- Tuberculosis Cases
- 2000: 16,377
- 2001: 15,989
- 2002: 15,075
- 2003: 14,874
- 2004: 14,502
- 2005: 14,080
- 2006: 13,779
- Tuberculosis Deaths
- 2000: 776
- 2001: 764
- 2002: 802
- 2003: 711
- 2004: 657
- 2005: 246
- Tuberculosis Cases According to Race (2006)
- Hispanic: 4,066
- American Indian / Alaska Native: 167
- Asian: 3,298
- African American: 3,737
- Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander: 56
- White: 2,403
- Multiple Races: 35
- Unknown / Missing Race: 17
- Tuberculosis Cases According to Age (2006)
- 0 - 14 years: 807
- 15 - 24 years: 1,540
- 25 - 44 years: 4,702
- 45 - 64 years: 4,053
- 65 years and older: 2,676
- unknown age: 1
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Health Stats
Two hundred years ago, tuberculosis was a feared killer. One hundred years ago, people with tuberculosis were placed in sanitariums in order to prevent TB from spreading from one person to another. With the birth of anibiotics, TB was controlled and for a time all but eliminated. But with the emergence of HIV over the last 25 years, TB has returned and must be dealt with. In some parts of the world, HIV and tuberculosis are at epidemic proportions. Here are the most current tuberculosis statistics.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
BabaJob - A social network with a Social cause - Will it work?
Web2.0 is continuously proving it self as the most helpful creation this century. With Wikipedia being the new bible of knowledge and linkedIn being the hottest place to snap a job, while Twitter a micro blogging platform being used more as the 1st mean of informing people during a disaster. In its most unfortunate state this evolutionary steps are only proving beneficial for only those people who have access to a computer, an internet and continuous supply of electricity.
In most developing nations, like India where the Sensex is jumping 1000 point in a matter of weeks, India is in the 'nascent stage' where computer literacy is concerned. The percent of literacy as compared to illiteracy is by it self a subject of question. Having said that it must be noted that the Participation of India is 19% of the total number of people on orkut, making it the second highest national community on Orkut( source )
Babajob, that is co founded by Sean Blagsvedt, claims to be a "linkedIn" for Poor people. In short a social networking for not only job seekers but employers of jobs that cannot be sort out on LinkedIn, or orkut etc. The parameter of the jobs listed on this site would range from a cook, to a nanny, a house keeper, painter, office helper, driver etc. Kamla Bhatt a renowned Podcaster in India did the interview below with the co founder.
1. The hook this social networking websites gives is the incentive of money. The person who plays connector gets paid a sum of 100/- RPs. This is reason enough for many people in India to play connector. A sum of 100 rupees ( approx 2 $) is sufficient for 3 meals in India. Cyber café owners could also make act as a connector by helping other not so computer savvy people to get on the web to get a job.
2. NGO's will be amongst those organizations that will make use utmost of the services of this website. NGO's whose cater to the needs of the unemployed would look at this website as one more opportunity to help the poor. The NGO would not only have resources that could help/assist the main target audience of this website to get on to the web, but also lend credibility.
3. Many Metropolitan cities in India, like other developing countries, have people who have moved into the city from rural or semi urban areas. Finding helpers like cooks, house cleaners, nannies would be a tedious task for them. Hence such a website and service would prove to be helpful.
1. Babajob is trying to use its synergy with it's proper social network Babalife, to make Babajob popular. India is already flooded with social networking websites like Yaari, Collegecampus, Fropper, Jhoom, Minglebox, and Reliance funded BigAdda which is doing heavy offline advertising. In the above interview Sean says that he would like to compete with Orkut, which is highly unlikely considering the other players in the market that have either been funded heavily (Minglebox got funded for 7 Million by Sequoia Capital) or are backed by big corporate like Google.
2. Trust is a huge issue, especially in India. Following the Adnan Patrawala case in India, where a 16 year boy was killed after carrying an online friendship on Orkut, offline, People are very skeptical of the online world.
3. Most of the people online are youth, who do not worry about a driver, cleaner, nanny etc. These options would appeal to the primary decision maker in the house – The Mother. The percent of Internet Savvy Mothers in India is very minimal and limited to the metropolitan cities in India.
Though Babajob is a brilliant fusion of heart and technology, the obstacles that are faced by the website outrun the 100 rupee hook. While most of India still lies in the rural sector where basic electric amenities are not met, hence the scope of the website would only be limited to the semi rural and urban areas. With the rise of Literacy, credibility of social networks – this indeed would be a great connect and much wanted Bridge between the seeking employer and wanting employee.
In most developing nations, like India where the Sensex is jumping 1000 point in a matter of weeks, India is in the 'nascent stage' where computer literacy is concerned. The percent of literacy as compared to illiteracy is by it self a subject of question. Having said that it must be noted that the Participation of India is 19% of the total number of people on orkut, making it the second highest national community on Orkut( source )
Babajob, that is co founded by Sean Blagsvedt, claims to be a "linkedIn" for Poor people. In short a social networking for not only job seekers but employers of jobs that cannot be sort out on LinkedIn, or orkut etc. The parameter of the jobs listed on this site would range from a cook, to a nanny, a house keeper, painter, office helper, driver etc. Kamla Bhatt a renowned Podcaster in India did the interview below with the co founder.Reasons why BabaJob will help get Jobs in India.
1. The hook this social networking websites gives is the incentive of money. The person who plays connector gets paid a sum of 100/- RPs. This is reason enough for many people in India to play connector. A sum of 100 rupees ( approx 2 $) is sufficient for 3 meals in India. Cyber café owners could also make act as a connector by helping other not so computer savvy people to get on the web to get a job.
2. NGO's will be amongst those organizations that will make use utmost of the services of this website. NGO's whose cater to the needs of the unemployed would look at this website as one more opportunity to help the poor. The NGO would not only have resources that could help/assist the main target audience of this website to get on to the web, but also lend credibility.
3. Many Metropolitan cities in India, like other developing countries, have people who have moved into the city from rural or semi urban areas. Finding helpers like cooks, house cleaners, nannies would be a tedious task for them. Hence such a website and service would prove to be helpful.
Reasons why BabaJob will not be so helpful.
1. Babajob is trying to use its synergy with it's proper social network Babalife, to make Babajob popular. India is already flooded with social networking websites like Yaari, Collegecampus, Fropper, Jhoom, Minglebox, and Reliance funded BigAdda which is doing heavy offline advertising. In the above interview Sean says that he would like to compete with Orkut, which is highly unlikely considering the other players in the market that have either been funded heavily (Minglebox got funded for 7 Million by Sequoia Capital) or are backed by big corporate like Google.
2. Trust is a huge issue, especially in India. Following the Adnan Patrawala case in India, where a 16 year boy was killed after carrying an online friendship on Orkut, offline, People are very skeptical of the online world.
3. Most of the people online are youth, who do not worry about a driver, cleaner, nanny etc. These options would appeal to the primary decision maker in the house – The Mother. The percent of Internet Savvy Mothers in India is very minimal and limited to the metropolitan cities in India.
Though Babajob is a brilliant fusion of heart and technology, the obstacles that are faced by the website outrun the 100 rupee hook. While most of India still lies in the rural sector where basic electric amenities are not met, hence the scope of the website would only be limited to the semi rural and urban areas. With the rise of Literacy, credibility of social networks – this indeed would be a great connect and much wanted Bridge between the seeking employer and wanting employee.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Using Asterisk
Today the founders of Asterisk gave a lecture at ITP. One of the projects that are build on Asterisk is "Inveneo", a non-profit social enterprise that brings internet access to rural african areas. Computers get charged with a bike, that produces power, etc... please watch the video on their website for more info.
http://www.inveneo.org
Their products include:
Ultra low-power computers and servers
Long distance wireless (WiFi) Local Area Networking (LAN) gear
VoIP telephony software and integrated hardware
Free and Open source operating systems for servers and desktops
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Any Comments?
I found this rather interesting article that uses Brazil as a case study for analyzing the progress made by developing countries with regards to advanced informational infrastructure.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Babajob.com!
The NY Times printed an interesting article about how the stark poverty in India is actually inspiring rather innovative ideas that are leading to inventions that one wouldn’t visualize as possible or even necessary in a developed country. It also describes a LinkedIn-esque professional networking website called “Babajob” that could potentially help the multitude of poor people in India seeking better jobs. This could have particularly interesting and far-reaching consequences in other developing countries where most of the poor and underclass remain so only because of the inability to find suitable stable employment. Of course the most intriguing part of all this is how they were able to work around the fact that most of their target audience is not computer-literate. Or even literate for that matter.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Accredited Social Health Activist
Information Technology could be used effectively in medical sector so that people living in remote areas could have access to healthcare. Information Technology should be used in Integrated Diseases Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and also in extending the initiatives in tele-medicine field with particular emphasis on providing healthcare access to remote areas of the country.
Such technologies can be effectively used in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) initiatives. In India the government is in the process of having one dedicated health facilitator -- ASHA or Accredited Social Health Activist in each of the six lakh villages of the country so that the medical needs of the people living in remote areas could be taken care of. About 2.25 lakh such ASHAs are already in place.
ASHA will be a health activist in the community who will create awareness on health and its social determinants, mobilize the community towards local health planning and increased utilization of existing health services. She would be a promoter of good health practices who would also provide a minimum package of curative care as appropriate and feasible at her level and ensure timely referrals for cases requiring higher level of care/intervention.
Such technologies can be effectively used in the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) initiatives. In India the government is in the process of having one dedicated health facilitator -- ASHA or Accredited Social Health Activist in each of the six lakh villages of the country so that the medical needs of the people living in remote areas could be taken care of. About 2.25 lakh such ASHAs are already in place.
ASHA will be a health activist in the community who will create awareness on health and its social determinants, mobilize the community towards local health planning and increased utilization of existing health services. She would be a promoter of good health practices who would also provide a minimum package of curative care as appropriate and feasible at her level and ensure timely referrals for cases requiring higher level of care/intervention.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)