Counterview

By Rajiv Shah  Are journalists being misunderstood even by well-meaning people? I was to kickstart by quoting an article published in theprint.in titled “ED (Enforcement Directorate) says NewsClick used Rs 30 cr ‘mystery remittances’ to ‘pay Navlakha, CPM IT cell member’.” This article has invited a wild comment from a person who is known to be editing a well-known left-leaning blog.  An old time friend since my college days in Delhi University, referring to this article, said on his Facebook timeline: “An absolutely unethical hatchet job by The Print against NewsClick that descends to unprecedented lows in ass-licking. But am I surprised? Yes, at those who still thought Shekhar Gupta is a journalist with integrity. This is him in his true colours. #StandbyNewsClick.” I am referring to the FB post as an example of where do activists, particularly Leftists, go out of the way while referred to “media”. When they refer to media, they mean corporate media, but they forget a major ...

By Prof Utpal K De, Dr Simi Mehta  Covid-19 has resulted in a disruption of trade as well as market linkage across the globe. The responses of various countries have been observed in the form of a structural shift from participating in global supply chains to looking inwardly. Lockdown of the economies hit global supply chains by halting the process of production and output.

By A Representative  Despite tall promises, Jharkhand’s elderly, widows and disabled continue to be denied pensions, a civil society-sponsored public nearing (jan sunwai) on social security pensions has been told. On February16, hundreds of elderlies, single women and differently-abled reached Chaibasa (West Singhbhum, Jharkhand) to participate in the jan sunwai.

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ* ‘Apolitical’ is both a word and a concept; it is reflective of one’s attitude and behaviour towards the realities that grip people anywhere. It essentially means having no interest in or association with politics. It is also defined as ‘politically neutral; without political attitudes, content or bias’. In ordinary parlance, for the ones who cry hoarse about being ‘apolitical’ it just means not getting involved in politics; because politics is ‘dirty’- and any involvement would mean repercussions on oneself or family or the institution one represents.

By A Representative  Ahmedabad police allegedly used brute force to break up an assembly of migrant workers demanding decent housing. Hundreds of workers had gathered before the district collector’s office, Ahmedabad, to submit a memorandum to the district collector demanding that their settlement be enumerated as slums and basic services like light and drinking water be provided.

By A Representative  In an effort to bridge the learning gaps among students of primary grade (classes 1 to 5) in Odisha arisen during the lockdown period, a new initiative called Mo Chatashalee has been aunched in Bhubaneswar by civil society organization (CSO) Atmashakti Trust and its allies Odisha Shramajeebee Mancha (OSM) and Mahila Shramajeebee Mancha, Odisha (MSMO). Odia film actor Varsha Priyadarshini inaugurated the initiative.

By Dr Anjusha Gawande* “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” … Since its inception, the year 2020 has impacted the lives of every individual in one way or other, as the COVID-19 pandemic had begun to spread its negative impact from one country to another, one state to another, one city to another, and one family to another. I remember the month of January, reading news about this catastrophic start of pandemic spread in China, that time we did not even imagine that it will spread globally and slow down wheels of life across the globe from east to west. This pandemic has impinged every sector including education. As a preventive measure, governments across the globe decided to shut down schools, colleges, and universities. Subsequently, pre-primary to higher education, all the levels of education institutions stopped operating without any certainty. Largely, India has 1.6 million schools including primary, secondary schools, 52,000 higher education institutes including u...