Sorry; you see we have money for spending on ministers security, providing them with fancy laptops but not for Children's nutirtion.

14 states spend a pittance on kids

Defy SC Order, Pay Less Than Rs 2 A Day On Child’s Nutrition

Nitin Sethi | TNN

New Delhi: Orissa spends a meagre 59 paise per day on providing supplementary nutrition to each child. This is what Supreme Court-appointed commissioners in the rightto-food case have reported in their latest submission to the court. In fact, the commissioners have found that most states have been shortchanging children’s health despite the apex court’s orders that they provide supplementary nutrition worth at least Rs 2 per day per beneficiary under the Intregrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
The court’s orders had come in December 2006, when it said that of the Rs 2, the central government should contribute half, with the remaining expenditure being borne by the state government for providing supplementary nutrition at the anganwadi centres opened under ICDS catering to children and expecting women at the village level.
Of the 22 states that the commissioners investigated, 14 fell foul of the court order. Suprisingly, the N-E states have done much better than other bigger states. Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya have spent more than the amount mandated as the minimum by the apex court. Rajasthan spent a mere Rs 1.61 per beneficiary per day, UP spent Rs 1.37 and MP Rs 1.21. Gujarat was doing just as badly spending Rs 1.27 per day.
The commissioners point out that the records would seem more dismal if one compared the actual expenditure to the norms set specifically for severely malnourished children. The government is expected to spend Rs 2.7 per day on every severely malnourished child and Rs 2.30 for every pregnant woman, nursing mother or adolescent girl per day. The court commissioners, in the report submitted to the SC, have suggested three reasons for the possible lower expenditure by the states. They contend either the governments have erred in counting the actual number of beneficiaries or they are supplying poor quality of food or that there are gaps in supply and children and expecting mothers are not receiving their due food every day.
While Arunachal spent a mere 9.81% of the allocated amount, Gujarat did not spend 60% of its allocated amount and Delhi left 45% of its money unspent on the scheme. Other states fairing badly were Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Kerala, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

SC-appointed officials say 14 states have defied the court order on child nutrition. But N-E states have done much better than bigger states

Now that's what i call interrogation!

Students grill men in khaki at interactive meet

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Do the police have the legal sanction to shoot criminals they are chasing? Who gives food to the accused in prison? These were some of the questions put forth by youngsters before the Mumbai police at an interactive session held by the Times Foundation and the men in khaki.
At the session, which lasted for three hours, students representing various schools in the city came together for a tete-a-tete with the police force.
Asked why some policemen demand haftas, the joint commissioner of police (law and order) K L Prasad admitted that salaries for the lower rungs of the police force were a matter of concern. “However, I would still say that the police do not accept hafta. It is an individual who does. It is a very small section that does so, and hence, should not be equated with the entire police force,’’ Prasad said. When another student asked about fake encounters and the legality of killing criminals in lock-ups, the joint commissioner cautioned the students to draw a line between the reel and the real reality. “By law, the police do not have any sanction to kill. It is only for the court to decide on the punishment,’’ said Prasad.
The plethora of questions posed by the students apparently showed that the young minds were intrigued by the way the police force functions and also how transparent it is to the common man.

How can they let this happen? This is really sad!

Thirty years on, Vashi library gets shut notice

Sonal Upreti I TNN

Navi Mumbai: In a satellite township that still lags behind in cultural activities, the civic authorities are on the verge of shutting down the Town Library, one of the oldest in Navi Mumbai.
The library, near Vashi police station, was officially opened to the public in 1975. Seven other NGOs, which have offices in the library building, have also received notice from the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation to vacate the premises by January 31.
The library, which is run by a public trust, had signed an agreement with Cidco that would be renewed every 11 months. It receives a government grant of Rs 1.2 lakh every year. The agreement expired in December 2006, after which the premises were handed over to NMMC by Cidco in March 2007. Now, NMMC has sent notices to vacate the premises.
“The library has 24,000 books and 1,000 members. Why is it being closed down when we are doing so much good work? The NMMC wants to invite other charitable trusts to open a library here. But why shut something that is already doing well?’’ says library secretary Vijay Kedare.
Spread over 1,200 sq ft, the library has many accomplished scholars, doctors and engineers as members. Students also prefer to spend time here and exchange notes. The community centre also houses the New Bombay Music and Drama Circle, which was established in 1975. It has witnessed performances by renowned artistes like Shobha Gurtu and won prizes in drama competitions.
“How can you remove such an old organisation at such short notice? Children are encouraged to develop their talents with various kinds of activities here. Why do they want to give the premises to another trust?’’ says Vivek Bhagat, who runs the centre.
S Deshpande, president of Nutan Mahila Mandal, which is located in the same building and has also received a notice, says, “We have helped women get employment and conduct singing classes and accupressure therapy. The organisation’s records are in place and we have submitted an audit report every year, ever since the NGO was started in 1976. Even though Cidco has transferred authority to NMMC, the activities must go on.’’ NMMC commissioner Vijay Nahata says the corporation will try to protect the library. “Their agreement with Cidco is over and the same rules have to apply to everyone. There will be a library on the premises, but the policy will be decided in the general body meeting soon.’’
Meanwhile, the library officials and its patrons face an uncertain future. “NMMC does not have any provisions for us. We have approached different political parties for help, but are yet to hear from them,’’ adds Kedare.
sonal.upreti@timesgroup.com

NOWHERE TO GO: Officials of the Town Library, which has 24,000 books and 1,000 members, have been told to vacate the premises by Jan 31

Some Red Tape lined up...

GARNERING SUPPORT

Coaching classes seek greater voice in govt’s draft plan

Anahita Mukherji I TNN

Mumbai: The recent high court order calling on the Maharashtra government to frame a set of rules and regulations for coaching classes has found support from an unlikely quarter—the Maharashtra Class Owner’s Association.
The HC order was the result of a petition, filed by Bhagwanji Raiyani of the Forum for Fairness in Education, against the commercialisation of education by coaching classes. The petition alleged that coaching classes were running a statewide racket, charging exorbitant fees and hiring school and college staff as well as paper-setters who leaked question paspers to students enrolled in such classes.
Now, the Maharashtra Class Owner’s Association wants to be a party to the petition. “We would like to be consulted by the government before it drafts a set of rules on how coaching classes must be governed. After all, we are in the business and know more about how it functions than any outsider would,’’ said Jagdish Walawalkar, president of the association.
He feels that coaching classes should get a fair representation in the rules that have been drafted. “After all, the rules are being made for us,’’ he adds. Walawalkar feels that the charges made against coaching classes in the petition are unfair. “As for coaching classes charging a high fee, there are private schools and colleges that charge a fee that’s far higher than that of any coaching
class,’’ says Walawalkar, adding that coaching classes charge a whole range of fees, and are not always costly.
According to him, it was the state board’s responsibility to crack down on teachers from schools and colleges who worked in coaching classes. “Many coaching classes don’t hire teachers from schools and colleges,’’ he adds.
“We don’t want papers to be leaked either. When has the government caught a coaching class leaking papers?’’ he asked.
anahita.mukherji@timesgroup.com

Playing GOD!

A step closer to creating synthetic life

In A Huge Step In Creating Life, Experts Have Assembled The Entire Genome Of An Organism

Washington: Researchers have assembled the entire genome of a living organism — a bacterium — in what they hope is an important step to creating artificial life.
The bug, Mycoplasma genitalium, has the smallest known genome of any truly living organism, with 485 working genes. Viruses are smaller, but they are not considered completely alive as they cannot replicate by themselves.
Bacteria can and do, and the team at the non-profit J Craig Venter Institute in Maryland has been working for years to try to build M genitalium from scratch.
“We consider this the second in significant steps of a threestep process in our attempts to make the first synthetic organism,” Craig Venter, founder of the institute, told a telephone briefing. “This entire process started with four bottles of chemicals.”
M genitalium has a fairly simple structure — all its DNA is carried on a single chromosome. Chromosomes are the structures that carry genetic material, and the entire code is called the genome. Other genetic material called RNA is needed to convert this gene map into something a cell can use to function.
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said they used first E coli bacteria and then yeast cells to copy pieces of DNA and assemble them into an artificial chromosome.
Next, the researchers say, they want to insert this artificial chromosome into a cell and see if they can make their synthetic chromosome “boot up” the cell.
They started by chemically making DNA fragments in the lab. Their first step was to make the four building blocks of DNA — adenine, guanine, cytosine and thiamine or the A, G, C and T that make up the genetic code. For M genitalium, which can cause a sexually transmitted infection in men and women, these four letters repeat in pairs 580,000 times.
It is not possible to build one long strand of DNA because it is too brittle, so the sequence was broken down into pieces called cassettes. Venter said the chromosome had been disabled so that it could not live outside the lab and so that it could not take over some other organism by mistake. The plan also underwent ethical review by a panel at the University of Pennsylvania.
Venter’s hope is to eventually make synthetic micro-organisms that could be used for producing biofuels, cleaning up toxic waste or pulling excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
In June 2007, the team announced that they had managed to change one species of bacteria called Mycoplasma capricolum into another, Mycoplasma mycoides, by replacing the genome of one with the genome of another. Venter said he would like to use a synthetic chromosome in a similar way, to trick one organism into acting like another. REUTERS

Tata's Nano may face serious competition - IIT B develops Dexted for Rs. 50000

Move over Nano, IIT’s Dexter’s here
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Here comes competition for the Nano. Students and faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology have developed a prototype of a robotic automatic vehicle—Dexter 6D—for less than Rs 50,000.
Developed over a period of seven years, this prototype has a computer of its own, GPS for navigation and GSM for communication as also cameras to process images, distance sensors to avoid any kind of collusion and white line censors so the vehicle stays on track even without the driver’s inspection.
This prototype was one of the attractions at Techfest-2008 which opened on Friday.

The Big Bang at IIT Bombay Techfest 2008 - TOI article

IIT lecture gets biblical tinge, students upset

Hemali Chhapia I TNN

Mumbai: Drawing parallels between the Bible and the Big Bang theory, stating that Christianity is true and Jesus is the way to God, would sound like Benny Hinn speaking on channel God. But this was said in a lecture delivered by Prof H F Schaefer, director of the Center for Computational Chemistry, University of Georgia, at the Techfest of the Indian Institute of Technology on Friday.
The lecture did not go down well with the secular students on the IIT-Powai campus, who termed the talk as an “attempt at conversion’’.
A five-time Nobel award nominee Schaefer, who was to speak on ‘Stephen Hawking, the Big Bang and God’, quoted numerous scientists and Nobel laureates who spoke about science and God. But towards the lecture’s close, his comments started getting religious undertones. “The Big Bang is more consistent with Christianity than other religions. The Big Bang ripples are clearly pointing to an ex-nihilo creation consistent with the first few verses of the book of Genesis,’’ he said.
Earlier, quoting George Smoot, a Nobel laureate and his classmate at MIT, Schaefer said, “There is no doubt that a parallel exists between the Big Bang as an event and the Christian notion of creation from nothing.’’
Later, quoting Arno Penzias, co-discoverer of the microwave background radiation and 1978 Nobel Prize recipient in physics, he said: “The best data we have (concerning the Big Bang) are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole.’’
Upset IIT-Bombay students distributed a handbill protesting the lecture among the audience. “They use impressive words to confuse masses and deliver ideas that normally would not be accepted at a science and technology institute like ours,’’ the handbill read.
“Though Prof Schaefer is a famous chemist, his opinions beyond the domain of academic credibility shouldn’t be considered to be scientifically authoritative,’’ the handbill added.
hemali.chhapia@timesgroup.com

RAISING HACKLES: H F Schaefer