Sci&Tech, Medical and Envirnoment

The ninth edition of the annual global event, ‘BioAsia-2012' to be held here in February next, is set to focus on vaccines, Intellectual Property Rights, Contract Research Organisation and Investments.
is set to focus on vaccines, Intellectual Property Rights, Contract Research Organisation and Investments.
In another new initiative, the organisers have decided to sponsor the visit of top regulator in the life-science field from SAARC countries like Nepal, Maldives and Bangladesh.

Concerned over the high mortality and morbidity because of Japanese encephalitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), the Group of Ministers (GoM) held its first meeting
Already 861 lives have been lost to the disease – with over 470 in eastern Uttar Pradesh alone.
The disease is now being reported from 135 districts of 17 States, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal in addition to the northern belt.
The disease affects mostly children below the age of 15 years, of which 25 per cent die, and among the survivors about 30-40 per cent suffer from physical and mental impairment.
The GoM was in agreement on the issue that a “multi-pronged strategy encompassing prevention, case management and rehabilitation measures are needed to deal with it.''
Provision of nutrition for infants and children and sensitisation of anganwadi workers and their supervisors is expected from the Ministry of Women and Child Development while the Urban Development Ministry is to provide safe water and sanitation for people in urban slums.
The overall development of the area and provision for alternate economic activities for the people engaged in pig rearing has been entrusted to the Rural Development Minister.
On its part, the Health Ministry will strengthen and expand the JE vaccination project

Karnataka's coastline is being threatened by the very edifice that was designed to protect it.
Granite seawalls, constructed unscientifically along large sections of the State's 320-km coast to ostensibly protect the shore from erosion, are threatening the livelihoods of fishing communities and destroying coastal ecosystems
While the walls will create a “fort” along the coast and impede turtle nesting, they will also make fishing operations difficult
The structure will also undermine the aesthetic value of the seashore for tourism.
Around 42 km of seawalls have been built at a cost of Rs. 40 crore along the shores of three coastal districts
‘Green walls', or vegetation cover, is a more sustainable alternative to preventing erosion, it adds.
In several places the walls are poorly engineered and built in the wrong places, making them vulnerable to erosion.