So, finally, today is the last day of my internship. This is not related to any news, article or any kind of research, this is just a simple message and a little experience which I want to share. In this period of a month, I learnt a plethora of skills such as content writing, Blogging and more than that I enjoyed to being a publisher with eduindex. I haven’t traditionally good at writing but now I think I did my best even I can do more better. In today’s world, everyone should learn these skills and knowledge as well and we are blessed as we have such a good platform Internshala through that we can use this knowledge or skill even learns from them in such a convenient way. Hopefully, my little experience will be helpful to have the curiosity in young ones.
Tag Archives: News
Another 250 apps are going to be banned in India
India Government could ban more than 200 other applications in country. Last month, the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps in India, after that they are planning to banned other 250 also because of users privacy and national security violations. This includes PUBG, zili, allibaba express,Capcut, FaceU, Meitu, LBE Tech, Perfect Corp, Sina Corp, Netease Games and other 250 apps. As per the report these apps are included in the activities that were “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, the security of the state and public order.” Report said, government will follow a proper procedure before such bans, then likely to act on it soon.
Public
Police Brutality: Condemnation and Praise
“I say this with all sense of responsibility that there is not a single lawless group in the whole country whose record of crime is anywhere near the record of that organized unit, which is known as the Indian Police Force”
-Justice Anand Narain Mulla
After George Floyd’s tragic death, protests erupted in all of the world to speak against the power Cops held over minority groups in America.
How many minorities have to die in India, so that people realize the power cops hold over the voiceless and the powerless?
On June 19th, Bennicks was in his shop when he got to know that his father Jayaraj was picked up by the police. Bennicks then hurried to the Sathankulam police station, only to be arrested himself.
On June 23rd, the police told Bennicks’ family, that both the father and the son had succumbed to their injuries at the Kovilpatti Government Hospital.
According to the police, on June 19th, both the father and the son were arrested. They stated that,“Their Shop was open after the curfew time during the lockdown. Jayaraj, his son Bennicks and a few other friends were standing outside the shop. We told them to disperse. While others went away, Jayaraj and Bennicks sat on the ground and abused us verbally and rolled on the ground. In this, they suffered internal injuries.”
Though eyewitnesses said the latter is false as Bennicks went to the police station later that day ,
even if we try to believe the police’s statements of the event, it is highly unlikely that two people died due to injuries suffered by rolling on the ground.
Eyewitnesses alleged that after sub inspector Raghuganesh arrived at the station, the violence increased and more people joined in assaulting the duo. Eyewitnesses also alleged that the father and son had to change as many as six lungis each, as each one was drenched in blood.
Percy, Bennicks’ sister and Jayaraj’s daughter, alleged that the policemen “attacked them in the anus”.
She also revealed on June 24th, to media outlets, that the policemen had pushed her father by his neck to the floor and beaten him. When her brother, Bennicks questioned why, the police hit him too. Then they thrashed them both for almost two hours, after locking the door.
As the demands for justice grew louder ,and people outraged both in real life and on social media, the Thoothukudi police suspended two sub-inspectors in the Sathankulam station, though they did not admit to using force on either Jayaraj or Bennicks.
On June 24th, the Madurai bench of the High Court ordered the Superintendent of Police, Toothukudi, to inquire into the matter and submit a status report.
Although, I’d love to say that this is the first incident in India where someone was killed by the police, but this is a country where movies like Dabbang break box office records, where the cops are championed and glorified for practicing police brutality and “taking matters into their own hands”. We, as a country, have not only normalised Police Brutality, but we have also Romanticised it.
Only a few months ago, in February 2020, a man named Faizan was beaten up and was made to sing Vande Matram, along with four others, as the Delhi Police recorded the video. Two days later the man who was shot, during the Delhi Riots, took his last breath.
You’d think that people would outrage about an incident like this, but the Internet was quite torn. While some condemned this act by the police, others praised it under the guise of the allegations that these men could have been rioters taking part in the riots.
It seems that the people need to be reminded that the police is not supposed to kill guilty people either. They can’t be the judge, and the executioner themselves.
Which brings us to another case, that happened in Hyderabad. In November 2019, a veterinary doctor was gang raped and killed by four men. While the police was condemned for not taking action before the atrocity was committed (even though the matter was reported to them by the doctor’s sister), they were praised by the very same people for shooting the suspects dead. [6]
And while you may think that the guilty were brought to justice, the system which allows women to be raped and the police to sit quiet, never got fixed. Instead, they gave the very same police officers the power to shoot people dead to satisfy your blood thirst.
Between 2017 and 2020, over 5000 encounters have taken place in Uttar Pradesh alone. That is an average of 5 encounters per day.
During the lockdown alone, there were at least 14 cases where people were victims of police brutality.
Not four days after Jayaraj and Bennix died, another case of death due to police brutality was reported.
On June 27th, 19-year old heart patient, Sagar Chalavadi died of a heart attack after being lathi-charged outside an SSLC examination centre, in Karnataka.
What is saddening is the fact that most people fail to draw the parallels between most of the victims of police brutality being minorities and/or from economically weaker sections. Most Indian news outlets didn’t even mention that Jayaraj and Bennix were Christians.
According to a news report by Muslim Mirror, a total of 1,731 people died in custody in India in 2019 alone. Out of these most belonged to the poor and marginalized communities including Dalit, tribal, and muslims.
In India, people praise the police for acts of violence against those whom they think are in the wrong and condemn the acts of violence against those whom they think to be right.
That is why violence against an alleged rioter is justified but a simple shop owner isn’t.
What people fail to realize is that, every time they justify acts of violence by the police against an alleged rioter, or even a rapist, they give them the power to do the same to a student taking an examination, or a shop owner who kept his shop open after curfew.
Article 21 of the Constitution says that no person can be deprived of his or her life without the due process of law being followed.
Section 46 in the Code of Criminal Procedure, while explaining how an arrest may be executed, says: “If such a person forcibly resists the endeavour to arrest him, or attempts to evade the arrest, such police officer or other person may use all means necessary to effect the arrest.”
Sub-clause 3 of Section 46 further says: “Nothing in this section gives a right to cause the death of a person who is not accused of an offence punishable with death or with imprisonment for life.”
Even after these laws protecting the citizens of the country, the police have the power to get away with killings like these with nothing but a temporary suspension, or best-case scenario – a permanent one.
According to an article in The Hindu, “Custodial Deaths have been on the increase in recent years. They increased by 9% from 92 in 2016 to 100 in 2017, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Since policemen responsible for custodial deaths, rarely get punished, they feel emboldened to continue using torture as the tool to get to the truth. In 2015, for instance the police registered cases against fellow police officers in only 33 of the 97 custodial deaths.”
Many questions preoccupy people’s minds, like why did the police take Bennicks and Jayaraj to a prison in Kovilpatti, when there is a jail located in Perurani, closer to Sathankulam?
Who is going to conduct the inquiry against the policemen?
While, these questions will likely be answered, soon, some questions remain unspoken; Why is it that the only time the voice of a person belonging to a certain minority, loud enough for Indians to hear, after they are dead?
Why are cops not given better training, that help them serve the people instead of holding power over them?
And above all, when will Indians start advocating for their own minorities, and prioritise them over minorities of other nations?
Public
ARREST WARRANT FOR DONALD TRUMP
Iran and Trump
Iran has issued an arrest warrant for US President Donald Trump over the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Monday.
Trump is one of 36 people Iran has issued arrest warrants for in relation to the death of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), according to Fars, but the Tehran attorney general Ali Alqasi Mehr said Trump was at the top of the list.
Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday that Trump, along with more than 30 others Iran accuses of involvement in the January 3 attack that killed General Qassem Soleimani, face “murder and terrorism charges”, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Alqasimehr did not identify anyone else sought other than Trump, but stressed Iran would continue to pursue his prosecution even after his presidency ends. Also, Mehr claimed Trump would be prosecuted as soon as he stands down presidency after his term ends, Fars reported.
Iran also said it had asked Interpol to issue a Red Notice for these 36 individuals, semi-official state news agency ISNA reported, though it was unlikely that Interpol would grant the request.
Interpol, based in Lyon, France, said in a statement its constitution forbade it to undertake “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character. Therefore, if or when any such requests were to be sent to the General Secretariat, Interpol would not consider requests of this nature.”
The US’s Iran envoy Brian Hook described the move as a “propaganda stunt”.
“Our assessment is that Interpol does not intervene and issue Red Notices that are based on a political nature,” Hook said at a news conference in Saudi Arabia. “This is a political nature. This has nothing to do with national security, international peace or promoting stability… It is propaganda stunt that no one takes seriously,” he said.
Red notice request
Alqasimehr was also quoted as saying Iran had requested a “red notice” be put out for Trump and the others, the highest-level notice issued by Interpol, requesting that seeks the location and arrest of the individual named.
Under a red notice, local authorities make the arrests on behalf of the country that requested it. The notices cannot force countries to arrest or extradite suspects, but can put government leaders on the spot and limit suspects’ travel.
After receiving a request, Interpol meets by committee and discusses whether or not to share the information with its member states. Interpol has no requirement for making any of the notices public, though some do get published on its website.
The US killed General Soleimani, who oversaw the Revolutionary Guard Corps’s expeditionary Quds Force and others in the January attack near Baghdad International Airport.
The assassination came after months of incidents raising tensions between the two countries and ultimately saw Iran retaliate with a ballistic missile strike targeting American troops in Iraq.
Political Stunt
US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook called the move a “political stunt” during a joint press conference with the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir on Monday.
“It’s propaganda that we’re used to,” Hook said. “This has nothing to do with national security, international peace or promoting stability, so we see it for what it is – it’s a propaganda stunt that no one takes seriously and makes the Iranians look foolish,” he added.
Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad International Airport in January along with five others, including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
The strike, condemned by Iran and its allies as an “assassination,” raised the specter of further regional destabilization.
A spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, announced in early June that an Iranian citizen had been sentenced to death for allegedly working for foreign intelligence agencies. Esmaili claimed that Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi Majd disclosed the whereabouts of Soleimani to US intelligence officials.
The Trump administration viewed Soleimani as a ruthless killer, and the President told reporters in January that the general should have been taken out by previous presidents. The Pentagon blamed Soleimani for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and US allies in the months leading up to his killing.
“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the Pentagon said at the time, calling the strike “decisive defensive” action aimed at deterring future Iranian attacks.
Public
BOYCOTT CHINA CONTROVERSY
What is Boycott China controversy?
Boycott of Chinese products is a slogan used by Internet campaigns that advocate a boycott of Chinese-made products. Commonly cited reasons for the boycott include the alleged low quality of products, human rights issues, territorial conflicts involving China, support for separatist movements within China, and objection to more specific matters relating to China, such as the eating of dog meat and the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, and more recently, the government’s alleged mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Countries including India, Philippines, and Vietnam have called for a boycott of Chinese goods, as have separatist movements in China itself. A full boycott of Chinese products is considered to be difficult to achieve, as the country manufactures a large number of goods that are widely sold and used across the world, and also holds stakes in various non-Chinese companies.
Causes
China is the largest country in the world by population, and the third largest by territory, sharing long borders with several other nations. Border conflicts have occurred many times between China and their neighbors during its history.] At the center of Asia, some Chinese emperors attempted to expand their empires through war. There are also a lot of conflicting national interests and policies between China and other nations, like the disputes between the other nations with China and its allies. As a result of these conflicts, there is dissent against China amongst its bordering nations, and calls for the boycotting of Chinese products originate from residual resentment due to border conflicts.
In 1949, the Communist Party of China won the Chinese Civil War, gaining control of China. Since the 1980s, with the “reform and opening up”, Chinese leaders have made economic development one of their first priorities. Chinese businesses often produce goods tailored to market expectations; therefore, Chinese products generally may lack quality when consumers prefer to pay a low price.
Overpopulation is also considered a possible reason for manufacturing low-quality products; some firms cannot find enough of the needed raw materials to produce goods that serve customer requirements and follow safety standards, instead producing products made with cheaper or low-quality material. Many companies and businesses also lack capital, industry expertise, and marketing power, leading to their manufacturing of counterfeit products. Many companies produce such goods to piggyback on the popularity of legitimate companies such as Apple, Hyatt and Starbucks are copied. However, by looking at the situation in the context of history, it is often argued that this is simply a normal transition in manufacturing, and that a phase of low quality and counterfeit manufacturing is not unique to China alone, as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have undergone very similar economic phases. Keeping the aforementioned information in mind, with high quality goods being delivered from Chinese firms such as Huawei and Lenovo in recent years, it can be observed that the state of Chinese manufacturing quality is ostensibly trending upward.
The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was considered a signal of poor food safety, affecting thousands of people, and as a result, many Chinese parents do not trust Chinese milk products. In recent years, however, the Chinese government has taken many actions in order to prevent sales of substandard food.
Technology produced by Chinese companies has also been a subject of scrutiny, especially by the United States; for example, in 2018, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 into law, containing a provision that banned Huawei and ZTE equipment from being used by the U.S. federal government, citing security concerns.
Some organisations have used the COVID-19 pandemic as part of campaigns against China; for example, the Vishva Hindu Parishad in India has called for a boycott of China in retaliation for China’s allegedly being directly responsible for the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus strain and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic.
Boycott in India
India and Tibet have called for a joint campaign to boycott Chinese goods in response to border intrusion incidents allegedly perpetrated by China. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh sarsanghchalak (chief) Mohan Bhagwat stated “We speak about self-dependence and standing up to China. The new government seems to be standing up to it. But where will the government draw strength from if we don’t stop buying things from China?”
In 2016, China denied the entry of India to the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Along with this, China is viewed as a major roadblock by Indians towards its permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, with China having used its veto power repeatedly to keep India out of the UNSC while the US, UK, France and Russia support India. Meanwhile, China provides Pakistan unconditional support in many international stages; despite the fact that many countries including India and the USA claim that Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism. Also, China makes a large amount of investments in Pakistan. During the conflict between the India and Pakistan in August–September 2016 after the Uri attack, the supporting stand of China towards Pakistan led to a campaign to boycott Chinese products in India. As a consequence, sales of Chinese products dipped by about 40 percent in the period immediately after the boycott call. Patanjali Ayurved founder Ramdev Baba was among the many people to have spoken of boycotting Chinese goods amid the 2017 Doklam standoff when nationalist sentiments had risen.
In May 2020, in response to the 2020 China–India skirmishes which were allegedly perpetrated by China’s People’s Liberation Army, Indian engineer, educator and innovator Sonam Wangchuk appealed to Indians to “use your wallet power” and boycott Chinese products. He called for India to “stop using Chinese software in a week and hardware in a year”. This appeal was covered by major media houses and supported by various celebrities.
In spite of various campaigns by notable individuals and organisations, Chinese companies still have influence over various markets, especially relating to consumer technology and software. For example, as in March 2020, Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme and Vivo accounted for approximately 73% of smartphone sales in India. On the other hand, Samsung Electronics and Nokia, both companies that once led the market, together accounted for less than 22% of smartphone sales. In spite of the campaigns, retailers have stated that the growing rhetoric is unlikely to sway consumer behaviour, especially due to alleged “value for money” in Chinese products, especially smartphones.
Chinese companies also invest heavily in Indian companies; 18 out of 30 of India’s billion-dollar startups are funded by China. Major Chinese investment firms like Alibaba Group and Tencent hold investments in major companies that are considered to be Indian, like BYJU’S, Zomato, Ola Cabs and Flipkart. In spite of the Indian government recording the origin of foreign direct investment, many Chinese companies exploit loopholes by investing in Indian companies through their non-Chinese subsidiaries; for example, Alibaba’s investment in Paytm was by Alibaba Singapore Holdings Pvt. Ltd. Hence, these investments don’t get recorded in India’s government data as Chinese investments.
In view of these circumstances, various other issues have been pointed out. For example, B. Thiagrajan, managing director of Blue Star Limited, an Indian manufacturer of air conditioners, air purifiers and water coolers said “We are not worried about finished goods. But most players across the globe import key components such as compressors from China,” and added that it would take a long time to set up local supply chains, and that there were few alternatives for certain kinds of imports. Besides, boycotting popular Chinese apps such as TikTok has been suggested as a more effective alternative to boycotting physical goods in terms of value added because there are multiple alternatives
Is it practically possible to boycott China?
It is not practically possible for India to cease the entry of Chinese products altogether. Even if the Government passes a law to stop the official use of Chinese products, then also Chinese products are going to hit the market through unauthorized entry and smuggling. People are all so attracted towards the Chinese products because they are cheap. We all know that India is a third world country or a developing country. So the majority of the population here are lower middle class or lower class. As a result they do not have enough money to spend on costly luxurious things. So they try to settle for a cheap but look-alike substitute by which they can still enjoy some of the benefits of the modern world. This chiefly includes smartphones, smart watches, laptops and other electronic items.
Apart from that, there is a huge annual transaction between India and China. This boosts the economy of both the countries. But as China is the producer of the goods, so even if they are cornered, they can produce their own stuff and carry on their life almost normally. But if the boycott is started by India, then India will not only suffer monetary losses, but also it will not receive the goods needed for the day to day life of its citizens.
So although the hostilities between India and China in recent times is completely unacceptable and also there have been reports that China heavily funds Pakistan, which is renowned all over the world as the hub of terrorist funding, it is not pragmatic for India to completely stop using Chinese hardware, that too in the course of a year. But, of course, if the Indian Government plans to stop the use of Chinese apps and softwares, that is a still practical decision but then Indian companies will have to come up with applications and softwares that would replace the boycotted Chinese apps. In a nutshell, before India plans to make any drastic decision, it should check all grounds to see if this #BoycottChina is a very practical decision or not.
Public
Is media oversueing its freedom?
No matter how much people love to read the newspapers early mornings, with lukewarm tea, there’s always a keenness among the personages to get updated information, at every point of time. And they look up towards the digital media to get all the world’s knowledge. Apart from the media platforms that have come today, that, somewhere, are more unbiased and neutral, people still appeal towards the news channels that are being telecasted on the television due to less popularity of those on social media platforms and that can only be accessed through internet and digital media.
In such an era, as this, news channels have become the best medium to convey the news of every minute, even seconds. They are always try to find interesting ways to give the best to the audiences through debates, showcasing interesting news, and speaking up equivocally. Today most of them have all the world’s freedom to speak up and provide every pros and cons of any happening around the world, and they actually does. But, unfortunately, they have surpassed all the limits of freedom and autarky, and those end up showing the news and the information that is in favour of their sponsors and government whom so ever they have sold themselves to. Always wondering the reason behind such doings? Found out, it is actually for the sake of popularity, as well as to “be the good guy of the room” whether we believe it or not, in some way or the other, they show us, at last, what they really want us to believe and perceive.
Either they telecast such news that is all hot and debated amongst political parties, or nothing at all. The use of language in their headlines, is also something that is to be worried on, beyond imagination, too pathetic and so to say, low quality to handle. And it is because of such stuff, people come under believing in those news that are even not that tension worthy, leaving behind the happenings that are to be focused on. Again, if we talk about how they have created a mess among the people, who are no one, but believes what is being shown to them, sometimes they come up with such facts and datas that are nowhere in the history, nobody has ever mentioned that.
For instance, the recent incident of Chinese troops’ standoff on the Indian borders, is telecasted on and off the television again and again, claiming that the Chinese Army has been terrified by the revert back of the Indian Army. And they are proudly claiming and rejoicing that all the way in their news, which is a really worth appreciating. But, the picture behind the scenes isn’t made clear to the public yet; it is the Chinese cyber attacks that is also a big and a disaster for Indian IT sectors, that is unluckily not been promoted to show up on the television screens of millions of Indians, leaving them untouched from the reality.
Although,media did, does, and is doing such an appreciable work all the time, every single minute, faster it is than the print media and has given all the freedom to provide information, quality information to its viewers. But, certainly, their quality, the news that they display over the television screens have got limited with time and space;certainly due to enormous pressure of their sponsors. Which is why, “news channels must start wearing sponser jackets, like Nascar drivers, then we know who owns them.
International Journal of Research (IJR) 