Jam session topics

Jam Session Topic: Corruption in India

Corruption is the price which we pay for democracy.

Corruption in India is a major issue that adversely affects its economy. A study conducted by Transparency International in year 2005 found that more than 62% of Indians had firsthand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices successfully.In its study conducted in year 2008, Transparency International reports about 40% of Indians had firsthand experience of paying bribes or using a contact to get a job done in public office.

In 2012 India has ranked 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, tied with Benin, Colombia, Djibouti, Greece, Moldova, Mongolia, and Senegal.

Most of the largest sources of corruption in India are entitlement programmes and social spending schemes enacted by the Indian government. Examples include Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and National Rural Health Mission. Other daily sources of corruption include India's trucking industry which is forced to pay billions in bribes annually to numerous regulatory and police stops on its interstate highways.

Indian media has widely published allegations of corrupt Indian citizens stashing trillions of dollars in Swiss banks. Swiss authorities, however, deny these allegations.

The causes of corruption in India include excessive regulations, complicated taxes and licensing systems, numerous government departments each with opaque bureaucracy and discretionary powers, monopoly by government controlled institutions on certain goods and services delivery, and the lack of transparent laws and processes. There are significant variations in level of corruption as well as in state government efforts to reduce corruption across India.

Web-based social networking services make it possible to connect people who share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders. Through e-mail and instant messaging, online communities are created where a gift economy and reciprocal altruism are encouraged through cooperation. Information is suited to a gift economy, as information is anonrival good and can be gifted at practically no cost.

Facebook and other social networking tools are increasingly the object of scholarly research. Scholars in many fields have begun to investigate the impact of social-networking sites, investigating how such sites may play into issues of identity, privacy,social capital, youth culture, and education.

Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model for philanthropy. Such models provide a means for connecting otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations without the resources to reach a broader audience with interested users.Social networks are providing a different way for individuals to communicate digitally. These communities of hypertexts allow for the sharing of information and ideas, an old concept placed in a digital environment.

Jam Session Topic: Smartphones.

A smartphone is a mobile phone with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than basic feature phones.

Early smartphones typically combined the features of a mobile phone with those of another popular consumer device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a digital camera, and/or a GPS navigation unit. Later smartphones include all of those plus the features of a touchscreen computer, including web browsing, Wi-Fi, and 3rd-party apps.

Currently, about 90% of handset sales worldwide are for devices driven by Google's Android and Apple's iOS mobile operating systems.

Smartphones have a higher web access speed with respect to the growth of 3G and 4G data networks. They have Wi-Fi support that allows a user to have access to the Internet within a given locality of Internet dispensation. Smartphones also have a special QWERTY keyboard that resemble a normal computer keyboard (Dhir, 2004). Smartphones act as ordinary phones that can send and receive short messages. 

However, what makes smartphones a little different from the ordinary phone is that a smart phone can synchronize with the organization of personal details and specifically a professional e-mail account. The phone has the ability to access other instant messaging services like AOL’s AIM, Whatsupp, Yahoo Messenger and many more services. These features make the smartphone smart. 

The technology surrounding smartphones and cell phones in general is changing constantly. This can make what constitutes a smartphone today to be different by the next week.

Jam Session Topic: Women Empowerment.

Empower women, Empower Generations.

Each year we celebrate International Women’s day on March 8th with a determination to commemorate the achievements of women, and to acknowledge the special status they deserve in society. The significant question is what difference has it made to the position of women? Have women become really strong, and have their long term struggles ended ?

Though women have progressed in a number of spheres, yet looking from a wider perspective, the situation remains grim. According to the statistics by CARE, out of 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty around the globe, 70% are women. Reflecting on UNESCO’s medium term strategy 2008-13, gender equality has been assigned as organization’s global priority. Astonishingly, two third of the 774 million adults in the world who cannot read is women.

The context in the developing and third world countries is worse. Women here are still subject to ‘honor killings’, they are still denied their basic rights to education and freedom, and face violence and abuse. It was observed in a CARE project working with adolescent girls in India, that these girls were considered as temporary people who would cease to exist, at least for their fathers, once they are married. In many places in India, domestic violence is acceptable to women, and cultural and ethical implications are imposed on their freedom. What does that mean? It would be wrong to state that nothing has changed as a number of local, national and international organizations are working together to mitigate the problems, yet their is a long way to go.

Initiatives by NGOs like Jan Chetna Manch, Foundation to educate Girls Globally, The Hunger Project, STEPS Women Development Organization, in addition to the National Mission for the Empowerment of women(NMEW) launched by the Govt. of India are some significant steps towards the goal, and the 2011 Census have shown some improvements too. 

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players each on a field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. Each team takes its turn to bat, attempting to score runs, while the other team fields. Each turn is known as an innings.

The bowler delivers the ball to the batsman who attempts to hit the ball with his bat away from the fielders so he can run to the other end of the pitch and score a run. Each batsman continues batting until he is out. The batting team continues batting until ten batsmen are out, or a specified number of overs of six balls have been bowled, at which point the teams switch roles and the fielding team comes in to bat.

In professional cricket the length of a game ranges from 20 overs per side to Test cricket played over five days. The Laws of Cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Internationals.

Cricket was first played in southern England in the 16th century. By the end of the 18th century, it had developed to be the national sport of England. The expansion of the British Empire led to cricket being played overseas and by the mid-19th century the first international match was held. ICC, the game's governing body, has 10 full members. The game is most popular in Australasia, England, the Indian subcontinent, the West Indies and Southern Africa.

   Childrens under 14 years working as a labour are considered as Child labour. Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful.This practice is considered exploitative by many international organisations. Legislations across the world prohibit child labour.These laws do not consider all work by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists, supervised training, certain categories of work such as those by Amish children, some forms of child work common among indigenous American children, and others. Almost every country in the world has laws relating to and aimed at preventing child labour. International Labour Organisation has helped set international law, which most countries have signed on and ratified.