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BIMSTEC and its slight ineffectiveness Fourth BIMESTEC summit has come to end and its press release focus was more on connectivity unlike the media reports which reiterates on terrorism. Out of 16 sector specific commitments made, only terrorism has been highlighted in the news. Without being driven to wards single perspective instinct as opined by late Hans Rosling, analysis should be on over all commitments made by the member states and we shall do it. Realizing those commitments would take an active-executive department established on multi-lateral level. It should comprise academicians, bureaucrats, technical assistance and other specialists from all the member states. This will bring diversity and overall requirements of member states into the policies which will be drafted. It is vivid in the press release that without any exception, there is need for creation of separate department level interaction and creation of sector specific working secretariat to achieve the ...
When Dictator meets Democrat -Vatsala Mishra The recent meeting in Singapore has made the entire world awestruck. The reactions coming out straight from the White House are not normal. In his term, nobody has seen Trump falling head over heels for any leader. The kind of remarks Trump made post-meeting is not the world saw coming up. So what shall we assume? Did Trump really got hoodwinked or is he just being pretentious? If we talk about the deal, one could easily see that Trump did not make any extraordinary attempts to de- nuclearize North Korea. Instead, North Korea made the best use of the opportunity and not only convinced U.S to provide securitization, but also made him stop the military exercises with South Korea. Choson Simbo, North Korea’s propaganda voice, as published in Tokyo has said that one of the essential condition of denuclearization is termination of American strategic commitments which includes provision of nuclear umbrella to Republic of Korea, and...
Islam is historically started from the Quran which is a compilations of revelations to Prophet Mohammed during the years 610 CE to 632 CE. It was not written by prophet himself but has been orally transferred to his followers and later has been complied by third khalifa with the help of direct receivers of sermons from Mohammed. A follower of Islam is bound to accept the shahadah which says “there is no god, but god, and Prophet Mohammed is the messenger of the god”. As religion it views world as tawahid , meaning the unity of god and unity of his creation. Its fundamentals consists of ilm (Knowledge), adl (distributive social justice), ijtihad (sustained intellectual reasoning). Din is “way of life” and it is considered to be different in different parts of the world. It emphasizes that all exists shares a basic unity and partakes of a common sacredness, all is interconnected. This new religion has conquered the remaining Arab world which was politically weak. Its expansion i...
US Electorates and Public Sphere Dr. Craig L. Dicker - the department of Public affairs US embassy , New Delhi visited Christ University to speak on the US electoral process with special reference to 2016 presidential elections . This session was held in Christ University, Bengaluru on 2 August 2016 , by the Department of International studies and History Dr Craig began with quoting the Indian Express’ article which said that the candidate who has secured the majority in the opinion polls 2 weeks after nominations would eventually win the elections. From the article written in The Hindu “it can be seen that Mrs. Clinton is leading 2%. ” We have to wait for the November 8 th to see if this holds on. Explaining the electoral process, he divided the districts into democratic strong holds, republican strong holds and flip sates. Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Virginia were considered as major flip states whose vote bank plays a major role in...
Isnt it an irony that we encourage the system Which trains students to write exam rather than to uderstand and pave a path towards solving the problems of society? What is more irony is that the demand for such system is high and schools which offer coaching to pass exam. Ghandis philosophy of education says that it should bring a holistic development. Rosseau in his "Emile" opined that the development and education is by the senses and describes it to in three stages. These senses are not be restricted to childs development but also for the societal development. One would not achive sustainable skill by acquiring knowledge but by building wisdom. This wisdom is cultivated in universities which try to question and implicate the known knowledge into the real time societal problems and develop action research with inter disciplinary approach. Never to foregt that the base of the latter mentioned change lest it comes with the change in the attitude. It is of course everyth...
Is India Ready for Investment Culture? Today, it has become a new trend to invest in portfolio or share markets. Because, private companies are on the run and the environment of entrepreneurship is high. The days of savings in bank for fixed interest, the days of living from your fixed and active income are slowly fading away. Even ads which always catch our interest showcasing commodities have shifted their course and started dressing in investment brokers’ costumes. All this shows the growth of capitalism, note that I say this in a positive sense. Books such as Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” Ashwin Shangi and Sunil Dalal’s “13 steps to Bloody Good Wealth,” encourage readers to diversify their income into active and passive. This is the term used by Kiosaki referring to income earned from service and income earned from stocks. But, Is India ready to get into such markets? Warren Buffet says “One should be greedy when others are fearful and when others are greedy,...
Appeal not to Strain your wards, please Rather provide them a required support so that they unveil their own potential. What do you mean by gaining independence and equal opportunity? Does liberty, equality make any sense for Indian youth? Did Indians really get them after independence? Does an individual has freedom to vote with his/her own rational choice? Can he/she decide what kind of life they would live? Has the equal opportunity made people to up their own ideas into the market and make their own world or brand? May be, these questions have been answered by western countries where the idea of individualism has taken its present shape with its rooted anchored centuries back. But, in India freedom for an individual seems to be that, a primordial loyalty seeking power seats are available to everyone and they can compete to obtain the same authority. To put into a context, a boy/girl will be considered successful if and only if he/she gets into top institutions or worst...
Education should be without Stress A positive stress may be allowed Schools have been reopened! Students who are comfortable with the old schools would remain and others would have changed their schools. It appears to be a simple, accepted norm of every academic year, but it has an unaddressed fissure somewhere in the limbo. Unsatisfied with the schools quality and outcome, parents move their wards from one to one. Sadly, most of them search for institutes which provide over burdening training for competitive exams. It has become absurd logic from some senseless educational institutions which provide entrance exam coaching right from upper primary asking for stressful memorization of concepts rather than understanding the beauty of the existing knowledge. To our disadvantage, they claim to be the top notch institutions. What stings us here is the amount of stress a student would undergo. This is an outright de linking of education which actually is to be underst...
Went for a Paan but got a Quran Vatsala Mishra It was 10.30 in the night and four of us have decided to have a paan after a heavy dinner. We thought about all the varieties, chocolate, rose, mango, vanilla, strawberry, blueberry but got fixed on Maghai paan which is the regular one and yes, cheap within the menu. As we approached the shop, our eyes, fell on the stall opposite side of the road saying free Quran . Now, as I wanted to read it and inculcate the analytical ideas into my research, I couldn’t stop myself. Not just me, everyone was dragged by their own conscience. I don’t say it was some energy coming out of holy Quran, it was actually the free book deal which dragged us. Approaching the stall, we asked for Quran. The person immediately agreed to give as many as we want and asked for 15 minutes to talk. As we are taking free books, we thought it’s fair enough to give 15 minutes in exchange. But, this step had dragged me and mainly my friend into deep discussi...
#Metoo … Will this change social behavior in a larger context? Saw someone close to you post #Metoo? Are you angry towards your society for its unethical behavior and the pain caused? Do you feel like changing the society by liking the status and commenting your support? Do you feel that you are a part of greater voice? #Metoo campaign has obviously given voice to many women and surprisingly to men also. But, will these voices make any change in the behavior of the society and eliminate the harassment experienced by women in particular? If these questions are asked to any person when the campaign is at its peak, answer would be “Hell Yes!”. But the same question asked after few months, result would be different. Online campaigns such as #Metoo drags youngsters, in particular, urban audience. While, it can be thought as the initial step towards the societal change, it is far away from holistic achievement of social change. Let’s have a little thought on this issue. Make an ass...
Rising Islamic extremism: India under protection of its diversity? “Islam is a religion of peace” … is the phrase often stressed by moderate Muslims across the world and ironically, Quran itself provides way for violence contradicting the appeasement. Dissidents, heretics of the same religion strongly opine the latter and say Islam is a violent religion. May be, Sammeul P. Huntington was correct in predicting that the future conflict would not be on the political ideologies but among the various civilisations divided by cultures mainly divided between Christian west and Islam. Looking back at the rise of ISIS, its rhetoric and the deadly attacks by the latter , it might prompt us to completely agree that that predicted future is not far away. Literary works such as Heretic written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian Muslim who is greatly influenced by western liberalism opines that the entire Islam is a problem and west should unite to find a way to confront it. She doesn't...
The Muslim Women bill, 2017 – A necessary bill to be passed A Draft to strengthen the legal protection of fundamental Rights and uphold the sanctity of the holy Quran In the wake of government considering the ordinance route to criminalize talaq - e - biddat (according to media sources), let’s have a look at the long awaited, yet to be passed bill where this article opines that it lies in the purview of the holy Quran and does not transgress it. M. J Akbar, Minister of State for External Affairs on December 28, 2017 in Lok Sabha says - “…The age before the birth of Islam is known as period of Jahiliyyah in Islamic history. Everyone knows the word Jahiliyyah, it is ignorance. Abdullah Yusuf Ali gives an example of Jahiliyyah and says, there used to be some people who would use the name of the God and commit crime against women. And, it is strictly prohibited in Quran Shareef not to do such things. But, it seems that, even after 1400 years, some people a...