Social Change
Table of Contents
December 2014; 44 (4)
Wednesday, January 07, 2015
Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents
Jan 07 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)
`Fears of man-made global warming are exaggerated'
Anahita Mukherji
|
Mumbai:
|
Two of three scientists at a session on climate change and society at the Indian Science Congress on Tuesday felt that fears of man-made global warming were greatly exaggerated. Their presence at the conference was particularly significant in light of the current `development Vs environment' debates.“While I agree that glaciers are melting because of global warming, if this is because of man, then what was the reason for the melting of the glaciers in the Gondwana period long before man arrived on the planet?“ asked Dhruv Sen Singh, Centre of Advanced Study in Geology , University of Lucknow.
“Climate change is a natural phenomenon while pollution is caused by man. We are definitely accelerating climate change, but we cannot predict the rate or extent of climate change that can be attributed to man,“ Singh said. According to him, fears of climate change amount to propaganda and “unnecessarily cause panic“.
“The Cretaceous period 65 million years ago was the hottest in the history of the earth. Man was not around at the time,“ he added.
Singh said that if climate change was the cause of glaciers retreating, they should all be retreating at the same rate. “But in reality, they are retreating at different rates, and some are advancing,“ said Singh. “Despite the melting of glaciers, only at some places the sea level is rising, whereas at others it is constant, possibly due to the sinking of land,“ he added.
As for extreme climatic events such as the Uttarakhand cloudburst, he said such cloudbursts were not new to the Himalayas. “These are cyclical events but not catastrophes. The devastation in Uttarakhand was caused by people living in hazardprone areas,“ he added.
Rajesh Agnihotri, senior scientist at the Radio and Atmospheric Science Division, National Physics Laboratory , who mapped changing trends in India's monsoons, said there was nothing to suggest that this was because of manmade climate change. “Natural forces like solar intensity appear to be dominating monsoons to a greater extent than man-made climate change,“ he added.
“Climate change is a natural phenomenon while pollution is caused by man. We are definitely accelerating climate change, but we cannot predict the rate or extent of climate change that can be attributed to man,“ Singh said. According to him, fears of climate change amount to propaganda and “unnecessarily cause panic“.
“The Cretaceous period 65 million years ago was the hottest in the history of the earth. Man was not around at the time,“ he added.
Singh said that if climate change was the cause of glaciers retreating, they should all be retreating at the same rate. “But in reality, they are retreating at different rates, and some are advancing,“ said Singh. “Despite the melting of glaciers, only at some places the sea level is rising, whereas at others it is constant, possibly due to the sinking of land,“ he added.
As for extreme climatic events such as the Uttarakhand cloudburst, he said such cloudbursts were not new to the Himalayas. “These are cyclical events but not catastrophes. The devastation in Uttarakhand was caused by people living in hazardprone areas,“ he added.
Rajesh Agnihotri, senior scientist at the Radio and Atmospheric Science Division, National Physics Laboratory , who mapped changing trends in India's monsoons, said there was nothing to suggest that this was because of manmade climate change. “Natural forces like solar intensity appear to be dominating monsoons to a greater extent than man-made climate change,“ he added.
Jan 07 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Number of JEE aspirants falls by 50,000
For the first time in recent years, the number of aspirants for JEE (Main), the all-India engineering entrance exam which is also the first screening for IIT admissions, has dropped. Around 13.03 lakh students registered this year against last year's number of 13.56 lakh. Experts believe this could be an indicator of saturation and waning interest in engineering.The last day for registration was December 27, but the deadline was extended to January 10 for aspirants from Manipur, which recently joined the exam. An official from the Central Board of Sec ondary Education, which conducts the exam, said that the number might go up by a few hundreds but would not make a major difference to the total.
About 1.86 lakh aspirants have opted for the online test, up from last year's 1.71 lakh. While IIT-Bombay professor D B Phatak said the number of aspirants has remained constant for some years now, G D Yadav, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology , Matunga, said interest in engineering education was waning because of the poor quality of institutes.“Many graduates don't get good placements and eventually have to do management programmes to get jobs,“ he said.
|
Tuesday, January 06, 2015
Education should develop one’s personality, not robots: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said that an educational institute mustn’t produce robots and should develop one’s over all personality instead.
He added, “21st century is an era of knowledge. We have to contribute something or the other that benefits the world at large”.
Criticising the present Indian education system at a function in Banaras Hindu University, Modi said, “our education apparatus can’t be one that produces robots. That can happen in a laboratory. There has to be overall personality development. Today, the entire world requires good teachers. Good education is linked with good teachers. We need to think about how we can have good teachers. After my experience of 6 months, I can say the world is looking at India,”.
“Every school can develop a mastery on any one aspect of Varanasi and this can be a great way to showcase Kashi,” the Prime Minister said adding,”A tourist will come here drawn to the beautiful past but he or she will stay when we create systems that make them stay here,”.
HRD minister Smriti Irani was also present at the occasion. Taking forward his Swachh Bharat campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revisited his constituency and lauded people for helping rid the Assi Ghat of mounds of soil and garbage to restore the historical site to its old glory.
In the holy city to mark the Good Governance Day, he supervised the cleanliness campaign, nominated various people and organisations to join the ‘Swachh Bharat (clean India)’ campaign launched by his government on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday on October 2 last. Modi had wielded a spade on November 8 to remove silt deposited at the ghat along the banks of the Ganga as part of his clean India campaign.
“People, social organisations, municipal corporation and state government have played an important role and we are seeing today that the ghat, which was full of soil, is now back to its old beauty along side Mother Ganga,” he said in a brief address.
The Prime Minister nominated for the campaign Nagaland governor Padmanabha Acharya, former IPS officer and activist Kiran Bedi, former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly, comedian Kapil Sharma, classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, Ramoji Rao of Eenadu group and Aroon Purie of India Today group. He had nominated some people during his last visit as well.
In a first, he also nominated some organisations which included Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Eenadu and India Today groups besides ‘dabbawallah’ of Mumbai, who deliver home-made food to lakhs of people in the city.
- See more at: http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2015/01/education-should-develop-personality-not-robots-pm/#sthash.IoRuxNtN.dpuf“Every school can develop a mastery on any one aspect of Varanasi and this can be a great way to showcase Kashi,” the Prime Minister said adding,”A tourist will come here drawn to the beautiful past but he or she will stay when we create systems that make them stay here,”.
HRD minister Smriti Irani was also present at the occasion. Taking forward his Swachh Bharat campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revisited his constituency and lauded people for helping rid the Assi Ghat of mounds of soil and garbage to restore the historical site to its old glory.
In the holy city to mark the Good Governance Day, he supervised the cleanliness campaign, nominated various people and organisations to join the ‘Swachh Bharat (clean India)’ campaign launched by his government on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday on October 2 last. Modi had wielded a spade on November 8 to remove silt deposited at the ghat along the banks of the Ganga as part of his clean India campaign.
“People, social organisations, municipal corporation and state government have played an important role and we are seeing today that the ghat, which was full of soil, is now back to its old beauty along side Mother Ganga,” he said in a brief address.
The Prime Minister nominated for the campaign Nagaland governor Padmanabha Acharya, former IPS officer and activist Kiran Bedi, former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly, comedian Kapil Sharma, classical dancer Sonal Mansingh, Ramoji Rao of Eenadu group and Aroon Purie of India Today group. He had nominated some people during his last visit as well.
In a first, he also nominated some organisations which included Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Eenadu and India Today groups besides ‘dabbawallah’ of Mumbai, who deliver home-made food to lakhs of people in the city.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)