सभी अरबी लोग अरबपती नहीं होते – 140 millions are BPL
The joint report stressed ‘there has been no decrease in the rates of poverty in the Arab region over the past 20 years,’ with some countries actually showing an increase.
‘Overall poverty remains high, reaching up to 40 percent on average, which means that nearly 140 million Arabs continue to live under the upper poverty line.’ The document entitled Development Challenges for the Arab Region: A Human Development Approach also indicated youth unemployment was ‘the highest in the world’ in Arab countries. …” [Agence France Presse (12/20)/Factiva]
Reuters notes that “…Without more help from Gulf Arab countries, nations such as Yemen, Sudan and Somalia risk missing goals set for the UN Millennium Campaign, which aims to halve extreme poverty and boost life expectancy by 2015, it added.
‘The development paralysis experienced by LDCs (least developed countries) in the Arab region can be turned around,’ the report said. ‘However, such a transformation requires a developmental compact between the Arab LDCs and their more fortunate brothers.’ …The region needs to create 51 million new jobs by 2020 merely to keep unemployment from rising above its current levels, it added. …” [Reuters (12/20)/Factiva]
[size=small][source:worldbank.org][/size]
World Bank’s US$100M to Poverty Program in Andhra Pradesh
The project objectives will remain the same as the original project, to enable the rural poor, particularly the poorest of the poor, improve their livelihoods and quality of life. This is the second additional financing for this project and it will help scale up the impressive achievements to date.
“This program has had a remarkable impact on the lives of the rural poor in Andhra Pradesh,” said Roberto Zagha, World Bank Country Director for India. “We have seen incomes increase for close to 90 percent of poor rural households. This additional financing will help improve efficiency and effectiveness of the program by adopting new technologies and innovative service delivery models for achieving full inclusion of the poor households.”
The project has mobilized some 10 million poor women, or 90 percent of the poor in the project districts, into nearly 850,000 Self Help Groups. The groups have used seed money to pool resources and make small loans to help each other pay for education, medical treatment, food , and other small but important needs. The self-help groups have formed federations, leveraging their finances and influence, and even began to deliver insurance, ambulance, extension, commercial and government services.
The self-managed institutions of the poor have collective savings of US$805 million, and leveraged commercial bank linkages of US$4.3 billion. This means that every US$1 invested by the project has leveraged US$12 from the commercial banks. Meanwhile, the project’s community managed sustainable agriculture program has led to aggregate annual cost savings of US$69.5 million and the employment generation program has created 185,748 jobs for the rural youth.
“This additional financing will help build capacity of community institutions to enable them to deal more effectively with the commercial banks, the market institutions, public sector departments, and developing new partnerships with the cooperatives and the private sector,” said Parmesh Shah, World Bank Lead Rural Development Specialist and project team leader. “We expect this approach to bring even higher returns on the investments in the institutional platform of the poor already made. This phase will also work towards achieving significant decrease in malnutrition and maternal mortality for the rural poor”
The credit is provided by the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm and has 35 years to maturity and a 10-year grace period.
[size=small](source:worldbank.org)[/size]
Amendment to “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009”
The Union Cabinet today approved the introduction of a Bill in Parliament for carrying out certain amendments to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 has been enacted by the...Amendment to the Copyright Act, 1957
Amendments are being made to bring the Act in conformity with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Internet Treaties, namely WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) which have set the international standards in these spheres. The WCT deals with the protection for the authors of literary and artistic works such as writings, computer programmes, original databases, musical works, audiovisual works, works of fine art and photographs. The WPPT protects certain “related rights” which are the rights of the performers and producers of phonograms. While India has not yet signed the above two treaties it is necessary to amend domestic legislation to extend the copyright protection in the digital environment.
Amendments related to bring the Act in conformity with WCT and WPPT :
· Through a new section in the Act, it is proposed to ensure protection to the Right holders against circumvention of effective technological measures applied for purpose of protection of his rights like breaking of passwords etc. while maintaining an appropriate balance between the interests of the right holders on the one hand and of Technology innovators, Researchers and Educational Institutions on the other.
· The existing Performers’ Rights are proposed to be further enhanced by introducing a new section to provide exclusive rights compatible with WPPT.
· “The Moral Rights of Performers” are proposed to be introduced in a new section.
· Amendments have been proposed to protect the interests of researchers, students and educational institutions so as to ensure that Technological Measures do not act as a barrier for further development of the technology. These amendments also address the issue of access to information in the digital context and the liability of Internet service providers.
· The period of copyright for photographers is proposed to be enhanced to “Life plus sixty years” instead of only sixty years as at present.
Amendment to protect the Music and Film Industry and address its concerns :
· Statutory licence for version recordings and authorship to ensure that
while making a sound recording of any literary, dramatic or musical work the interest of the copyright holder is duly protected.
· Term of copyright for cinematograph films has been extended by making
the Producers and Principal director as joint authors.
· A copyright term of 70 years to Principal Director which automatically
extends the copyright term for the Producers for another 10 years provided he enters into an agreement with the Director;
Amendments to address the concerns of the physically challenged:
The physically challenged need access to copyright material in specialized formats, e.g. Braille text, talking text, electronic text, large print etc. for the visually challenged and sign language for the aurally challenged. Currently the cost of production of material in such formats is very high. With additional requirement of royalty payments the price of such material to the target groups would be even higher.
· A clause is proposed to be introduced as a fair deal clause to allow the production of copies of copyright material in formats specially designed for the physically challenged.
· A separate compulsory licensing provision has been proposed to allow for publication of copyright works in formats other than specifically suited for the physically challenged.
Amendments for rights to authors:
· Amendment is proposed to give independent rights to authors of literary and musical works in cinematograph films, which were hitherto denied and wrongfully exploited, by the producers and music companies.
· An amendment is proposed to ensure that the authors retain their right to receive royalties and the benefits enjoyed through the copyright societies.
· Another amendment ensures that the authors of the works, particularly songs included in the cinematograph film or sound recordings, receive royalty for the commercial exploitation of such work.
· It has been proposed to introduce a system of statutory licensing to ensure that the public has access to musical works over the FM Radio and Television networks and at the same time the owners of copyright works are also not subject to any disadvantages.
· It is proposed to amend existing provisions to provide compulsory license through Copyright Board to publish or communicate to the public such work or translation where the author is dead or unknown or cannot be traced or the owner of the copyright work in such work cannot be found.
Other amendments
· Amendments are being made for incidental changes, which are required in the context of digital technology to cover “storing of copyrights material by electronic means’.
· Amendments in relation to operational facilities, such as registration of Copyright Societies by providing that only authors can register and procedure for tariff schemes of copyright societies and commercial distinction between assignment and licence; and
· Enforcement of rights such as border measures, disposal of infringing copies and presumption of authorship under civil remedies.
Background :
In order to formulate the proposed amendments and to carry out wide-ranging consultations with all stakeholders, the Ministry of Human Resource Development had constituted a 30-member Core Group in the year 2005 under the Chairmanship of the Education Secretary with representatives of the other Ministries/Departments concerned with the subject and other key stakeholders like copyright-industry organizations, stakeholders, subject experts and Institutions of repute in related fields. The Core Group had deliberations at length in five sessions to cover all the provisions of the existing statute and made recommendations with regard to the proposed amendments. The Core Group then created a Drafting Committee to draw up the text of the proposed amendments and to fine-tune the recommendations of the Core Group.
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HS/SH/LV