Latest news with #MANA
Hans India
30-05-2025
- Science
- Hans India
UoH Prof chosen to visit NIMS, Japan under MANA scheme
Hyderabad: Professor GS Vaitheeswaran from the School of Physics, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been selected to visit the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, Japan, under the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) scheme for 2026. During his five-week visit from January 13, 2026, to February 20, Professor Vaitheeswaran will collaborate with Professor Kazunari Yamaura's research group on Quantum Solid State Materials. This collaboration aims to explore the technological applications of these materials and establish a long-term research partnership between the University of Hyderabad and Vaitheeswaran is a distinguished researcher with numerous accolades, including the DAE Young Achiever Award, BM Birla Science Prize in Physics, and Fellow Royal Society of Chemistry. He is also listed among the top two per cent scientists globally by the Stanford Survey for 2024 and serves as an Associate Editor of the Bulletin of Materials Science,' said a senior officer, UoH.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amid USAID chaos, some humanitarian aid groups still aren't getting paid for lifesaving programs
Edesia, a Rhode Island-based company that makes 'Plumpy'Nut' — packets of specially fortified and highly caloric peanut butter paste that saves the lives of severely malnourished babies and children — recently laid off 10% of its staff and even briefly paused production altogether for more than two weeks. Its CEO says they are having serious cash flow problems. In Georgia, MANA Nutrition — a plant that produces similar 'Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food,' or RUTF, packets of peanut butter — is leaning heavily on a line of credit from Bank of America to stay afloat for the time being, according to the company's founder. Neither company has gotten paid by the US Agency for International Development in months — not since the last quarter of 2024. 'We are irreparably breaking a good system for no particular reason,' said Mark Moore, MANA's CEO and co-founder. 'And the impact on children — it's not at all dramatic to say that it's going to cost, at the very least, tens of thousands of lives.' Edesia and MANA are among the scores of organizations grappling with canceled USAID contracts and little to no payment from the agency. Both Edesia and MANA had their USAID contracts canceled before they were reinstated; for MANA, the cancellation was rescinded after Elon Musk personally weighed in. USAID, spurred by a court ruling, has begun issuing payments to other organizations — but those payments have been sporadic and minimal. A federal judge has ordered USAID to pay out contracts and grants for all foreign assistance work done by mid-February. However, processing those payments has been slow going, and as of a March 27 court filing, more than 6,000 payments still needed to be processed. The payment issues are among the many consequences of the Trump administration's efforts to abruptly shut down USAID and dramatically restructure foreign aid. The combination of the US government's sweeping freeze on foreign aid in late January, mass reductions in USAID staff, and thousands of contract terminations had already caused a significant impact — even for aid groups that are still supposed to be receiving money. Some of those same groups are owed money for work done before the freeze. The administration's move to shutter the agency by July is expected to further exacerbate the consequences. The respective CEOs of Edesia and MANA Nutrition, Navyn Salem and Moore, told CNN in recent days that they can only guess when they might next get paid by USAID for the hundreds of thousands of boxes of lifesaving peanut butter paste they have already produced for the government agency. Their contacts at USAID — who, according to Salem and Moore, were initially fired or put on leave before eventually being brought back to work — can no longer provide them with any clear answers. Other humanitarian organizations have similarly struggled to get answers as USAID has been gutted and their usual points of contacts are cut off from the internal systems. They fear this will only get worse as the vast majority of USAID personnel are expected to lose their jobs as the Trump administration moves to abolish the agency and fold it under the State Department. Fewer than 900 USAID direct-hire employees remained on the job as of March 21, according to another notice from the agency to Congress. USAID said in a letter sent to Congress last week that it issued more than $250 million in payments between March 10 and March 21. However, sources who spoke to CNN said payments to aid groups have trickled in — if they have arrived at all. Several humanitarian officials told CNN they are still owed money for work they had completed. One humanitarian official said their organization has received 'so little it's basically nothing.' 'They need to start issuing significant payments for existing lifesaving programs or organizations won't be able to continue,' they told CNN. An association that represents humanitarian aid contractors has heard from the more than 70 groups they represent that they are getting paid in 'dribs and drabs,' a source familiar said. Another humanitarian official said if they don't get paid, even for grants that have not been terminated, their organization cannot continue their programs. 'We might have to shut them down proactively simply because we cannot pay salaries or rent,' they told CNN. Because of slow payment or funding cuts, many humanitarian organizations have had to furlough or lay off staff. Nearly 19,000 American jobs have been lost and more than 166,000 global jobs have been lost, according to USAID Stop Work. A State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNN that 'between March 10 and March 21, 2025, USAID disbursed a total of over $257 million,' which 'equates to approximately $25 million per business day.' 'This work continues, as does streamlining the previously problematic and fragmented payment structure,' the spokesperson said. Even if payments are made, it is not enough to fully stem the impact of USAID's dismantlement. 'Some of the damage is irreparable,' the first humanitarian official said. 'There are so many layers of impact. We can rehire, but trust with communities and some governments is broken.' 'No one will think of the US as a sure thing anymore,' they told CNN. With the suspension of assistance and stop-work orders put in place in late January, efforts to combat infectious diseases like tuberculosis and to treat people, including children, with HIV/AIDS have been stymied. Local employees who worked with nonprofit organizations abroad may now be at risk in countries where affiliation with the US makes them a target. Moore, the MANA CEO, said his organization is making contingency plans for USAID potentially never returning to the equation, including by reaching out directly to nongovernmental organizations that could partner in distributing his company's packets of peanut butter. 'We're scrounging hard to drum up partners who could go around the USAID system,' he said. 'It's a stopgap idea, but planning long term will be hard.' CNN's Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
CNN
02-04-2025
- Business
- CNN
Amid USAID chaos, some humanitarian aid groups still aren't getting paid for lifesaving programs
Edesia, a Rhode Island-based company that makes 'Plumpy'Nut' — packets of specially fortified and highly caloric peanut butter paste that saves the lives of severely malnourished babies and children — recently laid off 10% of its staff and even briefly paused production altogether for more than two weeks. Its CEO says they are having serious cash flow problems. In Georgia, MANA Nutrition — a plant that produces similar 'Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food,' or RUTF, packets of peanut butter — is leaning heavily on a line of credit from Bank of America to stay afloat for the time being, according to the company's founder. Neither company has gotten paid by the US Agency for International Development in months — not since the last quarter of 2024. 'We are irreparably breaking a good system for no particular reason,' said Mark Moore, MANA's CEO and co-founder. 'And the impact on children — it's not at all dramatic to say that it's going to cost, at the very least, tens of thousands of lives.' Edesia and MANA are among the scores of organizations grappling with canceled USAID contracts and little to no payment from the agency. Both Edesia and MANA had their USAID contracts canceled before they were reinstated; for MANA, the cancellation was rescinded after Elon Musk personally weighed in. USAID, spurred by a court ruling, has begun issuing payments to other organizations — but those payments have been sporadic and minimal. A federal judge has ordered USAID to pay out contracts and grants for all foreign assistance work done by mid-February. However, processing those payments has been slow going, and as of a March 27 court filing, more than 6,000 payments still needed to be processed. The payment issues are among the many consequences of the Trump administration's efforts to abruptly shut down USAID and dramatically restructure foreign aid. The combination of the US government's sweeping freeze on foreign aid in late January, mass reductions in USAID staff, and thousands of contract terminations had already caused a significant impact — even for aid groups that are still supposed to be receiving money. Some of those same groups are owed money for work done before the freeze. The administration's move to shutter the agency by July is expected to further exacerbate the consequences. The respective CEOs of Edesia and MANA Nutrition, Navyn Salem and Moore, told CNN in recent days that they can only guess when they might next get paid by USAID for the hundreds of thousands of boxes of lifesaving peanut butter paste they have already produced for the government agency. Their contacts at USAID — who, according to Salem and Moore, were initially fired or put on leave before eventually being brought back to work — can no longer provide them with any clear answers. Other humanitarian organizations have similarly struggled to get answers as USAID has been gutted and their usual points of contacts are cut off from the internal systems. They fear this will only get worse as the vast majority of USAID personnel are expected to lose their jobs as the Trump administration moves to abolish the agency and fold it under the State Department. Fewer than 900 USAID direct-hire employees remained on the job as of March 21, according to another notice from the agency to Congress. USAID said in a letter sent to Congress last week that it issued more than $250 million in payments between March 10 and March 21. However, sources who spoke to CNN said payments to aid groups have trickled in — if they have arrived at all. Several humanitarian officials told CNN they are still owed money for work they had completed. One humanitarian official said their organization has received 'so little it's basically nothing.' 'They need to start issuing significant payments for existing lifesaving programs or organizations won't be able to continue,' they told CNN. An association that represents humanitarian aid contractors has heard from the more than 70 groups they represent that they are getting paid in 'dribs and drabs,' a source familiar said. Another humanitarian official said if they don't get paid, even for grants that have not been terminated, their organization cannot continue their programs. 'We might have to shut them down proactively simply because we cannot pay salaries or rent,' they told CNN. Because of slow payment or funding cuts, many humanitarian organizations have had to furlough or lay off staff. Nearly 19,000 American jobs have been lost and more than 166,000 global jobs have been lost, according to USAID Stop Work. A State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNN that 'between March 10 and March 21, 2025, USAID disbursed a total of over $257 million,' which 'equates to approximately $25 million per business day.' 'This work continues, as does streamlining the previously problematic and fragmented payment structure,' the spokesperson said. Even if payments are made, it is not enough to fully stem the impact of USAID's dismantlement. 'Some of the damage is irreparable,' the first humanitarian official said. 'There are so many layers of impact. We can rehire, but trust with communities and some governments is broken.' 'No one will think of the US as a sure thing anymore,' they told CNN. With the suspension of assistance and stop-work orders put in place in late January, efforts to combat infectious diseases like tuberculosis and to treat people, including children, with HIV/AIDS have been stymied. Local employees who worked with nonprofit organizations abroad may now be at risk in countries where affiliation with the US makes them a target. Moore, the MANA CEO, said his organization is making contingency plans for USAID potentially never returning to the equation, including by reaching out directly to nongovernmental organizations that could partner in distributing his company's packets of peanut butter. 'We're scrounging hard to drum up partners who could go around the USAID system,' he said. 'It's a stopgap idea, but planning long term will be hard.'
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
USAID reinstates contracts for Georgia company that helps feed malnourished kids after Elon Musk responds to CNN reporting
The CEO of a plant in Georgia that makes a special peanut butter paste for severely malnourished children around the world told CNN that his company's contracts with the US Agency for International Development that had been abruptly canceled last week were all reinstated late Sunday night. Mark Moore, the founder MANA Nutrition, shared screenshots of the rescinded contract termination notifications with CNN on Sunday. 'Thrilled,' he said in response to the news. He also told CNN that he was working to quickly start using USAID-labeled pouches in production again: 'It's a yo-yo. I just texted the factory and told them to switch back to USAID packaging as of midnight.' The development came after Elon Musk said on social media earlier Sunday in response to CNN's previous reporting about the terminated USAID contracts that he would 'investigate' and 'fix it.' MANA's canceled contracts had been the result of the Trump administration's drastic efforts to slim down the federal government led by Musk, who leads a new government agency called the Department of Government Efficiency. Moore's company makes a special kind of peanut butter paste — a type of RUTF ('Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods') — that many humanitarian aid workers are familiar with. It is fortified with milk and essential vitamins, packed with calories and sent to severely malnourished children around the world, including some countries in Africa. USAID has historically supported and funded the development and distribution of RUTF products over the years. On Wednesday afternoon, Moore got word from USAID that MANA's contracts with the agency were being canceled. CNN spoke with Moore just minutes after he said he received a series of contract termination letters from USAID. One of his first orders of business was asking his workers mid-production to immediately stop putting labels that say 'USAID' on the pouches that the peanut butter paste is squirted into. He said without contracts with the agency, he would not be allowed to distribute any products bearing the agency's name. The back-and-forth is just one of the many aftershocks of the Trump administration's rapid decimation of USAID, which has suffered more severely than almost any other agency across the government. Thousands of positions at the federal agency have been eliminated and the vast majority of its officials have been placed on leave. Contracts are being canceled left and right, leaving many in the humanitarian aid world reeling. In normal times, Moore's plant produces 10 pouches of the lifesaving paste every second. Each small bag contains 500 calories' worth of the special peanut butter — which does not require refrigeration or additional preparation. In their warehouse, Moore said last week, there were around 400,000 boxes of USAID-branded RUTF ready to be shipped out. He estimated that if USAID didn't pay MANA for those boxes, he would have at least $10 million in wasted peanut butter pouches on his hands. And that didn't include an additional $14 million in reimbursements from the federal government that he was already waiting for. Erin Boyd, a USAID nutrition adviser who was laid off from the agency in January, told CNN it was not an overstatement to say that children would die as a result of the decimation of USAID and funding for RUTF. 'Even before this happened, there wasn't enough funding to treat all the children who were presenting wasting.' Boyd said. Wasting, according to UNICEF, refers to a life-threatening form of malnutrition: 'Children with wasting are too thin and their immune systems are weak, leaving them vulnerable to developmental delays, disease and death,' the group says.
CNN
03-03-2025
- Business
- CNN
USAID reinstates contracts for Georgia company that helps feed malnourished kids after Elon Musk responds to CNN reporting
The CEO of a plant in Georgia that makes a special peanut butter paste for severely malnourished children around the world told CNN that his company's contracts with the US Agency for International Development that had been abruptly canceled last week were all reinstated late Sunday night. Mark Moore, the founder MANA Nutrition, shared screenshots of the rescinded contract termination notifications with CNN on Sunday. 'Thrilled,' he said in response to the news. He also told CNN that he was working to quickly start using USAID-labeled pouches in production again: 'It's a yo-yo. I just texted the factory and told them to switch back to USAID packaging as of midnight.' The development came after Elon Musk said on social media earlier Sunday in response to CNN's previous reporting about the terminated USAID contracts that he would 'investigate' and 'fix it.' MANA's canceled contracts had been the result of the Trump administration's drastic efforts to slim down the federal government led by Musk, who leads a new government agency called the Department of Government Efficiency. Moore's company makes a special kind of peanut butter paste — a type of RUTF ('Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods') — that many humanitarian aid workers are familiar with. It is fortified with milk and essential vitamins, packed with calories and sent to severely malnourished children around the world, including some countries in Africa. USAID has historically supported and funded the development and distribution of RUTF products over the years. On Wednesday afternoon, Moore got word from USAID that MANA's contracts with the agency were being canceled. CNN spoke with Moore just minutes after he said he received a series of contract termination letters from USAID. One of his first orders of business was asking his workers mid-production to immediately stop putting labels that say 'USAID' on the pouches that the peanut butter paste is squirted into. He said without contracts with the agency, he would not be allowed to distribute any products bearing the agency's name. The back-and-forth is just one of the many aftershocks of the Trump administration's rapid decimation of USAID, which has suffered more severely than almost any other agency across the government. Thousands of positions at the federal agency have been eliminated and the vast majority of its officials have been placed on leave. Contracts are being canceled left and right, leaving many in the humanitarian aid world reeling. In normal times, Moore's plant produces 10 pouches of the lifesaving paste every second. Each small bag contains 500 calories' worth of the special peanut butter — which does not require refrigeration or additional preparation. In their warehouse, Moore said last week, there were around 400,000 boxes of USAID-branded RUTF ready to be shipped out. He estimated that if USAID didn't pay MANA for those boxes, he would have at least $10 million in wasted peanut butter pouches on his hands. And that didn't include an additional $14 million in reimbursements from the federal government that he was already waiting for. Erin Boyd, a USAID nutrition adviser who was laid off from the agency in January, told CNN it was not an overstatement to say that children would die as a result of the decimation of USAID and funding for RUTF. 'Even before this happened, there wasn't enough funding to treat all the children who were presenting wasting.' Boyd said. Wasting, according to UNICEF, refers to a life-threatening form of malnutrition: 'Children with wasting are too thin and their immune systems are weak, leaving them vulnerable to developmental delays, disease and death,' the group says.
