At least 90 rural activists, who work under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Thursday to thank him for the increase in their incentives, an official statement said.

Under the NRHM, the government provides villages with a trained female Accredited Social Health Activist or ASHA. 

According to the release, the Prime Minister recalled his interaction with the ASHA and Anganwadi workers across the country via video conference and appreciated them for sharing their experiences and personal accounts. 

“Today , ASHA activists shared some more accounts of how they had been instrumental in saving lives of poor mothers and children through timely intervention,” it said.

The Prime Minister appreciated ASHA workers for their skill and dedication and recalled that even Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had praised their efforts towards eradication of diseases such as Kala Azar, a severe parasitic disease.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday gave its approval to the benefit package with effect from October 2018 (to be paid in November 2018). The package covers the expenditure till 2020.

The size of the Indian economy will double to $5 trillion by 2022 with manufacturing and agriculture contributing $1 trillion each, and the various states are competing with each other to help achieve this goal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday.

In his address at the foundation laying ceremony of the India International Convention and Expo Centre here, Modi said that towards achieving this target, the government is making all efforts to increase the share of exports to 40 per cent of the country’s GDP.

“The country’s macroeconomic fundamentals are strong, and all efforts are being made by various agencies to increase the share of exports to 40 per cent of the GDP,” he said.

“We plan to increase our GDP to $5 trillion by 2022 in which manufacturing and agriculture would contribute $1 trillion each.

“The states are also together in this endeavour and are competing with each other on the ease of doing business rankings,” he said. 

The high rate of India’s GDP growth in recent years had resulted in a massive employment generation, particularly in the IT, retail and tourism sectors, he added 

Referring to government’s proposal made on Tuesday of the merger of Dena Bank, Vijaya Bank and Bank of Baroda to create the country’s third largest banking entity, the Prime Minister said that his administration had brought in bank consolidation which was being debated over a long time.

“The need for having dozens of government-run banks was being debated for a long time but we have acted on it. This government will not shy away from taking tough decisions in the national interest,” he said, citing the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) among such measures taken by the government.

In a first, the government on Thursday came out with a National Database on Sexual Offenders (NDSO), containing a list of 4.5 lakh convicts with photos of about 3.5 lakh of them available.

The offenders face charges of rape, gangrape and eve-teasing.

The database, which was rolled out by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) along with Women and Child Development Ministry (WCD) here, will be maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The NDSO which is accessible only to law enforcement agencies will assist in effectively tracking and investigating cases of sexual offences and employee verification.

The registry which was approved by the Cabinet in April 2018 makes India the ninth country in the world to set up and maintain a national database of sexual offenders.

According to MHA, the state police have been requested to regularly update the database from 2005 onwards. The database includes name, address, photograph and fingerprint details for each entry. However, the database will not compromise any individual’s privacy.

MHA has already released a grant of Rs. 94.5 crore to states/UTs for establishing cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories to strengthen cybercrime investigation and conduct training programmes to enhance capabilities of police officers, public prosecutors and judicial officers.

According to the WCD ministry, the sex offenders listed in the database will be classified on the basis of criminal history to ascertain if they pose a serious danger to the community. 

“It is a matter of great pride and joy as two initiatives that my Ministry (WCD) and I had been pursuing for three years have been executed. The launch of National Registry of Sexual Offenders and Cybercrime Reporting Portal is one more step taken by our government for the safety of our women and children,” Union WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi said.

Another web portal, “Cyber Crime Prevention Against Women and Children (CCPWC)”, an initiative under the Nirbhaya Fund was also launched which will enable complainants in reporting cases without disclosing their identity. 

“Government has taken several measures to check crime against Women and Children, including provision of stringent punishment and creation of modern forensics facilities to improve investigation, creation of the Women’s Safety Division in the MHA and launching of Safe City projects for Women’s Safety,” Union MHA minister Rajnath Singh said.

The complaints registered through this portal will be handled by police authorities of respective State/UTs and complainants can also upload the objectionable content and URL to assist in the investigation by the state police.

The NCRB will proactively identify such objectionable content and take up with intermediaries for its removal. For this NCRB has already been notified as the Government of India agency to issue notices under the IT Act.

“A positive aspect of this portal is the provision for anonymous reporting, which will encourage more people to come forward with such complaints. This portal comes as a relief by providing time-bound solutions to a huge number of women and children who are being exploited in cyber space,” Gandhi added.

 Indian Institute of Technology Madras is collaborating with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) to enhance the operational life cycle of existing platforms and reduce running and operating cost by optimum use of offshore survey requirements.

IIT Madras is going to develop a Database Management System for all the 280-plus platforms of ONGC and develop software for Structural Integrity Management System (SIMS) as well.

Prof. Ravindra Gettu, Dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), IIT Madras, and Mr. Dinesh Kumar, Executive Director, Head of Institute of Engineering and Ocean Technology (IEOT), ONGC, Panvel, signed the agreement for the Collaborative R&D project titled ‘Development of Structural Integrity Management System (SIMS) For Offshore Platforms of ONGC’.

Speaking on the occasion of signing the agreement, Mr. Dinesh Kumar said, 

“This kind of collaboration will go a long way in benefiting the country. This is part of a concerted effort to further industry-academic collaboration and a good start has been made between IIT Madras and ONGC. ”

The existing offshore platforms in Mumbai High have been operational for more than three decades. Though the design life has exceeded in some cases, oil and gas production still continues as their reservoirs are producing. Hence, considerable effort has been spent on maintaining the structural stability and strength of these platforms for the last 10 to 15 years by both ONGC and IEOT in terms of mitigation measures such as underwater strengthening of members, removal of marine growth and many other activities including load shedding in some cases.

The project is being spearheaded from IIT Madras by Dr. S. Nallayarasu, Professor in the Department of Ocean Engineering who has over 25 years of experience in Oil and Gas industry, research and teaching. Prior to joining IITM, his industry experience includes offshore structures and field development, structural auditing and verification, port and harbor development, marine terminals for oil and gas, FSRU-LNG facilities and FPSO’s.

Speaking about the challenges involved in this project, Dr. Nallayarasu, said, “The IEOT and Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, has been working on several collaborative projects such as non-linear ultimate strength of offshore platforms and structural integrity assessment in the past. The synergy between IEOT and IITM will be continued to develop a technology based tool for monitoring, assessment, inspection and maintenance of structural integrity of existing platforms to fulfill operational and regulatory requirements for prolonged production of oil & gas.”

Another notable feature of this project is to develop the location based design criteria specific to the platforms operated by ONGC in this region. This will become a starting point for development of codes and standards for offshore platforms in India which does not exist as of now. SIMS software is being developed in line with Government of India’s ‘Make in India’ policy under the umbrella of ONGC-PAN IIT program.

The World Animal Protection, along with the Department of Animal Husbandry of Kerala and Indian Red Cross Society – Kerala, are partnering on the recovery and reconstruction for animals affected by the recent floods. The Department of Animal Husbandry has said that 46,016 livestock and 2,500,000 poultry succumbed to the floods and continuous heavy rains.

“The impact on animals cannot be overstated. In some areas, virtually all animals were killed or suffered in the days following the deluge. We are in Kerala to provide relief to as many animals as possible and to see how this tragedy can be prevented from recurring in the future. Together with the Department of Animal Husbandry and the Indian Red Cross Society we are ensuring that animal welfare needs are met concurrent with the humanitarian effort,” said Gajender K Sharma, India Country Director at World Animal Protection.

Working across 12 locations in five districts – Alappuzha, Pathnamthitta, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Thrissur districts, our disaster response teams are addressing the persistent needs of livestock left stranded in evacuation camps following the record floods that began in July. Following intensive support from the government and humanitarian agencies the situation for affected people is slowly improving.

However, animals are facing prolonged hardships and suffering, working animals will be pushed to make up for all the loses in agriculture, and will need feed and mineral supplements, which World Animal Protection is providing to the most vulnerable of them.

“The Kerala floods remind us that disaster preparedness for animals is critically important. Many of these animals could have been saved if a disaster plan were in place that included their needs. We are engaging the Kerala government to ensure they develop a plan for protecting animals during disasters and to offer our technical support in developing the plan. Animals are often the forgotten victims of disasters. We are here to be a voice for the voiceless,” said Hansen Thambi Prem, Disasters Projects Manager India at World Animal Protection. 

India has led the way in many respects on animal protection. Following years of efforts, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in 2013 instructed all the States and Union Territories to integrate animals in their respective disaster management plans and programmes. Kerala has not yet done so, but we are closely working with State and district officials to enable them to launch plans and policies that will protect animals and the livelihoods of people who depend on them in future disasters. 

World Animal Protection has over 50 years of experience in protecting animals during disasters. In India, World Animal Protection works with the National Disaster Management Authority, and has also provided training to the National Disaster Response Force to manage animals during disasters throughout the subcontinent. 

The Union Cabinet has approved an ordinance making `triple talaq’ an offence. The ordinance was approved after making amendments to the draft Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017.

There were three contentious issues that had stalled the passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha though it was passed by the Lok Sabha in the last session of Parliament. The ordinance has to be passed in the next session of Parliament.

Briefing media after the Cabinet meeting, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said there was a “compelling necessity” to bring the measure as instances of ‘talaq-e-biddat’ continued unabated despite the Supreme Court striking it down.

The first change allows only a woman, or a close relative, to file a police case against her husband for instant triple talaq, the Islamic practice that allows men to divorce their wives immediately by uttering the word “talaq” (divorce) thrice.

The second amendment allows her to drop the case if the husband comes around later and they arrive at a compromise while the third amendment makes provision of bail for the erring husband, though by a magistrate.

The practice of triple talaq had been declared illegal and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last August, prompting the government to bring a law.  

However, there were some dissenting voices on the move. “This ordinance is against the Muslim women. This ordinance will not provide justice to the Muslim women. In Islam, marriage is a civil contract and bringing penal provisions in it is wrong,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and AIMIM chief.

“Modi government not making this an issue for justice for Muslim women, but making this into a political issue,” says Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has hinted that it would challenge the ordinance in the Supreme Court.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has commended India for its concerted efforts to reduce child deaths, which have resulted in under-five mortality estimates to have fallen below the one million mark.

As outlined in a report released by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, India’s share of global child deaths has been reduced from 22% in 2012 to 18% in 2017 ­– a rate that outpaces the global decline.

India’s remarkable achievement was made possible via a series of initiatives the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken in recent years, including to vaccinate each and every child with life-saving vaccines under Mission Indradhanush and to expand the reach of diarrhoea and pneumonia management across the country, with a focus on vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations, a statement issued by WHO has said.

Given recent reductions, the global percentage of under-five deaths that occur in India is commensurate with the percentage of global births the country accounts for (18%), and represents a dramatic breakthrough for India, the WHO South-East Asia Region and the world. 

Notably, India’s gender gap in child survival is now almost four times less than what it was five years ago, reflecting substantial advances in gender equity that the country can continue to build on, precisely as it has built on its successes in a range of other areas.

As India’s progress continues – including by concentrating on reducing neonatal deaths, which now account for 62% of under-five deaths — there is immense potential to go beyond ensuring children simply survive but can also thrive and enjoy their right to the highest attainable standard of health and wellbeing.

As outlined in the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, among other priorities that means ensuring access to adequate nutrition and early childhood development services, at the same time as continuing to increase vaccination coverage for all. Ending preventable newborn and child deaths has been one of the WHO South-East Asia Region’s Flagship Priorities since 2014.

WHO is committed to supporting India and the Region consolidate the significant gains made in recent years, to accelerate further progress, and to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages, the statement said.

Scientists have developed a novel approach using skin cell-based gene therapy to stifle the desire for cocaine and to protect against an overdose.

The study, successfully tested on mice, involved removing a small patch of skin and introducing genes that produce cocaine-degrading enzymes. Finally, grafting it back onto the patient.

“Our results show promise of cutaneous gene therapy as a safe and cost-effective therapeutic option for cocaine abuse in the future,” said researchers led by Ming Xu, Professor at the University of Chicago. 

For cocaine addicts or those prone to cocaine abuse, this approach could reduce drug-seeking and protect against cocaine overdose, potentially making them “immune” to further cocaine abuse. 

This skin cell-based approach can potentially be used to treat alcohol, nicotine and opioid abuse and co-abuse, the researchers said.

In the study, the team collected primary epidermal basal progenitor/stem cells from newborn mice and used CRISPR to deliver engineered human butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) — enzymes that can degrade cocaine — to the cells.

Then they prepared skin organdies and transplanted them back to the donor animals, where they acted as a depot for robust expression and secretion of hBChE into the blood stream. 

This efficiently protected the mice from cocaine-seeking and cocaine-induced relapse. It even prevented the death of mice exposed to uniformly lethal doses of cocaine, the researchers noted.

Mice who received the skin grafts were able to remove cocaine from the bloodstream much faster than normal mice.

They were able to withstand cocaine overdoses that would be lethal to 100 per cent of unprotected mice and were less likely than untreated mice to enter environments previously associated with cocaine use. 

However, mice exposed to alcohol retained a learned fondness for that drug.

“Our study demonstrates that transplantation of genome-edited skin stem cells can be used to deliver an active cocaine hydrolase long term in vivo,” the researchers said, in the paper published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. 

The study showed that epidermal stem cells “can be successfully employed for ex vivo gene therapy, as efficient genetic manipulation is possible with minimal risk.”

The number of children dying under five has fallen dramatically from 12.6 million in 1990 to 5.4 million in 2017. The number of deaths in older children aged between 5 to 14 years dropped from 1.7 million to under a million in the same period.

An estimated 6.3 million children under 15 years of age died in 2017, or 1 every 5 seconds, mostly of preventable causes, according to released by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Division and the World Bank Group.
 
The vast majority of these deaths – 5.4 million – occur in the first five years of life, with newborns accounting for around half of the deaths.

“Without urgent action, 56 million children under five will die from now until 2030 – half of them newborns,” said Laurence Chandy, UNICEF Director of Data, Research and Policy. “We have made remarkable progress to save children since 1990, but millions are still dying because of who they are and where they are born. With simple solutions like medicines, clean water, electricity and vaccines, we can change that reality for every child.”
 
Globally, in 2017, half of all deaths under five years of age took place in sub-Saharan Africa, and another 30 per cent in Southern Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 13 children died before their fifth birthday. In high-income countries, that number was 1 in 185.  
 
“Millions of babies and children should not still be dying every year from lack of access to water, sanitation, proper nutrition or basic health services,” said Dr. Princess Nono Simelela, Assistant Director-General for Family, Women and Children’s Health at WHO. “We must prioritize providing universal access to quality health services for every child, particularly around the time of birth and through the early years, to give them the best possible chance to survive and thrive.”
 
Most children under 5 die due to preventable or treatable causes such as complications during birth, pneumonia, diarrhea, neonatal sepsis and malaria. By comparison, among children between 5 and 14 years of age, injuries become a more prominent cause of death, especially from drowning and road traffic. Within this age group, regional differences also exist, with the risk of dying for a child from sub-Saharan Africa 15 times higher than in Europe.
 
“More than six million children dying before their fifteenth birthday is a cost we simply can’t afford,” said Timothy Evans, Senior Director and Head of the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank Group. “Ending preventable deaths and investing in the health of young people is a basic foundation for building countries’ human capital, which will drive their future growth and prosperity.”
 
For children everywhere, the most risky period of life is the first month. In 2017, 2.5 million newborns died in their first month. A baby born in sub-Saharan Africa or in Southern Asia was nine times more likely to die in the first month than a baby born in a high-income country. And progress towards saving newborns has been slower than for other children under five years of age since 1990.
 
Even within countries, disparities persist. Under-five mortality rates among children in rural areas are, on average, 50 per cent higher than among children in urban areas. In addition, those born to uneducated mothers are more than twice as likely to die before turning five than those born to mothers with a secondary or higher education.
  
“This new report highlights the remarkable progress since 1990 in reducing mortality among children and young adolescents,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin. “Reducing inequality by assisting the most vulnerable newborns, children and mothers is essential for achieving the target of the Sustainable Development Goals on ending preventable childhood deaths and for ensuring that no one is left behind.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has launched its second annual Goalkeepers Data Report, pointing to demographic trends that could stall unprecedented progress in reducing global poverty. While 1 billion people have lifted themselves out of poverty over the past 20 years, rapid population growth in the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, puts future progress at risk. If current trends continue, the number of extremely poor people in the world could stop its two-decade decline — and could even rise.

Despite the sobering projections, Bill and Melinda Gates express optimism that today’s growing youth populations could help drive progress. Investing in the health and education of young people in Africa could unlock productivity and innovation, leading to a ”third wave’’ of poverty reduction, which follows the first wave in China and the second in India.

“The conclusion is clear: To continue improving the human condition, our task now is to help create opportunities in Africa’s fastest-growing, poorest countries,” Bill and Melinda Gates write in the introduction. “This means investing in young people. Specifically, it means investing in their health and education.”

Goalkeepers: The Stories Behind the Data 2018 was co-authored and edited by Bill and Melinda Gates and produced in partnership with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Using new data projections, the report reveals that poverty within Africa is concentrating in just a handful of countries, which are among the fastest-growing in the world. By 2050, more than 40 percent of the extremely poor people in the world will live in just two countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.

In the past, large youth populations have helped drive economic growth and poverty reduction. The report makes the case for leaders to invest in the power and potential of youth to continue progress. Through essays by experts and journalists, the report examines promising approaches in health and education, highlighting ways that young people could help transform the continent. According to the report, investments in health and education, or “human capital,” in sub-Saharan Africa could increase GDP in the region by more than 90 percent by 2050.

Each year, the report tracks 18 data points from the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or Global Goals, including child and maternal deaths, stunting, access to contraceptives, HIV, malaria, extreme poverty, financial inclusion, and sanitation. IHME projections provide three potential scenarios for indicators: better and worse scenarios based upon accelerating or reducing the rate of progress, and projections based upon current trends. This year’s report examines four topics in greater depth:

The Family Planning chapter includes an essay by Alex Ezeh, a visiting fellow with the Centre for Global Development. The essay focuses on the importance of empowering women so they can exercise their fundamental right to choose the number of children they will have, when they will have them, and with whom. Ezeh notes that according to data from the United Nations, Africa’s population is projected to double in size by 2050 and could double again by 2100. If every woman in sub-Saharan Africa were empowered to have the number of children she wants, the projected population increase could be up to 30 percent smaller, from 4 billion to 2.8 billion. Most critically, this would enable more girls and women to expand their horizons, stay in school longer, have children later, earn more as adults, and invest more in their children. The chapter also explores how a novel family planning program in Kenya is providing young women with access to contraceptives.

The HIV chapter includes modelling by Imperial College London for what Zimbabwe’s HIV epidemic might look like in 2050 and, thus, what the nation’s overall future holds. Its large number of young people have the potential to drive economic growth, but only if they remain healthy. More than half of Zimbabweans are under 25 years old and reaching the age when they are most at risk for HIV infection. If Zimbabwe scales up currently available prevention tools over the next five years, it could see new infections among 15 to 29-year-olds drop by a third within a decade. The introduction of new prevention tools by 2030, including a highly efficacious vaccine, could further reduce new cases to approximately 400 per year. Together, these interventions could avert up to 364,000 new cases of HIV among young people.

The educationchapter includes an essay by Ashish Dhawan, chairman of the Central Square Foundation in India. Although more students in low- and lower-middle-income countries are enrolled in school today than ever before, many are not learning what they need to succeed. Unfortunately, the strategy for improving school outcomes is not as clear-cut as the strategy for improving school access. The chapter examines Vietnam’s success in achieving system-wide improvements. Though the country’s per capita GDP is only slightly higher than India’s, Vietnam’s 15-year-olds outperform students from wealthy countries like the United States and the United Kingdom on international tests.

The agriculturechapter includes analysis by James Thurlow, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, estimating that by doubling agricultural productivity, Ghana could cut poverty in half, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and drive economic growth. An essay by a local journalist follows the journey of a tomato from a field in rural Burkina Faso to a plate in Ghana, illustrating how many jobs it creates along the way.

Bill and Melinda Gates will produce the Goalkeepers Data Report every year through 2030, timing it to the annual gathering of world leaders in New York City for the UN General Assembly. The report is designed to highlight best practices and help hold the Gates Foundation, its partners, and leaders around the world accountable. It aims to document not just what is working, but where the world is falling short.

In conjunction with the report, Bill and Melinda Gates are once again co-hosting the Goalkeepers event in New York City during the UN General Assembly. On September 26, dynamic young leaders from government, business, technology, media, entertainment, and the nonprofit sector will discuss innovations and approaches to achieve the Global Goals.