The University Grants Commission (UGC) NET 2022 exam's registration has begun. The National Testing Agency (NTA) has started the application process for the NET December 2021 and June 2022 merged cycles. Candidates can apply for the UGC NET 2022 on ugcnet.nta.nic.in The last to apply for the is May 20.
Friday, May 06, 2022
UPSC Annual Exam Calendar 2023 released, Civil Services exam on May 28
UPSC Annual Exam Calendar 2023 released. The Civil Service Prelims exam will be conducted on May 28, 2023. Candidates can check other exam dates below.
The ISS/IES examination will be conducted on June 23, 2023, Combined Geo Scientist Main Exam will be conducted on June 24, 2023, Engineering Service Main exam will be conducted on June 25, 2023. CMS exam will be conducted on July 16, 2023. The application process will open on April 19 and will close on May 9, 2023. Candidates can check the official website for more related details on exams.
Thursday, May 05, 2022
Quote of the Day May 5, 2022
“A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.”
Marie Henri Beyle
“प्रेम के प्रादुर्भाव के लिए आशा की एक छोटी से किरण ही पर्याप्त होती है।”
मैरी हेनरी बेयले
Digital Services Act: A historic agreement
The new European law for digital services promises to be a template to at least dam some of the problems, even as global tech regulation will likely need constant evolution.
European lawmakers agreed on new rules last week for digital services, sealing the contours of a law likely to give a foundation to how social media and e-commerce is governed globally. Overall, the Digital Services Act (DSA) builds on the conditional immunity given to online service providers under European law. The premise is simple: Companies can keep an intermediary status so long as they do not knowingly allow illegal content on their services. The DSA now tightens the penalties for companies not acting promptly enough if illegal speech is brought to their notice. This is different from American law with broader immunities. Additionally, the DSA now adds oversight mechanisms – each member country will have an independent Digital Services Coordinator to oversee the compliance of these laws.
Then there are significant new protections as well. The chief among these addresses user behaviour manipulation. The DSA will compel large digital companies to disclose how they profile their users, the mechanism by which their content recommender systems work, and give opt-out options. In other words, it will for the first time open algorithms to scrutiny. Another step significant in combatting user behaviour manipulation is in the DSA banning so-called dark patterns, or the practice of influencing people’s choices in, say, making a purchase or opening an article through clever user interface tricks. Additionally, companies will be obligated to disclose how they decide to take down content and how advertisers target users. Targeted advertising aimed at children will be completely prohibited, the rules propose.
The DSA is landmark legislation since nation-States have grappled with the challenge of coming up with rules for companies such as Facebook (now Meta) and Amazon, which are headquartered under a single foreign jurisdiction but influence societies and businesses beyond national borders. Historically, this has meant that these companies are more responsive to, say, when speech is manipulated to cause an insurrection at the US Capitol but not when it is used to further a genocide in Myanmar. Equally challenging have been attempts to understand technological harms, some of which did not exist until recently. For instance, the online business model today hinges on surveillance of user behaviour to maximise the accuracy of advertisements, the main source of revenue. The DSA promises to be a template to at least dam some of these problems, even as global tech regulation will likely need constant evolution.
Source; Hindustan Times, 27/04/22
IISc Bangalore invites applications for Narendra Summer Internship Programme 2022, last date to apply is May 10
The Department of Computer Science and Automation (CSA), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore invites applications from students enrolled in Computer science undergraduate or postgraduate programmes for Narendra Summer Internship Programme 2022.
The last date for applying is May 10. Interested students can apply online at the official website – csa.iisc.ac.in. Results will be announced by May 17. The applications will be reviewed by a committee of faculty members at CSA, and the selected candidates will be informed of their selection by May 20.“The expected internship period is from June 1 to July 31. However, the exact dates can be flexible and may be decided in consultation with the respective internship mentors.Each intern will be assigned a faculty member of CSA to mentor them during the internship. This internship can either be in-person, virtual, or hybrid. However, the interns will be provided only a consolidated amount of Rs 10,000 per month as a stipend, i.e., accommodation and travel would have to be arranged by the candidates themselves. The department will not be providing accommodation or travel support.
Source: Indian Express, 5/5/22
This is what keeps educated women out of the workforce
A recent international Deloitte survey reports how women’s workplaces are driving them out of full-time jobs, while the pandemic years have only made things worse in terms of burnout and work/life balance. A few vignettes from our study of educated, middle-class, non-working women in Delhi illustrate this:
“My husband has a lung problem; he and my teenage kids are on their computers and I am in the kitchen the whole day. We have our allocated spaces to avoid Covid; he can’t work if he has doubts…”“We cannot step out, someone delivers our groceries; my husband says he may get ill if we go out.”“Hygiene and care is important and I need to be with my teenage children once they’re home, I cannot leave them to the maids. But I’m in the kitchen all day since Covid arrived”.“I did a PhD from AIIMS in biotechnology and worked there, then my husband moved from Delhi and we had a daughter… Since Covid began, I did some online classes with school children, so I can manage my child and WFH husband”.In India, low and declining levels of women’s workforce participation demonstrated in official data has stimulated research seeking to understand demand and supply side drivers. Another approach is to look at factors influencing decisions of non-working women. NSS data suggests that non-working women respond positively when asked if they are willing to work part-time. What relevance does this have for educated women? Based on interviews before and during the pandemic, we explored some of these questions. There are societal patterns that have emerged in the social milieu of education and work, wherein boys become family breadwinners while girls prioritise functions of care and reproductive work. How does this play out in the lives of women?One respondent said: “I have a lot of girl cousins, and what I saw was that they went to school and college while they waited to marry”. Anita, in her mid-40s, with a postgraduate degree in management and 12 years of corporate sector experience, gave up her job to support her children at the crucial “end of school and college entry” moment. Sudesh, in her mid-40s, with long experience in HR, started her own recruitment company. Concerns over the security of her school-going children, apart from domestic responsibilities, mean that she now works intermittently. Neera, in her late 40s, has a Bachelors and Masters degree in English and Management respectively; and 10 years of corporate sector experience. Having married a colleague, she had twin girls, hoped to get back to work, but one of the twins was autistic: “This was the end of corporate work for me; autism is a complex condition with medical, behavioural, and developmental issues, you have to immerse yourself in finding solutions.”
“Marriage is not so important these days, career is,” said 47-year-old Mohini, while speaking about her daughter, although she quit work once her daughter was 7. “My job was not a 9-to-5 one, I never got home before 7 pm; I had no time to see to my daughter,” Mohini added. She started a handicrafts business, which is on hold now as her child approaches the school-leaving stage. Another respondent said: “I got married and was on night shifts. Work was not possible without family support and there was no one to take care of the kids. ”Running through all these conversations are rigid workplace demands, lack of sustained family/social support, personal responsibility to guide children and ensure their security. This reflects absence of good-quality childcare, counselling and mentoring. These inexorably influence choices. Educated women, however, exercise agency. Many in our sample actively engage in voluntary and paid activities including teaching, home-based marketing, consulting, tutoring etc. Periods of hectic work are interspersed by spells of no work. Such productive work contributes to society and economy, but being intermittent and often unpaid or voluntary, it goes unrecorded. For women to work consistently, during pandemics or otherwise, we need stronger supportive infrastructures. Then we may not face the bewildering situation of poverty driving women into the workforce, while education seems to drive them out of it. The choice then need not be between familial care and pursuing careers.
Written by Ratna M Sudarshan , Mala Khullar
Source: Indian Express, 5/04/22
Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Quote of the Day May 4, 2022
“No matter how dark the moment is, love and hope are always possible.”
George Chakiris
“इस बात से कोई अंतर नहीं पड़ता कि कोई विशेष क्षण कितना कठिन है, प्रेम और आशा हमेशा संभव हैं।”
जार्ज चैकिरिस
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