May 28, 2020 | Adamas University

Solar Energy a Phase changer in power sector for society

Characteristic asset consumption is a vital ecological issue that the nation is confronting these days. Petroleum product utilization winds up in the outflow of ozone depleting substances during power age, which is answerable for a dangerous atmospheric devation and environmental change. The vitality requests in India are expanding moderately at a high rate because of expanding populace, expectation for everyday comforts and monetary turn of events. The utilization of vitality is generally more than the age of vitality. India has constrained assets like petroleum products, which will before long be depleted. Everywhere throughout the world, individuals are putting forth attempts to move to inexhaustible wellsprings of vitality like sun based, wind, biogas and geothermal vitality. To fulfill the interminable vitality requests, India also is putting forth attempts to move towards a substitute wellspring of vitality, that is, the sustainable power source. Our nation has the satisfactory potential for creating sun oriented force, wind power, hydropower, biomass, and biogas vitality. This paper surveys the sustainable power source situation of India, accessibility of petroleum derivatives and furthermore the diverse sustainable power source capability of India state astute. There is additionally a knowledge into the creation of vitality from all these inexhaustible assets as for their latent capacity and furthermore the legislature and open division support towards sustainable power source.

Need of Renewable Energy for Society:

For a huge number of years, we have depended on consuming petroleum derivatives to get vitality, anyway in this day and age utilizing oil, gas and coal for our necessities is transforming into an issue. Worldwide environmental change is one among the ecological difficulties that we have ever looked for such a long time, and the fundamental driver behind it is our reliance on non-renewable energy sources. Consuming coal, oil and non-renewable energy sources helps in creating power. Anyway it conjointly winds up in critical convergences of contamination in our air and water.

Another issue with utilizing petroleum derivatives to produce vitality is that there is restricted amount accessible. Since recent years, we are depending increasingly more on the world’s flexibly of non-renewable energy sources, and that gracefully is quickly running out. As the interest for petroleum products has expanded, the expense of utilizing them has likewise expanded because of which every year we end up with bigger vitality bills.

The response to these issues is moving to Renewable vitality. Energies like sun oriented vitality; wind vitality and water power are created from characteristic vitality sources and as opposed to petroleum products, these wellsprings of vitality never run out. With a way lower sway on the environmental factors, utilizing sustainable power source assists with ensuring our planet by significantly decreasing the amount of carbon emanations that we produce. By utilizing sustainable power sources, we likewise diminish our reliance on fuel gas and oil saves, which suggests that we can keep away from the rising estimation of vitality charges and improve our vitality security.

So as to save our planet, our wallets and our vitality sources we as a whole should be constrained in changing to sustainable power sources and making our homes more vitality effective.

Solar Energy in India:

Sun oriented vitality is the free and non-draining force asset of vitality. The sun oriented radiation got outside the world’s environment is 1367 W/m2. Be that as it may, on a normal, the radiation got by the planet is 800 W/m2. The planet gets billions of MW sun based force every day that is path enough to satisfy the vitality request of the nation. The normal force of radiation got in India is around 200 MW/km with a geographic district of 3.287 million kilometre sq. This records to 657.4 million MW of sun based force. In any case (85%) of the land is utilized for the horticulture and timberlands, (6.7%) land utilized for lodging, (5.8%) land is either infertile, snow limited or regularly inhabitable. Along these lines about (12.8%) of surface region mounting to 4.413 million sq. can be utilized for sun oriented force plant establishments.

Most pieces of India get plentiful long stretches of daylight a year. Around 5,000 trillion kWh every year vitality is occurrence over Indian land with most zones getting 4-7 kWh per sq. meter every day. Thus, both sun oriented warm and sunlight based photovoltaic can adequately offer a colossal ability for sun based force in India. Sun based force furthermore gives the adaptability to produce power on a conveyed premise. It tends to be seen that the best yearly worldwide radiation is gotten in Rajasthan and northern Gujarat.

Present State Solar Energy in India:

Sunlight based force in India is a rapidly creating industry. The nation’s sunlight based introduced limit arrived at 23 GW as on 30 June 2018. India extended its sun based age limit multiple times from 2,650 MW as on 26 May 2014 to more than 20 GW as on 31 January 2018. The 20 GW limits were at first focused for 2022 anyway the legislature accomplished the objective four years sooner than booked. The nation included 3 GW of sun powered limit in 2015-2016, 5 GW in 2016-2017 and more than 10 GW in 2017-2018, with the normal flow estimation of sunlight based power dropping to 18% beneath the normal estimation of its coal-terminated partner.

Additionally, sun powered items have assisted with addressing rustic needs; before the finish of 2015, only less than one million sun oriented lights were sold out in the nation, decreasing the prerequisite for lamp oil. That year, 118,700 sunlight based home lighting frameworks were introduced and 46,655 sun based road lighting establishments were given underneath a national program; simply over 1.4 million sun powered cookers were disseminated in India.

Present Challenges:

Different hindrances and difficulties on sun based vitality in India are pointed underneath:

The principle challenge of sun based vitality is its inaccessibility. The climate conditions are significant issue on accessibility of sun powered radiation. So we can’t anticipate that for a particular time the sun powered vitality will be accessible to us or not.
Land accessibility is additionally low. Enormous land region is required, which commonly isn’t doable. The measure of land required for utility-scale sunlight based force plants is by and by about 1km2 for each 20–60 MW age.
100 GW of sun oriented would mean about 10.5% offer for sunlight based vitality in all out age of intensity in India. Such colossal portions of irregular sources need tremendous interests in the force framework foundation for transmission keen gracefully and request the executives.
To accomplish a limit of 60 GW for utility-scale extends by 2022, there would be an interest of about $40 billion. The administration directly anticipates that a gigantic portion of this should originate from worldwide sources. Anyway a universal reserve for sunlight based tasks in India is less.
The Storage issue is additionally an intense issue. Assume in the event that the interest for power isn’t so high, at that point the power delivered by the sunlight based plant should be put away some place to flexibly once request. This builds the cost of the venture.

Data Explosion and Topology: Will it be bounded in Mathematics only?

Now a days data analysis becomes an integral part of our social life. Collection of data is the basic need to analyze data. In some particular scenario those collected data increases rapidly. In such cases we have to tame the increase of data.

What is Data Explosion?

The word explosion usually not sounds to be pleasant for us. This word always reminds us the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic explosion. As we know history repeats itself, in this modern era we are also in a war and the war is the war of data collection. In every aspects of our life like Science and Engineering, Commerce etc, we are collecting and storing data at an ever-increasing rate. This rapid increase of data creates an abundance.

Challenge to Overcome:

To overcome from this adverse situation becomes a challenge for us. Many mathematicians and statisticians are working on this. Every time they are trying to find some new aspects to deal with.

Can Topology Help?

Being major branch of Mathematics, Topology has a deep impact on study of set theoretical and geometrical aspects of mathematics. One hardly can think to employ Topology for preventing this data explosion. But in the last fifteen years, there has a surge of interest and activity to apply Topology in developing Topological Data Analysis (TDA). This TDA yields not only the practical tools for studying data but also some pleasant mathematical surprises. This TDA has several applications in the area of Science and Engineering, Oncology, Neuroscience and Biophysics.

Basic Goal of TDA:

The basic goal of TDA is to develop tools for studying geometric features of data by means of Topology. Here we need to consider data as a finite set of points in a space. In general, the space in which our points lie can have many dimensions but we may think that those points are in two or three dimension. We can also consider them as a hyperspace generalization . For an example each point in the data set in 3D corresponds to a cancerous tumor and the co-ordinates x, y and z corresponds to the level of expression of different gene in a tissue sample of the tumor.

Use of Topology to study geometric features of Data:

Here we are going to discuss topological significance to study geometric properties of data briefly. Topology always offers tools to compute number of holes and component in geometric objects. We are going to apply this tool in our study of data. For that let us take a data set of points in a space which has components and no holes. We are going to study using Topology. But the topological properties of can’t be used directly, rather those are used as ‘metric’ or ‘distance’ Topology. This is also called ‘thickening’ property of .

For an example we have given two diagrams below:

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Biomedical implications of metagenomics: Advances in the field of Microbiology

Disease-causing microorganisms pose a constant threat to public health and global economics due to the incessant evolution of known pathogens and the emergence of novel ones. Between 1940 and 2010 almost 160 new infectious diseases caused by bacteria have been identified. Patho-mechanism of most of the disease-causing microorganisms can be demonstrated. However, the evolutionary origin of virulence is not well-deciphered. The virulence factors attributing to disease symptoms may originate from complex interaction of the pathogen with host, abiotic, and biotic components of the environment as well as other related or unrelated microorganisms. The presence of virulence factors in soil and freshwater environments has been reported in several studies employing PCR and traditional microbial culture-based techniques. However, a much elaborate investigation encompassing multiple environmental microbiomes is essential for an in-depth understanding of –

(i) the importance of virulence gene cognate for microbial persistence in non-human environments and

(ii) the contribution of these environments in the evolution of microbial pathogens.

So, microbial metagenomics is now being implemented to target the environmental gene pool of pathogenic traits. Microbial metagenomics is the culture-independent sequence and function-based analysis of the heterogeneous microbial genomes of a microbial community from their natural habitats, through the application of contemporary high-throughput genomic techniques. Metagenomics has radically transformed in the approach of the researchers to explore the community structure, composition, and distribution of populations of microorganisms from a diverse form of environments, from the mundane to the extreme and human to non-human together with the identification of genes that encode a function of interest. Landmarks in metagenomic studies have extended from outcomes with significant biotechnological impact to surprising revelations of high biomedical relevance, unraveling hidden molecular components, and connections between microbial communities and complex diseases. Metagenomic research was successfully initiated with Sanger sequencing technology. Now the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies with several updated sequencing platforms capable of simultaneous sequencing of millions of DNA fragments and therefore the generation of abundant data have revolutionized our understanding of microbiomes in our surroundings in the following ways:

a) Comparison and correlation of sequencing data obtained help in the identification of a novel protein family with implications in virulence such as its overexpression in disease conditions, its association with virulence phenotypes, its prevalence in a pathogenicity island, or its overrepresentation within genomes of pathogenic or host-associated species.

b) Several virulence factors display homologies to host proteins, allowing them to interfere with host functions. Identification of genes encoding such “mimicry” proteins in bacterial genomes is another promising approach for virulence factor detection.

c) Comparison of DNA signatures of isolated microorganisms with those that probe the biology of that environment in which they inhabit may lead to the identification of environment-exclusive gene clusters encoding for new protein families that impeccably correlated with pathogenicity regimes.

Application of all these approaches revealed the presence of dynamic interactions and genetic exchange occurring between bacterial members of the same or other species and also between bacteria and their viruses. By the process of horizontal gene transfer mediated by transmission of phage DNA or plasmid such novel genes get transferred in bacterial population rendering them pathogenic. Transmission of these unique genes influences the population dynamics of bacteria making them ecologically fit. At the same time, they encode exotoxins or lytic enzymes that impart virulence property in recipient microorganisms.

Several metagenome-wide association studies (MGWAS) revealed that multiple complex diseases like Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis are associated with the gut microbiome. These observations have led to the identification of microbiome-based signatures that are of biomedical relevance for use in diagnostics, prognostics, and treatment of patients. One such MGWASled to the identification of more than 20 microbial gene markers including those from Fusobacteriumnucleatum and Peptostreptococcus stomatis specific for colorectal cancer. Thereafter a panel of four such gene markers was shortlisted and validated as a non-invasive signature biomarker for early detection of colorectal cancer in patient cohorts from China, France, Austria, and Denmark. A similar MGWAS with 2045 individuals from four countries Spain, Belgium, UK, and Germany led to the identification of a microbial signature of eight groups of microorganisms that could be used to discriminate between two inflammatory bowel diseases with similar prognosis- Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Likewise, unique gut microbiome signatures can be used for the diagnosis of advanced fibrosis in individuals with non-alcoholic fatty liver and also distinguish between type 2 diabetic and non-diabetic individuals.

Environmental disruption is driven by global climate change, urbanization and other human interventions may wreak havoc with the biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity facilitates the microbial ecosystem in the evolution and transmission of infectious diseases that affect plants, animals, and humans. The use of metagenomics to assess the microbial landscape before and after human activities provides an approach to examine the influence of such changes. For instance, the decline of biodiversity associated with the reduction in natural forests and their inhabitants were reported to be a major cause of the spread of Lyme disease in the United States. Also, the increasing proximity of humans to wild and domesticated animals along with human population growth has been related to the emergence of the Nipah virus in Malaysia, as well as the worldwide increase in food-borne illnesses.

Diseases of viral origin have largely contributed to many epidemics and pandemics taking a toll on human life globally. The evolution of viral virulence can be better understood within a phylogenomic outline if relevant data are available and strong links are formed between genomics, phylogenetic, epidemiology, and experimental studies of virus virulence and fitness. Therefore, a concurrent combination of clinical and epidemiological metadata with that of the sequencing of virus genomes from clinical samples is essential. We should also emphasize the significance of gathering concurrent and historical data from probable reservoir species as these may provide a more complete insight into virulence evolution and determining the full range of microorganisms that infect a particular species, as well as their interactions which can successfully be achieved by metagenomic studies. Similar studies are now being effectively carried out worldwide to elucidate the role of the viral evolution of SARS-CoV2 in the severity and progression of the current pandemic of COVID19.

For analysis of genome and metagenome along with the characterization of epidemiology and clinical attributes of diseases caused by microorganisms require in-depth knowledge of Microbiology. Proficiency in this subject will enable the characterization of virulence factors of novel pathogens which will facilitate understanding of patho-mechanism of the disease and subsequent disease management.

Future Scope Of Power Sector with Wind Energy

Presently, the world economy is naturally subject to the viable methods of electrical force age, proper administration what’s more, circulation. The regular methodologies of vitality creation have an enormous symptom on the worldwide atmosphere and atmosphere changes. As per as of late distributed reports by the International Energy Office (IEA) “Vitality related ozone depleting substance (GHG) outflows would lead to significant atmosphere debasement with a normal 6 °C worldwide warming”. Thus, the perfect vitality is the achievable answer for make the world more secure. It is condition benevolent because of least CO2 sullying, which is the fundamental proportion of the nursery impact answerable for ecological corruption. Innovative work in the RE area on both the legislative also, open level will accomplish better proficiency and ensured repayment in future interest of vitality in light of the basic and minimal effort of support, solidness and the boundless sources.

Greater part of the force age in India is done by ordinary vitality sources like coal and petroleum products, which contribute intensely to ozone harming substance outflow and a dangerous atmospheric deviation. India has obliged stores of oil based commodities, which will be drained incredibly soon due to extended industrialization and life standards of the people. We in general can onlooker the extreme degradation of these conventional imperativeness sources. The requirement for an hour is to change to sustainable power sources like wind, sun, small hydropower, geothermal, biomass and biogas.

Process of Utilization:

At present it has been seen that wind vitality is one of the quickest creating sustainable power source innovations as a result of the vitality request, natural issues and an acceleration in petroleum derivative expenses. The above explanation is driving the improvement of option sustainable power source in a nation, for example, wind power.

Wind power has added to the consistently solicitation of imperativeness over the world and the breeze essentialness advancement has grown rapidly since latest 20 years. Wind essentialness basically depends upon the speed and thickness of air. India has a coastline of 7517 km close by acceptable light.

Present scenario of wind energy in India:

In India, the improvement of wind power started during the 1990s. Be that as it may, since the most recent couple of years, it has altogether expanded. Today, India is the fourth biggest wind power maker on the planet, after China, the USA and Germany.

Starting at 30 June 2018 the introduced limit of wind power in India was 34,293 MW, primarily spread across Tamil Nadu (7,269.50 MW), Maharashtra (4,100.40 MW), Gujarat (3,454.30 MW), Rajasthan (2,784.90 MW), Karnataka (2,318.20 MW), Andhra Pradesh (746.20 MW) and Madhya Pradesh (423.40 MW). Wind power age represents 10% of India’s absolute introduced power limit. India has set a driven objective to create 60,000 MW of power from wind by 2022.

The Indian Government’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced another wind solar based mixture strategy in May 2018. This recommends a similar real estate parcel will be utilized to house both wind ranches and solar powered boards.

State wise Estimated Wind Energy Potential and Installed Capacity :

The State-Wise Wind Power Potential As Analyzed By National Institute Of Wind Energy (Niwe) At 100 Meter

State	Total (MW)
Andaman & Nicobar	8
Andhra Pradesh	44229
Chhattisgarh	77
Goa	1
Gujarat	84431
Karnataka	55857
Kerala	1700
Lakshadweep	8
Madhya Pradesh	10484
Maharashtra	45394
Odisha	3093
Puducherry	153
Rajasthan	18770
Tamil Nadu	33800
Telangana	4244
West Bengal	2
Total in MW	302251
Total in GW	302

Government Influenced:

On being gotten some information about the significant exercises and undertakings proposed to be attempted by the Ministry during 2018-19, the Ministry expressed: “A total offer size of around 10000 MW of wind power is probably going to be welcomed during the budgetary year 2018-19.”

The Government is advancing wind power extends through private division venture by giving monetary and money related motivating forces, for example, Accelerated Depreciation advantage; concessional customs obligation exclusion on specific parts of wind electric generators and so on. Moreover, Generation Based Incentive (GBI) Scheme is accessible for the undertakings appointed before 31st March 2017 and not profiting Accelerated Depreciation advantage, under which Rs.0.50/unit is being given to qualified breeze power generators, with a roof of Rs. 1.00 crore per MW .

With respect to Base in Wind Energy Sector, it is expressed that there are 21 makes in Wind Energy and models up to a limit of 3 MW single turbines, are being made. The present yearly creation limit of 28 household wind turbine enterprises is around 10,000 MW. The in digitization of wind turbine producing has reached up to 70% and the expense of Indian breeze turbines is among the most reduced on the planet.

Conclusion:

The power request in India is persistently expanding at a high rate and India have restricted power creation for satisfying the interest in this manner, Research, improvement, creation and show have been completed eagerly in India to search out a potential response to the perpetual issue of intensity lack for as long as three decades. India has gotten the use of an assortment of sustainable power source advances to be utilized in various divisions as well. There are sufficient open doors with great topography and geology with the gigantic client base and augmenting hole among request and flexibly. Mechanical progression, appropriate administrative approaches, charge discounts, effectiveness improvement in result to R&D endeavours are the couple of pathways to vitality and condition preservation and it will ensure that these huge, clean asset bases are abused as fast and cost-viably as could be expected under the circumstances. with inexhaustible assets.

Macroeconomics…The New Talk of The Town!

Fiscal stimulus. Economic package. Printing money. Inflation. Migrant workers. All these words are getting tossed in our platter every moment ever since the pandemic has bared its fangs. Some are difficult to comprehend until and unless the leading dailies explains them in a commonsensical way. But if there is one thing that ties all these jargons together it is economics. To be precise macroeconomics.

This pandemic again has brought macroeconomics to forefront. The task of reading and studying economics, choosing it as a career has never been more important. The task of comprehending and formulating policies, learning from empirical data and building theoretical frameworks is the need of the hour. Frameworks that can explain the current crisis. Frameworks that can envision a radical new.

As economics is a social science, it has close ties with history, politics. How society changes gets reflected into economic theories and again economic theories reflect back into society. This wheels of dialectics makes the subject alive. And if there is one aspect that can capture this diversity, it is macroeconomics.

Let us explain with an example. The current crisis has been compared by many with the Great Depression that had rocked Britain and the world in the 1930s. Lack of purchasing power of the people and hence lack of demand, unemployment became rampant at that time. To combat the crisis, revolutionary theories came up which brought to the forefront the need of government intervention to tide over the crisis. Government should spend more after its people, create jobs and other social securities and thus inject demand into the economy. This came to be known as Keynesian macroeconomics, after the economist John Maynard Keynes who was the proponent of this school of idea. This branch of economics became very popular, dominated the globe for decades and the result was the creation of welfare states across globe. However as history changed, as government intervention began to be termed as excess, welfare states started collapsing, there emerged another important school of thought in macroeconomics which is called monetarist school of idea. It championed free market, the fact that market can solve any problem, having found its most loyal crusader in Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate.

Today when we are seeing the government is announcing packages to revive the economy from doldrums, we can see Keynesian economics is standing guard again. When we see RBI is trying to boost the economy through its policy tools, it is again macroeconomics. When the plight of the migrant workers is shaming the nation as the whole, it is again macroeconomics.

So, see it is indeed a brilliant subject of specialization because it is that branch that can bridge the gap between theories and society. Sometimes while doing graduation or masters in economics, the rigorous calculations, empirics starts alienating ourselves from the society. Then is the time to resort to macroeconomics. Because this branch has mind and heart both in the right place. This branch can make you vision a new society post pandemic.

So hurry up, make economics your career and macroeconomics your specialization! After all historically pandemics have taught us to think differently!

Virtual Courts and Future of Indian Courts

The situation prevalent during the COVID 19 pandemic has resulted in physical closure of the court building to maintain social distancing and to avoid spread of COVID 19. At present, mainly urgent kind of cases are being conducted online. The orders are given by the courts by hearing the arguments of the respective lawyers on some digital platform wherein reply to the queries raised by the court are also being answered on the digital platform. True it is, that instead of closing the court working all together hearing and adjudicating online is a better solution but the million-dollar question is, will this position be continued post COVID also?

The present method adopted to conduct the court online has reminded this author that even before Covid19 including this author many the then judges used to conduct certain kinds of matters through E court viz through videoconferencing. There are certain cases like cases under Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (now repealed) or other such serious cases where the authorities have reason to believe that removing certain under trial prisoners out of the prison may disturb public order, or hinder public interest than under Cr.P.C state is empowered to not take out such prisoner from the prison. The author remembers that even for the proceedings of E courts deposition of all the witnesses were not recorded on video conferencing as for certain important witnesses where body language, gestures or expression of the witness were important for the court to record or noticed then the court used to keep its sitting in the jail premises so as to completely act in adherence of the principles of a fair trial.

The concept of the virtual court is in a way a novel concept and therefore though under the compulsion of the pandemic it has been initiated but now it is felt that time has ripened to decide should we continue it or not? This can be done to ponder over the pros and cons of this digital conducting of the court trials.

As far as cross examination of important witnesses are concerned it can safely be held that it is always better to take cross examination in the courthouse in a routine manner before the court to uphold the powerful impact of the cross examination which will not be experienced in virtual court and that the possibility of the witness being prompted in the virtual court is of such a high degree that fair trial becomes a dim possibility. In virtual court, the human touch will be lost and the kind of rapport between adjudicating authority and witness and a kind of rapport between the cross examiner and witness, etc. will not be there in the virtual court. In the virtual court during the cross examination if the witness has kept some material with him in a mobile phone or some other device or by way of papers then the witness will be in a position to answer in crossed by use of it, in such case the chastity of the cross will be reduced without it being noticed by the court.

The hearing at virtual court can be very useful where the court is only required to listen to the arguments of lawyers where the question of any breach of the principle of fair trial does not rises. It is known that in trial courts such stage is not a regular matter of course but it is a small component of the entire trial. Still, however from the experience, it can safely be opined that for arguing the case virtual court will prove to be a very happy and healthy experience. It is more particularly in the civil cases, family cases, and for the arguments of appeal where parties are not inaction or where no scope of the oral evidence is there or where arguments on a small order, injunction applications, miscellaneous applications are to be made. In all such cases, the virtual courts will be a time saving, energy-saving, very practical and convenient way to deal with cases.

Another important aspect that requires to be taken note of is the concept of Open Court House. Open Court House is one concept by which any person from the public can sit and witness any ongoing proceedings in the courthouse while any matter is ongoing except the matter is such which the court is required to conduct in camera. When we hold virtual court this very concept of the open courthouse is going to be adversely affected because in that case interns, junior lawyers, and another interested member of public will be losing the benefit or say the right available to them by law to witness court proceedings in the open court.

One more aspect is on filing the case online. It is well-known that the biggest issue which India is facing is illiteracy, poverty in general, and computer illiteracy in particular. In this social background, it seems extremely difficult for the party in person to file the case online. It is not clear that for such purpose whether legal services and more particularly free and competent legal services would be given or not. Secondly filing online reduces the accountability of the person, there is a risk of privacy and confidentiality to the documents produced by the parties to not been maintained, more particularly when the documents are produced concerning the personal life of a person. Filing by a robot will become one more issue apart from security and confidentiality.

It seems that it is now time to re-ponder, revisit review over on the procedures, and our methods of filing the case. It will be a matter of research as to what extent E-filing or E hearing of the case maintains the requisites of administration of justice. It cannot be forgotten that our entire administration of justice is for the subsistence of rule of law and that anything which in any manner shakes the rule of law will become a challenge to the justice delivery system.

Another big matter of worry is the criminal trial and more particularly serious kind of criminal trials where certain witnesses are vital witnesses. From the experience of the criminal justice system, it can be said for sure that it is not at all prudent or advisable to record oral evidence of a vital witness through videoconferencing. Particularly in case of sexual offences, child abuse, or the cases against the human body as it would not work effectively. The justice delivery system requires to help and to take care of all those who can be termed to be the members of the group of weaker sections like a senior citizen, physically challenged person, poor, etc. but to what extent virtual courts will do it is a question.

Another important question relates to the record of the court. Today the record and proceedings of the court are constituted of the papers, it is easy to preserve it for a long time, we also have had successful settled methods for the same but now if the recording is done online the question would arise as to how to preserve record and proceedings because even the arguments made in the court of law through the digital platform if are to be recorded it will create a record of the court but then the question is where to save such record and to how long it should be retained?

We do look forward to moving ahead and ahead, we can say by our positive thinking that COVID 19 has provided an opportunity to justice delivery system to move forward and to enter into the digital era but the coming time will test it. As such transformation is a rule of life and that we should always be ready to transform but such transformation must be given certain benefits and should not be taking away the pleasure of the present/ of the day. If we can provide higher bandwidth or say special kind of speedy Wi-Fi for courts and its functioning, if we can think of using the digital platform for a limited kind of cases, if we do not forget the importance of human touch, if we accept the hard reality of Indian social-economic situation or social background that there are the majority of people who are not digitally literate then we can understand that it is good that we become ready to welcome digital era but at the same time we need to take care of and show concern for our poor, physically challenged, senior citizen, people reside in a rural area, children and so on and so for then welcoming digital era will be with taking due care of our fellow countrymen and that only can give a different kind of favourable dimension.

Achieving Gold! Silver! Bronze: Need of Sports Technology

Sports have always been the last word integrator. It breaks geographic barriers, connects humans above partisan, politics and generations—do we ever think the key behind this global integrator? The answer is Technology.

Technology plays a major role in the life of human beings for many years. It has conquered practically all the areas of our day to day with the purpose of giving it to us almost everything. Sport is not a field that escapes the constant technological advances that every day try to perfect our way of practicing it.

Theoretically, Sports Technology focuses on measurement, simulation, and motion and performance analysis. It consists of traditional engineering courses in Electronics Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer programming and Mechanics to provide technical skills. This includes courses focusing on entrepreneurship, innovation, design and implementation. These courses are complemented by a course in sport and health science. The interdisciplinary nature of the program ensures skills in cooperation and dialogue with different groups as well as the ability to handle social, economic and environmental issues.

Understanding the Impact of Technology in Sports:

We’re not surprised that technology is one of the most important factors driving India’s sports growth. For our country, technology needs to be leveraged to widely communicate the message of sports in order to build mass awareness and drive the cultural transformation. Initially humans have hesitation and restraint in adopting technology in competitive sports. Their major argument states that the sports’ too much dependence on technology will prevent natural competition and reduce the thrill of competition.

They also compared Technology to aid performance to drugs and steroids. Technology and consumption of drugs can’t really be compared. Drugs make physical changes to the body of the athlete to improve physical performance as a direct result. Technology helps an athlete to improve their performance, but without directly changing the athletes’ body.

All the questions raised regarding the use of Technology can be answered satisfactorily. If we do a case study of the U.K’s Olympic team we will notice poor showing of just one gold medal in Atlanta, 1996. The English Institute of Sport (EIS) has played an influential role in changing the U.K’s fortunes in recent years by implementing thorough monitoring of players’ performance from an early stage in their careers. This step is helpful in capacity building of players. The English Institute of Sport built 15 High-Performance Sports Centers across the country, with 250 practitioners delivering up to 4000 hours/week of support to around 1500 athletes. Training with the use of Technology shows the results. UK earned 70 medals in the Beijing Olympics, followed by 65 and 67 in the 2012 and 2016 editions of the same.

The Current State of Sports Technology: Key Takeaways

Fan Engagement Technologies: Fan Engagement Technology set to make the largest impact on Sports in the Next 12 Months — including the upcoming Tokyo Olympics which is postponed due to Covid-19. Fan engagement should be achieved both on- and off-site and on match days and non-match days. Every fan engagement represents an opportunity to collect data. Then this collected Data is analyzed by Machine Learning tools with a little careful thought to the output you require. Few examples of clubs doing some pronounced work with fan engagement, on the field, off the field and on match days and non-match days are given below.
The Open (golf): Ordering food from your seat –The Qkr app which is powered by Masterpass from Mastercard is enabling audiences of Open golf championship to order and pay for food from their mobile devices and the food is delivered to them in their seat. Therefore they don’t need to miss a moment of the action.
Real Madrid (football): Fan app – The Real Madrid fan app brings surprises for their audiences whether they are at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium or on another continent. On non-match days they can purchase products or delve into stats and there is a personalized element offering deals tailored to the user.
Manchester City (football): High-speed wireless internet– The Ethihad stadium has high speed wireless internet access so that fans can share their experience on social media, during the match.
Rules Enforcement & Referee Assistance: Systems such as Decision Referral System (DRS), Hawk-Eye and Hot-Spot, Shot-Tracer, Radar Gun and Snick-O-Meter have all helped administrators deliver a fair and unbiased experience in the sports. These technologies have now touched the fields of cricket, golf, athletics, football and lawn tennis and a few other sports. 2018 is the first year the FIFA World Cup has used a new kind of video technology, called the Video Assistant Referee, to assist in officiating. The idea is that it catches errors which weren’t caught earlier. The referees can take the support from VAR team from a centralized video operations room at the international broadcast center in Moscow, according to a FIFA video.
Media & Reach: The internet, high-speed cable, HDTV, apps, blogs, social media podiums have brought sports profound into our daily lives confirming deeper engagement and a wider connect between the sports and its fans.
Wearables & Equipment for Training & Coaching Support: In recent days microscopic electronic devices can be attached on to the athlete’s body, clothing, footwear & equipment to track critical information such as heart rate, stride, speed, distance, swing speed, swing plane and other information which in turn is being used by the coaching staff for athlete development.
The Electronic Performance and Tracking Systems: In this tablet-based system where each team can share information with its coaches in real time. Player stats and video footage are available in this tracking system. Each team has three tablets. One is for an analyst in the stands, another for an analyst on the bench, and a third for the medical team. Tracking cameras using optical technology are used to monitor the players and the ball and provide feedback. It works with camera-based systems and wearable technology. This coolest technological innovation being used at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Ticketing & Spectator Experience: Online ticketing has importance for paperless world and it created immense reach for organizers to improve their ability to fill stadiums. Therefore organizers have worked hard to deliver an enriching audience experience through giant live HD screens, food services on order and other in-stadium engagement services using smart technologies.
Treatment: Technologies are applied in the way of preventing and treating injuries. Thanks to nanotechnology and biotechnology, much progress has been made especially in the treatment of serious injuries, which some years ago could have meant the end of the sports career of the athlete.

The Sports market and society’s needs of engineers with knowledge about how to measure, simulate and analyze human movements and achievements are enormous. Such knowledge gives the fundamentals for creating a sustainable society, where everyone can live a healthy and valuable life regardless of age and with different physical and mental conditions. Engineers with these skills will be required in the coming days. India must put more effort to make students interested in Sports technology. A recent initiative has been taken in the Global Sports Business Show, a three day exhibition of sport business opportunities which also hosts workshops, guest speakers and more, with a special focus on developing the sports technology and sports infrastructure market in India. Such hard work, along with a growth in sports other than cricket, can certainly help India’s chances at international stages like the Olympics. Sports authorities in India need to wake up and smell the success of other nations who have adopted technology.

GREENERY: THERAPEUTIC PROPERTIES AND WAYS TO ACHIEVE THEM

Most of us feel better when surrounded by nature even if it’s just strolling in the garden around our house. Green spaces filled with grass, trees and vegetation have always attracted the attention of human beings across race, culture and nationality. Nature with its color, perfume and beauty enchants the mind, giving a feeling of freedom. “Kaviguru” Rabindra Nath Tagore has rightly said-

“And Joy is everywhere; it is in the earth’s green covering of grass: in the blue serenity of the sky: in the reckless exuberance of spring: in the severe abstinence of grey winter … “

These days excess carbon dioxide is building up in the earth’s atmosphere due to burning of fossil fuels and rampant industialization, which in turn is contributing to climate change. Trees are known to absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere, storing the carbon and releasing the oxygen back into the air. Trees provide shade and cool the air around them thereby reducing the ambient temperature. Trees also increase atmospheric moisture by the process of transpiration. Time spent with trees and nature reduces mental fatigue by letting our minds calm down.

In the twenty first century we are surrounded with more technology than human beings have ever been before. Too much of technology has left its effect on our wellbeing by creating anxiety, stress and other adverse health conditions. The question is how can we find a balance and do we have a way out?

The Japanese are known to spend deliberate time amongst nature (forests) practicing what is called “forest bathing”. The Japanese term for this activity is “Shinrin-Yoku” – “shinrin” meaning forest and “yoku” meaning bath. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of the Japan government coined the term “Shinrin-Yoku” in the 1980s . This has nothing to do with bathing in a forest. It refers to spending time in a forest to improve one’s health and wellbeing. The appreciation of nature has been a strong cultural tradition of the Japanese people. Shintoism- the traditional religion of Japan is known as a nature religion. The people of Japan have long understood intuitively that the woods do us good, while distance from nature promotes sickness.

Shinrin-Yoku is not exercise or hiking or jogging. In its purest form it actually involves doing nothing but being in nature, connecting with it through sense of sight, hearing, smell and touch. It may involve choosing a tree one feels drawn to and spending time connecting with it. One may embrace the tree of their choice or connect with it in any other way they feel is best, focusing on opening the senses to note what they see, smell, hear and feel. It is about building a connection with nature by simply taking in the sounds of the forest, its scent, the fresh and clean air playing through the leaves to ease stress and worry, to relax and think more clearly. It is more like an exercise in mindfulness.

Several scientific studies have been carried out to verify the health benefits of the practice of forest bathing. Experiments conducted in forests across Japan have shown that forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol. For the uninitiated, cortisol is the human body’s main stress hormone. Reduction of prefrontal cerebral activity, lower blood pressure and heart rate, stabilizing of autonomous nervous activity, improvement of sleep and cognitive functioning, reduction of ADHD symptoms in children, increased human natural killer activity (activity of immune cells that eliminate virus infected cells and cancer cells) and higher levels of intracellular anti-cancer proteins are the other scientifically verified therapeutic effects of forest bathing trips on humans. Shinrin-Yoku demonstrates significantly positive psychological effects on the human mind suggesting forest environments may have preventive effects on lifestyle related diseases that city environments promote.

To investigate the healing powers of trees and human health benefits associated with spending time with nature, a new branch of medical science called “forest medicine” has been established. An internet search reveals this as an interdisciplinary science belonging to the categories of environmental and preventive medicine. The Japanese society of forest medicine has been operational since March, 2007. The society is actively involved in promoting research on forest medicine and educational training on the practice of forest bathing trips. Their untiring efforts have provided a platform for enterprises, universities and local governments for effectively using forest resources for stress management and promotion of good health conditions. A visit to the website of International Society of Nature and Forest Medicine (INFOM) reveals that the Japanese government has spent millions funding research and promotion of Shinrin-Yoku. Many Hollywood celebrities and wellness gurus who have adopted the practice in their lives are spreading the word about forest bathing and its benefits.

Most of the current world population is attracted to the city life thereby spending lesser and lesser time with the natural world. But even a few hours of taking in the forest through one’s senses can have real health benefits. For readers who are wondering where to find a forest nearby, the good news is one can forest bathe anywhere – by taking a walk through a park or the garden around the house. A location which is easily accessible with minimum human built structures is suitable. But, remember to leave your devices (mobile phones, camera) behind.

Set aside few hours from your daily routine and allow nature and greenery to just capture you. Work with the forest as a partner. Breathe in the air slowly to notice its smell. Move slowly keeping in tune with the natural rhythm of the forest. To keep track of your stress levels and other important health parameters you may visit your physician to chart your progress.

So, let’s chalk up a plan to include greenery in our lives to be better prepared physically in fighting contagions and see the benefits getting reflected in our medical bills. HAPPY “FOREST BATHING”.

Digital Healthcare Awaits Worldwide Transformation Post COVID 19 Pandemic

The exponential spread of COVID-19 across the world has forced us to accept a new convention of leading life that involves distance and discipline. It is our responsibility to not only save ourselves but also to protect lives, safeguard the vulnerable, shield the frontline workers and secure the entire healthcare system through the pandemic. As we understand the necessity of social distancing in today’s context, medical distancing has also been prioritised by the World Health Organization to minimize physical contact between patients and healthcare providers. It is for the benefit of both the patients and the physicians that virtual treatment is now practiced everywhere.

“I’d estimate that the majority of patient consultations in the United States are now happening virtually”, says Ray Dorsey, director of the Center for Health and Technology at the University of Rochester Medical Center (Rochester, NY, USA). With a ten-fold increase in two weeks’ time, the transformation is one of the biggest in the history of US health care. Similar trends were reported from countries like China, Canada, UK and many other European countries [1]. History suggests that measures imposed during emergency often outlasts the emergency period. This is what is expected to happen in case of digitization of the healthcare system. Now, that will be advantageous to many, while there will also be a downside of it.

Why ehealth is going viral?

There are numerous patients, probably more than COVID-19 positive cases, who are suffering from chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardio-thoracic diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, neurological disorders who needs regular check-ups and monitoring by physicians and healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, they would be exposed to a greater threat, the virus, if they try to maintain their routine check-up by visiting the doctors. Therefore, telemedicine comes for their rescue. With the innovations in healthcare technology and communication system, it is now possible to monitor many vital signs at home through wearable/point of care medical devices and present the reports to the doctors through virtual platforms. Imagine the amount of risk that got reduced through this remote care facility. While it prevents the spread of infection during COVID-19 crisis, it can save a lot of valuable time and physical space in post pandemic era. This, in turn, will make the health monitoring cheaper and affordable for many around the world. Remote health monitoring through telemetry and telemedicine will be a boon for India, especially rural India, which is deprived of basic healthcare facility [2]. Moreover, crowdsourced disease monitoring, a part of virtual health monitoring is generating huge amount of data for the researchers for disease detection and prediction. Overall, the transition from a previously slow adoption path of digital healthcare solution to becoming the new normal seems inevitable.

The loopholes

While experts believe that telehealth can significantly slow down the spread of infections and flatten the current epidemic curve, uncertainty regarding payments and insurance coverage distract both patients and healthcare providers from its use. Legal liabilities for damages and malpractices, unreliability regarding privacy and confidentiality, unmet patient and provider expectations are some of the areas that can addressed by policy makers of health systems. Once resolved, telehealth can transform the entire healthcare system in favour of patients and service providers. But the real challenge remains for the elderly or not so tech savvy people. It is upon us, the health care innovators to produce simple, user friendly applications that can be effective and suitable for region specific people of different age groups and educational backgrounds.

Conclusion

Beyond the pandemic, we need well defined and easy-to-understand guidelines and regulations for the use of ehealth technologies. The guidelines should be realistic enough to take care of user expectations. Although virtual treatments cannot completely replace traditional physical care, it can certainly reduce the burden of the health care system and make it accessible to a larger community.

References:

Webster, Paul. “Virtual health care in the era of COVID-19.” The Lancet 395.10231 (2020): 1180-1181.

Babu, Sudheer, et al. “Smart telemetry kit for proactive health monitoring in rural India: The journey so far and the road ahead.” 2018 IEEE 20th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services (Healthcom). IEEE, 2018.

Accountability and Effectiveness: A Teacher’s Perspective

The time changes not only in India but everywhere in the world and everything is measured in terms of material gains, not in spiritual or metaphysical faith on presumption. Teacher’s position in the modern society has degraded and his functions are not taken for granted. Rather, everybody is raising one’s eyebrow at the honesty and integrity of the teacher; his sincerity or purpose is questioned and his work is criticized at all levels of the society. It is alleged that the quality of education has deteriorated in all stages of education.

The teacher’s account of performance is now overboard and is going to be checked by the planners, administrators, supervisors and statesmen. In brief, the teacher’s work is now under bright searchlight and his accountability is being considered from various angles.

Teacher’s Accountability:

The Encyclopaedia of Education defines accountability as “a process which involves the duty both of individuals and the organizations of which they are part to render periodically accounts for tasks performed, to a body having both, the power and authority, to modify that performance subsequently perhaps, by use of sanction or reward”.

Since teachers were regarded as persons of high calibre and of unquestionable integrity, they were never required to show any proof of their accountability. Teacher’s accountability was never a subject of evaluation at any stage. Recently, however, school teacher’s sense of responsibility and integrity has been questioned and many of them are criticized for their money-earning motive, negligence of duty and obligations, it is observed. It is said that they are more for improving their service conditions and emoluments than for discharging their legitimate duties and responsibilities. Particularly, deterioration in the quality of education and poor performance of pupils particularly belonging to the government schools and elsewhere have raised the question of teacher’s accountability.

There is urgent need of overhauling of the education system and fixing accountability at all levels of education—primary, secondary and higher secondary education level. Primary and Secondary education are in real sense, the foundation stone of one’s educational career. A Student’s personality is influenced by his parents, friends and society, no doubt, but he is most influenced by the type of personality his teachers possess. At higher education level, education has been equally neglected. If teachers do their work properly, devotedly and sincerely, there can be proper ground and development of the academic career of the students.

Unless teachers create work-culture and become conscious workers, things are not going to change. But the general public is not probably honest to bring about changes in themselves. It is, therefore, inevitable to fix accountability on the basis of payment-by-result.

Teacher’s Effectiveness:

It is a fact that today’s society has become very much complex due to scientific and technological advancement. As such, the need for skilled and efficient people has increased. In this regard, school teachers also face a challenging decade. To meet the situation better management of educational enterprise is felt necessary. That is why unskilled and inefficient teachers cannot maintain and manage the present educational system in order to meet the challenge of the complex society. Thus it has become a very urgent necessity to find out efficient teachers. Teacher effectiveness deals with relationships between the characteristics of teachers teaching acts and their effect on the educational outcomes of classroom teaching.

Effective teachers possess certain distinct characteristics which are not found in ineffective teachers. But it is a very controversial issue to tell the exact characteristic that identifies an effective teacher. Many researches have been carried out in this connection. Some research findings emphasize cognitive characteristics, some others personal and affective characteristics. In this regard, some of the characteristic that determine an effective teacher may be discussed.

Effective teachers are hard working and laborious. They never view success as a matter of chance.
Effective teachers never become disheartened due to their failure. They consider that “Failure is the pillar of success”. It can be overcome by constant effort.
Effective teachers are mentally healthy.
Effective teachers have positive attitudes towards others as well as their vocation. They are more responsible in their action. They are self-confident and cheerful.
Effective teachers possess greater verbal intelligence, good academic background and greater intellectual ability.
Effective teachers are very sociable and like to participate in different social groups.
Effective teachers are well aware of the subject matter they teach in the class. They organize different co-curricular activities in the school. They have a good relationship with the students, parents, administrators etc.
The effective teachers possess a very influential personality. They exhibit good judgement and reasoning capacity.

These are some of the characteristics of an effective teacher. However these are not present in all the teachers. Teacher effectiveness is assessed by three types of criteria namely, process, product and presage. Teacher effectiveness is assessed by observing teacher’s behaviour and student’s behaviour. Relating to product, teacher effectiveness can be judged from the achievements of the students. The third type of criterion i.e. presage rests on academic background and personal characteristics. It can be assessed from the teacher’s college records, marks, test score etc. But it is better that the teacher should take all the three types of criterion into consideration while assessing teacher effectiveness.

Conclusion:

Thus we can conclude that both aspects mentioned above are very much relevant so far as the teacher perspectives are concerned. Effective teachers can raise the standard of education. They can establish positive relationships between the parents, learners, administrators and the society at large. The quality of education depends on the quality of teachers. Teacher Effectiveness and Teacher Accountability go hand in hand.