Dr. Pam's HRD Consulting

Jobs for part time and full timer

2012-01-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

SOF is a Registered Not-For-Profit Organization Popularising Computer, Science, Mathematics and English Education among school children.

A non-profit organization established by leading academicians, scientists and media personalities with the aim of promoting science, mathematics and computer education, the Science Olympiad Foundation has been striving for over a decade to promote scientific attitude through innovative activities and use of IT in learning process that involve school students across the country.
SOF MISSION

The key to having a large, exclusive scientific and IT talent pool for the future is seeking out, identifying young geniuses and providing them with a unique competitive platform where they can prove themselves. To further this cause SOF endeavors to:

Identify and nurture future scientists, technologists and IT talent at school level.
Encourage students' participation in national/international science and IT competitions/ programmes/events
Instill a feeling of belonging to national and global science and IT fraternity.
Infuse a healthy competitive spirit through reward based Contests/Olympiads.
Bring about a transformation in the classroom approach to science and IT to make it more interactive, practical and innovative.
Disseminate knowledge and information on the latest developments in science and technology.
Project SOF as a Centre of Excellence that could cater to different schooling institutions in the areas of methodical research, new educational tools, special publications and expert advice.

The SOF is hiring the programme coordinators for up coming Olympaid Exam. the post is for state and district coordinators. You can work part time and earn good income.
if you are interested send Cv to hr@sofworld.org

_____________________

Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojna Gujarat Government is hiring project consultants, project coordinators, young professionals and district level coordinators. The qualification is MSW/MBA/PGDRM/ MRS/M.Sc. Agri/ MA sociology
Walking interview on 23/1/2012
at Conference hall, BMBhavan Sector 10/a Gandhinagar
read more on http://www.vanbandhukalyanyojana.gujarat.gov.in

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UNICEF India - Applications For FT Internship Programme :: 23 May to 1 Aug 2012

2012-01-15T22:09:00.000-08:00

UNICEF India Country Office invites applications for a full-time Internship programme from 23 May to 1 August 2012. Conceived as part of a broader initiative to build a Knowledge Community on Children in India (KCCI), UNICEF India partners with research and academic institutions to encourage young students and scholars from around the world to engage in development issues pertaining to India’s children and women.

The internship offers an opportunity to explore issues related to child rights in India across a variety of areas: child protection, health, nutrition, education, HIV/AIDS, and water and sanitation.

The assignment involves a combination of desk and field work at the district or village level, with interns being grouped into teams that are based in field offices and work under the supervision of selected research institutions/non-governmental organisations.

The expected output from each team is a 30-page lessons learned/good practice paper on identified intervention along a pre-determined framework.

Applicants should be enrolled in a Masters-level graduate programme or a higher degree program, in one of the following disciplines: anthropology, child psychology, demography, economics, education, engineering, human rights, international development, journalism, legal studies, public health, sociology, statistics, rural development, social work, or any other relevant area. Those who have completed their Masters level graduate programmes in 2011 are also eligible to apply. Applicants should have excellent command of English, both written and spoken. Selected interns will be placed in research institutions across states where UNICEF has a presence. Possible locations include Guwahati (Assam) Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chattisgarh), Ranchi (Jharkand), Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Bhubhaneswar (Orissa), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Kolkata (West Bengal), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) and New Delhi.

Completed applications should be sent to internshipkcci@unicef.org by January 20, 2012. Please write “KCCI Internship Application 2012” in the subject of your email.
get register for latest info for ur education

Read more on web
http://www.unicef.org/india/media_7438.htm

NRDC Innovation Award of the Year 2011

2012-01-03T22:44:00.000-08:00

NRDC Innovation Award of the Year 2011

National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), which is part of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) provides Tax Free cash awards in the following 3 categories.
the aim of the awards are to promote the spirit of inventiveness among the scientific, technical persons, industrial workers, technicians, artisans, craftsman and students in order to recognize the creativeness and talent which could be benefited to the Nation and poor people.

AWARD CATEGORIES

NRDC Innovation Award of the Year 2011

Ø IP Driven Innovation

Ø Premium Innovation

Ø Innovation in high tech area

Number of Awards: 2 (max.)

Amount of Award: Rs. 5 lakhs (each)

Last date for receipt of completed application: January 31,2012

Download Application Form for NRDC Innovation Award

NRDC Societal Innovation Award of the Year 2011

Ø Agriculture

Ø Environment

Ø Rural

Ø Energy

Number of Awards: 3 (max.)
Amount of Award: Rs. 3 lakhs (each)

Last date for receipt of completed application: January 31,2012

Download Application Form for NRDC Award

Ë NRDC Budding Innovators Award of the Year 2011

[FOR STUDENTS ONLY]

Ø Student(s) registered for Bachelors or Masters in academic or research institutions, universities or affiliated colleges at the time of applying.

Ø Maximum age limit is 28 Years

Ø The application should be forwarded through Head of the Institution

Number of Awards: 5 (max.)
Amount of Award: Rs. 1 lakh (each)

Last date for receipt of completed application: January 31,2012

Download Application Form for NRDC Award

Note:

Applications duly completed in all respect and the Envelope containing the Application superscribed with " Innovators Award 2011/Societal Innovators Award 2011/ Budding Innovators Award 2011" shall be sent to:

National Research Development Corporation
Anusandhan Vikas
20-22, Zamroodpur Community Centre
Kailash Colony Extension
New Delhi - 110048

Ashoka ChangeMaker Award 2012 for health innovator

2011-12-28T02:49:00.000-08:00

Ashoka ChangeMaker Award 2012 for health innovator

Are you changemaker? Are you innovator? Searching place for innovation sharing? Searching people who can shape your innovation? Searching fund for innovation?
Ashoka Cahngemaker is giving platform to you for sharing your work. Ashoka Changemakers and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio are seeking health care solutions from anywhere in the world that have the potential to be applied in other countries to improve health and health care.
The last date is February 13, 2012,
Winners' Prizes: Three winners selected by a panel of expert judges will each receive a cash prize of US $10,000
In addition to a chance at prize money, selected entries (operating in the United States and its territories) may also be invited to submit proposals to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio for future funding consideration.
More details on http://www.changemakers.com/innovations4health

ICMR – STS 2012 for medical and dental students

2011-12-20T23:45:00.005-08:00

ICMR – STS 2012 for medical and dental students

Indian Council of Medical Research and Secretary, Department of Health Research, are inviting applications from interested undergraduate medical & dental students to participate in the Short Term Studentship Program 2012 (STS 2012).
The Indian Council of Medical Research initiated the Short Term Studentship Program in 1979 with objective to promote interest and aptitude for research among medical & dental students of country. The main focus of this program is to provide an opportunity to medical students to familiarize themselves with research methodology and techniques by being associated for a short duration with their seniors on an ongoing research program or by undertaking independent projects.
The students are free to choose any topic of their choice in consultation with their guide for submission under STS.
Important dates –
- The students are required to register on ICMR website ONLINE on or before 10th January 2012.
- Submit the application form and research proposal online latest by 25th January 2012.
- Proposals will be evaluated and results will be displayed on the ICMR website by end of March 2012.
- If selected, the student is expected to complete the project in any two given months between April and August 2012 and submit the report before the last date of submission i.e. 15th September, 2012.
- The student will be awarded stipend and certificate only if his/ her report is approved.
The value of the studentship will be Rs. 5,000/- per month for 2 months’ duration (Rs. 10,000/- only) and is meant to be a stipend for the student.
For any queries please contact :
http://icmr.nic.in/shortr.htm
Head (BMS)
Indian Council of Medical Research
V. Ramalingaswami Bhawan
Ansari Nagar,
New Delhi – 110 029
Dr. Roli Mathur,
Scientist 'C',
Division of BMS
Indian Council of Medical Research
V. Ramalingaswami Bhawan
Ansari Nagar, New Delhi – 110 029
Telephone No. : 26588895, 26588980, 26589794, 26589336, 26588707 Extn. 269
or
Email : sts.icmr@gmail.com

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Biomedical waste management - Situation analysis and update rule 2011

2011-11-30T00:59:00.000-08:00

Everybody must read recent news headlines - 6 people were battling for their lives in Mayapuri, scrapeyard area of New Delhi. The culprit was the radio active cobalt 60 isotope which was found in scrape area. Later it was found that the waste came form hospital waste.
It was estimated by the pollution control board that more than 4.2 lakh kg of biomedical waste generated per day in country. But only 2.4 lakh kg of bio-medical waste is reported to be treated at 157 qualified treatment facilities. Pollution control board, institutional report revealed that out of 84, 809 hospitals and healthcare facilities in India only 48,183 are either treating their wastes at source or are employing private agencies for same.
These two news are the witness of the Indian health care waste management scenario. The government of India has enacted the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 1998. It is more than 12 year of implementation. Under these rules, it is mandatory for all hospitals and health care facilities to ensure that the bio-medical waste handled and managed without any harm to the human health and the environment. The law has defined the bio-medical waste means ‘any waste which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biologicals, and including categories mentioned in Schedule I of law’.
The health care system in India is very complex and mixed economy where private, government and semi-government hospitals providing health and medical care. All these health care facilities are generating biomedical waste. The amount of waste generated in each facility depends on type of facility and practice. World Health Organization 1999 report on health care waste composition in Asian countries reported that India is generating 0.33 million ton biomedical waste per year, means 1-2 kg per day per bed. Over last 10 years the health care industry of India is growing big way. Large number of big and private hospitals added in list and also large research laboratories came in country. These have added more waste generation with sophistication. But the most important aspect in hospital waste is that the almost 80% of waste generated in hospital is the non-hazardous waste and only 20% of waste is the hazardous to human health and the environment. If hospital takes care of these 20% of the hazardous waste, it will surely reduce the hazardous waste. But majority of hospitals have no system of segregation of waste at source, which is best method of reduction of waste. All hospitals collecting waste in single container, which makes non-hazardous waste to become hazardous. As per February 2010, Central Pollution Control Board evaluation report on biomedical waste says that only 50-55% of biomedical waste is segregated, collected and treated as per the said law of Biomedical Management. Similarly Delhi Pollution Control Committee reported number of illegal dumping sites across the city. The city has reported many hazardous toxic materials and metals in the soil. They endanger to the health of human being.
The other important issue in the biomedical waste is that the 16 billion injections are used in country means 45 million injections in a day. It was reported that almost 30% of such injections are reused in the country. Such reuse of the material causes the more endanger to the health and life of patients and even health care staff. The diseases which can be transmitted through the improper handling of biomedical waste are Hepatitis-B, Hepatitis-C, HIV which can transmitted through the injury to sharps, hospital acquired infections (nosocomial infections), occupational hazards to chemicals and drugs and many more.
Looking to all above issues, the Central Government has revised the rules in August 2011. The salient features of revised rule are as follow –
- The rules are exclusively applicable to all person who generate, collect, receive, store, transport, treat, dispose or handle bio-medical waste in any form and they are not applicable to radio-active waste which covered under Atomic Energy act 1962, hazardous chemical waste which covered under Environment Protection act 1986, waste covered under Municipal Solid waste (Management and Handling) Rule 2000, Lead acid batteries which covered under Batteries (Management and Handling) Rule 2001 and hazardous waste which covered under Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rule 2008. Thus the revised rule is exclusively for hospital and related waste.
- The revised rule says that every occupier irrespective of quantum of BMW generation should apply for grant of authorization to prescribed authority.
- The revised rules have defined more details about the duty of occupier.
1. Occupier has to take al stapes to ensure that BMW is handled without any adverse effect to human health and environment.
2. Occupier is responsible for training for all its health care workers and other people involved in handling of BMW.
3. Occupier is responsible for immunizing all his/her staff who are involved in handling BME against diseases which can be transmitted through BMW.
4. Occupier has to ensure segregation of waste at origin.
5. Occupier has to ensure occupational health safety with providing all personal protective devices to BMW workers and health staff.
6. Occupier has to arrange health check up of all health staff and workers who are handling BMW.
7. Occupier has to install proper facilities and equipments with regular supply of consumables for proper handling of BMW.
8. He/she has to maintain proper record of BMW generation, segregation, various categories and final disposal as per given schedule in rules.
9. Occupier has to develop system of reporting of injuries, merquery spill, fire hazards etc and maintain record of same for authority.
10. Occupier has to inform authority, if operator of common treatment facility dose not collect waste within 48 hours as per prescribe rule.
- The rules are also defining the specific duty of common biomedical waste treatment facility. They are
1. To take necessary steps to collect waste from the occupier is transported, handled, stored, treated and disposed of without any adverse effect to the human health and the environment.
2. They should ensure biomedical waste collection timely and as per prescribed guideline.
3. They should inform the prescribed authority about those health care establishments or facilities who are not handling segregated waste to the treatment facility.
4. They should provide training to all workers who are handling the biomedical waste.
5. They have to conduct pre-placement examination and periodic examinations of all workers. Also provide the vaccination and related treatment if any accidents occur.
6. They should provide full occupational safety to all the workers working in the treatment facility.
7. The agency should keep accident injury reporting system, mercury spill, fire hazards and other accidents which likely to occur during handling the waste.
8. They have o maintain the log book of the waste disposal with all details.
- Under the treatment and final disposal of BMW, the rule are very open and accepting the innovation. It suggest that any person or any common treatment facility want to promote new technologies other than listed in schedule, they are welcome but they need to approach the Central Government or Central Pollution Control Board with sustainability of new technology, standard operating parameters or standards for that technology. Also Ministry will like to know the results of new technology and if suitable they will accept in the rule with modification. So here chance for innovators.
- All new commencing health care facilities or occupiers have to set up the BMW treatment facilities on site or ensure requisite treatment of biomedical waste management through authorized common treatment facility, before starting actual work.
- All big hospitals with more than 500 bed capacity have to install incinerator or suitable disposal facility as per location of hospital and environmental situation.
- Under new rules the use of chlorinated plastic bags for handling BMW is strictly prohibited. And if used, they should not go in incineration. It was long demand of environmental activist, as the chlorinated bags cause the emission of carcinogen on incineration.
- It was really bold statement of new rules, that they are accepting the recycling of plastic waste. The occupier of the hospital can dispose recyclable waste like plastics and glasses through the authorized recyclers who have consent of respective pollution control board. But the precondition is the proper disinfection and mutilation of the plastics and glass wares before handling to such recyclers. The occupier has to keep record of such waste and submit with annual report to the pollution control board. This step will help to the common treatment facility people in the manner that the final disposal waste bulk will reduce.
- The non-biomedical waste and properly treated biomedical waste which need to dispose in municipal waste will be collected by respective municipal corporation or body and will dispose at final disposal site.
- Supervision and Monitoring of BMW implementation – The Government of every state will constitute Advisory Committee under Chairmanship of State Health Secretary. The committee will constitute of representative of departments of health, environment, urban development, animal husbandry and veterinary science, state pollution control board or pollution control committee, local bodies urban or corporation, Indian Medical Association representative, representative of common biomedical waste treatment facility and Non Government Organization representative.
- Every state will make district level monitoring committee under Chairmanship of Chief District Medical officer. This committee is the key to monitor and supervise the compliance of BMW rules in the district. The committee will monitor day to day activities of BMW generation by various health care facilities and final treatment by common treatment facility. They will submit report every six month to the state advisory committee.
- Annual report submission procedure is same as previous BMW rule 1998.
- About common treatment facility, the revised rule has made very clear that municipal corporation or local bodies will be responsible for providing common disposal facility for waste generated under their jurisdiction. So now local body has special responsibility in small town or villages for disposal.
- The revised rule has also defined the liability of occupier and operator of common treatment facility – they are liable for all the damages caused to environment or public due to improper handling of BMW or disposal. They are also liable for action under section 5 and 15 of Environment (Protection) Act 1986.
- The revised rule has reduced the categories of waste from 10 to 8 categories. Category 9 and 10 are removed under revision. It is clearly mentioned that the liquid waste generated from laboratory washing, cleaning, house keeping and disinfecting activities should be treated properly and meet the discharge standard before final drainage. Incinerated ash should dispose with secure landfilling. The rule has also clearly stated that disposal of BMW under category 1 & 2 should not done by deep burial method in towns and cities. Only it is allow in rural area where there is no common treatment facility available.
- All plastics bags in waste collection should be non-chlorinated plastic material.
- The color code for BMW is more specific and clear in the new law. Yellow color container with non-chlorinated plastic bag is for human anatomical waste (cat-1), Animal waste (Cat-2), discarded and out dated medicine (cat-5) and soiled waste contaminated with blood, material like cotton, dressing materials, soiled plaster linen other incinerable material (cat-6). But no plastic materials come here. In red color container should use without plastic bag, preferably (if you want to use non-chlorinated bags) and should be puncture proof. In this container microbiological and laboratory waste (cat-3), sharp waste (cat-4) and infectious contaminated solid waste like blood bags, catheters, tubing, saline bottles, IV tubes, and other contaminated plastic (cat-7) will be collected. Blue color container use for chemical waste (cat-8). The black color container for municipal waste and kitchen waste mean general waste.
So the revised rules are more specific and clear in the guideline. The role and responsibility of occupier and treatment facility are very clear. This will sure improve the quality of waste management in health care establishment or facilities. There are agencies who are guiding for the proper implementation, day to day monitoring, training, management and evaluation of the whole biomedical waste management. The author has already conducted many surveys and training for the biomedical waste management system in many corporate and government hospitals. If any query, you can write to the author - drpamhrd@gmail.com

Vaccancies for Medical Professionals

2011-11-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

Title : Technical Specialist-Economic Evaluation, DAKSH
Organization : FHI 360

Location : India, New Delhi

Duration : One Year (Renewable)

FHI 360 is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified and experienced people living with HIV/AIDS are encouraged to apply
RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Technical Specialist will provide leadership on economic evaluation technical assistance to NACO, SACS, and national institutes; and evaluation of CDC projects.

The Key responsibilities would be:

• In consultation with the Technical Manager, annually identify priorities for economic evaluation, working closely with NACO, SACS and national institutes

• Represent DAKSH in high level economic evaluation related national committees, working groups, technical forums and other discussions

• Develop/Review economic evaluation related training manuals and technical documents. Plan and conduct training on economic evaluation for stakeholders and partners

• Provide Technical Assistance to NACO, SACS, national, regional and state level institutes in conducting economic evaluations

• In consultation with the Technical Manager, plan and conduct economic evaluation of CDC partner projects

• Keep up-to-date on developments in terms of policies, guidelines and developments on all aspects of economic evaluations and analysis, cost benefit/cost-effectiveness/cost-utility, financial analysis, fiscal impact analysis, economic impact analysis, social and environmental impact analysis

• Manage the national and international consultant database on economic evaluation areas

• Liaise with UN, international NGOs, national institutes and other lead agencies on economic evaluation issues

• Participate in Strategic Planning for FHI 360 and DAKSH and the development of DAKSH’s Annual Workplan, Budget, Country Operations Plan, Annual Progress Report and FHI 360 Asia Pacific Regional Office reports

• Perform other duties related to DAKSH as assigned by Technical Manager and Project Director, DAKSH

Education Qualifications & Experience

• PhD or Post Graduate Degree in health economics or a related discipline

• Minimum 5 years experience of project design, monitoring and evaluation including economic evaluation

• A proven track record of publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals

• Working knowledge in statistical softwares such as Treeage would be an advantage

• Experience in managing and analyzing large scale data

• Strong analytical, problem solving and writing skills essential

• The ability to work effectively as part of a team

Compensation:
Compensation levels at FHI 360 are equivalent to market rates within the development sector. However, offers shall be based on salary history, relevant experience and qualifications.

Please send your resumes at hr@fhiindia.org

Senior Medical Advisor
The Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR)
Location: Delhi

he Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR) invites applications for a Senior Medical Advisor for its projects. CGHR is a non-profit, non-partisan academic research institution. CGHR was established in 2002 to conduct large-scale epidemiological studies in developing countries (www.cghr.org). The mission of CGHR is to conduct high-quality research that advances global health, with a focus on major causes of premature mortality worldwide. CGHR leads the “Million Death Study” which works closely with the Registrar General of India and leading institutions to reliably document the major diseases and the strategies that can be followed to rapidly improve health in India.
Senior Physician – Public Health is sought to work on projects – Million Death Study – verbal autopsy across India, Blood based epidemiological research, field based multi-assay testing in collaboration with industry and international partners, and physician decision making support systems. The preferred candidate will have a strong background in Public Health and experience in management and implementing/operating the projects. The responsibilities include advising on the various training programs; Cooperate with State /central government as well as academic partners; review and approval of unit budgets, statistical and financial reports. This position will be based in Bangalore

Job Description:

• Senior Medical Advisor will work on Million Death Study using verbal autopsy across India working in collaboration with the Government and other partners.

• Physician decision-making support systems, training/retraining content and instruction

• Responsibilities include advising on the various training programs; cooperating with state /central government as well as academic partners; reviewing and approving unit budgets, statistical and financial reports

Skills, Qualities and Experience Required:

• The preferred candidate will have a strong background in Public Health and experience in management and implementing/operating projects

• Ability to plan, organize, assign, supervise and inspect the work of professional and technical personnel

• Ability to recognize problems, exercise good judgments in appraising situations, problem solving abilities and making decisions.

• Ability to express comments and opinions clearly and concisely in writing

• Proven experience in working with the Government.

Minimum Education, Training, and Experience Requirements:

• MBBS and postgraduate degree in Medical disciplines with at least three years of experience in either medicine or public health

• Experience working in senior management (esp. in government –related or semi-autonomous organizations, NGOs, think tanks, etc.) is preferred

Terms and Salary: Based on market rates, negotiable with experience

To apply: Send a detailed CV with names of 3 references and details of past work to:

Email: satip@smh.ca

National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad -India invites applications for the position of Director/Chief Innovation Officer
National Innovation Foundation-India (NIF), Ahmedabad, an autonomous grant-in-aid institution of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India invites applications from highly motivated professionals for the position of Director/Chief Innovation Officer. Those who have faith in the potential of grassroots innovators and are initiative-driven and performance-oriented may apply for the posts.

Name of Post:

Director/Chief Innovation Officer

Scale of Pay:Rs. 37,400- 67,000/- (PB-4) with Grade Pay of Rs. 10,000/-

Essential Educational Qualification:

First Class Masters Degree in Natural Science/Agriculture Science/ Engineering/Medicine from a recognized university.

Desirable Qualifications:
• Ph.D in Science/Agriculture/ Engineering/Medical Science

• Demonstrated competence in building value chain of grassroots innovation as well as outstanding traditional knowledge; experience in managing research advisory process to prioritize innovations involving top level scientists and policy makers; ability to communicate with grassroots level creative communities and individuals will be equally important; experience in development of action- research proposals for validation, value addition and/or business development and mobilization of funds and licensing of technologies will be additional advantage

Experience :

For Direct Recruitment
• At least 16 years of experience in R&D in industrial and academic institutions and / or Science and Technology organizations or as faculty/ scientist of recognized national/ international universities/ research institutes/ corporate R&D Labs etc., out of which at least 3 years should be in managerial/ administrative capacity for science & technology programmes, planning and development, budget & finance, coordination and such organizational matters.

• R&D experience in pursuing research, guiding innovation based value addition, business development and scouting and documentation of innovations

For Deputation/Contract :
In case of Recruitment by Deputation/Contract-Scientists or Technologists working in the Central/State Governments/Universities/Recognized Research Institutions/Semi-Government, Statutory or Autonomous Organizations in India,
a)
(i) holding analogous post; or
ii) 5 years regular service in the post carrying pay in the pay band of Rs. 37400-67000+Grade Pay of Rs.8,900/- or iii) 7 years regular service in the post carrying pay in the pay band of Rs.37400-67000+Grade Pay of Rs.8,700/- or equivalent.
b) Possessing the essential educational qualifications mentioned under Essential Educational Qualification for direct recruitment

Tenure:
Five years subject to extension based on the recommendation of Governing Board of NIF

Age:

Not exceeding 52 years
more details http://nif.org.in/ADVT_20NO_2003-2011

World DM Day take care of your and your friends with this write up of Dr Rajesh Mehta

2011-11-13T20:39:00.000-08:00

General Instruction for Diabetes
Author – Dr Rajesh Mehta
1. Get Regular Screening
Get an annual fasting blood glucose test and Glycosylated Hb.
2. Exercise
A brisk half hour walk 5 days per week can be enough to help improve insulin sensitivity.
3. Weight Control, With Reasonable Goals
Strive to stay at your own lowest sustainable weight, even if that is above what the charts say you should be. It is better to aim for a smaller weight loss and be able to keep that weight off than aim for an unrealistically low number, which could cause a "rebound" effect.
4. Consider Home Blood Glucose Testing in a group of 20 to 30 diabetes patients. Additional help by urine sugar testing can be taken to avoid multiple pricks. This requires to prepare urine & blood sugar chart together for individual.
5. Reduction of Refined & Simple Carbohydrates like sugar , Refined wheat flour, Jaggery , sweets , ice cream etc.
6. Choose whole grains and whole grain products over highly processed carbohydrates. Also avoid dehusked dals.
The bran and fiber in whole grains make it more difficult for digestive enzymes to break down the starches into glucose. This leads to lower, slower increases in blood sugar and insulin, and a lower glycemic index. As a result, they stress the body's insulin-making machinery less, and so may help control of blood sugar. Whole grains are also rich in essential vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that may help reduce the risk of complication of diabetes.
7. Skip the sugary drinks and soft drinks.
Like refined grains, sugary beverages have a high glycemic load, and drinking more of this sugary stuff is associated with increased risk of diabetes.
8. Choose good fats.
The types of fats in your diet can also affect the development of diabetes. Good fats, such as the polyunsaturated fats found in liquid vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds is better to prevent complications of diabetes. Trans fats do just the opposite. These bad fats are found in many margarines, packaged baked goods, fried foods in most fast-food restaurants, and any product that lists "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" on the label.
( For essential fatty acids : Use ground nut oil ( in summer ) , Gingly ( Til ) seed oil and/ or Sarsav oil ( In winter ) Do not use cotton seed oil. Saffola & sun flower oil may be used in small quantity.)

9. Avoid market food & try to adopt home based food.
10. Try to identify hypoglycemia by the symptoms such as
• hunger
• shakiness
• nervousness
• sweating
• dizziness or light-headedness
• sleepiness
• confusion
• difficulty speaking
• anxiety
• weakness
Hypoglycemia can also happen during sleep. Some signs of hypoglycemia during sleep include
• crying out
• finding pajamas or sheets damp from perspiration
• feeling tired, irritable, or confused after waking up
Keep rice flakes ( Pauha) and/or 1 tsf sugar in purse to treat hypoglycemia immediately.
11. Barley ( Jav – Jau ) is preferred over wheat when possible.
12. Keep identity card along with emergency contact number of doctors & relatives. Also save important number of relative under “ICE” in your mobile phone. Additional numbers can be kept under “ICE1”, “ICE2” etc.
13. Law calorie fruits like Papaya , Pomegranate , Apple , Amla , Green coconut , Orange etc should be taken daily & it can be taken between meals & break fast to avoid hunger.
14. Some home remedies & Ayurved treatment to be tried to control diabetes.
( May be used as adjuvant & not as replacement to anti diabetic drugs.)

Fenugreek seeds ( Methi ) 2 to 3 tsf to be soaked in water at night & to be taken in morning. ( daily till diabetes is under control and 2- 3 times a week there after. Methi is supposed to be hot & may be avoided in summer.)
Mamejava Ghanvati of good quality Ayurved company. 2 tablets 2 to 3 times a day depending upon blood sugar level.
Coarse powder of coriander seeds ( Dhania ) & cumin seeds 2 to 3 tsf daily .
Equal proportion of leaves of Bili ( 6 ) , Tulsi (20) & Brahmi ( 20 ) once or twice daily will be help ful for over all health.
Rasayan churn ( Galo , Gokhru & Amla ) half tsf daily in morning or at 3 pm will be helpful for vitality & to get freedom from fatigue.

15. Vitamin D suppliments may be required.
For vitamin D : Calcirol sachet to be divided into 8 parts & each part to be taken on Sunday with one calcium tablet for 8 Sundays.

For Vitamin C : Amla , Guava , Sprouted green grams , cabbage
16. Mental relaxation :
It is very important to do the analysis of situation & to take steps in such a way so that it does not irritate self. Repeated stress, tension etc leads to adrenaline surge & this will in turn lead to increase glucose level & all efforts to control glucose level will be made ineffective. So the mediation, yogasan, pranayam, regularity in life, adequate & sound sleep , use of rosary for chanting of mantra etc are very useful. Subduing ego and not to get guided by what others will feel about our healthy behavior is important.
17. Avoid use of cold water of refrigerator for drinking.
18. Always have a smile on face ( At least on an average once in a session of 2-3 hrs.)
19. Following dietary chart may be used for daily food intake.
One should remember to chew the food properly in small bites & should take at least 20 minutes for meal and 10 minutes for breakfast. One should enjoy food.
Diet chart for person having diabetes
Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Morning
( 8 AM) Sprouted green gram, Pomegranate Bottle gourd soup Boiled green gram Khandvi Boiled Bengal gram Sprouted green gram pudla from green gram dal
Lunch
(12 to 1 PM) Barley's Chapati, Parwar, Moth beans Chapati, Bottle gourd, Bengal gram dal Barley's Chapati ,Amaranth green gram dal, rice chapati, kankoda, red gram dal Barley's chapati, cabbage, green gram dal chapati, kankoda, black gram dal Barley's chapati, Spinach, red gram dal, rice
Salad with Lunch Cucumber Cabbage Beetroot Tindora Carrot Ridge gourd Tomato
Evening
(4 to 5 PM) Mamara with minimum oil, Papaya Khakhra (minimum ghee), Orange Bottle gourd soup, Sweet lime Sprouted green gram (masala), green coconut Popcorn, pomegranate Roasted Bengal gram & groundnut (10 gram), Apple Khakhara, peach/pear
Dinner
(7 to 8 pm) Vege.thuli or Vege.cutlet Khichdi, Ridge gourd Masala paratha from green gram or veg. pudla Bhaidku or Bottle gourd muthia Khichadi, spinach veg. handvo or Uttapam Bhaidku or dhokla from green gram dal

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Vodafone Women & Innovation for Mobile (WIN) Award 2011

2011-10-31T00:07:00.000-07:00

Last date is 4th Nov 2011 do hurry if you have an idea -

The power of mobile technology as a potentially life changing tool is evidence base in India today. In many instances, access to health services, banking, job opportunities and educational tools have been made possible for the first time. With more than 300 million women mobile phone users, we want to ensure the availability of value added services at scale which enhance women’s lives and enable a better future.

The Vodafone Foundation in association with the Digital Empowerment Foundation introduces the Women & Innovation for Mobile (WIN) Award. The ‘Win’ Awards seeks to identify innovative mobile solutions which meet the diverse needs of women under the following categories:

Education Healthcare & Family Economic Empowerment & Entrepreneurship The three winning solutions will qualify for a funding grant of 44,00,000 INR to further develop and scale their mobile innovation to serve and benefit a larger female user community.

Closing date for applications extended: November 4, 2011
For further information and to access our on line application form, please go to:
http://mobilesforgoodwinaward.manthanaward.org/.

Please Visit above web for more details

Tel: 011-26532786, Fax: 011-26532787.

Challenges in medical education and way ahead …..

2011-10-03T01:55:00.000-07:00

Challenges in medical education and way ahead …..
In May 2010, the Government of India has dissolved the MCI body with removing Dr Ketan Desai from the post of president. The reactions in medical fraternity were mixed, few were happy and few were not ready to comment on issue. Lot of non-medical and other voices were heard that medical colleges are major place of corruption and need radical cure. Today after more than one year of removal of age old MCI act, still we are not sure what is next? In parliament, cabinet minister of health and family welfare, Gulamnabi Azad extended the time limit of BOG (Board of Governance) till May 2012. Same time he informed that we will soon bring new MCI act but not ready to commit for timeline. So at present medical education in India is in turmoil. Nobody knows where are we going?
Why this confusion?
The government is continuous misleading community with numbers. India has sever deficiency of medical doctors. At present we had 1 doctor per 2800 population in compare to US 1 per 1000 population. To reach the goal of 1doctor per 1000 population, government has to increase the number of medical colleges and number seats in medical colleges. At present rate of production of medical doctor, India will achieve this goal by 2031. So if we want to achieve this goal we need to increase medical colleges. Thus government agenda is to increase the production (medical college).
Second is the business. Medical colleges are almost double in last one decade. Check the MCI web pages, in last 10 years the number of medical colleges are increased form just 150 to 335 in 2011 latest data. But this doubling of numbers of college is not due to government contribution. Majority of newly started medical colleges are run by trust or private institutes. So it is a big business. But still I have a question who is earning out of this business? Owner or Teachers or Students or Community? I must say nobody is the gainer, all are the losers. Even after doubling of number of medical colleges in country, we are not satisfied with the quality of our product (new doctors). Even out put (new doctors) feel that they are not up to the mark. Even teachers are discussing on various sites (MEU group, Quality medical education group and many other) that they are not happy with the current medical education quality. At last society, society is least interested the quality of medical education, they want the quality health services. So the society becomes healthy society. But I don’t think that the Indian society is the healthy society. Check the OPDs of GP or consultants, they are flooded with patients. Pharma-companies in India have highest growth rate even in recession. Lots of new pharma companies and diagnostic companies are coming and want to come in country. This is the indirect indicator of our ill society – diseased society not healthy society.
In this scenario, the most important question for medical educator or teacher or policy maker is that how to improve the medical education? So the community gets maximum advantage with new out put product (young doctor). Scenario is difficult but I am trying to get out with following solutions or scopes–
1. First we need to rethink about increase in number of medical colleges. As per Park’s text book of Preventive and Social medicine, it is clearly mentioned the suggested norms for health personnel. As per this norms India need 1 doctor per 3500 population, which is we already achieved. In 2004, India has 0.7 doctor per 1000 population. I could not understand how the new norms for doctors are arrived? The MCI and media and health minister quoting that we have to achieve norm of 1 doctor per 1000 population. We need to take bold decision, do we really want to increase doctors in number or quality doctors? As in last decade India has increased the production rate in double. My feeling for this decade should be consolidation and quality improvement. Till 2021, we need to set up the strategy to improve the quality of medical education.
2. Since 2009, MCI has put emphasis on the Faculty Development Programme. I must congratulate the person whoever has launched the concept. It is really key to improve the medical education. As per this, each medical college should have one Medical Education Unit (MEU). The chairman of MEU is Dean of Medical College and one faculty who is interested in education or know better way to education will work as coordinator. Than 10-12 faculties from different departments of college will be the members of MEU. They will first learn the medical education technologies at Regional centre. Later these trained faculties will train in-house all faculties for prescribed topics in three days workshop. This in-house workshop will be supervised by the convenor of regional training center. The convenor will remain present all three days and assess the quality of training. This supervision is very positive and constructive for the host medical college. Here I find the scope of improvement in medical education. One national body MCI can not supervise the quality of education by just one inspection over a year or five year interval. Hope you all agree on this statement. But one needs the continuous supportive supervision for the quality improvement. All teachers want to improve the quality of teaching and for that they are doing innovation everyday in teaching. So why not systemic supervision and get standard quality out put of product (young doctor)? MCI needs to increase the number of regional centers. At present 15 MCI approved regional centers in country. If we divide to the all medical colleges, each regional center has to look 22-25 medical colleges. My suggestion is that MCI should increase regional centers to 30-35 in country. So each regional center will have to supervise just 10 medical colleges maximum.
3. At present regional center of MCI is only looking after the teacher’s training programme for medical education technology. But gradually MCI has to expand the purview of the work. The regional center will help to improve the quality of day to day teaching, evaluation, process of teaching learning and if possible quality check of out come product (young doctor) under these 10 medical colleges. All activities should be constructive in nature. For that MCI has to develop four zonal centers over regional centers and below MCI. This will help to supervise the decentralized system. Through this system, we can able to standardize our medical education.
4. MCI is thinking for licensee exam for MBBS graduate and National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEE) for post graduate admission. This is new type of confusion. It was heard that NEET will be before internship. So internee doctors do internship properly. But as licensee exam is going to introduce. It will be surly after the internship. Still we are not knowing the structure of exam. Everything is in dark and confusion. My suggestion is the MCI should merge the licensee exam with Regional Centers supervision. The Regional center should collectively supervise the internship programme and skill development aspects of MBBS graduate. How can be answered by think tank of learned faculties.
These are my gross suggestions. I may be wrong but with my 10 years of post MD and 20 years of MBBS and post MBBS experiences, I am writing this short note.
Dr. Niraj Pandit
Vadodara

The Sahajanand Laser Technology SUSHRUTA Innovation Award 2011-12

2011-09-25T23:53:00.000-07:00

The Sahajanand Laser Technology SUSHRUTA Innovation Award (SIA) is great nationwide competition in India with special promotion to Gujarat students, for the most innovative Medical Device Idea / Prototype by the students.
The objective of the award is to strengthen the innovation in medical device; the Department of Science & Technology (DST) has initiated a project - “Promoting Innovative Clusters (PIC) in India”.
In this context, with the support of Project PIC and the Gujarat based innovative company “Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd”; the National Bio-Medical Engineering Society (NBES), Ahmedabad is happy to announce the Sahajanand Laser Technology - SUSHRUTA Innovation Award (SIA) 2011-12, an All India Competition for Biomedical Engineering Students, along with a special category for the Bio-Medical Engineering Institutes and Medical Colleges of Gujarat State.
The uniqueness of the award is that students who have new idea and who are working on prototype or idea or already done prior work in the Institute can apply. The jury will select 14 teams and they will get 3 months' time and grant of Rs 40,000/- for each team to work and improve the existing idea / project. The selected groups will be invited to participate in an International Exhibition on Medical Technology and Equipment.

Eligibility Criteria:
The award competition is open for individuals/groups of students (up to 3 students in a group allowed) pursuing any degree (Bachelors / Master Level / Ph.D) under Biomedical Engineering, Medical Technology or related subjects from a recognized Indian University / Institution. From the Gujarat category, all the institutions offering Biomedical Engineering Courses at various levels as well as students of Medical Colleges are invited to participate.
The project / idea should be related to Medical Devices / Technology. It may be a continuous research project or a part of it or a new idea / subject.
It is preferred that the participants participate in a group (up to 3 students in a group), although individual participation is allowed.
The last date of applying for the award in prescribed format is with relevant shareable support documents is on or before October 15, 2011.

Award categories:
There will be two categories as under:
National (All India) : Two Prizes will be given under this category. Rs. 50,000/- for the 1st Prize and Rs. 40,000/- for the second Prize. This will be along with the Award Trophy.
1. Gujarat State : The winners under this category will be given Rs. 25,000/- for the First Prize and Rs. 20,000/- for the Second Prize along with the Award Trophy for each.
2. The academic faculty involved in supporting the winning teams will also be awarded with cash prize of Rs. 20,000/- each.

Award process:
The valid entries (In soft copy by email as well as hard copies) along with supporting documents received before the deadline will undergo internal screening and the short-listed entries will be evaluated by a panel of Jury.
A panel of Jury will select 25 best entries (including 7 entries from Gujarat).
Selected participants will be invited to Ahmedabad for making Presentations for which travel costs for one person will be reimbursed.
Out of these 25 presentations, selected 14 participants (at least 4 from Gujarat) will be given a financial support of Rs. 40,000/- each as one time payment for the prototype development.
A group of technical experts will monitor and mentor the participants during the process of prototype development.
The 14 selected groups will be given opportunity to exhibit their prototypes at an Exhibition on Medical Technology and Equipment. All the actual costs for travel for a team of two persons (One Student And One Guide) (Railway A/c 3 Tier/Bus, Up and Down), stay and exhibition will be reimbursed.
The best 2 prototypes out of these 10 exhibits and the best 2 prototypes of the 4 prototypes from Gujarat selected by the panel of Jury will receive Sahajanand Laser Technology SUSHRUTA Innovation Award.
Read more on http://www.biomedsociety.com

urgent vacancies in West Bengal- apply urgent

2011-09-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

Vacancies =MBBS and Medical Specialists for West Bengal

A reputed Private Organization is urgently recruiting Full Time MBBS and Medical Specialists for its Rural Hospitals in West Bengal.
Its mandate is to offer Quality and Affordable health services through ethical practices, through a large number of air-conditioned hospitals in rural West Bengal.

**Gynecologist
=MD/DNB/DGO =Exp. 2 yrs. =Sal. (CTC) 80 to 120 k per month

**Anesthesiologist
=MD/DNB/DA =Exp. 2 yrs. =Sal. (CTC) 80 to 120 k per month

**Sr. RMO (several)
=MBBS =Exp. 5 yrs. =Sal. (CTC) 40 to 60 k per month

**Jr. RMO (several)
=MBBS =Even Fresher can apply =Sal. (CTC) 25 to 40 k per month

In addition, Air-conditioned furnished accommodation will be provided.
There will be no opportunity for any private practice.

Interested doctors meeting all above requirements may send their latest CV urgently to:drpamhrd@gmail.com

India Innovation Initiative – 3i

2011-09-12T02:30:00.000-07:00

India Innovation Initiative – 3i

A nation wide Innovation Competition is announced for the innovators. It is for all innovators in India in the age group of 18+ years. The competition is challenge based. The innovative projects will have two levels of screening. The first level of screening will be through Novelty Search in idea and instrument. The selected innovations after the search will be exhibited at the regional fairs where a panel of expert jury will select the innovations which will compete at the National Fair to be held in Delhi for Top Honors. A panel of judges comprising of eminent scientists, industrialists and experts will do the first screening. There will be a second screening process at the National Fair for selecting the top 5 innovations. These selected innovations /innovators will be awarded cash prizes and offered IP protection and licensing/ commercialization support.

Who can participate?
Participation is for all innovators in the age group of 18 years and above.
This includes:
• All colleges, universities and Institutes.
• Innovators from R&D Institutions and Labs.
• Entrepreneurs, Industry professionals and Freelance Innovators.
• Grassroot Innovators through NGOs and Rural development organizations.

How to enter the contest?

Innovators may enter the contest through the online registration process or the offline registration process.

Registration
1. Online Registration Process
2. Offline Registration Process
o Download the registration form by http://www.innovationgrid.org/i3/pdf/i3_2011_form.pdf and printed it.
o Fill in the form by hand and mail it to CII along with a copy of your project report and demonstration of results. This should reach CII before 25th September 2011.
Form Submission
You can submit the form in three ways
1. Fill in the online registration form
2. Download the form here, fill it by hand and mail to CII.
3. Download the form here, save it on to your desktop, key in the details and email to i3@cii.in.

You may mail, courier or fax your submission apart from e-mailing to:

Mr. Bikram Lenka
Technology & Innovation Initiatives Division,
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII),
3rd Floor, IGSSS Building,
28, Institutional Area, Lodhi Road,
New Delhi - 110 003(India),
Phone Direct: +91 11 4577 2002 (D),
Phone Board: +91 11 4577 2000 Extn – 202,
Fax: +91 11 4577 2001.

Important Information
Your project report should be well documented, brief and precise and not more than 5 pages. A link to the full project report can be provided in the proposal.

Final selection will be made by a jury comprising of leading industry experts, academia, and government representatives.

NASSCOM Social Innovation Honours 2011

2011-08-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

The objectives of the NASSCOM Innovation Honours 2011 is to recognize information and communication technologies (ICT)innovations that have met a social development need or helped organizations achieve their social development objectives.
Honour categories as defined by the Rules are as follows:
Honour Category & Definition
ICT led Social Innovation by a ‘Not For Profit’ Organization - An innovation by a nonprofit organization for social development
ICT led Social Innovation by a ‘For Profit’ Organization, as a Business Model - An innovation by an organization (whose objective is making profit) for social development, as a part of its business plan
ICT led Social Innovation by a ‘For Profit’ Organization through Corporate Social Responsibility - An innovation by an organization (whose objective is making profit) for social development, as a part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives
ICT led Social Innovation by a Government Body - An innovation by a Government department / body for social development
ICT led Social Innovation by Individual/Group - An innovation by an individual or a group of individuals for social development
ICT led Innovative Social Concept by Student(s) -An innovative concept by college student(s) for social development
ICT led Social Innovation by Multi Stakeholder Partnerships -A project initiated by two or more stakeholders for social development
The Honour categories may be changed / modified / split / merged / increased or cancelled by the Honours Management and / or Jury based on the number of entries received in any category, and the quality of the entries. The decision in this regard will be final and non-contestable. The Honours management will not entertain any queries in this regard

Call for entries & participation
• The call for entries for the Honours will be announced in one or more relevant edition(s) of a leading publication, online through the website and / or by direct communication with potential Applicants, and that shall be construed to be adequate notice for call for entries
• Applicant can apply for the Honours by submitting the necessary details on ‘Level 1’ on the website www.nsih.in. Only applications submitted on www.nsih.in will be considered valid for the purposes of these Honours.
• Honours Management and / or Jury have the right to nominate any person/ organization in any Honour category to build the quality of entries in that Honour category
• Applicant can apply in more than one Honour categories subject to fulfillment of rules and regulations mentioned herein
• An Applicant can provide more than one entry in an Honour category if the entries are for different initiatives. A different application form needs to be used for each initiative.
• If separate application forms are received for the same initiative, from different individuals / organizations, such entries will be treated as one entry
• Honours Management has the right to reclassify application forms from one category to another, at its discretion
Eligibility Criteria for participation in the Honours
Category & Eligibility Criteria
Not For Profit organization / For profit organization Government Organization / Departments of Government applying for the Honours should satisfy the following criteria:
• They should be Indian entities or foreign entities with a registered presence in India
• The innovation being applied for the Honours must benefit India, or a community in India
• The Project and Organization / Department of Government should have been in existence in India for over one year (on or before 31st March, 2011)
• The initiative entered by the Project / Organization / Department of Government should not have been recognized by the Honours in the previous two years
Multi stakeholder Partnerships Organization applying for the Honours should satisfy the following criteria:
• They should be Indian entities or foreign entities with a registered presence in India
• The innovation being applied for the Honours must benefit India, or a community in India
• The Project and Organization should have been in existence in India for over one year (on or before 31st March, 2011)
• The initiative entered by the Project / Organization should not have been recognized by the Honours in the previous two years
• The Project should have a minimum of 2 stakeholders as party to the initiative
Social Entrepreneur(s) The individual or group of individuals applying for the Honours should satisfy the following criteria:
• The individual / group of individuals should be Indian citizens
• The group should not be registered under the Societies, Trusts or Company’s Act
• The innovation being applied for the Honours must benefit India, or a community in India
• The group can have a maximum of 6 members
• The said innovation must be either at implementation stage or a prototype stage
• Each member of the group should have completed 18 years of age as on date of Application
Student concept Student groups applying for the Student Concept of the year category should satisfy the following criteria:
• The student / group should be a representative of an Institute* affiliated with a state board or should be a registered deemed university
• The said project may be either a concept or in operational stage.
• The student group can have a maximum of 6 members
• Each member of the student group should have completed 16 years of age as on date of Application

Institute / Institution for the purpose of the Honours is defined as an institution / college / university, which is affiliated with a State Board, or is a registered deemed university
• The Honours Management may modify the eligibility criteria from time to time with retrospective effect
• The Honours Management holds the right to disqualify any application which does not meet the eligibility criteria without assigning any reason whatsoever
Receipt of entries
• Participation in the Honours in any manner will be construed as an acceptance to the Rules and Regulations stated herein
• Form A must be submitted on the www.nsih.in by 18:00 hours on 01/09/11
• Receipt of application forms after last date of receipt specified may be permitted only at the discretion of the Honours Management
• Honours Management may not be consider / be responsible for application forms that are in incorrect format / received late / corrupt etc.
• If Applicants are unclear as to the rules or any element of the Honours or have any queries/concerns pertaining to these Honours, they can e mail their questions, problems or queries to nsih@nasscomfoundation.org or write to us at NASSCOM Foundation, Samruddhi Venture Park, Ground Floor, Office # 14-15, Central MIDC Road, Andheri East , Mumbai- 400093. The Honours Management shall endeavor to the best of its ability to respond thereto

4th EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2012

2011-08-22T01:14:00.000-07:00

4th EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2012

About EdelGive Foundation
EdelGive Foundation is an initiative of Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd., one of India’s leading financial services firms. It provides strategic direction to the philanthropic activities of Edelweiss, its employees, clients and associates.
Its key priority is to focus on the areas of education, livelihoods and supporting women’s empowerment. It achieves this by bringing an investment banking and venture capital approach to the social sector. By using the human, financial and intellectual resources from its parent company, Edelweiss, it seeks to enrich and broaden the impact of entrepreneurial activities of non-profits in India.

4th EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2012
The 4th EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2012, is a national awards programme instituted by the EdelGive Foundation, to reward innovative work in the social sector in India.
The objective for the EdelGive Social Innovation Honours is to identify and reward organisations that are innovating to empower women in India.
In India statistics continue to highlight the ways women and girls remain marginalised and disempowered:
• Over 50% of girls in India still fail to enroll in schools In rural areas,
• 1 in 7 is married before the age of 13
• Lack of access to maternal health care in India still claims the lives of 1 in 70 women
• Female labourers get paid only 40 to 60 per cent of wages compared to a male labourer
Such figures reveal a pressing need for progress, and that’s why we choose to focus on funding and showcasing for innovative work that helps to empower women in five four different categories: Education, Health and Well-Being, Livelihoods and Rights and Representation.

Honours Vision
Edelweiss Group launched a national awards programme in 2008, managed by EdelGive Foundation, with a vision to recognize, promote and support outstanding innovations that are catalysing positive social change across India.
Through the awards we seek to raise awareness of issues surrounding girl children, support organisations working on innovative projects and promote sharing and learning of these ideas amongst the private and public sectors.

What are we looking for?
We are looking for organizations that have
• Innovated either in idea and/or action to impact the lives of women in India
• Direct social impact and
• Sustainability of the innovation
Award Categories
• Health and well being: Awarding an innovation which promotes women’s health and overall well-being
• Education: Awarding an innovation which provides women with access to education and/or improved quality of education
• Economic Security & Livelihoods: Awarding an innovation which helps women increase their income, and / or provides them with employment opportunities
• Rights and Representation: Awarding an innovation which helps women overcome social and cultural challenges and also those which empower women to participate in available legislative positions

Eligibility
You are eligible to apply in the corresponding categories if you work on the above issues.
Applicants applying for the Awards should satisfy the following criteria:
• The Applicant should not be barred from conducting any activities by any court of India.
• The Applicant should not propagate political or religious doctrines.
• The Applicant should be a registered organization in India, under the Trusts, Societies, or u/s 25 of the Companies Act.
• The previous three years’ winners and runners-up will not be able to participate in the award process.

Timelines
The Awards will follow the following timelines:
Process Date
Call for Application across India August 8, 2011
Deadline for receiving Application Forms September 23, 2011
Announcement of Short Listed Entities(SLEs) October 12, 2011
Announcement of Nominees for the final jury round December 8, 2011
Final jury round January 18, 2012
Determination of Winners in an event January 19, 2012

http://samhita.org/esih_2012.html

Manthan Award Nomination Form 2011

2011-08-22T01:03:00.000-07:00

Manthan Award Nomination Form 2011 -guidelines
General Guidelines (Nomination)

The Manthan Award is open to any of the following in the content industry in any SAARC countries.
1) Governments
2) Individuals/Students
3) Entrepreneurs
4) Industry (Private Sector Companies/Corporates)
5) Academician and Academic institutions
6) NGOs
Interested individual/organization can take part in Manthan Awards by either applying online or contacting Manthan Award Seretariat for the nomination process.
Nominees are expected to send the powerpoints & videos along with the filled nomination forms.
The entry will not be considered if any nominee fails to submit the entire details of the nomination forms till the last date of nomination.
There is no limitation regarding the language, platforms, cost or channels the projects work with.
A product can only be submitted for one category.
All entries shall be real & implemented products. Pilot projects are accepted.
The same product cannot be submitted twice (i.e. submitted again).
Irrespective of the product/project language , all producer and project information must be in English.
Separate nomination shall be made in case of multiple submissions by the same individual/organisation.
Any partially filled/not filled nomination form will be rejected.
Any false information regarding the project in the nomination form will immediately disqualify the nominee.
Any nomination form received after the last date of nomination will not be entertained.
Juror’s Evaluation Criteria

Uniqueness of Idea:
Content: quantify matching quality of content and services delivery, relevance of content and its utility value
Interface & Technical specialty: Innovative design with unique features of applications having user appealing features
Implementation & scope
Sustainability & Accessibility: cost effectiveness matching social and economic capital of different user groups with diverse needs in different income brackets.

General Guidelines (Jury)

The process of evaluation commences from the date of closing of nominations.
The initial judging is through online review of the nominations by the Jury Panel.
All materials received during the judging process will remain confidential & will not be shared with any external entity.
The Digital Empowerment Foundation, the organizers have the right to reject submission / entry without providing any further reason.
The Jurors Panel of the respective Award Categories has the right to modify the judging criteria to suit the respective Category in consultation with the Judging Chairman of the Awards.
The Jurors Panels, in consultation with the award Chairman may transfer any nomination received to another Category, to ensure “best fit”.
The decision of the Jury will be final and binding.
The Jurors panel reserves the right to declare ‘not eligible’, if the nomination does not meet the standard.
The final results will be announced during the Award Gala only.

General Guidelines (Final Presentation)M4W

The nominees are required to reach the venue 5 minutes early before the start of the presentations.
Session manager shall be responsible for any queries from the nominees during the session.
Nominees shall check all the powerpoint/video/audio material of their project with the session manager before the session commences.
For final presentation, each nominee will be given a time limit of 5 minutes to present the idea.
At the end of the session, the Jury shall ask the queries which carry weightage in final marks.
Jury shall visit the stalls (exibition area) display, which carry weightage in the final marks
best education programme in India
http://www.manthanaward.org/section_synopsis.asp?id=222

Essay Competition 2011 - ON Vaccine in Health care

2011-07-15T02:03:00.000-07:00

Essay Competition 2011
Subject for essay – Vaccine in Healthcare: Indian Perspective and Potential
Vaccine is really important component of health care system. We always like to salute small pox vaccine for eradicating virus form earth. But after small pox, human being has not received to control or eradicate other similar agent. There are lots of discussion going on for vaccine market for India and other developing countries.
The Shri B V Patel Education Trust, C/O Paras Pharmaceuticals limited has organized essay competition 2011 on the topic of vaccine as above. The author is expected to analyze factors likely to influence the future growth of vaccine sector in india, identify future rivers for Indian policy makers for vaccineand where industry should focus. Large multinational companies and Indian companies want to capture this big market.
Awards -
First and Second prize winners will be respectively awarded the Gold and Silver medal during Indian Pharmaceutical Congress to be held in Bengaluru from 16-18 Dec 2011.
Eligibility criteria –
1. Any person interested in drug and pharmaceuticals is invited to participate
2. Text part in essay including tables should not exceed 3000 words. More than 3000 words would attract minus marks.
3. One single author entry shall be permitted.
4. Name address and acknowledgement should not appear in body of essay or synopsis
5. The last date for the receipt of essay is 15/9/2011
6. Essay should exclusively written for this competition
7. The decision of acceptance, rejection and award of medal for same would be solely of the trust and all have to accept decision.
The four (4) copies of essay with short bio-data and passport size photo and four copy of short synopsis or abstract with not more than 300 words should be sent wth cover letter to
The Hon. Secretary,
Shri B V Patel Education Trust,
A-302, SATEJ Appartments, Opp AUDA sports Club,
GUlab Tower Road, Thaltej, Ahmedabad 380054

Subscribing on the envelope “ESSAY COMPETITION” send before 15/9/2011

Shitay Akademi awards

2011-07-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

Every year since its inception in 1954, the Sahitya Akademi Award prizes to the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the major Indian languages recognised by the Akademy. The award amount, which was Rs.5,000 since inception, had been enhanced to Rs.10,000 from 1983, Rs.25,000 from 1988, Rs.40,000 from 2001 and is now Rs.50,000 from 2003. The first Awards were given in 1955.

Criteria of Eligibility for the Award

1. In order to be eligible for the award, the book must be an outstanding contribution to the language and literature to which it belongs. The book may be a creative or a critical work, but must not be
1. A work of translation; or
2. An anthology; or
3. An abridgement, or a compilation, or an annotation; or
4. A treatise or research work prepared for a university degree or any examination;
5. The work of an author who has earlier won an award from the Akademi (other than the Translation Prize);
6. The work of an author who is a member of the Executive Board of the Akademi.

2. A fresh collection of writings published earlier in book form, or revised editions of books published earlier, are not eligible for Award. However, if at least 75% of the work included in a collection has been published for the first time in book form, it can be considered for Award.

3. An incomplete work may be considered for the award only if the part that comprises the book is complete in itself.

4. A posthumous publication is eligible for Award only if the author has died within the three year period stipulated for the award or later.
Illustration : An author who has died before 2000 would not be eligible for the award of 2004.

5. A book shall be disqualified for the award if it is established to the satisfaction of the Executive Board that canvassing has been done by the author.

Biomedical waste management - Situation analysis and disposal

2011-06-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

Everybody must read news about 6 people was battling for their lives in Mayapuri, scrapeyard area of New Delhi. The culprit was the radio active cobalt 60 isotope which was found in scrape area. Later it was found that the waste came form hospital waste.
It was estimated by the pollution control board that more than 4.2 lakh kg of biomedical waste generated per day in country. But only 2.4 lakh kg of bio-medical waste is reported to be treated at 157 qualified treatment facilities. Pollution control board, institutional report revealed that out of 84, 809 hospitals and healthcare facilities in India only 48,183 are either treating their wastes at source or are employing private agencies for same.
These two news are the witness of the Indian health care waste management scenario. The government of India has enacted the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 1998. It is more than 12 years of implementation. Under these rules, it is mandatory for all hospitals and health care facilities to ensure that the bio-medical waste handled and managed without any harm to the human health and the environment. The law has defined the bio-medical waste means ‘any waste which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biologicals, and including categories mentioned in Schedule I of law’.
The health care system in India is very complex and mixed economy where private, government and semi-government hospitals providing health and medical care. All these health care facilities are generating biomedical waste. The amount of waste generated in each facility depends on type of facility and practice. World Health Organization 1999 report on health care waste composition in Asian countries reported that India is generating 0.33 million ton biomedical waste per year, means 1-2 kg per day per bed. Over last 10 years the health care industry of India is growing big way. Large number of big and private hospitals added in list and also large research laboratories came in country. These have added more waste generation with sophistication. But the most important aspect in hospital waste is that the almost 80% of waste generated in hospital is the non-hazardous waste and only 20% of waste is the hazardous to human health and the environment. If hospital takes care of these 20% of the hazardous waste, it will surely reduce the hazardous waste. But majority of hospitals have no system of segregation of waste at source, which is best method of reduction of waste. All hospitals collecting waste in single container, which makes non-hazardous waste to become hazardous. As per February 2010, Central Pollution Control Board evaluation report on biomedical waste says that only 50-55% of biomedical waste is segregated, collected and treated as per the said law of Biomedical Management. Similarly Delhi Pollution Control Committee reported number of illegal dumping sites across the city. The city has reported many hazardous toxic materials and metals in the soil. They endanger to the health of human being.
The other important issue in the biomedical waste is that the 16 billion injections are used in country means 45 million injections in a day. It was reported that almost 30% of such injections are reused in the country. Such reuse of the material causes the more endanger to the health and life of patients and even health care staff. The diseases which can be transmitted through the improper handling of biomedical waste are Hepatitis-B, Hepatitis-C, HIV which can transmitted through the injury to sharps, hospital acquired infections (nosocomial infections), occupational hazards to chemicals and drugs and many more.
Simple guide line to manage proper biomedical waste –
1. Reduction in the production of waste – The first important issue is the genuine use of materials. Do not use unnecessary material for the unnecessary procedure. The inventory control system of hospital will help to find out the misuse of items in hospital. One can do audit and minimize such misuse.
2. Segregation of waste at Origin – The most important stapes in the management of hospital waste. Each hospital should have various containers at the source of waste generation. All waster generators should well trained for the segregation at origin. Once mixture of waste occurs, one can not separate the waste later which is again danger. The law has given very good categorization of waste and use of containers for each category.
3. Transport of waste – The hospital should have proper mechanism of waste transportation within hospital. The waste transportation should not disturb the routine hospital activities. It should be either early morning or late night. The transport vehicle should be close and leakage proof. The waste transporter should be trained and know the various risk aspects of biomedical waste.
4. Storage facility – The health care facility should have storage facility for the waste as per the bed capacity. The hospital must have ability to store 48 hours storage capacity in case of any unforeseen situation.
5. Final disposal facility – The law has suggested various final disposal methods for the biomedical waste. They are disinfection, autoclaving, incineration and microwaving. The law has given clear categorization and type of final treatment facilities to be used.
For application of above guideline, hospital has to appoint or delegate duty to the biomedical waste manager. If hospital is big means more than 50 bad, they should have one biomedical waste manager who looks after the above guideline for implementation. But if hospital smaller than 50 bad, they need to give responsibility to some trained person in waste management, he may be senior nursing staff or trained biomedical person. The biomedical waste manager should work closely with the Infection control committee. In majority of situation if hospital follows the above simple guideline for waste management, they will not have major problems.
Final Disposal technologies in BMW –

The most important issue in the management is the final disposal of waste. The law has suggested various methods for the final disposal of biomedical waste as per the category. But the hospital has taken the setting incineration means they have fulfill the law regulation or making contract with private agency for disposal means they have fulfill the law regulation. This is the weakling in the whole issue. The report says that various technologies for final disposal has set advantages and disadvantages. The popular suggested technologies are incineration, autoclave, microwave and chemical disinfection. But recently one new technology is introduced by the Facilitation Center for Industrial Plasma Technology, Institute of Plasma Research, which is known as plasma pyrolysis. The technology can handle all types of wastes and also eliminate the need of the waste segregation at origin. It uses extremely high temperatures to completely decompose waste in an oxygen-starved environment into very simple molecules. Plasma pyrolysis gasifies all organic material, while non-combustible materials – such as glass and metals – are reduced to an inert material with toxicity several orders of magnitudes lower than current landfill regulations. The gas produced after pyrolysis is high in hydrogen and carbon monoxide with traces of methane, acetylene and ethylene. It can be combusted very efficiently to yield carbon dioxide. The plasma pyrolysis with 25kg/hour capacity machine can handle the waste of 300 bad hospitals. Till date it is the best environment friendly technology. But still it is not reached to the market level for the implementation and production. The comparison of various technologies is given as below

Final Treatment technologies – A comparison

Looking to above table, the plasma technology looks very good if we take care of investment cost, operation cost and operation issue. Otherwise it is best environment friendly and large volume reduction technology. Also most important there is no need of segregation of the waste. In country like India, the municipal waste is also big problem and e-waste is up coming problem. In this scenario the environmental friendly technology need to promote.
(The author can be contacted for any issue related to Biomedical waste. He has vast experience in field. He has trained many health workers and help to establish the system of waste management.)

Authors –
1. Dr. Niraj Pandit, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, SBKS Medical Institute and research Center, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, Piparia, Vadodara
Email –deniraj74@gmail.com, mobile 09825371135
2. Dr. Gaurav Desai, 2nd year Resident, Department of Community Medicine, SBKS Medical Institute and research Center, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, Piparia, Vadodara
THe paper is published in Conference paper book of 2nd National conferancen on Urban, Industrial and Hospital waste management 2011, Ahmedabad

Sitaram Jindal Foundation initiative for Indian - Great prizes do nominate

2011-06-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

The Sitaram Jindal Foundation has decided to support to the person who is working against corruption in India. The foundation has launched the “Jindal Prize - Crusade Against Corruption” for the recognition of the exceptional service of individual or organization against the corruption and working for welfare of the citizen of the country.
The goal of the prize is to make the country India a corruption free country in world. The present scenario in country is that the every where we are experiences the corruption. But still few people working against and doing community welfare work for the poor people. The S J Foundation has decided to recognized such people and support them. The award will be given to ten people who are selected by the eminent jury. Each prize is of 10 lakhs Indian rupee.
You can nominate such proude personality through the nomination form. Please find nomination form on web http://www.jindalprize.org/corruption/index.htm

Five more Jindal Prizes of one crore each in five field

The foundation established in 1969, the Foundation is an apolitical, nonreligious and charitable trust, engaged in the field of education, health and social service with special emphasis on nature cure. The Foundation, besides extending financial support to other charitable institutions, has also directly set up several educational institutions and hospitals. The Foundation also assists the poor and deserving students through scholarships.
The Jindal Prize aims at promoting moral values, peace, harmony, health, education, patriotism, national integration and religious tolerance and at inspiring individuals to serve without motive of personal gain, social or political mileage.
It is expected that the recognition garnered by the Jindal Prize awardees will catalyze their efforts towards social upliftment.
There shall be five Prizes of Rs one crore each, to be conferred annually,
one for each of the following categories.
• The Jindal Prize for Rural Development & Poverty Alleviation
• The Jindal Prize for Health including drugless healing
• The Jindal Prize for Education with emphasis on moral upliftment
• The Jindal Prize for Science, Technology and Environment
•The Jindal Prize for Peace, Social Harmony and Development
The awardees shall be selected by the Jury of eminent and reputed persons of high integrity through a process independent of the working of the Foundation.
The last date of application for nomination is 30th June. Please visit http://www.jindalprize.org/home.htm for more and application

Meseals vaccine deaths- need to think???

2011-05-06T04:01:00.000-07:00

Friends
Since last March 2010, India lost 21 infants and children due to measles vaccination. These are the absolutely healthy babies who went for the routine vaccination and came as dead body at home. The details of deaths are as follow
On 17th March 2011 – Kutch, Gujarat – 5 infants deaths – Programme error
On 15th Sept 2010 – Gaziabad – 2 infant deaths – No investigation
On 22nd Aug 2010 – Lucknow,UP – 4 Infant deaths – Anaphylactic reaction
On 21 Aug 2010 – Maharastra – 2 infant deaths – post measles complication
On 23rd April 2011 – TamilNadu – 4 infant deaths - Anaphylactic shock
On 13th March 2010 – MP – 4 infant deaths – vaccine used after 3 hours

All deaths were tried to investigate but satisfactory answers are not available anywhere. This is most important weakness in our system. Each death is matter. In present changed era we can not afford to loose any child. Each and every infant and child is precious. The family size is reducing day by day. Two children or one child is norm rather exception. In such scenario if vaccine will kill our precious future generation, it is very high time to think about vaccine policy.
I have read some where that Government of India is revising vaccine policy. We have to keep few important aspects in current scenario.
1. We should not blame anybody in system for vaccines induce deaths, like suspension of vaccinator or worker or doctor. This is escapism from the root. On the contrary, we should protect our ground level staffs, who are really working very hard. They are working as vaccinator or workers as the technical representative of system.
2. All vaccine related deaths should openly discuss in system and all minor details should available on surveillance system like IDSP.
3. Don’t try to find cheap solution as routine we are doing. It is known to all of us that the measles vaccine may lead to deaths either due to anaphylactic shock or toxic shock syndrome, if proper care is not taken. So regular on job training of workers is must.
4. Most important is the emergency services. All vaccinators should have basic training of handling emergency. Measles vaccine should be given only those places where emergency trained staff available. This is most important. In western world also all types of reactions and complications are occurring with measles vaccine but death is rare phenomenon. Because they have good capacity of handling emergency. Do we have?
5. Open to discussion to all learned public health expert, pediatricians, sociologist and community at large.

Healthy tips on this new Financial year

2011-04-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

Go for Healthy life style

Stick to balanced diet of traditional Indian food with less fatty content,less starch, avoid high omega 6 oils and products and maintain a healthy ratio of Omega 6:omega 3 as 3-5 :1 and eat complex starches like colorful vegetables.
Take unprocessed foods as much as possible and eat close to natural state of food items.Avoid sugars

Drink good amount of water and avoid coffee.Drink water and eat food in siting position

Take less salt avoid processd foods and junk food.

Do aerobic exercises like brisk walking cycling and swimming and floor dances for 15-20 minutes=4-5 days a week

Do muscle stretch out exercises 10 minutes 4-5 days a week

Do paranayam exercise for breathing for 10 minutes daily

Do meditation to reduce stress

Eat fibre food.It is important to avoid colon cancer and prostate cancers in men.

Women may prefer to avoid bras and specially tight bras for longer periods in a day as it may lead to breast cancer.

You most likey wont need to pop in diabetes and heart problem tablets.

Live close to nature and Indian life style

Feel good- do good- be good

Golden rule:Unles toxins flow out with your sweat and tears spill out for pain of others, one cant live healthy life.

Man's body was never made for type of food,pesticide and medicines that we consume today.Be cautious to take so called organic and genetically modifoed food.It may prove slow poision to your body

All the best

Isued in public interest. Note: Please cosult your doctor before emabarking on significant lifestyle change and your regualar diet.

Study on Medical education among Internee doctors in 2002-03 still relevent

2011-03-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Dear
I did study among internee doctors in 2002-03 among four state of India and five medical colleges its really intersting to read the findings.
Dr. Niraj Pandit

Attitude of Internee Doctors to Medical Education in India.
Abstract

The objective of Medical Education is to create efficient and compassionate healers to serve indigenous society’s aspirations and priorities. In present days, the country have achieved ten fold increase in number of medical colleges and the out put of doctors mainly specialist and super-specialists.
Objective: to know the attitude of an internee doctors towards medical education and to know the attitude of internee doctors to health care system.
Design: The present study was conducted in five medical colleges over 4 state of India, name Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharastra. It was a cross sectional study. The study participants, internee doctors were selected randomly from respective medical colleges during year 2002 – 03. Minimum 30 internees selected from respective college.
Analysis: proportion is used for analysis.
Results: 59% of participants said their knowledge in different subjects is adequate. Only 6% of internees liked the lecture as mode of teaching. But 21% said they are happy and will be interested to attend lecture if audio-visual aid incorporated. 36% of study participants liked learning by doing method for acquiring skill. On asking about the interesting – boring subject among medical course, 29%, 22% and 15% replied Medicine, Surgery and Community Medicine respectively were the interesting subjects; 19% and 14% said Community Medicine and Bio-chemistry respectively are boring subjects. The study revealed that 95% of study population wanted to do post-graduation. But 43% of all would be happy if they get chance to work in rural area.
Conclusion: There is need to elaborate such study, which help to plan medical education.
Key words: Medical education, interesting, boring, attitude

Attitude of Internee Doctors to Medical Education in India.
Education needs no definition. Medical education occupies a crucial position as it involves a close and deep study of life itself and its vital process. The objective of Medical education is to create efficient and compassionate healers to serve indigenous society’s aspiration and priorities.1 In 1988 world conference on Medical education in Edinburgh Scotland resolved to make training of physician more relevant to the needs of the majority in their own societies.2 In present scenario, we have achieved ten fold increase in the number of medical colleges and the output of doctors, resulting in large number of specialists and equally impressive number of super-specialists. This has been largely unplanned and without any thought for finding rewarding areas for them. That leads to frustration and either force do private practice or leave country. The promotion of medical college in smaller towns (cities) has not made much of an impact on the distribution of medical manpower. Nearly 70% of India’s 4,50,000 doctors are concentrated in urban areas.3

MCI determines the standards and qualification of Medical School in India. It also sanctions curricula.4,7 Medical education is in English and text books often provide examples unrelated to India. Pedagogy consists mainly of lectures and rote learning predominates. Education is not patient oriented or community oriented, mainly hospital oriented or disease related.

The National need of medical manpower has been time to time determined by Government of India. Several reports of commissions ranging from the Bhore commission to Mudaliar commission have defined health need of nation. In this line the latest document is national Health policy 2002.5 In NHP 2002, has raised question on the quality of medical education that is highly uneven and in several instances even sub-standard. Teaching is more theoretical, making it difficult for fresh graduate to effectively meet even the primary health care needs of population. To rectify these, there is need to modify existing curriculum. A need based skill-oriented syllabus, with more significant component of practical training would make useful to fresh doctors. There is shortage of specialist in public health and family medicine, to overcome these shortages the NHP 2002 envisages the progressive implementation of mandatory norms to raise the proportion of postgraduate seats in these disciplines in medical education (up to 25% of seats). Looking to this scenario in medical education the present study was conducted in five different medical colleges over four states of India. The objectives of study are, to know the attitude of an internee doctors towards medical education and to know the attitude of internee doctors to health care system.

Method:
It is a cross-sectional study. The study was conducted in five medical colleges over 4 state, name Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The study was conducted during year 2002-2003. The study participants were selected randomly who are doing internship during that year. Minimum 30 study participants were selected from each medical college. Thus total 155 were the study population. Only those internee doctors who are doing their internship were included in study population. The pilot pre-tested proforma was used to collect data. After taking informed consent, the internees were interviewed. The proformas were sent to respective medical college by post. The department of Community medicine of all five medical colleges has helped to collect data. Thus collected data has been analyzed.

Result and Discussion:
The result performance of students during their study time revealed that average 80-86% of students passed in first attempt; very few are chronic repeaters (2- 2.5%) in all years (Table – I).
Table – I Attempt to pass MBBS during course:
Attempts Ist MBBS (%) IInd MBBS (%) IIIrd MBBS (%)
Ist Attempt 124 (80) 134 (86.5) 124 (80)
2nd Attempts 27 (17.5) 17 (11) 26 (16.8)
>=3 attempts 4 (2.5) 4 (2.5) 3 (2)
Total (%) 155 (100) 155 (100) 155 (100)

77.4% (120) of students said that their choice of medical field is satisfactory and 22.6% (35) were not happy with their present field, at the end of course.

On asking their knowledge in different subjects, about 59% (90) of internees have feeling that their knowledge in various subjects is adequate. On asking which is the most interesting subject, 29% (45) replied medicine and 22% (34) surgery; 15% (24) community medicine and 10% (16) obstetrics and gynecology (Table – II), Where as community Medicine 19% (30) and bio-chemistry 14% (22) were considered boring subjects. Didactic mode of teaching may be the reason behind that.
Table – II Details of Interesting and Boring subjects:
Subjects Boring (%) Interesting (%)
Community Medicine 30 24
Anatomy 11 1
Bio-chemistry 22 45
Physiology 2 0
Pharmacology 3 2
Microbiology 6 0
Pathology 3 0
FM 3 9
Medicine 1 45
Surgery 5 34
Obs/Gyn 6 16
ENT 5 2
Ophthalmology 3 2
Orthopedics 1 2
Dental 1 0
Anesthesiology 1 2
Skin 1 2
Pediatrics 4 3
All subjects of MBBS 3 1
All non-clinical 1 0
None 18 0

Table – III Best method of teaching medical subjects:
Methods for teaching Frequency (%)
Lecture 9 (5.8)
Audio-visual 33 (21.3)
Practical 35 (22.3)
Demonstration 12 (7.7)
Learning by doing 56 (36.1)
Problem solving method 8 (5.2)
Other (like community oriented study) 2 (1.2)

Only 6% (9) of internees would like the lecture as mode of teaching media (Table – III). In MCI regulation 1997 also said that lectures alone are generally not adequate as a method of training and are a poor means of transferring/ acquiring information and even less effective at skill development and in generating the appropriate attitude.8 But it was observed that interest is increased if the audio-visual aids incorporated in lecture (21%). 36% (56) would like to learn by the learning by doing method. MCI suggested in that regulation that every efforts should be made to encourage the use of active methods. Even though very less number of students like the lecture as method of teaching, 72% of all students were regular in classes during their study. This is due to MCI guideline that 75% of attendance must to appear in final exams8.

The important observation is that 95% of all students want to do post graduation. This observation is not infavour of country’s national policy. In the era of social injustice,6 the need of Nation is the basic doctor who can cater services to rural and tribal population. It revealed that there is need to rethink about present medical education, which is still urban oriented and specialist and super-specialist oriented. But one good observation was that almost 43% of internee would like to work in rural area. This revealed that students have a will to work in rural area but something is lacking that ask more research work in this field.

Regarding Monitoring & supervision of internship programme, 49% of internee did not want such supervision but 38% said there should be internship monitoring programme. As the MCI regulation 1997 has recommended internship assessment for internees. On that basis medical education cell of all colleges should prepare skill based training programme.
Conclusion :
Indeed, the study was not well planned, but the findings of study are mind-blowing. They are
1. There is need to plan such indepth systematic multi center study to understand real need of change.
2. There is a need to review medical education regularly by each medical education cell of colleges.
3. The majority of students want to do postgraduation; this finding is eye opening, it raises the question weather we are producing basic doctors or specialist? The need of hour is basic doctors.
4. There is need to change our traditional didactic method of teaching. Many innovative teaching methods like demonstration, first hand experience, Problem Solving for Better Health, Problem Based Learning, Animation etc.
5. There is need to strengthen the skill based internship programme and proper supervision of same.

Bibliography
1. Z Amin, Medical Education in Asia: Is it time for optimism; Annals Academy of Medicine, Commentary March 2004, 33 (2)
2. Jaswal S. Health and human development, Indian J Matern Child Health. 1995 Apr-Jun;6(2):31-2.
3. Mudur G. Mandatory rural practice proposed in India, BMJ. 1995 Nov 4;311(7014):1186-7
4. Krishnan P. Medical education, Health Millions. 1992 Feb-Apr;18(1-2):42-4.
5. National Health Policy 2002, http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN009630.pdf
6. K. Park Text book of Preventive and Social Medicine, 17th edition 2002; chapter-21 page 650
7. Medical council of India regulation on Graduate medical education 1997, published in part III section –4 of Gazette of India dated 17th may 1997, 1701 - 1726

Funds for Human Settlement Programme

2011-03-10T02:34:00.000-08:00

United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT) has launched the 3rd round of funding for the UN-HABITAT. The Urban Youth Fund goaled at advancement in the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and the Habitat Agenda by supporting youth-led projects implemented in cities and towns of developing countries.

Who Can Apply
This Fund is mainly for urban youth in developing world. The goal of the fund is to advance the achievements of the Millennium Development goals and the Habitat Agenda. The fund supports in terms of grants up to USD 25,000 to youth-led projects. The projects can be like piloting innovative approaches to employment, good urban governance, shelter and secure tenure.

Objectives
This fund promotes the poverty reduction goal of the Millennium Development Goals and the Habitat Agenda for better, more sustainable and equitable towns and cities throughout the developing world.
By undertaking research on best practices in youth-led development the fund will also create a greater awareness of the urgency to ensure that youth concerns are integrated into national and local development policies and strategies.

How to Apply
The Applicant of organizations must be lead by young people aged 15-32 years and be based in cities or towns in developing countries to qualify for a grant. Support is to be provided primarily for those working to improve slum conditions and to raise opportunities for young people growing up in poverty. Projects encouraging gender equality or involving partnerships with the government or the private sector are particularly encouraged.
Applications should be submitted online using http://www.unhabitatyouthfund.org/Default.aspx
The Selection Process
Applications submitted to the Youth Fund will pass through a detailed evaluation process to guarantee impartiality and equal treatment to all applicants.
The process consists of 5 steps:
• Applications are registered and given a unique reference number in online database.
• Applications are checked for an eligibility to verify that they fulfil the basic criteria required to receive grants from the fund.
• Eligible applications go through a quality assessment and are scored on different criteria related to the quality of the project proposal and the priorities and objectives of the Urban Youth Fund.
• The highest rated applications from each geographical region are short listed.
• The Steering Committee of the Fund will review the short listed applications and will decide on which applications to approve.

Last Date
Last date for application is 15th April 2011.
There is no need of FCRA account for this funding
Address for any communication
Asia and the Pacific eSocialSciences
T-131, Tower 1, 3rd Floor,
International Infotech Park,
Vashi, Navi Mumbai 400703,
Maharashtra, India.
Tel: +91 22 27814436
Attn: UN-HABITAT Youth Fund
youthfund@esocialsciences.com
For direct link to UN HABITAT website, please http://www.unhabitat.org/categories.asp?catid=637

Fellowship for Junior faculty - 2011 Demographic and Health Surveys

2011-03-10T02:25:00.000-08:00

ICF Macro is seeking applications from junior faculty in demography, public health, economics, sociology, geography, and other social sciences at universities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda to participate in the 2011 Demographic and Health Surveys Short-term Fellows Program for Junior Faculty. Since 1984, the Demographic and Health Surveys project has been providing accurate, nationally representative data on population, health, and nutrition for the developing world. The program is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the MEASURE DHS contract.

Fellows selected for the program will be expected to complete a publishable-quality manuscript on policy-relevant questions related to one or more of the following topic areas: fertility; mortality; family planning; reproductive, maternal or child health; gender; HIV/AIDS; malaria; and/or nutrition using data collected in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) or Service Provision Assessment (SPA) Surveys in one or more countries. Fellows will work at their home institutions but must be available to attend two workshops organized by ICF Macro, one at the beginning and one toward the end of the program (see schedule below). Manuscripts that meet the required standards will be published by ICF Macro in their Working Paper series. Fellows will be encouraged to submit their completed papers to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. The language for the program is English.
Candidates are invited to submit a brief research proposal (3-4 pages), clearly outlining the research question(s), scope of analysis, how DHS or SPA data will be used to answer these questions, and potential policy significance of their proposed study. Applications must be accompanied by:
a brief personal statement that includes information on the courses the applicant is teaching, research areas she/he plans to explore in the next five years, and prior experience with DHS data, if any; a curriculum vitae including list of publications, if any, and information on experience in using statistical analysis software such as SPSS, STATA, or SAS; names and contact information for three references; and proof of status as current university faculty and duration of employment. Once selected, candidates will need to provide evidence, such as a letter of approval from their department chairperson, that the university/department is agreeable for them to participate and successfully complete the fellowship program including participating in both ICF Macro organized workshops.
The program for 2011 will select 12 applicants for the fellowship based on the merits of their research proposal and on an assessment of the potential for growth of the applicant from an evaluation of all accompanying materials. Preference will be given to junior faculty—those who have completed five or fewer years in the faculty position.

Applications are due no later than March 15, 2011. The following is the expected timeline for the program:
May 1, 2011 Selected candidates notified.
June 15, 2011 Fellows submit a detailed outline and analysis plan for their study.
July, 2011 Two-week workshop organized by ICF Macro in Kenya to work with Fellows to prepare data sets, learn about weights, create variables, and start data analysis.
July-October, 2011 Fellows conduct analysis at their home institutions and send, at specified intervals, their completed tabulations and first complete draft of their paper for review by the expert team assigned to them.
October/November 2011 Workshop at ICF Macro, Calverton, Maryland, USA, for fellows to finalize their paper for publication. Fellows will also be required to prepare and make brief presentations of their research.
Each selected fellow will be awarded a $5,000 stipend to cover his/her research expenses, which will be paid in three installments, upon submission of a detailed analysis plan, after completion of the first complete draft manuscript, and after satisfactory completion of final revised manuscript. In addition, ICF Macro will cover travel, lodging, and per diem expenses for each fellow to attend the workshops.
Please send applications to Dr. Sunita Kishor, Director of Research (Acting), International Research and Development Division, ICF Macro, 11785 Beltsville Drive, Suite 300, Calverton, MD 20705, USA. Email: skishor@icfi.com with a copy to swang@icfi.com; Tel: +1 301-572-0200; Fax: +1 301-572-0999. For information on Demographic and Health Surveys and Service Provision Assessment Surveys, visit www.measuredhs.com.

Funds for disability area, for people with disability run NGO

2011-03-03T02:14:00.000-08:00

Disturb with Acne in this summer - get solve your problem

The ABILIS Foundation, a development fund which was founded in Finland. It supports the empowerment of people with disabilities in developing countries like India and other. The Foundation supports activities that contribute for:
• Equal opportunities for people with disabilities in society through human rights
• Independent living
• Economic self-sufficiency
• Special priority is given to projects advocating for human rights of people with disabilities and to activities developed and implemented by women with disabilities.
Grant amount:
The fund offers from €500 to €10,000 (Approx Rs 30,000 to Rs 6, 00,000). The fund is especially for projects initiated by organizations that are run by persons who have a disability and projects related to mobility, vision, hearing, or any other type of disability. Organizations which are run by parents of children with disabilities can also apply.
In order to be eligible for support, organizations must have a certificate of registration and be based in a country defined as qualifying for Official Development Assistance.
Organizations based in India, Bangladesh, Uganda, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, and Ethiopia should contact ABILIS partner organizations for an application form. Visit web http://www.abilis.fi for list of partner organizations.
Abilis application forms are available from the office of the partner organizations mentioned countries. They will guide and make easy to apply for applicant organizations. They help to make successful application. The staff is ready to help you.
After discussing your project proposal with you and offering you advice, they will send your application directly to us.
For India, please contact:
Mobility India MI
Bangalore India
Mobility India was set up in Bangalore, South India, in 1994 to enable organized work in the field of mobility appliances and to bring about social change. Its vision is an inclusive society where people with disabilities have equal rights and a good quality of life. A good quality of life includes:
• Adequate food, water, shelter and clothing
• An income for basic needs
• Good health care
• Access to education, recreation and sports
Given this objective Mobility India has adopted a six pronged strategy to address the need of persons with disabilities in India and other low-income countries. Its central focus is on equipping individuals and groups of disabled persons with knowledge and skills to enable them to be functional and productive for day to day living.
a. Training of prosthetic and orthotic technicians and rehabilitation assistants
b. Rehabilitation services
c. Community based rehabilitation (CBR)
d. Partner support
e. Research and development
f. Production of low cost light weight aids and appliances
Mobility India MI
Mailing Address:
Post Box 7812, Bangalore - 560 078
India
Visiting Address:
1st &1st ‘A' Cross J.P.Nagar 2nd Phase
Bangalore - 560 078
India
Phone: +91-80-26492222 / 26597337 / 26491386 - Ext-9
Telefax : +91-80-26494444 Ext. - 110

www.mobility-india.org
e-mail@mobility-india.org
abilis@mobility-india.org
Abilis Facilitator
Ms. Jaya

Call for Proposals on Agri-Produce (Food and Non-food Applications):Department of Biotechnology

2011-03-03T02:11:00.000-08:00

SEARCHING CRICKET TOUR PACKAGE FOR THE WORLD CUP -GET REGISTER

An Opportunity for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Job creation
(last date - 31st March, 2011)
Department of Biotechnology welcomes proposals under Biotechnology Industry Partnership Program (BIPP) for development of products and processes to address the needs of Secondary Agriculture, Food Industry and Bio-processing sectors. Main objective of this program is to promote innovative R&D, product innovation, strengthening of existing enterprises and creation of new enterprises for value addition to the primary agriculture produce through innovative processes. The sector is prioritized for its employment generation potential.
Proposals may comprise one or more components for value added products from Agriculture produce for both Food and Non-food applications.
Categories of Agriculture Produce
Cereals & Pulses; milling byproducts, fruit and vegetables, milk and dairy products, sugarcane byproducts, vegetable oils and byproducts, aromatic & medicinal plants, spices and condiments, animal byproducts, marine products, animal waste, agriculture biomass and agriculture waste etc
A. Food applications: Diet, Dietary Supplements, nutrients, bakery & confectionary and canning and other food processing industry, health foods, cooking oil, animal feed, natural pigments, nutraceuticals, sweeteners, flavor etc.
B. Non-food Applications: Paints & varnish, perfumes, cosmetics, adhesives, coatings, polymers and resins, detergent, animal feed, paper and fiberboard, alcohol, specialty chemicals, textile, plant growth promoters, medical applications, analytical purpose, pharma industry.
Key Features of the Programme
Supports:
• Large, medium, small scale companies; start-ups on cost sharing basis
• High risk, discovery linked innovation
• Accelerated technology development
• Evaluation and validation of biotech products
• Indigenous discovery, innovation and technology to products
• Products of national relevance or public benefit
Varying models of grants, loans or grant + loan available.

Who can apply?
A single or consortia of Indian “for profit” company (ies) - Small, Medium or Large having DSIR* recognized in-house R&D unit(s). An Indian Company is defined as one which is registered under “The Indian Companies Act, 1956” and in which 51% (or more) of the ownership is held by Indian citizens (including NRIs).
The proposals can be submitted:
• by an Indian Company alone; or
• by an Indian Company along public sector R&D institution(s), organization(s), laboratory (ies), university (ies) etc.; or
• by a consortium of Indian Companies; or
• by a consortium of Indian Companies along with public sector R&D institution(s), organization(s), laboratory (ies), university (ies) etc.
(*Companies in the process of obtaining DSIR recognition may also apply along with the proof of application to DSIR. However, the final decision on such applications would be subject to their getting DSIR recognition)

How to Apply?
Proposals are accepted to be submitted online only. To submit a proposal online, please Log on the BIRAP website (www.birapdbt.nic.in). Detailed guidelines are available at:

http://dbtindia.nic.in/uniquepage.asp?id_pk=680 ; http://www.birapdbt.nic.in/programmes.php

Company User Registration is open round the clock.
Online Proposal Submission is already begin from 01st March, 2011
No Hard Copy to be submitted, Proposals submitted online only would be considered.

Proposals under other categories/areas can also be submitted under the Regular Call for Proposals (13th Batch), announced on 15th February, 2011.

Last date for Submission of Proposals under both the calls remains same, i.e., 31st March, 2011

For further details, please contact:
Dr. Renu Swarup,
Advisor Incharge-BIPP,
Department of Biotechnology, Block No: 2, 7th Floor, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi – 110 003, India;
E-mail: swarup@dbt.nic.in; bipp.dbt@nic.in

concept paper for proposals on Women Health, Hygiene and Nutrition related research or intervention research

2011-02-23T00:45:00.000-08:00

Department of Biotechnology, Government of India – inviting concept paper for proposals on Women Health, Hygiene and Nutrition related research or intervention research
The Department of Biotechnology is inviting concept proposal for undertaking community based research projects on Women health, Hygiene and Nutrition as part of societal development programme of DBT. The goal of programme is to achieve the highest quality of women health. The span of research can be reproductive health needs, cancer screening, awareness and management, HIV/AIDS related cognizance and preventive measures, chronic disorders as iron deficiency anemia, folic acid deficiency, osteoporosis, other micro-nutrient deficiencies & nutraceuticals based interventions, pre and post-natal care and also pre-natal genetic disorder screening and counseling etc, but not limited to these topics. The project should have insight for the benefits of community at large particularly for women group.
The concept note should be of two pages only. It should cover following heads actually –
1. Proposed biotechnological interventions for specific needs or problems
2. Specific objectives, work plan and targeted women group.
3. Likely benefits of the project to women group.
4. Tentative budget estimate
5. CV of PI for project
The concept paper can be submitted by Medical College, institutions, universities or NGOs individually or jointly. The NGOs should be registered one and have minimum three years experience in implementation of such project.
The concept note can be emailed to nsrivastava.dbt@nic.in and last date is 25th March 2011.
A hard copy of the concept papers should also be sent to the Programme Officer-Dr Niloo Srivastava, Senior Scientific Officer, Department of Biotechnology, Block-2, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi- 110004. In cases of the short-listed concept papers, the PIs will be asked to develop their detailed proposals for further consideration of the Department

Report on International Conference on Themes of Higher Education: Prospects of Gujarat

2011-02-22T21:22:00.000-08:00

The International Conference on Themes of Higher Education: Prospects of Gujarat was organized by Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat, Department of Education, Government of Gujarat on 25th and 26th November 2010 at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar.

The conference was inaugurated by Honorable Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. Along with him minister of education and minister of higher education of Government of Gujarat were present. In the inaugural speech Mr. Narendra Modi told the learned gathering that the aim of conference is that the government wants the inputs from various experience professors and teachers for future development of higher education in Gujarat. Gujarat government wants innovation in higher education so that students develop life skill during graduation and post graduation. The pattern of education is changed over a period form Vedas to Web but still I feel something missing. We want to give back to our society and world community. And he assured the gathering that during these two days whatever good suggestions the learned community will do to the government, the Gujarat government will implement.
It was the great motivation in the beginning of the conference. Then after series of sessions on various topics were conducted.
First session was on Higher education in the era of Globalization
In this session various speakers form India and international were delivered their thoughts on various aspects of higher education in era of globalization. The crux of the discussion was the ‘Tattva and Tantra’ means the education lost its tract and more going towards materialistic output (number of educated graduate) and not measuring the quality of the education (learning means Tattva). But still the question of path to higher education in globalization is still not clear.
Second session was on Value oriented education in Higher education
In this session, various speakers tried to put various aspects of values to be incorporated in education. Porf Sitanshu, Former VC of Saurastra University has quoted good example of Swami Vivekanand in relation to value. The students should develop strong physical health as Swamijee has, good mental control, intellectuality and spiritual aspect like Swamijee. This is the best example of value in higher education.
Third and fourth sessions were on Restructuring higher education.
The various speakers have tried to explain various needs of restructuring of higher education. The present structure of higher education has less flexibility, for example the commerce student wants to study medical science, its not possible in present scenario. The various speakers have asked to make flexibility in structure. The innovations like duel degree system were discussed.
The last two sessions were on Redesigning curricula in Higher Education.
Like structure changes, the various speakers have shown the need of changes in curricula. Without change in curricula and pattern of teaching one can not achieve desirable changes. Mrs Jayanti Ravi, Secretary and Commissioner of Higher education shared the various initiatives of Government of Gujarat in Higher education in Gujarat. The one of such is the credit base education system. She told that by next year all universities of Gujarat will incorporate this in higher education.
Thus the conference is the feed for faculty to think globally and act locally

CIFSRF is inviting concept not for research in food security so reduce the hunger - 2011

2011-02-11T02:57:00.000-08:00

The goal of the Fund is to foster the development of more productive and environmentally sustainable agricultural systems that increase food security and enhance nutrition in developing countries.
The two key objectives are to:
a) Increase food security in developing countries through investments in applied research for agricultural productivity and nutrition; and
b) Harness Canadian expertise and knowledge in food security related science and technology to develop solutions with and for the developing world.
Proposed research should clearly address real, practical development challenges related to the objectives of the Fund, targeting the poor and most vulnerable groups, and with the potential to generate applied research results within the lifetime of the research project—and potential development impacts within three years after the project ends.
This call will support applied field and/or laboratory research projects with potential to generate high impact and innovative results for agriculture, nutrition, and food in developing countries, with particular impact on the poor (including women and vulnerable groups). Basic/fundamental, purely theoretical, and/or policy research will not be considered. All projects require the sound assessment of environmental impact and the integration of social and gender variables.
This call will consist of a two-stage selection process to fund full research projects. In the first stage, all concept notes prepared by applicant partnerships will be pre-screened for eligibility and then thoroughly reviewed. A set of concept notes will be short-listed, according to the selection criteria outlined below. The review process draws on the expertise and recommendations of an international Scientific Advisory Committee of the Fund and final short-listed concept notes are approved by the Governance Committee of the Fund.
In the second stage of the process, short-listed applicants will be eligible to receive a small travel grant (must be fully justified) of up to $10,000 CAD, to permit representatives from the applicant organizations to meet to develop the full proposal. Note that provision of such a travel grant does not guarantee funding of any future full proposal, but if such a grant is awarded, a proposal must be submitted, and attendance at the meeting between applicant organizations is considered a prerequisite for submission of a full proposal.
The applicant organizations whose concept notes were shortlisted will jointly submit a full proposal, which will again be reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Committee. The Governance Committee will make final funding decisions based on the review and recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Committee.
Concept notes will be assessed on the following five criteria:
1. Relevance of the concept note / scientific idea (25%)
2. Research merit and effectiveness (25%)
3. Team strength and collaboration (25%)
4. Special attention to women (12.5%)
5. Environmental sustainability (12.5%):
In addition to the above five criteria, applications must include a budget estimate, which should be commensurate with the proposed work. Value for money is inherent in the overall assessment of criteria 1, 2, and 3, above.

In order to be considered, concept notes must:
i) be completed using the online application on the CIFSRF website, between Feb. 9 and March 23, 2011;
j) be submitted in either English or French;
k) provide summaries of the proposed research project, applicant organizations and principal investigators, team composition, and third-party organizations
l) contain a description of the research project that is not more than 24,000 characters (approximately 6 pages, Times New Roman, single spaced), plus maximum of 4,000 characters (approximately 1 page) of references. Research description must include all of the sections noted in the instructions
m) provide an overview of project activities
n) include a tentative consolidated budget, indicating expected and reasonable expenses for the duration of the project
o) include a CV of the principal investigator of each applicant organization;
p) include a signed official letter of endorsement from each applicant organization –
Submission Deadline
Concept notes must be submitted by the deadline of 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time Zone, March 23, 2011, using the online application form.
Note - All applicants from India require FCRA clearance and should provide a copy of the form for their organization when submitting concept notes. An FCRA form must also be attached for any third-party organization based in India.

Fore more visit http://publicwebsite.idrc.ca/EN/Misc/Pages/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=249
Any enquiries should be directed to cifsrf@idrc.ca

Grant for Institute and NGO

2011-02-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

Global funds for work in Women - The Global Fund for Women is an international network of women and men committed to a world of equality and social justice. We advocate and work for and defend women's human rights by making grants to support women's groups around the world. It was established in 1987 by Anne Firth Murray, the Global Fund's founding president. Since 1987 they have awarded over $71 million to 3,800 women's organizations in 167 countries. The Global Fund makes grants to seed, strengthen and link women's rights groups based outside the United States working to address human rights issues that include:
• Building Peace & Ending Gender-Based Violence
• Advancing Health and Sexual & Reproductive Rights
• Expanding Civic & Political Participation
• Ensuring Economic & Environmental Justice
• Increasing Access to Education
• Fostering Social Change Philanthropy
Application Criteria:
Please note that your group MUST meet all the following criteria to be eligible for a grant:
• It is based in a country outside the United States. We do not fund US based organizations.
• Its primary focus is advancing women's equality and human rights, with these goals clearly reflected in its activities.
• It is a group of women working together. We do not accept requests from individuals.
• It is governed, directed, and led by women. Women must fill all or most of the leadership roles.
The majorities of grants range between $500 to $30,000 per year for operating and project expenses. First-time grant awards generally range from $4,000 to $10,000 per year.
Types of Grants:
1. General Support Grants: These are flexible, small grants to cover general operating and project expenses.
2. Travel Grants: These are small grants that allow members of an organization to attend conferences and events.
3. Organizing Meeting/Event Grants: These are small grants to support organizations planning a time-sensitive conference or event.
Please send completed applications to:
Anasuya Sengupta
Program Director
Email: asiapac@globalfundforwomen.org
Address:
Program Officer for Asia and Oceania
Global Fund for Women
222 Sutter Street, Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94108 USA
phone: (415) 248-4800
fax: (415) 248-4801
Direct link to The Global Fund for Women: please visit http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/index.php

Grant for Medical college researchers/NGO researcher by ICMR

2011-02-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

There has not been sufficient progress made by the country to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4. The Council accords high priority in supporting and promoting research aimed at improving child survival to achieve MDG 4. Multicenter / single center large scale projects, clinical trials / operation research / implementation research are invited from eligible scientists/ researchers on the following priority areas of national relevance are invited

This call is to invite proposals addressing research questions on any one or several of the following areas:

* Improving delivery of evidence based interventions for maternal, newborn and child health through continuum of care approach
* Developing linkages for referral care for newborns and under five children within existing health care system
* Strategy to improve coverage of evidence based child survival interventions within the existing health care system
* Introducing perinatal death audit system for improving quality of care
* Situation analysis of health work force in primary and referral health care setting, creating enabling environment for health care providers (pre service training, skill building and sustaining skills, supportive supervision etc)
* Developing tools / inbuilt system for monitoring and evaluation of various health care programmes
* Use of modem technology for improving vital registration, communication among health care service providers

The research proposal should be prepared using the Ad-hoc research form template available at the ICMR web site. Fifteen copies of application should be submitted.

Eligibility

Scientists in regular employment in the medical colleges, postgraduate institutions, universities, recognized research institute and development laboratories and NGOs. (Applications from non-governmental agencies should provide documentary evidence of registration(Registered with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Govt. of India), track record etc )

Deadline for submission of proposal is May 15th 2011.

15 hard copies of the proposal complete in all respect in the prescribed format along with a soft copy (either through email (PDF file or CD) must be submitted on or before deadline to:

Dr. K Satyanarayana
Head, Division of Reproductive Health & Nutrition
Indian Council Of Medical Research
V.Ramalingaswami Bhawan
Ansari Nagar
New Delhi-110029

E-mail ( kanikaram_s@yahoo.com)

Award for grant proposal

2011-01-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

There is less than one month remaining to apply for the 2010 Emerald/IAM Indian Management Research Fund Award.

The award will offer £2,000 (approximately US$3,000 equivalent) to fund the winning research project, and two awards of £500 each for highly-commended runners up.

All that is required is a 2,000-word summary of the proposed research project, and a covering letter. Applications should address the dissemination of knowledge for the social good with a specific orientation toward benefit for India.

The main member of the research team must be based in India. The closing date for receipt of applications is 1 February 2011.

For further information and details of how to apply please visit the webpage below: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/research/awards/indianmgmt.htm

Although you may not eligible to apply, we would encourage you to pass on this message using social networks and LISTSERVs. These prestigious Awards can provide a great fillip to emerging researchers.

If you have any questions regarding the award please do not hesitate to contact me.

Many thanks,

Devon Blake
External Relations Executive
Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Tel +44 (0) 1274 515605
Fax +44 (0) 1274 785200
dblake@emeraldinsight.com

Happy New Year 2011

2010-12-28T22:45:00.000-08:00

Friend,
2010 is over and tomorrow the sun raises with new hope in new year. When I was kid, we were playing with friends and telling on eve of 31st that I will sleep one year and tomorrow I will get up in new year. And we got laugh and enjoying. They were the great days. Now same thing is happening with my kids. They are enjoying.
So what is life? I am always telling to myself that the simple meaning of life is happiness and joy. Enjoy each moment with joy like kids enjoying. As adult, I feel that due to our ego we can not even expressing our emotion. We like to suppress out expression of emotion like open hearted laugh, cry, gratitude and other. This is the main cause of today’s epidemic of psychosomatic diseases. As community physician, I request to my circle please give gift to me for this new year. I am asking gift to you. I am little shameless person in this regard. What is my gift?
My gift is that do express your emotion on time. If you feel laugh, do laugh, feel to cry, do cry, feel to hug your lovable, do with gratitude and don’t stop yourself. Spare some time in a day with kids (yours or any other kids) and play with them. And last gift is cultivate your hobby. I am just recalling my kid days and college days. I have dreamed to good photographer. I like to capture various angles of nature and emotion. But I forgot in last one decade in hectic professional life. But now I have started to cultivate again. I like to share one good experience of my friend.
My friend Mr. X, he was good singer in his young days. He was singing various gujarati and hindi songs on stage in collage days and had love to music. Bus as he entered in professional life and family life he forgot to sing and music. Within two decade, means at forty, he looks elderly and got hypertension, hair become gray with arthritis. He is literate and having good analytic mind. He thought that is this is the my situation at forty, what will be in sixty? One day he decided something. What is that something? Very interesting my dear friend, he decided to cultivate his hobby of singing. And his wife has supported. In next six months he again looks young energetic personality and happy.
Its great story, is it? I want gift form my friends and lovable that do cultivate one hobby in this year.
Happy New Year and Happy New Hobby Year 2011

Grant and fellowships for interested

2010-12-09T02:52:00.000-08:00

Ministry of Culture operates the Scheme for Award of Scholarships to Young Artistes in Different Cultural Fields to support advanced training, within India, to young artistes of outstanding promise in the fields of India Classical Music, Indian Classical Dances, Light Classical Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Folk, Traditional and Indigenous Arts. Under this scheme, 400 Scholarships are awarded every year to young artistes in the age group of 18 to 25 years (as on 1st April of the year in which application is made) who have undergone a minimum of 5 years of training with their Guru/Institute.

Online applications are invited from eligible young artistes for the award of Scholarships for the year 2010-11. Details of the Scheme, Instructions for Applicants and the Application Form are available on the website of the Ministry: www.indiaculture.nic.in

31st December, 2010 is the last date for submission of applications.

Only online applications will be accepted

Scholarship to Single Girl Child

Ministry of Human Resource Development , Central Government has introduced a Post-Graduate Indira Gandhi Scholarship Scheme for Single Girl Child with the purpose of supporting higher education at PG level in non-professional subjects for any eligible girl who is the only child in her family. The Scheme was introduced from the academic year 2005-06. Duration of Scholarships is two years. Number of Scholarships given per year is 1200 and rate of scholarship is Rs. 2,000 per month (for 20 months).

The selection of candidates is made on the basis of recommendations of an Expert Committee following criteria is given below:

(i) Should be the single child in the family.
(ii) Admitted to Non-professional PG-1st year Degree course.
(iii) Should be less than 30 years at the time of PG-1st year admission.

Intellectus 2011 – Ahmedabad University

2010-12-07T20:51:00.000-08:00

H.L. Institute of Commerce of Ahmedabad University is announcing “Intellectus 2011”, is an initiative by the students of HLIC. It is a State-level competition for students of Gujarat. The event will be organized on 12th of January 2011.

Objective – To explore the multi faceted abilities and latent talents of students.

Eligibility – Undergraduate students of all colleges affiliated to all approved universities of Gujarat state.

The competition is of five stages. Stage -1 is Essay writing, stage-2 Speaking, stage-3 group discussion, stage-4 book review and stage -5 personality contest.
Each stage individual prizes are there and the final winner will be selected from all five stages who have cleared with good score. This is a day long contest with lunch break at one pm. The students have to participate collectively through college. The participation form is available at the college authority.

There is no entry fee but student has to come with ID card with letter from college authority at time of contest.

For more details contact - The programme coordinator - Prof. Vaibhav Kadia, H. L. Institute of Commerce, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad. Phone 07926468231
Email – hlinstitute@gmail.com

Municipal Health Officer Class.II, (Adhoc for 11 months contract basis) in Urban Development & Urban Housing Department Gujarat State

2010-12-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Municipal Health Officer Class.II, (Adhoc for 11 months contract basis) in Urban Development & Urban Housing Department Gujarat State.
Government of Gujarat has initiated urban health programme. Under this programme GOG is going to recruit Medical officer in each Municipal Corporation of Gujarat. Gujarat has more than 300 Municipal corporation. Thus these posts are more than 300 in Gujarat.
All those, who are interested, can appear for walk in interview on 7-12-2010 at Commissioner office, Health, Medical service and Medical Education, Block-5, Jivraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar at 10-30 am with allocation and relevant documents.
Pay structure – 9300-34800 (grade pay 5400)
Eligibility Criteria –
- MBBS degree holder
- Age limit 35 year on 30-11-2010
Most important – All bonded candidates and in-service government medical officer can not appear in interview. This is ADHOC post only.
For more visit www.gujhealth.gov.in

Update on BRHC course

2010-11-22T03:04:00.000-08:00

Since we have posted news on Bachelor of Rural Health Care course information on web, there were large number of people who are attracted to this key word. Its really interesting. We like to give more inputs on the same topic.
After active lobbing of political leaders to implement the course, there was mass opposition from the doctors from all over India. The Indian Medical Association has done great oppose of the course and its execution. And one day it was heard that Prime minister of India has assured the doctors that he will rethink or relook before implementation. And all doctors have great relief. They celebrated this as victory.
But the issue is really critical to think. Read some facts of our country.
- As per 2001 census, 74% of Indian population is still living in rural and tribal areas of country.
- Majority of trained qualified medical doctors (>80%) is catering services to urban area and that’s 26% population.
- Even in 2011 census, it is assumed that 65-70% of Indian population is still in tribal and rural India.
- In 2010, the number of medical colleges in India is almost double to 300 mark, in compare to 1995. This increasing in number is mainly private medical colleges, very few government medical colleges.
- Most important fact, over last one decade, the number of medical graduate who have joined government health services is touching less than five percent or touching zero. All medical graduates are interested to do post graduation no one interested to work as family physician.
Looking to above ground facts, it is high time to rethink about BRHC course. The villagers or tribal population in country have to still travel a lot to acquire medical services. There areas, even in Gujarat and Haryana and Kerala where people have to travel long to get basic health care. Sir Joseph Bhore, 1946 has submitted his report and he told that health services should be cover at doorstep of citizens.
Few days back I was listening on television about discussion on Indian education system the future. One eminent personality was discussing (forget the name), he has rightly said that rural and tribal people want the person who can give injection, who can treat basic issues not the doctor who will prescribe investigations rather treatment. The country need para education system not the university qualified. We need to develop world class ITI (Industrial training institute with auxiliary training) not world class IIT(Indian Institute of Technology) , IIM (Indian institute of Management) or IIPH (Indian institute of public health) or medical graduate or post graduate.
The need we have to decide not the external people should decide. Think and comment
Dr. Niraj Pandit, community Physician

Call for Collaborative Innovation Proposals on Affordable Health Care Technologies under Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP)

2010-11-22T00:30:00.000-08:00

Continued Innovation creates affordable healthcare technologies or products which do not exist in Indian markets. This includes products which either needs modifications through re-engineering; or product which exists, but affordable and cost effective versions are required; and/or those products which exist, but their usage is limited due to lack of optimal transport and storage conditions etc. Availability of affordable healthcare, thereby, is a challenge to the Indian Health Care Providers.

To mitigate this challenge, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) invites proposals under Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP), a Government partnership with industry for support on a cost sharing basis, exclusively in the field of Innovative and Affordable Health Technologies for Women, Child Care and Other Age Groups, which may include one or more of the following innovative element(s), but not limited to:
1. Neonatal Implants
2. Ventilators
3. Exo-surfactants
4. Steroids
5. Laryngeal mask airway tube
6. Elemental Fortification
7. Improved Clean Delivery Kits
8. Control of Postpartum haemorrhage
9. Control and containment of Infections of the umbilical cord
10. Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS
11. Value additions in Immunization Process
12. Preventive Technologies
a. Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccines
b. Pneumococcal protein & polysaccharide conjugate Vaccine
c. Papilloma Virus Vaccines
13. Cheaper Renal Dialysis technologies
a. Glucose Monitoring for diabetics
b. Affordable bone density assessing technology
c. Pre-screening test for blood bank safety
d. Pre-natal diagnostic technology
e. Diagnostic test for the early detection of cardiovascular diseases
f. Point-of-care tests and reagents for cancer screening
g. Appropriate, low-cost diagnostic imaging devices for low-resources settings
h. Diagnostics that make a dent on patient treatment and disease surveillance
14. Information and Communication technologies which have transformative effect on health care access and responsiveness of healthcare system.
15. Technologies to produce affordable versions of existing Imported models having therapeutic value.

Validation of Technologies Transferred /acquired from other countries by Indian companies for product development in India can also be supported keeping in view the unmet national needs and/or affordability of the product by Indian customers.
• Supports
- Large, medium, small scale industry, start ups on cost sharing basis
- High risk, discoverylinked innovation
- Accelerated technology development
- Evaluation and validation of biotech products
- Indigenous discovery, innovation and technology to products
- Products of national relevance or public benefit
• Varying models of grants, loans or grant + loan available.
Who can Apply?
A single or consortia of Indian “for profit” company (ies) - Small, Medium or Large having DSIR* recognized in-house R&D unit(s). An Indian Company is defined as one which is registered under “The Indian Companies Act, 1956” and in which 51% (or more) of the ownership is held by Indian citizens (including NRIs).

The proposals can be submitted:

• by an Indian Company alone; or

• by an Indian Company along public sector R&D institution(s), organization(s), laboratory (ies), university (ies) etc.; or

• by a consortium of Indian Companies; or

• by a consortium of Indian Companies along with public sector R&D institution(s), organization(s), laboratory (ies), university (ies) etc.

(*Companies in the process of obtaining DSIR recognition may also apply along with the proof of application to DSIR. However, the final decision on such applications would be subject to their getting DSIR recognition)

Eligibility
Category I&II : Bio- medical devices and instruments,Bioinformatics,Health-care,Industrial products and processe

Category IIIA : Health Care Clinical trial
How to apply?
Proposals are required to be submitted online only. To submit a proposal online, please follow the following steps:

1. Log on the BIRAP website (www.birapdbt.nic.in)
2. If you are a registered user, log-on using the credentials, else you need to register your company with by clicking on New User Registration.
3. In case of new user registration, a computer generated password would be sent to the email-id provided at the time of registration. The password can be changed later.
4. Once you login, you would be navigated to the page displaying BIPP link.
5. Click on the BIPP link under Programmes and the active call would be highlighted.
6. Click on the new call and proceed towards proposal submission.
Further details on How to submit a proposal would be available in the BIPP User Guide available on the website.
The proposals should be submitted on or before 22nd December, 2010 (midnight).

Company User Registration is open round the clock.

Online Proposal Submission would begin from 21st November, 2010. No Hard Copy to be submitted, Proposals submitted online only would be considered.
Last date for Submission of Proposals: 22nd December, 2010
More details visit http://birapdbt.nic.in/cfp_view.php?id=10
http://birapdbt.nic.in/cfp.php

For further details, please contact:
Dr. Renu Swarup,
Advisor Incharge-BIPP, Department of Biotechnology,
Block No: 2, 7th Floor, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi – 110 003, India;
E-mail: swarup@dbt.nic.in

Research grant for medical students and medical postgraduates

2010-10-29T01:27:00.000-07:00

ICMR Postgraduate thesis financial assistant scheme

Indian Council of Medical Research, is a premier and apex research council of India. The ICMR is directly run and managed by Department of Health Research, Government of India. The institute is directly and indirectly involved in formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research in India and also regulating body for biomedical research. The council is running several research programme for students and junior researchers. This is the scheme with title “ICMR Financial Assistance to MD/MS/DM/ MCH thesis programme”.
The aim of the scheme is to promote good quality research in medical colleges of India through the students who are doing postgraduation and thus to improve the visibility and accessibility of PG research to large research community.
Salient features of scheme:
1. Every year 50 students will be awarded with this financial assistance.
2. The council will provide 25,000 Rs financial assistance to the selected postgraduate student synopsis
3. Eligibility criteria: - Medical graduate who is admitted to MD/MS/DM/MCH course in any MCI recognized medical college, who is willing to apply for scheme in time bound deadline, upper age limit – 45 years, candidate must apply within first 12 months of registration in course.
4. The applications are invited twice in a year. The deadlines are 30th of June and 31st December of each year.
5. The application should be duly signed by the guide and the head of institution.
6. The candidate should prepare synopsis on topic with brief introduction, objectives, methodology, design of study, expected outcome, review of literature, ethical consideration, likely outcome of study and facilities available at institution. The student should submit 12 copies of detail proposal.
7. An application of asking financial assistance should attach with CV of candidate, description of proposed research work in 1000 words and honest statement of student about his/her inclination of work in area and research.
For application and more please visit http://icmr.nic.in/icmrnews/mdthesis.htm

Binaytara Foundation (BTF) medical student research grant

The foundation is funding medical student research work. Every year the foundation is inviting research proposal from medical students of India and Nepal. The application deadline for grant application is 31st Oct 2010 for this year. All application received after this date will be consider for research grant 2011. The foundation will give 500$ for each research project.
Salient future of research grant
1. Eligibility – medical students studying in medical colleges of in India or Nepal , one student can apply one per year, student has to write research grant proposal with guide or teacher, institute must support for work and proposal must be approved by institutional review board (IRB) or/and institutional ethics committee (IEC) or equivalent authority.
2. Application must be submit online, for that visit http://binayfoundation.org/application-guidelines
3. The student must have to register to get application.
4. The award will be announced in December 2010 or respective year.
5. The student must have to show that the project will be allowed to be done in institution.
6. Application must include relevance of study in Indian and/or Nepali community, education experience of student, scientific value of the project and research background and experience of mentor or guide.
7. For evaluation of your project, you can download evaluation sheet from download this evaluation sheet

Information Technology and Communications in Health, Canada
Health Informatics: International Perspectives Student Poster Contest, February 24 – 27, 2011 Inn at Laurel Point, Victoria, BC, Canada

Information Technology and Communications in Health (ITCH) conferences have made it a tradition to provide students with the opportunity to present their work, to exchange ideas and research results with each other and with health care, informatics and computer professionals. Poster content can be based on course work, co-op experience, literature reviews or research.
Students registered full-time in related undergraduate or graduate programs are invited to take part in a student poster contest. An independent panel will judge the posters. First, second and third place winners will receive cash prizes ($500, $300 and $200) and a complimentary FULL registration to the conference. Only the lead author on a team poster will receive the cash prize and complimentary registration.
Deadline for the Student Poster Contest: November 1, 2010.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS and DEADLINES
An abstract, no longer than 500 words, that describes each poster presentation must be submitted for review by November 1, 2010.
Submit the abstract in a file that is Microsoft Word for Windows version 6 or more recent attached to an e-mail message addressed to itch@uvic.ca. The body of the e-mail must contain the title of the abstract, and the name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, and voice telephone number of the contact author. A completed registration form and full payment must be received by November 1, 2010. The abstracts will be included in the conference CD-Rom proceedings.
More details are available upon receipt of the poster entry.
ITCH 2011, c/o School of Health Information Science
University of Victoria
PO Box 3050, STN CSC
Victoria, BC V8W 3P5 Canada
Email: itch@uvic.ca
Phone: (250) 721-8581
Fax: (250) 472-4751
http://itch.uvic.ca/

Life: What dose it mean?

2010-10-27T03:06:00.000-07:00

Life: What dose it mean?

One of my friend had send me small story about life and God. Really I feel everyone should read

Very popular Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in past, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed : "why does god has to select you for such a bad disease?"
To this person the great player :
'50 million children started playing tennis,
5 million learn to play tennis,
5,00,000 learn professional tennis,
50,000 come to the circuit,
5,000 reached grand slam ,
50 reach Wimbledon ,
4 to the semifinals,
2 to the final and
When I was holding the cup I never asked God 'why me?'
and now in the pain I should not be asking God 'WHY ME?'
Happiness keeps you Sweet!
Trials keeps you Strong!
Sorrow keeps u Human!
That’s the Human Life

second such story i have received from friend Dr Nilam, must read
THE HOT CHOCOLATE STORY

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an
assortment of cups-porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite -- telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
'Notice that all the nice looking; expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even
hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups...
And then you began eyeing each others cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate we have.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they
have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.. Thank the Lord for your blessings in 2010. And enjoy your hot chocolate!

Do you want to be successful in life? Accept principal of “Success breeds Success”

2010-10-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

Friends
My one of teacher (Dr. Tushar Parikh, practicing Pediatrician, Anand) has told following story to me yesterday. It really touchy one. I thought that I must share it with friends who are working in tam and want to be successful person.

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who grew superior quality and award-winning cotton.
Each year he participated his cotton in national fair where it won prizes and honour.
One day a newspaper reporter interviewed him and knew something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter found that he farmer shared his seed of cotton with his neighbors. He asked the farmer that “how can you afford to share your best seeds with your neighbors when they are also entering with their cotton in competition with your each year?”
The farmer calmly replied, “why not sir? You did not know that the wind picks up pollen from the ripening cotton and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbor grow inferior, sub standard and poor quality cotton, the crosspollination will steadily degrade the quality of my cotton.” And he replied with smile, “if I am to grow good cotton, I must help my neighbors grow good cotton.”
The farmer gave superb insight into the connectedness of life. His cotton can not improve unless his neighbor’s cotton also improves. Its other way that those who choose to be at harmony must help their neighbors and colleagues to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well. The value of a life is measured by the lives it touches…..
Success dose not happened in isolation. It is mostly participative and collective.
So share the good practices, ideas, new learnings with your family, friends, colleagues and team members.
So as people says “Success breeds success”

Commonwealth Academic staff fellowship 2011

2010-10-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

Commonwealth Academic staff fellowship 2011
The Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK has announced academic scholarship for staff for year 2011. These fellowships are available for all discipline including Medicine and Dentistry. The fellowship programme is for specific programme like academic collaboration, skill updatation, networking to enhance teaching capabilities and research capabilities and these are not limited areas. It is expected that the programme should be closely related to academic work and an individual will return to his/her home country on completion of fellowship and work in home country. This fellowship is not for getting higher degree or pure research project.
Eligibility:
Candidate should be Indian citizen. He/she mush hold degree in the field before 1st Oct 2001. He/she should have atleast fie year experience as university teacher.
Duration of fellowship is six months.
The application form can be downloaded from www.cscusk.org.uk/apply/academic_fellowship.asp and fill and six copies should be submitted to UGC duly signed by Vice-chancellor in case of university/ college and executive head in case institution along with office seal and all required documents. It should be submitted before 15th of Oct 2010.
Read more on above web

Small Grants for World Pneumonia Day Advocacy

2010-09-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

The International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health announces the Small Grants for World Pneumonia Day Advocacy program. The program is designed to help support advocacy activities to commemorate the second annual World Pneumonia Day (WPD) on November 12, 2010; it builds on a similar program implemented in 2009 for the first-ever WPD.

IVAC-funded small grants activities will be part of a community of events expected to happen worldwide around WPD in November this year. A global coalition of organizations committed to fighting pneumonia (see www.worldpneumoniaday.org for complete list of members) are planning pneumonia-related events around the world to focus governments, donors and the media on the burden of pneumonia, and to build support for the implementation of policies to prevent and treat pneumonia

Objectives of the small grants program are:

• To increase the visibility of pneumonia as a major cause of child deaths among key stakeholders, in particular, among policy makers, health officials, media, governments, donors and the general public

• To build a base of support for champions of increased prioritization, funding and implementation of policies to prevent and treat pneumonia

• To support activities that generate information useful in guiding local policies and action on pneumonia control

Possible Advocacy Activities:
- Engaging policymakers
- Targeting faith-based organizations
- Targeting high-profile organizations and/or personalities/celebrities
- Media campaigns
- Scientific workshops/Conferences/ Journalist trainings
- Marches/Runs/Other Public Events
- Public education campaigns
- Materials development
- Data generation
- Resource mobilization

Who can apply for a grant?
Eligibility to apply is dependent on an individual’s or group’s current affiliation with one of the following institutions:
- Non-profit organizations (pediatric associations, advocacy groups, civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, child survival and maternal and child health groups, women’s organizations, etc)

- Academic institutions (universities, colleges)

- Technical institutions (hospitals, clinics)

List of eligibility criteria:
- Principal applicant must be based in a low- income country (defined as GNI per capita

Opportunity for doctors - Million death study

2010-09-15T03:54:00.000-07:00

Friends
For Million Deaths Study the CGHR is recruiting doctors for their study. Any doctor with MBBS/MD or higher degree can join.
Read more on www.cghr.org
apply through http://www.cghr.org/mds
Eligibility
Fluency in English and local language
High speed internet 8-15 hours per week
training
Last date is extended to 30th Nov 2010

best luck

Essay competition for Youth - last date30th Aug 2010

2010-08-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development conducting the National Level Essay competition for Youth on “Role of Youth and Millenium Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunity”.

The competition is organized to mark the International Year of Youth which has the theme ‘dialogue and Mutual Understanding’ with focus on Peace, Participation and Development.

The selected best three Essays will receive the cash award of ` (Rs) 50,000, `25,000 and `15,000.

The last day to send the hard copy of essay is 30 August 2010.

For further detail contact

Dr. Annette Methews M - 09380645907, Email anniceyd@gmail.com

Dr T. Gopinath M – 09442110723 Email drtgopi@gmail.com

clean water and sanitation is a human right

2010-07-29T03:29:00.001-07:00

UN General Assembly declares access to clean water and sanitation is a human right

UN News Service, 28 July 2010 - Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the General Assembly declared today, voicing deep concern that almost 900 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water.
The 192-member Assembly also called on United Nations Member States and international organizations to offer funding, technology and other resources to help poorer countries scale up their efforts to provide clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for everyone.
The Assembly resolution received 122 votes in favour and zero votes against, while 41 countries abstained from voting.
The text of the resolution expresses deep concern that an estimated 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water and a total of more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. Studies also indicate about 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year and 443 million school days are lost because of water- and sanitation-related diseases.
Today’s resolution also welcomes the UN Human Rights Council’s request that Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, report annually to the General Assembly as well.
Ms. de Albuquerque’s report will focus on the principal challenges to achieving the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation, as well as on progress towards the relevant Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The MDGs, a series of targets for reducing social and economic ills, all by 2015, includes the goals of halving the proportion of people who cannot reach or afford safe drinking water and halving the number who do not have basic sanitation.

Friends
Its really interesting to know that UN is taking as serious issue to provide safe water and sanitation to each citizen of world. The India, even after 60 years of independence, we could not able to provide safe drinking water and basic sanitation to our Country brother and sisters. Its really same on our capability. Few day ago I read comment in news that somebody from UN said that there are more numbers of mobile phones in India compare to latrines. I is true and its really same on us. Even today you will get people who are doing open air defecation with mobile in their hand. You will get Mineral water bottle (misnomer actually we should say de-mineralized water) and cold drink in any corner of country but you will not get simple safe water. You will find the person who is selling such items will don’t have safe water. People still walking long distance to get water (don’t know how safe for drinking?). Forget about remote areas even in cities and town places we are not getting safe water. See the IDSP (integrated disease surveillance programme) web page www.idsp.nic.in for recent epidemic. There are large places in country where various water born disease epidemics are going on like cholera, acute gestro enteritis and other. Gujarat where I am living, there are scattered cases of cholera in various cities, towns, villages and in tribal areas. What dose this show? Its simple we failed to provide the safe drinking water and our poor sanitation system.
I like to open small discussion here with one opinion poll. Please participate in discussion and in poll. Poll is in side box and question is that do you using any type of filtration method for your home drinking water supply? Yes/ No. If yes please write in comment which filtration instrument are you using? Company name and type of filtration method.
Discussion issue is that what can we do for the improvement in safe water supply and sanitation?
Waiting for your comments
Niraj

Vibrant Gujarat 11: Curtain raiser

2010-07-08T01:36:00.000-07:00

The government of Gujarat has started new trend in investment, opportunity and festive session. The Uttrayan 14th of January every year Guajarati people is enjoying as Kite festival which is unique and really great festive. You ask any Gujarati about this Kite festival, he will like to talk lot many events and incidences and hiss face will look like full of energy. That’s the spirit of Gujarat and Gujarati.
The CM of Gujarat Mr. Narendra Modi has put the festival at international level and we must thank him for same. Every two year Gujarat is taking this festival for investor meet opportunity. The year 2011 is the fifth summit for Global Investors. There are many pro and cons of the summit. But if we look on positive side the Gujarat is now on international platform. There are lots of activities and opportunities are there in Gujarat.
The coming meet is going to mega as DNA has reported it as “Davos in Action’ because first time there will be participation from other state and many business associations and organizations. The summit will be on 12-13 January 2011. The venue is also this time unique the Mahatma Mandir, you must know Gujarat is building Mahatma Mandir (temple of Mahtma Gandhi) in Gandhinagar. The theme of summit is “Beyond Business”.
This is the primary information about summit. My issue here is that do you think such global summit help to develop business? Second point what are the opportunities in medical field in such business meet? Please comment
Dr. Niraj

Vaccine, injection and we???

2010-06-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

Friends
First I like to thank you very much for voting on issue which I feel really important. Now you must have question in mind that why I am asking such silly question? Believe me it is not silly but serious!
The question which I have asked is related to our Vaccination Programme. It was written in K Park Text book of Preventive and Social Medicine that Experience with smallpox eradication programme showed the world that immunization was the most powerful and cost effective weapon against vaccine preventable diseases. So in 1974 the WHO has launched its expanded programme on immunization EPI against vaccine six preventable diseases. The government of India launched EPI in 1978 with objectives of reducing the mortality and morbidity resulting from vaccine preventable diseases of childhood and achieve self sufficiency in the production of vaccines1. Same was intensified with Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) with two vital components two dose of TT to pregnant woman and immunization of children with EPI vaccines in first year of life.
Our target was to achieve universal immunization by 1990. Surprising the book author also writing that no country even industrialize world has ever achieved 100% immunization. Therefore ideal acceptable level is 80% or more, which help to protect community from epidemic of such diseases. Also science says that ‘herd immunity’ play role in control.
These all are known to all of us. You are saying what is new I am telling? Government of India report Health information 2005 says that 99% 0f polio cases declined between 1987 to 2005, similarly 21% diphtheria, 73% pertussis, 78% measles and 92% decline of Neo-natal tetanus cases in India2. The govt wants to focus that these achievement is due to vaccination programme. Do you think so? I am telling that there is very minimal role of vaccination in reducing above disease burden. Supportive evidences are

1. NHFS survey result says that percentage of children 12-24 months who have received all recommended vaccines were 36% in NFHS-I, 42% in NFHS-II and 44% in NFHS-III at India level3. So we never achieved more than 50% vaccination coverage. Even polio coverage was 78% in NFHS-III. Thus overall vaccination coverage is low so that minimum support to role of vaccination in morbidity and mortality reduction.

2. It was pointed out that the percentage of the population living below the poverty line decreased from 55 percent in 1973-74 to 36 percent in 1993-94 (Central Statistical Organization, 1999). Evidence from the 61st round of NSSO data shows that the extent of poverty decreased further from 26.1 percent in 1999-2000 to 22.0 percent in 2004-05 (Ministry of Finance, 2007). Thus there is improvement of living standard in citizen of India. This was more supportive evidence then the vaccination. It is know fact that tuberculosis in western world came under control before discovery of ant-tuberculosis drugs. Similarly if you improve the living standard of citizen of country it will reduce the disease burden of disease like tuberculosis, measles, polio, diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus.

3. Role of herd immunity: if we discuss one by one disease and role of herd immunity it will clarify that there is minimum role of herd immunity.

a. BCG vaccine, really controversial vaccine as per my personal opinion. The vaccine efficacy is 0 to 80 and that is known since Chingulput trial. Still we recommended in programme due known fact that it is preventing sever type of tuberculosis miliary tuberculosis and tuberculosis meningitis. Ok I am supporting same. But till 2008, we were teaching and following as community physician that you should take BCG vaccine till five years and insist for scar formation after vaccination. But recently I have read guideline “Immunization handbook for Medical officer”4 on page 21 that BCG is given only upto one year because most children acquire natural clinical / subclinical tuberculosis infection by the age of one year and this too protect against sever form of TB. And second point there is no need to revaccinate the child even if no scar. I have tried to get evidence of above policy. One fellow from programme has written that this is based on Indian Association of Pediatrician (IAP) guideline5. I have visited web of IAP for detail guideline. On web ‘IAP guide book on immunization’ is available and in chapter -4 is consist of individual vaccine page 18 they clearly recommended BCG till the age of “Five” years and BCG may be repeated once children less than five and no scar. So what is the Evidence for changing policy??? It is known fact that there is no role of heard immunity in case of BCG.

b. In DPT, in case of Tetanus it is also known fact that there is no role of herd immunity. In DPT vaccine, most side effects are due to pertusis component. To get protection against all three diseases there should be complete schedule of vaccine with booster dose. But NFHS results have observed that only 55% coverage of DPT three doses in country3.

c. Polio, really hard to understand, in 1995 we have started polio eradication programme with aim to eradicate from India and world by 2000 and still in 2010 we are fighting with few hundred cases. They are located in few districts of UP and Bhihar. It is clearly written in IAP guide book on immunization5 page 20 that this poor efficacy is attributed to high population densities, malnutrition, poor sanitation that increase the risk of infection with other enteroviruses and NOT due to poor vaccine potency due to breaks in cold chain. So it is clear still we are not able to supply basic needs of our population. IAP in their recommendation is suggesting Injectable polio vaccine for good efficacy, so again one more injection???

d. Measles vaccine has very good relation with herd immunity and plays important role in prevention of measles disease and controlling of epidemic of it. Full marks to this vaccine in whole programme.

4. Big issue is injection itself. I have asked community to poll on five injection without reason in one year and majority replied “NO” to poll. If we are not ready to take injection without full knowledge why should we prescribe small fragile new comer in our world (Infant)? Why? We as doctor knew something but what about general community? Second issue injection safety, in one of my study in Gujarat, it was found that 77% of injection were unsafe6. So safety is also issue. Last point is that its painful to take injection, don’t forget this part!

5. Since EPI, we never thought about alternate route of vaccination, why? I know few my learned friends who have not given any vaccine to their children and till date nothing happened. So now my question to community at large
What are your comments? Should we think to refine our policy or forget?

My points:
1. Vaccine policy changes are really evidence based or not?
2. BCG policy change, do we need to do RTI?
3. GOI has recently launched Evidence based vaccination policy, will we really want to follow or it will be on paper?
4. WHO vaccine fraud is exposed recently in case of H1N1 read http://www.naturalnews.com/028936_ WHO_vaccines. html and http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/ article/2010/ 06/04/AR20100604 03034.html So do we need to rethink about vaccine concept?
5. Alternative vaccination need to think, as Ayurveda has concept of over all increasing immunity against all disease rather single specific protection.
I welcome comment and again putting poll that do you think this information is useful?
Yes / No / not agree/ partly agree

Dr. Niraj Pandit

References:
1. K Park; Textbook of Preventive and Social MedicineBhanot Publication; 19th edition page 363
2. Govt. of India 2005, Health Information 2005, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare New Delhi.
3. National Family Health Survey – III, National Fact sheet India, Minitery of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi
4. Immunization Hand book for Medical officer published by Department of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and Family welfare, New Delhi 2008 accessed on web on 9/6/2010
5. IAP guide book on Immunization accessed on web http://www.iapcoi.com dt 9/6/2010
6. Pandit N B, Choudhary S K, Unsafe injection practices in Gujarat; Singapore Med J 2008; 49 (11)

Working on small evidance based issue on injection

2010-05-28T22:07:00.000-07:00

Friends,
you know that i have kept one opinion poll on this blog. Please vote on question. There must query in everybody mind why am i asking such foolish question? but believe me its really worth to poll.
I will write more on last day of poll.
wait and ask your friends to participate.

waiting for your clicks

Niraj

National Health Research Policy India 2010 - Comments and issue

2010-05-18T02:43:00.000-07:00

ICMR Research Policy – Draft and points to be consider
Recently Department of Health Research has drafted National Health Research Policy and put on ICMR web page for comments and inputs. The last date for comments and inputs is 31st May 2010. Many people must read and commented to given mail id.
I like to take some issues for discussion and positive criticism.
First I must thank to whole department of Health research who took great pain to develop very good national policy. It has covered wide area of research and put emphasis on inter-sectoral research and evidence based research. This is the need of hour to work on evidence based research. They have rightly put examples of evidence based national programme which are developed and working at present. The government is making lots of efforts for research and also wants to increase research funding. They could not able to stop to write that non of health research from India has merited consideration by the Nobel Committee.
They have rightly put the constrains for health research. Major one are policy level constrain, lack of research culture, lack of co-ordination, lack of research capacity building, weakness in medical education about research and no clear research career.
The department wants to develop National Health research System in country, which will be managed by National Health Research Management Forum. Like five year plan, the forum will develop priority areas for five year.
Key policy area are
1. Policy aims to generate the evidence based for health system and services with focus on equity and poverty reduction
2. Develop linkage between health research and national health programme (need of hour)
3. Translation research to product (Great thought)
4. Encourage the fundamental health research in Physiology, Biochemistry, pharmacology, microbiology, pathology, molecular sciences and cell science.
5. Development of priority setting guide for country
6. Involvement of profit and non-profit organization for health research (Excellent involvement)
7. Global knowledge for local action
8. Management of global resources for optimum utilization and minimum duplication
9. Involvement of social science, anthropology, economics and education in health research
10. Optimum harmonization of National policies and inter sectoral collaboration.
Really big thinking, how much executable will need to see???
My observation is that the draft policy has given India’s future health challenges in Annexure 1, but I surprised that all data which are given in draft are very old maximum till 2005. I could not understand why the big document dose not has recent data of 2009 or 2010? For example the data for suicide are presented from National crime record bureau (1993-2003). What happened to bureau after 2003? We don’t have that data. Just surprised? Second example we have cancer registry programme at national programme, still the draft has given data for 2004. I am not understanding why? Just big talk and making policy on paper is ok. Need to think?
More comments are welcome and we must expect that at the end of 31st March ICMR will put number of comments received on draft and improvement.
Please send your inputs to lalitkant@icmr.org.in direct before 31st May 2010

Dr. Niraj Pandit

Voting for National level forum or Association

2010-04-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

Friends
Again back on issue, I have received few mails with problems of faculties. The majority of problems are known to all of us like salary, reliving order, harassment by management, harassment by MCI inspector, welfare of faculties, UG medical education and more.
I am really impressed by people raised issue. I feel from bottom of heart that there is need of some formal or informal association for Teacher’s right and for welfare of Medical fraternity.
Repeatedly on medical education group, I am reading issue of paper publication. The MCI has made amendment on the issue and made compulsory paper publication with many ambiguity. Nothing was clear on that amendment. What type of journal will considered? What about first and other authorship? What about Indexed and non-indexed journal? What about article and other type of publication? What about book publication? And many more. I have just tried to search that how this idea of research came in mind of MCI? I searched web page of MCI for minutes of meeting of that amendment. But I could not find any where on web, If anybody has please share. I also tried to understand about the process of amendment. How the regulation can change? I found that there are various subcommittees of MCI on web of MCI. My one senior teacher said that these committee recommend the issue and that pass in GBM and than that matter goes on floor of Parliament and publish in Gazette and it become rule.
But any member knows about who put need of research in front of this committee? I am assuming ICMR which is apex body on research must play important role for such innovative and great idea.
I want to know the actual process. Please any member of group or faculty knows the process of amendment please share. Also can we ask clarification to MCI or Government about research issue? Many time it is not time to individual for all these. Do learned member feel need of joint voice for such issue?
Please think and I have put voting on need of Association on my blog please vote and give strong hand to our unity.
http://drpamhrdconsulting.blogspot.com
Regards
Niraj

update on Indian Medical Teachers Association _IMTA

2010-04-26T02:45:00.000-07:00

Review on comments received:
Dear learned friends
Thank you very much for various comments. I am really happy to see the various aspects of issue. The salient points come out of brainstorming are as below:
1. There is an International Association of Medical colleges (www.iaomc.org) as Dr. Syed Z. Rahman mentioned in his mail. How many Indian medical colleges are the members of this association? Can anybody give more details on this issue?
2. Dr Patil mentioned about Association of American Medical Colleges and web page www.aamc.org and I have visited Association of Canadian medical faculty’s web page www.afmc.ca do visit site. You will get idea about what role they are playing in respective country.
3. Out of total responses, I am not getting the clear need. But it is definitely need of hour either in form of association or in form of informal forum like what MEU group is working.
4. Dr. Niravan and some other said that there is existence of National forum of teachers association or some other state level association. But I don’t think at present they are functioning. In our state Gujarat, there is a Gujarat Medical Teacher’s Association. But it is only active when new pay commission comes. This is also mainly of Government medical college teachers. There is no role of private medical college teachers in this association. Similar situation for other state, I can guess. (more inputs required)
5. Dr. Rita madam has given good input by informing about South East Asian regional association for medical education. It is good that Dr. Chacko and Madam are the member of EC. But I think as we have highest medical colleges in India and first conference is organizing by Indonesian people. We have numbers but we failed to unit and make number to power. In write up of madam, I strong feel need of association.
6. Some personal comments came to me and they don’t want to publish so I am giving inputs without naming. One senior madam said that our MCI is itself is the association and we can put our needs to MCI. I don’t think so, our MCI is the regulatory body. It is not for the teachers or administrator or Government. I never heard MCI helped any teachers. The people sitting in MCI are making good rules and regulation. I am giving good example. Few years back we heard Government is going to make compulsory rural internship of one year before postgraduate admission. But before it implemented MCI has cut shot Rural internship from 3 months to 2 months in recent regulation. Even I heard that they are going to eliminate teaching of community medicine from first year. We understand role of MCI.
7. MEU of medical colleges can act as Association. This is feeling of my respected madam. I do agree if we can make and stream line them. It is good task.

Looking to all above comments I do agree that question of association can be thought later or sooner. I have posted query on 21st April and today on 26th I am compiling. Out of more than 1000 members, only few had reply and gave inputs. I request to dr. Sanjay that can we make first opinion poll on our group to find out is there any need of association or not? With compulsory voting? If feasible than only!!!
Second I am asking one question to all medical teachers that do you feel any issue in your career, which asked support from anybody? Do you have any issues against your college administrator, MCI, Government or any other person? Please mail me. I am just trying to compile various issues of our teachers. If you post issues we can have some guide for our unity. But if you not post, the discussion will end here only. This is the issue of our survival.
Waiting for reply.
Niraj

Medical teachers Association India - Issues and comments

2010-04-26T02:33:00.000-07:00

Dt-21-4-2010
Friends
Today I am opening new discussion among medical faculties. In morning only my sir has asked me a question that do we have medical teacher association at national level? I was in dilemma because i did not hear about such association. But I asked time to find out.
Immediately, I went on internet and try to find out any such national association. But my surprise, I could not find any such. I am regularly reading discussion going on various e-groups about medical education and various issues of medical teachers. In last few years MCI has made many new innovative changes in teachers qualification and promotion guideline. Following we also read many voices on pro and con aspect of each. But just I am asking question, do MCI asking any teachers or colleges to attend such policy meeting? I don’t know if anybody has knowledge please share. I feel that we must have medical teacher association and our representative should in body of MCI.
There are many new medical colleges up coming. There are various issues regarding faculty position. There are many changes coming in medical education. MCI has made mandatory functioning of Medical education unit in each college.
Event though there are more than 300 medical colleges in India, Government still feels that we have less doctors. Looking to demand of Government, MCI helped to develop new Rural Doctor course and that is going to come near future.
Looking to all above scenario, I strongly feel that there is need of Medical faculty Association of India (MFAI). There is high time to unite and help to guide our nation on medical education. I heard Dr. V P Mishra, Member of MCI in one conference at Pune and he told that 13.5% of world’s medical schools are in India. 16.5% of world post graduate admissions are in India. He also told that WHO reported that 2015, 36% of medical manpower are to be produced by India and India will be the biggest medical manpower supplier in world.
Lets make our hands strong
Suggestions are invited and I request members to lead at some level
With best wishes
Dr. Niraj Pandit
Associate professor
Communty Medicine
Gujarat

Comments I received
Dt-21/4/2010
North America has a Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Worth looking at their website www.aamc.org as an example.

N.G. Patil MBE
MBBS, MS, FRCS Ed, FCSHK, FHKAM(Surgery)
Professor, Dept. of Surgery,
Asst. Dean (Education Affairs), Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
The University of Hong Kong

Dear Prof. NG Patil

In addition to AAMC, there is also an "International Association of Medical Colleges". Its site (www.iaomc.org) is also worth visiting. One of the official members of MCI is on the board of regulatory body of IAOMC.

"The Executive Committee of the Medical Council of India has nominated Professor (Dr.) Dhrubajyoti Borah as its official representative. The Professor was elected IAOMC's Board to serve as temporary Chair of the Regulator/Administrator Panel" – IAOMC website.

Syed Ziaur Rahman, MD
School of Medicine
University of Western Sydney
Australia
_______________________________

22-4-2010
Dear Dr Neeraj Pandit
A new idea worth considering. I think there is a need to have a debate on the medical education issues; on both UG and PG training. In fact there has been a change world over on the understanding of "Education". Education does not mean acquiring degrees. Scientifically, education is defined as "A process to bring about a desired change in an individual". It has three components namely, Cognitive domain, Psychomotor domain and Affective domain. There has been a paradigm shift in the training. The teaching/training must be "Student centered" rather than "Teacher centered". A teacher is not supposed to "teach a student" but to "help a student to learn". All this new understanding in teaching/training methodology and resultant outcome (a graduate, postgraduate or post- doctoral) put enormous responsibilities on the MCI on one hand and on the medical institutions on the other that's "teachers as facilitators".
I am not in a position to give any opinion on the proposal immediately but there is a need for national consultation on the medical education among all stakeholders including MCI, MHFW GOI, Planning Commission, medical institutions and medical faculty.
With warm regards.
Dr M.M.A.Faridi
Professor & Head, Department of Pediatrics
University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi University
GTB Hospital
Delhi-110095

Dear Dr Niraj
This issue has been part of the brainstorming sessions
since long including Delhi and Poona meetings and in many informal meetings
. In fact it was one of the Special Interest Groups created in Delhi . In
the vote of thanks speech Dr Rita had advocated creating a Special Interest
group for Medical Education rather than an association

From what I could gather from these brainstorming sessions was that activity
about Medical Education and creating an association in India are two
separate issues though greatly interrelated . There is something in Indian
temperament the moment some association comes up there is a big activity
regarding President Secretary and other posts without much focus on the core
purpose of the association . And there is a tendency towards becoming an ad
for Fevicol once someone gets the post. I see other associations in our
country where this tendency has simply killed the associations and their
purpose is simply lost .

So in our country there should be activity first maybe with hundreds of
Medical Education units functioning with some situational leaderships . Once
we have have sufficient activity and we are quite close to that point an
association with a website and a Journal should be created . Regarding the
latter there is a South East Asian Journal already . Maybe an Indian Journal
to fulfil Indian National Identity may be created in near future as the
time is ripe for that. Dr Adkoli had started some activity in this direction
but is still to see the light of the day . May be in some near future. The
websites we see from western countries are ideal but have been created over
time . Also their psyche is very different to ours so we should proceed
according.There is also an issue abour making funds available for running an
association which has been discussed many times.

Now as regards the issues you have raised these are pertinent issues but
there are many other methods of their redressal also .I fully agree that a
website parallel to that pointed out is the need of the hour for our country
too. And I visualize in not very distant future the association you mention
will be in our country too as a dynamic entity fulfilling
a definite purpose.

Dr Sanjay Bedi
_______________________________

Dear all,
I agree with Dr. Bedi that though there is need to make our voice
heard in MCI, but the association is the biggest way to become
dissociated from the very purpose.
The listserv like on line opinion pole may be collected from all
concerned and recognized medical faculty across the country and should
be represented in MCI after a consensus. However obviously some
persons (may be on rotational basis) have to coordinate the group
activity.

with regards,

Dr. Kalyan
________________________
Dear All
I agree absolutely with what Dr Bedi writes here.
Medical education is of two components i.e. 1. the faculty development
aspect based on teaching learning general principals 2. the subject specific
aspect, where we have national professional associations with very long
histories, which have done nothing or minimal by the way of doing some
advocacy for the particular subject with MCI to improve the teaching
learning of that subject.
Dr Neelkamal Kapoor
Professor & Head Pathology
Coordinator MEU
PI PBCR
Gandhi Medical College
Bhopal

Dear All,

I agree with Professor Bedi that in India 'Empty vessels sounds much'. We
are crazy for recognition much instead of work. I feel that an all Indian
Association of Medical Teachers will not solve the problem of medical
education in India unless we change our attitude towards medical teaching.
Still now, unfortunately in India, medical practice is glamorous than
medical teaching. With heavy heart, I can say that the medical students are
lured by default to the Curative Medicine in search of easy money. Teaching
is still a non-choice among medical students..
In this scenario we have to walk a long way to cherish the dream of true
dedicated medical teacher's association.

Professor Ranabir Pal
SMIMS
Gangtok
09433247676
___________________________________

dear neeraj,
i would like to inform you that a national forum of medical teachers
assosiaton do exist in india. dr s r shukla prof & head skin of ajmer
medical college was secretery & pionner of estabilishment of this
association 15-20 years back. i do not know present status. dr shukka at
present is workin at Fortis Escort hospital near malviya nagar jaipur
rajasthan. u may please contact for updates.
dr p s nirwan
_____________________________________
Dear Dr Niraj,
We had GMTA-Gujarat Medical Teachers' Association.Everybody knows the fate of it.It is very difficult for intelligent people to unite.Every one is unique individual with his/her own agenda/(vested interest).They agree to disagree.
Let me congratulate you for this innovative idea & wish you all the best
One suggestion for naming the association:Keep it IMTA with State level & local level branches like IMA,IMAGSB,AMA.IMTA,GMTA or IMTAGSB,AMTA.
Regards,
K

Dear Dr. Dr. Niraj Pandit.

Good idea and suggestion of forming such association.

But for your query,

Do MCI asking any teachers or colleges to attend such policy meeting?
Yes, MCI is asking for the elected representatives from each state medical council to attend thr policy making or deciding meetings.

Dear Niraj,
Its great to have such association.
Medical Teachers need one platform to share experiances, solve issues
,to implement New changes in teaching.
If such association take place Its good not only for medical teachers
but also for medical students and general people.
Dr.Sutariya Shaileshkumar
sarmishtha ghosh Apr 21 05:35PM -0700 ^

Dear Dr. Pal,

Appreciate your voicing of the facts in India in such a nice way,

And "Empty vessels" will keep sounding "much" more in the days to come if we dont change our attitude towards medical teaching and research.

I agree with you, "Association" is no solution ............

Regards
Avinash Supe Apr 22 07:05AM -0300 ^

Dear all
I echo dr patils views
- great work

Regarding association - lets have it but not policitise
let us work on structure and function
avinash
praveen singh Apr 22 11:09PM +0530 ^

Dear All,

Through fora like this we are already in away associated with each other for the good.

We are discussing, sharing our views & many a times doing some positive criticism, which should be well accepted.

According to me also, there is no need of any such association, i don't know if such association can give any extra help. As such if we wan't to discuss anything instrumental, we can always do it on google_mEU page and proceed for furher steps as & when necessary.
regards

Praveen
dhara trivedi Apr 22 09:59AM +0530 ^

Respected all tedical teachers,
It is so kind of u to think about medical education ,i agree with Dr Pal,for his thougts .what about students' perspective? Do they need dedicated teachers who teach basic knowledge or they are just interested in passing, getting degree, exam oriented,marks oriented attitude.please give ur views.
Dr. Dhara Trivedi Thakar
anupama sukhlecha Apr 22 11:37PM +0530 ^

Dear all,
There is indeed a need for such an association. Probably all states (including Gujarat) have their associations. The representatives of these state associations can form a national medical faculty association to bring all the problems of teachers on one platform.

Anupama
"Dr Gurudas Khilnani" Apr 22 02:56PM ^

Dear all,
I recall that a conventional of "All India Medical Teachers'
Association was held in the Holy city of AJMER long ago. Dr SR SHUKLA,
Prof and Head, Department of Dermatology, at JLN Medical college Ajmer
was a prime mover in this endeavour. Some how the movement dies a slow
death perhaps due to lack of support from other states. It is important
to have a national level body.

Dr Gurudas Khilnani
MD (Gen Medicine), MD(Pharmacology), DHRM,FISC
Professor and Head,
Department of Pharmacology
RNT Medical College,
UDAIPUR-313001
Ph (O) 0294-2528811-Ext130,131
Ph (R) 0294-2482767
+919829159321
___________________________

Dear Dr Niraj,

You have raise an important issue.

During the last nearly 40 years in this profession I have never heard of a medical teachers association in india.

Do we need it ?

Any union or association is meant to provide strength and direction to the professional group to progress in the right direction. If that is the purpose , it may be an excellent idea.However, if it if it becomes an instrument of politics and furthering the interests of some individuals, then it may not be worth the time and effort. Case of Indian medical Association is an example.How much purpose it is serving and whose purpose it is serving- is well known to all the medical professionals in the country.

-Dr S K Joshi
RITA SOOD Apr 23 02:10PM +0530 ^

Dear Avinash, Sanjay and all,

As told by Sanjay, during the deliberations of NCME 2007 in Delhi, forming a
National Association of Medical educators was one of the top five priorities
expressed by the participants (about 125 in number) and one SIG (special
interest group) was formed who would take up this issue and work further on
laying down the modalities and defining the processes towards achieving the
same. Since the group did not take off, during various discussions amongst
some of us and reasons mentioned above by Sanjay, we thought it was a good
idea to have a platform where all the like minded people and people
committed to the cause of medical education could connect together and form
a network & that is how this group was formed and spearheaded by Sanjay, it
has enlarged to the present status.
However, when it comes to having a voice with the policymakers, associations
certainly hold value and someday I think we should be doing that.
Those of you who were not present for the conference and are interested to
know, the proceedings of the conference are available on the website
which is still open www.ncme.in
I would just wish to inform the group about the status of the association
for medical education in the SEA. SEARAME (South East Asian Regional
Association for Medical Education), one of the six associations recognized
by WFME, and which had become dormant for many years was revived in the year
2006. It has its Secretariat at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok with its
President and Secretary from the University. Thomas Chacko and myself have
been the executive members (present executive is all founder members) from
India. Besides Thomas, myself and another executive member from Nepal, most
of the executive members (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Burma and
Thailand) are representatives of their National associations or are
nominated by their councils.

So now that we have this network of interested medical educators (though we
need to have some way to increase participation from South and Eastern part
of the country), some of the group members can take the lead and regroup as
a SIG to work out the details and modalities. And may be before or by the
time the next National conference happens (should happen by Nov-Dec 2011),
an association should be formed.

For the information of the group, the second activity (the first was the
Journal SEAJME) that has been initiated by SEARAME is to have a periodic
conference where people from the region can share best practices and learn
from each other and network with health professions’ educators from SEA
region. The first such conference is being planned at Yogyakarta, Indonesia
from 20-22nd Nov’10. It is being organized by one of SEARAME executive Dr.
Titi Savitri from Indonesia. The details of planning and program etc were
one of the issues during the SEARAME meeting held last month. She will soon
be opening the website informing details of the same and I’ll post it to
this group.

Best regards

Rita
________________

alka rawekar Apr 22 11:03PM +0530 ^

Dear Ranbir and All

Yes you are right that empty vessels make more noise, but we have so many
vessels that are studded with leadership qualities and facts of medical
education.

At institutional level we face so many problems; medical practitioners have
their own problems.

So I think it will be an excellent thought to make such type of association.

Can make five zones east, west, north, south and central and have a
representative from each zone.

If our mindset is clear/ understandable, objectives are set, our Heart is
pure, then this creation will definitely have bright future.

Alka Rawekar

Update on Health Definiton

2010-04-12T02:27:00.000-07:00

Friends
Thanks for various reply from few people. One of the friend from Ayurveda, Dr. Mukesh Chandra; has replied nicely with their explanation. He said that According to Ayurveda the definition of Health is,
sama dosha samagnisca sama dhatu mala kriyaha
Prassenatmendriya Mana Swasthiyabhidhiyate.

Means,

The person who always eats wholesome food, enjoys a regular lifestyle, remains unattached to the objects of the senses, gives and forgives, loves truth, and serves others, is without disease.
The total of body, mind and spirit, It includes physical health, mental health, emotional health, and social health.
It is really great. I think we should see health from Ayurveda point of view. The Ayueveda itself means the Science of Life. This is the real preventive health. The Ayurveda principle teaches us the how to live life.
Our WHO definition is more ideal than realistic. We need to come at realistic definition. As per my concept above definition of Ayurveda is realistic. The concept of health is subjective. Its very difficult to make objective. Person himself/herself should feel healthy not that somebody come and tell that you are now healthy or you are diseased.
It is very difficult to achieve the health of individual as per WHO definition. For this reason the people have made operational definition of health. WHO study group in 1957 have given operational definition of Health. In broader sense it is a condition or quality of the human organism expressing the adequate functioning of the organism in given conditions, genetic or environment. Thus person has no evidence of disease and must work normally with optimum level as per his/her age, sex, community and geographic area. His/her body organs should function normally and optimally. He/she should able to maintain equilibrium within and outside with environment.
So my input is that we can accept the definition of Ayurveda in our medical science with respection our pathy.
Comments
Dr. Niraj Pandit

Health Definition and comments

2010-04-06T00:12:00.000-07:00

Health concept – Birth

I am really impressed with word Health since I am in medical science. I have read definition of health in text book of K Park first time year 1993 when I was in second MBBS. I am greatly obliged to read the definition. It is “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity”. The definition is written in the World Health Organization in the preamble of its constitution1. In 1978, with ‘Health for All’ series document, WHO has amplified the definition to include “the ability to lead a socially and economically productive life”2.
In the textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine by K Park has written something about critics on definition. One critic is about ‘state’, book argue that health can not defined as a state at all but must be seen as a process of continuous adjustment to the changing demands of living and of the changing meanings we give to life. It is a dynamic concept3. I definitely agrees with the author on this aspect.
My argument in the definition is that we should add one more dimension of Spiritual Health along with physical, mental and social. The area of spiritual health is still unknown to us. Very few research and evidence are available on this dimension. In textbook of Preventive and Social medicine, the author has describe spiritual health as one dimension. But the concept of spiritual health is vague. So my personal logic is that we need to find more evidences and suggest to WHO to incorporate this dimension in definition. I think our Indian pathy Ayurveda will helap to get evidences in this aspect. Thus the suggested new refined definition of Health is
“Health is a dynamic condition of physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing and not merely absence of disease or infirmity which lead to a socially and economically productive life”
Do you all support the new revised version of definition? I need support to add spiritual health dimension, Should we add or not? I am interested in our Indian context definition of health with evidences. Please share if anybody has Indian definition. Our Ayurveda is the science of life that one is the biggest concept of health. But any published literature anybody has please shares. I read one interesting blog on health definition by BMJ please see http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/12/10/alex-jadad-on-defining-health/
Waiting for your comments
Dr. Niraj Pandit

References:
1. WHO. Constitution of the World Health Organization. 2006. www.who.int/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf.
2. WHO (1978) Health for All sr. No 1
3. Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, K Park 19th Edition page 13

Need of Evidence based public health in India - various issues

2010-03-28T03:03:00.000-07:00

If we did not respect evidence, we would have very little leverage in our quest for the truth.
Carl Sagan
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals." (1920, C.E.A. Winslow)1 Public health is typically divided into epidemiology, biostatistics and health services. Environmental, social, behavioral, and occupational health are also important subfields.
There are 2 distinct characteristics of public health:
1. It deals with preventive rather than curative aspects of health
2. It deals with population-level, rather than individual-level health issues
The focus of public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat a disease through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors. In addition to these activities, in many cases treating a disease may be vital to preventing it in others, such as during an outbreak of an infectious disease. Hand washing, vaccination programs and distribution of condoms are examples of public health measures.
The goal of public health is to improve lives through the prevention and treatment of disease.
Ideally public health practices always include scientific evidence in making management decision, developing policies and implementing programme. But in reality such decision usually takes place based on short term demand and political need. In India, every five year government is going to change. Each government wants to show their achievements in last five years and on that ground they are asking vote form citizens. The important aspect of public health is that it is usually takes years to show the impact on health issues. So there is need to change scenario.

Till date our country has achieved accomplishment in public health, like double in life expectancy since independence, reduction in mortality and morbidity. Despite these successes, many additional public health challenges remain. To meet the expected improvement (Healthy Gujarat, MDG, vision 2020 ?) there is need to incorporate more relevant strategy. The best approach is the evidence based public health.

There are many definitions of Evidence based public health. Sackett DL has defined evidence based medicine as ‘the integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values’.2 Jenicek3has given definition as the “use of epidemiological insight while studying and applying research, clinical and public health experience and applying findings in clinical practice, health programme and policies’. Still one more definition says that ‘the development, implementation and evaluation of effective programme and policies in public health through application of principles of scientific reasoning, including systemic use of data and information system, and appropriate use of behavioral science theory and programme planning model’. Thus any activity in public health is linked with under line scientific evidences that demonstrate effectiveness. With this we can assume that our all national health program are based on some evidences. The concept of developing national programme is based on principle of structured intervention with the intent of improving the health of total population or high risk population. So the disease or problem will reduce over a period. The programme is not compulsory to follow in system. Sometime there is need to change the beahviour of population. For that the government needs to frame policies. Health policies are those laws and regulations, formal and informal rules and understanding that are adopted on a collective basis to guide individual and collective beahviour.

This is the broad outline of public health and evidence based public health. I would like to start discussion on various issues of public health with evidence. All our national health programme, health policies and practices will be evaluated on evidence which are available. My request to learned audience that please let me guide and help for refining issues.

My first issue is Health.
We know the definition of Health by WHO. But I like to ask what is Indian definition. What are the Indian indictors of health. What are the Indian landmarks in history of health. What are our actions to achieve healthy Indian and healthy nation? Action by government, action by community, action by individual.

Hope you will help to find me evidences. Waiting for your reply

Dr. Niraj Pandit

Reference
1. C.-E. A. Winslow, “The Untilled Fields of Public Health,” Science, n.s. 51 (1920), p. 23
2. Sackett DL et al, Churchill levingston 2000
3. Jenicek M Epidemology, Jouranl of Epidemiology, 1997
4. Evidance based public health, By Ross C. Brownson, Oxford
5. Wikipedia as source material

Report of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine Conference 2010, Ranchi

2010-02-28T01:35:00.000-08:00

Report of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine Conference 2010, Ranchi

The department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Rajendra Institute of Medical Science, Ranchi, Jharkhand has organized the 37th annual conference of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine during 22nd to 24th Feb 2010. It was a great experience to attend a historical place for newly form state Jharkhand. The theme of conference was ‘Convergence for Health’.

On first day, the conference was inaugurated by state health and family welfare minister Hon Baijnath Ram with state health secretary, director National institute of Health and Family welfare, President IAPSM Prof. V. K. Srivastava and Secretary General IAPSM Dr. Bir Singh. The all speakers in their inaugural speech put emphasis on convergence of all activities to achieve healthy nation. They expect the association should play key role in convergence activities with all departments. The need of present scenario is to make one platform for community health.

The first session was Harcharan Singh Oration which was awarded to Dr. Bir Singh, Professor & Secretary General IAPSM, AIIMS, New Delhi. He delivered talk on innovative course ‘pre marriage counseling course for Happy Marriage life’ which was started in Center for Community Medicine (CCM), AIIMS in July 2008. CCM, AIIMS is running Sex and marriage counseling clinic since 1964. They have analyzed data for one year and they found 35% of clients had marital disharmony and majority (55%) of attendee were of young age group 15to 40 years group. Other fact was that clients of marital disharmony came within one year of marriage. Looking to the fact, the CCM has started course of two days for people. They are teaching pillars of marriage life to clients. So far they have conducted four batches and next batch is in March 2010. Further details can be collected from Dr. Bir Sing and his mail id birsingh43@gmail.com He has requested all IAPSM members to start such type of course in college and they are ready to provide technical support.

The second session was on public health teaching in medical schools. There were speakers from WHO, South East Asia Region office Prof. M E Huq, Dr. R. De Sevaratne from Sri Lanka, Dr. F Khan from Bangladesh and Prof Nilambar Jha from Nepal. Prof. Huq from SEARO had put stress on three competencies which medical (student) officer should acquire during study. They are technical, administrative and managerial and self development. The technical competencies are in area like community diagnosis, health promotion, prevention and control of public health important diseases, supervision and monitoring of national health programme, investigation and disease surveillance. The managerial competencies are in area like Health Promotion & disease prevention activity, Use of health information, Implement health legislation, Influence public health policy, Cooperation between health other sectors, Design & implement IEC, Implement in service trainings, Human resources, Quality control issues including monitoring, Environmental health & it’s hazards, Women issues and Applied research. And the self development competencies areas are Accessing & utilizing information from different sources/ web based, Computer literacy and Use of internet. But he told that the are many weaknesses in our curriculum to develop above competencies. The weaknesses are Contents are not updated, Less systemic, Not standardized, Field visit is not effective, Lack of interest/lack of fund, Not assessed separately, Not weighed duly , Lack of pedagogical skills of teachers, No faculty development programme and No Institutional Quality Assurance mechanism. What is the answer to above issues? The speakers has said that WHO has prepared book on ‘Guideline for Preventive and Social Medicine / Community Medicine / Community Health curriculum in the under graduate medical education. I think it is available on net. Please see for more details.
The second session was on ‘Teaching public health in an undergraduate hybrid medical curriculum: Colombo experience’ by Dr. Rohini, Faculty of Medicine University of Colombo. She had delivered the experience of University of Colombo for medical education curriculum framing. She told that they took five years to develop hybrid, partially integrated curriculum organized in five streams. The five parallel streams are Introductory Basic Sciences Stream, Applied Sciences Stream, Behavioural Sciences Stream, Community Stream and Clinical Sciences Stream. They are teaching public health to the students in all five years. The curricula for public health in gross as in terms 2-3 topics are- Health (concepts, determinants, and promotion); Stage 2- Demography, Statistics and Epidemiology; Stage 3- Community based learning and Research Project and in Final year: Stage 4- Community perspective of patient care. They have also incorporated evaluation in term ending. So students are assessed as per objective of curriculum.

The third presentation was from Nepal Dr. Nilamber Jha, Chief of school of public health and community medicine, B P Koirala Institute of Health Science, Dharan, Nepal. He spoke on ‘five star doctors for 21st century: A BPKIHS endeavor for Nepal’. He tried to explain the meaning of five star in words of Charles Bolen, WHO that who have competencies as Care Provider, Decision Maker, Good Communicator, Community Leader and Team Member. In their institution they have a week long orientation programme for new students which sensitize the students the socio-cultural environment of community and environment. In first year they have to learn the community diagnosis with objectives to appreciate teamwork, to know the common health problems and to identify the health needs of the people. Second year the students are learning health care delivery system of country. The objectives of learning are to familiarize the students about National Health Care Delivery System and to understand the structure and functions of the different NGOs /INGOs working in Health. They are taken for Six-field visits at Health Post / Sub-health Post, Primary Health Center, District & Zonal hospitals, Regional health directorate and NGOs / INGOs. In third year the students have to do family health study. The objectives of this family study are to analyze the social and cultural variables related to health and disease in the family and to make the student a complete family physician. For this each student has given one family and they have to visit 12 times in that family over a year. Each visit the student has to spend three hours in family. Thus they are learning family problem and making them family physician. During third year students are learning epidemiology for health management. They will learn all aspect of epidemiology theoretical and practical aspect. During forth year, the students are learning the various management skills for health services. They are exposed to various national health programme, supervision and monitoring activities, managerial skills, morbidity and mortality pattern in district and block, drug logistics, laboratory services and medical records. During internship, these students are working six months in teaching hospital and six months in zonal and district hospital with 15 days posting in district public health posting and 15 days at Primary health center. Thus during course of MBBS students are spending 352 days in field.

I would like the comments from esteem faculties of community medicine and public health expert. What we should do in present scenario? The scenario is that government is asking we are not getting doctors for rural areas. They decided to raise medical colleges in India and they permitted many colleges in country. By December 2009, there are 300 medical colleges in India. Still doctors are not moving in rural areas. The government had proposed to do compulsory rural posting before final registration with MCI. But that was just came and when lost no one knew. On the contrary, MCI has made notification and reduced the duration of internship in PSM to two months. even I heard that MCI is going to eliminate PSM teaching from first year. These are the ground facts for Indian scenario. It is high time to decide the role of department in college, community , public health and policy making.
One more recent news, which you all know that is the new course BRMS (?). Government and MCI have proposed new cadre of rural doctors. What will be the fate of these new people? God knows, it really high time to think and give inputs to government policy.

The third session was on ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health of Youth in India’. Usha Ram, International Institute for Population science, Mumbai had talk on pre-marital sex among youth. She has reported that 1 in 5 young men and 1 in 10 young women reported a romantic partner. She also reported that one in 7 young men and 4% of young women had pre-marital sex and young men tend to initiate pre-marital sex earlier than young women. But serious issue she reported is that only 27% young men and 7% of young women had ever used condoms in their premarital sex relationship and consistent use was still more problem; 13% in young men and 3% young women. Second presentation in this session was on ‘early marriage childbearing in India’ by Usha Ram. She reported that still in India 45% of women aged 20-24 years in India marry before age 18 and 63%, marry before age 20 and 22% gave birth before age 18 in 2005 and 42% gave birth before age 20. She also reported 43% of married adolescent women had an unmet need for modern contraception. Dr. Suranjeen, CINI has presented youth policy in Jarkhand various issues and advocacy.
The forth session on first day was on Health system research by National Health System Research Center, New Delhi. The first presentation was on ‘Health System Research – the context and the challenges’ by Dr. T Sundararaman. He told that IPHS services guarantees 1 ASHA, 1 AWW, village health day, drug kit and referral chain at village level; 2 ANMs, 1 MPHW at sub-center level; at PHC level 3 Staff Nurses; 1 LHV for 4-5 SHCs; MO i/c; Ayush Doctor; Emergencies that can be handled by Nurses ; Round the Clock Services Ambulance/hired vehicle; Fixed Day FP and other Clinics; Telephone; ; Drugs; Laboratory and at block level 30 beds, 5 specialists, 9 nurses/Ambulance, Obstetric/Surgical/Medical
Emergencies /Round the Clock Services with health manager, accountant and store keeper. This is the expected IPHS standards for block and below health system. He has reported that very limited studies were conducted on health system research which can generalized in country. He told to learned audience about need of health system research and role of department of PSM in same. Second ppt was from Dr. Sahay and he elaborated quality management system in district hospital. Dr. Srivastava told status of Bio-medical waste in country.

There were parallel paper presentation in three halls and one poster session in one hall. The details of paper and poster topic list is available on web page of www.iapsmcon2010.org

Second day; the day was started with Dhanvantari Oration, which was awarded to Dr. Umesh Kapil. He has talked on ‘successful efforts towards elimination IDD – transforming Indian dream into reality’.

Next plenary session on ‘Maternal and child Anemia in India: issues and way forward’. Dr. Prema Ramchandran, Director Nutrition foundation of India has focused on maternal anemia. She told that one third of global population are anemic. Prevalence of anemia in pregnant women is highest in pregnant women in India. She was serious about issue that 22000 maternal deaths are due to anemia. she explained the future strategy for controlling anemia. Dr. P V Kotecha has focused on ‘Child anemia feasibility study – approach and lesson learnt’. The big filed area of USAID is Jharkhand. They did feasibility study of anemia in state. They tried to incorporate the IFS syrup in drug kit at sub center and village level. Dr. Anchita Patil from USAID tried to explain role of breast feeding and complimentary feeding in controlling of anemia. in this plenary last lecture was from Rolf Klenm, technical director, USAID A2Zmicronutrient project, J H B School of Public health, USA. He tried to focus on iron fortified processed complementary food for infant and toddlers. But he could not able to give enough evidence for same. This area need to explore before implementation.
The other plenary on Micronutrients – programme issues, Involvement of medical college in effective implementation of RNTCP were delivered by various speakers.
On last day, the plenary session was on Adolescent girl by UNICEF. Along with other paper presentation I have presented paper with title ‘Awareness and practice about preventive method against mosquito bite in Gujarat India’ on last day. The ppt is available with me and also posted on my slideshare web http://www.slideshare.net/pampandit. It was nice experience.
It was overall great experience in Ranchi. The food and hospitality was really good. As I was member of Governing council for year 2009-10, we had great meeting and also General body meeting. Also the host has arranged cultural programme and banquet for guest. Great thanks to Dr. Haider and his team.

Please give feedback
Dr. Niraj Pandit

New course for Medical, do u think that every thing going well???

2010-02-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

Alternative Model of UG Medical Education

Need:
Its timely but need to think for how long we need such graduate. As in Gujarat BAMS/BHMS doctors are working at PHC for long time. They are also practicing medicine. In this scenario do we need one more degree? Can we think to improve the curricula of BAMS and BHMS so we can fulfill need of country? There is serious thought require before starting so many alternative medical education (my knowledge is that MCI wants to start 100 such colleges). In this need section I would like to suggest instead of using word medical education or medical degree use Health. The degree can be named as Bachelor of Rural Health (BRH) and make it more wide and relevant to health need rather just medical need.
There is need of Health people who can think beyond the medical eye. At present our medical education is totally clinic based and drug based. There is little incorporation of broad concept of health. Health is more than medicine and it is real holistic approach.
Statistics says that population to physician ratio in India is 50-60 physicians per 100000 population and that is not equal distribution geographically, 74% are in urban area and only 26% are in rural area. So this point we also keep in mind while thinking need. Along with this can we think something like MD/MS directly rather MBBS? MCI can think to remove or modify the Master degree and make BHR (BRMS) as under graduate degree. (Its my personal suggestion). So that the confusion can be removed at all level. (thinking positively and give inputs). As majority of MBBS doctors want to do post graduate just modify the curricula and start MD/MS directly so that we can produce quality stuff instead of confused basic doctors!!!! It will also help to remove all pre-pg exams and its related cost?

Scope:
There are lots many scope, if we make some innovation, but very limited if we are making modified version of current courses. Don’t assure people who are getting admission that they are going to become Doctor but assure they are going to be health care taker of community. Also my personal opinion don’t give degree of “Dr” so that it should not mix with actual qualified doctors.
Also we need to decide who is going to recruit. It is exclusive need of Government or other sector also like NGO, private etc. If so what will be the role in Government and other sectors. We need to decide salary structure for these people. There is also need to think about promotion and future of this course. Here I like to raise question that can this people take admission in MBBS later date? Can they do post graduation later? What means later? After how many years they can do above action? It should clarify here only. So the people who are getting admission have clear future course.
At present we are thinking about this course because the MBBS doctors are not going in rural and tribal areas to serve. We need to take assurance that these people will go and serve needy. The government has to generate future scope for these people. Here is question is that once rural, tribal and difficult areas are saturated by such doctors, what will be the next scope? Once appointed person will occupy post for next 20 years (assume). What about new people?
As I mention above in need, if we are making modification in MBBS and start direct to give MD/MS degree, I think issue of survival will not come in process, because these basic doctors will exclusively work for rural and urban community as basic doctors and Master will take care about secondary and tertiary care.
It can put as scope that these practitioners can join MD/MS degree after 10 years of practice or service to government with entrance exam.

Past experiences:
In past experience, I read somewhere that in west Bangal Government had started such course in past but poor out come. Please share anybody have more information.
In Gujarat also Government had started one and half year course for Ayurvedic doctor in past. But it was stopped in two years. They got degree of MBBS and got registered in council. As far my knowledge they did MD and worked for government. (Need to confirm)
One more recent old news, I think all knew that Mr. Ajit Jogi CM of Chhatishgardh, few years back came up with similar concept and that time MCI had oppose the concept.
So looking to this past experiences, this is not the new concept but it is like old wine in new bottle. So like ASHA and primary health care concept, we need to see that it should implement full proof so there will not be major confusion in future.

Vision and Mission for BRH (BRMS)
The vision statement for this course should be like the graduate of BRH or BRMS will work for community health and help the upliftment of community health. They will take care of community for basic physical, mental health, social health, environment health, cultural aspect of health and public health.
Frame work for education:
Ideal model – Admission after 12 std and domicile of that district
Place of college: District hospital (need to upgrade for such college. They should have all basic department like medical colleges with many units so people can spare time for education.)
One college should have only 25 to 50 seats not more than that.
Proposed curricula: first year with one year with subject like basic anatomy, basic physiology, concept of biochemistry, social science, concept of economics, psychology.
Second year: Concept of pharmacology, microbiology, pathology, FM with community health, behavior science, social science, counseling, patient care, hospital management
Third year: Basic medicine (include skin, psychiatry, tb), surgery (include ophthalmology, ENT, all surgical) and obs/gyne, community health, health care management, hospital management
Evaluation should be skill based.
Six months internship, include one month in good community based NGO,
Than degree? Need to think?

Teachers for such college:
They should be MCI recognized and specially trained for this programme with good remuneration more than present. The subject like medicine, surgery, Obs/Gyne, community health, social science, economist, psychologist, epidemiologist, public health expert, environmentalist, health care managers etc should be teachers of such course.

Major queries in this topic:Need inputs
1. What should be the name of course? BRMS or BRH or Something new
2. Should the new degree need any body like MCI or just University?
3. Is that MCI ready to upgrade MBBS to directly MD/MS so the new degree will act as basic degree? What future problems due to this change?
4. Will we produce quacks officially?
5. Will community accept the new version of doctors?
6. Should we call them doctors? Or something else????
7. What should be scope at international level to the new degree?
8. What will be the role of nursing, MPHW, HE etc in new scenario?
9. Are we ready for such major change? As we are on verge of completion of NRHM.
10. Is it politically motive move? So it will diverted our attention from NRHM to otherside.
Friends
please comment and make fruitful exercise.
Dr. Niraj Pandit
Thanks to some faculties who have mailed on MEU group and Dr. Prabir Chatterji for inputs by mail. I thankful to my Dean Dr. G V Shah who gave me opportunity to make this write up.

Missing Researchers India- Is it really True????

2010-01-08T02:53:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said something that India’s leading scientists have been saying for long: The time has come to liberate Indian science from red tape and cronyism. Singh’s comments came barely a week after Nobel laureate Indian-American scientist Venkataraman Ramakrishnan told reporters in Chennai that India must provide scientists autonomy from red tape and local politics if it wants scientists of Indian origin to return home. “They should be allowed to do science — peacefully,” Ramakrishnan said.

These are very important comments I read in Business Standard on this Thursday. It really time to think on these comments. Are we really in scarcity of researchers and think tank? I think actually not, but we need to think something beyond our traditional thinking. In more than one billion population country, we have lots many people who are thinking in innovative and doing research. But we are lacking in something call documentation. Take the example of our health care system, we have very good health care delivery system in country know as primary health care. Each primary heath center located at 30 to 40 thousand population and catering services. On paper it looks very good. But when you go on site, they are poorly located in term of geographical access and cultural access. In this PHC each five thousand population, there are one male and female worker, looking after for various programme. But still we don’t have actual data of death and birth. We always depend on probable data and projected data. Even somebody working nicely and maintain good data record, instead of putting trust, we are looking as suspicious. So in system those who want to work effectively, the system will not help to work. I know personally many people who are doing great innovation and continuously fighting with situation. But such people are very few and all will not have that much positive attitude. We have example of people who failed in India but got great success in other country, recent example of Nobel Prize winner.

So it is rightly said by two eminent people about dare need of country. I have seen people and knowing very good people who can do good research and they are doing good community work but problem is of breath. They are not able to breath in complicated bureaucratic and political system. The need of hour is the change in system. Research can not be forced. It should come from within the individual. We need to create environment in various institution for research. We just talk one example of health department. If we look the research work conducted by medical colleges, majority is the mechanical work, either as part of dissertation to get post graduate degree or imposed due to faculty want promotion. But any really new innovative research, really few may be. Also just ask our government health department for fund spent for last three to five years, it will also just few bucks. If anybody has data regarding this please share.
In that article, the author said that the aggregate domestic research and development (R&D) spending has never exceeded 1 per cent of GDP, making India the world’s ninth-largest spender. China spends more than three times of what India does. The gap will only widen further with China planning to increase the proportion of R&D spending to a staggering 4 per cent of GDP by 2025 (it’s around 1.5 per cent now). Not only these, the author adds besides, about 75-80 per cent of India’s R&D spending comes from public enterprises, while in China, more than 65 per cent comes from private enterprises. India also fares very low in the ratio of researchers to the total population: It has 120 people employed in R&D per million of the population compared to 633 for China.

The private sector’s role in promoting science and indigenous R&D has also been abysmal. A study done by the Administrative Staff College of India a few years ago found that over 80 per cent of Indian companies reported zero spend on R&D in their annual reports. The broad pattern of India’s spending on science shows that a major chunk goes into mission mode projects in areas like space, ocean development, atomic energy and defence. While the defence sector continues to garner maximum funds, industrial R&D has suffered badly — something that will most certainly affect the industrial competitiveness of India vis-à-vis countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, Israel and Korea.

The author has reported something interesting, nearly a decade ago, the number of papers published by Indian scientists in international journals used to be close to 11,000, while Chinese scientists could manage only 10,000. But latest figures tell a completely different story: While Indian scientists published over 19,000 papers, their Chinese counterparts managed a whopping 50,000.

CNR Rao, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the PM, has also often raised the employability issue. Annually, India produces 650,000 undergraduates, which is eight times that of the US. But 60 per cent of the undergraduates are not well-trained, as a result of which over half of engineering students are unfit for employment. The crux of problem is not the manpower but the quality of manpower. There is need to improve the education system. Last year Government of Gujarat has given permission to start college in two shift and it was considered welcome step. And now Medical council of India is going to give permission for 100 more rural medical colleges. But resent release film “3 idiots” has slapped rightly on our education system. Already we are producing lots of engineers and doctors but where is the quality? Lots of unemployed degree holders are moving around and wasting their time, as they are not getting proper job. The consequence of these, the mental health problems like depression and suicidal cases are on up trend.

Government of India and with the vision of our Hon PM, the Indian institute of public health were lunched by public health foundation. That initiative was also welcomed by public health field. But after more than five years of launching, there is urgent need to review their presence.

Looking to scenario, we are not lacking in quality manpower but we need to change in our education system. So innovation come from childhood only, no need to wait for adulthood. Some my suggestions
1. Research funding needs to de-centralized rather centralization and free from political hands.
2. Government should promote more childhood innovation and research.
3. Out side school, innovation should promote like in housewife and free people.
4. NGO working in various field should increase their R&D in their area. There should be one compulsory R&D project from NGO every year.
5. Good platform for sharing of info or innovation with positive thinking.
6. Platform for innovators and transfer of technique to real ground level.

Friends
Please give your suggestions for article
Regards
Dr. PAM
ANAND

Acknowledgement: I really thank author of article ‘The missing scientists’ Shyamal Majumdar who has written good article in Business standard and initiated my though process

Report of National Conference on Health Professionals’ Education 2009, Pune

2009-12-21T00:33:00.000-08:00

Report of National Conference on Health Professionals’ Education 2009, Pune

The National conference on Health Professionals’ Education 2009 was organised by department of medical education and technology, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences’, regional centre, Pune 10th to 13th Dec 2009 in collaborations with Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), USA and Department of Health and Human Services, USA. The theme of conference was “Good Teaching Practices – Sharing best practices in teaching – learning and assessment”. There were two pre-conference CME for 10th and 11th Dec 2009.

The first CME was on ‘Students assessment – New trends and tools’. The faculties of CME have tired to show the new evaluation tools for students’ assessment. The areas of students’ evaluation are like knowledge, procedural skills, professionalism, interest in learning and system based practice. In first part of CME, they discussed on communication skill assessment with some role-play situation. In the session, we learnt how to convey the message to students as teacher. There are various positive and negative ways to communicate the message. The negative way of communication like scolding leads to loss of interest in subject and poor learning. But positive way of communication leads to improve in interest in subject.
In afternoon session, we learnt about the simulation case studies. The facilitator Dr. John Norcini has given detail about simulation based evaluation of students. It was great learning exercise. He demonstrated various video clippings for communication and asked us to rate. After the rating, he has given score obtained by that candidate in real time and compare. It was found the relation was linear. The score of ours was matching with score, which obtained by student. Thus he told that the objective evaluation has consistency and it has added advantages on subjective evaluation.

The second day CME was on ‘Biomedical communication and medical ethics’. It was also good learning from various faculties from ICMR, industry research fellow and other. In morning session, first session from Dr. K. Satyanarayn, ICMR, (editor of IJMR) elaborated on topic ‘how to write scientific paper and publish in medical journal’. He told about role of ICMR in Indian Research scenario. The Government of India has established department of health research (DHR) and ICMR is the part of DHR. Second session was from Dr. V. S. Padbidri, KEM hospital and research center, Pune, he has given inputs on various aspect of process of writing paper. He has focused on title, abstract, key words and references writing. Dr. Dinesh Badyal has spoke on method of IMRAD method of paper writing. IMRAD means introduction, method, result and discussion. It is the international accepted method of paper writing method. He spoke on introduction and method writing pattern. Dr. Viraj Rajadhyaksha has elaborated on result and discussion writing pattern. He has also shown various ways of presentation of data, pictorial or in word.
In afternoon session, above all speakers have elaborated on ethical aspect of research, oral and poster presentation guideline.

The actual conference days were 12 and 13th of Dec 09. In morning conference was inaugurated by Dr. Snehlatha Deshmukh, Ex VC of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) and Dr. Mrudula Phadke VC of MUHS. The Ex VC madam has emphasis on maximum incorporation of preventive medicine in curricula. She also told that there should be quality control group in college to monitor the quality of medical education and students should be part of the quality control group. During inauguration, they facilitated their senior teacher from MUHS.
The keynote address was given by Dr. Ved Prakash Mishra, member of MCI. He told that 13.5% of world’s medical school are in India. 16.5% of post graduate admission are in India. He also told that WHO has reported by 2015, 36% of medical manpower are to be produced by India and India is the biggest medical manpower supplier in world. He also reported that out of 300 medical school in India, 217 have active medical education unit as per last report of Dec 2009. He also told to teachers that the medical teachers should develop medical education model, which should student centred and student friendly. He also clarified the role of medical education unit in the development of students and faculties.
Dr. Rita Sood, organizing secretary of National conference on Medical Education 2007, has shared her experiences of 2007 and followed up of that conference. She told the recent MCI regulation regarding medical education unit was the outcome of last conference. There are three FAIMER regional institutions are stared and many FAIMER fellows are working in various medical colleges. Dr. Payal Bansal, organising secretary of present conference told about the continuing journey of medical education and the product of the journey is the NCHPE 2009. There is lot of support from FAIMER, USA and Department of Health and Human services, USA for organizing conference.

Then there was a session on ‘capacity building in health profession education’ by Dr. W. Burdic, FAIMER. He told the process of capacity building which include identify individual, effective learning, facilitate real life application for knowledge and skill and create career path with opportunity to grow. It was great session.
The afternoon session was on poster presentation. They have different style of poster presentation. They divided six group for poster ppt. Each group consist of poster participants, faculties from FAIMER and observer. Those who were not presenting poster were asked to opt one group. They signed one group. The group had poster presentation. The group has selected one person as chairperson and one reporter. Each poster presenter has given five minutes to present and five to ten minutes for discussion. The discussion was based on their guideline. Group has to elicit the information from poster like message, enabling factors, challenges/obstacles: problems, impact and future. The reporter wrote all the information as per guideline from each group. This was the great and different experience. They thought the new way of oral presentation. This is the FAIMER style of poster presentation.

The next day morning there was a presentation from all groups. Each group had presented the salient points from their group. It was really exciting experience. There were total seven group and each group had some 9-10 poster about 65 posters, From various medical colleges and on various topics like observational studies to intervention studies. It was great to see three medical colleges are from Gujarat, they are P S Medical college, Karamsad; B J Medical college, Ahmedabad and Government Medical College Bhavnagar. The abstract book is with me and anyone want to study various project please contact me. Also one can visit web page www.nchpe.in for more details.

On second day, after report form various groups; Dr. Anand from CMC Vellor has presented their experiences on community based teaching and family physician teaching. Dr. Krishna from Ramachandra Medical college, Kurlu has tried to explain the integration of medical curriculum in each year. In first year they had tried organ block based system mean that the both department teach same system simultaneously, like if anatomy start abdomen the physiology also start GI in their lecture and he said it works well. He also told that they tried to incorporate generic posting in second year. First few weeks they had given common posting to students like for communication skill and other generic skill and they found it was welcome by students.
Dr. N G Patil from Uniersity of Hong Kong has shared his experiences from HongKong University. They have implemented case base study in each department. He also added that if you want to start such case base study in medical education, one need more junior staff like tutors and ration should 1 tutor per 10 students. He also said something about four ‘P’ that mean punctuality, preparation, participation and presentation in small group discussion, which is necessary for case base study. He shared experience from China medical school where 400 to 500 students input in one medical school. In such large gathering also they are doing case base study and that is known as ‘Restaurant approach’. He also show the library and other facilities in their university and it really great.
In next session, Dr. John Norcini has covered the topic ‘the future assessment in medical education’. He talked more on simulation based exercises and it evaluation. He said Indian medical school should also start on such simulation indirectly. But challenges in simulation are difficult to make cases and score need to make reliable. There are lots of experiments required for simulation.
Next session Dr. Larry Gurrupan from University of Michigan said on programme evaluation and education research. He stressed upon that there is need to evaluate each teaching programme in context to objectives learnt. This is the check for the improvement in programme. He show the steps in programme evaluation.
Post lunch there was a penal discussion on Role of education units in Advancing health professions, where five expert from premier institute of India like AIIMS, JIPMER, CMC, Mumbai and Combater have discussed various aspect of medical education unit and role in medical education. They agreed on each medical college should have active medical education unit and regular training should be conducted for faculties. The unit has important role in faculties development. The unit should also focus on medical education research. Such small research will be the guiding path for future medical education.

Thus all the sessions of workshop and conference were really exiting and bridging the gap in knowledge.
Dr. Niraj Pandit
Department of Community Meidicine
SBKS Medical Institution and Research Centre
Piparia Dist Vadodara
Gujarat

Red Ribbon Award for Small NGOs/Community Organizations working to address AIDS Epidemic

2009-12-04T00:22:00.000-08:00

The Red Ribbon Award 2010 given once in two years provides recognition and honour to community-based organizations/NGOs that have demonstrated exceptional leadership quality in reducing the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. Named after “red ribbon” sign symbolizing the global movement against AIDS, this award is jointly organized by the UNAIDS family and partners include CIDA, Irish Aid, The Global Fund, Norwegian Government and others. The Award considers the fact that community-based organizations are playing a critical role in addressing the epidemic through sustainable and innovative means and this is an opportunity to highlight these efforts. The categories under which the Award will be given out are:
Ensure that that people living with HIV receive treatment
Support HIV prevention, treatment and care programmes for people who use drugs.
Remove punitive policies and laws, stigma and discrimination that block effective AIDS responses and marginalize key populations (men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers and prisoners)
Stop violence against women and girls and promote gender equality
Enhance social support for those affected by HIV, including orphans and vulnerable children

The guidelines also mention that “In line with the global efforts to support cross-sectoral strategies that address HIV as well as other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), this year a special recognition Award will be presented to an organization whose crosscutting approach jointly addresses AIDS and MDGs at the community level.”

A total number of 25 organizations will be selected initially. They will be invited to the XVIIIth International AIDS Conference in Vienna from 18-23 July, 2010 where these organizations will be able to host their Community Dialogue Space and showcase their work. The award committee will select five organizations for whom an award grant of $15,000 will be offered along with another $5000 to all 25 organizations.

Both nominations and self-nominations are accepted. Applications can be sent by email/mail/online through the website. The last date to submit nomination is 28 February 2010. For more information,
VISIT http://www.fundsforngos.org/latest-funds-for-ngos/red-ribbon-award-for-small-ngoscommunity-organizations-working-to-address-aids-epidemic/
VISIT http://www.redribbonaward.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=167&Itemid=76&lang=en

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http://drpamhrdconsulting.blogspot.com, represented through this website, is not affiliated to any of the organizations mentioned above in any manner. The material provided here is solely for informational purposes only without any warranty. Blog visitors are advised to use it at their own discretion.

HP Climate Change Photography Contest ‘09

2009-11-06T22:32:00.000-08:00

The world around you is changing. When most people think of global warming, they think of icebergs melting, seas rising and low-lying areas getting flooded. But it is no longer just an apocalyptic warning of doom. It is no longer something that will happen in some distant land. Flashfloods, hurricanes, droughts, heat waves and other natural disasters are becoming commonplace. Each one of us is being affected. The impact of climate change is no longer something that will come in the future – it is happening right here… right now.

The HP Climate Change Photography Contest, in association with Sanctuary Asia and WWF-India asks you to record these changes happening around you. A single, striking image has the power to tell a story that truly hits home. Through your photos, we hope to spread your message to the world and help bring about a change in the way we look at our planet.

The jury will look for images that will help draw attention to the challenges and solutions of climate change and drive us toward local and global action. You are limited only by your imagination.
Visit

http://hpcapturechange.in.com for more details
Win more than 3 lac prizes [The economist]

CHNRI: International Essay Contest 2009

2009-10-22T02:31:00.000-07:00

"From Research to Evidence-based Policy”

The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) is pleased to announce the CHNRI International Essay Contest 2009. It is CHNRI’s mandate to advocate research programmes directed at addressing the conditions responsible for the most important diseases suffered by children, especially in developing countries, where the major burden of disease remains. In particular, CHNRI aims to influence policy decisions and program development to fast track the adoption of cost-effective and sustainable solutions.

Theme:
The CHNRI International Essay Contest 2009 has been conceived to showcase examples of research that had an impact on policymakers, donors or relevant stakeholders to implement evidence informed policy or to allocate more funds for research focused on key issues that affect child health and nutrition. The contest is focused on examples of policies oriented to improve child health and nutrition that are based on research findings. CHNRI is looking for the best examples of how research has been translated into policy that improved the child health and/or nutrition status at national, regional, or global level within the past 20 years. Interested participants should provide a specific example of how the evidence was generated to help establish, modify or implement a policy, based on research. The essay should describe the context in which the described case took place, which may include the history of the institution, and provide a substantiated and specific example of how research results influenced policy-making as well as program development.
Rules and guidelines
Eligible papers may be submitted by any researcher working in the field of child health and nutrition research.
Each applicant can submit only one essay.
The essay must not have been published previously.
The essay should be in English of a maximum of 2,000 words and an abstract of maximum 300 words.
Each essay should have adequate references.
Entries will be judged on originality, expression of ideas, presentation, and understanding of the research environment, and be evaluated by an evaluating committee of experts via blind review.
Submission must include a cover sheet with the applicant’s name, date of birth, institutional affiliation, official designation i.e. title (if any), mailing address, e-mail address, phone and fax numbers.
Entries must be submitted in an electronic format to Dr. Tanvir M. Huda, Coordinator, CHNRI Secretariat: chnri@icddrb.org

Deadlines
The last date for acceptance of electronic applications is December 11, 2009.
The winners will be notified by end of December 2009.
Prizes
The 12 most outstanding essays will be published in an anthology and the authors will be featured on the CHNRI's official website throughout the year.
The best 5 essay winners will receive cash prizes of US$1000 each.
The first prize winner, in addition to cash prize, will receive financial support for presenting his/her paper at a relevant international academic conference. Grant assistance from CHNRI will be subject to acceptance of the paper in the conference.
More information on the contest
The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI) website
http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/membernews/2009/20091211_chnriessaycontest/en/index.html

Indo-US Research Fellowship Awards: 2009

2009-10-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

Indo-US Research for Indian Researchers

Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) of Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and Indo-US Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) committed to the common goal of promoting science and technology through devised programs and to nurture contacts between scientists and technologists at an early career stage jointly launch the Indo-US Research Fellowship Program for Indian Researchers. The objective of the Indo-US Research Fellowship Program for Indian Researchers is to introduce scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers to international collaborative research opportunities, thereby furthering their research capacity and global perspective and forging long-term relationships with scientists, technologists and engineers in USA.

These awards will provide an excellent opportunity to young Indian scientists and technologists of all disciplines, under the age of 40 years to interact with the American scientific community and get first hand information of the developments taking place at the international level and acquaint themselves with new scientific research methods and to collaborate in a larger research project. It will enable young Indian researchers to carry out a clearly defined research project at a place of their choice in USA upto a period of 12 months. The individual availing this fellowship would be called as an IUSSTF Research Fellow.

Eligibility Criteria for Indo-US Research Fellowship
Academic Qualifications:

Master’s degree in engineering, technology or equivalent or Ph.D. in science or technology or equivalent or M.D. degree in medicine or equivalent.

Applicants must provide proof of independent research work in internationally recognized academic journals.

Age: Upto 40 years as on 31 December 2009

Employment: A permanent position in a public funded R&D lab/ S&T institution (non-private)/ recognized universities/colleges in India

Area of Work: Area proposed by the candidate should be clearly defined as:

(i) Atmospheric and Earth Sciences
(ii) Chemical Sciences
(iiii) Engineering Sciences
(iv) Life Sciences
(v) Medical Sciences
(vi) Mathematical and Computational Sciences
(vii) Physical Sciences

Promising applications in areas other than the above areas may also be considered.

Place of work: The fellow should be accepted by the US scientific/technological institution, which is internationally recognized as an outstanding institution where major work in the identified area is in progress. There should be willingness on the part of the American institution to accept and extend necessary support to the candidate for the work proposed.

The candidate should himself/herself correspond with their proposed host institution abroad for placement. Candidate is required to produce evidence, in the form of a letter of acceptance from the US institution to be visited along with merits/uniqueness of that host institute in the proposed area.

Note: The candidates who have availed any other overseas fellowship to USA for a period of more than three months through any Government/public funding agency during last two years will also not be considered for this fellowship.

Fellowship:
“The IUSSTF Fellow will be entitled to fellowship amount of US $ 3000 per month.”

"IUSSTF Fellow will also be entitled to a personal contingency grant of upto a maximum of Rs. 50,000 to cover for visa, airport transfer, medical insurance etc. Medical insurance expenses, visa fee, airport transfer charges will be met by the fellow from out of this personal contingency grant."

IUSSTF Fellow will also be permitted to travel within USA to attend conferences or visit other institutes of interest with the approval of the advisor at the host institute. The Fellow will be entitled to avail one of the following grants for this purpose.
i) Grant of $ 600 for fellowship period upto 6 months
ii) Grant of $ 1200 for fellowship period beyond 6 months

Air-tickets for all the selected IUSSTF Fellow would be provided directly by the IUSSTF travel desk by economy class and shortest route from their place of work in India to the place of the American host institute and back. As a rule, reimbursements will not be provided for air tickets purchased directly.

Rules governing payment of salary, leave, medical, gratuity, GPF and pension etc. of the organization/ institution/ university to which the fellow belongs would continue to be applicable. No liability on any of these accounts will be borne by IUSSTF.

The candidate selected for the award of the Indo-US fellowship should commence their research with six month period from the date of award announcement. Failure to do so would render the fellow forfeit the award.
Application Guidelines

1. Application should be submitted in the prescribed format
2. Application should not be more than 20 pages maximum including CVs
3. Application should be forwarded through the head of organization/ department where the candidate is employed
4. Scanned copy of acceptance letter from host institution in USA

Application should be submitted electronically as single word/ pdf file to:
Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF)
Email: fellowship@indousstf.org

For immediate answers to your queries, please contact:
Dr. Smriti Trikha
Indo-US Science and Technology Forum
12 Hailey Road, Fulbright House
New Delhi- 110 001
Ph: 91-11-42691700; Fax: 91-11-23321552

Submission deadline: 31 December 2009

Echoing Green - Great funding for Social Change

2009-09-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

Social entrepreneurs play a vital role in fostering societal change
The next big idea for social change will come from a robust pipeline of new leaders with innovative solutions. Social entrepreneurs exhibit an extremely high level of passion and commitment to their ideas. As a result, they remain steadfast on realizing their vision, but they also remain malleable in order to weather the obstacles that they will confront.
Social entrepreneurs are extraordinary "bridgers." They have the great ability to deeply engage multiple and diverse stakeholders in their work, attracting corporate, public, and nonprofit leaders alike.
Social entrepreneurs need support and a strong network to succeed
Social change work is oftentimes lonely and arduous and beyond the capacity of any one individual, especially during its start-up stage.
A strong network of support is critical to sustaining the work of great societal leaders and broadening their impact.
More risk-taking is required in the philanthropic sector to drive true social change
The entrepreneurial spirit that has long driven the economic growth in the U.S. and around the world needs to be brought to the social sector. Social change is created by developing new approaches that address root causes.
Throughout history, breakthrough ideas and social change tend to come from the margins of society.

New organizations, unconstrained by tradition, are often best able to challenge the status quo.
Return on Investment:
By year two, Echoing Green Fellows raise three times their Echoing Green grant.
Five years after the completion of their fellowship, Echoing Green funded organizations raised total dollars equivalent to thirty-seven times their total Echoing Green seed investment.
According to a 2004 study, Echoing Green Fellows’ organizations raised approximately $930 million to support their work—an ROI of forty-four times our initial investment.
Launching Organizations Built for Impact:
By year two, 58 percent of Echoing Green organizations have budgets over $100,000, compared to 43 percent of peer organizations.
By year two, 86 percent of Echoing Green Fellows hire at least one additional staff member, compared to 75 percent of peer organizations.
Creating Long-Term Solutions:
Approximately two out of three organizations founded through an Echoing Green investment reaches sustainability.
Of the organizations without current fellow involvement, 75 percent continue to thrive under new leadership.

Echoing Green also assesses our fellows' idea diffusion—how our fellows' innovative ideas, models, or strategies for social change are adopted, adapted, and developed by other institutions and eventually considered a mainstream practice.

Visit web page for more details
http://www.echoinggreen.org

2009 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition

2009-09-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

2009 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition
2009 research themes "truly global"

The 2009 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition

The Global Development Network (GDN) is now accepting submissions for its annual competition for development research proposals/papers and development projects. Researchers and NGOs from developing and transition countries are invited to participate in the competition. The competition is generously funded by the Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan and other donors.

The competition focuses on key issues such as globalization, regional integration and international migration against the backdrop of the current global economic and financial crisis, the political and economic repercussions of which can already be felt across countries and regions. The impact of these crises on the architecture of developing countries cannot be understated. They have prompted many to challenge globalization and they are also likely to hasten the structural shift in global economic power from Western countries to emerging markets.

The deadline for submission of development projects has been extended till September 10, 2009.

The deadline for submission of new research proposals/papers has been extended till October 14, 2009.

Prizes
The finalists will win cash prizes and a round-trip air fare with all boarding and lodging expenses paid to travel to the GDN Annual Conference where they will present their proposals/papers and showcase an interesting on-project before an eminent jury for the final round. This year the final selection will be held in Prague, Czech Republic. The Awards are funded by the Government of Japan and the Medals are funded by prestigious donors.

The 2009 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition themes are:

Globalization, Regulation and Development
International Migration: Crossing Borders, Changing Lives?
Regional Integration- Convergence Big Time, or, an Opportunity Wasted?
Note: Those applying to the competition under the Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development and for the Japanese Award for the Most Innovative Development Project category need to apply on the template provided, while the ‘Medals for Research on Development’ may apply online as per the guidelines provided below.

Deadline:
September 10, 2009 for the Japanese Award for the Most Innovative Development Project
October 14, 2009, for the Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development and Medals for Research on Development

The competition is open to researchers from developing & transition countries.

Submissions will be accepted under the following three categories:

Category 1: Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development

Eligibility:

Applicants who have outstanding new research proposals that provides a new dimension to research on any of the three topics listed above
Citizens and permanent residents of developing and transition countries or who are temporarily based in a developed country for not more than five years
Staff of bilateral/multilateral agencies are not eligible to apply.
Prizes: First Prize: US $30,000; Second Prize: US $5,000. GDN will sponsor finalists to attend the Eleventh Annual Global Development Conference, Prague, Czech Republic from January 16-18, 2010 and present their proposals.

Age Limit: 45 years
Deadline: October 14, 2009

Guidelines: More »
Template: More »

Category 2: Medals for Research on Development

Eligibility:

Applicants who have completed research papers on any of the three topics
Citizens and permanent residents of developing and transition countries or who are temporarily based in a developed country for not more than five years
Staff of bilateral/multilateral agencies are not eligible to apply.
Prizes: First Prize: US $10,000; Second prize: US $5,000 in each of the three topics mentioned above. GDN will sponsor finalists to attend the Eleventh Annual Global Development Conference, Prague, Czech Republic from January 16-18, 2010 and present their papers.

Age Limit: 45 years
Deadline: October 14, 2009

Guidelines: More »
Apply Online: More »

Category 3: Japanese Award for the Most Innovative Development Project

Eligibility:

Proposals of ongoing development projects that have the potential to create the maximum impact in local communities
Development projects managed by an institution with headquarters in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Latin America, Caribbean, Pacific Islands or transition economies of Europe and Central Asia. Projects should have been implemented before December 31, 2007.
Participants from previous years (except finalists) may apply but must submit updated proposals.
Prizes: First Prize: US $30,000; Second Prize: US$ 5,000. GDN will sponsor finalists to attend the Eleventh Annual Global Development Conference, Prague, Czech Republic from January 16-18, 2010 and present their projects.
Deadline: September 10, 2009
Guidelines: More »
Template: More »

Apply Online: More »
http://www.gdnet.org/~2009awards

My teacher's Day Story contest 11th spt is last day

2009-09-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

Write story on how special your bond with your teacher. Write story and win prizes.
send your entries before 11th Spt 09 to Minal R.
at Kores India email response.opd@kores-india.com
Refer Times of India page 9 dt 5th Spt 2009

Role and Scope of MSW in Health and Medical

2009-08-25T01:30:00.000-07:00

Friends
Today onward I would like to start discussion and inputs on various scope of various students in health field. I like to take first about Master of Social Work. Please take active participation in discussion and make fruitful to students and faculties of department.

Medical social work is a sub-discipline of social work. It is the application and adoption of the methods and philosophy of social work in the field of health and medical care. It is also defined as the branch of social work dealing with the social, physical and psychological aspects of patients. It is the branch that uses the relevant social skills and knowledge to help the patients.
Medical social workers typically work in a hospital, skilled nursing facility or hospice, have a graduate degree in the field (Master’s degree in social work, MSW or MSSW), and work with patients and their families in need of psychosocial help. Medical social workers assess the psychosocial functioning of patients and families and intervene as necessary. Interventions may include connecting patients and families to necessary resources and supports in the community; providing psychotherapy, supportive counseling, or grief counseling; or helping a patient to expand and strengthen their network of social supports. Medical social workers typically work in an interdisciplinary team with professionals of other disciplines (such as medicine, nursing, physical, occupational, speech and recreational therapy, etc.). Medical social workers are dedicated to assisting the patients and families who are in need of help. (Book on sociology and health for physiotherapist page 196)

The author has tried to describe the emerging trend for MSW students. Master of social work is becoming synonym with Medical Social Work. It really interested. The university is giving degree of Master of Social work. But now next to industry, there is very big demand of MSW in Medical and Health field.
Now there is questions which need to target?
1. Why is the increasing demand of MSW in Health and Medical Field?
2. What are the different roles MSW play in this field?
3. What should they learn while they are in college or on project?
4. What should be their salary structure in field?
5. What further specialization can be done in field?
6. Are we copying the western world? Do we have our own model of health care?

I request people to give answer to all such questions. We like to make discussion interactive.

Note: The Book ‘Sociology and health for Physiotherapist’ is available on all medical book store and publisher is B. I Publication NewDelhi.

Millennium Development Goals: How should we deliver on these promises?

2009-08-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

Millennium Development Goals: How should we deliver on these promises?

By 2015 India has pledged to achieve the following eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and women’s empowerment by eliminating gender disparity in schools
Reduce the child mortality rate
Reduce the maternal mortality rate
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environment sustainability
Develop global partnership for development

As young Indians, assess where the gaps and challenges lie and then tell us how our country can achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs):

How to enter

You should be an Indian citizen between the ages of 18 to 35 years.
* The first step is to register with us at
indiabridgethegap@gmail.com with your name and email id. We will then be in touch with you.
* You must acquaint yourself with the Millennium Development Goals.
* Then rank the following 10 constituents on a scale of 10 to 1, in their order of importance for the achievement of the MDGs. The category you feel is more important figures higher on the scale.

1. Celebrities
2. Corporate leaders
3. Educationists
4. Elected representatives
5. Government officials
6. Health personnel
7. NGOs
8. The Judiciary
9. The Media
10. The Youth

Tell us what the most important things that need to be done are to achieve the MDGs. You may choose from the following formats to express yourself:
# A 1000-word essay #Or a pictorial strip # Or a film not longer than five minutes using a mobile phone or digital camera.

* Every contestant must enclose a birth certificate and a statement certifying that the work submitted is original.
* Each contestant can send in only one entry. Entries from teams comprising not more than three persons would also be considered, provided that the oldest member in the team is not more than 35 years.
* Entries should be sent in an envelope marked 'Mera India, Bridge the Gap' to Women’s Feature Service, G-69 Second Floor, Nizamuddin West, New Delhi –110013.

* Entries can also be emailed to: indiabridgethegap@gmail.com, along with a scanned birth certificate and statement certifying that the work is original.

The Prizes
1st prize – Rs 75,000
2nd prize – Rs 50,000
3rd prize – Rs 25,000
Many other prizes too!

Each entry would be judged on its content, its innovative nature and the practicability of the ideas suggested. The jury will be a panel of independent persons well known in their respective fields.
Prize winners will be invited to a special awards function in New Delhi and your ideas will be shared with policy makers, civil society leaders and people in various fields who can make a difference.

Last Date for receiving entries: October 5, 2009

The decision of our panel of judges will be final.

Organised by Unnati Features and Women’s Feature Service

Supported by the UN Millennium Campaign
http://meraindiamdgsbridgethegap.blogspot.com/

Inviting applications for Child Rights Fellowships- 2009

2009-08-03T02:44:00.000-07:00

CRY - Child Rights and You, invites applications from researchers in exploring child rights. 10 applicants will be selected from all over India, for grants between Rs. 50,000 - Rs. 100,000.

The National Child Rights Research Fellowships were started to encourage new findings on why children are deprived of their rights and ways in which rights may be guaranteed. "We find that on the one hand, the Constitution of India redefines the state-citizen relationship in terms of rights and duties. But on the other hand, how these rights and duties are interpreted is not always in terms of the best interest of the child," says Dipankar Majumder- Director, CRY.

"In the last six decades, children have been part of nation building and have also faced the brunt of the development path taken. This gives scope for in-depth studies on how children form their identities? How are their childhoods experienced in a society where the role of family, community, economy and the state is ever-changing? The CRY research fellowships encourage original ideas, non conventional approaches and seek creative methodologies to explore this area. >From the insights and information that researchers will share, we hope to learn more about the interplay of culture, tradition, law, ethics and policy in defining the best interest principle," he explains.

a.. Eligibility: Potential fellows will be Indians residing in India, above the age of 18 years. There is no upper age limit. Preference will be given to applicants who have studied in government schools, where no fees are charged (Studies conducted and CRY's experience of working with over 2000 deprived communities in villages and urban slums shows that students attending government schools are primarily Dalits, tribals, girls and children from female headed and/or landless households.) Applicants are invited from Indians residing in India.

a.. Language: Proposals may be submitted in any Indian language.

a.. Time Frame for Completion of Research Project: From one month to one year.

Please send the proposal through email to research@crymail.org. All regional language proposals (with an English translation) may also be sent by post to CRY Documentation Centre, CRY-Child Rights and You, 189 A, Anand Estate, Sane Guruji Marg, Mumbai 400011.

Last Date for receipt of application: September 12, 2009. The names of researchers who are awarded the Fellowship 2009 will be announced on the CRY website latest by April 2010.

About CRY - Child Rights and You:

CRY - Child Rights and You is India's leading advocate for child rights. Over 30 years CRY has partnered with NGOs, communities, government, the media to help create a movement that addresses the root causes that deprive children of their rights

For more information please visit us at www.cry.org

Small Grants and Fellowships Available for Work on Toxicity, Waste and Pollution in India

2009-07-29T03:20:00.000-07:00

EEJP: Small Grants and Fellowships Available for Work on Toxicity, Waste and Pollution in India

Environmental Equity and Justice Partnership (EEJP) announces the launch of second phase of its grant program.

EEJP strives to catalyse grassroots initiatives, trigger new imagination and perspectives, encourage crossover linkages, and provide greater opportunities to connect to environmental thinking. This it seeks to accomplish through its two components -- Environmental Small Grants (for organisations) and Environmental
Fellowship (for individuals)

The focus of the current program is on cross cutting environmental issues around Toxicity, Waste and Pollution in India. Any activity that falls within the program focus and is strategic; action-oriented; builds public involvement and support; focuses on root causes of the issue; and most important, has a clear sustainability plan; is eligible for support under EEJP.

EEJP is currently inviting applications. For details on eligibility, application process, time line, and other important aspects under each of the components are available on EEJP website (www.eejp.org). The deadline for submitting Concept Note (in prescribed) format) is 31 July 2009. All program or process related queries may be addressed to: EEJP Coordinator at info@eejp.org

Vacancy at UNDP India

2009-07-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Vacancy Announcement No. UNDP/SC/2009/

Date of Issue: 10 July 2009

Date of Closing: 25 July 2009

I. Position Information

Post Title : State Project Officer (Disaster Risk Reduction)

Organization : UNDP

Band: : Seven

Supervisor : State Disaster Management Authority and/or Department of Disaster Management/Relief.

Duty Station : Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Pondicherry, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakand and West Bengal)

Type of Contract : Service Contract (Taxable)

Duration : One Year

II. Organizational Context

Since 2002 UNDP has been providing funding and implementation support to the Ministry of Home Affairs under the GoI-UNDP Disaster Risk Management Programme covering 176 multi-hazard prone districts in 17 states. The programme has come to an end in June 2009. Based on the lessons learnt, recommendations of the evaluations conducted, priorities identified in the Eleventh Five Year Plan, provisions of the National Disaster Management Act 2005, Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and UNDP's global mandate, a new Disaster Risk Reduction Programme has been formulated through a consultative process. This programme, expected to start in 2009, would focus on disaster risk reduction and has essentially four components:

§ Strengthened SDMAs and DDMAs to fulfill the responsibilities stipulated in the National DM Act (2005), especially with respect to DRM;

§ Methodologies and modalities developed for ensuring risk reduction through development programmes of all partners at national, state and community levels;

§ Urban risk reduction undertaken by addressing planning and development issues through suitable legislative and regulatory mechanisms; and

§ Recovery framework setup through which the people affected by disasters are able to access resources for rebuilding their lives and to revive their livelihoods.

There is a fifth cross-cutting component which relates to strengthening Knowledge and Information Sharing platform in disaster management.

Though the Government at the Centre and States are committed to follow a holistic approach leading to disaster risk reduction, there is a need for common understanding of the various dimensions of disaster risk reduction identified under the national programmes, capacity building measures encompassing systemic, individual and institutional capacity at various levels are critical for the success of these programmes. The new Disaster Risk Reduction Programme encompasses the following outcomes at the end of the programme period at the Centre, States and institutional levels:

· Human resource development for DRM

· Partnership Development

· Support to formulate Policies and Frameworks for DRM

· Enhanced support to build linkages with Development Programmes and Partners

· Build resilience of communities and households

· Promote Equity, Social Inclusion and Gender Empowerment

· Develop mechanisms for compliance

· Enhanced Support to learning and knowledge sharing

While the above programme will focus in select states, the Government of India through NDMA and MHA has initiated several programmes/schemes. In order to help the State Governments to carry forward the DRR agenda and to participate in the national initiatives, UNDP will be placing experienced DM professionals in select states.

For this purpose, it is proposed to recruit State Project Officers (Disaster Risk Reduction) in various selected States who would coordinate activities as per the duties and responsibilities listed below and will work under the supervision of the SDMA and/or Department of Disaster Management/Relief in close consultation with UNDP, Disaster Management Unit.

III. Functions / Key Results Expected

a.. Support SDMA in development of awareness campaign strategy for DRR and its implementation in the state.
b.. Facilitate SDMA in development of Human Resource Plan for implementation of the DRR initiatives as well for the training institutes/ resource institutes to undertake training at different levels based on DRR
c.. Provide technical support in preparation or updation of state disaster management plan to ensure that the issues of DRR have been addressed
d.. Facilitate the SDMA to initiating risk and vulnerability assessments and preparation of annual vulnerability and risk reduction reports.
e.. Support the SDMA in follow up with various line departments to ensure that DRR issues have been addressed in their development plans.
f.. Facilitate SDMA in preparation of Disaster Risk Reduction Projects in various sectors
g.. Facilitate SDMA in carrying out DRR Audit of the development plans prepared by line departments.
h.. Support the SDMA in developing a Recovery framework for the state
i.. Support the SDMA in Knowledge and information sharing platform in DRR
j.. Support SDMA in conceptualizing and formulating projects and programmes as a part of the national initiatives/schemes.
k.. Support SDMA in reporting progress and achievements in the field of DM to Government and donors as required
l.. Assist the UNDP DM Unit in overall physical and financial monitoring and evaluation through regular tracking of results and reporting

V. Recruitment Qualifications:

Education:

· Post-graduate Degree/Diploma in Management, Urban/Rural planning, Social Sciences, Disaster Management and/or relevant fields

Experience:

· At least 7-10 years experience in the development sector having relevance to disaster management

· Work experience in government/national and international agencies and civil society organization

· Candidates should be willing to be positioned in any state and to travel within India.

Knowledge and Skills:

a.. Good understanding of hazard and vulnerability of the state
b.. Knowledge of vulnerability reduction issues in the context of natural and human induced hazards, including cross cutting themes such as gender, inclusion, human rights, etc.
c.. Understanding of capacity building and institutional building issues
d.. Hand on experience in programme/project management and related tools.
e.. Proficiency in computers and web applications
f.. Excellent communication and writing skills including report writing

Language Requirements:

a.. Excellent command over written and spoken English language.

Elsevier Foundation libraries grant

2009-07-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Elsevier Foundation is inviting proposals under its 2009 Innovative Libraries in Developing Countries. The program provides support to libraries in developing countries for adding scientific, technical and medical information. The program supports projects such as digitization of the library information, knowledge preservation, training and education for librarians and researchers and long-term partnerships between developed and developing countries for technical assistance and training. Projects should preferably be innovative, have the potential to generate impact in the society and demonstrate sound sustainability. The Foundation provides grants up to US $5,000 – 50,000 for one-year projects as well as for multi-year projects. Proposals can be submitted by email, mail or fax. The last date for submitting the completed proposals is 9 August 2009. For more information, visit this link.
http://www.elsevierfoundation.org/guidelines.html

1 million dollar form Gets foundation for innovative learning

2009-07-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

The Access to Learning Award (ATLA) honors innovative organizations that are opening a world of online information to people in need. The foundation’s Global Libraries initiative invites applications from libraries and similar organizations outside the United States that have created new ways to offer these key services:

Free public access to computers and the Internet.

Public training to assist users in accessing online information that can help improve their lives.

Technology training for library staff.

Outreach to underserved communities.
The award recipient will receive $1 million.

The application period for the 2009 Access to Learning Award closed on October 31, 2008. Thank you to everyone who submitted an application. The award recipient and all other applicants will be notified of their status by July 2009 and we will publicly announce the award recipient in August 2009.

. For more information, visit this link.
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/atla/Pages/access-to-learning-award-how-to-apply.aspx