Using pectin as an edible coating can increase the shelf life of mozzarella cheese and very few amounts of data are available subjecting to fresh cheese. Banana is an important tropical fruit all over the world. Production of bananas is around 102028.17 thousand tons globally out of which India accounts for 29.19% in which Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka are the leading states.

Although the fruit is mostly consumed fresh but can be processed into different types of products at small scale industries, that includes chips, smoothies, ice cream, dried fruits, bread, flour. It’s also used as an ingredient for functional foods.

Nowadays, banana peel being considered waste is discarded into landfills without using potential materials present in it. Banana peels are a pectin-rich material (ranging from 15.89% to 24.08%) depending on the type and variety of bananas. 40% weight of fresh banana fruit is banana peel. Pectin is found in the cell wall and middle lamellae of all plants and is a high molecular weight carbohydrate polymer. It is an amorphous and colloidal polysaccharide, which is the backbone of a (1,4) galacturonic acid. Pectin is a Greek word that comes from PEKTOS which means firm and hard. Pectin can form a gel under a certain temperature, its gelling properties mostly depend on the “Degree of methylation”.

Generally, pectin is classified into three groups- i) Pectin more than 75% of methylation, ii) Pectin less than 75% of methylation and, iii) Pectin without methyl of esterification. 

In this present era of food technology, an edible coating is gaining popularity and value. The idea of edible coating is revolutionary as it helps to provide a semi-permeable barrier to gases and water vapour and it aids in controlling water loss from the products. The protective functionality of edible coating can be upgraded by the addition of few more ingredients such as antioxidants, antimicrobial, etc. There has been huge damage caused to the environment due to the use of polymer obtained from non-renewable and nonbiodegradable resources.

When we focus on available data the Municipal solid waste generated in the USA is 19.3 million tonnes. The most common method for packaging waste disposal is landfilling which is accompanied by recycling, composting, and incineration. Polysaccharides are the most suitable substances for packaging material. It complies with all environmental concerns and can be metabolized by the human body, making them perfectly suitable for use as an edible coating. Polysaccharides are substances present in abundance and have a relatively low cost for production. Pectin is one of the most significant polysaccharides with increasing demand. 

Considering the data in 2011 the total demand was around 140-160 metric tons whereas production was limited to 45-50 Metric tons. This is an indication of consumer and food industries joining hands to achieve better environmental conditions. The cheese industry being evolved as a global business requires proper research focusing upon few points such as increasing shelf life of cheese, product safety, and quality. Traditionally for cheese preservation, a coating and packaging are used acting as an individual packaging material. There has been no study done on Pectin being used as an edible coating over mozzarella cheese. The shelf life of Mozzarella cheese is approximately 5 to 7 days and consistent efforts are being made in direction of increasing its shelf life.  

Pre-treatment of banana peel- 

The banana peel was cleaned and washed under running tap water. It was weighed 500 gm for each treatment and blended. Peels were separated based on their type and cut into slices to increase the surface area for a faster drying rate. It was then soaked in 0.5% metabisulphite solution for an hour to prevent discoloration and browning of peels, peels were placed in a hot air oven at 65°C for 24 hours followed by cooling at room temperature. Followed by grinding of dried peels in an 80 meshes sieve size and put in an airtight glass container. 

Pectin Isolation from banana 

 Procedure-  

Pectin was isolated based on the best optimization result obtained by using Response Surface Methodology. 40 gm of homogenized banana peel was taken in 500 ml of a previously sterilized beaker, add 500 ml of distilled water (1:10) .To this mixture, add 21 ml of 0.5 N Hydrochloric acid (pH 2.5). Continuously stir the mixture for 2.5 hours at 90°C with the help of a glass rod in a hot plate. The suspension is then allowed to cool down at normal room temperature and is filtered through a muslin cloth (1mm mesh size).To the filtrate, add the same amount of ethanol (absolute) and left overnight for precipitation of pectin.  The next day, discard the supernatant and centrifuge at 5000 rpm for 15 min at temperature  5°C to obtain pectin. The flocculant was then skimmed off and the resulted pectin was dehydrated using a hot air oven to achieve a constant weight. A sealed container is used to store dried pectin to prevent moisture absorption. Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of pectin isolation from the banana peel The pectin yield can be calculated using the following expression:     

?????? ????? (%) = ????? ?????? – ??????? ?????? × ??? ÷ ?????? ?????  

Edible coating of cheese- 

Different methods such as spraying, brushing, dipping, and electrostatic spraying can be used in the edible coating of cheese. Here brushing was applied for pectin coating over mozzarella cheese. Very few studies have been carried out on the coating of pectin. Suspension of Coating was prepared by dissolving 3 gm of pectin .2.81 gm of starch in 50 ml of distilled water followed by 2.11 gm of glycerol (plasticizer),1.25 gm polyvinyl alcohol, and 1% of citric acid and stir for about 15 minutes on a magnetic stirrer at 90°C, while at 80 degrees Celsius corn starch was gelatinized. After 15 minutes, the solution is allowed to degas. A transparent suspension was obtained . Thereafter, with the help of a brush, the coating was applied to cheese cubes and kept a coated cheese in the refrigerator at 4°C for its shelf life study. 

Yield and shelf life of mozzarella cheese (Coated and Uncoated)- 

The yield of cheese obtained from 1 litre of milk was about 250 grams. On the first day, there was no growth of yeast and mold, coliform and uncoated cheese, on the day seventh there was a growth of 2.3×10² CFU/gm of yeast, and mold count occur over uncoated cheese. On the fourteenth day, the yeast and mold growth count over uncoated cheese was 3.5×10⁴ CFU/gm and no growth of yeast and mold was observed on coated cheese. In all the days no growth of coliform was observed. On day 21,  2.3×10² CFU/gm of yeast and mold growth occur over coated cheese and on the 28^thday, 4.5×10⁴ CFU/gm of yeast and mold were observed in uncoated cheese. At last, it concluded that pectin coating over cheese extends its shelf life compared to uncoated. 

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A glance at the Kashmiri actor Saqib Wani can give you visual details at one go like his long hair, sharp features and ever-smiling face. However, as you walk with him for a while, you realize his potential and if you see on the screen, needless to say, that you turn his fan the very next moment. It was a hard nut to crack especially when he was dealing with the stereotypes he found around his life and the dearth of platforms to launch himself. However, without reiterating, he thought of turning the table and bringing out a path for himself. 

He took the plunge into the acting world and with his incredible skills, he was able to impress the youths in the valley. His latest venture is the Zee Music song called ‘Lolan’, which seems to have stolen countless hearts in the valley and on the web landscape. Millions of views on his song on digital platforms bear testimony to this fact. The music of the song composed and sung by Rasiq Imtiyaz Khan is soothing and it has its own melody.  While he stood there in the song as an actor along with directing himself.

All his efforts did not go astray, as he was overwhelmed with the incredible response which he got from different directions of the world. It was his maiden venture as a director and his debut seemed to have even flourished the top music brand – Zee Music as well. As they say, Rome was not built in a day and so is the case of Saqib. He was inclined towards the acting and creative world ever since he was young. He soon started working after reaching adolescence for national TV channels like Colors and soon was able to make his mark with his impressive role in the Netflix popular series – Bard of Blood produced under King Khan’s production banner – Khan’s RedChillies Entertainment.

Being a Kashmiri has its own challenges, feels Saqib, especially when someone from the Valley wants a break in Bollywood. However, with his stubbornness to sustain in this industry, he never felt like quitting at any point of time and finally made a plunge in the industry. He gives the credit of his success, particularly the Netflix series, to his mother who inculcated all the values to sustain even in tough conditions. For securing a job, he completed his MBA from University of Kashmir, hence after convincing for his acting career, he headed to Tinsel Town and now he is a great actor in the making after learning from legends like Irrfan Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and all. And now, it’s no looking back for him!

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New Delhi-based Cyptovedas, an asset for cryptocurrency and blockchain content to educate future generations about the whole Blockchain and Cryptocurrency concept.

When searching for the best approaches to earn money online, cryptocurrency presumably doesn’t hit your brain. But it should. Cryptocurrency is one of the quickest developing advanced resources. Supported by the blockchain and empowered for exchanging, it adequately offers various methods for anybody hoping to make decent money online. There are various manners by which you can bring in cash with cryptocurrency, some of which don’t require you to invest anything other than your time and efforts.

Cryptovedas is an ed-tech platform for individuals who need to find out about cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Cryptovedas wants to play a vital part in driving the cross-country development towards borderless financial services and digital assets adoption. It aims to introduce 50 million Indian users to the cryptocurrency areas.

In a year that was overwhelmed by COVID-19, 2020 saw worldwide fintech interest in blockchain/cryptocurrency arrive at a great sign of $2.8 billion, as per a KPMG report. The virtual asset industry has developed consistently in recent years with the launch of new products and asset classes.

With Cryptovedas, we need to arm clients with the information required to explore crypto markets. As India’s biggest Cryptocurrency Education Platform, we believe we have to give individuals the tools expected to open the opportunities of advanced assets, and we have trust that Cryptovedas will be essentially significant in accomplishing our objective of onboarding millions of Indian crypto investors, says Abhishek Bhandari.

The flood in the ubiquity of cryptocurrency in India can be followed back to mid-2017 when items like Bitcoin and Ethereum were gaining footing by promising better yields than customary investment opportunities and advantages like caution and client independence.

Abhishek perceived how the data hole was getting numerous investors from cryptocurrencies. These elements and the proceeded with whiz around cryptocurrencies prompted launch of Cryptovedas, a learning platform that made easy-to-understand and verified courses about cryptocurrencies available to investors and readers.

I have engaged in Blockchain and Virtual space since 2014. Over the time of 7 years, it’s anything but an amazing experience. From being a student of international business, I began my profession by assisting numerous with learning Blockchain and its use case, now helping many from unique Platform www.cryptovedas.com to interface industry specialists and enthusiasts, says Abhishek Bhandari.

The Cryptovedas platform will give learning material as guides and articles, online courses, interactive lectures, and free quizzes, explicitly customized to all levels of crypto investors, from fledgling to cutting-edge market participants. Topics on the platforms will incorporate blockchain, digital currency, exchanging, and security.

Innovation through blockchain—the basic specialized design of cryptocurrencies, including the first since ever, bitcoin—has been especially come late, with the technology applied to tackle issues in medical services, security, and money, among different areas. Blockchain permits clients to store information in a protected advanced record that is shared across a network of computers and continuously ceased, which ordinarily makes it impossible for any part of that information or data to be changed.

Abhishek’s vision is to build a strong community and to make the industry entry available to many. Many individuals seek to grow in Blockchain and Virtual cash space. In any case, they don’t track down the right guidance. My central goal is to make a simple platform where anybody can connect and develop, says Thebitcoprenur – Abhishek Bhandari.

Similar to how bitcoin was born out of the 2008 monetary emergency, today’s worldwide environment makes it an extraordinary time for an initiative and platform, for example, Cryptovedas to provide investors with significant data on the advantages they can gather with cryptocurrency, just as how to take part in its utilization.

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain are ready to significantly affect both Indian just as the worldwide financial landscape. Beyond currency, blockchain improvement is presently moving into the space of decentralized agreement and record management. This has immense implications for transparent governance and land record management.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gigantic advantages for most minimized individuals, traders, tax departments, and regulatory authorities. It has better value discovery, is anti-inflationary, and the exchanges are irreversible.

The Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India is a relationship of people who are quick to propagate the utilization of digitized resources like Bitcoin and Ethereum inside India. It is engaged with educating individuals about the risk related to investing and trading digital forms of money. It also creates and engenders rehearses Bitcoin organizations should stick to dependent on meetings inside the business, just as with regulators and different partners. In addition, DABFI has coordinated various events, getting Indian and abroad specialists to share their experiences in Bitcoin to assist people to adopt a superior comprehension of the subject.

Bitcoin is new to the Indian market. Individuals are still thinking that it is difficult to acknowledge the digitized changes occurring in the general public as the banking system is working online now. So reception would increment just if we make mindfulness and instruct more individuals and acquire more services India as far as Bitcoin, says Thebitcoprenur – Abhishek Bhandari.

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Recalling childhood education one could always remember nothing but the rhymes that were taught then in the classroom. The clip clap, the chanting, and papa calling “Johnny Johnny” were some of the most soothing and beautiful songs anyone would have ever heard. Considering this nostalgic contemplation, it can be said that nursery rhymes set the chords of rhythms in ones’ life.

In an amazing makeover, one of the most popular and India’s biggest YouTube channels- ZappyToons, is creatively personifying these melodies by adding visuals to them. One of its most popular rhymes “Ek Mota Hathi”, with 5 Million Likes and 1.4 Billion views, is now on the tips of every child.

The video is among the most viewed Indian videos and accentuates on moral ethics of bonding and togetherness among children. The channel has brought a revolution in primary education in India and all this has been made possible with the aesthetic sensibility of its founder, Ajay Singh Bisht.

Ajay hails from a small village in Uttarakhand and is a computer Science Engineer by profession. His YouTube channel, with a record-breaking 12.9 Million subscribers has become the perfect destination for Hindi Rhymes and Stories. Splendidly, Social Blade, an American website that tracks social media statistics and analytics, gave it a global ranking of 30 in the education category. He owns more than 50 Channels and his incredible following can be traced from his more than 20 Million Subscribers and more than 6 Billion Views in totality. He is an explicit holder of 8 YouTube Silver Buttons, 3 Gold Buttons and 1 Diamond Button.

Apart from owning ZappyToons, he has extended his domain to being a YT Consultant. In context to the same, he has been proving YouTube Consultancy to several channels from India and Abroad. Remarkably, he has also worked with brands like – AmericanExpress, Oyo, Flipkart, City Bank and India Today. As an accomplished individual now he plans to help nearly 100000 people to start and grow their YouTube channels via provisioning of linked courses and consultation.

His success story wasn’t a smooth journey, however sailing over and above all tides he has reached a record-breaking position with the sole mantra of doing things with zeal, passion and putting plans into execution. Not only “Ek Mota Hathi” but other of his videos have also gained popularity among the masses. The persona lies in the fact that successful people focus on executing incredibly well and Ajay Singh owns this incredibility.

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Technology advancements and a surge in content development have ushered us into a new era. The opportunities afforded by the television age spread throughout industries, with the need for entertainment increasing all the time.

The present moment can assist you in developing a one-of-a-kind, sleek, and user-friendly entertainment platform. One such platform is MissFilmy that keeps viewers updated on current events and issues, allowing an individual to channel their passion and expand their knowledge and information.

With their extensive content inventory and cutting-edge technologies, they improve their services and provide their viewers with a wonderful journey. The platform is dedicated to disseminating information and articles that are worth your time to read. They also want to help the entertainment business with digital promotion and advertising for movies, television shows, personal branding, and other things. Their consumer plans and wants are significant USPs, and they are always evolving to meet these needs and give information in a timely manner.

Since the beginning of their journey, the website has been moving towards creating more original articles and videos. In addition, news on movie and web series ratings and comparisons, impending release dates, and aggregating free and high-quality content for consumption are all available. Keeping their viewers updated, they provide them with Bollywood news, celebrity gossips and movie reviews.

With a pessimistic approach, MissFilmy takes a gloomy strategy, focusing on spreading its services around the world in order to cover news from every part of the globe and serve every area of the industry.

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A dreamer, self-motivated entrepreneur, Aarush is one of the most demanded influencers from Jhansi and has also collaborated with different companies and brands motivating millennials who want to pursue their career in the domain.

Aarush Verma lives in Jhansi and completed his study from Gyan Sthaly Public School, Shivaji Nagar. Now, he is an Influencer and also a Stock Market Expert. He wants to live his life with financial freedom and therefore started the business of stock trading to achieve the same. Since childhood Aarush has been inclined towards starting his own business or to gain money on his own. And this is where the journey of becoming a social media influencer started. He started posting videos and entertaining audiences with his impeccable skills. Today, Aarush has successfully carved a niche for himself and has gained a massive fan following on different social media platforms.

Realising the importance of the digital world and the evolution it has brought to mankind, Aarush believes that to achieve the desired goals in life, one has to perform something out of the box that would garner the attention of the larger masses. He always says, “School Learning can give us a job but self-learning can give us financial freedom. Basically, he wants to live a luxurious life. And that’s why he is also running a digital business.

In 2018, he started his career in Stock Market Analysis and learned more about his passion. He has also been interested in reading novels related to Stocks and Psychology for the past three years. He is also providing proper guidance to people and how they can successfully start their own business on social media and generate revenue through the same.

Currently, he is focused towards creating a team to run an online Business to solve people’s needs and requirements in the ever-evolving digital space. Being a changemaker, he believes in growing and constantly evolving, learning new things to keep himself up to date with the current trends.

Interested one contact via Instagram https://instagram.com/aarush.ly?utm_medium=copy_link 

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The most awaited monsoon season finally arrived in the capital of India after a very long delay on the morning of July 13 with heavy rains and thunderstorms. The areas in NCR region, ie, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida also received heavy showers. 

“Thunderstorm with light to moderate intensity rain and winds with speed of 20-40 km/h would occur over and adjoining areas of most places of Delhi, NCR (Bahadurgarh, Gurugram, Faridabad, Loni Dehat, Noida) Gohana, Sonipat, Rohtak (Haryana) Khekra (UP) during next 2 hours,” the IMD tweeted.

 By 8.30 am, Lodhi Road met station had seen 19.4 mm of rain, followed by 2.5 mm at Safdarjung and 2.4 mm at Palam.

The southwest monsoon’s arrival today after a string of IMD’s incorrect predictions is the most delayed in Delhi in 15 years. The weather office faced a lot of criticism and called the failure in prediction “rare and uncommon”. The date set for the arrival of monsoons in Delhi was June 27 and this is the first time in almost two decades that it has been delayed by 15 days.

Even though the southwest monsoon progressed in areas surrounding Delhi on Monday, there was no rainfall reported in the city. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said that favourable conditions have been prevailing for the past three days.

Meteorology Vice President at Skymet Weather Mahesh Palawat shared a video from Faridabad and said the rain may “cover entire Delhi soon”.

Due to such heavy monsoon rains, many areas experienced severe waterlogging. “Heavy rains in the city led to waterlogging on several road stretches including near the AIIMS flyover in south Delhi. Public Works Department (PWD) officials said that only minor waterlogging complaints have been reported so far and efforts are being taken to remove water from such stretches”, informed PTI. 

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When you look at Hariprasad Sukumaran’s paintings, you’ll be amazed. He is a talented artist who paints life-like pictures that immediately draw people in. His paintings will deceive your eyes and if you aren’t careful enough, you might end up believing that they are actual photographs.

His paintings have been part of national and international exhibitions and one of his paintings
“Nostalgia” was auctioned by Poland Art Exhibition organization (student art works foundation, Poland) and he was awarded silver medal at national level Spot Painting Competition during his college days. Amazedenough? Let us know more about his journey.

Hailing from the great state of Kerala, he has been painting since he was five years old. When it comes to hyper-realistic paintings, he is one of the best painters in India. The most significant thing about Hariprasad’s works is his details in picturing the eyes of his subjects. He has an absolute mastery over it and this is what he considers as his forte. He is a personification of creativity and persistence and has been teaching the same to his students as well.
Hariprasad told us that he tries to maintain a perfect balance of light and shadow which is why his paintings successfully give an illusion of real objects to those who view them. His paintings and his craft have given him many followers and fanbases on the Internet. He has 10K followers following him including Facebook and Instagram which is enough to validate his talent and the hard work that he puts behind it.

The Hyper-realistic paintings as its name suggests are realistic-looking paintings that range from landscapes to portraits. A hyper-realistic painting can successfully fool our eyes into believing that they are actual photographs. This is really amazing but Hariprasad told us that because of the nature of his paintings, many people refuse to believe that they are paintings and some of his paintings like“Blacky” which is a painting of a black dog and “Beauty” depicting the beauty of a girl were refused to be featured on online forums just because they looked too realistic to be a painting. Hariprasadtook this incident as a compliment and in fact, it proved to be a big milestone for him.
He has been painting for 25 years now and he loves to paint portraits. Other than these breath-taking paintings that he makes, he is also an assistant professor in a college in Tamil Nadu and has two amazing short films to his name out of which he has directed one and produced the other and looking forward to an adventurous journey that life has to offer to him.

As of now, he has been running his online art academy “Hariarts Academy” where he teaches how to paint hyper-realistic paintings to people from almost all age groups. He has more than 300 students. When it comes to art, he believes that learning has no age. Hariarts Academy has students from all walks of life from various age groups and he considers it as his victory. Some of his students have already begun their journey in hyper-realistic paintings and they are already painting life-like realistic paintings. We definitely need more teachers like him in our country who can make people believe in themselves and above all, in art because that is where the beauty lies.
You can follow him and become part of his incredible artistic journey on Instagram www.instagram.com/_hariarts_

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the past year has witnessed the importance of e-learning as a substitute for the traditional way of teaching. COVID-19 induced school closures have impacted 247 million Indian children by far. This circumstance challenged the whole education system worldwide and compelled educators to change to an online mode immediately which was deep waters for everyone despite being the need of the hour.

With his insightful mind, entrepreneurial spirit and diligent nature, Mr Manoj Mittal has come out as a savior for the new age parents by introducing his dream project of School@home which has perfectly inferred the psychology of a child sitting at home with zero activities and has given them a much-needed start for filling their empty minds with education and traditional Indian values.

 A complete school in itself with the perfect assembly of curriculum, pedagogy and technology aiming to revolutionize a child’s learning experience. It is an integrated online curriculum for Nursery to UKG that combines learning with interactive fun which is empowering and inspiring young minds to excel as lifelong learners. They educate the way a child loves, enhancing learning capabilities & talent recognition hence building cultural values for a better society through scientifically formulated curriculum-based books and interactive learning digital & animated content. Their unique feature set includes mobile & web-based applications for accessing value-added services and benefits focusing on overall growth & ecosystem development.

Their list of distinguishing features include print copies of engrossing textbooks, worksheets, stationery and art & craft kits, expert digital educators, engaging activity lessons, extracurricular videos, bilingual content, structured curriculum, day to day planner and many more.

Cherry on the cake is their approved certification provided after completion of the academic curriculum of a particular class.

Once associated, there is nothing more a parent can look for outside.

Mittsure School@Home is the future of education, causing its transformation in bigger and better ways.

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Mohali, Chandigarh, July8, 2021­ -Ananya Kamboj, a 12^th grader studying at Vivek High School has several accomplishments to her name at a young age. For the last five years, she has been selected to represent India as a Young Journalist at Gazprom International Children’s Social Programme Football for Friendship (F4F).

Football for Friendship has received three GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ titles for the most nationalities in a football training session in history (2019), the most users in a football video hangout (2020),and the most visitors at a virtual stadium (2021).

“Being part of three Guinness World Record events, I feel proud, honoured, and happy to have achieved something that on the one hand is rather rare, but on the other is simply the result of my passion for football as something that makes me wholesome,” said Ananya. “I am thankful to Gazprom International Children’s Social programme Football for Friendship team for their support and encouragement.It is a wonderful platform to celebrate friendship through the unifying power of football.”

In 2018, Ananya was invited to Moscow as a special guest at the world premiere of her book “My Journey from Mohali to St. Petersburg” – an anthology of 21 stories that are based on the fundamental human values that she learned during the program. The book was officially released by Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors as part of the 6th season of the F4Forganized by Gazprom, an official partner of FIFA and the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™.Ananya was awarded the best young journalist award for her effort in spreading the values of the program through this book.

The book presents a holistic picture of the good life, which transcends the prevalent narrow understanding of what constitutes success, fulfilment, and happiness in life. It offers a fresh interpretation of sports through human values which collectively enrich the different dimensions of life. A harmonious realization of all these values helps people grow as truly and fully human. The book should appeal to all those who are concerned about questions like how to be a good person, how to live a good life, and how to create a good society.

“When most people talk about a school curriculum, they think about math, science, social studies, and language courses. Seldom do I hear or read about sports as being part of the curriculum. The problem is that the neglect of teaching sports in schools is hurting our youth and causing problems in society. If a person has never learned any sport, how are they able to discern the difference between victory and defeat? That isthe essence of sports education,” said Ananya.

In 2019, Ananya was invited by the International Children’s Games (ICG), an International Olympic Committee-sanctioned event to speak on peace, friendship, and youth empowerment during the opening ceremony in Ufa, Russia. She has also been a regular participantin the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Youth Forum for the last four years as well as various other United Nations initiatives.

“I believe that education, sports, and childhood character development do go hand in hand. The balance between sports, extracurricular and academic achievements is critical for the overall development of the child,” said Ananya.

About Ananya Kamboj

Ananya Kamboj, a 16-year-old girl from a humble background with myriad dreams twinkling in her eyes is a Global Citizen from India. An ambassador of football, peace, SDGs, and youth empowerment, she wishes to take the spirit of hope, togetherness, and inspiration to millions of children across India and South Asia and make this world a better place to live in.

About Football for Friendship (F4F)

F4F has existed since 2013. It is organised by Gazprom and supported by FIFA, UEFA and the United Nations. Over the previous eight seasons, more than 15,000 children and young people from 211 countries and regions have taken part in the programme. In 2020, Football for Friendship took place for the first time in an online format on a specially developed digital platform.