Minister Satya Kumar Yadav emphasises preventive healthcare, holistic wellness
Addressing the gathering in Guntur on Sunday, he noted the expansive reach of Arogya Bharati, operating in 95% of districts across the country with over 877 volunteers. He appreciated its grassroots work including the School Health Programme, Ayur-AI, and campaigns promoting healthy lifestyles.
The minister expressed concern over the rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) due to changing lifestyles and poor diets. He said 4.9 crore individuals were screened under NCD Survey 3.0, which identified 40 lakh diabetic and 30 lakh hypertension cases in Andhra Pradesh. He added that AI-driven predictive analytics is now aiding preventive planning and health resource allocation.
The health minister emphasised promoting Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Siddha, and Naturopathy. A proposal for Rs 1,000 crore has been submitted to the Centre to boost AYUSH infrastructure in the State. He urged doctors in private practice to volunteer at government hospitals once a week.
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The Hindu
4 hours ago
- The Hindu
History of air crash probes shows investigators disagree on pilot complicity
In two out of four fatal aircrash probes studied by academic researchers, the investigators from the national agencies disagreed with the United States National Safety Transport Board (NTSB) on whether the pilots intentionally crashed their planes. In three of the four cases, the length of investigations averaged two-three years and in two cases the deceased pilots were proven to have a history of clinically-diagnosed depression. Three of these cases involved one of the pilots having control of the aircraft and alone in the cockpit and the co-pilots for brief periods being unable to access controls. 'Psychological autopsy' – a form of forensic investigation into the deceased's mental state – was a key factor in determining pilot intentionality and even then 'there could rarely be certainty about suicidal intent being the sole cause of an accident,' Alpo Vuorio, psychologist and an academic researcher of aviation disasters, told The Hindu in an email. Questions on the mental health of the pilot have surfaced around the ongoing investigation into the AI-171 flight from Ahmedabad to Gatwick on June 12 where 241 passengers, including crew, died and another 19 were killed on the ground. Though only a preliminary report is out, speculation is rife that the captain may have sabotaged the plane's fuel intake during take-off. Pilot associations in India have vociferously objected to such a characterisation with Ministers advocating restraint until the investigation has concluded. Since 1994, there have been only six confirmed instances globally involving commercial planes where investigating agencies attributed the accident to actions by the pilot. Within these, only four have published reports and analyses in academic literature. Overall, such crashes are a rarity. Based on flying-accident reports in the United States from 1993–2021, 24 out of 7,244 – or 0.33% — fatal accident cases in general aviation were formally attributed to be 'aircraft-assisted suicides' (0.33%). The vast majority of these accidents involved pilots flying their own planes or those of very small operators where planes usually didn't carry FDR (Flight Data Recorder) and CVR (Cockpit Voice Recorder), said a 2023 study led by Dr. Vuorio in the journal Aviation Space Environment. The first of these was Silk Air Flight 185 (Jakarta- Singapore) in December 1999, which killed 97 passengers and seven crew members. A Boeing 737, it crashed into the Musi River, Sumatra, after nose-diving from an altitude of nearly 35,000 feet. Its CVR and FDR stopped recording following which the plane rapidly descended and crashed within a minute. Following a nearly three-year investigation, the National Transportation Safety Corporation (NTSC) – the Indonesian equivalent of India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau that is investigating the Ahmedabad crash – concluded that the 'technical investigation has yielded no evidence to explain the cause of the accident.' The U.S. agency NTSB dissented. 'There was no evidence of a mechanical failure of any of the flight control systems or related components that would have been causal or contributing to the accident and the accident can be explained by intentional pilot action,' said the 140-page report. Along with a technical analysis, this report also placed on record that the captain, who had commandeered the plane, was reportedly battling a financial crisis, though it was also stated that he displayed no aberrant behaviour prior to the flight. The second accident occurred on October 31, 1999, when Egypt Air flight 990, a Boeing 767, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, south of Massachusetts. About 29 minutes after take-off, the FDR showed that the First Officer disconnected the autopilot. He was alone in the cockpit with the Captain having left for a bathroom break. The FDR recorded an abrupt nose-down elevator movement — the instrument meant to control the plane's pitch (up and down movement) — and the aircraft began a precipitous descent. The CVR recorded that the First Officer, a native Arabic speaker, said several times, 'I rely on God'. After that, the FDR recorded additional unexpected movement of the aileron – a device on the tail to control a plane's rolling movements. A master warning alarm began to sound, and the Captain, who was returning from the toilet, was wondering aloud what was happening. The aircraft crashed about two minutes later. The NTSB determined that the 'probable cause was... as a result of the First Officer's flight control inputs. The reason for the First Officer's actions was not determined'. However media coverage speculated on a wide variety of causes ranging from the first officer's 'religious extremism' to alleged disputes with colleagues. The Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA), while first collaborating with the NTSB on the investigation, concluded that 'the officer did not deliberately dive the air-plane into the ocean' and that mechanical failure was 'a plausible and likely cause of the accident'. The third accident, on November 2013, involved the Mozambique Airlines Flight 470 from Maputo, Mozambique to Luanda, Angola. The Embraer E190 twinjet crashed into the Bwabwata National Park, Namibia, killing all 27 passengers and six crew members. About an hour and 50 minutes into the flight, the First Officer stated that he had to go to the toilet. The Captain handled the auto flight system leading to a 'sustained descent and collision with the terrain', says the investigation report. While here the investigation agencies of the Mozambique and Namibia attributed the plane's 'unnatural' descent to the pilot, the Mozambique Association of Air Operators disputed the finding. The investigation lasted three years. The fourth analysed accident — the only one where there was rapid, unanimous consensus that a pilot, with a history of psychiatric problems, intentionally crashed the plane — occurred on March 24, 2015 with Germanwings flight 4U9525 from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf, Germany. There were 150 casualties following the crash of the Airbus A-320. According to the investigation report, in the cruise phase of the flight, the First Officer waited until he was alone in the cockpit. Then he modified the autopilot settings causing the aeroplane to descend and, kept the cockpit door locked. The First Officer did not respond to the calls from air traffic controllers, and the aircraft fell into the French Alps. One of the quickest investigations, which officially concluded within a year, the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) and its German counterpart, the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (BFU) concluded that the pilot had deliberately crashed the plane as a 'murder-suicide'. German investigators found a doctor's note in the pilot's apartment, three days following the crash, indicating that he was 'unfit to fly'. They also reported that he suffered from 'psychiatric illnesses' and a post-mortem analysis of his body found the presence of a combination of antidepressants, escitalopram and mirtazapine and a sleep medication, zopiclone. The investigation report mentioned that he had researched online ways to 'commit suicide' before commandeering the flight. 'The links between pilot suicides and social change, such as unemployment threats and financial recession, have not been studied, given the low numbers of pilot suicide cases as well as the unpredictability and infrequency of recession, coupled with methodological challenges such as suitable comparison groups and the absence of baseline measures,' said Dr. Vuorio. 'However, it has been found that significant sudden changes in society may increase the number of pilot suicides. For example, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, the risk of suicide by aircraft in the year following the attack was almost four times the average risk in the five years prior to the terrorist attack. Significant, sudden and adverse changes in society can have an impact on pilot mental health,' he added.
New Indian Express
5 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Centre has no official data on nomophobia, Rajya Sabha told
NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday said that it does not maintain any central data on patients suffering from nomophobia, the fear of being without mobile phones. In a written reply, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Prataprao Jadhav, informed the Rajya Sabha that a behavioural addiction clinic has been established at AIIMS, New Delhi, to manage various behavioural addictions, including internet and technology addiction. 'The data of patients suffering from nomophobia in the country is not maintained centrally,' said the minister in response to a question from Congress MP Phulo Devi Netam, who asked whether it is a fact that the number of patients suffering from nomophobia is constantly increasing in the country and whether a large number of these patients are young children and youth. Nomophobia is the fear or anxiety associated with being without one's mobile phone or the ability to use it. The minister said that to address the burden of mental disorders, the Centre is implementing the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) across the country. The District Mental Health Programme (DMHP), a component of the NMHP, has been sanctioned for implementation in 767 districts. Support for this is provided to States and Union Territories through the National Health Mission. Facilities made available under the DMHP at the Community Health Centre (CHC) and Primary Health Centre (PHC) levels include outpatient services, assessment, counselling/psychosocial interventions, continuing care and support for persons with severe mental disorders, medication, outreach services, and ambulance services. In addition to these, there is a provision for 10-bedded in-patient facilities at the district level. Jadhav also stated that the government is taking steps to strengthen mental healthcare services at the primary healthcare level and has upgraded more than 1.77 lakh Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs) into Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. Mental health services have been included in the packages of services under Comprehensive Primary Health Care provided at these Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. Under the tertiary care component of the NMHP, 25 Centres of Excellence have been sanctioned to increase the intake of students in postgraduate departments in mental health specialities, as well as to provide tertiary-level treatment facilities. Furthermore, the government has supported 19 government medical colleges/institutions to strengthen 47 postgraduate departments in mental health specialities. There are 47 government-run mental hospitals in the country, including three Central Mental Health Institutions: the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru; the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam; and the Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi. Mental health services are also available at all AIIMS institutions. The minister added that the government launched the National Tele Mental Health Programme on October 10, 2022, to further improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services across the country. As of July 17, 36 States and Union Territories have established 53 Tele-MANAS Cells and have started providing tele-mental health services. More than 23.82 lakh calls have been handled on the helpline number. Additionally, the Tele-MANAS mobile application was launched on World Mental Health Day last year, on October 10. It is a comprehensive mobile platform developed to provide support for mental health issues ranging from overall well-being to mental disorders.
News18
6 hours ago
- News18
IIT Kharagpur student chokes on medicine, dies
Agency: PTI Last Updated: Kolkata, Jul 22 (PTI) A second-year B Tech student of IIT Kharagpur died after choking on medicines, an official said on Tuesday. The institute spokesperson told PTI that Chandradeep Pawar from Madhya Pradesh gulped some medicines prescribed by his doctor after dinner on Monday night but complained of difficulty in breathing soon after. He was taken to the institute hospital inside the campus at around 11 pm and succumbed to death shortly afterwards. While the spokesperson said prima facie it appeared the pill choked inside his airway, the post-mortem details will confirm the exact reason behind the death. The spokesperson said by all accounts, the tragic death of Pawar appears to be accidental, but the institute stands committed to prevent recurrence of such incidents in every possible way. Pawar was a boarder in Nehru Hall of the campus. Pawar, who hailed from Madhya Pradesh, was a second-year student of electrical engineering. The institute has ordered an internal inquiry into his death. Last Friday, the body of Ritam Mondal, a fourth-year student of Mechanical Engineering, was found hanging in his hostel room. On January 12, third-year electrical engineering student Shaon Malik was found hanging in his hostel room. On April 20, final-year student of Ocean Engineering, Aniket Walker, was found dead in similar conditions. On May 4, third-year student Mohammad Asif Qamar was found hanging in his hostel room. Institute authorities said a 10-member fact-finding committee has already been formed to find the circumstances behind Mondal's death. 'As part of its continued efforts to support student well-being, the institute confirms the availability of dedicated mental health and counselling services around the clock. Furthermore, IIT Kharagpur is set to launch a new AI-driven mental wellness initiative, SETU, on July 25, to enhance proactive mental health support for students," a statement by the institute earlier said. PTI SUS RG view comments First Published: July 22, 2025, 22:30 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
