CONSIDER the severe all round attacks on women’s rights in the last two and a half months of which are recounted here: the gruesome rape and attack on a 17 year old girl in Unnao and the BJP government’s negligence and political defence of the accused bylawmakers of the ruling party; the passing of the Triple Talaq Bill which will render many Muslim women destitute; the passing of the Wage Code Bill in Parliament which dilutes the Equal Remuneration Act; the passing of the bill, which provides for death penalty under the POCSO Act; the reduction in the budget for women’s security, the histo

THE official organ of the RSS, Organiser (August 4, 2019, Vol 71, No 6), has come out with a cover story, ‘Exploring RSS’. It was in support of the Nagpur University’s decision to introduce a BA course ‘RSS and Nation Building’ in its history syllabus. The cover story extols the role of RSS in ‘nation building’ and argues that, since it is the ‘biggest voluntary organisation’ in the world, it is necessary for everyone to study and learn from its history. A student should be free to study any aspect of history and that may include RSS.

DURING President Obama’s tenure, his administration created an Agency with its major goal as the creation of educational software ‘as compelling as the best video game’. This might have been inspired by a statement made by Professor Edward O. Wilson, of Harvard, who declared that “Games are the future of learning”. Military, corporates and businesses have already started using games as a means of ‘learning’ and ‘influencing’.

VIRTUAL games or all games that are played on computers, consoles, tablets, mobiles and such other devices, are a direct product of the main technology that is at present used in production process. Their origin can be traced to the military driven research and their interconnectedness. Post Second World War global developments, nuclear arms race and the US’ drive to out-pace the Soviet Union played an important role in the technological developments and innovations of this period.

THE union budget placed by Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister, pecks growth of the economy to 8 per cent. The target is to reach a GDP figure of $ 5 trillion ($ 5 lakh crore) by 2024. It will be a leap by 100 per cent to the current GDP figures, which is about $ 2.5 trillion. The moot point is how India achieves this growth.One of the important sectors to ensure growth in the country is by investing in the cities. The cities presently contribute about 66 per cent to the GDP and about 90 per cent of total government revenues are generated from them.