New Delhi, Oct 6 (PTI) Close on the heels of an NGO claiming to have found high levels of antibiotics in honey, the Government has said such practices are completely prohibited and that India follows stringent safety standards similar to the EU and the US.
"In the matter of admissibility of antibiotics in honey, safety standards in India are similar to those in European Union and the United States where they are completely prohibited," the Food Safety and Standards Authority clarified.
An NGO had recently claimed that branded honey available in Delhi may contain antibiotics beyond permissible limits.
The study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) claimed to have detected high levels of antibiotics in some leading brands of honey, including those manufactured by international firms, sold in Delhi warning they can have serious health effects.
The six antibiotics that the environmental NGO looked for were oxytetracycline, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, erythromycin, eurofloxacin and ciprofloxacin and it claimed that their long exposure leads to adverse health effects.
The FSSAI advisory also explained other standards like the colour of honey which should be between light to dark brown and chemical composition.
It further said the department of Agriculture and Cooperation has laid down standards of honey under the Grading and Marking Rules (AGMARK), which lays down the grades, designation of honey as Special, Grade A and Standard to indicate the quality of honey for the purpose of certification.
It specifies the method of packing, marking and labelling and conditions for grant of certificate for authorisation. The standards of AGMARK are voluntary.
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Asian activists aim to break Gaza blockade: Turkish NGO
Ankara, Oct 5 (AFP) Some 500 activists, including Indians, will take part in an aid convoy to Gaza in a bid to run Israel's embargo on the enclave, a Turkish charity that led an ill-fated campaign four months ago said today.The convoy will leave New Delhi by land on December 2 and plans to reach Gaza on December 27, on the 2nd anniversary of the start of Israel's deadly offensive against the territory controlled by the Islamist Hamas movement, the Foundation of Humanitarian Relief (IHH) said in a statement.It will pass through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Syria, from where it will try to reach the enclave by sea.The convoy will include activists from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Lebanon, the IHH said.The IHH, an Istanbul-based Islamist charity that operates in several conflict zones around the world, will host the Turkish leg of the trip.The IHH was one of the main organisers behind a flotilla of six ships that tried to break the Israeli embargo on Gaza in May and deliver tonnes of aid to the region.Nine Turkish activists were killed when Israeli forces stormed the ships, triggering international condemnation of the Jewish state and delivering a huge blow to Turkish-Israeli ties.
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Sherry spends on NGO ‘from her own pocket’
ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister Sherry Rehman says that she is paying Rs400,000 per month from her pocket to pay the salaries of staff and other expenditures of her newly launched think tank Jinnah Institute of Pakistan to bring it par with Nehru Centre New Delhi so as to play effective and honourable role in Pakistan-India peace process.
In response to a story carried in our sources on Tuesday that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had announced Rs50 million to her institute, Sherry said she was spending money from her pocket, as she even did not have a formal office to run the think tank.
She said her passion was to position Pakistan with respect and integrity in a clear match with international think tanks. Sherry said all the donors including the Norwegians have asked us to speak to Pakistan government for seed funding, and then we can take projects from there.
She pointed out that except USAID, no one else was bringing money to Pakistan for core funding anymore. Giving background of her initiative, Sherry said she started it in London before she joined politics from her own funds, to match Nehru Centre over there (which was totally funded by Indian government) and got all the debates on Kashmir and Afghanistan done there at the House of Lords, Commons and Royal institute.
But she registered think tank in Pakistan as well and now she herself was funding staff and everything for the last 3 months, only so that we could stand up with honour against New Delhi, even if its on peace programmes, Sherry said.
“I funded the flood stakeholder consultation at local hotel on the 16th September myself, so the conference on floods would be a proper professional report,” she said and added it would be out in few weeks.
Explaining aims and objectives of the institute, Sherry said Jinnah Institute is an independent policy research and public advocacy organization that seeks to promote broad-based, policy making, democratic institution-building and strengthening state capacity for delivery on policy goals and national and human security discourse with an emphasis on regional peace.
Jinnah Institute seeks to engage policy-makers, government, media organizations, civil society, state institutions and academia within Pakistan and abroad. Through this engagement, the Institute seeks to develop and advocate a discourse centred on the values of equitable democratic and social entitlements, pluralism, rule of law and transparent governance.
The work of this non-partisan institute is guided by a board of advisers that draws from leading names in academia, governance and politics. Offices of the Institute are located in Karachi and Islamabad. The Institute runs two major initiatives that are in the process of undertaking a variety of programmes and interventions.
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Australian "Red Dust" settles in India
The Australian NGO—Red Dust— vouching for the cause of marginalised children and youth has now accelerated its India action plan
Published on 10/06/2010 - 07:32:19 AM
New Delhi: The legendary Australian cricketer Allan Border has not moved to the commentary box as most of the cricketers do after retiring from their cricketing careers. On the contrary he has taken up a much noble cause of being a brand ambassador for the “Red Dust” the Australia-based NGO.
Red Dust works for the under-privileged, disadvantaged children by delivering health and education programmes. Though, the NGO has been working in India for the last three years, it has now accelerated its plan to spread its activities in India.
“The scale and level of requirement in India is immense,” stated John van Groningen, Managing Director of Red Dust in an informal chat with iGovernment. John, while elaborating the expansion plans in India said, “We will start with establishing Red Dust office here, appoint an Indian manager and other staff to manage and co-ordinate Red Dust’s programmes here.”
John indicated that Red Dust is also open to collaborating and working with local NGOs to expand its reach. “We are also contacting large corporate houses with strong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focus, whereby we are able to forge funding partnerships and the employees of those corporations contribute few weeks in a year working with us,” John added.
The NGO works to warn the youth about the dangers of drug, alcohol and other substance abuse, sets examples of healthy eating and good nutrition, encourages participation in physical exercise and sport by providing sports kits, and inculcates good hygiene practices.
Red Dust has taken tremendous advantage of having role models and brand ambassadors such as Allan Border and Anil Kumble.
We accomplish this concept of role modelling and mentoring through engaging local ‘heroes’ – music and sporting role models who are easily identified by Indian youth,” explained John.
“International brand ambassadors like Allan Border and Anil Kumble help in recruiting additional Indian role models, who deliver Red Dust’s health and education programmes to disadvantaged children,” John added.
Red Dust uses the mediums of sport and music to enrich children’s lives and bring greater opportunities. Red Dust is also planning to utilise its several years of experience and strong global partnerships with Vodafone Group Foundation, Nike, Qantas and Macquarie Group Foundation to pilot a series of Lifestyle Education Programs in targeted regions of India.
John added that role models like MS Dhoni, Tendulkar, Dravid, and Yuvraj Singh are very busy and cannot take out much time for us; therefore we target local heroes who have emerged after the IPL. Such an approach provides us a pan-India reach, facilitating expansion and wider reach of our efforts.
Allan Border, who enjoys working for Red Dust, still misses the cricket pitch and wishes to play the 20-20 format and says, “After the Kerry Packer episode, 50-50 changed the dimensions of the game and 20-20 has added flavour to it.”
Red Dust already has accomplished quite a lot in India. The NGO has been instrumental in rescuing nearly 100 children engaged in child labour. Red Dust also has run de-addiction programmes for the youth who were addicted to correction fluid and other drugs.
Besides, there are several programmes currently on in the country, and has its canvas ready to be painted by more success stories of happy and vibrant youth of the country.
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Aroon Purie's welcome address at Youth Summit
Welcome everyone to India Today's first ever Youth Summit, being held as the first decade of the 21st century ends. It's 35 years since the first India Today was published. The world and India have changed enormously since. Two-thirds of India is under 35 like most of you sitting in this hall. The numbers are huge. 459 million Indians are between 13 and 35. Of these, 333 million are literate. All of you will, through how you study, work and play, decide the shape of the new India.
It's a world very different from when I was a young man, or I would like to think just younger. Thirty five years ago, when I started India Today, it was a world of shortages and queues. It was a world of one TV channel and two cars. Of ration cards, not credit cards. Of fixed landline phones and immoveable expectations. Of foreign exchange restrictions abroad and red tape at home. Of big government and small corporates. Of Cold War and heated rhetoric. Of no opportunities and even less hope.
It was a time when we depended on the US PL 480 for food. Now we produce so much food we don't know where to store it. It was a time when we relied on America for financial aid. Now they come to our doorstep to sell us armaments and nuclear reactors.
Things have been transformed beyond recognition.
There is, ofcourse, the Internet and the mobile phone, Infosys and the Indian Idol, Tata Nano and the Tata owned Jaguar-Land Rover, Vijay Mallya and Abhinav Bindra and countless other symbols of changing India. As the government has retreated, private enterprise has grown. As the markets have expanded, the mindsets have changed.
What tomorrow will be is what you, the youth, make of it. By 2020, just a decade from now, the average Indian will be 29, compared to 37 in China and the US, 45 in western Europe and 48 in Japan. Or looked at another way.
By 2050, the percentage of people above the age of 65 will be 39 per cent in the U.S, 53 per cent in Germany and 67 per cent in Japan. India, by contrast will have only 19 per cent above age 60. Thankfully, people like me would be a minority.
This is not just an enormous market, but it also means many new citizens with emerging civic responsibilities, many new voters with changing political sensibilities, many new professionals with ideas they want to implement, and many many new parents with youngsters of their own.
But as much as the numbers are a windfall, they are also a challenge in terms of employment, employability and education. The crucial three Es. What sort of education will the emerging youngsters get? What sort of jobs will the educated youngster get, or indeed will they get jobs at all? Just think of this--100 million Indians, the combined labour forces of Britain, France, Italy, and Spain- are projected to be added to our workforce by 2020, which is an incredible 25 per cent of the global workforce.
Economists have pointed to a decrease in the rate of employment generation across both rural and urban areas which suggests that the advantages offered by a young labour force are not being fully exploited. Will India's youth overcome this by learning to experiment with entrepreneurship or by developing skills in emerging industries?
We are already the second largest reservoir of skilled labour in the world. We produce two million English-speaking graduates, 15,000 law graduates, 9,000 PhDs, and the existing pool of over two million engineering graduates increases by nearly 300,000 a year. These are terrific numbers but quality is yet to triumph over quantity.
Most importantly, what sort of society will you, the youth, want to build? The general election last year highlighted the potential of the 200 million strong youngsters between 18 and 35, with many voting for the first time since 1989 when legislation lowered the voting age to 18.
What sort of nation will you ensure? Will you retain its hard-won pluralist character? Will our politics go beyond issues like Ayodhya? Will you be able to dream with imagination and do with innovation? Will you be able to lead and not follow blindly?
That is the biggest battle of all. Not so much of jobs and education. But the battle of minds. What sort of minds will lead us into the future? What sort of worldview will you have? Will it be a worldview that can encompass the aspirations of the youngsters of Jammu and Kashmir and the hopes of the tribals of Chhatisgarh? Will it reconcile the ambitions of a globalised youth in the have-it-all metropolises and the have-nothing villages?
This generation has the ability to, as our inaugural speaker Nandan Nilekani has said, embrace risk in a fearful world. But will it?
So much has altered. With the collapse of the old order, old business families have vanished, dynamic new entrepreneurs emerged, professionals have become millionaires, managerial salaries are very respectable and every day new industries and services are cropping up. India today is a land of great opportunity. And the world is your oyster.
You can be whatever you want to be. From an aeronautical engineer to someone working for an NGO, from a professional video gamer to a politician, from a coffee taster to a glass blower.
There is no one formula for success. It's evident in our speakers today who will tell us about their Mantras of Success. Our inaugural speaker, Nandan Nilekani, is an accidental entrepreneur who is now a technocrat grappling with the question of India's identity, another, Sourav Ganguly, is a cricketer who crafted a world beating team out of a band of unheralded, small town youngsters; one, Katrina Kaif, is an actor who came from abroad with little Hindi but lots of determination to make it to the top of the game in Bollywood, and yet another, Viswanathan Anand, who is a World Champion in one of the world's most competitive games.
We are all privileged that we will be listening to them today.
As for my mantra for success, I believe, there is no substitute for hardwork and hardwork never killed anybody. Plus be passionate about what you do and believe in yourself. And pray that you are in the right place at the right time and, most important, you know it.
As someone once said, we cannot always build a future for the youth but we can build the Youth for the Future. For us, the first ever youth summit will be a learning experience, just as our soon-to-be-10-year-old India Today Conclave has been and the two-year-old India Today Woman Summit have been.
This is our attempt to train our ears to listen to your voices. Just as we hope you will listen to the array of stars we have gathered here for you today, the best in politics, in business, in sports and in entertainment. They are our leaders today. We hope you will be theirs, and ours, tomorrow.
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US NGO pushes for Eli Lilly’s second patent for cancer drug
NEW DELHI: A Washington-based NGO has appealed a US court to reverse its order rejecting Eli Lilly’s second patent for its blockbuster cancer drug Gemzar , that could delay the launch of Sun Pharma’s generic version in the world’s largest pharma market.
India’s largest drugmaker by market value has got the US drug regulator’s tentative approval and is waiting for the final nod to sell its low-cost version once Gemzar’s patent expires. Eli Lilly had unsuccessfully sued Sun Pharma for patent infringement after the Indian firm planned to sell its generic version of the medicine in the US.
“Eli Lilly has been limited to one patent for two inventions solely because it described the second invention in the first patent family,” said Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) in its petition filed on September 8 at the US court of appeals.
A Sun Pharma spokeswoman said the company does not comment on patent litigation. WLF executives could not be reached for comments.
In July, the US court of appeals upheld a lower court’s order that had turned down Eli Lilly’s second patent claim for the cancer drug Gemcitabine sold under the brand Gemzar till 2013. The original patent expires in November this year and Eli Lilly had sought to extend its exclusivity to sell its product.
Gemzar raked in $1.36 billion and accounted for 6% of Eli Lilly’s annual sales last fiscal, as per the US drugmakers annual report.
Sapna Jhawar, an analyst with Sharekhan said Sun Pharma can launch its products only six months after the patent expiry as Israel’s Teva has the marketing exclusivity for 180 days from November 16 as it was the first to challenge Gemzar’s patent. “Since there are only a few generic companies that plan to sell the medicine in US, it is an important drug for Sun. But there is still some time and the company would wait and watch Teva’s course of action,” she said.
The US-based NGO has argued that Eli Lilly’s second patent is still valid if the invention claimed is patentably distinct from that in the first patent and asked the court to rehear the dispute by a larger bench.
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Coming soon: New accounting norms for NGOs
NEW DELHI: The government is set to frame new accounting norms for non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as it looks to remove the veil over the flow and utilisation of funds by the sector that is not entirely above suspicion. The ministry of corporate affairs is working on a more structured financial reporting format for the civil society organisations. It recently asked the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the accounting regulator, to overhaul the accounting and disclosure norms for NGOs.
The NGOs, which have for long been shrouded in suspicion due to money laundering, terror funding and corporate corruption, have suddenly caught attention of the government, partly due to the allegations of corruption in the Indian Premier League. And more recently due to allegations of funds mishandling by the the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.
“Unlike companies, NGOs do not follow a structured format for financial reporting, due to which it gets difficult to track their flow of funds,” said a ministry official. The proposed format will ensure that grants pouring in from within and outside the country are properly accounted for, said the official, requesting anonymity.
The format will focus on aspects like utilisation of grants and contributions received by NGOs and strict compliance with provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). A group, which has been constituted to debate and recommend suggestions to ensure better governance of NGOs, will look to enhance transparency over related party disclosures, cash flow and reporting of an NGOs interest in joint ventures as well as of their investments, said an official in the ICAI.
ICAI president Amarjit Chopra says: “There is a need for improvement in matters of accounting and utilisation of funds by NGOs.” He added, a group has already been formed to recommend changes.
While experts have welcomed the move on framing new norms for NGOs, they feel the government should stress on governance for such bodies. “From the point of the government, it will help them to understand the money flow of the organisations, their assets and liability. “Of late, NGO have been floated to divert money and avoid taxes,” said Resmi Bhaskaran, fellow at New Delhi-based think tank Institute of Human Development.
The government will simultaneously empower the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to audit NGOs through the proposed amendments to its governing law, presently being considered by the finance ministry. The government is particularly concerned about the financial reporting standards of organisations that are receiving funds from abroad. “A standard format on financial reporting for NGOs will ensure greater comparability between firms, as currently there is no clear standard or benchmark in the way these firms report on aspects governing grants received by them,” another expert on role of NGO s in the micro-financing domain said.
“The need of the hour is to know the way any charity or donation is used by a NGO.The accounting system should ensure maintaining a continuous review of the receipt and payment related with the specific project for which any grants are remitted,” said Santanu Mishra, executive trustee, Smile Foundation , a New Delhi based NGO, adding that the current system of accounting transactions on grants or donation received by a NGO need to be elaborated.
The new format is likely to draw heavily from the way societies registered under Societies Registration Act report their finances. Following the controversy regarding financial reporting of Indian Premier League, the ministry of corporate affairs is considering legislative steps to bring organisations such as the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) under greater regulatory vigil. BCCI is registered and governed by the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act.
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High court dismisses PIL against Shah Rukh Khan’s bungalow revamp
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging that actor Shah Rukh Khan had violated several Development Control (DC) rules while renovating his bungalow, Mannat, and for constructing a building. One of the petitioners, Manav Joshi, who was also former
president of the NGO Brashtachar Nirmoolan, was removed from the NGO following corruption charges.
“A corrupt man cannot come to court and say that so and so is corrupt,” remarked Justice Ranjana Desai, while dismissing the PIL filed by Brashtachar Nirmoolan and Joshi against Khan. The corruption charges against Joshi came to light after the high court had imposed a cost of Rs 40 lakh on him in January for filing a frivolous PIL seeking demolition of a building at Peddar Road.
Shakuntala Joshi, advocate for Brashtachar Nirmoolan, argued that they had dismissed Joshi from the post of president in last November. But, they approached the high court seeking deletion of his name from the PIL only in July as they had first approached the Charity Commissioner.
The PIL, filed by Brashtachar Nirmoolan in April 2007, also alleged that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had favoured Khan by permitting him constructions that violated the law.
A division bench of Justice Desai and Justice RV More was hearing two different petitions against Khan’s bungalow. The other PIL by activist Simpreet Singh and Amit Maru will be heard after three weeks. They have alleged mass violations by Khan for bringing up a seven-storied building behind his heritage bungalow, on the space, which was earlier, reserved for an art gallery.
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Encroachments thrive on corruption, lack of pol will
MUMBAI: There are 22,335 illegal structures in the Vasai-Virar belt and another 13,916 in Mira Road-Bhayander . Since 2005, only 1,250 encroachments have been demolished—corruption and lack of political will, say activists, are to blame.
After the NGO Harit Vasai Saurakshan Samiti filed a petition against illegal constructions nearly five years ago, local government bodies in the Vasai-Virar and Mira Road-Bhayander belts began to issue show-cause notices to illegal structures. Encroachers made a beeline for tehsildar offices and civic wards, paying huge amounts in bribes to ensure that their structures were at the bottom of the 'demolition list' , thus buying time to obtain a stay from the lower courts.
Encroachers managed to obtain over 2,000 stay orders against demolitions . Though the government informed the HC that it will begin razing residential illegal structures this month, officials and activists remain sceptical.
According to sources, political pressure to stall demolitions will not abate. "Almost every encroacher who has been issued a showcause notice is armed with a letter from a politician to stall the demolition ," said a senior civic official of the Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC).
In April, portions of a five-storey tower at Nityanand Nagar, Mira Road was demolished by MBMC. Three months later, construction work on the residential building continues in full swing. In July, the Vasai tehsildar K Badane was transferred after he issued notices to 13,944 illegal structures on government land. He had drawn up a demolition chart that was to be completed by December 2010. The work in the Vasai region is still to take off.
MBMC blames the delay on the lack of police bandobast. "We have been undertaking demolition of ground plus one commercial structures without police protection," said a senior civic official.
Even as they are being accused of corruption, civic officials say it's the local police who are accepting bribes. "In the case of massive demolition drive, civic workers refuse to raze structures without police protection," said the civic official. Sources told TOI that the demolition work is unlikely to begin in either of these belts before Dassera.
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Want to get even with the auto driver who fleeced you?
Bangalore: Had a tough time dealing with the auto driver? Here's an NGO that you could turn to. Kiirti, which works for greater transparency in matters that affect the general public, has been at the forefront of an initiative to make city autorickshaw drivers observe the rules.
Even transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao has now taken note of complaints, and written to the joint commissioner in the department, RV D'Souza, to seize at least five autos in each regional transport office in the city. This is expected to instill fear in the minds of errant drivers and inspire the confidence of commuters.
"I have got orders from the commissioner, and I will look at the complaints. We will then take action under the motor vehicles' rules. We will also make public the action we take, in an attempt to deter culprits," D'Souza said.
Sudha Nair, community manager, Kiirti, said, "Our intention is to solve the commuter's problem on the spot. This step from the transport department will spread fear among the drivers who make it a habit to cheat commuters. Once the joint commissioner looks through the complaints, I will contact the complainants. When action is taken, the matter will be posted on Kiirti's web portal."
Several complaints of meters being tampered with are received. With the revised charges, the newly recalibrated meters have raised suspicion.
Commuters pick up quarrels, but find that they are ill-equipped to offer a logical reason for why they think the fare is exorbitant. Auto drivers staunchly protest their innocence. When told that a complaint could be lodged against them, they appear unfazed.
"In August, my wife took an auto from Wilson Garden to Indiranagar, where we live, and the fare came to Rs98. I knew that was way too much, and told the auto driver so in no uncertain terms. He just told me to go off and lodge a complaint with the traffic commissioner, and added that he had no reason to be afraid of anyone," said MB Venkatesh, a senior citizen who registered a complaint through Kiirti.
Joint commissioner in the transport department, RV D'Souza has now offered an assurance that all action taken against errant auto drivers will be publicised. He added that such a measure was necessary, so that commuters have faith in the system.
"The licence granted to these auto drivers will either be cancelled or suspended, depending on the nature of the offence. We will also take action against those using faulty meters," D'Souza said.
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Equation-An auction for Equality: Rahul Bose’s NGO
Mumbai, Oct 5, 2010 (Calcutta Tube) Do you fancy owning Sachin Tendulkar‘s bat or Abhinav Bindra’s rifle? All you have to do is participate in an auction for which 26 prominent sportspersons have donated memorabilia that define iconic moments in their careers to raise funds for Bollywood actor Rahul Bose’s NGO.
At ‘Equation – An auction for Equality‘, one can bid for, amongst others, Vishwanathan Anand’s world championship gold medal, the bat with which Sachin Tendulkar hit his fourth highest one-day score, the rifle with which Abhinav Bindra claimed the world championship, tennis shoes signed by Roger Federer and the racquet with which Mahesh Bhupathi’s claimed the Australian Open Grand Slam title.
These and other items will be auctioned Oct 29 and the proceeds will be used to support the causes of Bose’s NGO The Foundation.
The list of doners also boasts of impressive names like cricketers Saurav Ganguly, Sunil Gavaskar, Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Virendra Sehwag; tennis icons Leander Paes and Sania Mirza and shuttlers Prakash Padukone and Saina Nehwal.
Footballer Baichung Bhutia, cueists Geet Sethi and Pankaj Advani, as also international sportspersons like Shane Warne and Maria Sharapova have also donated for the auction.
Bindra, who is giving away his most prized possession, said: ‘I have been very attached to this rifle because it is with this I made my breakthrough at the highest level. It’s a system which has several technological advancements done specifically for me, including a hand-made calibrated trigger mechanism.’
‘I won approximately 25 international medals during the six years I shot with this system. I must admit it is a little wrenching to give this away, but also extremely satisfying,’ he added.
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Help at hand to come out of addiction
BANGALORE: Get out of addiction. Step in to get rehabilitated for life, without any withdrawal symptoms. A day-long awareness camp on `de-addiction without withdrawal symptoms __ a life transforming experience' will be held between 11 am and 1 pm on Saturday, at CMR Institute of Management studies, Banaswadi.
Jointly organized by the Times Foundation and Aashwasan, an NGO, the camp will focus mainly on use of spiritual science services to address the root cause of addiction and also to treat the ill-effects. Call 9731301014/17 or visit http://www.aashwasan.org. Registration charges Rs 100 per person.
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NGO donates 5,000 seedlings to schools at Chiraa
Chiraa (B/A), Oct. 6, GNA - Treepals Ghana and Trees for The Future, two indigenous non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have donated 5,000 seedlings each to eight schools at Chiraa in the Brong Ahafo Region to enable them raise tree nurseries. The donation was made at a workshop which attracted about 328 pupils and 16 teachers. The participating schools were from Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Junior High School, SDA Primary 'A' and 'B', Chiraa Methodist and Presby Junior High School (JHS), God's Grace Education Complex, Catholic Primary, Rhema School and Chiraa Senior High School. Mr George Ansah, Co-ordinator of Treepals Ghana said the workshop was aimed to educate the participants about the importance of tree planting, agro-forestry and school gardening to enhance food security and environmental conversation.
He said his NGO hopes to enhance the practical and theoretical knowledge of the children in basic school and students in senior high schools in nursery establishment, transplanting skills and environmental friendly school gardening practices. Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) Volunteers in Ghana, Miss Naomi Ishida and Shoko Mori launched a tree planting and school gardening initiative with schools in Chiraa for the planting of 100 seedlings in each academic facility with support from Treepals Ghana. Lovans Owusu Takyi, Director of Trees for The Future in Ghana, stressed on the importance of school gardening and tree planting in enhancing agriculture and environmental education in schools. He said planting multi-purpose fast growing trees serve as wind-breaks, reduce noise, beautify the environment and facilitate teaching and learning. Mr Takyi called for reintroduction of agricultural and environment studies in basic and senior high schools since it encourage the youth to choose agriculture as their career. Mr Akoto Yeboah, Head teacher of SDA JHS expressed appreciation to Treepals Ghana, JICA volunteers for their support. 6 Oct. 10
source from:news.google.com
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