The good and The bad

We often judge or categorise people on the basis of there caste, colour, creed, gender and nowadays even on the basis of their region. Since the ancient times people have categorised the society into multiple categories and worked according to it, it’s 2020 and people are still not able to identify who are the good and the bad people. Let me be specific with this thing, I am talking about religion or caste, for instance: These days half of the society is against Muslims, because of some facts that I cannot mention, but why can’t they understand that a coin has two faces, and war always takes place between two people so this means that you cannot blame only one group, you can also be wrong, at least look at yourself before blaming someone else. Let me tell you some unknown facts in which Muslims have also set an example of humanity.

In Mumbai “Food- ek choti si asha” is a community led by Nikhat Mohamedy, who took an initiative to help the needy people in this pandemic and several others from different religion joined hands and came forward to help each other. Today the kitchen is serving 15,000 meals per day.

“This is about recognising the fact that we are all children of Adam and Eve, and feeding those brothers and sisters who are hungry and deprived is fundamental to expressing our humanity”, says Mohamedy.

Another example of this is when Vaishno Devi Shrine Board served recipes to Muslims housed in quarantine centres on the occasion of Eid, March 25th. The Shrine Board said that they have been providing Sehri and Iftari meals to the Muslims after changing their schedule to meet the requirement of food for those fasting early morning and in the evening.

Instances like these help me to understand that we should never judge people specially on the basis of religion or caste, we should always look upon them either as a good person or a bad person. If the world is good with you, be good to the world, if it is bad just turn your back, learn a lesson and focus on yourself, just don’t be like them. It is 2020 stop judging people, stop discriminating them, stop calling them with unwanted names, God has created people but it us who have separated ourselves into various divisions and factors. Just treat everyone equally and respect everyone. Smile and greet them be it a sweeper or a rich man. Play your part and leave the rest upon them. Change your sight of looking at the world, world will change itself automatically.

Does Pandemics Reset Humanity?

Outbreak of novel corona virus toward the year’s end 2019 have halted the entire world on the wheels, the infection is in discriminatory to such an extent that it did not separate any nation whether created like China, Europeans, Canada and creating like India. It Would never look whether you are rich, a clergyman, a spouse of a president , a poor a matured or a kid. its pace is spreading to such an extent that inside two or multi month it became pandemic started from a city in china.

A virus, which is catastrophic too, has arrive at all over the world however something important called to be HUMANITY is absent and escaped the reach of masses. a contamination of a virus could enter , go starting with one individual then onto the next however Humanity which can be spread , learn develop , rehearsed is elusive and battling for worldwide effort. like the notorious COVID-19. we have seen mayhem everywhere throughout the world , the major on are talked about however list are perpetual in the decade.

To settle on reset humankind, we should comprehend the significance of the term pandemic uninvolved of different terms episode, plague. A flare-up is spreading a malady in a specific region, plague is spreading for huge scope in a nation and pandemic is a worldwide scale occasion of spreading the sickness. for example Covid 19 began as flare-up in Wuhan area, China and turned as pestilence when complete China is affected, at last WHO declared it as Pandemic when rest of the world like Spain, USA, India, Korea are affected and nonstop spreading.

Out of enduring have risen the most grounded souls; the most monstrous characters are burned with scars As statement expressed, pandemic like covid 19 brought sufferings financially( workforce deficiencies, low gracefully) socially( self separation) assemble quality towards greater condition cordial. With pandemics diminishing carbon dioxide outflows into air because of low transportation and gracefully, expanded force slices because of increment request on the way towards sustainable power source, expanded disengagement towards developing of greens at homes is only resetting needs of people.

These difference in needs are not constrained to condition just, yet in addition monetarily, low interest prompts builds quality and diminishing costs, political objective of social prosperity with most noteworthy need, Individually, expanded communication with family, diminished relocation and upgraded asset usage, broadly, expanded social reconnaissance for containing the pandemics, low loan fees for money related help, universally, common exchange on social circle than financial circle.

Does pandemics reset humanity and priorities in the end always

With serious outcomes, danger of national security, loss of jobs, day pay misfortune for normal .laborers, increment clinical expenses on isolation, increase everyday costs by social removing are on one hand, where worldwide reaction of protectionism by restricting air travel from specific nations, lock down of vacationer puts because of pandemic impacts the nations severely. After the Spanish influenza in 1918, with huge loss of populace, the recharged intrigue has given to wellbeing segment with expanded innovative work for immunizations, observing for tainted. Be that as it may, it doesn’t halted the expanded industrialization with helpless sanitation urban bunches. Be that as it may, in contemporary world, the nations like India, endemic with pandemic like intestinal sickness which is significant reason for high number of passing’s, government has started different plans like Mission Indradhanush for immunization, swachh bharat for sanitation has demonstrated outcome by decreasing the quantity of cases and force of spread. Despite the fact that the changed needs like intestinal sickness free India ought to go with increment wellbeing spending plans, framework, specialist persistent proportion where India must core interest.

As Hegel said in his persuasive strategy, each proposal have absolute opposite and join produce blend, Pandemics like Covid 19 resets the needs, resetting mankind required long haul endeavors from political and individual on equivalent balance. Worldwide settlements, for example, International Treaty on Climate, Refugees, Epidemics ought to be followed in letter and soul, innovative work ought to keep the worldwide norms, customary qualities, for example, Korean welcome of welcome, Indian Namaste ought to be advanced.

Censorship of the Internet

Nowadays, the internet has been gaining its popularity at an amazing rate. The internet has become an important communicative tool, which brings significant convenience and efficiency for people. However, the internet also has severe weakness. Although the internet is comprehensive and the internet is not easy to limit, many countries are working on the censorship of the Internet. The issue of internet censorship is a complex and controversial one. As a matter of fact, the censorship of the internet is a double-edged sword. The censorship can work in some instances, but in others it can be detrimental to society.

The internet censorship can be a protection measure. As the internet is open and comprehensive, the quality and authenticity of internet information is questionable. There are a lot of undue materials online, such as pornography and violence, which undoubtedly exerts a negative influence on people especially children physically and psychologically. Although there are several laws which regulate the illegal information and illegal activities, the laws are not complete enough to regulate all the illegal or immoral activities. It is very hard to charge a person for internet crimes, especially if the person is from a foreign website. Thus, the illegal activities and undue information are still rampant on the internet. Thus, internet censorship is needed for internet regulation. The censorship of internet can cleanse the internet information and protect people to some extent.

The censorship of internet can filter the inappropriate information online and protect children from disturbing websites, such as, child pornography, sexual violence and detailed instructions in crime or drug use. The undue internet information may weaken children’s moral consciousness and pollute children’s soul. Thus, the undue websites can have a severely bad effect on the healthy growth of children or even cause adolescent crime. However, children are easy to contact undue internet information. Since parents can not monitor the web pages that children browse in any time and at any place, the censorship of internet can help the parents to filter undue websites for children and protect them from the misguidance and negative influence of internet.

The censorship of internet can help women. In order to get more click rate and benefits, many “adult” websites advocate violent sexual abuse of women. Many women suffer from the hell made by the internet because the internet makes them sold into slavery through the international sex trade. The censorship of internet can block access to these websites, regulate or even shut down some of these websites, and thus reduce the sexual exploitation of women in the internet. Thus, the censorship of internet can protect women to some degree.

The censorship of internet can guard people from the disturbing email spam. For many net citizens, junk email is a troublesome problem. Some junk emails may have malware, and the malware will be activated when net citizens open the email. Some junk emails may be phishing schemes that attempt to steal net citizens’ identity and threatens the economic safety and privacy. Some junk emails may be fraudulent schemes or offensive material. Besides, there are a lot of annoying unsolicited advertisements. Spam filters can block junk emails for net citizens and make their internet life more safe and simple.

The censorship of internet can protect the privacy life of people. Besides, there are some net citizens or websites that make a malafide use of internet to diffuse others privacy, like other’s private video, private pictures and so on. The censorship of internet can prevent these duly. Thus, sometimes, in order to protect the privacy of people, the censorship of internet is necessary.

The censorship of internet can protect people’s economic interest. Some internet information can threaten people’s economic interest. Internet banking frauds happens frequently. The censorship of internet can filter a great deal of fraudulent information in the internet and enhance the supervision and control of internet banking. Due to internet censorship, a great number of financial frauds, phishing, identity thefts, credits card thefts and many other illegal activities are prevented. Therefore, the economic loss of internet users are reduced or avoided.

The censorship of internet can decrease internet violence and protect people’s personal security. In India or even the whole world, internet bullying and violence has become a serious issue. There are many suicide cases caused by internet bullying. The internet users are anonymous and the information spread fast on the internet. Some users take advantages of internet to carry on internet violence. The users may slander, abuse others and expose others’ privacy, which will bring about great harm to the victims. Some websites make use of internet illegally, which will give rise to baneful influence and threaten people’s life security. Internet murders happen. Through social networking sites, internet users deceive and murder other users. There are some suicide websites that abet suicide, communicate suicide knowledge and provide suicide methods. The occurrence of all these incidents and similar incidents make the internet censorship necessary. Internet censorship can prevent unjustified defamation, limit internet violence and protect people’s life security.

The censorship of internet can help to protect social stability and national safety. Since the internet censorship can help to curb the large number of illegal activities and internet crimes, it is good to the stability of society.

The Internet and Social Connection.

Today, the Internet is one of the most powerful tools throughout the world. The Internet is a collection of various services and resources. The Internet or the World Wide Web is indeed a wonderful and amazing addition in our lives. The Internet can be known as a kind of global meeting place where people from all parts of the world can come together. It is a service available on the computer, through which everything under the sun is now at the fingertips of anyone who has access to the Internet. A human brain to our eyes appears approximately six inches in size only but inside this little bowl hidden an ocean of ideas and thoughts. Internet is not that little word as is generally understood but actually it is the name of whole computer world’s universe which is carrying with it sea of knowledge and information that deals with each and every topic that exists on the face of the earth.

Today, Internet is providing everyone peculiar knowledge and information that one needs. The internet has allowed our world to become a globally connected network that advances knowledge everyday.

The last few years in the society have seen incredible changes technologically and culturally. Life has become increasingly easier as machines designed to improve living standards proliferated. Computers have brought so much information home that many students do all their research from the comfort of their desktop. Socially the changes have been just as great, though perhaps not always for the better. Overall, people are feeling less connected to one another than ever before.

Many sociologists subscribe to the belief that the internet, in-home computer usage and widespread availability of virtual access, are transforming modern social and economic life. Problematic to these issues, however, is whether the changes have been beneficial or detrimental.

If people were to use the Internet primarily for entertainment and information, the Internet’s social effects might resemble those of television. However, research has shown that interpersonal communication is the dominant use of the Internet at home. That people use the Internet mainly for interpersonal communication, however, does not imply that their social interactions and relationships on the Internet are the same as their traditional social interactions and relationships, or that their social uses of the Internet will have effects comparable to traditional social means of communication

ADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNET:

In fact, the advantages out-weigh the disadvantages. The most common thing the Internet is used for is research. Children and students are among the top people who use the Internet for research. Today, it is almost required that students use the Internet for research. Thirty percent of teachers give assignments requiring research from the Internet. In the classroom, sixty-six percent of teachers use the Internet to teach. The Internet has become one of the biggest sources for research. Almost everyday, research on medical issues becomes easier to locate. Web sites have become available for people to research diseases and talk to doctors online at sites.

Another popular thing to do on the Internet is to check out the news. Almost all local news can be obtained through the Internet. Shopping online has also become a huge success and is considered a great advantage of the Internet. No matter what people are shopping for, it can be found on the Internet. People do not even have to leave their homes. A few companies have collected millions of dollars using the Internet for selling. Clothing is probably one of the most bought items online. Almost every major clothing store has its on Web site. Just one click of the mouse on the items they want to purchase and the items are delivered to their front door.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNET:

Despite all of these advantages of the Internet, there are numerous disadvantages. Many fear the Internet because of its disadvantages. They claim to not use the Internet because they are afraid of the possible consequences or are simply not interested. People who have yet connected to the Internet claim they are not missing anything. Today technological society must realize, it is up to them to protect themselves on the Internet.

Children using the Internet have become a big concern. When children are online, they can easily be lured into something dangerous. When children talk to others online, they do not realize they could actually be talking to a harmful person. Most parents do not realize the dangers involved when their children log onto the Internet.

Another major disadvantage of the Internet is privacy. Electronic messages sent over the Internet can be easily snooped and tracked, revealing who is talking to whom and what they are talking about. People should become aware that the collection, selling, or sharing of the information they provide online increases the chances that their information will fall into the wrong hands. Consequently, they will become a victim of identity theft, one of the worst privacy violations with potentially devastating financial consequences. When giving personal information on the Internet, people should make sure the Web site is protected with a recognizable security symbol. On the other hand, this does not mean they are fully protected because anyone may obtain user information.

Today, not only are humans getting viruses, but computers are also. Computers are mainly getting these viruses from the Internet.

The Impact of 'Racism' on the society

Racism is the prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. It is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. Racism may be defined as the hatred of one person by another — or the belief that another person is less than human — because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. Anything that might be used to discriminate against a group or an individual that is not under one’s own control falls in the domain of racism. Ethnicity, race, religion, region and language are some of the few factors that people use to discriminate against other people. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes.

A person that believes in the idea of racism, that humans are somehow divided into exclusive biological entities and can be termed inferior or superior to each other on the basis of certain biological traits, are leaches that are depriving our societies of countless extraordinary and brilliant individuals. People are termed incapable or unqualified for something just because of their race despite after decades and decades of research, science has been unable to provide a single concrete proof that supports these claims. Racism has existed throughout human history. From the abuse of Native Indians, “The Redskins”, to the horrifying atrocities suffered by the African Americans, “The Blacks” or “The Negroes”, at the hands of the self-proclaimed superior race, are all part of the history of this vile and abusive belief. All of these victimized groups had no other fault than to not share a skin color with other people. Racism has been employed as powerful weapons repeatedly, for encouraging fear and hatred in others in times of conflict and war, and even during economic downturns.

Racism causes harm to those who are on the receiving end. It hurts individuals, communities and our society. People are not born with racist ideas or attitudes; rather racism is something that is learned. People often associate racism with acts of abuse or harassment. However, it does not need to involve violent or intimidating behavior.

Racism can be revealed through people’s actions as well as their attitudes. It includes all the barriers that prevent people from enjoying dignity and equality because of their race. Racism has existed in all areas and at all times where different races or cultures of humans have encountered each other. Research indicates that the places where racism is exercised often include the local neighborhoods, shops, and in the workplaces. It can emerge in other spaces such as on public transport, sporting events or at schools. Expressions of racism can also be found in media. This happens when, for example, racial groups are represented in an unfair or negative light in news reports or commentary. Many regard the lack of cultural diversity represented in media as another form of racism.

In recent years, racism has even translated to a problem online. Whether it is offensive comments on social media, inflammatory memes or hateful videos, cyber-racism has had a significant impact on the growth of racist attitudes in different ethnic groups. Those spreading such racist impulses often do so under the comfortable veil of anonymity. It is an unfortunate legacy of ancient days that humans are still inclined to judge groups by surface appearances. Therefore, it must be abated and minimized at all costs, as soon as possible, lest it halt our development even further.

Who delivers the Amazon cardboard boxes???

Cardboard boxes that have been used for generations and thrived in the age of e-commerce continue to flourish or could the cardboard box be facing a new challenger? Cardboard boxes are a very big deal within the U.S. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of trees. Someone’s going to make the first box and that’s almost inevitably a mill generally in the Southeast United States. China certainly doesn’t have trees and India the extent they do have trees they’re not necessarily the right types of trees and shouldn’t be dedicated towards making boxes for us. The box business grew rapidly up through 1999 when the U.S. coordinated box market had its peak shipment. Starting in the early 2000s the U.S. corrugated box market faced multiple economic obstacles.

The great recession dragged on box demand and even after the recession demand continued to slow for commodity like soda and for the boxes that transport them. The move to digital devices also coincided with a drop in demand for copy paper and newsprint. But box makers found a grace in e-commerce sales and Amazon sale specifically which were growing at mostly integer rates within the recession and post-recession years. Those e-commerce sales have become a significant market for the containerboard industry. In 2018 told a U.S. e-commerce sales were estimated to be $512 billion almost 50 percent higher than in 2015. Amazon captured 48 percent of those sales. Most estimates are that e-commerce accounts for about 10 percent of the U.S. box market. Amazon accounts for close to 5 percent of U.S. box demand. By our estimates they are clearly the single largest box user in the US. International Paper with a third of the market I think does closer to 50 percent of all the amazon boxes evidently they got a bit more share than perhaps some of the smaller players.

Amazon said they deal with most of the big box makers across the U.S. according to analysts. Those manufacturers include International Paper, WestRock, Packaging Corporation of America and Georgia-Pacific. Some investors were turning to these companies as a way to invest in the e-commerce giant without having to purchase Amazon’s pricey stock. People didn’t really start talking about buying International Paper or WestRock as a secondary investment in Amazon till about the last five years. Despite the boost from e-commerce sales the box business still isn’t growing all that much. And since 2018 their stocks have mostly underperformed the S&P 500. In 2018, 69 percent of International Papers total revenue came from the box business and that sales volume has been mostly flat for the past five years. Although the big producers sold less boxes in 2018 than in 2000, industry consolidation has dramatically narrowed the fields.

The handful of big players remaining are based in Memphis, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia and Lake Forest, Illinois. Analysts have told CNBC that substantial industry mergers have made it easier to collectively hike prices and those price increases have helped drive revenue. There are portions of the business that are in indisputable secular decline but if you’re in the brown part of the business, making these boxes, that’s been some very welcome growth. But those extra boxes piling up on people’s doorsteps have led to a backlash from disgruntled customers who are sick of receiving golf ball sized products in supersized boxes. It used to be that you’d order a toothbrush and it would come in three giant boxes and you’d say to yourself, what is this? Well, Amazon is trying to rectify that by using fewer boxes and using other types of packaging where appropriate. With e-commerce packaging underfire Amazon decided to change the way they do shipping. In 2008, Amazon introduced the Frustration Free Packaging program. It aims to reduce the extra packaging created when retail packaged products are placed inside Amazon boxes to be shipped. Instead, products certified in the program that are roughly the size of a blender or larger need to be packaged in their own ready to ship boxes. And those boxes also need to be made of 100 percent recyclable materials. For customers that means that the packaging is easy to recycle and the box is easy to open without all the excess packaging materials.

Amazon offered vendors an incentive of a dollar per shipment to modify their packaging. And starting August 1st 2019 Amazon is charging a $1.99 penalty for each product shipped that needs to be reboxed. And basically the point of this deadline is for Amazon to get out of the business of packaging. They want their vendors to send them boxes that Amazon doesn’t have to touch or rebox. Over the last two years we have invented two different kinds of flexible mailers. One is the blue and white all plastic mailer. We’ve recently launched in the last six, eight months a paper padded mailer that’s actually fully recyclable with the paper stream. Amazon said they made about 10 million shipments using the paper padded mailer and depending on the month the plastic mailer is used about 20 to 30 percent of the time. So really when we come down to deciding if the product is of the size it can go on a mailer, it’s not likely to be damaged by going in the mailer, the mailer is always the better fitting option and frankly is easier for the customer to choose to recycle than breaking down a corrugate box. We’re driving in that direction for many different reasons. But those plastic mailers generally are not accepted in municipal recycling programs and you’ll need to bring them to a store that accepts plastic bags. The latest stats from the EPA show that corrugated boxes were recycled at a rate of 92 percent in 2015 while plastic bags, sacks and wraps were recycled at a rate of 13 percent in 2015.

When you think about what is the greatest pain point for the consumer after having it get there safely arrive on time people are concerned about receiving something that is plastic or made a poly because of the environmental concerns. Some waste management companies say plastic packaging also causes problems for the recycling systems. Plastic mailers get caught in the recycling machinery slowing down the process and raising the costs for recyclers and sometimes contaminating entire bundles. Until Scotty on the Enterprise can beam the products from the warehouse to your living room I think Amazon’s going to be good for the corrugated business. I think there’s going to be noise I think you’re going to have challenges from time to time where people say, “Should we try and the plastic pouch?”, in the long run plastic is going to be on the wrong side of history. Because Amazon is a market leader in the U.S. e-commerce sector any move away from cardboard to plastic mailers could signal a shift for the entire industry. The corrugated box could be about to undergo a major facelift. We’re seeing some major trends among consumers and what they’re expecting from e-commerce and the first one is actually this desire for increased engagement with the package. In 2015, Amazon partnered with Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment to ship orders in bright yellow delivery boxes featuring cartoon characters from the movie Minions. The boxes promoting the movie and a special Amazon U.R.L. dedicated to shopping for merchandise from the film.

The conflict of Kashmir…

On February 14th 2019, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of Indian security forces. “We’re getting reports of multiple casualties in a roadside…” He killed at least 40 Indian soldiers here in Kashmir. “The deadliest attack the region has seen this century.” The bomber was part of an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan. “Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for that attack.” 12 days later, India carried out airstrikes in Northwestern Pakistan. Then Pakistan shot down at least one Indian aircraft around here. “The most serious escalation in years.” Kashmir is one of the most disputed places on Earth. Over the course of 70 years, it’s been at the center of three wars fought between two massive armies. It’s heavily occupied by more than half a million Indian troops and a deadly collection of militias and terrorist groups.

Kashmir is the stage for the relentless conflict between India and Pakistan. But focusing on the two countries can obscure what’s really at stake: The voice of Kashmiris who are caught in a vicious cycle of violence. Kashmir is one of the most strategic places in the world, where 3 powerful countries collide: India, Pakistan, and China. China invaded and took this slice of Kashmir from India. And was given this one by Pakistan. India and Pakistan control these parts, but lay claim to more. This region is at the center of a brutal conflict over these disputed borders. So it’s important to start when they were being drawn. In the mid-1800s, India was a patchwork of several hundred provinces and princely states under British rule. A century later, when British India won independence, the British left and hastily decided to split the region into two. These areas would be a new Muslim-majority country, Pakistan. And this would be the mostly Hindu, but secular, India. The partition was bloody. “Communal hatred flares up within the Punjab.” “1 million people become refugees overnight.” “They flee from savagery and butchery that has never been exceeded, even in India’s stormy history.” Amid the chaos, some princely states were given the choice to join either country. In most cases, the ruling monarchs followed the will of their people. But this state, called “Jammu & Kashmir” was different. It was right along this new border and had a Muslim-majority population, but was ruled by a Hindu monarch. When asked to pick a side, the ruler chose to stay neutral Fearing that the monarch would join India, the Kashmiri population rebelled here in 1947 Armed tribesmen from Pakistan soon joined the fight.

The monarch turned to India for military help and in exchange agreed to join them, which sparked the first Indo-Pakistan war in Kashmir. “Continuing thus increased the threat to world peace and brought the dispute to the eye of the United Nations . The UN Security Council brokered a ceasefire in 1949, which established this line with Pakistan controlling this side and India this one. It also asked Pakistani tribesmen to withdraw and Indian troops to follow, so that Kashmir could hold a direct vote to decide its own future. But neither held up their end of the deal. Pakistan argued that Kashmir’s Muslim-majority population rightfully belonged with them. While India insisted that Kashmir was handed over to them by the Hindu monarch. So they doubled down and added Kashmir to their constution. Both countries continued to tighten their grip around it for many years . “Kashmir. Fighting is going on and heavy casualties in men and equipment have been inflicted on the aggressor.”

In 1965, the second India-Pakistan war broke out in Kashmir. Thousands of people were killed between the huge armies on both sides. A ceasefire ended the war, but didn’t change this line. Kashmir was kept divided and occupied. And another war broke out in 1971. This time the focus wasn’t in Kashmir — it was in East Pakistan. Here, India helped rebels fight for independence and dealt Pakistan a devastating defeat. This region became a new country, Bangladesh, and Pakistan lost its eastern half. This made Kashmir more important than ever: It became one of the most militarized places on Earth, as India and Pakistan deployed planes, tanks, artillery, and soldiers along the Line of Control. On the political front, in ’87, India reportedly rigged an election, declaring a pro-India party as the winner. Now this was a big turning point for many Kashmiris, who felt they were again denied the chance to vote. Thousands took to the streets in Indian-controlled Kashmir to protest the occupation. But India met the movement for independence with harsh resistance. Which quickly escalated to more violence.
“In January security forces opened fire on demonstrating separatists, turning a two-year old struggling movement into a full-blown popular uprising.” “More than 600 people are killed in clashes between troops and separatists.” Kashmiri militias, just like the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, started recruiting Muslim youth to fight for independence. And increasingly attacked the Indian military. Pakistan saw an opportunity in this insurgency. They helped introduce a new kind of militant group: Radical Islamic fighters who fought for a more pro-Pakistan Kashmir. By the mid ’90s, these groups dominated the insurgency. India responded with incredible military force, deploying 500,000 troops to Kashmir. And they cracked down on militants and protestors. Unarmed civilians were killed and many more were forced to flee the violence. And in ’98 the stakes were raised yet again. “Today India conducted three underground nuclear tests.” “Pakistan today successfully conducted five nuclear tests.” Kashmir became a battleground between two nuclear-armed nations and another war broke out in 1999. “More evidence of the attacks being launched on the Indian-controlled area of Kargil.” “The past two days have seen a number of the fiercest fighting thus far .” “Militant Muslim fighters have also crossed over into some parts of Indian-ruled Kashmir.” The 1999 war ended with another ceasefire, but that did not stop either country.

Over the years, Pakistan’s militant groups got bolder and launched terror attacks in Kashmir and outside of Kashmir. In 2001, members of Lashkar-e-Taiba bombed India’s parliament building in New Delhi killing 14 people. And in 2008, 10 militants from the same group killed 174 people and wounded 300 in Mumbai. Meanwhile, Indian military cracked down in Kashmir, firing bullets and pellets on unarmed protesters. Leaving hundreds wounded and blind. This is the vicious cycle of violence. The Indian Army’s crackdown drives some Kashmiris to join Pakistani-backed militant groups, who carry out violence against the Indian forces. It’s a cycle that Kashmiri civilians are stuck in the middle of. Which brings us back to 2019. The suicide bomber was 19-year old Adil Ahmed Dar from Pulwama, Kashmir. According to his parents, in 2016, Indian police officers stopped him and humiliated him by forcing his face into the ground. The same year he was shot in the leg at a protest. The next year, Dar left home with his brothers, to join Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistani-supported militia that radicalized him and trained him to be a suicide bomber. A year later, he drove explosives into an Indian military convoy. For more than 70 years India and Pakistan have driven a cycle of violence, retaliation, and exploitation in Kashmir. But beneath it all is the Kashmiri’s wish to make a choice. A wish that continues to be suppressed, again and again, by violence.

Cyber Bullying is a serious problem!

Internet and mobile phones have become an inseparable part of our lives. When the internet was out, there were restrictions on its usage that were imposed on children by the parents almost everywhere. At least they would use it under an adult’s supervision. Now that the use of the internet has become inevitable because of the school requirements and its necessity in the making of assignments and projects, parents really can’t help but make it accessible for their children.

Since we all are aware of the risks and dangers of cell phones and the internet entail, we ensure that they don’t adversely impact our children and their vulnerable brains. Are the web restrictions like age gate, safe search and family filters enough to keep our kids protected from every kind of possible harm in the cyber world? Do we only need to worry about that inappropriate content on the internet or there are other things too?

“Cyber bullying is a term used for bullying kids using technology including digital or social media. It involves the use of harassment, threat, and provocation that leave a negative impact on the mind, mood and overall psychological position of the child. It occurs in kids and teens and normally young children of all age groups. In adults, the same acts constitute a legally punishable crime known as cyber-stalking or cyber-harassment.”

Misuse of your child’s photos, messages or any other thing on digital media, any messages or calls that tend to scare your child out of their wits, acts like calling names, causing embarrassment and insult, faking identities etc., all are acts of cyber bullying. Most victims of cyber bullying don’t share their grief with their parents or teachers. According to a recent study, 1 in every 4 children encounters cyber bullying.

The consequences of cyber bullying vary from child to child. Some children are not that seriously affected by it while others can develop conditions like depression, anxiety, and disorders involving high stress. In some rarely reported cases, some children have even committed suicides that were either provoked by cyber bullying or merely attempted to get rid of it.

It’s not really difficult to spot if a child is being bullied online if we’re smart enough and know our children. Cyber bullying can result in increased distress for the victims along with increased anger and frustration. They will vent this out on various occasions, and it might force them to get addicted to the virtual world where they can have several identities to hide their real one.

The victims will automatically have lower self-esteem since that is the sole purpose of bullying. Prolonged bullying will lead to severe withdrawal from their family and friends. They will begin favoring isolation most of the time and indulging in harmful activities like drugs and alcohol.

Cyber bullying is a serious issue, and it can be truly horrific to go through such a difficult period. Staying strong and fighting back is the only option against these bullies. It’s possible to get over it and live your life again. Seeing a counselor can help the victims handle the incident in a better and a safe way. Life does not get over if you are a victim of cyber bullying and it is possible to fight back.

Broken wings

“They began work at 5:30 and quit at 7 at night. Children six years old going home to lie on a straw pallet until time to resume work the next morning! I have seen the hair torn out of their heads by the machinery, their scalps torn off, and yet not a single tear was shed, while the poodle dogs were loved and caressed and carried to the seashore.”
Mother Jones

In the present morden society where everyone run towards their dreams and goals there are people who wish to have ‘Going to school‘ as their unattainable dream!

When we make plans with our friends to dine in a fancy restaurants and complain about how less our pocket Money are! There are children who less then 10 years old yearning money by working more than their Age!

Get admitted in one of the top Schools/University and complaining ‘there is lot to study I want to party & chill’. There are people who dropped out of there schools/University and dreaming your normal life!

In their very own room laying on the fluffiest bed having a great wifi with latest gadgets and your own private space. Where some people are dead frozen while sleeping on streets!

While our Pantries are filled with things need for atleast a month. There are some people dieing of starvation!

I am not saying all the west things to make you all feel bad. I just want you all to feel thankful for the life which we are living is the biggest dream for millions of people out there.

It was a beautiful evening of my senior secondary year. I was returning home from school with my friends on our school bus. It’s the busiest hour in the city so the small travel from school to home took 40 mins. Me and my friends usually used to take a short naps during the travel. But that day was our last day of our exams so we decided let’s have fun!

Our bus stopped on the busiest junction. I turned my head to enjoy the weather outside. My eyes fall on a young girl around 5 years old with red pakoda skirt carring flowers and small accessories from one vehicle. She is trying to sell them before the signal turn from red to green. It’s not the first time I have seen such scene but what made me realise there is something wrong is beside the girl on the platform I saw a beautiful little girl around the girls age. She is carring a school bag on her back and holding her hands with her elder brother.

My bus started moving but I can’t forget the scene I just saw. Somehow I felt guilty in my heart eventhough I am totally unrelated to her situation.

I tried to distract myself by talking to my friends but my eyes keep looking through the window. The next scene hit me even hard there are two children doing their homework on their platform home which is less than 5 feet. There is no lamp in their house they are using the street lamps!

I been traveling this path since I started my high school but I never noticed this! This is what my first taught but I am wrong. When I refreshed my memory I have seen thi place on my first day to school too! And during that time as soon as I saw this slum area I turned my head to look in the opposite area. When this memory comes back I am really ashamed of myself.

I asked my friends to look outside the window of our bus they all looked out they give me a glare like what’s wrong everything seems normal. I started to point out the people who I saw. When they all saw the same thing I saw with my exaggerated explanation. I noticed a rare seen emotion on my friends faces that’s empathy!

In our next school activity we informed it to our class coordinator can we do anything regarding this. Our school suggested that we can do a charity fair!

I know it’s a small pin in a huge ocean but we did some to make their lives better. Even it’s a little thing after seeing the smiles on the children faces we all felt like we had done a big thing. I don’t know how to say but trust me that feeling felt so great.

When we born in this world we can’t decide whom our parents are or how our lifestyle will be. So begin born poor/disabled is not their fault.

But why should this society wants to broke their dreams and shatter their hopes?

People will answer simply that they are not responsible for this people. But I want to ask what makes us different from other living this is Humanity if this humanity is gone are we still humans?

“If we can’t begin to agree on fundamentals, such as the elimination of the most abusive forms of child labor, then we really are not ready to march forward into the future.”
Alexis Herman

U.S. Defense Economy…

The police, obviously, they’re not in the business of of profiting from private acquisitions. We’ve seen extensive lobbying from defense industries who produce educational videos for police who were spending hundreds of millions of dollars to directly lobby Congress for defense spending, but also for these police programs. The police also have their own lobbying organizations that work toward security budgets and equipment for local law enforcement. The National Fraternal Order of Police is one of them and has lobbied in favor of federal grants that are responsible for the militarization of police. It’s really a variety of Homeland Security grants administered by the cops office, the home, the Department of Homeland Security, etc., that have allowed departments to directly purchase military grade equipment. And this has been essential to stimulating a domestic law enforcement market for military contractors. In some cases, the folks who provide the equipment actually directly assist police departments in making these grants. There’s even a Web site that is sponsored by these defense contractors and other providers of police equipment to aid departments in the production of these grant proposals. This whole industry grew significantly during the War on Drugs campaign in the 1970s.

Congress passed a law that focused on incorporating cooperation between the military and the local law enforcement, particularly related to countering drug crimes and the war on drugs. Right. That was sort of the first connection between the military and domestic law enforcement. In 1989, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, temporarily allowing the Department of Defense to transfer excess military equipment to federal and state agencies. The program continued until the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act expanded it to include local law enforcement and made it permanent under a new name. The 1033 program that began a massive transfer of military equipment to local police departments free of charge as long as they paid for shipping and maintenance. That 1033 program was the congressional authorization that allowed police departments to basically go online. There were catalogs of of weapons and vehicles and aircraft and watercraft and any kind of military surplus military equipment was available for the asking. And it was at no cost to law enforcement agencies.

Departments may purchase shotguns that are placed in police vehicles as a routine matter, and some departments are purchasing a variety of less lethal weaponry with their own resources. But when we see sniper equipment, armored vehicles, large amounts of body armor, this is often the result of federal spending. Since its inception, over 11,500 domestic law enforcement agencies have taken part in the ten thirty three program, receiving more than 7.4 billion dollars in military equipment. What you end up seeing is as a result of the 1033 program, local law enforcements continue to ramp up what we call special task force, like SWAT teams, gang task force, drug task force. Right. That all utilize this excess military material. In July 2014, Congressman Alan Grayson proposed that legislation to limit the transfer of certain weapons through the 1033 program. The amendment was met with immense opposition failing on a bipartisan vote of 62 to 355.
The people who voted not to change the 1033 program received 70 percent more money in campaign contributions from the defense sector than those who wanted restrictions. One of the really troubling developments about the involvement of the federal within the direct subsidy of purchases of militarized equipment is that this is often really about creating a new marketplace for defense contractors instead of really putting questions of public safety first. Besides providing free military equipment, the federal government also allows the police to purchase new equipment using their own funds. Under the 1122 program, it also gives local police departments the same discounts enjoyed by the federal government. We’ve seen instances across the country where local governing bodies, like boards of selectmen and mayors and city councilors are often unaware that tax dollars have been expended to acquire these kinds of military weapons and military vehicles. What makes both 1033 and 1122 programs so powerful is the lack of clear oversight and accountability.

The 1122 program, as an example , isn’t a grant or transfer program and thus isn’t required to be monitored by the federal . Meanwhile, the 1033 program has put lethal weapons within the hands of officers who haven’t any justifiable need for such equipment. We’ve seen instances reported of some small towns, even some college and university police departments that were acquiring military grade weapons with none demonstrable need for the utilization of these or the acquisition of these weapons. After the events in Ferguson, the Obama administration sought to tighten the 1033 program with additional requirements and restrictions after months of confrontations on America’s streets. President Obama today banned the federal government from giving some types of military equipment to local police. We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a sense like there’s an occupying force as against a force that’s a part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them. And this led to calls in Congress to eliminate 1033 and eventually measure an executive order by the Obama administration to place some limits on the type of equipment that could be used, things like bayonets and turreted armored vehicles.
The Obama administration also required police agencies to justify purchases of equipment considered potentially lethal. President Trump, however, rescinded all of those measures within two years in office. Obama administration made some efforts to increase accountability in auditing of this. But even then, the restrictions and oversight were quite limited. Under the Trump administration, there’s even less evidence of any oversight. Any sense that we know how this equipment is being used or whether or not officers are being properly trained and how to use it. In some cases, equipment transfer through these programs has simply vanished due to a lack of oversight and poor bookkeeping.

There’ve been a number of situations where there have been audits of local police departments to try to figure out what they’ve done with this equipment. And these departments have been unable to provide adequate records. We don’t know if this is a local sheriff taking home camping supplies or if this is about, you know, stuff that’s really gone missing, has been resold or has just simply been lost. Oftentimes, the militarization of the police force might be what’s distracting them from their original purpose, protecting our communities.

Why economy of India is slowing down???

India is one among the world’s fasting growing economies. It had been touted as an economic and geopolitical counterweight to China. But recently its growth fell to its slowest pace in six years. Investment has weakened, and unemployment has risen. So what’s causing the slowdown, and how can it be reversed? Since the turn of the century, India’s economy has grown at a rapid rate, helping transform the country. Between 2006 and 2016, rising incomes lifted 271 million people out of poverty, meaning the proportion of Indians still living in poverty has fallen dramatically, from around 55% to twenty-eight . Access to electricity has also improved. In 2007 just 70% of the population had access to power. By 2017, that grew to nearly 93%.

More recently, the Indian government constructed around 110 million toilets — a huge step towards better sanitation designed to prevent the practice of open defecation. It’s a signature program of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, known as Swachh Bharat, or Clean India. All this development has been supported by a booming economy, but as lately , that expansion has begun to run out of steam. In the third quarter of 2019, India’s economic output grew by 4.5% – making it the primary time the country’s growth dipped below 5% since 2013. For context, 4.5% growth remains much above that of developed economies just like the U.S., But with 12 million Indians entering the workforce per annum , economists say the country needs annual growth rates to remain above nine percent to make sure there are enough jobs. So, what’s causing this recent slowdown? Well, officialdom argue turbulence in international financial markets is guilty.

Political uncertainty and U.S.-China trade tensions mean confidence levels among investors and consumers everywhere have sunk. The United Nations has even warned that a global recession in 2020 is now a “clear and present danger”. But back to India – many economists say the country’s growth problems are literally self-inflicted. One obvious culprit is the shadow banking sector. During the 2000s, India saw an investment boom. It was fuelled by state banks dispensing a load of loans for giant infrastructure projects. But some of the companies taking advantage of these loans couldn’t keep up with the repayments. That meant the state banks weren’t getting paid back and therefore struggled to give out new loans. To keep business moving, shadow banks stepped in. These financial institutions, which operate like ordinary commercial banks but don’t follow traditional banking rules, eventually made up an estimated third of all new loans nationwide. The loans played a pivotal role for the millions of small businesses and consumers who would otherwise have no access to credit. But in 2018, shadow banking giant Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, defaulted on its debt repayments. Its collapse sent shockwaves through the economy and shook up more traditional banks that had supported the world.
It became harder for people to shop for expensive items like cars. That hurt India’s automotive industry, which is one among the country’s biggest. It employs about 35 million people and makes up about 7% of India’s GDP. Last summer, the industry suffered its worst sales performance in nearly 19 years, and reports suggest tens of thousands of workers are laid off. The agriculture and construction sectors have also been hurting, with small and medium businesses being hit the hardest. The country’s percentage has been on an overall upward trend since July 2017, rising several percentage points to 7.7%. Higher unemployment means consumers are buying less, resulting in the unfortunate cycle of slower manufacturing, production, investment and job creation.

A survey from the Reserve Bank of India found consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in five years. But Indians still have a positive outlook for the longer term , with most consumers expecting to feel more optimistic during a year. However, if things don’t improve, debt could become another issue. Expecting better days ahead, many households have continued to spend, by taking out loans and dipping into savings. Household savings as a proportion of GDP has fallen from 23.6% to 17.2%. Meanwhile, household debt has surged to 10.9% during the same period. Critics say the govt in New Delhi has did not spot these risks and hasn’t done enough to urge the economy moving again. The Reserve Bank of India’s former governor Raghuram Rajan recently blamed the lack of significant reforms and a slowdown in investments since the global financial crisis. Even the country’s chief economic advisor recently admitted reforms are needed to form India more friendly to investors.
India has cut its corporate rate , but labor and land laws are still extremely strict. He also says the country must become pro-market, instead of just pro-business, to avoid costly government bailouts of failing sectors. But not all reforms have been good to the economy. In 2016, Prime Minister Modi tried to crack down on corruption, counterfeits and evasion by banning high value bank notes. In one night, the cash ban made 86% of all cash invalid. Three years later, many analysts say the policy disrupted the economy and did not achieve many of its original goals. In 2017, a replacement nuisance tax placed small businesses struggling and a few of them were forced to shut . In mid-2019, India’s government introduced a controversial new tax on foreign investors. Consequently, India’s stock exchange suffered its worst July performance in 17 years. Just one month later, the measure was scrapped.
The government has now refocused its efforts on international trade and investment, and thus the recent changes to the corporate rate could indeed help attract businesses and investors to India. But if the country wants to be a part of the world’s largest supply chains, it’ll need low and consistent tariff levels to encourage outsiders to take a position for the long term.

The country’s shifting export policy has harmed several of its largest industries, particularly clothing. India’s share of the worldwide apparel market has increased only slightly within the past 20 years. And though the Indian workforce is vast, both Bangladesh and Vietnam now export more. On top of that, the country’s import tariffs on the average are much above the world’s biggest economies. They’re also among the highest of the world’s emerging economies. Even U.S. President Donald Trump has called for the country to bring down its duties.

Has India’s growth actually slowed the maximum amount as we think? The government’s former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian caused a good little bit of controversy in June 2019, when he claimed the country’s official stats probably overstated GDP growth by 2.5% from 2011-2012 to 2016-2017. He says the bottom line is that India never recovered from the global financial crisis. The government denies this. But none of this has hurt Prime Minister Modi at the polls – he won by a landslide in the most recent election. So how will he keep his promise and double the dimensions of the economy by 2025? Many economists insist a well-explained economic vision would help. As would more long-term investment, better skilled workers and enhancements to infrastructure. It may not matter who or what’s responsible for India’s recent economic challenges, but bottom line – India’s economic process must recover , and fast.

How IPL is making millions & billions of dollors in every single match!!!

Cricket it’s a sport that dates back over 400 years. And as of 2019 is officially played in 104 countries around the world. Cricket’s worldwide fan base is comprised of roughly one billion people in the Indian subcontinent alone makes up 90 percent of those fans. In India, the country adopted a brand new shorter format of the game has drastically cut down on playing time from days to hours. The Indian Premier League or the IPL has only been around for twelve years but it’s fast become one of the most popular and valuable cricket leagues on the planet. The IPL is brand value has nearly doubled in the last five years. In 2018 the league was valued at 6.3 billion dollars. It rakes in and 510 million dollars each year from its broadcasting rights deal making it to only cricket league in the world to crack the top 20 most valuable media rights deals in all of professional sports joining the ranks of the NFL the NBA and MLB.

So how did the IPL become one the most lucrative cricket leagues on the planet. In India. Cricket is huge. It’s been a staple in Indian sports since the seventeen hundreds. It’s currently the most popular sport in the country. The IPL is one of the richest sports properties in the world. And while the IPL isn’t the only cricket league in India it is the most successful league in the country. The 48 day annual tournament was created in 2007 with the help of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Indian businessmen Lalit Modi. Even though cricket already had a few pro cricket leagues they wanted to capitalize on the commercial success of 2020. So they modeled the IPL in a similar nature to pro sports in the US.

The IPL was specifically modeled after the likes of the NFL. Which has a decentralized league. meaning that all teams are owned and operated independently. Also similar to the NFL model the IPL is its own league with its own unique structure. There is a separate T20 World Cup where India competes. But that’s different from the IPL. even though matches are all held in India. Team rosters are chock full of top international talent. In 2018, teams spent 94 million dollars to buy 169 players in an auction. up from its 40 million dollars for 66 players in 2017. But what you’ve actually got in the IPL franchises who represent a city a place an industrial heartland and you’ve got the full support of some major entrepreneurs. So rather than let’s say Delhi again. So, you’ve got your IPL franchises based around the cities. I’m not as actually have a massive impact. in terms of global cricket. To make sure the stands are filled with as many IPL fans as possible and to maximize TV viewership. Matches are typically played in the evening and on weekends.

The IPL is a huge moneymaker in India since 2014. The IPL brand valuation has doubled to six point three billion dollars. The reason the IPL has won the largest fan base is for a single sports league in the world. During its opening week of the 2013 season the IPL broke records when 371 million viewers tuned in to watch and by the last week of the tournament a total of 769 million fans watched the 2013 IPL season. The ad revenue generated for that season was over 276 million dollars according to Star India’s managing director. High ratings and ad dollars were a big part of why a major U.S. media companies had their eyes on IPL broadcasting rights. When the IPL launched in 2008. The league issued being your rights to Singapore based sports marketing agency World Sport group. They broadcast an IPO matches on India’s Sony Max TV channel. Under the terms of the 10 year contract World Sport group paid the IPL approximately 1 million dollars per match in its first year for the exclusive broadcasting rights. The overall value of that broadcasting deal was 918 million dollars when the broadcasting deal expired in 2017.

There was a global bidding war for exclusive rights for the IPL. Fox and Sony put in competing bids while Facebook also put its hat in the ring for the 2018-2022 digital rights of the IPL making a 600 million dollar offer. Those TV and digital rights eventually went to Fox the American broadcasters struck a five year 2.5 five billion dollar deal for the global media rights of the IPL. The price per match jumped from 1 million dollars to about 8.47 million dollars per game. For comparison the NFL cost per game is around 22.5 million dollars. The English Premier League is around 13.2 million dollars. The NBA is close to 2 million dollars and the MLB is just 630 thousand dollars per game. Just two years after the ink dried on the Fox IPL deal Disney completed a 71 billion dollar deal for Fox entertainment assets one of the assets that Disney now owns is hot star. The Indian video streaming company in 2019. Streaming service at a global record for the number of people tuning into a life streaming event.

There are 18.6 concurrent viewers watching the IPL final match on the hot star’s website in app. And with that kind of viewership naming rights for the IPL are also huge for the league. Since 2008 the IPO naming rights have changed hands three times from brands DLF to PepsiCo India and finally to Vivo a mobile handset manufacturer in China. Vivo first took over title sponsorship in 2015 and in 2017 Vivo signed a fresh five year deal with the IPL worth approximately 341 million dollars in 2018. The average salary of cricket players in the IPL jumped nearly 30 percent from the year before. All thanks to the massive TV deal signed with Fox in 2017. Before the deal, players across the league had an average salary of 3.9 million dollars but in 2018 the average salary was just over 5 million dollars. And unlike other major sports leagues the IPL season is so short that players have a chance to bank even more cash in the off season.

The IPL takes place in the spring starting at the end of March or early April and continuing through May. That means cricketers have the flexibility to play for other clubs around the world. Take the Mumbai Indians player Kieran Pollard. In 2017 he and more than one million dollars for two months. They play for the Mumbai Indians and IPL in that same year. Pollard had multiple revenue streams from playing for cricket leagues in Australia Bangladesh and South Africa. But just as cricket first spread across the world in the 18th century cricket’s latest form of 2020. Similarly. Taking root across the globe. There’s even a record breaking investment for 2020 league in a country where cricket is even remotely popular, the U.S. In May, 2019, USA Cricket received a 1 billion dollar investment from American cricket enterprises to develop a 2020 league in America. It’s one of the biggest deals for development of domestic cricket in the US and the launch of the league is set to take off in 2021 since the 2020 cricket format was introduced in 2003 and has taken the cricket world by storm. And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Will Oil Price go down???

America does rely on oil in many ways. It’s about 90 percent of the energy that we use in transportation. And it’s more than a third of the overall energy that we use. In fact, it’s probably going to stay that way for a lot, a lot longer. The Energy Information Agency administration predicts that going out to 2050 is still going to over a third of the energy that we’re going to use. So how was it possible for oil to reach a negative value and what does it mean for the American economy? To understand what happened, it’s important to know how a futures contract functions. So the futures market is a way to bet on the future price of a certain commodity.

Different types of oil from all across the world are traded by barrels in their individual market places. But two futures contracts serve as the major benchmark for oil price. Brent Crude trades oil from the North Sea in northern Europe, setting the standard for international oil prices. While the West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, trades a specific grade of oil traded in Cushing, Oklahoma, that serves as a domestic benchmark for oil prices. A refinery might have a contract with a producer and say, we will pay you that Brent price or we’ll pay you the Brent price minus the transportation costs. Or you know that it’s all subject to negotiation. And those two are well known. It’s a shorthand, if you will. And a lot of times other crudes are priced off of those crudes because they’re well, known the quality is high and has a long track record. Similar to most treated commodities, oil prices rely heavily on how much of it is available on the market. In other words, supply and demand. Oil like just about anything else in the world is determined that prices are determined by a willing buyer and a willing seller. And so that means that as demand goes up, more people are buying it.

The price will typically go up, supply stays the same and vice versa. If supply suddenly increases, then then typically the price will go down if the demand stays the same. The demand is determined by how much oil is needed at any given moment due to its crucial role in the economy. High demand has often been associated with a healthy economic growth. Historically, oil demand has moved with the economy of a country. It’s been very tightly tied because almost all transportation comes from burning oil and a lot of other industrial processes use oil. So when the economy is humming along strongly, the demand goes up. And when you have a recession, the demand goes down. On the other hand, supply is usually determined by the producers who have control over its output. Historically, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, otherwise known as OPEC, has played a crucial role in determining the supply. OPEC currently has 13 member countries, including Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as founding members. However, a lot has changed in recent years as the U.S. surpassed both Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest crude oil producer since 2018. Thanks to the rise in production from American shale fields. Essentially these countries and OPEC, everyone is competing for market share.

Everyone wants to produce more for their country, but also the optionality to export it to another country and especially growth regions such as China, Asia. Being an investor or a producer in the oil industry means keeping an eye on this fine balance between supply and demand, as well as the geopolitical events that could threaten the industry. Never forget about geopolitics and the impact it can have on the oil price, because that can be that X factor of why oil may have a big premium or a big discount to fundamentals that you see supply and demand. It’s because geopolitics introduces other risk factors. A historic drop occurred on April 20th, 2020, with U.S. oil prices on WTI dropped by almost 300 percent. Trading around negative 37 dollars. What happened with oil in terms of the negative pricing in April with the futures contracts was rather unprecedented. We have seen negative prices before. For example, last year we were talking about negative natural gas prices and Waha in April 2019. But that’s more due to processing or field issues, not what is happened specifically this time with the COVID 19 and in the price war. Oil prices had been under pressure since January as China battled the spread of COVID 19.

When the pandemic finally reached the rest of the world, demand took a devastating hit. People started talking about the demand going down 2 or 3 percent instead of growing by 1 or 2 percent, as was had previously been expected. But then by the time it got to the United States and all over Western Europe, the forecasts were very different. And at the trough, we probably saw demand in April bottom out, down 30 percent. So we’ve never seen anything like this, certainly in the last 40 years since world oil markets have developed. To make matters worse, a price war erupted between Saudi Arabia and Russia in early March after OPEC and its allies failed to reach an agreement on deeper supply cuts. Oil saw its worst trading day in 20, 29 years. Yesterday, both WTI crude and Brent crude lost nearly a quarter of their value, and the S&P energy sector ended the day 50 percent off its 52 week closing high. Saudi Arabia launched a price war against other key producers. As supply remains steady while demand struck record breaking lows. The petroleum industry quickly began running out of storage space to put their oil. Cushing plays a very big role as one of the main hubs of that commercial storage. And Cushing at the time of the negative contract was around 70, 70 percent full, and what was left was perhaps already committed. So that was a huge issue because Cushing plays one of the main roles in pricing the WTI contracts. As the delivery date for WTI grew near. And investors had nowhere to put the oil. They soon began a massive sell off, prompting an unprecedented crash into the negative territory. WTI special in a way, because it’s so tightly connected to physical oil. And so if you’re holding a contract for WTI, you’re expected to take possession of oil.

What was happening was the buyers who had bought a futures contract, which meant they had responsibility to take delivery of the oil, recognized that that storage was filling up and they had no place to put the oil and they didn’t want the oil. And so they wanted to get out of the contract. Usually they can get out of the contract by getting somebody else to take the oil instead at a positive price. Cause oil’s a valuable commodity. But there was nobody who wanted to take that oil, particularly because it was located in an area that was producing way more oil than they needed. And the pipelines to move oil out of that area were completely full. The historic drop quickly sent shockwaves through the U.S. financial market. The Dow plunged by over 1,200 points over the following two days, and brokerage firms like interactive brokers reported taking 109 million dollar hit to cover its customers losses. It was kind of like what happened in 2000 where we we’re wondering if the computers could roll over. Some of the traders computers couldn’t even handle the negative. They weren’t set up for a negative. So you can imagine the disarray and the surprise, you know, that some traders faced the next morning when they looked at their margin calls or what they owed based on the severity of this drop.

However, experts point out that although the event was unexpected, there was no need to panic. It was not unforeseen. The exchange itself saw it as a possibility ahead of time. They actually discussed what to do if that were to happen, reprogram their software and so forth. And at least one major media outlet reported on it a week ahead of time before it happened. Also, some other products have gone negative in the past. Things like natural gas. So I think it’s important to put it in perspective that while this had never happened with oil before, it was just on one particular instrument. The WTI was just for one day and it was seen as at least a remote possibility ahead of time that it happened. It was very few contracts. There was very little trading at those prices and the price very quickly rebounded into positive territory.

Struggles of big dairy companies in India!!!

India is that the world’s biggest producer and consumer of dairy. In 2018 alone, India produced 186 million metric tonnes of milk — about 410 billion pounds and 22 percent of the milk produced globally. Almost all of that is consumed domestically thanks to India’s dairy-heavy diet — think creamy curries, yogurt drinks, and a popular type of butter called ghee. A quick note before we proceed: this includes milk from buffaloes, which are an important source of milk in many developing countries. the point is that India loves milk.

In 2011, the French dairy company Danone hoped to capitalize on this by opening a division in India. Danone opened its own processing plant in Haryana and tried to capture some of India’s 1.2 billion dairy lovers. But less than a decade later, Danone shuttered their dairy business in India. That same year, the corporate made 28 billion dollars worldwide and was within the top three global dairy companies. With all this success, elsewhere, why did Danone’s dairy business sour in India? Let’s start with some background on Danone. Their business is broken down into three categories:

1.specialized nutrition, like supplements and formula for babies;
bottled waters and seltzers;
dairy and plant-based alternatives.

That one makes up over half of their global sales, but it’s also the one that failed in India. Danone does still sell specialized nutrition products in the country, but they don’t break out those sales figures separately. This is the same company as Dannon in the U.S. The company decided to rebrand to make the spelling less confusing for American consumers. Anyway, now for some background on India’s dairy industry. There are about 75 million dairy farmers in India. Most of them are women who own one or two buffaloes or cows to supplement the family’s income. Nearly half of India’s milk is not sold, but consumed by the farmers household. This makes India’s dairy industry much more fractured and localized than other countries where Danone operates. Take the company’s native France and one of its biggest customers, the U.S. Each has far fewer dairy farms with herds that dwarf India’s one or two animal average. This was Danone’s first big problem in India: sourcing milk is difficult. Of the half not consumed by farmers’ households, only about 15 percent goes to big organized companies or government run cooperatives. The rest goes to hundreds of small, local milk processors.

The largest companies like Amul, Mother Dairy, and Nestlé have tiny percentages of the market, and they’ve been there for decades. Market research firms Mintel and Euromonitor declined to release specific market share numbers to CNBC. However, a 2016 piece in The Economic Times of India citing Euromonitor put the figures at about 7 percent for Amul, 3.7 percent for Mother Dairy, and 2.9 percent for Nestlé. In short, tapping into the existing dairy infrastructure is effective but time consuming. Imagine the effort of contacting dozens or hundreds of local and regional dairies, processors, or individual farmers. But establishing a separate supply chain altogether is very expensive — a lesson Danone learned the hard way. And when Danone did get milk, the company focused on the wrong products. Danone pushed plain yogurt and flavored yogurt drinks — popular in places like the U.S. and France with high profit margins to boot. But in India around the time when Danone arrived, yogurt comprised only 7 percent of the dairy consumed.

The real money was in ghee, a type of clarified butter, and plain old fluid milk, a product with razor-thin margins dominated by those hundreds of local small-scale producers. Analysts explained to CNBC the simple reason why Indian consumers shunned Danone’s prepackaged yogurt. And if Indian consumers did want to buy premade yogurt, they had a slew of cheaper options than Danone. Dairy never accounted for more than 10 percent of Danone’s sales in India, a far cry from its global 50 percent. Its specialized nutrition arm picks up the slack, and the company announced a renewed focus on that division when it shuttered its dairy operation. Meanwhile, two of their biggest competitors, Amul and Nestlé, made nearly five billion and 750 million from dairy, respectively. But not all hope is lost for Danone’s dairy in India.

In January 2018, the same time that Danone ended its dairy production there, the investment arm of the company announced its part in a 26.5 million dollar investment in Epigamia, an Indian yogurt startup. This could be a sustainable move for Danone in India’s dairy industry because Epigamia offers consumers products that add value onto the plain yogurt they will make cheaply reception . But perhaps most importantly is this: while much of the population still makes yogurt the old-fashioned way, analysts predict that a growing number of consumers will want to buy premade options as they move into corporate jobs in developing urban centers. Very large numbers indeed. If only 5 percent of India’s 1.35 billion people decides to buy prepackaged yogurt, that’s over 67 million consumers — more than the entire population of Danone’s native France.

Why Apple was not so popular in India???

Apple sells millions of iPhones every year. In the year 2018, the tech giant reported selling close to 47 million units worldwide. But not all markets are created equal. India has been one of the hardest countries to crack for the Cupertino giant. Although it’s been over a decade since Apple began selling iPhones in India, the company can’t seem to get a big bite of the world’s second-largest smartphone market. India is a very price-sensitive market, which means that people pay a lot of attention to what value they are getting out of the price that they are paying for a particular product.

In the case of Apple, there’s a lot of premium being paid for the brand itself, and that’s where the price-conscious Indian consumer thinks about that if they are getting the same kind of features or specs from another phone that they can get a lower price, that makes it tougher to sell something at a much higher premium. Apple is definitely feeling the pressure. Samsung and Xiaomi accounted for the majority of smartphone sales in India in quarter three of 2018, garnering 22 percent and 27 percent respectively of the smartphone market. In contrast, Apple made up only about 1 percent of India’s smartphone market share, trailing behind Chinese phone makers Vivo and Oppo. It’s also worth noting that the premium smartphone market in which Apple operates still makes up less than 5 percent of the overall smartphone market in India.

Most of the smartphones in India that sell, they are below $200 and Apple does not have any play in that segment. This environment is one that competitors like Samsung have begun to adapt to. The South Korean powerhouse is launching its Galaxy M series budget smartphones to appeal to the Indian market. In contrast, Apple doesn’t seem too keen on changing up its India strategy. I got some ideas for you, OK? I talked to some people at Walmart yesterday. An arrangement with Walmart Flipkart to take over India with a budget phone rather than doing it piecemeal? For us, we’re about making the best product that enriches people’s lives. And so, we’re not about making the cheapest. For us, what we’ve seen is, there’s enough people in every country in the world that we play in that we can have a really good business by selling the best phones. Still, some tech investors see Apple as being out of touch with the India market. You think they are going to slash prices? I think they have to. How can you sell a $1,000 phone in a market like China where the GDP per person is $10,000? In India it’s $2,000. And if you go back to the September earnings release, they talked about the fact that India was way below where they thought.

Well, if your average GDP person is $2,000 and you’re trying to sell a $1,000 phone, it’s gonna be probably pretty hard to sell it. They probably want to eat. Another issue for Apple: stiff tariffs. I think iPhones have a specific disadvantage in the India market because of the local regulation. There is a very high import duty on the phones that are not manufactured locally in India. So for most of the big players in the India market, they are manufacturing locally so they do not have to pay that high import duty. Samsung has been manufacturing phones in India since 2007 and just last year opened the world’s largest mobile phone factory on the outskirts of New Delhi. Chinese phone makers Xiaomi and Oppo have also invested millions of dollars to build manufacturing plants in the country. That’s not to say Apple has completely ignored India.

The tech giant already manufactures its lower-cost iPhone SE and iPhone 6s models locally, through a partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer Wistron. This year, Apple is also expected to move its production of the iPhone X series into Foxconn’s plant in southern India. If you look at how we’ve done over the years, we’ve gone from a $100-$200 million business to last year we had we exceeded $2 billion. That $2 billion was flat year over year after a rapid rapid growth. And so we have more work to do. We’d like to put stores there. We would like some of the duties and so forth that are put on the products to go away. But even with its local hardware production push, Apple still fails to provide Indians with a robust software experience.

Apple has introduced turn-by-turn navigation for the India market. Before that, that significant part was missing. And beyond that, there’s not a lot of customization that Apple has done for the India market. There are not a lot of apps that specifically cater to the India market. Past complaints for Apple Maps also included missing major landmarks and having very sparse data of cities and towns. But again, Apple is working on a solution. The company has hired thousands of engineers at its mapping facility in Hyderabad to improve its services. Apple Pay is also not an option in India, though similar payment services from Samsung and Google have already been rolled out. Finally, unlike in most other markets, Apple can’t rely so much on its brand recognition to sell devices in India. The other challenge for Apple in India is that it cannot have its own retail stores or own Apple stores because of some regulatory issues, which means it has to have partners on the retail side, whether it’s the Apple premium resellers, which you see in many other countries as well, or with the third-party resellers. In order to have a larger presence in the market.

Apple has to have partnerships with thousands of these resellers, which in a country as big as India, can be challenging. Apple is still a premium status symbol for many Indians, but one that is out of reach for the majority of the population. With phones from Chinese brands like OnePlus, which was India’s best selling premium smartphone brand for the second quarter in a row, offering similar features at a fraction of the cost, Apple may have a very tough time getting a bigger slice of the India market.

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