Steam Center Blog

https://www.irctc.co.in L ast year this author in public interest had written a note (here) with a few suggestions for improvements in Indian Railways. Links to that note were sent to concerned including the railway minister Shri Piyush Goyal ji. One of the suggestions was for improving the user interface of the IRCTC website where passengers book tickets online. It was a rather untidy and crowded interface although its workings were efficient. To the delight of this author and hundreds of thousands of users everywhere, this interface has now been improved. It has been updated to the best global standards that prevail in our world. The Dynamic Railway Minister Piyush Goyal deserves many compliments for this. There were two other suggestions in the note mentioned, that have not been addressed yet. It is hoped that the Railway Minister can inspire his ministry to make improvements here too. These are mentioned next, Waiting list System: The railway ministe...

Green, Tawny and Red sugar Cane Stalks Document also available for view or download at,   https://www.scribd.com/document/390113251/Regenerating-Soma-Plant-of-Rig-Veda Abstract Rig Veda, an ancient sacred text of Indo-Aryans described a godly plant known as Soma. The juice of this plant imparted huge improvements in physical, intellectual and emotional abilities to ancient Indo-Aryans who consumed it. Some modern studies have identified certain intoxicating plants as possibly being Soma but these do not come close to the original description. Soma was neither intoxicating nor hallucinatory. Rather, its effect was precisely opposite. It increased focus, alertness and memory. An earlier study by this author suggested that sugarcane grasses appear to be similar in description to this plant. However, sugarcane juice as available now, although healthy, does not have the unusual enhancing properties of Soma. It appears that it does not contain the active compounds...

Standardizing design of glass bottles to minimize use of plastics. While plastics are a great convenience, plastic pollution has become a major concern for the world. Throw away plastic bags and bottles are clogging drains, polluting rivers and oceans. Items like plastic furniture and containers do not create much problem because they have long-term use and are easy to recycle. It is things like shopping bags and numerous bottles for water and cold drinks that are a major source of pollution. Attempts are underway around the world to ban their use and return to old-fashioned paper and cloth shopping bags as well as glass bottles. An outright ban on manufacture, sale and distribution of plastic bags with heavy penalties for manufacturers and lesser ones for other users will rapidly bring an end to plastic bags. Humans are innovative enough to come up with easy alternatives as indeed they have already done in many places around the world. The second item is bot...

R ecently, through a Google search, I discovered WriterBay.Com. It is an online website that provides help to anyone who might wish a written report on just about any topic, for a fee. It also provides freelance online work to anyone who may wish to undertake such work. I applied to this website and have been with them for about a week at the time of writing this review. This review is based on my experience with them in this period. Before writing this post, I grappled with the question if I should write a review at all because it has criticism. However, I decided in favor writing it so that it would help huge number of persons who scout for freelance online work as well as numerous students that approach this website for help. My criticism is a constructive one with suggestions for improvements. If Writer Bay took it in this light, this report shall help them to reinvent themselves into a productive outfit that helps the world rather than the other way around and the...

Human in Khaki by Ashok Kumar As a developing country struggling to emerge from its colonial past, in the arena of public services, there is much that needs improvements in India. One of these is policing. An insidious practice has developed in India to demand long and inhumane working hours from the force. This had led to poor physical and psychological health as well as poor family life of Indian policemen. Such a force cannot be expected to provide quality service to public. While many suggestions for improving the police force have been put forth by individuals and institutions in India, few have been followed up. However, yesterday the High Court at Nainital passed a judgment that is a key element of police reforms in India. It has been mentioned in a companion blog, https://nainitalgoddess.blogspot.com how the Lovely Himalayan Town of Nainital built around the lake of the goddess Naini has been at forefront of many changes not just in India but also the world since i...

Fair trade implies that a country does not face a major trade deficit with another country. Presently some fear that steps being taken by US to end the trade deficit with China may lead to trade wars. In any case, it is leading to a lot of waste of time, stress, negotiations and worries for lot of humans across the spectrum of trade and governance. Trade wars take place when a country imposes tariffs on some goods and in response the other country imposes tariffs on other goods. There is however a very simple way to fix trade deficit that avoids trade wars or minimizes possibilities of one. It has been mentioned in this blog earlier but seems it was not heeded. An even simpler version of the method is now repeated. Any country A that wishes to balance trade with another country B may adopt the following rule of tariffs In any financial year if A or B has a trade deficit in the previous financial year, then the country in deficit shall impose a tariff of X percent on ...

A t the outset it may be mentioned that this author, although a scientist, is not one from the nutritional area but from another from the physical sciences. Therefore, what has been written in this note is merely from common sense albeit tempered with the scientific approach. It is aided by a lifetime of experience of foods and nutrition in different parts of the globe. On the other hand, there are advantages from an expert from outside the field writing this note as shall became clear on reading it. The present note was sparked by a hugely laudable new mission launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji of India yesterday to improve child nutrition in India (Poshan Mission). Such an initiative is needed everywhere in the world but most especially in countries such as India where child mortality rates are high. While this mission unfolds, it is worth focusing on two types of dangers that exist is this area, due to lack of information, some of which are already unfoldi...

A note in a companion blog had explained how frequent updates from the computer and smart phone industry are making life difficult for consumers and there really is a need for the industry to rein in this habit and schedule their updates and improvements at no more than once a year best named after the year such as version 2018, 2019 etc. and not strange decimal numbers like 302.56.84 etc. that no one can remember except the Late Shakuntala Devi who could remember any number, howsoever long and complicated. Only a few critical bug fixes, virus definitions etc. may be sent on an urgent basis under precisely those names and not as an update. It is true that there are ways to turn off updates short of disconnecting from the Internet but such ways are not easy and require some learning. One gets raped a few times, metaphorically speaking before learning that. In my case recently I had to uninstall and reinstall Windows 10 in order to get rid of a pesky update assistant that ...

Good health is central to human happiness.   A Human may be a happy human without much wealth but he cannot be a happy without good health.   There is the old saying - where there is health there is hope. Because of this, Health care must remain a central subject of healthcare policy of governments. Recently, this author has contributed many of his thoughts on the topic to leadership of US and India on twitter where this policy is under active debate and transformation. However, twitter, because of its brevity and informality cannot explain points fully. This note shall attempt to do that. A blog note also has a wider and more durable presence for the world at large and all do need to devote their attention to this topic some of the time, so central it is to life. Ranking Countries by Healthcare Outcomes Several different ways and methods exist to rank countries of the world on healthcare but the simplest is infant under five mortality rates in a country. It is ...