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Happy Birthday ARR

A living legend. Download a tribute video(11mb -- mpg) created by Prashant C. Pillai on Rahman's birthday here. (with original soundtrack)

IBN's citizen journalism initiative

Surprise

If The Hindu is to be believed:

The Speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly has praised the Jammu and Kashmir Government for the quick measures taken for relief and rehabilitation of earthquake victims.

The speaker, Chau. Amir Hussain, wasn't quoted by the newspaper though. So that leaves some room for speculation. Given the heat in the national assembly, probably denial of having made such a comment would be the first thing in the agenda on his way back home.

On procrastination

Ok, so I am a procrastinator. There's nothing I can do about it. But there's hope. Check out why.

Would India ever move up the value chain?

Ankan has an interesting post on the same.

No water to clean? No problem

With impending water crisis, this probably would come to our rescue.

Igniting young minds

As I was sifting through the daily installment of Google alerts that I receive in my inbox, this particular news item caught my attention:

In order to spread the culture of mathematical competence at all levels of the society, Tata Steel, in association with Orissa state government, will set up an institute at Bhubaneswar in Orissa. Christened 'The Institute of Mathematics and Applications', the institute would be built at a cost of Rs five crore in the initial phase, Tata Steel said in a release on Friday. Source

(Yeah the Google alert keyword was Bhubaneswar, my hometown) Digging a bit more through Google revealed:

The Institute, which originally started as a society during mid-1990s, was hitherto running at a government quarter at Unit IX area of the City. It has already received invitation for research with a university from Korea, while a similar offer for collaborative research from a Canadian university has come its way. In fact, its recently launched rural talent search programme became so popular that Non Resident Indians too came forward with support. Only that it did not have much in terms of infrastructure but this too soon will be a thing of past. Master-plan of the institute's proposed campus has been designed by architect Karan Grover. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Patnaik said the State Government is committed to make the institute a world class institution. Its rural talent search competition has already fired the imagination of the youth, he added. Source

This institute was operating from a house – in American language that’s like running an academic institution from your garage. And see the recognition they have received in such a short time even with dismal supporting infrastructure. Hardwork does pay off. However, what particularly intrigued me about the institute was the nature of their projects. They are currently focusing on two projects.

• A study of Tropical Cyclone with a Regional Model
• Rural Mathematics Talent Search

“Rural maths talent search? How would that help; these kids would have to worry about the next day’s meal, forget about their motivation to study,” would argue some. But my personal experience has been otherwise. Majority of my friends who were really good at studies, were in fact from rural background. While in my childhood I had access to science channels like Discovery and National Geographic, they just had one room school at their disposal to get inspired in whatever way they could. Many of them are now working in leading American universities. It just takes a small spark to ignite the minds of children in the villages. That spark could come in any from: an invitation to a national lab, a guest lecture from a scientist; or a simple pat on the back from the village science teacher. Take for example Raghunath Mashlekar’s words:

My own turn toward science began at a poor school in Mumbai (the local name for Bombay). I remember Principal Bhave, who taught us physics. One day, he took us outside the classroom to demonstrate how to find the focal length of a convex lens. He focused the sun's rays onto a piece of paper and told us that the distance between the paper and the lens was the focal length. Then he held the lens in place until the paper burned. That's when he turned to me and said, "Mashelkar, if you can focus your energies like this and not diffuse them, you can burn anything in the world!" I decided at that moment to become a scientist.

That’s all it took to ignite his mind. He’s currently the president of the Indian National Science Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Society (London), a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), and a Foreign Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. I hope the rural talent search project ignites many such minds.

Regulation vs banning

In a recent judgment Bombay High Court banned telecast of movies with U/A or A rating. For those who are unaware of film rating certification in India might refer this to get an idea. The litigation was brought forward by a School teacher who probably would have felt that the telecast of these movies in regular channels contradict the presence of existing rating system for movies.

Cable operators are set to move the Supreme Court against the ban on adult films on television. Otherwise, they say, they will have to block all movie channels. On Wednesday, the Bombay high court restrained cable operators from showing any film that does not have a 'U' (unrestricted) censor certificate. Source

I think she’s correct in her argument. Kids today are exposed to more vulgarity and violence than the good old days of Doordarshan. Moreover the Indian movie industry hardly caters to the children, with movies like Hanuman releasing once in a decade or something. However, the approach of the esteemed High Court has been somewhat like Microsoft security patches that hardly cater to the root cause of the problem. Since there are no dedicated channels that cater to adult entertainment, some form of such entertainment is bound to be pushed into regular television channels. Why? Because television channels are desperate to increase their TRP ratings and adults wouldn’t mind to switch on to a channel that provides some titillation. This phenomenon has spilled over to print media as well; newspapers like Times of India and Asian Age, could be considered good sources of soft porn if we go by government policies of censorship. This in a way is more detrimental particularly with respect to kids than having dedicated adult channels in the first place. Having dedicated adult channels would obviate the need for providing titillating content in regular programming, besides having other advantages like enabling parents to use child lock controls on their television sets that would effectively sanitize content that their kids would view on TV. But the culture moguls sitting in the policy making bodies would never dare think about this. The government leaves no stone unturned in preventing any possibility of adult channels being accessed through television. Just recently the Congress government banned three such adult channels.

Now you see them now you don't. The game of hide and seek that has been going on the last few years between adult channels trying to get around existing restrictions and the authorities has come to the fore again. The government has just clamped down on three erotic channels beaming off Asiasat 3 over Indian skies. Source

In my opinion the government should act more like a regulator than a body that censors content. An effective rating mechanism should be put in place and channels should be rated according to the content they wish to air. Any deviation by channels, in terms of content, from their original rating specification, should be punished with huge financial penalties. Moreover an independent regulatory body should be constituted. (Gandhi's three monkeys image: Source)

Women bloggers

IBN has an interesting feature on Indian women bloggers titled Bindaas Bindi Bloggers:

Indian women shackled by the bonds of family and society are finally finding their own space - in cyberspace. Anonymous blogs are springing up all around and on them, young women are exploring their sexuality and breaking all rules. more