What is Global Tiger Initiative ?

Global Tiger Initiative” is a commitment of the World Bank to save tigers and conserve tiger habitats. World Bank’s commitment to a global Tiger Initiative has received widespread interest and support from the conservation and scientific communities. The launch of the Tiger Initiative is being co-hosted by the Smithsonian Institution and the International Tiger Coalition (ITC), a body of 39 NGOs representing millions of members and working around the world and in most tiger range countries.

India is participating in this programme to the extent of building up the capacity of knowledge institutions involved in the field of wildlife management and forestry. Besides this, it will participate in events like the pre-summit tiger workshop and the Global Tiger Summit. The platform of Global Tiger Initiative may be used for disseminating / exchange of good practices amongst the tiger range countries, apart from addressing cross border illegal wildlife trade issues. However, the said initiative would not be used as a field project for tiger conservation in States.

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Nano Technology in India

Centres for Nano Technology in India
Seven Centres for Nano Technology in various institutions within the country are being supported by Union Government. A separate independent institute of Nano Science and Technology is set up at Mohali. The Union Government also proposes to support a Centre for Nano Science and Technology as part of an existing institute in Bangalore.

The proposed Centre for Nano Science and Technology at Bangalore will focus on research on novel nano-materials. This Centre will be set up by May 2010. The proposed budget for this Centre is Rs. 113 crore for the remaining period of the XI Plan. However, no funds have been released so far, as the project is yet to receive sanction of the Government. (Noted from statement of Prithviraj Chavan, the Minister of State (I/C) for Science and Technology in LokSabha)

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Young Global Leaders

Young Global Leaders
The new list of Young Global Leaders has 43 people from East Asia, 21 from South Asia (including India), 46 from Europe, 14 from Middle East and North Africa, 17 fro m sub-Saharan Africa, 38 from North America, and 18 from Latin America. 12 Indians and four persons of Indian origin are among the 197 Young Global Leaders named by the World Economic Forum.

The Indians who were named Young Global Leaders are:

• Agatha Sangma , Minister of State for Rural Development of India .
• Ashok Aram, managing director, Abraaj Capital.
• Ashok Giri Durgesh, chief executive officer and founder, Vindhya e-Infomedia Private Ltd.
• Manisha Girotra, managing director and chairperson, UBS Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd.
• Nandita Das , filmmaker and actress.
• Narendra Murkumbi, co-founder, vice chairman and managing director, Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd
• Sandeep Naik, co-head, Apax Partners India.
• Sangeeth Varghese, founder, Leadcap Trust.
• Sangita Singh, senior vice president and head of enterprise application services, Wipro Technologies.
• Sanjeev Sanyal, founder and managing trustee, Sustainable Planet Institute.
• Sriram Raghavan, chief executive officer and co-founder, Comat Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
• Tejpreet Singh Chopra, government relations & strategy development, General Electric.

Three Indian Americans featuring in this list are:

• Anand Chandrasekaran, director, products, Openwave Systems Inc.
• Sanjay Gupta, senior vice president and advisor to the executive chairman, Abraxis BioScience.
• Shamina Singh, chief operating officer, global community relations, CitiGroup.

Indian Canadians in this list are :

• Ricken Patel, co-founder and executive director, Avaaz.org, from Canada .

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