Anyone waiting for municipal approval of a building plan may wonder why a local body should regulate construction on private land. In the Madras Presidency, such powers were formalised under the Madras City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919. After Independence, the first Conference of State Ministers on Town and Country Planning in 1960 gave impetus to...
Category: Health
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South Asians are missing from global health databases: why this matters and what needs to change
Globally, more than one in 10 adults now live with diabetes. If you have South Asian roots, that risk is even higher, and it hits earlier than it does in many other populations. In India alone, the number of people with diabetes is projected to reach 125 million by 2045. Yet, when scientists try to...
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Doctors warns against ‘most dangerous carbohydrate’: ‘Can raise blood sugar from 200 to 250 mg/dL’
4 min readNew DelhiAug 20, 2026 09:30 AM IST Carbohydrates are often blamed for a host of health problems, with foods such as sugar, bread and rice frequently singled out as dietary villains. However, the bigger concern may not be traditional carbohydrate-rich foods themselves, but the highly processed starches hidden in many packaged products. These...
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Priyanka Chopra’s mother Dr Madhu Chopra shares X-ray of her ‘beautiful new knee’
3 min readNew DelhiAug 19, 2026 08:00 PM IST Bollywood icon Priyanka Chopra’s mother, Dr Madhu Chopra, who had previously been managing knee osteoarthritis-related mobility issues, recently underwent a successful knee replacement via surgical intervention. On social media, she shared a picture of her X-ray, captioning it “beautiful new knee”. DISCLAIMER: This article is based...
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At 30,000 feet: What pilots and cabin crew should know about cancer risk
4 min readNew DelhiAug 19, 2026 04:54 PM IST Commercial aircraft routinely cruise above 30,000 feet, where the atmosphere is thinner and provides less shielding from cosmic radiation originating in space. For most passengers, exposure during an individual flight remains low. But for pilots and flight attendants who spend thousands of hours in the air...
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Sugar power: the full story of brain development in humans
Was it meat or glucose that fueled the growth of the human brain? If evolutionary science told us, hitherto, that human brain expansion relied on meat to grow, a new study has an interesting addition to this theory. Published in a recent issue of Science, the study posits a dual fuel strategy – sugar and...
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700 kg red chutney seized in Gujarat: How to spot signs of possible adulteration
5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Aug 19, 2026 12:32 PM IST Red chutney is the backbone of Indian street food. Whether it is a hot plate of momos, parathas, pakode, chownmein, patties, or any other street staple, you’ll find customers asking for its refills. But we have some bad news for the lovers of this spicy...
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Inhalers and blood sugar: Can asthma or COPD medicines raise glucose levels?
5 min readNew DelhiAug 19, 2026 09:30 AM IST Inhalers commonly treat conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with different medicines working in different ways to open airways or reduce inflammation. For people who use these medicines regularly, it is natural to wonder whether their effects extend beyond the lungs. The...
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’14 of 24 sudden deaths were under 45′: Why auto, cab drivers may face a hidden heart risk
5 min readNew DelhiAug 18, 2026 07:00 PM IST Health educator Prashant Desai recently highlighted a worrying pattern in a social media post, claiming that “six of the last 20 sudden cardiac deaths in one Karnataka district were auto or cab drivers.” He also noted that 14 of the 24 deaths examined were among people...
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‘Good goes up, bad goes down’: What this simple stair rule means for knee pain
5 min readNew DelhiAug 18, 2026 03:02 PM IST Orthosurgeon Dr Kshitij Soni recently explained how people with knee pain can use stairs while putting less strain on the affected joint. In a video, he shared a simple mnemonic to remember the technique: “good goes to heaven, bad goes to hell.” “For bad knees, remember...
