Scientists are getting close to proving what yogis have held to be true for centuries — yoga and meditation can ward off stress and disease.John Denninger, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, is leading a five-year study on how the ancient practices affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed. His latest work follows a study he and others published earlier this year showing how so-called mind-body techniques can switch on and off some genes linked to stress and immune function.While hundreds of studies have been conducted on the mental health benefits of yoga and meditation, they have tended to rely on blunt tools like participant questionnaires, as well as heart rate and blood pressure monitoring . Only recently have neuro-imaging and genomics technology used in Denninger’s latest studies allowed scientists to measure physiological changes in greater detail.

“There is a true biological effect,” said Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospitals. “The kinds of things that happen when you meditate do have effects throughout the body, not just in the brain.”

The government-funded study may persuade more doctors to try an alternative route for tackling the source of a myriad of modern ailments. Stressinduced conditions can include everything from hypertension and infertility to depression and even the aging process. They account for 60 to 90% of doctor’s visits in the US, according to the Benson-Henry Institute. The World Health Organization estimates stress costs US companies at least $300 billion a year through absenteeism, turn-over and low productivity.

Denninger’s study, to conclude in 2015 with about $3.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, tracks 210 healthy subjects with high levels of reported chronic stress for six months. Unlike earlier studies, this one is the first to focus on participants with high levels of stress. The study published in May in the medical journal PloS One showed that one session of relaxation-response practice was enough to enhance the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism and insulin secretion and reduce expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress. There was an effect even among novices who had never practised before.

In a study published last year, scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles and Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that 12 minutes of daily yoga meditation for eight weeks increased telomerase activity by 43 percent, suggesting an improvement in stress-induced aging.

Transport is at the heart of urban development and economic activity. However, the current urban transport paradigms, which favor auto-mobility and generate multiple social, economic and environmental impacts, are not sustainable. It is well-documented that in India, close to 1.5 lakh people die every year due to road traffic accidents and a majority of them are pedestrians and cyclists. About 6 lakh premature deaths take place in the country annually on account of air pollution and about 4 lakh people die every year due to physical inactivity, which is directly linked to a sedentary lifestyle. Apart from these, there are issues around climate change, energy security (dependency of importing fossil fuel) and others, all of which are directly linked to the way we plan our cities for habitation. That in turn is directly linked to the transportation system of our cities and towns.One on the easiest but counterproductive ways of solving the transportation problem is by expanding road capacity, i.e. road widening, constructing flyovers, etc. However, globally, it has been recognized that this is not the solution to traffic congestion because it encourages motorized movement in the city, leading to more congestion. In California, between 1973 and 1990, every 10% increase in road lane-kilometres led to a 9% increase in vehicle kilometres travel (VKT) within a four-year period. Usually, it’s a matter of time before newly improved roads become congested again, a phenomenon known as “the rebound effect”.

Numerous empirical studies and analyses of real world case studies have shown that new road capacity usually induces traffic in direct proportion to the amount of new road space. In fact, different studies have shown that a large portion (50-100%) of the new roadway capacity is absorbed by induced traffic after three years of operation. Therefore, solving transportation problem by expanding road capacity is like solving an obesity problem by stitching bigger clothes or solving a heart problem with repeated bypass surgeries.

The answer to these problems lies in our own policies. India’s National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) recognizes this and recommends that the focus be on moving people, not vehicles. It calls for promoted investment in public transit and non-motorized transport. One way to effectively achieve the NUTP goals is with the Avoid-Shift-Improve (ASI) framework:

Avoid or reduce growth in unnecessary travel while maintaining or enhancing economic and social opportunities for interaction through better land-use planning

Prevent the shift of trips from non-motorized transport and public transport to individual motorized modes

Improve the operations, energy and carbon efficiency of each mode

A comparison of Los Angeles and Stockholm shows sharp differences in the way people move and its impact on fatalities and health. In Stockholm, vehicle kilometers travelled are less than half while walking and cycling trips are almost seven times higher than in Los Angeles. Furthermore, Stockholm experiences one-sixth the pedestrian fatalities and one-tenth the pollution on a given workday.

Most cities in India are at an initial stage of development with a growing regional economy. They have a great opportunity to integrate their transport systems and land-use in a manner consistent with the ASI principles. If implemented, they will not need major and much more expensive changes later on, as is the case with industrialized nations. There is also a need to sensitize people and policy-makers around sustainable transportation and any development is this regard, like the recently launched Raahgiri Day movement in Gurgaon, will contribute significantly in making our cities more livable.

The writer is head of urban transport, EMBARQ India

LUCKNOW: The online road tax payment system for commercial vehicles will be made functional on Friday after the formal inauguration by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. The chief minister will inaugurate two schemes of the transport department, a multi-option vehicle tax payment system and radio taxis.The online payment system will be made functional at RTO Lucknow and Ghaziabad on Friday. During the first seven days, the tax payment facility will be provided for goods vehicles, after that the facility will be available for all commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles.Subsequently, the fully functional tax payment facility for both goods and passenger vehicles will be extended to all 75 district transport offices in the state.

After the implementation of the system fully, owners of about 7.25 lakh commercial vehicles registered in the state would be able to make online payment of their vehicle tax through the multi-option payment gateway of  State Bank of India which will enable them to make the payment through SBI internet banking or through ATM cum debit/credit card of all leading nationalized/non-nationalized banks.

Taxpayers will get a confirmatory SMS on their registered mobile number both from the department as well as the bank portal. This would be in addition to the actual printable receipt which will be generated subsequent to the completion of the online banking process.

Radio taxis in 13 cities from today

The radio taxi service, after the inauguration on Friday, will be available in 13 cities which have municipal corporations – Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Allahabad, Varanasi, Jhansi, Aligarh, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly and Gorakhpur.

The dial-a-cab service would be available at the number 4343434.

For vehicles with a seating capacity of five (including driver) fare would be Rs 50 for first 2.5 km and Rs 20 thereafter for every km or part thereof. For vehicles with a seating capacity of more than five but not more than 7 (including driver) fare would be Rs 50 for first 2.5 km and Rs 25 thereafter for every km or part thereof.

The minimum fare for each vehicle would be Rs 50. Night charges between 11 pm and 5 am will be 25% extra of the regular fare. There will be no waiting charges for up to half an hour, beyond which the waiting charges will be Rs 50 per hour.

The survey of 25km stretch from Palappettty to Kuttippuram villlage was completed amid strong protest in the district.

The survey was started on November 12 under the strict directions of the high court. Though the National Highway action committee had blocked the survey on the first day itself, police arrested the protesters and allowed the revenue and National Highway officials to continue the survey.

The survey was started from Palappetty in Veliyankode village near Ponnani.

“So far we have completed the survey process in 25km and the survey in remaining 7 km until Kuttippuram will be completed in this division. There were protests from the local people in various parts of the highway. But we were able to continue it with the support of police,” said the surveyor P V Jayaraj. Rest of the NH stretch, from Kuttippuram to Kozhikode comes under Kozhikode division of National Highway. Total length of the NH 66 passing through the district is about 60km.

However, the National Highway Action Committee is planning to intensify the strike against the widening process. They are demanding the road widening to be limited in 30m width and it should not be constructed under build-operate-transfer format.

“The annual cost to the country for maintaining rural road assets is Rs 21,700 crore, which could be saved. In view of the cost of water proofing of about Rs 12,000 per lane km for the top layer and side slopes, the rain inflicted damages can be brought down very economically,” he said.

RANCHI: The National Highway 33 between Ranchi and Jamshedpur is likely to be repaired soon. Though political agitations have been taking place over the past few months and the parties have been demanding repair of the Steel City residents’ lifeline, the hue and cry got noticed only on Thursday. Two BJP leaders, one each from Ranchi and Jamshedpur, led a workers’ team which sat on a dharna at the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) regional office in Ranchi.

Former minister and Jamshedpur MLA Raghubar Das and former BJP legislator Saryu Rai jointly staged a dharna before the NHAI office in Ranchi with dozens of BJP workers demanding immediate repair of the highway. The protestors held placards in their hands and said if the road was not repaired soon they would not allow the NHAI office to function. Das said it was because of the apathy of the state government towards common man’s concerns that the NHAI office have delayed and denied repairing the road.

“Jharkhand’s ‘Super CM’, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had announced that FIRs would be lodged against the erring officials of NHAI if the road construction work did not start in 15 days. ‘Dummy CM’ Hemant Soren made similar announcement when he visited the Steel City,” Das said.

Saryu Rai, who also sat on the dharna, said being in opposition it was the responsibility of the BJP to draw attention of the government to issues that need immediate government intervention. “We receive reports of death on NH-33 almost everyday and hence waiting for the four-laning of road would just be a waste of time and precious lives,” he said.

After the dharna the NHAI officials assured the BJP protestors to start work on Chandil-Jamshedpur stretch from Friday with 100 labourers and between Ranchi and Bundu with another 100 labourers.