Banaras Hindu University invites applications for ‘Malviya postdoctoral fellowships’

 

The age of a candidate applying for the fellowship should be preferably less than 35 years as of June 17, 2022. Details of the fellowship are available on the BHU website - bhu.ac.in.

Banaras Hindu University is inviting applications from Indian Nationals, Foreign Nationals, PIO & OCI, for ‘Malaviya Postdoctoral Fellowships’. Candidates who have obtained their Ph.D. from the top 500 Institutions of the world and a very good academic record or having postdoctoral experience of two years from the top 500 institutions, based on THE or Q-S ranking, shall be eligible to apply. 

The age of a candidate applying for the fellowship should be preferably less than 35 years as of June 17, 2022. Details of the fellowship are available on the BHU website – bhu.ac.in. The last date of submitting applications is June 17, 2022.

The fellowship is for two years and is extendable to another one year based on favourable evaluation. As part of the Fellowship, a candidate will receive Rs 1 lakh per month, with an additional annual research grant of Rs 3 lakh.

The scheme was launched under the ‘Institution of Eminence’ status granted to the university by the Government of India. There are up to 100 positions in all disciplines of Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities and other professional disciplines.

Source: Indian Express, 21/05/22

Quote of the Day May 18, 2022

 

“We do not see things they are. We see them as we are.”
Talmud

“हम वस्तुओं को जैसी हैं वैसे नहीं देखते हैं। हम उन्हें वैसे देखते हैं जैसे हम हैं।”
टालमड

Silicon Valley-Based Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist And Philanthropist Asha Jadeja Announces Rajeev Circle History Scholars Program

 New Delhi  – Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur, venture capitalist and philanthropist, Asha Jadeja has launched a unique program called the Rajeev Circle History Scholars (RCS) Program. The program seeks to publish high quality, well-researched and accessible popular books on Indian history each year through the grant of a coveted Fellowship awarded to eligible scholars. Rajeev Circle History Scholars (RCS) Program has been constituted in memory of Asha’s late husband Rajeev Motwani. Rajeev and Asha have invested in over 200 technology startups in Silicon Valley.

The Rajeev Circle History Scholars (RCS) Program aims to foster scholarship and produce knowledge in the field of Indian historiography that is Indic in its outlook rather than the hitherto colonial or ideologically driven narrative.

The scholars who will be supported by the RCS program are Prof. V.N. Prabhakar (RCS Senior Fellow) and Dr. Ankur Kakkar, Dr. Sreejit Datta, Mr. Aravindan Neelakandan, Mr. Aneesh Gokhale, Mr. Aabhas Maldahiyar (RCS Fellows).

Announcing the program, Asha Jadeja said, “In the decades after Independence, Indian historiography has suffered from several drawbacks, many rooted in “history written by victors”, colonial narratives that have warped the portrayal of actual events to fit a grandiosity of dying imperialism. There is an urgent need for serious scholarship that revisits these aspects of our past in a modern, contemporary context. And the Motwani Jadeja Foundation is proud to announce the Rajeev Circle History Scholars (RCS) Program to support scholars in this area. ”

The RCS program is led by author and historian Dr. Vikram Sampath. Dr. Sampath is a Bangalore based historian and author of six acclaimed books. He has a Doctorate in history and music from the University of Queensland, Australia and was a Senior Research Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. He has established the Archive of Indian Music, India’s first digital sound archive for vintage recordings, is the Founder-­Director of the Bangalore Literature Festival, Indic Thoughts Festival and ‘ARTH-­‐ A Culture Fest’.

Programs like the Rajeev Circle History Scholars (RCS) and Rajeev Circle Fellowships (RCF) is an ongoing effort by Asha Jadeja and the Motwani Jadeja Foundation to contribute toward the growth of intellectual and entrepreneurial capital of India to augment India’s future through positive action for greater and exponential impact. More details on the Motwani Jadeja Foundation can be found at www.mjf.world.

Source: indiaeducationdiary.in, 12/05/22

Current Affairs-May 18, 2022

 

INDIA

– Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launches 2 indigenously built warships ‘Surat’ and ‘Udaygiri’; built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL)

– India hosts SCO-RATS (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation–Council of Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure) meet; focus on the situation in Afghanistan

– India is the ‘Country of Honour’ at Cannes Film Festival in France

– Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs & Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal launches mental health helpline

– PM returns from day-long visit to Lumbini in Nepal

– Gyanvapi case: Varanasi Court sacks advocate commissioner, grants survey team 2 more days to file report

– Jamaica: President Nath Kovind meets PM Andrew Holness in Kingston

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Shares of LIC list at 8.6% discount to issue price after IPO

– Wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rate rises to the highest level in the current 2011-12 series at 15.08% in April

– Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal receives Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

– Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air gets its airline code QP

– Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air gets its airline code QP; start operations from July

– Adani Group acquires Switzerland-based Holcim Ltd.’s entire stake in Ambuja Cements Ltd. and ACC Ltd.

WORLD

– France: President Emmanuel Macron names Elisabeth Borne as new PM

– Siege at Azovstal steel plant ends in Mariupol as hundreds of Ukrainian fighters surrender: Russia

– Sri Lanka: Parliament defeats no-trust motion against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

– Sri Lankan govt. to sell its national airline to stem losses

– Sweden to start NATO application process, says PM Magdalena Andersson

– World Telecommunication and Information Society Day celebrated on May 17; theme: ‘Digital technologies for older persons and healthy ageing’

– World Hypertension Day observed on May 17

– Somalia: Hassan Sheikh Mohamud elected new next President by parliament

– Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra wins Eurovision Song Contest

– UNGA to organise First International Migration Review Forum in New York on May 17-20

SPORTS

– Odisha wins Hockey India Senior Women’s National Championship; beats Karnataka in the final played at Bhopal

– Tata Consultancy Services World 10K Bengaluru: Kipkorir Kimeli (men’s) and Irene Cheptai (women’s) triumph in record time

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

 

Vol. 57, Issue No. 20, 14 May, 2022

Editorials

The Question of Accurate COVID-19 Death Figures

Comment

Autonomy and Appointment of University Vice Chancellors

From the Editor's Desk

Comprehending Digital Democracy

From 50 Years Ago

From 50 Years Ago: No Eye for Pictures

H T Parekh Finance Column

The New Thrust of Fiscal Conservatism

C P Chandrasekhar

Commentary

NPA Resolution and Bad Bank

Santosh Kumar Das

India’s Arctic Policy - Signs of a Pivot to Arctic Energy and the Northern Sea Route

Jawahar Bhagwat, A E Shaparov

Degree Devaluation

Sudhanshu Bhushan

Book Reviews

Kabir and the Question of Modernity

David N Lorenzen

An Imperial Cocktail of Fear and Violence

Shoaib Daniyal

Perspectives

Land Tenure Informalities and the Pandemic

Pranab R Choudhury, Sumita Sindhi, Ranjan K Ghosh

Money, Banking and Finance

Money and Finance during the Pandemic and Beyond

Partha Ray

Priming Monetary Policy for the Pandemic

Michael Debabrata Patra, Indranil Bhattacharyya

Pandemic and the Monetary Policy in the Global North

Parthapratim Pal, Partha Ray

Bank Merger, Credit Growth, and the Great Slowdown in India

Abhiman Das, Subal C Kumbhakar

Do Private Sector Banks Manage Equity Capital Competently Compared to Public Sector Banks? - Evidence from India

Nitya Nand Tripathi, Naseem Ahamed, Sudhakara Reddy Syamala

Regulatory Risk Containment Measures on Single Stock Derivatives - An Impact Assessment

Latha Chari, Pradiptarathi Panda, C K G Nair

Financial Inclusion and the Pandemic

M S Sriram

Current Statistics

CURRENT STATISTICS

Postscript

Topicality of Historicals - Reading Sardar Udham

Rutuja Deshmukh, Swapna Gopinath

Overcoming a Methodological Dilemma - Understanding the Ineffable

Deepu Pratheep

love in the time of corona

Sagarika Srivastava

Last Lines

Letters

Who Is Winning the Pyrrhic War?

Abhiroop Chowdhury, Armin Rosencranz

The Harmful Impact of Postponing Judicial Services Exam

Sneha Hooda

Alcohol consumption in India: trends across states, age groups

 

Of all states, Arunachal Pradesh has the highest proportion of both men (53%) and women (24%) who drink alcohol.

Alcohol consumption among both men and women is higher in rural India than in urban India, the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), 2019-21 has found. Overall, 1% of women aged 15 and over drink alcohol, compared to 19% of men in the same age group. This breaks up into 1.6% (rural) and 0.6% (urban) among women, and 19.9% and 16.5% respectively among men.

 Source: NFHS-5

Of all states, Arunachal Pradesh has the highest proportion of both men (53%) and women (24%) who drink alcohol. Among women, Arunachal Pradesh is followed by Sikkim (16%); among men, it is followed by Telangana (43%). Besides Arunachal and Telangana, alcohol consumption among men is higher (40% and above) in upper Brahmaputra region of Assam, districts in Jharkhand and Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, and the Chhota Nagpur region of Jharkhand and Odisha.

 Source: NFHS-5

The level of alcohol consumption among men is 30-40% in parts of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, and a few districts of Odisha. It is below 30% in the remaining parts of India, and the lowest in Lakshadweep (0.4%).

Alcohol consumption is more common among those from the Scheduled Tribes than from any other caste/tribe groups; this is true of both women (6% consumption among STs) and men (33%). Among religious groups, the proportion of men who drink alcohol is higher among those belonging to “other religions” (47%) than among those belonging to the Hindu (20%), Muslim (5%), Christian (28%), Sikh (23.5%), Buddhist/Neo-Buddhist (24.5%) and Jain(5.9%) religions.

Source: Indian Express, 17/05/22

India topped air pollution death toll in 2019, says report

 

Globally, air pollution alone contributes to 66.7 lakh deaths, according to the report, which updates a previous analysis from 2015.

Air pollution was responsible for 16.7 lakh deaths in India in 2019, or 17.8% of all deaths in the country that year. This is the largest number of air-pollution-related deaths of any country, according to a recent report on pollution and health published in The Lancet Planetary Health.

Globally, air pollution alone contributes to 66.7 lakh deaths, according to the report, which updates a previous analysis from 2015. Overall, pollution was responsible for an estimated 90 lakh deaths in 2019 (equivalent to one in six deaths worldwide), a number that has remained unchanged since the 2015 analysis. Ambient air pollution was responsible for 45 lakh deaths, and hazardous chemical pollutants for 17 lakh, with 9 lakh deaths attributable to lead pollution.

Pollution in India

The majority of the 16.7 lakh air pollution-related deaths in India – 9.8 lakh — were caused by PM2.5 pollution, and another 6.1 lakh by household air pollution. Although the number of deaths from pollution sources associated with extreme poverty (such as indoor air pollution and water pollution) has decreased, these reductions are offset by increased deaths attributable to industrial pollution (such as ambient air pollution and chemical pollution), the report noted.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has substantially tightened its health-based global air quality guidelines, lowering the guideline value for PM2.5 from 10 micrograms per cubic metre to 5. This means that there is hardly any place in India which follows the WHO norms,” Dr Sundeep Salvi, Chair for Chronic Respiratory Diseases of the Global Burden of Diseases study (GBD-19), told The Indian Express. He was not associated with the latest report in The Lancet Planetary Health.

According to the report, air pollution is most severe in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This area contains New Delhi and many of the most polluted cities. Burning of biomass in households was the single largest cause of air pollution deaths in India, followed by coal combustion and crop burning.

The number of deaths remains high despite India’s considerable efforts against household air pollution, including through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana programme. India has developed a National Clean Air Programme, and in 2019 launched a Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region. However, India does not have a strong centralised administrative system to drive its air pollution control efforts and consequently improvements in overall air quality have been limited and uneven, the report has said.

Professor Kalpana Balakrishnan, Dean (Research), Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed to be University), Chennai, and one of the authors of the report, stressed the need for a radical shift in the approach to pollution management efforts.

“In India, we need integrated surveillance platforms for health and exposure surveillance. Population exposure surveillance via biological and environmental monitoring can inform risk attributions within health programmes already in place to reduce the burden of maternal and child health as well as non-communicable diseases. Impacts from lead as shown in the report, that impacts children’s IQ, really drive home the point of irreversible long-term damage for multiple generations. Without surveillance at scale it is impossible to know what worked and what didn’t,” she told The Indian Express.

Lead pollution

Dr Salvi too cited the implications of lead pollution. “An estimated 9 lakh people die every year globally due to lead pollution and this number is likely to be an underestimate. Earlier the source of lead pollution was from leaded petrol which was replaced with unleaded petrol. However the other sources of lead exposure include unsound recycling of lead-acid batteries and e-waste without pollution controls, spices that are contaminated with lead, pottery glazed with lead salts and lead in paint and other consumer products,” he said.

“Globally more than 80 crore children (India alone contributes to 27.5 crore children) are estimated to have blood lead concentrations that exceed 5 µg/dL — which was, until 2021, the concentration for intervention established by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This concentration has now been reduced to 3.5 µg/dL,” he said.

Written by Anuradha Mascarenhas , Esha Roy

Source: Indian Express, 18/05/22