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World Rabies Day: Street play educates children on stray dogs and rabies risks

A gathering of over 30 individuals, primarily comprised of children, gathered to witness the street play titled ‘Shumbhu Nath Sab Janta Hai.’

Animal activists took to the streets at Mayawati Colony, Indira Nagar, kicking off the two-day ‘Nukkad Natak’ campaign on World Rabies Day to promote awareness about rabies prevention and the care of stray animals. (HT File)

LUCKNOW On the occasion of World Rabies Day (September 28), a coalition of animal welfare workers, veterinarians, NGO representatives, and other stakeholders engaged in street plays spanning two days to disseminate crucial information about rabies. This effort comes in response to the alarming statistic of approximately 55,000 rabies-related deaths occurring annually in India.

According to the World Health Organisation, India accounts for nearly 36% of global rabies fatalities. The Indian branch of Humane Society International, which also partners with Lucknow Municipal Corporation for the sterilisation and vaccination of stray dogs, spearheaded the “nukkad natak” initiative. This innovative approach aimed to enlighten passersby and bystanders at two prominent locations that regularly attract crowds.

A gathering of over 30 individuals, primarily comprised of children, gathered to witness the street play titled ‘Shumbhu Nath Sab Janta Hai.’ The play centred on three young children breaking away from the conventional treatment of stray dogs by humans, emphasising compassion over irritation.

Dr Abhinav Verma, animal welfare officer at the Lucknow Municipal Corporation, said, “By amalgamating entertainment and education, the street play left an indelible impression on onlookers, imparting knowledge and fostering positive behaviours aimed at mitigating the risk of rabies.”

In a similar vein, Dr Sanjay Ahir, senior manager of the Street Dog Program at HSI/India, said, “In Lucknow, we are committed to creating a safer environment for both dogs and our communities. This World Rabies Day, we have added a creative twist through skits to raise awareness, striving for the holistic well-being of humans and dogs — one act at a time.”

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/others/world-rabies-day-street-play-educates-children-on-stray-dogs-and-rabies-risks-101695901668231.html

Hong Kong shuts schools as it issues heavy rain warning

A view of a flooded area after heavy rain in Hong Kong, China, Sept. 8, 2023. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

Hong Kong closed schools on Thursday after authorities issued the second-highest rain signal and warned of extensive flooding, just days after the Asian financial hub was drenched by the heaviest rain since records began 140 years ago.

The city’s weather observatory issued the “red” signal before 6 a.m. local time, saying rain exceeding 50 millimetres in an hour is falling and likely to continue.

“Heavy rain will bring flash floods and flooding is occurring or expected to occur in watercourses,” it said.

Hong Kong’s stock market will remain open unless the highest “black” signal is issued.

The heavy rain comes as the city is still repairing damage caused by torrential rain linked to typhoon Haikui which passed nearby in recent days. Many areas of the mountainous city still have a high landslide risk after the unusually wet weather.

Some areas of the city such as Tsueng Kwan O and Sai Kung were still struggling with flooding from earlier in the week. A luxury house in the affluent Tai Tam area overlooking the ocean was ordered to be evacuated on Saturday due to risk of collapse.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hong-kong-shuts-schools-it-issues-heavy-rain-warning-2023-09-14/

16-year-old NEET aspirant dies by suicide in Kota, 25th case this year

A 16-year-old student died by suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota on Tuesday. This is the 25th such incident in the city among students preparing for competitive exams.

A 16-year-old student dies by suicide in Kota, 25th case this year

A 16-year-old student, who was preparing for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) died by suicide by hanging herself in Rajasthan’s Kota.

Twenty-five students have died by suicide in Kota, a coaching hub in Rajasthan, in just eight months this year.

A resident of Ranchi, the student was currently residing at Blaze Hostel in the city. She hanged herself and the body has been kept in the mortuary.

Around two lakh students flock to Kota annually, hoping to qualify for competitive exams like the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

This year, authorities reported 25 student suicides related to the pressure of competitive exams in the district, the highest number in any year.

According to Rajasthan police data, the figure was 15 in 2022, 18 in 2019, 20 in 2018, seven in 2017, 17 in 2016, and 18 in 2015. No student suicide was reported in Kota in 2020 and 2021 for the coaching institutes were shut due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In response to a spate of suicides in Kota, the district administration had earlier issued an order mandating the installation of spring-loaded fans in all hostel rooms and paying guest accommodations.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kota-student-suicide-cases-rajasthan-coaching-institute-medical-neet-aspirants-2434950-2023-09-13

Byju’s considering sale of Great Learning and Epic to settle $1.2 billion term loan

The company has put two of its group firms — higher education platform Great Learning and kids-focused digital reading platform Epic – on sale to raise immediate funds to meet the repayment obligations towards the $1.2 billion of Term Loan B it availed from a consortium of US-based creditors, sources close to the development said.

The capital will go towards completely paying off the term loan

Troubled edtech major Byju’s is engaging with potential suitors to sell two of its key assets, even as it awaits the long elusive fresh equity funding to pay off debts.

“They have been exploring many options, but the most feasible one at this point looks like an asset sale. They hope to make around a billion dollars from these two firms,” said one of the people on condition of anonymity.

Byju’s acquired Great Learning for $600 million and Epic for $500 million in cash and equity deals in July 2021. These deals were part of a series of acquisitions the company made in 2021 as digital education grew exponentially due to Covid-related restrictions. During the hyper-growth years of 2020-2021, the Bengaluru-based company made approximately $3 billion worth of acquisitions.

Though it raised significant amount of capital during the time, the equity capital wasn’t enough to fund the extravagant acquisitions, especially as it continued to burns cash on operations. Byju’s then turned to large debt providers in the US to raise a massive term loan.

The TLB, secured for a five-year period at a yield to maturity (YTM) of 6.78 per cent in November 2021, came back to bite the company in June of this year when it missed a $40 million loan repayment. It subsequently filed a lawsuit against its lenders, countering their legal actions, accusing them of using predatory tactics.

As per people in the know of the development, lenders were renegotiating the rate to be around 10-11 percent. This would mean that the company has to set aside $100-120 million dollars from its cash flow each year to meet these new terms.

Source: https://www.businesstoday.in/entrepreneurship/start-up/story/byjus-considering-sale-of-great-learning-and-epic-to-settle-12-billion-term-loan-397948-2023-09-11

Rajasthan: Two More Students Die By Suicide In Kota; Year’s Toll Reaches 23

In its recent guidelines, instructed coaching institutes not to conduct Sunday tests. Despite this, both students tragically took their lives after participating in the Sunday test.

Two NEET aspirants allegedly committed suicide in Kota on Sunday. One was from Latur in Maharashtra who jumped from the sixth floor of his institute, and the other one was from Bihar who hanged himself in his hostel room. The number of suicides in Kota reached seven in August and 23 this year.

Suicide after test on Sunday

Deputy SP Dharamveer Singh said that the first incident took place at around 3.00 in the afternoon. The deceased is identified as Aavishkar Sambhaji Kasle (16), a resident of Latur (Maharashtra). The student was living in the Talwandi area of Kota for 3 years and was preparing for NEET. His maternal grandmother was also living with him for one and a half years. He had come to the coaching institute at Road No. 1 on Sunday to appear for the test. “As soon as the test was over, he came out and jumped down from the balcony on the sixth floor,” said DSP.

According to the police, Aavishkar was under stress due to low marks in his last coaching test. He is said to be good at his studies but was worried about his low marks on the coaching test.

Source: https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/kota-two-more-neet-aspirants-die-by-suicide-years-toll-reaches-23

Kota Story: With over 20 student suicides in 2023 so far, a look at what lies between aspiration and despair

Bad scores in JEE Mains did not kill 17-year-old Kriti Tripathi, the girl who jumped to her death from a five-storey building in Kota on April 28, 2016. “It’s not because of bad scores in JEE Mains. I was expecting worse. It’s because I’ve started hating myself to the extent that I want to kill myself,” Tripathi wrote in a desperate suicide note.

Just this week, Kota saw yet another suicide when an 18-year-old student, who was preparing for the Indian Institutes of Technology Joint Entrance Examination, took his life on Tuesday (August 15) night. After this incident, Kota District Collector Om Prakash Bunkar ordered all hostels and paying guest accommodations to install spring-loaded fans “to provide students mental support and security.”
Such fans collapse when a certain amount of weight is applied to them. But this measure, apparently to prevent suicides, has received a stinging backlash on social media, where netizens are asking for a greater focus on mental health rather than optics.

Amid the bustling streets of Kota — where towering hoardings of coaching institutes display triumphant faces of JEE and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) toppers — lies a sombre reality. Along with the success stories, a stark contrast emerges — between aspirations and desperation.

More than 50 students have committed suicide since 2019 in the city, deemed to be the final doorway to reaching one’s dream of becoming an engineer or a doctor. More than 20 kids have taken their lives so far this year.

Of course, there are success stories but behind the relentless pursuit of excellence, questions linger — how many dreams lie shattered and how many lives are sacrificed at the altar of ambition?

The pressure that comes with clearing a competitive exam is not unknown. The Rajasthan government said earlier this year it was planning to introduce the Rajasthan Coaching Institutes (Control and Regulation) Bill with an aim to reduce academic pressure and mandate guidelines for the mushrooming coaching institutes. That Bill is on the back burner now, as per reports.

Most of the coaching institutes have counsellors to help students. Additionally, reports and student interviews suggest that the police administration reviews the mental health of students. But the bigger question remains — how does expectation spiral into hopelessness.

The Kota stories

“Many people think that ‘Kota jaenge to ho hi jaega selection’ (if you go to Kota nothing can stop you from clearing the exams). But once you are in Kota you realise that this is a whole new world, a rat race,” said 22-year-old, Swati Narayan, who has studied in one of the prestigious IIT-JEE exam coaching centres in Kota for two years.

As per data and media reports, more than three lakh students go to Kota to prepare for competitive exams every year. Additionally, as per a Forbes report, there are 3,500 registered hostels, 1,500 unregistered hostels, 5,000 PGs and over 27 coaching institutes.

“I remember the day I came to Kota with my dad six years ago. The auto-rickshaw driver told my dad, do not leave your kid alone in this city, it survives on deathbeds of innocent lives. I thought he was being dramatic but as months passed it hit me. We had classes starting at 7 am, weekly tests, and assignments — there was always the pressure of completing the syllabus and the anxiety of not doing well in the weekly tests. Soon you realise that you are skipping breakfast, lunch or dinner… all you do is study because everyone around you is doing well but somehow you are not good enough. And most of the time you have to go through this alone,” said Arpit Sharma, who was in Kota for his IIT-JEE preparations from 2017 to 2019.

Many other students that CNBC-TV18 talked to said there are 12 hours of classes every day. Many also opt for extra classes. Filled with ex-IITian teachers, the city breaks the life of aspirants down into 12 hours of coaching with 90-minute classes separated by 10-minute breaks — the remaining 12 hours are meant for eating, self-study and sleeping.

A student who is currently preparing for NEET in Kota said her day starts at 6.30 am and she studies till 2 am. In between, she has time for a single phone call to her parents. At times she manages to chat with her hostel mates.

Source: https://www.cnbctv18.com/education/kota-student-suicides-what-goes-between-aspirations-and-hopelessness-jee-mains-healthcare-help-17570151.htm

Florida school district to only teach excerpts from Shakespeare under new regulations

The full plays have been removed from the curriculum following the passing of a number of laws restricting sexual content in school reading materials.

Pupils in a Florida school district will only be reading excerpts of Shakespeare rather than the full plays after new guidelines regarding sexual content in the curriculum were brought in.

Hillsborough County informed teachers that parts of the Bard’s classics contain sections which are sexual in nature and therefore cannot be taught following the passing of the Parental Rights in Education Act.

The legislation, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by its opponents, limits classroom materials that “contain pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct”.

Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state exams, the school district said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

Several Shakespeare plays use suggestive puns and innuendo, and it is implied that the protagonists have had premarital sex in “Romeo and Juliet.”

The playwright’s books will however be available for checkout at media centres at schools, the district said.

“First and foremost, we have not excluded Shakespeare from our high school curriculum.

“Students will still have the physical books to read excerpts in class,” the statement said.

“Curriculum guides are continually reviewed and refined throughout the year to align with state standards and current law.”

The decision in Tampa is the latest fallout from laws passed by Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature and championed by Governor Ron DeSantis over the past two years.

The first was passed last year and prohibited classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in lower grades.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/florida-school-district-to-only-teach-excerpts-from-shakespeare-under-new-regulations-12936427