Indholdsfortegnelse for November 30, 2020 i India Today

That Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah have converted the BJP into an electoral juggernaut is fairly well known. Just how relentless that machine is became apparent just a day after the Bihar election results. No sooner had the BJP become the dominant partner in Bihar than the prime minister, in a victory rally at the party headquarters in New Delhi on November 11, trained his party’s sights on the next prize—the state of West Bengal, where elections are due in less than six months from now. Three other big states—Tamil Nadu, Assam and Keralaalso go to polls in 2021, but West Bengal remains special. There are several reasons for this, not least its charismatic chief minister Mamata Banerjee. But with 42 seats, Bengal also has the…

In his 40-minute victory speech at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on November 11, a day after the NDA win in Bihar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a moment to exult at the BJP’s expansion from “two seats, two rooms” to “every corner of the country”. He attributed the BJP’s rise to the collective effort of party workers, using the occasion to disparage ‘family parties’ or those that used violence as a means to counter democratic means. “The dance of death cannot work in a democracy,” he thundered. Such parties have to “read the writing on the wall”. And the writing on the wall could not be clearer. It was directed at Mamata Banerjee and her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has been ruling West Bengal for the…

Covid patients are reporting ‘unusual’ and nagging health issues long after completing their treatment Covid toes: Rashes or skin discolouration on fingers and toes due to blood clots Brain fog: Extreme confusion of thoughts and lack of clarity while performing familiar tasks Fluctuating symptoms: The onset and disappearance of symptoms, such as fatigue or loss of smell, over the course of a few weeks Amenorrhea: A condition where women miss their period Ringing in the ear: A perception of continuous low ringing in ears White patch: Minor scars in lungs even without major symptoms during Covid Insomnia: Problems with sleep due to anxiety or reduced lung capacity Gluten sensitivity: Problems with digesting gluten-heavy products…

If you’ve ever admired a miniature painting on a museum wall, you might know the feeling of wanting to hold it in your hands for a closerlook. Life in Miniature partially fulfils that desire. The latest India-centric project by Google Arts and Culture makes over 1,000 miniatures, from the National Museum’s and 24 more collections available in gloriously high resolution. “These paintings were not meant to be viewed from behind glass. You now have an experience close to that of the original patrons,” says Kavita Singh, professor of art history at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, who has also written an essay for the virtual show. So, for instance, if you were to click on a painting of the Mughal emperor Akbar accompanying Tansen to meet the latter’s guru Swami Haridas…

SU REAL The New Delhi-based producer, born Suhrid Manchanda, has been pushing bass music for over a decade. In 2018, he, along with ‘Jadi Buti’singerRashmeetKaur, won the Amazon Prime Video reality competition The Remix,on which Nucleya was a judge RITVIZ Creator of his own genre of ‘Hindustani’ dance music, Ritviz, somewhat of a protege of Nucleya, is one of India’s best-known independent acts with four tracks that have between 10 million and 25 million plays on Spotify, including AIB-endorsed‘Udd Gaye’ GURBAX The influence of Nucleya is evident in the compositions of Bengaluru’s Gurbax aka Kunaal Gurbaxani who blends bass and Indian folk and regional music sounds. He is one of several young Indian producers to have performed opening sets for Nucleya or played guest mixes for his BBC Asian Network…

Q. Has OTT given you as big a platform, if not bigger, than films? I think I was one of the first few to not shy away from OTT or feel like it will damage my image on the big screen. From Sacred Games to Raat Akeli Hai, I have received far more popularity through OTT than I ever did through films. But I have never been married to theatre, TV, short film, film or OTT. It is the content that matters. Q. How do you think OTT has changed the entertainment landscape? What OTT platforms have done is give equal opportunity. Massive films would take most number of screens and independent films would get some obscure timing or faraway theatre so people wouldn’t be able to catch them. With…

Art and fashion have always been the yin and yang of the creative world. So Louis Vuitton’s latest limited edition creative collaboration——The Artycapucines——follows in a hoary tradition. This collection invites six leading celebrated contemporary artists——Beatriz Milhazes, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Josh Smith, Henry Taylor, Liu Wei and Zhao Zhao—— to summon their unique visions to Louis Vuitton’s modern classic bag: the Capucines. Each of them has created stunning imagery that has been innovatively worked on these iconic versions of the modern classic Capucines bag. The collection is proof of Vuitton’s unique ability and desire to marry its innovative spirit and artisanal savoir-faire. And the artists have helped bring these ideas to life. Starting October 30, each bag in the Artycapucines collection will be released in limited edition of 200. Price On request…

Season’s greetings Now’s the chance to channel your inner James Bond with Omega’s new festive collection that’s all set to give you the ultimate licence to thrill! Price on request; Availability Brand stores Floor Art Cold weather, warm colours, and gorgeous rugs is the imperative of this season. Make the most of it with D’Decor rugs——2020 collection. Who says art can only canvas your walls? Price on request; Availability www.ddecor.com Watch this space Make sure you’re the tock of town with this beauty from Lagado watches. Style and substance work in perfect harmony whether you want to gift it or keep it for yourself. Price on request; Availability brand stores Festive spirit Celebrate in style with the Chivas Limited Edition Pack—Blend of Paradise by designers Shivan and Narresh. Apart from…

Kaze Living (Hydroponics) Young entrepreneur Shruti Jain offers the freshest greens using soil-less farming with zero pesticides, fertilizers and chemicals and fully biodegradable packing. https://kazeliving.com/en Courtyard Memories Products that are honest renditions of old-style family recipes, tweaked to use only natural and healthy ingredients. PallaviChaturvedi’sproducts are hand crafted using artisanal processes and produced in small limited edition batches. https://www.picuki.com/profile/courtyardmemories Bilihu coffees These plantations, around Chikmagalur, have been using sustainable farm practices for 5-10 years with noexternal fertilisers, pesticides and generate their own water supply. https://bilihu.in/collections/coffee2/products/ Ishwarii Himalayan Foods Pvt Ltd (Ishwarii Himalayan Born) All products are curated, preservative free and researched to make sure they are grown in villages of the Himalayan Belt and healthy. www.ishwarii.com Nourish Organics As a pioneer in clean-label packaged food, all Nourish Organics products are…

As with nearly everything else to do with our bodies, the effectiveness of the immune system declines with age. From our twenties onwards the body’s ability to fight infection decreases at a rate of about 2 to 3 per cent a year, gradually leaving us more susceptible to diseases, says Janet Lord, a professor of immune cell biology and the director of Birmingham University’s Institute for Inflammation and Ageing. But, she says, the speed at which this happens isn’t unavoidable. “Ill health should not be an inevitable part of growing old. By understanding what happens to our immune systems as we age, we can break that link.” Ageing of the immune system is accelerated by the usual baddies: smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, weight gain and an unhealthy diet. By improving…

Traditionally it is believed that a second knot always weakens the first one; clearly not the case for the new generation of Rolex’s Oyster Perpetual watches. The new versions of the Oyster Perpetual 36 offer dials in vivid colours, where the light reflections on the case sides highlight the elegant profile of the Oyster case that is made from Oystersteel. With colours such as candy pink, turquoise blue, yellow, coral red and green on offer, the Oyster Perpetual 36 is both dynamic and vibrant. Measuring 36 mm with a domed bezel, the watches in the Oyster Perpetual range are direct descendants of the original Oyster, the world’s first waterproof wristwatch, on which Rolex has built its reputation since 1926. In addition, these watches come fully loaded with all the fundamental…

On November 9, the Union government, through a gazette notification, brought “films and audio-visual programmes made available by online content providers and news and current affairs programmes on online platforms” within the ambit of the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry. This means OTT (Over the Top) platforms, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar, and any digital media, including social media platforms, that publish or stream news and current affairs will now be monitored by the I&B ministry. So far, these fell in the domain of the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY). While, for now, the move brings little change to how digital media and OTT platforms function—except the change in the supervising ministry—industry observers argue this could have a far-reaching impact on media freedom and creative…

RAM’S THE WORD The Centre’s favourite actors, Akshay Kumar and Kangana Ranaut, both have a film in the works that should go well with the Sangh fraternity’s views on appropriate cultural entertainment. While Kangana has declared that her second directorial venture will be Aparajita Ayodhya, a drama on the Ram temple, Akshay recently announced a film called Ram Setu. Sharing the film’s first-look poster, Akshay tweeted that the “endeavour is to keep alive the ideals of Ram in the consciousness of all Bharatiyas by building a bridge (setu) that will connect generations to come”. Given Akshay’s benchmark of three releases a year, expect him to beat Kangana in the nationalist stakes and possibly in whose film lands in theatres first. Power Yogi The BJP seems delighted with Uttar Pradesh chief…

With tousled hair and a wide, toothy smile, Dibesh Pokharel presents an instantly likeable persona. It also helps that he can sing like a young John Fogerty, all passionate, soaring vocals. It was this combination that won the 23-year-old Nepali-American, who performs under the stage name Arthur Gunn, a legion of admirers on this year’s quarantined edition of American Idol, the franchise singing competition. At his very first audition, where he performed Bob Dylan’s ‘Girl from the North Country’ and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’, Idol judge Luke Bryan jokingly asked Pokharel to open for him on tour. Judges Katy Perry and Lionel Richie both waxed rhapsodic, affirming Bryan’s enthusiasm. “You are the story we need to tell,” Richie told Pokharel after coming in for an…

In pre-colonial Persian works of different genres, India was often referred to as Hindustan, but the word Hindustan almost always existed as a compound phrase: Hindustan Jannat Nishan, or “Hindustan the sign of heaven on earth”. This Hindustan Jannat Nishan was celebrated in chronicles, histories, poetic compilations in Persian and other vernacular languages. These works extolled its climate, produce, diversity and culture. However, this Hindustan, the beloved of pre-colonial histories, has disappeared from modern Indian history writing and been replaced by the idea of India, and, more commonly in the popular imagination, as “a thousand years of Muslim tyranny and destruction”. How did this come about? In investigating this problematic idea, Manan Ahmed Asif has written a book, not just about those chronicles but also a genealogy of how history…

THOUGHT FOR FOOD IS FOOD FOR THOUGHT. Think organic. The purity principle behind recipe construction in the Age of the Pandemic is eating healthy and eating fresh. The reinvention of traditional recipes and methods using garden to kitchen ingredients are delighting cosmopolitan palates as people search for alternatives that can be trusted. And ‘conscience dining’ is the spice of life as five outlier chefs tell you in this month’s issue of Spice. Ram Swaroop Kundra, head chef at Amanbagh uses organically sourced ingredients across all restaurants at the hotel, including the poultry that is custom-reared in a free range setting. On the other hand, Executive chef at Andaz Delhi, Vikram Ganpule, offers a unique experience at the hotel’s restaurant Annamaya, where even the standard breakfast buffet offers organic options, and…

You may or may not find organic Portobello mushrooms or heirloom tomatoes or even purple potatoes in a chef’s kitchen, but chances are, you will spot a happy farmer. You might wonder why chefs allow this. After all, aren’t we all habituated to purchasing our produce from markets in which the actual producers are anonymous? You may even wonder how these chefs spare the time to personally collaborate with farmers. Shouldn’t a chef concentrate on making the best use of time and skill to innovate on what appears on the plate, and how? The answer is easy; chefs in India are now increasingly becoming part of the universal organic food movement, which began in the early 20th Century as a substitute and regressive choice to the increase in chemical farming.…

OatWow by Urban platter is a 100 per cent plant-based Oat Milk made from the finest quality oats. UrbanPlatter.in and Amazon.in Kocotrait by L Nitinchordia, India’s 1st and only certified chocolate taster. It is the world’s 1st ecological luxury, zero waste, and planet friendly (plastic & paper free) vegan, eco-friendly, sustainable bean to bar Chocolate brand. https://cocoatrait.com/ Oil cure Retail healthy and pure cold pressed oils (a certified climate neutral &plastic neutral brand. https://www.oilcure.com/ Vahdam Teas A range of garden-fresh, high quality, premium, loose-leaf teas sourced directly from India’s choicest tea gardens within days and weeks of harvest devoid of any middlemen. www.vahdamteas.in Responsible Whatr India’s foremost natural mineral water beverage, offered in an ecological and biodegradable aluminium can, obtained from a virgin and natural source in the Himalayas. It…

As Mumbai wakes up to a new dawn, fresh from overcoming the more severe days of the coronavirus pandemic, it blinks into the horizon of what is to come. The maximum city is always ready for the next big thing and in this case, it is the New Normal that has come to be. Rallying forth as a true Mumbaikar, there was no better way to forge a new day than to char the astphalt on a much-needed long drive, away from home and city. Our destination of choice was Lonavala. Since we were all about the grand future, we chose a car befitting the new era: the most luxurious electric vehicle to awe India yet, the 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC. We set off early with the aim of dashing through…

$2.9 bn (about Rs 21,598 crore) India’s projected OTT revenues by 2024, making it the sixth largest market in the world >300% Expected growth of subscription OTT videos over five years from $708 million in 2019, making India the fastest growing OTT market 93% of India’s OTT market is video-on-demand subscriptions, which will be the prime driver of this growth 10 mn subscribers paid for 21 million OTT video subscriptions in 2019 40+ Video OTT players in India 1,600 hours of original content created for OTT platforms in India in 2019 Source: India’s OTT Market Landscape Report 2020 by inc42.com; Kantar, a data, insights and consulting company; Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers…

ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT 1.0 Kisan Credit Cards: 15.7 million cards issued, sanctioned loan limit of Rs 1.43 lakh crore in two phases Emergency working capital for farmers: Rs 25,000 crore of loans issued through NABARD Emergency credit line guarantee scheme (ECLGS): Rs 2.05 lakh crore of loan guarantees sanctioned for 6.1 million borrowers; Rs 1.52 lakh crore disbursed Partial credit guarantee 2.0: Public sector banks have approved purchases of Rs 26,889 crore worth of assets from NBFCs and HFCs (non-banking financial companies and housing finance companies) Special liquidity scheme: Rs 7,227 crore for NBFCs/ HFCs Liquidity for discoms: Rs 1.18 lakh crore worth of loans sanctioned, Rs 31,136 crore disbursed ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT 2.0 Festival advances: Central government employees given advances via ‘Utsav cards’ Leave travel concession: Voucher scheme for government employees,…

As experts from the Dehradunbased Wildlife Institute of India (WII) start the process of evaluating sites to reintroduce the majestic cheetah to India’s wilds, a competition of sorts has also begun between states to play host. The cheetah was declared extinct from India in 1952. Maharaja Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Koriya is believed to have hunted and shot the last three recorded Asiatic cheetahs in India in 1947. Now, over 70 years later, the fastest land animal appears set to make a comeback in India. In 2009, Jairam Ramesh, then minister for environment and forests, had initiated the cheetah reintroduction project, but it was stayed by the Supreme Court in 2012 on the grounds that the African cheetah was an alien and exotic species and because the National Board…

DARK HORSES SWAMI KRIPAKARANANDA With a brilliant academic record, he was a practising doctor in the US before he turned to more spiritual pursuits. A powerful orator, he has a sizeable following among the youth for his inspirational speeches. Many think he could be the Yogi Adityanath of Bengal. However, the Ramakrishna Mission in Varanasi, where he heads the medical team, has rubbished the claim as rumour. DILIP GHOSH State party president, groomed by the RSS, proponent of aggressive, muscular Hindutva. Is appealing to people who feel terrorised under TMC rule. Tough talker. “I am not the sweet-talking type. I cannot sugar-coat words when I have to put wreaths on the bodies of my party workers.” TATHAGATA ROY Engineer and educator by profession, he is the author of several books,…

The National Museum New Delhi had never felt this intimate. I was in the Miniature Gallery when a robust male voice began to sing loudly: “Tu hi pyaar, tu hi chaahat, tu hi aashiqui hai”. I had been admiring Radha and Krishna admiring their own reflection in a mirror: a pre-digital couplefie aided by an attendant—and the painter. Now the 1640 Mewar miniature seemed illuminated by the security guard’s rendition of the song from Mahesh Bhatt’s 1990 romantic superhit, Aashiqui. It was 3 pm on the first Sunday after India’s premier museum reopened on November 10, but only 23 ticketed visitors before me had entered the grand old building on New Delhi’s Janpath. Inaugurated in 1960, the museum complex is being revamped since 2017, and I have often found the…

In their effort to find audiences, Ramanand Sagar and religious right-wing forces rid the Ramayana of ambivalence. In their telling, Rama was never prone to doubt. His actions were dictated by a kind of moral certitude that divinity readily affords. Thinking of Rama first as man, Arshia Sattar has always sought to understand more fully the king who ruled from Ayodhya. With Maryada, Sattar forwards that project. She again rescues the Ramayana from that easy ‘good versus evil’ binary. In the Mahabharata, the line separating right and wrong is blurred repeatedly. It becomes hard for its audience to clearly define dharma, the code that fashions conduct and cosmic balance. The Ramayana, Sattar says, makes dharma accessible to all. In its effort to make conspicuous that code which governs life, the…

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The Earth Collective Where? Sunder Nursery – Delhi’s Heritage Park When? 9 AM to 1 PM, Every Sunday Hyderabad Farmers Market Where? Biodiversity Park, Gachibowli, Hyderabad When? 8 AM to 1 PM, Every Sunday Krishi Direct, Bengaluru (online during the pandemic) Where? https://krishidirect.com/ When?Any time Bandra Farmers’ Market Where? Bandra Hindu association, 30th Road, Off Linking Road, opposite Amarsons, Behind Nilgiri Garden, Bandra west, Mumbai. When? 9 AM to 4 PM, Every Sunday Gurgaon Organic Farmers’ Market Where? Rajiv Gandhi Renewable Energy Park, Roots Café, Sector 29, Gurugram When? 9 am to 12 noon, Every Sunday…

There is an old saying in our part of the world that whiskey brings people together. I am a native of Lynchburg, Tennessee, and my grandfather, the late Frank “Frog” Bobo, was also Master Distiller at Jack Daniel’s. He retired in 1989, when I was eight years old, and I distinctly remember coming on weekends and enjoying the beautiful space. While I have stepped into my grandfather’s shoes and have a strong connection with this distillery, there are many others who have their own connection with the distillery through generations, which is why I say whiskey not only brings people together but whiskey is often steeped in tradition in more ways than one. However, over the past seven to eight years, what has been fascinating to see is the innovation…

Bowmore The Bowmore 12 Years Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky epitomises tradition, heritage and luxury. Bowmore is the first licensed distillery on Islay and home to one of the oldest Scotch whisky maturation warehouses in the world, the No1 Vaults. When it comes to whisky heritage, the Bowmore Distillery is unrivalled. The Bowmore Distillery, founded by the merchant David Simpson, dates back to 1779. It’s in these legendary stone walled warehouses thatBowmore whisky has been meticulously matured by master distillers for over 240 years. Unlike most distilleries, Bowmore still has its own Malt barn, an airy shed where they malt their own barley and start the process of germination. It’s also where Bowmore gets its subtle peat smoke character. Typically, Islay distilleries are famous for their distinctive peaty taste, which…