DEVELOPMENT DIGEST

VOL.3 1-31 March 2001 NO.12

The Ministry of Tourism, through its Remote Presence project, will offer tourists the view from the top of some of India's World Heritage Monuments. Under the project, the monuments, starting with the Qutab Minar, will be rigged up with wireless cameras. These cameras would send image from above to a computer monitor fitted in a kiosk at the base of the monument. Tourists can view these images. As well as manipulate cameras to get the view they desire. The menu offers the tourist the option of tilting the camera or zooming into a particular object of fancy, all accompanied by commentary on headphones. The project would also be implemented at the Taj Mahal, the Hammams at Red Fort and some parts of the Ajanta caves, apart from other World Heritage sites.

The Communication Minister and the Minister of State for External Affairs launched the Speed Post Passport Service. The service partnered by the Postal Department and the Foreign Office, aims at enlarging the avenues for distribution and collection of passport forms. The service will initially be a pilot project in select Speed Post offices in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and throughout Kerala and Karnataka. It will be extended throughout the country soon.

To closely monitor and map seismic activity in and around Delhi, the Indian Meteorological Department has, for the first time, decided to set up a "Digital Seismic telemetry Network" in the National Capital Region. The network comprises 16 telemetry field stations around the capital with a control room at the IMD Headquarters in Mausam Bhavan. Data from these field stations will reach the control room through satellite in near real time. Through this digital network, it will now be possible to analyse even small-magnitude tremors and their epicenters.

The Maharashtra Cabinet approved 'Women Policy 2001', which aims at the empowerment of five lakh women in the next five year, ensuring definite advantage to them in every government scheme and programme. The policy provided for reservation in every important institution on the lines of civic bodies, establishment of women's body in every village and self-help group. The policy made it mandatory for all government, semi-government, cooperative and educational bodies to prepare action plans for women empowerment. The Government would set up a women's fund from which micro-credits would be provided

to them. A number of self-employment or cooperative group employment schemes would also be worked out. The institutions,

(Ministry of Information and Broadcasting)

which have one-third women members, would get priority in getting government registration, recognition and grants. It would be mandatory for existing bodies to have at least three women member on their executives.

The Madhya Pradesh Government has achieved outstanding result in promoting girls' education. In the past four years, the number of school going girls has increased by 87 per cent in Madhya Pradesh. In 1995-96, there were 37.89 lakh school girls, whereas in 1999-2000, the number went up to 70.81 lakhs. Due to the special focus on education of the girl child, the literacy level for women has also gone up significantly in Madhya Pradesh. The National Sample Survey Organisation's assessment shows that the literacy rate among women has increased by 42 per cent between 1991 and 1997. The Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) of Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission provides facilities for primary education in the far-flung areas. In the reorganised Madhya Pradesh, there are over nine lakh children enrolled in over 22,000 community supported EGS schools. As many as 4.25 lakh girls are from the most disadvantaged sections of society studying in the EGS schools. This means that the enrollment of girls is 44 per cent of the total enrollment in EGS schools. Also there are 47 per cent women gurujis in EGS schools since it is mandatory to have one women guruji in all those schools where are two gurujis.

Visitors to the Red Fort can hire a Handy Audio Reach Kit (HARK) for details of nine spots including the famous Naubat Khana, Diwan-e-aam, Hamam, Diwan-e-khaas, Rang Mahal, Khas Mahal and Mumtaz Mahal relayed through infra-red and radio transmitters. The Red Fort is the

first tourist spot in Delhi to go hi-tech. The transmitters have been put at various spots around the monument. Infra-red transmitters have been used for spots which are inside while for attractions out in the open, radio transmitters have been used. The range of each transmitter is about 20-25 feet. The headphones have to be hired by the tourist. Built-in receivers on the headphones get activated as soon as they are within range. It allows one random access and does not restrict the visitor to any pre-planned route.

The cause of AIDS prevention got a major fillip with the launch of the country's first indigenously developed kit for the confirmatory Western Blot test for the virus causing the deadly disease. Developed by the Cancer Research Institute, Mumbai, under the Department of Biotechnology sponsored programme, the kit is expected to bring down the cost of testing for the HIV/AIDS virus and thus promote AIDS prevention, considering that identification of individual carriers of the disease is central to the public health strategies to control it. It is expected to cost Rs. 600 per kit. The imported kits that are now available cost between Rs. 1,200 to Rs. 1,500 per unit. Another salient feature of the kit is that it could be more effective, as it is based on the HIV virus strain that is common in India, unlike the imported kits, which are mainly based on virus strain prevalent elsewhere in the world.

A special dairy project is being launched in Madhya Pradesh to increase participation of women in the dairy sector and the activities of milk cooperatives. In the first phase of this project starting next month, Sehore, Dewas, Shajapur, Morena and Seoni districts will be covered. As many as 96 milk cooperative societies of women will be constituted with 4800 members and more than 10,000 milch animals will be provided under the self-finance and Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojagar Yojna. In its advanced

stage of implementation the project has been sanctioned Rs 3.30 crores to be executed by the Madhya Pradesh Dugdha Mahasangh. As a supplementary, financial assistance will be provided to rural women under the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh Yojana for which Rs 6.48 crores has been sanctioned. A Woman's Dairy Cooperative Leadership Programme is also being implemented in the State for empowerment of women in the dairy sector. Several other schemes are being implemented to train rural women in running dairy cooperatives.

The third demonstration wind energy project of north India and Rajasthan at Phalodi in Jodhpur district has begun generation, three weeks ahead of schedule. The project has eight wind energy generators of 350 KW each erected at a height of 60 metres. It has already fed 18,000 units of electricity to the Grid in the first three days. The commissioning of the plant would fetch additional revenue of Rs 5 lakh to the Corporation.

The Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) claims to have developed the first hybrid Basmati (aromatic) rice in the world. The varietal identification proposal for the release of this hybrid, known as RH-10, is being submitted for identification at the All-India Coordinated Rice project. . The institute had developed high-yielding varieties of cereals, pulses, vegetables, flowers and fruits which have been released for cultivation in various parts of the country. The HD-2733 wheat variety was for timely sown conditions of the North-Eastern Plains zone. This variety is resistant to brown and yellow rusts with a yield potential of 55 quintals per hectare. Another wheat variety (HW2044-Kurinji) was released for the Southern Hills zone for restricted irrigation and medium to high Fertility conditions. In rice, PNR-519, an early maturing, high-yielding and superior grain quality variety, has been released for coastal saline and irrigated areas. The variety is suited for rain-fed upland situation. The Pusa-44 rice variety possessing long slender grains released for Karnataka and Kerala yields 60 to 70 quintals per hectare and is considered suitable for mechanical harvest.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will launch a postgraduate certificate programme in "Participatory Management of Displacement Resettlement and Rehabilitation". The programme is a proactive initiative of the World Bank and IGNOU. Its objective is to build the skill of resettlement and rehabilitation officer, field staff, desk staff and technical experts in participatory methods of managing the concerns and issues of displacement and working for satisfactory resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced by development projects.

Vittal Mallya Scientific Research Foundation (VMSRF) has developed an anti-venom for snake bite from chicken eggs, and plans to make an immunodiagnostic kit for species identification of snake bite. It will be available by January 2002. The antidote is an indigenous technology, which give the country a safer solution to deadly snakebites. The immunodiagnostic kit is expected to be available for commercial production after its efficacy is validated independently at specific centres identified by department of Biotechnology. The development of therapeutic anti-venom for snake (AVS) and snake venom diagnostic kit is a DBT sponsored project.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International

AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), New York, to develop an India-specific HIV-AIDS vaccine. The National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) and the Indian Council for Medial Research (ICMR) had signed an agreement with IAVI in December 2,000 for developing a vaccine to counter the strain of HIV "subtype c" which is prevalent in India. This was important as most of the international efforts were targeted towards the development of "subtype b" vaccine, as it is common in the United States. The mission of the IAVI is to promote the development of safe and effective preventive HIV-AIDS vaccines accessible to all countries of the world.

The Delhi-Jaipur national highway is now fully four-laned and functional with the completion of the Rs 20-crore rail overbridge on the Delhi-Rewari line. The project was completed under the supervision of Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation and constructed by Malaysian consortium BSC-RBM-PATI. According to NHAI, travel time on the highway would be considerably reduced with the completion of the rail overbridge.

Good news for women. Finally, they may be in a position to work at night in factories, thanks to the government's bid to amend the laws concerned. The gift form the government is coming through the National Policy for Empowerment of Women which is likely to lay down an action plan for 'advancement, development and empowerment' of women. As per current laws, factory owner in night shift cannot deploy women even if the employee concerned was willing to do night duty. While granting them a choice to work night shifts, the government also plans to make sure that employers take adequate steps for their security and transportation.

The second phase of the Technology Development Mission is scheduled to commence from the financial year 2001-2002 with a budget

provision of Rs 8 crore. The programme is aimed at promoting research and development through a cohesive industry-academia interface. According to an assessment made of the first phase of the Technology Development Mission, held across the five IITs and the IISc between 1993-94 and 1996-97, TDM projects have by and large helped to bring IITs and IISc closer to the industry. There have been several trials of new technologies under the mission mode for upgradation under various heads like sugar technology mission, fly ash mission, advanced composites mission, and drugs and pharmaceuticals. Under the sugar technology mission, four new technologies including NIR technique for on-line assessment of sugar content and sugar house products and an Enterprise Resource Planning system for maintenance management and other control functions in a sugar mill have been replicated after successful trials.

NCERT textbooks will now be available online through the education portal of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. Other services available on the same portal include online submission of overseas scholarship applications, , an institution directory, a list of education experts, details of examination results including the CBSE, State Boards and university examinations. The combined website of the Department of Secondary Education and Higher Education and the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, www.education.nic.in is upgraded with exhaustive education information and transaction of various education services and adjudged as one of the best on the Internet by the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. The Information section of the portal has more than one lakh web pages containing details of educational schemes, a brief education profile of the States, education statistics, a directory of the HRD Ministry and of the autonomous bodies

with home page links. The learning segment includes multimedia interactive syllabus-based lessons at the elementary, secondary and technical levels, recommended educational websites and the Britannica search engine.

The Government is likely to set up a nodal agency on the lines of the Narcotics Bureau to fight prostitution. Children above six in brothels will be moved, if necessary by coercion, to institutional care in boarding homes, hostels, foster homes and residential schools. The Department of Women and Child Development, Human Resource Development Ministry, is now ready with a National Plan of Action (NPA) "to combat trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children". The plan will consider the establishment of a nodal agency to implement and oversee the exercise. Since trafficking in women and children usually takes place between one state and another, the NPA will tackle them by appointing trafficking police officers to enforce laws seeking prohibition of human trafficking. NGOs will be help to set up help-lines and help-booths is bus and railway stations identified as transit points. Since girl and women are also smuggled into India for neighboring countries, the NPA will help set up a South Asian convention to combat trafficking. A strict vigil will be maintained in the border areas. NGOs will be helped to run 'Short Stay Home' near border posts on identified trafficking routes to shelter, care and counsel women and children rescued from trafficking.

Andhra Pradesh become the first state in the country to have its own television channel, which will ride over KU Band-based satellite communication network. The state Chief Minster launched 'Mana Television, or 'Our Television'. This exclusive communication network will be used for distance education, tele-medicine and also for increasing awareness among the masses about various social and other programs of the state government. The programs to be telecast on this channel will also cover subjects like agricultural extension, marketing of agro products, cooperation, e-governance, self-help groups, human resource development.

The Indo-Tibetian Border Police (ITBP) scored another "first" by becoming the leader in the police system to acquire the quality certificate ISO 9002 for services provided. Director-General of ITBP, received the certificate from the Indian Register Quality System, one of the agencies assigned to audit the working of ITBP units.

India is among the top ten Asian countries in which to do business, according to a survey of 19 countries released. India received nine per cent approval while Singapore was the number one performer with 80 per cent of respondents ranking it "good" or "excellent" in terms of business, trade and investment, the poll of readers of Time Asia and Fortune Asia magazines found.