Consumer Digest_OCT 2018

Your guide to consumer awareness 

Vol.6, Issue 4 

July 2018 

Price `.50/- 

Consumer’s Digest of CAI 

Impact of Artificial intelligence … 

GST and Stamp Duty problems to buyers 

Banks to have ombudsmen with 

Statutory powers

Contents 

Impact of Artificial intelligence …. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 

National Strategy for AI.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 

AI for Healthcare, Robotics. etc... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 

For Japanese, it is part of life .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 

Artificial Intelligence for Social Good.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 

Housing.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

GST and Stamp Duty problems for buyers.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Property assessment: Chennai Corpn goes hitech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 

SC stays construction in some States.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

Banking Finance .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 

Banks to have ombudsmen with Statutory powers.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 

GST slashed on several products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 

Password mistakes that help a hacker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 

Insurance .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 

Ayushman Bharat health protection plan .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 

Unclaimed Rs15K cr. Lying idle with insurers .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 

IRDAI for minimising exclusions in Mediclaims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 

Keep original car keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 

Environment.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 

Glysophate herbicide....the overlooked dangers .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 

Household products and toxic mix-ups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 

20-year old commercial vehicles to retire.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 

Food, Nutrition, Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

Food delivery apps asked to delist hotels sans licence.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

Regulatory vacuum in dealing with GM foods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 

How safe is food after expiry date.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 

Pity, no clean food is available. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 

Legal Notes .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 

University told to refund fees with Rs.25L compensation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 

Errant airlines that denied boarding passes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 

User consent must for pesky calls, says TRAI .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 

Recalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 

Nissan admits falsification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 

Consumer News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 

Deluge of Chinese goods hits domestic units .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 

TN Highways to get national tag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 

Wages fixed for domestic help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 

Solar powered agri pumps.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 

Health and Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 

Draft rules on E-pharma sales.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 

The Case of J&J’s Faulty Hip implants.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 

Pharma companies fined for overcharging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 

Compulsive gaming a disorder, cautions WHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 

Science and Tech... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 

MicroDot tech to check vehicle thefts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Editorial 

Volume : 6 Issue : 4 

Consultant Editor: 

Mr. A.V. Chandrasekharan 

Managing Editor: 

Mrs. Nirmala Desikan 

Trustees : 

Mr. K. Krishna Kumar 

Mrs. Nirmala Desikan 

Mr. K. Ramachandran 

Mr. R. Santhanam (IAS Retd) 

Mr. N. Gopalaswami (IAS Retd) 

Mr. Srinivasan K. Swamy 

Mr. S. Ramani 

Advisors: 

Dr. T. K. P. Sarathy 

Mr. S. Srinivasan 

Mr. G. Krishnamurthy 

Mr. K. Sridharan 

Mr. D. Hanumantha Rao 

Mr. V. Ramaswami 

Mr. John Alex 

Design: 

Mr. S Baskar Rao, Webmoksha 

Regd. Off: 

2/228 Chinnandikuppam Road, 

Vettuvankeni, Chennai 600115. 

CONSUMER’S DIGEST OF CAI OCTOBER 2018 

Dear Reader 

With this issue of Consumers Digest, the 

magazine is being converted Into an 

e-publication which you can access on 

our website. We do hope you will continue 

to derive the same benefits reading this 

e magazine. 

Much as we would have like to continue the 

printed version, we could not but resort to an 

e publication to reduce the cost of production. 

This issue‘s cover story is on a very interesting 

topic – artificial intelligence and how it is 

being used in several areas which affect our 

day to day lives. 

We hope it will give you an insight into all 

that is possible using AI! Apart from this the 

magazine carries articles on the usual topics 

which I am sure will be useful for you. 

Happy Reading! 

Nirmala Desikan 

"Problems are not Stop signs – they are guidelines" 

-Robert H. Schuller 

The address for both CAI and CONCERT is : 32, Kohinoor Complex, Vettuvankeni, Chennai 600 115 

CAI - Tel: 2449 4575 / 2449 2140 CONCERT – Tel. 24494577 

Website: 

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Address any correspondence you may have to us at the above address. 

Copyright 2006 Consumers Association of India All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in any manner, 

without prior permission, in whole or part, in English or other languages, prohibited. Published by 

Mrs. N. Desikan for Consumers Association of India from the Registered Office at 2/228, Chinnandikuppam 

Road, Vettuvankeni, Chennai 600 115 and is printed by S. Sathiamoorthy at MULTI CRAFT QUALITY 

OFFSET PRINTERS, 9, Appavu Gramani 2nd street, Mandaveli, Chennai 600028. Editor - Nirmala Desikan 

1

COVER STORY 

Impact of Artificial 

intelligence… 

Artificial Intelligence has transformed 

our day to day lifestyle to such an 

extent that we have become totally 

dependent on it for a variety of tasks. 

It is no exaggeration to say that AI 

determines how we live, work and 

entertain ourselves. Artificial Intelligence 

(AI) is a part of Computer Science 

wherein computers are developed in a 

way that they will be able to perform 

intelligent tasks or solve problems 

which are otherwise done by humans. 

The term Artificial Intelligence is said to 

be coined by a Stanford researcher John 

McCarthy in 1956. 

AI is used in numerous sectors 

including finance, healthcare, 

education, transportation, and more. 

Smartphone is probably one of the 

most useful tools that many of us own 

today. It permits the user to access 

the internet, get road directions, 

make payments, find entertainment, 

play games, check email, etc. The 

integration of AI into such devices 

is helping us make decisions —or even 

making decisions for us. Many smart 

home devices now include the ability 

to learn your behaviour patterns and 

help you save money by adjusting the 

settings on your thermostat or other 

appliances in an effort to increase 

convenience and save energy. The 

uses of AI in smart homes are limited 

only by our imagination. 

AI is currently being developed by 

many top companies like Watson by 

IBM, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, 

Google’s Home, Microsoft’s Cortana 

and so on. Huge investments are 

being done by major tech companies 

and businesses to incorporate 

2


Artificial Intelligence into their mobile 

apps (e.g. Google’s $400 million 

investment on Deepmind). The 

self- driving Tesla cars that feature 

collision avoidance technologies that 

automatically brake or swerve the 

car to avoid a possible collision with 

another vehicle is no less than a life 

saving miracle powered by artificial 

intelligence. 

NITI Aayog, the Union government 

policy think-tank, has since the start 

of this year partnered with several 

leading AI technology players to 

implement AI projects in critical areas 

such as agriculture and health. This is 

discussed in detail in the next article. 

Companions for lonely elders: A recent 

article in Deccan Chronicle says that 

Robotics and AI are ensuring that 

seniors who are alone, never feel 

lonely. Instead, they will get the quality 

of life they deserved to enjoy in the 

first place. Breakthrough innovations 

can transform Artificial Intelligence 

into secure and smart companions for 

the elderly who long for interaction. 

We are interacting with customer care 

chatbots while shopping online and 

asking Alexa or Siri to set timers or play 

music for us. There are intelligent bots 

like Amazon Echo and Google Home 

which can listen, reply or adhere to 

commands. Echo and Amazon also 

allow hands free calling and voice 

messages. Thus seniors can contact 

their family or the authorities in an 

emergency. Google Home can also be 

used as a robust home security system 

complete with smart locks, smart 

security devices and security cameras. 

For the elderly living in big cities, these 

devices come as a true blessing. 

The invention of domestic robots 

can solve the problem of the lack 

of domestic help and housekeeping 

within minutes. Domestic robots are 

smart devices that sense dirt or water 

on floors and intuitively mop or broom 

the entire house with very little need 

for human intervention. These robots, 

with their top-notch technologies, 

can automatically navigate through 

clutter and under-furniture zones 

to thoroughly clean any space. They 

also remove dust mites, allergens and 

germs so the health of the elderly 

population does not remain at risk 

due to a lack of cleanliness. 

3

In a research paper, the University 

College, London, suggested that living 

in isolation significantly decreased 

the human lifespan. Social isolation 

and lack of interaction not only 

caused mental health issues such as 

anxiety and depression, but also a 

host of physical ailments such as high 

blood pressure and an increased risk 

of infectious diseases. 

Aged individuals living alone also 

suffer from increased fall hazards 

and lack of help during emergencies. 

A report by the Union Ministry of 

Home Affairs mentioned that the 

rate of crime against the elderly in 

India is at an all-time high. Abuse 

and robbery cases pertaining to the 

elderly mostly occur in their own 

homes. With these facts looming 

over the elderly population, security 

becomes an added concern for those 

living alone. 

Many global AI majors are active 

in India and view it as one of the 

world’s most promising digital 

growth markets; 58 per cent of the 

companies using AI in India are 

working with the technology at scale, 

according to Capgemini. This puts 

India in a clear third place behind the 

US and China and ahead of Europe. 

AI has the potential to play a major 

role in India’s healthcare, education, 

agriculture and infrastructure to 

accelerate social development. 

PwC-AssoCham report: While 

automation may not lead to the mass 

obsolescence of manual labour as 

some predict, it would definitely 

lead to shrinkage of jobs in many 

industries. A new report on "Artificial 

Intelligence and Robotics - 2017" by 

PwC-Assocham buttresses the point. 

Here are some highlights: 

1. Sectors that would be impacted 

because of robotic systems and 

Machine Learning algorithms 

taking up several tasks include 

IT, manufacturing, agriculture, 

forestry among others. 

2. The implication for 'Make in 

India': It could strengthen India's 

production capabilities, but "may 

not end up creating nearly as many 

jobs as it is poised to generate at 

this point in time". 

A separate report by Shashi Shekhar 

Vempati, a digital strategist, published 

by Carnegie India, underlines the 

point: "Foxconn is among the top 

owners of robotics patents filed 

with the United States Patent and 

Trademark Office and produces 

thousands of industrial robots a 

4


year that in aggregate are capable of 

performing more than ten types of 

manufacturing tasks. This is expected 

to have a significant impact on the 

workforce: as many as 60,000 workers 

have been displaced by robots in 

one Foxconn factory alone in the 

Kunshan region of China." Chinese 

manufacturers are now investing in 

India - all greenfield factories are 

expected to have a higher degree 

of automation than we have seen 

in the past. Competitive pressures 

will propel Indian manufacturers to 

automate as well. 

The PwC-Assocham report states that 

there is a positive side to the robotic 

rise. "A scenario wherein low-skilled, 

repeatable labour can be assigned to 

robotic systems provides an incentive 

for part of the workforce to be 

trained in higher level skills such as 

designing, monitoring and adjusting 

machine algorithms to enable AI 

systems to operate in a reliable and 

transparent manner". That is the shift 

in the nature of employment India is 

likely to experience. 

Artificial Intelligence is undergoing 

a phase of renaissance, after a 

lull, thanks to amazing advances 

in the field of machine learning 

where machines use advanced 

mathematical models to learn. 

Recently a software program 'Deep 

mind- by Google' taught itself to play 

the extremely difficult strategy game 

Go by playing against itself. Needless 

to say learning promotes intelligence. 

Even in machines! 

Most famous: At a school in South London a Class V teacher told students: "I'll 

give $20 to the child who can tell me who was the most famous man who 

ever lived." 

An Irish boy put up his hand up and said, "It was St. Patrick." The teacher 

said, "No." Then a Scottish boy said, "It was St. Andrew." The teacher replied, 

"I'm sorry, Hamish, that's not right either.” 

Finally, a Gujarati boy said, "It was Jesus Christ." The teacher said, "That's 

absolutely right, Jayant, come up here and I'll give you the $20." As the 

teacher was giving Jayant his money, she said, "You are a Gujarati, I was very 

surprised you said Jesus Christ." Jayant replied, "Yes, in my heart I knew it 

was Lord Krishna, but business is business!" 

5

National Strategy for AI 

With incredible advances made 

in data collection, processing 

and computation power, Artificial 

Intelligence has become a crucial part 

of numerous government initiatives. 

The Central Government has set up 

a Task Force to prepare India for the 

Industrial Revolution 4.0. commonly 

referred to as the fourth industrial 

revolution, is a name given to the 

current trend of automation and 

data exchange in manufacturing 

technologies. It includes cyber-physical 

systems, the Internet of things, cloud 

computing and cognitive computing). 

Speaking to Analytics India Magazine, 

Professor Kamakoti Veezhinathan, 

who heads the AI Task Force, 

explained that the task force was an 

amalgamation of thought leaders from 

multiple disciplines — academicians, 

government officials, corporates and 

people with other specialisations. 

The six Union Ministries using AI on a 

very large scale in their operations are: 

6 

Ministry of Defence: The AI Task Force 

of the Ministry of Defence led by Tata 

Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran 

has in its report to Defence Minister 

Nirmala Sitharaman given some 

recommendations on how to make 

use of AI for offensive and defensive 

needs. The ministry has initiated the 

process of preparing the defence 

forces in the use of AI. 

A statement published by the Press 

Information Bureau noted that the 

Task Force has spelt out the level 

of development in the artificial 

intelligence and machine learning 

sectors in general and specific in the 

context of our defence needs. 

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: 

The Ministry of Information and 

Broadcasting had sent out a proposal 

looking for a “technology platform” 

which would sense general public 

emotion by analysing social media 

posts, blogs and even emails to help 

boost nationalism and neutralise any 

“media blitzkrieg by India’s adversaries.” 

Ministry of Railways: Aimed at reducing 

the possibilities of signals failing, 

Indian Railways has undertaken 

remote condition monitoring of the 

system. This is a new approach for the 

effective use of artificial intelligence 

for a predict-and-prevent approach.


On the catering side, AI will transform 

the way food is prepared in the trains’ 

kitchens and pantries. The AI project 

has already been kick-started at the 

IRCTC headquarters. The facility has 

installed 16 high-definition cameras 

which are linked to large monitors for 

AI vision detection. 

Ministry of Home Affairs: The Delhi 

Police, which falls under the Home 

Ministry, is installing India’s first 

Intelligent Traffic Management 

System (ITMS) for creating smart 

traffic signals, using AI to determine 

traffic flow, automated enforcement 

and communication to change the 

traffic problems in India’s capital. As 

of now, the first phase is likely to be 

completed by April 2019. 

Ministry of External Affairs: In order 

to increase the flow of information 

between countries, the Ministry of 

External Affairs had recently held 

a closed door meeting of global AI 

experts to discuss how to attract 

Indian diaspora. 

Ministry of Corporate Affairs: The 

government is taking strong action 

against shell companies with the 

Ministry of Corporate Affairs planning 

to use artificial intelligence to MCA21 

portal to detect finer discrepancies in 

details provided in company balancesheets. 

The ministry had recently taken 

a drastic step by terminating 2.36 

lakh non-compliant companies and 

investigating their bank account trails. 

NITI Aayog’s National Strategy: 

Recognising AI’s potential to 

transform economies and the need 

for India to strategise its approach, 

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, 

in his budget speech for 2018 – 19, 

mandated the National Institution 

for Transforming India ( NITI Aayog), 

the Government policy think-tank, to 

establish the National Programme on 

AI, with a view to guiding research 

and development in new and 

emerging technologies. In pursuance 

of the above, NITI Aayog has 

adopted a three-pronged approach 

– undertaking exploratory proofof-concept 

AI projects in various 

areas, crafting a national strategy for 

building a vibrant AI ecosystem in 

India and collaborating with various 

experts and stakeholders. 

Since the start of this year, NITI Aayog 

has partnered with several leading 

AI technology players to implement 

AI projects in critical areas such as 

agriculture and health. Points learnt 

from these projects, under various 

stages of implementation, as well as 

our engagement with some of the 

leading institutions and experts have 

7

given a better perspective to the task 

of crafting the national strategy for 

AI. AIforAll - the brand proposed for 

India -- implies inclusive technology 

leadership, where the full potential of AI 

is realised in pursuance of the country’s 

unique needs and aspirations. 

NITI Aayog has decided to focus on 

five sectors that are envisioned to 

benefit the most from AI in solving 

societal needs: 

a) Healthcare: Increased access and 

affordability of quality healthcare. 

b) Agriculture: Increased farm 

productivity, enhanced income 

for the farmer and reduction of 

wastage. 

c) Education: Improved access and 

quality education. 

d) Smart Cities and Infrastructure: Efficient 

connectivity for the burgeoning 

urban population, and 

e) Smart Mobility and Transportation: 

Smarter and safer modes of 

transportation and better traffic 

and congestion problems. 

Despite indications of recent positive 

efforts in this aspect of technology, AI 

research in India is still in its infancy 

and requires large scale concerted 

and collaborative interventions. 

AI Sowing App.: Microsoft in collaboration 

with ICRISAT, developed an AI Sowing 

App powered by Microsoft Cortana 

Intelligence Suite including Machine 

Learning and Power BI. The app sends 

sowing advisories to participating 

farmers on the optimal date to sow. The 

best part – the farmers do not need to 

install any sensors in their fields or incur 

any capital expenditure. All they needed 

was a feature phone capable of receiving 

text messages. The advisories contained 

essential information including the 

optimal sowing date, soil test-based 

fertilizer application, farm yard manure 

application, seed treatment, optimum 

sowing depth, and more. In tandem 

with the app, a personalised village 

advisory dashboard provided important 

insights into soil health, recommended 

fertilizer, and seven-day weather 

forecasts. In 2017, the programme was 

expanded to touch more than 3,000 

farmers across the states of Andhra 

Pradesh and Karnataka during the 

Kharif crop cycle (rainy season) for a 

host of crops including groundnut, ragi, 

maize, rice and cotton, among others. 

The increase in yield ranged from 10% 

to 30% across crops. 

8


AI for Healthcare, 

Robotics. etc. 

From now on, doctors will need to 

learn different skills other than 

medicine if they have to continue 

practice. Well before joining medical 

college, a student may have to learn 

computer skills. Programming will 

become the fourth literacy along 

with reading, writing (which is slowly 

getting discarded) and arithmetic, 

says a medical professional. 

Even though scores or algorithms are 

available in the west to predict the 

probability of a patient having a heart 

attack in the next 10 to 20 years, the 

same cannot be applied to patients in 

India since most of them are derived 

from western studies and do not 

have a high degree of accuracy for 

the Indian population, notes Microsoft. 

com. Apollo Hospitals partnered with 

Microsoft’s AI Network for Healthcare 

to develop an India-specific heart 

risk score and better predict cardiac 

diseases for general population with 

the help of Apollo’s database and 

expertise in the field, and Microsoft’s 

cloud and AI tools. It is part of 

Microsoft Healthcare NExT, which aims 

to accelerate healthcare innovation 

through AI and cloud computing. 

Robotic or Robot-assisted surgery 

integrates advanced computer 

technology with the experience of 

skilled surgeons. This technology 

provides the surgeon with a 10x 

magnified, high-definition, 3D-image 

of the body's intricate anatomy, 

according to Apollo Hospital Institute 

of Robotic Surgery. The surgeon uses 

controls in the console to manipulate 

special surgical instruments that are 

smaller, as well as more flexible and 

manoeuvrable than the human hand. 

The robot replicates the surgeon's hand 

movements, while minimising hand 

tremors. The surgeon thus can operate 

with enhanced precision, dexterity and 

control even during the most complex 

procedures. According to The Times of 

India a number of private hospitals now 

offer robot-assisted surgery. 

But some doctors have expressed 

reservations about the system’s steep 

price. “Rs 20 crore is a huge amount. 

Also, robot assisted surgeries require 

specific disposal material after every 

surgery. And poor patients who come 

to civic hospitals cannot afford a 

Rs-2 lakh robotic surgery. They will 

9

always choose cheaper options,” a 

senior doctor from KEM Hospital told 

Mumbai Mirror. 

According to global market 

intelligence firm BIS Research, the 

market for surgical robotics in India 

is anticipated to grow at a Compound 

Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20 per 

cent. While the current robotic surgery 

systems are gradually attaining the 

next generation level of medical 

robotics, removing human contact 

during the surgery may be considered 

as the next level, the report said. 

Faster diagnosis: Scientists have 

developed an artificial intelligence 

platform that can identify disease in 

brain in 1.2 seconds, and diagnose a 

range of acute neurological illnesses, 

such as stroke, and haemorrhage. The 

study, published in the journal Nature 

Medicine, shows that the system is 

faster than human diagnosis. 

"With a total processing and 

interpretation time of 1.2 seconds, 

such a triage system can alert 

physicians to a critical finding that 

may otherwise remain in a queue for 

minutes to hours," said Eric Oermann, 

at the Icahn School of Medicine 

at Mount Sinai in the US. "We're 

executing on the vision to develop 

artificial intelligence in medicine 

that will solve clinical problems and 

improve patient care," said Oermann. 

How bright is Robotic future: But are 

we ready to accept robotic treatment 

that will lack human touch? Today, 

the doctor is with the patient through 

the full treatment. A surgeon is 

compassionate and takes care of 

diagnosing, interpreting tests, such 

as X-rays and MRIs, performing a 

procedure and post-operative care. 

According to Conversation Media, as 

in numerous other industries, new 

technology will be one of the drivers 

that will change this traditional 

method. There are programmes to 

make diagnoses based on a series 

of questions, and algorithms inform 

many treatments used now by doctors. 

Hospitals will be very different places 

in 20 years. Beds will be able to move 

autonomously transporting patients 

from the emergency room to the 

operating theatre, via X-ray if needed. 

Many decisions on treatment will be 

made with the assistance of, or by, 

intelligent machines. 

A patient’s medical history can be 

read from a chip under his/her skin 

or in the phone. No more waiting 

for medical records or chasing 

information when a patient is 

admitted in an unconscious state. 

10

For Japanese, 

it is part of life 


Japan is an extremely robot-friendly 

nation, where humanoids and 

robots already have a significant 

presence, especially in the healthcare 

industry. As per a report by the 

Financial Post, nursing homes have 

been at the epicentre of the robotics 

boom in Japan, on account of chronic 

worker shortage in the industry. 

This is also because the Japanese 

government began providing 

subsidies for nursing homes to adopt 

robotics, beginning in 2013, to help 

alleviate the shortage. So, unlike as 

in the West, where robots are mostly 

employed in manufacturing plants 

and research facilities, the Japanese 

are increasingly seeing robots 

become a part of their everyday lives. 

Take, for instance, the robot PALRO, 

designed by Fujisoft Inc., a sleek, 

white humanoid robot which 

conducts fitness classes at the Do Life 

Shinagawa nursing home (Shinagawa 

City). The robot guides the crowd 

through a variety of physical and 

mental exercises. It shakes its 

arms and instructs everyone to 

do the same — before launching 

into a series of quizzes designed to 

stump the audience. As per Fujisoft 

Inc., there are about 400 of these 

minuscule robots working across the 

country – in a variety of fields, from 

physical therapy to being an at-home 

concierge. 

In UK: In the UK, something quite 

similar is being done by Kaspar – a 

child-sized humanoid that can talk, 

comb its hair and even play the 

drums, to change the lives of children 

suffering from autism. The robot uses 

realistic, but simplified human-like 

features to help children with autism 

explore basic human communication 

and emotions, and learn about socially 

acceptable physical interaction. 

China: China too debuted its first 

realistic humanoid – Jia Jia – a year ago, 

which can hold simple conversations 

and make specific facial expressions 

when asked, and promises to herald 

in a future of cyborgs as labourers 

in China. Developed by a team of 

engineers at the University of Science 

and Technology of China, team 

leader Chen Xiaoping believes that 

perhaps, within a decade, artificially 

intelligent robots like Jia Jia will 

begin performing a range of tasks in 

Chinese restaurants, nursing homes, 

hospitals and households. 

11

Artificial Intelligence for 

Social Good 

Well over half—58%—of the 

companies that are using AI in 

India are working with the technology 

at scale, i.e., they are going beyond 

pilot and test projects and adopting 

the technology at a larger scale, 

says a Capgemini report. The Indian 

government’s Digital India initiative, 

too, has created a favourable 

regulatory environment for increased 

use of AI, it said. 

India’s first Artificial Intelligence 

institute which aims at developing 

Artificial Intelligence solutions for 

social good has been set up in 

Mumbai by Indian-American tech 

entrepreneurs Dr Romesh Wadhwani 

and Mr Sunil Wadhwani. This institute 

will be led by Dr P.Anandan, founding 

MD of Microsoft Research India, 

reports Economic Times. 

NITI Aayog. the Central Government 

policy think tank, will be working 

12 

with tech giant Google to develop AIbased 

solutions aimed at improving 

the overall economic productivity of 

the nation. “Niti Aayog’s partnership 

with Google will unlock massive 

training initiatives, support startups 

and encourage AI research 

through PhD scholarships, all of 

which contribute to the larger idea 

of a technologically-empowered 

New India,” said Amitabh Kant, chief 

executive officer, Niti Aayog. 

The Capgemini report, titled Turning 

AI into concrete value: the successful 

implementers’ toolkit, is based on a 

survey of nearly 1,000 companies 

that are using AI and have revenues 

of over $500 million across nine 

countries. It was conducted between 

March and June 2017. This statistic is 

largely driven by American firms such 

as Accenture, Microsoft and Adobe, 

which set up innovation centres in 

India. The report said that last year, 

India was the second-largest global 

site for new centres, after the US. 

The Wadhwani sponsored institute, 

which was inaugurated by Prime 

Minister Narendra Modi, will focus on 

researching ways to harness the power 

of AI to solve deep rooted problems 

in healthcare, education, agriculture 

and infrastructure to accelerate social


development. Mr Modi said: "Wadhwani 

AI is a prime example of how the 

public sector and the private sector can 

come together with good intentions to 

build a world-class institute, aimed at 

benefiting the poor.". 

The Wadhwani brothers are 

committing $30 million to the 

institute over its first 10 years and will 

also be personally involved, offering 

their expertise in creating and 

scaling successful global businesses. 

Through its partnership with Mumbai 

University and other institutions, 

Wadhwani AI aims to create a talent 

ecosystem in AI and Data Science. 

“We will apply AI in all key domains……. 

Success means bringing innovative 

solutions that achieve large-scale 

positive social impact. We hope this 

will transform how AI research is 

conducted and applied to help societies 

throughout the world,” said Romesh 

Wadhwani. The development of AI 

technologies has accelerated in recent 

years, driven largely by easy access to 

tech platforms and tools, availability 

of large data sets, and compelling 

business opportunities in areas like 

finance, transportation and healthcare. 

But, social problems like poverty 

reduction and poor healthcare have 

not been adequately addressed. 

“Wadhwani AI is the first of its kind 

in the world — a non-profit research 

institute dedicated exclusively to 

applying AI for social good to help 

improve the lives of millions,” Romesh 

Wadhwani added. 

Robots clean manholes 

In November 2015, a manhole 

accident killing three men in 

Kozhikode caused outrage across 

Kerala. The authorities wanted to end 

manual scavenging and find a way 

out. Business Today reports that this 

incident was a trigger for robotics 

start-up Genrobotics, which after 

a request by the authorities, built a 

manhole cleaning robot. The start-up, 

founded by engineering graduates 

Arun George, Vimal Govind, N.P. 

Nikhil NP and Rashid K, has been 

supported by Kerala Start-up Mission. 

After two years of extensive research 

and trial, they launched the product 

in February 2018. 

Called 'Bandicoot', four units of the 

robot have been successfully deployed 

in three states -- Kerala, Andhra 

Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. And now the 

company, plans to sell 800 such units 

in the next two years and expand their 

business to other states as well. 

13

Housing 

GST and Stamp Duty 

problems for buyers 

When Goods and Services Tax (GST) 

was fully implemented in July 

2017, as many as 16 types of taxes got 

absorbed in it. But surprisingly, stamp 

duty and registration charges, a State 

subject and which vary from State 

to State, are untouched and still in 

force. On the issue of merger of these 

charges with GST, so far there has been 

no consensus between the Central 

and State governments. The National 

Real Estate Development Council, 

(NAREDCO), the apex body of Real 

Estate Sector under the aegis of Govt. 

of India, has already recommended to 

the GST council to bring these levies 

into GST as it will improve the sales of 

projects under construction. 

Mr.Niranjan Hiranandani, President, 

NAREDCO, says that realtors are looking 

forward to a consensus on this very 

soon, reports ETRealty news. Currently, 

projects under construction attract 12% 

GST which buyers have to pay on the 

total cost of the property. One pays 8% 

for buying in an affordable housing 

project, but developers are not able to 

give this benefit to buyers due to lack 

of clarity on the input tax credit. Another 

5-10% charges are paid at the time of 

registration. Thus, buyers fall in the double 

taxation system when they decide to buy 

an under-construction project. According 

to Mr Hiranandani, buyers are finding 

14 

a way out to avoid this double taxation 

by buying completed projects. Ways are 

being explored to avoid GST owing to this 

double taxation system. Such practices 

can be curbed if multiplicity of taxes in 

the real estate sector is brought under the 

GST regime, he said. 

According to a leading real estate 

promoter, the tax burden is high on this 

sector with an abatement of one-third 

being provided towards land value. 

Despite input credit being passed on 

to the customer, with GST @ 12%, there 

is a marginal increase in the overall 

cost. In addition, the State levies have 

to be paid. This needs to be revised 

downwards, to benefit the consumer, 

leading to a further push in sales 

volumes. The government must look at 

reducing this cost. Uniform stamp duty 

rates across the country is also required. 

The initial stage of GST brought many 

challenges. In the second year, it is 

expected that the government’s measures 

will achieve the desired objective of ‘One 

Nation One Tax’. It is important that the 

GST council engages with stakeholders 

to address their concerns and work in 

harmony to bring more clarity for the 

real estate sector. It can substantially 

contribute to the Government’s ‘Housing 

for All by 2022’ mission.


Property assessment: 

Chennai Corpn goes hitech 

The Revenue department of Greater 

Chennai Corporation is all set to 

go high-tech: It plans to purchase 

differential global positioning system 

(DGPS) equipment and set up a base 

station on the top floor of Amma 

Maligai on the premises of Ripon 

Buildings to measure new properties. 

“We will purchase 30 DGPS devices, 

two for each zone. This is the first 

time in Tamil Nadu that such a 

system will be in place in an urban 

local body. The rover (the instrument) 

will be placed on four corners of 

the property for measurement. The 

system will provide coordinates of 

the property which will be entered 

through an application. The rover will 

send signals to the base station,” said 

an official. 

The corporation has sought a loan of 

Rs.20 crores for this from the World 

Bank. 

The system has been tested on the 

Corporation premises. According 

to The Times of India the Corporation 

recently implemented the GIS 

mapping system, using drones for 

surveys to ensure that all properties 

that are un-assessed were brought 

under its purview and underassessment 

corrected. The civic body 

hopes to increase its revenue in 

property taxes by Rs.500 cr after this 

exercise ends in March, 2019. 

15

SC stays construction in 

some States 

The Supreme Court on August 

31 pulled up the states of 

Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, 

Uttarakhand and Union territory of 

Chandigarh for not framing a policy 

on solid waste management and 

stayed further construction in these 

places. The New Indian Express reports 

that the bench of Justices Madan B 

Lokur and S Abdul Nazeer said in its 

order: “It is unfortunate that some 

States and Union Territories have not 

yet framed any policy under the Solid 

Waste Management Rules, 2016. The 

attitude of the States/Union Territories 

in not yet framing a policy even after 

two years is pathetic, to say the least. 

Further constructions in the States/ 

Union Territories are stayed until the 

Policy is framed.” 

The issue of waste management had 

cropped up when the court was dealing 

with a 2015 incident of death of a sevenyear-old 

boy due to dengue in Delhi. 

Stay lifted in Maharashtra: The Supreme 

Court on September 5 lifted its August 31 

stay on constructions in Maharashtra. The 

state was fined Rs 5 lakh for its failure to 

ensure being represented in court. The 

first fine of Rs 2 lakh was imposed in July 

and was to be paid within two weeks. 

The government failed to do that as well. 

The second fine of Rs 3 lakh was imposed 

on August 31. Both the fines were paid 

off by the government on September 4. 

Tamil Nadu notifies waste management 

rules: The Tamil Nadu government has 

notified a solid waste management policy 

and strategy, to deal with what has posed 

a formidable challenge to local bodies. 

The Hindu reports that by implementing 

the Solid Waste Management Rules, 

2016, which is mandatory for all Urban 

Local Bodies (ULBs) in the country, the 

State aspires to have an integrated SWM 

system that is sustainable and makes 

cities liveable. 

As a result, the local bodies will start 

insisting on no litter, source segregation 

of waste using a minimum of two bins 

and its disposal at a designated place. 

“Soon, the local bodies will start collecting 

a small user fee like `10, `15 or `20 from 

every household as user fee,” said an 

official, who was part of the team that 

drafted the policy. 

16

RBI has tightened the selection and 

operating procedure for internal 

ombudsman (IO) in banks, making it 

mandatory for lenders with more than 

10 branches to have an independent 

authority to review complaints that 

were partially or wholly rejected by 

the respective banks. 

In a notification, RBI said that bank 

ombudsmen have to be appointed 

for a fixed tenure, directly reporting 

to the bank’s customer service 

committee. They must be people 

from outside the bank, giving this 

post an independent standing in 

a bank hierarchy, reports Economic 

Times. An ombudsman is a person 

officially charged with investigating 

and addressing public complaints 

or violation of rights. Banks in India 

had internal ombudsmen, but they 

were mostly appointed from within 

bank staff and did not have statutory 

powers. This RBI amendment gives 

ombudsman statutory powers 

under section 35 A of the Banking 

Regulation Act, 1949. 

“The scheme covers, inter-alia, 

appointment/tenure, roles and 

responsibilities, procedural guidelines 

and oversight mechanism for the 

IO investigating and addressing 

complaints of maladministration or a 


Banking Finance: 

Banks to have ombudsmen 

with Statutory powers 

violation of rights,” the central bank 

said in a notification. The tenure of 

the IO cannot be more than five years 

and it is not open to reappointment. 

Rs. 5000 cr lost by depositors in 

penalties: Banks collected penalties to 

the tune of Rs.5000 crores in 2017-18 

from depositors for not maintaining 

minimum balance in their accounts. 

The quantum of penalties has gone 

up despite banks opening 30.8 crore 

savings accounts for those who cannot 

afford maintaining minimum balance 

under the Jan Dhan Yojana Scheme. 

The highest collection is by SBI which 

raised Rs.2433 crores, nearly half of 

the total fines. Another 40 per cent 

of the fines were raised by private 

banks such as HDFC. Axis Bank etc. 

Barclays handed biggest fine 

Barclays has been handed the biggest 

UK bank fine in history as six banks 

were ordered to pay $6bn (£3.9bn) 

over manipulating the foreign 

exchange markets. The Financial 

Conduct Authority ordered Barclays 

to pay £284.4m as part of the British 

bank’s £1.5bn settlement with the 

Financial Conduct Authority and four 

US regulators, reports The Telegraph. 

Royal Bank of Scotland, JP Morgan, 

UBS, Citigroup and Bank of America 

17

Banking Finance 

were also fined by the Federal 

Reserve, while all but Bank of 

America were forced to plead guilty 

to charges and penalised by the US 

Department of Justice. 

Regulators detailed how traders at 

the banks, referring to themselves 

with names such as “The Cartel”, 

colluded to rig euro-dollar currency 

Several handicraft items, 

refrigerators, washing machines, 

TVs, electrical appliances and 

perfumes are among a host of 

items on which GST rates have been 

slashed by the Goods and Services 

Tax (GST) Council in July. This move, 

ahead of the Festival season, is bound 

to benefit consumers. 

The GST council significantly pruned 

the list of items placed in the highest 

tax slab of 28 per cent, demonstrating 

the Centre and states’ growing 

confidence in the new system that 

seeks to unify India into one common 

national market, reports MoneyControl. 

Com. Handicraft items such as stone, 

18 

benchmarks, profiting at the expense 

of customers. 

The bankers attempted to manipulate 

vital benchmarks used by companies 

around the world as a peg for foreign 

exchange transactions in the $5.3 

trillion-a-day market. One Barclays 

trader wrote in electronic chats: “If 

you aint cheating, you aint trying.” 

GST slashed on several 

products 

marble and wooden deities, rakhis 

without precious stones, brooms and 

commemorative coins have been fully 

exempt from GST, Union Minister of 

Finance Piyush Goyal said. 

Fortified milk has also been fully 

exempted from GST. 

Handloom items such as knitted 

caps priced below Rs 1,000 will now 

attract a lower GST rate of 5 per cent. 

All leather items will now attract 

a GST rate of 18 per cent, while 

footwear priced below Rs 1,000 will 

be taxed at 5 per cent. 

Taxes on handbags, jewellery boxes, 

wooden photo frames, stone art


wear, ornamental frame mirrors, 

glass artware, aluminum artware and 

handmade carpets have been cut to 5 

per cent from 12 per cent. The Council 

has also decided to fully exempt 

sanitary napkins from GST, from the 

existing 12 per cent. A high GST rate on 

sanitary napkins imposed last year had 

triggered protests from women groups. 

In a boost for the textile industry, 

unclaimed input tax credit will 

henceforth be refunded to firms. 

GST on hotel room rates will be now 

taxed at “declared tariffs”. 

The GST rate on bamboo flooring, 

hand-operated rubber rollers and 

zip fasteners have been cut to 12 

per cent from 18 per cent, while the 

GST rate on ethanol has been to cut 

5 per cent from 18 per cent, a move 

aimed at encouraging higher ethanol 

blending in petrol and diesel. 

The biggest rate cuts, however, 

came in white goods. GST rates on 

several consumer goods including 

refrigerators, lithium batteries, 

vacuum cleaners, grinders, mixers, 

food processors, water heaters, hair 

dryers, water coolers, ice cream 

freezers, scents, perfumes, powder 

puffs, cosmetics, and electric ironing 

machines have been cut to 18 per 

cent from 28 per cent. 

“The decisions, effective from June 

27, will benefit 125 crore citizens, 

particularly low and middle income 

families, traders and artisans,” Mr 

Goyal said. 

It is said that the rate cuts and certain 

clarifications will have revenue 

impact of Rs 10,000 crore-Rs 11,000 

crore annually. 

Cash-backs for cashless payments: The 

GST Council has also cleared a proposal 

to offer cash-backs to consumers 

on a trial basis for digital payments 

through Rupay cards, BHIM app and 

UPI system to promote cashless 

transactions in rural and semi-urban 

areas. Incentives are proposed for 

digital payments. Outlook reported that 

the National Payments Corporation 

of India is finalising a system for the 

same. Mr.Piyush Goyal told reporters 

after the GST Council meeting that 

once implemented, customers making 

payments through Rupay card and 

BHIM UPI, would get a cash back of 

20 per cent of the total GST amount, 

subject to a maximum limit of Rs 100.. 

A group of ministers under Bihar 

deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, 

which worked out the cash back 

scheme, had assessed that the 

revenue loss on account of it would 

be Rs 1,000 crore annually. 

19

Password mistakes that 

help a hacker 

Banks regularly advise customers who 

have internet banking and do online 

transactions to change their password 

once in two months or every month. But 

while updating the password, many make 

only slight modification with an additional 

letter or number in the old password. Thus 

they become more susceptible to hackers, 

according to a new research study, reported 

by Independent Digital News and Media. The 

study has revealed the most common 

mistakes that we make when trying to 

protect our profiles on the internet. 

Gang Wang, a computer science researcher 

at Virginia Tech, gathered more than 61 

million anonymised passwords as part of 

the research, which were then analysed 

by password manager service Dashlane. 

All of the passwords included in the study 

had been leaked over the years due to 

data breaches. He says that more than 

16 million password pairs that have been 

reused or slightly modified, can be easily 

solved in as little as 10 attempts. 

The most common mistake people make 

is use of the same password for multiple 

accounts. This may seem understandable 

when you consider the number of 

passwords expected to be remembered 

on a daily basis. However, doing so can put 

you at risk if one of the accounts in which 

you have used the password is hacked. 

The most common examples of “password 

walking” as outlined by Dashlane were: 

“1q2w3e4r”, “1qaz2wsx”, “1qazxsw2”, 

“zaq12wsx”, “!qaz2wsx” and “1qaz@wsx”. 

(A pattern of lazy password selection 

is called “password walking”). Many 

people are frustrated with the number 

of passwords they are expected to keep 

track of, and, as a result, end up using the 

same password among multiple accounts, 

using simple passwords, or both. 

Many opt for passwords that relay 

passionate feelings, something that 

should be avoided. The phrase “iloveyou” 

seems to be the most popular choice. 

Names of a number of famous brands 

were found to have featured heavily in the 

leaked passwords. Myspace, Coca-Cola, 

Playboy and Ferrari are most commonly 

used in easily-guessable passwords. 

Here are some ways to write a good, 

hacker- proof password; Use a unique 

password for every online account. 

Generate passwords that exceed a 

minimum of eight characters and create 

them with a mix of case -sensitive letters, 

numbers, and special symbols. Also, avoid 

passwords that contain common phrases, 

slang, places, or names. If you are not 

confident, take help from a password 

manager to generate, store, and manage 

your passwords.. 

20

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 

his Independence Day speech, 

announced the launch of the 

Ayushman Bharat-National Health 

Protection Scheme (AB-NHPS). 

The scheme is targeted at poor, 

deprived rural families and identified 

occupational category of urban 

workers' families. If we were to go 

by the Socio-Economic Caste Census 

(SECC) 2011 data, 8.03 crore families 

in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas 

will be entitled to be covered under 

the scheme, i.e., it will cover around 

50 crore people. 

AB-NHPS will have a defined benefit 

cover of Rs 5 lakh per family (on a family 

floater basis) per year for secondary 

and tertiary care hospitalisation. It will 

offer a benefit cover of Rs 5 lakh per 

family per year. According to Economic 

Times, it will subsume the existing 

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana 

(RSBY), launched in 2008 by the UPA 

government. 


Insurance: 

Ayushman Bharat health 

protection plan 

To ensure that nobody is left out 

(especially women, children and the 

elderly), there will be no cap on the 

family size and age under the AB- 

NHPS. The scheme will be cashless 

and paperless at public hospitals and 

empanelled private hospitals. 

The beneficiaries are identified based 

on the deprivation categories (D1, D2, 

D3, D4, D5, and D7) identified under 

the SECC database for rural areas. For 

the urban areas, the 11 occupational 

criteria will determine entitlement. In 

addition, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima 

Yojna (RSBY) beneficiaries in states 

where it is active are also included. 

The beneficiaries will not be required 

to pay any charges and premium for 

the hospitalisation expenses. The 

benefits also include pre- and posthospitalisation 

expenses. 

Each empanelled hospital will have 

an 'Ayushman Mitra' to assist patients 

and will coordinate with beneficiaries 

and the hospital. They will run a help 

desk, check documents to verify the 

eligibility and enrolment to the scheme. 

Benefits of the scheme are portable 

across the country and a beneficiary 

covered under the scheme will be 

allowed to avail of cashless benefits 

from any public/private empanelled 

hospitals across the country. 

21

Insurance 

Unclaimed Rs 15K cr. 

Lying idle with insurers 

The Insurance Regulatory and 

Development Authority of India 

(IRDAI) has disclosed that about 

23 insurance companies have not 

disbursed policyholder money worth 

nearly Rs 15,167 crores on account of 

not being claimed by them. 

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) 

has Rs 10,509 crore out of the total 

unclaimed amount, as on March 31, 

2018, while the 22 private sector 

insurers account for the remaining 

Rs 4,657.45 crore, reports The New 

Indian Express. ICICI Prudential Life 

Insurance Co has been piling up Rs 

807.4 crore of unclaimed insurance 

money followed by Reliance Nippon 

Life Insurance (Rs 696.12 crore), SBI 

Life Insurance Co (Rs 678.59 crore) 

and HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co 

(Rs 659.3 crore). 

The responsibility of timely disbursal 

to policyholders or nominees had 

earlier been entrusted to policyholder 

protection committees of individual 

account holders by the IRDAI. Apart 

from asking the policy providers 

to update information regarding 

unclaimed amounts on 

their websites on halfyearly 

basis, the regulator 

has also instructed them 

to provide a search facility 

on their website for policy 

holders or beneficiaries 

to identify any such 

unclaimed amount in the 

future. 

His bad day: A woman came home from work to find her husband in the 

kitchen shaking frantically, almost in a dancing frenzy, with some kind of 

wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Thinking that he was 

getting electrocuted and in trying to save him, she hit him with a handy 

plank of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Poor husband, up to that 

moment, he had been happily listening to his Walkman. 

22


IRDAI for minimising 

exclusions in Mediclaims 

The Insurance Regulatory and 

Development Authority of India 

(IRDAI) has set up a 10-member 

committee headed by its Executive 

Director Suresh Mathur, to examine 

the exclusions that are prevalent in 

the health insurance policies with a 

view to minimising the number and 

enhancing the scope of insurance 

coverage. "Rationalise the exclusions 

that disallow coverage with respect 

to new modalities of treatments 

and technologically advanced 

medical treatments. Identify the type 

of exclusions which shall not be 

allowed," said the terms of reference 

(ToR) of the panel. 

The IRDAI has been, from time to time, 

issuing guidelines on standardisation 

in health insurance and to enhance 

transparency and uniformity, 

reports Economic Times. These include, 

standardisation of terminology to 

be used in health insurance policies 

and standard nomenclature and 

procedure for critical illnesses... 

With the increase in the number of 

companies providing health insurance, 

there is an increase in the number of 

products offered. It is desired that the 

industry adopts a uniform approach 

while incorporating the 'exclusions' 

as part of product design as well as 

for the wording of the 'exclusions'," it 

said in an order. 

IRDAI wants mental illness covered: 

IRDAI has asked insurers to provide 

insurance for mental illness with 

immediate effect. Globally most 

companies cover mental illness after 

an initial waiting period of two-three 

years. The IRDAI directive follows the 

Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 which 

has come into force from May 29, 

2018. “As per Sec 21(4) of the said Act, 

every insurer shall make provision for 

medical insurance for treatment of 

mental illness on the same basis as 

is available for treatment of physical 

illness,” it said... 

According to the Mental Healthcare 

Act 2017, mental healthcare includes 

analysis and diagnosis of a person's 

mental condition and treatment as 

well as care and rehabilitation of such 

person for mental illness or suspected 

mental illness. As per the Ministry 

of Law and Justice, mental illness 

is defined as substantial disorder 

of thinking, mood, perception, 

orientation or memory that grossly 

impairs judgment, behaviour, 

capacity to recognise reality or ability 

to meet the ordinary demands of life. 

23

Keep original car keys 

Is it necessary to produce the two 

original keys to an insurance 

company to get compensation in 

case a vehicle is stolen? Yes. While the 

insurance regulator, IRDAI, does not 

specify this and leaves it to individual 

companies, most of them follow this 

as a norm citing cases of fraudulent 

claims. 

Even Transport ministry officials said 

there could be genuine cases where 

people may have lost one of the 

keys and would have got duplicate 

ones. Such conditions should also be 

weighed while considering each case. 

A senior office-bearer of IRDAI said 

some of the companies have formed 

their own norms to reduce their 

24 

risk. “They must inform the vehicle 

owners about the conditions so that 

they do not get stumped when the 

companies ask for the necessary 

documents. Consumer awareness 

on this issue is really inadequate.” 

Even a top executive of the General 

Insurance Corporation (GIC) admitted 

that insurance firms have failed 

to spread awareness about such 

conditions. 

What to do if keys are stolen?: When 

car keys are stolen, it can be a minor 

inconvenience to some, but for those 

who have house keys also in the 

same ring it will be real trouble. The 

first thing to do is to give a written 

complaint to the police as soon as 

you know the keys have been stolen. 

Include as much information as you 

can; every detail counts in a police 

investigation. Then find out from 

the insurance company if your policy 

covers replacement of car locks. If 

by chance, a duplicate house key is 

available, get in, call the carpenter 

and change the locks immediately. 

Einstein’s quotes: Albert Einstein is one of the best intellectual minds known to 

us. But many do not know that he loved humour. Following are some of his 

quotes: “The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” • “Put 

your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a 

pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.” • “If we 

knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

Whether it is India, Canada, France, 

the US or any part of the world, 

the use of glyphosate is all-pervading. 

In the US, over 4,000 lawsuits have 

been filed against Monsanto, the 

company which manufactured this 

herbicide. The first case, being heard 

in a court in San Francisco at present, 

is of DeWayne Johnson, a 46-year-old 

groundskeeper. He says the company 

failed to warn him of the dangers of 

using glyphosate, and as a result, he 

is suffering from a terminal cancer. In 

fact, the World Health Organisation’s 

cancer research arm designated 

glyphosate, widely used on GMO 

crops, as “probably carcinogenic to 

humans.” 

But despite the known ill-effects 

of using glyphosate, not all farmers 

are willing to give up the chemical. 


Environment: 

Glysophate herbicide....the 

overlooked dangers 

“I cannot farm without glyphosate,” 

says 40-year-old Vasudeo Rathod of 

Yavatmal district in Maharashtra, a 

major cotton and soybean growing 

area. He prefers to use this herbicide 

over manual weeding, which, he says, 

is very expensive. Manual work costs 

can go up by as much as three times. 

The chemical helps farmers to clear 

weeds growing in their fields. It is also 

used to clear railway tracks, parks 

and waterbodies of wild growth of 

plants. In many countries, glyphosate 

is used as a pre-harvest desiccant. It 

is sprayed on a standing crop to ease 

harvesting. 

German pharma Bayer acquired 

US based biotech Monsanto and its 

products including this herbicide on 

June 7 this year. The Competition 

Commission of India (CCI) 

approved of this deal. 

It assumed significance 

as Monsanto is facing 

opposition from various 

quarters within India over 

promotion of genetically 

modified crops, as also over 

royalty and patent issues. 

Bayer needed approval from 

30 countries for the merger 

of worldwide operations of 

the two companies. 

25

Environment 

Though the use of this herbicide 

is restricted to tea plantations and 

for non-crops in India, farmers use 

glyphosate liberally and illegally. In 

fact, it is used on all kinds of crops. 

For genetically-modified herbicide 

tolerant crops—like the unapproved 

BG-III cotton being grown illegally 

in parts of India—the usage is more 

as farmers spray it more liberally 

across fields to clear the weeds. 

Dewanand Pawar, convenor of the 

Shetkari Nyayhakka Andolan Samiti, 

a Yavatmal-based non-profit unit 

that works on farmer’s rights, says, 

“Farmers cannot afford to think about 

the long-term adverse health effects 

of the chemical. They are looking for 

ways to survive today.” 

“Measures to restrict the use of 

glyphosate will not work because its 

entry into cotton fields has piggybacked 

on BG-III seeds. BG-III and glyphosate 

go in tandem for farmers,” says D 

Narasimha Reddy, director of Pesticide 

Action Network India (PAN), a coalition 

against pesticides. 

Adverse impacts of glyphosate 

include acute poisoning, kidney 

and liver damage, changes in 

gut microflora, cancer, endocrine 

disruption, neurological damage 

and immune system dysfunction. 

“Glyphosate should be banned 

immediately because there is a 

huge fraud in the declaration of 

the active ingredient. Heavy metals, 

especially arsenic, are associated 

with glyphosate as formulants, but 

they have not been declared as active 

principles. Thus, they are the hidden, 

undisclosed poisons,” says Gilles-Eric 

Séralini, a molecular biologist at the 

University of Caen Normandy, France. 

But countries are finding it difficult to 

ban the chemical because of pressure 

from industry and farmers. Sri Lanka 

was the first country to ban the 

chemical in 2014. On November 27, 

2017, the EU voted to take a decision 

on whether licence for glyphosate 

should be renewed or not—18 

countries backed the proposal, 

nine countries were against and 

one abstained. This allowed for the 

European Commission (EC) to renew 

the licence for another five years. Not 

surprisingly, Germany voted in favour 

of the chemical to protect Bayer’s 

business interests. 

In November 2017, Argentina tried 

to ban glyphosate, but within two 

weeks, the company stepped in to 

get the ban process revoked. 

In India: Of late, some efforts have 

been made to curtail the use of this 

26


chemical in India. For about two 

months the sale of the chemical was 

curtailed in Yavatmal. The farmers 

who wanted it, however, procured 

it from the neighbouring districts. 

Due to the demand, the restrictions 

could not be enforced. Other than 

Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and 

Telangana too have curtailed its use. 

Despite the fact that chemical 

residues are present in food, the 

Indian consumer has not so far 

demanded glyphosate-free food. 

A draft notification was released 

on December 27, 2017 proposing 

Maximum Residues Limit for 

glyphosate—it has been set at 1 mg per 

kg, 0.01 mg per kg and 0.05 mg per kg 

for tea, rice, meat and meat products 

respectively. Though the proposed 

standards are in sync with global 

benchmarks, unless India sets limits 

for everything, the consumer would 

be susceptible to contamination, 

including from imported food. We also 

need facilities to test for the presence 

of the residues. The final notification 

is yet to be issued, states Down to Earth 

published by the New Delhi NGO, 

Centre for Science and Environment. 

Pesticide bill yet to be tabled: 

Concerned over the rising cases 

of occupational exposure and 

associated diseases such as cancer 

among farmers, a Parliamentary 

panel has pulled up the Centre over 

delay in introduction of a bill meant 

for management of pesticides. In 

its report tabled in Parliament, the 

Standing Committee on Agriculture 

said there is an urgent need to 

present the Pesticide Management 

Bill, 2017 to overcome lacuna of the 

outdated Insecticide Act, 1968. The 

Centre has not given any time limit for 

introduction of the Bill incorporating 

all official amendments in Parliament. 

Pesticides are regulated through 

the Insecticides Act in India. The 

experience in implementing the 

Act over the last four decades has 

exposed certain gaps which led to 

the demand for a new law. 

The Bill seeks to regulate the 

manufacture, quality, import, export 

and sale of pesticides, ensure 

availability of quality pesticides and 

minimise contamination of agriculture 

commodities with pesticide residue. 

It also recommends imposition of 

penalties for offences such as use 

of pesticide in contravention of the 

law and sale of misbranded or substandard 

pesticide. 

27

Household products and 

toxic mix-ups 

The National Poisons Information 

Centre in its analysis of emergency 

telephone calls received between 

2006 and 2016, has found that over 61 

per cent cases of poison consumption 

incidents involved children and mostly 

happened due to unintentional or 

exploratory swallowing of pesticides 

and household cleaners. 

The analysis carried out by NPIC at 

AIIMS, Delhi is based on 16,420 calls 

it received from treating physicians 

who had specific queries on the 

treatment procedure, reports The 

New Indian Express. The analysis by 

Sharda Shah Peshin and Y K Gupta 

says that majority of the calls -7,114- 

were related to household products- 

28 

--others being pharmaceuticals, 

agricultural pesticides and industrial 

chemicals. Of these calls, 37.8 per 

cent were about adults over 18 and 

61.2 per cent related to children 

below 18. 

The NPIC researchers found that 

males outnumbered females. In most 

cases, household pesticides were 

commonly implicated followed by 

household cleaners, thermometer 

mercury balls, antiseptics, kerosene 

and paint thinner. Miscellaneous 

products such as camphor, silica 

gel, hair dye, nail polish remover, 

cosmetics, adhesives and others were 

also involved in about 17 per cent of 

poisoning incidents. 

The probable reasons for 

high incidence could be 

careless storage, ignorance, 

non-compliance with 

prescribed instructions for 

use and negligible parental 

supervision. The researchers 

have highlighted the urgent 

need to identify high risk 

circumstances, common 

toxic products involved 

and implementation of 

prevention and awareness 

programmes for effective 

poison control at home.


20-year old commercial 

vehicles to retire 

policy that proposes to take hundreds 

A of thousands of polluting commercial 

vehicles off the road is on the anvil. Under 

the plan, vehicles that are 20 years old 

will stop plying from 2020, helping to 

curb emissions and boosting demand for 

new vehicles. “We have proposed to fix 

20 years as the lifetime for commercial 

vehicles. The vehicle scrapping policy will 

come into force from 2020, after which 

any commercial vehicle that completes 

20 years would go off the road,” a top 

government official said. 

There are 700,000 commercial vehicles 

registered before 2000 that are currently on 

the road. A report in Economic Times says 

that the policy proposes to make pre-2000 

commercial vehicles eligible for incentives if 

they are replaced by new ones. 

Fuel Efficiency norms to be tightened: 

A committee of senior bureaucrats 

has recommended to NITI Aayog that 

tightening of fuel efficiency norms for 

four-wheelers with combustion engines 

could stimulate the electric vehicle (EV) 

market. According to a report by CNBC- 

TV18, the rationale is that the automobile 

industry will be left with no other option, 

but to manufacture and sell more EVs 

once fuel efficiency norms for petrol- and 

diesel-powered vehicles are tightened. 

The committee proposed an approximate 

induction of 3-5 per cent EVs, as against 

total manufactured vehicles. 

Earlier this year, the Transport Ministry 

assigned fuel efficiency norms that 

require cars to be 30 per cent more 

fuel efficient by 2022. This move was 

expected to help India meet the global 

CO2 emission norms and also reduce its 

carbon footprint. 

While the proposal is only in a discussion 

phase, the industry has naturally 

expressed shock, reports MoneyControl. 

Com. Top industry sources reportedly said: 

“We are busy transitioning from BS-IV to 

BS-VI. All technical resources are geared 

up for this. To throw in more challenges 

at this stage would be completely 

unfair. Such a move could impact auto 

companies, the components industry and 

also the economy”. 

Another top executive of a leading 

automobile firm said: “Let us not forget 

the consumer in all of this. What is 

the guarantee that the product will 

be acceptable to the consumer? Also, 

battery prices will have to come down 

substantially which haven’t so far.” 

Industry experts warned that the move 

would force them to make diesel and 

petrol vehicles more expensive. They also 

believe that cross-subsidisation could 

invite trouble from tax authorities and have 

repercussions under the Competition Act. 

29

Food, Nutrition, Water 

Food delivery apps asked 

to delist hotels sans licence 

recent review conducted by 

A the Food Safety and Standards 

Authority of India (FSSAI) has 

revealed that 30-40 per cent of the 

restaurants and hotels listed by online 

food aggregators are not registered. 

Ten e-commerce food platforms — 

Box8, Faasos, FoodCloud, Foodmingo, 

Foodpanda, JusFood, LimeTray, 

Swiggy, UberEats and Zomato — 

reported lack of compliance by over 

one-third of the restaurants and 

hotels listed with them after the FSSAI 

sought some details. 

According to FSSAI officials, smaller 

restaurants apply for registration, 

while bigger ones have to get licences. 

“In July, we directed leading delivery 

platforms like Swiggy, Zomato, 

Foodpanda, UberEats and others to 

delist food businesses that do not have 

our licences by July 31 after receiving 

complaints from consumers,” said an 

official spokesperson. “We learnt that 

more than 30-40 per cent of listed 

food businesses by these ecommerce 

aggregators are unlicensed or 

unregistered. Many listed food 

businesses have recently applied for 

FSSAI permits,” the official added. 

In some countries, such as the UK, 

authorities issue hygiene ratings that 

are made public or even displayed 

on the premises, which can improve 

or damage business reputations, and 

provide added incentive to produce 

food of high quality, reports The 

CSR Journal. In the EU the main 

legislation controlling food 

safety practices is Regulation 

(EC) on the Hygiene of 

foodstuffs, which is the basis 

for each member country’s local 

regulations. Australia and New 

Zealand are governed by the 

Food Standards Code. 

Pulling food delivery apps up 

for ignoring food safety and 

hygiene norms is one step 

towards food regulations on par 

with international standards. 

30

The Food Safety and Standards 

Authority of India (FSSAI), which 

was under pressure from several 

quarters for its alleged failure to 

restrict the imports of food with 

genetically-modified organisms 

(GMOs), has initiated the work on 

framing regulations for geneticallymodified 

(GM) food. 

In a statement, the country’s apex 

food regulator, said that the intended 

regulations would essentially lay 

down the procedures for the safety 

assessment and approval of foods, 

including imported foods, derived from 

genetic modification processes based 

on the internationally well established 

and accepted scientific principles, 

procedures and best practices, before 

they are approved for food purposes, 

reports Business Standard. “The draft 

regulation, after the formal approval 

of FSSAI’s scientific panel, scientific 


Regulatory vacuum in 

dealing with GM foods 

committee and the authority, shall 

be notified in the Gazette to elicit the 

comments of various stakeholders, 

which will be duly considered. After this, 

the regulations will be finalised with the 

approval of the Government of India,” 

it added. Recently, the FSSAI draft on 

labelling regulations made it mandatory 

for the food business operators (FBOs) 

to declare the labelling of geneticallyengineered 

(GE) or modified foods. 

Calling Genetically Modified (GM) 

food a "contentious issue", FSSAI Chief 

Executive Pawan Kumar Agarwal 

admitted that there was a regulatory 

vacuum in dealing with the transgenic 

food. His comment incomes in the 

wake of a recent laboratory finding by 

the Centre for Science and Environment 

(CSE), which showed as many as 21 of 

the randomly picked 65 food products 

from different retail outlets in the 

country were found GM-positive. 

"GM food is very contentious issue…... 

We are working on regulations and 

we hope the draft will be ready soon. 

We expect it will clear the uncertainty 

over the GM food," Mr.Agarwal told 

reporters. He added that action against 

adulteration and safety enforcement 

are not done at the required scale due 

to lack of manpower with the food 

safety regulator. 

31

Order on Organic food imports: FSSAI 

has issued an order on import of 

organic food products, directing all the 

state food authorities to reject imported 

food consignments which claimed to 

be organic, but do not comply with the 

food safety regulations. 

The Food Safety and Standards 

(Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017 

were notified under the Food Safety 

and Standards Act, 2006 in December 

2017, and food business operators 

(FBOs) were directed to comply 

with all the provisions of the said 

regulation by July 2018. 

FSSAI, in its order, stated, “In case the 

imported food consignments do not 

comply with the organic regulations 

and above instructions, the same 

will be rejected and the importer or 

clearing house agent (CHA) will have 

to follow the due procedure of review 

application as in the Food Safety and 

Standards (Import) Regulations.” 

“However, the import consignments 

claimed as organic food items, which 

were exported before July 2018, but 

have reached after July 2018, may be 

given relaxation….,” the order said. 

After meeting several stakeholders, 

FSSAI had allowed the use of 

nondetachable stickers with respect 

to the apex regulator’s organic logo 

up to September 30, 2018. 

How safe is food after 

expiry date 

Every day the average American 

throws out nearly a pound of food, 

according to a recent study from the 

US Department of Agriculture. There 

are plenty of reasons why good, 

usable food gets tossed — picky kids, 

overstocked pantries, or even leftovers 

that sit in refrigerators for too long. 

32 

But a major factor is the 

misconception about what all of 

those dates on food package labels— 

“sell by,” “use by,” and “best if used 

by”—really mean. The US Magazine 

Consumer Reports says that 90 per cent 

of Americans misinterpret the dates 

on labels, according to a recent study


from the Natural Resources Defense 

Council (NRDC) and throw out food 

that could still be consumed or frozen 

for later use. 

That raises the question: If expiration 

dates are not a reliable gauge of food 

spoilage, how does a consumer know 

what to keep and what to discard ? 

What do date labels actually mean? 

With the exception of baby formula, 

there are no federal regulations on 

date labelling. Often the “best if used 

by,” “sell by,” and “use by” designations 

are just manufacturers’ best guesses 

about how long their food will taste 

its freshest. Supermarkets may 

also use the dates as a guide when 

stocking shelves. But the dates have 

little to do with how safe the food is. 

• Best if Used By/Before: This 

guarantees when a product is of 

the best quality or flavour. For 

instance, a jar of fruit jam may not 

taste as fresh or crackers may be 

soft instead of crisp after this date. 

It is not about safety. 

• Sell By: This is the date set by 

manufacturers to tell retailers 

when to remove the product from 

shelves. The goal is to ensure that 

the consumer has the product 

at its best quality, which can be 

several days to several weeks, 

depending on the item. For 

instance, good milk, assuming 

proper refrigeration, should last 

five to seven days past its sell-by 

date before turning sour. 

• Use By: This is the last date that 

guarantees the best quality of a 

product. This is also not a safety date 

except when used on infant formula. 

According to a recent report from 

the NRDC and Harvard University, 

manufacturers typically use methods 

such as lab tests and taste-testing to 

set these label dates. But consumers 

have no way of knowing the 

background. In many cases, dates are 

conservative, so if you eat the food 

past that date, you may not notice 

any difference in quality, especially if 

the date has recently passed. 

According to Dr.Sana Mujahid, 

manager of food-safety research 

at Consumer Reports, the best way to 

know whether a perishable food 

has spoiled is simply to “trust your 

taste buds and sense of smell.” 

Foods past their prime often develop 

mold, bacteria and yeast, causing 

them to give warning signs to your 

senses. Spoiled food will usually look 

different in texture and colour, smell 

unpleasant and taste bad before it 

becomes unsafe to eat. 

33

Pity, no clean food is 

available 

The Union Health Ministry informed 

Parliament earlier this year that 

almost one in four food samples 

tested in 2016-17 was found to be 

adulterated. And it is rising—from 

19.5 per cent in 2014-15 to 23.4 per 

cent in 2016-17. A lack of awareness 

among the public notwithstanding, 

the regulatory, monitoring and 

enforcement mechanisms are just 

not up to the mark, observes The New 

Indian Express in an editorial. The 

formalin scare recently gripped the 

nation, after huge quantities of fish 

laced with the substance—a known 

carcinogenic chemical primarily used 

for stopping decomposition of corpses 

dead bodies — were seized across the 

country. “This has not only taken fish 

off the household menu but, more 

importantly, brought into focus the 

problem of food adulteration. The 

crackdown on formalin, however, has 

been restricted to banning fish from 

the breeding states rather than trying 

to uproot the menace. The half-baked 

34 

reaction of governments to the wilful 

contamination of fish is symptomatic 

of a deep-seated malaise. Food 

adulteration in India has reached 

dangerous levels with nothing 

edible spared from the unscrupulous 

practice. Rampant adulteration using 

toxic chemicals and synthetic colours 

is ruining people’s health. 

“The Supreme Court has said that 

access to food free from harmful 

substances such as pesticides is a 

fundamental right. Consumption of 

adulterated food might be playing 

a role in the alarming rise of heart, 

kidney and liver diseases, diabetes 

and cancer in the country. Sadly, this 

aspect is the most overlooked and of 

the lowest priority, for the Central as 

well as state governments. 

"Prevention is the key, and it can 

only be achieved with the help of 

a robust quality control system 

and action against violators. The 

new Consumer Protection Bill with 

stringent punishment for adulteration 

should be passed in Parliament, 

and the Food Safety and Standards 

Authority of India’s proposal for 

life imprisonment sentences for 

adulterers be implemented. For the 

fear of punishment can be an effective 

deterrence,” concluded the editorial.


Spurious cheese using Palm oil 

The Food authorities in Haryana 

are struggling to crack down on 

the menace of imported skimmed 

milk which is being used by some 

people to prepare synthetic milk and 

spurious cheese. This came to light 

during the ongoing raids by the State 

Food and Drug Administration with 

the help of Progressive Dairy Farmers 

Association (PDFA). 

During the chemical examination of 

the spurious cheese, it was found 

that it was manufactured by mixing 

palm oil in skimmed milk powder 

and then mixing it with chemicals like 

sulphuric acid, The New Indian Expess 

reports. Speaking to Chandigarh 

Newsline, the Commissioner of Food 

and Drug Administration, Mr. Kahan 

Singh Pannu, said: “Use of skimmed 

milk powder to prepare either cheese 

or ghee is not allowed. Only big 

manufacturing units are allowed to 

use skimmed milk powder as they 

follow the proper process of making 

these products. As per norms, cheese 

and ghee could only be prepared 

by using milk of milch animals,” 

Mr. Pannu said. 

Lime powder injures eyes 

The alkaline lime spread on betel 

leaves and taken with areaca nuts 

by many after a meal, is found to 

be the biggest cause of accidental 

eye injury among children. After 

studying several cases of children 

badly affected by the alkaline lime 

powder, ophthalmologists across the 

country are pressuring the authorities 

to ban the sale of this (‘Chunnambu’ 

in Tamil) powder in plastic packets, 

reports The Times of India. Doctors say 

the case sheets collected in the past 

10 years show that despite a series 

of surgeries, normal vision is not 

restored to most children,, 

Children have been found most 

susceptible as they are the ones usually 

sent out to buy the powder, which 

comes in thin polythene packets and 

is sold for a rupee at petty shops. The 

plastic often breaks open and a mild 

wind can blow the powder into the 

eyes. Lime, which is high on alkalinity, 

disturbs the acid-alkali equilibrium. 

The chemicals penetrate the surface 

of the eye and cause severe injury 

to both the external and internal 

structure of the eyes. 

35

Legal Notes 

University told to refund fees 

with Rs.25L compensation 

The Saveetha University on 

Poonamallee High Road at 

Rajankuppam has been directed by 

the Madras High Court to refund the 

fees collected from eight students 

with a compensation of Rs.25 lakh 

to each within 45 days, for admitting 

them under the NRI quota without the 

candidates appearing for NEET postp 

and thereby spoiling their career. 

Justice S Vaidyanathan who gave 

the directive when a batch of writ 

petitions from V S Subeeksha and 

others came up for hearing also 

directed the university to return 

their original certificates. The court 

was disposing of the petitions from 

the students, in the second year at 

Saveetha Dental College affiliated to 

the university, seeking to quash an 

36 

order dated January 22 last of the 

Dental Council of India directing the 

university to discharge 13 students 

admitted under NRI category without 

their writing NEET. 

Though the relief sought for by the 

petitioners cannot be granted, the 

students had already completed two 

years of study in the university and 

they are now forced to stay away from 

the third year. As the students had lost 

two years and that any admission to 

the course is invalid, the fees paid 

by the students to the university 

under all heads have to be refunded 

to them, the judge said. Further, 

the university should return all the 

original certificates of the petitioners 

and issue the transfer certificates to 

them within a week, the judge said. 

Rlys fined for evicting Sr Citizen 

A 73-year-old retired professor Vishnu 

Kant Shukla who was forcibly evicted 

from a train because his ticket was 

wrongly post-dated by 1,000 years 

has been awarded compensation 

by a consumer court in Saharanpur, 

Meerut. Shukla had boarded Himgiri 

Express at Saharanpur to travel to 

Jaunpur on November 19, 2013. He 

was going to visit his friend. While 

checking the train ticket examiner, 

found Shukla’s ticket was dated


November 19, 3013 and evicted 

Shukla from the train at Moradabad. 

The professor said: “I retired as 

head of the Hindi department from 

a Degree College in Saharanpur. In 

short, I am not a person who would 

travel by train with a fake ticket and 

here was a TTE who humiliated me 

in front of everyone, demanded I pay 

a penalty of Rs 800, and even got 

me evicted from the train. It was an 

important journey as I had to visit my 

friend whose wife had expired.” 

After returning home, Shukla filed a 

case in court against the Railways. 

The case went on for five long years 

and finally the court decided in favour 

of Shukla and slapped a penalty 

of Rs 10,000 on the Railways for 

causing mental harassment plus an 

additional Rs 3,000 as compensation. 

The court observed: “To de-board a 

person of an advanced age in the 

middle of a journey causes a great 

amount of physical strain and mental 

harassment. This clearly shows there 

were flaws in services provided by 

the department.” 

HC asks Rlys to consider pre-litigation 

mediation 

The Delhi High Court has asked Indian 

Railways to explore the possibility of 

having a compulsory pre-litigation 

mediation for facilitating an early 

settlement in cases of claims for 

compensation. Justice Prathiba M 

Singh passed the order while dealing 

with a case of a man running from 

pillar to post seeking compensation 

after one of his legs was amputated 

in a train accident over 30 years ago. 

The High Court, which was hearing an 

appeal by the Railways challenging a 

local court order granting `6.6 lakh 

compensation to the man, enhanced 

the amount to `9 lakh and directed 

the authorities to pay the remaining 

amount within eight weeks, The 

Hindu reports. Justice Singh said the 

Railways ought to adopt a ‘litigation 

policy’ to deal with such cases as the 

delay defeats the purpose of granting 

compensation when the amount was 

not given to the victim immediately. 

37

Tilak Raj Singh, was a 22-year-old law 

student at the time of the accident 

in October 1987. He had boarded a 

general class compartment of Frontier 

Mail from Meerut Cantonment to 

Ludhiana and was standing at the 

exit door. When the train reached 

Muzaffarnagar, some of the bogies 

did not reach up till the platform. He 

came down to the ground to give 

way to others. When the train started 

moving, he tried to board it and due 

to a sudden movement of the train, 

he along with other passengers fell 

and he got entangled between the 

wheels of the train and was dragged 

for a distance. His leg had to be 

operated upon thrice at Safdarjung 

Hospital and later, his leg had to be 

amputated. 

He filed a civil suit in 1990 in a Meerut 

court, which returned the plaint citing 

lack of jurisdiction after 12 years. 

Later, he approached a railways 

claims tribunal in 2005, which in 

2008 held that the case is liable to be 

tried by a civil court. 

In October 2008, Mr. Singh filed 

the suit in the Delhi High Court 

which transferred it to a trial court 

in 2016 due to increase in pecuniary 

jurisdiction of the High Court and he 

was awarded a compensation by the 

trial court in August 2016. 

Why it hurts: A blonde comes to a doctor and complains: 

- Doc, please help: when I touch my head - it hurts, when I touch my belly - it 

hurts, when I touch my leg - it hurts... 

- I know what has happened to you. 

- And what? 

- You've broken your finger. 

38


Errant airlines that 

denied boarding passes 

Data from civil aviation regulator 

DGCA reveals that more than 

28,000 air travellers were denied 

boarding passes between 2017 and 

2018 despite arriving on time at 

check-in counters. According to the 

data given in reply to an RTI enquiry, 

Jet Airways has got the dubious 

distinction of denying boarding 

passes to 19,955 people, which makes 

up 70 per cent of those who suffered 

at the hands of airlines. SpiceJet 

comes second by contributing 19 per 

cent boarding pass denials and Air 

India nine per cent. 

Airlines typically sell more number of 

tickets than its actual seating capacity 

to avoid flying with unoccupied seats, 

reports Deccan Chronicle According to 

experts, extra tickets sold in airlines 

would offset the ‘cancellation’ and 

no-show passengers. However, if 

there is no cancellation of oversold 

tickets, the airline would be forced 

to deny boarding pass to some 

passengers. Such passengers would 

either be accommodated in other 

flights or compensated by the airline 

as per rules. Stringent rules are in 

place to penalise the airlines for 

denying boarding, and cancelling and 

delaying flights. 

If you are one among those who 

arrived on time and yet denied a 

boarding pass, here is what you 

should know. The airlines must first 

ask for volunteers to give up their 

seats to make them available for 

others in exchange for benefits/ 

facilities that the airline may offer. 

But if another flight is arranged 

which is scheduled to depart within 

an hour of the original scheduled 

departure time, the airline need 

not pay compensation. In case of 

further delay, the airline is liable for 

reimbursement. The boarding pass 

could be denied to the passengers 

only if there are reasonable grounds. 

39

User consent must for 

pesky calls, says TRAI 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority 

of India (TRAI) has spelt out 

rules under the Telecom Commercial 

Communication Customer Preference 

Regulation, 2018, to curb the 

problem of unsolicited commercial 

communication. It has also asked 

telecom operators to ensure that 

such communications take place only 

through registered senders. Violations 

under various categories will attract a 

penalty ranging from `1,000 to `50 

lakh, based on the type of offence, 

the regulator said. 

“…with the adoption of newer 

technologies, such as automated 

calling, the spammers have acquired 

the ability to reach even larger target 

groups. In this backdrop, a complete 

overhaul of the regulation had 

become unavoidable,” TRAI said in 

the notification. 

Both imposters and fraudsters have 

taken advantage of loopholes in 

verification of identities by putting 

distance between themselves and 

the telecom service providers (TSPs) 

through multiple intermediaries 

controlled by weak and unverifiable 

agreements, it said. 

Consumer groups doubtful: The telecom 

regulator’s new rules to quell the 

menace of pesky calls and text 

40 

messages are unlikely to offer respite 

any time soon because the redressal 

mechanism is not user-friendly, 

consumer groups and experts said. They 

added that telcos could take as much 

as 18 months to deploy the mandated 

blockchain solution to mitigate the 

problem, reports The Times of India. Phone 

companies said the TRAI ’s decision to 

impose hefty penalties alone would not 

fix a consumer problem that telcos are 

trying to resolve technically, which could 

raise the spectre of mass litigation and 

implementation challenges. 

“Using the complaint mechanism, as 

in the DND2 app, remains a tedious 

task with as many as five fields to 

fill,” said Hemant Upadhyay, advisor 

at Consumer Voice. Rahul Singh, policy 

analyst at Consumer Unity & Trust 

Society, said: “Vast swathes of the 

country’s population will not be able 

to use the DND app due to language 

limitations as complaints can only be 

lodged in English or Hindi, which is 

grossly inadequate in a country as 

diverse as India.” 

Though TRAI established the DND 

Registry in 2010, it acknowledged 

in May this year that new rules 

were needed because the registry 

had failed to check the menace. It 

launched the DND2 app in June 2017, 

but that has not helped.


Recalls 

Ford India: Ford India has 

announced the recall of 4,379 

EcoSport vehicles. The voluntary 

recall includes those produced in 

Ford's plant in Chennai between May 

and June 2017. The recall of the Ford 

EcoSport SUVs is for the company 

to check the weld integrity of the 

front lower control arm. According 

to Ford, the weld strength on some 

of these vehicles may be below the 

company's specification. This might 

lead to affecting the steering control. 

Ford India calls its recall as ‘voluntary 

inspection' to keep it in line with the 

company's commitment to deliver 

world-class quality vehicles. 

FORD USA announced in August 

a recall of select electric vehicles, 

including the Ford Focus, marking 

a premiere for EV-owners now 

faced with this type of procedure. 

The recall involves over 50,000 

Ford Focus Electric, Ford Fusion 

Energi and Ford C-MAX Energi cars 

manufactured over the span of four 

years. The problem discovered by 

Ford does not have anything to do 

with the vehicles themselves, but 

with the charging cords they use on 

a daily basis. According to the report, 

the cords originally provided with 

the cars mentioned above should 

not be used with an AC outlet that 

is not on a dedicated circuit or with 

extension cords. When used like this, 

the car's cord could cause increased 

temperature and potentially lead to 

a fire. 

Maruti: Maruti Suzuki announced 

in July the recall of 1,279 units of 

the new Swift and Dzire models for 

inspection of a possible fault in the 

Airbag Controller Unit. Their concern 

41

was that in case of a crash, due to the 

likely fault, the airbag may not deploy. 

Out of the 1,279 cars, 566 are Swifts 

and 713 are D'zire models which 

were mainly manufactured between 

May 7 and July 5, 2018. Owners of 

the vehicles were advised to visit the 

website https://apps.marutisuzuki.com/ 

servicecampaign1.aspx and punch in 

the chassis number to check if their 

vehicle was among the affected ones. 

Honda: Honda Cars India Limited 

(HCIL) has recalled 7,290 units of 

the second generation Amaze sedan 

manufactured from April 17, 2018 to 

May 24, 2018. Honda has initiated 

the recall to update the EPS (Electric- 

Assist Power Steering) sensor. This 

is the second recall of Honda Cars 

India in 2018. HCIL recalled 22,834 

units in January to replace the Takata 

passenger front airbag inflators for the 

2013 models of Accord, City and Jazz. 

It was part of Honda's precautionary 

global recall campaign concerning 

Takata front airbag inflators. 

Yamaha US: Yamaha Motor 

Corporation, USA is recalling 3,493 

model year 2018 Yamaha MT-07J, 

MT-07JC, XSR700J, and XSR700JC 

motorcycles. The bolts that connect 

the drive chain guard to the swing 

arm may loosen, possibly causing the 

chain guard to contact the drive chain 

and break. If the chain guard breaks, 

it may fall onto the road, creating a 

road hazard and increasing the risk 

of a crash. 

Mr. Ramachandran Krishnamurthy, our Trustee in charge of Finance, takes 

over as Managing Trustee of Consumers Association of India and CONCERT 

with effect from 30th August 2018. 

Mrs. Nirmala Desikan will continue as Chairman of both Consumers 

Association of India and CONCERT. 

42

Nissan admits 

falsification 


Nissan admitted on July 9 that 

data on exhaust emissions 

and fuel economy of cars had been 

deliberately "altered", dealing a blow 

to the Japanese car giant's efforts 

to recover trust after an inspection 

scandal last year. The company did not 

say how many cars were affected by 

the falsification, which was uncovered 

during voluntary tests of all parts of 

Nissan's operations conducted in the 

wake of last year's scandal. 

It said tests on exhaust emissions and 

fuel economy had "deviated from the 

prescribed testing environment". In 

addition, it said inspection reports 

had been drawn up "based on altered 

measurement values". 

Nissan's share price dropped 4.56 

per cent to 1,003.5 yen after it said it 

would make a statement on exhaust 

measurements following a report of 

falsification. It made the statement 

after the market had closed. The firm 

vowed a "full and comprehensive 

investigation" into its latest fake data 

scandal. 

Nissan said it had rechecked 

"reliable" data and confirmed that all 

vehicles, except the GT-R, had met 

Japanese safety standards. It did not 

offer additional information about 

the GT-R, which the firm describes 

on its website as a high-performance 

sports car. 

43

Consumer News 

Deluge of Chinese goods 

hits domestic units 

" 

At a time when there is an 

urgent need to stimulate our 

manufacturing sector to at least 25 

per cent of country's GDP, Chinese 

imports have thrown a spanner in the 

wheel of India's economic progress 

per se and industrial manufacturing in 

particular," stated the Parliamentary 

Standing Committee on Commerce in 

its 145th report recently tabled in the 

Rajya Sabha. 

"The deluge of Chinese imports in 

the Indian market is wiping out many 

domestic industries and is a cause for 

serious concern. The Chinese import 

is so hard-hitting on Indian industry 

that many manufacturers have been 

forced to become traders," it added. 

Under-invoicing of Chinese goods, 

dumping of cheap goods, entry of 

prohibited goods by misdeclaration 

and smuggling are some of the 

lacunae that the Indian authorities 

have not been able to tackle 

effectively, the committee said. 

"China faces a major chunk of antidumping 

investigations which is a 

clear indication that Chinese goods 

are causing unfair trade disruption," 

the panel noted. Dumping is when 

a country or company exports a 

product at a price that is lower than 

the price in the exporter's domestic 

market. And the industries that have 

been severely hit by the import of 

Chinese goods are labour intensive 

44


and are traditionally employment 

generators, such as textiles. 

India's bilateral trade has increased 

from $38 billion in 2007-08 to 

around $89.6 billion in 2017-18. 

"The trade deficit with China at $63 

billion constitutes more than 40 per 

cent of India's total trade deficit. The 

Chinese goods itself constitute about 

one-sixth of all imports in terms of 

quantum in India," the report pointed 

out. During 2007-08 to 2017-18, 

India's exports to China went up by 

$2.5 billion only compared to imports 

that increased by $50 billion,. 

"In addition to revenue and 

employment, low-quality Chinese 

imports also have an adverse impact 

on the environment. Poor quality toys, 

colours, firecrackers, statues of gods 

and goddesses, etc. from China, are 

health hazards in Indian household. 

"The Committee is alarmed that 

Indian consumers get attracted to 

these products for their low price 

without regard to the safety hazards 

entailed with such products. There is 

an urgent need to devise a strategy 

in which the domestic MSME product, 

which is better in quality than the 

Chinese cheap products, gets due 

premium through the organised retail 

sector," it said. 

The panel has advocated creating 

public awareness to discourage 

buying of sub-standard imported 

products and putting in place a 

strong quality control framework. 

"The Committee finds it unfortunate 

that in the name of 'ease of doing 

business', we are more than willing 

to give market access to Chinese 

goods which are destroying our 

manufacturing, while China is smartly 

protecting its industry from Indian 

competition. The Committee strongly 

recommends that BIS must also 

reciprocate in the same manner as 

the Chinese," the report said. 

Conundrums: Why is a lawyer like a restless sleeper..? Because he lies first on 

one side and then on the other. 

*What is the difference between a cat and a comma? A cat has claws at the 

end of paws while a comma is a pause at the end of a clause! 

Secret of success: A successful man is the one who makes more money than 

his wife can spend. A successful woman is the one who can find such a man. 

45

TN Highways to get 

national tag 

With automobile explosion growing 

denser every year, the Tamil Nadu 

Government has proposed to declare 21 

major State highways that run for about 

1497 km through Sivaganga, Madurai, 

Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, 

Namakkal, Thirunelveli and Erode districts 

as new national highways. 

The government policy note on Highways and 

minor ports presented by the Chief Minister 

Edappadi K Palaniswami in the State Assembly 

noted that the proposal had been sent to the 

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to 

declare the new roads as national highways 

in principle. The New Indian Express reports that 

the roads to be upgraded include Thanjavur- 

Mannargudi - Thiruthuraipoondi - Vedaranyam 

- Kodiyakarai (113 km), Erode-Dharapuram (78 

km), Sathi-Chithode-Erode (62 km), Chennai 

Outer Ring Road- Sipcot- Sriperumpudur 

road (17 km), Namakkal-Thuraiyur (48 km), 

Thanjavur-Sivaganga (257 km), Vatlagundu - 

Usilampatti - Peraiyur - Kalligudi - Thuruchuli 

- Sayalkudi (161 km) and Ramnad - Nainarkoil 

- Ilayangudi - Sivaganga (98 km). 

The move to upgrade the roads is aimed at 

improved maintenance and their widening. 

Two Grade Separators for Chennai: To ease 

the traffic congestion at the busy junctions 

of Teynampet and Nandanam, the Chennai 

Corporation has given a nod in principle 

to build two grade separators. The first 

separator at Teynampet junction will connect 

46 

Thyagaraya road and Eldams road, and it is to 

be constructed at a cost of Rs.151.66 crores. 

The second at Nandanam junction will connect 

Venkatanarayana road and Pasumpon 

Muthuramalingam road at an estimated 

cost of Rs.77.18 crores. Both projects will be 

financed by the Chennai Smart City Fund. 

The proposals have been forwarded to the 

High Power Project Sanctioning Committee 

(HPPSC) that will sanction projects whose 

estimated cost exceeds Rs.10 crores. 

Grade separation is defined as a type of 

intersection where one or more conflicting 

movements of intersecting highways are 

segregated. 

Police to install One Lakh CCTV cameras: 

Chennai police is planning to install CCTV 

cameras across the nook and corner of the 

city with the help of residents with a view to 

curbing crime and protecting people. Already 

20,000 CCTV cameras are in operation but 

they are not sufficient. It has been decided 

to install one lakh CCTV cameras across the 

city. In this direction, the police is spreading 

awareness among residents on the efficacy of 

CCTV cameras. 

Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan, who 

released a short film, ‘Third eye’ featuring 

Comedian Vivek, expects installation to be 

completed by September. All companies, 

shops and apartments have been advised to 

install CCTV cameras and banners have been 

put up on the importance of the Third Eye.

Wages fixed for 

domestic help 


The Tamil Nadu government has 

fixed minimum monthly wages 

for skilled, unskilled and semi-skilled 

domestic workers. In its notification, 

the government has fixed Rs 37 as the 

minimum hourly wage for 'unskilled' 

domestic workers. The same has been 

fixed at Rs 38 for semi-skilled helps, 

such as cooks and gardeners, and Rs 

39 for skilled workers that included 

home nurses. The rates have been 

set for an entire 8-hour day's chores 

including sweeping, mopping the 

floor, washing utensils and clothes 

along with babysitting. 

The minimum monthly wage for 

an eight-hour domestic help has 

been set at Rs 6,836 a month while 

for qualified home nurses it has 

been fixed at Rs 8,051. For workers 

who stay with their employers, the 

wages will be 10 per cent higher 

and will be exclusive of benefits like 

accommodation, clothing or food. 

Biometric attendance in Arakkonam 

school 

Even as a section of school teachers 

are vehemently resisting the proposed 

bio-metric attendance system in 

government schools in Tamil Nadu, 

it was introduced for both students 

and teachers at a government school 

at Arakkonam in Vellore district 

a couple of months ago. “While 

the machines were funded by the 

government, expenses for installation 

and registration of students were 

borne by the old students of the 

school. None among the 23 teachers 

in the school opposed the move,” 

said S Ravikumar, Headmaster of 

Government Boys Higher Secondary 

School, Arakkonam. 

The 69-year-old institution has 

a strength of 370 students from 

Standards VI to XII. There are 28 

teaching and non-teaching employees 

in the school. The students and 

teachers record their attendance 

47

etween 8.30 am and 9.30 am. While 

leaving in the evening, they line up to 

mark attendance. “As soon as a student 

places his or her finger on the scanner 

the screen will display ‘thank you’ 

message indicating that attendance is 

recorded,” said a teacher. 

Green Number plates for Battery-run cars 

All battery-operated vehicles will have 

green number plates. The Ministry of 

Road Transport and Highways said 

in a statement: “All battery-operated 

vehicles shall now exhibit their 

registration mark in yellow colour 

on green background for transport 

vehicles and for all other cases, in 

white colour on green background,". 

The Ministry has notified amendments 

to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 

1989 to this effect. 

France tackles cigarette-butt scourge 

France will force tobacco companies 

to help end the scourge of cigarette 

butts that litter streets and 

contaminate water, unless they take 

voluntary action in the next three 

months, a government minister said. 

The Ministry estimates that 30 billion 

butts are thrown away in France 

every year, of which more than four 

in 10 end up on beaches, in forests, 

rivers and the sea. A single filter 

can contaminate hundreds of litres 

of water because of the chemical 

substances it contains and can take 

more than a decade to decompose. 

The government has not said what 

measures it might impose, but one 

official said a mandatory recycling 

scheme was an option. 

MV Act to cover college buses 

The Madras High Court has held that 

if educational institutions, including 

medical colleges, collect fees for 

ferrying students and others, their 

vehicles would come under the scope 

of the Motor Vehicles Act. Dismissing 

an appeal filed by the management of 

Christian Medical College, Vellore, the 

division bench comprising Justices 

K.K Sasidharan and R. Subramanian 

said that once an institution charges a 

fee for transporting its own students, 

doctors and employees, it would 

definitely be a “Motor Transport 

Undertaking “within the meaning of 

Section 2(g) of the Motor Transport 

Workers Act 1961. 

48


Passport Seva mobile App. 

The External Affairs Ministry’s 

passport seva moble application, 

which allows users to apply for a 

travel document from anywhere in 

the country, registered one million 

downloads in just two days of its 

launch on June 26 by External Affairs 

Minister Swaraj. According to The 

New Indian Express, the application 

available in Android and IOS 

platforms, has facilities for applying, 

making payment and scheduling 

appointments to acquire a passport. 

It was launched along with a scheme 

under which a person can apply for 

passport from anywhere in India, 

irrespective of the place of residence. 

The minister also said that rules had 

been simplified for passports by 

striking off impractical, irrelevant 

and unnecessary questions and the 

process had been streamlined. 

No address on Last page: The 

latest update stated that the MEA is 

considering to exclude the residential 

information of the applicant on 

the last page of the passport. The 

residential details will be stored in 

the government database, but will 

no longer be present on the passport. 

Passports that have been issued since 

2012 contain a barcode, which when 

scanned provides all the information. 

This measure is taken to ensure that 

more than the required information 

is not revealed. However, existing 

passports will remain the same until 

the expiry date. Similarly, parent’s 

name will also be excluded from the 

last page of the passport. The ministry 

has been analysing submissions that 

names of estranged mother/father 

and “kids of single parents” need not 

be printed on the passport. 

Currently Indian passports are 

issued in three colours: Red- for 

diplomats, White- for government 

officials, and Blue- for citizens of two 

categories i.e. ECR (Emigration Check 

Required) and ECNR (Emigration 

Check Not Required).Instead of the 

blue passports for citizens in the ECR 

category, passports for this category 

may be issued in orange colour to 

make it easier during immigration 

checks. 

49

Solar powered 

agri pumps 

The Tamil Nadu agricultural power 

consumption is 11,406 million 

units a year and a total of 8,138 MW 

of solar power is required to replace 

the traditional water pumps with 

solar pumps, according to a report by 

Greenpeace. The white paper ‘From 

Rooftops to Farmtops: Augmenting 

India’s Distributed Solar Goals through 

net-metered solar pumps’ jointly 

prepared by the International Water 

Management Institute (IWMI)-TATA 

Water Policy Programme and Gujarat 

Energy Research and Management 

Institute (GERMI) states that if solar 

pumps are to replace traditional 

water pumps in farms across the 

country, India could surpass its solar 

target of 100 GW by 2022. 

The analysis was released at a 

roundtable conference hosted by 

Greenpeace India, GERMI, and 

50 

IWMI-Tata Program to discuss 

steps necessary for the successful 

implementation of KUSUM (Kisan Urja 

Suraksha evam Utthan Mahaabhiyan) 

– a Central government scheme 

promoting solar irrigation pumps. The 

New Indian Express report on the white 

paper adds that currently, while the 

60 GW target assigned for large-scale 

solar power is on track, the 40 GW 

target for rooftop solar power is still 

to gather momentum, with only 2.4 

GW of total rooftop capacity installed 

as of March 2018. 

Interestingly, Tamil Nadu which had 

a policy for installing solar panels 

on the roof-tops of private and 

public buildings, is going slow on 

implementation. It is learnt a highlevel 

meeting was held recently to 

install solar roof-tops in government 

buildings, but a concrete decision to 

this effect is yet to be taken. 

Meanwhile, experts are of the view 

that Net-metered solar farm-top 

installations are very similar to 

rooftop solar installations from a 

technical standpoint. While rooftop 

solar photo-voltaic systems take away 

high-paying consumers from the grid, 

farm-top systems will actually reduce 

the agricultural subsidy burden for 

India’s cash-strapped power utilities.

Health and Medicine: 

Draft rules on 

E-pharma sales 

The Union Health Ministry has 

notifed draft rules on sale of 

drugs by e-pharmacies with a view to 

regulating online sales and providing 

patients accessibility to genuine 

drugs from authentic online portals. 

The draft rules state that "any person 

who intends to conduct business of 

e-pharmacy shall apply for the grant 

of registration to the Central Licensing 

Authority in Form 18AA through 

the online portal of the Central 

Government." 

The draft says that applicants should 

deposit a sum of Rs 50,000 and after 

obtaining e-pharmacy registration, 

they will have to comply with 

provisions of Information Technology 

Act, 2000 (21 of 2000). "The details of 

patient shall be kept confidential and 

shall not be disclosed to any person 

other than the Central government or 

the State government concerned, as 

the case may be. 

"The supply of any drug shall be 

made against a cash or credit memo 

generated through the e-pharmacy 

portal and such memos shall be 

maintained by the e-pharmacy 

registration holder as record," the 

draft notification said. 

Telemedicine and digital healthcare: 

A report published by the US-based 


International Data Group has said 

that Telemedicine has the potential 

to revolutionise healthcare in India 

where a majority of the population 

lives in rural areas. But the 

challenge lies in making it available 

in remote areas that have little or 

no connectivity and do not have 

adequate infrastructure or expertise. 

Many startups are looking to make 

their mark in an industry that is 

currently on the rise. Not just new 

entrants, but even the big ones 

have a presence through not-forprofit 

concerns and projects carried 

out jointly with governments and 

related agencies., says the IDG report. 

The International Data Group, Inc. 

provides data and marketing services 

to customers worldwide. It offers 

digital, video, event and print media 

solutions. 

Satellite tech for telemedicine: 

Already the Indian Space Research 

Organisation (ISRO) has been able to 

deliver telemedicine in remote areas 

of Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman 

and Nicobar Islands as well as tribal 

areas of seven northeastern states. 

They are connected with 22 superspecialty 

hospitals to serve these 

areas where it takes a lot longer to 

get any medical help. The ISRO has 

51

Health and Medicine 

connected as many as 78 remote 

hospitals in rural regions through its 

geo satellite. 

The IDG report further adds that the 

results have encouraged medical 

professionals to use the facility to 

ensure that patients in these areas 

get prompt treatment. The HealthSAT 

has been successful in extending 

healthcare to the poor who are 

otherwise unable to access specialty 

care. This will eventually ensure that 

healthcare delivery in such areas is 

done in real-time and prescription is 

dispensed from available inventory. 

Telemedicine apparatus: A small 

facility requires a desktop, medical 

software, diagnostic equipment 

like x-ray machines, scanners for 

imaging, blood reporting and results. 

These are connected to the satellite. 

Specialised doctors diagnose the 

patient from a remote location. Even 

a communication link is established 

to discuss the course of treatment 

with the help of local doctors. 

The system is user-friendly and a 

lifesaver for the poor. It is also highly 

cost effective and time saving. The 

maintenance of the equipment is 

done by technicians and it is operated 

by local doctors. 

Already, a few successful electronic 

medical record software applications 

exist. They can easily be customised 

for professionals and patients. 

Medical records can be retrieved 

when a patient turns up for the next 

visit. The software ensures the safety 

of ECG images, medical records right 

from the beginning to later times 

when a patient is treated. 

The process involves a simple phone 

call from a mobile number. The 

technology of video link will connect 

the doctor and patient on a common 

platform without disruption. 

Nearly 70 per cent of Indians live 

in inhospitable terrains. If they get 

quality healthcare they can benefit 

immensely from telemedicine. 

India has around 26,000 Primary 

Health Centres, which are the 

backbone of our rural healthcare 

system. Not even 10 per cent of them 

have telemedicine facility. ''Many 

state governments are experimenting 

through various telemedicine 

pilots; hence, there is huge scope of 

inclusion of telemedicine as one of 

the tools in future National Health 

Policies,'' says Vikram Thaploo, CEO- 

Telehealth, Apollo Hospitals, adds 

Outlook magazine. 

52


The Case of J&J’s 

Faulty Hip implants 

The Union Health Ministry has 

asked the State governments to 

establish committees to track and 

compensate patients who have 

received faulty artificial hip implants 

that were recalled worldwide by the 

manufacturer Johnson & Johnson 

(J&J) in 2010. 

The Indian arm of Johnson & Johnson, 

one of the leading global pharma 

majors, “suppressed” key facts on 

the harmful aftermath of surgeries 

conducted on hundreds of patients 

using “faulty” hip replacement 

systems it had imported and sold 

in India. In a “clear abdication of 

responsibility”, J&J did not inform 

the national regulator, the Central 

Drugs Standard Control Organisation 

(CDSCO),about the exact number 

of patients who had these devices, 

or the adverse reports following 

such surgeries and the corrective 

operations subsequently conducted. 

These findings form the core of a report 

prepared by an expert committee 

chaired by Dr Arun Agarwal, ex-Dean 

and Professor of ENT, Maulana Azad 

Medical College, New Delhi. The 

Union Ministry of Health & Family 

53

Welfare had set up the committee to 

investigate complaints about the hip 

implant devices sold by the company 

in India. According to The New Indian 

Express the committee, set up on 

February 8, 2017, submitted its report 

on February 19, 2018. 

J&J to pay Compensation: The 

regulator endorsed the report 

submitted by the Committee and 

ordered the manufacturer to pay a 

base compensation of Rs.20 lakhs 

to each patient as recommended by 

the committee. The committee had 

reported that over 3,600 patients 

with the faulty implants remain 

untraceable, and that at least four 

deaths have been reported from 

those who underwent surgeries using 

these devices. 

A senior government official said in 

September that the “ company has said 

it would provide compensation to all 

patients who register their disability 

with the state committees looking 

into the matter.” The committee had 

said that in case a claimant suffers 

permanent disability as a result of 

injuries, the compensation would be 

decided on the basis of the effect and 

impact of such permanent disability 

on his earning capacity. 

The Agarwal committee report’s 

findings constitute the first official 

indictment in India against J&J, which 

imported and sold ASR XL Acetabular 

Hip System and ASR Hip Resurfacing 

System in the country — these devices 

were globally recalled eight years ago. 

The committee concluded: “…the 

ASR hip implants were found to 

be faulty, which resulted in higher 

revision surgeries …accelerated wear 

of metal on metal implant leads to 

higher levels of cobalt and chromium 

in the blood which lead to toxicity… 

these metal ions damage tissues and 

further damage body organs and may 

also cause localised and systematic 

health problems”. All of this, the panel 

found, “results in increased pain and 

decreases mobility affecting their 

family and social life” and has “a 

negative impact on their self- esteem 

and mental health”. 

J&J’s hip implant devices, 

manufactured by its subsidiary 

DePuy Orthopaedics Inc, were first 

cleared by the United States Food 

and Drug Administration (USFDA) 

in 2005. Following red flags on the 

rising number of revision surgeries, 

the firm recalled the devices on 

August 24, 2010. 

54


The Indian Express spoke to six patients 

in India who had used these implants 

and found that their accounts were in 

line with the panel’s conclusions. They 

included Vijay Anant Vojhala, (45) of 

Mumbai, a former product manager 

at a medical devices company, who 

was the only patient to testify before 

the committee. 

“After the revision surgery, I could not 

work for at least six months while 

recovering from the hip replacement. 

Even after recovering, I had to quit 

my job since I was not physically 

fit. The decision to undergo revision 

surgery had broken me completely 

from inside,” says Vojhala. 

The report states that the patients 

“had to live a restricted lifestyle with 

a compromised physical state, thus 

putting them at pain and agony 

throughout their life, which will also 

have a bearing on their dependents 

apart from loss of work”. 

Other Key findings 

The report notes that the firm did not 

provide details of all the patients in 

India. Until March 2017, only 1,032 

patients were registered with the ASR 

helpline; 254 patients underwent 

revision surgery; 774 patients were 

monitored by surgeons. “…the firm 

has been found evasive in providing 

information desired by the committee 

regarding the design of the ASR, 

patient details including address, 

contact, compensation details, details 

of the usage of ASR and follow up 

Adverse Drug Reaction reports. The 

firm also appears to (have) delayed in 

passing information and awareness 

about the failure of the ASR,” it says. 

Discrepancy: The report refers to the 

discrepancy in data submitted by J&J 

on the number of adverse reports 

related to the implants. The reporting 

of adverse events surrounding a 

medical product is mandatory and 

contributes to a post-marketing 

safety surveillance programme. 

The committee found that J&J 

reported 121 “serious” adverse 

events to CDSCO from January 2014 

to June 2017. But, the report says, 

“only 48 of such reports are available 

with CDSCO”. It noted that until March 

2017, “a total of 254 patients have 

undergone revision surgeries while 

774 patients were kept on monitoring 

by surgeons”. 

“These 254 revision surgeries were 

necessitated due to adverse events 

in patients, whereas the firm has 

stated that they have submitted 121 

adverse reports till July, 2017. Both 

55

the figures, stand in contradiction 

with each other with respect to the 

number of revision surgeries and 

reported adverse events to CDSCO,” 

the report says. 

“On 12 June, 2014, the firm has 

reported about 4 deaths of the 

patients who had undergone ASR 

surgery in the past. Upon perusal 

of the letter it stated that the firm 

has given only a brief paragraph 

informing about the deaths and 

possible cause. The committee feels 

that the information is quite brief and 

such serious events of death ought to 

have been investigated and informed 

with all relevant data by the firm,” the 

report says. 

Suppressed facts on revision surgery: 

The committee found that the revision 

surgery rate was not 12 per cent, as 

reported by the company, but could be 

as high as 35 per cent. “…as per 2014 

data, the cases of revision surgery 

were very high..almost 35%. However, 

as per the latest data, the rate comes 

out to be 25%. Even assuming it to 

be the correct figure, the data is very 

56


startling on the number of patients 

who had undergone revision surgery, 

let alone their pain and sufferings. 

“The committee noted that this data 

is only about the patients who had 

contacted the registry of the firm 

and it does not count those patients 

on whom the implant was inserted,” 

the report says. “In India, the revision 

surgeries took place around 7 years 

after the date of primary surgery… 

the product was recalled globally in 

the year 2010. Whereas the revision 

surgery in India started only in the 

year 2014”. 

No compensation paid: The committee 

pointed out that by the end of 

2013, J&J agreed for a settlement 

estimated at $2.47 billion to around 

8,000 claimants in the United 

States. However, “the firm has not 

provided any conclusive response” 

on compensation in India. 

According to the information provided 

by the firm, patients registered for 

reimbursement were provided “free 

hospitalisation, medical management 

including cost of diagnostic tests and 

the cost of implant”. A sum of Rs 

1.76 crore has been reimbursed for 

diagnostic tests, and Rs 14.2 crore 

towards revision surgery. “In a strange 

way”, the report says, the company 

was “equating reimbursement with 

compensation”. 

Johnson & Johnson responds: 

Meanwhile, in its reaction to the 

report, J&J said that since the 

voluntary recall decision was made, 

its subsidiary DePuy “had worked to 

provide patients and surgeons with 

the information and support they 

needed, including a reimbursement 

programme to address recall-related 

costs that was the first-of-its-kind 

worldwide. 

“After years of testing, ASR was 

imported and marketed in India 

and in various countries around 

the world, with all regulatory 

approval and permissions as were 

then applicable. After it was on the 

market, DePuy continued studying 

and closely watching how the device 

was performing and in August 2010, 

DePuy issued a voluntary recall of the 

ASR Hip System after receiving new 

information from the UK National 

Joint Registry. 

“DePuy’s actions concerning the 

product were appropriate and 

responsible. We immediately informed 

the Drugs Controller General of India 

(DCGI) about the voluntary recall. 

Since then, we have kept the DCGI 

informed of all key actions and 

57

worked to provide Indian patients 

and surgeons with the information 

and support they need, in line with 

government requirements. 

“DePuy has fully cooperated with the 

expert committee in their investigation 

of the ASR matter. However, the 

Expert Committee Report has not 

been provided to the company for 

review, so it would be inappropriate 

for us to comment on it. We would like 

to reiterate that we have furnished full 

facts and data available with us to the 

expert committee. 

“In addition to the above statement, 

we would also like to provide you with 

a background on some important 

actions undertaken by the company 

in India to maximise patient outreach: 

“ASR Helpline: DePuy established 

a reimbursement process and ASR 

Helpline for ASR patients in India 

through Puri Crawford in September 

2010. DePuy provided detailed 

information regarding the recall for 

both patients and surgeons, including 

online access for surgeons to the ASR 

resource guide available via http:// 

asrrecall.depuy.com/india. DePuy 

also issued advertisements in leading 

newspapers about the ASR helpline 

and reimbursement programme 

to reach out to the general public. 

DePuy hired two third-party firms to 

help surgeons and hospitals across 

India to reach out to ASR patients and 

encourage them to register through 

the ASR Helpline. Please note that 

ASR continues to function well for 

many patients in India and around 

the world.” 

Regulator blamed: Two members 

of a parliamentary panel that 

recommended an overhaul of India’s 

Central Drugs Standard Control 

Organisation (CDSCO) six years ago 

have accused the regulator of failing 

to perform its duty to safeguard 

patients in the J&J hip implants case. 

“We wanted medical devices to 

be a separate department. They 

(the Health ministry) agreed to our 

recommendation, but in the new 

system there is nobody with expertise 

in stents or implants,” Sanjay Jaiswal, 

a BJP MP, told ETHealthworld. Mr.Jaiswal 

was part of the 2012 Parliamentary 

Standing Committee on Health and 

Welfare that for the first time laid 

down clear recommendations and 

criticisms of the functioning of the 

CDSCO. These included a change in 

the qualifications for the post of the 

Drug Controller General of India. 

58


The CDSCO has come under fire for 

cancelling J&J’s import licences two 

years after the company recalled the 

faulty implants globally in 2010. The 

regulator took three years to issue 

a medical device alert to hospitals, 

surgeons and patients about the 

faulty implants. 

It started to seek information 

on patients with the faulty hip 

replacements who were not yet 

identified and on implants that were 

not recalled from India until 2014, 

according to the report of the expert 

committee constituted in 2017 to 

look into the issue. 

Walk fast for good health 

A faster walking pace may be linked 

to a longer life, according to a new 

international study led by researchers 

at the University of Sydney in Australia. 

The effects of a faster walking pace 

were found to be more pronounced 

among older age groups. 

The findings, published in a special 

issue of the British Journal of Sports 

Medicine, show that an average 

walking pace is tied to a 20 per cent 

risk reduction for all-cause mortality 

compared to a slow walking pace. 

But even better, walking at a brisk 

or fast pace (around 3.1 to 4.3 miles 

per hour) is associated with a risk 

reduction of 24 per cent. Among 

those 60 years and older, an average 

walking pace is associated with a 46 

per cent reduction in risk of death 

from cardiovascular causes. Among 

fast walkers, this jumps to a 53 per 

cent reduction. 

“A fast pace is generally five to seven 

km per hour, but it really depends 

on a walker’s fitness levels; an 

alternative indicator is to walk at a 

pace that makes you slightly out of 

breath or sweaty when sustained,” 

said lead author Professor Emmanuel 

Stamatakis from the University of 

Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre and 

School of Public Health. 

59

Pharma companies 

fined for overcharging 

The Government has recovered 

Rs 830 crore as fine from 

pharmaceutical companies for 

overcharging till May 2018, the Lok 

Sabha was informed in a written 

reply. Till May this year, 1,794 demand 

notices were issued by the National 

Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority 

(NPPA) to drug companies for 

overcharging patients, Union Minister 

Mansukh Mandaviya said. 

"Demand notices have been issued 

for a total amount of Rs 6,058.07 

crore. An amount to the tune of Rs 

829.88 crore has been recovered 

from the companies...in overcharging 

cases," he added. 

In a separate reply, the Minister of 

state for Chemicals and Fertilizers 

said exports of generic drugs in 

2017-18 stood at USD 12.9 billion. 

The global generic market in the 

same period stood at USD 302 billion. 

The total pharma exports including 

bulk drugs, formulations, herbal 

products and surgicals stood at USD 

17.27 billion in 2017-18. "The use of 

unbranded generics is on the rise in 

the country and it is now estimated 

at 7 per cent of the domestic market 

share," he said. 

Punjab plans to cap no. of pharmacies 

The Punjab government is planning 

to impose a cap on the number of 

pharmacies which can be allowed 

in an area. There are around 16,000 

retail and another 8,000 wholesale 

chemist shops across the state. 

With little checks in place, a large 

number of medical shops have 

come up in recent years, especially 

the rural areas, reports ETHealthworld. 

According to officials many of them 

are not even registered with the 

government and indulge in illegal 

activities such as sale of habit- 

60


forming drugs. As per the drugs and 

cosmetic rules, each medical shop 

must have a pharmacist. However, 

throwing norms to the winds, most 

medical shops are operating without 

a pharmacist. 

More FDCs banned 

The Union Health Ministry reviewed 

on September 13 the list of banned 

fixed dose combination medicines 

and added restrictions on six more 

types of such drugs, saying their 

ingredients had no therapeutic value 

and were risky for consumption. 

The ban on 328 such drugs — 

compared with 344 earlier — is 

effective immediately and may shave 

off over Rs 1,500 crore from India’s 

Rs 1.18 lakh crore pharmaceutical 

industry. Brands going off pharmacy 

shelves include Saridon (painkiller), 

Panderm Plus (skin cream) and Taxim 

AZ(anti-bacterial)_. Such fixed dose 

combinations are cocktails of two 

or more therapeutic ingredients. The 

ministry’s decision was taken after 

its Drugs Technical Advisory Board 

(DTAB) said the ingredients of these 

FDCs have no therapeutic justification 

and they may be risky to consume. 

Saridon sale allowed for now: However, 

on September 17, a Supreme Court 

bench of Justice Rohinton Nariman 

and Justice Indu Malhotra temporarily 

allowed the sale of Saridon, and two 

other drugs after the drug makers 

challenged the notification issued 

by the Government prohibiting the 

manufacture and sale of 328 FDCs. 

61

Compulsive gaming a 

disorder, cautions WHO 

By way of cautioning parents 

about children’s growing 

addiction to online gaming, the World 

Health Organisation has termed such 

addiction as a mental disorder.. At its 

International Statistical Classification 

of Diseases and Related Health 

Problems meeting held a couple 

of months back, it noted that in 

such cases gaming gets increasing 

priority over other interests and 

daily activities, ignoring the negative 

consequences. Deccan Chronicle reports 

that physicians attribute the surge in 

impulsive behaviour, aggression and 

disrupted social well-being among 

youngsters to online gaming. They 

voiced concern that such addiction is 

a rising threat to their mental health. 

Dr. Shekhar Saxena, director of WHO’s 

department for mental health, said 

WHO accepted the proposal that 

Gaming Disorder should be listed as 

62 

a new problem based on scientific 

evidence, in addition to “the need 

and the demand for treatment in 

many parts of the world.” 

However, Dr. Joan Harvey, a 

spokeswoman for the British 

Psychological Society, said only a 

minority of gamers would be affected 

by the disorder and warned that the new 

designation might cause unnecessary 

concern among parents. “People need 

to understand this doesn’t mean every 

child who spends hours in their room 

playing games is an addict, otherwise 

medics are going to be flooded with 

requests for help,” she said. 

Many doctors have welcomed 

WHO’s new classification, saying it 

was critical to identify video game 

addicts quickly because they are 

usually teenagers or young adults 

who do not seek help themselves. 

“Gaming addiction is a condition 

wherein there will be a rapid 

release of a chemical called 

dopamine in the brain just like 

any other drug addiction. Some 

countries had already identified 

it as a major public health issue. 

Online games require rapid 

movements and are fast paced 

which can make the children/ 

adolescents develop difficulty


with regard to concentration which 

can manifest as difficulty in studying 

which usually needs one’s focus and 

sustained attention,” says Dr Vivian 

Kapil, senior consultant psychiatrist at 

Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre. 

“Parents and friends of such addicts 

had brought them for counselling 

and they were even given medical 

intervention such as mood stabilisers to 

control their activities,” says consultant 

psychologist at Fortis Malar Dr Nethra. 

It is not only socialising and education 

that is affected, but also basic activities 

such as sleeping and eating. 

While countries like UK have separate 

clinics to treat the condition of being 

addicted to online games, the issue is 

yet to be identified in our country. The 

National Mental Health Programme 

does not recognise online gaming 

addiction as a threat to mental health. 

Though various cases of addiction 

to games have surfaced before 

psychiatrists in Chennai hospitals, the 

State Mental Health Authority does 

not identify online gaming addiction 

as one of the risk factors. 

Regular newspaper readers would 

not have missed news about recent 

accidents involving youngsters in 

their pursuit to finish various stages 

of one such game. 

1400 TN hospitals have no fire licence 

The Tamil Nadu government has 

informed the Madras High Court 

that 1,400 hospitals in the State 

had no valid fire safety licence. The 

Principal Secretary, Health and Family 

welfare department, has filed a 

report regarding this before the first 

bench of the then Chief Justice Indira 

Banerjee and Justice PT Asha when 

a PIL from Jawahar Shanmugam 

came up for hearing. The petitioner 

had sought for making ramp facility 

mandatory in all hospitals for easy 

access and evacuation of patients. 

The court was informed that the 

government proposed to sanction Rs 

8958.25 lakh for providing fire fighting 

arrangements in the government 

hospitals. Fire fighting arrangements 

will be made in 34 government medical 

college hospitals and institutions at a 

cost of Rs 3703.42 lakh. In Chennai, 

the Institute of Child Health and 

Hospital for Children, the Institute of 

Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the 

Government Hospital for women and 

children will have such facility at a cost 

of Rs 410.00 lakh. 

Out of the total 1,938 hospitals that 

are mandated to have ramp, only 668 

hospitals have both valid fire safety 

licence and ramp facility. 

63

Science and Tech. 

MicroDot tech to check 

vehicle thefts 

With a view to curbing vehicle 

thefts, the Central Government 

plans to notify a new technical 

standard for automobile industry 

which involves spraying of thousands 

of small dots laser etched with 

a vehicle identification number 

throughout the vehicle body, including 

engines. According to Times of India, 

the technology named MicroDots 

makes it almost impossible to remove 

the dots and hence, the car’s identity 

can be established at any stage. 

The government has held 

consultations among experts to 

introduce this technology for adoption 

by automobile manufacturers. The 

government’s highest automobile 

technical standard making body, 

CMVR-TSC, will announce the norms 

very soon, a Central Transport Ministry 

official said. Annually about 2.14 lakh 

vehicles are stolen across the country 

with Delhi topping the list at 38,644 

in 2016, which translates to over 

100 vehicles daily, followed by UP 

(34,480) and Maharashtra (22,435). 

RFID tech to trace lost baggage 

An Italian company has developed 

a new tagging technology that uses 

radio-frequency identification (RFID) 

chips to track air baggage in real time 

at every stage of the transfer. This 

technology will put an end to lost or 

delayed baggage that cost airlines 

billions of dollars each year and pose 

security risks. According to SITA, a 

leading specialist in air transport 

communications and IT solutions., 

recovering and returning lost bags cost 

the aviation industry USD 2.1 billion in 

2016, reports Deccan Chronicle. Using 

the technology, scanners on conveyor 

belts can scan the RFID tags attached 

to the bag and reroute them if they 

have been sent in the wrong direction, 

a vast improvement on barcode hand 

scanning, which has been the industry 

standard since the '90s. 

The technology is already in use at the 

Hong Kong and the Las Vegas airports, 

according to Gabriele Ruggiere, Head 

of Aviation at Custom Group, the 

company which is supplying printers 

to over 300 airports in the world, 

including 16 in India. "The direct 

printing of RFID tags on the baggage 

tags allows tracing the suitcases 

during their whole path, reducing to 

the minimum the risk of loss or delay 

with the delivery, including security 

too," Ruggiere said. 

RFID uses electromagnetic fields to 

automatically identify and track tags 

attached to objects. The tags contain 

electronically-stored information. 

64

Plot No. 32, Kohinoor Complex, 

Vettuvankeni, Chennai - 600 115.

RNITNENG/2012/47306 

Consumers Association of India 

Plot No. 32, Kohinoor Complex, Vettuvankeni, Chennai - 600 115. 

Tel: 044 2449 4575 / 2449 2140 / 2449 4577 

web : www.caiindia.org

Consumer Digest_OCT 2018

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