[AI] Regarding Visually Challenged Person Doing PHD in Law
Dear Friends, This is addition to Mr. Padmanabam's info about Dr. K. Somashekar who has done PHD in law. I know one more person who has done PH.D. in International Law from JNU in 2002. He is one of our Accessindia list members, Dr. T.V.G.N.S. Sudhakar, who is presently a faculty at National University of Juridical Studies, Kolkata. While sharing this information, I would also extend my heartiest congradulations to Dr. Dasharath for his relentless effort of not loosing hope and gone on completing Ph.D. despite facing all difficulties. With regards, Dr. A.Rambabu To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Misuse of Scholarship for the Disabled
Dear Friends, The article below which had appeared in the Hindu. It draws our attention to some of the stark realities worth taking stock of and reflecting upon. Regards, Dr. A.Rambabu Source: The Hindu, 18, April, 2010 Front Page Misuse of scholarship for differently abled: study Karthik Madhavan COIMBATORE: The majority of differently abled persons who receive scholarships do not get to enjoy the same, a study has found. #8220;Fifty- three per cent of the 600 girls and women interviewed have complained that scholarship in money and kind was taken away by family members and care takers,#8221; says the Avinashilingam University of Women, Coimbatore, study on #8216;Prevalence of Violence Among Disabled Girls/Women. ' Fifty per cent visually impaired, 76.7 per cent hearing impaired, 38.7 physically challenged and 66 per cent mentally challenged have complained of the scholarship money being used by others. The UGC-sponsored study interviewed 150 persons each belonging to the aforementioned four disabilities from Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. And each of the cities accounted for equal number of subjects in all the special categories. The period of study: 2007-09. It has also found that girls with disabilities from residential schools suffered more compared to their counterparts at integrated and special schools. Likewise, differently abled girls in Coimbatore and Madurai underwent more physical violence compared to those in Chennai. The same is true of psychological violence and financial exploitation as well. On the question of sexual violence, the study, carried out by the Department of Special Education, has reveals that only five per cent were abused and the abusers were mostly strangers. The study's Principal Investigator Premavathy Vijayan, Co-Principal Investigator G. Victoria Naomi and Project Fellow S. Suganya say the purpose was to #8220;Identify the dynamics of abuse, which includes comprehensive assessment of emotional, physical and sexual in the lives of women with disabilities; develop training packages for defence; and, identify abusers/perpetrator s and their relationship to the victim.#8221; There is a list of recommendations as well. It suggests the need for legal protection against abuse, providing information to the victim about intervention centres and services available in the community and level of accessibility, providing enough shelter homes for badly treated women and sensitisation to police personnel to register complaints from persons with disabilities. Copyright: 1995 - 2006 The Hindu Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the consent of The Hindu [ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Regarding Disclosing Disability in CV
Dear Sameer, Mentioning our disability status and its nature in the CV is very important. If we hide our disability status while applying for any job or other things, there is no point in cribbing over being rejected by the concern authorities once they find it out. Sometimes, even the disclosure on our part could be taken as a strong reason for our rejection. As Subramani has mentioned, the other details which we state about our abilities could impress the concerned persons. Regards, Dr. A.Rambabu To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Campaign by Citizens Against UID
Dear Friends, Last few days there had been a lot of discussions on the newly proposed UID and its usefulness on our list. Most of us believed that the inclusion of the aspect of disability in the UID could be very useful because of its multi-purpose utility. However, I came across an article in Counter Currents, an online newsletter which gives a completely different picture. Its a campaign by the citizens against UID. I thought that it would be nice if you could have some discussions on that article's point of view. So I am pasting below the article. Please go through it and give your critical appraisal. Regards, Dr. A.Rambabu Please Endorse: Citizens Against UID By Citizens Against UID 29, April, 2010 Countercurrents.org Kindly endorse the campaign against Unique Identification Number (UID), government of India's effort to give a number to every Indian citizen like they do to cattle before they are led to the slaughter house. It's kind of racial profiling which can be abused in a country like India where they use the census data to butcher people in riots ( remember the Gujarat pogrom). It's a violation of one's privacy, human rights and a threat to democracy. And they are tagging it with the ongoing census. There is a great threat that the information collected through census can be passed onto the UID authority, which is headed by a corporate CEO. It can be easily stated that it's not the Maoists the 'greatest internal threat' to Indian democracy, but the UID is. Please endorse this statement and pass it on to your friends and relatives who value Indian democracy.Please endorse the statement by clicking here We, representatives of people’ movements, mass organizations, institutions and concerned individuals including all the undersigned strongly oppose the potential tracking and profiling based techno-governance tools such as the Unique Identification number (UID) by the Government of India and the manner in which legitimate democratic processes have been undermined through this. The proposed UID project seems to be perched on an anti-people perspective and violates a number of basic rights guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution of India including Articles 14, 15, 17, 19 and 21 viz., the Rights to equality, dignity, privacy, expression and the right not to be discriminated against, The project seems to be aimed at profiling people by pooling in biometric and retinal data pertaining to an individual and could be potentially discriminatory in a country where caste identity is the most predominant socio-political marker. Further, it is a travesty on the dignity and privacy of individuals. At another level, given the fact that more than one third of our population live below the substantial level called “poverty line” and without literacy & numeracy, a large section of our population would find itself unable to handle this number in a meaningful way and thus face the danger of virtually stripped of their citizenship and thereby the very legitimacy of their existence on the land of this country. This project which has been launched at a budgeted cost of INR 1900 Crores for the year 2010-2011 in a country where the Government has officially declared that 400 million of its citizens are living below poverty line is , thus an insult to the dignity of the Peoples of India. The project headed by a person of the rank of the Union Cabinet Minister, whose appointment was not transparent and a staff overhead of more than 100 is also working under the most non-transparent processes and we fear that the decisions are made and influenced by vested private and corporate interests who have had a record of anti-people and anti-democratic activities. There is no wide public discussion on the feasibility or desirability of the project. It is in this context that we have serious objections to the way the decadal census process is being used to pitch the UID process and no discussion on this has happened in any of the democratic forums including the Parliament, which also transgresses n the right to dignity and privacy of individuals and their choice to opt out of the UID process. If the UID continues to be tagged with the Census process – we would also consider boycotting the same. It is a matter of great concern that the powers that be have deliberately kept silent on the inter linkage between the UID and current mode of census In this situation it is not clear which decisions are being made by the private sector or b
[AI] regarding Disclosing Disability in CV
Well, it seems that our friend Sameer is yet to come out of his dilemma on this issue. I think Adina has raised a very important point regarding this issue. As she has rightly pointed out that most of us have done schooling in Schools for the Blind So when you mention about your SSLC and Higher Secondary results on the CV, how can you hide your identity? By the way, I had attended at least 11 interviews before finally getting my present job. All of them were open posts. I never had any problems. I am sure there would be more such persons on our list who would not have faced any problem on account of disclosing their disability!! Today, we have enough supporting system to overcome our disability and fight for our rights. Gone are those days when everything came on charity basis. Now, we are demanding for our rights and due opportunities. Please keep away all your synicisms about this issue. With regards, Dr. A.Rambabu On 2nd May 2010, Adina Gillani wrote: Well, if you can manage employers' shocked face while seeing you, trying to make you feel horrible, just because they didn't know before that you are blind, I think is ok not to specify it. On the other hand, most of us have studied in schools for blind or visually impaired people, how is one supposed to avoid writing it? I am personally for writing it, even if the perspective is bit limited. If they do not want blind people amongst their employees', they will surely manage not to get you, with or without your specification in the c v. I doubt hiding it really brings much but contrary. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] A shocking news
Dear Friends, With immense pain I am writing this message. The news of Tharanipathi's sudden demise is very shocking. I know him for more than 15 years as we are from the same school: St. Louis Institute for the Deaf and the Blind, Chennai. He was two years junior to me. He was a very bright student and a tallented Chess player. He could also play guitar. I remember quite well, he emerged as the individual Champion in sport activities and I happened to be the proud captain of the house which belonged to. He had just completed B.Ed. Despite working in a private concern, he successfully attended many competative exams. He would have definitely got a better job opportunity. What pains me the most is the fact that his end came through a suicide. I know him as a very brave person and showing tremendous maturity in taking decisions. His mother, who also is a visually impaired person and his elder sister struggled a lot in bringing him up. May his soul rest in peace and may the family members gain the strength to cope up from this irreplaceable loss. With regards, Dr. A.Rambabu, To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] EPW
Dear Dr. Surya Sharma, This is regarding your query about EPW website. As you have rightly pointed, the site allows us to read and download articles from the current issue and four previous issues. The rest are archived very well which consist of all the articles, Commentaries, Bookreviews, etc. since the launching of EPW, I think from 1966. In order to read or download them, one has to take suscription. Generally, all the universities and leading educational institutes do have suscriptions and all the members of those institutes can avail the benefits within their premises. However, individual suscriptions are also available and you could enquire about it from them directly. Moreover, all the files in that site are of PDF format. Perhaps, you are not able to open the full articles because of that reason since Jaws does not recognise PDF immages clearly. I generally use Kurzveil for reading PDF files. Regards, Dr. A.Rambabu To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] belkin wi-fi phone
Dear Vikas, Your description of the Belkin Wi-fi phone was very interesting. I just have a couple of queries to you: 1. Does that phone have any voice enabling mechanism like talks? 2. Has it arrived in Indian markets? Looking forward to your response. Regards, Dr. A.Rambabu To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] The Coolest Device of the Decade
Dear Friends, I found this article from the Hindu very interesting and thought of sharing with you all. I am sorry if this has already been posted as I am coming online after a long time. Have a look at the article below The Hindu: Front Page: The coolest device of the decade Online edition of India's National Newspaper Friday, Jan 01, 2010 The coolest device of the decade Deepa Kurup INFORMATION IS POWER: The cellphone tells this mango seller where he can find the best price. BANGALORE: Today, it no longer makes news to see your neighbourhood vegetable vendor taking orders on his mobile phone, or for that matter a mason at work as he chatters away on his cellphone. A decade ago this was unthinkable. The 10 years which have gone by have found a great leveller in technology, the cellphone being the most ubiquitous of them all. Cellphones crossed over from overpriced, shoebox-sized, upper-class accessory to an affordable easy-to-use gadget for staying connected, getting entertained and, for many, even a way of life. The long queues outside the PCO booth and scrambling for those elusive one-rupee coins is now history. The cellphone is literally in every hand. As of November 2009, India, with the world’s second largest population, registered 506.4 million cellphone connections, (543 million, including landlines), second only to China. Which means half our population has the device. ! Old timers still talk about the miles of red tape and the years it took to get a basic landline connection. So while globally the noughties were about crowdsourcing, micro and macro blogging, e-books, file sharing or the “cloud”, in India even the internet is only barely there. With a staggeringly low penetration, pegged at around seven to eight per cent (over 80 million), the web is not a patch on the omnipresent cellphone. The next decade Sunil Abraham, Director of Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, insists that the cellphone will also define the decade that begins today. And like that clever advertisement, text-to-voice and voice recognition can and will be big in providing access to the unlettered, disabled and forgotten sections, he explains. “Data services and geographic positioning services (GPS) show great promise in connecting the poor to the state and the market,” he said. With love and best wishes, Dr. A. Rambabu, Assistant Professor, CSSEIP, TISS, Mumbai-88. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] updates about Firoz Ji
Dear Friends, Yesterday, I spoke to Firozji. I thought someone among his family members would pick up the mobile. But for my surprise, Firozji himself received my call. He was sounding very confident. In fact, he told me there's nothing to worry now. The surgery done on him was fine and he was recoverying. He is still in the hospital. Let us all hope and pray for his quick recovery! With love and best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu, Assistant Professor, CSSEIP, TISS, Mumbai-88 To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] SBI Netbanking for Visually Challenged
Dear Friends, I came across this interesting details in the Help link of SBI Website. I am pasting below the full details of that page which would be useful for all those who use State Bank of India's internet banking. State Bank of India Logo Instructions FAQs You are in help page Welcome to OnlineSBI Internet Banking Facility Following are the access key details to navigate through this site Note: If you are using Internet Explorer use the Enter key with the following access keys. If you are using Mozilla FireFox use the Shift key with the following access keys. table with 2 columns and 10 rows Press Alt 2 to Login Press Alt 7 to view Instructions Press Alt 8 to view FAQs The following shortcut keys are used to access the Post Login pages Press Alt 3 For Account Summary Press Alt 4 to Transfer Funds Press Alt 5 for changing your Password Press Alt 6 to Transaction Summary page Press Alt 8 to view FAQs Press Alt 9 to Logout table end For security reasons use headphones while entering your login credentials. If you have any queries, please call us toll free at 1800 11 22 11 https://www.onlinesbi.com/sbivc.html With love and best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] strange message
Dear Harish sir and Accessindia list friends, I am sending you this message with utmost surprise. When I opened the mail titled: accessindia digest vol. 51, no. 84, instead of usual messages and topics, the following uncomprehensible characters appeared. I am pasting them below for your notice; Please let me know whether it was the same for all of you or is it a specific problem? AccessIndia Digest, Vol 51, Issue 84 Tuesday, July 13, 2010 8:44 AM From: "accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in" Add sender to Contacts To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in main landmark xí}ksÛF–öçðWôº¶*ž‰&HJ¼$c›²,[I|YK‰ß©©)D‚",’` Regards, Dr. A.Rambabu Voice your thoughts in the blog to discuss the Rights of persons with disability bill at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/blog.htm To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Regarding the Article on Kaiser
Dear Friends, The article on Kaiser had really provoked most of our members and we had discussions from various dimensions. At this juncture, I thought of sharing some details which I got to know about Kaiser. There was an article about Kaiser in The Hindu, in June, 2008-- no idea of the date of issue--soon after her 10th results had been out. That time the news was brought about at the initiative of the school where she studied. She studied in Little Flower Convent for the Blind, Chennai. That article was much more informative. Apart from the facts that her mother was mentally ill, and homeless, Kaiser was originally from somewhere in U P and she knew nothing in Tamil. In Tamilnadu, except for the CBSE schools, Tamil is compulsory unless one opts for a different second language. As I too studied from the same school, I am very sure that there is no Hindi or any other language . Just imagine, the amount of struggle this person would have undergone in learning a new language under most difficult and traumatic conditions. Well, she had proved that if proper opportunities are provided, nothing is impossible and one could overcome any obstacles in life. My hearty congradulations to Kaiser and appreciations to The Hindu for showing interest in bringing out such news items. With love and best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu Voice your thoughts in the blog to discuss the Rights of persons with disability bill at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/blog.htm To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Deevali Greetings
Dear Friends, I wish you all a very Happy Deepavali. May the joy of Deepavali fill in all your lives throughout the year ahead!! With love, A.Rambabu __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] amazing similarities! but shocking news!
Dear Friends, Sometime ago I recieved a mail from one of my friends who is a faculty at BHU. That mail informed me that my friend had been abroad to attend a conference and there he lost all his belongings and he is need of some financial assistance. When I called his home to confirm the message, I was surprised to find him at home and he was not aware of all that I narrated to him. Later, after a couple of days he called me and told that similar mails have reached to all his friends whose mail ids had been stored in his address book. Moreover, he could not access his mail id because someone has hacked his mail id and changed his pass word. Such incidents are examples of how our emails could be hacked and misused. Yesterday, when I came across a similar news reported in the New Delhi page of the Hindu, I thought of sharing it with you all. I am pasting that article below Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2007/11/08/stories/2007110859960300.htm) New Delhi Officials e-mail account hacked Devesh K. Pandey The officer is a Joint Secretary in the Union Agriculture MinistryMails have been sent in his name to his contacts seeking financial help NEW DELHI: The e-mail account of a Joint Secretary in the Union Agriculture Ministry has allegedly been hacked and mails have been sent in his name to his contacts seeking financial help. According to an FIR lodged at the Parliament Street police station, the senior Government official has alleged that his e-mail account that he used for all official correspondence was hacked on November 1 morning. He further alleged that using his mail account, someone posing as him has been sending mails to his contact persons, including top Government and private company functionaries, seeking financial help claiming that he was in trouble somewhere abroad. In response to those fake mails, the complainant started getting calls from his contacts enquiring about his well-being. The complainant told the police that he was unable to access his mail account any more. On the basis of the complaint, the Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch lodged the FIR at the Parliament Street police station on Tuesday and initiated investigations. While the police are trying to find out the nature of the fraud and identify the culprit, a senior police officer said incidents of fake e-mails seeking financial help on different pretexts are on the rise. In several cases it has been found that unsolicited mails are sent as spam using addresses of persons known to recipients. This is done probably using software that extract e-mail addresses from the list of contacts of an Internet user to send the malicious mails. In a recent incident, a Faridabad-based non-government organisation found that its e-mail account had been hacked by someone. It was suspected to be a variant of Nigerian Scam, wherein people get unsolicited mails offering handsome cuts in a financial deal involving huge amounts of money. Isn't it amazing similarity?? But shocking too!!! A.Rambabu __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] braille registration plates caught in delays
Dear Friends, the following article is a clear example of the indifferences and suttlities shown towards visually challenged at various sections of the society. Source: The Hindu ( http://www.hinduonnet.com/2007/11/11/stories/200754480400.htm) National Braille registration plates caught in delays Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar Despite the Delhi Government giving its approval Negative impact of frequent change of Transport CommissionersScheme for the visually impaired fails to take off NEW DELHI: Delhi has had as many as ten Transport Commissioners in the past six years and this has had a negative impact on implementation of various projects, particularly those which are not big in nature and require a committed and human approach from the authorities. A case in point is the installation of Braille registration plates in three-wheeler scooter rickshaws that has still not been done despite the Delhi Government giving its in-principle approval to the project. The installation would have been of critical use for the visually impaired as it would allow them to know by the feel of hand the registration number of a hired auto-rickshaw and pass it on to some friend or acquaintance for personal security. But despite the project not being expensive as each plate costs barely Rs.15, it has not taken off due to bureaucratic red tape. This has prompted Samarthya National Centre for Promotion of Barrier Free Environment for Disabled Persons, which has been working to promote Mobility for All for persons with reduced mobility and disability, to once again approach the Commissioner Transport, this time D. M. Spolia, to demand speedy implementation of the project. In his letter, Samarthya founder and project director Sanjeev Sachdeva has stated that following the consent of Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf the organisation had proposed installation of Braille plates of auto registration number on all auto-rickshaws for the benefit of persons with low vision and vision impairment, including senior citizens. These Braille plates will help people lead an independent life and make travel safer for them, he wrote, adding that in this regard, meetings and discussions were held with your predecessors Mr. Vijay Madan and Mr. Chandra Mohan as also with Mr. Virendra Kumar, Joint Commissioner. Mr. Sachdeva has expressed regret over non-implementation of the scheme and stated that he was made to understand that the State Transport Authority had decided to place the Braille registration plates in the auto-rickshaws in the groove near the entrance and to include the same in the permit conditions for the autos. Referring to a letter sent to him on February 13 this year by Assistant Director (Operations) A. K. Srivastava, the Samarthya founder wrote that the letter had clearly stated that the Delhi Government has in principle approved of the proposal for introduction of the Braille manuscript registration plates and it has been decided that this could be made as one of the permit conditions for the auto-rickshaws. Lamenting the delay in the matter, Mr. Sachdeva said what needs to be realised is that the visually impaired have to put up with a daily struggle while commuting and hoped that the Delhi Government would speedily implement this scheme and not allow change in posts to affect its enactment. A.Rambabu __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] good news
Dear Friends, I have got a very good news to share with you all. I am appointed as Assistant Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. As I am expected to join the job before 7the december, I would be leaving for Mumbai soon and likely to join the job by the last week of November. The significance of this posting is: It was reserved for the visually challenged. I hope all the other universities/leading educational institutes would also emulate the TISS in recognising our skills and provide us the right opportunities. With love, A.Rambabu __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] good news
Dear Friends, Thank you very much for your hearty greetings. It really gives me immense pleasure on recieving such a loving greetings from you both on the list as well as off the list. In fact, I did not recieve some of the A.I Digests for some strange reasons. It seems there had been some quiries about my qualifications and about the subject that I would be teaching at TISS. Although I sent personal replies to most of them, since I missed some mails, let me provide you with those details now. I have completed Ph.D. in Sociology from JNU, New Delhi. I am joining the "Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies". Its a newly created department at TISS. It provides an inter-disciplinary approach. I would be teaching subjects with sociological perspectives. I would like to give one more important information to you. The UGC has emphasised to most of the universities to start the above-mentioned study programme. The Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi, Jadavpur University, Kolkata and Osmania University, Hyderabad have already begun the process of starting such centres. One could expect more vacancies to be advertised in this regard. So, please keep tracking any such advertisements and apply for those postings. You could also visit the websites of those universities that I have mentioned above. With love and regards, A.Rambabu Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] hello everyone
Dear Friends, Warm Regards, I hope that this mail finds you all in best of your health and progress in your work and studies. If anyone of you had wondered about my whereabouts for the past three months, I have a very long answer. To begin with, as I had mentioned in my mail in november, I joined Tiss Mumbai on 28th november. For the past two months or so I didn't have any access to net. Now, the institute has provided me internet connectivity in my office and a new computer. As I had not checked my mails for all these days, there were some shocking surprises awaited me. Yah! somewhere in the mid December, there had been a mail from the Accessindia list asking me to renew my membership in the mailing list. As I had failed to do so, there was no further mail from accessindia list till 22-02-08. As I was browsing through my old mails, I was shocked to come across the above mentioned mail and I understood the reason for the absense of A.I diggests. However, I immediately reregistered and henceforth started recieving mails from the list. Well, I hope now I can be in touch with you all. I could not follow the proceedings of the past two months. Still, I do not understand that why my name had been removed from the list. Well, all's fine here. I am settling well here in Tiss. Mumbai is really interesting. Though very late, I still wish you all very happy and a prosperous 2008. With regards, A.Rambabu, Phone: 09969747312 Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] another case of denial of banking facilities
Dear Pasha, I think Geetha is right. It is not necessary to have SBI account when you have your salary account with another bank. I too have my salary account in Central Bank of India. In fact, I went for it because of my previous bitter experiences with the SBI when I was in JNU. I am sure, my JNU friends on the list woud agree with me in this regard. With regards, A.Rambabu, Phone: 09969747312 Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] a unique weekend
Dear Friends, This weekend happened to be a unique one. I t could be termed as a weekend of "Sarva Dharma Sambhavana". Yesterday we had Id; Today is Good Friday and tomorrow, Holi and followed by Easter. I wish all of you a very Happy Id, Joyful Holi and Cheerful Easter. May the joy and festivity fill your hearts with peace and prosperous!! With love and best wishes, A.Rambabu Phone: 09969747312 Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Greetings
Hai Friends, I wish you all a very happy Gudi Parva and Happy Ugadi!! A.Rambabu You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost. http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Jobs in Punjab University
Hi Friends, This is the link to the advertisement, calling for applications to posts of lecturers/readers, in the Centre for Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Panjab University. Pass on the info to all those you think will be interested. http://jobs.puchd.ac.in/csseip/csseip.pdf With regards, A.Rambabu You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost. http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] greetings
Hai Friends, Wish you all a very: Happy New Years Day--Tamil and Bengali, Happy Vishu--Kerala!! Happy Baisaki--Punjab!! Happy Bihu--Assam!! With love, A.Rambabu Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] On terror's anniversary, an unusual tale: when eye for an eye made two people see
Source: IndianExpress.com On terror's anniversary, an unusual tale: when eye for an eye made two people see Thursday, April 10, 2008 Anuraag Singh Posted online: Friday, March 07, 2008 at 0047 hrs SankatMochan blast Varanasi Railway clerk donates eyes of son killed in blast-to a child and a woman VARANASI, AZAMGARH, MARCH 6: Tomorrow, it will be two years since two powerful blasts tore through the Sankatmochan temple and the railway station in Varanasi, bringing death to 18 homes. But one single act by one of the families hit by the terror strikes has given new life to two homes, one in Nizamabad in eastern UP and another in Jamalpur in Bihar. Railway inquiry-cum-reservation clerk Sushil Upadhyaya, whos still to come to terms with the death of his 20-year-old son Ritesh in the Sankatmochan blast, donated his sons eyes. That one act helped a two-year-old girl and an elderly woman both had vision in only one eye recover full vision. Ritesh, an amateur photographer, had gone to the temple on March 7, 2006 with professional lensman Harish Bijlani and brother Rajesh to film a marriage being held there. When the blast took place, Bijlani died instantly and Ritesh sustained multiple injuries in the head, stomach and legs. He died of internal bleeding at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) hospital 16 days later. It was an irreparable loss, a great shock. The family had lost its most loving son. But we all decided we will make Ritesh live, Upadhyaya told The Indian Express. Two days before he died, we were told by doctors that the chances of my sons survival were very remote. This made me think. We decided, and it was a bold decision, to donate his eyes. It would help those who cant see. After Ritesh died, his eyes went to the two-year-old daughter of a national award-winning potter from Nizamabad (Azamgarh) and an elderly woman from Jamalpur, Upadhyaya said. Nandini, the potters daughter, had lost vision in the left eye in an accident when she was only a year old. We still remember March 26, 2006. It was the day which ended our agony. We got a call from the BHU hospital that day. We were told to come to the Varanasi hospital the next day, recalled Nandinis father Ram Jatan Prajapati. The family reached Varanasi the same night. The next day, the cornea implant was performed by ophthalmologists OPS Maurya and Abhishek Chandra. We were later told that Nandini was able to see with both eyes only because of a youth who died in the temple blast, Nandinis mother Pushpa said. As far as we know, the other cornea was implanted in the eye of an elderly woman from Jamalpur. It was to go to a boy from Varanasi initially. But he he fell ill just before the surgery and the doctors decided against the implant, Ram Jatan said. The blast plunged one family into darkness but returned light to two families. We will be forever indebted to the family of the young man who died in the blast, Pushpa said. Ophthalmologist Abhishek Chandra said Nandinis left eye in which the cornea was implanted has a squint which now needs correction. We will perform corrective surgery on April 14. Riteshs family believes he is still alive, seeing the world through Nandini and the woman in Bihar. But the family is still waiting for the certificate confirming the eye donation. Told about this, Dr Chandra said if such an error has taken place, it will be rectified. Riteshs family will be handed the certificate. Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Watch your Orkut profile, future boss may be snooping
Watch your Orkut profile, future boss may be snooping Indian Express, Sunday, September 28, 2008 Has any candidate been rejected on the basis of his online social profile? Shermon says an organisation has to be very “flaky” in order to base its decisions on social networking sites alone. A senior HR manager with Kotak Mahindra Bank says, on condition on anonymity, that online checks are cost-effective. “We spend an average of at least Rs 5,000 for checking the background of a candidate. Background checking on social networking sites is free,” he says. Your blog could get you into trouble too. Ajay Trehan, CEO of screening firm Authbridge Research Services, says a candidate who was almost hired may now get dropped because of a negative comment his ex-wife left on his blog. Headhunters employ filters while sourcing candidates online. “If a candidate has joined an obscene community or has a friend who’s posing semi-nude, we would drop him,” says Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO, Headhunters India, a third-party vendor. With companies monitoring even the behaviour of current employees on networking sites, people should be careful about what they post online, says Lakshmikanth, who advises that if you must have fun online, it is better to maintain two profiles, one official and another with an alias just for... To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] everything is fine here
Dear Friends, Thank you very much for the care and concerns. All of us here at Tiss are fine and safe. In fact, this part of the city has been very peaceful throughout. However, our campus' security is on high alert. Yesterday, all the educational institutions were closed. But today all are functioning normally. Of course, you know the entire troubles happened at one full stretch of the city in the south Mumbai. My friends belonging that part also came to the campus today. In fact, they are much more confident than us and believe that nothing to worry and the life goes on. Well, this spirit in our people is definitely a strong signal to those who indulge in such unmindful barbaric activities. With regards, A.Rambabu To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] new year greetings
Dear All, I wish you all a very very Happy and Prosporous New Year! May the new year be filled with cherishable memories and greater successes for all of us! With love and best wishes, A.Rambabu Wishing all on Louis Braille Bi-centinal birthday, January 4! To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] regarding the query raised by Shadab
Dear All, As the subjectline suggests, I thought of responding to the query raised by Mr. Shadab regarding sending newspaper articles without the permission of the editor. I am sorry for not reproducing the thread. Shadab, as far that instruction which you had mentioned is applicable to those who would use such articles for commercial purpose. I mean that if someone wants to produce the same contents in their magazines or tabloits etc. Whereas, sending those articles through email is not a violation of copyright. As Ms. Renuka has rightly pointed out, every article of the Hindu has the provision to be sent to anyone through email. Hope, this would serve the purpose!! With regards, Dr. A.Rambabu, Assistant Professor, (CSSE&IP), TISS, Mumbai To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Introduction
Hello Friends, I am A.Rambabu. Let me introduce myself to you. I was affected by retinoblasterma(medical term for eye-cancer), one of the rarest cases of blindness, when I was one and half years. I had my education from Little Flower Convent, upto class-5 and at St. Louis Institute for Deaf and Blind, Chennai. Later I did my graduation in sociology at Loyola college, Chennai. I joined Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for my post-graduation where I continued upto Ph.D. I have just completed my Ph.D. and awaiting the Viva. Still looking for a suitable job. Presently I am at my hometown--Chennai. I got to know about Accessindia through some friends. In fact, they forwarded some of the AI digests,through which I gained a lot of information. I thought joining the list. I am happy to join this family. I am looking forward to a healthy interaction/discussion with all of you. with regards, A.Rambabu, Phone: 044-25540134, 044-42813150. Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] call for vacancies
Hai Friends, The University of Pondichery, a central university-has come out with call for aplicants for the post of lecturers, readers and professors in various subjects. The most significant ones are: History, Politics and International Studies, English and French and a number of Science faculties. Those interested can visit at 'www.pondiuni.org' and download the aplication form and other details. Note: the last date of submision: 11-07-2007. Best wishes, A.Rambabu Need a vacation? Get great deals to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel. http://travel.yahoo.com/ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] good news for music aspirants
Dear friends, The following piece which appeared in The Hindu on 6th july,2007 brings in new hope for music aspirants; Chennai Good news for aspiring singers Staff Reporter Chennai: For aspiring singers eager to make a mark in the playback industry here is some good news. Music director Bharadwaj launched the Bharadwaj School of Music here on Tuesday. The music director, in consultation with the Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU), has developed a one year diploma course in Applied Music. It will be offered through distance education. Contact classes would be held on Sundays . Those who have completed standard XII are eligible . For further details, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call 91-28151615. Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] matter of concern
Dear friends, Recently I came across a news about a person's mobile phone exploded when he tried to talk without disconnecting it from the charger. The following article which I had extracted from the Hindu, dated: 7th july, 2007 is a very important matter of concern. Worker dies after mobile explodes Anand Parthasarathy Bangalore: The Chinese media says a worker in an iron ore plant died after the mobile phone that he was carrying in his breast pocket, exploded, shattering his ribcage and sending a fragment into his heart. The incident which occurred on June 19 has only now been reported by the English language Shanghai Daily and other local newspapers. Xiao Jinpeng (22) years was a welder and there is speculation that the high ambient temperature in his work spot might have played a part in the tragedy. News flood net Reports flooding Internet sites on Friday have generally jumped to conclude that the phones battery might have exploded hardly surprising after a series of incidents last year where big brand laptop computers burst into flames spontaneously. Mobile phones use the same type of batteries, carried by portable computers Lithium ion, where carbon forms one electrode, and a metal oxide, the other however the power requirements are much smaller. While major laptop makers have recalled the defective batteries in batches (most of them made to a process perfected by Sony), they have been less proactive in coming up with a safe alternative. Smaller lithium ion batteries the kind used by the worlds 2 billion cell phone owners were thought to be immune to exploding danger till now. The killer phone is said to be a Motorola make, though knowledgeable sources say that in itself might not be very significant: There is a huge business in counterfeit phones as well as batteries in booming mobile phone markets such as China. The news will be of special concern in India which is seeing one of the worlds fastest growth rates in mobile phone usage: According to its annual survey of the Indian telecom industry, CyberMedias Voice and Data magazine, said on Thursday, that cellular phone usage zoomed by 73 % in 2006-07, to cross 157 million subscribers and generated a 56% growth in revenues for the providers, to generate $ 12.5 billion. There is now one phone (mobile or handset) for every five Indians. Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Teachers trained to spot children with defective vision
Online edition of India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007 Tamilnadu Teachers trained to spot children with defective vision R. Sujatha The younger the children the easier it is to cure them, says doctor Chennai: REEP - Refractive Errors, Education and Prevention - is a project aimed at children in Corporation schools in the city. In the two years since its launch, Rajan Eye Care Hospital in T. Nagar has reached out to about 107 schools by conducting free screening camps. A total of 43,900 children below the age of 12 have been screened for eye ailments and given spectacles. We chose schoolchildren because it is necessary to identify children with defects in the eye. The younger the children the easier it is to cure them, says Mohan Rajan, Medical Director of the hospital. A study in 1990 showed that the incidence of short sight (myopia) was 6.2 per cent and long sight (hypermetropia) was 4.6 per cent. In 2005 the incidence was 7.4 per cent and 5.3 per cent. In 2015, it will be 10 per cent and 8 per cent. Both conditions are hereditary and can manifest as early as at the age of three. Some children suffer from amblyopia in which the child could have double vision. It is necessary to diagnose early as the child could suffer from lazy eye syndrome, Dr. Mohan says. When a child develops a squint it could be because the vision in one eye is normal while the brain does not register images from the other eye. These days children go to pre-nursery at the age of two-and-a-half. So we brought down the age of screening from five to two-and-a-half or three, he says. In order to spot children with defective vision early, the hospital has trained teachers in Corporation schools to identify children with squints and check their vision using the Snellens chart for schoolchildren who can read and a symbols chart for the younger age group. Children who cannot identify the penultimate line in the chart need therapy. Children with lazy eye syndrome are given occlusion therapy. The vision in the good eye is blocked making the child to see with the other eye. This therapy will not work in children beyond the age of 10. If picked up early vision could be restored up to 80 per cent from merely 30 per cent, Dr. Mohan says. Parents, teachers and children are counselled and taught about refractive errors. This education is important as the higher the myopia greater are the chances of retinal detachment. The hospital has tied up with several paediatric hospitals to screen preterm babies. Children born before the full term of pregnancy and weighing about 1 kg could suffer from retinopathy of prematurity, a disorder that affects the retina. The condition causes bleeding in the eyes of the babies and results in detachment of the retina. Get your own web address. Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] films show visually challenged in poor light
Friends your views on the following news report are sought! The Hindu: Online edition of India's National Newspaper Monday, Jul 09, 2007 Films show visually challenged in poor light Staff Reporter Chennai: Speakers at the 17th annual day of the Welfare Foundation of the Blind highlighted the need for the society to extend recognition and not sympathy to visually challenged persons appealed. Visually challenged persons, who spoke at the function, said a section of the media, particularly Tamil films stereotyped those visually challenged. Many films depicted them in poor light, said A.Murugan, a Tamil teacher at Choolaimedu Government Higher Secondary school. The speakers appealed to the media to sensitise the society to recognise visually challenged persons instead of extending sympathy to them. Treasurer of the Foundation L. Latha said the organisation was formed to serve as a bridge between the visually challenged and people with normal vision. The annual day of the Foundation was organised recently at Madras Christian College here. Shape Yahoo! in your own image. Join our Network Research Panel today! http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7 To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] news on the Varnasi incident
Friends, I am pasting a news piece that appeared on the Hindu's front page on 6th August. Arrested for attempt to commit suicide Varanasi: Five physically-challenged traders, who survived a mass suicide bid allegedly instigated last week, were on Sunday arrested after registration of a criminal case against them on the charge of trying to commit suicide, police said. Mohammad Naseem, Satish Seth, Bharat Lal, Khalilur Rahman and Mohammad Wasim were arrested on being discharged from a hospital. Thirteen physically-challenged traders had consumed a poisonous substance here on July 31 in a mass suicide bid to protest demolition of their roadside shops in an anti-encroachment drive by the municipal authorities recently, of whom five persons died during treatment. PTI Regards, A.Rambabu Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?refer=1GNXIC To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] excellent subliment
Hai Friends, The Hindu has brought out an excellent subliment titled 'Indipendent India at 60 on august 15th with interesting articles written by eminent personalities from different fields. You can find a link with the same title on the front page of The Hindu in which you can get all those articles. There are about 67 links in them. Hope, this would be of use to you. With Regards, A.Rambabu Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase. http://farechase.yahoo.com/ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] please clarify me
Hai Friends, Whenever I get any attachment file, the following link appears which ensures that the attached file thoroughly scanned and safe for download. symantec/0301407_antivirus_nodate_79x22 Could you please let me know whether this antivirus scanner could be downloaded and used as we use other antivirus scanners such as AVG, Norton, Avast etc? With regards, A.Rambabu Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative vehicles. Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center. http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] A Woman With a Vision
The Hindu Tamil Nadu A woman with a vision Photo:K. Ananthan I am blind. But, I have a vision. I overcame blindness, is how Sabriye Tenberken describes herself. With a small computer-like assistive technology in hand, she says Blind people are excellent problem solvers. Every day from morning till night, they are solving problems. She talks to Anasuya Menon on her visit to Coimbatore. Sabriye Tenberken is the founder of Braille Without Borders, an organisation working for the empowerment of people with visual impairment. Brimming with enthusiasm, she readies to speak about her upcoming project at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. It is going to be an institute where the blind can develop their potential and utilise their abilities for the betterment of society. We need people who have a vision and the courage and passion to bring about a change in society, she adds. A set of highly motivated and educated people who can think out of the box and believe that everything is possible. She has already received about 15 applications from people with visual impairment all over the world. The institution aims at encouraging them to become social entrepreneurs. Why cant the blind get into social work? she asks. Why should they be institutionalised? They too can contribute to society. Sabriye Tenberken, born and brought up in Germany, began losing her eyesight very early and turned blind by the age of 12. Despite the discouraging attitude of society, she continued her studies and was insistent on giving something back to society rather than always being a beneficiary. Her unrelenting quest to travel to other parts of the world and do developmental work led her to Tibet. She approached a couple of organisations in Germany for getting into development work, but none of them encouraged her owing to her disability. In Tibet, she developed the Tibetan Braille script, which later on became the official script for the blind in Tibet and she also started a Centre for the Blind in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. She worked with hundreds of blind children and has since been concentrating on removing the stigma related to blindness. Ms.Sabriye has also authored two books, My Path Leads to Tibet and The Seventh Year - From Tibet to India. She now plans to extend her work to India. India is a great place to develop things and there is a lot of innovative stuff going on here, she says. Unlike in Europe where no development is possible, there are a lot of things that can be experimented in India, she adds. Though technology has brought in help to people with visual impairment, it should not substitute communication. They should develop confidence in themselves and not be dependent on sighted people, she says. Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/222 To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Vidya Sagar launches websites for scribes
Tamil Nadu - Chennai Vidya Sagar to launch website for scribes Staff Reporter A databank of scribes and students will be created Others with neurological problems, autism and learning disabilities too need scribes A Government Order to this effect will make the process much simpler: expert CHENNAI: There is a shortage of people to write exams for persons with disabilities, according to Vidya Sagar, a voluntary organisation working with people with neurological impairments. To create a greater awareness of the need for such people (scribes), and to bring together scribes and disabled people who need them, it is launching a website www.iscribe.co.in on Wednesday. Many people can scribe and even want to but do not know whom to contact or how to go about it, Rohini Ramesh, co-ordinator (resource) of Vidya Sagar, said. The website will create a databank of scribes and students and match their profiles, she added. Dipti Bhatia of Vidya Sagar said all that was required for a person to become a scribe was the ability to listen, write clearly and if necessary, see what non-verbal students pointed to in charts, she added. The use of scribes by visually challenged people is common knowledge but many do not realise that others with neurological problems, autism and learning disabilities too need scribes, Ms. Bhatia said. We have a limited circle of people we can contact. The website will widen the circle, she said. The website has an introductory page explaining the need for scribes and what is required to become one. Another page is meant for students to explain what they need while another profiles potential scribes. According to Ms. Bhatia, the laws provides for visually disabled persons and those with dyslexia to have scribes to write their exams. But persons with other motor or neurological disabilities too need them. Though every person with a disorder who has applied for a scribe has been granted one, a government order to this effect would make the process much simpler, she said. Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase. http://farechase.yahoo.com/ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Finger-Friendly Keyboard
Hai Friends, The following article that appeared in Hindu, on 6th September brings in an expectation of relief. Tamil Nadu Finger-friendly keyboard Karthik Madhavan It can be folded and carried around easily Photo: M. Govarthan Affordable too: This soft keyboard is foldable, light and easy to carry. SATHYAMANGALAM: Are your fingers tired of punching one key after another in the computer keyboard? Having suffered, ever wondered of an alternative say, a keyboard that loves your fingers? Well, the solution is in sight and at hand. Bannari Amman Institute of Technology students have come up with a keyboard using a printed circuit board, a rubber sheet and fabric that is easy on fingers. D. Gowthami, V. Subanandhini, B. Sahithya and G. Durga Priyanka, third year students of the Department of Fashion Technology, have covered a printed circuit board with the rubber sheet and a fabric to come up with a keyboard. It has a software to go with it as well. Ms. Subanandhini says she stumbled upon the idea while browsing through the net for an idea for the Futura exhibition. The exhibition is a five-day event the Institute organises to showcase students talents in science and technology. The girls then got together and came up with the keyboard, which weighs just 240 gm, 600 gm less than the conventional keyboard. Not only that, the cost of manufacturing is also less. On a commercial scale we can manufacture it for about Rs. 400, says Ms. Gowthami. A normal keyboard costs around Rs. 900. The keyboard can be folded, and carried around easily. The outer fabric can easily be washed as well. The girls say the can further fine tune it have a stain-resistant and wrinkle-free cloth as cover. They next propose to weave cloth with conductive silk yarns, so that the keyboard is of the size of a hand kerchief. As one hears the girls and begins to experiment on the keyboard, the fingers inadvertently, dance around the keyboard to type thank you, well done! Luggage? GPS? Comic books? Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] sentiment on the computer screen
Hai Everyone, the following article that appeared in The Hindu's Opinion page on 19th sep. is very interesting!! Sentiment on the computer screen: saying it with emoticons Carnegie Mellon University, from where it spread, celebrates 25th anniversary of the smiley face today For sentiments that would be difficult to convey Have become integral to personal exchanges PITTSBURGH: It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon. :-) Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis as a horizontal smiley face in a computer message. To mark the anniversary on Wednesday, Professor Fahlman and colleagues are starting a student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo, carries a $500 cash prize. Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons, have given people a concise way in e-mail and other electronic messages of expressing sentiments that otherwise would be difficult to convey. Professor Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11-44 a.m. on September 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humour and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly. I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-), he wrote. Read it sideways. The suggestion gave computer users a way to convey humour or positive feelings with a smile or the opposite sentiments by reversing the parenthesis to form a frown. Carnegie Mellon said Professor Fahlmans smileys spread from its campus to other universities, then businesses and eventually around the world as the Internet gained popularity. Ive never seen any hard evidence that the :-) sequence was in use before my original post, and Ive never run into anyone who actually claims to have invented it before I did, Professor Fahlman wrote on the universitys Web page dedicated to the smiley face. But its always possible that someone else had the same idea its a simple and obvious idea, after all. Variations, such as the wink that uses a semicolon, emerged later. And today people can hardly imagine using computer chat programs that do not translate keystrokes into colourful graphics, said Ryan Stansifer, a computer science Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Now we have so much power, we dont settle for a colon-dash-paren, he said. You want the smiley face, so all these chatting softwares have to have them. It has been fascinating to watch this phenomenon grow from a little message I tossed off in 10 minutes to something that has spread all around the world, Professor Fahlman was quoted as saying in a university statement. I sometimes wonder how many millions of people have typed these characters, and how many have turned their heads to one side to view a smiley, in the 25 years since this all started. Amy Weinberg, a University of Maryland linguist and computer scientist, said emoticons such as the smiley were definitely creeping into the way, both in business and academia, people communicate. She added: In terms of things that language processing does, you have to take them into account. If youre doing almost anything... and you have a sentence that says I love my boss and then theres a smiley face, you better not take that seriously. Emoticons reflect the likely original purpose of language to enable people to express emotion, said Clifford Nass, a Professor of communications at Stanford University. The emotion behind a written sentence may be hard to discern because emotion is often conveyed through tone of voice, he said. What emoticons do is essentially provide a mechanism to transmit emotion when you dont have the voice, he said. In some ways they give people the ability not to think as hard about the words theyre using. AP Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Can Mobile phone usage cause Cancer?
Study: No Cancer Risk in Short Term Mobile Phone Use A large British study has found that there is no adverse health risk in short term mobile phone usage. Over the past few years there has been controversy over the possible health effects of using a mobile phone, including its possible link to cancer. The six year study, conducted by The Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR), featured twenty-three studies, which all appeared in peer reviewed journals. It found no effect on brain function or cancer risk from short term use (less than ten years). However, More studies need to be done to determine the effects of long term use. Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?refer=1GNXIC To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] france offers opportunities for Indian investments
Dear Friends, The article which I am pasting below may be off topic. But the interesting fact of this article is its author Dr. Garimela Subramanyam, who is a visually challenged. He is the Sub-Editor in The Hindu. As some of you might be knowing, our friend, L.Subramani is a correspondant at The Deccan Herald, don't you think that there is a very good opportunity for us to venture into the field of journalism? International - India & World France offers opportunities for Indian investments Garimella Subramaniam Value of single European market needs more recognition: investment body Focus on IT, pharmaceuticals and automotive sectors Frances FDI attractiveness attributed to greater openness Paris: Although the worlds largest single market of 500 million consumers in the European Union should be an obvious attraction to Indian investors overseas, this reality often went unnoticed among entrepreneurs, according to Philippe Favre, president, Invest in France Agency (IFA). Talking to visiting journalists from India, he said France, the worlds fourth largest recipient of foreign direct investment, offered ample opportunities for Indian investment in the Information and Technology, pharmaceuticals and automotive sectors. Some 40,000 jobs were created in 2006 by foreign companies doing business in France and they account for 16 per cent of the total number of employees in the market sector, according to a recent IFA report. Mr. Favre ascribed the FDI attractiveness of his country, a smaller economy than Germany, to a tradition of greater openness. In addition to its 63 million consumers, France boasts the worlds largest number of tourists of 79 million. On the IFAs India focus, he said the Indian economic and business establishment, on account of training and exposure, tended towards the United Kingdoms viewpoint on Europe. This to a large extent explained a lack of familiarity with the realities of a highly integrated European market and common customs tariffs and anti-trust regulation in the 27 member-states. He pointed out that this lag was peculiar to India, unlike Japan and China, where there was a more nuanced appreciation of the advantages of Europes investment climate. The expansion of the eurozone where the common currency the euro is adopted to 15 states (Cyprus and Malta are set to join it from January 2008) would be an obvious boost to trade. Mr. Favre also referred to the Schengen area which enables travel among the member-countries with a common visa, a highly beneficial system for non-EU citizens that allows cross-border movement among firms based in different locations. Labour cost Asked whether the high labour cost involved in setting up businesses in advanced countries was not a deterrent to FDI flows, Mr. Favre said the sheer size of the market and infrastructure overrode wage considerations. This was borne out by the fact that the top 10 countries in terms of FDI, with the exception of China, were from the developed world. Moreover, companies nurturing global ambitions and international brands could not achieve their goals without a presence in the EU, he said. In a bid to raise Indian FDI inflow into France, the IFA has identified 300 Indian IT and pharmaceutical firms with an international presence as potential investors and recently opened an office in New Delhi. With regards, A.Rambabu, Phone: 044-25540134, 044-42813150 Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7 To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] India to ratify U.N. Convention on rights of disabled
Online edition of India's National Newspaper Monday, Oct 01, 2007 International - India & World India to ratify U.N. Convention on rights of disabled New York: Home to an estimated 70 million disabled people, India will ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on Monday. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee would submit the instruments of ratification for the Convention, the world body said on Sunday. The Convention, termed first human rights treaty of the 21st Century, provides the states ratifying it to enact laws and other measures to improve disability rights, and also abolish legislation, customs and practices that discriminate against persons with disabilities. So far, 115 countries have signed the convention, which was adopted unanimously by the General Assembly on December 13, 2006 and opened for signature on March 30, 2007. Twenty ratifications or accessions are necessary for the treaty to come into force, and so far five countries have ratified it Jamaica, Hungary, Panama, Croatia and Cuba. The Optional Protocol to the Convention has been signed by 64 countries. The Protocol will come into force when the Convention does, and after 10 ratifications or accessions. PTI Warm regards, A.Rambabu Pinpoint customers who are looking for what you sell. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] ect:re: Indian Blind Cricket League- The First Call
Dear George Sir, Its a great news indeed!! I still cherish the fond memories of the first national cricket tournament for the Blind which you had organised in december 1990. I am one of the proud participants of that tournament in which I represented St. Louis Institute for the Deaf and the Blind, Chennai. It was titled as the Tata Steel Challenge tournament which was won by NIVH, Dehra Dun. The Late Mr. Madhav Rao Sindia inaugurated the tournament. The most important highlight of the inaugural ceremony was the great Kapil Dev who was one of the chief guests could not make it due to some reasons. We were disappointed very much. However, soon after we reached our rooms, there was call from the organisers asking all of us to assemble again. Yes! this time there was a surprise awaiting for us. Kapil Dev had arrived by then. He spent sometime with us. Apart from the tournament we enjoyed every moment of our stay because of your wonderful organising skills. In the finals, NIVH defeated BMA, Ahmedabad. Of course, BMA has later been renamed as BPA,.] The Late Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was the chief guest for the finals and he gave away the prizes. Anand Sharma of NIVH was the Man of the Tournament. In fact, some of the best players of that tournament and the subsequent ones remained as our favourite heroes. I remember some of those names: Kamal Patel, Vasant Patel, Anand Sharma, Vima Narayana, Mahesh, Harikrishnan, and so on. Well, these are some of my contemporary players. I had participated in the first three national championships held in New Delhi, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. Of course, Blind Cricket has improved a lot and has brought in a number of laurals for our country in the last ten years. I am sure that this new initiative you are taking would give more champions among us. I wish you all the best! Regards, Dr. A.Rambabu, Assistant Professor, (CSSEIP), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; Phone: 09969747312. __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] English
Dear Friends, I think that some of you have misunderstood the point that Mr. George had raised. He is actually concerned about the way of presentation of the messages. Some of you have the habit of sending the SMS type of messages. We come across this problem in most of the mails nowadays. Some people think that its a stylish presentation. However, as Geetha and Rakesh have rightly pointed out the language standard or quality shall not be a major barrier for anyone to express their opinions. I hope that everyone on the list would take the views raised with a possitive frame of mind and work out accordingly. With regards, Dr. A. Rambabu, Assistant Professor, CSSEIP, TISS, Mumbai. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Happy Teachers Day
Dear Friends, I wish all the Teacher-members on the list a very very Happy Teachers Day. Today is the day for 'Self-introspection' for all of us belonging to a profession which deserves more recognition than it currently enjoys. I am pasting a poem which was I recieved from an online networking forum named Bookbole.com. Teachers are one of the greatest people we come across in life. They are selfless givers and mentors for life. At every step, you come across teachers who devote their entire life to the enlightenment of students. We are indeed honoured to share with you a poem titled "Treasure Trove of Books" by Leela Jacob, an English teacher from Bhavan's Public School, Baroda. Treasure Trove of Books Deprived of eyesight, Milton didn't falter. He reached his height With Paradise Lost, And Paradise Regained, later. Books galore await your pleasure, A feast for the inner eye. Dive for the bountiful treasure, Savour the thrill to the full, Till you reach as high as the Sky. For you we have 'bookbole', Technology at your doorstep. Everything is easily available. Flex your intellectual muscles, Till you plumb your own depth. Team Bookbole With regards and best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu, Assistant Professor, CSSEIP, TISS, Mumbai Phone: 09969747312. Office: 022-25525329. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] The Blind Shall Can See
The Hindu Online edition of India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 Front page The blind shall now see Ian Sample and Rachel Williams Camera’s electronic signal gives brain a view of objects Device enables patients to walk about independently More patients to be treated soon London: Surgeons have fitted “bionic eyes” to two men in their 50s to partially restore their eyesight. They are among 15 patients who have been given the artificial retinas as part of a three-year trial in the U.S., Mexico and Europe. The two men are the first in Britain to have the artificial retinas fitted. These were done in three-hour surgical procedures at Moorfields Eye hospital in London, it was confirmed on Monday. Both were completely blind, but will now be able to walk around unaided and identify simple objects. If the trial is successful, the £15,000 (about Rs. 12 lakh) retinas could be approved for general use within three years. The men have an inherited disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which progressively destroys the eye’s light-sensitive cells, and affects tens of thousands of people around the world. The procedure implanted a tiny metal plate studded with electrodes into the retina at the back of the eye. A little video camera mounted on a pair of glasses beams images to the electrodes, which connect via the optic nerve to the brain. Patients wear a small unit at their waist to power the camera and process the images. While not reproducing natural vision, the system enables the viewing of basic images on a 10 x 6 grid. “These people are truly blind and are dependent on a stick, a dog or another person to find their way around. We want to see if we can give them some level of rudimentary vision which they find useful, predominantly to navigate, so they get some independence,” said Lyndon da Cruz, a consultant surgeon who did the procedures last week. Moorfields expects to treat three more patients soon, and a further five if there are no complications. The device is designed by a U.S. company, Second Sight, and is an upgrade of a protype first implanted in 2002 with 16 electrodes arranged in a 4 x 4 grid, enabling patients to walk about independently and distinguish basic objects such a cup or plate on a table. The latest version has 60 electrodes, giving much more detail. Doctors expect it will take the men a few months to learn to use the system. Greg Cosendai, Second Sight’s director for Europe, said: “They should receive enough information to be able to read. That doesn’t mean it [definitely] will work for them, but it’s certainly a milestone, along with recognising faces.” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008 Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Announcement from Tiss
Hai Friends, this message is for those who have appeared for the Tiss Entrance exams and those who are awaiting for MSW interviews. The Announcement of Results (List of Selected Candidates), which was supposed to be released today has been deferred till May 15, 2008. All candidates belonging to OBC Category must submit their caste certificate, status pertaining to creamy layer (in the applicable format) and the income certificate to the Academic Section, TISS, Mumbai latest by May 10, 2008. This is due to the fact that the Institute has to adhere to the Supreme Court's verdict on the OBC reservation. Hope, this info helps. With regards, A.Rambabu Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Beware Net's Baddies
The Hindu: Sunday: April. 27, 2008 Front Page Beware Net’s baddies Special Correspondent Bangalore: The so-called social networking sites on the Internet — Orkut, MySpace, YouTube, etc, — where lay users share their likes, dislikes, hobbies and habits with thousands of likeminded people, many of them unknown, have a downside: the Net’s baddies now seem to have made such sites the focus of their attacks, using techniques like phishing, a type of email fraud which aims at stealing a person’s confidential information, even his total identity. The latest Internet Security Threat Report, released by security management specialist Symantec, holds out a special warning for India-based fans of social networking on the Net, who number between 5 and 6 million and spend anything from 15 to 75 per cent of all spare time in this activity. Such sites are easy to spoof, leading trusting lay users to share personal information with bogus operators, the report says. In effect, cyber criminals have moved subtly from targeting your computers with worms and viruses, to targeting YOU. “Attackers look for the weakest link — and right now that is social networking,” says Prabhat Singh, Symantec’s Director, Security Response in India. Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Taking Books to the Disabled
The Hindu Online edition of India's National Newspaper Sunday, Apr 27, 2008 Tamil Nadu Taking books to the disabled — Photo: R. Shivaji Rao James R. Fruchterman. Students start out with ideas to benefit the deprived and the poor, but often, the need for material benefits propels them away from altruistic thoughts. Some, however, revisit their ideas and work on them. One such person who carried forward his idea of helping the blind read is James R. Fruchterman (Jim), president of Benetech Initiative, U.S. During his recent visit to Chennai, R. Sujatha spoke to him about his plans for India. Jim was fascinated with military intelligence technology as a student at the California Institute of Technology. He wondered if a particular technology, used to pick out an object and blow it up, could be used to pick out words and enhance them. The idea remained in his head but it was several years before he could act on it. After working as an electronic engineer in a rocket company where the push of a button led to a rocket blowing up before take off, he was back in Silicon Valley pondering over his idea of helping the visually impaired. His boss from the rocket company was also part of the character recognition company that Jim set up with an investment of $25 million. But investors wanted returns and were not pleased with the idea of social service efforts, such as developing reading systems for the visually impaired. The seed for his project, sown in 1982, bore fruit in 1989 when he founded Arkenstone, a non-profit organisation. It became the world’s largest provider of reading systems serving 35,000 persons with disabilities in 60 countries. Ten years later, he sold the $5 billion enterprise and used it to launch Benetech Initiative in 2000. One December evening in 1999, when he returned from work, he found new software installed in his personal computer. Upset that someone had tampered with his computer, he wanted to know who had done it. His 14-year-old son owned up and played Jim’s favourite music using Napster and Jim was hooked. “He spent a whole hour with me. That’s a miracle and I learnt a very cool technology,” he recalls. He decided to do the same with books. “What my son did was illegal but getting books to the blind is legal.” And he set up Bookshare. Today, Bookshare.org is the world’s largest online book library for persons with disabilities. The library offers them membership at subsidised rates and provides 3,000 current copyrighted books (published over the last 20 years) and 4,000 public domain books, including those published since 1923. All major American newspapers are also available. Bookshare has fiction and non-fiction, trade books, 1,000 Spanish books, 700 IT books and 100 children’s books. Mr. Fruchterman says he wants to take the tools to people who need them most. “The visually impaired in India will pay Rs.400 to sign up and read books. I am meeting publishers to scan books and text books for Indian readers. It is better you have a clear exemption [in copy right laws for such organisations]” he points out. His company has already tied up with a couple of Indian publishers. “Publishers have a social responsibility,” he says. “Today we are in India where we were in the U.S. six years ago. In a few years in India, we will have 20,000 books, best sellers and educational text books.” Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] MK Tata Learning Centre for Visually Challenged
Dear Friends, Tiss, is inaugurating the MK Tata Learning Centre for Visually Challenged on 7th May 2008 at 12 p.m. I am pasting below a brief note prepared by our Librarian Dr. Muttayya listing all the details about the Centre to the M.K. Tata Trust as a jesture of gratitude. Enabling visually challenged to access information. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, established in 1936, is one of the premier institute in the country in the field of social sciences and has been recognized as one of the progressive centers of learning. More than 200 faculty and about 600 students and research scholars are engaged in teaching and research activity. The institute has been viewed as the harbinger of positive social change and inclusive development where all are provided equal opportunity irrespective of status of physical disabilities, caste and gender. The Institute provides an inclusive environment for one all. The Sir Dorabji Tata Memorial Library at TISS is a unique knowledge center, which offers essential, specialized information resources and personalized information services to its faculty and students. This library's main objective is developing user based resources, providing human and technologically moderated access to knowledge and facilitating users to identify, locate, evaluate and access information. The daunting task for any library is to provide learning support to the visually challenged persons. Libraries have been collecting the learning resources essentially in the print format and now a days in electronic format. However, these two formats cannot be used for disseminating information to the visually challenged persons. When the number of visually challenged students increased, we saw how difficult it was for them to access the rich collection of resources. However, TISS firmly believes that this obstacle can be over come by developing a special lab where the systems with specific speech software, scanners and audio accessories can make these print/ digital information sources easily accessible to visually challenged users also. This led to the establishment of M K Tata Memorial Learning Center for Visually Challenged. When we approached the M.K. Tata Trust with the proposal, they readily agreed for this noble cause and immediately sanctioned Rs. 20 lakhs needed for establishing the learning Centre for the Visually Challenged. The Centre is ready and has the following infrastructure: 20 Pentium Computers with multi media, Scanners for reading all print books and journals Prisma Magnification Device for students with low vision, •Kurzweil K1000 OCR Reading Software for reading any printed material Zoom-Ex Instant Reader for Conversion of print material into digital format for creating an e-Library. A 200 page book can be converted into an e-book in less than 10 minutes. •Basic D Braille Embosser for production of Books in Braille 100 mbps LAN with access to Internet having 2 mbps bandwidth Air conditioning and functional comfortable furniture I Benefits of Learning Centre for Visually Challenged: It provides for Independent Text Reading facility. Earlier, visually impaired students were dependent on a volunteer to read the books. Now, the software will take care of this aspect. If a student want any article to be printed, he can do so within no time using mini Braille printer. The Talking Typing Teacher Pro will provide tutorials with complete guidance and practice sessions for learning computer skills. JAWS Pro Talking software converts a normal PC into a talking PC to enable a blind person to operate it comfortably. The students and faculty are very happy about this new service of the library. "Everyone has a universal right to read. And for this to happen, there has to be some supporting system to enable one to read. With this center, I can now take up a good book and enter the world of unlimited possibilities", says Dr. A.Rambabu, a visually challenged faculty member. This centre has fulfilled one of the long standing needs of providing an enabling environment for all. This centre will also be useful to the visually challenged persons of other colleges and institutes who may not have this facility. We express our gratitude to M K Tata Trust for their generous financial support for establishing [this learning centre for visually challenged. Note: As it is mentioned by our librarian, these fascilities are not restricted to the Tiss students/faculty members alone. It is opened for all those who would like to make use of the available resources. We are working on the procedures to accomodate the scholars from all over Mumbai as well as other parts of the country. For further details: please contact me anytime. With regards, A.Rambabu Mobile: 09969747312. Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try i
[AI] Aid for visually-challenged Nalgonda-based IIT topper
The Hindu: Front Page: Online edition of India's National Newspaper Sunday, Jun 08, 2008 Aid for visually-challenged Nalgonda-based IIT topper Special Correspondent Rapolu Ratan Kumar HYDERABAD: The travails of an IIT topper ended on Saturday when the State government offered to meet the entire expenditure for his professional education and released Rs. 40,000 towards tuition fee, to begin with. Rapolu Ratan Kumar (17) is a visually-challenged student from Miryalaguda in Nalgonda district belonging to a backward community. He secured the first rank in IIT-JEE 2008 in the physically-challenged category and plans to opt for IIT Mumbai. A cheque for Rs. 40,000 was handed over to Ratan by Minister for Disabled Welfare N. Rajyalakshmi in the presence of his parents and officials, at a press conference in the Secretariat on Saturday. The government has extended assistance on learning about Ratan’s plight from reports in the media. Ratan bagged 116th rank in EAMCET and scored 935 out of 1,000 marks in Intermediate and 561 out of 600 in SSC (Miryalaguda). Ratan said he suffered from poor vision (50 per cent), a disability which did not allow him to read books beyond seven hours a day. Yet, he worked for more than 10 hours a day and completed SSC in Telugu medium. The department’s munificent gesture had come like a bolt from the blue, he said. Free coaching The Minister said the parental upper income limit for reimbursing tuition fee in case of disabled students had been raised from Rs. 12,000 to Rs one lakh per annum. She said free coaching would be offered to disabled students appearing for Group I & II services and other competitive exams. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] When grit and determination overcame adversity
The Hindu: Tamil Nadu/Chennai News: Online edition of India's National Newspaper Saturday, May 31, 2008 When grit and determination overcame adversity R.K. Radhakrishnan In just over a year, Kaisar picked up Tamil, learnt Braille and topped the class A decade ago, Kaisar and her mother Meenabhai were on the streets of Chennai A volunteer realised Meenabhai was mentally ill and ensured they reached The Banyan Photo: S. S. Kumar Kaisar Jahan (right), who scored 392 marks in SSLC examination with her friend Kalpana. CHENNAI: When a smiling Kaisar Jahan, 16, held in her hands the printout of her SSLC examination marks at around 9-30 a.m. on Friday, it marked the culmination of a long struggle that began over a decade ago. She passed the State board Class 10 examination with 392 marks and stood sixth in her class at the Little Flower Convent. Overcoming a handicap to score high marks is fairly routine at the Convent – the school is meant for them – but the case of Kaisar, a juvenile cataract patient, was vastly different. She remembers that she belongs to Benaras, but spent at least a year on the Chennai streets and did not understand any language expect Hindi when forced into school. In what now seems like a distant past -- more than a decade ago -- Kaisar and her mother Meenabhai were on the streets of Chennai, living on food sympathetic pedestrians gave them. "We never begged. Whatever people gave us, we ate," Kaisar recalls. The life on the streets ended on September 30, 1996, when a conscientious citizen, Porkodi, saw them. Ms. Porkodi, then a volunteer with The Banyan, a home for mentally ill destitute women, realised that Meenabhai could be mentally ill. Though the mother-daughter duo resisted being forced into a vehicle, she ensured – with help from the police – that they reached The Banyan. The initial days at Adaikalam, The Banyan’s shelter in Mogappair, was traumatic, recalls Kaisar. The duo refused to be separated. "After a few days both madams [Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar, founder trustees] took me to their office and I slowly began feeling comfortable." Later, when The Banyan suggested that she join school, Kaisar resisted. She eventually gave in under pressure. She was eight and was enrolled in Class 2 in 1997. Kaisar struggled to cope and hated school. She spoke Hindi, a language not many in the school understood, and was deeply suspicious of people around. The Convent offered school education in English and Tamil, not Hindi. "Tamil and Maths, I just could not figure out," Kaiser recalls. "It was very difficult." Why did she stay on? Teachers and Sister Gemma, she says. Sister A. Gemma, now a veteran with 37 years of teaching experience, had just begun dealing with blind children then. She recalls that Kaisar was bright and hence, the school waived all fees. "Gemma Sister kept on telling me I should not give up. She always was there when I needed her," says Kaisar. In just over a year, Kaisar picked up Tamil, learnt Braille and topped the class. Till she completed Class 10, she stayed within the first three ranks. Meanwhile, Sister Gemma rose to head the school and routinely pointed to Kaisar as an example of grit and determination overcoming adversity. Kaisar, who partially got back her sight after a surgery at the Sankara Netralaya, wants to study but thinks her sight may be a problem. No way she is giving up though, says Vanitha, Director, Adaikalam. "I want to do computers…I want to do it in English," Kaisar says, looking to the future with hope and anticipation. For Sr. Gemma, it was the end of a long journey. "I am happy," she says. The head mistress of Little Flower Convent was in her office on Friday, for one last time. She retired on Friday. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] News from TISS
Dear Friends, Warm regards! Its been quite sometime that I came on the list. This time I have come with some godd news from Tiss. This we had four visually challenged students woh joined in four different courses. Of course, Tiss had been admitting VC students for so many years in the past. But I learnt that the intake of VC students had been very encouraging from last year onwards. Last year, four students joined in MSW and one joined in MA in Development Studies. This the following students hagve joined the courses as follows: Mr. G.Sridhar: Social Entrepreneurship; Mr. Rakshit Sethi: Human Resourse Management; Ms. Rinki Chokhani: Social Work; Mr. Parmesh Sharma: Globalisation and Labour Studies; Well, going by the list above, you would have now noticed that these people have chosen courses which are non-conventional. Tiss has started MA in many such new areas as Disaster Management, Media and Cultural Studies, Disability Studies and Action, etc. Apart from these regular MA courses, we also have MA in Elementary Education which is a distance education system. Having said this, now let me clarify my intention for giving you this news. Well, this could be taken as both information about the courses abailable at Tiss and also an appeal to young friends in the list who would like to aspire to make a mark in new fields of studies. Please feel free to sought for any further clarifications from me either on the list or off the list in my personal mail id. With love, Dr. A.Rambabu, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Studies of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Sion-Trombay Mainroad, Deonar, Mumbai-88. Phone: 022-25525329. Mobile: 09969747312. Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] disabled: born in a nation which does not care
Thank you very much Rajeshji for the complete transcription of the proceedings of that show which was telecasted on the CNNIBN channel on 5th august. I'm sure that those who could have missed it due to some reasons would definitely benefit from your effort. Having said this, I also add upon my personal views about that show. The question that Ms. Sagarika Ghosh put for the SMS contest, "is disability a burden in India?" as I feel doesn't have any relevance to the issue that was discussed. In fact, Dr. Ajai Kumar very rightly referred to it and pointed out that what the question should have been. My curiosity is to know about the authenticity of the result of the SMS contest as there's no evidence of who these respondants are and whether its a fake information which most tv channels produce in many reality shows. Well, the way she anchored the show and the language she used revealed her lack of sensitivity to an issue of this magnitude. Don't journalists have any social responsibilities? Of course, what our George Abraham sir referred to about the mindset of people towards disability issues and the disabled persons is concerned are absolutely true and we should take responsibilities to bring in change of mindset at least in those who are around us. With regards, Dr. A. Rambabu a Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Registration is now open! To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] want to know about Sanjay Tondon
Hai All, It was nice to know about the Sanjay tondon scholarship for the Visually challenged for their higher studies. I would like to know about Sanjay Tondon. Could anyone on the list give us some details about him? With regards, A.Rambabu Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Registration is now open! To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] greetings on the Teachers' Day
I wish all the members on the list who are in the teaching profession--schools as well as college/university, a Very Happy Teachers' Day!! I was extremely happy and surprised to find a baloon hanging at my office door and the moment I entered my room, I was surrounded by few students greeting me "Happy Teachers' Day" and presented me flowers and a very nice Card. In fact, it was my dream right from my childhood to become a teacher. Today, I feel that my dream has come true. As this is the first teachers' day after I became a teacher, this day would remain as one of the most memorable days in my life. I am sure that all of you would have felt the same way when you recieved greetings from your students too!! Well, this also reminds me of my responsibilities and my role in the institution in general and in the lives of my students in particular. With warm regards, Dr. A.Rambabu, Mobile: 09969747312 Office: 022-25525329. Join Access India convention: For updates on it visit: http://accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Registration is now open! To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] regarding translation of Satya Meva Jayate
Hai Friends, This is in reference to the discussion on the availability of the translation of Satya Meva Jayate in other languages, It is being broadcasted in Tamil at the same time by Star Vijay TV. So, those who could understand/follow Tamil can watch Star Vijay. With regards, Dr. A.Rambabu Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Regarding Braille Convertion of books
Hai Friends, This is in reference to the query posted by Vinod Benjamin regarding some contacts of those convert books into Braille in Tamil Nadu. Here, I am pasting the contact details of Worth Trust, an organisation that functions in Chennai. They charge very reasonable price for scanning and editing the books and any other print materials and get you Braille print outs. They give Braille print outs for bothe Tamil and English. Rcmct Worth Trust, Rehabilitation Centre, Girm Annex UE, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, K.K. Nagar, Near Ashok Pillar, Chennai-78 Phone: 044-24740204, 23713410; Contact Person: Mr. N. Venkatraman: 09442592313. Email: venkatra...@worthtrust.org.in; Website: www.worthtrust.org.in. Hope, this helps! With best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Fw: [jnuvision] Job for the Post of Assistant Professor in Department Of Social Work, Delhi School Of Social Work, University Of Delhi
Dear Friends, Greetings! Its nice to get in touch with you all after a long break. Please go through the message below and I hope that it would serve someone on the list. With love and best wishes, Dr. A.RambabuSearch for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Regarding TISS Admission
Dear Accessindia Members, Greetings! I am coming on the list after a very long time. As you would have recieved the news of my treatment through our friend Rajesh Asudani, I did not participate in the discussions on our list for quite sometime. Well, I take this opportunity to thank all those who had sent me messages of good wishes for my quick recovery and those who had been constantly enquiring about my progress. I thought sharing with you a couple of things and hence writing now. Firstly, most of you had asked about the nature of my sickness and the treatment. Well, I was suffering from a diseas called Meningioma in my Right Front Temporal Region which in other words, called the Cranial region--to be precise, the region between my right eye and right ear internally. I was diagnosed with this problem in 2004 and underwent a major Neuro surgery on 7th June, 2004. I was in the midst of my PhD programme then and I could not take up the follow up treatment at that point of time. However, in 2007 it was diagnosed that the same thing has recurred again and it was a very tiny growth and immediate surgery was not advisable. So, I was preparing myself for the treatment which would give me a complete cure. In the meanwhile, I got the job as Assistant Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai by November 2007 and I was doing well in my career. Last November, I decided to go for the treatment because by then, I have made all the required arrangements in terms of financial support, physical fitness to face the treatment and most importantly, certain insured means in case of any probable consequences. I underwent the Craniotomy--the name of the Neuro surgery on 11-11-2010. This time the doctors insisted that I should follow it up with a Radiation Therapy in order to avoid its further recurrence. Luckily, the tumor was benign until now. However, my Neurologist and the Radiologist did not rule out the possibility of a malignant growth next time and hence, the RT became mandatory. I consulted three Radiologists in Chennai before taking the final decision. Here, I would like to inform you that I was very clear that whatever decision is made regarding my treatment, it should be made by me and I was very firm in my decisions. Well, the RT was given in 30 doses and started on 27th December, 2010 and got over on 7th February, 2011. Friends, I was able to bear the severe pain of Surgery; but the RT which was not a painful process had a heavy toll on my stamina and my face. I can't explain the experience in words. However, my morale and spirit never decline at any point of time. Well, I rejoined my work on 17th February, and since then, I am doing well. This Semester I had three papers to teach and I am guiding two M.A. students for writing their Research Projects. By the way, I am writing all my experiences mainly because a number of our listers wanted the nature of my problem. By the way, coming to the subject line: Our institute has called for the applications for the Masters Programme for the year 2012-2014. This time TISS is asking the applicants to apply online. I am listing the M.A. programmes available in TISS: School of Social Work: MA in Social Work, MA in Disability Studies and Action; School of Social Sciences: Development Studies, Women Studies, Counselling, School of Management and Labour Studies: Human Resources Management, Social Entrepreneurship, Globalisation and Labour Studies Apart from these, you can apply for MA programmes in Media and Cultural Studies, Disaster Management, Health Administration, Hospital Administration etc. Well, please go to the website at www.tiss.edu where you would find a link for MA programme 2012-2014 and read the instructions carefully. You can download the instruction brochure and the model question papers also. You should scan all the required certificates and upload them while filling in the application online. It would be advisable if you could take a print out of the details that you had filled in and keep a copy for your reference. If you need any further details regarding this, please contact me at: rambabu_...@yahoo.com.with love and best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] Regarding TISS Admission
Hai Ramesh, What was your query regarding TISS Admission on Accessindia List? There was nothing in the Message box. Best Wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] A Reader for the Visually Impaired
Dear Friends, Greetings! I came across this very interesting information in the recent CBR Newsletter which I am pasting below. Could anyone throw some light on it? A reader for the visually impaired The Central Scientific Instruments Organization (CSIO), Chandigarh, has designed a reading machine for the visually impaired that will help them read books, letters, magazines and other documents that are not in Braille without the help of a third person. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/A-reader-for-the-visually-impaired/874927/ With best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] TISS Conducts CET in Braille
Dear Accessindians, Greetings! I am coming online after a long time. But this time I am coming out with some interesting piece of info with regard to the CET--Common Entrance Test to be conducted by our institute--Tata Institute of Social Sciences. As you all would be aware that TISS conducts a All India level CET to select its new students every year. This year we are conducting the CET through online. The CET is scheduled on 13 January, 2013. Please go through the TISS website at www.tiss.edu and look at the details of the Admision Process for the M.A. Programmes for the Academic year 2013-15. You are expected to fill in the Application form online. Please follow the steps carefully and choose your options and fill up the form Its a very easy procedure and each stage provides you very clear guidance for filling the form. Once you are done with the form you are expected to download the details and take print out of the same. The last date for submission of the form is 17 November 2012. TISS would conduct an Orientation Programme for students from the marginalised sections of the society by the second week of December. Now, here's the most interesting part of the whole procedure. As I had mentioned that TISS is conducting the CET online, there is a choice for written mode and the candidates have to specify that in the Application Form. As for the Candidates with Visual Impairment is concerned, we are providing the Question Paper in Braille and the candidates have to ask their writers to just tick the right option. At the same time, we also acknowledge the fact that every one may not be comfortable with Braille as there are persons with VI who would not have the opportunity to learn Braille. Hence, we are allowing them to take the Writer's support. In order to identify the candidates who need Braille Question Sheets, our Administrative Staff would contact the VI candidates personally over their contact numbers and find out their need and make the arrangements accordingly. So please make use of this opportunity and do well in the CET. The selected candidates would have to appear for Group Discussion and Personal Interview in the 3rd week of March. For any further query you may feel free to contact me on my email off the group and call me at 09444310134. As I am in Chennai now I am using this number until 19 November. With best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies, and Member, Special Standing Committee, Social Protection Office, TISS, Mumbai Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
[AI] Fw: Victory: Railway Safety
Dear Friends, I am forwarding you this message with immense joy and sense of pride. In fact, one of the Petitioners Mr. Atul Jaiswal was our student in TISS(M.A. in Disability Studies and Action 2009-2011 batch). I am proud that I have been teaching the course titled 'Human Rights, Social Policy and Law' (along with Prof. Vidya Rao) to the students of DSA since 2009. What Atul has done in this case is something that makes our course meaningful. With best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
Re: [AI] Victory: Railway Safety
Dear Friends, I am sorry for sending you this message second time. I am surprised that in my earlier mail the message that I was forwarding was totally missing. I know that our list does not accept any attachments; but it was a FWD message and not an attachment. Any way, I have copied the full text of the earlier mail and pasted below: Dear Friends, I am forwarding you this message with immense joy and sense of pride. In fact,?one of the Petitioners Mr. Atul Jaiswal was?our student in TISS(M.A. in Disability Studies and Action 2009-2011 batch). I am proud that I have been teaching ?the course titled 'Human Rights, Social Policy and Law' (along with Prof. Vidya Rao) to the students of DSA since 2009. What Atul has done in this case is something that makes?our course meaningful. With best wishes, Dr. A.Rambabu Victory: Railway Safety Friday, April 12, 2013 9:58 AM From: "Tamseel Hussain" To: rambabu_...@yahoo.com Create the change you want to see around you. Dear Rambabu, Four months ago, Atul and Amol started a petition on Change.org asking the General Manager, Central Railways to build a foot-over bridge at Vanghani station (near Mumbai) to help 350 visually impaired residents cross the railway tracks safely. After mobilising thousands of people, hundreds of phone calls and multiple meetings with the Central Railways, they won! 6273 people like you signed their petition, putting pressure on the Central Railway authorities. The bridge will now help thousands of people to safely cross the Railway tracks - reducing accidents and deaths in the area. Here's how they won: 1) Amol and Atul delivered more than 6000 signatures to the GM of Central Railways. They, along with the visually impaired community members of Vanghani, also screened a film they had made on the issue. 2) Hundreds of petition signers like you called Central Railways and put pressure on them to build the foot-over bridge. 3) On 18th March 2013, the Chief Engineer and Assistant GM convened a meeting and took a decision to build the foot-over bridge at Vanghani in May 2013. With great enthusiasm, Atul and Amol along with Video Volunteers will keep a close eye on the construction of this bridge and will keep you posted here. Together, 6273 people forced Central Railways to build a foot-over bridge in Vanghani, and created the change they wanted to see. You too can start your own petition and create positive change in India. Thanks for being awesome, Tamseel and the Change.org team PS: Start your own petition on Change.org by clicking here. This email was sent by Change.org to rambabu_...@yahoo.com Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
