Okay guys, I'm going to make this quick little video talking about dApps, decentralized applications. If you're not familiar with term, hopefully this video will help you out because when I first heard it, I wasn't familiar with myself. So pretty much if you're familiar with ICOs, initial coin offerings have been pretty freaking crazy if you asked me in the last year or so. These are dApps, literally majority of ICOs are dApps. And so let's try to break this down in the most simplistic way so you can understand what this is. If you're familiar with the two big blockchain platforms, Bitcoin and Ethereum, well majority I would say 99.99999% of the dApps right now being created, they're built on Ethereum. So this is how it works. You have Ethereum, which is the blockchain platform, and you have something called an Ethereum virtual machine, which is the platform people use. Okay, so how it works is if you and I want to create a company, we will build our token, we will build our startup on top of Ethereum. We would use Ethereum's protocols, we would use Ethereum's smart contracts, we would use Ethereum's network, et cetera, and build a brand new token on top of it. So pretend these are all, I don't know, I'll use this. Pretend these are all startups, for example, Golem, right? Golem built on top of Ethereum and they raise a bunch of money. Augur, they built on top of Ethereum and they raised a bunch of money. MobileGo just recently, I think they raised a ridiculous amount, you know, they did on top of Ethereum. So you have all these different startups and they're coming around, they're using Ethereum protocol to create your own startups. Now, that's a DAP, you know, it's a fancy little word for saying, hey, I built a startup on top of Ethereum, that's it in the nutshell, and I can stop the video here, but I'm going to continue and talk a little bit about some key elements within DAPs. Because for the majority, because for example, like I mentioned earlier, this does tie into ICO's initial coin offering. And like anything, there's ebbs and flows, there's booms and busts, and if we take an example from Silicon Valley in the 90s with the internet, everything was a boom until it went bust. So currently, I really believe right now that there are a lot of DAPs being built that are garbage, and that is the truth. There are a lot of them that aren't really addressing the real root problems of the world. They don't understand just basic business principles and a lot of them are, they're not, they're not scams. That's not what I'm trying to say is they don't know that they are scams, and that is a big problem. So me personally, what I view the space right now, I view it as experimental. I don't view it as good or bad. In fact, I think that when more people experiment and create startups, I personally don't like the word DAP, it's a startup. It's like for example, you and I want to use a Bitcoin blockchain with Rootstock to create our own startup on top of it. It's a startup. For example, Vinny with Civic, he's doing that with Rootstock. I think he's going to be one, you know, he's going to be one of the first to use Rootstock to go on top of Bitcoin. That's going to be fascinating, but at the end of the day, it's a startup. You're building a startup on a platform. It's like I want to build a startup and you Shopify, right? So that's going to be my e-commerce platform, or I want to build a startup and I use WordPress. I don't call it no fancy word, but you know, in the timeframe where we are right now, people are using DAPs. Okay, my audio is good. So that's it in the nutshell. It is people utilizing other blockchain platforms to create their own startup. Now, the question is then, how would you create your own startup on top of Ethereum? Well, we just talked about ICOs, how a bunch of them are garbage, and like anything, you have the Pareto's principle, 80, 20, 80% are garbage, 20% are good, and timing in the marketplace does matter. These are some key things to consider when creating a DAP.  I think that's garbage. I think you as a founder, if you have any basic experience as an entrepreneur, I don't want to just see your goddamn white paper. I want to see a demo. I want to know who the founders are. I want to know, why do you even need a token? Why do you need to create that? I want to know the purpose behind your company. I want to know your roadmap. I want to know exactly what key problem do you solve, and is that a problem worth monetizing? Is there a revenue model around it? That's always recommend people understand the lean canvas model, understand basic entrepreneurial principles before just creating a white paper. If I just read a white paper, to me, there's a technicality aspect. Yes, I agree. You have to prove to me the crypto economics behind it. You have to prove to me the technology behind it. But then you got to prove to me, hey, is this business for the long haul, or is this business for the short haul? Is this business even a business to begin with? So don't just come to me with a white paper. If you're serious about building real startup, longevity startup, startups that actually solve a key problem in this space, don't just create a white paper. Actually create the product. Take your time. Don't rush into it. The problem in this space right now, it's a gold mine.  And unfortunately, the people who are sucked up in fomonomics, my buddy Brad Mill states, fear of missing out economics, they think they're going to become the next Bill Gates and get a thousand X return. But that's not going to happen, not at all. Read history. One of my favorite books to read in business is Seeking Wisdom by Charlie Munger and Peter Bevelin. Read that book. You'll understand the ebbs and floor. Ray Dalio, when it comes to Bridgewater, his book principles, a fantastic book, one of my top 10 favorite books of all time. They all talk about this, fomonomics and 25 cognitive biases. But that's what a DAP is. It's literally a startup being built on top of a blockchain platform that you choose. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Waves, whatever you want to choose, it really doesn't matter. It's up to you. You can create your own to the truth. But that's it. So my advice to anybody considering starting this, it's no different than you starting any startup. Create a demo product, create a dream team, show me you are the right human beings that I can trust my money with and create a vision, create a roadmap, create a community and actually solve a real tangible world problem. Out of these convoluted, fake problems that I keep on hearing about that they're going to revolutionize the world.  Okay guys, the video is short. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any comments, leave a comment below this video. Peace.


So if you ever thought when you looked at an SCP author that maybe they know better about what they're doing in all facets of life Just because they're a good writer Well, if you think anything close to that you're wrong and let's talk about why Shut up. So this isn't super common I don't think but there's enough people out there and I've run into them more than once that believe that SCP authors are somehow inherently better than everyone else. I want to be clear There is a distinction here. SCP authors are good at understanding how to get something to survive on the SCP wiki But outside of that that's where your fandom should stop and I run into this all the time myself And it's slightly annoying ultimately if you hold an SCP author up to be some sort of a idol to Worship then what you're doing is is you're placing them a tier above yourself Anyone can write for the SCP wiki. It's not even very difficult All you really need is a good understanding of the English language a little self-awareness and the ability to take Criticism from other people and turn it into something good And I see this come up with a lot of SCP authors and sometimes it's just so many who only has one article getting held up to be like Oh my god, you did it. You're finally one of them But that's the thing it isn't any different just because you finally wrote an article for the wiki And that's another reason why it could be unhealthy because then someone finally gets their article to stick and they're like nothing really changed This is everything I was wanting and now it's nothing different And that's really the problem with hero worshipping anyone. This isn't just about SCP Oh, this is about anyone who like writers of any kind Directors actors singers Anybody who creates content for a lot of people is bound to pick up a lot of fans and fans are fine When you stop treating people like people and start treating them like an ideal You're basically short changing yourself and you're short changing them. I guess the basic message here is this Stop treating SCP authorship like it's anything other than an ability to help you understand How to write articles for the SCP wiki the SCP wiki is not the be all end all of your life Or at least it shouldn't be and just because you finally got to this point where you wrote something for the wiki Doesn't mean that your life is gonna be any better. It's gonna be exactly the same as it was yesterday Only you will have something published on the wiki. Somebody quoted me something recently from somebody else Just basically said that since I was an established author on the wiki that everyone was looking up to me and something I had done let them down like I'm responsible for the way they look at me And it's important for me to be cognizant of these sorts of things I'm not inadvertently manipulating somebody into doing what I want but on the other hand It's not my responsibility to understand how you view me or any other author You need to learn to treat people like people and requests like requests and if I do something you don't like I'm not letting you down because I shouldn't be an ideal you aspire to except for you know authoring I think there's a problem where people want to tie in their sense of self-worth to the things They like and by extension sometimes tying that self-worth into the people who create the things that they like and perhaps It's a very natural thing to do and honestly what we deal with on the scp wiki is significantly smaller than I'm sure what a lot of people have to deal with on Grander scales, but at the same time the individual behavior is just as toxic even if it's smaller and in some senses There's less barriers between authors and fans So at the same time it can be more immediate, but anyway, that's the basic message here Don't treat scp authors as anything other than experts on how to get things to stick on the wiki Anything else is unsubstantiated by evidence That's it. If you want to support my content you can join my patreon at patreon.com Ford slash de-samaritan just like everybody on this list here pledge a dollar pledge $5 pledge 10 or 20 Either way, it'll help support this content and make sure more keeps getting made links as always will be in the description below Thanks for watching


Big corporations are fighting dirty to keep their workers from organizing. You could be working for a union buster and not even know it. Here are four of the biggest union busting tricks to look out for. One, anti-union propaganda. Employers turn workers into a captive audience for false or misleading claims about unions. In 2019, Delta distributed pamphlets to flight attendants and ramp service workers warning that union fees would cost $700 per year. But here's what they didn't mention. Unionized workers earn $700 more per month. Weird how they left that part out, isn't it? Amazon wall-pavored its warehouses with anti-union ads. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz claimed he had no choice but to exclude workers at unionizing stores from new employee benefits. Apparently when you're the boss you can just make stuff up. Two, your employer hires fancy anti-union firms, lawyers and consultants. The company claims it can't afford to raise workers' pay but spends millions on anti-union consultants. Three, delay, delay, delay. It's illegal for employers to cancel a vote on whether to unionize, but they skirt the law to keep that vote from happening as long as possible. And while they're delaying, they try to stop a union's momentum. Before a recent labor election in Buffalo, Starbucks flooded stores with managers to pressure workers. One Starbucks employee reported he was told to go to a meeting only to be greeted by six managers pressuring him to reject the union. So that's how many managers it takes to screw over an employee. Four, if none of these union-busting tactics work, your employer might just break the law. Amazon fired a union leader from missing work, even though he was on leave to care for a COVID-stricken family member. U.S. employers are charged with violating federal law in over 40% of all union election campaigns. I'm sorry, I just have to pause for a second here. 40% of the time, really? If I broke the law 40% of the time, I'd be in jail quicker than you could say Pinkerton. Are companies allowed to skirt the law like this? No, but labor laws take a long time to enforce. If they're enforced at all, and the worst that can happen is a corporation has to rehire a worker who had illegally fired and provide back pay. No wonder some companies decide that breaking the law is cheaper than following it. It's simply a cost of doing business for a giant corporation like Amazon. But here's some good news. A bill called the Pro Act would strengthen protections for union organizers and make many kinds of union avoidance illegal. Call your lawmakers and ask them to support it today. They won't just be on the right side of history. They'll be on the right side of public opinion. A majority of Americans, including 77% of young people, support the right to join a union. Workers at Starbucks and Amazon have refused to be intimidated and have started to unionize. All over the country, American workers are growing wise to corporate union busting tricks. Big corporations are fighting dirty to keep their workers from organizing, and they're still losing. Imagine what could happen if they had to fight fair.


My name is Aileen Sengupta, I am from Kolkata, I have been doing a service for five years and recently I have decided to switch to education sector again. The reason I have taken NPTEL is mainly because there was a gap in my five years career from my technology to an IT sector and then back to the technology again. So NPTEL where it really helps me is that everything is explained in very you know sublingual terms and you need not go into technical books, they have explained it very nicely. Everything is to the point the formula or the calculation, the professors who are spending their valuable time in this you know composing a video and editing it, I am really thankful to them because they are doing a noble job. People don't even take the certificate exam, they don't pay the fees, it's a very nominal charge and I am very happy to be a part of this initiative, I have been a part of this initiative for a long time. NPTEL have heard it from my friends and I have come here to give satellite communication and I am very thankful that I have learnt something out of it. Certificate exam is basically you know to give that push to the students, we don't really have time to focus on every area of the kind of we are busy. So certificate exam why I have taken it is because I have other career outlook that I am planning for for future education and PHD and NPTEL satellite communication courses for helping me you know prepare for my future outlook and planning. How was the exam? Oh it was great, the user interface that I faced earlier, it was terrible, I gave it from Hyderabad, Kolkata was far better in terms of examination, in terms of you know software and everything else, it was great. Do you have in the size of NPTEL portal? Yes I do, a lot of people don't know about NPTEL so maybe you all can advertise a little bit in the different engineering portals or you know every engineering portal is nowadays having their website, you all can advertise it there, I am very surprised to find that there are so many best faculty in India and people don't know about them and I have been to so many IITs including IIT KGP but I didn't know the professors until I have actually meant them. So people don't go to YouTube and search you know for courses, they go to watch other videos so I wish NPTEL advertises a little bit more. If it can be a dedicated site where we don't need to search anything on the YouTube and NPTEL has already made a site of its own so it's all good. How did you plan for the certificates of the course? Right now I have an outlook of doing a master's outside so I am going for an MS probably in satellite communication or in wireless communication so this certificate is not going to help me, not only going to help me in my outlook it is also currently helping me in a lot of other initiatives, I am going to an ISRO program in a couple of months so thank you. I was interested in psychology for a long time but I didn't do any course as such. Recently I am taking class in our Narendra Poop, Ramakrishna Viswanaswamy in the special BA, I teach them philosophical foundation of education. So there the educational psychology also comes so I wanted to be updated so I took the course. It would help me in that way and also enhance a new domain of knowledge that was my basic interest. So my name is Jeenia Sur, I am currently pursuing a BCF from Institute of Engineering and Management and I have given the exam of NPTEL today on the course of soft skills. Was it your first NPTEL course? No, no this was not my first NPTEL course I have given two more exams of NPTEL before that was operating systems and computer architecture. Was this course taken by you just for learning or it was mandated by the college? It was mandatory from the college as well as it helps in our learning as well because the topics that were chosen were related to our syllabus of the examination. Like in this semester we are having something related to the soft skills so we have been enrolled in this course. Yes, this is something beyond the syllabus what we cannot learn in the syllabus what are not included in the syllabus that are also included in NPTEL. So for those who want to learn something beyond the syllabus NPTEL is very much effective for those. Myself Gautam Pandit and I am working in private company, Kolkata. How was the exam? Good. Project management for managers? This is your first course? This is first course. Why do you choose this type of course? Because this type of course is the total means project related and I am totally working in project related jobs I mean totally in starting my career so I think it will be better and helpful to me also. How do you plan to do the certificate? I expect to get the certificate but after getting the result I will be. Do you really suggest us to include the total for video lecture? Video lecture is ok but everything is ok but I think it will be helpful if the video lecture we can download it and download option that will be better. Actually I prepared mostly in PDF copy downloaded and then studied all these things. Myself is Jayanta Chaudhary. I am working at NTPC Kalgao. My background is civil engineering. I am also completed M.Tech master degree course from Karnataka University. Recently I am trying to enter my Ph.D. so that I join these NPTEL course. Is it your first NPTEL course or you have done any course earlier? No I have completed 11 NPTEL course and got certificate and this semester I attend two courses. One is structure mechanics and another is completeness hydraulics. The first one is completed then second one will be going. How do you like the course? Do you enjoy the courses? I have enjoyed the course. Various aspect and various quality in materials input also available in these courses. That course is not available in graduate level or post graduate level. Some courses too much high quality. How these courses are different from the courses that are taught in your regular university? Is there any way you find that there are differences? Differences is teaching methodology. First thing, high quality professor, high quality infrastructure and way of presentation. That is not available in regular university even on private university. Any solution to improve the whole system, the portal? First solution is portal also some input in laboratory based course, experiment based courses. That will also help the regular courses besides the second this is every government organization either state or the central should acknowledge these courses, NPTEL courses. In their service position in thesis in PhD courses. Was the program very prompt? Yes, yes, very prompt. How was the examination today? Fine. Clumsy but fine. How the questions were? Question as per syllabus but number of question is too much. This is not possible for three hours. Hello, my name is Sromadik Mal. I am from Haurava. I am currently in my final year of electrical engineering. I am pursuing BTEC from Netaji Shubha Singh Jain College, Goria. I first learned about NPTEL from our college HOD who told me about the various courses that are available. I mean I thought it would help me in my curriculum to understand some things that are outside of our curriculum. I have done two already NPTEL courses before. They are on optimal control and cryptology. And so I think the portal is very helpful. Only thing that I would like to recommend about the portal is that sometimes the videos are quite long of about 35 to 40 minutes. In offline exams the videos are quite long. If that could be shortened into I mean in every week there are close to 5 to 6 lectures. So if all the videos are cut down a bit shortened in duration like 10 minutes, 20 minutes that would be helpful. And another thing it happened last time also about the results. Declaring of results is take quite some time to declare the results for offline exams. Apart from that the whole portal is very helpful. The discussion forum is also very helpful. The topics are very vividly covered and various questions are clarified by the professors. Actually the certificates I plan on using them because my placements are coming up, campusing are coming up so I think that would help me if I have courses in various fields that aren't covered in our curriculum in college so I guess that would be helpful. I actually watched the videos myself but we are a group of friends who did the same course so we used to discuss about the problems regularly. Yes sir? Yes sir I complete the course. The exam was very good sir the questions were very nice not very easy they were quite difficult. I mean but if you cover the assignments to the assignments regularly you could cover most of the questions. Today my exam was on cryptology. Yes I am Shubham Pajah I am from Kolkata. Right now I am pursuing my B.Tech from Saint Thomas College of Engineering and Technology in Khyderpur, Kolkata. Next question? Where are you from? I am from Kolkata, West Tarragon area. I have enrolled myself in introduction to algorithm analysis. How is the exam? The exam is good. It was my first course. I have gone through the many websites and other teachers from my college. They have also told me to enroll in this course. In NPTEL we can get extra knowledge from the video lectures assignment solutions and many more things that we cannot learn from the college. Right now I am also preparing for GATE 2019. So the professors also suggested to give the NPTEL for future studies. As for future studies it would be helpful. The portal is excellent. I have no problem in conducting the portal. In my section I am the only one who is enrolled in introduction to algorithm analysis. So I myself did the video lectures. And if help required I have done from the Google or the professors of our college. I am Prabuddha Chatterjee. I study in the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur. And I am a student of the aerospace department. I am currently studying in the third year. Today I gave the NPTEL exam on aircraft design. This was a very nice course. It was a three month long course around 12 weeks. So in that the reason I took this course was that though we have this course as part of a curriculum also but then the professors who teach us these courses through the NPTEL program they are from much reputed institutes and we get to learn a lot of new things from them. And this course I felt was quite good only it met all my expectations. Only one suggestion I would have is that if they could make the portal a little more interactive with the students then it would be really nice. Thank you. How is it different from the other courses you learnt at the college? In the NPTEL course in the sense that in college what we have to do is that you have to regularly go to the classes and if you miss any of them then you cannot get either you have to get the notes from your friends or something but then what NPTEL does is by providing the videos then I can see the videos at any time of my liking when I am free or whatever and I can gain the knowledge whenever I want. It's not that I have to stick to a particular timetable or anything as what we have to do in college so that I feel is one very good thing about NPTEL course. How was the exam? The exam I have given exams previously also so I was expecting it to be a very standard exam like what was given in the assignment and all the similar type of questions and that is what we had today also. It was quite similar to the kind of questions which came for the assignments, weekly assignments. I had taken courses, two courses in the last semester and another two this semester I had taken which I gave the exam in September. How do you plan to do the certificate? The certificates primarily I will like to use it for academic purposes only when applying to universities or moreover it is like I did the courses more so to gain knowledge, personal knowledge and this will also I hope help in future job in the perspective of getting jobs. To improve the portal I think that if the solutions and all to the assignment sometimes for the courses they were getting a bit delayed and so we were not understanding exactly where we were going wrong in our calculations and all that so if that could be done a little more regularly and if it could be made a little more interactive with all those who are taking part in the courses. What was the video? No the videos I since there was very few one or two only other people in my college who are doing the same courses so that is why I used to mostly do it by myself but then while doing the assignments and all we would often meet together and think of how we should do it and like what will be the correct answers and correct approach and all that so it was sort of a cumulative effort you can say. My name is Shishmita Kesari and I am from Pandua and I am belonging from my university that is University of Calcutta and I am an MSc student and of condensed matter and soft condensed matter is my special paper and here about ended my introduction so here I want to tell that this course is really profitable for the course. Which course you are referring to? I have referred for NPTEL examination and really the SIR has the SIR Can you just mention? Oh I am from the course of mathematical method and this course is really helpful for the other students not only for the competitive examination but also for how to do the maths in a small tricks in a small period of time they have done that and the SIRs are very helpful they are just answerable to each and every question means whatever we used to ask whatever we used to ask in them they used to mail us if there is a problem in the assignment we used to tell that he is to check that assignment he used to correct that many other there many mistakes were there in the assignment but they help us they told us this this and this so this course is really helpful and it's not about the certificate it's about the learning how we can learn about certificates, degree I know that they are the thing but what we learn that's the main thing I do believe that and yes certificate it's really important but learning is the must friend How teaching in this mode was different from the regular college? Regular college we used to serve as means in this course what we happen means regular course what we do we go to the college take the notes and after that but in this course it was quite different because it was quite different because we have we have we learn that what we are doing and after that we have to practice that we have to complete that assignment within a week so we have certain means you may say what to do at the job so we have to do that you had many aspects like assignment, video, forum which part you feel that was more useful for you or you enjoyed that part? I was enjoyed by doing the assignment and that is very good many different sounds were there and I really enjoyed that and also the examples which were done by this What type of other courses that you feel that you should offer? That is one I loved I was just stunning for that quantum mechanics and I hope I will do this course next time for the quantum mechanics and I love that quantum I am Udishav Shah I am an engineering student of third year I am from EC background and I am studying in IEM Was it your first NPTEL course or you have done any other course earlier? It is my second one actually I have done an NPTEL course on machine learning previously so that was I gave that exam on September 22nd and this is my second exam Why did you take this course? Was it just for learning or you have the colleges mandated? Actually this course the subject that I have been given an exam on that subject was included in my semester so for further knowledge and for preparing mainly for the great exam to clear out the concept I have enrolled for this course How this course was deployed from the other courses that were taught in the college curriculum? Actually as this course was conducted by IIT and faculties from IIT so basically the course was quite like it was well explained and many concepts that were given in the course that turned out to be quite useful in solving the problems Which part was more enjoyable for assignments? Which part was better and which part if you say that now some part needs to be improved? I would like if the courses are made to be a bit more interactive like if the students could give their feedback then and there and some new materials could be included to clear out the doubts then and there then I will feel that it will be much better courses that we feel that we should be offered in the coming days As I am from EC background I would like that if there are more courses on electronics or IOT based systems that are coming up nowadays I will feel that IOT based systems are quite relevant nowadays so IOT based systems will be able to test How do you plan to use this certification? Is it only for knowledge or will it help you to prepare better for the GATE exam? Actually I am preparing for GATE so I will this certification course I have taken mainly for preparing for the GATE exam so that I can clear out my concepts so in this way it will help me actually mainly for my GATE preparations I am Debushri Ghosh from Magnesha Institute of Technology I am a faculty and I have been teaching for over 8 years in the management department I have been encouraging other students also to give exams in NPTEL and I have been I also give some of the exams today I gave the exam for HRD Human Resource Development and I like the courses which NPTEL delivers through online and also they give the supporting materials which is really helpful for the faculties too along with the students and it is also the cost has also decreased if a student pass gets over the 40% marks the actual course fee is reduced by 50% so this is also going to encourage a lot of students however I still think that some of the questions in given in the assignments deviate from the course material which has been provided by the concerned faculty so sometimes it may be difficult for the students but overall it is a very good course and all the students should should be motivated to do this because it gives them additional ability to learn new subjects thank you, portals overall the portal is good but sometimes the links which are given students find it difficult to follow how to get their marks or admit course these are certain things which can be made more easier I am Manak Shah from department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering I am Manak Shah from department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at NIT Durgapur I am in the final year of my B-Tech 4th year that is and I am very very interested in my discipline and also in the different courses that are being offered by the IIT by the various IITs and the IIS so today the two courses that I gave exam on were one was the surface hardening and heat treatment the other one was the phase transformation in materials which was being conducted by IIT Kanpur and what I found was the exams are also very very useful if you want to prepare for competitive exams like GATE and it also moreover it also helps you to enhance your knowledge that is all what I have to say from myself so the thing is what I learnt in my college the thing is we generally in our B-Tech do not get the opportunity to apply the knowledge what we learnt directly like the questions most of us know at least to be frank most of the questions that are asked in our college are generally from the notes that we generally try to sometimes people memorize the notes or sometimes we try to understand things from the notes but the thing is if you want to learn something extra if we want to properly understand and especially if one wants to pursue higher education, higher studies I mean so then I will suggest that the NPTEL course is one of the courses which will help you to achieve the same how do I plan, I am not getting the question see the certificate I mean the certificate will be very very useful after I get the course completion certificate with certain marks which is specified then the thing is I can show it to my addition to my credits but moreover that that is one part of it but most importantly what I feel is we can learn a lot I have presently completed 5 NPTEL courses this is my fifth NPTEL course this semester itself I took 3 courses all together and what I feel is it is very very useful and last year I have taken 2 courses so from the last year to this year the quality of the courses has improved it has become more more sticking towards the practical situations and all but I feel it can there is obviously every time there is a scope for improvement we can always teach something which is better and also sticking to the real world itself myself Rahul Kumar Gupta I am from Dhanbad now I am studying at BBIT college D.C. department and now today I am giving an exam NPTEL exam not good it is average because I am learning about something extra that's why I have planned but I am not sufficient to score in this exam so I am not able to come from institute of engineering and management which is under WBUT I am a student of IEM college I am engineering and right now I am pursuing my BCA degree and our college recommend this course for our welfare and this course is very useful for our career and NPTEL helps us to encourage our knowledge and enrich our knowledge it is very useful course and I will recommend all of students and all the professors are amazing and it is very very beneficial for our career as well as campus interview and there are lots of course like C++, Java, Python and the certificate is very valuable and its market price is very high and NPTEL and IIT professor they are very good in teaching and we can understand everything so it is very helpful I will recommend it please follow this and it is very helpful and I will try to follow I have taken soft skill and for communication no no no I have done two courses one is C++ and the second one is we can differentiate NPTEL is little bit high higher level course than our college I will apply this certificate in our job interview no this is very ok perfect everything is perfect I am from Kolkata currently I am participating in electrical engineering from Niteshwash engineering college I first learnt NPTEL from our college my professors told me about these courses and it is very good for our profiles so these certificates will help me show that some advanced courses are already done in my book profile and the courses are very good from distinguished professors we can learn these topics I have already done two courses in optimal content cryptography the exam was also good optimal content cryptography the only thing the point of this topic is that the days are coming too late among the two courses I gave last time only one got desert out and another still pending I think I think the desert should be out more fast than this I am coming from university of engineering and management this NPTEL course is more useful for our further professional life also and this course is more useful for us and it was mandated by our college also so I have attended those courses and I have done it earlier also I am Priyanka Shah I am from Techno India Salt Lake I am studying second year B.Tech C.S.C good computer architecture and organization in my college the videos I cannot able to understand the videos but in NPTEL course the videos are good to able to understand I am from Kolkata and I study in Institute of Engineering and Management Salt Lake today was our NPTEL exam and it was good I attended the exam on control engineering was it your first course? yeah this was my first I used to watch NPTEL videos on YouTube but for the first time I gave the course exam but first of all this course start from a very basic point of view which I like very much and also there is a huge scope for the involvement of practical approach in the teaching faculty those who teach and moreover in our school or colleges often the continuity of the course is missing like they teach from somewhere here and they rush to some other place but here I find a very nice continuum which is what attracts me to the NPTEL course very much and moreover it's easy to understand and it goes at a nice pace was it your first course or you have done any other course earlier? I have actually attended the many lectures of NPTEL starting of my college career but for the first time I gave an exam so online exam of NPTEL this was the first time I attended many lectures so was it mandated by your college to take this course or you are just learning here? this was actually there was a circular in our college our college teachers inspired us to take up this course but nothing mandated like that but it was more or less widely circulated in the college that it will be beneficial if everybody takes up the course what's your actual idea of using this set to take is it for better measurements well this is not only for the better placements I feel that the certificates and the knowledge that I get will be very helpful for me in cracking a great exam and it will be definitely helpful for getting me a securing me a good job which part of the course like you have a forum, you have a assignment which part was you think the better was that was the forum responsive? yeah the forum was highly responsive any doubts if you post it the teacher used to answer it if anybody else posted it before me I used to find many discussions going on in the discussion thread and it was very helpful which other courses do you expect that you should offer in this forum in the coming days? other course subjects what type of other courses that you would like in future IIT should offer this course under the NPTEL? I feel a few more skill development courses like soft skill development courses that would be very helpful because we run to the many training institutes for this soft skill development so if some kind of that idea comes up it will be really helpful for us my name is Alpita Mukherjee and I am from Techno India studying Hospital management and I am now in third year it's my last year so that's why I have chosen this NTPEL course so that it can help in my future that I don't know but I try my level best total quality management first course actually it was planned from my college so that I don't know about the details about this NTPEL courses that's all actually it's certificate is very much means it's very much important for our career that's why actually it's all about the video that are showed and it gives a details knowledge and whenever there is any kind of doubt they used to give a reference book so that we can take the guide or if we are interested then we can make our gain our knowledge by knowing more from the Google or Net that's why yeah I was alone yeah actually I want to say that the knowledge should be given about the NTPEL courses should be much more precious and sometimes and there is lack of telling the lack of pronunciation is very much very important it is very much there lack of pronunciation and sometimes about what they are telling is not appropriate because sometimes it differs from student to student whether they will get or not so they should give a details knowledge and I expect that we can get at the best my name is Ankita De and I am from Institute of Engineering Management from Solidec sector 5 and I am here to pursuing the course of another communications and I am pursuing now the BTEC from Electronics and Communication Engineering that's it and I am just doing this course for nothing for the placements and also like just grabbing the some lessons and all some learning skills is it your first course or you had taken earlier yes it's my first course was it mandated by your college actually my college was advised me to do that but not mandated then we thought that it's like it's very helpful for us to just increase our knowledge so we did this course meet your expectations yeah obviously the assignments was very helpful and the videos of the professors the professors was good very good they are from maximum they are from IIT's so it's helpful very helpful which course did you take? I was taken another communication any suggestion to improve for improvement actually for which improvement either in the course content delivery for whatever it is or the type of course that you wish that we should offer in the coming days that is it course is good there is no any I don't think so there is no any changes for the further things but sometimes there we face that sometimes the questions was wrong in the assignments the questions was wrong for these wrong things then they just overcome it and after that when they overcome then the due date is already gone so it's like sometimes we submitted it but again we have to submit the next for it so it's sometimes we face that problem should my name is Monojit Banerjee I am a faculty of Techno India MBA department I am here to take an NPTEL exam because we are currently recommending our students to go for NPTEL so we need somebody to audit whether this course is actually at par with the requirements of our students or not and what is the total experience of NPTEL examination online examinations we did not have much experience regarding NPTEL before that is as far as our department is concerned so I am just here to check out how this whole experience works NPTEL is very professional in its approach and I have found that all aspects are being managed very well so definitely we will continue to recommend our students to go for NPTEL courses what are we have any suggestion like these are the areas we need to improve upon one area which I found was that today's question paper had objective as well as subjective questions but the editor for the subjective question was very poor actually it was very rudimentary cursor movements are very you can say that is sluggish etc that needs to improve otherwise all other aspects are very good what about during the run of the course that is professionally being handled NPTEL is quite experienced in this approach and all the course materials are probably divided into weeks etc and the course materials are well developed they are comprehensive and not much you can say additional things are needed quite sufficient for the course so please keep it up my name is Paddhanapadash Gupta from which college you are I am from Rohrara Rampushnamushan College what is the highest degree user I am in just B.Sc first year ok how was the exam the exam was great and about the exam it was quite easy I expected a bit tough questions but it was not so tough in which course you gave the exam I gave cell culture technologies how is the NPTEL course different from the other courses you learned at the college NPTEL courses are a lot more they depend on the common sense our course instructor Dr. Das from IIT Kanpur at the very first session he said that we must emphasise on the fact that we must put our sense of science in learning there not just gobbling the information and just mugging on the exam paper how do you plan to use the certificates how do you plan to use the certificates certificates will always give greater advantage to me in my it will be great and apart from the certificates it is a great experience for me have you done any course no it is my first course my name is Ravi Shankar Pandey and I am from Jharkhand so I came here to complete my B.Tech degree I am studying in IEM Kolkata I am pursuing my degree from EC department and now I am third year I have given examination of NPTEL analog communication subject analog communication so basically in NPTEL the process in which given is so confined and so systematic that from basic to higher level this taught us each and every topic in the slivers and the certificate which we will get in this examination we will use for CV for campushing college campushing and outside also and it will be useful in many ways my name is Sithonga Shane I am a final year engineering student pursuing a course in bioengineering and biotechnology from TechnoIndo University which is located near this location sector 5 I gave a course on animal physiology which was a 12 week course this is my first course which I have actually given an exam I have taken other courses but those were just going through the content but not for the certificate so yeah my first certificate exam was awesome because I can access bodies of information which my normal course might not allow I can take any course I want at any time I want I am a biotechnology student but I am interested in subjects which my college curriculum doesn't offer take for example this course on physiology I never got it in my college but I wanted to learn and I even got a certificate out of it something my future future employers will recognize so yes it is 50% accessing new bodies of information and 50% the certificate future improvement of my career so that I will put it on my CV and then using the information I learnt I can go for higher courses I don't believe in group studies so myself yes I didn't get your question difference as in okay though you are talking about the teaching quality so for all I will say the obvious you have professors from the top universities all over India so they have a different teaching style all together apart from that yes it is more information dense I don't know about other colleges but my colleges the amount of information they offer in a entire semester is like 40% of what was covered in one course here so yes I am getting more information which is one of the things I like the most I am third year electrical engineering student from IST Shippur and I appeared in NPG exam for software soft skills and for basement basically it was required in our college to have some degree have some certificate in soft skills so I appeared for that exam and it was a nice experience I learnt a lot of things from the faculties that were present in NPTL it was like a nice experience my name is Aman Raj I am from Indian institute of engineering science and technology Shippur I am a candidate of third year pursuing electrical engineering I opted for soft skills in my NPTL course as it provides many other things which we don't get in our campus it provides an online platform to learn many things that will help us in our future and our cooperative future so it was good learning this course and the assignments that we get were more friendly and we were used to give the feedbacks and the responses were very good from us so for me it was it is something that one should approach in his 4 years of engineering career it will surely help in his future thank you I am Muinak Shannar I am Muinak Shannar and I am from Kornagar and I am studying in institute of engineering and management short leg pursuing the BTEC course presently I am in third year and today I gave the 4 noon exam of analog communication I have another exam in the afternoon session and I have another exam in the afternoon of control I am Sekhar Suman I study engineering and management and I am pursuing the BTEC course and presently in third year and today I gave the exam of analog communication and the 4 noon session and I have another exam in the afternoon of control I am Sekhar Suman I study marine engineering from DMET Kolkata I have taken the course energy conservation and waste head recovery this is my first NPTEL course I chose NPTEL course because apart from being recognized the courses are being recognized by NTPC and other companies it also provides a great opportunity to study different safety courses from the courses what you learnt at your college well the NPTEL courses are a bit different because it is not actually the course is very much different from others because from my experience I studied energy conservation and waste head recovery in this various topics were taken like thermocouples and the Rankine cycle all the cycles which I have studied are combined in a separate course it is not in other courses my college generally focus on different aspects which are according to the engineering like thermodynamics filled with the whole thermodynamics it is not a mixture of things but here in energy conservation it will be mixture of thermocouples all the plant devices and heat exchangers which is not in my college course I am from Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shippur I am pursuing third year of my computer science and technology department my exam was pretty nice I chose the course soft skills ok no no this is my first course this certificate will prove to be beneficial for me in the coming years ahead for my campusing as well as for the industrial sector so yeah I plan to use that for my campusing purpose and for the afterwards beneficial industrial sector like I chose the NPTEL course because it is much modular and like it is easy to understand and it is helpful for us in like soft skill course this will be helpful for me like to understand other than my technical course which I am pursuing computer science other than how to understand the industrial sector in the corporate sector how to behave that will be helpful for me and NPTEL because like as it is very round and it gives us like considerable amount of time to prepare ourselves yes I am Tamal Mukherjee from RKM BCC college Rahora and the course is very beautiful for us basically for BCC student it enhances our basic knowledge about physics and my course is about classical mechanics and my professor was Devamal Benaji said Devamal Benaji was very good and I have learnt a lot of things about physics and about classical mechanics basically I have chose it for enhancing my knowledge just it is very different here we have Saris very helpful and they gave assignments week by week and we have solved it and they help us to solve many other problems that will not by the colleges and so I am very happy to successfully done studying mathematics MSC there Sundarit Pal and I am a third year computer science engineering student was it your first NPTEL yes it is my first one what about you? first NPTEL I enrolled in constant and unconstrained optimization it is wonderful actually I have learnt a lot of things from this course it helped me to enlarge my knowledge because it is my special paper optimization is my special paper and through this I have learnt a lot of things that I didn't learn in my MSC classes I have taken the course of introduction to algorithms and analysis by professor and it was a wonderful experience I learnt a lot of things and it will help me in my get examination and other competitive my name is Dipandas my permanent residence from Dhanbad but I worked in Accenture currently in Kolkata I am a middleware admin working on dotnet share point application administration so I have taken the this is my third course in NPTEL so you are from industry yeah which industry you say? Accenture yes which course did you take this time? what do you feel about your course? this is a very good course and it gives a overall idea and information about all the cloud industries cloud CSP, cloud providers and vast knowledge of the cloud computing myself Rajni Gupta I have completed my MTech in microelectronics and VLSI technology and presently I am working as a project fellow in Kolkata University and I have the analog circuit simulation which is a very good course especially for me because I am a little bit scared of that subject but after doing the whole 58 lectures course my what I say that scaredness little bit loose and I little bit acquainted with the subject but I am going to cope up with the subject because I have to use in my profession also I have seen several videos from YouTube too on NPTEL and I like the teachers like the lectures that were given there and it was explained very well so that is why I enrolled for the NPTEL courses yes and the teacher in the NPTEL courses are described everything in very simple manner in a very simple way and which is really very familiar to us so that is why you have chosen NPTEL course my name is where are you from? I am coming from Dhan Kuni from which college you are from? I am from Techno India Salt Lake which is the highest degree you have? I have passed diploma how was the exam? the exam was good in which course you give the exam? my course was computer architecture and organization why you choose NPTEL courses? in this site there are very innovative knowledges are given this is very good where are you from? from which college? what is the highest degree you have? master's degree in chemical engineering how was the exam? in which course you give the exam? integrate solid waste management for smart city how is the NPTEL course different from the other courses you have learnt at your college? it was different from the perspective in every small and smaller details including the theoretical perspectives as well as the practical applications with lots of pictures what is happening in the field that was different which I don't get in the general theoretical courses or the courses I have taken before why you choose NPTEL course?


First of all I want to thank Minister Flamagan for his attendance here today which is deeply appreciated and thank you all for coming. I've been asked to give a scene setting introduction and I want to do so on the basis that Brexit is more likely to happen than that and that we better start thinking the unthinkable. This scene setting focuses on what would happen in the aftermath of a vote by Britain to leave the European Union and ends by outlining some of the scenarios that would apply to its future relationship with the Union as a whole and of course the consequences for Ireland. It will emerge that Brexit is indeed a risky business. So the presentation consists of six parts, the background to the IEA project, the political context for the negotiations, the legal framework in which they would be conducted, the options for the UK post Brexit, some future scenarios for the UK and the protection of Irish interests. As the Minister indicated in his very helpful opening remarks, our project was in the instant was set up 25 years ago under the chairmanship of Dr. Garifus Gerald with Dr. Paul Gillespie as the editor of the various publications it has subsequently produced which now includes three books, numerous papers and an ongoing Brexit brief. There is also a microsite on the IEI website and Dr. Dachio Callig who was our ambassador in London for six years from 2001 now heads the project. So it is no knee jerk reaction to the prospect of Brexit but it's a long term systematic study of Britain's dual sovereignty problem that is to say internally with Scotland and externally with Europe and of course with the political and economic consequences for Ireland. So this presentation draws on the analysis generated by a project team which was made up of individuals from many different disciplines and with various life experiences. So the place to start is the political context and in the event of a vote for Brexit, the political situation will change overnight. It will be immediate, dramatic and profound. In the face of defeat, Mr. Cameron will resign as Prime Minister and the political logic seems to dictate that the leave side will take control of the Conservative Party. Within days, certainly within two or three weeks, there will be a new Prime Minister, a new Cabinet with a new Chancellor, a new Foreign Secretary and many other faces in key ministerial positions. The three key Cabinet ministers and many others besides will be newcomers without relevant experience for the task ahead. More ominously, they will be without a game plan for managing the exit process or constructing a new relationship with the EU. As of now, none exists. In the immediate aftermath, there will be political turmoil, particularly within the Conservative Party. Now bearing in mind the situation in the Labour Party, both of the main parties will be driven by this unity precisely at the moment when coherence and unity are at a premium. The turmoil within the political system will be matched by turmoil on the markets, not but standing the fact that they will have already factored in the Brexit effect. The realisation that Britain is really going to leave the European Union would be like stepping into a cold shower by mistake, but the shock effect on the markets and on sterling would be dramatic, as the Minister had said. But the legal context would be shaped not only by the reaction in Britain, but of course by the reaction in the other member states and within the European Union institutions. This belief, disappointment, resentment and anger will vary from capital to capital, but the common denominator will be hostility towards Britain, which in some cases would be poisonous, the worst possible starting point for doing a deal. And that deal will have to be done with the person who has just unhorsed the Prime Minister with whom they had been dealing in good faith, for whom many have affection. Now an alternative scenario advanced by some Tory MPs as late as two days ago is that the current Chancellor will succeed, Mr Cameron. If so, the negotiating environment will be more positive or less negative compared to that of a government led by Mr Johnson. But the argument that Mr Osborn is more likely to succeed Mr Cameron than Mr Johnson comes across to my mind as unconvincing. It is far more likely that Mr Johnson will become Prime Minister and bring a new tone and style to number 10 Downing Street. Now whether they're best suited for the job in hand remains open to debate. As for the legal framework within which the negotiations will take place, they are set out as we know in the treaty on European Union and in the corresponding treaty on the functioning of the European Union. So in general terms, the first defines the union and the other how it works. They're like the memo and arts of a company. But taken together, they constitute the legal basis on which the union rests and how relations between the member states are to be conducted. So the important point here is that the rules of the game for the negotiations are not going to be made on an ad hoc basis. They are already set in stone. They have the force of law and they are not going to be amended. So we look at the negotiating framework as force set out on Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union and secondly in Article 218 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union. So they complement each other and to be read in tandem. Now under Article 50, the process I would draw is initiated by a very simple notification from the United Kingdom to the European Council that it intends to withdraw from membership of the European Union. Can be done by letter, by facts, even by an email. The article states that in the subsequent negotiations, the UK will be negotiating with the Union as a whole and that the Union will be represented by the European Council which of course consists of the heads of state and government. It is charged with negotiating and concluding to use the words of the article and with the United Kingdom and sets out the arrangements for withdrawal and which takes account of the framework for the future relationship of the Union. So there are two items on the agenda. The arrangements for withdrawal which will be extremely complicated as the Minister has hinted and a framework for the future relationship which could be highly contentious. Now the direct effect of Article 50 is that the UK will be negotiating with the Union as a whole as I said rather than bilaterally with other member states. This has implications for all member states in terms of their strategy and their tactics as well of course for the UK. Now the negotiations themselves are to be conducted under Article 218, paragraph 3 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the key point I think anyway is that the European Council will appoint a negotiator or head of a negotiating team as the article said. In my view, this will almost certainly be Donald Tusk, no doubt assisted by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other key figures in the Commission. I think there's a unavoidable logic flowing from the stipulation that the withdrawal agreement is to be negotiated by the Union as a whole. It follows that on one side of the negotiating table there will be a collectivity consisting of 27 member states and on the other side one member state acting in its own behalf. Now while all this is going on, the UK will continue to be represented in the Council and in other Councils but in the European Council by its Prime Minister but politically the die will have been cast although still legally a member of the Union, politically it will already have become an outsider. To make the point, the British Prime Minister will be excluded from the Council meeting room and the other Prime Ministers are meeting to decide on their tactics, joint tactics and strategy. Now with regard to the treaties, the point is here that in its capacity as negotiator, President Tusk or some say President Juncker, the task of the negotiator will be to get a unanimous decision out of the 27 member states. But if that proves impossible, then the withdrawal agreement can be adopted by qualified majority. And this again is defined in another article of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union, this article 238 in paragraph 2. And it's a combination of a majority of the Union's states and population. There must be a majority of both in favour of the agreement. One stipulated a 72% of the member states which would be 15 and 65% of the population. Now in practice as we know these thresholds are generally achieved and the qualified majority voting process itself has an internal dynamic which leads to consensus inside the Council because people don't want to be in the minority. And the odds are that it will work on this occasion. Subject to one major caveat which I'll come to later. Now the logic of qualified majority voting as was intended from the beginning is of course that no member state has a veto over the decision. For the more a blocking minority is very difficult to put together and this occasion I think would be more difficult than normal because those who created would have to live with the consequences of rejecting the withdrawal agreement. So it could be taken generally speaking as a good working assumption that the Council will arrive at a common position no matter how heated the debate inside the Council room or how profound the differences between the member states. What there is a major caveat to be mentioned here as well. If the agreement impinges on the competences of the union it may require a change in the treaties. In which case the Council decision will have to be unanimous. Every member state would then have a veto. That would completely change the political complexion of the negotiations and make the prospect of success far more problematic. It's a sobering thought. There is another issue. Because the European Union is an alliance of peoples as well as states Article 50 gives the European Parliament a role in the decision making process which is easily overlooked. It prescribes that the Council cannot make a decision about the withdrawal agreement until such time as the European Parliament has given its consent to the agreement. This is a process that's been around for 40 years. So there's nothing unusual in this as a procedure as to how the European Union functions as a combination of states and peoples. So in theory the Parliament could delay the Council decision indefinitely by refusing to give its consent for whatever reason. Now in practice it won't do any such thing. But the accepted fact of life is that Parliament has leverage over the Council and it will use it as it thinks fit. So in short the Parliament is going to be a real player here and could be an awkward one if its Eurosceptic minority which is now very substantial decides to kick over to traces. The Minister has mentioned the timetables and that's set out in Article 53. So the wording of the article in the treaty is put forward with what I would call disarming simplicity. It simply states that the treaties will cease to apply to the state in question, the UK, from the date of entering into force of the withdrawal agreement. Cold stuff. In that case it then goes on to put a time limit on the negotiations of two years. So if no agreement has been reached at the end of two years then it's terminated and the UK would overnight fort which seems to be a member of the European Union without any provision being made for its relations with the Union as a whole either political or economic. That would be a pretty drastic turn of events to say the least. So to avoid that doomsday scenario Article 53 goes on to say that the two-year period can be extended by the European Council in agreement with the UK unanimously decided. So it's immediately clear from this formula that any member state would have a veto over the time extension and would have and isn't powered with the capacity to plunge the Union into chaos. So in summary the withdrawal can occur in one of three circumstances within the two years with a deal. At the end of two years with no deal or more than two years with an agreement on a deal. It goes out saying that the ideal outcome would be an agreement within the two years. Now whether a deal can be done within two years is a mood point as can be seen from the following. When it gets underway the process of course is going to consist of parallel and interlocking negotiations. There will be a crucial interpersonal relationship between the new UK Prime Minister and the President of the Council President Tusk. But given the composition of the Council the Prime Minister will have to deal with all of his prime ministerial counterparts all 27 of them both within the Council as a group and separately as individuals. No doubt requiring multiple visits to many of the national capitals. And in addition he'll have to deal personally with the President of the Commission, the President of the European Parliament and it seems inevitable with the presidents of the various European political parties. All in all that's a quite punishing regime. At the same time the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary and the other senior ministers will have to negotiate with our counterparts in the Council in its various formations with the European Commission and its various directors and with the European Parliament and its many committees. So on top of this there will be hundreds of meetings in sectoral and technical committees consisting of politicians, civil servants and experts. Now this tangled web of negotiations will be coordinated by the Committee of Parliamentary Representatives in Brussels, pro-repair, which will be the spider at the center of the web. So it's going to take purely an effort to get an agreement on the modalities of withdrawal and on the form and content of the future relationship all within the space of two years during which time the United Kingdom will be simultaneously negotiating trade deals with the rest of the world. So by the nature of things these negotiations are going to be conducted in separate compartments as you might call it, high politics, prime ministers, technical and other business by the Commission, sectoral issues by the various configurations of the Council and European issues by the Parliament with the Commission doing a lot of the coordinating work. So I think when you look at the agenda you can divide it before the Council into two, one of which is quite technical which is the withdrawal arrangements but the other is highly political. Now the real challenge here is to fashion a new relationship with between Britain and Europe which meets British objectives, conforms with the treaties and satisfies and protects the national interests of all the other member states. That's quite a challenge. So in our book, Britain and Europe, the End Game, we analyse the options open to Britain and acceptable to the European Union. So the context was as follows and it's remained so that many who favour withdrawal from the EU in Britain nevertheless want to maintain British access to the single market. Now their dilemma is that the more access they secure, the more they have to comply with the rules of the single market thereby creating a trade-off between access and sovereignty. So this has led some to conclude that they would be willing to forego access to the single market as the price of restoring what they regard as national sovereignty. Mr. Gold is one such person. Against that background, the first option that we examined was the Norwegian model involving access to the single market to the European economic area but requiring full compliance with the single market rules including freedom of movement of peoples. And after a lot of enthusiasm in Britain, this model has now got little support. The second was the Swiss model consisting of a series of bilateral agreements including the free movement of peoples. But in the intervening period, that model has fallen out of favour within the EU. The third option we examined was out of associate membership like Turkey. But this is a prelude to full membership and as consequently it was dismissed as a non-runner. So that leaves some form of trading relationship as an option. That could be similar to that concluded by Canada recently or a conventional trading relationship under WTO rules, perhaps under the guise of a regional trade agreement. This dag here is that such deals, as we know from the Canadian experience, take time, a lot of time. And meanwhile, the clock is ticking. So for the sake of completeness, just to say the final model to be mentioned is the second referendum on a deal yet to be constructed between the EU and the Union which would involve substantial reform of the Union as the UK side sees it. This was the original proposal, as you recall, of Mr. Johnson. Since then it seems to have gone off the boil, but from a European perspective, it would be outside the realms of practical politics, to say the least. So in the light of that analysis, the project team is generally of the view that a new form of relationship would have to be devised with the UK. This is not beyond, I think, a lot of experience and too much experience in dealing with Europe as a whole. It's not beyond the ingenuity of the politicians, the civil servants, diplomats or legal experts. The institutional innovation is one of the great strengths of the European Union and I think it would be brought to bear in this instance. However, that puts the spotlight on political will. So normally, the necessary political will could be taken for granted. But the impending elections in some of the member states put it in question and they could weaken the political will perhaps drastically. In fact, everything depends, everything depends on the continued existence and strength of the Franco-German alliance which is at the core of the union. Now the electoral timetable is not helpful. First of all, it includes a presidential election in France in April and May of next year and a federal election in Germany the following August, September. Now it's widely accepted, as we know, on the basis of the opinion polls that President Hollande will not be re-elected and that Madame Le Pen of the Front National will do well. Some believe she will win. In which case, all bets are off. Others go for Alain Joutain which has a more likely successor. In which case, all bets are on again. So, up to recently in Germany, it was expected that Mrs. Merkel will be returned as chancellor but the immigration crisis has weakened her politically as seen from the rise of the national populist AFD, alternative for the Dutch land, that party. And ominously, rumbling is within the Christian Democratic Union in Nigeria that it might end its long-standing relationship with the CDU. Now where she to lose, it would be back to the drawing board for everybody. In short, the Franco-German alliance is under stress at the very moment when it's needed most. And there are dangers in Italy which is always central to the balance where Prime Minister Renzi has gambled everything on a referendum. And if he loses, it's going to shift the balance in the nature of within the council and shift its nature of political complexion. Italy will go Eurosceptic probably under Mr. Senor Grillo. And then add in uncertainty about Spain as we know at the moment, Poland, Austria, Hungary and even the Netherlands and some elements of Scandinavia such as Finland. So in certain circumstances, the consensus model and there is a consensus model which has prevailed since this union was set up in the 1950s, it could unravel. And certainly the communitaire spirit that produces win-win solutions would be weakened, paradoxically to the disadvantage of Britain who has so often criticized it. So the complicate matters even worse in politics is like that. The UK takes over the EU presidency from July to December, 2007, then right in the middle of the negotiations. So nobody knows how this will play out, especially if there are situations in which there is a perception of conflict of interest between the chair and the council as a whole. So we then went on to analyze the, I'll move quickly here because of that background through the sort of psychological atmosphere prevailing and governing the outcome. The first one was the benign negotiating environment where everybody is set on a deal and it happens quickly. Other than the spectrum as Dagger's drawn, the poisonous atmosphere, the negotiations are characterized by animosity, bad will, unpredictable outcome. It's a zero sum game and most people lose. Third, lies somewhere in the middle, resulting from various developments, changes in governments, panic on the markets, the sheer complexity of the whole process. And we have called this confusion and we give rise to an outcome which is messy with everybody losing out and nobody's fault but many fear that this is going to be the outcome. That's where life is. The fault is at Limbo land, in other words, if you don't get to the two years and the guillotine comes down and the UK simply says it's to be a member overnight. Enlightened self-interest is what people like me hope for but then maybe to being too rational. So you're going to get a good outcome. Nobody knows how it's actually going to play out because of all the moving parts in play over the next few months. So just to conclude, as the minister indicated in the closing section of the speech, it's self-evidence that Ireland will need to be crystal clear in circumstances of a Brexit about his national interest and how they are to be protected. So analysis so far within the group has come up with a series of red line issues, self-evident, border controls, customs, which the minister mentioned, tariff regime, supply chains, agribusiness exports, protection of the financial services sector, maintenance of our foreign direct investment regime, it'll accept uncompetitive regulation, energy and so on. So more issues can be added here and we will be very pleased to accept input from business. A final thought. I've said the opinion polls indicate that Brexit is a possibility and I think a real possibility. We don't know what that would entail, but even without a benign bespoke solution for the UK, Britain would be isolated psychologically and politically from Europe to an extent a two degree that is greater than at any point in the last half century when it joined in this great enterprise. Hence it will be separated from Ireland to a non-precedented extent since 1973. But the great benefits of joint membership of the union as the minister has outlined would be undone. And this would pose the biggest strategic challenge for Ireland since the advent of economic and monetary union when we chose to join and Britain did not. Should the withdrawal agreement require parliamentary ratification, as seems likely, there will be calls here, let's be very clear, for a referendum that is inevitable in my mind. And if a referendum is held on the withdrawal agreement, it'll be on the ratification of the withdrawal agreement, there will be a lot of opposition and we know from experience that there are so many reasons always for voting no. So let's face the fact that it could be defeated. In which case, of course, our membership of the union itself here would be called into question. So Brexit is not just a risky business, it could turn out to be an existential threat. So I hope this overview hasn't frightened you too much. I hope it's been of some help setting the scene for the debate that follows and just that we can add by way of a PS. In the event of the vote being yes, as we would all wish, of Britain staying in, then we will have another conference at which we will examine the consequences of the February agreement on how Britain's relationship with the European Union will work out. I hope to see you at that. Thank you.


Doctor Who is back for series four and that's not the only thing coming back. I'm over the moon about Casperding coming back. I mean we get on thick as thieves so it really helps with the performances when you have two actors that can get on that well. I'm sorry Donna, I'm so sorry but okay can you give me something to work with here because I'm getting sick of carrying the show on my two shoulders and who left this bow mic here? I will kill! And I'm so lucky to be written by Russell T. Davis. I mean he is one of this country's greatest writers. Working with David is an absolute delight. I definitely made the right choice of those years ago to you know choose him as the doctor and he is so uh handsome and and smart and he's not watching this is he? This is my dream job you know and I will make it exactly how I want.