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TNN 6 December 2009, 10:53pm IST
VARANASI: It was a felicitation that could be remembered for a long time, as President of Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth was accorded the status of `Mahamana' even before he made his way to the land of Mahamana Pt Madan Mohan Malviya at Banaras Hindu University on Sunday.
(President of Mauritius Anerood Jugnauth)
www.planetrulers.com/mauritius.php
While it was another feather in the cap for the Mauritius President, who had been earlier bestowed with a number of felicitations, including doctor of civil law, knighted commander and great commander of the order of the star and key of the Indian Ocean in different countries, the status of Mahamana definitely surpassed them all, besides reviving nostalgic feelings.
The felicitation ceremony (near the famous Harischandra Ghat) not only garnered the attention, a special connection and bondage with Bhojpuri land also came to light when the President delivered his speech. "Is dharati se mera khoon ka rishta hai aur bharat ko mein mata manta hoon (I have blood relation with the Bhojpuri land and I consider India as my mother)," said the President in Hindi. He was overwhelmed by the love and affection showered on him during the ceremony.
On the occasion, he stressed on the relationship between India and Mauritius. "Nearly 70 per cent of the Mauritius population had migrated from India in the past. Therefore, a strong sense of brotherhood and fraternity still prevail among the two countries." He said India had the potential to become a super power and it must be realised soon to create a balanced world order while extending his gratitude to the dignitaries present on the occasion. Few dignitaries present were: Shree Yamunacharyaji Maharaj (Satua Babaji); Mahant Rameshwarpuriji Maharaj; president, Kashi Vishwanath Trust, Dr Ram Kamal Das Vedantiji; Harihar Nath Kripalu; Prof Ram Yatan Shukla of Kashi Vidwat Parishad and vice-chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, Prof Awadh Ram.
Earlier, the president was traditionally welcomed amidst chanting of mantras and lighting of lamp. Floral tribute and garlanding of dignitaries including Sarojini, the First lady of Mauritius and Mukteshwar Chunni, Amabassador of Mauritius in India, too attended the ceremony.
It is to be mentioned that Satua Baba Ashram, Matribhoomi Sewa Mission (Kurushetra) and Sai Maa Vishnu Shakti Trust had jointly organised the felicitation programme.
The Mauritius President also inaugurated a seminar organised by Bhojpuri Study Centre, BHU. He also attended the special felicitation function and Bhojpuri literature and art exhibition. In the evening, Jugnauth participated in the Ganga Aarti held at Dashshwamedh Ghat.
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TNN 27 November 2009, 02:29am IST
VARANASI: In a major development in the area of forging collaborations for the growth of food science and technology, the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has taken a lead and is going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) and letter of agreement with the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
According to university spokesperson, the University of Copenhagen has invited BHU vice-chancellor Prof DP Singh, director of the Institute of Agricultural Science Prof SR Singh and Prof Alok Jha, coordinator, Centre of Food Science and Technology, for a visit to Denmark from December 1 to 5. The BHU V-C will sign the MoU on December 4 at Copenhagen.
Key highlight of this visit will be the MoU with the University of Copenhagen to operationalise a European Union (EU) funded East West Food Project under FP7 programme of Marie Curie Actions to promote exchange of scientists and students from 2010 to 2013. In East West Food Project, BHU and University of Copenhagen will have two joint PhD courses in Dietary Food Habits in East and West and Entrepreneurship Development through Food Processing. Wageningen University of The Netherlands and Anna University, Chennai will also be partners of these courses. The teachers and students of BHU will get an opportunity to see the advanced technologies available in Denmark and Holland in the field of food processing.
Financial support under this joint venture will also be available for development of a food processing pilot plant at BHU with active cooperation of Danish and Dutch scientists. It is important to mention that BHU has got the maximum number of 23 months of training for its teachers and students in the laboratories of the University of Copenhagen and Wageningen University under this programme. The scientists from Denmark and Holland will work on indigenous milk products of India and try to understand the intricacies of food culture of the country.
Coordinator Alok Jha informed that the MoU between the two universities would provide an opportunity to bring BHU food science programme at international arena and provide a sound platform for future growth.
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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091214/jsp/nation/story_11860847.jsp
CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
New Delhi, Dec. 13: A panel of experts may soon vet the human resource development ministry’s proposals on science and technology education as proposed by the Prime Minister’s top scientific adviser, clipping the ministry’s wings.
Manmohan Singh and HRD minister Kapil Sibal have agreed to set up the science and technology advisory board to streamline the ministry’s proposals, government officials have said.
The proposal was mooted by C.N.R. Rao, the chairman of Singh’s scientific advisory council, and is aimed at preventing a repeat of decisions like setting up eight new IITs in one go.
Rao recently met Sibal and the two discussed the proposal.
The HRD minister asked Rao to suggest names for the board that the veteran scientist has submitted.
“This is crucial because, at the moment, decisions on science and technology education are taken without any technical knowledge,” Rao said from Bangalore.
The panel, Rao said, should consist of about six eminent scientists and engineers with unchallenged credentials — both academic and administrative.
It will advise the HRD minister and the ministry on science and technology education, and vet government proposals on the basis of the expertise of its members, according to Rao’s plan.
Rao had first proposed the panel during the later years of the first UPA government and the Prime Minister had approved the plan.
“But (then HRD minister) Arjun Singh, who could have implemented the proposal, did not, for some reason,” Rao said.
He cited two instances of what he argued were flawed decisions on science and technology education, related to the IITs and the National Institutes of Technology, which could have been prevented had the committee existed.
Had the committee existed in 2007, the new IITs first proposed in 2008 could have been set up differently, he argued.
The move to set up the IITs — which are all offering limited courses from temporary campuses — together has publicly received support from across the UPA government.
But advisers like Rao consistently opposed the move and some sections of the government now share their apprehension.
The UPA in the XIth five-year plan had originally proposed starting three new IITs first.
But in early 2008, just a year before the Lok Sabha elections, Arjun Singh announced eight IITs would be set up.
Arjun’s aides repeatedly said the decision to start eight instead of three IITs was taken with the Prime Minister’s approval, but a source close to Singh argued that he was effectively armtwisted.
At a meeting of the IIT Council — the highest decision-making body of the IITs — in February 2009, Rao had opposed the “rush” to start the IITs together. He subsequently resigned from the council in protest.
Rao also criticised the earlier NDA government’s decision to convert at one go several regional engineering colleges into NITs without a law at the time to legitimise their degrees.
The NITs functioned as deemed universities till 2007 when a law was enacted recognising them as institutes of national importance.
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Anahita Mukherji, TNN 10 December 2009, 03:23am IST
MUMBAI: The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) aren't the only ones to opt for an online entrance test. While the Common Admission Test (CAT) to the IIMs went online for the first time this year, two papers of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), conducted jointly by the Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science will go online in 2010.
The Textile Engineering and Fibre Science paper, as well as the Mining Engineering paper will go online. These two GATE papers will be held on February 7. The remaining GATE papers are scheduled for February 14.
Around five lakh aspirants have signed up for GATE 2010. GATE offers a number of papers, so that students can opt for the one that best suits their degree specialisation.
While the IIMs conducted their CAT for over 2.4 lakh aspirants over a period of 11 days-which witnessed several technical glitches-the IITs are treading more cautiously when it comes to conducting exams online. For starters, GATE is going online for only two papers, both of which will be on the same day. There will be far fewer students appearing for these two papers, than the number of MBA aspirants who appeared for CAT this year. "This is a pilot project for us. We would like to test the system and see how it works,'' said Gautam Barua, director of IIT-Guwahati, which is responsible for conducting GATE this year.
Also, while the IIMs outsourced the administration of CAT to a private company, the IITs plan to conduct GATE themselves. "While we might require some outside support for the software, we will administer the exam ourselves,'' said Barua.
For the first time, 15% of the GATE paper will be an aptitude test. "We don't want to judge students on their knowledge of the subject alone, as some may not have had good teachers to explain the subject to them. We want to judge their aptitude for the subject, too'' added Barua.
Unlike previous years, the score card for the GATE 2010 will not mention the category to which a student belongs (SC/ST/OBC etc). "It is not easy for us to verify whether a student actually belongs to the category he or she claims to. This verification can be done by the institute they are applying to,'' said Gautam Barua, director of IIT Guwahati.
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D Suresh Kumar, TNN 20 November 2009, 06:47am IST
CHENNAI: Four years after the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Growth Fund was set up to raise contributions from the alumni for implementing a host of infrastructure projects on the campus, the IIT Madras director M S Ananth is once again knocking on the doors of the global alumni to raise an ambitious Rs 100 crore for the IIT Madras Golden Jubilee Fund.
With government funding being inadequate, the IIT is in need of massive financial resources to initiate infrastructural development and fund research scholars in a big way.
Using technology to reach out to the alumni spread across continents, Ananth has in a videographed appeal posted on the internet urged them to make a large contribution and make a significant difference to their alma mater.
"Nearly 15% of the space at the IIT Madras Research Park (which is likely to be inaugurated this year) has been set out for incubation. The support infrastructure for setting up the incubation will cost Rs 45-50 crore. We welcome alumni contributions towards this," Ananth has said in the appeal ahead of the Golden Jubilee Alumni Day celebrations slated for December 26. The IIT Madras Research Park is the largest initiative ever taken by any of the IITs.
Another novel proposal for which the IIT is seeking a contribution of up to Rs 10 crore from the alumni is the institution of a Students Travel
Grant Programme. "Currently our students travel (abroad) under exchange programmes. But there is no fund to support their travel. We want the alumni to support this," he urged. Under the programme financial assistance will be provided to students and faculty members for travelling to participate in international technical conferences and workshops.
The IIT Madras is also tapping funds for its Green Campus Initiative' under which it will focus on conserving energy consumption and making the campus sustainable.
With the student population increasing on the campus consequent to the creation of additional seats in the open quota to match the OBC seats, the institute is also hard-pressed to expand recreation facilities and increase the seating capacity in the auditorium. Plans are on the anvil to build a "very large auditorium to accommodate 1000 students, which can be split into four parts using partitions that are sound proof," Ananth said.
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Lalmani Verma
Posted: Friday, Dec 11, 2009 at 0406 hrs
Lucknow:
The Ministry of Environment, Government of India, has approved a 140-million litre daily sewage treatment plant and sewerage system for Varanasi. The Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam is all set to initiate the tender process for this Rs 494-crore project.
On October 5, the Ganga River Basin Authority had asked its member states — UP, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Bengal — to draft strategies for checking discharge of untreated sewage in the Ganga. Following this directive, the UP Jal Nigam had prepared detailed project reports of STPs for Varanasi, Allahabad and Kanpur.
These towns were chosen because the discharge of untreated sewage in Ganga river is maximum in these towns.
“While the project for Varanasi has been approved, those for the other two cities are under process,” said Alok Ranjan, principal secretary of Urban Development.
He said the land for setting up the STP had been identified in Satva area in Varanasi.
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http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/mvk/2009/11/coke-green-clothing
By Meera Karunananthan
November 23, 2009
Ever since Coca Cola set up shop in the Mehdigani area of Varanasi India, villages surrounding the plant have groundwater shortages. According to the India Resource Centre, levels have dropped six metres in in six years, creating the worst water conditions in the entire district of Varanasi. Over 5,000 villagers will take their grievances against Coca Cola to the streets on Monday Nov. 30, in a protest demanding that the plant be shut down.
Meanwhile, in Canada, Coca Cola plans to use the 2010 Olympics to brand itself as green by launching a new plant-based bottled at the mega sporting event to take place in Vancouver next February. The following letter was submitted to the Globe and Mail in response to an article about Coke's plans, but never published:
Coca Cola's "plant bottle" is nothing more than an attempt to greenwash the corporation's poor environmental record at the 2010 Olympics. The "plant bottles" are still primarily plastic requiring large amounts of water - the production of a one litre plastic bottle of water requires three to five litres of water- and fossil fuels to manufacture.More importantly, plant bottles will not erase Coca Cola's record of environmental abuse. According to the Indian NGO India Resource Centre, there is a pattern of water shortages in Indian communities where there are Coca-Cola bottling plants. The organization has documented unprecedented declines in groundwater in the area Kara Dala after a Coca-Cola bottling plant began tapping into the aquifers. Groundwater levels dropped by a dramatic 19 feet over the course of a single year. Yet Coca-Cola draws water in this drought-prone region during the summer months when water shortages are most pronounced. Coca-Cola operations have also contributed to the contamination of drinking water sources around the world. In Paw Paw, Michigan, the beverage company sprayed waste water into the soil for 23 years. As a result, the groundwater in the area remains contaminated with heavy metals and carcinogenic chemicals including arsenic and lead.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8375609.stm
Plans to clean up the river so far have been unsuccessful
The BBC's Chris Morris travels to the holy Indian city of Varanasi to find out why the Ganges river is so polluted - and if it can be saved.
As night falls on the banks of the mighty Ganges, Hindu priests are praying to the river. Incense drifts through the air, mingling with the sound of bells and drums.
In the distance, on another of Varanasi's famous ghats, bodies are being burnt on funeral pyres. Dying in this city is particularly auspicious - it ensures that the soul is released from an endless cycle.
So for Hindus this is the holy of holies - the river is the embodiment of the goddess, Mother Ganges. But the water itself is absolutely filthy.
"It's not really fit for anything, even bathing," admits one of the priests, Vivek Sharma. "If it keeps getting polluted it's going to vanish in the next few years."
In the harsh light of day, scientists from the Swachcha Ganga (clean Ganges) laboratory try to confirm just how bad it is. They test water quality every day, and the news isn't good.
The project manager, RK Mishra, has been working here for nearly 20 years. And every year, he says, it gets worse and worse.
"The problem in Varanasi is raw human sewage being pumped straight into the Ganges," he says. "Nothing has been done to change things for the better."
And if that carries on?
"Then the river will become dead," he concludes. "It won't be here for the people."
'Depressing'
The Indian government first announced a plan to clean up the river way back in 1986. But success has proven elusive.
"Is the Ganges cleaner than it was?" Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said in parliament recently. "The answer is a depressing 'no'."
 Many believe that bathing in the Ganges will wash off their sins |
Poor implementation and corruption have bedevilled efforts to save India's most important river. Now the government says it intends to spend billions of dollars over the next decade to make a decisive difference.
"No untreated industrial effluent and municipal sewage will be allowed to flow in the river after 2020," Mr Ramesh announced last month, following the first meeting of the newly formed National Ganga River Basin Authority.
It could be the last chance.
Quite apart from the central spiritual role it plays in Indian life, hundreds of millions of people depend on the river's water for domestic and agricultural use.
Fishermen who live on the outskirts of Varanasi say they have seen the Ganges changing before their eyes.
Bablu Sahni has been casting a net from his boat since he was a boy. Now, he complains, there is less water, fewer fish and more pollution.
"Our livelihood is at stake," he says bluntly as we drift down the river.
Keenly aware
"We used to get a huge catch. But now we're only just surviving, and in the future our children are going to suffer. Without fishing we're doomed."
Part of the campaign to save the Ganges is raising awareness among the next generation.
 The river is getting filthier by the day |
Environmental science is now supposed to be a compulsory subject in every school.
On the leafy campus of the Rajghat Besant school, just above the river banks, students seem keenly aware of the challenges they face.
"The river has shrunk," Martha says, "It has moved away from the city towards the other side. The number of islands is increasing and there are less species than there used to be.
"One of the problems is that politicians are very rich in India so they don't face any water shortage," Srijan argues.
"Politicians should be poor people so they face all these issues and act on them."
"We just can't blame politicians," Rupal replies. "Everyone has to do something for themselves."
"We're still developing," Ishita says, "and if you tell people they can't bathe in the Ganges there will be a riot. It's a very volatile situation here."
Just after dawn, as pilgrims immerse themselves in the holy waters and the sun rises over the far bank of the river, that doesn't feel like a clear and immediate threat.
Flickering candles in clay pots are floating on the surface, and offerings are made to the goddess. It's a scene of serenity and devotion.
But what's happening to the Ganges here in Varanasi isn't sustainable. And that raises the spectre that if nothing changes this time, a whole way of life will one day disappear.
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Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP