Ambition without idealism is dangerous

 

CJI N V Ramana: Law students, young lawyers cannot remain aloof from social reality.

The father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, once remarked, “Youth are agents for transformation”. The history of modern India would be incomplete without acknowledging the role played by students and youth of this country.

Many social revolutions and changes were brought about through politically conscious and socially responsible students, who raised their voices against existing inequities. Students have been the face of the Indian independence movement. In fact, the youth have often taken up certain causes and inspired many political parties to take up the same subsequently.

Education has a social agenda. The agenda is to develop our human resources, which meet the requirements of society. An educated citizenry is the greatest asset for any democratic society. Students are known for their readiness to fight for all the right causes because their thoughts are pure and honest. They are always at the forefront, questioning injustice. Any keen observer of Indian society would notice that in the past few decades, no big leader has emerged from the student community. This appears to be correlated with diminished participation of students in social causes after liberalisation. The importance of students’ participation in a modern democracy cannot be played down.

It is necessary for you (students) to take part in current debates. You must have a clear vision. It is essential that more and more well-meaning, forward-looking, and upright students like you enter public life. You must emerge as leaders. After all, political consciousness and well-informed debates can steer the nation into a glorious future as envisioned by our Constitution. A responsive youth is vital for strengthening democracy.

It is, therefore, necessary for students to realise the importance of their relationship with society. Students are an integral part of society. They cannot live in isolation. Students are guardians of freedom, justice, equality, ethics, and social equilibrium. All this can be achieved only when their energies are properly streamlined. When the youth become socially and politically conscious, the basic issues of education, food, clothing, healthcare, shelter, etc. would come into focus in the national discourse. The educated youth cannot remain aloof from social reality. You have a special responsibility.

Consider this: Nearly one-fourth of our population still lacks access to basic education. Only about 27 per cent of those in the age group of university students are enrolling for university education. While most of you leave these institutes with degrees and titles, always be aware of the world that you are a part of. You cannot remain self-centred. Do not allow narrow and partisan issues to dominate the nation’s thought process. This will ultimately hurt our democracy and the progress of our nation.

The youth of today is driven by idealism and ambition. Idealism without ambition may not achieve any positive results. Ambition without idealism can be dangerous. Combine the two in the right proportion and enable our country to emerge as one of the most powerful and harmonious.

The learnings of my generation were different. In addition to formal learning in school and college, tough circumstances taught us many valuable lessons. When we left college in search of a livelihood, the change was not abrupt. There was freedom for us to experiment, work, play and learn from society.

Unfortunately, the focus nowadays is on professional courses to the total neglect of equally important subjects such as humanities and natural sciences. In an anxiety to secure highly remunerative and profitable job opportunities, children are sent to exile in privately-run residential schools and coaching centres. The formative years of budding talents are spent in a suffocating atmosphere that unfortunately resembles prisons. The harsh reality is that even after the students enter professional universities, the focus is on classroom learning, and not on the world beyond the classroom.

My general observations on the power and responsibility of students and the youth are even more relevant when it comes to all of you who are graduating today. You are all law graduates of one of the premier law universities in the country. All of you have a special responsibility to society.

Lawyers cannot be strangers to socio-economic and political realities. With countless tools at your disposal, all the knowledge and information in the world a click away, you are in a privileged position. While it is not wrong to choose a life of convenience, I hope that you choose a life of service as well, for the future of this nation.

Be aware of prevailing inequities and ask yourselves: Can I be a part of the solution? Particularly, in a country like India, you need to be social architects. The legal profession is not about profit maximisation. It is a service to your client. Remember your duty to the court and to the law. Carry out your sacred task with utmost sincerity and honour.

When you enter the profession you will take an oath on the Constitution. Always remember your solemn duty to uphold the Constitution. You all are aware, independence of the judiciary is sacrosanct in ensuring the rule of law. As officers of the court, you must always guard the institution during testing times. You must always remain vigilant about possible attacks. This is our collective responsibility towards the Constitution.

It is for you to shape the future of this country. The opinions you write, policies you draft, pleadings and submissions that you file in Court and the ethics that you hold dear, will have a far-reaching effect.

As the former US President John F Kennedy famously said: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

Written by N V Ramana

Source: Indian Express, 10/12/21

Nagaland’s people deserve neither AFSPA nor gun culture

 

Patricia Mukhim writes: The Northeast is not only less understood by distant Delhi but also considered ‘alien’ to the nation.

The sight of a dozen or more coffins being laid in a row while young, helpless widows and elderly grief-stricken parents come to terms with their loss is an image that is both outrageous and painful. The dead were ordinary citizens going home to their village in Nagaland after work. In one shattering moment, their lives were extinguished; just like that. For the Army’s special unit, it was an intelligence error to which they overreacted. What’s the source of that information? Surely, the government cannot hide behind the smokescreen of “classified information”. There have been too many killings based on such wrong intelligence in Nagaland, Manipur and Assam.

With every such encounter in which the innocent are mowed down, the clamour for revocation of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) grows strident — but is rarely sustained. Some years ago, all the northeastern states had come together to demand the annulment of this Act. That remained in the realm of yet another “demand”.

How can a country adopt a colonial Act meant to counter the Quit India Movement of 1942 to fight its own people? How can independent India impose an Act that gives legal protection to the armed forces to shoot down anyone on “suspicion” of being a terrorist/extremist/insurgent? In 1997, after Nagaland’s most enduring insurgent outfit, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN), led by Isak Swu and T H Muivah, first decided to talk peace with the Indian government, the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) had approached the Supreme Court for revocation of the Act. But the apex court had then upheld its constitutionality, and said it was an enabling legislation that confers minimum powers on the army to operate in situations of widespread internal disorder. Public memory is short and it’s important to jog that. Irom Sharmila of Manipur had undertaken a 16-year fast against the law, with the state insisting on keeping her alive through regular medical intervention. Sharmila gave up her lonely battle in 2017 when she decided to contest the Manipur Assembly elections. Why did it take over 60 years for AFSPA to become an election issue? It was only in 2016, after many PILs were filed in the Supreme Court, that the court sought details of the 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings between May 1979 and May 2012 by the Manipur Police and the armed forces. The CBI was asked to go into a few of those cases. But in its report filed in March this year, it said it had no conclusive evidence and, therefore, closed the cases.

The unasked questions remain: Why are the northeastern states of India and Jammu and Kashmir singled out for imposition of AFSPA? Aren’t there internal rebellions in the rest of India too, such as “left-wing extremism?” Why are those areas not termed “disturbed areas” followed by the invocation of AFSPA? The reality is that the Northeast is not only less understood by distant Delhi but is also still considered “alien” to the nation because of racial and cultural dissimilarities. Nation-building in the region is work in progress; insurgency is the result of a colonial power — the British — being replaced by a power that people in Nagaland see as akin to its predecessor.

Many are wondering if the peace talks between the NSCN (IM) and the government of India now lie in tatters. Unfortunately, the media has focussed exclusively on the NSCN (IM) and ignored the other Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), who have been brought on board because they are Nagaland-based and speak exclusively for Nagaland. The NSCN(IM) is led by a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur and the majority of its cadres are also Nagas from Manipur. The NNPGs and the Gaon Bura Association of Nagaland doubt NSCN(IM)’s ability to bring lasting peace in Nagaland. They know that the NSCN(IM) is not an organisation with whom dialogue is possible or which is in the habit of examining its conscience and regretting its actions. It exists to recruit resentment and to direct that resentment against the usual target — Delhi or India.

It is important to take stock of the situation on the ground as it has existed since 2015. NSCN(IM) cadres, although living in a designated camp at Mount Hebron near Dimapur, move around freely with arms and extort with impunity. In the past, they have mercilessly gunned down rival factions but there has been no reaction because the people of Nagaland are a traumatised lot. Having faced the wrath of state and non-state powers, they had lost their voice, until a few years ago when people started expressing their anger against such killings and extortion over social media.

Since 2015, the Nagaland Gaon Bura Association, the apex body of Nagas which includes all the 16 recognised tribes and the NNPGs barring the NSCN (IM), have sent several memorandums addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, asking that whatever terms are agreed upon with the NSCN (IM) should be concluded and the remaining issues be resolved through peaceful means. Why has the Centre ignored these petitions?

These representatives of the Naga people do not demand a separate flag or constitution because they understand these are tenuous demands. It is a settled issue that there will be no territorial rearrangement and the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam will not be reorganised for that would unleash a Frankenstein’s monster. These groups have also never raised the sovereignty issue. The working committee of the seven NNPGs, roped in to join the peace talks, are also opposed to the idea of changing interlocutors as and when the NSCN (IM) decides.

Today, the people of Nagaland are being held hostage by governments both at the state and the Centre. People question why the Centre is pandering to the NSCN (IM) at the cost of the people of Nagaland. Why continue to use the army and AFSPA when killings have reduced considerably? The apex body has specifically mentioned that they want to be delivered from the gun culture. Why is the Centre not responding to that call? In fact, the GoI is seen as pandering to the political leadership of Nagaland, which is alienated from the people, instead of responding to the aspirations of the Naga people. It’s a given that if the state uses armed forces, there will be excesses because the army is trained to kill the enemy. Deploying the army means that the Government of India considers the areas where AFSPA is invoked and the people who live there as the enemy.

Countering insurgency in the Northeast is fraught also because of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar. India shares a 1,643 km border with Myanmar. The FMR signed between the two countries allows movement up to 16 km inside each other’s territory for trade and commerce. But it is misused by militants to smuggle drugs and arms. The FMR was suspended in March 2020 due to Covid — but smuggling has only increased. This border is the most difficult terrain to police. These issues need to be addressed for enduring peace to prevail.

Written by Patricia Mukhim

Source: Indian Express, 10/12/21

Quote of the Day December 9, 2021

 

“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.”
Freya Stark, The Journey's Echo

“सुख हमें नहीं मिल सकता यदि विश्वास हम किन्हीं चीजों में करें और अमल करें किन्हीं और चीज़ों पर।”
फ्रेया स्टार्क द जर्नीज़ ईको

NCW launches ‘She is a Changemaker’ programme

 

National Commission for Women (NCW) launched a pan-India capacity building programme called “She is a Changemaker” on December 7, 2021.

Highlights

• She is a Changemaker programme was launched for women in Politics.
• It is a capacity building programme, which will be undertaken in association with region-wise training institutes.
• It will be implemented with an objective of undertaking capacity building of women political leaders as well as improving their decision making & communication skills.

Launch of training programmes

Launch of training programmes under the She is a Changemaker programme was held in collaboration with Rhambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, Thane, Maharashtra.

Who launched with programme?

Programmes under the campaign were launched by the Chairperson of NCW, Rekha Sharma.

National Commission for Women (NCW)

NCW is the statutory body of Government of India. It is usually concerned with advising the government on all policy matters related to women. NCW was established on January 31, 1992 in accordance with the provisions of National Commission for Women Act, 1990.  The first chairperson of the commission was Jayanti Patnaik.

Functions of NCW

The NCW work with the objective of:

1. Representing the rights of women in India
2. To provide a voice for issues and concerns related to women.

Subjects of campaigns

The subjects of campaigns of NCW include politics, equal representation for women in jobs, dowry, religion, and exploitation of women for labour.

Rashtra Mahila

The Rashtra Mahila is the monthly newsletter, published by NCW in both Hindi and English.

Current Affairs-December 9, 2021

 

INDIA

– CDS (Chief of Defence Staff) General Bipin Rawat and 13 others die in crash of IAF helicopter Mi 17 V-5 near Coonoor in Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu

– Parliament passes Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2021

– Rajya Sabha passes Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020

– DRDO test fires air version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from Sukhoi 30 MK-I aircraft

– NMCG (National Mission for Clean Ganga) and c-Ganga (Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies) organising India Water Impact Summit from Dec 9 to 14

– Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo wins Jnanpith award for 2022; Assamese writer Nilmani Phookan wins for 2021

MONETARY POLICY HIGHLIGHTS

– The Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on December 8, 2021 announced that the Monetary Policy Committee had opted to keep the rates unchanged in its latest meet.

– Repo and reverse repo rates currently stand at 4 per cent and 3.35 per cent, respectively.

– MPC retained an accommodative stance to support & sustain growth

– Projection for real GDP growth is retained at 9.5% in FY22

– CPI (consumer price index) inflation projection retained at 5.3% during FY22

– RBI to continue using variable rate reverse repo operations to absorb funds. RBI to conduct a VRRR (variable reverse repo rate) auction of Rs 6.5 lakh crore on December 17 and Rs 7.5 lakh crore on December 31

– RBI proposes to launch UPI-based payment products for feature phone users

– UPI transaction limit to be hiked to Rs 5 lakh from current limit of Rs 2 lakh. UPI transaction limit hike only for retail direct scheme for investment of G-Secs and IPO offering applications

– RBI will soon release discussion paper on charges on digital payments in India

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– RBI retains three-member Advisory Committee of crisis-ridden Reliance Capital comprising Sanjeev Nautiyal, Srinivasan Varadarajan and Praveen P Kadle

– Cabinet approves continuation of Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) beyond March 2021 till March 2024

– Cabinet approves Rs. 44,605 crores ‘Ken-Betwa Interlinking of Rivers Project’ to benefit Bundelkhand region of MP and UP

– Suresh Jadhav, key executive of SII (Serum Institute of India) & doyen of vaccine industry, dies at 72 in Pune

– Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ranked 37th in list of ‘world’s 100 most powerful women’ by Forbes

– IndiGo signs agreement with Dehradun-based Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP) to manufacture and deploy sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) globally

– Indian edtech company Byju’s acquires Austria-headquartered GeoGebra

WORLD

– Germany: Olaf Scholz replaces Angela Merkel as chancellor

– Japan’s Yusaku Maezawa & Yozo Hirano take off for International Space Station on Russian Soyuz rocket; first self-paying space tourists since 2009

– SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Charter Day observed on Dec 8

Want to learn Spanish? Check list of ​​top 5 institutes offering Spanish language courses in India

 

Spanish is considered to be one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is an official or national of more than 20 countries. Check which are the best institutes to learn Spanish language skills in India

As new trends are developing, learning a new language seems to be in the lead. Learning a foreign language might be a difficult task but it opens up new windows of opportunities for the individual. Not just that, but for cognitive brain function as well, people who are bilingual are at an advantage.

Spanish is considered to be one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is an official or national in more than 20 countries. The language is harmonious and it will help you meet new people and will open up new horizons for you. Below are a few institutions in India that offer the Spanish language learning course. 

Henry Harvin Language Academy

Henry Harvin Language Academy offers a diverse range of courses, from skill development to technical growth. They also offer learners a consolidated framework with the completion of many stages, ranging from beginner to advanced.

They offer a 9-in-1 package that includes training, projects, certifications, internships, boot camps, hackathons, and placements, among other things. The course is implemented by trained and experienced professionals, using the European Framework as a baseline, which is very important for the Spanish language. It is simple to use and has 100 per cent hands-on training with lifetime support and access. Fpr the C2 level one has to pay a fee of Rs 15000.

Instituto Cervantes

Instituto Cervantes was founded in 1981 by the Government of Spain for promoting Spanish Language teaching and making the world more aware of the American and Hispanic cultures.

The Instituto Cervantes in New Delhi is located close to Cannaught Place. Their course is dedicated to promoting the use of language and culture and not the technical aspect of it. it is an opportunity to explore and get familiar with a wide range of Spanish-speaking cultures

Students also get access to their library, which has a large collection of Spanish and Hispanic American literature, films, magazines, and newspapers from throughout the world.

Instituto Hispania

Instituto Hispania, Pancsheel Park, was the first private Institution for the Spanish language in the country. It is known for providing classes for students who want to improve their Spanish skills.

School of Spanish

School of Spanish is located in Mukherjee Nagar. They partake in a holistic approach towards language learning and language building.Their services include classroom training, online classes, translation classes and travel guides among other things. They also provide training for the DELE exams. The Spanish embassy administers this exam, which can then be consecutively used to study and work in Spain.

Mundo Latino

Located in Kotla, INPEFA (Embassy of Peru), as well as the embassies of Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela, are all linked with Mundo Latino, the Spanish tutoring institution in Delhi. They aim to improve the speaking skills of the students so that they are confident in speaking the language. They offer beginner to advanced level language courses.

Source: Indian Express, 9/12/21

What is ambergris, the floating gold?

 

Ambergris, which means gray amber in French, is a waxy substance that originates from the digestive system of the protected sperm whales.

The Crime Branch of the Pimpri Chinchwad police has arrested two persons in Pune and seized 550 grams of ambergris, also known as ‘floating gold’. The action comes after six persons were arrested in August by the state forest department in Pune for smuggling three kilograms of the substance, which is sometimes incorrectly called ‘whale vomit’.

What is ambergris?

Ambergris, which means gray amber in French, is a waxy substance that originates from the digestive system of the protected sperm whales. While it is incorrectly referred to as ‘whale vomit,’ one of the theories about its formation suggests that it is produced in the gastrointestinal tract of some of the sperm whales for the passage of hard, sharp objects that are ingested when the whale eats large quantities of marine animals. The ambergris is said to be passed like feces and has a very strong fecal odour combined with a strong marine odour. The freshly passed ambergris is a light yellowish substance and is fatty but as it ages it turns waxy and gets red brownish, sometimes with shades of gray and black in colour and attains a mild, earthy, sweet smell but still with notes of mild marine odour.

What are the uses of ambergris and why is it so expensive?

Investigating agencies from across India who have seized ambergris in the recent past estimate its value to be somewhere between Rs 1 to 2 crores per kilogram, depending on the purity and quality.Officials sayTraditionally, ambergris is used to produce perfumes which have notes of musk. While there are records of it being used to flavor food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco in some cultures in the past, it is rarely used for these purposes presently.

A forest department official in Pune who was part of investigation into the seizure of ambergris in August said, “Trade and sale of Ambergris is banned in nearly 40 countries. While in our case, it was procured from somewhere in coastal Karnataka, we now know that ambergris is procured mainly from coastal areas of other states too. It is also believed that the key market for ambergris is in the middle eastern countries, select European and South East Asian countries. There are also reports that it is considered as an aphrodisiac and is used in some medicines.”

Legalities and recent cases of seizure in India

While there is a ban on possession and trade of ambergris in countries like the USA, Australia and India, in several other countries it is a tradable commodity, though with limitations in some of them. In the Indian context, the sperm whales are a protected species under Schedule 2 of the Wildlife Protection Act and possession or trade of any of its by-products, including Ambergris and its byproducts, is illegal under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. It has been observed that the gangs smuggling the ambergris procure it from coastal areas and ship it to destination countries via some other countries with whom India has comparatively less stringent sea trade.

The Crime Branch of the Pimpri Chinchwad police has arrested two persons and have seized around 550 grams of ambergris valued by the investigators at Rs 1.1 crore in illegal market. The two arrested persons are from Nashik and one of them was caught when he had brought ambergris to Pune in search of a potential buyer. The cops, working on a tip off, caught the man with the help of a decoy customer. In August this year the Pune Division of the Forest Department had arrested six persons and had seized from them three kilograms of ambergris. Multiple actions have been conducted by investigating agencies across India including Mumbai, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in which much larger quantities of ambergris have been seized. that being extremely rare contributes to its high demand and high price in the international market.

Written by Sushant Kulkarni

Source: Indian Express, 9/12/21