Cadaver Donations: Five cadaver donations in a week, 44 this year

MUMBAI: The family of a 46-year-old Mulund resident, who fell down the stairs and was declared brain dead on Friday, donated his kidneys and liver for three patients with end-stage organ disease.
The man sustained severe brain injury during the fall on November 26 and was declared brain dead at Fortis Hospital, Mulund, on Friday. The organ donor was an entrepreneur and is survived by wife and two sons who consented to this donation.
With this donation, the total count of cadaver or deceased donors this year has climbed to 44.Last year, the number ofcadaver donations were 47 – still a far cry from 76 such donations in pre-Covid 2019. Dr S K Mathur of Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre’s (ZTCC) said that five donations have taken place in the city since November 25. “While this is encouraging for patients who suffer from organ failure, a lot more needs to be done. Each medical professional needs to spread the message of organ donation,” he said.
The donated liver was given to a 69-year-old man from Palthan, Satara, who was registered for transplant at Fortis Hospital itself. While one of the kidneys were donated to a 39-year-old Thane resident at the same hospital, the second kidney was assigned to another private hospital in Mumbai. tnn

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BJP: Amid anxious wait for vote count, both BJP, Congress claim Rajasthan win | India News

JAIPUR: As the clock ticks down to the counting of votes for four states, Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra on Sunday exuded confidence in his party forming the government in the state with a full majority
Speaking to just hours before the counting begins, Dotasara, said, “The voters of Rajasthan have shown full faith and support to the Congress candidates because of our good governance.Our guarantees and the work done by the Congress government over 5 years have ensured a fresh term for us.”
“In our manifesto, we promised to provide government jobs to 4 lakh youth, MSP to farmers and increased pension of Rs 2000 per month. During the Corona period, we ensured proper management, took care of people and did not let anyone sleep hungry. We also provided social security to the people by bringing to force legislations such as the Right to Health and Minimum Income Guarantee Act,” he said.
“There is a belief in the hearts and minds of the people that in the last 5 years, the Congress government has done good work. So the people will surely bless us back to power,” he added.
“The people of Rajasthan made up their minds to break the age-old electoral tradition in the state and ensure the continuation of the Congress government in the state,” Dotasra added.
“We will form a government with a full majority,” the Rajasthan Congress chief reiterated, exuding confidence in his party’s chances.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore said that the wait is about to end as the vote boxes will be emptied soon.
“I can say with conviction that the BJP will form the government with a brute majority. In only a few hours from now, the vote boxes will reveal the massive mandate in our favour. I believe that the people will endorse the national policies of our leader PM Narendra Modi and his efforts to elevate the national prestige on the global stage,” said Rathore.
The votes for the legislative assemblies of four states — Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana — will be counted amid tight security arrangements on Sunday, in the final stretch of the battle billed as the semifinal before the mega final in 2024.
However, the counting of votes in Mizoram, which also went to polls along with four other states last month, has been pushed back to November 4, Monday, the Election Commission (EC) informed earlier.
The counting of votes at designated centres will begin shortly at 8 am on Sunday.
The polling in five states, straddling the north, east and southern parts of the country, is tipped to set the course of the political headwinds going into the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Confirming the rescheduling of counting in the tiny Northeast state earlier, the poll panel the decision was taken following representations from civil society in the state, as Sunday holds a special significance for the people in the Christian-majority state.
The votes will be counted for 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 90 seats in Chhattisgarh, 119 in Telangana and 199 seats in Rajasthan.
The polls, held months before the Lok Sabha polls, are crucial for BJP and Congress for various reasons.

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Climate Change: '10% hosps in India could shut by 2100 due to climate change'

MUMBAI: Climate change could force 10% of hospitals across India to relocate or shut down by 2100, according to a new global study released at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai.
India would be one of the worst affected, along with Nepal where 26% of hospitals could close down, according to the ‘XDI Global Hospital Infrastructure Physical Climate Risk Report’.
Roughly 2 lakh hospitals across the world, including 53,473 in India, were analysed for risk of damage from six climate change hazards (local floods, coastal inundation, among others) from 1990 until the end of the century.
Without phasing out fossil fuels by 2100, the report said that 1 in 12 hospitals worldwide — or a total of 16,245 hospitals — would be at a high risk of total or partial shutdown from extreme weather events; 71% (11,512) of these 16,245 hospitals at high risk are in low- and middle-income countries.
While some hospitals would require adaptation, many would need to relocate.
In India, the analysis covered 53,473 hospitals and found that 5,120 — or 9.6% — would be at high risk of closure by 2100. Around 15% of China’s hospitals could be affected, said the 50-nation analysis.
The study suggests the risk of damage to hospitals from extreme weather events has already increased by 41% since 1990 due to greenhouse gas emissions.
“Today in India 2,700 of the country’s 53,473 hospitals are already at high risk of partial or complete shutdown from extreme weather events. If fossil fuels are not phased out, this will increase to more than 5,100 by the end of the century,” the report added.

Climate change refers to long-term changes in temperatures and weather patterns. Although the sun’s activity or volcanic eruptions were considered to be the main reason for climate change, human activity has been the main driver for the last 200 years.
One of the leading causes is burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas; greenhouse gases thus emitted act like a blanket around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures. Scientists have said that the Earth’s surface is now about 1.1°C warmer than it was before the industrial revolution.
Hospitals are energy guzzlers as they operate 24x 7, 365 days a year. Unfortunately, Dr Vivek Desai of Hosmac, a hospital management consultancy firm, said that “environmental consciousness” isn’t big among hospitals. Barely a dozen hospitals across the county would be truly green.
“The government of India has made it mandatory for public hospitals to have a GRIHA 3 rating but this is not mandatory for private hospitals,” he said. GRIHA or Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment provides a standard for what constitutes a ‘green building’.
Most private hospitals are not inclined to add green features because they are mindful of the capital cost. “If the government provides incentives such as a reduction in electricity or property tax bills, then hospitals may want to adopt green technologies,” said Dr Desai.

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Sans limbs, AP boy dream-rolls into IIM-Ahmedabad | Ahmedabad News

AHMEDABAD: When fate snatched Dwarapudi Chandramauli’s, a promising engineer, hands and legs in an electrocution accident in Andhra Pradesh five years back, he recalls feeling hopeless. He changed academic tracks and pursued LLB hoping for a desk job.
But destiny had other plans when he cracked CAT and made it to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) this year.According to officials, he is one of the first students with severe disabilities to get into the premier B-school.
Ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities which falls on December 3 every year, Chandramauli, who hails from Narsipatnam in AP, told TOI that on a fateful day in 2018, he was attempting to retrieve his sister’s ring from a tin roof outside their house’s gallery.
“I had just completed my B. Tech (mechanical) and was poised to embark on a bright future in engineering. On that day, I got down on the roof and tried to retrieve the ring with a rod. The rod attracted a charge from the high-tension electric wire overhead, and I got a major electric shock,” he recounts.
The bigger shock was delivered at the hospital where the doctors informed him that the shock had permanently damaged his hands and legs and they needed to be amputated to save him. At the age of 22 years, the future looked bleak, but Chandramauli did not allow hopelessness to linger long. He completed his LLB and during the Covid-19 pandemic when he worked from home for Amazon for 11 months.
“It was during this time that I got inspired to pursue management education. An experience of a friend at an IIM was also helpful,” he says. He prepared for CAT on his own without any formal coaching. “I prepared for CAT from online resources through videos and gave my best shot. When I got a call from IIM-A, my and my family’s happiness knew no bounds.”
Cut to 2023, Chandramauli is one of the first students at IIM-A with extreme disabilities to make it to the premier B-school for its prestigious PGP course.
‘Chandramauli is first student with all four limbs missing’
He lives with his mother on the campus and uses a high-tech motorized chair for commuting between classes and dorm. He uses prosthetic legs for limited mobility but confesses that they are not very comfortable.
“I have learnt to type with stump of my hand and use my mobile phone extensively for communication and studies. I also use a laptop with touchscreen. My fellow students have been very helpful in preparing the study notes and assimilating in the IIM culture,” says Chandramauli, who has slowly soaked in the spirit of the B-school and Ahmedabad to explore various activities on campus.
At IIM-A, a total of 29 students with disabilities are studying in both the years of PGP course, said officials. They added that while the number is one of the highest in the past few years, with improved infrastructure and awareness, it has been growing steadily.
Nishtha Thaker Anand, the executive incharge of Equal Opportunities Office at IIM-A, said that Chandramauli has been the first student with all four limbs missing. “One can only imagine his struggle but he has never complained about anything. He is always ready to learn new things and participate in activities. He has been an inspiration for many,” she said.
For Chandramauli, it would be a dream job to work in the general management domain. “Disability is not a barrier, the environment is. With assistive devices, a person with disability can also achieve his or her true potential. I am glad that the opportunities have increased in the past few years for the persons with disabilities,” he said.

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Cities can but lack will to be disability-friendly

For common people, their city can only be good as the convenience its public spaces offer. Add the needs of people with disabilities into the mix and that’s when a clearer picture emerges on how inclusive the city is for this segment of society. And if there is indeed inclusive infrastructure in place, does it really meet universal norms or is it mere tokenism?

This International Day of Persons with DisabilitiesGovernment of India’s ambitious Accessible India or Sugamya Bharat campaign completes eight years.Launched in 2015, the campaign aimed at making both physical and digital spaces accessible to people with disabilities (PwDs). Its implementation, according to activists and PwDs in Ahmedabad, has remained a mixed bag.

Samir Kakkad, founder president of Akhil Hindustani Viklang Sangathan, says that some efforts in this direction have been made through accessibility audits at places such as GSRTC depots by the disability com missioner office. “Some changes have also been made after the audit. But overall, compliance with universal accessibility norms has remained poor,” he said, adding that opportunities for PwDs are closely linked to mobility.
While there is no public data available on how accessible buildings in Gujarat’s cities are, that from a mobile app developed by India and US-based Voice of Specially Abled Persons (VoSAP) has ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 for buildings in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. Of the 12,666 buildings surveyed on the app, only 7% were voted as having ‘5 star’ facilities for PwDs. On average, 62% or six in every 10 buildings were in the ‘inaccessible’ category.
“When we talk about concepts such as universal accessibility, not only PwDs, but pregnant women, the elderly and people with fractures also benefit if the buildings and spaces are accessible. It goes beyond constructing a ramps,” said Bhushan Punani, executive secretary of the Blind People’s Association (BPA). “We must laud the efforts in sectors such as railways, BRTS and metro, but the onus is on everyone to think in terms of all potential users.”
Prakash Mankodi, managing director of Andh Mahila Vikas Gruh in Rajkot said that the removal of barriers may take some time. Gopal Chudasama, a developer from Rajkot said, “The new general development control regulations (GDCR) make disability-friendly infrastructure mandatory, but there’s no mandate to convert all buildings into disability-friendly structures like there is for fire safety.”
(With inputs from Nimesh Khakhariya in Rajkot)

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Sextortionists: Families struggle to cope after some sextortion, loan app victims end lives

MUMBAI/ KALYAN/ THANE: On most days, Tulsibai Pawar finds herself overwhelmed and struggles to complete her chores. It was tough to come to terms with her husband’s suicidedriven by harassment from sextortionists. Taking time off from work to grieve the loss cost her her job. And, now, a financial crunch may cause her to lose her home as well.
“I feel helpless and alone,” says the 38-year-old homemaker from Badlapur who, along with her teenage daughter, is surviving on charity.
Cybercrimes such as sextortion and fraud loan apps- where harassment and blackmail are a common thread-are driving some of the victims to suicide and leaving their families wrecked. While 3,562 cybercrimes were registered by the Mumbai police between January and October, the actual number is higher. Experts have likened mounting cybercrimes to a “digital pandemic” and have called for strong measures, including accountability from intermediaries such as social media platforms.

Tulsibai last spoke to her husband, 41-year-old Mansingh, just a day before his death. Mansingh worked as a cook at a gurdwara in Santacruz and lived on the same premises. He had called her up, sounding agitated, and instructed her to mortgage her gold immediately. He also directed her to transfer the money to his bank account. On August 9, Mansingh hanged himself in his room.
Tulsibai wishes she had dug deeper when her husband asked her to arrange for money. Unknown to her, Mansingh was being blackmailed for money by some individuals posing as Delhi cyber police officers. They had shot an obscene video of his and threatened to upload it on YouTube if they were not paid. Mansingh had already transferred Rs 56,000 to them, but they wanted more. An FIR was only registered in October and the Santacruz police have still not formally communicated to her about the three arrests they have made in the case.
“My husband’s death has changed everything. My daughter will have to drop out of school and train to be a beautician so she can start earning soon. She wanted to study further, but we cannot afford it anymore. My son helps at a gurdwara and we survive on the little money they give us,” she said. After being sacked from her job, she hasn’t been able to find another. “I don’t have enough to pay home loan instalments and the bank is threatening to seize our house,” she said.
Like Tulsibai, Dattaguru Koregaonkar often finds himself fighting back tears. His 38-year-old brother, Sandeep, hanged himself in May 2022 after a fraud loan app called ‘Hello Cash’ morphed his photos with obscene content and circulated them among his friends to blackmail him into paying up. The case had pushed the authorities to go after loan app scamsters in a big way and unearth international links behind the operations. But Dattaguru says he has not kept track of the investigations.
Seated at his home in Malad’s Appapada, an uphill settlement of chawls, Dattaguru says he spends his time between running around hospitals for his father’s recurring medical procedures and trying to put food on the table for his large family. “Sandeep was a pillar of support and things have been tough without him by my side,” Dattaguru said. A week before he took his life, Sandeep had submitted a written complaint to the Kurar police about constant threats and obscene content sent by Hello Cash. “Had the authorities acted on time, Sandeep could have been alive. I’m disillusioned with the system,” Dattaguru said.
Cyber investigator Ritesh Bhatia says a big trend in cybercrime is fraudsters impersonating public servants for blackmailing people into paying up. “Creating deepfakes and impersonation are going to reach alarming proportions if immediate action is not taken. Blocking fraudsters’ phone numbers or social media handles and getting their bank accounts frozen is the first step. Intermediaries such as banks or social media platforms must take up more responsibility and create support cells to offer assistance to law enforcement agencies,” he said.
In some instances, calls have continued from fraud loan apps even after the victim’s death by suicide. A senior citizen couple from Dombivli were mourning their daughter’s demise when an individual associated with a loan app turned up at their doorstep to verify if she was indeed dead. Before the visit, he had called up her father and brother and sent them obscene content as she was not responding to their calls.
The 30-year-old woman had suffered the torment for eight months. “Our daughter had borrowed a small sum from the app to purchase stocks. But the lender kept asking for more and more repayment. We somehow helped her with funds initially. While the harassment continued, she chose not to confide in us for fear that it would rattle us,” said the elderly couple. After her morphed photos made their way to her friends and relatives, she jumped before a running train at Diva station in July.
Her parents couldn’t sleep properly for weeks when a relative who had accessed CCTV footage of Diva station told them how their daughter had been pacing up and down the railway platform and had scribbled “forgive me mother and father” on her wrist with a pen before she took the plunge.

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BJP: MP: Congress candidate offers earnest prayers at Ujjain's Mahakaleshwar Temple with hours left to counting

UJJAIN: With barely a few hours left before the counting of votes begins for four states, Congress candidate from Nagda Khachrod constituency, Dilip Gurjar, was at the divine door on Sunday morning, offering earnest prayers to the Almighty at the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga Temple in the Ujjain district.
A visual from his temple run showed the Congress candidate praying with his eyes closed and hands folded as he sat facing Mahakal (Lord Shiva).
Likewise, leaders from across four states also headed to the nearest shrines as their fates lay locked in strong rooms.
In Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited several religious sites in the run-up to the results.
On the eve of counting day, Chouhan, on Saturday, took out time to water some plants in Bhopal.
BJP leader Vasundhara Raje on Saturday visited the Moti Doongri temple in Jaipur and the Mehandipur Balaji temple in Dausa, as has been her tradition ahead of important days.
All eyes are on the outcome of the fiercely contested electoral battles in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, which have been dubbed the semi-finals ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The counting of votes in the four states will start today at 8 am and the Election Commission has ensured that all arrangements are in place for the D-day.
Mizoram, which also went to polls along with the other four states last month, will have to wait till December 4 for the results as the Election Commission has extended counting in the state by a day.
The polling in five states, straddling the north, east and southern parts of the country, is tipped to set the course of the political headwinds going into the Lok Sabha elections next year.
Confirming the rescheduling of counting in the tiny Northeast state earlier, the poll panel the decision was taken following representations from civil society in the state, as Sunday holds a special significance for the people in the Christian-majority state.
The votes will be counted for 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 90 seats in Chhattisgarh, 119 in Telangana and 199 seats in Rajasthan.
The polls, held months before the Lok Sabha polls, are crucial for BJP and Congress for various reasons.

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Samyukta Kisan Morcha threatens stir over arrests tied to 2020-21 farmers protest

NEW DELHI: Citing the recent cases of farmer leaders being detained or arrested for criminal cases imposed on them during the farmers’ movement outside Delhi, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) announced that it will relaunch “a massive, peaceful mass struggle to confront any vengeful action against farmers by the Centre”, reports Mohua Chatterjee. The three contentious farm bills that were finally withdrawn in November 2021 after massive resistance form the agitating farmers.
SKM, the umbrella organisation of farmers, said, “SKM leader and general secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) Yudhvir Singh was arrested on November 29, 2023 on the ground that he is accused in cases related to 2020-21 farmers agitation.Later, after strong protest from farmer leaders, Delhi Police released him.”
“We will organise a campaign on this issue. SKM delegations will meet district collectors on December 11 and also submit a letter to the President, demanding no action be allowed against the movement,” SKM leaders said.

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UAPA dropped against 7 J&K university students | India News

Seven students of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in central Kashmir‘s Ganderbal district, who were arrested under UAPA for allegedly raising objectionable slogans and celebrating the Indian cricket team’s loss in the World Cup finalwere on Saturday granted bail by a court after police dropped charges under the stringent anti-terror law.
The students’ lawyer said they were released late on Saturday evening. Police said the UAPA charges were dropped after a “considerate view was taken” following an undertaking by their parents. The students were arrested after police launched an investigation into a complaint by another student.

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IED recovered in Rajouri during search operation

An improvised explosive device was detected by security forces during a cordon-and-search operation in J&K’s Rajouri district and later destroyed in a controlled explosion, police said on Saturday.
“Based on a specific input about some suspicious movement, a joint cordon-and-search operation was launched by the Army and Rajouri Police in Topa, Hill Tak areas under the jurisdiction of Darhal police station and an IEDwas spotted,” said an official source.The explosive was destroyed on the spot.

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NMC: NMC setting up library of literature on ancient Indian medicine, surgery | India News

NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission (NMC) is planning to create a library in which all books and manuscripts related to medicine and surgery in ancient India will be available. It has called for experts from the medical field and other disciplines to help identify and collect the books and manuscripts for this purpose.
The NMC’s decision comes amid a controversy over its decision to modify its logo to include a coloured photo of Dhanvantari – an avatar of Lord Vishnu, who is referred to as the god of Ayurveda in Puranas.
Senior NMC officials said the Dhanvantari logo has been in use for almost a year. “Earlier, it was in black and white and, therefore, not visible in printouts. We have simply used a coloured photo in the centre of the logo,” said an official.
Another official, who did not want to be named, said even the WHO’s emblem consists of the United Nations symbol surmounted by a staff with a snake coiling around it.

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Ajit insisted on NCP-BJP pact, I said 'no': Sharad Pawar | India News

PUNE: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday said it was his nephew Ajit Pawar who had insisted on a pact with BJPbut he rejected the proposal due to ideological differences between the two parties.
He said if NCP’s Ajit Pawar camp wanted to side with BJP, it should not have fought the elections on NCP ticket.
The NCP chief’s comment came a day after Ajit, the deputy CM of Maharashtra, said he had consulted his uncle before joining the governing alliance of BJP-Shiv Sena in the state.Ajit had said this while addressing his supporters in Karjat at the two-day brainstorming session of his faction of NCP.
Ajit had claimed that though Pawar Sr was in favour of the move, he changed his stance later. He also said his uncle had voluntarily resigned as the chief of the party. Later, he asked a couple of party functionaries to stage demonstrations demanding withdrawal of his resignation, Ajit had claimed.
Reacting to his statements, Pawar Sr said: “I will not deny that there was a meeting (between us), but I had not initiated that meeting. They (Ajit and his supporters) had come to me and insisted that we should go with BJP. However, I was very clear that I did not want to follow that path due to our (NCP’s) ideological differences with BJP.”
NCP had fought the 2019 assembly elections in alliance with Congresswhile BJP had a poll pact with Shiv Sena.
“…We had not sought vote to go with BJP. If we had changed our ideological stand after the elections, it would have been perceived as cheating. I was very clear about not going with BJP,” Pawar Sr said. He said it was Ajit’s “political decision” to go with BJP. “However, he should have taken the decision before the 2019 assembly elections. It is their (Ajit camp’s) right to take a decision. I have only one complaint – they should have taken that call before the elections,” he said.
“When the elections were announced, they filled up the NCP form and sought vote in the name of our party. After the elections, they changed their stance and took a call that is against the party’s ideology. That was not right,” Pawar Sr said.

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Won't accept bride forced on me: Bihar man

PATNA: A 23-year-old schoolteacher in Biharwho was abducted and forcibly married at gunpoint, Saturday refused to accept his ‘bride’, saying the wedding was solemnized against his wishes. He also alleged that he was treated shabbily and even assaulted in captivity.
Gautam Kumar was rescued by police on Thursday. He had joined as a teacher in a middle school at Rip it up in Vaishali district just 12 days before he was abducted from the school premises on Wednesday.
Narrating his ordeal in captivity, Gautam said: “I was assaulted. I still feel pain in my throat. They even drove the car on my feet during my kidnapping.” He also accused the bride’s family members of tarnishing his image by making his ‘wedding’ photograph viral on social media. “I am ready to face whatever happens to me, but I don’t want to keep her,” Gautam said.Giving details of the sequence of evens, Gautam said he was in the classroom when two persons came and enquired about the school headmaster.

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