Computer equipment accounts for almost 70% of e-waste material followed by telecommunication equipment (12%), electrical equipment (8%) and medical equipment (7%). Household e-waste accounts for the remaining 4% found the study.
The majority of e-waste generated is managed by the unorganized sector and scrap dealers who just dismantle the product instead of recycling it. It was found that only 1.5% of the country’s total e-waste gets recycled which causes a harm to natural resources.
According to the study, the main sources of electronic waste in India are the government and the public and private sectors, which account for almost 75% of the total waste generation. The contribution of individual households stands at 16%.
DS Rawat, secretary general of Assocham said “In India, about 4 lakh to 5 lakh child labourers in the age group of 10-15 years are engaged in various e-waste management activities in various yards and recycling workshops, but lack adequate protection and safeguards.”
-by Vrushali Mahajan, an intern at NewsGram. Twitter: Vrushali Mahajan
There should be some measures taken to stop this kind of waste generation. You cannot actually stop people from buying electronic products but we can surely take some steps to recycle the waste produced
The Twitter logo appears on a phone post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.. VOA
Twitter is taking “multi-variable” steps, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, to curb the spread of misleading information on its platform ahead of 2019 general election in India, Co-Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey said here on Monday.
Addressing a Town Hall-style meeting at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D), Dorsey said fake news is a way too big category.
“The real problem is not misinformation per se as jokes can also be categorised as misinfomation. But misinformation that is spread with the intent to mislead people is a real problem,” stressed the Twitter CEO who is in India on a week-long maiden visit.
Dorsey, who got a rousing reception at IIT-D with the students wildly cheering the young entrepreneur, likened solving the problem of misleading information to that of addressing a security issue, or building a lock.
Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign influence operations and their use of social media on Capitol Hill. VOA
“No one can build a perfect lock, but we need to stay ahead of our attackers. AI could probably help,” Dorsey told the audience.
Earlier in the day, the Twitter CEO met Congress President Rahul Gandhi and discussed various steps the social network was taking to curb the spread of fake news and boost healthy conversation on its platform.
Dorsey also met Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama over the weekend. He was also expected to meet Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the wake of the growing criticism over Twitter’s role in the spread of misinformation and fake news as India faces Assembly polls in five states in November-December ahead of next year’s general elections.
Twitter on a smartphone device. Pixabay
Twitter, along with other social media platforms, including Facebook, came under intense scrutiny of policymakers in the US for their failure to stop the spread of misinformation by Russia-linked accounts on their platforms during the 2016 Presidential election.
The micro-blogging site since then has stepped up its efforts to curb the spread of divisive messages and fake news on its platform.
To further protect the integrity of elections, Twitter recently announced that it would now delete fake accounts engaged in a variety of emergent, malicious behaviour.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he addresses the gathering during the ‘Global Mobility Summit’ in New Delhi, India, VOA
As part of the new rules, accounts that deliberately mimic or are intended to replace accounts that were previously suspended for violating rules may be identified as fake accounts, Twitter said recently.
However, according to a Knight Foundation study released in October, more than 80 per cent of the Twitter accounts linked to spread of disinformation during the 2016 US election are still active. (IANS)
