20 million children worldwide – more than 1 in 10 – missed out on life-saving vaccines such as measles, diphtheria, and tetanus in 2018, according to new data from WHO and UNICEF.

Globally, since 2010, vaccination coverage with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) and one dose of the measles vaccine has stalled at around 86 percent. While high, this is not sufficient. 95 percent coverage is needed – globally, across countries, and communities – to protect against outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

“Vaccines are one of our most important tools for preventing outbreaks and keeping the world safe,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. Â“While most children today are being vaccinated, far too many are left behind. Unacceptably, it’s often those who are most at risk– the poorest, the most marginalized, those touched by conflict or forced from their homes – who are persistently missed.”

Most unvaccinated children live in the poorest countries, and are disproportionately in fragile or conflict-affected states. Almost half are in just 16 countries – Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

If these children do get sick, they are at risk of the severest health consequences, and least likely to access lifesaving treatment and care.

Measles outbreaks reveal entrenched gaps in coverage, often over many years. 

Stark disparities in vaccine access persist across and within countries of all income levels. This has resulted in devastating measles outbreaks in many parts of the world – including countries that have high overall vaccination rates.

In 2018, almost 350,000 measles cases were reported globally, more than doubling from 2017.

“Measles is a real time indicator of where we have more work to do to fight preventable diseases,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’s Executive Director. “Because measles is so contagious, an outbreak points to communities that are missing out on vaccines due to access, costs or, in some places, complacency. We have to exhaust every effort to immunize every child.” 

Ukraine leads a varied list of countries with the highest reported incidence rate of measles in 2018. While the country has now managed to vaccinate over 90 percent of its infants, coverage had been low for several years, leaving a large number of older children and adults at risk.

Several other countries with high incidence and high coverage have significant groups of people who have missed the measles vaccine in the past. This shows how low coverage over time or discrete communities of unvaccinated people can spark deadly outbreaks.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage data available for the first time

For the first time, there is also data on the coverage of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects girls against cervical cancer later in life. As of 2018, 90 countries – home to 1 in 3 girls worldwide – had introduced the HPV vaccine into their national programmes. Just 13 of these are lower-income countries. This leaves those most at risk of the devastating impacts of cervical cancer still least likely to have access to the vaccine.

Together with partners like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, WHO and UNICEF are supporting countries to strengthen their immunization systems and outbreak response, including by vaccinating all children with routine immunization, conducting emergency campaigns, and training and equipping health workers as an essential part of quality primary healthcare.

Life never ceases to surprise! 

A trip to the stunningly beautiful Jashpur district in the northern part of Chhattisgarh looked promising because the region is blessed with natural beauty and abundant rain during monsoons. 

One was particularly looking forward because it was an opportunity to take a break from the scorching heat of Delhi. 

Jashpur certainly did not disappoint. The three-hour drive from Ambikapur to Jashpur was a treat to eyes. Lush green field, rocky hills, and rain. It was pure bliss. 

But what turned out to be the best part of the short official trip was Picture Time. Next, to the hotel, our team was staying, was a huge makeshift structure with `Picture Time’ written on it. Curiosity took us there. 

We met Nitin, in charge of Picture Time, who told us it was a collapsible theatre meant for regions where there are no cinema halls. The Chinese-made structure was transported to Jashpur some four months ago and put up at an open space after taking due permission from the authorities. 

It will be there until December when it moves to some other place. 

The fully air-conditioned theatre can accommodate 100 plus people at a time. The screen is big and clear and the sound system comparable to any movie theatre in a big city. There are comfortable chairs and the ticket only Rs 80 per head. 

The portable theatre is owned by a Delhi-based entrepreneur who has named it Picture Time. The crew and entire theatre travel to far off places to provide entertainment. The paraphernalia comprises the structure, ACs, toilets, screen, music system and power back up. 

The structure is fire resistant and, thus, very safe. There is enough space in the van for the staff. The economic model is also interesting. Other than charging audience for watching the movies, the tent or the theatre is also rented out to private companies for advertising and there are many multinational companies who often hire the theatre to showcase their products.

Indeed a wonderful idea to provide entertainment to the lakhs of people for whom facilities and infrastructure do not come as an entitlement. 

They say it’s never too late or too early to start chasing your dreams. Here is another story of a young prodigy who has become famous just at the age of seven. Arafath Sheikh ‘India’s youngest karting sensation’ hailing from Pune, Maharashtra started Karting at the age four. Ah ha! Probably the age where we wouldn’t even know properly what the word ‘Karting’ means. Karting is driving and racing miniature automobiles called karts, or GoKarts. This motorsport originated in the United States and is currently very popular in Europe. It is an upcoming sport in India where the fitness of mind and body is very important. 

Enthralling example of Arafath Sheikh who started chasing his dreams at an early age. He is currently pursuing Class II at The Bishop School Camp, Pune. He made his racing debut at the age of 6 with international lame X30 United Arab Emirates (‘UAE’) championship with P2 position. Karting in UAE is growing up quickly. The UAE is blessed with few world-class tracks and several race teams have their gulf headquarters here. Most circuits will accept drivers as young as 5-years-old, special “Bambino” karts do exist for this Championship. Bambino Championship is for competitors aged 5 to 8 years old. After securing P2 position, there was no looking back for him.

He is currently participating in lame X30 JK Tyre FMSCI National Karting Championship consisting of 5 rounds under cadet category and is currently overall P4 out of 9 competitors with approximately 5 years elder to him. The  JK Tyre National Racing Championship is where every Indian racing driver earns their stripes before progressing into the international arena. This Championship is organized by Meco Motor Sports (‘MMS’). MMS is India’s No. 1 motorsports management enterprise started by Indian racing legend, Akbar Ebrahim. His son Armaan Ebrahim started his career in karting and became Formula LGB Champion in 2004. He was the best racer of his era and has been an inspiration for many of the racers in India. MMS  is where aspirants are trained to learn the ropes of karting and racing to fulfill their dream of becoming professional racers one day. Meco Academy prides itself on having trained virtually every Indian racer that has gone on to participate in international circuits over the last 15 years.

Arafath Sheikh is gaining experience under the guidance of MMS on the Praga Karts. Praga is a well-known Kart Chassis brand. It has its headquarters and production is located in Salizzole, northern Italy having a well-distributed channel in India. Arafath will be participating in lame X30 UAE championship 2019-20  in Bambino class which is starting from September 2019 he is training for Dubai -O-Plate 2020 a popular karting series around the globe. He is the youngest Indian to participate in Karting abroad.

He is already leaving a mark on the world at a young age. The fearless Arafath has blown the mind with his ingenuity and relentless driving and will probably be the most inspiring ones among the young adults and teenagers.

A good work out is only useful when you follow expert one who knows your body. There is a difference between ordinary and best trainer, and that is the reason why good trainer earns good bucks by giving training to celebrities and sports stars.

If we look back to Indian trainer list, you will find very few names in that list who are known for their fitness programs and have trained athletes or big celebrities. Well in that list of few comes Ajay Singh, a Pro fitness trainer who is known for his fitness training and even yoga workouts. He has trained many top celebrities, polo players, Olympic athletes in recent time. He himself is a celebrity with his super fitness training programs.

Ajay Singh workout programs make it easy for his clients, Celebrities are accustomed to hard work, so motivation isn’t usually a challenge for Ajay Singh. He has found his way of doing work out comfortable for his clients. He knows how to keep workouts interesting for his clients. 

Ajay Singh is an extremely focussed and passionate fitness trainer, and he has that desired to share his experience and knowledge with his athletes and celebs clients. He is not keen on desk jobs or sitting alone in a small room “Pushing Pencils”.

Ajay Singh’s goal is to help people live a healthy lifestyle, as he has made his own lifestyle as a career, he wants to teach people about the body and its capabilities, He enjoys and loves his work of making people healthy and fit in their life.

What makes him different then others in the market is his knowledge of human anatomy and the concept of adequate exercise, he also knows correct nutrition needed and fundamental principles of training.

He designs his fitness programs beautifully according to the client. He feels techniques changes according to the physique of the client. His tailored designs never fail, and he always achieves his goal of giving a perfectly healthy body to his clients, which are safe and effective.

Ajay’s primary focus is to help clients reach their health and fitness goals through appropriate cardiovascular exercise and flexible body and also resistance exercise. His programs help his clients achieve overall fitness and perfect physique and also motivate them to continue training and make them as routine for a healthy life.

Ajay Singh always maintains dedication and maintain personal integrity, client confidentiality and professional standards for best practice. His training gives you self improvement, awareness, strong mental capacity.

He has become the first choice for the celebs, Olympic and sports-related people. His Gym centers in the Jaipur are getting a massive response due to his training programs which are working well for most of his clients. Looking at his skills, we might see him giving Personal training to athletes or any sports team shortly at the National or International level.

Namrata Gaikwad is an Indian Actress known for her work in South and Marathi Films. She started her Acting career in a 2011 blockbuster called “Swarajya Marathi Paul Padate Pudhe”…She came into a Spotlight when she was portrayed as “Sayali” in the Marathi film called “Vanshvel”(2013) which is Directed by a National Award winning Director Rajeev Patil.

The actress has been a part of some remarkable Marathi films like  Vijay Aso, LANGAR Ek Paash, CampusKatta, Mazi Tapasya, Zari, and Bedhadak. Even in the South industry, Namrata Gaikwad is winning it big. She is shooting for a Malayalam film titled “Ayal Jivichiripundu” in which she will be seen alongside Vijay Babu.

Along with working in films, the actress has also acted in a Marathi show called “Mangalsutra”, “Prem He” on channel Z Yuva. The actress has also been a part of Marathi plays like Dnyanoba Majha and Sanyasta Jwalamukhi.

Namrata has also done Malayalam ad film with actor Prithviraj Sukumaran. 

Apart from acting, also she is a trained dancer having a stronghold in classical, folk and western dance form in which she has done several stage shows.

About exploring different film industries, Namrata Gaikwad feels proud of being an actress. She wishes to continue such great work and doesn’t want to leave any opportunity to give her best on screen. 

Natasha Luthra’s journey has been as beautifully meandering as her imagination. She began with an MBA in finance and decided to pursue a career in the same and worked at India’s top rating agency. But passion tugged at her heartstrings, and soon Natasha found herself in the midst of the fashion industry. In the initial days, Natasha shared her views on different fashion trends on her blog and social media and within no time she received an ultimate response online.

Soon, Natasha had to make a tough choice of quitting her stable job to pursue her passion. It was a big risk, but what’s life without taking one?

Within no time, her fashion updates on how to experiment and make people aware about latest fashion trends made her popular and stood her blog out of the crowd! The success of a blogger is hinged on their ability to have a direct connection with the following they have amassed over the years. Her popularity and great work also led to her collaboration with several big brands like Jade, Payal Singhal, Loreal, Coach, Moet and Chandon, Loccitane.

She believes in quality over quantity and chooses the brands that she collaborates with very wisely. The brand must resonate with her personality before she endorses them on her social media. The audience is smart and they follow a particular blogger for a reason.

She posts splendid pictures of her life from travel to shoots, from food to vacations and much more. 

This year, Guru Purnima falls on July 16. It is believed that Lord Buddha gave his first sermon on this day. After five weeks of achieving enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Buddha went from Bodhgaya to Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh where he gave the sermon on the full moon day. The followers of Buddha thus, celebrate this day to worship him.

Guru Purnima is also known as Vyasa Purnima and it marks the birth anniversary of Veda Vyasa.

The Tithi will begin at 01:48 am on Tuesday, July 16, and will end at 3:07 am on 17th July. Coincidentally, Partial Lunar Eclipse is also taking place on 17 July in India. 

In India, the Partial Eclipse will begin at 1:31 a.m and the maximum eclipse will occur at 3 a.m. Chandra Grahan will end at 04:29 a.m. The total duration of the eclipse is 5 hours, 34 minutes. The duration of the partial eclipse is 2 hours, 58 minutes.

A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth moves between the Sun and Moon but the three celestial bodies do not form a straight line in space. When that happens, a part of the Moon’s surface is covered by the darkest, the central part of the Earth’s shadow. This central part of the Earth’s shadow is called the umbra.

The festival is celebrated in countries like India, Nepal and other countries of Buddhist and Jain influence. People worship their spiritual preceptors and give them gifts. They visit their temples and offer them respect and seek their blessings.

Most people observe fast on this day as a symbol of loving exchange and prayers for the long life of the Guru in order to get his/her regular guidance.

People recite Shloka on this day in remembrance of their Gurus.

Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara 

Guru Saakshaat Parabrahma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namah .. 

DJ and Producer Karan Bhatia is very much a product of the modern world of Bollywood music. He is phenomenally successful. Having taught himself the basics of sound production and home recording from YouTube tutorials DJ Karan set to work creating his own material and remixes using studio software in the 2018 released track ‘Tera Ghata’. The track received more than 22,000 views on YouTube. 

DJ Karan has been dominating the Desi club scene for nearly two decades. “I use to make mix tapes for friends. I got inclined towards DJing, but back in 1990, there were no DJing schools to learn from so I got a job as a DJ in a nightclub in my University’

From there I learned the flow of DJing equipment and mixing songs. Then I got a job as a resident DJ, where I took off as I taught myself the art of being a DJ” DJ Karan quotes

When asked what message he would give to millennials who are inspired by your work?

DJ Karan says “Learn music before you learn to DJ. Mixing music is fairly easy, but understanding music is the tough part. Research and read about the artist’s song you plan to play. Don’t give up.”

West Indies Cricketer Chris Gayle tweeted a photo with Indian Businessman Vijay Mallya where he writes “Great to catch up with Big Boss @TheVijayMallya cheers #RockStar #F1”. After this tweet Netizens took over and heavily trolled Vijay Mallya on Twitter. 

Tweet of Vijay Mallya “Great to catch up with the Universe Boss and my dear friend. For all those of you losers who call me CHOR, ask your own Banks to take their full money that I am offering for the past one year. Then decide on who is CHOR.”

In response Vijay Mallya tweeted “For all those who saw my photo with the universe boss and my dear friend @henrygayle and commented, please pause and get your facts right about my being your CHOR. Ask your Banks why they are not taking 100 percent of the money I have been offering.”

Vijay Mallya, the 63-year-old chief of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, has been living in self-imposed exile in Britain since last year and is facing extradition proceedings in the UK courts. Vijay Mallya left India on March 2, 2016, after defaulting on loans amounting to Rs 9,000 crore.

He has repeatedly denied fleeing the country, saying he is ready to pay back the money he owed to the Indian banks. India had in 2017 filed for Mallya’s extradition, which he contested. He is out on bail.

The purists, who still consider marketing as an art form, will be keen to point out that communication mediums have and will thrive to change with the changing methodology. What differentiates a successful and a mediocre marketing campaign, will always be critically important. This is the ability to pull the heartstrings of consumers and build an emotional connection to an inanimate product or service.

From the time marketing gurus like Philip Kotler made such statements, to the present day state of the way the marketing Industry is set up, there have been some paradigm shifts. Two of the biggest shifts in the game have been a direct result of social networks and their use as marketing channels. These days most of the brand consultants and marketing moguls capitalize upon the real-time data that changes the outlook of a marketing campaign. Data collected from different social media channels not only help design a niche campaign but also keep a check on the trends. Numbers are game changers. What it takes to build a successful marketing campaign in the modern age has been redefined thanks to these tools.

Dyar Al-Ashtari, one of the modern day success stories, will sync to the fact that the success he has achieved with the prospects of marketing campaigns across Europe stem from the ability to leverage all the marketing tools and marketing technology available. The innovation he drives might be technical but at the heart of all the data analysis and never-ending optimization of ad buys, it is important to note that a core message or brand ethos is hard to ignore.

While some people might have a natural knack for finding a golden mean between the worlds of data-driven optimization and crafting stories, there is no real replacement to the years of experience and business know how people like Al-Ashtari bring to the table. Sometimes, with an endless amount of data being flown, it becomes difficult to inculcate the right data as a guarantee of your success. But Al-Ashtari with its marketing efforts designed aptly has set a benchmark for many to come. 

His appearance as a public speaker is a testament to the fact that his storytelling skills come to the fore each time he crafts a campaign for his clients. Al-Ashtari is a brand consultant who helps blend the brand, its stories, and ethos, packages them perfectly into plain, crisp information, customized for all the communication channels the brand is pushed through. 

In the modern context, it a hybrid set of skills that bring success to notable marketing moguls like Al-Ashtari. The ability to interpret data and design it accordingly is as important as the ability to craft outstanding tales. When the two skills are put together, it creates the modern day equivalent of a truly successful campaign. 

There was a time when the pillars of a brand building were beautifully written messages filled with emotional connect. Today the value of such content is not the same. It is not that brands no longer need an emotional appeal, it is just that content consumption is at an all-time high that makes smaller brands difficult to saturate under the eyeballs if not repeated frequently. What has evolved instead is the need for deeper integration into the consumers’ lives? Brands are moving to the community-led  model where they not only talk to their customers on a more intimate level but also allow them to interact with each other in a space aligned with the brand’s ethos. The social media engagement and gratification that stem from these organic conversations is the cornerstone and prerequisite of the positive B2C connect. When consumers become endorsers of a brand, its ethos and thereby its products they pass videos, text messages and other communication through their interconnected social networks spreading the message of the brand without any media buying costs incurred.

In the past television and hoardings put out a brands message but today the consumer can respond to them. The data and engagement it offers are priceless while building a brand in this day and age.

The objective of marketing, in the bigger scheme of things, has been to generate demand for a product and eventually drive sales. There was a time when the impact of a campaign was measured by a set of approximations. Metrics like TRP become gospel and hoardings were assessed merely on the perception of how busy the streets or markets in its vicinity were. Today the angel investors and venture capitalists look for a brand that stands out in the crowd.

Today, an approximation is inconsequential. Media buying on digital platforms has allowed marketers to trace the customers’ journey starting from scratch on an e-commerce platform. Profiling their customers based on real interactions and preferences, send them to products that they have already shown some kind of buying intention towards. In case it does not turn in a sale, they can rectify what stage of the process the consumer disenchanted. 

To a shrew exponent of digital ads buying, this data is gold. The data helps allocate funds to different marketing campaigns efficiently than ever, allowing them to predict their Return on investment. It has been game changer that has contributed to the rise of digital retail giants.

With all these marketing tools available to make a brand consultant life easier, it is important to note that marketing has not necessarily become the walk in the park people might assume it is. The cut-throat competition and standing out from the crowd have never been so competitive.