Innholdsfortegnelse for Monday, May 29, 2023 i India Today

A year ago, the Congress party seemed to be galloping towards extinction. The media was awash with obituaries, marking nature’s law that those who couldn’t adapt would perish. As election after election brought dire news. The worst was Uttar Pradesh in March and Gujarat in December, bracketing 2022. The party itself seemed to breathe in the negativity. Victory in tiny Himachal Pradesh appeared like the lamp in hell that only made the ‘darkness visible’. Karnataka, one of India’s major states, turns that perception upside down. Now that the post-victory jockeying for the CM’s post is settled with minimum blood loss, one can look back in totality at the most significant electoral triumph the Congress has pulled off in recent times—only Chhattisgarh in 2018 yielded a bigger vote and seat share.…

Many of the younger Trinamool Congress members revere West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as their mother. Some have even saved her number on their cellphones as Chhoto Ma (younger mom). But since they call her ‘Didi’, or elder sister, they refrained from paying her a tribute on Mother’s Day. It did not stop them, though, from ensuring that Mamata’s poem ‘Ma’, which she penned for the occasion, went viral. This is how it goes: Jotoi dekhi, jotoi jani Ma amader ashwasto bani Ophuronto ma-er Bhalobasha Amader jogaye praner aasha (The more we see, the more we know/ Ma is the sound of assurance//Unbounded is her love/ It awakens hope for life) Kaushik Deka with Prashant Srivastava, Jumana Shah, Romita Datta and Dhaval Kulkarni…

In crunch-time, the twin poles of the Congress in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar (DKS), buried the hatchet and kept their eyes firmly on the mutual goal—winning the state for the party. Three days before Karnataka went to the polls on May 10, Congress election managers even hit upon an imaginative coup de grace in optics. They put out a video of the two stalwarts engaged in a relaxed, freewheeling conversation in the manner of old compatriots, exchanging notes and firming up plans for the future. But in victory, the rivalry between Siddaramaiah, the mass leader, and DKS, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, was evident to all. Both had a strong claim to the top seat. If Siddaramaiah, 75, was the able administrator who was chief minister for a…

The Firodia family has had a legacy of serving the people. Spiritual in their approach to life, they have held a belief that they should serve and help people. The late Kundanmaji Firodia was the first lawyer from the Oswal community in Ahmednagar and a staunch Gandhian. Post-independence, he served as a speaker for the Bombay Assembly too. His son the Late Motilalji Firodia founded The Ahmednagar District Central Cooperative Bank, which has grown to become Asia’s largest Co-operative Bank. He also served as a Member of Parliament, representing Ahmednagar, turning down the nomination for the next term to devote his time for social causes and betterment of Ahmednagar. He also founded Namoha Foundries, a leading cast iron foundry in the state. The 3rd Generation, the Late Shantikumarji Firodia expanded…

The group incorporated its first venture, Beacon Trusteeship with a license from SEBI in 2016. The Trustee business has become the group’s flagship entity, has risen to rub shoulders with the global leaders in the business in such a short span of time, talks volumes about its domain expertise brought about by an illustrious, experienced management team. Its core product offerings include Debenture Trusteeship, Security Trusteeship, Securitization Trusteeship and Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) Trusteeship, Escrow Trustee, Deposit Trustee, ESOP Trustee & Document Safe Keeping to a growing roster of clients that reads like a who’s who of the corporate world. They now boast of an Assets under Administration (AuA) of US$ 180 Bn with more than 850+ Corporate Clients and 150+ AIFs in India & the IFSC GIFT City, without…

IIT MADRAS ↘ Apr. 21, 2023: Kedar Suresh Chougule, a second-year Chemical Engineering student from Maharashtra, is found hanging in his hostel room ↘ Mar. 14: Vaipu Pushpak Sreesai, a third-year Electrical Engineering student from Andhra Pradesh, is discovered dead in his room ↘ Feb. 13: Stephen Sunny, a second-year research scholar from Maharashtra, is found dead in his hostel room IIT BOMBAY ↘ Feb. 12, 2023: Darshan Solanki, a first-year student of the B.Tech. (Chemical) course from Ahmedabad, dies after jumping off the seventh floor of the hostel building. Later, his batchmate Arman Khatri is arrested on the charge of abetment to suicide ↘ Jan. 17, 2022: Darshan Malviya, a post-graduate student from Madhya Pradesh, ends his life by jumping off the terrace of his hostel IIT GUWAHATI ↘…

Few actors in Hindi cinema have the depth of talent that helps them survive the test of time and the change that comes with it. Manoj Bajpayee, most will agree, belongs in that exclusive league of extraordinary gentlemen. Such is his command over his craft that it feels like an intrinsic part of his being. By his own admission, he may falter with his choices, but Bajpayee the actor for the most part has emerged unblemished. A Bajpayee-starrer comes with the weight of expectation—that it will be a compelling and relevant story. After nearly three decades in front of the camera and winning three National Awards, one wonders: is acting as easy as breathing for the 54-year-old now? Bajpayee begs to differ. “You have to work every day to make…

Gujarat may not have much of an Opposition given that BJP has 156 out of the 182 seats in the assembly, but some BJP leaders make up for it. So, while Mansukh Vasava, the tribal MP from Bharuch, alleged discrepancies in the tendering process for NREGA works in his area to favour particular contractors, Sehra MLA Jetha Bharwad alleged sub-standard work by contractors in the Nal se Jal scheme. The red-faced ministers of the respective departments squarely put the blame on the administrators. Given that the Congress barb of the Bommai regime being ‘a 40 per cent sarkar’ hit home in Karnataka, the Gujarat BJP is asserting that elected representatives are meant to ‘audit’ implementation, which they are doing effectively.…

↘ THE ‘5 GUARANTEES’: Karnataka already spends Rs 31,367 cr. annually on subsidies. With the additional expenditure required for the ‘5 guarantees’, managing state finances will become a challenge ↘ FILLING UP GOVT VACANCIES: The party has promised to fill up vacancies in all departments in a year. A third of the total 769,000 govt jobs are lying vacant ↘ REVISITING OBC RESERVATION: The poll manifesto promises to increase the reservation ceiling from 50 per cent to 75 per cent. This includes restoring the 4 per cent Muslim reservation and hiking reservation for other OBC groups ↘ CASTE CENSUS: The party has promised to release the socio-economic caste survey done during the previous Siddaramaiah term (2013-18). The contentious census has been in cold storage ↘ OLD PENSION SCHEME: The manifesto…

Currently the Managing Director for HSO India & Philippines, Prabhat Nagaraj has a veritable experience across his illustrious career. He spent almost 20 years in the USA where he led diverse teams across various organisations such as Microsoft, Hitachi, DXC, Amazon and RSM. He started his career as a consultant and grew into a leadership role at Hitachi where he was the Vice President for the Americas. His ability to provide solutions saw him evolve into a role where he managed the entire Microsoft Dynamics services team in DXC Americas. His reputation preceded him before he took up his current role in India. RINGING IN THE RIGHT CHANGE “I knew it would be challenging, but it was also in many unexpected ways;” says Prabhat, about transitioning into his current role.…

The Managing Director of Laba id Cancer Hospital and the Executive Director of Labaid Group of Bangladesh, Sakif Shamim has done his MSC in Major Programme Management from the University of Oxford (UK) and followed it up with an MBA from University of Chicago (USA). A well set professional career in Middle East, he gave it all up to return back to Bangladesh to lay the foundations of a strong healthcare system to exclusively address the rising incidences of cancer in his country. Shamim, a young multitalented entrepreneur having more than 15 years of work experience with a Masters in Clinical Service Operation from Harvard Medical School under his belt, he has chanelling his business management and sustainable business development experience in Bangladesh, to lead a revolution in the healthcare…

↘ Shinde will have to contend with demands from his legislators for cabinet berths or posts on state-run corporations ↘ The Maharashtra council of ministers can have a strength of 43 ministers, including the chief minister, deputy chief minister, cabinet ministers and ministers of state. At present, the cabinet has 20 ministers, including Shinde and Fadnavis. The Shinde camp is insisting on an equal division of the remaining cabinet berths. However, the BJP, whose numbers in the assembly are almost thrice that of the Shinde group (not counting independents and smaller parties), is not in a mood to concede. Shinde may get between four to six ministerial berths ↘ The government will also have to overcome the perception that there is popular sympathy for Uddhav Thackeray and the opposition MVA…

Putting pen to paper. There may come a time when complete bewilderment may greet that idiom, and only if you went looking for it in the archaic section of a modern online dictionary. Pen and paper, of course, could themselves become relics of another era, evoking nothing more than a strange curiosity about how people reproduced text before the age of the keyboard. Many have pronounced the death of handwriting, both the art and the act, but some are trying to keep it alive. Pooja Dubey is doing so in Mumbai with calligraphy, and Bengaluru-based Rohini Kejriwal is reviving two forgotten traditions—letter-writing and pen pals—simultaneously. Dubey, 30, runs The Write House, a boutique handwriting and calligraphy brand. From birthdays to festivals, poems on glass bottles to wedding vows on handmade…

Q. People usually write autobiographies at the end of their careers. Why did you write yours now? While I was playing for South Africa, I never had the time to write a book or felt it was something I wanted to do. Then Covid came and we had a lot of time. I went through the journals I had kept over the years and the notes I had made on team culture and leadership, and felt there was something of value I could get across in a book. I thought it would take about a year but it became two-and-a-half years. Q. Your ODI debut in 2011 was in a match against India. Do you remember that day? It was one of the most special days of my life as…

Defeat in Karnataka and violence in Manipu have given Opposition parties the chance to mock BJP’s ‘double-engine sarkar’, or the benefits of having a state and central government of the same party. Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik was first off the block, saying good governance and not ‘double-engine’ government helps a party win election, seeking to pre-empt the BJP’s narrative next year. Congress’s Jairam Ramesh was next, calling Manipur violence a case of ‘double-engine’ failure. TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had the best jibe, dubbing BJP governments “trouble-engine sarkar”.…

MALLIKARJUN KHARGE The Congress president and former Karnataka CM contender himself, minutely managed the assembly poll in his home state RAHUL GANDHI The Gandhi scion’s Bharat Jodo Yatra had covered 21 constituencies in the state. The party won 16 of them PRIYANKA GANDHI VADRA The Congress general secretary campaigned extensively, holding 20-plus rallies and roadshows RANDEEP SURJEWALA The AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka since 2020 sorted out differences between Siddaramaiah and DKS, apart from working out the nuts and bolts of the Congress strategy K.C. VENUGOPAL The AICC general secretary, organisation, and former AICC Karnataka in-charge played a key role in placating ticket aspirants who had rebelled. Because of his proximity to Rahul Gandhi, his words carried weight D.K. SHIVAKUMAR (DKS) The Karnataka PCC chief, eight-time MLA and party’s…

Screws or fasteners are the smallest part in any assembled product. Their size belies their importance. Every assembled product requires a fastener in order to ensure a safe and strong final construction. One Indian entrepreneur identified the importance of this small yet versatile product to build an empire that laid the foundation for the nation to become self-sufficient. In the late 90’s, colour coated sheet profiling trend was picking up in India. The concept of self-drilling screws was nonexistent and it used to be imported. Pankaj and Vipin Lidoo established a company to import screws from Taiwan under the brand name HP" which is a registered trademark of the company. Blessed with tremendous foresight and ambitious by nature, they spend a lot of energies and investments on research and development…

Aryen Suresh Kute, like children of his age, enjoyed playing different genres of mobile games. And like other parents, Suresh Dnyanobarao Kute (Chief Managing Director-The Kute Group) and Archana Suresh Kute (Managing Director-The Kute Group), were not thrilled with his habits. To their delight, Aryen met with resistance innovatively. He turned the passion for gaming into a business. His brainchild, OAO INDIA, today creates entertaining, awesome games that all age groups can play, globally. Aryen knew it would be a challenging journey. He spent a year building a strong team and infrastructure in the gaming industry, with the help of his supportive parents. Today, OAO INDIA has become a prominent name in the gaming industry, and its games have gained popularity among players of all ages. OAO Info India’s journey…

Dr. Pramod Kumar is a great educationist and visionary. He has done Ph. D in the area of Organizational Behavior from Ill Mumbai. Held various research and faculty positions in Ill Mumbai, IIM Ahmedabad, and XLRI Jamshedpur. Leadership positions as Research and Former Placement Chairperson at XLRI, Ex-Director Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune. Author of over 100 research papers, cases, management games. Research is quoted extensively by other researchers and authors internationally including text books such as Organizational Behaviour by SP Robbins Consultant and trainer in Behavioural Science & HRD to over 80 Indian & Multinational companies in India and abroad. Some of these include HLL, Glaxo Smithkline Beecham (GSK), Zee Network, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, NTPC, Honda Power Products, LG India, TIL, BHEL. Also consultant to UNICEF…

The M.K. Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government is striving to give the state’s temples a makeover and, in the bargain, give itself one too. A massive renovation plan is afoot for Hindu shrines, including the retrieval of encroached land. The state’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department, which oversees temple administration in Tamil Nadu, has been issuing eviction notices thick and fast. Budgetary allocations for conservation and creating pilgrim amenities have gone up manifold in the past two years. “Temples,” Stalin had said at an HR&CE event in January, “are the symbols of our art and culture, their architecture an example of our artistic excellence. It is our duty to preserve them.” In doing so, the Tamil Nadu chief minister is also hoping to present his party in…

On April 21, Kedar Suresh Chougule, a secondyear B.Tech. student of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, was found hanging in his hostel room. Ironically, his death came three days after Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union minister of education, directed the prestigious engineering institutes to provide robust mental health support for students. Pradhan was addressing the 55th meeting of the IIT Council, the highest decision-making body for the institutes, at Bhubaneswar. Chougule’s was the sixth suicide on IIT campuses in the first four months of 2023. Three other students had taken their lives in IIT Madras, while another two died by suicide on the IIT Bombay and IIT Guwahati campuses during the same period. “Academic stress, family and personal reasons and mental health issues are some of…

EMOTIONAL REGULATION ↘ A study published in JMIR Mental Health in 2018, which involved 70 adults with elevated anxiety, found that writing in a journal led to decreased mental distress after a month and greater resilience after the first and second month, relative to usual care ↘ A study published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine in 2008 traced the impact of writing on 102 chronic pain patients and found greater improvements in control over pain and depressed mood TREATING LONELINESS ↘ Nearly 60 per cent Indians between the ages of 18 and 29 felt lonely during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study published in the Journal of Positive School Psychology in 2022. That’s concerning because loneliness can increase the risk of heart attack by 29 per cent and…