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Young Indians bag $50,000pa scholarships
from 2019-10 Sydney (1)
by Indian Link
USyd takes in first batch of students under prestigious new $500,000 scholarship program
BY RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA
Nineteen young students from India have started at the University of Sydney this semester as recipients of a prestigious new scholarship program specially designed for Indian students.
These include Madhullikaa Singh from Bombay and Aryan Bhatia from Delhi, who have received $200,000 each for their Bachelors’ degree programs.
The Sydney Scholars India Scholarship scheme, worth $500,000 per annum in total, was announced this year, and includes ten $20,000 per annum grants and fifteen $10,000 grants besides the two major grants of $50,000 per annum.

The first cohort of the scholars program was welcomed to the University in an induction ceremony recently.
“I was overwhelmed at how bright and clever, articulate and visionary these students are,” Vice-Principal of External Relations at the University of Sydney, Tania Rhodes-Taylor told Indian Link. “We are really proud to have them here at the University of Sydney.”
The students, undergraduate as well as postgraduate, went through a rigorous selection process before winning the scholarships.
Not only did they have to demonstrate a strong academic record to meet the university’s entry requirements, they also had to write a paper on their ‘big idea’ that will improve Indian society.
Aryan Bhatia, a Bachelor of Engineering Honours student, wrote his paper on reducing crop wastage, one of the more pressing agriculture problems in India. His ‘big idea’ is to create an app that farmers can use to notify buyers as soon as harvest takes place. 40% of India’s crop is currently wasted as it does not get to the storage facilities in time. Having grown up on a farm, Aryan is passionate about making the agriculture sector more efficient.
For Madhullikaa Singh, the passion lies in changing social attitudes. Her wellestablished Instagram blog Talk the Taboo played a starring role in her submission, showing the teenager’s efforts in sparking conversations about topics such as mental health, LGBTQI rights, sexual assault and menstruation.
“The idea of social media is to connect,” Madhullikaa told Indian Link, “but that’s not possible if you’re putting out carefully chosen pics of yourself. I focus on people in my life who lead far from perfect lives - and may even be vulnerable because of the experiences they’ve had thanks to toxic masculinity, eating disorder, slut shaming, depression - but are still so inspiring. They’re dealing with their issues even though they may be challenging, and talking about it is healing. It’s neither victimising nor romanticising their issues, instead it is empowering. From the audience’s perspective, this process helps create adults who are well-informed, aware and have empathy. In fact, it’s been a process of growth for me as well.”
Madhullikaa, a Bachelor of Arts and Advanced Studies student, is hoping her blog grows to reach an intercultural and international audience here in Australia.
“The University of Sydney has been producing leaders for more than 160 years and we are proud to be continuing that tradition with this new scholarship scheme,” Rhodes-Taylor said. “We are delighted that we have the opportunity to help educate the next generation of leaders from India. This scholarship scheme gives really bright students, who are passionate about giving back to India, the opportunity to develop their global horizons.”
“We were astounded by the quality of responses we got,” she revealed. “Some 200 applications came in, and 144 of these qualified. From these, 19 were finally selected. If we had the sums, we would have taken on more, but we wanted to make the value of the scholarships meaningful and truly transformational.”
Of the 70,000 students currently enrolled at the university, 41% are overseas students, Rhodes-Taylor revealed, adding that there are 140 countries represented at the campus. India makes up the second largest source of students.
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Gandhi Solar Park, peace garden inaugurated at UN Leaders from around the world joined hands in the spirit of Gandhian universality to inaugurate a solar facility and roof garden at the UN headquarters and a garden with trees from across the US dedicated to the Mahatma on his 150th birth year.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Prime Ministers Narendra Modi, Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Andre Holness of Jamaica, Jacinda Arden of New Zealand and Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore placed their hands on a glass globe to inaugurate them remotely during an event convened by India entitled ‘Leadership Matters: Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi in the Contemporary World.’
Coloured lights throbbed in the globe as the solar array came online, catching the sun's last rays of the day and a video of the park lit up.
The Gandhi Solar Park costing $1 million and having an output of 50 kilowatts of electricity is located on the roof of the Conference Building at the headquarters and is a gift from India to the UN to provide it clean energy.
India also donated the Gandhi Peace Garden made up of 150 trees located at a university campus in Old Westbury as another environmental gift.
Marking the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi, the two gifts symbolise India's commitment to the environment by producing clean power and capturing carbon emissions in the trees.
Accepting the gifts, Guterres said, "I commend those who have decided to pay tribute to Gandhi's legacy by marking this anniversary with a project connected to one of the Sustainable Development Goals - a fitting way to honour this most actionoriented leader."
He thanked India for supporting the elimination of single-use plastic at the UN by providing reusable bags and kits, and for installing solar panels and a green roof on top of the Conference Building.
How WhatsApp was extensively abused during India elections
Despite WhatsApp's efforts to reduce the spread of fake news by limiting the number of forwards to five, the platform was extensively abused to spread unfounded rumours and create misinformation campaigns during recent elections in India and Brazil, a study has revealed.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp particularly failed in blocking the propagation of misinformation campaigns through public groups, said the study conducted by researchers from Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
In the study, the researchers wanted to find out how effective WhatsApp's efforts were in countering the spread of misinformation circulating on the platform.
They analysed the data around the Election Day, 60 days before and 15 after, in three countries - India, Brazil and Indonesia.
"Our results suggest that the current efforts deployed by WhatsApp can offer significant delays on the information spread, but they are ineffective in blocking the propagation of misinformation campaigns through public groups when the content has a high viral nature," the authors wrote in a paper published on pre-print repository arXiv.org.
The research pointed out that WhatsApp allows the connection among like-minded individuals through chat groups which have a limit of 256 users and can be private or public.
While in the case of private groups, new members must be added by a member who assumes the role of group administrator, for public groups, the access is by invitation links that could be shared to anyone or be available on the Web.
As chat groups on WhatsApp are mostly private, harder to monitor than Facebook or Twitter discussions.
The researchers joined several WhatsApp public groups and analysed messages posted on these platforms.
Their analysis showed that while most of the images (80 per cent) last no more than two days, there are images in Brazil and in India that continued to appear even after two months of the first appearance.
And even if the 80 per cent images last no more than two days in WhatsApp that can be already enough to infect half of users in public groups, leaving 20 per cent of messages with a time span sufficient to be viral.
"Our results show that a content can spread quite fast through the network structure of public groups in WhatsApp, reaching later the private groups and individual users," the study said.
In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, WhatsApp introduced several measures to prevent the spread of misinformation on its platform.
Besides limiting the number of messages one can forward at a time, the instant messaging platform also added a label that highlights when a user receives a message that has been forwarded to them. It also launched campaigns to educate people on the dangers of fake news.
According to WhatsApp, 9 in 10 messages on the platform are sent between two people and the average group has less than 10 people.
The company had said it will continue to look for ways to help address these challenges through its product and partnership with civil society.
Taj under full moon to attract many more visitors
Come the next full moon in October, many more Taj Mahal lovers will be able to view the iconic 17th century monument to eternal love from a spot across the Yamuna river that has been newly developed by the authorities.
The new spot in the city's Mehtab Bagh for viewing the Taj after sunset was formally inaugurated recently.
The Agra Development Authority (ADA), in cooperation with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), has developed a couple of vantage points across the river at the rear of the Taj Mahal from where tourists can witness the beauty of the majestic monument under moonlight. The movement of the visitors will be without hassles as these spots are beyond the restricted 500-metre security perimeter around the Taj Mahal.
Indian and Finnish Foreign Affairs Ministers S. Jaishankar and Pekka Haavisto respectively, unveil a statue of Gandhiji at Helsinki.

Infrastructure facilities are being developed under the Pro-Poor Tourism Policy in the area that includes six villages, Humayun's mosque and the GyarahSeedhi monuments. A new bridge built over Yamuna - Ambedkar Setu - has made transport easy and convenient.
ADA Vice Chairperson Shubhra Saxena said: "A special bench, replica of Diana Bench in the Taj Mahal, has been specially provided for people to take photographs."
A committee will soon take a decision on the ticket rates to be charged from visitors.
More such vantage points are expected to be developed along the river to attract tourists.
However, River Connect Campaign member DevashishBhattacharya said, "Before tourists are attracted to these new spots, it would be necessary to clean up the Yamuna and fill it with water."
Pandit Ravi Shankar's memorabilia found in Mumbai scrap shop
Ausaja, a film archivist and poster collector, has hit the goldmine in a local scrap shop of Mahim, Mumbai. He has discovered a tattered suitcase that belonged to Pandit Ravi Shankar and his son Shubho, which contains original musical notes, handwritten letters, rare photographs, old press clippings, autographed brochures, and even a poem written and signed by legendary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak.
"I am a film archivist and a poster collector and I keep going to places where this antique material or junk material is sold in the hope I might find something on cinema,” Ausaja told IANS.“I am a cinema archivist so when someone called me saying they have some material on Pandit Ravi Shankar, I was not really interested because he has done very few films. Still, I asked if there were any posters. They said there were photographs. I thought I'd get photographs of him composing for Shatranj Ke Khiladi or maybe Gulzar's Meera or so many rare films he did," Ausaja added. He said that when he reached the scrap shop there was no material pertaining to cinema.
"There were perhaps one or two files with names of Bengali and Punjabi films written, and some notations. Then I realised these are actual notations written by him in the file. These are music notations in his handwriting. That was surprising. I thought it was precious and needs to be preserved," Ausaja said.
He added that there were beautiful illustrations and signatures in Bengali as well as in English.
"There are a lot of brochures - some pertaining to his concert in Russia, so (these are) in Russian language. So in his own handwriting, (outlining) where it happened and on what date," he said.
Some press clippings were found too.
"He went to Czechoslovakia, China and all those countries so (there are) press clipping in those languages which appeared on him. So there are two three files of the press clipping from 1954-'55," he added.
Ausaja also found some pictures of Pandit Ravi Shankar's wife Annapurna Devi.
"There are a lot of photographs. I found Annapurna Devi's photographs, which is impossible to find now because she became a recluse and never got publicized anywhere," he said.
A poem written on a Viennese hotel's letterhead and signed by legendary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak was also found in the suitcase.
"Another startling discovery in the whole suitcase was a handwritten poem by Ritwik Ghatak. It has his signature," he said.
Ravi Shankar was 92 when he succumbed to respiratory problems in 2012.
'KashmirOnomics' to speed up economic growth in JK, Ladakh
In a bid to create avenues for economic growth in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh regions, prominent civil society members have come together for the 'KashmirOnomics' initiative, which is a think tank to help chart an economic roadmap for the development of the newly formed Union Territories.
The initiative aims to bring together economists and representatives from the industries, social groups as well as the government to deliberate various elements and strategies for the durable economic growth of the entire region.
The exercise will eventually culminate in the formulation of a set of recommendations which will outline the key focus areas and action points to kickstart the region's economic development. The recommendations will be vetted by groups of experts at various meetings and conferences.
Siddharth Zarabi, an Indian journalist, said, "The Centre and the UT governments are focused on the entire gamut of issues in the region and are committed to ensure clean governance and rapid economic development in the region. This requires multiple initiatives that provide an impetus to sustainable and scalable growth of the region.The talented and hard-working people of the two Union Territories need greater opportunities that can only come through an economic roadmap based on stability, safety and security."
Co-founder Pranshu Sikka said, "It is essential to find a way for the new Union Territories to flourish. We believe that the economy of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has multiple monetisation avenues, each of which can be harnessed to give much-needed impetus to economic growth.
"Like any other opportunity, this one comes with its own set of challenges and we are confident that they will be addressed by the government with the active participation and involvement of all groups of society."
The think tank is also inviting inputs - in the form of insights, ideas and analysisfrom various stakeholders to contribute to the initiative.
In a first, northeast to introduce seaplanes to boost tourism
In an ambitious initiative to boost tourism, the state-run Airport Authority of India (AAI) will introduce water aerodrome or seaplanes in three locations in Assam for the first time, a top AAI official said.
"After a countrywide study, it was decided to introduce water aerodrome or seaplanes in three locations in Assam. To boost tourism and connectivity, three river fronts were selected in Assam to introduce the water based ferry for the first time in India," AAI Regional Executive Director Sanjeev Jindal told IANS.
He said, "At the end of next year or by early 2021, the water aerodrome or seaplane services would be launched in Brahmaputra river and Umrangso reservoir. The three locations selected for the seaplanes include Guwahati, Umrangso (in Dima Hasao district) and the famous Kaziranga National Park."
"Three jetties would be built in three locations at a cost of Rs 50 crores. Some other small works have to be done before launching the new ferrying mode," he added.
"An area of open water that can be used by seaplanes or amphibious planes for landing and take-off is called a water aerodrome. They could be connected to the terminal building on land where the pilot can choose to dock like a ship."
"The water aerodrome or seaplanes services were planned to be introduced under the UDAN (UdeDeshKaAamNaagrik) scheme, announced by the government earlier.
"UDAN is under the regional connectivity scheme that aims at regional airport development with the objective of 'let the common citizens of the country fly' by making air travel affordable and widespread, to boost inclusive national economic development."
For the first time in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used a seaplane in Ahmedabad in December 2017.
Another senior AAI official said that budget airline SpiceJet had conducted seaplane operations in Ahmedabad and Mumbai on a trial basis.
"The Union government had earlier planned to launch water aerodrome or seaplane services in six or seven sites. These are Guwahati river front, Umrangso reservoir and Kaziranga National Park (all in Assam), Nagarjuna Sagar (Andhra Pradesh-Telangana), Sabarmati river front (Gujarat), Shatrunjay Dam, Statue of Unity (SardarSarovar Dam) (both in Gujarat).

Meanwhile, the AAI has undertaken projects worth Rs 3,500 crores for the expansion and upgradation of airports in the northeastern states, where 13 airports are currently operational.
The AAI has allocated Rs 1,250 crore for Guwahati airport, Rs 650 crore for Imphal (Manipur), Rs 500 crore for Agartala (Tripura), Rs 650 crore for a greenfield airport at Hollongi in Arunachal Pradesh, Rs 450 crore for the Lengpui Airport in Mizoram and other airports in the region.
Jindal said that from the tourism point of view, there is a huge scope for developing air connectivity between the northeastern region and neighbouring countries including China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
"Under the Regional Connectivity Schemes, air connectivity would be developed among the northeastern states. Helicopter services would also be extended in several areas of the region," he said.
According to the official, there are 10-12 airports in the northeastern states which were in use many years ago. Now, these airports or airstrips can be upgraded to operate smaller aircraft.
"Aviation industry is the fastest growing industry across the world. India has the third largest aviation market in the world," the AAI Regional Executive Director pointed out.
He said that after Guwahati airport, Agartala and Imphal airports are being upgraded to international standards.
Kerala tops Niti Aayog's school education quality index
The government policy think-tank Niti Aayogon 30 Sept launched the school education quality index wherein states, including Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam have been ranked as the best-performing among large states, each achieving an overall performance score above 60 per cent, while Uttar Pradesh figures last in the ranking.
As per the report, Kerala has the highest overall performance score of 76.6 per cent, while Uttar Pradesh came last among the large states, with an overall performance score of 36.4 per cent.
Among 20 large states in the country, 18 have improved their overall performance between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 in what is referred to in the report as "incremental performance".
Haryana, Assam and Uttar Pradesh showed the most improvement in their performance in 2016-17, in comparison to the base year of 2015-16.
The School Education Quality Index assesses states on the basis of learning outcomes, access, equity, infrastructure and facilities, using survey data, self-reported data from states and third-party verification. Tamil Nadu was the top performer in access and equity outcomes, while Karnataka led in learning outcomes. Haryana had the best infrastructure and facilities.
The index is aimed at evaluating the performance of states and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector.
Among the UTs, Chandigarh has the highest overall performance score of 82.9 per cent, while Lakshadweep ranks last, with an overall performance score of 31.9 per cent. Delhi was reported to have performed better on governance processes aiding the outcomes category.
Among the smaller states category, Manipur emerged as the best performer. West Bengal refused to participate in the evaluation process and has not been included in the rankings.
The school education quality index, developed through a collaborative process including key stakeholders the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the World Bank and sector experts, consists of 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education. IANS