Author: News Updates

Track2Training is a online training and skill development forum. Visit us at https://track2training.com/

A SOUND BODY, A HEALTHY BODY

Great learned people had been emphasizing on the importance of exercise and fitness since ancient times. We did have ancient doctors who had truly deep knowledge of the human anatomy and all the organ systems as well as the body’s working, but the technology to confirm their estimations was not available at that time. Yet, these people stressed on practising various forms of exercises and designing and playing a number of games which aided in complete body movement. With advancements in technology and detailed understanding of the body and its functioning in the medical field, the positive impact of exercise became more and more tangible to prove. Nevertheless, no matter what century it is, the significance of proper fitness and good health cannot be overlooked. And by good health, only a lean body does not translate as a healthy one; health means total physical, mental and social well-being. Studies have found out that exercise not only paves way for good physical health, but also rejuvenates the mind when done with concentration and interest. When all the senses become alert and the body is stretched, strained and relaxed during exercise, it helps relieve stress and refreshes our mind.

Today, people have realized that having a good physique is not necessarily an indicator of good health. If one is happy, can cope up with stress well and is free from lifestyle related diseases and also practices physical fitness regularly, then he/she can be termed healthy. And this is not just limited to having a good run or cardio session. The diet we consume also determines our wellness. As the common saying goes ‘good food, good mood’, a good diet ensures the body’s nourishment and negligible intake/accumulation of unhealthy components in our system. A lot of emphasis is being given on eating good, junk-free meals power-packed with the daily dose of required nutrients and devoid of harmful ingredients. Many people say that the combination of exercise and a planned diet have churned out wonderful and promising results. Food consisting of fruits and vegetables, low starch and sugar content, high fibre content, low LDP/cholesterol content and all the essential nutrients supplements the body well. Maintaining fitness and health by regular workout along with a proper balanced diet is very useful. Along with performing all the strenuous physical activities, taking care of mental health is also necessary. The world is becoming a busier place, and work and life stress have been mounting a lot of pressure on us, affecting our daily personal lives drastically too. In these times, a stress-busting activity is the need of the hour to keep up with all the issues and resolve them with a calm and composed mind. With an increase in psychological issues around the world, it is necessary that we keep a happy mindset towards things, open up to our close people, take breaks for self-realization activities and immerse ourselves into positivity and satisfaction. Nowadays, people do not care much about social attachment and involvement as they used to in the early days. But it is important that we stay connected and emotionally attached to the outside world and maintain healthy social relations and interactions. This will help in building strong bonding within the community and people will be able to share their joys and tackle their sorrows more effectively.

All in all, health and fitness are not just good food, good mind or good body. Healthiness is a state of self which encompasses and brings inner peace and content to us, and not just suffices our tangible needs. It is something which adds substance to living, and happiness to doing what we do.

SUSTAINABILITY – THE NEED OF THE HOUR

We as Homo sapiens have made quite a lot of evolution over centuries. From learning to stand erect to finding proper methods of growing, cooking and making food into a scrumptious dish from mere kitchen ingredients, learning to communicate, trade, developing intelligence, creating subjects, branches and specializations in learning, making machines which nullify human effort, diversifying living and basic needs into huge businesses, revolutionizing our methods, taking a step ahead to unforeseen intelligence and development with each passing day – there are countless achievements which man as a living being has accomplished, and in so many unimaginable sectors that listing them would be a heck of a job!

But with advancements and products come by-products, most of them unwanted or of negligible use, and these finally end in dumping areas or uninhabited lands, water bodies or space. With an incredible amount of disposable waste produced each day, and with the dumping yards blowing out of proportion with filth, it has become very necessary that we as humans stop as well as reverse the damage we have done to our own abode, because we have come to realize that we ourselves are bound to bear the fruit of our deeds. Researchers have estimated that if we continue creating waste at this rate, we will soon fall out of clean environment and space to live in, and the result of filling the Earth with this ginormous amount of waste will drastically affect us in the process, destroying not just humankind but the whole ecosystem and will severely impact the planet and its precious resources to an irreversible state. So it is time that we step back and ponder on our operating methods, restore back the balance of nature rather than putting a step forward at the expense of deteriorating and exploiting what we have been generously bestowed upon by. Realizing this, the major organizations of the world have taken an initiative to minimise their waste production and make our world a sustainable place.

According to the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, ‘Sustainable development is one that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.’ This means utilising our resources in a way which ensures enough for our coming generations and also keeping in mind the goal to make the world habitable for them. This also necessarily means that we ought to produce lesser waste and dispose off the existing waste in a proper manner which is not destructive to the Earth and all its entities too. Pertaining to this term, many leaders in the manufacturing fraternity have pledged to make their companies self-sustainable and zero waste emitting ones. This will make all its allied sectors sustainable too – like economy, raw material, handling, etc. To make this happen, organizations are devising and innovating various ways in which a manufacturing / waste producing entity can be sustainable. From recycling to reusing and taking note of all the well-designed ‘R’s in the sustainability arena, various methods are being implemented to climb the ladder of achieving a green and clean world, where environmental balance, growth and revolution go hand in hand with each part of the intertwined cycle supplementing the other’s positive transformation. This will surely help in decreasing damage and revitalizing nature and its components in the long run.

THE IMPACT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Ever since modern man set foot on the Earth, he has been rolling out numerous inventions to make life easier. From the invention of simple wheels to farming practices, transportation, engines, electricity, phones, internet, portable computers, smartphones and what not! Today, our life has been completely surrounded by machines. Just like Rancho’s character’s dialogue from the movie 3 Idiots, “Pen ke nip se, pant ki zip tak, sab machine hai Sir”, machines are ubiquitous everywhere now and our life is indispensable without the use of these machines. From simple science and observation to rocket science, all the modern technology that we see and use today are a part of our daily lives. Science and technology have taken great strides and have helped us reach the pinnacle of novelty. The device I’ve used to write this blog, the cloud through which it has got uploaded, the site on which it is visible, the device through which you can access my blog from a thousand miles away, all of it is a boon bestowed upon us, thanks to the advancements in technology.

The industry which started with the invention of a huge machine, even bigger than today’s refrigerators and a thousand wires to plug like a jumbling maze, accelerated the modernization of our generation by almost a hundred-fold. These simple machines became more and more compact and handy with time and arduous efforts to convert into desktop systems and personal computers were largely successful. These computers became sleek and flat screened with more innovation and development and the supporting devices and processing systems also became compact. These later clubbed into a single system which could be portable and handy, presented to us in the form of a laptop. This is just one line of development of the old computer system through a few decades. Along with evolution of technology, this development has equally diversified into myriads of branches with similar advancements in those sectors too. With the invention of the internet and the various services offered by it, there began modernization in the virtual space too. Allied services have made the virtual space a totally different world with its own perks and pros. Today, as we wade through a raging pandemic and natural disasters all the world over, these technologies, internet, electronic devices and loads of efforts put into developing them have been the saviours to keep the work going smoothly and hassle-free. Along with this, machine learning, augmented reality and artificial intelligence have taken technology to another level totally. From their use in simple imaging and recognition softwares to complete automation in industries with humongous production, tedious jobs have become a lot easier, and the rate of production has literally increased like a straight line of a graph. The rate of errors in simple tasks has also gone down drastically, thanks to the technology. From a simple thing like wrapping a toffee to a highly skilled task like building a complete car from its parts, technology has given a boost to the rate, accuracy and precision to everything. From robots that can do simple detection and sorting jobs to the ones which can do complex work and multitask too, there is a lot of progress happening around us and we ought to take note of it.

The revolution in the technology and development sector mentioned above is just a teeny-weeny part of the huge universe of modernization that mankind has built just with a little of resources and an unbeatable set of buzzing smart brains, and this is truly commendable. And yes, we’ve left no stone unturned – we’re even covering the actual universe! In the coming years, we shall surely witness a vast developed transformation in the world we live in, making us smarter and better in every way possible, and this transformation will be life-changing!

LOOKING AT THE POSITIVE SIDE OF THE PANDEMIC

The coronavirus pandemic has left everyone stranded at their homes with nowhere outside to step. Even those little strolls in fresh mornings and calm evenings seem a distant possibility. The living place has become a whole working world with all systems decked up at home, and minimum necessity to step outside. But thanks to technology, everything is now possible at the click of a button or screen. From ordering basic groceries and food online to totally working online through a home office, everything from decently simple to twistingly complicated has become super easy. Technology was already in the developing stages of going virtual, but the pandemic has triggered advancements and pushed boundaries for us to survive and function smoothly without physically having to facilitate all this. Earlier, working from home or workations were very rare and mostly done if travelling from home was difficult or tedious. Today, working from home is the norm and people have got accustomed to this way of working. Albeit the comfort of doing everything without the effort of getting dressed in those uncomfortable formal dresses and travelling hours to work everyday, a few professionals think that bringing the workplace home has disrupted work-life balance and life has become more mundane, without any weekend chilling, fun activities at the workplace, social interaction and bonding or office parties. Only work and total lockdown have made the outgoing squad’s lives frustrating and outright boring. But fret not they say, because social media and entertainment platforms picked the right opportunity to bring back the fun in the routine lives of fun-loving people. They did it simple and big – give people the motivation and platform to showcase what they are good at, bring out the talent and innovation and publicize it through the right medium in the right way. Earlier, people hadn’t even pondered over if their pastime interests and mini-gigs could garner such appreciation and popularity over the internet. But the lockdown made internet stars out of next door neighbours. And not just the popularity that comes with it, people have actually started enjoying the process of being involved in doing something they like with such passion and happiness. It keeps them busy for the day and also serves as a welcome change from office work and stress. This has actually brought out the creativity of content creators who would otherwise have continued with their routine weekdays and weekends. Confinement has encouraged people to try out something which interests them – anything decent and simple good, and refreshing too. Typical 9 to 5 people have found something new and interesting to look forward to after work. What had been believed strictly professional once has become fun and exciting. From comedians to content creators, memers, lifestyle coaches, fashion trendsetters, culinary experts, motivation leaders, creative minds and bloggers, we have a whole set of feel-good people to watch perform, enjoy and seize the day, being at home. Trying out funny dance or comedy videos, innovating sustainable fashion with homely items, revamping the simple abode into a nice and cool place, preparing chef-style dishes at home are just some of the trends that have taken the attention of the millennials. And it’s true, they find satisfaction and solace in trying out these new things, posting their daily activities online. The attitude of people towards the definition of a fulfilling day has changed, too. Today, they believe that if they’ve had a happy time, it’s a day spent well, rather than running behind goals and the constant need of accomplishing something by the end of the day, and losing their calm and composure in the process. And they are right! In the end, all that counts is how much one has enjoyed thoroughly rather than what he/she has achieved. The lockdown has sure made normal life tumultuous to some extent, but if we look at the positive side of things, we are actually thriving well in tough times, and we’ve got to keep it up and strong till we overcome this situation testing our limits, and we will surely do it with the same ease and elegance as gracefully as we have come this far! 

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN WORKFORCE

Participation of women as the economically productive workforce:

53 percent of all the fresh graduates in India, in the year 2018-2019 were women. As per All India Survey of Higher education, the enrolment of women for higher education has increased to 49 percent in 2018 to 2019 as against 44 percent in the year 2011 to 2012 This is indeed is a clear indicator that India has made considerable progress in women education. Yet this pool of women talent transforming into the driving workforce is distressingly less. India’s Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) was 20.8 percent in 2019, as per data from the World Bank.

India has seen a steep decline in Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), It has fallen to 20.8 percent in 2019 as against 30.27 percent in 1990.India’s Female LFPR is very less

The fact that such a large pool of literate, qualified and talented women workforce is still aloof in the effort to boost economy is a clear indication to analyse how to judiciously harvest this talent or rather what might be the causes that women participation in the workforce is so low.

There might be two chief causes of this dwindling Female LFPR –

  1. Societal Norms
  2. Difficulties faced by women to enter and retain in the labour market

In some communities, women face a lot of resistance to work and participate in the workforce. This resistance is mainly due to societal taboo about women working outside the house. In addition to this the women might be subjected to take care of the household responsibly. Many women find it difficult to harmonize the trade off between family responsibilities and work. The unpaid house work and parenting are still seen as a woman’s primary duty while men are entitled as the bread winners of the family. This might be a chief cause which discourage women to participate in the labour pool.

Women with lower family incomes are subjected to forced labour due to financial pressures while a few women drop out once the income is stable. While few educated women in India still face mismatch in the opportunities and exposure provided to them based on their talent and skill set. Other concerns are safety at work place, security of tenure- owing to maternal leaves, the pay parity, maintaining work and household balance and societal pressure.

Regardless of the countless barrier women have faced to participate and retain in the workforce, women have found their way out and reached the pinnacle of their career. May these women be the torch bearers and inspire the future generations and create opportunities for them. For India cannot afford the productivity loss by missing out such a large chunk of women workforce. New laws, policies and change in societal outlook are kindling the spark for necessary transformation to include more and more women in productive workforce. But we still have a long way to go and encourage women participation as much as we can. And as they say, charity begins at home! Let us start by empowering ourselves and many more future generations to come, not for the sake of feminism or gender equality, but to lead a fulfilling, independent and exemplary life.

TAKING CARE OF PERSONAL HYGIENE

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

“Life is short so don’t risk it.” We know how important personal hygiene is, as keeping our body, hands and hair clean can stop the spread of germs and illnesses. Personal hygiene is defined by the practices you take to look after your physical health to avoid diseases by maintaining a certain level of personal cleanliness. It is a key element in our daily routines to live a healthy life. Thorough out our whole life a bunch of people or maybe even ourselves get diseases which could be life threatening and usually people consider the main reason for this to be not getting access to something and being careless about your surroundings. What they don’t know is that hygiene plays a very important part in not getting in contact with these diseases. For example during this ongoing pandemic, most people catch the virus because they don’t take the proper precautions like sanitizing yourself or wearing masks. Therefore taking care of your personal hygiene is a very important thing to do if you want to lead a healthy life.

Few basic ways in which we can maintain personal hygiene could be through simple activities like taking a shower atleast once a day, brushing your teeth twice a day, making sure to floss your teeth, applying deodorant to avoid foul smell, washing your body with soap, cutting your nails, washing your hair properly thrice a week, making sure your face is clean before going to sleep, wearing comfortable clothing, changing your pillowcases once a week, cleaning your phone screen to remove it of any bacteria, wearing a mask, carrying sanitizers, washing your hands with proper techniques, covering your mouth while sneezing your coughing, applying sunscreen even if you aren’t going out, putting on perfume or body mists. It is important to change sanitary products regularly and to wash the hands before and after changing tampons, pads, or any other sanitary products. As vaginas are self-cleaning, using soap to clean the vagina can cause an imbalance of its natural bacteria and lead to infections. The vulva (the external part of the vagina) should only need cleaning once a day using a mild soap and water. People with an uncircumcised penis can clean it by gently pulling back the foreskin and washing underneath it with warm water or soap. If you can’t remember to do things like shower, wash your hair, clip your nails, or brush your teeth, set a reminder on your phone. The cue will push you to the activity, and over time, you’ll begin to do it yourself. Hang a reminder in the bathroom to wash your hands after using the toilet. Put a little sign by the plates or bowls in the kitchen to cue yourself to wash your hands before eating. These signs can help jog your memory and improve your habits.

Therefore maintaining personal hygiene is beneficial for you and your own health and it’s considered one way of helping you in having a healthy and safe life.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extraction of organs or tissues, including for surrogacy and ova removal. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. Human trafficking is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim’s rights of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation. Human trafficking is the trade in people, especially women and children, and does not necessarily involve the movement of the person from one place to another. People smuggling (also called human smuggling and migrant smuggling) is a related practice which is characterized by the consent of the person being smuggled. Smuggling situations can descend into human trafficking through coercion and exploitation. Trafficked people are held against their will through acts of coercion, and forced to work for or provide services to the trafficker or others. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), forced labour alone (one component of human trafficking) generates an estimated $150 billion in profits per annum as of 2014. In 2012, the ILO estimated that 21 million victims are trapped in modern-day slavery. Of these, 14.2 million (68%) were exploited for labour, 4.5 million (22%) were sexually exploited, and 2.2 million (10%) were exploited in state-imposed forced labour. 

The International Labour Organization has reported that child workers, minorities, and irregular migrants are at considerable risk of more extreme forms of exploitation. Statistics shows that over half of the world’s 215 million young workers are observed to be in hazardous sectors, including forced sex work and forced street begging. Ethnic minorities and highly marginalized groups of people are highly estimated to work in some of the most exploitative and damaging sectors, such as leather tanning, mining, and stone quarry work. Human trafficking is the third largest crime industry in the world, behind drug dealing and arms trafficking, and is the fastest-growing activity of trans-national criminal organizations. Human trafficking is condemned as a violation of human rights by international conventions. In addition, human trafficking is subject to a directive in the European Union. According to a report by the U.S. State Department, Belarus, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan remain among the worst countries when it comes to providing protection against human trafficking and forced labour. Trafficked people are held against their will through acts of coercion, and forced to work for or provide services to the trafficker or others. The work or services may include anything from bonded or forced labour to commercial sexual exploitation. 

The arrangement may be structured as a work contract, but with no or low payment, or on terms which are highly exploitative. Sometimes the arrangement is structured as debt bondage, with the victim not being permitted or able to pay off the debt. In India, the trafficking in persons for commercial sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced marriages and domestic servitude is considered an organized crime. The Government of India applies the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, active from 3 February 2013, as well as Section 370 and 370A IPC, which defines human trafficking and “provides stringent punishment for human trafficking; trafficking of children for exploitation in any form including physical exploitation; or any form of sexual exploitation, slavery, servitude or the forced removal of organs.” Additionally, a Regional Task Force implements the SAARC Convention on the prevention of Trafficking in Women and Children.

WHY IS THE “N” WORD PROHIBITED?

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

It’s one thing to ban a word because it is a pitiless slur often used amid physical violence. That black people use it—and have forever—as a term of endearment among one another complicates matters somewhat, but whites who ask “Why can’t we use it if they do?” have always struck me as disingenuous. It isn’t rocket science to understand that words can have more than one meaning, and a sensible rule is that blacks can use the word but whites can’t. However, since the 1990s this rule has undergone mission creep, under which whites are not only not supposed to level the word as a slur, but are also not supposed to even refer to it. That idea has been entrenched for long enough now that it is coming to feel normal, but then normal is not always normal. It borders, as I suggested above, on taboo. There are societies—such as many in Australia—in which it is forbidden to use ordinary language with in-laws, and this taboo is often extended  even to referring to in-laws in conversation. Upon marrying, one must master a whole different vocabulary for talking to and/or about, for example, one’s mother-in-law. Many are familiar with the click sounds in Xhosa. However, clicks didn’t originate in Xhosa, but in lesser-known languages spoken by hunter-gatherers. Xhosa speakers, it is thought, adopted clicks from these other communities as part of an effort to create avoidance language, substituting them for ordinary sounds in Xhosa.

Practices like this sound neat to Americans—but also arbitrary. We understand that the practice is rooted in respect, but can’t help thinking that the official practice has drifted somewhat beyond what logic would dictate. The idea that nonblacks cannot even soberly refer to the N-word verges on this kind of thing. Note the word verges: The N-word is a slur and loaded in a way that, say, asking your mother-in-law what she’d like for dinner is not; sparing usage and serious caution are warranted. Respect, nevertheless, has morphed into a kind of genuflection that an outsider might find difficult to understand. There are matters of art involved, of course. Even when discussing rather than wielding the word, people—including black ones—might avoid barking out the word any more than necessary. (Or avoid writing it more than necessary, as in this very essay.) Surely, its history means that it provokes negative associations; it doesn’t sound good. Perhaps even the weird word niggardly ought to be let go. Accidentally, it just sounds too much like that other word to pass muster, especially when synonyms like stingy are so readily available. Those who use it should not be made to feel unfit for employment, as has actually happened.

But a white student so horrified at Sheck’s uttering the N-word within the context of its usage by a black, crusading anti-racist figure such as James Baldwin that the student reports her to the authorities? It surely felt like Doing the Right Thing—but the problem is that when Spike Lee’s film of (more or less) that title was playing in theaters, graduate students would have done no such thing. Some will object that we moderns are more advanced than those ‘80s troglodytes, or at least that the discussion has progressed, enrichened, that justice is being better served. And I am under no illusion that this is merely a matter of a certain kind of white performative wokeness. Quite a few black people, including authors of whole books on the word, would agree that Sheck should never utter that word at all for any reason. We might ask, though, what the reason for a diktat like that is. It conveys, certainly, a kind of power. Inevitably, here and there a nonblack person will either use the word in an unsanctioned way or, just as often, be revealed to have done so in the past. If the word is sinful even when referred to, then the ground is especially fertile for black Americans or white allies to express outrage. Enter the Teaching Moment, when we are reminded of black people’s plight in a racist nation, our history in savagery and dismissal, the power of even subliminal racist bias.

ACTUAL MEANING OF FEMINISM

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

When they hear the word “Feminist,” most people think of a bunch of angry women who believe that they are better than men. By definition the word “feminist” means “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.” Feminists are not just women who stand outside buildings demanding things. In reality they have revolutionized today’s society and have improved the lives of many. Most rights that women have today derived from true feminists fighting for equality. Feminism has lost its true meaning. Real feminists such as the Suffragettes, Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara Walters, and so many more have made it possible for women to become news anchors, be more than just a housewife, or allow women to vote.

Today’s feminists have taken these remarkable women and twisted what they stood for. Women have turned against men. Past feminism changed society forever. Today, feminists believe that men are less superior and that women could live on the Earth without them, but that is not what true feminism is. True feminism allows women to be equal to men. True feminists make it possible for women to work the same jobs as men or have the right to own property like men. Although the basis of feminism is still the same, it has become a more aggressive movement. Instead of bringing men and women together as a united front, it has created an even bigger gap throughout the United States. Today’s feminism isn’t making the same progress or spreading the same message. There are still other problems that feminism could fix, but if we don’t use feminism the right way then we won’t be fixing anything. If we continue to misuse feminism then we really will be just a bunch of angry women protesting outside of buildings. The definition, as I have spent my life believing it to be, is the belief that men and women should have equal social, political, and economic rights and opportunities. I do think that that is the most inclusive definition of what feminism is about. It’s about equality for both men and women and a playing field that respects the voices of women. True equality, true feminism is recognition of the dynamics that each person brings to the table. And I say “each person” because women will have reached truest levels of equality when men also have truest levels of equality. As long as we stay and assign task and duty, responsibility and opportunity to a particular gender, then we are not actually striving for true feminism.

I think at that time there was such an imbalance of power that you had to recognize the need to at least get some balance of power to women, some recognition that women should have choices and opportunities outside of the home, and in the home itself. Today we recognize that true feminism is the true equality of both sexes, without it being limited or restricted. And we actually have more young men and young women growing up today that have been raised in more feminist households, where men and women do a share of work in the house. They both have opportunities for education and for job opportunities. Jobs are not labeled for men and for women. There’s still not true equality and there’s still true job segregation. But in that context, there was a time in the late 60’s and early 70’s when the term feminism started growing and when and the Ms. Foundation started that there was a true segregation. And now I think the feminist movement had to take on “the women’s movement,” the women’s perspective so that it could get to a mainstream conversation.

NEPOTISM

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

Nepotism is a form of favoritism which is granted to relatives and friends in various fields, including business, politics, entertainment, sports, religion and other activities. The term originated with the assignment of nephews to important positions by Catholic popes and bishops. Nepotism has been criticized since the ancient times by several philosophers, including Aristotle, Valluvar, and Confucius, condemning it as both evil and unwise. Nepotism in India is common in politics, judiciary, business, the film industry, religious circles, arts, industry, and other types of organizations. Many judges and advocates of the high courts and the Supreme Court of India are alleged to be appointed by exercising casteism, nepotism, and favoritism, primarily due to the Supreme Court and the high court appointment process called Collegium which recommends to the President, in a legally binding manner, the names of judges to be appointed or promoted to the higher judiciary. The various judicial services exams are also infamous for these practices. Rahul Gandhi, Former President of the Indian National Congress party, is a descendant of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi.

The Kapoor family, one of the most prolific generational families involved in Indian cinema, have been known for bringing their children into the industry with their endorsements and influence. In June 2020 a fresh debate on nepotism followed soon after the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, which fans believe was in reaction to efforts by Bollywood insiders to boycott him. Filmmaker Karan Johar, who Rajput had worked with in the Netflix film Drive, was quickly accused of nepotism by actress Kangana Ranaut, with Rajput’s fans calling for a boycott of Johar and his studio, Dharma Productions, as well as of actor Salman Khan and his brothers, who were accused of bullying outsiders in the past. Actors and actresses Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter, Ananya Pandey, Athiya Shetty, Tiger Shroff, Arjun Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan, all of whom hail from film families, were also widely criticized. The term comes from Italian word nepotismo, which is based on Latin root nepos meaning nephew. Since the Middle Ages and until the late 17th century, some Catholic popes and bishops – who had taken vows of chastity and, therefore, usually had no legitimate offspring of their own – gave their nephews such positions of preference as were often accorded by fathers to sons.

Several popes elevated nephews and other relatives to the cardinalate. Often, such appointments were a means of continuing a papal “dynasty”. For instance, Pope Callixtus III, head of the Borgia family, made two of his nephews cardinals; one of them, Rodrigo, later used his position as a cardinal as a stepping stone to the papacy, becoming Pope Alexander VI. Alexander then elevated Alessandro Farnese, his mistress’s brother, to cardinal; Farnese would later go on to become Pope Paul III. Paul III also engaged in nepotism, appointing, for instance, two nephews, aged 14 and 16, as cardinals. The practice was finally limited when Pope Innocent XII issued the bull Romanum decet Pontificem, in 1692.The papal bull prohibited popes in all times from bestowing estates, offices, or revenues on any relative, with the exception that one qualified relative (at most) could be made a cardinal.

BLACK HOLE

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing—no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of no escape is called the event horizon. Although it has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, according to general relativity it has no locally detectable features. In many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light. Moreover, quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation, with the same spectrum as a black body of a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is on the order of billionths of a kelvin for black holes of stellar mass, making it essentially impossible to observe directly.

Objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. The first modern solution of general relativity that would characterize a black hole was found by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916, and its interpretation as a region of space from which nothing can escape was first published by David Finkelstein in 1958. Black holes were long considered a mathematical curiosity; it was not until the 1960s that theoretical work showed they were a generic prediction of general relativity. The discovery of neutron stars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 1967 sparked interest in gravitationally collapsed compact objects as a possible astrophysical reality. The first black hole known as such was Cygnus X-1, identified by several researchers independently in 1971. Black holes of stellar mass form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed, it can continue to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings. By absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes, supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses may form. There is consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies.

The presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. Matter that falls onto a black hole can form an external accretion disk heated by friction, forming quasars, some of the brightest objects in the universe. Stars passing too close to a supermassive black hole can be shred into streamers that shine very brightly before being “swallowed.” If there are other stars orbiting a black hole, their orbits can be used to determine the black hole’s mass and location. Such observations can be used to exclude possible alternatives such as neutron stars. In this way, astronomers have identified numerous stellar black hole candidates in binary systems, and established that the radio source known as Sagittarius A*, at the core of the Milky Way galaxy, contains a supermassive black hole of about 4.3 million solar masses.

WHAT DOES AN ENGINEER ACTUALLY DO?

BY:VAIBHAVI MENON

Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limitations imposed by practicality, regulation, safety and cost. The word engineer (Latin ingeniator) is derived from the Latin words ingeniare (“to create, generate, contrive, devise”) and ingenium (“cleverness”). The foundational qualifications of an engineer typically include a four-year bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline, or in some jurisdictions, a master’s degree in an engineering discipline plus four to six years of peer-reviewed professional practice (culminating in a project report or thesis) and passage of engineering board examinations.

The work of engineers forms the link between scientific discoveries and their subsequent applications to human and business needs and quality of life. A professional engineer is competent by virtue of his/her fundamental education and training to apply the scientific method and outlook to the analysis and solution of engineering problems. He/she is able to assume personal responsibility for the development and application of engineering science and knowledge, notably in research, design, construction, manufacturing, superintending, managing and in the education of the engineer. His/her work is predominantly intellectual and varied and not of a routine mental or physical character. It requires the exercise of original thought and judgement and the ability to supervise the technical and administrative work of others. His/her education will have been such as to make him/her capable of closely and continuously following progress in his/her branch of engineering science by consulting newly published works on a worldwide basis, assimilating such information and applying it independently. He/she is thus placed in a position to make contributions to the development of engineering science or its applications. His/her education and training will have been such that he/she will have acquired a broad and general appreciation of the engineering sciences as well as thorough insight into the special features of his/her own branch. In due time he/she will be able to give authoritative technical advice and to assume responsibility for the direction of important tasks in his/her branch. Engineers develop new technological solutions. During the engineering design process, the responsibilities of the engineer may include defining problems, conducting and narrowing research, analyzing criteria, finding and analyzing solutions, and making decisions. Much of an engineer’s time is spent on researching, locating, applying, and transferring information. Indeed, research suggests engineers spend 56% of their time engaged in various information behaviors, including 14% actively searching for information. Engineers must weigh different design choices on their merits and choose the solution that best matches the requirements and needs. Their crucial and unique task is to identify, understand, and interpret the constraints on a design in order to produce a successful result.

Engineers apply techniques of engineering analysis in testing, production, or maintenance. Analytical engineers may supervise production in factories and elsewhere, determine the causes of a process failure, and test output to maintain quality. They also estimate the time and cost required to complete projects. Supervisory engineers are responsible for major components or entire projects. Engineering analysis involves the application of scientific analytic principles and processes to reveal the properties and state of the system, device or mechanism under study. Engineering analysis proceeds by separating the engineering design into the mechanisms of operation or failure, analyzing or estimating each component of the operation or failure mechanism in isolation, and recombining the components. They may analyze risk.

BIG BANG THEORY

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model explaining the existence of the observable universe from the earliest known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution. The model describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature, and offers a comprehensive explanation for a broad range of observed phenomena, including the abundance of light elements, the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, and large-scale structure. Crucially, the theory is compatible with Hubble–Lemaître law—the observation that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away from Earth. Extrapolating this cosmic expansion backwards in time using the known laws of physics, the theory describes an increasingly concentrated cosmos preceded by a singularity in which space and time lose meaning (typically named “the Big Bang singularity”). Detailed measurements of the expansion rate of the universe place the Big Bang singularity at around 13.8 billion years ago, which is thus considered the age of the universe.

After its initial expansion, an event that is by itself often called “the Big Bang”, the universe cooled sufficiently to allow the formation of subatomic particles, and later atoms. Giant clouds of these primordial elements—mostly hydrogen, with some helium and lithium—later coalesced through gravity, forming early stars and galaxies, the descendants of which are visible today. Besides these primordial building materials, astronomers observe the gravitational effects of an unknown dark matter surrounding galaxies. Most of the gravitational potential in the universe seems to be in this form, and the Big Bang theory and various observations indicate that this excess gravitational potential is not created by baryonic matter, such as normal atoms. Measurements of the redshifts of supernovae indicate that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, an observation attributed to dark energy’s existence. Georges Lemaître first noted in 1927 that an expanding universe could be traced back in time to an originating single point, which he called the “primeval atom”. Edwin Hubble confirmed through analysis of galactic redshifts in 1929 that galaxies are indeed drifting apart; this is important observational evidence for an expanding universe. For several decades, the scientific community was divided between supporters of the Big Bang and the rival steady-state model which both offered explanations for the observed expansion, but the steady-state model stipulated an eternal universe in contrast to the Big Bang’s finite age. In 1964, the CMB was discovered, which convinced many cosmologists that the steady-state theory was falsified, since, unlike the steady-state theory, the hot Big Bang predicted a uniform background radiation throughout the universe caused by the high temperatures and densities in the distant past. A wide range of empirical evidence strongly favors the Big Bang, which is now essentially universally accepted.

According to the Big Bang theory, the universe at the beginning was very hot and very compact, and since then it has been expanding and cooling down. As the universe cooled, the rest energy density of matter came to gravitationally dominate that of the photon radiation. After about 379,000 years, the electrons and nuclei combined into atoms (mostly hydrogen), which were able to emit radiation. This relic radiation, which continued through space largely unimpeded, is known as the cosmic microwave background.

SEXISM

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one’s sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to stereotypes and gender roles, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is intrinsically superior to another. Extreme sexism may foster sexual harassment, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. Gender discrimination may encompass sexism, and is discrimination toward people based on their gender identity or their gender or sex differences. Gender discrimination is especially defined in terms of workplace inequality. It may arise from social or cultural customs and norms.

the term “sexism” was most likely coined on November 18, 1965, by Pauline M. Leet during a “Student-Faculty Forum” at Franklin and Marshall College. Specifically, the word sexism appears in Leet’s forum contribution “Women and the Undergraduate”, and she defines it by comparing it to racism, stating in part “When you argue that since fewer women write good poetry this justifies their total exclusion, you are taking a position analogous to that of the racist—I might call you, in this case, a ‘sexist’. Both the racist and the sexist are acting as if all that has happened had never happened, and both of them are making decisions and coming to conclusions about someone’s value by referring to factors which are in both cases irrelevant.” Also, according to Shapiro, the first time the term “sexism” appeared in print was in Caroline Bird’s speech “On Being Born Female”, which was published on November 15, 1968, in Vital Speeches of the Day. In this speech she said in part: “There is recognition abroad that we are in many ways a sexist country. Sexism is judging people by their sex when sex doesn’t matter. Sexism is intended to rhyme with racism.” Sexism may be defined as an ideology based on the belief that one sex is superior to another. It is discrimination, prejudice, or stereotyping based on gender, and is most often expressed toward women and girls.

Sociology has examined sexism as manifesting at both the individual and the institutional level. According to Richard Schaefer, sexism is perpetuated by all major social institutions. Sociologists describe parallels among other ideological systems of oppression such as racism, which also operates at both the individual and institutional level. Early female sociologists Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ida B. Wells, and Harriet Martineau described systems of gender inequality, but did not use the term sexism, which was coined later. Sociologists who adopted the functionalist paradigm, e.g. Talcott Parsons, understood gender inequality as the natural outcome of a dimorphic model of gender. Psychologists Mary Crawford and Rhoda Unger define sexism as prejudice held by individuals that encompasses “negative attitudes and values about women as a group.” Peter Glick and Susan Fiske coined the term ambivalent sexism to describe how stereotypes about women can be both positive and negative, and that individuals compartmentalize the stereotypes they hold into hostile sexism or benevolent sexism.

Feminist author bell hooks defines sexism as a system of oppression that results in disadvantages for women. Feminist philosopher Marilyn Frye defines sexism as an “attitudinal-conceptual-cognitive-orientational complex” of male supremacy, male chauvinism, and misogyny. Philosopher Kate Manne defines sexism as one branch of a patriarchal order. In her definition, sexism rationalizes and justifies patriarchal norms, in contrast with misogyny, the branch which polices and enforces patriarchal norms. Manne says that sexism often attempts to make patriarchal social arrangements seem natural, good, or inevitable so that there appears to be no reason to resist them.

LGBT COMMUNITY

BY: VAIBHAVI MENON

LGBT or GLBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the term is an adaptation of the initialism LGB, which began to replace the term gay in reference to the broader LGBT community beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s. The first widely used term, homosexual, now carries negative connotations in the United States. It was replaced by homophile in the 1950s and 1960s, and subsequently gay in the 1970s; the latter term was adopted first by the homosexual community. As lesbians forged more public identities, the phrase “gay and lesbian” became more common. A dispute as to whether the primary focus of their political aims should be feminism or gay rights led to the dissolution of some lesbian organizations, including the Daughters of Bilitis, which disbanded in 1970 following disputes over which goal should take precedence.

As equality was a priority for lesbian feminists, disparity of roles between men and women or butch and femme were viewed as patriarchal. Lesbian feminists eschewed gender role play that had been pervasive in bars as well as the perceived chauvinism of gay men; many lesbian feminists refused to work with gay men, or take up their causes. Lesbians who held the essentialist view, that they had been born homosexual and used the descriptor “lesbian” to define sexual attraction, often considered the separatist opinions of lesbian-feminists to be detrimental to the cause of gay rights. Bisexual and transgender people also sought recognition as legitimate categories within the larger minority community. After the elation of change following group action in the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, some gays and lesbians became less accepting of bisexual or transgender people. Critics said that transgender people were acting out stereotypes and bisexuals were simply gay men or lesbian women who were afraid to come out and be honest about their identity. Each community has struggled to develop its own identity including whether, and how, to align with other gender and sexuality-based communities, at times excluding other subgroups; these conflicts continue to this day. LGBTQ activists and artists have created posters to raise consciousness about the issue since the movement began.

From about 1988, activists began to use the initialism LGBT in the United States. Not until the 1990s within the movement did gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people gain equal respect. This spurred some organizations to adopt new names, as the GLBT Historical Society did in 1999. Although the LGBT community has seen much controversy regarding universal acceptance of different member groups (bisexual and transgender individuals, in particular, have sometimes been marginalized by the larger LGBT community), the term LGBT has been a positive symbol of inclusion. Despite the fact that LGBT does not nominally encompass all individuals in smaller communities (see Variants below), the term is generally accepted to include those not specifically identified in the four-letter initialism. Overall, the use of the term LGBT has, over time, largely aided in bringing otherwise marginalized individuals into the general community. Transgender actress Candis Cayne in 2009 described the LGBT community as “the last great minority”, noting that “We can still be harassed openly” and be “called out on television”.