Australian coach goes in to bat for India’s poor

Many young men in India and Australia share a common dream - to play cricket for their country, but for cricketers in India’s poor rural communities that dream is often out of reach.

In one small community in one of India’s poorest states, however, Australian Bruce Adams is doing all he can to make sure everyone gets a shot at the big time.

Six years ago, Bruce Adams was coaching students in the north Indian state of Rajasthan, when a friend suggested another place that could really use his help.

Now he stands on the boundary of the Indira Gandhi stadium in the rural Indian district of Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.

It’s here he’s built one of India’s biggest not-for-profit cricket academies.

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A Smartphone That Converts Text to Braille Developed for the Blind

An Indian has developed a unique smart-phone that can aid the blind and help them perform functions other than answering calls.

Technology has definitely been a blessing to humans and smartphones have become the need of the day. With having everything from the daily wake-up call (read alarm) to good-night reads (ebooks) on your phone, it has become an essential, almost a basic need.

However, there is a segment of population who do not benefit from such modern gadgets. While a smartphone is a necessity for most of us, it is useless for a blind person. To help even the blind benefit from the smartphone, an Indian has released a new Braille version of the phone.

Developed by Sumit Dagar, who is still working on setting up his formal organisation at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, located in IIM-A, the phone is the world’s forst Braille smartphone.

But how does the phone work? The messages and texts are sent as regular messages. However, instead of a smooth glass panel, the phone comes with depressions. The innovative ‘touch-screen’ elevates and depresses contents into touchable patterns which can then be deciphered by the blind.

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mothernaturenetwork:

How small-scale farmers are growing more rice with less water and fewer chemicals

SRI, the system of rice intensification, has taken agribusiness giants by surprise with its record-breaking harvests across the globe.

A village that plants 111 trees for every girl born in Rajasthan

A village in southern Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district is quietly practicing its own, homegrown brand of Eco-feminism and achieving spectacular results.

For the last several years, Piplantri village panchayat has been saving girl children and increasing the green cover in and around it at the same time.

Here, villagers plant 111 trees every time a girl is born and the community ensures these trees survive, attaining fruition as the girls grow up.

Over the last six years, people here have managed to plant over a quarter million trees on the village’s grazing commons- including neem, sheesham, mango, Amla among others.

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theatlantic:

In Focus: Holi 2013: The Festival of Colors

This week Hindus around the world celebrated Holi, the Festival of Colors. Holi is a popular springtime celebration observed on the last full moon of the lunar month. Participants traditionally throw bright, vibrant powders at friends and strangers alike as they celebrate the arrival of spring, commemorate Krishna’s pranks, and allow each other a momentary freedom — a chance to drop their inhibitions and simply play and dance. Gathered here are images of this year’s Holi festival from across India. 

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[Images: AP, Reuters, Getty]

Kiran Bedi: A police chief with a difference, Putting Meditation and Learning into Prisons in India

Kiran Bedi managed one of India’s toughest prisons — and used a new focus on prevention and education to turn it into a center of learning and meditation. She shares her thoughts on crime and punishment from the stage at TEDWomen.

[h/t: porcupine-thing]

theatlantic:

Images of India Beating Polio: Two Years Without a New Case

India held its annual National Immunization Day for polio on February 25th. The country has now gone two full years without a single new case. If India continues on this track, it will be declared polio-free in February 2014. This marks a significant feat for India, and more so for the global health community, given that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative began in 1988 — over 25 years ago — as a partnership between UNICEF, Rotary International, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization. During each National Immunization Day, approximately 170 million children under the age of five are vaccinated.

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[Images: Esha Chhabra]

A shopkeeper in New Delhi is doing his bit to help raise children out of poverty by setting up a makeshift school underneath a railway bridge.

Most of the pupils who attend the morning classes come from nearby slums and would normally go out looking for work to support their families instead of going to government-run schools.

Rupa Jha reports.

Fauja Singh, World’s Oldest Runner At 101, Races For Women’s Rights

Before retiring from racing, the world’s oldest runner has made sure to take a big stride for women’s issues.

Fauja Singh, who says he’s “older than 101,” will be hanging up his sneakers later this month, but he wouldn’t do so before raising awareness for the rights and security of women, the Hindu reported. The seasoned racer, also fondly known as “Turbaned Tornado,” partook in the “Mini Marathon” in January organized by Punjanbi paper the Rozana Spokesman.

“I am pained to listen that my daughters, grand daughters and great grand daughters are no longer safe,” Singh, a follower of Sikhism, said at the event, according to the Hindu.

Singh, who first took up running at 89, is now planning for his final two marathons in Australia and then Hong Kong at the end of February, according to the Times of India. But he said he plans to continue to run at least four hours a day to serve as an example for others.

“But I will keep running to inspire the masses,” he told the Times of India. “Running is my life and I really would not have stopped competing if I had not crossed the age of 100,” he said.

Bangladesh and India on Monday signed an extradition treaty and struck a deal to relax business visa restrictions between the neighboring countries.

The extradition treaty could pave the way for Bangladesh to put on trial several crime bosses who crossed the border into India but are still running their gangs by telephone, a senior official at Bangladesh’s Home Affairs Ministry told Reuters.

It could also help India bring back fugitive separatists who have fled to Bangladesh including Ulfa leader Anup Chetia.

“We are particularly grateful as the treaty will deal with Indian insurgent groups,” Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Rao Shinde told reporters at a joint press conference.

“Both sides committed to act against elements inimical to both countries,” he said.

India has long been pressing for Chetia’s deportation. He has been in a Dhaka jail since his arrest in 1997 on charges of entering Bangladesh without valid documents.

The travel agreement between India and Bangladesh will allow business visas to be valid for up to five years instead of the current one year.

“Such an arrangement will help to boost the trade and business of Bangladesh with India,” saidMahbubur Rahman, president of the International Chamber of Commerce of Bangladesh.

“If Bangladeshis can travel freely, and the exporters can get their payment freely, then in less than 10 years Bangladesh’s exports can be tripled to that country,” Rahman said.

Chile hopes to sign a free trade agreement with 

Thailand soon and is seeking to expand a limited one it has with India, as the Andean country looks to deepen its open, export-dependent model, foreign affairs minister Alfredo Moreno said on Saturday.

The country is also working on broader agreements, including with fellow Pacific Alliance members Colombia, Mexico and Peru as well as negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

“Chile has just concluded negotiations with Thailand, I expect (the agreement) will be signed soon,” Moreno said. “And (Chile) is starting negotiations with India to expand the very limited agreement we have with India.”

He didn’t provide details of the agreements or time frames.

External trade represents around 75 percent of Chile’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). World No.1 copper producer Chile also exports wine, fruits, salmon and wood pulp.

The South American country has increasingly turned to Asia as a growing market for its products.

theatlantic:

Kumbh Mela: The Largest Gathering on Earth

Tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims are now descending on Allahabad, India, joining an estimated 8 million already there for the Maha Kumbh Mela. Held every 12 years at one of four places in India, the Kumbh Mela lasts nearly two months and is considered to be an especially auspicious time to bathe in the holy river for purification from sin. In 2001, the last time the festival took place, more than 40 million people gathered in an area smaller than 20 sq km (7.7 sq mi). This year, the predicted number of visitors tops 100 million. Collected here are images from the preparation and first days of the Maha Kumbh Mela, with possibly more to come in the next few weeks.

Read more. [Images: AP, Getty, Reuters]

mothernaturenetwork:

Asian tiger population is making a comeback

Camera trap images reveal tiger numbers rebounding across Asia, especially in southwestern India, where young tigers are leaving protected reserves due to population pressure, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The WCS attributes the rise in different tiger groups to better law enforcement and protection of additional habitat. For example, a notorious poaching ring was busted in Thailand last year, and the gang leaders have been given prison sentences of up to five years — the most severe punishments for wildlife poaching in Thailand’s history, the conservation group said in a statement.

Tiger numbers have been rising steadily in Thailand’s Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary since 2007, with a record 50-plus tigers counted last year, the WCS said. The sanctuary is part of the country’s Western Forest Complex. This core spans 7,000 square miles (18,000 square kilometers) and is home to an estimated 125 to 175 tigers.

In India’s mountainous landscape of Nagarahole and Bandipur national parks, tigers have reached saturation levels, with more than 600 individuals caught on camera trap photos in the past decade. Young tigers are leaving the parks along protected corridors and entering a landscape with a population of a million people, the group said.

Conservationists also worked with government officials in Russia to create additional protected areas for tigers. The country declared a new corridor, called the Central Ussuri Wildlife Refuge, on Oct. 18. The refuge links the Sikhote-Alin tiger population in Russia — the main group of endangered Amur tigers— with tiger habitat in China’s Heilongjiang Province in the Wandashan Mountains. The refuge ensures that tigers can move across the border between Russia and China in this region.

An estimated 3,200 tigers are living in the wild, with only 2,500 breeding adult pairs, according to TRAFFIC, a monitoring group funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Tigers have lost 93 percent of their historical range, which once sprawled across Asia from Turkey to Russia and south to Bali, according to the group.

“Tigers are clearly fighting for their very existence, but it’s important to know that there is hope. Victories like these give us the resolve to continue to battle for these magnificent big cats,” Cristián Samper, WCS president, said in a statement.

PICTURED ABOVE: Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde (L) shakes hands with Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik before their bilateral meeting in New Delhi December 14, 2012. 

India, Pakistan seal accord to ease visa restrictions

The accord was signed by India’s home minister and his Pakistani counterpart, weeks before the two cricket-loving nations play their first series in India since the attacks that killed 166 people.

“This is not only historic but this is a step forward for the two countries in the progress of peace,” said Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik during a three-day visit to New Delhi.

Under the previous arrangement, Pakistani business travellers were restricted to certain cities, prohibiting their travel from Delhi to the nearby thriving business hub of Gurgaon without permission.

Businessmen had to report to Indian police stations in the evenings “like a criminal”, Pakistani trade official Zafar Mahmood complained in April during a Pakistani trade fair in New Delhi. Indians visiting Pakistan face similar restrictions.

The change will permit visitors to travel to five places now instead of three and some businessmen will get multiple-entry visas, exempting them from reporting to the police.

Despite thousands of years of shared heritage, India and Pakistan have tense relations - a legacy of three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.

The two governments agreed to relax visa rules in principle in September, when former Indian foreign minister SM Krishna visited Islamabad.

India is likely to issue up to 3,000 multi-city visas to Pakistani cricket fans and an additional 300 to VIPs for the cricket series that starts on Christmas day, allowing Pakistanis to cheer on their national team on Indian turf.

“This is a baby step towards reducing the tensions between India and Pakistan,” said Ashok Mehta, a former major general of the Indian army. “But it’s still significant, especially because nothing is happening on big-ticket items like border management and terrorism - the real ice-breakers.”

Malik promised India that Pakistan would convict those responsible for the 2008 attacks.

“I assure the Indian authorities that we will not leave any stone unturned and the day is not far when you will see the conviction and you will see the justice done,” he said.

India, Pakistan start new innings of “cricket diplomacy”

Cricket legend Kapil Dev remembers what it was like playing for his country against India’s bitter rival, Pakistan, when he made his international debut in 1978: a bowler was expected to aim at the batsman’s body.

“When I played my first series against Pakistan, it did look like a war,” India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain said during a recent TV panel discussion. “In our time, we were expected more to harm the Pakistani players than win a match.”

Fast-forward to 2012, and India and Pakistan are once again preparing to face off on the cricket field, playing their first series since 2008, when already brittle relations were shattered by the Mumbai attacks.

The fact that the matches are happening at all is widely seen as a sign of the warming atmospherics between the South Asian neighbours, which have fought three wars in their brief independent history and remain deeply mistrustful of each other.

Some 3,000 Pakistani cricket fans will travel to India, benefiting from a more relaxed visa regime that was agreed on earlier this month as part of a series of confidence-building measures. The teams will play five matches across different Indian cities, starting on December 25.

It is the latest round of what is known as “cricket diplomacy” – a tradition of using the subcontinent’s favourite sport to mend relations that stretch back a quarter of a century and saw their respective prime ministers hold pitch-side talks last year.

“Politically, cricket has always been there to break the ice,” said Aamer Naseer, a Pakistani TV sports show host.

Both India and Pakistan are crazy about cricket and emotions run high whenever the two sides meet, usually in stadiums packed to the rafters and resounding with jingoistic slogan-shouting.

“The atmosphere is unparalleled,” Omer Ghaznavi, a sports analyst for City FM, a popular Pakistani radio station. “I haven’t been to another sporting event where people are so charged up.”

Such is the pressure that the Pakistan Cricket Board is sending a psychologist to help the players cope with the tour. Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis, alongside Dev at the panel discussion, explained the strain players come under.

“My boys even stopped speaking to each other, such was the pressure,” Younis said. “People dub it a war. Well, it’s certainly not a war. At the same time, it’s not just sports either. It is somewhere in between.”

New Delhi and Islamabad have used cricketing occasions to try to make progress on issues that have dogged relations since the two nations won independence from Britain in 1947, especially over the fate of the Kashmir region they both claim.

In 1987, then-Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq visited India to watch a cricket match. But the event was also used to defuse a crisis over troop build-ups on one of the world’s most militarised borders, meeting Indian prime minister of the day, Rajiv Gandhi.

In 2005, Pakistan’s then-military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, travelled to India to watch a cricket match, but the trip also became a summit with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the two leaders agreed to open up the Kashmir border.

Relations are slowing improving since the attack on India’s financial capital in 2008, when Pakistani militants went on a killing spree that left 166 people dead and raised fears of an Indian reprisal against its nuclear-armed neighbour.

India accuses elements of the Pakistani state of collusion in the assault, and of dragging its feet in bringing the planners of the attack to justice, allegations Islamabad strongly denies. Indian authorities hanged the lone surviving gunman of the attack last month.

But festering diplomatic sores are unlikely to overshadow the cricket tour, according to sports historian Boria Majumdar.

Both countries “welcome resumption of cricket ties. They know it’s important to play and engage in trade. They know you don’t achieve anything by not playing with each other,” he said.

“Cricket badly needs an India-Pakistan series. So do the fans,” he said.

“Have no illusion, a cricket series can’t herald peace between two feuding nations. At the end of the day, it’s the responsibility of the political classes.”