Role of ASHA and ANM

One of the key components of the National Rural Health Mission is to provide every village in the country with a trained female community health activist  'ASHA'  or Accredited Social Health Activist. Selected from the village itself and accountable to it, the ASHA will be trained to work as an interface between the community and the public health system. Following are the key components of ASHA: 

•       ASHA must primarily be a woman resident of the village  married/ widowed/ divorced, preferably in the age group of 25 to 45 years.
  
  
•             She should be a literate woman with formal education up to class eight. This may be relaxed only if no suitable person with this qualification is available.
  
  
•          ASHA will be chosen through a rigorous process of selection involving various community groups, self-help groups, Anganwadi Institutions, the Block Nodal officer, District Nodal officer, the village Health Committee and the Gram Sabha.
  
  
•          Capacity building of ASHA is being seen as a continuous process. ASHA will have to undergo series of training episodes to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence for performing her spelled out roles.
  
  
•         The ASHAs will receive performance-based incentives for promoting universal immunization, referral and escort services for Reproductive & Child Health (RCH) and other healthcare programmes, and construction of household toilets.
  
  
•          Empowered with knowledge and a drug-kit to deliver first-contact healthcare, every ASHA is expected to be a fountainhead of community participation in public health programmes in her village.
  
  
•          ASHA will be the first port of call for any health related demands of deprived sections of the population, especially women and children, who find it difficult to access health services.
  
  
•          ASHA will be a health activist in the community who will create awareness on health and its social determinants and mobilise the community towards local health planning and increased utilisation and accountability of the existing health services.
  
  
•          She would be a promoter of good health practices and will also provide a minimum package of curative care as appropriate and feasible for that level and make timely referrals.
  
  
•          ASHA will provide information to the community on determinants  of health such as nutrition, basic sanitation & hygienic practices, healthy living and working conditions, information on existing health services and the need for timely utilisation of health & family welfare services.
  
  
•            She will counsel women on birth preparedness, importance of safe delivery, breast-feeding and complementary feeding, immunization, contraception and prevention of common infections including Reproductive Tract Infection/Sexually Transmitted Infections (RTIs/STIs) and care of the young child.
  
  
•           ASHA will mobilise the community and facilitate them in accessing health and health related services available at the Anganwadi/sub-centre/primary health centers, such as immunisation, Ante Natal Check-up (ANC), Post Natal Check-up supplementary nutrition, sanitation and other services being provided by the government.
  
  
•              She will act as a depot older for essential provisions being made available to all habitations like Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORS), Iron Folic Acid Tablet(IFA), chloroquine, Disposable Delivery Kits (DDK), Oral Pills & Condoms, etc.
  
  
•         At the village level it is recognised that ASHA cannot function without adequate institutional support. Women's committees (like self-help groups or women's health committees), village Health & Sanitation Committee of the Gram Panchayat, peripheral health workers especially ANMs and Anganwadi workers, and the trainers of ASHA and in-service periodic training would be a major source of support to ASHA.

Support Mechanism for ASHA 




ROLE of  Auxilliary Nurse Midwives (ANM)

 Holding weekly / fortnightly meeting with ASHA to discuss the activities undertaken during the week/fortnight.

 Acting as a resource person, along with Anganwadi Worker (AWW), for the training of ASHA.

 Informing ASHA about date and time of the outreach session and also guiding her to bring the prospective beneficiaries to the outreach session.

 Participating and guiding in organising Health Days at Anganwadi Centre.

 Taking help of ASHA in updating eligible couples register of the village concerned.

 Utilising ASHA in motivating the pregnant women for coming to Sub-Centre for initial check-ups.

 ASHA helps ANMs in bringing married couples to Sub-Centres for adopting family planning.

 Guiding ASHA in motivating pregnant women for taking full course of iron folic acid (IFA) tablets and TT injections, etc.

 Orienting ASHA on the dose schedule and side affects of oral pills.

 Educating ASHA on danger signs of pregnancy and labour so that she can timely identify and help beneficiary in getting further treatment.

 Informing ASHA about date, time and place for initial and periodic training schedule. ANM would also ensure that during the training ASHA gets the compensation for performance and also TA/DA for attending the training.....

The NRHM  seeks to provide minimum two ANMs (against one at present) at each Sub-Centre, as one ANM at a sub-centre has not been found adequate to attend to the complete needs of maternal and child care in any village. The Government of India would support the second ANM for appointment on contract basis and apart from fulfilling the other criteria she must be a resident of a village falling under the jurisdiction of the Sub-Centre. The intention is to improve accountability at the local level.. The second ANM would not be transferred before completion of 10 years at the same Sub-Centre and would not be a substitute for Male Health Worker (MHW). An untied fund of Rs.10,000/- per Sub-Centre per annum is being provided by opening a joint account of the ANM and Sarpanch, to meet the emergency type expenditures and to ensure that lack of drugs and other consumables is not an issue.

Inflation indexed Bonds (IIBs) --- (fully Deciphered )

How is it different from a normal bond ?

for this consider this exmple !!!

                                                                             

***Consider a bond with a face value of 10,000 rupees ($180), which pays a coupon of 5% and matures after 10 years.

• Case of a NORMAL BOND ----> This means, the bond pays 500 rupees as interest every year until the bond matures after 10 years. On maturity, the investor gets the principal 10,000 rupees back.
• Case of a Inflation indexed Bond ----->  the principal, or face value, of the bond will change with inflation, while the interest rate or coupon rate will remain fixed

Why investers alwayzzz  preferred investing in GOLD ?

• Gold, has scored over other investment avenues for many reasons: it has consistently beaten inflation, gives capital gains, requires no documentation, no TDS or capital gains and, most importantly, confers anonymity.
• The existing financial instruments — bank deposits, mutual funds and other capital market instruments — have not been attractive enough to a large number of investors.

Why are they being introduced ....and will it really help ?

• The government has a much larger objective this time in launching the bonds. It expects the bonds to wean the retail investors away from their preference for gold.
• However ,it is extremely doubtful whether the IIBs can divert money going into gold jewellery. According to reliable estimates, two-thirds of the gold imports go into the making of jewels, with only a portion of the balance getting invested in gold-backed instruments

What are the other salient features of the inflation indexed bonds?

(1) the IIBs will have a fixed real coupon rate and a nominal principal value that is adjusted for inflation. Periodic coupon payments are paid on adjusted principal.

another example !

let’s say that the bonds are issued at a face value of Rs.1,000 and a coupon of 5 per cent. If the indexed-inflation rate is 5 per cent, the interest will be calculated on Rs.1050 for that year. If inflation climbs to 10 per cent, the 5 per cent coupon pay-out will be on an adjusted principal of Rs.1155. Thus, it is claimed, the IIBs will give protection to both principal and interest.

(2) On maturity, the adjusted principal or the face value, whichever is higher, is paid to the investors.

(3) The first series of these bonds will be called Capital Indexed Bonds (CIBs), and will be offered primarily to institutional investors. Subsequent tranches will target retail investors to a much larger extent. The involvement of institutions is necessary for market development and price discovery. The IIBs will be part of public debt. Banks can invest in them to meet their statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) requirements.

(4) Individual investors can invest from Rs.10,000 to Rs.2 crore. Interest will be paid half-yearly. There are no tax concessions for investing in these bonds. Presumably, tax will be deducted at source on these investments. This could be a major shortcoming.

Which inflation rate will be used?

• Inflation will be measured by changes in India’s wholesale price index, which includes wholesale prices of food, fuel and manufactured products among other things. 
• But WPI doesn’t include things like telephone and other services that are commonly used by people in cities.  (Govt. is considering about CPI...letz see wat happens !! )
• So it might not reflect the inflation that people feel in their home budgets and bonds linked to the wholesale index might not be so attractive to individuals.

What will be the interest rate?

• The interest rate will be decided at the time of the bond’s issuance, based on bidding by interested investors. 
• The RBI says it will allow banks and other financial institutions to bid for the bonds in the first couple of auctions to help establish a coupon, which savers can use as a reference before they invest in the bonds. 
• From October onwards, the bonds will only be sold to individuals.

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MORAL OF THE STORY 

1. If prices increase you get a higher interest as well as a higher principal on maturity. 
2. If prices fall, you lose out on interest but the RBI says your principal is protected. 
3. In other words, you get back what you had originally invested when the bond matures.

SEBI - deciphered - A story from dormancy to maturity (25 years )

When was    Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)     set up?

• A report by a committee headed by GS Patel in 1984 recommended major changes in India’s capital markets. 
• The government in its 1987-88 budget announced the proposal to set up a board tasked with powers to regulate stock exchanges. 
• The government set up SEBI through an executive order in 1988 appointing SA Dave, the then executive director of IDBI, as its chairman. 
• Dave and a young team of Ravi Narain, (now the vice-chairman of the National Stock Exchange), Chitra Ramakrishna (current managing director of the NSE), Raghavan Puthran, GV Nageswara Rao, (now CEO of the IDBI-Federal Bank insurance venture), and Rajesh Tiwari (now with Axis Bank) among others drafted the SEBI Act and defined the contours of the organisation. 
• SEBI received statutory powers after Parliament passed the SEBI Act in 1992, the year in which the Rs. 5,000-crore Harshad Mehta securities scam hit the Indian stock markets.

How were stock     markets regulated before      SEBI was set up?

• Though stock exchanges were in operation, there was no legislation for their regulation till the Bombay Securities Contracts Control Act was enacted in 1925. 
• This was, however, deficient in many respects. 
• Under the Constitution which came into force on January 26, 1950, stock exchanges and forward markets came under the exclusive authority of the central government. 
• Following the recommendations of the AD Gorwala Committee in 1951, the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 was enacted to provide for direct and indirect control of virtually all aspects of securities trading and the running of stock exchanges and to prevent undesirable transactions in securities. 
• Controller of Capital Issues was the regulatory authority for public issues before SEBI was set up.

When was     dematerialisation of shares     introduced in India?

• Parliament passed the Depositories Act in 1996, paving the way for abandoning physical share certificates and introducing dematerialised (demat) holding of shares, which laid the foundations of electronic securities trading in India. 
• Introduction of demat trading was a watershed in India’s capital market history that hastened the settlement process and prevented the menace of fake share certificates.

What is T+5 and T+2?

• T+5 and T+2 represent the time taken for settlement of trade. 
• India moved from a T+5 settlement cycle in 2001 to T+2 in 2003, in which shares were being credited to the buyers’ account within two days of trading from the earlier five days. 
• SEBI is currently examining measures to reduce the settlement cycle to T+1 for even faster trading.

What role has the regulator played in bringing foreign capital into Indian equity markets?

• Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were allowed entry into the Indian equity markets in 1993. 
• With time, they have become one of the major edifices of India’s capital markets. 
• FIIs were allowed to participate in the government’s disinvestment programme. 
• The FII investment ceiling was raised to 49% in March 2001. 
• The need for dual approval for FII registration — by the Reserve Bank of India and SEBI — was done away with in 2003. 
• Over the years, SEBI has progressively raised the cap on FII investments in India’s government and corporate bonds.

What measures  has   SEBI taken to encourage   retail participation in    equity markets and foster the MF industry?

• The Indian mutual fund industry has multiplied from a monopoly of the Unit Trust of India (UTI) until the 1990s to a highly competitive industry. 
• With the entry of private sector funds in 1993, a new era began in the Indian mutual fund industry, giving Indian investors a wider choice of fund families. 
• The erstwhile Kothari Pioneer (now merged with Franklin Templeton) was the first private sector mutual fund registered in July 1993.
• The 1993 SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations were substituted by a more comprehensive and revised Mutual Fund Regulations in 1996. 
• The industry now functions under the SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations 1996. 
• In February 2003, following the repeal of the Unit Trust of India Act 1963, UTI was bifurcated into two separate entities. 
• One is the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India, the assets of US 64 scheme, assured return and certain other schemes. 
• The second is the UTI Mutual Fund, sponsored by SBI, PNB, BOB and LIC. 
• This was done after a major scam involving UTI’s flagship US-64 scheme comes to light jeopardising the interest of lakhs of small investors. 
• Over the years, SEBI has taken several steps to increase the popularity of mutual fund products and prevent mis-selling by distributors including relaxing of know your customer (KYC) norms for small investors and widening the distribution network in rural India by roping in postal agents and banning entry-loads.

What are the key challenges confronting    India’s capital markets?

• Enforcement remains a key challenge. 
• India’s regulatory architecture is not equipped to prevent such systematic financial swindle of savings of thousands of gullible small depositors. 
• There have been increased incidences of such firms operating between the regulatory boundaries at their will, defrauding investors in the name of emus, plantations, and pyramid formations and experts say that all such schemes fall under India’s rapidly growing unregulated “shadow banking” area. 
• In addition, deepening India’s corporate debt market remains a key challenge.

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Additional Reading !

Recently FSLRC report under former SC judge Justice B. N. Srikrishna came out which suggested that 

•  Review of existing legislation including the RBI Act, the SEBI Act, the IRDA Act, the PFRDA Act, FCRA, SCRA, FEMA etc., which govern the financial sector’

• creating a unified regulator for the financial sector by merging SEBI, IRDA, PFRDA and Forward Markets Commission with it. For the time being, it suggested to keep the Reserve  Bank of India out of the proposed Unified Financial Agency (UFA). But after sufficient experience is gained it wanted even RBI to be merged with UFA.

Into the world of Rechargeable Power Batteries (Science and Tech )

( this is sumthing which may b asked in GS Paper III )

What are Lithium Ion Batteries ? What are its Advantages and Disadvantages ?

• Lithium-ion batteries are incredibly popular these days. You can find them in laptops, PDAs, cell phones and iPods. They're so common because, pound for pound, they're some of the most energetic rechargeable batteries available.

They're generally much lighter than other types of rechargeable batteries of the same size. .

The electrodes of a lithium-ion battery are made of lightweight lithium and carbon. 

Lithium is also a highly reactive element, meaning that a lot of energy can be stored in its atomic bonds. 

This translates into a very high energy density for lithium-ion batteries. 

A typical lithium-ion battery can store 150 watt-hours of electricity in 1 kilogram of battery. 

A NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) battery pack can store perhaps 100 watt-hours per kilogram, although 60 to 70 watt-hours might be more typical. 

A lead-acid battery can store only 25 watt-hours per kilogram. 

Using lead-acid technology, it takes 6 kilograms to store the same amount of energy that a 1 kilogram lithium-ion battery can handle. That's a huge difference 

• They hold their charge. A lithium-ion battery pack loses only about 5 percent of its charge per month, compared to a 20 percent loss per month for NiMH batteries.
• They have no memory effect, which means that you do not have to completely discharge them before recharging, as with some other battery chemistries.
• Lithium-ion batteries can handle hundreds of charge/discharge cycles.
That is not to say that lithium-ion batteries are flawless. They have a few disadvantages as well:
• They start degrading as soon as they leave the factory. They will only last two or three years from the date of manufacture whether you use them or not.
• They are extremely sensitive to high temperatures. Heat causes lithium-ion battery packs to degrade much faster than they normally would.
• If you completely discharge a lithium-ion battery, it is ruined.
• A lithium-ion battery pack must have an on-board computer to manage the battery. This makes them even more expensive than they already are.
• There is a small chance that, if a lithium-ion battery pack fails, it will burst into flame.

The technology of the lithium battery has been slowly improving to create much more 

stable products. 



A look at the future in this regard...! 

LITHIUM-SULPHUR: 

• This rechargeable battery is known for its high energy-storage capacity. 
• Scientists say it may succeed the lithium-ion cell because of its efficiency and low cost. 
• It is also lighter than lithium-ion. But its success depends on eliminating some of its technical constraints, such as short life span. 
• has increased life span

ZINC-AIR: 

• This electro-chemical battery uses zinc along with oxygen sourced directly from air. 
• It has high energy storage capacity and is relatively less expensive. 
• It differs in size and ranges from small cells used in hearing aids to larger batteries used in film cameras

BIOCOMPATIBLE ZINC-AIR: 

• The technology, commonly found in hearing aids, may soon find application in implantable medical devices. 
• Scientists from Institute of Physical Chemistry, Poland, have developed a zinc-air battery with a biological touch. 
• They have created an electrode with enzyme bilirubin oxidase wrapped in carbon nanotubes. This specially designed electrode is able to supply 1.6 volts power for one-and-a-half week. 

SODIUM-ION: 

• It is rechargeable and uses sodium-ions to store energy. 
• Though still in its infancy, the battery is set to replace lithium-ion battery soon due to its high efficiency and low cost. 
• Salt power in the form of sodium is considered promising. 
• Scientists have also turned to sugar to empower their sodium batteries. 
• They found that when carbon made from sugar is used in the battery it greatly increases the battery capacity. 

SODIUM-AIR: 

• It also has high energy storage capacity. 
• Sodium is cheaper and more abundant than lithium. 
• A study by researchers from Institute of Physical Chemistry in Germany showed that replacing lithium with sodium in metal-air battery improves rechargeability. 
• Most lithium-air batteries have limited use because they are single-use and cannot be recharged. This is due to lithium’s instability when combined with air. However, the scientists found that sodium is stable even when combined with air and, hence, can be recharged.

LITHIUM-AIR: 

• It has a metal-air battery chemistry which uses oxygen present in the atmosphere for its reactions. 
• A lithium-air battery possesses high energy storage capacity because it uses oxygen from the air instead of storing an oxidizer internally. 
• Industry experts tout this battery as one of the prominent candidates for future high energy storage devices. 
• If commercialised, it may find its primary application in the automotive industry

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Do u knw 

18-year-old Indian-American whizkid Esha Khare who has revolutionized cellphone technology by creating  a device that can charge a cellphone super fast in 20 seconds.Called super-capacitor, the device can do up to 10,000 cycles, as against 1,000 that conventional battery chargers do.

Khare, who is from Saratoga in Santa Clara in California, has been conferred this year’s Young Scientist Award from the Intel Foundation for her invention. The award carries a cash of $50,000.She said she started working on the energy-storage technology as a solution. Her   specialization in nano-chemistry  she said , helped her scale down the size of the device.

Understanding the differences and similarities between Indus civilization & Vedic Culture

in the previous post v went thru wat is the difference between Civilization and Culture !!!!

now letz seee this aspect 

Differences between Indus civilization & Vedic Culture

• SOURCES -- Our sources of information of the Harappan civilization are mainly archaeological, while the Vedic culture is mostly known from the literary sources - the Vedas.

• WHERE THEY CAME FROM -- Harappans are said to have been the original inhabitants of India while the Aryans, the founders of Vedic culture, are believed to have come to India from Central Asia.

• CHARACTER -- The Harappan civilization was urban in nature as is evidenced by its town-planning, drainage system, and granary and so on.The Vedic culture was rural. There is almost complete absence of towns in the Rigvedic period. At best the Rigvedic Aryans lived in fortified places protected by mud walls; and these cannot be regarded as towns in the Harappan sense. The Indus towns were well-planned, divided into two well- laid out parts - the citadel and lower town with elaborate gateways.

• TRADE/OCCUPATION -- In the Indus civilization trade, internal and external, crafts as well as industries were the main sources of economy, while the later- Vedic economy had predominance of agriculture and cattle rearing.

• AGRICULTURE -- The various agricultural operations, including the ploughing of fields, were better known to the later-Vedic people and they owed this knowledge to the non-Vedic people. For early Vedic people pastoralism was the more prestigious profession. In the Harappan civilization the only instance of furrowing the fields has been found from Kalibangan.

• METAL -- Indus people did not know the use of iron. It was purely a 'copper-bronze' culture, while the Vedic culture in its later phase is replete with references to iron. 

• HORSE -- The horse, which played a decisive role in the Aryan system of warfare, was not known to the Indus people. A few bones of horse and terracotta figure of a 'horse-like animal' have been unearthed from Surkotada (Gujarat) and still it has not been convincingly proved that the horse was employed by the Harappans.

• WAR -- Indus people were basically peace loving. Their arms (swords, daggers, arrow-heads, and spears) were primitive in nature. No evidence of armour, helmet, body armour or shield is available. The Aryans, on the contrary, were warlike people and were conversant with all kinds of traditional arms and armour and had devised a full-fledged 'science of war'. 

• KINSHIP -- The Vedic society was primarily based on kinship where as the Harappan culture could not be basically kin-based.

• RELIGION-- The Vedic religion differed from that of the Harappans. The Aryans worshiped Varuna, Indra, Aditi and a large number of other deities which stood for the principal phenomena of nature. They performed sacrifices and offered milk, ghee, etc. to their gods.The Harappans worshipped Pashupati, Mother Goddess, animals, snake and nature. The fire-altars were discovered from only one Harappan site at Kalibangan. The Harappans practised earth burials whereas the Aryans practised cremation.

• POTTERY -- The Harappan pottery called 'black or red pottery' was wheel made and very distinctive in nature. From all the Harappan sites fragments of this typical pottery have been collected in large numbers. The distinctive Aryan pottery is known as PGW (Painted Grey Ware).

• PHYSICAL APPEAREANCE -- The facial features and the physical types differed considerably. The Harappans were short stature, black in complexion and comparatively thin with short nose, thick lips and tiny eyes. The Aryans were tall, well-built and handsome with long and pointed nose, thin lips, pointed chins, broad shoulders and fair complexion.

• EATING HABITS -- The life style was also different. The Harappans ate all birds and animals including cow and calf. They attached great importance to individual and community bathing as is witnessed by the private bathrooms and great Bath at Mohenjodaro. They ate wheat, barley and bread. The Aryans preferred milk and its products, specially ghee or butter and enjoyed Soma drink. Meat of the animals scarified was eaten.

• DRESSING SENSE -- The dress and costumes, the hair-do's and the cosmetics, the jewellery and the ornaments etc. of the two cultures differed. The Harappan women put on a skirt and men used a band of cloth round their loins. The Aryans used embroidered cloth along with the ones made of leather, hide or skin. Cotton was the basic fabric of the Harappans while the Aryans put on woollen garments too.

• LANGAUGE  -- Vedic Sanskrit is the mother of all non-Dravidian languages of India and almost all Indian Languages were deeply influenced by it, but the Indus script still remains undeciphered and we are completely in the dark about its literary developments. However, it is clear that the Indus people were literate whereas the Vedic people were illiterate. We do not have any word for writing in any of the Vedic texts.

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Similarities between Indus valley civilization and Aryan civilization which could be debated !!!!!  and hence a question mark against the ARYAN INVASION THEORY COULD BE established are as follows  :

 

 

• 1.        Indus valley civilization script though not understood till date has symbols such as 'OM' and 'swastika' which are used extensively in vedas. IVC script is actually pre sanskrit script.
• 2.        Worshiping of idols, trees, animals, snakes and animal sacrifices to please gods are found to be common in two civilizations.
• 3.        yoga postures found in vedas and pictures of god in same position found in ruins of IVC are similar.
• 4.        Love for jewellery, bathing in large pool etc.. are still practiced in india today gives weight age to cultural continuance.
• 5.     2500 archaeological sites of IVC have no literature associated with them which implies ivc transferred their knowledge orally, this form of passing knowledge from one generation to another orally was started more than 10,000 years ago in India.