New course added under HRD min’s SWAYAM prog

Another ‘massive online and open course’ (MOOC) on ‘Contemporary themes in India’s Economic Development and the Economic Survey’ will be added to the 380-odd free courses already available under the SWAYAM programme initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in association with the University Grants Commission (UGC).

The course, a teachers training workshop and course designed by chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian, was inaugurated at IIT Delhi by finance minister Arun Jaitley and MHRD minister Prakash Javdekar.

The course, which saw its first class about ‘Global and Indian Economic History’ being conducted on Sunday, will be available as a MOOC on the SWAYAM portal, accessible to all.

SWAYAM, Study Webs of Active-learning for Young Aspiring Minds, is a government initiative that hopes to provide quality free education online to all Indian residents and has been active for close to a year now.

“Until now we had heard of ATMs; any time money. This is ATL, any time learning, anywhere learning, forever learning” said Javdekar, while addressing the event at IIT Delhi.

The quest for cash, Lakshmi Narayan Viswakarma said, had pushed farmers deeper into debt.

“At harvest, everyone rushes to sell so they can pay back their loans,” he said, explaining that money lenders lend at 2% per month, or 24% a year, and settle all accounts in cash. Those who can’t pay, like farmer Dinesh Patidar, are forced to sell their land.

“But land prices have halved, from ₹5 lakh per bigha, to ₹2.5 lakh per bigha,” said Patidar, whose son Abhishek, was killed in the firing, “After notebandi, no one has the cash to buy land.”

Across the road from Patidar’s home, traders said the note-ban had destroyed them as well.

“The farmers demanded cash, but the government tied our hands,” said Ghatiya, the soybean trader. “Some cheques bounced because of a spelling mistake, the farmers felt we were cheating them.”

Trader credit had dried up as well, reducing each trader’s purchasing power.

“A lot of chit-fund money finds its way into the agricultural markets,” explained a pulse trader, “That completely vanished this year, so traders couldn’t buy as much as they usually do.”

As a result, unsold produce started piling up in the market, and the price of all crops – onions, coriander, garlic, pulses – crashed.

“The price-crash has affected us as well,” said Ghatiya, “The value of the stocks in our godowns has fallen too.”

This spiral of currency shortage and falling prices, traders and farmers agreed, meant the market was on edge even before the protests began on June 1 this year. So when agitated farmers and nervous traders got into an argument on June 5, the violence quickly escalated.

“One the one hand you had gun-powder, on the other hand a match,” said a senior police officer, “All you needed was a spark.” separate Gorkhaland state.

“In the coming days, police might arrest many more activists – aggravating an already tense situation. This is why we have asked tourists to leave,” he said. The regional party had earlier kept the hospitality and tourism sectors out of the purview of the indefinite strike in view of the ongoing tourist season.

The government, however, is determined to foil the bandh at any cost. The order signed by West Bengal secretary PA Siddiqui clearly states that any leave of absence taken by a government employee without prior approval from higher authorities or documentary proof of incapacitation during this period will be treated as ‘dies mon’ – which means break of service with no pay for that day. The employee will also receive a show cause notice from the state government, and those failing to respond will be subject to disciplinary action.

The Trinamool Congress, which managed to win the May 14 election in the Mirik municipality, hopes to make a mark in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) polls later this year. The GJM, on the other hand, is desperate to retain its hold over all the 45 GTA seats it won in 2012.

Asok Bhattacharya, CPI(M) legislator and mayor of the Siliguri municipal corporation, said the situation in the hills has worsened due to Banerjee’s lack of understanding of the Gorkha identity. “Though the chief minister was successful in establishing peace in the hills immediately after she came to power in 2011, she then went on to make one blunder after another,” he added.

The SC had set up a committee of judges in January to bring about uniformity in the process of recruitment of judges to lower courts. On April 8, government and the judiciary representatives held a meeting on the issue. The meeting was chaired by Justice Adarsh Goel, who heads the Arrears Committee, in which alternative methods of recruitment were discussed.

Seven states, including BJPruled Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh, have opposed the formation of an all-India judicial service either in totality or in the form proposed by the centre. The all-India judicial service plan was first proposed in the 1960s but has been left hanging due to lack of convergence between the states, the Centre and the higher judiciary. The Centre has used the issue vacancies in the lower judiciary to point out that the current system of recruitment is lacking and needs reform.

Law ministry sources point out that a bulk of the pending three crore cases in the country is in the lower courts. “Poorer litigants are directly affected by this pendency, it is necessary to fill these vacancies at the earliest,” a top official remarked. The letter has been sent to the states for their response, sources said.

Consequently, last year saw approximately 500 chase-andchallan prosecutions every day.

Traffic officers said the squad’s winding down does not come at a cost to road safety.

On the contrary, prosecutions have gone up and the number of fatal accidents reduced, an official said.

Compared to 34 lakh total challans issued in 2015, the number of prosecutions last year jumped by 18 %. This year, till May, 26 lakh motorists have been booked — almost double the number in the same period last year.

Cops are now coordinating better, noting down violators’ registration number and radioing their colleagues at the next checkpoint.

“Chasing was never a good idea. There are lot of safer options such as using cameras that can detect registration numbers of vehicles. Chases should be limited to the police catching more dangerous criminals who can’t be allowed to escape,” says Rohit Baluja, head of Institute of Road Traffic Education.

Globally acclaimed for mentoring students drawn from underprivileged sections of the society, Super 30 has so far sent 396 students to IITs in a journey extending over 15 years.

Coaching institutes in Rajasthan’s Kota also found reason to celebrate, with at least 40 enrollees finding a place in the JEE Advanced top 100 list. Five of their students, including Suraj Yadav (AIR 5) and Saurav Yadav (AIR 6), also figured in the top 10.

He added that the tax reform cannot be implemented in an ad hoc manner and that deferring implementation by a month will be helpful.

Jaitley said the overall weighted average of all tax rates decided by the Council is significantly lower than the rates people are paying today. “Therefore, there would be an adverse revenue impact if other things remain equal. But we are also hoping for revenue buoyancy and a check on inflation that GST will ensure so as to make up for that loss,” said the minister.