http://goodnewsindia.com en goodnewsindia@gmail.com 2008-03-20T14:55:00+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/high-tech-eye-on-forests/ In the next six months Tata Consultancy Services [TCS] will implement GeoVun, a forest management software. This will enable effective patrolling of the forests, police poaching and measure the state of the forests. If successfully adopted across the country, there could be a dramatic improvement of forest cover. Tiger enthusiasts hope their tribe may increase - there are only about 1,400 tigers left in the country. The pilot study will begin over the Sanjay Gandhi National Park outside Mumbai. Using satellite imagery and geographical positioning system hardware, the system will suggest optimal routes for patrolling forest guards. - 2008-03-20T14:55:00+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/kiran-bedis-new-mission/ Kiran Bedi, the energetic lady cop, who opted to retire from police service recently, has announced a promising initiative. It is common in India for a local police station to refuse recording your complaint, let alone act on it. It is a selectively followed practice, either to sustain a source of illegal income or to reduce work load. Usually, the way around is to know someone higher up. Ms Bedi’s initiative will do just that. By registering your unattended complaint at saferindia.com you ensure it will be forwarded to the higher echelons. Kiran Bedi’s popularity with the public… - 2008-01-14T09:21:01+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/mazumdars-eye-mission/ A single man’s passion has transformed Ahmedabad district of Gujarat into country’s leading source of donated eyes. Gautam Mazumdar has been recognised as the man who has stoked the fires for this passion among people. Since 1965, this man has raced around the district to inspire people to donate eyes. He is given the credit for 100,000 eyes donated. The Government is also set to begin a Rs240 crores, formal programme to encourage eye donations. Eye banks will be funded and donors will get Rs 2,000 for a pair of eyes. Story - 2007-04-25T07:43:00+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/rural-telephony-turns-profitable/ Have you heard of the Universal Services Obligation Fund? It is the one that the Government used to dip in, to dole out subsidies to telecom operators to reach out to villages. Time was the operators did not find rural business profitable and had to be subsidised and coerced to serve there. But things have turned around more than 180 degrees. In the latest round of bidding, there was keen competition among telcos to not only spurn subsidies but offer the government a premium to get the rural blocks they want. The forecast is mobile telephony will reach… - 2007-04-25T07:00:01+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/isro-order-book-filling-up/ After successfully launching the 352kg Italian satellite, Agile, on April 23, the Indian Space Research Organisation [ISRO]claims its order book is healthy. The copy-book Agile launch, is a major commercial success and ISRO joins the exclusive club of launchers made up of the USA, Russia, France, China and Japan. ISRO’s marketing arm Antrix, says in August ISRO will launch a 300kg Israeli satellite. In 2008 it will launch an Israeli telescope. It is also set to launch six micro satellites for Canada. ISRO related stories in GNI Agile launch New orders - 2007-04-25T05:14:01+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/village-courts-planned/ 6,000 village level courts are planned across the country. To be known as Gram Nyayalayas, these will handle both criminal and civil disputes. They will adopt a shortened procedure with full safeguards for natural justice. The Centre will fund the creation of courts and share the recurring costs with the States. A Bill to formalise this will soon be introduced in the Parliament. The crowds of villagers milling around District and Taluka courts will no longer need to travel long distances and waste whole days or for that matter, be entrapped by greedy lawyers. - 2007-04-13T07:54:01+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/s-s-r-varadhan-wins-the-abel-prize/ Srinivasa S R Varadhan, born in Chennai and living in America since 1963 has won the Abel Prize for 2007. It is considered the Nobel Prize for mathematics. Varadhan is credited with playing a big part in mainstreaming probability theory. Here is an interesting excerpt from the biographical note put out by the Abel institution: “It is reported that during his thesis defence Varadhan noticed a visitor whom he did not know and who asked many penetrating questions. After the exam he discovered that it was the great Russian mathematician and probabalist A N Kolmogorov. Apparently… - 2007-04-12T14:51:00+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/the-smritivan-idea-catches-on/ Commemorative tree planting was an idea pioneered by Smritivan of Pune. The idea was to motivate people to plant trees by appealing to their sentiments. It has certainly caught on. After Sikkim [over 50,000 saplings so far!] and Madurai [164 acres], the idea has now arrived in Chennai For a one time payment of Rs.500 you can have a tree associated with your birth star, planted and maintained for three years by the C P Ramaswamy Environment Education Centre [CPREEC], Chennai. The State department that manages temples and temple lands… - 2007-04-04T08:06:00+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/drugs-from-arecanut/ Our forefathers were not unwise after all, to have included arecanut -betel- chewing as part of everyday life. Now two drugs have been prepared from the nut that can be used against diabetes and respiratory disorders. Licenses have been granted to Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara Ayurveda Pharmacy to manufacture these formulations. If the initial market acceptance scales up, 5% of all nut grown in Kerala and Karnataka will find new markets. The development may also suck out the quantity available for chewing, a habit that has nullified any medicinal virtue our ancestors may have discovered in the nut! - 2007-03-31T11:36:00+04:30 http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/rural-poverty-declines/ Rural poverty by any measure, appears to have declined, according to the National Sample Survey Organisation [NSSO]. Between 1993 and 2005, the number of people below poverty line declined from 244 million to 170 million. But at the same time, urban poverty has increased. That begs the question: has poverty only shifted, with people migrating from villages to the cities? “No”, argues Harish Damodaran in this report. If that were so, there should be a fall in the total rural population, which is not the case. India still largely -72%- lives in villages. - 2007-03-22T10:30:01+04:30