Category: Uncategorized

20-year-old Irene Dkhar of Meghalaya crowned Miss Northeast 2022

Irene Dkhar of Meghalaya was crowned Miss Northeast after she won the hearts of the judges in the final round, raising the issue of mental health. She took home a cash prize of Rs 1.5 lakh.

Dkhar, 20, said she aspires to be a psychologist.

In the last round all the 14 finalists from the Northeastern states were asked what social issue would they take up given the opportunity to discuss it with world leaders.

Replying to the question, Dkhar said she would want to discuss the issue of the mental health of the youth.

“It is high time to fight against mental illness and anxiety,” she told the judges, winning their hearts.

Eshanee Hatimuria from Assam and Dyna Jomo from Arunachal Pradesh became first and second runners-up and received Rs 1 lakh and Rs 70,000, respectively.

Eshanee was awarded ‘Miss Talent’, while Lika Chophy of Nagaland was crowned ‘Queen of Hearts’. Mannasha Devi Sapam of Manipur was awarded ‘Miss Beautiful Skin’.

The final round had two winners from the state-level pageants from all the Northeastern states, except for Tripura, which was represented by only one contestant.

This was the first edition of the pageant organised by the North East Beauty Pageant Organisation (NEBPO) and sponsored by the Nagaland government.

It was held at the Cultural Hall in Kohima on Thursday.

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Manish, Vaidehi win at Fenesta Open

In the girls’ under-18 final, Madhurima Sawant, the second seed, was bouncing on her feet as she stroked her way past Suhitha Maruri 6-3 6-2.

Manish Sureshkumar and Vaidehi Chaudhari on Sunday clinched the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively at the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship.

At the DLTA complex, where the cool weather provided the competitors with the right ambience to play good tennis, both Vaidehi and Manish played solidly to clinch their finals. Vaidehi cruised past Sai Samhitha Chamarthi 6-2 6-0. It was disappointing for Sai Samhitha as she had been in good touch through the last week. The essence in a final is raising the level of play, which Vaidehi did with finesse.

Vaidehi has been playing tennis since the age of nine and waiting for the right breaks. Winning the Fenesta Open is a big thrust to her career as she has been hitting around in ITF events to make it big. “This is my first Fenesta Open title and I am very happy,” she said.

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Ponniyin Selvan puts identity and history of Cholas at centre of primetime debates

A new week, a new controversy centred on Hinduism has erupted. The latest victim of heated debates on primetime television is famous filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s latest movie Ponniyin Selvan — 1, the film adaptation of Kalki’s revered historical fiction novel. 

The film itself has put a smile on the faces of everyone associated with it, on account of its remarkable success, having collected almost Rs 350 crore globally. It has been appreciated for its economical writing, striking performances, and above all, for achieving the impossible task of condensing Kalki’s novel of five volumes — which, marrying history and fiction, presents a compelling story about the rise of Raja Raja Cholan/Arunmozhi Varman (played by Jayam Ravi).  

Considered South India’s most powerful king, Raja Raja Cholan is revered for his able administration, striking territorial expansions, and the creation of timeless temple architecture — including the famous Brihadheeswara Temple in Thanjavur. 

It’s the identity of this king that has now come into question a thousand years after his lifetime — his 29-year reign having ended with his demise in 1014 AD, coincidentally, exactly one millennium before political colours changed in contemporary India. That seeps into the way primetime anchors, political personalities and social media influencers are setting up a heated discourse around him centering on one question: whether Raja Raja Cholan was a Hindu.

Those on the right are celebrating him for being a ‘Hindu’ king — no doubt, ascribing to him present definitions of ‘Hinduness’. And notable personalities from Tamil Nadu, including Kamal Haasan and Vetrimaaran, have weighed in on the side of a historically more nuanced argument: that the notion of ‘Hinduism’, as defined today in an all-pervading sense, did not exist during the king’s time and that those who are projecting that idea backwards are falling prey to the fallacy of presentism. A more accurate label, they say, would be Shaivism — the worship of Shiva — which has an ancient and robust non-Vedic lineage in Tamil lands.

With the resistance to the ‘Hinduism’ label seeming to be a response to perceived ‘saffronisation’, it is a difficult debate to settle — and an unfortunate one to envelop a film in. But there is a history to this: a few years ago, a furore erupted over the religious identity of Tamil poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar after he was depicted in saffron robes in a tweet by the BJP state unit. Some see a systematic politicisation here. Others are offended by the resistance to it. Everything, it seems, depends on where you stand in the political spectrum. In this post-truth era, there are no facts — only beliefs that strengthen your worldview and solidify your identity.

Loving documentary of fabled good time

Ponniyin Selvan 1 is a loving documentation of a fabled time when the rivers in our land ran full, when the earth had not been plundered. There are lessons to be learned from how life was lived then, and yet, it is a marker of our times that a film intended to celebrate a glorious period in our history has instead resulted in squabbles over an identity nuance the film doesn’t exactly concern itself with. 

Was Raja Raja Chola a Hindu? Was he a Shaivite? Will they even care after the next big release?

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Jehan Daruvala becomes the first Indian to win a Formula 2 race

With 31 points from this weekend, the Red Bull-backed racer has jumped to fifth in the F2 season standings with 126 points

India’s Jehan Daruvala raced to his first feature race win in the FIA Formula 2 Championship here on Sunday to make it a double podium weekend for himself.

After three tough rounds, Jehan finally got the car to challenge for podiums and he did not disappoint. The Prema driver had finished third in the sprint race on Saturday.

Jehan, who was top-3 in the standings at one stage, had slipped well out of top five.

With 31 points from this weekend, he has jumped to fifth in the standings with 126 points. The final round will be held in Abu Dhabi in November and he still has a shot at finishing third in the championship. The Indian racer is into his third and probably last season in Formula 2. He recently tested a Formula 1 car with McLaren but a race seat for next season looks tough at this point.

On Sunday, the 23-year-old started sixth on the grid but used a mix of strategy, race craft and tyre management to capitalise on a safety car and red flag-interrupted race and clinch a comfortable win around the hallowed ‘Temple of Speed’.

The win was Jehan’s first this season. It was also his sixth top-three finish at Monza and second win at the track after the Indian won there last year.

“What a weekend,” said Jehan.

“It’s been a long time coming. We’ve had the win taken away from us for one reason or another on more than one occasion this year. But we’ve kept our heads down, kept believing, kept pushing and we’ve finally done it. And what a venue to do it at too! Monza is up there with one of my all-time favourite tracks and standing on the top step of this incredible podium, out over the main straight with the Indian national anthem playing out, feels so, so special.” Jehan made a good getaway, but starting on the dirty side of the grid got bogged down after the initial start.

Nevertheless, he was at sixth as the field went through the first chicane but lost a place to Juri Vips as he lifted in anticipation of a safety car after an opening-lap shunt involving Ralph Boschung and Theo Pourchaire.

The safety car wasn’t deployed until later, however, and Jehan was forced to defend from Jack Doohan on the run to the second Roggia chicane.

The pair went wheel-to-wheel in the braking zone with Logan Sargeant making it three-wide into the chicane. Doohan, with Jehan on the inside and Sargeant on the outside, had nowhere to go and ended up colliding with Jehan.

The Red Bull-backed racer, however, suffered only minor damage and carried on as the safety car was finally deployed.

Racing resumed at the end of Lap 5 with Jehan running seventh. But a crash for Calan Williams at the Ascari chicane brought the safety car back out on Lap 8.

Jehan seized the opportunity to pit, with the perfectly timed stop, eventually moving him up to third once his other rivals had pitted.

That left him perfectly placed to battle for the win as the red flag was deployed to allow track workers to clear away Williams’ stranded Trident and carry out repairs to the barriers. 

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‘Adopt a TB patient’ drive finds mitras

There was an enrollment of more than a lakh patients since the announcement on Sep 9

The Health Ministry’s unique “adopt a TB-patient” (Ni-kshay Mitras) initiative — probably the only one-of-its-kind in the world — announced on September 9 saw the enrollment of 1,78,443 TB patients and 1667 Ni-kshay Mitras (donor) till Sunday evening.

The programme was brought in to fill the critical “community’’ elements into India’s fight towards the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan aimed at eliminating TB by 2025.

“Although the efforts of the government are yielding significant results, the community and the institutions in the society could play a critical role in filling the gaps and addressing the social determinants, thereby contributing to the national goal,’’ said a Health Ministry official.

He added that for the effective engagement of the community in the path towards ending TB in India, the Health Ministry was implementing the community support to TB patients – the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan.

Ni-kshay Mitra (Donor) for this programme includes co-operative societies, corporates, elected representatives, individuals, institutions, non-governmental organisations, political parties and partners who can support by adopting the health facilities (for individual donor), blocks/urban wards/districts/States for accelerating the response against TB to complement the government efforts, as per the district-specific requirements in coordination with the district administration.

According to the Health Ministry the State and the district administration would support Ni-kshay Mitras in prioritising the districts and in providing guidance on the critical gap analysis and district-specific needs.

The support provided to the patient under this initiative is in addition to the free diagnostics, free drugs and Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana provided by the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) to all the TB patients notified from both the public and the private sector.

The Health Ministry said that Ni-kshay Mitra would provide additional support to all the on-treatment The TB patients who had given consent for support, in the selected health facilities /blocks/urban wards/districts/States.

“Only individual Ni-kshay Mitra can choose the patients from a given health facility. The other Ni-kshay Mitras have to choose the entire geographical unit (blocks/urban wards/districts/States),’’ noted a Health Ministry official.

He added that the type of additional assistance that may be provided by the Ni-kshay Mitra to on-treatment TB patients who had given consent for support shall include — nutritional support, additional investigations for the diagnosed TB patients, vocational support and additional nutritional supplements. The minimum period of commitment for providing the additional support to the TB patient would be one year.

The Ministry said that the initiative would increase the active involvement of society in the fight against tuberculosis.

“This activity aims at increasing awareness among the public regarding tuberculosis and the involvement of the community in supporting the treatment cascade shall also help in the reduction of the stigma. The provision of additional support to the TB patient shall also result in the reduction of the out-of-pocket expenditure for the family of the TB patient. Ultimately improved nutrition for the TB patient shall result in better treatment outcomes,’’ the Ministry explained in its guidance document.

India has the world’s highest tuberculosis (TB) burden, with an estimated 26 lakh people contracting the disease and approximately 4 lakh people dying from it every year. The economic burden of TB in terms of the loss of lives, income and workdays is also substantial. TB usually affects the most economically productive age group of society resulting in a significant loss of working days thereby pushing the TB patients further into the vortex of poverty.

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India, Bangladesh ink first water sharing pact in 25 years; PM Hasina flags Teesta

PM Modi said there were 54 rivers that pass through the Indo-Bangladesh border, and have been linked to the livelihood of the people of the two countries for centuries

India and Bangladesh on September 6 signed an interim water sharing agreement for Kushiyara river, the first such pact since the signing of the Ganga water treaty in 1996.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina noted that India and Bangladesh share 54 rivers and sought early conclusion of the Teesta water sharing agreement, which has been hanging fire for more than a decade due to opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

India and Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding on sharing of waters of Kushiyara river, a pact that will benefit people residing in southern Assam and the Sylhet division of Bangladesh.

Also Read | A lot is at stake for India-Bangladesh ties

“Today, we have signed an important agreement on sharing water of the Kushiyara river. This will benefit southern Assam in India and Sylhet region in Bangladesh,” Mr. Modi told reporters after the talks with Ms. Hasina.

He said there were 54 rivers that pass through the Indo-Bangladesh border, and have been linked to the livelihood of the people of the two countries for centuries.

“These rivers, folk tales about them, folk songs, have also been witness to our shared cultural heritage,” Mr. Modi said.

Ms. Hasina shared the sentiments expressed by Mr. Modi and also stressed the need to have water-sharing agreements for other rivers as well.

“I recall that the two countries have resolved many issues in the spirit of friendship and cooperation. We hope that all outstanding issues, including Teesta water sharing agreement, will be concluded as an early date,” Ms. Hasina said at a joint media interaction at the Hyderabad House.

Also Read | ‘India should join hands with Bangladesh to create peace in Chittagong’

“There are 54 rivers. As long as Prime Minister Modi is here, India and Bangladesh will resolve all these issues,” she said.

Mr. Modi also said he and Ms. Hasina had a fruitful conversation on enhancing cooperation in relation to flood mitigation.

“India has been sharing flood-related data with Bangladesh on a real-time basis and we have also extended the period of data sharing,” Mr. Modi said.

Earlier, Ms. Hasina was accorded a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhawan where Mr. Modi extended a warm welcome to her.

She said the two nations were also working to develop stronger economic ties to fulfill the basic needs of the people of the two countries.

“Our main aim is to develop the economy and fulfill the basic needs of our people. With friendship you can solve any problem. So we always do that,” Ms. Hasina said.

After the bilateral talks, Mr. Modi hosted a one-on-one lunch for the visiting dignitary at the Hyderabad House.

India and Bangladesh had signed the Ganga water treaty in 1996 for sharing waters of the mighty river for a period of 30 years. The treaty was signed by the then prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and Ms. Hasina.

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Laser-guided anti-tank missiles successfully test-fired from Arjun tank

The missile locks and tracks the targets with the help of laser designation to ensure precision hit accuracy.

India on Thursday successfully test-fired laser-guided Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) from Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun at KK Ranges near Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.

Defence sources said the indigenously developed laser-guided ATGMs were successfully flight tested by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Army with the support of Armoured Corps Centre and School (ACC&S), Ahmednagar.

The missiles hit with precision and successfully destroyed the targets at both minimum and maximum ranges. Telemetry systems deployed for the mission have recorded the satisfactory flight performance of the missiles.

The missile has been developed with multi-platform launch capability by Pune-based Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) in association with High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) and Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun.

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United colours of Berklee Indian Ensemble

Shuruaat, the Boston-based multi-cultural collective’s debut album, tracks its decade-long journey across genres

“Are you jet-lagged?” asks Annette Philip. “Not at all. How can I be when I am in this musically charged environment,” replies Shreya Ghoshal. “Actually I see myself in these youngsters and wish I had the opportunity to be at such a place. It’s so much fun and an open and inclusive space to learn music. You are all blessed,” she smiles, looking at the students attending the residency that she conducted at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2017.

The singer is now part of the Berklee Indian Ensemble’s debut album  Shuruaat, which marks the music collective’s first decade together. ‘Sundari Pennae’, one of the tracks in the album, was originally sung by Shreya for composer D. Imman for the Tamil film  Oru Oorla Rendu Raja. Presented in a grunge-inspired version, the song, recorded during her residency, fuses progressive rock, konnakol and jazz over intricate Indian classical rhythms. “Till date, it is the most collaboratively re-arranged cover that the ensemble has produced,” says Annette, the first Indian musician to be appointed as a faculty at Berklee, and the founder of the ensemble.

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What started out as a class in 2011 is today among the well-known global acts to emerge from Boston that organically transitioned into a 11-member professional band in 2021. It hosts productions, headlines international music festivals, and creates YouTube content. Their success on YouTube can be traced to their interpretation of A.R. Rahman’s ‘Jiya Jale’ (from  Dil Se). The ensemble’s version became viral, garnering over 50 million views. It led to a sold-out concert of new arrangements of Rahman’s music, featuring 109 Berklee musicians onstage at Boston Symphony Hall. This also paved the way for the ensemble to work with some of the biggest names in South Asian music.

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Historic day for India as Cochin Shipyard delivers first Indigenous aircraft carrier to Navy

Scripting history, the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) handed over India’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) to the Indian Navy on Thursday. The aircraft carrier, which was designed by the Navy’s in-house Directorate of Naval Design and built by the CSL, will be christened after INS Vikrant, India’s first aircraft carrier, which played a crucial role in 1971 war against Pakistan. With the delivery of Vikrant, India has joined a select group of nations having the niche capability to indigenously design and build an Aircraft Carrier.

Sources said the vessel will be commissioned and formally inducted into the Indian Navy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Independence day. The Navy is planning to make the induction ceremony a mega event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.

The 262 m long aircraft carrier has a full displacement of close to 45,000 tonnes which is much larger and more advanced than her predecessor. The ship is powered by four gas turbines totalling 88 MW power and has a maximum speed of 28 Knots. Built at an overall cost of Rs. 20,000 crores, the IAC has been built in three phases of a contract between the Ministry of Defence and the CSL, concluded in May 2007, December 2014 and October 2019 respectively.

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I2U2 summit: UAE to invest $2 billion to develop integrated food parks across India

The grouping is known as ‘I2U2’ with “I” standing for India and Israel and “U” for the US and the UAE.

The United Arab Emirates will invest $2 billion to develop a series of integrated food parks across India under the framework of the four-nation grouping ‘I2U2’.

The decision was announced after the leaders of the grouping — Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan — held the first virtual summit.

A joint statement said the I2U2 leaders’ meeting focussed on food security crisis and clean energy and that they discussed innovative ways to ensure longer-term, more diversified food production and food delivery systems.

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