Selling Fake Degrees By Universities" A Sham

Its a big sham, not a shame. Nothing is more obnoxious than universities- the temple of higher learning- selling fake degrees. It speaks for the lowest level our education system has rotten down. And its not surprising when professional education is commercialized. After liberalization in early nineties, India fell in trap of commercializing education. So you have medical, engineering and and even business management shops selling admission for hefty amount. Schools and colleges admitting students only on huge donations and exorbitant fees and coaching industry flourishing into a huge money-minting industry. So there is no room for quality education. What is left in the age of commercialization, is just "money making the degree go".

I am not shocked over the unveiling of a massive fake degree scam involving the sale of five lakh degrees by two private universities in Himachal. Not right-thinking person could ever thought of allowing private sectors to run shops for higher running.in india inhabited by 60 percent of its population living as economical weaker. What is shocking is the callous and casual attitude of regulatory body- HP Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had informed the state authorities in August 2019 to conduct a thorough inquiry into the allegations of sale of fake degrees by the APG University in Shimla and Manav Bharti University in Solan. No action was taken in the past six months. What for this body is?

The UGC has informed the state that “Manav Bharti University (MBU), Solan, sold more than four-five lakh degrees during the past seven years with the help of agents in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, West Bengal and South India. It neither informed the HP Private Universities Regulatory Authority, nor the body ever knew what was happening in this university.

Earlier in 2014, HP university was in news for fake degree scam. A student was issued a fake mark sheet of B.A. III tough he didn’t even appear in the exams. He passed with flying 70% marks. As he happened to be a son of a university official, he got a clerk lob in the university . That’s where it came to the notice of the authorities and on inquiry his detailed mark-sheet was found fake. The fake mark sheet scams surface from time to time. Headlines like "Fake mark sheet scandal unearthed in UP”, “Fake mark sheet scandal busted in Saurashtra University”, “Agra Police files chargesheet against Rajasthan MLA in fake mark sheet case”, “Fake mark sheet scandal unearthed in Vadodara” and “Fake degree, marksheet scam busted in Meerut” appear in media now and then. And there is no end to it.

The fake degree scandals are so rampant in the country that Panjab University, had to affix holograms on its official degrees to prevent duplication and forgery. Many universities have introduced the system. But scammers dodge the system and find ingenious ways.

What our nation needs is not commercialized education but an education system based on knowledge and system that could address overcrowding. Makes funding schools a top priority. Raise standards for teachers and place classroom-running and curriculum-building decisions in the hands of the community. And end to commercialization of Education. private sector running universities in India,

(Chander Sharma)

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Coronavirus : More Deadly Than Terrorism

The outbreak of the Coronavirus has rattled the Globe. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that "Viruses can have more powerful consequences than any terrorist action". It poses a greater global threat than terrorism.

The epidemic has, so far, killed more than 1,600 and infected over 67,000 people. China tops in death toll with more than 1500 people killed by the deadly virus till Friday. It has spread its wings in Europe where an 80-year-old Chinese tourist infected with the Coronavirus died in France on Saturday, becoming the first fatality in Europe.

China's latest figures on Saturday showed 66,492 cases and 1,523 deaths, mostly in Hubei. Outside mainland China there have been about 500 cases in some two dozen countries and territories, with four deaths - in Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines and France.The biggest outbreak outside China has been on a cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, quarantined off Japan’s Yokohama. Out of about 3,700 passengers and crew on board, 285 people have tested positive and hospitalized.

The outbreak deadly Coronavirus has slowed down the Chinese economy. Tremors of this slowdown are belt across the world. The outbreak is leading to less consumption, idle factories and has broken global supply chains.As the global economy is now much more interconnected, the Chinese economy is much more important. Today China's share in world economy is more than 16%. It is an important export market for German products, an important production location for German industrial companies and the starting point for many global supply chains.

As a precaution, Beijing has,unusually, injected nearly 1.2 trillion yuan (€156 billion, $171 billion) to keep the domestic money market and banking system functioning. Besides,import duties on goods needed to fight against the disease have been eased.

Not only the stock markets that have been hit,consumption has also plummeted following the outbreak of virus. Large New Year's events have been canceled; tourist attractions and cinemas closed. The doors remain closed at around 2,000 Starbucks, hundreds of McDonald's restaurants, 130 Uniqlo shops and at all 30 Ikea stores.

The travel industry has also been badly affected. Several countries issued travel warnings about China; some airlines even suspended flights to China. Lufthansa and its subsidiaries Swiss and Austrian Airlines canceled their connections to and from Beijing until February 29. The outbreak of the Coronavirus began in Wuhan, China in 2019, affecting over 1,300 people, the largest recorded to date. The outbreak is ongoing as of February 2020.

Coronavirus (zoonotic virus) is a disease that spreads from one species to another, however it is unclear which species is the culprit of the latest outbreak.A zoonotic virus is born when a single animal is infected with two related viruses.

According to Professor Ian Goodfellow, department of pathology, University of Cambridge: "it came from wild or domestic animals that were being kept at the Wuhan food market, including the civet cat. "Now the civet cat is in fact the animal which the SARS Coronavirus emerged from several years ago."

Remember in 2003, deadly Sars - severe acute respiratory syndrome - that killed 774 people and infected around 8,100 people- was also a Coronavirus. The current Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak has overtaken the total Sars cases and it is a strand of the virus not seen before.Experts see more viruses evolving in the future. Despite advanced scientific exploration and technology, mankind faces more and more threat.

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Managing State Finance AAP Style!

Nothing succeeds like success, so goes the old saying. The unprecedented victory of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at the hustings in Delhi assembly elections is now talk of the country. Not only Aam Aadmi (common man), even political parties including saffron BJP is being swayed away by Arvind Kejriwal's model of governance.

So much so that the Narendra Modi Gujarat model of governance (what was it, I could never understand. It was more of rhetoric ) has been almost forgotten. And the Kejriwal's model of governance is now in sharp focus. There is nothing new in this model. It mainly focuses on people's burning problems and seek to solve them on priority. As such, free electricity (up to some units), regular clean potable water supply,fast delivery of quality health services and education to all have been Kejriwal's simple way of governance. And now most of the state governments are vying to catch up with this populist governance.

Regular supply of power and clean potable water are the basic amenities, a popular government is expected to ensure to its people. And so are quality education, health and transport services. And if regular power is free,it becomes a big catch. It is a most unfortunate state of affairs that no state govt in India in last more than seven decades could ensure the satisfactory delivery of basic amenities to the people. BJP and Congress both failed to read writings on the wall. Instead, both parties mocked Kejriwal and his govt performance and called delivery of services as hoax. BJP's arrogant attitude and jibes like " Aantki", "naxalite" and "Goli maaro saalon ko (shoot traitors)" made Kejriwal task easy. He took every care not to name PM Modi and desisted from showing aggression, he was once known.

But freebies, particularly free power is considered financially imprudent and poor policy choice. It, ultimately, leads to fiscal crisis as is the case in Punjab. A survey by the Punjab agriculture department sometime back indicated that more than 54 per cent of farmers had installed water guzzling submersibles, and more than 45 per cent got their motors renewed to increase the power, or simply purchased higher capacity motors. There has been an increasing use of groundwater for irrigating paddy but the rate at which the electricity was priced remained flat.

However, as the farmer’s electricity use shot up at an alarming rate; the quality, reliability and supply of electricity declined. Out of 137 blocks in Punjab, 110 were under the over-exploited category, according to the Central Ground Water Board,

Free 24X7 electric is populist vote-catching sop. In Punjab both Akali-BJP alliance and Congress have reaped rich political dividends by extending free power to even rich farmers, no matter how severely it ate out into state financial resources. And now Punjab govt will be under tremendous pressure to widen the scope of free power to all consumers. With Delhi victory, AAP, is set to emerge as strong political force , Free power will be a top election sop in next assembly election in Punjab due in early 2022.

Freebiees have, always, remained a bone of contention in the political debates, parties accusing each-other to promote them. During the run-up to the Delhi Assembly election, the issue of “freebies” of the AAP government was on forefront.

However, The Comptroller and Auditor General’s Report in 2019, on the Delhi government shows that AAP government has improved Delhi’s government finances. The report presented an overview of Delhi government’s finances between 2013 and 2018. The AAP government has consistently run a revenue surplus, meaning its current revenue was greater than its current expenditure. As such, AAP was one of the most fiscally prudent governments in India. Not only this, in 2015-16 and 2017-18, the AAP government had a fiscal surplus, something not witnessed too often in India. The report clearly, shows that AAP was not piling on debt to run its subsidy package.

The big question is where the money came from?

According to report, AAP has cut back on capital expenditure and invested this saving into education and healthcare. So most of us will agree that if there is strong will to ensure fast delivery of basic amenities, money is no problem. And I made a same case for Jai Ram Thakur govt. in Himachal after it took over from Congress govt two years back. But saffron party has failed to deliver desired results. It remains busy in playing the rhetoric. The situation in Punjab is too bad. The Congress govt headed by Raja of Patiala has only mismanaged the state finances. In the given situation, people will, surely. attract towards AAP's "freebiees". Just wait and watch.

(Chander Sharma)

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A Travesty Of Justice

Its, indeed, a travesty of justice that a hapless mother desperately crying for execution of her daughter's rapists has to sit outside a trial court premises over the delay in justice. It is said, " justice delayed is justice denied".

The mother protests come right after the trial court ruled that one of the four death row convicts of Nirbhaya's rape case is entitled to legal aid till his last breath

The date of execution, first fixed for January 22, has been delayed many times. It was postponed to February 1 by a January 17 order. The trial court later, on January 31 stayed, "till further orders" the execution of the four convicts.

All mothers, father, brothers and sisters have full sympathy with Nirbhaya's mother but law is blind. Its not driven by the emotions. Court and judges go by rules of the law. And Indian law of jurisprudence make it abundantly clear that even a death convict has right to legal aid and recourse till his last breath. That's the beauty of Indian jurisprudence though on the face of it, the law appears harsh and patience-testing for the victims and their family.

The hanging of Nirbhaya's convicts is imminent and at best can be just postponed for a few days. Capital punishment is a legal penalty in India. Since 1995, It has been carried out in five cases. The most recent was in 2015. As per data. as many as 755 executions have been carried out in India since 1947. The first hanging in Independent India was that of Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case on 15 November 1949.

In 2007, United Nations General Assembly resolution called for a moratorium on the death penalty. However, India voted against it. In November 2012, India again voted against the UN General Assembly draft resolution seeking to end the institution of capital punishment globally.

The Law Commission of India in 2015 had also recommended the abolition of capital punishment for all crimes , excepting the crime of waging war against the nation or for terrorism-related offences. However, it was not accepted by the govt. Had the recommendation been accepted, all Nirbhaya's convict would have been spared of death penalty. Thank God, it hasn't happened.

(Chander Sharma)

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After Conquering Delhi. Next Destination Punjab!

Finally, the curtain is down. The people of Indian capital- Delhi- have voted for the performance and have out rightly rejected the politics of hatred and communalism. The massive verdict in favor of " terrorist" or "naxalite" (as BJP leaders call Kejriwal) is more noticeable as Arvind Kejriwal had to fight BJP top leaders and RSS network, besides Congress leaders. And the "muffller man' did it all alone and sought mandate on performance of his five-year rule.

There is no denying that saffron party, ruling at center, had put up all blockades to stop AAP govt to perform right from the day one through Lt. Governor and Delhi police. All of us know, Delhi police works under union home ministry. Ultimately, AAP govt had to knock at Supreme Court's door and in July 2018,top court ruled in favor of AAP govt. It ruled that Lt. Governor is bound by the advice of the chief minister and his cabinet. Earlier, Delhi High Court had ruled that as an union territory, all power of Delhi govt rested with union govt. Overturning the Delhi HC, Supreme Court ruled that Delhi assembly had all the legislative powers and LG is bound to go by the advice and aid of cabinet.

As such, it was only after top court ruling prevented central govt. interference, AAP govt could ensure delivery of promised services. Voters of India are matured enough and they know who are their well-wishers and who are villain of the peace. BJP had all through the last five years and till the voting day, proved itself as villain not as hero. It worked against it.

Now Delhi elections over, the battle ground shifts to Punjab, another state that has better potential for AAP after Delhi. It won more seats than Akali-BJP alliance together. Nearly 24%, a little less than Akali votes, voted for AAP. The Congress, which won more than 70 out of 117 seats had polled 38.64 % votes. As such, I see AAP a bigger role in Punjab assembly elections due in 2022. Punjab has over 31 percent Dalit votes and they are not party bound. Dalits in Punjab, have been, traditionally, voting, by and large, for Congress but voted in block for Janata party in 1977 Lok Sabha elections and later in assembly elections.

A study had found that Dalits in Punjab are not party bound and always see better alternative. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, AAP won 4 seats and it was the only state where AAP did make it presence felt. And then in 2017 assembly elections, its performance was even better though in May 2019 Lok Sabha elections , AAP performance was not as good.

Going by the results and voting pattern of Delhi assembly elections, Arvind Kejriwal and his party has better prospectus in Punjab where Dalits and middle class together can upset the Congress and Akali-BJP's applecart. 24X7 free power and potable water supply plus better education and health services are big issues in Punjab. Both Akalis and Congress govts have failed to deliver the desired goods. So wait and watch.

(Chander Sharma)

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Can There Be A Biological Warfare?

Two recent happenings have evoked anxiety and concern the world over as both pose serious threat to humanity . The outbreak of deadly Cornovirus and the swarms of Lotus destroying standing crop in India and Pakistan are already playing havoc.

What if a virus like Corno and swarms of lotus or bees are used as Biological Warfare (BW)? Even missiles can't stop such attacks. The deadly Cornovirus has taken a toll of over 260, mostly in China. It has spread to more than 20 nations including India. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared emergency over the outbreak of the virus calling on all countries to take urgent measures to contain the respiratory disease.

Another threat is the swarms of lotus that sometime make even our technology subservient to the this insect as recently happened when India Air Force had to be standstill after lotus invaded the border of Rajasthan. Adult locust swarms can fly up to 150 km a day with the wind and adult insects can consume roughly their own weight in fresh food per day.The swarms of lotus destroyed crop in large areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab'

The invaders came from Iran and Pakistan. Happily, India was able to bring swarms of desert locusts under control with timely measures. The change in wind direction had also helped preventing a spread and large-scale damage to the rapeseed and cumin seed crops, in Gujarat and Rajasthan. However, Pakistan hasn't been able to stop the lotus invasion and has declared emergency.

The deadly attack by Cornovirus and lotus can be more dangerous if used as warfare. Remember how “yellow rain,” made of fungus toxins was used as a chemical weapon in Vietnam war. After investigation, U.S. analysts concluded in 1981 that the “yellow rain,” as weapons were given to the Viet Cong and Pathet Lao, by Russia who dropped it on the Hmong, the tribes who sided with American in Vietnam war.

Biological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi as an act of war. Biological weapons are living organisms or replicating entities that reproduce or replicate within their host victims. Entomological (insect) warfare is also considered a type of biological weapon.

This type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare and chemical warfare, which together with biological warfare make up NBC, the military initialism for nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare using weapons of mass destruction). Biological weapons may be employed in various ways to gain a strategic or tactical advantage over the enemy, either by threats or by actual deployments. Like some chemical weapons, biological weapons may also be useful as area denial weapons. These agents may be lethal or non-lethal, and may be targeted against a single individual, a group of people, or even an entire population. They may be developed, acquired, stockpiled or deployed by nation states or by non-national groups.

The danger of biological warfare is more conspicuous in the contemporary world as hatred and hostility are the order of the day. Humans are out to kill humanity. Even a culturally enriched and "unity in diversity"- ridden country India is not spared of hatred and hostility. Really, situation is too serious.

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Budget 2020: Just Give And Take

There is an old saying," Is haath de, us haath le (Give And Take)" and it means no relief. This could be the reaction of the most of the income tax payers over the union budget as presented today in parliament. The budget has given some Income Tax rebates and has slashed tax rates and changed slabs to lower taxes for those earning up to Rs 15 lakh a year. But these IT rebates will be available to you only if you forgo other concessions being extended under 80 C and 80 D. There are over 70 concessions under these categories including rebate on housing loan, medical expenses.

So the relief as claimed by Finance Minister will be almost negligible. Most of the salaried class has floated housing loan and already availing rebate under Section 80 C of the Income Tax Act. You get a deduction for the principal repaid up to Rs 1.5 lakh a year and the interest paid is deductible up to Rs 2 lakh per annum under section 24. Its a big relief and tax payers would hardly wish to discontinue this concessions.

Under Section 80 D, You get an relief of Rs. 25,000 for paying your and spouse insurance installment. Its Rs. 60,000 if you are senior citizens. As such, minister's claim of saving in between Rs 78,000 to Rs 1,97,000 by income tax payers earning up to Rs 15 lakh a year is meaningless.

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We can expect some relief as finance minister has announced an massive $ 40 billion outlay for farm sector. If there is a increase in farm production , the prices are expected to come down. There are many cosmic make-overs in budget as usual. Every govt. vows to supply potable piped water for every house hold and 24X7 power supply even in rural areas. However, nothing has happened. This year budget also aims at providing clean water to every house. However, there is no word on 24 hour power supply. Unless there is visible relief in Income Tax, rising prices and availability of round the corner clean potable water and power, no budget can claim to be people friendly.

(Chander Sharma)

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