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Tuesday, September 20, 2016

We can change this’: World leaders at UN approve plan for refugee crisis

With more people forced to flee their homes than at any time since World War II, global leaders on Monday approved a declaration aimed at providing a more coordinated and humane response to the refugee crisis that has strained resources and stoked divisions from Africa to Europe.
The issue of what to do about the world’s 65.3 million displaced people took centre stage at the UN General Assembly with leaders from the 193 member states converging on New York for the first-ever summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.
“The bitter truth is this summit was called because we have been largely failing. Failing the long-suffering people of Syria, in not ending the war in its infancy. Failing others in now chronic conflict zones, for the same reason. Failing millions of migrants who deserve far more than lives marked by cradle-to-grave indignity and desperation,” said Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
Zeid praised the political consensus reached in approving the New York Declaration on Migrants and Refugees, but warned against complacency and self-congratulation.
He said xenophobia is a major factor contributing to failure thus far.
“We can change this ... but not when the defenders of what is right and good are being outflanked in too many countries by race-baiting bigots, who seek to gain, or retain, power by wielding prejudice and deceit, at the expense of those most vulnerable,” Zeid said.
The declaration no concrete commitments and is not legally binding but rather calls on countries to protect refugees’ human rights, boost humanitarian aid and increase resettlement of refugees.
“Today’s summit represents a breakthrough in our collective efforts to address the challenges of human mobility,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, adding that the declaration will mean “more children can attend school; more workers can securely seek jobs abroad, instead of being at the mercy criminal smugglers, and more people will have real choices about whether to move once we end conflict.”
The document seeks to standardise responses to refugee situations and provide better education and jobs to refugees. It also encourages resettlement and includes plans for a campaign to combat xenophobia.
That may prove an uphill struggle as the declaration comes at a time that refugees and migrants have become a divisive issue in Europe and the United States.A number of countries rejected an earlier draft of the agreement that called on nations to resettle 10 percent of the refugee population each year, something that has led several human rights groups to criticize the document as a missed opportunity. The US and a number of other countries also objected to language in the original draft that said children should never be detained, so the agreement now says children should seldom, if ever, be detained.
The declaration paves the way for negotiations on a pair of global compacts, one providing guidelines on the treatment of migrants in vulnerable situations and another on seeking more equitable burden sharing in support of the world’s refugees.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, refugees are people forced to flee due to armed conflict or persecution, while migrants choose to move in search of a better life. Around the world, there are currently about 21.3 million refugees, 3.2 million asylum seekers, and 40.8 million migrants.
More concrete progress is expected at a follow-up summit on Tuesday called by President Barack Obama, where at least 45 countries are expected to make pledges that are in line with US goals of increasing humanitarian aid by $3 billion, doubling resettlement and increasing access to education for 1 million youngsters and access to employment for another million of the displaced.
“You hear all around the world the UN hasn’t handled the refugee crisis. The way the UN will handle the refugee crisis is if all of us countries within the UN step up and dig deep and face those political headwinds that we all face, to do more, to give more, to take on a greater share of the resettlement challenge,” said Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN.
Prior to the pledging summit with world leaders, Obama will host a meeting with top executives from 50 companies to discuss what the private sector can do to help address the problem, Power said.

Source: Hindustan Times, 20-09-2016
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Be Your Own Guiding Light
OSHO


All Buddhas appear to be negative. Gautama Buddha says, there is no truth in the Vedas and Upanishads. Beware of beautiful words, beware of philosophic speculation. Don't waste your time with hair-splitting, with logic. Be silent! Throw the Vedas out of your head, only then can you be silent. You have to be told that the false is false. You have to begin with this, “Neti, neti“ -neither this nor that.The master has to say to you, “This is false, that is false.“He has to go on pointing out to you whatsoever is false first, because when you have known all that is false, suddenly a transformation happens in your consciousness. When you have become aware of the false, you start becoming aware of the true. You cannot be taught what is truth, but you can certainly be taught what is not truth.You have been conditioned, you can be unconditioned.
Buddha says, look into your heart. Follow your nature. He is not saying to follow scriptures. He is not saying to follow him. He is not teaching you any morality . He is not trying to create a certain character around you, because all characters are beautiful prison cells.He is not giving you a certain way of life. Rather, he is giving you courage, to follow your own nature. He wants you to be brave enough to listen to your own heart and go accordingly .
“Follow your nature“ means flow with yourself. You are the scripture... and hidden deep down within you is a still, small voice. If you become silent, you will be guided from there.The master has only to make you aware of your inner master.
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Monday, September 19, 2016

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 51, Issue No. 38, 17 Sep, 2016

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TISS course for enhancing teachers’ skills

The curriculum will be derived from learnings from ITE which began with a pilot project at Murshidabad in 2012.

TEACHERS, ESPECIALLY from rural India, can improve their teaching skills through a certificate course at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, from the next academic year. The programme will be conducted in association with Tata Trusts’ Integrated approach to Technology in Education (ITE) initiative that provides technology-based framework for education for the underprivileged. Amina Charania, adjunct associate professor at the Centre for Education Innovation and Action Research, TISS and Senior Programme Officer of ITE, said the curriculum is being planned and will be proposed to the academic council.
“The course has been approved. We are now working on a curriculum,” said Charania. Teachers taking the course will be awarded with certificates accredited by TISS.
The curriculum will be derived from learnings from ITE which began with a pilot project at Murshidabad in 2012. The initiative by Tata Trusts is a pedagogic framework for integrating technology in teaching and learning process, particularly in rural areas, said Charania. “Currently, more than 17,000 students and 500 teachers have been enrolled,” she said. The ITE framework, adopted by some state governments, aims at capacitating teachers to use technology in their teaching methodsAmong other methods, the teachers will be made to complete student projects themselves. “The aim is to make teachers empathise with students who may be using a computer for the very first time. We noticed in our workshops in ITE that teachers were more comfortable and innovative with technology by the end of the workshop,” said Charania.
According to Charania, who has also presented a paper on Integrating Educational Technology for Underserved Children in India, education-industry partnership model is a smart way of developing infrastructure in education. “Multi-stakeholder partnerships known as smart partnerships (SPs) may help development of educational infrastructure,” she said. The ITE, too, has partnered with non-governmental organisations and Corporate Social Responsibility Wings of companies. and promoting project-based learning.
Source: Indian Express, 16-09-2016

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A blow for the right to knowledge

The Delhi High Court has restored to copyright jurisprudence a clear mandate for the future — one which recognises that the end goal of technology is the improvement of our lives

In its much awaited judgment in the Delhi University photocopying case (The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford v. Rameshwari Photocopy Services), the Delhi High Court has dismissed the copyright infringement petition initiated in August 2012 by three publishers (Oxford, Cambridge and Taylor & Francis) against a photocopy shop located in the premises of Delhi University. This case, which was being closely tracked by students, teachers and the publishing industry alike, was seen as one with immense significance for questions of access to knowledge. While initially involving only the publishers, the photocopier and the university, the case also saw intervention petitions being filed by a student group (Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge) as well as by teachers and academics (Society for Promoting Educational Access and Knowledge). While the publishers made the argument that the creation of course packs and the photocopying of academic material for the same amounted to an infringement of the exclusive copyright of the authors and publishers, the defendants argued that the reproduction of materials for educational purposes fell within the exceptions to copyright under Section 52(1)(i) of the Copyright Act.
Not a moral right

In his considered and sharply reasoned judgment, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw examines the gamut of arguments made by both sides and arrives at the conclusion that copyright is a statutory right and not a natural right, and hence any right that is granted to owners is also limited by exceptions carved out by law. The nature of Section 52 of the Copyright Act is such that any act falling within its scope will not constitute infringement. Section 52(1)(i) allows for the reproduction of any work i) by a teacher or a pupil in the course of instruction; or ii) as part of the questions to be answered in an examination; or iii) in answers to such questions.
The crux of the dispute was about whether course packs fall within this exception. The petitioners tried to provide a narrow reading of the section, claiming that at best what the section allows for is the provision of materials in the course of a lecture and spatially restricted to a classroom. The court, while rejecting this claim, argues that “instruction” cannot be narrowly understood and, through a historically informed reading of the phrase “in the course of”, concludes that instruction includes the entire ambit of pedagogy from the creation of syllabus to teaching and provision of reading materials.
It then locates the question of education within a changing technological environment, and argues that “when an action, if onerously done, is not an offence, it cannot become an offence when, owing to advancement in technology doing thereof has been simplified” (paragraph 75). To make this point, Justice Endlaw contrasts his own experiences as a law student where photocopying was very limited and studying entailed students copying by hand, scribe like, pages after pages of books. Photocopiers have just made the task simpler and faster, but if the act of copying for a particular purpose is itself not illegal, and “the effect of the action is the same, the difference in the mode of action cannot make a difference so as to make one an offence”.
For progress

In a clear statement of the philosophical basis of copyright law, Justice Endlaw rejects the populist and unidimensional assumption that copyright is about the protection of the property rights of owners. He notes instead: “Copyright, specially in literary works, is thus not an inevitable, divine, or natural right that confers on authors the absolute ownership of their creations. It is designed rather to stimulate activity and progress in the arts for the intellectual enrichment of the public. Copyright is intended to increase and not to impede the harvest of knowledge. It is intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the public.”
If copyright was always about maintaining a balance between competing ideas of private and public interest, the Delhi High Court has restored to copyright jurisprudence a clear mandate for the future, one which is cognisant that the end goal of technology is the improvement of our lives (material and intellectual) and “no law can be interpreted so as to result in any regression of the evolvement of the human being for the better” (paragraph 87).
Global implications

The judgment has immense consequences beyond India and is a bold articulation of the principles of equitable access to knowledge — and one that deserves to be emulated globally. For a while now, the globalisation of copyright norms through international law (Berne Convention, TRIPS Agreement) has been accompanied by the globalisation of copyright standards that have primarily emerged from the global north. Aggressively pushed by the copyright lobby, such as Hollywood, the music industry and the publishing cartels, copyright law had effectively been hijacked by narrow commercial interests (albeit always speaking in the name of authors and creators). Thus even when it came to discussing fair use and exceptions and limitations, countries have found themselves constrained by judicial precedents from the U.S. and elsewhere that have defined quantitative restrictions on photocopying.
In a radical move, the Delhi High Court has concluded that if Indian law makers have allowed through statute for the reproduction of a copyrighted work in the course of instruction, it has done so on the basis of purpose (teaching) and with the conviction that this does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interest of the author. Further, this flexibility is provided to it through international law, and it is not the place of courts to impose artificial restrictions by way of quantitative limits. Justice Endlaw, while arriving at this conclusion, is acutely aware of the specific needs of countries like India where libraries and universities have to cope with the needs of thousands of students simultaneously, and it would be naïve to expect every student to buy copies of every book.
An interesting question to consider is whether the judgment effectively makes a clear distinction between fair dealing on the one hand (which is subject to doctrinal tests such as the Three-Step test), and in the copyright act in India governs personal use including research versus a clear statutory exception for educational use. This aspect of the judgment could almost be read as an instructional manual for countries who find themselves straitjackets under international copyright laws, and yet want to ensure the greatest flexibility in the way that they design a system that addresses their specific needs.
How will publishers respond?

While this judgment delivers a terrible blow to the publishers, the crucial question is, how will they respond? Through the entire case the publishers have alienated the student and academic community, and while it is within their right to appeal the judgment, it may be both politically prudent and ethically right not to do so. Teacher, readers, students and photocopiers are not the enemies of publishers; they are their greatest allies. In a time when books and reading itself are under threat from competing media forms, it may be useful to remember that it is education and greater access that makes readers, not copyright.
Lawrence Liang is a professor of law at Ambedkar University, Delhi, currently teaching at Yale University.

Source: The Hindu, 19-09-2016
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BPSC Common Combined prelims exam notification issued, check details here

Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has issued a notification inviting applications for 60th, 61st and 62nd Common Combined (preliminary/mains) Competitive Examination.
The commission has invited applications to fill 642 posts, including 244 posts in the Bihar Administrative Services and 30 posts in Bihar Police Service in the notification that was issued on Thursday.
The application process begins on September 27 and will continue till October 31.
Aspirants can find more about the examination on the commission’s official website .
Eligibility
Age: Candidates can check the age limit to apply for a particular post through thenotification on the website as there are some variations in the minimum age depending on the post one is applying for.
Educational qualification: A candidates should have a graduation or equivalent degree from a recognised university by the last date of filing the application.

Candidates will find information about the number of vacancies for various posts, relaxation of age and criteria for reservation through the notification.
They will be asked to choose an optional subject for the main examination while applying for the preliminary examination. The commission will not entertain any request for a change in the optional subject later.
Detailed directions to fill the online application for the preliminary examination has been provided separately.
Information about the structure of the main examination and its syllabus has also been detailed on the website.
Source: Hindustan Times, 16-09-2016
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United Nations holds first-ever summit on refugees and migrants

The issue of what to do about the world’s 65.3 million displaced people takes center stage at the United Nations General Assembly Monday when leaders from around the globe converge on New York for the first-ever summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.
With more people forced to flee their homes than at any time since World War II, leaders and diplomats are expected to approve a document aimed at unifying the UN’s 193 member states behind a more coordinated approach that protects the human rights of refugees and migrants.
“It’s very interesting because if we are able to translate that paper into a response in which many actors are going to participate, we will solve a lot of problems in emergency responses and in long-term refugee situations like the Syrian situation,” Fillipo Grandi, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees told The Associated Press.
That may prove an uphill struggle, however, as the document is not legally binding and comes at a time that refugees and migrants have become a divisive issue in Europe and the United States.
A number of countries rejected an earlier draft of the agreement that called on nations to resettle 10% of the refugee population each year, something that has led a number of human rights groups to criticize the document as a missed opportunity. The US and a number of other countries also objected to language in the original draft that said children should never be detained, so the agreement now says children should seldom, if ever, be detained.
“Instead of sharing responsibility, world leaders shirked it. The UN summit has been sabotaged by states acting in self-interest, leaving millions of refugees in dire situations around the world on the edge of a precipice,” Amnesty International secretary general Salil Shetty said in a statement.
Shetty said the agreement merely kicks the can down the road by calling for separate global compacts for refugees and migrants to be adopted within two years.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, whose report on refugees and migrants laid the basis for the summit document, said he was aware of the criticism from non-governmental groups.
“While we all wish it could be a stronger outcome document ... all 193 member states had to agree on their commitment. As you will see, my report was a strong one,” Ban said. “I hope that, as the two compacts are adopted over the coming year and a half, some stronger language and commitment and elements from the report will reappear in the course of this negotiation.”
More concrete progress is expected at a follow-up summit on Tuesday called by President Barack Obama, where at least 45 countries are expected to make pledges that are in line with US goals of increasing humanitarian aid by $3 billion, doubling resettlement and increasing access to education for one million youngsters and access to employment for another million of the displaced.
“You hear all around the world the UN hasn’t handled the refugee crisis. The way the UN will handle the refugee crisis is if all of us countries within the UN step up and dig deep and face those political headwinds that we all face, to do more, to give more, to take on a greater share of the resettlement challenge,” said Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN.
Power said prior to the pledging summit with world leaders, Obama will host a meeting with top executives from 50 companies to discuss what the private sector can do to help address the problem.
According to the Office of the UN high commissioner for refugees, an “unprecedented” 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015, an increase of more than 5 million from a year earlier. They include 21.3 million refugees, 3.2 million asylum seekers, and 40.8 million migrants.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, refugees are people forced to flee due to armed conflict or persecution, while migrants chose to move in search of a better life.

Source: Hindustan Times, 19-09-2016
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