Since the arrival of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown in many Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries, tertiary education institutions have had to move swiftly toward online provision to ensure continuity of teaching and learning and, at least to some extent, exams. It seems that this transition was comparatively easy for those countries that had invested in the sector and approached digitalization in a strategic way precrisis (for example, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany). Countries that had not developed a strategic approach toward digitalization did not provide the support; those that, more broadly, had seen decreasing investment in higher education faced significant difficulties. This goes beyond digitalization in the narrower sense and also applies to issues like student financing, quality assurance, and the status of academic staff. This Policy Note offers 10 key recommendations to policy makers and tertiary education institutions, and to donors and multilateral agencies, on how to address the crisis.

The present piece intends to focus on the reading of and response to the present public health emergency like COVID19 by the liberal democracies across the world and prominently in the context of South Asia. Drawing on the emerging popular perceptions to the pandemic, it delineates the nature of debate about global health emergency by bringing into relief the underlying knowledge frames of public health ethics. Significantly too, by exploring the complexities of lockdown, lifeworld and livelihood underlying the social calamity, it attempts to think through the nuanced relationship between biopower as government of life, public health and the issues of civil liberty, and social ethics and the varied ways they all impact the domain of the popular.

In the coming weeks, South African policymakers will continue to make critical decisions to curb the spread of COVID-19 and reduce its economic impact. In collaboration with the National Development Agency, IDinsight prepared a brief to inform decision-making in two areas of interest for the Department of Social Development: 1) promoting healthy community behaviors, and 2) providing social protection to vulnerable populations.

Despite the commonality of loss of lives, every pandemic has played a role in shaping the socio-economic and public health outcomes depending on the nature and the magnitude of the outbreak. In this study, we have attempted to make a preliminary assessment of COVID-19 impact on India and commented on the country’s resilience, response, impact and draw the lessons for the future. Although lockdown was necessary to stop the transmission, is showing and will show a greater impact on all spheres of human life considering the country’s poor resilient socio-economic institutions. Our concurrent assessment in the middle of the outbreak predicts that the socio-economic, demographic and health costs in India would be much higher than developed countries. Initiation of timely action from the very beginning (when the first case reported in Kerala) could have plummeted the potential transmission in every corner of the country to a large extent and could have avoided socio-economic crises that presently surfaced in the country. The study provides a strong message for initiating sector-specific measures alongside relief packages to reduce the damage not only for now but also to build a resilient system for socioeconomically vulnerable groups, health care services, and education infrastructure to face future pandemics. Otherwise, the pandemic like this can cost more.

IS INDIAN STATE PROXYING FOR THE HINDUTVA PROJECT OF MILITARIZATION OF THE MAJORITY COMMUNITY? LINK FOR HINDI VERSION: https://www.academia.edu/43175302/%E0%A4%95_%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%AF_%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%9C_%E0%A4%AF_%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8_%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%93%E0%A4%82_%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%87_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A8_%E0%A4%AF%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A3_%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%80_%E0%A4%96_%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%95_%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A8_%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A4_%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%80_%E0%A4%AF%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%97_%E0%A4%AA_%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%B8_%E0%A4%A4_%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BE_%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%88 Link for some of S. Islam's writings in English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and video interviews/debates: http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam Facebook: shamsul Twitter: @shamsforjustice http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/ Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com

The exploratory study reported here investigated the manner in which different countries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the largely unknown and dangerous virus SARS-CoV-2. Based on studying still limited and evolving evidence, a model of pandemic containment strategy was created. In an initial validation, the model was able to differentiate between three strategies of containing COVID-19-Restrictive, Permissive, and Hybrid. The article frames a pandemic containment strategy as a mediator between pandemic causes and consequences, along with a capability of the health system and a government's response time. Cultural assumptions behind different strategies are also discussed. Implications for further research and for practice are outlined.

Problem: Due to the spread of SARS CoV-2 virus infection and COVID-2019 disease, there is an urgent need to analyze COVID-2019 epidemic perception in Poland. This would enable authorities for preparation of specific actions minimizing public health and economic risks. Methods: We study the perception of COVID-2019 epidemic in Polish society using quantitative analysis of its digital footprints on the Internet (on Twitter, Google, YouTube, Wikipedia and electronic media represented by Event Registry) from January 2020 to 12.03.2020 (before and after official introduction to Poland on 04.03.2020). To this end we utilize data mining, social network analysis, natural language processing techniques. Each examined internet platform was analyzed for representativeness and composition of the target group. Abstract Results: We identified three major cluster of the interest before disease introduction on the topic COVID-2019: China- and Italy-related peaks on all platforms, as well as a peak on social media related to the recent special law on combating COVID-2019. Besides, there was a peak in interest on the day of officially confirmed introduction as well as an exponential increase of interest when the Polish government “declared war against disease” with a massive mitigation program. From sociolingistic perspective, we found that concepts and issues of threat, fear and prevention prevailed before introduction. After introduction, practical concepts about disease and epidemic dominate. Twitter reflected the clear, structural division of the Polish political sphere. We were able to identify potential sources of misinformation as well as key actors (especially “early adopters”) and influencers. Conclusions: Traditional and social media not only reflect reality, but also create it. Polish authorities, having a reliable analysis of the perception of the problem, could optimally prepare and manage the social dimension of the current epidemic and future ones. Due to filter “bubbles” observed on Twitter, public information campaigns might have less impact on society than expected. For greater penetration, it might be necessary to diversify information channels to reach as many people as possible which might already be happening. Moreover, it might be necessary to prevent the spread of disinformation, which is now possible due to the special law on combating COVID-2019.

This research brief documents the impacts the COVID-19 response, coupled with border enforcement and migration restrictions have had on the journeys of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in transit irregularly and on their communities. Relying on recent empirical research and journalistic coverage, the brief pays specific attention to how measures against the pandemic may impact the activities of those behind irregular journeys –including migrant smugglers or facilitators. For this we draw from data on the experiences of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the context of irregular or clandestine journeys and the growing empirical evidence and insights from facilitators. The COVID-19 pandemic challenges the ways in which we think about and perform mobility worldwide. Numerous scholars have started to think of the short and long-term implications the COVID-19 response will have on irregular migration, as the following weeks and months will be critical to document and understand the effects of the pandemic on mobility dynamics. COVID-19 restrictions will not stop irregular migration nor smuggling activities. Evidence of migrants traveling irregularly during the contingency show that the coupling of the COVID-19 response with migration enforcement regulations has perhaps led to a temporary or seasonal suspension or reduction of smuggling activity, but has not eliminated the demand for services. Smuggling facilitators have simply adapted to shifts to the demand and enforcement restrictions (dynamics well known to them). Yet the closure of borders and other state-imposed mobility restrictions are effectively and intentionally redirecting migrants into more perilous landscapes where humanitarian support and rescue are often unavailable. COVID-19 responses have furthered the precarity that migrants traveling irregularly face and will undoubtedly impact the facilitation of irregular migration. But claims of migrant smuggling undergoing radical changes or transformations must be taken with a grain of salt. The scholarship shows that state-sponsored efforts to dismantle or counter smuggling activity have greater impact on migrants, asylum seekers and refugees than on those who prey upon them. Narratives labelling the facilitation of irregular migration as hierarchical, mafia-like and inherently criminal have been used to justify stepped-up enforcement measures that foster the criminalization of those seeking to reach safety and those behind their journeys, yet leaving the reasons behind the demand for smuggling services intact. Given the community-based nature of many migration facilitation practices, COVID-19 responses are also likely to impact the livelihoods of the communities that by virtue of being located on the migration pathway benefit from the presence of migrants and/or their journeys (shopkeepers, food vendors, renters of informal accommodation, etc.). Data show state-initiated efforts to counter irregular migration and its facilitation increase the levels of precarity and inequality of growing numbers of indigenous, tribal, pastoral and migrant communities around the world, which are increasingly confronted with the labelling of their community-based, long-standing forms of mobility, trade and solidarity under the migrant smuggling tag. There is a risk COVID-19 responses will further this process. Any solutions to contain the reliance on irregular migration facilitation and to contribute to migrants’ safety under COVID-19 or any other future crises must recognize the systematic decrease of paths for safe, orderly and regular migration that motivate the demand for smuggling services, and the ways migration and border controls have systematically put migrants, asylum seekers and refugees and their communities at risk, leaving the structural reasons leading to the emergence of smuggling unattended. Otherwise, measures are likely to become further weaponized, and simply compound the uncertainty and danger those traveling and living irregularly already experience on the migration pathway, emboldening in the process all of those who benefit from their precarity.

La pandemia de Coronavirus ha revitalizado la tensión entre el Estado y el mercado, en el proceso económico y su incidencia en el proceso político de las sociedades, pese los enormes esfuerzos que por décadas han desplegado los profetas neoliberales a fin de darla por superada en favor del mito del “mercado libre”.