Day: August 1, 2020

Greenwashing – blurring the line between green and greed


“Green” is becoming one of the pressing words almost for the past two decades with the increasing need for sustainability. As the demand for green practices is increasing by the day, companies are striving to appear more sustainable than they are in actual practice for which they inevitably opt for the easy out by using green washing through marketing and advertisements, misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company in order to appear environmentally responsible.

Green washing is the practice of making an unsustainable or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of a product, service, and technology or company practice attempting to capitalize on the growing demand for environmentally sound products. It is also referred to as “green sheen”. These so called “Green” products promote green washing by not just using it as a catch phrase but rather as a marketing strategy. The world is embracing the pursuit of greener practices which has encouraged Companies to produce and sell the so called “green” products. These companies employ green washing techniques to cover for their environmentally destructive business operations and elude from the influx of litigation.
Greenwashing is applied to the daily products that people use almost everyday. For example, many popular tooth paste brands which claim to be “herbal” are not just herbal but harmful too. A study conducted by Prof .Agarwal of DISPAR suggests that some tooth paste brands consists of 18 and 10 mg of nicotine, which is equivalent to the quantity found in nine and five cigarettes respectively which in turn can cause cancer.
A 2019 class action against Nestle’s sustainably sourced cocoa beans claimed that this act cannot be called sustainable when the production of the key ingredient in the company’s chocolate products is helping drive massive deforestation in West Africa. It is also said that the cocoa comes from farms that use child and slave labour.
H&M is a fast fashion brand with stores rapidly popping up in India. It had an initiative called the “garment brand collection program” where people received a discount voucher for giving a bag of their old clothes to any of their stores. The company claimed that those clothes would be recycled. In simple words, leaving nothing to waste. But this brands entire shtick of providing this feel good environmentally sustainable image is a classic case of green washing. The problem doesn’t lie in the classic reuse or recycle approach but the fact that these brands themselves are a part of the problem. The best way to reduce textile waste is buying fewer clothes.Dropping a bag of clothes for coupons will only get the cycle going on and on.
Origin of the term “Greenwashing “:
The term “greenwashing” was coined by Jay Westerveld in 1986 in a critical essay which was inspired by the irony of the ”save the towel” movement in the South Pacific hotel where he happened to pick up a card having the recycling symbol that read “Save Our Planet: Every day, millions of gallons of water are used to wash towels that have only been used once. You make the choice: A towel on the rack means, ‘I will use again.’ A towel on the floor means, ‘Please replace.’ Thank your for helping us conserve the Earth’s vital resources.” the world embraces the pursuit of greener practices. Westerveld saw the irony in the statement since hotels consume and waste a lot of resources that are on the line and not washing the towels would not make a lot of difference. But eventually he found out that this act of sustainability was not to save resources but rather to save money used on laundry. This enlightenment pushed him to coin the term “green washing”.
DIFFERENT WAYS OF GREEN WASHING
Green washing can be based on two grounds, firstly, a company can adopt an eco-friendly directive for an existing production method as if they were influenced by the concern for the environment to claim credit. For example, a company will ban the use of plastic bags under the name of green initiative but the actual motive of this initiative would have been to cut costs that the company spends on baggage. Secondly, a company will lie about the eco friendliness of a product by using catchphrases as marketing strategies to appear green and organic . For example, phrases like “paraben-free” “eco-friendly” etc. Further green washing can be done by using environmental imageries, misleading labels, hidden trade offs, irrelevant or unproven claims and red herring.
Seven sins of Green washing :
Terra choice in the year 2010, investigated the claims of 4,744 “green” products carried in the stores across the U.S, UK and Canada finding that more than 95% of these products were guilty of at least one of what they call as “the seven sins of green washing”
Sin of Hidden trade-off
It refers to labelling a product as environmentally friendly based on a small set of attributes when other concerns that could cause greater damage to the environment are not addressed. This might make a bigger impact on the eco-friendliness of a product as a whole.
Sin of no proof:
It is the making of an environmental claim without providing easily accessible evidence on either the label, product website with no reliable third party certification.
Sin of vagueness:
It is when a product description uses broad terms that cannot be properly understood.
Sin of irrelevance :
Starting something that is technically true but not a distinguishing factor when looking for eco-friendly products.
Sin of lesser of two evils:
Claiming to be greener than the other products in its category when the category as a whole may be environmentally unfriendly.
Sin of fibbing:
Advertising something that just isn’t true. Environmental claims that are simply false.
Sin of worshipping false labels:
Implying that a product has a third party endorsement or certification that doesn’t actually exist often through the use of fake certification labels.

How to avoid being green washed?
It is important that people don’t just assume something is truly natural because there’s a pretty sticker on the front label that claims so. One should head straight to the full ingredient list on the back of the product because that might tell the full story. It is important to look beyond pretty packaging and buzzwords because a green leaf on a package, pretty herbs on a shampoo bottle or any number of phrases that claim to be natural, eco – friendly or non toxic can paint a picture of health and sustainability which are meant to be a hook, prompting shoppers to pick up that product without digging deeper. Every person must strive to become an expert label reader and must look for proof, research and verify every product. It is important to draw the line between green and greed.

India fastly pacing towards inclusive growth

Introduction


The agenda of inclusivity and sustainability has become the focus of policy framework both at national and international level. The approach of development through “including” the general mass is directed towards a broad based growth, shared growth, and pro-poor growth.

World Bank defines the IG as follows:
“Inclusive Growth refers both to the pace and pattern of growth, which are interlinked and must be addressed together.”
Thus, in broad sense, IG means the inclusion of all sections of society in the process of economic development and sharing of its benefit. Therefore, IG is not only an outcome or end but a process or a mean in itself.

Dimensions of IG


These are the pillars of the building block of IG, or in simple terms, these are the ideals on which IG is based. Without these ideals, the IG remains superfluous in its merit.
• Economic Growth
India is among the fastest-growing major economies in the world. However, currently Indian economy is facing slowdown due to both cyclic and structural challenges.
However, the target of becoming a $ 5 trillion economy by 2024-25 can allow India to reduce inequality, increase social expenditure and provide employment to all.

• Equality:
Equality of opportunity in terms of access to markets, resources, and unbiased regulatory environment are the ends to mean of equality. In-equalities exist in various manners which are social inequalities, rural-urban divide, regional disparities, digital divide etc. To realize the IG in its ultimate form, equality is the most fundamental criteria. IG and equality impact each other. Without equality, IG can’t be achieved and lack of IG may lead to in-equality in real or perceived forms. Thus, IG and equality are mutually reinforcing. In contemporary economic environment, gender equality has become a basic element of IG. Gender inequality is a pervasive problem in Indian social set-up which has adverse effect on women. Although Indian economy has progressed, the equality has retrograded at all levels whether social or economic. An OECD report has identified that inequality in India has been continuously rising which has posed policy challenges in promotion of inclusiveness.

• Technological Advancement
The world is moving towards an era of Industrial Revolution 4.0. These technological advancements have capabilities to both decrease or increase the inequality depending on the way these are being used.
Technology can help to combat other challenges too,
• Agriculture- Modern technology can help in making an agro-value chain from farmer to consumer more efficient and competitive.
• Manufacturing– Technology can resolve the problems of finance, procuring raw materials, land, and linkages with the user market. GST was made possible only with the help of sound technology.
• Education– Innovative digital technologies can create new forms of adaptive and peer learning, increasing access to trainers and mentors, providing useful data in real-time.
• Health– Technologies could transform the delivery of public health services – extend care through remote health services.
• Social Development
It means the empowerment of all marginalised sections of the population like SC/ST/OBC/Minorities, women and transgenders.
Empowerment can be done by improving institutions of the social structure i.e. hospitals especially primary care in the rural areas, schools, universities, etc.
Investment in social structures will not only boost growth (by fiscal stimulus) but will also create a healthy and capable generation to handle future work

• Sustainability
In long term, it has been identified that, there has been a gross mismatch between the outcomes of the Indian Economic Planning for IG with respect to environment. Although, Indian economy has witnessed a rapid growth, there has been a decline in the environment and standard of living of the poor. In the issues related to IG as discussed ahead, it has been elaborated that Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) has put a sheer pressure on the environment and created a rural-urban divide. Sustainability and IG can’t be achieved in isolation and they supplement each other.

• Good Governance:
In simple words, governance means the regulatory, monitoring or controlling process which facilitates the devilry of the government services. Good governance results in effectiveness and efficiency, it upholds justice in the rule of law, and accountability and it encourages popular participation, consensus, and equality. Tenth plan defines governance in following way”.

As per OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), inclusive growth is economic growth that is distributed fairly across society and creates opportunities for all.

Defining inclusive growth, rapid pace of economic growth is necessary for substantial poverty reduction and for the growth to be sustainable in the long run, it must be broad based across sectors and inclusive of large part of a country’s labour force.
Promoting inclusive growth requires policymakers to address both growth and income distribution, so it requires an understanding of the relationships between growth, poverty and inequality. Economic growth is a prerequisite for poverty reduction when income distribution is held constant. The acknowledgment that inequality affects the impact of growth on poverty reduction has led to a broad agreement that it is necessary to look beyond a ‘growth-first’ agenda in order to successfully deliver inclusive growth.

The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are
Countries have committed themselves to time-bound targets of prosperity, people, planet, peace, partnership (five P’s) keeping in line with the United Nations 2030 agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. The Paris Agreement, which is part of the SDG framework, requires every country to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century . In order to achieve results in SDG, policy frameworks adopted by the Governments play a crucial role. The three principle layers to measure government efforts to implement the long-term objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement:
The SDG index summaries countries’ current performance and trends on the 17 SDGs.India ranks 115 in 2019.
In the context of India’s inclusive growth trajectory, the strategies of Inclusive growth and development came into the attention in the progressing policies of emerging market economies (EMEs) with higher economic growth rates. With an accelerated economic growth rate, Indian policy makers too moved their concentration on Inclusive growth and expansion while formulating the 12th five-year plan.Thus, the plan targeted deprived sections of the Indian population, health, employment, rural urban infrastructure, women and child development and social security measures against the backdrop of the strategy.

Key elements of inclusive growth


Since globalization, significant improvement in India’s economic and social development made the nation to grow strongly in the 21st century. The following factors encouraged India to concentrate more on inclusive growth:
• India is the 7th largest country by area and 2nd by population. It is the 12th largest economy at market exchange rate and 4th largest by PPP. Yet, India is far away from the development of the neighbourhood nation, i.e., China.
• The exclusion in terms of low agriculture
• There are so many studies that estimate that the cost of corruption in India amounts to over 10% of GDP. Corruption is one of the ills that prevent inclusive growth.
• Although child labour has been banned by the law in India and there are stringent provisions to deter this inhuman practice, still, many children in India are unaware of education as their lives are spoiled to labour work.
• Literacy levels have to rise to provide the skilled workforce, required for higher growth.
Achievement of 9% of GDP growth for
• as a whole is one of the boosting factors which gives the importance to the Inclusive growth in India.
• Reducing poverty and other disparities and raising economic growth is the key objectives of the nation through inclusive growth.

Measuring Inclusive Growth


Inclusive Development Index (IDI)
In the Inclusive Development Index (IDI) compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF), India ranked 62nd out of 74 emerging countries and was among the least inclusive countries in Group of 20 (G-20) countries.
The IDI is based on the idea that most people base their country’s growth not on GDP but by their own standard of living.
It gives a measure of inequality based on three parameters: :
• Growth and development
• Inclusion
• Inter-generational equity and sustainability.
India also did not make it to the top 10 most inclusive emerging and developing economies, where its neighbours Nepal, China and Sri Lanka made a mark.
India performed its best in terms of “intergenerational equity and sustainability”, ranking 44th, for which credit can be attributed to its demographic dividend

Measures Taken by India to Achieve Inclusive Growth


Several schemes are being implemented by the government for inclusive growth which includes the following:
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Scheme (MGNREGA)
• Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)
• Mudra Bank scheme
• Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY)
• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM)
• Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA)
• National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)
• Bharat Nirman
• Swachh Bharat Mission
• Mission Ayushman
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
• Government is working with NGOs and International groupings in policy making eg:
o DISHA Project is being implemented in partnership with UNDP for creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women in India.
• NITI Aayog’s Strategy for New India @75 has the following objectives for the inclusive growth:
o To have a rapid growth, which reaches 9-10% by 2022-23, which is inclusive, clean, sustained and formalized.
o To have an inclusive development in the cities to ensure that urban poor and slum dwellers including recent migrants can avail city services.
o To make schools more inclusive by addressing the barriers related to the physical environment (e.g. accessible toilets), admission procedures as well as curriculum design.
o To make higher education more inclusive for the most vulnerable groups.
o To provide quality ambulatory services for an inclusive package of diagnostic, curative, rehabilitative and palliative care, close to the people.
o To prepare an inclusive policy framework with citizens at the center

Conclusion


• Indian government along with the state gouvernments and local governments should continue to focus on eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable development in order to improve the lives of India’s people.
• Inclusive growth will help in the empowerment of vulnerable and marginalized populations, improve livelihoods, and augment skill-building for women.

The factors for stress and its management

Stress management policies and procedures are then explained and specified for each significant type of a stressors . This is done using a case study of an organisation , where it shows how this firm deals with each kind of different stressor.

Introduction

Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual confronted with an opportunity, constraint and demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.

Organizations are mainly concerned with work stress . Nevertheless , organisations provide training to their employees how to manage other personal stresses, since it affects work performance . In addition, organisation always follow up with economical , environmental and political stresses , since they all directly affect organisational work and increase their internal stress.

Types of stress

(i) Challange stressors (beneficial stressors) : Stress associated with workload, pressure to complete tasks , and time urgency. They enhance motivation, energy, alertness, and positive attitude.

(ii) Hindrance stressors (negative stressors) : Stress that keeps you from reaching your goals , and leave a feeling of depression , Anxiety , or pressure , such as red tape , role ambiguity , role conflict, role overloaded, job insecurity etc. and they cause greater harm than challenge sterssors.

sources of stressor:

# Environmental factors:

i) Political uncertainties of political systems

ii) Economic uncertainties of the business cycle : Many organisations are downsizing , so workers are afraid of losing their jobs.

iii) Technological uncertainties of technical innovations, where many technologies are replacing human forces, and other require high technical education in order to use, which forces employees to always keep learning and following up with these technologies.

Organisational factors:

  • Long working hours
  • Work- life balance
  • Retirement plan
  • Safety fears
  • security Hassles
  • Job stability and fear of downsizing
  • Stress to produce
  • Stress to abide by rules
  • Stress to live up to expectations
  • Task demand related to the job
  • Role demands for functioning in an organisation
  • Interpersonal demands created by other employees, stress to interact with other co-workers, supervisors, and to do this without causing hardship to ourselves or other.
  • work place diversity

Personal factors:

i》Family and personal relationships

ii》 Economic problems from exceeding earning capacity

iii》Personality problems arising from basic disposition

Consequence of stress

Stress are additive. High level of stress can lead to these following symptoms :

  • Physiological : Blood pressure, Headache and Stroke
  • Psychological : Dissatisfaction, tension, anxiety, irritability, boredom and procrastination . These effects are greater when roles are unclear in the presence of conflicting demands.
  • Behavioral : Changes in job behaviours , increased smoking and drinking , different eating habits, rapid speech, fidgeting and sleep disorders .

Cost of stress on Organisation

a) Lowered productivity

b) Excessive absenteeism

c) Increased insurance costs

d) Increased turnover

An organisation implementation of stress management

The following are demonstrations of several kinds of stressor and solutions that organisation’s management implements for them:

Long working hours:

# Management teaches and trains its employee on the following:

  • good time management techniques, and never to delay work for the last minutes etc.
  • The organisation applies recognition and rewards programs
  • Managers give positive reinforcement : they tell their employees when they do a good job , and compliment on it.
  • Change employees’ attitudes and current positive self- talk : how to think of successful situations as a challenge to your creative thinking, Always say, “I am capable of doing it, it’s good for me to enhance my capabilities and learn new tough skills etc.”

Work- life Balance :

  • Applying flex-time , especially for females who have children and house responsibilities , where do not have to be restricted to come and leave at a specific time , as long as total sum of working hours still the same.
  • Establishing nurseries in the organisation for the day care of employees’ children
  • Applying labour law that states to offer paid vacations of minimum 21 days for employees (this varievaries according to each country)

Technology :

  • The organisation employs specialized IT professional who is only responsible for assisting all employees on their IT related issues
  • Tge organisation provides specialised training courses on any topic required for work advancement

Manager’s inability to find solutions for stress :

  • The organisation encourages communication and always asks for feedback , where the HR manager is always accessible to any employee to listen to.
  • The organisation always try to follow up all the corporate and business news , in addition to new studies published regarding work stress, how to spot in and solve it.

Security fears:

The organisation has done great efforts in making employees and people feel safe by applying laws for security checks , checking identities of visitors to the firm and not allowing unauthorized people to enter.

Retirement plans:

Applying social security system and pension fund, which is a great insurance and relief for employees in order not to worry about their retirement any more.

Job security and fear of downsizing:

The economic crisis is very complex. Unfortunately, layoffs and downsizing are forced on many organisations , and there is nothing that management can do internally to stop this issue.

# Workplace diversity

# Task demands related to job and Role demands of functioning in an organisation

India vs China, Economic Differences Yet India Liveable

The President of China (Left) and The Prime Minister of India (Right)

China and India are the two fastest growing Asian economies. Respective governments have left no stones unturned to project the two nations as ideal investment destination on global platform, inviting industrialists with the lure of a business-friendly atmosphere. The two countries have always been at loggerheads for political reasons, making their bilateral relationship really rocky. The leaders at the helm of power of these two neighbours are known for their reformative approach and the similarities between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President XI Jinping are conspicuous. Both of them are known to rub shoulders with ten-figure friends to draw investments. While China has wowed the world with its bullet trains, India is pacing ahead in its space mission, launching valuable communication satellites.

Here’s a list of four fronts in which India is ahead of China in terms of growth:

India Being one of the Greatest Economy Balancer

An important metric where India beats China is financial market development. India ranks 38, while China ranks 56. Though the two nations introduced separate sets of reforms at different points of time, China started moving towards the pro-market economy in 1978 and India did the same in 1991. But India is 15 years ahead of China with regard to reforms in economic and financial markets. Experts are of the opinion that India has performed better than China in the financial sector. Indian bond market is known as one of the most liquid in Asia, which is well regulated by the RBI and is fully electronic. India is known as one of the best countries in the world in the way the financial sector is managed. As far as equity markets are concerned, reporting standards in India maintain global standards.

Tight Competition Among India and China in Space Technology

Though China is doing really good in space missions, India is not much behind with its successive launching of communication satellites. Recently, India has sent its heaviest communication satellite with its own GSLV MK III. India reportedly aims to win a bigger share of the $300-billion global space industry. It has successfully launched record 104 satellites, earning praise even from its northern neighbour. China started its space missions in the late 1950s while India entered the space in 1962 and is racing fast.

India being a Top Pharmaceutical Manufacturer and Exporter

India regards pharmaceutical production and exports as one of its biggest strengths. It has consistently beaten China in exports of pharmaceutical products to Latin America in the past five years. In 2016, India exported products worth $651 million to Latin America, as compared to China’s $404 million-worth exports, stated the IBEF report. Fortunately, India has never suffered regulation bottlenecks in the sector, ensuring the ease of doing business for Indian manufacturers and vendors.

What makes our country’s growth in this sector more interesting is the fact that it imports the bulk of its raw materials from China. This sector is not really the focus area of Beijing. A study by Assocham forecasted in june 2016 that India’s pharma exports could reach $20 billion by 2020. It has already crossed this mark and in fact the impact of covid-19 in 2020 has led to major medicinal demands from India than any time before. Demands of hydroxychloroquine from India have surged to a point where many countries like US, Australia, UK & other European countries are all lined up for getting these and many other medical drugs.

Judge yourself

Don’t give advice because people never listen. Did you listen to someone? If yes you are lying. If you listen to someone then you will never advice someone. If you don’t listen to someone then you will always prefer to advice the advice you got.

My suggestion is you never listen to other suggestions because it remains as a suggestion. But you have to listen to my suggestion of you don’t want to listen others suggestion. People cannot accept the fact of denying their capacity. Accept your worth if you wanna improve your skills.

Atleast be honest with yourself because it’s you with whom you have to spent rest of your life. Accept yourself and try to keep on improving. If you wanna improve them listen to yourself. You are the only judge who can make right choice. Listen to your advice and make yourself out of it. Never betray yourself and try to fix the things that you wanna fix. Make yourself by listening to yourself.

Privatisation of Indian Railways

Indian railways has the 4th largest railway network in the world. And the maintenance of such a big network is solely on the Railways. To lessen this burden, empowered group of secretaries headed by NITI  Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant have planned the privatisation of the railways. Railways currently recovers only 57% of its cost through passenger tickets. Some of its income is through freight. At the same time it has many expenses such as salaries of the employees, maintaining trains etc. Under privatisation, there will be an investment of around ₹30,000 crore and many expenditures will be borne by private players.

It is to be noted that now our Railways have the same corridor for both freight and passenger trains, which is expected to get separated when the privatisation happens. If such a thing happens it is expected that the problem of punctuality of trains will improve and the passengers will get better service. The government has identified 109 busy routes which will get 151 private trains, but this is only 5% of the total trains that run in India. This means that 95% of the control remains with Railways.

The privatisation will be done in 12 clusters, namely Patna, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Secunderabad, Howrah, Prayagraj, Chandigarh, Chennai and two clusters each in Delhi and Mumbai. The private firms will be placing bids on those particular clusters which they want to take up. The first round of bidding has ended and the second one will end by this financial year and the first set of 12 trains is estimated to be on tracks by the year 2022-23. Thereafter 45 trains in 2023-24, 50 in 2025-26 and 44 in 2026-27, which in total will be 151 private trains. Any private company, Indian or foreign are allowed to place their bids. But there are some conditions as well. The company should have a minimum net worth of ₹1,165 crore in its last financial year. This amount is different according to different clusters and can go up to ₹1,600 crore. The companies have to follow government rules and regulations. The trains should have a maximum speed of 160 km per hour and also minimum of 16 coaches. Of course the company which will give the Railways the maximum revenue who will win the bid but there is also a performance indicator which is punctuality which has the highest number of points to ascertain the performance. The Railways on its part will provide land to this private companies to work on. This is the same land which Railways have.

It is obvious that the tickets of these trains will be higher than we have now. Some people fear that this may cause segregation among the middle class or poor people and the upper class since these trains may not be affordable to all. But our Railway Minister Mr. Piyush Goyal has clarified that Railway will have sufficient control and also the recruitments will happen under the Railway Ministry only. The privatisation is happening to just a fraction of total capacity of the Railways. According to him it is more like a Public-Private Partnership. He assured that Indian Railways will not be fully privatised.

Don’t be a tool of a tool :

Influencer Marketing is a magic bullet, it’s going to solve all your problems, it works every time, but it increases your odds. And in marketing, that’s all you can ask for. And if you can break even or turn a profit two times more than you fail, guess what?That is a remarkable record. The value of Influencer Marketing , Lots of other data is out there in the marketing statistics. As a society were the passive tool for a business to kick start at its worse and become better we’re also going to help you develop a business case for Influencer Marketing in your organization because , Because ultimately, you’re going to need some funding. One of the things that unfortunately is happening in most businesses today is there are little experiments going on with Influencer Marketing, and they’re all underfunded. And so, one of the things that goes beyond strategy and tactics is to say how do you explain this to top management in such a way that they’re going to give you a budget to actually implement it. There are other ways to spend your money and they are much more likely to be effective, and we’re going to explore that. But we want you to know what, let’s just say the suckers, are falling for, what the rubes, the naive people, who think, “Oh, if I just give enough money to the right influencer, magic happens.” That’s a total story , no magic is gonna happen until unless you make yourself up for being a tool for a tool , as a rational human beings we’ve all got bigger stuff to do than just being someone who just keeps up with anything.

When the right influence hits the top most elite button that’s when actual productivity starts to show up in the phases of marketing influences and strategies. It’s not a big deal to cut yourself off from something that makes you feel like anything less than a tool , being helpful is way more different from being a tool for a tool. Actual and authentic magic happens when you put your actual self out there and step out of your comfort zone.

Innuendo: The other kind of Defamation

Innuendo is used to describe defamation from libel or slander. It is derived from a Latin term “innuere”, “to nod toward”. In lawsuit for defamation, usually to show that the party suing was the person about whom the defamatory statement was made. Example: ‘the former Mayor is a crook,” and Joe Alexander is the only living ex-Mayor, thus by innuendo Alexander is the target of the statement.

Defamation is the injury to the reputation of a person. If a person harms the reputation of another he does so at his own risk. As in the case of interference with the property, a man’s reputation is his property, and if possible, more valuable, than other property.

Any intentional false, defamatory statement or communication, written or spoken that decrease the respect, regard or confidence of a person will be called defaming him. Essential of defamation include, the statement being published, the statement should not be truth and it must refer to the plaintiff.

The intention to defame is not necessary  as held in the Scottish  case of Morrison v. Ritchie and Co.[1] ,where damages were recovered against the proprietors of a newspaper who in all innocence had announced in the paper that a lad, who had in fact been married only a month, had given Innuendo is a concept that is related to tort law and is a personal injury law. The word is derived from ‘innuere’, which is a Latin word and means to ‘nod forward’. In legal terms, Innuendo is used to describe defamation from either libel or slander. It usually shows that the plaintiff had bad comments made about him and those comments were in fact defamatory.

The innuendo is usually just used in actions for slander, when a defamation made by words or gestures. Innuendo typically refers to a condition where a person explains a factual situation which on the first note might not sound defamatory but, yet after interpreting can cause or has caused damage to the person.

Thus, when Innuendo is on the table to be proved, it must always show the entire scenario from start to the end of the declaration. This serves to be very important to prove that the intent can be mistaken, or when it cannot be directly obtained from the forms of slander or libel.

There are two major types of innuendo. True Innuendo and False Innuendo. False innuendo is a defamatory statement made that has an implied meaning. So, only individuals who have the necessary contextual knowledge can understand that the comment made is defamatory.

Secondly, legal or true innuendo. While this is not defamatory on its face, a true innuendo statement can be defamatory when combined with certain outside circumstances. This contextual information may cause a statement to be considered defamatory in a certain way while not another.

A statement may be prima facie defamatory when their natural, obvious and primary sense is defamatory. Sometimes, the words may prima facie be innocent but because of some latent or secondary meaning, it may be considered to be defamatory.

Where the words alleged to be defamatory do not appear to be such on their face, the plaintiff must make out the circumstances which made them actionable, and he must set forth in his pleading the defamatory sense he attributes to them. Such an explanatory statement is called an innuendo.

When the natural and ordinary meaning is not defamatory but the plaintiff wants to bring an action for defamation, the burden of proof lies on him to prove the innuendo.

In the absence of an innuendo, no evidence can be admitted to prove a special meaning and the suit will be dismissed.

An innuendo is necessary where the imputation is made in an oblique way, or by way of question, exclamation, or conjecture, or irony.

An innuendo, properly so called, which provides a separate cause of action, must be supported by extrinsic facts or matter and cannot be founded on mere interpretation.

[1] 1902 SLR 39

Phoney healthy influences :

The gist of the problem is simple. Most of the content that most of the marketers are creating on most of their social media platforms is, pardon me, corporate propaganda. It’s not something that you would share with a friend.The alternative is not to try to get people who have learned to write one way over their entire marketing career and they create brochureware. And put it on a social platform and expect magic to happen, it doesn’t. Boring content is still boring content. But boring doesn’t mean to make up hideous content and end up causing mental illness to the viewers out there , there’s toxic consequences of each ugly marketing strategy that’s taken up by all these people who are desperate enough to make it up to their organization. Here the joke is on us , it’s literally on the people who believe that everything’s that put on to a certain platform is true which actually is not. But there is a different group of people out there who are creating engaging content, amazing content. Content that people are commenting on. Content that people are sharing. Content that people are liking like mad. And who are these people? For lack of a better term, we’ll call them influencers. We as society are blinded up by all the appealing phony things that have been put out on the cyber platforms which isn’t something of authentic content and we are forgetting how pathetic the interaction is with people in the social platform. There were very few shares. There were very few likes. There were incredibly few comments. I don’t know how much you’re paying your staff to create this content. But if nobody’s interacting with it, if it isn’t engaging anyone, why are you doing it? What’s the big deal? Of course when some activity of that such is engaged through many means with the society it makes a big deal and people need to route for healthy influences.

Tentative business issues

Indecisiveness in any area of business organizations are a common thing , in a society like today times we need to actualize certain factors that effect the underrated things in business. Yes or no decisions are very common in business problems. In prescriptive analytics, yes or no decisions are modeled with binary variables.Each publisher breaks down the subscriber base into a number of groups based on demographics and location. The company has set a budget for the advertising campaign and wants to maximize the number of subscribers exposed to its ads. The company wants to determine which publishers to select and how many groups to purchase from each publisher but there comes the actual issue , business is a chain which isn’t guaranteed of transparency and assured loyalty. Clearly, the selection of a publisher requires a yes or no decision. That is, a publisher is either selected or not. Once a publisher is selected, a second decision must be made regarding the number of subscriber groups to purchase. The model for this problem must take into consideration that no subscriber groups can be purchased from a publisher that has not been selected. It also must consider that when two publishers are competitors, the company wants to select amongst one of them. Finally, the model should take into account that there is a fixed cost for engaging a publisher. These analyzing contributions to the business benefit the subordinates and defining chances of minimizing the indecisiveness which causes to the loss of business.

Subordinates or the superiors who are utmost torn between a yes or no often end up having serious doubts about the overall subjecting of several other aspects effecting the business’s There are many more in areas such as network design in supply chain management, portfolio selection in finance, and power generation in energy. Energy contributing into the organization must be cut into rational and fair parts of the business , it keep the game on.

Money heist 5

The famous Netflix series “Money heist” is setting for fifth season,Money heist stars Alvaro morte,Ursula corbero,alba Forbes,are gearing for the final season

Money heist all four seasons are streaming in Netflix,the four seasons contains 31 episodes

The season started from 2 May 2017 in Netflix

Energy drinks, good or bad ?

Energy drinks are widely promoted as products that increase energy and enhance mental alertness and physical performance. Next to multivitamins, energy drinks are the most popular dietary supplement consumed by American teens and young adults. Men between the ages of 18 and 34 years consume the most energy drinks, and almost one-third of teens between 12 and 17 years drink them regularly. Energy drinks are supposed to do just what the name implies — give you an extra burst of energy. As it turns out, most of that “energy” comes from two main ingredients: sugar and caffeine. A typical energy drink can contain up to 80 milligrams of caffeine (about the same amount as a cup of coffee). By comparison, a 2006 study found that the average 12-ounce soda contains 18 to 48 mg of caffeine.

Other than caffeine levels, how do energy drinks differ from sodas and sports drinks? Soft drinks are mainly water, sugar and flavouring. They don’t do anything for your body; they’re just supposed to taste good. Sports drinks are designed to replenish fluids lost during activity. They typically contain water, electrolytes and sugar. Energy drinks have added caffeine and other ingredients that their manufacturers say increase stamina and “boost” performance. They’re designed for students, athletes and anyone else who wants an extra energy kick.

Energy drinks became popular in Asia long before they reached the United States. In 1962, Japanese pharmaceutical company, Taisho, released its Lipovitan D drink. It was designed to help employees work hard well into the night. Lipovitan D contains taurine, the same ingredient found in many of today’s energy drinks.

The very first “energy” drink to reach the United States wasn’t an energy drink at all — it was more of a hyped-up soft drink called Jolt Cola. The “jolt” in the cola was a lot of added sugar and caffeine. Introduced in the 1980s, Jolt Cola quickly became a staple of college campuses.

There are two kinds of energy drink products. One is sold in containers similar in size to those of ordinary soft drinks, such as a 16-oz. bottle. The other kind, called “energy shots,” is sold in small containers holding 2 to 2½ oz. of concentrated liquid. Caffeine is a major ingredient in both types of energy drink products—at levels of 70 to 240 mg in a 16-oz. drink and 113 to 200 mg in an energy shot. (For comparison, a 12-oz. can of cola contains about 35 mg of caffeine, and an 8-oz. cup of coffee contains about 100 mg.) Energy drinks also may contain other ingredients such as guarana (another source of caffeine sometimes called Brazilian cocoa), sugars, taurine, ginseng, B vitamins, glucuronolactone, Yohimbe, carnitine, and bitter orange.

Consuming energy drinks raises important safety concerns.

  • Between 2007 and 2011, the number of energy drink-related visits to emergency departments doubled. In 2011, 1 in 10 of these visits resulted in hospitalization.
  • About 25 per cent of college students consume alcohol with energy drinks, and they binge-drink significantly more often than students who don’t mix them.
  • The CDC reports that drinkers aged 15 to 23 who mix alcohol with energy drinks are four times more likely to binge drink at a high intensity (i.e., consume six or more drinks per binge episode) than drinkers who do not mix alcohol with energy drinks.
  • Drinkers who mix alcohol with energy drinks are more likely than drinkers who do not mix alcohol with energy drinks to report unwanted or unprotected sex, driving drunk or riding with a driver who was intoxicated, or sustaining alcohol-related injuries.
  • In 2011, 42 per cent of all energy drink-related emergency department visits involved combining these beverages with alcohol or drugs (such as marijuana or over-the-counter or prescription medicines).

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that energy drinks can have serious health effects, particularly in children, teenagers, and young adults. In several studies, energy drinks have been found to improve physical endurance, but there’s less evidence of any effect on muscle strength or power. Energy drinks may enhance alertness and improve reaction time, but they may also reduce the steadiness of the hands. The amounts of caffeine in energy drinks vary widely, and the actual caffeine content may not be identified easily. Some energy drinks are marketed as beverages and others as dietary supplements. There’s no requirement to declare the amount of caffeine on the label of either type of product.

COVID-19 ROLE OF MEDIA

The spread of the COVID-19 has proved deadly, and this is a challenging time for the union as well as state governments as they work to address this health emergency. However, shows that in times of crisis, democratic governments may take a dangerous autocratic turn. In such a situation, journalism has a great role to play in a democracy, as it has been ideally visualized as a platform for objective information and critical-rational discourse. Thus, the health of journalism in a country can be examined in the times of a crisis. 

Corporate control over most media bodies also means that they become an instrument of the ideological apparatus of the state. There are many concerns associated with the COVID-19 crisis: ill-equipped public health systems, policies to combat the pandemic, and the lack of planning and support to the vulnerable sections. These issues demand serious examination, but the mainstream media, barring some courageous exceptions, seems to be forgetting its democratic role.

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Manipulation of Discourse

Just before the announcement of the nationwide lockdown till 14th April 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly called upon print and electronic media owners and editors of the country and asked them to support government efforts to combat the pandemic and also advised them to present “positive news” related to COVID-19 (Sagar 2020).

Plainly put, these were the owners and editors who control most of the Indian media at the national and regional levels who were advised to abide by the official narrative and present information as provided to them by the government about COVID-19.

Why would media houses follow government diktat rather than investigating the real state of affairs, unless they have associated business interests? Journalism is considered to be an ethical communicative practice in a democracy, but corporate ownership subverts the autonomy of journalism and the freedom of the press. Unfortunately, this conflict of interest has become a common feature of Indian journalism.

However, even though a majority of Indian media is under corporate control, there are many counter-voices both within and outside this grouping. Thus, the Indian mediascape has become a battleground of ideologies. Many of these alternate counter-voices have raised genuine issues of social concern during the pandemic outbreak.

The prevalence of international media on the internet and small media organizations in the country has played an important role in disseminating factual and more nuanced information, but unfortunately, these platforms do not have the vast access that big corporate media platforms are privy to. 

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Media shoes its Islamophobic side

Media’s ugliest moment, however, was its coverage of the news surrounding Delhi’s Tablighi Jamaat Markaz (meeting). Many participants had left after the markaz, but many were stranded in the mosque due to the lockdown and were later found infected. However, the media outrage that followed was clearly an extension of the already prejudiced and polarised coverage, as the Tablighi Jamaat was blamed for violating lockdown rules and for “corona jihad,” “Islamic insurrection,” and “corona terrorism.” This is clearly an example of fake news propagated by the mainstream media to further the predominant agenda (BBC 2020; News Laundry 2020). Muslims were also attacked in various parts of the country. 

People of other religious groups also gathered at religious places in large numbers even after the lockdown, but they were not criticised in a similar manner. However, when some journalists did raise questions, they were threatened with legal action (Scroll 2020).

The need of Greater Accountability

Since most of the people are at home during the lockdown, it is natural to see a growth in media consumption. People are using various media platforms for COVID-19-related information,   but what is provided is far from factual and does not further a critical rational discourse.

Some television news channels see a Chinese conspiracy in the spread of COVID-19. In such a “positive” atmosphere, the news related to labourers’ mass exodus and the markaz was mostly presented due to its sensational value.The pandemic is also threatening an already-deteriorating economy, which also demands a thorough investigation beyond the official narratives. The media, however, has worries related to its own economic situation. Print media, especially, is dealing with a resource crunch, dwindling advertisements, and worries of reduction in circulation and readership.

With concerns of job security, inadequate resource support, and abuses faced by the police, many journalists are putting their health at stake to cover the COVID-19 situation. This scenario does little to add to the morale of honest and responsible journalists. Some media houses have already begun cutting wages; an extension in the lockdown can create a new crisis in Indian journalism. 

The role of larger media as observed during the pandemic, however, is not an overnight shift. It has been visible for some time now.  The media has seen phenomenal growth during the last three decades, and India has become one of the biggest media markets in the world.

YouTubers and YouTube Web Series

Amidst the pandemic, I found it hard to be productive. Being thankful for my privilege, I spent times exploring YouTube.

Here’s a list of Youtubers and YouTube Brands I love:

  • Mostly Sane
  • Bake with Shivesh
  • The Detail Geek
  • Cooking Shooking
  • Jordindian
  • Filter Copy
  • Gabriel Iglesias
  • The Ellen Show
  • East India Company
  • Safiya Nygaard
  • The Try Guys
  • Jess and Gabriel
  • Ladylike
  • Shitty Ideas Trending
  • KKandbabyJ
  • Cupcake Jemma
  • Collins Key  
  • Sejal Kumar
  • OKbaby
  • Keren Swan
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live
  • Chloe Rose Art
  • Jess Conte
  • 8 Passengers
  • Cody and Lexy
  • Rebal D
  • Gabriel Conte
  • OK Tested
  • Dice Media
  • Penn Masala

WEBSERIES:

  • Operation MBBS – “Operation MBBS chronicles the lives of three first year students – Huma, Sakshi and Nishant in one of the best MBBS colleges in the country. Follow their journey as they navigate through friendships, hardships and medical student life.”
  • Wrong Number – “Story revolving around a hilarious confusion where Karan, a 2nd year engineering student, receives a message from Khushi, a medical student, on his (not so) new number. The catch here is that Karan’s new number previously belonged to Rajat, who was Khushi’s ex-boyfriend. Rajat broke contact with Khushi after a fight they had around the time when school ended and never contacted her again. But Khushi never gave up her efforts of contacting him. So now, when this number switch happens, Khushi is under the illusion that she is talking to Rajat whereas it’s Karan on the other side.”
  • College Romance – “Three best friends look for love, laughs and some lifelong memories while attending college together.”
  • Girlsplaining – “How can two girls, a batchmate and a senior, teach and train a guy who is clueless about relationships and sex?”
  • Girl in the City – “This show is about a young girl who comes to Mumbai to live her dreams and aim at her aspirations. It is about her journey in the big city.”
  • Adulting – “Adulting is a coming of age story about two young women trying to handle the responsibilities of being independent adults in the fast-paced, urban bustle of Mumbai.”
  • Kota Factory – “Dedicated to Shrimati SL Loney ji, Shri Irodov ji and Maanniya HC Verma ji, ‘Kota Factory’ is TVF’s latest original. India’s first ‘Black and White’ show highlights the problems present day IIT-JEE aspirants face in their day-to-day lives.”
  • Engineering Girls – “Three engineering students deal with dorm drama, date around, and do whatever it takes to make their dreams come true.”
  • What the Folks – “’What The Folks’ is a journey of how modern families are breaking stereotypes, overcoming generation gaps, and growing to love one another, despite having starkly different world views.”
  • Soulmates – “The story revolves around the two ex-schoolmates who bump into each other while on the trip to Shillong. Priyanshu, an aspiring music composer who is in Shillong chasing the girl of a rock band accidentally meets his schoolmate Anshul Chauhan who is on a solo bike trip across northeast. Two meet unexpectedly and fall in love, or maybe they don’t, but both of them have been giving some really adorable vibes.”
  • The Reunion – “Aarya, Dev, Deva and Gaurav go back to school after 10 years only to realise its important to look back to move forward. Friendships, relationships and some memories are at stake. Amidst the Bourbon High Batch of 2008, they find answers to what was left behind.”

Fundamental rights and the Environment

 

The Golden Triangle of the Indian Constitution – Article 14, Article 19 and Article 21 – has been invoked time and again for environmental protection. The High Courts and Supreme Court of India have read the right to a wholesome environment as a part of the right to life guaranteed in Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

In the Dehradun Quarrying Case, though the orders did not articulate the fundamental right to a clean and healthy environment, the petition was treated as a writ under Article 32, which implied that the court was seeing this right in the light of a fundamental right. The Supreme Court explained the basis of this jurisdiction in the later case of Subhash Kumar v State of Bihar where the court held that the right to life is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution and it includes right of enjoyment of pollution free water, air for full enjoyment of life. and that .if anything endangers or impairs the quality of life, in derogation of laws, a citizen has a right to have a recourse to Article 32 of the Constitution for removing the pollution of water or air which may be detrimental to the quality of life.. This concept has been furthered by the Supreme Court and various High Courts decisions worded differently by concretising the idea of right to a clean and healthy environment as a part of fundamental rights.

 

The other integral part of right to life is right to livelihood as enumerated in the Olga Tellis Case, which is again a judicial enlargement of the right to life envisaged under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. In Olga Tellis the Court looking at the limitation of the Indian State said that to deprive a person of his right to livelihood would mean depriving him of his life. The State may not by affirmative action be compellable to provide adequate means of livelihood or work to the citizens but any person who is deprived of his right to livelihood by law can challenge the deprivation as offending the right to life conferred by Article 21. Many environmentalists think that the right to livelihood could be asserted to prevent environmentally disruptive projects that threaten to uproot tribal people and villagers for depriving their right to livelihood. The recent agitation by the farmers of Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal and Narmada Bachao Andolans (NBA) campaign against the Sardar Sarovar Dam can be understood in this perspective. However, industries see a strict environmental regime at loggerheads with the right to livelihood and clean/healthy environment of the citizens. The argument forwarded by the industry interests can be rebutted on the grounds that right to clean environment and right to livelihood are complementary rather than contradictory. If all industries follow the environmental standards, then the price of products will include all the external costs which would have to be borne by the consumers. Nevertheless, even this alternative can be questioned in a third world country like India where most people are unable to afford costlier products.

 

Article 14 can be invoked to challenge government sanctions for projects with high environmental impact, where permissions are arbitrarily granted without adequate consideration, for example, of their environmental impacts. Article 19(1) (g) provides that all citizens shall have the right to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business but with reasonable restrictions which may be placed in the interest of the general public as provided within section 19 sub clause (6), which might include total prohibition. Accordingly, in cases involving polluting industrial units, the courts face the task of balancing the environmental imperative with the right to carry on any occupation/trade or business.