Mr Santosh Pawar and Ms Ujjwalaa Pawar, a couple working in Sangmner (north of Pune), Maharashtra, India, has received award for their social work. These two are founders of an NGO named as Self-Motivated Social Developement. In 1999, they have started a hostel near Sangamner for AIDS affected children.
This award is being confered annually for last 9 years to persons doing work in the field of AIDS prevention and support to AIDS affected people.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Tatas learn to innovate and democratise it too . . . oh really !
A water filetr commerically selling at Rs1000/- is not all by accident. There is a culture being developed and nurtured. See the link :
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/tatas-learn-to-innovate/384997/
DO you agree?
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/tatas-learn-to-innovate/384997/
DO you agree?
Girl drop-out rates drops in Bihar, India
Fortunately, not the entire ASER report is gloom and doom. One of the brighter moments in it is the fact that in Bihar, the state considered a basket case on most counts, the dropout rate for girls in the 11-14 age group has reduced from 17.6 per cent in 2006 to 6 per cent in 2009. So Bihar must be doing something right. In fact, one of the striking sights in Bihar today is of girls on bicycles, given by the government if they clear Standard VIII, going to the nearest high school.
The desire to ensure that children get a good education runs deep in most Indian families. Parents will sacrifice and save to invest in their children's future. Even poor families, including the homeless with no secure shelter, find a way of sending their children to school. The increase in the enrolment rate in India - 96 per cent of children between the ages of 6-14 are enrolled in school, government and private - is proof of that.
What urgently needs to be tackled is the quality of education, basic facilities like toilets and running water, and transport, particularly for girls. Even this will not suffice unless there is a notable change in the status accorded teachers who ultimately decide whether and what children learn. Instead of the inordinate amount of attention that continues to be paid to institutes of higher learning, or private institutions that promise to prepare rich children for studies abroad, something much more simple and basic can and needs to be done to educate India and Indians
The desire to ensure that children get a good education runs deep in most Indian families. Parents will sacrifice and save to invest in their children's future. Even poor families, including the homeless with no secure shelter, find a way of sending their children to school. The increase in the enrolment rate in India - 96 per cent of children between the ages of 6-14 are enrolled in school, government and private - is proof of that.
What urgently needs to be tackled is the quality of education, basic facilities like toilets and running water, and transport, particularly for girls. Even this will not suffice unless there is a notable change in the status accorded teachers who ultimately decide whether and what children learn. Instead of the inordinate amount of attention that continues to be paid to institutes of higher learning, or private institutions that promise to prepare rich children for studies abroad, something much more simple and basic can and needs to be done to educate India and Indians
Friday, February 12, 2010
Where Three Dreams Cross
London's Whitechapel Gallery is currently featuring 'Where Three Dreams Cross,' an exhibition of photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The show says a lot not only about the three countries, but also about Britain today.
The ambition in 'Where Three Dreams Cross' is both to be admired and treated with caution. Dealing with a land mass larger than Western Europe and a population of over 1.5 billion people is a challenge, especially with the complicated family history of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. It seems bound to disappoint by missing some particular event, region or body. So the fact that it does not is testament to the skill of the photographers and curators involved. It is not curated by border or nation.
Anita Khemka’s photographs of Jabalpur Station in India show the exuberance and anarchy of the railway station as market, bazaar and human playground, which anyone who has been to South Asia will recognise.
It is a history of our shared, not separate, cultures. This is an exhibition not just about Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, but the history of Britain.
For complete news please go to:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/culture/03-where-three-dreams-cross-a+stunning-success-ss-02
The ambition in 'Where Three Dreams Cross' is both to be admired and treated with caution. Dealing with a land mass larger than Western Europe and a population of over 1.5 billion people is a challenge, especially with the complicated family history of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. It seems bound to disappoint by missing some particular event, region or body. So the fact that it does not is testament to the skill of the photographers and curators involved. It is not curated by border or nation.
Anita Khemka’s photographs of Jabalpur Station in India show the exuberance and anarchy of the railway station as market, bazaar and human playground, which anyone who has been to South Asia will recognise.
It is a history of our shared, not separate, cultures. This is an exhibition not just about Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, but the history of Britain.
For complete news please go to:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/culture/03-where-three-dreams-cross-a+stunning-success-ss-02
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Rainwater Harvesting @railway station - a step is t aken
http://www.indiatogether.org/2010/jan/env-ankola.htm
Ankola railway station is the first along the Konkan Railway route to implement rainwater harvesting. Pic: Farmland Rain Harvesting.
The station has two open wells in its premises. They dry up by December end. As such five months a year, each drop of water this railway station uses comes from outside. Years later, one after another, two bore wells were dug. Both of them went upto 300 feet depth. But neither borewell was even partially successful.
It seems highly likely that if proper rain harvesting is done, this railway station can become self-sufficient in water in just two years. But then, there is a big ‘if’ too. If the staff and public take good care of these systems
Ankola railway station is the first along the Konkan Railway route to implement rainwater harvesting. Pic: Farmland Rain Harvesting.
The station has two open wells in its premises. They dry up by December end. As such five months a year, each drop of water this railway station uses comes from outside. Years later, one after another, two bore wells were dug. Both of them went upto 300 feet depth. But neither borewell was even partially successful.
It seems highly likely that if proper rain harvesting is done, this railway station can become self-sufficient in water in just two years. But then, there is a big ‘if’ too. If the staff and public take good care of these systems
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Programme to incorporate Ayurved in rural women's healthcare
With an aim to ensure that ayurveda is accessible to the rural community, especially women, efforts are being made to make the discipline a part of primary health centres and create awareness about it.
A programme has been conceptualised to create awareness, clear myths and generate suggestions for policy formulations for incorporating ayurveda in National Rural Healthcare systems for women.
A programme has been conceptualised to create awareness, clear myths and generate suggestions for policy formulations for incorporating ayurveda in National Rural Healthcare systems for women.
India's Book Restorers
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/culture/14-indias-book-restorers-saving-the-past-for-the-future-zj-09
In the basement of the University of Mumbai's Fort Campus library, a towering Gothic-style cathedral to knowledge built by the British in the mid-19th century, half-a-dozen people are hard at work, reports AFP.
The 2.5 million rupee project began early last year and is nearing completion. So far 100,000 pages — or around 300 books — have been digitised to UNESCO standards and 88,000 pages cut, cleaned, laminated with chemical-free Japanese tissue paper and rebound in red leather covers with gold-embossed lettering.
Mumbai's Anglican cathedral, St Thomas's, for example, has birth records dating back to the 17th century
The giant Tata Group conglomerate is also involved in helping the prestigious Asiatic Society of Mumbai restore its 200,000-strong collection.
Some 3,200 books have been restored there, including a manuscript of Dante's “Divine Comedy”, a copy of Charles Darwin's “On the Origin of Species” and delicate illustrated Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts dating from the 13th century.
An adopt-a-book scheme has been running at the 195-year-old institution since 1991 for individuals to donate cash towards the cost of restoration.
Galileo's 1632 work “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”, one of the many volumes gathering dust in the society's dark, musty basement, is to be restored with finance from local Italian business people.
In the basement of the University of Mumbai's Fort Campus library, a towering Gothic-style cathedral to knowledge built by the British in the mid-19th century, half-a-dozen people are hard at work, reports AFP.
The 2.5 million rupee project began early last year and is nearing completion. So far 100,000 pages — or around 300 books — have been digitised to UNESCO standards and 88,000 pages cut, cleaned, laminated with chemical-free Japanese tissue paper and rebound in red leather covers with gold-embossed lettering.
Mumbai's Anglican cathedral, St Thomas's, for example, has birth records dating back to the 17th century
The giant Tata Group conglomerate is also involved in helping the prestigious Asiatic Society of Mumbai restore its 200,000-strong collection.
Some 3,200 books have been restored there, including a manuscript of Dante's “Divine Comedy”, a copy of Charles Darwin's “On the Origin of Species” and delicate illustrated Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts dating from the 13th century.
An adopt-a-book scheme has been running at the 195-year-old institution since 1991 for individuals to donate cash towards the cost of restoration.
Galileo's 1632 work “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”, one of the many volumes gathering dust in the society's dark, musty basement, is to be restored with finance from local Italian business people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
