Abu Dhabi: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been named as the social media capital of the world, according to a new study by Proxyrack.
The study analyzed the average number of social platforms and the percentage of the population using Facebook in each country to reveal the social media capitals of the world.
“With an almost perfect score of 9.55 out of 10, the UAE takes the top spot as the social media capital of the world. People in the UAE have an average of 8.2 social media platforms, the third highest in the world, joint with the Philippines,” said Proxyrack.
The study said that the UAE is the most connected country in the world, with a connected score of 7.53/10.
UAE residents also have social media accounts on several platforms, notably Facebook and TikTok.
The study found that the internet in the UAE is expensive, but 100 percent of the population use the internet, and 108 percent use Facebook.
The study revealed that UAE users spend an average of seven hours and 29 minutes on the Internet per day.
The UAE is followed by Malaysia/the Philippines with both countries scoring 8.75.
According to the ProxyRac report, India stood on the 19th spot with only 29 percent of the population using Facebook but spending nearly nine hours on the internet every day.
Bengaluru: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda on Monday released the party’s manifesto or vision document for the Karnataka Assembly elections in Bengaluru.
Claiming that they had touched every section of society with their last manifesto, the BJP has this time promised to implement the Uniform Civil Code, provide 10 lakh jobs and ‘state capital region’ tag for Bengaluru.
Amid backlash over the purported merger of Nandini milk with Amul, the party has also promised free half-litre Nandini milk, and three free of-cost LPG gas cylinders to the poor families.
The party proposes to build five lakh houses in the urban areas and 10 lakh houses in the rural areas. Along with five kg of rice, five kg of siridhanya will also be distributed in ration shops.
The BJP has been in a tough fight with the Congress to win the Assembly polls scheduled for May 10 with BJP supremo and Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding roadshows in the state.
With its motto of ‘justice to all, appeasement to none’, the BJP-led state government also withdrew 4 percent Muslim quota for backward/ Pasmanda communities to award it to Vokkaligas and Lingayats in the state which make up an essential percentage of the votes in the state.
New Delhi: The ‘Habitat Film Festival 2023’, scheduled to be held from May 5 to 14 at the India Habitat Centre in the national capital promises to offer a selection of the finest of Indian cinema. The pan-Indian platter includes about 60 features, documentaries and short films in 17 languages. Films will be screened in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese, Maithili, Odia, Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Ladakhi, Meiteilon, and, for the first time, Kumaoni.
For the first time, several films will have their national and Delhi premieres at the festival. The national premiers include the Malayalam film ‘Meghdoot/ The Cloud Messenger’ directed by Rahat Mahajan, and two Bengali films: Sujit Kumar Pyne’s ‘Meghbari’, and Aritra Sen’s ‘Ghore Pherar Gaan/ The Homecoming Song’.
Delhi premiers include ‘Tora’s Husband’, an Assamese film by award-winning filmmaker Rima Das; Gautham Ramachandran’s Tamil film ‘Gargi’, and ‘Arivu Mattu Guruvu/ The Word and The Teacher’, a multilingual film by Prashant Pandit.
This year marks the birth centenary of filmmaker Mrinal Sen. A small retrospective of some of his seminal films, including ‘Khandhar’, ‘Ek Din Pratidin’ and ‘Ek Din Achanak’ will be screened.
Some documentaries that will be shown include ‘All That Breathes’, ‘Urf’, ‘Colours of Life’, ‘The Show Must Go On’ and ‘Mask Art of Majuli’. Talks and book launches will also be held. Entry is through registration which starts on May 1 (www.habitatworld.com).
Amaravati: Construction material purchased for development of Andhra Pradesh state capital at Amaravati were gutted in a huge fire on Friday.
The incident occurred near Nekkallu village in Thullur mandal of Guntur district. The fire destroyed plastic pipes and other material dumped in open land for various works as part of development of the state capital.
As the material was dumped there for the last four years due to construction work coming to a halt, beehives were formed in the pipelines and other items. Some people had lit a fire to extract honey. Due to high temperature and wind, the fire spread and engulfed the material.
Huge flames and smoke were seen even from a long distance. Fire tenders rushed to the area to douse the flame. The incident is stated to have led to a huge loss.
The state capital development works at Amaravati came to halt in 2019 as YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) soon after coming to power decided to have three state capitals.
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday interacted with students preparing for the Union Public Service Commission in Mukherjee Nagar area of Delhi.
Rahul was seen sitting on a chair along with some other UPSC aspirants while the rest of the students kept standing. Gandhi interacted with students for a few minutes, asking them about their ongoing preparations and expectations.
Mukherjee Nagar is one of the prominent UPSC coaching hub in the national capital. The 2023 Civil Services Preliminary exam will be held on May 28.
The civil services exam is considered one of the toughest in the country.
Students go through rigorous preparations to crack and qualify in all three stages of the exam — the Preliminary, the Mains, and the Interview.
Rahul met the students an hour after a Surat court rejected his plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the 2019 criminal defamation case on the ‘Modi surname’ remark.
The former Wayanad MP will now have to move Gujarat High Court or the Supreme Court to challenge his conviction by the Surat court.
Dhaka: The heatwave has gripped many parts of Bangladesh, including the capital Dhaka, as the country enters the height of summer, the Meteorological Department said.
According to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the highest temperature of the day, recorded in the country’s Chuadanga district, nearly 215 km west of Dhaka, was 41.8 degrees Celsius, Xinhua news agency reported.
It said the temperature in Dhaka on Sunday reached 40.5 degrees Celsius, which was the highest in 58 years.
Dhaka streets had fewer pedestrians than usual on Sunday afternoon and work had stopped in some open-air construction sites.
The bitumen on several roads in Dhaka had melted in the midday heat, further evidence of the blistering temperature.
Abdul Alim, a meteorologist, predicted the temperature will continue to soar this week.
Hyderabad: Looking to expand its presence to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana’s ruling party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) appears to have struck a right chord by not only opposing privatisation of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), but also expressing its intention to bid for the public sector undertaking.
The BRS move has put the emotive issue on the political discourse in the neighbouring state and set off tremors in the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as well. Both parties had pushed the issue to the backburner to remain in the good books of the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The series of developments over the last couple of weeks has made the issue of VSP privatisation and the plan of BRS to participate in the bidding a hot topic of debate in the political circles in Andhra Pradesh.
While it is still unclear if Telangana government will submit Expression of Interest through Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) to acquire VSP, the BRS has succeeded in placing the issue on the political discourse, embarrassing both YSRCP and TDP who are coming under flak for not mounting pressure on the Centre to stop disinvestment process.
Political observers believe that irrespective of whether the disinvestment process goes ahead or not, the BRS has succeeded in projecting itself as a party which can fight to safeguard the interests of Andhra Pradesh.
“This is expected to help BRS get a foothold in Andhra Pradesh, where a majority of people still see it as a party responsible for the division of united Andhra Pradesh,” an observer said.
After changing its name from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to BRS a few months ago, this is the first time that the party appears to have made an effort to reach out to people in the neighbouring state.
BRS, which has been opposing privatisation of PSUs by the Modi government, had already demanded protection of VSP.
At a time when Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of VSP, set the bidding process in motion, BRS working president and Telangana’s industry minister K.T. Rama Rao came out with an open letter to the Centre.
KTR extended support to the employees of VSP who have been protesting against the Centre’s disinvestment plan for two years.
“Vizag steel is the right of Telugu people and the responsibility is on us to save the steel plant,” KTR had said.
In the open letter, KTR detailed the ‘evil’ plans of Modi government to hand over VSP to private players, the reasons behind the steel plant incurring losses, and the ways in which the plant could be revived.
The BRS leader claimed that the central government did not allocate captive iron ore mines to VSP and as a result the company is forced to spend up to 60 per cent of its production cost on raw material.
Stating that an Expression of Interest (EoI) notification was issued in the garb of mobilising funds for working capital and raw materials, KTR said that the Modi government was indirectly attempting to hand over the PSU to private entities through the notification.
Stating that VSP is not able to operate at its full capacity of 7.3 MTPA as the central government is not providing raw materials and capital, BRS working president said that the enterprise which is working at 50 per cent of the capacity is incurring the same production cost it incurs for working at 100 per cent capacity.
He said that if the Centre extends support, the enterprise can work at full capacity which will help it in generating profits. He said that VSP can compete with private companies if the central government provides loans to it on par with private companies and facilitates provision of capital through banks.
Maintaining that the Centre should stop conspiring to privatise a PSU which has Rs 1.5 lakh crore worth assets, KTR demanded that the Modi government should extend Rs 5,000 crore financial assistance to the steel plant.
Reacting to KTR’s letter, former joint director of the CBI, V.V. Lakshminarayana had suggested that either Andhra Pradesh or Telangana government should submit the EoI for VSP.
A few days later came the reports that the Telangana government intends to submit EoI through SCCL for the acquisition of VSP.
The Telangana government enjoys a majority stake in SCCL of 51 per cent while the Centre holds the remaining 49 per cent.
KTR later confirmed that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has sent a team of SCCL officials to VSP to examine the feasibility of submitting EoI.
Employees of VSP welcomed the interest being shown by Telangana in acquiring VSP while Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP government found itself on the backfoot. Andhra Pradesh industry minister Gudivada Amarnath issued a statement claiming that the state government remained opposed to privatisation of VSP.
Amarnath also targeted BRS for its contradictory stand. “One the one hand BRS saying it is opposed to privatisation of PSUs while on the other it is planning to participate in bidding,” he said.
Adding a new twist, KTR alleged that the Centre has gone back on its commitment to set up a steel plant at Bayyaram in Telangana and it is going ahead with privatisation of VSP as it handed over Bailadila iron ore mine which can be captive mine for both the plants to Adani group.
Around the same time, another Telangana minister Harish Rao slammed YSRCP and TDP for their silence over the VSP issue.
On April 13, Union Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste announced in Visakhapatnam that the Centre will not go ahead with the disinvestment plan. He told the media that the Centre will work to strengthen the plant.
BRS leaders claimed credit for the Centre’s announcement. KTR stated that it was aimed at diverting public attention from the allegation he made about Bailadila mining contract in Odisha awarded to the Adani Group.
However, within 24 hours the Centre took a U-turn. The Ministry of Steel issued a statement that there is no freeze on the disinvestment process of RINL.
The VSP employees intensified their protest demanding the Centre to stop disinvestment. However, the Centre remained unmoved.
The RINL extended the deadline for submission of bids for five days till April 20. It had invited bids to provide working capital, raw materials and purchase products of the VSP.
More than 20 companies including six international steel export companies have so far submitted their bids. Interestingly, former CBI officer V.V. Laxminararyana also submitted a bid on behalf of a private company. He plans to mobilise funds through crowdfunding.
The Telangana government has still not submitted its bid. While it remains unclear if it will do so, BRS flags have already come up in Visakhapatnam and its leaders in Andhra Pradesh are planning to contest all Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2024 elections.
With Jammu and Kashmir recording the highest prevalence of dementia across India, the researchers are desperate to find answers to a trend that many think has leapt out of the mass depression the region has lived with, reports Insha Shirazi
A recent study shocked the scientific community by revealing that Jammu and Kashmir top the list of areas in India having the highest prevalence of dementia. Published by the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, the study prevalence of dementia in India: National and state estimates from a nationwide study put the dementia prevalence in the 60-plus population in India at 7.4 per cent.
What set the alarm bells ringing was that the prevalence of dementia was 4.5 per cent in Delhi and 11 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir.
Alarmed over the findings, the scientists have started asking for more investigation to determine whether the long-running insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, which has raged for more than 30 years, may be the cause of the area’s high dementia prevalence.
In Jammu and Kashmir in general and Kashmir in particular, cases of dementia are stated to be on the rise. In 1986, a few years before the onset of militancy, a study on the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in Kashmir found no cases of dementia in Kashmir.
Changed Situation
Now the situation has completely changed.
“We routinely see 3 to 5 cases of dementia-like cases in our daily OPD, on average,” Dr Yasir Rather, professor in the Department of Psychiatry, IMHANS GMC Srinagar said. “Brain cell destruction is the root cause of dementia. The communication between brain cells is disrupted as a result of this injury. Memory, thinking, behaviour, and feelings might be impacted when brain cells are unable to communicate correctly.”
Off late, people with chronic dementia are more visible. “I regularly observed the activities of my grandmother, who has dementia. She is in her late 70s and exhibited strange behaviours, including forgetting my name and whether or not she had eaten lunch,” a university student, Alya said. “She used to converse with herself as if someone else were around, and sometimes, my grandmother’s condition worsened.”
Brain Blast; Kashmir is witnessing a hugely above-average number of dementia patients and experts are exploring the possibility if it has links with the protracted conflict.
The term dementia refers to a spectrum of mental impairments, including memory loss, difficulty speaking or understanding, difficulty solving problems, and another cognitive decline that is severe enough to affect a person’s ability to go about their everyday activities. This spectrum includes several different varieties of dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most prevalent.
There are two types of dementia. Vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and frontotemporal dementia are irreversible. Reversible types include dementia-like conditions triggered by vitamin deficiency like vit B 12 or B 1 or due to thyroid problems. “Most people develop Alzheimer’s disease after the age of 65, but people under this age can also develop it,” Dr Yasir said. “This is called early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, a type of young-onset dementia. Dementia-like Frontotemporal type has been diagnosed in people in their 50s, 40s and even in their 30s.”
“The early signs and symptoms of dementia will vary depending on the progression,” Dr Yasir said. “At the onset, the person may experience challenges with their short-term memory, and struggle with things such as paying the bills, preparing meals, forgetting names and religious ritual timings and household chores, or getting lost in a known area. With a moderate stage, an individual may have trouble speaking or understanding speech and they may not understand spatial awareness. In severe stages, a person will no longer have the ability to communicate and will be unable to care for themselves.
High Prevalence
What is, however, not known is why Kashmir offers a high percentage of people with dementia. The likely reasons, Dr Yasir said could include genetic predisposition, poor nutrition, lack of access to healthcare, and environmental factors such as water and air pollutants like excessive use of agricultural and horticulture pesticides in our region.
Besides, he said, Kashmir may have a greater prevalence of dementia due to the high rates of chronic stress, depression, and other psychological problems in the population. Moreover, the prevalence was greater in rural areas (8.4 per cent) than in urban areas (5.3 per cent), highlighting the urgent need to increase diagnosis in rural health facilities.
Dr Kamran Nisar, a researcher at the University of Kashmir’s Centre of Research for Development, is working on the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in Kashmir. Alzheimer’s dementia, he said, is the most prevalent type of dementia, accounting for 70-80 per cent of the cases.
Kamran has also been trying to find answers. He said a lot of factors contribute to dementia, which includes prolonged stress, conflict, floods, and separation from loved ones. Besides, dementia is also impacted by dietary choices, physical inactivity and family history. People who engage in physical activities, such as cycling, have a far lower risk of developing dementia than physically inactive people.
“In Kashmir, there is a small amount of awareness about dementia, and as a result, people frequently misunderstand what dementia is and how it differs from forgetfulness or some other age-related condition,” Dr Kamran said. “We need to address this issue as much as we can because no awareness campaigns or events are being organized at the university or college level about this dementia and its prevalence is rising in Kashmir.”
Neurologist Dr Irfan Yousuf, also asserted that Kashmir lacks basic knowledge about understanding the crisis. “There is a lack of knowledge about dementia and people mistakenly think it is a form of depression, even though these are unrelated conditions,” Dr Yousuf said. “A person with dementia acts normally and is unaware that they are afflicted with the illness, unlike a person with depression, whose mood is not always good, and who skips interactions as well.”
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition in which brain cells (nerve cells) are not operating normally. Vascular dementia occurs when the brain’s blood arteries get blocked, preventing appropriate blood flow and leading to neuronal dysfunction.
Chronic Depression
Kashmir has been the capital of mental sickness for a long time. For many decades, Kashmir has reported massive mental morbidity. Nearly 18 lakh adult residents of Kashmir, which is almost 45 per cent of the entire population, showed symptoms of mental distress, according to the 2015 survey by the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders). The survey revealed that 41 per cent of the population showed signs of depression, 26 per cent exhibited signs of anxiety, 23 per cent depression and anxiety and 19 per cent showed probable symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 17 per cent have depression and PTSD, 18 per cent have anxiety, depression and PTSD and 14 per cent have anxiety and PTSD.
depression
Though mental healthcare has expanded over the years and has a better spread, in comparison to the 1990s, the situation is still seriously challenging. The increasing incidence of drug abuse has added yet another load factor to the mental health system.
Detecting Dementia
Dr Irfan Yousuf said the first signs of dementia are when a family member or guardian notices that the person is repeating the same dialogue over and over again and that their mental activities are completely different and are not functioning properly. It is possible to alleviate symptoms and halt the progression of dementia, he said. Studies on dementia have been conducted, and the treatment is still ongoing.
This is the core team that literally rebuilt the Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital Srinagar that is now known as IMHANS.
“A patient with advanced dementia forgets the route of the road where he or she frequently travels. Particularly at night, they lose track of how to get to their kitchen and bathroom,” Dr Yousuf said. “Although the person suffering from dementia is unaware of these symptoms, family members and their attendants have seen changes.”
Riyadh: A robot in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh is serving Iftar meals to fasting people during the holy month of Ramzan.
A video clip circulating on social media platforms shows a robot moving on the sidewalk carrying sunset meals and delivering to volunteers who served people inside the cars.
The robot is shown wearing a jacket with a sign on the back that reads in Arabic— “Ramzan without [food] waste.”
Watch the video below
The General Authority for Food Security in Saudi Arabia (GFSA), a government body, recently launched a campaign to urge the public to reduce food waste during Ramzan when food consumption usually increases.
Traditionally, free iftar initiatives are launched during Ramzan in the kingdom.
More than 11,000 meals were served last week at an iftar party hosted by the municipal authorities in Al-Kharj Governorate, southeast of Riyadh.
Sanaa: Overnight flash foods set off by heavy rain here in the Yemeni capital left traffic paralyzed.
The floodwaters, which started late Friday, once reached knee height in large parts of downtown Sanaa, inundating markets, lowrise homes, and shops through Saturday.
Some flooded main streets and tunnel entrances have been closed, Xinhua news agency reported.
On late Saturday, the water level has yet to recede in downtown’s Al-Tahrir Square, as well as Bab-Al-Yemen and Al-Sayelah in and outside the Old City of Sanaa, a UNESCO heritage site.
Residents were seen struggling to clear up water and sludge from their basements and shops while rescuing their belongings.
Yemen’s national weather service issued flash flood warnings for various provinces as a rise in precipitation is forecasted with the start of the rainy season.
Last rainy season, at least 10 multi-storeyed buildings in Sanaa were collapsed and dozens more in the Old City damaged due to heavy rains.
