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Several other educational institutions, including Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), have decided to conduct online open book exams

PTI

Universities should not conduct examinations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and even holding online tests is not right as it is “discriminatory” towards poor students, former human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said on Sunday.

The senior Congress leader also said that with almost half the 2020-21 academic year of schools over without proper classes due to the COVID-19 spread, board examinations for Class 10 should not be held next year as it would burden the students unnecessarily.

“What has happened is that half the year has been lost and we don’t know how long this pandemic will continue. There is no need for Class 10 board exams for a while for these two years — this year and next year — and then they could relook at this policy,” Mr. Sibal told PTI in an interview.

Mr. Sibal, who as the HRD minister had spearheaded a reforms process in the education sector under which it was decided to abolish compulsory CBSE Board exams for Class 10, said it was a sensible policy to have been followed but when the NDA came to power they reversed that.

“Thank god they have listened to some sane advice and they have cancelled the board exams. Consider the impact it would have had, especially on the poor students who don’t have access to any online facilities,” said Mr. Sibal, who was the HRD Minister from May 2009-October 2012 in the UPA-II government.

His remarks come days after the remaining CBSE and ICSE board examinations for classes 10 and 12, scheduled to be held in July, were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Quite frankly even university exams should be postponed,” Mr. Sibal said.

Till such time there is a pandemic, there should be no exams and holding online examinations will be “extremely discriminatory” because in a lot of places in India, in remote areas, there is no facility for online examinations and the poor will be discriminated against, he said.

“See you are creating an elitist culture where the advantage goes to the rich which have access to online facilities and to those institutions which are privileged to provide online facilities and online teaching,” Mr. Sibal said.

“Why should you hold these exams in the midst of a pandemic. Many of them (students) have not got teaching materials even the specially-abled persons have not been fully provided teaching materials,” he said.

Delhi University on Saturday postponed the online open book exams for final-year students, which were scheduled to begin from July 1, by 10 days “in view of the prevailing situation of COVID-19 pandemic”.

Several other educational institutions, including Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), have decided to conduct online open book exams.

Asked if examinations are not held how university students will be promoted, Mr. Sibal said there were two issues — those who are to be promoted from the first year to the second year as well as from second year to third year, and those in the third and final year.

Those going from first year to second year and those from second to third year must have appeared for semester exams during the period, so assessments can be made based on those results for them to be promoted to the next year and that should be provisional so that when full classes are held examinations can be conducted, Sibal said.

“But in the meantime, their promotional prospects should not be jeopardised. That takes care of 1st year to second year and second year to 3rd year,” he said.

“Now you come to the university exams. Many students who come from far off places must have gone away from the hostels, how will they take part in online exams from those places. Many of those students are from neighbouring countries, how will they sit for these exams,” Mr. Sibal asked.

Noting that in some states, the universities have said they will not hold exams, he suggested that what can be done is that final-year students could be given a provisional degree based on their past performance and they can sit for exams as and when they have the materials and the tenure of the teaching class has been completed as would have happened in a regular year.

“Some universities are doing that. I don’t know why that is not being done in Delhi,” he said.

Asked if the Centre should introduce a uniform policy for examinations in universities, Mr. Sibal said the problem is that universities are independent institutions and the government can’t decide what they should do or not.

The universities have a level of autonomy, but they themselves should find innovative ways to deal with a situation rather than have an “elitist approach and say we have decided, this is what is going to happen and we are not going to see the situation on the ground“.

Thrusting these decisions on poor students is very poor management of education, he said.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16 when the central government announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

Renewable energy ministry has proposed customs duties on some solar power equipment starting August 1 as part of the country’s goal of becoming self-sufficient.

PTI

Tightening import norms, India will check all power equipment bought from China for malware and Trojan horses that can be potentially used to trigger electricity grid failures to cripple economic activity in the country, Power Minister R. K. Singh said.

India has in the recent days taken steps to impose stringent quality control measures and higher tariffs on goods from China as it looks to boost domestic manufacturing to cut reliance on imports.

In an interview to PTI, Mr. Singh said his renewable energy ministry has proposed imposing customs duties on some solar power equipment starting August 1 as part of the country’s goal of becoming self-sufficient.

“Power is a very sensitive and strategic sector for any country. Electricity runs all industries, communication systems and all databases including strategic ones and so we have to guard it against any sabotage buy countries which are adversaries or possible adversaries,” he said. “We want to build a firewall.”

More tariff barriers, rigorous testing of foreign equipment and prior permission requirements for imports from adversary countries are some of the focus areas of India’s proposed power sector overhaul, he said.

The move comes in the backdrop of India contemplating an economic response against China since the June 15 border clashes.

Mr. Singh said some countries who are adversaries or potential adversaries will be identified as “prior reference countries”, and prior government permission will be required before importing any equipment from there.

These countries are mostly the ones which share borders with India, including China and Pakistan.

“We have reports that malware and Trojan horse can be installed which can be activated remotely to bring down the power sector and the economy,” he said. “So we have decided, because it is a sensitive sector, whatever equipment is made in India, we will purchase them. And those that are not made in India, we will import but check thoroughly to rule out the presence of any malware or Trojan horse.”

India’s power sector has faced cyberattacks, a majority of which reportedly originated from China, Singapore, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

Mr. Singh said a committee was set up under the Central Electricity Authority to examine the cyber threat and the panel has said “it is a real live threat.”

“It is very serious,” he said. “It is sensitive because any adversary can bring our entire country to a halt. It is a very sensitive and strategic sector because the defence industry and all other industries run on power. If power goes out, then you have storage of about 12 to 24 hours only.”

“The threat is very serious,” Mr. Singh added.

He said his ministry has proposed imposing 25% customs duty on solar modules from August, which can be raised to 40% from April 2022. On solar cells, it has proposed 15% duty, rising to 25% in 2022. On solar inverters, an import duty of 20% is proposed.

China accounts for nearly 80% of module supplies in India. India currently levies a 15% safeguard duty on imports of solar cells and modules from China and Malaysia. That tax expires at the end of July.

Mr. Singh further said the power industry should stop imports of products whose domestic supplies are adequate, and developers using domestic equipment will get cheaper financing from lenders Power Finance Corp and REC Ltd.

As part of quality control measures, the Bureau of Indian Standards is finalising tougher norms for at least 370 products, including chemicals, steel, electronics, heavy machinery, furniture, paper, industrial machinery, rubber articles, glass, metal articles, pharma, fertilisers and plastic toys, to ensure items that can be locally produced are not imported.

Also, discussions are on to raise import duty on products including furniture, compressors for air conditioners and auto components.

The commerce ministry is separately evaluating non-tariff measures such as more inspections, product testing and enhanced quality certification requirements to check Chinese imports in a manner that conforms to the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

The government has also made it mandatory for suppliers to mention the country of origin in a move to push for local products and keep out Chinese manufacturers.

China is India’s biggest source of imports. Chinese imports such as electronic goods, industrial machinery and organic chemicals totalled almost $70 billion last year. China has a trade surplus of about $50 billion with India.