Governor takes Re 1 as salary, returns the balance

PATNA: Keeping with his tradition of drawing a token salary of Re 1, Bihar governor Dnyandeo Yashwantrao Patil has surrendered Rs 2,19,998 after receiving the salaries for the months of April and May as the first citizen of the state.

Patil's salary account at the State Bank of India (SBI) is credited with Rs 38, Re 1 each for his 36 months' tenure as the Tripura governor and two months here. In fact, the septuagenarian has been taking only a token salary from the government since 1967, when he was first elected an MLA from Panhala constituency of Maharashtra and all his government postings henceforth.

When asked the reason, the soft-spoken governor replied, "It is not necessary for me."

Patil, who follows the ideologies of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, said, "People give respect to a person after he dies. But, helping out a living being is more important and would earn more blessings." The governor also pays for the higher education of 32 students from India who study at Mauritius at his college. And that's just one of the several humanitarian activities that Patil is involved with.

According to Shivdeep W Lande, ADC to governor, Patil has about 70 acres of agricultural land in Maharashtra, which is a source of his sustenance and philanthropic works. "He also pays for the travelling allowances (TA) of his aides who travel with him. Even I don't claim my TA," said Lande, adding that if Patil's guests stay at the circuit house, the expenses are also paid for by the governor.

Patil took over the charge of Bihar governor on March 22 this year. He has founded 160 colleges and four deemed universities. "I retired from active politics in 1980 and then from the administrative work of my colleges in 1993," he said.

His duties as the head of the state keeps him occupied for most part of the day. "However, I like to go for a walk early morning," said Patil, adding that his day begins by drinking a glass of popular Bihari drink "sattu". In fact, another Bihari cuisine that has invaded the otherwise Maharashtrian kitchen of the governor house is "litti-chokha", having found favour with Patil lately. But, food is only necessary for survival and is a taste to the tongue, feels the educationist.

In fact, his visits to Bodh Gaya, Rajgir and a few other places of Bihar have helped him form a positive opinion of the state. "In Mumbai, the place where I lived was named 'Siddhartha' and there were two temples of Buddha there. Now I am on the land where Buddha once walked. There must be some divine connection," said the Padma Shri recipient.

Gurgaon doctors perform innovative knee surgery

GURGAON: A 67-year-old patient with severe osteoarthritis from Oman has undergone a knee-replacement surgery using computer navigation technique at a private hospital in Gurgaon. Both the knees were replaced in one sitting itself.

Doctors at the Artemis Hospital claim that the knee replacement surgery was performed with the help of computer navigation is the first in Gurgaon. In this technique, specially designed trackers are fixed on the patient bones which send signals to the cameras mounted on the machine with computer and the surgeon maps the patient bone anatomy on the computer.

This provides a patient-specific anatomical map of the bone on the screen. It is different from the robotic surgery as here the surgeon remains in control of the procedure.

"In conventional technique, a lot of eyeballing is required to fix the cutting instruments on the patient's bone. This leads to mal-alignment of the implant in approximately 17 to 28% of cases (quoted in various studies published in medical literature). This will lead to persistent pain or instability in the knee even after surgery and the implant will fail much quicker as compared to well aligned and balanced knee," said Subhash Jangid, senior consultant, department of orthopaedics.

A perfectly aligned knee joint will last longer compared to the mal-aligned knee. Thus, the patient will require a revision surgery after 20-25 years (if the joint is perfectly aligned) as compared to 10-15 years (if the joint is mal-aligned). This will reduce both the physical and financial burden on the patient and our health care system. The revision surgery usually costs two times as compared to primary surgery, said the doctor.

"In conventional technique, we put instruments and cutting zigs in a fixed angle for all the patients, but the individual anatomic variations are not considered," added Jangid. With computer navigation the hip, knee and ankle center are calculated accurately for that individual patient. It then guides surgeon to determine the spatial location of instruments for that particular patient and to provide positional feedback regarding their use. This leads to zero degree error in alignment of the artificial prosthesis in all three planes, claim doctors.

The other advantage of computer navigation is that the artificial knee is perfectly balanced with this technique and it helps in early recovery. The patients are more confident and pain-free because the knee is stable and axial loading is perfect. The patients even climb stairs in a week's time after the surgery.

Besides this, the canal of the thigh bone is not opened in this technique and that avoids any chance of fat embolism in these patients. The blood loss is significantly less with the computer navigation technique as compared to conventional technique. We don't transfuse any blood for our unilateral knee replacements and usually require no more than one unit in bilateral knee replacement cases.

India beat Pakistan by eight wickets, surge to top of table

BIRMINGHAM: This tournament had turned out to be bad for Pakistan, but Messrs Duckworth and Lewis made it worse on Saturday. Their big-ticket clash against India was supposed to be a last chance at redemption but the match was marred by unrelenting bursts of shower and a painfully prolonged end. India, however, still prevailed with ease.

The 50-over match was first cut down to 40 overs a side. That was curtailed further when India began their chase of a revised target of 168 after Pakistan had scored 165 all out in 39.4 overs batting first. Subsequently, another heavy burst of shower further reduced the target to just 39 runs off 63 balls, and India chased it down with 17 balls and eight wickets remaining.

The match, meant to be a dead rubber, was played like a final - the way fans had expected and the occasion was built-up. But in the end, Pakistan's misery only continued while India bagged another win to top the table. They will head to the semifinal in Cardiff riding on greater confidence.

It was a toss any captain would've desperately wanted to win. With clouds constantly hovering over Edgbaston and the possibility of a shower always around, the idea of batting second on a flat wicket, in conditions where sun tends to come out later in the day, always looked a better choice. But Misbah-ul Haq, who'll have many questions to answer when he gets home, lost the toss of the coin to his Indian counterpart MS Dhoni.

It was a shaky start for Pakistan with Bhuvneshwar Kumar seizing the early initiative to have opener Nasir Jamshed caught at second slip. The ball had moved off the pitch, but not so blatantly as to shock the batsmen.

Scoring freely seemed a possibility when Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal worked on a 46-run stand for the second wicket and the middle-order - consisting of Asad Shafiq, Misbah and Umar Amin - kept adding to their tally.

In fact, such was the strokeplay between these batsmen that from being on the mat as early as in the third over, Pakistan posted a 100 runs in the next 145 balls and from there kept accelerating at almost six runs an over.

Twice, rain marred their innings but not to the extent that conditions changed or the overs got further reduced.

Barring Ravindra Jadeja, once again the pick of India's attack, R Ashwin and an improved Umesh Yadav, India plucked wickets at regular intervals and an amazing set of fielders made the proceedings more difficult for Pakistan.

Dhoni once again made impressive use of the DRS system, serving another reminder to the Indian board of the manner in which it has helped the team here. Meanwhile, only the grass turned greener for Pakistan as rains twice lashed the outfield just when Misbah's men began facing the pressure against an in-form India.

When the chase began, the target - after calculating Pakistan's scoring rate - was set at 168 and openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma appeared to continue from where they'd left off against the West Indies. Scores of Pakistan supporters who had walked in on Saturday morning began filing out early, sensing a lost cause. The aggressive Dhawan pulled and cut with immaculate timing and ease as the Pak attack got blown apart.

Now, rail link till Katra for Vaishno Devi pilgrims

NEW DELHI: Travel for devotees to the famous Vaishno Devi shrine will become more comfortable with trains expected to go right up to Katra, the shrine's base camp, from August.

Railways is going to open the 25-km Udhampur-Katra rail link in August as work on the difficult route is almost complete.

The national transporter is also working with the state government to integrate permit slips for Vaishno Devi Darshan with the train ticket.

"We are in talks with the Jammu & Kashmir government. The passenger can get permit slips while booking the train ticket," said V K Gupta, General Manager, Northern Railways.

The next step is an evaluation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) for approval to run trains up to Katra as safety clearance from the watchdog is mandatory before new route becomes operational, an official said.

Most of the work, except the laying of ballast-less track on a 3.1-km-long tunnel, the most difficult on the route, is almost complete now, Gupta said.

After the commissioning of the new route, pilgrims will be able to reach the base camp of Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra without having to break their journey at Jammu.

An estimated 10 million devotees pay obeisance at the Vaishno Devi shrine annually.

The Udhampur-Katra rail route — to be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 960 crore — passes through hostile terrain, making it an extremely challenging railways project.

The route consists of seven tunnels and 30 small and big bridges, including a 185-feet high tunnel. A total of seven tunnels span over 10 km of the 25-km stretch.

While no decision has been taken yet on the number of trains which will go to Katra, but once the line is operational, any train coming to Uddhampur can be extended to Katra depending on popular demand.

Katra station is ready with three platforms, and two more platforms will come up later.

Mega Nashik Flyover inaugurated

Nashik (Maha): Union Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar inaugurated the 6.1-km long four-lane flyover on NH-3 of Mumbai-Agra Road here today.

Speaking on the occasion, Pawar said that the flyover would save people's time and fuel.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, his nephew and NCP MP from Nashik Sameer Bhujbal, MP Supriya Sule, Union Minister of State for Surface Transport and National Highways Tushar Chaudhari and others were present on the occasion.


The flyover, which was raised at a cost of Rs 980 crore, connects Pathardi-Phata and Adgaon Naka.

Its construction began on January 4, 2010.About 172 pillars were required to complete the huge flyover and total 3,500 labourers were engaged to construct it.

Chhagan Bhujbal said that since the city would be hosting the Kumbh Mela in 2016, the state government need up to speed up infrastructure work.

PTI

Prince William has Indian ancestry, hunt on for Gujarati cousin

London: Hunt has been on in India for possible cousins and relatives of Prince William after it emerged that he has a sliver of Indian ancestry.

Attention was focused on the city of Surat in the state of Gujarat after it was revealed that Eliza Kewark , the prince's great, great, great, great, great grandmother, was of Indian origin.

In 1812, Kewark gave birth to Prince Williams's great, great, great, great grandmother, Katharine Scott Forbes, the Independent reported.

Scottish-based company Britains DNA carried out tests on DNA supplied by two of Eliza's living direct descendants, who are both third cousins of Princess Diana's mother, Frances Shand Kydd.

The tests revealed that William carries Kewark's mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA).

ANI 

Monsoon rains ahead of schedule: MeT office

New Delhi: India's monsoon rains are a week ahead of schedule, powering across two-thirds of the country by June 14 and heavier than normal, but the weather office is sticking to its forecast for average rains during the entire four-month period.

Heavier than normal rains can trigger flooding but at this stage in the June to September season, they spur planting of crops. India's biggest concern is drought during a monsoon, with rains crucial for the 55 percent of farmland without irrigation.

The monsoon should cover the whole of India before the usual mid-July timing and their distribution over major crop-growing regions should be fairly even, BP Yadav, a director at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), said on Friday.

Rainfall is expected to be at 101 percent of the long-term average in July and 96 percent in August, two key months for the planting and maturing of crops.

The strong start to the June to September monsoon boosts prospects of robust farm output.

That could help the economy and hold down inflation, a critical concern for the coalition government as it readies for a round of state polls this year and a national ele

ction by May 2014.

India is one of the world's biggest producers and consumers of rice, sugar and other food agricultural commodities. A strong monsoon will underpin government confidence harvests will be ample to cover the extra grains needed for its plans for a $24 billion welfare scheme to give cheap food to more of its poor.

The weather office first forecast an average monsoon in April, before the season started, and the continuing absence of the El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which can cause droughts, played a part in its confirmation of that forecast on Friday.

The rains have also been ample over seven southern and western states, including major sugar producer Maharashtra, which were hit by drought last year and need plentiful and timely rain to assist a recovery.

© Thomson Reuters 2013