Request for Information under #RTI on use of #HHPs (Highly Hazardous Pesticides) filed with the GoI

We filed a request for information regarding the status of Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) in India under the Right to Information Act on the GoI RTI Portal on 21.06.2016. The text of our request is being shared here-under.

On 30-06-2016 we have been informed that the request has been disposed off. The copy of the display on the portal is as under:

We will inform you as and when we hear anything further in the matter. You all are requested to stand with us in our campaign against the use of HHPs.



To the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO),
Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare,
Government of India,
New Delhi
 

Application for provision of Information under the Right to Information Act

  
Dear Sir,

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations inform through their website (URL: http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/thematic- sitemap/theme/pests/code/hhp/en/ ) that:
 
“A considerable proportion of the pesticides still being used in the world can be considered highly hazardous, because they have a high acute toxicity, have known chronic toxic effects even at very low exposure levels, or are very persistent in the environment or in organisms, for example. In particular in developing countries, Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) may pose significant risks to human health or the environment, because risk reduction measures such as the use of personal protective equipment or maintenance and calibration of pesticide application equipment are not easily implemented or are not effective. 

In this respect, the Code of Conduct, in Article 7.5, stipulates that: Prohibition of the importation, distribution, sale and purchase of highly hazardous pesticides may be considered if, based on risk assessment, risk mitigation measures or good marketing practices are insufficient to ensure that the product can be handled without unacceptable risk to humans and the environment. 
Pesticide risk reduction is therefore one of the priority areas in FAO’s pesticide management programme ”

They further say that:

“FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Management (JMPM) …..  in their 2nd session in October 2008, recommended that highly hazardous pesticides should be defined as having one or more of the following characteristics:  

• Pesticide formulations that meet the criteria of classes Ia or Ib of the WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard; or 
• Pesticide active ingredients and their formulations that meet the criteria of carcinogenicity Categories 1A and 1B of the Globally Harmonized System on Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS); or 
• Pesticide active ingredients and their formulations that meet the criteria of mutagenicity Categories 1A and 1B of the Globally Harmonized System on Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS); or 
• Pesticide active ingredients and their formulations that meet the criteria of reproductive toxicity Categories 1A and 1B of the Globally Harmonized System on Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS); or 
• Pesticide active ingredients listed by the Stockholm Convention in its Annexes A and B, and those meeting all the criteria in paragraph 1 of annex D of the Convention; or 
• Pesticide active ingredients and formulations listed by the Rotterdam Convention in its Annex III; or 
• Pesticides listed under the Montreal Protocol; or 
• Pesticide active ingredients and formulations that have shown a high incidence of severe or irreversible adverse effects on human health or the environment .”

According to them:

“Effective risk reduction from HHPs is mainly carried out at the national level, and national governments thus have the prime responsibility in this respect. Therefore, the JMPM recommended that FAO, in collaboration with WHO, invite national governments to ensure that at least the following risk reduction measures for HHPs are taken into account: 
• Identify HHPs with help of the criteria explained above; 
• Review the need for the use of HHPs, while simultaneously reviewing use conditions, mitigation measures and comparative risk assessment; 
• Where a specific need is identified for a HHP and no viable alternatives are available, governments should be advised to take all the necessary precautions, mitigation measures and apply restrictions, that may include the use only under certain conditions or by specifically certified users, severe restrictions, or a possible phase-out; 
• Promote the use of alternative pest management strategies and, in case they are not available, promote research for development of alternative strategies; 
• Promote the substitution principle for HHPs; 
• Ensure the provision of sufficient advice and information to users .”

Through this application under the Right to Information Act , you are therefore requested to kindly provide full complete and sufficient answers to the following:

1. Have you identified the HHPs being used in India? If yes kindly provide a list along with the criterion based on which it was identified as an HHP. 2. Have you evaluated each and every pesticide being used in India against the criteria mentioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UNO? If no then kindly provide a list of the pesticides which have not yet been reviewed and a deadline, if any, by which the review work will be completed? 3. Have you reviewed the need for the use of HHPs, while simultaneously reviewing use conditions, mitigation measures and comparative risk assessment? If not the deadline, if any, for completion of this task? 4. Have you identified a specific need for a HHP and concluded that no viable alternatives are available? If yes kindly provide the name(s) of such pesticide(s) as well as a detail of the process which was adopted for such identification as also  all the necessary precautions, mitigation measures and restrictions, that may include the use only under certain conditions or by specifically certified users, severe restrictions, or a possible phase-out, taken in this regard? 5. What alternative pest management strategies and, or research for development of alternative strategies are being promoted? Kindly give detail. 6. Are you promoting substitution principle for HHPs? If yes kindly give details. 7. How are you ensuring the provision of sufficient advice and information to users?

Thanking you

Yours Sincerely,
Masood Rezvi (CMT), Lucknow Educational And Development Trust, 

Scared of #aliens ? They are there, right here on our planet!

By: Masood Rezvi[1]

No, you guessed it wrong!

I am not going to tell you about a personal experience of a UFO sighting. The aliens will not be coming from deep outer space to ruin us, but they will ruin the Earth and go. They are right here!

They are not humanoid in appearance; they are full-fledged humans, members of our own species, the Homo sapiens, fulfilling all scientific criteria for being classified as members of the human species having a set of fully functional 44 + XX or 44 + XY chromosomes, one of the ABO, Rh+ or Rh- blood groups and proteins fully identical to those that we have in our bodies. They will not come from outer space to rob us and plunder the earthlings for the benefit of the dwellers of the planet on which they were born. They were born on this very planet and are plundering it. In a century or so, if we have to believe many of the scientists, including none else but Stephen Hawking, their excesses would push the globe to the sixth mass extinction, which according to the scientists will not be anything less in severity than the previous five cataclysms that the planet faced, and the process for which has already set in - irreversibly -according to many of these scientists.

They are the 1% of the human population controlling 50% of world wealth.[2]

It is not that they are unaware of all these scientific warnings; they are fully aware, more aware than me or you; aware but not worried, not ready to mend heir ways. They are not worried because they have another plan in place. They plan to fly off to some other colony in space, while the remainder of the humanity will be left down on this planet to face the slow and painful extinction from the effects of a heated toxic atmosphere and aquifers, and depleted ozone layer and oxygen level in the air.

And let me tell you especially for the benefit of those who still doubt organic evolution and always put their favourite question to me “Tell me if humans and present-day chimpanzees evolved from something like chimps, why something else is not evolving from humans?”;  that according to the overwhelming majority of - rather all of - the mainstream biologists, there was a common ancestor species from which two lines of progeny diverged, one finally becoming humans and the other chimps; once again – the future prospective aliens think – two lines will diverge from present day humans, one leaving the Earth, which I prefer to call Homo machiavellius, because of their high score on the Mach scale[3], and the other that will be left down on Earth to rot, the Homo gaius (Gaia being mythological personification of mother Earth). These two species will be that ‘something else’ which will evolve from humans; provided of course, that the cataclysm does not overtake and destroy us all, much before this dream of some, and nightmare of others materialises, as prophesied by all the major religious scriptures! Those of you, who have studied life sciences even up to the twelfth standard with some seriousness, must be able to remember that for organic evolution to take place three conditions become necessary - genetic divergence, mating barrier and the selection pressure. I am not sure how much the personality trait Mach is influenced genetically,   but supposing that its expression is controlled to a significant degree by a set of genes in human genome, we can easily say that the prospective aliens the progenitors of the species Homo machiavellius and the majority of the remaining humans are genetically divergent as far as concentration of Mach genes is concerned in the two populations, and perhaps that is why the high Mach about 1% of world population, have been able to push through the surface of normal humanity a slim protuberance, almost as high as the rest, on top of  the economic pyramid forming its extremely thin but elongated top, controlling 50% of economic resources on the globe. Once they fly off to another planet as has been reportedly suggested by Stephen Hawking in an article Abandon Earth—Or Face Extinction on bigthink,[4] The requisite mating barrier between them and the poor Earthlings will stabilise giving them even higher concentration of Mach genes and other such traits which will help them prosper to some future time horizon, while the earthlings will, if at all they survive, slowly degrade to something more like a chimpanzee, than like the present-day middle-class humans.

When I first propounded this idea in my book Tightening Noose of Poverty[5] last year it was said that I did so at the expense of a blurred boundary between fiction and theory[6] but unfortunately at that time I was completely unaware that none else but Hawking did suggest the imminent cataclysm and that the only way for humans to survive it was to settle some independent colonies in the space. He is reported to have said that "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.”[7]

What he did not say was, who among the present day humans will be able to avail themselves of such a luxury of survival, and which others will be doomed. Of course, that is not an aspect which might interest a theoretical physicist but is of great concern to a socio-economist.  It has been reported that only 1% of the world population controls 50% of the wealth today, and the other 99% is having access to the remaining 50% only, and the gap has sharply increased in the recent past. If we plot the wealth as percent of total global wealth on the vertical axis of a graph and the percent world population having access to it the picture that emerges will be as under

Figure 1 50% of world wealth controlled by 1% of population

The same picture becomes even more striking if we see it in the form of the economic pyramid or wealth pyramid:

Figure 2 In the middle on the top of the pyramid encircled in red is the thin 1% population controlling 50% of the world wealth, other 99% form the base of the pyramid

A plain inspection of the picture is enough to tell that the portion encircled in red is an unhealthy outgrowth sucking-in life and nutrients from the area below it, and if this process is not halted it will result in the death of the entire system. It is not one pyramid. It rather looks like the pyramid of super-rich standing on the grave of humanity.

Now, reverting back to the thought of the ominous day when some humans move out of plant Earth to settle somewhere else, perhaps not much logic is required to prove that only those encircled in red will have the access to the technology to travel to any such safe destination(s) away from Earth, and will take along with them, most of the remaining assets on this planet. The remaining humans, not encircled in figure 2 with red, to which I and perhaps you too belong, will remain poorer and much more helpless than ever before in an extremely dangerous environment on Earth!

In my book Tightening Noose of Poverty,[8] I tried to explain this eventuality with the help of the following diagram.

Figure 3 Formation of Homo machiavellius and Homo gaius

If hundred years down the line, the nightmare comes true I will not be alive to witness it. You will also perhaps be dead before that, but the baby that you are expecting next year or her baby will be there. So, either ensure your ascent to the peak of the Machiavellians or try to correct the situation before it is too late.

The decision is yours but the time to decide is too short, much shorter than you might be thinking.

---

[1] More about the author at http://leadtrust.blogspot.in/2016/05/mr-masood-rezvi-chairman-and-managing.html

[2] Treanor, J. (2015, October 13). Half of world's wealth now in hands of 1% population - report. The Guardian.

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machiavellianism

[4] ''Stephen Hawking's Warning: Abandon Earth—Or Face Extinction”. on bigthink. Retrieved on June 27, 2016

[5] http://www.amazon.in/dp/1517533066

[6] http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2016/02/poverty-in-india/

[7] 'Stephen Hawking's Warning: Abandon Earth—Or Face Extinction”. on bigthink. Retrieved on June 27, 2016

[8] http://www.amazon.in/dp/1517533066

Talk on #AerobicRice Technology #OnFarm #Testing and #Dissemination

On June 14 - 15, on the occasion of 27th foundation day of U.P. Council of Agricultural Research, Lucknow, a two day National Conference was held on Mass Communication as an effective tool for Agriculture Development, Prof B. N. Singh delivered his lecture on On-farm Research on Aerobic rice Technology Testing and Dissemination  in the said conference. 

LEAD Trust is collaborating in digital propagation of his lecture slides, which are available below.

Talk on #AerobicRice Technology #OnFarm #Testing and #Dissemination from Lucknow Educational And Development Trust (LEAD Trust)

Helped CRD Gorakhpur in provision of trial mini kit of #Samba-Sub1 #Rice to a selected progressive farmer of Village: Sidhnath, Asiwan, Miangunj, Unnao, India

Samba-Sub1, is a submergence tolerant rice (Oryza sativa L) variety, with 135 days maturity period and a very good grain quality, often rated much better than the Samba Mahsuri variety.

The LEAD patron Prof. B. N, Singh is actively growing seeds of this variety at his research farm at Centre for Research and Development, Gorakhpur, and providing free trial kit of the seeds to interested farmers in different areas in the country. LEAD Trust identified a progressive farmer in the Sidhnath village of Asiwan, Miangaunj, Unnao to whom a mini kit with the seeds of  Samba-Sub1, enough to cultivate about half acre of field on trial basis was provided absolutely free of cost.

More about this variety can be found at this link

Literature Reviewed for Masood Rezvi's Book on Inflation

The moment I settled down to review the available literature on inflation on the Internet, the idea struck to my mind to collect and list them on a page in our blog, so that any one interested in the subject may also benefit from this collection, simultaneously, or later. I am creating this page with this purpose and propose to keep it updated on a regular basis.  I also propose to include the URL of this page in the book when it goes to press, so that readers may easily find out links to those web locations, which were referred to during the preparation of the book or which I find even later.

Hope this will be useful for any one intending to study the subject.

Truly Yours

Masood Rezvi

Some Interesting Videos:

1. Econ Vids for Kids: What is Inflation? By: InkwellMedia
2. What is Inflation? By: The School of Life
3. What is Inflation? By: Khan Academy
4. Introduction to inflation | Inflation - measuring the cost of living | Macroeconomics | Khan Academy By: Khan Academy By: Khan Academy
5. Phillips curve | Inflation - measuring the cost of living | Macroeconomics | Khan Academy By: Khan Academy
6. Actual CPI-U Basket of Goods By: Khan Academy
7. Inflation and Its Causes By: Iken Edu
8. What Causes Inflation?  By: Seeker Daily
9. Raghuram Rajan uses 'dosa economics' to explain inflation By: Raghuram Rajan Presented by NDTV.
10. ????

Okay Friends watch this page again tomorrow

#LEAD Needs #LEADers

Apply Online

Leaders never produce followers.

They produce leaders!

If you are a dynamic young person - young at heart, not necessarily in age - you are a potential LEADer. LEAD Trust needs you. Provided, you love truth, and you live finding it out through meticulous research. You do not like to go by preconceived notions and pre judgements of any type, especially about the people around and the society they make. You, as a matter of faith, believe in the equality of humans across all classifications and subdivisions and you have an insatiable thirst for research and hard work. You can join hands with us as a volunteer. 

You are ideally suited if you are a graduate or post graduate student trained in research methodology, or a research scholar preferably from any discipline in humanities or business administration with a high need for recognition, or may be simply for your summer project or your Doctoral Thesis. 

Or, may be you have retired from a very active service life and have a great experience of surveying and studying the society or of scientific work or developmental entrepreneurial training work, and now that you are free from the rote of prototyped duty, you want to self actualise, to become what you really are in your own eyes, and bask in the pleasure of serving fellow human beings. And love hard field work in urban slums and / remote rural areas and love mingling freely with those less fortunate humans who live there. Or may be you are a house wife and you want to be a change agent in the society.

At LEAD Trust, your work and your achievements will always be accredited with your own name. If and when published, due recognition will be given to you and in addition you will get a certification of having volunteered for the Trust. However, we do not provide any monetary remuneration of any sort to any of our volunteers. We are also quite frugal in our expenditures, because we want the funds to be used on the actual cause of charity and not on lavish expenditures.

If after reading this page you feel motivated to join hands with us, and you are 18 or above, you are welcome. Please go to this link and submit the filled up form. However, at this juncture we can not tell you when and if we will be able to invite you to work. Whenever we will have a suitable work for you as per our judgement we will let you know.

Apply Online

   

#Adopt a #LEAD #Student

The first and fore most requirement for inclusive and sustainable growth is access to high quality higher education for all. But unfortunately, the field of opportunities for acquiring higher education is no more a level field in our country. Those who are on the lower side get sucked into a whirlpool of ever deepening misery and misfortune, making the field even more uneven.

We, the LEADers, dream of putting our humble effort in trying to level the field for those who have through their circumstances - social, economic, cultural, family or whatever - been put in a disadvantaged position thus being sucked into the vortex of misery and misfortune, generation after generation. No, doubt the government as well as many NGOs are doing a great job by providing many such students financial help through, different scholarships, soft-loans, and other such helps.

But we look on the issue from a different angle.

What is needed for any such child is not finance alone, but a full and complete adoption, mentor-ship and emotional and sentimental support till he or she becomes a grown up and strong individual. We wish to make an humble beginning from our immediate neighbourhood in and around Lucknow. We want to experiment the idea on a small pilot project basis adopting one or two post tenth student(s) and grooming the fellow to a level where he/she becomes a well-educated and self sustained individual. We request you to come forward and adopt at least one such student. We of course want the mentor to involve him/her into an unwritten, informal and sentimental covenant with the student, so supported,  that once self sufficient he/she will support at least two such students in  turn, thus,  producing a breed of LEADers in the distant future.

If you are convinced, are an Indian national, have a bank account and Income Tax PAN in India, and most important of all do not discriminate between humans on any basis, and want to adopt a LEAD Student, kindly contact us.

Our role will be limited to a facilitator and catalyst. We, will find one such student for you, give his or her family background to you and may be, put the two of you across a table or WhatsApp or Skype connection for an interview.

If you adopt the student you will have to pledge that you will groom him or her to the final point in his or her career like a parent, not like a donor; that you will know him or her personally and  not just as another number in the statistics of students helped or supported by you or by us.

You will have to pay the expenses directly to the educational institution for fee and  to the student for other expenses, like purchase of books, tools and stationary and conveyance expenses etc.

Contact LEAD Trust.

Sponsor #LEAD #Events. Use your #CSR #Funds Effectively and Efficiently

It is a well established fact that expenditure on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is not a waste. It is not only a legal obligation, but also gives those corporates who care for it a great social credibility and ultimately in the long run ensures their sustainability with profits. 

LEAD Trust is dedicated heart and soul in furthering the goal of sustainable growth as mentioned in its vision, mission and aims and objectives. We do organise different events towards achievement of these  objectives. You can find out about our upcoming events at the LEAD Events page.

We urge you to generously sponsor the events. We will put your message in the form of banners at the venue as also in the relevant literature we publish, and upload. Surplus saved from any such event if any will be used exclusively for charity.

If you have an idea in your mind for organising any event especially in or around Lucknow and want us to help you in it it can also be talked about.

You may perhaps like to see our pages  Proceedings of the National #Seminar on #Growth with Justice and Kisan Goshthi.

Go to LEAD Events page.
Kindly feel free to contact us. 

Subscribe to #LEAD #Events

LEAD Trust, in order to achieve its aims and objectives regularly organises different events, like Kisan Goshthi,  Seminars, workshops and lectures etc. Such events are widely publicised in the press as well as through social media. Attending some of such events is free of cost (like the Kisan Goshthi)  while for some others, those who desire to attend pay a small contribution as a subscription to the event (mainly the seminars, workshops and lectures).  You can know about the upcoming event(s) by clicking on this link.

We request you to kindly subscribe to our events. They are worth it. You can check it for yourself by visiting to the page on Proceedings of the National #Seminar on #Growth with Justice. And, the amount of subscription is not more than what many of us easily spend on an evening outing in the city or a fun mall or water park.

You can also help us in our mission by sharing the news about our events with as many of you friends as you can. You can do it without incurring any cost on the social media. Please help us.

Take me to the LEAD Events page.

Write with us a #LEAD #Book, become a #LEAD #Author and get recognised internationally.

Your first book is just throbbing within you, like a baby in its mother's womb! Isn't it?

Submit sample

You express yourself beautifully through your words. Your friends and the people who know you always urge you to write, write a book. 

You have observed the society keenly. You have noticed conflicts and cooperation minutely; in a way and from an angle, no  ordinary person would ever have. You have some new explanation to a phenomenon because of your particular "out of the tunnel vision" which the world should know.  

Or may be you are a passionate photographer and you have a collection of exquisite shots which you like to publish in the form of a book of photographs.

Or you just came back from your vacation in the hills or on the sea and want to share your memories with the world. 

And, of course you have your story to share with the world or have written great poems. 

Or, may be you are a student or a scholar who needs to be published in order to be recognised in your particular subject. 

Oh you have conceived your first book!!

You experienced this! Didn't you?

You approach a well known book publisher. 

They ask you about your earlier experience as a book author and the moment they know that you want them to publish your début book, they become pricey. And you keep on running from one publisher to the other till you get exhausted and just strangulate the author within you. 

If you are a die hard stubborn type, you decide to publish your own book. You get it printed in your own locality and spend say 1,50,000 INR or more on the process, take the load of a thousand printed copies to your home. 

But the book you have printed perhaps lacks an ISBN number. 

Then you take out 5 or 6 copies and start visiting your friends' places informing each of them one by one that now you have become an author. You take out one copy, autograph it beautifully and gift it to your friend, who out of courtesy leafs through for a few minutes and if you watch the eye movements of the fellow closely you instantly know that nothing is being read! 

You leave for the house of another friend. 

Back at the first stop the spouse of your friend enters the room, picks up the book looks at the title and your name, laughs and tells your friend: 

"So the crazy chum of yours has become an author."

"Poor soul! Could never find a good work to do!"

If you have very good relations with the media people, you go forth, get a decent book release ceremony organised and spend another 50 k bucks on it to get the news published in the local newspapers that you have become an author. Collect all the newspapers the next morning, painstakingly take out the cuttings, paste them on drawing paper and make an album out of them, get them scanned and post them on the social media. 

Whoosh ... There it ends ...

But we can publish your book without any hassle:

Instead, you can write with us and become a LEAD Author. You will have to make no expense except whatever you make on getting your book typed in MS Word and sending it to us. You simply send us the said file if it matches our standards we will get it published for you with an ISBN number duly assigned. Your book will be internationally distributed through Amazon.com and their associates in paper back form as well as in digital form in their Kindle edition. It will be catalogued with many book depositories the world over, thus maximising the chance of being spotted by the right people interested in your subject, and any one who is really interested in the subject will be able to read it in paperback format or kindle format. 

And who knows, if a film producer or someone like that approaches you from the Hollywood or Bollywood or a TV serial producer contacts you for your story, or a professor in your subject from some very high ranking university, or the editor of a magazine or journal approaches you on reading your book.

See the LEAD Books already in print:

If you want to see the books we have already published kindly visit the  LEAD Books page. If you wish to see the quality of printing you can order a copy from Amazon or their associates page, which you can reach by clicking the appropriate country link provided their. For example if you want to purchase "Tightening Noose of Poverty" by Masood Rezvi in India in paper back format, please click here. Similarly, if you want to read "Tightening Noose of Poverty - Abridged" in Kindle format please click here.

What you will get?

1. The pride and honour of being the author of an ISBN numbered book, in the subject of your choice
2. International hassle free distribution of your book, around the globe.
3. Your book will be available to readers both in paperback and digital format
4. Inclusion in international catalogues thus maximising the chance of being discovered by an interested reader the world over.
5. No expense to make except on typing, if you do not do it yourself, and sending the file to us.
6. Our expert advice on language grammar and formatting etc, as a courtesy whenever and wherever necessary and feasible.
7. Mention of your book in our blogs, reports and during our events etc. 
8. Possibility of arranging a book release ceremony at your expense if you so wish.
9. Best thing; even if after publishing you want to make a change or amendment, you can! Yes it is possible without spoiling any unsold stock unlike in case of traditional printing. But we will normally charge a  fee for each such change you make. 

 Copyright:

The copyright of your script will remain yours. However, you shall not use the ISBN number which we procure for your book neither you shall use the cover or its image if we get it produced for you.

Royalty:

As you know we are a not for profit organisation. We give our managerial and technical services to you free of cost and we have to raise funds for further do-gooding, that we intend to do as per our vision, mission and objectives. We thus expect you to forego the royalty in favour of the Trust and assure you that every paisa, penny or cent of it will be used only  for charity. Once your book becomes popular, perhaps many of the traditional main stream publishers will approach you for printing it. Then you can make money with them, as the copyright remains yours. 

With us you will earn the pleasure of good doing along with a great recognition, name and fame but NO money. 

Your copy:

You purchase it.

Your liability:

It will be your responsibility to ensure that the copyright of the work including all its components, for example tables, illustrations, pictures, images, etc is yours and though we will scrutinise the work to conform to our standards and will be free to reject it without assigning any cause, it will remain solely your responsibility to ensure that the matter is not offensive, obscene, libellous, or objectionable in any way as per the laws of any country where it is sold,   and you will have to indemnify, us, our trustees, employees, agents and associates against any peril that may arise due to the publication of your book by us.

You also authorise us to fix the price of the book and change it as and when needed absolutely as per our own judgement and discretion.

Got it. What to do to become a LEAD Author?

Share a portion of your great work (2000 to 5000 words) in a MS Word file  along with other details with the LEAD Editorial Team through the form that will open up for you on clicking this link. Please ensure to provide your correct email address in the form as also at the end of the word file. We will contact you any time within a month of your submission. 

If you have any query please feel free to contact us.

Buy #LEAD #Books Support Our Cause

 LEAD Books:

You visited the  LEAD Website, the LEAD Blog, the LEAD Channel, saw the LEAD Slides, learnt about the LEAD Events, and read the LEAD News published by the media. You are convinced about our mission. You like it. You want to be a part of it.You want to support us.  How can you do it?

The easiest and perhaps the most effective way of supporting any mission is to read the books published by it and share them with friends. We therefore  invite you to buy LEAD Books and gift them to your friends and loved ones.

But aren't they costly?

No they aren't because:

1. They constitute serious literature and carry the heart and soul of the author in as simple a language as possible. And we are sure the reading will bring before you facts and realities, you perhaps were not at all aware of till now.
2. They aren't meant for the fun lovers, who will rather buy any hot fiction book just for merry making but are not interested in or may be are afraid of the hard realities of our life and the world we are living in. They will never buy these books. So who will buy if even you will not?
3. These books are printed and manufactured at highest international standards of paper and manufacturing quality.
4. They are exclusively distributed through Amazon and their associates world wide, are easily available at your doorstep and are covered by the Amazon terms and guarantees as and where applicable which you can check at their page at the time of putting your order.
5. They are also available in very cost effective digital or Kindle format. You can save money by reading them in Kindle format. Any help even smallest in terms of money will be a great booster for us.
6. The royalty earned will be spent exclusively for charity, and thus you will be contributing your share of money for a good cause.

We thus urge you to kindly visit the page LEAD Books and select your book to purchase.

Go to Toilet Eliminate #OpenAirDefecation See what the #UNICEF says.

"Around 595 million people, which is nearly half the population of India, defecate in the open. India accounts for 90 per cent of the people in South Asia and 59 per cent of the 1.1 billion people in the world who practise open defecation. 

Open defecation poses a serious threat to the health of children in India. The practice is the main reason India reports the highest number of diarrhoeal deaths among children under-five in the world.  Every year, diarrhoea kills 188,000 children under five in India. Children weakened by frequent diarrhoea episodes are more vulnerable to malnutrition, stunting, and opportunistic infections such as pneumonia.

About 43 per cent of children in India suffer from some degree of malnutrition. Diarrhoea and worm infection are two major health conditions that affect school-age children impacting their learning abilities. Open defecation also puts at risk the dignity of women in India. Women feel constrained to relieve themselves only under the cover of dark for reasons of privacy to protect their dignity.

Open defecation exposes women to the danger of physical attacks and encounters such as snake bites.  Poor sanitation also cripples national development: workers produce less, live shorter lives, save and invest less, and are less able to send their children to school." - Says the UNICEF site.

All of us are a personal witness to this ugly scene, even if we have never been to a rural area, we have seen this while travelling by a train. We have become so used to this unhealthy and extremely dangerous practice, or so apathetic to the large number of our compatriots indulging into it and the hazards thus faced by them that we do not feel it necessary to talk about the issue.

LEAD Trust has decided to launch an awareness campaign against the unhealthy practice.

We will keep you informed through the LEAD Events page, which you may kindly keep checking. If you support us in our initiative kindly help us in spreading the word by sharing, +1ing,  tweeting, emailing, blogging, pintresting (just hit the buttons below the text) and discussing about this page. If you have some idea to share or wish to volunteer or sponsor the activity you are welcome to contact us.

Farmers' Legal Rights (#Farmers'LegalRights)

We live in a democracy - a rule of people, for the people, by the people. We are the ultimate sovereign, using our one vote each to select the people who make laws for us, and those who administer these laws. As a natural corollary the laws that we have guarantee, or should guarantee, equality for all of us.

Equals that we all may be in the use of our one vote, we are not equal in many other advantages and disadvantages. Information and awareness about our rights and duties is one such aspect in which we are not equals. This inequality is one of the main sources of many other inequalities, including - but not limited to - the inequality in the access of our recourse to justice. 

Our farming community, the giver of bread and butter to all others, is one such unfortunate lot. Despite sincere efforts by government after government since independence, the chasm between the urban and the rural India is perhaps increasing. Prof B. N. Singh elaborated the issue in details in his paper presented at the National Seminar on Growth with Justice.

In order to contribute our humble effort in mitigating the situation somewhat, we have decided to hold Farmer's Legal Rights events. We will keep you informed through the LEAD Events page, which you may kindly keep checking. If you support us in our initiative kindly help us in spreading the word by sharing, +1ing,  tweeting, emailing, blogging, pintresting (just hit the buttons below the text) and discussing about this page. If you have some idea to share or wish to volunteer or sponsor the activity you are welcome to contact us.

Save #Artisans of #Lucknow (#SaveArtisansOfLucknow)

According to Wikipedia, Zardozi or Zar-douzi (Persian and Urdu: زَردوزی, Hindi: ज़रदोज़ी) work is a type of embroidery in Iran, India and Pakistan and Zardozi is a Persian word that means Sewing with gold string. It is claimed that Zardozi embroidery has been in existence in India from the time of the Rig Veda. An Iranian website aftabir.com claims that around 105 BC the Chinese emperor sent Zardozi embroidered pieces of cloth to the Iranian emperor with his emissaries. The word 'Zardozi' is made up of two Persian terms, Zar meaning gold and Dozi meaning embroidery. The Persian embroidery form, Zardozi attained its summit in the 17th century, under the patronage of Mughal Emperor Akbar. Under the rule of Aurangzeb, it is said, the royal patronage stopped and this led to the decline of the craft. Since the cost was high and raw materials quite rare, craftsmen could not carry on with the embroidery on their own.

Many craftsmen left Delhi and went to the courts of Rajasthan and Punjab in search of work. With the 18th and 19th century bringing industrialization, the craft suffered another setback. It was only after receiving independence in the year 1947 that the Indian government undertook steps to promote Zari embroidery. Lucknow, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Delhi, Agra, Kashmir, Mumbai, Ajmer and Chennai are the main centres of Zardozi work in India.

As reported by jagranjosh.com, Business India, Wikipedia etc Lucknow Zardozi became a full fledged brand after being accorded with the Geographical Indication (GI) registration by Chennai- based GI Registry. GI is basically a sign or name which is used on certain products which relate specifically to a geographical location or the origin, which can be a town, region or the country.

Zardozi is not merely a needlecraft but a vestige of an opulent bygone era. An embroidered extravaganza in gold and silver threads embellished with precious stones and crystals patterned on velvet, chiffon, crepe, silk, evoking the nostalgia of an exotic past. During the last three decades, some claim that one has witnessed a resurgence in the production of Zardozi embroidered clothes after their induction as ethnic couture in the bridal wear, fashion and glamour industry of India and abroad. This has created, they say, a huge local demand and an export boom to the Middle East and Europe.

The plight of the artisan however remains the same rather worsened. As per our own estimates an average Zardozi Sari, may go to the ultimate customer for something like INR 75 k to 80 K, in the local showrooms. But the money does not percolate to the actual artisan. Same is true for the Chikan workers also. For an intricately embroidered floral design as per an estimate they get INR 3 or INR 2 only. Why?

No preconceived judgemental reply will be fare. And no effort to mitigate their situation will be fruitful in absence of a systematic and methodical scientific study of the situation.

We intend to spearhead such a study and invite all those - especially people trained in research methodology in sociological, economic, and market research - who are interested in joining hands with us on a voluntary basis to contact us. Their efforts and contributions will get due recognition (but no monetary reward).

Ban #HighlyHazardousPesticides (#HHPs) as per #FAO of the #UNO Recommendations. Stop this #CrimeAgainstHumanity

Visit the website of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Did you find about the dangers of the use of Highly Hazardous Pesticides the #HHP?

Now search the phrase "Ban Hazardous Pesticides" on Google.  Perhaps, you will be convinced that not enough efforts are being made in our own country to save us and our children from this slow poisoning. We seem to be sleeping over the issue. Only the west is talking. If this state of affairs continues, soon the MNCs losing market in the west will try to make up for their lost sales from developing countries. It is time that we wake up and appeal our government to effectively ban these pesticides in India too. A list of some of such pesticides is available in the paper presented by Prof B. N. Singh during the National Seminar on Growth with Justice and can also be found in his slides available at LEAD Slides. You can also listen to his talk at LEAD Channel (and read in greater details in his paper published in the compendium). For a quick reference we are including the relevant slide here:

Please support us in our campaign, by speaking about the issue, writing about the issue and spreading awareness in this regard as much as you can against this Crime Against Humanity.

Masood Rezvi is writing a new book on #Inflation

Masood Rezvi, the Chairman and Managing Trustee, author of "Tightening Noose of Poverty" is writing another book on inflation.

Inflation, as a macroeconomic phenomenon is not only known to all of us but its effects are felt in our day to day  life. Broadly speaking it is a regime of increasing general price levels. It is caused when supply fails to keep pace with speeding demand. You can imagine two cars in a race one is demand and the other is supply. When demand starts speeding up and supply fails to accelerate at a matching pace the distance between the two goes on increasing. This is what economists call inflation.

The great depressions of 1929, it is said, was reigned by following the recipe suggested by John Maynard Keynes. He firmly believed that demand creates its own supply  and to achieve full employment governments must boost demand by encouraging investment and expenditure even through deficit budgeting. True as it might be it has resulted in a never ending inflation. Inflation has at times turned into stagflation but never a full control on it.

Inflation however is a re distributor of wealth. It shifts wealth from fixed income earners to profit earners and from salaried employees to governments. Inflation, it is said, is a sin. All governments denounce it and all governments indulge into it ...

If interested in keeping a regular watch on the progress of reference and related material collection on the subject, you may regularly visit our page Literature Reviewed for Masood Rezvi's Book on Inf...

Ms Asma Jawed Advocate: Trustee

A law graduate from University of Lucknow, Asma is pursuing her Masters in Social Works. She has great passion and respect for sports and outdoor activities, has participated in many sports events like National Sports Festival Maharashtra(2007),State Games Lucknow (January 2006), Dr Rajendra Prasad Memorial All India Ranking Tournament Patna (December 2007), National Sports Festival Jammu & Kashmir (December 2004) State Games Agra (September 2004), All India Inter-University Tournament Bangalore (2003-04), Aita Inter-State Tennis Tournament Gurgaon (November 2004) National Sports Festival  Punjab (October 2003), All India Ranking Tournament Patna (January 2005) All India Inter-University Tournament Jaipur(2002-03), Hindalco AITA Super Series Tennis Tournamnet Renukoot (May 2003), UPLTA State Tennis Tournament Lucknow (June 2002), ELDECO AITA Chanpionship Series Lucknow (2004) and Dr Rajendra Prasad Memorial All India Ranking Tournament Patna (December 2008). She has attended camps at Gymkhana Club Lucknow (2002) and National Tennis Academy Gurgaon (2005). She won the 3rd Sameer Misra Memorial Teachers' State Badminton Championship organised by the B.S.N.V Institute Lucknow (Feb. 2015), got First Prize in the State Games Lucknow (January 2006) and in the State Games Agra (September 2004). She emerged as a Quarter Finalist in All India Ranking Tennis Tournament Patna (January 2005), Semi Finalist in All India Ranking Tennis Tournamnet (2003), Pre-Quarter Finalist in Dr. Rajendra Prasad Memorial All India Ranking Tournament Patna (December 2007), Quarter Finalist in Dr. Rajendra Prasad Memorial All India Ranking Tournament Patna(December 2008) and Semi Finalist in AITA Talent Series(2004). She has been associated with La Martinière Girls College, Lucknow in the capacity of Physical Education Instructress and Tennis Coach since 2007, and is the Sports Coordinator at Unity Degree College. She is also a member of the GB of Unity Technical Institute Society.

Mr Murtaza Hasnain Khan Advocate: Trustee

Mr Murtaza Hasnain Khan is an Advocate by training and profession, heading the Max Law Firm at Lucknow. He is a member of the Management Committee of Unity Technical Institute Society and Unity Degree College, is the Secretary at the Justice Murtaza Husain Educational Charitable Trust and is the Chief Coordinator at the Unity Degree College.

Mr H. K. Mazhari IAS (Retd): Honorary Trustee

He is a Civil Engineer and a City Planner by training, having obtained his Bachelor of Engineering Degree from National Institute of Technology Allahabad and Masters in City Planning from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He is also an Alumni of International Institute of Aerial Surveys and Earth Sciences Enschede, Netherlands. He is a fellow of Institute of Town Planners India and life member of Indian Institute of Public Administration New Delhi. He has nearly 45 years of experience of working in the field of Urban Planning, Urban Development, Urban Management and Urban Governance. After his retirement from the Indian Administrative Service as Commissioner and Secretary Urban Development, Government of Meghalaya, he took to consultancy and worked as a free lance consultant in projects funded by Multilateral Agencies like Asian Development Bank besides projects supported by Japan Bank for International, Cooperation where he worked as Institutional Expert, Team leader, Urban Utility Management Specialist, Urban Governance Specialist.

Hon'ble Mr Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza: Patron

His Lordship is a former Senior Judge of the Hon'ble High Court of Judicature, Allahabad (Lucknow Bench). Much like his illustrious father, Hon'ble Late Mr Justice Murtaza Husain, he too has a great inclination for serving the less fortunate human beings. He is chairing the Unity Technical Institute Society, an NGO founded by his father which is running the Unity Degree College at Lucknow, as well as the management committee of that college. He has also started a girls school at village Sidhnath, Asiwan, Unnao for destitute female children in the name of his mother Late Mrs. Shahar Bano Begum Sahiba. That school is being managed by Justice Murtaza Husain Educational Charitable Trust which is an NGO dedicated to this purpose, chaired by the Hon'ble Justice.

Prof B. N. Singh: Patron

Prof B N Singh is a passionate Agricultural Scientist. He Started his scientific career as an Assistant Professor at GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology. Then he joined Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa as an Associate Professor Cum Senior Rice Breeder. He subsequently headed the Plant Breeding Department of that University in the capacity of University Professor cum Chief Scientist. He, then, worked at the International Rice Research Institute, Manila, Philipines and  International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria. On his return to India, he got the prestigious chair of the Director of Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. Later on he worked as Director Research at Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi. After retiring from BAU Ranchi he started his own NGO the "Centre for Research and Development" at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India and is busy in helping farmers through his breeder seeds and guiding young agricultural scientists.

Mr Masood Rezvi: The Chairman and Managing Trustee

Supported by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, through their Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), Masood did his M.Sc .Agriculture, from Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa under the guidance of Prof B. N. Singh, and won the University Gold Medal for his batch. His thesis Genetical studies in semi-dwarf indica rice (Oryza sativa L.) under different environments is available for reference in the library of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

He was immediately selected as Agriculture Officer at the Erstwhile New Bank of India. He served ENBI and Punjab National Bank in different management grades and at different places for seventeen years. During his banking career, he closely interacted with the farmers, rural artisans, glass workers of Firozabad, carpet workers of Bhadohi, and embroidery workers of Lucknow. He passed the Certificated Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (part I) examination and is a life member of the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance, Mumbai. He has had his training in Rural Development Projects at the College of Agricultural Banking, Pune. During this training he worked on a project for Sericulture (silk growing) farmers in the Karnataka State in association with the State Bank of Mysore. He is also a trained Internal Quality Auditor, trained by Det Norske Veritas and the Bureau of Indian Standards.He coordinated the ISO Certification of the Gorakhpur Regional Office of Punjab National Bank, as the Dy. Management Representative. He also helped in the quality drive at PNB as trainer facilitator and motivator for ISO Certification at Regional Offices at Faizabad and Varanasi, the Zonal Office at Lucknow and many branch offices.  

After taking voluntary retirement from his banking career, he was nominated a member of the State Level Committee for Monitoring and Implementation of Prime Minister's 15 Point Programme and Multisectoral Development Plan for Minority Concentration Districts by the Government of Uttar Pradesh. On the exhortation of his close friend Late Mr. Jawed Murtaza advocate, and at the behest of its founder, Hon'ble Late Mr. Justice Murtaza Husain, he joined the Unity Technical Institute Society, and is a member of its GB. He did his MBA (Finance) and M.Com and passed the UGC-NET examination. He also served at the Unity Degree College as the Administrator and OSD. He is a member of the Commerce and Management Research Association, Lucknow and a dawami member of Anjuman-e-Wazifa-e-Sadat-wa-Momineen, Aligarh.

He has authored the book "Tightening Noose of Poverty" and compiled the book "Growth with Justice". He has also written many articles and papers in English, Hindi and Urdu, which have been published by different journals and newspapers. He has presented many papers and chaired technical sessions in many seminars.His next book "Inflation" is also on the anvil.

Ms Samina Javed: The Secretary Trustee

She is the Coordinator at Unity Degree College and Member GB at Unity Technical Institute Society. She is BBA, M.Com by education, and a dedicated philanthropist and photographer by passion. She successfully supervised and conducted Nai Roshni (Leadership Development Programme for Minority Women) under the aegis of Ministry of Minority Affairs GoI at Lucknow City and at Village Sidhnath and adjoining places, at Asiwan, Unnao. As a freelance photographer she has covered various photoprojects like the International Taj Mahotsav – at Fatehpur Sikri, “Horizon” monthly cultural programme of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Lucknow (for many years), Still Photography of Fatehpur Sikri for UP Tourism, Photographic Exhibition of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, New Delhi, Stills for “Kafan” ­ a movie directed by Rishi Jena, Lucknow Mahotsav 2015-16 for U.P. Tourism and the passage of the planet Mercury accross the face of Sun for the Science Centre, Lucknow. She has received many recognitions, awards and mementos, the latest was given to her by His Excelency the Hon'ble Governor of Uttar Pradesh for her artistic coverage of the Lucknow Mahotsava (Annual Festival of Lucknow) 2015-16 organised by the U.P. Tourism Department.