ICDS

                          Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)

ICDS is government of India programme for early childhood development. It was started in 1975. It aims to provide preschool school education at one hand and breaking vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other hand.

Objective-

1. To improve nutritional and health status of children in age group of 0-6 years
2. To lay foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of children
3. To reduce occurrence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropouts
4. To achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
5. To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education

Services: The above objectives are sought to be achieved through a package of services comprising:

1. supplementary nutrition,
2. immunization,
3. health check-up,
4. referral services,
5. pre-school non-formal education and
6. Nutrition & health education.

Nutrition including supplementary feeding- All families in community are surveyed, to identify children 0-6 age and pregnant, nursing women. They are provided supplementary feeding in order to bridge caloric gap between the national average and average intake of children and women in low income level and disadvantaged group.

Growth Monitoring and nutrition surveillance are two important activities that are undertaken. Children below the age of three years of age are weighed once a month and children 3-6 years of age are weighed quarterly. Weight-for-age growth cards are maintained for all children below six years. This helps to detect growth faltering and helps in assessing nutritional status. Besides, severely malnourished children are given special supplementary feeding and referred to medical services.

Polio Vaccination

Immunization- Immunization of pregnant women and infants protects children from six vaccine preventable diseases-poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles. These are major preventable causes of child mortality, disability, morbidity and related malnutrition. Immunization of pregnant women against tetanus also reduces maternal and neonatal mortality.

Referral Services: During health check-ups and growth monitoring, sick or malnourished children, in need of prompt medical attention, are referred to the Primary Health Centre or its sub-centre. The anganwadi worker has also been oriented to detect disabilities in young children. She enlists all such cases in a special register and refers them to the medical officer of the Primary Health Centre/ Sub-centre.

Children in Anganwadi Centre

Non-formal Pre-School Education (PSE)- The Non-formal Pre-school Education (PSE) component of the ICDS may well be considered the backbone of the ICDS programme, since all its services essentially converge at the anganwadi – a village courtyard. Anganwadi Centre (AWC) – a village courtyard – is the main platform for delivering of these services. These AWCs have been set up in every village in the country. In pursuance of its commitment to the cause of India’s Children, present government has decided to set up an AWC in every human habitation/ settlement.

Dissemination of Heath and Nutrition Education 

Nutrition and Health Education: Nutrition, Health and Education (NHED) is a key element of the work of the anganwadi worker. This forms part of BCC (Behaviour Change Communication) strategy. This has the long term goal of capacity-building of women – especially in the age group of 15-45 years – so that they can look after their own health, nutrition and development needs as well as that of their children and families

India's Own GPS- IRNSS

                         Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System

IRNSS- Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system being developed by ISRO which would be completely under Government of India.

The satellite is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1,500 kms from its boundary.

Application of IRNSS includes terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, integration with mobile phones, precise timing, mapping and geodetic data capture, terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers, visual and navigation for drivers, said ISRO sources.

IRNSS will provide two types of services, including Standard Positioning Service (SPS), which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. The system is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.

The satellite system also comprises of a space segment and a ground segment. The space segment consists of seven satellites, with three satellites in the geostationary orbit and four in an inclined geosynchronous orbit.

The IRNSS ground segment is responsible for navigation parameter generation and transmission, satellite controls, ranging and integrity monitoring and time keeping.

Why IRNSS?

To ease India’s dependence on America’s GPS and even to some extent on Russia’s Glonass, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has built its own geo-spatial positioning system. The US doesn’t share military grade signals with countries but civilian signals are free to all. In times of war, and sometimes even otherwise, the signals can be corrupted and it can pose security problem.

Amid such uncertainties, when the default control and navigation systems in defence projects are equipped with GPS devices, a country’s security rides on these radio signals whose control lies elsewhere. For this reason, in its upgraded BrahMos missile, India has added Glonass receivers to the standard GPS receivers because Russia, unlike US, gives access to military signals. But India’s IRNSS is a regional system, not meant for offensive but defensive purposes.

Master Clock

But the heart of IRNSS lies in the master clock. “The Americans, the Europeans… all have their standard time. India also had to establish her own standard time. A master clock provides the timing reference for the generation of the navigation signal. This atomic clock maintains accuracy of better than 20 nano-seconds with respect to any universal time. It provides stability of 0.4 or 0.5 nanoseconds variation in a day.


India should also attract other countries in the region to use IRNSS. GPS is a success because the whole world uses it; even China is making its system, Compass, commercially available. At some point India needs to use its space faring abilities as soft power.

Current situation of Indian Animal Husbandry

Animal Husbandry

India has the world’s largest livestock population — 58 per cent of buffaloes and 15 per cent of cattle. Owing to this huge bovine stock, though India has managed to attain numero uno position in milk production, the full potential of Indian milch herd remains unattained. More importantly a large of section of Indian population depend on animal rearing for their lively hood need. A improvement in animal husbandry will also improve the economic condition of our rural part, heavily depend on animal husbandry.

Causes of low productivity in India

1-low genetic potential

2- Poor nutrition/feed management

3- Inferior farm management practices

4- Ineffective veterinary and extension services

5- Inefficient implementation of breed improvement programmes

What are the ways out ?

Breeding Initiatives

National Project on Cattle & Buffalo Breeding (NPCBB) has been started to strengthening artificial insemination (AI) services.

But lack of focus on progeny testing due to unavailability of technical manpower, small herd size and inefficient implementation has been an impediment.

AI services cover only 25 per cent of dairy animals. Further, over the years, emphasis has been on crossbreeding, with limited attention to improvement of indigenous breeds.

For developing sustainable breeding strategies it is also necessary to have comprehensive national level mapping and database development on number of species of livestock and their breeds, available animal genetic resources, breeding infrastructure and development facilities.

Cross-breeding with high yielding exotic breeds should be encouraged in areas with adequate facility for feed and fodder as well as suitable agro-climatic conditions. Genetic upgradation by way of breeding non-descript cattle with defined indigenous breeds needs to be encouraged in resource deficient areas.

Need based import of live animals and germ plasm (semen and embryos) needs to be debated and facilitated, amidst adoption of scientific bio security measures.

Feed management

With rapidly shrinking land and natural resources, availability and quality of feed and fodder is increasingly becoming a challenge. The current deficit of green fodder and concentrates is 34 per cent. Further, there is a supply demand gap for quality forage seeds as well.

Imbalanced nutrition due to lack of farmers’ knowledge about appropriate use of existing feed resources is also a major factor responsible for low livestock productivity.

The Ration Balancing Programme of NDDB and Accelerated Fodder Development Programme of the Government are commendable initiatives to ensure better feed availability and improved nutrition.

Application of newer technology to produce large scale feed blocks, feed enzymes and other innovative feed resources, needs to be enhanced. Development of an innovative silage business model by way of partnerships amongst seed companies, operations service providers (for baling and supply chain functions) and rural retail channels can be a significant step in this direction.

 Veterinary services

High quality veterinary services are an important enabler for enhancing milk yield.

But currently due to unavailability of trained manpower and lack of mobility (veterinary service requirements are normally on short notice and require attendance in a limited time window at farm doorstep), the services provided are not able to create desired impact.

An authentic, concurrently updated database for prevalence and emergence of diseases is essential for identification, onward prevention and control.

A fairly large infrastructure of vaccine and diagnostic production units, semen stations and AI breeding farms that is largely owned by the government, can be more efficiently utilised by way of appropriate participation of the private sector.

Farm management practices

Adoption of better farm management practices and automation helps in reducing operational cost and improving milk quality as well as productivity.

Here, collaborative and innovative dairy farming models have a critical role to play.

There is a need for devising and implementing low cost technologies (for feeding, healthcare diagnostics, cow comfort and milking) that are suited to Indian dairy farming, thereby improving yields.

Effective delivery of extension services is critical to achieve higher milk productivity. Extension activities also need to address farmer education on preventive measures, improved animal feeding and farm management practices.

Currently, less than 1 per cent of the total plan budget for the animal husbandry sector is allocated for extension activities. Progressive farmers also need to be trained to act as extension agents for disseminating technical knowledge.

Arunachal Pradesh, India: What exactly is the Arunachal Pradesh Conflict between India and China? Who does Arunachal Pradesh really belong to?

Arunachal Pradesh (called South Tibet in China) belongs to India. India's sovereignty over the area is internationally recognized. The majority of the international maps puts the area in India. China has some historical claims through its ownership of Tibet, but the geography primarily favors India. 

The primary controversy is over the ownership of the Tawang tract (northern part of the state) where India's biggest monastery and an ancient trading town lies. 

Arunachal History:

No one knows the ancient history of Arunachal. It borders Assam (a core part of Indian civilization) and has a few old temples. But, it is also influenced by Tibetan, Burmese and Bhutanese cultures.

In the 16th century, the most important heritage of the state - Tawang Monastery was built. This is one of the most important sites for the Tibetan Buddhists. The area is assumed to have been populated by the Tibetans at that point. 

Everyone argues whom it should belong to given the ancient history. The verdict is uncertain. In the ancient times, Indian empires and Tibetan empires were in harmony and the exact border was neither drawn nor enforced. But, things would change. 

Modern History:

Until 1912, the border between Tibet and India was not quite delineated. Very few people lived there for it to matter. Neither the Mughals nor the British were controlling the region. Even the Tibetans were not that interested. For instance, here is India's map of 1909. It puts the state in Tibet. 

However, here is a map of China and Tibet in 1892. That sort of puts the state in India/Burma. 

In short, both India and Tibet were sort of confused where the borders lied. Britishers initially didn't bother as they found nothing. Eventually, they discovered the Tawang Monastery and it was time to draw the borders. In 1914, the representatives of Tibet, China and British India sat together to draw the borders. Before going into that, I will give a brief introduction to Tibet. 

Tibet History:

For a sizable chunk of history, Tibet was an independent region. However, under the Yuan dynasty (circa 1200 AD) Tibet came under China. Since then China has started claiming Tibet under her rule. In the 18th century, the Chinese grip would be loosened as the Qing dynasty started decaying. By about 1860s, Tibet began to be recognized as a separate country. Here is a 1864 map that shows Tibet as a separate country. China still claimed it was hers. 

By 1913, Qing dynasty would completely collapse in China and Tibet would expel all of the remaining Chinese representatives from Tibet. 

Simla convention of 1914

In 1914, Tibet was an independent, but weak country. British India negotiated hard and got Tibet to accept that the region of Tawang and the area south of it belonged to India. Everyone was happy except China. Chinese representative in the meeting, withdrew from that and since then China refused to accept the accord resulted out of the meeting. 

  
After the meeting, the border was not fully enforced. Except for Tawang, there was not much interesting going on in the state and it was ignored by everyone. In 1935, a British administrative office would go back to the convention ruling and unearthed the finding. Soon, India would start using the region in her maps. 

Who does it belong to?

China never recognized Tibet's independence nor the 1914 Simla convention. In 1950 China would completely take over Tibet. Thus, according to China, Tawang region belongs to her. China especially wants to hold on to the monastery as that is a leading center of Tibetan Buddhism in India. 

According to India, most of the state had ancient Indian influence from Assam and in 1914 Tibetans signed an agreement to give the state to India. Also, from an Indian perspective, keeping the Tawang monastery within India is the best way to protect whatever is remaining of Tibetan culture. 

In 1962, India and China warred over the region. But, the geography clearly favors India and China had to pull back from Tawang. Since then India has established complete control over the region. It is now as India as any other part of India.

Look at the map here. The international borders of the state roughly coincide with the high altitude. 

Indian History: Greater India: Tracing the Sanskrit Influence in Southeast Asia.

Abstract: In this post, I will go into the forgotten history of India: the Sanskrit/Ramayana influence in Asia. I will also cover how Ramayana is the nation epic of countries such as Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. 

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When Columbus set out to discover a route to the Indies, he was not merely looking for the present-day India. He was referring to the whole region of South & Southeast Asia.  Do you know why? Do you know that the national epics of Laos and Thailand are based Ramayana and the national symbol of Indonesia is Garuda?

A Laos stamp honoring the Rama ballet. 

History

Until about the 15th century, Indian culture was not just limited to the land of the Ganges, but was spread from Lanka to Srivijaya (Sumatra: Malaysia/Indonesia), Yavadvipa/Singhasari  (Java),  Kambuja (Cambodia), Ayutthaya (Thailand) and Lanka. In the 14th century, most of Southeast Asia came under the Hindu kingdom of Majapahit. 

Here is region broadly called as Greater India by the scholars. 

Hinduism came to Southeast Asia in about 200 BC through the traders from Kalinga (eastern India). It was mainly concentrated around Java and Sumatra (Indonesia and Malaysia). Around the same time, the Khmerrulers of Cambodia started adopting Hindu practices. By around 8th century, they became completely Indianized, adopting Sanskrit names (Jayavarman II), Hinduism, adopting Ramayana and building Hindu temples. 

Sanskrit Names

The name Indonesia comes from the same source as India - Indus river as the Indians began to have a big influence there 1500 years ago.Singapore is a Sanskrit word meaning the city of the lion.  Sumatracomes from the Sanskrit word Samudra (meaning ocean). Java comes from the Sanskrit word Yava (meaning barley). Siam (the official name of Thailand until 1939) comes from the Sanskrit word - Shyama (meaning brown). 

The etymology of Cambodia is a little bit controversial, as it derives from the Sanskrit word Kambuja. Kambojas refers to a Iranian tribe who had no castes. Thus, Brahmins called the Cambodians (who had no castes either) as Kambujas (the word implies "casteless barbarian"). 

The Tagalog language of the Phillipines was heavily influenced by Sanskrit. 

Ramayana influence

Ramayana has a big influence all over South east Asia. Thai kings are called Rama (Kings of Thailand) - from the Hindu god Rama and their old kingdom was called Ayutthya from the Rama's city (Ayodhya). The official symbol of Indonesia is Garuda Pancasila (the carrier of Rama). 

Ramayana talks about Yavadweepa (Java) where Sugriva sent out scouts in search for Sita. Festivals and culture of Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia are influenced by a lot of Ramayana elements. Rama Overview

The national epic of Cambodians Reamker is a story of Rama. The Ankor temples of Cambodia have a large number of Ramayana and Mahabharatha sculptures. Cambodia. The Malay version - Hikayat Seri Rama used to be pretty popular there until the arrival of Islam. The national epic of Laos is Phra Lak Phra Lam (meaning the story of Rama). 

Balinese has elaborate Hindu festivals centered on Rama. 

Other cultural influence

Both Tamil and Sanskrit had a big influence on South east Asia kingdoms as both South Indians Cholas as well as north Indian traders started establishing their cultural elements on these islands. 

The statue of Harihara in Indonesia

Trimurti temple of Java. Prambanan

Ayutthya (Ayodhya) temple of Thailand. Ayutthaya Kingdom

Ankor Wat of Cambodia (largest Hindu temples in the world)

Taman Ayun Temple of Bali

Garuda symbol of Indonesia.

Further reference:
Influence of Ramayana
Hinduism in Southeast Asia