Academics must question more: Romila

Urges intellectuals to resist assault on liberal thought

Historian Romila Thapar asked a full house of Delhi’s intelligentsia on Sunday why changes in syllabi and objections to books were not being challenged.

Prof. Thapar was delivering the third Nikhil Chakravartty Memorial Lecture here on Sunday, titled ‘To Question or not to Question: That is the Question.”

“There are more academics in existence than ever before but most prefer not to confront authority even if it debars the path of free thinking. Is this because they wish to pursue knowledge undisturbed or because they are ready to discard knowledge, should authority require them to do so,” the eminent historian asked.

Tracing the lineage of the modern public intellectual to Shamanic philosophers of ancient India, Prof. Thapar said the non-Brahminical thinkers of ancient India were branded as Nastikas or non-believers. “I am reminded of the present day where if you don’t accept what Hindutva teaches, you’re all branded together as Marxists,” she added.

“Public intellectuals, playing a discernible role, are needed for such explorations as also to articulate the traditions of rational thought in our intellectual heritage. This is currently being systematically eroded,” she explained.

Prof. Thapar stressed that intellectuals were especially needed to speak out against the denial of civil rights and the events of genocide. “The combination of drawing upon wide professional respect, together with concern for society can sometimes establish the moral authority of a person and ensure public support.”

However she said academics and experts shied away from questioning the powers of the day.

Why no reaction?

“This is evident from the ease with which books are banned and pulped or demands made that they be burned and syllabi changed under religious and political pressure or the intervention of the state. Why do such actions provoke so little reaction from academics, professionals and others among us who are interested in the outcome of these actions? The obvious answer is the fear of the instigators — who are persons with the backing of political authority,” Prof. Thapar said.

“When it comes to religious identities and their politics, we witness hate campaigns based on absurd fantasies about specific religions and we no longer confront them frontally. Such questioning means being critical of organisations and institutions that claim a religious intention but use their authority for non-religious purposes,” she said.

Prof. Thapar rued the fact that not only were public intellectuals missing from the front lines of defending liberal values, but also alleged a deliberate conspiracy to enforce what she termed a “Lowest Common Denominator” education.

“It is not that we are bereft of people who can think autonomously and ask relevant questions. But frequently where there should be voices, there is silence. Are we all being co-opted too easily by the comforts of conforming,” she asked.

Why Western Ghats in Karnataka receive more monsoon rainfall

Due to the greater width, there is more time for drops to coalesce and precipitate

In a recent study of rainfall trends using remotely sensed satellite data and actual field data from the Indian Meteorological Department of the Western Ghats region over the past 14 years, it was found that during the monsoon months of June, July, August, September, the average rainfall was more over Karnataka than Maharashtra and Kerala.

The Western Ghats run parallel to the Arabian Sea coast for approximately 1,600 km from the Maharashtra-Gujarat border to the southern tip of Kerala.

There are several reasons for this. First, the mountain topography in Karnataka is broader than the narrow topography of the Ghats in Maharashtra. Due to the greater width of the mountains, the rain bearing winds have to necessarily travel a longer distance and have more time for the drops to coalesce and precipitate as rainfall, resulting in higher rainfall. In contrast, the narrow width of the Ghats in Maharashtra allows the rain-bearing wind to cross over to the leeward side rapidly before precipitation can occur. As for Kerala, the Ghats there are in the form of isolated mountains, where the rain-bearing winds can easily cross over to the leeward side through the gaps in between without precipitation occurring.

Second, the slope of the mountain has a direct bearing on the possibility of precipitation. This is borne out by the Ghats of Karnataka where the mountains are gently sloping, compared to the steep slopes of the Ghats in Maharashtra and Kerala.

The air parcel will retain its energy and speed for a longer time when the slope is gradual. This will provide sufficient vertical motion to cloud droplets to grow by collision–coalescence process and hence form precipitation.

Third, the gentle slope provides a greater area for sunlight absorption and heating leading to greater convection when compared with an abrupt slope i.e. less Ghat area such as that of the Maharashtra and Kerala Ghats.

Fourth, the continuous mountain range presents a greater barrier to rain-bearing winds than a range comprising isolated mountains with gaps in between where the winds can easily pass to the leeward side. Unlike in the case of Kerala, the Ghats in Maharashtra and Karnataka are continuous.

The study carried out by Sayli A. Tawde and Charu Singh was published recently in the International Journal of Climatology. Ms. Tawde is pursuing her PhD in the Centre for Atmospheric & Ocean Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and Ms. Singh is a scientist at the Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, ISRO, Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

Interestingly, the study found that often areas of heavy rainfall were far away from the summits of the mountains, as much as 50 km away.

“The reason for this is that there is more chance of rainfall occurring at the foot of the mountain as there is greater depth for the moisture in the clouds to coalesce into big drops which finally reach the ground,” notes Ms Tawde in an email to this correspondent.

Keywords: Western Ghats, monsoon rainfall, satellite data, Maharashtra-Gujarat border, Indian Meteorological Department

Oct 30 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

UGC's panel on 7 deemed univs overlooks own rules

Akshaya Mukul

New Delhi:





When the Supreme Court ordered inspection of seven deemed universities, it had little clue how the University Grants Commission will dilute the process by disregarding its own rules.UGC's inspection committee is headed by its secretary JS Sandhu and consists of OP Kalra of University College of Medical Sciences, Ramesh Dadich of ICSSR, SP Goyal, joint secretary, HRD ministry and Sunita Siwach, a UGC official.
This has happened despite UGC regulation of 2009 setting specific norms how to constitute an inspection committee to ascertain the financial needs of a university or its standard of teaching, examination and research, or for both. The regulation says the committee should consist of two serving or retired vice-chancellors of any central or state university; not less than three and not more than five members, at least one a woman; from amongst professors having special knowledge of the courses being conducted in the university; one member from each of the councils with jurisdiction over the courses in the university and one member from National Academic and Accreditation Council. The regulation also says the committee should be headed by one of the two VCs.
HRD ministry sources justified the constitution of the committee on the ground that it is not a regular inspection committee but could not answer how HRD and UGC officials could be part of it.
It is not only the constitution of the inspection committee that is attracting criticism, now it has come out that the UGC committee that reviewed 41 deemed universities had actually put eight of them in the list to be disqualified as deemed university. But in the last minute, one university from Uttar Pradesh was moved out of the list.

Oct 30 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

India drops 2 spots to 142nd in `ease of doing biz' index

Chidanand Rajghatta

Washington





India has slipped two places to stand 142nd out of 189 countries ranked by the World Bank for `ease of doing business', underscoring the tough task that lies ahead of the Narendra Modi government which has said it wants to make India a businessfriendly country .On the 10 parameters used to measure ease of doing business in WB's 2015 report, covering the period from June 2013 to May 2014 (when UPA was in power), India came close to the bottom in two categories. It stood a wretched 184th in the category `dealing with construction permits' and 186th in `enforcing contracts'.
On the bright side, India stood 7th -an improvement of 14 places -when it came to `protecting minority investors'. This is the only category in which it has shown an improvement from 2013, when it was ranked 21 in this category and 140 in the overall ease of doing business.
All of India's neighbours, except for Bangladesh (173) and Afghanistan (193), were ranked higher.
Tops in consumer confidence again
India continues to top the global consumer confidence ndex, but given the slowdown n discretionary spends, it has dipped by two points in the hird quarter of 2014, according o a Nielsen survey released on Wednesday. The survey said hat India scored 126 in the hird quarter, followed closely by Indonesia (125) in second position. P 19 India's ranking in other eight categories are:
Starting a Business (158th), Getting Electricity (137), Registering Property (121), Getting Credit (36), Paying Taxes (156), Trading Across Borders (126), and Resolving Insolvency (137).
Getting construction permits in India involved an average of 25 procedures that took 186 days and cost 28% of the warehouse value. Enforcing contracts took 46 procedures and 1,420 days or nearly four years. Getting electricity took 106 days and registering a property 47 days.
Indicators measured in Mumbai, India's business epicenter, showed it required 13 procedures to start a business, and 30 days to accomplish this, compared to an average of 4.8 procedures and 9.2 days in advanced economies.
The Modi government, which aggressively made ease of doing business part of its agenda and has already initiated some steps, has plenty to chew on in the report that chronicles how enervating it is to start a business in India.For instance, it takes five days to pay stamp duties online, file all incorporation forms and documents online and obtain the certificate of incorporation and five days to request and obtain Certificate to Commence Operations.
It takes between a week and 12 days for each of the following procedures: Obtain a Permanent Account Number (PAN) from an authorized franchise or agent appointed by National Securities Depository Services Limited (NSDL) or Unit Trust of India (UTI) ­ seven days; Register with Employees' Provident Fund Organization --12 days, simultaneous with previous procedure: Register for VAT online -10 days, simultaneous with previous procedure; Register for medical insurance (ESIC) -nine days, simultaneous with previous procedure; Obtain a tax account number for income taxes deducted at source from the Assessing Office in the Mumbai Income Tax Department ­ seven days.
China topped the neighbourhood at 90.

It will take 81 years for gender parity at workplace, says WEF report

It ranks 114 out of 142 countries in World Economic Forum’s 2014 gender gap index

India, which ranks low on narrowing the gender gap in education, health and equal pay for equal work, has, however, taken a high position on the political empowerment sub-index, shows the annual gender survey of the World Economic Forum.

Placing India at 114 out of 142 countries vis-à-vis removing gender-based disparities, the survey puts the country at number 15 on the scorecard for political empowerment. India also tops the list of countries on the years with woman head of state (over the past 50 years). While it fell 13 places to 114th slot, politically it is ranked higher than the United States and the United Kingdom. It ranks 111 on the list of countries which have women in Parliament and 107 on the list of countries with women ministers.

Oct 29 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Prevention is the key

NAMRATA KOHLI





FAST FACTSKnowledge and awareness about an impending climate danger help one equip oneself with sufficient aids to combat the threat.
Weather forecasting is the attempt by meteorologists to predict the state of the atmosphere at some future time and the weather conditions that may be expected

Scorching summers, bone-chilling winters and deluges that resemble cloudbursts are signs that all is not well with climatic conditions.Climate change is the single biggest environmental and humanitarian crisis of our time.The question arises how do we address this? There are a few personal lifestyle changes that one can make to mitigate the risk and certain initiatives can be taken up at the level of community as well. Things that each of us must do to manage and mitigate the environmental risks and challenges.
Like they say, forewarned is forearmed.Weather forecasting is one way to anticipate emergencies and provide protection for human life and buildings.While global warming is leading to frequent weather extremes such as drought, flooding, hurricanes and tsunamis, one way to reduce the risks of people and structures is by weather forecasting. Improved weather tracking would contain the risk to a great extent.
In this regard, technological intervention in the name of weather radar systems will be pertinent. This is basically a surveillance system that allows one to detect weather threat with greater precision. It can be used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its form such as rain, snow, hail, etc.
Apart from this, as far as possible we must make an effort to progressively reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and employ alternatives such as biodiesel, wind power, etc.
One way to dramatically curtail transportation fuel needs is to move closer to work, use mass transit, or switch to walking, cycling or some other mode of transport that does not require anything other than human energy.There is also the option of working from home and telecommuting several days a week.
Swapping old gadgets with more efficient ones would save billions of kilowatt-hours. Purchasing energyefficient gadgets and gizmos is an important way to save both energy and money. Think green when making purchases and go for efficient refrigerators, air conditioners and other appliances. Look for products that will last the longest and have the least impact on the environment. Knowledge and awareness about an impending climate danger help one equip oneself with sufficient aids to combat the threat. Weather forecasting is the attempt by meteorologists to predict the state of the atmosphere at some future time and the weather conditions that may be expected.Accurate weather forecasts can tell a farmer the best time to plant; an airport control tower what information to send to planes that are landing and taking off; and residents of a coastal region when a hurricane might strike.
Should there be an impending crisis then one needs to be well prepared with disaster management or mitigation techniques. This implies using community resources to fight the effects of an event until the situation can be stabilized. Through disaster management, we cannot completely counteract the damage but it is possible to minimize the risks through early warning, provide developmental plans for recuperation from the disaster, generate communication and medical resources, and aid in rehabilitation and post-disaster reconstruction. The 72 hours following a major event is the most difficult time because of a lack of coordination among relief organizations.Problems that interrupt rather than coordinate the rescue efforts of all groups involved often occur because of hasty decision making under complicated circumstances and the large number of organizations, which are unsure of their roles.

Oct 29 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Cutting-edge solutions for natural disasters





When compared to the world, India has been a safer land in terms of natural calamities. However, the times have changed in the past few years. Having witnessed some severe natural calamities due to floods in Uttarakand last year and Kashmir this year, advanced disaster resistance and management has become an absolute necessity for India. Japan is one of the most prone countries to natural calamities due to earthquakes, floods, typhoons, etc. It turns out to be one of the reasons they have one of the best disaster management systems in the world.Before1960 in Japan, the measurement against the flood was not sufficient and thousands of people were killed or lost lives each time heavy typhoons hit the country. The Japanese government then made a fiveyear-plan for flood control. The measures included flood control by improving bank, dam, river system and weather radar, etc., and every five year the number of flood victims began to decrease.
Toshiba has been supplying many weather radars and its applied systems to government and autonomous companies. Toshiba delivered its first weather radar system to the government of Japan in 1955.
In India, Toshiba plans to promote total solutions that help to minimize the impacts of disasters by utilizing highly accurate, high density information obtained from the cuttingedge weather radars.
One of latest offerings in the safety solutions, Toshiba is already in the process of implementing its weather radar system in Kashmir. With the starting point already made, Toshiba will expand its offerings in disaster resistant solutions for India and its commitment is to bring in total solutions for disaster resistance to all the regions of the nation in need. The entry of Toshiba's new business venture, which is focussed on solving yet another social issue of India, reassures Toshiba's commitment to the people of Indian society.