New Delhi: Day after farmer-leaders met Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the centre sent a draft proposal to the former. In its latest proposal, the govt. Has assured the farmers that the Minimum Support Price system will continue to regulate and also is ready to make relevant necessary amendments in the law. However, the farmers have rejected the proposal and announced to intensify the agitation in and around the national capital region.

In an interaction with the media, Darshan Pal, president of Krantikari Kisan Union said “We reject the government’s proposal and we will block Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Agra Highway on 12 December, no tax to be paid at any toll plaza on that day”.

Another leader protesting at the border said that “we will block all roads in Delhi one by one of the three farms laws are not scrapped.” They also showed uncertainty regarding the next round of talks with the centre.

What are the farmers protesting for

The protest by the farmer community, mainly hailing from the states of Punjab and Haryana, has been going on since November 26. Farmers have gathered around the national capital region’s border on several sides, putting a stop to all kinds of cross-border traffic movement. The farmers are protesting against three newly enforced farm laws: The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020.

What centre offered in its proposal

The Center, on Wednesday, released a draft proposal addressing the seven major issues and concerns of the farmers. 

The proposal states that the centre will provide written assurance about continuing the MSP system. The farmers fear that mandis will weaken after the regulation of new laws, to which the centre is ready to make amendments, wherein state governments can register the traders operating outside mandis. The state can also impose the tax as done by the Agricultural Produce Market Committee. 

Other issues addressed in the draft are availing access to civil courts and the prohibition of the lease, mortgage, and selling of farmer’s land.

What Delhiites have to take care of

Since the farmers have announced to intensify the agitation, people travelling on the highways should keep a check on centre and state advisories. Also, taxi and cab facilities may remain affected. One should keep a check on traffic updates and metro updates before moving through the national capital region.

Andhra Pradesh: More than 450 people have been rushed to hospitals in the past 48 hours post an unidentified disease outbreak in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh. Having claimed a life already, the outbreak is being suspected, as per the reports, to be caused by the chemical, DDT, generally found in Organochlorine pesticides.

So far, the majority of the infected population were found to be between the age of 20-30 years besides 45 children below 12 years of age.

Common Symptoms Observed 

As per the initial observations, reported patients suffered from fits and nausea followed by sudden fainting. Additional symptoms include epilepsy and memory loss for a span of 3-5 minutes, with a mild headache, back pain, vomiting, and anxiety.

Recovery Rate

Over 140 patients have already been discharged after the necessary treatment. The remaining patients at the hospitals are also observed to be in a stable condition. While none of the admitted patients tested positive for Covid-19, an exclusive team of medical experts has been rushed to Eluru to treat the victims. Also, a door to door survey has been initiated to identify prospective patients, well in advance.

CM Y.S. Jagan on the ground

After interacting with the affected people on his visit to GGH, Eluru, CM Jagan addressed a high-level meeting, alerting the officials to be on toes for any situation that could arise. He assured the patients of all the essential help, on their road to recovery.

Centre’s Action

A team of three medical experts has been rushed to Eluru to assess the ground reality of the situation and accordingly formulate a further plan of action. The mentioned team comprises namely, Dr. Sanket Kulkarni, the deputy director and a public health expert from the National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi; Dr. Avinash Deoshtawar, a virologist from the National Institute of Virology, Pune and Dr. Jamshed Nayar, an associate professor (emergency medicine) from AIIMS. A team from the Indian Council of Medical Research is soon expected to be there as well.

Steps being taken

A 24 x 7 control room has been set up in Eluru for timely monitoring of the outbreak situation. Milk samples were collected at random and sent for examination to Vijayawada. Experts from the National Institute of Nutrition and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad are expected to dive in for a detailed diagnosis of the cause behind the disease.

Despite the sheer unexpectedness of this abrupt outbreak, the situation on the ground in Eluru seems to be in control as per the present statistics. Both Centre and the state governments are rigorously working to tackle the existing and possible foreseen situations on this front. However, the impact of this mysterious disease at its peak potential is yet to be estimated.

Six decades after India measured Mount Everest in 1954, earlier this week  Nepal and China have announced a new height of the peak. And it turns out that the world’s tallest peak has grown almost two feet taller than before. In fact, the Himalayas are growing taller every year almost by an inch due to the continental drift. Yes, you read that right! The Himalayas are growing! So, the new height of Mt. Everest is 8,848.86 meters.

The new height of the peak has rekindled the decades-long dispute between the neighbouring countries with whom the mountain shares its border. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping has already described Mount Everest as an important symbol of China-Nepal traditional friendship and announced that both countries have agreed to Mt. Everest being a boundary peak and the ‘Peak of China-Nepal Friendship’.

The History of Himalayas

About 200 Million years ago when Eurasian Plate and Indian tectonic Plate collided due to high buoyancy, neither of the plates could be subducted and instead led to thick sedimentations in between. The continued crumpling and collision of tectonic plates over time caused the continental crust to thicken. Such compressional forces led to folding and faulting, pushing the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau upwards.

Every Year the Himalayas rise by an inch but at the same time forces like weathering and erosion are also lowering the height at almost the same rate, thus making not a significant change in the height for decades now.

The Controversy

The peak has remained a matter of conflict between China and Nepal as it plays a significant role in the settlement of the boundary between the two countries since 1950 when Beijing gave up its claim over the mountain.

The conflict continued until the ruling Communist Party of China founder Mao Zedong suggested that the ‘boundary line should pass through the summit of Mt. Everest in 1961 which was agreed upon by Nepal.

In 1847, British surveyors in India declared the height of Mount Everest (then Peak XV) to be 8778 meters and ever since then there has been a dispute regarding the height of the same. 

This revised height of 8,848.86 meters has put an end to all the discussions and controversies regarding the same between the two countries.

Method Used

Joint Secretary of Nepal’s Department Survey said that they have used the previous methods applied in ascertaining the height as well as Global Navigational Satellite System (GNSS)and the latest data available. The fact that needs to be highlighted here is that both Chinese and Nepali data tallied accurately.

The officials in a virtual event announced the new height and marked the day as a historic day.

A Hyderabad and Mumbai-based renowned kids photographer, Saurabh Panjwani has found a new muse and it is rusty trucks! His latest picture has discovered his newfound obsession for vehicles lying useless for months and years. 

As seen in the picture, there is a stark difference between the original location and the final photograph taken by him. The picture very beautifully displays a little girl standing at the corner of the rusty truck filled with emotions and glittering eyes.

Talking about his idea of capturing such unique pictures and portraits, Saurabh explains, “Rusty trucks or cars are my personal favourite whenever I find them on highways or roads, 

 I just quickly save the location and click one picture on my phone, then I imagine the final output in my mind and then decide on clothes and edit. I personally feel rusty vehicles enhance the overall beauty of the picture. 

Saurabh has given a new perspective when it comes to kids’ photography. He likes to keep his pictures very natural, raw and simple without much use of props. His main focus remains “the expressions of kids.” He is a pro when it comes to clicking absolutely natural, candid shots when it comes to the most difficult subject to shoot – kids.

Over the past few years, many Indian authors have caught the imagination of readers in the country with their myriad fictional works. While some have piggybacked on Indian mythology to draw inspiration and win the favour of the readers, others have focussed on the evolving lifestyle of Generation-X and the millennials to resonate with their target audience.

One thing that is glaringly similar in both these kinds of fictional works is that they are written specifically to sell. While there’s nothing wrong with that, since publishing is an age-old business and the authors must earn to survive, it is the discerning among the readers who are short-changed as they see no substance in these otherwise bestsellers.

So, it is only natural that such readers rejoice when they come across an author who not only chooses to but really excels at writing about the world around us in its full imperfect glory while having the ability to jolt our collective minds into wondering if a particular incident that he narrates in one of his books isn’t actually inspired from the reader’s own life.

If you love hard-hitting fiction laced with poetic realism and a dash of gritty truth you will love the fictional works of Sabarna Roy, a true master at his craft. Roy is different from his contemporary authors whose characters are larger than life. Instead, Roy picks up commoners and weaves a compelling tale around their lives.

The sheer brilliance of Sabarna Roy is demonstrated in the fact that each one of his works makes the reader pause and thinks. He truly is a thinking man’s author with an amazing array of critically acclaimed books for his readers to choose from.

Roy has authored 6 critically acclaimed bestsellers over the last few years – Pentacles; Frosted Glass; Abyss; Winter Poems; Random Subterranean Mosaic: 2012 – 2018, and Etchings of the First Quarter of 2020. Right from his first book, Pentacles, Roy has proven his ability to explore the darker sides of the human mind. All his works explore dark and innovative themes and characters who are neither white nor black but evolving shades of grey.

His inimitable writing style made sure that Roy’s Frosted Glass did very well in the market. The popularity of Pentacles and Winter Poems saw Amazon Audible converting them into Audiobooks by Colin Newcomer, the young Australian jazz singer. Roy’s book, Abyss was on the bestseller list at the Oxford Bookstore at the Kolkata Book Fair in 2014.

No wonder then, he is a Goodreads author with a present rating of 4.05 with reviews and ratings in excess of 1,500 on the Goodreads platform. On Amazon, he is rated between 4 and 5 with reviews and ratings in excess of 1,250. The positive reviews from the readers of his various books confirm his growing popularity and his storytelling prowess.

What’s really extraordinary about Roy is the fact that he earned his Civil Engineering Degree from Jadavpur University in 1988 and started writing professionally only after having spent 19 years in the corporate sector. He is currently the Senior Vice President and is in the 25th year of his employment with Electrosteel Group where he is engaged in giving leadership to Business Development, Applications Technology and certain key strategies.

Roy also authored a technical book – Articles on Ductile Iron Pipelines & Framework Agreement Contracting Methodology published by Scholars’ Press in European Union with two of his Co-authors. This book has been translated into 8 major European languages and is considered a must-read by the industry stalwarts.

Roy is a firm believer in the Paris Climate Accord and regularly visits national and international conferences to talk on various matters concerning ecology and environment. He is also an active participant in the multifarious activities of International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, Confederation of Indian Industries, Central Board of Irrigation and Power, and Indian Geographical Committee of International Water Resources Association.

With such an active professional life, Roy still manages to masterfully tell stories that make his readers look within. And that is the real beauty of his works.

The journey of Monis Khan is one such that acts as an inspiration not just for himself but for many around. Covering the journey from Delhi to Mumbai, trying on every bit of his best, he does deserve that dreams do come true and to be excited for the same.

He began with daily soaps like Savdhaan India,  crime alert, crime stories, and finally came all the way towards Bollywood. As of today, he has worked up with some well-known and respected members of Bollywood like Siddharth Bhardwaj, Freddy Daruwala etc. Karma Consequence, the name of the upcoming movie, is one such project which he totally deserved, which is already in talks with some OTT platforms for its release. In his words, the movie has provided him with a prominent role as a second lead. He does seem to be quite excited about it after all; getting into the character’s skin does demand a lot. It brings out a lot of hard work, and especially when the role is totally opposite to a life one lives, it does deserve a shoutout.

No task is easy. It is the amount of hard work and dedication, and the idea of overcoming the challenge that brings out the best and in the words of Monis, “Preparing for the role was not an easy task. I truly understand that I have worked as a part of TV, commercial ads, my feature film ORIO and others, but for the Karma Consequence, it was totally different. The character I had and the character I had to be, there was a complete mismatch, but all I wanted was to try and tour sure that I can give my best from my end and guess what, I might take it as a challenge, and for the ones who saw me act, did appreciate a lot. The words mattered, and it will always do. Every bit of the appreciation made me what I am, and it will continue along to perform better, trying to challenge myself every day.” Well, that definitely was quite promising. The way it has been described for one of the characters, the fans would truly love to watch Monis on screen.

Every role is a prominent role if one considers the value of their dream and wants to take a step towards fulfilling the same. It is never easy, and it never would be but lagging behind, this doesn’t count. It cannot be taken as a part of a leap as for a dreamer, they await the opportunity and catch along with the same, doing every possible thing to bring out best from their end, and that’s what Monis does. Trying to bring out the best towards the choice he made for a life, he acts as an inspiration for many around. His work has been appreciated, and it will always continue to be so; as for the hard work he puts in trying to catch up with the character’s role, it’s highly motivating. So all we got to do is wait and see one amazing work of a hardworking soul, again.

Raghav Sharma is a big name when it comes to the fashion world. Raghav has emerged as a winner of the 2012 Mr India contest. He is a known model and an actor as well known in the glamour world. The latest buzz around him suggests that the actor got the chance to work after the lockdown in England where he was seen shooting in Central London. It was in September when the model Raghav got his call about the international shoot at London. 
It was one of the Indian based international modeling agencies, which came forward to inaugurate the same. Since Raghav has been a known name in the fashion world, he got the call from the said agency who were looking for someone known in the fashion world. They knew that he had bagged the Mr India title in 2012, hence they made sure to fix a shoot right after the lockdown was done and the market opened up. 

Hence just when the unlock process started, the model Raghav was called up by the agency for the shoot. As he got the chance to shoot in Central London, the winters had already begun and there was a freezing atmosphere there. However, he enjoyed shooting at a stretch of three long hours and he completed non-stop. He loved working with the professional team there and calls it to be a mind-blowing experience for him. So, slowly and steadily, he is leaving no stone unturned to move things in the right direction.

Life should be dealt with in a win-win situation. And that is what Nidhi Agarwal; a lifestyle blogger (@treasuremuse) and fashion designer (Vadhini by Nidhi), with an overall experience of more than 5 years now and been awarded blogger of the year from various streams snd platforms consecutively from last many years. She is one of the leading influencers from Jaipur, the capital city of this beautiful state Rajasthan in India.

She says and strongly believes that life is abrupt and has no calendar. And hence with 90k+ followers on various social media platforms, she feels accountable to all those people. She believes that to be able to provide with good quality content, she needs to connect with her audiences in a manner they understand. Coming from a middle-class background, the youngest of the lot in her family has a mission of becoming one per cent of the society so that she can be a guide to all those people who are lost but do want to achieve heights of what nature can provide them.

She started her career in 2015 with blogging under “Treasuremuse” and since then she has been footing herself competently in the industry. Until now she has collaborated with  370+ brands like Paperboat, Gionee India, Vivo India and international brands like Max Fashions, Reliance Footprints etc. She introduced her first collection “SERAPH” at a fashion show with the Banaraswalas. She was seen in a video shoot for Veet with the gorgeous Sherry Shroff and also as city lead in Jaipur PopXo 2015. And also, She was titled “BEST LIFESTYLE BLOGGER 2019” by Bnbmag. She featured as Top fashion blogger of Jaipur by “Jaipur Talkies”

Very early in her age, Nidhi understood the values of mental health in our lives. She says,” Yoga and Pranayam have been a part of every middle-class household in India. When I dug into what’s it’s all about I realised that we all have been working on a particular frequency. And all you got to do is to align your set frequency, on which your body works with your counterpart in the universe. And once you are in this loop, everything comes handy. Success, love, and all those little cravings of life that we have comes in handy. A calm mind and a healthy body is the key to all of it. Yoga and pranayama is the key to it. And we’re blessed to have been born in a country where all of this finds it’s roots. Been born in India, is a blessing.”

On Nidhi’s page, you find numerous posts where she talks about spiritual understanding and divination. She’s a staunch believer of non-material ethereal connectivity.  The world has seen a lot last year. Everybody was going on a certain pace until Covid hit all of us. With one in every five people suffering from mental health issues even post covid, it’s high time that we address this issue seriously. With social media being one of the few industries that shook markets by achieving new heights, it is a great platform to address this issue of mental health.

“Being born in the mid-90s, I have been exposed to the two sides social media has. But why focus on negativity when positive aspects can overpower all that negative there is about it. Your content is something that establishes a connection with your followers and that is a huge responsibility. I owe them their valuable time. And hence with every post that I put out, I try to make it worth spending time on because why release your dopamine for free, right?”

Youngsters spend much time on Social Media, admiring pictures and videos of others. Karan Kapoor realised much earlier that the social media platform can be turned into a meaningful place. He worked to influence the fitness needs of the people on the platform. Within a short span of time, Kapoor is well known as an Instagram fitness influencer and fitness model. 

A positive attitude is indeed what a person requires to achieve their ultimate goals. Karan Kapoor is one such person. He is a certified fitness athlete, nutrition, and supplement specialist from IIFEM (International Institute of Fitness Excellence & Management).

Karan Kapoor has expertise in muscle building, strength building, functional training, and flexibility training. His Instagram handles mekarankapoor may leave you awestruck. It gives a glimpse of hard work Karan pours in his passion.  

This positive attitude of Karan has helped him bag many achievements. Some of them are achieving the top 10 ranks in Mr. Asia, 2019 (NBBUI), top 5 ranks in Mr. North India, 2019-20 (IBBF). He won Mr. UP in 2017, Mr. Punjab in 2020 (IBBF), and 2nd place of Mr. Delhi in 2020 (DBBFA), and many more.

He is also the head member of “Kanpur Young Entrepreneurs”. He is currently working as the official brand ambassador of “6th Element Nutrition, Official Brand Athlete of Flavino Peanut Butter, Official Brand Athlete of Gold’s Gym”.

Karan has collaborated with “Big Muscles Nutrition”, “Kapiva Vegan Protein”, and “Zenith Sports Nutrition”. After the long list of achievements, Karan has set out to share his knowledge and inspire others about the importance of fitness in life. 

Karan through his big fan base and hard work gained the official “Golden Verified” button on the app “Helo” and was given the honor of “Original Fitness Creator”. On India’s one of the most trending apps “Tik Tok”, he had 500k followers. 

Karan has worked as a fitness video creator for “Resso app”, besides “Likee app” as a verified official creator of fitness in India. He is working as a social media influencer and creator for platforms such as “Tring India Official”, “Be There” app and the: MOJ app” also.

He says that the journey has just begun, for he believes that challenges may come on the way but he will cross all hurdles to reach his destination.https://www.instagram.com/mekarankapoor/

Entrepreneur Milind Pote is recently felicitated by most prestigious Surya Gaurav National Award 2020 for his exemplary contribution in the field of social service to the local community amidst the challenging pandemic times. Coronavirus has affected everyone in various ways. This pandemic has made everyone face the losses they have never imagined; whether it be jobs, lives, food, etc. But even in the toughest times like these, there have been few helping hands working round the clock tirelessly. Just for sake of the betterment of our society, our community. Milind Pote is the helping hand we are talking about. He has won the National award for his untiring and selfless social work during COVID-19 pandemic. Surely deserving. Not only social work but he has always been a great support for small local businesses.

Entrepreneur Milind Pote is a successful businessman from Aurangabad. Started with a small café and now he has chains and a monopoly in quick-service restaurants which people love to dine at. Starting from a small café to this achievement has definitely not been an easy journey but he made his focus crystal clear and achieved his goals. Apart from being a successful and creative businessman, he stood meritorious in the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) and several other competitive exams. His innovative ideas have always brought a fresh and productive improvement in the city. He has established the biggest game zone not only in Aurangabad but also in Marathwada region, Game X. His journey is remarkable.

Entrepreneur Milind Pote has always been there to help needy ones no matter what the situation is. He has always supported the small local businesses and he has always been very keen in social service. During the pandemic times, he has helped many people in many ways whether it be providing them food, life essentials or any help required; Pote never said no. Community and society have benefitted a lot from his kind-hearted and selfless social work.