NATIONAL NEWS
A) During a pandemic years when teaching moved online, only 1 in 5 Indian schools had internet facilities
In the academic year that ended with school closures due to Covid-19, only 22% of schools in India had internet facilities, according to Education Ministry data released on Thursday. Among government schools, less than 12% had internet in 2019-20, while less than 30% had functional computer facilities. This affected the kind of digital education options available to schools during the pandemic, as well as the plans for hybrid learning in the days ahead. The Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) report collates data from more than 15 lakh schools across the country. As the first wave of Covid-19 entered India in early 2020, schools were closed in mid-March, just weeks before the end of the 2019-20 academic year. The vast majority of the country’s 26 crore school children have not stepped foot in a school since then, depending on various forms of distance education instead. The availability of digital education whether via live, synchronous teaching on apps like Zoom, or through recorded lectures, emails, Whatsapp or educational apps was largely dependent on whether schools, teachers and parents had access to the necessary infrastructure. In many States, teachers came to school and taught in their own empty classrooms, using their blackboards and lab facilities, while facing a computer screen that communicated the lessons to their students at home. However, the UDISE+ data makes clear the digital divide which made this a viable option only in some States. In many Union Territories, as well as in the State of Kerala, more than 90% of schools, both government and private, had access to working computers. In States such as Chhattisgarh (83%) and Jharkhand (73%), installation of computer facilities in most government schools paid off, while in others such as Tamil Nadu (77%), Gujarat (74%) and Maharashtra (71%), private schools had higher levels of computer availability than in government schools. However, in States such as Assam (13%), Madhya Pradesh (13%), Bihar (14%), West Bengal (14%), Tripura (15%) and Uttar Pradesh (18%), less than one in five schools had working computers. The situation is worse in government schools, with less than 5% of UP’s government schools having the facility. The connectivity divide is even starker. Only three States — Kerala (88%), Delhi (86%) and Gujarat (71%) — have internet facilities in more than half their schools. This will make it hard for most schools to implement the options for hybrid learning as schools try to re-open with staggered attendance post the pandemic.
B) Akhil Gogoi set free, slams govt for ‘misusing’ NIA, UAPA
Assam MLA and Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi walked out of jail on Thursday after a special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) acquitted him of all charges in the second of the two cases related to the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act violence in the State in December 2019. The activist-turned-politician, who represents the Sibsagar Assembly constituency in eastern Assam, was discharged in the first case on June 25. He was in jail since December 2019 and had spent the last few months in the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital due to ailments. The NIA had pursued the cases filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act (UAPA) for alleged criminal conspiracy, sedition, promoting enmity between groups on grounds such as religion, race and language, assertions against national integrity, and support to a terrorist organisation. The cases were registered on the basis of two FIRs lodged with the Chabua police station in Dibrugarh district and the Chandmari police station in Guwahati. The Chandmari case had the additional charge that he had links with a Maoist organisation. The court has proven that the government’s charges against me were bogus. This is a historic day for the Indian judiciary, Gogoi told journalists after his release. A case was filed against me for my links with CPI [Maoist]. In another case, I was charged with inciting violence during the anti-CAA agitation. The court proved these were fake charges that kept me in jail for more than a year and a half, he said. He slammed the BJP-led State government for misusing the UAPA and NIA. The court’s judgement would influence future cases, he stated.
C) A journalist is not expected to dramatise incident and make news: Allahabad HC
A journalist is not expected to dramatise a sensational and horrifying incident and make news by putting his subject in a pitiable condition and in danger of death, the Allahabad High Court has noted. The court made the observation while rejecting the bail plea of a journalist in Lucknow, who is co-accused of abetting a person’s suicide and filming it outside the U.P. Vidhan Sabha last year. The journalist keeps an eye on anticipated or sudden events happening in society and brings them to the information of all the people through various news media without any tampering, this is his business, the court said on June 21. Journalists Shamim Ahmad and Naushad Ahmad allegedly contacted a man who was facing eviction from his house and induced him to set himself ablaze in front of the State Assembly so that they may film the incident and telecast it on television. The journalists allegedly surmised that if the tenant of the house did as they suggested no one would be able to force him to evict from the house. The man allegedly poured oil and set himself on fire, while the accused scribes were filming it. The person died in a hospital on October 24, 2020. An FIR was lodged in the matter under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. Justice Vikas Kunvar Srivastav said that from the details and statements recorded in the case, it was prima facie established that the accused Shamim Ahmad tempted the deceased that if he attempted to take his own life in front of the U.P. Assembly, the video-filmed act would prevent him from being evicted.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Trump Organisation CFO surrenders ahead of expected charges Trump Organisation CFO Allen Weisselberg surrendered to authorities early on Thursday ahead of expected charges against him and former President Donald Trump’s company, according to multiple news outlets. Weisselberg was seen walking into the courthouse in lower Manhattan around 6:20 a.m. with his lawyer. New York prosecutors are expected to announce the first criminal indictment on Thursday in a two-year investigation into Trump’s business practices, accusing his namesake company and Weisselberg of tax crimes related to fringe benefits for employees. The charges against the Trump Organisation and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, remained sealed on Wednesday night but were to be unveiled ahead of an afternoon arraignment at a state court in Manhattan, according to two people familiar with the matter.
B) Nine European countries authorise Covishield.
At least nine countries in Europe have given recognition to the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), informed sources have said. The confirmation came on Thursday when the European Union started the ‘Green Pass’ facility, which will allow travellers vaccinated with an authorised set of vaccines to travel within the EU zone covering 27 countries. The recognition by the nine countries is a ‘national’ move by the states and not by the European Union headquartered in Brussels. The list of EU Member States that have recognised Covishield as a valid vaccine includes Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain. That apart, Estonia has confirmed that it will recognise all the vaccines authorised by the Government of India for travel of Indians to Estonia, said an informed source. Switzerland, not a EU member, too allows Covishield as Schengen state. Supporting the move by Germany, ambassador Walter J. Lindner said, Confirming that a double shot of Covishield is fully recognised by Germany as valid proof of anti-COVID vaccination. Germany however has a travel ban in place for Indians as India has been recognised as a virus variant country. This (confirmation) does nevertheless not modify existing travel or visa restrictions for travellers from areas of concern/ virus variant areas, said Lindner, clarifying the German position on travel from India. The clearance by the nine European countries came on a day when the ‘Green Pass’ was introduced by the EU which is meant for travel within 27 Member States of the European Union. The clearance by the nine countries, however, is unlikely to translate into an automatic clearance of Covishield as an equivalent to the ‘Green Pass’, which recognises Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty, Moderna’s Spikevax, Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) that created the authorised list is yet to include Covishield, which is based on AstraZeneca formula, as an acceptable vaccine. The clearance of Covishield by nine European countries showed that some EU Member States are making individual policies that are suitable to their health and international requirements. Air France, for example, has declared that Indian passengers who have taken doses cleared by EMA (Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty, Moderna’s Spikevax, Vaxzevria of Oxford-AstraZeneca and Janssen by Johnson & Johnson) are required to undergo 7 days of ‘mandatory quarantine’. These passengers must present a Covid-19 vaccination certificate demonstrating that at least 4 weeks have elapsed since the first dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, or 2 weeks have elapsed since the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccine, or since the first dose of these vaccines if the passenger holds proof that they previously have been infected with Covid-19, said Air Frace laying down the domestic requirement which places additional conditions on even those Indian passengers who have taken doses of the vaccines meant for the ‘Green Pass’ from the EU.
