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Still births can be halved By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a recent paper published in The Lancet medical journal and reported by IRIN newsagency, preventing stillbirths can cost just US$2.32 per mother if governments, the private sector and international institutions adopt a package of 10 health interventions, rather than allowing stillbirths to be an almost invisible problem. It is reported that if ten recommended interventions were 99 percent implemented in 68 priority [low and middle-income] countries, the number of stillbirths could be halved. Even if the interventions were 60% covered, stillbirths could be reduced by one-quarter. Some 2.64 million foetuses die after the 28th week of pregnancy, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. Interventions identified by the research paper include: basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care; skilled care at birth; detection and management of foetal growth restriction; detection and management of hypertension in pregnancy; el

Pesticides and Children By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a recent report published in Science News , children exposed in the womb to substantial levels of neurotoxic pesticides have somewhat lower IQs by the time they enter school than do kids with virtually no exposure. A trio of studies screened women for compounds in blood or urine that mark exposure to organophosphate pesticides such as chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion. These bug killers, which can cross the human placenta, work by inhibiting brain-signaling compounds. Although the pesticides’ residential use was phased out in 2000, spraying on farm fields remains legal. The three new studies began in the late 1990s and followed children through age 7. Pesticide exposures stem from farm work in more than 300 low-income Mexican-American families in California, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and their colleagues report. In two comparably sized New York City populations, exposures likely trace to bug sp

Hospital ships for disaster response By Dr Arvind Kumar The response from the international community to an earthquake of unprecedented magnitude, followed by a terrible tsunami, that devastated the northeast coast of Japan on 11 March this year, setting off a nuclear emergency that is having global effects, has been immediate, generous and heart-warming. Japan is an island nation that has shown outstanding skill in building warships, supertankers, containerships, research vessels and luxury cruise ships; and now Japan should agree to design and build at least two modern ships that can immediately react to disasters both at home and abroad. The idea of building hospital ships in Japan is not new. Until the end of the Pacific War, the converted liner Hikawamaru Maru, now permanently moored in retirement at Yamashita Park, Yokohama, was one of Japan's most famous. But no more hospital ships have been built in the past 66 years. There are only three countries whose navies curre

Rising Food Prices By Dr Arvind Kumar According a recent World Bank press release, world food prices have jumped 37 percent from a year ago. It has pushed an estimated 44 million more people into poverty. As countries around the world recover from weak economies, political instability or from natural disasters, a central concern should be the price, safety and availability of food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the global food price index, a measure of the international prices of a basket of food commodities, hit the highest level in February this year since records were first kept in 1990. That eased a bit in March, but the index still stood at over double its level in 2004. The average price of wheat this year, $346 a ton, is twice the price in 2005. Part of that comes from increased demand, but another part connects to the rising price of energy. Each rise in prices falls heavily, and unfairly, on the poorest 1.2 billion peo

Home-grown Food for Africa By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a recent media report, a group of international academic institutions and an NGO supported by the European Union (EU) have launched Sustainable Nutrition Research for Africa in the Years to come, or SUNRAY, to develop a nutrition agenda for Africa, with specific emphasis on the 34 sub-Saharan countries. Carl Lachat, a researcher at the Belgium-based Institute for Tropical Medicine, one of the participating institutions, has stated: "We want to make sure nutrition interventions in the next 10-15 years - when Africa faces potential environmental changes which will impact on nutrition - are sustainable, driven by African countries, and their priorities are not pre-defined by donors." A recent study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a US-based think-tank, found that in another two decades the effect of climate change on food production could drive child malnutrition up by 20 percent. Th

Earth Day By Dr Arvind Kumar Earth Day has been observed on 22nd April every year as an annual event celebrated around the world for the past four decades. The purpose of Earth Day is to honour, appreciate, protect, and respect the environment. The first Earth Day was held in 1970 in the United States, and drew over 20 million Americans from different communities and college campuses to become involved with environmental issues. This Day also allows citizens to create awareness of the environment and to learn how people’s everyday decisions affect the environment. Earth Day has become one of the largest outdoor events in recent years, with about one billion people joining in the activities in thousands of different locations around the world. It is important to create awareness on how to save the earth from damage by pollution. It is up to us to make the earth a safer and healthier place for future generations. People’s everyday actions are related to pollution, which is destroying

Temporary Hiatus for Mekong River By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a newsreport released by IRIN on 20 April 2011, the Mekong - the world's 12th longest river and a lifeline for millions - has won a temporary reprieve from the construction of a controversial dam in Laos when the four member countries of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) – Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – failed to reach an agreement, deferring the decision to ministerial level later this year. Tiffany Hacker, a spokeswoman for the MRC, told IRIN on 20 April from Vientiane: "This is the immediate next step, although countries were unable to reach a conclusion [to proceed with the dam], they agreed that it needed to be taken to the ministerial level." The MRC's ministerial council generally meets once year in October or November. However, a special session for the Xayaburi project may be held before then. The announcement was welcomed by environmentalists who say the dam would have devastatin

Agenda for Durban By Dr Arvind Kumar At the 6-day first inter-sessional meeting from 3 to 8 April this year in Bangkok (Thailand), as a precursor to the formal round of UN talks, to be held later in 2011 in Durban, South Africa, poor countries and small islands states have used their combined muscle to keep debate at the UN climate change talks in 2011focused on steps to ensure global temperatures do not increase more than two degrees by the turn of the century. According to a recent IRIN newsreport, Jan Kowalzig, senior climate change policy advisor at Oxfam, told the Bangkok meeting: “Talking about the agenda is highly important and needs time, as it defines not only what you want to discuss but also under which headings/framing. For example, if a country believed that targets to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions were too weak, you need an agenda item under which you can talk about this, otherwise you cannot talk about it at all.” In its latest assessment, the Intergove

Gross National Happiness By Dr Arvind Kumar Bhutan is reported to have developed a unique development philosophy focused on the concept of the Gross National Happiness (GNH). It is based on four pillars: economic development, good governance, preservation and development of environment and culture. The emphasis is not on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or on per capita income but wellbeing of citizens which arises in a society where sustainable and equitable development is balanced with environmental and cultural preservation and good governance. The GNH is a holistic approach to human needs with stress on both the material and spiritual needs of the people. It is one of the most disturbing concepts, as pointed out by a Canadian philosopher, John Ralston Saul — disturbing because it upsets completely what is in place every where else. Besides conventional indicators of progress, utmost emphasis is laid on the basic tenets of the Buddhist ethics and conservation of environment

Gandhi & Climate Change By Dr Arvind Kumar As the governments of the world discuss climate change at a time when the world’s existence stands threatened by climate change and by terrorist violence, humanity should go back to the basics and reappraise its current lifestyle. The world must take a fresh look at all of Gandhi’s prescriptions that evolved from spiritual insight rather than intellectual analysis. Gandhi’s most cherished prescriptions for mankind that were ignored are now threatening the very existence of this planet. Three of Gandhi’s cardinal beliefs that he reiterated throughout his life are: first, his stress on a vegetarian diet and the need for self-restraint, even in sex; secondly his commitment to non-violence; thirdly, his advocacy of a self-sufficient pastoral life with minimal reliance on the machine. Gandhi’s primary concern was the study of Man. He delved deep into his own consciousness to become acquainted with his desires, instincts, will power and m

Innovation in Carbon Offset By Dr Arvind Kumar Piqqo, LLC, a UK-based carbon offset company brings a unique approach to the voluntary carbon market, enabling individual involvement with carbon offset projects and providing a direct connection between companies and customers interested in going green. Founded in 2009 by Vertis Environmental Finance, the most experienced emissions trading finance house in Central Europe, Piqqo provides transactional infrastructure and content to make voluntary carbon offsetting easy and credible for retailers and their consumers. Piqqo calculates the carbon footprints of clients’ products using the PAS2050 guidelines (the internationally recognized standard developed by The Carbon Trust). Their footprints include the whole lifecycle of a product, from materials and manufacturing to disposal and recycling. Piqqo’s clients purchase carbon credits from an array of carbon offset projects that have been verified to high standards and carry a range of s

Arctic Freshwater ‘Lake’ By Dr Arvind Kumar The findings are part of Project Clamer is a collaboration of 17 institutes in 10 European countries that is synthesising research from nearly 300 EU-funded projects over the past 13 years that concern climate change and Europe's waters, and the Baltic and Black Seas. The findings of a research study, as part of Project Clamer, were published as a newsitem in London’s The Guardian , on 7 April this year. According to this report, a vast expanse of freshwater in the midst of the Arctic Ocean is set to wreak unpredictable changes on the climate in Europe and North America, new scientific analysis has shown. It further observes that the water — comprising meltwater from the ice cap and run off from rivers — is at least twice the volume of Lake Victoria in Africa, and is continuing to grow. At some point huge quantities of this water are likely to flush out of the Arctic Ocean and into the Atlantic, which could have significant impacts o

Remembering Baba Ambedkar By Dr Arvind Kumar 14th April marks the Birth Anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the Father of the Indian Constitution. Popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar, he was an eminent jurist, a revolutionary social thinker and a charismatic leader of the masses. As the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, Ambedkar imbued the nation’s founding document with visionary prescience. Ambedkar’s life was a tribute to the nation’s founding vision of inclusion and secularism for he fought throughout his life against social evils like untouchablity. He ably campaigned for the rights of the Dalits and other socially backward classes. For his extraordinary breadth of vision and erudition, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru appointed Dr. Ambedkar as the nation’s first Law Minister. Ambedkar was born on 14 April 1891 in Madhya Pradesh and subsequently his family to Satara in Maharashtra. Ambedkar’s early experiences were life changing and would later influence the

Baisakhi Festival By Dr Arvind Kumar Baisakhi , also known as Vasakhi , is an ancient harvest festival in the Punjab region of North India. Baisakhi is also a Sikh religious festival. It usually falls on the first day of the Baisakh month in the solar Nanakshahi calendar, which corresponds to 13 April in the Gregorian calendar. However, in 2011 it is being observed on 14 April. This day is also observed as the beginning of the Hindu solar New Year celebrated by the people of Nepal and India. The special importance attached to the occasion shows regional variation outside of Punjab too. The festival is celebrated as Rongali Bihu in Assam, Naba Barsha in West Bengal and Tripura, Puthandu (Tamil New Year) in Tamil Nadu, Vishu in Kerala, and Maha Vishuba Sankranti in Orissa. In Sikhism, Basakhi is one of the most significant festivals commemorating the establishment of the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib in 1699 by the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobid Singh. To mark the celebrations, devot

Jallianwala Bagh massacre By Dr Arvind Kumar 13th April this year marks the 92nd Anniversary of the 1919 Amritsar massacre, also known alternately as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre: for after the Jallianwala Bagh in the northern Indian city of Amritsar where, on April 13, 1919 (which happened to be ' Baisakhi' one of Punjab's largest religious festivals) fifty British Indian Army soldiers, commanded by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, began shooting at an unarmed gathering of men, women and children without warning. The shooting lasted for ten to fifteen minutes, until ammunition ran out. Dyer ordered soldiers to reload their rifles several times and they were ordered to shoot to kill. Official British Raj sources estimated the fatalities at 379, and with 1,100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualities. However, the casualty number quoted by the Indian National Congress was more than 1,500, with roughly 1,000 killed Hunter Commission,

Crusade against Corruption By Dr Arvind Kumar Finally, Gandhian Anna Hazare’s crusade against corruption has partially won the battle, with the government conceding to majority of the demands made by the veteran social activist. Given the solidarity and rallies in support of Hazare's cause, the government was forced to concede to the activist’s demand for a tough law to combat corruption. The method, made famous by Mahatma Gandhi who pioneered fasting as a form of protest, and physical resemblance to the Father of the Nation helped galvanise support. The crusader Anna had politely said: “I have limited energy. I have no money, no big house and no gold, but I have support from the people and I see God's will in it.” Few could have anticipated that Anna Hazare's movement for a stronger Lokpal bill would generate such an extraordinary groundswell of public support, particularly among the urban middle class. But in the welter of protests and the general anger about corru

Growth or Moral Decline By Dr Arvind Kumar David Korten in his book Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth , points that humanity is living out an epic morality play. For millennia humanity’s most celebrated spiritual teachers have taught that society works best and we all enjoy our greatest joy and fulfillment when we share, cooperate, and are honest in our dealings with one another. However, Korten laments that but for the past few decades, this truth has been aggressively challenged by a faith called market fundamentalism—an immoral and counter-factual economic ideology that has assumed the status of a modern state religion. Its believers worship the God of money. Stock exchanges and global banks are their temples. They proclaim that everyone does best when we each seek to maximize our individual financial gain without regard to the consequences for others. For a market fundamentalist, to sacrifice profit for some presumed social or environmental good is

World Health Day By Dr Arvind Kumar World Health Day is celebrated every year on 7 April, under the aegis of World Health Organization (W.H.O.). It was in 1948 that the World Health Organization held the first World Health Assembly, which decided to observe 7 April of each year, with effect from 1950, as the World Health Day. The World Health Day is held to mark WHO's founding, and is seen as an opportunity by the organization to draw worldwide attention to a subject of major importance to global health each year. Events related to this Day and pertaining to a particular theme are organized at international, regional, natioal and local levels in collaboration with W.H.O. The theme of the current World Health Day is " Antimicrobial resistance and its global spread " and focuses on the need for governments and stakeholders to implement the policies and practices needed to prevent and counter the emergence of highly resistant microorganisms. When infections caused

Glaciers Sculpting Valleys By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a recent report published in Science Daily, the beautiful and distinctive U-shaped glacial valleys, typical of alpine areas from Alaska to New Zealand, have fascinated and frustrated geologists for centuries. While it seems obvious that glaciers scoured the bedrock for millions of years, what the landscape looked like before glaciers appeared, and how the glaciers changed that landscape over time, has remained a mystery. The glaciers erased all the evidence. The report further adds that University of California, Berkeley, and Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC) scientists have employed a clever technique to reconstruct the landform history of a 300-square-mile area of Fiordland in New Zealand, from the early Pleistocene some 2.5 million years ago, when the world cooled and glaciers formed, through today's warmer interglacial period. David Shuster, who developed the novel technique, called hellium h -4/helium-3 ther

Durga Navratri By Dr Arvind Kumar 4th April marks the inaugural day of the Navratri celebrations. The word ‘Navratri’ literally means nine nights in Sanskrit, the period of eight days and nine nights has its own significance and is divided into sets of three days to worship three different aspects of the supreme goddess. For the first three days the goddess is regarded as a spiritual force called Durga also known as Kali in order to destroy all our impurities. Second three days are devoted to the goddess Lakshmi, who is considered to have the power of bestowing on her devotees inexhaustible wealth and final three days are spent in worshipping the goddess of wisdom, Saraswati. In order to have all-round success in life, believers seek the blessings of all three aspects of the divine femininity, hence the nine nights of worship. Some communities worship nine forms of Shakti known as Navdurga during the Navaratris, and the Devis worshipped depend on the tradition of the region. Th

Water Woes of South Africa By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a recent report by the news agency, IRIN, more than 40 percent of South Africa's dams suffer eutrophication, when the water becomes nutrient-rich and algae multiply, releasing cyanobacterial toxins harmful to the liver and nervous systems of humans, domestic animals and wildlife. The increase in eutrophication is being compounded by industrial effluents, soil erosion and agriculture - which accounts for about 60 percent of South Africa's water consumption - through the use of fertilizers. Failing water treatment plants that allow inadequately treated sewage back into the environment are being blamed for eutrophication, which is regarded as the most serious threat to South Africa's already stressed water resources. The 2009 Green Drop Report by South Africa’s Department of Water Affairs found that over 55 percent of South Africa's wastewater treatment plants were in need of "drastic improvement." Its

Prevention of Blindness By Dr Arvind Kumar 1st April inaugurates the commencemnt of the prevention of blindness week to be observed from 1 to 7 April by the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness-India (NSPB-I) and its State and district branches. According to broad estimates, India had 7 million blind people. As per criteria to assess blindness adopted by the Government of India, nearly 15 million were blind according to the 2001 Census. Of them, 2.70 lakh were children aged less than 16. Over 50 per cent of blindness could be prevented in children. In many cases, impairment of vision was preventable or curable. There is lack of knowledge about proper nutrition and hygiene. An estimated 456 million people of India's total population require vision correction (spectacles, contact lenses or refractive surgery) to be able to see and function for learning, work and life in general. Twenty six million people are blind or vision impaired due to eye disease. A further