Monday, April 25, 2022
Current Affairs- April 25, 2022
PM’S J&K VISIT
– Participates in the celebration of National Panchayati Raj Day on April 24; transfers amount of the National Panchayat Award into the bank accounts of the winning Panchayats
– Inaugurates 500 KW Solar Power Plant at Palli village along with 108 Jan Aushadhi Kendras, says Palli is on the way to become India’s first carbon- neutral panchayat
Lays foundation stones for the 850 MW Ratle Hydroelectric Project & 540 MW Kwar Hydroelectric Project to be constructed on the Chenab River in Kishtwar District
– Inaugurates 8.45 kms Banihal Qazigund Road Tunnel which is 5,800 feet above sea level
– Launches Amrit Sarovar initiative aimed at developing and rejuvenating 75 water bodies in each district of the country
INDIA
– PM inaugurates community radio station (CRS) ‘Dudh Vani’ dedicated to animal husbandry during his Gujarat tour; set up by Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Banas Dairy)
– Agriculture Ministry organising ‘Kisan Bhagidari, Prathmikta Hamari’ campaign from Apr 25
– Jharkhand: Jamtara becomes country’s first district with library in every village
– External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar holds talks with visiting Argentine counterpart Santiago Cafiero in New Delhi
– Structural biologist M. Vijayan dies in Bengaluru at 80; recipient of Padma Shri and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
ECONOMY & CORPORATE
– India’s crude oil import bill rises from USD 62.2 billion in 2020-21 to USD 119 billion in 2021-22
– Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman meets World Bank President David Malpass in Washington
WORLD
– Russia claims to have destroyed logistics terminal of foreign weapons near Odessa in Ukraine
– US President Joe Biden marks 1915 ‘Armenian genocide’ in Turkey
– Turkey closes its airspace to Russian civilian and military flights between Russia and Syria
– International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace celebrated on April 24
– World Immunization Week being celebrated from April 24 to 30 by WHO; theme: ‘Long Life for All’
SPORTS
– Indian GM D. Gukesh wins Menorca Open chess tournament in Menorca, Spain
– Red Bull’s Max Verstappen wins Formula One Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Italy
– Asian Wrestling Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: India’s Deepak Punia wins silver in men’s 86kg
– India wins 2 gold medals in Archery World Cup Stage-1 in Turkey; Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Aman Saini win compound men’s team event & Tarundeep Rai and Ridhi win recurve mixed team event
– 10-day Khelo India University Games open in Bengaluru
Current Affairs- April 24, 2022
INDIA
– Centre issues advisory against broadcasting offensive, misleading content
– UGC, AICTE advise students not to travel to Pakistan for pursuing higher education
ECONOMY & CORPORATE
– India’s foreign exchange reserves down
– Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to host 21st World Congress of Accountants (WCOA) in November
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) calls off deal to buy Future Retail after secured creditors reject it
– Oil production in India declined 2.7% in 2021-22 to 29.69 million tonnes
WORLD
– Twitter bans ads that deny the reality of climate change
– Google to ban all third-party call-recording apps from Play Store starting May 11
– English Language Day, Spanish Language Day celebrated by UN on April 23
– World Book and Copyright Day celebrated by UNSECO on April 23
– Kishore Kumar Das of Bangladesh wins UK’s Commonwealth Points of Light Award
SPORTS
– Asian Wrestling Championships at Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia: Ravi Dahiya wins gold in men’s 57 kg
– Kenyans Peres Jepchirchir (women’s), Evans Chebet (men’s) win Boston Marathon
– India’s D. Gukesh wins La Roda International Open chess tournament in Spain
Deakin University announces Rs 30 million worth of Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarships for Indian students
Deakin University, Australia, has announced its Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarship program 2022, which offers a 100 per cent tuition fee waiver to four high-achieving Indian students for the full duration of their studies at the University at either undergraduate or postgraduate level.
Applications for the scholarship are open for students applying in the July intake this year.
The announcement comes as part of Deakin University’s initiative ‘Changing Lives’, which recognises deserving students with consistently high academic performance, who have potential to make a leading contribution to the University and their community in India.
Deakin has 28 years of engagement in India fostering collaborations across education and research, and launched this initiative in 2014 to support talented and dedicated students it has awarded 35 scholarships to date.Professor Iain Martin, Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University said that Deakin was committed to supporting Indian students who had aspirations to pursue a high-quality international education.
“Over almost three decades, Deakin’s relationship with India has been a very successful one, achieving great outcomes for Indian students and their communities. This is a priority for us – helping students gain the skills that will make a real difference to their communities in India.“And we gain so much in return; our international students make wonderful contributions to the life of our University, and beyond graduation they join our thriving global alumni community.”
“Through the Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious 100 per cent Scholarship program, we provide financial support to deserving students so they can focus on realising their full potential.”
Ravneet Pawha, Vice-President (Global Alliances) and CEO (South Asia) at Deakin added, “This announcement couldn’t have come at a better time. Both our countries’ prime ministers have recently emphasised the importance of education exchange in the light of the Free Trade Agreement.”
“With these scholarships, we aim to nurture future leaders who can make significant contributions in areas of science, technology, arts and more,” she said.
The selection for the Deakin Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarship Program is a rigorous process consisting of application review, referee recommendations and interviews/presentations, including a panel interview with neutral representatives from academia and industry.
Hritish Kakati, a Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholar in 2021, said, “I feel extremely privileged to have won the Deakin University Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious 100 per cent scholarship last year.”
“Being a Vice-Chancellor’s scholar gave me the opportunity to be part of the Vice Chancellor’s Professional Excellence Program (VCPEP), wherein I can meet and interact with achievers from all over the world.”
Deakin University also offers other academic merit-based bursaries and scholarships for Indian students that include a 25 per cent Merit Scholarship and a 20 per cent Bursary for studies onshore in Australia.
For more information about the Deakin University Vice-Chancellor’s Meritorious Scholarship Program 2022, and to check one’s eligibility to apply, please visit: deakinuniversity.in/vcscholars
Students may also email vcscholars@deakin.edu.au or call the Deakin South Asia Office, New Delhi on +91 11 2654 4725
Source: Indian Express, 23/04/22
Democratic space is slowly growing in Manipur
Lamka, Churachandpur today is predominantly a town inhabited by the indigenous Zo kindred tribes. It is multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and has a cosmopolitan worldview. Inter-ethnic clashes on June 27, 1997, had led to the breakdown of trust among communities and encouraged patronisation of ethnic affiliations. These tensions can be traced to the time of the merger of the princely state of Manipur with the Indian Union or even before to the colonial era. The Khul Union, formed in 1947, which comprises all the hill people in Manipur except the Nagas, to protect their interests and political future, was disrupted due to the assertion of linguistic dominance by the numerically larger ethnic groups. More recently, the anti-tribal bill movement in Manipur in August, 2015 widened the ethnic divide and disrupted communal harmony, especially in Churachandpur. The anti-tribal bill passed by the Manipur legislative assembly was opposed by the hill people of Manipur and a Joint Action Committee against the Anti-Tribal Bills (JACAATB) was formed to articulate the opposition. The subsequent protests led to attacks on the houses of MLAs from the hill areas and nine persons, including a 10-year-old boy, were killed in police firing. However, the ethnic divide came into play and the outcome was the withdrawal of some tribes from the JACAATB.
The ethnic and political divides impact everyday life, sometimes in a subtle manner and at other times in an explicit fashion. It triggers conflict and fuels violence. During elections, ethnic, institutional, money, gun, and muscle power become prevalent. In a region that has historically emphasised ethnicity, elections are not seen as an opportunity for electing lawmakers but imagined as a form of ethnic and geopolitical dominance and assertion. One’s candidature in an election is perceived as a representation of one’s community socio-culturally and politically. The outcome is that only a minuscule amount of space is provided to minority tribes like the Simtes, Gangte, Vaipheis, Mizos, Zous, and others to articulate their rights in a democratic manner.
Thangkhangin Ngaihte, the president of Lok Janshakti Party in Manipur and a member of the Simte community, has lost eight elections to the assembly and Parliament. He says, “Ethnic organisations govern our land, and our votes are cast on ethnic grounds. For a minority tribe like the Simtes, come a thousand years, the chances of getting their representative elected are still futile. Considering ethnicity as the ground for vote casting, a qualified candidate’s chances to get elected are nullified.”
This convoluted state of ethnic politics is further complicated by money, guns, and muscle power. It was alleged that Rs 16 crore was paid to Manipur militant groups ahead of elections to influence voters in the assembly election held in February. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that elections in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts in the first phase on February 28 were undemocratic because payments had been made. Demands were made for a repoll in 30 polling stations across Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts.
The entry of James Khuma Hauzel, an independent candidate in 58 AC Churachandpur, into the electoral fray became interesting because he refused to follow the dominant pattern of political discourse. He sought to break the symbolic, social, and cultural norms ascribed to political elites during his campaign. He attacked corruption, gun power, kinship, and institutional politics from a position that combined the Zo worldview and Christian ethics and morality. On the day of the election, Khuma and his wife, Ing Borang, visited several polling stations, exposing the redundancy of the security provided to the candidates.
Churachandpur 58 AC recorded the lowest voter turnout in the state with 71.53 per cent. However, this is still the highest voter turnout for the district after several decades of public disinterest in politics. The turnouts in 2012 and 2017 were 64.13 per cent and 62.56 per cent respectively. Khuma secured only 2,244 votes while the leading candidate, LM Khaute of JD(U), secured 18,321 votes. However, Khuma’s campaign against corruption, money and muscle power, kinship, and institutional politics had a resonance among young people, who desperately yearn for a change in the political discourse. This is how a supporter put it: “Khuma paved the way for new ways of seeing politics.
Winning or losing doesn’t matter.” On March 26, 2022, a month after the Manipur assembly election, the town held a “Pakhuma Night” at Lamka public ground with a large young crowd in attendance to take forward the issues Khuma highlighted in the campaign. Addressing the crowd, Mang Taithul, a journalist from the Zou community who hosted the event, said: “Tonight, a Gangte artist sings, a Zou hosts the event. If only all the tribes in our town came together like this, why wouldn’t Lamka be a convivial place?… There is no reason for Thadou, Paite, or Zou (tribes) to segregate… The Church, tribe and ethnicity have failed to bring Lamka together. Only Pakhum and music can bring us together…”
Although Khuma lost, the election has become a catalyst to unite people of different political persuasions in Churachandpur, a region that has been riven by divisive ethnic politics. Hopefully, these non-ethnic mobilisations driven by the belief in the power of democracy to transform the society and end corruption in public life will not dissipate.
Written by Suanmuanlian Tonsing , Sangmuan Hangsing
Tonsing is a doctoral candidate at the School of Information, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Hangsing an independent researcher
Source: Indian Express, 23/04/22
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Quote of the Day April 21, 2022
“It's not what you leave to your children, it's what you leave in your children.”
Anonymous
“महत्त्व इस बात का नहीं है कि आप अपने बच्चों के लिए क्या छोड़कर जाते हैं, महत्त्व तो इस बात का है कि आप उन्हें कैसा बना कर जाते हैं।”
अज्ञात
Are you ready for the Metaverse?
What we need are short-duration industry-oriented training programmes that can complement degree and diploma courses by providing focussed training in the latest tools
“One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon we’ll need a new definition.” Alvin Toffler
In 1992, science fiction writer Neil Stephenson coined the term Metaverse to describe a Virtual Reality-based version of the Internet of the future where people will be completely immersed in the reality of an unreal world. This vision has been picturised in dystopian Hollywood movies such as Ready Player One and Gamer. For 29 years, however, the term remained in the realms of pure science fiction, until October 2021 when Mark Zuckerberg made it famous with his Metaverse presentation, and Facebook inc. was renamed Meta. But, what is the metaverse and how is it going to affect us?
The metaverse as outlined by Zuckerberg, is a proprietary environment designed by Meta, that will create revolutionary immersive online spaces for work and play that are a combination of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence powered by real-time computer graphics running on powerful servers.
Combining AR, VR and AI, the metaverse would be an deeply immersive virtual space where we have high-quality 3D interactive virtual environments such as offices, schools and clubs that will make online life look and feel like a AAA Game at high settings, bringing about sweeping changes in our digital existence.
The important trio
Faced with disruptive new technologies, there are three choices — swim, float, or sink. Swimmers are those who learn quickly and thrive; floaters learn just enough to get by, and the rest simply sink under the weight of their ignorance.
If you wish to be a swimmer, a Power User and content creator in the metaverse, you need training in one of two fields — Computer Sciences or Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics (AVGC). While Computer Sciences have been a priority in the education sector in India since the 1980s, the focus has now fallen on AVGC, which is at the crossroads of arts and Science. Employment in the gaming sector is already growing at a phenomenal 113%, and it is estimated that new developments like the metaverse could generate an additional 300% demand for new jobs over the next five years, exposing a huge skill-gap in this sector. Therefore the 2022 Budget specifically focusses on AVGC as a high-growth sector and has planned to set up a task force for its promotion.
Viewing the requirement for urgent training in the latest technologies in the AVGC sector such as AR, VR, Unreal Engine Virtual Production, World Building and Character Creation over the next 5 to 10 years, it is essential that we augment traditional degree colleges and diploma courses with focussed part-time training programmes that address specific skill gaps in this sector.
The metaverse can only take shape when someone designs virtual environments and populates it with digital avatars of real selves that will work and play in the virtual world. This world building process is currently common to game design and visual effects where extensive and realistic environments are painstakingly created on computers. Now some of these are standard AVGC skills like CG modelling, rigging, texturing, and lighting, and artists need not be just trained from scratch but merely re-trained to be able to use the new real-time workflows using real-time gaming platforms like Unreal Engine and master new tools that will make the content creation process as much as ten times faster.
The key, then, is to have short-duration industry-oriented training programmes that can complement degree and diploma courses by providing focussed training in the latest tools to students or professionals already in the industry, but without the requisite skills in new technologies. This will enable players to retain experienced artists who will be more productive when re-trained in the new workflows. The time to start re-learning is now!
Source: The Hindu, 20/04/22
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