CULTURAL QA 02-2023-05 BEING A COMPILATIONTHERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 Were there any medieval or ancientcountries where inbreeding wasn’t popular in royalty? A1 Mats Andersson, Common or GardenArmchair Historian Feb 3 The Catholic Church was, up until about 1600 or so,totally adamant that people who were closer relatives than 6th cousins couldnever, ever, marry. The law was eventually relaxed at the insistence of royalfamilies, because after about that time, it had become practically impossiblefor them to find anyone royal to marry that wasn’t a closer relative than that. Peasants, of course, had had it a lot easier, becausethey never kept trace of their ancestry that far backanyway. So up until the 1600s, European royals were far less inbred than therest of the population. Of course, once therequirements changed, some European royals went too far in the other direction:the Habsburgs, for instance, inbred themselves out of any political relevance. My note- As I understand many Catholics in Kerala stillfollow the custom. Q2 Which country has the worstgeographical disadvantage? A2 Somnath Mishra,I live to learn5y Maldives. It is probably the only country which is at the brink ofextinction. The island nation has a total area of 298square Kilometers which is spread across 26 atolls in the Indian ocean. It is the smallest country inAsia by both Area and Population. A slightrise in the ocean water level due to climate change can put Maldives in gravedanger, their need is so dire that to bring theattention of the world to their problems their govt. held the October 2009cabinet meeting underwater in Ocean. Maldivesis at danger of getting submerged into the sea by the slow water level rise so think of its situation if it ever facessomething like a Tsunami, the entire nation could just be swept away by thedangerous Tsunami waves. Its also far inside the oceanand is not near to any of the countries which could have helped it to move itspopulation to someplace else quickly in the times of emergency. The largest of the islands ofMaldives have an area upto 6 square kilometers which kind of makes itimpossible to build a large airport either. My note- Male International Airport The main airport inMaldives is the Male International Airport, also known as Velana InternationalAirport, which connects the small country to various countries and cities inthe world, especially South East Asian countries such as India, China and Sri Lanka.My 4thbrother in law was in Maldives during 1986’s. Q3 Is it good to travel in a 2-tier ACtrain? A3 Jitendra Gehlot, AdminstrativeAssistant at Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)Updated Feb 4 Obviously Yes, TodayI am going to share my personal experiences of journey in 2-Tier. It would be morecomfortable Because of only two berth (lower and upper). You don’t need tocarry your pillow and blanket etc. they will provide you fresh while on board. All stocks of theseabove item were maintain by a single person, He will sit at the entry door, getthem if anything is missing at your place. There would beseparate lamp and charging socket at every berth so no need to compromise withother one. The most importantpoint is that, you don’t need to knock or wait outside toilet room becausethere is smart indicator inside, which will give you details of occupied andunoccupied toilet. (This point may be vary according to train) There would be bothtype of toilet like Indian and western , even there would be hand wash and goodcleanliness. Note: Always giveyour preferences of middle or upper berth because it is more wider than sideupper and side lower berth. Don’t take away any item like blankets etc. because allcost of lost items were born by stock maintenance personwho don’t have that much of pay. Q4 Why do Brits insist on boiling thewater before making the tea? Why not just heat the water, why does it have tobe brought to boiling? A4 George Dukesh, Former Officer atBritish Army (1974–1996) Jan 29 Tea is made fromthe leaves of a plant called Camellia sinensis. Ignoring “non-tea”teas like camomile and the fruit teas, tea comes in colours from green, throughyellow white, red to various shades of brown and black. That depends on thetreatment and drying process after it is picked. Dark and black tea has been dried in such a way asto concentrate the polyphenols in the leaves, which gives the taste. To extract the polyphemols, they must be released byboiling ( nearly boiling) water. You don’t boilthe leaves in the tea,that makes it bitter. You pour boiling water on it, which means the water will bejust a few degrees under boiling. In 3 minutes, that nearly boilingwater extracts the polyphenols. If the water is notboiling, the proper taste is not extracted. You don’t leave it much longer than that or too many oilscome out, and it becomes bitter. Green ( and other non-black) teas must be infused at lowertemperatures as the polyphenols are not so developed and are less fixed in theleaves. So proper“ English” tea must always be made with boiling water. Q5 What is the news item- Double Bonanzafor Mumbai: 9th & 10th Vande Bharat Express A5 Sudhanshu Tuti, Updated Tue Last year, we witnessed the revival of Vande Bharat Expressafter getting a halt in production. However, in 2023we will be witnessing the production to be scaled to a whole new level. With an Capitaloutlay of ₹2.41 Lakh Crores for Ministry ofRailways in the Annual Budget for Financial Year 2023–24, this has been thehighest ever allocation for this national transporter. The railways is working to introduce 475 semi high speedVande Bharat Express all across India in the upcomingtime including several variants/upgrades from the existing one such as: Next generationVande Bharat Express 3.0 with aluminium coaches Sleeper variantswith tilting technology for maintaining higher speed at curves. Exporting Vande Bharat Express to other countries withstandard gauge tracks. To meet toproduction goals, this semi high speed Vande Bharat Express will now bemanufactured at following sites along with ICF Chennai: Sonipat, Haryana, Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh, Latur, Maharashtra UPDATE — Train no.22223/22224 CSMT Mumbai — Sainagar Shirdi — CSMT Mumbai will have halts atDadar, Thane & Nashik Road while covering 343 km in 05.20 hours. It willrun 6 days a week except Tuesday. Train no.22225/22226 CSMT Mumbai — Solapur — CSMT Mumbai will have stoppages at Dadar,Kalyan Jn, Pune Jn & Kurduwadi Jn route and will cover 455 km in 06.30hours. It will run 6 days a week except Wednesday. PM is likely to inaugurate both the Vande Bharat Express on February 10,2023. Why so significant? These Vande BharatExpress are equipped with Parking Brake to help them cross the Thul & BhorGhats of Maharashtra. The Bhor and Thalghats have a gradient of 1:37. This means that the land rises around 1 metre inevery 37 metres making them the toughest Railway ghat sections of the countrywhere trains use additional locomotives to ensure they don’t roll back fromcliffs. Vande Bharat duringtrials at Bhor Ghats. Courtesy: Tandelbaba The Vande Bharat Express currently operates on followingroutes: 22435/22436 NewDelhi — Varanasi — New Delhi (Operating since February 14, 2019) 22439/22440 NewDelhi — Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra — New Delhi (Operating since 2019) 20901/20902 MumbaiCentral — Gandhinagar Capital — Mumbai Central (Operating since October 1,2022) 22447/22448 NewDelhi — Amb Andaura — New Delhi (Operating since October 19, 2022) 20607/20608 MGRChennai Central — Mysuru — MGR Chennai Central (Operating since November 12,2022) 20825/20826Bilaspur — Nagpur — Bilaspur Vande Bharat Express (Operating since December 11,2022) 22301/22302 Howrah— New Jalpaiguri — Howrah Vande Bharat Express (Operating since January 1,2023) 20833/20834Vishakhapatnam — Secunderabad — Vishakhapatnam (Operating since January 16,2023) My note- I have travelled from Bangalore- Chennaiin afternoon Vande bharat express. Speed and Jerk is least felt, but the catering is least sufficient . I gotdown at Chennai with a hungry stomach. Just a coffee/tea with a small snackpiece and a small sweet packet. Q6 What are some notable ancient ormedieval cities that did exist but faded away in time and no one knows theexact location? A6 Matt Riggsby, MA ArchaeologicalStudies, Boston University Feb 7 Punt. Ancient Egypt traded with a place called (in Egyptianrecords, anyway) Punt. Reached via the Red Sea, it was the source of a variety ofvaluable goods: ivory, gold, aromatic resins like frankincense and myrrh, andmore. It was probably somewhere alongthe Horn of Africa. I say probably because we don’t actually know (the Somalistate of Puntland is based on modern speculation, not historical orarchaeological evidence, and is likely farther southeast than the real Punt). The African coast has been hometo a succession of notable trading ports an even significant nations likeAxum/Ethiopia. But among all of those, the location of the landwhich the Egyptianscalled Punt is unknown. Somewhere alongthat coast lie the remains of a notable trading Egyptian trading partner of thesecond millennium BC, but we haven’t found them. Or if we have, we haven’tassociated them with that name yet. Q7 Why are so many people who completedtheir B.Tech not getting any jobs? A7 Subramaniam Duraisamy IT Analyst Jan31 An engineer’s perspective here. People who completetheir B.Tech are not getting jobs because there are not many companies that canoffer jobs of their engineering course. For most part the bulk of recruitmentis done by software, IT and consulting which are services. The electrical, mechanical andcivil engineers have to either reskill to fit inside a TCS or leave. This begs thequestion- why are there so few core engineering companies who can absorb theengineers?. I don’tagree that India does not have the demand for engineers. A developing poornation aspiring to become a middle income country needs engineers. A look athistorical antecedents tells you that fact. India has a lot ofdemand for engineers, but companies are not willing to invest or those who dopay low salaries. This begs the nextquestion- why are companies not willing to invest in India?. To answer thisquestion one must look at what constitutes a business in general. A business can be thought of like this. Skilled Human capital + Infrastructure+ BusinessExpertise on one input side. Customer Value+ Salaries/ Wages+ Profits on the outputside. Take a small retailstore. It needs the following inputs A shopkeeper and anassistant- this is human capital A well constructedshop with electricity and other equipment- infrastructure. The shopkeeper mustknow how to handle customers and different products- Business expertise If these threeinput factors click well, we get the following output. The customer ishappy and you get good revenue- Customer value.The shopkeeper gets good profitsand can reinvest in his business.The shopkeeper pays his assistants a goodsalary. In India, the problem is not on the output side, but morein the input side, especially when it comes to core engineering jobs.Too many of us focus on the output side factors [salaries, wages , taxes] butignore the input side. The first input factor skilled human capital- is not veryskilled in India. Software, tech and consultingthrives in India because our middle class is exposed to good English from theschools. Knowledge of English is the base for succeeding in these fields. Only if you know the language,you can even learn the relevant technical stuff. Indian workers come mostlyfrom unskilled labor class , commute longer, have poor nutrition andhealthcare. In India we havepoor physical and social infrastructure, which is key component for major engineeringcompanies. We need to build broad based infrastructure so that companies canset up laws anywhere and sell their products. When I say “infrastructure” itsnot just the roads, ports and stuff, but also regulations. One of the reasons software industrythrives in India is that its free of regulations, and textile industry inBangladesh too. Manufacturing on the other hand, we know :) The third factor- owners expertise . The servicesindustry grew out of a new generation of middle class Indians. In manufacturingwe have too few startups and the big companies are run by families with a lotof nepotism and corruption [read- Adani] If we fix the above three factors, thefollowing happens: Healthy workers +Business Environment + Expertise→ Better Customer Value→ Increased profits→Increased Wages→ More Jobs→ More Expertise and skilled workers → BetterCustomer Value→ Increased profits→ Increased Wages……and it becomes a virtuouscycle. What are we goingto do to fix the above three input factors?. My note- Last year I installed CCTV in my home. Tomy wonder all whoworked were engineering graduates from different universities in Madras.A group has started CCTV installation for their way of living. Q8 Why do doctors in India believe thatgeneric drugs do not give desired results? A8 Dr Eashan Aneja, Doctor (Intern) atLok Nayak Hospital (2021–present)Updated Sep 8 Let me answer this plainly once again. Q) Do doctors getcommission to prescribe branded drugs? A) Yes Q) Do you think theabove said practice is ethical ? A) No Q) Should you as adoctor prescribe branded drugs ? A) I might or I might not depending on my patient. Q) Don’t you thinkyou’re playing with lives of patients by answering vaguely to such a profoundQuestion ? A) Doctors don’t play with lives of patients. Atleast notwhere I come from. So, no. Q) What if apatient specifically asks you for generic drugs ? A) I will prescribehim generic drugs. Q) Why didn’t you prescribe generics in the first place? A) Because I don’t trust generics in India as of yet. Idoubt them. Q) But why ? Aren’tgenerics containing the same formula as the branded version ? A) Yes, but still, I have my doubts. Q) What is to saythat you’re not just another greedy doctor who wants to earn at the expense ofsick patients? A) I am an intern.A doctor-in-training, and I don’t get any commission from any companywhatsoever. Q) Do you have any concrete basis for your doubts ? A) Yes, ofcourse. A govt supply generic tablet. Name says it’s aDicyclomine, whereas composition says it’s Dexamethasone. Reported fromHimachal Pradesh. Generic drugsare not tested with as much scrutiny. And spurious and sub- standard qualityproduct has flooded the Indian market. A newspaper report,says, The generics which are exported to west meet the western standards whilethose which don’t meet the western standard are chosen for domestic sales India did not makeBIOEQUIVALENCE studies compulsory for all drugs until 2017 and even thenintroduced major major exceptions by allowing a “bio waiver”. So, many of the drugs which were available before 2017 probablynever had to prove that they were bioavailable.Good Bioavailability means that a drug will reach the blood stream insufficient quantities for sufficient amount of time to allow ample therapeuticeffect. If a drug isn’t properly formulated, then it won’t act aswe intended it to. It would not be as muchtherapeutically effective as it should have been. Branded genericsare also generics with a brand name, plus the quality assurance from well-known companies like Cipla,Sun or Dr Reddy’s. Doctors have come to trust these companies andtheir brands over time. But this doesn’t apply to all generics, obviously. So, if a doctor prescribes a drug with just thepharmaceutical salt name, then in all probability,the chemist will dispense it with another branded generic or worse, with a generic drug of doubtfulquality. Also a report saidthat to manufacture and market generic drugs in India, you don’t need research.You need connections. A team was sent from USA to check the labs. In one plant,where they were supposed to test microbes, they were testing nothing. Entirelab was fake. sources: Quality, Not Price, is the Key Issue When PrescribingGeneric Drugs in India In the absence of astandard drug regulatory mechanism, Indian doctors rely on the reputation ofcompanies who have demonstrated their commitment to quality over time. Primeminister Narendra Modi’s speech has triggered a debate on the merits of brandeddrugs over generics. Credit: Toni Blay/Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 The merits ofbranded drugs versus generic drugs has attracted heated debate amongphysicians, pharma professionals, media and healthcare activists after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sspeech in Surat, where he talked about bringing a law to ensure that doctorsmust prescribe only generic names of drugs so that patients can access cheaperversions of branded drugs. Global standards on generics It isnecessary to understand the distinctions between branded drugs and generics,because the nuance is quite different in the Indian context. According to the USFDA, “Ageneric drug is approved only after it has met rigorous standards establishedby the FDA with respect to identity, strength, quality, purity, and potency.All generic manufacturing, packaging, and testing sites must pass the same qualitystandards as those of brand name drugs. The generic drug manufacturer mustprove its drug is the same as (bioequivalent) to the brand name drug. Forexample, after the patient takes the generic drug, the amount of drug in thebloodstream is measured. If the levels of the drug in the bloodstream are thesame as the levels found when the brand name drug is used, the generic drugwill work the same.” From the above, it is clear that the only difference between a brandname drug and a generic is that brand name drugs are very expensive, whilegenerics are far cheaper and are sold by just the pharmaceutical salt name.This is true for brand name drugs and generics in most developed countries. Inthe West, brand names are given to researched and patented first-in-marketinnovator drugs. After the expiry of patent period, other companies launchgenerics of the innovator drug with just the pharmaceutical salt name at ahugely discounted price. So,the only difference between a brand name drug and its generic version is theprice. The term ‘branded generic’ is an Indian creation, an oxymoronand jugaad for Indian pharma’s effort to distinguish its generics from thegenerics of other companies. Branded generics – a question of quality and trust The issuein India is not about expensive brand name drugs versus cheaper generics, as inthe West, but one of quality drugs versus suspect quality drugs. Branded generics are alsogenerics with a brand name, plus the quality assurance from well-knowncompanies like Cipla, Sun or Dr Reddy’s. Doctors have come to trustthese companies and their brands over time. Indian pharma’s field forcenumbering nearly one million medical representatives have done a good job ofbuilding this trust in their companies and brands. It is simply not possiblefor doctors to transfer this trust to generics, manufactured by unknown compa The scary truth behind generic drugs in India Often, genericdrugs manufacturers produce medicines of higher quality for European andAmerican markets, where regulation is tighter, whilst blithely selling inferiorand ineffective drugs in India Generic medicinesin a digital age We need a legal mechanism to ensure that all genericsare of the same standard as the innovator product Why branded drugscost way more than their generic counterparts - Firstpost The medicinesavailable in the market then were all branded and each manufacturer of medicinehad their own way to prepare a certain drug. World needs generic drugs but their quality must beguaranteed: Journalist Katherine Eban Eban discusses herfindings and how regulators and countries need to step up to protect patients. Quality of GenericDrugs Manufactured Overseas Comes into Question - ASH Clinical News Quality of GenericDrugs Manufactured Overseas Comes into Question - News, Online Exclusives - ASHClinical News Q) Who is to blame ? A) Definitely notdoctors. Q) Any solution ? A) WE NEED A LEGAL MECHANISM TO ENSURE THAT ALL GENERICS ARE OF THE SAMEQUALITY AS THE INNOVATOR PRODUCT. Whatever we have now is not workingexactly. Q) But we can’twait for that long… any immediate solution ? A) Just trust your doctor. They listen to patientfeedback all day long… My note- The QA is added on academic interest.Even Appollo pharmacy has both genericdrugs and drugs prepared by established companies and price difference is veryhigh. Generic drugs are sold at 1/3rd price of company products. Q9 Why do my grandparents (both 89)never get food poisoning when they're so unsanitary with their dishes and foodpreparation? Examples are: Lazily cleaning dishes, leaving food on them, &leaving perishable foods (meat) out for half a day or longer. A9 Mats Andersson B. Sc, M. Sc fromUppsala University Feb 5 Basically, because it’s a lot harder to get foodpoisoning than you think, and your grandparentsare well aware of how to avoid it. Minor food residueon a plate is not relevant. Ifyou’d been in the Army, you’d know that washing plates is not a priority in thefield; you wipe it off with some dried grass or something. Risk of getting foodpoisoning is about 0%. Meat should be left out for a few hours beforecooking to reach room temperature. It takes at least 8 hours for it to go off,and you’re basically OK as long as you fry it properly afterwards. How to avoid food poisoning, 1: be careful abouteating anything that’s already been re-heated. Every time youheat it up, bacteria have a window of opportunity when the temperature isaround +40C where they thrive. How to avoid foodpoisoning, 2: anythingyou eat should be properly heated all the way through, up to a minimum of +70Cand preferably +100C. This will kill all bacteria. How to avoid foodpoisoning, 3: don’t eatout, especially in small food stalls (exception for if you actually see themcook the food). The hygienic standards of the average household kitchen is wayabove what you’ll find in a high-end restaurant. When you do eat out,avoid buffets: the food can stay heated for hours, often in that window around+40C. How to avoid foodpoisoning, 4: for rawingredients, use your nose and taste buds. We’re pretty sensitive to foodthat’s off – it actually normally starts to taste and smell bad well beforeit’s dangerous. Cooked food is a different issue, though. How to avoid foodpoisoning, 5: beextremely careful around poultry, especially chicken. Not only does it need tobe properly cooked, you can never let the raw meat, or even a dropof juice from the meat, come in touch with anything that is consumed uncooked,or any other utensils, and your hands need to be washed carefully every timeyou have touched it. Keep utensils like knives and chopping boards separatefrom all other preparation of the meal. How to avoid foodpoisoning, 6: the onething you don’t eat cooked is fresh veggies. Wash them carefully. Q10 Does using a dishwasher save water? A10 Prasanna Bhalerao, M. Sc. inElectronics & Physics, Fergusson College, Pune Jan 31 If you use the dishwasher at full load, it will consumeless water than if you were to wash the same load by hand.Not just that, you would probably use less detergent also - I mean by price/amount (thedetergent for dishwasher is completely different). All the above QA are from Quora website on 12-02-2023 Quora answers need not be100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. 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