We are What Our Father ate

London: Like father, like children. Yes, you're what your father eats, says a new study.

An international team has found that a father's diet while growing up can affect the future health of his offspring -- in fact, paternal diet influences lipid metabolising genes of his children, the 'Cell' journal reported.

In their study, researchers have discovered that a father's lifestyle can be passed down to his children because it "reprogrammes" his genes.

The study has shown the hereditary effects of a process called "epigenetics" which is how the environment and lifestyle can permanently alter people's genes as they grow up. These altered genes can then be passed on to children.

Dr Oliver Rando of University of Massachusetts Medical School, who led the team, said his research could help identify individuals at high risk of illness such as heart disease and diabetes.

Workplace attitude differs in private, public sectors

Fri Dec 24 2010 13:12:24 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) by IANS ( Leave a comment )

London, Dec 24 (IANS) High levels of emotional intelligence (EI) foster positive attitudes at private sector workplaces, but not in the public sector, a study says.”The results emphasise the existence of significant behavioral differences between the private and public sectors, says Galit Meisler of the University of Haifa in Israel, who conducted the study.

“Executives intending to carry out reforms or implement management plans in the public sector should be well aware of these differences,” explains Meisler, according to a Haifa statement.

Emotional intelligence describes the ability or capacity to perceive, assess and manage the emotions of oneself and of others.

The study, supervised by Professor Eran Vigoda-Gadot, surveyed 809 employees and managers within four organisations - two in the public sector and two in the private sector.

A comparison between the two sectors revealed a higher level of organisational politics in the public sector.

The political skills of public sector employees were much more developed. Yet, significant differences in employees’ emotional intelligence level were not found.

The study shows that EI has a much greater impact on private sector employees’ perceptions and attitudes compared to public sector employees.

Moreover, the study found that employees from the public sector were more likely to use forceful influence tactics, regardless of their emotional intelligence level.

In the private sector, however, employees with a higher level of emotional intelligence were less likely to use such tactics.

There's no magical formula to win a Nobel Prize: ‘Venky' Ramakrishnan Published in The Hindu Dt.21.12.2010

Do not work on anything you are not interested in. This is an absolute minimum to succeed, says the Nobel Laureate

What does it take to become a Nobel laureate?

Venkataraman ‘Venky' Ramakrishnan, who won the coveted award for chemistry last year, is of the view that no special attributes are needed to achieve the feat.

“There is no magical formula for winning a Nobel Prize,” Professor Ramakrishnan said at a public lecture here on Monday.

Replying to a question from the audience, he also stressed that there was no need for India to win a Nobel Prize to become a scientific power. “I also don't think that if India wins a Nobel Prize, it would mean suddenly that Indian science is okay.”

Interacting for nearly half an hour with students and researchers, Professor Ramakrishnan said: “Do not work on anything you are not interested in. This is an absolute minimum [to succeed].”

He advocated the ‘Crick test' for the students. “It is a classic test that you can use. It was first proposed by Francis Crick. He said if you do not gossip about your problem, that means you are not really interested in it.”

Professor Ramakrishnan added: “If you are a science student…everyday science is a tedious [affair] and you have to have the patience to see a problem through. This depends on how much you care for the problem.”

He urged young researchers to set a five-year horizon for their work. “This is more applicable to young investigators — where do you want to be in the next five years, not in terms of status but in terms of work.”

Professor Ramakrishnan said researchers should choose the right place to pursue their area of interest. “It does not necessarily mean the most prestigious place, but it has to be one with a very good intellectual environment for your work.”

Elaborating on this, he said: “If you go to a second-rate place and you are first-rate, it is very difficult to do first-rate work because you do not get that critical feedback you need for first-rate work on a daily basis.”

‘BOOMING FIELD'

Replying to another query, Professor Ramakrishnan said he chose biology as his field of work after graduating in theoretical physics because the new field was booming and there were fresh breakthroughs every now and then.

“Physics is in a difficult situation in the sense that fundamental problems in physics have become extremely difficult, and [it is] really going to require amazingly smart and original thinkers to lead the way out of it.”

The public lecture was organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with the Science and Technology Ministry's Department of Biotechnology.

Keywords: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel laureate

Indian power generation to go up by 28K MW by 2017 | iGovernment.in

http://igovernment.in/site/indian-power-generation-go-28k-mw-2017-38890
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India plans creating 58 mn more jobs by 2012 | iGovernment.in

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HindustanTimes - ht SPECIAL - MEDVEDEV VISIT - Orissa N-plant gift to Russia?

koraputonline@gmail.com saw this article on HindustanTimes ePaper, and thought you would find it interesting. You can find it at: - ht SPECIAL - MEDVEDEV VISIT - Orissa N-plant gift to Russia?

A nuclear power projects that Russia intends to set up in India may be shifted to Orissa from West Bengal where it was originally to be located following local protests there, government sources said.Barely weeks before Russian president Dmitri Medvedev's scheduled visit on December 2122 -and after Russia raised concerns about the protests -India has informally conveyed that a new site in Orissa could be made available.
“We have received this informal proposal and it sounds good,“ a Russian official said.
However, government sources said: “Last ditch efforts are on to sort out the problems regarding the Haripur site.“
The Haripur project envisages six nuclear reactors, which would require over 5,000 acres of land. Only the first two, however, each of 1000 MW, to be designed by the Russians, are so far in the pipeline.
But as at Singur and Nandigram, locals are resisting land acquisition claiming fertile and multi-cropped land on which more than 25,000 farmers depend for their livelihood, would be taken away from them for the project.
Here too, the protests, which have been on for the past two years, are led by Trinamool Congress, which controls the East Midnapore zillaparishad under which Haripur falls.“It is difficult for me to comment. The party opposing the project is an important partner of the present union government. It is up to the Centre to decide the matter,“ Nirupam Sen, West Bengal industries minister told the Hindustan Times, when asked if he was hopeful of sorting out the issue. But whether the project will fare any better in Orissa, which has also seen long drawn mass struggles against land acquisition by companies like Posco and Vedanta, remains to be seen.
Russians are committed to building six nuclear reactors in India â“ two at Haripur in West Bengal and four at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.
Kudankulam already has two Russian-designed reactors under construction that are expected to be ready for commercial operations in March 2011 and December 2011 respectively.

Crusade Against Climte Change-By Asutosh Mishra ,JNV,Koraput

CRUSADE AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
Earth is dynamic so as its atmosphere and climate. Many a changes
took place on its lap after the inception of earth. Sometime decreasing
temperature covered most of its surface with ice on the other hand
increasing temperature melted all the ice caps and mixed it up with vast
ocean. If we peep into the 640 million years of eventful history of earth
changes are conspicuous. The moot point here is “why there is so much
fuss about the present changes in climate”?
A slight change in climate leads to far reaching consequences. The
huge animal like Dinosaur was extinct from earth surface due to such
minor changes in climate. This change was natural where as the changes of
the present are mostly man made. A scientific data revealed that the
temperature of the atmosphere increased by 0.60C in twentieth century out
RISE IN TEMPERATURE,  INCREASE IN GREEN HOUSE GASES,  MELTING OF ICE SEA LEVEL RISE,  SINKING COAST,  TSUNAMI & EARTH QUAKE,  FLOOD,  EXCESSIVE SUN STROKE , LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY FOREST,  FIRE FOOD SCARCITY,  SPREAD OF TROPICAL DISEASES EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WORMING
of which the rate of change increased by three times after seventies and it
will reach between 1.10C and 6.40C in 21st century (The Samaj, 2009). It is
interesting to note the eleven out of twelve hottest years are within 1995 to
2006. Who is responsible for this alarming increase in temperature?
Sun is the primary source of all energy on earth surface. The energy
that comes from sun is in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Our
atmosphere is transparent to these radiations but the terrestrial radiation or
the reflected sun rays from earth are absorbed by green house gases such as
Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Ozone, Nitrous Oxide, CFC etc and in turn
atmosphere get heated. This process is known as glass house or green
house effect. Rapid industrialization, modernization, globalization,
materialistic way of life etc are basis of 21st century. It gives rise to
increase in green house gases. Eight thousand years before industrial
revolution carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere was 20 PPM
(Parts Per Million) which increased to 107 PPM after 250 years from the
revolution. The annual rate of increase between 1995 and 2005 was 1.9
PPM. Likewise the concentration of Methane was 700 PPB (Parts Per
Billion) in 1750 which increased to 1745 PPB at present, Nitrous Oxide
from 270 PPB to 314 PPB and Chlorofluorocarbon increased from zero to
533 PPB (The Samaj, 2009). Rapid rise of these gases is creating the
catastrophic consequence of “Global Warming”. According to IPCC
around 90 percent of rise in temperature of earth surface after 1960s are
due to increase in these green house gases. If the carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere increased by two times the temperature on earth will rise by
30C. As the effects of other green house gases are more then carbon dioxide
the consequence can easily be inferred.
The area covered by all the glacier of earth surface is equal to five
times of the total area of India. Rise in temperature has resulted in melting
of ice and thereby increase in sea level upto 10 to 20 cm by now. If this
process continues the temperature will rise to a minimum of 20C by 2100
and sea level will rise by 1.4m and a rise of 30C in temperature will lead to
melting of all the ice and a rise of fifteen feet in sea level. One-third of total
population of earth lives within 60 KM from the coast. Along with them
the low lying densely populated islands like Maldeep, West Indies,
Srilanka will have to face the brunt of vagaries of climate. India has a coast
line of 7500 KM and a population of 7.1million living in coastal region will
be affected by increase in one meter of sea level. Rise in sea level will
increase in the water level of rivers and thereby the large cities like Venis,
Bankok, Sanghai, Kolkota, Dhaka will be in danger. According to a study
the Gangotri glacier has receded by one third km during last thirteen years.
If the glaciers recede at this rate then the rivers like Ganga, Yamuna,
Brahmaputra, Indus, Mekong will loose their existence. This will lead to
scarcity of food for fifty crores population living between Punjab to West
Bengal of India. It is also indicated by studies that the rise of 10C in
temperature will lead to decrease of five to ten percent in the yield of wheat
and overall crop yields will decrease up to thirty percent in South Asian
countries by the mid 21st century (Gautam, 2009). Likewise the rise of
1.50C in temperature and increase of two mm in precipitation may result in
decline in the yield of rice by three to fifteen percent (Senapati, 2009).
Along with this there will be frequent visit of severe flood, dangerous
drought, super cyclones, uncontrolled forest fire, spread of tropical
diseases, destruction of biodiversity, increase cases of sun stroke, tsunami
and earthquakes etc. What is to be done to mitigate this menacing problem?
The deprived section of society and under developed countries of
world will be affected most by this change. For a rise in one meter in sea
level USA will have to spend a huge amount to construct dams to check the
floods across its coast. Likewise Mumbai will have to spend 48 billion
dollar and small coastal towns like Baleswar of Orissa, will have to spend
75 million dollar (Sinha, 2007). Rich countries will be able to shoulder the
burden but what about the poor? On the other hand the rate of pollution by
developed countries is more. An estimate reveals that the contribution of
carbon dioxide to environment by USA is 18 percent, Russia 12 percent,
Brazil 10 percent, China 7 percent , India and Japan 4 percent each,
Germany and UK 3 percent individually (The Samaj, 2009). The climate of
all countries of the world is integrated with each other. Thus this problem
can be solved with the active cooperation of all the countries of the world.
Keeping this in mind the human induced climate change was opposed for
the first time since back 1979 in world climate summit. The Earth summit,
1992 and Kyoto protocol are some small steps towards this direction.
World leaders meet at the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen in December
2009 to search out the ways to solve this problem.
It is also the responsibility of each and every individual to fight
against this global problem. Small step like switching off the light, fan, TV
and other power driven gadgets when they are not in use, not using those
equipments that pollute or consume more energy, creating public
awareness, using renewable energy resources like solar, wind, biomass etc,
planting trees to celebrate occasions like birthday, not allowing polluting
industries to open in the vicinity etc can change the world to a safe place to
live in.
It is the right time now to undo the injustice done to our
environment. Delay will leads to self annihilation of mankind.
_____________________________________

On Toxic Toys

New Delhi: Even branded plastic toys sold in India markets cause asthma, lung problems and reproductive problems in children due to high toxic levels, says a study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

In its latest study released on Friday, CSE's pollution monitoring laboratory found high levels of phthalates, a chemical used to soften plastic, in all samples of toys it tested. Over 45 percent of the samples exceeded the internationally accepted safety limits for phthalates.

"We randomly purchased 24 toys from different parts of Delhi, especially those toys that children are more likely to chew and suck. Out of 24 toys, 15 were soft and nine were hard. These toys were manufactured in China (14), India (7), Taiwan (2) and Thailand (1)," said CSE Associate Director Chandra Bhushan.

"The sample included major brands like Funskool and Mattel. In our test we detected one or more phthalates in all toys. Taiwanese and Chinese toys were the most contaminated. Taiwan toys exceeded the safe limits by 100 percent. While eight out of 14 toys manufactured in China exceeded the limits," he said.

According to Bhushan, only one Indian toy manufacturer exceeded the safety limits.

"Pip Squeaks, a toy manufactured by Funskool Ltd, for 3-18 months old had highest levels of phthalates. It exceeded the standards by 162 times. Worse, the label on the toy says - non-toxic, suitable for ages 3-18 months," Bhushan said.

"In totality 60 percent of soft toys and 20 percent of hard toys exceeded the safe limits," he said.

Phthalates are organic chemicals commonly used as plasticisers to make plastic supple. It helps in making plastic products cheap and easy--and toxic.

The chemical can damage the male reproductive system, impair the lungs and affect the duration of pregnancy. Laboratory tests on mammals have indicated that it can also trigger asthma, allergies, poor semen quality, genital defects, premature breast development and skeletal defects.

"Children under three years are more likely to be exposed to phthalates because they tend to chew and suck on plastic toys and since their metabolic, endocrine and reproductive systems are immature, they are more vulnerable as well," said CSE director Sunita Narain.

Narain said India has no regulations to control the use of phthalates in toys. "It only has voluntary standards covering safety aspects of toys. On January 23, the government ban on import of toys not meeting these standards will end. In the unregulated free-for-all that threatens to follow, the health of children will be compromised, putting them at a huge risk."

Bhushan said as the regulation on imports expires on January 23, the government has two options.

"Either regulate all toys, both domestic production and imports. Second, and the easier option, let the order expire and leave the entire market unregulated, endangering the health and safety of children. As things stand now, the government does not want to make the effort to make standards mandatory for all," he said.

CSE is a non-governmental organization working on environment and research.

Fwd: {KBK OTable} Sam's Agenda

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Umashankar Sahu <ussahu@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 5:31 PM
Subject: {KBK OTable} Sam's Agenda
To: kbkroundtable@googlegroups.com

Sam's Agenda
The three fundamental challenges facing India today are disparity,
demography and development: there is disparity between the rich and
the poor, between urban-rural populace, and between the educated and
the uneducated; demography is yet another challenge, given the fact
that India has a population of over 550 million below the age of 25
and of 750 million below the age of 35; and, when it comes to
development, change is taking place in the country but not fast
enough. Action on these three areas will determine whether India can
make the next decade its decade or not. Another crucial piece of the
puzzle is the power of connectivity and accessibility. We have to
understand the power of one billion unconnected people in this world
is very different from one billion connected people. Connectivity
offers different dimension and dynamics to development in our
democracy in view of our vibrant young population.  It offers a unique
opportunity to transform India in a very special way. And it is an
agenda that Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public
Information, Infrastructure & Innovations, is seeking to implement.
According to him, the time is right for the 'decade of innovation',
with the people having the right mindset for such change. "Today,
India has confidence, there is a different mindset and there is a
willingness to change. There are  challenges we have in front of us.
But at least we know the direction we want to take and while we might
face some roadblocks, I see this as a historic opportunity."
In an exclusive interview to Inclusion, the father of the telecom
revolution in India, Pitroda said that the starting point to tackle
the challenges that India faces is technology. While political will is
important, it is technology that can force the change. "And today, we
have the technology on the ground. But what is needed are the
applications that will enable the people to benefit from such
technology." Pointing out that the country has over the last decade
set up a huge information infrastructure, which can be upgraded very
quickly to global standards. "If the global standards meet our needs,
we will adopt them, if not then we will create our own standards." He
further added, "we have to crash the transaction costs substantially.
We want to do open source and open standards as much as possible and
sit Indian languages on top of that."
IT systems and infrastructure in the country have tremendous potential
to benefit people and improve the delivery of public services. This is
especially crucial for the bottom of the pyramid where basic services
such as healthcare, education, water, sanitation, energy and housing
are inadequate. By creating accessible and transparent systems through
IT and generating organizational reform, we can succeed in improving
the delivery of these services across sectors. "Already, steps have
been initiated by the National Knowledge Network to use this
information infrastructure to connect all our universities, our R&D
laboratories, agricultural research, health research, and libraries.
The aim is to be able to increase collaboration because all modern
research today is multi-disciplinary."
Pitroda cautions that such change cannot happen immediately. "But, a
start has to be made. Today, the communication system is in place. We
now have to put in place the necessary infrastructure with
standardisation. The assets on the ground are in place and the thrust
now has to be on developing applications based on an Indian model,
Indian needs and Indian languages." Such applications, according to
Pitroda, will come from both the public sector and the private sector.
But, it is the government that has to put the standards in place, with
implementation being done largely by the private sector. On the
argument that decentralized implementation and issues at state level
impede progress, Pitroda said that it was precisely because of this
that the centre should put in place the necessary standards for system
and processes on which new applications are based.
Common and standardized platforms are crucial for the service
experience to become more citizen centric. Standardization and
integration has the potential to optimize delivery of services of the
processes which impact citizens the most such as birth certificates,
death certificates, land records, pension, ration cards, drivers
license, taxes, etc;  and also for expediting delivery of justice, and
creating an all new interface for the citizen in e-governance. "One of
the problems I find in today's e-government programmes is that the
states are being given money and then being allowed to spend it on
whatever hardware or software they want to. That is why nothing has
scaled. Because there is a programme, somebody goes and buys some
hardware or software, somebody else buys another. This is preventing
any kind of integration. There should be nation-wide applicability of
any new system that is put in place. "We cannot have a system that
works differently in different regions. Ultimately, one should be able
to get a driving licence for Delhi by taking a test in Mumbai. And
this is something that we do not need to look at the Western world
for. This is because we are probably one of the very few countries
where the driving licence programme is standardised. Every state has
the same piece of software for driving licence. All we need here is
better system integration." He further said, "we have assets on the
ground, we need to create applications now to really capitalise on
these."
This is especially important when it comes to issues like homeland
security. "Even if we just organise information with technology, even
if we take the 20-odd state security agencies and make their databases
talk to each other, we will make a major difference. Today, the police
is not talking to IB which is not talking to other security forces or
various government departments not talking to anybody. Everybody is
doing their own thing. That is where IT can make a difference."
Agreeing that the task ahead is monumental, Pitroda said that learning
lies in the telecom revolution. As telecom connectivity spread, the
costs started coming down, accessibility improved even further and
today we have a situation where we are adding 10 million new
subscribers every month. Connecting rural India to urban India,
connecting urban India to the world is really transforming the way we
communicate. And it's empowering the people. "So, it is a question of
who walks the first mile. Once you do that, you will see that everyone
is willing to walk the last mile. It is also a question of getting the
right people to work at solving the problems of the poor. Today, the
best brains are working on solving the problems of the rich, who
actually do not have any problems. And, it is because of situations
like this that we have an automated traffic management system for
aviation but not one for the railways - the common man's mode of
transportation."
According to Pitroda, it is technology that can bring in the required
transparency even as it improves productivity, efficiency and
accountability, and reduces cost, corruption and leakages. "Consider
the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, where we have to pay
200 million people minimum wage for 100 days. Today, this payment is
done through manual means. Is there a way to pay them through mobile
phones or directly in an automated fashion? It is the development of
such applications that can drive the change that we are all looking
for. What one needs is a business model for all applications, with the
private sector playing the role of service delivery and not that
hardware or software installation and maintenance." Continuing with
his example of the Indian Railways, Pitroda says that today the Indian
Railways are one of the largest in the world, but they still do not
have an electronic signalling system. "If technology is put to use
here and satellite signalling systems are installed, we can probably
double the capacity of the system."
Governance has to be inclusive, not exclusive. It is all about
building a society where we pay more attention to growth for the large
number of people, not a mere handful. Economic liberalisation is no
longer an issue. The big issue today is how do we create an inclusive
society? How do we provide education, health services and employment?
The realisation that provision of such services will come from only
the government is beginning to change. "People are willing to pay
provided the cost is right and the service is delivered." And, this is
where innovation comes in. According to Pitroda, organisational
innovation is a crying need of the times. We need innovative IT
interfaces that enable different government departments and arms to be
able to talk to each other. Information should be able to flow
seamlessly from one government department to another, with the
necessary information security systems in place. For, Pitroda,
diversity is very critical to innovation and this is something the
country has in abundance. But now we have to change the way we
innovate governmental processes. Beyond government, we need to create
an ecosystem for innovation so that the benefits are reflected across
sectors including academia, industry and society. However an Indian
model of innovation has to be inclusive, with a special focus on the
challenges and problems at the bottom of the pyramid. We need to pay
attention to grassroots innovations and harnessing technology to
create services for more at a lesser cost.
"I have been saying that best brains in the world are busy solving the
problems of the rich. As a result, problems of the poor don't get
adequate attention. Technology can be used for solving the problems of
the poor and ultimately can become a potential tool for poverty
alleviation," opined Pitroda.
And for innovation to progress, we need knowledge. In fact, it was in
this background that the previous government had set up the National
Knowledge Commission. The Commission actually examined five aspects of
knowledge. It looked at access to knowledge, knowledge concepts, which
is education, knowledge creation, its application and its role in
governance. Knowledge concepts includes primary education, secondary
education, distance learning, vocational education, higher education
and teachers' training while knowledge creation looks at who creates
knowledge and how is knowledge created? This includes science and
patents, copyrights, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship.
Application of knowledge looks at its role in agriculture, health, the
industrial sector and services delivery. We have a great deal of
traditional knowledge, which we need to recover. In its report, the
Commission submitted around 300 recommendations on 27 focus areas.
While the term of the Commission has come to an end, the
implementation of its recommendations is currently underway at the
Central and State levels.
Agreeing that implementation is still a major issue, Pitroda said that
what is needed here are change agents. The government has unveiled
major plans for most sectors, including education, social and health
sectors. Such change agents are also needed within the government.
"Today, when we are a global IT champion, it is quite dismal that we
have no IT in our government. So, we are still moving files using
paper. If we start moving files electronically, we can track where the
file is, what is its status, and how long will it take to deliver
results. This process has to start somewhere." By increasing the role
of IT, the government can take a lot of unnecessary human interface
away and this should become the practice whether it is to file income
tax, to get a birth or death certificate, for school records,
passports, etc. The Government's UID programme will also plug in to
this drive towards accessible services. Today, the issue is to create
services that may not be commercially viable in the beginning, but are
citizen centric. We already have the necessary infrastructure; we only
have to upgrade it so that the information super highways of tomorrow
are created even as we go around creating traffic for this and this is
something that has to be done simultaneously. For example, says
Pitroda, tracking of court cases that have been pending for 15 years.
How do we use IT to really computerise these court cases, change, if
necessary, the regulations, so as to be able to use the infrastructure
to modernise our legal system. That is another big project because
that ultimately gets translated into public good.
Stressing on the importance of local self-governance, Pitroda said,
the true meaning of public-private partnership is not limited to the
role of private sector as providing hardware and software. The role of
the private sector is really to deliver services. "When you go to
250,000 panchayats, they have to have trained people, systems to run
and have government funding. We need to be careful in creating a
public-private partnership system of right kind. This is where I am
convinced that government must set standards." The government must
also take steps to ensure connectivity at the grassroots to enable
delivery of services. In this regard, broadband connectivity needs to
be expanded to the 250,000 panchayats in the country, which are the
backbone of local governance.
According to Pitroda, one of the most fundamental changes being
brought in the country today is in the education sector. Today, the
government has reserved up to 13 per cent of the country's budget on
various education related activities. The aim is to set up 30 more
national universities, 400 new colleges and 6,000 new schools, and
work on this has already started. The aim here is to create at least
one school in each block. The first stream will consist of 2,500
public funded schools in the educationally backward blocks,. The
second stream of about 2,500 schools would be set up through public
private partnership in other blocks with emphasis on geographical,
demographic, gender and social equity. Modalities for the remaining
1,000 schools have yet not been finalised. Here again, the task can
receive a significant boost, if the government is able to use its
existing IT infrastructure in an efficient manner. Generational
changes are required, for which our existing system does not appear to
be fully prepared. It is time to take education to the masses!
For the telecom czar, India is in a peculiar position: there are
schools where every teacher has a laptop and there are still others,
who do not even have a blackboard. "All of this takes time. We took 20
years to get the telecom thing work. In this day and age you can't
have a teacher without a laptop. It will happen but you still have
five years down the road. This is the beauty of India, where
everything has to happen simultaneously. Today, we have the
technology, and what we need is the people, the applications and the
political will to implements the change." Similarly, when we come to
the health sector, today we are faced with a greenfield situation. We
have the technology and we can create our own health vault, with the
health records of all citizens using indigenous technology. "We can't
rely either on Microsoft or Google for us to have a health vault. The
work has to start. We cannot go on waiting for someone else to take
the initiative."
"We need to pay more attention at the bottom of the pyramid, focusing
more on growth of large number of people and not the handful. We are
setting up the right kind of infrastructure now for the next big jump.
It is not about economic liberalisation. It is about creating an
inclusive society, providing education, health services, and creating
more jobs," concluded Pitroda
N.B: Mr. Sam Pitroda's childhood and schooling was spent in Titilagarh
of Bolangir
--
Umashankar Sahu
Bolangir
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