Adjusting the Drafter for COVID19: Re-designing our society’s understanding of misinformation

The pandemic of COVID19 illuminated the presence of our society’s cognition in a low-ceiling, inhabitable room, with almost little to none illumination of truth. Such a low-ceiling doesn’t only restrict the freedom of our cognition but also inhibits its healthy growth. Subsequently, our society feels a pushing sense, which is often exaggerated by the dark periods of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news. Hence, it becomes essential to rethink the interior designs of our cognition – How can we look at these periods of misinformation from a different lens? Can we use them to our advantage to make our room looks spacious enough for the growth of our cognition? Despite the limitations imposed to the ceiling length by our existing cognitive biases, there exist multiple, unconventional interdisciplinary approaches from the fields of epistemology, phenomenology, evolutionary psychology, and finally, the mathematics that we, as researchers, can leverage to broaden our understanding about the existing “misinfodemic” that presents as a ripple effect of COVID19 on our society’s cognition. The aim of this paper shall be the same – to present a noble discourse regarding the “dark period of misinformation” – why misinformation is NOT a pandemic but a widely-used misnomer, how the source of truthful information acts a source of misinformation, why misinformation is needed for the development of a better cognitive heuristic framework for our society, and finally, why such unconventional approaches fail to see the light of research. While the existing approaches to deal with misinformation spiral around machine-learning models competing with each other for better detection accuracy, this paper will take the reader right to the epicenter of “misinfodemic” using a variety of routes. Towards the end, the author provides how the mentioned approaches not only widen our understanding regarding the universal phenomenon of misinformation but also can be leveraged and scaled for irrational human behaviors like suicide, partisanship, and even student gun violence in the USA.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pilgrim city: A case of Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India

India has one of the largest pilgrim traffic in the world as it has large number of sacred and holy sites of different religions. Besides tourism has been a rising industry in India during last few decades thus providing excellent opportunities for pilgrimage tourism until the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus hit the Pilgrim industry. The Covid-19 global pandemic has led to fatal situation and is inextricably affecting the economy of the nation. One such case is of Haridwar “The Gateway to the abode of Gods” in the Uttarakhand state of India. Every year lakhs of devotees visit Haridwar to take bath in the holy river Ganga in order to attain virtue. Haridwar is a famous religious city for the Hindus and it is also attractive to other domestic and foreign tourists because of its marvellous geographic location and physio-cultural tourist resources. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has raised awareness about the recent outbreak and the Government is taking several measures and formulating various concord at both central and state level to prevent the adversities of COVID-19. In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight how the pandemic has left the pilgrimage industry gasping. The paper also suggests certain measures to cope up the Covid-19 outbreak thus consequently moving the economy of the region.

Spatial analysis of COVID-19 for the state of Uttar Pradesh, India

The world is struggling to combat COVID-19 pandemic, which is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The pandemic has affected millions of people all across the globe since the first case has been reported in the Wuhan city of China in December 2019. India is the second most affected country in the world with more than 8.5 million confirmed cases (as of 10 November 2020) after USA. India is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the pandemic, leading to the Nation’s economy to a near standstill. The share of COVID-19 confirmed cases in six most affected States of India is approximately 60 percent. The analytical research tries to assess the impact of COVID-19 through spatial-statistical analysis for the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is one of the most affected states by COVID-19 in India. The detailed analysis has been carried out at district level. The impact of pandemic is more in regions (or districts), which are either having metropolis or airports along with high population density and growth rate during the last decade. Furthermore, inadequate number of health infrastructure facilities and low number of testing are some of the major factors making the situation worse in India. The spatial-statistical analysis enables to understand the pattern of spreading of disease by identifying the hot-spot areas, perceiving the trend of transmission of disease spatially, and understanding the extent of the pandemic over a period of time.

Shadowing the Inventiveness: The legacy of Ancient Dega, Post Covid-19, at Nepal A spiritual narration

“World Heritage Sites in Nepal becomes silent”! The conference paper enlightens reconciliation of tangible and intangible heritage conservation to deliver contextual information. The problem under study of this conference paper is a gap and lack of management directed for the gratitude and receptiveness of heritage values in decision-making process, which explains why the problem of reconciling conservation and development subsists in the first place. For the above cause, the author investigates a few systems and criteria’s, used for guiding the design and assessment of interpolations in historic places. In this qualitative study, literature review document analysis is selected as the principal method to address the research problem that would bring an answer to the research question “Why is the study important and to whom”? The prime perseverance is to determine battleground relevance of intangible heritage over tangible heritage before and after the domination of disaster and pandemic situations presently (COVID -19) leading to – ‘murder of a culture’. The literature study is an effort to comprehend the significance and relationship between Culture and Architectural heritage of Nepali Degas (Temples) in order to safeguard these outstanding rich World Heritage Sites (WHS) in a vivid urban environment.

Life in small urban spaces of “Sanskari Nagari – Vadodara”

This paper envisages the situation of social life in the city of, “Vadodara – Sanskari Nagari” during and post-pandemic. In the globalization hub of Western-India, the city Vadodara stands true to its name – “Sanskari Nagari”, which still celebrates its rich heritage and culture to its fullest. The social life of people in Vadodara is not only a part of their culture but also part of their routine, which can be perceived from the world’s largest “Garba-gathering”; to every day’s post office hour “Chai-meetup”; to relishing their free time playing “Ludo” by the sides of bridges across the city. With the presence of COVID-19, city people are hesitant about social gatherings and meeting people. Ultimately, life is resuming but at a slow pace and there is an urge to “reimagine” the public spaces and public behaviour so that city doesn’t lose its charm. Referring to the city assessment of William H. Whyte, the mentor of Street Life Project for Public Spaces, Pedestrian behaviour, and City Dynamics, through his book – “Social Life Of Small Urban Spaces,1980” forms the prelude for the research. This paper draws attention to similar spaces for the city of Vadodara as referred to in the book. We see what we do not expect to see, and get acquainted to see crowded spaces. Hence, this paper analyses the selected “Urban-blocks” and “Neighbourhood-spaces” of different typology and their diverse activities. Conclusion focus on the rational segregation and “re-defining” of Urban Spaces based on their safe carrying capacity.

Heritage responsive city development in India post pandemic: A case of walled city of Jaipur

Indian heritage cities have evolved and undergone various planning interventions both in terms of theory and practice. Although, many cities are practicing the Heritage Management concept, are still lacking behind conserving urban heritage assets and managing their urban fabric. The heritage cities like Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, are either inscribed or trying to get inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site to preserve their heritage assets; where the implications and repercussions of WHS, be it economic or social are often not thought about. In this Research, the Walled city of Jaipur is selected as a case study – is a “UNESCO inscribed WHS” after Ahmedabad. These cities are under tremendous pressure from modern development. Perhaps, how a city should function dwindles because its capacity to cater to a particular percentage of the population exceeds. The heritage cities witness the terrific problems of COVID-19 Pandemic due to the densely packed urban environment and poor infrastructure facilities, insufficient health and sanitation facilities, civic sense, the attitude of people towards serving the urban situation rising the spread of the contagious diseases. Such conditions prevailing in cities might trigger the epidemics to take place in the coming future. With the need to recognize such issues and challenges, the research thus focuses on developing planning measures for conserving the Heritage precincts post-pandemic. The study addresses to bring the historic structures back to its citizen and local requirements, characterizing the heritage city with the revised land-use plan. Furthermore, the outcome of this research is to assess the socio-economic impacts of WHS and Tourism post-pandemic by determining the issues and the challenges, cost-benefits analysis associated with the urban heritage.

My rural, vernacular house in context to COVID-19

Vernacular architecture offers clues and lessons to people. Purpose of this paper is thus to explore and identify attributes of a particular piece of vernacular architecture and try to relate it in context to COVID-19. It highlights attributes of the house in context to reimagining and redesigning built environment in days of COVID-19. Said piece of vernacular architecture is my ancestral house which no more exists since 55 years in a village I am from. Its plan, form, building materials and setting in a village teaches few things. House of single storey in mud construction was over a small plot of about 9 meters by 12.5 meters. Top of compound wall was above eye level offering great privacy and insider naturally avails environ offering pleasant solitude, the need of COVID-19. When one entered plot of house from road through compound gate on south-west direction of a plot, one is in a small courtyard. Immediate to entrance at compound gate was a room of about 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters with a veranda of about 2 meters by 2.5 meters. This space called “Gadaaro” was for male guests and males of a family. Courtyard which contained two cows continued beyond Gadaaro. Abutting on northern wall of a plot were walls of 3 rooms namely kitchen (northwest), a general room and a bed room (north east). From a courtyard one could enter to a general room leading to kitchen on its west and bed room on its east. Plan remained closer to what one needs to reimagine today in COVID-19. Construction from local building materials; mud-walls and a country tiled sloping roof offered many things expected in COVID-19. Findings here are that environ, house plan and construction materials has to be such that one can leave in for a long period without coming in contact with outdoors for days. House plan shall be fully contained and complete in itself.

Post Covid-19 built environment: Architecture and town planning

Globally, at the end of July 2020, 16,301,735 positive cases of COVID-19, with 650,068 deaths, as shown by WHO. Such huge numbers are an indication of large scale devastation. Although there are numerous traditions of designing built environments in the world, the origins of all contemporary cities can be outlined to community scuffles in contradiction of the consequences of the industrialist city such as Fire, Pandemics, Disasters and Environmental Squalor etc. Inclusive city development with a healthy urban built environment emerged as a way to minimize these failures. Dense urban areas made population exposed to pandemic and disaster, but cities have also learned with time how to minimize threats. This could be in the arrangement of health and sanitary codes while designing, safety regulations, health sensitive public place planning, and environmental conservation. Cities are susceptible as we have deteriorated their capability to anticipate, prepare and respond to disasters and pandemics. They are susceptible, not because they are having high collective densities, but because they are extremely unfit for living settings, facilities, income and admittance. For designing the post-COVID-19 built environments, we need to evaluate the existing practices. The traditional land use and infrastructure expansion must produce a place for a more comprehensive design that prioritizes health, equity, employment and environment. Urban areas will have to be planned and designed to survive the effects of pandemics and calamities. Architects will have to reform existing structures to provide for more ventilation and natural light and reduce the use of air conditioners. Planners in practice and the state need to think about the integration of the health sector on a priority basis in upcoming city plans and development schemes. Builders will have to reconsider raising huge skyscrapers with respect to physical wellbeing. Any city plan will have to be inclusive with healthy accommodation for the poor, the weak and the migrant strata who are exposed to extreme stress during crisis time.

Issues and challenges for urban development in Indian cities post pandemic: A case of Jaipur

The greatest challenge the whole world is facing currently is how urban development can be processed based on COVID -19 pandemic can be addressed. A country like India which has low healthcare resources, large population of poor people, many of whom are already burdened with other health issues, pose challenges on every dimension. Numerous problems like overcrowding, pollution, housing shortage, proliferation of slums, inefficient infrastructure, increased instances of disasters, unhealthy living conditions, shortage of open spaces, etc. are the major cause of concern in most of the Indian cities. As a result, severe outbreaks of major epidemics have been observed in the past, which led to a huge loss of resources and human life. Thus, it is important to understand the appropriateness of present trends of urban planning and development. “COVID-19” has spread ruthlessly in major Indian cities due to the high population densities and shared sanitation facilities, thus affecting millions of people. Considering “Jaipur” as a case study, the 10th largest city of India, known for its trade and commerce has been affected tremendously due to pandemic and has experienced enormous loss of human life and economic resources. Thus, it is imperative to understand the various urban problems faced by cities, which has increased the vulnerability to the pandemic and has facilitated its spread. This paper investigates various urban problems faced by Indian cities in general and specific to the context of Jaipur, which facilitates the spread of Pandemic. Hence, proposing various urban planning measures in order to cope up with the challenges arising in urban development of Indian cities to be able to cater to such situation.

Feature extraction-based image steganalysis using deep learning

The innovations in advanced information technologies has led to rapid delivery and sharing of multimedia data like images and videos. The digital steganography offers ability to secure communication and imperative for internet. The image steganography is essential to preserve confidential information of security applications. The secret image is embedded within pixels. The embedding of secret message is done by applied with S-UNIWARD and WOW steganography. Hidden messages are reveled using steganalysis. The exploration of research interests focused on conventional fields and recent technological fields of steganalysis. This paper devises Convolutional neural network models for steganalysis. Convolutional neural network (CNN) is one of the most frequently used deep learning techniques. The Convolutional neural network is used to extract spatio-temporal information or features and classification. We have compared steganalysis outcome with AlexNet and SRNeT with same dataset. The stegnalytic error rates are compared with different payloads.