Highlights of the Achievements of the Union HRD Ministry

A number of schemes have been announced by the HRD Ministry. The Department of School Education and Literacy has supported the Ministry of Women and Child Development for roll out of “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” Abhiyan in 100 districts of the country to enhance the sex   ratio and the status of the girl child. An award is being instituted from the “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” Abhiyan for School Management Committees   which achieve 100% transition of girls at different levels of education. The Department is committed to the provision of functional girls’ toilet in every school. A specific “Swachh Vidyalaya” campaign has been rolled out which will ensure that a functional toilet is available in every school before 15th August 2015. UDAAN is an initiative of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to enable disadvantaged girl students and other students from SC/ST & minorities to transit from school to post-school   professional education especially in Science and Math. The first flight of UDAAN is to address lower enrolment of girls in engineering colleges which is currently about 23% girls as against 77% of boys. It aims to reduce the quality gap between school education and engineering education entrance systems by focusing on the three dimensions- curriculum design, transaction and assessment. It will do this by enriching and supplementing   teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics at Senior Secondary level. The CBSE will provide free and online resources to the entire student population with special incentives and support to a thousand selected disadvantaged girls per year. UGC has formulated the scheme Swami Vivekananda Single Girl Child Scholarship for Research in Social Sciences the scheme under which 300 scholars would be provided Junior Research Fellowship @ Rs. 8,000/--10,000/- per month, and will be implemented from academic year 2014-15. The AICTE  scheme PRAGATI (Providing Assistance for Girls’ Advancement in Technical Education Initiative) envisages selection of   one girl per family where family income is less than 6 lakhs / annum  on merit at the qualifying examination to pursue technical education. The scheme is to be   implemented by the authorised admission centre of   respective State Governments.  4000 girls are expected to get benefit of scholarships available per annum. The scholarship amount is Rs. 30,000 or tuition fees or actual whichever is less and Rs. 2000 / month for ten months as contingency allowance. For integrating over 25 lakh children   with special needs enrolled in elementary education across the country in a regular classroom environment, a handbook on curricular adaptations to orient all primary school teachers across the country was developed by National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) and released by the Human Resource Minister on 26th August, 2014. AICTE has decided to award 1000 scholarships per annum under Saksham to differently abled students to pursue technical education based on merit in the qualifying examination to pursue technical education.  The   scholarship amount would be Rs. 30000 or tuition fees or actual whichever is less and Rs. 2000 / month for ten months as contingency allowance. The UGC has launched a special scholarship Scheme for students of North East Region Ishan Uday from the academic session 2014-15. The Scheme envisages grant of 10,000 scholarships to students from North East Region whose parental income is below Rs. 4.5 lakh per annum and would be provided scholarship ranging from Rs. 3,500 to 5,000 per month for studying at under graduate level in Colleges/Universities of the country. Ishān Vikās is a comprehensive plan to bring selected students from the school and college levels from the North-Eastern states into close contact with the IITs, NITs and IISERs during their vacation periods. A typical visit is envisaged for a period of ten days to one of these institutions, in the form of either an exposure or an Internship programme. Each school will send one teacher to accompany a group of about 32 students of class IX and X and 8 teachers. The college students would be organised in two groups in summer and in winter, consisting of 32 students each group. About 2016 college students and 504 teachers from N-E will be visiting premier Institutes, like IIT/NIT/IISERs in an academic year. The Summer Internship for students from the Engineering Colleges (State or Centrally Funded Technological Institutes) with Stipends and Travel will be taken up. From 25 Institutions, about 250 students will be visiting 16 IITs and 6 NITs (to start with six NITs are being considered) per year. Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat initiative was launched on 26th August, 2014, to focus on the quality of foundational learning so that each child attains appropriate learning levels in classes I and II for reading, writing language comprehension and numeracy. Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat is a sub-component of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA) and is being rolled out by 17 States and UTs. A Framework for School Assessment and  Evaluation is being developed as  a self- improvement tool for  schools themselves and also to reorient school inspectors, district and block level officers to objective assessment of schools with a view to  enhance their effectiveness. The programme in the field would be rolled out by January 2015. The initiative Enabling Interaction of Scholars with our Students aims at creating a talent pool of eminent scientists/scholars abroad or in India to enable their interaction with Indian student/ faculty. The task of identifying such scientists/ scholars has been initiated.  A database is being created with the help of eminent academic institutions so as to initiate activities from the academic year 2015. Under SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) Programme Professors of centrally funded institutions like IITs, IIMs, Centrally universities will offer online courses to citizens of our country. All courses will be made available free of cost for learning. In case the learner requires a Verified Certificate, a small fee will be applicable. In the first phase, IIT Bombay, IIT Chennai, IIT Kanpur, IIT Guwahati, University of Delhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru University, IGNOU, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, Banaras Hindu University, alone as well as with the help of faculty from foreign universities will be offering courses in areas of engineering education, social science, energy, management, basic sciences. At least one crore students are expected to benefit in 2 to 3 years through this initiative. SWAYAM will be launched in 2014. The National E-Library has been envisaged as  an online portal that will democratize access to knowledge by ensuring that quality content from central universities and premier educational institutions are available in a digital format that can be easily accessed by students, working professionals and researchers across the country through laptops, smart phones, tablets, PC’s. International collaboration has been offered by Israel, Norway, UK, UNESCO. The National E -Library becomes operational in the academic year 2015. The National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) offers digital and digitisable resources (audio, video, interactive images and documents)   in different languages   along with online activities. 13,773 registered users/contributors of e -content, 71,447 unique visitors have already contributed more than 45 lakh hits on the NROER portal. There are almost 10,500 colleges which conduct about 14000 Programs and 18000 levels in Technical Education. Programs are Engineering / Technology, Architecture, Pharmacy, Applied arts, Management and Hotel Management and Catering Technology.  Levels are Diploma, Post Diploma, Graduate, Post Graduate and Ph D. Similarly, there are more than 35000 colleges conducting at least 20,000 programs and 50000 levels in the Higher education sector (Other than Technical Colleges) A new Know your College Portal has been developed for helping a prospective student make a valued judgment of the college he / she wishes to join by providing him/her the necessary information about the same. KYC is a repository of information pertaining to colleges in India vis-à-vis faculty, labs, and infrastructure. Work has commenced on “Shaala Darpan” to ensure that from next academic year, parents of students of Government and Government aided schools can through a mobile application access updates on their child’s progress regarding attendance, assignments, and achievements. GIS mapping of schools at elementary as well as secondary level initiated and completed for 13 States with work underway for another 8 States. This enables mapping infrastructure gaps and responding to the felt needs of the people in providing schooling facilities. The UGC has launched a new scheme, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Post Doctoral Fellows in Social Sciences including Languages.  Under the scheme 300 fellowships would be awarded at the rate of Rs. 25,000 per month + HRA etc. for a period of 3 years to the selected Fellows. AICTE has announced 1000 scholarships per annum to eligible candidates to pursue Ph D in CSIR / DRDO labs or other reputed institutions: Payment of scholarship is as per the Government norms for the purpose. Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) is a program conducted by Government of India to promote research amongst the eligible teachers in AICTE approved Institutions and others and facilitate them to complete a Ph D from the best Institutions in India like the IIT’s and NIT’s or other Nationally important Institutes. This scheme is open only to regular teachers. It is proposed to offer ME/M. Tech Scholarships under QIP to 7500 scholarships for M Tech under Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) and 2500 Scholarships for PhD under QIP. Ten goal posts have been identified and Research groups with each of eminent experts are being set up to formulate time-bound plans of action for each.  The task of the Research Group is to identify the needs of the country in terms of   its research and technology requirements and to enable proper planning for manpower, research infrastructure, and resources.   Leading academic institutions have been identified to set the   process   in motion. The lead institutions would be as follows: 1.         Health care: IIT Kharagpur 2.         Computer Science and ICT –IIT Kharagpur  3.         Energy: IIT Bombay 4.         Sustainable urban design IIT Roorkee 5.         Nano-technology hardware: IIT Bombay 6.         Water resources and River Systems, IIT Kanpur  7.         Advance materials. IIT Kanpur 8.         Manufacturing IIT Madras  9.         Defence IIT Madras  10.       Environment Science and Climate Change IISC, Bangalore The Research groups will be expected to share their first Report by March 2015. The Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is coordinated by IIT Delhi. It will be launched in 2014 as a network of IITs and other academic and professional institutes to evolve appropriate technologies converging for rural development, with focus on water management, organic farming, renewable energy, frugal technology, infrastructure, rural livelihood and employment.  A three day workshop on this was held in IIT Delhi on 7th September 2014.  The UGC has notified Regulations on Recognition and Monitoring of Assessment and Accrediting Agencies which would enable the UGC to register multiple agencies for undertaking accreditation of Institutions of Higher Education across the country. To promote Vocational Education, Colleges have been given the power to grant certificate/diploma under the Community college scheme implemented by the UGC. UGC has accorded sanction to 102 Community Colleges and 127 B.Voc Degree programmes entailing a financial outlay of Rs. 329 crore which would bring direct benefit to students studying in vocational programmes in these Institutions. Council for Industry-Higher Education Collaboration (CIHEC) is being operationalised to identify initiatives to promote research, mobilize resources, develop market ready manpower, and enhance employability. As a first step to this, a task force of IIT Directors and Chairpersons has given suggestions for collaboration agenda to be discussed for implementation in the CIHEC.    19 New Institutions are in the offing as follows: 1.         Five IITs: A.P, J&K, Chattisgarh, Goa, Kerala 2.         Six IIMs: H.P. AP, Punjab, Maharashtra, Bihar, Odisha 3.         Four New Central Universities: A.P (1 Central University & 1 Tribal University), M.P (Jai Prakash Narayan National Centre for Excellence in Humanities), Bihar (Mahatma Gandhi Central University) 4.         One IISER AP 5.         ONE NIT, AP 6.         N New IIIT in AP 7.         1 Tribal University, Telegana

Impetus to food Processing can minimize wastage of Fruits and Vegetables:

Progress of National Mission on Food Processing reviewed

Union Food Processing Industries Minister, Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal has said that impetus to food processing can minimize wastage of perishable commodities and give better returns for farmers while simultaneously ensuring cheaper prices for consumers. Smt. Badal said this while addressing the meeting with Ministers of Food Processing Industries of States/ UTs to review the progress of National Mission on Food Processing in the capital today. Smt. Badal also stressed the need for bringing down the percentage of wastages in the agricultural commodities particularly in fruits and vegetables from the present 18% to much lower levels. The minister also laid stress on using practical engineering solutions and simple techniques particularly at the harvesting stage and transportation stage so that farmers could get a better price for their produce and minimise the wastage. Commenting on the progress in the National Mission for Food Processing, the Minister noted with great satisfaction that in the first six months of the current financial year, around 50% of the grants has been released to the States, which was a notable achievement and vast improvement over the past 3 years when grants were not being utilised by state Governments. Earlier, giving the welcome address, Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing, Mr. Siraj Hussain welcomed the Ministers from Goa, Manipur, Odisha, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Karnataka who had come to attend the Meeting. Mr. Krishna B.Gowda, Agriculture Minister, Karnataka, stressed on the need for backward integration of retail units with the Food Processing projects so that a direct connect was achieved between the consumers and the producers. He said that investments in organised retail would result in efficiency in the food chain and better value for farmers. He also highlighted the need for de-regulation of agriculture markets. He requested that food processing sector should be included in the priority sector lending at par with agriculture by the banks. Ministers from other States /UTs who had done well in food processing shared their experience and also gave their suggestions and inputs for the food processing sector. Dr. S K Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary, Maharashtra recounted the great benefit that had accrued to the farmers through National Mission on Food Processing Lt. Gen.(Retd) A.K.Singh, Lt. Governor, Andaman & Nicobar Islands noted that 30% of India’s fish resources was in A & N Islands and they would collaborate with Andhra Pradesh for the fisheries sector. Mr. Mahadev Naik, Minister for Industries, Goa, suggested that cold storage should be set up in villages for processing fish and meat. Union Food Processing Industries Minister appreciated the exchange of ideas through this brainstorming session and assured the representatives from different states/UT’s that their suggestions have been noted down and suitable action would be taken so that the bottlenecks in the setting of Food Processing Units were removed. The state Ministers from Goa, Manipur, Odisha, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Karnataka welcomed this initiative of Ministry of Food Processing Industries and felt it would help in solving problems and encourage faster setting up of food processing industry thereby reducing wastage and ensuring better price to farmers. Smt. Badal also informed that her Ministry was looking at a new scheme of Mega Food Parks where cluster based approach would be followed which gives flexibility to the prospective entrepreneur regarding the area and the number and nature of units to be set up in the food parks. She invited suggestions from them so that district wise identification could be done on the surplus fruits & vegetables in that area. The Union Minister also stressed the need to collaborate & collectively participate in food Shows abroad under “Brand India”

India’s young demographic strength highlighted by G-20 Chair at Labour Ministers’ Conference in Australia

“India is one of the most youthful population of the world. 58% of our population is below the age of 29 years. The population dependency ratio is declining and is expected to rise only after 2030,” said Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Labour & Employment in his address to Labour Ministers of G-20 countries. The fact was also acknowledged by the G-20 Chair during the Labour and Employment Ministerial conference of G-20 Nations, held on September 10-11, 2014, at Melbourne Australia. The Labour Ministers of the major 20 economies in the world are discussing the global issues relating to labour in this two-day conference. Shri Tomar added, “One of the key requirements to boost labour market participation rate is to minimize the skill mismatch in job market by enhancing the skill base of the workforce in emerging economies like India. Structural unemployment and underemployment are biggest challenges on account of the mismatch between demand and supply factors of employment and rigidities in the labour market.” He elaborated that Government of India is adopting multipronged strategies to address it from both demand and supply side. From the supply side, creation of local jobs and development of SMEs have been identified as the doorways to reduce structural unemployment. M/o Labour & Employment has started a scheme on “Demand Responsive Vocational Training”. Under this scheme, any industry can sign an MOU with Government to conduct training programme to meet specific skill requirement of the company which would ensure minimum 80% employment in any local industry. From the demand side, emphasis is given to creation of appropriate skill sets among the rural migrant and urban poor. We are in favor of labour mobility, skill portability and harmonization of skills qualification framework for a paradigm shift of laborers from low skill based work to high productivity jobs. Evolving National Vocational Qualification Framework is one of key pre-requisites to ensure that skills and qualifications match new job requirements.Skill Development Initiative Scheme, based on Modular Employable Skill (MES) framework has been in operation to provide vocational training to early school leavers and existing workers, especially in unorganized sector. Government of India is taking proactive measures to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups through 21 Vocational Rehabilitation Centers. A national Scheme ‘Recognition of Prior Learning of Construction Worker’ has been prepared by MoLE to evaluate skills and knowledge acquired informally and addresses them through Skill gap training for 15 days. Active labour market policies (ALMPs) in our country are recognized as an important strategy. Under National Career Service (NCS) project, Public Employment Exchanges are being revamped into Career Counseling Center for assessing local job scenario and organizing job fairs for efficient placement. Government of India is taking affirmative policy measures to simplify the labour laws. “We believe that G 20 can serve as a policy platform for exchanging best practices and knowledge sharing for creation of better jobs and boosting participation in the World of Work,” said Mr Tomar. Mr Tomar also mentioned that Industry and commerce are the two areas having maximum potential of employment. We feel that employers have a big role to play to address our concern of jobless growth. Therefore, this G20 conference besides appealing to governments should also appeal to employers that in addition to profit-earning, they should focus more on employment generation in the course of their business expansion. While speaking in a session on “Creating better jobs”, Shri Tomar further said, “Employment generation is India’s biggest challenge today. In the last decade, the rate of employment growth was less than 1%. Youth unemployment rate is 6.6% and underemployment rate is touching 5.7%. Every year almost 10 million people enter labour force in India. A large informal sector, lower participation of women in labour force, increasing the productivity of labour and providing social protection to the vulnerable sections are our main challenges. Creation of commensurate health and educational infrastructure for them is our highest priority so that we can reap our demographic dividend for growth and prosperity.” Government of India is taking various initiatives in consultation with all stakeholders. “We are working to enhance productivity of labour force through vocational training. We have set up Mentor Councils to revise the curricula according to the needs of Industry. Around 1500 vocational training centres are proposed in PPP mode in unserved blocks of the country. We are encouraging flexi-MoUs with Industries to promote employability. Premier academic institutions are being roped in for sustained improvement in vocational training. We are using distance education technology for capacity building of our technical teachers. MSMEs are not only important for job creation, promoting entrepreneurship but are also important for providing on the job training to youth. We are providing for financial assistance to promote apprenticeship in MSME. We are also suitably revising our legislation so as to encourage industry participation for quality apprenticeship,” he elaborated. 93% of India workforce is in unorganised Sector. A large portion of it is self-employed. Social protection to these groups is our priority. We are revamping our flagship scheme RSBY. Presently 38.5 million families have so far been benefitted by this cashless health insurance. We are trying to improve the quality of service through advanced IT infrastructure. Besides increasing the coverage of the scheme it is also proposed to seed the bank account details and unique citizen ID into the RSBY smart card. Flexibility is provided to provinces to ride their social security scheme on RSBY platform. In another important initiative we have also started a pilot project for convergence of 3 important social security schemes, life insurance, old age pension and health insurance at a single point of contact for unorganised workers through RSBY smart card. Promoting financial inclusion is the priority of our government. The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the scheme for universal access to banking facilities called “Jan Dhan Yojna” in the last week of August. 15 million bank accounts were opened on the first day of the scheme. The schemes targets to open 75 million bank accounts by the end of January 2015. In the organised sector, we are now going to provide portability of provident fund through Universal Account Number. The initiative will benefit each of the more than 40 million subscribers. Now a minimum pension is also guaranteed. We are amending our labour laws in order to encourage investment, ease of doing business and entrepreneurship. Amendments have also been proposed to enhance safety at workplace and working conditions especially for women. Use of Personal Protective Equipment has been made mandatory for hazardous industries. Amendment in legislation has also been proposed to allow night work for women. This would promote participation of women in labour force. We are also working on Minimum age of employment, and to provide a mandatory national floor level of minimum wages. We are also in process to draft a single law for MSME to increase formalisation. We have developed a unified web portal for online compliance of labour laws thereby promoting ease of compliance. Employers henceforth will be able to file a single, simplified, annual online return instead of filing separate returns under multiple laws. Labour Inspection Scheme is also being revamped to make it completely objective, transparent and accountable. India has a healthy tradition of tripartism. We are committed to achieve targets of progress and growth with cooperation of all stake holders with cooperation of all stake holders. I am confident that this mutual discussion in the G20 forum would be a positive initiative for ensuring growth and employment in the world.”

Sapota’s anticancer properties studied

Study has shown that certain chemicals in sapota fruit can inhibit tumour progression

Now, sapota joins the list of fruits that have proven anticancer properties. Proof of principle study using human cancer cell lines and mice induced with breast cancer has shown that certain chemicals in sapota fruit can inhibit tumour progression.

The study was undertaken by a team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore and the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore. The results were published recently in the Nature group’s journal Scientific Reports.

Experiments were carried out using different human cancer cell lines and mice induced to develop breast cancer to test and verify the efficacy of the sapota fruit extract in inhibiting cancer cell proliferation.

In the case of human cells, the anti-tumour potency was pronounced in the case of leukaemia. Of the two different human leukaemia cancer cell lines studied, the effect was pronounced in one of them (NALM6). The viability was “significantly affected” in these cell lines after 48 hours of treatment at extract concentrations of 1 mg/ml onwards. “Over 80 per cent of cell death was observed at 2 mg/ml concentration,” the paper notes. As expected, the effect of the sapota fruit extract on normal cells was “limited” compared with cancer cells.

Significant reduction
Mice induced with breast cancer and treated with the extract given through the oral route showed “significant reduction” in the tumour size. “In 50 per cent of mice studied, we could increase the lifespan by 3-fold,” said Sathees Raghavan, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, IISc. “We can initiate cell death within six hours of treatment.”

The study showed that proliferation of cancer cells was inhibited by activating programmed cell death (apoptosis) and not by necrosis (killing of cancer cells).

There are two pathways through which programmed cell death can be achieved. While one is the intrinsic pathway (involving the mitochondria), the other is the extrinsic pathway (the effect is brought about from outside the cell).

“We found the extract activates the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis to kill the cancer cells,” Prof. Raghavan said. Mitochondria plays a critical role in activating apoptosis as several of the proteins responsible for cell death are present either within or outside the mitochondria. The cancer cells treated with the extract “collapsed” the transmembrane of the mitochondria.

A small haemoprotein was released following the collapse of the transmembrane and this initiated the activation of the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis.

While human leukaemia cell lines were studied, in the case of mice, the effect of the extract was studied on breast cancer cells. Explaining the reason for this, Prof Raghavan said: “In India it is difficult to develop B cell leukaemia in mice using human leukaemia.”

But it is pertinent to point out that breast cancer accounts for about 30 per cent of all cancers, worldwide, while leukaemia accounts for only four per cent of all cancers in the world.

For the study, the researchers had used sapota fruit extract. As a result, which chemical(s) or molecule(s) has the effect of activating apoptosis (programmed cell death) is not known.

“The next step is to purify the active component that causes the observed anticancer properties in sapota fruit,” he said.

Peace and prosperity through security and stability

ussia will use its presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to advocate for coordinated steps on the economy, financial sector, energy and food security

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, to be held in Dushanbe on September 11 and 12, will be attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, heads and senior representatives of observer states, international organisations and other guests.

The SCO has become an influential organisation and an important factor in the emergence of a new polycentric world order. The organisation has worked to bring about tangible improvements in the security and multilateral political, economic and humanitarian cooperation of member states.

As a result, the role of the SCO in international and regional affairs is on the rise, attracting the attention of many countries and international organisations. Pakistan, India, and Iran want to become full members of the SCO, while more and more countries are seeking observer or dialogue partner status.

Secret to success

What is the secret to the success and appeal of the SCO? The answer is simple: our steadfast commitment to the United Nations Charter and fundamental international norms and laws; to the principles of equality, mutual respect, consideration of each other’s interests, resolving conflicts and disputes by political and diplomatic means, and the right of nations to choose their own path of development. These principles are consistent with the goal of ensuring a stable and democratic international system. The SCO is fully in tune with the realities and demands of the 21st century, unlike the relics of a past era that rely on rigid adherence to discipline that exists within particular blocs of countries.

 “Russia will use its presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to advocate for coordinated steps on the economy, financial sector, energy and food security” 

During Russia’s SCO presidency, which will begin right after the Dushanbe Summit, we plan to focus on better equipping the SCO to handle the many challenges facing the world today and on working together to adequately respond to events in the region and the world.

Coordinated approaches to common challenges will be reflected in the Strategy for the SCO’s Development to 2025, which will be finalised in time for the meeting of the council of heads of the SCO member states in Ufa in 2015. The document is designed to deepen cooperation within the SCO while expanding cooperation with leading multilateral institutions such as the U.N. and its specialised agencies. It also contains provisions on establishing relations with the Eurasian Economic Union.

Regional security

Regional security remains the SCO’s top priority. Other priorities include building up joint capabilities to combat terrorism, extremism, and drug trafficking, especially amid the worsening situation in Afghanistan. This will be achieved by strengthening the SCO’s Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure, implementing the Anti-Drug Strategy, and regular counter-terrorism training. The SCO Peace Mission 2014 exercises held in China on August 24 to 29 confirmed that the member states are prepared to deal with emerging threats. The SCO has been clear that it does not seek to create a military-political alliance. However, its core principles include preventing unlawful acts that harm the interests of member states.

In the face of complex and interrelated challenges, Russia will use its presidency of the SCO to advocate for coordinated steps on the economy, financial sector, energy and food security.

The continuing instability of the global economy and the risks of another crisis demand greater economic cooperation. Plans are being outlined to make broader use of national currencies in settlements. Prospects are good for launching large multilateral projects in transport, energy, innovative research and technology, agriculture, and the peaceful use of outer space, though the optimal funding mechanism for such projects remains to be determined. The SCO Business Council, Interbank Consortium, and Energy Club are at the forefront of expanding practical cooperation among member states.

The SCO is rapidly forming a common research, educational, cultural and humanitarian space. Work is underway to expand the SCO university network and to institutionalise information cooperation. And the planned joint celebrations of the 70th anniversary of victory in the Second World War will be a clear indication of the member states’ commitment to preserving our shared historical memory and strengthening mutual trust, including through the Youth Council and the SCO Forum.

The Dushanbe Summit will also formalise the legal, administrative and financial requirements for admitting new SCO members, making it possible to start expanding the organisation during the Russian presidency. At the same time, we will continue to engage with observer states and dialogue partners.

I strongly believe that, in close cooperation with our partners, we will be able to accelerate the SCO’s development and further enhance its role in promoting peace and prosperity in the region.

China reports 5 per cent drop in carbon intensity

China, the biggest greenhouse gasemitter, today said it has registered a 5 per cent drop in its carbon intensity after the world's second largest economy made further structural re-adjustment to improve growth quality.
Carbon intensity was cut by about 5 per cent in the first half of the year, the biggest drop in many years, said Premier Li Keqiang.
"In the first half of the year, the growth of investment and production of industries with high energy consumption and emissions noticeably slowed down," Li said addressing the Summer Davos forum, also known as the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2014, being held in the port city of Tianjin.
He said the energy consumption per unit of the GDP also dropped 4.2 per cent year-on-year during the period.
Chinese officials say carbon emissions, which has become the country's worst health hazard in recent years as smog envelopes most of the cities, is showing signs of decline.
Early this year, Li had declared a war against smog and vowed to arrest its spread.
Through reforms and innovations, China has moved to reduce overcapacity and foster new growth areas, Li said and added that China has been promoting business reorganisations and mergers while redoubling efforts to conserve energy and cut emissions.
China has cut down on coal consumption, electricity and oil and eased pressures on transportation to achieve the same GDP growth, he said.
China and US topped the lists of biggest carbon emitters.
Tackling climate change is not only China's binding international obligation, but also a pressing need for the country's own development.
"There is no turning back in China's commitment to a sound eco-system. We have declared war on pollution and earnestly fulfilled international responsibilities," he said.
China is studying action targets on greenhouse gas emissions control, including the peak of CO2 emissions, carbon emission intensity reduction and an increase in the non-fossil energy by 2030, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Li said China is both resolved and capable in pursuing green, circular and low-carbon development.
China will keep focus on scientific and technological innovation, step up environmental management, and boost the development of energy conservation and environment protection sectors, he said. Meanwhile China will also work with other countries to tackle global climate change.
The Chinese government has pledged a 40-45 per cent cut in carbon dioxide intensity by 2020 from the levels in 2005.
CO2 emissions per unit of GDP had dropped 28.56 per cent by 2013 from the levels of 2005, or a reduction of 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's key economic planning body.

Painting a rosy picture,POVERTY ESTIMATION BY WORLD BANK

No one is yet celebrating. Neither the Congress nor the ruling BJP is willing to formally accept the latest poverty vanishing trick performed by the World Bank. By revising the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) index, the World Bank has in one stroke reduced India’s poverty from over 400 million in 2005 to a very impressive 98 million in 2010.

This statistical jugglery comes at a time when an expert committee under Prof C Rangarajan, a former economic advisor to the prime minister, submitted its report to the Planning Commission in July this year. By revising the poverty line to Rs 32 in rural areas and Rs 47 in urban areas, Rangarajan committee actually added another 93.7 million thereby raising the number of total poor to 363 million or 29.5 per cent of the population.

Isn’t this shocking? While not many Indians will believe that Rangarajan committee’s estimates are anywhere near the reality, and in fact is a gross underestimation of the extent of poverty in India, the World Bank’s latest estimates only shows that poverty does not require Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets to be achieved or any real effort to combat poverty and squalor. All it needs is a few economists who can play around with statistics. These economists can perform the vanishing trick much better than the Indian rope trick.

According to the World Bank’s latest estimates, global poverty has come down overnight from 1.2 billion to 571 million. The earlier poverty line figure in India was Rs 27 for rural areas and Rs 33 for urban areas as computed by the Tendulkar committee a year back. This had raised a storm over the faulty and impractical estimates necessitating the setting up of yet another committee under C Rangarajan. And if the recommendations of the Rangarajan committee are to be believed, it tells us that there is something dubiously wrong with the way India is trying to deliberately keep poverty low. In all fairness, the new poverty line is nothing but a starvation line. It only tells us how many people need emergency food aid.

World Bank is still worse. In order to justify economic liberalisation, it has been trying to fiddle around with social indicators as well as the poverty line to establish that the market mantra is working. World Bank’s chief economist Kaushik Basu defends the exercise by saying: “In case a dollar in Ghana can buy three times what it can but in the United States, then a person who earns 1,000 dollar each month in Ghana is said to earn 3,000 in terms of PPP-adjusted dollars”.

The hidden truth

But the reality is that even in the United States, despite being a privatised economy, hunger has shattered 25 years record. A record 49 million people, one in seven, depend upon food coupons to meet their daily food needs. One in four lives in poverty in America. Global empirical evidence is now emerging challenging the World Banks deliberate underestimation of poverty. Recent studies (ECLAC 2002, 2011) have conclusively shown that in Latin America for instance actual poverty rates are twice than what the World Bank had projected.

More recently, on April 11, 2014, a study by the University of Bristol published in the Journal of Sociology concludes that the World Bank is painting a‘rosy’ picture by keeping poverty too low due to its narrow definition. Dr Christopher Deeming of the Bristol University’s School of Geographical Sciences is quoted as saying: “Our findings suggest that the current international poverty line of a dollar a day seriously underestimates global poverty.” In India too, the entire effort of policy planners as well as the numerous expert committees constituted over time to estimate poverty have simply tried to brush the realities under the carpet.

While Rangarajan committee tabulates a new poverty line, way back in 2007, Arjun Sengupta committee report had estimated that 77 per cent of the population or 834 million people were unable to spend more than Rs 20 aday. But more recently, the consumer expenditure data presented by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 2011-12 paints before us the grim realities.

Accordingly, if you are spending more than Rs 2,886 per month in the rural areas and Rs 6,383 in the urban areas you are part of the top 5 per cent of the country’s population. In other words, those spending more than Rs 6,383 in urban areas are in the same category as Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani. For the rest 95 per cent, roughly 118crore people, life in any case remains tough. With or without the growth trajectory, their life hasn’t changed. In fact, with the aggressive pitching by the corporate-controlled media, the growing social divide is getting completely ignored.

Another estimate exposes the glaring inequalities. The economic wealth of 56 people is equal to the economic wealth of 600 million people. No wonder when we take averages like the rising average income, it hides the rapidly growing inequalities. World Bank’s deliberate attempt to paint a rosy picture by brushing the poor under the carpet in one single sweep hides the truth. With the passage of time, the unchallenged but repeated use of the latest statistics, get accepted over time. The poor however continue to live in misery.