Dubai municipality honors Malabar Gold & Diamonds

Dubai, Feb 11: Dubai municipality honored Malabar Gold & Diamonds, one of the leading jewellery group with over 126 retail outlets for its outstanding support and participation in the public awareness campaign, ‘ Clean up the world 2014’. Hamza K S, manager, CSR of Malabar Gold & Diamonds received the award from engineer Saleh Abdulrahman Amiri, assistant director of General Environment & Public Health Services and engineer Abdul MajeedSaifaie, Ddrector of Waste Management Department & Head of Clean up the World team 2014.

Being a sponsor of the event, Malabar Gold & Diamonds, one of the leading jewellery groups supported the campaign in the emirate of Dubai launched by H EEng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General, Dubai Municipality under the slogan ‘ Our Place…Our Planet...Our Responsibility’.

The event, which was aimed at creating public awareness on maintaining clean city, was held in different parts of Dubai and above 40,000 registered volunteers from different walks of life took part in it.

To support this initiative, volunteers from Malabar Gold & Diamonds joined the officials from various government departments, schools and other delegates to clean various parts of Dubai.

The official bodies of UAE give significant importance to the health and safety of the environment and run different cleaning campaigns to improve the quality of life here. It also keeps attracting millions of tourists to this magnificent country. Multinational companies like Malabar Group can play an important role to enhance the standard of living of the community and it sets a wonderful example of philanthropy that others can follow.

Speaking on this occasion, Shamlal Ahamed, managing director of International Operations, Malabar Gold & Diamonds said, “We believe that companies like us can bring a real difference to the society by actively getting involved in CSR activities. We encourage more companies in UAE to support such initiatives, as it is only through our combined efforts that we will be able to pass on this beautiful country for our future generation.”

Similar initiatives were taken by Malabar Gold & Diamonds in Bahrain and in India and it drew good response from the public.

CSR activities are a fundamental part of Malabar Group’s culture and the organization ensures that a fixed percentage of its net profit is used for CSR activities every year.The group supports many philanthropic activities and is always ready to take initiatives to help the deprived section in the society. The key focus areas of the CSR initiatives of Malabar Group are in the areas of Health, Education, Women Empowerment, Housing and Environment.

The company, which has a strong corporate social responsibility scheme embedded in its system, is committed to make a difference in human lives by spending over Rs300 million in charitable activities in the year 2015, part of the Rs850 million earmarked for charitable activities between 2012 - 2015.

Charity dinner in support of Emirates Red Crescent held in Dubai

DUBAI: A charity dinner event was held in Dubai recently in support of the Emirates Red Crescent and the UAE Compassion (Tarahamu) campaign, organised by Richmond Hughes Limit

ed, Gallery Ward and Nenu Tech.

The UAE Compassion (Tarahamu) campaign was launched earlier this year on the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with the patronage of Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to help Syrian refugees caught in the biting cold in the Levant this winter.

Pir Shafi Muhammad from Richmond Hughes, Yaser Askar and Maha Alsharif from the Gallery Ward welcomed the guests. Salem Bin Dasmal, Founder of the Silver Spoon Investments, was the major sponsor of the event.

Prominent personalities who graced the occasion included Misbah Ahmad, Vice President, Dun & Bradstreet South Asia Middle East Limited; Muhammad Kamal and Mr Hassan from Emirates Red Crescent; Kashif Arbab, CEO, Envestors, MENA — an affiliate of Capital Quantum; Ahmad A.Fahmy, Senior Projects Manager, Alico; Ivan Woods, Executive Director, Arqaam Capital; Shanka Abeywardene, Senior Director, Alpen Asset Advisers and Asela Abeywardene; Liv Baggen, Associate Director at Lawrie Shabibi; Pir Abdul Wahid, a prominent lawyer from Pakistan; Zafar Mahmood and Altaf Shah from the NTES Group; Jahangir Moghal, a senior immigration lawyer from Child & Child, UK; Maisoun Sharif, Muhammad Arif, Faisal Rehman from the BSI bank; Ali Walayat a senior banker, and others.

Welcoming the honourable guests, Pir Shafi Muhammad said: “It is an integral part of Richmond Hughes’ vision and mission to organise events aimed at making a positive contribution to the society and we thank Allah for all the blessings he has bestowed on us.”

The event showcased art pieces, including paintings, photographs and sculptures from the contemporary artists belonging mainly to the Middle East region. The guests and art connoisseurs were impressed with the modern trends depicted by the young and not-so young artists. They particularly evinced keen interest in the photograph ‘Dubai’ by Ayman Lotfy, the painting ‘Being’ by Irfan Gul Dahri and a bronze piece titled ‘Cat’ by Essam Darwish. 

The event was a resounding success both in terms of promoting current artists from the Arab world as well as generating proceeds to be spent on noble causes through the Tarahamu campaign and the Emirates Red Crescent.

Later, Pir Shafi Muhammad thanked all the participants and the event sponsor, Salem Bin Dasmal, for the memorable event.

The event was the first in a series of fundraising events for charity Richmond Hughes – a real estate investment company with a focus on the London property market — plans to organise in the Middle East and UK this year. Richmond Hughes hosted a similar fundraising event in London in December 2014, co-hosted by Lahd gallery. The event was attended by prominent personalities from London and funds were raised through an arts auction in support of Nishat Welfare Organisation and Caspian Arts Foundation.

The Red Crescent in Dubai has worked since its establishment to promote the spirit of solidarity and compassion among the community members, and thanks the support and assistance of the philanthropists and benefactors for its charitable programmes. It has crossed several milestones of providing services in the humanitarian field. The Emirates Red Crescent has expanded its programmes and activities to include all walks of life and various aspects of support and assistance for low-income (limited) and needy people and families.

Students Create Heroes App To Connect Cancer Patients And Survivors

 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer was the cause of 8.2 million deaths worldwide in 2012 alone.

Fairiha Khan shared her experience of losing a parent to the disease, and how having a support system is essential; her team would later enter Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition with what she hoped was “something that will have a global impact.” This is where the Heroes app comes in, an online community platform to bring together cancer patients and survivors, and their friends and family members. The 22-year-old project manager is joined by fellow University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) students and grads: 29-year-old Abubakar Abdulbasit as back-end developer, 23-year-old Ashiqur Rahman as front-end developer and 22-year-old Artaza Aziz as back-end developer.

The app encourages positive thinking through their forums where users are reminded to be grateful and give back to society, as well as a medical updates forum. Other features also include being able to find other users based on the type of cancer or by user location, the option to add different users as emergency contacts, categories based on cognitive therapy research that help to reinforce positive behaviors, and inspiring posts that can be added to a scrapbook. To get the word out, they plan to use social media, as well as working with hospitals and medical practitioners “to introduce us to more patients- so they can test the app and help us develop it according to their needs.”

After launching in April 2014 at the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition and securing third place, three competitions later, the app has made its rounds placing second in the Microsoft Hackathon, and competing in the GITEX Student Competition. Currently in beta phase, the developers say that the competitions have helped them get feedback from both users and experts about the app, and also glean suggested app additions. The developers are still weighing options as how to monetize on Heroes, and since it currently only functions on Microsoft’s platform, their 2015 agenda is focused on getting it on multiple platforms.

courtesy an article written by PAMELLA DE LEON on  Entrepreneur Middle East

India's first online Braille library with 12,000 books launched

Mumbai: Visually impaired students have found a new avenue to access books online.

 The country's first online Braille library, with 12,000 books in its catalogue, was launched

in Mumbai last week and will cater to students pursuing higher education in institutions 

across India

It is a joint initiative by the National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH), Dehradun 

& the Xavier's Resource Centre for Visually Challenged, Mumbai. The library allows students

 to download books and read them through refreshable Braille display systems (RBDS). The

 initiative has a website that will host members, which would be the institute's libraries 

across

 the country. The libraries have been given a username and a password

.
The libraries will upload all books available to their online catalogue. To gain access, a 

student needs to login with the institute's username and password. The books can then be

 downloaded instantly and transferred to the RBDS (a flat horizontal monitor consisting of

80 cells). The download appears on the screen of RBDS as raised units for the students to 

read.

Anuradha Mohit, director, NIVH, said, "Now we have a generation of young computer users

 among blind persons. Therefore, the launch has been very timely." Though, she admitted t

 the technology is not as advanced as that in developed nations, she informed this was a

 good start.

The RBDS would enable students to read only one to two sentences at a time.

100 such monitors have been dispatched by the NIVH, which will be used on a shared basis

 by students.

The portal has books in 13 languages that display text in the corresponding Braille script.

Mohit said by March 2013, they aim to have books in all the Indian languages. She added

 that with the bulk purchase of RBDS, it's hoped the cost of equipment would come down

. Students will then have more such devices at their disposal. Students, however, will have

 to wait for some time to access the library, as several institutes are yet to receive the RBDS

 devices.

Live Life .. King Size !!!

   If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than themillion who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of
imprisonment, the agony of torture orthe pangs of starvation,you are ahead of 20 million people around the world.

SMS cap? Think of us, say hearing impaired

BANGALORE: They communicate with the world only through sign language and letters. And then came short message service (SMS) __ a boon to the hearing impaired who found a new world at their finger tips. But has this world suddenly shrunk a bit?

With the recent guidelines issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which limited text messages up to 100 SMSs per day, the worst affected are the hearing impaired who use about 100-200 SMSs per day. The TRAI resolution aimed to get rid of unsolicited telemarketing calls and pesky messages.

World Habitat Day 2011: its the Time to Take Collective responsibility for the future

UN observes today (Oct 3) as World Habitat Day with a view to  appeal the world about its collective responsibility for the future of  Human Habitat. Cities & Cllimate Change is the Theme for this year
The world population is getting ready to pass the 7 billion mark by the end of this October and already 50 percent of the people are living in cities. India's urban population too will double in the next 30 years

India's cities are also characterised by high density of population, housing stock and poor infrastructure that makes them all the more vulnerable to climate change. For instance, studies have estimated that the economic damage - this includes only building foundation damages till 2050 due to sea-level rise - to Mumbai, as a result of climate change, could amount to 15,01,725 crore. 

India hosts 2011 World Environment Day

NEW DELHI: India will host this year's World Environment Day tomorrow and the government has announced that the country will continue to play a very important role in defining the terms of environmental debate at the global level. 

Each year a different country is chosen as the principal venue for the global celebration of World Environment Day which falls on June 5 and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has selected India as the global host of this year's programme. 

The theme of this years celebration is "Forests: Nature at Your Service", which highlights the crucial environmental and economic roles played by the forests, particularly in India. 

One third of world's food is wasted, says UN study

About one third of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste, according to a study commissioned by the United Nations food agency.

That amounts to more than one billion tonnes of waste around the world every year.

The study recommends that developing countries should improve production and distribution, so as to stop losing so much food.

It also says industrialised countries must stop throwing so much away.

Loss versus waste

The UN study, by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, was aimed at an international trade fair for the food packaging industry, to be held in Germany later this month.

Among the key findings are that consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food, 222 million tonnes, as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa.

International Nurses Day (May 12)

  International Nurses Day is observed on  May 12, to mark the Birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale who is regarded as the founder of Modern Nursing and remembered as the “lady with the lamp.” 

This year’s theme is “Closing the Gap: Increasing Access and Equity.”

Health care is as a main public priority in most parts of the world and nurses play a central role in delivering health care. Nurses help educate patients and the public on the prevention of illness and injury, provide care and assist in cure, participate in rehabilitation, and provide support. Nurses have always been in the forefront of change in health care and public health. Their round-the-clock presence, observation skills, and vigilance allow doctors to make better diagnoses and propose better treatments.