Author: Staff Reporter

Henley Passport Index 2023 On World’s Powerful Passports

Staff ReporterImmigration 0

Henley & Partners released the latest results of the Henley Passport Index 2023 with Japan retaining the top spot for fifth consecutive year while India ranks 85th, an improvement of two ranks as compared to last year.

The Henley Passport Index, which is based on International Air Transport Association data, is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

A trio of Asian passports offer their holders greater global travel freedom than those of any other countries, according to a new quarterly report released by London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners.

Japanese citizens enjoy visa-free or visa-on-demand access to a record 193 destinations around the world, just ahead of Singapore and South Korea whose citizens can freely visit 192.

And now that Asia-Pacific is opening up post-Covid, its citizens are more likely to be making use of that travel freedom again.

The passport index has ranked India at the 85th position, meaning that Indian passport holders can access 59 countries without needing a visa. India has climbed up in the ranking by two positions from the past year, when it was at the 87th position. Those holding Japan’s passports can access 193 countries without requiring a visa.

The UK and US didn’t move in 2023 from 6th and 7th place. They scored 187 and 186 respectively out of the 227 countries included in the Index. It seems unlikely these countries will reclaim the top spots they held around a decade ago.

The Index finds that only 17 per cent of countries give their passport holders access to more than 80 per cent of the world without a visa.Global travel is now at around 75% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest release by Henley Passport Index, which is based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Below the Asian top three, a glut of European countries sit near the top of the leaderboard. Germany and Spain are tied on 190 destinations, followed by Finland, Italy, Luxembourg on 189.

Then there’s Austria, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden all tied in fifth place, while France, Ireland, Portugal and United Kingdom are at No. 6.

New Zealand and the United States make an appearance at No. 7, alongside Belgium, Norway, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

Afghan nationals sit at the bottom of the index once again, and can access just 27 countries without requiring a visa in advance.

Other indexes

Henley & Partner’s list is one of several indexes created by financial firms to rank global passports according to the access they provide to their citizens.

The Henley Passport Index ranks 199 passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. It’s updated in real time throughout the year, as and when visa policy changes come into effect.

Arton Capital’s Passport Index takes into consideration the passports of 193 United Nations member countries and six territories — ROC Taiwan, Macau (SAR China), Hong Kong (SAR China), Kosovo, Palestinian Territory and the Vatican. Territories annexed to other countries are excluded.

It’s also updated in real time throughout the year, but its data is gathered by close monitoring of individual governments’ portals. It’s a tool “for people who travel, to provide accurate, simple-to-acess information for their travel needs,” Arton Capital’s founder Armand Arton told CNN in December.

Arton’s Global Passport Power Rank 2023 puts the United Arab Emirates in the top spot, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 181.

As for second place, that’s held by 11 countries, most of which are in Europe: Germany, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and South Korea.

The United States and the UK are at No.3, alongside Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Norway, Poland, Ireland and New Zealand.

The best passports to hold in 2023, according to the Henley Passport Index

  1. Japan (193 destinations)
  2. Singapore, South Korea (192 destinations)
  3. Germany, Spain (190 destinations)
  4. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg (189 destinations)
  5. Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden (188 destinations)
  6. France, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom (187 destinations)
  7. Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United States, Czech Republic (186 destinations)
  8. Australia, Canada, Greece, Malta (185 destinations)
  9. Hungary, Poland (184 destinations)
  10. Lithuania, Slovakia (183 destinations)

The worst passports to hold in 2023, according to the Henley Passport Index

Several countries around the world have visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 40 or fewer countries. These include:

  1. North Korea (40 destinations)
  2. Nepal, Palestinian territory (38 destinations)
  3. Somalia (35 destinations)
  4. Yemen (34 destinations)
  5. Pakistan (32 destinations)
  6. Syria (30 destinations)
  7. Iraq (29 destinations)
  8. Afghanistan (27 destinations)

The yearly Index from global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners uses exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to rank the world’s 199 passports. It is based on the number of destinations their holders can access without a visa.

If no visa is required, the country scores 1 point for its passport. This applies if citizens can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination.

The Henley Passport Index is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – the largest, most accurate travel information database – and enhanced by Henley & Partners’ research team.

Surendran K. Pattel Sworn In As Judge In Texas

Staff ReporterProfile 0

On New Year’s Day, it was a dream come true for US-settled Keralite Surendran K. Pattel as he was sworn in as the judge of 240th Judicial District Court in Texas’ Fort Bend county.

District judges are chosen through elections in the US and Pattel, 51, defeated the sitting judge in the first round of the election to become the first Malayalee to be a district judge in the US. Indian-origin attorney in Texas Surendran K Pattel sworn in as the judge of 240th Judicial District Court in Texas’ Fort Bend County, The Week magazine reported. Born to daily wagers in Kasaragod, the 51-year-old grew up in Kerala.

Pattel’s path to the post was far from easy and was due to his determination, hard work, and the willingness to fight his way upward, as he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. As his parents were daily wage earners, he, to make both ends meet, had to work as ‘bidi’ roller and soon became an expert. Life was tough for him when he took a break for a year after his Class 10.

To help the family, he worked through school and college. Pattel even beedis to earn money and also worked as a labourer in his teens, said the report, adding, Pattel decided not to continue his education after class 10th.

He completed his further education and bachelor’s degree, while engaging in part-time work including as a daily laborer so as to earn his livelihood, but never let it affect his studies.

After enrolling for LLB at a college in Kozhikode, he worked in a hotel and in 1995, he passed the law exam. ttendance owing to which the professors refused to allow him to sit for exams. Pleading the teachers, he said, “I told them that if I do not score well, I will discontinue. But when the results came, I became the topper. So, the next year, they were so cooperative with me. I graduated from college as a topper.”

Then came his marriage to Shubha, a nurse by profession and he moved base to Delhi and was practicing at the Supreme Court.

In 2007, his wife got an opportunity to work in the US and he too joined her and since his passion was law, he, after working in a supermarket for a while, appeared for the Texas bar exam and cleared it.

He then got admission for the LL.M program at the University of Houston Law Center, passed it with flying colors, and began work as a lawyer again. This New Year’s Day, he wrote himself into the record books.

Shah Rukh Khan, Only Indian On World’s Richest Actor List

Staff ReporterCinema, Money 0

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan with his more than three decades of work in the film industry has garnered millions of fans all over the world and an estimated net worth of ₹627 million ($770 million), making him the richest actor in Asia and fourth richest actor all over the world.

Beating famous actors like Tom Cruise, Jackie Chan, and George Clooney, Shah Rukh Khan took the fourth position in the list of eight richest actors of the world released by World of Statistics.

Shah Rukh Khan who is ready to make his comeback with his action thriller Pathan in Janaury 2023 had been away from movies for a period of almost four years sans his cameos in R. Madhavan’s Rocketry: The Nambi Effect and Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva. The richest actor according to this list was Jerry Seinfeld with a net worth of ₹82 billion ($1 billion). The American actor tied with Diary of a Black Woman fame Tyler Perry at $ 1 billion. They were followed by Dwayne Johnson at ₹64 billion ($800 million).

Richest actors in the world: Jerry Seinfeld: $1 Billion Tyler Perry: $1 Billion Dwayne Johnson: $800 million Shah Rukh Khan: $770 million Tom Cruise: $620 million Jackie Chan: $520 million George Clooney: $500 million Robert De Niro: $500 million

World’s Longest River Cruise Launched, Trip Costs Rs. 20 Lakhs

Staff ReporterTravel 0

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off MV Ganga Vilas, the world’s longest river cruise, in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi through video conferencing. 32 Swiss tourists are part of the the maiden journey to reach Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh.

The PM inaugurated a ‘Tent City’, developed on the lines of similar setups in Gujarat’s Kutch and Rajasthan, on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi. Over 200 tents will offer tourists a panoramic view of the famed ghats of the holy city on the other side of the river along with live classical music, ‘aarti’ in the evening, and yoga sessions. He also laid the foundation for several inland waterways projects, worth over ₹ 1,000 crore.

“With this cruise, many places of eastern India will now figure in world tourism map… What can be more unfortunate that since Independence the banks of the Ganga did not develop and thousands of people living along the Ganges had to migrate for job,” the PM said.

MV Ganga Vilas is the first cruise vessel to be made in India. It will travel 3,200 km in 51 days. The 32 tourists from Switzerland, who will take the first journey, were welcomed at the Varanasi port with garlands and tunes of shehnai. They will visit various religious and historical places in Varanasi before setting out on the cruise.

The cruise’s Director Raj Singh told news agency PTI that this five-star moving hotel has 18 suites with the capacity of 36 tourists. Apart from this, it has accommodation for 40 crew members. The modernist ship is 62 meters in length and 12 meters wide and requires a draft of 1.4 meters.

It will take tourists across 27 river systems and will cruise through various prominent destinations. According to a statement from Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh issued in Lucknow, the cruise will cover 50 tourist destinations including world heritage sites, national parks, river ghats, and major cities like Patna in Bihar, Shahiganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata in West Bengal, Dhaka in Bangladesh, and Guwahati in Assam.

The cruise has also been fitted with facilities such as spa, salon, and gym. It will cost ₹ 25,000 to ₹ 50,000 a day, with the total cost for the 51-day journey totaling to around ₹ 20 lakh for each passenger, Raj Singh said. The cruise is equipped with a pollution-free system and noise control technology, he added.

There is a Sewage Treatment Plant on this cruise so that no sewage flows into the Ganges, as well as a filtration plant which purifies the Ganga water for bathing and other purposes, the cruise director said.

“The journey will give the foreign tourists an opportunity to embark upon an experiential voyage and indulge in the art, culture, history, and spirituality of India and Bangladesh,” Union Minister for Port Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal told news agency ANI.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has criticized the initiative. In a tweet in Hindi with a photograph of the cruise, Mr Yadav said, “Now will the BJP take away the jobs of the sailors as well? BJP’s policy of earning money by making religious places tourist sites is condemnable. People from all over the world come to experience the spiritual splendour of Kashi, not for luxury. BJP will no longer be able to cover the darkness of real issues with external glare.”

“India has everything that you can imagine. It has a lot beyond your imagination. India cannot be defined in words. It can only be experienced from the heart,” PM Modi said in his message for tourists.

Saudi Arabia To Invest $500 Billion To Build A Futuristic City In The Desert

Staff ReporterTravel 0

A mega-city featuring flying cars, high-speed rail instead of roads, robot maids, a giant artificial moon, and a resort with multimillion-dollar palaces is the vision of the Saudi Arabian crown prince and prime minister, Muhammed Bin Salman (MBS).

Saudi Arabia is building a futuristic city in the middle of a vast desert— from scratch. A vital element of the country’s Vision 2030 plan, the project is the brainchild of Saudi’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS. The site covers an area of more than 10,000 square miles, about the same size as Massachusetts. And it could cost $500 billion to complete.

“So Mohammed bin Salman wants to project himself as a liberal leader within the conservative royal family in Saudi Arabia,” Ali Dogan, research fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient institute, told CNBC in an interview. “Neom is a mega project seen in Saudi Arabia and the young Saudi population as part of this liberalization process.”

The Neom project is far from without controversy, though. Critics say it’s another attempt by the crown prince to improve his image after U.S. intelligence officials concluded he was behind the 2018 killing of journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. It also is being seen by some as a way to distract attention from Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

The Saudi government has run into several challenges which keep pushing the project completion date further into the future, leading some to question the feasibility of Neom. One of the issues stalling construction is financing and cost. In 2020, foreign direct investment in Saudi Arabia increased to $5.4 billion, despite the pandemic; however, this figure is down from 2010 when foreign investment inflows totaled nearly $16 billion. Attracting potential investors is crucial to financing such a large project. There are also concerns about the cost of Neom being much greater than the original budgeted cost. The Saudi government planned to acquire two uninhabited islands from Egypt to create an island resort, and the estimated cost for this bridge alone was nearly $125 billion.

Naturally, many people are critical of MBS’s plans to build a new mega-city in the desert. One of the biggest issues critics have had is that this investment would be better spent on existing cities and infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The former Saudi Arabian monarch, King Abdullah, planned on building a megaproject on the Red Sea to be a new financial and trading center called the King Abdullah Economic Center. In 2005, this city was intended to have a population of millions. This project is also a decade behind schedule and only has a population of thousands as opposed to the anticipated millions of people. Many critics have cited this failed project as why Saudi Arabia should instead invest in improving its infrastructure in existing cities.

The biggest criticism of Neom is the forced relocation of the Howeitat tribespeople. The proposed site for Neom is on land that 20,000 tribespeople have lived on for centuries. In recent years, the government has evicted people from the area, usually with the help of the Saudi armed forces. Often, these evictions are met with resistance by the Howeitat tribespeople. In 2020, three tribespeople were arrested and sentenced to death for resisting their relocation. Additionally, another man, Abdul Rahim al-Howeiti, was fatally shot for protesting the government’s eviction orders. These events highlight another concern that potential investors have with the project, that being the Saudi Arabian justice system. Planning documents reveal that in Neom, all judges will be selected and appointed by the king himself.

Additionally, Neom plans to utilize AI and facial recognition technologies to monitor its inhabitants. While Neom is claiming that laws will be based on best practices in business and economic law, incidents like these, as well as those such as the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, make potential international investors hesitant to support this ongoing project. These plans still have a long way to go, and perhaps attitudes will change as the project continues to develop.

GANDHI GODSE – EK YUDH Opens January 26

Staff ReporterCinema 0

What if Gandhi had survived? Director Rajkumar Santoshi (The Legend of Bhagat Singh) delivers the powerful new historical drama GANDHI GODSE – EK YUDH which releases in cinemas across North America on Thursday, January 26, for Republic Day. With new music from Oscar winner A.R. Rahman, the film revolves around the fictional world where Mahatma Gandhi survives the attack and later meets Nathuram Godse in prison, the conversation leads to a fiery debate between them.

Uprooted during partition thousands of Hindus & Sikhs, from Pakistan are refugees in Delhi. The Indian Government struggles to provide for them. Godse holds Gandhi responsible for the partition and misery of Hindus. He shoots Gandhi on 30th January 1948. But Gandhi is miraculously saved. He pardons Godse. Gandhi suggests congress leaders that congress party should be dissolved. But the suggestion gets rejected by the congress committee.

Gandhi breaks his ties with congress, he begins his Gram Swaraj Movement to inspire and organize villages towards self-reliance. Forest conservation, eradication of cast, and fair farming practices are on his agenda. Meanwhile, the system highlights Godse’s writing and manipulates public sentiment against Gandhi whose interference has created ruckus within the government. This leads to Gandhi’s arrest. Gandhi insists on serving his sentence with Godse. They have multiple debates and arguments, even confrontations on issues of Akhand Bharat & Hindutva, Muslims Appeasement & Partition, Geeta and Non-Violence. Through dialogue they both evolve and resolve their differences.

GANDHI GODSE – EK YUDH

Release Date: January 26

Director: Rajkumar Santoshi

Cast: Deepak Antani, Chinmay Mandlekar, Tanisha Santoshi

Producers: Manila Santoshi, Ram Santoshi

Music: A.R. Rahman

Official Site: https://www.facebook.com/RelianceEnt/

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFuDx-wSi7A

Distributor: Reliance Entertainment

Watch the new full trailer for GANDHI GODSE – EK YUDH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFuDx-wSi7A

Press Download – trailer video file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z0yyg76xeo49rg5/GANDHI_GODSE_HI-en_INT_MP4_20230110.mp4?dl=0

7 Simple Ways to Practice Gratitude in Your Everyday Life

Staff ReporterLifestyle 0

The secret to happiness lies in being grateful. Follow these expert tips to learn how to practice gratitude every day.

Grateful people are happy people. This was one of the top findings of the Harvard Adult Development Study, the longest-running study on happiness and health in the world, spanning 100 years and two generations of Americans. What’s more, grateful people live longer and are healthier overall. This means that learning how to practice gratitude is one of the best things you can do for yourself, says the current director of the study, psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, MD.

Why? The answer is pretty simple: Being grateful focuses your attention on what you have, rather than what you don’t, and reminds you about all that is good in your life. It also has another, less-obvious benefit, according to Dr. Waldinger, who co-authored The Good Life, a book that divulges the secrets to happiness, based on the Harvard study. “Gratitude is one of the best tools we have for strengthening relationships, and our relationships with others are the strongest factor in determining happiness,” he explains, adding that being grateful is one of the simplest and easiest things you can do to increase your happiness—and the effect is almost instantaneous.

So if you want to know how to be happy, learn how to practice gratitude in your life every day. This can include doing gratitude meditations (one of Dr. Waldinger’s favorites!), writing thank-you notes, gratitude journaling in a gratitude journal and reading gratitude quotes. Keep reading for even more tips for practicing gratitude and becoming a happier you.

What is gratitude?

Before you learn how to practice gratitude, be sure you understand the concept. So, what does gratitude mean, exactly?

Gratitude is the positive feeling of being thankful for someone or something. But in practice, it’s so much more than that, says Canadian psychologist Haley Perlus, PhD.

“Gratitude is a productive emotional training tool. When you are grateful for your life, you can experience the positive and pleasant feelings associated with happiness, peace, passion, excitement and love. These pleasant emotions can then be a catalyst for positive changes in your life,” she explains. “Gratitude is also the opposite of our negative inner voice. It disrupts negative patterns and creates an opportunity to focus on all the good in one’s past, present and future.”

Why is gratitude important?

Science has proven over and over again that gratitude provides powerful physical and mental health benefits, says Dr. Waldinger. Being grateful can help prevent disease, and being thankful can even help you live longer.

Some of gratitude’s greatest benefits include:

Lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and other lifestyle diseases

Stronger immune system

Sharper memory and less mental decline with aging

Higher-quality sleep and less insomnia

Reduced perception of chronic pain

Less inflammation in the body

Better mood and less incidence of depression and anxiety

Higher self-confidence and fewer feelings of anger, jealousy and envy

Greater ability to forgive yourself and others

Better ability to prioritize and manage time

7 ways to practice gratitude

Being grateful is a learned skill—and one you can get better at with practice, even if it doesn’t come naturally to you at first, says Perlus. Ready to practice gratitude in your everyday life? Try the simple, expert-approved tips below.

  1. Say what you’re grateful for out loud

Vocalizing what you’re grateful for can be more impactful than simply thinking it, says Perlus. Hearing yourself say it aloud helps cement it in your memory, and articulating it helps you identify what aspect of the experience you are grateful for.

How to practice gratitude: Use Voice Memos or another app to dictate what you’re grateful for (and save the recordings so you can go back and listen when you need a little moment of joy). Or encourage the family to share something they’re grateful for each evening at dinner.

  1. Write down what you’re grateful for

Putting your thoughts on paper, whether that’s in a gratitude journal or a thank-you note, is a powerful way to connect your mind and your body, reinforcing the positive feelings.

How to practice gratitude: Keep a notebook in your purse or desk to jot down things you’re grateful for as they happen. Or try gratitude journaling: Write three things you’re grateful for every day in a journal you keep by your bed.

  1. Share your gratitude with others

Sharing your gratitude has an immense effect on both you and others, triggering a cascade of happy thoughts and feelings while also strengthening your bond. Even people who said thank-you to a stranger reported a strong feeling of happiness, adds Dr. Waldinger.

How to practice gratitude: Make a conscious effort every single day to tell someone how grateful you are for them. Call a parent, write a thank-you note to an old teacher, give a friend a thank-you gift or simply thank the cashier at the grocery store.

  1. Meditate on gratitude

People often make the mistake of assuming feelings control the mind—that how we feel determines what we think about. In reality, your mind dictates what you feel, says Dr. Waldinger. So focusing your mind on gratitude by doing a daily meditation is one of the best ways to feel more grateful in your life.

How to practice gratitude: Simply put, thinking grateful thoughts helps you see more things to be grateful for in your life. Clear your mind. Then take one to five minutes each morning to do a guided meditation on gratitude or to meditate on things or people you’re grateful for. A happiness meditation will help you be happier at home, at work and anywhere else you spend your day.

  1. Plan to be grateful in advance

Gratitude doesn’t just occur in hindsight. Go ahead and plan your gratefulness ahead of time. And don’t wait to spontaneously “feel grateful.” Identify areas in your life in which you feel unhappy and then list ways to feel grateful in those situations.

How to practice gratitude: Write out a list of specific things to be grateful for and carry it with you, or set an alarm on your phone to remind you to look for moments of gratitude. Not sure where to start your planned gratitude journey? Sign up to do something nice for someone else—feeling grateful is just one of the benefits of volunteering.

  1. Challenge yourself to be grateful in difficult circumstances

Life isn’t about what happens to you but how you handle it, and grateful people are more resilient when handling trying times, says Dr. Waldinger. There is no situation, no matter how difficult, in which you can’t find something to be grateful for—and practicing gratitude can go a long way toward improving the way you deal with hard things.

How to practice gratitude: Look back through old journals or photo albums of hard times in your life and make notes about what helped you get through them and what you were grateful for. Use that information to help you find the silver linings in current troubles.

  1. Get inspired by others’ gratitude

Being grateful is a skill, and you can learn how to do it by seeing how others practice gratitude in their lives. Pay attention to the way friends, family members, colleagues and acquaintances show gratitude throughout the day—or ask them about their gratitude process. (https://www.rd.com/article/how-to-practice-gratitude/)

Alcohol, Even A Little May Harm Your Health

Staff ReporterHealth 0

Recent research makes it clear that any amount of drinking can be detrimental. Here’s why you may want to cut down on your consumption beyond Dry January.

Sorry to be a buzz-kill, but that nightly glass or two of wine is not improving your health.

After decades of confusing and sometimes contradictory research (too much alcohol is bad for you but a little bit is good; some types of alcohol are better for you than others; just kidding, it’s all bad), the picture is becoming clearer: Even small amounts of alcohol can have health consequences.

Research published in November revealed that between 2015 and 2019, excessive alcohol use resulted in roughly 140,000 deaths per year in the United States. About 40 percent of those deaths had acute causes, like car crashes, poisonings and homicides. But the majority were caused by chronic conditions attributed to alcohol, such as liver disease, cancer and heart disease.

When experts talk about the dire health consequences linked to excessive alcohol use, people often assume that it’s directed at individuals who have an alcohol use disorder. But the health risks from drinking can come from moderate consumption as well.

“Risk starts to go up well below levels where people would think, ‘Oh, that person has an alcohol problem,’” said Dr. Tim Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. “Alcohol is harmful to the health starting at very low levels.”

If you’re wondering whether you should cut back on your drinking, here’s what to know about when and how alcohol impacts your health.

How do I know if I’m drinking too much?

“Excessive alcohol use” technically means anything above the U.S. Dietary Guidelines’ recommended daily limits. That’s more than two drinks a day for men and more than one drink a day for women.

There is also emerging evidence “that there are risks even within these levels, especially for certain types of cancer and some forms of cardiovascular disease,” said Marissa Esser, who leads the alcohol program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The recommended daily limits are not meant to be averaged over a week, either. In other words, if you abstain Monday through Thursday and have two or three drinks a night on the weekend, those weekend drinks count as excessive consumption. It’s both the cumulative drinks over time and the amount of alcohol in your system on any one occasion that can cause damage.

Why is alcohol so harmful?

Scientists think that the main way alcohol causes health problems is by damaging DNA. When you drink alcohol, your body metabolizes it into acetaldehyde, a chemical that is toxic to cells. Acetaldehyde both “damages your DNA and prevents your body from repairing the damage,” Dr. Esser explained. “Once your DNA is damaged, then a cell can grow out of control and create a cancer tumor.”

Alcohol also creates oxidative stress, another form of DNA damage that can be particularly harmful to the cells that line blood vessels. Oxidative stress can lead to stiffened arteries, resulting in higher blood pressure and coronary artery disease.

“It fundamentally affects DNA, and that’s why it affects so many organ systems,” Dr. Naimi said. Over the course of a lifetime, chronic consumption “damages tissues over time.”

Isn’t alcohol supposed to be good for your heart?

Alcohol’s effect on the heart is confusing because some studies have claimed that small amounts of alcohol, particularly red wine, can be beneficial. Past research suggested that alcohol raises HDL, the “good” cholesterol, and that resveratrol, an antioxidant found in grapes (and red wine), has heart-protective properties.

However, said Mariann Piano, a professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University, “There’s been a lot of recent evidence that has really challenged the notion of any kind of what we call a cardio-protective or healthy effect of alcohol.”

The idea that a low dose of alcohol was heart healthy likely arose from the fact that people who drink small amounts tend to have other healthy habits, such as exercising, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and not smoking. In observational studies, the heart benefits of those behaviors might have been erroneously attributed to alcohol, Dr. Piano said.

More recent research has found that even low levels of drinking slightly increase the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, and the risk goes up dramatically for people who drink excessively. The good news is that when people stop drinking or just cut back, their blood pressure goes down. Alcohol is also linked to an abnormal heart rhythm, known as atrial fibrillation, which raises the risk of blood clots and stroke.

Reversing Of Aging May Now Be Possible

Staff ReporterScience 0

It’s been 13 years in the making, but Dr. David Sinclair and his colleagues have finally answered the question of what drives aging. In a study published Jan. 12 in Cell, Sinclair, a professor of genetics and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, describes a groundbreaking aging clock that can speed up or reverse the aging of cells.

Scientists studying aging have debated what drives the process of senescence in cells—and primarily focused on mutations in DNA that can, over time, mess up a cell’s normal operations and trigger the process of cell death. But that theory wasn’t supported by the fact that older people’s cells often were not riddled with mutations, and that animals or people harboring a higher burden of mutated cells don’t seem to age prematurely.

Sinclair therefore focused on another part of the genome, called the epigenome. Since all cells have the same DNA blueprint, the epigenome is what makes skin cells turn into skin cells and brain cells into brain cells. It does this by providing different instructions to different cells for which genes to turn on, and which to keep silent. Epigenetics is similar to the instructions dressmakers rely on from patterns to create shirts, pants, or jackets. The starting fabric is the same, but the pattern determines what shape and function the final article of clothing takes. With cells, the epigenetic instructions lead to cells with different physical structures and functions in a process called differentiation.

In the Cell paper, Sinclair and his team report that not only can they age mice on an accelerated timeline, but they can also reverse the effects of that aging and restore some of the biological signs of youthfulness to the animals. That reversibility makes a strong case for the fact that the main drivers of aging aren’t mutations to the DNA, but miscues in the epigenetic instructions that somehow go awry. Sinclair has long proposed that aging is the result of losing critical instructions that cells need to continue functioning, in what he calls the Information Theory of Aging. “Underlying aging is information that is lost in cells, not just the accumulation of damage,” he says. “That’s a paradigm shift in how to think about aging. “

His latest results seem to support that theory. It’s similar to the way software programs operate off hardware, but sometimes become corrupt and need a reboot, says Sinclair. “If the cause of aging was because a cell became full of mutations, then age reversal would not be possible,” he says. “But by showing that we can reverse the aging process, that shows that the system is intact, that there is a backup copy and the software needs to be rebooted.”

In the mice, he and his team developed a way to reboot cells to restart the backup copy of epigenetic instructions, essentially erasing the corrupted signals that put the cells on the path toward aging. They mimicked the effects of aging on the epigenome by introducing breaks in the DNA of young mice. (Outside of the lab, epigenetic changes can be driven by a number of things, including smoking, exposure to pollution and chemicals.) Once “aged” in this way, within a matter of weeks Sinclair saw that the mice began to show signs of older age—including grey fur, lower body weight despite unaltered diet, reduced activity, and increased frailty.

The rebooting came in the form of a gene therapy involving three genes that instruct cells to reprogram themselves—in the case of the mice, the instructions guided the cells to restart the epigenetic changes that defined their identity as, for example, kidney and skin cells, two cell types that are prone to the effects of aging. These genes came from the suite of so-called Yamanaka stem cells factors—a set of four genes that Nobel scientist Shinya Yamanaka in 2006 discovered can turn back the clock on adult cells to their embryonic, stem cell state so they can start their development, or differentiation process, all over again. Sinclair didn’t want to completely erase the cells’ epigenetic history, just reboot it enough to reset the epigenetic instructions. Using three of the four factors turned back the clock about 57%, enough to make the mice youthful again.

“We’re not making stem cells, but turning back the clock so they can regain their identity,” says Sinclair. “I’ve been really surprised by how universally it works. We haven’t found a cell type yet that we can’t age forward and backward.”

Rejuvenating cells in mice is one thing, but will the process work in humans? That’s Sinclair’s next step, and his team is already testing the system in non-human primates. The researchers are attaching a biological switch that would allow them to turn the clock on and off by tying the activation of the reprogramming genes to an antibiotic, doxycycline. Giving the animals doxycycline would start reversing the clock, and stopping the drug would halt the process. Sinclair is currently lab-testing the system with human neurons, skin, and fibroblast cells, which contribute to connective tissue.

In 2020, Sinclair reported that in mice, the process restored vision in older animals; the current results show that the system can apply to not just one tissue or organ, but the entire animal. He anticipates eye diseases will be the first condition used to test this aging reversal in people, since the gene therapy can be injected directly into the eye area.

“We think of the processes behind aging, and diseases related to aging, as irreversible,” says Sinclair. “In the case of the eye, there is the misconception that you need to regrow new nerves. But in some cases the existing cells are just not functioning, so if you reboot them, they are fine. It’s a new way to think about medicine.”

That could mean that a host of diseases—including chronic conditions such as heart disease and even neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s—could be treated in large part by reversing the aging process that leads to them. Even before that happens, the process could be an important new tool for researchers studying these diseases. In most cases, scientists rely on young animals or tissues to model diseases of aging, which doesn’t always faithfully reproduce the condition of aging. The new system “makes the mice very old rapidly, so we can, for example, make human brain tissue the equivalent off what you would find in a 70 year old and use those in the mouse model to study Alzheimer’s disease that way,” Sinclair says.

Beyond that, the implications of being able to age and rejuvenate tissues, organs, or even entire animals or people are mind-bending. Sinclair has rejuvenated the eye nerves multiple times, which raises the more existential question for bioethicists and society of considering what it would mean to continually rewind the clock on aging.

This study is just the first step in redefining what it means to age, and Sinclair is the first to acknowledge that it raises more questions than answers. “We don’t understand how rejuvenation really works, but we know it works,” he says. “We can use it to rejuvenate parts of the body and hopefully make medicines that will be revolutionary. Now, when I see an older person, I don’t look at them as old, I just look at them as someone whose system needs to be rebooted. It’s no longer a question of if rejuvenation is possible, but a question of when.”

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Traditionalists, Reform And Women At “Vatican Three”

Staff ReporterReligion 0

(RNS) — As the Catholic Synod on Synodality enters its “continental phase,” some have wondered if the church is moving toward Vatican Three.   Of course, there are still fights going on about Vatican Two.

Not long ago, Sister Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod, said the current synod would lead “to a new reception of the Second Vatican Council,” allowing the reforms of the mid-1960s to finally take hold. A small but vocal cadre of Catholics fears that precise possibility, which they caricature as a church overrun with bad liturgy, bad moral theology and guitar music.

Lately these so-called traditionalists have lost two beacons of their truths. The recent deaths of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Australian Cardinal George Pell may serve to deflate the anti-synod underground, or at least weaken its intellectual base.

Picture : TheUNN

Benedict, a quintessential Vatican insider and brilliant theologian, was the architect of every notice and ruling against real participation by lay persons — an explicit goal of the synod — and especially by women. Some 40 years ago, as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, he convinced the committee revising the Code of Canon Law to keep governance and ministry within the clerical caste.

Before then and since, he was behind every statement against the ordination of women, first as priests, then as deacons. With no means other than a passive-aggressive approach, he ensured the question of restoring women to the ordained diaconate remained unanswered.

In 1997, Benedict, still Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, refused to sign a 1997 International Theological Commission document allowing for women deacons and instead put then-professor-now-Cardinal Gerhard L. Mueller to the task of rewriting crucial passages, allowing John Paul II and later Benedict to ignore the issue.

Benedict’s good friend Pell made enemies in Rome while attempting to reconcile Vatican finances as prefect for the economy. (His term lapsed in 2019, while convicted on abuse charges overturned in 2020.) A former archbishop of Sydney, Pell was behind the scenes when the Australian bishops turned down the recommendation to make women deacons in August 2022, though it was later adopted. Pell is also said to be “Demos” (“people”), author of a memo to cardinals calling the pontificate of Pope Francis “a disaster.”

Pell, or at least the anonymous “Demos,” blames the synod process itself for the church’s ills, while acknowledging secularization and Western influences. The main problems: “We are weaker than 50 years ago and many factors are beyond our control, in the short term at least, e.g. the decline in the number of believers, the frequency of Mass attendance, the demise or extinction of many religious orders.”

Therein lies the rub. The factors noted have causes. Some argue there are two main streams of blame for the decline: the culture and the church itself. A more likely reason is that the changing culture exposed the facts and foibles of the church. Few if any Catholics in ethnic city neighborhoods or suburbia are willing to pray, pay and obey as they once did.

To a significant extent, it matters not whether they are so-called traditionalists or progressives. More Catholics in more cultures are better educated and less willing to put up with autocratic clerics, especially amid ongoing — even increasing — sex and money scandals.

That is where the Synod on Synodality, which presents all people with an opportunity to consider the church as church, is lancing boils the most conservative clerics have only bandaged over.

The broadest brush paints traditionalists in conservative shades of political reds. That same brush paints progressives in liberal blues. But red and blue Catholics are walking away in equal numbers, often led by the women of their families who have had enough. Neither Benedict nor Pell, with or without Latin, lace and incense, could stem the tide. But neither will Francis, alone, be able to push it back.

If truth be told, the women of the church are leading its reform. Only they can lead its rebirth.

(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence and adjunct professor of religion at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Her recent books include “Elizabeth Visits the Abbey.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

The World Ahead In 2023

Staff ReporterOpinion 0

India is continuing on its path to majoritarian chauvinism

Narendra modi had a better 2022 than most world leaders. India’s prime minister was projected to end the year as leader of the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with growth close to 7%, in spite of multiple global crises.

Russia’s war in Ukraine plunged Europe into an energy crisis and strained relations among Western allies. In India, by contrast, it facilitated the purchase of cheap Russian oil and lifted Mr Modi’s international standing. As Western countries jostled to gain India’s support, the prime minister succeeded in styling himself as an ostensibly neutral advocate of resolving the conflict peacefully, managing to scold Vladimir Putin while simultaneously resisting Western entreaties to join the anti-Russia coalition for good.

Yet Mr Modi’s rising star abroad may not be good news for many Indians in 2023. The prime minister’s growing clout in foreign relations will probably reduce Western leaders’ already limited appetite for criticising his government. That removes one more check on Mr Modi’s power at home. It will leave him freer than ever to reshape India in the image championed by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) and its ideological ally, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a century-old paramilitary volunteer outfit.

Critics of Mr Modi’s government spend nearly as much time complaining about the hopeless domestic opposition as they do about the man himself. At the start of 2022 they hoped that the Indian National Congress, the main opposition party, led by Sonia Gandhi, might manage to regroup and make a dent in the bjp’s dominance in state-level elections. Yet nothing of the sort has happened.

As the bjp retained power in all elections it contested as the incumbent, and gained control of the government of the wealthy state of Maharashtra following a political crisis it helped to engineer, Congress lost an important election in Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party (aap). The aap runs Delhi, the capital, and is seen as another potential rival to the bjp at the national level. But, since winning the elections in Punjab, it has struggled to govern, while also having to deal with multiple crises, including corruption investigations, in Delhi.

In 2023 Mr Modi’s government is likely to intensify its efforts to consolidate control over state politics in the run-up to national-assembly elections in 2024. It will also probably continue to use central-government agencies to hound its critics, filing spurious corruption cases in order to embroil them in time-consuming legal proceedings or using national-security laws to neutralise its critics with pre-trial detention.

It will continue to stack the civil service and academic institutions with loyalists, and to shrink the space for political opponents and members of minority groups, particularly Muslims. Gautam Adani, a billionaire ally of Mr Modi’s, may soon finalise his takeover of ndtv, India’s last remaining major independent television channel.

The campaign to get Mr Modi’s idea of India recognised as representative of the nation abroad will be stepped up, too. S. Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, says forces that are frustrated to be “no longer winning within India” are trying to shape the discourse abroad, and warned foreign observers against believing them. As Indian politics increasingly play out on the global stage, so do the attempts to stifle the voices of opponents.■

What Attracts Indian Students To The US?

Staff ReporterEducation, Immigration 0

In 2021-22, the proportion of students in engineering fell to 29.6 per cent or 58,957 — the rise in absolute numbers is in sync with the overall increase in the number of Indian students in the US.

Engineering is no longer the most popular draw for Indian students headed to the United States for higher education. Programmes in mathematics and computer sciences have gained the top spot in order of preference over the past decade, shows an analysis by The Indian Express of Open Doors data compiled by the US State Department and the non-profit Institute of Interna

Picture : Scroll In

China remains the country that sends the most students to the U.S. But India is closing the gap according to the 2022 report. The number of students from India increased by 19 percent while those from China dropped by nine percent in the most recent school year.

The US has a certain allure for international students; a study destination that has a lot to offer: world-class universities, top-notch student facilities, a burgeoning job market, beautiful and eclectic cities and parks, and a very culturally diverse population.  It stands to reason that India is the second-largest source of international students for the States. Let’s study some of the reasons in detail:

  • Highly-acclaimed and top-ranked US universities

It is a well-established fact that the USA houses some of the best universities – Harvard, Columbia,  Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and more. The list of top 100 universities alone has 56 US universities, more than any other country. The reason US universities are coveted is because of the value they provide on a personal and professional level. Earning a degree from a prestigious university in the US has a guaranteed return, gives the student an edge over other students, and makes them employable across the globe.

The departments are well-funded. The classrooms are optimized to give students more access to web-based learning utilizing computer-based tests and world-class resources, providing more than just theoretical knowledge.

  • Academic flexibility

One of the best features of US universities is that they offer academic flexibility to students to explore their interests and different academic disciplines. An undergraduate student has the option to study a wide range of subjects before they choose a major at the end of the second year. Similarly, in graduate degree programs, students can customize their curriculum with elective courses and combined degrees. They are free to explore different fields of study and find a subject that resonates with them the most.

Another great feature in the US is transfer admission, which allows students to easily transfer their credits from one university to another university. Academic freedom is demonstrated in the classroom as well, where there is an open exchange of different views and perspectives. The professors and students share a close relationship that helps mentor students and inculcates academic curiosity. This flexibility attracts the Indian student community. Moreover, the student-to-faculty ratio is low, which offers room for students and teachers to connect.

  • Ample training and career opportunities

A perfect mix of education and practical experience is offered to students. International students benefit from academic training programs such as OPT and CPT. Optional Practical Training (OPT) allows international students with an F-1 visa to work up to 12 months during or after the study duration. Students with STEM degrees get another 12 months and can work up to 24 months. Curricular Practical Training (CPT) is similar to OPT, with the only difference being that it has to be completed before graduation. Both these programs allow students to foray into the job market and make connections with potential employers. It is especially helpful for students because the F-1 visa does not allow “dual intent” and there are limited options for students to stay in the US and work.

Assistantships are another way to work and learn simultaneously. Students can apply to assist in teaching or even work on a research project with a professor. Some are even fortunate enough to work with a leading scholar in their chosen field.

  • Networking opportunities

As expensive as a degree is from the US, it offers equal opportunities to get its worth. Professors are open for discussion and can offer valuable career advice and ways to become employable. Universities host job fairs, workshops, career counseling sessions, networking events to help boost student employability. Recruiters attend these fairs to scout talent. Most US universities also boast a wide alumni network to help mentor and guide students. Networking is one of the best ways students, especially international students, can enter the US job market. If a student is unable to grab hold of any opportunity, they can make use of the university’s career center. A US degree paves the way for a brighter future. In fact, according to the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2020, US universities rank higher than most in terms of producing the most employable graduate students.

  • Support for international students

Cultural diversity is one of the defining pillars of the universities, as is advertised by almost every US university. The diversity and inclusion of various races and nationalities help universities create a productive environment for the students, where they feel comfortable, are more engaged and motivated to study. Every university campus has an international student service office that addresses the concerns of the international student community. Indian students have an added benefit from the strong presence of the Indian community in the US. Once students move past the initial cultural shock, the diversity will truly open up their worldview.

The universities also provide financial aid to support the students in the form of scholarships, grants, bursaries, and tuition-fee waivers.

Studying in the US is nothing short of a dream for some students – a step closer to achieving the American Dream, to live by the ethos and ideals of a country that ranks number one in practically every aspect. (Courtesy: TOI)

Mood Affects The Way You Process Language

Staff ReporterHealth, Lifestyle 0

Newswise — When people are in a negative mood, they may be quicker to spot inconsistencies in things they read, a new University of Arizona-led study suggests.

The study, published in Frontiers in Communication, builds on existing research on how the brain processes language.

Vicky Lai, a UArizona assistant professor of psychology and cognitive science, worked with collaborators in the Netherlands to explore how people’s brains react to language when they are in a happy mood versus a negative mood.

“Mood and language seem to be supported by different brain networks. But we have one brain, and the two are processed in the same brain, so there is a lot of interaction going on,” Lai said. “We show that when people are in a negative mood, they are more careful and analytical. They scrutinize what’s actually stated in a text, and they don’t just fall back on their default world knowledge.”

Lai and her study co-authors set out to manipulate study participants’ moods by showing them clips from a sad movie – “Sophie’s Choice” – or a funny television show – “Friends.” A computerized survey was used to evaluate participants’ moods before and after watching the clips. While the funny clips did not impact participants’ moods, the sad clips succeeded in putting participants in a more negative mood, the researchers found.

The participants then listened to a series of emotionally neutral audio recordings of four-sentence stories that each contained a “critical sentence” that either supported or violated default, or familiar, word knowledge. That sentence was displayed one word at a time on a computer screen, while participants’ brain waves were monitored by EEG, a test that measures brain waves.

For example, the researchers presented study participants with a story about driving at night that ended with the critical sentence “With the lights on, you can see more.” In a separate story about stargazing, the same critical sentence was altered to read “With the lights on, you can see less.” Although that statement is accurate in the context of stargazing, the idea that turning on the lights would cause a person to see less is a much less familiar concept that defies default knowledge.

The researchers also presented versions of the stories in which the critical sentences were swapped so that they did not fit the context of the story. For example, the story about driving at night would include the sentence “With the lights on, you can see less.”

They then looked at how the brain reacted to the inconsistencies, depending on mood.

They found that when participants were in a negative mood, based on their survey responses, they showed a type of brain activity closely associated with re-analysis.

“We show that mood matters, and perhaps when we do some tasks we should pay attention to our mood,” Lai said. “If we’re in a bad mood, maybe we should do things that are more detail-oriented, such as proofreading.”

Study participants completed the experiment twice – once in the negative mood condition and once in the happy mood condition. Each trial took place one week apart, with the same stories presented each time.

“These are the same stories, but in different moods, the brain sees them differently, with the sad mood being the more analytical mood,” Lai said.

The study was conducted in the Netherlands; participants were native Dutch speakers, and the study was conducted in Dutch. But Lai believes their findings translate across languages and cultures.

By design, the study participants were all women, because Lai and her colleagues wanted to align their study with existing literature that was limited to female participants. Lai said future studies should include more diverse gender representation.

In the meantime, Lai and her colleagues say mood may affect us in more ways than we previously realized.

Researcher Jos van Berkum of the Netherlands’ Utrecht University, co-authored the study with Lai and Peter Hagoort of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands.

“When thinking about how mood affects them, many people just consider things like being grumpy, eating more ice cream, or – at best – interpreting somebody else’s talk in a biased way,” van Berkum said. “But there’s much more going on, also in unexpected corners of our minds. That’s really interesting. Imagine your laptop being more or less precise as a function of its battery level – that’s unthinkable. But in human information processing, and presumably also in (information processing) of related species, something like that seems to be going on.”

Harvard Study Finds 4 Simple Ways to Make Yourself Really Happy in 10 Minutes or Less

Staff ReporterLifestyle 0

An 85-year-long study reveals the secret to long-term happiness. Should you try it? What makes you genuinely happy? There could be a wide range of answers ranging from closing a big sale or investment, reaching a mountain summit after an arduous hike, or eating a perfect ice cream cone on a hot summer day. But according to what may be the longest-running scientific study of happiness, the Harvard Study of Adult Development which has been going on for 85 years, the biggest determinant of genuine. long-term happiness isn’t wealth, or accomplishment, or even pleasure. It’s the relationships we form with the people in our lives, in our workplaces, and in our communities that bring us the greatest happiness in the long run.

With that in mind, the New York Times worked with the leader of the Harvard study to create a 7-Day Happiness Challenge as a way to start of the new year. The whole challenge is well worth doing. These are the four steps that resonated most with me, and you can do any of them in about 10 minutes any time of the day.

  1. Plan an 8-minute phone call with a friend.

The Times’ wellness columnist Jancee Dunn tried this with a friend of hers and was surprised at how powerfully it lifted her mood. The eight-minute phone call plan solves two ongoing problems with conversations. The first is that most of us “tend to think that in some unspecified future, we’ll have a ‘time surplus,’ where we’ll be able to connect with old friends,” according to Bob Waldinger, the psychiatrist leading the Harvard study who worked with the Times on these challenges. But chances are that “someday” when we think we’ll have lots of time for our friends will never come. So we need to make time right now or risk drifting away from our friendships.

Picture : TheUNN

The second is that, as Harvard research has shown, most conversations go on too long–often longer than either party would prefer. So to set an eight-minute limit ahead of time–what Dunn calls a “hard out,” guarantees that this won’t happen. It also makes it easy for even a very busy friend to say yes to the call. For instance, Dunn’s friend spent eight minutes talking with her while traveling to the dry cleaner’s.

What surprised Dunn was how much she and her friend were able to talk about in eight minutes. “We talked about our mothers’ health, made birthday plans, gossiped about a friend who abruptly quit his job and moved to a tiny Mexican town, traded book recommendations and explored the possibility of an afterlife,” she wrote. Perhaps because they had both committed to a tight time limit, they were quick to get the important stuff.

Dunn wrote, “I had missed her, and didn’t realize it until I heard her voice.” This is an important factor, researchers say. Hearing someone’s voice is a more powerful way to connect than texting with them or chatting over social media. So make that eight-minute phone call today, if you can.

  1. Start a conversation with a stranger.

Research has shown that starting a conversation with a stranger increases our happiness, even when we don’t expect that it will. Given that humans are profoundly social creatures and that we all thrive on connection, that shouldn’t really be as surprising as it is. Dunn put this advice to use herself when she asked a neighbor whose dog always barked at her if there was anything she could do to make friends with him. There was, and it was surprisingly simple–all she had to do was take off her hat, because hats upset this particular dog for some reason.

In my own case, a few years back, I struck up a conversation with Shelmina Babai Abji at a cocktail party and we soon became friends and supporters of each others’ careers. At the time we both had book projects we hoped to sell and in some odd twist, both our books came out on the same day. I’m proud to have her endorsement on my book Career Self-Care.

  1. Get to know someone at work.

Work friends are incredibly important–particularly in the high pressure and long hours that go with starting a business. Yet, experts say, we don’t always recognize the value of these relationships. So choose someone at work you would like to get to know better. This could be an acquaintance who you’d like to turn into a friend, or someone you don’t know at all but would like to get to know.

For someone you don’t yet know, find a bit of common ground. These conversation starters can help. If you like, pay attention to things they may have mentioned in public, perhaps that they are about to give an important presentation or will be attending a family member’s wedding. If you follow up afterward and ask how it went, they’ll be impressed and pleased that you were paying attention and remembered what was going on with them. You’ll have turned that person from a stranger into an acquaintance.

To go from acquaintance to friend, invite them to do something simple that only takes a few minutes, like walk with you to the corner deli to pick up lunch. Or, use the Ben Franklin Effect, and ask them to do you a small and easy favor, a counterintuitive but powerful way to get someone to like you. With most people, this approach will help start you on your way toward being a work friend. If it doesn’t work with this particular person, don’t dwell on it. Just pick someone else and try again.

  1. Send someone a thank you message.

Research shows that this simple gesture creates immediate happiness benefits both for the person doing the thanking and the person receiving the thanks. So, even though it’s not the easiest of these steps, it may be the most important. Take a few minutes to write a note to a friend, a loved one, a family member, or even someone who’s helped you in your career. It can be someone you see all the time, or someone you haven’t spoken to in years.

Imagine that this is the last message you’ll be able to send this person, and write down what you’re grateful for. You don’t need to put a huge amount of thought into this–you can do it in less than 10 minutes, as promised. Now here’s the hard part: Send the message. Whether by email or social media, or snail mail, but send it. Don’t worry if the person at the other end hasn’t heard from you for a long time. People are always happy to get a thank you note, even if it’s from someone they haven’t thought about in a long time. Getting it will make them happy, and sending it will make you happy.

If you can, try one of these ten-minute challenges every day next week. All together, they will only take about an hour of your time. At the end of the week, ask yourself if these small steps made you feel better than you would have without them. If the answer is yes, should you make them part of your routine every week? (https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/4-simple-ways-to-make-yourself-really-happy-in-10-minutes-or-less-backed-by-harvard-research.html)

Biden’s New Debt Relief Proposals For Student Loan Borrowers

Staff ReporterYouth, Education 0

Broad student-loan forgiveness isn’t the only relief President Joe Biden is hoping to implement for borrowers this year.

On Tuesday, Biden’s Education Department officially proposed reforms to income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, which where created to give student-loan borrowers affordable monthly payments based on income, with the promise of loan forgiveness after at least 20 years.

As reports over the past year revealed, the plans seldom delivered on their promise. An NPR investigation found that some student-loan companies failed to track payments borrowers’ made on the plans, throwing them off of the path to forgiveness, and oftentimes borrowers had to submit requests themselves to get accurate information on where their payments stood.

In light of those flaws, the Education Department announced a series of reforms to the plans that included streamlining the path to loan forgiveness and cutting payments for undergraduate borrowers in half.

Picture : CNBC

“Today the Biden-Harris administration is proposing historic changes that would make student loan repayment more affordable and manageable than ever before,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “We cannot return to the same broken system we had before the pandemic, when a million borrowers defaulted on their loans a year and snowballing interest left millions owing more than they initially borrowed.”

Here’s what you need to know about these proposed reforms, and why some advocates are still pushing for further relief.

Is Biden creating a completely new IDR plan?

No – not completely new. The Education Department is amending the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) plan, the latest iteration of which calculates borrowers’ monthly payments based on their discretionary income with the promise of debt relief after a set number of years in repayment.

This revision mean that the department will also be phasing out other versions of income-driven repayment plans. It will phase out enrollment for borrowers in the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and income-contingent repayment (ICR) plans, and limit when a borrower can switch to an income-based repayment (IBR) plan.

Who is eligible?

If you have a federal graduate or undergraduate student loan, who will be eligible for these reforms.

How will my monthly payments change?

If you make less than $30,500, or if you’re in a household of four with an income below $62,400, you will be given the option to make $0 monthly payments.

These reforms also cut payments for undergraduates in half — the new plan would require them to pay 5% of their discretionary income on their undergrad student loans, down from the current 10%. Borrowers who only have graduate school loans would continue to pay 10%, and borrowers who have both graduate and undergraduate loans would pay between 5 and 10%, based on average calculated from the share of loans borrower for undergraduate versus graduate studies.

When will I receive loan forgiveness on this plan?

According to the fact sheet, the department said it’s “concerned that borrowers with small balances are discouraged from using existing IDR plans – even if they would benefit from lower monthly payments – because of the length of time required to receive loan forgiveness.”

That’s why the department is proposing that borrowers who originally borrowed $12,000 or less will receive loan forgiveness after 10 years of payments. “Every additional $1,000 borrowed above that amount would add 1 year of monthly payments to the required time a borrower must pay before receiving forgiveness,” the fact sheet said.

The department estimated that 85% of community college borrowers would be debt-free after ten years of repayment with this change.

What’s the timeline for implementation?

These proposals will enter a 30-day public comment period, and senior administration officials told reporters that the department plans to implement them this year, alongside Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers (it’s currently headed to the Supreme Court on February 28).

Additionally, Congress did not increase funding for the Federal Student Aid office in its latest spending bill, suggesting hurdles to come with implementation of these reforms. The administration official said the department is disappointed with the lack of funding and notes that it will present a challenge.

What if I’m in default or delinquent on my loans?

The reforms are intended to help at-risk borrowers, as well. The department is proposing to automatically enroll borrowers who are at least 75 days behind on their payments into an IDR plan that would give them the lowest monthly payment. Borrowers already in default would also, for the first time, get access to an IDR plan.

Who is excluded?

Parents who took on PLUS loans — a type of federal student loan that allows a parent to borrow up to the full cost of attendance for their child’s education — are not included. A senior administration official told reporters on Monday that the Higher Education Act of 1965 does not allow parent PLUS loans to be repaid on an IDR plan, and the department is not making any changes to that law.

At this time, parent PLUS loan borrowers only have the income-contingent repayment plan — the most expensive type of plan — which requires them to pay 20% of their discretionary income for 25 years, and the remaining balance after that time period is forgiven.

Advocates lauded the proposed improvements but expressed disappointment with this exclusion. “It ignores the reality that low-income families—especially low-income families of color—are more likely to rely on Parent PLUS loans or need to get a graduate degree to earn the same salary as their wealthier white peers,” Persis Yu, deputy executive director of advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement.

Richest 1% Have Two-Thirds Of New Wealth Created In The Last Two Years

Staff ReporterMoney 0

Over the last two years, the richest 1% of people have accumulated close to two-thirds of all new wealth created around the world, a new report from Oxfam says.

A total of $42 trillion in new wealth has been created since 2020, with $26 trillion, or 63%, of that being amassed by the top 1% of the ultra-rich, according to the report. The remaining 99% of the global population collected just $16 trillion of new wealth, the global poverty charity says.

“A billionaire gained roughly $1.7 million for every $1 of new global wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent,” the report, released as the World Economic Forum kicks off in Davos, Switzerland, reads.

It suggests that the pace at which wealth is being created has sped up, as the world’s richest 1% amassed around half of all new wealth over the past 10 years.

Oxfam’s report analyzed data on global wealth creation from Credit Suisse, as well figures from the Forbes Billionaire’s List and the Forbes Real-Time Billionaire’s list to assess changes to the wealth of the ultra-rich.

The research contrasts this wealth creation with reports from the World Bank, which said in October 2022 that it would likely not meet its goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 as the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down efforts to combat poverty.

Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, called for taxes to be increased for the ultra-rich, saying that this was a “strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy.”

In the report’s press release, she also said changes to taxation policies would help tackle ongoing crises around the world.

“Taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today’s overlapping crises. It’s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else,” Bucher said.

Coinciding crises around the world that feed into each other and produce greater adversity together than they would separately are also referred to as a “polycrisis.” In recent weeks, researchers, economists and politicians have suggested that the world is currently facing such a crisis as pressures from the cost-of-living crisis, climate change, and other pressures are colliding

‘SRK’s Break Has Created Immense Excitement For Pathaan!:’ Siddharth Anand

Staff ReporterCinema 0

Pathaan has become one of the most anticipated Hindi films to release worldwide in a long, long time. Touted as one of the biggest ever action spectacles that audiences will see in theatres, the visually spectacular Yash Raj Films’ action extravaganza, Pathaan, is part of Aditya Chopra’s ambitious spy universe and has the biggest superstars of the country Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham in it.

Director Siddharth Anand, in a video released by Yash Raj Films, talks about why Pathaan has become the most hyped film globally and how SRK’s return to the cinemas after 4 years has added to the humongous buzz that the film is carrying!

Sid says, “Directing SRK is a responsibility and it’s even more greater now because of the break that he had taken and that has created immense expectations and excitement with his audience. I am realising now, towards the end of the film into the release of the film, what and how large that fan base is. So yeah, that is an amazing feeling and it’s somewhere exciting because we know that we have hopefully made a film that they will be happy and proud of.”

About the electrifying SRK and Deepika pairing in Pathaan, Sid says, “Just the fact that SRK and DP have done so many films before and fortunately all of them have been really successful. It became a challenge to see how different can they look and so, our team really worked you know intricately to present them in a new way.”

SRK and Deepika are one of the biggest on-screen pairings in the history of Indian cinema given their epic blockbusters Om Shanti Om, Chennai Express and Happy New Year.

Sid says, “The fact that DP is looking different from her films and SRK is looking different from his films, automatically their pairing will look fresh. So that is the approach we took and it’s amazing, I think the audience is loving it.”

Watch the full video here : https://youtu.be/kgHhCKbF3X0

YRF’s adrenaline pumping film, Pathaan, is set to release on Jan 25, 2023 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. All the assets of the film that YRF has released so far have turned out to be super-hits right from the teaser, the two songs – Besharam Rang & Jhoome Jo Pathaan – and the recently dropped trailer that has caused an internet meltdown!

World’s Coldest Air In 2023 Recorded

Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

It’s been a big swing and a miss when it comes to a typical Canadian winter so far this season. In fact, without any major pattern changes, Canadian cities are on pace for the warmest winter on record.

As we creep towards the seasons’ halfway mark, you may be wondering where has winter gone? Don’t worry, it exists and it’s coming.

Per reports, an astonishing -62.4°C was recorded in Tongulakh, Siberia on January 14th. In addition to becoming Earth’s coldest temperature recorded in 2023, the all-time station record was broken in Tongulakh.

This was the coldest temperature Russia has experienced in over a decade. For perspective, this temperature is a mere 0.3°C from the average temperature on Mars and would freeze exposed skin in seconds.

In contrast, major cities across eastern Canada are pacing towards the warmest winter on record. Halifax would need a significant cold snap in the second half of this season to drop this winter’s average temperature by 1.5°C towards the warm winter record holder of 2015-2016.

Additionally, if Canada’s mild conditions continue, Toronto could see its first winter with an average temperature above freezing.

How could this be?

It all comes down to the global pattern. The core of the polar vortex has taken an extended vacation in Russia, ushering in this extreme cold and giving mild air across Canada a consistently winning hand.

The recent zonal Pacific jet stream has kept these conditions in place for a prolonged period, but long-range models hint that change is coming.

Closing out the month of January, the jet stream trends into an amplified pattern. This is a signal for a more active pattern and gives extreme arctic cold more opportunities to travel south over Canada.

Thought your winter was cold? Temperatures in the world’s coldest city have plunged to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit).

The city of Yakutsk in east Siberia, widely identified as one of the coldest places in the world, has seen an abnormally long cold snap. January is its coldest month and, although they’re accustomed to freezing temperatures, residents in the remote region are taking extra precautions to keep warm.

“You can’t fight it,” one resident dressed in two scarves and multiple layers of gloves, hats and hoods told Reuters. “You either adjust and dress accordingly or you suffer.”

Layering, according to another resident selling frozen fish at a local market, was the key. “Just dress warmly. In layers, like a cabbage,” she said.

In 2018, it got so cold that some residents said their eyelashes froze.

Home to fewer than 1 million residents, Yakutsk winters can be extreme — even by Russian standards.

But the city drew international attention in July when haze from nearby wildfires tore through forests, blanketing the region in thick smoke.

Scientists expressed grave concerns about the increasing frequency of the fires brought about by climate change in the Siberian arctic.

5% Of Indians Own More Than 60% Of The Country’s Wealth

Staff ReporterMoney 0

Just 5% of Indians own more than 60% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% possess only 3% of wealth, according to Oxfam India’s latest report ‘Survival of the Richest: The India story’, which will be released today at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

An appeal

Oxfam India, an NGO that works in the sectors of child education, women empowerment and addressing inequality, through this report, seeks to urge the Union finance minister to implement progressive tax measures, such as wealth tax, in the upcoming Union Budget, it said in a press statement.

India currently does not have any wealth tax – which essentially refers to tax levied on one’s entire property in all forms.

India used to have a system under which a tax was levied at 1% on the net wealth in excess of Rs 30 lakh under the Wealth Tax Act 1957 – which was abolished in 2015. The taxation system, however, was not progressive in nature, as it did not have any slabs to ensure that the percentage of tax increased with an increase in wealth beyond the flat mark of Rs 30 lakh.

India’s richest

The total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 billionaires in 2022.

The report highlights that the combined wealth of India’s 100 richest has touched $660 billion (Rs 54.12 lakh crore) – an amount that could fund the entire Union Budget for more than 18 months.

“While the poor face severe hardships, the wealth of the top 10 richest in India stands at Rs 27.52 lakh crore ($335.7 billion) – an increase of around 32.8% compared to 2021,” the statement said.

The wealth of the top 10 richest can finance the Ministry of Health and Family welfare and Ministry of Ayush for more than 30 years, India’s Union education budget for 26 years, or can fund MGNREGA for 38 years, it said.

India And Faraway Lands: 5,000 Years Of Connected History

Staff ReporterCulture 0

‘A great way to learn about your country is to leave it’ —Henry Rollins, American singer. The recent publishing of my book India and Faraway Lands: 5,000 Years of Connected History marked the culmination of my long-standing quest for understanding India’s past in a wider global context. The seeds of my curiosity were sown over 27 years ago when I arrived in the United States as a graduate student from India. For the first time in my life, I met students from places as far afield as Iceland, Russia, Japan, Egypt, and Brazil. The stimulating exchange of perspectives opened my eyes to the cultures and customs of different parts of the world. I would often ponder over life in India versus life in America, East versus the West, the old world versus the new world.

With the image of India’s golden past firmly entrenched in my mind since childhood, I wanted to understand how, when, and why it fell so far behind. What began as a curiosity gradually evolved into a deep interest in global history. Wading through bookstores and museums over the years, I stumbled upon obscure yet intriguing historical connections between India and other corners of the globe. The realization that the rise of western Europe is a relatively recent phenomenon in the 5,000 years of world history opened new vistas of inquiry.

It struck me that histories of India were often confined to India’s boundaries, thereby missing a vital component: the story of the ‘outside’ or the ‘other side’, leaving the overall picture somewhat truncated and incomplete. The history of the British in India, for instance, began with their merchant ships landing in Surat, Gujarat in 1608. But it was around the same time that they had also landed in North America and established their first colony in Jamestown, Virginia (1607). What was going on in Britain in those days? What did the British merchants and colonists know about India and the Americas before they set sail from the shores of their tiny island nation? Who were the people who made these bold ventures possible? And why did they wait for more than a hundred years to sail out to these lands when Italian explorer Christopher Columbus had landed in the Americas in 1492 and Portuguese voyager Vasco da Gama had reached India in 1498?

Unlike India’s commonly perceived image among Western historians as a static civilization—shielded from the rest of the Eurasian continent by an arc of enormous mountain ranges in the north and surrounded by water in the south—India was an active player in world history. Steep mountain passes in the north-west, like the legendary Khyber Pass, allowed invading armies and trading caravans to pass through; the Indian Ocean was the hub of maritime trade and migration for thousands of years before humans were able to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific. There must be a reason why the who’s who of world history—Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama, the Duke of Wellington—set foot in India.

The book shares intriguing tales of several lesser-known adventurers, merchants, and soldiers who landed in India over the centuries: a young Dutchman who stole the maps and navigation secrets of the Portuguese in Goa in the 16th century, opening the doors for the Dutch and the British to Asia; an Ethiopian who rose to be a successful mercenary general, also referred to as the ‘military guru of the Marathas’, defied the Mughals for a quarter of a century; an American from Philadelphia whose spirit for adventure took him through an incredible journey over two decades — as a surgeon in Burma, as Maharaja Ranjeet Singh’s physician in Lahore, and getting proclaimed a prince in Afghanistan!

When I returned to India in 2006, after being away for eleven years, I was keen to rediscover the homeland and travelled from the Himalayan town of Leh up north to the historic city of Madurai down south. UNESCO World Heritage sites like Sanchi and Ajanta Caves were breath-taking and bound to make even an uninterested visitor pause and imagine life in India over 2,000 years ago. And yet, they were often missing on must-visit places of Indian travelers. Likewise, history museums all over India were consistently empty and listless, as if the past did not matter. The common folk’s understanding of foreign lands, peoples, and cultures seemed rather superficial while age-old stereotypes continued to flourish despite all the buzz around globalization, and the fact that nearly 30 million people of Indian origin lived scattered around the world. My experiences motivated me to build upon what I had learnt thus far and write a story of our global past for the lay reader.

My plans got further traction when my book idea was shortlisted at the Bangalore Literature Festival in 2018, providing me an opportunity to pitch it to a panel comprising several leading publishers. It took another four years of research, writing, and multiple rounds of editing before the book saw the light of the day.

Rather than being a definitive history, India and Faraway Lands* aims to stoke the readers’ curiosity about our intertwined past. It is the book I wish I got to read as a restless youngster unsure of India’s place in the world.

Dr. Aarti Pandya Defends the Decision to Settle the Case Without any Admission of Liability or Wrongdoing

Staff ReporterCommunity, Money 0

“Rather than continue to expend significant time and resources defending herself against these unfounded allegations, which were initially filed in 2013, Dr. Pandya made a business decision to resolve the case without any admission of liability or wrongdoing so she can go back to serving her patients,” Dr. Aarti Pandya’s attorney said in a statement.

Dr. Pandya, an Indian American doctor had recently agreed to pay $1,850,000 for allegedly billing Medicare for eye surgeries and diagnostic tests that were allegedly not medically required.

However, Dr. Pandya denies doing anything wrong. Dr. Pandya has served as an ophthalmologist in the Conyers, Rockdale County area for decades.  Dr. Pandya has steadfastly maintained that she did not engage in improper billing or otherwise fail to properly treat her patients and bill for their care.

As per the statement issued by the Attorney, “Dr. Pandya has been defending herself in a lawsuit initiated by her former office manager, Laura Menchion Dildine, that accused Dr. Pandya of improper billing in violation of the False Claims Act.”

The attorney’s statement questioned the credibility of Ms. Dildine, describing her as “a convicted felon who was solely responsible for billing and coding while employed by Dr. Pandya at her office in Conyers, Georgia.” The statement went on point out how “After Dr. Pandya refused to write an opioid prescription for Ms. Dildine, Ms. Dildine began using Dr. Pandya’s name to commit prescription fraud while employed as office manager.”

Responding to the report, Dr. Pandya said she has been defending herself in a lawsuit initiated by her former office manager, Laura Menchion Dildine, that accused her of improper billing in violation of the False Claims Act.  The statement said Dildine is a convicted felon who was solely responsible for billing and coding while employed by Dr. Pandya at her office in Conyers, Georgia.

“After Dr. Pandya refused to write an opioid prescription for Dildine, she (Dildine) began using Dr. Pandya’s name to commit prescription fraud while employed as office manager,” the statement alleges.

As per Dr. Pandya’s attorney, Ms. Dildine was arrested at the office of Dr. Philip Newman, another ophthalmologist in Conyers, Georgia, and was jailed by the Newton County Sheriff under felony charges. Ms. Dildine was employed by Dr. Newman as a biller at the time of her arrest, and resumed her employment with Dr. Newman after being released on bail.  On June 16, 2014, Ms. Dildine was arrested again and charged with felony fraud/forgery and jailed at the Rockdale County Jail.

According to Piedmont, Dr. Pandya has been highly appreciated by her patients with a score of 4.5 out of 5 ratings with reviews by 289 ratings by her patients. (https://doctors.piedmont.org/provider/Aarti+Pandya/391123)

Dr. Arati Pandya, MD is an Ophthalmology Specialist in Conyers, GA and has over 28 years of experience in the medical field. She is affiliated with Piedmont Rockdale Hospital. Dr. Pandya, who had graduated with a Medical Degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, completed her Graduate Medical Education in Ophthalmology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington , Kentucky.

She is Board Certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology. Dr. Pandya, says, she looks forward to continuing to serve her patients and the community now that this case is behind her.

As per reports, to protect federal healthcare programs and beneficiaries going forward, Pandya and the Pandya Practice Group have entered into a detailed, multi-year Integrity Agreement and Conditional Exclusion Release (IA) with the Office of Inspector General.

“We must assure patients and taxpayers that healthcare is dictated by clinical needs, not fiscal greed,” said Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “This settlement should serve as a reminder that the FBI will not tolerate healthcare providers who engage in schemes that defraud the industry and put innocent patients at risk.”

Dr. Pandya however, said she looks forward to continuing to serve her patients and the community now that this case is behind her.  She said she remains committed to providing quality patient care for years to come.

14 January, 2023: The Life Behind a Story

Staff ReporterTravel 0

set in Desaguadero, Peru, from Son’s perspective

If I am going to try to tell this story, I am going to have to be brave. He is gone now. I have nothing to fear. But Desaguadero is a very small town, and he can find me easily. I am sure he is already combing the streets, looking for any excuse to go out of his way to kill me.

The location of this story is Desaguadero. The town is on a little bit of land connecting Peru to Bolivia right on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It is not a particularly scenic location. All of the houses look like hovels eternally being expanded on, and whatever viewpoints thrust out into the lake are blocked by these architectural obstructions. It doesn’t help that the protests have completely stalled the city. The protestors have dug up the road into the city, making it impossible to go anywhere or do anything. As for the people who have to live here, they are no longer going to work. They are just standing about, looking to get into a fight with anyone who looks disagreeable to them.

Crime is the result of a lack of opportunities. Crime is the result of a lack of options.

That is how the life of Francisco, or Paco, was born.Paco, a short man with spiky straight hair. Paco, a man of brown jeans and dusty shirts. Paco, born and raised in the suburbs of Puno… the suburbs of Cusco, in the centre of Desaguadero. He knew nothing about life except that life was a game and he was dealt the losing hand. There was a lot of abuse from his mother and father, there was a lot of anger directed towards him for no other reason other that his parents didn’t know any better. There was no one to help him remember the positivities of life. And so the only feeling that came to slit into his eyes was a constant sort of anger, that made him feel that anything he did was justified, and he deserved to hurt others. And so hurt others he did…

What am I writing?  I hope he never reads this… it sounds like I am out to slander him.

Though with what he did to me I should be filing a police report instead of sitting in my hotel room typing like this.

I said what I said, and I must commit to what I said I will do. I was not trying to lie when I told him I was a writer. I have been working these days as an English teacher, but I have also worked in many different fields over the course of my life, all to hide from my one true desire: to create something, a piece of art that could only come from myself. I tried acting and it didn’t get me anywhere. I tried directing but all I got was jealousy from seeing average talents work hard and become big stars. Writing has been the thing I’ve been trying to do since I was a teen. Scribbling little thoughts,  jotting in a notebook when I get bored, imagining stories for the thrill of it. None of it led to anything significant because I was just writing for the sake of trying.

Now I have something I must write, and yet none of it is coming out of me organically.

How can I begin to even consider what life is like for a Peruvian in one of these small towns, when I’ve only been here for a week?

The cold metal against my sideburn on an otherwise balmy day. The sound of the anxious waves crashing against the land. Thick sunlight.

That is what my experience was like. That is how I know Desaguadero. There have been some protests

against some political leader that have completely stalled the country. I don’t know the politician’s name. I don’t know why people are so angry. I’m just a traveller who has had my entire itinerary upended due to political events outside of my control. Of course being stuck in a small town with no way of getting out, it makes sense I would get bored. To make myself feel like I was doing something with my life I started taking walks in random directions, thinking that nothing bad had happened to me so far, so nothing bad was going to happen at all.

What is the reason why people want to kill or rob others?

I suppose I wouldn’t know, because I’ve never lived a life in which I was taught that to do such things is a necessity.

If I had stayed in Bolivia, I would have been revelling in the beauty of Lake Titicaca right now. Copacabana is like a version of Crete made by the Incas. Amantani feels like pure old country, untouched my modern life except for all the tourists who are camping out there. The weather is a little chilly so one needs one of those wool sweaters to feel comfortable. But all around are the expanses of a lake big enough to rival an ocean. There are stout wrinkled women walking about with their grandchildren, goats chewing under the most clay-shaped looking of hills, sun-kissed earth waiting to be savoured.

I chose to travel to Peru thinking I’d soon be seeing Arequipa, and Cusco, and instead I’ve gotten stranded here, in a town with nothing to offer. I should have been listening to the travel advisories. I should have stayed in La Paz until the political situation improved.

I felt a gust outside my window, and when I went to close it, I felt like there were eyes leering at me.

Could he really be waiting for me to finish my story, so that he can come take a look at it?

Desaguadero is only a few streets big. He must know where I’m staying. Not to mention given how long the protests have been going on for, I’m not going to be able to leave in the near future. I could be stuck here for many more weeks.

He could kill me, and with all the ruckus that is happening, people would think I just went missing.

I have to breathe. Or I have to go out and tell the police.

I should tell this damn story.

Paco Julio de la Santacruz was an angry lonely man. He grew up with a lot of poverty and abuse and that caused him to hate people abnormally. He saw foreigners as all the same no matter if they were white or brown, British or Filipino. They were rich people coming to his poor part of the world, and he had no regard for their life. He had a desperate and pathetic life that caused him to act out in violence. This is why he spotted out this particular fag, saw him as a weak and easy target, and threatened his life so that he could get him to empty his wallet.

I’m going to cry. This is not because my story is any good. This is because there’s a real story I have to tell before I can go anywhere with this.

I will write the truth for myself and leave it on the page. I can always delete it after I finish writing the actual story I’m trying to tell.

I was walking on the highway promenading towards what I thought was going to lead to one of an untouched viewpoint of the lake. It did ultimately lead to something like that. There were settlements here or there, but there were also people fishing, cleaning their clothes, and bathing. The pearly milky colour of the water shimmered as the weeds caught in the still shivered in the breeze. It was a stunning sight to behold. If I had been able to explore it without any further interruption I would have told myself I had found myself a proper treasure off the beaten path, one that required much more proper uncovering later on.

Except on the way back to my hotel I heard some footsteps. And when I finally got the sense to turn around the scuffles became fast paced. Soon there was a gun to my head and a hand covering my mouth.

He said something to me, but I don’t know how to speak Spanish. When I realised that he started shouting to me in English.

Money! Money!

I knew what that meant. I gave him all that I had. But he kept shouting it.

Money! Money!

I really had nothing left. I had to take out my wallet and show it. He didn’t like something about that. He slapped me with the gun.

Tonto…

I knew enough Spanish to know he was calling me an idiot. But then he was talking so quickly, he was slurring the words around like a drunk, and more importantly he had that venomous angry look of a murderer in his eyes.

He was going to kill me.

Immediately I started crying. He didn’t know a lick of English but I had to say what I was on my mind.

Please don’t kill me. I have so much more in my life to give. You can take my money, you can take my belongings, but don’t take my life. I haven’t done any of the things that I have aspired for myself. You see sir I’m a writer. There’s a story inside of me. Deep down I know it. But I haven’t taken the time to write it yet. So if you kill me there goes my story. I’m not the only one who is gone. Everything I wanted to create is gone as well. So don’t kill me please. Por favor.

Whatever I said was probably completely muffled by his hand. Nonetheless saying something with so much anxiety anguished something inside of him. He uncovered my mouth, only to wrap his arm around my chest, and to put his gun against my chin.  I had the feeling that at any moment he was going to pull the trigger.

So suddenly I said the following.

Sir, if you don’t kill me, I will tell your story. I will write about you. I will tell the entire world about all of the things you have gone through. I will make sure that the person you are becomes recorded in history. That’s the least I can do for you. Please let me live sir. Please let me live so I can tell the world your story.

Again, I was talking to a person who knew nothing of English. Again I was talking to a man who was most likely insane and ready to kill.

And yet something about it worked. I don’t know if it were divine intervention or a change in my chances, but the feeling in the air pacified. He pushed me off away from him and started taking a long look at me.  When I looked like I was about to speak he pointed that gun again and shouted at me. Of course I ran. I ran and I ran and I got back into my hotel and I shot up to the third floor and I locked the door to my room twice and I shut every window and I hid in the bathroom, and he wasn’t there. He had left me in peace so that I could go write.

Of course now I have no money in my wallet, and the people at reception keep knocking as if they are wondering when I’ll finally tell them what disturbed me to this extent. At some point I’ll tell them.

But for now I have to write this story. My life depends on it.

R’ Bonney Gabriel, Miss USA Is Crowned Miss Universe

Staff ReporterEntertainment, Women 0

R’Bonney Gabriel, a fashion designer, model and sewing instructor from Texas, a Filipino American, was crowned the 71st Miss Universe on Saturday, January 14th, 2023.  Gabriel, who last year became the first Filipino-American to win Miss USA, took the crown ahead of Amanda Dudamel from Venezuela and Andreína Martínez from the Dominican Republic.

The pageant was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, with 84 women from around the world competing for the crown. Gabriel closed her eyes and clasped hands with runner-up Miss Venezuela, Amanda Dudamel, at the moment of the dramatic reveal of the winner, then beamed after her name was announced.

In the Q&A at the last stage of the competition for the three finalists, Gabriel was asked how she would work to demonstrate Miss Universe is “an empowering and progressive organization” if she were to win.

“I would use it to be a transformational leader,” she responded, citing her work using recycled materials in her fashion design and teaching sewing to survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence. “It is so important to invest in others, invest in our community and use your unique talent to make a difference.”

When Gabriel entered the Top 5, she was asked, “Miss Universe recently made an inclusive change allowing mothers and married women to compete this year. What’s another change you’d like to see and why?” Gabriel responded that she hoped the contest organizers would increase the candidate age limit.

“For me, I would like to see an age increase because I am 28 years old. And that is the oldest age to compete. And I think it’s a beautiful thing. My favorite quote is ‘if not now, then when?’ Because as a woman, I believe age does not define us. It’s not tomorrow, it’s not yesterday — but it’s now. The time is now,” she said.

Earlier in the pageant, Gabriel donned a red-orange cape inspired by a rising phoenix with the maxim “if not now, then when,” which she had dyed herself. The words take inspiration from her father’s advice to act on goals, dreams and desires.

In the final question and answer segment of the competition, the Top 3 contenders were asked how they would work to demonstrate Miss Universe as an empowering and progressive organization if they won the title.

Gabriel said she would use the platform to be a “transformational leader” and emphasized her passion as a force for good in the fashion industry by cutting down on pollution and using recycled materials in making clothing pieces.

“I teach sewing classes to women that have survived from human trafficking and domestic violence. And I say that because it is so important to invest in others, invest in our community, and use your unique talent to make a difference,” Gabriel said. “We all have something special and when we plant those seeds for other people in our life, we transform them and we use that as a vehicle for change.”

This year’s pageant was organized for the first time by JKN Global Group PCL, a Thailand-based media distribution company, after tycoon and transgender rights advocate Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip bought the Miss Universe Organization for $20 million in October.

Jakkaphong has been outspoken about her experiences as a transgender woman, and is also the first woman owner of the pageant.

She made an appearance onstage to award the ImpactWayv Challenge winner to Thailand’s Anna Sueangam-iam, honoring her commitments for social good.

Miss Thailand had in the preliminary rounds of the pageant made waves in a dress made of soda tabs — a tribute to her humble beginnings and her parents’ work as garbage collectors.

India Is The Voice Of Global South: PM Modi Announces ‘Aarogya Maitri’ Project

Staff ReporterIndia 0

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, January 13th announced a new ‘Aarogya Maitri’ project under which India will provide essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crisis.

India unveiled three initiatives to assist the Global South in areas ranging from technology to health, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying medical supplies will be provided to any developing country hit by natural disasters under the “Aarogya Maitri” project.

Addressing the concluding session of the virtual Voice of Global South Summit, Modi said India will launch the Global South Science and Technology Initiative to share its expertise in areas such as space technology and nuclear energy, and establish the Global South Center of Excellence for research on development solutions that can be scaled up and implemented around the world.

New Delhi billed the two-day summit as a platform for generating ideas and suggestions from developing countries to be channeled into discussions at the G20 during India’s presidency of the grouping of 20 largest economies. In his televised remarks at the concluding session, Modi described the summit as the “largest-ever virtual gathering of the Global South” as it attracted more than 120 developing countries.

Referring to India’s “Vaccine Maitri” initiative that supplied vaccines to more than 100 countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, Modi announced the “Aarogya Maitri” project whereby the country will provide essential medical supplies to any developing country affected by natural disasters or humanitarian crisis.

He also announced that India will establish the Global South Center of Excellence to carry out research on development solutions or best practices that can be scaled up and implemented in the Global South. In this context, he cited India’s digital public goods in fields such as electronic payments, healthcare, education and e-governance that can be used by other developing countries.

“India has also made great strides in areas like space technology and nuclear energy. We will launch a ‘Global South Science and Technology initiative’ to share our expertise with other developing nations,” he added.

Modi proposed a “Global South Young Diplomats Forum” to connect young officers of foreign ministries for “synergising our diplomatic voice”, and said India will institute the “Global South Scholarships” to allow students from developing states to pursue higher education in the country.

“In its development partnerships, India’s approach has been consultative, outcome oriented, demand driven, people-centric and respectful of the sovereignty of partner countries. I firmly believe that countries of the Global South have a lot to learn from each other’s development experiences,” he said.

The Indian side has sought to differentiate its development initiatives in the Global South from those of China, which experts have said lead to debt traps and projects that are financially unviable.

At the same time, Modi reiterated the Indian side’s message for reforming multilateral bodies such as the United Nations and for “human-centric globalisation” that leads to reliable supply chains without creating a debt crisis.

Without directly referring to the Ukraine crisis, he also highlighted the “increasing fragmentation of the international landscape” and “geopolitical tensions” that are preventing countries from focusing on development priorities.

The developing countries, he said, want globalisation that “does not create climate crisis or debt crisis” and “does not lead to unequal distribution of vaccines or over-concentrated global supply chains”.

The current geopolitical tensions “cause sharp swings” in international prices of food, fuel, fertilizers and other commodities.

“To address this geopolitical fragmentation, we urgently need a fundamental reform of the major international organizations, including the United Nations Security Council and the Bretton Woods institutions,” he said.

Such reforms should give voice to concerns of the developing world and reflect the realities of the 21st century. “India’s G20 Presidency will attempt to voice the views of the Global South on these important issues,” Modi said.

The concluding session was joined by the leaders of seven countries, including Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Suriname President Chandrikapersad Santo

US Treasury Secretary Warns Of Default On Debt, With Catastrophic Consequences

Staff ReporterMoney, USA 0

The United States Treasury Department has stated the US could default on its debt as soon as June, setting up one of the first major battles on Capitol Hill after Republicans took control of the House.

The US will reach the debt limit on January 19 and then “extraordinary measures” will need to be taken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. She said that the Treasury Department will pursue those measures, but they will only last a limited amount of time.

It is unlikely that the government will exhaust its cash and the “extraordinary measures” before early June, though she said there is “considerable uncertainty” around that forecast, Yellen wrote. She urged lawmakers to “act in a timely matter” to increase or suspend the debt limit.

The Treasury Department said Friday the US could default on its debt as soon as June, setting up one of the first major battles on Capitol Hill after Republicans took control of the House.

The US will reach the debt limit on January 19 and then “extraordinary measures” will need to be taken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. She said that the Treasury Department will pursue those measures, but they will only last a limited amount of time.

Picture : YouTube

It is unlikely that the government will exhaust its cash and the “extraordinary measures” before early June, though she said there is “considerable uncertainty” around that forecast, Yellen wrote. She urged lawmakers to “act in a timely matter” to increase or suspend the debt limit.

“Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the US economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability,” she wrote.

The debt limit is the maximum that the federal government is allowed to borrow, after Congress set a level more than a century ago to curtail government borrowing. Congress has in the past raised the debt limit to avoid a default on US debt that economists have warned would be “financial Armageddon.” That’s what lawmakers did in late 2021 following the last standoff over the debt ceiling.

The immediate measures include some accounting maneuvers involving the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund and the Federal Employees Retirement System Thrift Savings Plan.

However, these moves will not affect retirees’ ability to access their savings, experts said. The funds will be made whole once the impasse is settled, Yellen wrote.

‘Not the time for panic’

Yellen’s letter reinforced that the debt ceiling limit is an issue that Congress will have to deal with soon. But it’s not an immediate problem, experts said.  “This is not the time for panic. We are many months away from the US being unable to meet all of its obligations,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “But it is certainly a time for policymakers to begin negotiations in earnest.”

Just how long the Treasury Department can continue the “extraordinary measures” will depend in part on how much 2022 tax revenue the government collects this spring. Also, inflation and interest rates have risen faster than some experts estimated last year, and new policies, including the student loan forgiveness program, were introduced, potentially shortening the window.

House Republicans are preparing contingency plans, but dealing with the debt ceiling limit will not be an easy task for Congress, especially now that the GOP has taken control of the House. It is expected to unleash a battle between conservatives GOP members, who want to tie any lifting of the limit to spending cuts, and Democrats, who fiercely oppose any reductions.

The Washington Post first reported the emergency plans. McCarthy, in part of his negotiations to become speaker, promised to pass a proposal by the end of March telling the Treasury Department which payments should be prioritized if the debt ceiling is breached, GOP Rep. Chip Roy confirmed to CNN.

Roy, one of the key players in the standoff over McCarthy’s speakership, cautioned that the contours of the proposal are still being worked out, noting there are several different versions of a payment prioritization plan circulating inside the House GOP.

McCarthy is stuck in the middle, with his party holding only a razor-thin majority in the chamber. Also, any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, one of several concessions McCarthy made to gain the top post after 15 rounds of voting last week.

At a news conference, McCarthy took a hard line over the debt limit.  Asked if he could guarantee that Republicans would provide the votes necessary to raise the debt ceiling, McCarthy said: “We don’t want to put any fiscal problems to our economy and we won’t, but fiscal problems would be continuing to do business as usual.”

McCarthy also said he “had a very good conversation with the president when he called me, and I told him I’d like to sit down with him early and work through these challenges.”

Republicans, he said, would not allow “spending money wastefully.”  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told CNN he thinks Republicans will ultimately “come to reality” and raise the limit. “If you’re worried about inflation, default would be huge,” Schumer said.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that the debt ceiling negotiations will likely be tied to the fiscal year 2024 federal spending package, which Congress must pass before October 1 or risk a government shutdown.

The debt ceiling was last raised in December 2021 to $31.4 trillion.

The deadline comes sooner than some experts had expected. They were predicting the debt ceiling limit would not be breached until later this year, when the Treasury Department would have to start taking extraordinary measures to avoid defaulting on the government’s obligations.

A default could cause chaos

Goldman Sachs warned last month that a close call could set off turmoil on Wall Street that causes losses in the retirement accounts and investment portfolios of everyday Americans.

“It seems likely that uncertainty over the debt limit in 2023 could lead to substantial volatility in financial markets,” Goldman Sachs economists wrote, noting that the 2011 standoff helped cause a deep selloff in the US stock market.

Beyond markets, Goldman Sachs said a failure to raise the debt limit in time “would pose greater risk to government spending and ultimately to economic growth than it would to Treasury securities themselves.”

That’s because in order to avoid a default on US debt, the federal government would shift money around to keep paying interest on Treasuries. That would create a massive hole that would need to be filled by delaying a host of other payments — including ones that millions of Americans count on such as paychecks to federal employees, benefits to veterans and Social Security payments.  “A failure to make timely payments would likely hit consumer confidence hard,” Goldman Sachs wrote.

White House says no concessions or negotiations.

The White House said Friday it will not offer any concessions or negotiate on raising the debt ceiling.  “We will not be doing any negotiation over the debt ceiling, but broadly speaking, at the start of this new Congress, we’re reaching out to all the members … making sure that we have those connections with those new members,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

She said in the past “there’s been a bipartisan cooperation when it comes to lifting the debt ceiling, and that’s how it should be.”

“It should not be a political football,” she added. “This is not political gamesmanship, and this should be done without conditions.”

Asked why Yellen was notifying Congress just six days before the debt limit is reached, Jean-Pierre referred those questions to Treasury, but said the “sooner Congress acts the better.”

“Even the prospect of not raising the debt ceiling will damage the full faith and the credit of our nation,” she said. “There’s going to be no negotiation over it, this is something that must get done.”

RRR’s Naatu Naatu Wins Historic Golden Globe For Best Original Song

Staff ReporterCinema 0

People of Indian origin across the globe are celebrating after Telugu movie RRR created history by winning a Golden Globe – a first for the country. Written and directed by SS Rajamouli, RRR, which stands for Rise, Roar, Revolt, is a historical fantasy that tells the rollicking story of two revolutionaries who fight against British rule in India – superstars Ram Charan and Jr NTR play the lead roles.

SS Rajamouli’s hit historical epic RRR was nominated in two categories at the 80th Golden Globes, considered an important precursor to the Oscars.  Composer MM Keeravani, along with singers Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj, has won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, for the track “Naatu Naatu,” which became an anthem of sorts for fans of director SS Rajamouli’s RRR. The historical epic has also been nominated in the Best Non-English Language Film category at the 80th Golden Globes.

Naatu Naatu, a four-and-a-half-minute stomper of a song, features Charan and Jr NTR, and has had thousands grooving to its beat. Their energetic moves have inspired viral trends on social media in India and globally.

The film’s catchy musical number, Naatu Naatu, was awarded best original song, beating heavyweights like Taylor Swift and Rihanna. The hit song was filmed in front of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky’s official residence in 2021.  Accepting the award, composer MM Keeravani said he was thrilled by the song’s success.

Back home, several Indians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed their joy at the news. India’s Prime Minister Modi congratulated the team, saying the “prestigious honour has made every Indian very proud””.

Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman called the win a “paradigm shift”. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan wrote on Twitter that he “woke up and started dancing to Naatu Naatu” to celebrate the news.

One of India’s most expensive films, the dazzling action epic has been a huge box-office success – not just domestically but also in countries such as the US. Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain tweeted last week that watching the film felt like “such a party”.

Picture : TheUNN

A Hindi-language version of the film on Netflix was among the platform’s Top 10 most watched titles in the US for weeks when it released in May 2022. In December, BBC Culture film critics Nicholas Barber and Caryn James chose it as one of the 20 best films of the year, calling it a “crazily over-the-top action movie” with a powerful story.

The film’s music, ranging from romantic ballads to gleeful dance numbers and patriotic anthems, has also won fans.

Fans worldwide have gushed over the infectious dance steps that accompany the song’s chorus, where the actors shimmy and glide in a synchronised cowboy routine. The team behind the song spoke to BBC Telugu in January about the effort they put in.

Choreographer Prem Rakshit said that he composed nearly 95 dance steps for the song – with 30 different versions of the signature step in the chorus alone. It took about 19 months from the first discussion until the final, polished result emerged – a fun mish-mash of dance genres ranging from an old barn stomp to a bit of Gangnam Style gallop and traditional Bollywood moves.

The song was shot in front of the Mariinskyi Palace in Ukraine – a gorgeous sea-blue structure of baroque architecture – months before the war began. The film’s director Rajamouli said in an interview that “luckily, they gave us permission to shoot because the Ukrainian president [Mr Zelensky] was a television actor”.

The idea was to create a song which took “enjoyment and joy” to a new level, the song’s composer Keeravani told BBC Telugu.  “Rajamouli told me that he wanted a song in which both the actors compete with each other and dance.”

Keeravani then asked lyricist Chandrabose to pen the words. “I told him that you can write whatever you want but the song should create excitement and enthusiasm about the dance moves of the lead actors,” Keeravani said.

On Wednesday, fans could barely contain their happiness on Twitter as they celebrated the award.  “This is history in making for Indian cinema at global platform,” a user wrote. Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi Konidela, who is also Charan’s father, called it a “phenomenal, historic win” – a sentiment echoed by several others in the film industry and beyond.

RRR was also nominated in the Best Non-English Language Film category at the Golden Globes, but lost to Argentina, 1985. Considered an important precursor for the Oscars, the Globes are emerging from a major controversy that resulted in the industry largely blacklisting them for over a year. After fundamental changes were introduced behind-the-scenes, mostly in relation with diversity and transparency, the event is making a comeback to TV after an under-the-radar 2022 edition.

“Naatu Naatu,” a dance number featuring stars Jr NTR and Ram Charan, was competing against Taylor Swift’s “Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing, “Ciao Papa” from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, and “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, performed by Rihanna. A dance-off number in which the central characters, played by NTR Jr and Ram Charan, challenge British oppressors, “Naatu Naatu” became known for its elaborate choreography and musical storytelling.

India previously made its presence felt in the Best Original Score category over a decade ago, when AR Rahman won for Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Rahman was also nominated in the same category for Boyle’s follow-up, 127 Hours. V Shantaram’s Do Aankhen Barah Haath made history when it won the equivalent of the Best Non-English Language Film in 1957. Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi was won the Globe in the same category, even though it wasn’t a foreign production.

RRR became a cult phenomenon in the US after its Hindi language version debuted on Netflix earlier this year. After developing a devoted fanbase, it was re-released in theatres, culminating in a legendary sold-out screening at the iconic Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The movie subsequently became an awards contender, picking up five nominations at the Critics Choice Awards in addition to its two nods at the Globes. It has been shortlisted in two categories at the Oscars, and in one category at the BAFTAs. Rajamouli recently won the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Director, while RRR found spots on many American critics’ top 10 lists.

Team RRR makes a style statement with sarees, sherwanis and bandhgalas

As India bagging a Golden Globe for the number ‘Naatu Naatu’ has made headlines, the Indian attire sported by the ‘RRR’ family too grabbed eyeballs at the event.

‘RRR’ brought home the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in Motion Picture for the song ‘Naatu Naatu’, however, the film lost out the bigger share of the pie — that of the Best Motion Picture Non-English award to the Argentine film ‘Argentina, 1985’.

It was Ram Charan, his wife Upasana, M. M. Keeravaani, his wife Srivalli S. S. Rajamouli and his better half Rama Rajamouli, who unlike any other global star chose to flaunt the Indian wear at the ceremony.

Ram Charan looked every inch dapper in an all black Kurta paired with straight pants and sunglasses. His wife Upasana dolled up in a printed saree.

Rajamouli chose a black kurta, red dhoti pants and a crisp red dupatta while his wife Rama, a costume designer, opted for a green and orange Kanjeevaram saree.

Keeravaani seemed to join the gang with a black kurta and straight pants. His wife chose a bright yellow and orengish-red nine-yard wonder.

Jr. NTR looked every inch handsome as he opted for a black suit paired with a bow-tie and a white shirt.

‘RRR’ centres around two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, their fictional friendship and their fight against the British Raj.

Set in the 1920s, the plot explores the undocumented period in their lives when both the revolutionaries chose to go into obscurity before they began the fight for their country.

Indian Americans Add Representation In New US Congress

Staff ReporterCommunity 0

The Indian-American lawmakers of the ‘Samosa Caucus’ have welcomed Shri Thanedar’s addition to the exclusive group of Democratic leaders representing the community in the US House of Representatives.

Entrepreneur-turned-politician and Democrat, Mr Thanedar became the fifth Indian-American to be elected to the US House of Representatives in November last year. His victory had come after all four Indian-American Democratic lawmakers – Dr. Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna and Raja Krishnamoorthi – were re-elected to the US House of Representatives.

Picture : TheUNN

The ‘Samosa Caucus’ is an informal grouping of Indian-American lawmakers who are either part of the House of Representatives or the Senate. The term was coined by Congressman Krishnamoorthi to give credence to the growing number of “desi” lawmakers in the US Congress.

“When I first took office in 2013, I was the only Indian American Member of Congress and the third ever in history. Since that day, I have been committed to ensuring we grow our representation in Congress,” said Congressman Bera.

In 2013, Rep. Ami Bera, D-California, was the sole Indian American in the House, representing portions of Sacramento; the Indian American community also held the physician politician to the tacit agreement that he would represent the 4 million plus diaspora.

A decade later, Bera no longer bears the sole responsibility for that Herculean task: the four Indian American incumbents in the House will be joined by newly-elected Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Michigan.

“In the past decade, I am proud to be joined by incredible Indian-American colleagues from around the country – Representatives Jayapal, Khanna, and Krishnamoorthi. With the swearing-in of the 118th Congress, our coalition has grown to a record number with the election of Representative Thanedar,” he said.

The Indian-American community has emerged as a force to reckon with in the US presidential elections. In the last election, both the Democrat and the Republican campaigns initiated several measures to woo the approximately 1.8 million members of the community who have emerged as a critical voting bloc in the battleground states of Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

“It’s important that we reflect on the historic progress our country is making. I look forward to welcoming even more Indian American Members of Congress in the future!” Mr Bera said.

“As we enter the most diverse Congress ever, I am reminded how much representation matters, for every community and culture across our country. I am a proud naturalised citizen, the first South Asian American woman elected to the House, and an immigrant woman of colour,” Ms Jayapal said.

She said serving in Congress was a “distinct honour”, not only because she was able to deliver for her constituents, but also to show other South Asians that if she can make it into the halls of Congress, so can they.

“I am so grateful to serve with such an inspiring cohort of fellow Indian Americans and I look forward to seeing our numbers continue to grow!” she said.

“I’m so proud to serve in this diverse Congress alongside a record number of Indian Americans. Representation is crucial to serving Indian American communities and working to strengthen America’s defense and strategic partnership with India. I look forward to continuing our work together in the 118th Congress,” said Ro Khanna.

Indian-Americans have made countless contributions to American society, including in tech, science, medicine, and the military.

Indian-Americans currently serve as the CEOs of major companies including Microsoft (Satya Nadella), Google (Sundar Pichai), IMB (Arvind Krishna), and MasterCard (Ajay Banga).

According to the 2010 census, 70 per cent of Indian Americans over the age of 25 had college degrees, 2.5 times higher than the national average.

“As the Indian-American community remains one of our nation’s fastest-growing, with a population of more than four million, I am excited to see our representation expanding in Congress as well,” said Mr Krishnamoorthi.

“I look forward to working with Reps. Bera, Jayapal, Khanna, and now Thanedar to continue to address the key issues facing our community, including high-skilled immigration reform and strengthening the partnership between the US and India,” he said.

“As a new member of Congress and the latest addition to an incredible group of Indian-American lawmakers, I look forward to getting to work for the American people,” said Mr Thanedar.

The American dream is alive when an immigrant from India can come to this country, earn a degree, become a citizen, start a business, and be elected by the people to represent them in the Michigan State House and the United States House of Representatives, he said.

“I hope to join Representatives Bera, Jayapal, Khanna, and Krishnamoorthi in growing our historic representation in Congress by inspiring future generations,” Thanedar said.

The first Asian-American and Indian-American Member of Congress was Dalip Singh Saund, who served in the US House of Representatives from 1957 to 1963.

In the 66 years between Representative Saund’s election and the 2012 election of Bera, Piyush “Bobby” Jindal was the only other member of Indian American descent elected to the legislative branch of the federal government.

Following the 2016 election, Kamala Harris made history as the first Indian-American to be sworn into the United States Senate.

Harris continued to make history in 2020 when she was elected as the first woman and first person of colour in history to serve as Vice President of the United States of America, said a joint statement issue by the five lawmakers.

Harris’ historic success opened a door with Indian-Americans across the country running for office at every level of government to ensure the community’s voice continues to be at the decision-making table.

In the past decade, the number of Indian-American voices in government has grown rapidly, with signs that the next decade will see the representation grow even further, it said.

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Jaishankar Says, UN Needs A ‘Refresh’

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that a 77-year-old organisation like the United Nations (UN) needs a “refresh”, asserting that pushing for a major overhaul in the top global body is an important part of New Delhi’s foreign policy, reported news agency PTI.

‘We need change’

“The UN system was invented in 1945. Now, I tell people to show me something which is 77 years old and you feel doesn’t need a refresh. People refresh themselves, institutions need to be refreshed by other people. We need change. Large parts of the world do not believe anymore that the UN system speaks fairly for them,” said Jaishankar while addressing members of the Indian diaspora in Vienna on Sunday.

India’s push for reform

The UN officially came into existence in October 1945, after its Charter was ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, the US and by a majority of other signatories.

India has been at the forefront of efforts at the UN to push for urgent long-pending reform of the Security Council, emphasising that it rightly deserves a place at the UN high table as a permanent member.

A question of influence

“The problem is those who are occupying positions of influence obviously don’t want to dilute their influence. So how we persuade people to go along with that change when their more short-term calculations make them stick to the old system is a real problem,” said Jaishankar, adding: “Having said that, it’s something which we will persevere and it’s a very important goal for us, and our foreign policy. It won’t happen tomorrow but it will happen one day, trust me.”

Gautam Adani Declared Man Of The Year

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Gautam Adani, India’s richest and the world’s third richest person, has been crowned ‘Asia’s busiest dealmaker’ by Bloomberg.

Adani stands out for being the only person on the Bloomberg billionaires list to have gained wealth this year – he added $44.6 billion to his wealth while the other nine combined lost $259.3 billion.

Key among Adani’s deals this year were the $10.5 billion ACC and Ambuja Cements acquisition from Swiss construction giant Holcim, and Israel’s Haifa port purchase.

Gautam Adani’s rise to the top echelons of the world’s richest people has been meteoric. Adani is also the only person in the top ten in the Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index to have actually added to his wealth this year

His group companies – spanning ports and energy – have been firing on all cylinders and making both Adani as well as other investors richer – Adani added $44.6 billion to his wealth in 2022 till date. In contrast, the other nine billionaires on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index cumulatively lost $259.3 billion in the period.

Overall, the seven listed Adani Group companies have added ₹8.55 lakh crore in market capitalisation this year.

This stellar growth in his wealth saw him briefly rank as the second-richest person in the world, only behind Elon Musk.

Currently ranked third on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani’s wealth is estimated at $121 billion, down from a peak of $150 billion, scaled in September this year.

French business magnate and LVMH founder Bernard Arnault – with $165 billion and Elon Musk – with $138 billion are the only two people richer than Adani. Often pitted against India’s other richest man Mukesh Ambani, Adani has left Reliance Industries’ chief – whose wealth is estimated at $86.9 billion – far behind in the race of the richest.

‘Asia’s busiest dealmaker’

Success of the Ahmedabad-born Adani’s business empire has helped him top the list of the sixth edition of the ‘Bloomberg 50’ –a list of the most influential people in global business this year. His aggressive acquisitions during the year have also earned him the tag of ‘Asia’s busiest dealmaker,’ with the crown jewel being the acquisition of cement giants ACC and Ambuja Cements from Swiss construction major Holcim for $10.5 billion.

So far in 2022, Gautam Adani has struck deals across the ports, construction, media and energy businesses.

Adani started the year with the listing of Adani Wilmar, an FMCG company, on the bourses in February. This was just in time to leverage the benefits of the Russia-Ukraine war, which sent edible oil prices boiling and boosted the company’s revenue and stock price.

Later in July, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone announced it had won a tender to privatise Israel’s Haifa port in a deal valued at $1.18 billion. “In the long run, this is a tremendous port as we anticipate Israel becoming a connection both for Europe and the Middle East, and therefore we stand to benefit from the new possible trade lanes that will be created,” said Karan Adani, CEO, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, announcing the purchase.

The biggest deal of the year for the Adani Group, was the $10.5 billion acquisition of ACC and Ambuja Cements from Holcim in September. Together, these two companies propelled the Adani Group to become the second-largest cement maker in the country in terms of market capitalization, only behind UltraTech Cement.

$70-billion green energy ambitions and the ‘over-leveraged’ concerns

In September this year, Adani also announced an ambitious $70 billion new energy plan that would see the conglomerate setting up three giga factories – one each to manufacture solar modules, wind turbines and hydrogen electrolysers – by 2030.

However, the billionaire faced a bazooka from CreditSights, a Fitch Ratings company, which came out with a report stating that the Adani Group’s ambitious growth plans could spiral into a debt trap. This spooked investors, resulting in the Adani Group companies shedding ₹94,000 crore market capitalisation in a single day. (Business Insider)

After $18 Trillion Rout, Global Stocks Face More Hurdles in 2023

More tech tantrums. China’s Covid surge. And above all, no central banks riding to the rescue if things go wrong. Reeling from a record $18 trillion wipeout, global stocks must surmount all these hurdles and more if they are to escape a second straight year in the red.

With a drop of more than 20 per cent in 2022, the MSCI All-Country World Index is on track for its worst performance since the 2008 crisis, as jumbo interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve more than doubled 10-year Treasury yields – the rate underpinning global capital costs.

Bulls looking ahead at 2023 might take solace in the fact that two consecutive down years are rare for major equity markets – the S&P 500 index has fallen for two straight years on just four occasions since 1928. The scary thing though, is that when they do occur, drops in the second year tend to be deeper than in the first.

Factors That Could Determine How 2023 Shapes Up For Global Equity Markets

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Optimists may point out that the rate-hiking peak is on the horizon, possibly in March, with money markets expecting the Fed to switch into rate-cutting mode by the end of 2023. A Bloomberg News survey found 71 per cent of top global investors expect equities to rise in 2023.

Vincent Mortier, chief investment officer at Amundi, Europe’s largest money manager, recommends defensive positioning for investors going into the New Year. He expects a bumpy ride in 2023 but reckons “a Fed pivot in the first part of the year could trigger interesting entry points”.

But after a year that blindsided the investment community’s best and brightest, many are bracing for further reversals. One risk is that inflation stays too high for policymakers’ comfort and rate cuts don’t materialise. A Bloomberg Economics model shows a 100 per cent probability of recession starting by August, yet it looks unlikely central banks will rush in with policy easing when faced with cracks in the economy, a strategy they deployed repeatedly in the past decade.

“Policymakers, at least in the US and Europe, now appear resigned to weaker economic growth in 2023,” Deutsche Bank Private Bank’s global chief investment officer Christian Nolting told clients in a note. Recessions might be short but “will not be painless”, he warned.

Big tech troubles

A big unknown is how tech mega-caps fare, following a 35 per cent slump for the Nasdaq 100 in 2022. Companies such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Tesla Inc. have shed some two-thirds of their value, while losses at Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. neared or exceeded 50 per cent.

Expensively-valued tech stocks do suffer more when interest rates rise. But other trends that supported tech’s advance in recent years may also go into reverse – economic recession risks hitting iPhone demand while a slump in online advertising could drag on Meta and Alphabet Inc.

In Bloomberg’s annual survey, only about half the respondents said they would buy the sector – selectively.

“Some of the tech names will come back as they have done a great job convincing customers to use them, like Amazon, but others will probably never reach that peak as people have moved on,” Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, told Bloomberg Television.

Earnings recession

Previously resilient corporate profits are widely expected to crumble in 2023, as pressure builds on margins and consumer demand weakens.

“The final chapter to this bear market is all about the path of earnings estimates, which are far too high,” according to Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson, a Wall Street bear who predicts earnings of $180 per share in 2023 for the S&P 500, versus analysts’ expectations of $231.

The upcoming earnings recession may rival 2008, and markets are yet to price it in, he said.

China, a turning point

Beijing’s early-December decision to dismantle stringent Covid curbs seemed like a turning point for MSCI’s China Index, whose 24 per cent drop was a major contributor to global equity market losses in 2022.

Options boom

Technicals are increasingly driving day-to-day equity moves, with the S&P 500 witnessing below-average stock turnover in 2022, but explosive growth in very short-term options trading.

Professional traders and algorithmic-powered institutions have piled into such options, which were until recently dominated by small-time investors. That can make for bumpier markets, causing sudden volatility outbreaks such as the big intraday swing after October’s hot US inflation print.

Finally, with the S&P 500 failing to break out from its 2022 downtrend, short-term speculation remains skewed to the downside. But should the market turn, it will add fuel to the rebound.

Richard Verma Nominated To Top State Department Position

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President Joe Biden has nominated former US Ambassador to India, Richard Verma, to the post of Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources at the State Department.

The White House in a statement on Friday said that Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate 54-year-old Richard Verma to be Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. If confirmed by the US Senate, Richard Verma would be the highest ranking Indian-American in the State Department.

Currently Chief Legal Officer and Head of Global Public Policy at Mastercard, Richard Verma, served as the US’ Ambassador to India from January 16, 2015 to January 20, 2017.

If confirmed by the Senate, Verma, who served as 25th US Ambassador to India in New Delhi from 2015-2017, and widely credited for deepening US-India bilateral engagement, will be the highest ranking Indian American diplomat in the State Department. Verma who’s currently the Chief Legal Officer and Global Public Policy Head at Mastercard, also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs from 2009-2011, in the Obama administration.

“Earlier in his career, he [Verma] was National Security Advisor to United States Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) while he was Democratic Whip, Minority Leader and then Majority Leader of the United States Senate,” a White House statement announcing his nomination said. “He has served as Vice Chairman of The Asia Group, Partner and Senior Counselor at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, and Senior Counselor at the Albright Stonebridge Group. He is a veteran of the United States Air Force, where he served on active duty as a Judge Advocate. He earned a B.S. at Lehigh University, a J.D. cum laude at American University, an LL.M. with distinction at Georgetown University Law Center, and a Ph.D. at Georgetown University.”

During the Obama administration, Richard Verma also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.

Earlier in his career, Richard Verma was National Security Advisor to United States Senator Harry Reid while he was a Democratic Whip, Minority Leader and then Majority Leader of the United States Senate.

He has served as Vice Chairman of The Asia Group, Partner and Senior Counsellor at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, and Senior Counsellor at the Albright Stonebridge Group. He is a veteran of the United States Air Force, where he served on active duty as a Judge Advocate.

The Indian diaspora here welcomed the nomination of Richard Verma to the top diplomatic position, saying Joe Biden has made an “inspired choice”.

“In nominating Verma to this very senior State Department role, President Biden and Secretary Antony Blinken have made an inspired choice,” leading diaspora organisation ‘Indiaspora’ said in a statement.

India to start digital university this New Year for higher education

This New Year, students across the country have a gift in the field of higher education – a digital university. The Ministry of Education is working closely with all stakeholders to start a digital university, and believes that from the year 2023, students will start reaping its benefits.

The special thing about this initiative is that this university will be connected to all other higher educational institutions and universities of the country as they will be affiliates of this digital university.

According to the Ministry, online medium will be recognised right from admission to all other related processes in this digital university. The admission of students in this digital university will also be through online mode.

The students of this digital university will be evaluated through online examinations, and the mode of teaching will also be online. Students will be able to study online through the portal ‘Swayam’ under the the Union Ministry of Education.

According to the University Grants Commission Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar, the National Digital University is likely to be established on the ‘Hub and Spoke’ model. Under this initiative, all the students who have passed class 12 will be able to get access to higher education.

Kumar said that the number of admissions and seats for students in this digital university will not be limited. All the students will be able to get its benefit. Students from every part of the country will be able to enroll in the courses of their choice.

The Ministry has appealed for a strong industry-led education policy and working with a collective approach to boost the employability of the youth.

According to the Ministry, the facility of multiple entry and exit options along with Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) will also be available for the convenience of the students in the new digital university.

These options are being made available on the basis of the New Education Policy.

The Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) facilitates each student to open a unique personal academic bank account in digital form. In this, each account holder (student) is provided with a unique ID. The major functions of ABC are registration of higher educational institutions and opening of academic accounts of students, verification, credit verification, credit accumulation, credit transfer and promotion of ABC among stakeholders.

Academic Bank of Credit will keep records of academic data of students studying in various higher educational institutions. For this, colleges and universities will have to register themselves. After this, the account of the students will be opened in the academic bank.

After opening the account, a unique ID will be provided to all the students. Educational institutions will provide credit points in the academic account of the students on the basis of their courses. In this way, the data of students studying in colleges or other higher educational institutions will start being stored.

If a student leaves his/her studies midway due to some reason, then a certificate, diploma or degree will be awarded to him/her according to his/her credit (time period). The student will receive a certificate on passing the first year, diploma on passing the second year and a degree on completion of the course.

According to the official website of ABC, a total of 854 universities and other educational institutions are registered on their portal, and IDs of 48 lakh students have been made till now.

India To Issue E-Passport To Citizens From Next Year

Staff ReporterImmigration, Travel 0

The Ministry of External Affairs gave this information to the Standing Committee of Parliament in response to its action in this matter. The Ministry informed that National Informatics Center (NIC) and National Informatics Center Services Inc. (NICSI) have submitted various project proposals to the Ministry which include Detailed Project Reports (DPRs), Commercial and Draft Agreements.

As per the report, the total estimated expenditure for launching the e-passport project by NIC is Rs 268.67 crore. This is mainly in terms of creation of information and technology infrastructure for issuing e-passports.

This was stated in the Action Taken Report by the Government on the Recommendations contained in the Twelfth Report of the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs on ‘Demands for Grants of the Ministry of External Affairs for 2022-23’ in the Lok Sabha.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, it will take six months from the date of approval of the proposal received by the Ministry from NICSI to prepare the e-passport related arrangements under the Detailed Project Report (DPR). It has been said that after the planning framework is prepared, the ministry will get third party audit done, after which the issuance of e-passports to the citizens will be started.

The ministry told the parliamentary committee that “an estimated expenditure of Rs 268.67 crore would be incurred on this over a period of seven years.” The Ministry will be able to manage the e-passport project in the allocated amount. Rs 130.58 crore in the first year, Rs 25.03 crore in the second year, Rs 25.03 crore in the third year, Rs 25.03 crore in the fourth year under the project, according to the report of the committee headed by Bharatiya Janata Party MP PP Choudhary tabled in Parliament on Thursday. Rs, Rs 25.03 crore in the fifth year, Rs 24.46 crore in the sixth year and Rs 13.51 crore in the seventh year.

The parliamentary committee said it welcomes the fact that the ministry will be able to manage the e-passport project every year from its allocated funds without any cuts, but it needs to ensure that the desired funds are released every year.

India’s Billionaire Club Shrinks To 120, Gautam Adani Tops Rich List

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In comparison, Ambani, who topped the list last year, has seen a 2.5 per cent decline in his family’s net worth to $101.75 billion from $104.4 billion a year ago

The year 2022 saw many lose the ‘billionaire’ tag, though some of the richest Indian promoters have become even richer. According to the report, the number of promoters with a net worth of over $1 billion has declined to 120 this year from an all-time high of 142 at the end of 2021.

Picture : Bussiness Standard

The billionaire promoters’ combined wealth is down 8.8 percent to around $685 billion ( ₹56.5 trillion) from $751.6 billion ( ₹56.62 trillion) a year ago, said the report, although it added that the fall in rupee terms is not significant owing to the currency depreciating against the US dollar.

Gautam Adani has been an outperformer in 2022, replacing Mukesh Ambani as India’s richest person. Adani’s net worth stands at $135.7 billion, up 69.6 percent from $80 billion last year, it said, citing Bloomberg data, that also highlights that he is also the richest person in Asia and third-richest in the world.

Meanwhile, Ambani has seen a 2.5 percent decline in his family’s net worth to $101.75 billion from $104.4 billion a year ago, added the report.

In fact, only three of the top 10 billionaires – Adani, Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma, and Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel – saw an increase in the net worth this year, as per the report.

Mittal’s gains can be attributed to a rise of Bharti Airtel, which benefited from tariff hikes announced by mobile services operators, clarity over regulatory issues, and a stable business environment, mentioned the report.

While, gains for Shanghvi were driven by factors like an improved performance of Sun Pharma, which benefited from a better show in its specialty business in North America and growth in its India formulations business, added BS.

Radhakishan Damani of Avenue Supermarts (DMart), who is India’s third-richest promoter, saw a 21 percent decline in the net worth at $23.8 billion in 2022.

Other promoters in the top 10 list include Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies, Azim Premji of Wipro and Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank.

With 18 Million Immigrants, India Tops The List

Staff ReporterIndia 0

The Indian diaspora, one of the most “vibrant and dynamic”, is the largest in the world, with 18 million people from the country living outside their homeland in 2020, the UN has said.

The Indian diaspora account for roughly 4.9 million Americans who were either born in India or who have Indian heritage or origin, a recently published study by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) said.

‌‌According to the study, titled “Spotlight on Indian Immigrants in the US,” the Indian diaspora ranked tenth behind the 5. 4 million-strong Chinese diaspora, which was placed ninth.

The United Arab Emirates, the US and Saudi Arabia host the largest numbers of migrants from India, it said.

Picture : migration Policy Inst.

“India has the largest transnational population in the world. It has the most migrants abroad — 18 million, which is a significant number and another feature which is very interesting about the Indian migrant population is that they’re really distributed all over the globe,” Population Affairs Officer in the Population Division at UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) Clare Menozzi told PTI in an interview on Friday.

Menozzi said while some transnational populations are really clustered in one country or region, the Indian diaspora is present in all continents and regions — from the Gulf to Northern America to Australia, UK. “It’s a very vibrant” and dynamic diaspora in the world, she said.

The report, ‘International Migration 2020 Highlights’, by the Population Division of UN DESA, released on Friday said in 2020, 18 million persons from India were living outside of their country of birth.

Other countries with a large diaspora included Mexico and Russia (11 million each), China (10 million) and Syria (8 million).

The report said India’s large diaspora is distributed across a number of major countries of destination, with the UAE (3.5 million), the US (2.7 million) and Saudi Arabia (2.5 million) hosting the largest numbers of migrants from India.

Other countries hosting large numbers of migrants from India included Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and the UK.

Between 2000 and 2020, the size of the migrant population abroad grew for nearly all countries and areas of the world. India experienced the largest gain during that period at nearly 10 million, followed in order of magnitude by Syria, Venezuela, China and the Philippines.

Migration from India is largely motivated by labour and family reasons, Director of Population Division at UN DESA John Wilmoth told reporters at the launch of the report here, adding that forced displacement is a much smaller category (about 10 per cent) in the total.

Menozzi said the Indian diaspora is comprised predominantly of persons who are working, but also students and people who moved for family reasons.

She said there is a very large presence of migrants who are born in India, in the Gulf countries where they are playing a central role in the economic prosperity of the countries, working in construction, hospitality and care services. The diverse Indian diaspora also includes highly-skilled scientists, engineers and doctors.

The US remained by far the largest country of destination of international migrants with 51 million migrants in 2020, equal to 18 per cent of the world’s total.

Germany hosted the second largest number of migrants worldwide at around 16 million, followed by Saudi Arabia (13 million), Russia (12 million) and the UK (9 million).

The report said preliminary estimates suggest that Covid-19 pandemic may have slowed the growth in the stock of international migrants by around two million by mid-2020, 27 per cent less than the growth expected since mid-2019.

The report said growth in the number of international migrants has been robust over the last two decades, reaching 281 million people living outside their country of origin in 2020, up from 173 million in 2000 and 221 million in 2010.

Currently, international migrants represent about 3.6 per cent of the world’s population.

Between 2000 and 2020, the number of migrants grew in 179 countries or areas. Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the US gained the largest number of migrants during that period. By contrast, in 53 countries or areas, the number of international migrants declined between 2000 and 2020. Armenia, India, Pakistan, Ukraine and Tanzania were among the countries that experienced the most pronounced declines.

In many cases, the declines resulted from the old age of the migrant populations or the return of refugees and asylum seekers to their countries of origin.

In terms of regional migration corridors, between 2000 and 2020, some regional migration corridors grew very rapidly. The corridor Central and Southern Asia to Northern Africa and Western Asia grew the most, with 13 million migrants added between 2000 and 2020; more than tripling in size.

“The majority of that increase resulted from labour migration from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka to the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC),” the report said.

It noted that while it is too soon to understand the full extent, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 may have slowed the growth of this regional migration corridor.

In many GCC countries, thousands of migrant workers in the construction, hospitality, retail and transportation sectors lost their jobs due to the pandemic and were required to return home.

The report said according to World Bank projections, the Covid-19 pandemic may reduce the volume of remittances sent to low-and middle-income countries from USD 548 billion in 2019 to USD 470 billion in 2021, a decline of 14 per cent.

Menozzi said India is the main country of recipient of remittances worldwide and in 2019 received USD 83 billion in remittances from its diaspora. The World Bank projects that in 2020, the amount will decline by around 9 per cent to about USD 76 billion.

The Indian diaspora account for roughly 4.9 million Americans who were either born in India or who have Indian heritage or origin, a recently published study by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) said.

‌‌According to the study, titled “Spotlight on Indian Immigrants in the US,” the Indian diaspora ranked tenth behind the 5. 4 million-strong Chinese diaspora, which was placed ninth.

Air India’s Direct Flight Between Mumbai And San Francisco Begins

Staff ReporterNews 0

In an attempt to expand its network in the United States, India’s national carrier Air India, announced the launch of its first-ever nonstop service between Mumbai and San Francisco on December 15, 2022.

This comes after the airline announced the commencement of its Bengaluru to San Francisco flight three times a week from December 2, 2022.

Air India has launched another long-distance flight to the US, this time between Mumbai and San Francisco. The airline operates several US flights, mostly from New Delhi, but with more long-range planes on the way, new routes like this will feature on its network soon.

On December 15th, Air India launched its first nonstop service between Mumbai (BOM) and San Francisco (SFO). The flight lasted for almost 16 hours and was operated by the newly acquired Boeing 777-200LR (VT-AEF, named Vihaan), which formerly flew for Delta Air Lines.

Flight AI 179 left Mumbai at 14:30 and landed in San Francisco at 17:26 after flying for 15 hours and 48 minutes. It will operate three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and take Air India’s India-US frequency to 40 nonstop flights per week.

The occasion was marked with a launch ceremony at Mumbai airport with a lamp-lighting and cake and ribbon cutting ceremony. Passengers on the flight were also treated to a specially curated goodie bag by Air India.

The airline’s CEO, Campbell Wilson, said, “As part of our five-year transformation plan, Vihaan.AI, we plan to significantly enhance connectivity between India’s major cities and prime global destinations. The non-stop flight between India’s financial capital and Silicon Valley is a step towards achieving enhanced customer experience. With the launch of this route, we will have a weekly availability of 40 non-stop flights that will bolster India’s connectivity with the USA.”

Anil Beephan, First Ever Indian-American Republican To NY State Assembly

Staff ReporterNews 0

This January 1, 2023, the first ever Republican of Indian American descent entered the New York State Assembly in Albany. To date, Indian Americans elected to the New York legislature, whether it is the House or the Senate, have been Democrats.

Anil Beephan Jr. represents the 105th District and will become the first minority to represent Dutchess County in the State Legislature, and also, at 29 years old, the youngest Republican currently in the NY State Assembly.

Beephan, a member of the East Fishkill Town Council since 2018, captured 32,278 votes in the 2022 race, while Fieldstein, a Dover resident, garnered 21,136 votes.

“I am humbled by the outpouring of support across the 105th Assembly District. Thank you to every voter, volunteer, and neighbor who placed their trust in me and our message – each of you made tonight’s election a resounding victory,” Beephan said in declaring victory.  In thanking the voters, Beephan took a moment to acknowledge Fieldstein. “A special thank you to my opponent for her civility and for keeping this race focused on the issues at hand.”

Beephan’s parents are of Indian origin and immigrated from Trinidad before he was born. He ran for the seat when it became open in October 2021, and was elected Nov. 8, 2022.

On Dec. 31, Beephan tweeted, “As the clock strikes midnight and I officially take office as your New York State Assemblyman, I thank you for the opportunity to serve as your representative. Wishing you and your family a Happy & Prosperous New Year! #AD105.”

“While serving in the Assembly, I will work tirelessly to provide accessible representation to my constituents in the 105th Assembly District and advocate for all New Yorkers alike,” Assemblyman Beephan is quoted saying in the press release.

“Public safety, wasteful spending, and onerous taxes are major problems affecting our residents, and they must be addressed immediately,” he added.

Beephan said he is also committed to fighting policies to make the County region and state more energy-independent.

“As we begin the 2023 Legislative Session, I look forward to working with my new colleagues on practical, effective solutions to these issues,” he emphasized.

Beephan will serve on several legislative committees for the 2023-2024 cycle. They include, Cities Committee; Consumer Affairs and Protection;  Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry; Governmental Operations; Local Governments; and Social Services.

Since 2018, Beephan has served the Town of East Fishkill as a Councilmember and board liaison to law enforcement.

“During his tenure, Anil helped countless residents with state and local issues while keeping his community informed with vital information,” the campaign website says. He launched the #HometownHotspots tour to showcase small businesses and non-profits and to create an open dialogue on becoming better government partners.

He currently works in the technology industry with previous experience as a volunteer firefighter and working for the New York State Senate.

“Anil believes in smarter spending and greater resources for schools, infrastructure projects, and emergency services. Additionally, he will support the needs of law enforcement and changes to the state’s bail reform measures to directly address safety issues in our communities,” his State Assembly website says.

Beephan is a long-time resident of East Fishkill and served as a volunteer firefighter. He is also a private pilot. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arcadia University and a master’s in Management from Harvard’s Extension School.

The 105th Assembly District includes the towns of Amenia, Beekman, Dover, East Fishkill, Fishkill, LaGrange, Pawling, Union Vale, and Wappinger. Beephan represents 9 towns and 3 counties, and a population of a little over 137,000. According to Ballotpedia, 73.9 percent of the population is white.

Over 200 New Planets Found Outside Solar System In 2022

Staff ReporterScience 0

The quest to find another world, similar to that of Earth with resources that could sustain human life has remained the foundation of the global exoplanet hunt. Astronomers from across the world have been looking to find unique worlds outside our Solar System, where humanity could transcend in the future.

2022 was a year of great success in that direction as astronomers from around the world managed to find over 200 planets outside our solar system and some of them are primed for deeper observations by the James Webb Space Telescope and others. When the year started, the exoplanet catalogue had fewer than 5,000 planets since the planetary survey beyond our Solar System began.

“We started the year with fewer than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets. We end with 5,235 known worlds. About 4% are rocky planets like Earth or Mars. What will the new year bring? More planets!” Nasa said in a tweet.

The exoplanet catalogues so far have a varied range of worlds when it comes to their composition and characteristics. These include small, rocky worlds like Earth, gas giants many times larger than Jupiter, and hot Jupiters in scorchingly close orbits around their stars.

Meanwhile, the list also includes “super-Earths,” which are possible rocky worlds bigger than our own, and “mini-Neptunes,” smaller versions of our system’s Neptune.

The latest planet to be discovered in 2022 is HD 109833 b, which is a Neptune-like exoplanet that orbits a G-type star. According to Nasa, Its mass is 8.69 Earths and it takes 9.2 days to complete one orbit of its star. It was discovered using the transit method as astronomers looked at the star and noticed a dip in its light every time the object came in front of it.

Astronomers also found two exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf star that is unique in their composition and was unlike any other discovered before. These two planets are filled with water and located in a planetary system 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. The planets, which are about one and a half times the size of the Earth, were discovered along with their host star by Nasa’s Kepler Space Telescope.

Hundreds Of Christians Subjected To Violence In Chhattisgarh, Some Forcibly Converted To Hinduism: Civil Rights Groups

Staff ReporterCommunity, India 0

(PTI) Some civil rights groups have claimed that about 1,000 Christian tribals in Chhattisgarh were subjected to violence over their religion and some of them were forcibly converted to Hinduism.

The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism in partnership with All India Peoples Forum, All India Lawyers Association for Justice and United Christian Forum constituted a fact-finding committee which visited the state.

Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism who led the fact-finding committee, claimed that there is an “organised campaign to forcibly convert Christian Adivasis to Hindu religion”.

Picture : The Wire

NFAAUM and Indian Caucus of The United Methodist Church in a statement described that  Christian Persecution has been Legitimized by Religious Nationalists in India. “As we prepare to celebrate the joyous birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the promise of a New Year, the Indian National Caucus of The United Methodist Church stands in solidarity with more than 32 million Christians in India who live in anxious and uncertain times. We express our deep concern in the wake of increased developments aimed at persecuting Christians and other minority religious communities in India. These children of God frequently endure harassment and physical abuse when they gather for worship and their houses of worship have been vandalized and demolished with impunity.

“The 2016 Social Principles of The United Methodist Church are clear, “We condemn all overt and covert forms of religious intolerance, being especially sensitive to their expression in media stereotyping. We assert the right of all religions and their adherents to freedom from legal, economic, and social discrimination.”

“The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has consistently detailed reports of religious persecution in India along with its recommendations to the U.S. Department of State and Congress. The Federation of Indian American Christians in North America (FIACONA), as an ecumenical organization representing over 1 million American Christians from Protestant, Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical traditions, has recorded over 400 churches that have been demolished, and 700 incidents of violence against Christians in India in 2022 alone.

“We are alarmed that a Frisco, TX based 501c(3) charity named the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) has increased its public fundraising in the U.S., with the explicitly stated goals to demolish churches and forcefully convert Christians to Hinduism. On December 6, 2022, the city of Frisco, TX held a special hearing where people of all religious backgrounds expressed their outrage that such radical nationalist organizations were permitted to operate on US soil.

“This religious extremist group is one of many radical Hindu nationalist organizations that have sprung up across the United States in recent years. These extremist groups actively sponsor and host US events by inviting Hindu nationalist leaders from India, providing them an ideological platform to legitimate violence against religious minorities, particularly Christians and Muslims. These organizations pose a threat of operation to many US-based social and relief organizations in the most impoverished communities in India.

“The Indian National Caucus of the United Methodist Church asks United Methodists across the denomination to advocate with Congress and the U.S. State Department to investigate and oppose all religious nationalist organizations especially those that legitimate acts of violence, and in particular growing extremist expressions of Hindu nationalism.

“We call on all people of faith to fervently pray for those who are persecuted for their belief and practice and to oppose the demolition of Christian churches and other religious houses of worship. In the name of the Prince of Peace who comes in a spirit of hope and freedom from all oppression, we denounce extremist religious nationalist movements that are contrary to a spirit of mutual respect and recognition and the alleviation of human suffering. We continue to affirm communal safety and security and security and advocate for human dignity and human rights for all.”

Indian Students Being Defrauded In Canada

Staff ReporterEducation, Immigration 0

India has expressed concern over the number of international students from the country being “defrauded” in Canada by recruitment agents who get them to join private universities with dubious track records.

“That’s a major issue we have to take a look at,” said Sanjay Kumar Verma, India’s new High Commissioner to Ottawa, told reporters on Thursday.

Verma called upon the community to flag such institutions, so that prospective students can be warned in advance against joining them.

He said that due to “factually incorrect narratives doing the rounds in India”, “impressionable” students coming from India get “duped.”

The issue, especially recruiters working on behalf of such private colleges, has been flagged in recent months, with several Indian students facing problems in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Verma called upon the community to “share correct information with our students before they are recruited” and so they “check the credentials of the colleges they are planning to join carefully”.

Ravi Jain, co-founder of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers’ Association said that recruiters promise an easy path to permanent residency to students, Hindustan Times reported last week.

“Promises are being made that these students will be able to graduate and become permanent residents quite easily but again if you look at the number of international students coming in and the programme that typically services them, which is the Canadian Experience Class, there simply is not the room to be able to accommodate all of them,” he said.

This was also the conclusion of an investigation conducted by CBC News in October, which noted that “lured by the promise of a post-secondary education and a chance to build a life here, thousands of foreign students are coming every year and arriving to find what they were promised and what their families paid for often isn’t what awaits them”.

Verma said Canada offered “real educational opportunities”, pointing to the nearly 240,000 Indian students currently in the country, but warned against the negative impact of recruitment agents.

“We don’t want this story in any way to get stigmatsed,” he said.

Addressing other consular matters, Verma said that while the e-visa programme for Canadian nationals had resumed this month, there was no timeline to renewing the ten-year multiple entry tourist visa scheme which was suspended after the Covid outbreak in the spring of 2020.

Verma said such long-term visas remain suspended not cancelled and discussions were on “on all possibilities” related to their potential restoration. Alluding to the reinstatement of e-visas, he said, “We’ll be very glad if our host Government will consider giving similar facilities to Indian travelers coming to Canada. That will not only facilitate their travel, it will also facilitate the people-to-people relationship growing closer and stronger.”

As for the issue of the enormous backlog in the issuance of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cards, he pointed to the burgeoning number of applications, which grew to 49,000 just this November alone, as against 26,000 for the same month last year.

Brain Of An Older Person Is Much More Practical Than Is Commonly Believed

Staff ReporterHealth, Science 0

The director of the George Washington University School of Medicine argues that the brain of an older person is much more practical than is commonly believed.  At this age, the interaction of the right and left hemispheres of the brain becomes harmonious, which expands our creative possibilities.  That is why among people over 60 years of age you can find many personalities who have just started their creative activities.

Of course, the brain is no longer as fast as it was in youth.  However, it gains in flexibility.  Therefore, with age, we are more likely to make the right decisions and are less exposed to negative emotions.  The peak of human intellectual activity occurs around the age of 70, when the brain begins to function at full strength.

Over time, the amount of myelin in the brain increases, a substance that facilitates the rapid passage of signals between neurons.  Due to this, intellectual abilities increase by 300% compared to the average.

Also interesting is the fact that after 60 years, a person can use 2 hemispheres at the same time.  This allows you to solve much more complex problems.

Picture : NIH

Professor Monchi Uri, from the University of Montreal, believes that the old man’s brain chooses the path that consumes less energy, eliminates the unnecessary and leaves only the right options to solve the problem.  A study was conducted involving different age groups.  Young people were very confused when passing the tests, while those over 60 years of age made the right decisions.

Now, let’s look at the characteristics of the brain between the ages of 60 and 80.  They are really pink.  *CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BRAIN OF AN ELDERLY PERSON.*

  1. Neurons in the brain do not die, as everyone around you says.  The connections between them simply disappear if one does not engage in mental work.
  2. Distraction and forgetfulness arise due to an overabundance of information.  Therefore, it is not necessary for you to concentrate your whole life on unnecessary trifles.
  3. From the age of 60, a person, when making decisions, does not use one hemisphere at the same time, like young people, but both.
  4. Conclusion: if a person leads a healthy lifestyle, moves, has viable physical activity and is fully mentally active, intellectual abilities do NOT decrease with age, they simply GROW, reaching a peak at the age of 80-90 years .

So do not be afraid of old age.  Strive to develop intellectually.  Learn new crafts, make music, learn to play musical instruments, paint pictures!  Dance!  Take an interest in life, meet and communicate with friends, plan for the future, travel as best you can.  Do not forget to go to shops, cafes, shows.  Don’t shut up alone, it’s destructive to anyone.  Live with the thought: all good things are still ahead of me! (SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine)

USCIS Issues Proposed Rule to Adjust Certain Immigration and Naturalization Fee

Staff ReporterImmigration 0

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees. The new fees would allow USCIS to more fully recover its operating costs, reestablish and maintain timely case processing, and prevent the accumulation of future case backlogs. USCIS receives approximately 96 percent of its funding from filing fees, not from congressional appropriations.

The proposed fee rule is the result of a comprehensive fee review at USCIS. That review determined that the agency’s current fees, which have remained unchanged since 2016, fall far short of recovering the full cost of agency operations. USCIS generally publishes a fee rule biennially, and proposes these changes to account for the expansion of humanitarian programs, federally mandated pay raises, additional staffing requirements, and other essential investments.

In 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic reduction in receipts of new applications, resulting in a temporary drop in revenue by 40 percent. The combination of depleted cash reserves, a temporary hiring freeze, and workforce attrition has reduced the agency’s capacity to timely adjudicate cases, particularly as incoming caseloads rebound to pre-pandemic levels. Increasing demand for low- or no-fee humanitarian programs has added to these fiscal challenges.

The proposed rule would increase some fees, including a modest increase in the fee for certain naturalization applications, while preserving existing fee waiver eligibility for low-income and vulnerable populations and adding new fee exemptions for certain humanitarian programs. If finalized, the proposed rule would decrease or minimally increase fees for more than one million low-income filers each year.

“In addition to improving customer service operations and managing the incoming workload, USCIS must continue to fulfill our growing humanitarian mission, upholding fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. “This proposed rule allows USCIS to more fully recover operating costs for the first time in six years and will support the Administration’s effort to rebuild the legal immigration system.”

New measures include a proposal to incorporate biometrics costs into the main benefit fee and remove the separate biometric services fee; establish separate fees for each nonimmigrant classification covered by Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Workers; change the premium processing timeframe from 15 calendar days to 15 business days; and institute lower fees for certain forms filed online. The proposed rule would not change fee waiver eligibility requirements. The projected revenues resulting from the proposed rule would allow USCIS to increase the number of adjudicators processing applications, implement technology improvements, and increase support provided to individuals seeking information and assistance from USCIS.

The 60-day public comment period starts following publication of the NPRM in the Federal Register. Fees will not change until the final rule goes into effect, after the public has had the opportunity to comment and USCIS finalizes the fee schedule in response to such comments. USCIS will host a public engagement session on the proposed fee rule on January 11, 2023.

3 January, 2023: The Gas Leak set in Georgetown, Guyana

Staff ReporterTravel 0

Smelly sweet sweat is all over that man’s brows. He sitting over in the break room. Father. The doctor man. The man sitting on that plush red chair made for Americans. The life saver. The patient grandchild favourite. That is Father. He is the one all the other doctors in that room like to forget. They like to eat their buns, they like to stash an extra banana in their lab coat, they like to turn on the cricket match keeping it loud, keeping it at a blast. And in the meantime they are bantering.

‘When yuh a go Trinidad fuh holiday?’

‘I gun go next week. Yuh wan come wid me?’

‘Man, I dun tell ya I was deh last week. This is why I was asking. I need ya to send something over there.’

‘Something for your wife, or for that woman ya slamming?’

‘Hah-hah-hah-hah.’

‘Hey, hey . . . hey!’

The Father man ain’t listening. Father got his ten minutes to get his drink and that is that. He just finished looking at a patient with a bad case of the food poisoning, leaving his splattering all over the toilet for the janitors to clean.

He is feeling his own stirring in the stomach thinking about it. He could use something refreshing, but there’s no time to guzzle Cokes. He has to finish his break.

One of the senior men is talking to one of the other senior man. Five years back there was senior man and senior man and senior man and senior man. One by one they are retiring. Now this senior man and that senior man are the only ones that were there when Father was starting at the hospital.

When was the last time he gave a greeting? Father is about to say hello to them, but someone comes bustling in.

‘Get out!’ he shouts.

Which causes everyone to pause.  ‘Hey, hey, what’s going on?’

‘Gas leak,’ the man says. Everyone is looking serious as serious can be. The man says, ‘Move,’ and everyone listens. They leave and go downstairs. Father is following the line but can’t help looking at patients’  rooms that he is passing. They are empty. Who’s that someone who is clearing them?

They go downstairs and all the patients, they are already there. There are the cast-wearing men and women and then there are the wheelchair-stuck-in men and women and there are the random standing men and women. Father joins the doctors and the nurses. It is like a mob is outside of the hospital. And it is nothing like how the street does look normally. Normally these streets are empty.

The administration is coming out and the doctors are asking them questions.

‘Marlon, Marlon, ya hear?’

“Marlon, Marlon, ya tell me, what is this madness?’

‘Marlon, my patient is goin’ to die if he out like this.’

Marlon is on the phone or pretending to be. There are seven doctors shouting at him and Marlon does not address a single one of them.

Father is in another group of doctors standing with their arms crossed around their chests.

Father overhears one of the patients say, ‘It is like this hospital is Hell.’

This is not a kind thing to say and it is not a kind thing to hear. But Father sees how most of the nurses are already on their phones and Father sees it with some of the doctors as well. It is like they are getting a free break and that is all they are thinking of.

Father has seen a gas leak like this happen before, and it is like how Father once heard a rumour of how a doctor gave his patient insulin and caused him to have a cardiac arrest.

That is the doctor right in front of Father, playing Candy Crush.

And what about that petition Dr White was making them sign?

They were asking for more hospital computers, and yet they’re still writing all the records out by hand.

Or there were these medicines that the doctors visiting from America  gave to their patients, but the ones that they were prescribing were many years expired. There was the need for that new CAT scan machine, there was a whole lot of need for better surgical equipment.

Almost two years it had been, and not a single thing had come about from this document that a good hundred doctors signed.

There’s all this blathering, coming from some of the patients and some of the doctors.One of the doctors is defending Marlon.

‘Now, now, listen. This isn’t all the fault of that one man. He already done nuff ting for our hospital. And y’all talking about some petition like is some gospel but y’all nah ah go to dem patient on time.’

A doctor says in defense of himself: ’I  go to every patient and ask how their day is. Not like them nurses who don’t stand for ten minutes without complaining for a chair.’

And now a nurse says in defence of herself: ’A chair? We ten nurses sitting a desk when dey only have six chairs… and five a we crowd around at table which can only hold three . We don’t sleep in de day, we listen to every man complain.

‘This is different from a doctor ya say?’

‘Ya thinking it ain’t different, but it is. Ya just need to take a look at the pay cheque and sit back.’

‘The pay cheque?’

‘Yes, the pay cheque.’ Another nurse with blonde braids chirps in: ‘Twelve years done since I working at dis hospital.’ She takes a break to show off her name tag. ‘Twelve years.  And I know what I am getting paid.’

Another doctor starts at it again: ‘Ya listen to this…’

At this point the nurses and doctors are spitting words back to back, pointing fingers, forgetting who they were mad at in the first place.

Marlon puts his fingers to his mouth like he is fixing to whistle, but he keeps his two fingers at lips, because he knows what will happen if he calms them down really.  In the meantime the Father man is quiet because being quiet is what he likes to be.

The Father man doesn’t like to be a conflict man. The Father man likes to keep to himself and let everything happen and then go back to the work he tells himself he is supposed to be doing.

Why does the Father man speak up out of nowhere?

‘Ya all stop and listen here. Ya can’t stop blaming this on this person or that. The gas leak is one thing out of many. We are using hospital bed from the eighties. We have patients who are dying from our own neglect. We all have to be working hard.  If change has to come, change is what we have to be starting.’

The Father man feels like his legs are wobbling, the Father man feels like he is about to lose the breath in this chest. The Father man is becoming the warrior man, the Kofi kind of man.

The Father man might be changing but the Father man is thought by everyone as the passive man because that is how the Father man was thought of by the other men. The police cars are coming and the fire truck is coming and Marlon is leaving. He goes says something to the police. The firemen march into the building. The men and the women start talking about other things.

‘So, how ya missus doing?’

‘So, when ya go ta Port of Spain ya got ta change ya clothes so no one know who ya with.’

‘I’m getting hungry. Ya want a bake an saltfish?’

It is like no one even heard what Father said. It is like no one even felt like listening. That is normal for Father man. For decades in and decades out he has been that man no one listens to. Soon the fireman comes and says the gas leak has been fixed. Soon the doctors and nurses and patients are going back in. It is normal for  them that things go wrong in Georgetown, and they are fine now that it is getting fixed.

But the Father man said what the Father man said and the Father man mean it.

Another minute done pass, and another minute done gone, and Father’s legs aren’t moving.

AAPI’s 16th Annual Global Health Summit to be Inaugurated by Shri. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in Visakhapatnam on January 6th, 2023

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(Visakhapatnam, India: January 3, 2023) “I am immensely pleased to announce that Shri. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh is planned to be the Chief Guest and inaugurate the 16th annual Global Healthcare Summit (GHS) on January 6th, 2023 at the prestigious Hotel Novotel on the seashore in Visakhapatnam,” said Dr. Ravi Kolli, President of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI).

Smt. Vidadala Rajini Honorable Minister for Health, Family Welfare & Medical Education; Shri. Gudivada Amarnath, Honorable Minister for IT; and, Dr. B. Venkata Satyavathi, Member of Parliament, representing Anakapalle will be Guests of Honor at the Inaugural ceremony, which will be attended by leading medical professionals, thought leaders, heads of several health industry sectors, and policy makers.

The 16th Global Health Care Summit is jointly organized by AAPI and the local organizing committee at Visakhapatnam from January 6th to 8th, 2023. This Global Health Care Summit assumes importance especially in the context of the waning pandemic that has shaken the entire human race and has in a sense been instrumental in helping everyone realize that the predicament is common across all the continents.

One of the highlights of this association between the two diaspora is the annual Global Health Summit organized annually by AAPI, which provides a unique platform for the exchange of ideas and advances in several important areas in health care and medical education and research.

“We are sure that the Summit will offer a rewarding experience not only on intellectual but on aesthetic front as well, as the scenic beauty of Visakhapatnam and the many places around will be worth going during your trip. The organizing committee is immensely pleased to be at your service,” said Dr. Ravi Raju, Chair of GHS (India) 2023.

Describing some of the objectives of the GHS, Dr. Prasad Chalasani, Chair of GHS (USA) 2023 said. “We hope to create an intellectually charged platform for experts to share their experiences on some of the common professional issues that still remain a challenge in spite of all the advancement. The exchange of expertise and transfer of technology by the best brains is bound to offer positive and innovative solutions to some of the problems faced by humankind.”

The Summit will feature a CEO Forum, where a galaxy of CEOs from around the world from hospitals, teaching institutions and major healthcare sectors, including pharmaceutical, medical devices and technology, will join to explore potential opportunities for collaboration.

Shri. Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, Honorable Governor of Andhra Pradesh will be the keynote speaker at the CEO Forum 2023 with the theme, focusing on “True and Total Health is the well-being of the Mind, Body, and Spirit for holistic person-centered care.” Dr. Ravi Kolli, AAPI President will lead the discussions, while Prof. MD Nalapat will serve as the Co-chair along with Prof. Joseph M. Chalil, MD, Co-chair & AAPI Chief Strategy Officer. “We envision a great future for our country with the direct result of complex interactions at this forum with your assistance, guidance, and experience,” Dr. Chalil said.

A galaxy of speakers who will be part of the powerful CEO Forum include: Ambassador Pradeep K. Kapur; Dr. Sangita Reddy. a Global Healthcare Leader, Indian Entrepreneur, and Humanitarian; Sadasiva Rao Nannapaneni, Vice President – Corporate Affairs, Legal & Secretarial, Estate Management at NATCO; Dr. Anu Chirala, Co-Founder & President InstaMD; Dr. Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty, CEO at Biophore India Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd Has more than 30 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Profession; Ramprasad M, Chairman, SHAI; Prof. (Dr), Anuj Maheshwari, current Governor of the American College of Physicians India Chapter and the Vice President of Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI); Dr. Juby A Jacob-Nara, Vice President, Head of Global Medical- Respiratory Allergy & Gastroenterology (Sanofi-Genzyme); Dr. Upendra Srinivas, Managing Director at Quantum Specialty Diagnostics; Dr. Venkat Ramana Sudigali, Founder-Director Excell Multispecialty Hospital, Hyderabad, India, and the CEO of EHAconsortium.org; Dr. Srikanth Sola, Chief Executive Officer, Devic Earth; and, Ravi Chivukula, Co-Founder & CEO at HeARTHealth Technologies.

The much-anticipated Women’s Leadership Forum will feature extraordinarily successful Women Leaders representing a diversity of professions, involving public, private and government organizations.

Dr. Smt. Tamilisai Soundararajan Honorable Governor of Telangana & Honorable Lt. Governor of Puducherry will deliver the keynote address at the Women’s Forum, which is chaired by Dr. Udaya Shivangi and Dr. T. Radha, while Dr. Uma Jonnalagadda is the Advisor and Dr. B. Devi Madhavi serving as the Co-Chair. According to Dr. Shivangi, “The eminent speakers at the Women’s Form will deliberate on ways to: Advancing Women’s Health Through Awareness and Action.”

Shri. MVV Satyanarayana, Member of Parliament, representing Visakhapatnam will be the Guest of Honor at the Women’s Forum. Panelists at the Women’s Forum include: Dr. Suneela Garg, Dir. Professor & Head of Community Medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College; Dr. Anuradha Medoju, Senior Regional Director at Telangana & Andhra Pradesh Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India; Dr. S. Radha Rani, Former Professor and Superintendent, Hospital of Mental Health; and Meghna Chalasani, Team Lead, Advisory Committees, Program Lead, Science Office Strategies for New Drugs at Center for Drug Education and Research, US Food & Drug Administration.

Dr. V. Ranga, AAPI BOT Chair said, “The GHS 2023 offers a unique forum for them to come together, sharing their knowledge and expertise with their fellow physicians from around the world, and to learn from one another. It also provides a critical platform for networking of delegates who are all stalwarts in their own fields. The wide-ranging topics chosen by experts will certainly render the sessions both lively and rewarding.”

According to Dr. Anjana Samadder, President-Elect of AAPI, “There has been mutual cooperation and collaboration on the scientific, academic, research and other curricular fronts. One of the highlights of this association between the two diaspora is the annual Global Health Summit, which provides a unique platform for the exchange of ideas and advances in several important areas in health care and medical education and research.”

Discussions and deliberations will address the Stigma of Mental illness, Suicide prevention, Management of Chronic diseases and NCD and, other Global Health Issues including Climate Change and its impact on health.

The grand finale on Sunday. January 8th will be a Walkathon on the seashore aimed at challenging mental health stigma and promotion of healthy lifestyle changes and stress management. The Grand Walkathon will be led by none other than Surgeon Rear Admiral R. Ravi Command Medical Officer, Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam.

Among the many initiatives that emerge from GHS 2023, a notable action plan will be for AAPI to collaborare with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to initiate an ambitious program to address mental health and wellness of students in high school in Andhra Pradesh.

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27 Eminent Persons Of Indian Origin To Receive PBD Awards in Indore, India

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An educationist in Bhutan, a doctor in Brunei and civil society activists in Ethiopia, Israel and Poland were among the 27 people chosen for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (PBSA).

Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali and renowned Canadian scientist Dr Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan are among 27 recipients of the 2023 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award — the highest honor conferred on overseas Indians.

PBSA is conferred by the Hon’ble President of India as part of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention on Non-Resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin or an organization/institution established and run by the Non-Resident Indians or Persons of Indian Origin in recognition of their outstanding achievements both in India and abroad.

Picture : India Today

The 17th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention is scheduled to be held from 8–10 January 2023 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards will be conferred by the Hon’ble President of India at the PBD Convention in the valedictory session of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations.

Born to an Indo-Guyanese Muslim family, Ali took oath as Presiden in August 2020.

He will also be the chief guest at the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention.

Polish businessman from Goa Amit Kailash Chandra Lath, 45, who helped in the evacuation of Indian students from Ukraine into Poland when war with Russia broke out, is also a recipient of the award.

Scientist and innovator Dr Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan, who moved to Canada in 1974, channeled his passion for community service through supporting organizations like Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and Canada-India Business Council.

He has sponsored clean drinking water systems and a mobile hospital in rural India, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 2019.

Among other recipients are FedEx Corporation CEO Rajesh Subramaniam, Australian economist Chennupati Jagadish, and Israel-based chef Reena Vinod Pushkarna.

A Jury-cum-Awards Committee, with Hon’ble Vice-President as the Chairman and Hon’ble External Affairs Minister as the Vice-Chair and other distinguished members from various walks of life considered the nominations for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards, 2023 and unanimously selected the awardees. The awardees represent the excellence achieved by our diaspora in various fields.

Following is the list of Awardees recommended by Jury-cum-Awards Committee for conferment of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award 2023:

Sr. No. Name Country Field
1
Prof. Jagadish Chennupati

Australia

Science & Technology/ Education

2
Prof. Sanjeev Mehta

Bhutan

Education

3
Prof. Dilip Loundo

Brazil

Art & Culture/Education

4
Dr. Alexander Maliakel John

Brunei Darussalam

Medicine

5
Dr. Vaikuntam Iyer Lakshmanan

Canada

Community Welfare

6
Mr. Joginder Singh Nijjar

Croatia

Art & Culture/Education

7
Prof. Ramjee Prasad

Denmark

Information Technology

8
Dr. Kannan Ambalam

Ethiopia

Community Welfare

9
Dr. Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay

Germany

Community Welfare/Medicine

10
H.E. Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali

Guyana

Politics/Community Welfare

11
Ms. Reena Vinod Pushkarna

Israel

Business/Community Welfare

12
Dr. Maqsooda Sarfi Shiotani

Japan

Education

13
Dr. Rajagopal

Mexico

Education

14
Mr. Amit Kailash Chandra Lath

Poland

Business/Community Welfare

15
Mr. Parmanand Sukhumal Daswani

Republic of Congo

Community Welfare

16
Mr. Piyush Gupta

Singapore

Business

17
Mr. Mohanlal Hira

South Africa

Community Welfare

18
Mr. Sanjaykumar Shivabhai Patel

South Sudan

Business/Community Welfare

19
Mr. Sivakumar Nadesan

Sri Lanka

Community Welfare

20
Dr. Dewanchandrebhose Sharman

Suriname

Community Welfare

21
Dr. Archana Sharma

Switzerland

Science & Technology

22
Justice Frank Arthur Seepersad

Trinidad & Tobago

Community Welfare/Education

23
Mr. Siddharth Balachandran

UAE

Business/Community Welfare

24
Mr. Chandrakant Babubhai Patel

UK

Media

25
Dr. Darshan Singh Dhaliwal

USA

Business/Community Welfare

26
Mr. Rajesh Subramaniam

USA

Business

27
Mr. Ashok Kumar Tiwary

Uzbekistan

Business

New Delhi
January 02, 2023

For more details on: Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards-2023
https://mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/36078/Pravasi+Bharatiya+Samman+Awards2023

Kevin Mccarthy Fails To Clinch Speakership In Multiple US House Votes

Staff ReporterUSA 0

Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid to become the next House Speaker fell short on Tuesday over a string of three consecutive votes, marking a chaotic opening to a new Congress — and dampening the Republicans’ celebration as they took control of the House for the first time since 2018.

Failing to elect party leader Kevin McCarthy as the new speaker of the House, Republicans adjourned in disarray Tuesday night, ending a raucous first day of the new Congress but hoping to somehow regroup on Wednesday from his historic defeat.

The House of Representatives adjourned On January 3rd without a Speaker after three ballots for the gavel found no candidate with the majority.

Speaker nominee Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) lost 19 GOP votes on the first two ballots and 20 on the third ballot, leaving the conference in a stalemate on how to proceed.

All 434 members voted for a Speaker candidate, meaning 218 votes were needed to secure the post. With 222 House Republicans to 212 Democrats, McCarthy is well short of reaching that threshold.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a McCarthy ally, made the motion to adjourn, and it was adopted by voice vote. The House will return at noon on Wednesday.

It marks the first time in a century that the House has gone to multiple ballots for Speaker. In 1923, the Speaker election took nine ballots over three days.

The repeated failed votes for McCarthy were expected by much of the conference, particularly after rules change concessions and a heated House GOP meeting on Tuesday morning did not move any of McCarthy’s detractors or those on the fence.

Tensions rose as night fell on the new House majority, and all other business came to a halt. The House agreed to return at noon Wednesday. “Kevin McCarthy is not going to be a speaker,” declared Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., among the holdouts.

McCarthy had pledged a “battle on the floor” for as long as it took to overcome right-flank fellow Republicans who were refusing to give him their votes. But it was not at all clear how the embattled GOP leader could rebound after becoming the first House speaker nominee in 100 years to fail to win the gavel with his party in the majority.

The longtime GOP leader’s opponents coalesced around Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for the second and third vote, despite the incoming House Judiciary Committee chairman supporting McCarthy and giving a floor speech nominating him ahead of the second ballot.

McCarthy, who remained stoic on the floor during the long voting process even as it became obvious he would lose, remains adamant he will eventually win the gavel.

“Remember how they all said they have this secret candidate? Their secret candidate nominated me, so where do they go now?” McCarthy said, referring to Jordan. “This can’t be about that. You’re going to leverage somebody for your own personal gain. I’m staying until we win,” McCarthy added. “It will eventually change.”

McCarthy privately huddled with allies including Jordan and Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) after the second ballot.

But the third vote saw an uptick in the number of McCarthy detractors, with Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) flipping to support Jordan after he voted for McCarthy on the first two ballots.

“My concern has been, like, look. It’s been two months, bro. You got to close the deal,” Donalds said, referring to the time between the midterm elections and the start of the Congress. “You got two months. And so at this point now is that if you can’t close it, we got to find who can.”

The continued McCarthy opposition has frustrated his supporters and allies who have pledged to not waver in their support. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) cast her votes for McCarthy as “Only Kevin.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said that the McCarthy antagonists are putting the House GOP on a “path to suicide and getting [President] Biden reelected in ’24.” He said he has heard talk of Republican members negotiating with Dems to nominate a moderate Republican who would be more open to negotiation. Whether GOP members can come to any agreement is uncertain.

“We’re going to go have some more conversations tonight and see what’s next,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who voted for candidates other than McCarthy on all three ballots.

This year’s Republican deadlock was in stark contrast to the other side of the Capitol, where Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell will officially become the chamber’s longest-serving party leader in history. Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York will remain majority leader.

Despite being in the minority in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority, McConnell could prove to be a viable partner as Biden seeks bipartisan victories in the new era of divided government. The two men are expected to appear together later in the week in the GOP leader’s home state of Kentucky to celebrate federal infrastructure investment in a vital bridge that connects Kentucky and Ohio.

World Leaders Mourn The Death Of Benedict XVI

Staff ReporterReligion, World 0

Pope Benedict XVI, the first pontiff to step down since the 15th century, died on Saturday,  December 31st, 2022 in Vatican City at age 95.

For several days, he had experienced declining health due to his advanced age, the Vatican press office said, with Pope Francis publicly sharing news of Benedict’s worsening condition earlier this week. Pope Francis will preside over Benedict’s funeral on Thursday at St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican said.

Born April 16, 1927, in Germany’s Bavaria, Joseph Ratzinger was a theologian by training. Following the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, Ratzinger was elected his successor after serving for a quarter of a century as the Vatican’s top enforcer of orthodoxy. He was the first German pope since the 11th century.

Following the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, several international leaders expressed condolences to the Catholic Church.

Picture : Znith

Benedict broke centuries of tradition in which popes served until death, and the need to coexist with his predecessor has been a defining aspect of Francis’s tenure, coinciding with a period of growing polarization within the faith.

For traditionalists, Benedict became a symbol of opposition. Conservative figures in the church would seek audiences with him. Far-right politicians would quote him — or John Paul II — instead of Francis.

Intrigue about their relationship has been so intense that it even inspired a movie, “The Two Popes,” which imagined the two verbally sparring, and ultimately enjoying one another, in a period before Benedict’s abdication.

In a press release, the White House make known a statement from President Biden and his wife: “Jill and I join Catholics around the world, and so many others, in mourning the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. I had the privilege of spending time with Pope Benedict at the Vatican in 2011 and will always remember his generosity and welcome as well as our meaningful conversation.

He will be remembered as a renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church, guided by his principles and faith. As he remarked during his 2008 visit to the White House, “the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity.” May his focus on the ministry of charity continue to be an inspiration to us all.

The U.S. Department State said: “The United States mourns the passing of His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus — a holy man, witness to faith, and once Shepherd of the Catholic faithful. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was a dedicated leader and was committed to interfaith dialogue.  He was an advocate for vulnerable persons, including refugees, internally displaced persons, and migrants.  He supported international legal measures to defend them.  He was a renowned theologian within the Catholic Church for decades. We offer our deepest condolences to the Catholic faithful around the world, the Holy See, and all those whose lives were enriched by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s spiritual guidance.”

French President Emmanuelle Macron said: “Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has left us, having marked the Church with the seal of his theological erudition and working tirelessly for a more fraternal world.

Born Joseph Ratzinger in 1927, he grew up in a modest Bavarian family which taught him a love of the piano, letters, history, and the fierce rejection of any form of fascism. His parents also transmitted their deep piety to him, so much so that at the age of 7, little Joseph asked for a Missal and a priest’s chasuble as a Christmas present. But while his mind turned to the priesthood, that of his contemporaries allowed itself to be plagued by Nazism. Like all his generation, he had to submit to the Hitler Youth at fourteen, then at sixteen to military service. Ulcerated by the ambient fanaticism, the young man refused to integrate the Waffen-SS, deserted his regiment in favour of the debacle, but was recaptured, and spent six weeks in prison before the German capitulation freed him.”

German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote his condolences to Pope Francis on the death of Pope Benedict XVI: “We in Germany were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Pope Benedict XVI.  His faith, his intellect, his wisdom and his humility as a human being always profoundly impressed me.

“As a fellow countryman, this Pope bore a very special significance for us Germans also beyond the bounds of the universal Roman Catholic Church. For many people across the world, the election of a Pope from the home of the Reformation and of an intellectual who had made the dialogue between faith and reason his life’s work sent an important signal.

“The unity of Christendom, inter-faith dialogue and the coexistence of religion and society were matters particularly close to his heart. He sought dialogue with Jews and Muslims and with all Christian denominations throughout the world. High theological and philosophical concepts already combined with comprehensible language in the work of Professor Joseph Ratzinger. For this reason, many people, not only Roman Catholics, found clear orientation in his writings and addresses. He faced up to people’s searching and questioning.

The British Prime Minister said: “I am saddened by the news of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He was a great theologian whose visit to the United Kingdom in 2010 was a historic moment, both for Catholics as well as non-Catholics of our country. My thoughts today are with the Catholics of the United kingdom and of the whole world.

For his part, King Charles III, Successor of Queen Elizabeth II, wrote the following to Pope Francis: I received with profound sadness the news of the death of your Predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. I remember with fondness my meeting with His Holiness during my visit to the Vatican in 2009. His visit to the United Kingdom in 2010 was important in strengthening the relations between the Holy See and the United Kingdom.

I also recall his constant efforts to promote peace and goodwill to all people, and to strengthen the relationship between the global Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.  My wife and I send you our continued good wishes for your own pontificate.”

Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of the Anglican Communion. In a press release, he said:  “Today I join with the Church throughout the world, and especially with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and all in the Catholic Church, in mourning the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

In Pope Benedict’s long life and ministry of service to Christ in His Church he saw many profound changes in the Church and in the world. He lived through the Nazi regime in Germany and served briefly in the Second World War. As a younger theologian and priest he witnessed first-hand the discussions of the Second Vatican Council. As a professor and then as an Archbishop he lived in a divided Germany but saw, too, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of his homeland.”

Patriarch Kirill sent a message of condolences to Pope Francis. The gesture has been interpreted by the specialized press in the Vatican as a thawing in ecclesiastical relations given the war in Ukraine. “I received with sadness the news of the death of your Predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The many years of life of His Holiness marked a whole period in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, which he led in a difficult historical period associated with numerous external and internal challenges.

Benedict XVI’s unquestionable authority as eminent theologian enabled him to contribute significantly to the development of inter-Christian cooperation, to the witness of Christ in face of a secularized world, and to the defense of traditional moral values.”

Church historian Massimo Faggioli said he believes that by approaching the world from a purely intellectual and theological perspective, Benedict’s papacy was ultimately a failure. “Because to be pope you are not the theologian-in-chief, you are the pastor-in-chief. That’s the magic of the papal office,” Faggioli said.

Yet the historian said the real legacy of Benedict’s papacy was how he ended it. “Benedict XVI’s decision to resign was a very radical interpretation of Vatican II,” Faggioli said. “Going beyond the letter of Vatican II, that was revolutionary.”

O’Connell of America magazine said that in Benedict’s final remarks to the cardinals before leaving the Vatican, he said his successor was among them. “He promised that he would give loyalty and obedience to his successor, and he respected that commitment in a total, absolute way,” the correspondent said. After Pope Francis was elected in March 2013, Benedict lived quietly in a residence on Vatican grounds.

Pelé, Worlds’ Greatest Soccer Legend, Passes Away

Staff ReporterSports 0

Soccer fans worldwide are united in grief after the death of a sports legend who inspired generations. Pelé, the Brazilian soccer icon and the only man to win the World Cup three times, died Thursday at 82. In Brazil, where he played for soccer club Santos, mourners paid tribute to a global star who made the nation synonymous with soccer excellence. Pelé’s hypnotizing moves and creative style transfixed sports fans and revolutionized the game. “How to grieve the passing of a man who, through football, took the name of Brazil to the world?” Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said. Fellow Brazilian soccer star Neymar described Pelé’s moves as art, adding that while he’s gone, his magic will remain. Pelé died from organ failure caused by colon cancer.

Picture : TheUNN

Pelé’s skill and grace on the field was unparalleled, and his goal-scoring prowess earned him a place in history. Sources list his tallies at anywhere between 650 (league matches) and 1,281 (all senior matches, some against low-level competition). His greatest moment on the field was the 1958 World Cup, where he scored two goals in Brazil’s 5-2 win over the host country in the final. He also played a key role in Brazil’s 1970 World Cup victory, scoring in the final and setting up Carlos Alberto with a nonchalant pass for the last goal in a 4-1 victory over Italy.

Pelé’s fame extended well beyond the soccer pitch. He was an ambassador for UNESCO and the United Nations, and was a key figure for Black people’s pride in Brazil. In 1997, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his achievements.

Pelé’s legacy will live on forever in the annals of soccer history. He will be remembered as one of the sport’s most beloved and talented athletes, and his name will continue to be mentioned alongside the likes of Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo in any conversation about soccer’s greatest players.

On Monday, thousands of mourners gathered in Santos, Brazil to pay their respects to the late soccer legend, Pelé. The funeral was attended by high school students, supreme court justices, and Brazil’s newly inaugurated president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A Catholic Mass was held at the stadium in honor of Pelé, and a song titled “Eu sou Pelé” (“I am Pelé”) was played.

Geovana Sarmento, 17, and her father attended the funeral wearing a Brazil shirt with Pele’s name. “I am not a Santos fan, neither is my father,” Sarmento said, “But this guy invented Brazil’s national team. He made Santos stronger, he made it big, how could you not respect him? He is one of the greatest people ever, we needed to honor him.”

Pelé was perhaps the world’s most famous athlete in the 1960s and 70s and his legacy lives on today. FIFA President Gianni Infantino asked every country to name a stadium after Pelé, and said “I am here with a lot of emotion, sadness, but also with a smile because he gave us so many smiles.” Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes said that Pelé was a humble man despite his global fame.

Pelé led Brazil to three World Cup titles in 1958, 1962 and 1970, and remains one of the team’s all-time leading scorers with 77 goals. Neymar tied Pelé’s record during this year’s World Cup in Qatar. He had undergone treatment for colon cancer since 2021, and passed away due to multiple organ failure as a result of the cancer.

On Monday, Brazil said goodbye to one of its most beloved figures. Thousands of mourners gathered at the Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos to pay their respects to the late soccer legend, Pelé. High school students, supreme court justices, and Brazil’s newly inaugurated president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended the funeral, which included a Catholic Mass and a song titled “Eu sou Pelé” (“I am Pelé”).

Pelé was a beloved figure throughout Brazil and the world, credited with putting the country on the world stage for the first time. He led Brazil to three World Cup titles in 1958, 1962 and 1970, and remains one of the team’s all-time leading scorers with 77 goals. Neymar tied Pelé’s record during this year’s World Cup in Qatar. Pelé’s legacy will live on, and his casket will be taken through the streets of Santos before his burial on Tuesday.

Big 5 Are At The Heart Of The Problem In Reforming UNSC

Staff ReporterWorld, Opinion 0

(IPS) – The UN Charter mandates the Security Council to maintain international peace, but wars rage on and nations arm themselves with ever more lethal weapons. No wonder that the Council’s critics are so many and calls for its reform so urgent.

On December 11, 1992, with post-Cold War optimism, the UN General Assembly voted to gather comments from member states on Council reform. Eighty governments made submissions, many sharply critical.

In the thirty years since, there have been endless meetings and initiatives. Year after year, governments, scholars, NGOs, and citizen movements have advanced proposals for Council renovation. In all that time, little progress has been made.

The Council’s five Permanent Members (the P-5) are the heart of the problem. Armed with vetoes, never-ending Council membership, and many other special privileges, they perpetuate their power, protect their global interests and shield their incessant war making.

They shape international law to suit themselves. The United States, the global giant, has by far the most dominant role in the Council. But it is adverse to following the rules itself and rarely inclined towards peaceful conflict solutions. Many ask: should the foxes guard the global chicken coop?

Various powers outside the P-5 want to be elevated to the highest rank. Brazil, India, Japan and Germany have long announced that they want to join the Permanent club. They argue that they would bring fresh ideas to better “represent” world regions and promote world peace.

Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt want to belong to the exclusive club too, bringing (they say) an African voice. But (to use an African metaphor) would these new crocodiles protect the world’s little fish? It seems unlikely!

Other reformers insist on more seats (and longer terms) for the Elected Members of the Council, presently ten in number. Smaller members are very vulnerable to pressure, threats and bribes from the P-5. Further, these lesser countries manage to have only the slightest influence on the Council’s proceedings.

They are, said the exasperated Singapore ambassador, “like short-term commuters on a long-distance passenger train.” So, a simple increase in Elected Members would not be a sure bet.

Limiting the veto or abolishing it entirely would have a very positive result but, needless to say, the P-5 fiercely oppose it. Reformers have also pressed for fairer membership elections and more frequent open public meetings.

Yet (with the exception of cosmetic tweaks) the reform process constantly runs up against P-5 blocking power. Their veto can stop any reform proposal dead in its tracks. But we should not forget that the world is changing and that autocratic power in history never lasts forever!

All reform proposals reflect an idealistic notion that the Council can be changed to restrain the enormous power, appetite and influence of the strongest and richest nations. This idea is rooted in the dream of democratic institutions within nation states, that rich and poor can elect representatives and determine policy in what passes for the general interest.

Difficult as it is at the national level, how could it possibly work in the war-torn world of global politics? Might one day the P-5 Ancien Regime collapse in a great crisis, under desperate pressure from a global citizens’ movement? What would it take to set such a process in motion? It may seem impossible, but so was the French revolution. We can be skeptical, but if we want peace we must press for change. So, watch out, P-5 autocrats! Change is coming!

(IPS UN Bureau)

India’s Supreme Court Gives Clean Chit To Modi Govt On Demonetization

Staff ReporterIndia 0

Demonetisation was a shockingly cruel policy enacted under false pretences, according to an alysts. It did not achieve any of its stated objectives: A cashless economy, a revenue bonanza for the government, cleaning the system of illicit money, or stopping terror finance. It inflicted needless suffering and made fools of citizens, who willingly acquiesced.

Modi Government’s decision six years ago to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 passed the Supreme Court’s test in a majority 4-1 verdict. Four of the five-judge Constitution Bench held that the November 8, 2016, notification did not suffer from any flaws in the decision making process.”

A dissenting judge, Justice B V Nagrathna, however, said that the way the noteban was carried out violated the law and highlighted how the RBI didn’t apply an independent mind. She added that the government should have brought a law. In fact, high-level sources told The Indian Express that the Central Board of the RBI was “never in the loop” about the withdrawal of notes.

The Supreme Court on Monday declared the Centre’s demonetisation move of November 2016 legally valid. A Constitution bench held that it appears from the record that there was consultation between the RBI and the central government for a period of six months.

It was a 4-1 judgement from the SC on a batch of 58 petitions, most of which challenging the demonetisation, while some seeking a new window to deposit the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes that could not be deposited back then.

Key issues

  • Did the demonetisation scheme abide by the provisions of the RBI Act, 1934?
  • Did the limits on withdrawing cash violate the Rights to Equality and Livelihood?
  • Was the scheme implemented in an unreasonable manner that violated the Rights to Equality and Livelihood?
  • To what extent can the SC review a scheme relating to the fiscal and economic policy of the government?

Judges split

The majority judgement, authored by Justice BR Gavai, said the decision-making process was not flawed merely because the procedure emanated from the government.

Justice SA Nazeer-headed bench said there has to be great restraint in matters of economic policy and the court cannot supplant the wisdom of the executive by a judicial review of its decision.

Dissenting view

Justice BV Nagarathna, bench’s junior-most judge, held that demonetisation had to be done through a legislation and not through a gazette notification, arguing that Parliament cannot be left aloof in a matter of such critical importance.

She said the RBI showed no independent application of mind and that the entire exercise was carried out in 24 hours after the Centre proposed the move. She held that such an opinion given by RBI cannot be construed as a “recommendation” under the RBI Act.

The demonetisation decision pushed the boundaries of constitutionalism to the edge. It can be argued that the legality of the policy need not be entirely judged by its success; it is not unconstitutional to take horrendous policy decisions. But this does not mean that there is no scope for fixing some administrative responsibility. The importance of Justice BV Nagarathna’s powerful dissent is not the conclusion. It is that it tries to affix administrative responsibility and does not let officials hide behind the smokescreen of statutory interpretations. The need for fixing this responsibility is even more if you happen to think that this is a sovereign decision. Her dissent asks the right question: What was the Board of the RBI doing in all this?

According to P NMehta of the Indian Express, “Justice Nagarathna is astutely pointing out that things like consultation or application of mind can’t be proforma exercises where the RBI Board simply ticks off a box by signing a resolution in a few minutes. Ironically, the shoddiness of the majority judgment’s reasoning enacts the very thing Justice Nagarathna is pointing out: The real threat of our democracy is professionals, who are otherwise independent, not doing their professional duty. The lesson from this episode is that independence is never in the letter of the law, it is in the character and conduct of form in the vast chain of accountability in a democracy, from judges to officials, from parliamentarians to citizens.”

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Optimism For India’s Digital Future

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It’s always special to come back to India, and this trip is especially meaningful as it’s my first visit back since the pandemic. As we come out of it, there’s a sense of optimism about the country’s future and the role technology can play to improve lives.

Which brings me to why I’m here: first and foremost to meet with Googlers, as the team has grown significantly since I was last here. I’m also here to see progress being made from our $10 billion, 10-year India Digitization Fund (IDF), and share new ways we’re helping to advance India’s digital future at our Google for India event. That includes our efforts to build a single, unified AI model that will be capable of handling over 100 Indian languages across speech and text – part of our global effort to bring the world’s 1,000 most-spoken languages online, and to help people access knowledge and information in their preferred language. We’re also supporting a new, multidisciplinary center for responsible AI with IIT Madras. (Our VP of India Sanjay Gupta shares more details in his blog post below.)

This progress is part of how we’re working to seize the opportunity in AI globally, balancing the need to be bold with innovation and responsible in our approach. I’m excited to see the ways India will contribute to breakthroughs in AI that could benefit over a billion people in India, and more around the world.

More broadly, I’ve been amazed at the ways people are already using technology to make their communities better. One of the local tech founders I met today has broken new ground by offering a radiation-free and non-invasive breast cancer screening tool; another developed a chatbot that helps people manage stress. I was glad to hear their stories and to share thoughts on how technology can expand opportunity during a conversation at WomenWill.

Later today, I have the honor of meeting with His Excellency Prime Minister Modi to discuss how we are supporting small businesses and start-ups, investing in cybersecurity, providing education and skills training, applying AI in sectors like agriculture and healthcare, and other priorities. Prime Minister Modi’s Digital India vision has helped to accelerate the progress we’re seeing across India, and I’m excited for India to share its experience with the world as it takes over the G20 presidency in 2023.

The pace of technological change in India has been extraordinary, and there’s so much opportunity still ahead. Glad to be able to see it up close, and I’m already looking forward to my next visit.

(Sundar is the CEO of Google and Alphabet and serves on Alphabet’s Board of Directors. Under his leadership, Google has been focused on developing products and services, powered by the latest advances in AI, that offer help in moments big and small.)

Below is an edited version of a blog from Sanjay Gupta, Google’s Country Head and Vice President, India, summarizing the key announcements from Google for India.

India’s digital transformation is at a tipping point. Seven hundred million connected Indians, affordable smartphones and data, record highs in digital payments, the digitization of citizen services, and a vibrant start-up ecosystem have put the technology sector on track to become the single largest contributor to the national economy.

We feel privileged to have played a part in this extraordinary story. Our mission in India is to make the internet helpful and safer for a billion Indians. We’ve introduced India-first innovations, worked to lower barriers to access, and invested in strengthening the strategic pillars of India’s digital economy through our $10 billion India Digitization Fund.

Today, at our 8th Google for India, joined by Sundar Pichai, our CEO, and senior Google leaders and product experts, we stepped up our commitment to build a more inclusive, helpful, and safer internet for every Indian — and shared how we hope to supercharge India’s digital transformation by harnessing AI.

Partnerships are the cornerstone of our journey in India, and essential for such a scaled transition. Today, with partners from across the public and private sectors, we announced new efforts focused on taking Indians from foundational access to the point where technology becomes the enabler for growth, knowledge, health and progress.

Early stage startups are the engine that drives innovation, with many building products that address key information and service needs for people across India, especially for novice internet users. Strengthening our ongoing resolve to support India’s digital innovators, as part of our India Digitization Fund investments, we will be targeting support for early stage companies with a particular focus on women-led startups. (Courtesy: https://blog.google/inside-google/message-ceo/optimism-india-digital-future/)

Lionel Messi World Cup Instagram Post Is Most-Liked Ever

Staff ReporterMedia 0

A gallery of Lionel Messi celebrating Argentina’s World Cup win has become the most-liked Instagram post ever. The soccer super star – who led his team to their first World Cup triumph in 36 years – received more than 57 million likes for his collection of photos. Argentina defeated France on penalties in Sunday’s World Cup final in Qatar.

One day after leading Argentina in Qatar on December 19th, Messi posted a gallery of his celebration right after his team beat France in penalties. His first picture shows him smiling while holding the tournament trophy, and others show him celebrating with teammates and enjoying the post-match ceremony.

Picture : WTHR

In the caption, he wrote, “CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD! We showed once more that when Argentinians work hard together and we’re united we’re capable of achieving anything we put our minds to,” he added. “The merit of this group, which was above individualism, is the strength that we all fought for the same dream that was also the one for all Argentinians…we did it!!!”

The post amassed 62 million likes in a little over a day, resonating with Messi’s fans and beyond. The famous egg Instagram post, from January 2019, reached 56 million likes and initially grabbed the most-liked record away from Kylie Jenner. When it first appeared it seemed to be some kind of protest vote against celebrity – people were urged to engage with the picture in the hope of toppling the then-record holder, Kylie Jenner.

There was a lot of speculation about who was behind the @world_record_egg Instagram account and how it managed to attract so many likes so quickly. Some said it was a marketing ploy from a large company that had bought followers – but British advertising executive Chris Godfrey has since claimed he created it, along with two others, and that their sole purpose was to get as many likes as possible.

But while the egg overtook Jenner’s record – totaling as many as 56 million likes at the time of writing – it has finally been surpassed by a rival with several world records in his own right: Lionel Messi.

After the World Cup final, Guinness World Records posted a series of records broken by the victor, noting Messi had surpassed Germany’s Lothar Matthäus for the record of most World Cup matches played, with 26 – as well as four other records:

11 – most World Cup Man of the Match awards

19 – most World Cup appearances as captain

5 – most appearances in World Cup tournaments by a male player

First person to assist (a goal) at five different World Cups

With the success of his latest gallery on Instagram, Messi has yet another record to add to his collection.

China’s Pandemic Protests Force A Rare Retreat

Staff ReporterWorld 0

Authoritarian State Gives Into Protest Pressure By Dropping Its ‘Zero Covid’ Policy

An unusually outspoken wave of protests recently mobilised against the Chinese government’s stifling response to COVID-19, an exercise in social control that included strict lockdowns, causing severe hardship. The government tried to restrict the protests but then backed down and eased the rigid rules it had consistently applied since the start of the pandemic. Just after being confirmed as the all-powerful leader of the party-state, President Xi Jinping for the first time showed signs of weakness. Long deprived of agency, mobilised people have now had a taste of power. Will they keep testing the limits and trying to open up spaces?

Something unusual just happened in China: people protested against an unpopular government policy, and some even criticised the totalitarian regime. And a government famous for its intransigence was forced to back down.

Zero covid

China was the first country struck by COVID-19, and since the early days, the government’s approach has been rigid. Its ‘zero-covid’ policy of long lockdowns, forced isolation in quarantine camps and widespread mandatory testing helped keep a lid on the virus. Domestically and internationally, the government sold its approach as a triumph, comparing it to the high death toll in countries like the USA. But its approach also brought misery to communities forced into lengthy isolation and unable to access essentials.

Picture : WP

The authoritarian regime fell back on its instincts of social control and used the emergency as an opportunity to test out further repressive measures, including new surveillance tools. The state was also criticised for using the policy as a cover for a slow and inadequate vaccination rollout, exacerbated by a refusal to accept foreign vaccines because it needed to present the vaccines developed in China as part of its success story, even though these likely have little effect on the most recent variants of the disease.

The long-term implementation of zero-covid brought significant economic impacts, threatening the source of China’s global power. In its response to the pandemic, as in other spheres – including its clampdown on the tech and entertainment industries – it seemed that when faced with a choice between economic prowess and social and political control, the government consistently chose the latter.

Centrally mandated policies were often overzealously implemented at the local level, as local officials stuck to the most extreme possible interpretation of the rules: years of experience of working within state structures had taught them this was the best way to signal their loyalty.

Deeper than the pandemic

The protests weren’t the first recent expression of dissent. Small-scale online and offline protests are less rare in China than might be expected given the Chinese regime’s mission of total control. Shanghai’s April lockdown, which saw people go hungry, sparked considerable anger, expressed on social media despite the extensive efforts of the government’s well-rehearsed censorship machinery to suppress it.

Even ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) congress, the twice-a-decade peak meeting of the ruling party held in October, two protest banners were briefly hung in Beijing, and enjoyed a much longer social media afterlife. Restrictions in an Apple iPhone factory led to protests in November, suppressed with security force beatings.

But the anti-zero-covid protests were on a whole other level. The trigger was the breakout of a fire on 24 November in an apartment block in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province. This is the region where the state is engaged in a long campaign of industrial-level human rights abuses against the mostly Muslim population, which perhaps not coincidentally has also been exposed to some of the longest and strictest lockdowns.

The story that spread after the fire, in which at least 10 people died, was that a strictly enforced lockdown, including locked doors and blocked emergency exits, had stopped people fleeing the building and first responders getting in. It still isn’t clear what happened, but the story spread quickly because it spoke to something people have long been feeling: that the state was prepared to sacrifice them for the sake of zero-covid. It wasn’t the first piece of evidence. In September, 27 people had been killed in a bus crash while being transported to a compulsory quarantine centre.

The Urumqi fire was a catalyst for the expression of a shared grievance over pandemic controls, and for suppressed anger about a lot more. Anger was intensified by a victim-blaming statement from an official that the residents should have understood fire safety procedures better.

Awareness that the rest of the world has largely moved on from Chinese-style restrictions may have played a part too. In February, China’s Winter Olympics took place under strict protocols. But more recently people have seen the World Cup kicking off in Qatar with thousands sitting in stadiums and little sign of mask use, despite efforts by China’s state broadcaster to censor crowd close-ups. The fact that even other repressive global south states have moved on made it impossible to pretend China was now anything other than an outlier.

Protests started in Xinjiang and quickly spread over several days to some of China’s biggest cities, including Beijing. Protests brought hundreds of people together, large numbers given the many restrictions. Many held up blank pieces of paper, something that offered an eloquent protest symbol, communicating the almost total denial of freedom of expression. Protesters chanted a line from China’s national anthem: ‘rise up, those who refuse to be slaves’.

BAPS Leader Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s Centennial Birthday Celebrated At UN

Staff ReporterCulture, World 0

The Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations and the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha came together to host centennial celebrations honoring the life and message of Pramukh Swami Maharaj, spiritual leader of BAPS for more than 50 years. The event was held at the UN headquarters in New York City on December 7, 2022.

Pramukh Swami Maharaj (1921-2016) was the fifth spiritual successor of Bhagwan Swaminarayan and embodied values of faith in God and service to humanity, a press release from BAPS said.

Picture : Cover

The event was themed, The World is One Family, the event at the United Nations aimed to honor his legacy. Those present included India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ruchira Kamboj, members of the Permanent Mission of India, ambassadors and representatives of many countries, and BAPS volunteers.

Dr. Kashyap Patel, a BAPS volunteer and cardiologist at the Northside Hospital Cardiovascular Institute in Atlanta, gave a welcome address, introducing Pramukh Swami Maharaj, his humanitarian efforts for social and spiritual upliftment, and his foundational belief that the world is one family.

Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s address at the United Nations Peace Millennium Summit on August 29, 2000, was brought to life through a video presentation. In this address, he appealed to spiritual leaders worldwide to have meaningful dialogues with each other to preserve the rich diversity, to not just tolerate but to respect all religions.

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General Miguel Angel Moratinos, who holds the post of High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, echoed Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s message, saying, “The time to come together as one is now.”

Kamboj delivered the keynote address. “In the truest sense, Swamiji’s life is a message to all humanity, it is a message of oneness, a message of goodness, a message of celebrating peace, harmony, and brotherhood,” she said.

During his lifetime, Pramukh Swami Maharaj responded to more than 20 natural disasters in India and abroad, inspiring volunteers to contribute their time and money to deliver relief to more than 6 million people worldwide.

Sejal Patel, a BAPS volunteer and associate director of professional development with McKinsey, shared a first-hand account of one such instance from the 2017 Hurricane Harvey disaster that struck Texas. “The signature mark of Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s relief efforts was this… his ability to share in the suffering and to channel that empathy into a sense of urgency to provide the swift action needed to save lives and then rebuild them over time…” Patel said.

Professor Sejal Saglani, a BAPS volunteer from U.K., who is Professor of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Imperial College in London, spoke about efforts made during the Covid pandemic.

“Pramukh Swami Maharaj taught me in all aspects of my life that real success comes from serving and uplifting others,” said  Ria Soni, a BAPS volunteer, first-year medical student at NYU, and co-founder of Project Stree, a menstrual education organization.

Bharat Jodo Yatra Unites India

Staff ReporterIndia, Opinion 0

Rahul Gandhi started Bharat Jodo Yatra on September 7, 2022 with the plan of covering a distance 3500 km from Kanyakumari to Srinagar. According to the Congress party, the yatra is the biggest Mass contact programme where the concerns of people will be raised. Although the main purpose of the yatra is to revive and rejuvenate the Congress party, people belonging to different ideologies, walks of life, professions and members of civil society organizations have joined the yatra because they appreciate the idea of knitting India, an India that is being divided on the basis of religion and besieged by soaring unemployment, price rise and widening economic disparities. Presence of a large number of ordinary people is the specialty of the yatra, besides participation by many social activists and film celebrities.

By observing and analysing the yatra, the kind of people who participate in the walk and the issues raised during the walk, one can draw some spiritual insights.

Picture : TheUNN

Personal Transformation, a Prerequisite for Social Transformation: Mahatma Gandhi has said, “You be the change you want to see in others”. The Bharat Jodo Yatra has certain specific objectives, which Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party have clearly articulated. While the yatra entered Madhya Pradesh in the last week of November, Rahul Gandhi said that he feels some changes in himself during the yatra, especially more patience and the ability to listen to others. “Now I don’t get irritated even for eight hours, if someone pushes or pulls me. It doesn’t affect me, whereas earlier I used to get irritated even in two hours,” he said. “If you are walking in the yatra and experience pain, then you have to face it, you can’t just give up”, he added.

Relevance of Tapasya: During the yatra, Rahul Gandhi often repeated that for him, Bharat Jodo Yatra is a tapasya. In a conversation with Darshan Mondkar, a Pune-based entrepreneur, who joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra’s Maharashtra leg, Rahul Gandhi explained what he means by tapasya. “Tapasya comes from the word tup. When you do tapasya you generate heat; the energy which consumes you. It hurts you; it pains you. And, then, you achieve,” Rahul said. He further explained: “Yes. Sure. I do not want to achieve anything without putting in an effort, without doing tup. Unless it hurts me, it pains me, any achievement is not worth it. This Bharat Jodo Yatra is my tapasya.”

“It is like an expiation, a cleansing of the soul. It is no easy task to walk even a single day in the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The physical stamina has to match a personal, political and an emotional commitment,” commented one of those walked with Rahul Gandhi in Karnataka.
The crucial question is how many of our political and religious leaders are ready to do tapasya. How many of them are ready to leave their comfort zones and walk to see and experience the problems and difficulties of people?  On the contrary, often, they make provocative statements sitting in their comfort zones and adopt controversial policies to divide people. They want to attain power and remain in power by polarizing people. Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra challenges these comfort-seeking, power-hungry and manipulative leaders.

Ability to Listen: The root cause of many conflicts is the failure on the part of individuals and groups to listen to others. Very often divorces take place in families, and many families are disintegrated due to the failure of the members to listen to each other. Many failures in governance happen because the rulers are not ready to listen to people. In the case of India, two mammoth protests — one against the three controversial farm laws and another against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) — took place because of the stubbornness of the ruling party to listen to people. Without listening to people, the ruling party imposed the two laws on the people of India. The tendency to impose laws without consulting people, who have to bear the consequence of the laws, is found among the religious leaders also. Often, they too behave like dictators.

Because Rahul Gandhi was ready to listen to people, many individuals and groups met him during the yatra and presented before him their problems and views. They include children, unemployed youth, women, students, farmers, weavers, intellectuals and social activists. A government, which is deeply committed to a majoritarian ideology that is exclusive, divisive and discriminative, is not willing to listen to people and their elected representatives.

Getting Rid of Fear: A constant theme running through Rahul Gandhi’s speeches during the yatra is the need for getting rid of fear. The root cause of hatred is fear. RSS and BJP have fear and that is why they spread hatred. He spoke why and how we need to overcome the fear within us so that we can become strong voices against the fascism of BJP/RSS. He showed the courage to speak against Adani and Ambani without mentioning their names, as they have cornered huge wealth of the nation due to the pro-corporate policies of the BJP government, neglecting the interests of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

Yogendra Yadav, President of Swaraj India, in an interview with Karan Thapar said that the tide is turning. “The climate of loneliness and fear has cracked but not shattered.” A few months ago, people were afraid of speaking against the government because of the fear of ED and CBI pouncing upon them. Now, thousands of people are walking on the streets along with Rahul Gandhi and it is making a dent in the fear.

Suzanne Furtado, an entrepreneur and writer from Bengaluru, who took part at the Mysore phase of the march, shared her experience in the following words. “Today’s India, where people’s voices, freedoms, lives, are being silenced, snatched, snuffed out, is not where I grew up. What I love most about my country is our incomparable diversity, and my heart grieves at what is happening to our people, our homeland. To me, Rahul Gandhi’s simple call to all to join him on this mission of unity, to come together to conquer the violent politics of hate, feels like Satyagraha. The Satyagraha of today’s India.”

Courage, the courage to stand alone and speak truth to power, is a significant quality of a spiritual person. A combination of courage and compassion makes a person spiritual. Rahul Gandhi has been consistent in his strident criticism of the dangerous ideology of the RSS-BJP combine. Even when the yatra entered Maharashtra, he had the guts to criticize the ideology of V D Savarkar, one of the protagonists of Hindutva. At the same time, because of his compassion for the people of India, he has been constantly focusing on the issues of the people — unemployment, rising prices and growing economic inequality. How many of our political and religious leaders have the courage to criticize the misuse of power by the ruling dispensation? Many religious leaders, despite knowing the dangerous virus that is infecting the whole nation, keep mum because of fear. Cowards can never be spiritual. Mahatma Gandhi has said, “Non-violence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Non-violence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Non-violence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Non-violence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering.”

Unity, Love and Fraternity: One of the proclaimed goals of Bharat Jodo Yatra is to replace division and hatred with unity and love. While addressing people at Hingoli in Maharashtra, Rahul Gandhi said, “We will reach Srinagar and hoist tri-colour and spread a message that this country can neither be divided nor can hatred and violence be spread in this country.” As an example of defeating hatred with love, Rahul Gandhi gave flying kisses to people who had gathered at the BJP Jhalawar office’s rooftop to catch a glimpse of the march. Later Rahul Gandhi wrote on Facebook: “No malice, no anger, no resentment — none of this is in the hearts of Bharat yatris. What they have is a desire to unite India, compassion for the sufferings of Indians and love for all citizens.”

The unity that Rahul Gandhi wants to promote is not the ruthless uniformity imposed by the RSS-BJP combine; it is a unity rooted in brotherhood and diversity. Imposing uniformity is totally against the spirit of India. While addressing a gathering in Kerala, Rahul Gandhi admired the people of Kerala for fostering unity in diversity. “Kerala is the symbol of unity in diversity and model for the entire country. The people of the state do not allow hatred to spread among them and encourage mutual respect. This was the reason that the state has a good education system and most compassionate nurses.”

One of the basic differences between religiosity and spirituality is that religiosity divides people whereas spirituality unites people. Religiosity is based on rituals, dogmas, rules, pilgrimages and devotions. These aspects generally differ from religion to religion and often people fight because of the overemphasis on these aspects. On the other hand, spirituality is based on the practice of humanitarian values, ideals, morals and ethical principles. These are more or less common to all religions. Because of the overemphasis on rituals and dogmas, fundamentalism and fanaticism flourish in religions. Fundamentalists always insist on uniformity and they impose uniformity by force. The result is conflict, division and enmity both within the religions and between the religions.

Unity in diversity is the millennial heritage of India. Unity of India consists in accepting, appreciating and celebrating differences, especially with regard to religion, culture and language. The great leaders of India, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Babasaheb Ambedkar etc., believed and practiced it. That is why secularism/pluralism is included as one of the core principles in the preamble of the Indian Constitution. Ever since the BJP came to power at the Centre under the leadership of Narendra Modi, this principle is being ridiculed and blatantly violated. Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra can restore and reassert one of the basic foundations of the Indian nation.

India has a long history of foot-marches by spiritual gurus and political leaders. Saints like Adi Shankaracharya, Lord Buddha, Guru Nanak and Sree Chaitanya had embarked on foot-marches to communicate their spiritual messages and bring about transformation in individuals and in society. Mahatma Gandhi led the longest foot-march as part of the national freedom struggle, which gave the final push to the independence struggle. Bharat Jodo Yatra, being political and spiritual, can lead to an urgently needed socio-political transformation of India. (Indian Currents)

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