Wi-fi scare in times of terror

As is now well-known, the threat e-mail sent by the Indian Mujahideen, minutes before the Ahmedabad bombings went off, was done by breaking into the wi-fi network of a US national Kenneth Haywood , residing at a Navi Mumbai apartment.

 Someone with a laptop, accessed Haywood's wi-fi, sent the e-mail and left the premises.

With wi-fi, a person need not visit a cybercafe to send an e-mail. If suppose the Vidhan Soudha or M G Road area in Bangalore were made wi-fi, it takes anyone just minutes to access the net and dash a mail. It would be the same if it is in the vicinity of corporate offices, wi-fi enabled airports, hotels, etc.

Last weekend's sending of the e-mail is an indication of the ease with which technology can be misused. Right now, the Bengaluru International Airport is the only public place in the IT hub which is wi-fi enabled.

Now comes the question of access-control to these facilities as well as how secure these technologies are.

Before wi-fi was introduced in India, the Intelligence Bureau was learnt to have demanded that there be adequate access control mechanisms so that people accessing or owning it could be identified. However, this proposal was rejected as the Government did not want to come in the way of introduction of new technologies.
At present, there is no uniform system of control over wi-fi access.  Following the concerns expressed by the IB, the Home Ministry is understood to be examining a proposal to ask authorities to ensure that wi-fi systems can be logged on only after keying in a user name and password. With this, say authorities, every user of a particular wi-fi can be tracked down.

Wi-fi scare in times of terror

As is now well-known, the threat e-mail sent by the Indian Mujahideen, minutes before the Ahmedabad bombings went off, was done by breaking into the wi-fi network of a US national Kenneth Haywood , residing at a Navi Mumbai apartment.

 Someone with a laptop, accessed Haywood's wi-fi, sent the e-mail and left the premises.

With wi-fi, a person need not visit a cybercafe to send an e-mail. If suppose the Vidhan Soudha or M G Road area in Bangalore were made wi-fi, it takes anyone just minutes to access the net and dash a mail. It would be the same if it is in the vicinity of corporate offices, wi-fi enabled airports, hotels, etc.

Last weekend's sending of the e-mail is an indication of the ease with which technology can be misused. Right now, the Bengaluru International Airport is the only public place in the IT hub which is wi-fi enabled.

Now comes the question of access-control to these facilities as well as how secure these technologies are.

Before wi-fi was introduced in India, the Intelligence Bureau was learnt to have demanded that there be adequate access control mechanisms so that people accessing or owning it could be identified. However, this proposal was rejected as the Government did not want to come in the way of introduction of new technologies.
At present, there is no uniform system of control over wi-fi access.  Following the concerns expressed by the IB, the Home Ministry is understood to be examining a proposal to ask authorities to ensure that wi-fi systems can be logged on only after keying in a user name and password. With this, say authorities, every user of a particular wi-fi can be tracked down.

Wi-fi scare in times of terror

As is now well-known, the threat e-mail sent by the Indian Mujahideen, minutes before the Ahmedabad bombings went off, was done by breaking into the wi-fi network of a US national Kenneth Haywood , residing at a Navi Mumbai apartment.

 Someone with a laptop, accessed Haywood's wi-fi, sent the e-mail and left the premises.

With wi-fi, a person need not visit a cybercafe to send an e-mail. If suppose the Vidhan Soudha or M G Road area in Bangalore were made wi-fi, it takes anyone just minutes to access the net and dash a mail. It would be the same if it is in the vicinity of corporate offices, wi-fi enabled airports, hotels, etc.

Last weekend's sending of the e-mail is an indication of the ease with which technology can be misused. Right now, the Bengaluru International Airport is the only public place in the IT hub which is wi-fi enabled.

Now comes the question of access-control to these facilities as well as how secure these technologies are.

Before wi-fi was introduced in India, the Intelligence Bureau was learnt to have demanded that there be adequate access control mechanisms so that people accessing or owning it could be identified. However, this proposal was rejected as the Government did not want to come in the way of introduction of new technologies.
At present, there is no uniform system of control over wi-fi access.  Following the concerns expressed by the IB, the Home Ministry is understood to be examining a proposal to ask authorities to ensure that wi-fi systems can be logged on only after keying in a user name and password. With this, say authorities, every user of a particular wi-fi can be tracked down.

Reliance PF barb at govt

New Delhi, July 30: The CPM today accused the Centre of favouring Anil Ambani's Reliance Capital by allowing it to handle the employees' provident fund, saying the UPA was meeting the "cost" of the support for the trust vote.

"The reported late selection of Reliance Capital as one of the fund managers is an indication of the cost of support to this tainted government," the CPM politburo said.

"By this decision, around 2,40,000 crore rupees in the corpus fund and another 30,000 crore rupees of the annual incremental fund will be literally gifted to the corporates."

The government had yesterday announced that Reliance Capital, ICICI Prudential and HSBC would be allowed to manage the Rs 2.5 lakh crore provident fund corpus, breaking the monopoly of the State Bank of India.

The leadership of the Samajwadi Party, with whose support the UPA cleared the floor test, is close to Anil Ambani.

"While the companies can make profits, there is no guarantee of minimum returns to the workers. Thus the savings of workers over years of hard work can be wiped out through speculation," the CPM said.

The Congress hit back, saying the government had taken "a calculated risk in the interests of the country".

"What has happened is greater injection of flexibility to get higher returns. The Congress always stands for and looks for and seeks better and greater returns," it said.

JEE fails to get the best: IIT dons

Comments: PL see the contradictions:

1. People will start coaching class for that top 1 % also
2. If they want raw intelligence, then must:
• change to direct admission by abolishing JEE.
• cut off marks shall not be higher than passing marks of eligibility exam
• admission on basis of first come first served basis, residence area basis[ like Delhi nursery], lottery

JEE fails to get the best: IIT dons

CHENNAI: Is one of the country's toughest tests, the Joint Entrance Exam for IITs, failing to sift the brightest minds for admission to India's premier engineering institutes? Now, voices from inside the IITs are beginning to question the JEE format. The director and the dean of IIT-Madras have called for radical changes in the JEE, saying that the coaching institutes were enabling many among the less-than-best students to crack the test and keeping girls from qualifying.

"I am looking for students with raw intelligence and not those with a mind prepared by coaching class tutors. The coaching classes only help students in mastering (question paper) pattern recognizing skills. With this, you cannot get students with raw intelligence," said IIT-Madras director, M S Ananth.

Virtually opening what could be a heated debate on the current JEE format, Ananth wanted the system to lay more stress on students' performance in school. "You may not be able to do away with the JEE but I am wondering if we should be conducting an examination for 3,00,00 aspirants and selecting just 5,000. Instead, we must evolve a system where only the top 1% of students from different state boards and CBSE are permitted to appear for the JEE," he said.

Professor V G Idichandy, dean (students), IIT Madras, was more vocal, demanding that JEE be abolished. "One of the reasons for the poor intake of girls in the flagship BTech programme is that parents don't send daughters for coaching classes. The best way to increase the intake of girls is to have direct admissions," he said.

Both Ananth and Idichandy expressed concern that the present system did not allow for the 12 years of schooling to have a bearing on admissions into IITs. "The overall capability of a student cannot be merely assessed by their performance in physics, mathematics and chemistry. The student must have good communication skills also," Idichandy said.

'Need to revamp JEE'

IIT-Madras director, M S Ananth said, by attending the IIT coaching classes, students were learning a wrong lesson that the ends justify the means. "They (students) think there is nothing wrong in missing school to attend coaching. But the student does not realize his real loss."

Ananth recalled that three years ago, a JEE review committee had suggested a cut-off of 85% marks in the Class XII board exam for students to be eligible for the JEE. "But the CBSE and other boards turned it down and wanted to have 60% as the cut-off. Now, that's an easy score to get," he said.

While acknowledging that the JEE has led to proliferation of coaching classes and has put students under stress, IIT-Bombay director, Ashok Misra, was more cautious on bringing in wholesale changes. "If we can develop another system that is not overhyped, I am for it. But doing away with the JEE does not seem appropriate at present. We have been constantly working on tweaking the JEE as per the students' needs and also to cut down on pressure," he said. Evidently, we haven't heard the last word on this issue.

(With inputs from Hemali Chhapia in Mumbai)

Private cos to manage EPF

Private cos to manage EPF
DH News Service, New Delhi:
Brushing aside opposition from Leftist trade unions, the Centre on Tuesday decided to bring in three private players Reliance Cap, ICICI Prudential and HSBC to manage employees provident fund totalling about Rs 2.5 lakh crore.
“The Central Board of Trustees have decided to allow Reliance Capital, ICICI Prudential, HSBC along with the state-owned State Bank of India to manage provident fund of employees,” Labour Secretary Sudha Pillai said after a meeting of the trustees here. The meeting was chaired by Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes. Referring to the issue of allocation of fund, Pillai said the corpus fund would be proportionately allocated to the four fund managers and that would be decided in the next meeting. The entry of private players might help EPFO to offer high interest rate to its four crore subscribers as against the present rate of 8.5 per cent. However, a member of the Board of Trustees, who is also a leader of the CPI-affiliated All India Trade Union Congress told Deccan Herald that initially the name of Anil Ambani-headed Reliance Cap was not in the shortlist and it was added later. “We were astonished when the name of Reliance Cap was announced at the fag end of the meeting and despite our protests the names were approved through majority vote in a hurried manner,” he said. The labour leader also said that Leftist trade unions would meet on Wednesday to finalise their strategy to oppose this decision and they would also include this issue in the general strike on August 20.

 

Study reveals smoking raises spouse's stroke risk

Marriage To Smokers Ups Danger By 42% In Non-Smokers

 

Washington: Non-smokers married to smokers have a greatly increased chance of having strokes, according to a US study published on Tuesday showing yet another hazard from secondhand smoke.
   Being married to a smoker raised the stroke risk by 42% in people who have never smoked compared to those married to someone who never smoked, the researchers said.
   This jumped to 72% for former smokers married to a current smoker, according to the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
   Former smokers who were married to smokers had a stroke risk similar to people who themselves were smokers.
   “Quitting smoking helps your own health and also the health of the people living with you,” Maria Glymour of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and Columbia University in New York, who led the study, said in a telephonic interview. The study involved 16,225 people aged 50 and up who had never had a stroke. They were followed for an average of nine years.
   Glymour said there is accumulating evidence about the number of health problems linked to secondhand smoke. Previous research had suggested that secondhand smoke increases the risk of stroke, but Glymour said stroke risk has been studied more extensively in smokers than in people exposed to secondhand smoke.
   People who breathe in secondhand smoke also have a higher risk of lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory tract infections and heart disease, among other conditions.
   A 2006 US surgeon general’s report said secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or cancer-causing. These include formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.
   For this study, smoking involved cigarettes and not pipes or cigars. It looked at health consequences for the spouses of smokers, but not at the long-term stroke risk in children of smokers due to secondhand smoke. “We know that there are a lot of undesirable health consequences for kids, especially asthma and breathing problems that are exacerbated by secondhand smoke,” Glymour said.
   The advice by Glymour was echoed by the Stroke Association, which said that passive smokers were nearly twice as likely to have a stroke compared with those not living in a smoky environment.
   Joe Korner, from the association, said: “Smoking is a significant risk factor for stroke with a quarter of all strokes being linked to smoking and it can also contribute to high blood pressure which is the single biggest risk factor for stroke.” AGENCIES

 

Americans overeat as the world fights hunger

Washington: After having dinner at Clyde’s in Washington’s trendy Chinatown, a young boy sluggishly gets up to follow his family to the exit. His waitress jokes, “You’re stuffed, huh?”
   The boy lets out a grunt, saying, “Yeah, I’m full. I feel like I’m going to burst,” as he ambles to the door.
   Such is the response of many customers who venture into the popular restaurant. One waitress said, “It depends on the dish, but I’ve never gotten a complaint that it’s too little.”
   But with soaring food prices sparking protests in many countries and more than 800 million people going hungry every day, US food portions are under scrutiny.
   A lightening of the American plate could ease pressure on worldwide demand, but not everyone is hopeful change will be coming any time soon.
   With a bombardment of food ads, many aimed at children, Americans are tempted with an array of food choices. One fast-food chain calls its massive burger a “monument to decadence” while the Wendy’s chain calls its “Baconator” a “mountain of mouth-watering taste.”
   Portion sizes in the US not only exceed those in less-developed countries, but also in the developed world.
   In fact, Americans have the highest per capita daily consumption in the world, eating 3,770 calories a day, more than a Canadian at 3,590 calories or an Indian at 2,440,according to data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization.
   In the US food prices are expected to rise 4.5% to 5.5% this year, which would be the highest increase since 1990.
   Americans are putting more thought into food buying. High food prices coupled with a slowing economy have led 71% of Americans to eat out less and 48 percent are buying fewer groceries, according to the Food Marketing Institute.
   Restaurants are also being hit hard by the rise in food prices.
   But restaurants are not making big reductions in portions, making only small moves like not automatically refilling bread baskets or introducing calorie counter options.
   But large portion sizes are unlikely to fade away since the actual farm value of food is low for restaurants compared to other costs, such as labor, advertising and transportation.
AGENCIES

 

Prez Bush okays soldier's execution

Washington: President George W Bush approved the execution of an army private, administration officials said. It was the first time in more than half a century that a President has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the US military.
   With his signature from the Oval office, Bush said yes to the military’s request to execute Ronald A Gray, said the officials on Monday, who revealed his decision on grounds of anonymity. Gray had had been convicted for a spree of four murders and eight rapes during an eight-month period in the late 1980s in the area near his post, Fort Bragg, north Carolina. Unlike in civilian courts, a member of the US armed forces cannot be executed until the President approves the death sentence.
   Gray has been on death row at the US disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since April 1988.
   Members of the US military have been executed throughout history, but just 10 have been executed by presidential approval since 1951 when the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military’s modern-day legal system, was enacted into law. President Dwight D Eisenhower was the last previous President to approve a military execution. AGENCIES

 

Politics in last fortnight led to EPF decision: BJP

Globalization means level playing field for all players. Then Why govt does not allow PSU AMC to get share of EPF fund management?

Politics in last fortnight led to EPF decision: BJP New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) Joining the Left parties in the criticism of the EPFO board decision, the BJP today said that the 'politics' in the last fortnight at the Centre is responsible for the inclusion of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital as one of the managers of Employees Provident Fund. "The politics of the last 15 days is responsible for the decision. The cost of political expediency is being paid off," party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told nonpersons here. The government must come clean on the issue and should explain the choice of private players and also explain if it is the beginning of the handing over of the hard earned money to the equity market, he added. "Why did they do all this in such a hurry. How did they select the private players. What wrong did they find in the management of the worker's money with the State Bank. The government needs to answer," Javadekar said. The monopoly of state-owned SBI in managing provident fund totalling about Rs 2.5 lakh crore had ended with government yesterday allowing three private players -- ICICI, HSBC and Reliance Capital -- piece of the cake. PTI

 

Job hopping impedes career, warns a study

New Delhi, July 30: Higher pay and better employment prospects may be utmost for a person switching companies, but job-hopping can severely hamper career growth as well as wealth creation in long-term, says a new survey.

The experts believe that sticking to the same company for more time, rather than aimlessly hopping jobs, can provide better learning and career momentum to young professionals.

Findings of a latest study by research and analytic firm Evalueserve reveal that the multiple career steps within the same company accelerate a professional's growth more than many horizontal moves across companies.

Hopping jobs every 24 months can severely damage the long-term career momentum and even wealth creation, it said.

Salary is higher at the time of switching to a new firm, but thereafter the person hardly gets any value addition, management institute IMI's director C S Venkat Ratnam said.

"A young professional should be choosy with his first job and see all angles before joining a firm so that he can stay put for at least two years at the same place, which would give him a sound base," he added.

"Job hopping is largely done in two circumstances, primarily for career progression and secondly for compensation. In the first instance, the candidate comes across as a responsible, forthright and result-oriented," a senior official at global HR services firm Manpower said.

"However, in the latter case, it comes across as professionally immature, myopic and highly selfish. This is considered as the biggest negative factor," he added.

According to Evalueserve study, fast job changes are mostly made for wrong reasons such as prioritising money over learning, succumbing to peer pressure or naively believing everything they are promised at the new position.

In the survey, 73 per cent of the respondents stated that spending more time with the same organisation provides better exposure to various functions within the company and therefore provides better overall learning and career momentum.

"A majority of these professionals get the 'two-year itch' and change jobs every 24 months, sometimes moving from high- growth companies to slow-growth captive back-office operations of large and medium-sized multi-national organisations," the study stated.

About 85 per cent of the business heads surveyed by Evalueserve consider loyalty in previous positions as one of the most important evaluation criteria for hiring and career advancement and 87 per cent of respondents feel that young professionals should not work in more than three companies during the first 10 years of their careers.

Experts believe the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) industries have been the major drivers to the trend of job hopping within a short span of time.

Elaborating the reasons that propel individuals to look for greener pastures in short intervals, IMI's Ratnam said that job hopping by young professionals might be due to tall promises made by the human resource departments of the firms, which do not fructify after the individuals joining or the profile does not commensurate with the individuals skills.

"To avoid the detrimental effects of job hopping, an organisation should encourage the senior executives or mentors to spend quality time with the young professionals, which would give them a perspective about their career growth," Ratnam said.

 

School punishment floors students

Comment: This is how humans are converted into animals:

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The reason is that their parents did not attend the parent-teacher meeting

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— Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Huddling together: Students of Camlin English School at R.P.C. Layout in Bangalore ‘waiting for their transport’ to return home on Tuesday.

Bangalore: More than 20 children studying in the government-recognised Camlin English School here were made to sit on the draughty basement floor away from the classroom for around eight hours on Monday. The fault: their parents did not attend the parent-teacher meeting in the school on Saturday.

When this reporter visited the school, around 20 children were squatting on the basement floor. When asked, the school management claimed that these children were not being punished. Instead, “they are just waiting for the school van to pick them up,” the school secretary said.

However, L. Bhaskar, a parent, told The Hindu that the school had indeed punished his son by making him sit on the basement floor from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday. “When I got to know, I was shocked. My son pleaded with me to not take it up with the headmistress, but I could not let it go like that. I came to the school in the morning and found more children sitting on the floor,” he said.

“We take all steps to take good care of our children. We ensure they are dressed warm, have all their books, are comfortable and then send them to school. Here they make them sit on the floor in such bad weather. It is windy and cold and the place they are made to sit resembles a dumping yard,” said L. Jagadish, another parent.

He said that students should not be punished for their parents’ lapses. “Let the school send us a notice, we will reply to it. They cannot punish children instead,” he said.

Mr. Bhaskar said that Kishen, young director of the acclaimed film, C/o Footpath, is also a student of the school.

“He does not attend school for days. Yet, lessons and notes somehow seem to reach him. Our children attend school diligently and get punished for no fault of theirs,” he added. By way of an explanation, headmistress H.P. Vijaya said that the children were not punished, but were only asked to sit in the open auditorium. The school had issued a memo to all parents a week before the meeting and attendance was compulsory.

“We have stated this even in the school diary. Pupils will not be permitted to enter the class if their progress reports are not collected. Students will also be marked absent (if the parents don’t come),” she said. So what about Kishen to whom the rules do not seem to apply? She riposted: “He has earned a name for himself. He has created a world record. What has his (Mr. Bhaskar’s) son achieved?”

Niranjan Aradhya, member of the Working Group on Corporal Punishment for Children constituted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said this incident was a violation of legal protection provided to a child.

“The law says a child should be educated in a fear-free environment. The so-called quality of education often advocated by private schools should not be at the cost of a child’s fundamental right to dignity. The Government should take action against the school,” he added.

The parents have sought legal advice.

 

Importance of soft skills

As India becomes a larger and vital player in the global economy, as we become a larger outsourcing/offshoring destination for companies world wide, soft skills will give us the winning edge.
In today's corporate environment, much emphasis is laid on ‘soft skills.’ What are ‘soft skills’? What is their importance to the individual or to the company? Why does one need it? How does one acquire it? Let us explore and understand this often used but misunderstood set of skills. In every industry, a worker brings two aspects to the table - his technical skills and his soft skills. For example, a television technician knows how to mend a TV. He also has rudimentary skills on how to deal with the customer. His technical expertise stems from his technical skills. His customer interaction skills stems from his soft skills. In other words, the softer aspects of one's job requirements can be broadly classified as soft skills. Master & Internalise Basic ‘soft skills’ generally include communication skills, social graces, presentation skills, customer service, etc. Some of the high end soft skills may include dining etiquette, stress management and cross cultural sensitivity. It is interesting to note that these are often skills that take a longer time to master and internalise. They are also difficult to measure. Keen and long term observation in various situations will probably help somewhat quantify the soft skills in an employee. The soft skills can be further divided into two sections - life skills and business skills. Life skills are those soft skills that largely rest in the individual. He or she will carry it with them to their graves! For example, communication skills, once mastered, will serve a person in every aspect of his life. He will be a better and effective communicator in his workplace, with his family, and with his friends. Similarly, stress management will be beneficial to an individual in dealing with stress in the workplace or at home. Simple breathing exercises can be used to de-stress whether at work, or at home, or after a workout at the gym, etc. Business skills are those skills that one needs to navigate successfully through the corporate world. For example, effective decision making skills, delegation skills, conflict management skills, or team building skills are critical for new as well as seasoned leaders. Its a must, not a fancy Thus, ‘soft skills’ are significant for both the individual and the company. Nasscom estimates that by 2010, both the IT and ITeS sectors’ workforce would have increased from 700,000 to 2.3 million. As one of the McKinsey reports state, “India confronts a potential shortage of skilled workers in the next decade, despite its having an adequate talent pool or ‘raw material,’ yet the problem is that this talent pool is largely unsuitable.” Why? The answer is that they are technically qualified but they don't know how to position their superiority.  The more soft skills that an individual exhibits, the greater and faster his career growth. When a batch of fresh computer engineering graduates are recruited by a company, the entire batch is on a level playing ground. All of them are junior software engineers. They have been selected largely because of their academic performance and their technical expertise. How then does the differentiation happen in terms of promotions? It happens one, based on the work deliverables but it also is hinged upon the intangible ‘soft skills’ that the person exhibits. For example, the person who is able to successfully communicate with his American counterpart, who is assertive and negotiates a win-win, will get more chances to not only interact across cultures but will be chosen if there is an opportunity for an overseas assignment. Hence today, companies like Athiya, work very closely with all leading companies in various sectors, helping them identify their soft skills requirements and training their personnel to be the best in their industry. It is highly evident that companies focus not only on ‘what’ but the ‘how’. It is no longer acceptable for an employee to send a report, it is extremely critical as to ‘how’ it has been drafted. Winning edge Training, constant observation, practice, internalisation, and soliciting feedback are sure ways to acquiring these soft skills. In a soft skills training session, concepts are downloaded and simulations are provided with extensive feedback. The participant then needs to continuously practice some of these skills to internalise them so that they become a part of his/her natural self. Peer feedback and observing a role model enhance these skills. As India becomes a larger and vital player in the global economy, as we become a larger outsourcing/offshoring destination for companies world wide, soft skills will give us the winning edge. If we need to beat a China, we better brush up on our English language skills, our clarity of communication, and our customer interaction skills, or we might just turn out to be another ‘has been.’ The writer is a co-founder and  Director - Learning & Development at Athiya Organizational Competencies (P) limited.  She can be contacted at: ask@athiya.com

 

Separate AIDS classes for boys & girls

 

New Delhi: Co-educational schools may soon have an allgirls and an all-boys class once a week. This special 30-minute session will discuss sexually transmitted infections and HIV, and forms part of the recommendations made by India's first official sex education manual, which is now open for public scrutiny.
    While male teachers will teach the boys, girls will be enlightened by lady teachers about how HIV is spread, what are the precautions one can take, is abstinence a good option to save yourself from the virus and what are the symptoms of a sexual transmitted infection.
    The manual, open for public feedback till August, is expected to be finalised by Oct. AIDS prevention to be part of curriculum
New Delhi: India's National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) on Tuesday presented the prototype of the Adolescent Education Manual to education secretaries and AIDS control societies from 20 states. NACO says to combat HIV, prevention is the best cure. The manual, it says, will educate youngsters — six of whom are infected with HIV every minute worldwide — about essential life skills and accurate information about HIV and STIs.
    The key concepts that will be promoted through the manual are what is an informed decision, risky behaviour and vulnerability of adolescents to HIV, peer pressure and how to deal with it.
    Students will be told how rash decision-making like unprotected sex can have severe and irreversible consequences like an unwanted pregnancy or infection. They will also be taught to identify various forms of sexual abuse and how to handle them and differentiate between a good touch and a bad touch.
    Words like condoms and sexual intercourse have been used in the minimum. NACO director-general K Sujatha Rao said the new manual, prepared by an expert committee from NCERT and SCERT after a series of consultations with parents, teachers, students, faith-based organisations and civil society members, had deleted all images and learning modules that states had found "too explicit and too graphic".

AIDS hitting Asian gays at high rates: UN

 Comments: Then why is India moving towards legalising gay sex banned by Britishers century ago???

 

NEW DELHI: The HIV infection rates among gay men in many parts of Asia is reaching epidemic proportions warn top officials of the UNAIDS agency, who stated that the rate has recently reached levels that devastated US homosexual communities in the late 1980s.

While launching his agency's 2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic, Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director, called for more action to stop the spread of the disease among gay men who have unsafe sex and stressed the importance of working with affected communities.

"All over Asia there are now epidemics of HIV in men who have sex with men of the same magnitude that we saw in this country 25 years ago," China Daily quoted Piot, as saying.

"That is something that has been detected fairly recently. There is not enough action yet but we are now starting programs," he added.

Paul De Lay, director of Evidence, Monitoring and Policy at UNAIDS, said that the HIV epidemic among gay communities in Asia has become as severe as the situation seen in cities such as San Francisco at the end of the 1980s when HIV infections reached their peak.

According to him, the rising levels could be due to a number of factors, including less funding for programs that target men who have sex with men and the fact that there were new groups who were less aware of the risks of unprotected sex.

"Asia has recognised populations of men who have sex with men for quite some time. The epidemic in these populations started in the mid-1990s. What we see now is a resurgence," he said

"There are countries where the percentage of people infected are similar to what we were seeing in San Francisco or in Berlin or in London where up to 15 to 20 percent of men who have sex with men are HIV positive," he added.

Meanwhile, the report showed that unprotected sex between men was a 'potentially significant but under-researched aspect of the HIV epidemics in Asia,' citing countries such as Thailand and Vietnam.

"Recent study data from several major cities in the region, from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, show increasing HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men," the report said.

It noted that in China, unsafe sex between men could account for up to seven per cent of HIV infections.

De Lay said there were also high infection rates among gay populations in cities such as Chennai and Mumbai in India and in Indonesia's capital Jakarta.

He added that these communities often faced homophobia from the wider population, as well as discrimination from health care providers, which discouraged them from seeking information and getting tested.

"Even without blatant national laws that criminalize homosexual behaviour, you can still have a gradation of policies and practices that can be almost as bad," he said.

Japan's parents party to marry off stay-at-home kids

Japan’s parents party to marry off stay-at-home kids

Tokyo: The Japanese are true handson parents, helping their children with everything from university entrance exams to finding a job. Now, they’re playing matchmakers, and on a nationwide level. Japanese traditionally house and support their children until marriage, which has usually occurred at a younger age than now. But as the kids stay at home longer due to job uncertainty and an unwillingness to compromise, panicked parents are flocking to mass matchmaking events at hotels and conference centers.
   Parents’ worries are founded in a society where more men and women are choosing to tie the knot later in life, or sometimes not at all. A government report from 2005 showed 71.5% of men aged 25 to 29 were unmarried compared with 47.1% in 1990. For women, 32% from 30 to 34 years of age were single, compared 16% in 1990.
   Japanese newspapers have dubbed the nationwide phenomenon “parent representative matchmaking parties” and so far, events have been held in 13 cities with around 6,500 participants. AGENCIES

 

Scientists to keep Olympics rain-free

Scientists to keep Olympics rain-free

Beijing: With chances of rain playing a spoilsport during the opening gala of Beijing olympics, China has mobilised a 32,000-strong team of people with science and engineering background and perfected satellite monitoring and cloud seeding technology to drive away clouds on August 8.
   Historical data indicate a 41 per cent precipitation chance on that date. Beijing is keen to avoid a repeat of what happened at the opening of 15th Asian Games in December 2006 in Doha, Qatar. In a country where rain has been rarely seen, a deluge soaked athletes and spectators during the expensive and breathtaking opening ceremony.
   The Beijing Weather Engineering Office, under the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau, is in charge of the massive Olympic Weather Modification project, state-run Xinhua reported. The office has been asked to prevent rain from falling during the three and half hours — from 8:00 pm to around 11:30 pm — onto the Bird’s Nest, the open-air national stadium which will host the opening ceremony.
   The office has hired 32,000 people, light aircraft, rockets and shells to spread silver iodide crystals or dry ice in clouds 50 km upwind of Beijing. Result estimates can be reported from control stations to the headquarters within 10 minutes. AGENCIES

 

Pedal power challenges car culture in LA

Pedal power challenges car culture in LA

 

Chris Ayres

 

   Of all the least-expected consequences of soaring fuel prices, this has to be near the top of the list: swarms of cyclists are taking to the intimidating, multi-lane thoroughfares of Los Angeles, some even defying the law and whizzing between the stationary cars on the gridlocked freeways.
   The result is a city of diehard motorists in need of some anger management.
   Criminal charges have already been filed against one driver accused of deliberately braking in front of two cyclists in the wealthy suburb of Mandeville Canyon home of the world’s most famous Hummer-driving road hog, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both cyclists ended up in hospital.
   Meanwhile, pedestrians are beginning to repeat the constant gripe of the modern Londoner: traffic-dodging cyclists are hogging the sidewalk and almost knocking them off their feet.
   The city is so alarmed by this clash of car culture and pedal power that it has enacted an emergency plan, which so far consists of a Cyclists’ Bill of Rights and a public conversation about how everyone can get along without killing each other. More meaningful developments are also afoot: the city has hired Alta Planning & Design, a planning consultancy, to revamp its haphazard and under-maintained cycle lanes and come up with cyclist-friendly initiatives.
   Even in liberal LA, however, there is an element of political antipathy in this showdown.
   Even if cyclists do not overtly consider themselves to be combating everything from obesity to global warming when riding on two wheels, motorists tend to perceive their every on-road manoeuvre as holier-than-thou.
   The Cyclists’ Bill of Rights has done nothing to disabuse motorists of the notion that all cyclists are condescending, Obama-cheering elitists.
   The document states that cyclists are an indicator species of a healthy community, and represent a solution to environmental destruction and gridlock. One pro-cycling group, the Crimanimalz, organises frequent law-defying rides to prove how much more efficient twowheeled transport can be.
   Yet the problems of cycling in Los Angeles go deeper than just dealing with touchy and credit-crunched SUV owners. The summer heat can be unbearable.
   Then there are the poorly maintained surfaces, the wheel-buckling storm grates and the debris that slides into the road after the occasional heavy rainstorm.
   Brad House, a member of the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee, speaking at a meeting of the city’s new bicycle task force, said: “We are the illegitimate bastard child of the transportation industry. Having apparently never encountered a London taxi driver while on two wheels, he added: In Europe, motorists are very respectful of cyclists.” SUNDAY TIMES, LONDON

 

 

Wooing mantra: run yourself down 'to win over a woman'

Wooing mantra: run yourself down ‘to win over a woman’

London: What’s the most effective way of winning a woman’s heart? Well, it is by running yourself down, says a new study.
   Researchers have carried out the two-year study which revealed that taking the mickey out of one’s self works better than just clever jokes which might be seen as boastful and put women off.
   According to lead researcher Gil Greengross, “Many studies show that a sense of humour is sexually attractive, especially to women.
   “But we’ve found that self-deprecating humour is the most attractive of all. It is a risky form of humour because it can draw attention to one’s real faults thereby diminishing the self-deprecator’s status in the eyes of others.
   “But based on the idea that verbal humour evolved to function as a fitness indicator, self-deprecating humour can be an especially reliable indicator, not only of general intelligence and verbal creativity, but also moral virtues such as humility.”
   In fact, in the study into the role of humour in seduction, the researchers have found that the type of humour used by Hugh Grant in the film ‘Notting Hill’ — in which he attempts to charm Julia Roberts with the poor contents of his fridge — works the best, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.
   However, the researchers have warned that the technique should not be attempted by those who are already unpopular as it could make “low-status individuals” appear “more pathetic” than they did before.
   The study is to be published in the upcoming edition of the ‘Journal of Evolutionary Psychology’.
AGENCIES

 

 

Bangla beggars

Bangla beggars

 

Dhaka: A group of beggars in northern Bangladesh are lobbying local politicians to set a minimum rate that people can give them because they are struggling with spiralling inflation, an official said on Monday.
   Kurigram council chairman Abubakr Siddiqui said about 40 beggars - most of them disabled - held a rally in the town at the weekend to raise awareness about their plight.
   “They demanded the local council fix the minimum rate of alms at one taka. At the moment most people who give them money give between 10 and 50 paisa,” he said.
   Siddiqui said as well as setting a minimum rate, the group also wanted the council to ban beggars from outside the town from encroaching on their territory.
   “They say the soaring cost of food is taking its toll. Their daily collection is not enough to buy adequate food for their families,” he said. “We cannot stop the entry of outsiders into the town. Any Bangladeshi has the right to come here.”
   An average beggar in the capital Dhaka, home to some 27,000 beggars, earns about 100 taka a day, enough to buy three kilograms of rice, according to a 2005 survey. Beggars in regional towns earn much less. AGENCIES

 

Etiquette classes for Britons heading to India

Etiquette classes for Britons heading to India

London: British business executives can now undergo Indian etiquette lessons before flying out to India — thanks to the United Kingdom-India Business Council(UKIBC) which is launching a series of ‘culture courses’.
   With a growing trend of British companies seeking to establish a presence in India, the courses will offer valuable tips on how to bow graciously, smile politely and refrain from kissing women, The Guardian reported
   In fact, the lessons follow reports of business deals collapsing due to overly tactile sales people, patronising chief executives and British delegates offending their Indian counterparts by standing with their hands on their hips and calling Indian managers by their first names.
   “The US and Japan are already well established in India but there’s a feeling that if Britain does not get properly involved soon they will be missing the boat. Business in India is all about trust.
   “If you make a wrong move culturally you can throw away your chances,” UKIBC’s chief executive Sharon Bamford was quoted as saying.
   The organisation advises against shaking hands with women unless offered, and they should never be kissed in greeting or goodbye. AGENCIES

 

 

RED ALERT ON CELL TOWER RADIATION

MIRROR INVESTIGATION

 

RED ALERT ON CELL TOWER RADIATION

 

Radiation levels emitted from phone towers dangerously high across city; Mirror examines seven spots and finds people there are exposed to the gravest possible health risks

 

RISHI MAZUMDAR

 

   Radiation levels emitted from cell phone towers across Mumbai are alarmingly high and pose serious health hazards to millions of Mumbaikars, an investigation done by this paper in association with a group that measures excessive electromagnetic radiation (EMR) levels has revealed.
Mumbai Mirror got Cogent EMR Solutions Ltd, a noted Delhi-based company, to measure EMR levels at seven spots across the city. At five of these spots, the meter showed that radiation levels were far beyond acceptable limits. High radiation levels are known to cause brain damage and heart problems, apart from raising a host of other health issues.
   The levels outside Mantralaya, the World Trade Centre and near Breach Candy Hospital were found to be unacceptably high. And if you thought your walk on the Marine Drive promenade was doing you a world of good and letting you breathe some fresh air, here's the truth: EMR levels there are among the highest, and experts say "being there is like being in an X-ray machine."
   Ever since the debate on health hazards posed by phone tower radiation began worldwide nearly a decade ago, Mumbai has seen at least a few thousand such towers arise. The study done by Cogent reveals it's now time to look at their ill-effects on our health.

 

MARINE DRIVE

 

MANTRALAYA

 

BREACH CANDY