Joke of the week!

Police Combing operation led to elephant menace at Hebri: reports Sanjevani!

People have poor access to mental health care: Experts

BANGALORE: Access to mental health treatment is a serious issue. Almost 90% of people in rural and 50% in urban areas are deprived of the same, experts have said at a psychosocial meeting here on Thursday.
Inaugurating the 10th world congress of World Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation (WAPR), home minister V S Acharya said: "Almost 20 million people suffer from mental illness. They find it difficult to fight for their rights because of the stigma attached with it.''
The minister had a solution to this: "Shortage of medical facilities and staff in villages to treat mental illness can be addressed by conducting a three-month course in mental health for general medical practitioners in rural areas. In north Karnataka, the Government Medical hospital will soon be made autonomous for treating mental illness.''
On the occasion, NIMHANS, Director, D Nagaraja, said: "Two per cent of population suffer from severe mental disorder. Unfortunately, even today the treatment gap is 50% in urban area and 90% in rural area. Government had sanctioned Rs 120 cr in the past budget and in present financial budget Rs 1000 cr is sanctioned but is not unable to increase the accessibility for treatment."
President, WAPR International, Dr Michael Madianos, said: "In more than 68 countries, 78% of the population have access to less than one psychiatrist. In South Asian and African countries, 89% of the population have less than one psychiatrist for one lakh population."
Psycho Social Rehabilitation, WHO 2002 report shows, globally, 154 million are affected with schizophrenia, 91 million by alchololism, 16 million by drugs, 25 to 50 million by Alzheimer and epilepsy and significant number of them suffer from depression and thousands of individuals commit suicide and majority of those who commit suicide are from developed countries. (TOI)

Cabinet Meeting: 11.11.2009

Revised scheme gives pension to newcomers
Express News Service

BANGALORE: The state government has evolved a new pension scheme for its employees appointed on or after April 1, 2006. The government had scrapped the pension scheme for its employees appointed on or after April 1, 2006, considering the burden it was putting on the state exchequer. The decision had caused lot of resentment among government employees and they had been putting pressure on the government to address the issue.
The state Cabinet on Tuesday approved the new scheme. According to the scheme, employees have to contribute some portion of their salary (not more than 10 percent) every month towards pension fund and the government would also contribute an equal share. At the time of retirement, the pension would be fixed for employees based on the amount accrued in their respective accounts. Home Minister V S Acharya said that the employees, if they wished, can also contribute the amount for the period between April 2006 till date and the government would provide matching contribution. The Cabinet also decided to provide bicycles to 6.7 lakh students studying in 8th standard. Students using free bus pass are not eligible for getting the cycles.
Other decisions of the Cabinet
* Government to take over the evening college in Chikkaballapur being run by town municipality and convert it into a day college for women.
* Permission for Belgaum and Mangalore corporations to outsource city cleaning and garbage collection in some wards, to private players
* Karnataka Leather Industry Development Corporation to be renamed as Dr Babu Jagjeevan Ram Leather Industry Development Corporation. However, the brand name Lidkar will continue.
* To construct 1,082 Anganavadi buildings at a cost of RS 40 crore
* To provide Rs 40 crore for B-Trac programme in Bangalore
* Approval for a Rs 24-crore project to provide Cauvery water to Male Mahadeshwara Hills
* To build a link road at a cost of Rs 14.2 crore at Hiriyuru to connect the Bidar-Srirangapatna state highway with national highway number 4.

Bangalore IT Biz 2009

Bangalore, Nov 11 (IANS): Global meltdown and the flash floods in north Karnataka have forced the organisers of BangaloreIT.Biz 2009, a premier IT event, to shift the venue to a hotel from the sprawling Bangalore Palace grounds and shorten it by two days.
"As a sympathetic gesture to the flood-hit people in the state, we have decided to keep the BangaloreIT.Biz 2009 low-profile," said Karnataka IT and biotechnology minister K. Subramanya Naidu Wednesday at the event's inaugural function.
"We are also aware of the difficulty the IT industry has been facing due to the impact of global recession on outsourcing," he said at the 12th edition of the event, which will now be held over three days.
State Home Minister V.S. Acharya substituted for Kamat and Naidu inaugurated the exhibition on behalf of Yeddyurappa.
Azim Premji of global software major Wipro and Cisco chief technology officer Padma Warrier were present at the opening ceremony .
The event's partner country, Chile is represented by its economic ministry head Mario Castillo, who is leading a delegation of that country's investment promotion board.
About 800 delegates, 100 exhibitors and 90 speakers from diverse industry verticals are participating in the three-day event, which has "ICT for a billion people" as its focal theme.
"Though the event has been kept simple in light of austere measures adopted by the state government for rehabilitating the flood-hit people, we have not diluted the importance of the IT industry," said state IT Secretary Ashok Kumar Manoli.
Besides Indian IT bellwethers Infosys, Wipro and TCS and multinationals such as IBM, Intel, Dell and Cisco, the governments of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Assam and Tamil Nadu are also participating in the trade show.
"About 10 start-ups will showcase technologies and business ideas to venture capitalists and industries," Manoli said. Read more...

10.11.2009

09.11.2009

L K Advani:Birthday wishes