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Buddha Purnima Buddha Jayanti also known as Buddha Purnima is the most sacred festivals of Buddhist. Buddha Purnima also traditionally known as Vaishakh Poornima. Lord Buddha is considered the ninth avatar of Vishnu (Preserver in the Hindu Holy Trinity of Creator-Preserver-Destroyer). Gautam Buddha "lived and died in about the fifth century before the Christian era". Buddha means "enlightened one" - someone who is completely freefrom all faults and mental obstructions. It is said that the Buddha originally followed the way of  asceticism  to attain enlightenment sooner, as was thought by many at that time. He sat for a prolonged time with inadequate food and water, which caused his body to shrivel so as to be indistinguishable from the bark of the tree that he was sitting under. Seeing the weak Siddhartha Gautama, a girl named Sujata placed a bowl of milk in front of him as an offering. Realising that without food one can do nothing, the Buddha refrained fr...

Can India Match China’s Manoeuvres? Dr Arvind Kumar* *President, India Water Foundation, New Delhi (Article entitled “Can India Match China’s Manoeuvres”, published in the May 2013 issue of the Third Concept Magazine,) On the night of 15 April this year some 25-30 soldiers of  China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) came 10 km inside the Indian territory in Burthe in DBO sector in Ladakh, which is at an altitude of about 17,000 feet. On 23 April, military delegations from both sides met again to try and resolve the standoff, but a four hour long meeting failed to break the deadlock, prolonging the latest flashpoint between the two nuclear armed powers. While rejecting reports of intrusion by the Chinese troops in Ladakh, the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, told the media persons in Beijing on 22 April that the PLA soldiers patrolled the Chinese side of Line of Actual Control (LAC) without "trespassing" into it. The Chine...

Water Scarcity By Dr. Arvind Kumar We take it for granted; we waste it and even pay too much to drink it from little plastic bottles. And still, today, nearly 1 billion people in the developing world don’t have access to it. Clean, safe drinking water is scarce. It is the foundation of life, a basic human need. Yet today, all around the world, far too many people spend their entire day searching for it. The importance of access to clean water cannot be overstated. Simply put, water scarcity is either the lack of enough water (quantity) or lack of access to safe water (quality). It is hard for most of us to imagine that clean, safe water is not something that can be taken for granted. But, in the developing world, finding a reliable source of safe water is often time consuming and expensive. This is known as economic scarcity. Water can be found… it simply requires more resources to do it. In other areas the lack of water is a more profound problem. There simply isn`t ...

Disaster Risk Reduction According to Dr. Manmohan Singh Hon’ble Prime Minister of India “Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction strategies into our development initiatives must necessarily involve actively the local communities. Make full use of our Panchayat Raj institutions to achieve this objective. Pay special attention to this very important aspect. Another area that perhaps needs greater attention relates to arrangements for providing funds to people so that they are able to cope with the losses they suffer due to natural disasters. The current systems, particularly at the National level, lack institutional incentives and do not promote mechanisms such as risk insurance and contingent credit facilities. The development of such ex-ante arrangements is particularly important because they typically serve as a primary source of immediate funding that would reduce human suffering, economic losses and fiscal pressures in the aftermath of natural disasters. Managing disaste...

Draught Impact & How to Save Water By Dr. Arvind Kumar Drought usually results in a water shortage that seriously interferes with human activity. Draught causes water shortages and crop damage. A drought starts when total rainfall is well below average for several months, low river flows, low groundwater and reservoir levels, very dry soil, reduced crop yields or even crop failure. Its seriousness depends on the degree of the water shortage, size of area affected, and the duration and warmth of the dry period. During a drought period there is a lack of water, and thus many of the people die; Animals that drink from the rivers or streams can become sick and die; swimmers in affected waters may become ill. The ecology of an area may be affected by the drying of wetlands, with wading birds dying out. Crop production will be lower than usual; trees may die. Wildfires spring up; lack of irrigation can lead to famine and disease. Drought differs from other natural hazards ...

ADB & India By Dr Arvind Kumar The 46th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was held at the Indian Expo Mart at Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) in the National Capital Region (NCR) on 2-5 May 2013. In his opening statement at a press conference at the ADB annual meeting, the ADB president Takehiko Nakao said: “It is disheartening that in a region of such rapid progress, we still have a population of more than 800 million people living in absolute poverty. This, along with growing inequality, remains an overarching challenge.” At a time when multilateral lending agencies such as the ADB were expected to not only extend greater assistance to lift the 800 million out of abject poverty but also help many Asian “middle income” countries to find ways to overcome the middle income trap, the challenge was all the more great for Takehiko Nakao, who took over as president of the ADB on 28 April this year. Takehiko Nakao’s vision is of three ‘Is’-innovation, inclusion ...

May Day or Labour Day By Dr Arvind Kumar 1st day of May is observed as ‘May day’, also called ‘Labour Day’ and ‘International Workers Day’. The ‘Labour Day’ began with the United States labour movement in 19th century, which was started on May 1, 1886 in United States. Some labour organizations in the country called on strike because they wanted an 8-hour working days. There was carnage in Haymarket Square in Chicago on May 4th; in which near 12 persons died as well as about 100 people were wounded. The protesters did not find an urgent result, but they gained a successful result slowly; when 8-hour the working days happened to be the standard in many countries around the world. ‘Labour Day’ was therefore selected as a day for rallies, processions and speeches. ‘Labour Day’ is a most important holiday in United States, Russia and other nations. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their  labour unions  throughout most of t...