Do you have two minutes for Maggi?

By P Neelakantha Achary, 
Editor, Business News This Week

Maggi is the popular food item India, no doubt about that. Ask any layman, you will get answer a best dish to serve in just two minutes. Hardly do many of us thought about the food safety standards and its limits. Thanks to media, otherwise we would have been continuing – two minutes food item - Maggi food as we have been doing for long.

At this point of time, we missed to judge it completely. Even we did not spare two minutes to think about its impact on health let alone on kids. Interestingly, there was discussion on maggi and food standard on news channel. One panelist in the programme backed maggi as safe, since she has been eating from her childhood. Now, she is adult and no health complaints at all. She got a good reply from the moderator that “thank God..Your alive”….

Ridicules, to hear such arguments in favor of a product that consists 17 times of lead, a chemical that is considered as dangerous, than permitted level. Being a media person, I do judge all the sides, without which the conclusion or view would be partial. Many of us are just ignoring food standards. Why we not to think about it before serving a dish that could be hazardous for us.

It’s not about going against one company or a group of companies, it is about our health. The big question raises that why this product is being sold in the market, and who gave the permission. Now, one-by-one states are in state to ban it from the market, which I believe could have done much before any media brining the matter into limelight.

The fourth pillar – media, once again worked as guardian of our society. The action of media is in the interest of common people and their health. And, it will be ever praised by the people of India. A two minutes story on Maggi, made all of to think about it – Two Minutes before serving it in just Two minutes.


Jai Hind

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ITM University, Gurgaon’s app on Women Safety

Amid growing number of crimes against women, a Women Safety application has been developed by students and faculty of ITM University, Gurgaon which has been recently selected for the National Campaign ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ (Save girl child-Educate girl child).

The University’s app was selected recently during the two-day event held in Panipat by the Haryana Government to create awareness about the campaign. The Android-based application ‘Be Safe Girls’ has been developed by Ms Sujata, Asst Professor, Ms Sakshi, final year student of dept of CSE&IT, ITM University, Gurgaon and development team of the University. The USP of the app, as per the development team, is that it consumes less than 1 MB memory space.

“Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is a great initiative of the government and it is a moment of pride for us that an application developed by our students has been selected for such an important national campaign. The app will infuse a sense of security among women, making them fearless and more confident. We hope that the efforts of our students will help the campaign become successful,” said Prof B S Panwar, Vice Chancellor, ITM University, Gurgaon.

The app has a button that will appear on the mobile screens upon downloading. In an emergency situation, the girl would be able to inform her family, friends and security officials of the university or authorities concerned through a text message just with the pressing of the button. Upon activation, the app would send the precise location of the device to the people concerned.

Application uses location tracker with the help of any of the available technologies like GPS, 3G, 2G or Wi-Fi. The app would be available to the users once it is operationalized.

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Safety in Closed Doors and Closed Hearts?

We feel safe in the closed door of our room or closed door of our house, we feel even safer in the four walls and the boundary of our house.

We have a sense of security when we are with our own family and when some unknown person comes we are afraid.

 If we are left in an open place we become afraid we don’t feel secure. What is this safety that we are seeking in the closedness?


We are afraid of talking openly, we don’t want to open our heart and be plain and simple in our day to day interactions with others. Why? Because we don’t want to get hurt or we don’t want to get used by others, or even more valid reason because in that way things don’t happen in today’s world.

Knowingly or unknowingly we feel secure and safe when we build boundaries and walls around ourselves, whether it is a house or a heart.

We don’t want anyone to penetrate and share our space. Till the time there was only earth there was only the difference of races human and animal, there was only one race human race and every one lived together happily.



But as soon as people started building boundaries and boarders separation of people and separation of hearts started. My country, your country, my state your state, my language your language, my culture and your culture and the list is unending.

In earlier days people used to find safety and security living together and helping each other. Now a days we find it secure and safe in isolation and separation, whether it is humans or states or countries.


There is a huge difference in the times then and now and in the attitude of the people then and know. The lifestyle that we lead and the money race that we are in has hardened our hearts and made us seek safety and security in closeness, instead of being open, we are no longer free, we have imprisoned our bodies in the four walls and we have imprisoned our hearts in unseen walls.


But we have to realize the fact that real life lies behind those closed doors of our hearts and our houses. And the day we open our eyes to this fact and we open the doors of our heart, sunshine comes in throwing away all the darkness and bringing in new life.

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Indian Cars Score Zero in Safety

While European cars scored better, many Indian cars and among them mostly small cars do not meet Global NCAP standards (this is a body that regularly crash tests cars in the Europe) and UN Safety Standards. When it came to crash and safety tests, Many Indian cars scored zero while the European cars scored better.

NCAP has taken the initiative to conduct crash tests on some of the India’s best selling cars. Ford Figo, Hyundai I 10, Volkswagen Polo, Tata Nano and Maruthi Suzuki Alto 800 were among them. Global NCAP test and the UN’S basic safety tests were conducted. Despite not having a driver air bag only Ford Figo passed the UN test.

Tests also reveal that, Indian cars lack adequate safety standards and more than that Indian roads are among some of the deadliest roads in the world. There is no wonder in statistics revealing that, one in 10 people killed in a road accident worldwide is Indian. Well, these are a few among the many challenges that Indian cars are facing in Today’s time and there is a long way that we need to travel to meet the safety standards.

So, while purchasing cars make sure that you check the safety standards and then take a decision to choose the right one.


Volkswagen has decided to upgrade all its cars with airbags, and has taken a decision to remove cars which do not air bags, from the Indian market. In the words of NCAP "it was awarded a pass based on dummy readings from the 64kph crash". For cars that are produced in India rear passenger seat belts and air bags were optional, and more than this one more serious issue that is of concern is that, none of the cars were required to be tested for their ability to withstand a collision.


Tests also reveal that, Indian cars lack adequate safety standards and more than that Indian roads are among some of the deadliest roads in the world. There is no wonder in statistics revealing that, one in 10 people killed in a road accident worldwide is Indian. Well, these are a few among the many challenges that Indian cars are facing in Today’s time and there is a long way that we need to travel to meet the safety standards.

So, while purchasing cars make sure that you check the safety standards and then take a decision to choose the right one.

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India Tops in Road Accidents

To the shock of many Indians the World Health Organization recently revealed in its Global Status report on Road Safety revealed that rather than anywhere else in the world, more number of people die in road accidents in India.

The statistics are quiet shocking. A minimum of 13 people die every hour in road accidents in our country. Among the states, Andhra Pradesh records the highest share of deaths because of road accidents (12%), and in the second place are, Maharashtra (11%) and UP (11%).

This statistics should be enough for us to open our eyes regarding road safety. Because though there are many rules framed for our own safety we don’t follow them. Even in today’s time we find so many people driving two wheelers without helmet, and not following the traffic rules, especially students and the young ones. It is the responsibility of the family members to educate them regarding road safety.


They should be thought the value of life and how so many people are dying on the roads because of one reason. Not wearing helmets, yes the majority of people who die in road accidents are the ones driving two wheelers, and in majority of the cases death occurs because of head injury and the reason behind it not wearing helmet.

Especially when parents buy bikes for their children, they should think about the necessity first, if other means of transport are available for college such as public transport or college transport they should prefer that instead of giving them bikes. Young ones are full of energy and dare to take risk and face challenges, so they enjoy getting attention from people by making the bike run and performing stunts on it, instead of riding it.

If at all parents want to give bike they should first educate their children regarding the necessity of wearing helmet, going at a safe speed, and how valuable the life is and how a small mistake can ruin it. Only when they are confident that the person knows everything about the road safety, traffic rules and has license, only then should they allow him to ride the bike, otherwise he is putting the life of the other person also in the risk.

So, following traffic rules, knowing safety measures, servicing the bike regularly for any corrections or to make sure that it is in proper working condition, wearing helmet and caring and giving value to our own life and others as well, when all these things happen then the statistics of deaths because of road accidents would come down. So, drive safe and be safe.

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