[PIB] Dr. Jitendra Singh orders setting up DoNER camp office in Northeast

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has issued orders to set up a camp office of DoNER Secretariat by rotation for three to four days every month in each of the eight North-Eastern States.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the concept behind this move will be to make the people of Northeast realize that the Ministry of DoNER, which was established for their benefit, has the capacity to reach out to them in their own State and district. This will send a reassuring message that the people of Northeast do not need to travel to New Delhi for redressal of their grievances, but it is New Delhi which will, through the medium of DoNER, reach them at their destination, he added.

Pertinent to mention that this order is quick on the heels of another significant decision of the government to send eight Union Ministers by rotation every fortnight to Northeast, so that one Minister each shall be visiting one of the eight States in every fifteen days.

As per the new order, the Union Secretary of DoNER and other senior officers will be camping in each of the North-Eastern States by rotation for 3-4 days every month. During this period, the officials in the Camp Secretariat of DoNER will not confine their activities only to the State capital, but also tour various districts of the State, as may be required. They will also be assessing the progress of different ongoing projects funded by the DoNER and the North-Eastern Council (NEC).

Dr. Jitendra Singh also issued instructions that the timing and roster of the camp office at any given State should be intimated in advance to the Ministers, MPs and MLAs of the respective State, so that everybody gets a fair opportunity to interact with visiting officials from the Ministry of DoNER. In addition, he asked the DoNER officials to encourage the representatives of social organizations and civil society to meet them and offer their inputs from their perspective.

As a follow up to this order, Secretary DoNER will be holding Camp Secretariat office along with other senior officers in the month of February in Arunachal Pradesh and will also be available for interaction with peoples’ representatives and various sections of society at State Capital Itanagar.

Source - PIB

Crocodile project at Sunderbans gets a boost with expert assistance

A crocodile project in Sunderbans, aimed at increasing the number of salt water crocodiles in the delta, has got a fresh start with the help of renowned experts in herpetology who introduced global best practices in crocodile conservation.

The Bhagabatpur Crocodile Project started in the mid 1970’s, was aimed at increasing the number of salt-water crocodiles, a Schedule-I species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

A few years later, the eggs to hatchling ratio declined, and of the 100 eggs collected on an average — less than 40 would hatch, posing questions over the fate of the project.

“I was going through the data over the past few years and noticed the decrease in eggs to hatchling ratio. It is then we felt the need to involve experts to assist us,” Lipika Roy, Divisional Forest Officer, South 24 Parganas told The Hindu .

The State Forest Department involved experts like Shailendra Singh from Turtle Survival Alliance, Lonnie McCaskill from the Disney Animal Kingdom and Anirban Chaudhuri, wildlife consultant, Herpetology from Kolkata-based Nature Mates-Nature Club.

“The crocodile project located at Bhagbatpur is next to the uninhabited Lothian Island, far from the mainland in the Sunderbans archipelago. The place does not have electricity and it was particularly difficult to create an ideal situation and use modern techniques to improve hatching of crocodile eggs there,” Mr Chaudhuri told The Hindu .

The experts provided inputs to forest officials on how to collect crocodile eggs, to distinguish between fertile and infertile eggs, to create the ideal hatching environment using mother nest substrate and artificial substrate. The training, which also included on field training, started in December 2013 and continued for a year.

“The eggs to hatching ratio has vastly improved and it is now over 70. In the last one year, we have released nearly 75 sub-adult crocodiles in the Sunderbans,” Ms Roy said.

Pointing out that salt-water crocodiles are facing habitat loss, habitat shrinkage and over-exploitation of their prey base, mainly fish, Mr Chaudhuri said that the temperature during hatching of eggs is crucial for the male- female ratio of crocodiles. Since global warming is resulting in increase of temperature, maintaining the sex ratio of crocodiles is a challenge for us, he added.

At least 50 crocodiles, which were released in the wild recently, have been tagged to keep a check on their condition in the wild.

Experts believe that the project needs to be sustained and more research is required as it is one of the few such unique crocodile breeding projects in India.

The project is aimed at increasing the number of salt-water crocodiles

Source - The Hindu

Hundreds join peaceful ‘Je suis Muslim’ rally in Sydney

Hundreds of Muslims rallied in Sydney on Friday night to protest negative media coverage of Islam and the French magazine Charlie Hebdo’s depictions of the Prophet Mohammed.

Police said 14 people were moved on from the rally for breaching the peace. But no one was charged and the event was peaceful.

Some of the 800-strong demonstrators in the Muslim enclave of Lakemba held placards with the slogan Je suis Muslim, French for “I am Muslim.”

Organisers of the “Our Prophet, Our Honour” rally said it was intended to be “a peaceful and respectful event” to counter negative media coverage of Islam and Charlie Hebdo’s lampooning of their Prophet.

Muslim leader Sufyan Badar told the crowd that demonstrations in support of Charlie Hebdo used freedom of speech as a smoke screen for underlying issues. “In reality, free speech is one of the many political tools that are used to maintain dominance over the Muslims,” Mr. Badar said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has used a Sydney radio interview to warn against the rally being used to incite terrorism. He said he hoped few people would attend.

Source - The Hindu

Consensus on implementing 13th amendment: Ranil

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe on Saturday said political parties have agreed to implement the thirteenth amendment as a solution to end the country’s over three-decade-old ethnic conflict involving the Tamil minority.

“All parties have agreed to solve the ethnic problem within the framework of the thirteenth amendment. We are continuing our talks,” Mr. Wickramasinghe said while addressing a gathering at Deniyaya in the south.

Power to Councils
He further said that all Provincial Councils will have equal powers now that the Tamil National Alliance has said that they are for a solution within an undivided Sri Lanka.

Provincial Councils became part of the Sri Lankan statute as a direct result of the landmark 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka accord, popularly known as the Rajiv-Jayewardene Accord, after its architects — Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene.

He also blamed the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa for failing to resolve the thorny issues concerning the Tamil minority despite having ended the two-and-a-half decade-old civil war with the LTTE in 2009.

On the U.N.’s human rights investigation on Sri Lanka, Mr. Wickramasinghe said it was the result of Mr. Rajapaksa’s mishandling of the issue.

“They [the Rajapaksa government] agreed with the U.N. Secretary General to have an investigation after the war ended. Later confirmed it at the U.N. Human Rights Council. But the investigation did not happen, so came the appointment of an investigation panel,” Mr. Wickramasinghe said, referring to the March 2014 UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka. He said the new government’s policy on the investigation is that all criminal charges will be probed through a local mechanism. — PTI

Source- The Hindu

Japan: emergency meet called; IS video’s authenticity uncertain

Japan was scrambling early on Sunday to verify a video posted online claiming that one of two men held hostage by Islamic State jihadists had been executed, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the group’s “intolerable violence”.

Mr. Abe called an emergency meeting of senior Ministers that began at around 1.20a.m. (1620 GMT Saturday) as his government demanded “the remaining” hostage be immediately set free.

“A photograph apparently showing Mr. Yukawa had been murdered has been posted on the Internet,” Mr. Abe said. “The pain the family is feeling must be beyond what we imagine. This is an act of terrorism and intolerable violence.

“I am infuriated. I condemn it absolutely. Again I strongly demand they not harm Mr. Goto and release him.”

“The images show Kenji Goto holding a photo of Haruna Yukawa apparently dead has been posted on the internet,” Mr. Abe’s chief spokesman Yoshihide Suga told a press conference shortly after midnight.

The government is currently working to confirm the authenticity of the video, added defence chief Gen. Nakatani.

The video was not posted on any of the IS group’s official channels and it does not bear the group’s black and white flag. The purported execution of Mr. Yukawa is also not shown.

Several supporters of the IS group on social media channels have contested the veracity of the video, while Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said negotiations for the two men’s release are still ongoing.

If Yukawa’s death is confirmed, it would mark a very grave turn of events for Japan, which has been on edge since the Islamic State group released a video on Tuesday demanding a $200 million ransom within 72 hours.

IS has murdered five Western hostages since August last year but this is the first time it has threatened Japanese captives.

Junko Ishido, Mr. Goto’s mother, on Friday launched an emotional appeal begging for mercy for her son.

“I say to you people of the Islamic State, Kenji is not your enemy. Please release him,” she said.

Japanese officials have repeatedly said they are trying to make contact through various channels. Yosuke Isozaki, an advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Friday reportedly said there had been some “indirect” communication with the militants, but “nothing direct”.

Tokyo has little diplomatic leverage in the Middle East, but local media say Mr. Abe may try to use his close relationship with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to rescue the hostages. — AFP

Source - The Hindu

Obama-Modi talks: Bid to go beyond defence sales

Defence cooperation is likely to be the key outcome of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to India. An announcement may be made for the local production of mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and surveillance systems for transport aircraft.

The biggest deliverable will be the renewal of the Defence Framework Agreement, which is to expire this year, by another 10 years. Since the first agreement in 2005, the U.S. has bagged defence deals worth about $10 billion with deals of similar value in the pipeline.

The framework agreement will lay the road map for transforming defence partnership beyond defence sales to enhance training of each other’s personnel, increase the scope of joint exercises to improve interoperability, etc. In this direction, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the National Defence Universities of both the countries is also on the cards.

A senior U.S. defence official told The Hindu: “We want this to be seen as more than a buyer-seller relationship.”

While the long-pending deals for 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy lift helicopters will not be signed, discussions are on to identify projects for co-development and co-production under the Defence Technology Trade initiative (DTTI). This also augurs well for India’s ‘Make in India’ campaign.

Two projects which have made progress for co-production are Raven RQ-11 mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and surveillance modules for C-130J transport aircraft.

While the Raven RQ-11 is a hand-held, battery-operated UAV built by Aerovironment and has been exported to 25 international customers, India operates or has on order 12 C-130J aircraft built by Lockheed Martin for tactical and special operations.

India has a large requirement for UAVs of different configurations in a variety of roles from surveillance, law and order to disaster management.

Other projects under discussion include the possibility of cooperation on next generation aircraft launch system for aircraft carriers and a revised offer from BAE Systems for the local assembly of M-777 Ultra-Light Howitzers.

Source - The Hindu

A simple device to curb female foeticide

A simple set top box is helping to prevent sex determination and female foeticide.
Taking its cue from Jhajjar, which had the worst sex ratio among the districts of Haryana before staging a remarkable recovery in the past three years, the Jind administration has made it mandatory for all ultrasound labs to install active tracking devices with their machines so as to make available the details of the tests online to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

Though Jind is not among the 12 districts identified for concerted action under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, the district administration has introduced the scheme to track ultrasound machines to curb their misuse for sex determination tests and to improve the sex ratio.

Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi, who had been instrumental in the introduction of the scheme in Jhajjar in 2011, said all the recordings of the ultrasound tests would be sent online to the CMO. This would help the administration monitor how the equipment was being used and what tests were being done.

Mr. Joshi said the plan would cover all the ultrasound machines in Jind. “A set top box is put along with every ultrasound machine, and the power supply to the ultrasound machine is routed through it. So, both would have to be switched on together. The set top box contains a GPRS-based SIM card which sends a message to the CMO and the Deputy Commissioner the moment it is switched on. It records the entire functioning of the ultrasound machine and sends a video in encrypted form to the CMO every day.”

The doctors, who have to pay for the box, also find it beneficial: they can fill up Form F online through this system. The form is mandatory under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique Act. “Filling up this form manually is very tedious,” he said.

Source - The Hindu

Microcredit no panacea for poverty: study

Six studies in four continents also reveal that small loans had no impact on women’s empowerment
Six studies in four continents, including one in India, have shown no evidence of microcredit successfully alleviating poverty, researchers said on Friday.

Microcredit also had no impact on women’s empowerment, the findings showed, upturning one of the articles of faith of development policy, including in India.

Conducted by researchers affiliated to Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, which has gained a global reputation for its field experimentation approach to finding solutions to poverty, the studies were done in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco and India, with Hyderabad as the site.

Researchers evaluated a group with access to microcredit with one that did not — both randomly chosen — to determine the effect of small loans on poverty and living standards.

In some of the studies, microcredit allowed borrowers to expand small businesses to some extent, and change the way they earned money — cutting back on wage labour in Mexico, for instance. However, there was no clear evidence of increased profits, better consumption or better living standards. There was no impact on the rate of enrolment for children in schools or women’s empowerment.

“These loans do help, but the changes are not transformative, certainly not transformative enough to justify charitable donations to the standard microcredit model,” said economist Esther Duflo, co-founder of J-PAL. “We have seen, though, that these are viable profit-making products,” she added, saying this was something investors would be interested in.

Such fears about the profit-making side of microcredit trumping its poverty alleviation side grew in Andhra Pradesh in 2012 in the wake of a spate of suicides by borrowers. In the Hyderabad study, the microfinance group Spandana gave loans of up to Rs. 10,000 in 120 locations in the city. Tracked over five years, the borrowers were no more likely to own businesses than others, there was no significant difference in consumption and no impact on education, health or female empowerment. However, borrowers were more likely to invest in durable goods and less likely to spend on “temptations” such as tobacco and eating out.

Source - The Hindu

Death penalty won’t solve terror: Ayesha Jalal

The lifting of moratorium on death penalty in Pakistan had been demanded by the military high command for a long time, said Pakistani academic Ayesha Jalal at a seminar here on Saturday.

The moratorium was lifted after Taliban gunmen attacked an army school in Peshawar and killed more than 130 children in December last year.

Describing the revocation of the moratorium as a “sort of knee-jerk reaction,” Ms. Jalal said: “I do not believe that going back to death penalty will solve the problem of terror which is deeply embedded and needs to be addressed at multiple levels by Pakistan.”

She claimed that the move points to the “inefficacy of the judiciary which cannot convict people fast enough or adequately enough.”

Ms. Jalal said that it was the problems in the judicial system that was “driving the return of capital punishment.”

She said there was an “ideological dimension” on lifting the ban on capital punishment as it was the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto of the Pakistan Peoples Party who introduced it.

“The party that is currently occupying power in Pakistan [Pakistan Muslim League (N)] has been in favour of death penalty.” She claimed that the U.S. was “losing interest in Pakistan,” adding that the U.S. “interest in Pakistan has been in the Army and nothing else.” “Those who want Pakistan to retain its democracy would like to see America taking less interest in Pakistan,” Ms. Jalal added.

Source - The Hindu

Telangana gets into top gear to tackle swine flu

The Telangana government has decided to maintain high alert in supervision of swine flu without being complacent that there were no more casualties after the death of a woman at a private hospital here in the early hours of Friday.

However, the official spokesman of the government on swine flu and Director of Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences L. Narendranath told a press conference that 50 of the 139 blood samples suspected of having contracted swine flu tested positive at the Institute of Preventive Medicine. He said high alert against the virus would continue because it could remain dormant if it was not in an explosive form.

With the latest casualty, the toll went up to 12 this month while another 9 persons died in December. A total of 299 people have tested positive out of 893 blood samples examined this month. There were no cases from districts although patients with symptoms were admitted to hospitals here from Medak and Warangal, he added.

Dr. Narendranath said some patients were on ventilator in corporate hospitals but they were all old cases. No fresh cases were put on ventilator. Gandhi Hospital shifted 16 patients to Fever Hospital as their condition improved. In addition to these two hospitals, the government arranged 150 beds at Osmania General Hospital and NIMS if the number of patients swelled. He also said there was no dearth of anti-virus drugs even if swine flu intensified. He asked people to take vaccines with the recommendation of doctors because they were meant for high risk groups. The vaccines yielded limited results.

Sangareddy Staff Reporter adds:
Three cases of swine flu were reported from Medak district while one of them was stated to have died late in the evening at a private hospital in Hyderabad on Saturday.

Source - The Hindu

Farmers get e-Kisaan tablets

It provides data on IT-enabled agriculture, health
To educate, engage and empower the farming community, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday distributed e-Kisaan tablets loaded with information on IT-enabled agriculture, education and health.

The tablets, which have been donated by corporate companies, including Infosys, and developed by a team of NRI professionals, are part of the government’s ‘Namma Raitha’ platform. The platform will act as a catalyst to share best practices among farmers and facilitate higher interaction. Minister for Information Technology and Bio-Technology S.R. Patil said the Namma Raitha project also aims at providing information to farmers on education, e-governance, food processing, rainwater harvesting and basic healthcare.

In the first phase, 1,500 farmers from Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts will be given the e-Kisaan tablets. Eleven of them were handed over the gadgets symbolically on Saturday.
A dedicated call centre team has been set up to interact with the farming community.

Source - The Hindu