All posts by Padho Leekho

The story of the year: the big Byju’s exposé

Education at School, Start-up

The story of the year: the big Byju’s exposé

Author Pradip K. Saha talks about his investigation into one of the most explosive stories of the year

For 12 years, Byju’s, one of India’s most valued ed-tech start-ups, aggressively sold dreams of academic success to Indian parents and students. Its valuation crossed $10 billion in 2020 with global investors pumping in money.

This year, Byju’s fall from the ed-tech throne was as staggering as its rise. Signing up the likes of Lionel Messi as brand ambassador, turning a blind eye to complaints of frustrated parents who were unhappy with the learning product, raising multiple rounds of million dollar investments, delaying the revelation of FY21 results, and its subsequent opacity about FY22 and FY23, have each led to Byju’s notoriety.

Its questionable company practices created a sense of cynicism among global investors: funding in the ed-tech sector is, as a result, at an all-time low since 2015. Journalist Pradip K. Saha, author of The Learning Trap: How Byju’s Took Indian Edtech For A Ride, talks about his investigation into one of the biggest stories of the year.

So much has been already reported about Byju’s. So what are the new revelations in the book?

Four years ago, when we at The Morning Context decided to cover ed-tech, the biggest company was Byju’s. It was the bellwether of the entire industry. I wanted to know how this company convinces parents and if it is actually helping anyone. Byju’s draws in the parents and then it’s like going down a rabbit hole. The book goes behind the scenes, includes my conversations with Byju Raveendran [founder of Byju’s], and has a lot of fresh reporting.

It explores how salespersons aggressively sold the product to the economically weak, the toxic work environment, and instances of mass lay-offs.

You have described Byju’s hard push to convince parents to buy the learning app for their school-going children. Please explain why this is problematic?

While I have mentioned case studies of several unhappy parents in the book, there is this one case I haven’t written about: that of an autorickshaw driver in Bengaluru. He told me that a Byju’s salesperson insisted that he buy the app, even when he had no money to pay for it (nearly ₹70,000 for three years with a down payment of ₹15,000). He was told he could pay in instalments. Then there was a grandmother who hoped to help her grandson fare better at school. She was poor, but the salesperson struck a deal. This, however, pricked his conscience, and he quit the company.

What often happens is that children lose interest in the app, and then when parents seek a refund, the salespersons switch off their phones. There is no way to measure the learning outcomes on Byju’s. And that is the biggest problem. That is why it lost customers, people cancelled their subscriptions and the company had to fall back on investors and could not make a profit.

We have no idea about the company’s financials in 2022 and 2023; your investigation also found that phantom fundraising companies had alleged a connection to the Art of Living Foundation.

Byju’s serially raised money from venture capitalists, and the earlier ones such as Ranjan Pai’s Aarin Capital and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative made a killing by exiting at the right time. With every subsequent round of fund-raising announced, the valuation of the company increased. This is how the game works.

Between 2015 and 2021, Byju’s kept scaling up. It hired more sales people, did more marketing, was the chief sponsor of Indian cricket teams, and signed up the likes of Shah Rukh Khan as brand ambassadors.

On a consolidated basis, the last publicly declared financials of Byju’s show a loss of ₹4,588 crore, 19 times the loss incurred in the previous fiscal. In July 2022, we broke the story of phantom fundraising, and that the announced $300 million from Sumeru Ventures and Oxshott Capital never landed. Media worldwide followed up the story. In an interview after the FY21 results, Raveendran said: ‘who cares about $300 million? I can raise $300 million in a week’.

Raveendran’s arrogance and the funding winter led to a crash in investments in ed-tech in FY23. What impact has the Byju’s story had on the sector as a whole?

A: The unethical practices at Byju’s have dented the confidence of global investors in the Indian ed-tech sector. From an all-time high of $4,165 million in 2021, investments in ed-tech start-ups dipped to $172 million in 2023. But the industry will survive. Now investors in ed-tech are asking questions they never asked before: about profitability and learning outcomes. And that’s a good thing for the sector.

 

 

Source:- https://www.thehindu.com/education

The mindset that brings unlimited willpower

Motivation, Psychology, Start-up

The mindset that brings unlimited willpower

Many people believe willpower is fixed and finite. Yet powerful strategies exist that can help us increase it.

We all face demanding days that seem designed to test our self-control. Perhaps you are a barista, and you have some particularly rude and demanding customers, but you manage to keep your poise throughout. Or maybe you are finishing an important project and you have to remain in quiet concentration, without letting your attention slip to other distractions. If you are on a diet, you might have spent the past few hours resisting the cookie jar while the sweet treats silently whisper “eat me”.

In each case, you would have relied on your willpower, which psychologists define as the ability to avoid short-term temptations and override unwanted thoughts, feelings or impulses. And some people seem to have much greater reserves of it than others: they find it easier to control their emotions, avoid procrastination and stick to their goals, without ever seeming to lose their iron grip on their behavior. Indeed, you may know some lucky people who, after a hard day at work, have the resolve to do something productive like a workout – while you give up on your fitness goals and fall for the temptations of junk food and trash TV.

Our reserves of self-control and mental focus appear to be shaped by mindsets. And new studies suggest powerful strategies for anyone to build greater willpower – with huge benefits for your health, productivity and happiness.

The depleted ego

Until recently, the prevailing psychological theory proposed that willpower resembled a kind of battery. You might start the day with full strength, but each time you have to control your thoughts, feelings or behavior, you zap that battery’s energy. Without the chance to rest and recharge, those resources run dangerously low, making it far harder to maintain your patience and concentration, and to resist temptation.

Laboratory tests appeared to provide evidence for this process; if participants were asked to resist eating cookies left temptingly on a table, for example, they subsequently showed less persistence when solving a mathematical problem, because their reserves of willpower had been exhausted. Drawing on the Freudian term for the part of the mind that is responsible for reining in our impulses, this process was known as “ego depletion”. People who had high self-control might have bigger reserves of willpower initially, but even they would be worn down when placed under pressure.

Research shows that even if you're able to harness willpower to resist temptation, you may have less willpower for a task in the future (Credit: Getty Images)

Research shows that even if you’re able to harness willpower to resist temptation, you may have less willpower for a task in the future (Credit: Getty Images)

In 2010, however, the psychologist Veronika Job published a study that questioned the foundations of this theory, with some intriguing evidence that ego depletion depended on people’s underlying beliefs.

Job, who is a professor of motivation psychology at the University of Vienna, first designed a questionnaire, which asked participants to rate a series of statements on a scale of 1 (strongly agree) to 6 (strongly disagree). They included:

  • When situations accumulate that challenge you with temptations, it gets more and more difficult to resist temptations
  • Strenuous mental activity exhausts your resources, which you need to refuel afterwards

and

  • If you have just resisted a strong temptation, you feel strengthened and you can withstand new temptations
  • Your mental stamina fuels itself. Even after strenuous mental exertion, you can continue doing more of it

If you agree more with the first two statements, you are considered to have a “limited” view of willpower, and if you agree more with the second two statements, you are considered to have a “non-limited” view of willpower.

Job next gave the participants some standard laboratory tests examining mental focus, which is considered to depend on our reserves of willpower. Job found that people with the limited mindset tended to perform exactly as ego depletion theory would predict. After performing one task that required intense concentration – such as applying fiddly corrections to a boring text – they found it much harder to pay attention to a subsequent activity than if they had been resting beforehand. The people with the non-limited view, however, did not show any signs of ego depletion, however: they showed no decline in their mental focus after performing a mentally taxing activity.

The participants’ mindsets about willpower, it seemed, were self-fulfilling prophecies. If they believed that their willpower was easily depleted, then their ability to resist temptation and distraction quickly dissolved; but if they believed that “mental stamina fuels itself”, then that is what occurred.

People with the non-limited view on willpower did not show any signs of ego depletion: they showed no decline in their mental focus after performing a mentally taxing activity

Job soon replicated these results in other contexts. Working with Krishna Savani at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, for example, she has shown willpower beliefs seem to vary by country. They found that the non-limited mindsets were more common in Indian students than those in the USA – and that this was reflected in tests of their mental stamina.

In recent years, some scientists have debated the reliability of the laboratory tests of ego depletion, but Job has also shown that people’s willpower mindsets are linked to many real-life outcomes. She asked university students to complete twice-daily questionnaires about their activities over two non-consecutive weekly periods. As you might expect, some days had much higher demands than others, leading to feelings of exhaustion. Most of the participants recovered to some degree overnight, but those with the non-limited mindsets actually experienced an increase in their productivity the following day, as if they had been energized by the extra pressure. Once again, it seemed that their belief that “mental stamina fuels itself” had become their reality.

Further studies showed that the willpower mindsets could predict students’ procrastination levels in the run-up to exams – those with the non-limited views showed less time-wasting – and their ultimate grades. When facing high-pressure from their courses, the students with the non-limited views were also better able to maintain their self-control in other areas of life; they were less likely to eat fast food or go on an impulsive spending spree, for example. Those who believed that their willpower was easily depleted by their work, in contrast, were more likely to indulge in those vices – presumably because they felt that their reserves of self-control had already been depleted by their academic work.

The influence of willpower mindsets may also stretch to many domains, such as fitness. For example, Navin Kaushal, an assistant professor in health sciences at Indiana University, US, and colleagues, have shown that they can influence people’s exercise habits; people with non-limited beliefs about willpower find it easier to summon up the motivation to work out.

A study by Zoë Francis, a professor of psychology at the University of Fraser Valley, found strikingly similar results. Following more than 300 participants over three weeks, she found that people with non-limited mindsets are more likely to exercise, and less likely to snack, than those with the limited mindsets. Tellingly, the differences are especially pronounced in the evenings, when the demands of the day’s tasks have started to take their toll on those who believe that self-control can easily run down.

Research shows people with non-limited beliefs about willpower find it easier to summon up the motivation to work out (Credit: Getty Images)

Research shows people with non-limited beliefs about willpower find it easier to summon up the motivation to work out

Galvanizing your willpower

If you already have the non-limited mindset about willpower, these findings might be a cause for self-satisfaction. But what can we do if we have been living under the assumption that our reserves of self-control are easily depleted?

Job’s studies suggest that simply learning about this cutting-edge science – through short, accessible texts – can help shift people’s beliefs, at least in the short term. Knowledge, it seems, is power; if so, simply reading this article might have already started to galvanize your mental stamina. You might even enhance this by telling others about what you have learnt; the research suggests that sharing information helps to consolidate your own shift in mindset, a phenomenon known as the “saying-is-believing effect”, while also helping to spread the positive attitudes to others.

Lessons in the non-limited nature of willpower can come at a young age. Researchers at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania recently designed a storybook to teach pre-schoolers the idea that exercising willpower can be energising, rather than exhausting, and that self-control can grow the more we practice it. Children who had heard this story showed greater self-control in a test of “delayed gratification”, in which they were given the chance to forgo a small treat to receive a bigger treat later on, compared to their classmates who had heard another tale.

One useful strategy to change your mindset may be to remember a time when you worked on a mentally demanding task for the pure enjoyment of the activity. There might be a job at work, for example, that others appear to find difficult but you find satisfying. Or maybe it’s a hobby – such as learning a new piece on the piano – that demands intense concentration, yet feels effortless for you. A recent study found that engaging in this kind of recollection naturally shifts people’s beliefs to the non-limited mindset, as they see proof of their own mental stamina.

To provide yourself with further evidence, you might begin with small tests of self-control that will bring about a desired change in your life – such as avoiding snacking for a couple of weeks, disconnecting from social media as you work, or showing greater patience with an irritating loved one. Once you have proved to yourself that your willpower can grow, you may find it easier to then resist other kinds of temptation or distraction.

You mustn’t expect miracles immediately. But with perseverance, you should see your mindset changing, and with it a greater capacity to master your thoughts, feelings and behavior so that your actions propel you towards your goals.

 

Source:- https://www.bbc.com/worklife

How do you discipline an in-school overdose?

Education at School, Psychology

How do you discipline an in-school overdose?

Perched above a major highway in central Los Angeles sits an unassuming high school where students are all too familiar with the sound of ambulance sirens. This fall, the principal has called an ambulance about five times because of suspected student drug use.

“We’re just extra cautious,” he says.

“Before, if the kid had a migraine, the kid had a headache, the kid looked a little tired. OK, let’s rest. Let’s get you going. Now, let’s check the blood pressure. If it’s high, let’s play the safe side. Let’s just call the ambulance.”

His school is part of a bold new experiment at Los Angeles Unified School District: Instead of the traditional, zero tolerance approach to student overdoses, LAUSD is piloting a focus on rehabilitation. But that effort comes with some stigma, and so we aren’t naming the principal or his school over district officials’ concerns that it become known as a “drug school.”

This pilot project is a response to a growing number of student opioid overdoses on LAUSD campuses. A student died in a school bathroom after a suspected fentanyl overdose in September 2022. After that, LAUSD began stocking naloxone in schools. Since then, the district says it has administered the opioid overdose reversal medicine 55 times.

And the problem goes far beyond LA: In 2021, fentanyl was involved in the vast majority of all teen overdose deaths – 84% – according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among adolescents, fentanyl-related overdose deaths nearly tripled from 2019 to 2021, with almost a quarter involving counterfeit pills that didn’t come from any pharmacy.

Today, students caught with illegal drugs at school often face all kinds of consequences – including expulsion, suspension and possibly a criminal charge.

But amid the rise in teen overdoses, school systems across the country – from LA to Portland, Ore., to Prince George’s County, Md. – are beginning to change their approach.

LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has been a driving force in this shift away from discipline and toward rehabilitation. He says schools “have a moral and professional obligation” to provide students with support, not just punishments.

“We never treat that child, that student, as a criminal element or someone who broke a rule. We ought to address the root causes of the problem rather than focusing on the possible consequence.”

What it looks like to focus on rehab

Medical attention is the top priority following a suspected student overdose on campus, the LAUSD principal says.

“The first concern is: Let’s get you well.”

After a student has been cleared and sent home from the hospital, his school’s efforts shift to getting the student back into the classroom.

Administrators and the school’s psychiatric social worker work with the student’s parents to create a re-entry plan. These plans are tailored to meet each student’s individual needs following an overdose, whether they’re struggling with addiction or accidentally overdosed on a counterfeit pill.

Check-ins with the in-school counselor, therapy sessions and out-patient rehabilitation with the nearby children’s hospital are all available at little to no cost to the student’s family.

And then, the principal says, “when the student does return, it’s a matter of making sure that we’re constantly monitoring.” That’s not just on school administrators and the psychiatric social worker, but also teachers, hall monitors and other school staff.

Sometimes “dailies” are part of a re-entry plan – paper cards that teachers sign each class period to show that the student showed up to class and stayed until the end. Some students are granted cards that get them out of class if they need to go see a counselor or therapist during the school day.

And students aren’t the only ones who need help with re-entry. The school’s psychiatric social worker, who we also aren’t naming, says a big portion of her job in the aftermath of an overdose is talking parents through very tough situations.

“Oftentimes parents have struggles with the idea that their student does have a substance abuse [problem],” she says. She does her best to educate parents on today’s changing drug landscape and how the family can best help their child, including by consenting to rehabilitation services.

The school has partnered with a community mental health organization to provide therapy for students at school. Therapists with the organization stop by every Friday for check-ins with specific students, and to be available for anyone who needs it.

Rehab is an expensive approach that takes a lot of resources

LAUSD isn’t the only district moving toward a rehabilitation model. Administrators at Prince George’s County Public Schools, in Maryland, are also exploring a transition away from zero tolerance. But they cite an important hurdle: It’s expensive. Someone has to foot the bill for the programs, and hire the staff to help parents navigate them.

Richard Moody, the supervisor of Student Engagement and School Support for Prince George’s County, is still trying to figure out how to pay for a rehabilitation model.

“We have a whole list of inpatient and outpatient programs, but a lot of them don’t service adolescents,” he says. Moody also finds that sometimes undocumented students and parents will avoid treatment programs all together for fear of filling out paperwork and putting their names in a system. The principal in LA says that’s a big reason the school decided to provide services on campus.

Like LAUSD, Prince George’s County is hoping to circumvent these barriers by hiring in-house care for students, but Moody says the timeline for that is uncertain.

His district has to rely on grant funding to hire new positions, like in-house substance abuse counselors, but it’s been a months-long wait to hear back on those grant applications.

A fast-evolving crisis meets slow school bureaucracies

The drug landscape may be changing quickly, but school bureaucracies are slow. It can be hard for districts to keep up.

At LAUSD, the principal is taking it day by day. Especially since the rehabilitative model comes with a lot of extra work.

When asked what keeps him going, he says, “The second week of June.” Getting the students to graduation, clean and armed with habits for a healthier life.

 

Source:- https://www.kqed.org/mindshift

Who Benefits from Satsang?

Psychology, Spiritualism

Who Benefits from Satsang?

Satsang is the starting point of the journey of self-realization, yet it is seen that not all are able to benefit equally from it. Pujya Gurudevshri explains how various types of people derive different gains from Satsang.

There are five types of people attending Satsang–deluded, student, seeker, disciple and devotee.

(1)Deluded-He is someone who comes to Satsang without any purpose. Like a stick floating in water ends up on the banks due to the current, he reaches the lotus feet of a saint due to past meritorious deeds. But he has no purpose, no thirst, no choice. If the crowd is going to Satsang, he goes. Due to pressure from friends, spouse, or the family he reaches there. There is no interest in spirituality behind his coming to Satsang. He comes without purpose and so leaves without benefiting from it.

(2)Student – A student is one who has come out of intellectual curiosity. It is as though an itching has arisen! Just as scratching an itch feels good but it does no good, and at times even harms; in the same way, the student gets an intellectual itch – of curiosity, so he arrives at the Satsang. Satisfying this curiosity may seem good but it does not bring any benefit; may even result in loss. He comes to Satsang to gather information. He attends Satsang to increase his memory, enrich his vocabulary, augment his knowledge of logic and examples, nurture his ego, and develop his intellect. Thus, he comes with curiosity and leaves with an enhanced vocabulary, but with no spiritual benefits.

(3)Seeker- A seeker wants to be liberated. He comes to the Satsang to understand how he can become free. He wants to transform his life and experience the Self. He reveres Satsang. His inner state gets elevated, a resolve arises in him and he starts experimenting. But he is unable to put his full strength into it. Just as water does not vaporize until it reaches 100 degrees Celsius, so also, one does not transform without 100 per cent commitment. A seeker of this level cannot muster the courage to reach 100 percent dedication. During the process, he tends to become cowardly. There is a desire for food. To cook food, he lights the fire too. But when a little smoke rises and goes into his eyes, tears flow from the eyes and his spirit loosens. There is no depth-profundity in his effort. He does not remain steadfast in austerities. For some reason or the other, he gives up his efforts. Thus, the seeker comes with the purpose of spirituality alone, but goes away with no benefit other than strengthening the desire for liberation.

(4)Disciple – A disciple is one who is ready to learn the art of self-realization. He comes to Satsang with such eagerness that at any cost, even if he must bear great difficulties, he wants to experience what his Sadguru has realized. He listens to it with single-pointed attentiveness. He becomes very happy on listening to Satsang, a firm determination arises because of which he also undertakes experimental study, and even if there are hindrances, he does not lose patience or courage. Where does this courage come from? From complete surrender ship to the Guru! From his life wandering goes and stability comes, roaming goes and reveling stays. He remains steadfast in obedience to the commands of the Guru. By passing through ordeals he purifies himself. He puts his desires, energy, and life at stake and remains engaged in spiritual practices. Therefore, to enable the completion of his work, for his benefit, when the Guru becomes tough and attacks his ego, he continues to realize his faults and remove them. He knows that the Guru only removes the outer, false veils. A garment is only a covering, and it does not cause discomfort to a person while taking it off. But if there is such an identification formed with it that it has become skin-like, then that person experiences pain while it is being removed. He feels as if someone is scraping off his skin. But these veils have to be taken off – the ‘surgery’ has to be done! When the Guru, like a surgeon, performs this surgery, the disciple cooperates in this work. Thus, the disciple comes with the purpose of purification and therefore gains that kind of benefit.

(5)Devotee – The disciple is one who understands that purification is not possible without putting his life at stake, without obedience to the Guru’s commands. He knows this, believes in it, and acts accordingly. But when some impression latent in his subconscious gets aroused, his ego also arises. There is still the duality – I am the one who is putting myself at stake, who is surrendering; and the one to whom I surrender is the Guru. But a devotee has melted away because of his devotion. Just as ice melts in water, the ego of the devotee has melted away. Just as the river merges into the ocean and has no separate existence, when the ‘I-ness’ melts away the devotee becomes non-dual, the feeling of duality ends. He effortlessly abides in the divine. He does not consider anything as his own, which he can put at stake! He has become completely one with the divine. He had come only for this spiritual purpose, and he gets the ultimate benefit.

The disciple must pass through the purifying ordeals devised by the Guru. While the devotee has not remained, there is no one left to be tested. Seeing the surrender ship of the disciple, the Guru gets ready to carve out an idol out of stone and commences the process of making it. In the process, he also becomes tough at times, but there is nothing within Him except selfless compassion. He is concerned not about the disciple’s mind, but his soul and his spiritual welfare.

A scholar came to Raman Maharshi. He had a huge ego due to his scriptural knowledge. Sitting next to Maharshi, he said, ‘I want to have a little discussion with you.’ Maharshi only said, ‘Meditate.’

He said, ‘I just want to discuss Vedas. I will not talk about any trivial matter. ‘ Maharshi stopped him and said, ‘Meditate.’ The scholar said, ‘But why do you disagree to discuss? The scriptures themselves, in several places, have said to discuss. ‘

Maharshi again asks him to meditate, but he refuses to understand. At last, Maharshi picks up a stick and runs after him, assuming a very angry form. The scholar is running ahead and Maharshi is chasing him! Not only the scholar but even Maharshi’s followers present in the ashram are stunned to see this form of his.

After a while Maharshi returns to the room, puts the stick aside, laughs out loud and says, ‘He gave so much importance to the worthless. His tendency to store intellectual knowledge is of no use. So, to make him understand, it was necessary to show some harshness.’

Thus, the Guru, the embodiment of compassion, even if He has to play a harsh role, He adopts the same and guides the disciple on the path of spiritual welfare. In reciprocation, the disciple’s duty must be to follow the Guru’s commands without delay and with zeal, for Satsang to confer the fruit of self-realization.

 

 

Source:- https://www.speakingtree.in/

Green shipping corridors gaining momentum

Climate & Environment, GENERAL STUDIES & GK

Green shipping corridors gaining momentum

The Hotel New York in Rotterdam
Rotterdam’s historic Hotel New York building was formerly the headquarters of Dutch shipping firm Holland America Line

The powerful diesel engine roars as the water taxi cuts through the choppy water that connects Rotterdam’s gritty port areas to what remains of the city’s historic maritime grandeur.

As the yellow speedboat docks in front of the glamorous Hotel New York, the city’s global shipping heritage is there for all to see.

The 122-year-old building, one of few to survive the extensive bombing of Rotterdam in World War Two, was originally the headquarters of Dutch shipping company Holland America Line. The firm’s name is still adorned on the front of the building in large letters.

Next door, from its headquarters in a skyscraper that vaguely resembles a lighthouse, the Port of Rotterdam Authority is keen to shine a light on the future of shipping rather than look back on its past. More specifically, it is focusing its spotlight on how the sector can continue efforts to reduce it emissions.

As the manager and operator of Europe’s largest port, the authority has partnered with its opposite number in Singapore to create one of the world’s first new, long-distance green shipping corridors.

The idea behind these corridors is that cargo ships travel along the routes using only zero or low emission fuels. To help make this possible, both Rotterdam and Singapore are building new storage facilities for green fuels, such as ammonia and methanol, as alternatives to fuel oil.

Ammonia is a gas produced by fusing hydrogen with nitrogen. It is called “green ammonia” if the hydrogen is produced using 100% renewable energy. Meanwhile, methanol is a form of alcohol that can also be produced with green energy.

The Port of Rotterdam’s interim chief executive, Boudewijn Siemons, says the link-up between the Dutch city and Singapore aims to show how the concept can practically work.

“It’s a pragmatic approach to carbon reduction in shipping,” he says. “We have to get started somewhere, and you cannot get started by implementing zero emission shipping as a total solution everywhere in the world.

“That’s why we’re seeking these green corridors as proof points on a limited scale. We then have to scale up from there.”

In September of this year, the first container ship sailed between Singapore and Rotterdam in this green way. Called the Laura Maersk, it was powered by methanol, which currently delivers an up to 65% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to burning fossil fuels.

The Laura Maersk
The Laura Maersk went from Asia to Europe in September, powered by methanol

The green corridors concept was born at COP26, the global environment summit held in Glasgow, Scotland in 2021. Called the Clydebank Declaration, and agreed by 22 countries including the UK, it included a commitment to create at least six corridors by the middle of this decade.

This month’s COP28 in the United Arab Emirates saw the announcement of new corridors, including one from Canada’s west coast to Korea and Japan, one in the Caribbean, and another between Houston in the US and Belgium’s Antwerp.

It followed a pledge by the International Maritime Organisation, which represents the shipping industry, that the sector will achieve net-zero emissions “by or around” 2050.

While ports such as Rotterdam are continuing to prepare for the switch to zero emission shipping, it is clear that ship builders face an equally big challenge.

Industry figures show that just 0.6% of cargo ships around the world run on alternative fuels, and only 15 to 16% of vessels currently on order will run on dual or alternative fuels.

Yet there is some high-profile demand for more green shipping, such as from online shopping giant Amazon. The firm, a founding member of the Zero-Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance, along with other companies such as furniture group Ikea and clothing firm Patagonia, recently renewed a reduced emissions contract with shipping giant Maersk.

Meanwhile, cargo firm North Sea Container Line is launching a ship powered by ammonia, which will operate between Norway and Germany. And Hoegh Autoliners, which specialises in transporting cars and trains, is building 12 new ammonia-ready ships.

Lynn Loo is the chief executive of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, a body that promotes the move to green fuels in the industry. She forecasts that ammonia production could double or even treble by 2050.

Ms Loo says there needs to be “a dramatic rise in the number of vessels capable of transporting ammonia from the 200 that are on the water today”. She adds that there also needs to be “significant infrastructure buildout to support the much higher throughput of ammonia in the future”.

Lynn Loo
Lynn Loo is predicting a big rise in the number of ships powered by ammonia

“None of these are going to be easy to scale,” observes Edward Glossop, head of sustainable operations at Bunker Holding, the world’s largest supplier of marine fuels.

“But ammonia may be the least challenging. The first ammonia engines will be delivered to shipyards by the end of 2024, and we aim to be a commercial supplier of low emission ammonia within the next few years.”

However, there are currently no plans to enforce green shipping lanes and some who watch the industry doubt whether they will prove popular.

“We know the future fuels will be expensive,” says veteran maritime economist Martin Stopford. “You’re attempting to implement change that’ll make people poorer, so it’ll be unpopular.”

He adds that even if production of clean fuels does take off, the maritime industry will be up against sectors such as manufacturing, domestic heating, road transportation aviation all competing for supplies.

“There is going to be some very big heavyweights in the queue ahead of shipping,” says Mr Stopford.

Mr Siemons acknowledges that the process of decarbonising shipping “is both complex and expensive”.

“But we should not predict the future based on the state of the technologies today, and on the state of the markets today,” he reasons.

“Yes today fuel oil is cheaper than hydrogen or ammonia, but that doesn’t mean it has to be so in the future.”

Out on the water in front of his building, even Rotterdam’s yellow water taxis are joining in the green transition. As far back as 2016, Europe’s first electric-powered water taxi entered service here, and last year a hydrogen-powered one also took to the water.

“It all has to become renewable,” Mr Siemons concludes.

 

Source:-https://www.bbc.com/news

Highlights Of Bills Replacing IPC, CrPC & Evidence Act

Current Affairs, GENERAL STUDIES & GK, Politics

Highlights Of Bills Replacing IPC, CrPC & Evidence Act As Stated By Home Minister In Lok Sabha 

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah introduces the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha

One of the five PRAN taken by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi before the country on August 15 was – to end all signs of slavery – today’s three bills are going to fulfil this one vow of Shri Modi

Today, we have brought 3 new Bills by repealing Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Code, (1898), 1973 and Indian Evidence Act, 1872, which were enacted by the British and passed by the British Parliament

Indian Penal Code, 1860 will be replaced by Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 will be replaced by the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 will be replaced by the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023

These three outgoing laws were made to strengthen and protect the British rule and their purpose was to punish, not to give justice

The soul of the three new laws will be to protect all the rights given to Indian citizens by the constitution, and, their purpose will not be to punish but give justice

These three laws made with Indian thought process will bring a huge change in our criminal justice system

Modi government has brought this law by taking a very principled decision to bring citizens at the centre, instead of governance

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had said in 2019, all the laws made during the time of the British across all the departments, should be made in accordance with today’s time and in the interest of the Indian society after adequate discussion and consideration

18 States, 6 Union Territories, the Supreme Court, 16 High Courts, 5 Judicial Academies, 22 Law Universities, 142 Members of Parliament, around 270 MLAs and public have given their suggestions on these new laws

The Home Minister said, for 4 years intense discussions were held on these laws and he himself was present in 158 consultation meetings

Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, which will replace CrPC, now has 533 sections, 160 sections of old law have been changed, 9 new sections have been added and 9 sections have been repealed

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill 2023, which will replace the Indian Penal Code, will have 356 sections instead of the earlier 511 sections, 175 sections have been changed, 8 new sections have been added and 22 sections have been repealed

Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, which will replace the Evidence Act, will now have 170 sections instead of the earlier 167, 23 sections have been changed, 1 new section has been added and 5 have been repealed

These three old laws had signs of slavery, they were passed by the British Parliament, today we have come up with new laws by removing these signs of slavery from a total of 475 places

The law expands the definition of documents to include electronic or digital records, e-mails, server logs, computers, smart phones, laptops, SMS, websites, locational evidence, mails, messages on devices

Provision has been made in this law to digitize the entire process from FIR to case diary, case diary to charge sheet and charge sheet to judgement

Videography has been made compulsory at the time of search and seizure which will be part of the case and will not implicate innocent citizens, without such recording by the police no charge sheet will be valid

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi took a historic decision to set up the National Forensic Science University to promote forensic science in a bid to increase the conviction ratio

After three years, every year 33,000 forensic science experts and scientists will be available in the country, the target has been set in the law to take the conviction ratio above 90%

The visit of the forensic team is being made compulsory on the crime scene of crimes having provision for punishment of 7 years or more, through this, the police will have a scientific evidence, after which the chances of acquittal of the culprits in the court will be very less

Modi government is going to start Zero FIR for the first time after 75 years of the Independence for the convenience of the citizens, with this initiative, the citizens will be able to lodge complaint even outside of their police station area

Provision of e-FIR is being added for the first time, every district and police station will designate a police officer who will officially inform the family of the arrested person about his arrest online and in person

The statement of the victim has been made compulsory in the cases of sexual violence and the video recording of the statement has also been made compulsory in the cases of sexual harassment

It will be compulsory for the Police to give the status of the complaint in 90 days and thereafter every 15 days, to the complainant

No government will be able to withdraw a case of imprisonment of 7 years or more without listening to the victim, this will protect the rights of the citizens

Scope of summary trial has been increased in petty cases, now crimes punishable up to 3 years will be included in summary trial, with this provision alone, over 40% of cases in sessions courts will end

A time limit of 90 days is fixed for filing the charge sheet and depending on the situation, the court can further give permission for 90 more days, the investigation will have to be completed within 180 days and trial should begin

Courts will now be bound to give notice of framing of charge to the accused person within 60 days, within 30 days after the completion of arguments, the Hon’ble Judge will have to give verdict, this will not keep the decision pending for years and the order will have to be made available online, within 7 days

Government has to decide on permission within 120 days for trial against civil servant or police officer else it will be treated as deemed permission and trial will be started

A provision has been brought for attachment of property of declared offenders, a new provision of harsh punishment against inter-state gangs and organized crimes is also being added to this law

Sex on the pretext of false promise of marriage, employment, promotion and false identity has been made a crime for the first time, 20 years of imprisonment or life imprisonment in all cases of gang rape

Provision of death penalty has also been made in case of crime with girls below 18 years of age, for mob lynching also, all three provisions of 7 years in jail, life imprisonment and capital punishment have been made

Earlier, there was no provision for snatching of mobile phone or chain from women, but now a provision has been made for the same

Provision has been made for imprisonment for 10 years or life imprisonment in case of permanent disability or being brain dead

Punishment increased from 7 to 10 years for a person committing crime with children, provision has been made to increase the amount of fine in many crimes

There were many cases of using pardon for political gains, now the death penalty can only be changed to life imprisonment, life imprisonment to a minimum of 7 years and 7 years to a minimum of 3 years, no culprit will be freed

Modi government is going to repeal sedition law completely because India is a democracy and everyone has the right to speak

Earlier, there was no definition of terrorism, now crimes like armed insurgency, subversive activities, separatism, challenging the unity, sovereignty and integrity of India have been defined in this law for the first time

A historic decision regarding trial in absentia has been taken, a person declared fugitive by a Sessions Court judge will be tried and sentenced in his absence, no matter where in the world he may be hiding, if the fugitive has to appeal against punishment, he will have to follow Indian law

A total of 313 changes have been made in this law which will bring a widespread change in India’s criminal justice system, now anyone will be able to get justice within a maximum of 3 years

In this law, special care has been taken of women and children, it has been ensured that criminals are punished and the police cannot misuse their powers

On one hand, laws like sedition have been repealed, on the other hand, provision of punishment for heinous crimes like exploiting women by cheating and mob lynching have been made, provisions also made for crack down on organized crimes and terrorism

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah introduced the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 and Bharatiya Sakhshya Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha, today.

Shri Amit Shah said that today the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav is culminating and Amrit Kaal is beginning. Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav will end on August 15 and the journey of 75 to 100 years of independence will begin from August 16, which will create a great India. He said that in his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had kept Panch Pran in front of the people of the country, one of them isto end all signs of slavery. He said that these three bills introduced today are in a way fulfilling one of the five vows taken by Modi Ji. All these three bills have basic laws for the criminal justice system. He said that today we have brought three new laws by abolishing the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Criminal Procedure Code, (1898), 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 made by the British and passed by the British Parliament. The Indian Penal Code, 1860 will be replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 will be replaced by the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 will be replaced by the Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023. These three Acts which will be replaced, were made to strengthen and protect the British rule and their purpose was to punish, not to give justice. We are going to bring changes in both these fundamental aspects. The soul of these three new laws will be to protect all the rights given by the Constitution to the Indian citizens. The objective will not be to punish anyone but give justice and in this process punishment will be given where it is required to create a sense of prevention of crime.

Union Home Minister assured the Lok Sabha that from 1860 to 2023, the criminal justice system of India continued to be operated on the basis of the laws made by the British Parliament, but now these three laws will be replaced with new laws imbibing the Indian soul, which will bring a big change in our criminal justice system. He said that in the current laws heinous crimes like murder or crime against women were placed very low and crimes like treason, robbery and attack on the official of the government were kept above these. He said that we are changing this approach and the first chapter in these new laws will be on crimes against women and children. The second chapter will be on murder/homicide and criminality with human body. We have brought this law by taking a very principled decision of bringing the citizen at the centre instead of governance.

Shri Amit Shah said that a long process has been followed in making of these laws. He said that in 2019, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had guided all of us that all the laws made during the time of the British across all the departments should be discussed and reviewed in accordance to the present times and in the interest of the Indian society. He said that extensive consultation has been done everywhere to make these laws. He said that in August 2019, he had written letters to all the judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of all the High Courts of the country and all the law universities of the country. In 2020, letters were written to all MPs, Chief Ministers, Governors and Administrators of Union Territories. After extensive consultation, today this process is going to become a law. He said that 18 States, 6 Union Territories, Supreme Court, 16 High Courts, 5 Judicial Academies, 22 Law Universities, 142 Members of Parliament, about 270 MLAs and public have given their suggestions regarding these new laws. Shri Shah said that for 4 years these were discussed in depth and he himself was present in 158 meetings.

Union Home Minister said that Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, which will replace CrPC, will now have 533 sections, 160 sections have been changed, 9 new sections have been added and 9 sections have been repealed. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, which will replace the IPC, will have 356 sections instead of the earlier 511 sections, 175 sections have been amended, 8 new sections have been added and 22 sections have been repealed. The Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, which will replace the Evidence Act, will now have 170 sections instead of the earlier 167, 23 sections have been changed, 1 new section has been added and 5 repealed.

Shri Amit Shah said that these three old laws were full of signs of slavery, they were passed by the British Parliament and we only adopted them. These laws refer to Parliament of the United Kingdom, Provincial Acts, Notifications by the Crown Representative, London Gazette, Jury and Barristers, Lahore Government, Commonwealth Resolutions, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Parliament. These laws include the references to Her Majesty’s and by the Privy Council, these laws were based on the Copies and Extracts Content in the London Gazette and Possession of the British Crown, Court of Justice in England and Her Majesty’s Dominions are also mentioned at many places in these laws. He said that by ending these 475 signs of slavery, we have brought new laws today. We have tried to connect the new era with these laws. Our criminal justice system takes a long time, justice is delivered so late that justice has no meaning, people have lost faith and are afraid to approach the court.

Home Minister said that the state-of-the-art technologies have been incorporated in these laws. The definition of documents has been expanded to include electronic or digital records, e-mails, server logs, computers, smart phones, laptops, SMS, websites, locational evidence, mails and messages available on devices, which can be used in courts, which will give freedom from the pile of papers. He said that provision has been made in this law to digitize the entire process from FIR to case diary, case diary to charge sheet and from charge sheet to judgement. At present, only the appearing of the accused in court can be done through video conferencing, but now the entire trial, including cross questioning, will be done through video conferencing. Examination of complainant and witnesses, investigation and recording of evidence in trial and High Court trial and entire appellate proceedings will now be possible digitally. We have made it after discussing with National Forensic Science University and scholars and technical experts from all over the country on this subject. We have made videography compulsory at the time of search and seizure, which will be part of the case and this will save the innocent citizens from being implicated. No charge sheet will be valid without such recording by the police.

Union Home Minister said that even after 75 years of independence, our conviction rate is very low, that is why we have worked to promote forensic science. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken a historic decision to establish National Forensic Science University. After three years, the country will get 33,000 forensic science experts and scientists every year. In this law, we have set a target to take the conviction ratio above 90 percent. For this, an important provision has been provided which will make the visit of the forensic team to the crime scene compulsory for offenses punishable for 7 years or more. Through this, the police will have scientific evidence, after which the chances of acquittal of the culprits in the court will be significantly reduced. We will computerize all the courts in the country before the year 2027. Similarly mobile forensic vans have also been experienced. In Delhi, we have done a successful experiment that the FSL team visits the scene of any crime with a provision of punishment of more than 7 years. For this we have launched the concept of Mobile FSL which is a successful concept and there will be 3 mobile FSLs in every district and will go to crime scene.

Shri Amit Shah said that for the first time after 75 years of independence, we are starting Zero FIR to ensure the convenience of the citizens. Wherever the crime may have happened, the citizens will be able to lodge complaint even outside of their police station area. Within 15 days of the registration of crime, it will have to be forwarded to the concerned police station. For the first time we are adding the provision of e-FIR. Every district and police station will designate a police officer who will inform online and in person about the arrest to the family of the arrested person. Shri Shah said that the statement of the victim has been made compulsory in the case of sexual violence and video recording of the statement has also been made compulsory in the case of sexual harassment. It will be compulsory for the police to give the status of the complaint to the complainant in 90 days and thereafter in every 15 days. No government will be able to withdraw a case of imprisonment of 7 years or more without hearing the victim, this will protect the rights of the citizens. Under this law, for the first time, we are bringing community service as a punishment. The scope of summary trial in small cases has also been increased, now offenses punishable up to 3 years will be included in summary trial, with this provision alone more than 40 percent cases in sessions courts will be finished. A time limit of 90 days has been fixed for filing the charge sheet and depending on the situation, the court will be able to give permission for further 90 days. In this way, within 180 days the investigation will have to be completed and will be forwarded for trial. Courts will now be bound to give notice of framing of charges to the accused person within 60 days. The Hon’ble Judge will have to give the decision within 30 days of the completion of the argument, this will not keep the decision pending for years, and the decision will have to be made available online within 7 days.

Union Home Minister said that the government will have to decide on the permission for trial against a civil servant or police officer within 120 days, otherwise it will be treated as deemed permission and the trial will be started. We have made another big revolutionary change, the SP who is currently working, will testify after seeing the same file, the earlier concerned officer was not required to come, which will provide quick testimony and justice will also be delivered soon. Apart from this, we have also brought a provision for attachment of the property of declared criminals. We are also adding a new provision of different type of harsh punishment against inter-state gangs and organized crimes in this law. We have also made many provisions to deal with crime and social problems against women. For the first time, a provision has been made to criminalize sexual intercourse on the basis of false promises of marriage, employment and promotion and on the basis of false identity. In all cases of gang rape, a provision of 20 years of punishment or life imprisonment has been made, which is not being implemented today. In the case of girls below 18 years of age, a provision of death penalty has also been kept. For mob lynching all three provisions of 7 years, life imprisonment and death penalty have been kept. There was no provision for mobile phone or chain snatching from women, but now provision has been kept for the same.

Shri Amit Shah said that there was a provision of punishment of 7 years in both the cases of grave injury and in case of minor injury, we have separated both. He said that in case of permanent disability or brain dead, a provision has been made for punishment of 10 years or life imprisonment. The punishment for offenses against children has been increased from 7 years to 10 years. Provision has also been made to increase the amount of fine in many crimes. There is also a provision of 10 years of imprisonment for criminals who run away from custody. There were many cases of using pardon from sentences for political gains, now the death penalty can be changed to life imprisonment, life imprisonment to a minimum of 7 years and 7 years to a minimum of 3 years, no culprit will be spared.

Union Home Minister said that the Modi government is going to end sedition completely because India has a democracy and everyone has the right to speak. Earlier there was no definition of terrorism, but now crimes like secession, armed insurgency, subversive activities, separatism, crimes like challenging the unity, sovereignty and integrity of India have been defined in this law for the first time and the rights have been given to confiscate the properties of those related to these crimes. The court will order this on the cognizance of the investigating police officer. Shri Shah said that the Modi government has taken a historic decision regarding trial in absentia. The Sessions Court Judge, after due process, will try and sentence a person declared a fugitive in absentia, no matter where in the world he may be hiding. He will have recourse to Indian law and court to appeal against the sentence.

Shri Amit Shah said that a large number of case properties are lying in police stations across the country, these can be disposed of by videography and submitting the verified copy to the court. He said that a total of 313 changes have been made in this law which will bring a widespread change in our criminal justice system and anyone will be able to get justice within a maximum of 3 years. Shri Shah said that special care has been taken of women and children in this law, it has been ensured that the criminals are punished and such provisions have also been made to prevent the police from misusing their powers. On the one hand, laws like sedition have been repealed, on the other hand, provision of punishment for exploiting women by cheating and heinous crimes like mob lynching, and cracking down on organized crimes and terrorism has also been done.

 

 

 

 

Source:- https://pib.gov.in/

Israel has gone beyond Self-Defence in Gaza

Current Affairs, GENERAL STUDIES & GK, Politics

Israel has gone beyond Self-Defence in Gaza 

Israel has “gone beyond self-defence” and lost the moral authority in its war with Hamas, the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee has said.

Tory MP Alicia Kearns told the BBC she thinks Israel has broken international law and risks increasing support for Hamas among Palestinians.

She said: “Bombs don’t obliterate an ideology and neither can a stable state be constructed from oblivion.”

Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has also criticised Israel’s tactics.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said Israel’s legal basis for military action in Gaza was “being undermined” and warned its government was “making the mistake of losing its moral authority alongside its legal one”.

Asked if she agreed with Mr Wallace that Israel has damaged its standing with its conduct in Gaza, Ms Kearns told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “I think unfortunately it has.

She said a truce that could be turned into a lasting ceasefire should be pursued, rather than a focus on the eradication of Hamas – which Israel, the UK, US and some other Western powers class as a terrorist organisation.

Ten Tory MPs – including former Cabinet ministers Kit Malthouse and George Eustice – have written to the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron urging him to push for an “immediate ceasefire”, describing Israel’s strategy as “neither proportionate nor targeted”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted operations, which were launched when Hamas carried out an unprecedented assault on Israel on 7 October, will continue until the group is dismantled.

Around 1,200 people were killed and an estimated 240 people were taken hostage by Hamas – and despite some being returned during a temporary truce, about 120 are still thought to be inside Gaza.

Ms Kearns – who chairs the committee of MPs tasked with holding the Foreign Office to account – warned Israel could inadvertently increase support for Hamas among Palestinians.

She said: “Hamas is an ideology which recruits into its membership.”

An opinion poll carried out between 22 November and 2 December by a respected Palestinian think tank, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, found that support for Hamas had more than tripled in the occupied West Bank compared to three months ago.

Supporters of Hamas were still in a minority, but 70% of the respondents said armed struggle was the best means of ending the Israeli occupation.

Smoke rising over Gaza
Israel has carried out air strikes and land operations against targets in Gaza

Israel has come under growing international pressure over the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza, which Hamas-controlled authorities put at more than 19,400.

The same authorities claimed 110 people were killed on Sunday in Israeli air strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, which had been the largest settlement for displaced people prior to the current fighting.

The retaliatory Israeli offensive has seen much of northern Gaza damaged and 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million population driven from their homes.

On Sunday, Lord Cameron signalled a shift in tone from the government by calling for a “sustainable ceasefire” – echoing a form of words Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used in the Commons last week.

Writing in the Sunday Times, the foreign secretary said: “Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations.”

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Scotland on Monday, Mr Sunak called for Israel to respect humanitarian law, adding: “It’s clear that too many civilian lives have been lost and nobody wants to see this conflict go on a day longer than it has to.”

The government has consistently stopped short of calling for a full ceasefire, saying it respects Israel’s right to self-defence.

Israeli soldiers in a tunnel
The Israeli military said it located a large underground tunnel constructed by Hamas on Sunday

Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy pushed back against Mr Wallace’s criticism, describing his choice of words as “unfortunate language”.

He told the BBC said allowing Hamas to “literally get away with murder” would be more likely to radicalise people than Israel’s military tactics.

However, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, accused the Israeli army of normalising “the mass murder of children, [and] women” and “the mass destruction of hospitals, schools, churches, mosques”.

 

 

Source:- https://www.bbc.com/

The Khalistan- Land of the Pure

GENERAL STUDIES & GK, Politics

“More than anything else, Khalistan is a project for bringing about the destruction of the Indian state in a welter of communal disturbances…” — Holy War Against India, Connor Cruise O’Brien, 1988

Starting in the early 1980s, radical separatists spearheaded a bloody campaign to carve out an independent, theocratic Sikh state known as Khalistan (Land of the Pure) in Punjab and other parts of Northern India.

The roots of Khalistan lie in the British colonial policies of the late 1800s and early 1900s that sought to divide Sikhs and Hindus. Sikhs were recruited into the British army in large numbers to use against Hindu rulers that rebelled against the British Raj.  Subsequently, after Indian independence in 1947, tensions between the state of Punjab and the central Indian government surfaced, leading to grievances amongst many Sikhs against the Indian government.

Punjab, for instance, was trifurcated into the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh in 1966, along linguistic lines (Punjab as a Punjabi speaking state, and Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as Hindi speaking states), which created resentment amongst many Sikhs that the historic contours of Punjab were being further divided after it has already been divided between India and Pakistan in 1947. Interestingly, it was the later division of Punjab that allowed Sikhs to enjoy a religious majority in the state, given the predominantly Hindu populations in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Many Sikhs in Punjab also resented sharing the joint capital of Chandigarh with Haryana, and viewed water sharing agreements with Haryana as unfair and favoring farmers there to the detriment of those in Punjab. Sikh religious leaders were additionally apprehensive of the community losing its identity and culture, and wanted greater state powers for Punjab.

Although these types of issues often mark normal state-federal government relations in newly independent countries such as India, they were perceived by many Sikhs as religiously motivated policies of discrimination against them and were exploited by radical leaders, who built a narrative that Sikh interests would only be safe in an independent Sikh country of Khalistan. This was further compounded by an “incendiary mix of unprincipled politics and the manipulation of religious identities and institutions” that brought radical Sikh forces to the forefront of politics in the state of Punjab.

Violent clashes between radicalized Sikh groups led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and the Nirankari sect (considered heretical by the former) in April 1978 is considered the beginning of the Khalistan movement. And in 1980, Bhindranwale and his supporters started targeting Hindus and murdered Lala Jagat Narain, the publisher of Punjab Kesri, a vernacular newspaper, and a vocal critic of Bhindranwale. This was soon followed by large scale violence against civilians across the state.

The Khalistan movement peaked in the 1980-90s and the violent campaign included bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and selective killing and massacres of civilians.  The movement resulted in nearly 22,000 deaths of Sikhs and Hindus alike, including approximately 12,000 civilians. The violence took on an international dimension in 1985 when Khalistani separatists based in Canada exploded a bomb on an Air India flight enroute from Toronto to New Delhi, killing all 329 people on board, including 82 children under the age of 13. That incident remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history.

According to Human Rights Watch, “Militants were responsible for numerous human rights abuses during the violent separatist struggle for an independent Khalistan, including the killings of Hindu and Sikh civilians, assassinations of political leaders, and the indiscriminate use of bombs leading to a large number of civilian deaths in Punjab and other parts of India. Under the cover of militancy, criminals began to coerce businessmen and landowners, demanding protection money.”

As Canadian Political Science Professor, Hamish Telford, has also noted, “Over time, the Khalistan movement descended into thuggery. The militants increasingly engaged in robbery, extortion, rape, indiscriminate killings and ever-escalating terrorist attacks on innocent civilians. By 1991, Sikh militants were generally viewed as unprincipled criminal gangs.”

In response to the movement, and in an attempt to end militancy in the state, Indian security forces and local Punjab police responded with force, at times committing human rights abuses. Moreover, the Congress Party led central government contributed to problems in the state by undermining democratic institutions and interfering with elections, and failing to adequately address local/state issues and relations between the state and the central government. It is important to note, however, that the majority of the police, security forces, and politicians in Punjab were and are Sikh. In fact, the police captain credited for ending the Khalistan insurgency, KPS Gill, was himself a Sikh. Moreover, Sikh politicians, such as former Chief Minister Beant Singh, were themselves assassinated by militants.

Violence Against Hindu and Sikh Civilians

The majority of the victims of the militant violence were innocent Sikhs who were killed by separatists for opposing the Khalistan movement. In 1990-1991, for instance, Sikh civilians comprised over seventy percent of the victims of militant attacks. Moreover, Mazhabi Sikhs (so called lower caste Sikhs in Punjab) were frequently the victims of militant attacks.

Hindus were also targeted in large numbers as part of a strategy to ignite communal tensions and force Hindus to flee Punjab in fear. Along with systematic violence, posters often appeared in villages threatening Hindus to leave and those Sikhs that sought to help Hindus were similarly threatened by militants. As a result, thousands of Hindus fled their homes in Punjab and lived as refugees in neighboring states and New Delhi.

Reports of grenades and bombs being thrown into Hindu religious festivals and movie theaters; militants firing indiscriminately into crowded markets; Hindus being pulled off busses and trains and massacred were common occurrences during that period. The following are a few representative examples of attacks on civilians that drew international attention:

May 1985 — Khalistani militants set off more than 30 bombs over the span of 14 hours at bus and train stations and public parks in New Delhi and the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, leaving at least 86 people dead.

December 1986 — 24 Hindu passengers were massacred and seven others wounded after being ordered off of a bus by militants near Khuda in Hoshiarpur district. In a similar incident, four months earlier, 15 Hindu passengers were slaughtered on a bus in Muktsar after militants told all the Sikh passengers to leave.

March 1988 — Militants killed 32 Hindus and injured 25 more when they opened fire on villagers celebrating the Hindu festival of Holi in Hoshiarpur district. 12 additional Hindus were killed in separate incidents the night before.

June 1989 — Two Sikh bus passengers were shot dead by militants for intervening and trying to save the lives of Hindu passengers.

November 1989 — 19 students were killed by militants while sleeping in a dormitory at Thapar Engineering College in the city of Patiala.

June 1991 — 125 men, women, and children were killed by Khalistan Commando Force militants on two trains. The first train was stopped near the city of Baddowal and militants opened fire indiscriminately on the train. A second train was stopped nearby where militants segregated Sikh and Hindu passengers, ordering Hindus off the train before killing them execution style.

May 1992 — All India Radio station director in Patiala, M.L. Manchanda was kidnapped and decapitated by Babbar Khalsa militants for failing to comply with an edict to only broadcast in Punjabi. The torso of Manchanda’s dead body was left in Patiala, while his head was left in Ambala.

The Khalistan movement’s campaign of violence further included attacks on those participating in statewide elections in Punjab. In February 1992, for instance, militants gunned down election workers, political campaigners, voters, and set off over 18 bombs.

Anti-Hindu Propaganda

The horrific violence in Punjab was accompanied by virulent anti-Hindu rhetoric and propaganda that demonized and intimidated the state’s minority Hindu community and encouraged and celebrated violence against Hindu civilians.  This was part of an attempt by militants, led by Bhindranwale, to disrupt the social fabric of the state and create divisions between Hindus and Sikhs, who had historically enjoyed strong relations, shared religious traditions, and frequently intermarried.

The Dal Khalsa, which gained notoriety for hijacking an Indian Airlines plane in 1981, placed severed cow heads at several Hindu temples in the state to intimidate Hindus, who consider cows to be sacred.

Bhindranwale, the most prominent Khalistan leader, frequently used anti-Hindu rhetoric in his speeches. Noted Sikh journalist, Kushwant Singh, described Bhindranwale as a “hate monger” who routinely used hateful and inflammatory language against Hindus and exhorted every Sikh to “kill 32 Hindus to solve the Hindu-Sikh problem.”

Similarly, on July 28, 1984, Ajaib Singh Bagri, a leader in the Khalistani militant group, Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), declared at a public rally in Canada that “I give you my most solemn assurance that until we kill 50,000 Hindus, we will not rest!” The crowd of thousands of pro-Khalistan supporters responded with chants of “Hindu dogs! Death to them!”

BKI, along with the International Sikh Youth Federation, were later designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organizations by the US Department of State under section 1(b) of Executive Order (E.O.) 13224.

Operation Bluestar

As the Khalistan movement expanded and violence escalated, Bhindranwale and his heavily armed followers occupied the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, in Amritsar. Starting in 1982, Bhindranwale used the Golden Temple as a base of operations and stored arms and ammunition there. He openly declared that he was directing attacks and violent acts from the sacred Temple. There were also reports of the militants committing atrocities on pilgrims and devotees inside the sacred space.

On June 6, 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered an army operation — code-named Operation Bluestar — to flush out Bhindranwale and the militants holed up in the Golden Temple.

According to an academic study of the Khalistan insurgency:

“Bhindranwale established the center of his terror campaign in the Harimandir Sahib of Amritsar – the holiest of all Sikh temples. Many of his decisions and actions contravened the fundamental dogmas of the Sikh religion, but the faithful tolerated even this from him. He stockpiled arms and ammunition in the temple and from its sanctuary openly defied the state and federal governments. The police dared not enter the temple complex, because it did not want to provoke the Sikhs…”

“…thousands of pilgrims were in the Golden Temple grounds when the [army] assault began, and the insurgents used many of them as human shields. Bhindranwale and many of his associates were killed – but there were a very large number of civilian casualties as well. The insurgents made their goal crystal clear: to create an independent, sovereign Khalistan, where the Sikh religion informs governance, Sikh culture dominates and Punjabi is spoken.”

The fallout from Operation Bluestar resulted in the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the subsequent anti-Sikh pogrom in New Delhi in October 1984 in response to Prime Minister Gandhi’s assassination. The pogrom took the lives of over 3,000 innocent Sikhs.

While the Indian government and judiciary have taken some positive steps to prosecute and convict those leaders involved in planning and carrying out the violence, several individuals and high level government leaders have still not been brought to justice more than 30 years later. Collectively, Operation Blue Star, and the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 and lack of justice thereafter have left a deep psychological wound in the minds of many Sikhs, and have further fueled the Khalistan militant movement or support for it.

Subsequent to his death, Bhindranwale, along with other Khalistan militants, have been anointed by supporters as saints, saviors, and martyrs. To this day, images of an armed Bhindranwale almost always adorn pro-Khalistan websites, social media pages, and posters at events.

International Support for Khalistan

In both its heyday and today, the Khalistan movement has received financial and logistical support from pro-Khalistan separatists based in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, as well as Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency.

In particular, according to Indian defence analyst, Ajai Sahni, Pakistan’s ISI spy agency provided refuge, training, arms, and funding to Khalistani terrorist organizations and coordinated “their activities with Islamist terrorist organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, as well as with organised crime operators, and drug and weapons’ smugglers who have assisted in the movement of men and materials across the border into Punjab.”

Moreover, according to foreign affairs analyst Christine Fair, “[t]he involvement of the diaspora was an important dimension of the Sikh insurgency. Not only was it a source of diplomatic and financial support, it was also a factor in enabling Pakistan to get involved in fueling the Sikh separatist efforts. Sikhs in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States played important roles in arranging for cadres to travel to Pakistan, where they received financial and military assistance.”

Khalistan supporters in the West have actively used American, Canadian, and British soil to lobby their respective governments against India, while raising funds for Khalistan terror groups, often using informal hawala networks (often used by criminal and terrorist organizations in South Asia) for transferring money.

There have further been a number of investigations into the activities of pro-Khalistan extremists in the US, including by the FBI, DEA, and United States Customs Service (USCS).

In March 2017, for instance, a Khalistan extremist and US resident, Balwinder Singh, was convicted of providing material support to Khalistani terrorist groups in India and sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. He had been arrested by the FBI in 2013 on “charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to murder or otherwise harm persons in a foreign country” and for falsifying an asylum claim. Singh was providing support to BKI and another group, Khalistan Zindabad Force, to commit acts of terrorism in India.

And previously, an undercover USCS sting operation of a Khalistan activist in California, Bhajan Singh Bhinder, revealed that he attempted to purchase military grade weapons, such as “M-16s, A.K.-47s, detonators, night-vision goggles, mobile communications equipment, remote-control equipment, grenade and rocket launchers,” for Khalistan groups committing terror attacks in India. The investigation was later abandoned after Bhinder backed out of the deal. Bhinder has since gone on to found several other organizations, most notably Organization for Minorities of India (OFMI), which engages in anti-India and anti-Hindu activities.

Another US-based organization, Sikhs for Justice, has become the most prominent pro-Khalistan group in the west and reportedly enjoys the support of the ISI. It purportedly peacefully advocates for a 2020 referendum on Khalistan, but has openly associated with convicted Khalistan terrorists and those suspected of being involved in large-scale terror plots in India. It funded the legal defense of Jagtar Singh Tara, for instance, a leader of Indian designated terrorist group Khalistan Tiger Force, who assassinated the Chief Minister of India’s Punjab state in 1995.

SFJ and its legal advisor, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, also have close links with Paramjit Singh Pamma, a BKI fundraiser wanted by Indian authorities for his material support of terrorism. Mr. Pannun himself was reportedly arrested by police in the United Kingdom in 2000 after receiving terrorist training in Pakistan and was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his involvement with BKI, a banned terrorist group in the UK, although he denies the allegation.

 

 

Source:- http//www.hinduamerican.org

Parliament security breach 2023

Current Affairs, News Update, Politics

Parliament security breach: 15 India opposition MPs suspended for protests

A video grab taken from the India TV channel shows an unidentified man jumping from the visitor's gallery of Lok Sabha, causing a scene using a colour smoke in the House during the Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Fourteen Indian opposition MPs have been suspended after protesting against a security breach in the parliament.

At least four people were arrested after two intruders shouted slogans and set off coloured smoke inside parliament. Their motive remains unclear.

The federal home ministry has ordered an investigation into the incident.

The security lapse occurred on the 22nd anniversary of a deadly attack on the parliament.

On Thursday, a day after the breach, security was ramped up around the parliament building, with barricades outside the complex to restrict entry.

Both houses were adjourned after protests by opposition MPs who demanded a discussion on the incident and statements from the prime minister and the home minister.

In the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament, opposition MP Derek O’Brien was suspended for “ignoble conduct” after he shouted slogans demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah.

In the Lok Sabha, the lower house, 13 MPs from opposition parties such as the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam were suspended until 22 December, when the session ends.

Before the session was adjourned, defence minister Rajnath Singh said in parliament that the incident had been condemned by “everyone”. “We all – ruling and opposition MPs – have to be careful about to whom we issue the passes (to enter parliament),” he said.

Opposition leaders have demanded action against Pratap Simha, an MP from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who allegedly signed the passes used by the intruders to enter the public gallery in parliament.

Neither Mr Simha nor his party have officially commented. The BBC has emailed the MP for comment.

A police official told Reuters that visitor passes had been suspended until a security review was completed for the parliament building.

Reports say the four accused – three men and a woman in their 20s and 30s – will be produced in court on Thursday. Police have not officially confirmed their identities yet, but their families have been speaking to local media, and newspapers have published their photos and names.

The incident occurred on Wednesday while lawmakers were in session in the Lok Sabha, the lower house. Earlier in the day, President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders had paid tribute to the victims of the attack in 2001 in which nine people were killed. All five of the attackers were killed by the security forces.

MPs said two men jumped into the chamber from the public gallery and set off canisters of coloured smoke. One of the men was seen jumping from table to table as lawmakers and security officials tried to catch him.

Two others – a man and a woman – shouted slogans outside the parliament and set off coloured smoke from canisters. They were seen on video being led away by the police.Presentational white space

Who are the accused?

The four people who have been arrested are from different states in India – several media reports have quoted anonymous police officials who say they met on Facebook, but the BBC couldn’t confirm this independently.

Some journalists outside parliament managed to speak to one of the accused as she was being led away by police. She identified herself as Neelam and said she did not belong to any organisation. She also said she was an ordinary citizen who was unemployed and wanted to protest against the government for clamping down on people.

Her family spoke to ANI news agency from their home in Jind district in the northern state of Haryana, and said that they did not know she had gone to Delhi. “All we knew was that she was in Hisar [in Haryana] for her studies,” her brother said.

Neelam’s family said she had several degrees, including a masters in education, but was concerned about unemployment.

“She used to tell me that she is so highly qualified but has no job, so it is better to die,” her mother told ANI.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays floral tribute to the martyrs who lost their lives in the 2001 terror attack on Parliament House (Samvidhan Sadan).

The man she was protesting with has been identified as Amol Shinde, from Latur district in Maharashtra state. A state minister told media that Mr Shinde had spent the last few years trying to pass police recruitment tests. Police say his family did not know his whereabouts.

The two men who entered parliament are Manoranjan D from Mysore in southern Karnataka state and Sagar Sharma from Lucknow in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

Manoranjan’s father Devaraju Gowda told reporters that he condemned his son’s act.

“This is wrong… You can protest outside [parliament] but not do this,” he said, adding that Manoranjan had an engineering degree and would rear chicken, sheep and fish on the family’s land.

“He reads a lot on Vivekananda [an intellectual and philosopher]. He only wanted to do good for society, for the deprived,” Mr Gowda said. The family is from the constituency of Mr Simha, the lawmaker who allegedly signed the men in.

Sagar Sharma was the man who was filmed jumping on tables in parliament. His mother Rani Sharma said he was a tuk-tuk driver in Lucknow city.

“He had left two days ago,” she told ANI. “He told me that he was going with his friends for some work.”

Reports say a fifth man was detained in Gurugram on the outskirts of Delhi while another man was traced to Rajasthan. Both of them have been accused of helping the four protesters.

 

Source:- https://www.bbc.com/

7 Strategies to ignite active learning

Education at School

7 Strategies to ignite active learning – and help students see its benefits

 

At its core, active learning relies on a collaborative, student-centered approach. As Vanderbilt University professor Cynthia J. Brame explains, “active learning approaches also often embrace the use of cooperative learning groups, a constructivist-based practice that places particular emphasis on the contribution that social interaction can make.” One would think that students embrace such a model, but an unexpected complication of creating a learning environment around active methods is sometimes a show of student resistance. After years of a more passive experience, many students can be loath to do something different, even if the end result will be more fulfilling. In “Students Think Lectures Are Best, But Research Suggests They’re Wrong,” Edutopia editor Youki Terada cites a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). As Terada shares, the research study showed that “strategies that require low cognitive effort — such as passively listening to a lecture — are often perceived by students to be more effective than active strategies such as hands-on experimentation and group problem-solving.” Why might that be?

PNAS researchers Louis Deslauriers, Logan S. McCarty, Kelly Miller, Kristina Callaghan, and Greg Kestin answer this question when they “identify an inherent student bias against active learning that can limit its effectiveness and may hinder the wide adoption of these methods.” Essentially, students perceive that they are most successful in traditional, teacher-directed classrooms. There are any number of reasons they might feel this way, from having never experienced anything different to worrying about what might happen if they are asked to do what feels like more. To combat this problem, the study suggests that teachers explicitly share with students why a more active approach is better and then continue to reinforce its benefits. They write: “The success of active learning will be greatly enhanced if students accept that it leads to deeper learning — and acknowledge that it may sometimes feel like exactly the opposite is true.”

Teaching students is not just about communicating content; it is also about being instructive about how to access learning. If we are not explicit about the “why” behind the ways in which class is structured, students will form their own assumptions about what works. It is not enough, therefore, to create a student-centered classroom model and expect everyone to get on board without knowing the rationale behind an active learning approach. Instead, developing a space in which all learners (vocal or otherwise) can flourish is also dependent upon explaining what is happening as it occurs, gathering student voice along the way, and course-correcting as needed.

The Big Question

Midway through sharing new information, the teacher pauses and asks students to write down an area of confusion so far. Then, students either post their questions on the wall and respond in writing or hand them to the teacher to share with the group anonymously.

  1. Clears up confusion
  2. Encourages a culture of welcoming mistakes and misconceptions
  3. Normalizes not knowing and asking questions
  4. Allows students to communicate in a variety of modalities
  5. Gives everyone a voice

 

 

Connection, Prediction

Before starting a daily objective, students pose a question or idea that makes a connection to prior learning. Then, they develop a prediction about what they are about to learn and share their thoughts with classmates via pairings or small groups.

  1. Encourages the use of higher-order, critical thinking skills
  2. Provides an avenue for students to share at low risk (i.e., in smaller groups) rather than in front of the class
  3. Allows the teacher to see how students make meaning of the daily objective in front of them

Question Everything

For a specific timeframe within the class period, students are asked to phrase any response to a question in a shared space (an online document, chart paper, board, etc.) as an open-ended question. Then, students answer the question by posing yet another question of their own in the same space.

  1. Engages students in critical questioning
  2. All participants have a chance to respond to one another in an accessible space
  3. The teacher can be on the lookout for misconceptions and adjust instruction accordingly

Images and Inspiration

Using a visual image (a photograph, drawing or similar), the teacher asks students to “free write” for a short period of time about what the image inspires. Depending on the course subject, students could write their conjectures about what they see or engage in a more creative approach.

  1. Allows students to make their own meaning of an image before the teacher directs learning more specifically toward the daily lesson
  2. Encourages students to learn in a different way (i.e. visually)
  3. Helps to facilitate a more inductive approach to course content

One Sentence

For an upcoming extended writing project that may be intimidating, ask students to write just one sentence from the assigned prompt. Then, put them in small groups to examine one another’s sentences and discuss the challenges they face.

  1. Embraces the concept that all learners struggle, and that collaboration is key to surmounting obstacles
  2. Teaches students with multiple points of view to help one another
  3. Breaks a formidable task into more manageable chunks

Rephrase, Please!

Sometimes, ideas get lost in translation. In this activity, students are asked to take the key ideas taught during direct instruction and phrase them in their own words. They can then post their phrases on a wall, share in groups, or be called upon randomly.

  1. Helps students make meaning of new concepts in their own heads
  2. Acts as a check for understanding for the teacher to see where struggles might still exist
  3. Empowers students to think critically about the salient ideas presented

Stump the Teacher

Students form groups and create a series of quiz questions on course content. Then, groups take turns posing questions in an attempt to stump the teacher. If the teacher cannot answer enough questions correctly, the class wins!

  1. This gamification technique increases student engagement
  2. Teachers provide students with the opportunity to engage in a role reversal
  3. By creating the quizzes, students learn material more actively

Active learning is dependent upon the act of critical thinking. With the strategies and accompanying rationale provided above, teachers working with multiple grade levels in a variety of content areas can find at least a few approaches that work to increase the involvement of everyone in the room.

Tempting though it might be to rely on vocal students to carry student discourse each day past the point of awkwardness and toward whatever a teacher might wish to highlight, resisting that urge is key to ensuring that every child in the room is an active learner. Even the loudest students in the room who verbally process information may be more passive than we suppose. So, finding more effective ways to involve all students in each day’s learning is an effort that is well worth the time. That way, when a teacher leaves the classroom thinking, “Wow. They were really with me today,” that thought will apply to not just the few students who always like to talk — it will also accurately represent the experience of the entire class.

 

 

Source:-https://www.kqed.org/mindshift