News

IndianExpress: The weeklong conference and exhibition of the 2nd World Ayurveda Congress (WAC) concluded today, with the felicitation of the various organisers, and the announcement of the WAC Pune Declaration, which is a compilation of views and recommendations through five plenary sessions, 24 parallel sessions and participation of over 3000 delegates from 30 countries.

The WAC was organised jointly by the Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health, Vijnan Bharti and the University of Pune. Apart from the demand for a separate ministry for Ayurveda at the state and national level, the Pune Declaration also recommends the formulation of a secretariat for the organising committee of the WAC to co-ordinate future activities and programmes.This would be governed by a Board of Advisors nominated by the UoP and Vijnana Bharati.

IndianExpress: Pune will host the first of the four-match One Day International (ODI) series between India and Sri Lanka on February 8. The other matches will be held at Rajkot on February 11, Goa on February 14 and Vishakhapatnam on February 17. The venues for the matches were announced by Board for Control of Cricket in India secretary Niranjan Shah on Sunday at Nagpur after the meeting of the Tours and Fixtures Committee which met under vice president Shashank Manohar. Shah also announced the dates for the ODIs against the West Indies. Nagpur will host the first of the four-match ODI series against the West Indies on January 21. Cuttack will host the second ODI on January 24, Chennai the third on January 27 and Vadodara the last one on January 30. While all the matches against Lanka will be day-and-night affairs, the matches against the West Indies at Cuttack and Chennai will be played under the lights, Shah said.

IndianExpress:  University of Pune vice-chancellor Narendra Jadhav is in a hurry to draw on his experiences at the Reserve Bank of India in his stint. He has no time for complacency and those who rest on the laurels of yesteryears when Pune was called Oxford of the East.

“This is no longer true, as UoP has no place among even the top 100 universities. Time when you could live on interest earned on fixed deposits is over, “ he said.

Jadhav is particularly alarmed by the lack of fiscal prudence show by UoP that was allotted Rs 30 crore towards development by University Grants Commission (UGC) as one of the five universities of potential excellence in 2002. The university has so far spent less than Rs 10 crore and there are just four months to go for the tenure of the programme to end

IndianExpress: World Diabetes Day falls on Tuesday. City-based organisations have planned several events including road shows to spread awareness about the management and control of the condition.

Trials have proved that poor blood sugar management leads to diabetes-related complications like blindness, amputation, kidney failure, heart attack and nerve damage.

City-based Diabetes Care and Research Foundation (DCRF) will be undertaking a massive exercise to create awareness about diabetes prevention and control on November 14. Dr Abhay Mutha, a diabetologist and founder of the DCRF, said that this year the foundation would be scaling up its activities and organising programmes with the objective of reaching out to more people.

IndianExpress: At Garware Balbhavan, children from 25 institutions in and around Pune came together to display their creativity. Of the 150 corporators invited for the function on Sunday, only four — Shiva Mantri, Satish Desai, Mukta Tilak and Anupama Joshi — turned up.

Several children spoke about problems, which ranged from sanitation in schools, heavy load of studies and expectations of parents, rash driving to crossing the road and unavailability of open spaces in the city.
 
Corporators were in a tight spot when standard IV student Gautami Joshi from Maharashtra Mandal Primary School on Tilak Road reprimanded them for coming late. ‘‘The programme was to begin at 4 pm. Why were you delayed? We will conduct a similar function next year. Please remember to be on time,’’ she said.

IndianExpress:  The intensified pulse polio drive got underway at Pune city, Pimpri-Chinchwad and district with the target of administering doses to a total of 7.8 lakh children.

According to a statement issued on Sunday, Zilla Parishad president Satish Khomane inaugurated the drive.

In the district, a total of 4.36 lakh children up to five years were given the doses. District Collector Prabhakar Deshmukh and others were present.