Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will be the next Director-General of the World Health organization. He was nominated by the Government of Ethiopia, and will begin his five-year term on 1 July 2017.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will succeed Dr Margaret Chan, who has been WHO’s Director-General since 1 January 2007. The announcement was made at the ongoing World Health Assembly at Geneva.

Prior to his election as WHO’s next Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia from 2012-2016 and as Minister of Health, Ethiopia from 2005-2012. He has also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board, and as co-chair of the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, a WHO statement said. 

As Minister of Health, Ethiopia, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus led a comprehensive reform effort of the country’s health system, including the expansion of the country’s health infrastructure, creating 3,500 health centres and 16,000 health posts; expanded the health workforce by 38,000 health extension workers; and initiated financing mechanisms to expand health insurance coverage. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he led the effort to negotiate the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which 193 countries committed to the financing necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

As Chair of the Global Fund and of RBM, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus secured record funding for the two organizations and created the Global Malaria Action Plan, which expanded RBM’s reach beyond Africa to Asia and Latin America.

Welcoming the choice, Women Deliver has said his appointment comes at a time when the world needs a fierce and proactive advocate for gender equality and the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women more than ever.

“Dr Tedro’s track record of strengthening health systems and training community-based female health workers to expand reproductive and maternal health in Ethiopia, including family planning services, gives us hope that he will be the unwavering champion for girls and women the global development community wants and needs, Throughout his campaign, he pledged to make the health of women, children, and adolescents a focus of his tenure.

“The world’s most powerful health agency needs a leader who advocates for gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights as a net positive for all. He must consistently prioitise girls and women as powerful agents of change and drivers of development. Equally important, he must strengthen the WHO’s gender balance and engagement with young people and civil society not just because of it is the right thing to do, but the sound thing to do,’’ said Katja Iversen, president/CEO of Women Deliver.

NEW DELHI: Giving a thrust to its ambitious flagship programme of “Make in India”, the Modi government will encourage private sector participation to ensure indigenous production of fighter aircraft, helicopters, submarines, armoured fighting vehicles and main battle tanks, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said here. 

In his media briefing after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, Mr. Jaitley said the Cabinet was informed of the proposal of the Defence ministry for going ahead with such a move.

Under the “Strategic Partnership” model, the government will shortlist and then pick Indian companies to collaborate with foreign firms to supply fighter jets, helicopters, and such high-tech equipment, Mr Jaitley said. “For each platform, one private sector strategic partner will be chosen”. 

Mr. Jaitley said the Cabinet took  “full report” about strategic partnership model from the Defence Ministry. A special committee had made some recommendations regarding some sub sectors — helicopters, armoured vehicles, submarines, fighter aircraft, and tanks. These platforms will be manufactured under the government’s flagship “Make in India” programme and one private sector strategic partner for each of these sector will be chosen. 

“We will start building up capacities of private sector companies in defence manufacturing, Private and foreign companies will co-exist with defence PSUSs,” Mr. Jaitley said. He said the strategic partnership process would begin as soon as possible adding that the government funding in defence sector was going to increase substantially. 

The new long-awaited policy, which was developed through extensive stakeholder consultations with Indian industry, envisages the establishment of long-term strategic partnerships with qualified Indian industry majors through a transparent and competitive process wherein the Indian industry partners would tie up with global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to seek technology transfers and manufacturing know-how to set up domestic manufacturing infrastructure and supply chains.  

The policy will give a boost to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet ‘Make in India’ programme in the Defence sector and set Indian industry on the path to acquiring cutting-edge capabilities which will contribute to the building of self-reliance in the vital sector of national security requirements.

In future, additional segments may be added. Appropriate institutional mechanisms will be set in place to implement the policy. Mr. Jaitley said the policy aimed at encouraging manufacturing as the selected companies would be assured of future orders. Several foreign manufacturing giants like Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Saab have indicated their willingness to explore the possibility of setting up manufacturing bases in India. 

NEW DELHI: The Government is working towards progressively reducing dependency on foreign manufacturers and developing the defence capabilities indigenously, Minister of State for Defence Dr Subhash Bhamre has said. 

He was addressing a seminar, jointly organised by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here on Tuesday. . 

“We have included a new procurement category called the Buy Indian – IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category in the DPP [Defence Procurement Procedure]. This would be the most preferred category for procurement and it is expected to promote indigenously designed products and bring significant investment in defence R&D,” the Minister said. 

Speaking of partnership with defence industry, Dr Bhamre said the Government has been working on formulating a ‘Strategic Partnership’ model for creating capacity in the private industry on a long term basis.

The Government had constituted a task force with experts from various fields to recommend criteria and prescribe methodology for selection of Strategic Partners. The report submitted by the task force has been examined at length and Government shall be issuing the policy for selection of strategic partners shortly, he said. 

Alleviating concerns of the industry, the Minister said, the exchange rate variation protection has been made applicable for the Indian private sector at par with public sector undertakings for all categories of capital acquisitions. The preferential treatment given to DPSUs in excise duty/custom duty has been discontinued, as per the revised policy; all Indian industries (public and private) are subject to the same kind of exercise and custom duty levies. “This would ensure a level playing field between the private and public sector. Another step that the Government has taken is to remove the custom duty exemption on import of defence equipment to encourage ‘Make in India’, he said. 

Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa, while giving keynote address, said, “the modernisation plan of the IAF is being pursued with an aim to give impetus to ‘Make in India’ and to beef up the defence manufacturing base. We in IAF are keen to see that ‘Make in India’ initiative gets converted to a reality.” 

Speaking about self-reliance the Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said, a high degree of indigenisation has been achieved in the field of radars and all the radars planned for induction in future are from Indian firms. The IAF is completely self-reliant in the field of software applications and a number of projects are functioning successfully on software developed by Indian firms. 

The CII National Defence Committee member Pratyush Kumar also addressed the gathering.

After 22 years, former Rashtriya Janta Dal Member of Parliament Prabhunath Singh has been convicted in the murder case of former Janta Dal United (JDU) MLA Ashok Singh, on Tuesday. 
Ashok Singh was killed in the broad daylight in Patna at his residence. He was elected from Mashrak Assembly (Saaran) defeating Prabhunath Singh in 1995. The case was transferred by the Apex Court from Patna to Hazaribagh Court, accepting a plea by the assassinated relatives, as they feared the case proceedings might be influenced by Prabhunath Singh and his henchmen.
Prabhunath Singh was the prime accused in the 1995 murder case. Hazaribagh Additional District Judge Surendra Sharma pronounced his life imprisonment. Prabhunath Singh’s brothers, Dinanath Singh and Ritesh Singh are also convicted by the court. 
“Prabhunath had openly said that my brother will be killed within 90 days of becoming legislator and was killed on the 90th day,” Tarkeshwar Singh, Ashok Singh’s brother, told a news channel. Prabhunath Singh is believed to be a close aide to Fodder Scam convict and RJD Supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that Africa was a top priority for his government’s foreign and economic policy and India will always stand shoulder to shoulder with countries of the continent in the long and difficult race for a better future.
Inaugurating the 52nd Annual Meetings of the African Development bank (AfDB) at Mahatma Mandir here, Modi said India’s partnership with African countries was free of any conditions and will remain demand-driven.
Modi said India and Africa face similar development challenges and the mutual ties had become stronger over the decades. 
“After assuming office in 2014, I have made Africa a top priority for India’s foreign and economic policy,” he said.
The Prime Minister referred to his government’s efforts to meet India’s development challenges since assuming office in 2014 and said no village in the country will be without electricity by next year. 
Modi said India has improved on all macro-economic indicators in the last three years with fiscal deficit, balance of payments deficit, and inflation being down and an increase in GDP growth rate, foreign exchange reserves and public capital investment. 
The five-day annual meeting of AfDB, being held in India for the first time, is being attended by 54 African regional members and 27 non-regional member countries of the organisation.
Around 3,000 delegates are taking part in the event with the theme ‘Transforming Agriculture for wealth creation in Africa’.
Modi said he was proud that all countries in Africa had been visited by an Indian Minister in the last three years.
“India’s partnership with Africa is based on a model of cooperation which is responsive to the needs of African countries. It is demand-driven and free of conditions,” he said. 
Modi also referred to prowess of African countries in long distance running and linked it to the race for development.
“In the sports arena, India cannot compete with Africa in long distance running. But I can assure you that India will always stand with you, shoulder to shoulder, supporting you in the long and difficult race for a better future,” he said.
Modi said India offered $10 billion for development projects over the next five years during the India-Africa Summit held in 2015 in New Delhi which was attended by all 54 African countries.
Terming 2015 as a “watershed”, he said India had also offered grant assistance of $600 million to the African countries.
He said India has extended 152 lines of credit to 44 countries of nearly $8 billion.
Trade between Africa and India has doubled in the last five years to reach nearly $72 billion in 2014-15. India’s commodity trade with Africa in 2015-16 was higher than its commodity trade with the United States of America.
India is the fifth largest country investing in the continent, with investments over the past 20 years amounting to $54 billion. Africa accounted for nearly one-fifth of Indian overseas direct investments from 1996 to 2016. 
India joined the African Development Fund in 1982 and the African Development Bank in 1983. 
Modi said India’s private sector was also driving partnership with Africa.
He referred to “solar mamas”, under which training is imparted to African women to work on solar panels and circuits.
“It is one of our best partnerships in the area of skills.”
Sharing India’s experiences in meeting common challenges such as uplifting farmers and the poor, financial access and building infrastructure, Modi said paying subsidies directly had helped his government save over $4 billion dollars in cooking gas.
He also referred to “universal banking” achieved in the last three years as also universal biometric identification system Aadhaar being used to prevent leakage of benefits.
Modi said his government has made unprecedented increases in the last three years in investment in railways, highways, power, and gas pipelines. 
He said the government’s initiatives such as Smart Cities, Housing for All and Skill India were preparing for a modern new India.
“Our aim is that India must be an engine of growth as well as an example in climate friendly development in the years to come.”
Earlier in his speech, Modi referred to common bonds between Gujarat and Africa. 
“As an Indian and a Gujarati, I am very happy that this meeting is being held in India and that too in Gujarat,” Modi said. 
He said Mahatma Gandhi, another Gujarati, perfected his tools of non-violent struggle in South Africa.

NEW DELHI: Painting a positive, growth-oriented scenario for the IT sector in near future, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday denied reports of large scale layoffs in the sector. He asserted that the Indian IT and related sector employment prospects were robust and positive.  
Describing such reports as “highly exaggerated and unfounded”, the Minister said that Indian IT companies currently serve two-thirds of the fortune 500 companies and have created 40 lakh direct jobs and 1.3 crore indirect jobs in India. Indian IT companies are present in 200 cities of 80 countries.  
He said that India’s digital economy was growing at a rapid pace and was likely to touch the One Trillion Dollar (Rs. 600 lakh crore) mark in next five to seven years.  
Addressing a presser to highlight the achievements of his ministry in the past three years, Mr. Prasad said the projections by the industry body NASSCOM and other reputed independent organisations predicted that in 2017 itself IT sector would be adding 1.70 lakh new jobs. He said that NASSCOM has already publicly contradicted reports of large scale layoff. IT industry has added six lakh jobs in the last three years and boasts of a total employee based of 3.9 million. 
Mr. Prasad said that the Indian technology startup sector would offer growing employment prospects to Indian IT professionals. According to NASSCOM, last year Indian technology startups employed about one lakh IT professionals across more than 4,750 starups. 
The Minister said that Common Service Centres (CSC) have generated 10 lakh local level jobs by way of village level entrepreneurs. CSCs have employed nearly 34,000 women and the growth of CSC showed that their numbers have gone up from 83,000 in 2014 to 2.5 lakh upto March this year. 
To further promote the job creation, the IT and Electronics Ministry has come up with India BPO scheme with an aim to provide jobs to 1.45 lakh persons in small towns. He announced that the tendering process has been finalised and BPOs would soon be set up in towns like Imphal, Guwahati, Siliguri, Patna, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Ghazipur, Unnao and Amravati. 
The Minister said that 72 new mobile manufacturing units have been started in the last 30 months, creating one lakh direct and three lakh indirect jobs in the country. He said that all major brands, including Apple and Samsung, were manufacturing in India. 
Underlining three main achievements of Digital India, Mr. Prasad said that it has been transformational, created empowerment and established a new paradigm of development. “This flagship programme of the Modi government is delivering affordable technology and creating inclusive India,” he said. 
As the world’s largest biometric based based digital identity, Aadhar coverage has gone up to 114 crore upto 2016-2017. The Minister said that Rs. 1.9 lakh crore has been transferred to beneficiaries till this month using Aadhar which has resulted in a total saving of Rs. 50,000 crore by removing fictitious beneficiaries. He assured that Aadhar data was totally safe and secure and protected a person’s privacy.
On connecting village panchayats by optical fibre network, he said that 90,000 panchayats had been connected so far and the aim was to connect all 2.5 lakh panchayats. 
On concerns over cyber security and attacks like the recent “ransomware”, Mr. Prasad said that a Cyber Security Coordination Centre would start functioning from this June and assured that constant upgrade of cyber security systems was being undertaken to protect the country’s data and e-commerce at all levels. 
The Minister also announced setting up of Digital India Corporation (DIC) which would lead in realizing the vision, objects and goals of Digital India programme by devising strategies and monitoring implementation. 

NEW DELHI : Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit later this month for the biannual inter-governmental consultancies (IGC), Germany on Tuesday made a strong pitch for resuming negotiations for an EU-India free trade agreement (FTA) and reaffirmed its support for New Delhi’s bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
 Germany is among the countries with which India has terminated bilateral investment protection treaties (BITs) following a new BIT model New Delhi released in December 2015.  Following the expiry of the India-Germany BIT in March this year, German Ambassador Martin Ney told the media here that while existing investments from India in Germany or vice-versa will be protected for the next 15 years under the old set of rules, all new investments will not have any protection until a new treaty is signed.  Stating that European Union (EU) member-states have passed on the responsibility of investment protection negotiations to the EU, Ney said that the European Commission and the Indian government should “sit down as soon as possible” to negotiate a free trade agreement.  Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will head the fourth round of IGC on May 29-30 in Berlin. Germany is the only country with which India has the IGC arrangement which started in 2011.    “In the last inter-governmental consultations (in 2015), Prime Minister Modi and Chancellor Merkel spoke out strongly in favour of resuming FTA negotiations between the EU and India,” Ney said.   He laid stress on the necessity of the FTA, and said the EU was India’s largest trading partner.  “If you want to shape globalisation, you do it by writing it into treaties,” the German Ambassador said, adding that there were strategic reasons for this too.  He cited the One Belt One Road (OBOR) summit hosted by China earlier this month as another reason for an FTA between India and the EU.  “India has not participated in the OBOR summit. The European countries have participated but have not signed up to the trade declaration of OBOR,” Ney said.  Describing the OBOR as a China-centred trade enhancement system, Ney said: “If both the EU and India have certain hesitations about it, it should give us extra incentive to sit down and resume negotiations on a free trade agreement.”  Giving a larger picture of the upcoming talks in Berlin, the ambassador said both India and Germany believed in the tenets of democracy and a rules-based international order.  He said both countries cooperate closely in terms of G20 coordination, UN Security Council reforms, freedom of navigation including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), strategic importance of the Indian Ocean region, the fight against terrorism and stability in Afghanistan.       “Germany supports India’s membership in different export control regimes, including the NSG,” he said.  The German envoy pointed out that the two countries have over 25 working groups, including in areas like climate change, energy, infrastructure and tourism.  He said that like in the last IGC in 2015, there will be “series of substantial MoUs (memorandums of understanding) and joint declarations of intent” after the talks in Berlin.  One of the most important areas in which these agreements are likely to be signed, according to Ney, is business.  “The Indo-German Chamber of Commerce is the biggest German bilateral chamber outside Germany. It has more than 7,000 German and Indian member companies,” he said, adding that over 1,800 German companies were doing business in India.  Since 2010, he said German companies have invested almost Rs 53,000 crore in India, including Rs 8,121 crore in last year alone.  “India is interested in German technology and knowhow and we are interested in sharing this,” he said.  According to the envoy, start-up ventures will be another area that will come under discussion with both countries having “great ecosystems” for this.  Other sectors which he mentioned might come up for discussion include vocational education and training, pollution control in the face of rapid urbanisation, renewable energy, agriculture, defence production and cultural cooperation.  In terms development cooperation, he said India was Germany’s largest development partner with Berlin giving around Rs 7,000 crore in development aid each year.

Prime Minister Theresa May convened an emergency COBRA meeting at Downing Street on Tuesday to discuss counter-terror strategy as a male suicide bomber killed 22 persons, including children, during a concert at Manchester Arena.
Fifty nine persons were injured in the attack that occurred at 22:35 BST just as a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande had ended.
A male suicide bomber is suspected to have carried out the attack in the foyer of the Arena building as 20,000 fans were streaming towards the exit doors.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Chief Constable Ian Hopkins will attend the COBRA (a crisis response committee) meeting.
This was a major terror attack on British soil after four terrorists from Leeds killed 52 people in the London Tube and Bus on July 7, 2005. 
All major political parties suspended their election campaign on Tuesday. British Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, former Lord Mayor Afzal Khan were among the senior politicians who condemned the attack.
Greater Manchester Police said the lone male attacker, who died in the blast, was carrying an improvised explosive device which he detonated.
Grande was not injured, a team member confirmed.
She tweeted several hours later: “Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so so sorry. I don’t have words.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the attack was “barbaric, deliberately targeting some of the most vulnerable”.
“This was an evil act,” said Mayor Burnham. “Our first thoughts are with the families of those killed and injured and we will do whatever we can to support them. We are grieving today but we are strong. Today it will be business as usual as far as possible in our great city.”
In a statement, the Prime Minister said: “We are working to establish the full details of what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack.
“All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of those who have been affected.”
At least 60 ambulances attended the scene of the blast, as over 240 distress calls were received. The Manchester Royal Infirmary Hospital was blocked off to all but essential staff.
No group or individual has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but supporters of the Islamic State (IS) terror group were seen celebrating the blast on social media, the media reported.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: “Terrible incident in Manchester. My thoughts are with all those affected and our brilliant emergency services.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemning the attack said “our thoughts are with the families of the deceased and prayers with the injured”.
The US Department of Homeland Security said it was “closely monitoring” the situation.
Sir Richard Leese, leader of the Manchester City Council, said the “city will not allow terrorism to divide the communities”.
“The city has been through dark times but it’s difficult to remember anything that’s as bad as what’s happened last night,” Richard said. “We have to deal with the reality of that, at the same time as communities have to pull together with each other.
“We cannot allow what is believed to be a terror attack to divide us and we can’t allow them to win. I think that again, on the assumption that this is a deliberate attack, that the targets primarily were young girls and their families and it is almost beyond belief that anybody could target such a group of people with this appalling outrage,” Richard said.
Manchester Arena, formerly known as the MEN Arena, is the biggest indoor venue in the city with a capacity of around 18,000 for concerts.
Mancunians were showing their compassionate side just after the incident. Within an hour of reports of the blast, people began offering spare rooms and beds to people stranded in the city using the hashtag #RoomForManchester. 
Hundreds of tweets offering places to stay are being shared and re-tweeted thousands of times.
Local cab drivers were offering free rides to stranded young fans of the American diva.
Greater Manchester Police set up a hotline to help families to get details about their missing relatives – 0044 161 856 9400.
Universal Music Group, the parent company of Grande’s Republic Records label, posted on Facebook: “We are deeply saddened to learn of tonight’s devastating event in Manchester. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragedy.”
Musicians such as Ed Sheeran, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and others offered supportive tweets.
The Manchester Victoria train station located close to the Arena was shut down on Tuesday, UK National Rail announced.
In June 1996, an Irish Republic Army (IRA) truck-bomb exploded not far from the Arena that left hundreds injured.

The Vice Chairman

Niti Aayog

Government of India

New Delhi

Civil society organizations have expressed concern over the possibility of India becoming a `SUN Country’ by joining the Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) movement.

In a memorandum submitted to the Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog, Secretaries to the Government of India and State Health Secretaries, the civil society has raised concerns regarding the visit of the global coordinator of SUN movement to India to `lobby’ for India joining the movement and its SUN Business Network (SBN).

If a country becomes a member of SUN, it is labeled as a “SUN country”. According to its roadmap, by 2020, all SUN countries will “Have a multi-stakeholder partnership for coordination at national level’’ and “have aligned policy, legislation and regulation, in support of nutrition”. As a key strategy, SUN encourages to set-up Multi -stakeholder platforms and SBN is identified stakeholder. SBN is convened by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and World Food Program (WFP), the memorandum has said.

Pointing out that majority of the SBN Members are in food businesses promoting ready-to-use foods, nutrition supplements, ingredients for formulas and highly processed products and snacks, the memorandum said SUN had failed to address the double burden of malnutrition, both under and over-nutrition. These members include Pepsi, Cargill, Nutriset, Britannia, Unilever, Edesia, General Mills, Glaxo SKB, Mars, Indofood, Nutrifood, DSM, Amul, and Valid Nutrition.

Moreover, and of deep concern, is that SUN, while claiming to support governments in taking the lead in policy setting, in reality facilitates the entry of businesses into the policy space. SUN does this by using an incorrect conflict of interest (CoI) concept– that calls on its members to be ‘inclusive’ and ‘predictable and mutually accountable, it said. `’We cannot see how the Government of India – or any other government claiming to uphold democratic principles – can allow themselves to be accountable to transnational corporations or philanthropic foundations rather than their citizens.  Nor can we see how effective nutrition and public health policies can be adopted if consensus must first be reached with transnational food corporations.’’   

The SUN approach results in its members sidelining the sustainable strategies for ‘prevention’ that IBFAN and other health NGOs focus on  – and instead promote ready to use foods and supplements as a solution for treatment of undernutrition. SUN Business Network members understand prevention only through ‘magic bullet’ and market-led approaches – ‘buy this product to prevent this micronutrient deficiency. Such approaches mislead and undermine local, bio-diverse and sustainable food cultures. Indian data for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) children suggests that there little difference between commercial ready to use foods or home augmented foods to treat SAM, the memorandum said.

Also, there are negligible efforts to address obesity and related Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs including diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome), which are assuming epidemic proportions. Paradoxically, an important contributor of this burden is the promotion and consumption of highly -processed foods, especially those with high sugar, salt and fat content.  “The companies producing and promoting such products are core members of SBN, who benefit financially from their association with SUN, camouflaging their marketing strategies as promotion of public nutrition. In the long term, this can cause irreparable financial damage to Indian economy because of inherent cost of treatment and rehabilitation from NCDs and suppression of local food industry,’’ the memorandum added.

SBN’s involvement at policy making will corrode India’s ability to protect its public health policy setting space from commercial influence.  We should be zealously guarding our own food sovereignty and economic interests. One of the reasons big food players would like to come to India is because the markets in the west are saturated and growth of processed food is projected in lower middle-income countries, the civil society members said.

Resonating these concerns, recently Brazil categorically refused to become a Â“SUN country”. India should question if SUN is a global Movement, then why SUN member countries are only aid recipients and does not have the donor countries join the Movement as members, the members said while welcoming the Niti Aayog’s stated health agenda aiming to shift the focus to prevention instead of treatment. “With this principle in mind, we make a strong plea that our country or individual States should not join ‘SUN’ even as it intensifies its efforts to rope in more countries.’’

Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor has raised an unprecedented $ 2.1 million for Akshaya Patra during his 10-day tour of the US.

The Chef toured through Boston, four cities in the Bay Area and Los Angeles where he spoke, auctioned signed dinner plates, gala tables and memorabilia to raise the funds.

Padma awardee Sanjeev Kapoor charmed audiences everywhere with poignant stories from his career while bringing into focus the painful facts of hunger in India.

He spoke about his own childhood, with dramatic style narrated the three very different lives that his father led as he moved from Pakistan to India after the partition. The story emphasized the point that given a chance everyone could succeed.  Everyone deserved a chance; that no child should be denied an education because of hunger.

In the Bay Area, with notable executives and dignitaries from the Silicon Valley present, Chef appealed to the audience to give to Akshaya Patra, an NGO that serves 1.6 million midday meals to children in 13,200 government schools in 12 States in India. Akshaya Patra has scaled from serving 1,500 meals in 2002 to becoming the biggest midday meal program in the world, operating 29 centralized, ISO certified kitchens and transporting the food to schools up to a distance of 40 kms.

In a conversation with Chef at the Sanatan Dharma temple in Los Angeles with over 300 guests present, comedian and Emcee Rajiv Satyal asked “why Akshaya Patra?”. Chef replied his journey was about good food and Akshaya Patra was all about food. Just like his own journey where cooking food for his family and friends and also presenting it to millions of viewers on television show for over 20 years, the joy of giving is much more than the joy of receiving.

At the exclusive invitee only dinner at the Spice Affair restaurant in Beverly Hills with just under 100 donors present, Chef spoke about the circle of giving and receiving, everything he gave has come back to him many times over – something we often miss in our busy lives. His message to the audience was to give, because we could and to go even further, give for selfish reasons, because it felt good. Chef Sanjeev Kapoor raised over $925,000 within a half hour, auctioning off tables for Akshaya Patra’s Diwali benefit gala on October 28^th in Los Angeles. Vandana Tilak, a director of the Board for Akshaya Patra USA thanked the Chef and his wife Alyona for taking the time out in their busy schedules to support the march against hunger and going above and beyond to ensure every opportunity was explored and dedicated to serving a mid day meal to children in India.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Bengaluru, India. The organisation strives to fight issues like hunger and malnutrition in India. By implementing the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in the Government schools and Government aided schools, The Akshaya Patra Foundation aims not only to fight hunger but also to bring children to school. Since 2000, the organisation has worked towards reaching more children with wholesome food on every single school day. Akshaya Patra Foundation is continuously leveraging technology to cater to millions of children. Its state-of-the-art kitchens have become a subject of study and they attract curious visitors from around the world.  

In partnership with the Government of India and various State Governments and inestimable support from many philanthropic donors and well-wishers; Akshaya Patra has grown from humble beginnings serving just 1,500 school children across 5 schools. Today, The Akshaya Patra Foundation is the world’s largest (not-for-profit) run Mid-Day Meal Programme serving wholesome food to over 1.5 million children from 11,360 schools across 10 states in India.