Hindus Best Educated Religious Group in US #HindusInUS

Elevate yourself     through the power of your mind, and not degrade yourself, for the  mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self   

— Bhagavad Gita 6:5

Hindus Best Educated Religious Group in US #HindusInUS

Of all religious groups in America and Europe, Hindus are the best-educated, says a new study by Pew Research Centre. Ninety-six per cent of Hindus in the US have college degrees compared to 36 per cent for Christians who are a majority in the country. Among Jews, 76 per cent have college degrees, compared to 54 per cent of Muslims and 53 per cent of Buddhists! A likely result is that American Hindus tend to have higher incomes. Around 43 per cent of them earn $100,000 or more, compared with just 16 per cent of Christians of all denominations and 21 per cent of unaffiliated groups.

US Says 75% of #ISIS Fighters have been Defeated

United States officials announced on Tuesday that 75 per cent of ISIS fighters have been defeated – at least 50,000 soldiers altogether. The last two years of U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq have reportedly made a huge impact on the jihadi militants, brought their numbers to the lowest they have ever been, between 12,000 and 15,000 “battle-ready” fighters. Brett McGurk, the US special envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, assumes that the organization will no longer be able to replenish their forces either.

#MobileMoney Has Lifted 200,000 Kenyan Families Out of Poverty
A new study shows the expansion of a mobile money system has helped bring hundreds of thousands of Kenyans out of poverty, especially those in female-headed households. The study, published in Science, examined how M-PESA, Kenya’s text message-based payments system, spread across the country over six years. The researchers tracked the economic progress of thousands of households and estimated that the expansion of M-PESA lifted 194,000 households (2 per cent of households in the country) above ­­­­­poverty line, and that these effects were partly driven by women’s access to the new way of sending and receiving money.

170 Nations Celebrate a Pledge to Eliminate Super Harmful #GreenhouseGas
The representatives from 170 different countries celebrated an ambitious global pact to pare down on environmentally harmful chemicals known as HFCs–a powerful kind of greenhouse emission found in ac units and refrigerators that trap 1,000 times more heat than carbon dioxide. In tandem with the declaration, a group of donor countries and philanthropists announced their intent to provide $80 million in assistance to improve energy efficiency.

#DogSlaughter Banned in South Korean Market

Thanks to an agreement between the Seongnam City Government and the vendors’ association of Moran Market, all 22 of the market’s dog meat vendors will be required to remove slaughter facilities and dog cages. The market, which is responsible for a large percentage of the country’s canine meat, will put a significant dent in the product’s trade.

B+veNational

‘Vanar Sena’ against Open Defecation #CleanIndia
A group of young kids from about 250 schools are targeting people with lotas and dabbas who are defecating in public in a bid to make the city open-defecation free. A Bundelkhand ‘vanar sena’ (monkey army) is out on a mission – to stop open defecation – in a unique way. According to an Indiatimes.com report, a group of young kids – aged 6-16 and from about 250 schools in Sagar District – fanned out on Sunday morning targeting people with lotas and dabbas who were defecating in public. These kids would ‘steal’ these water containers in a bid to teach these people a lesson and hopefully deter them from defecating in the open!

Plant Trees Instead of Paying Fees #GoGreen

A primary school, Shiksha Kuteer, located in the Chhattisgarh’s Ambikarpur area, is being praised for its unique environmental initiative that asks students’ parents to plant trees instead of paying tuition. The school provides
quality education to 35 different students of ages 4-5. The school was established to help poorer families afford quality education for their children. Since its construction one year ago, over 700 saplings have ben planted in the area. If one of the trees dies, the parents are simply required to replace it with another.

Universities Go #Cashless with
UGC Funds
Universities across the country may now have to resort to cashless means like bank transfers, cheques and credit/debit cards while making use of periodic funds from University Grants Commission (UGC). In a directive to the 600-odd universities which come under it, UGC has proposed that they may make use of the current system of demand drafts only on rare occasions. The commission said the move was in order to bring in accountability, transparency and seamlessness in the process of transfer of grants.

On #WorldDisabilityDay President Felicitated
Visually Challenged Kathakar
President Pranab Mukherjee felicitated Krunal Joshi, 29, a blind kathakar on World Disability Day, December 3, for his exceptional achievement as a self-employed disabled person. Today, Joshi gives religious discourses across India, but few know that way back in 1989, when Joshi was a three-year-old child, his first lessons in Ramayana came from a Muslim, Kadar Mansuri, a special educator in Visnagar, Mehsana. Krunal says that Mansuri had played a pivotal role in turning him towards education, which would have otherwise eluded him.

#CycloneVardah ISRO Satellites Saved 10,000 Lives
With the help of data provided by INSAT-3DR and SCATSAT-1, more than 10,000 people were rescued in Chennai, Thiravallur and Kancheepuram Districts. The satellites played a key role in saving a large number of lives mainly in Tamil Nadu when Cyclone Vardah unleashed its fury on December 12.