Innholdsfortegnelse for February 5, 2018 i India Today

Inside the icy bubble of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cranked up the heat when he spoke of the 3Ds that mark the idea of India—democracy, demography and dynamism. The buzz about India as a business destination was palpable, and Prime Minister Modi, who made a statesmanlike speech, was feted and celebrated. Back home, though, the news is not so good. According to the January 2018 edition of the India Today Group’s Mood of the Nation poll, 23 per cent of the respondents are saying price rise is the issue that concerns them the most, up from 19 per cent in the last poll in July 2017. It’s understandable, given that petrol prices are now the same as they were when Prime Minister Modi came…

Narendra Modi and Pravin Togadia fell out in 2003, privately accusing each other of ideological betrayal. But the reasons behind the split were more personal than either man was prepared to admit. Modi had been Gujarat chief minister for a year-and-a-half by then. Togadia, a surgeon, had worked with Modi in 1984 when the latter was an RSS pracharak in Ahmedabad district. They went back a long way. Modi had joined the BJP in 1986-87, around the time Togadia became the head of the Gujarat branch of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). Together they played key roles in the BJP’s expansion in the state. Their first public disagreement was not till 1998, when Togadia chose to support then chief minister Keshubhai Patel, who Modi opposed. That tiff was app arently…

Twitter Harakiri Fasih Ahmed, the editor of Newsweek Pakistan and a member of the board of governors for the Lahore Literary Festival, has likely tweeted himself out of a job. Newsweek decided to “review its relationship” with Ahmed after attention was drawn to tweets making ill-judged jokes about rape and sexual abuse. He also threw in what seems to be casual racism. (Hard to tell because the tweets are so crazed.) “Rape by, say, Obama is rape” read one tweet, “Rape by, say, Tom Cruise is everyone’s dream.” Ahmed did not back down. “My account has not been hacked” he tweeted. “Relax.” Not surprising that he’s too dumb to take the obvious escape route. Modi’s Davos Show All India has been celebrating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s triumphant takeover of Davos,…

The BJP takes humour very seriously, even giving out awards to deserving partymen at the end of the year. The jury reportedly comprises Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah. Awardees include ministers, members of the parliamentary board and the central election committee. Last year’s winners in the anecdote category included finance minister Arun Jaitley, an honour he has held for two years running. Goa CM Manohar Parrikar has won the prize for his jokes, beating parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar. Partymen say they are still tickled by Parrikar’s jokes from his two-and-a-half-year stint as defence minister. The defence ministry, which both Parrikar and Jaitley have held, seems to be more inspiring than we thought.…

It’s cringe-inducing that legal rulings invoking an adult’s freedom to choose their own spouse are still necessary after 70 years of constitutional democracy On January 16, 2018, the Supreme Court assured us that our choice of spouse could not be questioned by a khap panchayat. On January 23, 2018, the Supreme Court told Hadiya that they could not question an adult woman’s choice of husband. But first we had to endure the tragic drama enacted by many in court, who felt they were seriously advocating a cause when they said that Hadiya suffered from “Stockholm syndrome” or that a khap was, in fact, entitled to challenge a marriage. It’s cringe-inducing that such legal pronouncements of freedom to marry are still necessary after 70 years of constitutionally elected governments in the…

RIGHT FROM THE BIRTH OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY, there has been a quest to understand the great duality of existence. The complex interplay between the positive and negative forces of nature. Between life and death. Good versus evil. The Chinese described it as Yin and Yang and strived to achieve a dynamic balance between contrarian forces. The Bhagvad Gita advocates two paths towards moksha—sanyas yoga, which demands abstinence from worldly pleasures and focuses on meditation and inner realisation; and karma yoga that affirms life and calls upon individuals to perform their dharma without fear or favour, always being right in thought and action. As Narendra Modi enters the final year of his tenure as prime minister, he exhibits all the characteristic traits of this puzzling Indian duality. There is Statesman Modi…

ON JANUARY 20, while campaigning for the state byelections at the end of the month, Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot tweeted: “Price rise, unemployment and economic slowdown are huge issues in rural and urban parts of Rajasthan. The BJP government has no answers to these burning issues. The public mood is for a change.” In this seemingly routine tweet bordering on electoral rhetoric, Pilot, however, captured the collective mood, not only of the people of Rajasthan but of the entire nation. In the January 2018 edition of the India Today Group’s Mood of the Nation opinion poll, 23 per cent respondents—up from 10 per cent a year ago—say that price rice is the issue that concerns them the most. Unemployment still worries 29 per cent of the respondents, marginally down…

WHO IN YOUR OPINION HAS BEEN THE NO. 1 SPORTSPERSON IN THE YEAR? IS THERE ANYONE who can challenge the hegemony of Virat Kohli? Unlikely, given the captain’s invincible form in 2017, which was recently validated with the ICC award for the Cricketer of the Year. That he was judged as the captain of both the Test and one day international (ODI) formats highlights how Kohli is an ace performer in all formats. Now as one half of the power couple Virushka (Virat and Anushka), Kohli is officially a part of glamorous Bollywood which has further added to his celebrity credentials. However, with great fame comes great responsibility. Pressure to repeat home turf success in the international arena has mounted in the wake of the disappointing showing in South Africa.…

There was drama. There was humour. There was intense debate. The second edition of the india today Conclave South held at Hyderabad on January 18 and 19 had several iconic moments: Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao had a rare public interaction after taking charge of the country’s youngest state. Puducherry CM V. Narayanasamy explained why a smiling photo op with Prime Minister Narendra Modi yields no results. Healthcare doyen Prathap C. Reddy and daughter Sangita spoke about the future of public health in India. Telugu superstar Mohan Babu offered a glimpse of his evolution as a father—once a conservative parent, he is today proud of his daughter Lakshmi Manchu’s achievements. Tamil actor Vishal revealed his political plans. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi dared BJP president Amit Shah…

She’s played a princess and a prima donna. She’s cooked in borrowed New York apartments and in studios under TV lights. The first lady of global Indian cuisine. And the first among actors to cross over. Few can lay claim to both firsts but then Madhur Jaffrey is no ordinary woman. Clad in black leather pants, boots, velvet jacket and pashmina shawl, the 84-year-old looks every inch the princess she played in Merchant Ivory’s Autobiography of a Princess, give or take a few lines on a striking face. Here the only Indian winner of Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965 for her role in Shakespeare Wallah—in what critic Kenneth Tynan called a ravishing study in felinity—speaks to Kaveree Bamzai on films, food and Ismail Merchant. You were…

“The determination of order of nature is not a common phenomenon. Individual autonomy and individual natural inclination cannot be atrophied unless the restrictions are determined as reasonable,” observed a bench headed by Chief Justice of India this month, as it decided to revisit the Court’s December 2013 verdict in Suresh Kumar Kaushal vs Naz Foundation, on the subject of reading down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. This section criminalises, among other things, consensual intercourse between two people who don’t identify as heterosexual and consensual acts other than penal-vaginal penetration among heterosexuals. It is a big step forward for gender and sexual rights of an entire community in India.…

“We have the soul of a small company with the resources of a big company” HAS A TURNOVER OF 300 CRORE IN LIQUID CONDIMENTS ALONE In 1957, a young girl, then studying at Miranda House, Delhi, was married into a Punjabi family and moved to Ludhiana. She was allowed to complete her graduation but then spent the next several years raising three boys. When they went to boarding school, she started making ice cream from a hand-cranked machine in her kitchen. You know how the story ends. The company she started as a local catering unit with a 300 investment and a small oven is now two large made-in-India firms divided among the three sons—Cremica Food Industries and Mrs Bector’s Food Specialities. Several years later, Rajni Bector’s journey was retraced…

“Selling a wine bottle is fun” HAS AN ANNUAL TURNOVER OF 35 CRORE Just over two years ago, Madhulika Bhattarcharya Dhall was stacking wine bottles at 4 am at La Cave, the night before it opened its doors to public. “I remember being nervous, wondering what the response would be. Today, La Cave, with an annual turnover of 35 crore, has become synonymous with fine wines in India,” says Dhall. Housing over 310 wine labels from all over the world, in addition to other spirits and liquor, La Cave, is a wine lover’s dream haven. For Dhall, this “store of passion” came after 15 years of travelling across the world with her husband Aman Dhall, founder of Brindco, a company that imports and distributes fine wines and spirits. “The idea…

“We make food that we like to eat ourselves” STARTED WITH AN INVESTMENT OF 1 CRORE Growing up in a “sweet smelling home with chocolates, cakes and desserts being made daily” offered Kainaz Messman the first push into the world of baking. In 2004, while she was working for the Oberoi Group of Hotels, her family urged her to start a business and she launched Theobroma with her signature brownies, and an initial investment of 1 crore. “It was opened as a dessert destination but it swiftly evolved over the years to serve sandwiches and savouries. But at heart, we are a place for cakes and desserts,” she says. “We use good ingredients. We keep things simple and we make things well. Everything we sell we make ourselves,” says Messman.…

There are changes that have taken place in the society of the Kashmir Valley as a result of the insurgency Chitralekha Zutshi, one of India’s premier scholars, believes the politicisation of history is not new. “History has always been political. Every state uses the past for ideological reasons,” says the William and Mary College professor of history, who has authored two books on Kashmir, edited another last year titled Kashmir: History, Politics, Representation and is currently working on the biography of Sheikh Abdullah. What do you think of the rewriting of the historical narrative in contemporary India? As an historian I tend to take a longer perspective and can tell you that history has always been written and rewritten to suit particular political agendas. The contemporary rewriting of the Indian…

Get adequate education and training Education is your most powerful ally. Acquire the highest degree you can and consider informal modes of education as well. Attend conferences, online webinars, and stay up-to-date with trade publications in your area of focus. When seeking a job, consider organisations that offer training programmes and professional learning opportunities. Develop skills that are transferable and applicable to various career fields. Plan your career Set a goal for where you want to be five years from now and allow for flexibility in case of a change in circumstances. Explore different career paths. Your aim should be to find something that you can be happy with in the long-term and having a plan will help you to stay on that path. Expand your network Invest time into…

Women think multiple times before expressing anger because the trope of a ‘crazy girl’ has been force fed to us since the minute we understood anger. We weren’t allowed jurisdiction over our own indignation. Anger has always been the enemy emotion—so unfeminine that huge chunks of our emotional reserves are expended on keeping it in check. This shows most starkly in the way we navigate the men in our lives. The perceived harm to their emotions is always placed above our own actual emotional damage. Anger is a form of defence Half the world had been defanged of its instinctual ability to defend itself and its ideals because it would impinge on the lopsided arrangements within which we exist. This awareness often comes as a shock to women too. The…

IIT MADRAS SUMMER FELLOWSHIP Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras will be offering a two-month summer fellowship programme, beginning from May 16 for non-IIT students. The internship is designed to enhance interest and awareness in high quality academic research among students across all streams. A sum of 6,000 per month will be provided as a stipend. The deadline for submitting applications is February 28. Check https://sfp.iitm.ac.in/ how to apply UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH SCHOLARSHIP University of Edinburgh, UK, is offering 30 enlightenment scholarships for UK, EU and overseas students, applying for a PhD programme at the University. The scholarships cover full tuition fee, a living cost award, and depending on satisfactory progress, the scholarships are awarded for up to four years for full-time PhD study. The deadline is February 1. Check…

From Mahatma Gandhi to BR Ambedkar our greatest leaders have been trained lawyers. Globalisation has also opened up new possibilities for lawyers with expansion of the private sector. C Raj Kumar, who was a Rhodes scholar and trained as a lawyer from Delhi University, Oxford and Harvard, is perhaps the perfect person to head the O P Jindal Global University in Sonepat in Haryana, which began in 2009 with 100 students and now has 3,600 students, creating alongside other universities, a hub of learning in Haryana. The founding Vice-Chancellor of the university and Dean of the Jindal Global Law School speaks on what makes a great university. What is the role private universities such as O P Jindal Global University are playing in India? Increasingly Indian students are not convinced…

RUN FOR HEALTH Saransh Goila Dig into that creamy butter chicken or sink your teeth into an occasional slice of cheesecake without any guilt pangs only if you promise to run the next morning. That’s what chef Saransh Goila, 30, urges Mumbaikars to do. “Become fit without having to diet or compromise on the kind of food you eat every day. Eat everything in moderation,” says Goila, who launched the #RunToEat initiative in 2017. The concept of his campaign is to remind people that fitness and food go hand-in-hand and that one should maintain a balanced lifestyle by running and eating well. A chef and entrepreneur who runs Goila Butter Chicken food delivery outlets in Mumbai, Goila recommends eating heavy calorie foods occasionally along with fat-free low calorie meals. “You…

Amendments to the Enemy Property Act, 1968, were passed in March 2017, to ensure that properties of those who fled India for Pakistan or China after Partition and the 1962 and 1965 wars cannot be claimed by their heirs. Several thousand such properties are now up for auction. Revenues generated from both movable and immovable enemy properties are, to date, a pittance. But some critics are asking if the amendments will scare off Chinese investors, wary of a hostile government. 9,280 Enemy properties up for auction, over 11,882 acres. Of these, 149 are owned by those who took Chinese citizenship 1,04,340 CR The estimated value of these immovable properties 38 LAKH Worth of gold and jewellery among movable enemy properties 5.06 CR Revenues from movable/ immovable enemy property from 2014…

The cold war between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje is officially over. During his Udaipur visit last year, the PM barely acknowledged her presence. At the launch of a refinery in Barmer recently, however, he heaped fulsome praise on her development efforts and credited her with ‘supernatural power’ that brought good rains in sharp contrast to the Congress-era droughts. What gives? Fear of a Gujarat-style nailbiter in Rajasthan, political watchers say. Sandeep Unnithan, with Sujit Thakur, Rohit Parihar, Romita Datta, Kiran D. Tare and Aravind Gowda…

The BJP is poised to play a key role in determining the winners on March 3, when results are declared to elections in three Northeastern states—Tripura, which goes to polls on February 18; and Meg h alaya and Nagaland, February 27. The saffron party’s surge in the Northeast has been dramatic. After ousting the Congress in Assam in May 2016, it took Arunachal six months later, luring 43 Congress MLAs, including Chief Minister Pema Khandu. In March 2017, the BJP formed the government in Manipur even though the Congress emerged as the largest party in the polls. But things may not be so easy in Christian-majority Meghalaya and Nag aland, where the BJP faces questions over cow vigilantism, the beef ban and church attacks elsewhere in the country. In Meghalaya,…

BUDGET 2018-19 WILL BE ONE of finance minister Arun Jaitley’s toughest challenges. Although this will be the NDA government’s last full budget before the general elections next year, Jaitley cannot afford to be profligate to please the various constituencies as that would mean slipping on the fiscal discipline he has maintained so far. The wiggle room has further narrowed due to glitches in the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), resulting in lower-than-expected revenues from indirect tax collection. GST collections in November 2017, at Rs 80,808 crore, were the lowest since the tax regime was implemented in July 2017, compared to peak collections of over Rs 94,000 crore in July. At the same time, the clamour to pump prime growth has never been louder, thanks to demonetisation, which…

It happens at night. It happens in the forests. Much of it is theatre. But if it reminds you of Shakespeare, you would be wrong. Night of Theatre n°10—La Nuit des Idées calls itself “a festival of contemporary performing arts and inventive thought”. That it exists at all is a fairly inventive thought in itself. But that it has been happening in India every year for six years almost beggars belief. Here’s an international arts festival that began in Mexico in 2004, was rekindled in India in 2012, and not just in Kolkata but also 240 kilometres away in Borotalpada, a remote Santhal village in Jhargram district. A festival that will see artistes from France, Canada, Japan, Mexico with Indian artistes from Delhi, Kolkata, Borotalpada and the tribal areas surrounding…

The first episode of Alt Balaji’s The Test Case was uploaded in April 2017. Seven months later, the remaining nine episodes will finally be available on January 26. The fallout between Nagesh Kukunoor and Ekta Kapoor has been Vinay Waikul’s gain. Waikul, 40, was roped in on the recommendation of co-producers Endemol India, which was impressed by his 18-year-long stint as an assistant director, working on successful projects including Ghajini, 3 Idiots, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Dangal. Needless to say after devoting nine months to the project, Waikul has been bitten by the directing bug. “Once you get the taste of directing, you can’t go back,” says Waikul who has also worked with Aamir Khan Productions on the TV series Satyamev Jayate. Starring Nimrat Kaur as a woman trying to…

Q. An injury kept you out of the Dubai World Super Series Finals in December, and then you led the Hyderabad Hunters to win India’s Pro Badminton League. My favourite part of the league has been to live it as a part of a team. It has improved my game. I’m really happy. We worked hard to win the title. Q. The most promising Indian players who have emerged from the league? One of my favourite moments during the PBL has been meeting Satwik Sairaj. He is a really good guy and a good player, and I think he will be an important player in the Indian badminton scene. Q. What is the best thing about India for you? I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s a country…

This year, the audience at the Golden Globes was not only a vision in black, but also a movement. Celebrities from across the board donned black outfits and Time’s Up pins in solidarity with the women who spoke out, standing against the men who were called out for predatory behaviour. History was created, with Oprah Winfrey becoming the first African American woman to win the Cecil B DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. She invoked memories of the time she was a little girl from Milwaukee and watched Sidney Poitier become the first African American man to win an Academy Award in 1964. She also used her platform to address head- on the problem of rampant sexual abuse in the industry and outside of it, talking about survivor Recy Taylor. It…

SIMA PATEL, 55 CEO Ridgemont Hospitality Development and management company, US ON HOW WOMEN CAN SURVIVE IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY Tip 1 Find your passion There are a number of career opportunities for women right from the front desk, housekeeping and sales to marketing and finance. Know what drives you and the role you would like to take up. Don’t settle for background roles. Work in the forefront and take up leadership roles. Tip 2 Build your resilience Hospitality is a male-dominated industry and it is likely that you will have to deal with male chauvinism at some point or other. Don’t get offended by that and don’t give up easily. Stick it out and stay professional. Tip 3 Cash on your strengths Women are hospitable by nature and are…

“Eat, sleep, and live your brand” STARTED WITH AN INVESTMENT OF 6.5 CRORE Motherhood inadvertently catalysed my culinary career because I quit my finance job and started a small-scale catering business with my mother. Months of writing emails to Michel Roux Jr resulted in my being accepted in the bakery section of Le Gavroche, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in London, where I was surrounded by the most talented chefs. It soon became my mission to travel and train with chefs to hone my skills in the culinary space. A trip to San Sebastian, Spain, and eating from the rich Basque region drew me close to the discovery of produce. Back in India, I met Prateek Sadhu over coffee and spoke about cooking from the region and harnessing the soil. Masque is…

“There is no substitute for hard work” THE CAFE CAN SEAT 36 PEOPLE When you glance over her macarons and the dessert menu at Le 15, it’s hard to imagine that Pooja Dhingra could have had a “complete disaster” in the kitchen. “The same recipes that worked in France did not hold here. The weather, temperature, equipment, and humidity all played a role. It took many trials to get it right, but eventually it all worked out,” she says. In 2010, she set up her dessert brand, Le 15, inspired by the 15th arrondissement neighbourhood where she lived in Paris while studying at the Le Cordon Bleu. Seven years later, Dhingra is a noted chef, an author and an entrepreneur who has three outlets, a café and two books in…

“Eat like your grandmother; organic when possible” SELF-FUNDED WITH AN INVESTMENT OF 2 CRORE They have an aversion to the term ‘mompreneur’. Where are the dadpreneurs, they ask. Shauravi Malik and Meghana Narayan, two women behind the popular children’s food brand Slurrp Farm shifted streams from successful careers at McKinsey and Richard Branson’s family holding company in London to make children in India eat healthier, returning to traditional grains such as millets. “The idea initially hit us when we were working in London. Every time we would visit India, our friends with children would ask us for certain food products for their children. This request took us by surprise. We simply couldn’t believe that people would want to import food to India. We have such tremendous variety and diversity in…

Gauri Devidayal gave up her tax consultant job at PriceWaterhouseCoopers to help her husband Jay Yousuf with the restaurant he was planning to open. She is now running the show at The Table, one of Mumbai’s top restaurants. “Jay lived in San Francisco for 15 years before he moved back to India, so the inspiration for the restaurant was to bring a little California back to Mumbai. At first, it was difficult to explain our food philosophy to our guests because they needed to understand what the ‘cuisine’ was. The idea of a globally inspired, cuisine agnostic menu was quite alien in Mumbai as was having it all on one page with ‘small plates’ and ‘large plates’ intended to be shared. We were often asked whether that was just a…

Like that Instagramable cliche, it turns out that it is about the journey as well, not just the destination In the 1990s, when I was growing up in Delhi, my brother and I travelled often with our parents. International flights out of India back then were always at inconvenient times and I remember my parents making me and my brother sleep for a few hours so we wouldn’t get too tired at the airport. I would lie in bed, awake with anticipation, watching my parents’ footsteps under my bedroom door going up and down the hallway as they packed for the trip. Of course I thought about faraway lands and new foods and unfamiliar streets but I most vividly remember thinking about the journey and the airports and the airplanes…

There are certain foods that not only help maintain a healthy weight but also support energy levels and moods throughout the day. They are also known to ward off PMS (premenstrual syndrome) symptoms, infertility, osteoporosis, heart diseases, estrogen-dominant cancers and hormonal imbalances. All you need is to stock up your pantry. Strengthen bones with sesame seeds Calcium plays an important role in regulating functioning of the heart and nervous system. Its deficiency leads to weak bones and brittle teeth, mood swings, irritability and anxiety. During menopause, the shortage of estrogen can also lead to weakened bones. The calcium in sesame seeds has a higher bioavailability than calcium in cow milk and you need two tablespoons of sesame seeds to give you calcium for the day. Consume Sesame seeds along with…

Formulating a good study plan and mastering time management are important when studying for exams, more so, if you are sitting for boards. The most essential pointers to be remembered are planning, revision, socio-emotional well-being and organisational skills. PLANNING MAKES A DIFFERENCE Chalk a well-structured revision plan at least six weeks before your exams for each subject. Identify the time and number of hours you will be spending revising each subject and schedule slots for those subjects. Also make a mental note of the time during which you are at your best studying for a particular subject. This will help in better allocation of time for each subject. To create a proper revision schedule, you could use an overall planner for the weeks, leading up to the examinations. You could…

Think Smart How to encourage innovative thinking Invest in experience We often have set ideas about everything and do not think outside these fixed boundaries. Expose yourself to situations. Travel. The more you endeavour to engage in new experiences, the more exposure you will have to various backgrounds, cultures, different ways of living and thinking. Meet people, listen more When you listen to others with an open mind, you learn various perspectives. Brainstorm more, don’t thrust your thoughts on to others but to have a healthy debate or conversation. Be curious Seekers will always find solutions and will look for newer, innovative ways of challenging existing ideas. Question as much as you can, find challenges and solve them. Think of newer approaches to solving problems. Board games, think camps and…

TO DO AWAY WITH THE ARTIFICIAL DIVIDE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND JOB ORIENTATION, WE CAN COMBINE THEM, WHICH I BELIEVE IS THE ONLY WAY TO TAKE SKILLS AND CONVERT OUR NEXT GENERATION INTO A MORE EMPLOYABLE LOT VINAY SAHASRABUDDHE, MP WE MUST BE ABLE TO IMPROVE GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS BECAUSE MORE THAN 60 PER CENT OF THE CHILDREN ARE STUDYING THERE. IT IS THE STATE GOVERNMENTS WHO NEED TO GIVE PRIORITY TO THIS. G VISWANATHAN, CHANCELLOR, VIT UNIVERSITY THE CHANGE IS GOING TO BE DRAMATIC IF WE BRING IN DIGITISATION IN OUR EDUCATION, AND WE NEED TO DO THAT QUICKLY BECAUSE THAT’S THE WAY AHEAD INDU SHAHANI, FOUNDING DEAN, INDIAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP THE GREATEST GAP AND GREATEST OPPORTUNITY TO SHIFT EDUCATION IS TO BRING IN CHILDREN AND TO GIVE…

Singaporean academic and former diplomat KISHORE MAHBUBANI’s latest book, The ASEAN Miracle: A Catalyst for Peace , which he co-authored with Jeffery Sng, chronicles its history. In Delhi to promote the book, Mahbubani talks to Executive Editor Sandeep Unnithan about the lessons from ASEAN and how to deal with a rising China. Q: Leaders from the 10 ASEAN countries are chief guests at the Republic Day parade this year. Would you call it symbolism or substance? A: Essentially symbolic, but symbolism matters. India is geographically proximate to the Persian Gulf; it would have been logical to have the six GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries for the parade, but the GCC countries cannot agree on many things. Q: Your book talks of India’s deep…

“Darwin’s theory (of evolution of humans) is scientifically wrong. It needs to change in school and college curriculum. Ever since humans came to Earth, they have always been humans... Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, said they ever saw an ape turning into a human being.” SATYAPAL SINGH, MoS for higher education, put on record last week his scepticism about the scientific validity of evolution. He joins a long list of objectors, the most vocal of them in the US, proponents of ‘intelligent design’ and ‘creationism’. A former Mumbai police chief, Singh is not shy of airing his eccentric views. In September, he said Shivkar Bapuji Talpade had invented the aeroplane eight years before the Wright brothers.…

Indiscriminate dredging along a 170 km stretch of the Bhagirathi-Hooghly in West Bengal cutting away the fertile alluvial topsoil along the riverbank has made life a nightmare in the villages of Nadia district. Already prone to soil erosion as six rivers crisscross the district, the spurt in activities of illegal sand and soil syndicates, which allegedly enjoy the patronage of leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress, is now destroying villages. It has altered the topography of 94 gram panchayats, displacing thousands of families. Residents say the syndicates have a stranglehold on the supply of building material—sand, gravel and bricks—which lets them keep prices exorbitantly high. They operate under the protection of local politicians and the police, and it doesn’t even seem to matter that the payoffs to the police and…

ARE THE RESULTS of the next Lok Sabha elections a foregone conclusion? Will the BJP-led NDA, with its aura of invincibility, do a repeat of its 2014 victory in 2019? until ecently, the common refrain was on the lines of what National Conference leader Omar Abdullah tweeted after the BJP swept the Uttar Pradesh polls: “At this rate, we might as well forget 2019 & start planning/ hoping for 2024.” Can a Congress-led UPA mahagathbandhan (grand alliance), if it does come together, challenge the political hegemony of the BJPled NDA in 2019? The answer has flitted between soaring hope and total despair for the opposition parties from 2015 onwards. The idea was born right after the BJP’s consecutive defeats in the Delhi and Bihar assembly polls. Grand national alliances have…

Q: With falling revenues, slowing growth, rising inflation and crude prices, the government is clearly stuck between a rock and a hard place. What should its priorities be in the coming budget? A: N.R. BHANUMURTHY There is a macroeconomic challenge in terms of achieving fiscal deficit targets while at the same time reviving investments, hence, growth. Two major shocks—demonetisation and GST—have disturbed the whole macro balance. Also, GST is still unchartered territory and there is no clarity on the total revenues it is going to mobilise, both under direct and indirect taxes. And with inflation firming up, there is little one can expect from the monetary policy in reviving investments. Some leeway will have to be provided on the fiscal front for undertaking major reforms. Else, we might see the…

FOX AND THE WHALE Robin Joseph’s Oscar-shortlisted animated short is a wordless visual feast with imagery that would make David Attenborough and Terrence Malick go wild. Vimeo MY NEXT GUEST Late night TV legend David Letterman—sporting a dense beard—is doing amazing interviews for a Netflix audience this time around. AN INSIGNIFICANT MAN Filmmakers Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla document the rise of Arvind Kejriwal and highlight the necessity of the Aam Aadmi Party in Indian politics. YouTube…

Mumbai may have had a problematic run with its crumbling infrastructure over the last few months, but good news comes from one of its suburban stations. Matunga Station on the central railway line has made it into the Limca Book of Records for being the first Indian station to have an all-woman staff. With 41 women including personnel from the RPF (Railway Protection Force), commercial and operating departments under the supervision of station manager Mamta Kulkarni, the employees manage all operations round the clock.…

REGISTERED A TURNOVER OF 2.4 CRORE IN 2017-2018 If you’ve grown up in India, it’s unlikely that your tiffin in school wasn’t packed with jam sandwiches at one time or another. The jam overflowed onto everything—chunks of fruit clinging to your fingers as it clumsily snuck out of the crusts with every bite, a different colour everyday—orange for marmalade, a bright and happy red for strawberry, amber for apple. This sticky spread of joy carries on through adulthood, as breads get fancier and we consume chewy, buttered sourdough toast for breakfast, transporting eager eaters down memory lane or into fruity summers with fresh apple-cinnamon jelly. Though Kissan was most widely known for their mixed fruit jam, one of India’s oldest relationships with assorted variations of the relish dates back to…

“Food and design are correlated” HAD A TURNOVER OF 2.5 CRORE IN 2016 What happens when you are surrounded by drawing boards and design books from the moment you learn how to walk? Design becomes a way of life. “My mom is an interior designer (Sabrina Singh & Associates) and practised till I was in school and my uncle, Sarabjit Singh of Fabinteriors is a designer too. It was only natural for the children of the house to take up design,” says Saheba Singh. She started freelancing after graduating from Apeejay Institute of Design, Delhi, in 2003. Four years later, Singh and her friend Neha Sabharwal opened This Is It Designs, and today, they have done over 100 restaurant designs which include Farzi Cafes in Gurgaon, Delhi and Dubai as…

ISHIRA MEHTA QUIT HER job with International Finance Corporation (IFC) with a dream to help farmers and bring healthier, safer food alternatives to consumers. Having worked on agricultural value chains at IFC for over six years, Mehta soon realised the existing disconnect between farmers and customers. “Seeing this gap and opportunity, I started my venture CropConnect and have been building market-based models to connect farmers to markets more efficiently since 2013,” she says. Building healthy initiatives She travelled for over 80,000 km across 21 states along with her business partner Puneet Jhajharia to understand different perspectives of Indian agriculture. Subsequently, she launched the brand Original Indian Table in 2015 under CropConnect, a Delhi-based start-up that aims to bring traditional food experiences to customers, who are looking for nutritious and local…

She walks with a spring in her step and it’s hard to place her in an age decade at first glance. Ingrid Newkirk is almost 69, but wears her years well. As founder of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the well-known and largest animal rights group in the world with 6.5 million members, in 1980, she shot to instant fame with her provocative, often gimmicky campaigns. With countless awards to her name, Newkirk has also written several books, including the highly acclaimed Cambridge Declaration Of Consciousness, 50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals and is currently working on A World Without Animal Slaves, slated for a 2019 release. In the last 37 years since PETA was founded, Newkirk has worked tirelessly to give animals an equal opportunity to…

Our skin and pores are attacked by about 1.2 million pollution particles every day causing dark spots and irritation. Prolonged exposure can damage the skin’s integrity and trigger problems such as acne, dryness and premature ageing. It’s therefore essential to move beyond traditional methods and adopt solutions that can counter these factors and strengthen our skin. Check your shower temperature A lot of women like to shower for a long time but extended baths in too hot or too cold water strips the skin of its natural oils and makes it dry. Moisturise after the shower A bath tends to dry the skin, which then needs a layer of moisturiser to revive it. Opt for soothing ingredients such as allantoin and vitamin B3. Clean your face Use a mild gel-based…

SRM AMRAVATI, AP, INTRODUCES SCHOOL OFLIBERAL ARTS AND BASIC SCIENCES WITH AN aim to impart multi-disciplinary undergraduate education, SRM University, Amravati, Andhra Pradesh, has set up a School on Liberal Arts and Basic Sciences (SLABS). SLABS is a centre for fundamental research and offers three-year programmes such as BA, BBA, B Com and B Sc across 12 departments—economics, english, history, journalism, psychology, business studies, and more. The admissions for the intake of first batch of students has already begun. IITR SIGNS MOU WITH NTNU, NORWAY INDIAN INSTITUTE of Technology Roorkee (IITR) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), to strengthen and promote their research collaboration in the areas of water, energy, and environment. This will be done through exchange of students,…

Spread over two state-of the-art blocks, Amity Law School in Noida is where students are polished and skilled to excel in their field of specialisation. With a total intake of 1,200 students every year for its four different types of law courses, the school was started in 2005. With emphasis on sensitising students towards societal problems, they are evaluated on their communication skills and eagerness to learn before getting admission. And their knowledge base and attitude get sharpened during the course of study and time spent interacting with faculty and experts on the campus. As D K Bandyopadhyay, Chairman, Amity Law Schools says, “While many universities claim to follow the choice-based system, we actually implement it. We don’t just teach our students but we offer them value-added courses. We believe…

There is an air of professionalism among students at Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) in Sonepat, Haryana. It was in 2009 when O P Jindal Global University started its first academic session with the establishment of JGLS, which is recognised by the Bar Council of India. Armed with the idea to equip students with the knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of globalisation, the law school offers a number of courses. With 150 full-time faculty members who are engaged in teaching, research and capacity building, the law school has academic collaborations with leading universities and law schools around the world such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Leeds and Oxford to name a few. C Raj Kumar, Dean, Jindal Global Law School says, “Unlike other Indian law schools who train law…

Shobhit University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh Students are encouraged to excel at the the School of Law and Constitutional Studies (SLCS), Shobhit University. As Kunwar Shekhar Vijendra, Chancellor, says, “We have a centre for law and good governance including a team of top legal luminaries both from India and abroad who share their first-hand experiences and knowledge with students and teachers.” USP 20 per cent scholarships are given to women students Courses offered Five-year BA LLB (Hons), B Com LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) Entry Through the university’s entrance test (SUNET) and interview Fee 75,000 a year for integrated LLB programmes and 85,000 a year for two-year LLMs Website shobhituniversity.ac.in…

Anil Swarup is Secretary, School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, which is as hot a seat as the one he has just vacated, Coal Secretary. The Uttar Pradesh cadre official has hit the ground running. Here he speaks to Kaveree Bamzai about his goals. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO MAKE EDUCATION PART OF THE NATIONAL DISCOURSE AGAIN? When was it part of the discourse? When I was Union Coal Secretary, I was told it was like Gangs of Wasseypur. The mining was underground and the mafia were overground. In Human Resource Development, I can tell you confidently that education is overground and the mafia is underground. That is the fundamental understanding. The pivot of education is the teacher. And anything that could have gone wrong…