Image of the Day: August 3

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Corruption\'s Reach in India Spawns New Political Party

By NIHARIKA MANDHANA

The anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare and his team said Friday that they plan to create a “political alternative” for India in the form of a new political party. While Mr. Hazare said he would not himself enter the general elections in 2014, he pledged to spend the next year and a half campaigning across the country

Arvind Kejriwal, an activist widely believed to be the main strategist behind Mr. Hazare's movement, said the party's name and agenda are open to suggestions from the people.

“The movement against corruption will now take place both outside and inside Parliament,” he said in front of a crowd of thousands in New Delhi. He denounced India's large parties, including the ruling Congress Party and the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party, calling them “corrupt.”

“It is a daring, adventurous move,” said Yogendra Yadav, a political analyst and one of the signat ories of a letter encouraging Team Anna to take on the existing political establishment. But it's not going to be easy, he said, given the scale and complexity of India's parliamentary elections and the diversity of its electorate.

Transitioning from a single-issue movement to a political party, with positions on a broad spectrum of topics, from national security and terrorism to the economy, is likely to be a complicated process that may test the unity of the group, analysts said.

And there are few such precedents in independent India's history. Movements in the past have successfully transformed themselves to enter the political mainstream, but they have been based on religion or ethnicity. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, for instance, which governed India's largest state of Uttar Pradesh for a full term of five years, started as a movement for the rights of India's so-called “backward” classes.

It will be very tough for a non-regional, non-ethnic, no n-caste group to replicate the success of Mayawati's party with a policy issue like corruption, said E. Sridharan, a political analyst in Delhi. “Team Anna has a diffused constituency. They don't have a ready-made, mobilizable base,” he said, attributing the movement's rise to prominence to an urban population and a sympathetic media.

Another problem, analysts say, is that Mr. Hazare's group has little political experience. With the exception of Shanti Bhushan, who served as India's law minister in the 1970s, Team Anna represents a motley group of social workers. Few have run for public office at even the lower levels of government, like the village panchayat and state legislative assemblies.

Yet, Mr. Hazare and his supporters appear to be gunning for the top: “It's time to take this movement from the streets to the Parliament,” said Manish Sisodia, a key adviser to Mr. Hazare.

Then there's the fundamental issue of funding and organizational support . While a political party can technically be formed easily, by filing with the Election Commission, it takes massive resources, a base of party workers and candidates to run for elections.

“It is incredibly testing to launch a new political party,” said Dr. Jayprakash Narayan, who founded the Lok Satta Party in Andhra Pradesh in 2006. The sheer financial power of the traditional parties, manipulation of voters through money and liquor and the difficulties in building and sustaining a dedicated base of party workers are among the challenges his party continues to face.

Still, he welcomed Team Anna's political foray, saying it would go a long way in influencing and changing India's political system. “But don't expect dramatic electoral victories,” he warned.

Mr. Yadav, the analyst, went further, saying that “the baseline expectation should be zero” for the 2014 elections. “For a new political force to make a breakthrough and win seats will be ve ry tough,” he said.

The next election, in 2019, may be more realistic, he said.

Activists Trapped Between Government and Maoists

By SRUTHI GOTTIPATI

In one of India's most violent internal conflicts, between Maoist rebels and government security forces, civil society activists appear to be collateral damage.

“Indian authorities and Maoist insurgents have threatened and attacked civil society activists, undermining basic freedoms and interfering with aid delivery in embattled areas of central and eastern India,” Human Rights Watch said in a report this week.

Through a broad swath of India, Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, have attempted to overthrow the government in an armed struggle that has its roots in a 1967 rural uprising. In the last two years, 1,611 people have died in a total of 3,968 incidents said to be related to the Maoist struggle.

As recently as last month, the police said they killed a group of Maoists in the dense forest of Chhattisgarh state, but civil rights activists demanded a judicial inquiry ove r what they called the slaughter of innocent tribal villagers.

The Human Rights Watch report said that grassroots activists who deliver development assistance and highlight abuses risk being targeted by security forces and Maoist insurgents.

“The police demand that they serve as informers, and those that refuse risk being accused of being Maoist supporters and subject to arbitrary arrest and torture,” the watchdog notes. “The authorities use sedition laws to curtail free speech and also concoct criminal cases to lock up critics of the government.”

The Maoists, on the other hand, frequently accuse activists of being informers and warn them against implementing government programs, according to the report.

“The Maoists have been particularly brutal towards those perceived to be government informers or “class enemies” and do not hesitate to punish them by shooting or beheading after a summary “trial” in a self-declared “people's court ” (jan adalat),” the report notes. It adds that this court in no way conforms to international standards.

The rights group said this report is based on more than 60 interviews with witnesses or those familiar with abuses in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, from July 2011 to April this year.

“The Maoists and government forces seem to have little in common except a willingness to target civil society activists who report on rights abuses against local communities,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Ms. Ganguly acknowledged that the government stressed that development was needed while undertaking security operations against Maoists to resolve the long-standing problem.

“However, the government has failed to stop local authorities and the security forces from attacking and intimidating civil society activists who are often implementing the very programs that could deliver development in these remote and long ignored areas,” she said.

Test-driving the \'World\'s Cheapest Computer\'

By PAMPOSH RAINA

India's “Aakash” project, a tablet billed as the cheapest computer in the world, hopes to revolutionize learning in Indian colleges and universities. We've been following the ups and downs of the Aakash project closely here at India Ink and were delighted when we were allowed to test drive the new, improved version, known as the Aakash-2, at the ministry of Human Resources Development.

Euphoria over a cheap tablet with a “Made in India” label grew after the Human Resources Development Ministry unveiled the Aakash in October 2011. But unresolved issues among various parties involved in the project seemed to have derailed it. Now it seems to be back on track.

Dozens of the new tablets are being field-tested now by teachers across India. A commercial version, known as “UbiSlate,” is being made by the same manufacturer behind the Aakash-2 and is expected to be on the market soon.

The Aakash-2 will be available to Indian students through 20,000 colleges and 416 universities in the country, at a subsidized price of 1,132 rupees, or about $21. The commercial version of the product will cost between 3,499 rupees and 4,299 rupees.

As might be expected with a low-cost device, it comes in any color you choose - as long as that color is black.

At a weight of less than a pound, the rectangular tablet is heavier than a mobile phone but fits comfortably in one hand. The back of the device is made up of rubberized plastic, which keeps the device steady in your hand.

The front is entirely made up of the shiny, seven-inch-long capacitive touch screen, an improvement over the original Aakash, which had a resistive touch screen. (A capacitive screen is more responsive and allows for the use of more than one finger to navigate). Navigation on the Aakash 2's screen was simple and fast, needing only a light touch.

On the top right-hand corne r of the touch screen, a panel displays information about volume, Wi-Fi connectivity, battery status and the time. And a menu icon along with another icon, which takes you back to the home screen, in case you wander elsewhere while navigating.

The new version has 256 megabytes of RAM, just like the old one. There is one USB port, a headphone jack and a small slot for a memory card, which can expand the external memory to 32 gigabytes. There are tiny slits along the periphery too, which are part of the design â€" they were created to release excessive heat from the tablet. A round button tucked along the right side switches the device on and off.

The charger port is a tiny hole with a pin in the center, and the charger that comes with the device looks like an older model Nokia phone charger.

On the inside, Aakash -2 has been upgraded: the internal storage capacity of the tablet was increased from two gigabytes in the original Aakash to four gigabytes. The op erating system has been slightly upgraded, from Android 2.2 to 2.3, and the new device has an 800-megahertz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, compared to the 366 megahertz ARM 11configuration in the old one.

The prototype India Ink looked at also allowed users to add a SIM card. This means that the tablet can double up as a phone, but this function is not available on all the upgraded versions. The Aakash-2 will come in two versions: one with a SIM card and one without, with the latter having a second USB port.

As for Internet connectivity, a mobile broadband dongle cannot be plugged into the Aakash-2. The device is meant to be used only with Wi-Fi. As part of the pilot project to distribute the tablet around India, 18,000 colleges and 403 universities in India have installed Wi-Fi networks, ministry officials said.

The two versions are being introduced simultaneously to see which better suits students, said a senior official from the Ministry of Human Resources Dev elopment who is working on the project.

Sample tablets will soon be sent to students for testing and feedback, a process the ministry officials said should be concluded in the next few months.

Over the next six months, the tablet's designer, DataWind, is contracted to deliver a 100,000 tablets to Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) Bombay, which is spearheading the project.

As for apps, the home screen displays several icons common to any Android tablet, including an Internet browser, a calendar, e-books and games. But the Aakash- 2 also has several apps that have been developed for students studying computer languages like C, C++, Python and Scilab, an open-source version of MATLAB, which are all used to create computer programs. The apps appear to be designed mostly for engineering students, even though the tablet is intended for students of all disciplines.

Visually impaired students can also access content on the tablet, as it comes with softw are that can read aloud any pre-loaded material.

Apps created specifically for the Aakash-2 include “Proximity,” which allows students to read tutorials and view class lectures, and “Clicker,” which administers online quizzes to students.

Another app, “Robot Control,” has been created for students of robotics, so they can learn hardware design and embedded systems using software. The app works with a robot, designed by a professor at I.I.T. Bombay, the kit to assemble the robot comes at an additional cost of 3,000 rupees.

In a demo of Robot Control, the robot, which is a small, wheeled machine with a camera on top, was connected through Wi-Fi to the Aakash-2 tablet, and video of the footage being recorded by the robot's camera streamed live on the tablet. How the robot might be used by students (besides for spying on someone in their home or dorm room) should become apparent over time.

A high-definition video coprocessor ensured decent qua lity video, with very little pixilation. The audio was clear during playback. With a headphone, one could hear a slight hum, but it did not distract from the audio. When the battery ran low, a video stream on YouTube faltered.

The battery of the upgraded device has been increased by just over 50 percent to 3,200 milliamp-hours. Ministry officials said the battery can last at least three hours, but it depends on the functions performed on the device. The battery needs to charge for at least two hours after it has been run down.

The tablet will cost the government 2,263 rupees, so students are getting a version that is subsidized by 50 percent.

“Making the tablet affordable for students” continues to be a challenge, said N.K. Sinha, the director of the National Mission on Education Through Information and Communication Technology, the government agency responsible for the Aakash project.

A YouTube Introduction to U.S. Colleges, by Just Clicking Play

By ARIHA SETALVAD and TANYA ABRAMS

Higher EducationThe Choice on India Ink

Guidance on American college applications for readers in India from The Times's admissions blog.

It's a rite of passage every year - students from across the world power up their computers and begin to research the colleges of their dreams. With thousands of prospective students starting to think about preparing their applications, colleges and universities in the United States are realizing that, while simple Web sites and information packets worked well enough in the past, the new generation needs new ways of access.

Enter YouTube, the world's second-largest search engine. Since 2008, searches on YouTube for “admissions” have risen sharply, said Anni e Baxter, a spokeswoman for YouTube. More than 400 universities across the United States and Canada already have a presence on YouTube, with sample lectures, student speakers and campus tours posted on their personalized channels, she said.

We've looked at several ways American colleges and universities are using YouTube to reach prospective students. For this week's installment of The Choice on India Ink, we are providing ways in which prospective international students - who are still learning about universities in the United States but don't have the luxury to make campus visits throughout the year, if at all - could use YouTube to improve their college search and strengthen their applications.

Discover What Admissions Officers Are Looking For

Admissions officers at Tufts University talk about what makes student applicants stand out.

When it's 4 a.m., and you've been writing essays and filling out appli cations for hours, it's easy to panic and begin to tear yourself down.

It's important to remember that admissions officers are not out to get you. As hard as it may be to imagine, they were once students, too. They know that one bad grade doesn't make you a terrible student, and equally, that even perfect SAT scores don't make you the perfect candidate.

In this video, Tufts freshmen speak to admissions officers and attempt to dispel some of the myths surrounding the admissions process. As you're putting together your application, be sure to think about some questions like:

Does my application show a good balance of academics, extracurricular activities and my personality?

Have I put an equal amount of effort into all (and all parts of) my applications?

Get Essay Writing Tips From Admissions Officers

The college application process is usually the first taste students get of a challenge that will crop up constantly in life - how to sell yourself… in 500 words or fewer.

While the bulk of a regular application packet consists of numbers and figures, the personal essay is an opportunity for students to grab hold of the admissions officer, shake them and say, “Here I am, this is what I have to say, this is what I value and what makes me tick.”

In this video, college students talk about their strategies and what they learned about writing The Essay. Some questions to improve your own essay might be:

What can I contribute to this college that no one else can?

How can I tell a story in a way that is unique to me alone?

Who are people I trust to proofread my essays? (The more, the better!)

Determine the University's Learning Expectations

Watching a university archivist walk through thousands of theses at Princeton gives great insight into the academic expectations of the university. To find out if a potential school's expectations match your own learning goals, ask:

Are seniors required to write a thesis? Does each major have a capstone experience?

What types of senior theses and projects have been done in the past?

What are some opportunities for individual and collaborative research?

Sit In on a Class

Robert Shiller, a professor at Yale University, gives an introductory lecture on financial markets.

Perhaps one of the best things you can do during your college search is sit in on one of the classes. Watching a video of the lecture can make you feel as though you're already in college, and help you get a sense of whether the classroom environment at a particular school is a good fit. As you continue your research, ask college representatives about the learning experience:

What percentage of freshman-level classes are taught by faculty members ?

Are most classes discussion based or lecture based?

How much access do freshmen have to labs and lab equipment?

Discover the Social Life on Campus

Princeton's eating clubs can serve as an alternative to fraternities and sororities.

Online videos can give you a glimpse of the fraternities, sororities, eating clubs, intramural sports and other social organizations on campus. Look for videos that were uploaded by these organizations and their members, or by the university itself. Throughout your college search, consider asking these questions about campus life:

What percentage of students belong to social clubs, like fraternities and sororities, eating clubs and student unions?

What are some of the university's biggest social events throughout the year?

P.S. - If you'd rather watch college raps, YouTube has videos for that, too.

Have you used YouTube during your college admissions process? Please share your experience and advice with other readers of The Choice on India Ink, using the comments box below.