Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

In many countries, Teachers’ Days (or Teachers Day) are intended to be special days for the appreciation of teachers, and may include celebrations to honour them for their special contributions in a particular field area, or the community in general. The date on which Teachers’ day is celebrated varies from country to country. Teachers’ days are distinct from World Teachers’ Day which is officially celebrated across the world on October 5.

History

 The idea of celebrating Teachers’ Day took ground independently in many countries during the 20th century; in most cases, they celebrate a local educator or an important milestone in education (for example, Argentina commemorates Domingo Faustino Sarmiento‘s death on September 11 since 1915,while India celebrates Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan‘s birthday on September 5 since 1962). This is the primary reason why countries celebrate this day on different dates, unlike many other International Days.

Sources: Wikipedia

“Universal” is a tricky word. It has an enormous appeal, an unquestioned romance of taking every one along. Universal human rights, universal access to basic services, housing for all. It is the barometer of inclusion done right. The dark side of the romance is that it’s one of the hardest things to actually achieve. Often the “universal” is a vanishing horizon and, like all horizons, the mirage is what makes you lose sight of the very real trade-off’s and constraints in your way.

This week the Delhi Jal Board announced a new horizon towards the idea of universal access to a basic urban service and human need: water. The “Jal Adhikar Connection” (a Right to Water Connection) promises to let households within slums in Delhi apply for legal, metered water connections “irrespective of the status of their residence.” This move – following the Government of Delhi’s already given…

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chair Google

Surveillance capitalism, in Shoshana Zuboff’s formulation, is a new form of capitalism that works by creating surplus value from the data extracted from people in digital environments (which today is much more than just being online but includes driving your internet-capable car for example: the Internet of Everything).

Now, data about where we are, where we’re going, how we’re feeling, what we’re saying, the details of our driving, and the conditions of our vehicle are turning into beacons of revenue that illuminate a new commercial prospect.

According to Zuboff’s analysis, surveillance capitalism was invented by companies like Google and Facebook in the Internet era. We’ve heard before how these companies treat you as the product rather than the customer, but Zuboff aims to show that users are “a means to profits in a new kind of marketplace in which users are neither buyers nor…