Modi, Xi sign off with pledge to ease strain

“There is a commitment on both sides to suggest to the two militaries that they need to ensure that existing confidence building measures and existing institutional mechanisms are utilised more effectively,” Gokhale said after the end of the two-day “milestone” summit.

Gokhale’s remarks were echoed by Kong, who told Chinese journalists: “The two countries also agreed to enhance military and security communication mechanisms.” He hinted at the possible setting up of a military hotline.

The i mplementation and strengthening of existing arrangements and informationsharing mechanisms by the militaries of the two countries will help “prevent and manage incidents in border regions”, the Indian side said.

“The two leaders expressed their support for the work of the Special Representatives on the India-china boundary question and urged them to intensify their efforts to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement,” Gokhale said.

The joint project in Afghanistan, the details of which were not i mmediately available, marks the first coordinated effort by New Delhi and Beijing in the war-ravaged country. It is unlikely to go down well with China’s close ally Pakistan, which has for long called for an end to India’s role in Afghanistan.

The informal nature of the summit meant Modi and Xi were not expected to talk specifics, but it was evident they had reached consensus on not allowing the festering border dispute to hijack ties.

To say the two countries reset their chequered ties over just two days of meetings would be an exaggeration, observers noted. But what the meetings seem to have done is inject a muchneeded shot of optimism into bilateral ties.

The focus on enhancing “strategic communication” indicates both India and China are looking at each other as potential partners.

And strengthening such communications will not remain limited to the military. Modi and Xi agreed on the need to “strengthen strategic communication through greater consultation on all matters of common interest”.

Expectedly, the talks involved Xi’s legacy venture, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but China appeared to have come to terms with India’s concerns over the mega-connectivity and transit project as it did not try to pressure New Delhi into joining it.

“China does not think it is important whether India accepts China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project and China won’t force it to,” Kong said, while briefing Chinese reporters.

Kong acknowledged t hat China and India have concrete differences but noted the “summit was not aimed at addressing these specific issues”. He also pointed out that Xi had said the problems between the two sides “are of a limited, temporary nature”.

Kong and Gokhale could well have been speaking in diplomatic tandem when talking about handling the differences.

“They [Modi and Xi] agreed that both sides have the maturity and wisdom to handle the differences through peaceful discussion within the context of the overall relationship, bearing in mind the importance of respecting each other’s sensitivities, concerns and aspirations,” Gokhale said.

He said the two leaders also recognised the “common threat posed by terrorism, and reiterated their strong condemnation of and resolute opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”. Gokhale added: “They committed themselves to cooperate on counter-terrorism.”

According to the Indian statement, Modi and Xi agreed on building an open, multi-polar and participatory global economic order and said peaceful and stable India-china ties will be positive for stability amid global uncertainties.

They also believed the informal summit offered an opportunity for free and candid exchanges and agreed on the utility of holding more such dialogues in future.

“We have information that three Maoists escaped after the Gadhchiroli encounter and the Maoists of the nearby areas are heading towards Bijapur and Kanker districts of Chhattisgarh,” said a Bastar-based Indian Police Service officer, who was not willing to be identified.

The IPS officer said the security forces are not giving any space for Maoists to counter-attack and special operations are underway in several districts of Bastar region, known to be a hotbed of the Maoists.

“Currently we are fighting a straight battle in both Bijapur and Sukma because we have information that Maoists are trying to congregate at several places after Gandhchiroli attack. Hence, engaging them is the best tactic and we have so far been successful,” said special director general (anti-naxal operations), DM Awasthi.

As part of operations, the security forces killed two Maoists in Duled area of south Sukma in a two-hour operation on Saturday morning. “So far, the bodies of two Maoists, including a woman, have been recovered along with 11 weapons,” said Sundarraj P, deputy inspector general of police (south Bastar range).

Separate teams of the District Reserve Guard (DRG), the Special Task Force (STF) and the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA), an elite unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), were carrying out combing operations in Sukma, located around 400 km from the state capital Raipur, for the past couple of days, he said.

Police officers familiar with the matter said intelligencebased operations have been launched at many places in Bijapur and south Sukma districts and that Saturday’s operation was a result of that.

In Sukma, the Maoist battalion is headed by Mandvi Hidma, who in March was said to be behind the deadly attack in which nine CRPF personnel were killed. The regional command committee of the Maoists in Bijapur is headed by Harishankar and Damodar.

“Both these armed battalion comprises more than 400 heavily armed Maoist cadre. During any major attack on security forces, they work together,” a police officer said.

Bloom’s taxonomy is a tool to help develop learning objectives, which are classified as cognitive, sensory and affective.

“It is recommended that at institution/ University level, upper limit need to be arrived for lower order skills (for example, no more than 40% weightage for knowledge oriented questions). It is important to note that, as nature of every course is different, the weightage for different cognitive levels in the question papers can also vary from course to course,” said the report, a copy of which has been reviewed by Hindustan Times.

The concept of open book examination has been proposed to overcome the deficiencies of traditional written examinations, which the committee said often tend to encourage rote learning and superficial application of knowledge.

According to the report, such exams are particularly useful in testing skills in application, anal- ysis and evaluation. “Open book examination is similar to time constrained written examinations but designed in a way that allows students to refer to either class notes, textbooks, or other approved material while answering questions so they are less demanding on memory and hence less stressful, questions can emphasise on problem solving, and higher order thinking,” it said.

“However, in a programme, the courses or the curriculum areas that are best suited to an open book exam are to be carefully chosen,” it said.

According to the report, while examinations/student assessments play a critical role in deciding the quality of education, the academic quality of examinations and question papers in Indian engineering education system has been a matter of concern for a long time.

Some of the measures suggested by the committee include introducing educational experiences to teach and assess professional outcomes including openended experiments in laboratories and project-based learning modules, mini/minor projects, internship experiences among others.

“A wide range of assessment methods (example; term papers, open ended problem solving assignments, course/lab project rubrics, portfolios) need to be employed to ensure that assessment methods match with learning outcomes,” it said.