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More than 8% of the global population is affected by a rare disease and >50% affected are children (30% of whom will die before 5 years). There are 6,000-8,000 classified rare diseases - 80% are genetically based - with less than 500 FDA approved treatments (or <5% have therapies) available to treat them. Lack of standard definition and community-based epidemiological data in India limits the estimation of prevalence and/or disease burden; though extrapolations at 6% to 8% show 72 to 96 million affected individuals. The Government of India approved the "National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021" on 30th March 2021. It is a step in the right direction; at the time it necessitates optimal utilization of allocated resources and timely appraisal of the policy itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Management of mentally ill elderly is a challenging task. Due to the lack of awareness, training opportunities in the course curriculum, and nil to negligible knowledge/ understanding/ exposures, allied mental health professionals are hardly available in geriatric mental health (GMH). Awareness generating orientation/ skill development workshops/ seminars/ webinars/ conferences may develop the interest in the young generations, which further may help in generating human resources in the subject. The present article aims to provide a snapshot of the Life Skill Training (LST) workshop developed for psychology students and discusses its effectiveness. Materials and Methods: The authors had an opportunity to organize and facilitate orientation workshop named as "life skill training in GMH" for the students of psychology in Varanasi. A total of 86 students had participated in two independent workshops. All participants' self-rated appraisal was obtained on a five-point scale (ranging from very poor to very good) for all ten core life skills as laid out by the World Health Organization. The workshop was conducted by applying the tools such as imagination, reflection, communication, presentation, problem-solving, critical thinking, and sharing. The pre-post assessment was done, and qualitative feedback was received from the participants. Results: The results reveal that participants observed betterment in self on each life skill as the obtained value of mean scores after the workshop was found to be slightly more on each of the core life skills. Conclusion: The orientation workshop sensitizes the students regarding the issues related to the field, which may allow them to pursue the subject further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 8% of the global population is affected by a rare disease and >50% affected are children (30% of whom will die before 5 years). There are 6,000-8,000 classified rare diseases - 80% are genetically based - with less than 500 FDA approved treatments (or <5% have therapies) available to treat them. Lack of standard definition and community-based epidemiological data in India limits the estimation of prevalence and/or disease burden; though extrapolations at 6% to 8% show 72 to 96 million affected individuals. The Government of India approved the "National Policy for Rare Diseases, 2021" on 30th March 2021. It is a step in the right direction; at the time it necessitates optimal utilization of allocated resources and timely appraisal of the policy itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has a two-fold purpose: to explore the extent of inclusion of performance appraisal practices as perceived by the employees working in sample hotels and to find if these practices depend on the organisational demographic characteristics. Based on a survey of 396 hotel employee's perceptions on performance appraisal practices were assessed by 20 practices and 5 demographic variables. To find the association of the demographic variables with performance appraisal practices Bivariate test was used. Results indicated that performance rating is based on objective ; Performance is Proper Evaluation ;There are set standards for my job; Employee performance is easy to measure ;Performance is Continuous Monitoring ;The performance appraisal system is used to set my performance goals ;Modern methods are used to evaluate the employees ; All employees in the business are evaluated may constitute the most important performance appraisal practices in the Indian hotel industry. Further, the results indicate that there is a negative association between the number of staff and most performance appraisal practices variables these findings reveal that the hotels having a large number of staff rated the additional importance of performance appraisal practices as compared to hotels with less number of staff. The study makes a modest effort to add statistics to the little empirical information available concerning the performance appraisal practices in Indian hotel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally accepted that the concept of sustainability is not straightforward, but is subject to ongoing ambiguities, uncertainties and contestations. Yet literature on sustainability transitions has so far only engaged in limited ways with the resulting tough questions around what sustainability means, to whom and in which contexts. This paper makes a contribution to this debate by unpacking sustainability in India and Thailand in the context of solar photovoltaic and urban mobility experimentation. Building on a database of sustainability experiments and multicriteria mapping techniques applied in two workshops, the paper concludes that sustainability transition scholarship and associated governance strategies must engage with such questions in at least three important ways. First, there is a need for extreme caution in assuming any objective status for the sustainability of innovations, and for greater reflection on the normative implications of case study choices. Second, sustainability transition scholarship and governance must engage more with the unpacking of uncertainties and diverse possible socio-technical configurations even within (apparently) singular technological fields. Third, sustainability transition scholarship must be more explicit and reflective about the specific geographical contexts within which the sustainability of experimentation is addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Small Industries Development Bank of India being the apex bank of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises sector was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Industrial Development Bank of India by a separate act of parliament in 1990. After being completed 10 years of dedicated services to small scale sectors, SIDBI was delinked from IDBI with effect from March 27, 2000 after the enforcement of SIDBI (Amendment) Act 2000. As at March 31, 2012, SIDBI has made a journey of 12 years after being delinked from IDBI. As DFIs faced competition from banks as well as capital market, they ended up financing riskier industrial projects and large-scale industrial projects carrying low returns and long gestation periods. During 1990s the share of debt decreased while equity increased. The share of DFIs in total loan finance declined during 1990s while the share of banks rose from the low level during 1985-90 by more than double during 1995-2001 thereby overtaking the position of DFIs in project finance. By 2007-08 only SIDBI was functional. This study makes an appraisal of performance of SIDBI in terms of selected physical and financial indicators with the help of year-on-year growth percentage. During the course of the 22-years of its operation, the Bank has been fairly successful in facing the challenges while assisting the sector and, in the process, has emerged as a strong and vibrant institution. The sector to fully utilize its potential, it is essential that the entrepreneurs along with the Government support take necessary steps for their development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance management system (PMS) is the heart of any "people management " process in the organization. Organizations exist to perform. If people do not perform, organizations don't survive. If people perform at their peak level, organization can compete and create waves. The paper aims to study the present existing PMS in ICICI prudential and Bhushan Steel Ltd. The sample size was 100. The primary data has been collected through the industry interactions and the secondary data has been taken from the reports and periodicals. Performance appraisal practices in India vary from almost "no appraisal" to a "sophisticated multipurpose, multi-component based appraisal system". Good example of such system is: Larsen & Toubro limited, state bank of India and its associated bank, ICICI prudential. The paper concludes that the Individual's performance can be improved if we don't look at the individual as a problem; instead look at his/ her problem. Performance management supports a company in the achievement of strategic goals and objectives. It assists managers in setting clear performance expectations for all employees that are aligned with the strategic goals. It provides a structure for employees to develop the skills they need to achieve the company's strategic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article endeavours to highlight a variety of issues around accountability and appraisal and does so from the perspective of parliamentary systems of government. These include many African countries as well as Australia, Barbados, Canada, India, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK). This should be an appropriate perspective as existing literature, with the exception of that from Australia, has relatively little to say about the role of parliamentarians and political parties (Hurley 2005; McKemmish 2005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The key to understanding the burden of animal bites and rabies lies in accurate and timely data with the help of proper surveillance system across the country. Such a surveillance system needs to be evaluated also for a programmatic purpose., Objectives: The present study was conducted to appraise the surveillance system of human rabies and animal bites in seven states of India and also to describe the characteristics of human rabies cases in the states., Methods: The record-based study was conducted from July to December 2017. The survey team collected information about the surveillance status of human rabies from the infectious diseases hospitals and animal bites from integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP) offices of the respective states for 2012-2016. At the national level, also number of animal exposures and the human rabies cases were collected from the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence and IDSP and compared for concordance., Results: There was a gross underreporting of human rabies from the states to Government of India, and there was no concordance in the reports of animal bites between the IDSP offices of the states and NCDC, New Delhi, India. There was a gradual decline in the reported cases of human rabies from the states during the 5-year period of 2012-2016, attributable to improvement in the overall rabies postexposure prophylaxis services. The documentation of information of the human rabies cases was poor in the infectious disease hospitals., Conclusion: The surveillance system on human rabies and animal bites in India has to be improved under the national rabies control program to eliminate rabies by the year 2030.

Humans inhabit environments that are both social and physical, and in this article we investigate if and how social identity processes shape the experience and negotiation of physically demanding environmental conditions. Specifically, we consider how severe cold can be interpreted and experienced in relation to group members' social identity. Our data comprise ethnographic observation and semi-structured interviews with pilgrims attending a month-long winter Hindu religious festival that is characterized by near-freezing conditions. The analysis explores (1) how pilgrims appraised the cold and how these appraisals were shaped by their identity as pilgrims; (2) how shared identity with other pilgrims led to forms of mutual support that made it easier to cope with the cold. Our findings therefore extend theorizing on social identity processes to highlight their relevance to physical as well as social conditions., (© 2013 The British Psychological Society.)