A Pledge For Safe, Green Tourism

New Delhi, Sep 28 : Stakeholders of the tourism industry and the government Monday signed a pledge reaffirming commitment to a safe, honourable and sustainable tourism to mark the World Tourism Day.

The pledge, signed by more than 150 representatives of the tourism industry at the Hotel Ashok here, reiterated "the commitment to conduct business in a manner that befits the culture and ethos of India's rich and ancient civilisation, the tolerant and accommodating nature of our multicultural society".

It sought to protect "all individuals - especially women and children - from all derogatory acts which are contrary to the spirit of the country".

"We hereby commit to abide by the code of conduct for safe and honourable tourism," the pledge said.

The signatories also "pledged to fully implement sustainable tourism practices, consistent with the best environment and heritage protection standards - such that the country's present tourism resource requirements optimise both local community benefit and future sustainable uses".

The pledge assumes significance in the light of the incidents of abuse of foreign women tourists and visitors to India between January and August this year.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Tourism Minister Kumari Selja said: "The pledge is a major stride forward in safe tourism reaffirming a sense of responsibility and the impact of tourism on the socio-economic and cultural life."

"Efforts to promote tourism has increased in the last 10 years. While people are travelling more than ever before, the recent years have witnessed crime and human rights violations as never before. Definite lack of documentation of such trends in India and protection of environment are challenges that tourism is facing in the country," the minister said.

The voluntary signing of the pledge stemmed from the concern over the law and order and continuous loss of bio-diversity in the country, she said.

A steering committee constituted by the Tourism Ministry after adopting a code of conduct for safe and honourble tourism in July 2010 recommended that the tourism stakeholders sign a written pledge to abide by the code on World Tourism Day, the minister said.

Source: IANS

Best Indian B-School Survey 2010

The definitive benchmarking guide

The most definitive survey of Indian business schools is out.

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

The Business Standard Best Business Schools Survey 2010 shows that the country's top business schools are the Indian Institutes of Management in Ahmedabad and Kolkata, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade in New Delhi, Institute of Management Technology at Ghaziabad, Management Development Institute at Gurgaon, National Institute of Industrial Engineering in Mumbai and Xavier Labour Relation Institute at Jamshedpur.

Indian Institute of Managament, Kolkata

There are several business school surveys done every year. But these are all perception surveys and are limited to the top schools. So they touch upon a small part of the universe. This also runs the danger of excluding the actual information about the business schools. Such perception-based surveys have another risk - they assume that respondents (aspirants, students and executives from companies) are well-informed about all the institutes. This might not always be true.

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi

The Business Standard survey, in contrast, is not based on perceptions but on rigorous analysis of everything that goes into making a business school. All business schools are rated on five parameters: Intellectual capital, admissions & placements, infrastructure, industry interface and governance. Each of these can be measured objectively. There is hence no scope for subjectivity or any bias. Of course, each of the five parameters has a different weight which is decided by an expert committee. The survey does not rank the institutes but puts them in seven hierarchical categories: Super League, A1, A2, A3, A4, B1 and B2.

Management Development Institute, Gurgaon

The Super League:

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi

Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad

Management Development Institute, Gurgaon

National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai

Xavier Labour Relation Institute at Jamshedpur

National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai

There are close to 2,000 business schools in India, more than anywhere else in the world. This poses serious problems for the key stakeholders - aspiring students as well as employers. Take aspiring students first. How do they choose the right business school? How are two schools different from each other? The task is not easy for companies either who hire from these business schools. It is not easy to screen each and every student thoroughly. In this scenario, the reputation of the business school becomes all important. This is a gap that the Business Standard survey plugs. The survey is open to business schools all over India. The eligibility criterion is that they should be approved by the All India Council for Technical Education or the government or a university.

Also, at least two batches of students should have passed out of the institute. This is to assess the placements that happen at the campus. Questionnaires are sent out to the business schools. The responses are tabulated and double-checked by IMRB. Inflated claims and discrepancies are thus weeded out. As many as 50 of these business schools were visited by IMRB executives to verify the information they had submitted. This includes all those institutes that showed huge variation in scores between 2009 and 2010.

For the latest survey, questionnaires were sent to more than 1,500 business schools. Out of these, 255 sent their entries within the time limit.

Source: Business Standard

Want To Be a Panda Keeper?

Beijing, Sep 28 : Want to be a panda keeper in China? Well, you have to be trained in cleaning out enclosures and weighing the bears' excreta.

A total of 12 people managed to learn all these and more to make it to the final round for one of the world's most unusual jobs - a panda keeper at a research base in Chengdu in Sichuan province.

The finalists, from 11 countries, were chosen from about 62,000 applicants by wildlife conservation experts after an online poll.

They started a week's training at the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding and learnt about cleaning and sterilising panda enclosures, feeding the bears and even weighing their excrement.

The finalists, aged from 20 to 40, were amazed to find out that five cubs can produce 16 kg of excrement a day.

"Quantity, colour and form of the excrement are important indicators of panda health," Wang Jishan, an expert in charge of selecting the eventual winners, was quoted as saying by the Shanghai Daily.

David Algranti, a candidate from France, enjoyed preparing meals for the pandas, washing fresh bamboo and cutting a huge pile of apples, each into six slices.

Algranti and his fellow finalists watched as pandas tucked into their favorite food.

"They are so cute. I'd really love to learn more about pandas," said Annelijin Steenbruggen, a journalist and photographer from the Netherlands.

Steenbruggen said she was "in love with animals and the beauty of nature", which was why she was competing for a chance to become a "pambassador".

Six finalists will be eliminated and those remaining will be named "pambassadors".

The final test will include questions and answers and a presentation to show the candidates' personalities.

The six chosen ones will spend a month working as panda keepers in Chengdu and blog about their experiences to raise awareness about the endangered animals.

Project Panda was launched by the Chengdu research base in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Giant pandas populated China's northern, central and southern regions up to a million years ago, but human activities, including poaching, and climate change have seriously reduced their numbers and habitat.

"By the mid 20th century, pandas were found only in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Today, only about 1,600 still live in the wild," said WWF senior project officer Xu Qiang.

About 310 pandas have been bred in captivity in zoos worldwide.

Source: IANS

Sons, Daughters of Kalmadi — The New Common Wealth

Their Common Wealth

New Delhi, Sep 28 : Father and daughter, uncle and nephew, twin siblings, mother and son, sister and brother, father and daughter and daughter-in-law — the list of employees of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games, chaired by Suresh Kalmadi, includes at least 38 of the top brass who are related to each other, an investigation by The Indian Express has revealed.

A view of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium constructed for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is pictured during its inauguration ceremony in New Delhi

For the record, these men and women were hired after they responded to ads in newspapers, sent applications and were then interviewed by a committee.

The man who heads the committee, N P Singh, Joint Director, General Administration and Workforce, says it is a "coincidence that so many of them are inter-related." Asked if this raised questions of propriety and favouritism, Singh said: "What is more important is their competence, not the relationships. This is just a coincidence."

Indian policemen chat inside the R. K. Khanna Tennis Stadium in New Delhi

This is what Singh calls "just a coincidence":

1. Four nephews of OC vice chairman Randhir Singh have been hired. Three work in the Commonwealth Games Association Relations (dealing with Commonwealth associations of 71 countries), directly under Singh.

Amar Singh Wazir and Yadu Raj Singh are Directors; Tejinder Singh is Project Officer while the fourth nephew is with the OC's Spectator Services wing as Assistant Project Officer. A Director is paid an average salary of Rs 79,000 a month (see box).

When asked if his uncle helped, Yadu Raj Singh said: "I have a strong background in sports and communication. I have previously worked for a marketing firm which works for several golf tournaments in India. In 2006, I was asked if I wanted to be part of Commonwealth Games. After this, I was selected through interview and was sent to Melbourne for two months of training. I am handling some of the biggest Commonwealth Games contingents."

Said Amar Singh Wazir: "If my uncle was responsible for my job, then he would have straightaway appointed me at a senior post of a Deputy Director General. I joined OC as Project Officer and was promoted (to Director) on the basis of appreciation letters."

Asked to explain the presence of three relatives in the OC, Randhir Singh said that in a "royal family like mine," several people are inter-related. "If my own children were employed here, then it would make sense. Not some distant far-off relations. They applied and they are all smart, sensible boys," Singh said.

A general view of badminton courts inside Siri Fort Sports Complex is pictured in New Delhi

2. Bharati Singh Rao, daughter of Rao Inderjit Singh, Congress MP from Gurgaon, is Director, Image and Look. She was hired a year ago. She declined to comment but her father, when contacted, said: "She is a graphic designer. She has a degree from Fine Arts college in Delhi. She has been working in her personal capacity and has nothing to do with me."

3. Sangeeta Welinkar is Additional Director General (Image and Look) and her son Udhav Waman Welinkar quit the OC last month as Administrative Assistant (Volunteer programme). Sangeeta Welinkar is in the core committee of OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi and worked with him during the Pune Youth Games as well. She draws a salary of Rs 1.31 lakh per month. Her son Udhav's salary was Rs 33,500 per month. Welinkar refused to comment on the issue. "I have nothing to say. You should talk to the Secretary General. And my son quit a long time back," she said.

4. Vivek Raja, son of P K Murlidharan Raja, Secretary General of the Boxing Federation, is working with the OC as Director, Workforce, which is also partly responsible for hiring staff. "My father did not even know when I was applying in this organisation. I have been hired based on my experience and not because of my connection. My previous experience includes working in Barclays and Kelly Services which handled several corporate clients like Siemens and J P Morgan," Raja said.

A paramilitary soldier stands guard in front of the giant aerostat inside the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, in New Delhi

5. Raj Singh is OC's Competition Manager, his daughter Manisha Sharma is Administrative Assistant (Ticketing) and his daughter-in-law Shelkha Sharma is a receptionist in Kalmadi's office. Raj Singh is also Vice President of the Wrestling Federation. "Manisha and Shelkha are working in their own capacity. I was not even in town when they filled in the applications. They are highly qualified, they don't even need the job, they are working to get experience," Singh said.

6. Shikha Verma is Director, Creative Cultural Events, and her twin sister Shipra Verma is Director (Protocol ). Many in the OC confuse one with the other. "I am basically a model, I came to work here for experience. My sister is a basketball player and a lecturer in DU. She had left the OC to go back to college but now, for the last few months, she is back," said Shikha Verma.

7. Jamal Raazi is Director (Technology) and his wife Sana Raazi is Project Officer (Technology). Both were promoted two months ago. "I work in the technical side, while she is more into operations. We both joined together. We have applied and have gone through the entire process of interview before being selected," said Jamal Raazi.

New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is seen illuminated during preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games

8. Syed Yasar Ibrahim is Assistant Project Officer (Venue Development & Overlays) and his wife Umama Ibrahim is APO (Venue Development and Overlays). "I had joined the Organising Committee in 2007 after I completed MBA in sports management. My wife completed her engineering from Amity College in Lucknow. They needed engineers, so she applied and joined in 2009," said Syed Yassar Ibrahim.

9. Siddarth Mall is Assistant Project Officer (Sponsorship and Sales) and wife Deepali Kapoor is APO of the Volunteer Programme. "I have been a state-level cricket player and I also have a background in marketing, I worked earlier for J K Tyres and Eicher. I joined the Organising Committee a year back. My wife was working here for the last three years. She was working earlier for a government body, I do not remember the name," Mall said.

10. Capt N L Khan is Director (Administration) and his wife Geeta Khan is APO (Spectator Services). When contacted, Khan said: "Whether my wife works here or not is not a newspaper's business."

Apartments for the team Wales are pictured at the Commonwealth Games athletes village in New Delhi

11. C S Rathi is Assistant Project Officer (Sports) and his son Ajay Rathi is APO, (Lawn Bowl). "I am an ex-Navy personnel," said C S Rathi, "I have myself participated in the walking marathon in 1990 at the Beijing Asian Games, my record was not broken for 10 years. I joined OC in 2006 after applying through an advertisement." He said that as soon as his son graduated in physical education, he applied for the job. "My son is also an athelete," he said.

12. Col Surinder Kumar is Project Officer (Office Administration) and his son Shashwat is APO (Sports). "It is coincidental that we have joined together. We have nothing to hide. My son told the interviewers that his father is working here. My four generations have been working in the Army. We do not have any godfather in the OC who gave us this job," said Kumar.

13. Savita Thakur is Assistant Project Officer (Ticketing) and her sister Babita Thakur is Administrative Assistant (Transport). "I was registered with naukri.com and that is how I got this job. I was earlier working for an airline in their ticketing department. When I joined, I saw there were several vacancies, so I told my sister who was working in an insurance firm to apply and she was selected," Savita Thakur said.

A man sweeps in front of the main entrance of athletes village in New Delhi

14. Aparna Ghosh is Director (Venue Operations) and her niece Aneesha Mitra is Administrative Assistant (Ceremonies). "I am coach of basketball and I have been working with the OC for three years. Aneesha is my niece and there was an opportunity so she joined."

15. Anita Guliani is Administrative Assistant (Administration) and her daughter Mansi Guliani is Administrative Assistant (Ceremonies). "My mother was working with Athletics Federation of India and she joined the Organising Committee soon after its formation. I came to know there were vacancies, so I gave my resume," said Mansi Guliani.

16. Avny Lavasa is Project Officer (Queen's Baton Relay) and her brother Abir Lavasa is APO (Venue Operations). "My sister has been working for the OC since February 2008, she has done a course in sports management from Melbourne. I am a Ranji-level cricket player. We were interviewed before being given this job," said Abir Lavasa.

Australian athletes pose with Indian folk dancers at the Commonwealth Games athletes village in New Delhi

17. Jeet Ram is Stenographer (Ceremonies) and his son Neeraj is Administrative Assistant (Technology). "Both my son and I have joined the OC using fair means. I have been working here since 2006 while my son is here for the last one year. He has done his diploma in computer hardware, so the Technology unit hired him," said Jeet Ram.

18. D Anand Kumar is Project Officer (Sports) and his wife D Rama Devi is APO (Accounts). "We both got appointment letters together and we have been with the OC since November 2005. My husband had earlier worked in Afro-Asian Games, so he had experience," said Rama Devi.

19. Pratap Bhosale is Project Officer (Logistics) and his daughter Priyanka P Bhosale is Administrative Assistant (Cleaning and Waste Management). "I have done environment management from Pune. Me and my father have earlier worked in the Pune Youth Games. We both were called by Delhi Organising Committee as soon as the games wrapped in Pune," Priyanka Bhosale said.

Source: Agencies

RBI Wants Banks to Serve Northeast India Villages

Agartala, Sep 28 : The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked nationalised banks to provide services in all villages and human habitations with a minimum population of 2,000, United Bank of India (UBI) chairman Bhaskar Sen said here Tuesday.

'By 2012, all the human habitations with a population of at least 2,000 people, should be brought under the banks' financial inclusion,' Sen said while addressing a loan disbursement camp at western Tripura's Ranirbazar, 30 km north of Agartala.

'Of the UBI's 1,559 branches across the country, 82 percent branches are operating in northeast India,' Sen said.

The bank has disbursed Rs.42 crore as advances at the loan camp to set up different micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).

'As there is no big investment proposal in the northeastern state, the MSME sectors are the main credit takers in the industry-starved state,' UBI's chief regional manager Nilmani Gangopadhyay told IANS.

'Such loan camps would help increase the credit-deposit ratio in the state,' Gangopadhyay added.

Tripura Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury inaugurated the camp. The minister complained that the credit flow to the northeastern region from nationalised banks was very low.

'It is unfortunate that despite intervention from the union finance ministry, the credit-deposit ratio for the commercial banks in the region has remained at a level of around 30 percent over the past many years. This should be raised to at least 50 percent by 2010-11,' Chowdhury said.

The minister urged the nationalised banks to open more branches in rural areas to curb the illegitimate collection of deposit by the non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

The Tripura government also launched a crackdown recently and police have arrested officials of several NBFCs.

'Arrests and raids would continue across the state. We have sealed offices of some NBFCs,' a police spokesman told reporters in Agartala.

'The state government has undertaken an inquiry against 84 NBFCs functioning in Tripura. The government has sought advice from the RBI and the (central) finance ministry about the possible steps the state can take,' the finance minister told reporters.

35,000 People of Tripura Suffering From Psychic Disorders

Agartala, Sep 28 : As many as 35,000 people of Tripura have been suffering from severe mental disorders while 12 per cent population were reported to have developed psychological problems as of now, health officials revealed here today.

Director of Tripura Health Services S R Debbarma, at the fifth state conference of Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), said the health department had been facing a critical situation with regard to providing treatment to the growing number of mental patients in Tripura.

''As per record, about one per cent of our total population has developed severe psychological problems and another about 40,000 people are at the initial phase of mental disorders but we have only 15 doctors to treat them,'' Dr Debbarma said.

He estimated that about 90 per cent of the patients had not yet been brought under the formal treatment protocol because of inadequate infrastructure and lack of trained doctors. And the current trend showed that one person in every four families in the state would develop psychological disorder by 2020 while the number of severe cases would be 15 per cent or more.

Talking to mediapersons leading psychiatrist of eastern India Dr AK Nath said more than 500 million people around the world had been suffering from mental diseases and in India it was about 18 per cent of the total population. Only 21,000 beds were available for the psychic patients in India altogether as of now, Dr Nath mentioned.

''Coupled with the expansion of average life span of men and women up to 71 and 73 years respectively, the trend of nuclear families, loneliness, feeling of social insecurity in urbanized world, unequal wealth concentration and high expectations in life are the main reasons for mental illness, tension and anxiety,'' Dr Nath observed.

A recent survey indicates that one in five young Indians between the ages of 19 and 25 have a personality disorder but lack of understanding along with the stigma attached to mental health issues prevents many from seeking treatment on time, he attributed.

Referring to the Mental Health Foundation's report Dr Nath said scientific studies had clearly linked attention deficit disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia to junk food and the absence of essential fats, vitamins and minerals in industrialised diets.

''Food can have an immediate and lasting effect on mental health and behaviour because of the way it affects the structure and function of the brain,'' he added.

Nagaland Has 10,057 HIV+ Patients

Kohima, Sep 28 : The Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS) has detected a total of 10,057 HIV/AIDS infected cases between 1994 to July this year.

Official sources here today said this was disclosed at the One Day Advocacy Workshop for Non-HIV NGOs and Civil Societies, organized by NSACS and Kripa Foundation, Nagaland, held here yesterday.

Out of 3,29,189 people who tested their blood, a total of 10,057 people tested HIV positive and out of HIV positive cases, a total of 3,680 cases were infected with AIDS, while there were 509 AIDS related deaths.

Programme Manager of Kripa Foundation Dr P Ngully called upon the civil societies for their involvement and commitment to fight the dreaded disease as in 80 per cent of the cases, HIV is transmitted through sexual routes in Nagaland.

Arunachal’s French Connection Boosts tourism

Itanagar, Sep 28 : The Dawnlit Mountains have apparently found a new partner in far away France.

Investors from Paris have shown interest in setting up hotels and adventure sports facilities in the eastern Himalayas, Jean Louis Rysto, the French consul-general in Kolkata, said in Itanagar on Tuesday.

Arunachal Pradesh, which has already realised its tourism potential with Tawang emerging as a major attraction in the Northeast, has also started promoting the eastern districts of Lohit, Changlang and Dibang Valley.

The Stilwell Road in Changlang — a World War II heritage site — is on the tourist map too.