Dec 16 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

India logs 10% rise in foreign tourist arrivals

New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





India appears to have overcome the issue of women's safety and dollarless growth to draw 10% more tourists than last year.Significantly the increase in tourists came during nonpeak season between May and October 2014.Over 32 lakh foreign tourists visited India between May and October this year as compared to last year, according to tourism minister Mahesh Sharma.
August saw the sharpest increase of foreign tourists visiting India, registering an increase of 16.9% as compared to last year while May saw a marginal hike of 0.8% as compared to the same month last year.
After the Delhi gangrape in December 2012, the tou rism industry had suffered a setback with visitors, especially women, expressing fear and hesitation in traveling to India. The hospitality industry suffered cancellations with an Assocham 2013 report pointing to 35% drop in number of tourists to the country . Industry sources now expressed apprehen sion that the Uber rape case may impact the market.
The top five states to receive foreign tourists in 2013 were Maharashtra (4.16 million), Tamil Nadu (3.99 million), Delhi (2.30 million), Uttar Pradesh (2.05 million) and Rajasthan (1.44 million).
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com

Intel inside digital India

India is sitting at the cusp of a massive digital revolution, says Timothy Q Parker, vice-president—Sales and Marketing Group, Intel Asia Pacific & Japan region.

“The world is watching India with great interest,” reveals the senior official at the American microprocessor giant, visibly excited by India’s grand efforts to build massive digital infrastructure that would ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically. His reference is to the Digital India initiative—first announced in July and approved by the Cabinet in August this year—which has been widely debated in government and industry circles to identify the challenges and opportunities in the connect-India programme, as well as prepare a roadmap that will lead towards a truly digital India.

Imagine a gigantic national optic fibre network being laid out to cover the country’s 50,000 gram panchayats this year, 100,000 next year and the remaining 100,000 the following year—entire India will be covered by broadband within three years and the internet will reach the remotest villages. This in essence is what Digital India—the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious e-governance initiative—is all about.

Without doubt, this is a great opportunity for the industry to come in and do its bit in contributing to the nation building agenda. As a first-mover, Intel has come forward to support the government’s Digital India vision. Last week, Intel India launched its ‘Digital Skills for India’ programme in the capital. It will work with the government to impact 5 million citizens by the end of 2015 with skills to compete in the global digital economy. As part of the initiative, Intel India unveiled the Digital Skills training application comprising of modules on digital literacy, financial inclusion and cleanliness in 5 Indian languages. This application is available freely on the Android Play store, and a similar offline training module will also be available in 7 Indian languages.

According to RS Sharma, secretary, department of electronics & IT, the Digital India programme is an umbrella initiative with the vision of transforming India into a digitally empowered society. “For this digital transformation to be completed, it is imperative that the government and corporates work together in creating a sustainable model for digital education. It is great to see tech leaders like Intel come forward and support the cause with innovative computing solutions that will help Indians harness the benefits of a digital India,” he says.

Intel will also work with Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) to build capacity by imparting digital literacy training to key resource persons in the first 1,000 panchayats under the national optic fibre network roll-out in India. “Enabling broadband highways is an imperative of the Digital India vision and the national optic fibre network roll-out aims to deliver true broadband to panchayats. Intel’s initiative to provide digital literacy training will go a long way in digitally empowering citizens at the grassroots so that they can fully utilise the benefits of these broadband highways,” says Aruna Sundararajan, chairman-cum-managing director, BBNL.

In addition, Intel announced the ‘Innovate for India Challenge’, which will be launched next year. This is an initiative to drive technology innovation across platforms to create solutions that are relevant for India which will be imperative if we want pervasive technology adoption in the country. “The industry has been asked to participate to realise the Digital India vision and it is now upto us to work jointly with the government to do the right thing for our country,” says Debjani Ghosh, vice-president, sales & marketing group, managing director, Intel South Asia.

Intel has been committed to making Indian citizens digitally empowered for several years now. For over two decades, Intel has been investing in improving the quality of education in India through the effective use of technology. Intel believes that technology has the ability to transform lives and has digitally empowered Indian citizens through several initiatives like Intel Teach Programme that has trained 18 lakh teachers in India, or the Intel Learn Programme which has reached 2.35 lakh students and 4,500 faculty members. Intel India had launched the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) in 2012 and under this programme has reached 38 lakh citizens through the Intel Learn Easy Steps digital literacy training. NDLM is now being scaled by the government and digital literacy is being called out as the cornerstone of success in the Digital India vision.

Even though India is known as a powerhouse of software, the availability of electronic government services is still comparatively low. Hopefully, the ongoing build up of national digital infrastructure should help government agencies to connect directly with people to deliver efficient governance.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/12/intel-inside-digital-india/#sthash.o5SueKpy.dpuf

ELS eyes Indian market

US-based education services provider ELS International Education Pathways is planning to expand its presence in India by opening two new centres in north India, where it would counsel the students aiming at admissions in foreign universities. The ELS is also keen on providing on-campus English language training for international students getting admissions in the well-regarded Indian varsities. As part of these plans, ELS, which had entered into an agreement with SRM University in Tamil Nadu a year ago, is currently training around 1,000 foreign students for English in the latter’s campus. It is also exploring similar opportunities with other varsities in the country. “We have quite a lot of MoUs with universities and high schools in India that we are looking to operationalise in the future,” said Mark W Harris, president & CEO of ELS International Education Pathways Pvt Ltd. Harris said the expansion would help address demand from the metros in the north. Currently, it has four offices in India at Chennai, Coimbatore Bengaluru and the Hyderabad centre, which it opened. It also unveiled its ‘University Guide 2015’ to assist students in career decisions and guidance here. The company is also exploring partnerships with Indian universities and high schools to design content and more relevant programmes for students. - See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/12/els-eyes-indian-market/#sthash.MJjpAJL2.dpuf

India is regional guru

India has become an educational hub for students from the SAARC countries, including Afghanistan and Nepal.

The South Asian University in New Delhi is providing scholarship programmes in various disciplines to the South Asian countries. The varsity offers post-graduate and doctoral programmes in various disciplines that include economics, computer science, biotechnology, mathematics, sociology, international relations and law.

Out of 437 students from the SAARC countries, 30 of them belong to Afghanistan and 27 students from Nepal. The South Asian University was founded in 2010 with an aim to promote peace, security and harmony in the SAARC region.
South Asian University president Kavita A Sharma, who was earlier associated with the Delhi University, recalled that there were special provisions for students from Bhutan and Nepal there. “And the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rightly said that greatest aid perhaps we can give to Afghanistan is to educate and so there were large number of students who came to Delhi University also. And I think it would benefit everybody if education spreads in this region in a large way,” she said.
The students from Afghanistan look towards India for better prospects. Omar Sadar, who is pursuing his PhD in International Relations from the South Asian University, said Afghanistan needs to invest in the education sector.
“And as I mentioned before Afghanistan does not have that much of capacity domestically to invest on. India is offering one thousand scholarships per year through different channels for Afghanistan. Besides that, many people come from Afghanistan with their own financial support to study in India,” he added.
The Afghan students pray for early return of peace and normalcy in their country so that education and infrastructure can be built. “Peace is the main concern in Afghanistan. Every single person in Afghanistan they want peace and security in Afghanistan that’s the pivotal matter and once you have that you can overcome other challenges,” said Mahdi Frough, a second-year student of MA (Economic Development Studies) in South Asian University.
“Poverty is another problem. Human development, education sector, health sector and infrastructure is lacking,” he added. India provides 1,000 scholarships to students from Afghanistan every year. “I believe India has its role in building capacity in Afghanistan through educating the young generation by providing so many scholarships annually and through opening its gates and their hubs for the Afghan students,” said Jamal Ahmad Mahmood, a student of Masters in Bio Technology.
India not only provides education to Afghan students but also supports in building up schools, besides assisting in the development of medical education in Afghanistan. The South Asian University offers silver jubilee scholarship to Nepalese students.
“India has done so many things to build bilateral relationships to support the Nepalese people and Nepal as a state. For instance, India has been providing silver jubilee scholarship to Nepalese students through its embassy and that is one of the best practices and best efforts that India has been providing for the Nepalese youngsters and Nepalese graduates as well to enhance their academic qualities and to bring them in the national market,” said Krishna Pandey, a student pursuing PhD in Sociology.
India plays a major role in educating Nepalese students by providing scholarships to them. “The main challenges are political instability. There are a lot of loop holes in the education policies otherwise. The other major challenge is that the youth are moving out for higher education. There are other students who have left Nepal for further studies. The main issue is that the youth is moving out of the country,” said Vegsha Gautam, a first-semester student of Masters in Development Economics.

- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/12/india-plays-guru-for-saarc-2/#sthash.UUZH3oWE.dpuf

Dec 12 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

WATER POLLUTION - Over 5 trillion plastic pieces floating in world's oceans

Washington PTI





More than five trillion pieces of plastic -collectively weighing nearly 270,000 tonnes -are floating in the world's oceans, including the Indian Ocean, a new study has found. Microplastic pollution is found in varying concentrations throughout the oceans, but estimates of the global abundance and weight of floating plastics, both micro and macroplastic, lack sufficient data to support them, researchers said.To better estimate the total number of plastic particles and their weight floating in the world's oceans, scientists from six countries contributed data from 24 expeditions collected over a six-year period from 2007-2013 across all five subtropical gyres, coastal Australia, Bay of Bengal, and the Med iterranean Sea. A gyre in oceanography is any large system of rotating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements.
The data included information about microplastics collected using nets and large plastic debris from visual surveys, which were then used to calibrate an ocean model of plastic distribution. The authors of the study estimate a minimum of 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes in the world's oceans, researchers said.
Large plastics appear to be abundant near coastlines, degrading into microplastics in the 5 subtropical gyres, and that the smallest microplastics were present in more remote regions, such as the subpolar gyres, which the authors did not expect.

Dec 12 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

UN declares June 21 as Int'l Day of Yoga

United Nations: PTI





Less than three months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed the idea, the UN general assembly on Thursday adopted an India-led resolution declaring June 21 as ‘International Day of Yoga’, recognizing that “Yoga provides a holistic approach to health and well-being”.The resolution on ‘International Day of Yoga’ was introduced by India’s Ambassador to the UN Asoke Mukerji on Thursday and had 177 nations joining as co-sponsors, the highest number ever for any general assembly resolution.
It is also for the first time that such an initiative has been proposed and implemented by any country in the UN body in less than 90 days.





Dec 12 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

38% of women killed are by partners: WHO

Dipak Dash

New Delhi:





Report Based On Data From 133 Nations

Over one-third of murdered women across the world were killed by their male partners, a recent report by World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed, indicating how women face greater threat to their lives from their trusted ones.“When women are killed, it is often their partner who is responsible. In 2013, WHO and others estimated that as many as 38% of female homicides globally were committed by male partners while the corresponding figure for men was 6%,“ said the first ever Global Status Report on Violence Prevention released on Thursday .
Highlighting how murder (homicide) is a bigger problem across countries, it said world over at least 4.75 lakh murders were reported in 2012. About 60% of these victims were males aged be tween 15 and 44 years, which is the most productive phase of life. The report says homicide is the third leading cause of death for males in this age group.
This status report has been prepared after collecting data from 133 countries, covering 6.1 billion people and representing 88% of the world's population.
The compilation of global data also shows that approximately one in every two homicides is committed with a firearm, and one in four with a sharp instrument such as a knife, although the mechanism of homicide varies markedly across regions.
However, it has also found how between 2000 and 2012 homicide rates are estimated to have declined by over 16% globally . It's higher in the case of high-income countries, but in low and middle income countries the decline is less.