:: Delhi Greens ::

BUS RAPID TRANSIT (BRT) & NON-MOTORISED TRANSPORTATION IN INDIAN CITIES:
PROBLEMS, SOLUTIONS AND ROAD AHEAD

10.00 AM to 1.30 PM, Thursday, May 15, 2008, Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi

Initiative for Transportation and Development Programmes (ITDP India), an NGO working on sustainable transportation issues, is organising a Workshop titled “Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) & Non-Motorised Transportation : Problems, Solutions and Road Ahead” on Thursday, 15th May, 2008 from 10.00 AM - 1.30 PM (followed by Lunch) at Gandhi Peace Foundation, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi.   The objective of the workshop is to bring various stakeholders — experts, academicians, institutions, Government agencies, social organizations, civil society, media, critics and citizens –  together to discuss, exchange knowledge and seek suggestions/ideas to improve BRT systems and non-motorised transportation (walking, cycling, cycle-rickshaw) infrastructure/facilities in Indian cities in general and Delhi in particular. 

Besides Indian experts on transportation and urban planning, some international experts working on BRT and/or NMT issues are also expected to participate in the event. The proceedings of the event and recommendations made by speakers/ participants will be compiled and forwarded to the relevant Government agencies for consideration and released to the media.

ITDP urges all concerned citizens to participate in the event and share their ideas and suggestions. 

For Further information, please contact:

Rajendra Verma
Senior Programme Officer
Initiative for Transportation and Development Programmes
11/1, Jangpura Road, New Delhi-110014
Phone: 91-11-2437 3584, 9990 22 66 44
Email: mail@itdpindia.org 

Urgent message from Madhu, on behalf of the Bhopalis, protesting at Jantar Mantar

Its been more than 40 days since the Bhopalis are sitting on an indefinite strike at Jantar Mantar after having walked 800 kms from Bhopal to Delhi. Many of you have visited them at Jantar Mantar and also participated in their demonstration. While the Bhopalis have met every possible official and politician, except the Prime Minister (whom they have been trying to meet since January ‘08), so far there has been a deafening silence from the other side. Today, there was a slight chance of meeting Sonia Gandhi, but then we were told she was too busy. 
 
Meanwhile, 400 more bhopalis have joined us at Jantar Mantar today and we taking out a rally from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar at 11 am on 13th May (Tuesday). We request our Delhi friends and Bhopal supporters to join the rally in solidarity. Pls come infront of Kamani auditorium by 11 am so that we can start the rally on time.
 
In solidarity,
Madhu
9717516004

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in collaboration with the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) will be organising the closing ceremony of the year long programmes of 150 years of the Great Revolt of 1857 on Saturday, 10th May 2008. 
 
On this ocassion, a programme will be held in the back lawn of the Nehru Memorial Museum from 5 pm onwards. There will be cultural performances by school children. The programme will include speeches by Shri Arjun Singh (HRD Minister), Shri MS Gill (Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sport), Prof. Bipan Chandra and Dr. Shakeel Ahmad Khan (Director General, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan).

Sambodhi - an initiative catering to research and allied service needs of the social sector for design and development of state-of-art knowledge ware products and provision of knowledge-based services is organising a training programme for trainers!

Programme title: Training of Trainers on Design and Delivery of Training
Duration: 5 days, From 12th to 16th May 2008
Venue: New Delhi

The training is aimed at augmenting the knowledge and skills of personnel in development projects and agencies involved in capacity development especially training; for efficient design and effective delivery of trainings.

Sambodhi’s previous programmes in the Capacity Development Series have been subscribed by personnel from leading development organizations and projects including Action Aid, BBC-WST, CARE, CRS, CRY, EHA, FHI, HLFPPT, IAMR, INP+, MPRLP, NCAER, Oxfam, PHFI, PSI, UNDP, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNODC, UNESCO, World Vision as well as independent professionals.

Specifically, the training is aimed at:

• Developing a better understanding of fundamental principles of training
• Augmenting knowledge on adult learning and participatory training
• Facilitating a better understanding of systematic approach to training
• Enhance knowledge and impart skills for Design of Training
• Augment knowledge and skills for Delivery of training using a range of training methods

Upon completion of the training programme, participants would better appreciate key concepts of training, understand principles of adult learning, design a training programme for a specific target groups, select appropriate methods and content; and deliver the training programme with best possible methodologies.

Fees: The fee for training programme is Rs. 15,000/- per participant which includes tuition fee, reading material, lunch at the training venue and other training expenses.

Interested individuals/organisation can check out the Flyer for the programme containing more details by clicking here.

For more details, please contact:

Sunil Kumar Singh,
Senior Executive,
Sambodhi Research & Communications,
B - 136, Left wing, Third Floor
Kalkaji, New Delhi-110019
+91-11-40560734, 65492502

Protest call by Kavitha Kuruganti (Center for Sustainable Agriculture) on behalf of the ‘Coalition for GM Free India’

The anti-GM battle in India has reached a crucial stage. Mahyco, the Indian avatar of Monsanto, would be walking up to the regulators for permission for the second year of large scale trials of Bt Brinjal this Kharif season, the first food crop in India and the first such GM vegetable crop with Bt gene anywhere in the world. At another level, a vast majority of Indians have not yet engaged themselves with the issue of GM crops even though it involves a very basic issue that pertains to all of us - Food Safety. Most of us seem to be very content allowing some regulators and policy-makers somewhere to take the right decisions on behalf of all of us!

Elsewhere in the world, especially Europe, more countries are clamping bans on GM crops. More regions are declaring themselves GM-Free. In India, the central government is steamrollering ahead, with its support to the biotech industry and showing its lack of vision for Indian farming again and again. Certain state governments are fortunately taking a long term, holistic view on genetic engineering and are appreciating the environmental, human health, political, economic and socio-cultural implications of such a technology on Indian farming and society. However, the Union of India is not upholding even this Constitutional right of state governments and is blindly moving ahead with its approvals of various crop trials and experiments.

Bt Brinjal’s biosafety is questionable - in fact, we should not forget that the results of genetic engineering itself are very unpredictable and the very process of GE results in different unintended hazardous consequences.  With Bt Cotton, the experiences of farmers across the country, as recorded by official sources too, range from newer and increased number of pests and diseases to fatal impacts on livestock, effects on human health and effects on soil with hardly any benefits as claimed by the industry. The stress intolerance of crops like Bt Cotton has also been recorded time and again. In this era of climate change, is this the technology that we want to rest our food and nutrition security on?

The regulators sitting in Delhi have also proven themselves to be unaccountable, unscientific, wedded to conflicting interests and apathetic to the real experiences of farmers on the ground. If we continue to keep silent, more of this undemocratic thrusting down of unwanted, corporate technologies will continue to smother Indian farming as well as all of us - after all, you and I will not have any choices left if Bt Brinjal and other GM foods is allowed in. In this country, No systems of labelling will let you know if you are consuming Bt Brinjal or not.

It is in this context that we invite all right-thinking, pro-farmer, concerned citizens to assemble at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on MAY 6th 2008, for a one-day dharna, starting from 10.30 am.

Invitation: Anti-GMO Rally and Play by Jaya Iyer

Fore more information contact:

National Book Trust, India coridally invites all interested to the book release ceremony of Professor Sucheta Mahajan’s book:“Education for Social Change: MVF and Child Labour”. The book will be released by Shri Jairam Ramesh, Honourable Union Minister of State for Commerce, Govt. of India who will also preside the discussion that will follow.

Date: 6 May, 2008
Time: 6.00 PM
Venue: Conference Room-III, Indian International Center Annexe, 3 Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi

Tea will be served!

Professor Sucheta Mahajan is a Professor of History at the Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Youthreach Spirit Presents
My family and other animals - by the First city Theatre foundation

Selected readings from Gerald Durrell’s classic ‘My family and other animals’. Durrell’s autobiographical work focuses on his childhood years, spent on the Greek island of Corfu. The human comedy is interspersed by descriptions of the rich ecology which Gerald observes on his expeditions around the island, and seashore.

Date: 8 May, 2008
Time: 6.30 PM
Venue: The Basement Theater, India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road.

About the Youthreach Festival of Consciousness

The Youthreach festival of consciousness is an exploration and celebration of human potential. The festival seeks to create processes, experiences and events that allow for a quiet unfolding and integration of the inner self. A watering of the dry places in the heart that creates a deeper order and awareness within ourselves and of the world we live in. We believe it is this inner order, this awakening, this celebration of self that makes true humanism possible. Through film, art,  meditation and much else, it is an invitation to a journey that may lead to thresholds of higher states of awareness, sensitivity and consciousness.

To volunteer log on to: www.youthreachindia.org

For further details contact: 26533520-25-30/41649067/41664084/9990374522

A Camel near the Yamuna close to the Delhi Secretariat, along side the ITO Birdge.
Talk about Public Transport!

AGENDA FOR SURVIVAL: A summer certificate course by the Center for Science & Environment (CSE) on the policies, politics and practices of environmental management in India and to explore the complexities underlying the environment-development debate in India.

The Center for Science & Environment (CSE) will be carrying out an intensive two-month summer course on the policies, politics and practices of environmental management in India from June 4, 2008 to August 4, 2008. Participants will be made to read, report, watch films and review them, attend seminars, and interact with guest speakers, eminent activists and policy makers. They will also have lectures, readings, presentations, and debates.

Course instructors are drawn from Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE’s) research and programme teams. The course is inspired by a concern that animated the work of eminent environmentalist Anil Agarwal, whose ideas on environment and sustainability remain relevant even today: the need to balance economic growth and ecological concern. He called it ‘the challenge of the balance’.

The Course comprises the following modules:

• Managing natural resources today
• Urban growth and its challenges
• Sustainable industrialisation
• Poverty and the biomass economy
• Global environment negotiations: focus on climate change.
• Challenges of environmental governance

Course Duration:

Two Months ( June 4 - August 2, 2008 )

Eligibility and Admissions:

Eligibility: A total of 35 participants will be selected. The course is open to young professionals and college students from any stream.

Admission criteria: Candidates are required to submit a 500-word essay on any one of the following topics:

• Environment vs depelopment: two sides of the same coin?
• The tiger, the Nano and the ‘common man’: will all three thrive in India circa 2050 AD?

Course Fee:

Rs 15,000. The fee includes all field excursions, reading materials, lunch and refreshments during training day. The fee does not cover acommodation or meals, We can help outstation participants with accommodation, on request.

Venue:

Anil Agarwal Green Centre
38, Tughlakabad Institutional Area
New Delhi–110062

Last Date for applying:

The essay must reach CSE latest by May 10, 2008 together with a résumé / CV by email or by post.

Click here to apply online.

For further information, contact:

Sharmila Sinha,
Anil Agarwal Green Centre
Tel: 91-11-29955125, Ext: 270
Fax: 91-11-29955879
E-mail: aagc@cseindia.org

Previously on DelhiGreens:

• CSE’s certificate course: Agenda for Survival

Parivartan - a not-for-profit society working towards development of individual and institutional capacities in various thematic areas for development project management is launching new a training programme titled, ‘Identifying & Mentoring Micro-Entrepreneurs’ .

The training programme shall introduce the concept of entrepreneurship highlighting the strategies adopted for identifying and developing entrepreneurial skills in micro entrepreneurs.

Duration: 3 Days ( 6 - 8 May, 2008 )
Venue: New Delhi

Who should attend
The programme is designed for operational and middle level functionaries, practitioners and consultants involved in designing, implementation and mentoring of entrepreneurship and enterprise promotion interventions.

Training Outcomes
The programme aims at illustrating the concept of entrepreneurship, approaches and methodologies under the realm of micro enterprise development that are followed to identify and nourish micro entrepreneurs.

Specifically, the training outcomes would be:

• Enhanced knowledge of traits and characteristics associated with entrepreneurs
• Enhanced understanding of techniques used in identification of these traits
• Enhanced understanding of processes involved in enterprise conception and initiation

Programme Fee
Fee for the programme is INR 6,000 per participant.

 Download the Programme Flyer

For further information, contact:

Amrat Singh
Manager-Programmes
‘PARIVARTAN’
H-35 A, LGF, Kalkaji,
New Delhi-110019

Phone: +91-11-40560734, 65492502
Mobile: 09312510925
E-mail: contact@parivartan.org.in
Website: www.parivartan.org.in