All
Politics
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Celebrities
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Shiv Sena (Uddhav) MP Sanjay Raut have given ample indications to signal a truce between the two parties following their open differences over some remarks by Rahul against Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who is revered by the Sena. Raut himself has revealed that Rahul called up him to enquire about his health and express concern over ‘the crushing of dissent’ around the country. Raut said he was thankful to Rahul for showing such magnanimity in the present milieu of political hatred. Rahul had criticized Savarkar in the last leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Maharashtra. Incensed at his remarks, Raut had threatened serious consequences for the Maha Vikas Aghadi for the ‘uncalled for’ utterances. Subsequently, Rahul totally skipped the subject of Savarkar at his Shegaon rally, which marked the conclusion of his march in Maharashtra. However, Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ did not spare him and lambasted the remarks in strong language. Raut made it a point that he was expressing the sentiments on behalf of Uddhav Thackeray. In a bid to prevent any further fallout after some Congress had maintained that their party had its own stand, Rahul called up Raut. Expressing gratitude, Raut said the call was like a breeze of fresh air whereas Sena’s former allies like the BJP and MNS had not bothered to find out how he was.
It was an exercise to filter non-serious ticket aspirants for upcoming Karnataka assembly elections next year. Tightening grip on party, KPCC president DK Shivakumar had asked ticket aspirants to avail forms paying Rs 5,000 and submit the applications with a demand draft of Rs 2 lakhs between November 5 and 15. When he found that at least 35 sitting MLAs, particularly senior leaders like G Parameshwar and former CM Siddaramaiah had not responded to his call for applications; he extended the deadline to November 21. Finally 1,100 applications were received and out of which 945 were submitted with a DD of Rs 2 lakh for the general category and Rs 1 lakh for SC & ST aspirants. Party sources said while the high fee ensured only serious applicants remained in the fray, the Congress was richer by Rs 55 lakh. The party picked about Rs 20 crore in the form of DD. Shivakumar also made it clear that aspirants will be allowed to apply for one seat. Restricting the contest to a single seat could put seniors like Siddaramaiah in a spot. Last time, Siddaramaiah had contested from two seats and lost in one. Shivakumar has already submitted his application seeking a ticket from Kanakapura constituency in Ramanagara district. Siddaramaiah is yet to finalise his constituency but may not contest from his incumbent Badami seat as it is far from Bengaluru.
Nationalist Congress party (NCP) demonstrators in Pune tried to pull away the dhoti of a youth dressed as Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Monday following his controversial statement about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj a couple of days ago. Koshyari has attracted statewide ire after he quipped that Shivaji Maharaj was an icon of the past while modern icons are like Babasaheb Ambedkar or Union minister Nitin Gadkari. Anger erupted as soon as various news channels made the statement viral. The comparison has been condemned by all opposition parties. Protest actions have been taking place all over the state. NCP organized a protest near Savarkar statue in Pune where demonstrators had brought a young boy dressed as Koshyari. The boy was wearing a dhoti and a black cap, like the one Koshyari wears. Some protestors tried to pull away the dhoti worn by the boy. In Beed town of Marathwada, Shiv Sena (Thackeray) district chief Anil Jagtap has announced a reward of one lakh rupees on behalf of his organisation for bringing Koshyari’s black cap. NCP spokesman Mahesh Tapase has complained against Koshyari to President Draupadi Murmu. He has demanded that Koshyari should be removed forthwith. A few months ago, Koshyari had invited another round of protests when he had said that no money would be left in Maharashtra if Gujarati and Rajasthani people were removed from here. Later, he apologized for it.
With months to go for the Panchayat Election 2023, reports of back-to-back violence, crude bomb blasts, recovery of firearms and live bombs are being reported in some districts of West Bengal. Some of the districts of South Bengal — Birbhum, North and South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, and Junglemahal areas have seen recent cases of political violence with bomb blasts killing three minors and injuring several people including children in separate incidents. Both Didi and second in command of the party, her nephew Abhishek Banerjee have been categorical to keep away from violence after the party suffered brutal electoral losses in last Lok Sabha polls due to political violence that took place during Panchayat Election 2018. Incidentally, both Bengal Police and Bengal Special Task Force (STF) have arrested a number of people having allegiance to the ruling party for being involved in the blasts and clashes. This has largely prompted Oppositions to claim that Bengal is “on a bed of bombs and arms”. However, senior cabinet minister Firhad Hakim countered stating the Union Government has eased inter-state border vigilance so that arms could be smuggled into the state to create anarchy. According to political analysts, the panchayats of Bengal have emerged as the epicenter of political violence as they provide critical opening for the parties to strengthen their hold over nearly every aspect of rural society besides the dominance and political influence to the grassroots.
To a cheering audience at the recently held 3rd Annual Conclave of Global Chamber of Saraswats Entrepreneurs and Professionals(GCSE) in Goa, Chairman of Saraswat Bank Gautam Thakur announced a lucrative and special loan scheme to support young Saraswat entrepreneurs. Honouring his commitment, Saraswat Bank’s top brass signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GCSE on November 17. Saraswat Bank has initiated an exclusive scheme Loan For Entrepreneurs And Professionals (LEAP) that would provide loans/ OD facility for first generation entrepreneurs from the Saraswat Community at a concessional rate of interest. Founder Director of GCSE Siddharth Sinkar, said, “Not only will LEAP boost the morale of the existing young first generation entrepreneurs for scaling up their businesses. This will also promote the entrepreneurial drive amongst the Saraswat minds.” This facility will be offered only to members of Saraswat Chamber. While GCSE would do the basic due diligence of applications routed through them, the final decision to grant loan will rest with the bank.
2023 Pongal will see one of the most anticipated clashes of the Kollywood Titans, Vijay and Ajit when their films, Varisu and Thunivu are to be released simultaneously. Cinephiles of these two super heroes are waiting to clash, to establish the box office draw of their heroes. Tamil Nadu witnesses an opening day craze that’s like no other in terms of fan hysteria and foot stomping action. For instance, Rajini fans do a milk abhishekam on larger than life cut-outs. Vijay just amps up such maniacal following with his hit song Ranjithame which cornered 5.5 crore hits in a fortnight. Apart from his super dancing skills (Rahul Gandhi is a self-confessed fan of Vijay’s dance moves), this action hero is a crooner too, trained by his mother Shobha. In his 28 years Vijay has belted out many hit songs. His very first film song, “Bombay city, Sukha roti” was an instant hit. Dirty dancing his way to woo Rashmika Mandanna, Vijay belting out Ranjithame Ranjithame is on his way to launch yet another Kollywood anthem. Vijay’s voice, the double entendre lyrics are mere foils. It is sexy Rash who rivets as she transforms into Ranjithame. From that Sami Sami song of Pushpa fame, Rash has zoomed up to pan India popularity. Kollywood sure aces in cinematic masala for a rush of testosterone.
TRENDS & VIEWS
Technology Cannot Disrupt Original Content Provider: Short Post Editor
They say time flies. How true! Today is our #SecondAnniversary. Two years back at the height of Covid-19 Pandemic when lockdown was the way of life we took a leap of faith and launched Short Post (Jan 28, 2021), the first-of-its-kind website in the country that focuses on Authentic Gossip. The Oxymoron is deliberate. Well, the response has been quite encouraging. That’s what has kept us going. Till date we have posted close to 2000 stories in the areas of Politics, Business, Entertainment and Sports. Each insightful story of around 225 words has been contributed by Senior Editors. There is a sense of satisfaction of creating a new segment in the market – authentic gossip — and in the process creating a brand (in a limited sense), creating demand (readers) and creating supply (writers). Well known advertisers — IDFC FIRST Bank, ICICI Lombard – supported us. And that really boosted our confidence. Thank you!
So here we are raring to go. But, when I look at the media landscape the disruption is indeed fast and furious. Technology is playing a very big role in how content will be consumed. In the past, we have seen how social media has disrupted the media world. Now, everybody is saying the same thing about ChatGPT. It has reached 1 million users in five days. Its scorching pace of growth is indeed frightening and will disrupt the media industry big time. My limited argument is can it do investigative stories, write gossip items using the digital world ecosystem. Unlikely. Clearly, the original content has to be created first — only then can ChatGPT do the magic. That’s what we promise to do – focus on original content.
Before I sign off, I am reminded of an old advertisement of the early sixties: “Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars. So we try harder”. Likewise I can say, we are two years old and we are trying even harder to be relevant to you readers.