Rs. 275/- ISSN 0970-6488 Science Service www.ptinews.com Vol 36 No. 07 (24 pages including cover) CONTENTS NATIONAL SCIENCE BRIEFS: *MANU’S FLOOD A REALITY, SAYS ARCHAEOLOGIST AT ICHR MEET *AINDIA TO TWEAK DEFINITION OF BLINDNESS TO MEET WHO STIPULATION*TULSI PLANT GIVES OUT OXYGEN DURING DAY, NIGHT: V K SINGH* RESEARCH LEADS TO REVIVAL OF RARE RICE VARIETY IN J&K* TEENAGE GIRL’S ADJUSTABLE WALKER BOON FOR ELDERLY, DISABLED * INDIA CAN LEAD IN GLOBAL LIFE SCIENCES SPACE: US-INDIA BIZ BODY*WHO LAUNCHES ETHICS GUIDANCE TO PROTECT RIGHTS OF TB PATIENTS*2ND REPORT ON INDIA’S GREEN HOUSE GAS EMISSIONS OUT SOON *MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT TB ON THE RISE IN INDIA* 25 PC OF GLOBAL TB CASES IN INDIA: STUDY*SMOKING POPULATION DOWN BY OVER 2 PC POST GLOBAL TREATY* NEED TO IMPROVE RESEARCH, CAPACITY BUILDING IN EDU SYSTEM* INDIA TO LAUNCH GSLV MARK-III IN ANOTHER TWO MONTHS: MURTHY*TATA TO OPEN CANCER RESEARCH CENTRE & HOSPITAL IN JHARKHAND* CAN’T ONLY BLAME GLOBAL WARMING FOR HIMALAYAN GLACIERS’ FASTER RETREAT: GOVT *25 NOBEL LAUREATES EXPECTED AT SCIENCE CONGRESS IN HYDERABAD* GOVT LOOKING INTO GENOMIC SCIENCE BASED DNA MAPPING: MINISTER* INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE BRIEFS: *CATS LIKE HUMAN INTERACTION MORE THAN FOOD: STUDY*CHEWING LIKE COWS HELPED EARLY MAMMALS SURVIVE MASS EXTINCTION* NUT ALLERGY TESTS MAY BE INACCURATE: STUDY* OVER 100 GENES LINKED TO MEMORY IN HUMANS IDENTIFIED*COOKING AT HOME, SKIPPING TV DUR*NEW TECH LETS HUMANS CONTROL TURTLES WITH THOUGHT*WORLD’S FIRST NANOCAR RACE TO TAKE PLACE NEXT MONTH* NEW TECH LETS HUMANS CONTROL TURTLES WITH THOUGHT*WORLD’S FIRST NANOCAR RACE TO TAKE PLACE NEXT MONTH*WORLD’S MOST DIVERSE SET OF DINOSAUR TRACKS DISCOVERED IN AUS*USING ‘YOU’ HELPS COPE WITH NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES: STUDY*CUTTING SALT INTAKE MAY LOWER NIGHT-TIME TOILET TRIPS: STUDY* ‘SLEEPLESS NIGHT MAY IMPAIR ABILITY TO RECOGNISE EXPRESSIONS’*IMPACT CRATER LINKED TO ANCIENT MARTIAN TSUNAMIS IDENTIFIED* BRAIN SCANS MAY HELP CHOOSE RIGHT TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION*HUMANS, SMARTPHONES OFTEN FAIL TO DETECT FACE MORPH PHOTOS* GLOBE SCAN: * ATHEISTS, HIGHLY RELIGIOUS PEOPLE LEAST AFRAID OF DEATH: STUDY* STASH OF LIQUOR BOTTLES FROM WORLD WAR I DISCOVERED IN ISRAEL* NASA TO LAUNCH NEW PROBE TO *FOUR-LEGGED ROBOT CAN CHANGE GAIT WITH SPEED*SPIRITUAL RETREATS BOOST BRAIN’S ‘FEEL GOOD’ CHEMICALS*CHILDREN WITH AUTISM MAY BENEFIT FROM FAECAL TRANSPLANT*NEW ALGORITHM CAN TELL WHEN YOU’LL GET BORED OF MOBILE GAME*STEM CELL THERAPY MAY HELP REPAIR LUNG DAMAGE: STUDY*CHILDHOOD BRAIN CANCER SURVIVORS AT HIGHER HEART DISEASE RISK*’10 MINS OF VIGOROUS EXERCISE MAY CUT DIABETES RISK IN KIDS’* PTI Science Service1 April 1-15, 2017 Material reproduced should be credited to the PTI Science Service Registration No.39337/81 FOR SUBSCRIPTION Quality Publications from PTI Besides news and photo services, India's premier news agency offers a host of other services. 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Subscription: * for educational and other charitable institutions Rs 2,000 per annum * Others Rs 6,750 per annum (for A class newspapers) * Others Rs 3,500 per annum (for B class newspapers) PTI FEATURES A package of four weekly feature articles on topical national, international and general events. Subscription: Rs 8,500 per annum ALL SUBSCRIPTION PAYABLE IN ADVANCE For further information on PTI services please contact, Marketing Officer, at: The Press Trust of India Ltd, PTI Building, 4, Parliament Street, New Delhi 110 001. e-mail: [email protected] PTI Science Service2 April 1-15, 2017 connection. MANU’S FLOOD A REALITY, SAYS Twenty-six research papers would be presented ARCHAEOLOGIST AT ICHR MEET during the seminar, which marks the 45th anniversary of ICHR which was founded on March 27, 1972. Controversial archaeologist BB Lal, known for his David Frawley, the Director of the American Institute works on Ayodhya, has come up with a research paper of Vedic Studies in the US, is taking part in the seminar, which claims that Manu’s flood, widely believed to be a along with other noted scholars. mythological phenomenon, was a real event. The research paper of the former director general INDIA TO TWEAK DEFINITION OF of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the findings of BLINDNESS TO MEET WHO STIPULATION which were arrived at by linking Manu’s flood to the disappearance of the Saraswati river through The government is set to change a four-decade- archaeological evidence, was presented today at a seminar old definition of blindness to bring it in line with the organised by the Indian Council of Historical Research WHO criteria and ensure the Indian data on blindness (ICHR). meets the global estimates. “Archaeologically, the deluge of the Saraswati took As defined under the National Programme for place around 2000-1,900 Before Common Era (BCE) Control of Blindness (NPCB), a person unable to count or broadly, in the first quarter of the second millennium fingers from a distance of six metres is categorised as BCE. This was exactly the time of Manu’s flood, which “blind” in India, against the WHO’s stipulation of three occurred after the Rigveda, but before the beginning of metres. the second millennium BCE. Should we still call Manu’s “We will bring the definition of blindness at par with Flood a myth,” the paper read. the WHO’s criteria. Because of the current definition, we Lal, a Padma Bhushan awardee, is also working on a project a higher figure of blind people from India at any book on the same subject. His book ‘Rama, His Historicity, international forum. Thus India gets presented in a poor Mandir and Setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology light compared to other countries,” said Promila Gupta, and Other Sciences’ had created an uproar as it talked NPCB Deputy Director General. about the possible presence of a Hindu temple structure Also, she said, the data “we generate under the beneath the Babri Masjid. programme cannot be compared with the global estimates ICHR is a flagship research-based institution as other countries are following the WHO criteria”. functioning under the Ministry of Human Resource Uniformity in the definition across various regions Development. of the world is a pre-requisite for facilitating collection The three-day seminar on ‘Antiquity, Continuity and of population-based data on prevalence of blindness Development of Civilisation and Culture in Bharat (In and estimating its global burden, Gupta said. dia) up to 1st Millennium BC’ was slated to be inaugurated Further, India has to achieve the goal set by WHO today by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar. He, which recommends reducing the blindness prevalence of however, could not make it to the event. the country to 0.3 per cent of the total population by ICHR Chairman Sudarshan Rao said the seminar 2020. aimed to find a connection among the various civilisations “The Vision 2020 recommends reducing the that spanned between 4th millennium BC and 1st prevalence of blindness to 0.3 per cent by the year 2020 millennium BC. to achieve the elimination of avoidable blindness. The 1st millennium BC, spanning from 1,000 BC to “It will be extremely difficult to achieve the WHO 1 BC and encompassing the Iron Age, saw the rise of goal using the NPCB definition since we will be addressing various empires. an extra 4 million individuals, blind due to refractive errors. Rao claimed that the ancient civilisations between 4th By adopting the blindness criteria of WHO, India can millennium BC and 1st millennium BC were correlated achieve the goal,” said Praveen Vashist, in-charge, and added that the seminar will seek to delve into this Community Ophthalmology at Dr R P Centre for PTI Science Service3 April 1-15, 2017 Ophthalmic Sciences at AIIMS. progenies of Emperor Ashoka and it remained dominant The Health Ministry is also planning to change for centuries. However, the revival of the “sanatan the nomenclature of NPCB to the National Programme dharma” was started by the Shankarcharya of the Kanchi for Control of Visual Impairment and Blindness. peeth. “The idea is to further strengthen the programme by Referring to the activities of ICCR, Singh said India focusing not only on the blind persons but also those with wa not an educational hub at one point of time in the some kind of visual impairment. history, but today it is progressing. “It urges the member states to strengthen national “We need to tell people that there is much more efforts to prevent avoidable visual impairment through happeningin India whether it is our Information better integration of eye health into national eye health Technology, our space programme, or various chairs of plans and service delivery,” Gupta added. philosophy,” he said. She said India currently has around 12 million blind people against 39 million globally— which makes India RESEARCH LEADS TO REVIVAL home to one-third of the world’s blind population. OF RARE RICE VARIETY IN J&K The current definition of blindness was adopted at the time of the inception of the NPCB in 1976. Ten years of hard work by the scientists in Kashmir’s “The probable reason for keeping 6 meters as cut- Agricultural University has resulted in the revival of off for defining blindness in India was to include Mushkbudji, an aromatic variety of rice grown only in economic blindness cases which referred to a level of the Valley.