ICSSR Sponsored Two-Week Capacity Building Workshop for Young Faculty in Social Sciences 26 October 2015 – 08 November 2015

Venue/Host: Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar

About: Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar is organising a “Two-Week Capacity Building Workshop for Young Faculty in Social Sciences” from 26 October 2015 to 08 November 2015. The purpose of the programme is to enhance the capability of conducting research among young faculty members of Social Sciences and to subsequently publish in the form of journal articles/books. The workshop will expose the participants to research methods, data analysis and academic writings. The aim is to give participants hands-on experience in conducting field survey, preparing a field report, project proposal and writing quality research papers/articles. There will be interactive sessions, exercises and a discussion of field report, project proposals and sample research papers/outlines prepared by the participants during the training.
Who may apply?: The course is open for faculty members from all disciplines of Social Sciences. Thisprogramme is considered equivalent to a 2-week Research Methodology Course while applying for promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme.
How to apply?: Interested candidates can download the application form available on the University website http://www.cug.ac.in/ and send along with:
(a) A brief CV explaining all academic details with work experience and publications.
(b) 200-words write-up on how research engagement will influence his/her teaching and engagement with the students.
There is no registration fee for shortlisted participants.Applications should be sent to:Dr. Sanjay Kumar Jha
Dean, School of International Studies
Central University of Gujarat
Sector 29, Gandhinagar - 382030

Applications can also be sent via email at cbw.cug@gmail.com. Only completely filled forms, duly signed and forwarded through proper channel will be accepted. The applications will be scrutinized on the basis of academic qualifications, work experience, publications and the 200-words write up sent by the applicants.
Application Schedule1. Last date for receipt of application form: 30 September 2015
2. Final list of selected candidates: 05 October 2015
Travel and Accommodation of Participants: Participants will be reimbursed to and fro travel fares as per the ICSSR norms.
Accommodation to outstation participants will be provided on a twin sharing basis.
For any query please e-mail at cbw.cug@gmail.com or call on: 079-23977403, +91-8140470358, +91-9825728984.
Source: http://www.cug.ac.in/ (23.09.2015)

The Human Body
We are blessed with so many ways to heal ourselves holistically . The human body , said to be the pinnacle of evolution, is good at rejuvenation. The body is the most sophisticated equipment in the universe, so it should also be the most efficient at healing itself.

By freeing our mind, we allow the body to heal itself automatically. I had been told that bone degeneration that I had could never be reversed. Even under Ayurveda, the doctor who treated me successfully through oil massages said, “Your condition will improve and will never worsen again, but what has already been lost cannot be easily regenerated.“

While I accept whatever comes my way in life, I would never believe in self-defeating things suggested to the mind, such as that something is incurable.Sure enough, today , when my X-rays are examined, doctors are surprised to see that the bone has regenerated.

The body is a great healing machine. It can rejuvenate itself if we accept everything without reacting inordinately .Once the mind is calm and free, nature's self-sustaining, positive energies become available to us. In turn, we become bigger than the problem facing us. We can then act with greater clarity -and efficacy .

Once we accept our situation, and are convinced about the nature of our true `Self ' and we refuse to be miserable, everything else falls in place. Otherwise, we can search endlessly for solutions, but while these may provide some temporary relief, a total cure is possible only when the mind is free.

The encryption debate

The thing to appreciate most about the government’s draft encryption policy, brought forth with the ostensible goal of ensuring privacy and promoting Internet security, was the speed with which it was withdrawn. There was little in the draft that was true to the goal; the provisions, instead, had enough in them to harm the cause. Encryption, a process in which digital messages are scrambled so they can’t be accessed by anyone other than those they are meant for, is a means to ensure freedom of expression and to keep information secure in the digital world. The aliases one uses in the social media environment can be a fun way to keep casual users from identifying you. But that isn’t enough. The digital world also comprises criminals and terrorists, and repressive regimes. Some of them would not only want to know who you are and hack into your information and messages but also have the means to do so. Encryption keeps intruders at bay. So, on Monday when the draft was released, experts and netizens could quickly figure out that the provisions had the real potential to undermine encryption. One of the provisions sought to give the government access to encrypted data that rest with government departments (save the sensitive ones), corporates and individuals. Another provision required users to store all encrypted communications for a period of 90 days. The backlash had its effect; the draft was withdrawn the very next day.

Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad rightly and quickly chose to emphasise that it was “just a draft and not the view of the government”. But while the draft goes back to the drawing board, it is important to realise that any debate on encryption isn’t going to be easy and straightforward. Bigger battles await us. The world over, administrations have sought weaker encryption standards or backdoor access to Internet products. They present this as a public safety vs privacy issue. Administrations cite public safety as the reason for asking for encryption access. FBI Director James Comey even complained to U.S. lawmakers recently: “We cannot break strong encryption.” British Prime Minister David Cameron has already created a stir by calling for a ban on strong encryption. Granting governments the power to tap into every message and item of information and store them, will have the potential to make the system extremely vulnerable. David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, wrote in a report in May: “It is a seemingly universal position among technologists that there is no special access that can be made available only to government authorities, even ones that, in principle, have the public interest in mind.” Access to encrypted data should, therefore, be provided as an exception, not as a rule.

Keywords: Whatsapp messages, SMS services, mail messages, draft policy, New Encryption Policy, Information Technology Act 2000, social networking sites

Subramanian Swamy could be next JNU VC

Sobhana K Nair in New Delhi mirrorfeedback TWEETS @sobhananair





BJP leader Subramanian Swamy (pictured) could be the next JNU vice chancellor, according to a local daily. The Human Resources Ministry neither confirmed nor denied the report. The term of current VC, Prof S K Sopory, ends December.Swamy refused to confirm whether the minister, Smriti Irani, offered him the job. “Why should I confirm or deny news printed anywhere?
This isn't the first time I've been offered a job. I was offered post of chairman Brics Bank in China, then Maharashtra governor. I turned them down. I'm a five-time MP and twice minister, the post has to be of my status,“ he told Mirror. If Swamy is to be appointed as VC, few rules will have to be twisted.For one, their advertisement said the applicant should not exceed 65 years. Swamy, born in 1939, is 75.
Swamy taught economics at IIT Delhi in 1969-72. He was sacked by the Indira Gandhi government, challenged the decision in court, and was reinstated in 1991. He filed a suit seeking recovery of salary and demanded Rs 70 lakh. The matter remains undecided despite nudges from HRD ministry to IIT to settle it in Swamy's favour.
Source: Mumbai Mirror, 24-09-2015

How China's Become an Innovation Dynamo





We have to learn from, not mock, Chinese R&D

Forget China's slowdown for a moment. A recent report in The Economist, based on research by McKinsey Global Institute and PwC, confirms China's transition to a global innovation powerhouse. The private sector drives innovation in China, going by the ability of companies to expand revenues and raise profits as proof of successful innovation, rather than the number of patents filed. A PwC survey also shows that Chinese companies are increasing investments in R&D faster than competitors in any other market. It debunks the notion that Chinese companies are mere copycats, capable only of incremental improvements. Data shows that Chinese companies compare with Silicon Valley firms in innovation.China is an innovation heavyweight due to its massive catch-up in R&D investment and education. World Bank data shows China's R&D spend at about 1.98% of GDP in 2012. It wants to eventually match the R&D spend in the US, at 2.8% of GDP . That's huge compared to India's pal try 0.9% of a much smaller GDP . Indi an companies spend minuscule sums on R&D and often pass off market re search expenses as R&D outlay to get a tax break. The best R&D should hap pen in Indian universities and compa nies, not just India-based R&D centres of multinational companies, if India is to excel in manufacturing.
Huawei spends about $5 billion a year on R&D, on par with Ericsson, and is in the forefront of research in 5G mobile communications. There is no Indian player in this space. WeChat, developed by Tencent, is seen as a good example of Chinese innovation. Chinese firms also adapt new technologies to the mass market quickly . To get there, India needs to build on its own strengths. It should align research with teaching institutions, instead of R&D being consigned to specialised state-run laboratories. This will enable industry to commission serious research projects to university departments. Indian companies also need to be more imaginative, and that requires quality education. The government must push reform, and not just aspire to gain from China's pain.
Source: Economic Times, 24-09-2015

Open Source Software Could Save Rs 8,254 Cr in Edu Alone'

Neha Alawadhi

New Delhi:





Born Free An IIM-Bangalore study has estimated that schools and other such institutions could save 8,254 crore by adopting free and open source software

Use of free and open source software could help India save more than Rs8,300 crore in government expenses on education and police only , says a new study , vindicating the Centre's move to promote such software as part of its Digital India initiative.Schools and other institutions could save an estimated Rs 8,254 crore by adopting free and open source software (FOSS) while police departments could save about ` . 51.20 crore, said a study led by Rahul De, Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
The study , `Economic Impact of Free and Open Source Software Usage in Government' looked at education and police departments across seven states between October 2013 and April 2014. Findings can be applied to most areas of egovernance, which rely heavily on platforms and service delivery , De said.
The study findings show that use of open source software leads to huge cost savings and promotes a do-it-yourself attitude towards technology amongst officials.
“Both in the education and police departments, where vendors have a strong presence, the decision makers have low familiarity with FOSS and confidence in expressing their preference, as one respondent stated he was worried about recommending FOSS, but had no fears about recommending proprietary software,“ De said.
The government over the past few months has adopted policies supporting development, procurement and sharing of open source software for government applications and services, so that projects under Digital India “ensure efficiency , transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs“.
De said the government can also contribute to the “Make in India“ initiative if it uses open source licences and shares the source code with the larger open source community . “For example, the e-Office mission mode project can be shared with the larger open source community . India is an IT superpower; smaller countries which do not have IT power will be looking at some of the software we build and learn from our experience,“ he said.
De, along with Lewin Sivamalai and Ravi A Rao of IIM-Bangalore, and independent researchers Sharmila Chakravarty , Supriya Dey and Uma Bharath, used desk research, right to information applications and field visits to collect data from sources for the study that covered Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and Jharkhand, where the departments studied had either considered or were actively using FOSS.
Among the education departments, Kerala was found to be using FOSS most effectively for schools and benefited in the form of massive cost savings, inculcation of a do-it yourself culture amongst teachers and students and active participation in the education process. All other states were found to be dependent on proprietary software such as Microsoft Windows.
“State governments are encouraged to rely on vendors, either through the build-ownoperate-transfer (BOOT) model or as system integrators, in order to meet their implemen tation deadlines,“ the study said. “This approach discourages the do-it-yourself approach as this would require more time and resources. This dependence on vendors leads to a choice of proprietary software even though FOSS is a viable choice,“ it noted.
States using proprietary software ended up paying huge costs for licences, training and maintenance.
For police departments, researchers looked at government's Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS), which aims to connect 20,000 police stations and crime record bureaus using real time data. The project was approved in 2009 in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, with an initial outlay of . 2,000 crore. The core system ` for CCTNS has been developed by Wipro in two versions--Java, which is open source, and .Net, which was proprietary before Microsoft open sourced it earlier this year.
The study found none of the states used a complete open source system for CCTNS.“There were no strong benefits or costs of using either stack for the CCTNS. Costs were being paid by the Centre, hence the issue was not strong,“ it said.
In Jharkhand, however, there were some committed FOSS enthusiasts in the department who built additional products using such software, it said.
The typical cost for maintaining a single desktop computer that uses Windows at police department was found to be over . 12,000 a year, which included ` an average of Rs 6,400 for Windows desktop licence, ` . 5,200 for a Microsoft Office licence, and `. 455 for anti-virus.
“Respondents in the police department expressed their inability to state why FOSS had or had not been chosen,“ the study said. “They said that the decision had been made by `higher-ups' and they were following that. This is in contrast to the CCTNS policy that states that software choice is decided by the state implementers along with the SI,“ it said.

Source: Economic Times, 24-09-2015

13-year-old Odisha girl wins prestigious Google award

A 13-year-old girl from Odisha’s backward Koraput district bagged a prestigious $10,000 award at the finals of the Google Science Fair in the United States late on Tuesday for her low-cost water purifier using corn cobs.

Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai will be supported in her research for one year by the well-known journal, Scientific American, for winning the Community Impact Award that honours projects which make a practical difference by addressing environmental, health and resources challenges.

“It is a big achievement for a student from a backward district to sparkle in a global platform. Her achievement will boost the confidence of other children to make their dreams a reality,” said Pallabi Mahapatro, Srisai’s mentor and teacher.

The class 9 student at Delhi Public School, Damanjodi, was the only Indian among the eight winners at the renowned fair. Five others are of Indian origin -- three of them are from the US and one each from the United Kingdom and Singapore.

“Lalita has made Odisha and the country proud with her achievement,” state chief minister Naveen Patnaik said.

The project used the scientific principle of adsorption – where contaminants are trapped on the surface of a material, creating an outside coating and purifying the water of the pollutants – to clean domestic waste water using corn cobs collected from farmers.

The cobs were sun-dried for a month and then cut into long and small pieces, ground to power and burnt in proper condition to form activated charcoal. The waste water was then passed through all the different layers, and it was found that most industrial effluents and chemicals were absent from the treated water.

In her project report, Srisai said a byproduct of man’s action is the severe waste burden on the earth, while rapid development in lifestyle and technology has accelerated the release of contaminants into air, water and land, rendering it unsafe for organisms.

“This study reveals a novel and cheap method of cleaning water waste from domestic and industrial sources by utilizing one of the most under-utilised agricultural wastes,” it observed.

Source: Hindustan Times, 24-09-2015