THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOSTUDENT PAPER OF THE times school of media GREATER NOiDA | wednesday, october 31, 2018 | vol 2, issue 7 | PAGES 8

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India is developing at fast pace, says UNIC chief By JAHANVI MANCHANDA

“There will be more infra-structure development in India in the next 20 years than there has been in the past 2000 years,” said Ra-jiv Chandran, National Head of United Nation In-formation Centre (UNIC) for India and Bhutan.

Addressing a Press conference at Bennett University on October 31, Chandran attributed this to India following the Sus-tainable Developmental Goals which are a “univer-sal call to action to end pov-erty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity”.

Commenting on the role of the media in prop-agating the need for sound development agenda, Chandran regretted that developmental reporting has gone out of the newspa-pers. “We, as a society, are in transition, moving from the earlier cyclical think-ing to a more linear think-ing,” he said, explaining how “here, now and today” thought process may not be a good way to evolve for the

nation and the future gen-erations.

He spoke about the UN’s contribution to India and India’s contribution to the UN. “The first UN office in India was opened in Jan-uary 1947 when India was not even an independent nation. Today, India is the largest troops contributor for the UN’s peace-keep-ing operations and Indian troops are very highly re-garded all over the world,” he said.

“The UN brings a moral compass to India with its concepts of Equity, Equal-ity and Eradication of Pov-erty.

The UNIC works on two slogans, ‘Leaving no one behind’ and ‘Human rights for all’ which India has interpreted as ‘Sab-kha Shaath Sabka Vikas’,” he said. Talking at length about SDGs, he recalled that the concept of sustain-able developmental goal was first introduced by In-dira Gandhi at the Stock-holm conference in 1972. “It was under the PV Nar-asimha Rao Government that the scope of SDGs was extended from mere allevi-ation of Poverty to eradicat-ing it,” he pointed out. “In-dia’s ‘Sabkha Saath Sabkha Vikas’ slogan matches with UN’s motto of ‘Leaving no one behind’,” he added.

The SGDs, he said, are built over three E’s and five Ps –Ecology, Economy and Equity and Peace, Peo-ple, Planet, Prosperity and Partnership.

“A country should be first peaceful before any de-velopment can take place,” he said. He added that the development of any nation depended on the progress and prosperity of its peo-ple and a sound ecology.

“Prosperity as a concept was introduced much lat-er but unless a nation and its people have well-being and the planet is protected, there can be no prosperity,” he said.

He said it was sad that no one gives environmen-tal protection the priority that it needs. “We use one-time plastic for just a few seconds to stir our coffee and then throw it away. But it takes more than 400 years for it to merge with the soil,” he said, urging students to stop and think “where we are going, is that the right direction?”

In a small quiz game, he distributed cards to all students which had the 17 SGDs listed on them to transform the world. “If you had to set up a small food processing unit in a village which among the 17 goals mentioned on the card will you look for?” he asked. After hearing out five suggestions, he said that goals one to five would be the most important ones – No poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality educa-tion and gender equality.

By AYUSHI BISHT “Children are not lucky enough to enjoy their childhood. Many are forced to work under in-human conditions where their miseries have no end,” says Himadri Verma who works with an NGO for children in Dehradun.

“Though there are laws banning child labour, a large number of children in India continue to be exploited as cheap labour right under your nose and no one objects to it,” Ver-ma added.

Many children, she felt, were victims because the authorities are unable to implement laws meant to protect them from child labourers.

The actual number of child labourers in India goes undetected. “Chil-dren are forced to work in completely unregulated conditions. They are not provided with adequate food, wages and other ba-sic amenities. They are subjected to physical, emotional and even sexual

abuse,” Verma said. According to Verma,

the major reason behind child labour is poverty and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor.

“Our Government has failed to provide universal education which results in a bulk of the children dropping out of school and entering the labour force. Girls are often used as domestic labour in urban households. Many of them are under the age group of 14 and other children are below the age of 10 years,” Verma disclosed.

“Despite progressive laws and policies, the child

labour issue in India is growing. The rapid growth of population has created gigantic problems which directly affect social, polit-ical and economic aspects of our country. Every child deserves love, affection and should not be exploit-ed” she asserted.

Child exploitation is damaging for society as a whole. “Children who work fail to get the neces-sary education and thus the opportunity to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and psycho-logically,” Verma pointed out. Their physical condi-tion is such that they are not ready for long and ar-duous work. The become exhausted more quickly than adults. This reduces their lifespan and makes them vulnerable to diseas-es, Verma added.

The way out, she says, is to strictly implement rules. “Authorities should incorporate a provision for surprise checks and estab-lish a separate vigilance cell to detect child labour,” she adds.

Kaashi quest ends at BU

By KYLE SYLVESTER SIMLAI

The Dhiraj Kumar film ‘Kaashi’, starring estab-lished actor Sharman Joshi and newbie Aishwar-ya Devan, along with other crew members, recently visited Bennett University to promote their upcoming film. With this film, Aish-warya makes a debut in the Hindi film industry.

In an interactive ses-sion with students, the duo spoke about their upcom-ing film on two siblings, Kaashi and his sister Ganga who goes missing.

Kaashi, played by Sar-man Joshi, has to find her, but the main challenge be-gins when people refuse to even believe that he exists. Aishwarya plays a journal-ist and the film is set in Be-naras, also known as Kashi. Talking of her experience switching from south In-dian cinema, Aishwarya said:

“It’s been an amazing experience. When I started doing films in the south, I did not have any hold on the industry and was just a fresher. Later a won the Miss India contest and

then came to Hindi cinema which has helped me gain experience and challenged me to work harder,” she said.Asked what were the chal-lenges he faced between his role in 3Idiots and now Kashi, Sarman Joshi said: “The script is different, the character is different and according to learnings I have got from directors, I know how to start fresh with every character. They wanted me to rub it all of my head and start a fresh so that’s what I apply,” he added.

By DHRUV DHANKAR

The Environment Ministry has launched a five-year national action plan to protect and conserve the migratory birds in India and their habitats.

According to a re-port prepared bt India’s National Action Plan for Conservation of Migratory Birds and their Habitats along Central Asian Fly-way (2018-2023) which the Ministry launched last month, the protecti-oin plan will kick off this year and will be in effect till 2023. In this period, the Ministry will focus on birds within range across Central Asian Flyway.

The Central Asian Fly-way (CAF) is a migratory route that covers nearly 30 countries from Siberia in the north to South Asian countries like Indi and Maldives.

“Although CAF goes through many countries, India is one of the first to come up with a planned action. It will help it to take coordinated actions within the country before bring-ing this idea at the multi-lateral forum,” said Suresh Kumar, the scientist at

Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII). Although the committee plans to bring other coun-tries in as well and work together to make sure that birds and their habitats are not destroyed, he added.

“India has already witnessed a huge decline in the number of Spoon-billed Sandpipers, a spe-cies that travels from Rus-sia to India’s east coast.

Unfortunately, only one bird was sighted last year,” said Kumar.

Total of 370 species visit Indian sub-continent every year, out of the total most of them use wetlands as their habitat while the others use dispersed ter-restrial areas.

The committee consti-tuting of Dr Soumitra Das-gupta, IG F (WL), Ministry of Environment, Forest

and Climate Change, Dr Nita Shah, Bombay Nat-ural History Society, and other members and pro-fessionals related to field met at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur in De-cember 2017 to draft the report.

The plan will work on different levels – national, state and local – with the long-term goal to make India a secure and suitable

stopover for these migra-tory birds. Both wetlands, including coastal areas, and drylands are used by nearly 310 species of birds across different states.

The NAP has also come up with the idea of having flyway secretariat in India to co-ordinate with experts and conservationists from other countries under CAF. National Green Corps and Students Ambassadors are two ways by h which NAP is planning to include stu-dents from differe¬nt edu-cational institutes into this programme, Kumar said.

“India has a strategic role in the flyway as it pro-vides critical stopover sites to over 90% of the bird species known to use this migratory route,” accord-ing to report on India’s National Action Plan.

The CAF is one of the nine flyways in the world. It encompasses overlap-ping migration routes over 30 countries for different water-birds linking their northernmost breeding ground in Siberia to the southernmost non-breed-ing grounds in the west and south Asia, the Mal-dives and the British Indi-an Ocean territory.

Asst director of Don makes waves with debut film on his villageBy APOORVA SHARDA

Documentary writer-di-rector Gautam Singh is gathering accolades for his debut feature film ‘Gaon - The Village No More’, released commercially de-spite being listed in the art film category.

“Village itself is dis-appearing, we are getting into a monotonous world, where city and a village will look same,” said Singh in an exclusive interview. He talked about how, through his film, he has tried to portray those missing ele-ments and show how that is important to keep up the human spirit.

Even before hitting the box office, the film had added a feather of glory to the di-rector’s cap by winning the Best Narrative Feature in Calcutta International Cult Film Fest of 2018.

Portraying commu-nity spirit and concept of harmonious living, the film finds its inspiration from Singh’s village in Jharkhand. In the context of the current scenario, Singh said he had raised the point of the evolving village culture from a com-munity-based society to individualistic society.

Recalling his journey, he mentions the talked of the famous movie ‘Muqa-

ddar Ka Sikandar’, and the times when he used to mimic Amitabh Bachchan.

“All that was part of learn-ing cinema. I learnt the art of storytelling, and how

to keep the story interest-ing by connecting with the common audience. Mak-

ing documentaries has helped me as I have been meeting real characters,” said Singh who has made two award winning docu-mentaries.

His views on paral-lel cinema, he said, were shaped by watching Sat-yajit Ray. “Parallel cinema has always been close to reality and that has some-where inspired me. While I try to commercialise my-self to cater to a larger au-dience, reality will always remain in my films and scripts,” he said, talking about his passion for par-allel cinema.

“The Indian audience has lacked the right cin-

ema, it is the marketer which doesn’t let real cine-ma come out,” he said.

He added that it is a misconception that cine-ma is all about the stars and the faces and not about the stories.

Talking about the ad-vent of digital entertain-ment and its effect on Bollywood, Singh said that online platforms like Netf-lix “have given a lifeline to filmmakers like us and is good for the kind of cine-ma we make.”

Refuting that there was any difference between parallel cinema and com-mercial cinema, he said, “Cinema is cinema. It is

an art form and it requires commerce to be made. So, for me, that distinction of art cinema and commer-cial cinema is not there.”

Asked to comment on the controversial #Metoo movement in Bollywood, he said he supported it. “I am so glad that it is coming out and we must support the movement as much as possible.”

Singh’s future projects include his upcoming full length feature film on a father-son relationship which, he said, “is basically about his relationship with his father and will portray the generational gap they face.”

Gautam Singh behind the camera

Govt has safety plan for migratory birds

By MEDHA SHARMA

Two students of Bennett University, Maninderjeet Singh Kochar (B Tech, 2nd year) and Jai Chabra (B Tech CSE 1st year), won the Mystery Room com-petition organised by the literary society of the In-stitute of Home Econom-ics, Delhi University, on October 23.

The theme ‘Discovered Ungendered Sapiens’. The plot was that a psychopath on the loose starts killing same sex couples. Clues were left across the Delhi University campus which were to reveal the killer’s identity. Those who got them all won.

The BU team qualified for the Finals from among 25 teams.

The winners got a hamper with Lenskart and from other brands, as also books and refreshments.

“The decision to partic-ipate was prompt. I have participated in Mock CID at BU’s cultural fest and eversince was intrigued by the idea of mystery games. Puzzles have always inter-ested me but this one was really different,” Kochar said.

A flock of Painted Storks at the Keolada National Park Photo by Dhruv Dhankar

Child labour rising, laws not being implemented

UNIC chief Rajiv Chandran addresses students at BU

Photo by Charushree Chundawat

A mill worker at DehradunPhoto By Ayushi Bisht

2 BU students win mystery event at fest

Actors Sharman Joshi and Aishwairya Devan answer questions on their new film Kaashi, at Bennett University Photo by Ananya Ahuja

Step towards clean india Just onestep towards clean and green India| PAGE 7

Halloween blast at BennettStudent have a blast on Halloween night at Bennett | PAGE 3

By MANSI SHARMA

A blood donation camp was organised by New Jyo-ti apartments and three CGHS in association with the Lions CLUB in Dwar-ka, New Delhi.

A team of 10 doctors and nurses of came for the collection of blood.The activity of blood donation was started by society members and volunteers. There was an overwhelming response from the society members, other volunteers and students. A total of 68 units of blood was collected in the camp. Some of the donors who could not donate this time were assured for donation in the next camp.

A Certificate of appreciation and refreshment was given to each donor as a token of gratitude and to reenergize themselves, which was organised by the society’s committee. Sarabjeet Singh, secretary of New Jyoti said, “A decision to donate blood can save more lives and safe blood improves health”. There were around 90 people

who registered themselves but only 68 of them could donate. Shekhar Sharma, a blood donor said,” All of us donated blood very comfortably as nobody had to wait in long ques, there was in total 6 beds available in the bus”.

About 112 million blood donations are collected worldwide every year, 50% of which is donated in low- and middle-income countries where around 80% of the world’s popu-

lation lives, according to the World Health Organ-isation (WHO). India col-lected 11.1 million units of

blood in 2016-17, meet-ing 85% of its 13 million units target based on the World Health Organiza-tion. Dhruv Jha, a student said,” there are several blood camps which are conducted every year but still during an emergency, there are times when there is storage of blood.

People should be en-couraged more to donate blood”. Donation Camp continued till 3 pm. After that, the Sectary of the so-ciety delivered the speech extolling those who had donated their blood. He told the audience that the

donated blood would be used for saving the lives of the injured and the sick. Dr Preet Gulati while address-ing the audience said,” the blood donation does not weaken the donators. The recovery takes place very soon. He also talked about facts, myths, Blood Groups related information. They also handed over the Certif-icates to the blood donators.

The students of Jivani Public School presented the cultural items and everybody enjoyed it. The Blood Donation Camp was ended with National Anthem.

By JHANVI MANCHANDA

Bandhavgarh which is a home for about 150 tigers and species like nilghai, barking deer. Bandhavgarh has been successfully running a project to protect tigers. There is a special cage for tiger cubs. The cage is used to put tiger cubs, who have been either separated from their mother or their mothers were poached. These tiger cubs are kept safe from other tigers so that they do not become their prey. The cubs are only left out in the jungle once they are mature enough to hunt. These tiger cubs are properly fed with goat and other meat products.

Narendra Singh, a senior forest officer who spoke about the project said, “The cubs kept in the cage are fed well with goats, deer and other meat products. The forest is our responsibility we have to take care of every breed in the forest and the greenery inside.

No one is let in after 6’o clock in the forest” He also commented on the poaching and mentioned the last tiger which was poached was in 2016 and the 4 poachers were arrested by the special task force and they belonged from Satna district of Madhya Pradesh. The villagers have also been

standing up and protesting against this brutality.

The forest officers and the staff members have put in hard work to maintain the forest’s greenery and protect the animals.

Safaris are organised for the visitors inside the forest which last for 3 hours. In this time frame apart from tigers a person also spots deer, butterflies, langoores, tiger paw marks and even elephants.

Elephants and tigers generally don’t get along

well as they fight over territory, so elephants are usually used to bring the tigers out of woods so that visitors can spot the majestic animal. Elephants are only used in places where there are fresh tiger paw marks.There are two safaris organized by the hotel or guide booked by the visitor. One safari is from 5:30-8:30 in the morning and the evening safari is from 3:00-6:00. Evening safari is not very ideal because the sun is

at peak and the Tigers are usually resting in their dens.

The visitors are not only Indians but also from abroad. A visitor from Delhi said, “I have come here with my family from Delhi. Due to 4 days weakened it became difficult to get tickets for the safari, but for sure we were not going without a visit to the jungle, so we ended up paying 34 thousand for the safari for 2 jeeps as one jeep cost

17 thousand and we were a family of 10 people 5 in each jeep. We were very lucky to spot a tigress with her 4 cubs. Tigress was the first thing we spotted when we entered the forest. The forest is just so beautiful the cool breeze in the open jeep and the soothing fragrance of the forest is very pleasant”, said Ashutosh Singh a tax officer.Indeed, the cool breeze and the greenery does make you feel pleasant and mesmerized.

GREATER NOIDAWednesday, October 31, 20182

Bandhavgarh big cats get safety net

Tiger waiting for its last pounce at Bandhavgarh National Park Photo by Jhanvi Manchanda

By ADITYA MISRA

Situated in the Doon valley on the banks of the seasonal river, Asan, Tapkeshwar Temple is visited by lots of devotees throughout the year.The temple is in a deep cave, which is the primary reason attracting tourists.

It is renowned for the Shivlinga which has been here for the longest time. “The Shivlinga, which has been here for centuries. Legend says that Ashwathama, son of guru Drona, did penance here. “On Purnima, Lord Shiva was pleased and blessed him,” said Shyamlal Mohan, the head priest.

He continued, “It is said that Dronacharya, the teacher of Pandavas and Kauravas, resided here. The cave is named Drona Cave after his name.”

According to a famous anecdote, Dronacharya’s

wife Kalyani had a problem in breastfeeding their newborn.

The husband couldn’t afford to buy milk for his son. The young Ashwathaama was a clever child to know that his parents are in trouble and hence he prayed to Lord Shiva. Happy by the prayers, Lord Shiva blessed him with the milk drops, which dripped on the Shivalinga, in the Drona Cave.

This was the same place where Dronacharya and his family lived. In this manner, Ashwathama’s hunger was satiated. Since then, one can see the water droplets dripping down on the Shivalinga.

Pranesh, a local resident said, “You can see the heavy droplets falling on the Shivalinga. Actually, the frequency of the water falling depends on the season. It’s maximum

during monsoon, and the lowest in Summers, mid-June. I’ve been visiting this temple every weekend since childhood. I find myself at peace when I’m here. It is blissful.”

‘Tapak’ means ‘drip’ and Ishwar means ‘god’, so the name is ‘Tapkeshwar’,” said Harveen Kaur, a local resident. She said, “I have been visiting this temple for more than five centuries now. Yes, I’m that old. This place is peaceful and has a great vibe. The temple is famous among the tourists who visit Dehradun every year. The festival of Mahashivratri is the most anticipated at Tapkeshwar.

People start to form a queue one night earlier for the puja which clearly shows that it’s a mega fest. People come in thousands of number to be a part and then enjoy the fare.”

“It is worth everyone’s

time,” she adds. The temple in itself is a beautiful specimen of the natural habitats. Shivlinga based in a cave, the voice of the river flowing parallel mixed with the priest

voices during enchanting, makes it even more serene.

The place would for sure serve as a stress buster to the humankind and is a must visit the place, if anyone visits Dehradun.

Tapkeshwar temple draws peace seekers

By ANUSHKA SINGH

“The best way to curb the ill-effects of antibiotics, is to include Turmeric in their way of life. In the Ayurvedic system, it is best used for treating gastrointestinal, respiratory and orthopaedic disorders,” says Dr Pratap Chauhan, Director of Jiva Ayurveda.

As a spice, Turmeric has been used in Indian culture since ages and it is easily found in every household.

Chauhan termed Turmeric as a wonder spice and said he had many memories related to the ‘wonder spice’ that included drinking warm Turmeric milk post-Dussehra to combat the ill effects of pollution, and his mother applied a mixture of Turmeric and Coconut Oil on wounds as the spice comes loaded with healing and anti-inflammatory properties.

Chauhan mentioned that Turmeric, also known as Haridara, has 15 well-known therapeutic properties due to which it is used in Ayurvedic medicines. Some of those therapeutic properties include Vishodhini which means natural detoxification, Kurihara eliminates intestinal worms, Pramehaharanam and Mehanut, that signify the spice’s effectiveness in treating Diabetes and infections of the Urinary Tract.

It is among the few spices that have the ability to balance all three doshas (biological energies found throughout the human body and mind that

are made up from the five elements of nature, according to nature). ‘

As a multi-purpose spice, turmeric has many benefits and according to Chauhan, those benefits include protecting the brain and heart, improving immunity, anti-inflammatory properties and keeping skin beautiful.

According to him, turmeric does not have any side-effects when used in moderation, but excessive use of the spice may cause things like diarrhoea and upset stomach.

There has recently been a patent on Haldi

which raises the question of whether patents should be a norm for spices used in alternative medicine.

In response, Chauhan said ‘‘Robust and detailed documentation on each and every facet of Ayurveda, including the spices and herbs used in this form of medicine, will help in refuting such claims because then the patent awarding bodies will see that the knowledge was already in public domain before the claim was made.’’

He added that patents on herbs or spices won’t help the cause of Ayurveda in any way unless the system of medicine comes out of the alternate medicine category.

Lastly Chauhan said, “Ayurveda is more than a science of treating and preventing diseases, it is a way of life, that is not just for old people, or the sick, but for all.”

‘A decision to donate blood can save more lives and safe blood improves health’

‘Turmeric works best’

By ISHAAN DWIVEDI

The recent accident in which scores of people were killed on the racks while attending a Dussehra function tells you how railway accidents are much too common in India.

“It is catastrophic to hold functions near railway tracks and if they are held there, there should be adequate security to ward off the people from the tracks. It was no fault of the driver that the people suddenly ran on to the tracks to save themselves from an impending stampede at the function. They should have not done so,” said Jashbir Singh who lives in Amristsar.

Accidents generally take place because of either

technical issues or driver’s fault but some times happen because of people who break the rules.

Human error may be either driving above the speed limit or failing to press the brakes on time. Eventually, when an acci-dent takes place, the crowd becomes the target.

These types of acci-dents usually occur when there is an event, occasion or festival near the railway track, when people are gather in large numbers.

One such accident occurred on October 19 in Amritsar. It was 8:55 in the evening when a Dussehra ceremony was being celebrated, merely steps away from the rail-way crossing.Thousands of people had come to-

gether for celebrating the much-anticipated festival and slowly flames from the nearby Ravan Dehen start-ed reaching members of the crowd.

So, for protection pur-poses, people moved away and started to stand on the unmanned railway cross-ing. Shockingly, nobody bothered to notice that so many people were stand-ing at railway track despite it being a major safety haz-ard.

After a few moments the train came from the opposite direction and crushed nearly 50 people. It is said that police did not make any effort to re-move people from railway track so the fault was of the system and it depicted carelessness.

‘RWAs should hold blood donation camps’

Shekhar Sharma donating blood Photo by Mansi Sharma

Blood donors at the donation camp Photo by Mansi Sharma

Dr Pratap Chauhan

Tapkeshwar Temple Photo by Aditya Misra

Rail track deaths on riseMajor Rail Accidents in recent years

Infographics by Apoorva Sharda

‘Robust paper work is needed on spices used in Ayurveda’

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOGREATER NOIDAWednesday, October 31, 2018 3

Students have a blast on Halloween night in Bennett

The Halloween event organised at the Bennett University on October 30 was a sensational show of ghostly appear-ances, fun, food and frolic.

Students, dressed in scary costumes and sporting spooky faces rocked the show organised by the art club Silhou-ette and Pulse.

The event began with the thunder dance perfromed by the Virtuoso Club. It set the mood for the night.

Dazzling laser

lights on the dance floor and the high pitched music set the stage on fire. The event created a terror effect on young minds and the smoke guns cloaked the stage just like a horror movie.

Not just dance, there were many food stalls that the students rushed to in small intervals to have mouth water-ing dishes.

The night event ended with a groovy DJ making the stu-dents tap their feet on rocking music.

Dhriti Gaur, Sankalp Banodia and Akhil Kumar showing their dance moves on Halloween night

Nikhil, with his spooky gang.

A memorable halloween night at Bennett University. Hair raising face painted by the (first year student) member of silhouette.

Scary character with a terror look

Sports activities buzz at Bennett campus

INDOOR SPORTSOUTDOOR SPORTS• Healthy physical

development• Boost creativity• Push positive attitude• Give healthier lifestyle• Increase productivity• Increase environmental

awareness

• Improve hand-eye co-ordination• Decrease stress• Helps burn extra calories• Keep you fit physically• Enhance mental alertness

and concentration• Improve mood and mental health

Sporting activity fuels competition, team spirit, problem and leadership qualities. The Bennett University offers a variety of facilities through its state-of-the-art sports complex. Bennett students represent the university at various

inter-college tournaments. “Performance can only increase with the increase in regularity by players and the appointment of a coach for every game (which was done recently),” says Badmin-ton captain Sanidhya Sharma. “Playing football

in rain is always fun”, says Bennett football team memver Deepanshu Metha. Here is a photo essay on sporting activity on the cam-pus, including football, tennis, TT, basketball and badminton.

TEXT AND PHOTOS By VIDUSHI MITTAL

TEXT & PHOTOSBy ANUSHKA AGARWAL

Prithvi Purohit, a basketball player starts the game

Chetanya Reddy, a new badminton team player continues the rally

Students play Tennis in sports com-plex

Mahalaxmi, Btech, First year student is ready to serve for Table Tennis

Arsh Katyal, a member of the football team aiming for a goal

Avishka Sharma, a member of the Squash team ready to start the game

I like to pur-chase stuff online because it is difficult to step out, search, choose and buy prod-ucts’

By PUSHKAR SINGH

Vaibhavi Gaikwad, a stu-dent from Nagpur, said that despite being ion a small town, she majorly shops online and that she does do at least twoce a week.

“I prefer sites like Am-azon, Flipkart and Shein. The products that I usually buy are dresses, makeup products and electronics gadgets. For me, the pric-ing varies according to the commodity she is purchas-ing.

“I don’t buy clothes above Rs 1,000, make-up not above Rs 3,000 and electronics not above Rs 20,000,” she said.

She has experienced both good and bad sides of online shopping but most-ly it’s good.after attaining these experiences she tries to find the worth of the product before ordering anything. She is still a bit disappointed with the un-timed deliveries and the

extra charges applied on the product at time of de-livery.

She prefers online shopping now because of the variety provided and a few for specific other prod-ucts also.

She finds products according to her require-ments unlike offline shop-ping where she had to visit different shops to get something she specifically want.

According to her, while shopping from conven-tional retail stores, you need to travel and need to take time off your work.

And shopping online is the quickest way to find and buy what you want - whether it be for a gift, a necessity, or just a small treat. Shopping online is a great way to save time and money.

Her views towards on-line shopping also showed the the disadvantages of it in comarison to markets where price negociation can take place between buyer and seller and the suggestion of the sales per-son who can provide prod-ucts of her choice

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDAWednesday, October 31, 20174

‘Variety good in online shopping’By ESHA YADAV

Online shopping has be-come a rage among college students.

Utkarsh Aggarwal, studying Bachelors in Technology from Vellore Institute of Technology, said he usually shops from sites major like Amazon, Shein, Flipkart, Myntra “as they offer good quali-ty products at affordable prices.”

Talking about the fre-quency of shopping, Ag-garwal said he shops every two weeks.

“The convenience and variety makes me go on-line every time. One big factor which makes college students love online shop-ping is affordability,” he added.

In college, students have to keep up with the latest trends so they are in constant need of clothes and accessories. ‘

Talking about expe-riences, his first online shopping experience was not very good. “I had or-dered a pair of studs from Nike and when the shoes were delivered, they were of wrong size,” he re-called.

Once he was in col-lege, he returned to online shopping and this time his experience was satisfacto-ry, he said.

He said he prefers shopping online more than going to stores. He finds going out and shopping a very tedious and time con-suming job.

Even his siblings, just like him, prefer to shop on-line, his parents and elder family members , on the other hand , like going to malls and shopping com-plexes for even the small-est of purchases. They think that a person should review a product thor-oughly before buying.

“This is a very common mentality,” he said.

Recently, he went on-line a number of times to shop for college festi-vals.

“There are events in college like Dandhiya Night, Raavan Dahan for which traditional clothes are required. So I bought a couple of kurtas and shoes from Myntra,” he said.

Aggarwal feels that on-line shopping has been a positive development. He is rarely let down by the services of e-sites. Aggar-wal plans to stick to online shopping.

‘Good and bad co-exist’By JHANVI MANCHANDA

Online shopping has be-come one of the easiest and quickest ways of purchas-ing items, ranging from basic groceries to electron-ics, says Abhishek Dubey, student of Zakir Hussain college of Delhi.

Sharing his experience of online shopping he said: “I have mixed feelings about online shopping. Sometimes, the products I received were of great quality. Other times, they’ve either been dam-aged or of unsatisfactory quality” he says.

He rarely buys prod-ucts online. Some prod-ucts which he purchases frequently are room décor items and books. “Other products like electronics and clothes are not safe to buy online, mainly be-cause of my bad experi-ences” he adds.

On being asked about his most preferred sites

for shopping online, he says he usually shops from amazon and snapdeal. He trusts the product quality of these sites more than the others.

“Online shopping is both boon and bane helps you to save your precious

time as you can do shop-ping anytime as per your convenience without spending hours in local markets to check out prod-ucts and it is bane because sometimes the products received could be dam-aged” says Abhishek.

‘Digital is fast and easy’

‘Ease of ordering takes me online’By AMULYA SHREE

Vijaya Sharma, 40, home-maker, speaks about her views on online shopping and how it has gained pop-ularity and importance over offline shopping. She shops regularly from Amazon and Myntra and she is very happy with the services she gets without even stepping out of her house.

She says that online shopping is convenient because of the ease in or-dering. “You don’t need to dress-up and go to the retail stores. You have your own time and there is no pressure for deci-sion-making.

There is extensive in-formation available about the product which makes it easy for customers to compare between prod-ucts across a number of stores.” she said. Another key factor that encourag-es Vijaya to shop online is the 24 hour access and support.

“We don’t need to go to the stores and experi-ence the ‘hassle’ of buying products in the stores” she added. Online shop-ping provides great deals and prices, which is yet another factor that makes it better than offline shop-ping.

By ARNAB HOTA

Online shopping is a fa-miliar word in each and every household nowa-days, thanks to the reach of technology all over In-dia, says Naveen Yadav, an enthusiastic online shopper.

“People from young to old generations, every-body today is familiar with the power of online shopping.Online shop-ping has emerged rather recently, giving consum-ers an option of sitting on their chairs and shop,” says Yadav.

This trend has marked a major shift in the old concept of going to mar-kets and buying products, he adds.

“Nowadays, people can search for any brand by clicking on a button and the product is deliv-ered to your door step. People don’t have to sit in shops for a long time and decide what to buy.

When asked about online shopping, Yadav, a technical staff from Am-ity University, said he is a frequent user of online sites, but he keeps it lim-ited to electronics, due to the discounted prices and profitable deals.

Online shopping has a great impact on peoples’ mind, they can see vari-ety of designs from west-ern to Indian clothing on their mobile screens and order within a minute. “ I never buy clothes on-line, usually because I can’t find my size and replacement procedure is tedious” says Naveen.

One thing that at-tracts people towards online shopping is free shipping on products. Companies like Amazon and Flipkart offer huge discounts and festive sales, during which prod-ucts like Apple, Samsung, One plus and other elec-tronic brands are availa-ble in low prices.

“I buy electronics online because of free shipping, timely deliv-ery, easy returns and cus-tomer help services” says Naveen on being asked about the reason behind shopping online.

India is now in a devel-oping stage. Everything will be digitalised in the next few years. “A day will come when the shops will be shut down and everything will be digital” says Yadav.

‘Online shopping is a means to save money’

Prabhat Dhiman (in blue) with his friend Photo by Aniket Sharma

Tejpratap Singh Photo by Dhruv Dhankar

Naveen Yadav poses in a new coat he bought online recently Photo by Arnab Hota

By DHRUV DHANKAR

“In this digital age where everything from our wal-lets to letters is digital, marketplace is also go-ing through some major changes,” Tejpratap Singh, a Mathura-based student, said.

For clothing, Sin-gh prefers to shop from Myntra and for items like books, sports equipment and everything else, he goes to other sites.

He says Amazon is the best. On being asked why he prefers Myntra for clothing he said, “The promo codes and offers of-fered by Myntra are really great.”

Most students wait for these offers and codes be-cause as such they don’t have to buy clothing.

On asking about his preference for amazon Easy availability of books on amazon is one of the reasons why many stu-dents choose it over other competition.

“Other websites don’t have all the books,” he re-sponded.

Although purchasing second hand books still remains the ideal choice for majority of students, sometimes the book isn’t popular enough and is difficult to find in the city. Although its not always a good experience when shopping on these online platforms.

“Although they are great for general stuff, spe-cific things like size and measurement are often not accurate” he added. The after purchase servic-es offered by most of these online shops are great and customer reviews help him not to buy defective or wrong products online. “If you read product info. page carefully, you will not buy defective products” he added.

When asked about the offline market, he respond-ed by saying that as a stu-dent it is a little difficult for him to go out and search for the right shop and the product. “Online shopping is much more simple and easy.” He also added that hoodies are available for brands difficult to find.

Abhishek Dubey Photo By Jahanvi Manchanda

Utkarsh Aggarwal sports clothes he bought from an online site Photo by Esha Yadav

‘Electronic items are good online’ ‘Small towns go online too’

Vaibhavi Gaikwad Photo by Pushkar Singh

‘Trend &quality are things that matters to me the most’

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

The BSE benchmark Sen-sex recovered by over 155 points and the NSE Nifty breached the 10,600-mark in opening trade Monday on fresh buying by inves-tors, ahead of release of macroeconomic data later in the day.

Traders said, fresh fund inflows by foreign funds and a bullish trend on other Asian bourses also influenced trading sentiments here.

The 30-share Sensex was quoting 155.14 points, or 0.44 per cent higher at 35,313.69 points. The gauge had lost over 79 points on Friday.

Reflecting the mar-ket’s better mood, all the sectoral indices led by consumer durables, IT, healthcare and banking were trading in the posi-tive zone with gains up to 1.66 per cent.

Also, the NSE Nifty was trading higher by 46.55 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 10,631.75.

Brokers said, building up of positions by domes-tic investors ahead of the release of index of indus-trial production (IIP) data for September and infla-tion data for October later in the day, buoyed trading sentiment.

Among the Sensex

constituents, Kotak Bank, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Adani Ports, Infos-ys, HDFC Ltd, Tata Steel, M&M, TCS, ONGC, Coal India, Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, L&T, Vedanta Ltd, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were major gainers, rising by up to 1.49 per cent.

Meanwhile, on net ba-sis, foreign funds bought shares worth Rs 614.14 crore, while domestic in-stitutional investors (DIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 337.28 crore Friday, provisional data showed.

In the Asian region, Ja-pan’s Nikkei was up 0.29 per cent, Shanghai Com-posite Index up 0.67 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng too rose 0.26 per cent and Taiwan index was up 0.40 per cent.

The US Dow Jones In-dustrial Average, however, ended 0.77 per cent down on Friday.

Sensex, nifty back in green after long time

‘You have your own time and decision making powers online’

‘Soon most offline shops will shut down and everything will be digital and online, thanks to technology

By ANIKET SHARMA

With the growth of dig-italiztion in today’s world, preferences of customers have changed majorly over the past few years, says Prabhat Dhiman, a student of Delhi Universit.

“Different markets provide different perks for shopping. Like if we take an example of Myntra, which is a site for online shopping, provides various offers and promos that at-tract customers and influ-ence them to buy the prod-uct, while in markets like Lajpat Nagar and Sarojini Nagar, people can bargain for the product, which isn’t an option with on-line shopping,” he pointed out.

When asked about his preference of shopping medium, he says he buys most of the stuff online

because as a student, it is difficult for him to step out, search, choose and buy products. Customer reviews and comparisons make it easier for him to choose the right brand and product, thus making the whole shopping process easier.

When asked about his preference of websites, he says he chooses Shein Myntra for clothing and accessories and Ama-

zon for music and comic books, gadgets and other products.

He even loves to read comic books that are eas-ily available on amazon as kindle and hard copies which are not easily avail-able on stores and library, giving it an advantage over it’s competition (flipkart, ebay, snapdeal and offline markets). Although he pre-fers online shopping, he highlights some of the dis-advantages that need to be kept in mind before buying products online.

“These sites are gener-ally great for general stuff, but when it comes to prod-ucts with sizes and meas-urements, they may not be satisfactory.

The return process could also take a frustrat-ing amount of time. Qual-ity could be another issue” he says.

The 30-share Sensex was quoting 155.14 points, or 0.44 per cent high-er at 35,313.69 points. The gauge had lost over 79 points

By ARNAB HOTA

“E-commerce sites have made everything easy. Just sit at home, search on your mobile, order the product and wait for 2-3 days. You don’t need to step out of your home. You can avoid travelling charges, traffic and energy in searching,” Naveen Kumar, support-ing technical staff at Amity University, Noida, said.

Past few years, with in-creasing e-commerce con-cept in the market, anyone who wishes to buy any-thing, the first thing that comes to mind is to check the particular product online, its price, reviews, availability and compare it with similar products.

“I never buy clothes online because I can’t get my size and replacement of the product takes five to six working days. One of the reasons that people are heading towards online shopping is discount of-fers and free shipment on orders. Online shopping

is trying to save as much money as possible. I’ve bought electronic goods from amazon on dussehra sale,” Kumar said.

Usually, you are pre-sented with only the lowest prices first when you shop online.

“This can be great if you’re looking to save money on a big ticket item. However, sometimes on-line retailers will catch you shipping costs or require large purchases before they discount your ship-

ping costs which really don’t save your money and requires you to buy more,” he added.

Srivastava believes that offline shopping triggers great savings as well “but only if you’re willing to search around for the right product. A lot of items with both online and offline shopping will be marked as clearance items at a lower cost because they just want to get rid of that item,” he said.

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOGREATER NOIDAWednesday, October 31, 2018 5Child labour continues because it costs less to employers

By PARUL RAINA

Despite a ban on child la-bour, India has failed to eradicate it and one way to correct this would be to donate to the cause of chil-dren through some NGO, says law student with Sym-biosis, Noida, Siddharth Khurana.

Khurana, who has long been associated with social issues , being a member of the Model United Na-tions (MUN) community, strongly feels that no one has the right to take away anyone’s childhood.

“Child labour cuts short the sweet and mem-

orable childhoods of chil-dren. It does not allow them to go to school and is physically and socially harmful. It is a very harm-ful disease for the coun-try too. This exploitative practice continues despite strict rules against it. This issue has plagued society for many years affecting the nation’s development,” says Khurana.

Children are employed in both formal and infor-mal sectors like construc-tion, domestic work and small-scale industries.

Incidentally, Agricul-ture is not only the oldest but also the most common

child occupation world-wide.

Some industries that depend on child labour are bangle-making and beedi-making. “There is a great health hazard for children working in these industries as they use tox-ic metals and substances such as lead and mercury which can be fatal,” Khura-na adds.

Children, he points out, are the future of the nation and they need to be nurtured, not exploited.

“Why don’t they let children to live their child-hood? Why do they keep children away from Right

to Education. Some indus-trialists and businessmen employ children at very low cost. They do so only for their greed of getting efficient work at low cost of labour,” he says.

Children are the future citizens of the nation and their adequate develop-ment is of utmost priority, he says.

Unfortunately, child labour engulfs children across the world.

Many children are hid-den workers, working in homes or in the illegal ac-tivities.

Although the Indian Constitution guarantees

free education to children between the ages of 6 and 14, many of them continue to be engaged in hazardous occupations in many sec-tors of society.

“The potential talent of children who have been deprived of primary and secondary education will be lost,” Khurana adds.

Victims of child labour suffer from anxiety, de-pression and other emo-tional health issues. Some-times that pushes them to fatal habits like smoking, says Khurana.

“This damage isn’t something that the nation can ignore,” he concludes.

‘Online, offline shopping will exist together’

Children at work during school time Photo by Parul Raina

Education must to eradicate HungerBy ANUSHKA SINGH

India is among the 45 countries with ‘serious levels of hunger’, accord-ing to the shocking data released by Global Hunger Index for 2018 in which it was ranked 103 out of 119 along with the African na-tion of Nigeria.

It has slipped down three places from where it was in the index for last year.

The report which was prepared by Welthunger-hilfe and Concern Wildlife ranked countries on the basis of four key indicators that include undernour-ishment, child mortality, child wasting and child stunting.

‘The biggest step to overcome this hunger cri-sis is educating people about the importance of a balanced diet. Adding di-etary supplements is also essential so that there are no nutritional deficien-cies’, said Priya Singh, a gynaecologist.

India ranked below

neighbouring countries like China (108th spot), Sri Lanka (67) and Nepal (72).

The report added that scores of South Asian countries are low, which reflect serious levels of hunger in this region. And while South Asian nations scored low, countries like Uruguay, Ukraine, Ro-mania and Turkey, which are predominantly from Europe scored extremely high.

“Another worrisome claim of this index is that at least 20 per cent of chil-dren under the age of five suffer from malnourish-ment and the only country which fared worse in child wasting is war-worn South Sudan,” Singh pointed out.

The fact that nearly a quarter of the country’s in-fant population is in hun-ger crisis is definitely very alarming and something that needs immediate attention from the con-cerned authorities.

“But before studying its consequences, it is vital to understand the meaning

of malnutrition which can be defined as not having enough energy or nutri-ents to live a physically active life that allows for optimal health.

It includes the concepts of overnutrition as under-nutrition, with the latter being prevalent in India, which can be attributed to growing population and class differences, despite

its growing economic sta-tus,” she added.

Paeditriacian Arun Jain said: ‘The main cause for this hunger crisis is the growing population. Due to this, there are more peo-ple to feed and less food that is available.”

If India’s rank contin-ues to decrease, then mal-nutrition will soon become a menace with side effects

like spike in mortality rate and an imbalance in the overall demographic struc-ture.

India’s position on the Global Hunger Index has consistently worsened over the years and thus signifies an increase in the alarming hunger crisis that contin-ues to negatively influence the third world countries.

Peer pressure drives teenagers to mental stressBy DEVYANI VERMA

Teenagers are driven into making wrong and harm-ful decisions under peer pressure, feels Aavya Srivastava, a student of BA Honours in Philosophy at the Indraprastha College for Women.

“Peer pressure is an influence when the expec-tations laid out for an indi-vidual exceed his capacity to deliver, leading him to make an irrational deci-sion,” she said.

The added problem,

she felt, was that this hap-pens when teenagers are at a very tender stage both physically and mentally. They tend to step out of their way to meet social ex-pectations laid out by their peers.

It can be both, good and bad depending on what they are being pres-sured to do. Coping with peer influence is about getting the balance right between yourself and fit-ting in with your group,” Srivastava said.

“Yes, it has happened

to me often”, Aavya resaid when asked about her ex-perience of buckling under peer pressure.

She highlighted that more often than not, it had landed her in a dilemma and had not been helpful at all.

“There were various occasions, whether it be for my love for singing or my outgoing personality, wherein people expected me to stand out and be as friendly or as ‘socially fit’. It baffled me as after a while, I was never ‘good

enough’ because they wer-en’t happy with whatever I did.

“So, I kept on extend-ing my limits and contin-ued ‘doing’ it for them till the time all there was left was feeling alone and bur-dened,” she said.

Constant pressure, she added, took a heavy toll on her profession life and ac-ademics.

“I was unable to bal-ance the two and what oth-ers expected from me and what I wanted for myself. As the last resort, I went

to my immediate family as well as the people I consid-ered as my closest friends for help”, she said.

While Srivastava’s family understood the troubles on her mind, a few of her friends did not see the situation in the same light. They felt she was complaining unneces-sarily and, not liking her confrontational attitude, starting staying away from her.

“The distance and the betrayal hurt me”, Srivas-tava said, adding that it

“simultaneously gave me the space I needed and the freedom to breathe.”

Srivastava added that it wasn’t that she became lonely, as she gradually found more people who were true to her, and with whom she could be equally true with.

“The biggest hazard, in my case, was feeling guilty”, she said, “The guilt worked both ways. If I fol-lowed what my peers asked of me, I would grow to hate myself, and if I didn’t, theywould hate me,” she said.

Her advice to others facing the same problem is simple:

“Stay true to yourself and keep yourself ground-ed. You are your own per-son, others do not make you and should not break you.

“Have a strong sense of self and values. Make your own decisions and push back the peer influence if you’re under it. Confide in someone you trust and let time work, tomorrow would be easier,” she con-cluded.

Payment ease works well onlineBy ANUSHKA SINGH

“Shopping often gets de-layed due to time con-straints and convenience factors. But in the age of digital media, online shop-ping has slowly and stead-ily emerged as a pleasant relief, all thanks to web-sites like Amazon and Flip-kart,” said Kamini Sharma, General Manager of Micro Labs, who is an avid shop-per but rarely gets time to “go” shopping.

Talking about the plus points of going digital with shopping, she said: “I shop online at least three to four times a month and the websites from which I usu-ally buy products include Amazon, FernsNPetals and Myntra,” she added.

Sharma has been shop-ping online since 2012. “Before that, I had a lot of fear that something would go wrong while buying on-line but that fear has now gone after I purchased my product through Flipkart for my mother.

“It was a birthday pres-ent for her and the product was a couple of books,” she recalled.

Sharma’s primary rea-

son for resorting to online shopping was that it is much more convenient as compared to other ways of doing the same.

“Budget, too, is a key factor while shopping and many people use e-com-merce because it is more cost-effective but that is not a problem for me as I am a shopaholic. Since I regularly shop online, I am comfortable with the idea,” she said.

It is all about feeling that one is right at home

while indulging in shop-ping sprees through the Internet, she added.

The next big plus, ac-cording to Sharma, is the ease of payment. “My pre-ferred mode of payment is through a credit card in-stead of the more popular cash-on delivery option,” sher said.

She also talked about the rise of online shopping and its impact on the of-fline medium with some sections of society fearing that the former may re-

place the latter in coming years.

“While online shop-ping has definitely given-tough competition to of-fline methods, factors like uneven access to these websites, lack of aware-ness and preference to-wards the touch and feel factor, will always come in the way to protect retail stores from continuing to do their business offline,” Sharma said.

Online shopping saves travel cost, traffic jams

‘E-commerce sites have long way to go’

An underfed labourer sits alone Photo by Anushka Singh

Kamini Sharma is an avid online shopper Naveen Kumar

By AHSAS JAIN

“People don’t have time even to fulfill their basic needs. With the increas-ing popularity of several e-commerce portals, we are now in a better position for shopping,” says a Delhi University BMS student Parth Jain.

“I made my first online buy in 2012 from amazon.in and later tried out sites like Flipkart, Jabong and Myntra. Now I’ve to admit that these portals are at their best to grab attention and interest, thanks to the products listed on these sites,” he said.

“The variety of prod-ucts online is awesome. Casual T-shirts, jeans, weight loss devices, home appliances, watches or mo-bile accessories defy my imagination and keep me happy with quality too,” he said.

Talking about the oth-er side i.e. the negative part, he said: “Images used on the shopping sites are bright, high-definition and eye-catchy. But as they say ‘all that glitters is not gold’. Just go to Flipkart or Am-azon and read the reviews. A sense of dissatisfaction is reflected in most of the re-views,” Jain points out.

In that context, Jain feels, physical stores are better than online shop-ping as “the quality we get offline is far better than online”.

According to him, books are the ideal thing to order online because they are available at much dis-counted rate and also save time.

Lastly, he said, “online shopping has been a mixed experience for me and In-dian e-commerce sites have a long way to go”.

‘Budget is a key factor while shop-ping and many people use e-com-merce because it is more cost-effective but that is not a problem for me as I am a shopaholic.’

‘The main cause for this hunger crisis is the grow-ing popula-tion. Due to this, there are more people to feed and less food that is available.’

By GAMINI CHANANA

“The online shopping in-dustry has exploded be-cause it gives the shoppers the ultimate luxury of shop-ping in the convenience of their homes,” said Piyush Kashyap, 28, manager of Volkswagen Ambala.

Sharing his viewpoint on the benefits of online shopping over off line shop-ping, Kashyap said: “I shop online and am comfortable with the mode. It’s not dif-ficult to understand the po-tential of online shopping, but at the same time there are also people who are sticking to ordinary shop-ping and they have their reasons as well,” he said.

“Even though people are moving towards on-line shopping, it is highly unlikely that offline stores will completely close down. I shop for products like clothes and watches online due to convenience, selec-

tion, immediacy, quality and to save money through discount and offers,” he adds.

“Online shopping takes less time and it doesn’t re-quire you to drive. This is the main reason that online shopping has become so popular as it allows you to switch stores and products by clicking a button rath-

er than travelling to a new store,” he added.

He said that ass per his experience, Myntra, Flip-kart and Shein provide bet-ter quality as compared to other e-commerce portals and he suggests not to buy electronic goods online.

However, for offline shopping, Kashyap said, it is good because it gives you the option to see and feel the product before pur-chasing.

“When you buy some-thing offline, you are able to see the exact design and quality of the item before you buy it, whereas as an online purchase will not always show the details to tell their products which require you to read the fine print closely.

“Some items may turn out to be refurbished, cheap remake of a brand name, an older model orincorrect size of the cloth-ing”, he added.

Piyush Kashyap

‘I never buy clothes on-line because I can’t get my size and re-placement of the product takes five to six working days.’

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDAWednesday, October 31, 20186

By ALIVIA MUKHERJEE

Eco-friendly idols were a rage in Kolkata this Durga Pooja season. Most of the pandal managements, aware of the growing pollution in the Hoogly river due to immersons, made sure that the statues had natural colours and were made of recyclable material.

“The idols made of POP cause water pollution by increasing the acid content, that not only kills the aquatic life but also causes lung diseases, infectious skin and eye ailments” said Himanshu Jain, manager of the Sagarbhanga society.

Apart from this, he pointed out that the dyes and glitters used to color the idols often cause allergies and lung diseases.

While the idols made of POP are attractive, cheap and easy to make, the eco-friendly ones went a long way to protect the environment. The gods in small miniature forms should not be made of POP. If the idol is immersed in water, the specific precautions should take place to protect the water, he said.

For the last few years the focus has been to celebrate eco-friendly Durga Puja. Efforts are being put to remove the

pollution and health hazards related to the celebration. Idols are being made with tradition clay rather than baked clay. This degrades faster when immersed in water.Ananya Chatterjee, a school student, appreciated this step “the initiative of producing the idols with traditional clay has really proved to be beneficial for preventing water pollution’’. Painting of idols should be discouraged. If idols are to be painted, non-toxic and watersoluble dyes should be used, she added “Thermocol are strictly prohibited as they do not decompose, causing land pollution. After the ban on thermocol, plastic products and other harmful products pandals are being constructed with bamboos, wooden planks, coconut shell,jutes, ropes and straws.”Some organizers are encouraging the use of energy saving LED bulbs in pandals. Banana leave plates and paper plates were used for distribution of prasad and refreshments at food stalls. “we should all cooperate with the organizers by depositing the waste after eating prasad at right place, and also restrict bursting crackers to reduce smoke” Amaan Mukherjee, a bank employee said. Enough

bins were provided to avoid littering of food waste. Speakers emitting high level sound were not allowed to be played after 8pm to prevent noise pollution. Worship materials such as flowers, vastras and decorating

materials made of plastics were removed before immersion. Biodegradable materials were collected for composting and non-biodegradable materials were deposited in sanitary landfills for disposal.celebrating an occasion by

exploring and damaging the surrounding without keeping in mind the environment factor can have dangerous consequences in future. “we should celebrate our festivals in such a way that the upcoming generation would not have to compromise while enjoying the festivals, we should always keep in mind the consequences” says Sunaina pal, a housewife. While retaining the practices and culture of Durga Puja festival. It is important to persist with the eco-friendly process to maintain a greener and healthier environment.

Every festival should be ecologically crafted to promote green living.

DurgaPuja is celebrated with enthusiasm in the city of joy, Kolkata and it is also celebrated in some other parts of West Bengal. Not just west Bengal but the popularity of the festival has also spread across many parts of India. The preparation itself creates excitement in people and is much enticing as the women starts planning and arranging for the materials, food and clothes much before the occasion starts. The people need to ensure that the occasion is celebrated in an eco-friendly way.

Eco-friendly idols cut pollution

By AKSHAT ANAND

The monument of Jantar Mantar in New Delhi is in need of cleaning and the department needs more people to do that. Abhinava Mukherjee, who works for the cleanliness department of the monument, says: “The monument is filled with greenery and is very spread out. That’s why it needs more workforce so that all the people can work together”.

This is a very serious problem as such an important and historic monument where most rallies are still held needs to maintained and treated with proper care. Jantar mantar has different small monuments inside it as well that play different roles. The 4 distinct instruments within Jantar Mantar in New Delhi are the Samrat Yantra, the Jayaprakash, Rama Yantra and the Misra Yantra.

The Samrat Yantra is a giant triangle which has stairs running from both the sides of the small monument.

On either side of the triangle is a quadrant with graduations indicating hours, minutes, and seconds.The shadows of the pillars through the sun helps to tell the time but there is a specific method to read that.

The Jayaprakash consists of hollowed out structure with markings on their concave surfaces. Four broad lines run through the inside of the surface which can help in reading of the stars. These lines were cut in a specific way that they helped the ancient people in reading the stars. This monument was mostly used for astronomical purpose.

Rama Yantra has two large cylindrical structures with open top. It was used to measure the altitude of stars based on the

latitude and the longitude on the earth. It was a very important as well as necessary instrument to be used back at that time. In this cylindrical structure lots of lines join the center of the structure.

The Misra Yantra was used as a tool to determine the shortest and longest days of the year. It could also be used to indicate the exact moment of noon in various cities and locations regardless of their distance from Delhi. This monument surely looks like

a miracle thing, but it was possible back in that day.

Akshita Singh who is a government employee says “ It’s a marvel architural structure that proved to be very useful during the era of no watches and clocks”

All these monuments have a specific role to play in the history of Jantar Mantar and were very important for both astronomical purpose as well as for telling time .

Abhishek Prasad, who came to visit the monument said: “The symbolic monument is very huge , the surrounding is full of greenery which adds more beauty as a whole” .Mr. Ramesh Rastogi said “We are pleased to take care of Jantar Mantar and are doing so for approximately 5 years now. It’s a beautiful creation by the person who created this.”. According to him the future should take the responsibility to take care of the past.

Jantar Mantar needs cleanliness guidelinesBy DHRUV DHANKAR

It was a seven-hour adrenaline, fun, thrill event, the B-Roll competition and was truly one of a kind event.

Teams from different parts of India participated in the event of Rendezvous where they were given an area they had to shoot video clips in and later compile them and make a 90 seconds video.

The event attracted a lot of teams from a lot of colleges across India. The areas allotted to these different teams varied and although it did not have any difference because the whole IIT Delhi campus was filled with action and joy.

The crowd full of audience particapants were very energetic and enthusiastically ready for the event. There were cheers all around. “The

competition was very exciting as well as enticing and we also got to show and enhance our skills” says Karan Mishra, one of the participant of the b-roll competition .

The area we were assigned had groups getting ready and practicing their performances – Dance, Nukkad Natak being the prominent ones. The event started at 9.00 am.

By PUSHKAR SINGH Prime Minister Narendra Modi met global oil and gas experts and made a strong case for partnership between producers and consumers in the oil market in order to reduce energy cost.

Ministers from Saudi Arabia and UAE, various Indian companies involved in both upstream and downstream operations, Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Dharmendra Pradhan were also present at the interaction were also present at the interactive assemblage.

During the interaction, global CEOs and Experts appreciated the steps taken by the Union Government over the last four years, for ease of doing business, and specifically in the energy sector in India.

The experts specially mentioned of India’s competitive ranking from the upstream investment point of view which has gone up from 56 to 44.

The experts appreciated the unique initiative of this

kind of a dialogue, which helped in bringing various stakeholders together on policy matters.

Interacting with the global leaders of the energy sector, Prime Minister highlighted the significant positioning of India in the oil and gas market.

He stated that the oil market is producer driven and both the quantity and price are determined by the oil producing countries. Though there is enough production, the unique features of marketing in the oil sector has pushed up the oil prices.

Modi made a strong case for a partnership between the producers and consumers, in the oil market, as it exists in other markets. This will help in stabilising the global economy which is on the path of recovery.

Modi drew attention of the experts on certain key policy issues relevant to India. Firstly, he highlighted that the consuming countries, due to rise in crude oil prices, has been facing many economic

challenges including serious resource crunch. The cooperation from the oil producing countries would be very critical to bridge this gap.

He appealed to oil producing countries to channel their investible surplus for pursuing commercial exploitation in the oil sector in developing countries. Secondly, he spoke about higher acreage under exploration and sought cooperation of the developed countries both in terms of technology as well as extension of coverage. Thirdly, he sought the role of private participation in the distribution of gas sector.

Last and most importantly, he requested for the reviewing of payment terms so as to provide temporary relief to the local currency.

He also highlighted the liberalisation in gas pricing and marketing which has been particularly in deep waters that recquires technology for high pressure and high temperature exploration.

Based on PIB report

By DEBPARNA NAYAK

A Group of Ministers, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, has been constituted by the Government to strengthen the legal and institutional frameworks to deal with and prevent sexual harassment at workplace.

The GoM has been set up in the light of #MeToo movement where several women came forward and publicly named people who had harassed them at their workplace. Following this Former editor M J Akbar had to resign as Minister of State for External Affairs had allegations of sexual harassment against him by his former colleagues.

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act is the key element for preventing and protecting women against sexual harassment at the workplace and to ensure effective redressal of complaints of sexual harassment this development that came a week after the MJ Akbar, Minister of state for external affairs resigned over multiple accusations

of social misconduct and assault. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has also launched an electronic complaints box that enables women, irrespective of their work status, to raise their voice against sexual harassment at workplace.Although India has in place the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, the #MeToo campaign revealed that many victims of sexual harassment could not speak up

According to M. Sharanya, a student of Symbiosis: “In order to avoid those circumstances a girl should remain strong to would fight back and should be daring enough to keep such people away and also so that people would fear to touch her .Most importantly she should create that aura and be brave”. Sneha Saha who is a student of BHU said, “ If a girl sees that the environment is such then she should raise her voice at first place and even after that if there is no change in the situation ,she shouldn’t hesitate to

slap him right away and inform the organisation for the same”. According to her just not earning money but earning respect is equally important. In an online poll of 15,000 members across the country 32 percent have said that either they or one of their family members have experienced social harassment at their work place and surprisingly 72% of them were females. In many cases it was noted t that women don’t file complaints because the internal complaints committee (ICC) or culture of the workplace does not inspire confidence in them. For making that effective companies have to come forward and be proactive in creating such a safe working environment.Duty of preventing sexual harassment lies on employer.The companies need to lead the way to help preventing their employees from getting sexually harassed by eliminating prejudices against women.

Based on PIB report

By MAHIKAH MALICK

The 5th ADMM Plus meet was held on October 20 in Singapore which is a forum for Defence Ministers from 10 ASEAN and eight ASE-AN Plus countries and was atteneded by the Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The theme of this year’s dialogue was ‘Strengthening Cooperation, as well as Building Resilience. The dialogue adopted two resolutions on ‘Countering the threat of Terrorism’ and ‘Practical confidence building measures.’ Defence Minister Sitharaman emphasised India’s on the challenges to international peace and stability due to the threat of terrorism. She said “We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations given

that it constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.” Defence Minister conveyed that the interplay between states and non-state actors used as proxies to format violence had worsened this menace. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharam reiterated India’s view on Indo- open, balanced region connected by open and secure seas, integrated by balanced trade and shaped by a rule based order, anchored in ASEAN centrality and conveyed India’s commitment to maintain a sustained focus. “We reaffirm that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivations”she said.

Based on PIB report

By DEENA DAYAL

Expo Cihac was the leading event for the construction industry. It was held in Citibanamex Centre at Mexico from October 17 till October 20, 2018.

“This event is expected to bring together the best products, technologies and innovations for construction from all over the world. More than 570 exhibitors coming from various fields such as architecture, engineering, interior design, lighting, home automation and machinery are participating in the expo event”, says PIB report.

Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) is leading a contingent of 45 exhibitors,representing various sectors of the construction industry, this includes building materials, construction equipment, sphisticated machines, construction tools, interior furnishing,

manufacturing and marketing of ceramic vitrified tiles to Expo Cihac in Mexico City The main objective of the participating countries is to increase their brand exposure, get opportunities, increase possibilities attract more prospects and strengthen their relationship with the participants of the growing construction industry.

The report says that,the ceramic industry of India does business which has $1.243 billion worth of export from ceramic products in a year. There is great scope for business in Mexico as the ceramic product’s export to Mexico is presently only $73.8 million from India.

With a good number of business visitors coming from other Latin American companies as well, the overall scope for business is growing much larger for those participating in this

expo.TPCI Chairman, Mohit

Singla said that the TPCI’s flagship export promotion event Source India Mexico is also being held along with Expo CIHAC in Mexico City. Indian companies representing various sectors including building materials, construction equipment, interior furnishing, and technology for building construction would be showcasing a wide range of Indian products in the exhibition.

Highlighting the importance of Expo Cihac, the Chairman of TPCI said”this exhibition is an ideal platform for the participants to explore the business opportunities for exports, joint ventures, technology transfers and marketing tie-ups with their Mexican counterparts and other participating countries.”

Based on PIB report

PM meets global oil, gas experts for cutting prices

ASEAN defence ministers talk on terrorism

Construction meetdiscusses growth

Rama Yantra at Jantar Mantar,New Delhi Photo by Akshat Anand

Durga puja celebration at Durgapur. Photo by Alivia Mukherjee

B-Roll competition at IIT Delhi rocks

‘Jantar Mantar is very green and is spread out. That’s why it needs more workforce’

‘The competi-tion was very exciting as well as enticing, and we also got to show and enhace our skills’

Govt body formed to fight sexual harassment at work

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO

Single mother talks of grit

‘SC is right in banning crackers’

GREATER NOIDAWednesday, October 31, 2018 7

By ESHA YADAV

Agriti Mishra is a 35- year old working woman. She lives with her family in the metropolitan city of New Delhi. Confident, selfless and caring ,she is both a mother and a father. Wid-owed at the age of 31, she talks about how her life changed after the death of her husband. Highlighting the difficulties of single motherhood, Jagriti said “Being a single parent, you have to fulfill the du-ties of a mom and a dad . Jagriti says, “Where’s the father/husband” is a very common question, from government places to su-permarkets.” She feels that once people get to know, their mannerisms change distinctly. Their reaction

regarding you and your status changes instant-ly. People start to display pity, for you and your fam-ily.Speaking about remar-riage, she feels that even though the society expects a woman to remarry after the death of her husband, there was no pressure on her from her family.

On asked about her views on society’s judge-ments, she said “There are a lot of judgements that a single parent has to face especially in a country like India.

“But I was lucky enough to not go through the torture of people’s crit-icism and judgements. My family stood by me from day one and made sure I was doing good . I am very grateful for this support .”

By GAMINI CHANCHANA

Manju Sharma, a resi-dent of Greater Noida is a housewife . She resides at NRI Residency. Being a shopping lover, she prefers to shop for her family her-self. Coming from a middle class family, Manju spends Rs.5000- 10,000 on shop-ping every month and when it comes to shopping during festival season, she usually spends Rs.15,000-20,000 as to buy gifts, home decoration things, clothes for the family and some basic needs.

While talking about her shopping habits, she said, “The offers that come dur-ing festival are far better than the normal offers, but during festival season as Diwali is coming, we have

to maintain the status in our society and acknowl-edge people gratitude to-wards us.

During festival season, many guests come home. The norm of welocming everyone warmly requirs effort. Not only the houses have to be neat and clean, but also presentable enough so that it doesn;t look aw-

ward.The budget has always

been an issue. It ususally goes very high as we have to buy gifts for our family as well as friends to show love. The festival of lights, Diwali is less than a month away, the online shopping sites are already flooded with amazing and attractive festive offers, giving scope to

its customers to shop their favourite products from fa-vourite brands at amazingly affordable prices.

All the giant online shopping sites such as Am-azon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Shop clues are leaving no stone unturned in planning a strategy which would help them to maximise their sales to the extent possible. “The

excitement during festivals are best for all humans”. She concluded that “Don’’t let life become a shopping festival, where people come, stays a while, explore around and blend in somewhere else”.

Festive season gives everyone a reason to shop as the amazing deals can’t stop anyone from falling into the trap.

By ANIKET SHARMA

With Diwali around the corner shopping activ-ities also tend to in-crease, due to this, the desire for fire crackers is also in mind of individ-uals. Fire crackers is a term that creates joy and ex-citement in one’s mind, but is it all fun when these fancy crackers are banned?

Pollution level in Delhi and NCR is already on an upswing which creates problems like respiratory diseases like asthma, lung cancer, etc.

Due to this, the su-preme court has taken a call on banning the fire crackers nationwide, causing a fall on the sale of fire crackers.

For this a section of traders have approached the Supreme Court for seeking modification in the order on banning of sale of fire crackers in NCR so that the traders should be allowed to sell their stocks they bought after the court relaxed its ban on licenses to sell firecrackers in Septem-ber.

Over this Yayati Ya-dav, a student of Engi-neering at Bennett Uni-versity gave his opinion over the ban he said, “Yes, the government has done a right thing by banning the crackers as the recent study showed that the pollution level has reached 10pm and 2.5pm. This time I and my family will not burn crackers”.

On asking about cre-ating awareness on the ban of crackers, he told us that

he will be celebrating this Diwali with lighting candles and diya’s and advice the public to cel-ebrate an eco-friendly Diwali. On this note he even told that his moth-er has planned to give plants as gifts to the friends and family.

He even told that ani-mals also get hurt during Diwali as they are less privileged lacking the ability to communicate the way we do.

Also, fire accidents are very common in this festival which can dam-age properties and claim lives, at factories where children work by making these crackers and even

at home where people play with these crackersAnd even after the festi-val is celebrated the en-vironment is filled with smog and which lasts for many days. At last he concluded “The smoke from crackers creates harm to new-born ba-bies, pregnant women and old-aged people”

Nikhil Kapur, a stu-dent of Management in Bennett University, also commented when asked about the ban he said, “The carbon emitted by the crackers are a rea-son which may lead to issues related to Glob-al Warming and Ozone layer depletion and after Diwali the main problem that comes to our sight is the garbage lying on the roads.”

‘Festivals are a reason to shop online’

‘Indians lack civic sense’

By VIDUSHI MITTAL

“India is a country with a huge population where people don’t think twice before littering the roads. They only think about themselves and their homes, they don’t care about their surround-ings, city and country,” says Divyansh Khera, First year, B.tech student of Bennett University. People in India, he add-ed, lacks basic civic etiquette like not littering, stand-ing in a line and waiting for ones turn, driving with courtesy and being accom-modative, consideration for the personal space of others, being impolite and rude while speaking, lack of punctuality and respect for other people’s time. The garbage at roadside

gives bad impression to the people who come to visit India. Also, dirty streets, roads and public places is one of the main reason for diseases to spread across. One’s health is one’s wealth, but if the streets are always dirty, no one can be healthy. Modi Ji took an initiative to clean the country by ‘ Swatch Bharat Abhiyan’ in Octo-ber and to some extent it has worked, but people are still taking this issue very lightly. The offense of lit-tering on roads and public places will not call for FIRs or arrests, it will have mon-etary penalties much like the penalties which come under the category of ‘mak-ing atmosphere noxious to health’, the section 278 of Indian Criminal law. Khera said, “It’s just one small piece which litters the

area and it takes just one small step to clean that area. I never litter on roads and also stop my family to do so. I try that at least my family, does not throw garbage on roads or in any other public place.” Bhuvnesh Shukla, First year, BA-LLB student of Bennett University, said, “It’s not only the fault of government but also of cit-izens, who do not value their country. I see people throwing packets, cigarette buds, etc. while travelling on roads. I think everyone should take a tough stand on this and not throw garbage here, there and everywhere.” The cleanliness of this country is not just the re-sponsibility of govern-ment, but also the citizens. People should themselves be careful about their sur-roundings and country.

By ADITYA MISRA

Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi, dedicated the world’s tallest statue, the ‘Statue of Unity’, to the na-tion.

The 182 metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was dedicated to the nation on his birth anniversary, at Kevadiya in Narmada Dis-trict of Gujarat.

At the launch ceremo-ny, the Prime Minister and other dignitaries’ poured soil and Narmada water into a Kalash to mark the dedication of the ‘Statue of Unity’ to the nation. The Prime Minister pressed a lever to commence a Vir-tual Abhishek of the statue.

He inaugurated the Wall of Unity. At the feet of the Statue of Unity, the Prime Minister performed a special prayer. He vis-ited the Museum and Ex-hibition, and the Viewers’ Gallery. This gallery, at 153 metres height, can ac-

commodate upto 200 vis-itors at one time. It offers a spectacular view of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, its reservoir, and the Satpu-ra and Vindhya mountain ranges. The dedication cer-emony was punctuated by flypast of IAF aircraft, and performances of cultural troupes.

Greeting the people of India on this occasion, the Prime Minister said that the entire country is cele-brating Rashtriya Ekta Di-vas today.

He said today marks a special moment in the his-tory of India. He said that with the Statue of Unity, India has given itself to-day, a towering inspiration for the future. He said the Statue will continue to re-mind future generations of the courage, capability and resolve of Sardar Patel. He said that the integration of India by Sardar Patel, has resulted today in India’s march towards becoming a

big economic and strategic power.

The Prime Minister also recalled Sardar Patel’s vision of the administrative services as a steel frame.

He described the Stat-ue of Unity as a symbol of the self-respect of the farmers who gave soil from their land, and iron from their farming implements for the Statue. He said the aspirations of the youth of India can be achieved only through the mantra of “Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat.” He congratulated everyone associated with the con-struction of this Statue. He said the Statue would gen-erate considerable tourism

opportunities for the re-gion.

The Prime Minister mentioned that several me-morials have been made to recall the contributions of freedom fighters and great leaders, in recent years. Besides the Statue of Unity, he mentioned the museum dedicated to Sardar Patel in Delhi, Mahatma Mandir and Dandi Kutir in Gan-dhinagar, the Panchtirth dedicated to Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, the Statue of Sri Chhotu Ram in Haryana, and the me-morials of Shyamji Krishna Varma and Veer Nayak Govind Guru in Kutch. He said work is in progress for

the museum dedicated to Subhash Chandra Bose in Delhi, the Shivaji statue in Mumbai, and tribal muse-ums across the country.

The Prime Minister spoke of Sardar Patel’s vision of a strong and in-clusive India, and said the

Union Government is working towards making this dream a reality. He mentioned the efforts to provide a home to all, to provide electricity to all, and towards road connec-tivity and digital connec-tivity. He also mentioned the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. He said that efforts such as GST, e-NAM, and “One-Nation, One-Grid” have also con-tributed to integrating the nation in various ways.The Prime Minister spoke of our collective respon-sibility to maintain the unity and integrity of the nation, and to counter all divisive forces.

Based on a PIB report

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

About 65,000 troops from various central and state police forces were de-ployed for the first-phase of the assembly polls in naxal-hit Chhattisgarh, of-ficials said on Wednesday. Elections to the 90-mem-ber Chhattisgarh assembly were held in two phases on November 12 and Novem-ber 20.

In two recent Maoist attacks in Bijapur and Suk-ma districts, nine security personnel and a DD News cameraman were killed, prompting security offi-cials to direct personnel to “maintain a very high state of alert till the polls process is completed”. The officials said contingents from central forces such as the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB, CISF and RPF, and a few from state police forc-es reached capital Raipur.

They were in position at their designated locations and polling booths by this week, they said. “About 650 companies of central and state police forces were deployed for the first phase of polls in the state.The (personnel of) Chhat-tisgarh Police is in addition to this,” a senior official said. There were about 100 personnel in a state police. Considering the threat perception in 18 constit-uencies that go to polls in the first phase, the number of on-ground security per-sonnel had been kept high, the officials said.

The assembly seg-ments were spread in eight Naxal-affected districts of Bastar, Kanker, Suk-ma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon, they said. Central Reserve Po-lice Force (CRPF) units that are already deployed

in the Bastar area for reg-ular anti-Naxal operations added to the strength of these forces, the officials said.

The Bijapur and Suk-ma naxal attacks, prompt-ed security officials to state that they were “not taking any chances and the secu-rity units had been asked to maintain a very high state of alert till the polls process was completed.” For the forces being sent to the central Indian state, the Union Home Ministry had issued specific direc-tions that they should “car-ry their own night vision devices, communication equipments like satel-lite phones, bullet proof jackets, GPS systems and armoured vehicles as far as possible for safety and other operational require-ments” in view of the Nax-al threat.

Edited by Aditya Misra

65k-strong force to man Chhattisgarh polls

Modi dedicates Statue of Unity to nation

Litter from a food truck Photo by Vidushi Mittal

Manju Sharma

Atonement ritual held at Padmanabha Swamy shrine

‘PM described the statue of unity as a symbol of the self-respect of the farmers who gave soil from their land and

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Hitting out at Rahul and Sonia Gandhi for ques-tioning him on demone-tisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday said he did not need a “cer-tificate of honesty” from the “mother-son duo” who are out on bail. In a no-holds-barred attack on the Congress, its president Ra-hul Gandhi and his mother Sonia, Modi also said the party’s “politics begins and ends with one family”.

Addressing a poll rally in Bilaspur ahead of the second and final phase polling in Chattisgarh on November 20, the prime minister made a strong pitch for development, saying its pace under the Congress’ watch was “far slow” than that during the BJP’s rule.

Singling out the Gan-dhis for “seeking account of demonetisation”, Modi asked “whether the moth-er-son duo who are out on bail for financial irregulari-ties would give him certifi-cate of honesty”.

“They want an account of demonetisation. It was due to the demonetisation that fake companies were identified. And because of that you had to seek bail. Why do you forget that it was due to the note ban that you had to seek bail,” he said without naming the Gandhis. Modi announced the ban on high-value cur-rency notes on November 8, 2016. Modi’s remarks were an apparent refer-ence to the bail granted by a Delhi court to Rahul and Sonia for alleged financial irregularities.

Edited by Ahsas Jain

‘Festive season gives everyone a reason to shop as the amazing deals can’t stop anyone from falling into the trap. All online shopping sites are leaving no stone unturned in planning a stratergy to maximise their sales to the extent possible’

Modi hits out at Rahul on note ban

Agriti Mishra lives life on her own terms

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

An atonement ritual has been performed at the famous Sree Padmanab-ha Swamy temple here following suspicion that some non-Hindus entered it in violation of traditional customs.

The ritual was held Sunday night based on the temple tantri’s (head priest) order, temple sources said.

However, the sourc-es rejected reports that ‘seeveli’, a traditional ritu-al performed at nights be-fore the sanctum sancto-rum closes, was cancelled by the priests for two days for the completion of the

atonement ceremony.“The atonement ritual

was heldas per the direc-tions of tantri. It is true that the seeveli ritual was a bit delayed yesterday due to that,” a temple staff, who did not want to be quoted, said.

According to the sourc-es, a group of devotees had arrived at the temple on November 9 and some women among them re-portedly covered their heads with veils.

The women had en-tered the shrine after changing into traditional Hindu attire from a cloak-room nearby.

Some other devotees had taken photographs

of the women with veils standing outside the shrine and sent them to the priests raising questions about their religious back-ground, following which it was decided to perform the atonement ritual, they said.

According to custom, only believers of Hinduism were permitted entry into the temple, a major pil-grimage centre and a tour-ist attraction in the south-ern part of the country.

Non-Hindus can en-ter the shrine and offer prayers only after submit-ting a declaration that they believe in Hinduism, the sources said.

Edited by Ahsas Jain

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSO GREATER NOIDAWednesday, October 31, 20188

Bennethon: a huge draw for faculty and studentsBy AYUSHI BISHT

The six-km marathon run conducted by Bennett University on October 25, witnessed an overwhelm-ing participation of 300 students and 40 staff and faculty members.

The marathon was or-ganized by the sports com-mittee and student council of Bennett University. De-cathlon Noida was the gift sponsor and Red Bull was the energy drink partner.

“The theme of the mar-athon was to break the gender boundary that’s why the marathon was named as the “marathon beyond gender roles” said Nandana, Deputy Secre-tary, Sports Committee.

“People nowadays face many problems in future, it’s not only girls but boys also face many problems due to gender inequality. So we thought of bring-ing out the marathon for a good cause and gender equality is one such cause,” Raunak, the organizer and member of sports commit-tee, added.

The final registrations started at 3 pm. There was a huge enthusiasm in the crowd. Finally the marathon started at 4 pm. There were many check points for the marathon and all through the six-km distance.

The winner in facul-ty male was Vineet Nehra who completed in 27 min-utes giving a tough compe-tition to students .

The faculty winner was Neelam Chaudhry who completed the marathon run in 38 minutes 15 sec-onds, crossing her own re-cord created last year.

The runner up was Ni-dhi Chauhan who finished

in 41 minutes.The winner in male

student category was Arsh Khatiyal (third year B-tech) completed the marathon in 23 minutes and the runner up was Saumya Deb (third year, B Tech).

The winner in woman student category was Av-ishka Sharma (first year B Tech) completed in 35 minutes and the runner up was Manvi Singh ( second year, BJMC).

Arsh Khatiyal, when asked about his feelings af-ter winning the marathon said, “I had never partici-pated in a marathon before and so was not expecting to win as I had fever since morning but it was fun and winning it is a really good feeling”.

“The distance should be extended to at least 10 km because when it comes

to a college marathon 6 kilometers are very less” Arsh added.

Asked about the views on fitness, Avishka said, “Fitness is a very impor-tant part of life. It’s not just the show off of physical at-tributes as it affects a per-son mentally also. If you are fit you have no stress in life, you start thinking positively. You become confident and hence your lifestyle improves in a very better way”.

The chief guests of the event were Suneet Tuli, Dean, School Engineer-ing and Applied Scienc-es), Milind Padalkar, Dean Student Affairs, and Session Handle Officer Pradeep Kumar of Dadri area.

The medal ceremony began with a speech by Ku-mar who said a few words about the importance of gender equality and the importance of fitness in our daily lives.

‘People nowadays face many problems so we thought of organising the marathon for a good cause, the good cause being gender equality’

By AMULYA SHREE

The transition into college is particularly vulnerable to depression. That’s when interacting with animals, specially dogs, often helps. As college students gear up for peak stress season, many are find comfort in man’s best friend, many of them living right on the Bennett University cam-pus.

Sumant Srivastava is a Bio-tech 1st year stu-dent and a member of student-driven body of Bennett University, BARC (Bennett Animals Rights Crew).

“I love animals and I love all the dogs here on campus but Caramel (a dog) for me is special be-

cause he just loves to be loved on and to love”, he said. He claimed that ani-mals are a good influence in their day-to-day lives. “I think that for many students having a pet pro-vides a structure that they lack otherwise” , he added.

The BARC is a stu-dent-driven body which ensures that animals on the campus are well taken care of and that the stu-dents follow animal poli-cies and it tries to solve any disputeregarding thesame.

It has 30 members and the numbers are ex-pected to grow in upcming days. Since, some students are not happy with the dogs in the campus due to some reasons, the ad-ministration is planning

to eliminate them from the university. B.A.R.C. is trying to resolve all the problems by conducting various vaccination and population managememt programmes.

They are also planning to provide a temporary place that is safe and suit-able for puppies until they grow as they are under reg-ular attack from the near-by ant-colony. As a part of their plan, every animal will receive a personalized tag to identify which ones are getting vaccinated.

“Students are worried about papers and exams and can also get homesick. The dogs help with all of that. They are like a little bit of heaven on the cam-pus,” Sumant said.

BARC takes good care of dogs at Bennett

By MAHANDRALAI KUMANAN

“When you leave your home and comfort zone, reality hits you hard and you realise you are on your own now,” said Ishita Gup-ta, a BJMC student at Ben-nett University.

“The day my parents left me in my hostel room and bid goodbye, I felt a sense of independence but little did I know the chal-lenges I was yet to face,” added Ishita. She talked of how she feels at home. “It already feels like a year,” said Kanishka Sharma, an-other student.

Students who have been living with their par-ents for a long time find it difficult to adapt to the new surroundings around them since they’re used to getting pampered by their families. College gives a re-ality check and they begin to learn to adjust.

The university also has

students who have previ-ously been living in hostels and therefore know how to live without their parents. “Its like switching hostels. I’ve been doing this for nine years,” said Kanishka who did schooling from Mayo College, Ajmer.

When college has a mix of all kind of students. They eventually start bonding well and make college feel like home for each other. From army brats, to boarders, to pam-pered kids, college has them all. Some turn rebel-lious and take their time to adjust whereas others gel well and connect with people. “I learn something new everyday and now BU already feels like home, al-though I look forward to going back to my family, I’m eager to come back to my new home after holi-days as well” quoted An-mol Bansal, a BBA student at Bennett.

BU becomes a home away from home for students

Students enjoy a meal together at Bennett University, a home away from home Photos by Anushka Sharma, Priyanshi Gupta

By AKSHAT ANAND

The Bennethon, which took place on October 25, was a six-km marathon run and was welcomed with lots of enthusiasm by the partic-ipants. Redbull, being the energy drink partner, gave away free Redbulls to first 300 participants. There was a check-point or a wa-ter-break after completion of every kilometre.

There were two check-points which had slips that needed to be collected to proceed further. One could see the competitive spirit amongst the runners as people were exhausted yet still running continuous-ly to place ahead of those ahead of them.

By facing all the obsta-cles during the run, stand-ing ahead of everyone on every turn, Arsh Khatiyal, third-year B.Tech, won the

marathon. The marathon being just 6km was a very short distance to cover and the marathon should at

least be of 10 kilometres said the winner. He com-pleted the run in a total of 22 minutes. The Second

place holder was timed 23 minutes for his completion of course while the third one took 24 minutes to complete the run, the gap being of one minute in all the three opponents.

Arsh is also the cap-tain of university’s foot-ball team, so a win was expected from his fellow teammates and juniors as well. The second and third placeholders also belong to the football team. This was the first marathon for Harsh but said that the marathon was easy for him as he runs regularly and had covered a 10 kilometre run as well not more than 35 minutes. A new mara-thon will probably be held next year o the year com-ing after as the marathon saw active participation and received positive re-sponse from students and professors alike.

Students competing to win the run Photo by Ayushi Bisht

Tired but motivated Photo by Akshat Anand

From left: Vihan Tyagi (2nd runner-up), Arsh Khatiyal (Winner) and Saumya Deb (1st run-ner-up) at the Marathon prize distribution ceremony Photo by Ayushi Bisht

Simba, the newest member of Bennett University’s dog community Photo by Amulya Shree

THE TIME F BENNETTSOTHE TIME F BENNETTSOWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2018 | VOL.2 | ISSUE 7

SUB EDITORSARNAB HOTA, AYUSHI BISHT (Page 1),

APOORVA SHARDA, ANUSHKA SINGH (Page 2), VIDUSHI MITTAL (Page 3),

ANIKET SHARMA, ANSHIKA KATHURIA (Page 4), AMULYA SHREE (Page 5),

ALIVIA MUKHERJEE, AKSHAT ANAND (Page 6), ADITYA MISRA, AHSAS JAIN (Page 7),

ANUSHKA SHARMA, ANUSHKA AGRAWAL(Page 8)

REPORTERSAPOORVA SHARDA, AYUSHI BISHT, MEDHA SHARMA,

KYLE SIMLAI, DHRUV DHANKAR, JAHANVI MANCHANDA, ANUSHKA SINGH, MANSI SHARMA, ISHAAN DWIVEDI,

ADITYA MISRA, VIDUSHI MITTAL, ANUSHKA AGARWAL, ARNAB HOTA, ANIKET SHARMA, PUSHKAR SINGH,AMULYA SHREE, ESHA YADAV, ALIVIA MUKHERJEE, DEENA DAYAL

NARAYANAN, MAHIKAH MALIK, DEBPARNA NAYAK, AKSHAT ANAND, ANIKET SHARMA,

GAMINI CHANCHANA, MAHANDRALAI KUMANAN

Published by Sunil Saxena on behalf of The Times School of Media, Bennett University, Plot no 8-11, Tech Zone II, Greater Noida, and printed at Veekay Printers, 140 Patpar Ganj, New Delhi - 110091.

The Times of Bennett is a training paper which is written, edited and produced entirely by students as part of their academic work.

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