MyVoice: Views of our readers 27th February 2023

Focus on mental wellbeing of students

As Telangana is coming to terms with the unfortunate incident of suicide by PG student, DrPreeti, another similar event awaited in the death of a medico Harsha at Nizamabad Medical College. Whatever the reasons behind these incidents, the whole community is drowned in sorrow over the promising career of such students being cut short, owing to decisions taken by these victims on the spur of the moment that cannot be justified. Here comes the prudent and learned view by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who expressed his profound sorrow and pain over deaths of students by suicide – particularly from backward, dalit and marginalised communities hailing from rural India; and stressed on quality mental health to cope with new environment and demands of the course curriculum. Empathy is a crucial factor to be openly shown by fellow senior students in making these individuals prone to such tendencies, comfortable and feel at home.

S Lakshmi, Hyderabad

Soothsayers continue to hold sway

This refers to "Foretelling: An addiction to prediction" (February 23), a very interesting topic to a majority of people who are believers of futurology. There are a number of sources on soothsaying around the world such as astrology, palmistry, face reading, numerology, etc. All religious people keep faith on what was adhered to by their ancestors. Many foretellers are striving on this business by encashing the senility of feeble-minded people based on certain grounds of their clairvoyance. What is birth time actually to be recorded? Several evidences show in different patterns. Is it germination of baby seed in the womb or existence of head only or the exit of full baby or severing of umbilical cord? Is it science, art or simply a trust? Ultimately, life's travel is transformed on the road one chooses.

Dr NSR Murthy, Secunderabad

Unpredictability of quakes yet to be cracked

Recently a scientist predicted earthquakes to occur in India similar to the magnitude of Syria and Israel earthquakes. Although he didn't predict the exact date but prediction is that it will occur some in future. After that cities like Delhi, Chennai experienced mild tremors causing some concern to the people living there. Technology has advanced so much that we can easily predict cyclones and rains. Vaccines have been developed all over the world to stop the effect of dreaded coronavirus. But in spite of so much advancement, we couldn't predict the exact time of occurrences of earthquakes and as a result loss of lives couldn't be arrested. We are certainly lagging behind in achieving advancements in the seismic field. It is a challenge humankind has been facing over the decades and hope in near future we can successfully predict the occurrences of earthquakes.

V Nagendra Kumar, Hyderabad

TS set for bright strides in biopharma

Hyderabad has the ideal environment for the development of life sciences businesses. Telangana has achieved major advancements in the life sciences sector over the past five years and is expected to reach a US$250 billion turnover in the industry by 2030, according to state industries and IT minister K T Rama Rao. A first-of-its-kind growth-phase center and biopharma scale-up production facility, Biopharma Hub (B-Hub) is the ongoing initiative that serves as a catalyst for the biopharma industry. B-Hub will offer a special opportunity for quickly expanding companies in the biopharma industry. The first organized R&D center in India, Genome Valley is home to more than 200 biotechnology, life sciences, and pharmaenterprises. It has the best plug-and-play capabilities. It is good to learn that the government will aggressively support the confluence of healthcare and technology through various incubator programmes and access to deep computing capabilities, and make every effort to turn Hyderabad into the world's "Health-tech Mecca."

Dr Krishna Kumar Vepakomma, Hyderabad

Sonia Gandhi's farewell in a despairing tone

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi's speech at the party's plenary session in Raipur reeked of frustration and despair and lacked the realisation of the party's waning influence after it was marginalised in states where it had been strong. As everyone is aware that it is Congress under late Indira Gandhi destroyed every constitutional institution by breaking its autonomy, it is baffling Sonia Gandhi has levelled allegations. When the fact remains that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a puppet and that Sonia Gandhi was running the government during 2004 to 2014 and Rahul Gandhi failed to rise up to the expectations to lead the party, it sounds strange that Sonia Gandhi expressed gratitude to these two men by conveniently leaving out other eminent congressmen, dead and living, who sacrificed their lives to keep the party's image afloat.

K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad