MY CONCEPT OF CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

While we are gearing up for the centenary celebrations of our Alma-mater, King George's Medical College, Lucknow in December 2011, have we clearly understood the significance of the occasion, or are we, in the midst of all the busy meetings and detailed planning sessions, forgotten that this is an occasion which has come after hundred years, and none of us would be around in this world to see the next one!

Whenever a really big occasion beckons us, we have a tendency to get lost in its magnum opus and forget a simple thing….how will the future remember this occasion and gauge us? Will they consider our effort as a really worthy one, or will the say that we fizzled away the glorious opportunity? Yes, we need a big party, a 3 day cultural and academic extravaganza, but is that all we need to do to celebrate 100 years of existence of our Alma-mater?

Think about it! Should we not leave behind a legacy, so that our successors look back and feel proud of us? Every monumental occasion needs a legacy planning and I am not sure we have one so far.

What is legacy?

Legacy is ensuring that as many sustainable benefits as possible are generated by the event for the institution, the city, the region and the country

Legacy is delivering these benefits well before, during and long after the event for all stakeholders and communities

Having a legacy vision and plan to leverage every possible opportunity is the hallmark of a good organizing committee. Merely gloating that we are a breed apart and the very best of the best is not and will not be good enough.

Celebrations without a social cause looks very selfish and self centred. We must think that on the occasion of the Centenary of our Alma-mater what we are offering to the city of Lucknow, the state of Uttar Pradesh and to India.

A. To the city:

1. The city lacks a trauma pick up system and we could arrange for a fleet of ambulances fully equipped with life saving devices to pick up trauma victims from anywhere within a radius of 50 Km from our Trauma Centre.

2. We could start a Centenary School Health Education Programme in which we could adopt certain Government and Non Government schools and arrange for some useful and interesting interactions with students on various health related topics like sanitation, safe drinking water, nutritious diet, tobacco usage, safe driving, breast self examination etc.

3. We could adopt the poorest village in our district and cater to all its health needs

B. To the State:

1. The most burning health issue of the State is the Japanese Encephalitis endemic. We can start a JE eradication programme, complete with research and clinical wings so that we can be of best use to the State.

2. We can initiate a Centenary Polio and Cerebral Palsy rehabilitation programme with the dual aim to make the State polio free and to make every disabled person live a respectable and dignified life

3. We can initiate a Centenary Stroke Station which will pick up patients from home, treat them, rehabilitate them and reintegrate them in the society

4. We can initiate a Centenary Beating Heart programme to educate the masses, detect risk factors early, inculcate the concept of cardiac safety in the people of the state and offer world class treatment for one and all.

C. To the country:

1. If one KGMC / CSMMU could teach so many students in the last 100 years imagine how much we can contribute to the developing world by starting our satellite institutions in Nepal, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. If IIMs less than 50 years old can open newer campuses in Colombo and Dhaka, if Apollo group can open hospitals in Colombo and Dhaka, why can we not do the same? Have we put forward this idea to the State Government? I do not think they will be terribly disinterested in opening institutions of excellence overseas, if they bear their chosen iconic names and statues.

2. The country needs to earn revenue from the competitive medical tourism market. Let us help this process by standardizing our various departments so that we turn out to be the number one destination of medical tourism in our country by opening wards exclusively for this purpose in the target departments.

3. Research is always a long term investment and areas of future successes like stem cell research and nano-technology need to be identified and on the occasion of the centenary we should be able to initiate work towards achieving these research goals.

D. To the Institution:

Centenary global integration programme: If we are the premier medical institution that we claim to be, and we are 100 years old, then what should we be looking like? Hundred year old institutions look like Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, so why are we not in that same league? We are not because we have chosen to stay in isolation and not integrated with the world. And in today’s world of globalization, isolationism is a curse. We have to integrate with other medical institutions, both public and private and, both within our country and overseas. No department in itself can be considered complete but when post graduates from one unit go to another one, they are exposed to newer ideas, newer gadgets and newer way of doing things. This cross-pollination of ideas is vital for the development of any individual or institution. Inbreeding can only weaken the progeny. Not only at student level, but even at the faculty level this cross-pollination must be allowed. If Team India can have coaches from South Africa, Australia and Zimbabwe, why can we not have teachers from overseas? Our own alumni will help the Institution to arrange for the best teachers.

As a responsible organization, we must ensure that the city, the state and their residents are left with the most positive legacy in terms of services, infrastructure, expertise and experience from our Centenary celebrations!

MY FATHER’S GUIDE TO BUY FRESH FISH

I am a Bengali who brought up on ‘Macher jhol and bhat’, that is fish curry and rice for you all. We have fish in both the meals and of more than one variety on holidays and when entertaining guests. So it is quite natural that I am expected to identify the best fish in the market and purchase it. But this quality was not ingrained in my genes; I learned it from my father during our weekend trips to the fish market.

This story is about my bonding with my father and how I could pick up the pearls of wisdom just by looking at him and asking him silly questions. When we were young the father and son bond was a more distant one based on respect, of course not without its share of love. Yet, there was a kind distance based on a mix of fear and respect which had its advantages but also the fact that there was an emotional gap in the bond that was tough to bridge. These days, however, with younger men becoming dads, the relation has met with a dynamic change. Younger dads today remember the equation which they shared with their own fathers and are making an effort to not repeat the same faults they noticed. But are they taking their children, both boys and girls, to the fish market to make them worldly wise? I doubt. I don’t see children tagging along their dads in the fish market any more. They stay in sanitized home environment, play virtual games on cell phones and watch unimaginative Kid’s TV. The social introduction of the child to the outside world is a father’s responsibility and my father did it amazingly well.

So how do we buy the best fish? There are some thumb rules that you need to follow while buying fish and making sure that it is fresh.

1.      Go to a reputable store or fishmonger.

2.      Ask what is the freshest or check what the catch of the day is.

3.      Don't be misguided by the term "fresh." Most landlocked areas selling fish usually have two types of fish - thawed or frozen, unless it is an upstanding vendor who really likes freshness.

4.      The smell of fresh fish is specific to its origin (sea, lake, river, fish pond) and it is pleasant and neutral. Spoiled fish has an unpleasant, sharp smell of trimethylamine (bad fish) and rot.

5.      Check the eyes: Eyes of fresh fish are bulging and shiny. Eyes of old fish are cloudy and sunken into the head. Before you handle the fish, check the eyes. They should be crystal-clear, plump, wet, and shiny, with no sunken features. If the eyes look good, you can bet with reasonable confidence that the fish is fresh and healthy. Once the fish begins to deteriorate, the eyes dry out, become cloudy, and sink in or shrivel away. This indicates an unhealthy or improperly-handled fish 

6.      Check the Fins - The tail and dorsal fins of the fish should be healthy-looking, wet, and intact. A fish that's been mishandled will have torn or ragged fins, while an older fish's fins will be dry and brittle. Torn and ragged fins probably belong to a fish that was netted or held for too long. 

7.      Check the Gills – The gills of fresh fish are moist. In old fish they are dry, covered with sticky slime, grayish-brown in color and smell bad. Healthy gills are of a nice, bright red color. A truly fresh fish should have gills that are vibrant red, not brown. When first caught, a fish's gills appear bright red, and slowly darken over time. The brighter the color, the fresher the fish. The gills should also feel clean and cold, not slimy. Mucus will build as time passes, too, so as the fish ages.

Healthy fish has moist bright red gills which are moist but not slimy

8.      Check the Skin- The skin in live and fresh fish is moist, must be unharmed and have a naturally metallic glow. Scales must be tightly attached to the body. The surface of healthy, fresh fish must be tight and shiny so that fish slides out of your hands. Discoloration and cracked skin are signs of rotting fish. Old or bad fish has already started losing its scales. When no longer fresh, the flesh becomes soft and tends to fall apart. The appearance of a fresh fish should be shiny and wet.

9.      Slime is equally distributed over the fish, it is clear and odorless. With time, slime gets increased, murky and dirty and has a sour smell.

10. Poke the flesh - The body of a fresh fish is firm and has a specific consistency and appearance. When pressed it should bounce back. Soft, grey and inelastic fish is old or bad. The fish should feel cold, wet, and slippery, but not sticky. When pressed, it should spring back to its natural shape, just like if you were to press on your own flesh. If it doesn't spring back, it is a sure sign that the meat has softened and and is no longer worthy of your money. Fish that has lost its firm shape is no longer fresh.

11. Touch the scales: Scales are designed to protect the fish from a harsh watery environment. When a fish is fresh, the scales will be shiny and firm, a veritable armor against the elements. Less-fresh fish will often shed scales as you run your hand over them, and they may appear dry and flaky.

12. Belly of a live and fresh fish is shiny and undamaged, and the anal opening is tight. Anal opening of old and bad fish sticks out and is yellow-brown in color.

Buy whole fish whenever possible – It is easier to determine the freshness of a whole fish rather than a previously cut fish. My father used to say that if I do not see the head of the fish still attached to the body it is not worth wasting time on it. Once purchased the fish seller will fillet it for you the way you would like. To keep fish fresh for longer, transport it in an insulated cooler bag. Fish should be the last thing you buy in a bazaar and after that go straight home. As soon as you get it home, carefully remove any guts, rinse it under running water then pat dry. Ideally you should put the masala on and cook it the same day. If that is not possible then add salt and turmeric and store in the refrigerator until the next day.

Buying butchered fish – If you have a small family then buying a large fish may be uneconomical. But gauging the freshness of a fish that has not been cut in front of your own eyes is difficult. If you prefer to buy filleted fish, these tips will help you choose the freshest product. For the most part, visual cues are enough to indicate a fresh piece of fish, but some tactile clues may help as well.

1.      Look for cracks, breaks, and pooling water - Look for cracks in the filet that run between the muscles and collagen sheaths (the white lines running through the fish). Breaks in the muscle itself tend to indicate mishandling. Natural separation of the muscles along the collagen sheaths indicate that the fish is not very fresh because enzymes naturally present in the muscle tissue are degrading the collagen, causing the muscles to start to tear under their own weight. Pooling water inside the container usually indicates that the fish is aging and losing its ability to hold moisture. 

2.      Inspect the color and consistency of the flesh - For white fish, such as rohu or pabda, the meat should look fairly translucent. If it is very opaque and extremely white, it's a sign that the flesh is not fresh. 

3.      For all fish, make sure the flesh is wet and glossy. Fish that is sticky, dry, or chalky has likely been handled improperly (held at warm temperatures), frozen and thawed several times, or is just plain old.

4.      Colour - the flesh should be bright and very saturated in color. Look for a clear color contrast between the fat and the muscle as this is the best indication of a fresh butchered fish. 

Next time you go to the fish market take your children along with you and pass on your knowledge to them. Listen closely to the fish seller; he will invariably be keen to teach your children and you a thing or two. Whenever I go to the Kaisarbag fish market in Lucknow I am always welcomed by loud greetings from fish sellers and their now elderly present generation successors, because they have known me since I was a child. And this acquaintance and old friendship is the surest guarantee of the freshness of the fish I purchase.

FATHER AND SON QUALITY WATERMELON TIME

Whether we know it or not, our sons learn about being a man primarily by watching their fathers. A father's influence on his son's personal development is often unseen but nonetheless real. As a young man watches his father interact with his mother, he learns about respect (or disrespect), about how men and women interact and about how men should deal with conflict and differences. As he watches his dad interact with other men, he will learn how men talk, how they relate with one another and how they deal with masculine issues. Alas with work pressures and financial woes mounting father and son bonding is becoming a thing of the past.

Human beings are social animals and we learn by modeling behavior. In fact, all primates learn how to survive and function successfully in the world through social imitation. Those early patterns of interaction are all children know, and it is those patterns that effect how they feel about themselves, and how they develop. A child is vulnerable to those early patterns and incorporates those behavioral qualities in his/her repertoire of social exchange.

The father-son relationship can be complex. Fathers and sons with widely different interests can find it hard to relate to one another. Sometimes dads and sons feel competitive against one another. Sometimes their male tendencies to not communicate feelings are compounded as both want a better father-son relationship but neither one quite knows how to go about it. Understanding that a father's influence on his son is unmatched will help fathers think more deeply about their relationship with their sons and take that relationship more seriously. Focusing on our sons, spending positive time together and talking about life lessons, scattered with a large dose of quiet and engaged listening, will help fathers and sons develop nurturing and meaningful relationships and help our sons form attitudes which will allow them to develop into men in the richest sense of that term.

Today when I look back I can say with certainty that my father did a far better job of fathering than I did. His lessons were hands on and of everyday use. ‘Quality time’ did not come announced; it was there every time we were together and it left an indelible impression on my mind and helped me become a better person.

I would accompany him to the bazaar every Sunday for purchasing vegetables, fruits and groceries. One thing which always astonished me was he knew almost everybody he interacted by their first name! Not only that, he also knew whose mother was not keeping well, whose son was appearing in High School examinations and whose daughter was getting married. He would stop and talk to everybody, whether he was buying something from them or not and I was supposed to greet everyone with a polite ‘Namashkar’.

On one such day in the bazaar he taught me how to purchase the sweetest watermelon! Watermelons are one of my favorite summer foods, and to my mind, nothing tastes better in the Lucknow summer like a sweet and crunchy watermelon. On the other hand, there's nothing quite like the disappointment of biting into what you thought was a ripe watermelon, only to be rewarded by the bland and flavorless taste of an unripe melon. To reduce the disappointment of eating an unripe melon how can you pick the best watermelon from the heap? You won’t know if your father didn’t tell you!

So here are the tips which my father gave to me to choose the sweetest watermelons. Try them, they have never failed me:

1.      Look at its belly: Watermelons have an underside, or belly, which is in contact with the ground throughout its growth.  This is called a 'field spot' or ‘yellow spot’. This spot on a ripe watermelon will be yellowish (sometimes referred to as "buttery"), and not white, which indicates an unripe melon.

2.      Dull not shiny: The watermelon should not look shiny, that is a feature of unripe fruit. If should be dull in colour

3.      Round not oblong: Perfectly round watermelons are sweeter than the oblong ones which tend to be a bit watery

4.      Look for webbing: These web-like brown spots on the watermelon mean that bees touched the pollinating parts of the flower many times. The more pollination, the sweeter the fruit is.

5.      Thump it: Using your knuckles, rap on the middle of the watermelon while holding it up to your ear, or flick it with your finger (like flicking a crumb off your shirt). A ripe watermelon will have a hollow sound when knocked, which sounds more like a 'plunk' than a 'thwack'. An unripe watermelon will have more of a higher pitched sound, while an overripe one will make a 'thud' or a lower-pitched sound. Learning the difference between the sounds of an unripe vs. a ripe watermelon takes a bit of practice.

6.      Sniff it: Pick up the watermelon and carry it a little bit away from the rest of the melons (so you don't pick up the smell of other melons), and give it a good sniff. A ripe watermelon should smell slightly sweet, and similar to what a melon tastes like, but not overly sweet (which can indicate an overripe watermelon).

7.      Squeeze it: Gently squeeze the side of the watermelon to see if there's a bit of 'give' to it. The rind of the melon shouldn't be soft, as the skin of some fruits get when ripe, but it also shouldn't be hard as a rock, with no give to it at all.

8.      Check the approximate weight on your palm, for a similar size watermelon the ripe one would be heavier than the unripe one.

9.      Look at connection to the mother vine. A ripe watermelon can be plucked off the vine leaving no part of the vine attached to it, whereas an unripe watermelon invariably carries a part of the torn vine along with it.  A dried tail indicates that the watermelon is ripe. However, if the tail is green, it probably means that the watermelon was picked too soon and will not be ripe.

Now tell me, if your father did not teach you this, who else is going to impart this invaluable knowledge to you!

Helping a son be grounded spiritually is an important role for a father. Whatever your faith tradition, help your son understand the deeper meaning of life. If you don't have a faith tradition, help him reach for his inner self and try to have a perspective that will help him look at things deeper than on the surface. As a young man gets in tune with nature, God and himself, he will have a pattern in his life that will help him endure hardship and thrive personally. Buying a ripe watermelon was just something I am reminded of every summer but developing inter personal relationships in this world was a far more valuable lesson that I learned from my father during these trips to the bazaar.

One of these days I am going to tell you how to buy fresh fish!!

FACTFULNESS – why things are better than you think?

When I read a good book I have this urge to share it with the world and when I hear about a good book I get impatient. So when none less than Bill Gates recommended this book I had to get my hands on it.......and I finished it in two days! FACTFULNESS is a book like no other, and when it comes from a Bibliophile like me, who reads everything from poetry to Times Classified, you would advised to take me seriously. On its cover the book boldly declares the author’s objectives: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World-and Why Things Are Better Than You Think 

Written by Dr. Hans Rosling, a professor of international health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, this is a book about statistics and it shatters so many myths that after completing the book you are bound to be transformed into a far more optimistic person! Bestselling books about statistics are as rare as unicorns. If it becomes the No 1 bestseller it surely is as rare as a lunar unicorn. Factfulness by Hans Rosling is that moon-based creation.

I knew the author from his inspiring Ted talks https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen 

https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_and_ola_rosling_how_not_to_be_ignorant_about_the_world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w

His first such talk thrust him into the international spotlight in 2006. In 2015, the Swedish professor asked an audience that included heads of state, titans of industry and a former UN secretary-general three multiple-choice questions about poverty, population growth and vaccination rates. To his delight — and dismay — they scored worse than average. Rosling’s well-educated audience in Davos did not know that the world’s average life expectancy is 70, that 88 per cent of children are vaccinated against disease or that in 2100 there will be 2 billion children below the age of 15 — the same number as today! Apart from in Africa, fertility rates have fallen so fast that populations have stabilised almost everywhere on Earth. One of Rosling’s favourite statistics is that Muslim Bangladeshi women have fewer children than Christian/atheist women in Sweden!  

Dr. Rosling left us for his heavenly abode on February 7, 2017. He was billed as the man in whose hands data would sing. The statistician in him was more likely to illustrate an idea with a few multi-coloured lego bricks than a PowerPoint presentation. In his lifetime had been described as everything from a data guru to a Jedi master of data visualisation. Rosling liked to call himself an “edutainer”. A talented presenter, whose signature animated data visualisations have featured in dozens of film clips, the statistician used humour and often unlikely objects such as children’s toys, cardboard boxes and teacups to liven up data on wealth, inequality and population.

FACTFULNESS has a very simple message - the vast majority of us get it wrong about the state of the world. We think it is poorer and unhealthier, more dangerous and violent than it actually is. The book explains how media bias, ideological preconceptions and statistical illiteracy makes most people believe in a gloomy and spectacularly wrong worldview. The book carefully explains by data and vivid examples how positive developments are systematically underreported, while disaster news is vastly over-reported. Rosling categorise the 10 most important sources of bias and misconceptions, some basic human instincts like fear, negativity, blame etc which caused a negative outlook of the world. He also carefully explained strategies on how to avoid them and develop an optimistic outlook.  

Our distorted picture stems partly from having media that inevitably report on tragedies such as starvation, war and school shootings, and from charities that accentuate the negative. Without ever dismissing suffering, Dr. Rosling argues that we need to keep two ideas in our heads simultaneously: things can be bad but they are also improving. In one provocative chapter, he celebrates the fact that “only” 4.2 million babies died last year, calling the number “beautifully small”. In 1950, when the population was much smaller, there were 14.4 million dead babies. We have made huge progress.

In the Chapter on ‘gap instinct’ Dr. Rosling debunks the Mega Misconception that “The World Is Divided in Two”. He goes on to how irresistible temptation we have to divide all kinds of things into two distinct and often conflicting groups, with an imagined gap—a huge chasm of injustice—in between. It is about how the gap instinct creates a picture in people’s heads of a world split into two kinds of countries or two kinds of people: rich versus poor, developed versus developing west versus east and so on

Factfulness is the product of his master craftsmanship of presenting the truth behind a deluge of data. He has in this book helped us identify where things are getting better and encourages us to counter the mainstream media’s agenda of doom and gloom and spread the message of improvement. This way the book and its author helps us to see the world more objectively and overcome the easy cynicism that so easily creeps into our way of thinking. The world has made huge progress which needs to be appreciated because only then we can look at a bad situation, which was worse once, and plan to improve it in future. This is the world view of a ‘possiblist’, one who believes that things could get batter and not that things will get better! Dr.Hans Rosling was a perfect ‘possiblist’.

Some of the statistics that Dr. Rosling produced were absolutely mind boggling. He categorized people by their income levels and emphasized the commonality that exists in each such level irrespective of where they live. Thus he has shown that people tend to buy shoes and bikes when they double their income from $ 2 to $ 4 a day irrespective of where they live – in the outskirts of Kinshasa or in the slums of Dhaka. So he went ahead to organize people along how they lived instead of where they lived and that way it was impossible for anyone to miss the progress made. His knack for presentation and delight in statistics come across on every page. Who else would choose a chart of “guitars per capita” as a proxy for human progress?

This is tremendously readable non-fiction.  It is well-researched, well-written, and organized for ease of learning, with honesty, humor, and personal perspective. The 354 page book is published by Flatiron Books and it costs Rs. 304.00 in Flipkart. The Kindle price is $ 4.21 and the hard cover is for $ 16.79. The PDF can be downloaded from https://soundcloud.com/free-ebooks/pdfepub-download-factfulness-by-hans-rosling-e-book

GROWING THE ECONOMY AND STABILIZING THE DEBT

When it comes to planning a budget for the country the act is not very dissimilar to planning the budget for a family. The size certainly is very different but the intent and the purpose however are very similar. Just like a family, a country too has its wish list, a set of realistic goals for the year, it too has to identify all possible sources of income, list the expenditures according to its priorities and importance, and allocate funds for each of them, and save something for a rainy day.

The 7 Steps to a Budget are

·         Step 1: Set Realistic Goals. Goals for our money will help us make smart spending choices…

·         Step 2: Identify our Income and Expenses. ...

·         Step 3: Separate Needs and Wants. ...

·         Step 4: Design our Budget. ...

·         Step 5: Put our Plan into Action. ...

·         Step 6: Seasonal Expenses. ...

·         Step 7: Look Ahead.

While families manage to strike a balance between their income and expenditure on most occasions, governments are often not so smart. They end up spending more than they earn, thus adding to their Credit Card debt. A "government deficit" refers to the difference between government receipts and spending in a single year. And how does the government meet this deficit? Naturally by borrowing and this is “government debt”. So the government debt is the debt owed by a government.

This government debt can be categorized as internal debt (owed to lenders within the country) and external debt (owed to foreign lenders). Another common division of government debt is by duration until repayment is due. Short term debt is generally considered to be for one year or less, long term debt is for more than ten years. Medium term debt falls between these two boundaries. A broader definition of government debt may consider all government liabilities, including future pension payments and payments for goods and services which the government has contracted but not yet paid.

Governments create debt by issuing securities, government bonds and bills. Less creditworthy countries sometimes borrow directly from a supranational organization (e.g. the World Bank) or international financial institutions like IMF and Asian Development Bank. So government debt is effectively an account of all the money that has been spent but not yet taxed back. The ability of a government to repay this debt is dependent on how much it earns annually and this is its ‘Gross Domestic Product’ or GDP.

GDP is an aggregate measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production (plus any taxes, and minus any subsidies, on products not included in the value of their outputs). GDP thus measures the monetary value of final goods and services—that are bought by the final user—produced in a country in a given period of time. 

The debt-to-GDP ratio is the ratio of a country's public debt to its gross domestic product (GDP). By comparing what a country owes to what it produces, the debt-to-GDP ratio indicates the country's ability to pay back its debt. Often expressed as a percentage, the ratio can be interpreted as the number of years needed to pay back debt if GDP is dedicated entirely to debt repayment. Generally, Government debt as a percent of GDP is used by investors to measure a country ability to make future payments on its debt, thus affecting the country borrowing costs and government bond yields. So countries with modest debt-to-GDP ratio can borrow money to meet their deficit at a lower rate and those which have alarmingly high debt-to GDP ratio end up borrowing at a much higher rate thus compounding their already fragile fiscal situation. If a country is unable to pay its debt, it defaults, which causes panic both in its domestic and international markets, as it has both internal and external debts. The higher the debt-to-GDP ratio, the less likely the country will pay back its debt and the higher its risk of default!

Governments have the unenviable task of achieving two goals at once:

1.      Faster economic growth that will create more jobs and bring the unemployment rate steadily down.

2.      A sustainable long-run budget plan that will halt the rise in the debt/GDP ratio or better still, put it on a downward trajectory.

The two goals reinforce each other and neither can be achieved without the other. Weak economic growth—or worse, sliding back into recession—will reduce revenues and make it much harder to reduce or even stabilize the ratio of debt to GDP. But the prospect of debt growing faster than the economy for the foreseeable future reduces consumer and investor confidence, raises a serious threat of high future interest rates.

Stabilizing and reducing future debt does not require immediate austerity; on the contrary, excessive budgetary austerity in a still-slow recovery undermines both goals. But it does require a firm plan enacted soon to halt the rising debt/GDP ratio and reduce it over coming decades.

What is ideal debt-to-GDP ratio?
Economists have not identified a specific debt-to-GDP ratio as being ideal, and instead focus on the sustainability of certain debt levels. If a country can continue to pay interest on its debt without refinancing or harming economic growth, it is generally considered to be stable. A high debt-to-GDP ratio may make it more difficult for a country to pay external debts, and may lead creditors to seek higher interest rates when lending. Then again while governments may strive to have low debt-to-GDP ratios, government borrowing may increase in times of war or recession and government earnings may be depleted by poor harvest and mindless subsidies.

Some World Figures

Global debt reached a record high in 2016 at $164 trillion, or almost 225 per cent of global GDP. China alone has contributed to 43 per cent increase to global debt since 2007. Public debt is currently at historic highs in advanced and emerging market economies. Average debt-to-GDP ratios, at more than 105 per cent of GDP in advanced economies, are at levels not seen since World War II. The average debt-to-GDP ratio among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2015 was 111.2%. A number of countries had a debt-to-GDP ratio in 2015 that was over 100% including Belgium at 105.4%, France at 116.1%, Greece at 188.2%, Ireland at 132%, Italy at 147.4%, Japan at 232.5%, Portugal at 142.2%, Spain at 111.5% and the United Kingdom at 103.1%.

The United States had a debt-to-GDP ratio of 104.17% in 2015 according to the U.S. Bureau of Public Debt. The United States experienced its highest debt-to-GDP ratio in 1946 at 121.70%, and its lowest in 1974 at 31.70%. Debt levels gradually fell from their post-World War II peak before plateauing between 31 and 40% in the 1970s. They have been rising steadily since 1980, jumping sharply following the subprime housing crisis of 2007 and subsequent financial meltdown.

The U.S. government finances its debt by issuing U.S. Treasury bonds, which are considered the safest bonds on the market. The countries with the 10 largest holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds are Taiwan at $182.3 billion, Hong Kong at $200.3 billion, Luxembourg at $221.3 billion, the United Kingdom at $227.6 billion, Switzerland at $230 billion, Brazil at $246.4 billion, Ireland at $264.30 billion, the Cayman Islands at $265 billion, Japan at $1.147 trillion and Mainland China at $1.244 trillion.

Where is India?

India's general government debt remained relatively high, at 70 per cent of its GDP in 2017, but authorities are planning to bring it down over the medium term with the right policies. For economies that are growing rapidly, a higher debt to GDP ratio is acceptable. This is because its future earnings will be able to pay off the debt much more easily than a country with a slow growth rate. India on date is the world's fastest growing major economy. Another factor that determines the health of an economy and its debt to GDP ratio is its demographics. The older the average age of the country’s population, greater the cause of concern. For example, an ageing population like China's is a cause of concern as there will be more pensioners than earners. India on the other hand has the world's youngest population. India's external debt witnessed a decline of 2.7 per cent over its level at end-March 2016. The decline in the magnitude of external debt was partly due to valuation loss resulting from the depreciation of the US dollar with respect to the Indian rupee, but the role played by correct policy decisions cannot be under-played.

Avoiding Disaster, Growing the Economy and Stabilizing the Debt should be our mantra for future. Indeed, higher investment in science, education, and modern infrastructure is needed to foster future productivity and job creation. While savings in defence can be made over time, they should result from serious planning, not mindless cut, regardless of priorities as integrity of the Nation is non-negotiable.

BROW RAISING FACTS ABOUT EYEBROWS

Remember how Priya Prakash Varrier with her dancing eyebrows winked her way into our hearts and became an overnight internet sensation! Eyebrows and expression have a long association and are invalable assets for the exponents of our classical dance forms - Bharatnatyam, Kathakali, Kuckipudi and Mohiniattam.

We Plastic surgeons have been bothered about the eyebrows for a very long time as drooping eyebrows make the face look aged and nice arching eyebrows signify youthfulness. So in our eternal quest of rejuvenation we have been working in and around the eyebrows since quite some time. It was only when we started replacing missing parts of the eyebrow did we realize that each one of them comprises of three sections – head, body and tail and the body has two halves upper and lower and all four of these parts i.e. head, upper body, lower body and tail, have hairs growing in different directions!

If you compare modern human beings to our prehistoric ancestors, one of the most obvious physical differences you'll find is the lack of a massive brow ridge. Over time, human evolution led to us developing finer facial features, smoother foreheads, and eyebrows. But why did this happen?

A recent study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution claims that eyebrows that are mobile help people with non-verbal communication, which is one of the traits that make us the most advanced human species to ever exist. In contrast, the Neanderthals' jutting brow was used for displays of dominance and sexual attraction instead, similar to the function of a stag's antlers.

"Sexually dimorphic display and social signaling is a convincing explanation for the jutting brows of our ancestors," said Paul O'Higgins, senior author of the study and professor of Anatomy at the University of York. "Their conversion to a more vertical brow in modern humans allowed for the display of friendlier emotions, which helped form social bonds between individuals".

Around 100,000 years ago, human groups began to diversify their social networks, which is why it made evolutionary sense to prioritize emotional responses over violent adaptations. Scientists claim that it is around this point in history that human being began to develop smaller and flatter brow ridges, as well as the mobile eyebrows that we still have today.

Eyebrow movements allow us to express complex emotions as well as perceive the emotions of others. A rapid "eyebrow flash" is a cross-cultural sign of recognition and openness to social interaction and pulling our eyebrows up at the middle is an expression of sympathy. Tiny movements of the eyebrows are also a key component to identifying trustworthiness and deception. On the flip side, it has been shown that people who have had botox which limits eyebrow movement are less able to empathize and identify with the emotions of others.

But why do we have them in the first place? Is it only to communicate through our expressions? The consensus seems to be that eyebrows keep moisture, like sweat and rain, from running down a person’s forehead straight into the eyes. This explanation is easy to visualize when you look at the morphology and facial features involved — most notably, the pronounced slant of the eyebrow hairs which directs water away from the eyes. This has obvious evolutionary survival advantages. Sweat tends to be very salty, and salty liquids getting into your eyes while you’re running in an African Savannah would be a severe hindrance to hunting. It could also be a potentially deadly problem when the tables are turned and you are fleeing hungry predators. Eyebrows give those potentially deadly distractions a detour to the side of the face, instead of right into your eyes.

Beauticians have been dabbling with the eyebrows since ages. According to them there are six facial shapes - Oval Face, Round Face, Long Face, Square Face, Heart shaped Face , Diamond shaped Face and there is a best eyebrow shape suited for each facial shape! Party heart-throbs, brides and cine-artists have all had special attention paid to their eyebrows to make them look more beautiful and sexy. What they as for can then do with this ammunition, only sky is the limit!

Geneticists have established that the shape, color, and thickness of your eyebrows are inherited traits. In one major study in 2015 ( https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10815 ), scientists found a strong relationship between inheritance of specific genes and eyebrow appearance. Four separate genes may affect eyebrow hair texture, one gene may determine eyebrow shape, five genes affect eyebrow hair color, and one gene determines whether or not you develop a monobrow. But, environmental factors also have a lot to do with how your eyebrows look. Years of waxing or tweezing your eyebrows can permanently affect their shape. Injuries to the skin near your eyebrows can also affect hair growth and eyebrow shape.

Just as eyebrow characteristics are inherited, so are abnormalities affecting the eyebrows. One of the most common abnormalities affecting eyebrows is madarosis, or loss of eyebrows. The term madarosis can also refer to loss of eyelashes. This can be caused by many different inherited disorders. Several congenital facial clefts also traverse the eyebrows, clefting them too!

So, eyebrows are the Swiss Army Knife of the human body—they do everything!