Online lessons have emerged as the go-to solution for schools looking to resume classes despite lockdown.Online lessons are helping educational institutions around India beat the Covid-19 lockdown to push ahead with the academic calendar.

Tens of thousands of students are glued to computers and smartphone screens as teachers and students enter a new world of virtual lectures, tutorials, and assessments. Though e-learning poses a challenge to both students and teachers over technology and access, it is keeping everyone busy with lectures, worksheets and assignments.  

Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, e-learning was growing at an unprecedented pace. According to the 2019 Global Learning Technology Investment Patterns report, EdTech companies around the world pulled an investment of $18.66 billion in 2019. It will be interesting to see if the changes coronavirus has caused in the education system stay forever. Let us explore other benefits of online classes-
Since the virus outbreak forced the educational institutes to adopt online classes, there is a considerable improvement in the attendance of students. While there is no need to travel long distances for classes, today’s tech-savvy and pro-digital generation are loving the concept of online classes. There is a significant improvement in participation and interaction. Naturally, the biggest advantage to studying online is the increase in flexibility. You can study when you want to, how you want to, where you want to.

e-learning is going to majorly impact education and herald the arrival of a new normal.  

Priya Yadav,
In the year 1989-90, a film was being shown in a township in North India. As the villainous character of Shakti Kapoor started raping the character Anita Raj on the screen, the people in the haul started shouting and enjoying the screen. Then suddenly the power went out, by the time the generator was run and the screen lighted again, the audience started creating an uproar. And when electricity came, it was said that the scene should be played again.

A large number of male viewers of that era loved the rape scenes. Such scenes were deliberately planted in the corners of the posters installed here and there in the market so that people can know that this film also has a rape scene. “Paan” shops just outside the theater used to complain that the rape scene was shown, but the clothes did not tear properly, something did not show properly, it was not so much fun. However, there were also some such audience present in the cinema, whose sympathy was with the character of the victim. It is difficult to say that the filmmakers of that era started to capitalize on this trend by understanding the mindset of the people, or that the interest and mentality of the people were created due to the scenes served by the filmmakers.

Read the news every day, and be ashamed, because now we have no choice but to be embarrassed. Every half an hour a ‘baby girl’ is being raped and every hour humanity is shaming. So we need permanent solutions. Counselor Anuja Gupta says that ‘sexual harassment of children is a forced act. If a criminal sexually abuses a child, then it increases the chances that he should do all this with other children as well. So if we want to stop sexual abuse, then we really have to stop it. Instead of being jailed, we should treat them.

1. HUSBANDS AND WIVES (1992)

Husbands and Wives (1992) is about a New York based couple, Gabe (Woody Allen) and Judy (Mia Farrow) who are shocked to discover that their best friends, Sally (Judy Davis) and Jack (Sydney Pollack) are splitting up. The news of their divorce makes them question their own relationship.

This film is so close to reality. The characters are very human, this film captures the complicated nature of people like no other. Like us the characters make stupid decisions and fuck up a lot. One of the examples of this is Woody’s character falling in love with a certain type of women. Even though he knows that they’ll bring him down, he cannot resist them.

It also shows how our mind functions in weird ways, how we would feel that we are capable of doing a certain thing or we imagine a specific type of future to be better than the present but actually things do not always pan out that well. It portrays the struggles of being human in a very authentic way. “Nobody’s got it perfect” is a line that the characters repeat several times, a lot of it sounds like the self talk that I give to myself when I’m facing going through shit.

This film is chatty, full of free flowing conversations like all of his films. And there are a lot of references to pop culture and literature. Woody Allen is more of a philosopher here. He deals with heavy subjects with a lot of humour. The writing is one of his finest, his eccentric and genuine style of showing middle aged people facing adversity in life makes him stand out from other filmmakers. His characters are full of charm, and of course he himself brings a lot of charisma on screen. Special props to Carlo Di Palma, his handheld cinematography is mesmerising.

Overall Husbands and Wives is amongst Allen’s best works. It’s edgy, deep, realistic and a lot of fun.

1. POINT BLANK (1967)

Point Blank (1967) is about a mysterious crook named Walker who is double crossed and left for dead. He Survives and now he goes after the money that was stolen from him.

One of the most influential films of the 60s this film splendidly mixes the styles of noir and the European New Wave. While the film has most elements of a noir – an intricate plot, an existential hero, a femme fatale, witty dialogue, use of flashbacks, high contrast lighting and claustrophobic settings, the excellent composition will remind you of European cinema. Every frame is brimming with visual metaphors.

Lee Marvin steals the show as Walker, his presence is frightening. He’s given a subdued performance. Walker is a very interesting character, he’s calm and silent but he knows his shit. I loved how John Boorman has created this dreamy atmosphere. The way he’s used colours, lighting and music to elevate that dreamy feeling is truly masterful. One example would be this night club brawl, the way Boorman has utilised these technical aspects makes it look really trippy. Boorman has gone with an unconventional narrative style for that time, alot of plot details are kept ambiguous and I really appreciated how Boorman has made a ballsy film for intelligent viewers.

Overall Point Blank is an extremely stylish noir about revenge, betrayal and passion that has stunning visuals and a trippy style along with a terrific performance by Lee Marvin.

1. THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973)

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) is about a small time Boston gangster who’s about to serve a few years in jail. In order avoid jail time he becomes an informant for the authorities and snitches on his friends.

This underrated gangster flick takes it’s time to tell the story, the slow pacing helps in creating this sense of reality. This is one of the most REAL gangster films I’ve ever seen. The way it portrays the working class of the Boston area is truly astonishing. It also makes commentary on an important subject – the gun laws of the United States. A huge portion of the film is about the illegal buying and selling of guns.

This film is about this washed up lonely middle aged guy who has a lot of friends but they are not actually his friends. We are shown that there is no loyalty even amongst thieves. They would betray each other for selfish reasons without the blink of an eye. While watching the film I could see how it has influenced quite a few recent movies/ shows of this genre. Mostly it reminded me of The Sopranos and a little bit of The Departed.

Robert Mitchum has given an excellent performance as Eddie Coyle, he’s this existential and courageous low life. He underplays the character, and I think that’s what makes Eddie Coyle believable. Every word he utters has this cold weight. Peter Yates has done a phenomenal job with the direction, there are these two sequences, one involving a heist and the other involving the authorities tailing a guy that almost made me applaud.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a meditative gangster film with a great script, edgy dialogues and a killer performance by Robert Mitchum.

1. PEPPERMINT CANDY (1999(

Peppermint Candy (1999) is about a guy named Yong Ho who commits suicide. The film shows 20 years of his life leading to his death in reverse order.

This is such an original concept, showing five phases in a guy’s life, that too in reverse. While showing the different timelines the director also shows the political environment of that specific period. We see the state of Korea and how it changed. It captures how tragic political events can affect a person. It tells us how corruption in the system can have a massive impact on the everyday life of a common man.

At the beginning of the film, we see that Yong Ho is a disturbed man. He’s depressed and cynical, the film very astutely shows us the events in his life that made him this way. It shows how even the most mundane things can cause a big change in our personality. In every phase of his life, we see that he’s slightly different from the previous phase. We see how all the different experiences add up and define why he is a particular way. The writing does a very fine job at tying all the timelines together.

Lee Chang-Dong is one of the finest Korean directors and he knows how to capture human emotions. He knows how to flesh out complex characters that you empathise with. It looks effortless the way he does it. Even though the lead character comes off as unlikeable, you feel for him because of how the excellent storytelling portrays his unhappy life.

Peppermint Candy is an extremely poignant and moving film about an innocent soul who loses himself because he’s corrupted by society. I could not find a single flaw in it, it’s hands down one of the best films I’ve ever seen.

Students and children are basically considered as the next generation of a country. The major motto of any country should focus about the students their needs and problems. The problem faced by the students are quintessential to be listened about as they are the problems which if not solved can lead to disastrous issues.And the major issues faced by the students nowadays is demotivation,lack of importance given to them , the stress which is caused due to many unambiguous reasons and there are really many more unknown issues which a student face in their day to day life. But they really don’t know whom to consult,from where they will get the solution of their problems,why they are facing these kinds of problems,how can they come out of the problems? Sometimes it happens that they face lots of problem and those problems leads to a major demotivation which ultimately results into their lose of interest in studies.

If given a thought we can actually figure out some basics points which actually leads to all these problems. One major point that is to be noted is that nowadays parents are busy with their lives,their career or other problems which indirectly or directly hampers their kids. The child does not feel connected to them which resist him to share his piece of problem with them. On the other hand there are parents who are overprotective about their child which makes him feel that if he shares his problem then his parents ,ay feel that they have not taught him how to deal with a small problem. Parents actually play a major role in a child’s life because what a kid sees in his home is what he learns and that’s where his critical thinking starts . The way a problem is faced in home is the way a child accepts and tries to solve a problem. That’s the reason why different children address same problem in different ways. The way parents address failure is the same way a child alos faces a failure. It’s somewhat the duty of the parents to teach their kids how to deal with the problems. But majorly parents only teach the kids how to celebrate success but underneth this they just ignores the fact that their child could also fail and its their duty only to tech them how to deal with that.

Secondly , there are not appropriate knowledge or help from where help could be seeked. If there’s any kind of help it come on the basis of money. Being a student its difficult to arrange money and if asked from parents they would definitely ask why we need money. The unknown kind of pressure of achieving something big, be successful in life,the fear of failure, the fear of losing the near and dear ones and many other fears and ambitions in the mind of a student is creating unnecessary pressure. Nothing just a hope a little motivation and

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh held a bilateral meeting on 5^th September 2020 with Iran’s Minister of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, at the latter’s request. Raksha Mantri was on a transit halt in Tehran enroute from Moscow to New Delhi.

The meeting between the two Ministers took place in a cordial and warm atmosphere. Both the leaders emphasized upon the age-old cultural, linguistic and civilizational ties between India and Iran. They discussed ways to take forward bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on regional security issues, including peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The spike in the daily recovered COVID-19 patients continues in the country. For the second successive day, India has clocked a record recovery of more than 70,000 patients in a single day.

73,642 patients have recovered and been discharged from either home/facility isolation or hospitals in the last 24 hours.

The total numbers of recoveries have reached nearly 32 lakh (31,80,865) as of today.

With this surge in numbers of patients getting recovered on a daily basis, India’s Recovery Rate has been further pushed upwards to 77.32% .

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, has expressed grief over the passing away of  Kesavananda Bharati Ji. 

The Prime Minister said, “We will always remember Pujya Kesavananda Bharati Ji for his contributions towards community service and empowering the downtrodden. He was deeply attached to India’s rich culture and our great Constitution. He will continue to inspire generations. Om Shanti.”

As the pandemic enters the ninth month in India, the Centre has steadfastly led the response and management strategy for COVID with a sharp focus on the management of the pandemic in the States and UTs. The State/UT governments have in close coordination and integral collaboration implemented the Centre-led policies and interventions. Many have also designed customised innovative measures to fight the pandemic. These are being emulated by others, thereby facilitating wider implementation of regional ideas and best practices.

The government of Uttar Pradesh has taken various initiatives in this direction.

On 18th July 2020, the UP government established the Integrated COVID Control & Command Centres (ICCCC) in all districts as well as the State headquarter with representation of all relevant departments to address the rising number of positive cases. These centres are primarily for ensuring effective coordination among relevant departments for Non Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs). They also facilitate prompt referral of COVID-19 patients to the appropriate level of dedicated COVID facilities. The Command centres coordinate with zonal units to ensure prompt testing of symptomatic patients and contacts, intimation of laboratory status, facilitation of transport and facility allocation in case of admission, and regular follow up of cases under home isolation.

Uttar Pradesh has also developed a Unified State COVID Portal: which captures all information related to surveillance, testing and treatment of COVID patients. Regular trainings are being provided to ensure quality of data and data management at the District-level. Since its development, the portal has further evolved with more understanding of the disease, and interventions and feedback from the users at the State and District levels. Availability of digitalized data has facilitated decentralized as well as granular analysis for prompt decision making and response. This portal has also benefitted through interoperability with the Govt of India portal.

The State Government has also procured 1000 High Flow Nasal Canula (HFNCs) from the State funds. 500 of these have been installed and are being utilized for non-invasive management of patients in the State.

Despite the testing time of COVID lock down Bureau Of Pharma PSUs Of India , BPPI the implementing agency of Pradhanmantri Janaushadhi Pariyojana-PMBJP clocked appreciable sales turnover of Rs. 146.59 crore in the first quarter of 2020-21 and testing times as compared to Rs. 75.48 crore achieved in the first quarter of 2019-20. In the month of July, 2020, BPPI have added a sales of Rs. 48.66 Cr.  The total sales up to 31st July, 2020 stood at Rs. 191.90 Crore.

The Janaushadhi Kendras remained functional during lockdown and maintained operations as part of their commitment to ensure uninterrupted availability of essential medicines. They  sold about 15 lacs Face masks, 80 lacs tablets of Hydroxychloroquine and and 100 lacs Paracetamol Tablets, which saved around Rs. 1260 crore of the citizens.

Present basket of medicines sold by these kendras  consists of 1250 medicines and 204 surgical instruments. The target is set to enhance it up to 2000 medicines and 300 surgical products by the end of 31st March 2024 so that all essential medicines covering therapeutic groups, like – Anti Diabetics, Cardiovascular Drugs, Anti-Cancer, Analgesics & Antipyretics, Anti Allergic, Gastro Intestinal Agents, Vitamins, Minerals & Food supplements, Tropical Medicines, etc.

The cost of  Janaushadhi Medicines is cheaper at least by 50% and in some cases, by 80% to 90% of the market price of branded medicines. These medicines are procured on an open tender basis from WHO-GMP compliant manufacturers only. They undergo two stage stringent quality check process at nationally accredited labs.

In terms of number of stores, probably the biggest retail pharma chain of the world it is  providing a good source of self-employment for educated unemployed youths with sustainable and regular earnings and in this way  truly doing justice to its tagline “Seva bhi, Rozgar bhi”. As per the official data this has provided direct source of sustainable employ ment for more than 11600 educated unemployed youth of the country by engaging them in the scheme.

The incentive provided to the Kendra owners has been enhanced from existing Rs. 2.50 lakh to up to Rs. 5.00 lakh to be given @ 15% of monthly purchases made, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 15,000/- per month. One-time incentives of Rs. 2.00 lakh is to be provided to the PMBJP Kendras opened in North-Eastern States, Himalayan areas, Island territories and backward areas mentioned as aspirational district by NITI Aayog or opened by women entrepreneur, Divyang, SC & ST in the form of furniture & fixtures.

Jan Aushadhi Scheme’ was launched by Department of Pharmaceuticals, in November 2008 across the country with the aim of ensuring  access to quality medicines for all the section of the population especially for the poor and the deprived ones.         

Low reflection lenses, high reflection mirrors in devices such as better binoculars and telescopes, colour changing paints, and inks may now be powered by a newly discovered property of the interaction between light and molecules. Bengaluru based scientists have found that UV and blue light combination reversibly switches the system between 3D and 1D photonic structure — a novel interaction that can help make tunable and effective optical devices.

In their quest to develop materials for tunable and effective optical devices, Scientists from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, have discovered that high levels of light in the blue wavelengths or actinic light lead to switching between two photo isomers — Chiral Nematic (Ch) and Twist Grain Boundary Smectic C* (TGBC*) which are liquid crystal phases possessing photonic structures in one and three dimensions, respectively. This work involving the research team of Rajalaxmi Sahoo, D.S. Shankar Rao, U.S. Hiremath, C.V. Yelamaggad, and S. Krishna Prasad from CeNS, has been published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry.

The change occurs because of interactions between light and molecules leading to photoisomerization in which light of a specific wavelength (actinic light) can bend molecules with certain linking groups. A well-known example in this regard involves a change in the shape of a macromolecule of azobenzene derivatives from essentially linear to highly bent form when irradiated with Ultraviolet light (~ 365 nm). The phenomenon found by the CeNS involves reverse transformation on stimulation with blue light. This phenomenon is quite attractive to achieve photo-driven isothermal phase transitions in liquid crystal (LC) materials. Such photoresponsive LCs are attractive for applications, including flexible polarisers, patterned objects, logic devices, and energy harvesting materials.

The present study also shows that photonic wavelength variations of over 100 nanometres can easily be achieved reversibly within a few tens of seconds, a feature that can find applications ranging from low reflection lenses and high reflection mirrors to colour changing paints and inks.