Well, we've got a real treat here today everybody, thank you so much for joining us, we are really, really excited to spend this time today on a big picture topic and that strategic planning and kind of melding that into board work so again we want to thank all of our sponsors without you we would not be here. And I want to really give my full appreciation to bloom or rang to boardable fundraising Academy mission that staffing boutique nonprofit HR moves management windspire. And of course the American nonprofit Academy and the nonprofit nerd herself, the Raven group Jared ransom. So we have a really big treat today again I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American nonprofit Academy, but today we're going to put Jared ransom the nonprofit nerd co host of the nonprofit show on the hot seat today. And we are going to drill down into that amazing grain of hers and talk about strategic planning board work retreats, all of these words are changing and swirling around in our heads. So thank you Jared for letting us take this time. Of course you like to put me in the hot seat and I kind of like it because it gives me that opportunity to nerd out. You know, and so this is this is certainly a topic that is a passion of mine, but one of the big service lines that I do offer. So talking about this, especially in our recovery phase is really important so I'm happy to serve this role today. Well, you know it's so interesting. The reason I think why I felt compelled to bring you in and talk about this is that we're looking at now of a recovery phase for our communities for our operations. And so I really wanted to kind of now look at this where a year into this life altering change that the pandemics have brought upon us. And I'm talking about COVID I'm talking about the economy. I'm talking about social justice issues, and even the political climate. Given that, I'd love for you to really help us understand how moving forward, we might look at board retreats with the notion of how do we bring people together to plan, especially when there's this has been such a time of fear. And a lot I've heard this I'm sure you've heard this, how can we plan when we don't even know what our reality is going to be. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's a fascinating problem, but I think you're going to tell us you still need to plan. Yes, spoiler alert. Absolutely. And really, you know, planning is part of the process and so you know really is a big commitment. So when I work with my clients and talk to nonprofit leaders, you know, I have started to bear away from the word retreat, as well as the word facilitation. So when we're looking in this modern space, you know it really is a process. And so it's a series of events that aren't that one and done retreat. And that's really the purpose of kind of taking those two words away is that it's not a one and done. It is a process. It's a commitment. It takes staff it takes board members and other stakeholders to really be focused on the process, so that you can truly, you know, meet your mission driven goals. Okay, so. So, in the traditional sense of it, that one day, you know, you start right after breakfast you work through lunch and hopefully you're done by three is not going to cut the mustard as they say. No, and I'm familiar with that process and I think that's something that maybe most of us have been a part of before either, you know, serving on the board or being on the leadership team, or like me being a part of, you know, the larger conversation. So I've done that but I have really seen a best practice in our sector, completely change and I mentioned to you in our Chitty chat chat session Julia. I really started seeing this change, probably five maybe a little bit more than that years ago. And so it's really not the one and done day of of a board retreat again that word retreat, you know, really lends itself to, we're come here, we're going to have this kumbaya moment we're going to get to know our board members we're going to be in the same space, it's going to help us feel good and get to know our peers. But I really believe that that one and done day does your organization to service so that should be one of several meetings and discussions so that you can truly work towards. I'm just going to keep saying it mission driven goals. Interesting interesting so. Wow so what you just said has asked me thinking about so many things I have so many questions because this is really a pretty substantial shift in approach and mentality. So, let's back up and talk about, you know, board meetings and board retreats or seminars or sessions, whatever we want to, however we want to frame that in I are out in real life. We're talking about recovery things we're going to be working with groups who haven't physically been together, whether they are physically together or not. Get rid of that one shot planning. And then just go back to doing your regular work right if your goal is to create a strategic plan. If your goal is educational in nature, or that camaraderie. The retreat and that our word could stay that you know that is is fine it's really coming down to what are our expectations right what is it that we're doing in this recovery phase. As you have on the slide here meeting I RL in real life. I have heard from so many individuals over the last, even I'm going to say 18 months right which shakes us before the pandemic really started to shake up our lives. Individuals or nonprofit leaders were really starting to cast their net wider with the board members that they were attracting and bringing on board. Well, since the pandemic, there have certainly been a shift into our increase of, of technology, right and so we have brought in even more champions of various communities so they may not be within our local community, but because of our access to technology. We have maybe caught the attention right and attracted individuals from other parts of the world, or other parts of your state let's let's even narrow it down to your state. So what does it look like if these board members have not even met one another they really don't know their peers there's no camaraderie built beyond what's in the square. And that's the same Julia for staff for leadership right there have been organizations that have brought on as we've learned from our wonderful sponsor Katie with staffing boutique. You know many organizations and many leaders have not even met their staff in real life it's all been through this virtual reality. And so it's going back to your expectation, what is the expectation of your gathering. What do you want to walk away with. Is this a one and done or is this truly a series of events that make up a process for your strategic plan and that's what we're talking about today I believe is really this strategic planning process. Okay, so if that's the case, and this is like kind of an in the weeds question, but this is such a big concept, it's such a shift from what the normal board member is going to know or understand. I would argue that most higher functioning boards have board members that are serving on other boards right at the same time, where they happen so that that's even another deeper layer because there's like this cadre of community leaders board members that kind of are all doing the same thing. Right. So then how do you navigate such a change in thought action indeed to the organization, are you working with like the CEO, trying to explain this is how we're going, this is how we could structure this, or the board chair or a combination I mean like how do you, you facilitate and I know that's a word that we'll talk about a little bit as well. But how do you, you navigate such a major change. So that is something that I work directly with the CEO or executive director kind of an interchangeable term in our landscape as well as the board chair. So that's something that I work with them on to say, you know, here's the process in which I deliver. This is what it looks like this is the commitment that I need from you and the various stakeholders. But again, I alluded are shared that five years ago was really when I started seeing the shift. So it's not just me and it's not just a handful of, you know, professionals out there saying hey let's get away from the one and done retreat or let's get away from hiring someone to merely facilitate us right that's the F word that we wanted to mention was facilitation. And so it really is shifting how we at large our leadership really starts to look at this.  Oftentimes we create a strategic plan and we never revisit it. It sits on the shelf or nowadays it sits on our desktop right, we don't revisit it there's no accountability. There is no check and balance there's no course correct it's like. Oh yeah, that that thing we have one but I can't tell you the last time we've looked at it.  Generally, there's going to be at least 20 and this is my opinion you're going to get at least 25% of the topics that haven't even been broached let alone not reached.  Generally, because it's not in front of you, you know it's it's not being revisited it's kind of like the concept with mission met. And their software allowing you to go back and it's a living thing and you see it going on but I like the approach that you're taking of saying, rather than looking this at this is like a one action weekend or day or what retreat. Making it part of your your process throughout the year. Right, and here's, and here's the thing. Just as we all experienced last year I don't think any of you, including myself, you know had that crystal ball to envision a pandemic. When you have this as a process, it allows you the opportunity for all the champions, all the voices to come back together and say, What do we do now. How do we pivot that P word how do we adapt to the current environment what do we need to do to meet the community's needs right that's why we exist nonprofits exist because there is a problem in the community, and we're here to help provide a solution or solution, plural. So when that changes, we need to know what we need to do to address the current situation. So during an annual process that does actually deliver a higher performing pool measurement, all the nice words to put in there right so that you can then make changes tweaks and changes, according to what the current needs are, and that might even mean you know shifting your goals. And let me drill down a little bit and talk about understanding how we are successful, and maybe even looking at a little bit of the flow so I'm assuming you still would want to have like a bigger commitment of time, and unless I'm misunderstanding this, then throughout the course of the year, you have regularly the check ins or drill downs to make sure that you're still moving forward and the process is front and center and all that. Absolutely. So when I work with my clients, I can I can talk to you through my method right and I've certainly done some benchmarking of what's being done out there the sector at large or strategic planning professionals. So there's a four part process in which I walk my clients through, and of that has from me constant communication so it's not, you know, it doesn't go from a one and done to a four and done it's really an annual partnership. So changing that language at large tells the organization and me the board members again these stakeholders that I continue mentioning because it's not just the CEO and me doing this, this is really a process and an invitation of stakeholders. So for me it's a four part process and it begins with a really a survey and assessment of some key data points. I pull in those data points from the various people that the survey has been sent to. I analyze that data, I present the data at what most would would remember as a board retreat so we are meeting in person. I just did this a couple of weeks ago couple of weekends, and it was a Friday. It was a large conference room right everyone had their own banquet table, everyone wore a mask, including myself. So, when we're looking at this recovery phase, I do think that people are looking at the opportunity to get together for multiple reasons I mentioned and having people really build that community. So that that is one step of the process and that really helps to take the data that's come in, you know, provide this the synthesis or the data report and then carry us forward, right. So based off of what you said here's where we're going, are we in the right direction do we have the right people in the car to get us there, and, and it's just a series of conversation, right it is an ongoing annual partnership of conversations. I'm thinking about this. I'm thinking that this gives even more credence to the concept of really, really front and loading your consent agenda, so that when your board members come that that you are actually spending time on this work and not the, you know, the reports and kind of your your arming your board with more information so that they are in essence more governance and planning oriented. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that really keeps the ball in the, you know, forward moving, or if something halts that ball and it can't move like the pandemic you know we're all in the same space and again that's whatever kind of space works for you and your organization to really address this and absolutely that consent agenda for the board meetings then you know it really does change change the conversation. Yeah. Now, let me ask you this with this higher level thinking and approach. What if you are an executive director that says I mean I just worked with somebody last night for two hours. And the topic was board engagement, and they are really struggling to get their board members to engage.  What do you do, or let me rephrase that can you do this method, if you don't have a fully engaged board. That's always you know the million dollar question and one of the big, I know one of the big questions I get you know of how do I get my board to become more engaged. So just go back to the 8020 rule, right you will have 20% of the board members doing 80% of the work. Unfortunately, I will say that, you know, you want that to change you can set those expectations as you onboard your, your board of directors so as you bring them on you want to set very clear expectations of their service to the organization. I don't know that you know we can address that specifically one in our time that we have left, but it really is the culture of philanthropy and the culture of engagement that the organization sets right when you bring on that new board member. But as it relates to the strategic planning process Julia you definitely do want to have that 20% there right and again I'm talking about you need a quorum of course I would think that it's not necessarily a voting meeting so we're not you know pushing forward any, you know, request a vote, but you do want the lion share of your board there but you definitely want those that are actively engaged, and I find those that show up for the process and for these series of discussions. Those are the ones that are engaged. It almost seems to me to that it might build engagement. Yes, meaning that you know, versus like that one shot day deal where you put all your eggs in that basket and then it just sits there. I can see where it might foster stronger engagement because there's a thread there that you can follow, and that I believe and this might be a Polyanna thing but I believe board members want to be successful. I just don't always know how to be successful, and what it means to be a board member, and what the expectation is so that if you can spell that out up front to your point on the onboarding, then you're going to have, you know, a better performance from everyone. But I'm wondering about this process, if it just really takes a normal board person board member to that next level because it's more strategic in terms of helping them short a chart that course. I think it does. I definitely think it does from the ones that I've been a part of and you know I really had the privilege to be a part of the strategic planning process. I continue to see the same faces and I continue to hear, you know their voices being shared in the discussion and so it gives them something to one people support and that in which they help create I you know that is a great statement and people support that in which they help they create. So, bringing them into hey you are helping us create the strategic plan. We want your mind there we want your opinion we want your thought process we want you to help us create the plan, and then to continue that conversation right and so when it is consistent throughout the year in this partnership that I say right it really does foster a higher higher engagement, higher engagement. Also I want to ask you we don't have that much time left but I'm, you know, a lot of times I have felt when working in the strategic planning sphere that if you're not there for that. You know one day, long day or weekend or long weekend or whatever. You're not a part of it. Pardon me, it's, it's hard to catch up. It's hard to get looped back in. This seems like that helps take that that away that it keeps engaging people, and then I don't want to say they can jump in but they can, they can come up to speed faster. It's, it's more of a consistent piece. Sitting on the shelf right sitting on the shelf.  Right. Okay, last, I mean this has been fascinating and I really appreciate you helping us explore this. My last question to you kind of is is a question that I wouldn't have even thought of. A few months ago and that is the relationship and you said this the very beginning, the relationship of how we're looking at boards are not just coming from our immediate neighborhood. They're coming from around, in some cases the globe but certainly, you know, we've spread our wings we're getting more people outside of our communities, maybe in rural parts, regionally, even across the nation. How does this structure work. If you have a board that is not all in the same community. Yeah, you know, I think this takes us back to that technology component, ideally when we can meet in person. That's great. But as we look at this recovery phase and continue our life. You know, we've said for the longest time, I don't think we'll ever go back to what was right so we're continuing, we're continuing with what is and what will be. So there could be an opportunity for your board members to come into town, are you all meeting one specific area or these series of engagements, but again the way I engage it does have that technology component so we are able to really bring everyone back into the conversation regardless of where they're located. And so that's you know that's good but it is a question of does this change does this really shift the paradigm of how we engage with our board, and to whom and do we even look at to bring on to the board. What are you saying Julia because you, I mean you're very involved in the board piece of this so even pre pandemic right have you been on a national board where you've brought in other board members or you've had other board members from different communities come into town. So I think there are a couple strategies. I think that in some cases I've seen organizations where they choose a different community that has a link to what it is they're doing. So for example in the cultural world. I've seen, and I'll speak directly to opera boards where they'll go to another city with an opera company, and then they use that time to learn what that particular company is doing. And it might be from visiting their campus, their training facilities, their performing center, and in watching the performance and then learning and sharing from that, because that sector works together. They, they rent each other's equipment and stages and costumes and technologies and even actual property. So that works. I think the other piece of that is that you have to have a board that has the ability to do that, right, or to fund that. So this is a big thing is how do you fund this. You know, do you have a requirement, which is that sometimes they call board dues that says you're going to have to cough up five grand a year in travel. And now that's going to be a heavy lift for some people. You might have to scholarship in a couple of those board members if you're looking to get younger or more diverse board. And that can be done. But yeah, there's a reality there to how you expense this out because it is, it can be incredibly expensive. Yeah, I have seen it done both ways where the organization and covers the cost, or the organization says upfront, there will be travel, you know, cost, and so the board members are aware of that. Right, and that becomes part of their donation.  So that people know and then a third way before we, we have to wrap up today's episode, you pay your board dues into the organization, and then the organization facilitates the travel and management. For example, when you're spending on let's say I've been on boards where the board dues were only 500 bucks but you know that $500 is going towards the cost of travel and, you know, meeting space or whatever. A lot of different ways. Well, this has been, you know, I always, I have to say, Jared, I do think you're one of the amazing minds of our nation in the nonprofit space and I'm so honored that you are here with me every day but I really have to say I love it when I just get you by yourself as a guest to explore something different because it's just so eye-opening. Again, here's Jared's information you know my information you don't need that, but check out the ravengroup.com. Jared, Raven's your middle name? It is. Yeah, so that's where it comes from. Okay, that's where it comes from. Awesome. I think you told me that once and then I because I always wondered like, where did that come from but anyway, yeah, check it out. There's a lot of really good information and I think this is something that is a new dawn for us in the nonprofit sector and it's very exciting, so yay team. I also want to share with you we've got our new book club. Check it out. There are a lot of authors on our book club that have actually been on the nonprofit show and you can see this on the American nonprofit Academy website. Thank you to all of our presenting sponsors. Again, we would not be here without you. And I want to remind everybody as we bid adieu to this episode of the nonprofit show. Stay well, so you can do well. Thank you, Jared, for doing so well today.


Welcome to JSA TV Europe together with the greener data movement for this quarter's live event focused on the European digital infrastructure sustainability I'm Joe March Lim and joining me today is died Eric Vinikage co-founder and commercial director of trans Ix Derek, thank you so much for coming on boards I mean what's happening in the European connectivity space it is very very interesting and I mean We're building infrastructure at the speed of light almost literally To to keep our millions of people connected But when you look into the connectivity business in Europe, do you think this is an area or segments or markets? They is green enough or on a good path to become climate friendly Yeah As you said We're going with lightspeed at the moment all data centers are especially in Holland are Yeah The green green power. Do you call it? It's going really fast. Everything has to be Exactly right for power consumption with the latest Modification is the EFV so we need to Put every server on a balanced mode to have the correct way of using the power in all our hardware So yeah, especially in Holland, not sure about the rest of Europe, but it goes really fast Standards are high that need to be bet Yeah, I mean we were there just a couple weeks ago for an event and the sustainability conversation What's happening in the Netherlands is completely different not completely, but it's slightly further ahead Of some other markets in Europe But when you look even when you look into the Netherlands, what else do you think the industry should be doing more or better? To really advance the sustainable sustainable movement forwards and really become green Well, the initiatives that are running at the moment for example heating up homes around the data centers It's a really good way of Using the worms generated by data centers for the people because all of us are quite small country We they try to do the edge thing here, but if you throw rocks you hit the data center, so Especially if you if you place it in near Where people live we can use all the worms generated by the data center to work the houses I think there are a few big initiatives at the moment running I think it's called block heating and they have a really good proposition in Holland to Yeah, make sure we use everything that's needed Interesting. So in your opinion the industry is going in the right direction In Holland it is not really sure about our direct neighbors The market in Germany in Belgium and in France are completely different, of course Then then the Dutch will always want to be the first in everything And after a few months years stress falls And some slightly different challenges as well in those bigger markets they mentioned Special on the back of the other power crisis that Europe is going through If we're looking to Transi X now, so the company that you run Talk us through what do you exactly do what Marcus do you serve? Is it just Dutch or is it also outside of the Netherlands and who your clients are? Yeah, we're a medicine service provider We're one of the Flexible men's service providers as like to call it because we don't have a specific market that we don't want as we serve For every customer there is the correct solution For example, no, I said edge or on-premise hardware or in the data center or no no hardware at all if you don't need it We try to Get as close to the customers possible to have the best solution in Holland we have a lot of Solar power for bigger companies. So currently we're looking into Moving some of the workload to the customers There is an energy crisis But depends on who you ask what the crisis is because we generate a lot of power for solar wind Especially the Nordics cost the nor the Nordics countries Currently the problem is the grid We have so much power. We can Disturbed it correctly But if we move some of the loads to the customer the bigger customers We should have some more green initiatives, but that's still an early idea If it uses the edge That's the limit are you caught it? interesting Sorry at your own premise And then if we're looking to how Transax itself Is becoming or turning or improving its greennessy of business? What what's the company doing around being sustainable and that can be any scope the three scopes can be What are you guys doing to become green or green enough? Yeah internally we try to have some green initiatives like lunch make the Movements of our colleagues as little as possible if we don't have to drive don't drive and hyper I call it We do the last few years we really put everything in our own clouds around data center, so we went from 40 racks to 20 just to lower the power consumption Next to that we're trying to look into some initiatives To compensate the the footprint One of the ideas may be a plant trees and stuff like that no We need to power we need to But we can compensate it by order to a other ways Interesting, and then so if we look into the next 12 18 months of business strategy, what are the plans for Transax? Yeah, currently we are What last year's we did a lot of private clouds we did some public clouds, but Dutch people rather have their own hardware Yeah Of course if you bite yourself, it's cheaper and I can't argue with that of course Well, the next following years Today we're going to publish Partnership with a cloud supplier What we want to do is place more smaller clouds In Netherlands and use the power combined. There's some big examples in America. For example, I think Chica chica filet Not sure about that the company that uses a every branch has his own cubanese platform and they use the combined power To supply the rural application or infrastructure We want to do the same in Holland Because you can have 20 people that buy a private cloud with only use one third of it You better can maybe deliver 10 and use 100 percent Efficient so that's one of the things we're working on the following 12 months deploying that in Holland and See if people want to join Interesting. Well, hopefully they will but it is it is an interesting concept because it's almost like build your own clouds Yeah, or be be why you see Self-adringed just bring your own cloud. Yeah bring your own cloud and use your over capacity one of the Things in Europe is especially against that the bigger Giants like Amazon and and Microsoft all have a great product It works Perfectly not not always but it works But we don't have a really European version some of those initiatives How can I say it crashed and burned or still crashing? so Bring it back to the end user and starting small we should be able to have some proper way to Go on against that the bigger guys Who'd be interested to do the use case in case that is they come out of it There was a story yesterday and I can't remember what company was but they said they saved about 400 million dollars By not storing with AWS Yeah, so because they got their own service so they went and built their own thing. Yeah, a lot of money Yeah, that's that's one of the things we saw in the last eight years a lot of development Developers just keep on adding machines and excellent works until the CFO comes to you and say why we're paying that much at the moment my biggest Plush against the bigger guys is that CFO comes to us. Listen, we're paying a 70 80 title 100 euros a month Do we really need it? Our company looks into the design What you actually need and I think nine out of ten times with a single investment or There will be a lot much cheaper because Example what somebody paid 80,000 years a month we built a platform for 600,000 euros that can last them for five years And can do almost the same except for some nice tools that the big guys have so Got a signature really quickly No, that's interesting, but I think you'd also need a partner like yourselves To come and build it because if I guess if people start going on their own and building their own things like in the old days What used to be before we're going to public cloud and the whole thing Cheaper doesn't always mean greener. No in a way So that's why external partnerships are needed to help manage the loads and make sure that the equipment is being used to its best Uptime Yeah, a great example there is that if you want to build it, it's really complex You need a lot of people a lot of engineers and at the moment we don't have enough in the in especially in Holland I think it's for the rest of Europe as well But how we can do that just make a small cloud server where you can have your production 24-7 let it run and do Something like a beam cloud connect, you know Put it on our data center where we share a bigger platform for a lot of customers and if you need to Evade because you're For dutch your your office is underwater We can stand and start an opinion in our data center, but in the meantime, it's just down doesn't use anything It's just for you the security that you can Continue your business They need companies like us to have proper design and Especially work out the cost of course. Yeah, and I think that's kind of the the big difference between Building something like this today and the ones they used to be built before public cloud So the on-prem Enterprise isn't before the clouds. It's really the external partnerships. They come in and bring all the skills And the management platforms as well in a way Yeah, so so but then by there So if people want to to learn more about what trans X does and then of course keep up with the news of what's coming Especially announcement later today How can they reach out and being touch and follow you to find out what's going on with the with the business? Yeah, of course, I could visit our site Dot-com is already online for the English version And they can always contact me or one of my engineers currently with with 40 people for MSP in Holland I recall it Big enough What we we want to grow, but we want to keep the direct connection to the customer If they want to meet email text what's up, I don't have Facebook, but I don't have a snapchat, but I use the mail and my mobile and Yeah, we as an engineering Department we lack a little bit in marketing But for us it works because people find us because they know Really straightforward And we tell what you need or what you don't need Yeah, and sometimes delivering a good product is more powerful than any marketing campaign that will come to top up The the the work that's been done But the important is to really deliver a good product that you're happy with and then business will follow It's yeah, it's always a good business Yeah, and we are known for our 24-7 We monitor everything we have customers that are in the oil. So we monitor big ships We have accountants agencies a lot of Yeah, bigger companies that rely on us for monitoring their complete infrastructure and of course React if there's something goes wrong Security is a high demand at the moment, of course. Oh, yeah. Well, especially in the days that we live But that there are things so much for talking to me As I mean, thank you And then as for your home Thank you for joining and for watching JSA TV live and don't forget to check our social channels for more content Until next time happy networking


Hello. I welcome you all. Once again to my channel, Explore Education, I am Dr. Rashmi Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Education, SS Khanna Girls' Really College, University of Allahabad. And in the series of discussing topics on the main theme, educational research, I am this time, this time I am going to discuss the topic, monitoring the quality of research in education. Okay. The lecture will be in bilingual mode and it is, it must be useful for various purposes for teachers as well as students. Okay. So, first of all, we are going to talk about monitoring the quality of research in education. It means that we do the research that we do, how does it be monitored, or which body does it do, or which parameters of the day it is monitored, or what is the standard on which research is not bought and your research is considered to be bad. That is why I have talked about good quality research, ethical issues in research and today, I am going to talk about monitoring the quality of research in education. Okay. So, first of all, let us know what is the present state of research. We have here, what is the state of research, what is the present state of research. So, you all know that it is not good, there is a consensus that bearing of few exceptions, the overall quality of university and college level research in India is far from satisfactory. That is to say, in India, in our Indian studies, the researches at the university and the researches at the higher education level are far from satisfactory. This means that there is no satisfaction, there is no satisfaction in the state of research. Or you can say that indeed in many institutions, the quality of research is alarmingly poor. In a large number of cases, thesis do not conform to international standards and do not make significant contributions to theoretical or applied aspects of a given discipline. There are many researches like this, thesis like this, which are not bought on standards and international national, which are not bought on a standard and which are the common goals of the country that they have to do some contribution in their discipline, they have to enhance it in the field of knowledge, they do not do it. Then to be sure, policy makers have long been aware of the dismal state of research in India. That is, it is not that they do not know what is the state of research. Policy makers know that in India, the state of research is not right. They have known it for a long time. Time and again, questions have been raised on the quality and authenticity of the research output. So, in this case, the Government of India G.O.I. has done two things. It is talking about 2013. I am talking about 10 years ago. It was made by Rusa. Rusa is a national university student. And it was made so that the higher education institutions like funding and institutions who need it do not affect the research because of the lack of money. And in 2015, the government of India G.O.I. launched the National Institutional Ranking Framework. One of the important parameters of the ranking is research. It was launched through rank universities and institutes in various parameters including research. So that we can know which institution is the most important in the research parameter. The rest of the institutions have to deal with it. Following the guideline, following its philosophy, with a little flexibility, we can do research here. Or we can know which model is most popular and most successful. So, this is the root of the research. Then, UGC. We all know that UGC is one of our higher education institutions. It is one of our higher education institutions. It is one of our higher education institutions. We all know that UGC is one of our higher education institutions. It has been in many UGC documents since. Sorry. So, I have tried to cover it document wise. It is a 1984 document. How many years has it been? It used to be 24 years. It is 39 years now. It is telling that coordination and maintenance of standards in teaching. 40 years ago, UGC is talking about maintaining the standards of teaching and research. It is saying that it is the statutory responsibility of the UGC. And in this connection, the commission consults the universities as well as the experts on its various panels. UGC has done a lot of panel discussions with experts and university members. And it found that the policy was circulated to the university. And it circulated to the universities. And it said that it is up to frame their own statutes and ordinances. It is saying that we have made a policy for the university. And you make your own policy, your own statutes and ordinances with due regard to the guidelines provided. Meaning that you have to keep that main guideline in mind. But as also to flexibility which may be desirable. But if, sorry, it is not so rigid that you will follow it word to word. In fact, you have to keep the flexibility when it is necessary. But you have to keep the guidelines in mind. The act of the commission imparts it to frame regulations in some of those matters. And the violation of the regulations by any institution could cause suspension or withdrawal of the grants provided by the commission. And it says that it has given you a little flexibility. But if you follow these rules, you will know that the work of funding is done by UGC. So the grants given by UGC will be withdrawn from you. In research, the commission has taken a number of policy decisions to make more money available to expand the base. For example, in minor and major research projects and to improve the infrastructure in selective institutions in order to enable them to rate standards of post-regulated education and attract projects from many national agencies in relation to areas of national importance. I mean, in this policy, it came out that we have to give funding. The lack of money, like in the Roosa case. So they are saying that minor and major research projects are being asked by you for applications that you can make and send. And if UGC passes it, it will fund it. Meaning, the good researchers who have a research mindset and who have skills, they don't lack money to complete their research work. Okay. Sorry. Then after 1984, look at the document of 2019. UGC has constituted a committee on promoting and improving the quality of research in universities or colleges. That's why they made this committee, in which they talked about how quality of research should be promoted and improved. So the committee had submitted its report just two parts. In two parts, the committee submitted its report. Which two parts? The first part is that improving the quality of research by faculty in creation of new knowledge and strategies for improving research culture in colleges and universities. They are saying that the quality of research by faculty should be improved and the research culture should be created in colleges and universities. And they also proposed a UGC regulation. They gave minimum standards and principles for the award of M-FIL and Ph.D. degrees. They are saying that the minimum standard for the award of M-FIL and Ph.D. degrees should be at least that much. That's why you will get the Ph.D. award. So in two parts, they published my report. They submitted the document of 2019. Okay. Then, determinants for poor quality research. Which are the determinants that stop good research from happening? So UGC has looked into the matter of poor state of research in universities and higher education institutes and found so many factors responsible for it. UGC found that the first reason why research is not working well is that increasing numbers are becoming more and more likely to have Ph.D. degrees. As mentioned above during the last few decades, the number of admissions to Ph.D. or M-FIL courses have almost doubled during the years from 2010 to 2020. Meaning that only in 2010 to 2017, the number of people enrolled in Ph.D. is decreasing. The primary reason for this search is mainly due to making Ph.D. one of the prerequisites for entry to faculty positions in universities and also for career advancement. This is because Ph.D. has been linked to that if you want to recruit college students then you should have Ph.D. or if you want to have career advancement then you should have Ph.D. This is the reason that so many people are enrolled in Ph.D. Okay. Then what is infrastructure and funding? There is a lack of qualified human resources for research guidance and poor physical infrastructure and inadequate funding. Meaning that the funding is up and up. Infrastructure is not good and we don't even have qualified human resources to guide research. So what will be the institutional framework? Universities, system emphasis on teaching over research. We generally have more emphasis on teaching over research. That's why you should have the NEP 2020 to distinguish where more emphasis is on teaching over research and where more emphasis is on research. Then, rigid admission rules. That means the rule of admission is very rigid. Lack of inter-multi- and trans-disciplinary culture in universities. Look, the policy of 2020 is also telling us that we have to be inter-disciplinary. We have to be multi-disciplinary. We have to be trans-disciplinary. But you must know that you must have felt that researches are singular. Singular, single disciplinary. No use of trans-multi- inter-disciplinary researches. We have very few of them. Then, the absence of academic mentorship provided by senior faculty members in balancing teaching loads and research requirements. The senior faculty members don't often make this balance between teaching load and research requirements. This is also a big reason. Okay. Then, Publication, Ethics, and Peer Review Culture. You came to these ethical issues in research. The mandatory requirement of publications in journals and conference proceedings for the award of doctoral degrees and as a metric in evaluating faculty under the API score has resulted in a proliferation of predatory journals and conferences which have abundant classical peer review as a method of quality control. That is, the culture of peer review the culture of blind review that you would send articles, review it properly then you would send it to the correction then you would send it to the foundation then you would send it to the correction and then it would come in the final shape and publish it. Now, it is very less. It is less. I mean, we follow good journals. But the signs of good journals are less. People's reach is less. There is no information because they follow such a rigid standard. So, it is scary to give a man. He thinks, okay, if you see the money is being published, then why do you work so hard? Everyone wants to save from hard work in general. And this mandatory requirement that you have to publish your paper in the journal conference proceedings which has also ruined this culture. Plagiarism and data manipulation are issues of great concern which damage the credibility of research emanating from our institutions. Institutions must take the responsibility for ensuring academic standards and for emphasizing to both students and faculty the importance of maintaining the highest standards of integrity in academic research. They are saying that our institutions should take this responsibility to emphasize on academic standards. And quality of students seeking admission to PhD programs. Large number of students taking admission to PhD programs carry with them an accumulated deficit of disciplinary knowledge and research methodology and often even lack communication skills and linguistic competence. The students who are coming to PhD main board are saying that they have no disciplinary knowledge no research methodology no communication skills no language commands so how do we make them PhD? So that's why you have to know that now a free PhD course is done after the PhD main mission you have to do a course then you start your work so that your basic background then research quality and culture of innovation are saying that the strengthening of research culture in the higher education institution requires a culture of research that is anchored in robust classroom pedagogy and curricula designed to arouse intellectual curiosity and its and its and its appropriate channelization and imparting of research tools and techniques to ensure that it eventually reaches free use. They are saying that our own pedagogy and curricula we have to design it so that it can give birth to intellectual curiosity meaning we will have a lot of curiosity why it happens why it happens why it happens so that when we do research no one needs any question no one needs any problem then why we don't need any research culture we should research the age old disciplinary boundaries so that the years old disciplinary boundary is going on it depends on our research activity in which adiping departments function it is imperative that disciplinary boundaries break down to pave the way to interdisciplinary multidisciplinary and event trans disciplinary research so they are saying how culture of innovation will come that we break boundaries between the topics so that inter, multi and trans disciplinary you can see I have made a video on this you can see from here that multidisciplinary trans disciplinary and inter disciplinary what does it mean okay then research and social connect it is essential to make the community of researchers from all major streams of knowledge and also various academic and regulatory bodies including the funding knowledge and also various okay okay it happened twice sensitive to the idea that the social ethical and legal aspects of their research activities are of emerging concerns worldwide they are saying community of researchers from all major streams of knowledge and also various academic and regulatory bodies including the funding knowledge they are saying that we are connected with research we should be sensitive to the idea that the output of the social ethical legal aspect will influence the whole world our research finding so this too becomes a fact specific recommendation what did UGC recommend UGC has recommended a lot of headings that you can improve it monitored and found a bad condition so it is recommending UGC it says classroom pedagogy curriculum and system of assessment then developing writing skills research aptitude and awareness of peer review culture should come writing skills practice research aptitude promoting academic integrity research your supervisor will also follow the academic integrity so if you practice the student will also follow ok then care reference list we all know that UGC has made care reference list why any publications in predatory journals or presentations in predatory conferences should not be considered for academic credit if you go to predatory journal you will not get credit for selection information promotion performance scholarship academic degree for anyone so in care reference list put your journal that you publish in it you will get credit or atleast peer review in journal ok then talk about remedial teaching he said in encouraging vernacular language research should be improved then exposure to centers of excellence in science social science and humanities workshops of short duration exchange use of technology policy internship many things UGC told us that we can improve research and what else did you say any specific recommendation faculty recruitment take care that you choose best faculty best postdoctoral fellowship travel grant faculty or students annual faculty or students who have social sciences and humanities why research is more in social sciences even better fellowships for PHD for self-financed or minimal financial support on a competitive basis or teaching assistantship as part of the doctoral program so many recommendations specific measures for the promotion of high quality research creation of social sciences humanities research board social sciences may be better research performance-based trending CAS Center for Advanced Studies DSA Department of Special Assistance UPE UPE universities with potential for excellence so that other institutions who are not doing well should also try to do well then Inter-institutional collaboration by UDC and what is your NEP 2020 what it says it says National Education Policy Invite Suggest the promotion of quality research within the higher education system research innovation and development are important aspects to enhance quality education and higher education institutions research, innovation and development these three things are most important they are saying societal challenges of our country can only be addressed by having a strong and vibrant higher education ecosystem that's why we are talking about self-reliant India we are talking about civilized India RDCs are being made research and development so that multidisciplinary trans-disciplinary research can be improved like trans-national research culture which is doing the NEP 2020 and what is the function UDC launched an initiative to establish an RDC in HEE it took an initiative HEE means higher education institutions RDC means research and development itself so RDC will make research ecosystem will help research faculty intellectual capital financial resources will help you okay then research monitoring the current policy environment in India encourages HEEs to be responsible and accountable for research development through the creation of infrastructure generation of resources promotion of business and facilitation of policy framework to nurture the quality culture of quality research by adhering to ethical practices they are saying that we have to encourage the research by taking some other steps research for development to boost up like NRF is being made which will make competitive peer reviewed grant proposals from the universities, colleges and institutions of higher learning will provide then the imprint initiative is impacting research, innovation and technology these are PAN, IIT and IIC these are joint collaboration similarly atal tinkering lab this is made in atal innovation mission then IPR laws are signed by India it is sign that it is trade related aspects of intellectual property rights and as an actor it is domestic IPR laws to foster IPR creation and curtail its violation means we have to understand intellectual property rights and we have to understand intellectual property rights and our researchers as well so then the document is coming in 2019 I am telling you that policy quality of your research why it is bad why it can be better how it can be better for that we are giving recommendations so it is very being done but it will change at the ground level what is going to be done and what is going to be done when we will work and we will not use unethical means okay so thank you and don't forget like and subscribe for more knowledge being done from my side


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Welcome back to sequence. This episode is brought to you by DraftKings. I'm your host, Trevor Plouffe, and back for at bat number two, the main man from Phil's Poles, Phil Hughes. What's up, dude? What's going on, buddy? We got a different Phil Hughes. Now this is veteran Phil Hughes for a bat number two. You can see the facial hair because you're not a Yankee anymore. That's right. Five years later. The flow is, you had the flow back then. The flow is looking good. This is, I mean, is this your career year, 2014? I mean, so there's the year I made the All-Star game, which is always special to me, but I had a kind of a bad fall off second half. But I would say, you know, one single year is a total. Yeah, this would have been it, 2014. My first year, actually with the twins. Yeah. And I was lucky enough to be out there pretty much every day with you. And I do remember this game. We're in Fenway. And as you can see, you're still in the game 102 pitches. Boston's leading two to one. And you got the big boy but can you preface this a bat a little bit for us? Yeah. So I don't know exactly what happened prior to this other than we were just watching and there was some ball off the wall and I think Pedroi got thrown out at second or something like that because it was, indeed, a double not a homer. So there's a man on third, two outs. David Ortiz is coming up and Napoli's on deck. And yeah, you can just, you can roll it and we can go from there. There he is. So yeah, 102 pitches. Andy comes out to the mound. Rick Anderson, awesome dude. Suzuki behind the plate. Yeah, Suzuki behind the plate.  And what's he saying to you?  So he said intentionally why I say, I got this guy. You said, I got this guy. Yeah. No way I got this guy. Let me have him.  So he's basically saying like, like you better come at him. Don't miss over the plate. And I love this because, and this is so mindset there. It didn't happen. Yeah. What's funny is, right. So Napoli just owned me and I'm sure they were just going by the book and they're like, ooh, lefty versus righty. We'd rather have the right hander up and I'm thinking like, no way dude, like, let me get Ortiz. I'd felt really good about my bats against him. Not only in this game, but back in Minnesota, I think just a few weeks prior to this. And so I really, I really wanted this at bat and I didn't want to face Napoli. So I told, you know, I told Andy to let me have Ortiz and he's like, all right. And yeah, we'll see what happens. All right. So I kind of look when I think about it, I think your, the pitch mix that you have plays well against lefties. Are your splits like really bad? Are they like, are they my splits? My splits were, my splits were really good against lefties and poor against righties. That's kind of how your pitch mix works. I mean, we just, if you watch the last video, you saw the bat against Tomei and I feel like that's kind of, that plays for a lot of lefties swing. So right, right. So you were on the, they asked you to, I always said, hell no, because I'm thinking like, dude, if I have to face Napoli, like we're going to be in a hole that we can't come back from at two to one. So all right. There he is. Me. That's the guy you wanted to face. Okay. That's the one I wanted to face and hard in. That's what I wanted to do. Hold on. Run second right there. He's swinging pretty much, pretty much 92 right down the middle. But look at right here. Yeah. He was, he was geared for it. That's, that's what I had done to him the whole night so far. I mean, that's middle and it's not 96, 97, you know, that's 92, but I was just going right after him because I did not want to face the guy on deck and I wanted this this ending to be over right here. So it looked like he was right where Kurt's glove was set up. Maybe for like the cutter and then you kind of blew a foreseamer right by him right there. Yeah. So you see, he's definitely cheating in at this point. But we go back in there again because I want to get a hard fastball under his hands. And I miss up again. You know, I don't get it in there.  But we talked about this on the last episode too. It's like, I was so aggressive and so just coming right after him that I felt like that different, like that tick of whatever it was just made the difference in, you know, me dictating how the setback was going to go. You were walking off the mound right there after those two pitches and you're exuding exactly what you're saying. Like you're just putting it out there.  This is 104 pitches in. You look great. Yeah.  So, and this was, this was an app out where I felt very confident. And I pretty much, I mean, I missed right down the middle and like belt belly button away to a guy that normally takes advantage of mistakes like that. But I was going right after him.   There's a little hitch there and I remember facing you and sometimes if you're not the pitter is not in sync with that you can be just that bit off on your pitches and it almost looks like David, although he's faced you a bunch. So he's got, he's, he knows that already. Yeah, no, he's, yeah, I'd face him a ton up to this point, a ton. Yeah, I had a, I had a good game plan for him and you know, I don't know if he was almost a little frustrated that he was missing these pitches.  Let's see how it goes.  And at this point, I think I'd go right to it. If I'm not mistaken, straight back to it. No, I think we go. I think we go back to our cutter. Okay. Oh, I like that pitch right there because you see his hips open twice there. Yeah. He's cheating. He's cheating in and this was a pitch that we had gotten him out on a couple of times prior to this. And I just really wanted to execute one here.  But this is like one where if I have to make a pitch in a game right here at 100, my 105th pitch of the night, like I got to execute this one. You know what I mean? You throw out the other 100, whatever, like this is the one that you need to execute in a big moment in Fenway. I think it's what Saturday night, you know, this is, this is the pitch. So and because he is opening up like that, if you start that pitch off the plate and bring it back, it's going to look like a million miles away to him. Right. And there's really no keeping in mind, keeping mind. This is a sequence sequence that we had, we had done to him a lot. So he was, I think he was conscious of it, but you can only look for two things, you know, you can't, you can't, you know, you can't be like, okay, well, he might come in, he might also go away. I got to be aware of both of those without, you know, because he was a cheater, you know, he's a guy that's going to, he's going to look for a pitch in account and, and open up on it and try to drive the ball. So he does, he does have holes in his swing. If you, you know, we're one step ahead of him. So all right, let's see, baby. Kurt setting up away off the plate. Yeah. He wants it way away. He doesn't want a mistake. And it was just about perfect. You know, he's opening up, flares a little fly ball on the left. Willingham was, you know, kind of having some, some issues out there. But yeah, you'll see. Yeah.  Exactly where you want it.  It wasn't cold. It was just, you know, executed to the outer, outer corner and got out of a inning gives a chance in the, in the ninth, but, um, and what's funny about this, and I don't think they show it on camera is Gardy's up on the top stat as I'm walking off the mat. Oh, Doge. Oh, nice. Hey, look at the glove. Oh, that was nasty. All right. I was looking for a, um, a slow mo, but they didn't have it, but go ahead. Gardy's on the top step. So Gardy's on the top step. And literally he's doing this. Basically like, basically like saying big balls, like he was, he was fired up about that because he wanted me to walk on tees.  Like I just really liked my chances a lot more against Ortiz than, than abling that situation. But, um, yeah, that was, uh, that was a pretty, pretty crucial, turning point in that game. Unfortunately, we didn't score any runs in the ninth. So I got, I got saddled with the, uh, complete game loss there, but, you know, there's the way that those, those things can go sometimes, you know, we've had a few pictures on here now and almost every single one of them, if not every single one talks about like that conviction thing, like, like believing in the pitch and just like caring about that and the execution of it and like really not caring who's in the box, not caring about this or that. It's like, I'm going to execute my pitch and if I do, you're out. So we do have the young guys watching. That is something that we try to tell them, like this is the attitude that you have to have. Yeah. Confidence, conviction in your pitches. You know, I would say if you did a study on guys that were, you know, confident in what they were doing, same talent, you know, whatever the case may be, um, a person that's, you know, confident in their bullpen sessions is going to execute. I would say 20, 30% more pitches and someone that doesn't feel good about what they're doing or doesn't think it's right, doesn't think it's the right grip. And it's probably true for hitters too.  Like, I don't think this is going to work, you know, whatever it is. Absolutely. There's very few things that in this game that you can say like 100% you have to do this. Like there's a million ways to do different things. You're, you're set up, you know, everything about your swing for you on the hill, there's a ton of things, but the one thing that is 100% it's, is that confidence level. That's what's, that's the separator. You see it all the times in the minor leagues, guys that have this stuff, but they don't have that confidence or they can't bounce back.  So all of you to talk about that. And again, I appreciate you coming on. Everybody go follow and subscribe to Phil's polls. It's on Twitter, it's on IG, it's on YouTube, like, subscribe, all that good stuff. Phil, thank you, man. I appreciate it coming on. Of course, anytime.


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I'm Salvatur Babonis, and today's lecture is using the CIA World Factbook. The CIA World Factbook is a great, quick, go-to guide to the countries of the world. It is up to date and reliable, but the statistics it reports are not always comparable across countries. It aggregates data from a huge number of sources into best guess answers to many commonly asked statistical questions about countries, and yes, it is published by that CIA, the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA World Factbook is best accessed online via its country-by-country menu listings, though it can be downloaded as a database as well. I'm going to go straight to the data, if my computer lets me, and there we go, the CIA World Factbook. The drop-down menu is very easy to use, the first thing you'll see is, please select a country to view. So I'm going to pick a country, let's try Brazil. We will find a plethora of information on Brazil, starting with a quick introduction. If you happen not to know what Brazil is or how it came to into existence, you'll find out that Brazil gained its independence in 1822, abolished slavery in 1888, essentially the one paragraph briefing on Brazil. Basic geographical information are included, where it is, what continent, land area, usual basic information about the country, and lots of data that are sourced from the World Bank's World Development Indicators, like number of acres of land under cultivation, freshwater resources, basic environmental information. Under People and Society, you'll get a mix of data that are hard data, like demographic data, age structure of the population sourced from the United States Census Bureau's International Database, but also information that is not necessarily as accurate or comparable across countries, for example, ethnic groups, white 47.7%, mulatto 43.1%, black 7.6%. These kind of data are sourced from individual sources, country by country, and may differ by country. As you can see, this is from a 2010 estimate, even though I'm accessing the World Factbook in 2016. Scrolling down to the government, you'll find basic data about the type of government Brazil has, its administrative divisions, chief of state, head of government, legislative executive, judicial branches, etc., main political parties. One of my favorite little quirks of the CA World Factbook is that it has recordings of the national anthems of all of the countries of the world, so if you'd like to hear Brazil's national anthem, just click play, and there you go, it is very upbeat. Alright, enough of Brazil's national anthem, well, maybe we should play it in the background as we continue the tour. The economy of Brazil, again, a brief paragraph overview of the economy, I'll stop that now. GDP by purchasing power parity, the CA World Factbook uses purchasing power parity primarily for GDP, and the per capita estimates are only in purchasing power parity series. The exchange rate based GDP is given here, and as you can see, purchasing power parity GDP of 3 trillion US dollars is much bigger than the GDP at official exchange rates of 1.8 trillion US dollars. If you wanted, you could back out from these calculations, GDP per capita at exchange rates just by taking the population figure reported above, and the GDP figure reported here, by GDP by population, you get GDP per capita, but you probably wouldn't be using the World Banks, I'm sorry, the CIA's World Factbook to get comparative GDP data, you would probably go to the World Banks World Development Indicator database, and again, lots of basic statistics about the country from all different economic sources. Energy communications, transportation, interestingly, these data are, as far as I know, only collected by the CIA, a number of airports with paved runways, a number of airports with unpaved runways, heliports, pipelines. Strategic data about country's infrastructure is only collected, as far as I know, together in one place by the CIA World Factbook. Very data and then disputes that the country is having with other countries. So there's Brazil. And if you go to any country in the world, you will find a similar run-through of data about the country, including, interestingly, the United States. I say interestingly because the CIA World Factbook is produced by the CIA for the use of American authorities, but they do provide the complete rundown and even an analysis of the United States and its problems and disputes, and of course, so data are available not just for the countries of the world, but also for many non-countries. For example, here is the territory of Akrotiri. In Cyprus, Akrotiri is a British naval base on the island of Cyprus. Its legal status is non-sovereign, but it is a territory of the world, and as a result, it gets an entry in the CIA World Factbook. It's not as extensive as the entries for full countries, but it is there, and you would find lots of obscure territories of the world listed in the CIA World Factbook. As you can see, there are several hundred entities listed, including the European Union at the very bottom. If we go back home in the CIA World Factbook, there are also some interesting additional resources available through the Factbook. If you go to the appendices, you will find lists of international organizations and lists of international agreements, which might be very useful. You can also find world maps, a database of flags of the world, which is potentially very interesting. My favorite little quirk, world leaders. The CIA maintains a database of leaders of foreign governments for the entire world. So to use Brazil again, we can go to Brazil, and we will find current, as of March 7th, 2016, the president, the vice president, all of the cabinet ministers of Brazil, head of the tourism office, everything about Brazil, Brazil's leaders in one little database. So if you're unsure who the minister of tourism in Brazil is, I can tell you that as of March 2016, it is Enrique Arvez. The CIA also produces standard maps of the world. The nice thing about CIA maps is that all United States government materials are copyright free, so you can use a CIA map without any fear that you're infringing on copyright. The map, so there does not seem to be a map of Brazil. So I will use Chile as an example, and you can get maps of Chile for use in your presentations, and these are copyright free maps that you can use without having to worry about going back, oops, going back home to the CIA fact book. Sorry, I got out of order here. There we go. Back to the CIA world fact book. As you can see, it's a massive resource of information about the world. The information, however, is not always comparable country to country because these sources may differ for different countries. So the world fact book should be used as a quick reference guide. If you need to know an obscure fact about a country like the number of miles of unpaved road in the country, go to the CIA world fact book, but if you're doing a systematic study of multiple countries, you should note that the sources underlying the data for each series may be different and not directly comparable. Takeaways. The CIA world fact book is a secondary source companion of best data for many primary sources. Second, the CIA world fact book is not a standardized compilation of primary data like the World Bank World Development Indicators is. And finally, the CIA world fact book is perfectly fine for illustrative purposes and for popular writing and journalistic writing, but it is not considered acceptable for definitive comparative research in the academic literature. Thanks for listening to this lecture. You can find out more about me at salvatrobobonus.com, where you can also sign up for my monthly newsletter, Cuttering Current Affairs.


The next item of business is consideration of business motion 10728, in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau, setting out a business programme, which includes changes to the business programme for today. I would ask any member who wishes to speak against the motion to press the request to speak button now, and I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion number 10728. Moved. Many thanks. No member is asked to speak against the motion, therefore I will now put the question to the chamber. The question is that motion number 10728, in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick, be agreed to, are we all agreed? We are, the motion is, therefore, agreed to. The next item of business is topical questions. Question 1, Sandra White. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken in recent situation in Gaza. Minister, Hamza Yousaf. The Scottish Government condemns in the strongest possible terms the escalating cycle of violence, be that rocket attacks or airstrikes in Gaza and Israel, and its disproportionate impact in particular on civilians in Gaza, who the UN estimates make up some 75 per cent of the Palestinian dead. We are appalled that the death toll now stands at over 1,800, including nearly 400 children. We are pleased to note that a ceasefire announced last night, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops reported this morning, and a call for meaningful peace talks, which we hope will lead to a lasting ceasefire start as soon as possible. It was announced on 30 July that the Scottish Government is providing £500,000 in humanity and aid in addition to the UK contribution to help people affected by the crisis in Gaza. The Scottish Government has also offered to treat casualties requiring specialist care as a result of the conflict here in Scottish hospitals. We call for an immediate lifting of the blockade in Gaza, which we believe to be tantamount to collective punishment. Since the conflict started, the Scottish Government has written to the Prime Minister on 25 July, the Home Secretary on 18 July and the Foreign Secretary on 9 July to ask the UK to take concrete action to make meaningful progress to a lasting peace and that it plays its part in international refugee settlement programmes in which the Scottish Government is happy to play its part. The Scottish Government has demonstrated that we cannot and we should not and must not stand idly by while innocent civilians are being killed. I am today on behalf of the Scottish Government calling for an immediate arms embargo to Israel. The UN has said that there is a strong possibility that international law has been violated and the UN Secretary General has described the recent shelling of a school in Raffa as a criminal act. It is imperative that we decipher whether or not UK arms have been used in any violation of international law. Until that has been confirmed, the UK must implement a complete arms embargo to Israel. I thank the minister for that very comprehensive reply and applaud the Scottish Government on what it has been doing in commendum, particularly in the recent announcement that he made. The minister mentioned in his opening remarks regarding the aid that has been sent to Gaza, in particular the medical aid in bringing Palestinian people here for medical treatment and have written to the Westminster Government. Can I ask the minister of any update on that? If the Westminster Government is working with the Scottish Government to aid the people from Gaza to come here to get medical treatment? I thank the member for the question. Yesterday, we spoke to the director of map medical aid for Palestinians, which I know that the member is aware of, an organisation working in Gaza. We spoke to the director in Gaza who are putting together a list of those who are a priority in the need of specialist care. That discussion is going on with the NGO on the ground. The member will appreciate that there is a number of Governments that we have to consult with—of course, the Israeli Government, the Egyptian Government in terms of the RAF, the Palestinian Legislative Authority and, indeed, the UK Government who will be issuing the visas should we agree to offer them specialist care. I have to say that the UK Government, in previous cases, where we have wanted to bring people here for specialist care, has not impeded that and have helped in that regard. I am sure that, because of the priority and the immediacy of the need of this case, I am sure that they would also be willing to assist in that matter. Thank you, minister. I hope that we keep us updated on what is going on. It is imperative that we get the injured people help. Minister, you mentioned 1,800 Palestinians have been killed over 9,000 injured—a vast majority of them are children—in the renders pictures that we saw on the television. You have also reiterated Ban Ki-moon in regard to the international law, and those who are responsible should be held to account. The Israelis are responsible, in this particular instance, of 1,800 people being killed. Can I ask the minister if he does agree with Ban Ki-moon and many others that those responsible should be held to account and perhaps be sent before the international criminal court? I thank the member for the question. We have said, be it from the First Minister or myself directly on behalf of the Scottish Government, that we call for an immediate UN investigation into civilian deaths—all civilian deaths. Those who have violated international law must feel the full force of international law and be brought to justice, but that must be on all sides. We have condemned the actions of the Israeli Government in Gaza as heavily disproportionate. Yes, Israel has a right to safety and security. Nobody would tolerate, of course, rockets being fired indiscriminately. Let's not beat around the bush. They are designed and fired indiscriminately to kill, but you cannot ignore the fact that, as the member says, 1,800 have been killed. The majority of them are civilians, children playing on a beach or feeding pigeons in the street or sleeping in a UN shelter. They are not terrorists. They have committed no crime. Therefore, of course, we back UN calls into an international investigation in Scotland to support that. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I, too, welcome the ceasefire and sincerely hope that it holds on this occasion. I also welcome the humanitarian aid offered by the Scottish Government and the UK Government, and I hope that that is able to get to the people who need it most. I think that we must all surely abhor the loss of innocent lives in Israel and Palestine, but at the same time condemn utterly the targeting of UN schools and other facilities, particularly when we now know that the UN has guaranteed that there are no missiles, no weapons and no terrorists occupying those facilities. In one case, minutes before a rocket attack was launched by the Israeli forces. We must also condemn the sheer scale of the loss of civilian lives in that small strip of land that Palestinians inhabit. Does the minister agree that the only way that appalling tragedy will finally end is if the world community backs a secure Israel and a viable Palestinian state, the end of illegal settlements, the dismantling of the separation wall and the restoration of water and fuel supplies to Gaza as soon as possible? I agree entirely with what the member has to say. The UN has said that there is a strong possibility that international laws will be violated. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has called the shelling of the UN school and Rafa criminal act in a moral outrage. Therefore, it is imperative that UN investigations are international partners and players. We have to show leadership, and that was the tone of the First Minister's letter to the Prime Minister that the UK must show urgency on this matter, international collaboration and leadership that has so far been missing on that. However, I agree with what she says about the way to support peace. We believe in a two-stage solution based on the 67 borders, the dismantling of the separation wall, the removal of illegal settlements and, of course, the lifting of the inhumane and illegitimate blockade of Gaza, which, as the Prime Minister himself has said, I quote, is an open air prison, and therefore no innocent civilian should be living in that prison and that blockade should be lifted. However, I welcome the cross-party support for those principles. We Conservatives abhor the loss of life in Gaza. Does the minister not agree with me that the reports from the UN itself about terrorists in Gaza using UN schools as hide-outs and weapon storages are deeply concerning, and does the minister further agree with me that it is essential that we continue working towards the two-stage solution, but I hope that the minister shares my deepest concern about Hamas' explicit commitment to the destruction of Israel as stated in the founding charter. Minister. I thank the member for his question. I reaffirm our commitment to the two-stage solution, but, as the former foreign secretary, William Hague, made it very clear in a statement earlier this year that the time for the two-stage solution is starting to run out, the more settlements continue to expand into Palestinian land. We, of course, support the two-stage solution, but with that immediacy that is needed in terms of actions. I, of course, agree in terms of Hamas' objectives and I agree with the member in terms of condemning them in every single statement that we have made, all six of them, be it from the First Minister or be it from myself. We have been at pains to stress that rocket attacks on Israel are indiscriminate. They are designed to injure civilians. They are not targeted at all and no country should live with that. However, action, according to international law, must be proportionate. The Israeli Government's actions have been disproportionate and we should stand united in condemnation of that. I think that we have all watched, minister, with this belief night after night on the television, the atrocity after atrocity. We have seen the killing of innocent children and civilians, particularly, as said Professor Ferguson, in regard to UN schools and facilities. The response has been that the Israeli military will investigate. Now, there is a danger, I suppose, when we get into ceasefire territory, which is great to hear. I hope that it leads to lasting peace, that some of this will be forgotten. Can the minister assure me that whatever happens that the Scottish Government, together with the UK Government, hopefully, will continue to pressure the UN to make sure that there is a proper international investigation takes place? Because we cannot allow this to be forgotten. I agree with the member on the horrific scenes that we have all witnessed. I think that every member across the chamber will be horrified by what they have seen. The member is absolutely correct, and I give him an absolute assurance that the Scottish Government will not let this matter go if it goes off our TV screens and away from the sheets in our newspapers. The Scottish Government will stand committed to ensuring and calling for an immediate and independent UN investigation. That was the nature and the tone, again, of the First Minister's letter to the Prime Minister, to assure and to show urgency and leadership on this question that, regardless of who is violated international law, they are brought to justice because at the heart of it that is what is missing in this entire issue has been both compassion and justice. I agree with what the member says, and I give him a firm commitment that the Scottish Government will not be dissuaded and will continue to call for a UN investigation into all civilian deaths. Patrick Harvie. I congratulate the Scottish Government on the very clear stance that it has taken on the horrific events of the last few weeks, and I endorse the call for an arms embargo as well. The minister will be aware that there has also been a call for a wider programme of boycotts, divestment and sanctions targeted at the Israeli Government, a call that has been endorsed by global figures including Desmond Tutu. Some local authorities have acted in Scotland in this respect. Does the Scottish Government support that stance and does it support the call for such a wider programme of boycott, divestment and sanctions? I thank the member for his remarks and for his welcome of the initiatives in terms of the Israel-Gaza violence. The Scottish Government has a policy, it does not have a policy of boycotting, it does not advocate a boycott of Israel. We are not alone in that. He will be aware that Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian legislative authority and the representative of the Palestinian people in the west bank, also does not call for a boycott of Israel. At the same time, the Scottish Government has made it absolutely clear that we do not dictate to cultural institutions, individuals or organisations what they choose or choose not to do. We believe that the reason why we have to have engagement is that every time the Government engages, be it with the Palestinians or the Israelis, we put our concerns forward in the strongest possible terms. Will the minister join me in congratulating my 14-year-old constituent, Robert McEwen, who wrote to me about the plight of Palestinian children? With one quarter of the population of Gaza having been displaced during the conflict and the on-going destruction of homes, schools and hospitals causing widespread devastation, what more can be done to ease the suffering of the Palestinian people, particularly how will the Scottish Government's commitment of humanitarian assistance help to bring about the long-term reconstruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza? I congratulate the constituent, Robert McEwen. I have spoken to many young people and even children who have witnessed the scenes of devastation and destruction in Gaza and have been compelled to do something. I saw my constituency a bake sale being done as I was walking past the street and all the proceeds were going to Gaza, so people have been moved clearly of all ages. In terms of the wider issue, the immediate, of course, humanitarian aid that we have sent, the 500,000 that we have sent to unrough flash appeal will go a long way with other Governments that have put into the pot in terms of immediate assistance, and that is important because that is the priority at the moment. In terms of the longer term, we will continue to work with every single international partner that we currently can to put pressure on the Israeli Government to exert pressure on the Israeli Government to lift the blockade. The blockade is an open-air prison, making Gaza an open-air prison.  We will continue to make those calls, we will continue to work with the Governments. Whichever Government pursues that aim to ensure that that happens in terms of the wider displacement of people, we have made the offer very early on when the violence escalated. We began to escalate that Scotland is ready to play her part in taking on Palestinian refugees if that will assist in that matter. However, let me give the member the strongest possible commitment that whatever the Scottish Government can do with the powers that it has and in the leadership role that it can play, it will do. Mr Graham. Thank you, Presiding Officer. While I appreciate the comments about UN investigation, there exists the international criminal court. While I appreciate that referrals can either only be made by the UN Security Council, which will be unlikely because of its membership, or by a member's state, given the observational state position for Palestine, it would be possible for Palestine to ratify that treaty and to make that application itself to the ICC, would he encourage that? This Government, very early on into my role in Government, I wrote to the then foreign Secretary William Hague to support the UN vote on Palestinian enhanced status. The United Nations is that. Unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears and the UK decided to abstain on that vote. So we do believe that the political route is the best one. In terms of the Palestinians, whether they pursue the ICC, that is a matter, of course, that the Palestinians have to make and what is best for them and their people. However, we have always supported the right of the Palestinians to have a viable democratic state and the heart of the injustice over the last 60-odd years has been that. Of course, while Israel has the right safety and security, the Palestinians have been denied a viable Palestinian state and anything that helps them to get to that within the two-state solution, within the 67 borders and Jerusalem as a shared capital, then we will do whatever the Palestinians believe is viable and the Israelis believe is viable to get to that state. It is a decision, of course, for the Palestinians to make and, as I say, we support their enhanced status at the United Nations. Thank you. That ends topical questions. The next item of business is a statement by Shona Robison on Glasgow 2014.