India Intelligence Report
 

Environment Health and Education

 

 
     
  • China's Non-Energy Focus (March 19, 2007)
    Beijing promised to transform itself from a high energy consumer to sustainable development practices to reduce the 15 per cent of the world consumption rate to contribute 5.5 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).<More>

  • Medicine Abuse Rising in India (March 12, 2007)
    A recent United Nations International Narcotics Control Board report expressed concern over the rise in the use of cocaine and excessive abuse of painkiller and cough syrups medicines.<More>

  • Canadian Animation Tie-up with Indian Schools (March 05, 2007)
    Canadian technical institutes seemed to have noticed a sharp shortage of skilled manpower to work on computer animation in India and are tying up with Indian animation schools to offer their courses.<More>

  • India is Pneumonia Capital (March 05, 2007)
    A World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that India has 44 million pneumonia cases making it the pneumonia capital of the world.<More>

  • Indo-EU Talks Focus on Labor, Ecology (February 27, 2007)
    Reports indicate that the European Union is keen to introduce "sustainable development" in its investment agreement with India and would like to introduce labor and environment targets despite the fact that both sides had agreed to exclude these topics.<More>

  • Apollo Hospitals in Yemen (February 19, 2007)
    The Apollo group of hospitals has signed an agreement with Hayel Saeed Anam group (HSA) to jointly run a USD 25 million super-specialty hospital at Taiz in Yemen by September this year.<More>

  • Renovated Nalanda Memorial, Students at VIT (February 19, 2007)
    Estranged nations India and China trying to rebuild past friendship and trust coalesced to renovate Xuanzang (Hieun Tsang) Memorial Hall in Nalanda in hopes that the friendship they shared for centuries may also be rebuilt.<More>

  • New Environmental Body (February 06 , 2007)
    France has proposed a new environmental body that could police, monitor, and hold responsible nations that over-use resources in the name of development and received support of several nations but not the US, China, India, and Russia.<More>

  • Iran’s Herbal Remedy against AIDS (February 06 , 2007)
    Iran announced that its scientists have produced a herbal medicine that boosts the immune system but “not medication to kill the virus” and is intended to be used as an alternative to “anti-retroviral drugs.”<More>

  • HIV Drug Trial Stopped (February 05 , 2007)
    Joint trials of a microbicide to prevent HIV infections during sex conducted in India and Africa were aborted after safety reasons cited by an independent scientific committee concluded that there was increased risk of HIV infection for women.<More>

  • Heart Disease Incidence Rising (January 30 , 2007)
    An international study on heart disease covering 52 countries and 30,000 patients found that changing lifestyles and diet along with “harmful factors such as cholesterol and history of diabetes” cause heart attack 5-10 years earlier in India than elsewhere.<More>

  • Large Budget Allocation for AIDS Control (January 30 , 2007)
    The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) proposes to spend 67.2 per cent of the total budget on prevention of HIV/AIDS under phase III of the National AIDS Control Programme on targeted interventions and anti-retroviral treatment.<More>

  • EU Help to Clean Ganga (January 29, 2007)
    To provide safe drinking water, the European Union is collaborating with many renowned Indian institutes to introduce natural and proven techniques of water filtration techniques and begun a EU-India River Bank Filtration Network.<More>

  • Bird Flu in South Korea, Egypt, Indonesia (January 22, 2007)
    South Korean official revealed plans to cull “273,000 poultry within a 500 meter radius” while Egypt reported the 11th death and Indonesia culled thousands of chicken after the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found.<More>

  • New Initiatives for Tigers at Sariska (January 22, 2007)
    After being severely criticized for the disappearances of tigers from the Sariska Reserve, the Rajasthan government has started relocating villages that fall inside the Sariska reserve to pave way for the re-entry of the big cats.<More>

  • Tiger Conservation Gaps (January 03, 2007)
    An international panel said that lack of proper amenities, delays in payment of compensation for human and cattle losses, illegal fishing, and illegal minor forest activity are seriously affecting tiger conservation efforts.<More>

  • Is US Global AIDS Program Effective? (December 28, 2006)
    Investigators say that US President George Bush's ambitious USD 15 billion AIDS-fighting program in poor countries was pushed too hard that has ended up in unintentional misrepresentation of patient data to a point where it is unusable.<More>

  • Educational Priorities Need Reevaluation (December 28, 2006)
    According to a senior University Grants Commission (UGC) official, research work in basic sciences is declining which may cause a decline in required talent pool that could indirectly affect India’s dominance in Information Technology (IT).<More>

  • Diabetes a Major Worry (December 26, 2006)
    According to the International Diabetes Federation's (IDF) India continues to don the dubious distinction of being the Diabetic capital of the world with the largest number of diabetics—China comes second but leads on pre-diabetic phase population.<More>

  • Retrograde Forest Bill Passed (December 21, 2006)
    Dismissing concerns by environmentalists and conservation experts, the government passed the politically convenient Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2006 that essentially hands over forests to forest dwellers.<More>

  • Sethusamudram Destruction Begins (December 19, 2006)
    Dismissing environmental concerns and acting under secrecy, India started the destruction of an ancient crossway between India and Sri Lanka called the Adam’s Bridge but believed to have been constructed by God-King Rama to facilitate the Sethusamudram Project.<More>

  • Reasons for HIV Propagation (December 13, 2006)
    A UNAIDS and World Health Organization (WHO) study has found that “poor knowledge of HIV” especially “among homosexual groups,” male prostitution, and unsafe drug abuse practices are main drivers of HIV propagation.<More>

  • Forest Guard Recruitment Accelerated (December 06, 2006)
    The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has asked all states to urgently fill existing vacancies of forest guard position especially in Tiger Sanctuaries even if they have to relax recruitment norms.<More>

  • AIDS Deaths Can be Lower (November 29, 2006)
    A recent paper by World Health Organization scientists say that 28 million lives can be saved by 2030 if newer HIV infections are curbed and access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral cocktails increased but warn that 117 million will die if these are not done.<More>

  • AIDS Patients to Get Protection (November 28, 2006)
    The Federal Government is planning to introduce legislation that will make “stigmatization and discrimination” of/against HIV/AIDS infected patients at work place, education institutions, and hospitals a crime.<More>

  • Community-Based AIDS Initiative (November 27, 2006)
    A Canadian experimental project is partnering with an Indian non-governmental organization to motivate sex workers and devadasis in Bagalkot district in a community-based initiative to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide care for those infected.<More>

  • Tobacco Companies Targeting Children (November 24, 2006)
    Surrogate advertising is a euphemism for alcohol and tobacco companies advertising using innocuous products sharing the brand name of alcohol and tobacco products, but it looks like they are now using unconventional advertising methods to target children.<More>

  • Fund to Acquire Clean Tech (November 24, 2006)
    An Indian MP proposed that the United Nations create a “Clean Technology Acquisition Fund” so poorer countries will be able to access crucial technologies that will be clean and “significantly impact the realization of sustainable development goals.” <More>

  • Tax Breaks for Bio-Diesel (November 24, 2006)
    The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has floated a draft National Policy on Biofuels suggesting that India offer several fiscal incentives and a National Biofuel Development Board to promote adoption of blended petrol and diesel. <More>

  • PM Panel Faults RTE Bill (November 23, 2006)
    The Knowledge Commission appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that model Right to Educational Bill (RTE) “is flawed for a number of reasons” and ruled that the measures “must be enforced by the central government.”<More>

  • Ground Water Management (November 22, 2006)
    The 12th National Symposium on Hydrology focusing on “Groundwater Governance: Ownership of Groundwater and its Pricing” organized by the Central Ground Water Board and National Institute of Hydrology at Roorkee presented many recommendations.<More>

  • UNDP Natural Resource Projects (November 22, 2006)
    A 5-year United Nations Development Program (UNDP) initiative called “Social Mobilization around Natural Resource Management for Poverty Alleviation” is being implemented in 11 districts of Orissa, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand.<More>

  • Italy Woos Indian Students (November 21, 2006)
    Moving in to cash in shortage of education institutions in the US and UK, Italy is trying to promote itself “as an ideal education institution” and “put together Italian companies with the best human resources in India through the university system.”<More>

  • New Polio Program Needed (November 20, 2006)
    A new study found underlying assumptions of India’s Polio program faulty and has recommended that the nation revamp its immunization program especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where suspicion, illiteracy, and weak-implementation persist.<More>

  • GHG Consequences Dangerous (November 16, 2006)
    UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told a conference on climate control in Nairobi that it is far less expensive to cut greenhouse gasses (GHG) than “deal with the consequences later” and implored nations “Let no one say we cannot afford to act.”<More>

  • Clean Projects Disagreement (November 14, 2006)
    Nations attending the 12th Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP12) seemed to be angry at the lop-sided award of Clean Development Projects (CDP) part of the Kyoto Protocol to India, China, and Brazil.<More>

  • High AIDS in Adolescent in Rich States (November 13, 2006)
    A grass-root Non-Government Organization working on HIV/AIDS eradication said that lack of awareness among both rural and urban adolescents has increased the incidence of this infection among 10 to 19 year olds in prosperous states.<More>

  • New Bird Flu Strain (November 10, 2006)
    A new strain of bird flu virus, like the one originally found in China’s Fujian Province by researchers from the University of Hong Kong and American St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital at Tennessee, has spread to 6 other provinces and 3 other countries.<More>

  • Modest AIDS Allocation (November 06, 2006)
    At the valedictory function of a three-day national workshop on HIV/AIDS for teachers Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi says that the Federal Government had allocated Rs. 906 crore (USD 196 million) to combat AIDS.<More>

  • Ayurveda ‘Standardization’ Plans (November 06, 2006)
    Instead of dealing with burning issues such as rampant cases of Dengue, Chickengunya, recurrent polio, and newer strains of tuberculosis (TB), and unacceptable child and maternity mortality rates, Federal Health Minister wants standardization of Ayurveda.<More>

  • Mortality Numbers Lower (November 02, 2006)
    The Federal Government claimed Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) declined to 301 per one hundred thousand and said that six states continued to be worrisome but announced various incentives to encourage women to go for institutional delivery.<More>

  • MCS Tracks Turtle Migration to TN (October 27, 2006)
    The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has successfully tracked tagged endangered green turtles (Chelonian mydas) through satellites from Southern Sri Lanka to the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve, a protected area off  Tamil Nadu (TN).<More>

  • High Infant Mortality in Bihar: UNICEF Survey (October 27, 2006)
    A survey conducted by UNICEF estimates that about 400 infants below the age of 1 with 2/3rds of those children within a month die every day in Bihar due to causes that could be easily prevented through simple intervention programs.<More>

  • China Rejects Media Reports on Brahmaputra Dam (October 27, 2006)
    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao refuted media reports saying that China has “no plans” to divert billions of cubic feet of water from the Brahmaputra (Yalung Zangbo) to the Yellow River to feed rain-starved areas of the North.<More>

  • Additional Gates Foundation Commitments (October 26, 2006)
    The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation signed an agreement with India committing an extra USD 23 million over the next 3 years in addition to USD 58 million focusing on HIV Prevention Response and intervention to key populations.<More>

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