India’s coal king Adani wants to turn the delicate Great Barrier Reef into a major shipping lane.But if we act fast we can sink his dirty coal complex by getting theState Bank of India to turn down his 6000 crore lifeline:
Industrialist Gautam Adani is asking our biggest public sector bank for a loan of 6000 crores to turn one of the world’s ecological treasures into a major coal shipping lane. But if we act fast we can block this dirty deal and keep the Great Barrier Reef safe.
UNESCO says the project puts the Reef in danger and eight leading international banks have backed away. But Adani has a lot of clout and he’s calling on theState Bank of India to extend a massive loan. The Bank’s Chairwoman has staked her reputation on cracking down on “bad loans” — and a huge national outcry can persuade her to scrutinise and stop this crazy coal project.
Public pressure has changed other banks’ minds, so let’s turn up the heat on the SBI. Add your name now to say no to this reckless loan — when a million people sign we’ll prep a dossier outlining its financial and environmental risks, and deliver it to Chairwoman Bhattacharya with a media blitz:
The wild coal rush that Adani’s project symbolizes, is toxic for the planet. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, and to get the coal to India, Adani would need to expand a shipping lane right through the Reef — the largest living organism on Earth and home to thousands of protected species. To make matters worse, after international lenders like Citigroup and Deutsche Bank shunned the project, Adani has turned to our tax-payer owned SBI hoping for a sweet deal.
Some argue that India needs coal to pull people out of poverty, but our own coal minister just announced that India should be able to phase out coal imports in the next three years, long before the Australian mine is ever completed! The State Bank of India is under fire in the press and from the political opposition for making such promises to Adani who has strong connections with PM Modi. India’s banking regulator has slammed “crony capitalism” for killing India’s economic growth. If we come together now we can show SBI’s Board that we don’t want our money backing this loan.
A recent national poll showed 69% of Indians are against this project. As the head of India’s largest state-backed bank the Chairwoman will have to listen to public opinion. A massive petition, a flood of messages, ads, and reports can encourage the Board to turn Adani down. Add your voice now:
Time and again this year our community has shown it can rise to the challenge of making our climate safe for future generations. We’ve been fighting for the Great Barrier Reef for a long time so let’s ensure we unite again to save it from this catastrophic coal complex.
With hope and determination,
Danny, Nick, David, Alex, Oli, Alaphia, Nic, Ravi and the whole Avaaz team
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Wasteplus is a waste management company, that specializes in reduction of waste to landfill. That means that instead of sending waste to landfill, we sort and recycle as much as possible before sending your waste to landfill. we try to recover as much as possible.
“Did you know that up to 90% of “waste” can be recycled?”
Waste plus is the largest and the first company of its kind in the Mumbai trying to recycle DRY waste from Households, Commercial set ups and schools .In return we give rewards, which they achieved due to recycling. We believe in the value of relationships, and strive to maintain a healthy balance in our relationships with our clients, staff and recyclers.
Newspapers have claimed that New India Assurance’s newly launched top-up policy is the cheapest. These articles assert that you can even do cosmetic surgery and claim the amount over the deductible, for expenses covered by mediclaim. Here is the truth
New India Assurance (NIA) has launched a top-up plan, which is being hailed by few newspapers like the Times of India (ToI) and Economic Times (ET) as the cheapest product available. This is incorrect. The NIA top-up plan is not the cheapest and it is more expensive than super top-up products which are a better option.
The ToI article states – A unique aspect of NIA’s cover is that for the threshold limit to be reached, all hospitalization expenses are taken into account irrespective of whether the expenses would qualify as an insurance claim. This means that the insured can spend Rs5 lakh on a cosmetic surgery (which is not covered under mediclaim) and recover any additional health expense (covered under mediclaim) under the top-up plan. This is absolutely incorrect information. Moneylife wrote about the discrepancies to New India Assurance, but there was no response till the writing of this article. In fact, there is no health insurance product that covers cosmetic surgery.
If you’ve misplaced your Aadhaar card, don’t panic because you can easily download a fresh copy. It needs you to know your Aadhaar number, but you can easily look that up online.
Make sure that Aadhaar No (UID) is selected from the two options near the top of the screen.
Type in your full name, as printed on the Aadhaar card.
Type either the email address or phone number that you used to register for Aadhaar.
Enter the characters you see in the image above Enter the Security Code.
Click Get OTP.
A one-time password will be sent to your email address or phone number, whichever you entered in the form. Enter this password in the form next to Enter OTP.
Click Verify OTP.
Now you’ll receive your Aadhaar number on via SMS or email.
There have been 76 deaths till August 2014 from Pentavalent vaccination. This is unacceptable and the PMO must intervene and stop this unwarranted vaccination, instead of promoting it, says a letter sent by a group of academicians, practitioners and teachers of pediatrics and public health
Several eminent doctors and scientists have requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s immediate intervention to stop unwarranted vaccination in public interest.
Highlighting the recent deaths of young children following Pentavalent vaccination (76 deaths till August 2014), the letter sent to the PM says, “We request this note from us may please be taken on record since the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has itself been involved in pronouncements of vaccine initiatives in the past few months. We feel it is our responsibility to place these scientific facts before the PMO so that it is aware of the facts and so that urgent and appropriate action may be initiated by you to direct the Ministry of Health to act in public interest and in accordance with basic precautionary principles. We hope we will receive an action taken report in the next two weeks”.
The letter is signed by Prof Dr BM Hegde, former Vice Chancellor of Manipal University, Dr Vikas Bajpai from the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Prof Amitav Banerjee, Professor for Community Medicine at Dr DY Patil Medical College, Dr JP Dadhich, Consultant Paediatrician, Dr Arun Gupta, Paediatrician and Member of the PM’s Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges, Prof SK Mittal, former Professor of Pediatrics, MAMC and Head of Paediatrics at Pushapanjali Crosslay Hospital, Prof Ritu Priya, Prof at Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Dr Jacon Puliyel, Head of Pediatrics at St Stephens Hospital, Prof S Srinivasan, former Director-Professor of Pediatrics, JIPMER and Prof KP Kushwaha, Principal and Dean of BRD Medical College.
“Expensive vaccines that have little utility are being rolled out without monitoring benefits or harms and which are causing deaths and serious adverse effects. As a result, in spite of official attempts at denial, the public are losing trust in the entire immunization programme. We, a group of academicians, practitioners and teachers of pediatrics and public health would like to draw your attention to the pattern of adverse events and deaths from the newly introduced Pentavalent Vaccine (DPT+ Hib + Hep B vaccine) which is proposed to be rolled out nationwide as a government policy,” the letter says.
Alleging global pressure to roll out vaccination drives, the letter says, “We are aware that there is global pressure from international organisations and donors. These very international organisations have ensured that even the protocol used to investigate the deaths have now been changed so the deaths can be ignored.”
According to the letter, every few days one more child dies after receiving the Pentavalent vaccine.
The Deccan Herald of 22 August 2014 reported two more deaths from Haryana with the Pentavalent vaccine. Last week it was a death in Ujjain. Today’s newspaper (Nai Dunia, Indore) reports a death in Shivpuri (MP). Yet as these deaths mount, it has been announced that Pentavalent vaccine is to be introduced in three more states. Already as per RTI reply there have been 76 deaths in India till August 2014 from Pentavalent adverse events following immunization (AEFI).
It says vaccines are a public health measure to prevent serious disease and deaths. That is how a common man perceives the role of a vaccine. Therefore, deaths in healthy children from vaccines are not acceptable. These deaths have become so frequent that in Tamil Nadu, in spite of official denials, people have stopped going for vaccination and the immunization uptake has fallen by 25% in the last 4 years. According to the District LevelHousehold Survey – DLHS 4: 2012-13 (https://nrhm-mis.nic.in/SitePages/DLHS-4.aspx) immunization coverage across districts in Tamil Nadu, with over 85% full immunization (DLHS–3:2007-08) has fallen to 56%. At the same time, a study on Hepatitis B vaccine (now included in the Pentavalent vaccine) published in the latest issue of the journal of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics – Indian Pediatrics shows the vaccine does not protectbabies from infection, it added.
Here is the letter sent to the PMO…
Click Here for the full article from Moneylife Foundation
You rely on labels to ensure you know whether the product is safe. However, often labels are misleading and you may use a product that is not safe for you. You may also not know what the ingredients mean that you read on those labels. Often manufacturers do not list ingredients on labels. Below you will find a list of ingredients in 12 different products that can cause cancer
Documentary, “Poison on the Platter”: GE Foods Are Spreading Across India
Story at-a-glance
The documentary “Poison on the Platter” examines how multinational corporations and the Indian government have conspired to spread GE foods across India
Despite laws banning the import of GE foods, they line supermarket shelves across India
Dozens of GE crop trials are underway on Indian farmland, including okra, potatoes, and BT brinjal (eggplant), which makes its own insecticide.
The corporate and regulatory forces that are out to get genetically engineered (GE) foods onto your dinner plate by any means possible are not confined to the United States.
In his documentary, Poison on the Platter, Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt examines from a unique non-Western perspective how multinational corporations and government regulators have conspired to spread GE foods across India.
The film provides an insightful perspective about the world impact of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as discussed by scientists on the other side of the globe.
If you don’t believe contamination of our food supply by GMOs holds the potential for planetary disaster, you might change your mind after seeing this film. Mahesh Bhatt warns:
“In their mad rush to capture the multi-billion dollar Indian agriculture and food industry, the biotech multinational companies are bulldozing warnings by scientists about the adverse impact of GM foods on health and environment…
[T]his is hurtling mankind toward a disaster, which will be far more destructive than anything the world has seen so far, simply because it will affect every single person living on this planet.”
GE proponents claim that GE foods are the solution to world hunger, increased crop yield and variety, lowered input costs, and reduced environmental impact.
They also claim that foods derived from GMOs are “substantially equivalent” to foods created by conventional growing methods. The problem is that none of those claims are supported by science.
The List of Risks Posed by GE Foods Continues to Grow
Epidemiological patterns reflect a rise in more than 30 human diseases alongside the steady increase of GE ingredients in our food supply and the dramatic increase in the use of agrichemicals, such as glyphosate.
Glyphosate is not “just” an herbicide—it was originally patented as a mineral chelator. It immobilizes nutrients, making them unavailable for your body. Glyphosate is also patented as an antibiotic that can devastate human gut bacteria.
When you mix the genes of one species with those of another, you’re courting disaster. GE food trials involving laboratory animals have uncovered higher mortality, infertility, and multi-organ damage—such as bleeding stomachs.
Even Monsanto’s own mouse studies demonstrated that GE foods have toxic effects on multiple organs, including the liver and kidneys. One of the most ominous concerns about the GE food system is its impact on our soils.
Monoculture and massive agrichemical use are decimating soils at an alarming rate—soils that took thousands of years to develop. Trillions of beneficial microbes that make up healthy soil are destroyed, depleting its nitrogen and leading to soil erosion, pollution, and wasted water from massive runoff.
Nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer runoff has created dead zones along many coastal waterways. GE crop monocultures destroy in a blink what nature has taken millennia to create.
US Recklessly Speeds Ahead with Next-Generation GE Crops
What’s going on in India is not that different from the US. Despite all of the hellish evidence, there seems to be no risk substantial enough to deter the American government from pushing ahead with new GE seeds.
Herbicide and insecticide use is skyrocketing. USDA recently deregulated Dow Chemical’s next-generation GE crops, which are not only glyphosate-resistant, but also carry resistance to toxins like the Agent Orange ingredient 2,4-D and Dicamba. EPA has also approved Enlist Duo—a new herbicide to be used on Dow’s 2,4-D and glyphosate-resistant corn and soybeans.
EPA has also doubled the amount of glyphosate allowed in your food. For example, soybean oil is allowed to contain a whopping 400 times the limit at which it can impact your health. Widespread use of GMOs has led to an enormous resistance problem.
Superweeds and resistant pests are rapidly spreading across farmland, which has necessitated the deployment of even more noxious chemicals. USDA data reveals that glyphosate use has increased 12-fold since 1996. Meanwhile, weed resistance has been documented on 60 million farm acres across the US.
The US Earns the Gold for Highest GE Food Production
The US is the world’s leading producer of GE foods, many of which are being exported to countries, like India, that will allow it. Monsanto is the largest manufacturer of GE seeds, producing 90 percent of those used across the globe. Yet three quarters of Americans are not even aware that they consume GE ingredients in almost every meal.
Many other countries believe that GE foods must be safe because Americans have been consuming them for two decades—and “not dying from them.” However, the fallacy of this reasoning is evident when you realize that it took the US about 500 years to realize that tobacco wasn’t safe.
The incidence of chronic diseases in the US has escalated since the introduction of GE foods. Therefore, no one can claim that Americans are healthy, and no one can say with any assurance that GE foods are safe. Many scientists argue that we haven’t had enough time for the effects of GMOs to fully reveal themselves across populations—and when they do, the damage may be irreparable. In the words of GMO expert and founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology Jeffrey Smith:
“I can say with absolute confidence that there isirrefutable and overwhelming evidencethat genetically engineered foods are harmful and that they are not being evaluated properly by the governments of India, United States, the European Union, or anywhere in the world.This is one of the most dangerous technologies ever introduced on Earth, and it’s being deployed in our food supply. It is madness! What we need is a political willingness to say no more…We don’t understand the language of DNA.”
Cheap Food Brings Expensive Healthcare
Genetically engineered foods have increased to keep pace with an exploding demand for “cheap food.” Farmers are constantly pushed for higher yields. The current system is creating a glut of ecological problems, such as ravaging our bee populations. Forty years ago, Americans spent 16 percent of their income on food and eight percent on healthcare; today, those numbers are reversed. This “cheap food” system has bought us the most expensive healthcare in the world. In the same way that medical schools and universities are controlled by the drug industry, the food system is controlled by the agrichemical industry.
The industrialized food system is putting many small farmers out of business. Land grant universities, funded by corporate agribusiness, are under enormous pressure to shush any research that goes against the party line. Educational institutions are afraid to “bite the hand that feeds them.” Mark Kastel, Co-Founder of The Cornucopia Institute, explains how other strategies are used to ensure that the public never finds out about the health dangers of GMOs:
“Monsanto and others actually have contracts with farmers, a technology agreement that prohibits the farmers from using any of their crop for research—other than agronomic research and yield research. So they can’t partner with a physician or a medical researcher to take a look at the impact on human health. They’ve really impeded our ability to know whether or not GMOs are safe.”
Big Bucks Buys Big Votes
Money changes everything. Monsanto, Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and other pro-GMO forces continue pouring millions into every anti-labeling campaign in an effort to prevent you from knowing what you’re eating. Their strategy consists of false claims, lies, and scare tactics, but their money is buying them smaller and smaller margins—labeling laws are coming closer to passage with each election. Every “loss” is actually a “win” when you look at the trends. As people gain awareness of the issues, they will refuse to stand for the status quo.
In 2012, industry spent $45 million to defeat California’sProp 37 labeling bill, and it lost by six points.
Between 2012 and mid-2014, Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) successfully blocked GMO labeling laws in over 30 states, at a price tag of more than $100 million. According to the most recent analysis, opponents of GMO labeling spent more than $27 million on lobbying in the first six months of 2014 alone—this is about three times more than they spent during all of 2013.
In the November 2014 election, the GMO industry and supporters spent $37 million to prevent Oregon and Colorado from passing their respective labeling laws. This effort was successful in Colorado, but in Oregon the race couldn’t be any tighter!
It’s Time to Stop the Insanity
Election season may be over, but you can vote with your wallet every day. If enough of us make our voices heard, things CAN change. For example, you can boycott GMA Member Traitor Brands, which helps level the playing field. As always, continue educating yourself and sharing what you’ve learned. Think of yourself as being pro-evidence, as opposed to anti-GMO. Just because you question something doesn’t mean you’re opposed to it—you just want more evidence so that you can make a good decision for yourself and your family. This film provides one more learning tool that you can forward to your friends and family, to help them take charge of their health.
The insanity has gone far enough. It’s time to unite and fight back, which is why I encourage you to boycott every single product owned by members of the GMA, including natural and organic brands. To learn more about this boycott, and the traitor brands that are included, please visit TheBoycottList.org. I also encourage you to donate to the Organic Consumers Fund. Your donation will help fight the GMA lawsuit in Vermont.
Voting with your pocketbook, at every meal, matters. It makes a huge difference. By boycotting GMA Member Traitor Brands, you can help level the playing field, and help take back control of our food supply. And as always, continue educating yourself about genetically engineered foods, and share what you’ve learned with family and friends.
Please note: the USSD service is not restricted to Kotak Bank alone. All accounts of different banks linked to your registered mobile number can be checked through this service using the bank’s IFSC. The USSD service works only on GSM mobile phones and with select telecom operators. Kotak Mahindra Bank does not charge any fees for this service. However, call charges as applicable may be levied by telecom operators.
The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the Mhada to suggest a formula for sharing cost of repairs to tenants and owners of old dilapidated buildings in Mumbai.
A division bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai heard a petition by two residents of one of five ground-plus-two-storey buildings owned by the H B Wadia Fire Temple Charity Fund. The petitioners said the landlord-Trust and (Mhada) have cited financial inability. The total expenditure estimated by the court appointed architect is around Rs 75 lakh.
Subsequently, residents’ advocate Raju Moray and the Trust’s advocate Khushroom Davierwalla told the court that their clients are ready to share one-third cost of repairs. Mhada’s advocate said it could contribute only Rs 22 lakh. The judges directed the Trust to take approval for reimbursement from Mhada before appointing a contractor and begin work under a structural engineer. The petitioners said they had also requested the Bombay Parsi Punchayet to look into the matter as the residents are Parsis.
Disposing of the petition, the judges said there are several old buildings in Mumbai which are occupied by tenants and are likely to collapse if not repaired. “We feel that the Mhada should also make such suggestion where it is not able to bear the cost of repairs. The costs can be shared and the building can be repaired,” they concluded.
The deeper they dig, the likeliness of irreversible climate change heightens… and they don’t seem to be stopping.
In Dhanbad, India, the heart of India’s coal fields has seen decades of strip mining, desolating the landscape and sickening the residents. So, you would think that they would stop right? Maybe rethink this extreme exploitation of land? But no, instead they dig deeper and deeper into a coal rush that scientists deem irreversible climate change will be the outcome, and make India’s already extremely polluted cities even more uninhabitable.
According to The New York Times, “If India goes deeper and deeper into coal, we’re all doomed,” said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and one of the world’s top climate scientists. “And no place will suffer more than India.”
These coal mining plans may interfere with any hope of a global climate pact to be negotiated at the Climate Change Conference in Paris next year. The United States, China and Europe have all pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, however, India is the worlds third-largest emitter, and has shown no inclination of carbon emissions targets.
The New York Times quotes India’s power minister, Piyush Goyal, at a recent conference in New Dehli,
“India’s development imperatives cannot be sacrificed at the altar of potential climate changes many years in the future, The West will have to recognize we have the needs of the poor.”
In fact, Mr. Goyal has promised to double India’s use of domestic coal from 565 million tons last year to more than a billion tons by 2019. The government may denationalise commercial coal mining to accelerate extraction.
It is estimated that 37 million Indians could be displaced due to rising sea levels by 2050. India’s cities are among the hottest in the world. Their traffic is the deadliest in the world, and will increase with new mining activities. Climate change will effect India forcefully, and they are a major obstacle in trying to reverse these effects!
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