logo
Anil Kumble, Eshwar Khandre meet: Kumble committed to forest conservation and development says Min

Anil Kumble, Eshwar Khandre meet: Kumble committed to forest conservation and development says Min

Hans India2 days ago

Bengaluru: Indian Cricketer Anil Kumble has now committed to wildlife and forest conservation and development, said Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Eshwar B Khandre.
After consulting with renowned former cricketer and environmentalist Anil Kumble, who met him in Bengaluru on Tuesday, he said that Anil Kumble, who has immense concern and love for wildlife, forests and the environment, has agreed to become the forest and wildlife ambassador without any remuneration, which is a testament to his environmental concern and commitment.
Kumble, who has played a key role in many victories of the Indian team with his leg-spin charm, is the proud son of not only Karnataka but also India. He is in the hearts of cricket lovers. He expressed confidence that he will promote and broadcast about forest and wildlife conservation and create awareness among the people.
Kumble also has the experience of serving as the Vice President of the Karnataka Wildlife Board in the past. Eshwar Khandre opined that Anil Kumble becoming the ambassador will strengthen forest conservation and forest development. Speaking to media after meeting the minister, Anil Kumble thanked the government for deciding to appoint him as the Forest and Wildlife Ambassador. He said that he would work together with the department for forest and wildlife conservation and development.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Census that has to be more than just a head count
Census that has to be more than just a head count

Hindustan Times

time14 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

Census that has to be more than just a head count

The Union government announced this week that the long-delayed census will be carried out in two phases with the reference date of March 1, 2027. For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be October 1, 2026. Late April, the Centre announced that caste enumeration will be a part of the next decennial census. This is a significant shift. I have previously argued in these pages that a carefully conducted caste census offers more positives than negatives, but two considerations must be taken seriously. First, the data must be collected with care. Second, the data must be made accessible — not just to policymakers and researchers, but to the people themselves. India's three most urgent structural challenges over the next two decades are clear – job creation, rising centralisation, and the growing social and economic marginalisation of Muslims. A well-designed caste census can speak to all three. This is not to suggest that such a census will resolve these challenges outright, but it can meaningfully illuminate specific aspects of each. The first challenge concerns employment — or rather, the lack of meaningful, secure work for large segments of India's population. Caste in India has long been closely tied to occupational hierarchies. We need a clearer map of who is doing what work today, which jatis dominate the public sector, which remain concentrated in casual labour, who has exited traditional caste-based occupations, and who remains locked into them. Without this information, it is difficult to design effective affirmative action policies, employment guarantees, skilling programmes, or education pipelines. For instance, using data from its caste census, the Telangana government has created a sub-quota for particularly marginalised Scheduled Caste (SC) jatis within the broader SC reservation quota. This does not increase the overall SC share in public jobs, but ensures that historically left-behind Scheduled Caste (SC) jatis have a fairer chance. If the national caste census includes occupation data by jati, it can illuminate why some communities remain trapped in insecure, informal work while others diversify. Unless we make caste visible in our understanding of labour markets, we cannot address the structural roots of inequality in employment outcomes. The second is centralisation. India is among the most centralised countries in the world: only 3% of all public expenditure is made by local governments, compared to 51% in China. Key governance decisions are made in Delhi and there is simply not enough wiggle-room for federal and local governments. Yogendra Yadav has previously argued that a caste census is a diagnostic tool — the X-ray before the prescription. But a well-executed caste census can be more than an X-ray of a broken limb. It is a high-resolution, full-body scan. It offers a hyperlocal picture of Indian society — who lives where, who owns what, who does what — allowing for policies that respond to the specificities of place. Over time, the objective should be to invert the current governance model — one in which Union and state governments play a supporting role while village and municipal governments chart their own development paths. A caste census can help accelerate this transition. One long-standing concern with decentralisation, articulated most forcefully by BR Ambedkar when he described villages as 'dens of ignorance', is the risk of elite capture: The possibility that decentralised governance will merely consolidate the power of dominant castes. India — and its villages and towns — has changed considerably since Ambedkar made that assessment, but the problem of elite capture exists to varying degrees. A caste census can offer a granular view of where power is concentrated and where it is more diffuse. It can help identify which local governments are dominated by a single elite group and which display broader representation. This allows policymakers to tailor the pace and sequencing of decentralisation — perhaps beginning where elite capture is lower, building capacity and trust, and expanding from there. A caste census, therefore, enables us to approach decentralisation more intelligently. The third challenge is the growing marginalisation of Indian Muslims. A 2024 study by Asher, Novosad, and Rafkin shows that Muslims are now the least upwardly mobile group in India — faring worse than even Dalits and Adivasis when it comes to educational progress over generations. Another recent analysis by Himanshu and Guilmoto (2024) using data from Bihar's caste census finds that Muslims, as a group, are located near the bottom of the state's economic distribution — in some cases, below Mahadalit groups. What's more, the study finds that this deprivation is strikingly uniform: Across jatis like Pathans, Sheikhs, and Ansaris, economic indicators remain consistently poor. This makes a strong case for targeted policy action. But politics at the national level may not allow for it. States, however, can. A caste census gives state governments the tools to recognise and respond to intra-Muslim variation and provide tailored support — in housing, education, political representation — to those who need it most. Crucially, none of this is possible unless the data reaches the people. In India, data flows from citizen to State — but rarely the other way around. This must change. Marginalised groups should be able to view their own position relative to others — both within their localities and across districts. Platforms such gram sabhas can be used to disseminate findings, supported by civil society and domain experts. When citizens see that their mohallas and communities have done worse than others, they are more likely to mobilise and demand change. Equally, elected representatives — from ward members to MLAs — should receive localised reports that compare their jurisdictions with others. This is how data becomes a tool for accountability — not just for the state to monitor citizens, but for citizens to challenge the state. India's caste census, then, must do more than count heads. It can be both a mirror that reflects the structure of society and a lever for meaningful, democratic change. MR Sharan teaches at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of Last Among Equals: Caste and Politics in Bihar's Villages. The views expressed are personal

Remembering a text and reviving a cultural link
Remembering a text and reviving a cultural link

Hindustan Times

time14 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

Remembering a text and reviving a cultural link

In April, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra visited Saudi Arabia for a third time since assuming office 11 years ago. During this period, India has enhanced its centuries-old ties with the Persian Gulf nations, which host the largest (25%) share of Indian expatriate population globally (about nine million), to the level of strategic cooperation. In an interview with Arab News ahead of his April visit, PM Modi emphasised the long-standing ties between India and the Arab world. He said Indians and Arabs have interacted with each other since the days of Kalila wa Dimna. Much of this interaction has centred on culture, through transmission of ideas and translations of texts. The PM did not elaborate on Kalila wa Dimna; nor did Arab News add a parenthesis, for it has been among the most popular books in the Arab world since Ibn Muqaffa compiled it in the 8th century from Panchatantra for philosophers to benefit from the wisdom of the Indian classic. Panchatantra reached the rest of the world as a celebrated treatise on governance tutelage through its Arabic translation. Novelist Salman Rushdie has argued that Alf Laylah wa Laylah (The Arabian Nights/One Thousand and One Nights) also has probable Indian origin. The Arabian Nights, the Arab world's biggest contribution to literature, has influenced storytelling and inspired writers globally for centuries. In a May 2021 New York Times piece, Rushdie cited scraps of information and wrote that The Arabian Nights stories first found their way into Persian somewhere around the 8th century Indian texts were of great interest during what is regarded as the Islamic Golden Age, when Arabs preserved and transformed the lost Graeco-Roman philosophical and scientific knowledge. In 771, the Abbasid ruler Al-Mansur commissioned translations of Indian texts into Arabic, when Baghdad's centrality to scholarship and trade drew people to the city. Baghdad had an Indian quarter apart from Jewish and Christian suburbs, Greek, Chinese, and Armenian quarters by the 9th century. The milieu facilitated the exchange of pivotal ideas. An Indian text in the 8th century introduced nine numerals and zero to Arabs and helped develop the decimal system. Polymath al-Khwarizmi, who invented the algorithm concept, built on these ideas in Baghdad and created what is known as 'the Arab hegemony' in mathematics. The new system of numerals reached Europe via the Arab world. The Europeans called them Arab numerals, while Arabs rightly refer to them as the Indian numerals or Hindsa. The Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kerala, among the oldest mosques in the subcontinent, has stood as a symbol of deep India-Arab ties for centuries. Chera emperor Cheraman Perumal, the story goes, travelled to Mecca after Arab traders told him that the miracle of the moon splitting, which he saw in his dream or from his palace, was associated with Prophet Muhammad. The legend is that, in the 7th century, a friend of Perumal built the Cheraman Juma Masjid after he died in the Arab peninsula. In modern times, India continues to be part of the Arab world's social fabric, thanks to the expatriates in the region. Their remittances have enhanced living standards in states such as Kerala. Six Indians in the UAE were on Forbes' India's 100 Richest List in 2023. The Gulf countries accounted for an average of 28% of total remittances from 2014 to 2020, according to RBI. But it all began with words and trade: PM Modi's recall of Kalila wa Dimna was a reminder of an ancient connection, a cultural bridge of civilisations. The views expressed are personal.

Fans deserve a better deal from sports administrators
Fans deserve a better deal from sports administrators

Hindustan Times

time14 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

Fans deserve a better deal from sports administrators

The aftermath of the Bengaluru stampede made for an interesting case study. The police, the politicians, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the franchise were all in a race to shirk responsibility and put the blame on someone else. 'The fans were uncontrollable,' said deputy chief minister of Karnataka DK Shivakumar. BCCI quickly issued a statement saying that they had no role in the event. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) said 'the unfortunate incident' only came to light through media reports. The police, meanwhile, said they had not expected so many people to turn up and only deployed 1,000 personnel to manage the lakhs who turned up. While the compensation and financial support announced will help, it isn't the long-term solution India needs. The incident in Bengaluru was tragic, but the reality is that almost every well-attended Indian sporting event could so easily turn into a stampede. People (even if they are senior citizens) are made to walk long distances to the stadium because the parking lots are kilometres away, then they stand in line for hours and finally, enter through bottlenecks with police and private security ever-ready to use the omnipresent lathis. If that isn't enough to make you lose your cool, then comes the actual experience of the game itself. The view from the stands is poor, the toilets stink and the food often runs out. Some stadiums don't even offer the comfort of shade. That this happens in cricket, the most popular game in India, and one managed by the world's richest cricket board, suggests that it is likely the case in other sports as well. It's not that the tickets come cheap. In Bengaluru, the tickets during the IPL 2025 season went for anything between ₹2,300 and ₹42,000. At the top end, this is comparable to prices elsewhere in the world. But if stadium experiences were to be ranked, India would rank somewhere near the bottom. In Australia, by contrast, getting into a stadium means getting dropped by car right at the gate. There are so many volunteers around that help is never far away for the elderly, every stand has spots for the physically disabled and when it is too sunny, they hand out free sunscreen too. One would imagine Cricket Australia makes a lot more money than the BCCI, but it is not even close. To the Indian sports administrator, the fans are little more than cattle. Huddle them in, fill the stands, make them cheer the team and ignore their complaints. For even if they do, there are more than enough people waiting to take your place in the stands. While the number of fans is a boon for the sport, it is a curse for the fans themselves. The stampede must serve as a wake-up call for BCCI, which runs IPL as one of its subcommittees and earns millions of dollars from it. They must put in place protocols for any such celebration so as to ensure no human lives are lost in future. But it shouldn't end there. Addressing poor stadium conditions, improving ticket access, and fostering a more welcoming environment is important but showing empathy for the fans is a must. After all, who does the Indian team play for? Who does RCB (or any other team) play for? So many people turned up at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru because the messaging around the passes wasn't clear: It was done just a few hours before the event. Then, that is what people usually do for games: Turn up and there are usually a few passes or tickets to be had — for a price of course. Administrators argue that the fans don't know better but the fans could argue that neither do the administrators. The voice of the cricket fan on subjects like these is ignored. It is worrying that India now wants to hold mega events such as the Olympics. In November 2024, the Indian Olympic Association formally sent a Letter of Intent to the International Olympic Committee's Future Host Commission expressing India's interest in hosting the Olympics and Paralympic Games in 2036. The infrastructure will be built, the stadiums will shine and the athletes will compete for glory. But what about the fans? Who, other than the lathi-charging policemen, will cater to them? An estimated 11.2 million people visited the Greater Paris area during the Paris 2024 Olympics — by 2036, the count may be way higher. Does India have a plan in place to deal with this influx? Or will they all be treated like the fans in Bengaluru? The truth is, there is no quick fix for this problem and small but concrete steps will be needed to change things. It may take time but it'll be worth it. Major events are as much about the fans as they are about the athletes. The experience matters to everyone and unless a stern message is sent to the administrators, things won't improve. Being a fan shouldn't be a dangerous business but in India, it clearly is. If the fans want better, they need to make themselves heard in a way that cannot be ignored. Just imagine the message that empty stadiums will send. Treat fans better or play to the sound of silence. The views expressed are personal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store