Sci&Tech, Medical and Envirnoment

Plan to fortify milk, oil with vitamin D

The National Institute of Nutrition is considering a proposal to fortify milk and oil with vitamin D
Dr. Sesisekaran was concerned about the huge burden of Vitamin D deficiency in the country, despite the abundance of sunshine in most parts.
Earlier, vanaspati used to be fortified with Vitamin D, but consumption of that had dropped over the years.
He also pointed out that the flip side of it was that there was very little milk consumption in rural areas; as far as oil goes, the recommendation is to lower the quantity of oil consumed.
Metabolic disorders may be inborn or inherited and include disorders such as diabetes, cardio vascular disease, thyroid dysfunction and metabolic bone diseases.
unlike in developed countries, endocrine and metabolic disorders are predominantly caused by environmental factors in India. Metabolic disorders have been found to have a disproportionately high prevalence in the Indian population.
The main elements of a lifestyle intervention programme for metabolic syndrome are nutritional intervention, physical activity, and education

Post-Fukushima, France breaks silence on nuclear safety

With a population of 62 million, France boasts 59 nuclear reactors — the highest per capita in the world, with over 75 per cent of its electricity coming from the power of the atom.
the design and construction of France's first mega reactor (the EPR) capable of producing 1,650 MWe of electricity.
India is slated to buy six of these massive reactors from Areva. To be located at Jaitapur, Maharashtra, they carry a price tag upwards of €40 billion.
On September 30, Socatri, a subsidiary of Areva, was found guilty of contaminating underground water tables in a 2008 leak of toxic liquid uranium at the Tricastin nuclear facility in southern France.
More seriously, the company was reprimanded for delays in communicating the leaks to the Nuclear Safety Authority.
Thirty cubic metres of effluents containing uranium contaminated river waters, cutting off local drinking water supplies and preventing locals from bathing. According to a report prepared by CRIRAD [the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity] the pollution was 27 times higher than the authorised limit for radioactive emissions
France has always come down hard on any anti-nuclear protests and there has been very little debate on the decision taken in the 1950s or under the post-oil-crisis Messmer Plan of 1974, to wholeheartedly embrace nuclear energy.
Construction of the Flamanville EPR reactor which began in 2007 is experiencing significant delays with a large number of accidents including two fatalities. The EPR reactor, of which India plans to buy six, will now not be completed before 2016 at the earliest and its price tag has climbed to an estimated €7 billion per reactor of 1,650MWe capacity. Not a single EPR is as yet operational.
Of the four currently under construction, (one each in France and Finland, two in China) the Finnish reactor (construction began in August1985) is now slated to go on stream in 2013 but costs have risen from €3 billion to over €7 billion and the Finnish utility TVO is locked in costly arbitration (€2.7 billion) with Areva.
Indian nuclear scientists promoting the purchase of the EPR say the country will profit from the experience gained and lessons learnt from the two Chinese EPRs — Taishan 1 and Taishan 2 — which are reportedly on schedule. But there are serious doubts as to whether the Chinese will want to share knowledge with India on nuclear issues.
A 20-page report by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), has highlighted a series of “gaps and weaknesses” in work being carried out at the Flamanville site on the new European Pressurised Reactor (EPR)

Global warming is worrisome, says expert

Global warming is real and the future is not bright because greenhouse gases remain for a long time in atmosphere -- about 200 years. “If we stop the CO2 emissions today, it would take two centuries to go back,” said David S. Chapman, Distinguished Professor of Geophysics, Dean Emeritus, The Graduate School, The University of Utah, USA.
Dr. Chapman, who is here to attend CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute's Golden Jubilee Celebrations here
He said the only cause for that was human activity, in particular, greenhouse gases in atmosphere mainly due to burning of fossil fuels. While natural changes like sun's activity and volcanoes affect climate, none of those explain the unusual rate of warming.
The temperature went up by 1.2 deg C in the last 150 years and the biggest cause was the increase in atmospheric CO2 from 280 ppm (parts per million) to 380 ppm.
Referring to the problems caused by global warming such as extreme temperatures, more droughts and floods, he said the sea-level rise was expected to be between 30 and 60 cm by the end of the century. But if there was accelerated melting at Antarctica, it might change to 1-2 metres, which would be “quite serious”.
Indeed, satellite gravity measurements have shown that there was accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica.
Sea-level rise was quite important for coastal India and places such as Bangladesh because typhoons could become more serious.

600 million high speed internet connections by 2020

The new draft Telecom Policy, unveiled by Communications Minister Kapil Sibal, on Monday set a target of 600 million high-speed internet connections by 2020.
The new policy went to the extent of likening the broadband connectivity to basic necessities like health and education and proposes to work towards a ‘Right to Broadband' for every citizen. The policy has also called for providing, by 2015, ‘Broadband on Demand' services, which would enable affordable, across-the-country, round-the-clock and high-speed internet connectivity to the users.
The draft NTP-2011 aims to achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020.
The draft also aims at offering broadband services at a minimum 2 Mbps on download and making available higher speed of at least 100 Mbps on demand.
As of June 2011, rural broadband had a penetration of only 1 per cent and has lagged behind the growth of telephony in India (tele-density of 74 per cent).
the Rs. 20,000-crore project to provide broadband connectivity to all villages in the next three years.