The Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park popularly known as Darjeeling Zoo has been selected for the prestigious “The Earth Heroes” Award 2014.

The Zoo Director Dr Alankar Jha, who has left for New Delhi to receive the award, told reporters yesterday that the Darjeeling Zoo has become the first zoo in India to be selected for the international award beating off competition from over 300 zoos worldwide.

The Earth Heroes award is annually awarded by the Royal Bank of Scotland in collaboration with the British government.

Darjeeling Zoo was established in 1958 and is one of the largest high altitude zoos in the country at an elevation of 7,000 ft.

It has played a key and proactive role in promoting conservation and preservation of Himalayan fauna and flora and specializes in breeding animals adapted to alpine conditions, Dr Jha said.

The Darjeeling Zoo is one of the very few places that has successfully bred some of the rarest animals in the world in captivity including the majestic Snow Leopards, the Tibetan Wolf and the Red Pandas, the Director said.

The park is named after Padmaja Naidu (1900-1975), former Governor of West Bengal and daughter of national leader and poet Sarojini Naidu. The zoo serves as the central hub for Central Zoo Authority of India’s Red Panda program and is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

The award will be given in the capital on November 4.

New Delhi: Customers preferred to purchase new products on the internet from e-commerce giant Flipkart, followed by eBay India, HomeShop 18, Amazon India, Snapdeal and Shopclues, according to a survey by brand and customer management firm Akosha.

“When it came to Diwali shopping, 39 per cent respondents said that Flipkart was one of their top choices followed by eBay India (23 per cent) and Amazon India (12.21 per cent) among others,” Akosha said in a release.

Less than 10 per cent named Snapdeal and Shopclues for shopping online during Diwali, as per findings of the survey.

When it comes to regular online purchases, around 45 per cent respondents said they shopped from Flipkart, followed by Snapdeal (17 per cent), eBay India (15.89 per cent) and Homeshop18 (9.8 per cent), among others. These findings were compiled from the survey conducted with a sample size of 2,000 respondents and insights from Akosha’s own internal database, the report said.

“Our constant endeavour is to ensure happy customers by providing them with innovative products, some of which are specially created and developed for them. We offer unbeatable deals and gamut of products across our various categories,” HomeShop18 founder and CEO Sundeep Malhotra said in response to the findings.

No other firm commented on the survey.

The survey also found that almost 40 per cent consumers spend between Rs. 500 to Rs. 2,000 for online purchases with over more than 20 per cent spending above Rs. 5,000.

Pricing, customer service and return policy are three major parameters that influence buying decisions of the customers online, Akosha said.

“Both Flipkart and Snapdeal are known to render smooth and seamless check out and payment facilities. Flipkart also scores on good quality packaging and on time delivery,” the report said.

Flipkart was also ahead in terms of brand recall amongst consumers.

As per the survey, when it came to buying electronic appliances, consumers preferred Flipkart and eBay India but Amazon India was the top choice for buying books. Almost 50 per cent of the respondents said that they mostly bought consumer electronics and mobile phones on shopping websites.

“It is interesting to note that before making purchase, people usually read the reviews of the e-commerce websites to know the experience of the customers who had already shopped there before. Over 78 per cent percent of the consumers checked the reviews of the e-commerce websites before shopping,” the report said.

Snapdeal and Amazon India emerged as brands providing value for money with best deals and attractive prices, it noted.

New Delhi: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal says Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a “great orator” and has sent all the “right” messages but felt delivery of his promises were “very low”.

Kejriwal also suggested that Modi as prime minister has brought some positivity in the country in the last five months, adding only time will tell whether the aspirations of the people will be fulfilled or not.

“He (Modi) is a great orator and he has spoken the right things. But delivery is very low. So let’s see what happens,” the former Delhi Chief Minister told PTI in an interview.

The leader of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who had unsuccessfully challenged Modi in the Lok Sabha polls in Varanasi, criticised the NDA government for failing to keep its poll promises, saying people in the country were still yearning for change. However, he said the hopes of the people have not died down.

“They (NDA) have raised the hopes but they have been very poor on delivery so far. The hopes of the people have not died down. They still exist. People still feel things will change. But everybody says nothing has happened so far,” said Kejriwal, who had led AAP to a stunning victory in assembly polls in December last year.

Asked whether Modi dispensation was successful in bringing some positivity to the country, the 46-year-old Ramon Magsaysay award winner, who came into prominence from the agitation of Anna Hazare in support of Jan Lokpal Bill in 2011, said, “That is exactly what.”

“The previous government had done nothing. It was involved in all negative things. It was involved in corruption and price rise. The corruption and prise rise are still there. The old government has gone and this dispensation has given a new hope. Time will tell whether aspirations will be fulfilled or not,” the AAP leader said.

On whether he felt Modi emerged as a strong Prime Minister compared to his predecessor Manmohan Singh, the AAP leader said Modi, “speaks very well and sends the right kind of message. Lets see what happens on the delivery part.”

Kejriwal said the action on the part of NDA government was missing and gave example of high prices of essential commodities. He also alleged corruption in Delhi which is under the President’s Rule.

“In Delhi, potato is being sold at Rs 45 per kg. Nothing moves in Delhi without paying money. That is why people are asking when will they start work. Action is missing,” he said.

Queried whether AAP will face a stiff opposition from BJP due to Modi’s stature, Kejriwal said people in the city still remember his 49-day-long government which had drastically cut power and water rates besides bringing various reform measures.

“It (NDA) is low on action. AAP spoke very less but it was very high on action. The work we did in 49 days is in people’s mind. It was a dream for people,” he said.

Sounding confident of AAP’s victory if assembly polls are held in Delhi, Kejriwal said BJP was not ready to face the polls as they know the “reality”.

“We are confident of our victory. The BJP is not ready to face the polls as they know the ground reality,” he said.

Asked to comment on NDA’s ‘Swachch Bharat’ initiative, Kejriwal said it was high on symbolism and that there was a need to bringing “systemic reforms” to ensure proper cleanliness.

“It is high on symbolism. It is high on messaging because it draws everyone’s attention towards keeping your surroundings clean. They asked every person to take a pledge of spending two hours per week on cleaning. I do not think even their cabinet ministers are spending two hours per week on cleanliness. Nobody has done it,” Kejriwal said.

“We need systemic changes in municipal bodies. You have to give municipal workers right environment, right equipment. You have to solve their problems. You will have to fix their accountability. Till we address systemic issues, how can you expect cleanliness,” he said.

The government led by Kejriwal had resigned on 14 February after the party’s pet project, the Janlokpal Bill, could not be passed due to opposition from BJP and Congress.

Kejriwal later contested the Lok Sabha polls in Varanasi where Modi defeated him.

Sir Elton John has called Pope Francis his “hero” for his compassionate drive to accept gay people in the Catholic church.

At John’s annual Aids benefit concert in New York City, the singer said Francis was pushing boundaries in the church and told the crowd: “Make this man a saint now, OK?”

“Ten years ago one of the biggest obstacles in the fight against Aids was the Catholic church. Today we have a pope that speaks out about it,” said John, earning cheers from the attendees at Cipriani’s on Wall Street.

Catholic bishops scrapped their landmark welcome to gays earlier this month, showing deep divisions at the end of a two-week meeting sought by Francis to chart a more merciful approach to ministering to Catholic families.

An earlier draft of the document offered a welcoming tone of acceptance, but that was stripped away after the bishops failed to reach consensus on a watered-down section on ministering to homosexuals.

“He is a compassionate, loving man who wants everybody to be included in the love of God,” John said of the pope. “It is formidable what he is trying to do against many, many people in the church that oppose [him]. He is courageous and he is fearless, and that’s what we need in the world today.”

John, who wrote an op-ed for New York Times on Tuesday, also honored New York governor Andrew Cuomo for his commitment to try to end the Aids epidemic in his state by 2020.

“Good evening to all of you, the queen of England,” Cuomo said as the crowd laughed. “I’m from Queens, but I think there’s a different interpretation there.”

Attendees included John’s husband David Furnish, Neil Patrick Harris, Alec Baldwin, Matt Lauer and host Anderson Cooper. A lunch date with newsmen was part of the auction, dubbed the “great anchor sandwich”, which sold for $40,000 (£25,000).

“I will give a little extra with dessert if you know what I mean,” Cooper said at the top of the event. “It could be a long, saucy lunch.”

Mike Myers jumped on stage to offer himself as a lunch date following the bid for Cooper and Lauer, and his was auctioned for $50,000. A Damien Hirst painting sold for $270,000 and a Robert Mapplethorpe sold for $90,000.

John, who performed a rousing closing set that included Tiny Dancer and Your Song, said he was recovering from a knee operation.

Four tickets and backstage access to his New Year’s Eve concert at the Barclays Center sold for $35,000.

New Delhi: Congressmen better grin and bear it. 31 October is no more about Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary; the Narendra Modi government has managed to make it irrelevant by superimposing on it another national icon, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. These towering personalities of Indian history would not have liked being placed on conflicting sides of a political divide a bit, but the BJP government is too busy scoring ideological points at the moment to think about propriety.

f the Congress was afraid that the government would end up appropriating all its icons, including Mahatma Gandhi, the NDA is doing worse: it’s making the deities in its pantheon redundant. The ‘Run for Unity’ being organised by the NDA government is as a much a tribute to one of the nation’s founding fathers as it is about giving a short shrift to Indira’s martyrdom.

While Modi has openly banked on Sardar Patel in his previous campaigns for Gujarat Assembly elections, he has now given it a national hue. Government offices near Raisina Hill will be closed in the afternoon today. It will be followed by a pledge-taking ceremony for the country’s unity in various government offices, public institutions and Public Sector Undertakings (PSU’s). The NDA government has already announced that Patel’s birth anniversary will be celebrated as Rashtriya Ekta Divas (National Unity Day). Patel was instrumental in unifying the country by bringing various princely states under one roof as India’s first Deputy Prime Minister.

Though most Congressmen remained mum, some did lash out against the NDA’s latest move. “Indira ji and her sacrifice don’t need patronage from anyone. She still rules the hearts of our poor,” says Akhilesh Pratap Singh, national spokesperson Congress. “It was only the Congress party that contributed to the freedom struggle, the rest remained subservient to the British. Why does the BJP forget that it was Patel who banned the RSS,” he adds.

But the NDA remains unfazed as PM Modi has grand plans afoot on Sardar Patel’s 138th birth anniversary. Another radio address to the nation followed by a ‘March Past’ by Police, Central Armed Police Forces, NCC, Home Guards etc in major cities and towns in the evening. The agenda seems to be clear, to keep ‘Indira at bay’. “With Modi in complete control, the narratives around 31st October hinges on Sardar Patel and anti-Sikh riots,” says Shivraj Parshad, CEO and Founder Brevis LLP which deals in Media, Training and Advocacy. “For the first time in three decades, India Gandhi’s death anniversary has been consigned to the back pages. The media also seems to be rallying around a new flag,” he adds. Centre also decided to give an additional compensation to over 3000 victims of the 1984 anti Sikh riots this Thursday, and is pulling all stops to ensure that National Unity Day turns into an overwhelming success.

For the NDA, it may be a commemoration to reiterate that India stands together when it comes to facing any threat to its integrity, but in reality it is a political masterstroke. The Congress has now become acutely aware of Modi’s intentions and has been working overtime to do the balancing act, after all both Patel and Indira belonged to their party.

“No one can demolish the legacy of our leaders. It is there for everyone to see, be it Sardar Patel or Indira Gandhi,” counters Ajay Maken, Congress media chief. “Congress president had herself written to the then PM in 2012 that Government of India should celebrate/organize such events only for Mahatma Gandhi, rest should be left to political parties or Trusts to do so. Narendra Modi has just taken a step in that direction,” he adds.

Though the Congress is maintaining a straight face over Sardar Patel overshadowing Nehru’s daughter, the discomfort does find its way out. So far the grand old party has just been kept busy trying to counter what NDA government has been doing, a systematic approach to keep the Nehru-Gandhi name out of public memory. It’s time the Congress moved from just being vigilant to pro-active as Modi attempts to make their political icons fade in the background in the current political scenario.

New Delhi: Sahara group has paid Rs 31 lakh to Tihar jail authorities as charges for stay of its chief Subrata Roy in an air-conditioned facility and using services like phone, internet and video conferencing for 57 days to negotiate sale of his luxury hotels abroad.  Roy was allowed by the Supreme Court to use the jail’s conference room to negotiate sale of his hotels in order to collect Rs 10,000 crore for his bail.

“The payment was made by the Sahara group a few days before the withdrawal of special services. An amount of Rs 31 lakh has been submitted to us that includes the expenses of security, electricity charges, food etc,” a senior jail official told PTI.

Roy, 65, stayed in the special facility for a total period of 57 days with his two directors Ashok Roy Choudhary and Ravi Shankar Dubey from August 5 to September 30.  In a letter to Tihar authorities recently, Roy had demanded restoration of the facilities saying that almost 80 per cent of the deal was fixed and that withdrawal of services may lead to its cancellation.

He had also demanded enhanced security claiming threat to his life.

Roy, who was sent to jail on March 4 this year for non-refund of over Rs 20,000 crore with interest to depositors, was asked by the court to pay Rs 10,000 crore to get bail, including Rs 5,000 crore in cash and rest of the amount in

Roy, who was sent to jail on March 4 this year for non-refund of over Rs 20,000 crore with interest to depositors, was asked by the court to pay Rs 10,000 crore to get bail, including Rs 5,000 crore in cash and rest of the amount in bank guarantee.

Devendra Fadnavis was sworn-in as first BJP Chief Minister of Maharashtra at Wankhede Stadium on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP patriarch L K Advani and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray were among the key leaders present at the glittering ceremony.Uddhav Thackeray agreed to attend the ceremony after a last-minute call from BJP president Amit Shah inviting him to the event.Vinod Tawde, Pankaja Munde, Eknath Khadse, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Prakash Mehta, Vishnu Sawra, and Chandrakant Patil were also sworn-in as cabinet ministers along with Fadnavis….

Born in 1865 in an extremely orthodox Brahmin family in Maharashtra, a 9 year old girl got married to a widower who was almost thrice her age. Sounds like a normal “old Indian saga”? Not really! The girl later on became the first Indian woman to qualify as a doctor. Even though she died at a very young age of 21, she opened the gates for many young women in India who wanted to do much more than devoting their entire life to household chores. Yes, we are talking about Anandi Gopal Joshi, India’s first lady to qualify as a doctor from the USA in 1886. – See more at: http://www.thebetterindia.com/10305/lesser-known-facts-behind-india-first-lady-doctor-anandi-joshi/#sthash.ezM1Zms8.dpuf

You go to a hospital and a lady doctor is there to attend to you. Doesn’t look like an unusual scenario, right? But back then in the nineteenth century, it was nothing less than a miracle. Even today, India is struggling with a major dearth of doctors, especially female doctors. At present, nearly 66 percent of the health workers are men. Only 17% of all allopathic doctors and 6% of allopathic doctors in rural areas are women. According to the paper “Human resources for health in India”, published in the British Medical Journal ‘Lancet’, 1 in 5 dentists are women while the number stands at 1 in 10 pharmacists. (Source)

If this is the condition in the current scenario, where we believe India is progressing rapidly and women are getting equal opportunities, just imagine what would have been the condition at the time when Joshi dared to go out of her way to pursue medicine.

We all hear about how people fight against the masses and make their mark. In the glory and the success we often fail to recall the efforts of other people who made it possible for them. Every superhero has his army of helpers and we have this army in real life too in the form of family, friends, mentors etc.

Gopalrao Joshi, Anandi’s liberal husband is one such person who stood by his wife’s side and acted as her biggest inspiration and push. Gopalrao, a postal clerk, was determined to educate his wife when she expressed her wish to study medicine at the age of 14, after losing their first child just 10 days after delivery because of unavailability of proper medical resources.

At a time when women’s education wasn’t taken seriously, Gopalrao appeared as a great exception. He had married Anandi on the condition that he should be permitted to educate the girl and that she should be willing to read and write.

Gopalrao started teaching Anandi how to read and write Marathi, English and Sanskrit. He also transferred himself to Calcutta to avoid direct interference of Anandi’s parents in her education.

Gopalrao was an obsessed man. One day, when she was found helping her grandmother in the kitchen, Gopalrao flew into an uncontrollable rage and beat the young girl with a bamboo stick. The neighbourhood was agog: husbands beat wives for not cooking — but whoever had heard of a wife being beaten for cooking when she should have been reading. (source)

Anandi gradually turned into a well-read intellectual girl. All this change took place in the face of stiff opposition from her parents, frequent bickering in the family and the stubborn attitude of her husband. (Source)

In 1880, he sent a letter to a well-known American missionary, Royal Wilder, stating his wife’s keenness to study medicine in America and if he would be able to help them. Wilder agreed to help the couple on the condition that they convert to Christianity. This proposition was not accepted by the Joshis.

Wilder extended his help by writing about it in a local paper, and Theodicia Carpenter, a rich American from New Jersey, saw the articles, and offered to help Anandi as she was impressed by the earnestness and keenness of Anandi to study medicine.

In the meanwhile, Anandi’s health was constantly declining. She suffered from weakness, constant headaches, occasional fever, and, sometimes, breathlessness. Initially reluctant to go abroad due to her bad health, Anandi eventually agreed after much persuasion from her husband and started studying medicine in Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (now known as Drexel University College of Medicine) at the age of 19 and got her M.D. degree in 1886. On her graduation, Queen Victoria sent her a congratulatory message. She completed her thesis on obstetric practices among the ancient Hindus.

Anandi’s extract from her letter of application to WMCP says,

“[The] determination which has brought me to your country against the combined opposition of my friends and caste ought to go a long way towards helping me to carry out the purpose for which I came, i.e. is to render to my poor suffering country women the true medical aid they so sadly stand in need of and which they would rather die than accept at the hands of a male physician. The voice of humanity is with me and I must not fail. My soul is moved to help the many who cannot help themselves,” (Source)

Anandi was already ill with the first symptoms of the tuberculosis that would ultimately kill her. Her health worsened when she returned to India in 1986. She received a grand welcome and The princely state of Kolhapur appointed her as the physician-in-charge of the female ward of the local Albert Edward Hospital.

Anandi received a letter from Lokamanya Tilak, Editor “Kesari”, saying, inter alia,

“I know how in the face of all the difficulties you went to a foreign country and acquired knowledge with such diligence. You are one of the greatest women of our modern era. It came to my knowledge that you need money desperately. I am a newspaper editor. I do not have a large income. Even then I wish to give you one hundred rupees.”

Anandi died a few days after it. She passed away on 26th February 1887, a month before turning 22. Her ashes were sent to Mrs. Carpenter, her host in America who placed them in her family cemetery near New York.

Caroline Wells Healey Dall wrote Anandibai’s biography in 1888. Doordarshan aired a Hindi serial named “Anandi Gopal” based on Anandibai’s life. (Kamlakar Sarang directed the serial.) Shrikrishna Janardan Joshi wrote a fictionalized account of Anandabai ‘s life in his Marathi novel Anandi Gopal. (The novel has been translated in an abridged form in English by Asha Damle.) It has also been adapted into a play of the same name by Ram G. Joglekar.

Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS), a Non-governmental organization from Lucknow has been awarding the Anandibai Joshi award for Medicine in reverence to her early contributions to the cause of Medical sciences in India.