Jun 02 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Paper-less Parliament Dream May Come True Ab Ki Baar

VASUDHA VENUGOPAL

NEW DELHI





NIC officials pinning hope on highly tech-savvy PM Modi & first-timer MPs

A ‘Paper-less Parliament’ may still be a term or two away, yet NIC officials working towards that goal hope that their efforts this time will have a better hit rate with a highly techsavvy prime minister and a Lok Sabha that counts over half of its members as first-timers.A slew of measures that NIC has lined up – the National Informatics Centre (NIC) comes under the a Department of Electronics and spearheads all such e-governance initiatives – this year include preloaded tabs for MPs, an online messaging system that will replace ‘paper slips’, live webcast of house sessions, and of course, a detailed training programme for the parliamentarians.
To start with, MPs will be given tablets that come pre-loaded with literature on proceedings of the house.
“They will be given these devices
when they register at the parliament counter. This time, the tablets will be configured with the day’s agenda, minutes of last session and other papers,” a senior official at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs told ET.A senior official at the NIC said that unique mail-ids for the MPs have been configured already and have been kept simple. “This is to make it accessible for people. All mails with the MP’s name will be directed to his/her website. We are now in the
process of configuring their tablets with relevant data,” he said.To help the MPs connect with each other, the NIC is looking at launching messenger services. “Inside the house, there is no wi-fi facility but to help MPs connect with each other in the lobby that has high-speed network, we will have a messenger system that can be accessed in areas other than the house. They can dispose off files, discuss the session and reply to e-mails.” The official added that MPs will be given a choice if they want hard copies of the agenda documents or will go only with the soft copy. About 58% of MPs elected to the new Lok Sabha this time are ‘first-timers’, the highest number of debutant members elected to the lower house in the last 30 years. “We hope they are comfortable with technology but we have many tutorials scheduled for them beginning from June third week,” said the official.
“We are looking for an entirely pa
perless parliament this time. While we implemented 10 per cent of it last session, there was little enthusiasm.This time we will go full throttle, and we hope at least 40 per cent of the house opts for ‘only mail’ option,” he added.
Parliament will also launch a video portal soon that will have live online streaming during proceedings. “We will have different categories in there, especially one where in you can get all the speeches made by a certain politician,” he said

Jun 02 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Developing geniuses

Aaditi Isaac/TNN





Learning maths just became fun. Delhi University is reaching out to school students by promoting creative thinking, learning and action through maths education.“For the first time DU is doing something like this. The aim is to create a network between academic and infrastructural resources and reach out to the community and identify talented students in mathematics and science at a young age and promote engagement in research and science and mathematics,“ says Jyoti Sharma, assistant professor, faculty on deputation, Cluster Innovation Centre.
Little systematic research has been done in India to plan the identification processes and needs of gifted children. A national-level pilot project was initiated by the office of principal scientific advisor to the government of India in this direction in 2010 to identify children with high abilities in mathematics and science. The project was spread across three different locations, Delhi, Bangalore and rural Karnataka, across different age groups to accommodate the diversity at various levels such as regional, socio-cultural, economi cal and age level.
The first phase saw the partic pation of 37 schools, which comprised government, public, private, Kendriya Vidyalayas and minority schools and saw the participation of students from class V-VIII.
“We worked through a detailed identification process, which involved classroom observation, details from children about their interest, response in maths and science, project work, etc. An ability test was also set up to judge the level of students. We took the top 26 children for mentoring,“ adds Sharma.
The second phase will begin in June. “We are holding additional classes for the new batch of 170 students from MCD and NDMC schools on Saturdays, where students learn about different concept through a handson approach at CIC. We do not teach the school or college curriculum. We allow them to engage with ideas through experiments so that they develop the skill to think independently.“
The idea is to create a thinktank for the future and allow students to explore and empower themselves by doing what they love to do in maths and science.
“We would like to scale this project by identifying more students from other parts of India,“ she sums up.

Jun 02 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

YOUTH FOR CHANGE INDIA'S FUTURE

By Peter McLaughlin





Educationists share their views on the way forward for the youth through innovative leadership

The word “leadership“ seems to be on everyone's lips these days, and young people have every right to be confused: the more we talk about it, the more frequently glamorous international conferences such as the World Economic Forum are held, the more university courses and seminars and lectures we give on governance, the more opportunities for what Nassim Taleb disparagingly but accurately calls `The International Association of Name Droppers' to meet and not solve the world's problems, the worse things seem to get.One of the most universal laments of the early 21st century is about the dearth of men and women who can and will lead us to a shared vision of a future in which the world's citizens can live in peace and prosperity in a healthy human habitat.
Can leadership be taught to young people? I think that there are some theoretical foundations that can be laid through formal study of leadership styles, case studies, history and politics, but the critical factor is experiential.
Interestingly, the National Knowledge Commission's Report of the Working Group on Engineering Education 2008 analysis of what constitutes excellence in professional training concludes: “Character is perhaps the most important component but characterbuilding processes are difficult to define and implement.“ Having defined the essential element in engineering, as in other fields, educational institutions have simply ignored the report and concentrated on the acquisition of hard skills, that is, technical knowledge. Lamentations about a paucity of critical soft skills remain largely unanswered in our obsession with, and pursuit of, higher and higher, and more and more meaningless, admission cut-offs and end-of-course grades.
It is important to remember at times like this that Abraham Lincoln, one of the most visionary and courageous leaders of the last few centuries, was an auto-didact who had no formal education -and that was at a time when Harvard, Yale and Princeton all existed. But he did have character. Related to this, research conducted by Michigan State University shows that children active outdoors for five to 10 hours a week have a stronger sense of selffulfilment and purpose than their less active peers, as well as better developed imaginations and greater creativity.
Not surprisingly, they also have an enhanced appreciation of natural beauty. So, if we want to produce great leaders who will save our human habitat and solve global problems, we need to get them outdoors and not simply incarcerate them in classrooms dragging through textbooks, followed by hours of sterile tuitions.
The crushing failure of schools and education systems around the world to provide an environment in which children's citizenship can flourish and their potential for leadership blossom, is the tragedy of our time. Yet most school websites will claim that their institution is producing “the leaders of tomorrow,“ or some such variation on the slogan. Despite all the well-intentioned words, few can or will deliver on that promise.
Sometimes I wonder if our schools across the globe are primarily about creating more discerning shoppers and tourists, or clerical drones, rather than active citizens and genuine leaders who will make a difference in the world. Betterinformed consumers who submit to the overwhelming brand conformity pumped out in the media are unlikely to have the courage and the conviction to overturn their superior lifestyles in pursuit of some higher and nobler goal.
A good starting point, be sides getting outside into the real world more often, would be for every senior schoolchild to read (preferably under a tree), Dipankar Gupta's seminal work, Revolution from Above, with his urgent cry for young people to join “an elite of calling,“ a youth infused with a sense of mission and capable of the self-sacrifice that will transform India's future.
(The author is headmaster of The Doon School)

Jun 02 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Earth staring at mass extinction due to us

Tomas Jivanda

THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES





Thanks To Humans, Plants And Animals Disappearing 10 Times Faster, Says Study

H umanity is responsible for speeding up the natural rate of extinction for animal and plant species by up to 10,000 times, as the planet is on the brink of a dinosaur-scale sixth mass extinction, a new study has warned.Species are disappearing around 10 times faster than is widely believed in the scientific community, while in pre-human times extinction rates were slower than previously thought, researchers from Duke University in the US said. “We are on the verge of the sixth extinction,” lead author, biologist Stuart Pimm, said. “Whether we avoid it or not will depend on our actions.” Praised by independent experts as a landmark report, it fo
cuses around calculating a “death rate” of how many species become extinct each year out of 1 million species.Analysing the latest research, the team concluded that the pre-human extinction rate was 0.1 per year per 1 million, rather than 1 per 1 million, as a previous study led by Dr Pimm in 1995 suggested. Today, the rate is at least 1,000 times greater than the 0.1 figure at 100 extinctions per year per million species, but could be up to 1,000 per 1 million, Pimm added.
Although a combination of numerous factors is responsible for the acceleration in disappearance of species, the biggest is habitat loss caused by humans, Dr Pimm and co-author Clinton Jenkins from the Institute of Ecological Research in Brazil said.
Other major issues are invasive species introduced by humans crowding out native species, climate change affecting where species can survive and overfishing. A good example is the buffy-tufted-ear marmoset.Dr Jenkins said development in Brazil has decimated its habitat while a competing marmoset has taken over where it lives.
The oceanic white-tip shark
used to be one of the most abundant predators on Earth, but they have been hunted so much they are now rarely seen, added Dalhousie University marine biologist Boris Worm, who praised the study. “If we don't do anything, this will go the way of the dinosaurs.” Other species at great risk include the Sumatran rhinoceros, Amur leopard and mountain gorilla.Dr Pimm and Jenkins did however say there is some hope.
Both said the use of smartphones and applications such as iNaturalist will help ordinary people and biologists find species in trouble, they said. Once biologists know where endangered species are, they can try to save habitats and use captive breeding and other techniques to save the species, they said.

May 29 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

One in five in India is obese: Study

Kounteya Sinha

London TNN





One in five men and women in India is overweight and obese. Five out of every 100 boys and girls in the country below the age of 20, too, are overweight and obese, according to the most comprehensive global study to date on obesity rates. The study will be made public on Thursday.The data confirms that worldwide there has been a startling increase in rates of obesity and overweight in both adults (28% increase) and children (up by 47%) in the past 33 years, with the number of overweight and obese people rising from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, to be published in the medical journal ‘The Lancet’, said over 50% of
the 671 million obese individuals in the world live in 10 countries -the US, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany , Pakistan and Indonesia. The US accounted for 13% of obese people in 2013, with China and India jointly accounting for 15%.Around 62% of the world’s obese individuals live in developing countries. In highincome countries, some of the highest increases in adult obesity prevalence have been in the US (roughly a third of the adult population is obese), Australia (28% of men and 30% of women are obese) and the UK (around a quarter of the adult population is obese).
In the developed world, men have higher rates of obesity than women, while the opposite is true in developing countries.
The greatest gain in obesity occurred between 1992 and 2002, mainly among people aged between 20 and 40.
The prevalence of overweight and obesity in child
hood has increased remarkably in developed countries, from 17% in 1980 to 24% in 2013 in boys and from 16% to 23% in girls. Similarly, in developing countries, rates have risen from roughly 8% to 13% in both boys and girls over the three decades.Led by Professor Emmanuela Gakidou from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in the US, a team of international researchers performed a comprehensive search of the available data from surveys, reports and the scientific literature to track these trends in the prevalence ofobesity (BMI of 30kg/m² or higher) in 188 countries in all 21 regions of the world from 1980 to 2013.

May 29 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Internet to work faster on Moon than on Earth

Kounteya Sinha

London will soon TNN





The internet speed on the moon will soon be faster than that on earth. Scientists have found a way to get broadband speed of just under 20 megabits per second (mbps) on the Moon.A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory working with Nasa recently demonstrated the data communication technology which makes it possible to receive large amounts of data and stream video and audio from the moon to earth and vice versa.
A download speed of 19.44mbps was achieved through a laser-powered communication uplink through RF signals, along with an upload speed of 622mbps ­ that is 4,800 times faster than the previous record.
This download speed is more than six times faster than the download speed achieved by the best radio system ever flown to the moon, and the Nasa's Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) laser space terminal is half the weight and uses 25% less power than the radio system.
LLCD also demonstrated a data upload speed of 20 mbps on a laser beam transmitted from a ground station in New Mexico to the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer spacecraft in orbit; this speed is 5000 times faster than the upload speed of the best radio system flown to the moon.
“This will be the first time that we present both the implementation overview and how well it actually worked,“ said Mark Stevens of MIT Lincoln Laboratory . “The on-orbit performance was excellent and close to what we'd predicted, giving us confidence that we have a good understanding of the underlying physics,“ he added.

May 29 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

What Irani is looking at: IITs in every state, review of DU's FYUP

Akshaya Mukul

New Delhi: TNN





HRD minister Smriti Irani has given a list of 60 priority areas to her officials and asked them to work in that direction. The list is a mix of progressive initiatives, the Sangh Parivar’s ideas on education and the Gujarat model on teachers’ training. During her meeting with senior officials, she asked each of them to come up with big ticket ideas.Irani wants her ministry to give an assessment of Delhi University’s four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), look into the possibility of setting up IITs in all states as well as Yale-Pan IIT network and map the best education practices in the country. At the same time she wants ministry to see how Vedic studies can be given prominence. “How can we involve traditional vedic education? What about education for life in
stead of degrees?” she asked senior ministry officials.Also, instead of directly changing NCERT school textbooks, the ministry officials have been asked to compile complaints about “textbooks and curriculum” from parents. A minis
try official said, “National Curriculum Framework is changed every ten years. It is due now. First the NCF will be reviewed. Textbooks will be changed on the lines of new NCF.“ Irani wants ministry to take up teaching of mathematics and science in madarsas and ensure adequate steps to stop sexual abuse in schools.Among the priority areas, Irani wants a national association of parents so that their voice is heard in all aspects of education.
“Parents are the most important stakeholders but their voice is never heard.
It is a good initiative,” said one official.
The new minister also wants to evaluate the contribution of alumni network in the growth of an institution. She also wanted reforms in legal education but since the subject is handled by law ministry it is unlikely that HRD ministry will be able to do anything. “We can build a synergy,” a source said.
Irani has made it clear to officials that all ministry notes and papers should be precise with sub-heads like background, current status, challenges, stakeholders and possible solution.