Infra, Faculty Shortages Hinder Enrolment, Research At New IITs: CAG Report https://www.indiaspend.com/development/infra-faculty-shortages-hinder-enrolment-research-at-new-iits-report-865617

 while all IITs receive significant funding from government sources, the number and cost of non-government-sponsored projects were low for the new IITs. Only IIT Mandi, IIT Patna, IIT Ropar, and IIT Hyderabad were able to attract 3.5% to 14.31% of funding from non-government sources.

In terms of patents filed and obtained, the new IITs are yet to catch up with the older institutes.
Overall, the audit highlighted areas of concern in research activities at the IITs, including the need to attract more non-government funding, improve the patent filing and obtaining process and increase research publications.
Comment: Is the funding being privatised or the patents a result of the base infrastructure and knowledge base being privatised… in the name of no-govt. funding.

Ladakh Delegation Gears Up for Crucial Talks with MoS Home in Delhi  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozFP30dn1-0 The Wire Jun 19, 2023
After a long-standing lull in communication, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is poised to reengage with the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) in a bid to address the pressing concerns plaguing Ladakh. On June 19th, a six-member delegation, representing a diverse range of social, political, trade, student, and religious groups from Ladakh, will converge in Delhi to meet MoS Home, Nityanand Rai.

The upcoming meeting holds great significance, as it marks the resumption of a dialogue that had remained dormant for a staggering 21 months. The last official talks between the MHA and the representatives of LAB and KDA took place on August 29, 2021, in Leh, under the guidance of Union Minister of State for Home, Nityanand Rai.

The six-member delegation includes Thupstan Chhewang himself, two-time Lok Sabha member from Ladakh, along with Chering Dorjey and Nawang Rigzin Jora, former cabinet ministers in the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, all representing LAB. The KDA will be represented by Qamar Ali Akhoon, former Cabinet Minister in the previous J&K Government, Haji Asgar Ali Karbalaie, a former MLA, and Sajjad Kargili, a prominent social-political activist from Kargil, as well as a representative from Anjuman Isna Asharia Kargil.


In the video Tikender Panwar, a former deputy mayor of Shima speaks with Sajjad Kargili, a member of the LAB. Kargili speaks about the collective determination to pursue their shared objectives. The four-point agenda that they intend to address during the talks includes advocating for full-fledged statehood for Ladakh, safeguarding constitutional rights under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, expediting the recruitment process and establishing a Public Services Commission (PSC) for Ladakh, as well as securing separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kargil districts.

Sonam Wangchuk on 7 Day Climate Fast from 18th June https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr0q9tct-as Jun 17, 2023

In this video Sonam Wangchuk thanks government of India for calling leaders of Ladakh for talks on safeguarding Ladakh under 6th Schedule of Indian constitution, on 19th June in New Delhi.
To know more about Ladakh's demad for 6th Schedule please see

ALL IS NOT WELL in Ladakh | Ladakh ki Mann ki Baat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY7EbFWRxYQs Jan 21, 2023
This is an urgent appeal from Sonam Wangchuk in Ladakh (in the Indian Himalayas) to the  people of India and the world to help protect the environmentally sensitive region of Ladakh. He appeals to the Prime Minister of India to intervene and safeguard this fragile ecosystem under the sixth schedule of the Indian constitution. MANN KI BAAT FROM REMOTE LADAKH  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkIduZib1JY&t=129s

Raghuram Rajan on why democracy is ‘biggest advantage’ for India’s economy  https://youtu.be/PUDaHgHC8ao?t=145    newslaundry

Jun 18, 2023 In a conversation with Newslaundry CEO Abhinandan Sekhri, former RBI governor #RaghuramRajan spoke about the role of artificial intelligence in economic development, competition in the news industry, and India’s response to environmental threats, among other issues.

In his keynote address at the Ideas for India Conference, organised by Bridge India in London last month, Rajan also examined India’s service sector and the significance of democracy for future economic growth.

“Our biggest advantage is our democracy. Would you trust 5G that is sold to you from an authoritarian country?” said the former RBI governor, reiterating the importance of decentralisation and investment in human capital development. “India has a reputation in services. Let’s build on it.”

  Counters the myth that  democracy hold back economic growth? Do we want to be the serfs of the production process or the Lords of the production process. ? Increasing percenage of production process is services, programming, high level skills nor low skill jobs like assemby.

The services bus which is the high value bus, requires open source intellectual properties. The services bus which is the high value bus, requires open source intellectual properties. we need democracy and non-surveilaance systems to drive this.. Need to focus on Human capital https://youtube.com/embed/PUDaHgHC8ao?start=1428&end=1754   Rather than spend huge amounts subsidizing assembly units, we need to focus on human capital..spend on schools, education, health etc.

Ex MP Hussain Dalwai to M’tra’s Muslim youth! Husain Dalwai https://sabrangindia.in/dont-invite-enmity-with-friends-ex-mp-hussain-dalwai-to-mtras-muslim-youth/ 
June 17, 2023

If a few Hindus from the allegedly privileged castes and classes are working to create an environment of hate in their bid to retain power, then this is not the way to counter them. We have to follow the path that Mahatma Gandhi showed us. Violence can never be fought with violence, violence has to be countered by love. Humility in the face of aggression is the only solution.

When some people from the Muslim community make problematic statements, foster enmity and hate, take a position against the entire Hindu community and faith, it puts at risk those among the Hindu communities and people that are standing alongside the Muslim community.

https://theleaflet.in/what-a-genuine-leftist-response-to-the-hindutva-challenge-should-look-like/ A review of 'Nationalist Dangers, Secular Failings: A Compass for an Indian Left’ by Achin Vanaik, Aakar Books (2021) pp. 205

Unlike the chicanery of former United States president, politician and academic Woodrow Wilson and imperialist–liberals of the early twentieth century, Lenin’s vision of revolutionary, anti-colonial nationalism was based on the following premises: the need to distinguish between the interests of oppressed classes and the notion of ‘national interest’; the need to distinguish between oppressed, dependent and subject nations and the oppressing, exploiting and sovereign nations; the need for Communist parties to aid revolutionary movements among dependent and ‘underprivileged nations’ such as, for instance, the American blacks and the colonies; the need to subordinate the interest of the proletarian struggle in a country to the interests of the proletarian struggle internationally; the need for the proletarian movement to retain its independent organisation whilst fighting with the bourgeoisie the battle of anti-imperialism; last but not the least, Lenin strongly emphasised and warned about the lurking danger of “big nation chauvinism”.

Vanaik also ruminates on the relevance of capitalism and nationalism today. He argues that the “trans-nationalisation of social relations and the consolidation and juridical sharpening of territorialised sovereignty went together.”

On the question of organisation of the vanguard, which in the Leninist tradition is called ‘democratic centralism’, Vanaik argues that it is not about the vertical centralisation of power. It is, following Belgian Marxian economist, Trotskyist activist and theorist Ernest Mandel, “a centralisation of experience, centralisation of knowledge and centralisation of conclusions drawn out of actual militancy”. And these are the most crucial elements “to generate the necessary wider consciousness to challenge the most formidable vanguard formation of the bourgeoisie— the bourgeois state.”

A republic in crisis: Holding a mirror up to power https://theleaflet.in/a-republic-in-crisis-holding-a-mirror-up-to-power/ 

A review of ‘The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis’ by Prakala Prabhakar, Speaking Tiger Books (2023)
Joe Athialy·June 12, 2023

One of the criticism of UPA government is its complicity in turning the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) more draconian in 2008 and 2012, allowing the Modi government to unleash it on people who were perceived to be political threats to their grand narrative of sab changa si (everything is fine; known in bhakt-speak as Amrit Kaal), and making it even more draconian in 2019.

In the Prime Minister’s Independence-Day speeches from 2014 to 2022, and the speeches of the RSS chief; in the unemployment and inequality statistics that the government supresses; in the partisan role of investigative agencies and the income tax department; in the new BJP’s ‘tiraskar’ or clear rejection of India’s Muslims as citizens and voters; in the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic—in these and many more developments, Parakala Prabhakar finds unmistakable evidence of religious majoritarianism, a creeping authoritarianism and serious economic mismanagement. And he shows us why silence and complacency are no longer an option for any citizen invested in the future of our Republic.

https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/05/18/star-reporter-with-no-income-what-pawan-jaiswals-death-tells-us-about-the-state-of-rural-reporters ‘Star reporter with no income’: What Pawan Jaiswal’s death tells us about the state of rural reporters yTanishka Sodhi18 May, 2022
Journalism doesn’t pay their bills, they have little or no institutional support and rely on commissions from ‘finding ads’ for papers.

The death of a journalist is barely a blip in the news cycle. Over 600 journalists have died of Covid in the last two years, and thousands more die every year of other causes.

But journalists like Pawan form the backbone of journalism, gathering news for big studios and publications in metropolitan cities. They receive little credit or money, their roles reduced to terms like “stringers” – an army of underpaid, and even unpaid, news gatherers who are vital to the news business.

Blackmailer and extortionist: The sordid side of being a stringer in India  https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/02/14/blackmailer-and-extortionist-the-sordid-side-of-being-a-stringer-in-india
Often poorly paid or forced to get ad revenue for their media houses, some stringers resort to unethical, even criminal, ways to make money.
By Manish Chandra Mishra 14 Feb, 2020 It’s a sordid story often repeated. Neeraj Soni was formerly the bureau chief of a daily based in Madhya Pradesh. He claimed the newspaper’s management would routinely set his editorial team targets to bring in advertising revenue. In turn, Soni said, he would ask his stringers to get “incriminating stories” about local businessmen or government servants, then “blackmail” them into buying ads in the newspaper in return for not running the stories. If the money exceeded the target, it would be distributed among the stringers since the company had no budget to pay them.

 Stringers are expected to pay deposits for the mic ID, and this amount varies between cities and channels. A reputed TV channel can charge up to Rs 1 lakh in big cities, and marginally less in smaller towns. A block-level stringer has to pay around Rs 10,000 for a mic ID, the amount goes up to Rs 25,000 for a district-level stringer.

While TV channels mark this deposit as “security money”, it is non-refundable.

पत्रकार को धमकाया,अब नौकरी गई!स्मृति ईरानी का खौफ़ देखिए   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9qvz1YtGek 

Reactions
Ramesh Soni 2014 से पहले पत्रकार से सत्ता डरती थी.. अब पत्रकार को भी सत्ता से डर लगने लगा है.
Myopedia stringer, part-time or freelance journalist, videographer, or photographer typically assigned by a news organization to cover areas that are considered less newsworthy or that are deemed peripheral to the news organization's coverage area.

sagar bhosale हमे तो ऐसे सांसद पे गर्व होना चाहिए एक पत्रकार के सवाल का जवाब देने के बजाय कितने प्यार से पत्रकार को धमका रही है.... ले लो अच्छे दिन...

s.bikram mangat No, Mr Abhisar Sharma...we as awakened human beings have another option too, and that is "Saying wrong to wrong and right to right!"

Smriti Irani ko gussa kyun aya: The story behind the minister’s outburst, and the aftermath https://www.newslaundry.com/2023/06/10/smriti-irani-ko-gussa-kyun-aya-the-story-behind-the-ministers-outburst-and-the-aftermath Pratyush Deep& Avdhesh Kumar10 Jun, 2023
Irani was annoyed at being asked for a byte in Amethi yesterday.

“This is when Yadav said, ‘Aap Salon pe bole thi, abhi aap Amethi ke Jagdishpur Vidhan Sabha skhetra me hai toh yha bhi do sabd bol dijiye’,” the journalist said. (You had spoken in Salon and now that you are in Amethi's Jagdishpur Vidhan Sabha constituency, say a few words here too.)

The video showed Irani getting irked, while the journalist was off-screen.

“Salon constituency comes under my Lok Sabha constituency…Don't insult it,” the minister said.

When pressed further for a quote, she said, “I am urging you with love. If you further insult the people, I will call the owner of your paper and tell them no journalist has the right to insult the people.”