The Health Minister Mr. Laxmikant Parsekar today inaugurated the Sports Medicine Seminar organised by the Goa Football Development Council at a City hotel in the presence of the Chairman of the Goa Football Development Council Dr. Rufino Monteiro, the Secretary Sports Mr. Keshav Chandra, Leading doctors and experts invited for the seminar from across India and large number of Coaches, P.E Teachers and Sports administrators.

Mr. Laxmikant Parsekar reminded the audience that the Government soon after taking over fulfilled its electoral promise by declaring football as the Official Sport of Goa.  He said that the Government went one step further by constituting the GFDC under the Chairmanship of Dr.  Rufino Monteiro and from the reports that he has obtained, he expressed satisfaction at the strides made by the council by beginning with a focus on the crucial aspect of Sports Medicine.

In a lighter vein, Mr. Parsekar said that with the involvement of more and more youth in football and sports in general, the spending on health sector would come down and exhorted more and more people to take to some sport or the other.  He assured that the desire the Chief Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar to establish a full fledged Sports Medicine Centre would soon become a reality .

Dr. Rufino Monteiro in his address highlighted the various initiatives taken by the GFDC since it came into being and informed that sports medicine was a subject which needed to be brought in the  forefront so as to save many a sportsmen careers from getting ruined due to injuries which both could be prevented and also be treated.  Resolving that he would not bow down to detractors who may attempt to sabotage the good work done by GFDC, he called upon all present to remain united against them for the future of the youth and their careers.

Eminent faculty members were invited for the proceedings among them being Dr. Vece Paes, former Olympian with Goan roots, Dr. Ashish Phulkar, Dr. Venkata Ramana,

Dr. Ashok Ahuja , Dr. Sheel Sheth, Dr. Sanjeev Sahni, Dr. Mahendra Kudchadkar and Dr. Deep Bhandare.  The wide ranging topics taken up for discussions were “Talent Identification “Tap them young” by Dr. Phulkar, “Doping an evil in Sports” by Dr. Ahuja, “Role of Nutrition in Sports” by Dr. Ramana, “Management and prevention of Sport injuries” by Dr. Bhandare, “Risk Evaluation of an Athlete” by Dr. Kudchadkar, “Psychological approach to injuries” by Dr. Sahni, “Attaining Peak Performance” by Dr. Sheel Sheth, “Long Term Development of Footballers” by Dr. Vece Paes who stressed on the 10000 hours in 10 years model for highest level of excellence.

The various sessions were chaired by Mr. Brahmanand Shankwalkar, Mr. Bruno Coutinho, Mr. Honorato Velho, Mr. Elvis Gomes, Dr. Rufino MOnteiro , Dr. Bhatikar, Mr. V. M. Prabhudesai and Mrs. Liberata Mascarenhas.

On the occasion 32 different clubs and other institutional participants who had earlier attended the GFDC Basic Life support programme were provided with first aid kit bags.

Earlier Mr. Elvis Gomes, Member Secretary of Goa Football Development Council welcomed the gathering.  Dr. Rufino Monteiro concluded the programme with a vote of thanks to all present on the occasion.

The 3 day International Congress on Rural Health and Medicine, which is 18^th in the series, will be inaugurated at the auspicious hands of His Excellency ,  in the august presence of Mr. Manohar Parrikar, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa at 10.00 am on 10^th December 2012 at Dinanath Mangeshkar Kala Mandir, Kala Academy, Goa. Dr. Kalam will also be delivering the Keynote address. Dr. Ashok Vikhe Patil, Chairman and Shri Ramakant Khalap, Co-chairman of the Organizing Committee will be welcoming the delegates on behalf of the organizers, collaborators and knowledge partners of the conference.

Over 500 delegates & 300 speakers representing medical, public health, allied health sciences, academic and research, government, non-government, UN, philanthropic and bi-lateral agencies from over 25 countries – Australia, Austria, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Poland, Republic of Korea, Serbia, South Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, USA are participating in the conference.

The Conference is organized by International Association of Rural Health & Medicine (IARM), Japan, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences – Deemed University (PIMS-DU), Loni, Maharashtra and International Arbitration Centre (IAC), Goa.  Government of Goa, Goa University and Goa Medical College are local supporters. Knowledge partners & cosponsors of the congress include World Bank, Medical Council of India, Action Aid India, ICMR, Dr. Vikhe Patil Foundation, Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank Goa Ltd., Appolo Pharmacy, Dreager India Ltd. and Torrent Pharma.

The congress is aimed to address various key challenges & issues of rural health under the main theme “Challenges of Health in the Global Village”, and promote dialogue, partnership among doers & policy makers for improving health of people of rural and remote areas of the world in a unified and holistic way.  The health of the people, where ever they live – developed & developing countries – urban & rural areas, are affected by man made policies, actions and natural disasters. The policies, systems on access to universal health care, gender justice, occupational health of farming community, migration, effects of information technology, bio-technology revolution, environmental & global warming have made the world into one global village. The boundaries of nations have collapsed and the problems of the world have to be addressed in an integrated manner.

At the end of the three day deliberations, the organizers and participants of the conference are expected to come out with a Goa Declaration on “The Rural Health Initiative on Global Village – Call for Action”.

Panaji, December 7, 2012 …..  The  3^rd  meeting of District Task Force Committee on Tobacco Control  chaired by  Shri  R. Mihir Vardhan, Collector (North )   was held in the conference hall,  Collectorate, Panaji.

During the course of discussion at the meeting, it was proposed to organize  one day  workshop  on Tobacco control for Principals of  Higher Secondary Schools and Colleges  in North Goa.  About 100 Principals or their representatives are  expected to participate in the workshop.

It  was also proposed  to hold  the awareness  programmes  at  various  schools  to educate the school going children  about ill effect of  smoking,  gutkha and Tobacco  etc. during the month of  January and February, 2013.

The  meeting   also discussed about  printing  of  leaflets  on Tabacco Control  to distribute to Panchayats and Schools, to  prepare and display of revised new “No Smoking” boards, enforcement squad  as per  COTPA  act at  taluka level in North Goa and related other issues.

The meeting was  attended by Dipak Desai, Addl. Collector, Smt. Sheru Shirodkar, Dy. Collector,   Shri Roland Martins, Dr. Shekhar  Salkar, other committee members  and Senior Govt.  Officers.

Duler Football Ground of Goa Football Association is one of the oldest and best known grounds in Goa, with a rich historical past. Goa Football Association started to develop and to improve this ground since 1997, in a phased manner. Recently, they have undertaken an ambitious programme of upgradation of this ground which includes important steps like replacement of grass with astraturf, provision of flood lighting for night play, augmentation of seating capacity of the stadium as well as improvement of the amenities and facilities for players and spectators.

A massive expansion project was prepared for the purpose, under the guidance of the President GFA, Shri Shrinivas Dempo, and the Executive Committee, which included construction of additional buildings with total built – up area of about 8600 sq.mts. This will increase the seating capacity of the stadium from present 6000 to 8000, provide adequate amenities and facilities for the players, proper space for the media, matching parking facility to satisfy the demand, and, most importantly, setting up of a Football Academy with state-of-art infrastructure, such as accommodation for players and coaches, auditorium, board room, well-equipped gym, swimming pool, medical facilities, kitchen and dining hall as well as the necessary space for administration and offices. A substantial commercial component in form of shops and offices – has been incorporated in the project to make it financially viable and self sufficient.

The Project was recently accorded a formal approval (Development Permission) by the North Goa Planning & Development Authority, thanks to the sincere efforts and valuable assistance provided by its Chairman Shri Michael Lobo, who himself is fully committed to the cause of the game which now has been declared as the state sport of Goa.

The project has been prepared by M/S. Environmental Planning & Design Consultants, who have been associated with the phase – wise development and improvement of the Duler Football Stadium since its beginning in 1997.

With this approval, Goa Football Association, under the leadership of Shri Shrinivas Dempo and support of the members, now propose to undertake implementation of the project, which will have a far-reaching impact on the upliftment of this most popular sport in Goa.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in alliance with is Directorate of Education, Government of Goa is organising a one-day Summit :  CII Higher Education Summit 2012 “Improving Quality of Higher Education to Drive Goa’s Economy” on Friday, 14 December 2012 at Vivanta by Taj Panaji, Goa

The summit on 14 December 2012 will be attended by H.E. The Governor of Goa, Mr. Bharat Vir Wanchoo, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa, Mr. Manohar Parrikar and bureaucrats, Heads of Educational Institutions, Trustees of about 50 Colleges in Goa alongwith their Principals and Heads of Departments.

Mr. Keshav Chandra, Secretary Higher Education has called for a press conference at 1600Hrs on 8 December 2012 at Senado of Hotel Mandovi. (Copy of letter is placed as an attachment).

The CII ‘Higher Education Summit 2012’ bids to bring together some of the leading affiliates of the education sector and related industries to device recommendations related to government initiatives, raising education standards, to bridge the skill-set gap, and other problems faced by the sector.

It will emphasize the need of building a learning process to transcend the existing frontiers of education and to explore unexplored the heights of a knowledge-dominated, innovation-intensive global arena. It will also mobilize Sustained Efforts, Strategic Planning and Creative Thinking to devise appropriate policies and measures to enable India / Indian States emerge as a Robust knowledge Economy to reckon with, and a global leader.

Curriculum Revision, Steps for Institute’ Academic Autonomy, Managing Educational Institutions For High Quality Learning, Benchmarking against World’s Best Teaching Practices, Goa as Potential Education Hub & Student Learning would be some of the Key Summit Takeaways from this Summit

“Sparsh” Women Federation, a cluster of Self Help groups promoted by Syngenta Santa Monica Works under their Community Development Project ”Sparsh”  celebrated its Annual day on 1.12.2012 at “Shri Shantadurga Verlekarin” Hall at Marcel.

Mr. Deepak Dhavlikar, local MLA and Minister for Co-Operation and Factories & Boilers was the chief guest on the occasion. Ms. Auda Veigas a well-known women activist from Goa was the guest of honour and main speaker.

Present on the dais were Mr. Pratap Volvoikar, Sarpanch of Marcel Panchayat, Ms Sarvinda Tivrekar President of “Sparsh” Women federation, heads of corporate social responsibilities sygenta india limitied corlim, Mr. P.S.Jagadeesha and Mr. Sakharam Borkar.

Mr. Sakharam Borkar, in his welcome speech outlined various activities conducted for Self Help Groups under the project ”Sparsh”. “We have at present 100 self- help groups comprising of more than 2000 women linked with the project” he said.

Mr. P.S. Jagadeesha appealed the women to participate keenly in these Self Help Group activities so that they can add to the income of the family and be self- sufficient.

Ms. Sarvinda Tivrekar, President of the “Sparsh” Federation gave an account of various activities done in the year while two members of the federation shared their experiences.

Ms. Auda Veigas spoke on different issues pertaining to women and the ways to overcome them. She said that women should be pro-active and take actions before it is too late. As Goa is a tourist destination, she appealed the women to undertake making mementos made out of the shells, wood, coconut shells which have lot of demand.

Speaking on the occasion the chief guest Mr. Deepak Dhavlikar, local MLA and Minister for Co-Operation and Factories & Boilers said “I am very happy to be the part of this function wherein more than 500 women have gathered and therefore I congratulate Syngenta for getting a mass support for this initiative and appealed the women to take maximum benefits in form of trainings and exposure visits given by the company’

Dhavlikar said “our government has undertaken various initiatives for women and intended to start a Co-operative bank exclusively for Self Help groups of Goa and a marketing facility in the capital to sell the goods made by self- help groups.

Five best self Help groups were given musical instruments as prizes at the hands of the chief guest. Winners of the various competitions organized earlier were awarded prizes and certificates at the hands of dignitaries on dais.

Earlier in the day various competitions such as Folk dance competition, Cookery competition, Fancy dress competition, Singing competition, Rangoli competition were conducted for the women and women of all ages enthusiastically participated in the competitions. The audience witnessed a seventy year old lady taking part in the fancy dress competition.

Film directors Sourav Sarangi, Unni Vijayan & Gurvinder Singh at IFFI 2012

Trying hard to create a space for themselves in the industry, independent filmmakers like Gurvinder Singh and Sourav Sarangi say their biggest problem is finding distributors for their movies.

Singh, who’s debut feature film “Anhe Ghore Da Daan” went on to win National Awards for Best Direction, Cinematography and Best Feature Film, says his movie was hardly publicised and given screens to be shown.

“We are in desperate need to have a parallel distribution system. Multiplexes don’t want to show our films today. When my movie was shown by PVR in Mumbai, Delhi and Punjab the tickets were priced at Rs 900, 400 – I was shocked.

“In Mumbai my movie was only shown for five days when the hall was 80-90 per cent booked. They removed it because next day ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ was releasing and they wanted all the screens.

“This is an exciting phase for independent cinema in India and I feel that there should be chains of theatres to show non-commercial and art house films because the audience for such movies does exist,” Singh said on the sidelines of the 43rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here.

Independent Bengali filmmaker Sourav Sarangi, whose film “CHAR: the No-Man’s Island” is being screened at the Indian Panorama section here, says the Bollywood impact on the silver screen makes it difficult for art house and documentary films to survive.