Oct 13 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Food chain evolving due to Ridge ecology





Vultures, which had practically become extinct in and around Delhi over the past couple of decades, are slowly making a comeback.This year, there have been three sightings of the primary or nominate species of the en dangered Egyptian vulture, a migratory bird for which there is no prior record of sighting near the city.While this comes as good news, the irony is that the primary reason attributed to their return by birders is the easy availability of carcasses. The largest flock of birds seen this year has been at Bhatti mines where a couple of roads divide the forest between Haryana and Delhi. In the absence of a corridor, animals using the road to cross from one side to the other are frequently hit by cars, providing ready food for the birds.
The Neophron percnopterus percnopterus, or the nominate species of the Egyptian vulture, with a dark grey bill, breeds in temperate regions and migrates to the south each year. In March, it was spotted in Dighal in Haryana, followed by two sightings in September, one of a single bird in Ghazipur and a flock of over 20 at Bhatti mines. Surya Prakash, a Delhi birder who was among the few to spot the Bhatti mines flock of Egyptian vultures, says it was a mixed flock that had juveniles and sub-adults. “The bird has been mentioned in Bill Harvey's Atlas of Delhi birds as a rare migrant that can be seen between September and March but of all the records that I checked from the Delhi Birds group and the Oriental Databank on birds, I have only found two other sightings, both of which have taken place this year,“ he said.
The sub-species of the vulture, the yellow beaked Neophron percnopterus gingineanus, are a more common sight in and around Delhi. It is smaller than the grey billed vulture and can be differentiated by the colour of the beak. The third sub-species of the Egyptian vulture has not been re ported from India.
Experts say that the development of Bhatti Mines as a classic example of the Ridge eco-system and the presence of a massive waterbody has seen the evolution of the complete food chain in the region, including presence of scavengers and carnivores like the leopard, jackals and the striped hyena. The vultures too seem to have found the region a suitable habitat.
“We have records of neelgais and other animals being killed in road accidents around Bhatti Mines, providing easy food for scavengers. Thisis a classic case of animals coming in conflict with humans. For them the Ridge is one forest and they cannot distinguish between Delhi and Haryana borders. It is essential to have a dedicated corridor for the animals and also supplementary feeding stations for vultures in Asola and Bhatti,“ said Prakash.

TISS partners with GKD for vocational school

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and GKD Institute for Technological Resources have partnered to launch the School of Vocational Education in Industrial Tool Manufacturing in Coimbatore.

TISS plans to spread the school to a pan-India level. It has identified more than 20 verticals, including vocational courses in travel and tourism, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, industrial safety, industrial tool manufacturing, dialysis technology and printing for starting vocational training schools.

Speaking about the motivation behing opening the vocational school, Neela Dabir, Deputy Director, TISS, said, “Our vision is to create an ecosystem that would bring back the dignity of labour for blue collar streams of work and create sustainable sources of income for the marginalised youths in the country. It is an initiative of the Union Ministry of HRD. TISS is the nodal point to implement the initiative.”

She said ‘the system involves four different entities – TISS School of Vocational Education, Vertical Anchors, Hubs and Skill Knowledge Partners. While the SVE team has overall control over the process, the vertical anchors design the courses (may also have their own hubs), and the hubs act as implementation partners’. Women participation

The training programme is structured to facilitate vertical movement of the organised and unorganised work force, she said and pointed out that it facilitated participation of women, children and other vulnerable groups as well.

Designed with a vision to improve the lives of disadvantaged and marginalised youth, especially those excluded by the formal school education system, TISS – SVE has enrolled nearly 400 students in various programmes, Dabir said.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/10/tiss-partners-with-gkd-for-vocational-school/#sthash.3fwOhfiI.dpuf

AZIM PREMJI UNIVERSITY TO OFFER UG COURSES

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You stop growing when you stop learning: CTS Vice Chairman

In today’s competitive atmosphere students should come out with new thoughts and ideas; this can be generated only through constant learning. The student community should think big and have the confidence to accomplish their goals, speakers at “Techno Dhin” said on Friday.

Speaking at the programme organised by the Oxford Engineering College here, Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, laid emphasis on constant learning. “If you stop learning you stop growing and become obsolete”, he said addressing the engineering students of the institution. New thoughts and ideas would generate only through constant learning, he said adding that people who excelled had learnt every day. He exhorted the students to give their best and excel in their career path.

Ms.Hema Gopal, Vice President, Tata Consultancy Services, Chennai, said discipline was the key to success. Irrespective of the medium of instruction, students should think big and constantly upgrade themselves to excel in their career, she said. She called upon the students to be strong in their fundamentals, learn beyond their academics, and improve their analytical abilities. Chairman and managing trustee of the college M.Subramaniam, spoke.

Narendra Modi launches 'Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana'

If nearly 800 MPs develop three villages each by 2019, around 2500 villages will be developed, he says

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the ‘Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana’, an ambitious village development project under which each MP will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.

Speaking at the launch in New Delhi Mr. Modi said, under the scheme it is envisaged that under the leadership and through the efforts of Members of Parliament, one village would be developed by each MP by 2016.

He said on the basis of the model created by this experience, it is envisaged that two more villages would be developed by each MP by 2019 and that one village will be developed every year.

“We are nearly 800 MPs. If before 2019 we develop three villages each, we reach nearly 2,500 villages. If in the light of this scheme, the states also create a similar scheme for MLAs, then 6-7000 more villages can be added,” Mr. Modi said.

The Prime Minister also said that if one village is developed in a block, it is also likely to have a “viral” effect and development would permeate other villages also.

Speaking about the scheme, Mr. Modi said that there is flexibility and an MP is free to choose any village. The only condition is that it should not be his own village or that of his in-laws.

“I also have to choose a village in Varanasi,” Mr. Modi said and added that he would go there, discuss and choose a village.

He said that till now the model of development being followed in the country has largely been supply driven.

“In Delhi, Lucknow or Gandhinagar, a scheme is prepared and then an attempt is made to inject it everywhere. Through this ‘Adarsh Gram’ (scheme), we want to shift from supply driven to demand driven model,” he said.

He also said that atmosphere should be created where every person is proud of his or her village.

Keywords: MP village scheme, Narendra Modi, Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Oct 11 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Satyarthi braved bullets to save kids

Swati Mathur

Lucknow





As an engineering student in Vidhisha, Kailash Satyarthi once came across a cobbler, whose son, who was less than 10 years' old, was helping him instead of going to school. Satyarthi asked why .The response was unassuming: “We're poor. Extra hands mean extra money .“Satyarthi, then 26, walked away unable to help, but convinced there was need for an initiative to rescue poor children being exploited for financial gains.Education, he thought, would be their road to emancipation. That led to the birth of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in 1980.
Satyarthi started BBA to rescue children from bondage. In 34 years, the organization has conducted thousands of raids, reintegrating rescued children into society, ensuring they get an education. In states like Haryana, he led rescue missions for kids and families of bonded labourers in mining and manufacturing, braving murderous attacks.
He gave up a career in electrical engineering. For a while before launching BBA, he was a professor in Bhopal. Then he moved to Delhi and began his advocacy against child labour.
Scaling up BBA's work wasn't easy . Though the yearning for freedom existed in every family or child he rescued, Satyarthi -popularly known as bhai saab -faced resistance.
Some of those he wanted to rescue were scared to break free of their shackles, others like the cobbler Satyarthi was too poor to afford sacrificing an extra hand.
BBA continues to operate in Meerut and Lakhimpur districts, adopting nearly 130 villages, convert ing them into child-friendly zones. IPS officer Amitabh Thakur recalls: “I met Satyarthi in June 2004 at Karnailganj, Gonda. He had been beaten up by owners of the Great Roman Circus while attempting to rescue Nepalese girls. He was bleeding profusely . Police pulled him out from a rather precarious situation and helped rescue a dozen girls.“ Thakur was Gonda police chief then.
Satyarthi created the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS), a group of more than 750 civil society organizations.In 1994, he launched Goodweave, South Asia's first voluntary labelling and certification system for child labour-free rugs. In 1998, he organised the global march against child labour with more than 50 lakh people in attendance from across the globe. He is member of several other organizations.
For his endeavours in BBA and SACCS, Satyarthi has received global recognition and has been in the Peace Nobel reckoning for nearly five years. He won the US state department's Heroes Acting to End Mod ern Slavery Award, 2007, for creating child-friendly villages. The BBA network runs in nearly 350 villages across 11 states.
Last year, through Satyarthi's initiative in Meerut, 15-year-old Raziya Sultana, a child labourer BBA rescued and rehabilitated, won the UN Special Envoy for Global Education Award.

Oct 11 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

`India has hundreds of problems, but millions of solutions'

Avijit Ghosh, Surojit Gupta & Ambika Pandit

New Delhi: TNN





Noisy OB vans and an unending caravan of cars: on Friday afternoon, Kalkaji, a middle-class locality in south Delhi, is abuzz with activity and animation. It's barely an hour since the news flashed on TV screens. But everybody knows that L-6, a slim, unremarkable two-storey building, has become a very famous address. For word has gone around that it is the workstation of Kailash Satyarthi, who has been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.“I know Malala personally and will definitely call to congratulate her. I will tell her that besides our fight for child rights, especially for girls, we must also work for peace in the sub-continent. It is very important that our children are born and live in peace,“ says the 60year-old activist, whose surname literally means seeker of truth. Dressed in a sand-coloured kurta, he stands barefoot and unfazed even as reporters jostle for his attention.
Satyarthi's association with child rights goes back to his first day in school in Vidisha, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, when as a five-year-old, he witnessed a child sitting outside school, working with his cobbler father.
“I asked my teachers and my headmaster and they said they are poor children, but it was not very convincing. One day I went to the boy's father and I asked, why didn't he send his son to school? He replied: `We are born to work.' I could not understand why some people were born to work and some others were born to enjoy life,“ he says. Seeing a child sitting out side a school working with his cobbler father became a permanent marker in the mind of Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi.
The activist says that even as a student, he wanted to work against child labour but didn't know how. “The notion of child rights came only in 1989 when the UN convention on the rights of the child was adopted,“ he says.
Later, Satyarthi quit his job as an engineer and started Bachpan Bachao Andolan.His first rescue happened in 1981 at a brick kiln in Sarhind, Punjab. “The father of a girl came to us. We were publishing a magazine, Sangharsh Jaari Rahega... He had come to publicize his plight but I realized it was not just a matter of writing something.I had to act because it was a matter involving a 13-14 year old girl who was about to be sold to a brothel. When I help a child and look into his or her eyes, I feel as if he or she is freeing me,“ he says.
It's been an eventful three decades since. Satyarthi was beaten up on several occasions and two of his colleagues killed. But he has kept his faith. Reacting to the award, he says, “Had the prize gone to Mahatma Gandhi before me, I would have been more honoured. I will continue my work. This is an honour for all my fellow Indians, as well as an honour for all those children in the world whose voices were never heard...“
He adds, “India has hundreds of problems, but millions of solutions. Watan ki ret mujhe aediyan ragadne de, mujhe yakeen hai ki paani yahin se niklega (Let me rub my feet on the sands of my motherland, I know the spring lies somewhere beneath).
How does he intend to celebrate? “Not with champagne,“ he quips. “I'm a teetotaller. I'm waiting for the children to arrive.“