India’s first coral garden to be set up in Gujarat

In an effort to protect numerous coral species at one place and to enhance tourismin the state, the country’s first ‘Coral garden’ will be set up at Mithapur coastal region of Devbhoomi-Dwarka district in Gujarat, which will conserve coral species. Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) have inked a MoU to set up the first of its kind coral garden. The project will be financed by the Gujarat forest department as WTI has inked a broader MoU with the state also.

As per the project plan of the Mithapur Coral garden, the reef will be divided into several divisions where nearly all the coral species will be made accessible at one place. It would be beneficial not only for education and tourism, but also for refurbishment of the reef.

Tourists will be able to view the beauty of corals as the authorities intend to have wading, snorkeling, diving, representative pool, jetty and boat anchoring areas in it.

Getting real about jihadi terror

India cannot afford to be oblivious to the growing danger from jihadi terror outfits because of the implications for its domestic stability. Tackling this calls for monitoring cadre mobilisation, ensuring better security preparedness and mobilising religious leadership in fostering harmony

U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent television address, on a strategy to combat the violence and influence unleashed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) couldn’t have come a day or a moment too soon. What he said may not have been spectacular or path-breaking in its content, but the categorical announcement of all-out air strikes in the affected areas reveal a steely resolve to destroy the monster that the terrorist outfit — a splinter group from the al-Qaeda — has become.

Both Mr. Obama and the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, are under great stress following the phenomenal rise of ISIS. They are bewildered by the complexity and the way in which it has shaped itself. Outsmarting the parent outfit, al-Qaeda, in just a few years of its existence, ISIS has shown itself to be even more brutal and acutely driven by a fundamentalism that ostensibly strives for a Caliphate, whatever such a body means. With a cadre strength of about 10,000 it seems to have the resources — control over a few towns in Syria and Iraq as also some oilfields — and the determination to hold on to its gains against the odds. Its achievements have been spectacular and have lured many away from the al-Qaeda, whose presence in the region could become nominal if the trend continues.

Mobilisation trends

There is now unassailable evidence that ISIS has managed to draw substantial support from highly motivated youth. What is even more serious is the arrival into Syria and Iraq of an estimated 1,000 young men from abroad, especially the United States and the United Kingdom. This is however not something new. We do know of how a large number of youth from the West became fascinated by the al-Qaeda in the late 1990s and in the days following 9/11, with many even having received training in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One sees a revival of the trend after a short lull following the liquidation of bin Laden in 2011. Only very few countries, including those in Africa and Asia, can be blind to this sinister development because of its serious implications for their own domestic stability.

What should be of great concern to India is the report of the body of an Indian youth — Arif Majeed, an engineering student from Maharashtra — having been found recently in Mosul, Iraq. The son of a doctor from Kalyan, he is said to have gone to Iraq sometime ago, along with three of his friends, presumably on a jihadist mission. There is no news yet of what happened to the other three. This report confirms the existence of the regular movement of youth from India to the Middle East on religious-cum-terrorist pursuits. This again should not come as a surprise to our intelligence and law-enforcement officials. An investigation of the activities of the Indian Mujahedeen (IM) in the past few years has shown that some young men, especially from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, had been drawn to the cause and were maintaining contacts outside the country. The IM’s role in terrorist adventures, inspired by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), is all too well known for us to ignore the dangerous implications of this on our national security.

Challenge before intelligence

It is in this context that we need to know whether there is the possibility of a link between the IM and ISIS. This is a real challenge before the IB and State intelligence agencies. At this stage, this proposition could seem preposterous, but the evolving picture is one of many such dangerous possibilities. Our intelligence agencies are no doubt sharp and clued in. The IB, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the State police should get their act together to monitor the situation and take follow-up action. Unfortunately, the weakest link is the police, especially in the form of police stations. With the exception of a few States, the priorities and preoccupation of the police have been skewed, with the accent on perpetuating the fortunes of the ruling dispensation, rather than in taking care of public security.

State of preparedness

What is crucial is to keep an eye on all those travelling to the troubled Middle East region and their purpose of visit. This exercise could lead to some harassment of those who have genuine business to undertake in the area, but this should be no ground for lowering our vigil. We have a new National Security Adviser who knows his job well. His forte is counter-terrorism against religious fundamentalism, and this gives us some optimism that important happenings will not be missed out.

 “Every taxpaying citizen is entitled to information on how his contribution to the government treasury is being utilised towards enhancing his safety” 

On the negative side however is the poor track record of our State intelligence and police agencies. We have had far too many incidents of terror in our major cities since the 9/11 attack for us to be confident that our law enforcement agencies will be able to thwart any IM-LeT-ISI-ISIS joint manoeuvre to disturb peace in India. Memories of the 26/11 attack on Mumbai have not faded away either and should serve as a reminder to avoid repeating the mistakes that were glaring then. Both the Union Home Ministry and the Maharashtra government have no doubt been sensitive enough to beef up the manpower and equipment needs of the Mumbai police. Some evidence is available to prove that these steps have strengthened the capabilities of the city police substantially. Notwithstanding these steps, there is still a sense of unease that the mindset of the average policeman at the forefront remains unchanged. Also, till a few years ago, the politicisation of the force and a more than sly appeasement of rival religious groups within and outside the police were rampant. This undermined professionalism in tackling both conventional crime and terror. Acts such as taking out processions in defiance of prohibitory orders and inflammatory speeches capable of inciting religious bigotry in Mumbai shockingly went unpunished in the name of sheer political expediency. Nothing could be worse for policing at grass-roots level. Things have improved, but only slightly. This is no guarantee however that major terrorist designs will be unearthed in quick time and defeated.

Training in handling new equipment is another grey area. In our view, there is a need for greater transparency in this area. Every taxpaying citizen is entitled to information on how his contribution to the government treasury is being utilised towards enhancing his safety. There is nothing wrong in a government being more forthcoming in sharing details with the community on the state of our security preparedness. The obsession with secrecy in this area that we often see is odd.

Pro-active steps

Trickles of information emanating from some parts of the country point to sections of our youth being indoctrinated by propaganda from the Middle East. Media material such as compact discs with material that indirectly provokes religious animosity have come to notice. This is disturbing. There is at least one report that speaks of ISIS using the Internet to disseminate pernicious ideology and training material. This is vividly reminiscent of the days when the al-Qaeda was active. There is only a little that we can do to prevent the propagation of mischief in cyberspace. What we can certainly do is to use the same medium to counter false propaganda.

There is substantial and credible leadership in religious communities across the nation. In the context of the al-Qaeda’s recent announcement of the setting up of a branch in the subcontinent, all religious groups must sink their dogmatism and petty differences and take up this momentous challenge at a time when India faces immense danger from terrorism. The objective should be to fight prejudice and violence, and promote inter-religion harmony and understanding. The police are as well equipped as the general administration in fighting terror. They must be active in this regard.

We are happy that the Mumbai police and a few other law enforcement agencies are using social media to disseminate public safety information. The same medium can be employed effectively to counter vicious terrorist propaganda that is unabashedly sectarian. Or else we could face a repeat of 26/11 and all that emanated from it.

The impact of institutional decay

If the new government at the Centre wishes to improve the state of education, institutional recovery will have to be its topmost priority. Other reforms can wait. Universities and undergraduate colleges determine the quality of teachers at all levels from kindergarten upwards

Starting with the latter half of the 19th century, many Indian students went overseas in pursuit of higher education. Some of them later became leaders of the freedom movement. This trend continued after the turn of the century. Gandhi and Nehru studied in England, Ambedkar went to the United States and Lohia and Zakir Hussain acquired their doctoral degrees in Germany. Even today, we notice that thousands of some of our best students go abroad in pursuit of higher education and never return. Not all of them are driven by the attraction of a foreign degree. Before it brings them better income and status, it is the opportunity to study abroad that provides them a more satisfying experience of learning and research than is available in India. It is not merely the personal consequences of having one’s higher education abroad, but also its experience that differs rather sharply from what is available in India.

‘Politics of waiting’

The gap between our universities and those in Europe and North America began to narrow in some cases by the 1980s, but the 1990s reversed the trend. Established policies were ignored, and a new ideology took over. Even as the industrial policy shifted away from quota-permit-inspection raj, the system of education used precisely these means to regulate the burgeoning private-commercial sector. This attempt met with failure and corruption in all areas of professional higher education, including engineering, medicine and teacher training.

Institutional decay is a common, national story, but its details differ from State to State. Not one of our 700 universities figures in the list of institutions adjudged the best in the world. This list includes not just the American, European, Australian and Japanese universities, but also some in China, South Africa and even Malaysia. India’s absence in global educational rankings is usually seen as a national embarrassment, but that is hardly the point. What ought to concern us is the impact that institutional decay has on the young. An Ambedkar, a Ramanujan or a Jagadish Chandra Bose hidden in a young mind today would need an American or a European university to identify and nurture it. Let us imagine that such a young person returns to India after completing a doctoral degree. The first thing he or she would have to worry about is getting through the National Eligibility Test (NET) organised twice a year by the University Grants Commission (UGC). This notorious test cannot be negotiated without a lot of cramming. Qualifying in it is an essential condition to get the job of a lecturer (now renamed as assistant professor). Even if the young person we are contemplating manages to qualify in the NET, the challenge of getting a teaching position still remains. In all likelihood, he or she will get an ad hoc position, with a fixed salary and no rights or dignity. Ad hoc teachers cannot freely present their views in staff meetings as their contract is to be renewed every four or six months. They usually teach a lot more than permanent staff, yet they cannot borrow books from a library without a hefty security deposit. An ad hoc appointment can last for years, and it can make the most positive young mind cynical. The “politics of waiting” analysed by Craig Jeffrey in his book on educated unemployment in India is actually quite damaging, both to individuals and to society.

Deprived of dignity

You can find any number of young men and women across the country who have been teaching for years in vulnerable positions known by various names like “temporary,” “contractual,” “ad hoc” or “guest.” They keep waiting for permanent vacancies to be advertised, but in many parts of India, such advertisements are now a thing of the past. In any case, getting a permanent or tenure post in an Indian university now implies managing a highly complex constellation of favourable factors. These include patronage, contacts, a desirable social background and luck. To these, the UGC has added a maze of quantifiable points. This remarkable device offers the same score whether you publish your work in bogus journals or genuine ones. The same applies when it comes to participation in seminars. Despite all the song and dance of transparency and accountability, the basic processes of selection and appointment are usually quite earthly. It is no wonder then that courts are dragged into giving a stay on appointments so frequently. The difficulties and delays faced in the process of selection and appointments have destroyed the careers of tens of thousands of capable young people. Hundreds of universities and thousands of colleges have also been wrecked in the process.

 The difficulties and delays faced in the process of selection and appointments of teachers have destroyed the careers of tens of thousands of capable young people. Hundreds of universities and thousands of colleges have also been wrecked in the process 

Downsizing trend

In both higher and school education, the trend to downsize permanent staff started in the early 1990s. Economic reforms formed the background of this trend. Long before the Fifth Pay Commission explicitly ordered a reduction in posts, the process of recruitment of teachers had either been stopped or drastically modified in many States. Apparently, contractual hiring of teachers and reduction of support staff were perceived as a convenient means of meeting the fiscal crisis in many States. Once the number of low-paid, vulnerable teachers grew, they became politically useful for rival political parties and union leaders. Both these processes were quite visible across northern India. In Madhya Pradesh, lecturers have not been recruited since 1993. New courses of various types have been launched, and they are being taught by guest or ad hoc teachers. States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh have followed this trend. In a puzzling case, Delhi University decided to juxtapose its launch of a new four-year undergraduate course with a tacit ban on permanent appointments. The number of ad hoc teachers in Delhi now stands at the astonishing figure of 4,000. At the school level too, Delhi now boasts of 20,000 guest or contract teachers. But Madhya Pradesh has gone farther than any other State to downgrade its teacher workforce. School staff recruited before the 1990s were declared a “dying cadre,” and a new spectrum of low-paid contract teachers replaced it. Political change aroused hope among this new vulnerable cadre, but the policy did not change. Madhya Pradesh was once respected for its robust public system of higher and school education; it now tops national rankings for rape.

Cultural wealth

Education signifies cultural wealth. This wealth consists of thoughtful minds and an ethos shaped by an exchange of ideas, the reading of books and creative activities. The happiness of teachers forms the centre of such an ethos. By denigrating the teacher, India has damaged what capacity its system of education had for producing and conserving cultural wealth. Decay of libraries has contributed to this process. Schools in our country seldom have libraries, but many provincial colleges once boasted of rich, usable libraries. I recall visiting Allahabad’s famous Ewing Christian College as part of an inspection team and discovering to my horror that its famous library had been partitioned. The old collection was locked up; the part accessible to students mostly had guidebooks. Public libraries have also suffered neglect.

The once-prestigious Delhi Public Library is now a shadow of its past glory, with nearly half of its permanent posts lying vacant. Perhaps libraries no more qualify to be a priority in Indian universities and colleges. Adroit planners have endorsed its neglect and shifted the focus to e-resources. These resources are, of course, important, but they cannot substitute the ethos a library creates. In countries ahead of us in education, the maintenance of the library as a special place is regarded as key to inducting the young into a community of knowledge.

If the new government at the Centre wishes to improve the state of education, institutional recovery will have to be its topmost priority. Other reforms can wait. Universities and undergraduate colleges determine the quality of teachers at all levels from kindergarten upwards. No matter where we look, non-appointment has become a culture. Enrolment has increased while institutional capacity has diminished. Even in the richer southern States like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, commercial and political interests have injured the quality of education. If money has indeed been saved by letting vacancies accumulate or by filling them cheaply and by cutting down support staff, this kind of saving has incurred a big price. What has India gained by doing this kind of saving? It has weakened the already limited capacity the system had for serving children. Had Dr. Radhakrishnan — whose name we invoke to honour the profession of teaching — been alive, he would have been startled to see how the nation has treated its teachers.

Outreach plans for scientists

The decision of the Union Minister of Science and Technology to tap the talent pool of about 6,000 scientists from institutions and centres that come under the umbrella of the Department of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to give lectures to school and college students is a good initiative. Scientists dedicating 12 hours a year each to engage with students to impart scientific knowledge and inculcate a scientific temper in them is bound to go a long way in attracting young talent to science and grooming them. This is a much-needed step as India, like several other countries, faces an alarming situation of steadily decreasing numbers of school students opting for science, and a lack of long-term interest among those who have chosen it. While the intent behind the initiative is good, a coordinated approach by different Ministries would be more effective in achieving the goal. Not involving scientists from the 32 institutions of the Indian Council of Medical Research and similar nodal bodies is unjustified. The lapse becomes all the more glaring as the outreach programmes are to be made mandatory and scientists’ performance is to be evaluated once every three years. As it stands, the initiative could cause resentment among the 6,000 scientists as their counterparts in institutions that come under other nodal agencies face no such compulsions. The government should act swiftly to ensure that all the scientists working in government institutions become involved in student outreach programmes. The metrics of their performance can be used to reward them while assessing their research proposals and promotions.

Several institutions and individuals in the U.S. engage in student outreach programmes and India has a great deal to learn from their experience. We should make sure that as we belatedly embark on this ambitious goal, we conscientiously avoid committing the same mistakes that have been seen elsewhere. The first and foremost pitfall to be avoided is compelling scientists to teach science by replacing teachers. Teaching should be made active rather than passive. Excellent results can be achieved when scientists guide students and teachers to do real science that is open-ended, inquiry-based and driven by a sense of exploration — which only scientists are best-equipped to offer. This will foster critical thinking and imagination and impart skills of scientific investigation. Also, it will arouse children’s curiosity and set off a series of questions prior to, during and after a project. Information and knowledge thus gained remain indelible, and science becomes fun. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s work of guiding students from a handful of engineering colleges to build satellites, which were eventually launched, is one of the best examples of imaginative student outreach programmes.

Union Ministry of Science & Technology announces “KIRAN” scheme for Women Scientists

The Union Ministry of Science & Technology also announced KIRAN (Knowledge, Involvement, Research, Advancement through Nurturing) for women scientists –A unique advertising scheme to bring about, as far as possible, gender equality in the field of science and technology.

Objectives:-

1. To increase the number of women researchers in India.
2. Provide Research grants particularly to those female researchers and technologists who had to take a break in career owing to household reasons.
3. Bring about, as far as achievable, gender parity in the field of science and technology.

The scholarships will be provided under three categories-

1. For those women linked in research work in basic or applied sciences with any central or state level organization or university
2. For those women scientists involved in research and application of innovative solutions for several social problems
3. For those researchers who are self-employed.

Under the scheme, the Union Ministry of Science & Technology will build leadership positions for women. Such a scheme would be beneficial for women who face unavoidable interruptions in their careers owing to numerous reasons.

New climate treaty should reflect reality

While accepting Common But Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR), the world should look to a new climate treaty which is binding but also reflect the ground realities, according to Connie Hedegaard, Commissioner for Climate Action, European Commission, on Friday.

At a media interaction, Ms. Hedegaard said the world was changing and a new treaty could have a differentiated approach to different emerging economies.

“The first thing we need is to have a more constructive and “unideological” way of discussing that,” she pointed out.

In the run-up to the Copenhagen climate conference, more than 90 countries made their own climate targets.

Europe has never been afraid of binding treaties because that is in line with its tradition.

Advocating a hybrid approach, which involves a bottom-up and a top-down approach, Ms. Hedegaard said, “there is a gap which is not closing on what we say we want to achieve and what is achieved globally.”

Unprecedented emission

Recent figures show that the world has not seen such an increase in emissions like it did last year and those who are afraid of binding treaties should come up with credible alternatives that make the world convinced that when countries leave the negotiating table in Paris with stated intentions, they will be delivered over the years.

Merely having nice intentions is not enough, she remarked.

She said CBDR was a big controversial issue but not the only one at arriving a global consensus - issues of finance, technology and others would also dominate talks.

CBDR cannot be discussed in a black and white manner and based on the 1992 situation. Then the divisions were clear that developed countries must commit to cutting emissions but now we need to evolve a way where growth development and climate change can go hand in hand, she said.

Europe wants a strong agreement for Paris and the world is getting impatient and citizens are feeling the human and economic impact of climate change, she added.

“In Europe we have an example to show as since 1990 we had an increase in GDP of 45 per cent while reducing emissions between 18 and 19 per cent during the same period. You would see the decoupling of growth and emissions,” she said.

On September 23, 28 heads of states in the European Union will adopt new targets for Europe, a 40 per cent cut in emissions domestically by 2030, in addition to aiming at 27 per cent of all energy consumption from renewables and a 30 per cent energy efficiency.

India’s Arctic observatory to aid climate change studies

Deep in the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean, an Indian observatory is quietly churning out data that is expected to help scientists understand the Arctic climate process and its influence on the Indian monsoon system.

The deployment of IndARC, the country’s first underwater moored observatory in the Kongsfjorden fjord, half way between Norway and the North Pole, represents a major milestone in India’s scientific endeavours in the Arctic region, says Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Designed and developed by scientists from the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO), National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) and Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), IndARC was deployed from RV Lance, a research vessel belonging to the Norwegian Polar Institute on July 23.

The observatory is anchored at a depth of 192 m and has an array of 10 state-of-the-art oceanographic sensors strategically positioned at various depths in the water. Speaking to The Hindu during a recent visit to the city, Dr. Nayak said the sensors were programmed to collect real- time data on seawater temperature, salinity, ocean currents and other vital parameters of the fjord.

The Kongsfjorden is considered a natural laboratory for studying the Arctic climate variability. Scientists predict that melting of the Arctic glaciers will trigger changes in weather patterns and ocean currents that could affect other parts of the world.

“The interaction between the Arctic ice shelf and the deep sea and its influence on climate shift requires detailed studies over an annual seasonal cycle”, explained Dr. Nayak. “One of the major constraints in such a study has been the difficulty in reaching the location to collect data during the harsh Arctic winter. The IndARC observatory is an attempt to overcome this lacuna.”

He added that data collected by IndARC would be used for climate modelling studies to understand the influence of the Arctic processes on the Indian monsoon system