Dhanteras Launches A Five-Day Energy Festival
Creation exists in layers. The physical, comprising of the five elements, is only one layer. As you progress in the sadhana or practice of yoga, the various layers of creation unfold in front of you and you realise that the physical, which a majority spend their life and birth pursuing, is just a small aspect of creation, a layer which is directly controlled by the world of ether, which is the subject of yoga.

Most of us have grown up listening to stories from the Ramayana, of the noble Rama, his virtuous wife Sita and devoted brother, Lakshmana.Deepavali, as most understand, is the day when these three persons returned to Ayodhya after completing a 14 year period of exile. How is this perceived in the realm of energy?
Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, is a reflection of the energy of the Preserver (Vishnu), Sita is an incarnation of his force, Goddess Lakshmi and Lakshmana is a reflection of the Sheshnaga, which is where the two energies rest.

These three shaktis manifested in bhooloka, the physical creation, for a purpose, to uphold dharma and to protect creation. All through their lives they did just that, and once the purpose was fulfilled, they returned to Vaikunth ­ first Lakshmana, then Sita and finally , Rama.

Sita spent the later part of her life in the ashram of Rishi Valmiki. Very few know that it was not Rama who asked her to go. In fact, it was Sita who sought his leave, t because her purpose in physical creation was over and she knew spe that if she continued after, it tr would be only for bhog, which would tie them to physical creation, whereas their destination was Vaikunth.So she left. Rama lived off Kusha grass after she left.

The festival of Deepavali starts from Dhanteras and is celebrated over five days, culminating on the day of Bhai Duj. These are extremely potent days for manifestation and sidhhis.

Dhanteras, is the day of Dhanwantari, the physician of the devas, who emerged with an amrit kalash ­ pot of nectar ­ along with Goddess Lakshmi on this day. On this day, sadhana and charity are performed under guru sanidhya by those seeking good health and wealth. Also, a diya is lit on this day for Yama, the Lord of Death, to balance the he three forces.aking The next day , Naraka Chaturdashi, is the day when ee Goddess Lakshmi and Vishnu, in their incarnations as Satyabhama and Krishna, overcame the demon Narakasura. It is the day of Lakshmi sadhana for siddhis or spiritual boons.

Deepavali or Kartik Amavasya is the day to celebrate the siddhis so gained.Lighting of diyas on this day is symbolic of the siddhis with which one illuminates the body to mark the homecoming of Rama, the energy of Vishnu.

Govardhan Puja is associated with the lifting of the Govardhan Parvat by the adolescent Krishna, again, an incarnation of Vishnu, to protect the people. Once again, it is a day when the energy of Vishnu peaks.

Bhai Duj, is associated with the episode of Goddess Lakshmi making Asur Bali her brother, and asking him to release Vishnu whom he had taken to Paatal Lok with him. It is the day of the return of Laxmi and Vishnu.

Vishnu is the preserver, who runs Creation and Lakshmi is his force. The five days thus abound in the experiences and manifestations pertaining to physical creation through right practice of yoga with the guidance of an able guru.

Like advanced nations, India must delink classroom teaching from student learning

The objective is not to teach to the student, which happens through classroom contact, but to make the student learn, which can happen outside classroom contact too.

At every discussion on education and/or innovation, there is a standard refrain. The education system makes students risk-averse and kills innovative thinking. By forcing students to conform to a standardised template, it discourages failure and thereby discourages deviation from the standardised average. Outliers are not encouraged.

The refrain is indeed true. Several ingredients result in the outcome the refrain describes, beginning with entry into the education stream at the pre-school level. Let me focus on only one element of that maze — higher education, and within that, on one small aspect. How many hours per week, on average, does a student spend in attending lectures? The answer will be a function of country, course and level of higher education.

In general, in the US and Western Europe, I suspect the answer is about 15 hours. The catch lies in the expression “attending lectures”, there being a difference between learning hours and classroom hours. The objective is not to teach to the student, which happens through classroom contact, but to make the student learn, which can happen outside classroom contact too. Indeed, the norm in those countries seems to be that for every one hour spent through didactic teaching and classroom contact, the student spends two hours on learning indirectly — 15 hours of classroom teaching thus translates into 45 hours of weekly learning.

In 2015, the UGC announced a choice-based credit system. Though this made higher education options more flexible, it was controversial because of other reasons. This new system has the following definition. “Credit: A unit by which the course work is measured. It determines the number of hours of instruction required per week. One credit is equivalent to one hour of teaching (lecture or tutorial) or two hours of practical work/field work per week.” Credits earned by a student per semester are a summation of lecture plus tutorial plus practical work.

Unless I’ve misunderstood, practical work/field work is meant for science subjects. For social sciences, student learning is still equated with contact with a teacher, albeit lectures plus tutorials. I asked some students of Delhi University about the number of hours of lectures they have per week. I was told, around 28 hours of lectures per week and around 40 hours, inclusive of tutorials and practical work. (Lectures are typically 55 minutes duration, not one hour; I’ve glossed over that minor difference). I suspect 40-45 hours will be the norm throughout much of India. This means either (a) a student has no time to learn on his/her own; or (b) the student spends 120 hours (using that additional multiple of two times) per week on learning.

Since there are only 168 hours in a week, that extreme of 120 hours is impossible. Something like 80 hours is more plausible. The Factories Act (applies to those more than 18) tells us no one should work more than 48 hours a week. Why should that principle not apply to students? Why must we turn them (those who slog for 80 hours) into zombies? The norm will be the student who does not learn on his/her own and therefore, never thinks. If it is (a), the student will invariably reproduce by rote. Therefore, my first proposition is of delinking classroom teaching from student learning, a distinction advanced countries have now accepted. Fifteen hours of classroom teaching is good enough. The second proposition is a stronger one.

What has teacher input got to do with the outcome of student learning? In other spheres, we appreciate the difference between input and outcomes. Why not for higher education? That norm of 40 hours of lectures per week emanates from indicative workloads laid down for teachers. There is a marginal difference between assistant professors, associate professors and professors. Roughly, they have to teach for 15 hours a week. Add an additional 30 hours of tutorials and we have 45 hours. Tutorials also involve physical interface with the teacher. They don’t constitute independent student learning.

Paraphrased, students have 40 (or 45) hours of lectures a week because teachers have to “teach” for 45 hours a week. In the US, credits have their origins in Carnegie Units, pioneered by Carnegie Foundation to determine retirement pensions for professors. At roughly the same time, in 1872, Morris Lyewellyn Cooke wrote a report for Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. This was titled Academic and Industrial Efficiency. The intention was to standardise faculty workloads and use this as a measure of delivery of education. There are obvious parallels with factories and industrial production, a bit like Ford Motor Company using mass production to manufacture Model T cars: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.”

But higher education isn’t factory production, or shouldn’t be. To quote Henry Ford again, “I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual… But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one.” Other countries (read Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area 2015) have moved away from such dysfunctional ideas. So should we.

The author is member, NITI Aayog.

Source: Indian Express, 27-10-2016

Half of India’s wildlife in danger of extinction: Living Planet Report 2016

With wildlife disappearing at an “unprecedented” pace across the world, the Living Planet Report 2016 identifies India as an ecological black spot where around half of the wildlife lives in the danger of being wiped out.

The biennial report that tracks over 14,000 vertebrate populations of over 3,700 species from across the world highlights the pressure on water and land India faces because of unsustainable human activities.

Around 70% of surface water is polluted and 60% of ground water will reach critical stage -- where it cannot be replenished -- in the next one decade, the report prepared by World Wide Fund for nature (WWF) with other research institutions said.

The biggest reason for contamination is industrial and municipal waste.

It also pointed out that one-fourth of India’s total land is facing desertification and about a third of land is getting degraded primarily because of depleting forest cover.

“Our consumption patterns and the way we look at our natural world are constantly shaping the future of our planet…We need to come together as a global community and address the threats to biodiversity to protect our environment, as well as our economic and social structures,” said Mr. Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO, WWF-India.

The Living Planet Index showed that 58% overall decline in vertebrate population abundance between 1970 to 2012. “Population sizes of vertebrate species have, on average, dropped by more than half in little more than 40 years. The data shows an average annual decline of 2% and there is no sign yet that this rate will decrease,” the report said.

It also said that global wildlife populations could decline by an average of 67% between 1970 - 2020, as a result of human activities, it said, adding that the populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles have already declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012. This places the world on a trajectory of a potential two-thirds decline within a span of the half-century ending in 2020.

“Wildlife is disappearing within our lifetimes at an unprecedented rate,” said Dr. Marco Lambertini, International Director General, WWF. “This is not just about the wonderful species we all love; biodiversity forms the foundation of healthy forests, rivers and oceans. We have the tools to fix this problem and we need to start using them now if we are serious about preserving a living planet for our own survival and prosperity.”

Wild Asiatic elephants graze in Kaziranga national park, east of Gawahati. (AP Photo)

Looking ahead, 2020 is also a year of great promise as commitments made under the Paris climate deal will kick in, and the first environmental actions under the globe’s new sustainable development plan will come into force.

Source: Hindustan Times, 27-10-2016

Unpleasant Encounter With A Family Member?

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan





Our life is full of connections through which we come to grips with the negative or positive aspects of life. So we have to be very circumspect about availing opportunities afforded by natural relationships formed in the course of our existence.For example, your family is your first frame of reference. It is your family members with whom you spend your days and nights. You have various experiences with them, sometimes sweet and sometimes bitter. In this sense, your family is the most important part of your social environment.
You should avail of every kind of lesson that you receive from your family .If you find that certain happenings in your family are undesirable, you have to be tolerant on such occasions. You have to appreciate how even in your family circle the tenor of life cannot always be free of unwanted situations. If you find that at such times you cannot show any tolerance, you are going to find life very difficult outside the family circle when you enter society at large and encounter all kinds of unpleasantness.
So, you have to accept that unpleasant experiences are an inescapable part of life. And you have to be capable of adopting a give-and-take attitude within the family circle as well as outside in society .
Your family is not just your family: it is also a source of training for you. In this sense, your family serves as the cradle for your future career. If your school is a source of formal education for you, then your family is a source of informal education.And both are equally important.
For example, if you have an unfortunate encounter with a family member, don't take it as an evil. Take it as a first, very necessary training lesson, because you are destined one day to go out of your home and live in society . And in society there will be many occasions on which you will have similar negative experiences. You must realise that your family is a blessing for you, for it is like a training centre that sends you out into society as a prepared or mature person.Indeed, your family is the mainspring of your future life.
Everyone knows that formal education is very important for his future, to get a good job. I do agree with this point of view, but in terms of one's all-round existence, education is not the be-all and end-all of everything. For a better quality of life you need something more ­ and that is informal education. Everyone's family is the centre of informal education for him. To gain admission into this institution, you don't need to pay any kind of admission fee. It is destined by nature and by birth.You should therefore make certain to avail of whatever your family offers you in terms of informal education.
The family is a unit of society . In this sense, every family is like a minisociety . You have to try to train yourself in this mini-society so that you will be able to enjoy a better life in the larger society . One who fails to live a good life in his family circle will certainly fail to live a good life in society .
Adjustment, a principle of life, is what makes all social life run smoothly . If you enter social life without first having learnt to make adjustments within the framework of the family , you will have only two options: either learn to make immediate adjustments or stoop to hypocrisy and then live in a state of tension.

SC: Temporary staff should be paid on par with regular ones

AmitAnand Choudhar y

New Delhi





`Follow Equal Pay For Equal Work Principle'

In what comes as a relief for lakhs of temporary employees who have been hired by government departments and agencies across the country on contractual basis, the Supreme Court held on Wednesday that they are entitled to wages on par with permanent staff under the `equal pay for equal work' principle.A bench of Justices JS Khehar and SA Bobde said the principle of `equal pay for equal work' constitutes a clear and unambiguous right vested in every employee, whether engaged on regular or temporary basis.
“In our considered view, it is fallacious to determine artificial parameters to deny fruits of labour. An employee engaged for the same work, cannot be paid less than another ... Certainly not, in a welfare state. Such an action besides being demeaning, strikes at the very foundation of human dignity ,“ the bench said.
The bench said the principle had been expounded through a large number of judge ments rendered by the apex court and constitutes law declared by the Supreme Court.
“Any act of paying less wages as compared to others similarly situated, constitutes an act of exploitative enslavement, emerging out of a domineering position. Undoubtedly, the action is oppressive, suppressive and coercive as it compels involuntary subjugation,“ Justice Khehar said.
The court passed the verdict on petitions filed by temporary employees working for Punjab seeking wage parity with regular employees. They approached the SC after the Punjab and Haryana HC held that temporary employees were not entitled to the minimum of the regular pay-scale.
Setting aside the HC order, the SC held that the principle of `equal pay for equal work' must be followed as India is a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. “ There is no escape from the above obligation, in view of different provisions of the Constitution and in view of the law declared by this court under Article 141 of the Constitution. The principle of `equal pay for equal work' constitutes a clear and unambiguous right and is vested in every employee -whether engaged on regular or temporary basis,“ it said.

Source: Times of India, 27-10-2016

J&K tops post-60 life expectancy list

Subodh Varma





How long will an Indian live after 60? It de pends on which state you live in. Post-60 life expectancy is highest in a state you would least expect -J&K. People of this state who are 60 years old will live for another 21.1 years on an average. At the other extreme is Chhattisgarh, where such life span is 15.6 years.On an average, in India, a man will live for another 17 years and a woman for 19 years after turning 60.These facets of life and death across all states, and over the years, emerge from recently released `Life Tables' whi ch showcase yearly mortality data collected from a sample of about 7.4 million people across the country. This work is done by the Sample Registration System (SRS) under the Census office. The most recent data is from 2010-2014. Life expectancy can be calculated at birth or at various points in life. `At birth' calculations average out death rates at all subsequent ages.This is usually said to be life expectancy of people in any country or a state within a country ,“ demographer P M Kulkarni, formerly of JNU, said.
In 1970-75, people's average lifespan in India was just 49.7 years. By 2010-14, it had increased to 67.9 years, an increase of 18.2 years. Another change that has taken place is that women are now living longer than men. Four decades ago, men's average lifespan was 50.5 years compared to 49 years for women. This reversed in the mid-eighties and currently women's life expectancy stands at 69.6, almost three years more than men. Women living longer than men is a global trend attributed to higher death rates in men, being more exposed to health risks. Kerala, with its low infant mortality , higher incomes, higher education levels and better health indicators, has the highest lifespan of 74.9 years among all states. Closely following it are Delhi, J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab. Lowest lifespans are in Assam, followed by UP, MP, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
Beyond the age of five years, J&K emerges as the state with highest lifespan for every five-year age group except the over 70 years group. According to experts, not too bad poverty levels (15% compared to India's average of about 30%), more equitable land ownership and the temperate climate in Kashmir valley that is less conducive for tropical diseases and pollution may have created conditions for this higher lifespan.
But why is there a difference between J&K's average life expectancy at birth (72.6) and life expectancy at 60 years age (81.1 years)? This is due to higher infant mortality rate, which is in turn dependent on how good are delivery and infant health care services. J&K's infant death rate was 37 per 1000 live births in 2013; the same as Jharkhand and only slightly below the national average of 40. “Once a child survives the first year, and then the first five years, conditions for survival and longer life spans improve considerably ,“ Kulkarni said.

Source: 27-10-2016

Cities at Crossroads: Heaps of hazards

So-called landfills do not address the problems of solid waste management.

A city cannot be smart if it is not swacch, that is, clean. At the same time, a city cannot be clean if it does not manage its waste — garbage as well as sewage — well. My last two columns tried to spell out the chain of scientific management of municipal solid waste (MSW) from segregation at source to collection, transportation, treatment and scientific disposal. In this column I go behind some buzzwords — the broom and the landfills, for example — which have entered the discussion on municipal solid waste management in India and have distracted attention from the basics of what needs to be done if we want to clean up our cities. The issues connected with waste to energy plants will be taken up in the next column.

The image that is most associated with Swacch Bharat is of VIPs wielding brooms to sweep the dirt and/or garbage in the streets. Sweeping streets with brooms only touches the tip of the problem, especially if there is no mechanism to dispose of what is swept up. The way to keep a city clean is to ensure that segregated waste is collected from homes and/or commercial establishments, and after providing for recycling and resource recovery, what is left (which is much reduced in volume) is disposed of scientifically. While the Solid Waste Rules of 2016 and the MSW Rules of 2000 call for “primary” door-to-door collection of waste segregated at source, most municipal corporations and municipalities only make “secondary” collection of unsegregated waste from community bins. The focus of Swacch Bharat should, therefore, be on motivating and nudging people to reduce their waste and segregate it into wet, dry, recyclables, etc, and for the municipalities to collect this waste and put it through separate treatment streams for resource recovery and dispose of the residue scientifically.

Community bins are temporary dumpsites from where the waste is removed ever so often and is taken to permanent dumpsites either inside our cities or at their outskirts. Garbage is stacked at these sites for months, years and even decades. They are mistakenly called “landfills” but are better described as “garbage hills” and are huge public health hazards. If we focus only on clearing the community bins in different localities but not on what needs to be done with the waste from that point onwards, we will only make the garbage hills around us higher and will not create swacch cities.

News of fires at Deonar, one of the three landfill sites into which Mumbai’s municipal solid waste is dumped, and also at Bhalswa and Ghazipur, two of the three landfill sites for Delhi, hit the headlines in recent months. There are a number of settlements on the edge of the Deonar site, and a study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai has documented the average life expectancy in this area at less than 50 years — much lower than the all-India average of 68 years — and every second child is underweight and there is very high incidence of maternal mortality. In Delhi, the landfill fires became the subject of a blame game between the state government and the Municipal Corporations of Delhi and an enquiry committee was set up to clear the political air. Actually, fires at these sites are nothing new and are only to be expected because inflammable material such as plastic, wires and cables, rubber, clothes, paper and garden waste are part of the unsegregated garbage that has been dumped there routinely over several decades. The methane produced is highly combustible and catches fire easily, particularly in the summer months. Only Ghazipur has a plant to capture methane and convert it into energy, although even there, its limited capacity can generate only 12 MW of energy. A mere cigarette stub or a half-lit match is enough to cause accidental fires. More often, youngsters are paid to set fire to waste heaps at these sites to recover metals and other materials of scrap value.

Ghazipur is Delhi’s oldest and largest “landfill” site which is spread across 71 acres and is filled beyond capacity. It was never engineered as a sanitary landfill. Since 1984, indiscriminate dumping has produced a hill of unsegregated garbage which is 45 metres high — about two-thirds the height of the Qutab Minar. Like Bhalswa, which was started 10 years later and covers an area of 51 acres, Ghazipur is also spewing toxic gases into Delhi’s environment and causing enormous damage to health. A colony of ragpickers has set up home next to Ghazipur slum, risking their health for the sake of their livelihood. If a recycling mechanism can be put in place by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation by working with informal rag-pickers, as has been done in Pune and Pammal, it would reduce their compulsion to live in toxic surroundings and also reduce the wastage of fuel in carting large volumes of waste to the dumpsite which is euphemistically called a landfill. Indeed, this is a good practice that should be followed by all three municipal corporations of Delhi.

In responding to a query from the Supreme Court, a public official is reported to have said, “We will come up with the instructions whether these landfill sites can be moved to some other place and what are the steps taken to remove the garbage.” If true, this betrays a lack of understanding of what is involved in managing the legacy of accumulated municipal waste and how to start working at the margin by managing the current flow of waste effectively and disposing of the residual waste in sanitary landfills. Sanitary landfills are sites where waste is isolated from the environment until it is safe, that is, until it has completely degraded biologically, chemically and physically. This is done by preparing large and deep underground pits into which the residual waste is deposited in layers and compacted with bulldozers in between scientific layering of geotextile material, and sealed with impermeable synthetic liners to ensure airtight closure and prevent leaching of harmful chemicals into groundwater. Provision is also made for collecting the methane gas that is generated to be used as a substitute fuel. After closing a landfill scientifically, a cover of topsoil is placed and the land is reclaimed for developing public parks or other green spaces. Given the scarcity of land, landfills must be only for the residual waste after the waste has been reduced, segregated, recycled, and resource recovery has been accomplished.
A lot of media attention on the alarming state of solid waste management in our cities is justified because this is playing with our health and that of our children and grandchildren. But it is important to separate the legacy issues from the current management of the waste in making assessments and finding solutions to this gigantic problem. As far as managing our current flow of waste is concerned, we must begin with making segregation at source mandatory and enforcing it ruthlessly. Together with campaigns on reduction and recycling of waste, it would then leave us with a number of options on converting waste to energy and prepare sanitary landfills only for what remains.

The writer is chairperson of ICRIER, Delhi, and former chairperson of the high-powered expert committee on urban infrastructure and services.

Source: The Indian Express, 26-10-2016