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Saturday, April 14, 2012

TELETEXT

TELETXT
Ratheesh Kaliyadan
Teletext is a communication system wherein text and graphics are transmitted as digitized signals through air broadcasting or cable channel for display on television set. The television functions like a computer terminal to retrieve textual information and graphics from remote database. The information is stored in centralized databases, sequenced and indexed in the form of pages of text or graphics. The signal can be transmitted over one-way cable or by air. The digitalized text messages or pages of information are continuously broadcasted in cycle. A viewer can access to all these messages on a given channel in cycle or through control unit. Major applications of teletext are:


• Teletext uses the television for information display, which is almost universally present in homes or community centers. Thus it has the potential to become mass media for imparting education to students in general and deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers in particular.


• Teletext provides the educational content in a very concise and effective manner and thus makes learning appealing, interesting and less burdensome. Further, the facility of quick updation keeps it is viewers informed of the recent happenings. It can be a very good media for career counseling along with providing information about courses-in-demand, hot careers, job opportunities, etc.

• Teletext uses in the area of education, agriculture, weather forecasting, farm management, libraries, and industries etc. would provide effective management of services.




First form of Teletext was developed in the early 1970s by engineers at the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and ITC (then known as IBA), the regulating body of commercial networks in the United Kingdom. General specification regarding teletext was published in United Kingdom in 1974. First teletext service was put into practice for general public use only in 1976.


Parallel to England’s teletext system, France proposed its own system - Antiope. This system introduced and used in 1977. Antiop was designed to transmit data over telephone lines. It failed to make use of many of the characteristics of the television signal. France’s another teletext service, Mintel overcame the limitations. During late seventies Canada developed a teletext service Telidon. It designed to produce high-quality graphics. This facility needed a complex decoder. The decoder was not commonly available to the consumer market at that time.
The teletext system transformed World System Teletext (WST) by 1984. More than 30 countries now use the enhanced version of WST worldwide, utilizing decoders installed in television receivers. The service is available in five levels, with each level showing an increasing array of enhancements and graphics sophistication. The higher levels require more complex decoding devices with progressively larger memories capable of storing great numbers of teletext pages; thus, receivers capable of decoding levels three, four and five may cost somewhat more than their less-sophisticated counterparts. (NCAM, 2002)

Teletext in India
 

The Indian version of teletext service ‘INTEXT’ (Indian teletext) started on November 14, 1985 by the Doordarshan Delhi. Similar to other teletext system, the INTEXT data are organized into pages in the form of text and graphics. The information is pooled and transmitted on a few predetermined lines in vertical ’blanking’ interval of television signals. The content developed in the form of magazines. Each magazine contains about 100 pages. The first page contains the  contents of the magazine like news items, sport events, financial trends, timings of arrival and departure of important trains, weather forecast, city engagements, All India Radio and Television programmes to be telecasted, etc. Teletext is a powerful medium for educational instructions; no such much explored experiments have been reported in India.

Jhabua Communication project

milestones in television in India

Jhabua Communication Project


Ratheesh Kaliyadan
Jhabua is a remote hilly hinterlands region in Madhya Pradesh. The Jhabua district is noted for its large extension of tribal folks. Approximately 85% of population belongs to tribal communities.  Majority of them remain illiterate. The literacy rate is 15%. The district is blessed with abundance of natural resources. But poverty is the face value of these peoples. They are the poorest ones of the state. Infant mortality rate is high. Transportation and communication facilities are very limited. Agriculture is the main source of revenue.

To cater the development needs of the under developed sections of  Jhabua region, a television experiment is introduced.  The Development and Education Communication Unit (DECU) of Space Application Center (CAS), Ahmedabad launched Jhabua Development communications Project (JDCP) in the mid-1990s. Educational and entertainment values are merged in programmes. The edutainment programmes concentrated on live issues like agriculture, natural forestry, health, education, watershed management and local governance. The project assured active participation of local people of Jhabua villages.

Jhabua Development communications Project is an evening television exposure. Every evening they got two hours programmes.  This primetime edutainment venture trained village functionaries like teachers, angawady workers, panchayath members, hand pump operators etc. Interactive mode is used. Talkback terminals were utilized for training programmes. Twelve talkback terminals are installed in the block headquarters. The functionaries interacted with the Ahmedabad station officials and resource persons, asked question, provided feedbacks and reported on the progress of the project.

Technically Jahbua Development communications Project utilized interactive satellite-based broadcast network. The project is supported by 150 direct reception instruments like dish, television sets, VCRs and other equipment. DECU uplinked programmes to the satellite from Ahmedabad and received at the Jhabua villages.

Under the guidelines of DECU, the state government, Jhabua district administration, local panchayath governance and the Non-Government Organisations joined hands to implement the project. The project is a new milestone in the history of India’s development communication.

Kheda Communication Project

milestones in television in India

Kheda Communication Project


Ratheesh Kaliyadan
Kheda is a small district in central Gujarath. The district comprises more than 1000 villages. These villages became one of the important milk producing centers in India as an impact of ‘white revolution’. For empowering the rural community, an instructional television project was introduced. The experiment is named as Kheda Communication Project. Social evils were addressed in this special television experiment. The project was in operation under the charge of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. The Development and Education Communication Unit (DECU) of Space Application Center (CAS) is involved in the conception, definition, planning, implementation and socio-economic evaluation of space applications.

To implement the experiment, 650 community television sets had installed in 443 villages. The television sets were owned by the community and maintained by the state government. The sets kept in the buildings of the Milk Producer’s Co-operative Society, schools or the Panchayath ghar. The low power transmitter established in Pij village, about 50 KMs south from Ahmmedabad. This transmitter connected to a local studio, a satellite earth station in Ahmedabad and the local Doordarshan studio. By these arrangements, Kheda Communication Project enhanced to broadcast both local productions and national satellite television programmes.

Dooradarshan and the Space Application Centre produced programmes for over an hour every day. Programmes focused on alcoholism, caste discrimination, minimum wages, family planning, gender discrimination and cooperatives. Television serials, folk drama, puppet shows and other popular formats used for local productions. Villagers worked for the project as actors, script writers, directors and visualizers for the programme production teams. Constant interaction with the people was the distinct characteristic of this project.

Programmes designed in charotari, a dialect of Guajarati. One of the early serials Chatur Mota (wise elder) on dowry and widow remarriage became an “extremely popular serial”. In the weekend series for women, the most successful were Dadi ma Ni haton (wise women’s talks), Hun Ne Mara Ae (I and my husband) and Jagi Ni Jus to (When I wake up and see).

The focus of Kheda Communication Project was:

v Exposing the oppression and bondages in the present social and economic system in such a way as to heighten understanding.

v Mobilizing the community and the individual himself to break away from these bondages.

v Promoting self-reliance among the individuals and the community.

The project commenced its operation in 1975 and closed in 1990.

Satellite Instructional Television Experiment

milestones in television in India

Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE)

Ratheesh Kaliyadan
Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) is one of the pioneer experiments in Indian television scenario where television is used for social causes. The experiment became a tool for mass education through various programmes designed exclusively for the project. The programmes concentrated on education, agriculture, health and family planning. It was the first experiment to telecast educational programmes direct from satellite to receivers

The earth stations at Delhi and Ahmedabad telecasted four hours programmes every day.  Programmes are classified into two: Educational Television (ETV) and Instructional Television (ITV).Educational television programmes designed for school children. Such programmes focused on education. Broadcasted 1.5 hours programme on working days at school hours. Students are exposed to these programmes as part of the school activity. During holidays, the time used for teacher empowerment. Varieties of content developed to train teachers through the facilities provided by the project. Almost 10000 primary school teachers became part of the training programmes.

Adults are exposed to Instructional television. Majority of the adults were illiterates. The village folk assembled around television sets in evenings. The project broadcasted 2.5 hours programmes in every evening. It was a prime time channel to the adult stake holders. Programmes focused health, hygiene, family planning, nutrition, improved agricultural practices and events of national importance.

The experiment practiced in 2400 villages spread over six selected regions in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Kamataka. Besides the villages, certain towns also got the programmes through earth transmitters. ETV and ITV used local languages like Hindi, Oriya, Telungu and Kannada.

All India Radio personnel planned and produced programmes at the production centers setup in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Cuttack. A committee included central and state government representatives, experts from universities, teacher training colleges and social workers helped the production team. Special committees on education, agriculture, health and family planning formed to support the production groups.  The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) set up its own Audio -Visual Instruction Division to plan and produce programmes for SITE.

SITE is   a result of a recommendation by the UNESCO expert mission in 1967. As per the request of government of India, UNESCO undertook a feasibility study for a project in satellite for communications.  The feasibility study conducted between November 18, 1967 and December 08, 1967. Following the UNECO report, three Indian engineers visited USA and France in June 1967 to get first hand exposure to the technical aspects. Government of India set up the National Satellite Communications Group (NASCOM) in 1968 to lead possible utilizations of synchronous communication satellite. The group consisted cabinet ministers, representatives of ISRO and All India Radio. The NASCOM recommended using ATS-6 satellite for communication purposes. AT-6 is a second generation satellite developed by NASA for an experiment in educational television. To practice the recommendation, Department of Atomic Energy made an agreement with National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) of US for the loan of a satellite for one year in 1969.

As per the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two countries, the objectives of the project were divided into two parts—general objectives and specific objectives. The general objectives of the project were to:

  • Gain experience in the development, testing and management of a satellite-based instructional television system particularly in rural areas and to determine optimal system parameters;
  • Demonstrate the potential value of satellite technology in the rapid development of effective mass communications in developing countries;
  • Demonstrate the potential value of satellite broadcast TV in the practical instruction of village inhabitants; and
  • Stimulate national development in India, with important managerial, economic, technological and social implications.

Using the facility SITE commenced its operation on August 01, 1975. The experiment became a great success. Villagers received the project whole heartedly. For the entire year people gathered around television sets and watched programmes eagerly. In the midst of demands from Indian villagers, journalists and others NASA shifted its ATS-6 satellite away from India. Thus the project concluded in July 31, 1976 remaining sweet memoirs of television realities.

Technologically the experiment put forward an insight and the demands took a positive initiative to develop own satellite for communications. After tiresome jobs, ISRO developed Indian National Satellite system. In August, 1982 India launched satellite.

Friday, April 6, 2012

To Prakash Karat

Here is an open letter prepared for Koodamkulam Antinuclear Agitation Support Group, Kerala.Make your comments and suggestions.
Open letter to Mr. Prakash Karat, general secretary, CPI (M), requesting him to include the nuclear issue on the agenda for discussion in the Party congress to be held at Kozhikode during April, 2012.

Dear comrade,
Greetings! We are writing this letter on the eve of the 20th party congress of the CPI(M) at Kozhikode, in which certain ideological questions along with political questions are sure to come up for serious discussion. We wish that the nuclear issue should be included among these and therefore request you to take the initiative.
Your party had withdrawn support to the UPA government in protest against the Indo-US nuclear pact. This came as a surprise move to many political observers, as the subject has not been an important one in the usual political routine of Indian politics or in the agenda of our major political parties. Anti nuclear activists who are aware of the destructive and hazardous potentialities of nuclear power and its disastrous consequences for the living world and our environment for thousands of years to come, had the happy feeling that the Indian left have at last reckoned the seriousness and long term political significance of the nuclear issue. Hopes were aroused in their minds about the Indian left, slowly waking up to a rational, sane and healthy approach to the nuclear question. Subsequently, the support given by people like Vivek Monteiro and the Maharashtra state party functionaries to the antinuclear struggle at Jaitapur reinforced the feeling.
Nuclear technology evolved with the mission to make bombs. The US continued to promote its nuclear agenda under the pretext of `Atom for Peace’, and electricity from nuclear fission through ‘civil’ nuclear facilities, during the crisis of confidence in anything that was nuclear, in the post-Hiroshima world. From the very beginning, it was recognized for what it really was and was criticized by knowledgeable circles all over the world .They saw through US political and economic interests, lurking behind the popularization of nuclear electricity. Anti nuclear scientists and peace activists made it clear that the `peaceful use of atom ‘is a myth and that a nuclear reactor even in its routine functioning releases several radioactive poisons into the atmosphere and aquatic environment. Since a long time ago, it has been established scientifically that all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle-Such as Uranium mining, ore transportation, enrichment, fabrication of fuel rods, operation of the reactors, reprocessing of spent fuel rods, and prolonged storage of high level radioactive waste-have disastrous consequences for human beings and the biosphere. Scientists are also aware of the fresh water scarcity triggered by the use of large quantities of water in nuclear reactors and the subsequent water pollution.
In the developed world which has been using nuclear power, antinuclear movements have been strong and active for the past three decades. These movements have promoted awareness about feasible alternatives to nuclear power such as wind, solar energy, and energy from renewable sources. They helped in devising environment-friendly consumption patterns and saving electricity by increasing the efficiency of end use devices. These methods of using available electricity efficiently coupled with new generation of electricity from renewable sources can definitely satisfy our just demands and we can altogether do away with nuclear power. This is why many nations are decommissioning their nuclear plants; not only to preempt accidents. Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima have revealed to the world the horrible dimensions of a nuclear accident-Radiation cutting across continents and its deadly and long lasting effects on human health and environment. The nuclear option for producing electricity is now being questioned and subjected to serious rethinking, not only in developed countries but all over the world.
In post independent India, it was thought that harnessing nuclear technology was inevitable to build a strong nation. Thus, great emphasis was laid on nuclear research, even at the expense of neglecting totally research for possible safer alternatives in the energy sector, which would have given us a lead along a self reliant path as sources such as wind and sunlight are abundant in our country. Though the nuclear path has helped India to gain the status of a `nuclear power state’, our Atomic Energy Department has a dismal track record of a wide gap between promise and achievement, and a history of several reactor accidents euphemistically called `incidents’. In spite of more than 42 years of experience in the production of nuclear electricity, and the pampered status the atomic energy received in our budgets, the share of nuclear electricity in the total generate d power is 2.54%(Installed capacity is 4780 Megawatts). Tamilnad alone has capacity for more power than this from wind only!
The Indo-US nuclear pact has opened up possibilities for adding generation capacity on a grand scale. India has declared its intention to Install a capacity of 64,000 MW by the year 2032, importing nuclear reactors from Russia, US and France. While most of the countries have started to phase out or decommission their nuclear power plants in the light of the Fukushima catastrophe, India is going to pursue its nuclear adventure on a gigantic scale..Germany, Italy, France etc are seriously reviewing their nuclear facilities and opting for renewable sources. Japan has already shut down 53 out of its 54 reactors; only one remains now. India is under compulsion from global corporate reactor traders to accept this outdated and unacceptably dangerous technology. Global nuclear players are plunging India into a debt trap, as a sequel to the Indo-US pact. Even a capitalist mouthpiece such as ~The Economist’ (see issue dated 8th March 2012) has now openly admitted nuclear power as”the Dream that Failed “on economic grounds apart from dangers and adverse effects inherent in nuclear technology.
The nuclear option is too expensive, unsafe and hazardous for us, irrespective the fact whether we use indigenous or foreign technology. It will affect people’s safety, cause genetic damage and create insurmountable problems environmentally, politically, economically and socially for the future. Decommissioning and waste disposal still remain formidable problems for which nuclear science has not found any solution so far.
There is no denying that electricity is needed for development, capitalist or socialist; but, capitalist production in its lust for profit is dashing forward with objectives which the environment can sustain no more. This can precipitate global disasters such as global warming and climate change and pollution of land, water and air beyond repair. Development is possible only within the confines of environmental constraints. This problem of `Environment vs. development’ as we usually put it, will have to be addressed sooner or later. Red and green will have to come closer to put their heads together to sort out practical solutions for the ecological crisis, caused by capitalist economic development. Real electricity demands for the needs of equitable development can be met by augmenting renewable and productive technologies; by increasing the efficiency of end use devices ; by reducing transmission &distribution losses; and by promoting decentralized power production based on wind, sunlight ,mini hydel ,biomass etc .Moreover, these technologies provide much more employment opportunities than capital-intensive nuclear technology does.
Those, including socialists, who seek alternatives to the profit-oriented, consumption- centred capitalist organization of production, have to take up the challenge of substituting it with human-centred, and less oppressive methods. A `socialist’ technology should take the place of capitalist technology and liberate humans from the alienating labour under an exploitative system. Nuclear technology is the most typical example of a capital- intensive and antihuman technology, the long term effects of which may even result in exterminating human race from the face of the earth.
Thus, opposing nuclear power becomes imperative, from a progressive political point of view. It assumes great significance as it is an issue which should enable us to evolve ideological perspectives on socialist development as opposed to capitalist development.
Indian leftists, however, cannot evade the responsibility of engaging themselves with the question of the desirability of nuclear power in the post-Fukushima world scenario. Even capitalists, the sole beneficiaries of nuclearisation, are on a course of second thought and almost a realization of their folly. Future generations will not forgive us, if we rely on this technology with irrevocable consequences that would last for thousands of years. If power is the problem, we in India have innumerable options which have been proved viable-Cheaper, safer and better than the nuclear option. We have enormous potential to produce power from renewable sources according to power ministry’s own documents. We should shift our emphasis to these options and phase out nuclear power altogether as it is a time bomb ticking at our doorstep.
We hope that the party congress at Kozhikode will discuss these issues and emerge with a policy which lends unconditional support to anti nuclear struggles going on in different parts of our country. Protests have been initiated against proposed nuclear plants by affected populations in various states- Jaitapur in Maharashtra; Fatehabad in Haryana; Mithi Virdi in Gujarat, Kovvada in Andhrapradesh; Haripur in westBengal; Chutka in Madhyapradesh, and Pattisonapur in Orissa. The struggle in Kudankulam , Tamilnad has almost acquired historical dimensions by the strong assertion of the will of the people against all the repression and intimidation by the state machinery. The message is loud and clear: If we cannot put a stop to this nuclear madness, basic human rights will be suppressed; progress will be a mirage; democracy will be a myth.
The repeated assurances of safety and blunt denial of the consequences by the Japanese government cannot mitigate people’s misery caused by Fukushima disaster. More than 3,30,000 people still live in temporary accommodation, according to latest BBC reports. Trivandrum, our state capital is in the shadow of immediate danger if there is an accident; it falls within the area of evacuation within 48 hours. That is why the people of Kerala are deeply involved in the struggle in Kudankulam. It is heartening to note that the politbureau of CPI (M) has condemned atrocities and police repression of the peaceful protesters. What we request you, is to review altogether your position on nuclear power per se and to support people’s struggle everywhere against nuclearisation.
yours truly,
N.Subrahmanian-mobile phone-9847439290; K.Ramachandran- mobile phone 9446168230; K.Sahadevan- mobile phone 8547698740; Sajeer Abdurahiman- mobile phone 9447218282
(Signed on behalf of the Kudankulam Antinuclear Agitation Support Group, Kerala)