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Dhirubhai’s Alma Mater Shuts Down Science Section

Business legend Dhirubhai Ambani would have been crying the blues had he been alive today. His alma mater in Gujarat’s Junagadh city is in shambles. The science stream of the government-run Swami Vivekananda Vinay Mandir, where not only the invincible Reliance Industries founder, son of a school teacher, but several state biggies once studied, has had to be closed down due to lack of enough students. In its halcyon days, the science stream, which was started in 1976 in the historical school (formerly Bahadur Khanji School in British India), had as many as six classes each for Class XI and Class XII. With each class comprising about a hundred students, thousands have passed out of the school with a scientific temper. But, according to Principal Pratibha Nagrecha, with the mushrooming of self-financed schools and private tuition classes, the number of students at the school started falling over the past four years with the result that the science stream had just 14 students in the latest academic term as a result of which it had to be shut down. Mayor Dhirubhai Gohil, an alumnus says that teachers of this sarkari school were so dedicated that they often even paid the fees of poor students from their pocket but insisted on a 100% attendance that perhaps did not go well with the students, he feels.     

TRENDS & VIEWS

Technology Cannot Disrupt Original Content Provider: Short Post Editor

They say time flies. How true!  Today is our #SecondAnniversary. Two years back at the height of Covid-19 Pandemic when lockdown was the way of life we took a leap of faith and launched Short Post (Jan 28, 2021), the first-of-its-kind website in the country that focuses on Authentic Gossip. The Oxymoron is deliberate. Well, the response has been quite encouraging. That’s what has kept us going. Till date we have posted close to 2000 stories in the areas of Politics, Business, Entertainment and Sports. Each insightful story of around 225 words has been contributed by Senior Editors. There is a sense of satisfaction of creating a new segment in the market – authentic gossip — and in the process creating a brand (in a limited sense), creating demand (readers) and creating supply (writers). Well known advertisers — IDFC FIRST Bank, ICICI Lombard – supported us.  And that really boosted our confidence. Thank you!

So here we are raring to go.  But, when I look at the media landscape the disruption is indeed fast and furious. Technology is playing a very big role in how content will be consumed. In the past, we have seen how social media has disrupted the media world. Now, everybody is saying the same thing about ChatGPT. It has reached 1 million users in five days. Its scorching pace of growth is indeed frightening and will disrupt the media industry big time. My limited argument is can it do investigative stories, write gossip items using the digital world ecosystem. Unlikely. Clearly, the original content has to be created first — only then can ChatGPT do the magic. That’s what we promise to do – focus on original content.

Before I sign off, I am reminded of an old advertisement of the early sixties: “Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars. So we try harder”. Likewise I can say, we are two years old and we are trying even harder to be relevant to you readers.