India ranked 155th in global environment performance list at World Economic Forum

India has been ranked at a low 155th position in a global list that places countries on how well they perform on high-priority environmental issues.

The 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), released today here, has ranked 178 countries in total. Among them, India is placed at the 155th position, with an index score of 31.23 points. Its rank is also much lower than BRICS peers.

Among the BRICS, South Africa was placed at the 72nd rank with an index score of 53.51, followed by Russia (73rd rank, 53.45 points), Brazil (77th rank, 52.97 points) and China (118th rank, 43 points).

Besides, India has fared poorly compared to neighbouring countries like Nepal and Pakistan -- which are ranked 139th and 148th, respectively.

The overall list is topped by Switzerland followed by Luxembourg, Australia, Singapore, and Czech Republic.

"Emerging economies, including China, India, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa, have had modest improvement over the past decade, but they have also paid an environmental price for their rapid growth," the report said.

The emerging economies represent 55 per cent of global growth from the end of 2009 to 2012.

Urbanisation without sufficient investment in environmental safeguards is a key reason for emerging economies' poor showing when it comes to air quality, biodiversity and habitat protection.

The 178 nations in the index represent 99 per cent of the global population, 98 per cent of the world's total land area, and 97 per cent of the global GDP, the report said.

"The EPI reveals that improved environmental results are possible when measurement and management practices align. When data and measurement are poor or not in concert with policy priorities, natural and human systems suffer," Yale University Professor Daniel Esty said.

The index also demonstrates what happens when countries are unable to prioritise environmental management, EPI said.

As per the report, the bottom five performers Somalia, Mali, Haiti, Lesotho, and Afghanistan ¿ all are grappling with civil unrest, significant economic development pressures, and political turmoil.

EPI ranks how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues mainly in the areas of protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems.

The index is prepared by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF) as well as with support from the Samuel Family Foundation and the McCall MacBain Foundation.

National Communal Harmony Awards 2013 Announced

The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai has been selected for the National Communal Harmony Award 2013 in the Organization category. Dr. Mohinder Singh of Delhi and Dr. N Radhakrishnan of Kerala have been selected for this Award in the individual category.

Established in 1996, the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) is a Mumbai based organization working to promote peace, secularism and communal harmony in the country. It has also been working on human rights issues and issues of the marginalized and deprived sections of the society.

The Centre has published a number of books and literary material highlighting different facets of violence and communalism, peace, secularism and communal harmony which have a wider readership. The Centre has also been regularly publishing a quarterly journal ‘Indian Journal of Secularism’ which is popular amongst academics and the masses.

Dr. Mohinder Singh, aged 72 is a scholar and presently member of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. Earlier, he was also Member of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities from 2005 to 2007.In 1984, he along with other social activists, organized relief camps at Delhi and restored friendship between the Hindu and Sikh communities in the wake of anti-Sikh riots. In 1985, he set-up a Communal Harmony Forum along with Dr.Nirmala Deshpande, which worked for nearly four years and organized inter-faith meetings and visit to holy places by its members

Dr. N Radhakrishnan, aged 69 is a well known academic, a Gandhian scholar and a peace worker. He initiated the Shanti Sena programme at the Gandhigram University and extended this work to other parts of the country. He has been actively working to restore peace in communally tense areas of Tamilnadu and Kerala. Having served as Director of Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Samiti, New Delhi for more than a decade, he was instrumental in initiating and implementing many innovative activities in educational institutions by using Gandhian values and principles. His campaign ‘Himsamukth Bharat Andolan’ motivates people to become foot soldiers in campaigning for peace and sustainable development.

Cern physicists have succeeded for the first time in producing a beam of antihydrogen atoms

Physicists from Cern's Atomic Spectroscopy and Collisions Using Slow Antiprotons (ASACUSA) experiment said they have produced at least 80 atoms of antihydrogen. 

Primordial antimatter has so far never been observed in the universe, and its absence remains a scientific enigma.

Nevertheless, it is possible to produce significant amounts of antihydrogen in experiments at the Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) by mixing antielectrons (positrons) and low energy antiprotons produced by the Antiproton Decelerator.

The spectra of hydrogen and antihydrogen are predicted to be identical, so any tiny difference between them would immediately open a window to new physics, and could help in solving the antimatter mystery.

It has been a puzzle to scientists why humans, stars and the universe are made of matter, rather than of antimatter.

With its single proton accompanied by just one electron, hydrogen is the simplest existing atom, and one of the most precisely investigated and best understood systems in physics.

Thus comparisons of hydrogen and antihydrogen atoms constitute one of the best ways to perform highly precise tests of matter/antimatter symmetry, researchers said.

Matter and antimatter annihilate immediately when they meet, so aside from creating antihydrogen, one of the key challenges for physicists is to keep antiatoms away from ordinary matter.

To do so, experiments take advantage of antihydrogen's magnetic properties (which are similar to hydrogen's) and use very strong non-uniform magnetic fields to trap antiatoms long enough to study them.

However, the strong magnetic field gradients degrade the spectroscopic properties of the (anti)atoms.

To allow for clean high-resolution spectroscopy, the ASACUSA collaboration developed an innovative set-up to transfer antihydrogen atoms to a region where they can be studied in flight, far from the strong magnetic field.

"Antihydrogen atoms having no charge, it was a big challenge to transport them from their trap," said Yasunori Yamazaki of RIKEN, Japan, a team leader of the ASACUSA collaboration.

"Our results are very promising for high-precision studies of antihydrogen atoms, particularly the hyperfine structure, one of the two best known spectroscopic properties of hydrogen.

"Its measurement in antihydrogen will allow the most sensitive test of matter/antimatter symmetry. We are looking forward to restarting this summer with an even more improved set-up," Yamazaki said in a statement.

India and China launched the ‘Year of Friendly Exchanges’

India and China launched the ‘Year of Friendly Exchanges’ at a lively Republic Day reception attended by Vice President Li Yuanchao in Beijing, China. From India, new Indian Ambassador Ashok K Kantha hosted the function.

This year China will commemorate the 60th year of Panchasheel (5- Principles), along with Myanmar.

Correspondingly, in February 2014, a function is expected to be organized by the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi to formally inaugurate the Year of Friendly Exchanges in India.

Facilitating Administration of Justice that Ensures Easy Access and Timely Delivery of Justice to All

 


The vision for our justice system is to provide the people of India with a court system that fairly and impartially administers justice, efficiently resolves disputes, and ensures that the rule of law protects the rights of all. However, increasing case loads and complex court procedures have led to cases pending in courts. Many factors contribute to this pendency - shortage of judges, lack of basic infrastructure, the accepted practice of repeated adjournments in courts and a general lack of urgency. The Government has launched several initiatives, including providing support for better court infrastructure, ICT enablement of courts, encouraging increase in the strength of subordinate judiciary, recommending policy and legislative measures in the areas prone to excessive litigation and suggesting re-engineering of court procedures for quick disposal of cases, to achieve this vision.

About three hundred court buildings are expected to be completed by March, 2014 with Central Government funding support to State Governments through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for development of infrastructure. Against targeted computerization of 14,249 district & subordinate Courts under the eCourts Project March 2014, 13,227 courts have already been computerized by 31st December 2013. Services such as case filing, registration, cause-lists, daily proceedings and orders/judgments have been initiated in many of these courts. Along with the better availability of infrastructure facilities and ICT enablement of courts through these initiatives, States in consultation with respective High Courts have also taken necessary steps to increase the number of subordinate courts at district/taluka level to reduce the burden of cases on existing courts and improve justice delivery. They have also set up many fast track courts for trial of cases of rape.

A pilot National Judicial Data Grid has been launched in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra, to be available in all States shortly, to facilitate information and analysis of performance of all courts in the country, performance management of all judicial officers, and improved planning of the justice sector. In parallel, High Courts are undertaking an overhaul of court procedures through a process re-engineering exercise.

Special attention has been given by the Government to situation of the marginalized sections of society through two projects on Access to Justice, one in eight States in central India and another in the eight North Eastern States and Jammu and Kashmir. The first project has already created legal awareness in more than two million people and trained 7000 para-legal workers and 300 lawyers to provide free legal aid to them. Voice based information kiosks that provide information about laws and entitlements are being established in 25 locations each in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

As a result of a number of initiatives taken by the Government and Judiciary in the recent past, the increasing trend of pendency of cases in subordinate courts has been checked and older cases are being taken up for disposal on priority basis besides the cases relating to crime against women and children, senior citizen and other marginalized sections of society.

Right to Education

 

Right to Education (RTE) is by far the most historic development in universalisation of elementary education in the country. Enacted in 2010, it implies that every child in the age group of 6 to 14 years has Right to elementary education. They are entitled for free and compulsory education.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is the main vehicle for implementation of the RTE Act. It is one of the largest programmes of its kind in the world. It is primarily funded from central budget and it covers the whole country. More than 19 crore children are covered under this scheme in 11 lakh habitations. 98% of habitations in this country have elementary schools within 1 km and 92% have upper primary schools within 3 km of their locations.
The programme has been implemented in order to narrow down gender and social gaps in elementary education. Special efforts have been made to reach out to girls and children belonging to SC/ST and Muslim minority communities.
Over 3500 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) have been set up as residential upper primary schools for girls from SC, ST, OBC, Muslim communities and BPL girls in the educationally backward blocks. Free boarding / lodging, books, stationary and uniforms are being provided to the children in these schools.
Under SSA, special attention has been given to urban deprived children, children affected by periodic migration and children living in remote and scattered habitations. Attempts have also been made to reach out to children suffering from autism. It involves their identification, preparation of individualized Education Plan, teacher training on Autism and therapeutic support.
As part of the scheme, steps have been taken to improve the standard of elementary education in the country. It includes improvement in infrastructural facilities and sanctioning of new teacher posts in government schools. Free textbooks are being provided to all children in government and government aided schools.
Last year, the centre released more than 23800 crore rupees and during the current financial year (2013-14), in the first eight months, over 16000 crore rupees have been released.
This increased funding has led to massive creation and improvement of infrastructure at school level. About 95% schools have drinking water facilities and 90% schools have toilets. Similarly about 75% upper primary schools have furniture. More than 3 lakh new school buildings with toilets, drinking water facilities and electricity have been created under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, a flagship programme of UPA government to implement RTE.
Since the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, the enrolment of children at the elementary level has increased from about 19 crore in 2008-09 to about 20 crore in 2012-13 as per District Information System for Education (DISE) data. A total of over forty three thousand five hundred schools, seven lakh additional classrooms, five lakh forty six thousand toilets and thirty four thousand six hundred drinking water facilities have been sanctioned to States/UTs under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme to meet the objectives of the RTE Act.
The enrolment among the SCs has increased from 3 crore to 4 crore during 2008-09 and 2012-13. Similar positive trends have been noticed among STs and minorities also. Thirteen states have also admitted children belonging to disadvantaged groups/weaker sections in private unaided schools as per the RTE Act.
Along with the Mid Day Meal Scheme, the Right to Education Act has made substantial impact on universalisation of elementary education, reduction in dropout rates and fighting classroom hunger.
The improvement is reflected in the Net Enrolment ratio in Primary Education. It was 99.89% in 2011-12. There has been a substantial drop in dropout rate among the kids at the elementary level. The number of out of school children has come down sharply from more than 1.34 crore in 2005 to 29 lakh in 2012-13.
Several new measures have been taken for improving quality under RTE, in letter as well as in spirit. About 20 lakh additional teacher posts have been sanctioned under SSA upto 2012-13. Out of this twelve lakh forty thousand posts are reported to have been filled. After RTE, it is compulsory that only those people who are able to clear the Teacher Eligibility Test may be appointed as teachers.
To improve quality of learning, children are provided free text books upto class 8. Continuous and comprehensive evaluation system is being promoted. Curriculum reforms are made to make learning more children friendly and inclusive. Training for in service teachers and head masters are being incentivized.
The focus of all HRD Ministry schemes under the 11th Five Year Plan was access and growth whereas quality is the key under the current Five Year Plan.

must read about IIIF

MSME and National Innovation Council Launch The India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF)
The National Innovation Council (NInC) and the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) jointly announced the creation of the India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF) here today. IIIF approved by the Union Cabinet seeks to combine innovation and the dynamism of enterprise to solve the problems of citizens at the base of the economic pyramid in India.

Speaking about the Fund, Sam Pitroda, Chairman of NInC and Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovation said: “The needs of the people at the base of the economic pyramid are today served by philanthropy and Government grants / subsidies which can never be either adequate or scalable. IIIF seeks to leverage the model of Venture Capital to transform the lives of the less privileged”.

The Fund will be registered under SEBI’s Alternative Investment Fund Category I guidelines with an initial corpus of Rs. 500 crores, with the Ministry of MSME committing to 20% (Rs 100 crores) and the balance being given by Banks, insurance companies, overseas financial and development institutions. The Fund will endeavour to provide modest financial returns, while ensuring significant social impact to the community. The Fund’s eventual aim is to expand the corpus to Rs. 5,000 crores over the next 24 months.

Speaking on the occasion the Secretary, MSME, Shri Madhav Lal said that the underline philosophy of the programme is to bring various stakeholders together not only for financing the enterprises but also providing handholding support in different manner through technical inputs to connect with the markets. A number of initiatives will be brought on board and will have a bearing in future on this programme. The Ministry of MSME is very happy on playing an important role, so that programme reaches new heights. The Programme is first of its kind in the country.

The IIIF seeks to create a new class of capital which helps set up and scale entrepreneurial skills and innovation which address the needs of the base of the economic pyramid. The Fund will invest in innovative ventures that are scalable, sustainable and therefore profitable but address social needs of our less privileged citizens in areas such as healthcare, food, nutrition, agriculture, education / skill development, energy, financial inclusion, water, sanitation, employment generation, etc.

Lack of Capital is one of the major reasons why ventures and entrepreneurs seeking to address the needs at the base of the economic pyramid have failed to take off. IIIF seeks to address exactly this gap and therefore at least 50% of its investments initially will be to enterprises that fall in the MSME stage. It has been observed globally that new enterprises have the highest potential for job creation and hence IIIF will seek to address this aspect as well.

The IIIF will also partner the entire ecosystem in this space, including incubators, angel groups, and also public R&D programmes and laboratories to support the commercialisation and deployment of socially relevant innovative technologies and solutions.

The Government will not be involved in the day to day operations of the Fund, which will be entrusted to an Asset Management Company (AMC), set up as a Section 25 not for profit company. The AMC will appoint a professional management team for this purpose as also an Investment Committee comprising professionals of repute, which will take all investment / divestment decisions. A Governing Council comprising government nominees as well as eminent persons from the fields of public service, industry, finance, entrepreneurship, etc. will provide oversight and ensure the Purpose of the Fund is maintained. The AMC will also build a mentoring network, enable incubation and provide training and skills development programmes to entrepreneurs and IIIF assisted companies.

Present on the occasion were Mr. Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, CA Technologies, Dr. B. K. Gairola, Member Secretary, National Innovation Council and Mission Director, NeGP and other Senior official of the Ministry of MSME and National Innovation Council.
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