The reality we take for granted is coming under increasing technological and theoretical threat. Human beings have long been fascinated by the idea that the world as it appears to us is not the ultimate reality. In recent years, however, such metaphysical speculations have taken on a more materially conceivable form. Computer-based virtual reality (VR) makes the idea that we could be living in a simulation more than just an abstract possibility; some very smart people even think that this is not only possible, but likely. Very likely.
Virtual reality technology is making great advances, but it has also helped popularise a theory long debated by philosophers and now gaining supporters in Silicon Valley – that the outside world is itself a simulation. A top technology company making virtual reality products is already planning for a time when actual life and virtual reality are indistinguishable. So what is the reality?
Michael Björn, Head of Research at Ericsson ConsumerLab and someone who has a PhD in data modeling from the University of Tsukuba in Japan, mentions some humans have already started living in virtual reality. The idea is that computer simulations such as games will soon be impossible to distinguish from reality – and if that is the case, maybe this happened before now and we are already living in a simulation. As part of his reserach among various VR users in the USA, England, Japan, and South Korea, it is clear that escaping from reality is indeed one of the reasons why people are interested in VR, amongst many other reasons.
The idea that we are living in some sort of artificial world has long fascinated human beings. This fascination is reflected in the numerous science fiction works on this topic, and in the popularity of movies like the Matrix trilogy and The Truman Show. With the advent of more and more powerful computers, some are beginning to wonder if this possibility is more likely than we have suspected. A philosopher at Oxford University named Nick Bostrom presents an argument that suggests there is a good chance that our world is a computer simulation run by someone in a “posthuman” civilization. Very likely. Who knows?
According to Elon Musk, the space travel and electric car entrepreneur, the chances we are not uploads in a virtual world are billions to one against. It’s easy to laugh this off. If life is a massive multiplayer online game, how come it’s the only one that never freezes?
Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom wrote a paper provocatively titled Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?. The paper argued that one of three propositions is true:
a)The human race is likely to become extinct before reaching a “post-human” stage
b) Any post-human civilisation is unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of its evolutionary history (or variations thereof).
c) We are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. Elon Musk himself provides a neat example of the strange power of the theory to change everything and nothing. He is worried about the unintended potential bad consequences of artificial intelligence (AI), such as machines making us their slaves. Even more mind-spinning is that if Musk is right then we are actually about to see AI being produced within AI. There could be no end to these worlds within worlds.
It was the Summer of Love. A strange phenomenon was to grip America, it all began as largely an anti-war movement which bloomed into a protest against everything that stood for the Establishment. Kids started dropping out of school and college and heading towards San Francisco. Within about a year and a half, it had become a whole new subculture with hippie hubs blooming in every major US city – from Boston to Seattle; from Detroit to New Orleans. And soon nearly 300,000 people in some way or the other connected to the movement. But what was the movement all about?
It was a sudden social phenomenon that burst on the scene in the summer of 1967. More than a hundred thousand people, young and sporting what came to be known as hippie fashion and behaviour came together in Haight-Ashbury. They even got together in many other cities in the US, Canada and Europe. In fact, the word hippie is from hipster (used to describe kids who flocked into San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. Hippies inherited the countercultural values of the Beat Generation.
The term “Summer of Love” originated with the formation of the Council for the Summer of Love during the spring of 1967 as a response to the convergence of young people in the Haight-Ashbury district. The Council was composed of The Family Dog, The Straight Theatre, The Diggers, The San Francisco Oracle, and approximately twentyfive other people, who sought to alleviate some of the problems anticipated from the influx of people expected during the summer. The Council also assisted the Free Clinic and organised housing, food, sanitation, music and arts, along with maintaining coordination with local churches and other social groups.
These hippies who later came to be called flower children were made up of an eclectic group of young men and women. Most were fiercely opposed to the Vietnam War which the US was engaged at the time far far away from home and just because it was a communist country. Most of the hippies were immersed in music, art, poetry and meditation.
It was a balmy summer day when thousands of anti-war activists and draft resisters backed by students and hippies that gathered in Washington DC to protest America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The rally came to be known as the March on the Pentagon and it was one of the first marches with a clear agenda – to not stop of short of shutting down the war effort even if it was only for a day.
Hippies were not just another wave of creative misfits, but more like creative crusaders trying to fight the basic values of society where it is most vulnerable – that it lacks soul. It was this idealism with which the hippies sought an alternate lifestyle, completely contrary to societal norms in the hope to generate a whole new world view that will revive the forgotten virtues of reverence and agape.
In a sense, hippiedom could be described as a transplanted Lost Horizon, a Shangri-La a go-go blending Asian resignation and American optimism in a world where no one grows old. It is in the hope of settling that precious state and defining his position in it, that the hippie uses drugs — first for kicks and then sometimes as a kind of sacrament. Anti-intellectual, distrustful of logic, and resentful of the American educational process, the hippie drops out — tentatively at first — in search of another, more satisfying world. Above all, hippies were promoting the idea of peace, love, unity and freedom.
Inspired by the Beat Generation of authors of the 1950s, who had flourished in the North Beach area of San Francisco, those who gathered in Haight-Ashbury during 1967 allegedly rejected the conformist and materialist values of modern life; there was an emphasis on sharing and community. The Diggers established a Free Store and a free clinic where medical treatment was provided.
"There was so much excitement in the streets and the parks and the hippie areas, and we thought if we could transmit this excitement to the stage it would be wonderful....’ We hung out with them and went to their Be-Ins [and] let our hair grow. It was very important historically, and if we hadn't written it, there’d not be any examples. You could read about it and see film clips, but you'd never experience it. We thought, this is happening in the streets, and we wanted to bring it to the stage.” This account was by James Rado the maker of that iconic Broadway musical, Hair, which opened off Broadway in October 1967.
Hair tells the story of the “tribe”, a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. The young protagonists and their friends struggle to balance their young lives, loves, and the sexual revolution with their rebellion against the war and their conservative parents and society. Ultimately, one of them must decide whether to resist the draft as his friends have done or to succumb to the pressures of his parents (and conservative America) to serve in Vietnam, compromising his pacifist principles and risking his life.
The Sixties messiah Timothy Leary’s famous phrase “turn on, tune in, drop out” came to be the chisel for shaping the entire hippie counterculture, as it voiced the key ideas of 1960’s rebellion. These ideas included communal living, political decentralisation, and dropping out. The term “dropping out” became popular among many high school and college students, who would often abandon their education for a summer of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.
Today the San Francisco of the Sixties is a far cry from the days of Haight-Ashbury. If you visit San Francisco you can, by all means, wear some flowers in your hair, but with the acceptance that the summer of love is history. The bohemian idyll of Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters no longer exists.
The Bay Area today is the global headquarters of big tech. Here community is a euphemism for customers, disruption means starting your own company and free love means Tinder or Grindr. The San Francisco sound, which once referred to psychedelic rock groups, is now “ka-ching” – money. The city of Hollywood and Beverly Hills is one of the world’s most expensive and unequal cities where billionaires step over sleeping shapes on the sidewalks. Artists, writers and musicians once the heartthrob of the city is leaving for cheaper cities. Companies like Uber and Airbnb have appropriated the word sharing for the gig economy, itself a euphemism for perpetual work.
But then the fiftieth anniversary of one of the world’s most defining movements is not going unnoticed. If you stroll around HaightAshbury you will see people with backpacks lounging on benches, some holding flowers. The aroma of pot mingled with incense. Vintage clothing, Tibetan-theme stuff and handmade jewellery are lined across the streets. Posters with psychedelic swirls are splashed across the city – a reminder of the summer of love
Flanked by the North Atlantic Ocean and a landscape of dramatic cliffs, for centuries the Giant’s Causeway has captured the imagination of countless visitors from across all continents. An area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption, it is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles northeast of the town of Bushmills. Having marvelled at the majesty and mystery of the world-famous the Giant’s Causeway, it is truly one of Europe’s most magnificent coastlines. The rocks have stood as a natural rampart against the unbridled ferocity of the Atlantic storms, for millions of years. The rugged symmetry of the columns never fails to intrigue and inspire our visitors. To stroll on the Giants Causeway is to voyage back in time.
Around 60 million years ago, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled the horizontal contraction fractured in a way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillarlike structures, which are also fractured horizontally into “biscuits”.
As you unlock the mystery and stories of the landscape, your imagination will travel along stepping stones that lead to either the creative turbulence of a bygone volcanic age or into the mists and legends of the past.
Legend has it that once upon a time there was an Irish giant called Finn McCool, also known as Fionn Mac Cumhaill, who got himself into a spot of trouble with an angry Scottish giant called Benandonner who made a claim for Finn’s island of Ireland. Enraged, Finn started throwing boulders into the sea just off the Antrim coastline in Northern Ireland. Inspired by way they fell into the water, Finn decided to use his boulders to make a bridge – or a causeway – all the way to Scotland to challenge his rival to a duel. In a mythical world where size dictates winners and losers, Finn realised he has underestimated his enemy – Benandonner is giant even for a giant! Brute force won’t work on him – so Finn quickly returns to Ireland via his causeway and decides the best way to beat Benandonner is to con him.
Leaving the Giant’s Causeway for Benandonner to find, Finn McCool’s wife disguises him as a baby. When his rival Benandonner arrived, he found Finn’s wife tending her enormous baby giant. Realising that if Finn’s child son was this big, Finn himself must be huge! Benandonnar hurried away, tearing away bits of the causeway as he retreated to the Highlands, determined to leave Ireland and stay away from the giant Finn McCool, who regained undisputed control over Ireland once more. Thus, the Giant’s Causeway was born. In 1986 the World Heritage Conventions has added the Causeway to its coveted list of sites, which are of exceptional interest and universal value.
No trip to the Giant’s Causeway would be complete without experiencing these top six must-sees. Make sure you tick them off your list when you visit the Giant’s Causeway.
The Grand Causeway is the largest of three rock outcrops which make up the Giant’s Causeway. These collections of curious columns contributed to the causeway being designated Northern Ireland's only World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.
The Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre was the result of an international architecture competition. The building has won many prestigious awards for design innovation and sustainability.
In Port Noffer you'll find a small path leading towards the sea. This takes you to what is perhaps the bay's most famous feature - the Giant's Boot. Apparently lost by Finn as he fled from the wrath of Scottish giant, Benandonner, the boot is reputed to be a size 93.5!
An essential stop on any visit to the causeway, the Wishing Chair is a natural throne formed from a perfectly arranged set of columns. It has been sat on so often, the basalt stones are shiny, smooth and very comfortable!
Portnaboe's most famous resident is Finn McCool's camel. Once a living and lively beast, the camel was turned to stone and forlornly lies along the bottom of the cliffs. Apparently he was the only steed capable of carrying Finn home across long distances
Insecure daughter, Betrayed wife, National heroine, tough dictator. She was many things to many people and even today she is the most remembered political figure across the nation. Travel anywhere and ask and the one person they all remember is Indira Amma or Indiraji.
Sagarika Ghose's book, Indira almost throws a floodlight on the woman who ruled the nation for two decades.
“Who was she really close to? Her mother?
Ghose has in fact taken the stylistic freedom of writing writes letters to Indira throughout the book as a way of understanding her better. Is there something about her that still eludes her, she says: ''Who was she really close to? Her mother? Feroze? Sanjay? Who did she feel really intimate with?
These are searching questions with difficult answers. After all, she was an incredibly paradoxical person – and Sagarika admits that that was the reason she wrote those letters because there were so many things about her that she found mystifying. How could someone as astute as her, for example not see what she was doing by encouraging Sanjay the way she did? Or building up a Bhindranwale and then sending the Army into a place of worship? Could she not see the effects this would have? She must have.
Indira Gandhi was a very complex person. No doubt about it. There have been more than 800 books written about her and yet one can write reams about the woman who foxed everyone. Her contradictory personality foxes and intrigues me, like someone who is all sweetness and charm one minute and the next minute a cold and aloof stranger
It was 1971 when Indira Gandhi defied the US and liberated Bangladesh from Pakistan in face of strong global opposition. But she showed steely resolve in her decision and was hailed by no less than Opposition leader of that time Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Durga riding a tiger. A Congressman from Assam famously coined the term India is Indira, Indira is India. The woman-politician had arrived on the world stage dominated by men.
The nation fondly remembered her as the Durga who won India its first decisive military victory in centuries and the strong stateswoman who had the courage to look American bullying in the eye and not blink. But then she is as much remembered as the terrible dictator who imposed the Emergency and tried to destroy institutions ranging from her own party to the judiciary; she is also seen as the woman who shied away from tackling the many of the problems that afflict Indian democracy even today. Even so, for politicians, Indira is the very definition of a strong leader, and a role model on both sides of the aisle.
In this spellbinding story of her life, journalist Sagarika Ghose has excavated not just Indira the iron lady and political leader but also the flesh-and-blood woman. Born in 1917, Indira soon found her life swept up by Gandhi’s call for freedom and Swadeshi. Her family home became a hub of the national movement and Indira marinated in a political environment from an early age. But she also saw politics of another kind. Her sickly mother and she were the targets of unkind attacks from her aunts. And her celebrated father, who had no patience for illness, was desperate to sculpt his daughter into his version of perfection – but Indira simply couldn’t keep up with his expectations. Despite Nehru’s disappointment and dismissiveness, Indira rose to become the unquestioned high command of the Congress and, indeed, the most powerful prime minister India has ever had.
This no-holds-barred biographical portrait looks for answers to lingering issues: from why Indira revoked the Emergency to her son Sanjay’s curious grip over her; and from her bad marriage and love affairs to her dangerous religious politics. This is the only book you need to read about Indira Gandhi.
She reminds one of Tennyson’s poem, The Lady Of Shalott. A person of great personal charm and grace, yet caged in a fortress or a castle of her own insecurities, anger, suspicions and paranoia of others. She was indeed a half hearted dictator because while she imposed the Emergency, she also lifted it. The only “dictator” in history to put an end to her own dictatorship and submit to the power of the vote.
India’s most formidable politician, she was someone who dominated our political narrative and forged a cult of personality so deep that we still feel the reverberations today. Indira Gandhi loomed larger than life for much of India’s post-independence history. On the centenary of her birth, renowned journalist and author Sagarika Ghose takes a look back at Gandhi; delving into not just the wily political animal but the woman with a complex private life. For anyone interested in the making of modern India, Indira: India’s Most Powerful Prime Minister by Sagarika Ghose (Juggernaut Books) is a must read.
It’s not an easy to write a book on Indira Gandhi, a woman with so many shades, so many ideologies, so many colours. And the subject is surely a huge challenge and a great delight for biographers because of the glaring contradictions and the general accusation that she was devoid of any ideological moorings.
Sagarika Ghose's book is one in the hundreds of biographies written about the first woman prime minister of India, though there have been many prime ministers in the subcontinent which is especially significant that the great democracy of the United States of America is still not ready to elect a woman to the highest office in the country.
Where Sagarika has tried to be different is that she has tried to bring Indira alive for an entirely new generation who have little clue of the great woman and her troubled journey in politics – a family of greats and a family that has also suffered great tragedies in its personal life. Mother and son assassinated by militant outfits which they tried to subdue, and another son killed in a terrible air crash.
What this book also strives to achieve is draw a holistic picture of an otherwise enigmatic and paradoxical Indira. On the one hand, she was hailed as the living epitome of Goddess Durga, fearless and bold while, on the other hand, she was known to be meek, insecure and submissive in private.
The only person Indira could really relate to was her mother Kamala Nehru who was elegant and beautiful and yet felt ignored at Anand Bhawan where Nehru’s sisters treated her with scorn because she was not used to the high-life of the Nehrus. Nayantara Sahgal writes, in her book, how at the time of Kamala Gandhi’s death, Indira “saw her (Kamala) being hurt” and “was determined not to be hurt.”
Her to be husband Feroze Gandhi came to her life around Kamala Nehru’s death, as a pillar of support. As Indira confessed several years later that Feroze “was always there for me", she couldn’t have let him go away. The marriage, however, didn't work and she blamed herself for her two kids, especially Sanjay, growing up without a father. Indira could see her own plight in Sanjay’s. Coomi Kapoor writes in her book, The Emergency, that Sanjay adored Feroze Gandhi and “believed that his father had been abandoned and that the neglect of his well-being had led to his early death from a heart attack.” This sense of guilt seemed to have made Indira gloss over Sanjay’s excesses.
Today the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi is rightly or wrongly in some slanted way compared to Indira. But Sagarika has resisted the temptation of making any such comparisons. It’s not a scholarly book on Indira Gandhi, but for anyone looking for a primer on the great woman, Indira Gandhi, it is worth a read.
July 10 is a milestone for the MBD family every year. On this day MBD group reaffirms its faith in the principles of Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra, who taught us the value of good work and good deeds. This July 10 marked the Seventh Founder’s Day for the Group and the 72nd birth anniversary of the revered father and founder Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra.
His donation to society and to all of the MBD family speaks of a man who remains larger than life. His expansive vision and down-to-earth pragmatism were the foundations on which his edifice stands today. And to commemorate the day a book titled, Our Founder says, was launched with much fanfare. The book is a compendium of MBD’s founder’s thoughts and vision on life, living and lessons learnt. It has something for everyone.
Knowledge and insight are essential elements in this book combined with chiselled logic and experienced intuition that shine a torch on the path of life and give the reader an inner strength to triumph life’s journey. He has been inspired and moved by great men and great thoughts which he internalised and made it his own.
Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra’s journey was an amazing story in itself, a life lived on innovative thinking and optimal outcomes. This book reflects his blueprint of success for all. The one big takeaway is hope; and having a clear vision of the future, in failure and success. This book of his sayings and thoughts will give readers exclusive access to the founding principles of his success.
The book reflects the vision and guiding principles that led to the creation and grand success of the MBD group, not only in the field of education but also in hospitality, retail developments and much more. It was his mantra — Bahut Jyada sapne dekho, Un sapno se jyada mehnat karo – that encouraged everyone to do their best, set new benchmarks, and strive to achieve them.
A grand event on the day was organized where the who’s who from across the country attended and lent support to the good work that the group has been doing.
MBD Group has thrived for over six decades and has always stayed true to its core value of providing education to all with its mission “for every literate person, there must be an MBD Book.” The group has ventured into the Middle East, South Africa and Sri Lanka markets with its huge basket of education services. MBD group is not only the pioneer of AR in Education in India but also the first publisher to launch a VR in this field. In the hospitality sector, the group owns and operates Radisson Blu MBD Hotel in Noida and Ludhiana and many more are under development. The group has also recently signed a Joint Venture with Steigenberger, Europe’s leading hotel company last year. Under this JV, the group will focus on key cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad as they plan to come up with 20 luxury hotels over the next 15 years. The group has also ventured into the premium and luxury mixed use developments
Mrs Satish Bala Malhotra, Chairperson, MBD Group took the occasion to remind everyone that the, “The success of MBD Group can be attributed to the undying spirit of hard work and innovation of our Founder. He believed in ‘Education for all’ and that is what propelled him to work for the uplift, well-being and betterment of the people. He believed that every human being is endowed with the potential to excel and encouraged every member of his team to be brilliant. This year’s event is historic in its own way because MBD is giving readers an un-hindered access to the cornerstones of our success in the form of the book “Our Founder says.”
Ms Monica Malhotra, MD, MBD Group, said, “The palpable enthusiasm in celebrating our 7th Founders Day demonstrates the undying legacy and strong perseverance of my father, Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra. We will continue to be guided by his vision and strive to scale new heights in the coming years with the strong lineage and inherent strengths of the group and blessings of our Founder Father.”
Ms Sonica Malhotra, Joint MD, MBD Group, said, “Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra was a keen innovator and believed in the philosophy of symmetrical growth where the company grows only when its people grow. Carrying his legacy forward, we will remain focused on ensuring people-centric growth so that we keep our Founder Father’s legacy alive and enable the group to maintain its leadership position.”
With the event being an enormous hit, the group gave away awards under the categories of Budding Employee of the Year, Employee of the Year, Manager of the year, Sales Person of the year, Exemplary work, Remarkable Contribution, HoD of the year, Unit of the year, Branch of the year, Zone of the year and Corporate HoD of the year to recognise the employees and to encourage them to scale greater heights with their determination and hard work.
The group’s work is not limited to its immediate family. Under My Best Deeds, the CSR initiative by Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra Charitable Trust, the group carries out activities pan India revolving around his philosophy of giving back to the society and help the needy in every possible way.
The MBD Group, one of the leading Education Companies in India with over 6 decades of experience in publishing, under the futuristic vision of the Founder of the Group, Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra, has diversified into various industries including E-Learning, Stationery, M-Learning, Skill Development, EcoFriendly Notebooks, Paper Manufacturing, ICT Infrastructure, Hospitality, Real Estate, Mall Development and Management. Since 1956, the MBD Group has been continuously working for the cause of providing education to all with its mission “for every literate person there should be an MBD book”. The group has a presence in various other countries, including international offices in South Africa and Sri Lanka. For more information, please visit http://mbdgroup.com/
We’ve all grown up with the delightful and popular tale of Ali Baba from Arabia who as a poor woodcutter stumbles upon immense wealth hidden inside a mountain cave and locked with the magical words of Sesame or Simsim. The story of China’s Alibaba has taken the world by storm and has similar parallels to the popular folklore. Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma’s story of a poor boy in Communist China who failed at many things before hitting the jackpot with his third internet company is no less than any folklore. We bring you the amazing and inspiring journey of Jack Ma – from rags to riches.
Come July and a new tax regime is all set to be imposed across the country in the hope of getting rid of the multi-tier and multiple taxation systems in the country. With a similar tax rate across the nation, it can unite the whole nation from the economic point of view, but then it is said to be not so consumer friendly. So what will be the trickle down and how will it affect you and me. We give you an idea.
The world is not only in political ferment, but also threatened by great climactic changes. Europe witnessed Brexit and then the unpredictable win of Macron in France and the almost loss of Theresa May in England and the incredible rise of Jeremy Corbin. On the climate front, US President Donald Trump much to the horror of the world pulled out of the Paris agreement on climate change. How will Trump’s exit affect the global battle against global warming or will the fight go on despite the US.
And then we write about two incredible women, one a world leader, the other a world writer. Yes, we talk about the Queen of Europe, Angela Merkel and then India’s Goddess of writing Arundhati Roy, who, after 20 years has penned her second work of fiction which is storming the publishing world.
In the publishing world, we pay homage to one of its doyens who as a young boy of 13 took tiny steps to publish his own book. A man with a deep conviction that every literate person should have a book that he has published, he went on to build the MBD Group which celebrated its 60th year in 2016 and is the largest education company in India today. That visionary and pioneer is none other than our founding father, but also my father Shri Ashok Kumar Malhotra. He believed not just in being the biggest but also in being the BEST. His inspiration marks our step at MBD every day
A detour down south in Tamil Nadu where there seems to be a thin line between the real and the reel. And in the reel world how the mother and daughter duo of Aparna Sen and Konkona Sen Sharma are pushing the limits of their genes, not jeans. And to bring up the end a delightful tour of the month of Ramzan when a half of the world prays eats and loves. Eid Mubarak!
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the US President Donald Trump at the White House during his recent visit to the United States of America. Here are the key takeaways from their meeting:
1. I have always had a deep admiration for your country and your people, the rich culture and traditions. It’s great honour to welcome the leader of the world's largest democracy. You have a true friend in the White House... our ties have never been stronger and better, President Trump said at the joint press conference after delegation-level talks.
2. India is the fastest growing economy in the world. We hope we will be catching up you very soon. You have a big vision for improving infrastructure and fighting corruption, President Trump told PM Modi.
3. I am proud to say that PM Modi and I are world leaders in social media.
4. PM Modi invited my daughter Ivanka to lead US delegation to the global entrepreneurship in India, and I believe she has accepted it, Trump said.
5. The security partnership between the US and India is incredibly important. Both our nations have been struck by the evils of terrorism and we are both determined to destroy terrorist organisations+ and the radical ideology that drives them. We will destroy radical Islamic terrorism, President Trump said.
6. Our talks today are an important moment in the cooperation between our nations. We held talks on wide range of issues pertaining to the India-USA relationship, PM Modi said.
DIPLOMACY// India needs to be taught the “rules” of dealing with border disputes, Chinese state media has said, cautioning New Delhi not to mistake China’s silence on boundary problems as its weakness.
The warning comes in the middle of a standoff between the border troops along Sikkim on India’s northeastern border with Tibet that has seen the Chinese side suspend an annual pilgrimage through the Nathu La pass that lies on the frontier.
The Chinese government “must force the Indian troops to retreat to the Indian side by all means necessary”, the media said on Wednesday, a day after China accused Indian soldiers of crossing into its territory. Cautioning India against being “arrogant”, the state media reminded New Delhi that China was a far more powerful country, militarily and economically.
“China avoids making an issue of border disputes, which has indulged India’s unruly provocations. This time the Indian side needs to be taught the rules,” the nationalistic tabloid Global Times said in an opinion piece
In the last few days, Beijing has stepped up the offensive but New Delhi has said little on the face-off. Though Indian Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat shrugged off reports of a skirmish in Sikkim, saying there was no incursion into India
But the Chinese media blamed the Indian military so did the ministries of defence and foreign affairs, which on Tuesday accused Indian soldiers of preventing its troops from building a road on their side of the line of actual control, the de facto border between the two countries.
The Chinese side also linked the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, an annual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet held sacred by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, to the “withdrawal” of troops by India.
The Nathu La route for Mansrovar Yatra is a major confidence-building exercise between the two often-bickering neighbours.
BADMINTON// India's Kidambi Srikanth claimed a first victory over Olympic and two-time world champion Chen Long to win the Australian Open Superseries final in Sydney on June 25. The 11thranked Srikanth outgunned the sixth-ranked Chinese star 22-20, 21-16 in 46 minutes for his second successive Superseries title after winning the Indonesia Open earlier in June. It was Srikanth's first win in six encounters against the Rio Olympic champion, with Chen defeating the Indian at the Sudirman Cup on Australia's Gold Coast last month
“I was not thinking of winning or losing. I missed competitive badminton during my break last year and wanted to enjoy the match,” Srikanth said.
“These conditions are such that you can’t really attack, it’s a bit slow, you have to be prepared for a long match. In all the breaks today I had the advantage, (coach) Mulyo told me to keep it going, not to make simple mistakes and allow him back into the match."
Indians have now won four of the six Superseries this year. Srikanth is in career-best form after returning from injury in April.
CRICKET// Anil Kumble announced his resignation as head coach of the Indian cricket team, recently and said he was informed about the reservations captain Virat Kohli had with his working style “for the first time yesterday”. But those in the know say communication lines between the two had more or less snapped during the past few months.
In a statement, Kumble said he was “surprised” by Kohli’s “reservations” since he had “always respected the role boundaries between captain and coach”.
The BCCI, in a press release, had said that the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) — comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman — had endorsed an extension to Kumble’s tenure. What wasn’t mentioned in the official statement was a rider. “They made it clear that Kumble would only be retained if his differences with Kohli were solved. We had long chats with the two but we couldn’t solve the problem. While Kumble didn’t acknowledge there was a problem, Kohli’s view was very different,” said the source.
Kumble, in his statement, also mentioned the last-minute truce efforts. “Though the BCCI attempted to resolve the misunderstandings between the captain and me, it was apparent that the partnership was untenable, and I therefore believe it is best for me to move on,” he stated.
WEATHER// Intermittent rains continued for the fourth consecutive day in Mumbai and suburbs, disrupting local train services on the Central Railway’s Harbour Line. The continuous showers led to deposition of mud on tracks between Mankhurd and Gowandi suburban stations which led to the suspension of train services for about half-an-hour on the Harbour Line, that stretches between Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Panvel in adjoining Raigad district. The services were later resumed with a speed restriction because of which the trains were running behind schedule, he said. Jain said the services on the Central Railway’s main line, running from CST to Kalyan and onwards to Kasara and Khopoli, were smooth but because of the heavy downpour, the trains were running 10-15 minutes behind schedule. No water-logging was reported at any of the suburban stations on the main line. According to an official of the Mumbai civic body’s disaster management department, the Colaba observatory recorded 63 mm rainfall and Santacruz 51.1 mm on June 28.
TAX// The government has made it mandatory for taxpayers to link existing Aadhaar numbers with PAN cards+ with effect from July 1. Amending income tax rules and notifying the same, the government has made quoting of the 12-digit biometric Aadhaar or the enrolment ID a must at the time of application of permanent account number (PAN). Finance minister Arun Jaitley through an amendment to tax proposals in the Finance Bill for 2017-18 had made Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and provided for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to check tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards. The revenue department said “every person who has been allotted PAN as on July 1, 2017, and who in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 139AA is required to intimate his Aadhaar number, shall intimate his Aadhaar number to the principal director general of income tax (systems) or DGIT (systems)”. The rules will come into force from July 1, 2017, the revenue department said while amending Rule 114 of the I-T Act, which deals in application for allotment of PAN
As many as 2.07 crore taxpayers have already linked their Aadhaar with PAN
ATTACKS// On 3 June 2017, an attack took place in the Southwark district of London, England, when a van mounted the pavement of London Bridge and was driven into pedestrians. The van crashed, and the three male occupants ran to the nearby Borough Market pub and restaurant area, where they stabbed people with long knives. Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, stated that the attackers were "probably" Islamist terrorists. Eight people were killed and 48 were injured, including four unarmed police officers who attempted to stop the assailants. The three attackers, who wore fake explosive vests, were all shot dead by police. It was the third terrorist attack in Great Britain in just over two months, following a similar attack in Westminster in March and a bombing in Manchester in May.
The ringleader of the London Bridge terror attack who was photographed dead on the ground with canisters strapped to his body was named by police as Khuram Butt, 27, of Barking, East London, He is believed to have led the trio of terrorists who ploughed into pedestrians on the bridge using a hired van, before stabbing revellers in pubs and bars in Borough Market.
Witnesses heard the men shout “This is for Allah” before they were shot and killed by police within eight minutes of the first 999 call. Armed officers fired an “unprecedented” 50 rounds, according to Scotland Yard. The three men appear to have stabbed people at random in the market. They rampaged through the area, entering the many pubs and restaurants to stab anyone in sight.
Police have been piecing together eyewitness accounts, and believe that three men got out of the van and started attacking people with knives.
It’s become part of popular folklore among industry folks that Jack Ma came up with the name Alibaba while sitting in a San Francisco shop. In the popular Arabian Nights story that most children have grown up with, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is the story of a poor woodcutter who stumbles upon a secret password that unlocks a cave in the mountains with unending treasure. Ma’s Alibaba too has is a similar way unlocked the doors to the potential of small and middle business around the world.
As kids, we have grown up listening to stories of how hard work and determination always paid off, in the end, stories that left us in awe and a. The story of Jack Ma and the life of a man who took China’s internet market by storm and impacted the world economy is one such inspiring story.
Not so long ago in China, a little boy once firmly believed that everything was possible. Growing up was not easy for him, he had to face many disappointments and closed door, more than he could keep a count of. But he refused to cave in or give up. His failures only made him more resolute to succeed and to persist.
That little boy grew up to be none other than Jack Ma, the man who founded the biggest e-commerce site in China, Alibaba, and went on to become the richest man in China. In March 2016, this leading Chinese e-commerce company boasted of a net income of 71.46 billion Chinese Yuan. Jack Ma’s incredible story of earning $12 a month to becoming a multi-billionaire is nothing short of the ultimate rags to riches story which he has credited to nothing but hard work and no turn of luck. His mantra for success in his own words: “Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.”
Like many legends before him, Jack Ma refused to be told no. And like his fictional idol, Forest Gump, he ran like hell towards his own finish line no matter the challenges thrown at him. From a very young age, Ma realised his failures and weaknesses, and learned to keep working on them until one day, they became his prize-points.
Jack Ma today is the founder of the ecommerce giant Alibaba and is a stakeholder at Alipay, it's sister company which is an e-payment portal. He is now officially the richest man in China with an estimated net worth of $25 Billion, on the back of the world record $150 Billion IPO filing of his company. Given all of this, Jack Ma only holds a 7.8 per cent stake in Alibaba and a 46 per cent stake in Alipay. Alibaba and Jack Ma, although are not household names out of China, it is little surprising that Alibaba is worth more than Facebook, and processes goods more than eBay and Amazon combined!
The Backstory Born Ma Yun aka Jack Ma, in China’s south-eastern Hangzhou, Jack had a humble beginning. Born to parents who were traditional musician-storytellers, the family didn’t even make enough to be considered sufficient with an elder brother and a younger sister.
Jack was barely eight years old when American President Richard Nixon visited Hangzhou in 1972 which soon had an impact on tourism in his hometown. This strangely even benefitted Jack who tried to make the most of such an opportunity and learned English. This paid off as he would spend his early mornings riding his bike to a nearby park and give foreign tourists English tours for free. This is how he acquired the very English name Jack as one of the foreign girls who found it hard to pronounce his Chinese name called him Jack.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in English, Jack worked as an English teacher at Hangzhou Dianzi University at only $12 a month.
In his early childhood, Jack Ma Failed in his Primary School examinations, not once, but twice! He Failed Thrice during his Middle School exams. When applying to universities after his High school, Jack failed the entrance exams thrice, before finally joining Hangzhou Normal University. He even applied and wrote to Harvard University ten times– and got rejected each time.
That was not all. During and after his Bachelor’s degree Jack tried and failed to get a job at many places. After spending three years to get into a University, Jack failed to land a job after applying to them 30 times! “When KFC came to China, 24 people went for the job. Twenty-three people were accepted. I was the only guy who wasn’t.” Jack Ma is on record talking about his early failures. He also one of the five applicants for a job in the Police force to be rejected after being told, “You’re no good.”
As an entrepreneur too, Jack failed in his first two ventures. But that was not to stop him from dreaming bigger.
On all his rejections in his early life, Jack has a very philosophical take: “Well, I think we have to get used to it. We’re not that good.” Overcoming the pain of rejections and treating rejections as another opportunity to learn and to grow is what Jack Ma learned early and never forgot.
Jack was never disheartened despite what life repeatedly served him. It was in 1995 during a trip to the US for a project related to the building of highways that Jack Ma ran into something that would soon define his life. He was introduced to computers and the Internet. Computers were very rare in China because of the high costs and people had not heard of Internet and e-mails. The first word that Jack searched on the net was Beer and results from many countries popped up but there was none from his country China. He then looked for China and not a single result showed up. It was then that he decided that it was time China and its people woke up to the marvel of the Internet.
He came back to China he managed to persuade 17 of his friends to invest and join him in his new e-commerce startup which he called Alibaba. He launched his company from his apartment. Having not a single penny from any outside investor, Alibaba went on to raise $20 million from SoftBank and another $5 million from Goldman Sachs in 1999. Building trust among the people of China that an online system of payment and package transfers is safe was the biggest challenge Jack Ma and Alibaba faced, a challenge that Jack will always cherish.
Jack was only 31 when he started Alibaba. He had never written a single line of coding or had ever sold anything to anyone. Yet he went on to run one of the biggest e-commerce networks in the world. The company grew rapidly as it found its footprint across the world, swiftly moving out of its China shell. Today Alibaba is only second to Walmart in terms of sales per year. Alibaba has become the e-commerce giant that Jack Ma had always dreamt it would be. The Jack Ma story is nothing short of a folk tale something like a modern version of the popular English fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk whose moral is that fortune always favours the bold.
Hints that superstar Rajnikanth might, finally, join politics, or form a new political party, sent the southern state into a near frenzy in May. To his almost fanatical (pun not intended) following of star struck cine-goers, the aura around the Thalaiva’s is Godlike. He was one of the few superstars in the region who had so far avoided the political arena. A paradox in Tamil Nadu, where politics is the next step for every film personality.
Sample this: Almost every top rung politician in Tamil politics, since Independence, has had a filmi background. Five of the last seven chief ministers since Independence have been film industry professionals, not just actors, but also screenwriters and lyricists.
The list of film-star turned politicians in Tamil Nadu is simply too long – the names alone would take up a few pages, ranging from the DMK Supremo to heir apparent MK Stalin, the now not-so-popular Khushboo, and Radhika. Last but definitely not least – J Jayalalithaa.
“Mind-boggling as it may seem to a North Indian reared on rajma-chawal and Dharmender-Jeetender films, the cult status, film professionals enjoy in Tamizhnad includes fans building temples to their icons,” says Anjali Sunderraman, who is writing her doctoral thesis on Kollywood’s political leanings.
Traditionally, Tamil Nadu was a Brahmin-dominated community. Then the nineteen thirties witnessed the beginnings of what would later be known as the Dravidian movement. At that time, it was called the Suyamariyaathai Iyakkam or Self Respect Movement and was led by EV Ramasami Naicker aka Periyar.
Essentially an anti-Brahmin movement, it pushed for revolutionary political protests again caste discrimination, the opposition of Hindi as the national language, and the abolition of religion and religious practices based on superstition. Key followers of the movement included film personalities such as CN Annadurai, M Karunanidhi, SS Rajendran, and Sivaji Ganesan.
Both Annadurai and Karunanidhi were scriptwriters for films and began introducing the movement’s ideology in films. “Keep in mind that this was the preinternet, pre-mobile, pre-television in every home era,” says a retired film censor board official.
“It was a state with one of the highest literacy rates in India. Tamilians were avid filmgoers. Add impassioned dialogues by protagonists from poor, lower-caste families. They played rickshaw-pullers, truck drivers, teachers, and slaves. They ate the poor man’s food, drank Kanji (rice gruel) and Chukku Kaapi (the poor man’s staple of ginger-flavoured water). Being poor was almost attractive. As their heroes triumphed over everything that cruel, heartless, society hurled at them, a large populace was drawn to the movement itself, influenced by the films of the day.”
Tamil films began focussing on the most crucial aspects of Dravidian politics linguistic, and cultural discrimination. As the populace took to the people movement and its ideology, the faces who played its heroes (and heroines) on screen, took on a larger than life identity.
Thus, the rich Urimaiyalar (feudal landowner) was brought to his knees by a mass rebellion of the serfs he oppressed. The princess, wooed by both rich man and the poor man ultimately chose the latter who was inevitably ‘cursed’ with birth in a low caste family.
The aam aadmi, as it were, began looking to their reel-life idols for guidance that went beyond Tinsel Town. And because they were professionally involved with the art of telling a tale, these stars were able to bring flair and elements of high drama to their off-screen persona too.
Enter Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai or Anna – the first to use Tamil cinema as a vehicle for political propaganda and it helped that he had been both on screen and behind it.
Anna’s ability to write compelling dialogues in emotion-laden films depicting the Dravidian protagonists’ struggle to reclaim Brahmin-suppressed ethnic identity and human dignity struck an emotional chord in several hearts. In 1949, he founded the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
A few years later Muthuvelu Karunanidhi struck political gold with Parasakthi in 1952. Openly critical of Brahmin practices of the day – atrocities on widows, untouchability and the feudal system of landholding, the film was a massive box office hit.
Catapulting on the film’s success to instant stardom were two newcomers, Sivaji Ganesan and SS Rajendran. Both enjoyed decades of stardom - writing in and acting in films. Rajendran went on to become the first actor in India elected as an MLA in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly. Sivaji Ganesan continued as a star for over 40, starring in social dramas, commercial cinema and Puranic and historical roles. The political career that began with the DMK saw him moving to the Congress, serving as a Rajya Sabha member, floating his own party the Tamizhaga Munnetra Munnani and then the president of the Janata Dal in the state
The cinema hall had been transformed into the perfect venue to communicate concerns about Brahmin dominance in the state, raise cadres, and determine the way forward for emerging Tamil nationalistic sentiment. The nineteen fifties also saw the meteoric rise of Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran aka MGR. Though he’d been around in Tamil films since he was a teenager, it was in a film written by M Karunanidhi – Manthiri Kumari (The Minister’s Daughter) that MGR got his first major breakthrough.
He went on to be Chief Minister thrice. But only after a two-decade stint with the DMK, expulsion from the party, formation of his own political party the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in 1972.
MGR used his own films such as Indru Pol Endrum Vazhga to garner public support and votes. “Techniques included the obvious, like speeches as well as the more subtle display of the ADMK flag in the film’s opening song,” recalls octogenarian Tamil film critic T Karuppuswamy. In Nam Naadu (Our Nation), in almost every scene, there was a picture of Anna. Some roles and dialogues were nuanced, subtly hidden under seemingly commercial cinema, but others were more obvious. The flag led to instant recall during voting, and in the decade that followed the ADMK won every election it contested.
Flooded with SMSes offering washing machines and airconditioners at almost 50 per cent discount, schoolteacher Sarika Grewal, is wondering whether to buy now or wait for GST to sink in. She does urgently need to replace both appliances, as her existing ones are irreparably old
Kiran is 40 and works as a domestic help in Delhi and with less than a week for GST to be implemented, all she wants her employer to tell her, is, whether or not she should hoard rice, dal, and masala.
Rati Gupta, 25 is simply worried about the loan she will need to buy her first car. “Will the car become more expensive? I can’t buy it until August or September – when my office actually gives me a loan.
All three are confused by what they’ve been hearing from various sources on the post-GST regime. “To buy and discover that the item is substantially cheaper a few weeks later, or don’t buy expecting prices to fall, and discover that the item is beyond reach now,” – that’s the quandary most people are in.
At the other end of the spectrum are the retailers. Be it the small kiraana store, or big brand chains, no one knows what is coming. All businesses, be they chemists, grocers, or establishments selling home appliances, they’re all busy looking for someone to tell ‘them’ what to do.
Logic ERP Solutions, for instance, is busy figuring out software for traders and retail shops across North India. Its Managing Director, Swarndeep Singh, sits in a coffee shop in Shimla, patiently explaining the differences between the old regime and the new to a client.
He has this very simple advice for consumers: “if the discount is substantial and it’s something you need (for instance a washing machine or a television), go ahead, and buy it. Masala, rice, and groceries, there’s a limit to how much you can buy and hoard. And, you’ll need to buy them again after a few months in any case, so how much will you save by hoarding?”
Mumbai-based audit consultant Tulika Ruia insists that there can be no generalisations about post GST prices. “It all depends on where you live. If we take the example of cinema tickets, tickets priced at Rs 100 or less will be taxed at 18 per cent and those above Rs 100 will be taxed at 28 per cent. Cinema ticket prices are currently based on entertainment taxes levied by states where theatres are situated.” “So people in zero entertainment tax states like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand will pay much more, but in Uttar Pradesh where the current tax is 60 per cent, people will pay a lot less,” she adds.
Most experts believe that the move will prove beneficial for Indian businesses, and will open up back-end jobs in the retail industry. Tax professionals, software professionals, lawyers, and data auditors will all be needed in much larger numbers to help India adjust to the new regimen
Service Analysis and Consultancy firms have already begun advising their corporate clients that GST specific positions such as Vice President (GST), or Director (GST), will have to become a permanent feature
Since the early bird gets the worm, private business studies colleges have started looking for professors who can teach a GST specific course right away. The principal of a Noida-based institution, who did not wish to be named, said, “For existing batches, we are introducing GST classes, but for future batches, we are identifying people who can create an entire GST specialisation course. The earliest batch of professionals who can master the subtleties of GST implementation will evidently become leaders of the market force in years to come. It is similar to the first lot of computer professionals.
Nevertheless, that still brings us back to the 64 million dollar question: What happens on the first of July. Analysis by groups such as Nomura and CRISIL predict price reduction on several items and increased bills for several services.
Reports and predictions in mid-June suggest that eating out will be cheaper in most states. In spite of claims and protests by the hospitality industry, experts say travel and hotel bills – usually inflated by various state levied taxes are likely to be lower too.
Over the last decade, despite the existence of a Value Added Tax (VAT) regime, in reality, consumers ended up charged for indirect taxes, often twice or thrice for the same item. The government’s decision to set up an agency to enforce the anti-profiteering law means that people will actually get the benefit of GST price reductions.
Ratnesh Kumar, who owns three stores in Delhi selling home appliances, says, “Even if washing machines or food processors become more expensive after GST, life won’t come to a standstill. As a shop owner, I’m also confused about how things will pan out. But we have to make a living. So if things get more expensive, we’ll have to negotiate with manufacturers to give us better margins and offer better discounts and incentives to customers. It might take a few months to settle down that’s all.”
The best advice, however, comes from market watch expert Sumita Gupta. “This is the time to negotiate hard. Even post-July 1, there’ll be a lot of offers from retail stores who have already shown their pre-GST goods as sold, simply to avoid carrying forward stock, which will then attract, post GST payments as well.” Sumita suggests bargaining hard for electronics even if they’re already discounted.
The most important thing to remember is that goods (excepting fuel and alcohol) will now cost the same, no matter where you buy them. She adds, “Also, don’t let anyone fool you into paying more than the MRP, by saying any item is from pre-GST stocks or post. MRP is just that – Maximum Retail Price – that is the most you pay for that item, anywhere in India.”