policy

National Scientific Temper Day 2024: Advocating Scientific Integrity and Unhindered Rational Inquiry

Click here for the press release of this statement 

Click here for the statement 

 

19  Aug 2024

National Scientific Temper Day 2024

Advocating Scientific Integrity and Unhindered Rational Inquiry

 

The 7th National Scientific Temper Day (NSTD 24) will be observed across the nation on August 20, 2024, to honour Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, a notable proponent of science and rational thought, who was tragically killed on this day in 2013 by anti-science extremists. His assassination was followed by the murders of others equally vocal and of similar thinking – Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi, and Gauri Lankesh – who were also murdered. In 2018, the All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN), in collaboration with the Maharashtra Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS), established National Scientific Temper Day (NSTD) as an annual event to commemorate these individuals and to promote a scientific mindset.

Upholding Constitutional Values:

Since its establishment, NSTD has received considerable support from a variety of groups and individuals throughout India, with events occurring in numerous regions. This year’s emphasis is on the Kolkata 2024 Declaration on Scientific Temper, which underscores the urgent need for a renewed commitment to evidence-based reasoning and critical analysis in India. This is especially crucial in light of emerging socio-political movements that challenge scientific inquiry and the generation of universal knowledge. The Kolkata Declaration highlights three primary areas for focus: the role of government, the responsibilities of scientific and educational institutions, and the necessity to combat the erosion of academic freedom and the proliferation of pseudo-science. It calls upon scientists, intellectuals, and advocates promoting evidence-based thinking and upholding constitutional values, thereby fostering a scientific perspective.

NSTD also includes the “Ask Why?” campaign, which aims to advance scientific temper and promote Article 51A (h) of the Indian Constitution. This initiative seeks to reinforce the constitutional right to scientific inquiry and to enhance investment in employment; people centred development, education for all, science, technology, humanities, and the arts.

Interplay of Politics and Education:

Concerns are mounting regarding the influence of Hindutva-related initiatives within research institutions and universities, reflecting a significant political agenda that deserves condemnation. A contentious aspect of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2021 was the introduction of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) into educational curricula at all levels. The policy proposed integrating IKS content into existing subjects and introducing specialized IKS courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

It is essential to recognize that the foundations of modern knowledge are rooted in various ancient and modern cultures, including India, which also encompass oral traditions from marginalized groups such as tribal communities and unwritten knowledge related to agriculture, livestock, and local practices.

The implementation of IKS into educational curricula has been fraught with contention at the school and UG/PG levels. The NCERT’s recent introduction of new textbooks for Class VI, particularly in social science, gives an inaccurate and biased sanskritised representation of Indian knowledge traditions. Scholars and Ayurveda experts have noted that the NCERT Class XI textbook’s portrayal of Ayurveda includes exaggerations and inflated claims of Ayurveda as being codified 4000 years ago. In reality evidence points to around 6th century BCE.

At the higher education level, guidelines issued by UGC for incorporating IKS are unrealistic. Moreover, due to lack of faculty who understand that IKS even in earlier times has been evidence based, many HEIs are implementing courses that misrepresent, simplify and distort its rich history. Thus, the introduction of IKS has opened the door for individuals with naive or pseudoscientific views on Indian science and mathematics to gain influence. For instance, the director of IIT Mandi has faced widespread criticism for making outrageous claims that have circulated on social media, yet he represents only a small part of a much larger issue.

Haunting the System:

This year, IIT Mandi has introduced controversial topics such as “reincarnation” and “out-of-body experiences” into its IKS curriculum for B.Tech students, eliciting mixed reactions. Similarly, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has established an entire unit within the faculty of Ayurveda dedicated to Bhoot Vidya. This six-month certificate course aims to educate doctors holding BAMS and MBBS degrees in psychotherapy, treatment of psychosomatic conditions, and paranormal activities as part of their Ayurvedic practice.

It is essential not to entirely dismiss Ayurveda and other ancient or folk medicines as irrational, as they were based on empirical practices of their times. India has a long legacy of Ayurvedic medicine grounded in experience and trial and error formulations. However, these need to undergo rigorous randomised clinical trials, which are considered the gold standard in contemporary evidence-based medicine. It has been shown that it is possible to evaluate ancient practices using modern scientific methods while maintaining their cultural significance. There is a need for rigorous research and evidence-based approaches to ensure their credibility and relevance in contemporary health practices. Consequently, AIPSN continues to emphasize the necessity of adhering to evidence-based medicine, where healing and wellness are founded on published and verified evidence.

These regressive IKS-related incursions into research institutions and universities have become commonplace, creating a persistent challenge for rational thinkers to issue statements in response. Nevertheless, in this ongoing struggle, AIPSN cannot remain silent simply because the government is a repeat offender.

Academic Freedom:  

In a separate development, South Asian University recently raised concerns regarding a PhD student’s research proposal on Kashmir, which was labelled as ‘anti-national’ by university authorities. The university’s actions led to the resignation of the student’s supervisor, Professor Sasanka Perera, raising alarms about the diminishing space for unbiased research in society.

The situation at South Asian University pertains to academic freedom and the international character of the institution, rather than being an Indian institution where the directives of the government, however misguided, may be viewed as “legitimate.” If this is how South Asian University is to be operated, it may be more prudent to relocate it outside of India, shut it down, or place it under the oversight of a completely independent body comprising South Asian representatives.

Importance of NSTD 2024:

The issues related to IKS outlined here exemplify a broader agenda that necessitates critique. Similarly, the coercive influence exerted at institutions like South Asian University poses a significant threat to academic freedom and demands vigilant oversight.

These developments highlight the critical importance of NSTD 2024, which is anchored in the Kolkata Declaration on Scientific Temper, serving as a vital advocate for scientific integrity and unhindered rational inquiry in India.

 

Contact:

General Secretary AIPSN – Asha Mishra 9425302012  gsaipsn@gmail.com @gsaipsn

Arunabha Misra, Convenor, Scientific Temper Desk,  AIPSN 9831105979

 

 

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AIPSN deplores harassment of organisations that criticise the government

click here to get pdf of statement

25 July 2024

AIPSN deplores harassment of  organisations that criticise the government

 

On July 10, 2024 the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) revoked the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of the parent entity (CACIM) of the non-profit Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), an organization that critically examines the role of financial institutions in development, human rights, and environmental issues. Earlier in January, the MHA had also cancelled the FCRA registration of the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a leading public policy research institution in New Delhi. These are only a very few cases from the hundreds of NGOs whose FCRA registrations have been cancelled in an arbitrary and non-transparent manner. An unmistakable common thread is that many of these organizations are known for their stout defence of civil rights, government accountability, democratic norms and people’s interests, and have often been critical of government policies and actions. In several cases of FCRA cancellation, reasons given by the government include positions taken against certain development projects or support for people’s struggles against specific industrial projects perceived by locals as being against tribal rights or destructive of the environment. If there are indeed any actual procedural or other “violations” of the regulations by any of these Organizations, they should be afforded the opportunity to take corrective action, institute measures to avoid repetition, and resume operations. But the government’s misuse of FCRA provisions and cancellation of permissions smacks of vindictiveness, intolerance towards criticism and manipulation of regulatory institutions and mechanisms. The government has clearly weaponized FCRA to silence dissenting civil society voices and intimidate others. AIPSN calls upon the government to stop harassing organisations that criticise  actions and policies of the government.

AIPSN has earlier noted similar trends of selectively targeting journalists, online news outlets, cultural personalities, academics and public intellectuals, and even stand-up comics and Youtubers, who have been active in raising public awareness on a variety of civic, governance and policy issues. These trends have serious implications for democracy in India, freedom of expression, and for pluralism. As a network of people-centred science movements, AIPSN is acutely aware that science and a scientific temper cannot thrive if critical thinking and pluralism are suppressed in all spheres.

AIPSN is aware that there are differing opinions in India as to the role of foreign financial assistance to civil society organizations. AIPSN itself does not receive foreign funds nor is it registered under FCRA. Yet AIPSN works with many progressive civil society organizations who do receive such funding, and recognizes their positive contributions to perspectives on development, environment, civic rights and governance. AIPSN will steadfastly defend the right of these Organizations to conduct their activities in accordance with regulatory frameworks in the country. AIPSN recognizes the need for some regulation of fund flows to civil society organizations as exist for commercial activities too. However, the FCRA as it currently operates is totally non-transparent, allows for arbitrary decisions, and gives a dominant role to the bureaucracy and its political masters, with poor oversight and even less accountability. FCRA as it stands requires thorough re-examination, institutional mechanisms for independent oversight and provisions for quasi-judicial appeals and arbitration, beside full recourse to the justice system.

It is indeed ironic that even while this vindictive and partisan crackdown on civil society recipients of foreign developmental funds is underway, several NGOs, so-called “socio-cultural” organizations and even political parties with close ties to the ruling establishment have been quietly receiving foreign funds without scrutiny, exposing the hypocrisy of the on-going onslaught on NGOs receiving foreign assistance. Why is there no level playing field? This is yet another reason for an independent regulatory mechanism, oversight and quasi-judicial review processes.

 

Contact: Asha Mishra, General Secretary 9425302012 gsaipsn@gmail.com

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Statement on NEET

click here for the pdf AIPSN-NEETStatementJuly4LrHd

4 July 2024

AIPSN Statement on NEET

NEET-2024 (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-2024) has been under severe attack from all quarters, from public, educational to political. This year it was greatly exposed by its rigging, leaking and corruption and the future of 24 lakh students appeared for NEET is at stake. Over the years since its inception, it was opposed by Tamil Nadu Govt. as it was against the state’s autonomy, social justice, educational quality and healthcare system.

NEET was introduced in 2010 by the then Medical Council of India (MCI).  NEET replaced AIPMT (All India Pre Medical Test) and other state-level examinations. NEET was initially proposed to take place from 2012 onwards. Following the announcement from the Medical Council of India that it would introduce the NEET-UG exam in 2012, several states, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, strongly opposed the change, stating that there was a huge variation in the syllabus proposed by the MCI and their state syllabi. The CBSE and MCI deferred NEET by a year.

But the test was later announced by the Government of India and was held for the first time on 5 May 2013 across India for students seeking admission for both undergraduate and postgraduate medicine.

The Supreme Court of India quashed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions into all medical and dental colleges on 18 July 2013. The apex court ruled that the Medical Council of India cannot conduct a unified examination.

The Medical Council of India has moved a Review Application before the Supreme Court against the Order dt. 18.07.2013 and the Bench consisting of 5 judges and presided over by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Anil R. Dave who dissented in the main case has allowed the Review Application and recalled its Order dt. 18.07.2013 vide the Order of this Court dated 11.04.2016.

Subsequent to this, Sankalp Charitable Trust moved a Writ Petition before the Supreme Court seeking a Mandamus directing the Union of India to conduct NEET for admission to M.B.B.S. Course throughout the country for academic session 2016 – 2017. This case was heard by a three-member bench presided over by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Anil R. Dave. The Respondent submitted that it is proposed to conduct NEET in pursuance of the Notification dated 21.12.2010. Based on this submission, Orders were passed on 28.04.2016 permitting the Union to Conduct NEET.

The reasons for conducting the NEET placed before all:

1) Admissions should be transparent.

2) Admissions should be based on merit.

3) There should be no mandatory donations.

4) Students should not have to take multiple entrance exams for the same course.

But what actually happened over the years:

  1. Lakhs and lakhs of rupees have been spent by the aspirants to get coaching to appear before NEET. This is not possible for the poor and underprivileged who got admission earlier by their school marks. Nearly 20 students committed suicide in Tamil Nadu alone, though they got good marks at school level and not good score for admission through NEET.
  2. Though admission was said to be merit based, students with a low score may get admission to private medical colleges as the poor who got eligible score marks for private colleges could not get admission because of high fees, though there were said to be no capitation fees.
  3. It is pity that many students attempted NEET two to three times.
  4. From the beginning, it was alleged that the NEET exam had no transparency and there were malpractices, and 2024-NEET proved that there was a question paper leak (supposed to be benefited by 40000 students), rigging and corruption to the tune of 30-40 lakhs per student who attempted malpractices.

AIPSN views the following as our concerns:

  1. Since the NEET is the tool and gate way for entering medical education, students start preparing from 6th std onwards, omitting the regular school subjects and not worried about +2 marks and found that even failed students in +2 get more NEET marks due to several years coaching for NEET which is not at all worthy for pursuing medical examination. It is pity that Dr.Radhakrishnan committee recommends 12 years of study is a must and enough for any higher education which is taken as “take it for granted’.
  2. NEET exams being conducted on a different pattern, which indirectly compels students to go to coaching, where they have to pay a hefty sum which is many, many times higher than the application fee for so-called independent entrance examinations as fees and students who do not undergo coaching for NEET will suffer in exams and thus, there is no level playing field in centralised exams.
  3. NEET was earlier conducted by CBSE and now it is conducted by NTA as per National Education Policy-2020. NTA is not an academic body to conduct entrance exams for Hr.education. NTA behaves like an employment recruitment agency.
  4. Because of the nature of NTA, many foretold that it would lead to a scam and it happened in 2024 on a bigger scale. It is alleged that NTA itself indulged in scam by allowing grace marks for delayed exam which was not at all mentioned in the rules of examination-2024
  5. The Union Govt stated that NEET was brought for transparent merit-based admissions and without mandatory donations to Private Medical Colleges and Universities. But both seem like mirages now.
  6. Private Medical Institutions have raised their fees and other amenity fees which are not affordable to the poor and even to the middle class and are not joining, which has resulted in low score  admission and the very fact of merit-based admission being defeated.
  7. Conducting centralized entrance exams is impractical in a multicultural society, imposing uniform rules in the conduction of exams (removal of ornaments including mangal sutra, hizab, safety pins used for safety dressing etc.,) which is a terrifying act  psychologically upsetting the students.
  8. NTA not a professional body to conduct theses examinations should be withdrawn immediately.
  9. AIPSN objects to intervening and preventing state autonomy in admission to higher education.
  10. The 92nd Report of the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee – Health and Family Welfare was tabled in both the houses of parliament on March 8, 2016: Para 5.26: “The Committee, therefore, recommends that the Government should move swiftly towards removing all the possible roadblocks to the Common Medical Entrance Test (CMET) including legal issues and immediately introduce the same to ensure that merit and not the ability to pay becomes the criterion for admission to medical colleges. The Committee also recommends that introduction of CMET should be done across the nation, barring those states who wish to remain outside the ambit of the CMET. However, if any such states wish to join the CMET later, there should be a provision to join it.
  11. In a democratic – federal system, such a centralised system managed by a non-academic agency, can hardly function efficiently.
  12. NEET is a complete failure, NEET is building a coaching industry, NEET discriminates against good students interested in medicine who want to serve the people of their states, NEET is devaluing school boards and NEET does not promote quality in education, be school education or medical education.

AIPSN rejects all kinds of centralized entrance examinations for any kind of state hr. education admissions including NEET, CUET, etc., .

  • NEET is against federalism.
  • NEET is against social justice.
  • NEET contradicts the fundamental requirements of our constitution.
  • To fulfill the needs of the medical aspirants and the demands of society, the union govt. may permit state medical colleges and medical college hospitals for every district of the state, which is deficient in many of the states.

 

Contact:

AIPSN General Secretary Ms. Asha Mishra

9425302012 gsaipsn@gmail.com

Prof. P. Rajamanickam, AIPSN Higher Education Desk Convnenor

968025569

 

AIPSN brief to the political parties for consideration in their election manifesto
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AIPSN brief to the political parties for consideration in their election manifesto

Read the manifesto from JVV Andhra Pradesh in Telugu

 

 

Click here to read the pdf of the AIPSN brief for Political Parties 

28 Mar 2024

AIPSN brief to the political parties for consideration in their election manifesto

The All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN) – a platform of people’s science movements across the country has the following positions on various critical issues e.g., propagation of scientific temper, S&T policy and process, Environment and Water resources, Health and Agriculture. As the country gears up for the 18th General Election, we would like to present these positions to be considered for inclusion in the electoral manifesto of the secular, democratic political parties of the country.

  1. On Scientific Temper

Article 51A (h) of the Constitution of India speaks of the duty of citizens to promote scientific temper. Recently, new challenges have emerged in the country in the form of strong socio-political narratives, backed by the State power, that seek to oppose any scientific approach, evidence-based reasoning or, indeed, any perspective that acknowledges universal scientific knowledge. We demand:

  • Promote the separation of State apparatus from religion.
  • Promotion and support of campaigns for popularization of science and its methods, and for promotion of scientific temper, evidence-based reasoning and critical thinking.
  • Reversal of the present government’s various methods and measures to undermine scientific temper, critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning in governance, education and among the wider public
  • Reconstitution of text-book committees to reverse the present. government’s anti-science revision of NCERT textbooks so as to promote critical thinking among students; re-write these textbooks to address deletion of Darwin’s theory of evolution and various chapters/ sections on India’s natural resources, forests, environment, mineral resources etc, and rectify the distorted picture of ancient Indian civilization projected in these texts.
  • A thorough revision of the now compulsory UG/PG Courses and reading material on so-called “traditional Indian knowledge systems;” revise teaching material for new optional Courses on Science, Technology and other Knowledge Systems in Ancient and Medieval India based on the vast body of historical evidence-based material already available on the subject.
  • Correction of the unscientific view being projected in educational institutions and among the wider public of imaginary achievements in S&T in ancient India, and the primacy and superiority of only one stream of cultural-religious-linguistic knowledge, as against the diverse sources and streams of knowledge in the Indian civilization including bi-directional exchanges with other civilizations for a true picture of the growth of science.
  • Restoration of autonomy of academic and research Institutions in both natural and social sciences; pay due regard to research/survey-based data as basis for evidence-based policy-making; correct retrospective manipulation of data to suit ideological narratives; defend and restore academic freedom and pluralism of opinion in universities and research institutes; restore the confidence of the people in scientific institutions
  • Strict monitoring and regulation of the dissemination of “magical remedies,” pseudo-science and superstitious beliefs through commercial activities and in the media, including through Anti-Superstition legislation in the Centre and States.
  • Resumption of population census driven public policy framing.
  1. On Science and Technology (S&T)
  • Enhancement of public funding of indigenous research in S&T to at least 2 per cent of GDP, with due importance to basic research.
  • Strengthening of the university system in research and development (R&D).
  • Decentralization of systems and processes for research funding; scrap the highly centralized National Research Foundation (NRF) set up under the NEP, which also burdens State governments without according to them equitable participation in decision-making; enhance research in state-level universities and collaborations with Central universities and national S&T institutions.
  • Allocation of funds for state-level initiatives for S&T interventions to tackle people’s problems e.g. drought, water resource management, rural livelihoods, issues faced by marginalized communities.
  • Provision of requisite mission-mode R&D funding for identified sectors of the “4th Industrial Revolution” such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), bio- and nano-technology etc towards self-reliance in advanced technologies expected to dominate the “knowledge era,” but in which India is in danger of being left behind in pursuit of externally-dependent and false “atma-nirbharta”; also focus on agricultural research to break monopolies of MNCs and enable climate-resilient agriculture/horticulture.
  • Increase in number of research fellowships especially for first generation students; increase number of faculty research positions in institutes; increase quality and quantity of PhDs in which India lags behind.
  • Systematic measures to increase participation of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) research and jobs
  • Initiation of measures to reduce bureaucratism in S&T Institutions, and encourage academic freedom and culture of research towards reversing brain drain; reverse current trend of sycophancy, fear and discouragement of pluralism in universities and research institutes.
  • Regulation of AI, genetic engineering, data-mining and IT-based surveillance so as to ensure the public good.
  • Review of decision to close down many government-funded S&T Institutions; resuming government support for a restructured Indian Science Congress.
  • Promote free and open source software (FOSS) and other new technologies, free from monopoly ownership through copyrights or patents; “knowledge commons” to be promoted across disciplines e.g. like biotechnology, AI and drug discovery.
  • Recognition of digital infrastructure as public infrastructure to be used for public good.
  • Investment in public communication networks and free knowledge access to scientific and other academic publications without copyright barriers.
  • Ensuring all public funded research is made accessible to all.
  • Rigorous double-blind clinical trials with publication of data for open review for approval of new medicines, vaccines etc.

 

  1. Environment

Various dilutions of regulatory provisions for environmental protection have taken place in the recent past that would have serious impact on our natural resources and climate and will affect people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. There will have to be reversals of these changes. The specific demands are the following:

 

  • The system and processes of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Clearances at State and Central level be made effective, time-bound, transparent, accountable, and free of conflict of interests. EIA is to be conducted preferably through an independent Environmental Protection Agency; repeal EIA Notification 2020 and issue revised guidelines.
  • Economy-wide measures be planned and initiated to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the UNFCCC framework as applicable to developing countries, through effective policies, regulation, de-carbonization, energy efficiency in all sectors of production and consumption, while providing for a just transition from fossil fuels; promotion of renewable energy such as solar and wind; reducing energy inequality and promoting energy access for economically weaker sections such as in public transport; India’s updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) required to be submitted to UNFCCC in 2025 to be re-cast through a participatory process involving all stakeholders.
  • A National Adaptation Plan (NAP) should be evolved through a participatory process involving all stakeholders especially States to tackle climate impacts such as on agriculture, extreme rainfall and related landslides and urban flooding, heat waves and urban heat islands, coastal erosion and sea-level rise; streamline systems to tackle natural and climate-related disasters; evolve and implement climate resilient development strategies especially addressing the needs of vulnerable populations; provide adequate funds from the Centre and build capabilities of States and local governance structures for the above.
  • Sustainable and environment/climate-friendly development strategies should be evolved for the fragile Himalayan region and eco-sensitive regions of Western Ghats and the North-East; undertake comprehensive review of infrastructure development and urbanization in hill areas, especially in the Western Himalayan region.
  • Thoroughly revise National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) towards rapid and goal-oriented reduction of air pollution in urban areas especially through promotion of public mass transportation in preference to personal vehicle use, and effective regulation of polluting industries and construction activities; strengthen Central and State regulatory authorities.
  • Urgently initiate measures to prevent degradation and destructive development of riverbeds and flood plains, including in urban areas.
  • Undo different provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, apart from the modified definition of Forests struck down by the SC, especially 100 km from international boarder and LAC/LOC being exempt from any regulatory measure; ensure protection of rights of tribals and other forest dwellers under Forest Rights Act, 2006.
  • Repeal provisions of biodiversity Amendment Act 2023 which permits transfer of knowledge regarding bio-diversity resources to corporate without permission of National biodiversity Authority, and also denies local communities of due compensation or share of these benefits.
  • Scrap the environmentally disastrous and pro-corporate islands Development Plan for Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Island chains, without due consultation with local population in Lakshadweep, and endangering the tiny remaining populations of mostly isolated tribes in the Andamans; re-examine feasibility and location of proposed naval base in A&N.
  • Scrap environmentally dangerous National Oil Palm Mission with highly inflated claims of yields and focusing on eco-sensitive North-East and Andaman Islands.
  1. Water Resources
  • Re-formulate National Water Policy treating water as a scarce public good; tackle the growing water crisis; enhance equitable water availability for optimized domestic use, irrigation and industry through effective protection of rivers, expansion of water bodies and increased groundwater recharge; appropriate legislation, effective regulation and demand management of water; water audits and measures to conserve, treat and recycle water especially in urban areas.
  • Ensure equitable provision of WHO-standard piped potable drinking water to all households
  • Halt privatization of water resources and water distribution utilities in urban areas and recognise the right to water as part of the right to life.
  • Check pollution of rivers and other water bodies through effective legislation, regulation and enforcement of sewage and other waste-water treatment and recycling policies; withdraw provisions of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment, 2024 allowing Centre to override State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs).
  • Undertake comprehensive review of the programme and projects for inter-linking of rivers.
  • Plan and urgently implement measures to protect and improve catchment areas of major rivers especially in the Himalayan region; also take all steps possible to check glacier melting rates such as through regulation of fossil-fuel powered vehicular movement and air pollution in mountain regions.
  1. Health
  • Make right to free health care justiciable through enactment of appropriate legislations at both Central and State levels.
  • Retain health services as a state subject with strong emphasis on federalism.
  • Public expenditure on health to be raised to at least 3.5 per cent in the short term and 5 per cent of the GDP in the long term, with at least 1% and 2% respectively coming from the Centre.
  • Out-of-pocket expenditure on health to be brought to below 25% of health spending expand and strengthen the public healthcare system to ensure free availability of quality health care at all levels, including entire range of medicines, diagnostics and vaccines, and accountability to local communities.
  • Scrap the government-funded PMJAY/Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme and replace it with a Public-centred Universal Health Care system.
  • Reverse the privatisation of health care services and outsourcing of services through PPPs.
  • Reverse the re-branding of Health and Wellness Centres as ‘Arogya mandirs’.
  • Extend and reform the ESI scheme to effectively protect workers’ health in both organized and unorganized sector, and also covering occupational health.
  • Effectively regulate the private health care sector, especially corporate hospitals which should be brought under the Clinical Establishment Act. Modify the National Clinical Establishment Act, 2010 ensuring implementation of the Patients’ Rights Charter and standardization of reasonable rates and quality of various services.
  • Ensure right-based access to comprehensive treatment and care of persons with mental illness through integration of the revised District Mental Health Programme with the National Health Mission.
  • Adopt a people-centred, rational pharmaceutical policy with effective cost-based price controls, elimination of irrational and hazardous formulations, and a comprehensive generic medicines policy covering labelling, prescription and availability at all retail outlets; ensure availability of essential drugs free of cost at all public health care facilities.
  • Initiate programs to break monopolies of pharmaceutical multinational companies in critical areas.
  • Revive public sector pharmaceutical units to harness them for production of essential drugs and vaccines, and reverse privatization trends; reinstate Open-Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) programmes and collaborative R&D for affordable medicines; remove GST for life-saving and crucial medicines.
  • Strictly control and regulate clinical trials and prohibit unethical clinical trials; develop a justiciable charter of rights for clinical trial participants
  • Remove US government’s drug law enforcing agency USFDA’s offices and officials from India.
  • Resist dilution of India’s Patent of Laws and reject provisions in Free Trade Agreements that obstruct domestic production low-cost generic drugs.
  • Ensure effective, appropriate regulatory oversight of AYUSH system of medicine, while supporting evidence-based use of such systems.
  • Give priority to the setting up of new public colleges to train doctors and nurses, especially in underserved areas such as in the North East and in poorer States. Training institutes to be set up for health workers.
  1. Agriculture

            Right to land, water and commons for all

  • Provide equitable access to land and water: legislate for homesteads for the rural poor; grant land rights to landless for cultivation; promote kitchen gardens, backyard poultry, cattle sheds and group farming.
  • Place all above-ceiling land presently held by public or private entities under control of the state and union government for the redistribution to the landless.
  • Create a register of tenants and provide smallholders with secure tenancy. Give tenant farmers statutory support, recognise tenants as beneficiaries of schemes announced for individual benefits, and access to benefits from sector wide schemes financed through public investment.
  • Recognize women as farmers and grant them land rights, secure their tenancy rights over leased lands.
  • Recognize land rights of Adivasi farmers, implement Forest Rights Act (FRA), review all rejections under FRA, and roll back pro-corporate amendments to Indian Forest Act, 1927.

            Right to Food, Employment, Education, Health and Social Protection

  • Ensure job security and minimum wage by extending the number of workdays from 100 to 200 workdays in rural areas @ Rs. 800 wages per day, implement existing provision of 100 days of MGNREGA without creating digital hurdles.
  • Introduce a provision of 100 days of labour support for the SC, ST, and other small and marginal farmers for land development and for the adoption of integrated farming systems (IFS) including natural farming, thus 200 days of rural employment @ Rs. 800 wages per day.
  • Enact old age pensions.
  • Provide childcare and crèche facilities in agricultural workspaces.
  • Provide for separate courts for protection against caste, ethnic, religious, gender-based oppression.
  • Introduce Urban Employment Guarantee Act, guarantee employment for graduates from rural households in nearby towns.

            Right to public and bank finance, production inputs, knowledge and market

  • Guarantee extra budgetary resources to states from the 15th finance commission for raising the level of gross capital formation in agriculture as a percentage ford from the current level of 15.7% to 30%.
  • Guarantee primary producers’ freedom from debt by implementing complete(formal and informal) loan waiver, restore the right of primary producers to priority lending, stop co-lending to delink farmers from the high-cost economy in agriculture; reduce the risks faced from climate change in respect of pursuing agriculture & allied sector occupations.
  • Create a single-window loan facility for small holders to promote integrated farming, strengthen SHGs and Kudambashree-type of institutions to enable women farmers to access agriculture credit from public banking.
  • Guarantee remunerative prices for agricultural commodities establish an effective system of public procurement of all farm produce declared as essential produce/value added products by rural households through cooperatives for the promotion of sustainable rural livelihoods and for the creation of a universal public distribution system.
  • Guarantee access to publicly regulated markets purchasing the primary produce at the minimum support price (MSP) not lower than C2 costs plus 50 % for the products declared as essential commodities for production by state legislatures.
  • Take agriculture out of WTO, no more free trade agreements (FTAs), and no more patent like intellectual property rights (IPRs) on seeds.
  • Withdraw from the agreements signed by ICAR with Bayer, Amazon and otherness, guarantee research, advice, testing and extension through public sector undertakings, and pave the way for national ownership and control of infrastructure required for agri-digitalization and agri-tech delivery.
  • Reintroduce sectoral reservation through legislation for the products attracting AGMARK label to encourage value addition through cooperatives, micro and small businesses & PSUs in order to keep big business out of local markets.
  • Ensure agro-ecologically coupled integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and restore state/district level planning by establishing statutory boards for scientific and equitable land use, area planning, market development, and promotion of value addition to co-products and by-products through group enterprises.
  • Separate Fisheries Ministry in Central and State Governments with the mandate to protect and promote sustainable fisheries and the livelihood of small-scale fish workers including fishers, fish farmers, fish vendors and other ancillary fish workers.
  • Establish a National Commission for Fisheries to look after policy implementation, inter-state disputes, protection and promotion of the rights and entitlements of small-scale fishing communities.
  • Create in every state “State Commissions for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare”.
  • Stop entry of private Dairy Corporate Companies and import of foreign dairy products that threaten existence of India’s Dairy Cooperatives.
  • Abandon plan to open the Indian market by permitting Free Trade on milk and milk-based products.
  • Ensure remunerative prices for milk and milk products.

 

For clarifications contact:

Asha Mishra, General Secretary, AIPSN  gsaipsn@gmail.com, 9425302012, Twitter: @gsaipsn

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AIPSN Foundation Day Webinar series

 

Click here to see the link to Prabir’s talk from which two 5 minute excerpts were played in the Inaugural Webinar on AIPSN Foundation Day

 

11febPrabir

Earlier events

click here to download the poster for the Feb 11 storynar in English and in Hindi 

click here to download the book “Science for Social Revolution”

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AIPSN Demands recall of NCERT special modules on Chandrayaan 3: Modules filled with Errors and Pseudoscientific Claims

Click here to see press coverage in Science

Click here for the PRESS RELEASE in English  

 

To see the pdf of the Statement click here English 

 

All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) Statement

30 Oct 2023

 

AIPSN Demands recall of NCERT special modules on Chandrayaan 3:

Modules filled with errors and pseudoscientific claims

 

ON 17 October 2023, NCERT released a number of special modules in English and Hindi on Chandrayaan 3, for circulating to millions of school students as supplementary reading material. However due to severe criticism as seen in  press and media coverage the NCERT initially took down the webpage on the modules but after the Government defended the modules in a PIB release on 25 October saying “Mythology and philosophy put forward ideas and ideas lead to innovation and research” the website came back online!  These modules were targeted towards different learning stages as described in NEP 2020 (Foundational, Primary, Middle School, Secondary and Higher Secondary). Shockingly, many scientific and technical errors occur in the content of these modules, some of which are pointed out below. In addition, there are pseudo-scientific claims and misleading scientific content, and even a reference to a Nazi scientist, quite out of sync with the usual standards of material from NCERT, apart from numerous grammatical errors in the English versions.

There is a clear danger that this wrong information will be transmitted to students as-is and cause real harm. Or worse: the content is so badly written that students will be put off this exciting field.

Members of the scientific community and all rationally minded citizens should summarily reject this shoddily prepared material. The way NCERT reacted after the criticism to withdraw them and then put them back on after the government defended the mythology must not happen again. The demand is that NCERT recalls all these modules at once permanently.

 

 

List of Scientific Errors, Pseudoscientific claims and Falsehoods in the NCERT modules on Chandrayaan

 Foundational Stage (code 1.1F, kindergarten and grades 1-2):

    1. Text: (for Chandrayaan 2) … this time due to a malfunction in the parts of the rocket, it lost contact with the Earth …

Reality: The launcher rocket worked perfectly, and although the lander failed, the orbiter module of Chandrayaan kept working and ISRO kept receiving data.

  1. Primary Stage (code 1.2P, grades 3-5):
    1. Text: this rocket has two major parts—one is Rover and the other is Lander which send us information about the Moon.

Reality: The rocket (LVM3) carried the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft. The spacecraft  itself had an orbiter and a lander. The rover was kept inside the lander to get released after landing on the Moon.

  1. Middle School Stage (code: 1.3M, grades 6-8):
    1. Text: Literature tells us that it can be traced back through Vymaanika Shastra: ‘Science of Aeronautics’, which reveals that our country had the knowledge of flying vehicles in those days (This book has mind boggling details of construction, working of engines and the gyroscopic systems).

Reality: It has been conclusively shown through research that the origin of the much touted Vymaanika Shastra text can only be traced to the early 20th century and the designs, engines and instruments described in it are completely imaginary, unscientific and useless.

  1. Text: The Vedas, … makes a mention of … these chariots could also fly. The Rig Veda (verses 1.16.47-48) specifically mentions “mechanical birds.” There are various mentions of flying chariots (Rath) and flying vehicles (Vimaan) which were used in battles and wars. All gods … travel from one place to another. These places included earth, heaven, planets and cosmic destinations called ‘Loks’. Such vehicles were said to travel effortlessly in space and without any noise. One such Vimaan is the legendary Pushpak Vimaan (literally the floral chariot) mentioned in Ramayana.

Reality: All these mentions of flying vehicles in various vedic texts and epics are understood to be products of the poets’ imagination. Almost all ancient cultures around the world have literary references about their gods flying in the sky. However, they are not taken as proof of the existence of flying vehicles in ancient times. There is no proof of any human leaving the Earth to travel to space before Uri Gagarin did it in 1961. And the Rgvedic reference given in the text is simply wrong as the 16th sukta of the 1st mandala of Rgveda does not even have 48 verses.

  1. Text: Literary inputs of nature stated above always gave Bharat, as a Nation, an advantage in understanding the significance of space science

Reality: As mentioned above such literary references could be found in multiple ancient cultures and Sarabhai and other scientists’ vision for the Indian space programme was not a product of these poetic inputs. Claiming so would be an insult to the legacy of Sarabhai and pioneering works of many contemporary scientists

  1. Text: It also has peaks that are in constant or near constant sunlight, which creates excellent opportunities for generating power to support lunar activities.

Reality: Although the lunar axis of rotation is almost perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, any mountain peak can be in ‘near constant sunlight’ only if it is almost at the south pole. The landing site of Chandrayaan 3 is more than 500 km away from the lunar south pole. Thus, finding such mountain peaks near the landing site is not possible.

  1. Text: (under activity 1) List out the indigenous materials used in making Chandrayaan-3 a budget-friendly mission.

Reality: ISRO has not publicly released any educational materials regarding this and hence this activity is just a game of guesswork and reproducing jargon from ISRO pages without any understanding.

  1. Text: The ancient Bharatiya texts and discourses contain treasures of scientific knowledge on various disciplines including aeronautics

Reality: As discussed above, these texts are either just poetic imaginations or not ancient at all.

  1. Secondary Stage (codes 1.4S-1.7S, grades 9-10):
    1. Text (code 1.4S): “Where is the Lunar South Pole?” The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the moon, at 90 degrees south.

Comment: This is tautology, undesirable in any educational text.

  1. Text (code 1.4S): Based on the earlier mission, i.e., ‘orbital mission’ and ‘flyby mission’ it was found that certain dark craters in the south pole …

Comment: If a spacecraft passes close to a celestial body without entering in an orbit around that body, then it is classified as a ‘flyby mission’. Given this classification, no flyby lunar missions have explored the south pole of the moon.

  1. Text (code 1.4S): NASA has described the dark craters as, ‘full of mystery, science and intrigue’.

Comment: This and other similar instances of invoking NASA are name dropping exercises. Using the name to NASA does not add credibility to such nonsense.

  1. Text (code 1.4S): The lunar south pole has many mountains that are not facing earth and are the ideal place to receive such astronomical radio signals from a ground radio observatory.

Comment: This is not related to the Chandrayaan missions. Further, “receive signal from ground observatory” does not make any sense.

  1. Text (code 1.5S): Chaitra month is named after Chitrā nakshatra transiting the

Moon during the period.

Comment: The Nakshatras is the background and it is the moon that transits in the foreground.

  1. Text (code 1.5S): Folklore narrates that on this night, the Moon’s rays possess healing properties, bestowing health and vitality upon those who bask in its luminance.

Comment: Although authors attribute this belief to folklore, it should be  avoided here as it is irrelevant. If it must be mentioned there should be a clear assertion that this claim of the moon’s rays possessing healing properties is not supported scientifically.

  1. Text (code 1.6S): (Activity 1) Prepare a simulation model to make the solar system, planets and satellite. Specially placed the moon with their planets Earth.

Make a Solar System → Locate the sun at the centre of Solar System → Make the elliptical path that orbit the Sun → Locate the planets on each elliptical path → Locate the satellite on each planet that orbit the planet again → Show the Moon of our planet

Comment: Here the level of English is so poor that the meaning is completely lost. How “paths orbit the sun”, how “satellites are located on each planet”, everything is a mystery.  Sentences such as  “locate the satellite on each planet” are meaningless. This is a rehashed version of the activity which was already present in class 8 NCERT book and just retaining the same text as in that book would have been better than this text.

  1. Text (code 1.6S): There are many hypotheses and theories that explain the origin of the moon. The most expected theory suggested that …

Comment: What is meant by “the most expected theory suggested” makes no sense.

  1. Text (code 1.6S): The moon is the brightest and largest heavenly body in our night sky. There are many benefits Earth gets from the moon, the moon moderates Earth’s wobble in its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate. It also creates tides and protects Earth from solar winds, ideal for studying the universe.

Comment: This is a poorly written paragraph which creates a lot of misconceptions. The moon appears to be the largest body, but that is due to its proximity. Moon protecting the earth from the solar wind is also scientifically inaccurate and the second part of that sentence “ideal for studying the universe” does not have any connection to the first, and is meaningless here

  1. Text (code 1.6S): The mission (Chandrayaan 2) discovered an ice sheet in the lunar crater.

Comment: This is total mischaracterisation of the scientific results. The mission confirmed the presence of water molecules. Moreover, “Ice Sheet” refers to a thick layer of only ice, whereas the amount of water in lunar craters is too small to form ice sheets.

  1. Text (code 1.6S): The slogan Chanda mama door ke will be replaced by Chanda mama tour ke near in the near future

Comment: Completely misleading portrayal of how space research will develop in near future. Commercial space tourism is not a priority of ISRO and space tourism (even in near earth orbits) will remain prohibitively expensive for most of the human population at least for another generation or two.

  1. Text (code 1.7S): A rocket’s engine produces a thrust of 20,000 Newtons to lift a payload weighing 2,000 kg. If the gravitational force on Earth is approximately 9.81/29.81m/s2, will the rocket overcome Earth’s gravity to Ascend?
  2. Comment: Look at the second line of the question. It gives two numbers. Out of that 9.81 corresponds to gravitational acceleration at the earth’s surface and 29.81 is the earth’s orbital speed; they are followed by a unit of acceleration. But the question says this is the gravitational force. Does it make any sense?
  3. Text (code 1.7S): On Earth, it takes about 24 hours for the planet to make one rotation on its own axis. … This completes a full-day cycle on Earth. Similarly, one face of the moon remains exposed to sunlight for one lunar day which equals approximately 14 days on Earth.
  4. Comment: One lunar day is 27.3 Earth days. The 14 day period is approximately half a lunar day. Calling it one lunar day is inconsistent with the definition of earth day (24 hours) in the same text.
  5. Text (code 1.7S): 240.25 hours or 10 days and 0.25 hours (i.e., 10 days and 6 hours)
  6. Comment: The number in the bracket is 246 hours, not 240.25 hours.

 

  1. Higher Secondary stage (1.8HS-1.10HS, grades 11-12):
    1. Text (code 1.8HS): Once a rocket reaches the right altitude from the Earth, it injects the satellite or the spacecraft.

Comment: If one says the satellite is injected without mentioning that it is injected into orbit, the meaning of the sentence changes completely.
The correct wording should be: “Once a rocket reaches the right altitude from the Earth, it injects the satellite or the spacecraft into desired orbit.

  1. Text (code 1.8HS): Write a story about what you think who would be found on the moon.

Comment:“Who would be found on the moon”? Did we leave anyone there by mistake? Certainly wrong and a mystery. Perhaps the authors imply ‘what’.

  1. Text (code 1.9HS): These communication satellites are equipped with transponders spanning various frequency bands, including C-band, extended C-band, Ku-band, Ka/Ku band, and S-band.

Comment: Do students know what these bands are? Introducing terms without explanation is not educational.

  1. Text (code 1.9HS): AstroSat––India’s first astronomical space observatory, …

Comment: Funnily, this appears under the section “planetary research”.

  1. Text (code 1.9HS): On Earth, we have a day of 24 hours. It is because the Earth completes one rotation in 24 hours. However, the situation is not the same. It takes nearly 14 Earth days to complete one rotation. The date, August 23, 2023,

marked the commencement of the lunar day.

Comment: The lines should read as “However, the situation is not the same on the Moon. It takes nearly 27.3 Earth days to complete one rotation, so each location on the moon receives sunlight for about 14 earth days continuously. That date marked the commencement of the daylight period for the landing location.”

  1. Text (code 1.10HS): As we delve deeper into this cosmic odyssey, we cannot help but be inspired by the indomitable spirit of Wernher von Braun (father of rocket science), the visionary engineer who transformed dreams of reaching the stars into tangible rockets that breached Earth’s atmosphere. His towering achievements turned the boundless expanse of space into an attainable frontier, where humanity’s yearning for exploration could take flight

Comment: And with that we conveniently join USA to whitewash the fact that von Braun was a nazi scientist who built missiles V2 for Hitler.

  1. Text (code 1.10HS): The shape of the velodrome is like a frustum which a sliced cone is leaving its vertex like a bucket.

Comment: Will students be able to make sense of this grammatically incorrect senseless description?

  1. Text (code 1.10HS): … achieve a desirable speed so that it can reach up to the gravitational field of the moon.

Comment: It should have said “… so that it can reach the gravitational sphere of influence of the moon”, not gravitational field, as the gravitational field extends till infinity.

  1. Text (code 1.10HS): If satellite orbiting around a planet is comparable to the planet, then the binary system (say Earth and Moon) revolves around their common barycenter.

Comment: The bodies will ALWAYS revolve around their common barycenter. If one of the bodies is much more massive than the other body, then the barycenter of the system will be closer to the centre of the large body and hence its motion is not perceptible. That’s all.

  1. Text (code 1.10HS): Let’s assume bigger body (say Earth) is nailed at the origin.

Comment: How do you “nail” Earth at the origin?!

 

For clarifications contact:

Asha Mishra, General Secretary, AIPSN

gsaipsn@gmail.com, 9425302012, Twitter: @gsaipsn

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NCERT special modules on Chandrayaan 3 which are full of errors and pseudoscientific claims

ON 17 October 2023, NCERT released ten  special modules in English and Hindi on Chandrayaan 3, for circulating to millions of school students as supplementary reading material. However due to severe criticism as seen in  press and media coverage the NCERT initially took down the webpage on the modules but after the Government defended the modules in a PIB release on 25 October saying “Mythology and philosophy put forward ideas and ideas lead to innovation and research” the website came back online!

The pdf link of the modules (English) are given in this page.

Our Chandrayaan-Foundational stage_1_1F

Mera pyara Chaanda – 1_2P

Bharat’s Expedition to Moon 1_3M

Chandrayaan- JTM 1_4S

Exploring the Moon Mission of Bharat-1_5S

Towards moon and beyond 1_6S

Exploring Chandrayaan -BLM 1_7HS

Bharat on the Moon 1_8HS

Bharat’s Space Mission-TCM 1_9HS

Physics of Chandrayaan 1_10HS

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AIPSN Statement on Chandrayaan-3 – Press Release

Press coverage career360 newsclick

Read the press release pdfEnglish

See the press release with cover letter

27 Aug 2023

AIPSN Statement on Chandrayaan-3

The All India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) salutes the scientists, engineers, technical staff and all others at ISRO, its affiliated Institutions, and all associated PSUs, other companies and contractors for the grand success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission’s soft landing on the moon by the Vikram Lander and the Pragyaan Rover. The precision, with which the Mission was executed from launch to lunar orbit, and especially the autonomous powered descent of the Lander to the lunar surface, was indeed remarkable. In particular, AIPSN congratulates the ISRO team and associated experts for their collective, transparent and goal-oriented analysis of the factors leading to the crash of the Lander during Chandrayaan-2, and the subsequent corrective measures taken with respect to testing, hardware and software. This process and the visible success of Chandrayaan-3 has been a commendable example of the scientific method, evidence-based reasoning and peer review, which should be widely communicated to students, media and the public at large. The success of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission s a tribute to the vision and leadership during the first few decades after Independence and the paths charted towards self-reliance in science and technology.

AIPSN views the Chandrayaan-3 Mission as an important milestone towards future missions, both robotic and crewed, to the moon and other extra-terrestrial bodies.  AIPSN notes that this demonstration of India’s capabilities in space technologies puts India in the vaunted company of a very few nations with such capabilities, and brings with it many opportunities and challenges. The success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission comes at a time of increased international interest in exploration of the Moon, including possible establishment of permanent or long-term crewed stations on the Moon or in orbit around it, which may later even be used as a gateway to exploration beyond our Moon. Such future activities carry with them great responsibilities and India, as one of the nations that would be participating in them, should prepare itself to shoulder these responsibilities on behalf of all humankind.

The Moon, our solar system, and outer space beyond it, are all a common good, knowledge about which belong to humanity as a whole, as the Prime Minister noted when he addressed the nation after the successful landing of the Vikram Lander.  The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (1967), notes that “exploration and use … shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind.” It further declared that “outer space…is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.” AIPSN notes with concern that many countries, companies and others are speaking about exploiting their advanced space technology for commercial or strategic benefit. The US-led Artemis Mission explicitly accepts this possibility and, unfortunately, so does India’s new Space Policy which has not been placed or discussed in Parliament as such Policies should be. AIPSN calls upon the Government to clearly declare that it regards the Moon and other extra-terrestrial bodies as a common good of all humanity, and that it is opposed to national or corporate exploitation of any resources found in such bodies. India should also press for revitalization of the Outer Space Treaty and setting up of an international regulatory system under the United Nations to ensure that space remains a common good of all humankind.

The Government also needs to reconsider its naming of the Chandrayaan-3 landing site as “Shiv Shakti Point,” since this appears to run counter to the naming convention of the International Astronomical Union. The IAU requires that features of the moon be named after astronauts or scientists including physicists, mathematicians etc who have contributed to this field, e.g. Aryabhata and Homi Bhabha, which have been accepted by IAU in the past. The Government should propose such a name as would conform to IAU norms and therefore gain international acceptance.

 

For Contact:

Asha Mishra, General Secretary, AIPSN Mobile: 9425302012   Email: gsaipsn@gmail.com

  1. Raghunandan , Mobile: 9810098621
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No to centralization and privatization of research funding: Remit NRF bill to Parliamentary Standing Committee

Click here to see the signature campaign which closed on 30July

Press Coverage in Newsclick  TheHindu

Click here to see the press release on AIPSN letter head 

Links here  to download the press release in pdf: English , Tamil 

Read this to see a detailed AIPSN statement on the NRF

Press Release

             All India Peoples’ Science Network (AIPSN) says no to centralization and privatization of research funding and asks the Union Government to remit National Research Foundation Bill to Parliamentary Standing Committee on S&T, Environment and Forests for a comprehensive assessment.

The National Research Foundation (NRF) Bill, 2023 seeks to replace the Science and Engineering Board (SERB) Act, 2008 by establishing an entity that will not be a fully publicly funded, dependent on corporates, philanthropic bodies and international foundations for funds, centralized in decision making via the Prime Minister as ex-officio President and the Union Ministers of S&T and Education as ex-officio Vice-Presidents and controlling the directions of academic research across disciplines and domains of application.  The original rationale of NRF was to redirect the flow of funds to the state universities to strengthen them as academic institutions.

In the five year allocation of Rs 50,000 crores for R&D through the NRF, 72% of will be financed by the private sector (through as yet unidentified process), and only 28% funded by government. The funding structure will seek the establishment of a stronger intellectual property mechanism of the Bayh-Dole kind which has been resisted by the academic institutions. In the current proposal corporates and elite institutions with access to power centers will have an edge.

Only 1% of the institutions of higher education engage in active research. In terms of the percentage of GDP, India’s spending on research and development (R&D) is among the lowest in the world. In 2022, India only spent 0.65% of GDP on R&D. The public funding for R&D has come down from 0.8% at the start of the 2000s to about 0.65% now; full time equivalent (FTE) researchers in the higher education sector declined from 39.96% in 2015 to 36.48% in 2018. Researchers employed in the publicly funded research sector declined from 30.32% in 2015 to 23.13% in 2018.

The NRF would not be able to address any of these structural impediments to the promotion of academic research and research of societal application and public value.  The state universities need more qualified teachers and researchers in permanent posts. Rampant feudalism, gender and caste based oppression, lack of culture of collaboration are major obstacles to the climate for research and innovation. The NRF hands over executive control and channel of funding to the governing body with much say for corporate entities with no representation to state governments in the Union Government funds for R&D.

It is important to involve academics from all over the country, the state higher education councils and the line ministries of the Union Government to ensure decentralized decision making. The NRF can undermine the possibility of harnessing the energy of multiple sources of initiatives. Joint planning is a more effective way of realizing diversity and plurality of missions in the world threatened by climate change and inequality.

            AIPSN demands that the “National Research Foundation Bill 2023” be re-examined. This bill should be sent to the Department Related Standing Committee on S&T, Environment and Forests for a comprehensive assessment. The Committee should invite the development authorities, line departments of the union government and state governments, the representatives of organizations working with the scientific community and individuals to submit their views on the Bill. The centralisation of funding, lack of academic oversight, not addressing the existing structural problems, privatisation of funding in NRF Bill needs re-examination and a thorough open scrutiny by the scientific community.

 

For Contact:

Asha Mishra, General Secretary, AIPSN Mobile: 9425302012   Email: gsaipsn@gmail.com

P.Rajamanickam, AIPSN Higher Education Desk Convener, Mobile: 9442915101

 

 

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AIPSN Response to the JPC on the amendments to Forest (Conservation) Act (1980)

Click here to see the pdf of AIPSN Response 

click here to see the email that was sent  

Click here to see the earlier response to the MoEFCC on 1 Nov 2021

 12.06.2023

All-India Peoples Science Network

            Submission of AIPSN on Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023

 

Due to large-scale degradation of forests in India due to mining and other development activities, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 was enacted by Parliament. This Act regulated many unlawful activities within forests and legislated several compensatory measures to redress any loss of forest due to activities by public or private entities. The Union government introduced the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha on March 29th this year in order to bring about certain changes in the original FCA 1980, specifically in order to taken into account certain domestic and international developments since then, to clarify certain ambiguities in the original enactment, and to exempt certain types of forest land from restrictions imposed by the original Act.

 

The All-India Peoples Science Network submits the following suggestions to the various provisions of the proposed Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023.

 

  1. The introductory sections of the Bill draw attention to the Government’s announced goal of net-zero emissions by 2070, the overall aim of bringing one-third of the country’s land area under forest or tree cover, and the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target of creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.”
  2. There is a serious problem of viewing forests and green cover exclusively through the prism of carbon sequestration, ignoring all other ecological services of forests.
  3. It is also problematic to conflate forests with tree cover. The former is a complex mix of species providing, besides carbon sequestration, a variety of ecological services including rainwater harvesting and storage in aquifers, preventing top soil run-off and loss, and also providing fuel, fodder, medicinal plants, fruits, oilseeds and a variety of other means to sustain human lives and livelihoods in surrounding areas, besides sustaining considerable bio-diversity including wildlife. However, plantations for commercial or “social” forestry may only provide limited tree cover, carbon sequestration services and commercial value, and the two cannot be equated in any manner. Efforts to conflate these two, in this Bill and in other government policy, will mean only that commercial plantations are being prioritized over natural forests with multiple benefits, and that grounds are being created for converting forests to plantations, couched in the language of “sustainable development” and carbon sequestration.

 

  1. The Amendment proposes to exempt certain tracts of forest land from restrictions on non-forest activities.

 

a))land within 100 kilometres along international borders, LoC or LAC to be used for land within 100 kilometres along international borders, LoC or LAC to be used for “strategic linear projects of national importance and concerning national security”

b)up to 10ha in any forest land to be used for security related infrastructure

c))up to 5ha for developing infrastructure of defence-related or paramilitary forces in areas affected by Left-Wing Extremism

 

i)100 km of forest land in border areas in the North, North-East or along the LOC or LAC encompasses almost the entire length of the Western and Eastern Himalayas, North-east India, while the international border along the North-East States and West Bengal covers huge swathes of eco-sensitive areas. These areas also include two important Biodiversity Hotspots of the world out of the total 4 hotspots in India. These Biodiversity hotspots are not only biologically rich but also deeply threatened. The two Biodiversity hotspots along the Eastern Himalayas and the North East border or LAC areas are also ecologically sensitive and home to several rare wildlife species. Similarly, almost the entire Sunderbans, a globally unparalleled unique delta and forest region which is currently severely threatened by sea-level rise caused by climate change, lies within 100 km of the Indo-Bangladesh border. Any diversion of forest land for non-forest developmental activities will be disastrous for this highly eco-sensitive, vulnerable and threatened ecosystem which also sustains a large, mostly poor population. It is also difficult to comprehend the exemption sought for “linear projects,” since most projects along the LAC or border areas are likely to be non-linear roads, settlements etc. Perhaps shelter is being wrongly taken behind the concept of “linear projects” such as electricity transmission lines, pipelines etc. which are already exempt.

ii)Similarly, acquiring up to 10ha or even 5ha of forest land in any part of the country in the name of security and Left-Wing extremism will entail destruction of important and dense central Indian forests. It is well known that creation of even infrastructure of 5-10 ha in dense forest areas will also entail access roads, perhaps electricity lines, water supply and other infrastructure involving additional destruction of the forest system. Again, forests in these regions also support substantial mostly poor tribal populations, including Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) who are as vulnerable as the eco-system they derive their sustenance from.

iii)It is strongly urged that exemption for all such projects be sought on a strictly case-by-case basis.

 

  1. The definition of Forest in the Bill is unacceptable. One of the major provisions of the Bill is to cover only land that has been declared or notified as a Forest under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 or under any other law. It also seeks to recognize lands that were recorded as forests on or after October 25, 1980. Many lands in government records are in fact recorded as forests many years or even decades before 1980. As per the latest Forest Survey of India’s State of Forest Report (2021), out of the total forest area of 7,75,288 sq.km, 1,20,753sq.km is categorized as “unclassed.” These account for approximately 15% of India’s total forest cover, and in some states and Union Territories, unclassed forests are a massive portion of the total forest cover.                                                 i)The Bill attempts to retrospectively “de-recognize” certain classes of forests under the guise of these lands being private lands, plantations etc.                                                                                                                                                                                                           ii)The Bill is therefore a ploy to overturn the 1996 Supreme Court judgment in the famous Godavarman Thirumulpad vs. Union of India and others which ruled that the term “Forest” will not only include forest as understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in Government records irrespective of the ownership.

 

  1. The Bill under Section 5(2) empowers the Union Government to unilaterally “specify the terms and conditions subject to which any survey, such as, reconnaissance, prospecting, investigation or exploration including seismic survey, shall not be treated as non-forest purpose.” This is highly objectionable, and allows for invasive activities such as prospecting with potential for serious ecological damage. This clause should be withdrawn.

 

  1. Forests come under the Concurrent List in the division of power between the Union Government and the State Governments. However, the Bill under Section 6 empowers the Central Government to issue any directions as it deems necessary to State Governments in pursuit of implementation of provisions of the Bill. This too is highly objectionable, violative of the Constitutionally-granted powers of the State Governments and should therefore be withdrawn.

 

  1. In view of the above, AIPSN is of the view that the proposed Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023, placed by the Union Government in the Lok Sabha be withdrawn in its present form. The need of the hour is restoration, protection and improvement of devastated forest ecosystems, rather than diversion or alteration in the use of forest lands in large parts of the country in one guise or another.

 

 

For Contact:

Asha Mishra                                        D. Raghunandan

General Secretary, AIPSN                  Convenor, Environment Desk, AIPSN

Mobile: 9425302012                           Mobile: 9810098621

Email: gsaipsn@gmail.com