Starlink: Connecting People to Faster Data

Among the 4.57 billion internet users and growing, you are also a part of it, currently reading this post. Half of the total users are in Asia, where the youth is consuming most of the data. Most of them are creating an online presence by spending almost 6.5 hours a day on average. You might even think to ask a question to yourself, who owns the internet? The answer is no one. You are also a part of the internet, and you own it on your devices. You watch videos on YouTube, Netflix, chat with your friends, share posts on Instagram, share your opinion on Reddit, etc. It all started in the 1960s with the project known as ARPANET, originally started being a four-node network.

Internet: Where all the ideas originate.

The average internet speed around the globe is around 33 Mbps on Mobile, where South Korea tops the chart with a whopping 100 Mbps. On the other hand, fixed connections have a much higher number at 76 Mbps, with Singapore on the top of the list with 205 Mbps. You may not be experiencing the speed. In most cases, surfing the web, listening to songs like other users, is a priority. But the time has ended up to be a power user. Several opportunities are helping people to connect to the internet for the first time. Facebook, in 2013 launched a service known as Free Basics powered by Internet.org, which was a massive success, but some problems do arise. China banned Facebook since 2009, so no opportunities for them, India refused the offer due to net neutrality. Google’s initiative Project Loon, the balloons in the stratosphere, helped to connect around 200 thousand people in 2017 during Hurricane Maria that emerged in Puerto Rico.

A bunch of cubicles where the company connects to its employees through the network.

Now, a visionary man with fulfilling all his dreams is all geared up with the project called the Starlink. Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX in 2015, presented his idea to the world how satellite communication can help us to get stable and faster internet connections. Five hundred forty satellites launched in orbit as of June 13, 2020. There are more launches in the future to make it the largest constellation consisting of 12 thousand satellites. The Russian Sputnik I was the first satellite to make its journey to space. Currently, there are more than 8 thousand satellites, out of which only 2, 218 are functional.

A switch used to connect several devices to a network

The problem is that the future can have issues like a traffic jam in orbit, yes, along with the space debris of non-functional parts of the older satellite. An incident on September 2, 2019, where ESA changed Earth observatory satellite from its usual path as Musk refused to change the same for Starlink. So this created some disagreement with the organizations. Six satellites have failed to add up to 20 thousand space debris, which is currently under strict observance.

A space rocket launch

A positive fact about the project is that to reach internet connectivity to the remotest area in the world. Do you know that the world fastest internet speed recorded recently peaked at 44.2 terabytes, which can download a thousand high definition movies just in a second? Starlink is aiming to provide speed in gigabits with low latency, and now it is inviting you to test the network. You can be a part of this.

Balancing Fundamental Rights and Duties

The longest written Constitution in the world, lays down the basic structure and the framework of India’s polity. It is built on the foundations of certain fundamental values that have been embedded in it by the makers of the

Constitution to ensure that there should be fairness and justice for every citizen of India.

However, it has been made very clear that:

  •  lot of restraint is required while exercising this freedom.
  •  the absolute freedom is an illusion and cannot survive alone.
  • the fundamental rights need to be paired with fundamental duties.

 To offset the increasing tendencies of indifference towards the business of the government amongst its citizens and to check fissiparous growth, the Constitution

(Forty-Second) Amendment Act, 1976 introduced the concept of fundamental duties by adding Part

IV-A, consisting of the sole Article 51A.That the Constitution ought to be amenable to change to allow for emerging needs was always recognised.

This year the government is laying more emphasis on creating awareness on eleven fundamental duties as part of celebration of 70th year of adoption of the Constitution through its various initiatives. The underlying idea is that these precepts should become a part and parcel of every Indian’s thoughts and actions. The balancing of fundamental rights is a constitutional necessity as every right gives rise to a corresponding duty

The fundamental duties are the mechanism that aims at striking a balance between individual freedom and social interests. These duties do not cast any public duties but are applicable only to individual citizens. However, in  a judgment, the Supreme Court held that the Fundamental Duties are as important as Fundamental Rights and that though Article 51A does not expressly cast any fundamental duty on the State, the duty of every citizen of India is the collective duty of the state- its de facto enforceability in the sense that Article 51A is a yardstick against which the action of the State may be assessed.6In Union of India v Naveen Jindal7, the Supreme Court observed that fundamental duties are implicit in the concept of fundamental duties, the former providing certain restrictions on the exercise of the latter.

Article 51A (k) was introduced as a fundamental duty in 2002, along with Article 21A as a fundamental right. Through Article 51A (k) read with Article 21A, the State and the parents are made to share obligation with regard to education of the children in the following manner:

  • the State with free education
  • the parents with compulsory education.

The State has been entrusted with the responsibility to ensure compulsory education while at the same time Article 51A (k) does not penalise parents or guardians for not being able to send their wards to school.10 In similar manner, right to hoist the national flag has been granted to the citizens subject to the restrictions specified in the Article 51A (c).

Thus, it may be observed that, in umpteen number of cases, the various contours of Article 51A have been interpreted and applied by the Apex Court. The unenforceable duties have got a booster dose of contents as well as some sort of enforceability through increased references in various judicial pronouncements. Various current crises related to environment, mob-violence and terrorism etc. could have been regulated to a large extent if the human values could be inculcated right from the formative period of life so as to lay a strong foundation for effectuation of Fundamental Duties along with the strong desire to avail the rights. Thus, there is a strong necessity to maintain a strong balance between the rights and the duties. One does not have existence as well as the meaning without the other.

“India vs China”, It can be prolonged.

500 years before the birth of Jesus, China’s famous military general Sun Xu wrote in the book The Art of War, “The best art of war is to defeat the enemy without fighting.” Even after hundreds of years, the things of this book are considered iron in China, just as Chanakya policy is considered in India.
To understand the currently ongoing border tension between India and China, perhaps ‘this fine art of war’ also needs to be kept in mind. The current situation is that after the Kargil build-up on the border with Pakistan in 1999, it may be the largest gathering of soldiers from neighboring country on any border of India.
The border between India and China is called the Line of Actual Control or LAC i.e. the actual situation after the 1962 war. Sources in the Ministry of Defense say that it began in the third week of April when the “line of actuarial control on the Ladakh border” showed an increase in the number of troops and heavy trucks on the Chinese side.
Since then, the movements of Chinese troops have been reported on the border in May, there were reports of Chinese soldiers patrolling the lake that determines the border in Ladakh. The seriousness of the matter can be gauged from the fact that a few days ago, Army Chief General Naravane visited the border.
The current tension also increased when on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping ‘instructed the army to be ready’ without naming any country. During this period, the meetings of the heads of the three armies were going on in Delhi. Apart from Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, he also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The case also caught on internationally when US President Donald Trump offered to mediate in the Indo-China border dispute for the first time.
In 2017, videos of boxing, scuffle and snatching between Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Doklam area went viral, and the clash ended several days later. Although the history of border dispute between India and China is decades old, but there are three major reasons for the latest tension.
Obviously, the first reason is strategic. These are two such neighbours whose number of troops is said to be first and second in the world and among whom there is a long history of conflict. This time also the same areas are again in discussion where in 1962 there has been a war between the two and China has claimed that it had also won. The major cause of stress in the last few years may also be the accelerated construction work in Indian border areas. Defense expert Ajay Shukla says that ‘roads are a big reason’.
He said, “Galvan Valley, which was generally peaceful, has now become a hotspot as it is the actual Line of Control along which India has constructed a road from Shiyok River to Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO). LAC area of ​​the whole of Ladakh. This is the most inaccessible area in India. ” Almost all the experts also agree that the construction and maintenance in the border areas of China has always been better. Even in the basic facilities of the border areas, China has been ahead of India.
Former VP Malik, the former chief of the Indian Army, feels, “There is another reason for the increased uneasiness of China. One way of the Chinese army has been creeping (crawling forward).” Inclusion of jurisdiction. But its options are becoming less because now development is taking place on the Indian border and access is increasing. “
Senior journalist Rahul Singh, who covers defense-related matters in the Hindustan Times, also agrees and says, “For the last five years, more attention has been focused on improving Indian borders.” According to him, “In the past there have been small skirmishes between the soldiers of both the forces on the border. Even before Doklam, such incidents were reported in Chumar in 2013 and 2014. But the scope of activities this time is huge.”
All the world’s economies have been battling the post-Corona virus for the last five months. Not only have the growth rates of countries like China, USA, Europe, Middle East, India and South Asia have fallen unexpectedly, but governments have had to spend millions of crores of rupees to bring back increasing unemployment and stalled businesses.
Now if India suddenly made a big change in its FDI policy, then it is quite possible that China’s foreign policy is feeling a bit uncomfortable.
Apart from these three, the reason for increased activities on the Indo-China border can also be there and the debate on this will continue.
Former Indian Army Chief General VP Malik admits that “the solution to such disputes can only be diplomatic or political”. But he also said in clear terms that, “In the current dispute, the military solution has failed and wherever the conflict continues, it can be prolonged.”

JOURNALISM

Journalism has metamorphosed into a brand new era of technological development making online news available globally and continuously. it’s with irrefutable proof that research has shown that online journalism not only provides us with 24/7 coverage but it’s also less time consuming compared to other kinds of media. While regarding this statement one may voice two opinions: whether it’s as reliable as reading the newspaper, as online media is additionally crammed with lots of false information, so is it easy to curb the flow of such news and target relevant information? Although there has been an overflow of false information online, it’s been unanimously accepted that concerning genuine or authentic news website may reduce your chance of getting misinformed. The second opinion which one might imagine: how is that online journalism any better than reading the newspaper or opening a news channel on television? In our busy work schedule, not many people can afford to attend for the daily paper to arrive nor have the luxurious of your time to open a news channel, keeping this in mind online fourth estate is a smaller amount time consuming because it is simply with the touch of our fingertips that we’ve got access to a spread of reports. We even have to require into consideration the mobility of reports as working folks that are always on the move need something to stay pace with. Carrying a newspaper could appear a hassle when contrasted with carrying a transportable and getting regular news updates. Not only are we keeping pace with 24/7 coverage but it’s also less time consuming and less space-consuming. within the current global scenario, one might need to also take into consideration the growing pandemic which has made us all petrified of the spread of the virus. This puts using newspapers out of the question and involves contactless accessibility to information. For this our technological devices get to use. If we are talking about the advantages of story outlets online we are obliged to say how we are presented with a large array of reports online. We get to create our choice here. Unlike reading the newspaper or watching the news on television, we get to decide on what we wish to read here. Thus this permits for personalization of the news portal. Online journalism is additionally advantageous for one more very unique reason. Suppose somebody who is learning a global language says Spanish wants to follow up with the Spanish news thoroughly. How may he/she do so? because it isn’t available locally, one may talk over with the web news portal. With globalization making strides during this 21st century, news channel like Al Jazeera and BBC World has given us access to news globally but there isn’t much choice when it involves picking a language of our choice. With a web media outlet, we will set a language of our choice and also access the region’s local news globally.  As no two journalism will offer an identical opinion on different topics, so we also are able to compare and contrast their opinions. Although we are also ready to do so if we are reading quite one newspaper daily, it’ll still be cumbersome to try to so. because of the growing environmental concerns and also the depletion of our forest covers, many environmentalists would agree that reading news online is arguably the simplest thanks to preventing the depletion of forest cover by saving trees. With more and more people choosing online news coverage some fourth estate outlets online have also made their website free which suggests accessibility thereto won’t cost you a dime. this can be also one in all the most important advantages of reading news online. We all face problems during an influence cut which implies no news coverage during power cuts. this example is often overcome by following up with the news portal online. With faster and safer data connections like 4G and 5G, it’s rather simple to attach with the news world online.

With this, we come to the present conclusion that print media online not only keeps us updated but also tends to be more people and environment centric. Keeping our interests insight, which we might all at now agree, the journalism online has achieved great success.

Her dreams— poetry

She is a living art 

Too real to be called fiction,

Too fictitious to be called real.

Her dreams are shades of red,

Inside her body like 

blood sandwiched between flesh.

She talks to the polka-dotted curtains that hang in the lobby, 

like forgotten art, in a room decorated with false-ceilings.

She smells of flowers

Her soul— a basket full of baked stars,

Forgotten amidsts a sky, 

dotted with scraps of papers—

 that knit fibres of theories.

She carries her stories, 

While they carry legends of inventions and discoveries.

She is the boiling milk,

Taken off the stove,

And mixed with cinnamon

To loose it’s colour, forever.

-ekanika shah.

Reach out to me on instagram @ekanika_shah

INTERNATIONAL WIDOW DAY

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have. Ignorance ,disrespect, shame, worries are the only object that learned by widows. This would be the bad history that our present and future generation learning the cruelty against women, yeah that is sati system, when Male dominant society protected woman from harassment compared to nowadays was good, but they failed to treat their own family members. Despite their husband death they are pushed over the fire to contribute their life and burns all their wishes.Later ages of all struggles from the Periyar the Widow remarriage was considered. Dr. Muthulakshmi reddy widow remarriage system was brought up.

International Widow Day

The United Nation organizes June 23rd as the International Widow day since 2011. The main aim of this day to bring out the voices of the women , the struggles they face in the society. Moreover in developing countries widow women are facing the hardships in day to day living. Poverty, Violence, Health , social conflicts plays a major role in the developing countries as such the dependence over the husband family , education , Violence and abuse against them during traditional practice etc..,

Key points by UN

  • There are an estimated 258 million widows around the world, and nearly one in ten live in extreme poverty.
  • In some parts of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, it is reported that around 50 per cent of women are widows
  • Widows are coerced into participating in harmful, degrading and even life-threatening traditional practices as part of burial and mourning rites.

conclusion

We all know it is very harder for middle and rich income people to run a day in this pandemic very harder, then think about the widow , without any self dependent, children unemployment etc. That is so terrible. Help them with your kindnesses ,bind them with your peace of love .The devastating life of widow be refurbished with the spread of love and respect, human dignity towards them.

Paving the path towards practicing Self Love

Alright so here I will be sharing some of my thoughts on how to take those initial steps to embark upon this beautiful journey of practicing self love and compassion on a daily basis.

1)  LET GO OF EXPECTATIONS
I know this can be tricky and quite hard for most of us because everything that we do has the desire of a certain outcome attached to it and if the outcome is not as expected, disappointments follow which lead to anxiety, it anger and the list of the negative feelings just go overboard. Instead you can have standards you like setting standards is what I allow in my life and what I don’t but don’t expect anything from anyone and from life in general. Try to go with the flow and you will soon start accepting the way you are and the way everyone else is and it being so much of peace, trust me. Just do your job letting go of the desire of the fruit- preached the greatest Lord Krishna in Bhagwad Gita.

2) DON’T TOLERATE ANYBODY’S UNNECESSARY SHIT
Now what I actually mean by it is that you are not supposed to bear with anybody projecting their hatred and frustration upon you especially if there are a closed one and if they matter but this just goes out of context if they are just random people on social media or those people whom you don’t considered to be friends. If they talk ill, let them, because their words define them and not who you are. But, on the other hand, if somebody close is treating you badly then you are not supposed to sit quietly and accept it. Rather communicate and gently do that because you don’t want to spoil the relationship, remind yourself that you want to mend the things and yeah thats how it goes. Because your comfort and level of peace has to be your highest priority. And and and, consI just read in a book, sorry can’t recall the name as of now, maybe “Codependent No More”. It said that you only tolerate the level of shit to the extent from others to which you make yourself go through. So be gentle and kind to your own self because if you don’t say anything bad about yourself then you won’t take it from others as well.

3) SETTING AND ENFORCING BOUNDARIES
Now this is again a tricky one. Boundaries are often created by us to protect our inner energy and tranquility. As we all know that we are human beings and we can have bad days too. It’s completely normal. So on those days, we might even act quite cold with our loved ones who genuinely care for us so we should the try and communicate with them that we are not in a position to talk rather than just venting out on them. Also, know that it is completely justified to ignore calls, not answer to texts, not be available for every hangout etc if you don’t feel like. You have to protect your little heart and its wishes but not by being rude and non-compassionate and that’s how self love functions.

This article is inspired by The Self Love Fix podcast on Google, make sure that you give it a try.

Dealing with jealousy

Oh well! So that’s quite a juicy topic and a very interesting one which is I feel is more of a hush-hush topic, for people know that it exists but they don’t want to admit it publicly, considering it might cause them some sort of an embarrassment or is going to tease their ego a bit and that’s the reason why they are busy silently combating with this one but here I am going to talk about it in a more umm, deeper manner or whatever you may call it.

I am pretty sure that all of us must have experienced jealousy at one stage or the other no matter how much we try to get away with it but I think walking through jealousy is only going to be a successful conquest if, we firstly accept and acknowledge that we have been at points, jealous in our life post which almost 70% of the job is already done. It’s absolutely normal, just a part of human mindset but is deeply rooted in fear and in lack and know that, the feeling of lack is rooted in ego.

Sometimes it is important for us to deeply analyse our emotions and go an extra mile to try and heal them cause unless we heal them, they are going to keep causing troubles for us, leading to absence of mental peace. So why not go into deeper insights and try and figure out how jealousy looks like. It is the general idea that can be taken from the help of sentences that people generally use;  I hate that she has those things, Why does she have them? I wish I had them. Why is he with her? I think I look much better than that girl. Look at me, my Life. I don’t have all these things. I don’t have this money. I don’t have a boyfriend. I don’t have xyz and the list would go on and on unless we choose to accept it and embrace ourselves and practice more and more self love and compassion. Might sound difficult at first, but is not impossible.

If somebody has something, we need to regard it as a blessing bestowed upon them. For the enormous amounts of hard work that they must have been upto all those years of their life, somewhat like the quote “Work hard in Silence and let your success make the noise”. We don’t know, we aren’t aware how incredibly hard circusmstances they would have endured, how many failures they had to overcome and when the time has come for them to enjoy the reward, the fruit of long years of toiling hard and struggles, what are we doing to them? Are we really being compassionate here? Are we really wishing them luck and positivity. Are we really being good human beings here?No, by being jealous and envious, we arez on top of it, trying to tarnish their success by throwing away negativity and jealousy is a negative vibe. Let’s accept it.

So try and make a smooth transition from jealousy to being inspired by that someone, to that extent, where you also want to work hard to earn that fruit and for that, know that, you would also have to put in the equal amount of hardwork, absorb in the pressure and only then you will be rewarded because if you want to chill in an air conditioned room, you would first have to know the experience of being burnt under the sun. Because, my dear, nothing in this world is ever free of cost. You have to endure some amount of “pain” in order to get some “gain” and notice that when you channelize your entire energy towards this process of trying to gain something, trying to work work hard and fulfill your dreams & desire post setting up goals and following your passion, you would find yourself engulfed in a bubble of positivity and there would just be no room for negativity and even if there are some other things which make you feel low and jealous and if the self doubt tends to creep in, don’t worry. Just soothe your inner child, comfort it and with a tranquil state of mind, affirm and say that I have been working hard and I am sure if I don’t give up right now, I will also get what I truly deserve. Also, be mindful enough to not say that “I will also get to match up with that someone”. That’s where comparison comes into play and this is what leads to jealousy. So remember, that as long as you hold love and compassion in your heart, nothing negative can impact you. I hope it helped.

Harmony of opposites

‘Harmony’ is a consistent, orderly or pleasing arrangement of parts, melody and ‘opposites’ means being different in nature. “Harmony of opposites” is a philologically self contradictory statement. But isn’t it that a harmony necessarily consists two opposite principles which inspite of this opposition has some underlying unity. Let’s take the example of Light and darkness both are opposite in nature. But, still both are needed for each other’s existence. It has been scientifically proved (in the concepts of interference and diffraction) that wherever there is light, there is darkness too. Moreover, perception of one is not possible if the other ceases to exit. Similarly, if we would have not known what SADNESS is like, then HAPPINESS would never have meant anything! Also let’s take the example of music; a music is harmonious only when the beats of different frequencies are present, music of a single frequency will make the it sound too bland.
So, it is by this virtue of opposition that everything in this universe exists. W T Stace in his book ‘The Critical History of Greek Philosophy’ has written that, all things contain their own opposites within them. In this struggle and antagonism between hostile principles consists their life, their being, their very existence. At the heart of things is conflict, if there is no conflict in a thing, it would cease to exist. This idea written above was expressed by a Greek Philosopher, Heraclitus also known as the Dark Philosopher.

Will US pause on H1-B visas will impact Indian companies?

On Tuesday, the U.S. government announced it extended the 60-day immigration and non-immigrant worker visa ban until the end of 2020. Popular work visas including the much coveted H-1B and H-2B and some categories of H-4, J and L visas will also remain suspended until 31 December, the White House said in a press release.

The move, said US President Donald Trump, was to protect domestic workers who had been affected in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic because of a contraction in the economy.

To fill a shortage with highly qualified low-cost workers in IT and other similar fields, the U.S. government issues a variety with permits per year allowing businesses outside the U.S. to send staff to work on customers.

Among all working visas, the H-1B remains the most common among IT companies in India. Per year, the US government has a quota of 85,000 H-1B total visas. Of this, 65,000 H-1B visas are issued to highly skilled foreign workers, while the remaining 20,000 may be allocated additionally to highly skilled foreign workers who have an American university degree in higher education or master’s.

In addition to the H-1B visas, the US government also issues L1 visas allowing companies to transfer highly skilled workers to the US for up to seven years. H-2B visas enable food and farm workers to seek employment in the US.

After its introduction in 1952, the H-1 visa system has undergone several modifications and amendments to authorize or disallow other groups of foreign workers in the US, depending on the country’s economic situation.

Together with the arrival of the internet and low-cost computers in developing countries such as India and China, the technology boom saw a large number of graduates willing to work at relatively low costs in the US, a win-win situation for both the employer and the staff. Since then, though, it has been frequently criticized for sending low-cost workers to the US at the expense of homeworkers.

After taking over as US president in January 2017, Trump had suggested that low-cost workers hampered the economy and undermined citizens’ jobs. The US then suggested that the “broken” H-1B visa system be reformed.

Trump seized the opportunity presented by Covid-19’s economic contraction by first banning the entry of non-immigrant workers until June 23, and then extending it until December 31.

Trump said in his executive order extending the ban that while “properly administered temporary worker programs can bring benefits to the economy” under normal circumstances, the extraordinary economic contraction created as a result of Covid-19 posed a threat to American workers.

As the ban is in place immediately, issuance of the additional types of visas H-1B, H-2B, J, and L will have to be halted. This means that those who do not have a valid non-immigrant visa as of June 23, and who are outside the US, will not be allowed to enter the country until December 31. Some relief has been given to workers in essential services in the food sector and their entry will be decided by the immigration services consular officer.

Source:https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/us-h1b-visa-suspension-india-it-companies-6471966/