New law to regulate biomedical, health research
The Ministry of Health has proposed the Biomedical and Health Research Bill to ensure ethical research in all institutions with proper care and compensation policy for human participants in such task.
The proposed law will ensure compulsory registration and evaluation of ethics committees set up in all kinds of research institutions and provide for penal provisions against those engaged in unauthorised research, officials told.
law will also cover institutions and sponsors undertaking unethical biomedical research at places with inadequate facilities.
At present, only clinical trials of new drugs are regulated under Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and post- marketing surveillance of health products such as vaccines are not covered by any law.
The surveillance was jointly conducted by a foreign NGO PATH and ICMR and was suspended by the Health Ministry in the wake of deaths of adolescent participants.
The new bill seeks to ensure this kind of a mishap does not happen again.
Indian American is Miss America - for
the first time
Nina Davuluri (24 year old) has become the first person
of Indian descent to be crowned Miss America.
Davuluri, who was also the first Indian-American to
serve as Miss New York, performed a Bollywood dance for the talent part,
answered a question about plastic surgery and hopes to become a doctor, like
her father.
Davuluri studied at St. Joseph High School and
University of Michigan. Her scholastic honours include Dean`s List; Michigan
Merit Award; National Honour Society She competed on the platform issue of
"Celebrating Diversity through Cultural Competency" showcasing her
talent of "Classical Bollywood Fusion," according to Miss America
organisation.
The 53 contestants introduced themselves in a taped
segment with those quippy catchphrases, including "Listening to your phone
calls from the Nation`s Capital. Just kidding! I`m Miss District of Columbia,
Bindhu Pamarthi."
The judges were 2004 Miss America winner Deidre Downs
Gunn, the New York Knicks` Amar`e Stoudemire, Lance Bass from the boy band `N
Sync, comedian Mario Cantone, violinist Joshua Bell and television chef Carla
Hall.
Advertising Standards Council of India suspends messaging app Hike Messenger
Advertising Standards Council of India has for the first time taken action against a digital ad, asking Bharti SoftBank to withdraw an online commercial for its free messaging app Hike Messenger because it violated its codes.
The self-regulatory advertising watchdog has sent out a suspension order on a commercial titled 'Keep Close Friends Close' to both Bharti SoftBank and creative agency Taproot, after finding it "extremely offensive".
ASCI roped in internet giant Google as a partner to send out the suspension order, Sharma said on the sidelines of the recently concluded ASCI's annual general meeting. "And this collaboration with Google will hopefully go a long way," he said.
For this ad, Sharma and two members of the CCC — Bobby Sista, founder and executive trustee at Population First, and Sameer Sathpathy, EVP and business head at Marico India — looked into the matter.
And we found it extremely offensive," Sharma said. Besides sending out suspension order to both the client and the agency, ASCI have also written to various media companies that may have planned to release this ad on various media platforms to consider this ad as a serious offender.
IndiaFirst Life offers policies in
demat form
Private life insurer IndiaFirst Life has announced the
availability of all its policies in dematerialised format after the formal
launch of the insurance repository today.
The insurance repository will provide policyholders the
facility to keep insurance policies in electronic form and provide a single
platform for making any changes in the same.
This move will provide greater convenience to
customers. Dematerialisation of policies will help customers track and maintain
their insurance portfolio on a real time basis on a single platform”, said P.
Nandagopal, MD & CEO, IndiaFirst Life
The electronic insurance account will do away with the
need for KYC norms like address and identity proof for every purchase and will
bring in all the benefits of demat to the insurance business, including
automatic reminders for premium.
Insurance companies will have a huge cost incentive in
encouraging customers to hold their policies in electronic form. It is also
expected help address the issues of low-cost policies such as micro insurance
policies effectively.
CJI defends collegium system of appointment of judges
Chief Justice of India, P Sathasivam, on Saturday defended the collegium system for appointment of judges in higher judiciary but said it is a prerogative of the Centre to bring a bill to change it.
He said they never received any response from the Law Minister on the letter dated April 17 by top jurists of the country seeking a draft copy of the bill.
“Now as CJI, I am not going into the contents of the bill and how it was passed as it is the prerogative of the government and it is for the people to accept it or not.
It is too early for me to say anything on Judicial Appointment Commission or Committee,” Justice Sathasivan said while inaugurating a seminar on Rule of Law.
His remarks came after the President of Bar Association of India, Anil Divan, raised questions on the way the Centre brought the bill “without” taking members of judicial fraternity into confidence and “rushed” it through in Rajya Sabha.
OASS' wins best film at LIFF
Abhinav Shiv Tiwari's "OASS", a movie on human
trafficking, was named the best film at the second edition of the Ladakh International
Film Festival (LIFF).
It also won the best screenplay, and Divya Chhetri was
awarded the best actress for the same movie
Sewan Sing Yein won the best actor for
"KO:Yad", for which Manju Patra Borah clinched the best director
award at the closing ceremony of the three-day extravaganza in Leh on Sunday.
The international jury of the fest was chaired by
acclaimed filmmaker Aparna Sen. The other jury members included Canadian
filmmaker and South Asian Film Festival co-founder T.C. McLuhan.
It was a
moment of pride for me to preside over such a like-minded jury," Sen said
at the event.
A host of awards were given out for cinematography, short
film and documentary film. Ladakh's filmmakers were honoured under a special
category of awards.
A tribute was paid to late filmmakers Rituparno Ghosh and Yash Chopra, as
well as actor Pran.
Maharashtra mulling recruitment board for appointment to private colleges
Maharashtra Government is mulling setting up of a special recruitment board on lines of MPSC and UPSC for the appointment of lecturers and staff to private colleges, minister for Higher and Technical Education Rajesh Tope has said.
Expressing concern over falling quality of higher education in state, he said instead of expansion of education, colleges should try to maintain excellence.
Tope was speaking at a programme for felicitation of MLC Satish Chavan on his election as general secretary of Marathwada Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, yesterday.
He blamed permanent non-grant colleges for lowering standard of education. He stressed that teaching and learning process should be changed and focus on self-learning and critical thinking rather than rote-learning.
"There is need for a recruitment board on the pattern of MPSC and UPSC for private institutions to check corruption and ensure entry of only competent and quality lecturers," the minister said.
Tope said the government was mulling amendment to the University Act on the basis of Bansal panel report on fixation of fees for unaided schools in the state.
Siddiqa Parveen of India declared the
World's Tallest Woman
An Indian woman from south Dinajpur in West Bengal was
declared the world's tallest woman. Siddiqa Parveen received the title from the
Guinness World Records.
This was announced in the new record book launched in
the second week of 2013 in London.
The entry said, the tallest woman living is Siddiqa
Parveen, who was measured to be at least 7 feet 3.5 inches.
The doctor
estimates her standing height to be at 7 ft 8 inches.
India already holds the record for being home to the world's
shortest woman. Standing at 24.7 inches, Jyoti Amge has held the Guinness world
record title for Shortest Living Woman since her 18th birthday on 16 December
2011.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announces the fourth edition of the Student's Global Aptitude Index (SGAI).
CBSE is the first school education board in the country to conduct an aptitude assessment in the form of SGAI at the pan India level. Developed as a paper pencil test, SGAI is customized to suit the Indian context. It is designed keeping in mind the fact that each individual is unique in terms of aptitude, interest and motivation.
SGAI aims at initiating a dialogue on the decision making of academic choices among various stakeholders besides empowering a student since subject choices of a student are very often dictated by parents' expectations, peer pressure, social prestige and many other external factors. The larger purpose of the test is to sensitize parents, teacher and students on effective career planning later in life.
"Aptitude testing should be made an integral part of the school system and to make it more inclusive, there is a need to sensitize schools, students and parents about SGAI preferably from class IX itself. Although there is a demand to make SGAI a compulsory activity, but the schools and students should themselves feel the importance of such a facility and come forward to register," said Vineet Joshi, chairman, CBSE.
The last date of registration for SGAI Fourth edition is till September 30, 2013 but not later than October 15, 2013.There is no late fee for SGAI.
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