Ride ‘smart’ on PRTC buses soon

In an effort to provide convenience to commuters, the cash-strapped Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) in the Northern Indian state of Punjab has decided to introduce smart tickets for passengers travelling in its fleet of buses.

Electronically generated tickets would be introduced in all PRTC buses in a phased manner. For the purpose the PRTC has decided to procure electronic ticketing machine (ETM) .

According to PRTC sources, the corporation has taken a cue from State Transport Corporation in Karnataka and also from the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation to implement this project.

Officials of the PRTC had studied the electronic ticketing systems in these two organisations, which had been running successfully.

As a pilot project, the PRTC had introduced about 50 ETMs in its KM scheme bus depot of Patiala. The project turned out to be a big success.

According to PRTC Managing Director Manvesh Singh Sidhu, the ETMs would help check revenue losses because of people travelling without tickets.

The electronic tickets would have detailed information like the boarding and destination stations and the date and time of travel, PRTC said.

The corporation informed that in the first phase, it plans to introduce electronic tickets in Patiala, Chandigarh and Bathinda since all these depots were already computerised.

New Technology to Kill Foodborne Pathogens Developed

Researchers at University of Georgia have developed a new and effective technology for reducing contamination of dangerous bacteria on food and battle the increasing number of food poisoning incidents.


The new antimicrobial wash rapidly kills Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 on foods ranging from fragile lettuce to tomatoes, fruits, poultry products and meats. It is made from inexpensive and readily available ingredients that are recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

This new technology also has commercial application for the produce, poultry, meat and egg processing industries.

According to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S. alone, foodborne pathogens are responsible for 76 million illnesses every year. These widespread outbreaks of food-borne illnesses are partly attributed to the fast-paced distribution of foods across the nation.

Right now, a chlorine wash is often used in a variety of ways to reduce harmful bacteria levels on vegetables, fruits and poultry, but because of chlorine's sensitivity to food components and extraneous materials released in chlorinated water treatments, many bacteria survive.

Chlorine is toxic at high concentrations, may produce off-flavors and undesirable appearance of certain food products, and it can only be used in conjunction with specialized equipment and trained personnel. In addition, chlorine may be harmful to the environment.

"We can't rely on chlorine to eliminate pathogens on foods. This new technology is effective, safe for consumers and food processing plant workers, and does not affect the appearance or quality of the product. It may actually extend the shelf-life of some types of produce," said Michael Doyle, one of the new technology's inventors and director of UGA's Center for Food Safety.
Doyle is an internationally recognized authority on food safety whose research focuses on developing methods to detect and control food-borne bacterial pathogens at all levels of the food continuum, from the farm to the table.


Developed by Doyle and Center for Food Safety researcher Tong Zhao, the new antimicrobial technology uses a combination of ingredients that kills bacteria within one to five minutes from application.

It can be used as a spray and immersion solution, and its concentration can be adjusted for treatment of fragile foods such as leafy produce, more robust foods such as poultry, or food preparation equipment and food transportation vehicles.

"The effectiveness, easy storage and application, and low cost of this novel antibacterial make it applicable not only at food processing facilities, but also at points-of-sale and at home, restaurants and military bases. The development of this technology is timely, given the recent, sequential outbreaks of foodborne pathogens," said Gennaro Gama, UGARF technology manager in charge of licensing this technology.

Source-ANI
RAS/S

India on US human trafficking watch list

India has been placed on the US second worst category of human trafficking watch list for the fifth year in a row for allegedly failing to show evidence of increasing efforts to combat the problem.

“India is a source, destination and transit country for men, women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation,” an annual US State Department report released on Wednesday said.

The 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report revealed that the Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, though it is making significant efforts to do so.

Despite the reported extent of the trafficking crisis in India, government authorities made uneven efforts to prosecute traffickers and protect trafficking victims, the report said, suggesting that that internal forced labour may constitute India’s largest trafficking problem.

Releasing the report, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the goal of the report covering 170 countries is to shine a light on recent accomplishments and encourage governments in their resolve to confront those who prey on the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.

“Together, we are confident that this modern, growing abolitionist movement will continue to rescue, rehabilitate and restore the lives of those from whom so much has been taken,” she said.

Referring to the report, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons’ Director Mark Lagon said that India has made efforts on the child labour front and rescued many victims.

“But India still doesn’t recognise bonded labour as human trafficking. It has weak anti-corruption efforts and prosecutions are too few,” Lagon said.

The report said that India is also a destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Nepali children are also trafficked to India for forced labour in circus shows.

Indian women are trafficked to the Middle East for commercial sexual exploitation, the report said. There are also victims of labour trafficking among the thousands of Indians who migrate willingly every year to the Middle East, Europe and the US to work as domestic servants and low-skilled labourers.

Men and women from Bangladesh and Nepal are trafficked through India for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation in the Middle East. Indian nationals travel to Nepal and within the country for child sex tourism, the report revealed.

In India itself, men, women and children are held in debt bondage and face forced labour working in brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture and embroidery factories.

While no comprehensive study of forced and bonded labour has been completed, NGOs estimate this problem affects 20 to 65 million Indians.

The report further said that women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage.

Children are subjected to forced labour as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars and agriculture workers, and have been used as armed combatants by some terrorist and insurgent groups.

Describing lack of punishment of traffickers as a critical challenge, the report recommended an expansion of central and state government law enforcement capacity to conduct intrastate law enforcement activities against trafficking.

India’s efforts to protect victims of trafficking varied from state to state, but remained inadequate in many places during the year, the report stated.

Calling India’s efforts aimed at the prevention of trafficking in persons as inadequate, the report said the government did not report new or significant prevention efforts addressing the prominent domestic problems of trafficking of adults for purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation.

The country also did not report any efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Similarly, the government failed to take any steps to raise awareness of trafficking for nationals travelling to known child sex tourism destinations within the country.

India has not ratified the 2000 UN Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Protocol, the State Department report said.

Saarc knowledge centre takes off in India

The ambitious proposal of setting up a common university for eight Saarc countries has taken off with the dedication of land for the institute by India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here on Monday.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony in Maidan Garhi, Mukherjee announced that the South Asian University (SAU) would hold its first academic session in 2010.

The main campus in New Delhi will be hosting nearly 5,000 students and an international faculty. It will also have campuses in all other seven South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries—Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

“The university will help realise the dream of thousands of young men and women who will gather here, not only for high quality education, but also in a spirit of fraternity and friendship,” Mukherjee said.

It may be recalled that the proposal for setting up such a university was mooted by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the 13th Saarc Summit in Dhaka in December 2005.

The External Affairs Minister stressed that Saarc has moved towards it relatively quickly as an inter-governmental agreement on it was signed only at the 14th Saarc summit held in New Delhi last year.

Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Member PK Chaddha has been entrusted with the responsibility to oversee the university’s construction, land acquisition and drawing up its charter, byelaws, business plan, governance structure and course curricula.

Chadha will hold the post of CEO of the Saarc university for two years until the university becomes functional in 2010 when a Vice-Chancellor would be appointed.

The project is being executed by the ministry of external affairs in consultation with the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Department of Education of the Human Resource Development Ministry.

The Government of India has offered to bear the entire cost of setting up the university which is expected to be a non-profit Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

Once fully operational, the SAU would witness free flow of students as well as faculty from Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives. The university will offer both undergraduate as well as post graduate courses.

Total Ankle Replacement Without Metal Implants

Researchers say that patients having severe arthritis can now opt for total ankle replacement without having to put up with metal implants.


For years, patients have had the option of total joint replacement in the hips, knees, and ankle with titanium and other metal devices, but now researchers from UC San Diego Medical Centre have come up with a total ankle replacement technique that would offer increased mobility and pain relief.

"Up until now, patients have had two options for replacing their ankle joints: metal implants or fusion of the joints," said Daniel K. Lee, director of foot and ankle surgery at UCSD Medical Centre.

"Now there is an option that actually restores the ankle with an FDA-approved biologic material that is similar to the collagen found in cartilage," he added.

During the surgery, Lee removed the damaged cartilage around the ankle joint through a four-centimetre opening. The collagen material was then moulded into the joint where it adapts to the contour of the patient's ankle.

"Unlike a metal device, the advantage to this material is that the implant can be customized in size and contour for every patient's individual need. No matter how the patient's ankle is shaped, the collagen is a perfect fit," he added.

Later in order to allow the material to integrate fully with the ankle joint, a temporary external device was used to stabilize the joint area while keeping it "distracted" or open for a period of 4-6 weeks.
The cylinder-shaped device was attached by small pins, which served as a shock system to keep the joint free from friction and movement until healing is complete.


The device is then removed entirely, which keeps the patient's ankle free from any metal parts.

"Within 3 weeks after surgery, we see an incorporation of tissue onto the damaged cartilage," said Lee.

"The idea here is to avoid fusion of the ankle and to add longevity to the joint. We want to give patients as much mobility as possible so they can get back to the activities they love the most," he added.

The results of a study will be described in late 2008 in the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery.

Source-ANI
RAS/S

Delhi will not meet slum-free target by 2010

The government’s plan to make Delhi slum-free by 2010 seems to be a distant dream as the government will not be able to erect the required eight lakh housing units for slum dwellers within the scheduled timeframe.

Delhi’s Urban Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said the government will only be able to provide one lakh units to the slum dwellers across the state.

The government is trying to beautify the city by 2010 as the games are expected to bring in thousands of foreign tourists. The slums present a grim picture, with people living there without basic facilities like water and sanitation.

Chauhan said under the various housing schemes of the government, four lakh houses would be provided to slum dwellers in future.

He further said the process to invite applications for the first 10,000 houses from slum dwellers would begin shortly and added that the real picture will emerge only after we get applications for the 10,000 units.

These houses are being built under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and will be given to those whose annual income is not more than Rs 60,000 per annum.

The slum residential complexes under the Rajiv Ratna Awas Yojana (RRAY) have been planned in the city’s peripheral areas like Narela, Najafgarh, Shahdara and Jahangirpuri.

These will have basic amenities like schools, parks, transport, drinking water, electricity and shops for daily needs, state government officials said.

“Wherever land is available, the government will construct multi-storey housing apartments for them. The first 10,000 units will be constructed in Bawana. It will be ready for allotment by August 2008,” Chauhan claimed.

The city’s Mayor and Chairperson of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Arti Mehra, underlined the need for a proactive approach to make the capital slum free.

She said that providing accommodation to some 3.5 to four million people living in slums is not an easy task; there should be a deadline to construct the houses.

The Planning Commission estimated a shortage of 25 million houses for the urban poor in the next five years.

Cancer, Epilepsy Surgeries may Be Improved by Laser 'microscalpel'

A mechanical engineering Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a laser "microscalpel" that has the potential to destroy a single cell while leaving nearby cells intact, thus paving the way for precision surgeries in conditions like epilepsy.


Adela Ben-Yakar said that scientists can now remove a cell with high precision in 3-D without damaging the cells above and below it.

"And you can see, with the same precision, what you are doing to guide your microsurgery," he said.

Femtosecond lasers produce extremely brief, high-energy light pulses that sear a targeted cell so quickly and accurately the lasers' heat has no time to escape and damage nearby healthy cells.

As a result, the medical community envisions the lasers' use for more accurate destruction of many types of unhealthy material. These include small tumors of the vocal cords, cancer cells left behind after the removal of solid tumors, individual cancer cells scattered throughout brain or other tissue and plaque in arteries.

A commercially available femtosecond laser system and microscope was developed recently for LASIK and other eye surgeries, but the system's bulk limits its usefulness.

en-Yakar's laboratory has overcome technological challenges to create a microscope system that can deliver femtosecond laser pulses up to 250 microns deep inside tissue. The system includes a tiny, flexible probe that focuses light pulses to a spot size smaller than human cells.
Ben-Yakar's experimental system and its use to destroy a single cell within layers of breast cancer cells grown in the laboratory is described in the June 23 issue of Optics Express.


Within a few years, Ben-Yakar expects to shrink the probe's 15-millimeter diameter three-fold, so it would match endoscopes used today for laparoscopic surgery. The probe tip she has developed also could be made disposable, for use operating on people who have infectious diseases or destroying deadly viruses and other biomaterials.

To develop the miniature laser-surgery system, Ben-Yakar worked with co-author Olav Solgaard at Stanford University's Electrical Engineering Department to incorporate a miniaturized scanning mirror.

Ben-Yakar and her graduate student Chris Hoy, another co-author, also used a novel fiber optic cable that can withstand intense light pulses traveling from an infrared, femtosecond laser. To make the intensity more manageable, they stretched the light pulses into longer, weaker pulses for traveling through the fiber. Then they used the fiber's unique properties to reconstruct the light into more intense, short light pulses before entering the tissue.

For the study, she directed laser light at breast cancer cells in three-dimensional biostructures that mimic the optical properties of breast tissue. She has since studied laboratory-grown, layered cell structures that mimic skin tissue and other tissues.

Ben-Yakar is also investigating the use of nanoparticles to focus the light energy on targeted cells. In research published last year, she demonstrated that gold nanoparticles can function as nano-scale magnifying lenses, increasing the laser light reaching cells by at least an order of magnitude, or 10-fold.

"If we can consistently deliver nanoparticles to cancer cells or other tissue that we want to target, we would be able to remove hundreds of unwanted cells at once using a single femtosecond laser pulse," Ben-Yakar said.

"But we would still be keeping the healthy cells alive while photo-damaging just the cells we want, basically creating nanoscale holes in a tissue."

Source-ANI
RAS/S

Seismic network soon in Bhutan

The Government of Bhutan is planning to establish a seismic network to help understand and minimise earthquake risks in the country.

Announcing this at a workshop on seismic data sharing in the region, Bhutan’s Department of Geology and Mines Director General Dorji Wangda said that five trial seismic stations have been conducted in the past.

Citing shortage of funds and manpower as hindrances in establishing the seismic network, Wangda said that through this workshop the participants hope to come up with concrete decisions regarding the establishment of the network.

The workshop, organised by Unesco and the United States Geological Survey and Earth Science Organisations in the South Asian Region, was attended by seismologists and engineers from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the US.

Stating that Bhutan lies in an earthquake risk zone, a UNESCO Consultant Frederick Simon said a seismic network is necessary, which will help understand and develop safe construction practices and earthquake reduction risks.

He also called for the construction of earthquake resistant buildings in Bhutan to stay away for the natural disaster.

The country needs to consider establishing a permanent network and there should be some portable stations that they can deploy in the potential damp sites or other locations, Simon added.

Cuban Scientists Unveil Lung Cancer Vaccine

Cuban scientists on Tuesday unveiled a therapeutic lung cancer vaccine which they say is the first in the world and extends the lives of victims by up to five months.


Gisela Gonzalez at the Havana Molecular Immunological Center, where the unveiling was held, said that research on the Cimavax EGF vaccine began in 1992, with the first clinical test in 1995.

It is the first registered vaccine in the world designed to battle lung cancer, said Gonzalez, who heads the medical team that developed the compound.

The vaccine, based on two proteins, triggers an immune response from the victim's body and has no side effects, Gonzalez said.

The research team's director of clinical investigations, Tania Crombet, said that the vaccine serves as a compliment to conventional methods like chemotherapy and radiotherapy, allowing cancer victims to live between four and five months longer, and improves their breathing and decreases their pain.

The vaccine is available in Cuba, and will be commercialized in Latin America, starting in Peru, Gonzalez said.

Advanced tests are currently underway with 579 lung cancer victims at 18 Cuban hospitals. Other tests were carried out in Canada, Britain, while tests are scheduled in Malaysia, Peru, and China, Gonzalez added.

In Buenos Aires, an Argentine-Cuban consortium announced in February that a study of the Cuban vaccine is underway involving more than 700 patients in six countries, including India and Singapore.

Source-AFP
SRM

Climate change risks even microbes

Not just humans, climate change will also impact the microscopic world of bacteria, fungi and other populations that support life on Earth.

worldenviornmentday.jpgKathleen Treseder of the University of California studied the effect of rising temperatures and fungi on carbon stores in Alaskan boreal forests, one area of the globe that is experiencing greater warming than others.

“There is a lot of frozen dead material under the snow pack. There is as much carbon trapped in the soil of northern ecosystems as there in the atmosphere. It is not known that what is going to happen if these environments heat up,” Treseder said.

She started her research with the hypothesis that an increase in temperatures would lead to increased decomposition by fungi.

Rising temperatures should result in greater release of carbon dioxide from the soil, as it is a by-product of decomposition, reports IANS.

She found that nitrogen levels in the soil increased as temperatures rose, which tends to suppress fungal decomposition rates.

“In reality as temperatures increase we tend to see greater nitrogen availability in the soil. It suppresses activity and diversity. What we end up seeing is less carbon dioxide production from fungi as temperatures increase in northern ecosystems,” Treseder said.

Rising temperatures are also having an effect on snow pack and glaciers, which could be detrimental to the communities of micro-organisms living below them.

“As global temperatures rise and glaciers retreat, these micro-organisms lose their habitat. They will probably become extinct before we can study them and get a better idea of their contributions to the ecosystem,” the study concluded.

Treseder said that it microbes are truly sensitive to global changes and was unsure how they will respond.

Rimonabant Approved for Use in NHS

Controversial diet drug, rimonabant, has been approved for use on the NHS despite indications that the drug may trigger suicidal behavior.


The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has approved rimonabant, but has said the drug may be unsafe for patients also taking anti-depressants. Many obesity specialists have welcomed the ruling despite there being reservations about the drug.

"We can be absolutely reassured that they have looked closely at the evidence and made an appropriate decision," said Dr David Haslam, the clinical director of the National Obesity Forum. "This is a very good drug, and there are very many people who have tried everything else, including other drugs, with little success, who might benefit from it."

However there have been many reports of violence and suicidal behavior linked to the drug since it was introduced in 2006 in the UK. Doctors will want to look at this before prescribing it widely.

Source-Medindia
RAS/L

EC pilot for cross-border eID recognition

The European Commission has launched a pilot project ‘Stork’ (Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed) to ensure the cross-border recognition of national electronic identity (eID) systems in 13 member states.

The project, to enable the cross-border provision of online services, will establish a number of trans-border pilot projects based on existing national eID systems, reports ePractice.

In practice, some of the most useful eID services will be tested by defining a set of common specifications allowing for the recognition of different national eIDs between the participants.

Without replacing national schemes, the new system will allow citizens to identify themselves electronically in a secure way using their national eID via electronic cards or other means.

The project, supported by the Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP), will deal with foreign public administrations either from public offices, from their PC or ideally from any other mobile device.

With a €10 million funding from the European Commission’s Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP), as well as an equal contribution from the participating parties, ‘Stork’ will run for three years.

The commission said that the solutions developed and the experience gained by the project team will be shared with all member countries, whether they are participating or not in the pilot.

Now a Neural Implant That Learns With the Brain

A method to develop neural implants that not only translate brain signals into movement, but also evolve with the brain as it learns has been devised by University of Florida researchers.


The researchers say that instead of simply interpreting brain signals to help paralysed patients and amputees control prosthetic limbs with just their thoughts, the new brain-machine interface would adapt to a person's behaviour over time, and use the knowledge to help him/her complete a task more efficiently.

The researchers say that they have already tested a model system on rats.

To date, only one-way conversation has been possible between the brain and a computer, with the brain doing all the talking and the machine following commands.

However, the new system actually allows the computer to have a say during the communication process, according to the researchers.

"In the grand scheme of brain-machine interfaces, this is a complete paradigm change. This idea opens up all kinds of possibilities for how we interact with devices. It's not just about giving instructions but about those devices assisting us in a common goal. You know the goal, the computer knows the goal and you work together to solve the task," said Dr. Justin C. Sanchez, a UF assistant professor of pediatric neurology and the study's senior author.

The researcher revealed that the model system he and his colleagues had developed was based on setting goals and giving rewards.
During a study, the researchers fitted tiny electrodes in the brains of three rats to capture signals for the computer to unravel. The rats were taught to move a robotic arm towards a target with just their thoughts.


The animals would be rewarded with a drop of water each time they succeeded, said Sanchez.

He further said that the computer's goal was to earn as many points as possible.

The closer a rat moved the arm to the target, the more points the computer received, giving it incentive to determine which brain signals lead to the most rewards, making the process more efficient for the rat.

Many tests were conducted on rats, requiring them to hit targets that were farther and farther away.

Sanchez said that though the tasks became more and more difficult as the experiments advanced, the rats' efficiency in carrying them out improved over time.

"We think this dialogue with a goal is how we can make these systems evolve over time. We want these devices to grow with the user. (Also) we want users to be able to experience new scenarios and be able to control the device," he said.

A research article describing the study has been published online in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

Source-ANI
RAS/S

Assam wants life terms for rhino poachers

The North Eastern Indian state of Assam has proposed tough anti-poaching laws ranging from heavy fines to life imprisonment to combat a rise in the slaughter of rhinos by organised crime syndicates.

The decision to introduce tough laws comes in the wake of a rise in rhino poaching at the famous Kaziranga National Park and other wildlife sanctuaries in the state, reports IANS.

“We are contemplating amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 for increasing the prison term for poachers from three to 10 years and doubling the quantum of fine to Rs 50,000,” Assam Forest and Wildlife Minister Rockybul Hussain said.

The amendment also proposes life term for repeat offence by a poacher. It also provides for trial by a senior court headed by a session judge.

Armed poacher gangs have slaughtered 10 rhinos so far this year in Kaziranga and Orang sanctuaries for their horn.

“We are committed to protecting the rhinos and have deployed additional frontline staff at Kaziranga, besides devising other strategies to combat poaching,” Hussain said.

As per latest figures, some 1,855 of the world’s estimated 2,700 one-horned rhinos lumber around Kaziranga—their numbers ironically making the giant mammals a favourite target of poachers.

Last year, 18 rhinos were killed by poachers in the state, the first time in a decade that the number of rhinos killed in a year in the park touched double digits.

Between 1980 and 1997, some 550 rhinos were killed by poachers in Kaziranga - the highest being 48 in 1992.

There was a reduction in the number of poaching cases between 1998 and 2006, with 47 rhinos being reported killed during this period.

The decrease was attributed to intensive protection mechanisms and a better intelligence network, coupled with support from local villagers living on the periphery of the park.

Organised poachers kill rhinos for their horns, which many believe have aphrodisiac qualities besides being used as medicines for curing fever, stomach ailments and other diseases in parts of Asia.

Rhino horn is also much fancied by buyers from the Middle East who turn them into handles of ornamental daggers, while elephant ivory tusks are primarily used for making ornaments and decorative items.

Profits in the illegal rhino horn trade are staggering—rhino horn sells for up to Rs 15 lakh (US $38,000) per kg in the international market. Once extracted, the rhino horn is routed to agents in places like Dimapur in Nagaland, Imphal in Manipur and Siliguri in West Bengal.

The route for rhino horn smuggling is an interesting one—a possible route is to Kathmandu via Siliguri and then to China and the Middle East.

The other possible route is from Imphal to Moreh on the Manipur border with Myanmar and then via Myanmar to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and China.

WHO Issues Safety Checklist to Make Operations Safer

The World Health Organization unveiled Tuesday a safety checklist to be used in operating rooms around the world aimed at reducing the risks of complications resulting from major surgery.


According to the WHO, half of the complications resulting from major surgery may be preventable.

Major surgery occurs at a rate of 234 million medical procedures per year -- one for every 25 people -- and studies indicate that a significant percentage of them result in preventable complications and deaths, the WHO reports.

"Preventable surgical injuries and deaths are now a growing concern," said Margaret Chan, the director general of the Geneva-based WHO said in a statement.

"Using a checklist is the best way to reduce surgical errors and improve patient safety," Chan said in a statement.

Studies have shown that in industrial nations, major complications are reported in between three and 16 percent of surgical procedures, according to the WHO.

"In developing countries, studies suggest a death rate of five to 10 percent during major surgery," while mortality rates from general anesthesia alone "is reported to be as high as one in 150 in parts of sub-Saharan Africa," it said.

Although there have been major improvements in surgical operations over the last decades, "the quality and safety of surgical care has been dismayingly variable in every part of the world," said Atul Gawande, a surgeon and Harvard University professor.

The WHO's checklist initiative is the result of a work directed by the Harvard School of Public Health involving more than 200 medical organizations from around the world, including the health ministries of several countries.
The checklist, developed under Gawande's leadership, "identifies a set of surgical safety standards that can be applied in all countries and health settings."


Preliminary results from patients at eight pilot sites "indicate that the checklist has nearly doubled the likelihood that patients will receive proven standards of surgical care," the WHO said.

"This has thus far resulted in substantial reductions in complications and deaths," it said.

Source-AFP
SRM

Drafting climate policy European way

Now people of Europe will have an active say in shaping a public policy on global warming. An online social networking portal has been launched to involve more European citizens, particularly young people, on this issue.

The online platform is designed to encourage citizens to debate the implications of global warming, with the results set to feed into a draft policy on the issue to be drawn up later on this year by the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee on Climate Change, reports ePractice.

Using the websites, users can promote their ideas through the blog, exchange and debate with other citizens over a wide range of topics, which include climate changes, disadvantaged people, global warming, minority, ‘quick intervention’ and risks.

The portal also provides relevant policy documents and videos for download.

Kolkata gets nod for Rs 4,676 Cr metro

The Government of India on Thursday gave its go ahead to the Rs 4,676 crore East-West metro corridor project for Kolkata, a part of which will run under the Ganges river.

The 13.77 km Standard Gauge project between Howrah Station and Salt Lake Sector V is expected to provide the much needed additional transport infrastructure in the city and will be implemnted in two phases by a joint venture company to be formed by the central government and the state government.

The project, eight km of which will run underground and 5.77 km will be elevated, will completed in six and half years in two stages. The first stage of 5.77 km elevated section would be commissioned in five and half years time.

“I am very happy because now one can go straight from Howrah to Salt Lake to watch football,” the Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Cabinet, today, also gave its approval for setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for successful execution of the project as well as its operation and maintenance, the Minister said.

The SPV will be a joint venture company of the central government and the West Bengal government, with equity participation of 50:50 by them.

India Post launches eco-friendly envelops

India Post has launched environment friendly and customised protective envelop for Speed Post and Insured Post—a first in the country.

“With the introduction of these envelopes, the Department is keen to transform itself as a customer friendly organisation,” Postal Services Board Member (Operations and Marketing) Noorjehan said while launching it here last week.

These envelopes are made of an innovative material and have a soft and smooth texture for excellent printability.

These envelopes, which offer enhanced security and protection to the contents enclosed, will be available to the customers in various Post Offices and Speed Post Centres across the country.

Recently, the Department had introduced Speed Post One India One Rate scheme. Now, with the introduction of Speed Post envelopes, which cost Rs 5 each, customers can send it across India under One India One Rate scheme.

India to improve street food quality

The Government of India is planning to launch a programme to upgrade hygiene and quality of street food in the country. It will cover more than 10,000 street food vendors across the country.

The Ministry of Food Processing in India has said that, under the proposed programme, 10 food streets with ethnic cuisine will be identified, and the majority of stakeholders will be upgraded in terms of quality and hygiene.

Efforts were being made by the government to make it mandatory for the food vendors to register with the local authorities, reports IANS.

The government is also planning to introduce food safety programmes in the school curriculum.

The Ministry has also designed other initiatives to build capacity and upgrade infrastructure aimed at strengthening the entire food chain.

These include, upgrading 50 food safety laboratories, reviewing the fruit products order and meat and meat-food products order in consultation with the stake-holders, and a micro-level study to identify steps needed to eliminate wastage in various crops.

The government will also prepare an action plan for a rapid response system through which consumers can air their views on food safety issues.

Estonia invites ideas for improving e-services

In an effort to improve e-services in Estonia, the government has invited ideas and proposals through an ‘idea competition’ whereby anyone can make recommendations for improving public services through the state website.

The Country’s Regional Minister Siim-Valmar Kiisler said that the website brings together two very important topics for the future of Estonia—the citizen initiative and development of the e-state.

Besides allowing anyone to submit their ideas about any issue that needs fixing in Estonia, the website offers several possibilities for getting involved in state affairs, reports ePratice.

Comments on the contributions can be made on the site itself, following which the Regional Ministry will post an official position.

Using the website, it is possible to participate in the legislative procedure, as the ministry publishes the draft legislation currently being discussed and invites public discussion which gives all interested parties the opportunity to express their position.

A freeware platform, funded by the European Union, has been created which could also be used outside of Estonia as there is high level of international interest in the Estonian e-Government experience.

Call to set up national SHG federation

Setting up of a national federation of Self Help Groups (SGHs) was the need of the hour to streamline the processes linked with uplifting the status of the poor and the rural women, the India’s Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said.

Addressing a national level workshop organised for SHGs Federations in New Delhi recently, the Minister said it was the concept of SHG that paved way to eradicate poverty and became instrumental in the empowerment of especially the rural women.

Since the activities of these SHGs encompass a number of formalities, the need for such forum becomes imperative, he added. Thus organising the poor into SHGs and federating them up to the national level would help in streamlining the whole process.

“The activities of the federations range from social mobilisation, articulation of common concerns, organising awareness campaigns, undertaking procurement operations, provision of forward and backward linkages to marketing activities,” Singh said.

Giving an account of the formation of SHGs, the Minister said this help is now being provided under the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY).

It has been designed as a holistic self employment scheme aimed at providing sustainable income to rural below poverty line (BPL) families through income generating assets and economic activities so as to bring them out of the poverty line.

It is a process oriented scheme involving processes like organisation of the rural poor (BPL) into SHGs through social mobilisation, capacity building and training, provision of revolving fund, making available credit and subsidy, technology, infrastructure and marketing.

The Rural Development Minister said as the provision of employment under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is limited up to 100 days only; it is the self employment that can ensure income to rural folks round the year.

Singh stressed for easy financing of SHGs by the banks and other financial institutions in their endeavours and reiterated on the proper training, skill development and appropriate placement of rural youths so that the problem of distress migration could be sorted out.

He called for concerted efforts by the Nabard, Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (Capart), NGOs and PRIs in providing help to this movement and said a concept paper has been prepared for discussion in this workshop.

Freaky Feat by Aussie Grandma

In what is being called a freak 'one in-10-million' happening, an Australian grandmother has delivered identical triplets who were conceived naturally.


The three '99.9-percent' identical boys - Cooper, Kyle and Jordan - were born at 34 weeks by Caesarean section at Brisbane's Mater Mothers' Hospital.

Janelle Perry and her husband, Robert, already have a 4-year-old daughter.

Janelle also has four children in their 20s from a previous marriage as well as two grandchildren.

The Perrys, of Logan, south of Brisbane, sold all their baby things last October after trying unsuccessfully for two years to have more kids.

A doctor had given Janelle only a 5 per cent chance of having another child naturally.

"We thought: 'Oh well. It'll probably never happen'. We'd sort of given up," The Courier Mail quoted Perry, as saying.

"Rebecca kept telling me in November: 'You've got three babies in your tummy, Mummy - one for me, one for Dad and one for you'. I thought: 'No way' and told her: 'There's no babies in there'. Then, in December, I found out I was pregnant," she added.

According to doctors, the Perry babies are almost certainly monochorionic triamniotic triplets, meaning they are from one egg and sperm which split in the first few days after fertilisation.

Source-ANI
SAV/L

Free ID cards for Maldivians

Good news for the Maldivians who wanted computerised ID cards. The National Registration of Maldives has announced that all new ID cards will be made free of cost.

National Registration CEO Mohamed Zuhair said that there will be no charges for making the new computerised ID card or for replacing the old laminated one for a new one. Earlier a fee of Rf30 had been charged for both services.

“The aim of this is to try and make it easy for everyone to get their National ID Cards,” he said.

Zuhair said that with the introduction of free cards other services offered by the National Registry had also undergone some price changes.

He said renewing the computerised version of the ID card would cost Rf150 instead of the Rf30 that had been charged earlier for the renewing of laminated ID cards.

Replacing lost ID Cards now will cost Rf180, an increase of Rf80 from the Rf100 charged before, the CEO added.

Hungary plans e-database of legal docs

The Government of Hungary will publish its official journal on the governmental portal in order to promote the availability of legal texts and regulations for everyone.

The official journal of Hungary contains the legal regulations, international contracts, decisions and legal directives of the Parliament and the government, as well as the principles and theoretical decisions of the Supreme Court and the decisions made in personal matters, reports ePractice.

The present law states that the electronic versions will be considered as an information source complementing the authentic paper-based solutions.

The government would maintain the two forms of publication—both online and paper—in case of any amendments made by the Prime Minister’s Office, but the electronic version would become the only authentic source in the future.

Besides easier and quicker to be spread, the online source will be much reasonable as Internet access is much higher than the number of shops selling the printed version of the official journal.

The official journal would become a unified official journal since the ministry announcements published in the official journals of the ministries so far would be published there too.

US Population Growth Surpasses That of EU

A new study has revealed that the population in the United States is more than that of Europe despite having lower life expectancy because of higher birth rate and immigration.


In 2005, the population of the then 25-member European Union stood at 463 million people against 296 million in the United States, noted the study by France's national institute of demographic studies (INED).

But over the past 20 years the US population has grown three and a half times faster, wrote demographer Gilles Pison in the report published in INED's "Population and Societies" journal.

By 2050, Europe could see its population fall to under 460 million while the United States could grow to 402 million, according to UN projections.

That is due to several factors, said INED. The birthrate is much higher in the United States, with 14 births per thousand people against 10.5 per thousand in the EU.

That makes the United States "part of humanity's most fertile minority," the report said.

Widespread religious practice in the US, more unplanned pregnancies, and the large Hispanic minority, with 2.9 children per woman, also help explain the difference in population growth rates.

To that is added growth due to immigration, said INED.

In Europe, "if the population continues to grow, it is due solely to immigration," said the study.

But life expectancy is higher in the EU.

In 2005, European women lived to an average of 82 years while American women lived to 80.4 years. European men lived to 75.8 years while their US counterparts lived to 75.2.

Source-AFP
RAS/L

Jharkhand rural telephony misses ‘tone’

The ambitious plan of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to set up a mobile network in rural Jharkhand is gathering dust owing to the apathy of executing agencies.

As part of the national initiative, the DoT had offered work for erection of 305 mobile towers to two infrastructure providers (IPs), Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and the Reliance Telecom Infrastructure (RTIL), through a countrywide tender in 2006.

The agreement conditions the IPs had signed with the DoT in May 2006 stipulate that half of the towers should be handed over to DoT within eight months and the rest in the next four months.

But the two IPs did show much interest in the project as it is recognised as ‘financially unviable’ by the operators.

This despite DoT granting up to Rs 7.96 lakh under the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund for each mobile tower coming up in rural areas of 18 districts of the state.

Two years have elapsed since the agreement was signed, none of the IPs has handed over any single installation to the DoT for inspection.

BSNL was offered work to commission 188 towers, while the rest were to be constructed by RTIL in the state.

The DoT, after examining the tower vis-à-vis guidelines set by it, would handover the installation to the service providers—Bharti Airtel, Reliance Telecom and the Reliance Infocomm in case of Jharkhand—to install their separate wireless antennas.

Joint Controller of Communication Accounts (JtCCA) Sanjeevan Sinha, who is coordinating the scheme for Jharkhand on the DoT’s behalf, said that the IPs might have to pay the penalty if they declined handing over the installation within the stipulated time.

“Once the DoT receives complete installation, then only we could allow the second phase of work, i.e. installation of radio equipment,” Sinha added.

As per the proposed plan, DoT intends to extend mobile—both GSM and the CDMA—network coverage to over 14 lakh households, thereby extending the mobile facility accessible for around 79 lakh people.

Financial incentives would be offered to the IPs on the annual basis for five years, against which they are assigned the task of identifying locations, acquire sites and erect steel towers and maintain it for the same period.

While BSNL Chief Engineer VK Malhan attributed rising cost of steel and cement to the delayed work, RTIL officials cited problems in land acquisitions as the reason for lingering the project.

Sinha, on the other hand sought to defer with the contentions of the IPs, saying that they had not submitted the same in writing so far.

Referring to RTIL complaints, Sinha and IP representatives called on state Home Secretary Sudhir Tripathi and DGP VD Ram, last month, who assured full cooperation to ensure early completion of the project.

Public forum for e-Gov on open standards

A new forum has been launched by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to investigate how to best use web technology for good governance and citizen participation.

According to ePractice report, the forum is open to public.

The international consortium includes 400 member organisations, a full-time staff and the public, which work together in developing web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the web.

“Open standards, and in particular Semantic web standards, can help lower the cost of government, make it easier for independent agencies to work together, and increase flexibility in the face of change,” W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee said.

Berners-Lee said that by joining this forum, one can learn good e-Governance and to build an open standards platform on top of ones existing tools and services.

Besides identifying best practices and guidelines, document where current technology does not adequately address stakeholder needs, the group will suggest improvements via the standards process.

Jharkhand plans e-health network

Patients in remote villages of Jharkhand will soon have access to specialists without having to travel long distances for an examination.

Faced with huge challenge of providing healthcare facilities to its people in remote areas, the state government has mooted an ambitious telemedicine project to connect patient with physician.

The latest initiative envisages connecting health centres at district and block headquarters with some of the best hospitals in the country through satellite to facilitate experts’ advice.

If all goes well with the plan, the facility of telemedicine could be accessed by the people across the state in the next couple of years.

The Department of Information Technology (DIT) and the Department of Health jointly mooted the project keeping in mind the dilapidated healthcare infrastructure and acute shortage of doctors.

The Jharkhand unit of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) is expected to provide technical support to the project.

“Under the telemedicine system, villagers will get the advice of doctors at reputed hospitals across the state,” Jharkhand IT Secretary RS Sharma said.

He further said that the proposed plan has been forwarded to the Health Department to work out modalities for its execution.

About operational nitty-gritty of the system, Sharma said that the DoIT had a dedicated 2MBPS leased line at the block levels. The link could be utilised for the patients’ direct interface with experts sitting in renowned hospitals.

Initially, all the hospitals will be linked with the telemedicine division of the state’s premier hospital, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) that would be extended to other hospitals like AIIMS, Sharma added.

The state Health Department’s inefficiency to extend even the basic medicare was exposed recently when over 600 doctors appointed on contract resorted to indefinite strike demanding regularising their services.

The situation compelled the government to take help of doctors from Army and other public sector undertakings to restore normalcy at least in important hospitals in the State capital.

The state with a population of nearly three crore, of which more than half live below poverty line (BPL), has around 1,100 government doctors to cater to its medical needs.

“Even as we have planned recruiting over 1500 additional doctors very shortly, it would be difficult for us to streamline health services in rural areas. Hence the State needs adopting telemedicine facility at the earliest,” state Health Secretary SP Sinha said.

The project has been designed to be implented in three phases.

In the first phase, seven district hospitals, one mobile van and two medical college hospitals would be connected through e-health of the IT department.

Officials said that Chatra and Daltonganj might be among the first two districts to have this facility.

Varsity for disabled in UP soon

The Government of Uttar Pradesh has decided to set up a university for disabled persons in Lucknow.

It was decided in a state cabinet meeting under the chairmanship the UP Chief Minister Mayawati. The cabinet said that the University would be named after eminent social worker Shakuntala Mishra, who devoted her entire life to the service of disabled persons.

The cabinet also decided that the construction work of boundary wall of the University would be done by the Disabled Welfare Department and the works of power and water supply and roads including safety measures by concerned departments from their own budgets.

It may be recalled that Shakuntala Mishra Memorial Service Trust Joint Managing Trustee Kalpana Mishra, in her letter to the Chief Minister in 2006, said the trust was serving in the interests of blinds and disabled persons and other related welfare works for the last 20 years through its own resources.

She informed that a policy was formulated for selection of institutions for construction of university by the state government for which her institution also moved an application.

After a prolonged discussion and after completion of all the requirements, the trust was selected by a high level committee headed by state Chief Secretary on May 8, 2008 and the responsibility for construction of the university was given over to the institution.

Within a short span of time the members of the trust chalked out the outlines of the construction of university. Now, it was to be given a shape.

Jail term for 10 officials in fodder scam

A special court here awarded one to six years in jail to 10 government officials convicted for their role in the multi-million-rupee scam in fodder purchase more than a decade ago.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court judge Sanjay Prasad also slapped a fine of Rs five lakh to Rs 11 lakh on the convicts, reports IANS.

Prominent among the officials convicted, on Monday, are Sheshmuni Ram and Om Prakash Diwakar, both former Regional Directors of the Animal Husbandry Department.

The special court will pronounce the quantum of sentence to former Dumka Commissioner Sripati Dubey on Wednesday.

The special court on June 12 convicted 34 people in the case related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 1.47 crore from the Dumka treasury of Jharkhand. It has already pronounced sentence to 23 convicts.

A total of 63 cases were lodged by CBI in the fodder scam and 41 of them were transferred to Jharkhand after the state was carved out of Bihar in November 2000.

The special courts have till now pronounced judgements in at least 24 cases.

Railways Minister Lalu Prasad is accused in five cases, the trial of which is in progress at special CBI courts in Ranchi.

Andhra to publish GOs, files online

All orders and files of the Andhra Pradesh government can now be accessed by citizens at the click of a mouse, making it the first state in the country to throw itself open to online scrutiny by the people.

The southern Indian state on Monday announced that the initiative will enable all 30 departments of the government to upload their respective government orders (GOs) on Government Order Issue Register website as soon as they are released, reports IANS.

Announcing this at a press conference, here, the state Information Technology and Communications Secretary Suresh Chanda also said that all GOs issued since February last have been made available on the website.

“At one click, you can see all government orders issued on a single day. For example, all 104 government orders issued today (Monday) are accessible on the net,” he said.

The state IT department is also taking up a separate project to put all old GOs on the website for public access. However, the government has decided not to publish “certain confidential GOs” on the net, he said.

“This will make life easier for the common people easier who had to run from pillar to the post to get such information” Chanda said adding that the move was in accordance with the Right to Information Act that calls for proactively providing information to the citizens.

The state government has also decided to do away with the existing manual system of publishing GOs. It has also decided to make all state gazettes available online from July 1 this year.

The availability of GOs on the net is one of the three major e-Governance initiatives announced by Andhra Pradesh to bring transparency in its functioning.

The state government is also planning to make available government file along with its notes by different officials through yet another website that will be integrated with the official website of the Andhra government .

The portal that is scheduled to be launched on July 1 this year will also integrate all departments and will serve as a single gateway for all information about government departments and orders.

Rs 20 bn facelift for India police stations

The Government of India would allocate Rs 2,000 crore to upgrade and modernise 14,000 police stations (PSs) across the country to equip them take on the menace of terrorism and internal security.

Announcing this at the 87th Annual General Meeting of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the Home Minister Shivraj Patil said that the centre is in talks with states in this regard.

“In a bid to provide security, peace and tranquillity to common man, it has become all the more necessary to upgrade the police force physically and technologically,” the Minister said.

He further said that there is a need to allocate more funds for providing better security, infrastructure and equipments.

Stressing that the situation can be tackled and desired results can be achieved, Patil informed that trends and statistics indicate the situation has not deteriorated but improved in certain areas and parts of the country.

World class IT labs for Chandigarh schools

The Chandigarh Administration has established state-of-art IT labs in two government schools of the state as part of its drive to provide student exposure on latest technologies and to help them equip with latest IT skill sets.

These IT labs are being set up by Department of Education, Chandigarh Administration in association with Society for Promotion of Information Technology in Chandigarh (SPIC) under the aegis of Department of Technology.

Inaguarating the IT labs at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector-22 and Government Senior Secondary School, Sector-27, the Director Public Instructions (School) in Chandigarh SK Setia said that the labs will be utilised by the students for computer education with latest infrastructure.

Each lab consists of 21 computers with latest operating system Windows Vista and latest software like .net 3.5, C/C++ and encyclopaedia and is equipped with LCD projector and screen.

With induction of these new labs, students will get an opportunity to work on latest machines and software which will give them exposure to latest technologies and will help them in equipping them with latest IT skill sets.

Apart from creating IT labs in schools, SPIC will also provide computer faculties for IT labs to schools and will also provide complete maintenance of all IT labs set up by society.

BSNL to slash tariff by up to half

Now Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) subscribers will have an edge over others. BSNL on Monday announced that it will cut mobile and fixed-line domestic call rates by up to half from Wednesday.

All local calls from BSNL post-paid mobile network will cost Re 1 per minute, coming down from Rs 1.20 earlier, while STD calls will be charged at a flat Rs 1.20 within the BSNL network and Rs 1.40 for calls to any other service provider.

The telecom major claimed that it will now have the cheapest STD rates in the country, as low as 80 paise per minute for the telco’s rural consumer.

“BSNL was the first company to make breakthroughs in rural India. We will continue to provide cheap call rates for the rural market,” BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Kuldeep Goyal said.

He said that the company is offering its customers a choice of two BSNL numbers to make local and STD calls at 20 paise and 60 paise per minute, respectively.

All calls made by landline and wireless in local loop (WLL) customers will be slashed by 50 per cent, while those made using cellular networks will be 40-50 per cent cheaper, BSNL said.

The revised roaming rates put BSNL at par with other telecom companies, offering all outgoing local and incoming calls for Re1 and outgoing STD and SMS at Rs 1.50 and 50 paise, respectively.

Poor feedback delays NREGA revamp

Poor response from the National Level Monitors (NLMs) engaged in monitoring the implementation of India’s largest job guarantee scheme, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), is likely to delay the planned revamp of the scheme.

The country’s Rural Development Ministry had engaged over 260 NLMs for monitoring the NREGS in 330 districts where it was first implemented in 2006. Additional monitoring agencies were engaged to cover the remaining 274 districts after the scheme was extended in April 1, this year.

The Ministry had asked the monitors, who are retired defence and civilian employees with adequate experience in administration of developmental works, for their independent assessment of the scheme’s implementation.

“NLMs are submitting their status reports, but it will take some time for all the reports to come in,” India’s Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said.

According to him, the Ministry has extended the earlier deadline of June 15 to June 30 for the for NLMs to submit their reports on the NREGA implementation.

Stressing that NREGA is a huge scheme and needs constant and effective monitoring at the grassroots level, Singh said that the Ministry will scrutinise these reports and will identify the loopholes that require corrective measures.

“By first week of July, the reports will be compiled for discussion in the Ministry, and directives will then be sent to the respective states for taking appropriate action,” he said.

The scheme, aimed at helping out over 270 million of India’s poorest of the poor, provided jobs to over 30 million households in 330 districts in 2007-08.

The number of beneficiaries is likely to go up to 60 million households in the current fiscal after being rolled out in the remaining 274 districts.

The Minister, while admitting to difficulties in ensuring transparency in implementing the scheme, said the onus lay on the state governments in playing a proactive role in its execution.

“Though centrally funded, the states are the real agencies to ensure the scheme is effectively implemented so that the benefits percolate to the targeted sections of society,” the Minister said.

The Minister said that he was open to healthy criticism from all stakeholders and urged them to join us in removing loopholes.

The rural job scheme has drawn flak not only from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) but also from ruling United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her parliamentarian son Rahul Gandhi for NREGA faulty implementation.

Rahul Gandhi, who is also a Congress general secretary, had in April led a crowd to the commissioner’s residence in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh after the people complained of difficulty in getting jobs.

It may be recalled that a Jharkhand social activist Lalit Mehta was murdered recently after a team of volunteers from Delhi and elsewhere began their audit of NREGA works in Chainpur and Chhattarpur Blocks of Palamau district in May.

He was an active member of the social audit team led by noted economist Jean Dreze, which was involved in exposing malpractices in the execution of the NREGA schemes in the district.

The mutilated body of Mehta, an engineer turned social activist was recovered on a roadside in Palamu district village of the state on May 14, while his bike, cash worth Rs 12,000, mobile phone and other documents were reported missing.

Kerala sets up sports commission

Sports and physical fitness is finally getting it due attention as part of the education system in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

In its bid to improve sports infrastructure in the state and nurture talent, the Government of Kerala has decided to set up of a seven-member Sports Commission to look into the health of sports affairs, reports IANS.

Announcing this on Monday, Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan informed that the Commission headed by former Sports Authority of India Director General AK Pandya has been asked to suggest ways to improve sports infrastructure in Kerala.

“There would be six other members in the commission, including former Olympians Suresh Babu and Shiny Wilson, the sports council president and three others,” the Chief Minister said.

The commission has been given six months time to submit its report.

“We have set out detailed terms of reference on which they will work. Our prime focus is to ensure that sport is included as a subject in the school and college curriculum,” State Sports Minister M Vijayakumar said.

The Commission has also been asked to look into physical fitness as another area of concern.

Common immigration rules for EU countries soon

The European Union governments have agreed on a long-awaited common set of rules governing the deportation of illegal immigrants and limiting their maximum detention period to 18 months.

At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU interior ministers also stepped up cooperation in the fight against terrorism, agreed to provide airline passenger data to Australia and contemplated setting up an electronic travel authorisation system similar to the one being introduced by the US.

Officials said the Return Directive on illegal immigrants approved by ministers will provide clear, transparent and fair common rules and will fully respect their human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The agreement capped three years of wrangling among member states, but it must now be endorsed by the European Parliament in a vote scheduled to take place on June 18.

The directive limits to six months the period over which EU member states can detain illegal immigrants.

But the decision to allow this limit to be extended by a further 12 month if a detainee refuses to cooperate has been strongly criticised by civil rights groups.

Commissioner Jacques Barrot, the EU’s top justice official, said such extensions would only be allowed in exceptional circumstances. He also noted that as many as nine EU member states currently set no detention limits at all.

The directive also regulates the deportation of illegal migrants to their country of origin, grants them free legal aid and clarifies rules on the access by non-governmental organisations to EU detention centres.

Once expelled, the illegal immigrants would not be allowed back into the EU for five years. But such rules do not affect asylum seekers.

On the security front, ministers agreed to work closer together to protect sensitive targets such as gas pipes or bridges from a possible terrorist attack and approved a series of technical measures designed to share information about criminals, including their DNA profiles.

Ministers also agreed to provide passenger name records (PNR) of European visitors to Australia.

The EU has already agreed to provide PNR data to the US, a request submitted in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and is considering asking other countries to do the same with their visitors to Europe.

Lucknow gets hi-tech policing with CCTVs

In an effort to make Lucknow city more safe and secure, the police in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has installed closed circuit televisions (CCTVs) at eight undisclosed points in the state capital.

The cameras have been installed at eight points in the Hazratganj locality of the city and soon the facility will be extended to other districts also, reports IANS quoting a senior state police official.

“The cameras are accessible via Internet at the computer kept at the Hazratganj police station and the laptop of the station officer,” Lucknow Senior Superintendent of Police Akhil Kumar said.

Inaugurating the facility on Sunday, the Director General of Police Vikram Singh claimed that it will definitely help in reducing crime.

He further said that soon it will be extended to other important and vital police stations of the city and gradually to other districts.

Besides, the state police also has plans to develop Criminal Investigation Units (CIU) at all police stations. “Such units are functional and successful in Mumbai and we hope to achieve similar success here too,” sources said.

The official added the unit will soon come up on trial basis at the Hazratganj police station and will be made functional at all the police stations of the states.

Rape victims should get Rs 2 lakh: NCW

The National Commission of Women (NCW) in India has proposed for a relief and rehabilitation package of Rs 2 lakh to rape victims.

The Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury, who in principle has agreed to the proposal, has called a meeting of the panel on Tuesday.

NCW came out with the ‘Scheme for Relief and Rehabilitation of Victims of Rape, 2005’ following the directions of the Supreme Court, which ordered it to evolve a scheme so as to wipe out the tears of unfortunate victims of rape.

As per the recommendation, a rape victim will get an initial amount of Rs 20,000 on the basis of the medical report. This will be followed by a sum of Rs 70,000 for treatment and rehabilitation. The remaining amount would be given when the victim gives her statement to the court.

According to a government official, the Ministry would be giving the rest of the amount to the victim after seeing that she has not turned hostile; it will not wait till the judgement.

There are an estimated 15,000 rape cases on an average in a year in the country.

“We are hopeful that the recommendations we have made would be accepted,” an NCW Member said.

Keeping in mind the fact that many rape victims in the rural areas are thrown out of their homes, the money could be used to provide them shelter or a home and to impart them skill-training.

In their report, a final draft of which was prepared after consultations with lawyers, they said that any victim who comes to the police station and lodges the first information report is to get monetary relief.

To simplify the procedure and not to add to the already traumatised girl’s woes, the commission suggested that a criminal injuries compensation board be set up to monitor whether the scheme is being implemented by the state governments.

It will also ensure that the instalment money is awarded within three weeks of the FIR being filed.

Fearing that there could be false claims, the commission has suggested the formation of district level committees headed by a district magistrate.

The state government will establish in every district, a separate monitoring committee which will be headed by the Superintendent of Police of the district.

The committee will comprise of a police officer preferably a woman, a social activist, a lawyer and a doctor apart from a representative of the Panchayati Raj institution or municipality.

They all have to be nominated by the district magistrate to be a part of the committee.

Agartala to be rail linked this month

Indian Railways is extending its north eastern reach to Agartala, the second state capital in the region after Guwahati later this month.

“The first ever train service to Agartala is all set to begin June 30 as the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) is working on war-footing to meet the deadline,” NFR chief Engineer FS Meena said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier declared the railway project in Tripura a national project, reports IANS.

Tripura Transport Minister Manik Dey said that it took more than four decades to connect the capital city after northern Tripura’s business hub Dharmanagar, 200 km from here, came under the railway map in 1964.

Meena said that the NFR has so far spent Rs 8 billion to connect Agartala by rail by making three big tunnels through the Longtharai valley, Baramura and Atharamura hills in Dhalai and west Tripura districts.

The 1,962-m Longtharai tunnel is the longest railway tunnel in eastern India.

According to a Railway Engineer B Chowdhury, the NFR would also start work to lay a new track in the 110 km Agartala-Sabroom line by January next year after completing the final location survey.

Approximately 1,200 acres of land would be required for the Rs 8.13 billion project to connect Tripura’s southernmost border town Sabroom by rail.

“After the Indian Railways extends its line up to Sabroom, it would be very easy to connect with the Chittagong international port in southeast Bangladesh, which is just 75 km from there,” Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said.

A small bridge over river Feni can connect Sabroom and Khagrachari, across the border in Bangladesh, to open a second railway link between the two neighbours after the Kolkata-Dhaka rail service, which resumed April 14 this year after a gap of 43 years.

“After extending the railway line to Sabroom, Tripura and the entire northeast, the region would be linked with Southeast Asia very easily,” the Chief Minister said.

Moreover, India’s railway budget for 2008-09 announced plans to extend the railway line to Tripura’s southernmost sub-divisional town Sabroom.

Meanwhile, the NFR has already conducted a survey to connect Agartala with Akhaurah railway station in Bangladesh. The distance between the newly constructed Agartala railway station and Akhaurah railway station is just 5 km.

Jharkhand police in GIS mode to crack naxals

Satellite imagery is the new buzz for the Jharkhand police. By satellite mapping using the sophisticated Geographical Information (GIS) system it plans to hunt down naxalites in their hideouts in hilly and dense forests.

The Jharkhand Space Application Centre (JSAC) will prepare three-dimensional satellite images as well as compact GIS solutions for the Jharkhand police for anti-naxal operations.

The JSAC will also provide customised service to the police for ground-level observation as well as navigation with precision and speed for operational effectiveness.

“The police department expects that it would have satellite images of the entire State by the end of next fiscal. On the basis of images provided by JSAC, the paramilitary force will be able to penetrate areas, which have not been surveyed,” said Tripathi.

Sources in the police department said that the latest exercise by the government would definitely provide them an upper hand, as they would be using a state-of-the-art technology to attack the target with more precision.

“The Government has allotted Rs five crore to the JSAC for the project,” the state Home Secretary Sudhir Tripathi said.

The hi-tech facility would be of great help once the State government gets the nod of the Director General Civil Aviation for using the multi-purpose helicopter in anti-naxal operation.

TCS to implement e-tax system for Uganda

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has won a contract from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to design and install an integrated tax administration system for managing all domestic taxes and duties for the URA.

Besides managing income tax, value-added tax, withholding tax and other excise duties, the new system will also help the URA increase the level of tax compliance in the country, broaden the tax base and provide efficient services to the country’s tax payers.

The new integrated solution will help URA to scrutinise the tax returns more effectively and improve compliance level by having a single and integrated view of the tax payer and provide increased convenience for tax payers.

URA has received financial support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Netherlands, Belgium and the Government of Uganda to fund this project worth approximately US $11.5 million, TCS said in a statement.

Under the project, a suite of applications would be developed for effecting and monitoring key activities of a tax administration like registration, returns, payments, assessment, tax-payer accounts, audit, compliance, objections, appeals and investigations.

The TCS-developed system, to be implemented in phases at every tax office in Uganda, will incorporate best international practices and security features on a highly secure platform accessible only to select users.

“TCS will assist URA in business process re-engineering, capacity building and change management to improvise and optimise the business process’ execution jointly with URA management,” TCS COO and Executive Director N Chandrasekaran said.

He added that the new integrated system will reduce IT and operational costs and processing cycle times, while improving fiscal transparency and financial accountability.

Part of the project encompasses a citizen portal which would act as the interface of the URA with its stakeholders and would ensure 24×7 availability.

“The citizen portal would bring the much needed transparency in the tax administration by giving taxpayers online access to all the information pertaining to tax administration,” TCS’ Global Government Unit VP and Head Tanmoy Chakrabarty said.

He further said that the taxpayers would be facilitated to submit applications online, track the application status and make e-payment through this portal.

The company would also provide a human resource management system (HRMS), document management system (DMS) and case tracking system (CTS) as part of the project scope.

HRMS would cover all aspects of HR function through the lifecycle of an employee, while DMS is intended to create a digitised repository of all the important documents along with an efficient document storage and retrieval, TCS stated.

CTS would create a central repository for managing information triggered by various events that can originate in the system and from other sources and channels, the company said.

‘Malayalam’ to bridge digital divide in Kerala

While technology has made the world smaller, lack of language computing or knowledge of it continues to hamper the growth of IT usage in rural India. Not one to be detered, the Government of Kerala, last week launched an initiative to help people across the state operate computers in their mother tongue.

Announcing this the state Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said that the advantage of the Malayalam computing initiative ‘Our Computer Our Language’ will reach 50 lakh families over the next three years.

The first phase of the initiative is aimed towards bridging the digital divide by making people aware of the immense possibilities of Malayalam in computing, he added.

The state government has also launched a website to provide information on how to facilitate the use of Malayalam in computers.

“Once you enable a language in the machine, you can send mails and chat using the language. You need not have to use English. With this initiative we aim to overcome the language barrier, a key obstacle in bridging the digital-divide,” Kerala IT Mission State Coordinator SB Biju said.

The operating systems like Windows XP and Linux have inbuilt facility for this. But most people are not aware of it. No separate software is needed to enable a local language in a computer.

The state government intends to use around 3,000 Akshaya Kendras, information and communication technology (ICT) access points, and schools to popularise Malayalam Computing.

People can go to Akshaya Kendras and learn how to enable Malayalam on their computer. “We also plan to enlighten hardware vendors regarding this,” Biju said.

Kerala has been conducting a total e-literacy drive through Akshaya Kendras. The campaign has been completed in eight districts and the government intends to finish the drive in the remaining six districts by December.

Malayalam Computing is expected to be a boon to new e-literates as it will encourage them to use computers.

“If they don’t use the newly-acquired skills there is a chance that they might forget,” Biju added.

MP plans wildlife health, forensic centre

The Government of Madhya Pradesh is planning to set up a wildlife health and forensic centre in Jabalpur district with the help of the central government.

Taking the decision at a meeting of the state Wildlife Board, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan emphasised upon making necessary arrangements for protection of tigers in the Panna sanctuary.

The meeting also resolved to seek the central government’s approval for the centre involving investment of Rs 37.9 million, reports IANS.

The board’s other recommendations include setting up of a wildlife sanctuary in Mathwar area of Jhabua district and the forest department’s examination of the proposal to declare the Parsamaniya forest area on the border of Panna and Satna districts a conservation reserve.

The board approved the proposals of the Son Chiraiya sanctuary, construction of the Charai Dang reservoir in Ghatigaon and laying of a gas pipeline in the river bed in the Chambal sanctuary, besides recommending construction of a bridge across the Parvati river in the sanctuary.

The board was informed that the government is planning to set up of a national park, two wildlife sanctuaries and two conservation reserves to compensate for the submergence of forest area under Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar projects on the Narmada river in Khandwa and Dewas districts.

Dial India special 108 for help

India is gradually moving to use of one emergency telephone number across the country, 108, on the lines of America’s 911 and Britain’s 999.

In June, the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand adopted this number for providing emergency services. A 108 service for Delhi is in the pipeline.

The three-year-old Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) service also operates in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, and Jammu and Kashmir, hoping to provide services to 100 million people by 2010.

“This is India’s first coordinated response service, at one number across the country, like the UK’s 999 and Europe’s 112, taking a call every two seconds,” EMRI Chief Executive Officer Venkat Changavali said.

The 108 service in India is ambulance-based. It has more than 600 advanced life-saving ambulances operating in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

The Tamil Nadu government has made available 200 such emergency medical technician-manned ambulances for the EMRI service.

“The service is free of charge,” Changavali said

India’s 28 states and seven Union Territories have long had different emergency numbers. There are different numbers for police and fire services. Hospitals provide different numbers for ambulance services, and disaster management services have different telephone numbers.

While 100 is the number for police, it is 103 for traffic police. However, if you are outside the city, the traffic police helpline number changes to 108.

This creates confusion and people do not know whom to call in case of an accident.

“Perhaps, actually, it is the hospital service 102 that should be first called if lives are to be saved,” Changavali.

According to Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Special Secretary P W C Davidar, while the state government plans to keep all existing emergency numbers alive, it will be linking 600 ambulances and police, fire services and as many hospitals as possible to the 108 service.

“This will ensure that not a single life is lost due to lack of emergency medicare,” he said.

His department is overseeing the rolling out of the 108 service in the state.

“Be it an aircraft crash in a roadless field or a roadside delivery, the EMRI number 108 responds to all kinds of emergencies,” Changavali said.

Ranbaxy now a subsidiary of Japan co

India’s biggest drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories has agreed to a deal worth up to US $4.6 billion to give majority control of the company to Daiichi Sankyo Company of Japan.

The mega deal is estimated to value Ranbaxy at US $8.9 billion and catapult the combined entity as the world’s 15th biggest drugs maker from the current 22nd position.

The promoters of the group, led by brothers Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, hold a 34.8-per cent stake and will get US $2.4 billion for their stake, reports IANS.

Following the deal, expected to conclude by March 2009, Ranbaxy will become a subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo but continue to list on Indian bourses.

“This is indeed a historic date not just for the two companies but also for the future direction of the global pharmaceuticals industry,” the Company’s managing director Malvinder Singh said.

In addition to his present responsibilities as chief executive and managing director of Ranbaxy Laboratories, he will also be the company’s Chairman.

As the news on the deal started emerging Wednesday morning, the equity shares of Ranbaxy first dipped a bit but soon moved up by five per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to a 52-week high of Rs 592.70.

“Together with the combined resource pool, the company would be a strong contender in both the generic as well as innovator space. And it would enable Ranbaxy to be a truly research based pharmaceutical Company,” Frost and Sullivan Healthcare Practice Industry Manager Shivani Shukla Raval said.

Under the deal reached Wednesday, Daiichi Sankyo will pay Ranbaxy promoters at least Rs 737 per share for the entire 34.8 per cent stake, and also make an open offer for a further acquisition of 20 per cent at the same price.

Daiichi Sankyo President Takashi Shoda said the deal was part of the group’s strategy to become a global company and complement their presence in original drugs with the fast-growing non-proprietary pharmaceuticals.

Daiichi Sankyo and Ranbaxy believe this transaction will create significant long-term value for all stakeholders through a complementary business combination, an expanded global reach, strong growth potential and Cost competitiveness.

This deal will help the Japanese company enter the generics drug business not just in India but also globally where Ranbaxy has a presence.

Upon completion of the transaction, Ranbaxy is expected to become a subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo. The deal will be financed through a mix of bank debt facilities and existing cash resources of Daiichi Sankyo.

English replaces Telugu in Andhra schools

English will soon replace Telugu as the medium of instruction and teaching at the government-run high schools in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The move, state government officials say, is aimed at shoring up standards in school education and to improve English language skills of the students.

Besides, Andhra Pradesh has also decided to replace the state syllabus with that of Central Board of School Education (CBSE) syllabus at 6,500 government schools from the new academic year beginning this month, reports IANS.

With IT and other knowledge-based industries throwing up many jobs in the state, the introduction of English with CBSE syllabus followed by computer studies could better prepare students, especially from rural areas, for future opportunities.

Education department officials said this was to ensure that students from rural schools were at par with their counterparts studying in private English medium schools.

The department Tuesday issued an order introducing English as the medium of instruction with CBSE syllabus from class VI in 6,500 select schools, covering over 250,000 students.

The move is part of the World Bank-aided project for Strengthening and Universalisation of Quality and Access to Secondary Schools (SUCCESS).

According to the new order, students of classes VI and VII of upper primary schools which are within two kilometre radius of high schools where English would be introduced as medium of teaching would be shifted to the nearby high schools along with teachers and other administrative staff.

The authorities have also made arrangements to train the teachers currently teaching Telugu medium syllabus. They would undergo training in English at reputed universities and institutes in the country.

Interestingly, while the government’s move to introduce English as medium of instruction has been welcomed by the teaching community and students, the decision to adopt CBSE syllabus has drawn flak from many.

The Andhra Pradesh United Teachers Federation (UTF) and the Andhra Pradesh Teachers Federation (APTF) have opposed the move to introduce CBSE syllabus and want the government to continue with the state syllabus.

They also fear that the merger of schools would also result in closure of many schools in rural areas.

The Joint Action Committee of Teachers Organisations has even launched protests against merger of schools.

New sex education module to be intercourse free

“Intercourse” and “masturbation” are words that will find no mention in a new sex education module being devised for school students in India. The new adolescent education programme may roll out in November.

The officials behind it are hoping there will be no hue and cry like last time when six states banned it, saying it was too explicit and would corrupt the minds of the young.

“This time we have undertaken a series of consultations, involving conservative as well as progressive people and groups before finalising the module,” National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) Director General Sujatha Rao said.

“Words like ‘intercourse’ and ‘masturbation’ will not be mentioned as we are not teaching them the Kama Sutra,” Rao clarified. Public opinion will also be sought this time, she said.

The decision to introduce sex education in India’s schools was aimed primarily at creating awareness about HIV/AIDS, with the country being home to 2.5 million patients of the disease. But the module created a furore.

One of the main points of objection was a flip chart prepared jointly by Unicef and government-controlled NACO for teachers. But educationists themselves turned against it.

After states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka banned the programme, NACO formed a committee last year and after endless parleys managed to finalise a new tool kit.

Agreeing that the earlier texts had “too much sex”, Rao said the current one would be more interactive and user-friendly, with not too many illustrations and drawings.

Though safe sex tools like condoms will be mentioned, the focus will be on “abstaining”.

Having burnt its hands earlier, NACO said this time it would first pass the module to each state education department for a feedback.

“We went through an elaborate consultation process to prepare the toolkit. The final prototype (of the module) will be ready by July and will be sent to state education secretaries for their feedback, which we will consider.”

“The module will not have any explicit details about sex and sexuality and will rather discuss the physical changes a girl or boy goes through. It will go through various stages before being finalised,” Rao said.

Pitching for the module, Rao said: “It is a well-done module that is required for the age group of 15 to 19 years. This is the time when they need to understand about respecting relationships.”

The committee has prepared three sets of materials. While the teachers’ handbook is ready, the facilitators and the trainers’ handbook will be ready by June 25.

After the state governments approve the tool-kit, their education departments will be asked to interact with parents, teachers and NGOs.

“We can’t hide from children such things when they are seeing it all on television. They are not a bunch of idiots living on an island. We can’t be hypocritical and should not forget that 15 percent are teenage pregnancies,” she added.

Parents, teachers, child psychologists, members from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) were part of the exercise.

A Mail Forward - Jesus Saves !!!!

Our God reigns in deed and in truth.*

A Muslim man in Egypt killed his wife because she was reading the Bible and then buried her with their infant baby and 8-year old daughter. The girls were buried alive! He then reported to the police that an uncle killed the kids. 15 days later, another family member died. When they went to bury him, they found the 2 little girls under the sand - ALIVE !

The country is outraged over the incident, and the man will be executed. The older girl was asked how she had survived. 'A man wearing shiny white clothes, with bleeding wounds in his hands, came every day to feed us. He woke up my mom so she could nurse my sister,' she said. She was interviewed on Egyptian national TV, by availed Muslim woman news anchor. She said on public TV, 'This was none other than Jesus, because nobody else does things like this!'

Muslims believe Isa (Jesus) would do this, but the wounds mean He really was crucified, and it's clear also that He is alive! But, it's also clear that the child could not make up a story like this, and there is no way these children could have survived without a true miracle.

Muslim leaders are going to have a hard time to figure out what to do with this, and the popularity of the Passion movie doesn't help! With Egypt at the centre of the media and education in the Middle East , you can be sure this story will spread.

Jesus Christ is still turning the world upside down! Please let this story be shared. The Lord says, 'I will bless the person who puts his trust in me. 'Jeremiah 17

Please forward this to all on your list

Himachal launches Rs 13.65 bn road project

The Government of Himachal Pradesh has launched the Rs 1365.43 crore state road project under which 435 km long highways and major district roads would be upgraded besides periodic maintenance of 2,000 km road length.

Laying the foundation stone at Una, the state Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said that it was the first such project of the state to be carried out by a Chinese road construction company. It would be completed by 2012.

He said that the project, supported by World Bank, would be completed in four phases on war footing.

Public Works Minister Gulab Singh Thakur said that the project was beginning of the international standard road construction activities in the state and would be completed in 36 months besides monitoring strict quality control.

Detailing about the project, the World Bank Senior Urban Transport Specialist Hubert Nuve Jusserand said that the road project was launched to upgrade a network of about 2,500 km of state roads to international standards.

IBM soln to simulate future traffic situation

Kyoto University and IBM’s Tokyo Research Laboratory have jointly developed a system that can simulate a broad range of urban transport situations to predict what will happen if a new city infrastructure is built in the Kyoto metropolitan area.

The city infrastructure may include office building, sports arena or other major facility. The system will help improve planning of roads and public transportation.

It will address the booming traffic congestion problem by driving transport measures, like changing mass-transit to provide more trains or buses, optimising traffic lights route planning to reduce jams and other long-term solutions for the metropolitan area.

The system simulates large-scale traffic situations involving millions of vehicles and shows the impact change will have, IBM said.

The system provides current status of traffic and the alignment of roads to drivers, including current speed and positions of vehicles, the distance between cars, the curvature and gradient of road on which the specific vehicle is running.

According to IBM, city planners can use this data to model how each driver will react. In addition, by adding a variety of attributes to the model, the system can simulate traffic conditions with an eye to reducing carbon dioxide and potential accidents.

IBM’s Tokyo Research Laboratory has developed the “IBM Zonal Agent-based Simulation Environment” platform as well as the “IBM Mega Traffic Simulator” which runs on top of the IBM Zonal Agent-based Simulation Environment platform.

In addition to traffic simulations, the system platform can also be used to perform evacuation guidance simulations, emissions trading market simulations, auction simulations and other simulations.

The City of Kyoto aims at making the city ‘a town happy on foot’ by shifting priority from automobiles to public transport systems and walkers to appreciate the charms of the city.