shinsegae, a local retailer, for $882 million who are as of late 2006 re-branding the country's Wal-Marts as E-mart. Wal-Mart had originally entered the South Korea market in 1998.[34] In the United Kingdom, Wal-Mart's Asda subsidiary is the second largest chain in the UK after Tesco.[35] Specifically, ASDA is a distant second to Tesco in the UK grocery market, and as of 2006 the gap is widening, based on market share figures published by TNS Superpanel.

A blog post and a comment

From http://chennaicentral.blogspot.com/2006/11/appeal.html

First, the blog post (emphasis mine)

An Appeal

Dear Economic Times,

When you publish news on data released by the National Crime Records Bureau that talks about economic crime in the big cities of India, I would like to remind you that there is also a city called Chennai. Unfortunately it happens to be one of the four original metropolises even though the way coverage is usually done on the major urban centers in India whether positively or negatively by any media group north of the Vindhyas, it is always conveniently left out. So, in the link quoted above, the absence of Chennai (except on the second page when both economic and non-economic offenses are clubbed together and in the cyber-crime statistics but not even once at two places on the first page where the other "cyber" cities are mentioned) can mean only one thing - either Chennai has been largely free of economic crime, which is good news for the increasing trend of investors preferring to set up shop in Chennai over other cities, who can read between the lines or ET has a serious amnesia problem when it comes to Latitude 13.09°N and Longitude 80.27°E.

Sincerely,
Thennavan.

An interesting comment to the above post (again emphasis mine)

I completely agree with your analysis. Northies have a biased view of the south, and that is a fact. This needs to be pointed out as most of the large english media houses are either in Mumbai or Delhi. (Other than "the hindu "group). I think it also boils down to the age old issue of language, northies hate the fact that hindi will not help them in chennai(The opposite is true in Hyd and bangalore). They also resent that tamilians(majority) are good at english but do not know the hindi alphabet. And they also resent that we do not need to cross TN to have multinational careers. The fact that a very significant number of people who work in the ITES industry(which is responsible for india's tremondous growth etc) are tamil is largely ignored. The truth be told Delhi is merely a political center(where women cannot walk outside after sunset), Mumbai has a strange notion of being the New York of India which it is not and Kolkata is merely a marxist mess. Now Chennai sounds a lot better does'nt it:-)

Employed in More than One Medical College

From http://mciindia.org/tools/prelease/Doctors_Dabarred.htm
(The Site URL tells everything)

LIST OF TEACHERS CLAIMING EMPLOYMENT AS MEDICAL TEACHERS IN MORE THAN ONE MEDICAL COLLEGE AND WHOSE NAMES HAVE BEEN REMOVED TEMPORARILY FROM INDIAN MEDICAL REGISTER

MEDICAL COUNCIL OF INDIA
Aiwan-E-Galib Marg, Kotla Road,
Opp. Mata Sundari College (for Women), Near ITO
New Delhi-110002

Over a period of last 1-2 years by considering the inspection reports of various medical colleges seeking permissions/renewals under Section 10A of the Act, it was felt and observed that a large number of doctors are claiming employment as medical teachers in more than one medical college at the same time. It was being observed that the names of the doctors shown as medical teachers in a particular medical college were getting repeated in the inspection reports of certain other medical colleges, in the same proximity of time.

Apparently, the medical colleges and the medical teachers were indulging in such activities only to show to the inspection team of the Council that the colleges concerned are fulfilling the minimum requirement for the teaching staff for seeking permissions/renewals under Section 10A of the Act.

The Council, therefore, to curb such unscrupulous tendencies, started adopting methods in this regard. Declaration forms were introduced to be signed by the doctors claiming employment as medical teachers in any given medical college and that they also remain present along with their declaration forms, at the time of the conduct of the inspection of that college.

Subsequently, a provision for endorsement by the Dean/Principal of the medical college was also introduced in the declaration forms to make this requirement more efficient and effective by stating that in the event of any declaration made by a particular medical teacher turns out to be untrue and incorrect, the Dean/Principal of the college putting signatures as endorsement of the truthfulness of the statement made in the declaration would also be held responsible in that event.

Needless to state that the Council has always tried to improve in this regard for ensuring that such misdeclarations / misstatements are completely eliminated or minimized to the extent possible with the clear perception that the Council should take appropriate action against such erring doctors whenever it is found that the particular doctor has furnished more than one declaration forms towards claiming teaching employment in any medical college when such a doctor has already furnished similar declaration for claiming employment as medical teacher in certain other medical colleges at the same point of time.

This problem has engaged attention of the Council continuously during the last 1-2 years. The cases have also been considered by the Ethics Committee of the Council. Whenever it has been found that a particular doctor is claiming employment as medical teacher at the same point of time in more than one medical colleges, show cause notices had been issued seeking their replies. They were given due opportunities to present their explanation before the Ethics Committee.

At its meeting held on 12.10.2004, before the General Body, cases of such misdeclarations and misstatement by the medical teachers have been placed for consideration. The Ethics Committee of the Council, after granting opportunity of being heard to all of these doctors, has recommended imposition of punishment of removal of their names from the Indian Medical Register maintained by the Council.

This issue was considered by the General Body of the Council with all required seriousness. Undoubtedly, such kind of misconduct is much more serious than the alleged negligence in cases of treating the patients by doctors. Such misdeclarations/ misstatements are made to cause deception not only to the Council but also on the Central Govt. for extracting permissions/renewals under Section 10A of the Act.

The worst part is that ultimately it is those innocent students who get admissions in such medical colleges where the minimum required medical teachers are shown only in such a dubious manner, causes irreparable prejudice to the fair interests of those students and further also to the patients who may be treated by such half-baked students who would not get their exposure and training with the minimum required number of medical teachers available to them.

The General Body was clearly of the view that such a tendency has to be completely eliminated and not only curbed. The situation does not brook any lenience in this regard and deserves to be dealt with a heavy hand. No doctor should ever be allowed to make such false declaration and get away with it. Timely efficient action in this regard is the need of the hour. It should also act as an effective deterrent so that others who are getting tempted to indulge into such activities should feel reluctant to do so.

The Council, therefore, without any ambiguity unanimously decided as under:-

The names of the following teachers be erased temporarily upto 31st July, 2007.

He/She will not be eligible to be counted as a teacher at the inspections to be carried out by MCI for the academic years 2005-06 and 2006-07.

The names of all such teachers be published on the website and a circular be sent to all the Directors of Medical Education of all the States, all the Universities and all the Medical Colleges/Institutions.

It was further decided that in case of non-medical teachers who is not possessing a medical degree or a registration certificate, he/she will not be eligible to be counted as a teacher at the inspections to be carried out by MCI for the academic years 2005-06 and 2006-07.

The Council further decided that a circular be issued to all the D.M.Es., Universities and Medical Colleges/Institutions that the list of such defaulting teachers has been published on the website of the Council. it was further decided that this decision would be applicable mutatis mutandis to all the teachers who have been found employed more than one medical college for the academic year 2003-04 and whose case has not been finalized as yet due to non-appearance or any other reason.

Sr. No.	Name of the Doctor	Subject	Name of the State Medical Council where he / she is Registered with Registration No.
	Dr. K. Krishna Murthy	Physiology	Andhra Medical Council – 5608
2.	Dr. M. Panchela Reddy	Pathology	Andhra Medical Council – 13827
3.	Dr. K. Kamla	General Medicine	Andhra Medical Council – 3714
4.	Dr. K. Rama Kumar	Biochemistry	Andhra Medical Council – 7673
5.	Dr. P. Hanumantha Rao	General Medicine	Andhra Medical Council – 43426
6.	Dr. S. Lakshmi Narasinha Reddy	Biochemistry	Andhra Medical Council – 3778
7.	Dr. K. Rajeshwari	OBG	Andhra Medical Council - 2713
8.	Dr. Venkateshwar Rao	General Surgery	Andhra Medical Council – 2620
9.	Dr. C. C. Mohan Reddy	Pathology	Andhra Medical Council - 5046
10.	Dr. Kamlesh Sundereshwaran	Anatomy	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 17822
11.	Dr. S. Laxshmi	Forensic Medicine	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 47745
12.	Dr. L. Surya Kumari	Biochemistry	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 16855
13.	Dr. N. Sachidanandan	Physiology	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 29253
14.	Dr. S.Kantha	Pathology	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 18839
15.	Dr. Usha Kothandavaman	Anatomy	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 38339
16.	Dr. M.N. Shahul Hameed	Anatomy	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 57663
17.	Dr. T. Rajan	Anatomy	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 58044
18.	Dr. R.Daivasiganani	Forensic Medicine	Tamil Nadu Medical Council – 30678
19.	Dr. Satyakam Jena	Forensic Medicine	Orissa Medical Council – 12594
20.	Dr. Nirajan Tripathy	Anatomy	Orissa Medical Council - 3194
21.	Dr. Vilasini Sundaresan	Anatomy	Travancore Medical Council – 5489
22.	Dr. N. Sundaresan	Pathology	Travancore Medical Council – 4867
23.	Dr. K. Thankam	Community Medicine	Travancore Medical Council – 6311
24.	Dr. P. Suman Setty	Pathology	Karnataka Medical Council – 41951
25.	Dr. Umamaheshwara Rao Kaveti	Pharmacology	Karnataka Medical Council – 42441

SD/
(Lt. Col.(Dr.) A R N Setalvad (Retd.))
Secretary

Some points on Entrance Exams

A letter by Karthik Sankaranarayanan (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~ks4kk/) Shamelessly copied from his comment on Badri's Blog http://thoughtsintamil.blogspot.com/2006/11/blog-post_20.html#comments)

When the TNPCEE was first introduced as an objective means of evaluation for admission into the professional institutions, the target number of seats was small (few thousands). Today, the advent of private professional colleges has resulted in a manifold increase in the number of available seats (several tens of thousands). In fact, for engineering, the supply today is greater than the demand and many seats remain unfilled every year. The multitude of deemed universities, private and government colleges has lead to a situation where the students are overwhelmed by too many entrance exams. In such a scenario of surplus seats and numerous entrance exams, there is now a renewed debate on the need for a Common Entrance Test (CET) like the TNPCEE. The aim of this e-mail is to analyze the various aspects of this debate and to present my opinions about a potential solution.

First, let us focus on the issue of surplus seats. While there are many unfilled vacancies, this does not mean that there is a lack of competition among the taken seats. Also, the unoccupied seats are not all uniformly distributed across the colleges. The number of unfilled seats is usually inversely related to the quality of the institution as perceived by the students and their parents. There is a vast difference in standard between a 'perceived excellent' institution and a 'perceived average' institution. Many government institutions are currently under the 'excellent' group and a few private colleges are also well on their way to get there. There is a much higher competition among students for such high standard institutions than for the others. In such a reality, any fair policy of admission should be able to distinguish between the applicants at a fine level of granularity based on some objective criterion. The current higher secondary examination is inadequate for this purpose of differentiation. Please note that I am making this assertion not because it encourages rote learning but because it tends to be based upon descriptive answers and is only good in differentiating the students at a coarse level of granularity. For instance, one could probably say with a reasonable degree of certainty that a student with a 190/200 is better in that subject than another with 120/200 but the same cannot be said about two students with 195/200 and 190/200 respectively. Hence, over and above the qualifying examination, which does a good job of differentiating at a coarser granularity, another examination that differentiates students at a fine level of granularity is essential. Also, two examinations eliminate a single point of failure, thus giving a chance for a student who has unfortunately slipped in one to make up in the other. This is notwithstanding the fact that such an extra exam provides a common platform for students from different boards of education. This means that, in my opinion, some form of a CET is necessary even if we do not consider the CBSE students.

Given that some form of a CET is necessary, it is crucial to focus on the second issue: inconvenience to students. Like Einstein said, one has to "make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler". We should strive towards reducing the number of entrance exams to one but not zero. A consensus should be evolved between the different associations of private and government institutions and a CET that suits the need of everybody should be devised. If an institution feels that the CET is very difficult and that it is unable to find students matching the minimum qualification requirements, the total number of questions can be increased and additional easy questions can be added (without removing the challenging questions that are already present and hence, without diluting the quality of the CET), thereby giving the CET a better differentiation capability even at the lower end of the curve. Also, the minimum eligibility requirements on the CET score could be removed as the qualifying exam's minimum score requirements serve the purpose.

Another argument against a CET is that it puts rural and poor students at a greater disadvantage. Analysis of examination data has shown that this is not true ( link ). In fact, using the scores of the qualification exam alone results in a deeper urban-rural divide. It is true that the sole reliance on any form of exam scores causes the mushrooming of specialized coaching centers that train the students to mechanically crack the exam. This skews the ability of the exam to distinguish between innovative talent and mechanical practice. However, this is not an aspect unique to the CET and hence removing the CET will not solve the problem. In fact, it is more prevalent in the higher secondary exam and hence removing the CET will only exacerbate the issue. It is common knowledge that many schools do not pay attention to the XI standard syllabus and instead spend much of their time coaching their students for the XII standard. The enormous success of the residential schools (e.g. those in namakkal and salem districts) also shows the efficacy of specialized training in the higher secondary exam. Such specialized coaching centers are usually situated in urban areas and their fee structure is usually not affordable for poor students. Solving this problem of urban-rural divide could potentially employ solutions like government-sponsored educational vouchers for specialized coaching and reservation in the educational institutions for rural or poor students. However, such solutions are social responsibilities of a government and its people but lie beyond the scope of the CET process itself.

Having argued for some form of a CET, following are a few characteristics that are desirable for the CET:

a) The syllabus should involve the complete post-secondary period (both XI and XII standards). This could act as a reverse-lever and encourage schools to provide the focus required for class XI. It could also take away the undue mechanization of learning in class XII.

b) It should emphasize strong fundamentals over shallow details and innovation over rote. A possibility is to include a general aptitude test as part of the CET. An aptitude test might not be a conclusive word in assessing a student's ability but definitely provides a useful contribution. After all, the companies that recruit these students after their college education base their judgments partly on such aptitude tests and a pre-entrance preparation would only help the students during their recruitment.

c) The distribution of the difficulty level of questions should closely reflect the student IQ distribution. Usually, the number of average students tends to be very high while both the number of extra-ordinary students and the number of weak students tends to be very low. The distribution of questions should also reflect this pattern - with a few easy questions, a few hard questions and a lot of average questions. The classification of a question into each of these categories of difficulty could be done by observing the distribution of performance of the students in that question during the previous years. An easy question is one in which very few students have gone wrong while a difficult question is one in which very few have been right. Similar to the GRE, questions appearing for the first time could be used only as gauging experiments and not for scoring purposes.

Thinking about these issues, AIEEE/AIPMT seem to be possible candidates for the CET as they possess many of the aforementioned characteristics. Such a choice further reduces the number of examinations to be taken by the students. However, this poses a problem to students whose medium of instruction has been Tamil as these exams are offered only in English and Hindi. If one can work with the central government to conduct these exams in Tamil as well, there lies a potential solution. On the other hand, if we examine the TNPCEE in the light of the discussions above, it can be seen that it has many of the desirable features and with a few changes like the addition of an aptitude section and inclusion of the XI standard syllabus, it will be well-suited for the job.

Hence, my vote is to retain the CET - if need be, in the form of AIEEE/AIPMT or in the form of a modified version of the time-tested, reliable workhorse: the TNPCEE

Urban-rural divide widens
From http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/04/stories/2006060408050400.htm
If the State Government thought that scrapping the Common Entrance Test (CET) and admitting students to professional courses on the basis of their Plus Two marks will help students in rural areas, it should think again.

Going by this year's Plus Two results, the bias in favour of urban students has only increased.

According to a detailed analysis presented at The Hindu Education Plus Career Fair 2006 on Saturday, hardly five per cent of those likely to enter medical colleges this year will be from rural areas.

Students from the Namakkal belt, known for its residential schools, and from Chennai have outperformed those from other areas, said Salem-based analyst Jayaprakash Gandhi, who analysed the results.

Out of the 66 education districts in the State, 38 are entirely rural.

Of them, at least 15 may not figure in admissions to top colleges in the State, be it medical or engineering.

If at all some make it, it will be because of a better performance in the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examinations (TNPCEE).

The reasons

Academic circles explain that the reasons for the divide are not far to seek. While urban students have better access to intensive coaching, their rural counterparts do not even have enough of quality teachers to shape them. Even in the Namakkal-Salem-Rasipuram region, which abounds in residential schools that give special coaching to the students for scoring very high marks, it is mostly urban students who are on the rolls. Many rural schools are lacking in laboratory facilities and staff vacancies are not filled easily.

Unless the quality of education in rural schools improves dramatically, it will be difficult for the average student in these areas to match their urban counterparts. For that to happen, the Government and its School Education machinery have to work overtime, they argue.

My previous post on Entrance Exams are found at
http://www.penandscale.com/bruno/2006/02/about-entrance-and-exit-exams.html
http://www.penandscale.com/bruno/2006/02/court-prefers-entrance-rather-than.html
http://www.penandscale.com/bruno/2006/02/more-about-entrance-saga.html
http://www.penandscale.com/bruno/2006/02/entrance-of-exit.html
http://www.penandscale.com/bruno/2006/03/grace-marks-in-physics.html
http://www.penandscale.com/bruno/2006/03/entrance-case-on-march-27th.html

Is Kanyakumari poor in Education

With reference to http://dharumi.blogspot.com/2006/11/189_23.html

//வரண்ட பகுதியாகவும், குழந்தை
உழைப்பாளிகள் நிறைந்த ஒரு பகுதியாகவே இதுவரை நான் பார்த்திருக்கிறேன். //

அப்படிபட்ட பகுதிகளில் 12ஆவது வகுப்பு எழுதும் குழந்தைகள் படிப்பில் மிகுந்த ஆர்வம் (வைராக்கியம் என்று கூட சொல்லலாம்) உள்ளவர்கள். படிப்பு "வரவில்லை" என்றால் உடனடியாக வேலைக்கு அனுப்ப படுவார்கள்.

நீங்கள் பார்ப்பது, எழுதியவர்களில் தேர்ச்சி பெற்ற விகிதம்தான். அதனால் தான் கன்னியகுமரி மாவட்டத்தில் தேர்ச்சி சதவிகிதம் குறைவாக உள்ளது.

For example, if there are 100 children in the age of 16

In KK District, 90 of them write 12th standard. Of which 60 get a pass
In Virudunagar, only 60 write 12th of which 55 get pass.

The values given above are just theoritical. i have used the exact figures later on in this post

If you analyse the absolute number of students who have passed 12th standard and compare it with the total population of the district, you can understand.

What Virudunagar has achieved is the same thing as few "posh" schools who take only the "good students" (14000 out of the population of 1,751,301)

KK District is like Govt School taking in all students (21,000 out of population of 1,676,034)

Now come back to the figures

% of 12th Pass of the total population

KK District - 0.85 %
Virudunagar District - 0.69 %

-----------

Imagine that 100 students write 11th Exam and 80 of them pass

Now this 80 writes 12th and 64 passes in 12th giving 80 % result in 12th standard also

Now

Compare two schools, School A and School B

In both schools, 100 students appear for 11th Standard

School A admits students who score above 80 % in 11th
School B admits students all who have passed in 11th

That means

School A will have LESS number of students in 12th than School B

Say School A has 70 students
School B has 80 students

When the results come
School A would have scored 64/70
School B would have scored 64/80

Now you can see that even the result of school A is high because it did not take students who are likely to fail

The result of School B is low because it did took students who are likely to fail

Of course there are a lot of factors involved, but WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND That this also is an important factor

That this factor has played a decisive role can be judged from the fact that the number of students who have appeared for exams

Between KK and Virudunagar, the percentage of boys and girls in the age group of 16 will be almost same

Yet more number (among the eligible ) appear in KK District

This invariably pulls down the pass percentage

My Favourite Tamil Font Converter

http://www.suratha.com/reader.htm

Some one who misunderstood the way to make more than one post in a blog

http://www.blogger.com/profile/4728445

Pancreatic Cancer (Ca. Pancreas) and Survival

I got the following question as a comment

Hello Doctor,

I am a S/W Engineer and I have a question.

One of my friend's dad got diagnised with Pancreatic cancer and undergone a surgery called Whipple's surgery in one of the hospitals at Coimbatore. I beleive the doctors said its a critical one and he is still in danger. They also said that the survival of the person affected by Pancreatic tumor is very less. When I checked in Internet it says for the same disease the survival is 75% - 95% in US. I am not sure whether its not the case in India. If you are a doctor or If you know anyone who survived after the surgery(in India), please let me know.

Please shoot out a mail to ___@gmail.com or ___@gmail.com.

Also you can call me @ (US: 201-233-xxxx) and if you are in India, please call my other friend Deepan @ 99400xxxxx. (Since my friend is in hospital with his dad and he cannot attend calls)

(Personal Information removed)

I don't know where you saw the 75% survival rate. Any way, this further adds support to my policy of NOT CHECKING FOR HEALTH ADVICE FROM INTERNET.

As per Harrison's text book of Medicine (the widely acclaimed textbook of medicine world wide and published in US)

The incidence of pancreatic carcinoma in the United States has increased significantly as the median life expectancy of the American population has lengthened. The tumor results in the death of >98% of afflicted patients. 28,200 individuals died of pancreatic cancer in 2000, making it the fifth most common cause of cancer-related mortality. The disease is more common in males than in females and in blacks than in whites. It rarely develops before the age of 50

Complete surgical resection of pancreatic tumors offers the only effective treatment for this disease. Unfortunately, such "curative" operations are only possible in 10 to 15% of patients with pancreatic cancer, usually those individuals with a tumor in the pancreatic head in whom jaundice was the initial symptom. Patients considered for such a procedure should have no evidence of metastatic spread on a chest radiograph and abdominal-pelvic CT scan and should be operated on by an experienced surgeon, as mortality rates of >15% have been associated with this procedure. Curative resection is usually preceded by laparoscopic inspection of the abdomen to confirm absence of occult disease spread to the omentum, peritoneum, or liver, which would preclude curative resection. Although the potential for cure in patients with pancreatic cancer is restricted to the few who are able to undergo a complete surgical resection, the 5-year survival rate following such operations is only 10%. Nonetheless, the procedure is worth attempting, particularly for lesions in the pancreatic head, since ductal carcinomas often cannot be distinguished preoperatively from ampullary, duodenal, and distal bile duct tumors or pancreatic cyst adenocarcinomas, all of which have far higher rates of resectability and cure. Furthermore, patients who undergo resection and eventually experience disease recurrence survive three to four times longer than those whose tumor is not excised, indicating that such operations have a palliative effect. The risk for tumor recurrence is not affected by the type of operative procedure i.e., total pancreatectomy versus pancreaticoduodenectomy ("Whipple resection") but it is increased by the presence of lymph node metastases or tumor invasion into adjacent viscera. As a rule, pancreaticoduodenectomy or distal pancreatectomy seems preferable to total pancreatectomy because of the retention of exocrine function and avoidance of brittle diabetes.

The median survival for patients whose pancreatic cancers are surgically unresectable is 6 months.

Sabiston's textbook of Surgery (The standard text book of Surgery in US) says

In the United States there are approximately 28,000 cases of cancer of the exocrine pancreas diagnosed each year. Cancer of the pancreas is the fifth most common cause of cancer death, exceeded only by lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers. Ninety percent of patients die within the first year after diagnosis. In both men and women, pancreatic cancer represents 3% of all cancers and 5% of all cancer deaths. Since 1960, the relative 5-year survival rate for all cases of pancreatic cancer has increased from 1% to 3%. Considering only cancers of the digestive tract, cancer of the pancreas ranks second, behind colorectal cancer, in incidence and cancer death rates. Cancer of the pancreas is more common in blacks than in whites, more common in smokers than in nonsmokers, more common in males than in females, and appears to be linked to the presence of diabetes mellitus. Cancer of the pancreas is possibly linked to both a history of previous chronic pancreatitis and the ingestion of a high-fat diet.

Please don't follow health advice from Internet. As Sujatha once said "Internet என்பது கங்கை மாதிரி, பூவும் வரும், பிணமும் வரும்"

AIDS in Tamil Nadu

.... is decreasing as per the Director of TANSACS, inspite of the fact that this state hsa the largest number of REGISTERED Patients Living with HIV/AIDS (http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/19/stories/2006111902851000.htm)

Supriya Sahu, Project Director, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society, said Tamil Nadu was the only State where the HIV/AIDS growth rate showed a downtrend. The prevalence had come down from one to 0.5 per cent. A programme for screening all children with HIV/AIDS would be completed by the month-end to ensure that no child was left out of the care givingprocess.

The reason - Tamil Nadu accepted that there is a disease called AIDS way back in the 1980s and started the programmes. Tamil Nadu is ahead by atleast 10 years in AIDS Control Programme than most other states.

The reason I have stressed Registered is because the surveillance system is very poor in many states

அது சரி, புள்ளி ராஜா போய் ரைட் ரங்கா வந்தது ஏன்

Lapse in Viscera Preservation may lead to Dismissal

http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/19/stories/2006111913181100.htm

Apart from the police, medical officers who performed the first post mortem on the four bodies, especially those of the two women, have also been accused of criminal negligence.

K. D. Ramteke, Bhandara district Civil Surgeon told The Hindu that the services of Avinash Shende, the medical officer at the rural hospital Mohadi who had conducted the first post mortem on the four bodies had been terminated.

"There were so many technical lacunae in the post mortem and I personally felt the reports were not adequate. The officers did not send me the post mortem reports till I asked for them a fortnight later," he said. Manisha Banthe, the medical officer in charge of the Mohadi rural hospital has also been suspended.

Dr. Shende did not preserve the viscera for a chemical analysis or the uterus in the case of the two women, which is done routinely. Worse still, no vaginal swabs were taken. Their clothes too were not sealed and handed over to the police.

Questions

1. Were the doctors given induction training and foundation training
2. Without Proper Training How can they be responsible
3. Can you refuse to do Post Mortem citing that you are not trained
4. What will happen if a doctor asks for opinion from higher centres often
5. Can postmortem be avoided
6. Can postmortem be done after sunset
   

Answers

1. It does not matter
2. If you feel that you are not trained / instructed properly to handle such cases, then the case can be referred to higher centers for specialist opinion. Though my sympathies are with the medical officers who are getting punished for some one else's fault, they could have been more alert. After all, you need not do MD Pathology to find that the deceased died due to unnatural causes. On Such cases, it is always better to get the opinion of the senior doctors.
3. No. As discussed, you have to start the post mortem, incise, take all the viscera, pack them and sent for opinion
4. The police persons are very smart. They will not bring any dead body when such a doctor is on duty
5. Yes, By Special orders of the Government. The recent example is 2004 Dec 26 Tsunami
6. Yes. There is no rule that says that postmortem should be done From X AM to Y PM
   

Orkut Brahmins

Thanks to Shivam Vij for the Link (http://www.kafila.org/2006/11/10/orkut-brahmins-social-networking-youth-india-caste/)

Hope you all know about Orkut, a social networking site young people spend hours on these days. Here is an excerpt from a discussion on the message board of a ‘Brahmin’ community.

T.U. 10/9/2006 8:47 PM
Why do we have Ram's Picture ?
I know that Ram was one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu, but the thing is Ram was not a Brahmin, he was a Kshatriya..The Raghukul Gotra among Kshatriyas are from Ram's descendants..So as a Hindu I respect Shri Ram, but as a Brahmin It is lord Vishnu we should worship..what say? Correct me if I am wrong ..Why do we have Ram's Picture ?

raghunath 10/9/2006 10:34 PM
you are right.

krishna 10/9/2006 10:55 PM
just a reply........
well......there r lot many humans to bind in castism man.....keep LORD RAM separate from this stupid concept......GOD don't have any cast they r above of all this.....
if u say ur a brahmin u shud keep this simple fact in mind that our GOD's doesn't come under the concepts of what we brahmins created as CAST.........any correction of what ever i said always welcome....thanx
and one more thing LORD vishnu is neighter a kshatriya nor a brahmin......

T.U. 10/10/2006 5:33 AM
if you think castism is a stupid concept then why did you join the community of Brahmin Caste? I mean I also don't believe in untouchability and similar evils, but being from a Brahmin Caste, I am proud of the contribution our ancestors made to the Sanatan Dharma and the world..It is clearly written in Vishnu Puran that in Kalyug, the Shudras will compete with Brahmins for Supremecy and try to rule them..IF you don't believe then Go and Check in TN, how Brahmins are treated there..How Ramadoss (A Shudra) is troubling Venugopal of AIIMS (The Best Cardiac Surgeon in India)because he is a Brahmin..

Wow !!!!

1 Comments:

At 3:22 PM, Ravindran said…

enlightening discussion ! :)

Something about Gazzag.com

http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/11/gazzagcom_is_my_new_enemy.html

As part of my ongoing research into social networks, I sign up at pretty much every site I come across. Today, I came across Gazzag.com.

As part of the sign up process, they offered to import all my contacts from Orkut.com. I agreed, entered my login and password, and all the contacts popped over. Then, Gazzag then took it upon themselves to email all of my contacts saying that I invited them to join my network at Gazzag. As something of a social network expert, all my friends have been saying “Well if Jen invited me, there must be something really great here” and wandered into this evil trap of a social networking site. I did not invite them, I did not email them, and there is nothing special about this site. It basically hijacked my email address and spammed these people from me.

The Gazzag Terms and Conditions says nothing about them using my email address.

There is some small text under the box to import Orkut contacts that says ” Type your Orkut username and password. Your friends will be invited to join you at Gazzag. Note: Gazzag will not store your password. ” I did read this, but I naively took it to mean that my friends who were *already in Gazzag* would be invited to join me. What stupid kind of thing would email everyone I know? I certainly should have been smarter about this, but I am not the only one who has been sucked in here. A Google blog search for Gazzag finds lots of people angry about receiving all these spams and other people angry about finding they were sent.

This kind of practice is not just bad. It’s evil. There are real implications to emails being sent from a user’s address. In my case, messages went to my boss and colleagues who are in much higher positions than me. Those are people whom I think carefully about emailing, and I would never send them an invitation to a general social network. Messages also went to a couple of my exes. People do not actively remove connections in social networks, so a person’s list of friends will often contain people who are not friends any more. It implies something to delete a friend, so most people avoid it by just doing nothing. When a site like Gazzag comes along and emails all those people, it carries a lot of social implications that users probably don’t want to make. I think it’s rare that anyone would want to email their full list of friends with an invitation like this, and Gazzag simply shouldn’t do it.

So, for forcing me and several acquaintances to do a lot of damage control today, I officially declare Gazzag.com my enemy. Note that I have not even given them a link on this blog. Don’t go there. Don’t visit. Don’t sign up. Tell everyone you know to avoid them. I’m an expert, and this time, I mean what you’re reading.

1 Comments:

At 5:45 PM, Ravindran said…

Thanks for clearing it up for me. i have been getting a bunch of spam mails from Gazzag from people who were in my network in Orkut.

Hear me, Mr Ram Jethmalani, An Idea for You

As per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lal

At the trial, Shyan said that Manu Sharma had fired only once, and that also into the air. He described Manu's clothes carefully. Subsequently, he said that another bullet, fired by someone else, was the one to hit Jessica. About this man's dress, he was evasive, and saying only that he was wearing a "light-coloured" shirt. This led to the "two-gun theory" - with the forensic report said that the bullets were fired from different weapons. It is widely believed that the forensic reports were also doctored.

So,

2 bullets have been fired. One hit the person. Other did not hit the person. We don't know who fired the bullet that hit the person. So we cannot punish anyone. Release the accused because we don't know who actually shot at her.

Please, Mr.Jethmalani, tell this in court, and as a compliment for giving this advice, can you please enroll me as your junior

How Rasputin treated Tsarevich Alexei's Hemophilia

The background information

Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov was Tsesarevich - the heir apparent - of Russia, being the youngest child and the only son of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Alexandra Fyodorovna.

Alexei is presumed to have died on July 17, 1918, but as his body has never been found this is impossible to definitively confirm.

He inherited haemophilia from his mother Alexandra, a condition which could be traced back to her maternal grandmother Queen Victoria. His haemophilia led to controversy, on the grounds that it was believed that his mother was having an affair with the Russian starets, Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin claimed to be able to 'heal' Alexei when he was on the brink of death after spells of haemophilia-related complications.

Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Tsarevich Alexei's haemophilia in 1904. The disease had been inherited from his great-grandmother (Queen Victoria). When the young Tsarevich got a bruise after he fell off of a horse, he suffered from internal bleeding for days while vacationing with his family. The Tsaritsa, looking everywhere for help, asked her best friend Anna Vyrubova to secure the help of the charismatic peasant healer in 1905. He was said to possess the ability to heal through prayer, and he was indeed able to give the boy some relief. Skeptics have claimed that he did so by hypnosis, though during a particularly grave crisis, Rasputin, from his home in Siberia, was believed to have eased the suffering of the tsarevich (in Saint Petersburg) through prayer. His practical advice, such as "Don't let the doctors bother him too much, let him rest," may also have been of great assistance in allowing Alexei and his worried mother to relax, so that the child's own natural healing process might take place. Others believe he used leeches to stop the boy's bleeding for the moment; however, this is unlikely to have been successful, as leech saliva contains hirudin and other natural anticoagulants. Every time the boy had an injury causing internal or external bleeding, the Tsaritsa contacted Rasputin, whereupon the Tsarevich subsequently got better, and this made it seem as if Rasputin was effectively healing him.

Now coming to one interesting theory
The medical treatment which was halted due to Rasputin's intervention included aspirin, then a newly-available (1910) "wonder drug" for treatment of pain. Because the poor (poor in terms of life and not money) boy had joint pain, some doctor would have given aspirin. Since aspirin is an anticoagulant (the anticoagulant property was only discovered in 1971), this would have increased the bleeing into joints which was causing Alexei's joint swelling and pain. So Aspirin was infact increasing the pain (by causing more hemorrhage into the joints) rather than decreasing it. When Aspirin was stopped, the boy became better

Atrocity

http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/11/dalits-like-flies-to-feudal-lords.html
See it there. Nothing more to add

I will be in Delhi for 2 days

... 11th and 12th November

Staying at

Ramanuja's Lodging House
12/4, W.E.A. Karol Bagh
Saraswathy Marg
New Delhi - 110005

25722938
25766449
25780868
25780872

or

Annexe Building
4/58, W.E.A. Padam Singh Road
Karol Bagh
New Delhi
110005

Chikungunya declared a `notifiable disease'

Hospitals and laboratories must report new cases
From http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/06/stories/2006110613020600.htm

MADURAI: The State Government has declared Chikungunya a `notifiable disease' under the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939.

"This is a milestone in the Chikungunya control programme," S. Elango, Joint Director of Public Health, told The Hindu here on Sunday. A Government Order issued on October 26 under Section 52 listed chikungunya along with other notifiable diseases such as dengue, cholera, malaria, typhoid, chickenpox and HIV/AIDS, said Dr. Elango who was here to attend a Continuing Medical Education Programme said.

The Act makes it mandatory for all private hospitals and laboratories to report chikungunya cases to the Health department.

Action could be initiated if the institutions failed to report to the Government, he added.

The notification would help the Directorate of Public Health to get enough data on the incidence of the vector-borne disease and enable the Government to take early preventive measures, he said.

Decision hailed

According to Dr. Elango, the Government decision was hailed at the national level and experts involved in the national vector-borne diseases control programme urged other States to follow the Tamil Nadu model.

How Indicators Work

The inspiration of this post is http://vivekspace.wordpress.com/2006/09/28/iits-in-news/

When I was in school, our Chemistry teacher told us a story about the phrase “caught red-handed”. He said that the police actually puts a chemical (some sort of mild acid in powdered form) on the currency notes which are handed over in an anti-corruption operation. Clearly, the term “sting operation” hadn’t caught on in those days. Later, when they wash the hands of the culprit with a chemical they turn red.

So what is the powder that is applied in the notes and is the other chemical

If the initial powder is an acid, the indicator would be
Thymol Blue (which is actually red in Acid and Yellow in Base)
Methyl Orange
Methyl Red

If it (the powder on the note) is a base, the indicator would have been phenophthalein

Or the powder can be an indicator and the second chemical acid / base.

Table of Indicators

Common Name	pH Range transition change	Color in Acid	Color in Base
Picric Acid	0.1 to 0.8	Colorless	Yellow
Thymol Blue	1.2 to 2.8	Red	Yellow
Congo Red	3.0 tp 5.0	Blue	Red
Methyl Orange	3.1 to 4.4	Red	Yellow
Methyl Red	4.2 to 6.3	Red	Yellow
Neutral Red	6.8 to 8.0	Red	Yellowish Orange
Phenolphthalein	8.0 to 9.6	Colorless	Pink
Alizarin Yellow	10.1 to 12.0	Colorless	Violet

More on Media Bias or Biased Media

http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1

Sin and the Indian call centres

From http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/10/09/10073221.html

Why does it take so long to get through to an Indian call centre? Because everyone is too busy chatting up their colleagues - and worse - if the Catholic church is to be believed.

The church is so concerned by evidence that call centres are becoming dens of iniquity that it is offering week-long retreats and counselling, in the hope of turning staff away from a life of sin.

With employees who are young, usually single, and on starting salaries much higher than those of doctors or lawyers, India's booming call centre industry has been responsible for a social revolution.

"Women come to work with condoms in their handbags," said Alkesh Dua, a call centre worker in Noida, just outside New Delhi.

"Everyone is doing it. You're together all night in this cool, hip atmosphere and you end up getting intimate.'"

Employers have tried to compensate for the monotonous nature of the work itself by creating an informal, American-style college campus atmosphere, where there is plenty of apres-shift drinking and partying.

Since many staff work night shifts, after which normal socialising is impossible, office friendships - with accompanying sexual liaisons - have blossomed.

In the southern city of Bangalore, a call centre hub, the rising number of abortions - up 50 per cent in two years - is blamed on the licentious lifestyles of the call centre workers.

So entrenched is their reputation for dating, drinking and partying that many middle class parents are now reluctant to let their daughters take up such jobs.

The church hopes to reverse the trend with the launch, in Bangalore, of a series of retreats and counselling sessions, before attempting to tackle the new promiscuity among the country's 1.3 million call centre and outsourcing workers throughout the country.

"We don't want to do moral policing, but we want to advise young people that being "modern" doesn't mean losing their family traditions or moral values," said Bangalore's archbishop, Bernard Moras.

In New Delhi, Father Dominic Emmanuel, the spokesman for the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, said that the youth wing in every archdiocese would be mobilised to help.

"We are responsible for these young people," he said.

"We have to show them we care by giving them guidance and showing them the dangers of adultery and casual sex."

India's call centre industry, which has been growing by 60 per cent a year, is also under scrutiny over claims that criminal networks in India are trading British consumers' bank account details for huge profits.

The country's National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) admits it is concerned about its professional reputation.

But conservatives, who revile call centres as decadent outposts of western culture, are just as concerned about the threat to India's moral reputation.

Long into the night, the clubs and bars in Gurgaon, a Delhi suburb full of call centres, pulsate with staff unwinding after long, stressful shifts dealing with fractious British and American customers.

During the day, workers fill the shopping malls for a dose of instant gratification unknown to their traditionally abstemious parents, for whom saving was a religion.

US influence

After working in US-style environments and speaking to Americans for hours each day, some are aping the American behaviour they see on cable television.

Call centre staff have been caught by hidden cameras having sex in cubicles.

Couplings have also been observed on the staircase, in the gym or carparks, during breaks.

In a society where dating is frowned upon and where, in some quarters, a woman wearing a sleeveless top is considered a Jezebel, such uninhibited conduct is bewildering for middle class India.

Ashok Rau, the chief executive of the Freedom Foundation, an Aids counselling centre in Bangalore, said financial independence had freed call centre workers from their parents' control. In survey of call centre staff last year, it found that 38 per cent of men and women believed that pre-marital sex was permissible and 25 per cent regularly indulged in casual sex.

"A call centre office that was visited as part of the survey reported that its drains had been found choked with condoms,'' said Rau.

"The companies involved object vehemently to suggestions that their call centres are dens of vice and adultery.

"It is unfair to single out call centres. This new behaviour can be found all over India and is the result of the economic boom and the opportunities it offers," said Vrinda Wavalkar, a spokesman for the outsourcing company, ICICI OneSource, in Mumbai.

Dalits In India: Movie Clip

Got this from http://sujaiblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/dalits-in-india-movie-clip.html

In Sujai's words

I strongly recommend viewing this movie clip. Don’t stop it half way even if you feel disgusted with some of the stuff you see. See it all the way to the end!

Is there a way, any way, we can create a nation where people do not have to feel so alienated?

Technical vs Political

With reference to the "Permission for Meeting" controversy and Badri's Blog Post at
http://thoughtsintamil.blogspot.com/2006/11/blog-post.html

//கூட்டம் நடத்துவதற்கான அனுமதி வரவில்லை என்றால் 'தடையில்லை' என்று நினைத்து கூட்டத்தை நடத்தக்கூடாது. //

ஆத்தாடி ...
"Technical Meetings" மற்றும் "Political Meeting" வேறுபாடு உண்டா ???
ஏனென்றால்
ஒரு அரசு ஊழியர் Technical Book எழுத அரசிடல் முன் அனுமதி பெற தேவையில்லை

The Tamilnadu Government Servants'

Conduct Rules, 1973

(G.O.Ms.No.2226, Public (Services-A), 18th August 1973)

8. Private trade or employment –

(4) (a) A Government servant shall not, without the permission of the Government publish any book or engage himself habitually in literary or artistic work of any kind:

Provided that a Government servant may publish occasionally books on literature, short story, novel, drama, essay and poetry without obtaining the prior permission of any higher authority, subject to the condition that he/she does not use his/her time and official position to influence the promotion of the sale of such books and that such books do not contain matters of political aspects, objectionable matter and views against the policy of the Government.

(b) Permission to publish a book shall ordinarily be given, subject to the condition that the Government servant does not use his time and official influence for promoting the sale of copies of the book:

Provided that any member of the teaching or the academic staff of all Government Educational and Research Institutions inclusive of Technical Educational Institutions, may publish books on professional and academic subjects without obtaining the prior permission of any higher authority, subject to the condition that he/she does not use his/her time and official influence for promoting the sale of copies of such articles or books, as the case may be, and that such publications do not relate to any acts and policies of the Government and the provisions of clause (d) shall not apply to such publisher.

(c) Permission to accept remuneration on "royalty basis" from the publishers shall be given in all cases except in the case of text-books for use in educational institutions. In the case of text-books, permission to accept remuneration shall be given subject to the conditions that the Government servant retains no interest in the sale of copies of the book and that he receives only a lump-sum as remuneration from the publisher;

Provided that any member of the teaching or the academic staff of all Government Educational and Research Institutions who writes books on professional and academic subjects, may receive remuneration on royalty basis irrespective of the fact whether the books are text-books or general books:

Provided further that a Government servant who writes books on literature, short story, novel, drama, essay and poetry shall immediately report to the prescribed authority the remuneration he receives from the publisher.

Explanation - For determining whether a book is a text-book or is a general book, the chief consideration shall be whether it is being submitted to the Text-book Committee, in the case of text-books for elementary and secondary schools and whether it is a book written according the syllabus prescribed by the University and his being submitted to the appropriate University Body for approval, in case of text-books for colleges. A general book which may later happen to be approved as a text-book shall not be deemed to be a text-book for purposes of this clause.

(d) while applying to the Government for permission to publish a book which relates to acts or policies of Government, the Government servant shall submit to the Government for scrutiny a manuscript copy thereof.

(e) No Government servant who is member of the Text-Book Committee shall write or edit any text-book for use in recognised school during his membership of the Committee.

Explanation - A recognised school shall mean a school maintained by or opened with the sanction of the Government or to which recognition has been accorded under the Tamil Nadu Educational Rules or under the rules framed under the Tamil Nadu Elementary Education Act,1920(Tamil Nadu Act VIII of 1920).

ஆனால்
ஒரு அரசு ஊழியர் Political Book எழுத அரசிடல் முன் அனுமதி பெற வேண்டும். அதுவும் அனுமதி விண்ணப்பத்துடன் முழு scriptம் அனுப்ப பட வேண்டும்