NRI CHILDREN CUSTODY ROW

Norway won’t hand over Indian kids

Oslo, March 22
Dealing a blow to an Indian couple battling for custody of their children, Norway's Child Welfare Service has said the kids cannot go back to India, where they can be caught up in "a very unfortunate tug of war" in the wake of differences between their parents.

"New developments in the child welfare case involving two Indian children make it impossible to carry out the hearing in Stavanger District Court that was scheduled for Friday 23 March," the Norwegian Child Welfare Service (CWS) said in a statement.

The statement follows reports of differences between the parents - Anurup and Sagarika Bhhtacharya, whose children three-year-old Abhigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya were placed in foster care in Norway in May last year on grounds of "emotional disconnect".

Norwegian authorities believe that it would not be in the "best interests" of the kids that they be moved to India now amidst differences between the parents.

Over the past few days, both the parents and the children's uncle, who was to get the custody of the kids, "have changed their position several times on the agreement that had originally been reached. This has caused the Child Welfare Service to doubt their motives as far as the agreement is concerned," CWS chief Gunnar Toreseen said. 

Arunabhash Bhattacharya, the paternal uncle of the children, is in Norway in connection with the case. 

The CWS had a clear intention to sign and implement the agreement but that the events of the last few days now make this impossible, Toresen said. 

In view of the "new developments," the hearing scheduled for tomorrow in the Stavanger District Court will not take place now, the statement said. 

Toresen said the authorities have been made aware of a conflict in the family that could influence the outcome of the case. 

World Water Day: What’s your water footprint?

Did you know it takes about 1,500 litres of water to produce one kilogram of wheat, and 10 times that amount — 15,000 litres — to produce the same amount of beef?

The United Nations is drawing attention to numbers like these as it marks World Water Day Thursday.

As the world’s population grows, so too does the global demand for food and water. This year’s theme, water and food security, highlights the global need to produce food with less water.

Consider this:

If you take a whole-wheat bun from Saskatchewan, add an all-beef patty from Alberta, and top it off with some slices of Ontario cheese, you’ll end up with a hamburger that required 2,400 litres of water, according to Canada Water Week.

Even though a person needs to drink about 3 litres of water each day, the amount that goes into producing daily food intake worldwide is between 2,000 litres and 5,000 litres. In fact, about 90 per cent of the water a person consumes comes from the food they eat or the water used to make it.

And, the average water footprint for a Canadian is 6,392 litres a day — that’s the total volume of freshwater used to produce the goods and services we consume.

Here’s the down low on H2O:

70 per cent of the world’s water is used for agriculture

1,755 litres of water required to make one sausage.

160 litres of water is used to produce one large banana

230 litres of water are used to make one 200-ml glass of apple juice.

1,040 litres of water are used for 1 kg of potato chips

50 litres of water is used to produce one tomato; about 530 litres to produce 1 kg of tomato ketchup

500 litres of water goes into producing 100 grams of cheese

1,260 litres of water goes into one margherita pizza

120 litres of water is used to make a 125-ml glass of wine

74 litres of water is used to make a 250-ml glass of beer

30 litres of water is required to grow enough tea leaves to make a single cup of tea

30 percent of the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted every year.

50 per cent reduction of food losses and waste at the global level would save 1,350 cubic kms of water a year. (By comparison, the volume of Lake Ontario is 1,640 cubic kms.)

Sources: United Nations, Canada Water Week, Water Footprint Network and One Drop.

Reduce waste, recycle food, reuse water and review menu planning.

Those are some words of advice from Montreal chef François Martin, director of food services at Cirque du Soleil.

“Don’t waste food,” implores the chef, noting that tossing out food items is akin to wasting countless litres of water.

He suggests crumbling up old muffins and re-using them to bake a cake or a fresh batch; recycling leftover Shepherd’s Pie into a soup; and saving the water used to cook pasta and reusing it in soups, bouillons and sauces.

Carefully planning upcoming meals before going grocery shopping should help cut food waste, he says. That is, provided that you don’t end up eating out for dinner.

Martin became aware of his water footprint after getting involved with ONE DROP, a non-governmental organization started by Cirque founder Guy Laliberté that is committed to fighting poverty by supporting access to water.

Martin says he’s become much more conscientious about his water use and food consumption, opting to use more grains and cereals in his recipes because their production requires less water.

To help mark World Water Day, Martin developed low-water recipes for ONE DROP as part of an initiative called, ‘There’s Water on Our Plates.’ The awareness campaign is aimed at making people aware about their food choices and promoting eco-friendly food behaviours.

Green Chandigarh Action Plan

UT Admn to plant 2,50,000 saplings in 2012-13

Striving to augment the green cover of the City Beautiful, the UT Administration would plant nearly 2,50,000 saplings in the city during this year under the Greening Chandigarh Action Plan 2012-13.

A timeline for plantation and active contribution of Green Task Force would also be followed like the current fiscal year 2011-12. The City Beautiful with the total area of 114 sq km has a green cover of nearly 26.78 sq km (excluding Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary) that makes the Le Corbusier Ville Verte (green city) Chandigarh, one of the greenest and beauteous cities in the country.

“Persisting in their endeavour to increase and maintain the green cover of Chandigarh, the administration targets to plant 2,50,000 saplings in Chandigarh under the Greening Chandigarh Action Plan 2012-13. During the current fiscal 2011-12, the UT Administration had planted 2,30,000 saplings across the city,” said Santosh Kumar, Chandigarh conservator of Forests-cum-Chief Wildlife Warden while talking to The Pioneer.

“Under the plan, extensive tree plantation drives throughout the year would be carried out by the UT Forest Department in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation, UT Engineering Department, Horticulture Department schools, colleges and various NGOs,” he said.

The Greening Chandigarh Action Plan 2012-13 was released by KK Sharma, Adviser to UT Administrator on Wednesday.

On the occasion, The Sector 26 Butterfly Park was also inaugurated on the occasion and opened to the public. Spread over 7 acres, the park have more than 50 species of host plants and nectar plants to attract butterflies. One of the main attractions is the butterfly conservatory which ensures that visitors will be able to sight nearly all the varieties of butterflies. 

The Amazing story of Mumbai Dabbawalas..!!

Four thousand five hundred semi-literate dabbawalas collect and deliver 175,000 packages within hours. What should we learn from this unique, simple and highly efficient 120-year-old logistics system?

The Dabbawalas who provide a lunch delivery service in Mumbai have been in the business for over 100 years. In 1998, Forbes Global magazine conducted an analysis and gave them a Six Sigma rating of efficiency.

The system the dabbawalas have developed over the years revolves around strong teamwork and strict time-management. At 9am every morning, home-made meals are picked up in special boxes, which are loaded onto trolleys and pushed to a railway station. They then make their way by train to an unloading station. The boxes are rearranged so that those going to similar destinations, indicated by a system of coloured lettering, end up on the same trolley. The meals are then delivered—99.9999% of the time, to the right address.

Harvard Business School has produced a case study of the dabbawalas, urging its students to learn from the organisation, which relies entirely on human endeavour and employs no technology.

"A model of managerial and organizational simplicity" says  Ck Prahlad for the dabbawalas

Six sigma performance

Every day, battling the traffic and crowds of Mumbai city, the Dabbawalas^, also known as Tiffin wallahs^,  unfailingly delivered thousands of dabbas to hungry people and later returned the empty dabbas to where they came from. The Dabbawalas delivered either home-cooked meals from clients' homes or lunches ordered for a monthly fee, from women who cook at their homes according to the clients' specifications. The Dabbawalas' service was used by both working people and school children.

• In 1998, Forbes Global magazine, conducted a quality assurance study on the Dabbawalas' operations and gave it a Six Sigma efficiency rating of 99.999999; the Dabbawalas made one error in six million transactions.
• In 1998, two Dutch filmmakers, Jascha De Wilde and Chris Relleke made a documentary called 'Dabbawallahs, Mumbai's unique lunch service'.
• In July 2001, The Christian Science Monitor, an international newspaper published from Boston, Mass., USA, covered the Dabbawalas in an article called 'Fastest Food: It's Big Mac vs. Bombay's dabbawallahs'.
• In 2002, Jonathan Harley, a reporter, did a story on the Dabbawalas with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In 2003, BBC also aired a program on the Dabbawalas, which was part of a series on unique businesses of the world.
• In 2003, Paul S. Goodman and Denise Rousseau, both faculty at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration of Carnegie Mellon University, made their first full-length documentary called 'The Dabbawallas'. Instead of asking how knowledge in developing countries can help less developed countries, this film focuses on how developed countries can learn from less developed countries".
• Back home, the Dabbawalas were invited to speak at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) meets and at leading Indian business schools such as IIM, Bangalore and Lucknow.

The organisation structure and the working style..

The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Charity Trust had a very flat structure with only three levels, the Governing Council, the Mukadams and the Dabbawalas . From the Governing Council, a President and a Secretary were elected. The Governing Council held meetings once a month which were attended by the Mukadams and Dabbawalas. At these meetings, the Dabbawalas discussed their problems and explored possible solutions. The problems could be with the police, municipal corporation, customers, etc. They also adjudicated disputes among Dabbawalas using their own system. The Trust collected Rs.15 from each Dabbawala every month to maintain a welfare fund...

Here is a video of "A day in the life of Mumbai Dabbawalas." .This will give you a clear picture about their efforts and their working style.

Uninterrupted services

Would you expect your tiffin man to deliver tiffin to you on a heavy monsoon day?

The answer would be No.  Except for people using the dabbawalas service. Because they have  a record of uninterrupted even on the days of severe weather such as Mumbai's characteristic monsoons. The local dabbawalas at the receiving and the sending ends are known to the customers personally, so that there is no question of lack of trust.

Team work

The entire system depends on teamwork and meticulous timing. Tiffins are collected from homes between 7.00 am and 9.00 am, and taken to the nearest railway station. At various intermediary stations, they are hauled onto platforms and sorted out for area-wise distribution, so that a single tiffin could change hands three to four times in the course of its daily journey.

At Mumbai's downtown stations, the last link in the chain, a final relay of dabbawalas fan out to the tiffins' destined bellies. Lunch hour over, the whole process moves into reverse and the tiffins return to suburban homes by 6.00 pm.

Elegant logistics

In the dabbawalas' elegant logistics system, using 25 kms of public transport, 10 km of footwork and involving multiple transfer points, mistakes rarely happen. According to a Forbes 1998 article, one mistake for every eight million deliveries is the norm. How do they achieve virtual six-sigma quality with zero documentation? For one, the system limits the routing and sorting to a few central points. Secondly, a simple color code determines not only packet routing but packet prioritising as lunches transfer from train to bicycle to foot.

So friends what all can you learn from them? Aren't they great..!!!

In this high technologically advanced time these people are working absolutely without it. They have an excellent supply chain, they dont even know what it means. Most of the people working with them are semi-literate but still they read the tiffin code correctly and deliver it Their attitude of competitive collaboration is equally unusual, particularly in India. 

The operation process is competitive at the customers' end but united at the delivery end, ensuring their survival since a century and more. Is their business model worth replicating in the digital age is the big question.

There are many more things to learn from them..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala

http://dabbawalas.blogspot.ca/?spref=fb