📰 ISRO launches satellite for communications
CMS-01 rides aboard a PSLV from Sriharikota
•The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully placed into a transfer orbit India’s 42nd communications satellite, CMS-01, carried on board the PSLV-C50, from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota Range, on Thursday.
•India’s workhorse launch vehicle, the PSLV, in its 52nd mission, configured in its ‘XL’ version with six strap-on motors, rose into the skies at 3.41 p.m. The satellite was placed into a precise geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) roughly 20 minutes after lift-off.
•CMS-01 is a communications satellite envisaged for providing services in extended C Band of the frequency spectrum and its coverage will include the Indian mainland and the Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands, the ISRO said. The satellite is expected to have a life of over seven years.
•“The satellite was injected precisely into its pre-defined sub-GTO orbit. The satellite is functioning very well and in another four days from now, it will be placed into its specified slot in the geosynchronous orbit after a series of manoeuvres,” ISRO Chairman K. Sivan said. He said the satellite would act as a continuation of the GSAT-12 launched 11 years ago.
•Mr. Sivan said the next launch, the PSLV-C51, would be a special mission for ISRO and the entire country as the vehicle would carry the country’s first private sector satellite under the space reforms programme announced by the Indian government.
•“Recently, we have brought in space reforms to unlock India’s potential in the space sector, which the Government of India has initiated. Within eight months [of the announcement], the first satellite, from Pixxel India named ‘Anand’, will be launched on board the PSLV-C51. This is the first among a series of satellites to be launched,” Mr. Sivan said.
•He said two more satellites, ‘Satish Sat’ from Space Kidz India and ‘Unity Sat’ from a consortium of universities will also be launched.
•The ISRO Chairman said the PSLV-C51 launch will mark a new era of space reforms in India.
MoEF expert panel discusses CPWD’s revised proposal for terms of reference
•The government’s latest proposal for the redevelopment of Central Vista before an expert panel of the Ministry of Environment and Forest dropped the proposed new Prime Minister’s Office from the plan, while revising the estimated cost from ₹11,794 crore to ₹13,450 crore.
•The Central Public Works Department’s proposal for terms of reference, which is a step before the application for environment clearance, was discussed by the MoEF Expert Appraisal Committee on Thursday, according to sources. A source said the CPWD was given suggestions and asked to address the issues raised in representations from the public.
•The CPWD on December 9 submitted a proposal for TOR for the “development/redevelopment of Common Central Secretariat buildings and Central Conference Centre along with Prime Minister’s Residence, SPG Building and Vice President’s Enclave,” with a total built-up area of 17,21,500 square metre and demolition of 4,58,820 sqm. This plan did not include the proposed PMO that was mentioned in an earlier version of the proposal submitted in November. The source said there were issues of pending land-use change and litigation.
‘Integrated approach’
•The CPWD had first submitted a plan for the 10 secretariat buildings and conference centre and the TOR which was approved in October. Then, the CPWD applied for amending the TOR to include the PMO, PM’s residence, SPG building and V-P’s Enclave, but the EAC in its meeting on November 25 returned the proposal. The EAC asked the agency to “refrain from piecemeal approach” and apply again with an “integrated approach,” according to the minutes of the meeting.
•Among those who submitted their representations to the EAC was former MoEF secretary Meena Gupta, a retired IAS officer. Ms. Gupta wrote to the chairperson of the EAC, T. Haque, that the CPWD had “once again arbitrarily added and subtracted components of the Central Vista redevelopment and this completely undermines the directions of the EAC given during the last meeting.” She added that there was no explanation given for removing the PMO from the plan and other components, including the new Parliament, the New India Garden and underground transit system had not been included.
•Ms. Gupta told The Hindu that the approach had been “slipshod” and “piecemeal”. “Such an important project should not be taken up like this,” she said.
•The EAC had approved the CPWD’s proposal to construct a new Parliament in April. As a part of the government’s larger plan to redevelop the 3-km-long Central Vista from Rashtrapati Bhavan till India Gate, construction on the new Parliament was set to start this month. The government, however, submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court earlier this month that it would not start construction, demolition and tree transplantation till the court gives its decisions in cases challenging the project.
📰 Farmers have constitutional right to continue with protest: SC
Court, however, says purpose of protest will not be served if they continue to sit without engaging in talks
•The Supreme Court on Thursday said farmers have a constitutional right to continue with their “absolutely perfect” protest as long as their dissent against the three controversial agricultural laws did not slip into violence.
•“We clarify that this court will not interfere with the protest in question. Indeed the right to protest is part of a fundamental right and can as a matter of fact, be exercised subject to public order. There can certainly be no impediment in the exercise of such rights as long as it is non-violent and does not result in damage to the life and properties of other citizens... We are of the view at this stage that the farmers’ protest should be allowed to continue without impediment and without any breach of peace either by the protesters or the police”, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde observed in its order.
•The court, however, said the purpose of the protesting farmers would not be served if they continued to sit without engaging in talks.
•“Yes, there is a protest that is going on... Yes, the protest is constitutional as long as it does not damage property and lives. It is an absolutely perfect protest. But their [farmers’ purpose cannot be realised if they continue to sit without talking”, the CJI observed.
Panel formation
•The court reiterated its suggestion of forming an “impartial and independent committee” of experts in agriculture to hear both farmers and the Union government on the laws.
•“If their [farmers] protest has a purpose other than just to sit in protest, we are thinking of an independent committee before whom both sides can state their case while the protest goes on... The committee can give its opinion after hearing them. We expect parties [farmers and government] to follow the committee's opinion. Meanwhile, the protest will continue without causing violence or damage on both sides”, Chief Justice Bobde suggested.
Caution against violence
•The court cautioned the government against trying to “instigate” violence. The CJI stressed that as fellow Indians, the judges too understood the farmers’ problems.
•But Attorney General K.K. Venugopal strongly objected to the farmers’ conduct. He said the farmers cannot corner the government into a ‘yes or no’ to their demand to repeal the laws. The government was ready for a clause by clause discussion on the laws.
•Senior advocate P. Chidambaram, for Punjab, where most of the protesting farmers hail from, said the farmers actually wanted Parliament to discuss amendments to the three laws.
•“When a massive number of people think that a law is unjust, there will be massive protests. Remember what happened in the U.S. against Vietnam war, in Paris... Farmers have not blocked the roads. Farmers wanted to march to Delhi. Who has stopped them and blocked them? The police have blocked them. We see photos of barricades, containers”, Mr. Chidambaram said.
•But the CJI said whether the “mob” should be allowed into the city or not was a question best left to the police and not the court.
•“Who is here who can give a guarantee that if a mob enters the city, there will not be any loss of damage or violence. This is not the Supreme Court’s decision. That will be based on police intelligence”, he stated.
•“This is not a mob, but farmers”, Mr. Chidambaram reacted.
•The CJI clarified, “I didn't use the word ‘mob’ in the Chicago sense”.
•He then asked Mr. Venugopal whether the government could give an assurance to keep the implementation of the farm laws in abeyance in order to facilitate talks.
•The top law officer was non-committal.
•Instead, he said the “blockade will have to go”.
•“Discussions can be held with their leaders. The protesters are standing there cheek by jowl. Pandemic is spreading. When they go back to their villages, they will spread the disease like wildfire”, he submitted.
•“You [government] have not obviously been successful with them so far... That maybe because they were adamant or you were...”, Chief Justice Bobde responded.
•He then asked whether it was, after all, factually true that farmers have blocked the entire city. “Is it a fact that just because they are sitting on some roads, the entire city is blocked? It is not like that Delhi is being choked by their protests...”, he said.
•Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Tikri and Singhu borders were blocked. The Noida carriageway was open, but farmers were threatening to close them.
Entry to Delhi hit: Salve
•Senior advocate Harish Salve, for a Delhi resident, said entry to Delhi was severely restricted. “Right to protest is a part of the right to free speech. But free speech cannot affect right to free movement and right to life. Free speech cannot hold a city to ransom during a pandemic. Blockade of Delhi will see prices go up. That’s not rocket science... Right to free speech is not shouting fire in a closed theatre”, he submitted.
•Chief Justice Bobde said that was why the court wanted the farmers to accomplish the purpose of their protest by engaging in active talks.
•“By blocking Delhi, people may go hungry inside Delhi.. You [farmers] can continue the protest. You have the right. But you should have your purpose in mind too. That purpose will be served only if you talk, discuss and reach a conclusion”, Chief Justice Bobde addressed advocate A.P. Singh, appearing for the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu).
•But the Delhi government disagreed with the Centre’s version that farmers were choking entry to Delhi. “There are 121 entry points to Delhi. Don't listen to all this unless they are placed on affidavit... Mr. Salve's petition is a mischievous one”, Mr. Mehra addressed the court.
•The nearly hour-long virtual court hearing ended on an inconclusive note when the court found that many of the protesting farmer bodies were not present. The Bench asked the Centre to serve them notice. Since the court is closing for vacation on December 18, it gave parties liberty to move a Vacation Bench anytime during the holidays.
📰 Putting food at the centre of India’s nutrition agenda
Reducing the burden of child undernutrition needs a policy goal — providing affordable access to quality food items
•The provisional verdict from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS 2019-20 factsheets on the burden of child undernutrition is not encouraging, with few exceptions. For the most part, this assessment has relied on the measure of a child’s anthropometry, i.e., children are defined as stunted, underweight or wasted if their standardised height-for-age, weight-for-age or weight-for-height, respectively, is more than two standard deviations below the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards median.
•However, undernutrition can also be measured by observing the adequacy and sufficiency of food or dietary intake among children. So how do Indian children fare when we bring a food measure to tell us about their nutritional status?
Diet-related undernutrition
•Across the 22 States/Union Territories for which the NFHS-5 has released the factsheets, the percentage of children (aged 6-23 months) who do not meet the minimum dietary adequacy — as defined under the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices by WHO — is 83.9%; a decline of just over 2 percentage points from what was observed in NFHS-4 (2015-16). Thus, eight out of 10 children appear to be experiencing a dietary shortfall. It would not be surprising if this situation has worsened (https://bit.ly/3nrJloI) with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing 2020 lockdown.
•Although 17 of the 22 States/Union Territories did experience a decline, the percentage of children not meeting the dietary adequacy norms increased in five States/Union Territories. Goa experienced the largest percentage point decline (11.1%), and Jammu and Kashmir observed the highest increase in its percentage of children not meeting dietary adequacy over the last three years (76.5% to 86.4%). While there are some variations, in every State more than 75% of the children do not receive the minimum adequate diet.
•Analysis based on NFHS-4 has shown that consumption of protein-rich food as well as fruit and vegetables were substantially low. Since the disaggregated child-level data on consumption of various food groups has not been released, we will have to wait to see what specific aspects are children experiencing a dietary shortfall.
Prevalence of anaemia
•Fortunately, the factsheets provide the percentage of children who are anaemic — an indication of iron deficiency — and the trends should raise concern. Across the 22 States/Union Territories, anaemia prevalence among children increased by about eight percentage points from 51.8% to 60.2%. The prevalence of anaemia in childhood increased in 18 of the 22 States/Union Territories. In the majority of the States, two out of three children have possible iron-deficiency. The State-wise trends for adults are mixed, although it is clear that women are substantially at a far greater risk for anaemia than men.
•The Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) Abhiyaan and, particularly, the Anemia Mukt Bharat, or AMB, Strategy was launched in 2018 with efforts to improve Iron and Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation, behaviour change and anaemia-related care and treatment across six target groups including pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children, and the provisional verdict is mixed for women and concerning for children.
Diet-related measures
•Viewing the burden of child undernutrition from a food or dietary lens is sobering, and raises serious concerns than what has been well-revealed by measures based on anthropometry. It is time that undernutrition is not only viewed simply through the measures of anthropometric failure, but is complemented through explicit attention to diet-related measures.
•A classification of nutritional status using a combined typology based on children who experience dietary failure and anthropometric failure is crucial. A recent NFHS-4 based study using this typology found that 36.3% of children who experienced a dietary failure do not show anthropometric failure. Anthropometric-centric measures thus run the risk of omitting such children from policy discussions. A combined typology is also necessary to highlight groups that may need most immediate priority (e.g., children experiencing both dietary and anthropometric failures, 44%). Indeed, the prevalence of children who experience anthropometric failure only but no dietary failure was only 9.8%.
•Dietary factors can clearly be a major determinant of stagnancy in the nutritional status of Indian children. The true burden of child undernutrition thus may well be underestimated by the sole reliance on anthropometric measures. Besides, a child’s anthropometric status is a consequence of several complex factors, including inter-generational, which current policies and interventions cannot alter in the short term. Importantly, food and diet have an intrinsic importance, regardless of their impact on a child’s anthropometry. Therefore the nutrition agenda needs to be considered from “food as a right” perspective.
•A disproportionate focus on anthropometric measures inadvertently precludes meaningful and direct engagement with strategies and data necessary to address diet and food security concerns. Data, available in a timely manner and in public domain, is empowering, as the NFHS has demonstrated over the last 25-plus years. But systematic and quality data on what Indians eat remains largely unknown.
Data initiative needed
•It is important to emphasise that India does not have a dedicated nationally representative survey on the dietary intake and nutritional status of children or adults. A modern data initiative leveraging and combining aspects of the NFHS, the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau and the National Sample Surveys that collected data on detailed household-level consumption and expenditure on various food items should be considered.
•In summary, decluttering our current approach to reducing the burden of child undernutrition and keeping it simple with a policy goal to providing affordable (economic and physical) access to quality food items, particularly for lower socioeconomic populations groups, should be prioritised. This may serve well as India tries to realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2 and 3) related to zero hunger and good health and well-being.
•S.V. Subramanian is Professor of Population Health and Geography, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, MA, U.S. William Joe is Assistant Professor, Population Research Centre, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi. Inputs by Abhishek Kumar, a doctoral candidate at the Central University of Gujarat
📰 WHO to probe virus origins in China
Team of 12-15 experts will likely go to Wuhan ‘to examine evidence collected by Chinese researchers’
•A team of international investigators led by the World Health Organization (WHO) is likely to go to China in early January to study the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak, which first began in Wuhan, in southwestern Hubei province, late last year.
•WHO officials said on Thursday the composition of the team and where they would visit was being discussed with China. Babatunde Olowokure, the WHO’s regional emergencies director in the Western Pacific, said at a press conference that China was “welcoming” the team and the visit was likely to happen in early January. How much access the team will have, and whether the visit comes too late, has become a point of contention. China has resisted calls for an independent international inquiry into the origins but has said it would be open to a WHO-led investigation even as the organisation has come under fire, particularly from the U.S., over its handling of the outbreak in the initial stages.
•A team of 12-15 experts will likely go to Wuhan “to examine evidence, including human and animal samples collected by Chinese researchers, and to build on their initial studies”,Reutersreported. Thea Fischer, a Danish member, was quoted as saying the team would leave “just after New Year’s” for a six-week mission, which would include two weeks of quarantine on arrival. Initial attention into the origins of COVID-19 had focused on the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, where an outbreak was first reported in December, although some Chinese health officials have since said the market may have not been the origin, but where the virus first spread.
Focus on market
•The WHO investigation will likely focus on the market in an effort to reconstruct the outbreak, the South China Morning Post reported this week, noting that China had “released sparse details” about its studies into the market. Most scientists believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus, similar to the first SARS outbreak, likely came from a bat and was passed to humans via an intermediary host. Whether that was one of the live animals sold at the market is among the issues the investigation will look into.
•The WHO investigation, although at an early stage, has already become politicised, with China resisting what it sees as any outside interference, seeking to remain in control over how much access international scientists will have, and officials and State media there increasingly backing a narrative suggesting the virus came to China from elsewhere. The U.S. and several other countries, meanwhile, have criticised the WHO’s handling and called for more transparency and independence into the investigations.
•The report from the first WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19, which followed a visit by 25 Chinese and international experts to several Chinese cities between February 16 and 24, praised China’s initial handling of the outbreak and the lockdown of Hubei province for controlling the spread of the virus. The WHO mission report was widely cited by the Chinese media as underlining the success of the country’s response.
•The mission to China followed a visit by the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to Beijing, who in a January 28 meeting with President Xi Jinping “praised the seriousness with which China is taking this outbreak, especially the commitment from top leadership, and the transparency they have demonstrated”.
Initial cover-up
•Neither mentioned the initial cover-up by Wuhan authorities until mid-January, which resulted in the Communist Party leadership in February sacking the party chiefs of both Hubei and Wuhan, as well as two senior provincial health officials. That detail has, however, now become a footnote, with State media, ahead of the WHO team’s visit, increasingly emphasising China’s subsequent recovery, showcasing its effective response to stem the outbreak, and questioning the origins of COVID-19.
•On Thursday, the Party-run Global Times published an article questioning whether the virus came to Wuhan from overseas, citing recent local cases in China related to imported seafood and meat products. “As the mounting sporadic outbreaks in China were found to be related to imported cold-chain products, with other parts of the world, including Europe and the American continent, reportedly discovering signs of the coronavirus earlier than Wuhan, it begs a new hypothesis: did the early outbreak in Wuhan originate from imported frozen food?” the newspaper asked. China has, in recent weeks, stopped certain food imports, which it has blamed for new cases that have been reported even after local transmission had broadly been curbed by the end of the summer.
•Chinese scientists have also put forward studies suggesting the virus was circulating in other countries, such as Italy, before it came to China. One recent pre-print even suggested that the first human transmission took place on the Indian subcontinent, but it was subsequently withdrawn.
•That is not, however, the view of most international experts. Last month, Michael Ryan, the Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said it would be “highly speculative” for the WHO “to say that the disease did not emerge in China”. “It is clear from a public health perspective that you start your investigations where the human cases first emerged,” he said, adding that evidence may lead them elsewhere.
•These remarks from the WHO did not, however, find wide mention in the Chinese media.
📰 Govt. plans $60-bn investment to bolster gas infrastructure
Centre aims to raise natural gas’s share from 6% to 15% by 2030, says Pradhan
•Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday said the government had planned a $60-billion investment for creating gas infrastructure in the country till 2024, and that gas’s share in the energy mix is expected to rise to 15% by 2030.
•Currently, gas accounts for 6% in the country’s total energy mix. Speaking at the Assocham Foundation Day Week 2020, he said, “We have envisaged a spend of $60 billion in creating gas infrastructure till 2024, including for pipelines, LNG terminals and CGD (city gas distribution) networks.”
•He further said, “We are ushering a gas-based economy by increasing the share of natural gas in India’s primary energy mix from 6.2% to 15% by 2030.”
•India’s first automated national-level gas trading platform was unveiled in June this year to promote and sustain an efficient and robust gas market and foster gas trading in the country.
•Coverage of CGD projects is being expanded to 232 geographical areas spread over 400 districts, with potential to cover about 53% of the country’s geography and 70% of population, Mr. Pradhan added.
•He also said, “We are adopting clean mobility solutions with greater use of LNG (liquefied natural gas) as a transportation fuel, including long-haul trucking. We plan to have 1,000 LNG fuel stations across the country.” This year, the country was able to fully fill all petroleum reserves with capacity of 5.33 million tonnes constructed at Visakhapatnam, Mangaluru and Padur.
•“We have [begun] the process of establishing another 6.5 MT commercial-cum-strategic petroleum storage facilities at Chandikol and Padur, under public-private partnership,” he added.
📰 What challenges do online classes pose?
Access, teaching skills and assessment are all challenging but there are ways they can be met
•With the pandemic forcing the teaching and learning process to migrate to the online mode, the education system has faced an upheaval like never before. This has posed several challenges to teachers and students in India. V. Madhurima and Gurumurthy Kasinathan discuss the challenges and possible solutions in a conversation moderated by Shubashree Desikan . Edited excerpts:
What are the key issues that teachers and students face? Are there solutions to these issues?
•V. Madhurima:For most teachers, shifting to online classes was rather sudden. With that move came a plethora of problems for which, for the most part, they had to find solutions by themselves. Ram Ramaswamy, Professor at IIT Delhi, mooted the idea of building a discussion forum for online teaching, which we have done. This acts as a virtual platform for teachers across India to interact and discuss specific issues. We conduct panel discussions and we have daily interactions through channels like Slack and Telegram. We conducted an anonymised pan-India survey among teachers. The respondents were primarily college teachers teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses, but we did have some school teachers.
•The first point to come up was the lack of appropriate devices such as graphics tablets and webcams for conducting classes online. The second was the lack of adequate Internet bandwidth. The third was the fact that [you had to] basically bring your own device and software, which meant that in order to ensure that the quality of education that they were imparting was consistent, the teachers had to invest their own personal money to create that ambience through online teaching. Also, the lack of copyrighted material that could be easily dispersed to all the students [came up as an issue].
•Gurumurthy Kasinathan:Infrastructure such as computer or Internet is expensive, and even a mobile phone costs Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000. If you’re talking about a solution for 1.6 million schools across the country, you are talking about something that is unaffordable. So, what we must understand is that it might work for only a very small percentage of elite institutions and communities. Research says this is around 10% or less. If the country believes that online education is the way forward, then 90% of the children are not a part of it. If education is a fundamental right, then the right to devices is included in that. On the one hand, we can’t rely on [online education] at this point in time. On the other, we must double up our efforts at making sure that it’s accessible to all.
What problems do students face?
•VM:I agree that only about 10% of the students are able to access education on a larger screen [laptop]. Nearly 70% of the students are typically attending classes on their mobile phones. It’s nearly impossible for them to stay attentive. Also, if, for example, the screen should break, they cannot even afford to mend it since family incomes have gone down. The mental stress that they’re undergoing because of this is very high. The tendency to drift off is high. And this is something that affects teaching on both sides — the students drift off, and the lack of audio-visual feedback from the students is problematic for the teacher. The home environment is not always conducive for students to learn — either because it’s very noisy or because it is sensitive: not all students can switch on their video, even if they have the bandwidth, as the domestic circumstances might not be something that they want to show.
•There are also some advantages. Shy students, those who wouldn’t respond in the classroom, are responding much better through non-verbal communication such as through chat.
•GK:If we think that education is a fundamental right, public provision is necessary. In this aspect, Kerala is a trailblazer, and other States can follow. Provisioning of hardware and connectivity are both very critical. But when it comes to school education, the common system predominantly caters to the marginalised groups and the poor in society. It is absolutely essential that we have to look beyond online education. At ‘IT for Change’, we are also trying to persuade governments that some limited opening [of schools] has to be there. If you can unlock shopping malls and temples, and allow celebrations of festivals and weddings, but are completely closing down schools...
•I think the school system will need a hybrid solution. Online education cannot replicate the chalk-and-talk methodologies that teachers follow. Innovation in pedagogy is key. The innovations required now have already been discussed in the National Curriculum Framework of 2005. They emphasised a change of pedagogy even before the pandemic, which is to make learning more meaningful for the children, engage them in the process of learning, give them ideas which they can apply to real life, and not let the classroom become completely cut off from reality.
How does digital education impact women and girls?
•GK:We are now changing our gaze from online education to digital education, which is a much broader canvas. In the last 15 years, we have worked with rural women from Dalit and other marginalised groups. We find that digital technologies can be greatly empowering, because one of the key things that they need is an empowering space. Empowerment happens when they come together and work together for a common interest. We started a community radio programme recently. We can actually have committed programmes because the connectivity requirements of those are fewer compared to online programmes.
•On the other hand, the digital space can be very dangerous. Our research shows that cybercrimes in terms of trolling, hate speech, cyberstalking and deceiving women are becoming extremely common. Public infrastructure in terms of regulatory frameworks is going to be absolutely essential in making sure that women feel safe to participate on social media. We are very far away from creating safe online spaces for women.
•VM:I agree completely. Though the fact that education can be done through mobile phones has been beneficial for many women, it is essential that we create a safe space. In homes where digital resources are scarce, girls are getting the short end of the stick. If a parent has to make a choice between giving the mobile phone to a son or a daughter, they seem to prefer giving it to the son. Also, for many women, hostels have been a safe haven from their sometimes violent homes. With the abrupt shutting down of colleges, they have lost that safety. The third thing that I’m seeing is that a few but not insignificant number of girls, especially from rural areas, since they are at home, are now being asked to get married and have children because teaching and learning is online. And I would add that in addition to women, I think the needs of the differently abled also have to be thought about. That’s something that has not been really been given enough attention.
How do you make online education interesting?
•VM:I think I would replace the word ‘interesting’ with ‘effective’ to start with because ‘interesting’ is three or four steps down the lane. How do we effectively communicate? The first thing is to have a multi-channel communication: in addition to having a video conference call, typically, it’s good to have WhatsApp or a second means kept open, so that if a student does not have bandwidth, he or she can still participate without feeling left out of the class. The second is a multi-modal dispersal of learning material. We have to give them audios and videos and written texts, so that they can download it at a later stage. We need to necessarily balance between a synchronous and asynchronous class. The online class should not be more than, say, 30-40 minutes. You must give back material to the students so that they actually feel that they’re sitting down and learning, but that hand-holding has to happen. From being in control of the class, the teacher’s role has to go to being a facilitator for the transfer of knowledge.
•Teachers also need to have a lot of flexibility and empathy. They have to remember that the students are going through a lot to attend these classes. And I feel that the benefit of doubt should always be given to the students. If they say that they can’t attend classes for some reason, believe them.
•Many of us can learn from theatre when it comes to communicating over a smaller screen. Small tips like dressing well go a long way. Speak loudly, articulate clearly. Voice modulation is something that none of us have learned. A monotonous voice can kill a colossal 20 minutes.
Speaking of colossal issues, there is the challenge of online assessment. How do you tackle that?
•GK:Portfolio assessment is one of the best ways of assessing students because when students are creating something based on their learning and understanding, it will give you a good sense of where their learning levels are. Whether it’s school or college, we encourage them to make things. Another important thing that we’ve been doing is teacher training. We teach a software that converts our computer to a graphing calculator, called GeoGebra. It works across school and colleges.
•VM:Before that, there are some points that have been raised that I want to re-emphasise. One is change in pedagogy, which is crucial. Also, training needs to be imparted both to teachers and students on how to handle an online platform. An online platform necessarily requires the students to be adult learners. So, training to be an adult learner is something that we have to impart to them. This also requires a change in syllabus — toning it down rather than focussing on completing it — and this is something we really need to pay attention to and as soon as possible.
•Online assessment is typically skill-based. So, it lends itself very easily to science subjects where you can have multiple choice questions or ask students to solve a problem and feed in a number. But online assessment for the humanities and social sciences, especially at the secondary and tertiary education levels, become very, very difficult. I don’t think we have a solution to this problem.
•Online assessment is conducive for formative assessment — when you’re checking whether the student has understood or not, it is okay. They are not conducive for summative as much as they are for formative assessment, which means we need to have a policy change where if we are going to be on online mode, we need to give more marks for continuous formative assessment. Also, how do you assess lab-based courses and fieldwork-based courses? I don’t think we have an answer to any of these questions.
•Online education has had a differentiated impact across educational levels and institutes, and between various student communities. We see that students are handling the situation with maturity and keeping up with their learning. If anybody had a doubt about how dedicated Indian teachers are, I think this is the time to look around. You will realise that they are there for the cause of teaching.
📰 In agri-reforms, go back to the drawing board
The intended beneficiaries often understand the realities of the systems better; policymakers need to build trust
•The purpose of agriculture reforms is to increase farmers’ incomes. Farmers want the laws (the Farm Bills) repealed. The Supreme Court of India has called for discussions between the government and farmers around the country. It is time to go back to the drawing board about the purpose and the process of agriculture reforms.
•Economists say fewer people must work on farms for farm productivity and incomes to be improved. Which begs the question how the millions displaced from farms will earn incomes. Indian industry is not growing much. There too, according to economists, humans should be replaced by technology for improving productivity.
Flip side of productivity
•Landholdings are too small for mechanisation to improve farm productivity, economists complain. Their solution is to ‘scale up’ farms. Since mechanisation requires standardisation of work, mechanised farming on scale requires monocropping. Large-scale specialisation upsets the ecological balance. Reduced diversity of flora enables pests to spread more easily; soil quality is reduced; water resources get depleted. Solutions to these new problems require more industrial inputs, with more costs for farmers. The deleterious side-effects of this approach to improve agriculture productivity are very visible in Punjab now. Farm incomes have grown there while water resources have depleted and soils have been damaged.
•In Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed , political scientist James C. Scott documents the history of ‘scientific forestry’ in Germany. The clearing out of other vegetation to plant a single variety of commercially useful tree in neatly spaced rows enabled mechanisation of timber production. However, the ecological imbalance made the trees more vulnerable to pests, and over time, the quality of the timber also reduced. Nature is a complex ‘self-adaptive’ system. It knows how to take care of itself. When Man tries to overpower Nature with his science and industry, without understanding how Nature functions, he harms Nature — and ultimately himself.
•Twenty-first century challenges of environmental degradation and increasing inequalities require that the economic calculus shifts from ‘economies of scale with standardisation’ to ‘economies of scope for sustainability’. This will make large-scale mechanisation more difficult. However, it will require the use of more ‘flexible’ human labour. In the long run, not only will this be good for the ecology, it will also increase employment and incomes for people in the lower half of the economic pyramid.
Market access
•Farm incomes can increase with access to wider markets for farm produce, which is an objective of the agricultural reforms. The fear of Indian farmers is that they will not have adequate pricing power when pushed into large supply systems and less regulated markets. Connections into global supply chains can increase volumes of sales. However, the terms of trade will always favour the larger players in the supply chains who have easier access to capital. In her book, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade , economist Pietra Rivoli reveals how small cotton farmers in Texas, unlike farmers in developing countries, became progressively richer as well as politically powerful in setting the rules of global trade. Texan farmers formed collectives to own upstream processing and marketing linkages when they joined global supply chains. Thus, they could obtain larger margins in trade. And their collective voice swayed national politicians.
Strengthen cooperatives
•Institutions for cooperative ownership and collective bargaining must be strengthened to give power to small farmers before opening markets to large corporations. The Indian dairy sector is a good example. Its ‘per person productivity is much lower than New Zealand and Australian dairy producers’. However, it provides millions of tiny producers with reasonable incomes which large-scale industrial dairy producers do not. Moreover, with its cooperative aggregation, the Indian dairy sector has also acquired political clout. It has compelled the Indian government to withstand pressure from trade economists who are urging it to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (of which New Zealand and Australia are members) to connect the Indian economy with larger supply chains.
•The problem of low incomes in India’s agriculture sector is a complex systems problem which cannot be solved by agriculture experts alone. Experts from many disciplines must collaborate to find systemic solutions. Also, the intended beneficiaries of the new policies must be included in the designing of the new policies right at the beginning. Often they understand the realities of systems better than experts do with their abstractions in mathematical equations of inputs, outputs, and productivity. When policymakers say ‘the people don’t get it’ after the policy is announced and the intended beneficiaries protest, it is an indication that the experts didn’t get it.
The reforms of the 1990s
•The stand-off in agriculture reforms, with farmers besieging the national capital demanding they be heard, has caused a flurry of discussions about democracy, consultation, and processes for economic reforms. Economists point, wistfully, to the firmness with which bold reforms were brought about in 1991, and how the government stood up to the ‘Bombay Club’ of industrialists who opposed them. They also complain that politics (and even democracy) comes in the way of good economics. This reveals an inadequate understanding of processes by which complex economic reforms are evolved.
•The immediate beneficiaries of the 1991 reforms were all Indian consumers, rich and poor, who would benefit from access to better quality products from around the world. The principal opponents of the reforms were a few large industrialists whose products citizens were not satisfied with. Governments have more power over a few industrialists than they have over the masses.
•With a stroke of the pen, policies could be changed in the early 1990s, the immediate benefits of which were clear to the masses. Hundreds of millions of citizens who hope to be beneficiaries of the ‘big ticket’ reforms, in agriculture, and in industry too, now want to earn better incomes, to earn enough to buy all the good stuff they have begun to aspire for, and even to make both ends meet. They cannot see how the bold reforms being pushed through will result in improvement of their incomes. A trickle down is promised. When will that ever happen, they ask?
•The 1991 reforms changed industrial licensing and trade policies — both subjects of the Union government. ‘Factor market’ reforms, in land, agriculture, and labour regulations, which are necessary to realise the full benefits of the 1991 reforms are State subjects in which States have jurisdiction too, and with good reason. They affect the lives of people on the ground, and differently, around the country. Therefore, the central government, no matter how strong it is, must not force these reforms onto the States.
Silo experts cannot help
•India’s policymakers must improve their expertise in solving complex, multi-disciplinary problems. They must apply the discipline of systems thinking, and not rely on siloed domain experts. Moreover, citizens around the country must be listened to at the very beginning, and throughout the evolution of policies; not communicated to at the end by experts who then complain that citizens are being misled by political forces.
•Prof. Mark H. Moore says, in Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government , “We might think of (the process of making policy) as helping to define rather than create public value. But this activity also creates value since it satisfies the desire of citizens for a well-ordered society, in which fair, efficient, and accountable public institutions exist.” Trust is essential for a well-governed society. The lesson for India’s leaders is: good processes for making public policies build trust between citizens and their governments.
