Spotlight

New Delhi, 3 February 2007

PROMOTING HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINES

NEW DELHI, February 6 (INFA): The Central Council for Research in Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy (CCRIMH) has stepped up organized research and promotion of homoeopathy. It

has recently formulated new protocols for the drug standardization studies, with the help of Task Force Committees, consisting of experts from concerned fields.

Taking into consideration the WHO’s Quality Control Methods for medicinal plants, tests for heavy metals and adulterants are also incorporated in the standardization studies. The emphasis of the Council has been to prove drugs of indigenous origin and those with fragmentary provings. The Council has proved 71 drugs, on healthy human volunteers.

In an attempt to ensure transparency and accuracy in its Drug Proving Programme has decided to involve the budding Homoeopathic physicians in its Drug Proving Programme.

The clinical verification programme of the Council is now based on the new protocol formed by the Homoeopathic experts.

The Ethical Committee of the Council has approved the new protocol. The Clinical Verification programme is being conducted to clinically verify 35 drugs proved by the Council.

An essential component of research today is formation of a team, which can work in close coordination and put in their best efforts together.  Collaborations are needed to form one such team, where the best of the brains and the resources can come together.

The Council has been in collaboration with reputed institutes for a very long time.

Documentation and publication section of the Council is engaged in bringing out various publications from time to time.

The other activities of the Council include literary research, participation in health melas, conducting and organizing seminars and training programmes and providing specific library services to the benefit of the profession. ---INFA

PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR AGAINST MAOISTS

HYDERABAD, February 4 (INFA): The Andhra Pradesh Police has launched their psychological war against the Maoists from class rooms by conducting “awareness sessions” for High School students.

This is part of its systematic strategy to turn school kids away from the Maoists by portaging them in bad light.

The campaign was launched among high school students since most of the new recruits in the Maoist fold are high school dropouts.---INFA

Spotlight

New Delhi, 3 February 2007

ANDHRA’S DELIMITATION BLUES

HYDERABAD, February 4 (INFA): Almost all the 42 Lok Sabha and 294 Assembly segments are poised to witness drastic changes with the redrawing of their boundaries, according to the Delimitation Commission’s constituencies. 

There is no change in the total number of seats in view of the freeze till 2026. Though the exercise was initiated in January, 2003, it could not make headway for four years since the basis for delineation was changed midway from the 1991 Census to the last one in 2001.

Before issuing the final notification, the Commission has invited objections and suggestions and has proposed to hold public hearings later this month. 

Thanks to its higher population growth particularly in the Ranga Reddy district, Hyderabad-Secunderabad and Telangana region stands to gain significantly from the exercise with the number of Lok Sabha seats going up from 15 at present to 17 after delimitation and the number of Assembly seats increasing by a dozen from the existing 107 to the proposed 119. Coastal Andhra is poised to lose two Lok Sabha seats, to go from 19 to 17, and 11 Assembly seat from 134 to 123.

Rayalaseema will continue to have eight Lok Sabha seats after delimitation though the number of Assembly seats is expected to come down marginally from 53 to 52.

Sitting MPs and MLAs, including the Union and State Ministers will be directly affected by these widespread changes, since their constituencies are being scrapped, renamed, re-down, reserved or deserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The boundaries of almost all constituencies are proposed to be substantially altered.---INFA

GERMAN VOLKSWAGEN COMES TO INDIA

NEW DELHI, February 4 (INFA): Volkswagen, a car company trusted by millions of people worldwide, is all set to turn on its engines for the Indian market. 

The company plans to assemble and produce cars in India that will bear all the hallmarks of German engineering like attention to detail, state-of-the-art technology, true value as well as stringent safety features.

The car will be specifically tailored to the needs of the Indian market.  This model will have a very attractive price while offering all the essential features of a genuine Volkswagen with all the benefits of our brand. 

It is scheduled that the new plant in the Chakan industrial park near Pune will commence producing up to 110,000 vehicles a year as of 2009.

With investment totaling some 410 million euros, a full production plant with a press shop, body shop, paint shop and assembly lines is to be built on the 230 hectare site. Some of the components for vehicle construction will be delivered to India from other Volkswagen Group plants.  Furthermore, a significant share of the material required will come from local suppliers.

The new plant in India will create some 2,500 new jobs.  Chakan near Pune emerged as the optimum location from a comprehensive and exhaustive analysis of a total of 17 potential sites. The decisive factors favouring Pune were its excellent logistics infrastructure, with a large number of automotive components suppliers in the vicinity, its substantial supply of well-trained specialist workers and its central location.---INFA

Spotlight

New Delhi, 2 February 2007

INDIA’S RISING POULTRY SECTOR

NEW DELHI, February 3 (INFA): India ranks among the top three countries in egg production in the world. The country’s broiler production is growing at the rate of 8-10 per cent every year, according to a conservative estimate.

The country produces about 1.9 million metric tonnes of chicken meet annually at present.  The annual per capita availability of eggs and chicken meet has also increased presently from a mere 10 eggs and 146 grams in 1970s to more than 41 eggs and 1.6 gms respectively.

While commercial poultry production in India is a major venture of the private sector with about 75 per cent of the sector under its control, rural backyard poultry farming still plays a pivotal role in livelihood support for the rural poor.  In the unorganized sector, the Government is trying to use poultry as one of the tools for enriching small farm families through a more holistic and self-reliant approach not only in terms of income/employment etc.

Ancillary to the poultry production system in India are the support services e.g., feed-plants, health-care products, processing plants, marketing network, transportation network, vendors, etc.  It is estimated that nearly 3 million people are engaged directly or indirectly in this sector.

India’s share of the world trade in poultry and poultry products is very small. However, the country has come a long way during the last decade, increasing its value of exports from nearly Rs.11.00 crore in 1993-94 to around Rs.326.26 crore during 2005-06.

The country is gradually gaining ground in international trade through export of poultry and poultry products like live poultry, hatching eggs, table eggs, egg powder, frozen eggs, poultry meat and now also Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) eggs.

The exports of poultry and poultry products from India have a great potential due to competitive costs of production and proximity to major export markets. Further a strong R&D backs poultry activities with intensive research in the area of poultry breeding/genetics, health, etc.

Lately, many integrators have adopted the concept of contractual farming, especially in Southern India, to not only bring down the cost of production but also to have a better monitoring and quality control of their products.

The isolated appearance on the Bird flue in the country received widespread media attention and caused some panic among the consumers. As a result, the consumption and prices of poultry products nose-dived. The poultry industry throughout the country suffered financial losses on account of drastic decline in the market for poultry and poultry products.

After assessing the demand of maize under the Targeted Public Distribution System around 3.5 lakh metric tonnes (MTs) was spared during the current Kharif season at a subsidized price of Rs.450 per quintal to various States for further distribution to farmers for use in poultry feed. ---INFA

Spotlight

New Delhi, 29 January 2007

INDIA IMPROVES RANKING IN WORLD MARKET

NEW DELHI, January 30 (INFA): India has considerably improved its ranking in the world market as an exporter.  Exports as a share of GDP is currently more than 13 per cent, compared with a share of only 6 per cent in 1990-91.

The most attractive in the world market are India’s merchandise and the service sector, whose exports together now account for about 20 per cent of the GDP, which is more than the share of agriculture in the GDP.

Exports crossed the landmark figure of US$ 100 billion to reach US$ 103 billion during 2005-06.  During the current year 2006-07, exports are expected to comfortably reach the target of US $125 billion.

A significant feature of export performance is that the export basket is fairly diversified.  Secondly, some of the skill intensive and technology intensive exports have recorded a high growth, reflecting the maturity and depth of the growth process. Thirdly, with rising investments in the export sector and its further integration in the world market, India has emerged as an important sourcing hub for labour intensive products such as textiles and auto parts.

In the pharmaceutical sector it holds the lion’s share of the world’s contract research business and has a strong competitive advantage in clinical trials and research, backed by its vast body of scientists and researchers.

Finally, there is a strong integration of the export sector with the domestic market, resulting in growing synergies between the two, leading to generation of additional economic activity and employment.

The growth performance of exports has been an outcome of a conscious and concerted effort on the part of the Government, bring down transaction costs and facilitate trade.

The vision and the roadmap provided by the Foreign Trade Policy (2004-09) for a five- year period with clearly enunciated objectives, strategies and policy initiatives has been instrumental in putting exports on a higher growth trajectory.

For the first time in the history of planning, doubling of exports in less than five years is being seen as an achievable target.

What is even more significant is that exports have been conceived of as an engine for generating additional economic activity for employment generation with special focus on rural and semi-urban areas.---INFA

CAREER AWARENESS DRIVE

HYDERABAD, January 30 (INFA): Incredible but true. Over 26,000 students thronged the Career Awareness and Recruitment Drive at Osmania University, Hyderabad, recently.

The drive, it may be added, was conducted by the AP State Council of Higher Education.

Computerized results will be announced soon.  Students were put through a written test followed by group discussions and interviews.---INFA