Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The Journey, Rather Than The Destination

Satsang: Swami Sukhabodhananda

We have many desires and targets... not all are attainable. Some people are content with whatever they get.Others keep trying and by the time they attain their goals they are perhaps too old to enjoy them.What is the right approach?I recommend a third approach. You can have a desire. Put in your best effort to fulfil it. But make sure you enjoy the effort rather than its fruits. There are those who make the effort grumbling, and are happy only when the desire is achieved. There are others who exhaust themselves making the effort to such a degree that they have no strength or enthusiasm left to enjoy the fruits of their labour. The third method seems a better option.
Enjoy the effort no matter what the effect. I see nothing wrong with having a desire. But if you are using fulfilment as a condition for contentment, you may be reducing your chances of happiness altogether. You decide that you will be happy only when you become the managing director of the company you are working for. Now you are postponing the moment of your happiness to a point in the future. You will be happy only if and when you attain that position.You are not happy engaged in the process of trying to reach the position.
Do you derive any pleasure from generating new ideas for your company's growth? Can you enjoy the long hours of creative work you put in trying to implement those plans?
The third way celebrates the journey towards the destination. Sure, if the destination is reached, we will be happy. Even if it is not reached, nobody can take away the sense of thrill at having run the race, the delicious fatigue in the process. My happiness is derived not from reaching a goal, but from the struggle and my attempt at reaching it. Enjoy the effort; give your best. Ensure that you will be working smart, not just hard.Don't go fishing in the bath tub. Don't try to work up lather in a running stream.Instead, fish in a stream, and work up lather in a bath tub.Set and evaluate your goals, estimate the quantum and quality of efforts to be invested in attaining the goals, calculate the ROI (return on investment) quotient carefully , and then, if you are convinced the ratio is satisfactory , go ahead and work towards your goals.
Failure is a fact of life. In all competitive endeavours, as in sports, for example, one side has to lose. Why should “losers“ feel that they have nothing to feel glad about? A losing finalist at Wimbledon is definitely entitled to feel sad at the loss, but should he mourn the loss at the finals or savour the success up to the semi-finals? Celebrate successes rather than brood over losses.
Failures are necessary to remind us of our human vulnerabilities. An unbroken string of successes can create pride and a sense of invincibility in a high achiever.Such pride always precedes a great fall.Surrendering to the Lord is an act of bhakti or devotion, and surrender happens only in a spirit of humility.

Rs 1.2cr payday for IIT-BHU grad

Punkhuri Kapoor

Varanasi:

TNN

A computer science graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology , Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU), has bagged a Rs 1.2 crore job offer from Oracle, the highest salary package for the institute this year. Last year's biggest offer, a Rs 2.27 crore package from Google, also came a computer science student's way .About 90 global as well as Indian companies have visited the IIT-BHU campus so far this year, and hired over 500 students.

Source: Times of India, 14-12-2016

IN A DILEMMA - UPSC entangled in `gender equality'

Manash Gohain

New Delhi

Framing Of 125-Mark Essay In Hindi And English Leaves Aspirants Confused

Can the word `engendered' be taken to mean `gender equality'? This semantic dilemma has put aspirants who appeared for the 2016 civil services main examination recently in a ferment. The test paper put out by the Union Public Service Commission had an essay on the subject carrying a crucial 125 marks, but the framing of the proposition in the two languages created confusion for the candidates. In Hindi, the version read: “Stri-pu rush kay samaan sarokaroko shamil kiye bina vikas sankatgrast hain“ (devoid of gender inclusiveness, development is endangered). The wory is that English language aspirants did not interpret the term `engendered' in the English equivalent -“If development is not engendered, it is endangered“ -as related to gender equality .“The literal meaning of the English question was completely different from its Hindi translation,“ argued candidate Palash Bansal.“The essay carries 125 marks and it can make a huge diffe rence to the overall performance. I just hope UPSC will take both the interpretations into consideration while evaluating the paper and both the meanings are considered to be correct.“ Another candidate, Aravind Varier, said, “UPSC is silent about whether the meaning is related to gender inequality in the English version. While writing the essay , I preferred to take the meaning of `engender' in a wider context rather than narrow it to gender inequality . Yes, the term does appear in a report published by the World Bank, but it uses `engendered' only to make it rhythmically in consonance with the issue of gender inequality discussed in that report.“
Anxious candidates have written to the PM and to Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the PMO, as well as to UPSC chairman Alka Sirohi and the joint secretary (examination) of the examining authority . The candidates have told them this matter “is of high gravity“ to them and could prove “a decisive factor in their lifetime opportunity as a civil servant“. Saying that since it carried 125 marks it could not be sidelined during evaluation, the examinees requested UPSC to “consider the future of aspirants as the foremost basis in giving rational and judicious marking criteria with all consideration of such misrepresentation of the statement being asked“.
UPSC officials could not be contacted for a response.The civil services main examination was held from December 3 to 9, with the first day's paper carrying the essay question.

Source: Times of India, 14-12-2016

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 51, Issue No. 50, 10 Dec, 2016

Editorials

Legacy of Jayalalithaa (1948–2016)

Belligerent Nationalism

Comment

Apprehensions about Macroeconomic Scenario

From 50 Years Ago

From 50 Years Ago: China Moves Nearer U N

H T Parekh Finance Column

Strange and Worrying International Market Liquidity

Avinash Persaud

Commentary

Insight

Water Crisis in Punjab and Haryana - Politics of Sutlej–Yamuna Link Canal

Sucha Singh Gill

Book Reviews

India's War for the Empire

Manas Dutta

Colonial Knowledge in Precolonial History

Gagan Preet Singh

Special Articles

Water War between Punjab and Haryana - A Geographical Insight

H S Mangat

Recent Trends in Wealth Inequality in India

Ishan Anand, Anjana Thampi

Public Hearings in Environmental Clearance Process - Review of Judicial Intervention

M P Ram Mohan, Himanshu Pabreja

Notes

Nationalisation vs Privatisation - A Discourse Network Analysis of Coal Ownership in India

Arpita Asha Khanna

Discussion

Caste, Contemporaneity and Assertion

Vivek Kumar

Current Statistics

Letters

Studying Tuberculosis

Debabar Banerji

Fairness in Pensions

Haider Abbas

Gender and Public Discourse

Kartikey Shukla, Sanjukta Basu

Communists’ Conundrum

Ajmer Singh

Appointments/programmes/announcements

Appointments/Programmes/Announcements

Web Exclusives

Do Personal Laws Get their Authority from Religion or the State—Revisiting Constitutional Status

Saptarshi Mandal

- See more at: http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/50#sthash.iWzG046l.dpuf

The essence of education

The Delhi High Court arrives at a harmonious reading of the copyright doctrine which will further the cause of education and equitable access. It could serve as a global model

The philosophical roots of copyright are grounded in striking a balance between an exclusive right granted to the owner of copyright along with the interest of the public in ensuring that works are available in the public domain. The division bench (Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Yogesh Khanna) of the Delhi High Court in their judgment (arising out of the appeal against Justice Justice Rajiv Sahay Endlaw’s decision in the Delhi University photocopy case) have arrived at a harmonious reading of copyright doctrine which will further the cause of education and equitable access.

The jurisprudential backbone

Being cognisant of the fact that this case is keenly followed by many non-lawyers who may get lost within the thicket of technical legal arguments, the court towards the end of the judgment provides a helpful musical analogy which succinctly summarises the jurisprudential backbone of the judgment. Comparing a statute to a musical melody with different notes, the judge observes that just as a harmonious melody would require that for all notes to be heard, sometimes the more dominant ones (such as a loud drum) sometimes needs to be muted in order for other notes to be heard. Translated into the Copyright Act it is clear that if the predominant purpose of the law is to provide exclusive rights to owners of copyright, this right sometimes has to be muted to serve other equally important purposes such as education.

Rejecting the contention of the publishers and the IRRO (Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation) demanding a narrow reading of the word instruction the judges referred to the parliamentary debate which led to the enactment of Act No.27 of 2012 where the Minister piloting the Bill clearly told the House, “Of course, non-profit libraries should not be charged. Many of these copyrighted materials can be used, should be used and must be used in non-profit libraries.” Echoing the policy intentions of the legislature, the judges chose to ignore the technical distinctions sought to be made between education and instruction, and between textbooks and course packs and held that: “The importance of education lies in the fact that education alone is the foundation on which a progressive and prosperous society can be built. Teaching is an essential part of education, at least in the formative years, and perhaps till post-graduate level. It would be difficult for a human to educate herself without somebody: a teacher, helping. It is thus necessary, by whatever nomenclature we may call them, that development of knowledge modules, having the right content, to take care of the needs of the learner is encouraged. We may loosely call them textbooks. We may loosely call them guide books. We may loosely call them reference books. We may loosely call them course packs. So fundamental is education to a society — it warrants the promotion of equitable access to knowledge to all segments of the society, irrespective of their caste, creed and financial position. Of course, the more indigent the learner, the greater the responsibility to ensure equitable access” (Paragraph 30).

Principle of fairness

They clarify that fairness is an essential aspect of the statute especially when there is an exception being carved out of a person’s legal rights. But what is a principle of fairness? In a crucial paragraph the judges clearly state: “In the context of teaching and use of copyrighted material, the fairness in the use can be determined on the touchstone of ‘extent justified by the purpose’. In other words, the utilization of the copyrighted work would be a fair use to the extent justified for purpose of education. It would have no concern with the extent of the material used, both qualitative or quantitative. The reason being, ‘to utilize’ means to make or render useful. To put it differently, so much of the copyrighted work can be fairly used which is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the use i.e. make the learner understand what is intended to be understood.”

The significance of this interpretation is that it explicitly rejects the adoption of American standards (the four factor test) into Indian copyright law and grounds the principle of fairness within a philosophy of education, rejecting any claim that there should be either a quantitative or a qualitative restriction imposed. The significance of not laying down any restriction will be best appreciated by anyone who has encountered higher education in any Western university where teachers and students face severe constraints because of quantitative restrictions which can have debilitating effects. Consider, for instance, a rule which says that not more than 10 per cent of a work can be reproduced for education. While the publishers have primarily advanced a single example in the entire case (namely the reproduction of chapters or books in course packs), if such a quantitative restriction were applied in the case of a poem, or a photograph it would have ridiculous consequences.

‘A publication’ contention

The court also rejected the contention of the publishers that Sec. 52 allows for reproduction of a work, but by making it available through photocopies it is no longer a reproduction but a publication. The court holds that publication has an element of profit (for instance, in mass publication), and neither does the use of a photocopy machine nor the use of an intermediary (a photocopier) qualify automatically as publication, and the only relevant test is whether copying is “in the course of instruction”. And the test to see whether copying is “in the course of instruction” involves “considering whether the inclusion of the copyrighted work in the course pack was justified by the purpose of the course pack i.e. for instructional use by the teacher to the class”, and hence it would be inaccurate to claim that the word reproduction is limited to a single copy.

One crucial difference between Justice Endlaw’s judgment and the present one is that while the former found absolutely no fact that was worthy of being tried since there was no prima facie infringement, in the present judgment the court has held that the specific question of whether the reproduction of full works are in the course of instruction is a matter that can be determined in a trial and has consequently remanded that issue back to a trial judge.

The judgment rightfully rejects the rather scandalous attempt by the publishers to lock education within a straitjacket of property, and it is befitting that the appellants who are the university presses of two of the oldest and most prestigious universities should be provided a reminder of what the scope of education is. The significance of this judgment is that while it arose out of a seemingly narrow question of whether the photocopying of course packs was allowed in the copyright law, this question could only be answered by returning copyright back to its normative foundations in education. It is important to remember that the very first copyright statute dating back to 1710, the Statute of Anne was called “An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies”.

This is a very welcome judgment which has immense significance beyond India and could serve as a model for the interpretation of copyright statues in other countries which also face the challenge of sharp inequalities and high cost of learning materials.

Source: The Hindu, 13-12-2016

Lawrence Liang is a professor of law at the School of Law, Governance and Citizenship, Ambedkar University Delhi.

NGOs Bat for Tata Trusts

Suman Layak

Mumbai:

A clutch of non-governmental organisations appealed to the boards of six Tata Group companies that are set to hold shareholder meetings in the next few days to take steps to protect the philanthropic activities of Tata Trusts.Several of these NGOs work with Tata Trusts. The letter has been addressed to boards of TCS, Indian Hotels Co, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Power Co and comprises the names of NGOs including the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, Pradan, Srijan, Action for Social Advancement, Seva Mandir and Foundation for Ecological Security.
Manas K Satpathy, executive director of Pradan who has signed the letter, said NGOs had met in Pune in November for an initiative on Transforming Rural India and decided to support of Tata Trusts. He said, “Hearing all the controversy around Tata Trusts, we felt disturbed and thought we should do something to let others know about the work of Tata Trusts.“

Source: Economic Times, 13-12-2016

Equal abortion rights for single women: A positive first step

“You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion,” United States politician Hillary Clinton once said in an interview. Thankfully, the Indian government too is thinking on these lines: According to a report in a national daily, the Union health ministry has recommended recognising “failure of contraceptive” and “unplanned pregnancy” as lawful reasons for abortion among all women, married or otherwise. As things stand now, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act recognises these two reasons for abortion only in the case “married women”. This proposed rule is part of series of recommendations made by the health ministry for amending the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act. The proposal is likely to be taken up by the Cabinet soon after the ongoing Parliament session ends.

According to government data, while seven million abortions are conducted every year in India, only 50% are safe. Nearly 8% women opting for abortion die due to complications arising from unsafe procedures. Globally, 22 million unsafe abortions are reported every year. Women rights activists feel that women have a moral right to decide what to do with their bodies and the right to abortion is vital for gender equality and is critical for them to achieve their full potential. Plus, banning abortion puts women at risk by forcing them to use illegal abortionists.

Along with expanding the scope of the law, medico-legal experts feel that a revision of the legal limit for abortion too has to be done. This is because foetal abnormalities show up only at the end of 18 weeks, giving would-be parents a two-week window to take a discussion. Even for a doctor, this is too small a window to help patients decide. Moreover, these days, technology has moved ahead, which has taken prenatal diagnosis far beyond the illegal sex determination tests that have refused to die out completely. There is an urgent need to change the law because there is a rising incidence of sex crimes, and the urgent need to empower women with sexual rights and choices both in their own interest and for the sake of reducing the fertility rate as a whole.

Source: Hindustan Times, 13-12-2016

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