Heena Sharma Blog

Australia-based MoooFarm Monday said it will train 200,000 Indian dairy farmers by 2020 to develop their skills in areas like cattle nutrition with a view to increasing farmers' income by at least 20 per cent. MoooFarm will train the farmers through UDAY, a skill development firm, which is its partner in India. The firm said it will also launch a hashtag called # TheColorofMilk on the occasion of National Milk Day, asking people to find the purity of milk. November 26, which marks the birthday of Verghese Kurien, known as the father of the White Revolution in India, is observed as National Milk Day. "Our master trainers are providing content to farmers for scaling up, which is being delivered through village-level entrepreneurs. Our target states include Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Odisha," MoooFarm Founder Param Singh told PTI. Around 68.7 per cent of milk and milk products sold in the country are not ...

This is Zora . It may not look like much — more cute toy than futuristic marvel — but this robot is at the center of an experiment in France to change care for elderly patients. When Zora arrived at this nursing facility an hour outside Paris, a strange thing began happening: Many patients developed an emotional attachment, treating it like a baby, holding and cooing, giving it kisses on the head. Zora, which can cost up to $18,000, offered companionship in a place where life can be lonely. Families can visit only so much, and staff members are stretched. Patients at the hospital, called Jouarre, have dementia and other conditions that require round-the-clock care. The nurse at Jouarre who oversees Zora controls the robot from a laptop. He often stands out of view so patients don’t know it’s him at the controls. The robot can have a conversation because the nurse types words into a laptop for the robot to speak. Some patients refer to Zora as “she,” other...

Nowadays, many of us prefer to work independently as a consultant or freelance than being associated with full time with an organization, being on their payroll . This is because of the enormous flexibility one gets to have by being self-employed. However, it is equally important to understand that flexibility cannot be the sole determining factor to choose self-employment over being salaried. Financial and tax compliance plays a significant role in deciding which option is more suitable for you. These have been discussed in this article. Taxability First and foremost, it is important that one understands that a salaried individual gets taxed differently from a professional consultant. If you are salaried, you can offer income from salary after claiming various exemptions like House Rent Allowance, Leave Travel Allowance, Children’s Education Allowance, Standard Deduction etc. The net salary income will be taxable under the head “ Income from salary ”. An independent pro...

If you think sucking your baby's pacifier to clean it and then popping it in your child's mouth is gross, think again! Turns out, doing so may benefit their health. The research was presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting and suggested a link between parental sucking on a pacifier and a lower allergic response among young children. Researchers stated that parents may be passing healthy oral bacteria in their saliva that in turn affected the early development of their child's immune system. The study is believed to the first of its kind to evaluate the association between pacifier cleaning methods and the antibody Immunoglobulin E, or IgE. IgE is linked to the development of allergies and asthma . The researchers interviewed 128 mothers of infants multiple times over a period of 18 months and asked how they cleaned their child's pacifier. Read Complete Article Business Standard ...

Weight might be the cause for one-fourth of asthma cases in kids with obesity, a recent study suggests. The research, which studied health data from more than 500,000 children in the United States, suggested that about 10 percent of all kids aged between 2 to 17 with asthma , might have avoided the illness by maintaining a healthy weight. The findings are published in the Journal of Pediatrics. " Asthma is the number one chronic disease in children and some of the causes such as genetics and viral infections during childhood are things we can't prevent. Obesity may be the only risk factor for childhood asthma that could be preventable. This is another piece of evidence that keeping kids active and at a healthy weight is important," said Jason E. Lang, lead author of the study. For the retrospective study, researchers analyzed data for 507,496 children from more than 19 million doctor's visits at six major children's health centers. Those cl...

General Motors is expected to announce on Monday the closure of a factory in the Canadian city of Oshawa, putting almost 3,000 jobs at risk, Canadian channel CTV reported. The decision is linked to the American automaker's plans for a comprehensive global restructuring, the channel reported Sunday, citing multiple anonymous sources. The plant in Oshawa , about 60 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Toronto, was built in 1953, according to the manufacturer's website. It currently employs approximately 2,800 people and assembles Chevrolet and GMC pickups as well as Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac XTS sedans. "I'm hoping it's just a rumour," Oshawa Mayor John Henry said. "Until we hear something, we don't know." GM has three other sites in the province of Ontario. It is unclear whether they will also be affected. Last month, the company announced plans to reduce its workforce across North America to save money through volun...

A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world's first genetically edited babies twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life. If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics. A US scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes. Many mainstream scientists think it's too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation. The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV , the AIDS virus . He...