EXCELLENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-nvO5bWPTQ National Conference on "Excellence in Higher Education" Loyola College Chennai  Dec 19, 2018

Everything Has Been Lost for Germany! Massive Layoffs and the Onset of a Lifetime Economic Crash" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oKvs2mGmDA Nov 29, 2023 Everything Has Been Lost for Germany! Massive Layoffs and the Onset of a Lifetime Economic Crash"

Internal issues include an aging population, an old-fashioned industrial model, and recent data showing a decline in manufacturing, with industrial production dropping for five consecutive months.

Germany's energy policies, such as phasing out coal and nuclear energy, have led to high energy prices, impacting the economy. Major companies, including pharmaceutical and automotive players, are making significant job cuts due to economic problems.

The challenges faced by the German car industry, including competition from Chinese electric cars, Biden's incentives for low carbon manufacturing in the U.S., and issues with paperwork, expensive electricity, and declining orders, have prompted many companies to consider investing elsewhere, potentially leading to a technical recession and a disruptive court decision on government spending.

Tapovan Vishnugad: NTPC project at the heart of Joshimath crisis https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/tapovan-vishnugad-hydropower-plant-ntpc-project-at-the-heart-of-joshimath-crisis/article66386447.ece  by Himanshu TakarJan 26, 2023
Were thorough geological, geophysical, and geotechnical studies done before sanctioning the project?

On January 13, following Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sharing its findings about the sinking of Joshimath, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) working under Union Home Minister Amit Shah issued an order asking all agencies to refrain from sharing any findings about the Joshimath crisis till an expert committee gave its report. This is unfortunate. An expert committee including NDMA, National Institute of Disaster Management, Geological Survey of India (GSI), Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, and Central Building Research Institute, among others, is investigating the cause of the disaster. The engagement of some of these institutes (e.g. GSI) in this committee amounts to conflict of interest since they were also involved in the sanctioning of the Tapovan Vishnugad project.

हेडलाइन से हिमालय ग़ायब | Himalayas and Uttarakashi tunnel rescue  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vIHbLvLxp4 
Nov 30, 2023 Many people deserve congratulations for the successful mission of Silkyara Tunnel. The role of the machine was as much as that of humans, as much that of the administration, from the rat miners to the people who came from Australia with their experiences and kept trying. But amidst all this it is important to understand the geography of Uttarakhand and the complexity of the Himalayas. The media coverage of the success of the rescue work of Silkyara Tunnel is showing that even the Himalayas are helpless in front of it. Nobody is worried about him. We have to learn to differentiate between disaster and disaster management. Who will work so hard? There is no hero in sight while talking on these questions. On the contrary, you start seeing him as a villain.

Uttarkashi tragedy: Meet the magical rat-hole miners who pulled off the rescue https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/uttarkashi-tragedy-meet-the-magical-rat-hole-miners-who-pulled-off-the-rescue/cid/1983496 Piyush Srivastava Lucknow Published 30.11.23
The 12 rat-hole miners took turns to work like this inside the pipe from 7.15pm on Monday to 6.30pm on Tuesday to clear the last barrier of 8-10 metres of debris to bring out the workers trapped for 16 days

Work by water researchers, including in the IPCC and the UN’s World Water Development Report 2020, has shown that changes in global water cycles are the bearers of much of climate change’s bad news. As the planet warms – due mostly to the energy sector – we are already witnessing the effects of too much or too little water at the wrong place and time.

https://science.thewire.in/environment/opinion-is-water-sectors-uncomfortable-knowledge-missing-at-cop28/ 

Water is life, but unfortunately, the global water community has been slow to provide its own unique response to climate change. They have chosen instead to play second fiddle to fossil fuel mitigation efforts, and to adapt to open-ended consequences when those measures fail to keep global temperature rise below the levels of absolute disaster. This is reflected in global multilateral accords such as the Paris Agreement, which have stressed reducing emissions, a task assigned largely to the energy sector, while the role of the water sector in dealing with both emissions and climate change impacts has occupied a much smaller space.

by Dipak Gyawali

28/11/2023

While embracing technological advancements, it is imperative not to compromise offline systems that have traditionally served as a lifeline for those with limited digital access.

https://thewire.in/government/navigating-pm-kisan-a-deep-dive-into-digital-challenges-faced-by-farmers 

 We discuss the obstacles encountered by those using the scheme within its digital framework. We trace changes in two specific aspects of the digital framework: access to information, and changing compliances. The changes in both aspects since 2019 impact not just ‘entitlement holders’ experience of the scheme, but also potentially hamper the seamless flow of benefits. Using case studies gathered in Andhra Pradesh (AP), Gujarat, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana, we illustrate the struggles of farmers and local officials in navigating PMKISAN’s digital landscape. This journey underscores the necessity for streamlined and accessible information systems to ensure any welfare programme’s success.

by Chakradhar Buddha and B.D.S. Kishore

30/11/2023

No rethink at the end of the tunnel November 22, 2023 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/no-rethink-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel/ , It is in this decade that the Himalayas have been tunnelled, blasted, cut, gouged, turned to rubble and concretised as never before in the range’s 50 million years of existence. Hydel projects, rail tracks at heights of 1,000 mtrs in narrow valleys, and road construction, all require tunnels. Rampant construction of hotels and torrents of unregulated tourism require tunnels for car parks. The railway tunnel from Karnaprayag to Rishikesh is 110 mtrs long. The total might exceed 400 km by the time all the dhams are connected. https://i.redd.it/no-rethink-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel-v0-nslc0pppxt1c1.png?s=890ba7828baf3cde6812070f4b8f8681d1b566bc

Response: by a Chandrasekar Punekar Typical selective outcry from activists lobby . Equipped with modern technologies , the world is accomplishing hitherto unsurmounatble tasks of creating great engineering marvel in construction. Be it tunnel under the sea , or reclaiming sea to build a city or making rail bridges and laying rail lines at high altitudes , modern engineering has accomplished daunting tasks. The Guanjiao tunnel in Tibet has been done much earlier without any accompanying disasters in Tibetans mountains , Eisenover tunnel in rocky mountains too was completed quite long ago . The problem with this world is that there are one too many Medha patkar kind to decry all projects concerned with development and progress to mankind .

Decolonize to Decarbonize: Our Call to Action for Climate Justice at COP28  https://www.climatejusticehub.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/D2D-Campaign-Briefer-for-COP28.pdf   imperialist countries in the global North and their corporations are using the climate crisis to co-opt peoples’ demands to transition away from fossil fuels to further colonise global South frontiers for resource grabbing and exploitation.... Apart from being unscientific or too resource-intensive to deploy at the scale and pace required, these ‘solutions’ are mere ploys to continue burning fossil fuels and profit off of the climate crisis. Worse, these result in what some would refer to as “green grabbing” or “green colonialism” since they historically led to restrictions on people's access to rights, services, and natural resources, including labour rights, healthcare, education, and the Indigenous Peoples' rights to free, prior, and informed consent.

https://www.climatejusticehub.org/2023/11/21/decolonize-to-decarbonize-our-call-to-action-for-climate-justice-at-cop28/ What are our demands at COP28?

Phase out all forms of fossil fuels

No to false ‘solutions’ to climate change. Market-based mechanisms cannot be presented as solutions

Uphold a people-led energy transition: it should be publicly-owned, wherein the people are allowed to exercise democratic control over the overhauling of existing energy systems

Global North countries must fulfil their financial obligations.Funding mechanisms and facilities must channel finance in the form of grants as compensatory funding and not as loans or for-profit investments

Polluters out  People in. deconstructing the existing power structures that favour global North countries and corporations. In practical terms, this amounts to institutionalising measures that will withhold the ability of corporations to access and influence climate policymaking and governance.

Who’s Afraid of Jawaharlal Nehru? https://youtu.be/ N9bVs4VvQvM?t=233      Democracy Dialogue Series. 
Professor Mridula Mukherjee, Professor of Modern Indian History ( Retd), Centre for Historical Studies, JNU . A foremost leader of the freedom struggle, who gave it a decided socialist orientation, he remained unrivalled as Prime Minister after independence and built the solid foundations of a sovereign, secular, democratic, and egalitarian republic. He evolved the concept of non-alignment which enabled many ex-colonial countries to avoid becoming a part of the two power blocs engaged in the Cold War.
However, he is today the favourite whipping boy of the establishment. We are told he was responsible for the partition, for the mess in Kashmir, for the death of Subhas Bose, for delaying the integration of Hyderabad, and of Goa, for the defeat at the hands of China in 1962, for neglecting agriculture, and primary education, and much else. The reason for the defamation is of course that he stood for the exact opposite of what is valued today. His life and work present a continuous question mark to the regressive trends in fashion.
This will become evident as we focus in the talk especially on two areas of great relevance today in which we are facing a grave crisis: Democracy and Civil liberties, and Communalism/Secularism. We will also focus attention on Nehru’s evolving understanding of Mahatma Gandhi’s vision and method of non-violent struggle, of which he became the most ardent advocate after his death.

Who’s afraid of Nehru’s India?
 https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/88763-Whos-afraid-of-Nehrus-India  By Aijaz Zaka Syed January 08, 2016Today, 50 years after his death, he still stands tall, towering above everyone else, including the inflated pygmies of Hindutva, thanks to his immense contribution and the indelible imprint he has left on the country and its institutions. More important, Nehru and his powerful legacy, seen in the strong political and democratic institutions of the country, remain a challenge and stumbling block in the way of the Parivar’s ambitions to paint India saffron.

If the Parivar’s idea of Hindu Rashtra is to take shape, Nehru’s idea of an inclusive, tolerant India must die. But, as Dilip Cherian notes in Tehelka, in pulling Nehru down, without understanding his achievements, his detractors reveal their own smallness. In trying to obliterate Nehru’s legacy, the Hindutva clan could end up destroying India.

 An erased Nehru looms large over this regime’s Azadi Mahotsav Sushant Singh 13 August 2022 https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/nehru-erased-from-modis-azadi-amrit-mahotsav-independence-event Nehru stood for everything that is an anathema to the current ideology ruling India. He opposed the Hindu Rashtra and warned of majority communalism being mistaken for nationalism. A staunch believer in a plural, modern India, he was proud of India’s numerous diversities—religious, ethnic, regional, linguistic and cultural—which were rooted in its ancient and medieval history. He promoted science and modern education and was opposed to obscurantism. Proficient in Sanskrit and an avid practitioner of Yoga, he was not enamoured of religion or religious practices. His personal beliefs and political convictions were progressive, liberal and humane—rooted in rights and freedoms. The country that he shaped and created, from the days of the freedom movement, is the India the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh wanted, and is working hard, to dismantle.