Action Around
So what happened across the world this week?
Editor’s Note
Hello
2020 has been an eventful year, in every spectrum from governance and protests to public health and access. In good and bad, technology has been an integral part of our lives from celebrating birthdays to office meetings. Our theme for the coming days- Technology and Society, addresses the benefits and concerns related to it. For this, we talked to experts, invited policy enthusiasts and brought in facts over availability and practices.
In this week’s newsletter, we intend to bring you events from across the globe and what did The PolicyFide work upon.
Hope you enjoy reading this week’s newsletter.
Happy Reading!
Interview Series
This week, we interacted with Mr Rakshit Tandon , a cyber safety expert to understand concerns regarding Data Privacy, Cyber Security, growing internet access to children and ensuring financial safety while being online. Watch it here
Weekly dose of Events from across the World
Pandemic and Global Community
Good news for India! India has started preparing its medical staff for the vaccine drive. It aims to produce 300 million doses of Russian Sputnik B by 2021 and provide the vaccine to 30 Crore people in coming 6-7 months, as per the Ministry of Health. However, as per a study by the British Medical Journal, at least a quarter of the world may not have access to the vaccine by 2022.Â
In other news, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a public appearance without a mask, and the Aam Aadmi Party took a jibe on him. Even the First Lady Melania Trump violated the laws by putting off her mask while reading to children.Â
On other hand, the Sweden King Carl XVI said that his country had ‘failed’ in its pandemic response.Â
Bit of a context- The economy of the Sweden shrank by 8.5% in the first half of the year, with overwhelming cases of the virus and resignation of public health personnel.Â
Farmer ProtestsÂ
The farmer protests have intensified around the capital city, with the government in power still maintaining its ground. However, the Delhi’s Chief Minister tore the Farm Bills in the Delhi Assembly, questioning ‘what was the hurry to pass the bills amidst a pandemic’.
On the other hand, Indian Media was intrigued and amazed by the ‘Pizza Langar’ organized at a protest site. While some garnered compliments for this gesture, whereas some gave brickbats over this.
Protests and Justice
Jamia Violence of 15 December 2019 completed one year, however, the questions and enquiries remain to be pending and ambiguous. The university had submitted a bill of Rupees 2.66 crores to the Ministry of Human Resource Development for damage in the library and other parts of the campus. They also asked for an intervention by a high committee or a judicial committee. There has been no movement in both cases though.Â
Love and Politics
In the past couple of months, an eminent political party of India brought to focus upon a new terminology ‘Love Jihad’. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana are the first few states that have taken the initiative of drawing punishment and regulations on the particular anti-conversion ordinance. Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh passed the bill on 24 November and made the first arrest under it on 29 November. However, at the moment the questions and suspicion over the intent of the act are increasing, with the growing incidences of arrest where some arrested individuals have claimed it to be a violation of their rights.
Meanwhile, Karnataka High Court said that marrying a person of choice is a fundamental right.Â
What do you think about this ordinance, share in the comments below.
Technology
Google is again in the limelight, with the third antitrust lawsuit in the past few months for its searching practices.Â
 Dr Jill Biden
Joseph Epstein is an op-ed for Wall Street Journal claimed that usage of ‘Dr’ by the incoming first lady Dr Jill Biden honorific, also referred to her a ‘kiddo’. His op-ed got attention from across the world, and people took on to Twitter to express their sentiments regarding it
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Michelle and Barack Obama also extended support.
Word of The Week
Surveillance Capitalism
A market-driven process, where the commodity for sale is your personal data, and for the production of this data the source is mass surveillance of the Internet.
Want to know more about it? Read: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff
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