Bio-diesel: Veggie Van "Fuel" Documentary..... Life, Pollution and Impact on Environment.

The documentary about FUEL  Veggie Van: Bio-diesel is not all about fuel. It is also about the Life, Pollution  and impact on environment. Pollution and demand for FUEL is growing concerns. One cannot avoid this but we minimize it by considering / adopting alternative solutions..........

Director Josh Tickell takes us along for his 11 year journey around the world to find solutions to America's addiction to oil. A shrinking economy, a failing auto industry, rampant unemployment, an out-of-control national debt, and an insatiable demand for energy weigh heavily on all of us. Fuel shows us the way out of the mess we're in by explaining how to replace every drop of oil we now use, while creating green jobs and keeping our money here at home. The film never dwells on the negative, but instead shows us the easy solutions already within our reach.

India's Karnataka State Pioneers a Holistic Approach to Watershed Development

India's Karnataka State Pioneers a Holistic Approach to Watershed Development
SUBMITTED BY SOUTH ASIA ON WED, 02/23/2011 - 18:55

The Karnataka Watershed Development project - also known as Sujala - has increased the availability of water in seven drought-prone districts of northern Karnataka. Treatments on the upper and lower reaches of watersheds have helped raise water tables, brought degraded lands under cultivation, enabled farmers to diversify into higher value crops and horticulture, and raised agricultural productivity. State of the art remote sensing has been used to monitor impacts. Incomes for both the landed and landless poor have increased.


Source - http://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/indias-karnataka-state-pioneers-holistic-approach-watershed-development

Read this .......It is amazing.........Interesting and inspiring story..........

 

This shared from one of the e-mail from my friend Srikar Kandalam. Interesting and inspiring story.  

Edu spend: Girls lag behind boys: Survey Conducted in India

Parents Prefer To Send Boys To Pvt Schools, Girls To Govt Schools: Survey

Anahita Mukherji

Mumbai: At a time when Women’s Day is being celebrated with much fanfare the world over, India has a long way to go when it comes to educating ‘Sita’. While a growing number of parents across rural India have begun sending their girls to school, there’s a countrywide preference for sending boys to private schools and girls to government schools.
    Educationists feel this has a lot to do with the perception that private schools are better than government schools, and that if one has to spend on education, the perceived return on investment is higher for a boy.
    According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2010, one of the most authoritative private surveys for rural India, the percentage of girls in government schools is higher than boys in the seven to 14 age group, while the percentage of boys is higher in private schools.
    “When it comes to making a choice, families have probably decided to send their daughters to government schools and sons to private schools, as there is a popular perception that private schools are better than government schools,’’ says Rukmini Banerji, director, ASER centre.
    “The numbers come as a little surprise. Private schools are a lot more expensive than government schools. Parents would probably choose to send their sons to private schools, if they had the money, as they feel private schools deliver better quality and are more career-oriented,’’ says Sonia Gill of the All India Democratic Women’s Association.
    Interestingly, while the gender divide exists in most states, it is almost negligible in Maharashtra and Bihar, far less than the all-India average. While the figures come as a little surprise for Maharashtra, known to be a more progressive state, Bihar has seen a dramatic narrowing in the gender divide.
    “The figures for Bihar are remarkable. There is a huge improvement in the enrolment of students at school when compared with the ASER data for 2005. The last five years have also seen more girls at school. This is largely due to targeted government policies aimed at improving access to education, as well as reducing the gender divide,’’ says Banerji.
    Gill also points to the fact that there are far fewer private schools in Bihar.
    While the figures for most states across the country are in sync with the all-India average, Kerala has bucked the trend, with more girls being sent to private schools and more boys in government schools.
    Besides the obvious conclusion that women may be more equal in Kerala, Banerji says Kerala has a large number of government-aided private schools, which, though counted as private schools, function more like government schools.
    “This is true for Maharashtra, too. In both Kerala and Maharashtra, the line between the two is rather blurred, says Banerji. 

Source - Times of India, Hyderabad, Wednesday, 09 March 2011. Page - 13

Telangana fails 'backward' test

Rich-poor disparity matter of concern in Telangana 
Subodh Ghildiyal, TNN, Jan 2, 2011, 03.31am IST



NEW DELHI: In a setback to the campaign for Telangana, the Srikrishna committee has dismissed the argument of economic backwardness for carving out a separate state, arguing that the region compared well with other regions of Andhra Pradesh. 

The option of statehood for Telangana is low on its list of priorities. The Srikrishna panel, after a detailed analysis of district annual reports across regions, found that Telangana scored high on income generation, electricity, water and agriculture, lagging only in investment in education, with literacy rate lower than that in Coastal Andhra. 

The estimate for Telangana has been prepared without including Hyderabad which, as capital, has seen high growth and investment. 

The much-awaited report is set to be a dampener for proponents of statehood who have cited economic backwardness as the rationale for seeking division of Andhra. 

The panel, making a clutch of recommendations to settle the debate for bifurcation, has recommended that "development" be the basis for decision-making in future. 

The report will be made public on January 6 during an all-party meeting called by Union home minister P Chidambaram. 

Sources said the report states that Telangana's growth story has been positive, with the region clocking a "high rate of growth" to not just catch up with Coastal Andhra but even overtake the latter on certain parameters. 

The area of concern in Telangana is the disparity between the rich and the poor. While those with landed assets are progressing further, the poor are continuing to fall behind. The state of SC/STs and minorities requires more attention. The report, it is learnt, has found that Telangana scores high on "income generation" , largely because of higher "diversity of income" as compared to Coastal or Rayalaseema regions. The "diversity of income" sits in contrast with the largely agrarian economy of the Coastal region. 

The per capita consumption of electricity in Telangana is higher vis-a-vis other regions. It is also better off with regard to availability of water. The farm sector in Telangana seems to be doing well with high productivity. An evidence of good farm output is the growth of rice mills in the region. While Telangana has been a water-scarce pocket, the study has found that the shortage is being made up with groundwater. Irrigation projects are also coming up to supplement local requirements.


Read more: Rich-poor disparity matter of concern in Telangana - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rich-poor-disparity-matter-of-concern-in-Telangana/articleshow/7203360.cms#ixzz19rOFVg1q