 Hello and let's talk about IPL 2020. The governing council of the Indian Premier League met on Sunday and the big news is that the tournament is on. It will be held in the United Arab Emirates from September 19th to November 10th. Eight teams will be playing in the tournament. The women's IPL will also be held at the same location. A lot of effort is being put in to figure out the right procedures considering the health risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. And this is of course the first major tournament in cricket after the pandemic broke out. We spoke to Leslie Xavier on some of these issues. Thanks Leslie for joining us. So the IPL governing council met yesterday at the big news is that the tournament will continue as planned. It will be a 53-day tournament like we were talking about and this is big news for cricket fans of course but also a lot of questions regarding how it is going to be held, the safety precautions and what will be the kind of audience that is going to be participating in all this. So could you first talk about some of the big takeaways from the meeting? Yeah, so the date has been finalized, September 19th to November 10th. The tournament is going to end mid-week. I mean, serving away from the norm, that is that the finale was always reserved for weekends. So there's a reason for that. I mean, let's just get into that to start with. India's there is a tour that has been planned for the Indian cricket team to Australia. I mean, IPL window was open because Australia pulled out of the, I mean in the sense, understandably, express applications that they won't be able to stage the World Cup, the 2020 World Cup. So that window was open and IPL is utilizing that. So the BCCI had already made a commitment to cricket Australia that they would send the team for a tour down under in December. So for the tour to materialize, the teams have to travel much in advance to follow the quarantine protocols and all that. So if the final is held on, despite broadcasters wanting so that the final should be held a week later, that is the Diwali weekend, November 14th being Diwali, the BCCI stood firm because of this travel logistic issue that they would face traveling to Australia. So that's as far as the schedule and the dates are concerned. And apart from the schedule as such, there is also a plus point take away from the meeting. The women's IPL will be staged this year. Just like last year, it would be a 14th affair and a shorter affair, first week of November, it would be staged. But a good move nonetheless, because considering the prevailing circumstances and the logistics and the difficulties involved, BCCI could have easily ignored the women's game, but they are doing it and that's close to them for doing this. Considering the fact that just like the men, the women also have not played, not gotten a game. So this is a very positive move. And other than that, the big speculation that was doing the rounds about banning of the Chinese sponsor, which is the title sponsor for the IPL, Vivo Mobile, is sticking to all the sponsors, existing sponsors. Obviously, it would have been quite a nightmare for the legal team to deal with all these things at this juncture. So Vivo would be the official sponsor and the teams are set to travel after 25th of this month. So more or less the news is that most of the teams would be in UAE by 30th and they would undergo the necessary quarantine period, which the UAE government would stipulate and then they would be put up in their hotels. As we speak, the BCCI and the IPL teams are consulting specialists to implement that eco bubble, the bio bubble, kind of a setup just like what we saw in the England versus West India series. So teams would, but unlike that series where the matches were held at venues, which also had a hotel facility, it's not there in the UAE. And so teams would be required to travel from the hotel to the stadium. So what the IPL has decided is that they would hold the matches only in two stadiums in the UAE so that the travel is minimized. The evening match would be held half an hour ahead of what is the norm. Usually it used to start at 8pm, now it would start at 7.30pm. That has got to do with the broadcast dynamics because considering the time differential in UAE and here and it makes sense, more than the safety protocol I'm saying. And there would be 10 double headers through the course of the 53 days, I mean simultaneous matches and then of course the knockouts and the finals. And as far as safety protocols are concerned, getting back to that. So consultants are being roped in and also BCCI would put in place a medical team ready to move in and intervene if and when or I mean god forbid, but if some of the players or some support staff gets, I mean start showing symptoms or get, I mean there would be continuous testing through the course of the tournament. So in case medical intervention is needed that for that there would be a team in place as well. So in this context a couple of things. One of course is the question of the audience of the spectators as well. I understand that at least initially there's no plan to let spectators and audience in and secondly in this context also how considering the global scenario, how prepared do you think we are in terms of safety precautions and stuff because like you mentioned they have been one-on-one matches save England and West Indies for instance, but this is probably the first real tournament happening in cricket with so many teams at the same time. So we can because see in cricket yeah sure there was only bilateral series that has happened. Now as we I mean the England versus Ireland series is happening after that England versus Pakistan will happen. So but in others sport and the two contacts sport compared to cricket in football in Southeast Asia, Japan and Korea and all that baseball has started and football again started Chinese football league started last week where the entire pandemic thing began, sport has begun there. So and so there have been that's why BCCI is roping in experts from outside because people who have the experience of organizing big sport at a large scale. So when you look at the matches of the English Premier League or the Spanish League that took place or the German League and also now next week onwards the UFA Champions League the pending matches from the round of 16 onwards would begin. So all these are huge I mean in that sense the number of teams involved are large I mean larger than IPL if you look at the leagues football leagues. So norms have been established and it's just a matter of putting things in place and I mean bluntly put it just a matter of spending the money at the right place. So there is a huge reputation I mean I mean money is at stake for sure and also reputation of the game of BCCI as organizers of big sport it's all at stake here. So I'm sure the board and the IPL governing councils as well as individual teams would put in all the effort all the resources into ensuring that at least the protocols are set but as we know this disease I mean it doesn't follow any protocols of its own so it's always a risk there is always be risk factors. So IPL have put in contingency plans in place for such situations for instance changing of players. I mean there are 24 players that have been approved for a team plus whatever support team that that they would be entitled to and beyond that if at all through the course of some players test positive then they would be obviously quarantined, hospitalized or whatever and at the same time there is provision to replace those players but again it's not as simple as one player getting infected and because because things could escalate so that's a real risk that and let's see how it transpires because already things are put in place so we can only hope that no mishaps happen because I mean players getting infected and things going here where all this would ultimately cascade into a situation where the impact would reach everywhere including back home in India because that's how the finances of the cricket establishment or the IPL work so a cascading effect will happen and also that would deter other smaller sport in the country from starting so that's also a big deal because if Olympic disciplines such as athletics or boxing or big lifting or any any sport for that matter if they are modeling and then suddenly they are waiting and watching see let's see cricket is starting let's see how things transpire there and all that and if some mishaps happen then that would have an Indian sport on a larger scale as well. Thank you so much Leslie for talking to us. Our next segment is about the national education policy the NEP was approved by the government last week and proposes some major changes to education in India this is true of both the school and the higher education sectors in higher education perhaps the most significant measure is the merging of the UGC and the AICT to form the higher education commission of India. Other aspects of the removal of the MFIL degree greater scope for private players and the introduction of a four-year degree from which students can leave at any point. We talked to Abha Dev Habib the treasurer of the Delhi University teachers association on the implications of the policy and why teachers groups are opposing it. I wanted to begin by asking about the general direction or the general trend of this policy itself. We know that the right wing in India has been very keen on influencing education so that it can push its ideological agenda. So overall what is the direction of this policy? Yeah you know this the cabinet note which has been passed and which was posted on MHRD website only yesterday morning we saw it is based on 2019 draft education policy and we see that this policy document is going to lead to extreme centralization and commercialization of education and while in whatever is written may look like you know that we are moving towards something but finally the implementation will lead to extreme commercialization of education and that is why students and teachers have been opposing it and on the both 2016 draft inputs to draft new education policy 2016 and 19 there has been lot of agitation by students and teachers and a lot of feedback was given on the draft new education policy 2019. What we are finding extremely upsetting is that whilst universities and schools have been locked down because of the COVID situation the government is passing a very important document which is going to affect each and every household. This is not the time to push a new education policy you know it is very interesting that I was looking at one of the TV programs where they say that you know RTE Act 2009 will now be implemented from age 3 to 18 and this is a very big step and this is very good. I went to a TV program recording where ABVP person also claimed this and this was based on the document which was available in the public domain on the on the day our cabinet note was passed so something which was circulated was called NEP final for circulation okay this is 60 page document and rightly so on page number 29 8.8 clause it says that RTE Act will be implemented for all the children from age 3 to 18 and this looked like a you know a very important thing and yesterday I saw a RTE activist saying that in the final thing which is there on the MHRT website this clause has been dropped now this is how this government works on the day our cabinet passed there was this 60 page document which was circulated and that is the document which was with the reporters that was the document which even ABVP was quoting from and then on yesterday the MHRT site showed another document which was 66 page okay and that in clause 8.8 RTE word has been dropped completely the government is completely silent on what will happen to RTE Act will it be there at all or whether that has been also repealed and the whole idea that it will be there for all children from age 3 to 18 has been completely dropped RTE word has been dropped if you search the document for RTE so this is the gap and which this government will have even on the written document and what will be implemented okay so this is a you know I was aghast because no government should do this I mean how do people believe you if your documents can change overnight so the other key question to start with when it comes to higher education is there is a lot of major changes that have been proposed and one of the key changes is that the UGC that is the university grants commission which used to regulate higher education is being scrapped the all-india council of technical education is being scrapped and there's a new body that is going to be coming into place which is called the HECI now this comes along with changes in the structure of education itself the MFIL degree is going to be removed the bachelor's degree is going to become a four-year degree and students can opt out at any point of time and all of this has been given this progressive you know framework of its students having more choice but in reality what will be the implications see on the issue of repealing of university grants commission I want to say that this is not the first attempt and if you remember in UPS two time there was a higher education research bill which wanted to repeal and again you know club merge UGC AICT and the national teachers education council national council for teachers education into one body and that attempt was also stopped through the Rajasabha the bill could not pass through Rajasabha finally and in this Modi government also we see that an attempt was made even in 2018 to repeal all these bodies to bring them under again higher education commission of India and that was again shed because of the constant opposition of coming from educators and from across the country see the problem which we see is the single window of negotiation it is a case of extreme centralization and without saying that why just merging of these bodies will result in something better is beyond our comprehension there is no study to say why UGC has failed and what is needed to strengthen it it is important to find out the loopholes and see whether within the existing framework that can be done or not and we see that all these bills do not provide the earlier attempts also did not provide a framework of study to say how repealing them and replacing them will help to overcome the shortcomings which exist today on the four-year undergraduate program also I want to say that you know Delhi University has been treated as a lab for experiments and during UPA2 in 2013 four-year undergraduate program was imposed and a similar kind of framework where it said that students will have choice and the choice is that they can exit exit after one year or two years or three years or they can complete four years of undergraduate program and we see similar recommendations coming right now and I see that you know a few things here that if you have a common structure which allows multiple exit point then educators will tell you that this cannot be done because a framework the force work is made thinking about the length the duration of the coursework you cannot have such a flexible system it is possible that the university offers courses which are which run for a year which run for two years or courses which run for three years or four years but to have all of them together in one framework means that you have a very loose kind of coursework where you waste the time of the student and this has already we have experienced this in FIUP where the first year was made completely useless it was rendered completely useless and any certificate coming out of that certificate after first year exit would mean nothing in the you know for as far as employability is concerned it will not mean anything the two-year thing coming out of the same coursework would also not mean anything yet but the impact was that you were wasting a student's time when the student would have completed four years first two years were completely lukewarm settled with meaningless courses and this is the mistake which we are going to repeat again if we want the same forcework to give you multiple exit points so the one this is wastage the other thing which i want to say is that it is in these things you see that this document is actually about exclusion and not inclusion because if you have a framework which creates a hierarchy of degrees you know same coursework providing three different degrees i mean three different you know certificates or diploma and then a degree then the hierarchy you are setting up between these you know degrees which students can get and therefore over time the market will demand that the student should have completed four years if it was possible and therefore you will leave the certificate course coming out of the same coursework framework rendered useless you will also have second two-year diploma course coming out of the same structure useless and the three years so and also we look at the situation around us we see that you know today but when we calculate the expenditure towards education we should not only look at what the student is paying in terms of fees maybe in the public funded universities like delhi university jnu and all the student pays very less fee towards education but for delhi university you will also have to look at how much money the student spends in living in a city like delhi we have to understand that state universities have been sort of marginalized completely because their funding has been reduced the states do not have funds to give because the teaching posts have been kept vacant and therefore students have to leave their hometowns and come to a city like delhi and stay here now therefore the expenditure of the student in trying to live in delhi the expenditure towards rent towards food all that has to be seen as a family's expenditure towards education so when you are adding a fourth year and which will soon become a necessary thing you are asking parents to spend more towards education and therefore when students experienced FIUP and saw that the first year was completely useless and it is for this kind of year that the student is made to spend extra there was a revolt by the students and it is really you know what can I say I mean I didn't need that you know it is responding to the popular movement by students and teachers of delhi university that when BJP came into power in 2014 Smriti Irani as an education minister took the call and set aside FIUP for delhi university today they want to impose it on the entire country I want to understand with which what wisdom and also earlier it is during up to time whether it is about foreign universities whether about other bills it is along with the BJP that other people the left of course was opposing but even BJP helped to stop these bills today when they are running the government they want to bring the same draconian sort of policy on education but one thing which is a change scenario is the following that today when the parliament is not in session a big huge change is coming for the education sector at least in upa2's time the processes were there and we could enter those statutory processes as stakeholders we could voice our concern as a university community which we had a greater handle to voice our concern today that freedom has been taken away that's all we have time for today we'll be back with more news from the country tomorrow until then keep watching news click