Dharavi class IX girls raise $4,795 to start library

Mumbai: Hidden in a tiny bylane of Dharavi is a bright blue room, where over 20 children are reading everything from Disney comics to science fiction. The small room, with wooden shelves on both walls, is the Friends library.

The best part? It’s run by eight class IX students. The girls, from the Guru Nanak High School and Kamarajar Memorial High School in Dharavi, started the library in February.
The library has now over 350 books, which children can borrow at a refundable deposit of Rs20. “Children in the area never got a chance to read as there was no library in the area,” said Menaga Nadar, one of the founders.

The idea of a library struck them at the Avasara Leadership Fellows programme, an intensive after-school enrichment programme for adolescent girls from urban slums. It was here that they first read books beyond their texts.

However, turning the idea into a reality wasn’t an easy task. “We started off with a plan. Initially, we wanted to run it for around six months. We realised we would need Rs60,000,” said Sweety Pavithra, one of the eight founders.

Hope came from the Avarasa programme. “We approached a teacher from the US, who was at the programme, to host a Kickstarter page for us.”
Kickstarter is an online funding platform for creative projects, which allows people to present an idea to raise funds. Also, the project requires an American citizen to be part of the idea.

“The girls soon started creating content for raising funds and also made a video explaining their concept. In three days, the project received $4,795, almost five times the requirement. The next step was to find the perfect space.

“Joba’s (one of the girls from the group) parents offered us the first floor of their house for a rent of Rs4,000,” said Mansi Singh. The girls took over the place with a bucket of paint and brushes to add colour to their dream.

“It’s so great to see these girls work on their own. From planning, execution and problem solving, they have managed all by themselves,” said Roopa Purushothaman, founder of Avasara Leadership Institute.

With more funds at their disposal, the girls are now planning to train a younger batch to run the library as they move to class X.

Source::: DNA, 12-03-2014.

73-year-old Tamil Nadu librarian donated Rs 30 crore to the uneducated poor 

TN activist Palam Kalyanasundaram remained a bachelor so that he could dedicate his life to the poor.

Thin, frail, emaciated and sporting a shy smile, Palam Kalyanasundaram looks like your next-door neighbour’s old, but affectionate grandpa. Once you get to talk to him, the fire and determination in him shines forth through his words. He speaks in a childlike manner, and his voice, too, is high-pitched, but as you listen, you are awestruck at the yeoman service he has done for humanity. He has received several awards and has donated Rs 30 crore of prize money he got from these honours.

Born at Melakarivelamkulam in Thirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, Kalyanasundaram lost his father at a very young age. It was his mother who inspired him to serve the poor.

A will to serve humanity has been 73-year-old Kalyanasundaram’s guiding principle throughout his life. A gold medalist in library science, he also holds a masters degree in literature and history. During his 35-year-long career at Kumarkurupara Arts College at Srivaikuntam, he diligently and willingly donated his salary month after month towards charity and did odd jobs to meet his daily needs. Even after retirement, he worked as a waiter in a hotel in exchange for two meals a day and a meagre salary so that he could continue to donate to orphanages and to children’s educational funds.

He was amply rewarded for his service to humanity. The Union government acclaimed him as the best librarian in India. The International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, has honoured him as one of the ‘noblest of the world’ and the United Nations adjudged him as one of the most outstanding people of the 20th century. He also received Man of the Millenium award and Life Time of Service Award from Rotary Club of India in 2011.

“People think that I started doing charity when I was young by donating clothes and helping people study, and they attribute it to a public cause, but I insist it was for a private one. The place where I lived was a tiny village with no provision for roads, buses, schools, electricity, and there was not even a shop to buy a matchbox from. I had to walk 10km to school and back and walking all that way alone can be a pretty lonesome experience. Hence, I had this thought that if I could motivate most of the children to come with me to school, it would be great fun as well.”

Kalyanasundaram says with a twinkle in his eye. “In those days, children could not afford to pay school fees which were around Rs5. I offered to pay their school fees, got them books and clothes as well.”

Kalyanasundaram says money does not impress him at all. “One can get money in three possible ways. First, through earnings; secondly, through parents’ earnings, and thirdly, through money donated by someone. But there’s nothing more fulfilling than being able to donate money for charity out of your own earnings.”

Palam Kalyanasundaram lives a simple life all on his own in a small house in Saidapet, Chennai. He never married for the simple reason that he did not want to spend all that he earned on charity. Even today, he comes to office at Adyar regularly and does whatever he can for the uplift of the underprivileged people.

Source | http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-73-year-old-tamil-nadu-librarian-donated-rs-30-crore-to-the-uneducated-poor-1928555

SC rules for cheap cancer drug

Novartis Loses Battle To Block Indian Generics

Subodh Varma TIG (The Times of India, 02-04-2013, p.01)

    The Supreme Court on Monday rejected pharma giant Novartis AG’s plea to preserve its patent over a life-saving cancer drug, Glivec, drawing a huge sigh of relief from thousands of patients in India and in dozens of developing countries as the fear of an almost 15-fold escalation of drug costs 
receded. It is the biggest setback for multinational pharma companies, which have been denied patent protection for a series of life-saving drugs in recent years. 
    Invented in 1991, Glivec is a miracle cure for a type of blood cancer called chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In this form of cancer, certain bone marrow cells go rogue and produce excessive white blood cells, causing mild fatigue and hip pain initially, but slipping into an out-of-control crisis of zooming platelet and white cell counts. It used to be fatal, but with Glivec, the survival rate is over 95%. Imanitib, the active component, is on the National Essential Drugs List in India. 
    India has an estimated 3 lakh CML patients, with 20,000 added every year. Glivec is sold by Novartis for about Rs 1.2 lakh per month. Indian manufacturers sell the same drug at a monthly cost of Rs 8,000. This was the reason why Novartis launched a seven-year-long legal battle to protect its patent on the drug. 
    Novartis, which made a net profit of $9.6 billion in 2012, criticized the judgment. Ranjit Shahani, VC & MD, Novartis India, said, “It is a setback for patients that will hinder medical progress for diseases without effective treatment options.” 
MNCs blast verdict, say it’ll hit innovation 
    The SC’s decision has come as a big blow to MNCs’ ability to sell lucrative medicines in the country. The main beneficiaries of the ruling will be companies like Cipla, Natco Pharma and Sun Pharma which already market generic Glivec at a fraction of the cost of the Novartis product. The ruling cements the role of domestic firms as major suppliers of inexpensive generics not only to the Rs 70,000-crore domestic market, but also across the developing world, and further establishes India as “the pharmacy of the world”. P 20 Key section of law applies to Glivec: SC 
    When the drug was first commercially sold in 2001, India was moving over from the old patent regime to a new one after signing the international trade and patent related agreements in 1995. The new patent law came into force in 2005. Novartis could not get apatent on Glivec as it dated from an earlier time when a different patent law prevailed. It tried but the patent tribunal rejected the claim in 2006. 
    After going through various appeals, Novartis ended up in the apex court pleading that a crucial section 3 (d) of the new patent law was not applicable to Glivec. This section says that just discovering a new form of a substance is not enough to grant a patent, if it does not enhance its “known efficacy”. 
    Novartis was arguing that a new “beta crystalline” form of Glivec is more effective and hence qualifies as a new invention, and hence should get patent protection. 
    The Supreme Court, in a 112-page analysis of all the claims and counter-arguments disagreed. It said that the beta crystalline form was nothing new. It has always existed in the original amorphous form. 
    The landmark judgement means that Indian firms like Natco and Cipla can continue making and selling Glivec, not only for India but to most third world countries. The SC judgment dims hopes for some other pharma giants fighting legal battles on patents. Pfizer’s cancer drug Sutent and Roche’s hepatitis C treatment Pegasys and Merck & Co’s asthma treatment aerosol suspension formulation lost their patented status in India last year, decisions the companies are fighting to have reversed. 
    Many pharma giants are concentrating their legal firepower on India because it is an $11-billion-a-year market growing at 13-14% annually. Equally important is that India has emerged as the ‘pharmacy of the world”, selling over $26 billion worth of cheap generic (non-patent) drugs to most of the poor and still developing countries. It is estimated that about 80% of the HIV patients in the developing world are surviving because of cheap Indian drugs.

COLLEGE CHAOS

40k teachers to boycott exams over arrears

Yogita Rao TNN

Mumbai: It will be a testing time for students from colleges and universities across the state this exam season as over 40,000 college teachers have called a massive boycott of examination work, including practicals, supervision and evaluation.
    The boycott will affect not only the university exams, but also in-house college exams. Around 20,000 contractual teachers might also join the agitation.
    The Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation (MFUCTO) called the boycott as the state government had failed to meet its assurances on the Sixth Pay Commission arrears disbursal. On May 16 the state government had given a written assurance that teachers would get the cash
components in the arrears in two instalments. The teachers are demanding arrears for the 2006-2010 period.
    “We are trying to mobilize over 20,000 contractual teachers in the state who are not getting the minimum wages as per the new pay commission,” MFUCTO secretary Tapati Mukhopadhyay said. “While the new scale is around Rs 20,000-25,000, the contractual teachers are getting around Rs 8,000-10,000.”
    While a boycott had been called last year too, it was restricted to evaluation work.
    Higher and technical education minister Rajesh Tope said the state government was supposed to give only 20 per cent of the arrears and had asked the Centre to disburse the remainder. “Teachers should be more patient,” he said. “They should not take any steps that would hurt the career of students. We are also bringing up the issue in the cabinet in the coming week.” 

 

 

Source:::: The Times of India, 15-01-2013, p.5,  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1358247356515

Maha is 17 on edu index, behind Gujarat, Kerala

Sandeep Ashar TNN 

Mumbai: The state is steadily losing its ground on education. It has slipped four points to the 17th position in the Centre’s education development index. 
    The Union government carries out the annual ranking exercise based on various aspects influencing the quality, outreach, infrastructure and performance of students. The latest findings are based on surveys across the country in 2010-11. Maharashtra ranked 13th following a similar exercise in 2009-10.It witnessed a decline in ranking in both the primary (class I to IV), and upper primary (class V to VIII)categories. In the primary section, it dropped one rank from 14 in 2009-10 to 15 in 2010-11. The decline is starker in the upper primary section, where it slipped from 13(2009-10)to18(2010-11). 
    During a state cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the school education,higher and technical education departments were severely criticized by several ministers, following which chief minister Prithviraj Chavan ordered appointment of a core group comprising senior experts and education experts to oversee and chart an improvement in the state’s education standards.Chavan also directed both the school education and higher and technical education departments to give a presentation on the existing education standards to the cabinet. 
    Congress minister Narayan Rane raised the issue during a discussion on non-salary grants for schools, questioning the lack of quality of education in schools. The District Information System for Education report was then cited by the administration. 
    While Puducherry and Lakshwadeep retained the top two slots in the latest rankings, Punjab was third. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala were all ranked aheadof Maharashtra. Govt grants for primary schools Despite objections from the state finance department, the cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to provide non-salary grants to primary and upper primary schools from April 2013. It will benefit over 20,000 schools. The grants, discontinued in 2004, were for libraries, laboratories, toilets, etc and cost the state over Rs 330 crore annually. TNN

Various parameters like access to education, infrastructure, teacherpupil ratio and students’ performance, were used

Source:::: The Times of India, 01-11-2012, p.04. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW

Fair Use Victory for Librarians

By paufderheide

Created 2012-10-15 16:18

Posted by Patricia Aufderheide [1] on October 15, 2012

The latest judicial ruling on fair use validates librarians’ judgment in their Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, which the Center helped to produce.

In Authors Guild v. Hathitrust, associations of publishers sued libraries that had permitted Google to digitize their books. Once Google digitized the book, the libraries then made a digital archive of them (the Hathitrust Digital Library or HDL), used the text to allow searches for text, and made them available, where there was no commercial copy, to the disabled.

The judge ruled [2] that the libraries had the right to repurpose the text because their uses were transformative (the concept that also anchors the librarians’ and other communities’ codes of best practices in fair use). Judge Baer wrote, “The use to which the works in the HDL are put is transformative because the copies serve an entirely different purpose than the original works: the purpose is superior search capabilities rather than actual access to copyrighted material.” He pointed to the fact that academics are already doing new kinds of searches through “text mining,” and that the sight-impaired’s use of digital copy (which can be read out loud with the right software) is a transformative use as well.

Copyright scholars are giving this a thumbs up for both libraries and fair use. Scholar James Grimmelman called it a “near-complete victory” [3]  and the Association of Research Libraries’ blog post [4] noted:

Judge Baer’s opinion should sound delightfully familiar to anyone who’s read Principles 3, 5, and 7 of the Code, which describe the consensus of academic and research librarians around preservation, accessibility, and non-consumptive uses (like search and text mining). Like the librarians, Judge Baer recognizes that these activities are “transformative,” especially the search and accessibility aspects.

Judge Baer also made a rousing defense of copyright policy as a policy intended to promote the creation of culture in his closing comments (as copyright scholar Kevin Smith noted [5]):

I cannot imagine a definition of fair used that would not encompass the transformative uses made by the defendants and would require that I terminate this invaluable contribution to the progress of science and the cultivation of the arts that at the same time effectuates the ideals of the ADA.

Whew. Librarians can get back to work. 

---

Source URL: http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blog/fair-use-victory-librarians

Links:
[1] http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/blog/paufderheide
[2] http://www.tc.umn.edu/~nasims/HathivAG10_10_12.pdf
[3] http://laboratorium.net/archive/2012/10/10/hathitrust_wins
[4] http://policynotes.arl.org/
[5] http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2012/10/11/a-big-win-for-fair-use-and-libraries/
[6] http://twitter.com/share

UGC norms for selection of state univ VCs relaxed

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Chennai: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to relax norms for selection of vice-chancellors (VCs) in state universities. On Sunday, UGC chairman Ved Prakash said the move followed requests from several state governments to easethestandards. 
    There has been speculation for morethan a month now thatselection normswouldbe relaxed. Prakash said that from now, selection norms prescribed by the UGC will not be mandatory for the state-run universities. Speaking at the 75th convocation of Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha Madras in Chennai, he said it was the responsibility of the state to maintain quality and transparency in the VC-selection process. 
    The present UGC norms insist that a VC candidate should have a minimum of 10 years experience as professor in a university or 10 years of experience in an equivalent position in a reputed research and/or academic administrative organization. With the recent move,these normswould nolonger be mandatory. 
    Refusing to comment on allegations that political interference plays a major role in the appointment of VCs, Prakashsaidthedecision was taken because several states had sought freedom in carrying out appointmentof university heads.He,however, refused to say if there was a requestfrom theTN government. 
    Senior professors and academicians in the state say the move will only facilitate more corruption. Tamil Nadu, for instance, has a dubious record in VC selection over the last decade. Recently, a VC seeking favours fell at the feet of a politician. Another was suspended on corruption charges and, in a third instance, a VC’s residence was raided by anti-corruption sleuths. 
    A Narayanan, an academician who has filed several petitions seeking transparency in the appointments of VCs and registrarsin thestate universities said the reason for relaxing norms remains unknown. 
    “We have VCs who knew how to find their way to the top post overnight. They are either relatives of politicians or someone from a dominant caste. When money, caste and political power decides VCs and registrar posts in state universities, UGC relaxation will further decay the system,” hesaid. 
    Ved Prakash also refuted reports of cancelling the autonomy of the Madras Christian College. “MCC has submitted all the documents we sought for verification and the autonomywas puton hold only till we complete the verification process,” hesaid.

Source:::: The Times of India, 15-10-2012, p.14. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1350288044348