Today's GK

Television viewership will now be measured not on the basis of points but on absolute numbers, with Television Rating Points (TRPs) giving way to Television Viewership in Thousands (TVTs).

After weeks of acrimonious negotiations and public blame game, India’s broadcasters, advertisers, ad agencies and Television Audience Measurement (TAM) Media Research — the sole agency which measures viewership — arrived at an agreement on Thursday. This, according to sources, is not a ‘perfect deal,’ will suffer problems but ‘leaves everyone happy.’

TVT will capture viewership in absolute numbers. This is a way to address the complaints of television networks which said TRPs, measured in relative terms in points, did not accurately present the growth in viewership. TVTs will be the ‘sole currency’ in the public domain.

A statement issued by industry stakeholders said, “TVT rolling average will be provided every week.” This is ‘statistically more stable data.’ But for internal evaluation, the percentage of television viewership rating weekly will be provided to advertisers and agencies. All future changes in audience measurement will be made based on inputs by a joint technical committee of the industry body, the Broadcasting Audience Research Council.

The Hindu first reported that big television networks were planning to walk out of the TAM system, and either unsubscribe or not renew their subscriptions, in early June. Since then, repeated negotiations led to a deal between big networks and TAM, on providing data on a monthly basis. This alienated the advertisers and ad agencies. Thursday’s deal is the outcome of a new process of negotiations involving all stakeholders.

The Union Health Ministry is considering a new National Antibiotics Policy to handle increasing antibiotics resistance.

Health Secretary Keshav Desiraju said a new policy was being considered as the policy drawn up in 2011 soon after the New Delhi Metallo 1 (NDM-1) controversy broke out was withheld — ostensibly because of widespread protests against certain key recommendations.

That policy had recommended a ban on across-the-counter sale of antibiotics and specified that high-end antibiotics could be used only in tertiary care centres.

Experts claim that a policy is of vital importance to ensure that further obstinate strains do not develop. Most hospital administrators are concerned about treating a growing percentage of patients with strains of bacteria that are resistant to carbapenem — powerful third line antibiotics. This is especially so in corporate and private hospitals, where the use of expensive antibiotics is more common, explains Abdul Ghafur, infectious diseases consultant, Apollo Hospitals.

President Barack Obama has nominated yet another Indian American , Vince Girdhari Chhabria, to a key judicial post in California.

 Nominated to be U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California, Mr. Chhabria is currently deputy city attorney for government litigation at the San Francisco city attorney’s office, where he has worked since 2005.

Announcing Mr. Chhabria’s nomination along with five other judicial posts, the President said: “These men and women have had distinguished legal careers and I am honoured to ask them to continue their work as judges on the federal bench.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday offered Bangladesh a stake in the Tipaimukh hydel project, which has been a bone of contention ever since it was conceived in the mid-1980s.

Assuring that India would not do anything inimical to Bangladesh’s interests in the area of common water bodies, Dr. Singh suggested to visiting Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni that Dhaka could join the yet-to-take-off project in Manipur as a stakeholder.

Emotive issue

Opposition to the project ebbed in Bangladesh after India took Dhaka into confidence on all aspects of the dam, including providing it with techno-economic feasibility reports, holding more surveys and lowering the height of the dam. It still remains an emotive issue.

Offering Bangladesh a stake would be a definite way of ensuring that the country’s interests are kept in mind while building the dam.

In fact, according to sources, it was the Prime Minister’s office that overrode dissent from other Ministries and decided to ask Bangladesh if it would take a stake in the project. Partnership in Tipaimukh could also lead to a partnership between the two countries in Bangladesh, for nine hydel projects under construction, or being planned in the north-east, including Teesta III and IV, and Subansiri. Though both countries have resolved a large number of bilateral issues, India has been unable to resolve outstanding issues relating to the land boundary agreement (LBA) and the Teesta river.

The Prime Minister acknowledged that India is to ratify the LBA agreement and assured Dr. Moni that his government intended to take it to Parliament.

National consensus

The Prime Minister said the government was seeking national consensus on the issue of Teesta waters. He, however, noted that water continued flowing to Bangladesh and data sharing in this regard was also taking place regularly.

The $1 billion loan deal, the largest line of credit received by Bangladesh under one agreement, was flowing in a satisfactory manner, according to discussions. Of this, $200 million, as a grant rather than credit, has already been offered to Bangladesh.

I

ndia has proposed a total ban on e-cigarettes and regulating proliferation of hookah (water pipes) use to prevent adverse impact on human health.

The recommendation made at the regional meeting of WHO-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) that concluded here on Friday, was backed by all 11 members of South-East Asian region countries with the nations committing themselves to take measures to their use, including imposing a ban. The issue would be taken up at the next meeting of the Conference of Parties.

E-cigarettes and hookahs are much in fashion and received promotion following the implementation of stringent anti-smoking laws. Both are unlicensed products and e-cigarettes are being illegally smuggled into India.

Participating in the regional meeting, the member nations agreed unanimously in admitting that hookah/water pipe was a health hazard and vowed to take appropriate measures to prevent their use, besides also introducing strong legislations and regulations to control the use of smokeless tobacco.

Agreeing to take appropriate legislative, administrative and regulatory measures to prevent the use of hookahs, countries of this region unanimously agreed that smokeless tobacco, including use of areca nut poses, serious public health problems due to its high use, a spokesperson of the FCTC Secretariat told reporters.

The recommendations are in line with the obligations under Article 5.2(b) of the WHO-FCTC to prevent and reduce nicotine addiction including through banning E-cigarettes or Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems.

The meeting recommended regulatory measures for discouraging the use of hookah keeping in mind its ‘customary’ use, the spokesperson added while citing the example of Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab where hookah-bars were banned.

The meeting was organised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in collaboration with WHO SEARO and Secretariat of WHO-FCTC, with technical assistance by WHO Country Office.

On Friday, fortune chose not to favour the brave. Sharif Khan of the Army Yachting Node (AYN), leading by over half a leg in the fifth race of the Radial Class, was dealt a cruel blow by a freak accident. The former silver and bronze medallist was forced to retreat shore-wards in the Laser National championships at the Hussain Sagar.

 Representatives of 10 south and southeast Asian countries, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, at the regional meeting of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control sought ban on smokeless forms of tobacco. The meeting was organized in New Delhi on 26 July 2013 by India's health ministry in collaboration with WHO SEAR (southeast Asian region) which reviewed implementation of the WHO convention and major developments related to the treaty in the region and internationally. The participants also included representatives from Bhutan, Myanmar, the Maldives, and Timor Leste

Himachal Pradesh state government launched video chat facility in all six prisons of the state on 26 July 2013. The video conference facility, first of its kind in the country, would help family and friends save time and money on travelling to prisons to meet the inmates. Even foreigners can avail this facility.

National Research Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Obaid Siddiqi, died in a Bangalore hospital on 21 July 2013. He was 81. Siddiqi, met with a road accident which caused him severe brain injuries.

Siddiqi was honoured with several awards, including Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, BC Roy Award for Biomedical Research and Firodia Award for Basic Sciences

India’s Weather Satellite INSAT-3D, carrying advanced weather monitoring payloads, was launched successfully on 26 July 2013 by Ariane-5 (VA214) launch vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana. After a smooth countdown lasting 11 hours and 30 minutes, the Ariane-5 launchvehicle lifted off right on schedule at the opening of the launch windowat 01:24 hours IST today.  After a flight of 32 minutes and 48 seconds, INSAT-3D was placed in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO),very close to the intended one.

The Supreme Court of India on 27 July 2013 ruled that clinical trials of untested drugs on humans require certain mandatory standards to be followed. The directed the Union government to put in place a mechanism to monitor them.

The apex court directed the Government to convene a meeting of Chief Secretaries or Health Secretaries of all the states to frame a law for regulation of clinical trials of drugs by multinational pharma companies.

A division bench granted four weeks time to the Union government to convene the meeting and for framing rules. In an affidavit, the Union government had admitted that 2 thousand 6 hundred 44 people died during clinical trials of 475 new drugs between 2005 and 2012.

Delhi government is all set to launch food security programme from 20 August 2013. Delhi will be the first state in India to launch Union government’s food security programme. The state government has completed all preparations in this regard.

Over 32 lakh identified families will start getting benefit under the scheme from the 1 September 2013.In the first phase, BPL and APL families, Jhugi Jhopadi ration card holders and those under Antodaya ration yojana will be covered.

Rickshaw pullers, porters and rag-pickers would also be included in the scheme to make Delhi hunger free.