Fiinovation - World Teachers' Day

The world needs a huge number of teachers to provide quality education in this world. Teachers' professional knowledge and skills are the most important factor for quality education. By 2015, 5.4 million teachers are required including 1.58 new posts and 3.66 million replacements to achieve Universal Primary Education.

World Teachers' Day is observed every year on 5th October is observed in more than 100 countries. The needs of the future generations can only be met by teachers for that there is a need to mobilize support for teachers. It is a day to appreciate, create awareness, understanding the vital contribution that teachers make the field of education and development. 

57 million children of primary school age currently out of school, 54 percent of them are girls. Annual teacher gap in Nigeria could be closed by recruiting the equivalent of 1.2% of the population aged 20 years, 0.5% for the United States and 1% for China. India’s 1.5 million village schools are 90% state-run, unionized to the teeth, and handle 220 million children. 

This year's slogan is "A Call for Teachers!". To achieve education for all it is necessary to call for teachers, as they are the most powerful force for quality and access to education. This year's International Peace Day had the slogan "Education for Peace". There is no stronger foundation of lasting peace and sustainable development.

Why a call for teachers?

There is a huge shortage of professional, well-trained and well-supported teachers to achieve better quality education. The challenge of recruiting teachers does not lie just in the numbers, but in the provision of quality teachers. Far too often teachers remain under-qualified, poorly paid and with low status.

At UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, the focus of the 2013 World Teachers’ Day celebration on 4 October will be on tackling the teacher gap, barriers to better quality education and teachers’ role in developing globally-minded citizens.

Partners are also urged to organize events around the world in order to make the day a truly international celebration.

Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt .ltd - Sustainable Development: The need of the hour

According to a native American proverb, 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children'. This quote conceptualizes the essence of sustainable development. Development which is eco-friendly, long-lasting and not emergent of mindless exploitation of natural resources but which is the resultant out of their effective and efficient use.

Why is the need of the hour? Why is it that it has gained this importance? Sustainable development is not only about the importance of the environment but about economic and social gain too. For example, burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are undoubtedly harming the environment but the effects of rising carbon dioxide which could have been stored in the forests by tress as a 'sink' is simply absent and (as was calculated by the World Bank) costs about 3.7 lakh crore or 5.7% of India's GDP. Further, when thousands of lives are lost because of the same pollution, it is not just a shocking demographic statistic but an enormous loss of human capital/resource. The Climate Vulnerable Forum estimates that "the cost of climate change and air pollution combined will rise to 3.2% of global GDP, with the world's least developed countries forecast to bear the brunt, suffering losses of up to 11% of their GDP". Clearly the development pattern which most countries have been following is a damaging one. It is a vicious cycle which starts will ill practices which lead to ill effects which cost us greatly. This is why sustainable development is the need of the hour.

Sustainable development is about human development. Development which is in the best interests of the present generation but does not compromise the interests of the future generations. So how can sustainable development address the fundamental challenges which we face? The foremost step which would have to be taken is to build eco-friendly technology for energy use. India's energy requirements for example are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. There must be a shift to less harmful but stable energy sources such as nuclear technology and investment required and market built for renewable energy such as solar, wind and hydro-electric power. This is the future energy scenario which countries must strive for. It may be argued that the energy harnessed from them is not enough but this shortcoming is only limited to the technological ability we possess. Therefore investment in these technologies is imperative. These are the practices of the 'future'. Sustainable development also means empowering people to make smart decisions. In a country where there is mass scale

 ignorance, this becomes a challenge. Therefore making people aware and environmentally conscious and impart livelihood practices (such as those displaced by big projects) is not only important in itself but has long term economic and social ramifications. Sustainable development cannot just be a governance idea but has to be an individual decision too. Individually we can say no to plastic, spread awareness; collectively we can plant more trees, develop rain water harvesting techniques. At the government level it can build smaller dams, invest in public transport, use CNG for vehicles and develop more efficient waste disposal/management techniques. These are all viable practices for now.

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Fiinovation - Wastage of grains revealed at a time when Parliament wants to pass food security bill

It is not unknown to people that food grains rot in the godowns or farms in India due to inadequate storage facilities for food items. At a crucial time when Parliament wishes to pass the food security bill which will benefit crores of Indians, a RTI reply has reveled at least 17,546 tonnes of foodgrains was damaged between 2009-10 and July 2012 in Food Corporation of India godowns. 

Every year more than 25 lakh people die in India due to hunger, so many people are malnourished in the country but still there have been no measures to built infrastructure facilities to safeguard food items. On 23rd August, the food processing minister Sharad Pawar told the Parliament that inadequate storage infrastructure resulted in wastage of fruits, grains and vegetables worth Rs 44,000 crore every year. 

Food Corporation of India in a RTI reply to a activist on details of damaged foodgrains in its godowns in 23 states and Union Territories. The data reveals that government has a tough task at hand, though there is a decline year-wise in damage of foodgrains. During the said period the maximum loss was of wheat at around 7,185 tonnes while rice damaged was 6,905 tonnes. According to World Health Organization, minimum of 250 gm foodgrains is required per person per day to survive. The damaged food grains could have fed at least seven crore people. Suggesting no loss of grains the activist said government should provide 3 months grains at a time to each family so that each family can store grains at home rather than storing them at FCI godowns where they often get damaged. 

Wastage in West Bengal was the highest in the same period with a loss of around 2,300 tonnes of damaged rice. However, Punjab have reduced the loss drastically from 2,223 tonnes in 2009-10 to only 37 tonnes during 2011-12. The opposition in the Parliament cornered the government by pointing out that till June 12.5 million tonnes of foodgrains was lying in the outside with another 6 million tonnes lying open in Haryana. In Punjab, 2.5 million tonnes of this was lying in the fields. If the nation wants to feed its people there has to be appropriate storage facilities. Countering the reply of the food minister's reply that 6 million tonnes storage capacity will be added this year, the opposition said that its illogical when 18.5 million tonnes of wheat was lying in the open in just two states. 

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Fiinovation - World Population Day - 7.2 Billion and climbing

What more can be said about the world population which is adding approximately 2 lakh per day it is estimated to reach 9 Billion by 2050. It took 10,000 million years untill 19th century to reach 2 billion and another 200 years to add 5 billion to the world population count. And if we continue like this we will end our planet. But it the question still remains what happened between 1800s to 2000s that there was huge surge of population. 

By increasing the population at this great pace we are putting enormous pressure over the resources available on earth. David Attenborough says "Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, maybe we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment." In order to live sustainably and give future generations around the world a fair chance of living good lives, we must stabilize and then reduce population, and the more affluent in the world must reduce our levels of consumption.

World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1999 approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people.

This year the theme is on Adolescent Pregnancy which is cause of concern as about 16 million girls under the age of 18 give birth each year. Another 3.2 million undergo unsafe abortions. As much as 90 percent, a vast majority of pregnant adolescents in the developing countries are married. The fact is much more astonishing is that for far too many of these girls, pregnancy has little to do with informed choice. Often it is a consequence of discrimination, rights violations (including child marriage), inadequate education or sexual coercion.

"When we devote attention and resources to the education, health and well being of adolescent girls, they will become an even greater force for positive change in society that will have an impact for generations to come. On this World Population Day, let us pledge to support adolescent girls to realize their potential and contribute to our shared future." - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

On 2013 WorldPopulation Day, we raise awareness of the issue of adolescent pregnancy in the hopes of delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

  

The World's Most Populous countries are:

1.      China - 1,354,040,000 (19.08% of World Population)

2.      India - 1,210,569,573 (17.06% of World Population)

3.      United States - 316,218,000 (4.46% of World Population)

4.      Indonesia - 237,641,326 (3.35% of World Population)

5.      Brazil - 193,946,886 (2.73% of World Population)

6.      Pakistan - 183,629,000 (2.59% of World Population)

7.      Nigeria - 173,615,000 (2.45% of World Population)

8.      Bangladesh - 152,518,015 (2.15% of World Population)

9.      Russia - 143,400,000 (2.02% of World Population)

10.  Japan - 127,320,000 (1.79% of World Population)