The National Biodiversity Authority has released a new set of rules to manage sharing of benefits generated through the use of biological resources. The Biological Diversity (Access to biological Resources and Knowledge Associated thereto and Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits) Regulation 2025 was approved by the Central government and …
NO ONE raises an eyebrow when children are required to memorise multiplication tables till 19. Then, why should anyone throw a fit if students are taught how to multiply 199 by 199 without resorting to multiplication tables, simply because the method used is Vedic mathematics? The resurgence of interest in …
JAGADGURU Swami Sri Bharathi Krishna Tirthaji Maharaj, the author of Vedic Mathematics, says he discovered 16 mathematical formulae, which once formed part of the parishishta (appendix) of the Atharva Veda. But the formulae are not to be found in any extant text of the Vedas. The foundations of Vedic mathematics, …
A FEW examples can demonstrate the reach of Krishna Tirtha's work, which contain several patterns of calculations to be used according to the nature of the problem needing to be solved: To multiply 785 by 362 using the conventional method, you would first multiply by 2, then by 6 and …
TO ASSESS the teaching power of Krishna Tirtha's book, take an example from geometry. Schoolchildren are familiar with Pythagoras' theorem that states the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. This theorem is proved in standard …
Bhaskara II investigated solutions to the equation (100x + 90)/63 = y, where x and y have to be positive integers (whole numbers). One possible solution is x = 1530 and y = 2430. In the ancient Indian tradition, examples were invariably used because there were no algebraic generalisations. But …
THE PRINCE of Wales wants it known far and wide that he was "not entirely dotty" when he switched to organic farming on his vast estates both around his country home 160 km west of London and in the Duchy of Cornwall. Prince Charles said that organic farming was a …
Practitioners of siddha -- a traditional system of medicine, which originated in Tamil Nadu and uses metals such as iron, zinc, copper, gold and silver in treatment -- assert their therapeutic knowledge could fruitfully tackle AIDS. But medical and paramedical voluntary workers involved in AIDS relief programmes funded by the …
SCIENTISTS working to develop new Ayurvedic drugs are concentrating on the treatment of memory disorders. Says Sukh Dev, professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, "Ayurveda prescribes several remedies for improving memory and intelligence. Our experiments are validating many of these claims." Sukh Dev and his …
Dr Ram Kumar Kutty Lok Swasthya Parampara Samvardhan Samithy Post Box No 7102 Trichy Road, Ramanathapuram Coimbatore 641 045 Dr T N Manjunath Voluntary Health Association of India Tong Swasthya Bhawan 40, Qutab Institutional Area New Delhi 110 016 SAHAJ Holistic Health Centre Bibbewedi Pune 411 037 Dr Arvind Khare …
INCREASING awareness about the dangerous side-effects of allopathic treatment and the development of drug resistance is turning many people back to older Indian medical systems such as ayurveda, siddha or unani, which claim to have little or no side-effects. Organisations such as the Lok Swasthya Parampara Samvardhan Samithy are propagating …
"WE ARE happy without government help for our agriculture. Our lands now yield thrice what they used to four years ago," says 36-year-old Jagdish Gujjar of Guwara Dewari, a village of 60 households in the green belt of the Sariska reserved forest in Rajasthan's semi-arid Alwar district. Agriculture in the …
IN A SHIFT from Japan's traditional eating habits, meat and dairy products have now overshot rice production as the Japanese take to a more westernised diet. The Japanese ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries recently reported that as compared to 25 years ago, the average Japanese now eats 40 per …
THE DEBATE on abortion between pro-choice and pro-life supporters is as old as antiquity, historian Angus McLaren says in his book, A History of Contraception. McLaren argues the issues raised by even the most recent breakthroughs in reproductive technologies are firmly rooted in the cultural traditions of the West. He …
A STUDY has shown community institutions can be an effective way to regulate the use of natural resources. The indigenous knowledge, attitudes and practices of a people have great potential in promoting the management of resources around them. The study by Wendelin Mlenge, project manager for the HASHI project in …
THE GRAND Mughal Akbar, whose 450th birth anniversary was marked this year, once remarked he would venerate the person who could grow two blades of grass where one grew previously. Was he not talking of Appropriate Technology, a term that has come into vogue more than four centuries later? It …
THE NEXT time you see a kalamkari sari, treat it with respect, for it employs an ancient technique of dyeing cotton fabric, and the patterns are traditional. India's fabric trade goes back to the Phoenicians who are believed to be the first foreign merchants to come into India (Gujarat), and …
CRITICISING or condemning lopsided developmental priorities and highlighting their consequences is one thing; outright rejection of the very concept of development, science and technology is quite another. Propagating extremist ideology -- one that goes to the meaningless extent of rejecting even the Second Law of Thermodynamics -- is the sum …
IN 1988 the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) allotted 2.1 ha of land in Nand Nagri in east Delhi to the Mud Village Society (MVS) to build a model colony of environment-friendly mud-houses. However, the project seems to have run into rough weather and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has …
AMIT MITRA A LARGE number of the over 700 mud houses built by the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) at Yelahanka near Bangalore are showing signs of falling apart. This is a major setback to a project that described by V Suresh, a HUDCO director who was then KHB chairman, once …
MUD IS no longer inferior. As a building material, it can be strengthened and stabilised to function as a viable alternative to concrete and steel. Traditional mud-building methods include mixing specified quantities of rice husk, cow dung or lime with raw earth. One of the oldest techniques is the wattle- …
