The newsmakers of 2019

WTF of the year: SaahoAll eyes were on Bahubali man Prabhas in this big-budget film that ticked all the potential blockbuster boxes. But lazy writing, shoddy special effects and a largely incoherent Prabhas translated into a three-hour headache in the theatres. What got our goat? An (unintentionally) laugh-out-loud sequence that had Prabhas's Saaho/Ashok facing off against a cobra, an ostrich and a black panther... in the middle of a Mumbai slum! Music album of the year: Gully Boy"The voice of the streets" was brought to the mainstream, with Gully Boy bringing the desi underground scene to the forefront. A host of artistes - most prominently Divine and Naezy on whose lives the Zoya Akhtar film was loosely based - collaborated for its music, with leading man Ranveer Singh often chipping in with his voice. Dissent to desire, angst to attitude, the Gully Boy album was a blast, giving us gems like Azadi, Apna time aayega, Mere gully mein and Doori. Action man of the year: Vidyut JammwalTiger Shroff and Hrithik Roshan's power-packed moves may have propelled War to blockbuster status, but it was Vidyut Jammwal who quietly came up with two action-oriented money-spinners this year. While Junglee had the man playing saviour to a horde of animals, Commando 3, despite its corny plot and premise, brought in the crowds on the strength of Vidyut's action - karate to Kalaripayattu to some good ol' dishoom dishoom! Polariser of the year: Kabir SinghAnyone who had watched Arjun Reddy, the original Telugu film starring Vijay Deverakonda, knew what they were in for when they walked in for Kabir Singh. The film was quickly called out for its misogyny and toxic masculinity, with director Sandeep Reddy Vanga's problematic and deeply patriarchal take on millennial relationships being severely criticised. But an uninhibited central act from Shahid Kapoor, some compelling moods and moments and hummable songs ensured that viewers flocked in droves (mostly to gauge for themselves what the fuss and furore was all about) to theatres, making Kabir Singh a Rs 300-crore-plus blockbuster. Even today, voices on both sides of the misogyny debate rage on. Boo-boo of the year: KalankLavish sets to a seemingly epic story, Kalank had everything going for it. Add to that its as-big-as-it-gets cast. But save for one crackling scene between Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit and a few foot-tapping Pritam numbers, Kalank was a huge disappointment, with even the ever-dependable Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan coming up short. This was one big spectacle with zero soul. Tearjerker of the year: The Sky is PinkA gut-wrenching film that you were compelled to watch with a perpetual lump in your throat, The Sky is Pink - Shonali Bose's film about life and death and also about everything that comes between life and death - made you empty out your box of tissues. The film spoke about loss and collective healing and touched upon both helpless vulnerability and a quiet innate strength that we need to dig deep within ourselves. Priyanka Chopra, back from a break, was the pivot around which The Sky is Pink revolved, giving us a film that ripped your heart into shreds and then pieced it together. Cameo of the year: Mohit Raina in UriTV's Mr. Popular made a seamless transition from screen small to big with his role of a courageous armyman who sacrifices his life for the country in the blockbuster Uri. Mohit Raina - who shot into the spotlight with his turn as Lord Shiva in the mythological series Devon Ke Dev... Mahadev - had limited screen time, but made quite an impression, owning the few scenes he was in. "People are saying to me, 'We wanted more of you... we were looking out for you'"... is what Mohit told t2 about his Karan Kashyap after the film's release. DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: The Telegraphhttps://www.magcloud.com/user/potygfebswao

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Pakistan Govt to disclose its view on verdict

Campus trouble: What is behind the Panjab University's decline? 'We can wish for all kinds of things for the university, but the reality remains that its condition is steadily deteriorating in the last few years,' added Brar. One of the oldest institutes of higher education in the region, Panjab University was first established in Lahore in 1882, before it shifted to Chandigarh post-Partition in 1956 where it was designed by Pierre Jeanneret under the guidance of Le Corbusier, the famed pioneer of modern architecture. Due to the historic significance of its architecture, many buildings in the university such as the Student Centre, Gandhi Bhawan and the Fine Arts department are valued as heritage structures. However, the structures now stand faded and corroded, silent witnesses to the steadily diminishing glory of the varsity. Slipping Down the Ranks The varsity, which ranked at the first place in Times list of top universities of India up till 2014, slipped to the 20th position in 2019. A university that once boasted of highly successful alumni making a mark the world over, now finds it increasingly hard to increase student enrollment. In its revised budget for the year 2019-2020, the University's Board of Finance cut down its budget by Rs 13 crore, as the projected annual income of the varsity had slipped due to lower enrollment of students. At the last meeting of the Senate, a governing body of the varsity akin to the lower house of Parliament, members of the body proposed a plan to increase enrollment of students by devising more courses. However, other members conceded that increasing enrollment by introducing more courses is an unachievable dream, when the university can barely afford to hire more staff or build more infrastructure to cater to new courses. Far from increasing the faculty strength, most departments of PU are running at a strength less than half of the sanctioned strength of faculty members. When asked why the University does not hire more faculty to cater to the needs of its student population, Dean University Instruction (DUI), Shankarji Jha nonchalantly proclaimed that when 'there has been no hiring of staff in some departments since the 1990s, how can we even look towards hiring more?'. There are departments such as archaeology where the staff strength is as low as two against the sanctioned number of nine. Financial Crunch Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by the University is the shortage of funds and manpower. Though the staff crunch is often attributed to an order by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which allegedly does not allow for fresh recruitment of faculty, the poor infrastructure, falling quality of education and lack of resources points to a deeper malaise — chronic lack of funding. The university, which currently falls under the bracket of a state university, receives most of its funds from the Central Government. According to a concept note prepared by a few PU professors, arguing for a central status in order to relieve the burden of funding, 92 percent of the budget deficit of the University is given by the Central government. 'Then why can't we make a serious case for attaining central status? What is stopping us?' asked Gurmeet Singh, Chairperson of the Hindi Department, at a Senate meeting held on December 14. However, stakeholders allege that looking towards any source of public funding is no longer a feasible option. Brar, the professor emeritus from the Political Science Department, suggested that the university look towards American universities' models of funding, where money is sourced from a public-private partnership. However, the idea of looking towards private sources, raises questions about affordability. 'We cannot let the burden of funding fall on our students. Our university works according to the tenets of a socialist country, we should aim to provide more scholarships and financial aid to all students who need it, rather than place the burden of funding on them,' says Chamman Lal, Senator and recently elected Dean of the Faculty of Languages. Deteriorating Facilities Far from providing more scholarships to its students, the University has failed to deliver basic facilities to a fee paying student on campus. To begin with, getting hostel rooms on the campus is an unending struggle for many, who often wait for a year or longer. There are 11 hostels for boys and eight for girls, which can in all accommodate a few thousand students out of a total of over 16000 students enrolled in PU. The rest stay outside as paying guests. Furthermore, many students allege hostel rooms lie vacant but are reserved for guests who pay more for the accommodation than regular students. Others say the rooms are often occupied by alumni even years after they have graduated. 'There are so many political types who have been staying here and they have jobs and everything, but no one dares to evict them,' says a helper at one of the boys hostel. Though the university has come up with an online portal to introduce transparency in allotment, the portal can only be used by students to register their names, after which students have to go through the same grueling process that they had to when the portal did not exist. Safety and Welfare Women hostellers have relentlessly reported on how unsafe they feel inside the campus to no avail, especially in the late evening or at night. There have been series of protests by women students who have asked for a safe passage between the hostels and the library, since many have faced instances of molestation, but to no avail. A woman student, who was stalked for a whole week by a gang of boys, has now stopped going to the library altogether. In response to these incidents, authorities such as the Chief Security Officer and the Dean Student Welfare ask women students to be more careful and move in groups, stating that nothing can be done to check the actions of 'outsiders' who roam the campus at night. One such 'outsider' made news early December, by molesting a journalist who was out for a morning walk at the Botanical Garden in the university. Another young student was molested at the garden last year, which led to an investigation by the Committee Against Sexual harassment (CASH). The committee submitted its findings and suggestions but no action was taken. 'Now another such incident has occurred in the same garden, and the authorities are as lax about it as ever,' groused Ameer Sultana, convener or the CASH committee. A PU Professor, who wishes to remain anonymous, succinctly sums up the state of affairs at the varsity: 'There is just too much red tape and bureaucracy here, so change is hard to come by any time soon. We are stuck in the same old administrative roles, forming committees and asking for permissions, but no real work gets done!' Schooling for success The growing number of centrally introduced interventions are robbing teachers of the time they need to shower on students From the decision to end the non-retention policy of students up till Class 8, to the launch of a booklet on the Phoenix application, the Chandigarh administration took a number of steps to reform the school education. According to the non-retention policy, students up till Class 8 were not failed by examiners, no matter how dismal their performance. Former Education Secretary BL Sharma, decided to do away with this policy to compel both students and teachers to work towards better grades. 'This is not the way to inculcate the values of hard work and discipline in students, this will stump their academic growth,' BL Sharma had opined in an earlier interview with Newsline. Sharma also made news for conceptualizing and implementing the Phoenix application, which he introduced in schools to regulate the academic performance of every student enrolled in government schools. In the app, teachers across schools have to input information on every student's performance in accordance with prescribed learning outcomes on a monthly basis. After evaluating the performance, students are sorted into different performance grades, and those who perform poorly are given extra attention and tutoring to improve their performance. 'My goal is to make sure that each and every student from government schools performs as well if not better than their counterparts in private schools,' said Sharma, before he retired from his post as Education Secretary. Preparing for PISA Improving the performance of government school students is extremely crucial in the light of the upcoming Programme for International Students Assessment or PISA test, in which Class 8 students from Chandigarh will represent India. Preparations for the test, which will be conducted in 2021, have already began in full throttle, as the exam does not test the student's knowledge based on rote learning, but evaluates the analytical skills, knowledge application and problem solving skills. 'We give them an hour long extra class to prepare them for the test. We also make them practice problem solving with real life applications; a lot of work has been done to make sure they are well prepared,' says Ravinder Kaur, a government school principal in the city. The pressure to perform well in PISA is further compounded by the fact that India's performance was exceptionally dismal during the last time its students participated in the PISA examination. The country ranked 72nd amongst 73 participating countries, beating only students from Kyrgyzstan. It was also observed that Indian students performed quite poorly in solving mathematical problems. To amend this lapse in mathematical skills, the UT administration announced that additional chapters will be added to the mathematic syllabus of Class 6, 7 and 8. However, the Central Government's decision to introduce the option of Basic Math level examination in Class 10 board examination could dilute this effort. In Chandigarh, more than 80 percent students in government schools have opted for the basic level of math examination, instead of the usual standard- level examination. Strengthening Public Education The efforts to fortify government school education began to bear fruit this year as was evidenced by the steep jump in the aggregate pass percentage of students from 48.51 percent in 2018 to 75.27 percent in 2019. Still, most students who have the economic means or harbour the dreams for a bright future for their children scampered around the city to admit their children in private schools. The Director of School Education, Rupinderjit Singh Brar, attributed this phenomenon to an irrational belief in Indian parents that 'if one pays more for something, it is automatically supposed to be something worth paying for'. With the central government introducing a slew of programmes such as Khelo India, Constitution day, shiksha pe charcha, Swacch Bharat et al, Sukhraj Kaur, a nodal officer, says her hands are full. Exciting as the events sound, for most teachers, these only translate into more administrative work, and days spent laboriously consolidating and processing data. 'Sometimes we have too much administrative work to look into the academic progress of our students, which, at the end of the day is the most important function of a school,' rued a schoolteacher, while requesting anonymity. 'If we could just focus on their education, instead of all this other meaningless activity, maybe our students will fare better,' she signed off. DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: The Indian Expresshttp://raptorx3.uchicago.edu/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1085&extra=

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General, it's none of your business

he mention of students was seen as a thinly veiled reference to the protests now under way, at the forefront of which are youths from campuses.Rarely before has a serving army chief in the largest democracy in the world given an impression that he was wading into a political - and highly sensitive - issue with which the military has nothing to do.Gen. Rawat's audacious remark also showed how much the relationship between the executive leadership and the military has changed since Independence when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru insisted that the army should never interfere in any civilian matter.The worth of Nehru's foresight is borne out by the fact that unlike in the neighbourhood, no military junta has so far dared to topple an elected government in India.The army chief's comment was all the more galling because Gen. Rawat retires less than a week from now, on December 31, and he is said to be among the frontrunners for the newly created post of the Chief of Defence Staff.As controversy erupted, army sources circulated the following points:*The chief has not referred to the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act.)*He has not referred to any political event or personality.*He was addressing the future citizens of India who are students.*It is his righteous duty to guide students on whom depend the future of the nation.*In the Kashmir Valley, youths were misguided by people whom they trusted as leaders.During his speech, Gen. Rawat had added: "A leader is one who leads you in correct direction, who gives you correct advice and then ensures that you care for the people you lead. So leadership is through personal example and that is what we in the armed forces are proud of. Each and every leader in the Indian Army. the defence forces. has proved his worth as a leader and that is what I think makes us stand out among our people."Military veterans and security experts chastised the army chief for making "overtly political statements", which they said were unbecoming of an officer in his position.Some of the veterans suggested that an army chief wading into a domestic political debate was more distinctive of Pakistan than India.Air Vice-Marshal (retired) Kapil Kak told The Telegraph: "India's armed forces are apolitical. The army leadership should not make any political statements at all, let alone on this issue which is in many ways (a protest against an) unconstitutional (measure). The military leadership should always remember that the citizens look up to the armed forces."Former navy chief Admiral L. Ramdas told PTI: "The rule is very clear that we are serving the country and not political forces, and to express any political views as we have heard today are quite a wrong thing for any serving personnel, whether he is the top gun or at the bottom rank. It is not proper."An army veteran who had retired from the Northern Command said: "It's unbecoming of a serving army chief to align with his political masters and make such political statements. He shouldn't forget that India is still a democracy and that the armed forces have to work under a democratic set-up. It seems he has become desperate and is eyeing a post-retirement post."A retired naval officer said he did not know of any Indian army chief issuing such political statements in the past. "This happens in the Pakistan army. It seems we now have Pakistan as our role model. The country is on the path to becoming a Hindu Pakistan through the enactment of discriminatory laws."The veteran said this was all a part of the Narendra Modi government's politicisation of the armed forces, and underlined how the BJP and the government had milked the Balakot air strikes during the Lok Sabha poll campaign.Modi and other BJP campaigners had sought votes in the name of security personnel killed by militants, and had highlighted military operations like Balakot and the September 2016 cross-border "surgical strikes".This had prompted more than 150 veterans led by Admiral Ramdas to write to President Ram Nath Kovind in May, urging him to stop political parties from invoking the military for electoral gain.A veteran said on Thursday: "We are witnessing rampant political exploitation of the military under the current government, and what is shocking is that the army chief is a party to it."Former Uttar Pradesh director-general of police Prakash Singh said: "Neither an army chief nor a police chief should make any political statement."Another veteran, however, said people were reading too much into Rawat's statement. "He has made several political statements in the past, too, to suit the government's agenda. The bigger question is why he is making such a statement just 4-5 days before his retirement," he said. A political storm also raged. "The army chief's remark on CAA is highly objectionable, unethical and beyond his remit," the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, tweeted.The CPM urged the general to apologise to the nation for his "indiscretion", which it said had extremely adverse ramifications for the constitutional arrangement in the country.The CPM politburo said Rawat had "directly indulged" in condemning the student protesters. "The army chief's statement underlines as to how the situation has degenerated under the Modi government where the highest officer in uniform can so brazenly breach the limits of his institutional role. It is, therefore, necessary to raise the question as to whether we are going the Pakistan way of politicising the military. Such obnoxious interference in matters of democratic struggles from top-ranking military professionals is unheard of in the history of independent India," the politburo said in a statement.CPI general secretary D. Raja said Rawat should not have commented on what was a "political issue"."He is the chief of the Indian Army and not of any political party. His mandate is to safeguard the borders and not to make such political comments. He has criticised the leadership of the protest, clearly siding with the ruling party," Raja said.Additional reporting by PTI DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: The Telegraphhttps://chalmers.in.gov/forums/users/potygfebswao

Premier League 2019-20: Deadly Liverpool blow away Leicester City 4-0

A trip to Leicester, who went into the game unbeaten at home this season, was the toughest test of the season, but Klopp's men passed the test with barely a hint of drama and it will now take an extraordinary slump for them to fail to win their first title of the Premier League era. 'We played really good football after all the travelling and intense period, yes it is the best performance of the season and we controlled it, to get four goals is something to be proud of,' said Alexander-Arnold. 'You don't really think you will be 13 points clear but we are happy to be in this position and we won't take it for granted. This is the Premier League and anything can happen,' he added. Popping up in the inside-left position, Alexander-Arnold floated a pinpoint cross to the backpost for Brazilian Firmino to head Liverpool into the lead in the 31st minute. Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel then produced an outstanding close-range save to foil Sadio Mane and Liverpool would be have been disappointed to go in at halftime with only the solitary goal. Liverpool were utterly dominant but had to wait until the 71st minute to extend their lead when Alexander-Arnold's corner struck the left arm of Caglar Soyuncuand substitute James Milner slotted home the penalty with his first touch of the ball. Firmino then made it 3-0, collecting and firing home a powerfully struck low-cross from Alexander-Arnold before the 21-year-old rounded off the rout, hammering a low shot into the far, bottom corner at the end of a swift counter-attack. Liverpool have 52 points from 18 games; Leicester are on 39 points from 19 matches and Manchester City are 14 points behind the leaders before their game at Wolves on Sunday. 'It's one of many successful nights so far this season,' said Milner. 'We are not even halfway. So much can change and happen. The strength of this team is we tale it one game at a time.' DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: Deccan Chroniclehttp://ebusinesspages.com/potygfebswao.user

JDU hurls non-tribal barb at Raghubar Das

as also lost for the first time in 25 years from his pocketborough Jamshedpur East to his own former cabinet minister-turned-rebel Saryu Roy. The JDU leader said that an attempt to change the provisions of the age-old land tenancy acts - CNT and SPT - also sent a wrong message to tribals. "They started seeing the Raghubar Das government as one that wanted to give tribal land to corporate houses," Tyagi said.Tyagi also raised a question on the functioning style of the outgoing CM Raghubar Das and observed that Das failed to establish proper coordination in the workings of his government and become a leader who "could take everyone along with him".The BJP did not take kindly to these remarks. Reacting sharply, BJP general secretary Deepak Prakash said those raising questions of tribal and non-tribal with respect to the outgoing CM (Das) did not know ground realities. "Also, the Raghubar Das government has set such milestones of development that their importance will be realised in the times to come," Prakash said. "Also, critics are forgetting that Jharkhand has a tribal lady governor (Droupadi Murmu) and the Das government had a tribal Speaker (Dinesh Oraon). The BJP also made a tribal leader from Jharkhand (Arjun Munda) a minister in the Centre in addition to giving the Rajya Sabha seat to a tribal (Sameer Oraon)." DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: The Telegraphhttps://ask.fm/ranaagdagbejs6

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On barbs over Rahul's Savarkar remark, Uddhav Thackeray's biting comeback

If you can't give sons of soils (Marathi speaking population) in Karnataka justice, then what's the point of this CAA,' questioned Thackeray. Reacting on the Veer Savarkar's controversy, where the BJP accused the Sena of not being critical of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's controversial statement, Uddhav once again turned his guns on the BJP questioning them whether they adhere to the late leaders views completely. 'Do you understand Savarkar completely? Do you accept his views on the cow? You have introduced beef ban here (opposed by Savarkar) but not in other states. 'Maharashtra madhe gou Mata, dusri kade chatta'. He also referred to the late BJP Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parikar's stance that there will never be beef ban in Goa. 'Why these double standards?,' rued Uddhav. Thackeray then took potshots on the oft repeated accusation by the BJP that the Sena has struck an unholy alliance with their opponents…Congress and the BJP saying he had taken a leaf from the BJP. 'Whatever we have done we have learnt from you. You broke the alliance between Nitish Kumar and Laloo. As per your convenience you were okay with Mehbooba Mufti, Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan,' said Thackeray. DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: Hindustan Timeshttps://c-stem.ucdavis.edu/users/pernezkumens/

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How to prevent infectious diseases among children this winter

The symptoms, can last an entire week or more, include nasal congestion, cough, sore throat and even headaches. The most effective way to treat this is to hydrate well and get plenty of rest. Common winter infections among children Commonly known as the 'flu', influenza is highly contagious and symptoms include high fever, sore throat, headaches, muscle pain and coughing. The best prevention is a flu shot and while there are antiviral medications available, the best cure is to get lots of rest and drink fluids. Strep throat, a fallout of cold and cough, is prompted by bacterial infection and is more painful than a regular sore throat. It's commonly seen in school-going children, spreading through sneezing and coughing. During this, one may have trouble swallowing, besides having fever, headache and swollen lymph nodes in the neck. While antibiotics can help in curing the infection, drinking warm water also brings relief from pain. A common respiratory infection among children, the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is the most common cause of bronchiolitis. It causes inflammation of the airway in the lungs, leading to mucous clogging, making breathing difficult. The illness is accompanied by nasal congestion, low-grade fever, cough and wheezing. Besides antibiotics, get plenty of rest and drink lots of water. This is an infection of lungs, caused by bacteria and exhibiting symptoms such as cough, fever and breathing difficulty. Long-term diseases like asthma, cancer or heart problems make one more susceptible to pneumonia. It may even call for hospitalisation. Contact your healthcare provider if you suspect pneumonia. Preventive steps Here are some simple things you and your child can practice to reduce their chances of getting or passing on a cold: It is important to take these measures at the early stage of the symptoms to prevent a full-fledged ailment. Visit your doctor to check whether medical intervention is necessary. (Inputs: Dr Parimala V Thirumalesh, Senior Consultant - Neonatology & Paediatrics, Aster CMI Hospital.) DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: The Indian Expresshttps://www.sbnation.com/users/guessyleague

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