Friday, January 19, 2024

Assam Baibhav Award for Ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi

The Assam government has announced that it will confer the Assam Baibhav award, the state’s highest civilian honor, to Member of Parliament and former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi. He has been credited for playing a part in the establishment of the Ram temple in Ayodhya through the apex court judgment delivered under his leadership as CJI.

Achievements of Ranjan Gogoi

Ranjan Gogoi held the office of the 46th Chief Justice of India. During his tenure as CJI, the Supreme Court delivered its ruling on the long-pending Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in 2019. This marked the conclusion of the decade-old controversial case.

Subsequently, Gogoi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in March 2020 by the then President Ram Nath Kovind. He continues to serve in the Upper House of Parliament.

As the first Chief Justice of India hailing from the Northeast, Gogoi pioneered the path for greater regional representation at the highest echelons of the judiciary. Through expeditious adjudication of pending cases, he bolstered access and efficiency of the justice system during his CJI stint.

4 Winners for Assam Saurav

Four personalities have also been named joint winners of the Assam Saurav Award, the state’s second highest civilian honor. These include archaeologist Kishan Chand Nauriyal, swimmer Elvis Ali Hazarika, sprinter Hima Das and Tiwa dance exponent Nadiram Deuri.

17 Recipients for Assam Gaurav

Additionally, seventeen eminent citizens across diverse fields will receive the Assam Gaurav Award – the third highest state honor this year. This award includes a financial component of Rs.3 lakhs in addition to a certification or a citation or a medal

9th Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival

The 9th Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival (PPHF) will be held from January 18-20, 2024 in Arunachal Pradesh. Declared a state festival, it centers around wildlife conservation, especially hornbills found in the Pakke Tiger Reserve.

Hornbill Species in Focus

The reserve harbors four hornbill species – Oriental Pied, Great Indian, Rufous-necked and the endangered Wreathed Hornbill. The week-long event generates awareness on preserving these iconic birds.

Linking Forest, Birds and People

PPHF also spotlights the role of indigenous Nyishi tribes in protecting hornbills after having earlier hunted them. It forges connections between forests, wildlife and local communities. The Nyishi is the largest tribal group in Arunachal Pradesh. The Nyishi tribe used to hunt hornbills traditionally and utilized their distinctive bills to create ethnic headgear. However, over time the Nyishi transformed into champions protecting the same hornbills that were once targeted.

Festival Origins and Goal

The first PPHF was organized in 2015 with the goal to recognize Nyishi conservation efforts. Beyond promoting hornbill conservation, other key goals of launching the Hornbill Festival were generating alternate livelihood streams for locals and raising nationwide awareness regarding the unique biodiversity found in Pakke Tiger Reserve and adjoining areas.

“Let Our Hornbills Remain”

This year’s theme stresses the critical need to safeguard hornbills for balancing the region’s ecosystems and culture. The onset of deforestation and climate threats lend urgency.

Activities at Upcoming Edition

Key activities lined up include:

Bird watching tours
Literary competitions
Panel discussions
Tribal music/dance performances
River walks
Local cuisine

The activities provide unique glimpses into the area’s natural and ethnic heritage while raising ecological awareness.

Express View on Manipur crisis: State government, step up

Continuing violence points to a lack of political will, and obduracy in failing to acknowledge that far more needs to be done

Recurring instances of violence in Manipur point to the obvious — the unrest that erupted in the state last year in May is far from over. This week alone, a mob targeted the 3rd Indian Reserve Battalion in Khangabok, Thoubal; Thoubal Police Headquarters was also attacked. Though authorities managed to repel the mobs in both instances, three BSF personnel were injured. In Moreh, a beleaguered border town, an Indian Reserve Battalion jawan and a havildar on deputation with the Manipur police commandos were killed and two others injured. The state’s Home Department Commissioner has put in a request with the Home Ministry requesting “air assets” in Imphal to meet with similar emergency situations.

These instances, only the latest in a dismal series, highlight how eight months into the ethnic conflict, the state government is yet to step up to its challenge. The attacks on security personnel are disturbing on multiple counts. After the initial inertia, the state has seen a larger deployment of security forces, including the Army and paramilitary forces, to bring the situation under control. Yet, accusations of partisanship are rife on the ground, posing hurdles in their way. Despite the Army chief’s recent assertion of growing stability in the state, violence against the security forces also highlights that force alone cannot tame a situation that requires sensitivity and compassion in equal measure. The instability in Myanmar, where Arakan insurgents claim to have taken control of Paletwa town in Chin state, that lies close to Myanmar’s border with India and Bangladesh, is a troubling development, compounded by the fact that of the estimated 4,500-odd arms looted from state police armouries in Manipur in the early days of the ethnic clash, only about 30 per cent have been recovered so far. This means that unaccounted-for arms remain in circulation in a state where borders and buffer zones have deepened along ethnic lines between the hill and valley people and where each feels distrust for the other and for those meant to govern and protect them.

In June last year, Home Minister Amit Shah had announced the formation of a peace committee, with representatives from different ethnicities, political parties and civil society, to begin the process of healing. The committee ran into internal differences soon after and is yet to meet. In the unending season of anger and grief in the state, this shows both a lack of will and an obduracy in failing to acknowledge that far more needs to be done.

Source: Indian Express, 19/01/24

How smartphones can make education inclusive

Doing well in examinations and getting jobs will continue to be a goal for a good proportion of youth but life goals that are not connected with academics are also becoming popular. Our system has to evolve to support them. Technology can assist

Two decades ago, there was much hope that computers with the Internet would revolutionise education. A decade later, mobile technology led to the belief that education anytime anywhere was possible. From one laptop per child, we started thinking of mobile devices replacing books. Now we are about to reach a situation when there will be a mobile phone in every home. In its survey of 14-18-year-olds across the country, the recently released Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2023 shows that about 89 per cent youth in the surveyed age group of 14-18, said they have a smartphone at home. An even higher proportion — 92 per cent — said that they can use a smartphone.

Of those who reported knowing how to use a smartphone, two-thirds said that they had used mobile phones for their studies, the week before the survey. This is a large proportion, but it’s smaller than the population who reported using smartphones for entertainment. The market has many products from for-profit and not-for-profit companies for education but they are generally focused on preparing for examinations. AI-based tutoring programs are growing. As technology advances, making such programs in local languages will be easily possible. There is reason to believe that costs will keep falling. But their focus is still on preparation for exams because that is what the market demands.

Technology barriers to the availability of knowledge are falling but the transfer of this knowledge and certification is still a restricted process. These processes need to be opened up.

The idea of education anytime anywhere is now being put to test. Universal elementary school enrollment has been achieved in India and we are on our way to achieving universal secondary and higher secondary enrollment. But, as ASER first reported in 2005, enrollment or schooling is not the same as learning. Also, the 2023 report points out, half of these adolescents start working part time after completing Class X or the age of 15-16. Although the education policy talks about greater flexibility in entering and re-entering the formal education process, the need really is for the underprivileged to be able to study while working to earn a living. Open schooling and digital technology is a powerful combination. The open school and open university processes need to be decentralised and strengthened. Rapidly developing technology is going to make it easy not only to teach and learn anywhere-anytime but testing anytime-anywhere should be possible as well.

The need for many more universities in India is much talked about. This is directly linked to the fact that the population is going to continue growing for the next 40 years or so. But there is also a need for non-formal education to supplement the formal processes of education or fulfil other needs. Widespread smartphone ownership combined with cheap data presents a huge challenge because of the risks of distortion of information. But it is also an opportunity for education of the kind that is not offered in schools and colleges. For example, agriculture, or broadly natural resource management, is a subject that is not offered in rural schools and colleges, at least on the scale it should be. The ASER 2023 survey found that while 56.4 per cent and 31.3 per cent rural students respectively were studying Humanities and Science beyond Class X, only 0.7 per cent reported they were studying agriculture. Agriculture employs over 50 per cent of India’s workforce and ASER 2023 shows that nearly a quarter of all adolescents in the 14-18 age group also work in agriculture while being enrolled in schools or colleges. The need to formally train our youth in advanced skills and knowledge of agriculture, fisheries and forestry, traditionally handed down in families, should be obvious. This is not a matter of skilling for jobs or livelihoods alone.

Issues of natural resource management are the issues of environment and climate. They have always been interconnected. The difference now is that there is a growing awareness about the linkages. Therefore, there is all the more reason for the entire population to learn about agriculture and the environment — not just agrarian communities. Each home has a laboratory around it for experimentation and learning. Knowledge and information can be accessed using digital technology wherever people are. So, the way to do it probably is not through rigid structures of classrooms, departments and universities run by governments or for-profit private players although these will continue to thrive for much of the foreseeable future.

Our education system has grown to train students to aim at one purpose — do well in examinations and get jobs. Times are changing. Doing well in examinations and getting jobs will continue to be a goal for a good proportion of youth but life goals that are not connected with academics are also becoming popular. Our system has to evolve to support them. Technology can assist but our mindsets have to change.

Written by Madhav Chavan

Source: Indian Express, 18/01/24

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Quote of the Day January 10, 2024

“Let us be grateful to people who makes us happy.”
Marcel Proust

“आइये उन व्यक्तियों के प्रति आभार व्यक्त करें जो हमें प्रसन्न बनाते हैं।”
मार्सल प्रोसाउट

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Accounting for Earth’s True Revolution

A solar year equals one full revolution of Earth around the sun. This takes 365 days plus 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds.
Early calendars just approximated 365 days. But the extra hours aggregated over centuries. To compensate, an extra day is added to February every four years.
This realigns the calendar with Earth’s rotation and prevents seasons drifting. The day is in February as it’s the shortest month.

When Was the Concept Introduced?

The leap year was conceived in 46 BC under Julius Caesar’s scholars. The Julian calendar added a 366th day to every fourth year.
But 6 hours used for calculations still differed from the actual 5 hours 48 minutes extra time. Small errors crept in over the ages.
By 1500s, dates had shifted 10 days ahead of Earth’s revolution. So 10 days were cut in 1582 to reset the correlation.

The Gregorian Fix

Pope Gregory XIII also devised a long term solution – dropping leap years for most years ending in double zeroes.
This prevented excess day buildup from too many quadrennial additions. However, exceptions were 400-divisible years like 2000.
The refinement finally aligned the Gregorian calendar with Earth’s tropical orbit to within 26 seconds.

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