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Government’s Business in Business

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Examining the strategic disinvestment policies of the government, their relevance and otherwise

On November 20th this year, the government announced that it would sell stakes in several public sector undertakings (PSUs) and even give up management control in some. The Central government will cede full management control to buyers in the case of oil marketing company Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR). The government will transfer its 74.2% stake in THDC India Limited (formerly Tehri Hydro Development Corporation of India) and its 100% stake in North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) to another public sector unit and power distribution major, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited.

On the one hand, it is the government’s role to encourage and facilitate a business environment that is conducive to economic growth, and at the same time the competence of the government does not lie in earning profits by the sale of public goods such as coal, steel and power. In tune with its welfare motives, the government always has to spend more than it can earn in terms of revenue through taxes or other means. Hence, additional income from the sale of a stake or disinvesting in a PSUs, tends to be a welcome move for its coffers. This is especially so in the case of India, where it has fallen on to the government to spend high amounts on infrastructure to boost economic growth as well as to deal with its existing expenditure on the health and education sectors.

Historically, since the 1991 era of LPG in the country (liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation) under the PV Narasimha Rao government, there has been an on-off trend of disinvestment in the country’s policies. Arun Shourie, the country’s first Disinvestment Minister in 2006, gave an impetus to the exercise. He is credited with the privatisation of Maruti, Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd., Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited and Hindustan Zinc through the strategic sale process. Even when the Vajpayee government had ceded ownership of a handful of public sector undertakings (PSUs) to private buyers in 2001-02, the move had been met with unrelenting criticism for its pricing and choice of buyers for the exercise. 

The proceeds from strategic sales give the government an extra spending cushion. This fiscal has been a ‘year without precedent’ for the government on the fiscal front. The Reserve Bank of India gave the Central government a record dividend payout of about ?1.76 lakh crore. The joy over this would have been short-lived as the government has had to execute a corporate tax cut — to mitigate the effects of a slowdown — and will suffer an annual loss of ?1.45 lakh crore, according to The Hindu.

So at least meeting the year’s disinvestment target, if not exceeding it, would give the government some respite from the string of bad fiscal news that has been flowing its way.

 

Private owners have an incentive to minimize costs as long as they reap part of the benefit in the form of higher profit. By contrast, if the bureaucrats running the PSUs do a bad job, the losers are the taxpayers and customers, whose only recourse is the political system. Put simply, a way of ensuring that firms are efficiently run, the voting booth is a less reliable option than the profit motive. 

 

Feature Image Credits: NTPC Limited

 

Bhavya Pandey 

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Why are Israelis moving into a Conflict Zone?

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The conflict of the Jews and Arabs goes back many centuries. Jerusalem and Israel is a sacred place for not only Jews, but for Christians and Muslims also. Thus, this piece of land has been the reason for numerous conflicts and wars. These wars are still going on today, the only difference being that now it is not fought with swords, but waged mentally by starving the enemy of even the basic human rights like education.

Around 535 BCE, Abraham was hailed as the first Jew, and the father of Jewish people. It was at this time that Isaac, the Son of Abraham, was promised that he would inherit the land of Canaan, or the land which we today know as, Israel. Cut to the Middle Ages and we see that the crusades and repeated sieges on the holy city of Jerusalem (The most important city of Canaan and Judaism) left many Jews homeless and thus, they were forced to take refuge in other nations all over the world. The Jew community did face great difficulty during this time, but still managed to rise up and establish themselves as a powerful community with wealth and influence all over the world. 

Palestine History via Pinterest
Palestine History via Pinterest

Coming to the 1900s, we see the rise of Zionism, the movement which gained popularity during the time. The movement’s ideology stated that the only way to save the Jewish culture and Jewish people was the creation of a Jewish state in the holy land of Canaan, which then was an Ottoman province known as Palestine. Then the world witnessed two World Wars during which Jews were subjected to racial and even ethnic cleansing. This resulted in extensive inflow of Jews to the Palestine. It also resulted Ottoman Palestine becoming a battleground for the Jews and Arab Palestinians. There were several clashes between the Jews and the Arabs (who by then had started recognising themselves as a distinct ethnic identity, the Palestinians), seeing the tensions between the two communities, the newly formed United Nations came into action. It offered a Two-State Proposal which would divide the British Palestine (which they had captured from the Ottomans in the First World War) into two Nations, the state of Israel for Jews and the state of Palestine for the ethnic Arabs in the year 1947. The proposal was eagerly adopted by Israel, which declared its independence soon after. But the same was not the case for Palestine, as the Arabs thought of the solution as another attempt of Western imperialism. So, thus started a conflict of ideas, principles and most importantly religion, which we today know as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What followed this were two different wars between Israel and its Arab neighbours, in these wars Israel crushed the Arab alliance and pushed well past its 1947 UN designated borders, capturing all the erstwhile Palestine, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and the Syrian Golan heights and thus, during late 1970s started a mass unspoken and unofficial movement in which a large number of Israelis started shifting to occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 

Visualising Palestine.
Visualising Palestine.

This movement, was in addition to politics,  religiously motivated, as the Jews there wanted to established themselves into these areas so that no international force would give these territories to Palestine. Also these territories and areas were religiously very important to Jews. Even though the United Nations, in its 1979 resolution not only condemned this migration, but also declared it illegal. However, the Israeli government did not do anything, instead subsidised these West Bank properties for Israeli citizens, and moreover sent the army for the security of such settlers.

The partition of West Bank as per the Oslo Accords II in 1995. Credits: Vox
The partition of West Bank as per the Oslo Accords II in 1995. Credits: Vox

This resulted in extensive violence and backlash from Palestinians in the face of the First and the Second Intifadas (the Uprising) in 1987 to 1993 and then from 2000 to 2005, respectively. This was followed by a distressing amount of deaths and displacement of the Palestinians, and then a string of peace talks which resulted in practically nothing. 

Even though the Second Intifada resulted in the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (but increasing its activities in West Bank), again it ultimately was a loss for the Palestinians as firstly there was a short civil war between PLO or Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Hamas, which resulted in a split of the unified leadership of Palestine.  Therefore the latter controlled West Bank and the post started controlling the Gaza Strip (Hamas has also been declared an international terrorist organisation by the US and Israel). It was followed by a strict Israeli blockade in Gaza which it justified as Israel claims Hamas to be a terrorist organisation; this gruelling blockade resulted the unemployment rate in Gaza to jump to a startling 40 per cent. 

Thus, today in West Bank we can see a huge void between Israeli and Palestinian neighbourhoods or settlements, on one hand we have highly developed Israeli settlements with scores of world class amenities, but on the other hand we see much worse of Palestinian settlements which lack many basic needs of survival. Apart from that, now Israelis are not just shifting into West Bank settlement for religious purposes, but due to the fact that it has become beneficial for them, as they get government subsidies and world class amenities in these areas. This movement has also been heavily sponsored by not only the Israeli Government but also various NGOs who get funding from the powerful Jewish communities around world.

All of this has resulted in a very pick-you-your-situation as it has become more and more difficult for any sustainable peace proposal to be formed. Due to this increasing number of Jewish population in the West Bank area, the community at the pinnacle of this conflict is the Palestinians’. Ask them how the peace talks work now living in a country wherein they are subjects but not citizens. Israel will never accept them and chances of their own independent state of Palestine are not great. So now they live with an internal question of whether they want their identities as a Palestinian to be saved, or they want a chance to live freely but as Jewish citizens of Israel.

“You can either be a Revolutionary or be a Caged Bird who had a chance to fly but it didn’t.”

– Abraham Lincoln
Feature Image Credits: Scopio

Aniket Singh Chauhan 

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Campus Central

Ahead of Semester Exams, SPM, Hindu Students Face Attendance Woes

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The past week has seen turmoil over the matter of attendance and the issuance of admit cards to the students of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College for Women, and Hindu College.

Affiliated to the University of Delhi and located in Punjabi Bagh, the college boasts of a rich legacy of more than fifty years in serving quality education to young women.

According to a series of posts on social media, as well as first-hand student accounts, the administration and Principal of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College refused to give admit cards ahead of the University semester exams scheduled in November and December months, to the students who had been irregular in classes during the past semester. This move by the college administration has been taken on account of their attendance being less than the minimum mark of sixty-seven percent (67%), as specified by the University. 

Moreover, as per the students, the Principal is not willing to accept any medical certificates or submission of leave applications. The students have also said that the college authorities have made it clear to the students that they will have to spend four years (i.e. 3+1 years) to complete their degree, in light of this decision. 

In response to these decisions, the students of the college, led by Tushar Baisla, the Chief Executive Councillor (EC) of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU), raised their voices and organised a sit-in at the college gate to demand for their admit cards. The ABVP-backed student leader’s posts on social media regarding this matter read ‘…she (the Principal) said in front of all the students that she will charge a case of molestation to me and rusticate students who are asking for the admit card. I request upper authorities to have a look at this matter so that students of the college do not face any problem.”

A final year Economics Honours student of the college, who chose to be anonymous, said, “They (the college administration) should have warned us, they cannot take arbitrary decisions.”

A final word from the college is awaited on this matter. 

A similar situation was also faced by the students of Hindu College, where those having less than forty percent (40%) attendance during the semester, were denied admit cards. However, the admit cards were given to the students by November 25th, 2019, after the ‘Collective – Hindu College’ planned to address the college authorities, on this matter. 

As per the message that had been circulated on WhatsApp groups by the Collective, ‘withholding of admit cards by the Hindu College administration, has happened for the first time, no prior information was given to the students about this intention of the administration in the beginning of the semester. Thus, no due process of issuing a warning to students was followed by the administration, as mandated by the University.”

Notably, students active in the performing arts society were targeted by the administration, to much agitation and revulsion. The nation-wide representation of the college, made possible by dramatics, dance, and music societies was levelled down as the parents and concerned guardians of these students were alerted via unsolicited calls. The administration went to the extent of suggesting the parents to remove their wards from the respective societies and instead enforce academic aspirations. It was only after this performative disciplinarian action that the students were given their admit cards, however, not without signing an undertaking first.

While on the one hand, the issue seems to be resolved by the Hindu College administration, uncertainty still looms over the decision in Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College. 

Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

Bhavya Pandey 

[email protected] 

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DUB Speak

Of Colours and Dissent: Delhi Queer Pride Parade 2019

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Delhi Queer Pride Parade 2019 witnessed a colourful celebration of love and inclusiveness, on Barakhamba Road. The march was also led against the regressive Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019. 

24th November, 2019 witnessed the famed Delhi Queer Pride on Barakhamba Road. The pride had dual motives this year, to celebrate love and inclusivity as well as protest against the regressive Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, commonly called the Trans Bill. 

The march began from the intersection of Tolstoy Marg and Barakhamba Road till Janpath, and went even further. The entire road was lit up with rainbow coloured balloons, pride flags, and high-spirited people. 

Posters against the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, the allegedly homophobic government, and depicting the struggles of the community were seen in abundance.

In a majority of states across our country, LGBTQIA+ rights and dignity are not fully protected by the law, and, in fact, there are fierce movements that seek to oppress and marginalise them and their social relationships. One such movement, being the Trans Bill. 

For many LGBT+ people, Pride is the one time of the year when they can be out and proud about who they are, and whom they love. It’s the one time of year that they can stand boldly in the streets with other queer individuals, proclaiming that “we are fully human”, and deserve to be celebrated and uplifted just like everyone else. Even in cities that are seen as LGBT+ friendly, it is still an incredibly subversive experience to get to march in parades or attend festivals where hundreds upon hundreds of LGBT+ people are letting their lights shine before all people without fear. Pride is often the beginning of the process of healing from the trauma inflicted on us by our heteronormative, patriarchal society.

A student from University of Delhi (DU) under the conditions of anonymity said, “Pride is the time where I can take out my mom’s saree and try it, not behind my bedroom’s closed door but out in the open in the streets, and be loved for it.”

The streets witnessed various scintillating performances on the beats of the dhol and drums playing. The parade was echoing with slogans like “Pyaar karne ki azadi, Modi se azadi” and “Jai Bheem”.

The major concern of the pride was to raise awareness against the resistance being faced by one part of the LGBTQIA+ community due to the Trans Bill. 

India’s Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2019, contradicts the rights and protections laid out in the country’s supreme court’s NALSA verdict of 2014. It also upholds the humiliating process of submitting an application to District Magistrate for a legal recognition of one’s transgender identity, which means to first register as a transgender, then submit proof of surgery to get identification as male or female. The bill also says that sexual violence against a trans persons will be subjected to a  punishment from 6 months to 2 years, in comparison to 7 years crimes against heterosexual women. It also rejects reservation and affirmative action for trans, intersex and gender nonconforming people in health, education and employment.

Student unions like All India Student Association (AISA) were also seen being part of the parade along with students from all over DU and other universities. 

However, the Pride didn’t only see participation from one age group. People from all walks of life had come together for pride, from school children to middle-aged men to the elderly. 

Delhi Queer Pride is a time where everyone steps out of the shadows and declares that they will no longer be forced to suppress their truest selves because of the heterosexual fragility and fear. 

Feature Image Credits: Noihrit Gogoi for DU Beat

Chhavi Bahmba 

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DU SOL Panel to Check For Errors in Study Material

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Upon the directions of the Honourable Delhi High Court, DU’s SOL has formed a subject-wise committee to review the study material distributed to students. 

Since the beginning of this year’s odd-semester, the University of Delhi (DU) affiliated School of Open Learning (SOL) has faced many issues pertaining to admissions, curriculum and academics related fronts. 

In the most recent turn of events, the administration of the School has appointed a subject-wise committee to review the study material distributed to students as a part of their curricula. This move comes into the picture after the college administration had been addressed with complaints by the students that the material provided to them by the School, for their classes, was of poor quality and not reliable in terms of its content. 

Hence, upon the directions of the Honourable High Court of Delhi, a committee has been appointed by the institution to look into the matter. The court’s judgment had called for a review of the material. Earlier the court had also put a stay on the December exam to be held for over one lakh students currently enrolled at SOL. This year, the University converted SOL from the annual mode to the semester system and the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). The administration has even formed a committee to address the grievances of the students enrolled under the CBCS. The committee will suggest remedies that need to be implemented. 

Students alleged that the study material was full of errors and most of it had been prepared by simply bifurcating the material that had been prescribed in the previous system of annual mode. The Krantikari Yuva Sangathan, which had led these protests against the study material has also affirmed the presence of errors in the same. 

Saurabh, a first year student of B.Com. at SOL says, “It is great that the SOL is finally taking steps to bring our studies back on track…things are still uncertain though.”

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Bhavya Pandey

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Campus Central

DU to Offer B.Sc. Environmental Science; Will Create 144 Seats

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From 2021, University of Delhi (DU) is said to offer Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Environmental Science as per the approval received by the University Grant Commission (UGC). The course is set to create 144 undergraduate seats. 

The recent wave of environmental consciousness and the appreciation of environmental sciences worldwide has hit the University of Delhi as well. 

University Grants Commission (UGC) had given green lights earlier to the course, and now has decided to implement the same in colleges from the next year onwards.

Professor Radhey Shyam Sharma from the Department of Environmental Science, University of Delhi (DU) said, “Six colleges under the varsity have given the nod to implement the course while many others have shown interest.”

With soaring cut-offs, the dream of many to be part of University of Delhi is often broken, however, this course is said to generate over 140 seats. 

As the mathematics of it goes, each college out of the six, where the course has been passed to be implemented, is expected to offer at least 24 to a maximum of 32 seats for the course, which means that at least 144 new undergraduate seats will be created from the next admission cycle. The course further will be implemented to more colleges and will be the biggest addition in undergraduate seats since the past many years. 

Currently the Department of Environmental Science offers these course: 

  1. AECC-1 EVS, compulsory course in undergraduate courses which is a one semester, or six-months course. 
  2. M.A./M.Sc. Environmental Science 
  3. PhD in Environmental Science 

As per the UGC guidelines, structure of the undergraduate course will be: 

 The three-year course will have 140 credits spread over 26 papers. Students will have to pass eight electives and four ability-enhancement courses. Of the latter, two will be skill enhancement papers in the entire six-semester duration, as per UGC guidelines.

However, one big aspect of the implementation isn’t decided yet, which is the selection process. 

Admission to most courses is done on merit basis, as per the ‘Best of Four’ achieved by the students in their class 12th. It is necessary to include that subject which is sought for an honours programme, in the Best of Four.

For example, for admission in B.A. (Honours) Political Science, it’s imperative to have Political Science in your ‘Best of Four’, otherwise the candidate may suffer reduction in cut-off, as the 2.5% reduction penalty is imposed. 

However, this might not be possible in the case of B. Sc. (Honours) Environmental Studies since most schools do not offer the subject at class 12 level. The similar problem is faced by many students with Philosophy Honours, as philosophy isn’t tutored in many schools of Delhi, and CBSE in general.

Schools under the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) do not have Environmental Studies (EVS) even as an elective in their class 12 curriculum. And generally, most students in DU come from CBSE, than state boards. In DU Admissions 2019 as well, a total of 2.70 lakh students applied for admissions at undergraduate courses in DU, of which 2 lakh were from CBSE-affiliated schools.

Other that the best of four aspect, EVS is taught in many schools up to 8th class. This already troubles the students to reconnect with the AECC EVS Exam as being away from the subject for too long hampers their technical connect. Hence, it is important that in today’s age and time EVS should be recognised as a subject in CBSE first. 

Answers to many questions like whether there will be merit-based selection or entrance based, will EVS be needed in best of four? Will new professors for the course be appointed? remain yet unanswered. A formal notification is awaited. 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Chhavi Bahmba 

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Arts & Culture

Citizen Taseer: A Stranger to his Own Country? 

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“I am Indian. Then why is the government sending me into Exile?’, ‘Can the world’s largest democracy endure another five years of Modi Government’? A writer puts forth two questions for the world, but perhaps one is the answer to another question itself. 

“A citizen’s right to liberty is sacrosanct and non-negotiable. It is a fundamental right granted under the Constitution and can’t be infringed upon by the state,” as declared by the Supreme Court of India in the Prashant Kanojia case, who was allegedly detained by the UP Police for making remarks against the State’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. 

The aforementioned lines were stated by Justice(s) Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi bench and certainly provides a sacred safeguard to the citizens and their rights, as guaranteed by the Constitution of India against the state that may attempt to vandalise the freedom of expression and establish a ‘fascist’ regime in the country. But perhaps the Government has paved a way for itself to pursue its objectives of a rashtra, suited to their ideas and philosophies by revoking the very status of this ‘citizenship’ itself and abstaining the people of being one in the first place. The National Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is anyway extremely kind towards a specific section of the society, the disavowal of riter Aatish Ali Taseer’s Indian Nationality is more than an extension of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. 

Raised in the national capital by his Sikh mother and acclaimed journalist Tavleen Singh, Taseer rose to prominence with his debut Novel, “Stranger to History: A Son’s Journey Through Islamic Lands” which can be seen as an introspective review of his status as a Muslim. He may even be recalled as the person who hosted Sir Salman Rushdie, when he returned to India after a long exile, but he will mostly be remembered as the author of TIME magazine’s May 2019 cover story that referred to Prime Minister Modi as ‘India’s Divider in Chief’, ahead of the 2019 General Elections. 

Following the release of the story, the entire social media was set ablaze, with responses from both the sides taking stark turns. The Modi Supporters started raising the issue of Taseer’s parenthood, especially with regard to his father who was a Pakistani politician; given our contempt for the country and Aatish’s identity, the claims were preferred by many and was furthered by ensuring that Taseer bewails his acts. But rather Taseer was empowered more than ever challenging the fanatic frenzy. 

According to Taseer, he received a letter from the Home Ministry, Government of India, stating that they are reviewing his Overseas Citizenship of India status in September this year. To this, he duly responded by resisting against the claims made by the Government of India within 24 hours. But it was only on November 7, when the government actually abolished Taseer’s citizenship leaving him in certain ‘exile’. 

What is interesting here is that all these years Taseer has lived in this country without ever being questioned about his citizenship. Although the recent developments in the country have reviewed the idea of nationalism, something of this kind is really concerning and hints towards a state that perhaps cannot accommodate dissent in anyway. 

While the government says that its revoking of Taseer’s status is solely because he did hide the fact that his father was a Pakistani, the father who is being referred here is assassinated Pakistan Governor Salman Taseer, who was nowhere in Aatish’s early life, and is a relation which further receded away because of their distinct nationalities. 

While the government seemed adamant in their stance, Taseer has now been joined by more than 260 writers, journalists and artists, including Margaret Atwood, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, Chimamanda Adichie, Perumal Murugan and Amitav Ghosh, who have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for reviewing its decision to repeal writer Aatish Taseer’s Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) and allow an uninterrupted travel for him in India. This has brought the Government in a screened position, and the revocation will now have larger implications in the academic domain with the status of people of such political sagacity under question. The story has now garnered worldwide support and coverage and hence the Government needs to be extremely meticulous in its decision for the best of Taseer. 

Feature Image Credits: Aatish Taseer via Instagram

Faizan Salik

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Meet Aditya Arora, an Entrepreneur Who Started His Journey at 17!

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Meet an entrepreneur to get inspired by. Explore with Aditya Arora the insights into the entrepreneurial world.

Aditya Arora is a promising young entrepreneur, CEO of Faad Network, and an alumnus of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS). He started his journey at the young age of 17, and is now a well-known name in the industry. We sat down with him to know about his journey and his insights into the entrepreneurial world. 

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Shreya: Tell us something about yourself and your journey of becoming a successful entrepreneur at this very young age. 

Aditya: I was very academically focused in school and got SSCBS, which was my dream college. In SSCBS, I pursued Bachelors in Finance and Investment Analysis. Apart from studies, I was a part of the Economics Club, and debating society as well. It was in second year when this company called Faad came into my college during an internship fair where I eventually interned during summers. It is in those two months of working with Faad that I learned what exactly entrepreneurship is, and also what are the different traits of it. The internship got converted into first, a part-time opportunity and then a full-time opportunity and by the end of the college, I was the CEO of the company. 

Shreya: Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job or studying further?

Aditya: So it wasn’t mandatory to do internship during my second year. Thus, it was the perfect time to explore all possible options and figure out what works best for me. And it was always in my second nature to do something different from what the others were doing. My internship with Faad totally changed the game for me. I always say this about my journey that I had thousand reasons to not become an entrepreneur but my internship gave me so many reasons why I should become an entrepreneur. It has helped a great deal in shaping who I am today. 

Shreya: What are the difficulties you faced in this journey?

Aditya: The biggest difficulty I faced was that of the mindset. An entrepreneurial mindset is different from others. It is supposed to be more risk-taking, more creative and more analytical, and of course, the ability to bounce back from failures. Building this mindset was the biggest challenge. Convincing my parents and my peers that I want to be an entrepreneur as opposed to doing MBA or taking up a job was another big challenge. My parents are from non-entrepreneurial background so it was difficult convincing them. Constant travel and time-management was another difficulty which I wasn’t used to. 

Shreya: Entrepreneurship is a risky field to be in. What are the skills, according to you, one must possess to be a successful entrepreneur?

Aditya: Risk is everywhere. Thus I didn’t see entrepreneurship as very risky because I see risk in everything. The most important thing to possess is the passion and vision to become an entrepreneur, because it is not going to be an easy journey. Secondly, time management is one of the most crucial skills to possess. And finally, it is necessary to have an open mindset. Society feeds us with a script of life. But if you have an open mind, you can make things work the way you want them to work. 

Shreya: How can one bounce back from failures in life?

Aditya: I firmly believe in the quote that the best way to deal with failure is to not see it as one. Once you start looking at them as an opportunity, the spectrum changes totally because then you know that if A didn’t work, then B will. As I said before, having the mindset of bouncing back from failure is indispensable to an entrepreneur. If you have the tendency to give up after a failure, you are perhaps not cut out for entrepreneurship. 

Shreya: Tell us something about your social campaign ‘Education Yatra’.

Aditya: It was a social campaign I started wherein I just wanted to go out there and spend some time with the underprivileged kids, understand their mindset, and teach them. I used to partner with some NGOs that have been doing deep work inside the community for years. I went to these places called learning centers where students from different classes come and study together. The motive of “Education Yatra” was that a child shouldn’t be given education based on his/ her class but on the basis of their knowledge capability. A 9th standard kid can have a mindset of a 4th standard student and also vice-versa. For this campaign I got awarded by Microsoft and now I am getting an award from UN for the same. My motive is to spread this idea to as many places as possible. 

Shreya: At last, what are your future plans and how will you go about from now?

Aditya: I honestly do not have a concrete future plan to tread upon because life has changed so quickly for me in the last four to five years that I don’t really plan a lot of things. But, I do have a vision which is to support and empower young people around me. This is my mission. Currently, I want to grow Faad further and that’s what I am currently involved with. 

Feature Image Credits: Aditya Arora

Shreya Agrawal

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A Not-so-Humble Guide to Travelling in Delhi Metro

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The Delhi metro is arguably the most important element in a student’s life, especially when she needs to get to that 8 a.m. lecture. Read further for a guide to a more satisfying metro experience.

The metro is the most frequently used mode of transport for most of us students at the Delhi University, and for so many others. So much so that many of us spend long hours everyday on the metro itself. If this ride plays such a prominent role in our lives, it might as well be a rather satisfying experience, if not entirely pleasurable. To ensure this, we must understand and respect the personal space of those travelling with us.

  • Let’s begin with a very basic, yet overlooked issue- do not request people to make room on the bench when there clearly isn’t any. 

Everyone on the metro is already crammed up. There is no point fitting six people on a five-seater bench when no one is comfortable. Which brings me to my next point. If you can, please stand. Stop eyeing younger passengers into giving you their seats. They probably had a worse day than you. Be a little more compassionate towards us, please.

Note: For those of you standing and holding on to the handles for support, maybe try wearing a deodorant? I don’t blame you for having sweaty armpits; we live in Delhi, I’d be surprised if you didn’t. But now that you’re shoving it in so many faces, might as well be a little more considerate of the others around you. After the long, tiring days everyone goes through, sniffing at smelly armpits is really the last thing they need. 

  • Moving on, try to avoid too much PDA.

 I mean, call me orthodox but watching a couple snuggling up in a corner while having your own nose deep in your course book can be highly irksome (?). Sure you’re generating enough heat to warm up the entire metro in this winter season, but kindly spare all the single people out there. They don’t need this kind of negativity in their lives. 

  • Please do not throw up in the metro. 

Again, I understand, it’s a genuine problem. But you cannot ruin the already-melancholic mood of the metro, and then conveniently exit at the next stop. You don’t just throw up. If you feel icky, you get off at the next station and get yourself some medicines. But you don’t wait for it to get worse. It’s about your health only, you see? 

Now there are other issues to be kept in mind. 

  • Listen to Rini Khanna and Shami Narang when they ask you not to eat in the metro or play music.

Trust me, ketchup smells disgusting. We know you want to enjoy your burger to the fullest, but nobody wants to smell that ketchup. No offence, but you don’t even have the best taste in music. Man created earphones for a reason. Now is the right time to flaunt your airpods. 

There is so much you can do to while away your time in the metro while not encroaching upon anyone’s personal space (unless the metro is jam-packed, in which case you can only pray). So let’s try to make our journeys more peaceful and satisfying for all of us.

Feature Image Credits: Hitesh Kalra for DU Beat

Aditi Gutgutia

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Bazinga

Bazinga: Exams Postponed Due to Bad  Weather

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The end of semester exams, are reportedly now to commence from 10th December owing to the high rising pollution in Delhi.

On the 21st of November, the Examinations Department of Delhi University (DU) declared that the end-semester examinations for undergraduate students would be now postponed owing  to the high rising levels of pollution observed in the city of Delhi. The order was signed by the Dean of Examinations, Professor Viney Gupta, quoting, “With the pollution level in Delhi rising to such hazardous levels, the department believes it is highly unsafe for the students to step out of their houses and expose themselves to such toxic atmosphere.”

The Department holds that the examinations will now commence from 10th December onwards, by when the pollution level is expected to lower down. A new date sheet will be prepared by the 24th November, and uploaded on the site, www.du.ac.in. However, the gaps provided between the examinations will be lessened so as to not waste students’ precious time. 

This decision was an outcome of lengthy debates held in the Examinations Department following the protests taking place across the University campus for the past few weeks. Protestors had argued, “Numerous students have already fallen prey to the pollution in Delhi. This would severely affect their performance in the examinations, hereby bringing down the average grade of the University itself.”

This is a dire and drastic decision which is not supported by all. It was argued that the postponement of the examinations could lead to a delay in the declaration of the results as well as the commencement of the following semester, thereby making it even more difficult for professors to finish the syllabus on time. “The Department fails to realise the adverse consequences this delay in examinations may bring forth. However, I do hope that they have planned the following semester accordingly and know how to deal with the repercussions,” said Ms Shilpa Khureshi, a professor in the Delhi University.

Dean Viney Gupta argues, “The Department is taking utmost care and looking deeply into the issue. The planning will be done such that not many changes would have to be made to the schedule of the following semester. The students’ health needs to be prioritised over exam schedules.”

Disclaimer: Bazinga is our weekly column of almost believable fake news. It is only to be appreciated and not accepted.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Aditi Gutgutia

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