After almost 6 months the Taj Mahal is finally going to reopen for visitors from 21 September. The Superintending Archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India’s Agra Circle, Mr. Vasant Swarnkar confirmed this to a newspaper site. He also mentioned that around 5,000 visitors will be allowed every day.

Other ASI- protected monuments were reopened from 1st September in Agra but Agra Fort and Taj Mahal were still kept closed as per the orders of the District Administration. The reason behind the shut was that both of them were falling near to the containment areas.

Guidelines are issued for the reopening of the Taj Mahal; the visitors have to follow various rules to maintain social distancing and hand sanitization properly. He said that masks would be mandatory to enter the monuments and all the tickets must be purchased online only through the app as the ticket counters would remain closed.

The Taj Mahal will be closed on Sundays and Fridays, on the other hand, Agra Fort will remain closed on just Sundays. For downloading the tickets the visitors can use the ASI phone app. According to the reports of ASI, the Taj Mahal was used to be visited by around 70-80 lakh people a year, the number includes foreign tourists. Before the nationwide lockdown, the monuments were already closed on March 17, to control the situation of COVID-19. This was the first time ever since the Indo-Pak war of 1965-1971 that the Taj Mahal got closed.

We keep on hearing the term Child labour in movies or news. It refers to the scenario in which a child is forced to work from a tender age; it in fact is a crime. They are burdened with responsibilities, such as working for money. There are policies and rules which put restrictions on working children.

Children above the age of 15 years or more are considered to be appropriate for work. Below 15 years can’t be forced into work and if done so then it will fall under the crime of Child Labour. Child Labour snatches away the opportunity of having proper education, mental & physical well-being. In short, it takes away their childhood. It is illegal in some countries but still, people perform it, and it needs to be eradicated.

The causes of Child Labour:

There are different countries with different reasons to still function in such illegal activity. But some common reasons are:

The root cause is poverty and unemployment. When a family doesn’t have sufficient money for their survival, they put their child to work in order to make money. If an adult is unemployed, than the younger ones have to work for the family.

Not all, but uneducated people also put their children into work as they only think about short term result and doesn’t care about the long term scenario. They live in the moment, and such thinking forces them to put their children to work.

Now, there are industries that believe in the strategy of money-saving, which leaves them with the option of hiring children for their work. They hire them so that they can pay them fewer wages/salaries in comparison to an adult. They can manipulate and influence them according to their need. Ultimately they make a profit from everywhere.

How to eradicate Child Labour:

Different and multiple numbers of unions can be formed that just focuses on the prevention of Child Labour. Every possible way of helping the children must be brought in manner, and the people who force them to get involved in it should be strictly punished.

The dark side must be shown to the person who involves their children into it, they must be told the importance of education. Also, if we make education free of cost than we can aware more people and then children will be able to get access to the facility of education. People can be made aware of the consequences that their children have to face during Child Labour and even after that.

Contraceptive methods must be told to people so that they can control the size of their families. This helps in the reduction of family’s burden, as fewer mouths you have less is to be fed. Every family must be provided minimum income so that they can at least survive on it. The government and the people have to come together to fight this social evil. More and more employment opportunities should be given to people. Like this people would be able to earn at least their livelihood and would avoid putting their children into Child Labour.

The children are our future, and no one has the right to take them away from their beautiful childhood.

Yash Agarwal, the dynamic Digital Marketing Expert from Kanpur has figured how to stand out in the world full of internet worms, all because of his hard work and invincible attitude towards life. He has attracted followers from different countries and strata of life. He kept his feet in the area of the Digital world 7 years back and since then hasn’t looked back. The gentleman has trained more than 300+ Bloggers & Influencers. It has taken him his blood, sweat, and tears to attain this level.  

Scrolling through his Instagram handle, “meagarwalyash”, you will get a glimpse of him & his work. It will be wrong to call him just a Digital Marketer as he multitalented and has knowledge and experience in Web & Graphic Designing, Content Creation. He helps people in Brand Building, Development of Websites & even in Business Development and Growth. He works for the upliftment of upcoming talents. Yash has done several projects for more than 50+ brands across various cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Indore & Lucknow. Not only in India he even works across India in Countries such as The United Kingdom & Canada. The areas he is involved with are various Fashion Brands, Hospitals, and Doctors & Leading Hotels. The USP of Yash is that he works from Kanpur itself which in itself is a big deal.

His journey of being an entrepreneur began right away from his days of Higher Education. After the completion of his school education, he decided to work for his first-ever venture which was of a Stationary Distributor. During his bachelor he indulged himself with major Stationary Companies of Uttar Pradesh (UP), this made him explore the field more. For about 6 years he ran his business. But, he always used to felt that he’s been missing on something, which was creativity. He says “I put aside my stationery business and moved on to other projects because I felt that this venture was not allowing me to do anything creative with my skills. However, I learned a great deal from this phase of my life.”

He came up with the idea of launching Kanpur’s first community of digital entrepreneurs & budding bloggers named “Kanpur Young Entrepreneurs (KYE).” The purpose behind KYE is to give a platform to the youth who are full of enthusiasm and wants to share their innovative ideas to bring a difference in society. There are a large number of young minds who want to bring notable differences in and across the country. Talking about his project he explains “We have members ranging from doctors, professional photographers, skilled MUAs, creative writers, and artiste. We are running KYE as a community of influential individuals in our society.”

“Fit Me Kanpur”, is his another venture which he started. This one is very close to him as it directly puts light on the people of his home town. Yash says “In our city, we never had a business that provided all the services of the general need to necessities under one roof until Fit Me Kanpur was initiated. In FMK, one will find anything and everything, all under one banner. From wearables to edibles, coupons to discount cards, photographic materials to photographers, and services to assistance – Fit Me Kanpur provides it with all!”

His hard work has fetched him various awards such as “The Young Entrepreneur” honor of IIT-Kanpur in 2013-14, the “Youth Icon of Kanpur” award in 2019-2020 for giving training to more than 300+ bloggers & influencers for teaching them the new rules of the digital world. He organizes different sessions & workshops, where he interacts with the young minds that are in dilemma, and are searching for their answers regarding Digital Marketing. 

He plans to launch his talk show “The MeAgarwalYash Show”, which will get telecasted on Spotify & YouTube. Also, he has a hand-picked team of 20 young talents to provide them employment, which in itself is a big deal as it is difficult to get work in the pandemic.

He is involved in the launch of several food drives, social service projects to eradicate hunger, poverty, and literacy from his Hometown, Kanpur.  

The gentleman is a game-changer and a great example to look forward to and will surely bring change in India with his achievements and positive attitude towards life.

Do not avoid the merits of being physically fit

Being physically fit and active from an early age can create lifetime habits that may avert against poor well-being later in life. Generating more chances for physical activity within our communities will advance health in totality for all. A daily fitness schedule helps in improving our complete health and the positive outcomes become very evident when we devote time exercise. An energetic walk for 30 plus minutes and some basic resistance training is all you need to get blood circulating, burns those pesky calories, and improves immunity.

Boosts Energy

From a plain exercise, or after a decent cardio session, we feel rejuvenated and energized throughout the day. So, be planned about being physically active and get fit doing it – a win-win situation for sure.

Weight Reduction

Dropping appropriate pounds is the one of the key advantages of being fit. Exercising regularly merely gets the fat burning fire roaring, and with a passage of time, we observe a visible difference. We can burn additional calories by just getting ourselves moving, which is unquestionably healthy for our body. Hence, reduction in weight is one of the significant benefits of performing regular workout.

Strong Build

Staying fit with regular workouts and resistance training makes our bones strong. Appropriately increasing muscle power throughout the body also helps in getting better joint support, posture, muscle balance. It also increases our overall metabolism rate, which effectively causes the body to certainly burn more calories.

Mental Strength

A fit body makes us physically as well mentally strong. A routine that includes proper exercise and diet has a positive effect on brain function as well. It elevates blood flow to the brain and enhances one’s brain function.

Personality Development

Staying fit helps keep us looking good. The more we indulge ourselves into healthy habits, the more we improve our overall look. This increases our confidence level and transcends to our overall disposition and self-image. We feel fresh, we have a spring in our step, and we feel rejuvenated throughout the day. Our mood remains happy and optimistic too – this is an absolute win.

Importance for Kids

Children today are fond of indoor activities, in nutshell, they are simply plugged into home bound lazy activities and gadgets. This is particularly the case for the young generation, who are not much involved in outdoor activities. Given that being functioning during our youthful and adolescent years may affect our overall health even in adulthood, it is imperative that teenagers are able to work out near where they reside. Muscles and bones need to be highly engaged at a young age. Involvement in out-of-doors sports like, cricket, football, cycling, basketball, volleyball, and swimming helps them to stay physically fit and active.

Be Inspired

Hope more and more folks can grasp the importance of being fit and healthy. Transforming our lifestyle can make all the difference in the world and it is almost never too late to take the first step.

Taking a unique initiative, Madras Dyslexia Association has adopted traditional games in their remedial techniques for teaching children with special needs.

The Association Special Educators claim to have witnessed significant improvements among children with the use of traditional games, which are vital in developing the pre-skills for all children. The improvements include in areas such as the children’s overall focus, fine motor skills from playing some of these games.

On 30 August, in Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had brought to focus an important pedagogical tool, namely playing with toys.

Speaking about this initiative, Mr. D. Chandrasekhar, President, Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA) said: “We at MDA are constantly in the process of inventing, reinventing, upgrading our remedial techniques in order to bring about the slightest difference possible in the child’s development. After a long day of school, children with dyslexia come for remedial classes, and then they attend therapy classes, after which they’re tutored at home and they finish their homework and whatever little time left, they’d like to spend it in front of the screen or playing against it.”

“Therefore, at Ananya (our fulltime remedial centre) when we make our Individualised Education Plan (IEP), we try and add in a pinch of traditional games in order to tweak their pre-skills, which are vital for the academic development. When you’re working with these traditional games, we realized that they were naturally multi-modal and multi-sensory and usually cater to more than one skill. These games can be easily adapted to suit the strengths and the needs of each child,’’ Dr Chandrasekhar said.

Traditional games have a way of seamlessly teaching physical growth and development, social-emotional development, sensory-motor development, communication skills, problem-solving, concept building skills, understanding and processing skills, executive functions, perceptual readiness for learning, listening, reading and writing besides several life skills, including social skills.

How does playing traditional games benefit children- especially children with Specific Learning Disability (SLD)?

The skills developed/built through the play of traditional games are very important life skills as well as academic skills that cannot be ignored.

Some of the practices and games and their benefits include:

The ritual bath, which helps develop gravity control (vestibular control), body awareness (proprioception) and midline crossing.

The ‘Thooli’ (baby hammock), which helps develop gravity control (vestibular control), body awareness (proprioception).

‘Pallanguzhi’ (mancala), which helps develop numeracy skills, fine motor and graphomotor skills, midline crossing, attention and focus develop.

‘Paandi’ (hopscotch), which helps develop balance, gravity control (vestibular control), proprioception, tactile stimulation, spatial awareness, focus and attention

‘Goli,’ which helps develop proprioceptive stimulation, vestibular control, fine motor control, spatial awareness, visual discrimination and tracking.

‘Bambaram’ (top), which helps develop proprioception, bilateral coordination, muscle tone improvement, spatial orientation, fine motor control and attention and focus.

Kite flying, which helps develop large motor movement, muscle tone, and spatial orientation.

Five stones, which helps develop attention, focus, sequential memory, multi-tasking, active working memory, eye-hand coordination, visual tracking, visual motor association, vestibular control and proprioceptive stimulation.

Further, Mr. Chandrasekhar said that India is a country really rich in culture and the cultural aspects of India are not confined to art, music and architecture but also extends to play. These games do not require any expensive props and everybody could play them regardless of age or gender. They cater to specific developmental aspects needed for children, keeping in mind the geographical and cultural backdrop.

Pink Jordashian famous face in the beauty industry has created the very first all in one Beauty Salon & Skin Care Clinic and a Café at one place. Style & Pink Salon and Skin Care Clinic and the Café’s name is Sip & Hug Café. An in all vibrant space to chill, a striking salon to get a makeover also a salon to relax and rejuvenate.

Pink began with her first clinic and salon in Bhutan which worked really well. Then realising that there was more to explore, learn and grow she shifted her base to Mumbai. The big city came with all interesting challenges but with the love and support of her family and friends she won all of them. She has been around since a very long time now working with esteemed clients like Salma Agha and Shakti Kapoor.

Pink trusts the world in wonderful way the people she met till now have all been very good and has the confidence that she will meet more such delightful souls. Planning to expand with a boutique area in the same zone as the café and salon. Already running a branch of a similar set up in Bengal managed by her sister.

With a lot in her kitty now Pink began her journey since a very young age. At the age of fourteen she started getting involved in dressing up friends and family. She studied dermatology at Siliguri Calcutta University. And took a whole lot of training in Australia, Mumbai, Delhi and Korea. Her expertise has reached a pinnacle, receiving an award for best botox. A journey well-travelled while spreading joy and laughter with friends and family is still going on.

The happiness driven lady loves beautification and her passion to make people look beautiful. The dream chaser was born in Rajasthan and bought up in Siliguri. The happiness she sees on the face of each and every client after her job is done is a reward. The trust her clientele has on her is like a treasure which flourishes every day.

Living with a lot of compassion in her life she likes to be around people and help them. Her optimistic outlook towards life and other human beings is the strong point of her existence. A determined and creative mind Pink conquered and travelled the world with the bag of dreams by her side.

She wants to channelize her compassionate side to give a new meaning to life. Visualizing to build an old age home in the future she wants to care for people to make this world a better place to live. Looking at her past achievements this one too looks like a sure shot. As the whole new world is awaiting her with the business expansions and compassionate goals the lady is raring to go. And of course, she is also breathtakingly beautiful. A kind heart and a happy soul Pink wishes to share her happiness. Making right choices at the right time she is on the way!

As human beings, we are born to dream outside of our reality. We grow reading old books with superheroes and fairytales but reality hits hard when you understand reality.

Karan Chelani is a 17-year-old young entrepreneur who is the founder of a Digital Marketing Agency ‘Glow Plug Developers’ & an Automotive Apparel Brand ‘Ride Rumble’. He was Born and brought up in Palanpur, a small town in Gujarat. Karan chose to find his own way and formed an agency that represented his ideas.

He started his pursuit originally as a Digital Marketer & Web Developer at the age of 16 only by taking some freelance projects from PR agencies and Local businesses. Later, he started freelance work with brands, influencers & artists and helped them through his expertise in digital marketing. Now he is running his own brands and is working with bollywood as well.

What makes him the most admirable personality is his notions. He believes “Learn new things every day to explore a new version of yourself”. Highly Inspired he came up with his own chore at such a young age, and he is no doubt elevating his task remarkably well. We wish him good luck in the future

After the telephonic conversation, Dr. Jaishankar tweeted that “warm conversation with FM Dr. A.K.Abdul Momen of Bangladesh. Agreed to hold our Joint Consultative Commission very soon. Will continue to work closely to reach the ambitious goal set by our leaders.”

In the Commission meeting, the two Foreign Ministers co-chair the meeting.  Government sources said the meeting is likely to be held on September 29-30.  This time Dhaka will host the meeting. Tentatively it is proposed that the meeting will be in a virtual format and the decision on holding the meeting in real physical format is yet to be taken. Rohingya repatriation and river water sharing are also included for the discussion to find a road map for the conclusion of the unfinished agenda.

It is also being stated that the meeting between the chiefs of the two border guarding forces – BSF and BGB will also be held before the JCC meeting. The meeting will be held in Dhaka. A large delegation comprising ministries of External Affairs, senior officials from the Home ministry will also travel as members of the delegation. Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla visited Dhaka last month and finalized the proposed JCC meeting between the two countries amidst the ongoing pandemic Corona crisis.

The 5^th JCC meeting was held in New Delhi in February last year. That time the meeting was co-chaired by the then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and  Dr.A.K.Abdul Moomen.  

Sources pointed out that both sides will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral issues of mutual interest. The ongoing cooperation, including the implementation of decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister Modi and PM Sheikh Hasina, will be high on the agenda. The tentative agenda includes security, border management to mutually beneficial trade and investment flows, power, energy, river water sharing, development partnership, new transport connectivity, culture, and people to people contacts.

This time the engagement may broaden with the inclusion of new high technology areas for partnership, such as space, nuclear energy, IT, and Electronics, in particular, the desired partnership building efforts to enhance in a manner that is commensurate with the commemoration of Bangabandhu centenary and 50^th anniversary of Bangladesh liberation.

(The writer is a senior Delhi-based journalist.) 

Amidst ongoing border standoff and escalating tensions between India and China, it is confirmed that the 5^th BIMSTEC summit will be held in January 2021.

Highly placed government sources in New Delhi have confirmed that all heads of the governments of member states including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina will participate in the summit meeting.

Sri Lanka ,the current chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) has proposed to host the fifth Summit of the regional grouping in the first half of January next year. Member states will discuss  the proposal and finalise the date and other agendas like holding the ministerial level meeting in Colombo ahead of Summit, sources added.

The summit was initially proposed for later this month but due to Covid-19 pandemic, it was postponed. After the summit in Sri Lanka ,the chairmanship of the regional bloc will be handed over to Thailand for the period of 2021-22. The Secretary-level meeting also approved the nomination of a new Secretary-General from Bhutan. The current Secretary General of BIMSTEC is ambassador Mohammad Shahidul Islam of Bangladesh who will be replaced by Tenzin Lekphell from Bhutan after the summit.

Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Srilanka and Thailand are the members of BIMSTEC that is often touted as a parallel of SAARC . In fact, Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla while speaking on Foreign policy on Friday did indicate that India is now seriously promoting BIMSTEC as SAARC grouping functioning is blocked by one member country. He was blaming Pakistan for blocking all initiatives for good cause for economic development of the region.

He was also mentioning how the Corona pandemic has made matters difficult for diplomacy as diplomats are not meeting physically among themselves which creates a lot of confusion. He said,”for this reason only I had to travel to Dhaka for dispeling all misconception about our relationship. And I found PM Sheikh Hasina was so happy to receive me. “

He also said that in Dhaka he had met at least 40-50 people in a short span of time which was necessary for networking with the people. Answering a question on the influence of China in Bangladesh, Mr Shringla categorically said that “this bilateral relationship should not be viewed through the rubric of the third country. Bangladesh is our nearest and close neighbour which comes under our neighborhood first policy”

He said, Bangladesh is now a rapidly growing country in terms of economy. India has invested $ 10 billion as Line of credit and loan for developing infrastructure and community based small projects. It is India’s highest assistance to any country in the world.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi.)

COVID-19 pandemic may have brought the shutters down on everything from the swanky malls to your neighborhood grocery shop, but one place that kept its doors open to the rest of the world was the local chemist. The local pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies as well as distributors have not only kept the economy going but they have also sustained India’s fight against coronavirus by providing timely medicines to patients. In keeping with this positive spirit, noted retailer-distributor of drugs for the past 14 years, Sanjivani Pharmacy, has decided to ramp up its presence in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of the country in this fiscal year. Sanjivani Pharmacy is one of the first chains of branded chemists, which began its operations in 2006, and within a few years, it became the most trusted brand for millions of customers in small-town India. This was one of the first pharmacies in the national capital region to open 24×7 services.

The pandemic has fuelled the demand for preventive as well as curative medicines, leaving more and more people dependent upon the neighborhood pharmacy. Moreover, there is huge scope in personalized, doorstep delivery of medicines & pharmaceutical equipment, owing to social distancing norms. The nation-wide lockdown has provided Sanjivani Pharmacy the chance to push its expansion and provide medicinal help in areas not covered thus far. In this direction, the company has opened more than 50 stores across the country between April and June 2020. Almost all of these new stores have been opened in cities and towns with a hitherto negligible medicinal supply network. With these new stores, the Sanjivani Pharmacy franchise model has helped the company reach out to the most remote corners of the country with medicinal supply in the current times of pandemic. NB Marketing Pvt. Ltd. is the parent company of Sanjivani Pharmacy and it sees immense potential in the Indian scenario. As Mayank puts it, “With the current situation of Coronavirus, people are now more conscious and aware than ever before, especially towards preventive and curative medicines. So, the need to have more pharmacy stores to serve the ever-growing demand becomes imperative.”

With the COVID infection showing no signs of relenting anytime soon, Sanjivani Pharmacy is looking forward to setting up 200 more stores across India by the end of the current fiscal. In doing so, the company is going to focus mainly on Tier II and Tier III cities and towns. Mayank Garg, Founder-Chairman of the Pharmacy, informs, “We feel that the Tier II and Tier III locations, where there isn’t any proper infrastructure to supply medicines to people’s doorsteps, are the best way to expand the business. We aren’t looking at from a purely commercial viewpoint. We also want to ensure that the chain of treatment continues unhindered. It shouldn’t be because of a shortage of medicines or pharmacies that a patient should succumb to any illness during these trying times.”

Sanjivani Pharmacy holds expertise in the distribution and retail of a large variety of medicines and medical equipment. With the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all of India was forced to stay indoors. As a result, Sanjivani Pharmacy stepped in to fulfill the demand and supply gap for people confined to their homes. Apart from opening new stores, the Pharmacy also arranged for personalized services to facilitate an easy experience for the customers through features like “no-minimum orders delivery” & “early morning or late night special shifts.” Doing so ensured that essential medicines were never too far away from the people in need and there was minimum wastage of time in delivery. Another innovative method introduced is “fast door-to-door service” which provides customers with medicines within one hour of the order being placed.

Mayank further adds, “Our company specializes in quality healthcare at an affordable price to people. Our array of products includes products that are allopathic, homeopathic, Ayurvedic, surgical, and cosmetic.”

 Besides being awarded the “Franchiser of the Year” award 2017 at the 15th International Franchise & Retails Show, Sanjivani Pharmacy has also bagged significant institutional orders from healthcare brands like Tata Projects, Max Healthcare, and the Embassy of Dubai. Now with opening 50 new stores and looking forward to setting up about 150 stores more, Sanjivani Pharmacy is set to provide an opportunity to small-town pharmacists/retailers to associate with world-class solutions service in the field of pharmaceutical retail & distribution.