-The Indian Express We have long ignored the vital role public educational institutions play as exemplary sites of social inclusion and relative equality. In Indian conditions, this role is arguably even more important than the scholastic role. The current craze for online education (OE) reminds me of the wall graffiti advertising sex clinics that are visible across urban north India. These ads promise guaranteed cures — shartiya ilaj — for all kinds...

A recent survey conducted by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) -- a Delhi-based non-profit organisation -- shows how persons with disabilities in the country were disproportionately affected by the COVID–19 crisis. The report by NCPEDP has observed that persons with disabilities, particularly those from economically deprived sections, went through severe hardship during the lockdown. Without sufficient access to food or money, many of them faced hunger...

-The Indian Express A few people are attempting novel ways of defrauding innocents using information and technology. Money is being siphoned off using fake accounts and exploiting vulnerabilities of various applications. The COVID-19 outbreak presents a global challenge not just for the medical fraternity and society, but for law enforcement agencies also. Cyber crime, like a pandemic, knows no state borders. A few people are attempting novel ways of defrauding innocents using...

-The Indian Express Home Ministry New Lockdown Guidelines: Under the revised guidelines, a list of things that is allowed during the extended nationwide lockdown till May 3 Home Ministry New Lockdown Guidelines: A day after extending the lockdown to May 3, the government Wednesday released revised guidelines under which activities like agriculture, Information Technology, e-commerce and movement of trucks and goods carriers will be allowed from April 20 to “mitigate hardships to...

-Newslaundry.com It’s a repository of public datasets on Indian agriculture and socioeconomic indicators and, going forward, on financial inclusion and rural development. Data, they say, is the new oil. It undergirds much of the modern economy and, increasingly, the polity. There’s hardly a socioeconomic sector that big data doesn’t drive today, from the cutting edge of scientific research and technology to the mundane chore of buying groceries. The sheer volume of...