Interrelations of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan on Thursday took centrestage at the Zee Jaipur LitFest where panelists discussed the upswing in talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan besides India’s ties with its neighbour.

Former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri expressed the need for a “high degree of optimism” in dealing with relations between India and Pakistan, while former Indian diplomat G Parthasarathy called for “a halt in border firing” to ensure the continuation of meaningful dialogues. “You can not have a dialogue when bullets are flying.

Nobody hears the sound of the dialogue everyone hears the sound of the bullet,” Parthsarthi said. Kasuri and Parthasarathy were participating in a session titled “Descent into Chaos-Pakistan on the Brink” at the festival. Ahmed Rashid, an expert on foreign policy who has authored several books about Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, pointed out that both of India’s neighbours had been through a crisis in recent times.

Commenting on the recent elections in Afghanistan, which took place in the midst of a massive Taliban offensive, Rashid said, “Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have dramatically improved and chances are there that Afghanistan may enter into dialogue with the Afghan Taliban.” “It can happen only if Pakistani military push for it because most of the Taliban leadership live in Pakistan.
Pakistani military has to push Talibam into the dialogue,” Rashid said.

He pointed out that the Peshawar attack, which left nearly 150 school children dead last month served as “a horrible warning” galvanising political parties, government, military to come together on a common platform against extremism. “They have established a long term plan which not just deals with military aspects of terrorism but also with education, jobs, madarsa and other such things,” he said.

Four years ago, in April 2011, Deepika Padukone was in London on a film shoot as the ICC Cricket World Cup final played on at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The director gave the crew the day off so they could catch the match on TV–which they did on a giant screen at an Indian restaurant nearby. India secured a very cool six-wicket win over Sri Lanka, and there was some bubbly to celebrate. But the fact that she had to watch it from another continent and later look at visuals of people celebrating on Marine Drive elicited one little reaction from Padukone—”Tch. Damn!”

This time though, as she launches Team India’s jerseys as the face of Nike’s Bleed Blue campaign, shot by photographer Bharat Sikka, Padukone wears her love of sport on her sleeve.

How would you define your ties with cricket?
Whether you like it or not, cricket is a religion in our country and it’s the one thing that brings people across the world together, as one unit. Of course, as an athlete I would like other sports to come up as well, but you can’t take away from the fact that cricket is the most popular sport in the world. Cricket was one of the first sports that I followed beyond badminton. And I have an association with the sport from the time I supported the Bangalore IPL team. That’s when I started understanding the game.

What does Bleed Blue mean to you?
The minute you think of blue, you think of cricket. And Nike has managed to capture that. Now that we have the World Cup coming up, you can actually feel the atmosphere changing, you can feel that people are gearing up. The Bleed Blue campaign is one of those things that really help sort of elevate that entire experience. I think blue equals cricket.

Nowhere do bouquets and brickbats rain as freely as on the heads of our beloved Men in Blue. As a former athlete who knows the value of support and understands the perils of pressure, what’s your advice to fans?
Being an athlete I would say that one thing that we, as supporters, do is expect. There’s too much expectation. Of course, from our side it’s coming from a very, very good place, but we need to find that balance between encouragement and expectation. I think a sportsman’s life, or even a cricket match, is like a film–we’re going out on the field, and we’re going there to win. They want to win as much as we want them to win. But why is it that when they play badly, we bash them? We don’t need to do that. At the end of the day we know for a fact that they want it (victory) more. They know what they’re doing, so let’s not criticise.

How do you look like you’re on the court making shuttles fly five hours a day?
Very recently someone told me, “It’s not fair that you walk around everyday with a set of abs.” It comes from the fact that my entire childhood has been about fitnes–waking up at 4.30-5 in the morning, going for my physical training, which lasted a good two or two and a half hours, then going to school and coming back, then my second session of on-court play, followed by cooling down and stretching. I did that till I was 18. So fitness is a really important part of my life, it’s the only way of being for me. Today, for me, it’s more about maintenance. Thankfully I have a good metabolism and don’t have to restrict myself from a lot of things. This athletic body comes from being an athlete.

How is it working with Bharat Sikka on the Nike campaign?
Bharat is someone I started working with very early on in my career, and we’ve been working with each other on and off ever since. Now I know he’s become even more selective than he was before, so I’m really happy Nike managed to bring him onboard. He’s driven, inspired and emotionally involved–so, he gets the best of everything together.

( As published on

VOGUE )

 

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Washington: Three prominent US lawmakers, including Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, would be travelling with President Barack Obama to attend India’s Republic Day celebrations.

Apart from Bera, Congressmen Joe Crowley and Senator Mark Warner will be part of the delegation travelling this Saturday to New Delhi where they will attend Republic Day events and meet with Indian leaders to discuss strengthening and expanding the US-India strategic partnership.

“As the son of Indian immigrants, I am extremely honoured to be a part of this historic trip to India with the President,” Bera said in a statement.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s trip to the United States last year was a turning point in relations for our countries, and now this trip will be an important opportunity to continue to move the US-India relationship forward,” he said.

Only the third Indian-American to ever serve in Congress, Bera made his first official trip to India in 2013.

Crowley, who served as co-chair of the India Caucus in the 112th and 113th Congresses, is a recognised leader on Indian issues in the House of Representatives.

“It is an honour to join President Obama on this trip and I look forward to robust discussions on how we can open the next chapter in US-India relations,” Crowley said in a statement.

Formed in 1993, the India Caucus is a bipartisan group of members that is dedicated to championing strong ties between the US and India and supporting the Indian-American community.

During his term, Crowley has helped grow the India Caucus to become one of the largest caucuses in the House and initiated several key events, including the first-ever Congressional Diwali celebration in 2013.

Warner, was the 69th Governor of Virginia, holding the office from 2002 to 2006. He is presently a senior Senator from Virginia.

PTI

PTI

Santa Clara, US: In Silicon Valley, it’s never too early to become an entrepreneur. Just ask Indian-origin 13-year-old Shubham Banerjee.

The California eighth-grader has launched a company to develop low-cost machines to print Braille, the tactile writing system for the visually impaired. Tech giant Intel Corp. recently invested in his startup, Braigo Labs.

Shubham built a Braille printer with a Lego robotics kit as a school science fair project last year after he asked his parents a simple question: How do blind people read? “Google it,” they told him.

Shubham then did some online research and was shocked to learn that Braille printers, also called embossers, cost at least $2,000 too expensive for most blind readers, especially in developing countries.

“I just thought that price should not be there. I know that there is a simpler way to do this,” said Shubham, who demonstrated how his printer works at the kitchen table where he spent many late nights building it with a Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit.

Shubham wants to develop a desktop Braille printer that costs around $350 and weighs just a few pounds, compared with current models that can weigh more than nine kilograms. The machine could be used to print Braille reading materials on paper, using raised dots instead of ink, from a personal computer or electronic device.

“My end goal would probably be having most of the blind people … using my Braille printer,” said Shubham, who lives in the Silicon Valley suburb of Santa Clara, just minutes away from Intel headquarters.

After the “Braigo” a name that combines Braille and Lego won numerous awards and enthusiastic support from the blind community, Banerjee started Braigo Labs last summer with an initial $35,000 investment from his dad.

“We as parents started to get involved more, thinking that he’s on to something and this innovation process has to continue,” said his father, Niloy Banerjee, an engineer who works for Intel.

Shubham used the money to build a more sophisticated version of his Lego-based printer using an off-the-shelf desktop printer and a newly released Intel computer chip. The new model, Braigo 2.0, can translate electronic text into Braille before printing. Intel executives were so impressed with Shubham’s printer that in November they invested an undisclosed sum in his startup.

Intel officials believe he’s the youngest entrepreneur to receive venture capital, money invested in exchange for a financial stake in the company.

India now has 70 per cent of the tiger population in the world with the latest assessment estimating 2,226 big cats, up 30 per cent from 1,706 in 2010, show preliminary estimates in “Status of Tigers in India, 2014.”

The largest increase is recorded in the Western Ghats Landscape complex — Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Tamil Nadu — with 776 tigers (up from 402 in 2006). The Mudumalai-Bandipur-Nagarahole-Wayanad complex holds the world’s single largest tiger population currently estimated at over 570 tigers (in 11,000 sq.km of habitat), the report says. Goa now has a persistent tiger presence with three to five animals.

However, the Sunderbans did not report an increase in the numbers because of a low prey base and other factors. Odisha reported a fall in number.

Releasing a summary of figures of the third round of the country-level tiger assessment, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar said here on Tuesday that the increase in numbers was a great achievement and a result of the combined efforts of passionate officers.

With so many tigers, India could send them to countries where there was demand for them. Mr. Javadekar said 9,753 camera traps had been set up and over 100 people were trained to use them.

The latest round of assessment used state-of-the art technology of double sampling, using camera traps to estimate the assessment and distribution of tigers over 3,78,118 sq.km of forests in 47 reserves in 18 States. The only portions which were not scanned were some parts of the north-east and Jharkhand.

Rajesh Gopal, Additional Director and head of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, said the state-of-the art technology meant that there was very little extrapolation based on data. There were 1,540 photos of individual tigers aged above a year and a half for the first time.

Mr. Gopal said tigers from India had been in demand in countries such as Laos and Cambodia.

Tackling of tiger poaching pays off, says official

The tiger population had increased in Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Additional Director and head of the National Tiger Conservation Authority Rajesh Gopal told journalists on Tuesday.

Y.V. Jhala, one of the principal investigators of the report, said this was only a summary and a detailed report would be ready by March-end. Assessment was in progress in the Simlipal and Satpuda tiger reserves.

The population had increased at the rate of six per cent per annum in India from 2006 while the world lost 97 per cent tigers in the last 50 years in 13 countries, Dr. Jhala said. The main reasons for this increase were effective tackling of poaching, and the positive attitude of the wildlife services.

“We were in for a huge surprise as we didn’t expect the numbers to be above 1,800 or 1,900,” said Dr. Jhala. While 1,540 tigers were actually photographed, the rest were estimated based on this. However, for long term survival, the movement of tigers was essential and corridors between forests would be the next conservation goal, he added. The priority should now change to landscape scale management, he added.

As many as 27 people have tested positive for the H1N1 virus in Telangana and are presently undergoing treatment at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad while 35 cases are under observation for suspected influenza.

Dr K Narasimhulu, coordinator for swineflu at Gandhi Hospital, said they have received four fresh cases of swineflu today from various private hospitals.

“Till yesterday, we had 23 patients undergoing treatment in our hospital. We have received four more cases today. At the same time, 35 suspected cases including 10 children are under observation,” Narasimhulu said.
So far, seven persons have succumbed to the deadly disease in Telangana since January 1 this year, the official said. Health officials here maintained that swine flu disease this year is not as virulent as it was in 2009 but high risk groups (those suffering from different serious ailments and low immunity) need to remain alert.

In 2014, 88 cases of swine flu were reported in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Last year, 11 people reportedly died of the disease.

Maoists in Chhattisgarh have dropped pamphlets in several areas of Bastar region, opposing US President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to India.

According to police, the rebels have called for boycott of Obama’s visit and a nationwide bandh on January 26.

“The pamphlets in which the outlawed CPI (Maoist) have opposed the visit of US President Obama to India have been recovered from the restive places of Narayanpur and Kanker districts,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (state’s intelligence wing) Deepanshu Kabra told PTI.

Central security agencies have been informed about it while police have been put on alert in the insurgency-affected region, Kabra said.
The pamphlets released in the name of Naxal’s Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee spokesperson Gudsa Usendi with heading ‘Obama Wapas Jao’ (Obama go back) carry several anti-national messages and contents.

In the pamphlets, the ultras have also said that they will burn effigies of Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the US President’s visit to the country.

Obama will be on three-day visit to India from January 25 during which he will also attend the ‘Republic Day’ parade in New Delhi.