New Delhi, December 19
“Resources generated from economic growth should be used for public services and public goods in general, rather than being absorbed only in private consumption,” said Nobel laureate and celebrated economist, Amartya Sen.

Sen stressed accountability both in elementary education as well in the entire system of public services. He urged the authorities to utilize resources generated from economic growth in both these areas.

Sen was speaking at a seminar, ‘Right to Education: Action Now,’ organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

He spoke at length on the need for the expansion of elementary education for sustainable and inclusive growth and especially advocated the deployment of more economic resources in education.

He emphasized the role of organizational reforms in the efficient delivery of public services. “Despite economic reforms, the slowness of progress on school education has been taking much longer to remedy,” Sen informed.

He further said, “There is a large lacuna here brought out sharply by a number of studies in many parts of India.”

He spoke about the importance of school inspection that had broken down in many parts of the country and there was “a shocking incidence of absenteeism and neglect” on part of the teachers in government schools.

He pointed out that the gap of deficiencies in basic education could not be filled by the expansion of private schools.

He felt that, “those families that could afford to pay the fee for private schools were precisely those who were relatively favoured by economic prosperity and change, but it was the large mass of the underprivileged and poor families and children who were left way behind.”

He dwelt at length on administrative reforms, he called for the necessity of collaboration with other social groups, particularly the unions of public service workers, giving them a larger role.

Sen denounced the claim that poverty in India had not really come down, saying it was “not exactly right”.

He said, “There had been some reduction in the proportion of poverty-stricken people but the process could have been much faster if the achievements in economic growth were combined with ways and means of more widespread sharing of economic opportunities.”

He also lauded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s commitment to rapid expansion of public services in education, health care and other social and physical infrastructure after assuming office in 2004.

“Correspondingly, a considerable quickening of public goods expansion has certainly happened and I believe the new five year Plan that is being released right now indicates a much firmer commitment,” said Sen. 

New Delhi, December 19
The President, Mrs Pratibha Devi Singh Patil today celebrated her birthday with special children in one of the children homes run by the Delhi government.

She visited Asha Kiran Children Home at Rohini where she was welcomed by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and social welfare minister Yoganand Shastri.

The President was presented with paintings prepared by mentally challenged children of the Home.

She gifted two colour TV sets to the children. The President was pleased to meet the special children.

She also distributed sweets among them. She stated that she has been celebrating her birthday in various institutions dedicated to children.

She further commended the working of the Home and described it as a best managed Children Home. She also complimented the city-government on providing excellent amenities to the deprived children in the Home.

Dikshit expressed gratitude to the President for visiting the Home of Delhi government on her birthday.

She described this moment as a memorable event for all Delhiites. She also announced a hike of Rs 1000 in monthly emoluments of the employees of the Home.

Dikshit further assured the President that hergovernment would continue to provide best possible amenities and opportunities to the deprived children who had been putting up in different children homes of Delhi government.

New Delhi, December 19
The chilly breeze sweeping across Delhi for the past two days intensified today with the mercury dipping to the season’s lowest.

Delhiites reeled from the cold weather as the minimum temperature today plummeted to the season’s low of 4.2 degree Celsius. On Sunday, the minimum had dipped to 4.4 degree Celsius. After a slight rise to 4.6 degree Celsius on Monday, the mercury again dropped to 4.4 degree Celsius yesterday.

While the minimum temperature was 4.2 degree Celsius, the maximum at 22 was also two notches below normal, the Met office said.

A shallow fog in the Capital in the morning also reduced visibility to as low as 400 m around 7 am.

While the fog caused traffic disruptions at many places in the Capital during the morning hours, the situation at the airport remained normal.

Airport officials said that flights took off as per schedule without any fog-related disruptions and there were no delays.

The chill in the air is likely to persist. However, weathermen are predicting a slight increase in the minimum temperature due to western disturbances.

The Met office has forecast a mainly clear sky in the Capital during the next 24 hours with the likelihood of a partly cloudy sky later in the day.

New Delhi, December 19
The term sex education, that is often misunderstood, should be modified and called sexuality education to give it a broader meaning to include its biological, socio-cultural and psychological dimensions, speakers at a two-day meet on the subject suggested here.

Jaya Sharma of Nirantar, a centre for gender and education, said that sex education is often understood to mean education about sexual anatomy and sexual behaviour, and misunderstood by parents to be encouraging sexual activity among the young people.

“People think that sex education is all about sexual anatomy and behaviour and will only encourage sexual activity amongst their children. That’s why it has been banned in most states.

“Therefore it’s better to use the term sexuality education which includes biological, socio-cultural and psychological dimensions of sexuality,” Sharma told IANS.

The meet, which brought together over 40 representatives of NGOs, women’s rights groups, child rights groups and other organisations in the Capital, saw the participants discussing the various issues related to sexuality of young people, paying special emphasis on sex education.

“Sexuality education is much wider than information about sexual activities. It also deals with making an adolescent aware of her developing body, taking decisions and preventing abuse and violence.

“Some of the objections raised against the material on sexuality education are actually weird. For instance, the anatomy of the body depicted in the biology textbooks were not objectionable but the same pictures in the sexuality education material were,” said Jasodhara Dasgupta of Sahyog, an NGO in Lucknow.

To the fear that parents harbour about children wanting to actually experiment with sexual activity after sex education, Dasgupta said that young people are already interested and sexually active in India.

“This is a fact proven by the National Family Health Survey 2 and 3 which states that young people are sexually active by the time they are 12 or 13. It says 57 per cent of the girls are married before they turn 18 and 52 per cent have their first pregnancy between 15 and 19 years.

“The report on child abuse which was released this year showed that 53.2 per cent children are sexually abused, a sad fact which can be avoided if only children are made aware of their bodies, of differentiating between a good and a bad touch,” she added. — IANS

New Delhi, December 19
Eight robbers in the garb of policemen entered three house in northwest Delhi for “secret searches” and decamped with a total cash worth nearly Rs 3,00,000 early on Wednesday after injuring one person, the police said.

The incident took place around 2.30 am in the Khajoori Khas area, when the eight people impersonating as police officials entered the house of Khoti, 35, on the pretext of searching it.

“They told me that there was a gang of robbers operational in the area and they were conducting secret searches. I opened the gate for them. They first ate all the food available in my house and then pointed a gun at my wife’s temple, asking us to hand over whatever little cash and jewellery we had,” said Khoti, a labourer.

“After robbing us, they asked us to take them to the house of our neighbour Mohammed Ali (also a labourer) and robbed him of some cash on the same pretext,” he added.

The police said that after looting Ali, 35, of Rs 29,000, some of the robbers took him to the house of his elderly neighbour Supan, who works as a blanket merchant, while the remaining robbers stayed with the families of Ali and Khoti.

The gang robbed Supan of Rs 2,75,000 in cash and bank drafts worth Rs 8,00,000, which were cancelled later. They fired at Ali, injuring him in the chest, when he tried to raise an alarm.

Ali’s neighbours rushed him to the Trauma Centre on Wednesday evening. His condition was stated to be critical. The police said a case has been registered and investigations were underway.

“We have launched a massive hunt to nab the assailants, but no arrests have been made yet,” said additional deputy commissioner of police (North East Delhi) Rupinder Kumar. — IANS

New Delhi, December 19
The male-female gulf in literacy rates in Asia and Africa seems to be widening, says a UN report. In India, more than half of young women aged 15-19 years have no primary education.

“In India, the proportion of girls enrolled in primary education rose from 84 to 96 per cent between 1998 and 2002. Nevertheless, many countries, particularly those in South Asia, still have a long way to go to achieve gender parity in education,” says the report titled “World Youth Report 2007” released on Wednesday.

“Poverty is a major barrier to schooling. When poor parents need to make a choice, girls tend to be excluded first from attending school. The gap between male and female literacy rates in Asia and Africa appears to be widening.”

The report focuses on challenges in youth development in Asia, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, small-island developing states, countries with economies in transition and developed market economies.

One major finding is that the 1.2 billion people between the ages of 15 and 24 years in 2007 — who constitute 18 per cent of the world population— are the best educated youth generation in history and are a tremendous resource for national development.

Of the global youth labour force of 633 million, some 353 million (55.7 per cent) lived in Asia.

“Among the most important factors that will influence whether and how Asian economies continue to benefit from their sizeable youth population is how much of an opportunity youth have to develop their potential through education, decent employment opportunities and adequate health care.”

Further, Asia is a major receiving and sending region of migrants as job opportunities outside home communities and countries have encouraged millions of young Asians to become mobile on both a permanent and non-permanent basis.

Opportunities for migration to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries have increased for highly skilled Asian youth, resulting in considerable outflows of the most qualified and brightest young people in many countries, says the report

With 29 per cent of the global total of those studying outside their home country, East Asia and the Pacific contribute the largest group of students studying abroad. China accounts for 14 per cent of all mobile students.

“Compared with other regions, globalisation has arguably had the most impact on the rapidly growing Asian economies. In addressing the challenges and opportunities related to globalisation and education in Asia,” the report notes.

“The openness of these economies and the exposure to foreign goods, services and information has significantly changed the lives, values and culture of many young Asians.”

While globalisation has fostered the coexistence of affluence and poverty it has widened inequalities within and between countries.

“While many young people benefit from increased education options and from the new industries that moved to Asia, others continue to be restricted by inadequate schooling and poverty and are outside the reach of the basic information, goods and services that have become available with globalisation.”—IANS

New Delhi, December 19
The face of the $11-billion Indian entertainment and media industry is changing beyond recognition with the invasion of digital technology, says a new joint study by a leading industry chamber and a global consultancy.

Rising disposal incomes, increasing density of alternative delivery platforms and digitisation are collectively changing consumption patterns in the media entertainment industry across the country, says the study released on Wednesday.

While investment in exhibition infrastructure is increasing theatrical capacity, digitisation of distribution is helping filmmakers maximize revenues, adds the study by Ernst and Young and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

Take, for example, “Vivah”, a film by Rajshri Production released simultaneously in November 2006 in theatres and online on its website - the first such attempt by any production house in India.

The movie was made available on a free view basis for the first few days, post which it was sold at Rs 400 ($10) per download. Nine months later, it had sold 6,500 downloads.

According to the study, tiled “Digitisation: Paving the Way for New Media”, multiplexes set box office tills ringing with 100 per cent revenue and manifold increase in ticket prices, compared to the old single screen theatres.

This, the study says, augurs well for India, which is the largest film market in the world for movies, churning out more than 1,000 films every year in more than 10 regional languages.

To top it, higher “penetration” of television sets and VCDs/DVDs and the arrival of digital pay channels are opening new avenues of income, as well as changing existing business models.

Digitisation, coupled with the new awareness among consumers and industry alike, has brought in a change of content. Niche is the new buzzword in the multiplex circuit.

Multiplexes, says the study, are providing a platform for thematic and stylistic exclusivity, which were so long sacrificed at the altar of profit and big banners.

Take the small budget film “Bheja Fry”, a multiplex comedy made by Rajat Kapoor with a modest budget of Rs 6 million ($150,000). The movie was released last April with just 60 prints, virtually without marketing.

But by the end of the second week, revenues had picked up to such an extent that its makers ordered 60 more prints. Publicity was chiefly by word of mouth.

Given that niche films are released in limited numbers, a producer has to rein in production and distribution costs to ensure maximum gains. But digitisation, says the report, will slash print duplication cost to mere Rs 5,000 ($125) as against Rs 60,000 ($1,500) per print on the celluloid format.

This, according to the industry, will allow the producer to tap wider markets—at least 10 times the existing one on the first day itself. Timely screening will check piracy losses, estimated at Rs 110 billion ($2.75) annually.

Distribution costs will drop further when digital cinema grows into a “sizeable mass” and the transmission process becomes centralized like TV broadcast, the report predicts.

Explaining the impact of digitisation on content, the report says the spurt in mobile telephony, the use of Internet and the burgeoning Indian diaspora abroad, have led to increased sharing of content and vigorous net consumption because of the high bandwidth connectivity.

Mobile telephony users in India are currently estimated at close to 220 million, while Internet penetration is pegged at 46 million, with an active base of over 32 million.

This, claims the study, has created demand for regional diversity to suit individual ethnic groups or communities.

Marathis abroad now want to watch Marathi cinema, Gujaratis crave for their own films, while Bengalis pine for their vernacular content. The global demand for Bollywood staple is also ever increasing.

The result: Revival of regional cinema and content both in screen and TV.

But the report points to an imbalance in the growth of regional content. Hindi movies from Bollywood and Tamil and Telugu movies from the south shoot past all other regional players, which are yet to get a toehold in the new domain. The same holds true for TV.

Dwelling on the problems faced by the cable and satellite industry, the report identifies the four major bottlenecks—monopoly of cable operators, rampant piracy, limited bouquets and high carriage fee. — IANS

New Delhi, December 19
Never mind the chill or a proposed crackdown on non-European Union tourists by the British government, Europe is still the hottest outbound destination for Indians this yearend.

According to tour operators, the last two months have seen a sharp rise in the number of Indian group travellers to destinations across Europe and the count is steadily rising in the run-up to Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Tour operators are wooing Indian travellers with special cost-saving packages and the National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) of Europe, which promote tourism of individual nations abroad, have unveiled new yearend packages specially tailored for South Asian markets.

“Group tours are popular because they are affordable. Indians enjoy the snow. In terms of percentage, you can say there has been more than 10 percent increase in group travel as compared to last year,” Arup Sen, executive director of Cox and Kings, told IANS.

One of the reasons why the flow of tourists to Europe has increased this winter is that airlines have dramatically hiked their capacities between India and Europe in the last two years.

“They are offering special winter tariffs,” said Sen.

This has encouraged several outbound travellers to plan European holidays. According to Cox and Kings officials, most travellers are from the ‘double income, no kids’ (DINKS) groups, who do not travel during summer. They usually take breaks from work in winter.

The most popular circuits this season are icy trails around Britain, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. SOTC, a part of the Switzerland-based Kuoni Group, has introduced special cost-saving European winter packages. The group is offering a discount of Rs 15,000 per adult, valid till Christmas eve.

“The cost savers to Europe are available at the price of a Far East holiday,” said Sunil Gupta, chief operating officer of SOTC.

A five-day Switzerland sojourn has been priced at Rs 28,990 instead of the regular Rs 43,990, while an 11-day trip to Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Switzerland, Schaffhausen, Heidelberg, Rhineland, Cologne, Brussels, Paris and London will cost Rs 59,990, SOTC officials said.

“The high cost of holidaying in Europe has always been a hindrance. The low cost packages, coupled with the high disposable income of Indian travellers, who are now experimenting with their itineraries, will push outbound travel,” said Gupta.

This year, Britain is pulling out all stops with celebratory events that include Christmas markets, winter wonderlands and New Year’s Eve parties to woo large groups from India.

“Though there are nearly 600 holiday trails around the country, the most popular packages which we are recommending for Indians are Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland and Glasgow on Ice,” Paramjit Bawa, country manager of British NTO VisitBritain, told IANS.

However, the hottest destinations for Indians this winter are Bradford and Liverpool, which is being billed as the country’s cultural capital, British tourism officials said.

Bawa said the bulk of travellers to Britain from India comprises families, business groups, honeymooners and youngsters.

Outbound travel in India has already crossed the eight million mark and by 2010, it is expected to cross 15 million, second only to China. — IANS