Muthupet in Tiruvarur district was among the coastal towns that faced the wrath of Cyclone Gaja. But considering the extent of the damage elsewhere, this town seems to have been spared the worst, thanks to its mangrove forests.“They functioned as a shield and broke the velocity of the wind. In …

Sunil Arora, 62, a retired 1980-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, took over as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Sunday.Mr. Arora sought the cooperation of political parties and people to make elections “totally free, fair and ethical.”He succeeded O.P. Rawat who demitted office on Saturday. The Lok Sabha election, …

“Babies who are less active get less sleep, something new parents may want to consider when looking for possible solutions for the long, sleepless nights.” — Infant Behavior and Development Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/healthline-ritesh-kumar/article25645667.ece

Strengthening oversight:U.S. health officials have said that they plan to overhaul the decades-old system for approving most medical devices, which has long been criticised by experts for failing to catch problems with risky implants and medical instruments. The Food and Drug Administration has announced plans aimed at making sure new …

Every year, several lives across the world are lost or debilitated due to vector-borne diseases such as dengue and chikungunya. In India, the first case of dengue was detected in 1964 in Kolkata, with numbers rising due to a lack of vector control, unplanned urbanisation, climate change and varying immunological …

As cases of measles surge worldwide, ‘decades of progress’ in jeopardy Reported cases of measles worldwide surged by nearly a third last year, partly because parents did not vaccinate their children, health organisations have said. The increase in measles, a highly contagious scourge that had been nearly eradicated in many …

The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Draft Passenger Charter, unveiled with much fanfare in May and promising long-suffering Indian air travellers some basic rights somewhat on par with what their brethren enjoy in other, better regulated geographies, was quietly buried last month, with airline operators refusing to budge on most of …

It’s that time of the year when the literary pages are awash with lists of the best books of 2018. By all accounts, this has been a particularly remarkable year, and the copious lists that are filling the pages, particularly of the British and American papers, offer even the most …

For interventions to put down roots in complex traditions, they have to make sense to the practitioners and participants There is a remarkable scene in a documentary Aarar Asaippadaar by the director Prasanna Ramaswamy, which traces the everyday life of the great Carnatic singer Sanjay Subrahmanyan. We see Subrahmanyan (when …

We may all crave toys, but only some of us crave them for the attachment we develop with them Like most other people I know, I crave new toys. The process kicks in early in childhood: coveting something, the object either imagined or actually seen; wrestling with reality so that …