Inclusive strategy needed to sustain current growth rate'

V. Sajeev Kumar, Kochi, Nov. 27, The Hindu Business Line

The Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, has said that the present growth rate has to be sustained for the next 10-15 years to address major problems such as poverty, illiteracy, diseases and other backwardness.

To address these problems, it requires inclusive growth strategies that must be enacted, implemented and lead to entitlement and rights of the marginalised section, he said.
The Finance Minister was delivering the inaugural address at the 42 {+n} {+d} Regional Conference of Southern India Regional Council of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India here on Saturday.

The Government has ensured certain essential rights for the people. Right to Information, Right to Job, Right to Universal Education, are some the measures taken up by the Government.
Mr Mukherjee said the Government is also contemplating public private partnership (PPP) models that are the best for sustainable growth for 120 crore people. Such efforts needed to be in place by identifying the challenges and opportunities.

He said that the economy is on a growth path at a rate of 8.5 per cent, despite the global financial crisis and internal slowdown. The booming stock market, resurgent manufacturing sector, expanding financial sector speak of the economy's growth.On the proposed Direct Tax Code Bill, he said the Bill is now before the Parliament Standing Committee, and has been put on the website of the Government last year. Based on the suggestions by the people, necessary modifications have been made and presented before the Standing Committee.

372 million : India's poor

372 million Indians will be categorised as poor in the proposed National Food Security Act, the Planning Commission said on Saturday. The new poverty estimate — based on access to food, education and health — will not change the urban poverty figure but for rural India, the number of poor would increase from 28.3 per cent to 41.8 per cent. It would mean that additional 97 million people would get subsidised food grains, once the proposed law is implemented, increasing the government’s food subsidy bill by around Rs 20,000 crore, to Rs 75,000 crore.

The proposed law guarantees 25 kg of food grains only to below poverty line families. As of now, 275 million poor Indians get up to 35 kg in subsidised food grains from the government-run fair price shops. The Right to Food campaign rejected the decision, saying “entitlement to food should not be linked with poverty estimation”. “We insist access to food should be universal,” said campaigner Anuradha Talwar.

Right to vote for patients and indoor attendants

Bhopal this week had urban body elections. While the election fever was on peak and post election everybody is ‘waiting in wings’ for the results. Dainik Bhaskar, a hindi daily of MP had brought an interesting issue to discourse in its supplement DBSTAR on December 12, 2009 a day after the election was over.

Reporters had surveyed 17 district hospitals of Bhopal and calculated that more than 5547 people could not vote either they themselves were in hospital or they were attending a patient in Bhopal. Out of the hospital surveyed 1564 were patients while 3983 were their attendants. It is not that many did not want to vote, they wanted but there is no mechanism in place to do so. One who were recovering in the hospital were keen to be part of the main process, ones who immobile but still wanted that they should vote. For some it was missing the boat as they were attending to near and dear ones, which was more important. Many of them as per the media report felt that if there is some facility like mobile voting unit or postal ballot, they would like to vote.

If one looks back, election commission had set up a voting station for one voter and three voters during general elections, here in Bhopal it is 5547 voters, figure would go in millions if one adds in cities which needs to look into it. It is their right. It is not that all will favor, it may have opposition but a debate which needs to be taken forward !

Death, illness and daughter's marriage push families to poverty

Death, health and social shocks identified as key reasons for households falling into poverty; People falling into poverty undermining impact of anti poverty measures

World Bank Report 'Moving out of Poverty : The Promise of Empowerment and Democracy in India' analyses questions like How do poor people define poverty? Who is poor and who isn’t? What factors, according to the poor, help them escape poverty and what push them into it. The Report brings together voices of more than 30,000 women and men from 300 villages across Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal between 1995 and 2005. It focuses on poor people’s interactions with local level institutions, social, political and economic and how these facilitate or hinder attempts to move out of poverty.

According to the study, poor people in the four Indian states cited well-functioning local democratic structures such as rural panchayats as critical in helping them move out of poverty. People in Uttar Pradesh reported that an improvement in the local government’s attention to citizens’ concerns increased their likelihood of moving out of poverty by 6 percent. By contrast, they felt that an increase in a household head’s education level, from illiteracy to primary schooling or from primary to secondary schooling, improved the family’s chances of moving up by only 3 percent.

Among the factors that depressed their chances of moving out of poverty, corruption was rated by them as lowering the likelihood of moving out by 10 percent. Jobs (26.6%), individual initiatives in agriculture (19.8%), individual initiatives in non-agriculture (13.7%) and multiple sources of income (12.0%), were cited as the key reasons for families moving out of poverty. Interestingly, a large number of youth interviewed, showed low preference for agriculture as a future career, opting instead for business and government jobs. In Uttar Pradesh, 41% wanted to start a new business, while 37% of the youth showed preference for government jobs. In West Bengal and Assam, these two options together accounted for 76% and 83% respectively. The study also explored the various triggers for households falling into poverty.

According to the people interviewed, death and health shocks (34%) followed by social shocks including family divisions and expenses towards marriages of children (27%) and financial setbacks such as high debt or the failure of crops (18%) were some of the main reasons for descents into poverty. Even in the household survey data, such shocks along with a decline in the overall state of the local economy emerged as strong associates of falling. Many of the poor people covered by the study reported that their initiatives to change their conditions often came up against blocked opportunities. Local democracies, they said, made a difference only to a chosen few as governance at the local level often descended into no more than a contest for spoils. Who benefited and who lost – in terms of access to markets, business licenses, jobs or support - depended largely on the local context. In Uttar Pradesh for instance, the local people suggested that caste affiliations played a role, while in West Bengal, they considered membership in the ruling party to be critical. The report finds that while India has continued to record steady progress in reducing poverty in recent decades, vulnerability remains a major issue. Focusing only on aggregate data can lead to sub-optimal policy actions as it masks the process of churning at the grassroots, where some people manage to climb out of poverty while others fall into it.

The study finds that when responsive local governments and economic opportunities match individual initiative and hard work, poor people’s journey out of poverty can be greatly facilitated. A combination of fair elections, improved access to information about local government programs, and collective action through organizations like women’s self-help groups can go a long way in unleashing the power of local democracy. The research also stresses the importance of reducing the rates of fall into poverty and underlines the urgency of devising new strategies to do so – including social and health insurance programs as well as improved access to savings and credit instruments.

India's H1N1 situation update

Press Information Bureau release, June 13, 2009 - World Health Organization has reported 29,699 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza A/H1N1 infection from74 countries as on 12th June 2009. There have been 145 deaths. (No further update is available from WHO). Health screening of passengers coming from affected countries is continuing in 21 International airports. 47339 passengers have been screened on 13.6.2009. Around 26482 passengers were from affected countries. 221 doctors and 111 paramedics have been deployed to man 76 counters at the above airports.

The six year old girl child who travelled from New York reflected in yesterday’s report has also tested positive at NIV, Pune. One and half year old brother of this girl who travelled in the same flight has also tested positive. Both children remain admitted to the identified health facility and are stable. So far samples of 240 persons have been tested of which seventeen have been tested positive for novel Influenza A [H1N1]. Of these, two are indigenous cases who got the infection from the positive cases traveled from abroad. The rest of the samples have been found negative for the novel virus. Among the 240 tested, 82 were identified through health screening at International Airports and the rest were samples from persons who have self reported. Of the 17 cases nine have been discharged. Rest of the passengers are all stable and remain admitted to the identified health facility. The situation is being monitored.

After Aila, cyclone in North Indian Ocean will be called Phyan

The next cyclone to hit countries in the north Indian Ocean region will be called Phyan. The one which hit West Bengal and Bangladesh was called Aila. Aila was name given by Maldives while Phyan is a name given by Myanmar.The practice of naming cyclones began years ago in order to help in the quick identification of storms in warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to remember than numbers and technical terms.

Cyclones derive their names through a systematic procedure laid out by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Met officials in fact have decided the names of cyclones till 2009-end. Eight north Indian Ocean countries - Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand - have prepared a list of 64 names. When a cyclone hits these countries, the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC), housed in the IMD office in New Delhi picks up the name next on the list. The RSMC has been set up in Delhi by the WMO for forecasting tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Since 2004, the eight countries have faced 19 cyclones. The countries take turns in naming the cyclones. The last six were: Sidr (named by Oman), Nargis (Pakistan), Rashmi (Sri Lanka), Khai-Muk (Thailand), Nisha (Bangladesh) and Bijli (India).

All these countries meet once in two years and review the progress of cyclones and how many cyclones there were. Every country reports its assessment of the cyclones and then they arrive at a mutual plan of action, which includes creation of a database for the names to be given to tropical cyclones.

Ragging: Can we ever solve this problem?

Harsh Agarwal

In July 2008, CURE analysed the ragging incidents of past 5 years and did a comparative study with the cases reported after the Supreme Court judgment in May, 2007. It was shocking to know that even after the SC judgment, 11 cases of death due to ragging and 5 cases of attempted suicides were reported by the media and there was no significant decrease in ragging. After making so much effort to curb ragging, whenever a fresh case is reported it makes everyone think as to why we are still not able to successfully deal with this menace? It makes us feel disappointed to comprehend the fact that the most educated section of our society is involved in one of the worst form of human rights abuse. Let us understand some of the important fundamental issues associated with ragging which are essential to be understood and addressed if we really want to get rid of this social menace. These are the issues which have been ignored or have not been addressed with the right spirit.


Anonymity of the Complainant: This is the first step to solve the menace and one of the key elements if we want to encourage the fresher to report any incident of ragging. There is tremendous fear in the minds of the freshers and huge possibility of backlash because of which the fresher decides to tolerate ragging and as a result almost 99.99% of the ragging cases go unreported and problem remains suppressed. Provisions like putting a compliant box or expecting the fresher to report the incident to anti ragging cell/committee don’t work because such provisions fail to convince the fresher of complete anonymity and his /her safety.

The best way to tackle this problem is by making it mandatory for every college in the country to do a weekly/fortnightly anonymous survey of the entire first year batch to find out if any sort of ragging is taking place in their college. The idea is to encourage the students by approaching the entire batch and maintaining absolute anonymity rather than waiting for a whistle blower to come forward and report the incident. Unless we make this important provision, the college authorities will continue to live in oblivion and feel that ragging is not a problem in their institution.

Awareness: This is another key element in solving this problem. Ragging is still not considered as social evil and law cannot help in doing so but awareness can. Though ragging has been banned but since the time it has been banned there is an atmosphere of confusion prevailing in the campus. There is confusion as to what is ragging what is not; what will happen to the senior–junior interaction in the absence of ragging. Reason as to why ragging has been banned, what are the ill effects of ragging, what is its origin? Where did it come from? – These questions have not been answered and can never be answered by simply distributing pamphlets giving details about the provisions of punishment or about the contact details of anti ragging committee members. Perhaps that is why several students still believe that this ban has been unnecessarily imposed on them. It is therefore very important to disseminate right information about ragging, about its origin, highlight its ill effects, and why is it irrelevant in today’s time. Also, we need to introduce alternative and healthier methods of interaction to replace ragging to break the ice between the seniors and freshers.

Psychological Menace: Ragging is more of a psychological problem than anything else. Ragging is perhaps the only Social and Human Rights problem in the world in which the victim himself/herself becomes the perpetrator of this crime in a short span of one year. This problem can best be solved by going into the roots of this menace and understanding its psychology. Psychological concepts like Stanford Prison Experiment, Miligram Experiment, Stockholm syndrome, which have close similarities with the psychology of ragging need to be studied carefully to understand this problem and look for appropriate solution.


Role of Media: Be it publishing a front page picture of a Delhi University boy giving rose to a girl to portray ragging or writing only about the provision of FIR or quantum of punishment with regard to ragging, media has failed to disseminate the right information and essential knowledge about ragging. Since the Supreme Court judgment in 2007, the role of the media with regard to ragging has been more to spread sensation. Though there is a long list of guidelines made in the Raghavan Committee report but media chose to highlight only few sensational ones. Today all that the country knows about the Raghavan Committee report is about provision of filing an FIR or about provision of sending director of a college to jail but is completely ignorant about the dozens of other important recommendations/guidelines which can be key to solve the problem of ragging.


Hard Approach: This provision should be used as deterrence and as the last resort when all the other softer efforts fail to curb ragging. Firstly, we need to look from a 17-18 year old fresher’s perspective and understand that a young student who joins the college with a dream to become a doctor or an engineer will find it extremely fearful to use the provision of FIR and later get involved in a court case. Secondly, gathering evidence to prove any ragging incident has always been very difficult as nobody comes forward to testify. Thirdly, we need to ask ourselves that is it easy to de-recognize an institution or stop its fund if it is several decades old and there are several hundred students studying in it? What will happen to the future of those innocent students who were not involved in ragging? What will happen to several hundred crores of the public money spent on building that college? And when ragging is so rampant in our country then how many Medical or Engineering colleges will we de-recognize? How many Directors of such institutions would we send to jail? Fourthly, successful implementation of hard approach depends largely whether various stakeholders of ragging are convinced that it is bad. Presently ragging is seen as an age old ritual by the college community, there are conflicting views about ragging, for some it is a painful torture whereas for others it is a healthy interaction or a personality development exercise. When knowledge about ragging is so low then how will we be able to implement these harsh measures?

Unless and until we act on the above issues seriously, college authorities will continue to label ragging deaths as suicides due to academic pressure; majority of the ragging incidents will continue to go unreported; seniors and teachers will continue to believe that ragging is a healthy interactive and personality development exercise; media will continue to report only sensational stuff about ragging; parents, relatives and society will fail to understand the pain of the ragging victim, and as a result of all this, the harsh provision to curb ragging might soon loose its deterrent effect and we may never be able to solve this problem.

(Harsh Agarwal is a Co-founder of Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education CURE www.noragging.com and a former consultant to Raghavan Committee on Ragging and can be reached at harsh.agarwal@noragging.com)

Let’s stop ragging

IANS reports that hundreds of people marched and held candle-light vigils in New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh's Tanda town on Saturday evening to demand justice for Aman Khachroo, a medical student who died after ragging. Aman died on March 8 after he was beaten up in the name of ragging allegedly by four final-year students of his medical college in Tanda. Police said he died of wounds in head and other parts of body. Relatives, friends of Aman, and their hundreds of supporters marched from the Jantar Mantar observatory near Connaught Place on the Parliament Street in the Capital and on the college campus and within the Himachal town.

"I am thankful to everyone present here for their support. The movement for justice will continue not only for Aman, but also for other victims of ragging," said Aman's father, Rajender Khachroo, in Delhi. The protesters also demanded the implementation of existing laws and passing of an anti-ragging law. Meanwhile, a team of the Medical Council of India (MCI) is visiting the medical college next week to inquire about the incident and the steps taken by college authorities to check ragging.

Man donates rare Gandhi photo for just Rs 500

This story is in today's Times of India, and has been written by Ragini Bharadwaj from Ahmedabad. It is great one hence we are putting this on the blog.

On a day when liquor baron Vijay Mallya doled out US $ 1.8 million in New York to bag five belongings of Mahatma Gandhi, an antique collector visited the Sabarmati Ashram, once the abode of the apostle of peace, and walked away with a Rs 500 note. Initially, he refused to take the money from Amrit Modi, director of Gandhi Smarak Sangralaya, in exchange for a rare photograph of Gandhiji in his early teens. But then Radheshyam Ajmeri (55) is made of stuff different than those who are trying to make money out of Gandhi memorabilia. “After much cajoling, he took the token amount. He has been bringing a lot of Gandhi-related articles to the ashram in the past,” said Modi. The framed picture, presumably clicked in a studio, shows a young Gandhi donning a Kashmiri topi and posing with two friends.

Ajmeri spotted this rare picture at the weekly Gurjari Bazaar held every Sunday on the banks of Sabarmati. A regular visitor at this scrap market, where he looks around for hidden treasures, he bought it along with two paintings of Gandhi for Rs 200 last Sun-day. The seller didn’t realise this was a Gandhi photograph. “I am a regular visitor to the ashram where there are many photo-graphs of Bapu in his young days. So I could identify Gandhiji eas-ily,” Ajmeri told TOI.

Ajmeri supplies plastic bags for a living and says it is his hobby to collect articles of historic importance. “I donate articles related to Gandhiji to the Sabarmati Ashram because it would add value to the thousands of Gandhi fans who visit ashram,” he says. A visibly excited Modi said, “This picture is rare. Even the inno-cence of childhood is evident on Gandhiji’s face.” The photograph of the teen-aged Gandhi’ is now an addition to the ashram’s collec-tion of around 8,000 photographs of Bapu.

West Bengal and UP to get premier medical institutes

Indian government sanctioned Rs.16.46 billion ($340 million) for setting up two more premier referral institutes on the lines of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

Government also sanctioned Rs.7.50 billion for upgrading five existing government medical colleges. The five government medical colleges being upgraded are located at Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh), Amritsar (Punjab), Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Tanda (Himachal Pradesh). The new referral institutes, to be established at a cost of Rs.8.23 billion each, will be located at Raiganj in West Bengal's North Dinajpur district and at a site to be chosen by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Each institution will have a 960-bedded hospital, with 500 beds for the medial college hospital and 300 beds for its speciality and super speciality departments. This apart, 100 beds will be set aside for the ICU and accident trauma department, 30 beds for physical medicine & rehabilitation departments and 30 beds for the Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) departments.

AIIMS became functional in 1956 as an autonomous institution through an act of Parliament, to serve as a nucleus for nurturing excellence in all aspect of health care. In 2005, the government had approved five similar institutes at Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand).

Nine-year old Singaporean kids writes iPhone application

Reuters report that Lim, a student of fourth grade, writes applications for Apple's popular iPhone. His latest painting program called Doodle Kids, already has had 4,000 downloads times from Apple's iTunes store in last two weeks, as per the same report. The program lets iPhone users draw with their fingers by touching the iPhone's touchscreen and then clear the screen by shaking the phone. Lim, who is fluent in six programing languages, started using the computer at the age of 2. He has since completed about 20 programing projects.

His father, Lim Thye Chean, a chief technology officer at a local technology firm, also writes iPhone applications. The boy who enjoys reading books on programing, is in the process of writing another iPhone application - a science fiction game called "Invader Wars."

Dolphin rescued by villagers in East Midnapore, West Bengal

This January 13, a 12-year-old dolphin had strayed into an irrigation canal in West Bengal's East Midnapore district, when villagers rescued it. People of village stood guard overnight to ensure that the mammal reached its habitat. Dolphins straying into irrigation canals from rivers in West Bengal's East Midnapore district was common and the forest department was virtually dependent on villagers for rescue of the Schedule-I endangered mammal.

Divisional Forest Officer, East Midnapore, Rabindranath Saha lauded the role of villagers in Tilkhoja area and said to media that it was remarkable that the mammal was in perfect health despite spending over 24 hours in a pond after local people rescued it from an irrigation canal. Saha said the Gangetic dolphin had separated from its group and possibly strayed from Rupnarayan river into an irrigation canal and was stuck there because of low tide.

Villagers rescued the dolphin and put it in a pond while standing guard all night before the forest department personnel took over and eventually released it 42 km away next morning.

Nano laptop’ set to take computing to rural India

DAY BEFORE yesterday, I was at Purulia in West Bengal and met Sakina Khatun, Ruksana Khatun and Tyab. These children were trying out their little fingers on a laptop. Though it was not theirs but belonged to the assistant labour commissioner of the district, who was happy to share his laptop with these kids. These children are part of child activist programme being run by district labour department, district administration and Zila Parishad, which is providing an opportunity to voices of children who were once child labour but are now back in school. But in the coming days things may change, may be they have a laptop of their own.

This has been made possible by National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology. It is set to unveil on Feburary 3, a ’nano laptop’, which will cost only Rs 500. A boon for many in India and will help in taking the power of computing to interiors of the country. This has been made possible due to efforts of students of Indian Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras and Semiconductor Complex, a Public Sector Undertaking. Though it may take some time till the dreams of the little kids may get realised but nevertheless, it is a great hope in coming days.

The National Mission on Education through ICT has been envisaged as a centrally-sponsored Scheme to leverage the potential of ICT, in providing high quality personalised and interactive knowledge modules over the Internet/intranet for all the learners in Higher Education Institutions in anytime, anywhere mode. The mission plans to extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 18,000 colleges in the country and growing appropriate e-learning procedures, providing facility of performing experiments through virtual laboratories, online testing and certification, online availability of teachers to guide and mentor students

Contributed by Anil Gulati

Photoblogging getting trendier

- Anil
If you feel you have a ‘photo-bug’ in you, photo-blogging on the internet could be your way to show the world what you are. It is about sharing and publishing photographs on specific themes on the blogs. It is expressing oneself through photographs..

BUT IT does not mean that it is without text. Text accompanies photographs but is all about the photograph or supports the photograph. It is the photograph which is essentially conveying the message; be it nature, pets, flowers, birds, travel, city or street food. If you feel about something passionately, photo blog is your way of sharing that feeling. Thanks to digicams and mobo phones, photo blogging is getting trendier. There are many ways one can photo blog.

One can have one’s own domain weblog; alternatively, one can create a free photo blog on sites like blogger.com or wordpress.com. Now with many social websites offering numerous options one has immense potential for photo sharing. Sites like flickr, merinews, fotothing and fotolog come to one’s mind. Uploading is easier and faster but one has to upload in a size recommended by the site. There are some theme-based sites like trekearth.com which are devoted to nature. On many of these sites, one can contribute only one picture a day, but they attract visitors with similar interests who comment on your creativity. With an individual blog, how much and how frequently you want to load and control the layout and display is for you to decide. You can load the photograph in its original size too but you will need a broadband connection. If one has an individual domain one needs to make it popular and push it on search engines so as to attract traffic to it.

With packages like piccassa and many others available on the net, you can easily work on your photographs, make them look better. With options provided by blogging and social sites it is getting simpler and popular. One other reason why it is getting trendier is that it has the power to showcase your talent or just share your feelings on the net not only with your friends but also many others you do not even know about. Some caution and ethics are needed for photoblogging. So you have to take the consent of the subject of the photograph, if you are taking his or her photographs and using them. Sites like photoblog.org, coolphotoblogs.com and technorati.com help you share your photoblogs with others and make them popular. As it happens, no rule applies to blogging; probably its success owes it to this major factor. So it is not that photo blogs will use only photographs; any blog or any entry may use photographs but to be listed on various photoblog sites and marketed as photoblog, one needs to use photographs as the central theme.

Stress!! You must be joking!!

So they had a stress management workshop for all the army wives in the cantonment the other day (in Bhopal, capital city of Madhya Pradesh, India). A noted psychologist was invited to speak on the occasion. All the ladies of the station were invited except the separated families!!

I felt these are the ones who needed the workshop first and the foremost. These are the ones who spend long, lonely, anxious hours day and night. But no! this time again I missed the point!! I have a friend whose husband is posted in Siachen. Few days back when we met she was having severe hypertension which resulted in endless sleepless nights. She was upset because due to security reasons her husband and his men were supposed to sleep in bunkers. Siachen has low oxygen levels plus staying in a bunker reduces them further as a result he was pretty unwell. It seems for all our serving officers and their better halves here in the station thought that she actually didn’t need a stress management class!!

There’s another lady who has not been able to talk to her husband for the past ten days due to difficult terrain. He is deployed at a far off mountainous post. She has two daughters one of whom is a severe case of asthma. The authorities very rightly felt that this mother didn't need a stress management class either!!

Another separated army wife was forcibly made to vacate the accommodation only because of the reason that some serving officers in the station were still living in temporary accommodation. While she a meagre separated wife with two small kids was living in a permanent one!! How could she? Her husband was not serving in the station but at the country’s border, how can she claim to live in a huge comfortable house!! No not done. Plus whats the need to need a stress management class! So let’s see who all need stress management class.

Firstly, are the ones who play mah-jong in the mornings to tear away the previous night’s party’s strain. You know how stressful it is to sleep late and get up late! Second are the ones who need to show off the brand new dress, oh! It can become really stressful when you don’t have an occasion to show that latest addition in your wardrobe.

Third are the ones whose hubby’s promotion is due and you just can’t apprehend how stressful it is if the boss’s wife doesn’t smile back!!Yes! I think these ladies need a stress management class more then seperated ones. You see army is never wrong!!

Contributed by Ambreen from her blog http://weddedtotheolivegreen.blogspot.com/

Smoking ban in India ?

India has banned smoking in workplaces from October 2 onwards. The aim is to discourage smokers, to make them reduce or quit smoking. Those flouting the ban will face a fine of Rs 200. The law is impressive, but would it work?.

OCTOBER 2 onwards, India has banned smoking in workplaces, public places, hotels and restaurants, offices, courts, banks, schools, colleges, libraries, cinemas, auditorium, restaurants, shopping malls, parks, monuments, railway stations, airports, bus stops, buses, taxis.

The new Smoking in Public Places Rules 2008, which was notified this month come into effect from October 2, birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The only places where one can smoke will be smoking lounges at airports, restaurants with over 30 seats, smoking rooms and of course or your own home. The fine for violating the ban is Rs 200.

Though an appeal was filed before the Supreme Court, it upheld the government ban on smoking in public places from October 2. The government of India had earlier tried to control tobacco use through Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution Bill, 2003. Key provisions of the law include prohibition on direct and indirect advertisements of tobacco products, prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors and prohibition of smoking in public places. But one can see many who smoke in public places. Also cigarette packets sold in India are required to carry pictorial warnings along with the text saying smoking is injurious to health and smoking causes cancer in both Hindi and English. But I still have not seen any pictorial warnings.

India is good in making laws, they look good when drafted and announced, but somehow implementation of these laws is a major challenge. It is not about one sector or area, it is across board.

India had banned children below 14 years of age from work, but go to any state, any city one can see children working in dhabas, restaurants, petrol pumps,brick kilns and as domestic labour etc. Hardly anyone gets punished! India has banned sex selection under Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostics Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) (PCPNDT) Act, but the reality is quite different.

Tobacco laws have been there in India, but still more than 250 million people in India use various tobacco products like gutka, cigarettes and bidis and millions of them die, many suffer with heart and lung diseases because of this habit. The data says one in two Indian men and one in seven women use tobacco in the country. Tobacco causes 40 per cent of all cancer disease in India.

So the fact is that law is good, but the issue is of implementation. I am not sure if we have the manpower to implement this law. Do we have necessary structures, people, mechanisms in place who can implement the laws or will it remain as yet another good policy level declaration, which is not implemented on ground.

Contributed by Anil Gulati

WHO’s World Malaria Report, 2008

The advent of long-lasting nets and artemisinin-based (artemisinin is the miracle drug of Malaria) combination therapy plus a revival of support for indoor residual spraying of insecticide, presents a new opportunity for malaria control..

A WHO (World Health Organisation) report (called the World Malaria Report 2008) released recently speaks of not only the progress made in controlling malaria but also the challenges posed by it. The global burden of malaria remains enormous, though progress in malaria control has accelerated dramatically since 2006. The report states that half of the world’s population is at risk of malaria. An estimated 247 million malaria cases out of the 3.3 billion people at risk in 2006 caused nearly a million deaths, mostly of children under 5 years of age. Malaria was endemic in 109 countries in 2008 and 45 of them were within the WHO African region. 86 per cent or 212 million (152–287 million) cases were from the African Region. 80 per cent of the cases in Africa were detected in 13 countries and over half were in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania and Kenya. Among the cases that occurred outside the African region, 80 per cent were from India, Sudan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan.

The World Malaria Report 2008 describes the global distribution of cases and deaths. It also explains how the WHO-recommended control strategies have been adopted and implemented in Malaria-endemic countries, the sources of funding for malaria control and recent evidence that prevention and treatment can alleviate the burden imposed by the disease. The report states that the advent of long-lasting insecticidal nets and artemisinin-based (artemisinin is the miracle drug of Malaria) combination therapy plus a revival of support for indoor residual spraying of insecticide, presents a new opportunity for large-scale malaria control. Some salient features and points raised in the report are:

1. It talks of renewed efforts to control malaria worldwide; elimination in some countries is founded on the latest generation of effective tools and methods for prevention and cure.

2. The report raises concern that little children remain by far the most likely to die of the disease.

3. It puts forward policies and strategies for malaria control - the various national malaria control programmes have adopted many of the WHO-recommended policies on prevention and cure, but with variation among countries and regions.

4. It talks about prevention of malaria – it says that despite big increases in the supply of mosquito nets, especially of long-lasing insecticidal nets in Africa, the number available is still far below the requirement in most countries.

5. On the issue of treatment of malaria, the report says that the procurement of anti-malarial medicines through public health services increased sharply between 2001 and 2006, but access to treatment, especially of artemisinin-based combination therapy, was inadequate in all the countries surveyed in 2006.

6. It states that funding for malaria control in 2006 was reported to be greater than ever before, but it is not yet possible to judge from NMCP budgets which countries have adequate resources for malaria control.

7. It also brings out the impact of malaria control - some countries that have implemented aggressive programmes of prevention and treatment in Africa and other regions, have reported significant reduction in malaria incidence. For the first time, three African countries reported dramatic reduction in malarial deaths - by 50 per cent or more. Eritrea, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe achieved this result between 2000 and 2006/2007 through a mix of bednet (protective netting) distribution, indoor spraying, improved access to treatment and advances in disease surveillance.

Contributed by Anil Gulati

Orissa floods - situation grim while R & R stepped up

Situation remains grim in the flood-hit 17 districts of Orissa, while rescue and relief operation were stepped up including air dropping of food packets and essentials for people affected by the deluge that had claimed 16 lives.

Describing the floods as that of "rare severity", a senior official that nearly 20 lakh people in 110 blocks in 17 districts were affected by the calamity.The situation continued to be grim as Mahanadi and its tributaries which were in spate for the last four days caused at least 32 breaches.Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who undertook an aerial survey of the affected areas, has asked the Centre to declare the floods as a 'National Disaster' and immediately release Rs 1500 crore assistance from the National Calamity Contingency Fund for relief and rehabilitation.The government machinery geared up to intensify relief work and and air dropping of relief materials, medicines and water pouches in different flood affected areas, the sources said.Describing the recent flood as the most furious in last 55 years, the engineer-in-chief of water resource department H C Behera said the maximum flow of water at Munduli near Cuttack was this time recorded at 15.81 lakh cusec against the previous highest of 15.80 lakh cusec in 1982.Water level in the Hirakud dam near Sambalpur in western Orissa stood at 629.50 feet this morning as against its maximum capacity of 630 feet, they said.

22 lakh affected due to floods in Orissa

220,000 people have been affected in villages of Orissa in 17 out of 30 of its districts as incessant rains caused a river to breach its banks in several places. The breaches on the embankments of Mahanadi and its branches in the delta have affected people in these 17 districts. Indian Army has been asked to stand by for rescue and relief work. As many as 46 of the 64 sluices of Hirakud dam had been opened to discharge over 6.93 lakh cusec water even as Angul, Kendrapara, Puri, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Jajpur districts faced the deluge. The road link between Bhubaneswar and Puri as well as Cuttack and Paradip was disrupted due to major breaches at several places. Light vehicles and two wheelers were not allowed to ply on Puri-Bhubaneswar road due to a breach by Debi river near Pipili, media reports quote.

Indian corporates promote brands online

Internet is an inseparable medium for acquiring information. Several Indian companies have started using websites as effective venues for promoting their brands (products or services). They are also supporting online portals for consumer education.

With Increasing reach of Internet and our dependence on it for information, companies are using websites as a medium for promoting their own brands. In addition to online promotion and by hosting one’s own site, corporate houses are also supporting online sites for consumer education, which also subtly pushes their brands in the market that is already getting crowded. Pepsi and Coca Cola are already in this segment. Coca Cola’s website myenjoyzone is its version for teens wherein one has to be a member get to games, jokes and snap shots of movies etc. Pepsi’s pepsizone is for young ones wherein one can see and download Pepsi Deepika, Ranbir and Shahrukh on your desktop.

New websites to come up in this segment are from Hindustan Lever, the consumer goods company that is in segment of home, personal care products, food and beverages. It has set up a new portal called cookitup. As per the website, it endeavours to make cooking a pure pleasure for women and men who’d like to cook it up for their families, friends and for themselves.
Off course, it has recipes, cooking tips, contests, some tools for help in kitchen like how to plan a weekly menu and obviously it has links to Hindustan Lever Limited products.

Meanwhile, Buchanan Group, a global company in third party branded advertising is now in India with its website called brandpower wherein corporates can advertise products.
But, it is different from traditional advertising as it focuses on providing rational information about the products. As per the company, the aim of brandpower is to provide customer facts and value through information. As of now products like Stayfree, Pepsodent, Cadbury, Bournvita, Surf Excel, Domex and Hamam Abhyanga Snan are being profiled and reviewed on the site.
But, whenever one talks of these portals, one needs to remember that they are promoted by corporates for brand promotion.

Website like these, give consumer an online platform to speak out, write and read reviews about products, services. One can also compare the product they intend to buy with others, which gives power to the consumer.

By Anil Gulati