A report submitted by the National Institute Of Health And Family Welfare has revealed that a packet of gutkha and khaini contains nearly 3095 different chemicals and nearly 28 of them are known to cause cancer. The cancer can effect food pipe, throat, stomach, kidneys and lungs. Moreover tobacco consumption also leads to oral cancer and the gutkha packets are known to contain dangerous materials like lead, cadmium and copper.

A Global Adult Tobacco Survey revealed that 3 out of 4 people consume smokeless tobacco and it is dangerous to note that 7-13% of children of the age group between 10-15 years are addicted to it.

This would be effective from the next auctions for IPL 4.

“This would mean USD 70 million for the 10 teams every year and USD 210 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) in three years… this will be the single largest auction in sporting world… you see even in art auctions the bids are for a few millions and that too for total ownership.”, said Modi.

Subroto Roy, the Sahara Group chief, had earlier suggested that IPL should increase the ceiling on the cap for each team to participate in the auction just after bagging the Pune team.

It will give some boost to the franchisees who have spent unimaginable amount on acquiring rights for the new teams. Raise in cap means that they have more leverage in luring star players from other camps, so that they can form a formidable squad.

The addition of two new teams means that the number of matches played will go up from 60 to 94 from the fourth season in 2011. The 10 teams are here to stay in the IPL for a long time and there is no further expansion planned in the near future according to Lalit Modi.

Lalit Modi announced the bid results in Chennai today. “There were five qualified bids and the bidding was extremely tough,” he said.

Sahara Group were the highest bidders who successfully won the Pune franchise for an amount of US $370 million (Rs 1702 crore). The Kochi team was bagged by Rendezvous Sports consortium for a whopping amount of $333 million (Rs 1533.33 crore).

Sahara Group had the option of choosing from Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Pune as their home base and they picked Pune as the host city.

“We are part of BCCI for the past 15 years now and we are proud to be part of the IPL family.” Sahara Group representative Abhijeet Sarkar said.

Identities of the people behind the Kochi franchise are still to be known. Vivek Venugopal of Rendezvous Sports said “We are the second highest bidder. We are open to suggestion. Ours is a consortium of number of investors but the names are confidential. I will let you know at the right time.”

Adani Entreprises and Videocon, the only two bidders at the last auction cancelled by the IPL, could not manage to bag a team.

New Delhi, March 2 – According to the data presented by International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), India had become a major threat of sourcing shady online drug trade. The board had warned Indian government to take tough measures to curb the online trafficking.

According to the report released by the Vienna-based INCB, revealed that drug addicts in India rose to 72.2 million, a figure that greatly differs from government statistics of 30 million. The report had pointed out that India was the major country of sourcing illegal online drugs trading.

Drug traffickers use the social networking sites to recruit young people to work as “mules” or peddlers in their countries. The report also suggested the harmful affect of drugs and increasing HIV cases in the country.

“In India the prevalence of HIV infection among injecting drug users in 2006 was estimated at a national average of 8.71 per cent, compared with 0.36 per cent in the general adult population,” the survey said.

“We have decided to bring in a new national policy on prevention of alcoholism and substance abuse. It will deal with all problems related to drug abuse and also include a provision for rehabilitation of victims,” said an official with the social justice ministry.

The government has decided to educate youngsters from failing prey to drugs and set to bring awareness programs in schools and colleges. Said a source in ministry.

The sources said the ministry would set up more drug de-addiction centres across the country. “We hope these centres, which would offer both treatment and counselling, could play a key role in dealing with drug abuse,” the official said.

In recent years the most prevalent drugs used in India and smuggled into neighboring countries are heroin, diazepam, pethidine, codeine-based cough and cannabis resin.

Dhaka, Jan. 18 — Bangladesh, a nation with an audacious vision 2021, where the ruling party is committed towards digitization of the whole country within the next 10-13 years, it is rather unfortunate that even in between all this process of technological advancement and development, some of the key problems of the country are still being overlooked and yet to be identified; problems that might prove to be almost insurmountable later on. One such is the child labor problem in Bangladesh.

Increasing child labor is a core problem in Bangladesh. According to a recent study by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), it is estimated that almost 7.4 million children between the age group of 5 and 17 years are economically active, and out of this about 400,000 of them are child domestic workers (CDW) who are between the age group of 6 and 17 years.

Fuelled by poverty, low school enrollment, lack of government oversight and greedy employers, Bangladesh, along with India, Myanmar, Brazil, China and the Philippines has been placed in the ‘top six countries’ linked to individual products that use child for forced labor according to a recent U.S Government report.

Children in Bangladesh face violations of children’s rights such as discrimination and various forms of abuse and exploitation. Poverty remains the single most influential factor for the degraded state of children in Bangladesh. Even the NGOs and other organizations are not very much interested to create opportunities for the street child labor. The majority of street-involved children are engaged in various forms of informal income generation in order to contribute to the household economy or for personal survival.

The current government has promised to establish an independent child rights commission that will act as the defender of children. But in a country where just under half the population lives below the poverty line it will take decades rather than a year before child labour is fully eradicated.

By Saadia Azim

Kolkata, Jan. 17 – Ninety six year old Marxist leader Jyoti Basu struggled for life for sixteen days before breathing his last at 11.41 a.m on Sunday at the AMRI hospital at Kolkata. His struggle for life was evident from the tough fight he gave before the last. He was deeply loved and highly popular leader amongst people all over the country which was evident with concerns for his health from all quarters, be it supporters or detractors.

 Critics though questioned his bourgeois mannerism yet his flawless English, his Bengali ‘bhadrolok’s’ appearance, his love for scotch did not anyway hinder his popularity amongst masses and he still remains the only democratically elected communist leader for more than two decades of the world.  

Jyoti Babu as he was popularly known was born on 8^th July 1914 in Kolkata. One of the pioneers of the Communist movement in India since 1945, he was the founder member of the CPIM since its inception in 1964. He remained the central committee member and politburo member till his last.
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BREAKING NEWS: Veteran Marxist Leader Jyoti Basu Passes Away
Jyoti Basu’s Eyes Donated, Condolences Pouring In
End Of An Era In Indian Politics, 1914-2010
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He participated in the first general elections in the Indian subcontinent after independence in 1951 thus legitimizing the communist movement which was opposed to parliamentary democracy until then. A believer in Lenin’s philosophy to participate in the parliamentary system in order to expose parliamentary “cretinism” from within, and prepare the masses for participation in revolutionary antiparliamentary politics, he continued to be the first ever democratically elected chiefminister of an Indian state, continously for twenty three years.

He was a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) that was banned until 1951. He became the president of the board of editorial board of ‘Swadhinta’ the bengali mouth piece of the CPI. Later in 1964 he was suspended with 31 members of the National council of CPI. It was then that the CPI split and CPIM was formed with Jyoti Basu as the central committee and politburo member. Though he at times offered to vacate the post on grounds of his deteriorating health conditions he remained a special invitee in the politburo because of his stature.

 He became the Chiefminister of the state in 1977 and remained so till he willingly announced to leave his chair on health grounds onNovember 6th 2000, a very rare trait amongst politicians. He had been the leader of the Opposition from 1957 till 1967 when the United front government came to power and he became the deputy chiefminister of the state. 

 A son of a Nishikant and Hemlata Basu he went to Loreto Convent Dharamtala in Kolkata. He later completed his secondary education from St. Xavier’s School and completed English Honours from Presidency College, Kolkata. Later on he  went to U.K to study law. It was there that he got impressed by the communist movement and on his return in 1940 joined the Communist party of India to work as a trade union leader of the Railway workers Union.

He was married to Basanti Ghosh first who passed away in 1942. Later in 1948 he married Kamal Basu in 1952.

 He is survived by his only son Chandan Basu. With his demise a complete era of Indian politics has comes to an end.

Sex is no longer discussed in hush tones by today’s teenagers. It is something ‘cool’ and they have no qualms flaunting their sexuality. No wonder Vishal Joshi (name changed) a 19-year-old boy was quite exhilarating when he revealed that he ‘lost his virginity’ last winter. He and his girlfriend went for a ride in Shimla with friends where friends arranged a solitary night for them, that’s it. Ever since, he always carries a condom in his wallet.

The age of intimacy has drastically dropped in last five years in Indian teenagers. Even urban 15 to 16 years old teenage guys having face sexual encounters, let alone with multiple partners. Gone are days when girls giggled on boys but now they are more curious, nay, serious about things like which one are better smoocher or whether it is alright to get intimate by boyfriend demand. As the adolescence period is the high time of rushing hormone, a lot of people are into affairs just because of the physical aspect. The girls agree to it because of peer pressure and fear of loosing the guy.

Problems with Growing teens
Dating is much accepted in many city schools. If you don’t have a date, it can affect your social life. A class 6 student bitterly remembers how she was not invited to a happening party, where most of her friend went, because it was a ‘couples only’ do. Another went into depression after a lonely Valentine’s Day and branded herself a social reject. The most prevalent problem with teenagers is, they are battling with their own sexuality, try to learn too much, too early and unable to process the information properly. The biggest problem with the kids that they think they know everything, and can handle themselves. However, the truth is little bitter. They are perfectly immature in brain and heart.

Causes Of Teenage Sexual Problems
Today youngsters increasingly indulge in sexual activity, thanks to explosive mine of internet. There are so much westernized thoughts and American Pie type of imitation occur in the minds of teenagers, so that they don’t understand booze, drugs, sex are just push their professional as well as social future a little further. Most young people get into relationships due to peer-pressure, and sexual encounters are a result of this.

A generation ago, teenage girls slyly read Mills and Boon romances. Today there is enough romantic material to be found within children’s literature. Potter and friends, on the other hand, get interested in the opposite sex early on in this series, going through their share of relationships before ending up with the right partners. In fact, there was a debate among young readers whether Harry would ultimately end up with which girl! Potter is their icon, a good boy, a hero. If he indulges in heavy duty romance, why shouldn’t his readers?

Sex Education In Indian Teenagers
It is important to impart sex education to children. Talk to them about physical changes in a matter of fact way as puberty approaches. Teenagers should be made aware of dating and how to put up with peer pressure. Studies have shown that cultures that insist on sex education from a younger age have lower rates of teen pregnancy and STDs. For instance, in Holland the rate of teen pregnancy is much lower compared to the UK, which is still a bit prudish in matters of sex and, therefore, starts sex education a little later.

FARIDABAD, India: It might have lost to Gurgaon earlier in the battle of the satellite township, but today Faridabad has come into its own: the once mainly industrial town is emerging as an attractive destination for developers – and investors. The real estate boom in Faridabad has just begun to happen. Faridabad has been chosen by the government under Jawahar Lal Nehru Removal Scheme, in which Rs. 2,500 crores will be granted for upliftment of urban infrastructure of Faridabad. This promises an excellence turnaround story for Faridabad.

Incidentally, Haryana had begun to develop Faridabad first, but as an industrial town. But then Maruti Udyog was established in Gurgaon in the 80’s – and that gave Gurgaon a real fillip. Also the state government policy of allowing private developers to consolidate holdings and develop large land banks tilted the balance in favour of accelerated development in Gurgaon.

Just 25 kms from Delhi, well connected by Mathura Road, a bustling industrial hub of over 800 units, Faridabad fits the bill neatly. Faridabad is more accessible and is in comfortable vicinity of south Delhi. It also dovetails conveniently between Gurgaon and the Noida/Greater Noida area. Meanwhile, Badarpur flyover project is set to improve the Delhi-Haryana crossing considerably. For rapid transit, the Delhi Metro is slated to reach at least Badarpur before 2010 Commonwealth Games deadlines, although Haryana government is keen to see that the service actually reaches Faridabad by then.

The state government has other ambitious infrastructure plans to improve Faridabad’s connectivity: a western peripheral expressway, which will connect Palwal, Manesar and Sonepat, with industrial units along its 135 kms route, IT parks and SEZs. Faridabad with all related infrastructure growth like easy access, wider roads, entertainment options, malls, educational institutions, club etc. is ready to take off and see the upswing in reality demands. Some of the earliest developers in this area have included the BPTP Group, which hopes to be to Faridabad what the DLF Group has been to Gurgaon.

The skyline of Faridabad is set for a total transformation.

India will top the one-day rankings if they defeat both Sri Lanka and New Zealand in the league stage and also win the finals of the on-going Compaq Cup Tri-Series in Sri Lanka. 

“We have set our goals,”  Coach, Gary Kirsten, said.  ”One of them is to be the best team in the world. We are headed that way and we are very excited. The coach can be optimistic, as 3 of 5 recent series wins have come against the two opponents in the tri-series – Sri Lanka and New Zealand. India defeated Sri Lanka away twice and also won the ODI series in New Zealand recently.

India will miss Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan, but Kirsten believes that the team has depth to do well. Rahul Dravid’s return to one-day cricket after nearly two years will be a boost to the team’s line-up.

 ”We have got a good batting line-up which is quite flexible in the middle. We would like to mix it up during the series. We have got a very good run in one-day cricket. We have got good depth in the side and the younger players have proved themselves.” a confident Kirsten said. 

India open their campaign against New Zealand on Friday and play the hosts, Sri Lanka, the very next day. In this tournament, each side will play two league matches before the top two make it to the finals on September 14th.

India’s squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Pratap Singh, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar.

The intra-circle call charges, to BSNL network and inter circle (STD) call charges to all the networks, has also been reduced by 50 per cent. Roaming charges under prepaid & postpaid services have also been revised.