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Suicide is one of leading cause of preventable deaths. Recent data suggest South India as one of the regions with highest suicide rates in World. In 2012, 1,35,445 people committed suicide in India according to the statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau
Suicide note is one of the most important sources to understand suicide, which may be beneficial in suicide prevention. Studies on suicidal notes from this part of world are sparse
Objective
The aim was to study the themes in suicide notes that might be useful in prevention strategies
Materials and Methods
A descriptive study of all Suicide notes of those individuals who committed suicide between 2010 – 2013 available with Police Department,Mysore District was obtained and analysed.
Result
A total of 22 suicide note were available. A majority of suicide note were in age group of 16-40 years (86%) and most were males (59%). All suicide notes were handwritten, majority (16) in regional language Kannada. Length of notes varied from just few words to few pages. Contents of suicide notes included apology, shame, guilt in 80%, love for those left behind (55%),instruction regarding practical affairs (23%). Most have blamed none for the act (50%). 23% committed suicide to prove their innocence. 32% mentioned a last wish.
Conclusion
Majority of suicidal note contained ‘guilt’ which is strong indicator of possible depression in deceased. Creating awareness about suicide among public ensuring access to professionals trained in suicide prevention is need of the hour in this part of world.
Depression is known to be associated with low serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and elevated levels of cortisol. Yoga has been shown to be associated with significant antidepressant effect as well as increase in serum BDNF levels and reduction in serum cortisol levels in these patients.
Aims and Objectives
We examined the association between serum cortisol and BDNF levels in patients with depression who were on treatment with antidepressants, yoga therapy, and both in combination.
Methods
Fifty-one consenting drug-naive outpatients (29 males) aged between 18-55 years, diagnosed with Major Depression received antidepressant medication alone (n=15), yoga therapy with (n=18), or without (n=18) concurrent antidepressants. Subjects in the yoga groups practiced a specific Yoga module for three months. Depression was assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Serum BDNF & cortisol levels were obtained before and after three months using sandwich ELISA method. The group differences were analyzed using one-way ANOVA. Correlations between Serum BDNF & cortisol levels were analyzed using Pearson's correlation.
Results
Significant negative correlations were observed between baseline BDNF & cortisol levels in the Yoga+Medication group (r=0.569*; P=0.01), and between change in BDNF and cortisol level in the Yoga alone group (r=0.582*; P=0.01). No other significant correlations were found.
Conclusion
There is a significant association between serum cortisol and BDNF levels in patients with depression who underwent Yoga with or without antidepressants. This suggests that Yoga may have stress reduction and neuroplastic effects alone or in combination with medications in depressed patients.
We propose the use of a machine learning algorithm to improve possible COVID-19 case identification more quickly using a mobile phone–based web survey. This method could reduce the spread of the virus in susceptible populations under quarantine.
Using a multiscale blood flow solver, the complete diffusion tensor of nanoparticles (NPs) in sheared cellular blood flow is calculated over a wide range of shear rate and haematocrit. In the short-time regime, NPs exhibit anomalous dispersive behaviors under high shear and high haematocrit due to the transient elongation and alignment of the red blood cells (RBCs). In the long-time regime, the NP diffusion tensor features high anisotropy. Particularly, there exists a critical shear rate (
${\sim}100~\text{s}^{-1}$
) around which the shear-rate dependence of the diffusivity tensor changes from linear to nonlinear scale. Above the critical shear rate, the cross-stream diffusivity terms vary sublinearly with shear rate, while the longitudinal term varies superlinearly. The dependence on haematocrit is linear in general except at high shear rates, where a sublinear scale is found for the vorticity term and a quadratic scale for the longitudinal term. Through analysis of the suspension microstructure and numerical experiments, the nonlinear haemorheological dependence of the NP diffusion tensor is attributed to the streamwise elongation and cross-stream contraction of RBCs under high shear, quantified by a capillary number. The RBC size is shown to be the characteristic length scale affecting the RBC-enhanced shear-induced diffusion (RESID), while the NP submicrometre size exhibits negligible influence on the RESID. Based on the observed scaling behaviours, empirical correlations are proposed to bridge the NP diffusion tensor to specific shear rate and haematocrit. The characterized NP diffusion tensor provides a constitutive relation that can lead to more effective continuum models to tackle large-scale NP biotransport applications.
By
R. Kavita Rao, Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.,
Sacchidananda Mukherjee, Associate Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.
The goods and services tax (GST) has been presented as the major tax reform for the Indian economy. It is therefore of importance to examine the impact it has had on the economy, as well as on the citizens of the economy. There are three broad categories of evidence to look at:
The economy
Tax administration/compliance
Revenues of various governments
The impact on revenues of various governments has been examined at some length in Chapter 9. Hence this chapter will look into some of the remaining aspects and present some concluding observations.
Impact of GST on Economic Growth and Inflation
One of the long-term objectives of introducing GST is that it will reduce the extent of hidden and embedded taxes in the system and thereby create opportunities for investment in order to capitalise on the altered tax regime. The change to GST as a predominant indirect tax was expected to increase gross domestic product (GDP) and reduce inflation. International experience shows that GDP growth falls after introduction of GST but it recovers after two—three quarters and, conversely, inflation rises in the initial quarters before it declines (The Treasury, Australian Government 2003). While it is barely four quarters since the introduction of GST in India and hence the evidence of the reversal of the initial trends might not be visible yet, it would be interesting to identify the trends so far.
Impact on Overall Growth
Year-to-year growth rate of gross value added (GVA) at basic prices (2011–12 series, at constant prices) shows
that growth rate was falling since Q4 of 2015–16 and it was 5.6 per cent at Q1 of 2017–18. The introduction of GST on 1 July 2017 lifts the growth rate of GVA as evident in Figure C.1. However, the average growth rate during 2017–18 (6.4 per cent) is lower than that achieved in 2015–16 (8.1 per cent) and 2016–17 (7.1 per cent). In drawing conclusions about the impact of GST on GVA from these numbers, it should be borne in mind that seven months prior to the introduction of GST, the economy received a shock in the form of withdrawal of high denomination notes.
from
Part I
-
Genesis and Evolution of GST in India
By
Sacchidananda Mukherjee, Associate Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.,
R. Kavita Rao, Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.
The quest for a suitable indirect tax framework in India encompassing goods as well as services started a long time back. The constitutional assignment of powers for taxation in India included a number of stand-alone taxes on goods and services in addition to a few relatively more broad-based taxes, none of which were comprehensive in covering both goods and services. Further, this assignment divided the powers between the union and the state governments, thereby requiring a considerable degree of cooperation and coordination between the union and the state governments in order to initiate and establish a new indirect tax regime which addressed some of the concerns emanating from the old regime. Given the constitutional assignment of taxation power to different governments, fiscal autonomy enjoyed by the subnational governments, and complexities involved in bringing consensus among the subnational governments, the evolution of the Indian goods and services tax (GST) provides an interesting example of reforms in indirect taxes for scholars interested in public finance, especially in the case of federal countries.
Reforms in indirect taxes initiated since 1986–87 helped in sequencing big tax reform such as GST in India. It helped to accommodate the political-economy dimensions as well as the acceptability aspects of the tax reform. What is significant about the Indian GST is that each and every aspect of design, structure and administration of the GST has evolved on the basis of political consensus between the union and provincial governments. For a federal country like India where subnational governments enjoy more or less a power structure similar to that of the union government and where there is considerable diversity among provincial (subnational) governments, building consensus for a destination-based dual GST system is a great achievement in the history of fiscal federalism. The role played by different institutions/committees in achieving the Indian GST requires special mention here. The present chapter is an attempt to provide readers an overview into the evolution of the concept of GST in India.
India introduced GST from 1 July 2017. It is a comprehensive multistage value-added tax (VAT) on goods as well as services and it provides concurrent taxation powers to the centre (federal) and state (provincial) governments to collect tax on every stage of value addition.
The purpose of this report is to generate Revenue Neutral Rates (RNR) for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for both the Centre and each individual state using information on the contours of GST that have been decided so far in the discussions of the Union government and the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers. For this exercise, it is important to summarise the key features of the design of GST (section titled ‘Key Features of GST Design’). Methodology adopted to estimate RNR is presented in the next section (‘Methodology’). The section titled ‘Results’ provides the combined RNR followed by rates computed for each individual government including the Central government. In undertaking this exercise, two alternative estimates of base of services have been used – one using PROWESS data obtained from CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) and the other using turnover data from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) provided by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India (GOI). It should be noted that the entire turnover of firms supplying services would not constitute additional base for GST. There are two possible reasons why the base can be different from the total turnover – one, if these firms purchase taxable goods which are used for providing these services, then they can avail of input tax credit. In other words, the turnover of these purchases needs to be deducted from the turnover of supply of services. Second, since these services in turn can be used as inputs in the supply of presently taxable goods, they would already be a part of the base for taxation of goods at present. Hence, a correction on this count too would be required to identify the extent of turnover of supply of services for final consumption. The methodology used for deriving activity code wise turnover in each of these cases is discussed in the section titled ‘Methodology’.
Key Features of GST Design
The key features on which decisions seem to have emerged on the design of GST can be summarised as follows:
1. Dual GST, a central GST and a state GST both levied on all goods and services.
a. It is proposed that there would be a list of exemptions and exclusions from the regime, but the exact items on the list are yet to be decided.
The report produced by the Ministry of Finance Committee on the Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) and structure of rates for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) (which was headed by the Chief Economic Adviser – CEA) has given a new perspective to the discussion on the introduction of GST in India. At first glance the report suggests that GST can effectively be implemented at more reasonable rates when compared to rates being discussed in earlier press reports, without any loss of revenue to the centre or on average to the states. As is often argued, lower rates of tax are always more attractive since they would be compliance-friendly. The representatives of industry as well as the consultancy firms have pronounced that these are the correct estimates and provide a more reliable basis for introducing GST in India. Lower rates of tax are always attractive and it is the prerogative of the government to take a call on the appropriate rate at which to introduce GST. However, estimating a RNR should be viewed as an exercise to determine the rate of tax at which the government concerned can implement the new regime and obtain the same revenue as it currently does.
Any exercise to estimate the RNR would be based on assumptions other than on data which is available. There are two sets of estimates discussed in the public domain, one by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and the other by the committee headed by the CEA (these estimates will be referred to as NIPFP and CEA estimates respectively).
As discussed in the CEA's report, the Ministry of Finance Committee's estimates have been derived by making ‘suitable corrections’ to the NIPFP estimates or the indirect tax turnover estimates as they have been referred to in the report. These two sets of estimates vary considerably and there is a need to identify the sources of difference and the rationale for such a difference. In what follows, an attempt is made to assess each of the changes proposed by the CEA's study. To begin with, a brief summary of the overall approach adopted by both these studies.
By
Sacchidananda Mukherjee, Associate Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.,
R. Kavita Rao, Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.
Various taxes, duties, levies and cesses on petroleum products and natural gas generate substantial revenues to the Central and State Governments. The tax on petroleum products and corresponding change in prices generate both direct and indirect effects across the sectors. Petroleum products directly enter as an input into a large number of economic activities (e.g., transportation, electricity generation and fertiliser production). Apart from such direct uses, there are a number of indirect uses as well; for instance, since most commodities need to be transported for use by the final consumer, petroleum products enter into the picture. Therefore, changes in prices (or taxes) of petroleum products would have significant impact on the economy both through direct and indirect or cascading routes.
The present regime of taxation of petroleum products and electricity results in cascading of taxes. Built-in invisible taxes are expected to increase prices in the domestic economy and adversely affect competitiveness of Indian exports as well. Given that the country is working towards the introduction of a comprehensive GST regime, it is an opportune moment to ask whether the proposed GST design is appropriate or whether significant degree of cascading remains. This chapter seeks to explore alternative configurations of the tax regime, with specific reference to petroleum products, and evaluate the extent of cascading under each. Given that these goods provide a major share of the revenues of the Central and State governments in indirect taxes, the comparison is attempted assuming revenue neutrality under all scenarios.
The other significant aspect of the petroleum sector is that the present administered pricing mechanism does not allow full price pass through for some refinery products (domestic LPG, PDS kerosene, diesel and petrol). This results in under-recoveries for oil marketing companies (OMCs). However, the government has not been providing full compensation to OMCs for such under-recoveries in sales of diesel and petrol. While part of the under-recovery is absorbed by the upstream oil companies, the rest remains stranded costs for the OMCs. The present system of disallowing compensation not only costs the Central Government exchequer (in terms of loss of dividend income), as most of the oil companies are under the Central Public Sector, but also provides a perverse incentive for not saving fossil fuels, thereby polluting the environment.