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Showing posts from January, 2018

Addendum : Necessities Or Wants?

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Our blog article Necessities Or Wants?  drew an energetic response from our Creatives team. Here are a few more works from the team based on the article. We hope you find the images (as well as the article) as thought-provoking as we did. By Neha C, SYBA By Prajakta G, FYBSc. - Editors.

Book Review: Turtles All The Way Down

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“Actually, the problem is that I  can’t  lose my mind,” I said. “It’s inescapable.” -  Aza Holmes, Turtles All The Way Down. Aza's mind has a knack to go down a spiral that makes her concentrate on the all the microbes living inside her, slowly  digesting the food she eats as she contemplates being fictional while sitting in the school cafeteria and reapplying the bandaid on her finger cut, almost everyday. Difficult, yes. * Aza tries to be a good daughter, a good friend and more importantly, she tries to be herself-all the while trying not to slip infinitely down her spiral of thoughts, with an OCD that has her googling the symptoms of diseases she might have gotten as she goes from one school period to the next, we get a glimpse into Aza's mind that she can only define by what it is not.  Aza's story is written with shattering clarity. You can feel her slipping down  her thoughts and trying (and sometimes failing) to overcome her severe anxiety; t his howe

Net Neutrality

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By Mahima R., SYBA One question: How much do you know as on how you reached this post on whatever device you’re currently peekaboo-ing? Chances are, you have no clue about the hurricane that’s going to hit you no later than the end of this new year, because you probably have nowhere from where that wind is coming. Let us clear the air for you. X) This piece of writing that you’re reading now was in it’s infancy jotted on a piece of paper by my not-so-comprehensible handwriting, then I sent an email to the team. Now what actually happens in between is our notable importance. When I clicked the ‘send’ button on the email window, my message was converted into packets of information that flew to the router (a small plastic box with flashing lights and one hell of a circuit within) in my house from where, via wires it reached to an important computer. Call this the Internet Service Provider id est, the ISP. Now this computer is connected using many wires and routers to one

Necessities or Wants?

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By Saunvida S., FY. India is a land of irony and contradictions. Ours is a country where we would rather spend more on our daughters' weddings than on their education and/or health. Our government is no exception, and this is the reason that while there are no taxes on human hair waste used for wigs, 12 % Goods & Services Tax is levied on sanitary napkins!                  A woman after all does not choose to menstruate!                   A woman's menstrual cycle is not a choice. A woman bleeds once a month for around 3-5 days, approximately for 39 years of her life. Is it fair to tax her for a natural bodily activity? When people talk about culture and traditions, menstruation comes to become a huge part of it. “If the government is committed to the all round development of all women, then they have to take care of their health as well”, said Annie Raja , a women's activist .               Several organisations, activists, and women’s group

Disney-Fox Merger

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By Atisha M., SYBCom In one of the biggest deals the entertainment industry has ever seen, The Walt Disney Company is all systems go to acquire 21st Century Fox for a whopping 52.4 Billion USD. This mega-deal will include all of the Fox Franchises, except for the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports, and Fox News. This all-stock transaction has all the potential to change the dimensions of the entertainment industry like never before. If approved by the regulator, the deal will take about a year to close. After the deal is closed, Fox will focus on increasing its footprint in the news and sports sector while Disney will look into the entertainment business.     Here we take a look at some of the implications and some concerns that surround this deal.  THE FUTURE OF CONSUMERS      With Disney, No.1 studio in the world, acquiring most of Fox, No.3 studio in the world, what is most intriguing is what kind of a future the deal brings along for its customers. The mega-m

The War Room

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By Shruta P. With the presence of multiple agencies delaying infrastructure projects in Mumbai, the concept of having a war room stemmed from the need to bring them all on one platform and pin accountability. The CM’s war room was set up after Mumbai First, a voluntary organisation of private sector individuals, and global consultancy firm McKinsey gave a detailed presentation to Fadnavis on the need to bring Mumbai’s multiple agencies on one platform in November 2014. The first war room meeting took place in May 2015. The two organisations helped the government run it and set processes in place over the first six months. The CM’s office reviewed projects initiated by the previous government, chose which ones to put on fast-track and added a few new ones to draw up a list of about 30 projects that the war room would monitor. A special mobile application was developed for the CM to keep track of these projects on the go. If a project flashes red, it means that it has some

GST : New Choices

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By Atisha, SY GST was levied on the goods and services replacing the direct taxes which indicates that there would be just one tax levied on all products and all services (indirect tax), simply, one indirect tax for the whole nation. While explaining this concept of GST to her child, Pallavi Joshi says, “ It’s just the way you celebrate your birthday in your school, let’s say that you have your birthday tomorrow and for which your father gets chocolates, so that you could distribute those in your class, so the next day when you leave your house you meet our neighbours and handover a chocolate to her and you see your friend Tinku with her, so you give it to him too. As soon as you reach school, your father drops you off at the gate and wishes you happy birthday and leaves, the guard at the gate overhears that, so you give him a chocolate too, later when you go to the class, the teacher announces in the class that its your birthday and you distribute chocolates to eve

No Net Neutrality: The New Reality

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By Saunvida, FY. Yet another calamity had befallen the USA in the December of 2017, except this time it wasn’t another hurricane but a shocking reform that still managed to sweep the country away, it was named “No Net Neutrality”.         Accessing the Internet is not just a hobby anymore, it has become a habit of people around the world like brushing your teeth for instance (sometimes the former is even prioritized over the latter), as inevitable as it is irresistible. Internet is after all the widest platform as of today to access information anywhere, anytime and it is important for it to stay like that. And Net Neutrality aims to do just that. However the recent chain of events that has taken place in the USA is heading in the other direction, to thwart Net Neutrality.       But what is Net Neutrality and how does it work? Let’s see how much you know about it before you get to know more about it- Pop Quiz Time! 11)       What does Net Neutrality majorly fo

2G Scam: The fire that burned the "innocent"

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The most awaited 2G scam verdict is finally out! On Thursday 21st Dec'17, a special court acquitted all accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, one of the most talked about scams in India. What was the 2G scam actually? India is divided into 22 telecommunications zones, with 281 zonal licenses. In 2008, 122 new second-generation 2G Unified Access Service (UAS) licenses were granted to telecom companies on a first-come, first-served basis at the 2001 price. According to the CBI charge sheet and Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) audit, several laws were violated and bribes were paid to favour certain firms in granting 2G spectrum licenses incurring a loss of 1.76 lakh crores INR. Although former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh advised the former Telecom minister A Raja to allot 2G spectrum transparently and revise the license fee in a November 2007 letter, Raja rejected many of Singh's recommendations. Ineligible corporations like Swan Telecom a

Book Review : "Anne Frank : The Diary of a Young Girl"

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Mahima with the book I thought I knew the story of Anne Frank and in a way I did, I knew about the world she lived in, the way she had lived in The secret annexe for 2 years, only to be captured so close to the end of the World War. However, I never really knew Anne's story; at least not until I read the diary, "Anne Frank : The Diary of a Young Girl”.             In this diary along with the personal reflections, thoughts and dreams, Anne Frank captures the grave tragedies inflicted by the madness of the Nazi regime and the Second World War.            Anne had mentioned of receiving a diary for her 13th birthday and soon had made up her mind that her diary wouldn't just be an account of what she did each day. "I hope I shall be able to confide in you completely, as I have never been able to do in anyone before, and I hope that you will be a great supporter and comfort to me,” was the first entry in her diary.               On Saturday 20 June,1