NEW DELHI ESTH OFFICE HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK OF August 20

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NEW DELHI 003907 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/STC, OES/SAT, OES/EGC, AND SCA/INS STATE FOR STAS DOE FOR INTERNATIONAL HHS FOR OGHA STEIGER, HICKEY AND VALDEZ NIH FOR GLASS AND MAMPILLY FDA FOR LUMPKIN AND WELSCH CDC FOR BLOUNT AND FARRELL INTERIOR FOR FWS RILEY STATE PASS TO NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV TSPL TBIO ECON SOCI KSCA IN SUBJECT: NEW DELHI ESTH OFFICE HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE WEEK OF August 20 - 24, 2007 NEW DELHI 00003907 001.4 OF 002 ¶1. Summary: This week the ESTH office met with representatives of the Wildlife Protection Society of India regarding a wildlife crime workshop; met with the Nature Publishing Group to discuss the launch of a web portal dedicated to Indian science; and noted the Delhi government's push to implement CNG for public transportation in the National Capital Region; funding agreements between the World Bank and the GOI on child and reproductive health, tuberculosis, and delivery of health services; and a proposal to include Hepatitis B vaccination under the National Immunization Program as well as the Indian recipients of both the Rotary Polio Eradication Champion Award and the UN Grand Award. End Summary. -------------- ENVIRONMENT -------------- ¶2. SciOff and SciFSN along with Public Affairs met with the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) to finalize the budget for the upcoming Wildlife Crime Workshop to be held in Ranthambore National Park November 4-6. The WPSI grant proposal was also finalized and is currently being reviewed by Public Affairs. -------------- SCIENCE -------------- ¶3. SciOff and SciFSN met with Jaishree Srinivasan of Nature Publishing Group (NPG) to discuss a web portal set to be launched by NPG bringing together current information on Indian science including reporting on the latest research as well as recommended scientific papers. The pre-release mock-up of the portal looks very good and we expect it to be very useful to anyone interested in Indian science. The portal is expected to go live in mid-October. -------------- TECHNOLOGY -------------- ¶4. Addressing a National Capital Region Planning Board meeting, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit pressed neighboring states to follow New Delhi's lead by mandating CNG in all public transportation within the NCR. She also urged the neighboring states to collaborate on infrastructure improvements based on a public-private participation model in waste disposal, power generation, water management, and transport. -------------- HEALTH -------------- ¶5. Rotary International has conferred this year's Polio Eradication Champion Award on India's Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss. The award was given in recognition of Dr. Ramadoss' efforts in providing support to polio eradication programs in India. Past recipients of the award include former President Clinton, former UK Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair, and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. ¶6. The GOI proposes to include hepatitis B vaccination under the National Immunization Program. This is expected to reduce chronic hepatitis B infections by an estimated 1.5 million and deaths due to hepatitis B by 200,000. According to the GOI, the country would need approximately 100 million doses to vaccinate all infants which are well within India's capacity of 516 million doses per annum. ¶7. The GOI has signed three credit agreements with the World Bank which will provide financial assistance of USD 671.83 million to NEW DELHI 00003907 002.4 OF 002 three health sector projects - the Reproductive and Child Health Project Phase-II (RCH-II; USD 360 million),the Second National Tuberculosis Control Project (TB-II; USD 170 million) and the Karnataka Health System Development and Reform Project (USD 141.83 million). The RCH-II project aims to reduce total fertility rate, infant mortality rate and the maternal mortality ratio nationwide. The TB-II project will implement the existing DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course) strategy as well as scale up state-level intermediate referral laboratories and obtain greater participation from NGOs and the private sector. The objective of the Karnataka Health System Development and Reform Project is to increase utilization of essential curative and public health services, particularly in underserved areas and among vulnerable groups. ¶8. An Indian public awareness campaign designed to encourage the use of condoms with the slogan "Condom Bindaas Bol" ("Say Condoms Freely") has won this year's UN Grand Award - a public relations award jointly sponsored by the UN Department of Public Information and the International Public Relations Association. The campaign, designed to overturn a decline in condom use in eight states in northern India, involved the joint efforts of PSP-One, a USAID project, and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. WHITE