Page 6 - EW February 2026

From the

Editor
THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MAGAZINE

Volume X X VII No.2

BOARD OF ADVISORS
N.R. Narayana Murthy, H.V. Gowthama, Shukla O
Bose, Dr. Glenn Christo, Dr. R. Natarajan, Dr. ne of the many egregious errors of the Nehru-Indira socialist
Nissar Ahmed (Bangalore); Adi Godrej, Dr. decades was to deny citizens the basic necessity of a telephone
Augustine Pinto, Guilherme Vaz, Ketan Gala,
Kirit Mehta, Balkishan Sharma, Manjeet Kripalani for over half a century. In another avatar as editor of Business
(Mumbai); Dr. Ramdas Pai (Manipal); Prof. Geeta India, I recall rabble-rouser and prize duffer George Fernandes
Kingdon (Lucknow); Rajiv Desai, Dr. Parth Shah,
Dr. C. Raj Kumar (Delhi); Vivek Shukla (Kolkata); — who God had no mercy — was appointed Union minister of
Yogi Kochhar (Dharamshala); Shyama Thakore industry, informing my astonished ears that telephones were luxury items for
(London)
idle chat and gossip, and didn’t sit well with Indian socialism. As a result I had
EDITOR to endure 13 years of using pay phones, until after pulling many strings, I was
Dilip Thakore awarded this luxury item at home.
Therefore, when miraculously the mobile phone became easily available to
MANAGING EDITOR
Summiya Yasmeen all in the new millennium, I was delighted, not because I could indulge in idle
chat and gossip but because of a great workplace productivity leap. Although
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR media and other pundits ascribe doubling of the annual GDP growth rate in
Sundar Anand the new millennium to the half-cocked liberalisation of the economy in 1991,
Paromita Sengupta, Reshma Ravishanker, Gopi
Chand N, (Bangalore), Autar Nehru (Delhi) I believe the mobile phone revolution added at least 3 percent to annual GDP
9868256512, Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata) growth because of greater ease of doing business.
9836491981, Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai) However two decades later, the world is experiencing the downsides of the
9500506102
mobile phone revolution. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the smartphone has
CHIEF EXECUTIVE evolved into an entertainment medium. Taking advantage of cheap internet
Bhavin Shah +91 9867382867 connectivity and decreasing price of cell phones, a new genre of American ICT
MARKETING (information communication technologies) megabucks corporations have de-
Vice President — Sales: Tejas Pattni 9022487997 signed ingenious ways and means to continuously addict people — especially
West: Aasana Jain 9820319127 impressionable children and youth — to online idle chatter, gossip and con-
South: Poonam Shah 9731966373 tinuous scrolling of disconnected video reels. To the extent that the academic
E-mail: marketing@educationworld.in
learning and mental and physical health of hundreds of millions of children
GRAPHICS and youth worldwide glued to their smartphones, is suffering serious decline.
Chandrashekar L. Late last year, the Federal government of Australia enacted legislation
Kotresh Y
transferring the onus of preventing children and teens from accessing addic-
SUBSCRIPTIONS tive social media platforms from parents to Big Tech corporations. Several
Mithun Jadhav: 9108225694/ other countries notably France and Spain, have initiated similar legislation.
080 43711141
sub@educationworld.in In this month’s cover feature, we have issued a clarion call for Central gov-
ernment legislation to force Big Tech corporates to utilise new age detection
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION: RS.2500
OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTION: USD100 technologies to prevent children and youth accessing their debilitating social
Cheques/drafts in favour of DT Media & media platforms and apps. In our detailed cover feature citing child develop-
Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore
ment experts, we advance compelling reasons why government needs to ur-
EDITORIAL gently follow the Australian example and save GenNext from the detrimental
C3-36, 3rd Floor, Devatha Plaza impact of social media gone haywire.
131 Residency Road, Bangalore 560 025. The cover feature apart, this year’s second issue features a photo essay on
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E-mail: editorial@educationworld.in
Childhood Education National Conference 2026 attended by over 400 ECCE
Printed and published by Dilip Thakore on behalf
of DT Media & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. leaders and professionals, thought-provoking editorials, and expert comment
Printed at Rajhans Enterprises, 134, 4th Main, In- essays. Join us in our mission to “build the pressure of public opinion to make
dustrial Town, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-44. Published education the #1 item on the national agenda”. Because let’s face it squarely:
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6 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2026