Teachers can effectively use social media as a teaching tool by following these strategies:

1. Set clear goals and objectives: Identify what you want to achieve through social media, whether it’s to increase student engagement, improve communication, or share resources.
2. Choose the right platforms: Select the most appropriate social media platforms for your audience and content, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
3. Create engaging content: Share relevant, informative, and visually appealing content that resonates with your students and audience.
4. Use hashtags: Use relevant hashtags to make your content discoverable and attract new followers.
5. Encourage student participation: Encourage students to participate in discussions, share their own content, and engage with each other.
6. Monitor and moderate: Regularly monitor social media conversations about your class or school and moderate comments to ensure a positive and respectful environment.
7. Keep it professional: Maintain a professional tone and avoid personal opinions or biases.
8. Provide clear instructions: Clearly explain how to access and use social media in the classroom or for assignments.
9. Integrate with existing curriculum: Integrate social media into existing lessons and projects to reinforce learning objectives.
10. Evaluate effectiveness: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of social media use in the classroom and adjust strategies as needed.

Some specific ideas for using social media in the classroom include:

1. Flipped classrooms: Use social media to pre-teach material or assign homework that involves social media-based activities.
2. Virtual field trips: Organize virtual field trips using social media platforms like YouTube Live or Facebook Live.
3. Student showcases: Encourage students to share their work or projects on social media, providing feedback and recognition.
4. Real-time discussions: Use Twitter Chats or Facebook Live to facilitate real-time discussions on current events or topics related to the curriculum.
5. Collaborative projects: Assign group projects that involve social media-based collaboration and communication.
6. Social media scavenger hunts: Create scavenger hunts that require students to find and share information on social media.
7. Teacher-student communication: Use social media to communicate with students, providing updates, reminders, or encouragement.
8. Parent engagement: Use social media to engage with parents, share updates on student progress, and provide resources for parental involvement.

By incorporating these strategies, teachers can effectively use social media as a teaching tool to enhance student engagement, communication, and learning outcomes

India is sandwiched between the two largest drug production networks of the world namely the Golden Triangle (Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar) and the Golden Crescent (Afghanistan-Pakistan- Iran), and this makes India vulnerable to drug trafficking. However, the factors responsible for the growing menace of drug trafficking in the country go beyond its mere proximity to the largest drug production networks.

These factors include the following:

• Availability of maritime routes: With a long coastline and availability of numerous ports, India is sensitive to drug trafficking through maritime routes. For example, according to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), drug trafficking through sea routes in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal is estimated to be around 70% of the total illegal drugs smuggled into India.
• Increased demand for drugs: From traditional plant-based drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, and heroin to synthetic drugs such as tramadol, demand for narcotic substances in India has increased manifold in recent years.
• Social factors: Various factors like the disintegration of the old joint family system, absence of parental love and care in modern families where both parents are working, a decline of old religious and moral values, etc. have led to a rise in the number of drug addicts and thus, drug trafficking.
• The increased role of the Internet: Challenges such as emergence of illegal Internet pharmacies, the use of the dark net to place orders and make payments through trading platforms using cryptocurrencies, etc. have increased the procurement of drugs and made distribution easy.
• Logistical issues: There are issues of manpower, infrastructure challenges, and budgetary constraints to intercepting drugs at points of India’s entry for the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which is the lead agency in this regard.

• Inadequate diplomatic leverage: India’s current diplomatic leverage and security cooperation are minimal both at the point of origin, i.e., Afghanistan, and the principal route, i.e., Pakistan, which makes it difficult to gather intelligence about smuggling.

Various measures taken by the government to tackle drug trafficking in India include:

• Institutional measures:
  • The Anti-Narcotics Task Force, a task force on the dark web, cryptocurrencies, etc. has been constituted to act quickly to curb drugs and the usage of the dark net in drug procurement. Amongst border guarding agencies, the Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and Coast Guard have been empowered to take action under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
• Technological measures
• A National Narcotics Coordination Portal (NCORD) has been created through which all agencies across the country will not only be able to get information but will also be able to exchange the best practices.
• Administrative measures:
• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated and is implementing a National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) for 2018-2025, which aims at the reduction of adverse consequences of drug abuse through a multi-pronged strategy involving education, de-addiction and rehabilitation of affected individuals and their families.
• De-addiction campaigns are being run, there is strict surveillance and enforcement at import and export points of drugs, and training programs are being conducted for various law enforcement officials to combat the drug menace.
• Global measures: The government of India has entered into a separate Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on narcotics with different countries for the timely exchange of intelligence information to take place. For example, the MoU between India and Nepal on Drug Demand Reduction and Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

Drugs have an adverse effect on the security of the individual, society, economy, and country, which is why it is necessary to uproot their use with firmness. No healthy, prosperous, capable, and safe nation can achieve its goals without adopting a zero-tolerance policy against drug trafficking.

Violent terror attacks by extremist individuals acting upon their radicalized beliefs are termed ‘lone-wolf terrorism’. While conventional terrorism entails several years of planning, communications, money transfers, etc., the evolved form of terrorism i.e. lone-wolf attacks are usually small-scale attacks and are easy to be carried out by individuals without assistance. Many times, lone wolves do not have any criminal background, and their activities tend to escape the security agencies’ surveillance, unlike organized terrorist groups.

Challenges posed by lone-wolf attacks for counter-terrorism:

• Unpredictable: There seldom exists any pattern or trend to the lone-wolf attacks. This makes intelligence agencies and police forces handicapped in preventing such attacks.
• Anonymity: Anonymity is fundamental to such forms of attacks and hence intelligence organizations have found it challenging to tackle. The internet, especially the dark net, plays a key role in the preparation of terrorist attacks as well as during the process of radicalization of lone wolves, which is difficult to trace and detect.
• Logistical ease: On observing certain lone wolf terror attacks in Europe and the US, many of these essentially involve stabbing innocent people on the streets or ramming a vehicle into a crowded area. In a hugely and densely populated country like India, such a modus operandi can be a major challenge for the security forces.
• The difference in motive: A well-organized terror attack seeks to cause a large-scale casualty through the attack while the lone wolf attacks are mostly conducted to spread psychological fear or terror amongst the public regarding their safety.

India has been relatively immune to the lone-wolf terrorist phenomena. However, the Udaipur incident of 2020 signifies that it is no longer the case and it remains vulnerable to lone-wolf terrorism as is evident from the following arguments:

• Pakistan factor: As a state sponsor of terrorism, Pakistan can potentially use lone-wolf attacks to further its propaganda of spreading terrorism in India and destabilizing the country.
• Democracy vs Terrorism: Groups like ISIS picture India’s democratic and secular identity as a threat to their concepts of the Islamic Caliphate.
• Density of population: Given the rising overall population and higher densities of such population concentrated in the major urban agglomerations like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc. India is more vulnerable to such attacks.
• Internet penetration: As radicalization plays a critical role in the making of a lone-wolf terrorist, which mostly happens online, high internet penetration in India makes it easier to radicalize individuals especially youths in committing lone-wolf attacks.

But, on the other hand, gaining access to explosives, light weapons and other ammunition in India is immensely difficult due to the strict laws when compared to the US and other European nations. However, proactive measures such as de-radicalization and counter-radicalization strategies, training and equipping the local police, contingency plans by the intelligence and counter-terrorism structures, strengthening international cooperation, etc. is strategically important to subdue any attempts of lone wolf terrorism in the country.

Violent terror attacks by extremist individuals acting upon their radicalized beliefs are termed ‘lone-wolf terrorism’. While conventional terrorism entails several years of planning, communications, money transfers, etc., the evolved form of terrorism i.e. lone-wolf attacks are usually small-scale attacks and are easy to be carried out by individuals without assistance. Many times, lone wolves do not have any criminal background, and their activities tend to escape the security agencies’ surveillance, unlike organized terrorist groups.

Challenges posed by lone-wolf attacks for counter-terrorism:

• Unpredictable: There seldom exists any pattern or trend to the lone-wolf attacks. This makes intelligence agencies and police forces handicapped in preventing such attacks.
• Anonymity: Anonymity is fundamental to such forms of attacks and hence intelligence organizations have found it challenging to tackle. The internet, especially the dark net, plays a key role in the preparation of terrorist attacks as well as during the process of radicalization of lone wolves, which is difficult to trace and detect.
• Logistical ease: On observing certain lone wolf terror attacks in Europe and the US, many of these essentially involve stabbing innocent people on the streets or ramming a vehicle into a crowded area. In a hugely and densely populated country like India, such a modus operandi can be a major challenge for the security forces.
• The difference in motive: A well-organized terror attack seeks to cause a large-scale casualty through the attack while the lone wolf attacks are mostly conducted to spread psychological fear or terror amongst the public regarding their safety.

India has been relatively immune to the lone-wolf terrorist phenomena. However, the Udaipur incident of 2020 signifies that it is no longer the case and it remains vulnerable to lone-wolf terrorism as is evident from the following arguments:

• Pakistan factor: As a state sponsor of terrorism, Pakistan can potentially use lone-wolf attacks to further its propaganda of spreading terrorism in India and destabilizing the country.
• Democracy vs Terrorism: Groups like ISIS picture India’s democratic and secular identity as a threat to their concepts of the Islamic Caliphate.
• Density of population: Given the rising overall population and higher densities of such population concentrated in the major urban agglomerations like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc. India is more vulnerable to such attacks.
• Internet penetration: As radicalization plays a critical role in the making of a lone-wolf terrorist, which mostly happens online, high internet penetration in India makes it easier to radicalize individuals especially youths in committing lone-wolf attacks.

But, on the other hand, gaining access to explosives, light weapons and other ammunition in India is immensely difficult due to the strict laws when compared to the US and other European nations. However, proactive measures such as de-radicalization and counter-radicalization strategies, training and equipping the local police, contingency plans by the intelligence and counter-terrorism structures, strengthening international cooperation, etc. is strategically important to subdue any attempts of lone wolf terrorism in the country.