November 8, 2019 - meraapnabihar

CARE’s Work In Bihar Shows Progress Is Possible Against The Toughest Problems.

Source – forbes.com

Where will you find CARE? Think of trouble spots around the world where there are humanitarian disasters tied to extreme poverty, conflict, hunger, or a lack of basic healthcare or education. CARE is on the ground in these places, addressing survival needs, running clinics, and helping individuals, families, and communities rebuild their lives.

CARE’s scope is truly global. In 2018, the organization reached 56 million needy people through 965 programs in 95 countries, in places such as Mali, Jordan, Bangladesh, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, India, the Dominican Republic, and Niger.

CARE didn’t start out as a huge global charity, though. Founded in 1945, CARE provided a way for Americans to send lifesaving food and supplies to survivors of World War II—“CARE packages.” Today, it responds to dozens of disasters each year, reaching nearly 12 million people through its emergency programs. The rest of CARE’s work is through longer-term engagements, such as its work in Bihar State, in northern India.

Bihar, with a population of more than 110 million people, is one of India’s poorest states—and has some of the country’s highest rates of infant and maternal mortality as well as childhood malnutrition. Since 2011, CARE has been working with the Bihar state government and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to address those problems and to increase immunization rates for mothers and children.

The results to date have been significant: The percentage of 1-year-olds with completed immunization schedules increased from 12% to 84% between 2005 and 2018; there were nearly 20,000 fewer newborn deaths in 2016 than in 2011; and the maternal mortality rate fell by nearly half, from 312 to 165 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births between 2005 and 2018. How? Some of CARE’s initiatives involved improving healthcare facilities, mentoring nurses, supporting local social workers and midwives, and tracking the care given to weak and low-weight newborns.

Wherever you find CARE, you’ll also find the impact of CARE’s donors, putting their dollars and euros to work buying food and medicine, paying teachers, and offsetting the million-and-one costs of providing relief on a truly global scale. Like all large NGOs, CARE needs to communicate with its donors, especially the largest foundations, providing timely reports, demonstrating compliance with grant terms and conditions, and displaying complete fiscal transparency. That’s part of their necessary overhead. For CARE, the cloud is helping it improve communications while reducing that overhead.

Lowering Back-Office Costs

In fiscal 2018, CARE’s total incoming support was $604 million, from sources including private donations, government funding, and other grants. CARE solicits donations from individuals through its website and direct mail, but a significant part of its finances come from governmental and foundation grants, explains Jared Janeczko, interim CIO.

“As an NGO we have many sources of funding, and all of those sources have different compliance requirements,” says Janeczko. “We’ve configured our software to adhere to those requirements, whether imposed by a donor government or foundation or the country in which we are operating.”

A particular donor might have restrictions that say its grant money may—or may not—be used only for specific purposes. CARE needs to show that the money was spent in accordance with those requirements. Similarly, the country where CARE is spending the money on expenses such as food, fuel, salaries, rent, or electricity, might charge certain taxes or insist on specific documentation.

This requires sophisticated accounting and business management software. For a number of years, CARE has used Oracle’s PeopleSoft to manage its operations and satisfy both donors and governments in host countries.

“At the end of the day, donors want to know that their donation is going to the beneficiary, so having a financial solution like PeopleSoft gives us that ability,” says Janeczko. “A grant manager uses PeopleSoft to run grant reports based on financial transactional data. We deliver those reports together with impact data to provide a comprehensive overview of our programs.”

Over the past year, CARE has migrated from instances of PeopleSoft running in its own private cloud to PeopleSoft running within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Janeczko sees two major benefits to the PeopleSoft migration to the cloud. The first is reduced operating costs. “Our focus is on delivering humanitarian aid. It’s not on supporting global systems. So the main motivation for us was to minimize costs,” he says.

The second improvement is that they’re always current on the latest version of PeopleSoft, as well as all of its patches and fixes. “We were so far behind with our PeopleSoft updates,” he grimaces. “As an organization, we weren’t able to keep up with the release cycle.” Now, PeopleSoft running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is a fully managed service. “That frees up our IT team to focus on delivering internal customer support, supporting our country offices as well as our donor requirements.”

The PeopleSoft migration to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure proved a fast and painless lift and shift, with the system up after four days. “It was a nonevent from the end-user perspective,” Janeczko says.

The next process CARE’s IT team plans to simplify via the cloud is travel and expense reporting. “As a global organization we send people all over the world, yet we are still doing travel and expense reports in Excel spreadsheets—it’s a huge inefficiency,” Janeczko says. “It’s also functionality that we plan to deploy in PeopleSoft, now that we’re on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.”

Time is money, and the less time spent running reports, the more resources become available for the children of Bihar, refugees, the poor, the displaced, the hungry—all over the world. Because if one thing is certain, CARE’s work won’t be finished anytime soon.

Share of Women in Subordinate Courts Highest in Telangana, Least in Bihar.

Source – news18.com

Telangana has the highest share of women judges at 44 per cent and Bihar the lowest at 11.5 per cent in subordinate courts, while seven states did not have a single woman judge in their high courts as of June 2018, according to a report.

The share of women in the judiciary has come down and despite wide acceptance of value of gender diversity, the actual presence of women in state judiciaries is underwhelming, the Tata Trusts’ India Justice Report-2019 stated.

It said that “among the large and mid-sized states, at just above 44 per cent, Telangana had the largest share of women in the subordinate courts, but at the high court level, this drops to a meagre 10 per cent.”

“Similarly, Punjab with 39 per cent at the subordinate level, (the share of women judges) drops down to 12 per cent in the high court,” it said.

“This pattern is apparent everywhere with only Tamil Nadu breaking the trend with a high number of women at the high court level (19.6 per cent), and more women than its quota of 35 per cent at the subordinate courts,” according to the report.

Data of 18 large and mid-sized states, and seven small states was taken for the Tata Trust report.

The share of women judges at subordinate courts in Meghalaya is 74 per cent and in Goa, 66 per cent the highest among small states.

“However, Goa’s share at the high court level was just 12.68 per cent. Sikkim demonstrates a high share of women at both levels, with 64.71 per cent in the high court and 33.33 per cent at the subordinate court level.

“In terms of absolute numbers, however, this would be one female judge of three, at the high court-level, and 11 female judges out of 17 at the level of subordinate courts,” the report said.

The ranking is an initiative of Tata Trusts in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS- Prayas and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

“The presence of women judges portrays the institution that upholds law and dispenses justice as an equal opportunity space driven by fair, meritocratic, and non-discriminatory practices and norms.

“Arguably, women on the bench also influence the quality of judicial decision-making, because the inclusion of their life experiences must necessarily allow a wider variety of human experiences into the process of judging,” the report said.

The country has about 18,200 judges with about 23 per cent sanctioned posts vacant, as per the findings of the report.

UP, Bihar at bottom of India’s justice league.

Source – indiatoday.in

Law and order has always been a major concern in the two big states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Despite claims of improvement over the years by respective state leaderships, a recent report by Tata Trusts has statistically proven that these two states have the worst justice system in India.

The study, titled India Justice Report’, which Tata Trusts published on Thursday, developed an index of justice system across the country using four parameters police, prisons, judiciary and legal aid. An assessment of 18 bigger states revealed that UP and Bihar have the worst justice system in India. While UP ranked at the bottom of the list, Bihar stood at number 17.

On the basis of these parameters, a score was allotted to each state on a scale of 10. None of the states had the perfect score. UP and Bihar got a score of 3.32 and 4.02 respectively. Following them from the bottom were Jharkhand (4.3), Uttarakhand (4.49), Rajasthan (4.52) and Andhra Pradesh (4.77).

The state with the best justice system according to the report is Maharashtra with a score of 5.92. It is followed by Kerala (5.85), Tamil Nadu (5.76), Punjab (5.53) and Haryana (5.53).

The average score of all the bigger states turned out to be 4.95, which means more than 50 per cent conditions to get a perfect score for the justice system have not been met. In fact, of the 18 big states surveyed, 11 had a score of above 5.

Collectively, the data paints a grim picture. It highlights that each individual sub-system is starved for budgets, manpower and infrastructure; no state is fully compliant with the standards it has set for itself. Governments are content to create ad hoc and patchwork remedies to cure deeply embedded systemic failures. Inevitably, the burden of all this falls on the public, the report says.

Why UP, Bihar rank at the bottom

A deeper look at the statistics reveals that in almost every aspect, UP and Bihar exchanged the last and second last position.

Policing

The study took several factors to assess the police system in the states, ranging from modernisation, inducing women, diversity, budgeting, human resource planning and infrastructure.

On this front, the best score was achieved by Tamil Nadu 6.49. UP received a score of 2.98, whereas Bihar got 3.77. UP fared poor in terms of budgeting, spending on police per person, vacancies and diversity.

Prisons

This parameter was assessed on various factors ranging from overcrowding, inclusion of women staff, adequate human resources, budgeting, infrastructure, etc.

Jharkhand fared the worst with a score of 3.46. It was followed by Uttarakhand (3.72), Punjab (4.35), Andhra Pradesh (4.35) and UP (4.42). Surprisingly, Bihar stood at number six with a score of 5.61. The best in this regard was Kerala with a score of 7.18.

Judiciary

This parameter was assessed on availability of judges, clearance of cases, spending on judiciary, etc.

Bihar, with a score of 2.41, fared the worst in this regard. It was followed by UP (3.7), Karnataka (3.76), Uttarakhand (4.17) and Jharkhand (4.3). Tamil Nadu again featured on the top in terms of judiciary with a score of 6.99. It was followed by Punjab (6.57), Haryana (6.23) and Maharashtra (5.96).

On an average, Bihar saw a bleak growth in expenditure on judiciary in comparison to total spending. From 2011 to 2016, the state expenditure rose by 17.8 per cent; however, expenditure on judiciary rose by only 8 per cent.

Legal aid

The report also highlighted the importance of legal aid. It said that almost 80 per cent of India’s 1.25-billion population is eligible for free legal aid, but only 15 million people have availed it since 1995.

Here too, the parameter was assessed on the basis of budgeting, human resources, diversity, infrastructure and work load. With a score of 2.5, UP fared worst, followed by Uttarakhand (4.46), Bihar (4.52) and Odisha (4.61).

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar lays foundation stone for 500-bed hospital in Ujiarpur.

Source – newkerala.com

Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary and state Health Minister Mangal Pandey were also present at the event. The medical facility is set to be named Shri Ram Janki Medical College and Hospital.

Speaking to ANI about the development, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, who represents Ujiarpur Lok Sabha constituency, expressed pleasure over the development.

“I had made a promise to the people of Ujiarpur that the government will open a hospital in this area. Today, we have come one step closer to fulfilling my promise to the people of the constituency and ‘Mithilanchals’,” Rai said in New Delhi.

He said that currently, people in the region have to travel to metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai to get proper medical treatment. “However, this 500-bed hospital will provide all kinds of medical facilities to the people right here,” Rai said.

“I especially thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Health Minister, Bihar Chief Minister, and Bihar Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar. Today, the foundation stone was laid and soon the dream of mega Hospital in Ujiarpur will become reality,” he added.

The hospital in Ujiarpur will be completed within 36 months at a cost of around Rs 591.77 crore.

Ramjanki Trust Samastipur had allotted 21 acres of land for the hospital and medical college, which is a joint effort of the state and central government. The hospital will be equipped with advanced medical facilities including ICU and dozens of operation theatres.

Once complete, this will be the second-biggest hospital in the state.

Jharkhand Assembly polls: Congress-JMM seat-sharing talks in final stages; announcement likely today in Ranchi.

Source – firstpost.com

Seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) for the Assembly election are in final stages and an announcement is likely on Friday, sources said.

The Congress, JMM and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) are attempting to form an alliance to defeat the ruling BJP in the five-phase election in November-December in the eastern state.

According to sources, deliberations are on between senior leaders of the Congress and the JMM for finalising the seat-sharing agreement and an announcement is likely to be made in Ranchi on Friday.

Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Rameshwar Oraon and Congress Legislature Party leader Alamgir Alam met JMM chief Hemant Soren.

Sources said the JMM is likely to be the leading partner in the alliance and will contest on more than 50 percent of the seats.

The Congress may settle with 25-30 seats in the 81-member Assembly, leaving the rest for smaller allies.

The Congress had contested on all seats in the last Assembly election in 2014, it may settle for 25-30 seats as part of the alliance.

The Congress has already held preliminary discussions on its possible candidates for the election at a meeting of the party’s screening committee.

Another meeting of the screening panel will be held on 9 November. On the same day, a meeting of the central election committee chaired by Sonia Gandhi will be held to finalise the list of candidates.

Sources said the Congress is unlikely to succeed in its efforts to form a grand alliance with the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) of Babulal Marandi deciding to go it alone in the election.

The Left parties are also unlikely to be a part of the alliance as their demand for seats are unlikely to be met, sources said.

The Left has two members in the current Assembly, while the Congress has six.

Sources add that the RJD is likely to settle for around 6-7 seats as part of the alliance, even though Lalu Prasad Yadav’s outfit has been demanding 14-15 seats.

“Our aim is to remove the Raghubar Das-led BJP government… The Congress and its partners will try to fulfil the dreams of people of the state that have not been fulfilled so far,” RPN Singh, the Congress party in-charge of Jharkhand affairs, told PTI.

Asked if the Congress was willing to play second fiddle to JMM in the state, he said that when there is a coalition, all allies contest as a family to accomplish the dreams of the people of Jharkhand.

Singh said the Congress would soon come out with a manifesto of its own, besides having a common minimum programme with the JMM.

How fish farming transformed lives of dam displaced people in Jharkhand.

Source – downtoearth.org.in

Around 12,000 families lost their livelihood due when the Chandil dam came up in Jharkhand’s Saraikela Kharsawan district in the 1980s. Its reservoir on the Subarnarekha river submerged more than 100 villages.

The people affected struggled for decades with the Jharkhand government for better rehabilitation and employment.

Now they have found an alternative source of income — pisciculture.

Some of those displaced because of the dam formed a cooperative society in ’05 to rear fish in the reservoir. The right to fish in the waterbody that came up on their land was one of the demands of those affected by the project.

In the late 2000s, the Jharkhand government focused on developing fisheries as an alternative income source for the state’s farmers. The cooperative took the opportunity to benefit from the government’s push for commercial fishing in water bodies.

After testing some success the Jharkhand government introduced the cage culture in the state’s dam reservoirs to scale up commercial fish production in 2012-13.

Cage culture is an intensive fish farming technique in which fish are kept in cubicle-shaped net enclosures. It is ideal for controlled fishing in large waterbodies in which it is otherwise difficult to restrict fish movement.

Jharkhand’s catch of fish doubled to 208,450 tonnes in 2018-19 from 104,820 tonnes in 2013-14 because of cage culture. There is an annual demand for 200,000 tonnes in the state itself.

The state government trains farmers from across the state on various aspects of fish-rearing. To maximise profits, farmers prefer commercial fish such as Pangasius (Basa) for cage culture.

The fish take around nine months to reach a weight of around a kilogramme. At times the cultivators sell them even at six months.

The Jharkhand government has presented fish farming as a success story, calling it the ‘Blue Revolution’.

Some 128,000 fish farmers now rear fish in the state’s tanks, reservoirs, check dams, and coal pits across two lakh hectares.

Jharkhand polls: Leaders in Delhi to finalise lists.

Source – indiatoday.in

As polling day nears in Jharkhand, all the political parties are engrossed in finalising their candidates for the 81-seat Assembly.

Marathon meetings and hectic discussions are being conducted by the parties.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have been the heavyweights in the elections here while regional parties like the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and All Jharkhand Students’ Union Party (AJSUP) also have stakes here.

For national parties like the BJP and the Congress, the scene has shifted to Delhi where state leaders are camping to finalise their lists.

A BJP leader said Chief Minister Raghubar Das, state party chief Lakshman Gilua, and other leaders are in Delhi as they were asked to reach the national capital. Before leaving for Delhi, the BJP’s state election committee met on Wednesday under Gilua’s chairmanship and a list of candidates was readied.

Sources in the BJP said the party’s central election committee would be meeting on November 8 where the names of the candidates will be finalised.

Sources also said that Suresh Mahato, chief of BJP ally All Jharkhand Student Union, has also reached Delhi to discuss the seat-sharing arrangement.

Congress state leaders, including state party chief Rameshwar Oraon and senior leaders like Aalamgir and Subodhkant Sahay have also moved to Delhi. Party spokesperson Kishore Shahdeo told IANS that the party’s screening committee had met on Wednesday. But, sources said that candidates could not be finalised as the seat-sharing arrangement with the JMM is yet to be finalised.

Congress sources said that the central election committee is likely to meet this week to finalise their candidates.

As the political parties are readying their lists, most of the aspirants are keeping a watch on the happenings in Delhi.

The Assembly polls in Jharkhand will be conducted in five phases from November 30 to December 20, an exercise spread over 21 days because of the Naxal problem that poses a security challenge.

Counting of votes will be taken up on December 23.

Of the 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand, nine are reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and 28 for the Scheduled Tribes (ST).

IBPS SO 2019: Application process for Specialist Officers’ begins from today; check ibps.in for details.

Source – firstpost.com

IBPS SO 2019| Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) has opened the registration process for recruitment of Specialist Officers’ Cadre from Wednesday, 6 November 2019 on its official website – ibps.in.

According to the official notification released earlier, the online preliminary exam will be conducted on 28 and 29 December while the mains exam will be conducted on 25 January 2020.

How to register for IBPS SO 2019 recruitment process:

Step1: Visit the official website of IBPS – ibps.in

Step 2: Click on the link – https://ibpsonline.ibps.in/crpspl9nov19/ ‘Apply online for common recruitment process for Specialist Officers’. Candidates can give the required details to apply for the posts

Stages of examination:

The notification also mentions that the IBPS SO 2019 exam will be conducted in three phases: preliminary, main and interview. Both preliminary and main exam will be conducted in online mode. Those who qualify the preliminary and main exam will be shortlisted for the common interview round which will be conducted by the participating banks.

Vacancies:

The recruitment drive is being conducted for the selection of personnel for the following Specialist Officers’ cadre posts: IT Officer (Scale-I), Agricultural Field Officer (Scale I) Rajbhasha Adhikari (Scale I), Law Officer (Scale I), HR/Personnel Officer (Scale I), and Marketing Officer (Scale I).

Eligibility and age limit:

The age limit for IBPS SO examination is between 20 and 30 years calculated as on the last date of applying. Hence, candidates applying should be a maximum of 30 years of age on or before 26 November 2019.

Application fee:

The candidates belonging to the SC/ST/PWBD categories will be required to pay an application of Rs 100 while those belonging to the general category will have to submit Rs 600 (exclusive of GST).