BLOGS
Rafale Deal: Chronology of events
Here is the chronology of events related to the Rafale Deal
- December 30, 2002: Defense Procurement Procedures (DPP) is adopted to speed up procurement.
- August 28, 2007: The Ministry of Defense launches a call for tenders for the acquisition of 126 MMRCA fighters (medium multifunction combat aircraft).
- September 4, 2008: The Reliance group led by Mukesh Ambani integrates Reliance Aerospace Technologies Ltd (RATL).
- May 2011: The Air Force preselects the Rafale and the Eurofighter.
- January 30, 2012: Dassault Aviation’s Rafale aircraft is the lowest bidder.
- March 13, 2014: Signing of a work-sharing agreement between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Dassault Aviation under which they were respectively responsible for 70% and 30% of the work of 108 aircraft.
- August 8, 2014: Then Defense Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament that 18 direct-flight planes are expected to be delivered within 3-4 years of signing the contract. There are 108 aircraft remaining to be delivered over the next seven years.
- April 8, 2015: The then Foreign Minister said detailed discussions were underway between Dassault, the Defense Ministry and HAL.
- April 10, 2015: A new agreement was announced for the acquisition of 36 aircraft with direct flights from France.
- January 26, 2016: India and France sign a memorandum of understanding for 36 Rafale.
- September 23, 2016: Signature of the intergovernmental agreement.
- November 18, 2016: The government declares to Parliament that the cost of each Rafale aircraft will be around Rs 670 million and that all planes will be delivered in April 2022.
- December 31, 2016: Dassault Aviation’s annual report reveals the actual price paid for the 36 planes at around Rs 60 billion, more than double the price declared by the government to Parliament.
- March 13, 2018: South Carolina Public Interest Litigation (PIL) calls for an independent investigation into the Centre’s decision to acquire 36 Rafale fighter jets from France and the disclosure of the costs involved in the deal to Parliament .
- September 5, 2018: SC agrees to listen to PIL seeking to remain in the Rafale fighter plan agreement.
- September 18, 2018: SC postpones hearing on PIL which seeks to remain in the Rafale fighter jets agreement to October 10.
- October 8, 2018: SC agrees to hear on October 10 that new PILs request instructions from the Center to present on “sealed cover” details of the agreement for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets.
- October 10, 2018: SC asks the Center to provide details on the decision-making process under the Rafale fighter jets deal in a sealed bridge.
- October 24, 2018: Former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan relocate the SC, seeking FIR registration under the Rafale fighter jets deal.
- October 31, 2018: SC asks the Center to place in front of it in a sealed bridge within 10 days the price details of 36 Rafale fighter jets.
- November 12, 2018: The Center places pricing details for 36 Rafale fighter jets in a sealed front SC cover. It also details the stages which led to the conclusion of the Rafale agreement.
- November 14, 2018: SC reserves the order on the grounds of seeking a judicial inquiry into the Rafale settlement.
- December 14, 2018: SC says there is no reason to doubt the decision-making process of the Modi government and rejects all petitions requesting instructions from the CBI to register an FIR for alleged irregularities in the aircraft agreement.
- December 15, 2018: The government requests a correction from the Supreme Court in the paragraph referring to the report of the CAG and the PAC.
- January 2, 2019: Former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, defender Prashant Bhushan, move to SC to seek review of the Rafale verdict.
- January 14, 2019: AAP MP Sanjay Singh asks the SC to review Rafale’s verdict.
- February 21, 2019: Bhushan requests a guilty plea hearing for the perjury prosecution of some officials for misleading the court in the Rafale case.
- February 26, 2019: SC decides to listen to the allegations requesting a review of Rafale’s verdict in open court.
- February 26, 2019: SC decides to hear pleas seeking review of Rafale verdict in open court.
- March 6, 2019: Documents related to Rafale deal stolen from Defence Ministry, Centre tells SC, threatens The Hindu newspaper with the Official Secrets Act for publishing articles based on them.
- March 8, 2019: Attorney General clarifies that Rafale documents not stolen, petitioners used photocopies.
- March 13, 2019: Review plea based on leaked secret documents jeopardises national security, Centre tells SC.
- March 14, 2019: Will first decide preliminary objection raised by Centre, says SC, reserves verdict.
- April 10, 2019: SC allows use of leaked documents, dismisses Centre’s objections claiming privilege.
- Apr 12, 2019: BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi moves SC against Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing his ‘chowkidar chor hai’ remarks on Rafale to the apex court.
- Apr 23, 2019: SC issues contempt notice to Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on Rafale verdict.
- May 8, 2019: Gandhi tenders unconditional apology in SC.
- May 10, 2019: SC reserves verdict on review pleas and contempt petition.
- Nov 14,2019: SC dismisses review pleas against its verdict in the Rafale deal, rejects contention that there was need for registration of an FIR in connection with the procurement of 36 fighter jets from French firm Dassault Aviation. SC closes contempt plea against Rahul Gandhi.
- July 27, 2020: Forty-six months after the €7.87 bn contract was signed, the first five of 36 Rafale fighter jets landed at the Ambala airbase and the crew were welcomed by Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) R.K.S. Bhadauria.
Question hour & Zero hour
On Wednesday, the secretariats of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha notified that there will be no question time during the monsoon session of parliament, which was cut short from September 14 to October 1 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and this zero hour will be limited in both rooms.
- Opposition MPs criticized the move, saying they would lose the right to question the government. An overview of what is happening in both houses during Question Time and Zero Hour:
What is Question Time and what does it mean?
Question Time is Parliament’s busiest hour. It is at this time that members pose questions to ministers and hold them accountable for the operation of their departments. The questions asked by parliamentarians are aimed at obtaining information and triggering appropriate action on the part of the ministries.
For the past 70 years, parliamentarians have successfully used this parliamentary apparatus to shed light on how government works. Their questions exposed financial irregularities and made public data and information on government operations. With the spread of Question Time since 1991, Question Time has become one of the most visible aspects of parliamentary functioning.
Asking government questions has a long history in our legislative bodies. Before independence, the first question posed to the government dates back to 1893. It was the responsibility of the town merchants, who had to supply the traveling officials.
What is Zero Hour?
- While question time is strictly regulated, zero hour is an Indian parliamentary innovation. The expression is not mentioned in the regulations.
- The concept of zero hour began organically in the first decade of the Indian parliament, when MPs felt the need to raise important national and electoral issues.
- During the early days, Parliament used to take a lunch break at 1 p.m. Therefore, the possibility for MPs to raise national issues without prior notice was offered at noon and could last for an hour until the House adjourns for lunch.
- This led to the hour being popularly known as Zero Hour and issues that arose during this time as Zero Hour presentations. Over the years, the presidents of both houses have given instructions to streamline the operation of Hora Cero to make it even more efficient.
- Its importance can be measured by the support it receives from citizens, the media, parliamentarians and presidents, although it is not part of the agreement.
How is the question time regulated?
Parliament has detailed rules to deal with all aspects of Question Time. And the presidents of the two houses are the final authority in conducting Question Time. For example, Question Time is usually the first hour of a parliamentary session. In 2014, Rajya Sabha President Hamid Ansari changed House Question Time from 11 a.m. At noon. The measure was to avoid the interruption of question time.
What kinds of questions are being asked?
Parliamentary rules provide guidelines on the types of questions that parliamentarians can ask. Questions should be limited to 150 words. They should be specific and not too general. The issue should also be related to an area of responsibility of the Government of India. Questions should not seek information about secret or pending matters in court. It is the presidents of the two houses who finally decide whether a question asked by a deputy will be admitted to receive a response from the government.
How often does Question Time happen?
The process of asking and answering questions begins with identifying the days on which Question Time will take place. When Parliament began in 1952, the Lok Sabha Rules of Procedure provided for Question Time to be held every day. Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, had scheduled Question Time two days a week. A few months later, this was changed to four days a week. Then, starting in 1964, Question Time was held at Rajya Sabha every day of the session.
As of now, Question Time in both Chambers takes place every day of the session. But there are two days when an exception is made. There is no question time on the day the President addresses the members of both Houses in the Central Hall. The president’s speech takes place at the beginning of a new Lok S
How does Parliament manage to get answers to so many questions?
- To simplify the response to questions posed by members, the departments are divided into five groups. Each group answers the questions on the day they have been assigned. For example, in the last session on Thursday, the ministries of civil aviation, labor, housing, youth and sports answered questions posed by the Lok Sabha MPs.
- This grouping of ministries is different for the two houses, so that ministers can be present in one house to answer questions. Thus, the Civil Aviation Minister responded to questions to Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, during the budget session.
- Parliamentarians can specify whether they want an oral or written answer to their questions. They can put an asterisk next to their question, indicating that they want the minister to answer that question on the floor. These are called asterisk questions.
- After the Minister’s response, the Member who asked the question and the other Members can also ask a supplementary question. This is the visible part of Question Time, where MPs are seen trying to corner ministers about the functioning of their departments on live television. Experienced MPs choose to ask an oral question when the answer to the question puts the government in an uncomfortable position.
How do ministers prepare their responses?
- The departments receive questions 15 days in advance so they can prepare their ministers for Question Time. They should also be prepared for specific follow-up questions that can wait in the Chamber. Government officials are available in a gallery so they can pass relevant notes or documents to help the minister answer a question.
- When parliamentarians try to collect data and information on how the government works, they prefer the answers to these questions in writing. These questions are called unanswered questions. The answers to these questions are placed on the Parliament table.
Are the questions reserved for ministers?
- Members often ask questions to hold ministers accountable. But the rules also provide you with a mechanism to ask your colleagues a question. Such a question should be limited to the role of a deputy in relation to a bill or resolution that he himself has put to the test or any other matter related to the functioning of the Chamber for which he is responsible. If allowed by the president, members can also ask a minister a question less than 15 days in advance.
Is there a limit to the number of questions that can be asked?
- The rules for how many questions can be asked in a day have changed over the years.
- In Lok Sabha, until the late 1960s, there was no limit to the number of no-follow-up questions that could be asked in one day. Now, Parliament’s rules limit the number of tracked and untracked questions a member can ask per day.
- The total number of questions asked by the deputies in the categories followed and not followed is put to a random vote. From the ballot in Lok Sabha, 20 questions marked with a star are selected to answer during Question Time and 230 are selected for written responses.
- Last year, a record was set when in a single day, after a gap of 47 years, all 20 questions marked with stars were answered in Lok Sabha.
Quad 2020
Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar will meet other Foreign Ministers from the Australia-India-Japan-US Quadrangle in Tokyo on Tuesday, seen as a major turning point for the group, led by mounting concerns about China in the region.
- Officials familiar with the agenda say that cooperation on 5G connectivity, cybersecurity, a supply chain initiative for manufacturing, maritime cooperation, infrastructure and connectivity, as well as distribution plans for the COVID-19 vaccine are areas where there are alternatives to Chinese initiatives.
- India’s participation in the Quad, the forum in which the United States, Japan and Australia also participate, has been criticized as a departure from New Delhi’s traditional policy of non-alignment.
- Over the years, India has experimented with alliances of different kinds: during World War I, some nationalists joined with Imperial Germany to establish the first Indian government-in-exile in Kabul; During World War II, Subhas Chandra Bose joined forces with Imperial Japan to establish a provisional government at Port Blair; and in independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, who publicized and advocated for non-alignment, signed security treaties with Bhutan, Nepal and Sikkim. Additionally, Nehru, who actively opposed American alliances in Asia, turned to the United States for military support in 1962.
- The Donald Trump administration is staunchly against alliances. More importantly, India has never asked for an alliance.
- Both countries, however, are interested in building issue-based coalitions in pursuit of common interests.
- In the past, India’s treaties with Nepal, Bangladesh, and Russia were aimed at meeting India’s security imperatives, whereas most of China’s alliances were primarily transactional in nature.
- Democratic India cannot be as brutally transactional as communist China; however, Raja Mohan concludes, New Delhi can learn a thing or two from how Beijing forged alliances.
- An India that puts its interests before doctrine will find coalitions like the Quad essential to its international outlook.
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) 2021 world university ranking
Only three educational institutes in India, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, the Indian Institute of Science and IIT Delhi are in the top 200 of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) 2021 world university ranking.
Institutes from United State and the United Kingdom and one from Switzerland (ETH Zurich-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in sixth place) dominated the top 10.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States ranked first, followed by l ‘Stanford University and Harvard University, which ranked second and third. The California Institute of Technology ranked fourth, while the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom ranked fifth.
Among the Indian institutes to be registered, IIT Bombay took first place at rank 172 while IISc, Bengaluru was ranked 185. IIT Delhi ranked 193 in the world. Globally, although no Indian institution is among the top 100 in the world, 26 Asian universities have achieved it. Of these 26, mainland China and South Korea have six each, Hong Kong and Japan have five each, Singapore has two universities, and Malaysia and Taiwan have one each.
These rankings are used as a benchmark by higher education applicants to choose their university. IIT Madras is ranked 275 while IIT Kharagpur ranked 314. The University of Delhi has ranked 501-510. A total of 21 Indian institutes are on the list of 1,000 educational institutions worldwide. In last year’s ranking, the same three institutes had reached the top 200. However, a total of 24 Indian institutes made it to the list of the 1,000 most important educational institutions.
In the QS World University Rankings, the institutes are evaluated on six metrics. These include academic reputation (40 percent weightage), employer reputation (10 percent), faculty/student ratio (20 percent), citations per faculty (20 percent), international faculty ratio/student ratio (5 percent each).
Most of India’s top higher education institutions have slipped into the latest edition, including at least 10 that were reported by the government as part of the Scheme Eminence Institution (IoE). IoEs that have declined in the past 12 months include IIT-Delhi, IIT-Madras, IIT-Kharagpur, IISc-Bangalore, University of Delhi, Central University of Hyderabad, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Institute Birla Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS-Pilani), Anna University and Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).
Overall, 21 Indian universities and institutes have found a place this year among the world’s top 1,000, as opposed to 25 last year. IIT-Bombay retains its status as country’s top university, followed by IISc-Bangalore, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Madras, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Roorkee, IIT-Guwahati, Delhi University and IIT-Hyderabad. Of the 21, 14 have fallen in rank and only four – IIT-Guwahati, IIT-Hyderabad, OP Jindal University, and Savitribai Phule Pune University – have improved their position. Private IoEs BITS-Pilani and VIT are among the four institutions that have been dropped from the top 1,000 universities. Last year, they were placed in the 801-1000 band.
The IoE program, a favorite project of the Prime Minister’s Office launched under the NDA-II government, aims to create an enabling architecture for 10 public and 10 private institutions to help enter the world’s top 500 in a decade and, Finally, in the top 100.
IoEs are proposed to have greater autonomy compared to other higher education establishments and the 10 government institutions, in addition to autonomy, will also earn Rs 1 billion each from the Ministry of Development of Human resources for five years.
The lower ranks provided by public IoEs are important because their selection for “eminence” status was based on their performance on the QS WUR, among other criteria. Although the first tranche of institutions selected for eminence status was announced in 2018, public institutions have not been able to make much progress, as they have received only about a quarter of the funds committed by the government for 2018-19 and 2019 -virt.
The rating agency attributes the “regressive performance” of Indian institutions to the low levels of internationalization and the teacher / student ratio. “Indian universities continue to experience low levels of internationalization and high class sizes, which impede better performance.
Although the Indian Institutes of Technology perform well in terms of reputation and research statistics, they also score low, relative to the world, in terms of teaching ability and levels of internationalization.
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QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022
Take a look at the top 10 colleges in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022.
QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education think tank and compiler of the world’s most viewed portfolio of university rankings, has launched the “QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022”.
- Subject rankings for institutions around the world are compiled from various lists. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was ranked number 1 in 12 subjects. It was also the best university in the world for the 10th consecutive year in the “QS World University Rankings 2022” which was released in June 2021.
- Universities were assessed in 34 specific subjects and five broader areas for the ‘QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022’
QS RATINGS METHODOLOGY
- Rankings are based on research quality and achievements, academic reputation, and employment of graduates.
- Published annually, Quacquarelli Symonds Limited subject rankings are designed to help prospective students find the best schools in their area of interest.
QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS BY SUBJECT 2022: ARTS AND HUMANITIES
- University of Oxford
- University of Cambridge
- Harvard University
- University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
- Stanford University
- Yale University
- Columbia University
- New York University (NYU)
- The University of Edinburgh
- University of California, Los Angeles
QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS BY SUBJECT 2022: ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Cambridge
- University of Oxford
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU)
- Stanford University
- ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
- National University of Singapore (NUS)
- Imperial College London
- University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
- Delft University of Technology
QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS BY SUBJECT 2022: LIFE SCIENCES AND MEDICINE
- Harvard University
- University of Oxford
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Cambridge
- Stanford University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Karolinska Institute
- UCL
- University of California, San Francisco
- Imperial College London
QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS BY SUBJECT 2022: NATURAL SCIENCES
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Harvard University
- University of Cambridge
- University of Oxford
- Stanford University
- ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
- California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
- Imperial College London
- The University of Tokyo
QS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS BY SUBJECT 2022: SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT
- Harvard University
- University of Oxford
- The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
- University of Cambridge
- Stanford University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- National University of Singapore (NUS)
- University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
- Yale University
- Bocconi University
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PVN – Modern Days Chankya
Pamulaparti Venkata Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996 and was the country’s first non-Hindi belt Prime Minister. He was the eighth Indian PM. He oversaw one of the most turbulent phases in India in recent memory with relative success.
- P V Narasimha Rao, had been central minister in the offices of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi and generally regarded as an appropriate successor to Rajiv Gandhi.
- He was the first Indian Prime Minister to come from Andhra Pradesh. His foresight had thrown India on a path of liberalization, the undulations of which have been felt so far.
- However, beyond the identity of a lawyer-turned-politician, Rao also left the unmistakable legacy of an academic and a linguist. As we celebrate the 95th birthday of the father of Indian economic reform,
Here are some points, you should know about him
- Born on June 28, 1921, near Karimnagar, in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, PV Narasimha Rao went to Fergusson College in Pune. He then attended the universities of Bombay and Nagpur, from where he obtained a law degree.
- Narasimha Rao was commonly known as the “modern Chanakya” for being visionary and carrying out difficult economic and political reforms at a time when India was undergoing one of the most serious economic crises.
- He could speak 9 Indian languages (Telugu, Hindi, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil and Urdu) and 8 foreign languages (English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Greek, Latin and Persian).
- He joined the Congress Party as an activist to fight for independence from Great Britain and was also a member of the Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly. Before becoming Prime Minister of India, Rao represented Andhra Pradesh at Lok Sabha.
- Rao played a vital role in the freedom struggle against the Nizam that ruled Hyderabad in the 1940s. With his cousin, he ran a Telugu weekly called Kakatiya Patrika from 1948 to 1955.
- After Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991, Congress elected Rao as chief and then assumed the office of Prime Minister. Narasimha Rao was the first Indian Prime Minister to lead a minority government for an entire period.
- Rao began his mission to reshape the Indian economy by transforming it into a free market. It had laid the foundation for trade liberalization and the reintegration of the Indian economy into the world economy. Under the Rao government, the rupee became a trading account.
- Initiated the “look east” policy. It was during his tenure that India recognized and rekindled its ties to Southeast Asia. The idea of a nuclear test in India was first mentioned by Narsimha Rao, although it was implemented by Atal Bihari Vyajpayee.
Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) survey – May
The IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) survey says that Indian manufacturing activity contracted in May due to weak demand and logistical challenges.
The decline was slightly slower than the historic contraction in April i.e the manufacturing PMI was only 30.8 in May, slightly higher than 27.4 in April.
In the PMI language, an impression greater than 50 means an expansion, while a lower score indicates a contraction. A national lockdown in April, combined with a collapse in export orders, reduced conditions in all areas of the highest margin and the collapse of new business at a record pace.
In May, the works were the most affected. Jobs were cut again and at a faster rate than the 15-year high in April. The PMI was already on a downward trend even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. After hitting a peak of 55.3 months in January, production fell to 51.8 in March.
“The biggest reduction in May highlights the challenges that businesses may face in recovering from this crisis, with moderate demand as the longevity of the pandemic remains uncertain”
said Elliot Kerr, economist at IHS Markit.
Although industrial activity partially resumed after April 20, manufacturing activity could not function fully. New orders fell for the second consecutive month. In addition, shortages of labor and raw materials remained widespread, while supply chains could not be established, industry agencies said. As a result, companies continued to cut production in the middle of the second quarter, according to the survey.
Weak demand from international markets contributed to the deterioration in the sales trend, and new foreign companies fell again in May.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that global measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 have continued to stifle exports. In April, the rate of contraction in exports increased sharply and outbound sales fell at the fastest rate in more than 15 years.
Experts predict that overall industrial production for April, data for which will be released later, will drop from 75 to 80%. According to data from the Industrial Production Index, a collapse in the manufacturing sector caused industrial production to drop 16.7% in March, after the blockade had only been in place for five days.
However, the PMI survey has shown that manufacturers remain optimistic about the one-year business outlook for May.
Public school enrollment increased by 5 percentage points
The report points out that the increase in public school enrollment is almost uniform across all age groups and levels.
The enrollment rate of children in public schools has increased from 65.8% to 70.3% in the past year, according to the latest Annual State of Education Report (ASER) survey. The ASER survey 2021 aims to capture the transition in the country’s education system as the Covid-19 pandemic shows signs of receding.
The trend of more students relying on courses, which also appeared in the ASER 2020 survey, continues, with the proportion rising from 32.5% to 39.2%. This is seen as the natural result of families seeking outside support due to the prolonged school closures, the report says.
The digital divide continues to be of concern, as up to 26.1% of children with smartphones at home do not have access to the device. Young children are poorer when it comes to access to smartphones, with up to 40% not having access to them despite having devices at home, the report says. The report was prepared on the basis of a telephone survey of 75,234 children aged 5 to 16 in 581 rural districts in 25 states.
Releasing the report, Wilima Wadhwa, director of the ASER Center, said the survey, which was carried out in September-October, mainly focused on registration, access to learning materials, digital devices and support for children at home. “While the situation is still far from normal, we are seeing major changes,” she said.
The survey covered up to 76,606 households in 17,814 villages. The center also reached 4,872 schools that reopened and 2,427 schools that were still closed when appeals were made to school authorities, including principals and teachers. Wadhwa said that while the enrollment rate of children in public schools remained stable until around 2020, it has shown a dramatic increase of five percentage points since last September.
According to the fine print, the proportion of children in public schools has increased from 64.3% in 2018 to 65.8% in 2020 to 70.3% in 2021. On the other hand, enrollment in private schools has decreased, for the first time in recent years, rising from 28.8% in 2020 to 24.4% in 2021.
“There can be several reasons for the increase in enrollment in public schools. Families suffered financial hardship during the pandemic. Additionally, during the pandemic, many affordable private schools have closed across the country. Many migrant families have returned to the villages, ”Wadhwa said. Moreover, the proportion of out-of-school children remained the same as last year at 4.6%.
The report points out that the increase in public school enrollment is almost uniform across all age groups and levels. For example, in the 7-10 age group between boys and girls, the proportion increased from 60% to 68% and from 68% to 72%, respectively.
However, there are large variations between states, with the increase mainly due to the larger northern states and all southern states except Telangana. In Uttar Pradesh, public school enrollment has increased astonishing 13 percentage points, compared to 12 percentage points in Kerala. All the southern states except Telangana saw an increase in enrollment of around 8 percentage points.
The other highlight of the report is that 39.2% of students surveyed relied on courses, up from 32.5% in 2020 and 28.6% in 2018. The jump was seen in all states, including Bihar and West Bengal, where students were found to be more dependent on tuition fees than their counterparts in other states even before the pandemic. In Kerala, however, there was a drop from 28.8% in 2020 to 18.8% for reasons still unknown, Wadhwa said.
In terms of access to digital devices, an important parameter to assess the state of education in the era of online courses, the survey found that smartphone penetration has doubled in rural India from 36.5% in 2018 to 61.8% in 2020. to 67.6%. in 2021. However, 26.1% of students surveyed said they did not have access to smartphones despite having one at home. The state-level breakout also shows a large disparity with Bihar and West Bengal showing smartphone penetration below 60 percent, while Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have near universal availability of these devices in households.
The ASER report also noted that the probability of a household owning a smartphone increases with the level of education of the parents. Although the availability of smartphones in homes across the country has seen a sharp increase since 2018, many states have outpaced Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the survey results show.
Overall, the availability of smartphones in the homes of enrolled students nearly doubled from 2018 to 2021, from 36.5% to 67.6%. But the figures by state show that the increase has been very uneven, with some lagging states catching up with the best-placed, while some need an additional boost despite some improvements.
For example, in 2018, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland had 58%, 53.4%, and 50% of enrolled student households, respectively, with at least one smartphone. In 2021, the corresponding shares increased to 95.6, 92.9 and 92.9%, respectively. In Kerala, where 80.9% of student families owned smartphones even in 2018, the share increased further to 97.5%.
By contrast, Bihar reported that 54.4% of surveyed student households with smartphones, up from 27.2% in 2018; West Bengal 58.4% versus 26.8% in 2018 and 58.9% in Uttar Pradesh versus 30.4% in 2018. The results reflect a recent report from the Union Ministry of Education that showed that the digital divide has disproportionately hit some states like Bihar.
The ASER report also noted that the probability of a household owning a smartphone increases with the level of education of the parents. “In 2021, more than 80% of children whose parents had studied to at least the ninth grade had a smartphone available at home, compared with just over 50% of children whose parents had studied until the ninth grade or less. “, says, capturing the impact of the pandemic-induced disruption on marginalized and economically oppressed people.
But a sign that even disadvantaged people have tried to catch up, figures show that even among children whose parents are in the low-educational category, more than a quarter of households had purchased a new smartphone for the night education of their children.
Either way, children’s access to smartphones in a family has been found to be limited across all income groups. “Although more than two-thirds of all enrolled children have a smartphone at home, just over a quarter have full access to it for their studies (27%), while almost half have partial access (47%) and the remaining quarter do not have any access (26.1%) ”, says the report. Even in terms of access, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are at the bottom of the ranking. In Bihar, 53.8% of children in households equipped with a smartphone cannot access it, 34.3% and 46.5% in West Bengal.
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PUB G Banned
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) announced on Wednesday the ban of PUBG Mobile along with 117 other apps in India. PUBG Mobile is a very popular mobile game, with millions of active players in India in 2019. The game will soon be restricted by Indian ISPs and will be removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Today, we’re going to take a look at 10 cool facts about PUBG Mobile that you might not know about.
PUBG Mobile is more popular than PUBG PC
According to a 2019 report from The Esports Observer, PUBG Mobile had around 400 million players in its database with 50 million active players per day. This greatly reduces the number of daily active PUBG PC players. According to Dak.gg, PUBG PC currently has around 8,00,000 active players per day.
Highest PUBG Mobile downloads are from India
According to Sensor Tower, PUBG Mobile has the highest number of downloads in India. The report claims that India has the lion’s share of downloads, with over 175 million downloads. A more recent report suggests that just before the ban, the game was downloaded over 200 million times in India.
PUBG Mobile TV Announcement
PUBG Mobile is the only mobile game to show its announcement on Indian TV. The TV ad was 27 seconds long and was shown on various Indian channels such as & Pictures.
Why is PUBG called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds?
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is the full form of PUBG, but where does it come from? Player Unknown was the game label of Brendan Greene, the game’s founder. And because the game has the concept of huge battlegrounds, he called it PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
PUBG Story
PUBG released the backstory for the game, like the formation of Erangel or the story of Miramar. All of these background videos can be viewed on the official PUBG Mobile YouTube channel.
PUBG Mobile Indian Web Series
PUBG Mobile has become so popular that it spawned its own Indian web series called Dosti Ka Naya Maidan, which was posted on the official PUBG Mobile India YouTube channel.
PUBG Mobile was developed by Tencent Games
PUBG PC was developed and distributed by PUBG Corporation under BlueHole, located in Korea. Seeing the popularity of the franchise, Tencent Games contacted them and developed a similar game for mobile devices. Majority control of PUBG Mobile is in the hands of Tencent Games.
What did the first map called Erangel look like?
Erangel was the first and is also the main card in the game. Players reject his name as fictitious. But no. It was inspired by the name of Brendan Greene’s daughter, Eryn, whom he calls an angel. The combination of the two constitutes Erangel.
Real Life Places In The Game
The game consists of many fictional places and buildings, but it also consists of many real life architectures including the school, which is from the infamous Chernobyl, Russia. The shelter is the abandoned storage of nuclear weapons, in Feodosia – Ukraine. The ruins are based in the mountains of Dagestan, Russia. Pochinki is inspired by Yasnaya Polyana in Russia.
Bots
Many people wonder why they find so many bots in the game. These AI-generated bots are there by design to build a new player’s confidence in the game. Up to level 10, most players are made to play primarily with bots on the map. The game slowly removes them as players gain experience.
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