India emerge champions in inaugural Asian Team Snooker Championships

Doha: The Indian trio Manan Chandra, Brijesh Damani and Alok Kumar created history by thrashing Team Iran 3-0 to emerge champions in the inaugural Asian Team Snooker Championships held in Qatar, Doha.

The Indian cueists were in form right from the start and topped their group with three wins from as many games. After the group stages, India were the only team to remain undefeated. Pakistan, China and Thailand finished on top of their respective groups but suffered a defeat each.

India had little obstruction in clinching gold as they outplayed Qatar 3-1 in the quarterfinals, beat Afghanistan 3-1 in the semifinals before registering a clean sweep against Iran scoring 61-49 (Single); 58-16 (Single); and 63-55 (double).


Sanjay Sawant accompanied the team India as coach.

Source : IndianSportsNews

Qatar seeks India help to set up IIT, IIM

New Delhi: India's prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs) could mark their international debut with the government considering a proposal to set up one such institution in Qatar.

To take this proposal forward, HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday.

Qatar has attracted some of the prestigious international campuses and requested Indian government to set up elite institutes such as IIT and IIM there, sources said.

They said Qatar made a fresh request in this regard during the recent visit of Finance Minister P Chidambramam to that country.

During the meeting, the PM is also slated to review progress of some of the new IIT campuses in the country, they said.

Recognise the rights of differently-abled children, says UN report

New Delhi:Kartik Sawhney can't stop smiling. He's just scored 96% in Class 12 exams of the Central Board, topping the category of differently-abled students. And now he is all set to go to the Stanford University in the US on a full scholarship to pursue his computer science degree.

What's ironic is that Kartik, who is visually impaired, always wanted to study at the IITs. But he couldn't take the exam since he wasn't given any special assistance he needed to appear for the IIT-JEE exam.

"Why can't we understand the practical difficulties that differently-abled students face and why can't we accommodate such students and let them compete?" Kartik told.

Kartik's concerns are exactly those reflected in the UNICEF's latest 'State of the World Children' report that focuses on the obvious but urgent need to allow differently-abled children to hone their talents. The report also points to the need to recognize the rights of such children.

The lack of such recognition affects a large number of children in India. Census 2011 figures for the differently-abled are still being computed, but the last Census says there are 22 million persons with disabilities in India of which 5.7 million are children, and one in every four children in India is disabled.

UNICEF India representative Louis Georges Arsenault blames "social stigma" for the lack of opportunities for the differently-abled in the country. "There is social stigma...parents themselves don't give information about it. So they (children with disabilities) don't exist, they don't have a birth certificate, they don't attend school and are not part of the census. So we have to start from the beginning."

Disability rights activists in India have for long been fighting for inclusive education. The Right to Education, they say, is often forgotten when it comes to children who need it most.

Just like we find it hard to understand sign language without someone explaining what the gestures mean, children with disabilities also need us to recognize their needs, dreams and aspirations, so that examples like Kartik's are not exceptions but mainstream achievers.

Cool morning in Delhi, day will be partly cloudy

Delhi: It was a cool, pleasant morning in the capital on Saturday with the minimum temperature settling a notch below average at 26.7 degrees Celsius. The Met Office has forecast a partly cloudy day ahead.

"The skies will become partly cloudy in the day and the maximum temperature is expected to hover around 40 degrees Celsius," an official of the India Meteorological Department said.

Humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 69 percent.

Friday's maximum temperature was 40.6 degrees Celsius - average for this time of year, and the minimum was three notches below average at 24.8 degrees Celsius.

Kottayam girl topped AIIMS exam

Kottayam: When she was a child, Bhagya would be taken to paediatrician Dr Jayakumar near her home for treatment. She would watch in wonder how the doctor was administering medicines and giving hope to the patients. Now, she’s a top rank-holder in the field of medicine.

In fact, S. Bhagya, who topped the post graduate entrance examinations to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, had personally come across a second doctor only when she went in for her MBBS course at the Kottayam medical college hospital five years ago. The aspiration to be a doctor was ingrained in her by no great physician, but the same doctor who was next to her house, she says.

The girl from Thekkumgopuram near Kottayam would stroll across the corridors of AIMS by July. “A doctor should excel in various spheres. Apart from having a deep knowledge in the profession, he or she should even be able to diagnose even the emotional and psychological levels of the patient," she told DC.

Her mother, Kala P.P., an employee at the United India Insurance, Kottayam division, had given all the support to her. Her father is late Shaji Babu, who was a manager with SBT, while her younger sister, Kavya, has completed Class Ten.

Gutka ban: Spit it out or cough it up

Bengaluru: The state government has finally woken up to the dangers of tobacco use. State Food Safety Comm, V.B. Patil, who is also the Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare, issued a notification on Wed­nesday prohibiting the manufacture, storage, sale and distribution of gutka and pan masala containing tobacco or nicotine ingredients with immediate effect in the state. “It will take us another ten days to clear stocks from all the shops,” said Madan Gopal, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department.

Announcing the government initiative at an event to commemorate  World No Tobacco Day on Friday, Health Minister U.T. Khader said, “People in the age group of 26-50, considered the most productive, are the worst hit. Following the ban,  we will start counselling sessions at primary health centers and smaller hospitals across the state.” Mr Khader said, “Gutka products contain very little amount of areca and the growers will not be affected that badly.”

The circular was issued to all the designated food safety officers and district health officers on Friday. The food safety commissioner is chalking out a plan to implement the ban in coordination with the State Health and Family Welfare Department. The Supreme Court, while declaring gutka and pan masala food products, has ruled that they cannot contain tobacco or nicotine ingredients.

Madan Gopal said, “We should have taken this step much earlier. About 25 states and two Union Territories have already banned gutka and pan masala. The effects of the ban will be visible 2-3 weeks. We are still working out the penalties for the violators.”

Russia starts ambitious smoking ban

Moscow : Russia's ambitious smoking ban, which aims to cut the number of smokers in half and improve public health, has gone into effect amid doubts that its measures can be fully enforced.

The first stage of the so-called anti-tobacco ban makes it illegal to smoke on buses, trams and other municipal transport, at railway stations and airports, on lifts and bus stations, near metro and rail stations, in administrative buildings and at education and health facilities.

From June 1, 2014, the ban will be stepped up to also include ships, long-distance trains, train platforms, hotels, cafes and restaurants - places where Russians still smoke plentifully.

Cigarette advertising and sales will also be curbed significantly.

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The Kremlin initiated the public health initiative last year in a bid to halve the country's smokers.

An estimated 44 million Russians use nicotine on a daily basis.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said last year that smoking-related diseases killed an estimated 400,000 people in Russia every year, and that increasingly younger people were picking up the habit.

According to a survey carried out by Levada Centre last year, 81 per cent of the Russians polled were in favour of banning smoking in public places.

However, doubts have been cast about the authorities' ability to enforce the law, and many people have said that the government should focus more on helping people kick the habit rather than adopting repressive measures.

Smokers have also launched a country-wide movement to fight for their rights.

"The government's policies often turn the fight against smoking into the fight against smokers," the All-Russia Movement For The Rights of Smokers said on its website.

The Duma last month passed in an initial reading the bill, setting up fines for violating the law, which start from 1000 rubles ($A32.25) for smoking in forbidden areas and go up as high as 500,000 rubles ($A16,650) for illegal tobacco advertising.

According to the World Health Organisation, Russia in 2010 had the fourth most smokers of any country in the world, accounting for 4.4 per cent of the world's smokers.

However, it was still well behind China, which accounted for 28 per cent of the world's smokers.

Source : TheAge