-The Hindu Evidence of significant disparity in access to online schooling during COVID-19 Schools across the country have now been closed for six months due to COVID-19, but this means vastly different things for different people. For the child in urban Himachal Pradesh, where Internet penetration is higher than 70%, it likely means online schooling, Zoom classes and digital textbooks. For the child in rural Odisha, where less than 6% of households...
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27% Central school kids have no phone, laptop to access classes: Study
-The Indian Express According to the survey, about 28 per cent of a total of 35,000 students, teachers, principals and parents cited intermittent and lack of power as a major hindrance. ABOUT 27 per cent of students don’t have Smartphones and laptops to access online classes amid the Covid school shutdown. But among those who do, most find online learning either “joyful” or “satisfactory”, although mathematics and science are the toughest to...
More »The myth of India’s import dependence -Rathin Roy
-Business Standard/ NIPFP In the wake of the growing military tension on the India-China border, there have been calls for boycott of Chinese products. These have little impact on strategic reality. Equally, the plea that India cannot afford to do without Chinese imports is not a truism. If bilateral tensions escalate, then there may be a scenario in which India and China cease to trade. How would the Indian economy be hit...
More »How not to tame the digital dragon -Apar Gupta
-The Hindu The arbitrary ban on 59 web services undermines legal processes and democratic norms Earlier this week, on June 29, a dramatic press release was issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) directing a ban on 59 smartphone applications, many of them web services. This includes TikTok, a popular social media platform; the UC Browser, a preferred web browser for low budget Smartphones; and CamScanner, which is used...
More »Ahead of Census, new question: What cereal do you consume? -Harikishan Sharma
-The Indian Express The exercise — Houselisting Operations of Census 2021 — will also seek data, for the first time, on Smartphones, piped gas connections and mobile numbers. Amid fears expressed by the Opposition and states such as West Bengal and Kerala over the National Population Register (NPR), the government Thursday notified another pre-Census exercise that will seek new information on household consumption, including the use of cereals. The exercise — Houselisting Operations...
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