10000 tribal families to get balanced food

Express News Service , The New Indian Express
Posted on Aug 05, 2011 at 09:56am IST

MYSORE: It is good news for primitive tribes, particularly Jenu kuruba tribes in old Mysore region, as the government has decided to provide nutritious food to 10,000 families in the region. A study conducted by an NGO and students of Social Work Department had come out with disturbing figures that more than 40 per cent of the children and women of tribal population are malnourished.

The survey stated that women who have attained puberty are malnourished and many are unable to feed their children. This has unfortunately, spread across the state.

The government has started providing them 25 kg rice, two kg dal, one kg pulses, one kg millets and two kg sugar as the tribal population starves during monsoons as they cannot collecting minor produce for their livelihood. The situation is not any different in Mysore, Chamarajnagar and Kodagu. The worst affected were women and children and this has contributed to growing malnourishment among the tribals.

The government has released Rs 2 crore to provide food grains for their livelihood. The tribal organisation and DEED, an NGO, had demanded the government to start preschool in all the 1,500 hadis in Mysore and Chamarajnagar.

Then DC P Mannivanan and women and child welfare minister P M Narendra Swamy visited the hadis and sanctioned 15 preschools in Kakana Kote forest in Hunsur taluk. A survey was conducted on children aged below 18 years and women below the age of 35. Meanwhile, tribals want the government to ban selling liquor in tribal hadis.

Though former CM S M Krishna and Forest Minister K H Ranganath had banned it within a two km radius of tribal hadis, the order remains on paper only.

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Trailer Of I am Kalam

A superb Movie on Child Education by smile foundation http://www.facebook.com/#!/smilefoundationindia.org

Bihar's Mysteric disease

PATNA: Ambiguity still prevails over the mystery disease which has claimed more than 50 lives of children in Muzaffarpur district.

Though, encephalitis was supposed to be the disease, which has now taken an endemic form, preliminary reports of the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, has cast doubts over it. Even the exact nature of virus has not been determined yet. The disease broke out on June 14 with doctors applying line of treatment based on the symptoms of the disease.

Health secretary Sanjay Kumar said, "The report of NIV team, Pune, which was recently in the state to collect samples, confirms absence of three viruses tested for. The three viruses ruled out by the NIV, Pune, are: Japanese encephalitis virus, Chandipura virus and Nepah virus." He said that though it is certain that the children who have died so far had reported inflammation of brain, whether it is encephalitis or what are the exact causes of the disease, are yet to be ascertained. Till now, blood and cerebrospinal fluid tests have been carried out, Kumar said, adding the NIV, Pune, has now asked for brain tissue samples saying it would help to diagnose the disease in a better way.

Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, too, had earlier denied the disease was encephalitis stating anything confirmatory could be said only after receiving the reports of tests. A WHO team also visited the affected villages at Muzaffarpur, recently. The team met the local people and tried to find out the cause of the mystery disease. They also collected information about the disease which has bewildered the state's health authorities and doctors.

The spurt in cases of kalazar in the past few days at Muzaffarpur and its adjoining areas with more than hundred kalazar patients being admitted to different hospitals in the district has made the situation worse. The district also reported one death due to kalazar on Sunday. Although, the government has taken to DDT and malathion spray on war footing in the affected areas, spurt in kalazar cases could prove to be nightmarish for the government already tackling the mystery disease. 

Original Post by TOI 

Indian women world's most stressed: Survey - Indian Express

Indian women world's most stressed: Survey - Indian Express

Costlier diesel to fuel food price rise

NEW DELHI: An almost 7.25% hike in diesel price will cause of a sharp rise in prices of food items as transporters will hike fares in view of the more expensive fuel. Sources said a heavy hike in prices of fruits and vegetables is likely to become apparent soon.

"Normally, any change in price of diesel immediately impacts prices of food items, especially since most of them are dependent on transport through several hundred kilometres. Like Delhi and other big cities get most of its vegetable and fruit supply from nearby states or small villages in some cases, even as far as south India.Transporters will factor in this hike in the overall costs. While the actual increase might not be significant per kilogram of vegetable, the marked price is set to rise disproportionately," said Brahm Yadav, chairman, Delhi Agriculture Marketing Board.

Lets talk about about the other phase, the percentage of population who is living marginally above of the poverty level will automatically touch the line of poverty or will come under poverty line due to 7.25% price hike of fuel as per economics equation.

NGO chief arrested

TNN Jun 18, 2011, 02.48am IST

Dr A A Kazi, the chairman of medical NGO Cancer Aid Foundation was arrested by the Dongri police on Friday on charges of forgery.The police is conducting a probe and have said that the instigation was going on and they cannot comment at this juncture.

source : TOI

Thousands of “hackers for good” build applications for humanity

Thousands of “hackers for good” build applications for humanity

6/20/2011 11:53:00 AM

(Cross-posted on the Google.org Blog)

Earlier this month, thousands of “hackers for good” gathered in more than 19 different global locations—from Berlin to Nairobi, and Sydney to Sao Paulo—to participate in Random Hacks of Kindness #3. These teams are now off and running, working with NGO and government advisors to finish their applications for humanity.

In partnership with Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and the World Bank, we founded RHoK in 2009 to build and support a community creating open source technology for crisis response. At RHoK #3, we expanded the mandate to include climate change, and we also recently announced that we’re broadening the scope in the future to tackle any development challenges.

Of the more than 75 solutions submitted for judging at this year’s global events, many are already on their way to making a difference around the world. The UN, in partnership with the Colombia government, is considering adopting the shelter management system developed at RHoK Bogota to aid the 3 million victims of winter flooding in South America. Of the nine hacks submitted for judging at RHoK Sao Paulo, two are already in use and two others may be further developed and incorporated into the restructuring of the National Weather Service. The winning application at RHoK Philadelphia, developed in response to a problem proposed by the World Bank Water group, is set for further development at the WaterHackathon, RHoK's first community-sponsored event, later this year.

A child dies every 20 seconds from a [preventable!] water-related disease.

A child dies every 20 seconds from a [preventable!] water-related disease.

source : www.water.org

NGOs can play vital role in social sector: Mir

NGOs can play vital role in social sector: Mir

Swami Nigamananda

Swami Nigamananda, who was on fast for nearly four months demanding a halt to quarrying in Ganga, died due to coma, Septicaemia and degenerative brain disorder, his postmortem report said.
The 36-year-old seer of Haridwar-based Matri Sadan Ashram was on indefinite fast since February 19 also demanding shifting of Himalayan stone crusher from Kumbh mela area was in coma since May 2.
"The postmortem report of Swami Nigamananda has said his death was caused due to coma, Septicaemia and degenerative brain disorder," Chief Medical Officer of Dehradun, Dr RK Pant said.
He, however, said the viscera of Nigamananda has been preserved and it would be sent to a laboratory in Agra for forensic examination.
Meanwhile, founder head of Matri Sadan Ashram Swami Shivanand dismissed the postmortem report and claimed the administration was acting under the pressure of Uttarakhand government.
He alleged that Nigamananda died of poisoning as during his treatment in Himalayan hospital he was regularly administered the doses of 'Atropine', which he claimed is used for treating cases of poisoning.

for source visit :

Indian ExpressIndian Express

Government will take action on erring schools

Express News Service , The New Indian Express
Posted on Jun 09, 2011 at 01:36pm IST

CHENNAI: The State government is prepared to take action against schools that collect excessive fees, School Education minister C Ve Shanmugam told the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday.

Responding to Gingee PMK MLA A Ganesh Kumar’s plea that the government take action against matriculation schools that collect huge donations without waiting for complaints from parents, he said the government would take appropriate action if schools collected excessive fees.

“Nowhere have we said that the government couldn’t intervene on this issue. Amma has already made it clear. Let the Ravi Raja Pandian Committee, that is working on the issue, complete its task and the government will take action if school managements or students have any grievances,” he said.

On the PMK member’s remark on the new secretariat complex, Commercial Taxes minister Gokula Indira said the CM had already clarified the reason for not opting to function out of the premises.

Iron Hand on Overcharging Schools

Noting that several State government-aided schools were charging arbitrarily higher fees without proper receipts, NS Venkatraman, trustee of NGO Nandini Voice for the Deprived, asked that the government stem these actions with an iron hand.The State government should open a complaint cell to receive complaints on the matter from students and parents while protecting the complainant’s identity.