Air India flight with 78 people evacuated from Afghanistan to land in Delhi soon Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri

As many as 78 people, including 25 Indian nationals, are being brought to New Delhi from Tajikistan's Dushanbe in a special Air India flight on Tuesday, according to the ministry of external affairs (MEA). They were flown out of Taliban-controlled Kabul to Dushanbe in an aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) a day before. "Helping in the safe return from Afghanistan. AI 1956 enroute to Delhi from Dushanbe carrying 78 passengers, including 25 Indian nationals. Evacuees were flown in from Kabul on an @IAF_MCC aircraft," Arindam Bagchi, the MEA spokesperson, tweeted.

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Bagchi also posted a short clip of passengers on board the flight shouting Sikh slogans like Waheguru Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ki Fateh. 

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Three copies of the Guru Granth Sahib and 75 people, including 46 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, will also be evacuated from Afghanistan on an IAF plane. “Three Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji are being escorted to the IAF aircraft at Kabul Airport. Forty-six Afghan Hindus and Sikhs along with stranded Indian nationals are blessed to return on the same flight,” Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted.

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Puneet Singh Chandhok, president of the Indian World Forum, said nearly 200 more Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are still stranded in Afghanistan. “These people have taken shelter at the Karte Parwan Gurdwara in Kabul, which is close to the airport,” he told news agency PTI.

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Not a single euro’: EU talks tough on Taliban’s promise of peace, women's rights Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri

The European Union has neither recognised the Taliban nor it is holding talks with the militant, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday. Addressing a joint press conference alongside Spanish President Pedro Sanchez and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, von der Leyen put strict conditions for releasing the one billion euros set aside for development said for the next seven years.

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So let me be very clear on development aid. The 1 billion euros in EU funds set aside for development aid for the next seven years is tied to strict conditions: respect for human rights, good treatment of minorities, and respect for the rights of women and girls, just to name a few,” said the EU Commission president.

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She said the situation in Afghanistan is still very unclear and unpredictable, raising apprehensions about the Taliban’s promise of peace and inclusivity. Referring to the reports of women being turned away from their workplace and people being hunted down for their past work, the top EU official said not a “single euro of development aid can go to a regime that denies women and girls their full freedoms and rights to education and careers.”

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We may well hear the Taliban's words, but we will measure them above all by their deeds and their actions,” she added..

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The Taliban’s months-long offensive to topple the Afghan government led by Ashraf Ghani resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. After the Taliban completed a lightning takeover of Afghanistan on Sunday, the Kabul airport witnessed a chaotic situation as hundreds of desperate Afghans were trying to board military planes flown in by other countries to evacuate their staff and citizens..

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This resettlement of vulnerable people is of utmost importance. It is our moral duty,” Von der Leyen said.

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Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe.She also stressed the need to prevent people from falling into the hands of smugglers and human traffickers. “This means, first, that we must offer legal and safe routes globally, organised by us, the international community, to those who need protection,” she added.

Tamil Nadu extends Covid-19 curbs till September 6, but gives fresh relaxations Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe

The MK Stalin government in Tamil Nadu extended the overall lockdown-like curbs in the state till 6am on September 6, but also announced certain relaxation. The decision comes after chief minister Stalin held a meeting on the Covid-19 situation on Saturday.

The state government had earlier allowed reopening of schools for Classes 9 and 12 with 50 per cent attendance from September 1. "The schools will work on a rotational basis," the chief minister announced today. Any decision on reopening of schools for Classes 1-8 will be taken after September 15, he added.

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All shops can stay open till 10pm, according to latest orders issued by Tamil Nadu government. Earlier, they were allowed only to remain open till 9pm.

Theatres across Tamil Nadu have been permitted to open with 50 per cent seating capacity from Monday (August 23). Theatre owners have been asked to ensure that all workers are 100% vaccinated.

The beaches too have been allowed to reopen, but the shopkeepers and small traders around the beach area have been asked to get themselves vaccinated.

Zoos and botanical gardens have also been allowed to reopen.

Public buses to Andhra and Karnataka allowed, and have to follow Covid appropriate behaviour.

IT offices can function with 100 per cent workforce.

Swimming pools are still closed for general public, but those being used for purpose of training for competition can open. However, all trainers and trainees above 18 years have been asked to get themselves vaccinated..

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Afghanistan crisis: Biden to address amid mounting criticism.. Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe..

US president Joe Biden will make an address on Friday amid massive criticism over his administration's rushed withdrawal of troops, being blamed for the crisis the country has plunged into. The President is expected to provide an update of US evacuation operations. In May, the Biden administration announced that the US and NATO forces would withdraw from Afghanistan unconditionally. As soon as the process began, Afghanistan witnessed an unexpected Taliban offensive which concluded on August 15 as Kabul fell to the insurgent group. Since then, the country has been plunged into an unforeseen crisis

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The events we’re seeing now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable, united, and secure Afghanistan — as known in history as the “graveyard of empires.” What is happening now could just as easily have happened 5 years ago or 15 years in the future. We have to be honest: Our mission in Afghanistan has taken many missteps — made many missteps over the past two decades. I’m now the fourth American President to preside over war in Afghanistan — two Democrats and two Republicans. I will not pass this responsibly on — responsibility on to a fifth President," Biden said...

Thousands of people are yet to be evacuated ahead of the United States' August 31 deadline to withdraw its troops from the country, although the pace picked up overnight. A defence official said about 5,700 people, including about 250 Americans, were flown out of Kabul aboard 16 C-17 transport planes. On each of the previous two days, about 2,000 people were airlifted.

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Thousands of people are yet to be evacuated ahead of the United States' August 31 deadline to withdraw its troops from the country, although the pace picked up overnight. A defence official said about 5,700 people, including about 250 Americans, were flown out of Kabul aboard 16 C-17 transport planes. On each of the previous two days, about 2,000 people were airlifted.

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When women pay the price for State failure. Shri Radhe Shri Radhe Shri Radhe

What’s not to love about a chota parivaar, that quintessential Indian family of parents and their two children? Fewer children mean better maternal health, more judicious use of family resources, improved nutrition, higher education outcomes, and a healthier planet, already groaning under the weight of 7.9 billion humans.

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And, yet, when the State plans laws to punish parents who cross the two-child limit, let’s be clear about who pays the highest price. It’s women, the poorest and most marginalised.

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As Uttar Pradesh (UP) fine-tunes its draft population bill listing out disincentives for those who have more than two children — and thank you for the clarification that having two daughters is not a “deficiency” that grants wiggle room for a son — as many as 12 states already have policies that impose a slew of restrictions, from participating in panchayat elections to disqualification from government schemes.

 

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Look at just one of these states: When Haryana placed restrictions on candidates for the 2015 panchayat elections, 68% of Dalit women and 50% of all women were instantly disenfranchised, according to advocate Indira Jaising who challenged the move in the Supreme Court. Any move to cut women out of public life, where their participation is already circumscribed, must be resisted..

Women in India lack the agency to decide the most intimate aspects of their lives: Who they marry, when they get married, when they have children, and how many children they have. Yet, even with this limited agency, more are opting to use contraception. The latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) shows the highest use of contraception is among Muslim women (49%), compared to just 42.8% for Hindu women..

But NFHS also tells us of “unmet” needs in contraception — women who want to delay pregnancy (or not have one at all), but lack access to contraceptives. Nearly 13% of married women have this unmet need. And at 18%, UP has the second-highest unmet need for family planning, after Bihar at 21%..

The failure to provide family planning to women lies with the State. It cannot now seek to impose penalties on those who have more children than they planned because they could not access contraception. Women cannot pay the price for State failure..

But perhaps concerns over India’s burgeoning population — we will overtake China by 2027, says the United Nations — are misplaced. India’s growth trajectory is already slowing with decadal growth down from 21.5% in 1991-2001 to 17.7% during 2001-2011, according to the Census. Given our young demographic, the graph will keep climbing before it stabilises around 2050, says Poonam Muttreja of the Population Foundation of India..

Coercive policies haven’t worked in countries such as China, which saw a surge in sex-selective abortions. We have a lesson from India too. In 1977, following forced sterilisation in what was Sanjay Gandhi’s pet project during the Emergency, Indira Gandhi found herself voted out of power.

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Hare Krishna hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare hare..

In a competitive marketplace, protecting India’s gig workers

In the past few weeks, anonymous Twitter accounts such as Swiggy DE and DeliveryBhoy have made allegations regarding issues faced by delivery partners of food delivery apps. These include low payouts, opaque payout calculations and alleged cheating, unexplained differences in surge rates, order clubbing and assignments to avoid incentive pay, and zone extensions to avoid return bonuses.

Swiggy and Zomato, which offer delivery work to more than 360,000 gig workers, have responded to these allegations by insisting that earnings per order are much higher than alleged, and that full-time delivery personnel earn over ₹20,000 per month.

India’s gig economy is among the few sectors offering flexible work to unemployed millions. In her 2021 Union Budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned the creation of a database of gig workers and extending social security to them. It is important, therefore, to examine these grievances and design policy mechanisms that protect worker rights..

Many of the grievances arise because of a trust deficit between the gig workers and the platforms. India has protected workers through heavy-handed industrial regulation and archaic labour laws, which suit the factory floor. They are irrelevant, insufficient, and ineffective in addressing disputes that originate on these platforms..

With the apparent oversupply of gig workers, the platform’s incentive is to deliver orders at the lowest marginal cost (a large component of which is gig worker fees) while keeping the customer happy. This task is assigned to algorithms. An analysis of the grievances suggests that many are linked to the way gig work is assigned (denial of high-profit surge or incentive-linked orders), performed (clubbing orders, zone boundaries), and rewarded (complex, multifactor payment calculations).

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There are several factors in each of these algorithmic decisions. Work allocation can be based on weather, restaurant and customer locations, traffic, prevailing wages, and the available worker pool. The algorithms that make these decisions are flexible, learning algorithms that can account for the constantly changing input. Machine Learning (ML) and multi-factor optimisation techniques support millions of orders every day.

Crucially, most of these techniques are black-box — their inner workings are unknowable, even to the engineers that design them. Such algorithms are known to include biases. Research has shown that ML algorithms pick up pre-existing biases from their training data.

However, outdated, static mechanisms such as grievance redressal officers or onerous labour laws cannot keep pace with the gig economy. Instead, we can look to harness the power of technology towards improving trust between platforms and gig workers.

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Algorithm audits are one such technique, where an auditor has access to the algorithms and examine the results produced by them. Suitably qualified auditors could uncover implicit or explicit biases, or other shortcomings of such algorithms using computational and statistical techniques.

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