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Social Innovation By Dr Arvind Kumar Social innovation is about meeting the unmet social needs and improving social outcomes. According to José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, social innovation is about "tapping into the creativity of charities, associations and social entrepreneurs to find new ways of meeting pressing social needs, which are not adequately met by the market or the public sector and are directed towards vulnerable groups in society." The concept of "social innovation" was not widely understood by the wider public. The European Commission is encouraging civil society groups and so-called 'social entrepreneurs' to participate in a new EU-wide initiative to promote new approaches in the provision of public services. One of the main aims of this new initiative is to develop an interactive online database that will enable all kinds of social actors to learn about different approaches to the delivery of public services th...

Community Partnership in Water By Dr Arvind Kumar Traditional wisdom, indigenous skills and community efforts play significant role in successful management of water scarcity. Media reports indicate that well-concerted community efforts, supported by the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, have helped in overcoming the challenge of scarce water supply in places in India where there are no perennial rivers, groundwater is saline and summers are harsh. It is further observed from media reports that about 200 villages of Pali, Barmer and Jodhpur districts in the Marwar region of Rajasthan are success stories in this context where owing to cooperation between communities, today 300,000 people in these villages have finally got access to clean drinking water. Villagers joined hands together to participate in constructing water structures and conserving water sources. The villagers have created a water management fund, with the help of a civil society, to restore ...

Technology: Boon or Bane? By Dr Arvind Kumar Undoubtedly technology has transformed the way we live and has been helpful in unraveling nature’s secrets, at the same time excess or irrational use of technology is proving a bane as well. Rapid proliferation of automobiles, without rational planning, has added to congestion of traffic and air pollution at an enormous rate. Instead of depending on mass transport system, clamour for owning individual car has resulted in building highways, off-ramps, parking lots, etc.—each replacing countless eco-systems. While opting for electronic gadgets, we have seldom cared for devising means for managing or recycling electronic waste. The non-recyclable components of a single computer may contain almost 2 kilograms of lead. Seventy percent of the entire toxic waste stream of landfills is e-waste. We have social media but we're sacrificing social skills. According to Lewis Mumford, "With the present means of long distance mass communica...

Avoid Electronic Pollution By Dr Arvind Kumar Electronic pollution is an invisible pollution that surrounds us all the time and interrupts our bodies' natural flow of energy. Electronic pollution can neither be seen nor smelt and hence is more dangerous. As such its effects are hard to determine, yet logic alone should be enough to assess its potential hazards. The burgeoning number of electromagnetic signals all around us emanating from various electronic gadgets poses serious threat to our health. According to some exprts, electronic pollution has reached the point of toxicity, causing fatigue, irritability, weakness, and even illness. The air is also saturated with emissions from millions of new mobile phones, radio, television, and satellite broadcasts. The number of stations and channels is growing by the day. Then add to this, signal from TV remote controls, microwave ovens, as well as computer games, faxes, photo copiers, scanners, and printers, and we have an environmen...

Earth Hour 2011 “Pledge to save energy” “”There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more. “ ~ George Gordon, Lord Byron, Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries/territories participating. Global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, CN Tower in Toronto, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour. 8.30pm on Saturday 26 March 2011, individuals, communities, businesses and governments worldwide will turn off their lights for one ho...

Future Lies in Organic Farming By Dr Arvind Kumar Some scientists have started arguing that organic will be the conventional agriculture of the future, neither because of wishful thinking nor because it is the right thing to do, or because of some universal truth revealed from on high; but because it is the only viable option. The existing farming, albeit the entire agri-food system is so centered on specialization, consolidation, and globalization that in US it reportedly consumes 19% of the national energy budget - but only 7 of the 19% are used on the farm, with the remaining 12% incurred by post-farmgate transport, processing, packaging, distribution, and meal preparation (D. Pimentel, 2006). According to Dr Ann Clark, the future is organic because the design drivers that have shaped and moulded the current agri-food system are changing, demanding a wholly new, and largely organic, approach to agriculture. Efforts to make the current model less bad - more sustainable - are...

Urban Water Use Efficiency By Dr Arvind Kumar Despite rapid technological progress and economic growth, close to 900 million people the world over do not use drinking water from improved sources and over 2.6 billion lack access to decent sanitation facilities. This indefensible public failing, which is conspicuous in the developing world, comes with tremendous economic and social costs. Safe drinking water and basic sanitation, as United Nations Organizations have often emphasised, help prevent water related diseases. Specifically when it comes to diarrhea, which kills 1.6 million annually, improved water supply reduces morbidity by 20 percent while improved sanitation cuts it by 37.5 percent. The indirect benefits of providing access to drinking water to households, such as the time saved by women and children – who are often carriers of this precious commodity from sources –are reflected, for example, in better school attendance. The debilitating effect of the lack of sanitation ...

World Tuberculosis Day By Dr Arvind Kumar World Tuberculosis Day (also called World TB Day) is commenced on 24 March every year. This day is structured to build community awareness about tuberculosis. It was on 24 March 1882 when German scientist Robert Koch, a pioneer in Microbiology, identified Mycobacterium Tuberculosis as the causative agent of this dreaded disease. Koch estimated that tuberculosis killed one-seventh of prevailing world population. He received a Nobel Prize in 1905. The World Tuberculosis Day was announced on24 March 1982, on the 100th centenary of Dr Koch's appearance, by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) and IUATLD was joined with World Health Organization in 1996. IUATLD & WHO both are prepare an extensive assortment of other concerned organizations to raise the crash of World Tuberculosis Day. The World TB Day 2011 marks the second year of a campaign, On the move against tuberculosis whose goal is to inspire ...

World Meteorological Day By Dr Arvind Kumar The World Meteorological Day is annually held on or around 23 M arch to commemorate the establishment of the World Meteorological Organization, which was earlier known as International Meteorological Organization. The International Meteorological Organization was established at the first International Meteorological Congress in Vienna, Austria, in 1873. The organization aimed to establish meteorological station networks. These networks were linked by telegraph and improved weather forecasts. This contributed to shipping services' safety and efficiency. The International Meteorological Organization became the World Meteorological Organization on 23 March 1950. It became the UN's specialized agency for meteorology, operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences in 1951. The World Meteorological Organization plays a crucial role in contributing to people's safety and welfare. Its work is important in providing food secur...

World Water Day 2011 By Dr Arvind Kumar World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The objective of World Water Day 2011 is to focus international attention on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems. Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of freshwater. The theme for World Water Day 2011 is Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge , which aims to spotlight and encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the challenges of urban water management. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designa...

Eliminating racial Discrimination By Dr Arvind Kumar The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March every year. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid "pass laws". Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly, vide its Resolution 2142 (XXI) called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. With the dismantling of the apartheid system in South Africa in 1989, racist laws and practices have been abolished in many countries, and we there exists an international framework for fighting racism, guided by the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. The International Day for the Eliminati...

World Poetry Day By Dr Arvind Kumar World Poetry Day is a time to appreciate and support poets and poetry around the world. It is held on 21 March each year and is an initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It was in November 1999 that the UNESCO designated World Poetry Day to be held on 21 March each year. The organization recognized the important role of poetry in the arts and in cultures throughout the world and over time. It also wanted the day to promote the efforts of small publishers with regard to publishing poetry. The day also focused on promoting a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, as well as strengthening the association between poetry and other forms of expression, such as dance, music, and painting. The first World Poetry Day was held on 21 March 2000. World Poetry Day is an opportunity for children to be introduced to poetry in classrooms. It is a time when classrooms are busy with lessons rel...

World Forestry Day By Dr Arvind Kumar World Forestry Day is celebrated around the world on 21 March each year as people take time to consider the benefits of forests to the community - such as catchment protection, providing habitat for plants, areas for recreation, education and scientific study, and as a source of many products including timber and honey. World Forestry Day also aims to provide opportunities for people to learn how forests can be managed and used sustainably for these many purposes. According to FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010, the world's forest biodiversity is threatened by a high global rate of deforestation and forest degradation as well as a decline in primary forest area. In many countries, however, there is a continued positive trend towards the conservation of forestbiological diversity via dedicated conservation areas. Globally, around 13 million hectares (ha) of forests were converted to other uses (including agriculture) or wer...

Celebrate Holi in a Holy Spirit By Dr Arvind Kumar Holi is a festival of colour marking the triumph of good over evil. Let’s celebrate Holi in a Holy Spirit by sharing the sorrows and joys of our fellows. Holi has various legends associated with it. The foremost is the legend of demon King Hiranyakashyap who demanded everybody in his kingdom to worship him but his pious son, Prahlad became a devotee of Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashyap wanted his son to be killed. He asked his sister Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap as Holika had a boon which made her immune to fire. Story goes that Prahlad was saved by lord himself for his extreme devotion and evil minded Holika was burnt to ashes, for her boon worked only when she entered the fire alone. The spirit of Holi encourages the feeling of brotherhood in society and even the enemies turn friend on this day. People of all communities and even religions participate in this joyous and colouful festival and strengthen the...

Environment & Economic Growth By Dr Arvind Kumar Global scramble for higher economic growth in the wake of escalating environmental damage has sharpened the tension between growth and the environment. Developing countries striving to sustain high growth rate, as well as industrial countries that are eager to engender any kind of growth, harbouring the notion that environmental investments would dampen the pace of economic growth. The perception of this tradeoff between the growth and the environment, held widely in developing and industrial countries alike, rests on the wrong notion. It is not possible to sustain growth without maintaining environmental equilibrium. In fact, economic growth and environment protection are closely linked to each other. It would be wrong to assume the global risks of climate change as distant because the latest Japan tsunami and the tsunami that hit South-East Asia in 2004 are signals of extreme weather events that can wreck havoc. Undoubtedly, ...

Redefining Global Agenda By Dr Arvind Kumar In a recently released report World on the Edge , Lester Brown, a global thinkr and head of the Earth Policy Institute, has warned that pressures on the environment -- from climate change to soil erosion to deforestation and declining water resources -- are rapidly combining to create a "perfect storm" that could result in massive disruptions in food supply, the collapse of the current economic structure, widespread unrest, and worse. Rejecting the idea that world has until, say, 2050 to get things on right track, Brown calls for action by 2020. In order to save the planet from climate-triggered catastrophe, Brown suggests four majro steps to be undertaken. The first step lays emphasis on cutting carbon emissions 80 percent – not by 2050, but by 2020. The second step pertains to stabilizing population because Earth is a finite planet and at some point population growth has come to a halt either because of accelerated shift to...

Development Funds for MPs By Dr Arvind Kumar Recent decision of the UPA government to raise the corpus for Member of Parliament’s Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) from Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore has evoked mixed reactions from the media and experts. The MPLADS has been criticized by a major segment of experts for its various conceptual flaws and the manner in which it has been executed over the years. The official decision for the hefty raise goes against the objections made by the Planning Commission. This decision, becoming effective from 1 April this year, will cost the state exchequer an additional expenditure of Rs 2,370 crore a year. Broadly speaking, the MPs have been demanding an increase in the corpus since 1999 on the ground that Rs 2 crore was not enough to undertake worthwhile projects in their respective constituencies. The scheme, introduced in 1993 with a budget of Rs 5 lakh for each MP, was raised to Rs 1 crore in 1994 and then to Rs 2 crore in 1998. While qu...