Discouraged Lion

When you own your legacy with no unfolded stories life it becomes easy to fight with anything. And in case of reverse inspite of being lion you are discouraged to do so. No political angle in it- it’s one of the professional antiquates.

How Pop Culture Trends Influence Youth….

At times, students fail to complete their assignments successfully due to the complexity of a topic. Some topics are difficult to cover because they should analyze many issues. For example, the relations between pop culture and youth are complex and include a lot of things to consider and explain. In the meanwhile, it’s a very interesting and popular theme for debates. A human being is a social creature that desires to interact with other people. Thus, people unite due to a common purpose and initiate small communities, which steadily develop into a real nation. Every nation has its culture and it affects the youth. The further division of culture creates popular culture trends that play an important growth in the development and maturing of young generations. Popular culture trends may have positive and negative effects for the youth and we should be aware of every manifestation.

Popular culture has long been associated with youth. TV and movie producers, as well as celebrities and their agents, frequently market their wares specifically to young people. Teens find extreme sports appealing and love to try trends. But pop culture has gone beyond reality TV and bungee jumping. It’s become more about making a personal connection with teens and having them interact with popular culture and each other.

influence young people today, such as TV, movies and celebrities, were popular with previous generations. However, the way that teens access and interact with popular culture has been revolutionized by technology and specialization. They don’t just experience popular culture and react to it; they interact with it and affect it in real time. They’re using technology to do it, and youth leaders can utilize these same technologies to establish relationships between our teens, their views of culture and their faith.

Pop culture has a huge influence on teens. They tend to imitate current trends and other people. The influence shapes the way they think (psychologically), act (behaviorally), and feel (emotionally). It helps to define themselves. They recognize themselves and see as if with the eyes of other people. The image that is taken from culture shapes their worldview and affects personal choices. It’s really nice when teenagers follow a celebrity who has healthy habits, is kind, educated, leads to a healthy lifestyle and so on. Nonetheless, many celebrities are far from being a good example to follow. Many of them take drugs and drink a lot of alcohol. Thus, many youngsters imitated this terrifying lifestyle and ruined their own lives. Teens likewise lose interest in school and normal things that used to make them happy.

Pop-culture is a timeless notion. It happens in every moment of the history and influences people who enjoy mass values. It is not only about youth: adults also get affected by popular culture if they stay in touch with the current trends and monitor what’s new. Older generations are adherents to popular culture of their own youth so that they are least likely to follow new trends.

By popular culture, we mean everything that happens in the media, arts, sports, society, or entertainment. Today, online media have become a potent transmitter of popular culture to young people who use them most. Social activities are arranged on Facebook where people can discover them. TV shows and movies are discussed and popularized online too. People who actively use social media are very likely to follow popular culture as news and updates are displayed in their newsfeed. There is no doubt that popular culture changes generations. Both youngsters and adults are likely to adopt features popular among their peers, and pop culture is the largest source of such features.

The influence of popular culture has a strong impact on young generations. It can be noticed in numerous manifestations and interacts with all sides of our life. There are great chances that teens will imitate the wrong model of behavior. Accordingly, parents and society should keep an eye on this issue.

Refrences:-

https://scallywagandvagabond.com

Railways produced around two lakh PPE gowns, over 7 lakh masks during lockdown

Railways has produced around two lakh Personal Protective Equipment, PPE gowns and over seven lakh masks during the lockdown period. Railways Ministry said, Railway is geared up to meet the challenge of providing protection to its front line medical workers and other operational staff persons, from the COVID 19 pandemic. 

The Ministry said, Railway workshops took up the challenge and manufactured PPE coveralls, sanitizer and masks. Raw material for manufacturing of these items was also procured by the field units. PPE coverall target for the month of June and July are fixed as 1.5 lakhs each.

Ministry of Railways has designated 50 Railway Hospitals as COVID Dedicated Hospitals and COVID Dedicated Health Centers. Facilities at these hospitals were upgraded through procurement of medical equipments and other items to meet the challenge of COVID Pandemic.

The Ministry said, more than five thousand Railway coaches have already been converted to isolation coaches to serve as the Covid Care Centers to augment the capacity of health infrastructure in the country. 960 coaches have so far been placed in service at several locations based on the requests received from the States.

All regular train services to remain cancelled till August 12; All 230 special trains to continue to operate

Railways has decided to cancel all the regular time-tabled passenger services including Mail/Express, passenger and suburban Service up to 12th August this year.

However, Special Rajdhani which started from 12th May and Special Mail Express service which started from 1st June will continue to operate. All the tickets booked for regular time table trains, for the journey date from 1st July to 12th August will be cancelled and full refund will be given to the passengers.

Earlier, the Railways had said that all the tickets booked upto 30th June will be cancelled and full refund will be provided.

Death toll in lightning strikes and rain-related incidents across Bihar, UP mounts to 130

In Bihar, the death toll in lightning and rain related incidents in 25 districts of the state during the last 24 hours has reached 106 while 56  others have been injured.

Most of the casualties are farmers who were doing agriculture related works in fields. 14 people were killed in Gopalganj while 39 in six districts of Purnea,Nawada , Madhubani, Bhagalpur, Aurangabad and Siwan. Other 53 casualties were reported from 18 districts.

The Met department has forecast heavy rain and lightning in the  next  three days in different parts of the state. The people have been advised to remain indoors during this period.The state government has appealed to people to take all necessary precautions during turbulent weather.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expressed grief over the loss of lives and announced an ex-gratia of four lakh rupees to the next of kin of the deceased. He has ordered  free treatment to injured people. 

Meanwhile in Uttar Pradesh, at least 24 persons were killed and 12 others  injured due to lightning yesterday. AIR Correspondent reports that as per the report of the Relief Commissioner of the state, 9 casualties were reported from Deoria district where 6 persons were also injured in incidents of lightning.

Six persons lost their lives in Prayagraj while there are reports of 3 deaths in Ambedkarnagar, 2 in Barabanki and one each death in Kushinagar, Fatehpur, Balrampur and Unnao districts.Those who lost their lives were either working in their farms or had taken shelter under trees during lightning strike.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the deaths and has announced ex-gratia of 4 lakhs for the families of the deceased. He also ordered officials to provide proper medical care to the injured and help the families of victims of this natural calamity immediately.  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed condolences to the families of those who have lost their lives  due to heavy rains and lightning strikes in some districts of Bihar and UP. In a tweet, Mr. Modi said the state governments are engaged in relief work with promptness. 

Serological survey to determine spread of coronavirus in Delhi begins today covering 20,000 people

Amid rising coronavirus cases in the national capital, a serological survey will be undertaken in Delhi from today. The exercise will be taken up till 10th July.

AIR correspondent reports, Serological survey will be conducted in all districts of Delhi in which sample testing will be conducted of 20 thousand persons spanning all sections and ages. It will help in comprehensive assessment of the spread of infection and will help draw up a comprehensive strategy.

It is part of the new COVID-19 response plan prepared as per the recommendations of the committee, headed by NITI Aayog member Dr V K Paul. On the directions of Home Minister Amit Shah, the Committee was constituted on 14th June to submit a report on Containment Strategy on COVID-19 for Delhi. 

On Sunday, Mr Shah reviewed Delhi’s Covid-19 situation with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and discussed recommendations made by the committee. Dr V K Paul committee has also proposed revised demarcation of containment zones and a strict monitoring and control of activities in such containment zones.

Delhi recorded 3788 fresh coronavirus cases yesterday, taking the tally in the city to 70 thousand 390. With this Delhi has already overtaken worst-hit city Mumbai’s tally of 68,410. The death toll in the National Capital has climbed to 2365. 

Meanwhile, the State Disaster Management Authority yesterday approved modification of SOP for home isolation for Covid patients to meet the twin objectives of containment of local spread and provision of timely medical care for Covid positive cases to save precious lives.

In a tweet Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal said, Health department will deploy a robust surveillance mechanism. He said, only those COVID positive cases who do not have adequate facilities at home to ensure physical segregation and do not have other medical conditions would require to be shifted to Covid Care centres and other facilities. 

Central team to visit Gujarat, Maharashtra & Telangana to review COVID-19 situation

A Central team will visit Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana today to coordinate with State officials to strengthen ongoing efforts for management of COVID-19. During the four days visit, the team will interact with state government officials over the pandemic.  It will be led by the Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry.  

The Central team will review the measures undertaken by the three states for containment of COVID-19.  Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases in the country.

Meanwhile,  the recovery rate of COVID-19  patients has improved to 57.43 percent in India.  In the last 24 hours,  over 13 thousand  COVID-19 patients have been cured.  With this,  the number of cured cases has reached  over two lakh 71 thousand so far.

Cases per lakh in India currently stands at 33.39 against the world’s 120.21 cases per lakh population. Also, death per lakh population in the country is presently amongst the lowest in the world with 1.06 deaths per lakh against the world average of 6.24 deaths per lakh population.  In a significant ramping of the testing facilities across the country, India now has 1007 diagnostic labs and over 75 lakh COVID-19 tests have been conducted till now.  

Inspiring story of Google’s CEO: Sundar Pichai – Must read!!!

Growing up in India, like many of you, Sundar Pichai got my first telephone when he was 12. In case it turned out be a rotary phone, so it wasn’t that great for selfies. But he still loved to call my friends, play with it and sometimes take it apart. That telephone cemented my fascination with technology. Sundar Pichai remember in his parents’ house in Chennai, reading about the invention of the transistor at Bell labs. Of course, that initial invention helped found what became referred to as Silicon Valley and out of that came companies like fairchild semiconductor and Intel and every one the computers and software, that we all use today. You can draw an immediate line from that invention to the technology, that powers your Twitter feed or your WeChat messages today.

Google's Sundar Pichai travelled in buses, had no television while ...

Image source : GadegtsNow

When he was younger, people would say, this person didn’t get into this college or something and that is the end of the road. Sundar Pichai thought life is so different from that, and so he think it is important to you know, keep your hopes, keep your dreams and try to follow them and you recognize he think, most of how life plays out is up to you, not up to what happens outside of you. It’s important to keep that in mind and take the long-term view. As a teenager, jumping on to a crowded train. At Chennai and traveling for 24 hours, to attend my school at IIT Kharagpur and that opportunity changed the course of my life. You want to aim high enough that you fail, you know few times thought it is the natural part of the process. In fact, Larry accustomed say if you’re employed on really difficult things, you’re more happy because you’ve got no competition, others aren’t performing on that difficult a drag . And although you fail, you finish up doing something great within the process.

Sundar Pichai Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline

Image source: Thefamousperson

You know, working the real world, it is important to be well rounded, it is important to try different things, or you know take some risks, he would encourage people to follow their passions a little bit more. To follow set lanes throughout your career. Getting into an elite institution doesn’t guarantee success, it matters plenty but it doesn’t guarantee success. It is important to stay that perspective in life and life may be a long road, and you know, you would like to require it at the proper pace and luxuriate in what you are doing. Sundar Pichai knew how much hard work it takes to pursue your dream of building a business. The long hours, time faraway from family, the ideas you recognize are brilliant, that just don’t seem to catch on. Reading that and thinking, it is the concept matters. It didn’t matter where you come from or what your background is.
One revolutionary idea, one brilliant invention can unleash other entrepreneurs to revolutionize, industries and ways you could never predict.

black samsung tablet display google browser on screen
Photo by PhotoMIX Company on Pexels.com

PM Modi to launch ‘Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan’ for migrant workers today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan today which is focused on generating employment for those migrant workers of Uttar Prdesh who recently returned from other states. Today around one crore  25 lakh people will be provided employment in the state in different schemes.  The program will be launched at 11 am through Video-Conference in presence of the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath. Ministers of concerned Ministries of the state will also participate in the virtual launch.

‘ROZGAR KA NAYA ABHIYAN, HAR SHRAMIK-KAMGAR KO KAM’ – With this motto, the state government will provide employment to 1.25 crore workers of the state in different schemes of central and state government. A loan amount of 5900 crores will be distributed to 2.40 Lakh units under Atmanirbhar Bharat Package today. 1.11 lakh new units will also get 3226 crore rupees as loan amount.  Around 5 thousand artists will get tool kits through Vishwakarma Shram Samman yojna under one district one product scheme of state.  The Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan will be launched in 31 districts of the state. These districts have more than 25,000 returnee migrant workers. These include 5 aspirational districts also.

On this occasion the Prime Minister will interact with villagers from six districts of state which includes Gonda, Sidharth Nagar, Behraich, Sant KAbir Nagar, Gorakhpur and Jalaun.  Villages across all districts of state will join this program through the Common Service Centers and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, maintaining the norms of social distancing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan is focused towards providing employment, promoting local entrepreneurship and creating partnership with Industrial associations to provide employment opportunities. Nearly 30 lakh migrant workers have returned recently from the other parts of state in Uttar Pradesh.  

Can We Sustain?: The environmental challenge Towards Human Existence

Picture Courtesy: Google

In this emerging world crisis what we need to worry about the environment. Biodiversity is being hampered with the living habits of humans. As a part of the environment, We must pay heed to the development of the environment in a right and progressive way. We must know what we are leaving for the next generation. Due to the indifferent nature of human towards the environment and destructive behavior towards nature have called up a pandemic situation like Covid-19. The rising temperature, the growth of the disease, the major wild forests destruction, climatic imbalances all are results of human extravaganza. Our existential security depends on the earth’s existence. So, whenever we are talking about development we have to take the earth under consideration as well. The Hinduism sacred literature talks about ‘Mahabhuta’ which says about the exploitation of the five elements of nature, earth, water, fire, air,  space. Due to the convergence of technology we are running behind the development without thinking who to sustain it.

There are many things we should be worried about. There are many species which are either got extinct or in the way of extinct. Deforestation is one of the main causes of environmental grievance. Reports say nearly 27,000 trees are shot down each day to manufacture toilet paper. Nearly 1 million sea creatures are killed due to plastic pollution. Death of a huge number of animals in ecology, not only push the species towards extinction but also create a disruption in ecosystems and the ecological food chain. Unrestricted fishing can be another cause of the crisis in aquaculture. In this environment, every creature has its own role to play. The popularity of insects is higher than any other living creature on the planet. Due to agricultural safety, many friendly insects are killed. It says female insects travel much comparatively to male insects because they are in the process of pollination. Here if the pollination doesn’t happen, it can lead the human existence to cease. With the spike of the world population( nearly 83 million per year) and carbon footprint sensitizing the consequences like food crisis, economic crises, water problems, climatic changes, and so on. A report says the growing temperature can lead people to kill themselves. 1°C rise in temperature has given a 0.7% rise in the suicidal cases in countries like the US, Mexico. According to a report of WWF, a new disease can arise which will be higher than ever. It will make wreak havoc in the economy, health, and more. Arbitrary wild trade is another resource of ecological imbalance. Expensive release of greenhouse gas from the use of burning fuel like oil and others has indecently increased the rate of pollution, temperature, and other environmental issues.

A report called ‘The Global Tree Restoration Potential’ has remarked tree restoration as one of the efficient strategies to prevent the environmental crisis. Human and environmental development have to be proportional to each other. We can conquer the destruction by choosing sustainable development as a weapon. We are not allowed to perceive the natural beauty apparently as a part of impressionism but we are bound to be careful about securing the existence the beauty so that the next generation also can sense and experience the beauty in the same way.

Facebook or Fakebook?

Facebook is one of the most remarkable names in the field of social networking domains that has evolved to be a brand with no competition whatsoever. Although there are other apps like Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram and the like, but literally nothing can be compared to Facebook in terms of the wide range of usage it happens to cover. Facebook has become an option that literally provides a huge range of elements to its users which include but are not limited to news, sports, memes, jokes, promotional posts, motivational posts, current affairs and so on. Facebook has made it possible for us to be a part of the global world with just one click in absolutely no-time!

However, the fact that has come to the surface with the gradual development of Facebook should also be mentioned in this regard. A tendency to pretend to be someone else has come up to be one of the major repercussions of using Facebook in a regular manner. Everyone likes putting their daily lives up there on Facebook without thinking about its consequences. It is not bad to post stuff on Facebook but the fact that it has helped a tendency to evolve out of people that goes on to present a mask-like persona. Everyone pretends to show how happy they are in their real life by posting stuff on Facebook regularly no matter what is going on in their life. It has both positive and negative side effects. Therefore it gets clear how Facebook has contributed in making the digital world a domain of pretentiousness which can be really harmful at times.

Facebook has also caused a rise of the rate of cyber bullying along with a huge number of cyber-crimes in today’s world. With each passing day thousands of people create their accounts on Facebook and the rate of cyber bullying and cyber -crime increase by 5%. Teenagers are the most affected ones who have to go through different kinds of humiliations and harassments on a daily basis due to the heinous crimes committed by the cyber criminals.
Facebook has gradually blurred the boundaries between the digital and the real world. It enables people to pretend what they actually are not and present different versions of themselves which are supposedly a more acceptable one to the others. This way, it has also gone forward to create a huge impact on mental health issues.

The fact that Facebook allows everyone to post their heart out has many repercussions. Racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic posts seem to be floating around all over Facebook without having any counter action from the authorities. It promotes different problematic sets of ideologies that affect every one present on Facebook in some way or the other.
Facebook plays a huge role in influencing and eventually controlling the youth of the world. Considering all these aspects that come along with the positive sides of Facebook everyone should start being more careful about their online presence since it has so much power nowadays.

-Suvasree Bandyopadhyay

16 Year Old Tik-Tok Star Siya Kakkar Commits Suicide.

The year 2020 has been a devastating and shocking year for everyone around the world. When it comes to the entertainment platform which mainly includes acting and dancing there had been many shocking up comings in this year which includes the death of the famous bollywood star sushant singh rajput due to poor mental health and depression. When everyone had not gotten over the death of sushant singh rajput there has been another incident where a famous tik-tok star has committed suicide in Delhi. The 16 year old had caught the eye of the audience with her brilliant set of dancing skills. It has been reported that the 16 year old lived with her family and was found dead around 9 pm the previous night. As per the police reports there has been no suicide note found.

It has been come to light that the star had around 11 lakh followers on tik-tok and her last post was 6 days prior to the incident. The news of the stars death was confirmed by her manager who reportedly said “This must be due to something personal…work wise she was doing well.I had a word with her last night for a new project and she sounded normal. Me and my company Fame Experts manage lots of artist and Siya was a bright Talent. I am heading to her home in Preet Vihar.” she said.

It is absolutely shocking that children of such age can take such a drastic step in their life and put an end to everything. It is the parents that have to suffer for the rest of their lives in guilt that they could not save their child irrespective of the situation. The digital world of movie stars and all sorts of actors and dancers have come under the spotlight as what kind of mental and peer pressure they tend to face in their lives.

Word cup 1983

25th June 1983, was the first time that India won the cricket world cup. It was the first time that India had made an appearance in the finals, and they were up against West Indies  for whom this was their third consecutive world cup finals appearance. The world cup was hosted by the company Prudential that is why the world cup is also called Prudential world cup .The finals was played in Lord’s  cricket stadium also called  Lord’s in London which had had hosted world cup for the third time. India defeated West Indies by 43 runs. Kapil Dev lifting the Trophy from the balcony of the Lord’s cricket ground still remains the image of savor for the India fans. Even after 37 years people acknowledge this finals as the most memorable game played by the India cricket team.

India were the underdogs in the tournament, there was not much expectations from the team. However they defeated Zimbabwe in a crucial match, thanks to Kapi Dev who made 175 runs which lead the team to win the match. India was at 78 runs 5 wickets when Kapil dev came for batting his extraordinary innings took Indian team to victory. Unfortunately this historical match was not telecasted as British Broadcasting corporation  was on a strike  that day. In semi finals England was defeated by India by six wickets with thirty two balls remaining and Mohinder Amarnath becoming the player of the match. West indies defeated Australia in the semi finals by seven wickets with thirteen balls remaining and Vivin Richards became the man of the match.

West Indies and India made it to the finals, at that time West indies had really good bowling attack. So when they won the toss they chose to ball first and allowed India to Bat.  First came Sunil Gavaskar but his innings was short as he got out for just two runs but Krishnamachari Srikanth and Mohinder Amarnath had a good partnership and brought the runs to the fifty mark. Then soon Srikanth got out making  thirty eight runs, after that as the score was marching towards a hundred Mohinder Amarnath and Yashpal sharma lost their wickets after making twenty six runs and eleven runs respectively. Then came the captain Kapil Dev who stroke three boundaries in eight balls but got out in just 15 runs. Nor could the next players like Kirti Azad and Roger Binny could make runs, they did not even cross the double digit. Then Sandip Patil could only score 27 runs and The all rounder Madan lal came back to the pavilion after making 17 runs. India was all out in 54.4 overs making 183 runs.

Then came India’s turn to bowl, the first wicket was taken in just 11 balls by Balwinder singh sandhu that too of Gordon Greenidge who was really in a great form, he could only take 5 runs. West indies also had a great partnership of  Desmond Haynes and Vivin Richards which enabled west indies to cross the 50 mark, but  both of them were dismissed by  Madan Lal and Kapil Dev respectively. Soon West Indies was all out in 52 overs making 140 runs and India won by 43 runs and Mohinder Amarnath becoming the Man of the match. No Man of the series was awarded that year.

This victory not only made these players a hero but also changed the perception of games in India. This also lead to a high commercialization of cricket as a game, people started to think sports as a career and also many people really got engaged to the game. This win also brought a sense of ” we can do it” for the Indian team.

 

 

Media in India: Politics of regulation in a time of false News

The media plays a pertinent role by providing information which is indispensable for two reasons. Primarily, it ensures that citizens formulate proper and updated views by analysing the authentic and genuine facts as provided by media. Secondly, it provides information as a “checking function” by guaranteeing that the chosen government and its representatives act upon electoral promises.

Media thus plays a central role since it is the single means through which public opinion is engendered. The stability of a country is assessed by the way the media report the news of that country. Thus, it becomes the obligation of the media to circulate only applicable and valid facts locally and globally.

The role of media has been changing from what it was perceived. The neutrality of news in reporting is missing in the mainstream media today because of the hidden agendas that many press and media outlets hold.

 Media in India is mostly self-regulated.  The existing bodies for regulation of media such as the Press Council of India which is a statutory body and the News Broadcasting Standards Authority, a self-regulatory organization, issue standards which are more in the nature of guidelines.   Press Council of India established under the PCI Act of 1978 for the purpose of preserving the freedom of the press and of maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and news agencies in India.

Even though the Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, the government does regulate some media. Print media are largely unregulated, and newspapers and magazines can print nearly anything as long as they don’t slander anyone. The Internet has also gone largely unregulated, despite congressional efforts to restrict some controversial content. Broadcast media, however, are subject to the most government regulation.

Decision-making power in the Indian media regulation is fairly centralized, with the central Government and ministries making the final calls when it comes to new policies and appointments. Politicians have a keen interest in news media regulation owing to the high degree of political ownership in the sector. Thus, political and electoral logic shapes media regulation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the top of the decision-making list.  Modi follows a centralized decision-making model with significant power allotted to his Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Modi has been a vocal advocate of the use of online media for political mobilization, participation and propaganda. Key influencers in the Indian regulation include Mukesh Ambani, chairman of the Reliance Group of Industries, Amit Shah, an MP and current president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Subhash Chandra, the chairman of Essel Group, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL), which owns The Times of India.

WhatsApp has become the platform of choice for politicians because of its massive reach that goes beyond a party’s loyal voter base, but also because of the lack of gatekeepers. Messages forwarded through the system have no context about where they originate, but benefit from the trust of coming from a contact . . one of the BJP leaders denies the  spreading polarising content, but public  WhatsApp data collected by analysts and anecdotal evidence show that Indians are being flooded with propaganda memes, much of it anti-Muslim and critical of the opposition Congress party.

In April smriti Irani’s  ministry issued a circular saying that in order to fight the rise in fake news in print and electronic media, the government had decided that journalists who had complaints of creating/propagating fake news against them, would immediately have their press accreditation suspended.The following day, the Prime Minister’s Office asked her ministry to withdraw it.

Recently A picture of Vadra with the Chinese envoy. Both Republic TV and Times Now got excited enough over a picture of Robert Vadra to launch hashtags and primetime shows. Alt News had to give a video tutorial to Times Now and Republic TV to avoid such rookie mistakes. The picture was from a Chinese food festival that was also attended by India’s Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Sitaram Yechuri from CPIM, KC Tyagi from JDU and other leaders from BJP such as Tarun Vijay and Udit Raj. A quick google search could have avoided these channels the embarrassment though we suspect that they neither consider this as an embarrassment nor are they interested in the truth.

Similarly there was a statement attributed to Arundhati Roy – ‘’70 lakh Indian soldiers cannot defeat Azadi gang in Kashmir”  . A fake statement made in a non-existent interview during a trip that never took place was enough to launch prime time debates on Republic TV and CNN News 18 attacking Roy. The fake news had originated from some obscure Pakistani website called times of Islamabad

What followed was attack on Roy by BJP MP Paresh Rawal and prime time debates on the topic. Arnab Goswami called Roy a “one book whiner wonder” and continued to rant about his favorite topic of Lutyens media and pseudo liberals. An investigation by The Wire revealed the truth behind the fake outrage fueled by the news channels and this piece  by News laundry explored it further News laundry had republished an op-ed responding to Roy’s fake quote and it apologised for its editorial oversight and retracted the piece. There was no retraction or apology from Republic TV or CNN News 18 for attacking Roy based on fake news.

Indian media is grappling with many problems, but the country’s regulators fail to address them.

It took the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), a key player in India’s media policy, two years and seven months to release public data that had been officially requested in 2015 by TheHoot.org, a website mapping media ownership in India. The ministry said that such data couldn’t be released as it was “third party information.” The ministry’s argument was just tosh as media companies have to reveal ownership data to qualify for a license to operate.

The episode epitomizes the excessively bureaucratic, politicized and clientelistic media regulation in India whose decisions have negative consequences for news media operations

Decision-making in matters related to the Indian media is riddled with political influence, regulatory parallelism and clashes over jurisdiction, involving not only decision-making authorities but also industry players,

Rasputin: The death that changed history

Mystics and holy men, some call them the voices of gods while some refer to them as shams and con-men who try to trick the gullible people of society. Whatever be the truth, the fact is that they have been influential in shaping history throughout the world since time immemorial. These kinds of people often gain a large popularity, are hailed as having the power of gods and yet like every other person, have skeletons on their closets. One such man who changed the course for the Russian monarchy is Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Emperor Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia.

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Born to a peasant family in rural Siberia, Rasputin lived an obscure life till adolescence and might have continued to do so had he not converted himself to the Russian Orthodox church. After being inspired by many of the wandering humble monks of his generation, Rasputin moved aimlessly from one holy site to another. He spent years of his life on pilgrimages across Russia, and along his travels he amassed a large following due to his charismatic and magnetic presence. He was even believed to have had the power of divination and healing. And despite his repetitive acts of petty theft, heavy drinking and over promiscuous nature with the ladies, he was hailed as a holy monk across Siberia, and he gained the attention of both the powerful orthodox clergymen and common people.  Once he finally reached St. Petersberg, he used his innate charisma and gained popularity and connections to win the favour of the imperial family’s spiritual advisor and soon wormed his way up and was introduced to the Tsar Nicholas II. He like all other “holy men” before and after him had the ability and know-how to milk every opportunity to the fullest. Like every opportunist mystic in the world, he researched about his targets and found out that the Tsar and his wife were devout believers of the supernatural and mysticism.  Rasputin cemented his control in the Tsar’s court by performing a “miracle”. The young heir to the throne had a disease known as hemophilia, a life-threatening blood disease. He refused to let the doctors administer anything to the heir and when Alexie’s health got better, he was hailed as a mystic with supernatural powers. What actually happened was that the doctors had prescribed him aspirin which worsens the hemophilia’s effect in the body, thus it seemed that the young heir got better. Thus, to cement his place of power, he proclaimed that should he die or be deserted the royal crown and their son would also disappear. Due to his increasing popularity in court and his ill habits of theft and skirt-chasing, the orthodox had begun to hate him and decided to have him killed prevent his further acts of corruption to the royal family and to stabilize the kingdom, not taking into account that to the public Rasputin was hailed as the public’s hero. In 1916, a group of nobles led by Felix Yusupov, tried to kill Rasputin by lacing his pastries with cyanide or so they thought as one of their co-conspirators had changed the poison with something harmless out of pity for Rasputin. As that plan failed, Yusupov shot Rasputin at point blank range, which again Rasputin miraculously survived and punched away his assailant and ran away. However, the group of noblemen gave chase and shot Rasputin dead and dumped his body in the Malaya Nevka river. However rather than stabilizing the kingdom, his death enraged the peasantry who were already on a boil from decades long political tensions within the area, saw this as the tipping point and took down the Tsar’s regime. As Rasputin prophesised his death was soon followed by the royal families. Thus, ended the tale of a monk who reshaped the Russian history.