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  • [Burning Issue] Annual Status of Education Report 2019

     

    Context

    • The recently released ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) is an annual survey released by NGO Pratham.
    • It aims to provide reliable annual estimates of children’s schooling status and basic learning levels for each state and rural district in India.
    • It is the largest citizen-led survey in India and is also the only annual source of information on children’s learning outcomes available in India today.

    Key highlights of the report

     

    • Only 16% of children in Class 1 in 26 surveyed rural districts can read text at the prescribed level, while almost 40% cannot even recognise letters, according to
    • Only 41% of these children could recognise two-digit numbers.

    Private schools on progress

    • Of six-year-olds in Class 1, 41.5% of those in private schools could read words in comparison to only 19% from government schools.
    • Similarly, 28% of those in government schools could do simple addition as against 47% in private schools.
    • This gap is further exacerbated by a gender divide: only 39% of girls aged 6-8 are enrolled in private schools in comparison to almost 48% of boys.
    • The report also found that a classroom could include students from a range of age-groups, skewing towards younger children in government schools.

    Role of Mothers

    • Among the key findings of ASER 2019 is that the mother’s education often determines the kind of pre-schooling or schooling that the child gets.
    • The report says that among children in the early years (ages 0-8), those with mothers who had completed eight or fewer years of schooling are more likely to be attending anganwadis or government pre-primary classes.
    • With 75% of women in the productive age group not in the workforce, they can be better engaged in their children’s development, learning and school readiness.

    Determinants of poor outcomes

    • The ASER report shows that a large number of factors determine the quality of education received at this stage, including the child’s home background, especially the mother’s education level; the type of school, whether anganwadis, government schools or private pre-schools; and the child’s age in Class 1.
    • More than a quarter of Class 1 students in government schools are only 4 or 5 years old, younger than the recommended age.
    • The ASER data shows that these younger children struggle more than others in all skills.
    • Permitting underage children into primary grades puts them at a learning disadvantage which is difficult to overcome,” said the report.

    Why are children entering school before 6?

    • This is partly due to the lack of affordable and accessible options for pre-schooling. Therefore, too many children go to Std I with limited exposure to early childhood education. 
    • Children from poor families have a double disadvantage — lack of healthcare and nutrition on one side and the absence of a supportive learning environment on the other. 
    • Although the Anganwadi network across India is huge, by and large, school readiness or early childhood development and education activities have not had a high priority in the ICDS system.

    Key suggestions made by the report

    • ASER found that the solution is not to spend long hours teaching children the 3Rs.
    • Counter-intuitively, the report argues that a focus on cognitive skills rather than subject learning in the early years can make a big difference to basic literacy and numeracy abilities.
    • The survey shows that among Class 1 children who could correctly do none or only one of the tasks requiring cognitive skills, about 14% could read words, while 19% could do single-digit addition.
    • However, of those children who could correctly do all three cognitive tasks, 52% could read words, and 63% could solve the addition problem.

    Why is learning level in schools important?

    • The quality of the learning level bears directly on India’s future workforce, its competitiveness and the economy.
    • India’s demographic dividend depends on the learning level of students. Thus quality of education has a direct bearing on any economy.
    • With some 240 million students or nearly 20% of the Indian population in school, their quality of learning or lack of it assumes significance for the competitiveness of the country.
    •  It has an impact on the quality of life, efficiency at the workplace, and labour productivity issues.

    Policies under suspicion

    • Access to elementary (classes I-VIII) schooling is almost universal and the number of children out of schools is below 4%, but a quality deficit, that too for more than a decade, raises questions about the priorities of governments at the central and state levels.
    • This poor learning outcome in India is despite the Right to Education (RTE) Act has been in force since April 2010 making eight years of education compulsory for children and the Centre floating schemes such as “Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat”, apart from states’ efforts.

    What needs to be done?

    • Setting up a Review mechanism: Now that the ASER measure is available for 10 years, the Centre should institute a review mechanism involving all States for both government and private institutions, covering elementary education and middle school.
    • Shifting focus on outcome-based learning: A public consultation on activity-based learning outcomes, deficits in early childhood education, and innovations in better performing States can help.
    • Improve the quality of education: At present, children start learning in a variety of environments: from poorly equipped Anganwadi centres to private nurseries. Therefore, any policy framework should also consider this aspect.

    Focus on productive learning

    • ASER data shows that children’s performance on tasks requiring cognitive skills is strongly related to their ability to do early language and numeracy tasks,” says the report.
    • This suggests that focussing on play-based activities that build memory; reasoning and problem-solving abilities are more productive than an early focus on content knowledge.
    • Global research shows that 90% of brain growth occurs by age 5, meaning that the quality of early childhood education has a crucial impact on the development and long-term schooling of a child.

    Need for expanding Anganwadi outreach

    • There is considerable scope for expanding Anganwadi outreach for three and four-year-old children.
    • All-India data from 2018 shows that slightly less than 30 per cent children at age three and 15.6 per cent of children at age four are not enrolled anywhere.
    • Expanding access to anganwadis is an important incremental step.
    • Strengthening the early childhood components in the ICDS system would help greatly in raising school readiness among young children.

    Need to extend RTE age limit

    • The Right to Education Act refers to free and compulsory education for the age group six to 14.
    • It is commonly assumed that children enter Standard I at age six and that they proceed year by year from Std I to Std VIII, reaching the end of elementary school by age 14.
    • However, the practice on the ground is quite different. ASER 2018 data show that 27.6 per cent of all children in Std I are under age six.

    Considering age implications for children’s learning

    • The gap between policy and practice is also very visible in what happens inside preschools and pre-primary grades.
    • Data from ASER 2019 indicate that in Std I, the ability to do cognitive activities among seven-eight-year olds can be 20 percentage points higher than their friends who are five years old but in the same class.
    • In terms of reading levels in Std I, 37.1 per cent children who are under six can recognise letters whereas 76 per cent of those who are seven or eight can do the same.
    • Many believe that more years of schooling is better than less and that the sooner the child enters “school” the faster she or he will learn and be ready for future learning.

    Conclusion

    • The latest ASER assessment of how children are faring in schools in rural areas indicates there has been no dramatic improvement in learning outcomes.
    • There is concern that curricular expectations on literacy and numeracy have become too ambitious, requiring reform.
    • The enactment of the Right to Education Act was followed by a welcome rise in enrolment, which now touches 96% as per ASER data.
    • Empowering as it is, the law needs a supportive framework to cater to learners from different backgrounds that often cannot rely on parental support or coaching.

    Way Forward

    • It is a long time to have only awareness, and a quantum jump in the education sector is the need of the hour.
    • Simultaneously we need to focus on three aspects—bigger spending on education (upto 6% of GDP instead of the present 2.7%), political willingness to improve education, and a drastic change in the quality of teacher education.
    • There is a need to leverage the existing network of Anganwadi centres to implement school readiness.
    • The year 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the RTE Act.
    • This is the best moment to focus on the youngest cohorts before and during their entry to formal schooling and ensure that 10 years later they complete secondary school as well-equipped and well-rounded citizens of India.

     

    References

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/annual-status-of-education-report-rural-2019/

    https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/ulDY2PQfNpsrha1Lr5Oe2N/Opinion–Indiaseducationsector-needs-a-quantum-shift.html

    https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/education-policy-india-schooling-6216711/

  • 28th January 2020 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

    [WpProQuiz 350]

  • Polycrack Technology

     

    Indian Railways has put in place the country’s first Waste to Energy plant in Mancheswar Carriage Repair Workshop which falls under East Coast Railway. It uses a patented technology called POLYCRACK, is first-of-its-kind in Indian Railways and fourth in India.

    Polycrack Technology

    • It is world’s first patented heterogeneous catalytic process which converts multiple feed stocks into hydrocarbon liquid fuels, gas, carbon and water.
    • The process is a closed-loop system and does not emit any hazardous pollutants into the atmosphere.

    Feeders

    • Polycrack Plant can be fed with all types of plastic, petroleum sludge, un-segregated MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) with moisture up to 50%, e–waste, automobile fluff, organic waste including bamboo, garden waste etc., and Jatropha fruit and palm bunch.

    How it works?

    • The process is a closed-loop system and does not emit any hazardous pollutants into the atmosphere.
    • The combustible, non-condensed gases are re-used for providing energy to the entire system and thus, the only emission comes from the combustion of gaseous fuels.
    • The emissions from the combustion are found to be much less than prescribed environmental norms.
    • This process will produce energy in the form of Light Diesel Oil which is used to light furnaces.

    Advantages of Polycrack

    Polycrack has the following advantages over the conventional approach of treating solid waste:

    • Pre-segregation of waste is not required to reform the waste. Waste as collected can be directly fed into Polycrack.
    • It has high tolerance to moisture hence drying of waste is not required.
    • Waste is processed and reformed within 24 hours.
    • It is an enclosed unit hence the working environment is dust free.
    • Excellent air quality surrounding the plant.
    • Biological decomposition is not allowed as the Waste is treated as it is received.
    • The foot print of the plant is small hence the area required for installing the plant is less when compared with conventional method of processing.
    • All constituents are converted into valuable energy thereby making it Zero Discharge Process.
    • Gas generated in the process is re-used to provide energy to the system thereby making it self-reliant and also bring down the operating cost.
    • There is no atmospheric emission during the process unlike other conventional methods except for combustion gases which have pollutants less than the prescribed norms the world over.
    • Operates around 450 degrees, making it a low temperature process when compared with other options.
    • Safe and efficient system with built-in safety features enables even an unskilled user to operate the machine with ease.
    • Low capital cost and low operating cost.
    • Fully automated system requires minimum man power.

  •  [op-ed of the day] The convergence of rich nations with the rest has gone off track

    Context

    Sound policies are needed to put emerging economies back on a higher growth path and ameliorate regional inequalities.

    The theory of convergence

    • The theory of convergence is one of the most powerful and noblest ideas in economics.
      • What is it? It is the concept that other things being equal, poorer economies should catch up with richer ones so that inequality between the rich and the poor attenuates, and conceivably even disappears over time.
    • Capital is more productive in poor economies: The premise driving convergence is that capital (whether physical or human) is more productive in poor economies than rich ones due to what economists call “diminishing marginal productivity”.
      • In layman’s terms, a small amount of investment yields a greater increase in output where there is less capital than where there is more.
      • Lesser the development more the development: Even more simply, the rate of return on investment is inversely related to the level of economic development.
    • Experience of Japan and Germany after WW 2: The experience of advanced economies gave economists reason to be optimistic that convergence occurs according to the script.
      • Thus, the devastated economies of Europe, along with Japan, quickly caught up with the advanced economies that had not been ravaged by World War II, most notably, the US.
      • Germany and Japan closing the gap: At the end of the war, with their capital stocks destroyed, Germany and Japan were much poorer than the US; by the 1960s, they had closed the gap.

    Globalisation and the unfulfilled hopes of convergence

    • Replication of the rise of Japan and Germany? At one time, it appeared that the same play was at work between emerging economies and advanced economies.
      • Rise of India and China: Economies such as China and India, as well as others, were far outstripping the growth rates of the US and other rich economies,
      • Hope of closing gap: India and China gave hope that at least the more rapidly growing of the emerging economies would close the gap with the rich world within decades rather than centuries.
    • Adoption of technology at low cost: There was presumed to be an additional powerful force working toward convergence.
      • Poorer economies are, almost by definition, far away from the technological frontier at which the richest economies operate.
      • There is thus ample room to absorb newer technologies at relatively low cost and in a relatively short span of time, without encountering slowing growth like the rich economies,
      • In simpler terms, it is difficult and costly to innovate the latest Apple iPhone, but relatively easy to reverse engineers at least some of Apple’s technology.

    Reality: Convergence is faltering

    • Recent evidence suggests that convergence is faltering.
    • World Bank report of retarding convergence: A recent World Bank report documents a worrying slowdown in productivity growth in emerging economies, significantly retarding convergence.
      • Lower productivity: The report’s calculations suggest that emerging economies have 14% lower productivity than they would have had if previous trends of high productivity growth were maintained.
      • Lower commodity exports: For commodity exporters, this is a whopping 19%.
    • The silver lining for faltering economies: According to the World Bank, the main driver of falling productivity are-
      • Insufficient investment in physical and human capital.
      • Insufficient mobility of machines and workers from less productive to more productive sectors of the economy.
    • India’s case: The Indian case clearly bears this out, with languishing investment and unfinished productivity-enhancing reforms, especially in the country’s labour market, being the key culprits behind the sharp slowdown in growth.

    Way forward

    • Repair financial systems: Governments, including India’s, need to do the heavy lifting of repairing damaged financial systems overladen with bad debt.
    • Restore fiscal rectitude.
    • Inflation focused monetary policy: Ensure that monetary policy remains focused on stable inflation rather than being excessively loose as a risky substitute for structural reforms.
    • Reforms: Press ahead with unfinished reforms to capital, land and labour markets.
    • Address the regional disparities: There is a further critical dimension in the case of large multi-region economies such as India.
      • Not only has convergence been faltering between nations, but it has also been faltering between the richer and poorer regions of large nations such as India.

    Conclusion

    The data does not present an epistle of despair, but of hope. The pursuit of sensible and conventional sound economic policies ought to put emerging economies as a group back on a higher growth trajectory. Convergence may yet end up being a parable of promise rather than a fable of folly.

     

  • [op-ed snap] The hype over hypersonics

    Context

    Russia announced that its new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), Avangard, had been made operational.

    What HGV is and where the US and China stand

    • What is HGV and what is it capable of?
      • Speed over 5 Mach: A hypersonic delivery system is essentially a ballistic or cruise missile that can fly for long distances and at speeds higher than 5 Mach at lower altitudes.
      • Invulnerable to interception: This allows it to evade interception from current Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD).
      • High manoeuvrability: It can also execute a high degree of manoeuvres.
      • Avangard-Developed by Russia: Russia claims that this HGV can fly at over 20 times the speed of sound.
      • Invulnerable to interception: and is capable of such manoeuvring as to be invulnerable to interception by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary.
    • China and the U.S. are also close on the heels: The U.S. has moved from the research to the development stage.
      • Where China stands: China demonstrated the DF-17, a medium-range missile with the HGV, at the military parade in October 2019.
    • What were the reasons for the development: The U.S. walked out of anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002, prompted by the U.S. exit from the treaty and fear of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile defence system.

    How would hypersonics complicate the security concerns?

    • First complication-Increase in the possibility of miscalculation: These missiles are being added to the military capabilities of countries that possess nuclear weapons.
      • For these nations, the concern is always an attack on nuclear assets to degrade retaliation
      • Destination ambiguities: Another layer of complication is added by the fact that these missiles bring in warhead and destination ambiguities.
      • Increasing tendency to assume worst: In both cases, when an adversary’s early warning detects such missiles headed in its direction, but cannot be sure whether they are conventional or nuclear-armed, nor ascertain the target they are headed towards, the tendency would be to assume the worst.
      • For an adversary that faces a country with a BMD but itself has a small nuclear arsenal, it would fear that even conventionally armed hypersonic missiles could destroy a portion of its nuclear assets.
      • The tendency to shift to trigger-ready postures: The tendency could then be to shift to more trigger-ready postures such as launch on warning or launch under attack to ostensibly enhance deterrence.
      • Risk of miscalculation: But such shifts would also bring risks of misperception and miscalculation in moments of crisis.
    • Second complication-Offence defence spiral: According to reports, the U.S. has begun finding ways of either strengthening its BMD or looking for countermeasures to defeat hypersonics, besides having an arsenal of its own of the same kind.
      • Possibility of arms race: The stage appears set for an arms race instability given that the three major players in this game have the financial wherewithal and technological capability to play along.
      • This looks particularly imminent in the absence of any strategic dialogue or arms control.
    • Third complication-Possibility of the arms race into outer space: A third implication would be to take offence-defence developments into outer space.
      • Sensors are already placed into space: Counter-measures to hypersonics have been envisaged through the placement of sensors and interceptors in outer space.
      • While none of this is going to be weaponisation of outer space would, nevertheless, be a distinct possibility once hypersonic inductions become the norm.

    Conclusion

    The induction of this technology would likely prove to be a transitory advantage eventually leading nations into a strategic trap. India needs to make a cool-headed assessment of its own deterrence requirements and choose its pathways wisely.

  • 27th January 2020 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions

    [WpProQuiz 349]

  • 27th January 2020| Daily Answer Writing Enhancement

    Important Announcement: In the month of February, we will be covering UPSC Mains GS questions of 2019. The timetable will be shared in the new post. This will give you real time experience of attempting GS questions of UPSC Mains.

     

    Question 1)

    “Conditions of urban poor women are more appalling than their rural counterparts.” Comment. (15 Marks)

    Question 2)

    ‘The process of interpretation of the Constitution of India has undergone a sort of evolution since its inception’. Examine the above statement with examples. (15 Marks)

    Question 3)

    What is the Hypersonic Glide Vehicles? Explain how they make the missile defence systems obsolete and what are its implications for India? (15 Marks)

    Question 4)

    Define work culture. Explain in what way work culture is shaped through the observations and experiences of the individual in the workplace. Illustrate with suitable examples. (15 Marks)

    Reviews will be provided in a week. (In the order of submission- First come first serve basis). In case the answer is submitted late the review period may get extended to two weeks.

    *In case your answer is not reviewed in a week, reply to your answer saying *NOT CHECKED*. If Parth Sir’s tag is available then tag him.

    For the philosophy of AWE and payment, check  here: Click2Join

  • [op-ed of snap] The four phases of constitutional interpretation

    Context

    The ways in which the Constitution of India is interpreted has undergone changes through four phases.

    Constitution-An Ambitious political experiment

    • Indian Constitution was an ambitious political experiment for the following reasons-
      • Universal Adult Franchise: India began its journey with the universal adult franchise.
      • Federalism: Federalism in a region consisting of over 550 princely States.
      • The promise of Equality: The Constitution was a sort of social revolution in a deeply unequal society with the promise of equality.
      • Unique constitutional design: it was equally a unique achievement in terms of constitutional design.

    The first phase of interpretation-Focus on text

    • A textualist approach-focusing on the plain meaning of the words: In its early years, the Supreme Court adopted a textualist approach, focusing on the plain meaning of the words used in the Constitution.
      • K. Gopalan v. State of Madras (1950) was one of the early decisions in which the Court was called upon to interpret the fundamental rights under Part III.
      • The leader of the Communist Party of India claimed that preventive detention legislation under which he was detained was inconsistent with Articles 19 (the right to freedom), 21 (the right to life) and 22 (the protection against arbitrary arrest and detention).
      • Fundamental rights separate from each other: The Supreme Court decided in A. K. Gopalan case that each of those articles covered entirely different subject matter, and were to be read as separate codes rather than being read together.
    • Unlimited Amendment Power: In its early years, the Court read the Constitution literally, concluding that there were no limitations on the Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution.

    The second phase of interpretation-Focus on ‘basic structure’

    • Appeals to the structure and coherence: Appeals to the text of the Constitution were gradually overtaken by appeals to the Constitution’s overall structure and coherence.
      • Limited Amendment Power-Kesavananda Bharati case: In the leading case of Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala(1973), the Court concluded that Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution did not extend to altering its “basic structure”.
      • What is the “Basic Structure”: The basic structure is an open-ended list of features that lie within the exclusive control of the Court.
      • When Parliament attempted to overturn this decision by amending the Constitution yet again, the Court, relying on structuralist justifications, decisively rejected that attempt.
    • Key takeaways from Kesavananda Bharati case
      • Limited Amendment Power: In this case, the Court pronounced that Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution is not unlimited.
      • Fundamental rights as a cohesive bill of rights: In this phase, the Court also categorically rejected the Gopalan approach in favour of a structuralist one.
      • Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India (1978):  Through decision, in this case, the Court conceived of the fundamental rights as a cohesive bill of rights rather than a miscellaneous grouping of constitutional guarantees.
      • Incremental interpretation of Right to Life: The right to life was incrementally interpreted to include a wide range of rights such as clean air, speedy trial, and free legal aid.
      • Courts playing role in governance: The incremental interpretation of Article 21 paved the way for the Supreme Court to play an unprecedented role in the governance of the nation.
    • What was common in the first two phases?
      • Interpretation done by Constitutional Benches: That significant decisions involving the interpretation of the Constitution were entrusted to Constitution Benches (comprising five or more judges of court) and were carefully (even if incorrectly) reasoned.
      • Little scope for precedential confusion: There was limited scope for precedential confusion, since matters which had been decided by Constitution Benches and which demanded reconsideration were referred to larger Constitution Benches.

    Third Phase of interpretation-Eclecticism

    • Different opinions on the same issues: In the third phase the Supreme Court started to give different opinions on the same issues-i.e. it engaged in eclecticism.
      • Lesser reasoning: The Court often surrendered its responsibility of engaging in a thorough rights reasoning of the issues before it.
      • Two factors underpinned this institutional failure.
    • First-Change in the structure of the SC: The changing structure of the Court, which at its inception began with eight judges, grew to a sanctioned strength of 31; it is currently 34.
    • It began to sit in panels of two or three judges, effectively transforming it into a “polyvocal” group of about a dozen sub-Supreme Courts.
    • Second-expansion of own role by the SC-The Court began deciding cases based on a certain conception of its own role -whether as a sentinel of democracy or protector of the market economy.
    • The focus of the judgement on the result rather than reason: This unique decision-making process sidelined reason-giving in preference to arriving at outcomes that match the Court’s perception.
    • Consequences of the eclecticism
      • Rise of doctrinal incoherence and inconsistency: The failure to give reasons contributed not only to methodological incoherence but also to serious doctrinal incoherence and inconsistency across the law.
      • Conflicting decisions and interpretations: This approach can be best described as panchayati eclecticism, with different Benches adopting inconsistent interpretive approaches based on their conception of the Court’s role, and arriving at conclusions that were often in tension with one another.
      • Decision detached from precedents and established methods: The imagery that panchayati eclecticism is meant to invoke is that of a group of wise men and women (applying the analogy, sub-Supreme Courts), taking decisions based on notions of fairness that are detached from precedent, doctrine and established interpretive methods.

    Fourth phase- based on the purpose

    • Purpose of enactment of the Constitution as critical: In the fourth phase, the Court has acknowledged as critical to its interpretive exercise the purpose for which the Constitution has been enacted.
    • The realisation of revolutionary and transformative potential: The Court is now beginning to interpret the Constitution in accordance with its revolutionary and transformative potential.
      • Renaissance in decisions: With about a dozen significant Constitution Bench decisions from the Supreme Court since September 2018, there has been a renaissance in decision-making by Constitution Benches.
      • The most important decisions of this period include-
      • Court’s decisions striking down Section 377 and the criminal offence of adultery.
      • And including the office of the Chief Justice of India within the scope of the Right to Information Act.

    Conclusion

    With the interpretation process entering in the fourth phase-realising the purpose of enactment of the Constitution- Indian judiciary is on the right track, however, facets of phase 3 continue to linger on it. The Supreme Court must avoid getting in phase three mode to in order to realise the purpose it was entrusted with.

     

     

     

     

  • Explained: Why are there more men than women in the field of STEM?

    Across the world, there are more men who are active in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) than women. Of the 866 Nobel winners so far, only 53 have gone to women.

    Sociology behind the gender-divide

    • Research shows that when men and women apply for jobs — be in the labour market, or in places where high level qualifications are demanded, men candidates engage in self-promotion, and are boastful while equally qualified women are more ‘modest’ and ‘undersell’ themselves.
    • Even in groups and situations where men and women are present as colleagues, the views of women are either ignored or listened to less seriously than those of men.
    • As a result, women tend to underestimate their ability relative to men, especially in public settings, and negotiate less successfully.

    Why this imbalance?

    The authors suggest three socio-psychological reasons, namely:

    1. masculine culture
    2. lack of sufficient early exposure to computers, physics and related areas compared to boys in early childhood and
    3. gender gap in self-efficacy

    Stereotypes and role models

    I] Masculine culture

    • The masculine culture is due to stereotyping that men are fitter for certain jobs and skills than women, and that women are more ‘delicate’, ‘tender’ and thus unfit for ‘hard’ jobs.
    • In addition, there are not enough female role models whom women may admire and follow.

    II] Lack of exposure

    • The lack of exposure in early childhood to certain fields and the supposed stereotyping of computer field practitioners as ‘nerds’ with social awkwardness would seem to have played a role from women shying away into other fields.

    III] Gender gap in self-efficacy

    • The ‘gender gap in self-efficacy’ appears to have arisen as a result of the above two, and leads to a worry in girls’ and women’s minds as to ‘whether I am really only fit for certain ‘soft’ fields and jobs or a feeling of diffidence.
    • This is clearly a reflection and product of masculine culture.
    • But then, even when we turn to life sciences, where both men and women compete for positions and career advancements in universities and research labs, this gender disparity is glaring.

    India is no better

    • The men rule roosts here too in India. India has been a patrilineal society with the notion that women need not take on jobs, and that this notion has only recently been revised.
    • Women form only 10-15% of STEM researchers and faculty members in the IITs, CSIR, AIIMS and PGIs.
    • In private R & D labs, there are very few women scientists.

  • Biorock technique for Coral Restoration

    The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), with help from Gujarat’s forest department, is attempting for the first time a process to restore coral reefs using biorock or mineral accretion technology.

    What is Biorock Technique?

    • Biorock is the name given to the substance formed by electro accumulation of minerals dissolved in seawater on steel structures that are lowered onto the sea bed and are connected to a power source, in this case solar panels that float on the surface.
    • The technology works by passing a small amount of electrical current through electrodes in the water.
    • When a positively charged anode and negatively charged cathode are placed on the sea floor, with an electric current flowing between them, calcium ions combine with carbonate ions and adhere to the structure (cathode).
    • This results in calcium carbonate formation. Coral larvae adhere to the CaCO3 and grow quickly.
    • Fragments of broken corals are also tied to the biorock structure, where they are able to grow at least four to six times faster than their actual growth as they need not spend their energy in building their own calcium carbonate skeletons.

    Significance of the move

    • The technology helps corals, including the highly sensitive branching corals, to counter the threats posed by global warming.
    • In 2015, the same group of ZSI scientists had successfully restored branching coral species (staghorn corals) belonging to the family Acroporidae (Acropora formosa, Acropora humilis, Montipora digitata) that had gone extinct about 10,000 years ago to the Gulf of Kachchh.

    Back2Basics

    Coral Bleaching

    • The stunning colours in corals come from a marine algae called zooxanthellae, which live inside their tissues.
    • This algae provides the corals with an easy food supply thanks to photosynthesis, which gives the corals energy, allowing them to grow and reproduce.
    • When corals get stressed, from things such as heat or pollution, they react by expelling this algae, leaving a ghostly, transparent skeleton behind.
    • This is known as ‘coral bleaching’. Some corals can feed themselves, but without the zooxanthellae most corals starve.

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