Jagriti: Mascot for Consumer Rights

 Recently, Jagriti Mascot was launched by the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA), in a bid to empower consumers and generate awareness on their rights.

About Jagriti Mascot

• Jagriti Mascot will help in empowering consumers and generating awareness among them about “consumer rights”.
• The Mascot will be presented as an empowered consumer, mushrooming awareness on consumer rights and addressing solutions for the problems faced by consumers.
• It will raise consumer awareness on several themes of the Department such as, Hallmarking, provisions of Consumer Protection Act 2019, provisions of weights & measures Act, National Consumer Helpline toll free number 1915, decisions of Central Consumer Protection Authority besides the consumers’ testimonials on grievance redressal.
• Jagriti mascot will be displayed along with tagline “Jago Grahak Jago” across all the media campaigns.
• Jagriti Mascot and “Jago Grahak Jago tagline” are new synonymous with young aware consumers. Both of these seek to bring sharp focus towards consumer rights knowledge and movement.

Aim of the Jagriti Mascot

Through the Jagriti Mascot, DoCA aims to build up campaign on consumer awareness campaign in digital and multimedia. It also seeks to support for a young, empowered and informed consumer as consumer rights awareness recall brand.

Jago Grahak Jago Program

Jago Grahak Jago is consumer awareness campaign. Department of Food has launched in 2005. Government used different mediums to raise awareness among consumers including- Media advertisements, Printings, Audio campaigns, Video campaigns and Posters.

What are Consumer Rights?

Consumer right can be defined as the “right to have information regarding quality, quantity, potency, price, purity, and standard of goods or services”.

Consumer Protection Act 1986

Consumer Protection Act 1986 was enacted in 1986, for the protection of consumers’ interests in India. It came into effect on December 24, 1986. Consumer Protection Act, 2019 has now replaced the 1986 act.

Consumer Protection Act 2019

Consumer Protection Bill, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha on July 8, 2019. The act came into force from July 20, 2020. In line with the Consumer Protection Act 2019, the e-commerce entity are mandated to display the country of origin, on every product.

NEP 2020: Absorb ancient Indian knowledge, but view it critically

 The University Grants Commission (UGC), the apex regulator of universities in India, just concluded the Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sangam, a three-day education summit, in Varanasi. The summit, held from July 7-9 and inaugurated by none less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, brought together over 300 heads of higher education institutions to deliberate on strategies, success stories, and best practices in implementing the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

Nine themes were taken up for discussion, ranging from ‘Holistic and Multidisciplinary Education’ and ‘Quality, Ranking, and Accreditation’ to ‘Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship’. Experts and educators deliberated on these themes for three days.

So, what is the likelihood of progress in India’s higher education after this summit?

If we can focus on one of the themes taken up for the discussion, it may help us get a glimpse of what UGC plans to do vis-à-vis what could be of value to us.

Let’s take Theme 7, ‘Promotion of Indian Languages and Knowledge Systems’, and subject it to a bit of scrutiny.

Focus on Indian Knowledge System

The summit wants the ‘discontinuity’ in the Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) to be bridged by integrating it with curricula at all levels across humanities, sciences, arts, crafts, and sports. Every UG and PG programme will have a mandatory IKS component.  The UGC has constituted an experts’ panel to set the guidelines for teacher training and ‘orientation’ in IKS. The focus seems to be on finding out sets of knowledge claims in ancient texts, accepting them across domains, and then integrating them with current curricula in universities.

While anyone would agree that there could be valuable lessons to be drawn from IKS, there is one critical part that is missing in UGC’s action plan: encouraging critical examination of material from IKS and accepting only those that get sifted through the filters of reasoning and evidence.

Ayurveda as example

It might help to further narrow our focus and consider a single branch of IKS in some detail to understand its usefulness in the contemporary context. Take Ayurveda, for example. The way it is being practised in clinics and taught in Ayurveda medical colleges is that the wisdom of the ancient texts cannot be questioned.

However, according to a paper titled ‘Bridging Ayurveda with evidence-based scientific approaches in medicine’ by former UGC vice-chairman Bhushan Patwardhan, “Ayurveda lags far behind in scientific evidence in quantity and quality of randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews. For instance, out of 7,864 systematic reviews in the Cochrane Library, Ayurveda has just one, while homeopathy and TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) have 5 and 14, respectively. Substantial grants have been allocated to ambitious national projects involving reputed laboratories. However, the design, methodology, and quality of clinical trial on Ayurvedic medicines seem to lack the expected rigour.”

(Cochrane Library is a collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. Cochrane Reviews are globally accepted as the highest standard in evidence-based healthcare.)

So, how do we go about injecting rigour into this traditional system and align it with modern medical practice, using a scientific approach?

For that, we need to get a glimpse of what Ayurveda was like in the days of Caraka (pronounced Charaka), a master physician and principal contributor, along with Susruta and Vagbhata. The treatise, Caraka Samhita, attributed to him, forms the bedrock of today’s Ayurvedic practice.

Herein lies a stark contrast. Dr MS Valiathan, a renowned cardiac surgeon and author of the book The Legacy of Caraka, says: “Caraka described the practice of medicine in his time (1st Century CE) in North-West India, which was reason-based in contrast to the faith-based practice during Atharva Veda (1500 BCE). He even gave yukti (reason) an independent status as a pramana (proof) in acquiring knowledge. In Caraka’s time, mantras and rituals had largely disappeared from medical practice.”

However, over centuries, reason has been replaced with blind faith in the system. In a sense, we seem to have come to a full circle – from faith to reason and then back to faith.

Look with a critical eye

In a kind of double whammy, this comes at a time when reason, which made major advances possible two millennia ago, is perhaps no longer enough. We need evidence-based medical practice, which Ayurveda seems to fall behind significantly compared to Western medicine. Nudging it back to a reason-based medical system would involve examining concepts in ancient texts, including Caraka Samhita, with a critical eye. Obsolete concepts may have to be discarded. Some concepts may need to be modified – marginally or significantly – and amalgamated with modern medical practices. All possibilities exist.

But the bottom-line is scanning texts like Caraka Samhita with a fine toothcomb using critical thinking combined with what we now know about human anatomy and physiology, in contrast to what Caraka knew. In short, reviving the spirit of Caraka without uncritically accepting the principles in Caraka Samhita and other ancient texts.

THE WAY WE HAVE ASSIMILATED THE MONUMENTAL WORK ASHTADHYAYI, THE WORLD’S EARLIEST KNOWN TOME ON LINGUISTICS, BY GRAMMARIAN PANINI, IS A POINTER TO HOW WE SHOULD TREAT IKS TEXTS.

There is at least one ancient IKS that has the potential to show the way. The way we have assimilated the monumental work Ashtadhyayi, the world’s earliest known tome on linguistics, by grammarian Panini, who is said to have lived between the 6th and 4th century BCE, is a pointer to how we should treat IKS texts. No one questions the contribution of Panini to linguistics. He is widely labeled as the father of linguistics. But the discipline itself has progressed beyond Panini. Can what happened in linguistics happen in other IKS domains too?

The issue of language

The second part of Theme 7 deals with the ‘Promotion of Indian Languages’. UGC lists initiatives such as the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body that controls technical education in India, approving 20 institutes in nine states to conduct engineering and technology courses in regional languages. AICTE is undertaking technical book writing and translation into 12 Indian languages.

Now, this does not amount to pushing the frontiers of knowledge in technology. This seems to be a recipe for converting AICTE, or at least one of its wings, into a translation bureau.

In which language should higher education be is more a function of the availability of resources and opportunities – for both jobs and research – in that language. A century ago, German was the language of physics. The most famous physicist of the last century, Albert Einstein, wrote his papers on relativity in German.

However, as the US gained prowess to become the most important force in science, as well as the preferred destination for top scientists, German lost out to English. Now, German universities, in their attempt to attract overseas students, advertise saying that the courses in their institutions are taught in English.

Closer home, in September 2019, the government of Andhra Pradesh announced that English would be the medium of instruction in all government schools. Of course, Telugu would be still taught as a subject, but that’s about it. Expect this to become a trend in other states too. In short, a realistic option for higher education institutions is to focus on improving the quality of content delivered rather than re-create content in an Indian language.

However, in universities, even if the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against regional languages in favour of English, there could be a few realistic options for promoting Indian languages – such as initiating online courses that address students bi-lingually, allowing students to write exams in a mix of English and regional languages. But that is about it.

We have examined just one theme in some detail. What seems true of  ‘Promotion of Indian Languages and Knowledge Systems’ could be true of the other eight themes taken up at Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sangam as well.

Overall, UGC has a task cut out. Begin prioritising and implementing proposals with tight deadlines, and tell the world about the progress and what the outcomes are (for the students), before moving on to the next summit and more proposals.

(Sriram Naganathan is a core team member of ThinQ (www.thinq.education). He can be reached at srihamsa@gmail.com)

Source: The Federal, 15/07/22

Population growth: Myths, realities and the deeper neglect

 As India prospers, educational standards improve and more and more women acquire a degree of control over their own lives, the population growth rate would keep falling, and eventually turn negative.

The UN report posits that India would overtake China in population in 2023. This has given rise to dire warnings of a population explosion in India, and concerted exhortations to adopt stringent measures to curb population growth.

The publication of the United Nations’ World Population Prospects 2022 has served as an occasion for the display in India of much bigotry and ignorance by very many people who should know better.

The report posits that India would overtake China in population in 2023. This has given rise to dire warnings of a population explosion in India, and concerted exhortations to adopt stringent measures to curb population growth.

In the ideas sphere of the Sangh Parivar, the family of organisations that take ideological inspiration from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, of which the BJP is a proud member, population explosion is code for the danger of Muslims outnumbering Hindus in India. The UN report’s release has been followed by shrill calls to rein in Muslim proliferation, forcing the BJP’s Muslim face, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, to say that the population explosion is a problem for the nation, and not of any particular community.

Let us get some things straight.

• There is no population explosion. On the other hand, India has entered a phase in which we have to prepare for a dwindling population, like Japan.
• One man marrying multiple women does not increase the population any more than one man marrying one woman.
• A child born represents not just a mouth to feed but two hands and a brain to create new value. Particularly in a post-agrarian society, each additional human being would produce far more than is required to sustain herself. People are a source of wealth, not a burden.
• Socio-economic backwardness is the biggest determinant of population growth, not religion.

India’s population grew the fastest in the 1970s and the 1980s, when the annual growth rate of the population was around 2.3%. The growth rate has steadily declined, and struggles to reach 1% now. As India prospers, educational standards improve and more and more women acquire a degree of control over their own lives, the population growth rate would keep falling, and eventually turn negative.

What determines the rate of population growth is the average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime. This is called the Total Fertility Rate (TFR). When this is high, the population would grow. When it falls, the growth rate of population would fall.

When it reaches two, on average, each woman would replace two people of her generation with two new lives. Since every infant does not survive to adulthood, the average number of children per woman has to be a little higher than 2, for new births to replace eventual deaths of the mother and her reproductive partner. The replacement TFR is generally accepted as 2.1.

According to the findings of the Fifth Round of National Family Health Survey, released in May, TFR for India as a whole has already dipped below 2.1. The survey was conducted over 2019-21, and yielded a TFR of 1.99 for India as a whole.

Some states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand continue to have TFRs higher than 2.1, but in these places too, the trend is downward. This is a uniform trend from the First Family Health Survey (1992-93) onwards.

Rural fertility rates tend to be higher than urban ones. The fertility rate falls across income quintiles, proceeding from the lowest fifth to the highest 20%. TFR for women with zero years of schooling is 2.82, that for women with more than 12 years of schooling is 1.78.

Socio-economic status and the degree of autonomy women seem to determine how many children they end up having, on average. It is not surprising that a poor state like Bihar has a fertility rate of 2.99, while the figure for Kerala is 1.8 and that for Goa, 1.3.

Muslim population vs Hindus

Let us look at the bugbear of the Hindu right, the supposedly exploding population of Muslims. Muslims at large have a relatively low socio-economic status, and their fertility rates are higher than those of Hindus. However, at 2.36, the Muslim average TFR is lower than that for Bihar (2.99) as a whole and on par with Uttar Pradesh’s 2.35.

Does a Muslim man marrying multiple wives increase Muslim fecundity? Since the number of men roughly equals the number of women, when many men take multiple wives, they condemn several other men to lives of solitude. Population grows with the number of children and children are born to women. The average number of children born to a woman determines the size of the population, not whether several women were impregnated by the same man or by different men.

The average TFR for Muslims is admittedly higher than the average TFR for Hindus. But Muslim TFR has been declining faster than the Hindu TFR, as the periodic NFHS rounds show. The TFR for Muslims has come down from 4.43 in 1992-93 to 2.35 in 2019-21, a decline of nearly 47%. For Hindus, the decline was from 3.3 to 1.94, a decline of 42%.

In Kerala’s Muslim-majority Malappuram district, the TFR lagged the TFR of other districts, but has gone below the replacement level of 2.1. Bangladesh has a TFR well below 2.1, as has Iran and Turkey.

As India prospers, backward states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and socioeconomically deprived communities like Muslims and the Scheduled Castes would also advance, and register ever lower TFRs.

The population would not begin to decline as soon as a society achieves a TFR below 2.1. Better healthcare and nutrition keep people alive longer. The youth bulge created before the TFR begins to decline would continue to reproduce. And, even if at a low rate for each woman member of that youth bulge, the size of that reproductive age group would keep the population growing, till they themselves grow old and fall by the wayside. The cohorts that come after them would be smaller than the numbers who pass on, making the population shrink.

Japan and several countries of Western Europe have gone through the transition. In Germany, a shrinking human population paved the way for the return of the wolf to that land. The US is one rich country that is insulated from the problem of a shrinking population because of the constant infusion of fresh blood via immigration.

The real population problem

Why is a shrinking population a problem? Its share of the elderly, non-working population would steadily rise. They have to be cared for by the incomes generated by the proportionately shrinking population of workers.

Just because someone has prudently saved during their work-life, it does not automatically mean that their old age needs would be met. The saving represents a claim on the productive capacity of the economy, from which profits, dividends, interest payments and taxes are extracted. If there are not enough people to work that productive capacity, merely having made financial savings in the past would not protect a pensioner from a tough life.

This is why China abandoned its one-child policy and desperately seeks to persuade its citizens to have three children.

The challenge before India is not any population explosion, but in creating the human, physical and institutional capital that would raise productivity. Ruling party functionaries would do well to abandon futile projects such as conjuring up population dangers that do not exist or baring the fangs of regally serene ancient lions in their contemporary rendition, and focus their attention on this substantive challenge. That is the way to reap India’s demographic dividend.

TK Arun

The Federal, 15/07/22

Quote of the Day July 18, 2022

 

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.”
Vincent J. Lombardi

“एक सफल व्यक्ति और असफल व्यक्ति में साहस का या फिर ज्ञान का अंतर नहीं होता है बल्कि यदि अंतर होता है तो वह इच्छाशक्ति का होता है।”
विसेंट जे. लोम्बार्डी

Current Affairs-July 17, 2022

 

INDIA

– BJP announces West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its Vice-Presidential candidate

– UP: PM inaugurates 296-km-long Bundelkhand Expressway constructed at a cost of Rs 14,850 crore

– 18th All India Legal Services Authority Meet held in Jaipur

– J&K: Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawan shoots 3 colleagues before killing self at a camp in Udhampur district

– Former Punjab speaker, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Nirmal Singh Kahlon dies at 79

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Centre amends Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules; will allow electronics industries industry to declare information in digital form through QR Code

WORLD

– US decides not to impose sanctions against India for purchasing S-400 missiles from Russia; India gets CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) waiver

– World Emoji Day being celebrated on July 17

SPORTS

– International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Changwon, Korea: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar wins gold medal in Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) event

Current Affairs- July 18, 2022

 

INDIA

– India crosses milestone of administering 200 crore COVID vaccine doses

– Home Minister Amit Shah holds meeting with all CMs, LGs, Administrators of UTs on Har Ghar Tiranga Programme

– 52nd BGB-BSF (Border Guards Bangladesh-Border Security Force) Director General level conference starts in Dhaka

– Army Chief Manoj Pande proceeds on three-day visit to Bangladesh

– Ex-Union minister Margaret Alva of Congress to be Opposition’s vice-presidential candidate

– Indian Navy’s INS Sindhudhvaj submarine decommissioned at Visakhapatnam after 35 years in service

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– PSU Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) starts Bikers Cafe near Shimla

WORLD

– Cargo plane operated by Ukrainian airline crashes in Greece; was going from Serbia to Jordan

– Saudi Arabia: “Jeddah Summit for Security and Development” held; attended by leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and the US

– World Day for International Justice observed on July 17

SINGAPORE OPEN SUPER 500 BADMINTON WINNERS

– India’s P V Sindhu: women’s singles

– Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting: men’s singles

– Indonesia’s Leo Rolly Carnando & Daniel Marthin: men’s doubles

– Indonesia’s Apriyani Rahayu & Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti: women’s doubles

– Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh & Sapsiree Taerattanachai: mixed doubles

SPORTS

– Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa wins Paracin Open Chess title in Serbia

NIRF Rankings 2022 – Highlights

 NIRF Rankings 2022 were released on July 15, 2022 by the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Key Points

• In year 2022, rankings were announced in 11 categories viz., Engineering, Colleges, Universities, Management, Overall, Medical, Law, Architecture, Research, Dental, and Pharmacy.
• Number of colleges or universities or institutions taking part in NIRF ranking has been increasing over the year.
• In 2021 rankings, 6,000 colleges took part for eleven categories. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad was ranked first that year, in management category. It was followed by IIM Bangalore, and IIM Kolkata.

NIRF Rankings 2022-highlights

• In Engineering institutes category, IIT Madras has been ranked at first position.
• In Medical college category, AIIMS New Delhi has been ranked as best.
• Savitha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai was ranked best in dental college category.
• Miranda House was tagged as best college, followed by Hindu college and Presidency college.
• IIM Ahmedabad was ranked as best B-school in India, in management category. IIM Bangalore ranked 2^nd while IIM Calcutta 3^rd.

What is NIRF Ranking?

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is provided by Ministry of Human resource development. Ministry has launched the NIRF on September 29, 2025. It provides a methodology for providing rank to institutions across India in different categories. This methodology is prepared from overall recommendations and broad understanding, which was arrived at by a Core Committee. This committee was formed by MHRD, in a bid to identify broad parameters of providing ranks to universities and institutions. The parameters cover- Teaching, Learning & Resources; Graduation outcomes; Research & Professional Practices; Perception and Outreach & Inclusivity.