Exports rise 37.5% to a record high of $246bn

NEW DELHI: India's exports rose 37.5% in 2010-11 to touch a record $246 billion as traders targeted new markets and gained from improved sentiments in the US and Europe. Provisional numbers released by the commerce department on Tuesday showed that engineering goods and petroleum helped exporters close the year with nearly 25% higher exports than the $200 billion targeted by the government (see table). 

But oil appeared to be the main culprit when it came to imports, which rose 21.5% to $350.3 billion during the last financial year. Oil imports crossed the $100 billion mark to close the year at $101.7 billion, with the possibility of upward revision. Higher-than-budgeted exports, however, helped the economy deal with a lower than estimated trade deficit of $104.4 billion, which may be revised to $105-110 billion. At the present level, it was lower than $109 billion in 2009-10. 

With trade adding up to nearly $600 billion in 2010-11, it now accounts for nearly 50% of India'sgross domestic product (GDP). While there was all-round cheer and expectation of reaching the $450 billion export target ahead of the 2014 deadline, the government warned that a steep rise during the current financial year might be a tough task. To begin with, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma warned of the possible adverse impact of higher global oil prices, which would push up production costs. 

Commerce secretary Rahul Khullar added growth worries in the US and Europe and problems in Japan to the list. "At the moment, 2011 is not looking very good," he said while adding that the government would try to push for a 25% growth in the current financial year too. In March, exports went up by 43.9% to $29.1 billion, while imports rose 17.3% to 34.7 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $5.6 billion.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Exports-rise-375-to-a-record-high-of-246bn/articleshow/8032392.cms

Another malady, another Pulitzer: Indian Doc's book on cancer wins prize

WASHINGTON: She is an interpreter of maladies. He's the biographer of one of the great maladies of all time. Dr Siddharth Mukherjee, a New Delhi-born oncologist, has been awarded a Pulitzer Prizefor his book "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer," more than a decade afterJhumpa Lahiri won the prize for her similarly-titled collection of short stories. 

While the New York-based Lahiri won the 2000 Pulitzer for fiction, Dr Mukherjee, 41, who also lives in Big Apple, has been awarded the 2011 prize for general non-fiction. In its citation, the Pulitzer committee described the book, which has won rave reviews, as "an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science." 

Mukherjee joins a growing band of Indian-origin physicians who seem endowed with literary DNA. Among them, Dr Abraham Verghese, who began his writing career in the late 1980s with "My Own Country: A Doctor's story," which centered on the AIDS in the US, Dr Atul Gawande, a staff writer for the New Yorker and most recently author of 'The Checklist Manifesto," and Dr Deepak Chopra, the new age spiritual guru of mind-body dynamics, whose books are numerous. 

Mukherjee, who is currently serving as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and is also a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center, began his writing career more recently after an encounter with a patient who had stomach cancer, who told him she was willing to go on fighting, but she needed to know what she was battling. He couldn't point her to a book that could explain cancer, and he began writing as an answer to her query. 

Mukherjee tells the stories of several cancer patients and survivors, while recognizing pioneering researchers, including the breakthrough provided by the Indian scientist, Yellapragada Subba Rao (1895-1948) who synthesized the Folic Acid for the first antifolate clinical trials conducted by Sidney Farber, who initiated the treatment of childhood leukemia. 

Largely unrecognized and forgotten both in India and in the US (where he spent much of his career), Subba Rao is also credited with developing Methotrexate, one of the first cancer chemotherapy agents and still in widespread clinical use. In his book, Mukherjee muses about why Subba Rao, who came from the provincial town of Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh, never got his due (his peers won the Nobel), describing him as "a reclusive, nocturnal, heavily accented vegetarian who lived in a one-room apartment downtown, befriended only by other nocturnal recluses." 

Mukherjee came from a slightly different India to a more welcoming US. After schooling in New Delhi (St. Columba's, five years junior to Shah Rukh Khan), he went on to major in biology atStanford University, before winning a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University where he earned a Ph.D. in immunology. After graduation, he attended Harvard Medical School to train as an internist and won an oncology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is married to the artist Sarah Sze, who is herself an accomplished sculptor and a recipient of the 2003 MacArthur Fellows "genius grant." 

Incidentally, Lahiri and Mukherjee are not the first Pulitzer winners of Indian-origin. That honor belongs to Gobind Bihari Lal, a US-based science writer (and contemporary of Subba Rao), who shared the 1937 Pulitzer with three other Americans "for their coverage of science at the tercentenary of Harvard University," -- the same university which denied Subba Rao a regular faculty position forcing him to go work at Lederle Laboratories. 

Although the Pulitzer award carries a modest prize of $10,000, the book will get another publicity bump, adding to the already significant critical acclaim. Published by Simon and Schuster in 2010, it was nominated as a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and made the Top Ten list under various categories in The New York Times, Time magazine and The Oprah magazine. 

Among the finalists Mukherjee pipped in non-fiction category were Nicholas Carr for "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brain," and SC Gwynne for "Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Another-malady-another-Pulitzer-Indian-Docs-book-on-cancer-wins-prize/articleshow/8029070.cms

Only 6% of doctors held for sex-selection practices convicted

NEW DELHI: Only around 6% of cases filed against doctors involved in sex-selection practices in the 17 states, which have the most skewed sex ratio, have ended up in convictions till date. 

According to Union health ministry's latest data — prepared for a crucial meeting of health secretaries of the 17 states on Wednesday — a total of 805 cases have been filed in court against doctors till March 31, ever since the revised Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act ( PC and PNDT Act) came into force. Only 55 convictions have been recorded since then. 

The rest of the cases are either in progress or dropped for "poor investigation and insufficient evidence against the accused". Convictions were highest in Haryana (23), followed by Punjab (22), Gujarat (4), Maharashtra (3), Delhi (2) and Chandigarh (1). Interestingly, the highest number of cases against doctors was filed in Rajasthan (161), but none has resulted in conviction. 

Maharashtra filed 139 cases, Punjab (112), Gujarat (82), Madhya Pradesh (70), Delhi (61), Uttar Pradesh and Haryana (54), Andhra Pradesh (19), Bihar (10), Uttaranchal (9), Chhattisgarh (5), Jharkhand (3) and Chandigarh (2). 

Gujarat leads the pack in sealing of ultrasound machines (168), followed by Haryana (133). While, Maharashtra sealed 82 machines, Rajasthan (76), Orissa (68), Delhi (48), Punjab (26), UP (37), Jharkhand (13) and Andhra Pradesh (12). 

"On Wednesday, the meeting will emphasize on following up on court cases, building a strong case for prosecution and putting in place the mechanism for legal assistance and engaging with state legal services authorities apart from training workshops for judiciary and public prosecutors," an official said. 

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Only-6-of-doctors-held-for-sex-selection-practices-convicted/articleshow/8032214.cms

Union health ministry Ghulam Nabi Azad has been very proactive in rectifying the nation's shameful sex ratio. 

An official added, "India's conviction rates are shockingly low. That's because doctors who carry out the search and seizure operations aren't good with filing legal cases and presenting a full-proof investigation. Hence, violators go scot free." 

On Wednesday, these 17 states will be told by the Union health ministry to identify and map their worst-affected districts, blocks and even localities. 

Once identified, vigilance will be heightened in these places on doctors and clinics to "nab those involved in sex selection" in clinics or by use of portable ultrasound machines. 

In the meeting — the first since the provisional Census figures were released — the states will also be told to register every ultrasound clinic and machine (portable or stationary) being used as per the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PC and PNDT Act). Violation of any provision in this Act will entail a three-year jail term and Rs 50,000 fine. 

"States will be told to approach ultrasound manufacturers as per the Act to identify how many machines have been sold and to whom," sources told TOI. 

Pressure will also be intensified on states to get every ultrasound clinic to fill up Form F. According to the Act, every radiologist is required to fill Form F before conducting an ultrasound on a would-be mother. The form has important questions, including the reason for conducting sonography along with details of the patient and the doctor. 

Clinics that carry our prenatal selection and selective abortion leave most of the details incomplete, deliberately skipping sections mentioning the doctor's name, signature, the patient's address, age of the fetus and record of the would-be mother's previous children. 

"A careful examination of the form — which doctor referred the patient and why, if the ground for an ultra sound test is vague and if it is self referred instead of a doctor — will tell us who is involved in sex determination," an official added. 

States will also be told to improve or put in place inter-state, and more importantly inter-border coordination for regulating ultrasound clinics in border districts. 

As per the agenda of the meeting, the states will be told to dedicate a PNDT cell in the state, follow up on court cases, set up of a state supervisory board, which will meet once every four months, notify a multi-member state appropriate authority and take action in case of default. 

At the district level, some states have given the district collector supreme power, search and seize illegal and unregistered ultra sound machines while other states have put the chief medical officer in charge. Workshops to sensitize judiciary, public prosecutors and advisory committees will also be held. 

A ministry official said, "The latest Census figures show that the female girl child is still a curse and unwanted. Their number has fallen to an all-time low since Independence. The sex ratio for 2011 stands at 914 girls — down from 927 girls for 1,000 boys in 2001."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Only-6-of-doctors-held-for-sex-selection-practices-convicted/articleshow/8032214.cms

Govt clears direct subsidy payout plan

The government has approved a three-step strategy to create a foolproof system for transferring fertiliser subsidy directly to farmers.

The decision was taken yesterday by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

“The plan will be carried out in three phases,” a senior Department of Fertiliser (DoF) official told Business Standard.

In the first step, the government plans to track the movement of fertilisers from factories to farmers via retailers. This is expected to be over by December. After this, based on the collected data, it would start paying retailers.

According to DoF, there are around 230,000 retailers who will be paid based on the quantity of fertiliser they receive from companies or through the wholesale route. In the third stage, the government would gradually start paying farmers directly.

“The government should first conduct a dry run to create a database of farmers by recording details (of beneficiaries) at dealerships,” said Satish Chander, director general, Fertiliser Association of India.

However, industry officials, who refused to be named, said the strategy would increase transaction costs. Moreover, as dealers would have to bear the entire cost, the payout should be expeditious, they said.

Fertiliser companies said the strategy might cause delays and the deadline of March 2012 for directly transferring kerosene, LPG and fertiliser subsidies to consumers could be missed.

In order to account for all subsidy liabilities and lower the outgo, the government has set up a task force under Nandan Nilekani, the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. It is expected to come out with its interim report soon. It has been given a deadline of March 2012.

The revised estimates put the subsidy bill — food, kerosene and fertilisers — at Rs 1,64,153 crore for 2010-11. The subsidy bill for food, petroleum and fertilisers is estimated at Rs 1,34,210 crore for 2011-12.

“Direct subsidy transfer is positive for the industry, as it removes the working capital issues which arise from delayed payments and underrecoveries,” said Tarun Surana, research analyst, Sunidhi Securities & Finance Ltd.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/govt-clears-direct-subsidy-payout-plan/430684/

Extraminds.com (Free Education)

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Source: http://www.extraminds.com/Home.aspx?Logout=123

Mr & Miss VALENTINE 2011 (Winners of Valentine competition organised by Extraminds the free e-learning-cum-Social Networking Portal

Mr.Valentine-Ankit Gupta from New Delhi

Miss Valentine- Neha Sood from Faridabad