Alright, with so much of discussion about the evolution of oscillator, evolution of amplifier, what has happened in the past, what has happened, what is going to happen in the future, let us now see what is happening in the present in our lab. So in this module which hopefully is going to be shorter than usual, we will talk about what is there in the lab, well inside this box, this is the one box amplifier, the name is Libra HE and it is from coherent, this is what we have in our lab, its input, well we will talk about input later, its output is 4 millijoule pulses, 800 nanometer modal wavelength at 1 kilohertz, so this is literally a black box, but fortunately it is a black box whose leads you can take off, so it is not a black box figuratively, so if you take the lid off and look from the top this is what you see, you see that the box actually contains more boxes, the first one is the oscillator, in our case we have a Vites oscillator from coherent, now this once again is a compact titanium sapphire oscillator, in this laser there are 2 parts, this side the side where Vites is written that is where we have this diode pump solid state laser which pumps the Ti sapphire laser which is on this side and this is a very compact design, very pretty much like the Maithai laser from spectrophysics that we had shown when we had visited our lab, this one gives the 80 megahertz output at 800 nanometer and the pulse energy is the natural, then this here is the amplifier, as you know the amplifier has to be pumped by another laser typically a ND-AG or NDL laser with some 100, 200 nanosecond full width of maximum, this is what it is, this I made a mistake here, the pump laser is NDL the name is evolution from coherent, but the full width of max is 150 nanosecond in this case not 250 nanosecond and this laser operates at 1 kilohertz that is what determines the repetition rate of the regenerative amplifier. And then we have also discussed that before the seed can go into the amplifier it must be stretched, the stretcher is here and the output of the region is really a chopped pulse amplified, but chopped pulse it has to be compressed this is where the compressor is. So it is really a very, very compact design and that is why in case the alignment goes wrong for some reason usually it does not, in case it goes wrong then to get the alignment back is not an easy task. So schematically this is what happens, the pump laser creates the excited state population in the titanium sapphire crystal inside the amplifier, the output oscillator is stretched and the stretched seed pulse is fed into it, into the titanium sapphire inside the region, output of region goes into compressor and after compression we get the uncharged narrow pulse that we want to work with. Now this is a schematic, but what we will try to do in the next 10, 15 minutes or so is that we will try to get at least a rough idea about the light paths inside this system. The figures that I have used here are all taken from the user manual of Libra IG. So this is another way of looking at it, what you saw earlier was really a photograph this is a schematic, well this is what it is, this is the first thing that happens for the two first, output of the titanium sapphire laser hits SM1. Now here the naming is systematic SM means a mirror in the stretcher, one means the mirror that comes first, two means the mirror that comes afterwards and so on and so forth. So as you see this one is SM1, this is a SBS, what could SBS be? It is a stretcher beam splitter. In our case we do not really take the beam out, but here in this stage there is an option, small amount of the beam can actually come out of this port. So you can take it out and use it for some other application, the limitation is that you cannot tune it. When it is inside, when the oscillator is used along with the compressor then it is not a good idea to keep changing the wavelength because there has to be an exact match between the seed and light within the region. So comes out hits SM1, SBS, SM2 and then goes to the stretcher grating like this okay and this here is what the grating looks like alright. Now what happens inside the grating? We have discussed it already in a previous module so we will not repeat. But one thing that we need is this is the input comes to the grating that is what we have shown here using the red light. Can you see what I have drawn here, can you see these lines, can you see the red line okay. So the red line comes in hits the grating then it hits this big circular concave mirror several times SM3 goes to SM4 does several round trips and finally from SM7 the output is obtained the chart output okay. Where is SM7 here do you see? This is SM7 right. So from SM7 oh but before that I want to say something. What is this? SPD, S for stretcher what is PD? No PD polarizer would be only a P. In fact there is a P here see RP that is region polarizer but this is SPD photodiode, photodiode. As we have said earlier it is very important to time the events right. So how will you time the events? The way it is done is by using different photodiodes in different places or by taking synchronous electrical outputs. In this case what happens is there is a photodiode, stretcher photodiode SPD behind the stretcher mirror 4 okay. And even though these are high reflectors it is they are not really 100% reflectors even if 99% is reflected and 1% bleeds through that is enough for the photodiode. So this photodiode captures the bleed through of SM4 and that output of the photodiode is used for timing the events alright. Now let us come back to the light. So we said that we were at SM7. From SM7 the chart beam goes to SM8, SM9. It is basically a periscope periscopic arrangement like this comes in here goes up and goes in this direction goes where to SM10 that is the last mirror in the stretcher. From SM10 where does it go? Now what should happen? Stretching is done right. What was the red beam now is chopped? Where should it go now? It should go into the region. How does it go into the region? You have seen so many designs now. The first one that we discussed in a lot of detail in one of the previous modules was one where the output of the stretcher went and hit the ticep fat crystal in the region is not it? And that being at Brewster angle reflected it. So that is what happens here as well okay. So region goes and here can you read what is written here? RTS what is that? Regen Ticep fat. T for titanium S for sapphire R for regenerative amplifier. And then of course you understand that it will be reflected and it will go into the cavity fine. But let us leave that for the moment. I will show you how it goes into the cavity. But before that let us first establish what the path of light is within the region okay right. So as you understand the evolution is the laser that is pumped for the region. What do you have in front of it? This is a mirror right. What you see here is a mirror photograph of which is taken from the top. And we are not going to go to the lab and open up the amplifier because I am a little scared to do that. We do not do it unless it is absolutely necessary. So this is what we want to do in detail. So see this what is written here? PM1 and now I think we are getting the hang of the nomenclature. M would be mirror, 1 would be number 1 first. What is P? Pump. That is very simple. So that is pump mirror 1. The first mirror that the pump beam hits. After that it comes this way actually. Do you see what this is? PL12. So this is you can if required you can increase or decrease the size of the beam. So it is sort of like a telescope okay. You take 2 lenses of different focal length okay and place them side by side. So that the focal points match. What will happen? You have this beam. Let us say this is where the focus is. The beam gets focused and then it is captured by this lens here. If the focal length of the second lens is smaller do you agree that the beam will go from a broader waist to a smaller waist? We must say like this. It has been focused here and then it goes out like this. Now the cross section will be only this much. Isn't it? So that is what is there L1 and 2. Then it comes to PM2. Then we have another one PL3. L is lens. Then PM3. Let us go one by one. So PM1 first hit. Then it has gone to PM2. PM1, PM2. And from PM2 it goes through PL3 to PM3. From PM3 it goes straight through the ticep air rod. And while doing that it goes through one of these mirrors. Since it will get covered I want you to read the name. What is this? RM3. RM3 is again dichroic mirror. It allows green light to go through. It is going to reflect red light completely. So it goes straight okay. Then it is dumped. So pumping of the region is done. Now let us see what the path of light from the region well within the region is. We are not talking about the seed. We are just talking about the region as a self-standing laser okay. What is the path? This is the path. So see PM1 sorry RM1. What is RM1? This one. What do you have after that? PC1. What would PC be? Pockel cell. First Pockel cell and here you have PC2. The second Pockel cell. And now we know why we have Pockel cells in the cavity to switch in and switch out. This here is a Pockel cell driver. Pockel cell driver means the electronics that that will okay tells the Pockel cell to work or not to work. Basically gives the voltage to Pockel cell okay. That is of course not in the Pockel cell driver cannot be in the path of the light. It is opaque okay. So from PM1 through the Pockel cell and I did not read something you can read here. What is this? RW what is that? Yes a region wave plate. So you can turn the polarization as required. So from RM1 it goes to RM2. From RM2 it goes to RM3. Remember that was RM3. And when it goes through RM3 then RM2 to RM3 is through the TICEF. Now if you look carefully do you see the crossover? Yeah crossover between the green beam light and the yellow light because the pump cannot be coaxial with the cavity then it can be a problem perhaps. So a little bit of angle is there. So it crosses it goes to PM3. Then from PM3 it goes to PM4. No what am I saying? RM. From RM3 region R4 region P is for pump. From RM2 it goes to RM3 through the TICEF crystal and by the way the TICEF crystal is at an angle. So we will come to that later. Then from RM3 what is there after this? What is RP? I told you region polarizer. So it goes through the region polarizer through the Pockel cell the second Pockel cell to RM4. From RM4 it goes to RM5. So now it looks like a W kind of thing. Soon the W will no longer be W. It will be something more than W. Triple U quadruple U something like that. From RM5 it goes to RM6 and that is the end of the cavity region cavity. It is a cavity now defined. RM1 to RM6 folded several times and the light passes through different optical elements. It has to pass through the gain medium of course but it also passes through this Pockel cell halfway plate polarizer. And the polarizer that is there is also at an angle that becomes important a little later. Now before going further now can you guess where the seed goes? The seed has come from SM10 and it has hit the region TICEF crystal. From there where will it go? To help you I can put it like this. This is how the TICEF is and the seed comes like this. In which direction will it go? Definitely something like this. So what happens is this is another bleed through and there is a region photodiode as well you see RPD. So that is the most important thing that is what you see on the oscilloscope. But now coming back to the original discussion. So this is where did you see the seed goes from the TICEF crystal to RM2. And then here alignment becomes very, very important because the path from the TICEF laser RTS to RM2 has to be exactly coincidental exactly the same as the path of the self-sustaining beam inside the laser. Otherwise it will not be able to do the round trip. Are you clear? So the self-sustaining laser the yellow lines that we have drawn that sort of defines the path and your seed, chirped seed must travel back and forth along that path. That is how it does the round trips. So it is essentially the same thing that we had discussed earlier the same figure that is there in the laser spectroscopy book. The difference is there for simplicity sake a straight cavity was shown. Here the cavities folded because if you fold the cavity you save a lot of space. Are you clear? Any question? Can I go ahead? Great. So one thing that I was taken a little unaware of because I forgot about it is this through the RM4 mirror there is a bleed. Bleed means 0.5% 1% of light getting through the mirror that is enough it is captured by this RPD the photo diode inside the region cavity and we see the output. We are going to discuss what we see. All right. Now it is doing round trips. Now you want to switch it out. How will you do it?  Now if you want to switch it out then Poker cell 2 has to go on and then from where will it get reflected? What is the polarizing optic after Poker cell 2? Look at the yellow line. This is Poker cell 2. It comes here while coming back PC2 gets turned on or maybe while going PC2 gets turned on 45 degrees rotation coming back 45 degrees rotation comes straight where region polarizer. So this polarizer is actually at a 45 degree angle or well not 45 some angle polarizer is not like so this is the direction of the beam polarizer is not like this it is like this. Right. So as long as the polarization of the light is such that it will go through there is no problem. Sorry it is like this. The moment you turn the polarization by 90 degrees it will now go off like this. So this is what happens. From region polarizer it goes to what is this called region mirror 7. It is still called region mirror it has not gone into the amplifier sorry compressor yet. Then it goes to region mirror 8, 9. See what happens is the heights may not be matched. The height at which the optics are well in stature and in the compressor and in the region they might be different. So when you want to change height I think now we are familiar with it we have to use something like a periscopic arrangement. Right. So it goes to these mirrors and then it hits CM1. What is CM1? CM1. Compressor mirror 1. Now the compressor starts and we have already discussed what happens inside the compressor. It gets compressed the amplified chirp beam and it goes out in our case it goes out in this direction. In some cases if you want the light to go out from here you need to have another mirror here. See CM6. We do not use CM6 it is not in place. So if CM6 is there then the light would go out in this direction. It all depends on how you want your experiment to be. In our case it comes out of this port and that is your 1 kilohertz amplified 4 millijoule uncharped 75 m to second beam. Right. Now if you look at the as we have said earlier also it is not just about light. It has got a lot to do with electronics. Time electronics to be more precise and you have seen that we use photodiodes to monitor the beam in different places of this contraption. And outputs are all here. From here you have to use the signals appropriately to give delays that are required to sustain the amplified operation. So we have discussed this once already but still let us look at the figure that is there in the users manual. To start with can you read whatever is written here. I just copy pasted from the manual. So first of all you have something that looks like a comb. That is your output of the oscillator. 80 megahertz so the pulses are very very close. Next what happens is you pump the amplifier. Right. This is the laser pulse of the pump laser 150 nanosecond. So what you want to do really is that you want to wait until this time. Because in this region more or less the intensity of pump is same. In fact I will go one step further and I will show you the gain. As we discussed in one of the previous modules the gain trails a little bit and persist a little longer as well. See in this region it is not horizontal of course but the change in gain is not so much. This is the region where you want to do the amplification. This is the time regime in which you want to do the amplification. So what you do is you introduce this delay one. Look at the output of the laser you see this delay one delay two and all that. This is delay one. So now well we do not have to go into close delay find delay and all that. This is where the amplification begins. So delay one is given to start amplification. Delay two is given to switch the pulse out. Right. And then this is what we had discussed earlier do you see this is what you see on the oscilloscope do not you. Build up of the region the seed being amplified in the region and then more or less near the maximum you switch it out and then you do not see the remaining part. And this is the pulse that is switched out. That concludes our discussion of oscillators and amplifiers. It has been quite a long journey but I hope that now the black box is no longer so black to us at least it has become a green box. We still do not want to play around and change things inside but even when we operate unless we know what is the meaning of what the meaning of this delay one delay two is we can make mistakes. So it is important to know what is going on here. So what I will of course not for the remote audience but for in house people I recommend that you read the manual and follow up on this you do not have to read everything because you do not really do everything you do not install the grating and all every day. But you should know what is what you should know the sequence of events you should understand how it is working. We stop here today in the next module we hope to talk about the next step the amplifier gives you a single wavelength 800 nanometer in this case of course it has its own bandwidth but it is not tunable. If I want tunability then I want to use something called an optical parametric amplifier. The problem of discussing optical parametric amplification is that it is a nonlinear optical process. So ideally we should talk about it only after we have performed a significant discussion of nonlinear optics but there are two problems to that first of all I am not really a nonlinear optics person. Secondly to do a thorough discussion of nonlinear optics that would require a long long time. So we will see what we will do perhaps we will discuss nonlinear optics without derivation only the functional parts that we need and we will see whether we can go ahead and talk about optical parametric amplification. As we will see most of the time we want to do a collinear amplification but then is for some applications it is better to have a non collinear amplification. So you do not want to use an OPA as such you want to use what is called a NOPA nonlinear OPA. So in the next two or three modules we hope that we are going to talk about OPA first with reference to the TOPA system that we have in our lab. And then what I really want to do is there is this nice discussion of NOPA in a review written by what a review they had built one by professor Umapati in current science few years ago maybe we will try and discuss that. So here we close the discussion on amplifiers.


Hi, I'm Matthew coast head dating coach and founder of commitment connection calm and in today's video We're going to talk about how to get out of the friend zone with a man Now getting in the friend zone sucks. I've been there most people what most guys that I know have been there some women that I know have been there and and really there's there's one specific thing that you need to do in order to get out of the friend zone and It'll get you somewhere. It'll either get him, you know admitting his attractiveness level for you, or it'll make him go I don't know if you know, I'm interested in that But either way you'll get somewhere and that's what you want to do if you're stuck in the friend zone and so there's kind of two ways to sexualize The conversation that you're having with a guy And the first one is to encourage him to pursue you By telling him that it's attractive and this kind of does two different things here the first one is it does kind of sexualize the conversation and the second one is That it's encouraging him to do things that a guy would do if he was interested in you More than just a friend and guys will do this for women, you know Just as friends and so when you kind of sexualize it a little bit it it kind of turns it into something more sometimes and so what you do here is Just like I said you you tell him it's attractive when he does something that's pursuing you So for instance, you might say did you just buy my coffee? That's hot Right, and so what you're doing is you're you're kind of taking it to a different place There, you know, you could be like oh, thanks a lot for buying my coffee, but when you're like did you just buy my coffee? That's hot. You know all of a sudden you're turning it into this sexual thing You know this thing where it's like whoa, you know, and if he's like hmm You know if he if you know he secretly likes you or you know, he wasn't really thinking about it before But now he is It could do a lot of good things for you and then the second one is just you know creating a sexual conversation But one that's not like coming on too strong But it's also kind of changing the way that you're having the conversation and So one way to do this would be to tell him That his butt looks good in the pants that he's wearing or you know Tell him that he looks good in whatever Like clothing like tell him that it's hot or you know something like that, you know But if you're like hey, your butt looks really good and and those pants, you know You're doing a couple things there when he's gonna be like whoa, wait a second, you know, she's staring at my butt You know like what what's good and she likes it, you know, and so you're giving him clues That can You know if he's wanting to move it to that level, but he's not really sure what to do and he's kind of waiting to see how Interested you are This is basically going hey, I'm interested, you know, I'm interested in something more and You can see where he'll take it from there So that's it for this video if you want more information on how to attract a quality man into a committed Lasting relationship go to my website at commitment connection calm and take my quiz I'm Matthew coast and I'll speak with you again soon


all know that the boar farm is by far the best method in this game in earning that tracking and skinning xp, it is utterly crazy, but it does require you to be somewhat around that same level of the boars, which is a level 45, or you need to be in a team to make the most out of it, well today guys I bring you a method in earning tons of skinning and tracking xp while playing solo, and you can do this easily if you are around that level of a 25 to a 30 and there after, how's it going guys my name is dpj and if you enjoyed the video leaving a like really helps out and if you like what you see and want to see more be sure to subscribe, ok so the way skinning works is pretty simple, the higher the enemy class in most cases the more skin next to you gets, but once you get to a level 70 the method today really starts and we will see you fly past that 100 mark and up to a 200 mark in no time at all, but you do need to get to a level 71st and a few tips I have in getting to that level 70 mark are straight forward ones, obviously the better the tools you have the more efficient it becomes, so do what you can to either buy or craft better tools, also you want to be farming in that area where your territories, standings, gathering speed bonuses are heist, then I'd probably say look for wolves, wild cats and boars, as these are most apparent closer to those towns, I mean you can hunt bigger animals like elk, but the most efficient way is obviously killing and skin more or less, yeah because the amount of wolves that are around, it just makes it way more efficient and faster for you, I mean yes you will get more from an elk, but by the time you're finding skin an elk you'll probably kill 15 or 20 wolves, so yes, I literally skin wolves outside of Monarch's bluff up to a level 70 and it wasn't too bad whatsoever, ok so when you reach that golden mark of a level 70 skin and tracking, this is where that skin and tracking XP starts to become a lot easier to earn, so you want to head into Cutlass Keys, and if you can fast travel to this point right here, the bridge of nowhere, if you can't you'll have to run down, from here head straight to the Bulwami Vell area, once you are within this area, there are tons of enemies here called Lush Hunt Pointers, these crazy locking dog-like creatures, these are a level 34, but they are super easy to kill, and these reward you amazing skinning and tracking XP when skinned, but these creatures require you to be a level 70, hence getting to a level 70 before heading here, Now these Lush Hunter Pointers reward you almost 670 tracking and skinning XP per one, but within this area there are wild cats and wild boars, these also give you 600 tracking and skinning XP, and they are also all over the place, so yes guys, do this until you get bored, but it is by far one of the better solo tracking and skinning XP farms in this game, again though, nothing really beats the boar farm, but that does require more from you, this is amazing for that solo player, so yes, I hope it helps you out, if it does, leaving a like really helps me out, if you're new around here and want to see more, be sure to subscribe and if you never want to miss a video upload, you can turn notifications on by hitting that bell button, but guys thanks as always for stopping by and hopefully I will see you on that next, one


So, what you saw just now, where some of the research level examples of mechatonic systems that we have built in our Suman-Mashruvala Advanced Microengineering Laboratory, ok. This mechatonic systems nowadays if you see are integral part of our life. Every single thing that we come across or in our day to day activities have some touch of mechatronics to it. If you take your clothes, for example textile industry has a lot of automation in it. You talk about food, you have packaging industry working there, having like a lot of mechatronics in it to quickly do the packaging with without like you know having any contaminations. Then there are this there is a manufacturing industry which is working to get a lot of these day to day life whatever you we use different objects and things that are manufactured by by using some kind of automation. So, this automation and mechatronics are like integral part of our day to day life and it is going to be in the future as we progress into the era of industry 4.0. Where this mechatronics has a lot of important role to play in many of the activities. Even the space exploration, aerospace, then biomedical engineering, you talk of these fields, surgeries like or health care applications. There are many many different kind of a fields where this this mechatronics systems are becoming ubiquitous. So, in this course what we are going to learn is basically integrated philosophy of thinking in electronics domain and mechanical domain together to develop and design these mechatronics systems. Let us hear some of the experiences of our of our past students who have taken this course now and now are in the different fields of their life. I am Siddharth. Find your B-Tech in Mechanical at IT Bombay. This course solidifies your intuition like no other and this is a paramount help when you design your own mechatronics systems. As we close to check, I built this two-wheel self-balancing robot. Hello, my name is Swapna and I'm a PhD student at IAT Bombay. In my experience this course has a very good blend of theory and lab work and the assignments and project work is so designed that it ensures that the knowledge gained during the course is applied to real-world relatable engineering problems. Hi, I took this course during my undergrad at IAT Bombay. Then I worked at SEDEMAC mechatronics in India. After that I pursued my master's from UC Berkeley and currently I'm working on partially autonomous vehicles in California. This course was exciting. It helped reaffirm my intentions of learning more in the mechatronics field. It's a wild course and parts of the course still come into handy while working, dealing with sensors, microprocessors, digital filtering and such things. The combined theoretical and practical exposure through the course improves understanding and helps in the retention of the course.  I'm Radha Lahuti, a fourth year student from Mechanical Engineering Department at IAT Bombay. I've completed this course Design of mechatronics systems. In the course we started with exploring various devices like printers, scanner, etc. looking at their components and all and then we went ahead to look at the general design process for a mechatronics system. We also learned quite a bit of microcontroller coding which we used in the project where we had to choose an objective and then design a complete control system and implement it using hardware. So the course has both theoretical and practical aspects to it and helps gain a lot of hands-on experience with dealing with mechatronic devices.


Good morning and welcome to the 15th meeting of the public audit and post legislative scrutiny committee in 2019. Can I ask everyone in the public gallery to please switch off or turn to silent your mobile devices? We received apologies from Anas Sarwar this morning. Can I welcome David Stewart, who is attending in his place? Item 1 is decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take items 4, 5, 6 in private this morning? Agree. Thank you. Item number two is another decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take consideration of a draft report on key audit themes in private at future meetings? I agree. Thank you very much. Item number three is the section 23 report on Scotland's colleges 2019. I'd like to welcome our witnesses to the meeting this morning, Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland, Mark McPherson, Senior Manager Audit Scotland and Mark McCabe, Audit Manager for Audit Scotland. I'm going to ask the Auditor General to make an opening statement. Thank you, convener. Today's report provides an overview of the college sector in Scotland, in particular college finances and the learning outcomes for college students. There was a small improvement in the overall financial position of Scotland's 20 incorporated colleges in 2017-18. However, colleges are operating in an increasingly tight financial environment. This sector-wide improvement marks significant variations between colleges with several facing particular financial challenges. The gap between colleges' income and expenditure is widening and 12 incorporated colleges are forecasting recurring financial deficits by 2022-23. Only two of these colleges had identified the actions needed to achieve financial sustainability. With the financial pressures on colleges, it's essential that they improve their financial planning. The Scottish Government has been increasing revenue funding for colleges over the past few years, mainly to cover additional staff costs arising from national bargaining. The latest funding allocation for 2019-20 will cover the additional costs of harmonising pay and conditions across the sector. Colleges face additional pressures in paying for cost of living increases and increases in employers pension contributions. The Scottish Government capital funding also falls short of the estimated costs of maintaining the college estate. Despite these financial challenges, the sector continues to exceed targets for learning activity in student places.  Colleges are widening access to disabled ethnic minority and care experience students, but after several years of increasing learning delivered to students from deprived areas, the proportion fell slightly in 2017-18. There's considerable variation across colleges and student outcomes. Attainment gaps still exist for students from the most deprived areas, students with disabilities and care experience students. Average attainment rates for students in full-time education have remained relatively static in recent years and remain some distance from the Scottish funding council's targets. We think that achieving some of those targets will be very challenging. Finally, the funding council could do more to work with colleges and their boards to improve financial planning and transparency in the reporting of performance information, including student satisfaction data. As always, convener, we're happy to answer the committee's questions. Thank you very much indeed, Auditor General. I'm going to ask Dave Stewart to open questioning for the committee. Thank you, convener. Good morning and thank you for coming for the committee again. I'm really interested in seeing how we can get more young people and indeed people of any age from disadvantaged areas into colleges. In your report, you make it clear that colleges are not meeting the Scottish funding council target of 17.4 per cent of students from the bottom 10 per cent disadvantaged areas. They failed to meet that target. Why is that? Will they meet the target that is, I think, 20 per cent for 2020-21? It's important to say that we think that colleges are doing a lot to try to meet that target and to widen access. I'll ask the team in a moment to give you more of a sense of what's happening across Scotland and how colleges are learning from it. You're right that we say in our report that we think it will be hard for colleges to meet the target of 20 per cent by 2021. That's for a couple of reasons. First of all, the demographic pattern of Scotland overall means that there are fewer young people in this age group. That's available if you like to fill the college places that are available. At the same time, the Scottish Government has got a wider policy of increasing their participation in higher education. More young people are going on to university with support to do that, which may have previously remained in further education. There's a real contextual picture that makes it harder for them to do it. Mark, do you want to say a bit more about what colleges are doing to help? It's about making sure that there's an appropriate package of support available for students from those more difficult backgrounds or deprived areas. Examples will be given in the report that include things like helping with travel to get to college, which has always been a bit of a barrier for people who've come from low-income backgrounds. It's very practical steps like that. The other question is why this trend was reversed, because in earlier years we were going in the right direction. So why you've mentioned some possible reasons, but why in the most recent year that you report we've gone backwards? I think the short answer is that the reasons aren't absolutely clear. We show the trend in Exhibit 12 on page 23 of the report, and there had been a slowly increasing trend over the three years before that. It then dipped very slightly last year in 1718, and that leaves quite a big gap three and a half per cent up to the 20 per cent target in three years' time. The funding council is looking at the reasons with colleges, but I think it's not possible for us to give you a clear answer to that picture. My final question is that this is not a zero-sum game in the sense that higher education is good for education bad. Clearly we're not making naive comments about that, but you tend to suggest that there might be a little bit squeezing going on because there's targets for higher education that might be affecting the demand for further. Is there anything in that? And then there's some issues around funding which have been raised before on this issue. I think there's two things I'd say. One, you're absolutely right. It's not that higher education is better than further education or vice versa. The question is what's right for the individual young person, for their own skills and talents and aspirations, and how is that best supported by our wider education and skills system? We say in the report that the funding council should review whether its targets are achievable in the context that we've just been describing. I think there is a bit of a risk of competition between higher education institutions and further education colleges for the same young people that runs the risk that those people's needs aren't what's front and centre of what's being put forward. More joining up is required. Mark might want to add a little bit to that. There's really just a point of clarification that of course colleges will be absolutely clear that they provide both further and higher education. So I think it's a distinction between the institutions as the auditor general highlighted towards the end of our comments about the college versus university that might be detracting some of the passage of people. Of course the general point, convener, is that although we've mentioned young people, clearly we all believe that lifelong learning is important so we're looking at adults, people of any age, we want to encourage them to further education particularly from the bottom 10 per cent of our most disadvantaged areas. We do say in the report that I'm just fumbling through the pages and the team will keep me straight that we've now seen a reversal of the pattern that we saw five years or so ago of many fewer older learners and part-time learners in further education because of the Government's priority to encourage young people to study for qualifications that would lead to employment. So we're now seeing that shift reversing again but you're right, the further education system is very important to older learners particularly as we enter a world of much longer working lives and rapid technological change that means we all need to stay up to date and reskill from time to time. Thank you. Just to follow on question from Dave Stewart, students who have been in care have the lowest attainment rates but they were the only group where attainment has actually fallen. Are you aware of any kind of support that the colleges are providing for these students? You're absolutely right about the figures and Exhibit 16 sets out all of the groups of students with particular characteristics where there is a priority to increase their attainment levels. Students who have been in care have both lower attainment levels on average and that dips like in 2017-18. Mark, are you able to say something about what colleges are doing to close that attainment gap? I think it will be similar to what I said about those from more deprived areas, a package of support but inevitably I think sometimes those packages of support will be much more complex. It's probably worth noting that those students who have been in care do represent a relatively small proportion of the student population although that shouldn't detract from an impetus to try and improve the outcomes for those students. I know that the funding council and colleges are definitely aware of that issue. Do you have any evidence that colleges are finding it more difficult to provide that package of support given the squeeze on their funding? I don't think that we have any specific evidence on that but you're right to say that there is a squeeze on funding and the financial pressures that are coming will require them to make some very difficult decisions about how they provide what they provide. That may be a question for perhaps a session after this. Colin Beattie. General, I've got three main areas that I'd like to run through. I would make a general comment though that this report seems remarkably like the previous one with the same pressures and the same issues arising. Would you agree on that? I think so. The committee will know that for both the college sector and the NHS sector we produce a report every year that pulls together the results of the audits of all of the bodies in that sector. In some ways I think it would be quite surprising if we saw a massive shift from one year to another but we try to give you a sense of the trends that we're seeing. The trends here in broad terms are that the financial pressures are increasing and that colleges are still doing a pretty good job of delivering what they're expected to in that context with some exceptions that we've pulled out here. I'd like to look at Alff's page 11 on your report. When that also set up it was accepted that a lot of the money that went into them was already earmarked so it's not surprising that the total value of the Alff's has gone down. What did concern me a little bit and maybe you can help me with this, it looks like the income that colleges are getting from sources other than SFC has actually reduced. Is that so? Is there any indication as to why? Are they taking their focus away from developing that alternative source of funding? Are they becoming more reliant on the SFC? You say there's financial pressures, you think they would be continuing to try to bring in their alternative sources of income? Exhibit 1 in the report gives you a picture of where their income came from in 2017-18. Almost 75% does come from the Scottish Funding Council and that's an increasing proportion. About 16% comes from tuition fees and education contracts that they're bidding for to win and just under 10% comes from a range of other sources. You're right, the other sources are reducing and we think colleges are finding it harder to generate income in those ways, partly as Mark said a moment ago just because the pressure on the resources in general makes it harder to identify and follow up those opportunities and partly because the slow growth of the economy overall means that there are fewer of those opportunities around that are available for colleges to seek. That's obviously a sector-wide pattern but there will be greater variation for individual colleges and it's one of the things we'd like to see the Funding Council taking clear account of as it looks at the long-term forecast for individual colleges and for the sector as a whole. Leaving aside tuition fees, what was the main source of alternative funding for the colleges? Tuition fees and education contracts together are the 16%. Education contracts tend to be where colleges bid for a contract to provide education and training either to a large employer or a group of employers or one of the examples that we're using here to provide education to the prison service which Fife council won last year. So it can be a range of different things but that's the kind of contracts we're talking about. That's the only source of income they've got. Mark, it's looking to come in. They might have other sources through releasing their facilities for, for example, hopefully low-cost community use but for other businesses or services to make use of the facilities when they're not using them. Equally catering contracts within the college could be another source of income. OK. Just to move on. The report, as you've very highlighted, indicates that the college sector has a small but improved underlying financial surface. But you say that colleges are operating within an increasingly tight financial environment and that the sector by position masks certain challenges for some colleges. Can you expand on that statement a little bit about the challenges that are being faced? Certainly. I think that there's two elements I'll pull out and the team may want to add to this. First of all, for the sector as a whole, the Scottish Government has been providing real terms increases in funding over the last three years, since 1617 I think. But their small real terms increase and in the latest budget that's been agreed it's only sufficient to cover the additional costs of harmonising pay and conditions for staff. At the same time, we know colleges are facing additional pressures from the cost of living agreement that's just being finalised at the moment from increased employer contributions to the pension schemes and maintenance costs which aren't fully covered by the capital budget that's available. So those pressures are baked in for the sector as a whole. Beneath that individual colleges face different financial pressures and are in different financial positions. We try to give you a picture of that in Exhibit 6 which summarises a range of financial indicators for all 20 of the colleges. There's a lot of variation in there but we highlight in the report three colleges that are facing particular challenges and I think it's fair to say also that the more remote rural colleges also tend to be finding it harder than those that are in more urban areas. I think that this question of rural colleges has come up before and has been discussed as an issue particularly with the Highlands area. Is there any sign of improvement there? Is there any indication that they've come up with some sort of a magic formula that will fix this? I don't think we've got a magic formula. I think it's probably that the UHI is still working as the region to agree how the work will be carried out and shared across the region. We highlight particular pressures facing North Highland College in the report and I think Mark is looking to give you a bit more flavour of what we're seeing within the region for those colleges overall. I think that the regional body in terms of UHI provides support for those colleges and it's trying to minimise the problems on any individual institution by sharing funding across the various colleges to support their own individual sustainability because they all have very localised challenges and they seem to be making some progress with that and we highlighted that in our report last year. We've neatly moved into the third question that I was going to be asking about, which was about the financial challenges because at the time of the audits of the 12 colleges only two had identified specific actions to deal with these financial challenges. Has there been any improvement on that, any update on that or are we still in a position that most of the colleges haven't actually come up with a formula? Our report clearly is a snapshot at a particular point in time. I'm not sure if Mark can give you any more information that we've picked up as the report's been finalised. Certainly the funding council has been working with colleges and they've gone back to colleges and asked them to identify some of the mitigating actions that will help them address the forecasted deficits that they have in place. We've seen at a very high level some of the actions that colleges are starting to think about and put in place. We'll not be until we do annual audits again this year that we'll see exactly how much progress they've made in terms of agreeing them and starting to implement them to make a difference. Are we confident that the remaining 10 colleges are at least taking initial steps towards addressing this? Have they understood their situation and are they actually moving down the road of coming up with some sort of a plan? That would seem to be the case if looking at the reports that the funding council have been producing. They've all identified some mitigating actions as we say. It's not until we do the audits this year that we'll get a clearer sense of just how well developed they are and how much progress is being made against them. Mitigating actions isn't really an action plan to take you through, is it? No, and that's one of the points that we're stressing in the report, is that as well as getting the forecasts from colleges, we're asking the SFC to also get the medium-term financial plans to back them up so that we have greater assurance that, as well as just identifying the position they're going to be in, that they have a much more robust process in terms of addressing those deficits. Has the SFC agreed that recommendation? Yes. You have. Dave Supplemential on this point from Dave Stewart. Thank you, convener. Can I just take you back to Colin Beatt's point about UHI? You'd be aware of UHIs within my region, and I'm a very strong supporter of UHI. Another factor that's perhaps on the risk register is the important reliance on European structural funds within UHI. For example, European social fund has been really important in that area. I'm reluctant to raise the Brexit word today, but clearly as if we exit Europe, we are going to see the ending of this funding probably around 2021. Have you looked at that particular aspect specifically for UHI, since it's an important factor for external financial raising within that network? We say a little bit in the report about the potential impact of Brexit on the college sector as a whole. Clearly, as you know, it will vary across Scotland. You might know that the funding council prepared a paper, I think, at the end of last month, which was looking at the impact on colleges in more detail than we've been able to do. That's something that we'll feed back into next year's audits. From our experience, it's particularly the University of the Highlands and Islands and some of the colleges in the west of Scotland that have benefited from that funding in the past. It's in everybody's interest to know as soon as possible what the impact might be and how far the Scottish Government will be able to replace that funding depending on the agreements with the UK Government. I'm more at a comment rather than at a question. I'm obviously aware that the UK Government is looking at a future shared prosperity fund, which, in theory, would back up the current funding that's there. Much as I'd love to see that happening, I cannot envisage that the total package of structural funds is going to be replaced in the internality by UK funding. If it happens, I'm happy to say that I was wrong, but in terms of the financial aspect of this, I do see this as a major risk for the sector post 2021. I completely recognise the concern. I think that there's not much more that we can say at this stage, but it's something that's on our radar. Thank you. Bill Bowman. Thank you, convener. Good morning. You probably know that we've spoken before about the need for reliable data. Last year, we raised concerns that colleges were using different assumptions when they were preparing their financial forecasts. In their oral evidence to the committee, the Scottish Funding Council said that it was addressing this issue, but your report indicates that although colleges did apply the SFC's common assumptions, they interpreted their accounts directions inconsistently. Did the colleges not know what they were doing, or did they know what they were doing in trying to achieve an outcome? Did the SFC know what was going on, and did they do something about it, and did they think that at the end of the day they would pull the wool over your eyes? I think that there's two different things in that question that I'll try and unpick and then let the team come in from there. The committee's attention, I think, last time was very much on the question of how the forecasts were being prepared with common assumptions, and we think there's been good progress there. All of the colleges used the common assumptions in preparing their forecasts with one difference at the end, which goes back to the answer that Mark McCabe gave a moment ago to Mr Stewart. Some of the colleges prepared their forecasts and included the effect of the mitigating actions that they were planning to take, so it came out with a net position for where they expected to be. Other colleges prepared their assumptions without the mitigating action, so on the basis that nothing changes from the status quo. The SFC, we understand, is dealing with that for next time round, but it's progress that they're all prepared on a common basis to start with. I think what you were referring to at the end of your question was the comment that we make in paragraph 5 of the report about calculating the underlying financial position at the end of the financial year. You're right in that case, the accounts direction was applied inconsistently across the country. We've made a recommendation this time that in future that process should be completed before the annual audit is done, so that the figures can be adjusted if necessary to make sure they're consistent and the annual outturn will be shown on a consistent basis across Scotland. Do they know what the correct position is now as somebody has gone back and looked at it? We've looked at it and I'll ask Mark to talk you through where it goes from there. This is the second year that the calculation for underlying position has been in the accounts direction. We highlighted last year that there were difficulties, which you would expect when there was a new calculation being introduced. The funding council revised the guidance to make it clearer for completing for 17-18, but we still did see that colleges were interpreting it slightly differently. In some cases, the what's in and what's out can be quite complex, and it's down to how they account for things like depreciation and interest on pensions. The funding council, when they've been validating that, have made some adjustments across a number of colleges. As the auditor general says, what we're suggesting is that next year, before that figure is finalised, the funding council works much more closely with colleges to make sure that issue doesn't arise and that the figure is agreed before the accounts are finalised. No, it's useful, but does the funding council have a compliance approach to make sure that people are doing what they expect them to do? Well, they certainly set the direction and then they validate how that direction has been followed in effect, checking that they are compliant. Liam Kerr. Thank you, convener. Good morning. I'd like to turn to the capital funding, which is something that I recall raising last time. The committee last year raised concerns about the £27 million cost of the very high priority repairs. Are you able to tell me how those repairs—those are the repairs, if I recall—have to be done within one year of the last report? So, £27 million has been allocated. Has £27 million actually been spent on the very high repairs and have they been done? What we can tell you, Mr Kerr, is that the £27 million was allocated for those particular repairs and the funding council is monitoring whether the money was spent as planned. We can't yet give you that assurance that it was spent on exactly the projects and the needs that were agreed, but the SFC is monitoring that and we should have the information for the next year. Someone else is going to speak now? Oh, sorry. Coming out from the very high priority items to the general backlog of repairs, which was quite considerable last year, your report indicates that reduced capital spending creates a risk that the cost of urgently needed backlog maintenance increases, which in turn poses a challenge to the college's ability to deliver their services in a safe environment. How great a risk is that and what happens if it isn't addressed in practice? Just to give you a sense of the scale of the challenge, Exhibit 8 on page 16 aims to capture that in a sort of graphical way that shows it clearly. If you look at the top half of the page, the blue boxes for each year is the amount of capital allocation that's available for general capital funding as opposed to big new projects like the 4th Valley Campus. You can see that it's relatively small, around £20-25 million every year. A jump up last year, as you say, to focus on the very high priority backlog maintenance and then for £1920 back down to £21 million. The bottom half of the page gives a sense of what the estimated costs are of the backlog maintenance, £77 million for backlog maintenance and £22 million for life cycle maintenance. In 1920, about £20 million of that total is covered by the capital that's available, so it's a small element. It's worth noting that that's really only for maintaining the quality of the estate in terms of your question. It doesn't take any account of the need to be investing in particularly digital infrastructure that will be needed to keep college's ability to deliver the learning and teaching that they're responsible for up to date as we move into a world which is much more reliant on digital skills and digital technology. Perhaps sticking with that then, so your report then goes on to say that various bodies, the Scottish Government, the Scottish Futures Trust and the SFC are looking to identify an appropriate revenue funding model to make that investment, presume me to cover that £77 million and the digital transformation or something like that. Can you tell me what stage that work is at and also one of my Daft Ladi questions, why is that a revenue funding and not a capital funding? I'll ask the team in a moment to update you on where they've got to with it, but as you know the Scottish Government's ability to spend capital is limited. It's always had a capital allocation within the block grant from the UK Government which it can spend on capital investment and it's now got new borrowing powers for capital under the Scotland Act 2016 powers that came in, but both of those are limited and have to be used for everything the Government's responsible for. Over a long period Governments of all colours have been looking at ways of spreading the cost of capital investment through the revenue budget, originally through the private finance initiative, then later through the Scottish Government's non-profit distributing model and the hubco models that work through the Scottish Futures Trust. There are all variations on the sort of mortgage that you and I might take out where you can make payments over a long period, but you get your capital asset up front. We've seen the NPD used widely in the health service and in schools, the Governments asked the funding council and the Scottish Futures Trust to look at whether they can develop an appropriate model to achieve the same thing for colleges. Mark, are you in a position to update on progress between the funding council and the Futures Trust? I think all I can say is that it's still early stages, it's clearly a difficult topic for them to wrestle with, but they are in discussion. Graham, thank you. Willie Coffey. Good morning. I'd like to ask three questions if I may. This morning one on your broad recommendations, Auditor General, another one on the asset position that the colleges seem to have doubled their assets in the recent period and a third question if I may on the Ayrshire College situation. Firstly, on your recommendations, when I read through them, it's as almost as if I could have read these some time ago. Is there a sense that the colleges aren't delivering on these types of recommendations or are they making some progress? I note that they're about financial planning, they're about data collection for student satisfaction, they're about performance reporting, they're about outcomes for students from the less-favoured areas, let's say. So I could have read these in one of your reports a few years ago, so where are we in the kind of progress with these kinds of issues and recommendations? I think we are seeing progress. I think for most of these, the recommendations this year are about taking the next step or about fine-tuning. So where Mark McCabe was answering Mr Bowman's question a moment ago about the way colleges calculate and publish their underlying financial position, we've now got that information in the accounts, there are common assumptions to be used. The recommendation this year is about doing that earlier so that the accounts are audited after that's been done rather than before or the verification process happens there. The same on the information about satisfaction and college performance. There is information available that wasn't available before and we think there's room to make it more useful and more transparent. So it's about continuing to nudge improvement in that way, I think, over time. Do you get sense from the funding council, the Scottish Government and the colleges themselves that they are positive in their response to these recommendations or do they take a bit of time to digest this stuff and come back to you and hopefully to us? A bit of both, I think. I think we are genuinely seeing progress on this and there are some things that have maybe taken a bit longer than we might have expected in the first place but these are definitely moving in the right direction. OK, thank you. The next question I have is on page 10 of your report. It shows us there that the net asset value has more than doubled in the recent period, I think it will be on the last year, from £230 million to £484 million. I was hoping that you could help us either now or at some later stage to break down an explanation of where that additional money has come from and be able to provide it on a peer college basis. What I can say in headline terms is that it's probably not quite as good news as it might appear in just looking at the graph. It's mainly accounting re-evaluations. So we say in the text on the right hand side that of the increase, the £254 million increase, £240 million as that was a result of re-evaluations of pensions and of buildings, which are simply a sort of paper transaction to put the figure into the accounts. I think that Mark can probably give you a bit more information about the picture behind that and what's happening for individual colleges. As the Audit General said, pension re-evaluations are in the main accounting for that and there was a full re-evaluation done and that's been across the board. There's also a small amount that was due to the re-evaluation of buildings in a couple of colleges that stood out particularly, but as the Audit General said, that is very much an accounting increase in terms of the net asset position. That's only one indicator of the wider financial health and that's why we're presenting a range of different financial health indicators there. So it's not really disposable in the sense that the college is. It's notional. Correct. OK. Thanks. Could I ask the third question please if he doesn't mind on the situation of Ayrshire College? You mentioned in page 14 Auditor General, as you know Ayrshire College still faces this millstone PFI round the neck. I think it's the only college remaining in Scotland that still has this liability and I think from your figures there we're looking at a payment of £1.4 million being required each year until 2024-25. I note also in your commentary there that the college had to introduce a voluntary severance scheme of almost the same value, £1.3 million. My question to you is what is the value in spending money on severance rather than investing in the staff and services for the students at a college? I know a severance scheme is a one-off cost but it has a recurring impact. Where is the real value in doing this kind of thing rather than supporting services at the colleges? I think we can give you a broad answer to that but if you want to explore it further that would clearly be a question for the funding council and the college. But you're right, as we say in the report, the college faces a number of cost pressures but the most significant is the annual cost of its PFI contract. That is £1.4 million a year for the next six years which is a significant element of its budget. It's working closely with the funding council to try and resolve that. The funding council has agreed its two-year financial sustainability plan with additional funding to help address that. Part of that is about funding a voluntary severance scheme. I'm not sure it's possible to make a direct link between the need for voluntary severance and the PFI scheme. We say earlier in the report that of all the colleges with action plans to address their deficits, most of them are considering voluntary severance schemes. Part of that is to do with changes in the way colleges go about delivering learning and teaching and the mix of subjects that they teach and the students that they're serving. They will, from time to time, look to change the make-up of their staff in that way. But you're absolutely right, that's a particular pressure on Ayrshire College which is having to take account of and is working closely with the funding council to do. Can you recall, we mentioned this at one of our previous meetings, convener? I think that the West Lothian College had a PFI business, perhaps the second-last PFI that was bought out by the previous executives. I understand that circumstances may change, but it seems odd to me that that particular one was bought out, presumably with the agreement with the funding council at the time, but this one still sticks as a milestone around Ayrshire's neck. My understanding is that you're right that the West Lothian College contract was bought out with support from the funding council. I don't know the reasons why that's not possible or appropriate for Ayrshire College, but I think that it's something that the committee may want to explore with the funding council. Being ahead Ayrshire College, I've said to me that they're quite confident that they have their financial plans in place and that they'll be able to meet the savings that are identified, but this is a real difficult situation that only Ayrshire are facing and I think that's very, very unfortunate. That's correct, thank you. We covered this last year in your section 23 report that the real-term increase in college funding is only going as far as to cover the staff harmonisation costs. Is the finances of college sustainable, given that the money is only covering that staffing cost? The financial forecasts that colleges produce are five-year forecasts, which is what we would see as being medium-term. Over that period, as we say in the report, 12 are forecasting recurring deficits and only two at the time we reported had firm plans in place to deal with those recurring deficits. Over a longer period, those challenges may well become more difficult depending on what the overall level of Scottish Government funding looks like. We've seen the Government's latest fiscal outlook. That's recognising the pressures there are on the overall Scottish budget and it's not unreasonable to be making a link between that and the finances of the college sector. I think that it's something that you may want to explore with the funding council. Thank you very much. Can I turn to the issue of female representation on the colleges governing boards? We see from your report that the number of female students has increased. I think that we have more female students in our colleges now than we have male. The number of women on boards has fallen. We have lost four female board members across the country. Can you comment on that? You are correct. In paragraph 36, we show that women made up 43 per cent of board members across the country. The number of women fell by four during the year and the number of men increased by 12, which is what accounts for the difference there. The back drop to that is obviously the Government's legislative commitment, the statutory commitment now to have 50-50 by 2022. It's important to note, though, that the make-up of college boards isn't only a matter for colleges themselves, as well as the members who are appointed to the boards. There are also elected representatives, particularly representing staff and students, and that's not something that colleges can control directly. It's a trend that has started to go in the wrong direction rather than the right one. Do you think that colleges are doing enough, or do you think that there needs to be more support from elsewhere to improve the situation? I'm not sure that I'm in a position to give you an answer on that at the moment. I think that it is made more complicated for this sector because of the election of representatives. I think that it's something that reflects society more generally rather than just the college sector. The funding council is aware of it. It has a range of priorities that it's trying to make progress with. Thank you very much. Do members have any further questions for the Auditor General and her team on this report this morning? Thank you very much indeed for your evidence. I now move the committee into private session.


Another attack on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line as terrorists invade Giddan rail station. And the People's Democratic Party wants to distort President Buhari's achievements and to misinform Nigerians. This is coming from Minnesota information, Al-Hajjil-Lai Muhammad. Business Plus Politics and I am Kofi Bartels. Bandits have launched yet another attack on Giddan station on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line. The attack occurred shortly after the entourage of the minister of transportation Rotimi Amici passed through on their way to Rijana to conduct an inspection to determine the extent of the damage caused by the attack that occurred on Monday night. According to reports, a police car was set on fire while the Nigeria Railway Corporation personnel stationed in the area had to flee for dear life. It was also lashed that the terrorists blew a rail track and disrupted the movement of a train heading to Abuja. Security personnel were however able to bring the situation under control. Joining us to discuss this is former Senator Shehu Sani who represented the Kaduna Central. Joining us to discuss this is Senator Shehu Sani, former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District. Sorry, let me take that again.   Keep going, keep going, keep going. No, no, no. Go. Joining us to discuss this is Senator Shehu Sani, former Senator representing Kaduna Central. Senator, thank you very much for your time and thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. All right. Are you surprised at the fact that we've had a second attack by these people we're calling terrorists in under 24 hours? Well, I cannot be surprised and I'm not surprised because the bandits have been operating freely between Kaduna and Abuja and the large expanse of land, the Savannah land between Nigeria and Kaduna State have simply become their operational base. All right. Senator, are you there please? The attack on Kaduna Airport rather at the very day they attacked the train, in the daytime they ransacked and sacked about 40 villages within the Kaduna Niger vicinity and thousands of people have moved to the jerry town which is next to Abuja as refugees and as such they hold so much attack on the Zuba barracks which is in Sulayja in Nigeria State. So they have been operating freely and the government, I would say, the war, they moved in droves of 233 motorbikes all in 1847 and they have been achieving all their goals, one of which was deploying up the rail track and we shouldn't be surprised that this was the second time this rail track was attacked. The last one in October last year which I happened to be one of the passengers they attacked the rail line but by the grace of God we escaped and since then the government has not taken any serious measure other than repairing the rail track. The trains doesn't have sensors that will detect whether an explosive was in the object's side of it. So they have been using, initially they have been using cows, a guard's cattle, to block the rail track but when they found out that couldn't hold by the trains they resorted to the use of explosives. So I wasn't surprised because up to today the government has not been able to succeed in in exterminating the group that have been unleashed by him within Kaduna and Nigeria State. You can recall that this was the same group that learned attacks and killed and kidnapped students of Grimfield University. They also kidnapped a student of Ferriere College of Forestry. They also kidnapped the Baptist, Bethel Baptist School in Kaduna. So they have been operating and up to today there has never been any action in terms of taking the war to the comes of the terrorists. Indeed, it's well documented that you narrowly, Senator Shea Osani, escaped with your life last year about six months ago when Vamdon was taken in that initial terrorist attack on the Kaduna Abuja rail track. Are there any similarities? Can you relate, when you've listened to the accounts of those who were victims, the survivors, can you relate with some of the things that they have been sharing with us as their experience from Monday night? Well, it would interest you to know that the attack happened in the very spot, the very spot, the last attack happened in October. It also happened to the same train that was scheduled to move in the 9th train, 6 p.m. 9 train. So almost everything is the same. The difference is that this one was tragic. It was successful on the hands of the terrorists. They have been able to kill, to injure and to kidnap people. The last one, it was impossible because somehow the train engineers, the drivers of the train, managed to move the train to the next station. But this time they succeeded. In a serious conflict, when what happened last October actually happened, what's supposed to have been done, what has been to make sure that necessary steps are taken in terms of protecting the rail track. And the very spot where this explosion happened. It's known by everyone to demand its routes. That's why they always move from Kedunat to Zafarashting. So we have not done what we need to do as a country, and security agencies have not done what they need to do. We couldn't have been here. If you Google, you will see that there was once a promise where a plane had been made that helicopters of the Nigerian Air Force would be used to escort the trains, which they started at a certain point it was abandoned. So no one can say that this is unexpected. Rather it was an avoidable tragedy. Would you say to the fact that just about 24 hours after the attack on Monday night, we woke up to hear of another attack on Tuesday on the same rail track in the same Kaduna state? That is what I'm telling you. From our own sources, what I say like this, what they did was simply the beginning. And it's the same group, the same group that attacked the train. It's the same group, the large attack at the Gidam station. So it has always been the case, the large attack in Gidam, and then people have to seek for way of communicating with them to pay ransom and get their own out. When have you heard, when have you heard that our security forces have ever rescued the hostages that were kidnapped within Kaduna and Niger Aziz? It never happened. So and you wonder, Kaduna and Niger Aziz are not a mountainous area. They're also not creeks. It's a flat land in Savannah. And how can, how can two, three hundred people on motorbikes, be moving in a plain land and we don't have the technology or the intelligence to detect these people and take the war to them? That is, that is very unfortunate. Answer, there's need to be answered. All these billions we are spending on security, we can't, we can't establish road stations and spillage up to monitor Kaduna, that is, I don't understand what we are doing. We cannot fight 21st century criminality with a 21st century strategy. All right. Senator, these groups of people you've talked about, of course, the Bethel Baptist kidnapping and attacks. You've talked about the Greenfield School attacks and all that. We've been hearing about, about bandits. We've heard about Kadol Russells. We've had about kidnappers in the Northwest and part of Nigeria. We previously have not really had a lot about terrorists. How come we've now moved from bandits to terrorists? Who are these people? You are a former senator, represented the people of Kaduna Central. So you are well aware of what's been happening.  So what's really going on in Kaduna State? Does this have anything to do with the farmers, headers issues with attacks, you know, on locals and so on and so forth? You know, with the conflict in Southern Kaduna and villages being ransacked, does this have anything to do with that? Well, it's important we try to understand the difference between these three. Farmers, headers, crisis or conflicts are conflicts between people who rear cattle and also farmers on their lands. So that one is known. Headers are headers. They have cattle and they move around and in the process they get confrontational with farmers because their cattle would feed on the farm products. Now, that is a different issue. And they are only, and their own is not about Kinnabin only. They have a political agenda and they have a religious ingredient of their own, and also recruit people to join them. But it's not recruit people to join them. They have their targets that they want to achieve. And terrorists are out to establish an Islamic State in Nigeria. But bandits are simply there for monetary reasons. They kill, they kidnap, they extort ransom. So it's good we try to differentiate between the two. But all of them are criminals and are also terrorists. But it's good to understand bandits who are there for financial reasons for their own is about extorting money and also terrorists who have religious inclination to what they do. So this is tuition. So in the land in Nigeria now it is sometimes even conflicts and confrontation between bandits and terrorists. Because terrorists and bandits are called control of territories in Nigeria and parts of the state. Bandits don't engage in, they have no way out there to make money. Terrorists are command and structure. Here's what it can also be. We apologize. Senator, we're having a bit of a network issue with you. If you could get closer to maybe a window, an open window or something, you know, or if you could wind down your window a bit, that will help so that we can get a better connection. But Senator, can you hear me please? Okay, so please continue with your point. Maybe you can just repeat what he just said because we had a bit of a poor connection earlier. Aha, what I said is that farmers' headers crisis about farmers and also headers. Headers are those who reoccur to and they engage in sometimes conflicts when they are cut across farm lands. So that's a different issue. But bandits are out to extort money by kidnapping and killing people and then collecting ransom. But terrorists are elements of the Boko Haramani where they engage in extortion, in preaching. Senator, are you there please? Also in pursuit of their religious side. Okay, so these current attackers or recent attacks were said to have been perpetrated by terrorists. Is that narrative correct? Hello? Yeah. Okay, Senator, I was saying that the recent attacks were said to have been perpetrated by terrorists. Is that correct? Senator, are you there please? Okay, we'll try to get back to Senator Shehussani formally representing the people of Kaduna Central in the Nigerian Senate. We'll take a break and when we come back we want to talk some more. Senator Shehussani is a leading voice especially on Twitter as far as the happenings in Kaduna State are concerned. He has been able to put out a lot of information. He's become a critical opinion stakeholder as far as this is concerned. We'll be right back and see if we can get a better connection with him. You're still watching Plus Politics. Welcome back. You're still watching Plus Politics on Plus TV Africa. And of course we've been looking at the situation in Kaduna State. It's an affording situation. State that has been one of the best and most loved states in Nigeria. State that has habbit Nigerians from all over the country. We talk about Kaduna, the city of Kaduna. We talk about Zaria. It's a very popular place. And of course not a few people have pointed out the fact that Kaduna State is home to quite a number of military formations. And if I had the time I would take you through those military formations. But you have of course the Niger Defense Academy. You have formations of the Nigerian Air Force. You have formations of the Nigerian Army stationed in Kaduna. Quite a number of them. And you can't even remember how crumb all of them into your head. And so what I would expect in that Kaduna State would be highly secure. Unfortunately it's been the theater of banditry and terror attacks. We had Senator Sheo Sani who was representing or who represented the people of Kaduna Central at the National Assembly. We've had some network issues with him. And we'll try very best to connect back with him. But this is some things he's been saying. He also put out a statement saying you know what? If you're traveling to and from Kaduna by road or by rail, that until you pass the villages of Rijana and Katari before you know that you have made your journey, anything short of that your life is on a scale of probability. So this is what they've been going through. Senator himself has also reminded us on this program how he himself was recently a survivor of a terror attack on that same train at that same spot as that which happened on Monday. And he only escaped with his life. He also said something that the Zuma military barracks is in Sulejah Niger State. It's supposed to provide security along the Kaduna Buja Road. It was attacked by bandits and Sikh soldiers lost their lives. So these are the things that we're talking about. But I'd like to bring in at this point another guest. He is of the People's Democratic Party. Of course the party has criticised the federal government without restraining or refraining following these attacks. And I'm talking about none other than Mr. Diro Odeimi who is a former Deputy Publicity Secretary of the People's Democratic Party. Diro Odeimi, good evening to you. Thank you very much for your time. Good evening and thank you for bringing me on. All right. Before we move on to a second topic, what are your thoughts on the ongoing situation in Kaduna State? Your party, the People's Democratic Party of which you are a former Deputy Publicity Secretary, has been criticising the Buhari-led federal government. What are your thoughts, please? Is there anything that PDP has said that they are not supposed to say? This is a government that came to power on the promises to Nigerians that the issue of security will be their priority. But since they have come on board almost seven years ago now, people that have lost their lives are more than the people they used to frustrate or castigate PDP during the campaign. It's quite unfortunate that the Minister for Information, Shiblai Muamel, who come and tell Nigerians and blame PDP for whatever is happening in the area of security. Nigerians are not fools. I would have respected a decent government to answer and own up that there is nothing they can do again regarding the promises they made to Nigerians about security. Nobody. Even the military we are talking about, either the soldier, the police, the Air Force, who is safe in this country, nobody. And if we are in this situation and all what APC could do is to say yes, nothing is happening in the country yet, they are on top of the situation. Upon all the money voted for security, they are still telling us that terrorism could not be fought with rigor. I think it's a shame on this country and it's quite unfortunate. Mr. Debi, indeed you've pointed out the fact that this current administration came on to power with the promise to to right the wrongs of the People's and Democratic Party administration, where in the time of the PDP before powers rested from them, terrorism or terrorists were planting flags in states in Nigeria like Niger State, which is now set to be controlled by bandits. Does the People's and Democratic Party have a moral standing to criticize the APC, bearing in mind you left a hundred over Nigeria to Buhari that was almost taken over in the northeast by terrorists. Terrorists were planting flags and taking over swaths, local government areas in the northeast. If you look into the statistics of what is happening now, the ratio at which bandits and terrorists are attacking people in this country, you will see give kudos to PDP that you know they tried their best. And as a matter of fact, promise is a depth and by the time General Buhari was coming into office, he gave the impression that as a former military head of states, as a former military man, he has the solution to the security issues in this country. And it was on that promises, it was on the basis of that that they said they were able to win election. So if by this time you are still comparing the error of PDP to what is happening in the APC, they are not you are not being feared to Nigerians, not only to PDP. This is not a matter of PDP, whether you are PDP or NPP or you are, it is, we are talking about life now. Whether we like it or not, the statistics of people that lost their lives don't, it is changed itself.  So if you are now playing politics with us and blaming the error of PDP and comparing it to them, we are not being feared. If you promise that you are coming into power and into office because you know you are capable of winning the war against terrorism in this country, and you are not able to achieve that, why are you blaming PDP? Why are you comparing it after almost seven years in office? Let's be sincere, let's be fair. There's no justification for that and there's no reason for it in any way. Diro Demi, there's some people who have alleged that all that is happening in terms of whether they are band-aids or terrorists or kidnappers or carouselers, that all these are politically motivated by a section of the polity in Nigeria that wants to bring the APC-led federal government into dispute and make them unpopular just ahead of the 2023 general elections. And of course, what do you say to that? The genesis of this terrorism, a boundary tree, if you remember, was a statement credited to President Buwari when he said if he did not win that election, monkeys and baboon would be dredging blood, which alleges it. Terrorism was already in Nigeria then and it's been documented that that statement didn't mean that. We are talking of the political inclination into terrorism now. What I'm trying to put across to you now is the fact that if the president said that before he came into power, then the question is what is the genesis of terrorism? We can as well say they use terrorism as a tool through which they develop a kind of a propaganda against BDP to come to office. If you come into office through propaganda, you will need a lot of propaganda to sustain yourself. That is exactly what is happening to them now. They cannot use the same propaganda they used to come into office to sustain the lies and the black men they did to PDP to win the election. So where is the correlation? And if they have the fact that PDP or whoever are the sponsors of Bukwara and terrorism, they are in government, they are in power. What has stopped them from making arrests? What has stopped them from declaring them or making or pronouncing them publicly? It's as if they don't have the solution to the problem and what they can do is just to blame whoever, especially PDP. Okay. What were the people's democratic party? In fact, I should ask it this way. Thus the people's democratic party have what it takes to turn Nigeria's fortunes around and fix the security problem in the country. It is our strategy and it's going to be part of the key issues that we are going to throw to Nigerians and let them know that having stayed out of office for almost 80 years now, we are more than prepared. We have our strategy and by the time we start our re-campaign, we will tell Nigerians how we want to solve that particular problem. But if we start disclosing it now, it's possible for APC to steal our manifesto and ideas. And that is the key word and that is the strategy we want to use to destroy them in 2023. So we have the strategy. Thus the PDP have, because of course, these things will not be cast in stone. These things will be dependent on who emerges as the flag bearer of the people's democratic party at the end of its primary ethnic process is starting in April, ending in June by Aineka Shadlow activities. If the people's democratic party is able to produce a candidate, a flag bearer, and that flag bearer wins the 2022 and 2023 elections, then of course, we would judge a person based on their credentials. So looking at the names that have been coming out, looking at the candidates or the aspirants that have been buying forms or that are having forms bought for them, because that's what's happening now. You're laughing. It seems funny to you. But do you think these names, we have seen by hearing Atikua-Bubakar. We hear the likes of former House of Reps speaker and governor of Sokota State, Tambua. We hear the likes of Samaki. We hear the likes of Atikua-Bubakar. We hear the likes of Yens Ongbike and so on and so forth. Do these aspirants have what it takes to fix the insecurity problem in Nigeria? Please congratulate the people who have for having eminent personalities in their fold to govern Nigeria. You see, all the names you have mentioned, can you tell me which of them is not capable to rule this country successfully? There are men of timber and caliber and people with experience, people who know Nigeria and inside out, people who at a point in time have been in office and they know if there is any mistake, they know where the mistake is. And in PDP today, there has been a committee of 31 eminent personalities to look at the zoning arrangement. But so far, if we base the candidates on the number of people that has come out to obtain form, we are happy that not a single one of them is not capable. Okay, all right. But these are people who have been in government in one form or the other and we are where we are today? Of course. The APC used propaganda against PDP to get into office. But Nigerians have realized that mistake. They have seen that APC lied to them. We are about their manifesto, about the promises and about what they are not capable of doing. Mr. Day, I mean, things were not rosy then either. In 2015, things were not rosy. People were not happy. Can you compare what is happening now to what is happening then? You see the issue of oil or the economy that you want to talk about, we are talking about security. It's a failure. We are talking about economy. It's a failure. So tell me, are we not better at Nigerians than now? Of course we are. Okay. So how did these individuals you're talking about perform? Can you, I wouldn't want, I don't know you, I don't think you want to mention or single anyone out. But the day any of them perform to the extent that they kept Nigerians, left Nigerians happy at the end of their tenure. We are comparing the error of PDP to what is happening now. That means don't even understand your error, don't even understand Jonathan's error. Nigerians are better. And these are your pretors at that, at that time. Jonathan did not claim to be a misunderstanding of knowledge. He employed people who know a lot about economy and he was able to hold on and sustain the economy of Nigeria. There was no suffering. People were happy. And the same thing that, you know, we happen when we get there because we have realized our mistakes, we are left ever. And we have designed a strategy which is going to be part of the manifesto. We are going to show to the people when the campaign starts.


Hello friends. I'm Sanjay Gupta. I welcome you on Sanjay Gupta Tech School. In this video, I'm going to demonstrate how you can set component visibility on record page. Before starting the demonstration, if you want to watch more Salesforce training videos, you can go to description of this video and you will find links of all the playlist related to Salesforce videos there. So you can follow them. Now, let's say this is account record page.  So on my record page, you can see I have placed one screen flow. So now I'm going to tell you how I can apply filters for this component rendering. So for that, I need to click on this gear icon and I can select edit page. So Lightning Ambuilder is opening and account record page is available here. So you need to select the component on which you want to apply the filters. So I selected this create opportunity record flow. So at right inside, you can see we can set component visibility. And if we click on this button like add filter so we can apply the filter criteria. So here we can search for the fields available on account. So let's say I'm selecting active equals to true. Done. So this is my filter criteria if account record is active, or if it is equals to true, then this component will be displayed. So I'm clicking on done. Clicking on save. So it is now changing. Sorry, it is now saving the changes. Clicking on back. So now we need to check the details. So here you can see now that screen flow is not displaying because active is false. Right. And if I mark this active as true. Or yes, then automatically that screen flow will be entered here you can see. So this way we can apply the component visibility with help of filters. So again I'm moving to edit page so that we can explore more that filter. So I'm clicking on add filter again so I can choose more things. So let's say account source equals to have done. So here you can see more filter conditions are available like show components when all filters are true. Any filters are true or the filter logic is met. So you can create your own filter logic with the help of and or. So this is further options then here you can see after record field we can choose a device as well. So form factor and from here you can choose a device like if devices desktop then it will be rendering or if it is mobile then it will be rendering and then advance. So here you can click on select. And from here you can choose these four things like user user fields permissions device and record. So let's say if you want to apply some profile filter here so you can go to permission and here you can search for profile. Sorry, that isn't user. Yeah, so from here you can apply the profile. So these are the profile fields that you can choose and apply the conditions. So, yeah, this way we can apply various filters so that we can set the component visibility on record page. So this you can apply for any standard or custom object. So it is very beneficial in real life like if you're working on any project so in some scenarios we need to set the component visibility so that's why I created this video. So I hope you understood whatever I demonstrated in this video regarding setting the component visibility on record page. And if you want to watch similar kind of videos on Salesforce. So you can go to description of this video and you can find links of all playlist that those are created for Salesforce videos. So follow them and learn Salesforce. Thank you for watching this video.