Mahadeva will ensure you rest in peace

Mahadeva, a resident of Bangalore, has been burying the dead for the past 40 years, but instead of being bogged down by the morbid job, he believes he's blessed. For 40 years, Mahadeva has given a dignified exit to at least 75,000 dead people, most of them unclaimed. "This is the only work I know. No one cares about these bodies and they would rot somewhere. So I feel it's like a duty of mine to give them a proper burial, make them feel happy, at least in their after life," said Mahadeva. He has also cremated some high-profile people like Sivarasan, one of those responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. His work has thankfully not gone unnoticed. Bangalore police works with him and calls him whenever there is a case of an unclaimed dead body.

Khap Panchayat makes education mandatory for girls

    Rajasthan: Khap Panchayat makes education mandatory for girls
Khap Panchayats are infamous for their scarily unreasonable diktats. But in a village in Rajasthan's Barmer, a rare order by one such Panchayat, 20 years ago, came as a blessing for girls. The Panchayat made it mandatory for everyone to send their daughters to school or face a penalty. The girls are now all grown up.

Kalyanmoy Deb

Kalyanmoy Deb

Computational optimization; optimal design; process optimization; optimal modeling and optimal system design; multi-objective optimization and multi-criterion decision analysis; large-scale optimization; evolutionary multi-objective optimization (EMO) for handling practicalities -- uncertainties, constraints, multi-modalities, noise, and mixed variables; meta-modeling in optimization; hybrid optimization algorithms using evolutionary and classical methods;  evolutionary computation in search, optimization of control of engineering problems; multi-modal optimization; design of self-adaptive evolutionary algorithms; combinatorial optimization; computational intelligence; neural networks; fuzzy logic systems; machine learning; practical applications of optimization in science, engineering, finance and in multi-disciplinary domains.

Dr Siddiqi's project can ensure food for millions

                     Dr Siddiqi's project can ensure food for millions

     Dr Siddiqi's

  Dr Imran Siddiqi's research on hybrid plants can ensure enough food for millions of Indians. He has also won the Infosys Prize for 2011 in Life Sciences. Dr Imran Siddiqi isn't fooled by appearances. India's green revolution gave food to millions. But many of the plants in Dr Siddiqi's research are hybrids with different breeds crossed together, to ensure a bumper yield. But if one takes seeds from such hybrids and replant them - the next generation of plants don't produce nearly as much grain. "What this means is that farmers have to go back and buy new seeds for every planting. This is what seed companies make their money on,

Dr Pratap Bhanu

Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is President, Center for Policy Research, New Delhi.  He was previously Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University; Associate Professor of Government and of Social Studies at Harvard. He was also Professor of Philosophy and of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was also been a Visiting Professor at NYU Law School.  His areas of research include, political theory, constitutional law, society and politics in India, governance and political economy and international affairs. Mehta has a B.A. First Class in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University (St. John's College); and a Ph.D in Politics from Princeton University. He is the recipient of the Malcom S. Adishehshiah Award for 2010 and of the 2011 Infosys Prize for Social Sciences -

children turn reporters to highlight issues

                                         children turn reporters to highlight issues

A group of children in Bihar have found a unique way to highlight their everyday problems. They have turned reporters to create awareness about child marriage, child labour and other issues. All of 12, Kajal's awareness about issues is exemplary. The child crusader, part of the child reporter brigade in Bihar's Vaishali district, has been taking on the cause of child labour, child marriage, environment protection and civic consciousness in her village. The child reporter brigade publishes a quarterly broadsheet newsletter 'Hamari Baat, Hamari Awaaz', which touches upon several social issues. But being a reporter is no child's play. Thanks to the efforts of the young reporter brigade, the state education department had to appoint a teacher after it was reported that there was no Hindi teacher in the school. Education authorities were also forced to damage-control after the newsletter reported about irregular teaching in Shivnandan School in Rajapakar

     US-returned Moily's son provides financial empowerment to villages

Union Minister for Corporate Affairs M Veerappa Moily's son, gave up his cushy job in the US to contribute back home. He has empowered hundreds of villagers in Karnataka through the milk collection network, known as the MokhshaYug Access, he has set up. Mahalakshmi is happy and contented - her dream of buying all the latest kitchen gadgets have come true. The 34-year-old resident of Karnataka's Banavara village works for the Milk Route - a business initiative set up by the MokshaYug Access. Mahalakshmi said, "Working for milk route has really helped me, I earn a lot and I can buy whatever I want. I feel independent now."

 Man saves wild animals battling for life

 India's urban spaces are more than just concrete jungles. They harbour animals like jackals, mongoose and nilgai. But life in a metro can also be tough for these creatures. A porcupine was rescued from an 18-feet well, a wolf snake gave the athletes a scare when it showed up in their rooms during the Commonwealth Games and a nilgai that was injured by speeding traffic. One man, Kartick Satyanarayan has been rescuing and rehabilitating the troubled wild creatures of the capital city for over a decade. "It's important that we bring more awareness so that they realise that these creatures are not there to bite them or attack them, but they are just performing their ecological role," Kartick said. Kartick's team runs a wildlife helpline and the moment it gets a distress call, it springs into action. So far, the team has saved nearly 9000 animals including many unusual and rare ones
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                      Naxal who gave up arms to educate the poor

On November 13, 2005, as many as 1000 armed Naxals had taken the entire town of Jahanabad hostage. They had broken into the prison, shot 11 policemen and freed 150 of their comrades. One of the masterminds of the Jahanabad jail break, Nand Singh, was also freed on that day. However, today he is a modern Valmiki, after giving up arms and landmines. His new weapon is pen and he educates poor kids of his village, free of cost.

             Iswar Sankalpa: a home for people with special needs 

An NGO called Iswar Sankalpa has a mission to provide shelter and healthcare to people with special needs. The NGO has re-united more than 100 people with their families and given a new lease of life to many. Laboni, Counselor, Iswar Sankalpa said, "A person with mental illness is also a human being. The characteristics they show are something we also display daily during certain moments." 

दूध के साथ दही लें या नहीं? दूध और दही दोनों की तासीर अलग होती है। दही एक खमीर वाली चीज है। दोनों को मिक्स करने से बिना खमीर वाला खाना (दूध) खराब हो जाता है। …
साथ ही, एसिडिटी बढ़ती है और गैस, अपच व उलटी हो सकती है। इसी तरह दूध के साथ अगर संतरे का जूस लेंगे तो भी पेट में खमीर बनेगा। अगर दोनों को खाना ही है तो दोनों के
बीच घंटे-डेढ़ घंटे का फर्क होना चाहिए क्योंकि खाना पचने में कम-से-कम इतनी देर तो लगती ही है।

दूध के साथ तला-भुना और नमकीन खाएं या नहीं? दूध में मिनरल और विटामिंस के अलावा लैक्टोस शुगर और प्रोटीन होते हैं। दूध एक एनिमल प्रोटीन है और उसके साथ ज्यादा मिक्सिंग करेंगे तो रिएक्शन हो सकते हैं। फिर नमक मिलने से मिल्क प्रोटींस जम जाते हैं और पोषण कम हो जाता है। अगर लंबे समय तक ऐसा किया जाए तो स्किन की बीमारियां हो सकती हैं। आयुर्वेद के मुताबिक उलटे गुणों और मिजाज के खाने लंबे वक्त तक ज्यादा मात्रा में साथ खाए जाएं तो नुकसान पहुंचा सकते हैं। लेकिन मॉडर्न मेडिकल साइंस ऐसा नहीं मानती।

लाल बहादुर शास्त्री जी जिन्हें आप और हम भारत के दूसरे प्रधानमंत्री का तरह याद रखे हुए हैं . लाल बहादुर शास्त्री जी ने स्वतंत्रता संग्राम में अहम रोल अदा किया, उत्तरप्रदेश के मुख्यमंत्री रहे और 1964 में देश के दूसरे प्रधानमंत्री बने. 1966 में हुए पाकिस्तान के साथ युद्ध में उनके निर्णयों की वजह से भारत ने पाकिस्तान को मार भगाया था. लाल बहादुर शास्त्री को चाहे लोग किसी भी बात के लिए जानें लेकिन जो शब्द उनके व्यक्तित्व को बखूबी दर्शाते थे वह हैं सादगी, उच्च विचार और शिष्टाचार.

लाल बहादुर शास्त्री जी का जन्म 2 अक्टूबर 1904 को उत्तर प्रदेश के मुगलसराय में हुआ था. उनका जन्मदिवस गांधी जी के जन्मदिवस के समान होने की तरह व्यक्तित्व और विचारधारा भी गांधी जी के जैसे ही थे. शास्त्री जी गांधी जी के विचारों और जीवनशैली से बेहद प्रेरित थे. शास्त्री जी ने स्वतंत्रता आंदोलन में गांधीवादी विचारधारा का अनुसरण करते हुए देश की सेवा की और आजादी के बाद भी अपनी निष्ठा और सच्चाई में कमी नहीं आने दी.

Manjunatha, an auto driver from Bangalore, is one such soul. He returned two laptops worth more than a lakh of rupees to their rightful owners after they forgot them in his auto.
Two technology consultants Naveesh and Sainath along with their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vishnu from Pune reached Bangalore on September 23, 2009. They hailed an auto (KA 02 B 5022) at K R Puram at 11.30 am towards Shivajinagar. At 12.15 pm, they got down at Shivajinagar with the luggage.
But, only after an hour, they realised that they had forgotten two laptops: one Toshiba and another Dell, worth more than Rs 1 lakh. More than the money, it was the data that these laptops contained that was worthless. They then decided to lodge a complaint at the Commercial Street Police Station.

Elango was born on Nov 12,1960 in Kuthambakkam where his family has lived for close to a thousand years at least. They cherish the association an ancestor of theirs had with the great reformer philosopher Sri Ramanujar, who was born in Sriperumbudur, nearby. Despite being Dalit they have not felt alienated from mainstream Indian thought. Village realities of ghettoised living however, had seemed inevitable. Elango's family owned some lands and his father was a Government employee. So they were reasonably well to do, but young Elango grew up amidst squalor and hopelessness in the Harijan 'colony'. Drunken brawls, wife beating and wails of women and children were nightly fares in houses around his. An academically inclined Elango could not quite shut these out nor ignore the filth and the bogs as he picked his way to his school. His mind however filed these away.

Chhaon has helped the victims unwind, share their life's struggles and face the world with confidence.
New Delhi: While there are acid attack survivors who are struggling to come to terms with the life after the ghastly incident, there are others who have braced up themselves to get together and fight for their rights and stop the rising incidents of acid attacks. Chhaon is one such initiative which provides a shadow of hope to hundreds of acid attack victims. ALSO SEE SC directs states to pay Rs 3 lakh compensation to acid attack victims, regulates acid sale At the heart of this initiative is Laxmi, an acid attack survivor herself, who had submitted a petition in the Supreme Court in 2006, seeking a ban on the sale of the toxic liquid, leading to the increasing number of attacks on women.

TBI Change-makers: Dr. Ram Kataria – The Man Who Created The Gandhians Farm

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Dr. Ram Kataria has dedicated 12 years of his life in converting a barren patch of land in the parched interiors of Maharashtra into an oasis using innovative and indigenous methods of conservation and sustenance. What’s more, he has many more ideas for inclusive growth including the creation of a school for rural change-makers. Meet the man with boundless energy and infinite vision.

For decades, Dr Kataria had a comfortable medical practice and a beautiful home in Manchar, off Pune. But when his two sons moved out and found their own feet, he started planning on acting on an issue that had long troubled him. He had always been close to nature, and passionate about gardening. But at the same time, he was disturbed by the environmental legacy his generation is set to leave behind for posterity. He decided to sell his house and relocate to a place where his vision for change could take shape.

Dr Ram Kataria has been a general physician for 45 years. 12 years ago, he acquired 100 acres of arid, barren land in Taluka Rajgurunagar in Maharashtra.

kautilya 5 year old 

अगर आपको कुछ जानकारी चाहिए होती है तो आप गूगल पर सर्च करते हैं लेकिन अगर आपको पता चले कि एक बच्चे को गूगल ब्वाय कहते हैं तो शायद आप चौंक जाएंगे।एक ऐसा ही अजूबा है हरियाणा का एक बच्चा जिसे गूगल ब्वाय के नाम से जाना जाता है। हालांकि है तो यह एक बच्चा लेकिन अगर बात की जाए दिमाग की, तो अच्छे-अच्छे लोगों को ये पीछे छोड़ देता है।

आपको जानकर और भी हैरानी होगी कि इसकी उम्र सिर्फ 5 साल 8 महीने है। इनती छोटी सी उम्र में ही इस बच्चे को दुनिया भर की इतनी अधिक जानकारी है कि आपके होश उड़ा दे। इस बच्चे का नाम कौटिल्य है। खेलने कूदने के उम्र में कौटिल्य को दुनिया के हर एक देश की जानकारी है। इसे न सिर्फ इन सबकी जानकारी है बल्कि हर एक चीज पर वो कॉंफिडेंट होकर बात करता है। हरियाणा के एक छोटे से गांव कोहण्ड (करनाल) का यह बच्चा अपने जवाबों द्वारा अच्छे-अच्छे लोगों को चौंका देता है। इसका दिमाग इतना तेज है कि गूगल भी मात खा जाए।

कौटिल्य पहली कक्षा में पढ़ता है लेकिन दिमाग तो जैसे एक परिपक्व इंसान की तरह है। जब इस छोटे से बच्चे से पूछ गया कि तुमने ये सब कहां से सीखा है तो जवाब मिला कि किताबों से और परिवार के लोगों से। इस बच्चे से पूछा गया कि आपने ये सब क्यों सीखा है? बच्चे ने बड़ी ही मासूमियत के साथ जवाब दिया कि अगर मैं यह सब नहीं सीखता और कोई मुझसे पूछ लेता तो उसे लगता कि इस बच्चे को तो कुछ आता ही नहीं है।इस बच्चे को सब पता है कि एरिया के हिसाब से कौन सा देश किस स्थान पर आता है और जीडीपी के हिसाब से कौन सा देश किस स्थान पर आता है। चाहे बात की जाए नदी की या फिर किसी पहाड़ की, बात करें महाद्वीप की या फिर ग्रहों की..!

इस बच्चे से इसके बेस्ट फ्रेंड के बारे में पूछा गया तो उसने बताया कि उसके बेस्ट फ्रेंड हैं दादाजी।आज अधिकाँश माता पिता, दादा दादियों पे समय नहीं है बच्चों के लिए लेकिन इसके ज्ञान का स्त्रोत इसके पिता जी और दादा जी ही हैं..

ये हैं 32 साल के अनिल सोनुने। कंप्यूटर की कोई डिग्री नहीं है। जानिए, फिर क्यों आईआईटी से लेकर माइक्रोसॉफ्ट तक उनका लोहा मान रहे हैं
खेतों के बीच गाय-भैंस के तबेले के नजदीक बना कक्षा चार तक का सरकारी स्कूल। दो शिक्षक, 100 छात्र। लेकिन पढ़ाई कंप्यूटर और प्रोजेक्टर के जरिए होती है। यह काम कर दिखाया है यहां के टीचर अनिल सोनुने ने। उन्होंने   अपनी मेहनत और अपने ही पैसों से टीन की छत के नीचे बने कमरे को डिजिटल क्लासरूम में बदल दिया है। 

बत्तीस साल के अनिल को माइक्रोसॉफ्ट ने इस साल के इनोवेटिव टीचर अवॉर्ड से नवाजा है। स्लोवाकिया के प्राग शहर में 21 दिसंबर को उन्हें सम्मानित किया जाएगा। वहीं आकाश टैबलेट डेवलप करने वाली आईआईटी मुंबई ने उनसे इसके लिए मराठी में कंटेंट बनाने को कहा है। उन्होंने पढ़ाने के लिए अपनी वेबसाइट बनाई है और खुद कंटेंट जुटाते हैंं। 

The personal staff of Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Rathnakar saved the life of five persons in a car that had slipped into a roadside tank near Beguvalli village in Tirthahalli taluk on Tuesday.

Uday Kumar, who runs an electrical shop in Bhadravathi had been to his in-laws’ house in Karkala in his four-wheeler. While returning to Bhadravathi, he failed to negotiate a bend near Beguvalli and the car fell into the water tank. Mr. Kumar and five other members of his family had thrust their hands out of the sinking car for help.