Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Aug 12 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)
Tata-SIA Airline Joint Venture Named Vistara
NEW DELHI
OUR BUREAU
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Derived from Sanskrit word that means limitless expanse, Vistara to start operations from Oct; also unveils uniforms of cabin crew and pilots
The full-service airline by the Tata Group and Singapore International Airlines (SIA), likely to be launched by October, will be called Vistara, derived from the Sanskrit word that means limitless expanse.“We actually went through over 500 names to select this. We did debate and discuss on whether we should be leveraging our parents' names but we decided that the airline needs no introduction. We decided to create a niche for ourselves, independent of the parents, in this market and globally,“ Phee Teik Yeoh, chief executive officer of Vistara, told ET.
The branding is in line with the strategy of Singapore Airlines, which gave new names to two other carriers it controls -SilkAir for regional routes and Scoot for its low-fare alternative.
The airline also announced that it would take delivery of its first A-320 aircraft by early September and induct five planes by December. The start of operations is subject to approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is examining the airline's application for an air operator's permit (AOP). The airline is in the last lap of the process of securing the AOP and expects to conduct a proving flight by the end of September.
The carrier also unveiled the uniforms of the cabin crew and pilots, put together by designers David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore.
The New Delhi-based airline has already leased 20 Airbus A-320s, in cluding seven A-320 Neos, which would be inducted over five years.
The airline had earlier said it would begin services in five cities and then go up to 11 cities within a year of operations. It plans to have 87 weekly flights linking Delhi with Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jammu, Srinagar, Patna and Chandigarh. The carrier has made Delhi its operational hub because of capacity constraints at Mumbai airport.
Tata Sons tied up with Singapore Airlines on September 19, 2013, to launch a full-service airline in India with an initial investment of $100 million. While Tata Sons holds a 51% stake in the airline, SIA owns the rest.
The branding is in line with the strategy of Singapore Airlines, which gave new names to two other carriers it controls -SilkAir for regional routes and Scoot for its low-fare alternative.
The airline also announced that it would take delivery of its first A-320 aircraft by early September and induct five planes by December. The start of operations is subject to approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is examining the airline's application for an air operator's permit (AOP). The airline is in the last lap of the process of securing the AOP and expects to conduct a proving flight by the end of September.
The carrier also unveiled the uniforms of the cabin crew and pilots, put together by designers David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore.
The New Delhi-based airline has already leased 20 Airbus A-320s, in cluding seven A-320 Neos, which would be inducted over five years.
The airline had earlier said it would begin services in five cities and then go up to 11 cities within a year of operations. It plans to have 87 weekly flights linking Delhi with Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jammu, Srinagar, Patna and Chandigarh. The carrier has made Delhi its operational hub because of capacity constraints at Mumbai airport.
Tata Sons tied up with Singapore Airlines on September 19, 2013, to launch a full-service airline in India with an initial investment of $100 million. While Tata Sons holds a 51% stake in the airline, SIA owns the rest.
Aug 12 2014 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
China beats India to launch its national online donor registry
TNN
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Indian States Have Taken Steps, But No Nationwide Database In Sight Yet
Most countries with active organ transplant programmes have a system of registries to track the donation and allocation system. The latest to join this club is China, which launched an online registry this March.With the registry launch anyone above 16 can log on to the website and become a volunteer.
China launched its organ donation system in 2010 after a trial run. The country’s National Health and Family Planning Commission mandates that donated organs be assigned to patients by a computerized system. Organs go to those with the most medical need, regardless of social status or wealth. About 300,000 Chinese need organ transplants each year, but roughly 10,000 get one because of shortages. The ratio in the US is one in four.
While individual states in India have taken steps to set up such registries, there is none at the national level though the amended organ transplant law seeks such a network of registries.
In the US, the National Organ Transplant Act came into force in 1984 and an Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) was created. It’s run by a private non profit United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).
Government provides a regulatory framework. Nearly 300,000 people are registered as donors — over 167,000 deceased donors
and more than 130,000 living. All organs put together, the US has a waiting list of over 134,000. The UNOS organ-sharing system maximizes efficient use of deceased organs combining medical utility with justice. Key factors include: attaining the longest patient survival time; striving to improve a patient's quality of life; and a cost-benefit ratio. The `justice' component includes factors such as: priority to patients whose needs are most urgent; to those who've spent the longest time on the waiting list and local access to organs. Selection of recipients from the waiting list uses a point system, which varies by organ.
The European Union has a European Registry linking national and regional databases to allow seamless sharing of national data. The EU registry has a legal framework on donor selection, waiting list and organ allocation which tries to harmonize different donation laws in EU countries. The European Framework for Evaluation of Organ Transplants was constituted to promote a common definition of terms and methodologies to evaluate transplantation results and promote a registry or network of registries.
In the UK, the National Health Service Blood and Transplant was set up in 2005 to ensure efficient supply of blood, organs and associated services to the National Health Service. The UK too has a comprehensive policy for selection and allocation of organs.
Presented by In 2013-14, UK had 1,320 deceased donors who made over 3,500 transplants possible. There were over 1,100 living donors.
Globally , several registries are set up simultaneously to track the organ transplantation systems to ensure ethical and safety norms as recommended by WHO.
China launched its organ donation system in 2010 after a trial run. The country’s National Health and Family Planning Commission mandates that donated organs be assigned to patients by a computerized system. Organs go to those with the most medical need, regardless of social status or wealth. About 300,000 Chinese need organ transplants each year, but roughly 10,000 get one because of shortages. The ratio in the US is one in four.
While individual states in India have taken steps to set up such registries, there is none at the national level though the amended organ transplant law seeks such a network of registries.
In the US, the National Organ Transplant Act came into force in 1984 and an Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) was created. It’s run by a private non profit United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).
Government provides a regulatory framework. Nearly 300,000 people are registered as donors — over 167,000 deceased donors
and more than 130,000 living. All organs put together, the US has a waiting list of over 134,000. The UNOS organ-sharing system maximizes efficient use of deceased organs combining medical utility with justice. Key factors include: attaining the longest patient survival time; striving to improve a patient's quality of life; and a cost-benefit ratio. The `justice' component includes factors such as: priority to patients whose needs are most urgent; to those who've spent the longest time on the waiting list and local access to organs. Selection of recipients from the waiting list uses a point system, which varies by organ.
The European Union has a European Registry linking national and regional databases to allow seamless sharing of national data. The EU registry has a legal framework on donor selection, waiting list and organ allocation which tries to harmonize different donation laws in EU countries. The European Framework for Evaluation of Organ Transplants was constituted to promote a common definition of terms and methodologies to evaluate transplantation results and promote a registry or network of registries.
In the UK, the National Health Service Blood and Transplant was set up in 2005 to ensure efficient supply of blood, organs and associated services to the National Health Service. The UK too has a comprehensive policy for selection and allocation of organs.
Presented by In 2013-14, UK had 1,320 deceased donors who made over 3,500 transplants possible. There were over 1,100 living donors.
Globally , several registries are set up simultaneously to track the organ transplantation systems to ensure ethical and safety norms as recommended by WHO.
Aug 12 2014 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
Awaas Yojana to shed Indira's name
Subodh.Ghildiyal @timesgroup.com
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New Delhi:
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Indira Gandhi's name is set to be removed from the popular rural housing programme that provides subsidies to the poor to have a house of their own, in a move which will symbolize the regime change.The rural development ministry is looking to turn Indira Awaas Yojana, a scheme, into a “mission“ with increased budget and with an important design innovation which mandates toilets to be part of the housing units constructed under the scheme.
If the `mission mode' is approved, Indira Awaas Yojana would be called `National Gramin Awaas Mission'.
The first step towards erasing Congress's imprint on the scheme has come in the rural development ministry's “discussion paper“ that has the prospective title in place of IAY.
The proposed name National Gramin Awaas Mission is set to cause heartburn in the Congress camp. This is because Indira remains the topmost party icon and her name figures more than any other leader's in government nomenclature, be it a place or scheme. Her son Rajiv and father Jawaharlal Nehru are others after whom schemes and venues are named, a source of standing criticism of Congress.
Though Congress will not like the scrapping of Indira's name, the rural development ministry has amplified its intent by public circulation of the discussion paper with a title shorn of the Congress imprimatur.
For Congress, just humiliated in the Lok Sabha elections, this may be a red rag from PM Narendra Modi who does not miss an opportunity to needle the rival by proclaiming “Congress-mukt Bharat“ as his political objective, asserting that he wants to eliminate the premier party from the political landscape.
Removing the Congress leader's name from the rural housing scheme is set to be seen from the political prism.
More may be in the offing.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission has just expired and the Centre is likely to unfurl its new avatar without the name of the country's first PM.
If Congress has for years ignored the criticism of its method, it is because it views strategic significance in embedding the Nehru-Gandhi family in welfare schemes. With its positioning as a pro-poor party , the party has effectively used the names to etch its authorship of major schemes in the minds of beneficiaries.
The fear of renewed sniping from rivals made Congress prefix the name of Mahatma Gandhi to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act when it was renamed. But here too, Congress has a claim on the father of the nation ahead of the rivals.
If the `mission mode' is approved, Indira Awaas Yojana would be called `National Gramin Awaas Mission'.
The first step towards erasing Congress's imprint on the scheme has come in the rural development ministry's “discussion paper“ that has the prospective title in place of IAY.
The proposed name National Gramin Awaas Mission is set to cause heartburn in the Congress camp. This is because Indira remains the topmost party icon and her name figures more than any other leader's in government nomenclature, be it a place or scheme. Her son Rajiv and father Jawaharlal Nehru are others after whom schemes and venues are named, a source of standing criticism of Congress.
Though Congress will not like the scrapping of Indira's name, the rural development ministry has amplified its intent by public circulation of the discussion paper with a title shorn of the Congress imprimatur.
For Congress, just humiliated in the Lok Sabha elections, this may be a red rag from PM Narendra Modi who does not miss an opportunity to needle the rival by proclaiming “Congress-mukt Bharat“ as his political objective, asserting that he wants to eliminate the premier party from the political landscape.
Removing the Congress leader's name from the rural housing scheme is set to be seen from the political prism.
More may be in the offing.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission has just expired and the Centre is likely to unfurl its new avatar without the name of the country's first PM.
If Congress has for years ignored the criticism of its method, it is because it views strategic significance in embedding the Nehru-Gandhi family in welfare schemes. With its positioning as a pro-poor party , the party has effectively used the names to etch its authorship of major schemes in the minds of beneficiaries.
The fear of renewed sniping from rivals made Congress prefix the name of Mahatma Gandhi to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act when it was renamed. But here too, Congress has a claim on the father of the nation ahead of the rivals.
Monday, August 11, 2014
UGC Offers Scholarships for the third gender:
After offering a third gender status in the application form in the Indian universities, University Grants Commission (UGC) now decides to offer scholarship and fellowship schemes to the transgender candidates.
The recent SC verdict states that the eunuchs, apart from the binary gender should be treated as the third gender in order to safeguard their rights under the Indian Constitution and laws framed by the Parliament and state legislatures.
According to a UGC official, this scholarship for the transgender category is to make sure that no student is deprived of higher education due to lack of funds.
Vivek Anand , CEO, Humsafar Trust, which safeguards and promotes right to the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community states that this act of the UGC will help lot of star performers from the LGBT community belonging to the socially and economically backward communities who drop out due to lack of guidance.
- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/08/ugc-offers-scholarships-for-the-third-gender/#sthash.XLiOk7ep.dpuf
DON'T MISS
School bags to Enkindle Learning for Rural Kids
A unique idea to use a school bag as a lamp for students to study in the dark has brought hope to the lives of kids living in the slums and rural areas to get educated.
Anushi Saha, a 34-year-old creative designer, came up with this idea to help children who face problems while studying at night due to frequent power outages in the slum areas. The solution Saha has come up with emanated from a simple idea – to fix a solar panel on school bags to collect energy during the day, which in turn, powers LED lights at night.
The bag has got a nifty device attached to it, which converts every movement of the child into electricity, when they move around during the day with the bag. It looks like a regular bag with a LED lamp in its front pocket. Solar panels are attached to the sides and can power the lamp for more than eight hours. The bag weighs 600 gm and is easy to carry. The solar panels are imported from China, since the locally made panels are very heavy.
Putting this idea into action, however, was not easy for Saha as there were several rejections from the manufactur
MHRD sets Hari Gautam Committee to Review UGC status -
The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has set up a four-member committee to review the current status of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
As per the decision taken on August 3, Hari Gautam, former chairman of UGC, will head the committee. Other members of the committee will include C M Jariwala, former dean of law, Banaras Hindu University, Kapil Kapoor, former Pro-Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and R P Sisodia, Joint Secretary, Higher Education, HRD, who will be the member secretary of the committee.
The committee has been given a mandate to review 14 items. These include evaluation of the performance of UGC in coordinating and determining standards of education in universities and conducting an audit of its regulatory reach and identifying strengths and weaknesses in this aspect.
The report has to be submitted in six months time with suggestions from the committee to reform the panel and perform better to meet the desired objectives.
- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/08/mhrd-sets-hari-gautam-committee-to-review-ugc-status/#sthash.Y3ZE3Rie.dpuf
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