Muscle imbalance how to fix

10 reasons why you might be losing hair

Did you know that losing weight can also cause hair loss? At the age of 40, our body begins to lose the ability to regenerate new cells which results in thinning, hairfall and graying of hair, says Jagadeesh P.

Hairfall

Photograph*: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Everyone experiences hairfall.

An individual generally experiences hair fall during shower, while blow drying or brushing your hair.

On an average, females lose 80 to 100 strands a day.

But if the hair loss is greater than that or if you notice bald spots, there is a high chance your scalp isn’t healthy.

Here are 10 lesser known reasons of hair loss and how you can overcome them:

1. Physical or mental stress

Mental stress causes scalp problems like generating dandruff, eating disorders and digestive problems.

It is important to take certain measures to cope with stress like yoga, talk therapy, meditation, going on a short trip or spending a little time alone.

Going through a really stressful event physically can impact the hair cycle leading to hair loss.

To overcome this, you need to take good care of your diet and health as well as oiling your hair on a regular basis can improve the conditions of the scalp.

2. Hormonal imbalance

Hormones play an important role in monitoring hair growth cycle.

Females hormones (Oestrogens) are hair friendly keeping the hair growth intact whereas male hormones (Androgens) aren’t hair friendly which is why they have a short hair growth cycle.

Several different types of hormonal imbalances can lead to shedding of hair.

This can be treated if we understand the importance of adopting healthy lifestyle, adding nutrition and supplements for the growth of hair.

The best way to prevent your hair from excessive thinning due to hormonal changes is oiling your scalp on a daily basis or applying aloe vera gel as well as including natural supplements in your diet.

3. Hereditary

Hereditary is another reason why one tends to lose hair.

If the problem runs within the family, there is a high cause that the same can happen to you as well.

It’s a natural condition that can be diagnosed by the history of the same disease there is a high chance that it has happened in the family.

It is advised to visit the dermatologist to improve the scalp conditions and get a hold of the hairfall problems.

4. Ageing

As we age, the hair becomes less dense and the scalp is easily visible. Also it is not as bouncy as it used to be.

At the age of 40, our body begins to lose the ability to regenerate new cells which results in thinning, hairfall and graying of hair.

The scalp tightens and inhibits new strands. It is a part of the normal ageing process.

To stop this issue, it is essential to increase the intake of balanced diet with proteins, minerals and vitamins to reduce the thinning of the hair.

You can even opt for products that contain hazelnut oil or tea tree oil to nourish your scalp and hair.

5. Nutritional problems

The diet has a lot to do with the hair loss problems as it depends on what we eat or we don’t eat that leads to hair growth.

Without the intake of minerals and vitamins, there are high chances of damage in your hair cycle.

Some of the most common nutritional imbalances that cause hair loss include the following.

Lack of protein

Hair is made of protein.

The body blocks hair growth if the diet doesn’t have enough protein.

Thus involving protein in your diet can enhance your hair growth.

A protein-rich diet with eggs, fish and meat is a must to combat your body’s lack of protein. Vegetarians can opt for soy and cheese.

Anemia or lack of iron

On an average, 10 per cent women suffers from anemia due to iron deficiency which is another cause of hair loss.

Iron deficiency leads to headaches, shortness of breath or dizziness.

Adding iron supplement in your diet can fix the problem and therefore intake of rich iron fruits like beetroot, carrot or leafy vegetables is necessary.

To prevent your hair from starving out through minerals and vitamins and protecting yourself from nutrients deficiency, start eating food that contains the vital nutrients important for your cells.

Oranges, mangoes, cauliflower and tomatoes contain Vitamin C, whilst protein can be found in meats, eggs, fish, yogurt and beans.

Whole-grain cereals and dark green leafy vegetables are great for providing you with iron, plus you will need zinc-rich foods like nuts, chickpeas and sweet potatoes.

6. Overstyling

One of the causes of rigorous hairfall is extensive over styling and hair treatments.

Tight braids, hair weaves or corn rows is examples of extreme styling that causes traction alopecia, or gradual hair loss.

The chemical relaxers like hot oil treatments, straightening your hair or use of harsh chemical can actually affect the hair root making your hair weak to be able to regrow.

To protect your hair from the damage caused due to overstyling, scalp massages are great for effective hair regrowth whereas olive oil, castor oil and unrefined coconut oil make for fabulous massage agents.

7. Weight loss

A sudden weight loss also affects your hair growth and results in hair thinning.

This could happen even if the weight loss is ultimately good for you.

There is a possibility that the weight loss itself is stressing your body and not eating right results in vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Anorexia or bulimia is an eating disorder caused due to loss of hair along with noticeable weight loss.

Usually you start losing hair after three to six months of your weight loss.

To prevent hair loss when losing weight, make sure to include meats, whole grains, fruits and vegetables into your diet as they are rich in protein, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C and zinc, all of which are essential components for hair growth.

8. Trichotillomania (hair-pulling)

Trichotillomania is a mental disorder, classified as an impulse control disorder that causes people to compulsively pull their hair from the scalp, eyebrows or other areas of their bodies.

In general, trichotillomania is a chronic condition that will come and go throughout an individual’s life if the disorder is not treated on time.

For some individuals, the disorder may come and go for weeks, months, or years at a time.

It occurs more frequently in women, and it’s estimated that 1 to 2 per cent of adults and adolescents suffer from it.

The repeated pulling of your hair can damage your hair follicles, resulting in bald patches and near permanent hair loss.

It can also be highly distressing, as it can interfere with your social and work functioning.

The treatment for this disease is limited and hence advised to seek a therapy or medication from the dermatologist.

Although medications clearly help some people temporarily, symptoms are likely to return when the medication is stopped unless therapy is incorporated into treatment.

9. Environmental changes

The stress of heat, humidity, change in weather conditions thin your hair.

This is perfectly normal. But if the shedding increases or ceases to stop after the change of season, one should definitely visit the doctor.

Another reason of hairfall due to seasonal changes is air pollution.

Smoking causes discolouration specifically on bleached blonde hair and a poor diet can weaken the hair, cause it to fall prematurely and lead to hair loss.

It is said that regular smokers suffer excessive hair loss that those who do not smoke.

10. Hypothyroidism

It’s a medical term for thyroid disease.

The body’s metabolism is regulated by controlling the production of proteins and tissue use of oxygen.

Thyroid imbalance can therefore affect hair follicles.

If not treated on time, it results in anemia which is another cause of hair loss.

Lead image published only for representational purposes.

The author Jagadeesh P is trainer, Paul Mitchell India, a haircare solutions company.

The elephant is ready to dance, says SBI’s Dinesh Kumar Khara

For the first time the intrinsic value of the State Bank of India is being acknowledged by the market, says Dinesh Kumar Khara , Chairman, SBI , in an interview with Nikunj Dalmia of ET NOW .

Things are looking up for SBI. It is the only large bank which has raised capital and where the moratorium numbers are surprisingly better than what even private banks have reported. What helped you?
We have not raised any equity. But we raised tier two bonds and tier one bonds as well. But for both the issues, we could create a benchmark and even raise some MTN also where the pricing was much lower than that raised by any Indian corporate in the recent past. That way, we have demonstrated to the world at large that global economies also have got confidence in India. That is one very important part.

The second part is that for the right kind of risk, people have enough appetite for investing and that is what has happened. Coming to the other question relating to quality, for the last couple of years, maintaining the balance sheet strength has been our major focus and that is the reason when it comes to our corporate book — the legacy book — we have provided almost 89%. In terms of the resolution percentage which happens through various channels and the one-time settlements which would be through the National Company Law Tribunal ( NCLT ), leaving aside a couple of outliers where we had actually realised almost about 90-95%, on an average our recovery percentage is in the range of 20 to 25%. If you go by that, we have made provision for about 89% of our corporate book.

So, we have factored in the potential shocks as far as the asset book is concerned. That is one of the major reasons why we are in a position to showcase much better quality. Apart from that, the underwriting practices have improved quite significantly. We have brought in place another intermediary layer known as the Credit Review Department. From the point of view of the corporate book, it has gone a long way in terms of improving our asset quality. We took this initiative about three years back. That has started paying off very well. The other aspect is about the collection effort on the ground and that has also been supplemented very well.

What is your view on the economy? Things are looking up now?
Yes, I fully agree with you. The kind of things that have happened right from the day of the pandemic and the way RBI came in and ensured that there should be enough liquidity all around — was a major game changer. That gave a whole lot of confidence in the financial sector entities and the next step was to ensure that NBFCs should not get into some kind of a liquidity crunch.

I would also say that the initiatives taken by the government to ensure that enough cash is left in the hands of those who really need it was another major step. All said and done, in the first quarter, we had seen a situation where there was hardly any economic activity but nevertheless, we had seen that some of the core sectors like iron and steel had started responding well.

From the second quarter onwards, we started seeing the unlock happening and even in the first quarter when there was a lockdown in the majority of the towns in the country, the rural economy was thriving, That was a major plus. From the second quarter onwards, wherever unlocking was happening, there was a definite revival of economic activity.

The third quarter saw confidence coming back. The news about the vaccine in the very beginning of this calendar year and the start of the vaccination process on January 16 went a long way in terms of rebuilding confidence.

Today, some of the sectors like auto, iron and steel, auto ancillaries, all the OEMs, some of the cotton exporters are all thriving. On top of it, the recent Budget announcements have been made to give a push to the infrastructure sector. It will certainly give a further boost to sectors like steel, cement. These are the core industries and when they get into the growth path, naturally the whole economy moves on to the growth path. It is expected that the GDP growth in year FY21-22 would be around 11%.

Normally we have seen that the credit growth in the system is slightly better than the growth in GDP. So, normally we will take a multiplier factor of 1.1. So with that kind of a situation for 11% GDP growth, I expect the credit growth to be somewhere around 12% to 13%.

Right from the beginning, at State Bank of India, we have seen our retail asset books continuing to grow at a very healthy pace. Not only that, the quality has been very good as well. These are some of the factors which gives me a very happy feeling about the economy and as well as the banks.

The challenge for SBI is that you have to take care of all the social obligations as ultimately State Bank of India is the country’s bank. On the other hand, what is good for social obligations is not good for shareholders. How would you manage?
I do not think so, I would not subscribe to this thought that what is good for the social obligation is not good for the shareholders. I believe in coexistence of all the sub segments of society. Even there, we have come across situations where when we lent money for supporting the social obligations, it has gone a long way in terms of supporting the economy.

For instance, when we started our Jan Dhan Account, it was a zero balance account. Any bank, if they had a near-term perspective, would have seen it more as a liability and as an expense. But we went ahead and opened all those accounts, and today the average balance in each of these account is not less than Rs 2000. That means that we have been in a position to channelise the savings of the largest sub segment of the economy and you would probably agree that it will go a long way in terms of formalising this economy.

With the economy set fot 11% GDP growth, I expect the credit growth to be somewhere around 12% to 13%. Dinesh Kumar Khara

Once the formalisation happens, it is for the good of the banking system. We have to look at it in these terms and similarly when we are supporting people for setting up their ventures through various activities which could be even Mudra loans etc, it is generating employment on ground. As far as the quality of these advances are concerned, it is a journey we have to guide them through. We have created financial literacy centres all across the country. The idea is to really educate people about the benefit of borrowing and repaying on time. It is an investment for building up this economy and the more we invest, the more we will reap the fruits going forward.

How did you convince your employees to stay motivated during the pandemic? The ATMs never dried up, the bank accounts were always working. People’s money was safe. We are looking at an army of about 200,000 people.
In this fight against Covid , all of us were together. We have always communicated with them, we have conveyed to them that we are equally concerned and also we ensured that they follow the protocol right from day one. So depending upon the local administration guidelines in terms of how many people can come and attend the offices, we always ensure that we are fully compliant with the local administration and ensure that our people should follow all the protocols required for maintaining safe distance.

Secondly, our leadership constantly communicates with the workforce and very proactive steps are taken to ensure that the anybody who has suffered from Covid, is extended the treatment in time. We have health workers in our system who have proved their worth quite a lot during this period. They have ensured that not a single person goes unattended.

At the corporate centre, we are very closely monitoring what is the kind of a situation all across the country and wherever required, we have guided them on ground. Partly, it was the precautions taken by people, partly management and our employees being cognisant of the fact that we have to render uninterrupted services and ensure that the wheel of the economy keeps moving. It was a national cause and we demonstrated that we are very much part of this fight against Covid and we will see to it that the economy does not suffer.

Did you get a smile on your face when you saw State Bank of India stock going up 15% after the numbers were out?
Of course! It was a big morale booster and it so happened on that day I was meeting the leadership of all the circles and I could see the enthusiasm in their mind and perhaps they all acknowledged the fact that for the first time the intrinsic value of the State Bank of India was being acknowledged by the market.

I am using a tag line saying elephants can also dance. Is the State Bank of India ready to dance now?
I would say that we have gathered the required muscles for any elephant to dance. For dancing, the muscle has to be very strong so that is something which we are focussing on for quite some time and now I think we are in a position to dance.

So let us define what is in front of you. Muscle is CASA which you already have. There is a clear path to economy. Let us put the two together. Are you on the brink of a new credit cycle?
Yes, we have thought about how we should move forward. The retail engine is doing pretty well and so we will continue to consolidate on that. When it comes to the corporates, I would say that the SME and the large corporates would be the two. Capacity utilisation as of now is upward 55% in the economy. When I slice my book on corporate advances, 70% would be about term loans and 30% would be on account of the working capital. Normally, capacity utilisation and the working capital go in sync. As the capacity utilisation improves, the working capital availment starts improving.

As of now, the working capital availment is not very high and that will be addressed. Secondly when the capacity utilisation moves towards say 70-75%, people will start looking for creating new capacity and that is when we will start seeing a lot of new investment proposals. It is not that we do not have investment proposals. We have got a very excellent pipeline when it comes to the infrastructure and road sector, but this pipeline will actually grow and that will show up in our credit growth numbers also.

Also, what we have seen is that when it comes to small ticket loans, co-lending is perhaps the way forward and that is how we would like to support our smaller SMEs. I would say that we have invested well in terms of creating our capability in terms of addressing the need of the economy and we are actually very eagerly waiting for the moments when we can start lending in a very big way.

Are you consciously trying to be number one in all the subsidiaries also with the exception of life insurance?
I would put it like this. We would like to have our natural market share. For all the financial sector activities, what matters most is the distribution. We in State Bank of India have the largest distribution network of more than 22,000 branches, various sub-segments of the financial sector for instance, insurance — both life and non-life — generally have a preponderance of the agency channel. Our companies also have those channels. They have got the additional advantage of the bancassurance.

Similarly, when it comes to the asset management company, we have all the channels. We are into bank, IFA , we are into national distribution and we are also in corporate distributions. We are ensuring that all our companies are equally vibrant. In addition to that, they should have very active bancassurance channels, working like a second engine for all of them. It is my natural ambition that we should be all number one.

The home loan market is a very competitive one. You are growing a market where competition is large and technology is at play. Why are you so keen to grow that business?
In a portfolio, there are various sub components. I feel home loan is one such activity which actually encourages the core sector quite a lot. Unless and ,until home loan grows, the core sector growth can get stagnated. Being the largest player and having the largest reach, we are trying to see how we can improve the efficiency in operations.

Efficiency in operations will help us in cutting our costs. Our credit cost is already quite low as far as home loans are concerned. If at all, operating costs also come down and with the kind of CASA which we have, we would be rather the market leader in terms of pricing also. That is what my ambition is and I would actually like to price home loans at a right price point. A very large population of the country still has an aspiration to own home and the younger generation is also aspiring for home at a much early stage than earlier generations.

With transparency in pricing, we were in a position to encourage such people to come forward and acquire homes and help them to accomplish their dreams.

Do you think home loan rates and fixed deposit rates in India have bottomed out ?
When it comes to liabilities, the rates are also a function of the inflation and more so in a economy like ours where a very large population does not have the benefit of any kind of a social security. For them, the interest earned on the fixed deposit of the bank or for that matter the postal deposit is he main source of earning on an ongoing basis. We have to keep in mind the interest of a very large segment of depositors in mind but at the same time it is a very fine balance which we have to maintain. Ours is a growing economy. We have to ensure that the interest rate for the lending also should not go up significantly. That is something which keeps all of us busy in ensuring that the fine balance is always maintained.

We should be in a position to maintain the interest rates on deposits and may be home loan for some more time to come at this rate, but as far as deposit rates are concerned, it seems to have bottomed out.

One fault line and which is a legacy problem for SBI is the cost to income ratio. It is a challenge which you have inherited. How would you address that challenge?
I fully acknowledge that this is a major challenge and I would like to also mention that there are certain rigidities in the cost structure of the bank. I would rather like to focus more on the income stream. We have got about 23000 odd branches and we have started investing quite a lot in terms of the business correspondents (BC) and customer service point kiosks (CSP) also. Today we have got about 79,000 odd CSP kiosks. Wherever possible, we were trying to keep cost in check.

Secondly, we would like to significantly improve the income stream from each of these branches. I have actually given a call to my top leadership team to identify opportunities through which they will generate more and more income. It can be locker income, it can be cross sell income, it can be any fee-based income. For each of the branch, there will be a focus for generating income.

What about YES Bank?
When we went into YES Bank, the market reacted quite negatively for our stock but when we look back, it was a major step in ensuring the financial stability in this economy. If we start evaluating that decision, the way the bank is coming back on track, I would say it was the right decision at the right time.

But it will remain an investment and whenever the time comes, you would like to monetise it?
It will remain an investment but the time to monetise is not now.

Two-three years?
Time will tell how the market will be at that point of time. But nevertheless, I always believe that price is a refraction of the intrinsic value. Once the bank is on the right track, the market will reward it.

How do you want the world to remember your legacy? What is your vision?
Legacy is a derivative of what a particular leader does. From that point of view, I would say that I have got a very sharp focus on ensuring that the efficiency of operations are excellent and that should get reflected in the numbers in due course.

How has life changed for you in the last four-five months? Anything that keeps you wake up at night?
Discipline is very integral to the functioning of any CEO and that continues to be my area of focus also. But I have earmarked some time for myself and I normally try to stick to that. But if it involves travelling etc. then I have to compromise. So, there is a slight change in my disciplined behaviour or the schedule but apart from that, many of the priorities for the bank that keeps on engaging my mind and every new day is a new day for me.

What is the lighter side of Dinesh Khara which nobody knows?
I will have to think more about it, I do not know if at all I have any lighter side.

Oil price targets would make a far better goal: Julian Lee

Julian Lee

If you can’t hit the target, bring it closer. That seems to be the policy adopted by the OPEC+ alliance of oil producers as they make the world’s biggest-ever output cuts in an attempt to shore up oil prices.

After a meeting in January, the group’s co-leader, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman, announced that the producers were setting themselves a new target for their output cuts — restoring oil stockpiles in the developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to a new five-year average level.

They’re focusing on the OECD because its members report oil stockpiles in a (relatively) timely fashion — preliminary levels for the end of December were published by the International Energy Agency last week, although they will be revised for many months to come. Whereas other countries, like China, don’t publish oil stockpile levels at all.

OPEC+ was formed in 2016 to combat the soaring global oil stockpile that resulted from the second U.S. shale boom and the collapse in oil prices. Its members sought to bring the volume of oil stored in tanks, salt caverns, ships and pipelines down to its five-year average level, although they were never quite specific about which five-year measure they had in mind. It was meant to be a quick, six-month process starting in January 2017. More than four years on, their efforts are continuing, given new urgency by the Covid-19 pandemic.

One target the group appeared at first to adopt was the five-year rolling average stock level. The problem is that measure keeps changing as each new month replaces its counterpart of five years earlier.

Oil price targets would make a far better goal: Julian Lee
During the first years of the deal, that created target inflation, with stock levels in the newly-added months much higher than the ones they were replacing. Over time, the very excess stockpiles they were trying to drain boosted the five-year average by 210 million barrels, or 7%. That in turn narrowed the stockpile excess by 40%, with the actual drawdown of oil from inventories accounting for only 60% of the rebalancing.

Another target that seemed appealing was the average inventory level over the 2010-2014 period. This had the advantages of providing a fixed goal and excluding the period of excess stocks. The alliance never got close to that target, while stockpiles returned to their five-year moving average level in early 2018.

The producers have recognized that a constantly moving target undermines their effort to rebalance the market. They’ve also accepted that the 2010-2014 average is now, in the words of Prince Abdulaziz, “truly obsolete.”

Oil price targets would make a far better goal: Julian Lee
So now they’ve decided to adopt the 2015-2019 average as their latest target. But that one, too, although fixed, has several shortcomings.

One of the main purposes of oil inventories is to provide a cushion to offset any unexpected disruptions to supply. Therefore it would be more sensible to measure them in terms of how many days’ worth of demand they represent, rather than in simple volume terms. In practice that requires forecasting demand, adding a further layer of uncertainty to a measurement already hampered by a lack of timely data. Add to that the exceptional volatility in demand over the past 12 months, plus the huge uncertainties going forward, and it’s easy to see why OPEC+ focuses on stockpiles in simple volume terms.

But a target based solely on the stockpiles that are reported misses the much larger volumes that are not. Satellites and drones can be used to estimate volumes of oil held on ships or in tanks with floating roofs to build a clearer global picture, but they can’t measure volumes held underground or in tanks with fixed roofs.

So we’re left using imbalances between supply and demand numbers to estimate changes in global stockpiles. Measuring oil demand is notoriously difficult, too, as the latest monthly reports from the IEA and OPEC, both published on Thursday, show. They each made significant revisions to their estimates for 2019, creating very conflicting signals.

With no corresponding revisions to supply, the IEA’s lower demand numbers imply that global stockpiles rose higher by the middle of 2020 than they had previously thought. OPEC’s upward revision to demand for the same period reduced the size of the excess stockpile its members and allies need to tackle.

Oil price targets would make a far better goal: Julian Lee
The IEA’s changes delay the point at which global stockpiles will return to their end-2018 levels by nine months, pushing it back to the middle of 2023. OPEC’s revisions bring it forward to the third quarter of 2022. In stark contrast, the OPEC+ alliance’s monitoring committee said recently that it would be able to say “job done” as soon as this August, when, based on its own supply and demand forecasts, OECD stockpiles are expected to return to average 2015-2019 levels.

But don’t set off the fireworks just yet. Arguably, it is stockpiles in places like China and India, where demand has recovered much more quickly, that are really important. If those are coming down faster than the more visible OECD stockpiles, because of increased economic activity and cold weather, producers risk over-tightening the market without realizing it.

While pursuing a stockpile target sounds much better than chasing a price target, which inevitably opens the group up to charges of operating as a cartel, it has some huge drawbacks. The unwillingness of some countries to publish inventory levels and the difficulty of measuring oil demand in a timely manner make stock levels highly imprecise.

The producers might do better coming clean and adopting a price target. Then all they’d have to do is agree on what price suits them all!

View: Oil price targets would make a far better goal

By Julian Lee

View: Oil price targets would make a far better goal
During the first years of the deal, that created target inflation, with stock levels in the newly-added months much higher than the ones they were replacing. Over time, the very excess stockpiles they were trying to drain boosted the five-year average by 210 million barrels, or 7%. That in turn narrowed the stockpile excess by 40%, with the actual drawdown of oil from inventories accounting for only 60% of the rebalancing.

View: Oil price targets would make a far better goal
So now they’ve decided to adopt the 2015-2019 average as their latest target. But that one, too, although fixed, has several shortcomings.

View: Oil price targets would make a far better goal
The IEA’s changes delay the point at which global stockpiles will return to their end-2018 levels by nine months, pushing it back to the middle of 2023. OPEC’s revisions bring it forward to the third quarter of 2022. In stark contrast, the OPEC+ alliance’s monitoring committee said recently that it would be able to say “job done” as soon as this August, when, based on its own supply and demand forecasts, OECD stockpiles are expected to return to average 2015-2019 levels.

The producers might do better coming clean and adopting a price target. Then all they’d have to do is agree on what price suits them all!

The secret to clear, flawless, skin

Cleanse, tone, and moisturise. Avoid sugar, dairy products, animal protein, suggests Shilpa Sharma.

How to fight acne

kindly note image has been posted only for representational purposes . Photograph: Kind courtesy Pexels.com

From home remedies, expensive skincare products to cosmetic treatments, men and women around the globe go to great lengths to keep their faces fresh and skin healthy.

However, with changing weather conditions, heat and humidity can play havoc on your skin. And acne breakouts begin appearing naturally with them.

Acne, blemishes, pimples — no matter what you call it, is not good news for you.

In fact, acne is one of the top 10 skin challenges for women worldwide.

It not only scars the way you look but also your self-esteem.

Apart from giving you a compromised appearance, it signifies the breakdown of the defense system of the skin — your body’s largest organ.

While acne is more popular among teens and those with acne-prone skin, this skin condition can happen to anyone.

Its causes, intensity, and treatment are very individualistic and person-specific. But to find a cure, you must thoroughly understand what acne is.

What is acne?

The chronic inflammation of the skin, that causes spots and eruptions, especially on your face, shoulders, back, neck, chest, and upper arms, is called acne or pimples.

Acne Vulgaris is the medical name for it. This skin condition occurs when dead skin and sebum, an oily substance, plug your hair follicles.

Bacteria can trigger inflammation and infection, resulting in acne.

Capable of leaving behind scars, acne can be treated effectively, but is usually persistent.

Before you begin searching for the best acne treatment, read on to know if you are likely to get acne or not.

Types of acne and how you can fix it

A lot of people might be dealing with acne, but not everyone’s acne looks the same.

Whiteheads : A common type of acne, whiteheads are white dots that form in the follicle, due to excess sebum productionand dead skin cells.

Blackheads : Non-inflammatory acne lesions, blackheads are made of oxidised melanin and are formed when a hair follicle is clogged with sebum or dirt.

Blackheads appear as black bumps on your face, back, chest, neck, arms, and shoulders.

Papules, pustules or nodules : When your skin has clogged pores and the acne bacteria multiply in the pores, the immune system sends in white blood cells to fight the infection.

This makes the surrounding area inflamed, red, and swollen. This is called inflammatory acne and that’s what papules, pustules, or nodules are.

These are often painful and feel hard.

Cysts : Cyst is an uncommon type of acne. It happens when the infection goes deep into the skin, creating a red, tender bump, full of pus.

What causes acne?

Acne-causing triggers are usually the same for everyone. Yet, some individuals are more susceptible to getting breakouts due to larger pores or overactive oil glands.

Such a skin type, that easily breakouts into blemishes, is called an acne-prone skin. And it needs specialised acne prone skin care routine.

No one factor causes acne. While the cause of acne may be different for you, depending upon your skin type, health conditions, it can be different for someone else.

1. Hormones

Many teenagers who hit puberty face acne breakouts as a regular phenomenon.

Androgens play a major role in teenage acne. The rise in androgen levels, at this stage in life, can trigger a process of higher sebum production.

This changes skin cell activity, making skin glands larger and causing inflammation or acne. Hormonal imbalance can cause acne in adults as well.

Expert tip : If you experience acne mostly during pregnancy, menopause, and around periods, then it could be a possibility that you are going through hormonal abnormalities.

It is advised to get your blood test done for knowing any hormonal fluctuations in the body.

2. Harsh products

Often hair styling products seep oil onto the forehead. This leads to the trapping of acne-causing bacteria in the pores, resulting in breakouts.

Similarly; some skincare products may cause irritated pores, causing inflammation and redness.

Rich creams or heavy makeup are often the culprits here.

Also, switching products too often challenges the skin with new preservatives. This too can result in pimples.

Expert tip : Several studies have claimed that widely used skincare products such as sulfate and parabens are not good for your skin. These ingredients exacerbate the acne by clogging the pores.

Opting for sulfate and parabens free products is a secret tip to keep your skin safe from unwanted breakouts.

3. Facial hair

Bumpy skin is common after a hair removal procedure.

Removal of facial hair can irritate the hair follicles and cause an rash.

In addition, topical products applied to your skin before or after hair removal can be comedogenic and further clog pores, resulting in breakouts.

Expert tip : Facial hair creates unhygienic skin conditions, which further allow the germination of acne-causing bacteria.

Hence, removing facial hair can minimise the risk of acne.

In this case, natural home remedies are considered an effective solution to get rid of facial hair.

4. Stress

When the mind is stressed, the body releases increased levels of acne-causing hormones — androgens — stimulating oil glands and hair follicles. Together, these increase the chances of an acne attack.

Expert tip : Practicing deep breathing pranayama is truly a great idea to lower your stress levels.

Another benefit of breathing techniques is that it also helps to improve your skin glow and radiance.

5. Medicines/Antibiotics

Some medicines, consumed to treat a totally different medical issue, can have a side effect, causing acne.

Expert tip : You should make an appointment with your doctor if you observe that you are getting acne after the use of certain medications.

6. Diet

Bad eating habits can cause breakouts on your skin.

People with diets high in dairy products, sweets, rice, bread, potatoes, and pasta are most likely to develop acne.

Expert tip : As per skin care experts, switching to a low glycemic diet such as green vegetables is quite effective to reduce acne caused by diet.

7. Sun

Prolonged and direct exposure to the sun dries up the skin, triggering more production of oil to compensate, thereby causing pimples.

Expert tip : Slathering on a broad-spectrum sunscreen with non-comedogenic properties can keep your skin safe from sun damage and acne.

8. Humidity

Humidity levels in the air do not let sweat evaporate easily.

As a result, the sebaceous glands work overtime due to the heat. This clogs pores and forms acne.

Expert tip : In moist or humid weather, sebum production increases which lead to sudden acne breakouts.

Using the oil control wash for acne-prone skin may help to balance the oil levels in the skin

9. Detox system

Sweat glands, digestion, urinary system, and liver dispose of toxins of the body.

In case one system becomes sluggish and fails to do its job completely, the extra toxins come out of the skin, causing skin damage and acne.

Expert tip : Intake of green detox smoothies is quite effective to flush out all deposited toxins and impurities from the body.

How to take care of acne prone skin

Acne is not just as simple as an eruption on your skin or a shiny T-Zone. It is actually a sign that something else is going on in your body.

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution for acne or a single foolproof best acne treatment.

To get rid of acne, you will first need to solve the issue causing it. Here’s how you can make a start.

1. Discover the right skin care regimen

Cleanse, tone, and moisturise. Opt for acne prone skin care products and an acne prone skin care routine to maintain skin hygiene.

Also, if you tend to get acne often, a complicated skincare routine won’t help. Stick to the basics, do it regularly, and stay acne-free.

2. Remember to exfoliate

While you must be careful not to over scrub your skin; basic exfoliation helps prevent acne.

Exfoliation removes dead skin cells that clog pores and cause pimples. Sticking to twice a week routine is good enough.

3. Choose suitable products

It is not necessary that everything suits your skin. Especially if your skin is acne-prone, always choose a product with no harsh ingredients.

Opt for special acne formulated products that can remove acne-causing bacteria but are also gentle on the skin.

4. Eat wisely

What you eat has a lot to do with how your skin behaves. Indulge in an anti-inflammatory diet, which includes:

Complex carbohydrates: Brown rice, red and yellow peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, apricots, and legumes.
Vitamins A, D, and E: Tuna, liver, cream, feta cheese, butter, eggs, almonds, peanuts, and broccoli.
Zinc: Chickpeas, beans, seeds like pumpkin and sunflower, meat and shellfish.
Probiotics like yogurt and buttermilk.

Avoid acne-aggravating foods such as:

Sugar
Dairy products
Fast food
Chocolate
Greasy foods
Refined grains
Animal protein

5. Hydrate your skin

Drinking good amounts of water enhances the hydration of the outer layer of your skin, thereby reducing skin dryness and roughness.

It also helps toxins to leave your body via your urinary system. This detoxes the body and keeps breakouts at bay.

Your physical appearance definitely impacts your professional as well as personal life. There is no better confidence booster than an acne-free skin.

Instead of fretting about how you look, opt for effective skin care topical products that can treat your acne for good.

Shilpa Sharma represents Re’equil India Private Limited, a skincare and haircare brand.

Glycolic acid creams: Fight the early signs of aging, fine lines, wrinkles

Glycolic acid has become a trendy expression these days in the skincare industry. Glycolic acid creams can exfoliate and revive your skin. This acid enters deep into your skin effectively and helps in lessening wrinkles, fine lines, and early signs of maturing just as removing dead skin cells. It effectively infiltrates the skin and relaxes the paste-like substance that keeps the dead cells joined to the highest layer of the skin. In this way, it helps in uncovering fresher, better skin while stimulating new cell age.

Reviva Labs 5% Glycolic Acid Cream

Reviva Labs contains 5% progressed glycolic acid, which is simply ideal for treating both skin issues just as maturing skin. The best thing about this expert strength cream is that it has 100% glycolic corrosive concentrate as original capacity precious stones. This enters the outside of the skin all the more viably. Besides, the glycolic corrosive polymers are available in a characteristic base, which is important for improved shedding just as better cell recharging.

Glenmark Demelan cream

Glenmark Demelan cream is safe to utilize. This cream contains Glycolic Acid Arbutin, Kojic Acid which is an anti-pigmentation cream. It helps to decrease hyperpigmentation and helps to reduce dark spots brought about by the sun.

Bare Body Essentials Stretch Marks Cream

Stretch marks are a typical issue in ladies who experience pregnancy, intense weight changes, or hormonal imbalances because of loss of flexibility of the skin and absence of hydration. Reestablish your skin to wonder with the Barebody Essentials Stretch Marks Cream advanced with characteristic fixings like cocoa margarine, glycolic acid, and shea butter to mollify, hydrate, and shed skin, consequently reestablishing versatility and forestalling the presence of stretch imprints. It profoundly feeds, saturates, and renews collagen.

Kaya Clinic Purifying Spot Corrector

An intense item that assists dry with increasing skin break out for the time being and gives moment results by lessening bothering and irritation on the influenced region. Targets oil and sheds pores to clear dynamic skin break out while glycolic corrosive peels the skin to give you smoother, more clear skin.

DISCLAIMER: The Times of India’s journalists were not involved in the production of this article.

BE The Change: P&G’s plan to put more women behind the camera and get more men to do laundry

P&G recently announced a commitment to achieve equal representation of female directors behind the camera for its advertisements in India over the next three years. In 2018, the company’s global brand officer Marc Pritchard pledged to bring in more gender equality in the workplace and in the work. The company committed to expanding pledges like Free The Bid, to have one female director in every triple bid on a commercial project. In India, P&G is just beginning to operationalize these initiatives and accelerate the pace of change. So far, the list of women directors P&G has worked with include Gauri Shinde, Akanksha Seda, Farah Khan, Sandhya Daisy Sundaram, Surya Balakrishnan, Sohini Dasgupta and Tanvi Gandhi.

As part of a Brand Equity special project – ‘ Be The Change ’ that’s focused on gender equality and inclusivity in marketing and advertising, we caught up with P&G India’s chief marketing officer Sharat Verma who shed light on the company’s measures to make faster progress in areas it can influence directly.

In an exclusive interaction with BE, Verma talks about one of the world’s biggest advertisers’ goal to put more women behind the camera and more men in front of the washing machine. He also spotlighted the importance of shattering biases and shaving stereotypes in advertising, even if it means having a section of consumers flush their Gillette razors down the toilet. We asked him if it’s all worth it?: Despite the threat of a backlash and boycott by consumers who don’t want their brand of razor or sneaker to have a point of view on masculinity or politics.

The bottom line: Brave advertising needs brave marketers willing to face outrage for a greater cause.

Edited for length and clarity.

What are the new commitments set for India at the #WeSeeEqual summit?

Ads impact how people perceive the world. That’s why it’s very important for us, as one of the biggest advertisers in the world, to accurately portray women and their roles in our advertising. We know that when we do that our ads are more relatable and they build trust for brands.

Over the years we’ve solved for gender imbalance in our marketing teams. We now have equal representation of men and women in our marketing teams, globally. We want to bring that quality to our advertising production process. Over time, this will lead to more accurate portrayals of women in advertising and reduce biases.

We want 50% of the advertising production in P&G India to be led and directed by women. The current number stands at about 25%. We plan to expand the talent pool — find, train and develop new talent, and we want to lean forward and provide opportunities to directors to work on big projects.

From an operationalisation aspect, what are the biggest hurdles?

The biggest challenge is to break the cycle of opportunities to work on big projects that need experience and experience needs opportunities. Very few women directors have been able to come out of this cycle. So we need to identify and work with young women directors. We’ve planned a host of activities including workshops and sessions with senior women directors speaking to the next generation on how to scale up and work on bigger projects. There’s a host of stuff that needs to be done. We want to make sure we can be the change we want to see.

A lot has been said about the purpose of purpose-led advertising. How have P&G brands that have an overt gender equality theme in advertising performed?

At P&G we made a choice to use our voice in advertising as a force for good and force for growth. We believe the best way to break through the clutter of thousands of ads is to step up and use our voice as a force for good. Consumers expect more from brands than just functional benefits. They expect brands to have a point of view and support them on issues that are important to them. 9 out of 10 consumers care about a brand that supports a social cause. 6 out of 10 consumers choose brands based on the stand they take on social and cultural truths.

We have been actively working to drive conversations around equality at home, in office and in education – Ariel with ‘Share The Load’ since 2015, Vicks (transgender rights, adoption and children with special needs), Whisper (works in education and breaking period taboos) and Gillette’s ‘Shaving Stereotypes’. We also make sure that we don’t reinforce stereotypes in our advertising for other brands like Tide. In fact, we have more men doing laundry in ads than women.

In 2014, 79% of men thought that doing laundry is a woman’s job. It’s down to 41% in 2020. We still have a long way to go.

What’s really important, however, is to be authentic and consistent. To drive any change you need to be consistent, and it takes time. We are willing to engage in conversations over time and willing to take a bit of heat now and then.

It always pays off. Our most successful brands are brands that have been advocating gender equality actively for years.

Facing outrage, backlash and boycotts over ads – is it all worth it then?

We are okay with that. There’s no worthwhile debate if people aren’t disagreeing with you. It’s best to engage in conversation. Conversations lead to sharing of information that leads to people understanding each other better. And you always come out in a better place. We are never afraid of people not agreeing with us. We care to do the right thing and to use our voice to drive equality and inclusion to create a world where communities grow, businesses prosper and everyone thrives.

BE The Change

A special Brand Equity project that addresses the issue of gender inequality in the workplace and in the work. The project spotlights how people are confronting injustices, empowering each other and sharing visions of change.
It’s an unfair world. Learn how we can fix it and how we can win. Together.

In the name of the cow: What motivates

‘It’s not only holy reverence that drives them to such vigilantism — there is adventure too.’ gau rakshak s enjoy the thrill of the chase: Stopping vehicles, wielding weapons, badgering passengers and then gloating.’

Gau rakshaks get tip-offs about possible cow smugglers in the area on their mobile phones. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

IMAGE: Gau rakshak s get tip-offs about possible cow smugglers in the area on their mobile phones. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

“Do you see these bullet marks? I was driving that night.”

At first glance, Dinesh Arya seems an unremarkable man. Dressed in a white dhoti-kurta , the light moustache and stubble fail to hide the wrinkles that have begun to form on his face.

Wrapped around his right wrist is a thick coil of red sacred thread, and he walks around with a swagger, often ordering others around him.

During the day, Arya performs the role of priest at Dayanand Math, a spiritual home located in the heart of Rohtak, Haryana.

As dusk falls, the 34 year old and his team of volunteers, mostly hulking men in their 20s, cram themselves in a rugged SUV and set off for the highway on gasht , or patrol.

They carry a small armory with themselves — hockey sticks, baseball bats and licensed firearms — to rescue cows from smugglers and traffickers.

“A couple of weeks ago, there was a gun battle that lasted two-and-a-half hours,” says Arya, comfortable in the cool environs of his cluttered office.

On his desk, a bunch of new volunteer identity cards lies strewn. “We need to provide some identification to the police. They ask all sorts of questions. This helps our boys,” he adds with nonchalance.

As general secretary of the Haryana Gau Raksha Dal, grisly street fights are routine for Arya and his zealots.

Mostly, they use a few indicators to nab traffickers: Low-riding vehicles, stench of cow urine and cars minus number plates and illuminated rear lights.

Arya talks about these things with stoical calm, not once does any fear show on his unruffled visage.

Often, confrontations with traffickers, who also roam around in groups and carry weapons of their own, end in grief.

Arya leads me to a spacious room inside the math whose walls are occupied by portraits of ‘martyrs’ who lost their lives in their attempts to save the cow.

Gau rakshaks out on a patrol in Ramgarh, Rajasthan. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

IMAGE: Gau rakshak s out on a patrol in Ramgarh, Rajasthan. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

The Gau Raksha Dal of Rohtak is among the hundreds of self-styled cow-protection units operating across the country.

In the last year or so, they have become known not so much for their attempts at sheltering cows from ‘savage’ smugglers and meat traders but for their tendency to turn violent and target individuals without substantial proof.

The incident in Alwar in Rajasthan, where a Muslim dairy farmer was allegedly bludgeoned to death by a group of gau rakshak s, or cow protectors, is the most recent example of this vigilantism.

‘Not my Hinduism’ should be our slogan’

In Gujarat’s Una last year, four Dalit men were beaten with iron rods by gau rakshak s for skinning a dead cow, a profession they had followed for many generations. The brutality was captured on video that went viral, drawing several alarmist reactions.

In fact, the Alwar episode has managed to spook some of these seemingly undaunted men.

” Par aap ko kaam kya hai? (What is it that you exactly need?),” asks Naveen Sharma furiously and repeatedly over the phone, his tone one of uncomfortable apprehension.

Sharma is national general secretary of the Bharatiya Gau Raksha Dal, an organisation that claims to have a presence in more than 20 states, and was founded by Pawan Pandit, a little-known software-engineer-turned-activist, a few years ago.

‘A cow’s life is more precious than a human being’s’

After much coaxing, Sharma agrees to a meeting in a somewhat deserted parking lot on the outskirts of Panchkula near Chandigarh.

Sporting a choti and tilak on his forehead, Sharma quickly moves into the rear seat. A 20-something volunteer-cum-driver pours out two glasses of Pepsi for us and exits the car.

Cows rescued by gau rakshaks, allegedly from cow smugglers. Photograph: Alllison Joyce/Getty Images

IMAGE: Cows rescued by gau rakshak s, allegedly from cow smugglers. Photograph: Alllison Joyce/Getty Images

“We have 6,000 to 7,000 volunteers across the country,” Sharma begins, “We don’t believe in violence, and hit the streets only when we get a tip-off. The matter is then taken forward by the police.”

The desire to save the cow, which is like a mother to devout Hindus, motivates youngsters to join such brigades in large numbers, seasoned gau rakshak s say.

Senjal Mehta, a 29-year-old scrap dealer from Rajkot, says that his religious belief and the sentiments attached to the cow drove him to join the Akhil Vishwa Gau Samvardhan Samiti and Bholebaba Gau Seva Samiti, two organisations that operate out of Saurashtra.

““As a Hindu, the cow is holy for us and doing anything for it is virtuous for me. Preventing cow slaughter is my duty. I don’t care what others think of me and what I do,” says Mehta. He proudly declares that he beat up a man for harming a cow just a few days back.

Is this the India we want?

Gau rakshaks on the prowl. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

IMAGE: Gau rakshak s on the prowl. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

Across Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat thrives a fluidly linked network of gau rakshak s. Most of their chieftains know each other, information is swiftly transferred through WhatsApp and other forms of social media, and these groups are quick to help each other in an emergency.

Several of these organisations bear the same name, and affiliations are often intertwined.

Still, there are differences over the right approach. Surender Sharma, who runs his own gaushaala , located on a downhill stretch of the road that leads to Shimla from Panchkula, has been rescuing cows and rehabilitating them since 2005, but not in the sword-brandishing, slogan-shouting manner that now seems to have become the norm.

“There is nothing wrong in the intention, but there are certain elements that are erring in the execution. Violence is unacceptable,” he says.

Sharma adds that to be a sevak , as so many of the gau rakshak s claim to be, one doesn’t need the spotlight. “Some of these people do everything apart from saving the cow.”

A policeman hugs a gau rakshak after the gau rakshaks chased down a truck that was smuggling cows in Ramgarh, Rajasthan. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

IMAGE: A policeman hugs a gau rakshak after the gau rakshak s chased down a truck that was smuggling cows in Ramgarh, Rajasthan. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

Gau rakshak s in India have existed for several decades, but such organisations have mushroomed ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power at the Centre almost three years ago.

Old-timers such as Sharma say that fringe elements have now come to the fore.

There is outright denial to such accusations by the cow vigilantes. “We’ve been doing the same thing for the last so many years. Nothing has changed. There is perhaps a concerted effort to push us into the public glare for some political gain,” says Arya.

The incidents in Alwar and Una, he adds, were politically motivated and did not involve any gau rakshak at all.

In fact, more than the current BJP government led by Manohar Lal Khattar, gau rakshak s in Haryana say the previous government treated them better.

“Under Bhupinder Singh Hooda ( of the Congress ), there was greater support. He even spoke about equipping all gau rakshak s with weapons,” says Naveen Sharma of Panchkula. “Whatever this government does is only for show.”

Khattar’s readiness to introduce a special dispensation that will allow foreigners to eat beef in the state has found support. “The foreigners can lock themselves up in a room and eat whatever they want. But we will not allow locals to consume beef,” Naveen Sharma intones.

Other BJP-run states throw up a similar picture. In Chhattisgarh, the first state in the country to enforce the ban on cow slaughter, buffaloes and their progeny, there is visible discontent among gau rakshak s, despite Chief Minister Raman Singh’s vow to hang the culprits.

Stones placed on the road to halt trucks that could be carrying cows. The gau rakshaks stand by with weapons. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

IMAGE: Stones placed on the road to halt trucks that could be carrying cows. The gau rakshak s stand by with weapons. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

“The law is not strictly enforced because of the authorities’ callous approach,” says Omen Bisen, state convener of the Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Gau Raksha Wing. “Even if the volunteers nab the people involved in cow smuggling, the police fail in lodging even FIRs.”

In refreshing contrast to some of his associates, there is nothing intimidating about Amit Kumar Joshi who heads the Mohali chapter of the Bharatiya Gau Raksha Dal. He readily agrees to a meeting at the Devki Nandan Gaushaala, flanked by swanky car showrooms.

“It is very simple. If the police do their job, we don’t have to step in. Why would anyone leave home in the middle of the night and fight these people?” asks Joshi, dressed in an embroidered pink kurta and blessed with a genial persona.

Joshi’s defence of cow protection revolves around scientific reasons. “In villages across the country, every household has a cow that helps sustain it financially,” says Joshi.

“Why kill it?”

In some ways, cow vigilantism is a sorry reflection of state administrative failures.

In other ways, as some locals contend, it is plain bullying.

The police are often caught in the crossfire between the gau rakshak s and meat transporters.

“We get open threats from both parties,” says a sub-inspector of the Punjab police. “And they both have political backing. Plus, their battles are like gang wars. Nobody wants to interfere.”

Gau rakshak s, though, insist the police let smugglers slip through by taking bribes.

Cows injured in a <em>gau rakshak</em> operation are treated for their injuries at a cow shelter. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

IMAGE: Cows injured in a gau rakshak operation are treated for their injuries at a cow shelter. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images

It’s not only holy reverence and supervisory ineptness that drives them to such vigilantism — there is adventure too.

Some of the younger gau rakshak s enjoy the thrill of the chase: Stopping vehicles, wielding weapons, badgering passengers and then gloating.

“A few of the younger boys come from rich landlord families and don’t have jobs. But they have the gusto to do something like this, which their bosses like,? says an officer of the Haryana police.

Most of these volunteers are paid no stipend, gau rakshak organisations claim.

Despite the deterioration in law and order in these states, meat transporters — most of them Muslims — have been left unnerved. “That’s why we need weapons. We need to create that fear,” says Arya.

Several vigilante organisations upload videos of them rescuing cattle and then flogging the traffickers.

These videos are then circulated widely, all with the purpose of invoking terror.

In fact, Satish Kumar, the thickly mustachioed, gun-slinging chief of the Punjab Gau Raksha Dal, was slapped with multiple charges — including abduction and sodomy — and arrested from Vrindavan in August last year.

One of the charges levelled against him included thrashing people in a video in the name of cow protection.

At the organisation’s headquarters in Rajpura in Punjab, hefty young men with rippling muscles go about their exercise routine in unison. None of them wants to talk about what happened.

A scene from the horrific incident in Alwar, Rajasthan, where Pehlu Khan was beaten to death by a group of gau rakshaks.

IMAGE: A scene from the horrific incident in Alwar, Rajasthan, where Pehlu Khan was beaten to death by a group of gau rakshak s.

Most gau rakshak s refuse to tag cow protection as an issue that inevitably pits Hindus against Muslims.

“I have Muslim friends who revere the cow more than I do. What does that tell you?” asks Joshi.

Pandit carefully states that his organisation is neither anti-Muslim nor anti-Dalit.

Yet, their commitment to their goal remains steadfast.

As afternoon starts to set in on the lush green lawns at Dayanand Math, Arya gets one of his attendants to fix the engine of his patrolling jeep, the one with the smashed windowpanes and bullet holes.

He then gets someone else to drape his saffron turban before getting behind the wheel and driving off with a volunteer in tow.

Ask him if he has ever feared for his life and Arya offers a sterling testament to the cause he has chosen to pursue.

“When it comes to your mother, nothing matters. We can do absolutely anything.”

R Krishna Das in Raipur and Vimukt Dave in Ahmedabad contributed to this report.

MORE FEATURES in the RELATED LINKS BELOW…

Why the CH-47F Chinook gives Indian pilots a high

The CH-47F version of the Chinook that India is buying from the United States is a high-tech marvel.

IMAGE: A CH-47 Chinook lifts a vehicle into the air. Photograph: Staff Sergeant Nicholas Oposnow/Michigan National Guard

O n August 31, wrapping up his three-day visit to the United States, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar flew from Washington to Philadelphia to visit Boeing’s rotorcraft facility, where India’s Chinook helicopters will be built, starting next year.

Business Standard visited the Philadelphia unit ahead of that visit.

Parrikar was taken to a former locomotive manufacturing plant, which Boeing has transformed into a state-of-the-art Chinook production line.

An empty section is draped with an Indian tricolour and a poster that read: ‘India: Restarting the Alt(ernate) Line in 2017.’

India’s billion-dollar contract for 15 Chinook CH-47F medium lift helicopters, signed on September 28, 2015, requires Boeing to deliver the first chopper in 36 months and the final one before 48 months — in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

This will mark another shift in the Indian Air Force, which has traditionally used Soviet and Russian aircraft for medium and heavy airlift.

IMAGE: US army CH-47 Chinook helicopters take off laden with paratroopers. Photograph: Spc Michael Cox/US Army

O ver the last five years, American C-130J Super Hercules and C-17 Globemaster III muscled into the fixed wing aircraft fleet.

From 2018 onwards, Russian Mi-17 helicopters will be joined by that iconic American workhorse — the CH-47F Chinook.

Simultaneously, the IAF will induct 22 Apache AH-64E attack helicopters, which Boeing builds in Arizona.

Since 1962, when the Chinook first appeared on the Vietnam battlefield, its ungainly shape and tandem rotors have made it the world’s most recognisable combat helicopter.

Fifty-four years and numerous versions later, the US Army has declared the Chinook will remain in service into the 2060s.

By then, it would have been in active service for a century.

Yet, the CH-47F version of the Chinook that India is buying is a high-tech marvel, a world removed from the CH-47A of the 1960s.

The CH-47F has an electronic brain called the Digital Flight Control System that precisely positions a hovering Chinook at the edge of a cliff, or above the roof of a mud hut, enabling soldiers or cargo to be discharged with unmatched precision.

Explains Leland Wight, a former Chinook pilot, who is now a Boeing manager: “In the CH-47D, I would be hovering, while a crewmember would look through a vent in the floor and call out directions: ‘back, three feet; left two feet’.”

“In the CH-47F,” he adds, “the DFICS does it all. The pilot just presses a ‘beep switch’ that shifts the helicopter in precise one-foot increments — up, down, sideways. We hover with total precision.”

IMAGE: US army officers discuss route options while flying a newly acquired CH-47F Chinook helicopter. Photograph: Staff Sergeant Roby Di Giovine/US Army National Guard

W hat most impressed Indian test pilots, say the Chinook veterans working for Boeing, was its ability to carry 10 tons of cargo, or up to 50 troops.

In a conventional helicopter, 10 per cent of the power is wasted in driving the tail rotor, which prevents the helicopter from spinning.

The Chinook is stabilised by two contra-rotating main rotors, so all the engine power translates into lift.

IAF pilots tell Business Standard that the Chinook’s best feature, given India’s high Himalayan border, is its superb high-altitude performance.

Boeing pilots in Philadelphia recount flying a Chinook over the top of Mount McKinley in Alaska — America’s highest mountain at 20,300 feet.

Its power allows the Chinook to air-transport a 155-millimetre howitzer, hanging from a sling under the helicopter.

This lets tactical commanders move artillery guns to inaccessible areas, providing crucial fire support to troops in extreme altitudes.

Another thoughtful Chinook feature is the positioning of its rear rotors, 18 feet above the ground. That allows large trucks to drive up to the helicopter’s rear ramp, and load or unload, while the rotor is spinning.

IMAGE: US army paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade hook a bundle to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. Photograph: VI Specialist Massimo Bovo/US Army

I ndia’s billion dollar order has generated about $300 million in offset liabilities for Boeing.

To discharge these, Boeing is sourcing parts from three Indian private manufacturers.

Dynamatic Technologies builds ramps and pylons for every Chinook being built today; Rossell Techsys fabricates wire harnesses and Tata Advanced Systems supplies crowns and tailcones.

Boeing executives say, “Every Chinook unit that returns from Afghanistan or Iraq comes to us for ‘after action reviews’. We ask the pilots, the crew and maintenance crews what works well; what would they like changed, and what would you tell us to never, ever change. The one thing that everyone praises is DFICS. They say they can do missions today that they would never have tried earlier.”

Muscle imbalance how to fix

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