Meeting of Organizing Committee for International Buddha Poornima Diwas Celebration 2016 held

The Meeting of the Organizing Committee for “International Buddha Poornima Diwas Celebration-2016” held under the chairmanship of Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (I/C) and Civil Aviation here today. Shri Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri N K Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Culture and distinguished members of the committee were present.

Buddha Poornima or Vesak is recognized as the thrice sacred day that marks the birth, enlightenment and parinirvana of Lord Buddha. While Buddha was born in Lumbini in present day Nepal, he attained sambodhiprapti in Bodhgaya in Bihar. In Sarnath, he set in motion the wheel of the Dharma, and finally attained mahaparinirvana in Kushinagar.

In order to celebrate these historic occasions that changed the religious and spiritual discourse of human civilization, it is important that Buddha Poornima is celebrated in befitting manner. It is therefore proposed to celebrate this auspicious occasion on a grand scale again on 21 May 2016. Not only will this help Buddha’s timeless teachings to further permeate the Indian consciousness, but will also reaffirm India’s historical status in the eyes of the world, especially the comity of Buddhist nations, as the land of origin of the Buddha Dharma – the land of Buddha’s sambodhiprapti, dharmachakra pravartana and his mahaparinirvana.

It may be recalled that, speaking at the International Buddha Poornima Diwas Celebration last year in New Delhi, the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi had declared that henceforth Buddha Poornima will occupy a prominent place in the Indian calendar as a National Celebration.

To oversee the organization of these celebrations, an organizing Committee has been set up under the Chairmanship of the Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Dr. Mahesh Sharma, with the Minister of State for Home, Shri Kiren Rijiju and the Minister of State for HRD, Shri Upendra Kushwaha as Co-chairpersons. Ven. Lama Lobzang, Secretary General of the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), a global umbrella Buddhist body headquartered in New Delhi will be Convener of the Organizing Community in India spanning various Buddhist traditions.

25 Universities & 18 Colleges offering Master’s Degree in Yoga: All India Survey of Higher Education

As informed by the University Grants Commission (UGC), there are 25 Universities & 18 Colleges offering Master’s Degree in Yoga as per All India Survey of Higher Education(AISHE) provisional report 2014-15). UGC has notified Regulation, 2010 on Teacher’s appointment which specify the rules for appointment of Associate Professor, Assistant Professor and Professor. 

The following two Yoga Universities are in UGC list: 

(i) Lokulish Yoga University, Ahmedabad 

(ii) Swami Vivekanand Yoga Anusandhan Sansthan(Deemed to be University), Bangalore. 

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has informed that a Committee has been constituted by the Government on Yoga education in universities under the chairpersonship of Prof. H. R. Nagendra, Chancellor, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana, Samsthana, Bengaluru. The Terms of Reference(TOR) for the committee included prescribing qualification of faculty of Yoga in Colleges and Universities and also to examine whether the existing qualifications for recruitment of the faculty in the Colleges and Universities as presently approved by the University Grants Commission(UGC), will need amendments. 

The Committee in its report has recommended as follows: 

I. Appointment of a sub-committee to finalise the NET syllabus. 

II. Implementation of seven programmes in universities viz. (i) Certificate Course in Yoga (CCY) of 6 to 12 months duration; (ii) Bachelor of Science (Yoga)- BSc. (Yoga) of 3 to 6 years; (iii) Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga (PGDY) of 1 to 2 years; (iv) Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga Therapy (PGDYT) of 1 to 2 years; (v) Masters of Science (MSc.) – Yoga of 2 years to 4 years; (vi) Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) -Yoga of 3 years to 5 years; and (vii) Doctor of Philosophy (Integrated) – Yoga of 4 to 6 years. The committee has also prescribed the qualifications for faculty of yoga. The committee has made other recommendations for promotion of yoga in universities. The recommendations of the committee are being examined. 

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. 

Steps taken by India for Ethnic Medicinal Practices

National Medicinal Plants Board supports setting up of Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas(MPCAs), augmentation and plantation activity for conservation of medical plants in-situ and ex-situ under “Central Sector Scheme on Conservation, Development and Sustainable Management of Medicinal Plants” and under National Ayush Mission (NAM) for cultivation of medicinal plants by farmers with backward and forward linkages.  In addition, the Government of India has established a National Institute “The North Eastern Institute of Folk Medicine (NEIFM) at Pasighat, East Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh under Ministry of AYUSH with a view to revitalize, promote and harness these local health traditions for the wellbeing of wider public especially living in North Eastern Region. The activities of the Institute will further help in protecting the knowledge and resources of folk medicines in the North Eastern Region.

 With the mandate to conduct various research activities on traditional medicines,  the activities undertaken in the matter by four autonomous Research Councils under Ministry of AYUSH, namely, Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Central Council for Research in Unani Medicines (CCRUM), Central Council for Research in Siddha (CCRS) and Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy are as under:

CCRAS: The Tribal Health Care Research Programme is a continuous programme since 1982 with activities including collection of folk medicines/ traditional practices. 

CCRH: The Council has carried out recording of folklore and ethno-medicinal practices from the tribals of Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu.

CCRS: The ethno medicinal knowledge of folklore practitioners are documented through survey tours.

CCRUM: Folk medicinal uses of plants  from the tribal and rural folks have been recorded.

In addition to these, the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) under its scheme has also supported some R&D projects on ethno-botanical records in Assam, Karnataka, Mizoram, Manipur, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh on medicinal usage of local flora by tribal people.

     The details are as under:

(i) CCRAS has conducted five Intra Mural Research(IMR) projects on ethnic medicinal practices.

(ii) 23 medicines are used in Homoeopathy.

(iii) 750 folklore claims documented and one IMR project initiated by CCRS.

     The NMPB through Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), Bangalore has developed a database on Indian medicinal plants which contain information about the habitat and therapeutic uses of more than 7,000 medicinal plants species. This database is in public domain and can be accessed at www.medicalplants.in.

Some of the R&D projects supported by NMPB has worked upon various medicinal and nutraceutical potential of Cassia tora, Cissus javanica and Discorea floribunda which are equally prevalent amongst the tribal populations of States like Kerala, Manipur and some North-East region, as a medicine or food supplement.

     To prevent misappropriation of the country’s traditional medicinal knowledge, the Ministry of AYUSH in collaboration with Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) has established a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) which entails transcription of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha codified texts into English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish. The database is shared with patent offices of other countries and forms part of their pre-grant searches.

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Eicher Motors Q4 beats estimates, net profit surges 71% to Rs 334.5 cr

Eicher Motors Q4 results: Net sales of the company surged 46.15 per cent to Rs 3,702.01 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 2,532.97 crore in the year-ago period.

Eicher Motors Q4 results: Net sales of the company surged 46.15 per cent to Rs 3,702.01 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 2,532.97 crore in the year-ago period.

Beating estimates, Eicher Motors on Thursday posted 71.3 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 334.5 crore for the quarter ended March 2016 on account of robust sales. It has net profit of Rs Rs 195.3 crore in the same period last year.

Net sales surged 46.15 per cent to Rs 3,702.01 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 2,532.97 crore in the year-ago period, Eicher Motors said.

The revenue of the company jumped 46.6 per cent year-on-year at Rs 3764.90 cr.

According to Religare Capital markets, Eicher Motors margins and net profit beat estimates. The brokerage has a ‘Buy’ rating on Eicher Motors shares with a target price of Rs 22,300 cr.

The board has declared an interim of 1000 per cent on the quity share capital (Rs 100 per share) for the quarter ended March 2016. Eicher Motors has a face value of Rs 10 per share.

Shares of the company ended 0.30 per cent down at Rs 19,687.45 on Thursday.

Sensex snaps three sessions of falls

Indian shares rose on Thursday with blue chips such as Tata Motors rebounding after a three-session losing streak was seen as overdone, though broader gains were capped by persistent worries about the economy and mixed earnings results.

The broader NSE Nifty rose 0.38 percent to 7,735.50, after declining 1.8 percent in the previous three sessions.

The benchmark BSE Sensex gained 0.64 percent to 25,262.21.

(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

SC favours 2005 Jharkhand for floor test in U'khand

New Delhi, May 4 (PTI) The Supreme Court today suggested that it may order a 'composite floor test' for Uttarakhand Assembly as was directed by the apex court in 2005 in Jharkhand when BJP leader Arjun Munda had challenged the government formation by JMM supremo Shibu Soren.

"The floor test (in Uttarakhand Assembly) can be on Jharkhand Model," a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh.

While senior advocate Kapil Sibal and Abhishekh Manu Singhvi, appearing for sacked Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, was advocating that the floor test in the assembly would be like a vote of confidence for him, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi was toeing the bench's suggestion and submitted that it can be decided after a debate when the matter is taken again on Friday.

The apex court on March 9, 2005 had passed the order for Jharkhand Assembly on the line of its earlier order for a composite floor test in Uttar Pradesh in 1998.

It had directed the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police to "see that all elected MLAs attended the proceedings of the Assembly freely, safely and securely without any interference by anybody".

In the Jharkhand matter, Rohatgi had then appeared for Munda as a senior advocate and Singhvi had represented the then state government which was formed after the then Governor Syed Sibtey Razi had invited Soren to form the government despite the claim of the NDA to have majority support.

The order, in which the apex court had also directed video-recording of the proceedings of the floor test, had evoked mixed reaction from the legal experts as some had favoured the recording while others had raised eyebrows saying that it amounts to judicial over-reach and encroaching the domain of the Speaker or the pro-tem Speaker.

The apex court in the Jharkhand case had also advanced the date of floor test to March 11 from March 15 to determine who - UPA nominee Shibu Soren or NDA's Arjun Munda - commands majority in the House.

The top court had also stayed any move to nominate a representative of the Anglo-Indian Community as a Member of the House by saying this could wait till a "legitimate" government took over after the floor test on March 11.

The court had advanced the floor test date to March 11 wondering as to why the Governor had given five days more to the Soren government to prove its majority even though the MLAs were to take oath on March 10, 2005.

Trump looks to unify Republicans after decisive primary victory

Indianapolis : Billionaire Donald Trump assumed the mantle of presumptive Republican presidential nominee on Wednesday with a message on unity that also suggested he was not going to work too hard to placate some party establishment figures angered by his outsider candidacy.

The former reality television star, who has never held public office, won a commanding victory in Indiana's primary on Tuesday, forcing his main rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, to drop out of the race.

Trump's win cleared the way him to prepare for a likely match-up in the Nov. 8 general election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Democratic front-runner Clinton lost the Indiana primary to her tenacious challenger, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, but remains on course to become her party's nominee.

The New York businessman's immediate challenge is to mend deep fissures within the Republican Party, easing tensions with party loyalists who are appalled by his bombastic, bullying style, his denigrating comments about women and his proposals to build a wall on the border with Mexico and deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

But in a series of Wednesday morning television interviews, Trump, 69, made clear he would not forget some wounds from a tumultuous primary campaign in which many establishment Republicans rejected him and spawned Stop Trump and Never Trump movements.

"I am confident that I can unite much of it, some of it I don't want," Trump said on NBC's "Today" show. "Honestly, there are some people I really don't want. People will be voting for me. They're not voting for the party."

Since launching his White House bid last summer as a longshot amid a crowded field that included governors, former governors and U.S. senators, the real estate magnate repeatedly defied predictions that his campaign would implode.

He prevailed over rivals he derided as "grown politicians," despite making provocative statements along the way that drew sometimes furious criticism from many in the party but fed his anti-establishment appeal.

Trump also directed fire at Clinton, telling MSNBC, "She is a disaster, and she will be a disaster as president."

ISRO signs MOU with 37 Foreign Countries

New Delhi : Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) of Department of Space, Government of India has signed MoU/ Cooperative agreements for exploration and use of outer space with 37 countries viz. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, United States of America and Venezuela. 

The fields to explore newer research activities addressed in these MoUs include - Joint development of advanced scientific instruments to observe earth and universe; joint realization of satellite missions; jointly carrying out calibration and validation experiments; conducting airborne campaign with advanced instruments; deep space navigation and communication support for space science missions; development of advanced technologies for building and launching of spacecrafts for earth observation and space science exploration. 

Application possibilities in the field of remote sensing addressed in these MoUs include - natural resource management; vegetation biomass estimation; meteorological & oceanographic applications; atmospheric parameter retrieval & modelling; climate monitoring and weather forecasting; disaster management support. 

This information was provided by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr, Jitendra Singh in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. 

Benefits of Radiation Sterilization

Atomic Material

Radiation Sterilisation is a cold process that uses gamma radiation for sterilisation of Healthcare Products. Controlled gamma energy which is released by radioisotope such as Cobalt-60 is used for sterilisation. Cobalt-60 is most preferred radioisotope as it is readily available from single nuclear reaction in reactor and also cost effective. Gamma radiation is characterised by deep penetration and kills microorganism by destroying DNA structure. The process is suitable for Industrial scale sterilisation. Radiation dose of 25 kGy (2.5 Mrad) is officially accepted dose for sterilisation of healthcare products. Delivery of dose to the products is measured by dosimeter. Radiation sterilised products are acceptable by Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Advantages and Benefits of Radiation Sterilization 

(a) Products of any shape can be sterilised because powerful gamma rays can penetrate right through the package and the product.

(b) Being a cold process, heat sensitive plastic medical devices and pharmaceutical products can safely be sterilised.

(c) Flexibility in packaging, as the products can be packed individually in sealed bags and sterilised in the fully packaged form.

(d) Since sterilisation is effected after final packaging, product sterility is retained indefinitely provided the package is undamaged.

(e) Radiation Sterilisation enlarges the market for ready to use pre-packaged products. The process does not result into residual toxicity of any form in the product.

(f) Products sterilised by this process do not become radioactive and are safe for use.

(g) Presently out of 18 operating plants in Government/Semi-Government/Private/Co-operative sectors, around 13 are also engaged in sterilisation of medical products.

Major components of a Radiation Sterilisation Plant 

(i) A source of gamma radiation (Cobalt-60)

(ii) A radiation processing cell (irradiation cell)

(iii) Product conveyors and control mechanisms

(iv) Safety devices and interlocks

A Gamma Radiation Processing Facility is licensed by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and Local Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

High energy Electron Beam (EB) and X-ray machines are also used nowadays for this purpose. The major difference in gamma radiation and EB lies in their penetration powers, where gamma radiations can penetrate deep inside the products the electron beams do not have as good penetration power.

Though X-ray have comparable penetration power to gamma radiation at suitable energy range but they are not yet very popular.

(b) Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT)/Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has not carried out any impact assessment studies independently for Radiation Sterilisation of healthcare products.

(c) BRIT/DAE had setup a radiation sterilisation plant ‘ISOMED’ which is in operation since 1974 for sterilisation of medical products. Technology has been found to be effective, reliable and acceptable among users. Later two more Radiation Processing Plants one at BRIT, Vashi Complex, Navi Mumbai and other at Lasalgaon near Nashik were set up for radiation processing of food and allied products. Both these plants are operating and users of this radiation technology are regularly increasing. In view of this BRIT has not carried out any impact study independently. However, it is promoting setting up of commercial radiation processing plants and so far 15 such plants are commissioned in Government/Semi-Government/Private/Co-operative Sectors excluding 3 plants of BRIT/DAE. Thus, the use of this technology is found to be acceptable.

This information was provided by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. 

India to sign a pact with WHO in the field of traditional medicines

New Delhi : The Union Cabinet in its meeting held on 17th Februray 2016 approved the signing of Agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO). The Agreement, however, is yet to be signed. As per Cabinet approval, as a first step in the long term collaboration, India would assign to WHO activities for development of the following WHO Technical documents/publications which will help in better international acceptability of Indian Systems of Medicines: 

• Benchmarks for training in Yoga 

• Benchmarks for practice in Ayurveda 

• Benchmarks for practice in Unani Medicine 

• Benchmarks for practice in Panchkarma 

For enhancing the acceptability and branding of AYUSH systems internationally, in the recent past Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for undertaking collaborative research have been signed with Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, UK and National Centre for Natural Product Research (NCNPR) University of Mississippi, USA and Letter of Intent (LoI) with University of Strasbourg, France. The long term collaboration with WHO would help in improving international acceptability and branding of AYUSH systems. 

The areas of cooperation would help to facilitate awareness regarding AYUSH systems of medicine by means of education, training, skill development, workshops, publications and exchange programmes between AYUSH and WHO for capacity building to facilitate advocacy and dissemination of information on AYUSH systems amongst the member states and collaborations with third parties for creating synergies in implementation of WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023. 

The Ministry of AYUSH has also launched a scheme for Voluntary Certification of Yoga Professionals on 22nd June, 2015 in collaboration with Quality Council of India (QCI). The scheme aims at promoting authentic Yoga as a preventive and health promoting drugless therapy and involves certifying the competence level of the professionals to help their deployment within and outside the country. Besides signing of ‘Country to Country’ MoUs for cooperation in the field of Traditional Medicine with Mongolia, Turkmenistan and China, MoUs for setting up of AYUSH Academic Chairs have been signed with Universities in Russia, Indonesia, Slovenia, Thailand and Armenia. AYUSH Information Cells have been set up to disseminate authentic information about AYUSH Systems of Medicine at Dubai, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Argentina, Serbia and Sweden. 

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.