Hamlet’s existential dilemma — ‘To be or not to be?’ — is finding an echo in Indian schools: To ban or not to ban smartphones in classrooms.With Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announcing a ban on the use of mobile phones by students in all govt and private schools from March, and his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah in his budget speech on March 6 announcing a ban on social media for under-16 children, concerns over excessive smartphone use and its impact on children’s cognitive abilities are back in the spotlight.These decisions align with a growing global push to curb...