How is IoT impacting the digital transformation of education?

 

Education 2.0

Until the pandemic struck, educational institutions in India used chalk and talk for lectures and a manual attendance process by using roll call and other administrative processes.

Topics like Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT) were restricted to debates and academic discussions. But COVID-19 forced them to explore technological tools, something that other sectors had already done and reaped many benefits.

What is IoT?

It is an environment in which physical entities that have inbuilt sensors and software can exchange data and information automatically with each other without manual intervention over the Internet. This has the potential to dramatically transform the process of learning and also update administrative systems. Some of the uses have been listed below:

Tracking movement: Integrated systems of IoT, which automatically transmits information about the child boarding the bus, the bus reaching the school and the child entering the school premises, can be available to both parents and teachers via an app and automated messages.

Attendance system: Teachers and faculty members need not waste time on roll call. Instead, the student’s identity card automatically communicates with the sensors in the classroom and marks attendance.

Automatic sharing: Taking notes and marking critical points is an integral part of a student’s class activity. But, with IoT, all the contents on the black/whiteboard is automatically converted into a portable document and shared over email.

Session capture: An IoT environment automatically captures a classroom session (audio and video) and puts it on a shareable drive. This can be accessed by those students who missed the class. This way learning becomes both inclusive and accessible.

Ensuring security: With COVID-19 still doing the rounds, an IoT-based system integrated with CCTVs can scan the campus and spot people who are not wearing masks. The coordinates can be sent as an SMS and a email to the administrative authority for further action.

Read and translate: IoT can also be used to quickly scan editable text from books, papers and other documents directly into a phone, tablet or computer and translate into more than 40 languages.

This allows students to read the content in the language they are comfortable with and to use the application to read and listen to the text.

Thus, using IoT in educational institutions allows a better connected and more collaborative and inclusive learning environment.

Ramakrishnan Raman

The writer is Professor and Director Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune

Source: The Hindu, 27/11/21

UGC extends thesis submission deadline for MPhil, PhD scholars till June 2022

 

The submission deadline has been extended till June 30 next year, according to officials.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted an extension to MPhil and PhD scholars for submission of thesis. The submission deadline has been extended till June 30 next year, according to officials.

“Keeping in view the larger interest of the research scholars, a further extension of six months beyond December 31 till June 30, 2022, for submission of the thesis by MPhil and PhD students may be granted by the universities. It is also notified that the extension for submission of thesis till June, shall be applicable to all such students whose due date of submission of the thesis is on or before June 30,” UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain said in an official notice. 

“Extension of six months, as mentioned above, may also be granted for submitting evidence of publication and presentation in two conferences. However, tenure of fellowship will remain up to five years only,” he added.

Earlier, the commission had extended the submission deadline till December 2021, but now the research scholars have another six months to submit their thesis. “It is also notified that the extension for submission of MPhil/PhD thesis till June 2022 shall be applicable to all such students whose due date of submission of the thesis is on or before June 30, 2022,” it has added.

Source: Indian Express, 3/12/21

What’s in ART, Surrogacy Bills

 

Lok Sabha has passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill, after the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill two years earlier. What is the difference, and how does the new Bill propose to regulate ART?

On Wednesday, Lok Sabha passed the Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill, 2020, which makes provisions for the safe and ethical practice of assisted reproductive technology (ART) services in the country.

Another key bill to safeguard the reproductive rights of women — the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019 — was passed by Lok Sabha on August 5, 2019. This one was referred to a Select Committee, which recommended that the ART Bill should be brought first, so that all the highly technical and medical aspects could subsequently be addressed in the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019.

What is the difference?

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill relates to surrogacy, an infertility treatment, where a third person, a woman, is the surrogate mother. In ART, treatments can be availed by the commissioning couple themselves and it is not always necessary that a third person is involved.

Surrogacy is allowed for only Indian married couples. ART procedures are open to married couples, live-in partners, single women, and also foreigners. A 2015 notification prohibits commissioning of surrogacy in India by foreigners or OCI or PIO cardholders, but NRIs holding Indian citizenship can avail surrogacy. Foreigners can visit India under medical tourism to avail ART services.

Under the Surrogacy Bill, there will be a National Surrogacy Board that will be involved in policymaking, and act as a supervisory body, and State Boards that will act as executive bodies. The ART Bill provides for a National Board, with the powers vested in a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure.

According to the Health Ministry, the estimated number of clinics practising surrogacy in India is likely less than 1,000, while that of those practising ART is likely more than 40,000.

Why was the ART Bill felt necessary?

The growth of ART clinics in India is among the highest in the world, and these are a key part of medical tourism.  These offer gamete donation, intrauterine insemination, in-vitro- fertilisation, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and pre-implantation genetic diagnostic.

India does not have standard protocols of ART clinics yet. Amid questions raised on their ethical, medical, and legal aspects, Lok Sabha passed the Bill that provides for regulation and supervision of ART clinics and ART banks.

What is an ART bank?

Under the Bill, ART will include all techniques that attempt to obtain a pregnancy by handling the sperm or the oocyte outside the human body, and transferring the gamete or the embryo into the reproductive system of a woman. It defines an ART bank as an organisation set up to supply sperm or semen, oocytes, or oocyte donors to ART clinics or their patients. ART services will apply to women above the legal age of marriage and below 50, and to men above the legal age of marriage and below 55.

How will ART services be regulated?

NATIONAL BOARD: It will advise the Centre on policy matters. It will review and monitor rules and regulations, and recommend any changes. It will set the minimum standards of physical infrastructure, laboratory and diagnostic equipment and expert manpower to be employed by clinics and banks. State boards will coordinate the implementation of the guidelines.

NATIONAL REGISTRY: It will have a central database on all clinics and banks in the country, including nature and types of services provided, and the outcome of these services. The registry will provide the data to National Board for making policies and guidelines.

REGISTRATION AUTHORITY: It will have the chairperson, who will be an officer above the rank of Joint Secretary in the Health Department; a vice-chairperson, who will be above the rank of the Joint Director in the Health Department; an eminent woman representing a women’s organisation; an officer of the Law Department, and, an eminent registered medical practitioner.

The registration authority’s functions will include: to grant, suspend, or cancel the registration of ART centres; to enforce the standards and supervise implementation of the law; to investigate complaints of any breach of provisions, to take legal action against the misuse of ART and initiate independent investigations; and to recommend to the National and State Boards on modifying the regulation with changes in technology and social conditions.

What rules must clinics comply with?

They have to ensure that the commissioning couples, women, and donors of gametes are eligible for ART procedures, and that the donor is medically tested. They will have to provide professional counselling about all the implications and chances of success — and inform the couples about advantages, disadvantages, costs, side effects, and risks including that of multiple pregnancies. They will have to establish a grievance cell.

ART clinics will have to make the commissioning couple or woman aware of the rights of a child born through ART, and ensure all data is kept confidential. The Bill says a child born through ART shall be deemed to be a biological child of the commissioning couple. The child will be entitled to all the rights and privileges available to a natural child from the commissioning couple, and the donor will have to relinquish all parental rights over the child.

What are the other safeguards?

The Bill says the clinic shall not perform any treatment or procedure without the written consent of all the parties seeking ART. It mandates an insurance coverage in favour of the oocyte donor by the commissioning couple or woman from an insurance company. The insurance will provide a guarantee of compensation for specified losses, damage, complications, or death of the donor during the process.

What are the regulations on the use and sourcing of gametes and embryos?

The woman cannot be treated with gametes or embryos derived from more than one man or woman during one treatment cycle. Second, a clinic cannot mix semen from two individuals for the procedures. Third, the embryos shall not be split and used for twinning to increase the number. Also, there will be regulations for the harvest of oocytes or embryos, and the number of oocytes or embryos that may be placed in the uterus of a woman during the treatment cycle.

The Bill says the ART bank cannot supply the sperm or oocyte of a single donor to more than one commissioning couple. Also, the oocyte donor shall be an ever-married woman who has at least one live child of her own with a minimum age of three years. She can donate oocytes only once in her lifetime, and not more than seven oocytes are to be retrieved from her. The gamete or embryo of a donor shall be stored for a period of not more than 10 years.

Will there be testing for disease?

The Bill mandates that pre-implantation genetic testing shall be used to screen the embryo for known, pre-existing, heritable, or genetic diseases. The test will identify genetic defects in embryos created through IVF before pregnancy. The National Board will lay down conditions on pre-implantation testing.

Written by Kaunain Sheriff M

Source: Indian Express, 3/12/21

Remember how the Constitution was brought into being

 

G. N. Devy writes: Tribal communities, workers, peasants, students and the common people braved imprisonment or bullets and fought for the dream of a freedom that would ensure justice and equality

In 1922, a 30-year-old English poet published a long poem, a modern-day epic by common consent. A century later, T S Eliot’s The Waste Land resonates in India, not because of its prophecy or satire, but because of a curious tale it picked up from the Brihad Aranyaka. The Aranyaka, the earliest among the Upanishads, is a treasure trove of mythical stories, one of which appears in the fifth section of The Waste Land, titled ‘What the Thunder Said.’

This is how it goes: After Prajapati, the creator, had made beings and things, he danced in a frenzy, shouting, “da, da, da…” He then assembled his progeny — the devas, danavas and manavas — and asked if they had understood what he said. The devas said “da” is damyata: “learn self-control”; the manavas thought, he had said datta: “learn to overcome greed”; the danavas said it was dayadhvam: “learn to forgive”. Prajapati laughed enigmatically and said, “Well, you seem to have understood, perhaps.”

Without forgetting that this is a myth and not history, I have often wondered if there has been a moment in India’s history when the praja danced in ecstasy, as did Prajapati, for having created what had to be created. I like to believe that November 26, 1949, was that moment – we, the people, adopted, enacted and gave unto ourselves the Constitution, which gave to every Indian a hope that no past era had provided. What diverse responses does it evoke now?

Remembering the day, the constitutional head of India’s judiciary said that the “citizenry of independent India” has breathed life into “what might otherwise have been just another bare document”. Many freedom fighters, such as Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru, Lajpat Rai, Patel and Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, he reminded the nation, were lawyers. His appreciation of “litigants, judges, law-makers and lawyers” reminded the country that it is the people who matter above all. The response to Samvidhan Divas by the principal opposition party was to remind the Prime Minister that the institutions envisioned by the Constitution have been rendered dysfunctional during his regime and “the Constitution was being undermined every day”. The thoughts of the Prime Minister on the day revolved round his pet theme of dynastic politics as a threat to democracy, colonial mindset and “misuse of the freedom enshrined in the Constitution” as a hindrance in the country’s development. His irritation towards those he believes to be hindering development was clear in word and tone.

All three paid homage to those who gave up their lives to make India free. Influenced by visuals in films, emotive theatre, stories heard from elders and distorted snippets coming through social media, the nation’s memory of the freedom struggle is quite truncated. Who remembers today, for instance, the names of the thousands who plunged into the Quit India and Civil Disobedience movements, faced the gallows, were shot by the colonial police or rotted in jails? Who remembers that tribe and caste fought British rule in villages and cities, from the Santhal uprising in the 1850s right till independence in 1947?

One of those many struggles for India’s freedom was the Battle of Aberdeen, a violent clash between the native Adivasi population of the Andaman islands and the British and the convicts deported to the Penal Colony in the Andaman islands after 1857. Anthropologist Vishvajit Pandya tells us that in April 1859, a batch of Indian prisoners had escaped the Penal Settlement and wanted to hide in the habitat of the Adivasis. All but one of the convicts were killed, as they had been clearing the forest for creating British settlements. A month later, in May 1859, the Adivasis decided to attack the British establishment; but Dudhnath Tiwari, convict no. 276, who they had not killed, betrayed them and reported the plot to the British. As a result, 1,500 tribal men faced the bullets fired from the navy schooner Charlotte. Why had the convicts attempted an escape? In the previous year, in a single day, on May 18, 1958, scores of prisoners had been hanged, 26 of them deported from the Bombay Presidency alone and most in their early twenties. One finds in the record of martyrs documented by the ICHR that from among those who were deported to the Andamans from the erstwhile Bombay Presidency, a total of 37 were hanged. They belonged to all castes and religions. Of them, 14 were Muslims.

Not just in the events of the 1857 resistance to the British rule, but throughout the long history of the freedom struggle, women and men from all castes, communities, religions and regions risked their lives to create a free and forward-looking India. Records show that some esoteric groups did not participate in the freedom struggle, while some individuals submitted mercy petitions and some became informants for the British. However, tribal communities, workers, peasants, students and the common people braved imprisonment or bullets and fought for the dream of a freedom that would ensure justice and equality. The Constitution was and remains the culmination of that struggle.

Returning to the Aranyaka myth, one agrees with the CJI that the people have kept the Constitution alive, despite the “clean chits” to architects of riots and FIRs against victims of atrocities. One agrees with opposition parties that democratic institutions have crumbled; outside as well inside the political parties. Yes, the Prime Minister was right in pointing to “family-centric” action as a hindrance to development. Indeed, catering to only a few corporate families has caused a grave economic crisis for the rest of India.

One wonders if, like the mythical Prajapati, the praja could laugh, for it knows that “once the Constitution” is no guarantee of “always the Constitution”. Surely, it is watching through millions of eyes.

Not just in the events of the 1857 resistance to the British rule, but throughout the long history of the freedom struggle, women and men from all castes, communities, religions and regions risked their lives to create a free and forward-looking India. Records show that some esoteric groups did not participate in the freedom struggle, while some individuals submitted mercy petitions and some became informants for the British. However, tribal communities, workers, peasants, students and the common people braved imprisonment or bullets and fought for the dream of a freedom that would ensure justice and equality. The Constitution was and remains the culmination of that struggle.

Returning to the Aranyaka myth, one agrees with the CJI that the people have kept the Constitution alive, despite the “clean chits” to architects of riots and FIRs against victims of atrocities. One agrees with opposition parties that democratic institutions have crumbled; outside as well inside the political parties. Yes, the Prime Minister was right in pointing to “family-centric” action as a hindrance to development. Indeed, catering to only a few corporate families has caused a grave economic crisis for the rest of India.

One wonders if, like the mythical Prajapati, the praja could laugh, for it knows that “once the Constitution” is no guarantee of “always the Constitution”. Surely, it is watching through millions of eyes.

Written by G. N. Devy

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 3, 2021 under the title ‘For the praja, by the praja’. The writer is a cultural activist

Source: Indian Express, 3/12/21

What the latest NFHS data says about the New Welfarism

 

Abhishek Anand, Arvind Subramanian write: On the key child stunting metric, it suggests not a catch-up, but a great switch between some of the BIMARU states and the mid-peninsular/western states

After the release of the first phase of the fifth wave of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), we wrote in these pages (‘New welfarism of India’s Right’, IE, December 22, 2020), providing evidence for: (i) The success of the Narendra Modi government’s New Welfarism — the public provision of essential, and essentially private, goods and services such as cooking gas, toilets, bank accounts, power, housing, and cash; and (ii) setbacks in health and nutrition outcomes for children such as stunting, and the prevalence of anaemia and diarrhoea.

The release of the second and final phase of NFHS-5, which covered 11 states (including Uttar Pradesh (UP), Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Jharkhand, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh) and about 49 per cent of the population calls for an update of our previous findings.

First, it is now clear that the evidence for the success of New Welfarism is as strong as we had suggested earlier. Figure one plots household access to improved sanitation, cooking gas and bank accounts used by women. The improvements are as striking as they were based on the performance of the phase 1 states. In all cases, access has increased significantly, although claims of India being 100 per cent open defecation-free still remain excessive.

Second, on child-related outcomes, our earlier findings have to be qualified, significantly in the case of stunting and diarrhoea. Earlier we had found that child stunting had stagnated between 2015 and 2019 after decades of progress. When phase 2 states are added, we find that India-wide, stunting has declined although the pace of improvement has slowed down post-2015 compared with the previous decade. For example, stunting improved by 0.7 percentage points per year between 2005 and 2015 compared to 0.3 percentage points between 2015 and 2021. On diarrhoea too, adding the new data reverses the earlier finding. However, on anaemia and acute respiratory illness, there seems to have been deterioration as we had found earlier.

The new child stunting results are significant but also surprising because of the sharply divergent outcomes between the phase 1 and phase 2 states. Figure 3 tries to unpack the new evidence. It plots child stunting rates for the most recent period on the y-axis and rates for 2015 on the x-axis along with a 45-degree line. Points to the north of the line indicate deterioration in performance between 2015 and 2020, while points below the line denote improvement. The phase 1 and 2 states are shown in black and red, respectively. The interesting pattern is that nearly all the phase 2 states show large improvements, whereas most of the phase 1 states exhibited a deterioration in performance.

The survey for the latest data was conducted in two waves, the first before the pandemic and the second during the peak of the second wave (October/November 2020 – March/April 2021). How much the circumstances of the NFHS survey might have affected the results is difficult to say; and if anything, our priors would have been that phase 2 states would have fared worse due to the impact of Covid.

Evidently, the converse has happened. For the moment, we must accept the results while investigating this and other possible anomalies: For example, the data for Tamil Nadu shows a dramatic deterioration in the sex ratio at birth from 954 females to males in 2015 to 878 in 2020, indicating a sharp increase in selective abortion, despite an improvement in the sex ratio of the overall population from 1,033 to 1,088 females per males.

But here’s the real surprise in Figure 3. If the new child stunting numbers are right, a different picture of India emerges. Apparently, Madhya Pradesh now has fewer stunted children than Gujarat; Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand are almost at par with Gujarat; Chhattisgarh fares better than Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra; and Rajasthan and Odisha fare better than Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh! On child stunting, the old BIMARU states (excepting Bihar) are no longer the laggards; the laggards are Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, and to a lesser extent, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

If true, on the key child stunting metric, what we are seeing is not catch-up but the great switch between some of the BIMARU states and the mid-peninsular/western states. Indeed, the decline in stunting achieved by the poorer states such as UP, MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan would be all the more remarkable given the overall weakness in the economy between 2015 and 2021. When commentators speak of two Indias, it is now important to ask: Which ones and on what metrics?

Finally, insofar as health and nutrition are determined by actions of the states, stunting outcomes reflect on their performance. The improvements in Rajasthan have happened under the Congress, in MP and Haryana under the BJP, in Odisha under the BJD, and in UP under both Samajwadi Party and BJP; and the stagnation/setbacks have occurred in Gujarat (BJP), West Bengal (Trinamool), and Telangana (TRS). Neither success nor failure seems to be the monopoly of any one political party.

Written by Abhishek Anand , Arvind Subramanian 

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 3, 2021 under the title ‘New geography of welfare’. Anand is Robert S. McNamara Fellow, World Bank and Subramanian is Senior Fellow, Brown University

Source: Indian Express, 3/12/21

Quote of the Day December 2, 2021

 

“If you get up one more time than you fall, you will make it through.”
Chinese proverb

“आप जितनी बार गिरते हैं, उससे अगर एक अधिक बार उठ खड़े हों तो आप सफल हो जाएंगे।”
चीन की कहावत

Cost of Living Index 2021

 The Economic Intelligence Unit recently released Cost of Living Index 2021. According to the report, Tel Aviv of Israel is the most expensive city in the world.

Key Findings

• Tel Aviv is the world’s most expensive cities. It was followed by Paris in second place and Singapore in third place.
• In 2020, Paris was the most expensive city according to the index.
• In 2021, Zurich and Hong Kong were at fourth and fifth places respectively.
• Overall, the upper rankings were dominated by developed Asian cities and European cities.
• The lowest rankings were occupied by cities in Africa, Middle East and less wealthier parts of Asia.

Inference

The index shows that the overall prices of goods and services in the world have increased by 3.5%. In 2020, this was 1.9%.

Reasons for the increase in price rise

• The global supply chain was greatly affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions. This affected the production and trade all over the world. And eventually led to the price rise.
• The oil price rise played a major role in the price rise. The unleaded petrol prices increased by 21%.
• Apart from oil, the prices of recreation, personal care products and tobacco products also increased.

Notable Price rise cities

• The highest price rise was reported in the Iranian city Tehran. It jumped from 79^th rank in 2020 to 29^th rank in 2021. This was mainly due to US sanctions. The US sanctions led to shortages and higher prices.
• The Syrian city Damascus was ranked the lowest. This is because its war-torn economy is still struggling to recover.
• Both Damascus and Tehran are suffering from high inflation.
• The other cities that are suffering from high inflation are Buenos in Argentina and Caracas in Venezuela.

About Cost-of-Living Index

• The Cost-of-Living Index tracks the cost of living of 173 cities in the world. It compares more than 200 every day products and services.
• The index bench marks the prices against the prices in New York. Thus, the cities with currencies that are stronger than the US Dollars appear higher in the ranking.

Indian cities in the index

None of the Indian cities topped the first 20 ranks. However, Tokyo of Japan, Shanghai of China topped in first twenty ranks.