Are you with the parents this time?

The Bombay High Court refused permission to abort a 26-week foetus with a serious heart defect after rejecting the mother's plea to terminate the pregnancy in a case torn between trauma and ethical issues.

Dismissing an application by Niketa Mehta, the court observed that medical experts did not express any "categorical opinion that if the child is born it would suffer from serious handicaps."

Considering the defects as they are now, experts are not sure whether cardiac surgery would be required at or after birth, court said.

The court noted that even if the couple had approached before 20 weeks it would not have been possible to allow abortion, as the medical opinion was contrary.

Mehta sought an amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act so that pregnancy can be terminated even after 20 weeks if doctors believe that the child, if born, will have serious abnormalities, so as to render it handicapped.

Poor Indian kids kidnapped for adoption in Australia

In a startling revelation made by Time magazine, poor children are first kidnapped from Chennai, in southern India, sold out to an adoption agency "Malaysian Social Services" for an amount as low as Rs 10,000-12000, and the agency finally sends them out to Australia to be "adopted" by different families.

More than a dozen "pretty" children kidnapped in Indian slums have ended up being adopted in Australia, the Magazine reported, and quoted the Indian Police as saying that at least 13 kidnapped children were adopted by Australian families in recent months.

According to the magazine, at least 120 children were kidnapped from slums in southern India and were sold to a Chennai-based adoption agency Malaysian Social Services (MSS) for as little as 280 dollars (Rs 11,000, before being sent overseas.

The magazine quoted Indian Police as saying that after MSS brought the children from kidnappers, new identities were created before the children were distributed overseas.

Citing a case, the magazine reported that a mother had wanted her child to go up for adoption because of "the social stigma of the child being born outside marriage".

Another Indian mother named Fatima said that her two-year-old daughter Zabeen was plucked off the street, thrown into a motorised rickshaw and disappeared. "I thought someone had taken her for her kidney," Fatima said.

Seven years after Zabeen vanished, it was discovered that she had been processed by MSS and police in India now say that she was adopted by a family in Queensland.

Reacting to the revelation, Queenslandd Child Safety Minister Margaret Keech reportedly said that the allegations were "very concerning". "Officials will work very closely with federal and state agencies to investigate these claims," Keech said. (ANI)

HIV/AIDS And Children In India

New data reveals that HIV/AIDS epidemic in India is smaller than previous estimates.

But with the overall number of HIV cases still high – 2.47 million Indians have the virus- it is cause of concern. Chief among them is concern over the growing impact of the disease among children particularly girls.

Vast numbers of children across the world become infected with HIV every year. Without treatment, thousands die as a result of AIDS. In addition, millions more children who are not infected with HIV are indirectly affected by the epidemic, as a result of the death and suffering that AIDS causes in their families and their communities.

With an estimated 37.2 million adults living with HIV around the world, large numbers of children have family members that are living with HIV, or who have died of AIDS. These children may themselves experience the discrimination that is often associated with HIV. They may also have to care for a sick parent or relative, and may have to give up school to become the principle wage-earner for the family. When adults fall sick, food still needs to be provided ­– and the burden of earning money usually falls on the oldest child.

One of the harshest effects of the global AIDS epidemic is the number of orphans it has created, and continues to create. By the end of 2005, it is estimated that more than 15 million children had lost one or more of their parents as a result of AIDS. Some AIDS orphans are adopted by grandparents or other extended family-members, but many are left without any support. Child-headed households as a result of AIDS are common in some areas, with older children fending for their siblings and themselves. See our AIDS orphans page to learn more.

At the end of 2007, there were 2.5 million children living with HIV around the world.

420,000 children became newly infected with HIV in 2007.

Around 90% of all children living with HIV acquired the infection from their mothers during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.

Of the 2.1 million people who died of AIDS during 2007, more than one in seven was children. Every hour, around forty children die as a result of AIDS.

Starting off the 3rd Innings

November 2006 to January 2007 - 1st Innings
January 2008 to April 2008 - 2nd Innings
July 2008 to GOD only knows - Hey, again back to blogging!



As you all know blogging is one of my passion since 2006....it will be a pathetic life for me without blogging, but I dont know how could I manage to spend these days without blogging. This may be due to the heavy work load in my new office may be due to some personal problem anyways I am back...but Why? Should I continue my blogging ever as I left it twice...I think it should be Yes. I dont know what I am rambling now...but may be last 2 days are the happiest day of last few months...as I have resolved the problems of my recent project..."Swift Messaging System using BizTalk server". Its just working now...this project gives me a lot of knowledge on server configuration and Sharepoint system. Also provides me a topic to discuss here i.e. "BizTalk Server and A4SWIFT Component of its". May be now onwards you could find some technical posts but dont be worry you will find some informative and Human Rights posts also here.

So, my friends please cheer me up for my 3rd Innings....!

An unique effort to make Sanskrit a popular language

Guess what's keeping jointly our hi-tech gadget Indian students at respective US universities, pursuing high studies? It's an online Sanskrit magazine. 'Vishvavani' - the magazine is written in Sanskrit and hosted by Indian students, alumni and faculty from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon University, Caltech, Purdue. This magazine has been published under the banner of Campus Samskritam Network . This uniques magazine is consist of different sectons…it has a webzine called 'subhashitam' (wise saying), Sanskrit crossword puzzle etc. The editor duo of this magazine Sowmya Joisa and Avinash Varna demanded that Vishvavani is the only active online Sanskrit portal.

Blogging history depicts that Apoorvavani is the first online Sanskrit magazine but these days it is inactive.

This particular news remind me my Sanskrit classes in my Seventh and Eighth standards, when I was really bored with this language and had tried my best to get over from this.

Although Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages but the number of online publications is very less, so this effort by those people should deserve a Hats Off!

Bullying at workspace may worse your career than sexual harassment

Bullying at the agency, comprising unfavorable behavior like belittling comments, relentless critique or withholding of resources, is obviously more harmful than intimate molestation, says an original survey. Both bullying and intimate molestation can produce unfavorable job environments and unsound consequences for employees, but the researchers establish that hostility had more serious consequences. Employees who experienced bullying, deficiency of politeness or interpersonal dispute were more possible to stop their jobs, have lower welfare, be less satisfied with their job and have less rewarding relations with their bosses than employees who were sexually harassed, the researchers establish.

The findings of the study were presented Saturday at the Seventh International Conference on Work, Stress and Health, co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology.

M. Sandy Hershcovis of University of Manitoba and Julian Barling of Queen's University, Ontario, who co-authored the study, reviewed 110 studies conducted over 21 years

'As sexual harassment becomes less acceptable in society, organisations may be more attuned to helping victims, who may therefore find it easier to cope,' said Hershcovis.

Union Budget: step mom like behaviour towards Indian IT firms and BPOs

After a money shower on sports, agriculture and mass relaxation in tax we have perhaps overlook the darker side of this union budget. Recently in a news program in CNN IBN 7, it is revealed that many IT firms of India are planning to move Singapore, Malaysia to cut short the spending. After this budget, the professional tax for Indian IT firms is 22-23% whereas in Malaysia its 15-18%, the land property tax is also very high in comparison to Malaysia and Singapore. This is to mention that a lion part of Indian revenue is generated by Software firms and BPOs. Now after this recent development in Union Budget suggests that there will be no exemption in SEZs/SEMs after 2009, so mid-level IT companies are moving to countries like Malaysia, Philippines.

Here, at this point, our finance ministry should ponder over one thing that is this a positive move to impose high taxes on IT companies as it is the most revenue generating industry and also highest job generating industry as well. If this decision persist for a long then again we will see brain drain like early ‘80s when most of our intelligence fled to USA.