Bigg boss 4

The biggest reality show of India is planning for bigg boss 4 in telugu,a special ad is shooted with safe king Nagarjuna

The bigg boss team is planning to start the show from August 30

also the team is planning to send housemates to isolation for 14 days,this season is only go to held for 70 days,the winners get prize money 50 lakhs

The bigg boss 4 Telugu is going to be telcast in star mana and hotstar

Nuclear Weapon

World has seen two world wars. Last one demonstrated the overwhelming intensity of the atomic weapon. Japan and the individuals of influenced district despite everything feeling the effect of the equivalent. After that they changed their course to turn into a radical country. In any case, after that race began among the countries to obtain the atomic weapons ability. After the USA, Russia, China, India, France, Germany, Britain, India, Pakistan, etc, all contended with one another to obtain the edge in atomic reserves. This spread of atomic weapons abilities with numerous countries brought forth the two perspectives. One this is danger to the endurance of world and present age. Second that it is technique for prevention for foe countries and they attempt to stay away from war-like circumstance. Anyway the two perspectives are introducing outrageous perspectives. Positively atomic weapons are danger for nations. Also, imagining that advancement of atomic weapons by every significant country will go about as prevent, isn’t right view all .

The view that atomic weapons capacity with all countries, will in the long run bring harmony for the world, is thinking like arm each resident of a country and it will end the viciousness from the nation. War isn’t all around thought and pre-arranged thing, it is chosen by the few conditions. We can take instances of the universal wars. An occasion may broke the war. Anyway the greatness of the war is chosen by the verifiable, international, prudent and a lot more factors. In this way, world can sit loosen up that every single significant force have atomic weapons capacity, so it will acquire the harmony the world. On the off chance that that had case, nations would not have expanded their safeguard financial plan.

Nations have diverse household political conditions For example India has vote based system since after independence,Pakistan has semi-majority rule political framework and barrier related issues are to a great extent managed by the Pakistani armed force, Myanmar is administered by the military. So this household governmental issues, additionally impacts the dynamic in the safeguard and wars. Any off-base and dictator choice may bring the war-like circumstance and afterward no body can ensure that atomic weapons nations retreat from war. A year ago North Korea, arranged its atomic rocket against the USA, regardless of realizing that the USA is a long ways ahead in guard. Little issues may grow into greater things. We have to deal with those things.

Most huge danger originates from non-state on-screen characters like fear based oppressors associations and gatherings. Late development is one such model and his expanding impact represents a major test for the world. The significant thing for world to ensure atomic ‘know-how’ and atomic material from these associations. Indeed, even India is positioned 18 out of 25 atomic prepared nations, in issues of atomic insurance. This is most exceedingly terrible for nations like Pakistan, North Korea and west Asian countries. Accordingly, here even least of prevention thing won’t work, pondering harmony is a long ways ahead.

This view just work in the condition that each country and different partners acknowledge ‘tit for tat will make entire world visually impaired’. Be that as it may, this is just dream. In this way, there is have to take activities from countries side from various levels-national, global and common society. Nations has acknowledge that equipping themselves is no arrangement from any contention rather they have to finance the peaceful strategic approaches to discover the questions with different nations. Gandhi ji utilized just weapons of harmony and peacefulness to remove the strong British. Nations like India additionally support for Nuclear demobilization, anyway it ought to be managed without leaving any restrictive class of countries. As ground-breaking countries attempted in past by bringing the understandings like Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which attempted to shield barely any countries from keeping atomic weapons capacity. Universal bodies like UN need to receive way to deal with battle against this. Anyway this is too rely on countries’ drives.

Nations has constrained assets particularly creating and immature. What’s more, they heap number of issues neediness joblessness, hunger, lack of healthy sustenance, insufficient sanctuary, sickness trouble, etc. Regardless of this circumstance they are occupying their assets to store an ever increasing number of atomic weapons. Will these abilities feed anybody poor? World needs to meet up to end this race and danger to our own reality. Harmony on the planet must be acquired when we end the enmity for different countries, different races, different religions. This will be fitting technique approach the questions. At that point they can be illuminated without scorn, without savagery.

Media Publicity and its importance

In order to sell any products or services, your customers have to know that your business exists. Publicity is the process of creating public awareness of your business, brand, products, or services through media coverage and other forms of communication

Media coverage has unique advantages as a promotional strategy. After more than 30 years, Media Relations is a recognized expert in arranging product publicity. Following are really good reasons why one should make media coverage one of their marketing priorities.
Media stories put a face on your company. When your spokesperson is featured in the news, you have the opportunity to build trust and credibility with your audience.
You can make an emotional connection with your audience. We all prefer to do business with people we like. When consumers see a likable, knowledgeable person saying nice things about your product in a news story, they’re more apt to have a positive opinion about your company.
News stories cause audiences to pay attention. Media Relations’ publicists are experts at getting the media to pay attention to your story. In turn, reporters and producers are experts at positioning stories so that their audiences will pay attention to your message.

Importance Of Media Publicity

A business firm can get various benefits from use of publicity as promotion mix . Its credibility, greater number of readers, adequate information, low cost and greater speed of passing information are the main causes to make it important.

  1. Credibility
    As sponsor is not mentioned or not identified in publicity, the information and message about goods or services communicated by independent source become more credible and dependable.
  2. Greater readership
    As information and messages about goods or services are communicated mostly through important newspapers or other media , greater number of readers can read the information and messages published in them. So, sometime publicity plays an important role of promotion.
  3. Contains more information
    Publicity is used as more information and messages can be included in it than in other promotion methods , specially, advertisement. Many aspects of goods or services of business firm can be covered in special feature articles.
  4. Cost benefit
    Not so considerable cost is needed in publicity. Advertisement is a costly method of promotion, but publicity is comparatively much economical method. In other words, if calculated the cost for advertisement, more benefits can be received from publicity.
  5. Speed
    Speed is another importance of publicity. It is the faster means for communication , information and messages about firm and its goods or services. Publicity has greater speed to reach the public.

Development Goals and Poverty

A definitive emergency that the present world is managing is hunger and poverty. Numerous Asian and African nations are tormented by this overwhelming danger. India, however hailed for its destitution easing results, has over 20% of its populace underneath the neediness line. The satisfaction of essential necessities of an individual ought to be a crucial human right regardless of sex, age, area, individual capacities and so forth. The pioneers of the world have understood this danger. The UN specifically has thought of thousand years Developmental Goals comprising of eight objectives, each setting focuses for on some human emergency. Among them, destitution is the greatest concern.

Millennium Developmental Goals set up numerous objectives (around 18) under 8 fundamental classification for each nation that is a signatory to it. It says that each ought to diminish half of their destitution from 1990 to 2015. There are different focuses for kid mortality, maternal mortality, essential instruction, sexual orientation difference in training, sicknesses like AIDS and Malaria and maintainable and impartial development. Every one of the above disturb destitution, so every single one of the objectives is basic for diminishing neediness.

Presently it is as of now 2015 and appraisals have been finished. UN says that India and China have accomplished a great work for accomplishing the objectives. Nonetheless, on numerous different fronts, the upgrades were not seen according to the objectives set. Indeed, even if there should be an occurrence of neediness, irrefutably the number for example around 30 crore, is sufficiently tremendous to demonstrate that this emergency despite everything poses a potential threat.

Objectives and their appraisal is basic to neediness easing. The current status of neediness i.e. its evaluation is the first step. Realizing this will empower us to know how greater the emergency it. Plans to ease it are required and they ought to be slow and feasible. Objectives and measuring sticks need to set dependent on our financial limit. After this stage, evaluation is required to be done yearly, to know how we have fared and is these approaches working agreeably or any arrangement changes are required. In this manner improvement objectives are exceptionally essential. What’s more, accomplishment of MDG further requires the utilization of these in future.

After British left, the things that were left in India were mass neediness, hunger, starvation, absence of education, plagues and so forth. The principal thing the Indian head did was to evacuate neediness. This was remembered for the first FYP at a high need . The bound farming was resuscitated. Land proprietorship was allowed to turners. This guaranteed India become adequate in food and grains. Demonstrating food security is the essential alleviation to this emergency.

Destitution was decreased somewhat yet just in relative terms. The total figure developed. Till now, govt of India has propelled a few plans to mitigate neediness. To guarantee that everybody at any rate get enough food, the govt began general open conveyance framework. Nonetheless, infer able from its huge, monetary weight made, the govt began focused on PDS which would give grains, heartbeats, oil seeds and sugar at a sponsored rates to those underneath destitution line. Anyway as of late, Food Security Act was passed which ensured each resident to go without hunger.

There were endeavors to lessen joblessness. The option to work and get compensation as referenced in DPSP was conceded completely. MGNREGS which ensured work to those jobless, and in the event that when govt can’t give, it needs to give 100 days-proportional cash to that individual. This plan at any rate guarantees that every family can have certain base wages. In Agriculture there are minimal ranchers and landless turners who are either poor or very nearly it. Govt has attempted to support agribusiness and declared MSP to different items, for example, rice and wheat to guarantee least pay age to the ranchers. There have been many harvest protection plans and arrangement of modest credit began by the govt, in any case a postponed storm or an awful climate would make numerous ranchers poor.

Be that as it may, India has far to go before all its residents head to sleep with their gut loaded up with enough and nutritious food. There are four standards on food security – accessibility, openness, adequacy and sustenance. A poor must have these. PDS have been an epic fall flat in numerous states, principally in massively populated state. A more focused on approach state astute ought to be given accentuation on. The govt of BIMARU states ought to be approached to take measure against destitution ace effectively. The advantages ought to be made accessible exhaustive direct money move, however, the initial step has just been taken by our PM through PMJDY which will guarantee monetary consideration. This progression will close the spillage in existing TPDS. The MGNREGS has been fruitful, so there ought not be any further endeavor by the govt to slice the cash appropriated to it, as the govt has just cut assets in this spending plan.

The world is constantly tolerating free enterprise economy. Without govt intercession and enough well being net for poor people, it will just bring about formation of numerous poor. The advantages from stream down impact of private enterprise is too pitiful to even consider uplifting the money related status of an individual from lower monetary layers. This bleak circumstance requires a significantly bigger joint effort on a worldwide scale. The created nations should bear greater obligation to diminish neediness from different nations.

India should focus on its advancement objectives in BIMARU states, particularly Bihar and UP on a need premise. Per capital GDP of these states is low so our govt ought to make favorable condition for business here. The execution of the current midway supported plans ought to be made powerful. Thee less fortunate states on per capital premise ought to get more awards. The govt should give more weight on training at essential level, fundamental medicinal services, budgetary incorporation, well being net of crippled, old, ladies and kids, crop protection, less expensive credits to ranchers and little scope ventures, business age rather than jobless development, and benefits or standardized savings. Just better arranging, viable usage and focused on approach can fathom this danger.

Covaxin – The Indian counter to the COVID pandemic

By Udbhav Bhargava

India’s drug regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, has approved human clinical trials to be performed for ‘Covaxin’ This was the first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine candidate to obtain this approval. Such trials are expected to begin in July across India. The vaccine is being developed by the Bharat Biotech India (BBIL) and National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. The latter, with the assistance of Indian Council of Medical Research, isolated a strain of the virus from an asymptomatic Covid-19 patient and transferred it to BBIL. The vaccine is scheduled to launch on the 74th Independence Day.

There are 2 types of vaccines

  • Live-attenuated vaccines
  • Inactivated vaccines 

Weakened (or attenuated) germ shape which causes a disease. Since these vaccines are so close to the natural infection that they help prevent, they build an immune response that is effective and enduring. Only 1 or 2 doses of the majority of live vaccines will provide protection against a germ and the illness it triggers for life.

Live vaccines are used to protect against:  MMR combined vaccine

  • Rotavirus 
  • Smallpox  
  • Chickenpox 
  • Yellow fever

Inactivated vaccines use the destroyed, disease-causing form of the germ. Inactivated vaccines typically do not have as high immunity (protection) as live vaccines-booster shots. Inactivated vaccines appear to have a better record of health. Inactivated vaccines are used to protect against:

  • Hepatitis A 
  • Flu   
  • Polio
  • Rabies

Vaccine Development – Explained

General stages of a vaccine’s growth process are 1. Stage 2 Exploratory. Phase 3 Pre-clinical. Clinical Evolution 4. Examination and approval of regulations5. Fabrication 6. Clinical development: Quality assurance

Clinical development is a process which takes three phases. Until being considered safe and appropriate for general use, new medications will move through all three stages of clinical trials. If the initial tests are successful, this Coronavirus vaccine may last 12 to 18 months until it is ready for public use.

Phase 1 

Phase 1 trials evaluate a small number of people who undergo specific doses of an experimental drug, usually between 20 and 80. Researchers track how each volunteer metabolizes the given medication over the course of several months, and what specific side effects occur in response to various doses.

Phase 2 

Phase 2 trials typically examine several hundred people and monitor participants for periods of from several months to two years.  Primarily, Phase 2 trials serve as a secondary measure of safety and help researchers to refine the dosing of a particular medication. Researchers are currently selecting participants with characteristics, such as age and physical health, that match those of the people for whom the vaccine is being produced. Of example, although anyone may contract COVID-19, those of advanced age and those with chronic illnesses are more likely to experience serious symptoms and this should be seen in Phase 2 studies.

Phase 3

Stage 3 trials usually follow 300 to 3,000 participants in one to four years. Researchers can take note of unusual side effects of the drug with a larger group of people, and by extending the study period, they can catch long-term side effects as they arise. Phase 3 trials must show that a given medication offers the medical benefits it’s meant to.

Phase 4

Upon approval by the regulator, the company will constantly monitor the use of its vaccine on patients and apply reports of post-marketing surveillance, which will test for any possible adverse effects of the drug over the long term.

DOES THE “WANT” WANTS YOU?

We started off life with misconceptions about happiness and why our expectations aren’t so good.We’ve seen we don’t want them as much as we think, or if we want to make them good, we have to put these effortful practices in to get as much out of them as we want. First shot isn’t the perfect shot of everyone for anything in this world , as the relatable quote goes “third time’s the charm”. Don’t stick to the art of perfection , stick to the art of righteousness. This case of choosing righteousness tends miswanting , that we tend to want the wrong things.Well, it happens because of these crazy biases, these annoying features of our mind that mess us up.We can have strategies we can use to intentionally change our biases.One set of strategies is that we want to find ways to want happiness in an organic way. we want to savor, we want to be grateful, we want to break off this natural process that makes us stop loving the things that we love.strategies that we can use to reset our reference points, reframe things so that they seem better. Lots of strategies do that.The fact that our mind is delivering to us intuitions about what we want that just seem to be wrong.Things you should be wanting but don’t currently want. And there are going to be kind of two flavors of these things. One set of better ways of wanting are wanting the right parts of the things that we already do want. Those things that we wanted are there for some reason. Getting to the right parts of those things , second part which is totally new things that many of you have not said that you wanted yet or don’t think you want yet that are actually going to give you a lot of bang for your buck; things that you don’t realize are really, really good but are the kinds of things that are going to have a much bigger impact on how happy you are. The stuff that we know that we want some version of, but we kind of get what part we want wrong.

They tend to be morally valued in most moral systems of the world. They tend to be the kind of virtues that don’t make other people feel bad. So they’re not something that like you have. To be referred to those things as your signature strengths, and just defined as these are the ones, these character strengths that are kind of not just that you have really strongly but that you feel are kind of essential to who you are. You feel as almost like meaningful when you think about them.It can differ as time manages to slid off its way possible into your indecisiveness , choosing wisely wanting something which is rational and sensible up to the mark of your satisfaction is what makes it right.

How will the ban of TikTok and other Chinese apps be enforced; what will be the impact?

The fresh action opens an all-new chapter in the growing tensions between India and China over the Ladakh border, which is gradually spilling over into the world of business, e-commerce and now mobile Apps.

A day before the third round of talks between Indian and Chinese military commanders to resolve the border stand-off, the government on Monday “blocked” as many as 59 Chinese Apps, including popular ones such as TikTok, UC Browser, WeChat, Shareit and CamScanner, for “engaging in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”.
The move against the “malicious Apps”, announced by the information technology ministry, came after several complaints of stealing of user data, which was allegedly being surreptitiously transmitted to servers located outside India, the government said, without naming China.

The ban has been enforced under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“Power to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource”).

The notification is expected to be followed by instructions to Internet service providers to block these apps. Users are likely to soon see a message saying access to the apps has been restricted on the request of the government. Further downloads of these apps are likely to be blocked on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

The major impact of the ban will be on the Indians, using Helo, Likee and other similar apps, who are not comfortable in English. Also, most of these platforms have Indian creators, for many of whom this is the only source of income. Many of these apps have offices and employees in India, and a few thousand jobs could be at stake.

TikTok was banned in India on the order of the Madras High Court for a few days last year, but it came back soon after the court vacated the ban. This action, however, is more sweeping, impacts more apps, and has been taken in a specific strategic and national security context. It could be a warning to bigger Chinese businesses in India, and to China itself.

Jiribam-Imphal railway line project

By Udbhav Bhargava

The Jiribam-Imphal railway line connects the Imphal, Manipur’s capital city, to the rest of India via the Indian Railway network. The ambitious project for the railway line, which was declared a national project, was taken up in 2008. The project has a Rs 13,809 crore budget and the line is scheduled to finish by March 2022.

The railway line from Jiribam-Imphal will have 149 bridges and 52 tunnels along the path that will have to pass through steep hills. The line will also boast the tallest railway girder bridge on Indian Railways (bridge number 164) with a pier height of 141 metres, nearly twice as high as Qutab Minar.

North east state capitals Railway connectivity

Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura’s capitals have already been connected by a wide network of gauge rail. Work has been taken on new broad gauge lines to link the other state capitals – 1. Shillong (Meghalaya) 2. Manipur (Imphal) 3. Kohima (Nagaland) 4. Mizoram (Aizawl)

An Important Bridge completed

The girders for Bridge number 44, part of the upcoming railway line Jiribam-Imphal, were launched over the Makru River in Tamenglong District, Manipur. The newly launched bridge is Indian Railways’ first ever 100-metre-high pier bridge. The pier bridge, 100 meters long, is the size of a 33 story building. The bridge spans 555 metres. Bridge 164 – The tallest girder rail bridge Over River Ijai  Near Noney town, Manipur  141m height  Trains can pass over it at 120kmph speed

Difficulties in construction work

Many militant organizations are active in the region, so safety and security was a major issue for the construction workers. Thus, Territorial Army-119 Unit battalion was deployed. Construction sites are extremely remote, access is very difficult for both man and machine. The heavy girders were transported by custom made trucks. Torrential rains, extreme weather, steep hills and forests have been major concerns to be considered.

Settlement of grievances specially in manufacturing sectors

Grievance management

Organisations are a part of society and employee has certain expectations which must be fulfilled by the organisation where he is working. Due to different social background and various psychological factors employees occasionally have to be uncomfortable or aggrieved about certain managerial decisions, practices or service conditions.

In some cases, the employees have complaints against their employers, while in others it is the employers who have a grievance against their employees. For smooth selling of the organisation, it is necessary to pay immediate attention on these grievances and complaints.

Dale Yader defines a grievance as “a written complaint filed by an employee and claiming unfair treatment. Keith Davis, defines a grievance as “any real or imagined feeling of personal injustice which an employee has concerning his employment relationship.”

Grievance management concept

Emergence of grievance is a natural outcome of interaction among people, whether in organizational context or in other context. In the organizational context, employees may have some grievances against employer; in the same way, employer may have grievances, against employees. Grievance is a state of dissatisfaction over some issues related to employment. Generally, expression of this dissatisfaction-is known as grievance.

National Commission on Labour (India) has taken the view that “complaints affecting one or more individual workers in respect of wage payments, overtime, leave, transfer, promotion, seniority, work assignment, and other discharges constitute grievances.”

Based on the above definitions, we may derive that:

Grievance is a feeling of an employee that an injustice has been done to him.

2. The feeling may be valid and legitimate, or untrue; and may arise out of something connected with the work or the organization.

When employees have grievances and these are not redressed properly, these result in frustration, discontent, and indifference to work, poor morale, and low productivity. Accumulated grievances among employees may lead to turmoil in the organization.

Forms of Grievance : Factual, imaginary and Disguised

A Grievance may take any one of the following forms:

(i) Factual :

Factual grievances arise when legitimate needs of employees remain unfulfilled, e.g., wage hike has been agreed but not implemented.

(ii) Imaginary:

When an employee’s grievance is because of wrong perception, wrong atti­tude or wrong information. Though it is not the fault of management, the responsibility for their redressal still rents with the management.

(iii) Disguised:

An employee may have dissatisfaction for reasons that are unknown to himself. If he or she is under pressure from family, friends, relatives, neighbours, he or she may reach the work spot with a heavy heart. If a new recruit gets a new table and cupboard, this may become an eye shore to other employees who have not been treated like wise previously.

Identification of Grievance : 5 proactive methods of addressing Grievance

Grievance should be redressed by adopting proactive approach rather than reactive approach. The proactive approach addresses the factors responsible for emergence of grievance. In other words, management does not allow grievance causing situation to emerge. But in reactive approach, a particular grievance gets redressed but the underlying cause continues to exist. Unless it is rooted out lock, stock and barrel, there cannot be any permanent solution.

The following are the proactive methods of addressing Grievance:

(i) Exit Interview: Information collected from the exiting employee on various aspects of working conditions forcing him to quit is supposed to be more credible than those expressed by the existing workers.

(ii) Gripe Box System: Employees may be encouraged to drop anonymous complaints as they may fear that their identity may invite victimisation especially when they complain against the management. This method is more appropriate when there is lack of trust and understanding between employees and their supervisors.

(iii) Opinion Survey: Various surveys line morale survey, attitude survey, job satisfaction survey, grievance survey or comprehensive survey comprising all the above aspects, reveal vital inputs about the negative aspects of functioning of the organization. Since the survey is conducted by persons other than the supervisor and the respondent’s identify is not insisted upon, information collected is likely to be reliable.

(iv) Meetings: Group meeting, periodical interviews, collective bargaining sessions, informal get-togethers may be used to collect information about grievances.

(v) Open-door policy : Under this policy any employee can lodge complaint or file his grievance with the manager designated for this purpose. The very objective of this policy is to encourage upward communication.

Causes of Grievance in industrial organisation:

Grievances typically arise on such questions as discipline and dismissal, the payment of wages and other fringe benefits, working time, over-time and time-off entitlements, promotions, demotion and transfer, rights deriving from seniority rights of supervisors and union officers, job classification problems, the relationships of work rules to the collective agreement and the fulfilment of obligations relating to safety and health laid down in the agreement.

Such grievances, if not dealt with in accordance with a procedure that secures the respect of the parties, can result in embitterment of the working relationship and a climate of industrial strife.

Grievance resulting from working conditions:

  • Strained employer – employee relationship
  • Tight production standards
  • Unfavourable physical conditions such as excessive heat , low temperature , excessive humidity etc.
  • Change in schedule or procedure
  • Mismatch between the job and the worker

Grievances arising from management policy:

  • Wage Payment
  • job rates
  • Leave and overtime
  • seniority and Promotion
  • Role ambiguity
  • Disciplinary action
  • Absence of employee development plan

Grievance resulting from personal maladjustment :

  • Over-ambition
  • Excessive self-esteem
  • Impractical attitude to life

Model Grievance procedure in India:

The Grievance procedure issue was discussed in the 15th session of Indian labour conference held in 1957. In the 16th session of the conference (1958), model Grievance procedure was prepared .

The steps in procedure (as per the model Grievance procedure) will be as follows:

Step:1 Grievance is to be submitted in writing to the departmental representative of the management. Here the aggrieved worker can take the help of this union representative. He (departmental representative) has to be replay with in 48 hour.

Step:2 If the matter is not settled at the level , the aggrieved worker can take the matter to the head of the department who has room give the decision with in 3 days.

Step:3 If concerned worker is not satisfied at this stage, he can take his Grievance to the grievance committee. This committee must make it recommendation to the management with in 7 days. The final; decision of the management on the report of the committee is to be communicate to the concerned worker with in 3 days of receipt.

Step:4 If the worker is not satisfied even at this stage , he can make appeal for revision to the management and the management has to communicate its decision to concerned worker with 7 days.

Step:5 In the final stage , the Grievance may be referred to voluntary arbitration.

Hagia Sophia, its history and the verge of transition it stands on!!

By Udbhav Bhargava

On the 2nd of July, a Turkish court heard a lawsuit in which the Hagia Sophia was turned back into a mosque. It will have its decision released within 15 days.

The 1,500-year-old structure, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, was originally a cathedral before it was turned into a mosque.

The History of Hagia Sophia

Two churches were built on the site where the present Hagia Sophia stands, in 360 AD and 415 AD, and were later demolished. Eventually, in 537 AD, during the reign of Emperor Justinian, the present building was built as a church. It was established to become the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church’s Patriarch, and remained so for around 900 years. It was at the time the world’s largest building and a marvel of engineering, and was renowned for its wide dome. The words ‘Hagia Sophia’ signified ‘Holy Wisdom’.

Transition from Cathedral to Mosque

In 1453, Constantinople (old name of Istanbul) fell to Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II. The Hagia Sophia was vandalized by the Ottoman army (but not totally destroyed). It was soon after transformed into a mosque. Major interior repairs have been carried out; the Christianity signs and symbols have been plastered over but still remain visible. Minarets were added according to Islamic architecture.   

And then from Mosque to Museum

After World War I, the Ottoman Empire saw its downfall and the modern and secular Republic of Turkey was established three years later, under the Ataturk’s leadership. The patriarchal head, Mustafa Kemal Pasha ‘Ataturk’ ordered the Hagia Sophia to be converted to a museum in 1934. Hagia Sophia was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1985 and currently attracts over 3 million visitors a year. In 2013, government allowed the muezzin to call for prayer from the minarets of the museum. The conversion issue was raised during local elections in 2019, after which Erdogan’s party lost the municipal elections in Istanbul. Further, this year, special Islamic prayers were held in the museum structure on the 567th anniversary of the Ottoman invasion.

Association for the Protection of Historic Monuments and the Environment, a group asking for the Hagia Sophia to be reverted from a museum to a mosque filed a case in Turkish courts. 

Local media sources suggest the government has been planning to keep Hagia Sophia open to visitors even though it has been converted into a mosque. The World Heritage Committee shall take decisions relating to the application of the Convention on the Preservation of the World Cultural Heritage. When a country has ratified the Convention and wants to change the name of a monument, it must send its request for approval to the Commission.

Many religious and political figures have opposed the agreement, including the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, as well as Greece, France and the United States. The intense executive activism in Turkey is fueled by political motives and is an effort to establish Islamic supremacy which is against the secular character of the republic established in 1922.

Dry well of Society

“I’ve been making a list of the things they don’t teach you at school. They don’t teach you how to love somebody. They don’t teach you how to be famous. They don’t teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don’t teach you how to walk away from someone you don’t love any longer. They don’t teach you how to know what’s going on in someone else’s mind. They don’t teach you what to say to someone who’s dying. They don’t teach you anything worth knowing.”

― Neil Gaiman, 

The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God. As Mother Teresa said in A simple path

“Poverty” is the worst form of violence”, said Mahatma Gandhi. Over the years, poverty has proved to be the biggest hurdle in the way of success of India’s development. Poverty is that condition in which a person fails to not only fulfil his basic physiological needs, but also fails to protect himself from diseases, get balanced nutrition, maintain good health etc.

In simple terms, a person in order to survive should have proper food, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Thus, poverty refers to a person failing to acquire these minimum levels of subsistence and in turn suffer from starvation, malnutrition, and diseases.

Poverty has been an inevitable problem since the time immemorial. From late 19th century through early 20th century, under British colonial rule, poverty in India intensified, peaking in 1920’s. Over this period, the colonial government, de-industrialised India by reducing garments and other finished products’ manufacturing by artisans in India.

They instead imported these from Britain. These colonial policies moved unemployed artisans into farming and transformed India as a region increasingly abundant in land, unskilled labour and low productivity, capital and knowledge. Moreover famines and diseases killed millions each time.

Recently, in 2013, the Indian Government stated 21.9% of its population is below official poverty limit. In other words, India with 17.5% of world’s total population, had 20.6% share of world’s poorest in 2013. A large proportion of poor people live in rural areas. Poverty is deepest among members of scheduled castes and tribes in the country’s rural areas.

On the map of India, the poorest areas are in parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. In fact, the story of our prolonged poverty and tyranny attached has got so much fame that a , foreign director (Danny Boyle) produced a whole movie on the issue. This movie is Slumdog Millionaire which got worldwide acclamation through Oscar Awards.

Statistics reveals that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but it is the distribution of wealth that has been uneven and has caused the grave problem of poverty. Other major causes of poverty are illiteracy along with uncontrolled population growth, unemployment and under-employment, dependence on agriculture, caste system and corruption. The causes of rural poverty are manifold including inadequate and ineffective implementation of anti-poverty programmes.

The over-dependence on monsoon with non-availability of irrigational facilities often results in crop-failure and low agricultural productivity forcing farmers in the debt-traps. The children of poor families are forced to take up jobs at a tender age to fend for their large families, thus are not only deprived of their childhood but education too adding to the illiterate bulk of the country.

Central grants for programmes like Indira Awas Yojana and others, which was aimed at providing housing to the poor, have been utter failures due to lack of proper implementation. Massive transfer of ‘Black Money’ overseas and under-utilisation of foreign aid have also contributed to the deepening of poverty in India. Nelson Mandela once quoted:

“Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it
can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings”.

Interestingly, the incidence of rural poverty has declined somewhat in the past years as a result of rural to urban migration. In order to combat the grave problem of poverty, first and foremost, there should be a strict check on population increase. Creation of employment opportunities, spread of education, elimination of black money, decentralisation of planning, helping women and youth to become self-reliant are some other ways to combat this problem. Empowering the weaker and backward section of society is also expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty. It is not due to lack of resources or technical assistance that we are failing in achieving our goals but more so due to lack of execution of these plans and programmes.

Poverty In India Essay
“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”

A unsolved case “Illiteracy”

Illiteracy describes the inability to read and/or write. Because of the problem of unemployment and poverty, children have no chance of proper education. Many people remain illiterate because of physical or mental disabilities. Other social evils like the caste system and gender inequalities also cause illiteracy. One of the leading causes of crime is illiteracy.

Most illiterate people are unaware of the advantages of maintaining cleanliness and hygiene. Illiterates have difficulty in getting a good job and earning. Overpopulation is a massive increase in the number of people and is causing by some factors.

The only and best way to eliminate illiteracy from society is education. The government should take steps to promote free education for the backward class of society in government schools. The government is also looking at the fact that people receive fair pay for their work.

Illiteracy in India has, since long before independence, been regarded as an obstacle to development. It is commonly believed that without sub­stantially eliminating illiteracy, India cannot become a cohesive nation and give to all its citizens the quality of life they have long yearned for. No wonder that education in general and literacy in particular have been accorded a high priority in the country’s development process. How is literacy defined? Who is literate? One who can read and write some language is ‘literate’.

UNESCO has defined a literate person as “one who can with understanding both read and writes a short simple statement on his everyday life”. Following UNESCO, the Census Com­mission in India in 1991 also defined ‘literate’ person as one who can read and write “with understanding” in any Indian language, and not merely read and write. Those who can read but cannot write are not liter­ate. Formal education in a school is not necessary for a person to be considered as literate.

In a resolution on National Policy on Education adopted in 1968, radical reconstruction of education was proposed so that it involved:

(i) A transformation of the system to relate it more closely to the life of the people,

(ii) A continuous effort to expand educational opportunity,

(iii) A sustained effort to raise the quality of education at all stages,

(iv) An em­phasis on the development of science and technology, and

(v) Cultivation of moral and social values.

In 1986, stress was laid on the educational policy and the provision of equal opportunities of education to all classes was emphasized. There has been some progress in the field of education since the 1950s. The number of recognized primary and middle schools has in­creased more than three times (that is, from 2.23 lakh in 1951 to 6.94 lakh in 1989-90).

The enrolment of students in the primary and middle schools has increased by about five times (that is, from 22.27 million to 107.31 million) in the same period (India, 1992: 83) A little more than a three-fold increase has also been registered in the total number of liter­ates, that is, from 16.7 per cent of the total population in 1951 to 52.11 per cent in 1991.

The literacy rate in India in different years was found as: 1901:5.3 percent, 1921:7.2 percent, 1941:16.1 percent, 1961:24.0 per cent, 1981:36.2 per cent, and 1991:52.1 per cent. Among males, the literacy rate increased from 9.8 per cent in 1901 to 12.2 per cent in 1921, 24.9 per cent in 1941, 34.4 per cent in 1961, 46.9 per cent in 1981, and 63.8 per cent in 1991; while among females it rose from 0.6 per cent in 1901 to 1.8 per cent in 1921, 7.3 percent in 1941, 13.0 percent in 1961, 24.8 per cent in 1981 and 39.4 per cent in 1991 (literacy rates relate to population aged seven years and above in 1991 but to the total popula­tion of the country up to 1981) (The Hindustan Times, March 26, 1991 and Frontline, April 27-May 10, 1991).

If the old definition of the literacy is adopted and the entire popula­tion considered, the literacy rate was 42.94 per cent for 1991 compared to 36.23 per cent in 1981 and 29.48 per cent in 1971. Together with the quantitative expansion of education facilities, there is now a greater emphasis on the qualitative aspect as well. Before 1976, education was exclusively the responsibility of the states, the cen­tral government being concerned only with the coordination and determination of standards in technical and higher education.

In 1976, through a constitutional amendment, education became the joint respon­sibility of both the Centre and the states. Determined efforts are now being made to achieve the goal of universal elementary education and eradication of illiteracy in the age group 15-35 by the end of the century. On one hand, community participation has been planned, and on the other hand, a programme named “Operation Blackboard” has been im­plemented to provide the basic amenities in education in primary schools.

Non-formal education and open learning systems are being en­couraged at all levels. However, in the field of removing illiteracy in the country, not much progress could be made an account of its huge popu­lation. This is evident from the vast magnitude of illiterate persons still found in the country.

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

India’s New Education Policy of 2020

India’s union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Education Policy 2020, engraving a way for transforming reforms in school and higher education sector in the country. Union cabinet also renamed the HRD Ministry as Education Ministry. Making the announcement, Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said there would be a single regulator for all higher education institutions and MPhil would be discontinued.

“I congratulate Government of India for giving the country an education policy that will nurture a child’s creative and unique abilities rather than only judging them on their exam scores”, said famous film actor Anil Kapoor in reaction to new education policy.

The National Education Policy was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992. More than three decades have passed since previous Policy. During this period significant changes have taken place in our country, society economy, and the world at large. It is in this context that the education sector needs to gear itself towards the demands of the 21st Century and the needs of the people and the country. Quality, innovation and research will be the pillars on which India will become a knowledge super power. Clearly, a new Education Policy is needed.

The Government had initiated the process of formulating a New Education Policy through the consultation process for an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach, which takes into consideration expert opinions, field experiences, empirical research, stakeholder feedback, as well as lessons learned from best practices.

The Committee for preparation of the draft National Education Policy submitted its report to the Ministry on 31.05.2019. The Draft National Education Policy 2019 (DNEP 2019) was uploaded on MHRD’s website and also at MyGov Innovate portal eliciting views/suggestions/comments of stakeholders, including public. The draft NEP is based on the foundational pillars access, affordability, equity, quality and accountability.

Post submission of Draft Report States/UTs Governments and Government of India Ministries were invited to give their views and comments on Draft National Education Policy 2019. A brief summary of the Draft National Education Policy 2019 was circulated among various stakeholders, which was also translated in 22 languages and uploaded on the Ministry’s website. Meetings with State Education Secretaries of School Education and with State Secretaries of Higher & Technical Education were held.An Education Dialogue with Hon’ble MPs of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Karnataka and Odisha.

A special meeting of CABE on National Education Policy was held. In the meeting, 26 Education Ministers of various States and UTs, representatives of States and Union Territories, Members of CABE, Heads of Autonomous Organisations, Vice Chancellors of Universities, attended the meeting along with senior officials of the Central and State Governments. Around 2 lakh suggestions on the Draft National Education Policy received from various stakeholders. A meeting on Draft NEP 2019 of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development was held on 07.11.2019.

Indian Government also said that “Efforts will be made to incentivize the merit of students belonging to SC, ST, OBC, and other SEDGs. The National Scholarship Portal will be expanded to support, foster, and track the progress of students receiving scholarships. Private HEIs (Higher Education Institutes) will be encouraged to offer larger numbers of free ships and scholarships to their students.”

A development in the Indian education system and policies were need of the time, demand of the 21st century. It took almost 34 years for India to make changes into its schooling, Higher Education processes.

The Life of a Student

Some people may think that the students of today have it easy. But in thinking this they are indeed wrong. Very wrong in fact. I would even argue that being a student is harder than it has ever been before.

Firstly, there is a huge amount of pressure that is put on us to meet the standards of the generations before us. We are told that we have to work hard to succeed and that our options are limited, when in reality it is the opposite. In this day and age there are literally countless ways to make a living for yourself and leave your own mark on the world. So why restrict yourself to just one trade when you the possibilities are endless. For example, if I told my parents I wanted to be a youtuber or an instagram influencer I would be laughed at, when in reality, they provide the highest earnings.

With the education system being hundreds of years old, you’d think it would have changed, right?

Sadly not, even to this day students are told to sit exams that test nothing more than memory to determine how much money they are allowed to get when they are older. Obviously there are a select few that obtain the grades that they wanted to more as far as possible in life but the truth is that for most that is not at all the case. How can you say it is fair that our whole life is completely dependant on how we perform as a child/young adult.

Now it is true that if you are someone that struggles in exams there are options you can take to help you. However, the truth is that if you take this help you are severely restricted to what you can achieve, this could be seen as a fair way of going about it but in reality it is far from it.

The way I see it is that if you convince someone that they can only achive the most minimum of goals then they will believe you. We need to be told that no matter what if we work hard enough we can achieve our dreams and succeed in life.

I believe that some serious changes need to be made to the system in order to make it truly ‘fair for everyone’. Start believing in us and maybe we will surprise you.

encounters in india

Uttar Pradesh gangster Vikas Dubey, the main accused in the killing of eight policemen in Kanpur, was shot dead in an alleged encounter Friday morning. According to the UP Police, the special task force was bringing him back from Ujjain to Kanpur when the vehicle he was in toppled, and Dubey attempted to flee. According to the police, Dubey also fired at the police as he was fleeing.

Apart from Dubey, five of his associates have also been killed by the police in reported encounters over the last week.

These encounters under mysterious circumstances have raised many questions on the authenticity of the Uttar Pradesh police’s claims, as Dubey was said to have a nexus with politicians and the police.

ThePrint looks back at some of India’s most controversial ‘encounter’ killings


Alleged rapists/murderers in Hyderabad, 2019

In December 2019, the Telangana police dead four men accused of gang-raping and burning to death a veterinarian doctor in Hyderabad. Calling their actions an “encounter”, the police said they had to open fire in self-defence as the four men tried to escape and began pelting stones.

The police had taken the four accused to an underpass on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru highway next to Chatanpally village to reconstruct the crime scene when the four tried to escape, the police claim.


Bhopal jail encounter, 2016 

In October 2016, eight people associated with the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) allegedly escaped from the Bhopal Central Jail and were subsequently shot dead by the state police.

The probe report tells that the deceased persons were asked to surrender, but, instead, began firing at the police and public. Therefore, the police had to open fire and even after that they showed no intention to surrender, sustained injuries and died on the spot.

At the time, many videos surfaced suggest the encounter was staged. Many questions remained unanswered — such as how the escapees got weapons and firearms, how they escaped the prison, and who gave them clothes and food when they escaped.https://cbd85d0fd881bbef5eac8a2e5a655caa.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

In one man judicial commisson headed by S.K. Pandey, retired judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court gave the police a clean chit.

Manipur extrajudicial killings, 2010

In February 2020, four Manipur policemen, including an surrendered before the Imphal West chief judicial magistrate in connection with the alleged fake encounter of Irengbam Ratankumar on 1 September 2010.

The case was among more than 1,500 extrajudicial killing by the Manipur Police and security forces. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CBI, which was investigating the case, submitted a charge sheet against the police personnel in May 2019.

This action came after former CBI director Alok Kumar Verma was told by the Supreme Court in 2018 for the agency’s failure to arrest the accused in the many alleged extrajudicial killings in Manipur.


Batla House, 2008

The Batla House encounter held in Delhi in 2008, becoming a national sensation—Bollywood even made a film on it.

On 19 September 2008, a Delhi Police special team carried out an encounter in Batla House in Jamia Nagar, where two suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorists were killed along with inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.

The operation led by Sharma, an encounter specialist, was supposed to only gather information from residents of the area after the 2008 September blasts in Delhi. However, it escalated into a 20-minute shootout.

Many questioned the veracity of the encounter, and claimed it was staged. The National Human Rights Commission also conducted an investigation into the encounter, on a plea filed by People’s Union for Democratic Rights, and eventually gave a clean chit to the Delhi Police.

However, the post-mortem report of the victims of the shootout, which raised several flags and questions, was not included in the NHRC report. What’s more, the report was dated two days before the body was even asked to investigate the matter by the high court.


Ram Narayan Gupta, 2006

Ram Narayan Gupta alias ‘Lakhan Bhaiya’, who was apparently an aide to gangster Chhota Rajan, was shot dead in 2006 by the Mumbai Police when he was picked up from Vashi and killed in an allegedly staged encounter in Versova.

Following the encounter, a Mumbai sessions court in 2013 sentenced 21 people, including 13 policemen, to life imprisonment for killing Gupta. It also held them guilty of conspiring and kidnapping him. However, the prime accused, encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, was acquitted.

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, 2006

According to the CBI, Sheikh was a wanted criminal who extorted money from marble traders in Gujarat and Rajasthan. However, the Gujarat Police claimed he was a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative.

In November 2006, Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi were travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra when the Gujarat Police Anti-Terror Squad intercepted them and took them to a farmhouse on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. It has been reported that three days later, then-ATS chief D.G. Vanzara took Sheikh away and killed him, claiming he was a terrorist with a plan to attack Narendra Modi.

Tulsiram Prajapati, 2006

Also in 2006, Tulsiram Prajapati, known to be an associate of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, was allegedly killed  in a fake encounter. According to the CBI, Prajapati was with Sheikh and Kausar Bi when the Gujarat Police caught them. Prajapati was shown to be arrested in Rajasthan and later killed.

In 2011, the Supreme Court told the CBI to take up the case and the agency named then-Gujarat home minister Amit Shah as the prime accused in the elimination of Prajapati. According to the charge sheet, former DGP P.C. Pande and additional DGP Geetha Johri abused their positions to eliminate Prajapati, who was an eyewitness to the killings of Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi.

Ishrat Jahan, 2004

On 15 June 2004, the Gujarat Police killed 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and three others on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in an alleged encounter. as police all four were operatives of the Lashkar-e-Taiba who had a plan to kill then-Gujarat CM Narendra Modi.

However an investigation by the special investigation team formed by the Gujarat High Court said the encounter was staged. The case was then transferred to the Supreme Court, which handed it over to the CBI, which, in turn, filed a charge sheet against many Gujarat police officers for their involvement in the alleged encounter.

Jahan was the second of seven siblings and a second-year student at Mumbai’s Guru Nanak Khalsa College. In 2017, terrorist David Headley said a Mumbai court that Jahan was an operative of the LeT.

Fifteen years after the death of her daughter, Ishrat’s mother Shamim Kausar said she was releasing herself from the judicial process because her daughter’s killers were roaming free.

Veerappan, 2004

In October 2004, the notorious Veerappan, infamous for kidnapping, elephant poaching and sandalwood smuggling, was shot dead in an encounter  by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force. He had been on the run for a decade was tricked into getting into an ambulance as he needed to visit a hospital in Salem for his eye.

The STF fired 338 bullets at the ambulance, out of which three hit Veerappan. However, it was asked at the time whether his encounter was staged and actually a cover-up job, as according to reports, Veerappan had no bullet wounds in his body and was only shot in his eye and forehead.

Sadiq Jamal, 2003

In 2003, the Gujarat Police shot dead Sadiq Jamal, claiming to have information that he was planning an attack on Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders. According to an investigation by the CBI, not only was Jamal shot dead by the police in a fake encounter, but also that the Intelligence Bureau played a role in it.

According to the CBI, Jamal did not match the profile of reports of a plan to kill Modi and others, and his past criminal record only included an altercation in 1996 and arrest for gambling in 2002. Many police inspectors and top IB officials were asked and later accused in the case of his ‘encounter’.

In 2017, Jamal’s father files a petition in the Gujarat High Court seeking compensation of Rs 50 lakh from the state government.