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Phrase of the day | |||
“Extreme vetting”—that’s the phrase being used to describe the new US immigration requirements. As per the new rules, everyone applying for a visa to work or study in the country has to submit all their social media handles, and five years' worth of email addresses and phone numbers. So if you’ve been saying rude things about Trump on Twitter... |
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EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT...The biggest news story today, explained. |
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The #StopHindiImposition rebellion |
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A draft version of the National Education Policy submitted to the government created uproar in Tamil Nadu, which soon spread to other states.
What is this policy? In its manifesto, the BJP promised a new and ambitious education policy, which was last revised in 1992. The 2019 draft puts forward a “three language formula” which will be mandatory for all states. It proposes that:
Why make these changes? The NEP proposal is motivated by three goals.
So what’s the problem? States like Tamil Nadu have a two-language policy, and are fiercely opposed to any attempt to make Hindi a requirement. As the state education minister made clear, “Tamil Nadu will follow only the two language policy and only two languages will be used in TN, Tamil and English.”
What happened next? The state’s leaders unanimously and angrily denounced the new policy as an attempt to impose Hindi on the South. Hashtags like #StopHindiImposition and #TNAgainstHindiImposition went instantly viral. Now the Karnataka CM and Kerala politicians like Shashi Tharoor and some Bengali groups have joined the chorus of protests.
What does the government say? Its leaders scrambled instantly to emphasise that the proposal was just that—a proposal not stated policy. Tamilian ministers like Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar tweeted in Tamil, assuring everyone, “Only after hearing public opinion, the draft policy will be implemented.”
The bottomline: The NEP draft appears to be guided by the best intentions. However, in the South, Hindi is viewed as one regional language among many. Previous attempts to promote its primacy as a national language have resoundingly failed. There were massive anti-Hindi protests back in 1937 and again in 1965—which is when the three language formula was first proposed. There is little reason to think that it will fare any better now. That said, more people speak Hindi in the South now than ever—thanks to the influx of North Indian migrants and Bollywood movies. The “soft” hegemony of Hindi has proved more effective than any formal attempt to impose it on the education system.
Learn more: The Hindu has the best overview of the policy draft. The Indian Express report on the draft’s focus on English is worth a read. This 2017 piece from The Wire offers an excellent analysis of Tamil Nadu’s cultural resistance to Hindi |
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...hastily junking your charcoal-infested toothpaste |
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Cabinet coverage: The full list of the cabinet ministers plus their portfolios were released on Friday. Here’s a quick round up of the best profiles on the most prominent among them:
Being funny is now a crime: Avdesh Dubey, a toy seller in Gujarat, became famous when footage of him mimicking politicians—namely Sonia, Rahul and Modi—went viral. He has since been arrested for illegal vending and thrown in jail for ten days. Surely a coincidence, na? (Quint)
An underdog day at the World Cup: Bangladesh beat South Africa by 21 runs in the first shocker of the tournament. India plays South Africa in its opening match on Wednesday -- opening up the possibility of losing to a team that lost to Bangladesh? An excellent related read: Mint captures the generational divide in World Cup predictions with the olds far more likely to expect the unexpected than their ‘conventional’ younger peers.
First Ronaldo, now Neymar: The Brazilian football star is facing allegations of rape. His father says he is being set up.
Climate change endangers the bada peg: Scottish whiskey-makers are sounding the alarm as blistering heat waves forced many of them to stop production. The reason: they ran out of water. A researcher explained: “It’s not just hot and dry summers, but strange weather like we’ve just had—18°C in February, that’s just weird. And that messes up biological and agricultural cycles.” (The Guardian)
Planning to visit a polluted city? A new study shows that even a short trip to a city with high levels of air pollution leads to breathing problems in healthy, young adults. The subjects of the study had visited Ahmedabad and New Delhi in India, Rawalpindi in Pakistan, and Xian in China. (Science Daily)
Finally, some good news for elephants: According to a new analysis of surveillance data, elephant poaching in Africa has fallen dramatically since 2011. The reasons: declining demand for ivory in China, and better government enforcement in Africa. (Science Magazine)
Charcoal toothpaste is bad for you: Activated charcoal is everywhere—from face masks to air purifiers to toothpaste. A new study finds that the ingredient—touted as a ‘natural’ stain remover—actually ruins your teeth and gums. (Quartz)
In memory of Tiananmen Square: On June 4, 1989, a student uprising against the government resulted in that iconic moment of protest—when the ‘Tank Man’ faced off against a tank in the square. To mark its 30th anniversary tomorrow, here is footage of that moment. Plus: a photo gallery of the protests, and the bloody reprisal that followed.
Your Monday morning pick-me-ups: include the following:
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YOU NEED TO KNOWThe best place for the best advice |
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How to restore sanity to your phone |
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Our super smartphones are becoming increasingly frustrating to use. They are intrusive, crammed with stuff, and increasingly slow. Every phone—just like your home—needs a good Diwali cleaning to keep it on track. Here’s how to do it:
Hit delete now: We are very good at deleting apps—often right after we install them. Even so, we all have more of them on our phone than we need. Here’s are simple questions to ask yourself:
Declutter your home screen: Ok, so now you have the apps that you absolutely need. But not all of them are used everyday. It’s time to spring-clean your home screen. Limit it to apps that you use every day—maps, taxi, your current time-pass game etc. Move the rest to folders or a separate screen. And get in the habit of using search to find apps you use less often. For example, the Airtel app to pay your monthly bill or raise a complaint.
Kon-Mari everything: Mise en place, everything in its place. That’s the mantra of the super-trendy KonMari philosophy of tidying up—but also the first, most basic rule for all aspiring chefs. On your phone, it means stowing everything neatly into folders. We second Zapier’s Melanie Pinola’s advice: “One thing I learned is to group apps into folders by verb or action. So, ‘Write,’ ‘Contact,’ ‘Read,’ etc. This makes it easier to get directly to what you want to do on your phone and is also gratifying in a way to tie an app you’re opening with a purpose and action item.”
Free up storage: Photos take up the most space on your phone—which can be backed up and stored on cloud. But for many of us, the biggest culprit is often WhatsApp. Here’s how to manage that beast:
Use the ‘Do Not Disturb’ option: It exists on every kind of Android or iPhone. Learn to customise it to best suit your needs (instructions are here). So you can allow calls or texts from family or your colleagues, but block everything and everyone else out when you need it.
Dial down the notifications: You don’t need notifications for every email you receive. In Gmail, you can choose to get notifications only from high priority senders. Android phones lets you set up alerts based on labels. On iOS, use the VIP feature on any given contact’s information screen. Then if you go to the main settings menu, you can limit notifications from them. With Outlook, tap the cog icon, go to Notifications, and pick ‘Favourite People’.
Learn more: The New York Times has two guides with more detailed instructions: One, how to declutter and speed up your phone; Two, how to stem the tide of Facebook notifications. Gizmodo has the best advice on how to get control over notifications of every kind -- be it email, news apps, or text messages. |
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