HC stays G.Os on new health insurance scheme for transport staff

Madras High Court today stayed operation of three Tamil Nadu Government Orders (GOs) pertaining to new health insurance scheme for employees of state transport corporations in the state. Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar granted the stay on a petition filed by Tamilnadu State Transport Employees Federation seeking to restrain the government from altering, annulling or modifying the existing Special Medical Assistance Scheme in any manner and from implementing the new Health Insurance Scheme announced and introduced by the government by GO Ms No 430, GO Rt No 65 and GO No 174. The petitioner submitted that the transport corporations had introduced the Special Medical Assistance Scheme for the employees based on a settlement reached under Section 12 (3) of the Industrial Dispute Act on September 28, 1995.

As per Clause 79 of the minutes of the settlement, every workman had to contribute Rs five every month towards the scheme and the corporations have to make an equal contribution.

The petitioner contended that the Special Medical Assistance was a better scheme than the new scheme introduced by the state government. The government has no power to do away with the existing scheme framed under the settlement, the petitioner added.

The state government had recently introduced the new health insurance scheme for government employees in collaboration with a private insurance company.

IBM deploys supercomp to boost cancer research

The new system will aid in the search for more effective cancer treatments and facilitates analysis of millions of images of proteins.

IBM has announced the deployment of Canada's fastest research supercomputer at the Ontario Cancer Institute in the University Health Network.

The new system will aid in the search for more effective cancer treatments and facilitates analysis of millions of images of proteins.

Through automation, high resolution imaging and sophisticated computer-based image classification, researchers are attempting to more quickly identify the structure of disease-related proteins, and thus improve our ability to design new treatments for cancer.

The new IBM System Cluster 1350 supercomputer incorporates its recently announced DCS9550 disk storage system, as well as deep computing visualisation to create high-resolution images required for the research analysis.

The system includes 1,344 processor cores in the Linux cluster running at 12.5 teraflops (trillion calculations per second) with 150 TB of storage, making it one of the fastest research clusters in Canada.

“We need to better understand the specific function and interactions of proteins that cause cancer,” Igor Jurisica of Ontario Cancer Institute said, adding that this research will enable to diagnose cancer earlier, before symptoms appear, to have the best chance of treating disease.

The supercomputer was made possible by grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and an in-kind donation by IBM for the hardware, software and services.

The computing complex also houses a custom-built data centre, which has been adapted to fit into Toronto's historic MaRS research building.

In November 2007, Jurisica's research was added to the World Community Grid as a Help Conquer Cancer project. The grid works on a network of approximately one million PCs and laptops using donated processing time.

The Ontario Cancer Institute's new supercomputer will allow data to get on the Grid for complex analysis, and enable faster and more detailed analysis of results from the Grid computation.

In simple terms, this supercomputer can do more calculations in one second than every Canadian doing one calculation per second for four days without stopping.

West Bengal to introduce insurance for bus passengers

The state government has taken this initiative to make long-distance bus travel much more safer in the state.

In an effort to make long-distance bus travel much more safer in West Bengal, the state government is planning to introduce insurance benefits for the passengers of long-distance state transport buses.

“We have decided to take Rs 5 from the passengers travelling within 300 km and Rs 10 for those travelling more than 300 km by the state transport buses,” the state Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty said.

He added that the surplus would be charged on the tickets of the passengers who would avail long-distance government buses.

The Minister said the money will be used to provide them with insurance benefits worth Rs 50,000 in case they meet with fatal accidents during travel. The amount would be handed over to their nearest relatives.

Chakraborty said that if anyone is killed in a road accident by government buses, the nearest relative of the deceased will get the same insurance benefit.

“The amount collected from every long-distance passenger would be deposited to a state government-owned corporation,” he said, adding the facility would come into effect from September.

Initially, the state government is implementing this facility only for the long-distance buses, and later plans to introduce the scheme in all government-run buses in the state, he said.

Following the fuel price rise, fares of buses, mini-buses and taxis in the state have also been hiked, reports IANS.

The minimum bus and mini-bus fare has been increased by 50 paisa and the taxi fare by Rs 2. The new fare structure is likely to come into effect from July 11.

AIDS bomb ticking in Asia - India accounts for roughly half the HIV-infected population of Asia

About 10 million Asians are expected to be infected with HIV by 2020, an independent commission on AIDS in Asia warned on Monday.

The commission comprising nine of Asia's leading development economists, scientists and policymakers working on AIDS, urged Asian countries to chart a new response to AIDS. India accounts for roughly half the HIV-infected population of Asia. About 2.5 million Indians were estimated to be living with HIV in 2006.

Its 236-page report on ‘Redefining AIDS in Asia, crafting an effective response' was released by India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here today, reports IANS.

“Many Asian countries are lagging behind in their response to AIDS. At current levels of response, 10 million Asians are expected to be infected with HIV by 2020. By then, AIDS is also expected to claim an estimated five lakh lives annually if governments do not change policies,” the report sponsored by UNAIDS, Unicef and UNDP said.

India accounts for roughly half the HIV-infected population of Asia. About 2.5 million Indians were estimated to be living with HIV in 2006.

Twenty-six countries have been covered by the report.

Almost five million Asians are currently infected with HIV, some 4.4 lakh people got infected with HIV and three lakh people died of AIDS-related diseases in 2007.

Regionally, AIDS is estimated to be the single largest cause of death and morbidity due to disease for adults aged 15-44 years.

“AIDS has emerged as the single-largest cause of disease-related deaths and work days lost among 15-44-year-old adults in Asia,” the report said.

Expressing concern over the alarming situation, the Commission Chairman and PM's Economic Advisory Council Chirman said that these numbers indicate the seriousness of the problem the region faces.

The report noted that India has managed to slow down the epidemic in some states like Tamil Nadu, which provides an effective and focused HIV response.

“Asian leaders in places such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Cambodia and Tamil Nadu in India has the foresight to recognise the threat of AIDS early on; they provided leadership that proves vital for reversing their epidemics,” it said.

Noting that Asia's response approach neither matched nor kept pace with the unfolding realities of the HIV epidemic, it recommends that policies must prioritise on focused and scaled-up interventions towards unprotected commercial sex, unprotected sex between men and the sharing of contaminated needles and syringes.

With an estimated 10 male clients for every sex worker in Asia, the commission noted that men who go for unprotected commercial sex are probably the single most important determinant of the size of HIV epidemics in most of Asia.

By pragmatically focusing prevention programmes to the sex trade and on drug use, it suggested that governments would make considerable progress in halting and reversing the epidemic.

Experts found that existing resources are not only inadequate but are also currently not being spent on priority interventions that produce an impact.

Rangarajan emphasised that countries which are at the early stages of the epidemic needed to spend an average of 50 cents per capita to reverse the epidemic.

Every US $1 spent on early prevention would save US $8 in treatment costs later. Yet, the money spent on HIV programmes from national budgets decreased over the past decade in countries surveyed by the Commission, the only exceptions being India and China.

The commission has estimated the resource need of the region to halt and reverse the epidemic at US $3.1 billion per annum. For a long-lasting and comprehensive response, however, the resource need would be US $6.4 billion a year.

Noting that stigma against HIV patients remains a major issue in Asia's health care systems, including in India, the commission has recommended a more meaningful role for civil society and community-based initiatives.

It emphasises the need for strong political will across Asia. If leaders implement a largely scaled-up priority response right away they could save more than two lakh lives each year and succeed in reversing the epidemic.

What is the Community wise Compositionof Top 500 Rankers in Tamil Nadu

Counseling for Admission to MBBS / BDS in Tamil Nadu starts from 04.07.2008 and Director of Medical Education, 162, Periyar Road, Chennai has releasted the counselling schedule The Community of the Top 500 Rankers can be seen from that

Of the Top 500 Rankers in Tamil Nadu

• Forward Community - FC - 55 Students - 11 %
  
• Backward Community - BC - 293 Students - 58.6 %
  
• Christians - BCC - 29 Students - 5.8 %
  
• Muslims - BCM - 20 Students - 4 %
  
• Most Backward Community - MBC - 70 Students - 14 %
  
• Scheduled Castes - SC - 32 Students - 6.4 %
  
• Scheduled Tribes - ST - 1 Student - 0.2 %
  

Opinion Welcome :) :)

Cuba intros performance-based salary

The Government of Cuba has introduced performance-based salary for its employees, ending the system of equal pay for its workers.

The country’s President Raul Castro has given all state enterprises a deadline of August 1, 2008 to comply with the new system, reports IANS.

“The correct implementation of the new policy would enable Cuba to conform to the socialist principle of distribution, wherein each person receives according to his or her contribution,” Deputy Labour Minister Carlos Mateu Pereira said.

Raul Castro, who became Cuba’s President in February after holding the job on a provisional basis since older brother Fidel fell ill in July 2006, says performance-linked pay will boost efficiency and productivity.

“The overhaul of the compensation package for the employees is part of the improvement model that Raul as the then Armed Forces Minister had established in the military and defence-related activities 20 years ago,” Pereira said.

Earlier the President, while relaxing restrictions on Cuban citizens on buying consumer goods like computers and mobile phone, acknowledged the need to increase the average pay of the workers who earned the equivalent of US $17 a month.

Reach govt officials via online: Austria

The Government of Austria has added ‘Help’ feature in its e-Government site, which is a directory of the names, addresses and phone numbers of officials throughout the federal administration.

The new directory covers the Presidential Chancery, the Federal Chancellor’s Office and four federal ministries, reports ePractice.

Users would be able to search people of the federal government by entering any of the search criteria which include providing surname, organisation or telephone number in the ‘search by person’ function.

Furthermore, in order to narrow down the search, more criteria can be entered in one single go.

In the new feature, for each official, an e-mail address is given, together with clickable links to the institution concerned and the department or sub-department within that institution. In most cases, a phone number is also shown.

It also comes with ‘extended search by person’ option, which will produce further details, notably about their functions, but there is a greater range of possible identifiers.

The third search function is ‘organisational units’, which can be used to find out which unit of which ministry is responsible for a particular issue.

Industrial growth slows down in India

The sluggish expansion in the manufacturing sector has led to the slower growth of industrial production at seven per cent in April 2008 as against 11.3 per cent in the same month of last fiscal.

The growth in manufacturing was just 7.5 per cent in April, as compared to 12.4 per cent in the corresponding month of 2007, as per data on Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released at the Planning Commission here.

For the year as a whole, industrial production was 8.3 per cent higher for fiscal 2007-08, as against 11.6 per cent in the previous fiscal.

The worrisome news came against the backdrop of India’s central bank hiking its short-term interest rates to eight per cent on Wednesday in a bid to tame inflation—a move that experts feel could, in turn, trigger interest rate hikes by commercial banks.

“Monetary policy has to respond proactively to immediate concerns,” the Reserve Bank of India said.

The central bank was forced to take the monetary measure as India’s annual rate of inflation jumped to a 45-month high of 8.24 per cent for the week ended May 24, against 8.1 per cent for the previous week.

Rating agencies like Moody’s predict that India’s central bank may hike interest rates further to keep a check on spiralling prices, while predicting an economic slowdown.

“Amid tight monetary policy conditions which weigh on household consumption and business investment, the Indian economy looks set to slow this year,” Moody’s Economy said in a report.

The biggest challenge facing central banks across Asia is to cool inflation without hurting economic growth; the RBI is no exception, the agency’s report said.

Chinese President goes online

Now citizens of China can directly interact with their President without taking the pain to meet him. The Chinese President Hu Jintao has become online to chat with citizens through a major news portal of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The ‘Qiangguo Forum’, launched by the mouthpiece of the CPC, has been a big hit since the news of the President going online surfaced.

The news has led thousands of people post their queries and write-ins on the forum.

“The Internet is a major channel for public opinion,” Hu said during the chat, and added that he has squeezed his time to go online, though he would not be able to surf the net daily due his busy schedule.

The President logs on to the website to view domestic and foreign news, to learn what interests people on the Internet and to solicit their advice and opinions about the work of our government.

The Qiangguo Forum, meaning ‘powering the nation’, has more than 23,000 daily postings and the highest simultaneous web page visits exceeding 1.4 million.

ICT: DNA for modern warfare

India needs to develop appropriate communications technology and anti-technology to ensure faster response time and information dominance over its adversaries in the future.

Calling the information and communication technology (ICT) the DNA of modern day warfare, the country’s Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju said that the armed forces need to collaborate with the domain experts to tackle the challenges of the modern day battlefield.

“It’s imperative to modernise the armed forces through synchronised efforts by domain experts from the defence forces alongside the industry and academia and to ensure guaranteed information assurance in the present day battlefield which is becoming more and more digitised,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor said that a paradigm shift in warfare called for even shorter response time for which the critical communication networks needed constant upgrading.

“This also makes these networks increasingly vulnerable,” he said stressing on the need for a dialogue amongst all stakeholders in the segment.

According to Indian Army’s Signals Officer-in-Chief Lt Gen SP Sree Kumar, the armed forces were looking forward to finding ways to merge the industry’s capabilities with the army’s requirements to move ahead.

Talking about the role of the private sector in modernising the Indian armed forces, Infosys Technologies CEO and MD S Gopalakrishan said that Army-industry collaboration was on the threshold of a new era.

“The industry is seeing many positive signals from the Ministry of Defence,” he added.

This is the seventh year in the running when DEFCOM India has brought, industry, academia and the Defence on a common platform.

Four hundred delegates, including representatives from a 100 companies, are attending the two-day deliberations that have been divided into six technical sessions that focused on the challenges of technology and anti-technology.

100% e-ticketing for airlines

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has launched a new era in air travel as it bids farewell to the paper ticket with the industry’s conversion to 100 per cent electronic ticketing.

“Today we say goodbye to an industry icon. The paper ticket has served us well, but its time is over,” IATA’s Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said.

The achievement was due to four years of hard work by airlines around the world, which marks the beginning of a new, more convenient and more efficient era for air travel.

Over four years, IATA deployed a global team of 150 people to work with airlines and system providers around the world to facilitate implementation.

“We made 100 per cent e-ticketing a reality everywhere—from our largest hubs to small remote island airports with no electricity. It is an incredible industry achievement,” Bisignani said.

It may be recalled that the first e-ticket was issued in 1994. By 1997 IATA had adopted global standards for e-ticketing. But the evolution was slow and by May 2004, only 19 per cent of global tickets were electronic.

A paper ticket costs an average of US $10 to process versus US $1 for an electronic ticket. With over 400 million tickets issued through IATA’s settlement systems annually, the industry will save over US $3 billion each year, Bisignani claimed.

ETs can easily be changed and reissued without necessitating a trip to a travel agency or airline ticket office, besides 100 per cent ET eliminates lost tickets and enables a wide array of self-service options such as online and mobile check in.

“We are moving ahead with a further revolution—Fast Travel that will provide convenient self-service options from check-in to baggage tracing and re-booking,” the AITA CEO said.

While IATA will no longer issue paper ticket stock, IATA neutral paper tickets issued by travel agents before June 1 remain valid for travel under the conditions they were purchased.

Paper tickets may still be provided by an airline from its own offices or from a travel agent in the USA, although it is anticipated the volumes will be very low.

To complete the conversion, IATA has contacted 60,000 travel agents in more than 200 countries to collect the remaining unused paper tickets in the system—some 32 million worldwide. These will be securely reclaimed, destroyed and recycled, IATA stated.

Shortage of doctors hits India’s health mission

The ambitious National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched by the Government of India to provide medicare facilities in villages has failed to yield results due to shortage of doctors and paramedics.

“The multi-billion-dollar NRHM was launched three years ago, but India’s 6.5 lakh villages continue to face a shortage of doctors and paramedics,” the Planning Commission said.

An assessment report of the commission revealed that there was still a yawning gap between the requirement and availability of human resources in the rural health units at various levels.

The report said against the requirement for 21,490, there were only 5,910 specialist doctors were available at community health centres across the country.

The plan panel will shortly review the flagship rural health scheme, which was launched April 12, 2005 to provide effective healthcare facilities to the rural population.

The union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, the nodal agency for NRHM, has earmarked over Rs 120 billion for the mission in the current fiscal.

The country’s primary health centres (PHCs) are also understaffed. The plan panel said there were 31,381 doctors at these centres by the end of December 2007 as against 20,308 doctors engaged there before the flagship scheme was launched.

“There is a need to accelerate the process of appointment of doctors and nurses at a greater pace. Against the requirement of 66,059 nurses and midwives for the health centres, only 41,313 appointments have been made as against 29,139 such nurses already on the rolls,” the commission said.

As per details with the plan panel, 159,181 auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) have been appointed under the mission for sub-centres in rural areas against the need of 197,488. There were 133,194 ANMs when the NRHM was launched.

The health mission puts special emphasis on 18 states with weak public health indicators and infrastructure. Some of them are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Orissa, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.

However, health and family welfare ministry officials are satisfied with the progress made under the NRHM so far.

Some of the key goals of the mission are reducing infant mortality rate to 30 per 1,000 live births and maternal mortality rate to 100 per one lakh against 450 per one lakh live births by 2012 through promoting institutional delivery in the countryside.

An official estimate says half of India’s women still deliver babies at home and accounts for the world’s 20 per cent child mortality.

The mission has several projects—Janani Suraksha Yojana (save the mother project) and accredited social health activists (ASHAs)—to promote safe delivery and newborn safety.

India’s medical tourism to earn Rs 8,000 Cr

Easy access to visa facilities permitted by India to overseas patients coupled with the best emerging medical infrastructure in large and tertiary towns will fatten the country’s forex earning to an estimated Rs 8,000 crore by 2012, a new study has said.

Releasing the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) estimates, its President Venugopal N Dhoot pointed out that, currently, the earnings accrued through medical tourism annually are estimated at Rs 3,500 crore.

“The primary reasons as to why medical tourism would flourish in India include much more lower medical costs for various ailments such as bone narrow transparent, bye-pass surgery, knee surgery and liver transplant as compared to western countries,” Dhoot said.

As a result of higher and very expensive medical costs in the western countries, patients from economies of scale including Africa, Gulf and various Asian countries have started exploring medical treatment in hospitals located in various places in India.

Dhoot said that this is due to the country’s gearing up of its medical infrastructure to provide them non-subsidised medical treatment at much more lower costs which are many times considered reasonable.

The other reasons for excellent medical treatment are India’s strength of highly qualified medical professionals and even equally higher qualities of availability of nurses.

A comparison of treatment costs between India and other countries such as the US, the UK and Thailand:

Dhoot said that cost advantage is one of the reasons which works in favour of India, resulting movement of patients from various developing and developed countries.

The shift in the flow is due to its hospital infrastructure, which is not only confined to large metros but equally getting better in tertiary towns.

“Still other reasons for medical tourism getting widespread in India is because of its strength of traditional treatment in homeopathy, naturopathy, ayurvedic and unani, which are becoming popular because of their non-side effects,” the Assocham Chief said.

The prospects of medical tourism in India will also get a boost with the increase in health GDP ratio, which would amount to proliferation of new health facilities as well as their centres for patients to accommodate overseas patients as with increasing health facilities.

Don't force Tamil students to take up exams in English: Karunanidhi

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200806271860.htm

Tamil Nadu on Friday asked the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai not to force Tamil medium students to take up their exams in English, promising "full support" to the Corporation to hold exams in Tamil.

In a letter to his Maharashtra counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said that the Corporation, which was imparting primary education in Mumbai in eight regional languages, had asked the students of Tamil medium in Class VIII to take their exams in English, due to "certain administrative reasons."

"While Gujarathi and Kannada students can continue to write the exams in their respective mother tongue, it is discriminatory to ask the students of Tamil medium to write exams in English," Karunanidhi said in the letter.

"You may well appreciate the extent of difficulty and stress it could lay on the children to suddenly take their examinations in English after being taught in Tamil for seven years," he said adding Tamil Nadu was ready to offer whatever support the Corporation could ask for.

"In case the Corporation requires any assistance in the form of supply of text books/notes in Tamil language or Tamil teachers, the Government of Tamil Nadu is willing to extend it full support for the students of Class VIII," he said.

Imparting free education in the mother tongue was a "noble effort" and the Greater Mumbai Corporation should continue with the same, he said.

He also expressed his gratitude to the Corporation for its initiative, as it was "benefitting 15,000 Tamil students in 48 schools.

Inflation touches 7-year high of 8.75%

In what is more bad news for the hard-hit ordinary citizen, industry and policy makers alike, India’s annual inflation rate shot up to a seven-year high of 8.75 per cent for the week ended May 31, against 8.24 per cent for the week before.

The rate—which has been inching closer towards the double digit figure—was last higher at 8.77 per cent for the week ended Feb 10, 2001, reports IANS.

The current sharp rise in inflation rate was due to higher prices of both food articles such as vegetables, lentils, fruits, eggs and meat, as well as manufactured goods like edible oils, official data on wholesale price index showed on Friday.

Alarmingly, the data pertained to the week before the government allowed a steep hike in prices of petroleum products and its impact was yet to reflect on the index. Experts feel the fuel price hike would push the inflation rate by another 80 basis points.

Equally worrisome was the final data for week ended April 5, which said the annual inflation rate was actually 7.71 per cent and not 7.14 per cent as reported earlier, based on provisional data.

“The higher inflation rate was expected. It will certainly cross the nine-percent mark next week due to the hike in fuel prices,” Credit Rating Information and Services Chief Economist DK Joshi said.

Joshi said that the inflation will remain in this uncomfortable range for the next few months and added that it will shoot up further if oil prices continue to rise as the way it has over the past year.

The wholesale price data comes against the backdrop of India’s central bank hiking its short-term lending rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday to tighten money supply and curb inflationary expectations.

The spurt of almost 50 basis points in the inflation rate now could trigger a further tightening of the monetary policy, as indicated in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statement after the rate hike.

“Monetary policy has to respond pro-actively to immediate concerns,” the RBI said.

“At the same time, it is critical at this juncture to demonstrate, on continuing basis, a determination to act decisively, effectively and swiftly to curb any signs of adverse developments in regard to inflation expectations,” RBI stated.

The unrelenting rise in prices and the steep hike in prices of petroleum fuels also prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to write to all ministers last week, urging austerity, besides asking state governments to help by lowering taxes on fuel.

Myanmar sets up disease surveillance system

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners have set up a system for early detection and reporting of potential disease outbreaks in Myanmar’s cyclone affected areas.

The Early Warning Reporting System (EWARS) has been established to support the country’s Health Ministry in providing quick and accurate information on diseases.

It collects information from health sector partners, verifying rumours of outbreaks as well as through formal reporting methods, WHO said.

The new system is now fully functional with more than 15 health NGOs providing daily reports, and the first bulletin is expected on June 10.

The warning system is particularly significant, as water-borne and vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue could pose a health challenge during the monsoons, WHO said.

“Displaced populations without the support of normal health services are more susceptible to such diseases,” the health agency stated.

The world health agency said that verifying information at an early stage allows prompt containment of diseases and prevents outbreaks.

WHO will provide technical support which includes briefing international and national medical teams that work in the cyclone-affected areas.

The organisation is also involved in developing a training curriculum, training of trainers, and provision of educational materials to various NGOs in the disaster affected areas, thereby assisting the new system.

The training focuses on prevention of common diseases such as malaria, dengue and diarrhea; water and sanitation; personal hygiene; and surveillance and reporting of key events at village levels.

Medical, Legal, Medicolegal Information for Doctors and Lawyers: Educational Institutions Cannot Hold Back Certificates : Madras High Court

Medical, Legal, Medicolegal Information for Doctors and Lawyers: Educational Institutions Cannot Hold Back Certificates : Madras High Court

Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association Helpline: Doctors plan two-hour strike to protest against attacks

Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association Helpline: Doctors plan two-hour strike to protest against attacks

Karnataka plans IT network in rural areas

The Government of Karnataka will soon come out with a policy to take the benefits of information technology (IT) to the people living in rural areas.

“We want IT firms to go beyond Bangalore and tier two cities to towns and villages for replicating their success story in India’s IT hub in rural areas,” the state IT and Science and Technology Minister K Subramanya Naidu said on Friday.

When investment and technology go to rural areas, development and growth will create local jobs, check migration and improve living standards of rural folks, he added.

As part of its uniform growth strategy, the government plans to set up computer training institutes in all village clusters across the state in partnership with the IT industry.

He said that the proposed rural IT policy will have a special package of incentives and concessions for the IT industry to set up business process outsourcing (BPO) centres in rural areas.

Computer training and skill development will be imparted to the rural youth under public-private initiative with the IT industry and academia, the IT Minister said.

“We are planning to take up projects such as rural tele-healthcare in primary health centres and school health in primary schools with the support of the IT industry for extensive use of computers, telecom network and broadband connectivity,” Naidu said at the fourth Indian Innovation summit 2008, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

In a bid to decongest a choked Bangalore and develop tertiary cities on a hub-and-spoke model, the state-run Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation (Keonics) will build IT parks and electronic hubs in tier-two cities such as Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Shimoga, Hassan and Davangere.

Keonics will also provide support facilities to IT firms in software and hardware sectors and auxiliary units, while other state departments will build infrastructure such as roads, power, water and connectivity in the IT parks and electronic hubs, spread over 300 acres each.

These cities will be the new investment regions in the state to facilitate expansion of existing IT firms in Bangalore and attract new firms/investors for ensuring uniform development across the state in partnership with the central government.

Naidu extolled the IT industry, especially software giants such as Infosys and Wipro, for putting Bangalore on the world map and creating a global brand; as India’s tech capital, the city had become a innovation hub with over 100 research and development (R&D) institutes in every technology field.

“Sectors of the new economy such as IT and BT (biotechnology) have capitalised on the knowledge skills of the tech city. Innovations in information and communication technologies (ICT), space, aerospace, bio-sciences and nanotechnology have benefited the country,” he added.

Another slur on Haryana cops: SHO booked for rape

In yet another blow to the image of Haryana Police, a Station House Officer (SHO) was arrested on Thursday on charges of raping a woman who had come to him for protection.

Inspector Jai Singh, SHO of a police station in Karnal, was also suspended and an inquiry marked against him.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Karnal, A S Chawla, said it was this morning that Pooja from Bibi Jatanpur village of Indri accused the SHO of raping her in his quarters near the police station.

Pooja had a runaway marriage with Mewa Singh of Asandh. Fearing opposition from their families, the two had moved a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for protection.

Pooja used to meet her parents at the Nissing police station where Inspector Jai Singh was the SHO. She alleged that today when she went to the police station, he lured her into his quarters and raped her.

Tempers ran high as a large number of villagers gheraoed the police station and raised slogans against the SHO.

The situation was brought under control only when SSP A S Chawla and SDM Rajiv Mehta reached the spot and ordered medical examination of the girl. Later, the SHO was arrested on charges of rape. DSP, Karnal, Sudhir Bhoria, has been entrusted with the case.

Incidentally, this is the second case in the last few weeks when Haryana policemen have been accused of rape. Earlier, two policemen of Rohtak were arrested in mid-May, more than a month after allegedly raping Sarita, who later committed suicide.

'Msg Txting' Improves Kids' Literacy: Study

A new research that suggests text messages can improve literacy among children will probably cheer concerned parents who are worried to see their kid engrossed in texting messages.


Professor David Crystal believes that sending frequent texts helps children's reading and writing because of the imaginative abbreviations needed.

The finding is in stark contrast to fears that texting's free forms and truncated words herald the abandonment of traditional grammar.

"People have always used abbreviations. They do not actually use that many in texts but when they do they are using them in new, playful and imaginative ways that benefit literacy," Times Online quoted Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor, as saying.

Crystal's views will appear in his new book, 'Txtng: The Gr8 Db8'.

In one study due to appear in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology, researchers asked 88 10 to 12-year-olds to compose text messages for various social scenarios.

Beverly Plester, a senior lecturer in psychology at Coventry University, and her colleagues found that using "textisms" -abbreviations such as "2nite" for "tonight" - was "positively associated with word reading, vocabulary and phonological awareness".

Source-ANI
THK/L

Naxal-prone Bihar police stations to be fortified

The Government of Bihar has decided to fortify all the 50 police stations falling under naxal- infected districts of Aurangabad and Gaya in central Bihar region,to help police counter naxal attack.

Officials said the government was forced to chalk out this plan in the light of reports from security agencies that the police stations in the naxal-prone district may face more attacks by the Maoists in near future.

The Maoists said to be running their “parallel government” in these districts have killed 22 policemen last year,an official report said.

All those police stations to be fitted with halogen lamps would now have barracks,watch towers,floating bridges and helipads,apart from linking them with the pucca roads,a state Home department official said.

There are 24 police stations in Gaya district and 26 in Aurangabad district. It was from Aurangabad district that the Maoists formally put the signature of their presence in Bihar by killing as many as 54 upper caste villagers in 1984.

Officials said a large number of hardcore ultras, including Pramod Mishra who was considered think tank of the organisation, have been arrested in a massive crackdown launched by the police in Bihar and Jhrakhand. It has annoyed the Maoists.

According to reports, at least four police stations under the Aurangabad districts will have helipad facility which will be used by the security forces in the time of crisis whereas eight bridges will be constructed in Gaya districts.

Deo, Madanpur, Rafiganj and Nabinagar under Aurangabad district and Barachatti, Mohanpur, Tekari,Fatehpur and Tankuppa police stations under Gaya district are considered the most naxal affected police stations of Bihar.

Protein That Halts Dementia in Alzheimer's Identified

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have discovered that a protein called cyclin-dependent kinase5 (Cdk5) is responsible for halting dementia characterized by Alzheimer's disease (AD). This protein curbs cell division in brain cells.


The researchers also found that when the "brakes" fail, dementia results.

The discovery by Rutgers researcher Karl Herrup and colleagues may pave the way for new ways of treating Alzheimer's disease, which affects up to half the population over the age of 85. Finding out Cdk's previously unexplained role in AD may offer new insights in to the basis of AD.

"It changes the logic from a search for a trigger that kicks off the dementia to the failure of a safety that has suppressed it," said Herrup, chair of the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Herrup, who has long been seeking to unravel the mystery behind unrestrained cell cycling, is now looking at AD through the lens of cancer, and said that rampant cell division is linked with cancer mirrored in AD-related dementia.

In cancer, the seemingly uncontrollable cell division enables the disease to engulf normal body cells. Adult neurons, or nerve cells, don't normally divide. (Cancerous brain tumors do not grow from neurons but from glial cells.) Instead of producing new neurons in the brain, the cycling leads to cell death, which causes progressive dementia.

"Every cell wants to divide, and that basic urge never leaves the cell. Homeostasis in the brain has worked out a way to successfully suppress cell cycling, but with age even that highly successful program sometimes fails, resulting in a catastrophic loss of neurons," said Herrup.
Herrup's team experimented the protein family cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdk). These enzymes power the cell cycle, driving it forward through its various phases.


The scientists focused on one particular kinase - Cdk5 - termed "an atypical kinase" because they could find no involvement in propelling the cell cycle. They found that while it appears to be inert as a cell cycle promoter, Cdk5 in the nervous system actually functions to hold the cell cycle in check.

"Its mere presence helps protect the brain," Herrup said. "What we discovered is that Cdk5 acts as a brake, not a driver."

In their laboratory research, they examined the workings of Cdk5 in human AD tissues and in a mouse model. Normally, the protein resides in the nerve cell nucleus, but in the presence of AD - both in the mouse model and in the human tissue - the disease process drives the protein out into the cell's cytoplasm. This disrupts the status quo, overrides the brake and unleashes a chain of events that ultimately leads to the death of the cells and the resulting dementia.

"The ejection of Cdk5 out of the nucleus is probably related to the changed chemistry of the Alzheimer's brain and chronic inflammation that accompanies AD," said Herrup.

The researchers reported their findings in the in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Source-ANI
RAS/S

Umbilical Cord Blood Cell Transplants may Hold Cure for Lou Gehrig's

Lou Gehrig's disease is a progressive, usually fatal, neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons. It is the disorder that causes muscle weakness, atrophy throughout the body and respiratory failure three to five years after diagnosis.

During the study, researchers transplanted human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) cells into mouse models with ALS.

Cells were transplanted at three different dose strength levels -- low, moderate and high -- to determine the degree to which dose levels of transplanted cells might delay disease symptom progression and increase lifespan.

They found that the moderate-strength dose of HUCB cells was most effective in increasing lifespan and reducing disease progression.

"Our results demonstrate that treatment for ALS with an appropriate dose of mononuclear HUBC cells may provide a neuroprotective effect for motor neurons through active involvement of these cells in modulating the host immune inflammatory system response," said Svitlana Garbuzova-Davis, the study's lead author from the Centre of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at USF.

The research team said that modulating immune and inflammatory effectors with HUCB cells could have a protective effect on dying motor neurons.

However, the researchers said that the mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of hUBC cells for repairing diseased motor neurons in ALS still needs more clarification.

Researchers from University of South Florida have revealed that umbilical cord blood cells transplants may offer a treatment for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

"Future studies should look at multiple injections of smaller doses over time, in order to help translate this research to clinical trials," said co-author Paul R. Sanberg, PhD, DSc, director of the Centre.


The results are published online at PloS ONE (Public Library of Science).

Source-ANI
SRM

Vitamin D may Offer Relief in Chronic Back Pain

A new study has suggested that vitamin D may offer relief from chronic back pain.


According to Stewart B. Leavitt, MA, PhD, editor of Pain Treatment Topics and author of the report, "our examination of the research, which included 22 clinical investigations of patients with pain, found that those with chronic back pain almost always had inadequate levels of vitamin D. When sufficient vitamin D supplementation was provided, their pain either vanished or was at least helped to a significant extent."

Vitamin D is an important component for calcium absorption and bone health.

Inadequate vitamin D intake can result in a softening of bone surfaces, or osteomalacia, that causes pain. The lower back seems to be particularly vulnerable to this effect.

In a study of 360 patients with back pain, the researchers found that all the patients had inadequate levels of vitamin D.

However, after taking vitamin D supplements for 3 months, 95 pct patients showed improvement in back pain symptoms.

The currently recommended adequate intake of vitamin D - up to 600 IU per day - is outdated and too low. According to the research, most children and adults need at least 1000 IU per day, and persons with chronic back pain would benefit from 2000 IU or more per day of supplemental vitamin D3.

Vitamin D supplements interact with very few drugs or other agents, and are usually not harmful unless extremely high doses are taken. An extra dose of the vitamin D may provide relief from pain.
Leavitt said that vitamin D should not be viewed as a cure for all back pain and in all patients. It also is not necessarily a replacement for other pain treatments.


"While further research would be helpful. Current best evidence indicates that recommending supplemental vitamin D for patients with chronic back pain would do no harm and could do much good at little cost," he said.

Source-ANI
RAS/S

Inflation touches 11%, hits 13-year high

India’s worst fear has finally come true—its annual inflation rate crossed the double digit mark to touch the 13-year high of 11.05 per cent for the week ended June 7, up from 8.5 per cent the previous week.

Releasing the latest provisional inflation data, here, the country’s Commerce and Industry Ministry on Friday said that the jump was driven by steep rise in fuel, power, lubricants and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices.

The country’s annual inflation touched the record high in the same week during which the central government had announced large hikes in prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas.

The wholesale price index (WPI) for the fuel, power, light and lubricants group showed a 7.8 per cent rise and accounted in a big way for the high inflation rate, though the WPI for food articles actually declined 1.1 per cent during the week.

The week ended June 7 also saw the WPI for light diesel oil rise 21 per cent, while liquified petroleum gas (LPG) jumped 20 per cent.

The week also saw ATF prices jump 14 per cent, while that of petrol, high speed diesel and bitumen went up by 11 per cent, 10 per cent and seven per cent, respectively.

The WPI for non-food items went up by 1.4 per cent, largely due higher prices of niger seed (13 per cent), raw cotton and mustard seed (four per cent), and raw jute and ginglee seed (two per cent).

The Ministry adjusted the provisional inflation figure of 7.33 per cent for the week ended April 12 to arrive at the final figure of 7.95 per cent.

The RBI made a surprise interest rate rise last week, its first in more than a year, after a government decision to increase state-set fuel prices and economists said more monetary tightening was likely in a bid to calm inflationary expectations.

The country’s apex bank—Reserve Bank of India—also raised interest rate rise last week, its first in more than a year, after a government decision to increase state-set fuel prices and economists said more monetary tightening was likely in a bid to calm inflationary expectations.

It may be noted that Prime Minister’s Economic Council Chairman C Rangarajan had warned of a possible double-digit inflation rate on Thursday.

Hot Summers Could Affect Wine-making in Parts of UK by 2080

Increasing summer temperatures could result in parts of southern England becoming too hot for wine-making by 2080, predicts a new book.


According to Emeritus Professor Richard Selley from Imperial College London, the book's author, if average summer temperatures in the UK continue to rise as predicted, the Thames Valley, parts of Hampshire and the Severn valley, which currently contain many vineyards, will be too hot to support wine production within the next 75 years.

"Instead, this land could be suitable for growing raisins, currents and sultanas, currently only cultivated in hot climates such as North Africa and the Middle East," said Professor Selley.

In addition, Professor determined that if the climate changes in line with predictions by the Met Office's Hadley Centre, by 2080, vast areas of the UK including Yorkshire and Lancashire will be able to grow vines for wines like Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, which are currently only cultivated in warmer climates like the south of France and Chile.

Combining temperature predictions from the IPCC and the Met Office's Hadley Centre with his own research on UK vineyards throughout history, Professor Selley has predicted that the cool and intermediate grape varieties will be confined to the far north of England, Scotland and Wales by 2080, with 'warm' and 'hot' varieties seen throughout the midlands and south of England.

Explaining the significance of his new study, Professor Selley said, "My previous research has shown how the northernmost limit of UK wine-production has advanced and retreated up and down the country in direct relation to climatic changes since Roman times."
"Now, with models suggesting the average annual summer temperature in the south of England could increase by up to five degrees centigrade by 2080, I have been able to map how British viticulture could change beyond recognition in the coming years," he said.


Grapes that currently thrive in the south east of England could become limited to the cooler slopes of Snowdonia and the Peak District, according to Selley.

According to Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, "This research shows how the environment in the UK could be affected by climate change in a relatively short period of time."

"Increases in temperature over the course of this century could have a dramatic effect on what can be grown here, including vines," he added.

Source-ANI
THK/L

Wireless sensor EcoNet to monitor environment

A wireless sensor network (WSN) under development will not only collect data from remote environmental locations but also help monitor them anywhere in the world.

A University of Alberta research team recently launched EcoNet, a functional model of a wireless sensor network (WSN) for environmental monitoring in the display house at the University’s Agriculture and Forestry Centre.

Using a WSN, sensors can continuously monitor factors like temperature and luminosity and store and transmit data co-operatively and wirelessly with other sensors to generate data that can then be collected and made available to users virtually anywhere on the globe.

The overall framework of WSN can also be extended for use in other closely related scenarios such as monitoring potentially dangerous situations like hazardous waste disposal, or hard-to-witness phenomena such as ice cap movements in the Arctic.

The project is a collaboration between Olsonet Communications Corporation in Ottawa and University of Alberta.

Work on Jaipur-Gujarat petroline begins

The work on a 600-km pipeline to transport crude oil and gas from Barmer district in Rajasthan to the coastal district of Jamnagar in Gujarat has been started by Cairn India.

“The 600-km pipeline is the first heated and insulated pipeline in the country,” Cairn India’s Corporate Communications Unit Director David Nisbet said.

Speaking at an event to commence the construction work at Bevta in Banaskantha district near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border, Nisbet said that the pipeline will transport crude oil from the country’s biggest onshore oil field to refineries across India.

At their peak, Cairn India’s three major oil fields—Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya—in Barmer would produce 1.75 lakh barrels of oil a day and push up India’s domestic crude production by approximately 20 per cent, reports IANS.

In April, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry in India had shifted the delivery point for crude produced in Rajasthan from Barmer to Salaya at the Gujarat coast.

According to Nisbet, the oil field development work in Rajasthan is proceeding on schedule. The integrated upstream and the pipeline development are on course to produce oil from Mangala in the second half of 2009.

“The pipeline is designed to access an extensive existing pipeline infrastructure and refinery network, with a final coastal delivery point providing access to the majority of India’s refining capacity,” the Director said.

He further said apart from the crude oil, natural gas from the Raageshwari gas field will also run through this pipeline.

At least 32 intermediate power feeding and heating stations will be built along the length of the pipeline to help maintain the required temperature inside.

Official’s murder exposes governance in Bihar

Governance in Bihar suffered a serious setback after a senior administration official was murdered at his residence by some unidentified assailants on Sunday.

The victim Arvind Kumar Mishra was posted as Block Development Officer at Ariari block in crime-infested Sheikhpura district.

The killed official was busy preparing a report with regard to alleged large-scale irregularities in the appointment of teachers and other corruption cases informed sources said.

Although the investigating police are still to get any clue in the murder, informed sources said the killed officer was under tension for quite some time.

Sources said the BDO had to file an affidavit with regard to the alleged irregularities in the appointment of panchayat teachers in the Patna High Court on Monday but was killed before that.

Many suspect the corrupt-criminal nexus might have eliminated the BDO to prevent him expose the truth.

“We have taken the matter very seriously and ordered for a detailed probe to go into the bottom of the murder story,” the acting Home Secretary Aamir Subhani said.

The Bihar Administrative Service Association (BASA) has strongly condemned the murder of their colleague and sought a foolproof security for the officials posted in blocks.

“How can the government expect us to enforce the rules when we don’t have security”, BASA President Arun Chandra Mishra said. He demanded constitution of a special task force for the arrest of the culprits.

“The victim had expressed threats to his life from the corrupts, criminals and mafiosi and hence all those who are guilty of not providing him security despite his repeated pleas must also be punished,” the BASA Chief said.

This is the second incident in Bihar that BDO at the same Ariari block has been killed. Earlier on November 27, 2004, the then Ariari BDO Ashok Rajvats was killed by some criminals over a contracts dispute.

Malaria hits Assam, alert sounded

The North Eastern Indian state of Assam may be in the grip of a malaria outbreak. Following the death of 27 people due to the disease, the government has issued an alert to the health authorities in various parts of the state.

“Most of the deaths have taken place in the southern Karbi Anglong district, but the situation is well under control,” Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, while taking note of the whole situation.

Assam and the rest of the northeast are recognised as malaria zone with state and federal health authorities regularly keeping a close watch on the situation, reports IANS.

In 2007, a total of 141 people died of malaria in Assam and up to 60 of these deaths were reported by end May, the health minister said.

“We have distributed around three lakh medicated mosquito nets to the poor to keep mosquitoes away and more such nets are being made available for free,” Sarma said, adding that the centre had provided 1.5 lakh of these nets and the rest by the state government.

On Monday, Sarma ordered health authorities to sound an alert in parts of the central Kamrup district, one of the most malaria prone areas in the state.

He further said that special medical teams have been set up to monitor the situation round the clock.

Civilians aside, paramilitary troopers guarding the borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh, spread over thick jungles, have become victims of malaria. At least 50 security personnel have died of the disease in the past couple of years.

Petrol, diesel, LPG to cost more in India

Despite political opposition, the government on Wednesday allowed a 9.5-11 per cent increase in prices of cooking and transport fuels, but cut customs and excise duties on crude and petroleum products to ease the financial burden on state-run oil firms, reeling under high global oil prices.

This has been the highest hike allowed so far in fuel prices in the country—a move that has invited disapproval from both the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left parties that prop the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition.

The decision, taken at a marathon meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, would result in petrol becoming dearer by Rs 5 per litre, diesel by Rs 3 and cooking gas by Rs 50 per cylinder.

The hikes take effect midnight Wednesday.

“There were no other options before the government. We were helpless. So the decision was taken to revise the prices,” Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told reporters here after the two-hour meeting at the prime minister’s official residence.

Deora also requested state governments to chip in to reduce the burden on the average citizen by lowering the sales tax on petroleum products, which is as high as 30 percent in some states.

Normal unleaded petrol is now expected to cost Rs 50.52 a litre in the national capital and Rs 55.51 in Mumbai, while diesel is expected to retail at Rs 34.76 and Rs 39.08, respectively, in the two metros.

The cabinet meeting also decided to bring down customs duties on crude oil to nil from five percent earlier, and on diesel and petrol to 2.5 percent from 7.5 percent. Excise duty has also been cut by Re 1 per litre on the two products.

The reduction in various levies will cost the exchequer Rs 226 billion during the remaining 10 months of the current fiscal, a Finance Ministry official said.

Three state-run oil retailing firms—Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum—would receive Rs 946 billion (US $22 billion) as bonds to ease the fiscal burden for selling petroleum products below cost.

Prices of petrol and diesel were last raised in India in February after close to 20 months. At that time crude oil prices were ruling at US $67 per barrel, against US $125 now. India imports a little over 70 percent of its crude oil needs.

Wednesday’s meeting was attended by Deora, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad and Transport Minister T R Baalu, among others.

Soon after the cabinet’s decisions was communicated to the nation, political parties deplored the price hike and said it would be suicidal for the ruling coalition that has entered an election year.

“This isn’t a marginal hike. It’s a substantial hike. It will have a deleterious effect. It will fuel inflation. So the Left parties will have a week-long protest from Thursday,” Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Prakash Karat said.

India’s annual rate of inflation has topped the worrisome eight-percent mark and stood at 8.1 percent for the week ended May 17.

“This is an economic terror unleashed on the country. The prime minister has put another burden on the people. This will cause an upheaval in the nation. It is a black day for the country,” BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

Also on expected lines was the reaction from the average citizen who felt that the hike would result in prices of other commodities going up as well, mainly essential items of daily consumption.

“I have to now juggle my entire monthly budget. The hike is too much to handle, especially for a middle-class housewife. I have to cut down on purchases,” said Minu Agarwal, a housewife in the national capital.

Ever since prices of global crude oil prices started going up—and even topped US $135 per barrel at one point—the government has been contemplating how to ease the burden on state-run fuel retailers, who are not permitted to revise prices unless permitted by the cabinet.

A series of meetings followed both within the government and outside since the ruling coalition was wary of the political fallout of hiking fuel prices, having entered an election year. The electoral setbacks to the Congress party in some states like Karnataka and ballotting due in some others in coming months made the task even more difficult.

YS Malik is now Haryana IT Secretary

Yudhvir Singh Malik, Forests and Environment Commissioner and Secretary in the Haryana government, will look after PK Chaudhery’s portfolio of Commissioner and Secretary of Information Technology.

Malik is also heading Department of Electronics, Industries and Commerce, Mines and Geology Departments.

A 1983 batch officer, Malik worked as Joint Secretary of Company Affairs in the Government of India from 2004-2008.

Delhi launches anti-dengue campaign

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has launched a massive anti-dengue campaign across the city following surface of the first case of the disease early this week.

“We started checking potential mosquito breeding grounds around the city. In all 3,200 workers have fanned out across the city,” MCD’s Health Officer NK Yadav said.

The MCD launched awareness campaigns across the city early this month and have roped in schoolchildren and teachers to spread the message. In addition the civic agency is also organising public meetings and exhibitions in all the 272 wards of the city, reports IANS.

“Public awareness campaigns are going on throughout the city. We are using mediums like television, radio and newspapers to build up an awareness campaign,” MCD Press and Information Director Deep Mathur said.

Last year a total of 548 dengue cases were reported.

“Most people don’t understand the problem. They don’t keep a check and don’t control rainwater stagnating in the open near their establishments. It is only when dengue strikes that they understand the problem. We need help from the public to control it as the problem starts from their respective houses,” Yadav explained.

“The present climate is conducive to breeding of the Aedes mosquito,” All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Community Medicine Professor Bir Singh said.

Thirty-four hospitals in the city have been identified for diagnosis and treatment of dengue and chikungunya cases.

Temephos, an insecticide that can help prevent breeding of the Aedes mosquito, is being distributed free of cost by MCD.

Saarc forestry centre opened in Bhutan

The Saarc Forestry Centre has been established at Taba in Thimphu on Wednesday. It will serve as a centre of excellence for forestry within the Saarc region and act as a nodal point for research, information and policy development.

Governing body comprising members from South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries will manage the centre. It is the first Saarc Regional Centre to be established in Bhutan.

The regional centre will help in providing information to improve the fragile mountain ecology through involvement of local communities and adopting sustainable forest management practices.

The centre’s main roles would be to provide a platform for regional networking and sharing of experiences in forestry among the Saarc member countries.

The centre will prepare a database on forestry research and training institutes of the member states, and would develop and host a Saarc forestry website. For this year, the centre will get a budget of about US $3.6 lakh.

Sangay Wangchuk, a Nature Conservation Specialist in the Forestry Department of the Bhutanese government has been appointed as the centre’s first director.

India tourism website bags best design award

The website of the Ministry of Tourism in India has been adjudged as the winner of the PC World Web Award 2008 in the tourism category for best design.

The Web award instituted by PC World aims at establishing a much-needed benchmark for the dotcom domain, thereby bringing to the fore a wide range of websites offering useful services that readers can use.

Out of the 100.1 million website operating in the World Wide Web as on March 2008, the Ministry of Tourism website was ranked 25,000 in April 2008 which is a significant achievement.

The Ministry has been utilising the Internet media to promote the “Incredible India” campaign both in India and abroad.

The website helps to build awareness about the richness of India and position India as a favoured tourist destination for foreign and domestic tourists.

To give a 360 degree approach to the publicity efforts the campaign theme on the Internet has revolved around capturing the theme “Colours of India”.

The Ministry is constantly innovating tools on the site, which was initially commissioned in English and later translated into Hindi, French and Japanese.

There has been significant increase in the traffic to the website, with an average traffic of around 10 lakh visitors a day.

For the award, the websites were evaluated using parameters like content, structure and technology to arrive at the winners.

The list was filtered on basis of preliminary evaluation of the sites to arrive at the final set of websites that were given to the 14 members jury comprising domain experts in the field of design, UL, security and technology.

Jaundice grips Orissa village

Jaundice has gripped Mayurbhanj district in costal Indian state of Orissa, with nearly 60 people falling prey to the diseases after consuming contaminated water.

The residents of Damsahi village near the district headquarter of Baripada, about 270 km from here, started falling ill Thursday, reports IANS quoting official sources.

Most patients are being treated at the local government hospital while some are at a temporary camp that had been set up.

Local councillor Santosh Chandra Gop alleged that the water being supplied to the village was contaminated.

“A team of doctors arrived here from the district headquarter Tuesday. The patients include people of all age groups. Members of 15 families have been affected,” said Nilanjan Rout, one of the doctors at the camp.

World population to hit 7 bn mark in 2012

While the world population will hit the seven billion mark in 2012, India will become the most populous nation by 2050; the country is expected to touch 1.5 billion in 2025, to come at par with China.

About 300 million will be added in the next four years to the current world population of 6.7 billion people, putting a huge strain on natural resources, reports IANS quoting US Census Bureau estimates.

According to the estimates, while the global population is growing at an annual rate of about 1.2 per cent, India shows a higher growth rate of 1.6 per cent.

India with present population of 1.15 billion ranks second worldwide and is followed by the US with 304 million people.

China, the most populous country with 1.33 billion people, on the other hand, has been able to restrict its population growth to 0.6 per cent.

The report further said that it took the world about 13 years to add the seventh billion.

By comparison, the number of people didn’t even reach one billion until 1800, Carl Haub, a demographer at the US Population Reference Bureau, said in the report released Thursday.

The population didn’t reach two billion until 130 years later. While the third billion took about 30 years to add, reaching the figure in 1959, the next three billion were added at a fast trot, taking about 40 years.

“You can easily see the effect of rapid population growth in developing countries,” Haub said.

The demographer ascribes the population explosion following World War II to medical and nutritional advances in developing countries.

Cultural changes, like more women in developing countries going to school and joining the work force, were slowing the growth rate, though it remained high in many countries.

The US Census Bureau projects the global growth rate will decline to 0.5 per cent by 2050. It updates projections each year on a variety of global demographic trends, including fertility and mortality rates and life expectancy.

The new census report comes at a time when the world is grappling with food shortages and record high oil prices, fuelled in part by growing demand from expanding economies in China and India.

However, expert demographers offer no consensus on how many people the Earth can sustain.

William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, was recently quoted as saying that it depends on how well people manage the earth’s resources.

India’s water scene alarming: Study

Optimistic projections made by the Planning Commission of India in 2007 regarding availability of water in the country are incorrect, a study says.

Professor at the University of California TN Narasimhan in his study says the Indian government has “seriously overestimated” available and utilisable water resources.

Narasimhan’s study is in the June issue of the Journal of Earth Systems Science published by the Indian Academy of Sciences here.

He said these estimates were based on data provided by the Water Resources Ministry of India in 1999.

“It significantly underestimated evapotranspiration (ET)—a term used to describe the amount of water lost due to evaporation of surface water and transpiration by plants and trees,” the study said.

According to the study, the use of more realistic value for ET would reduce the amount of water available for human use by at least 37 per cent. This is the second time in 12 months that scientists have raised an alarm over water availability in India.

Last year NK Garg of the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) called for urgent action before water scarcity becomes unmanageable.

He said the government has overestimated utilisable water by as much as 68 per cent and that India is unlikely to meet the annual demand of 897 billion cubic metres (BCM) projected for 2050, even after full development of utilisable water resources.

The source of water for all uses in India is the 3,838 BCM of rainfall it receives annually. Part of it enters rivers and streams, another part recharges the groundwater, and the third part is lost due to ET.

According to the Planning Commission’s calculations, the surface flow and recharge components add up to 60 per cent—or 2,301 BCM—of the total rainfall and this is available for human use. This implies that the remaining 40 per cent is lost due to ET.

Narasimhan, however, argues that this figure of 40 per cent is significantly lower than published estimates of ET for a number of regions in the world.

For instance, the ET is 90 per cent for Australia, 82.1 per cent for the Amazon basin, 82.8 per cent for France and between 60.5 and 66.4 per cent for the world’s total land area.

Narasimhan says an independent study—using a higher ET of 69 per cent—has estimated the available water in India to be 1,460 BCM or almost 37 per cent less than the government projection.

“Due to engineering and environmental constraints, only about half of the available water—or 712 BCM—is actually utilisable,” Narasimhan said.

“If we compare this 712 BCM of utilisable water with the current use of 634 BCM, it is clear that India is already at the threshold of over-development of water resources,” Narasimhan warned.

The study carried out by IIT-D’s Garg concluded that India has to be seriously concerned about shortage of water right now rather than a few decades from now.

According to Garg’s analysis published last year, almost all the basins in India would become water-deficit, thereby raising a big question about the availability of water for inter-basin transfer.

A IIT-Roorkee Hydrologist Muthaia Perumal said the study by Narasimhan should serve as a warning and that a credible estimate of ET for India is urgently needed to revise the estimates of utilisable water.

“Impounding more and more water for power production means that ET will further increase, thereby accelerating water scarcity,” Perumal maintained.

Isro to offer ‘Google Earth’ like service

Now Google will get a stiffer competitor in satellite imaging. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is planning to launch its own Google Earth like satellite images services within six months.

Giving details about the new service, Isro Chairman G Madhavan Nair, said that its Google Earth like services would exclude high risk locations that have been prohibited by the law from being imaged.

Nair further said its remote sensing satellites (RSS) provide imagery of the earth in a variety of spectral bands and with a resolution better than one meter. These data are received at about 20 different stations across various parts of the world, he added.

“The space organisation is ready to offer its capacities on a commercial basis and ring in its cash registers, after meeting the domestic requirement that calls for four to five launches a year,” the Chairman said.

He further said that Isro’s launch vehicles are efficient, reliable and cost-effective, and requires nearly 25 per cent less cost than what international agencies demand.

New IBM service to help cos identify ‘green’ IT

IBM has announced a new service—the IT Carbon Strategy Study—to help clients starting on their green transformation identify the most rapid areas of reduction in IT carbon emission across the infrastructure.

As a part of IBM’s Project Big Green initiative, the service enables clients to develop the guiding principles for becoming a greener enterprise and provides recommendations for the actions they can take to achieve those goals.

The service assesses the entire IT enterprise, not just the data centre, IBM said in a statement.

“Significant reduction in carbon footprint can be achieved in often-overlooked areas like desktop systems, networking components, server rooms and printers that can contribute more than 50 per cent of the total energy consumption for IT,” IBM’s IT Strategy and Architecture Services VP Jeanine Cotter said.

The company further said that the assessment includes both the data centre and the distributed environment including offices, retail stores and warehouses.

As few companies have existing infrastructure that has been built with energy efficiency as part of the design criteria, the new IBM service provides clients specific recommendations on project priorities with the biggest potential gains.

Projects could comprise the network, printers, distributed servers, facilities upgrades like heating, venting, and air conditioning (HVAC) and universal power supplies (UPS), desktop computers and monitors, the company said.

According to IBM, a typical three-to-four week study includes a kick-off workshop to agree on overall objectives and targets, data gathering and data analysis leveraging a carbon impact analysis tool to help assess cost benefit analysis.

Once the workshop is over, clients are presented with the results in a report including the specific findings and recommendations by the new service.

Medical scheme for TN employees

The Government of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday launched a medical health insurance scheme for state government employees.

Under the new scheme, a government employee can avail up to Rs two lakh towards medical expenses for four years. While the employee would pay an annual sum of Rs 300, the state government would bear the rest and also the 12.5 per cent service tax.

Tamil Nadu has become the first state in India to implement such a scheme. The state government has tied up with the private Star Health and Allied Insurance for this scheme.

According to state government sources, the beneficiaries can avail medical services, including surgeries, in 52 hospitals across the state.

The state government has also formed a high-level committee besides local committees to look into complaints and grievances of the beneficiaries regarding the scheme.

Till now, eight lakh government employees have applied for the scheme, state government informed.

Rat Meat, the New Delicacy in Demand in Southern India

Rat meat is selling like hot cakes in certain pockets in southern India.


There is a growing demand for the new delicacy hamlets in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Villagers swear nothing tastes better.

That is a new phenomenon for the country. Still the consumption is confined to the poorer sections of the society. Rat meat comes cheap, at Rs 2.50 per rat, it should be remembered.

Baskar (29) hailing from Melazhunjipettu, Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu, is hooked to the new found delicacy. “It (rat meat) tastes so good. I think those who taste it once will start eating it regularly. All our family members eat rat meat now,” he said.



Competing with the villagers are the arrack and toddy shop owners. The potent brew and cheap meat are a big hit among villagers.

The paddy fields are the tribals’ hunting ground. Snake-hunting Irula tribals, desperate to peddle their rodent-snaring skills, have succeeded in getting the meat on the kitchen menu of villages in Cuddalore district and the Puducherry Union Territory. The trend could catch on elsewhere too, reports Bosco Dominique in Times of India.

Each tribal hunter catches about 15 rats a day from the fields and divide their catch among villagers, arrack and toddy shop owners and save a few to take back home.


Said a young Irula tribal, Sakthivel, hailing from Cuddalore district: “Rat meat is one of the important food items of the Irulas. But other villagers too have acquired a taste for it and demand has gone up.’’ Several Irulas settled in T N Palayam on the outskirts of the Union Territory eke out a living by selling rats to the villagers.


“The meat tastes even better than chicken. The tribals are the only source for it and we are grateful. But, they should understand our love for it and the growing demand here and should go in for large scale hunting of rats,” Viswanathan, one of villagers said.


Confirming the growing demand, Raje (45), another tribal settled in the region, said his day’s catch of rats would be sold out in a trice. But catching a rat is a laborious task. “The hunters use a pot to blow smoke into a rat hole and wait for long hours to force them out of hiding and then catch them alive,” said Sakthivel.


According to dieticians, rat meat is protein rich. Several international research institutes, which have studied rat meat, vouch for it.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Earth cracks in UP seismic related: Expert

Motion of a massive granitic body under the earth could be the probable reason behind alarming cracks on the earth crust that have created a panic like situation in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).

“If this granitic craton motion is changed due to some tectonic reason, one may see subsidence at large scale—since a fault is present along Kanpur-Lucknow—there could be danger of large surface deformation,” cautioned an US based Indian scientist Ramesh Singh.

The effect of motion of this block will be reflected in widespread cracks, he said. Singh is a Professor at George Mason University in Washington and vice chair of GeoRisk Commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.

He further said that the Government of India should monitor seismic activities in the area to avert any major disaster due to this motion.

Singh, who had extensively studied the seismology in this part of UP during his stint at IIT Kanpur as a Professor said if the orientation of such long cracks was in the east-west direction, then the cracks could be due to stress on the surface of the earth due to motion of this massive craton (granitic body) exposed near Jhansi.

He said this massive body underlying the region is inclined towards northeast with depth reaching 300-500 metres near Kanpur and 1,200 metres in Lucknow.

About 18 months back, scientists observed a shift in the position of the Sangam—the confluence of rivers Ganges and Yamuna and mythical Saraswati near Allahabad—and thought it was due to the sediment load in the rivers or due to plate motion, Singh said.

“Now, the appearance of large widespread cracks is clear evidence of neo-tectonic activities associated with the building of stress in this region and we must monitor seismic activities along Kanpur-Lucknow and Moradabad faultlines,” the Professor said.

Singh said he initially suspected that the cracks might be due to subsidence as a result of excessive groundwater withdrawal but ruled it “since the cracks were seen on a regional scale in many parts of Kanpur, Hamirpur, and Allahabad.”

The formation of cracks on the earth continues to affect various districts of UP and two villages near Lucknow are the latest to witness long fissures on the surface.

Fields in Kakori block’s two villages, Dullu Khera and Vader Khera, about 10 km from Lucknow, have developed wide cracks up to 250 metres long, officials said.

Besides the villages in Lucknow district, six districts of Uttar Pradesh have been witnessing this phenomenon for about a week.

Everonn to impart IT training in Andhra schools

Everonn Systems India has received Letter of Intent (LoI) from Andhra Pradesh School Education Department for the implementation of computer aided learning in 405 high schools in the state.

The company won the bid with stiff competition from Educomp, NIIT and five other players.

“The project is based on build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model whereby Everonn will create labs, teach students and teachers,” Everonn Systems GM- IT Chandrabanu said.

The total value of computer aided learning project is Rs 30 crore for a five-year term and is based on sharing model.

The company plans to sign an agreement with state School Education Department shortly. And with this order, the total number of school where computer aided learning is to be taught increases to 3,569.

r002-010.jpg

The company is planning to provide computer aided learning to 4,000 schools in FY 2008-09.

“In 2007-08, Everonn Systems India has trained around 6.8 lakh students and in FY 2008-08, the company is planning to provide computer aided learning to 4,000 schools in FY 2008-09,” Chandrabanu said.

The company is presently providing computer training in Gujarat, Goa, West Bengal, Jharkhand, UP, Karnataka and Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Korean Researchers Working on Artificial Virus for Targeted Drug Delivery

Researchers at the Yonsei University, Seoul, capital of South Korea, are working on an artificial self-assembling virus that could be used for targeted delivery of drugs to cells.


Self-assembly is building a virus protein by protein, a huge task. But Koreans have succeeded.

They demonstrated the transport of the fluorescent chemical "nile red" into cell cytoplasms and nuclei - a very nifty tool for experimental anti-cancer medications, since the nucleus (as the name suggests) is the central point for many cell functions. Rather than flooding your system with oral or injected medicines and simply hoping that enough gets where it needs to be, a pharmacological smart-bomb can be delivered direct to the nucleus by an escort of artificial invaders, writes Luke McKinney in Daily Galaxy.

The viruses also have applications in gene therapy, the idea that debugging your DNA can help avoid or even eliminate some sicknesses. The whole point of a virus is to hijack your molecular machinery to produce more copies of itself, which it does by editing your DNA code. Artificial viruses could be programmed to use the same mechanisms for slightly more desirable results, as demonstrated by the team's incorporation of siRNA (small interfering RNA) into the artificial virus. Gene knockdown experiments indicated high transfection efficiencies, that is, they it worked.

In January this year, it was reported that researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and The Scripps Research Institute in California were designing an artificial viral shell as a valuable nano-container for pinpoint drug delivery, molecular computing components, and a host of other applications.
Artificial capsids could act as cargo containers that deliver drugs to targeted areas of the body, vessels that shuttle replacement genes to their new homes in the genome as part of gene therapy, or tiny enclosed laboratories for doing chemical reactions or building molecular computer parts, it was said.


The size of artificial capsids "is very important. It will determine which molecules we'll be able to pack inside the container. Small containers will allow for drug delivery, big ones for delivering proteins and very big for the delivery of genes," Technion chemist Ehud Keinan had noted.

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Automatic baggage checking at Delhi airport soon

The Indian capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport has begun trial runs for an ‘inline baggage system’ that would not only enable baggage to get checked and assigned automatically while passengers wait for their boarding passes but also do away with X-rays.

The airport will install the system for all its eight baggage rows at the international terminal, reports IANS quoting a senior airport official.

While the inline baggage system will start working for two rows from July 1, six others will start three weeks later, a spokesperson of the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the airport developer of the Delhi airport, said.

“This would ease overcrowding at the manual X-ray machines,” the official said, adding that the new system was expected to bring respite to passengers.

“Once we have the two rows for inline baggage system by July 1 and six others in the next three weeks, passengers can directly walk to the check-in counter and receive their boarding pass while the baggage gets checked and assigned automatically,” he explained.

The inline baggage system is a combination of conveyor belts, bar code readers and inline baggage sorters. The passenger also need not stand in a separate queue for X-ray screening of bags before checking in.

“When the passenger deposits his baggage at the check-in counter, a modular system weighs and transports the luggage to a conveyor belt. Once the baggage is assigned a position, it proceeds to a security checkpoint,” the official informed.

The new system enables security agencies to segregate suspicious bags from the in-feed by high-speed sorting conveyors that deliver bags to an off-line inspection area. “Only those passengers, whose baggage is brought to the inspection area, need to be present for manual inspection,” the spokesperson said.

DIAL had last month assured Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia that congestion at the airport here would be eased by June-end.

However, it sought more employees to supervise security and immigration checks. The government has provided additional manpower for the Delhi airport.

Delhi airport’s domestic and international sections handle about 20.4 million passengers annually. The number is expected to rise to 37 million by 2010 and 100 million by 2030.

According to DIAL Deputy Chairperson Kiran Kumar Grandhi, the airport handles passengers beyond its annual capacity of 12 million.

Additional relief is in the offing with the third runway expected to become operational by August this year. The international terminal (Terminal-2) would be revamped by July.

Besides, the Haj terminal would be upgraded by October and would be used for international operations from January next year.

A new Terminal-3 would come up by 2010, which would be an integrated terminal. It would handle about 34 million passengers, the spokesperson said.

Found: magic bullet to kill acute diarrhoea

The discovery of an inexpensive compound could virtually sound the death knell of diarrhoea, which kills up to 2.5 million children annually in the developing world.

The Texas University team that made the discovery described it as a ‘magic bullet’ that would not only save millions of lives in the developing world, but would also save billions of dollars that are lost annually.

The major share of these fatalities is being accounted by enterotoxigenic E coli (ETEC) strains, according to an article in Clinical Microbiology Reviews.

The compound targets acute and virtually untreatable diarrhoea caused by ETEC and other bacteria strains.

They produce toxins that stimulate intestinal linings to secrete excessive fluid, said Stanley G Schultz, a member of the Texas team.

During pre-clinical tests, the compound was associated with a significant reduction in intestinal fluid secretion in an animal model of bacterial diarrhoea.

It was also linked to reduced fluid build up during laboratory tests on human colon cells. It caused significant decrease in fluid secretion without apparent toxicity.

This unique approach to the treatment of ETEC diarrhoea works by interrupting the diarrhoea-causing chain of events that occur when bacterial toxins enter the intestinal tract.

The compound slows the transmission of information in the epithelial cells lining the intestines. Consequently, molecular mediators regulating the secretion of salt and fluid in the gut do not get fully activated.

“While this research looks extremely promising as a preventive or therapeutic intervention in Third World diarrhoeal disease and travellers’ diarrhoea, much work remains to be done to move into clinical trials and eventual therapeutic approval,” co-author of the study Ferid Murad said.

In the event of an earthquake, typhoon or other catastrophe, this potential diarrhoea treatment could be used to treat ETEC outbreaks caused by faeces contaminated food and water supplies, Murad said.

The compound can be placed in a pill for adults and in a liquid for children.

The results of pre-clinical tests appeared in Monday online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Link Between Cancer and Alcohol Uncovered

European researchers are reporting that the clue to why some alcoholics develop cancer lies in the genes.


The researchers found that two genes present in the body work to prevent development of mouth and throat cancers in alcohol drinkers. The absence of these genes increases the risk of developing these cancers.

Researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France looked at 9,000 people for this study and found that two variants of a gene called ADH were responsible for lowering the risk of developing mouth and throat cancer.

The details of the study are published in Nature Genetics.

Source-Medindia
RAS/L

Gurgaon launches hi-tech policing system

Taking the e-Governance initiative at the forefront and focusing on the IT savvy population of Gurgaon city, the police here on Tuesday launched an online Citizen-Centric Policing System to enable the filing and tracking of complaints.

A snap of the Gurgaon police siteNot only this, the police would also respond to an SMS sent by a person in distress and zero-in on the location from where it was sent to rush assistance, reports IANS.

Police have also started installing hi-end Internet Protocol (IP) CCTV cameras at crucial locations in the city. All police vehicles, including the control room vans, are being fitted with global positioning system (GPS) locators.

The CCTVs and police vehicles have been hooked to a broadband-based online software surveillance system that senior officers can access on their laptops even while on the move.

Police plan to install about 110 such cameras in next two months, and 5,000 by 2010.

“The initiatives were aimed at improving the comfort levels of the people, including senior citizens and women who were not in a position to venture out of their homes on their own,” Gurgaon Police Commissioner Mohinder Lal said while launching the new system.

Those working with BPOs and MNCs who did not have enough time to visit police stations would also benefit from the online policing system.

“We have floated a website at which the people in distress can file their complaints and even get the status of the action taken on their complaints without moving out of their homes or offices,” Lal said.

The Commissioner said that people can also SMS their complaints or report suspicious movements on a specially allotted police mobile number 9717595423.

The police of the concerned area would be informed and action would be taken promptly, he added.

According to Lal, all the written complaints filed in the police stations would be digitised online and a printout FIR would be given to the complaints.

http://www.gurgaonpolice.net/

Website for Jharkhand ex-servicemen soon

Ex-servicemen of Jharkhand would soon have a website of their own. It will contain latest database of retired personnel of the defence services, like Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, residing in the state.

The website, conceptualised and designed under the supervision of the 23 Infantry Division of the Indian Army, will also provide information on the latest benefits and incentives doled out from time to time by different offices of the government.

“The first of its kind initiative will have the facility of accepting complaints from the ex-servicemen regarding their grievances in receiving required post-retirement benefits,” the Infantry Division General Officer Commanding (GOC) Maj Gen AK Singh said.

He further said that it will allow the aggrieved persons to keep a watch on various stages of disposal of their grievances.

Speaking to iGovernment, Lt Col RK Singh of the same Division said that complaints and grievances can be lodged on the website by any ex-servicemen from anywhere. The website is expected to go live by first week of July.

He also said that the website will assist ex-servicemen to know about the medical benefits available to them and the vacancies where they could apply for.

There are around 25,000 ex-servicemen in the state. They, however, often remain unaware of latest incentives offered to them by the central government or the state government or even the Defence Ministry.

“The website could prove to be of great help who do not frequent to the local defence offices, as they can have it just at the click of the mouse,” Maj Gen Singh said.

He said that that over 95 per cent of database about ex-servicemen from the state has already been compiled, while for the rest ex-servicemen welfare boards situated at different districts have been asked to furnish the required details at the earliest.

According to Army officers, every detail of the ex-servicemen would be posted on the website so that it could be accessed by their known ones across the globe.

Underlining the need of such a high-tech facility for ex-servicemen, the GOC said that ex-servicemen usually remain in dark about latest incentive schemes until they come in touch with serving staff.

“The Government of India recently launched a scholarship scheme for the ward of ex-servicemen. But I am sure that majority of them would still be not aware of it,” Maj Gen Singh claimed.

Decks clear for seaplane operations in India

Ninety-eight years after the French engineer Henri Fabre invented the first seaplane, India on Tuesday announced a detailed operational and safety norm paving way for take off and landing of the ‘floating aircraft’ in the country.

The Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) issued by the country’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is expected to boost tourism in the island territories of the country.

Besides, it would also help coral islands like Lakshadweep improve inter and intra-island connectivity without putting any additional pressure on their scarce land resource.

dsc_9138.jpgHowever, the DGCA notification bars operators from night operations of seaplanes or operations under the Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) conditions at water aerodromes.

IFR are a set of regulations and procedures for flying aircraft in low visibility conditions using data provided by his instruments or by the Air Traffic Control.

The CAR, issued under Rule 133(B) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, mandates that an operator will need to obtain a permit for non-scheduled passenger services or for charter operations for offering the seaplane service in India.

With the country having no prior experience in running seaplane operation, the CAR also makes it necessary for the operators to obtain ‘airworthiness’ certificate for each seaplane from the DGCA.

Seaplane operation is unique in nature and has its peculiar specialisation. The take-off and landing operations from waterbed with varying winds and rapidly changing meteorological conditions pose a challenge to pilots operating seaplane.

“It is a specialised operation and therefore, pilots engaged in this role are required to be given specific role oriented training,” the CAR states.

According to the DGCA notification, while pilots would need to conduct a detailed check of the aircraft before take-off, a detailed pre-takeoff and pre-landing briefing for passengers has also been made mandatory.

“This is important to equip them with adequate information on survival techniques in case of deep impact with water,” a senior DGCA official said.

Besides the pre-takeoff briefing as mandatory even in the case of normal airplanes, the CAR mandates that seaplane operator shall set-up a passenger briefing room for a pre-boarding audio-visual briefing of passengers.

Seaplanes tend to come to rest inverted in water accidents or incidents but can remain afloat for long periods if the floats are not breached.

Specifying the pilot qualification the notification says that since seaplane services does not exist in the country, pilots with a general flying experience of over 250 hours would need to undergo a minimum 10 hours of special training programme.

The special seaplane training includes a minimum of five hours dual instruction experience, and another five hours of take-offs and landing experience as sole occupant of the seaplane.

The experience includes a certain minimum runs of taxiing, sailing and docking. However, in case of two crew aircraft, the pilot also needs takeoff and landing experience as pilot-in-command (PIC), the notification says.

It may be recalled that while recognising seaplane services as part of the civil aviation sector, the Government of India had recently increased the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap in the sector.

What is a Seaplane?
A quick search on Wikipedia reveals that “a seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft designed to take off and land (alight) on water.”

Seaplanes can be divided into separate categories such as floatplanes, flying boats, and amphibians. These aircraft are occasionally called hydroplanes, a term rarely used in English.

The word ‘seaplane’ is used to describe two types of air and water vehicles—the floatplane and the flying boat.

The Floatplane
A floatplane has slender pontoons mounted under the fuselage. Two floats are common, but many floatplanes of World War II had a single float under the main fuselage and two small floats on the wings.

Only the ‘floats’ of a floatplane normally come into contact with water. The fuselage remains above water.

The Flying Boat
In a flying boat, the main source of buoyancy is the fuselage, which acts like a ship’s hull in the water. Most flying boats have small floats mounted on their wings to keep them stable.

The term ‘seaplane’ is used by some to refer only to floatplanes—aircraft with floats as landing gear—with the flying boat being a distinct type of craft.

An amphibious aircraft can take off and land both on conventional runways and water. A true seaplane can only take off and land on water.

Quick Facts
Channel: This is a defined rectangular area on a water aerodrome, intended for landing and take-off run of aircraft along its length.

Floating Platform: It is a defined platform anchored inside protected waters meant for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers or cargo by seaplane.

Water Aerodrome: The defined area on land or water—including any buildings, installations and equipments—intended to be used either wholly or in part for the arrival, departure and movement of aircraft.

55 DWRs soon to make accurate forcasting

The Indian Meteorological Department plans to set up at least 55 Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) across the country to make weather forecasts more credible and accurate.

“The DWR will improve mecchanised weather study and forecasting,” the Regional Meteorological Centre Deputy General Manager Kolkata LR Meena said.

“The equipment would help prepare digital image of the cloud configurations thereby helping the met office to come out with more accurate forecast of weather within a radius of 500-km,” Meena said.

dwr.gifFor making weather forecast more accurate in the eastern region of the country, particularly in Bihar and Jharkhand, the Indian Meteorological Department would set up state-of-the-art DWR either at Patna or Ranchi by the end of next year.

“It will also cover the skies of Chhatrtisgarh and parts of Bengal,” Meena said.

The location to house the radar would be determined very shortly. “However, it would either be at Patna or Ranchi or at both the places,” he added.

Underlining salient features of the DWR, meteorological experts said, while conventional weather radars can look deeper into a weather system to provide information on intensity, rain rate, vertical extent and some information about the liquid water content of the cloud mass, the capability to probe internal motions of hydrometeors and hence to derive velocity and turbulence information has become available only after the advent of DWR.

It can not only detect the position and strength of weather echoes, but can also measure the speed of the multiple tiny targets in them towards or away from the radar (radial velocity), experts said.

Each DWR unit costs nearly Rs 15 crore, besides recurring expenses on its maintenance. At present, there are only four DWRs located at Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Sriharikota.

Stressing the need for achieving more precision in forecast in view of the global warming, weather scientists, who assembled at the Birsa Agriculture University, Kanke, observed that India being in the temperate zone, needed special attention to deal with the menace as compared to Europe and America.

“Unusual climatic change in the south-eastern region of Asia has adversely affected crop production in India. This seems to have prompted the Centre to reinforce its weather prediction mechanism,” weather scientists observed.

Erratic and abnormal rains in parts of Bihar and Jharkhand have not only increased production cost, but also compelled farmers to look for other sources of sustainable income that actually fuelled mass exodus of working populace from the two states.

J&K Sees Unusual Rise in Number of Caesarean Deliveries

The number of Caesarean deliveries in Jammu and Kashmir has seen an alarming rise in the last few months with the Government-run Maternity Hospitals like the Lal Ded Maternity Hospital Srinagar seeing almost 60 percent of the deliveries done by C-sections.


The Union Health Ministry is concerned with this phenomenon and has demanded a report from the concerned authorities. It must be noted that women are also opting for C-sections in order to avoid labour pain.

In the Lal Ded Maternity Hospital it is reported that 38 such deliveries are performed each day as opposed to the 80 in the state. Additionally almost 85 percent of children born in nursing homes in the state were delivered through C-sections.

Some doctors also prefer to take the easy way out by telling women that normal deliveries carry rare risks like fetal distress, cord prolapse, breech or transverse position of child and failed induction of labour.

Source-Medindia
RAS/L

TCS’ fresh dive into Thames water

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is using 1Spatial’s Radius Studio to help migrate data in Thames Water’s GIS Foundation project.

The solution would allow Themes Water to migrate from legacy Land-Line based data, used by a number of discrete GIS applications, to an OS MasterMap data system.

The project is aimed at creating and maintaining a consolidated and central repository for all geo-referenced asset data, which will allow a single point asset query across all business processes and supporting systems as well as display the spatial representation of the Thames Water network and property assets.

Once the project is implemented, it will enable improvements to risk analysis and hydraulic modelling that are required by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI).

1Spatial’s Radius Studio will be able to assist with data management challenges, therefore enabling Thames Water to make efficiency gains in their important risk analysis and hydraulic modelling activities.

TCS selected the solution for its low risk, highly automated, COTS-based solution approach and will meet the requirements of the GIS Foundation project whilst contributing towards improved efficiency of the GIS environment in the future.

“The Radius Studio product provides an off-the-shelf solution and will make a valuable contribution towards delivering this project on time and on budget,” TCS Business Development Manager Stephen Field said.

Chandigarh Children Get Homeo Care

By Sunil Sharma


'HomeoCare', a super-specialty clinic, helps to remove the root cause of illness, rather than give a temporary solution. The treatment is given through play and fun.

"A child is exposed to a different kind of stimulus like fear. Here, we create some sort of fear. What is the reaction of the child? Every child has a different reaction to the same stimulus. This reaction is noted and that is the real man inside a child. Some stimuli when exposed react in a different way that is the heart of our therapy," said Dr. Muktinder Singh, a homeopath.

'HomeoCare' for children is the brainchild of Dr. Praveen Jain, a homeopath, who believes that by observing a child's reactions to the stimuli around him, it becomes easier to relate to him and hence treatment also becomes easier.

"At this clinic, we stress more upon the kids cases and we have specializations. Otherwise, homeopathy is capable of handling every case, including cancer," says Dr. Muktinder Singh.

In Punjab, super-specialty centers exist in Chandigarh and Ludhiana.

Clinics like 'Homeocare' are winning the confidence of patients who are looking for alternative medicine.

Homeopathy is committed to fight various disorders and bring patients to the mainstream of a healthy life.

Source-ANI
SPH

Public Perception can Be Altered by Interactive Websites

Penn State researchers have found that having an interactive corporate website could help foster positive thoughts about a company.


S. Shyam Sundar, professor of film, video and media studies at Penn State, and Jamie Guillory, formerly an undergraduate student at Penn State, are trying to figure out how interactivity in websites shapes the public perception of an organization.

In earlier studies of websites of political candidates, Sundar had found that the candidates were rated more positively if their site had some interactive features, even though the sites had no new content, and the candidates held the same policy positions.

However, too much interactivity tends to turn off people.

"Websites with low to medium levels of interactivity create positive perceptions but for medium to high interactivity, it actually falls down. In general, too much interactivity is not desirable, and may lead to information overload," said Sundar.

He explained that whatever effects, positive or negative, on a site, interactivity acts as a volume knob that boosts the effect, noting, "Just through the presence of such features, people attribute meaning to the content or the nature of the site."

In the new study, researchers wanted to see if the same effect holds true even if the people viewing the website are highly engaged, or whether they form their opinions based on bells and whistles on a website only when they do not know enough about a topic.

Therefore, researchers randomly assigned 116 undergraduate students to one of seven websites representing low, medium, and high levels of interactivity.


The students were specifically assigned to review the career section of these organizations because these sites require a higher level of involvement.

Features on these sites ranged from enabling a person to click on a link for job inquiries, follow a link for information on a specific job, submit an online application and view video footage of the company and its employees.

Students were then asked to answer a questionnaire on their perceptions of an organization based on their experience with its website.

Researchers found that there was a significant positive relationship between the level of interactivity on a career website and job seekers' perception of that organization.

"We found that college students looking for a job are more likely to apply to companies that have interactive websites with bells and whistles. But the students use these features to make a logical connection," said Sundar.

"We found that both liking and involvement are significant mediators such that people who saw a high interactive website liked it more, and they also got involved as a result of liking it more," he added.

The findings may have important implications for organizations. However, Sundar also warned against being taken in by fancy websites that promise much and deliver little.

The study has been presented at the 58th annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Montreal.

Source-ANI
RAS/L

RBI plan to spruce up banking in Lakshadweep

Improving the credit-deposit (CD) ratio by exploiting the fisheries, agriculture and tourism sectors on a priority basis, apart from other segments, can perk up the outreach of the banks and their services in Lakshadweep.According to a report of the Working Group on Improvement of Banking Services in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep released by the Reserve Bank of India, there was vast scope for expansion of banking facilities in the Lakshadweep.

The report has recommended a fairly good number of measures for development of banking services to contribute for the economic development of the Union Territory.

The Working Group headed by Regional Director of the Reserve Bank of India of Kerala and Lakshadweep S Ramaswamy was constituted to draw up an action plan for enhancing banking facilities and outreach in the Lakshadweep.

The report said periodical meetings with all stakeholders, opening more branches of banks, imparting financial education for opening up new accounts, air lifting of currency and coins from across the island, e-banking, quick settlement of intra-bank instruments besides promoting self help groups (SHGs) by involving NGOs covering all farmers under KCC should be thrust areas for improving banking services in the Lakshadweep.

The committee also recommended for providing adequate working capital for the traditional fishermen engaged in the Skipjack-Masmin sector, focused approach by NABARD for developing infrastructure especially under RIDF schemes and SIDBI expanding the outreach and penetration of credit services for development of environment friendly industries.

Once the economic activities take off, there would be enough scope for expansion of banking services in the islands. Banking sector would be able to significantly contribute to the economic development of the area, the report contended.

Lakshadweep, the island territory holds good potential for tourism, export market for Tuna fishes, and production of coconut and coir based products.

All this hold good opportunities for expansion of banking facilities in terms of reach and penetration thereby contributing to the development of the area.

No Eating While Driving Please!

A new survey says that eating while driving is a very dangerous activity and should be avoided.


The poll conducted by female automotive magazine website www.shebuys.com.au revealed that out of 321 respondents 68 per cent admitted that they consume fast-food while driving.

Dashboard dining car interior designs are popular among Oz people and are encouraging people to eat at wheel, though more than three quarters of the Oz people think the it could be dangerous.

"Talking on mobile phones when driving is illegal for a reason - it distracts drivers," News.com.au quoted Shireen Khalil, editor Shebuys.com.au as saying.

"While eating is a mindless activity, unwrapping a burger, holding a cup of hot coffee, eating greasy French fries, can affect a driver's concentration and reaction times," she added.

Khalil said majority of fast-food chains are encouraging the dashboard-dining phenomenon by making modifications to their packaging and menus.

Car manufacturers are producing cars equipped with mod-cons like refrigerators, built-in-eskys, numerous cup-holders and fold-down tables.

"Kia's Grand Carnival model includes 11 cup holders and four bottle holders, and on the smaller side, VW Passat caters with four drink holders and two bottle holders," she said.

"While these modifications have been a positive step in decreasing distractions, drivers should be aware that the key to safety on the roads is prevention.

"Pull over next time you feel hungry behind the wheel. Preventative measures such as this can save lives," she added.

Source-ANI
RAS/L

Genetics for Next-Generation Cancer Therapies

A new class of genes, called 'cooperation response genes' (CRGs) that can play a role in concocting next generation cancer therapies have been identified by scientists.


The scientists have explained how a large number of genes work in tandem, leading to malignant cell transformation.

They have also indicated the discovery of almost 100 genes that lead to known cancer-causing mutations, and hence provide a number of new opportunities for intervention.

"We believe that we have found a cornerstone for development of new treatments that ultimately will allow selection of drugs and drug combinations from a pool of compounds directed against these new genes. However, much more work needs to be done to explore how our findings may lead to successful targeting of various cancer types and cancer stem cells," Nature quoted lead author Hartmut Land, Ph.D., as saying.

Usually, targeted cancer therapy, such as the drug Gleevec, is based on a keen understanding of cancer mechanism, but despite much research, a clear roadmap leading to dozens of new molecular targets, is still a mystery.

Land has been one of the scientists to discover that malignant cell transformation required multiple mutations in distinct cancer genes and since then, he has been continuing to study the cooperative nature of this process and the inner workings of cancer cell function.

He said that his research team started testing, at the genomic scale, if genes responding synergistically to cooperating oncogenic mutations might act as the "drivers" toward malignancy.
The researchers discovered that out of 30,000 cellular genes, it was only about 100 genes that responded synergistically to the combination of two of the most prevalent cancer genes, Ras and p53, and were expressed differently in normal and cancer cells. Thus, they called these 100 genes as "cooperation response genes" or CRGs.


After studying a subset of the CRGs, it was found that 14 of 24 CRGs played a vital role in tumour formation. On the other hand, just one of 14 genes responding in a non-synergistic manner (non-CRGs) showed a similar effect.

There is a huge significance of Ras and p53, and CRGs, wherein Ras and p53 play a vital role in half of all cancers. When p53, a tumor-suppressor gene, loses its function, and when Ras becomes hyperactive, both these genes aid in promoting uncontrolled growth of colon, pancreas and lung cancers.

Ras activation and p53 loss-of-function works cooperatively work through the CRGs, which encode proteins that regulate cell signaling, cell metabolism, self-renewal, cell differentiation and cell death.

"Indeed, CRGs may provide us with a surprisingly large and valuable set of targets for interventions that will destroy cancer cells and leave normal cells unharmed. We are very excited with the results," said Land.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

Source-ANI
RAS/L

Refusal to Sell Morning-after Pill Lands Muslim Pharmacist in Soup

A Muslim pharmacist has landed into trouble after refusing to sell emergency contraception to a couple as it contravened his religious belief.


Chris Mellett and Kaye Walsh went to a Sainburys chemist to buy the morning-after pill but were told they couldn't have it, because the pharmacist didn't agree with it.

"I'm a 36-year-old woman, not a child. I respect other people's religions, but when it affects my life it's not on," the Daily Star quoted recruitment worker Kaye, as saying.

"Surely the pharmacist has a duty of care? If relig-ion comes into it he should change his job," she added.

Pro-choice groups are furious that the chemist left Kaye and Chris in the lurch.

Marie Stopes spokesman Anne Quesney said: "We're outraged. It is not up to any practitioner or pharmacist to impose their own beliefs on their patients."

A spokeswoman for Sainsburys said all its pharmacists were governed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

The society's ethics code says if the morning-after pill is against a pharmacist's personal, religious or moral beliefs they are within their rights not to supply it.

Source-ANI
RAS/L

Environmental Toxins Greatly Impacts Fertility of Grandchildren Too: Study

A new study has shed light on how environmental toxicants can have significant impact on fertility.


The study led by Rebecca M. Steinberg and colleagues provide evidence that adverse reproductive effects of toxicants may extend not only to the children of exposed individuals, but also to the next generation.

During the study, pregnant rats were treated with a mixture of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The findings revealed that the reproductive markers were disrupted not only in the female offspring of these rats, but also in the “grand offspring,” which are derived from oocytes present in fetuses of the treated females.

Changes in the second generation included blunting of preovulatory LH release, reduced progesterone concentrations and reduced uterine weights.

The use of low doses of PCBs in this study increases the potential relevance of these findings to reproductive health.

The study is published online in BOR-Papers In Press 27 February 2008.



Source-ANI
SRM

Chandigarh sets up cyber crime cell

In an effort to ensure the safety and security of people in Chandigarh through advanced means of information technology (IT), the Chandigarh Administartion has launched the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC).

This cell will help in checking computer related crimes, such as unauthorised access to a computer, online banking fraud, “phishing”, sale of illegal articles like wildlife products, drugs, pornography, online gambling, e-mail spoofing and cyber stalking.

The CCIC has been set up by the Chandigarh Police with the participation of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and Punjab Engineering College at Chandigarh.

Speaking at the launch, Chandigarh Administrator SF Rodrigues emphasised the need of strengthening the linkages of this centre with a national data base centre and Nasscom, through effective coordination with other states, to check computer related crimes.

“There is a need for adopting innovative and latest related software technologies to improve our delivery systems by equipping our staff managing the cell, with professional skills, through skilled training programmes,” he said.

Rodrigues further said that the focus of the whole exercise is synergy and the integration of different services to achieve set goals, as no system can successfully work in isolation.

Describing the launching of this cell as another step in the process of partnership, the Chandigarh Administrator said that the cooperation of the people in providing facts and relevant information could help the police to anticipate the problems than to react.

Stressing the need for constantly monitoring, validation and upgrading the programmes in CCIC, he said, “We must modify our systems as per our own needs and requirements.”

Rodrigues emphasised that there is a need to expand reach to the disadvantaged sections and extend necessary help, through this CCIC to these vulnerable groups.

Encase Forensic and cyber check suite softwares have been installed in this cell for analysing the captured data of suspect hard-disk of computer, while Cell-DEK software has been installed for analysing data of captured mobiles.

The cell has established online service link with Google and Microsoft Corporation in the US, the Administration said.

Secret to a Successful Marriage

Soon to be Britain's longest married couple Frank and Anita Milford have revealed that and the secret behind their marriage of almost 80 years is a little kiss and cuddle before bedtime.


On May 26, Frank, 100, and Anita, 99, will celebrate their 80th marriage anniversary by spending a quiet weekend together - like most of their days.

"At our age that's all you need. Just us together, no big fuss," the Telegraph quoted Frank, as saying.

When it came to the secret of a successful marriage, Anita said - share a little kiss and cuddle every night before bed.

"It's our golden rule. Couples these days don't last long because they often don't take enough time for each other. There just isn't enough respect - love is about give and take. Our advice to young couples would be to make time for a little romance every day," Anita said.

Frank added: "To win over your sweetheart you need a dose of old fashioned chivalry and don't let your standards slip. We do everything together even after nearly 80 years."

Frank and Anita have two children, Marie and Frank, who are now in their seventies.

They lived in a three-bedroom bungalow for 70 years before deciding to move into a care home together in 2005.

But, even after 80 years, there are still daily squabbles.

Source-ANI
RAS/L

India to set up 30 food parks

The Government of India is planning to set up 30 mega food parks in all the states so that cold chain facilities are available in catchment areas comprising not more than three to four districts.

“The government is working on 30 cold chain routes countrywide to enable integration of the fruit and vegetable (F&V) sector from farm gate to the retail outlet,” the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said.

He was speaking at the two-day ‘Fruit & Vegetable Summit 2008’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with the Ministry of Agriculture and its affiliated institutions here on Tuesday.

He said that the F&V sector is an emerging sector that holds a lot of opportunity for both agriculture and industry and is going to be the driving force of Indian economy.

In the absence of a proper value chain for food processing; produce worth Rs 50,000 crore was wasted every year in India-the world’s second largest fruit and vegetable producer- the minister added.

Sahai further added that his ministry has made food processing a tax-less industry to encourage the investors in this sector.

“While the industrial growth rate was stagnating, food processing industry was growing at 13 per cent,” Sahai said and added that the challenge was to reach these benefits to the farmers.

The summit calls for developing globally competitive value chains in the F&V sector and for catalysing holistic policy development and creating an interface among the industry, the government and the farmers.

“Following wide ranging discussions during the two-day summit, it was agreed that organised retail backed up by integrated value chains are the key to growth,” Bharti Enterprises Vice Chairman Rakesh Bharti Mittal said.

Mittal further informed that CII has set up an Agri Council and a special joint task force with the government and the industry to work out a strategy paper listing key imperatives like scalability, integrated value chains, price competitiveness and cluster approach for farming, for making the sector competitive in global and domestic markets.

Earlier, a session on ‘Fruit and Vegetable export: The Multidimensional Challenge’ identified three major challenges in the export of F&V sector—traceability, conformity with global standards and market access.

Speaking on need for rationalisation and harmonisation of export procedures, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Advisor VK Gupta said that tariffs are falling but developing countries like India are still facing difficulty in accessing developed markets.

“On the export front the biggest hurdle for growth has been the mismatch in quality between what is produced in India and what is required in the importing country,” Gupta said.

He added that many consignments were rejected at the destination port due to poor quality; there is a need to change the attitude and produce what is marketable, while making traceability an important tool for benchmarking quality.

Speaking on integration of export value chains, Field Fresh Foods’ Business Development and International Sales Head Raman Ahuja said that India has the potential to become a major fruit and vegetable exporter and should focus on improving yield standards.

Addressing the summit, Yes Bank Food and Agribusiness Strategic Advisory and Research Assistant Vice-President V Sridhar said that multiple agencies are involved in the regulation of exports of fruit and vegetable.

While a large part of information content requirement for each regulatory agency is the same, information format stipulations are found to vary among them, the Ministry said.

Same information is being presented to various agencies, while collection of charges separately by each regulatory agency has led to increased documentation and overhead charges, the Ministry added.

Reporting wildlife crimes to be toll free

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) in India is planning to set up a 24×7 toll free help line for the general public to pass on information relating to wildlife crimes.

Bureau’s Additional Director Rina Mitra said the functional aspects of the operations of the Bureau will get momentum with such help-line.

The Bureau has five regional offices at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Jabalpur and three sub-regional offices at Cochin, Guwahati and Amritsar, besides five border units at Moreh, Nathula, Gorakhpur, Motihari and Ramanathapuram to control crimes in wild-life.

Fatalities from International Terrorism on the Rise

Challenging security reports, a new analysis has said that fatalities from international terrorism are on the rise.


The estimate about terrorism fatalities going down had been made by the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), part of the federally funded National Consortium on the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) based at Maryland.

According to the new analysis, "Human Security Brief 2007," concludes that the GTD and other key unclassified US databases over-report international terrorism.

The GTD lists more than 80,000 terrorism incidents since 1970. It measures more than a hundred social, economic and security variables for each incident, including contextual and impact data.

The main discrepancy, according to the analysis, lies in "counting civilian deaths in the civil war in Iraq as terrorism", which the GTD report had not done, the main reason of which is that the intentional killing of civilians in wartime is not normally described as terrorism, but as a war crime or crime against humanity.

Removing these Iraq numbers from the analysis, revealed a sharp net decline in the incidence of terrorist violence around the world, leading the GTD report to conclude that "fatalities from terrorism have declined by some 40 percent."

"We've been very conservative in our methods and I consider the result a balanced look at the problem," said Gary LaFree, who directs the GTD.

"To me, the trends are clear - fatalities are up, terror attacks are flat," he added.

Source-ANI
RAS/L

India to issue e-passport from June

The Government of India will introduce e-passports , that will carry biometric information in a chip, by the next month in an effort to check misuse of passports in the present format.

Besides having entire personal information, including finger-prints, of the person carrying such passport, it will also help the authorities keep track of the movement of the persons.

According to a government order, the e-passports will initially be introduced for diplomats and officials, while it will be made available to common people by May 2009.

The government has decided to issue such passports based on the trials conducted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Indian Institute Technology (IIT) of Kanpur.

The decision to issue such passports comes after days of trials by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and IIT (Kanpur), which had been tasked by the government to work on the project.

Money and Happiness

Contrary to popular philosophical perceptions, money it seems does buy happiness.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business released a study in April showing "a clear positive link" between wealth and "subjective well-being," based on global surveys.

While this may seem logical to some, the research flew in the face of a longstanding theory that happiness of a country's population does not rise with income, after certain basic needs are met.

This theory, dubbed the "Easterlin Paradox," was developed in 1974 by Richard Easterlin, an economist currently on the faculty at the University of Southern California.

Easterlin's research had drawn on surveys notably from Japan, where surveys had shown little or no increase in national happiness despite the country's post-World War II economic miracle.

Wharton economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers contend in the new research that better data over the past three decades and a closer analysis suggests the Easterlin Paradox is flawed.

They found that the wealthiest countries in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita rank near the top of surveys on happiness, with the poorest at the bottom. More significantly, within each country, higher incomes translated to higher ratings of life satisfaction, they found.

"There appears to be a very strong relationship between subjective well-being and income, which holds for both rich and poor countries, falsifying earlier claims of a satiation point at which higher GDP is not associated with greater well-being," they said in a paper to be published by the Brookings Institution.
"The Easterlin Paradox says that what I care about is my relative ranking in society," Stevenson told AFP. "It says economic development doesn't matter at all -- that the United States is no better off in 2008 than it was in 1920."


The results have important implications for public policy. Stevenson and Wolfers note that economic growth might not be considered an important policy goal if it does little to raise well-being.

The Wharton researchers said multi-nation surveys such as the Gallup World Poll and the Pew Global Attitudes Survey reveal "quite powerful effects of income on happiness."

"There is no evidence of a satiation point," Wolfers told AFP. "Even as rich counties get richer they appear to get happier."

The researchers said they were not seeking to make any political point or support an ideology.

Although backers of the Easterlin theory say it argues against unbridled pro-growth capitalism, Stevenson said the new research could also be used to promote more distribution of wealth.

"A 10 percent increase in income for a poor person will give you the same gain (in happiness) as a 10 percent gain for a rich person but it would cost a lot less," she said.

Accordingly, she said redistributing income from the rich to the poor could increase a country's overall happiness quotient.

Easterlin meanwhile stands by his research, updated several times since the 1970s.

In a 2004 paper, Easterlin said surveys continue to support his thesis.

"Contrary to what economic theory assumes, more money does not make people happier," he wrote.

"Most people could increase their happiness by devoting less time to making money, and more to nonpecuniary goals such as family life and health," Easterlin said.

"It's necessary to separate shorter term fluctuations in which GDP and happiness are positively related from the long-term association between growth and happiness," Easterlin said in comments emailed to AFP.

"The conclusions of (the Wharton) paper appear to be based on the short-term association and do not contradict the findings regarding the longer term."

The new research meanwhile has set off a fierce debate among scholars.

Andrew Oswald, a self-described "happiness economist" at Britain's Warwick University and visiting fellow at Cornell University, called the Wharton paper "interesting" but argued that "the bulk of the evidence is on Easterlin's side."

Oswald, who has studied the issue for 15 years, said, "There is extrmely strong evidence that we are no happier than in the 1970s across the industrialized countries."

Oswald said Easterlin's research "is about 80 to 90 percent right."

"Economic growth buys only the most marginal amount of happiness for a country that is already rich. But in developing countries, there is very little dispute -- economic growth does make people happier."

Angus Deaton, a Princeton University economist, said Stevenson and Wolfers expanded on some of his research, and that "they are raising questions that are important" about the link between money and happiness.

But he added: "I think the question is far from settled. There may be some parts of the Easterlin Paradox that are still valid."

One problem, says Deaton, is that it is difficult for surveys to identify happiness and separate that from other measurements of well-being.

"These surveys ask people how happy you are," said Deaton. "The problem is you could think your life was great overall, but not be particularly happy."

Source-AFP
RAS

Civil Court at Sareikela gets VC facility

Taking the digital route on the forefront, the Jharkhand High Court has started a videoconferencing (VC) facility between District Civil Court and Jail, at Sareikela.

Inaugurating the new facility and discussing its benefits, Justice Amreshwar Sahay of the Jharkhand High Court said that the new facility will reduce the workload of the courts and help in speedy disposal of pending cases.

After the inauguration, five prisoners were produced, and the new videoconferencing facility was demonstrated to Justice Sahay.

According to state government sources, National Informatics Centre (NIC) at Jharkhand has implemented the videoconferencing facility between district civil court and jail.

Birth, death certificates to be issued online

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/10/stories/2008061051620100.htm

Ramya Kannan

Birth certificates also to be handed over to mothers at PHCs

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System to go online first in Chennai

Software developed by National Informatics Centre

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CHENNAI: When Primary Health Centres go in for e-administration, there certainly are advantages for the common man. If the well-laid out plans of the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) fructify, birth and death certificates will soon be available online.

Seeking to seamlessly integrate the civil registration functions into its primary health unit, the DPH hopes to facilitate the evolution of the PHC as a one-stop shop for villagers. With the online registration system, certificates can be downloaded via the Internet and printed at one’s convenience from any computer.

However, this will be preceded by a more basic service through which birth certificates will be delivered by the staff (who will liaise with revenue officials) to mothers before they leave the PHC. In effect, this move will provide villagers the same benefits that people in the cities and towns are already enjoying. Parents of children born in government hospitals in cities and towns are now spared the trouble of going through the process of getting a birth certificate. Hospital staff themselves are required to procure the documents with attestation from revenue officials and hand them over to the parents before the mothers are discharged.

When this was implemented on a trial basis in PHCs in Kanyakumari district, birth certificates were provided in three days, according to Director of Public Health S. Elango.

In a unique experiment, Health Inspectors of PHCs were designated birth and death registrars, who will issue certificates.

“For deliveries in Corporation or other Government Hospitals in the Chennai city limits, we have ensured that the birth certificates are handed over within 24 hours or if there is a delay, the document is delivered at home,” Rajesh Lakhoni, Corporation Commissioner, said.

The civil registration system will go online first in the city. Once active, hospitals will provide inputs about the birth to the Corporation’s birth registrar, who will validate the facts and put the information online in the set format, attested with a digital signature. “People can download this from any computer and print it out,” Mr. Lakhoni said.

Dr. Elango said the former Director of Public health P. Padmanabhan had held discussions with the Revenue Administration department to tie up with village-level revenue and panchayat officials to facilitate easy birth and death registration at PHCs.

Software developed by the National Informatics Centre will enable downloading of forms and certificates online with digital attestations. A print out could be taken at the PHC and handed over to the mothers or relatives.

Email, Cell Phones Aren't Spelling Doom for Written Language

A leading professor of linguistics has dismissed fears that the boon in communication technology, with the advent of social networking like email, cell phones, instant messaging and text messaging will have a negative impact on the written language, mainly among teenagers.


Completely defying such fears, Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University, says that this boom in communicational technology may actually have a deep impact on relationships much more than it could have on writing.

"Technologies such as email, instant messaging and text messaging aren't sounding the death knell for written language as we know it. In fact, studies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden all report that teenagers have a rather clear understanding that 'school writing' is different from the messages they send to friends," Baron said.

In her book, 'Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World (Oxford University Press, 2008)', Baron has put in a decade of research, where she looks at how technology has influenced our reading, writing, speaking and listening behaviours.

She has also suggested that we should not care much about the effect of technology on our writing and focus instead the focus should be directed more towards how it might be changing our interpersonal relationships.

"People have always found ways to avoid unwanted conversation: crossing the street when a person you don't want to talk with is approaching or hanging up the phone if your boyfriend's mother-rather than your boyfriend-answers. However, new online and mobile technologies increase the range of options at our disposal for choosing when we want to interact with whom. We check caller ID on our cell phones before taking the call. We block people on IM or Facebook. And we forward email or text messages to people for whom they were never intended," said Baron.
Ever since she has completed her book, Baron has travelled around the world and talked to college students about how they use mobile and online technologies. A number of students confessed that they felt a sense of empowerment by the way in which these technologies allow them to ignore calls or messages from certain family members and friends.


"Not one of them expressed any regrets or suspicion that such manipulation might be just plain rude," said Baron.

Such attitude was justified by students by saying that the individuals trying to contact them did not know their calls or messages were being ignored and thus so technically no harm was done.

"I suspect that if you ask the parents or friends whose attempts at communication were blocked, you would hear a different story," said Baron.

She also said that while ignoring calls, emails and messages on our cell phones and laptops may potentially affect our relationships in a negative way, such attitude isn't always a bad thing after all.

"While talking with students in Sweden and Italy, where mobile phones have been ubiquitous far longer than in the United States, I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of people who turned their phones off when they were studying, ignored incoming calls or text messages-even from good friends-while watching a movie on TV, or intentionally 'forgot' their phones from time to time just to have some peace," she said.

"My hope is that Americans are only going through a phase of feeling they must be 'always on' and that over time, we will regain a more balanced sense of communicative equilibrium," she added.

Source-ANI
THK/L

Railways to outsource e-tickets

Train tickets will soon be available at doorsteps in Punjab. The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is in the process of outsourcing the work of e-ticketing in a major way.

This initiative will help those people who do not have access to computers and cyber cafes to get ticket printouts.

The IRCTC would be giving the facility at post offices and other public dealing offices. The service provider gets a commission of Rs 5 per ticket.

The corporation is tying up with different government institutions, International Air Transport Association (IATA) agents and other private players so that certain amount of tickets can be booked by an alternative method through a cash card called ‘Itz’.

Under the present arrangement, a password on the cash card enables a user to have a computer generated railway ticket. But it was not possible for everyone to buy the cash card.

Through this arrangement, tickets with waiting list can be obtained in form computer generated ticket, IRCTC added.

The limit for each agent to book 10 to 15 tickets in a day would soon be extended to 25 tickets a day.

In the northern region, the facility of e-ticketing was presently available at 18 locations in urban centres, which was now being extended to small towns and non-urban areas.

The IRCTC has received request to extend the facility to Phagwara, Hoshiarpur, Nahan, Solan, Uttarakhand and other towns in hilly areas.

“The e-ticketing had 100 per cent utilisation on high value trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express. In the tri-city of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, around 40 per cent of the railway passengers were using the facility,” an IRCTC senior official said.

Initially, the e-ticketing was launched on a pilot basis on Shatabdi Express following an agreement between the IRCTC and private players to enable e-ticketing through the Internet using the pre-paid Itz cash cards as the payment mechanism.

Comprehensive healthcare in India

Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and IBM unveil recommendations


Friday, June 06, 2008

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies along with IBM has announced the recommendations for "Inclusive healthcare in India," post its first "Face2Face" leadership forum on "Role of Private Sector for Inclusive Healthcare System" organized in Delhi. The specific recommendations are aimed at a systemic approach to enhance healthcare system.

India and emanated from the leadership forum in Delhi that was addressed by Amar Singh, Chairperson for the Parliamentary Committee on Health, Analjit Singh, CEO Max Hospitals, Shanker Annaswamy, MD - IBM India/SA and H.Sudarshan, Karuna Trust & VGKK. The delegates included Members of Parliamentary Committee on Health, policy makers, academicians and officials from the multilateral and developmental bodies (World Health Organization, Public Health Foundation of India, United States India Business Council, Ministry of Human Development etc).

1. Improve health care delivery access through PPP Model

Emphasizing the significance of public private partnership (ppp), Amar Singh, Chairperson for the Parliamentary Committee on Health said, "In India, the public health system is yet to develop to its fullest potential. It is strategic state investment in the health system that can enable a holistic approach for health care, providing access without barriers to multi sectoral range of services that incorporate health promotion - disease prevention, diagnoses and rehabilitation. Public-private partnership, based on mutual trust, can be effective in advancing such systems."

According to the experts, healthcare system based on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model will definitely pave way towards ensuring better access and delivery of healthcare to masses. The recommendation in this regard was the need for public sector bodies to collaborate with private healthcare providers on areas of policy formulation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation besides training & research. The experts also felt that the available set of guidelines, parameters and standards provided by the Indian public health standards should be extended to the private sector, complimented by an effective audit review process.

2. Develop an information-based healthcare system

Shanker Annaswamy, Managing Director, IBM/SA said that "addressing systemic problems of access, quality and cost requires data, and these data are best collected, stored, shared and analyzed using IT. The adoption of advanced, but well-established IT can significantly assist in improving the state of healthcare in India." It was recommended that India should set its sights on developing an information-based healthcare system, within which transparent, cost-effective, high-quality solutions can be developed for specific problems. A reliable, secure, nation-wide, data network is to be built that takes into account the existing ground realities of the infrastructure and has the potential to form the backbone of a national health information infrastructure.

3.Adopt innovative approaches in primary and secondary healthcare

According to the speakers at the forum, there is considerable room to improve both the quality and quantity of care delivered in India. Although the public infrastructure is large, private care is perceived to be better, both in its availability and quality. According to Amar Singh, "the presence and response of the modern day health care system is negligible in rural areas where diseases are rampant. India spends only 0.5 percent of its GDP on health care systems in the public sector." With the critical need to address the poor healthcare issues in the rural areas in India, an innovative approach might tackle the problems of price, quality and availability:

*Care delivered through integrated primary, secondary and tertiary facilities that are capable of tracking referrals Specialist support and laboratory services delivered remotely, through tele-medicine Non-specialist care delivered through mobile units Post surgical care delivered at home using low-cost monitoring devices, smart sensors and low to medium bandwidth communication to a tertiary hospital Community-based Rehabilitation of people with disability.

4. Educate & Empower people for better health

Citizens must make fundamental changes in attitudes and behaviors, taking responsibilities for leading a healthy life while making informed decisions regarding common health issues. Awareness campaigns to provide advisories to people on health and environmental issues should be stepped up. On the other hand, satellite based trainings can be used to enable care givers in remote locations.

5. Making health more affordable

Analjit Singh, Chairman, Max India Ltd., said "since independence, the spectrum of change in health care has gone from life saving to chronic illnesses; chronic care to prevention and wellness. What is intriguing is that while some parts of India are still in life saving segment, others are in the more chronic, need segment. And, there are parts that think about prevention and wellness. In effect, this reflects India as a continent and not a country implying that there can't be one solution to all." The experts recommended a two-pronged approach:

* Determine affordable, sustainable funding levels and prioritize across the hierarchy of healthcare needs, while addressing environmental and basic healthcare needs ( Eg: Discounted treatments for primary healthcare needs or Micro-finance schemes for lesser privileged)
* Lead in and encourage the development of innovative financing mechanisms to increase health insurance coverage (Eg: Community Insurance Policies)

©CIOL Bureau

http://www.ciol.com/EC/Feature/Comprehensive-healthcare-in-India/6608106774/0/

« CBI probe in UP police recruitment scam $75 mn WB aid to conflict-torn Sri Lanka » Relish time for retired IAS officers in Jharkhand

It is maunza hi maunza (relish time) for the retired Indian Administrative services (IAS) officers in Jharkhand.

Post retirement package of bureaucrats in Jharkhand now also includes their rehabilitation at plum posts created specially to oblige them.

Conventions and rules regulating their re-appointments are no issues. The only qualifying criterion for a bite in the cake is that the officers enjoy close proximity to any influential ministers in the Madhu Koda cabinet.

Former secretary of Water Resources Department Mahabir Prasad is the latest beneficiary of the ‘generous’ gesture of the Government. Months after his retirement, Prasad has been appointed chairman of the newly created Public Distribution Grievances Commission.

What is more intriguing is the fact that the state Food and Civil Supplies Minister Kamlesh Singh has recommended for him the scale and other entitlements of the Chief Secretary.

Secretary in the state Personnel department R S Sharma says, “I am not sure whether norms laid down for structuring the salaries for such posts have been followed.”

Sharma said that it was up to the department under whose jurisdiction the commission functioned to decide the rules of appointment and pay packet.

However, the Finance Department is learnt to have raised serious objections to the process on various parameters.

Sources in the Finance Department said that the conventions stipulated that rules for appointments on various posts should be drawn and approved first before appointing any person.

The department also objected to the pay scale being offered to Prasad.

However, Prasad’s is not the case in isolation. There are nearly a dozen officers who have been offered jobs on a platter post retirements.

Former Chief Secretary MK Manadal has been appointed as commissioner of the State Election Commission (SEC), while former Development Commissioner Mukhtiar Singh is serving the State Finance Commission (SFC) as its chief.

Another former CS Lakshmi Singh is donning the chair in the State Women Commission.

Similar pattern was followed in case of V Krishnan, another retired Chief Secretary, who was appointed as the chairman of the SFC.

Retired IAS officer of Bihar cadre BB Lal served as the Commissioner of the SEC. AC Ranjan, who retired as Secretary of the Revenue department, was made Member of the State Education Tribunal.

The benefits of the government’s ‘public interest’ gesture were drawn by the officers of other services.

Former Direector General of Police (DGP) TP Sinha served three terms in the Police Building Corporation after retirement. JL Baishyantri (IAS) was appointed consultant of the Commercial Taxes department after his retirement from the same department.

Anjani Kumar has been posted as officer on special duty (OSD) in the Energy Department after he retired as Assistant Resident Commissioner of Jharkhand Bhavan in New Delhi.

According to a senior Jharkhand cadre bureaucrat posted in Delhi, there was dearth of IAS officers in the state and the government had no option than to pick from the lot of retired officers to look after the various segments of governance in the newly created state.

Traditional Strength Training the Best Way to Build Muscle Strength and Endurance in Women

A new study shows that women who want to build muscle strength and endurance may get better results if they opt for some traditional strength training methods instead of low velocity routines.


In the research, which was conducted by Sharon Rana, associate professor of exercise physiology and colleagues at Ohio University, studied 34 healthy, college-aged females who performed three different training methods over a six-week period.

In the study, the team examined whether low velocity resistance training is a more effective workout than conventional routines, as some experts maintain.

The methods included a traditional strength training routine, a traditional muscle endurance training routine and a low velocity regimen.

The traditional strength group lifted a heavier weight load with fewer repetitions, while the traditional endurance group lifted a lighter weight load with more repetitions.

The low velocity group also lifted a lighter weight load, but did their workouts much slower than the other groups and did fewer repetitions.

"What made the research a little different is that we put the various methods of resistance training all in one study and added a control group, which hadn't been done before. The endurance group also hadn't really been studied in conjunction with low velocicipants' workouts consisted of leg presses, back squats and knee extensions. On average, the traditional strength group lifted 499 pounds when doing leg presses, 121 pounds when doing squats and 117 pounds when doing leg extensions.


The traditional endug extensions.

The traditional endurance group lifted 341 pounds when doing leg presses, 64 pounds on squats and 48 pounds on knee extensions. The low velocity group averaged 356 pounds for leg presses, 79 pounds for squats and 55 pounds for knee extensions.

Participants did three sets of each exercise during each session and were given four to five minutes of rest between each set and exercise.

During the study, participants were measured for absolute strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and body composition.

The team found that the traditional strength group gained the most strength in two of the three workouts. The endurance group and the low velocity group both improved strength, but to a much lesser degree.

Though the traditional endurance-training group was still the most successful at boosting muscular endurance, the study found that cardiovascular endurance didn't increase significantly in any of the groups.

"We tested cardiovascular endurance because a lot of the lay literature, the articles you might read in magazines, said it would improve. But no one has proven that," Rana explained.

All of the groups combined showed a small decrease in percent body fat, but it was not statistically significant. The most significant improvements involved strength gain and endurance gain.

"The low velocity training obviously helps you. You can gain some strength and muscle endurance, but the traditional methods are going to do a slightly better job for those two things," Rana said.

The study is published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Source-ANI
THK/L

Manipal university campus goes wireless

Manipal University has implemented a campus wide WiFi Mesh Network to enable students access fast and convenient wireless Internet and also access the University’s local area network (LAN) anywhere in the campus while on the move.

The university had tied up with D-VoiS Broadband for the implementation of the WiFi network, capable of supporting high speed Internet and other broadband applications.

This self-sealing, self-adjusting network enables students to access Internet, intranet and other value added applications anytime, anywhere within the campus.

“With the WiFi Mesh network, the university students will have the advantage of accessing high speed Internet anywhere on the campus thus facilitating learning and ensuring academic excellence,” the Manipal Education and Medical Group CEO Ranjan Pai said.

The network is spread across 5 sq km and is capable of supporting more than 15,000 subscribers, the university said.

Moreover, Manipal University in association with D-VoiS would also implement other value added applications such as streaming video, e-library and video on demand in a phased manner.

1st Girls’ Sr Secondary School in Lakshadweep

The Lakshadweep Administration has decided to upgrade the Government Girls’ High School at Kavaratti into a Senior Secondary School.

The union territory administration will introduce science stream of the Kerala Board of Higher Secondary Education during the current academic year.

With its upgradation, it will be the first Girls’ Senior Secondary School in the UT.

The people of Kavaratti, especially the womenfolk are thrilled at the prospect of getting a Higher Secondary School exclusively for girls in their island.

Protein Target Against HIV Identified

A protein, called CAML (calcium-modulating cyclophilin ligand) prevents the release of HIV-1 virus from human cells and could now be a target for new HIV treatments, scientists have revealed.


It's long been known that a majority of human cells carry a factor that controls the discharge of virus particles. However, it is now that the research team rom Emory University School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Mayo Medical School has identified CAML as the cellular protein that inhibits the release of HIV particles.

Usually, CAML hinders a very late step in the virus lifecycle, which results in the retention of HIV particles on the membrane of the cell. The virus has an inbuilt mechanism to cancel out CAML, by the action of the viral Vpu protein.

In the absence of Vpu, HIV particles are not cut off from the plasma membrane, but accumulate by a protein bound at the cell surface.

After depleting CAML in human cells in the laboratory, the researchers found that Vpu was not needed anymore for felicitating smooth exit of HIV-1 particles from the cell. After expressing

When they expressed CAML in cell types usually permitting particles to exit freely, they found that the particles remained attached to the cell surface.

"This research is important because it identifies CAML as an innate defense mechanism against HIV. We are continuing to work on the mechanism that Vpu uses to counteract CAML and on defining exactly how CAML leads to virus particle retention on the infected cell membrane. We hope this will lead us to new treatments," Nature quoted senior author Paul Spearman, professor of pediatrics (infectious diseases) at Emory University School of Medicine, as saying.

The research is published in the advance online edition of Nature Medicine.

Source-ANI
RAS/L

Bullet trains on Amritsar-Delhi section soon

Good news, Golden Temple will be nearer to Delhi. Indian Railways and SNCF International (French Railways), on Wednesday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to start high-speed trains at special routes, including the Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar section.

Announcing this, the Railways Public Relations Additional Director-General Anil Saxena said that France will not only assist the Indian counterparts to set up special corridors for high-speed trains, but also provide technical know-how in the maintenance.

Meanwhile, the Railways has already invited agencies for conducting a pre-feasibility study of a bullet train on this route; the bullet train will cut travel time by nearly half.

At present, the highest-operating Shatabdi journey between the holy city and the capital is of six hours and between Chandigarh and New Delhi is three hours.

Saxena said that the Railways would also conduct pre-feasibility studies for high-speed trains on the Mumbai-Baroda-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore and Howrah-Asansol-Patna sections.

Moreover, the Punjab government is planning to start a bullet train in the state, running at a speed of more than 250 km per hour.

The state government further stated that the special corridor to run such trains is expected to cost about Rs 50 crore per km and the state governments have to share the expenditure.

Researchers See Birth of HIV Particle in Real Time

Two reasearchers, a virologist and a biophysicist at Rockefeller University, are the first to see in real time hundreds of thousands of molecules coming together in a living cell to form a single particle of HIV, using a specialized microscope that only illuminates the cell's surface.


This work may be beneficial in developing treatments for the millions of HIV patients worldwide, according to an article describing the research.

"The use of this technique is almost unlimited," Nature magazine quoted Nolwenn Jouvenet, a postdoctoral fellow who spearheaded the project under the direction of HIV expert Paul Bieniasz and cellular biophysicist Sandy Simon, as saying.

"Now that we can actually see a virus being born, it gives us the opportunity to answer previously unanswered questions, not only in virology but in biology in general," Jouvenet added.

The researchers call their new technique total internal reflection microscopy.

They say that unlike a classical microscope, their technique only illuminates the cell's surface where HIV assembles.

"The result is that you can see, in exquisite detail, only events at the cell surface. You never even illuminate anything inside of the cell so you can focus on what you are interested in seeing the moment it is happening," said Simon, professor and head of the Laboratory of Cellular Biophysics, who has been developing the imaging technique since 1992.

The researchers said that being able to illuminate the surface of the cell was helpful in gaining useful insights into the events going on at its most outer membrane, as well as in determining that it takes about five to six minutes for each HIV particle to assemble.

"At first, we had no idea whether it would take milliseconds or hours. We just didn't know," said Jouvenet.

Bieniasz added: "This is the first time anyone has seen a virus particle being born."

He clarified: "Not just HIV, any virus."

Source-ANI
THK/L

Updated software to evaluate German e-Gov cost

The Interior Ministry of Germany has released a new version of the WiBe software, its method and tool kit for evaluating the economic efficiency of e-Government investments in information and communication technology (ICT).

The content of the free software, Version 1.3.1 of the WiBe 4.0-2005, has been expanded and has also been made more user-friendly and flexible, reports ePractice.

Other updates to the software include changes to the WiBe user manual, the technical manual, the installation instructions and the readme file.

WiBe is an abbreviation of the German word for “economic considerations”.

While Java programming makes the software easier to further develop and maintain the application, it can now export projects and catalogues of criteria in XML.

The new version can now run under both Windows and Linux, and could be used with supported external databases—Oracle, MySQL and MS SQL servers—as it is an installed version with security management.

US Court Holds Seizure of Polygamist Sect Children Illegal

A US court has said the seizure of over 400 children from a polygamist ranch in Texas is illegal.


The Texas appeals court has thus put paid to the attempts of the state authorities to rescue the children from sexual abuse.

The case began on April 3, when Texas investigators, saying they were responding to a girl’s call for help, raided the 1,691-acre Yearning for Zion ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The caller was never found, and investigators now suspect that the call was a hoax.

In a unanimous ruling on Thursday last, three judges of the Third Court of Appeals in Austin revoked the state’s custody over the children of 38 mothers saying there was no proof to show that they were in immediate danger of sexual or physical abuse. But the ruling should apply to all the children.

In all 468 children are now put up in foster homes, scattered throughout the state.

Although the court did not order the children’s immediate release, it raised the prospect that many of them would be reunited with their families, possibly within 10 days. The children have been in foster homes scattered across Texas.

The polygamous sect broke away from the Mormon church decades ago over the Mormons’ condemnation of plural marriage and began building its secluded compound in Eldorado in 2003, reports New York Times.
The sect’s leader, Warren Jeffs, was sentenced last November in Utah to 10 years to life in prison for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin and to submit to sexual relations against her will.


One mother, Martha Emack, 23, said she was “totally thrilled” by the ruling. “Everyone is totally overjoyed to tears,” she said in a telephone interview.

Emack said both of her children had been seized — one just turned a year old and the other 2. “It’s been very emotional, very traumatizing,” she said.

When asked whether she ultimately wanted to return to the ranch with her children, Ms. Emack said quickly, “I do want to go back.”

The court said the record did “not reflect any reasonable effort on the part of the department to ascertain if some measure short of removal and/or separation would have eliminated the risk.”

It said that the evidence of danger to the children “was legally and factually insufficient” to justify the removal and that the lower court had “abused its discretion” in failing to return the children to the families.

In a statement after the ruling on Thursday, the Department of Family and Protective Services said: “Child Protective Services has one duty: to protect children. When we see evidence that children have been sexually abused and remain at risk of further abuse, we will act.”

The agency said it removed the children “after finding a pervasive pattern of sexual abuse that puts every child at the ranch at risk.” The officials said interviews “revealed a pattern of under-age girls being ‘spiritually united’ with older men and having children with the men.”

“We will work with the Office of Attorney General to determine the state’s next steps in this case,” the department said.

The appeals judges who ruled, Chief Justice W. Kenneth Law and Justices Robert. H. Pemberton and Alan Waldrop, all Republicans, said removing children from their homes was “an extreme measure” justifiable only in the event of urgent or immediate danger.

Instead, the court said, the state argued that the “belief system” at the ranch condoned under-age marriage and pregnancy and that the whole ranch functioned as a “household” in which sexual abuse anywhere threatened children in the entire community.

But in reality, the judges said, there was no evidence of widespread abuse, and they faulted the district judge, Barbara Walther, for approving the children’s removal based on insufficient grounds.

It was not the first time a raid on polygamists may have backfired. In 1953 Arizona authorities under Gov. Howard Pyle raided the fundamentalist community of Short Creek, which is now Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, taking about 160 children into state custody.

But the custody ruling was overturned on appeal in 1955 after lawyers for the children argued that they were denied adequate legal representation. Most of the women and children then returned to Short Creek to join their husbands, who had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor conspiracy to commit unlawful cohabitation and were sentenced to one year on probation. Governor Pyle lost the 1954 election.

Mohave County Judge J.W. Faulkner later said he made a legal “blunder” during the custody hearings, writing after his retirement in 1955 that the reversal “will inevitably give new life to the cause of polygamy, and prolonging the fight for another 50 years.”

Source-Medindia
GPL/L

Hyperconnectivity: New way of doing business

Hyperconnectivity becoming the new ‘mantra’ of doing business, an IDC study has found that 16 percent of the global workforce is hyperconnected today, and will grow to 40 per cent in five years, with Asia Pacific leading the way.

The study revealed that the largest percentage of hyperconnected are in the Asia Pacific region. And, while hyperconnected workers can be found in all countries, they are higher than average in the US and China, lowest in Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

“Not only is the speed of technology adoption accelerating—impacting business policy and IT investment—but also the global workforce is increasingly expecting employers to provide similar levels of ‘everywhere, all the time’ connectivity,” the IDC study said.

The study sponsored by Nortel stated that the hyperconnected worker uses a minimum of seven devices for work and personal access plus at least nine applications like IM, text messaging, web conferencing and social networks.

It further revealed that the hyperconnected workforce are closely followed by a large second group of 36 per cent designated as ‘increasingly connected’ who use a minimum of four devices for work and personal access to six or more applications.

The study added that the country with the highest percentage of increased hyperconnectivity was Russia.

It further said that 64 per cent of the workforce in Latin America is either hyperconnected or increasingly connected, compared to 59 per cent in Asia Pacific, 50 per cent in Europe, and 44 per cent in North America.

The study found that Europe and the Middle East rely heavily on instant and text messaging in business; over 50 per cent of global workforce—more than twice the number of North American respondents—said they use instant and text messaging for business.

“It’s time for corporate management and IT to re-examine their current IT investments and business technology strategies, leveraging new tools like unified communications while preparing to modify personnel policies, security regimes and business practices,” Nortel Chief Information Officer Steve Bandrowzak said.

This evolution towards increasing levels of connectivity will have a profound impact on enterprises, creating challenges in managing these new tools of connectivity while providing information securely and reliably, and ensuring that this connectivity is productive, the study stated.

“More than 38 per cent of the workforce chose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop and MP3 player as the primary things they would need for 24 hours. In Latin America, more than 50 per cent chose their mobile phone over any other item; the hyperconnecteds preferred their laptops,” the study said.

The study also found that users in the finance and high tech segments are the most dissatisfied with the way their companies manage multiple communications sources; more than 25 per cent of them said their corporate systems are slow and unreliable.

Hyperconnectivity varies by industry, from nine per cent of respondents in healthcare to 25 per cent in high tech and 21 per cent in finance industries, the IDC study said.

Reflections Rated 8.9 (Great) on Blogged.com

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Creative Citizen : a Key Website to Compile World's Environmental Information

A new website, based on the public platform used by Wikipedia, would compile much of the world's environmental information by housing it in the form of creative solutions.


Launched by Creative Citizen, this website has been founded by Argam DerHartunian and Scott Badenoch, who believe that their service is a key piece to what has been missing in the environmental movement.

According to a report in ENN (Environmental News Network), DerHartunian and Badenoch created a wiki-platform to embrace and harness the fact that sustainability is amorphous at best and is truly comprised of endless moving targets.

At the same time, they've given quantifiable metrics to "going green" that should work to shift people from confusion to action.

The site works as a place to tabulate and compile the world's environmental information by housing it in the form of Creative Solutions, or actions you can take to become green.

Solutions can be either habits, products or services and Creative Citizen encourages all companies selling things that claim to be green to post a solution about their product or service.

According to DerHartunian, this is particularly valuable for green companies looking to exhibit their products and services.

"The technology we've developed optimizes each solution for high search engine rankings and allows green companies to gain the visibility they need across the web."

Signing up and posting solutions is completely free for anyone.
Users can go through the site and adopt these solutions to living more eco-friendly lives and then keep track of all the things they've been adopting in their profile.


Via a friend feature, the users can then see what their friends are doing and further discussions about what has worked for them and what hasn't.

Features like "Related Solutions" gives the user a thread to follow, which is particularly helpful when one is new to the whole green thing.

Creative Citizen also puts the focus on the companies making claims about their products being eco-friendly by allowing them to explain why they say their product or service is green and then allowing for users to provide feedback.

If a product claims to be green and isn't, the Creative Citizen community will likely make a point of it; companies will have to respond by explaining their findings, improving their products or simply ending their claims to being "green."

Source-ANI
SPH

Tiff delays Goa broadband project

A major tiff between the Goa administration and the United Telecom Ltd (UTL) over last mile connectivity was hampering commissioning of services to citizens.

Admitting that there were some differences the UTL spokesperson told iGovernment, “Minor technical issues on last mile connectivity is pending and things that will be sorted out within a fortnight if both the parties sit together.”

Earlier the Goa Government had sent a show cause notice to the UTL for making undue delay in the project. UTL is the PPP partner for Goa Broadband Network (GBBN) project.

Confirming receipt of the notice, a UTL spokesperson said the reply to the government notice has been sent recently.

The hi-profile Goa broadband project, India’s first triple play citizen centric network was inaugurated by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in December last year.

Speaking to iGovernment, the state Director IT SR Seth said, “We cannot afford to delay the project as several extensions have already been given to UTL. The show cause notice has been issued to the company for non compliance of the project deadline.”

The Goa Broadband Network is unique in the sense that no other Indian state has so far set up this kind of high bandwidth network with the aim of empowering the citizen and enabling online government to government, government to citizen, and government to business transactions.

Seth further stated that while the Goa government is ready with the computerisation of most of its departments, data center and majority of citizen services, the state government has not been able to rollout citizen services, thanks to the delaying tactics of UTL.

Medical aid for SCs/STs

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/31/stories/2008053153530500.htm

Medical aid for SCs/STs

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Persons belonging to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe can seek medical assistance from Dr. Ambedkar Foundation, an autonomous body, functioning under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, according to Health Secretary V.K. Subburaj.

The SC and ST persons suffering from kidney, heart, liver, brain, knee and spinal cord ailments can get financial assistance for surgeries.

Applications should be sent to the Director, Dr. Ambedkar Foundation, 15 Janpath, New Delhi. The applications may be obtained from Government Hospitals and Government Medical College Hospitals.

Applications should reach the Director 15 days before the date of surgery and they should be attested by members of Parliament or District Judges or Health Secretary or Social Welfare Department Secretary of the Union or State Governments.

The ceiling for the assistance is Rs. 1 lakh and 75 per cent of the amount will be directly sent to the hospitals.

While 50 per cent will be sent before the surgery, 25 per cent would be sent after it.

Village health nurses observe fast

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/01/stories/2008060155120600.htm
Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Members of the Tamil Nadu Village Health Nurses Association went on a day-long fast in front of the State Guest House in Chepauk protesting the revised immunisation strategy.

Wearing black badges, they raised slogans against the policy of getting mothers and children to come to the PHC for vaccination.

It was clearly anti-women and anti-children, considering it took services away from them and instead forced them to travel long distances to access healthcare.

Alleging ulterior motives in transferring the load borne by the health sub centres at the village level to the PHCs, they demanded that the policy be given up immediately. State president of the association P. Nirmala led the protest.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/31/stories/2008053160641000.htm

Special Correspondent

— Photo: R. Ragu

PRESSING THEIR DEMANDS: Members of the Tamil Nadu Village Health Nurses Association on fast at the State Guest House in Chepauk on Friday.

CHENNAI: Members of the Tamil Nadu Village Health Nurses Association went on a day-long fast in front of the State Guest House in Chepauk protesting the revised immunisation strategy.

Wearing black badges, they raised slogans against the current policy of getting mothers and children to come to the PHC for vaccination. It was clearly anti-women and anti-children, considering it took services away from them and instead forced them to travel long distances to access healthcare.

Alleging ulterior motives in transferring the load borne by the health sub centres at the village level to the PHCs, the nurses demanded that the policy be given up immediately.

Is the situation turning messy?

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/02/stories/2008060258430400.htm

K.V. Prasad

The monthly food bill for students in hostels is set to get fatter

– Photo: K. Ananthan

Not so savoury: Rising mess expenditure is another problem area that defies a solution.

Signs of mess charges rising at the start of the academic year seek to prove that inflation has come at the worst possible time. Students staying in hostels and their parents are watching with anxiety the unfolding situation.

They point out that no compromise can be made on the educational needs, even if the costs rise steeply. And that includes fee and study materials. But, what puts them in a tougher situation is the possibility of rising mess expenses.

Most of the hostels follow a system of the students sharing an entire month’s expenditure. A mess committee, comprising representatives of hostellers, prepares a list of monthly or weekly requirements. The frequency of purchase is more in the case of perishables such as vegetables. This way, the institutions do not have the burden of running the mess or fixing the fee. At the same time, it leaves to the students the option of having what they want.

But, the current situation is likely to make things difficult because of the rise in the cost of the items needed in the mess. Their attention will be split between academics and managing the mess in the face of inflation.

Hostellers of GRD College of Science are faced with an increase of Rs.200 in the mess bill this year. From Rs.1,300 a student a month, it will be Rs.500. The total food expenses every month is shared by 900 students.

Coimbatore Medical College Dean (in-charge) V. Kumaran says the inflation will have an impact on this part of the education budget for families of students staying in hostels. Students in the Coimbatore Medical College hostel also follow the cost-sharing system. “In 2006-07, the monthly mess expense was Rs.1,000. It rose to Rs.1,200 the following year. It may go up by Rs.300 to Rs.400, depending on the price situation,” he says.

Hostellers at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University also are faced with the task of making changes to their monthly budget. The monthly contribution for food will have to be reworked, with focus on the cost of rice, oil and vegetables. The students may also face the additional burden of increasing the salary of the cooks, if they are not appointed on a permanent basis for the canteens of the institutions.

“We do not know how much more this expense will cost us this time,” says S. Tamil Selvi, mother of S. Abhinaya who is moving from first B.Tech to second year in a private engineering college in Erode district. The first year itself saw costs rising, she says.

“It was Rs. 800 initially and then rose to Rs.1,000. Towards the end of the last academic year, the mess expense was Rs.1,300 as prices began to climb.”

Ms. Abhinaya indicates that students or their parents do not want any compromise on nutrition. Parents want their children to have the best food and not miss the nutrition that is easily got from home-made food.

“Barring eggs on three nights a week, the rest is mostly vegetarian food,” she says. Sometimes breakfast comes with omelette. Otherwise, its idlis, dosa and noodles. It is rice, sambar and one vegetable side dish. Though a regular meal, the prevailing cost of the ingredients only points to the inevitable possibility of the mess bill getting heftier.

The prices of all essential commodities have increased. With students sharing the expenses and managing the mess, the stress is on good and healthy food. And this comes at a very heavy price. For instance, with refined oil costing upwards of Rs. 75, it is only indicative of the tough times ahead, parents and hostellers say.

Students in Ramanathapuram to be screened for heart ailments

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/03/stories/2008060359770600.htm

Staff Reporter

Government Rajaji Hospital to send its team of doctors under a State government scheme

MADURAI: The Government Rajaji Hospital here will be sending its team of doctors to Ramanathapuram district to identify school children suffering from heart ailments and refer them back for surgery, according to its Dean (in charge), S.M. Sivakumar, here on Monday.

Sophisticated facilities such as Colour Doppler scan had been kept ready at the GRH to screen children for heart diseases under the scheme “Honourable Chief Minister’s Ilam Sirar Idhaya Padhukappu Thittam” from Tuesday, he said.

The month-long special campaign would screen not only children suffering from congenital heart diseases but also rheumatic heart ailments.

“Generally, surgery is not recommended for children ailing from rheumatic heart disease, considering the growth period, unless it is life saving. The ideal age for a male for such a surgery is 24 years while it is 22 years for female.”

189 in Madurai alone

In Madurai district alone, 189 school children had been identified with congenital heart diseases, he said and added that children suffering from rheumatic heart disease would be low in number.

The hospital had formed a team comprising a cardiologist, cardiothoracic surgeon, general physician and a staff nurse. The team visiting Ramanathapuram would have a cardiology assistant and a postgraduate student, Dr. Sivakumar said.

Surgeries would be performed at designated private hospitals, apart from the GRH, Dr. Sivakumar said.

A lifeline for the poor

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/03/stories/2008060358740300.htm

M. Dinesh Varma

Tamil Nadu’s scheme to supply medicines to 11,000 hospitals insulates the poor from the vagaries of the open market

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An estimated 30 per cent of the population benefits from the free medicines

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Tamil Nadu’s massive drug procurement programme for government hospitals has helped insulate poor patients from the vagaries of the open market.

Implemented by the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation Ltd (TNMSC), the programme oversees procurement and distribution of generic drugs to 11,000 hospitals, including 14 medical colleges, across the State. An estimated 30 per cent of the State 217;s population that depends on government hospitals are given these medicines free of cost.

“The transparency of the entire process has helped smooth implementation,” said S. Karuthiah Pandian, TNMSC Managing Director.

The TNMSC recently added 250 new generation medicines for cardiovascular, cancer, obstetrics and neurology specialities, to its list of 270 essential medicines.

The systems it has put in place for finalising tenders by a Drug Committee, quality control measures and customised production of drugs with an exclusive “TG” (Tamil Nadu Government) logo has caught the attention of institutions like the World Bank.

The TNSMC is offering consultancy to Rajasthan, Kerala and North-Eastern States for replicating its procurement mechanism.

Though the TNSMC has been able to negotiate with about 50 drug manufacturers for fair price quotations that are 30 to 50 per cent lower than open market rates, its annual expenditure on medicines has been going up even without any matching increase in the indents. The budgetary allocation has gone up from Rs. 140 crore in 2006-07 to Rs. 195 crore in 2007-08 and Rs. 222 crore in the current fiscal year, the tenders for which are likely to be finalised in a month.

Snake anti-venom serum and the anti-biotic amoxicillin are among the drugs that now cost more because manufacturers claim that costs of raw materials sourced from China have gone up, Mr. Pandian said.

Paying for chronic ailments

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/03/stories/2008060358710300.htm

Ramya Kannan and R. Sujatha

The increased cost of treatment is eating into the already-stretched finances of the middle class

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’Some insurance schemes do not cover outpatient treatment’

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If regular healthcare is difficult to afford, living with a chronic ailment can literally destroy someone .

As a nation that is said to be moving into a ‘non-communicable diseases’ epidemic mode, the numbers with diabetes, cancer, hypertension, stroke, cardio-vascular diseases, kidney disease, HIV, and stroke are climbing. A person with even three of these closely linked diseases may require up to Rs.5000 a month, doctors say.

But can the great Indian middle class afford this?

Chandramouli, a retired Central Government officer, is a beneficiary of the Central Government Health Scheme, which covers retired employees’ health care costs. He and his wife have cancer. “The cost of my wife’s medicines, which went up from Rs. 8,000 last year to Rs. 9,000, are reimbursed by the CGHS. I have not gone to the CGHS dispensary for six months now as there are no specialists to treat me.”

Srinivasan,* a retired state government employee, has been living with diabetes for over 35 years now. His wife, Soundaram,* has diabetes, heart disease and renal problems. Her medicines alone cost Rs.2500 per month and she has been unable to afford surgery. She says: “My husband’s monthly pension is Rs.900. We have had to sell our house in Thanjavur and move to Chennai. Every year, he needs to be admitted to a hospital for foot-related complications. That cost about Rs.35,000. We have some meagre savings left. After that, I have no idea how we can go on…”

“The thing with chronic diseases is that treatment gets more expensive with time,” V. Mohan of Diabetes Specialities Centre, explains. As the disease progresses, more expensive drugs will have to be prescribed. Complications can also arise, requiring hospitalisation. His patients, even some relatively affluent ones, have sold houses and businesses to pay for health care. As for pensioners and retirees, their resources are limited.

The wife of Y. Ebineizer Arokiyaraj, a senior official with the Meteorology department, is undergoing dialysis. While dialysis costs between Rs. 900 and 1,100, costs such as room rent and other necessities are not factored into the reimbursement package, he says. Tanker Foundation is one of the few organisations that gives poor patients with renal failure access to dialysis.

“Our criterion is that people we help should have a monthly salary of less than Rs.10,000, but there are a number of people who earn only a little more and need help too,” says Stella Mathew, the Foundation’s project director.

They provide dialysis at Rs.400 and also help the patient to get tests done.

Even for those with some form of medical insurance, insurance inflation is up to about 13 per cent every year for hospitalisation, says Sheela Anand, general manager (southern region), TTK Healthcare Services. She points out that some insurance policies do not cover outpatient treatment; moreover drugs for regular maintenance cost a lot.

The increased incidence of lifestyle diseases and rising prices has not led to a big increase in the number of people taking insurance, says V. Sekar, GM of United India Insurance.

He agrees that continued inflation will make it difficult for people to afford the higher premiums.

*Names changed on request

Hookworm, main cause for anaemia HeAlth & Lifestyle

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/03/stories/2008060357470200.htm

R.Sujatha

Some startling truths about the number of anaemic people in lower socio-economic group

— PHOTO: V. GANESAN

CARE NEEDED: Walking barefoot can cause hookworm infestation which may ultimately result in anaemia.

CHENNAI: The recent preventive health camps held across the State for the lower socio-economic group threw up some startling truths about the number of people who are anaemic. The population tested for haemoglobin level fell short of the standards set by the World Health Organisation that states that a level of 12-14 gm is normal for males in developing countries. But of the 12,95,917 people tested at the camps held across the State, only 1,63,138 persons came under the normal category, states the figures from the Directorate of Public Health. The samples taken were grouped according to the haemoglobin level in blood.

“In India anyone with less than 8 gm is considered severely anaemic and those with less than 10 gm, moderately anaemic. The government has now taken up improving the health of the severely anaemic persons,” says Public Health Director S. Elango.

Doctors say hookworm is the main cause for anaemia, especially among children who do not wear footwear or wash hands before eating. “It should be mandatory for children to observe these rules. Through the school health programme we are taking care of this,” Dr. Elango says.

One of the initiatives of the government is de-worming that is done every six months for young children, says Saradha Suresh, head of Institute of Child Health. “Fifty per cent of people in the lower socio-economic strata and 10 per cent in the high socio-income group are anaemic,” she says. “This is because of the diet pattern. Better intake of vegetables, pulses and milk means lesser worm infestation.”

About 20 per cent of children below one year are anaemic and the percentage increases with age, Dr. Saradha notes. Children get their iron source from their mother. But mothers themselves do not supplement the iron they lose after every pregnancy and turn anaemic. The habit of drinking tea and coffee also affects absorption of iron. “Caffeine in the beverage contains phytates, a chemical that blocks iron absorption. The vegetarian diet should include enough green, leafy vegetables, at least every week.”

Kalanjiyam Trust that is working with villagers in Madurantakam has found that de-worming alone will not help. “We did a survey in Pavunjur and found that of the 106 school students nearly half had never worn slippers. And women are more seriously affected by hookworm infection,” says Anu, a volunteer working with the Trust. A person who eats meat every day should include red meat to get the iron the body needs, she says.

The price people won’t pay

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/03/stories/2008060358730300.htm

M. Dinesh Varma

How the increase in the cost of medicine forces patients to go off treatment

Photo: Karishma Anand

Six tablets and two tonics once a day for over six years. This everyday dose that sustains 93-year-old heart patient Meenakshi’s life has been a severe drain on her family’s monthly budget.

Medical expenses add up to around Rs. 800 a month. “Add to that the transportation costs and the ECG or X-ray that the doctor sometimes recommends and the monthly visit to the physician costs much more,” says Ramesh, her son, an employee o f Sathyam Computers.

With drug prices up by 300 per cent over the last five years, the family was forced to adjust its lifestyle to save money. The patient also alerted caregivers before medicines went out of stock. However, in an estimated 10 to 20 per cent of cases, drug prices force patients off the treatment course, doctors say. “Patient non-compliance is the direct and most serious outcome of drug prices,” says V. S. Natarajan, geriatrician.

At his geriatric clinic, at least 10 per cent of the roughly 200 patients every week drop out midway because of their inability to afford the full course of medicines. The levels of non-compliance are increasing in the lower-to-middle income class of patients who get started on treatment for a chronic disease, but are unable to sustain the therapy for the full course. Relief or remission immediately prompts these patients to stop the therapy as they see medicate beyond that stage as wasteful. “Many patients suffer a relapse and have to be put on treatment that could turn even more expensive.”

State Indian Medical Association president L. V. K. Moorthy says that while people had no option but to borrow money for medical emergencies, the price rise had forced patients to seek cheaper substitutes.

Chemists say that contrary to claims that a unified tax regime would lower prices of medicines, the costs of almost all commonly used branded drugs have gone up in the post-Value Added Tax period. Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association spokesman Sakthivel, however, claims the price increase was restricted to a few drugs.

The price of a blood pressure control tablet like Amlong went up from Rs. 35 a ten-tablet strip to Rs. 40 a strip while Cardace 5 mg which cost Rs. 86 is now priced at Rs. 109.50. The prices of most Paracetamol tablet brands and the commonly prescribed anti-biotic Amoxicillin (250 mg) have doubled from Rs. 5 and Rs. 25 per strip respectively. Market forces have not spared even tonics and cough syrups — the price of a bottle of Piriton syrup has gone up from about Rs. 38 to Rs. 45 while Ascoril which used to cost only Rs. 32 for a bottle now costs Rs. 42.50.

Antacids like Gelusil which was priced at Rs. 32.50 per 170 ml bottle now costs about Rs. 50. Diabetic patients too have been hit hard by price rise with mainstays like Insulin injections costing Rs. 158 a vial as opposed to Rs. 145 a vial some time ago and prices of vitamin B12 tablets going up from Rs. 6 a tablet to Rs. 8 a tablet.

Spiralling costs and indifferent health care

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/03/stories/2008060358720300.htm

Spiralling costs and indifferent health care

Two-thirds of spending on health is out-of-pocket; people with no safety net especially vulnerable, says Ramya Kannan

Photo: M. Vedhan

affordable care: Patients waiting at the Government General Hospital, Chennai. For most people, government hospitals are the only option.

Despite being an essential service, the health care sector is no exception to the blistering price rise that has severely affected quality of life. In a country with high out-of-pocket expenditures on health, increasing costs mean the common man has to bear a heavier burden.

In May 2003, a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry and McKinsey found that not only was healthcare spending relatively poor, it also yielded poor outcomes. It added that as a result of poor coverage, almost two-thirds of the spending was out-of-pocket, making it both inefficient and inequitable. “Hardly 3 to 4 per cent of the population is covered by social insurance, and quality care is a dream even for those covered under the scheme,” the report said.

Over the years, increasing costs of treatment, hospitalisation, drugs, combined with limited state-spending, shortage of low cost care and inadequate insurance coverage have been steadily contributing to the patient’s burden. An average family has very little money to spare for health insurance coverage.

Health economists say that people who have no safety net with respect to health care spending are the most vulnerable. Their long-expressed apprehension that people who have no recourse to medical reimbursement (partial or whole), low incomes and compounding chronic health conditions will struggle even to meet essential medicare needs is becoming a reality. These include pensioners, employees without medical cover, unorganised workers, and people below the poverty line.

“Though Tamil Nadu has one of the best existing health care systems in the country, it still is not enough. If you have an acute problem, you are likely to be attended to. But attending to chronic conditions requiring life-long treatment is almost impossible,” says George Thomas, orthopaedician, and editor of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics.

To put it very simply, even a leg fracture can set the patient back by Rs.75,000 to Rs. 1 lakh in a private hospital. If people have access to public health care, the long period of treatment is ineffective as it takes away precious man hours, Dr. Thomas says. “If a worker were to fall from a height and develop paralysis, it is sure death. There are no rehabilitation services worth the name in the public sector and life-long treatment is unaffordable in a private care set up,” he adds.

For doctors who know their patients cannot pay for treatment even to survive, it is a difficult situation. For patients, it is almost impossible to cope as the debts keep mounting.

Take the case of Vasantha, who works as a domestic help to supplement her husband’s earnings as a driver. “Our combined income is just over Rs.4000. We are not even able to afford proper food for our children. Last month, a neck injury cost me Rs.300 in a private hospital,” she says. Since it was the end of the month, the family had to borrow.

Like many daily wage earners, the government hospital was never an option for her. “It is always crowded, there are many queues and the staff do not treat us well. Besides, the entire day is lost and my husband stands to lose his wages,” she says.

The McKinsey report also indicates 63 per cent of the total expenditure of Rs 86,000 crore goes to private health care providers. Though government infrastructure is substantial, particularly in rural areas, most people prefer to go to private clinics because of the perceived better quality.

From drug prices to consumables used in hospitals, the prices have gone up hugely, says G.R. Ravindranath, general secretary, Doctors Association for Social Equality. The price differential between the private and public sector is very steep and yet people prefer to go to private nursing homes and clinics. For instance, a normal delivery in the government sector costs Rs.3000 and a Caesarian section, Rs. 5000. The same in the private sector could be as high as Rs.20,000 – Rs.30,000.

Insurance, while helpful, has severe limitations, Dr. Ravindranath adds. Most private insurance companies have a lot of exemption clauses that make it impossible for senior citizens and those with chronic ailments to benefit from the policies. “Either insurance is refused to them or extremely high premiums are being charged,” he claims.

Dr. Thomas agrees. State-run hospitals are riddled with inefficiencies, and it is impossible for them to be responsive given their existing infrastructure. The way out is to promote a social insurance scheme that would cover all patients in a fair manner, he says.

16 VRCs in Sikkim for space technology

Sixteen village resource centres (VRCs) will be set up in Sikkim for dissementing advisory services relating to space technology to the rural communities during phase I.

Informing this, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Chairman G Madhavan Nair said these are being established in co-ordination with Rural Management and Development Department and Science and Technology Department.

“This arrangement will enable digital connectivity for video conferencing and information transfer through space technology,” the Isro chairman, who was recently on a visit to the state, said.

Subsequently during phase II, more village resource centres will also be set up to cover remaining blocks. Besides, automatic weather stations for updated weather related information would also be set up.

Nair appreciated the efforts made by the state government for extensive use of remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) for conservation of rich biodiversity and sustainable management of various natural resources.

He also added that the Department of Space is also keen to extend the programme of Edusat for distance learning and skill development programme for various schools and colleges of Sikkim.

For the disaster management programme, the satellite based communication system will also be provided in Sikkim, Nair added.

The Isro Chairman also assured that Department of Space will install indigenously developed Doppler radar system for glacier and snowmelt studies, besides agreeing to provide full support for large scale mapping and preparation of digital terrain models using high resolution Cartostat satellite data.

The state government requested the ISRO Chairman, who is also the Secretary of the Department of Space, for assistance in the fields of bio-diversity characterisation at landscape level using high resolution satellite data for National Park and Sanctuary areas.

They also requested support from the department for application of high resolution satellite data for forest mapping, preparation of web-enabled village resource mapping and comprehensive assessment of micro-hydel potential in the state.

It also includes using satellite data to carry near real time monitoring on forest fire occurrence, detailed mapping of landslide, for disaster management planning for glacial lake outburst floods and development of models for predicting impact of climate change in Sikkim.

HP acquires EDS for $13.9 billion

Technology firm Hewlett-Packard (HP) on Tuesday announced that it will be acquiring technology services firm Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for an estimated $13.9 billion, or $25.00 per share.

The companies have already signed a definitive agreement, which was unanimously approved by the HP and EDS boards of directors.

According to available information, EDS Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Ronald A Rittenmeyer will be joining HP’s executive council and report directly to its Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd.

The transaction, which is expected to be closed during the second half of calendar year 2008, would more than double HP’s services revenue of $16.6 billion during fiscal 2007 and help create an IT services powerhouse that would enable HP compete IBM.

The fiscal 2007 revenues for the combined entity was more than $38 billion. Together HP and EDS have 210,000 employees, with business spread across more than 80 countries.

According to the company, it intends to promote EDS as a new business group led by Rittenmeyer that would remain headquartered at Electronic Data Systems’ existing executive offices in Plano, Texas.

“The combination of HP and EDS will create a leading force in global IT services,” Hurd said.

“Together, we will be a stronger business partner, delivering customers the broadest, most competitive portfolio of products and services in the industry,” he added.

Talking about the merger move Rittenmeyer said, “The combination of our two global companies and the collective skills of our employees will drive innovation and enhance value for them in a wide range of industries. In addition, our agility alliance will be significantly strengthened.”

Experts suggest that HP’s massive datacenters and experience in business computing hardware goes well with the expertise EDS has in outsourcing technical services for companies.

Together the companies will be able to provide extensive experience in offering solutions to customers in government, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, energy, transportation, communications, consumer industries and retail.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of domestic and foreign regulatory approvals and the approval of EDS’s stockholders.

India’s HR violation under Amnesty scanner

Violation of human rights in Kashmir, Nandigram (West Bengal) and Orissa has come under Amnesty International scanner.

According to the latest Amnesty International report, India was not ensuring human rights despite the economic boom.

“There have been atrocities against protests in Nandigram, Singur and Kalinganagar in Orissa. People’s rights over natural resources have been denied. Binayak Sen is still in illegal custody,” Amnesty International (India) Director Mukul Sharma said.

Disappearance of hundreds in Kashmir, unlawful killing and evictions in Nandigram and police action against peaceful protestors against land acquisition for Special Economic Zones in Orissa were some of the incidents in which there was gross violation of human rights, the report said.

The report further revealed that workers of a communist party ruling in West Bengal have killed people and raped women with impunity after farmers refused to give their land for industry.

But the communists say they are being needlessly vilified.

The special economic zone to be set up in Nandigram has been the centre of a conflict between poor farmers and the state government since early 2007 over the refusal of the villagers to sell their land.

Referring to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the international agency expressed concern at the widespread impunity enjoyed by state and non-state ‘actors’ for indulging in torture, death in custody, abductions and unlawful killing.

The report has charged India for increasing violence against marginalised communities and their forced evictions in the name of development, the trampling of human rights in the name of war on terrorism and protecting national security, reluctance to abolish death sentence.

India to set up innovation hubs for students

The Government of India is planning to set up seven Regional Innovation Science Hubs for Inventors (RISHI) to promote innovation and encourage youngsters to take up a career in science and technology.

Announcing this, the Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal said that each centre would specialise in one discipline, even while having a core set of common activities.

Sibal said that the structure will vary to allow for plurality so that effectiveness of RISHI can be assessed and the best model adopted for wide scale replication.

The hubs would be located in host organisations such as progressive school, university, science centre, science city, science based voluntary organisation, society and foundation promoting science talent and bal bhavan.

The centres could choose from one or more disciplines to specialise in. These include robotics, agriculture and rural development, science and mass communication, biotechnology, ocean sciences, biomedical engineering and renewable energy sources and their application.

The centres would be accessible to every student, irrespective of whether he or she was in an urban or a rural area, the minister said.

Speaking at a function to honour students who had participated in the international pre-college science and engineering fair organised by Intel in the US recently, the Minister said that these hubs will help to promote scientific temper in the country.

In all, eight students from India participated in the fair and seven won awards in different categories, majority from non-metro cities and are girls.

The students were selected through a programme called the Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) conducted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Intel and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Britain Under a Possible Invasion of Chikungunya?

An Asian breed of mosquito capable of carrying the risk of a potentially fatal disease that can be passed from one person to another is poised to invade Britain.


In northern Italy, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) has already established itself - transmitting chikungunya fever to scores of people.

The insect has also been found in a dozen other European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands.

Scientists at the Government's Health Protection Agency (HPA) at Porton Down in Wiltshire found that the UK climate is suitable for the mosquito to breed.

And the finding has left health experts concerned that Britain could be the next country to be invaded.

The Asian tiger mosquito has spread rapidly around the world due to the international trade in used car tyres, which carry the mosquito's eggs in trapped water inside the rim of the tyre.

But, the popularity of lucky bamboo, a Chinese houseplant that is transported in water-filled pots, has also spread the insect through ports such as Rotterdam.

Scientists found that 'widespread establishment' of the Asian tiger mosquito across England and Wales is possible in the warm, damp conditions of the British summer, which would increase the risk of chikungunya fever spreading among the local population.

"The mosquito has popped up across Europe and although we haven't found it yet in the UK, we have identified the potential for it to come here," The Independent quoted a spokesman of the HPA's Porton Down laboratories, as saying.
During the study, researchers found that there has been a dramatic rise in the number of British people returning from South-east Asia with chikungunya virus over recent years and if the tiger mosquito becomes established here it could create a locally spread epidemic.


People who have chikungunya develop a fever that lasts a couple of days but they go on to suffer intense headaches, joint pains and insomnia for days or weeks after they are bitten.

The female mosquito can feed on human blood and is known for her quick, penetrating bite and the fact that she feeds throughout the day, and not just in the evening like many other mosquitoes.

It is also known to transmit dengue fever and can carry about 20 other viral diseases.

Source-ANI
SPH

Tourism police in Chandigarh now

In order to promote safe tourism in the city, the Chandigarh administration has decided to set up a team of 100-member strong Tourism Police for the Union Territory (UT).“The police department has already agreed for the formation of a Tourism Police force and will depute about 100 personnel of the rank of constable and head-constable rank to patrol around tourists’ spot in the city,” Director Tourism Vivek Atray said.

He said there was a need for such a specialised force, as the city was a hub of activities for three states—Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh—and was fast becoming a preferred tourist destination.

The Tourism Police personnel will be dressed in special jackets provided by the tourism department.

Atray informed that the Tourism Police personnel will be imparted professional training by the faculty members of Chandigarh Institute of Hotel Management (CIHM) and Dr Ambedkar Institute of Hotel Management and Nutrition, Chandigarh.

Besides, that they will also be taught basics of foreign languages including English, French and Italian to enable them better interact with foreign tourists. The cops will not only protect the tourists, but would also act as guides, averred Atray.