Attacking the Opposition for criticising the Centre in the wake of the Pulwama attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged that people should not do politics over terror attacks in the interest of the nation. “The country can never forget that some people were not saddened at the sacrifice of the security personnel during the Pulwama attack. At that time, these people were only doing politics… I request them not to do such politics in the interest of the nation,” Modi said.  

The Prime Minister paid his heartiest tribute to the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on his birth anniversary. The PM visited the Statue of Unity in Gujarat’s Kevadia and inaugurated the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas parade. After the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas parade, PM Modi reiterated India’s stand on terrorism and emphasised on the significance of ‘unity’ in this day and age. PM later boarded the seaplane from Kewadia to Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad.

Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, also known as the National Unity Day, is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, one of India’s greatest freedom fighters.

On Friday, the Prime Minister had inaugurated the Sardar Patel Zoological Park, popularly called the Jungle Safari, in Kevadia. The zoological park has been set up near the 182-metre-tall Statue of Unity.

The PM also inaugurated the ‘Arogya Van’, ‘Ekta Mall’ and ‘Children Nutrition Park’ in Kevadia yesterday. ‘Arogya Van’ is home to hundreds of plants and herbs that have medicinal value.

The Prime Minister Modi also paid tribute to the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 36th death anniversary. The then Prime Minister was assassinated by her bodyguards in 1984.

“Tributes to our former PM Smt. Indira Gandhi Ji on her death anniversary,” Modi tweeted.

CM Arvind Kejriwal launched the ‘Green Delhi’ mobile app to enable people to register complaints to report increasing pollution sources and violations of anti-pollution norms.

The Delhi government launched a photo, audio, and video-based ‘Green Delhi’ app to enable citizens of Delhi to report pollution violations and local sources of pollution in the city, such as garbage burning, dust due to construction activities, industrial activities, and other local pollutants.

Delhi CM Kejriwal said, “Today, we are launching the ‘Green Delhi’ App. Our aim is to enable every citizen to participate in our ‘Yuddh, Pradushan Ke Viruddh’ campaign. No movement can happen until people take part in the movement. We are launching the ‘Green Delhi’ app that can be downloaded from the play store, it is available on android for now and will be available on other platforms soon”.

“In this app, a citizen can take a photo or shoot a video and audio of local pollutants, such as garbage burning, industrial pollution, construction dust, etc and upload them on the app to report it. “While reporting the activity, we will automatically get your location where the source of pollution was found,” said the CM. 

He further added that a complaint lodged on the App will be received by the concerned departments, which will have to resolve the complaints in a time-bound manner, as per the specified timelines for different types of complaints.

“In this app, a citizen can take a photo or shoot a video and audio of local pollutants, such as garbage burning, industrial pollution, construction dust, etc and upload them on the app to report it. “While reporting the activity, we will automatically get your location where the source of pollution was found,” said the CM. 

The monitoring of the resolution of all complaints and the number of complaints received will be done in our 24×7 Green War Room. Around 70 Green marshals have also been deployed for effective resolution of complaints registered on the app.

“Please make us aware of any difficulties that you may face in the app initially, and we will work towards resolving them. Our objective is to involve every agency and department, be it DDA, MCD, Delhi government, to strengthen our ‘Yuddh, Pradushan Ke Viruddh’,” added the CM.

Voting for the first phase of the Bihar Assembly election has begun with the electorate queuing up at polling booths. Voters are exercising their franchise in 71 constituencies out of the total 243 in the state. Of the nearly 2.15 crore electors eligible to exercise the franchise, 1.12 crore are male, 1.01 crore female and 599 are from the third gender. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Election Commission of India has issued elaborate guidelines for the three-phase elections in the state. 

Some of the major guidelines include wearing face masks, maintaining social distance inside and outside polling booths, regular sanitization of polling booths and thermal scanning of voters. The ECI has also allowed the Covid-19 patients, symptomatic and asymptomatic, who are under either institutional or home quarantine, to vote through postal ballots. 

On the campaigning trails, the issue of unemployment has hogged much limelight, with the RJD promising 10 lakh government jobs if voted into power. The BJP has also come up with the promise of four lakh government jobs. The core issues in this year’s assembly election have been health care, women empowerment and education. 

Political parties have also held rallies across the state in the run-up to the first phase of polling. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, the incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Chief Chirag Paswan have held rallies to win over the support of the electorate.

Today, PM Modi will address three rallies in the state-Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Patna, whereas, Rahul Gandhi will address two rallies Valmikinagar and Kusheshwar Asthan constituencies.  

India’s economic expansion in recent years has been led by a new generation of entrepreneurs which includes scores of women. Along with venture capitalists, a number of mentors have been grooming women entrepreneurs to scale up their operations and adopt the best management practices.

We-pitch (Mumbai), event ideated & executed by Ritika Kothari is one such narrative on empowered women, empowering women.

A Mumbai-based architect, designer and digital media consultant, Ritika Kothari is the Creative Director at House of Ritika, a digital consulting platform that was established in 2018 to aid individuals, start-ups, and brands with their visual communication and digital marketing strategies. With a graduate degree in architecture and a post-graduate degree in Urban Planning, Ritika has a decade of design experience that includes various design and slum redevelopment projects across India. More recently, she launched ColabCloud — a digital design ecosystem, connecting with brands and designers via virtual events and webinars. With a quest to bring her passion for design and persona under one roof, Ritika continues to create inspiring content and help businesses and individuals.

The We-pitch Mumbai campaign, ideated and executed by ‘House of Ritika’, garnered a lot of praise.  It was co-powered by ‘India Circus’, a Godrej venture led by Krsnaa Mehta along with ‘Sunicon’, a Startup incubator founded by Saloni Jain. The outreach partner for the event was ‘Networking Now’- a social networking platform.

The two-day event saw live business pitches, keynote speeches, panel discussions, and workshops that drew huge participation from all over the country. The live streaming of the event was viewed by hundreds of live viewers on facebook.

The We-Pitch event was an overall success, with a 500+ viewership and a curated list of enthusiastic participants, who pitched their business stories to the Jury & live audience. The Jury was a mix of people from various backgrounds, Bharat Suri, Tanya Khanna, Sabina Bhanpurawala, Viraj Kalra, Nina Malhotra, Nidhi Kamdar, Nitya Arora, Devang Master, Krsnaa Mehta, each member an expert in their domain.

They selected three winners, who are to be individually mentored and incubated by Sunicon. The workshops by brand VRTT & Open Brackets Learning imparted valuable learning experience and inspiration to the participants.

The vision turned into reality due to the encouraging response from some amazing participants. The real success of the event was witnessed by three success stories and personal mentoring offered to select participants by the jury members. “ I remembered my early days when I saw the participants pitch their business, a little hand-holding can take us places and that has been my motivation and thought behind hosting this event”, Ritika says with a confident and happy smile.

India is appreciating the newfound ease with which it can access farmland and indulge in organic farming. Besides being a golden opportunity for small-time investors, this change is also creating a highly profitable business opportunity for regular customers, who don’t have access to significant capital but who are looking to move away from the hustle & bustle of city life. The organic farming company, Hebbevu Agro-Realty, is showing people the way forward in this direction, at an affordable price. Within a short time, this firm, run by brothers, Amith and Ashrith Kishan, former bankers, has gained the trust of the public and has become one of the most loved & trusted brands in organic farming.

The organic farming methods followed by Hebbevu are in keeping with the company’s long-term vision of protecting the environment. The company’s motto is “Happiness for Humans and the Environment.” Right from using natural fertilizers to optimized biological productivity, Hebbevu is dedicated to earning profits for its investors through ethical means.

The global market for organic food and beverages may reach USD 327,600 million by 2022 and organic fruits and vegetables together constitute more than half of this market share. With the world population booming and global warming continuing unabated, people are becoming more concerned about the preservation of the earth and its resources. Organic farming is one way to protect the environment and now with the Coronavirus pandemic having turned the world upside down, the pace of this change has become even more rapid. Even well-educated youngsters with rising disposable income are looking for ways to invest in the betterment of the world. With Amith and Ashrith’s Hebbevu organic farming company, the choice is more clear and closer to reality.

Both the brothers were working in the banking sector, with a well-paying career in hand. But it was the need to do something more with their life and take matters in their own hands that inspired them to choose Penukonda, the erstwhile summer capital of the Vijayanagar Rayas, as the base on which they would build their dream. It is a stroke of luck that today, Penukonda, located in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, is already a hot investment destination as well as an industrial center. The town is also fast emerging as an organic farming center too, thanks to Hebbevu and Kishan brothers.

Explaining the inspiration behind this path-breaking endeavour, Amith and Ashrith say, “Hebbevu intends to mobilize the available knowledge, innovation and best practice to create an evolving agri-business market, to help people get back to the basics. Ours is an agro-realty company that caters specifically to individuals interested in land investment in South India.” Describing their venture as “a platform for people looking for a second home away from their present home,” the Kishans are also targeting families looking for holiday homes in the lap of nature. What’s more is that your investment will not only help you go organic in life, it will also shift the focus of development from the concrete jungles to nature itself.

This collaborative platform allows investors to indulge in agriculture practice as well as deal in trade-in commodities. Whether it is timber plantation, cattle-rearing or cash crops, there are multiple ways to deal in and earn a profit, straight out of your home. In fact, the dairy products that they produce from rearing rare cattle breeds like Sahiwal, Ongole, Gir Kankrej and Rati, are further marketed through direct vendors under the subsidiary brand, Ksheera Organic Milk.

However, beyond organic farming and dairy products, Hebbevu organic farming company is also known for its holistic approach towards development. The land development is done in a wholesale manner, including internal access roads, water & electric infrastructure, indoor/outdoor activity zones, swimming pools, etc are all part of the development plan and it is the company that takes care of everything. The investor just has to put in his money in the project!

Hebbevu’s vision is to offer 100% ownership to its customers in lieu of the capital. The company takes care of the management of the farmland, plantation, harvesting, and marketing of resulting goods. As per Hebbevu management, “Investing with Hebbevu is no less than indulging in farming yourself, without getting into the dirt!”

If that entices you enough, Hebbevu offers you a lifetime chance of getting closer to nature, without having to worry about how!

WOCstar Fund, a Black female-led New York-based venture fund, announced its inaugural venture scouts including Pratik Gauri from India to increase a new generation of leaders focused on investing in women of color tech startups WOCstar (Women Of Color ) Fund is a New York-based early-stage venture fund that is changing the trajectory for investors and entrepreneurs.

Earlier this week, WOCstar Fund announced its WOCstar Venture Scout program and its inaugural venture scouts. The global group of active investors, entrepreneurs, and business professionals represent the new generation of leaders that will advance the WOCstar Fund’s commitment to invest meaningful capital in women of color (“WOC”) and diverse tech entrepreneurs. Founded in 2018, WOCstar Fund is an early-stage investment fund focused on women of color tech startups. The Fund offers smart, inclusive investors the opportunity to share in the success of one of the more profitable segments of the financial market — Women of color and global, inclusive tech teams. The team is actively investing in companies that are reimagining the future of media, consumer, fintech, EdTech, and AgTech sectors. “In order to manifest racial and economic equality, we need to increase the diversity of the investing talent equipped to invest in women entrepreneurs and business owners,” said Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne, co-founder of the WOCstar Fund.

“Individually the VC Scouts are impressive but together, we truly are a global group of rockstars ready to invest in North America, India, Africa, Latin America, and beyond.” The fund announced some of its scouts, including Pratik Gauri from India. Gauri is a serial Indian social entrepreneur and active investor widely known as the Creator of 5th Industrial Revolution. He serves as the India President of 5th Element Group, Chairman of India Needs You, and sits on the board of six startups. He previously served in various executive positions with the TATA group. Pratik was named Creative Entrepreneur of the year 2020 by Entrepreneur India magazine and Entrepreneur of the year 2020 by Indian Achievers’ Forum.

He is a Greenbiz Global 30 Under 30, British Petroleum Scholar, WEF Global Shaper, Ambassador at One Young World, Al Gore’s Climate Leader, Fellow at Startup Leadership Program, and Changemaker at Global Action on Poverty. Gauri says, “I am excited to join the incredible WOCstar family to help diversify WOCstar’s portfolio of companies by investing in women-led purpose companies with a deep focus on India.”

“Love at first sight.” That’s the kind of connection young entrepreneur, Jewellery lover and owner of Chateauvince Solitaires Mr Amit Jain shares with jewels. Hailed as the most vibrant and exquisite brand for jewellery lovers, Chateauvince offers you the best designs that blends with modernity and tradition.

Established in 2017 Chateauvince has been a runaway successful brand in the tricity and the factors are not too hard to guess. The quality they offer is supreme and the variety is matchless, From Light weight to heavy weight, from Polki to Diamonds – Chateauvince has got it all covered under one roof. The products are sourced from all across the globe. Hong Kong, Dubai, Japan, France, Italy. In short the best of gems are acquired from across the length and breadth of the globe and not to forget from our very own country as well. This makes the range so varied that you might have a problem of plenty to choose from once you visit their store at panchkula. Since the quality is never compromised you can also be rest assured about having the best of the product.

The man behind these gems is a gem of jewellery designing himself. The designing of jewellery is as natural to him as water to a fish. In his own words Mr Amit Jain says “I have always been very passionate about these stones. These gems are my best friends and my brain starts imagining designs just by looking at them.”
Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life, Mr Jain is a living example who personifies this quote by Mark Twain. Ever since the inception of Chateauvince, Mr Jain is yet to take a leave from work. His passion has indeed generated great results. His travel to different countries of the word in search of products has made his brand the market leader and it only promises to get better. The simple mantra of giving 100% efforts has translated in great results and Chateauvince has won a plethora of awards including excellence in quality diamond and gold hallmark jewellery. With Mr Jain Planning to expand brand stores internationally including Canada and Dubai it is but obvious that his award cabinet will require huge expansions in years to come.

Pandemic should not be your excuse to stop growing. 2020 has pushed humanity to accelerate the journey to became a better version of ourselves.

102 years ago, when there was a pandemic of this size, we didn’t have the technology, resources and intelligence, hence the lives and businesses stood still. But today, we have the technologies to perform all the tasks remotely. People and enterprises have to evolve and adapt this change as soon as possible to stay productive.

In an interview with the representative of India Made Sense, Kunaall Devmane talks about his life’s objective to make everyone think creatively and solve their problems. 

Q. How did you became the face of Creativity?

Marketers regularly use number of behavioral techniques to persuade customer to take buying decisions. Experience in working with marketing companies globally has taught me to act creatively and create strong concepts to make everyone think out-of-the-box.

Creativity is not hereditary. It can be learnt. Your brain can be nurtured and taught to think for solutions with the help of your past experiences, and few easily available tools. I have mentored more than 6000 with these formulas and they have seen positive result in their lives and businesses. I have structured these techniques into a curriculum and made it available for everyone on https://kunaall.com/learn-creativity

Learning these tools will give you new perspective to look at the problems. And according to Elon Musk – You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve.

Q. We saw lot of meme on 2020. But you seem to love this year?

I don’t know of any year teaching us so many things together. Other than kindness and generosity, 2020 has educated us with three extremely valuable lessons.

1. Nothing is permanent. Mainstream business processes have to be discontinued. Involvement of continuous innovation has to increase and be an everlasting part of your organization.

2. Everyone has to learn new skills to survive in the new world. The curve of the infection and virus should be flattened, not the curve of your knowledge. Only people with continuous learning attitude will find opportunities to invest and profit.

3. No one knows what would future jobs and businesses look like. The drastic technological change has embarrassed the ocean full of talent and resources to present multiple unknown opportunities in the recent times. For example, 10 years ago no one thought that SEO/SEM would ever be job titles and no one knows whether this would continue as a job in the future.

Q. Economy seems have trouble. There are job-cuts everywhere. How to tackle all this and still run jobs and businesses successfully?

You are not responsible for the economy, but you are answerable to your family and yourself. Your growth depends on the foundation of your personality and the #1 skill that everyone has to develop is out-of-the-box thinking. We need to find creative solutions for the problems. We have the tendency to only look at the loopholes when they arise. We need to have an understanding and the intelligence to predict the change, and act before it occurs. The education system will teach you basics, but selecting a career and business is your choice, and so is the responsibility of collecting knowledge around it.

If your objective has substance and capability to take you to the next level, you need to develop creative skills to research and draw solutions. Specially entrepreneurs looking for growth and diversifying their business need to develop this energy for creating a better enterprise.

I have introduced this course because It gives me sleepless nights to know that more than 20 million people, only in India, are commercial drivers, and every automobile company is progressing towards self-driving vehicles.

Q. How is the Tree plantation going on? Can you let us know about your goal?

Trees are natural oxygen manufacturing units. Everyone needs to understand that by causing climate change we are diminishing our chances of surviving. We have to indulge in reforestation actions before it is too late. I have a vision to plant and conserve at least 10 Million trees before I die. Till now, we have planted more than 120,000 and have scheduled more 500,000 trees in the next 3 years. We have one plantation event every quarter and I would be happy, if you could participate.

In fact, I am accelerating the journey towards this vision with the course. I promise to plant one tree per participant. That means, with the help of the course, you will not only increase your creativity skills, but also be directly responsible for more oxygen in our environment.

Thank you Kunaall for sharing your time and thoughts. We understand that personal success is only possible by changing our perception to look at situations, and we all need to learn creative skills to cope with unexpected hitches. Let’s strengthen the foundation of our personality today! Visit: https://kunaall.com/learn-creativity

The legendary Indian cricket team captain and all-rounder who led India to glory in the 1983 World Cup, Kapil Dev suffered a heart attack, underwent an emergency coronary angioplasty surgery after complaining about chest pain.

According to the statement from Fortis Escorts, The famous Indian cricketer, Kapil Dev, Age 62 reached the hospital’s emergency department at 1:00 AM on 23rd October 2020 with a complaint of chest paint. After evaluation, emergency surgery was performed by the Director of the Cardiology Department, Dr. Atul Mathur, in the middle of the night.

The Hospital said that Kapil Dev is in Intensive Care Unite (ICU) and is in a stable condition now. He is expected to be discharged in a “couple of days”.
Kapil Dev, the leading Indian cricket team pacer having taken 434 wickets in 131 Test was considered the highest at one point in time. He was also included in the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame.

After the news of his illness came in, the sporting fraternity, wished Kapil a speedy recovery. He was visited by well-known personalities, including Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, Badminton Star Saina Nehwal, former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir and so many others. Harsha Bhogle, a well-renowned commentator took to Twitter to wish him a speedy recovery.

New Delhi, 23 October 2020: Central Vista, India’s power corridor in Lutyens Delhi is all set to be revamped under Prime Ministers’ ambitious central vistas redevelopment plan. The construction of the new parliament building will commence in December 2020 and is likely to be completed by October 2022.

In a review meeting held in the presence of the Lok Sabha Speaker, Shri Om Birla, and Union Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs (I/C) Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, it was briefed about the progress made in the shifting of facilities and other infrastructure from the area proposed for the construction of the new building.

Discussing, the barricading plan and the various mitigating measures to control the air and noise pollution during the construction process the officers of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs further briefed Shri Birla about the proposed movement plan of VIPs and staff during this period, including during the Parliament Sessions.

Reviewing the various aspects and progress of the project, Shri Birla emphasized the smooth coordination, timely completion and quality control of the work.

A Monitoring Committee, including, among others, officers of Lok Sabha Secretariat, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, CPWD, NDMC and architect/designer of the project will be constituted to oversee the day-to-day execution of the construction work of the new Building.

The new building will have separate offices for Members of Parliament. Among other facilities for the Members, each seat for them in the Chambers will be comfortable (with blocks of two seats) and equipped with digital interfaces, which will be a step forward towards a paperless office.

Besides Chambers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, the new Building will have a grand ‘Constitution Hall’, which will house, among other things, the original copy of the Constitution, digital displays for showcasing India’s democratic heritage, etc. It was informed that the visitors will be given access to this Hall to help them to appreciate and understand India’s journey as a parliamentary democracy.

The new building will also have an MP’s Lounge, a Library, six Committee rooms, dining areas and parking space.

Secretary-General, Lok Sabha Smt. Snehlata Shrivastava; Secretary, Lok Sabha Secretariat Shri Utpal Kumar Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs Shri Durga Shanker Mishra; senior officers of Lok Sabha Secretariat; Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, CPWD and other agencies concerned were also present in the meeting.