Latest news with #Bangla
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Why poorly translated regional ads are costing brands their audience
In India's hyper-diverse linguistic landscape, brands are scrambling to connect with regional audiences. The logic sounds simple-speak their language, win their hearts. But here's the kick speaking the language poorly can do way more harm than good. And surprisingly, many big q-commerce players keep tripping over this basic step. Lost in translation Imagine seeing an ad written in Bangla for a quick service delivery app that's so bizzare you can't even tell what it means. That's exactly what happens when brands rely solely on Google Translation. Ads littered with awkward phrasing and outright grammatical errors that no native speaker would write. As a result, instead of feeling welcomed or engaged, the audience feels irritated. It's the marketing equivalent of someone butchering your mother tongue in front of you just annoying. Why does this keep happening? Big brands can afford eye-catching billboards, prime TV spots, and expensive digital campaigns. But somehow, they skimp on the one thing that matters most for regional campaigns: hiring writers who actually speak and understand the fundamental. Otherwise, the campaign looks lazy and disconnected. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Zumbido e perda de audição? Médico revela técnica caseira de 1 real para aliviar! Zumbido no ouvido Undo The social media backlash Instead of driving brand love or sales, these ads spark eye-rolls, mockery, and social media jokes. Platforms light up with screenshots and memes mocking the awkward translations. Comments range from mild amusement to outright frustration, with many calling out brands for disrespecting their language and culture. A Bengali content creator recently called out a quick service ad on social media, which was flooded with trolls and critical comments directed at the brand. Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
Time of India
3 days ago
- General
- Time of India
45 students learn Bangla at KV Buxar summer camp
Buxar: A total of 45 students from classes VI to X at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Buxar, are learning Bangla as part of a seven-day Indian Language Summer Camp, which began on May 26 and will run till June 2. The students are actively participating in the camp, which is designed to foster appreciation for India's rich linguistic diversity. School principal Meenakshi Nirmal said the camp offers students valuable practical exposure to Bangla, one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. "This camp is a step toward promoting mutual harmony and linguistic unity. It instils in children a sense of love and respect for the nation and its diverse languages. Indian languages are part of our cultural heritage and it is our collective responsibility to preserve and promote them," she said. The camp was inaugurated by the school librarian, Chaman Ranjan, who highlighted the cultural, social and educational importance of Indian languages. Bangla was chosen as the focus language for this year's programme. Students are learning basic conversational skills for everyday use with the curriculum made engaging through songs, debates, music and other creative activities. As a special feature, the school's English teacher, Magdataprana Dutta, originally from Bengal, is conducting online sessions. Her sessions offer practical guidance on using Bangla in daily life. Under her mentorship, students are gaining confidence in speaking, understanding and applying the language. In addition, music teacher Vinay Kumar Gupta is teaching Bangla songs, adding a fun and immersive element to the learning experience. All participating students will receive certificates upon completion of the camp, said principal Nirmal.
The Print
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
Rahman's ‘Bangladesh First' is meant to outshine Hasina's India love. Yunus wants to kill it
In English, the slogan translates to 'Not Delhi, not Pindi, not any other country,' ending with a line possibly borrowed from Donald Trump: 'It is Bangladesh first.' At the end of his speech, 60-year-old Rahman gave BNP supporters a mantra to take to the people while preparing for elections that he demanded must be held by December. The mantra: ' Dilli Noy, Pindi Noy, Noy onno kono desh. Sobar agey Bangladesh .' When a politician from Bangladesh who lives in self-exile in London addresses a political rally in Dhaka, what he says can only be of limited interest to India. But the slogan that the acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Tarique Rahman, coined and shared with party workers at Wednesday's well-attended rally is worthy of New Delhi's attention. Nothing poetic about it—in Bangla, the lines don't rhyme or qualify as blank verse. But it packs a punch, pithily capturing sentiments that have dominated Bangladeshi politics in the past and fears about the future. In the last 15 years, one of BNP's key complaints against Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League was her proximity to New Delhi. After Hasina fled the country, the speed of Dhaka's drift towards Islamabad and Pindi (short for Rawalpindi)—political and military capitals of a nation from which Bangladesh broke away 53 years ago—has been remarkable and disconcerting for many in the country, besides India of course. Will this mantra win BNP the Bangladesh election? Well, political slogans do come with expiry dates, and what is moot is when elections will eventually be held. Even as Tarique Rahman reiterated the BNP's December deadline in Dhaka on Wednesday evening, the chief adviser of Bangladesh's interim government, Prof Muhammad Yunus, stuck to his guns and said in Tokyo—where he is visiting—that elections will definitely not be held in December, but, depending on the pace of electoral reforms, by June 2026. By then, BNP leader Tarique Rahman's freshly minted slogan may lose its shine. Also read: 1971 or 2024? A political battle in Bangladesh over when the nation found true liberation Chinese whispers December 2025 and June 2026 is a gap of just six months, and Yunus has repeated his promise of polls by next June ad nauseam. And yet, doubts about him sticking to the deadline continue to be voiced, most loudly by the BNP. Last week, the Bangladesh Army reportedly joined in. Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman is said to have told officers at a meeting on 21 May that he felt the elections should be held by December. There was no audio or video recording of this statement or a press release. What went viral, instead, after the meeting ended, were WhatsApp quotes purportedly from his speech. The messages spread so widely that Yunus reportedly told a student leader he was thinking of resigning. The student leader shared this with a major news outlet, and the interim government seemed on the verge of collapse. The way politics is playing out in Bangladesh these days, Yunus was never on record anywhere threatening to resign and then withdrawing that threat. The Army, on Monday, at least officially denied its chief had said any of the things the WhatsApp messages claimed he did. The net result of this game of Chinese whispers, as it were, was a resignation drama with political parties rushing to placate Yunus. Among the big players, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party said they were fine with the June deadline, though a roadmap to elections would be welcome. Unspoken was the subtext that if Yunus wanted to first fully reform the electoral system and then hold elections, that was fine too. But the BNP differed. It said elections first, and whatever reforms remained pending in December would be put in place by an elected government once it came to power. Also read: Bangladeshi students who ousted Hasina set up 'National Citizen Party'. Where it stands on key issues Hasina vs Yunus On Wednesday, BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed reminded the rally that in the past, non-partisan caretaker governments held elections within three months of an elected government completing its tenure. 'If this (Yunus) government can't give us an election in 90 days, it won't be able to give us an election in 90 years,' he said. In 2008, a caretaker government held elections that brought Hasina to power for the first time this century. But she abolished the caretaker government provision by amending the Constitution. Now, she has been using social media to vent, accusing Yunus of 'turning Bangladesh into hell.' While that may be an outburst of hyperbole, the uncertainty over what's next for Bangladesh is taking a toll, pushing the country toward a state of chaos that could rival the turbulence of the Monsoon Revolution. For the BNP or any other stakeholder banking on elections for a return to normalcy, a long wait seems on the cards. Tarique Rahman, pipped to return from his self-imposed exile in London to lead a BNP sweep of the elections, would perhaps be best advised not to buy his flight ticket yet. Monideepa Banerjie is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal. (Edited by Prashant)
Economic Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Economic Times
India sends a billion-dollar message to Bangladesh
A few weeks ago, ALM Fazlur Rahman, a retired major general and an adviser to Bangladesh's interim government, kicked up a storm with his Facebook post after the Pahalgam terror attack when India was planning to attack terror infrastructure in Pakistan. 'If India attacks Pakistan, Bangladesh should occupy seven states of North East India. In this regard, I think it is necessary to start a discussion on a joint military system with China," he wrote in Bangla. Though the Bangladesh government distanced itself from his remarks, they indicated a developing threat for India on its eastern and unstable, Bangladesh is emerging as a threat to peace in India's northeast. Ever since toppling of the Sheikh Hasina government last year, Bangladesh has adopted an inimical posture towards India as hardliners took control of the country, attacking Hindu minority and members of Hasina's party which has recently been banned. Threat to India's northeastern statesBangladesh's interim government chief adviser, Muhammad Yunus, while he was on a four-day visit to China in March, invited Beijing to make an "extension" in the region while mentioning that the seven northeastern states of India remain encouraged the Chinese government to establish an economic base in Bangladesh, emphasising that Dhaka is the "sole guardian of the ocean" in the region. "Seven states of India, eastern part of India, called seven sisters ... they are landlocked country, landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean," Yunus said in the video."We are the only guardian of the ocean for all this region. So this opens up a huge possibility. So this could be an extension of the Chinese economy. Build things, produce things, market things, bring things to China, bring it out to the whole rest of the world," Yunus said. The remark drew concern in India, particularly given China's persistent territorial claims over Arunachal Pradesh, which it refers to as 'South Tibet' in official maps, and its continued practice of unilaterally renaming locations in the state. The indication by Yunus of Bangladesh welcoming Chinese influence in India's northeast assumed gravity with the news that China may assist Bangladesh in reviving a World War II-era airbase at Lalmonirhat in Rangpur Division, located just 12-15 km from the Indian border. Some Chinese officials recently visited the site, as per a TOI report. The airfield, currently under the control of the Bangladesh Air Force, has remained inactive for decades. Dhaka is reportedly seeking Beijing's support to bring it back into airbase is located 135 km from the Siliguri Corridor, also known as the 'Chicken's Neck' – India's narrow land link to its northeastern states. While it remains unclear whether the revived airfield would serve civilian or military purposes, any potential Chinese presence so close to the India-Bangladesh border could heighten the strategic vulnerability of the interest in Lalmonirhat is understandable given its proximity to the Siliguri corridor, a critical chokepoint just 22 km wide at its narrowest point that has long been a strategic vulnerability for India. It connects eight NE states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura – to the rest of the country. Squeezed between Nepal and Bangladesh, and with Bhutan and China just a few hundred kilometers away, the Siliguri Corridor is a critical lifeline for both civilian transit and military logistics in India. India's answer to Bangladesh threatsIndia decided to place restrictions on Bangladeshi products being exported to North-East India after several comments made by the interim regime including by Yunus that it can choke the prosperity of NE states by denying them access to the Bay of Bengal. The move is expected to disrupt Bangladesh's garment industry, raising costs and limiting market access, while creating new opportunities for Indian this immediate response to Yunus' ill-conceived comments, India has sent a billions-dollar message to Bangladesh on India's northeastern states. Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the government's focus on the northeastern states. Speaking at the inaugural session of 'Rising North East Investor Summit', PM Modi junked the notion that geography could be a deterrent for NorthEast's growth. He positioned the region at the heart of India's Act East Policy, and said that "the NorthEast will become a strong bridge and gateway for Asean trade". Adani Group, Reliance Industries, and Vedanta announced at the Summit that they plan to invest an additional Rs 30,000-Rs 50,000 crore (approximately $4 billion to $6 billion) each in northeast India. Speaking at the event, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, said Reliance Industries has committed to investing Rs 45,000 crore more in the Northeast. "Reliance has invested around Rs 30,000 crore in the region in the past 40 years," he said, adding, "In the next five years, we will more than double our investments, with our target at Rs 75,000 crore".RIL's investments will cover telecom, retail, renewable energy, biofuel, healthcare, and sports infrastructure across all eight Northeastern Adani-led Adani Group pledged a Rs 1 lakh crore investment commitment for Assam and the broader Northeast region over the next decade. Adani said the group's investment will focus on green energy, power transmission, roads, digital infrastructure, logistics, and human capital development. The commitment doubles the Rs 50,000 crore investment announced by the Adani Group just three months ago at the Advantage Assam 2.0 resources major Vedanta announced a Rs 80,000 crore investment in the region, including Rs 50,000 crore in Assam that it had announced earlier this year. These investments will be made in oil & gas, critical minerals, refining facilities, power, optical fibre, system integration, renewable energy, transmission sectors and data centres in six northeastern states. The investment is expected to generate 100,000 jobs. (With inputs from TOI)
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
A chicken with two necks: India's strategic counter to Bangladesh
India's eastern borders are in ferment with Bangladesh aligning with India's adversaries China and Pakistan. The spotlight has fallen on a key vulnerability, the Siliguri corridor , a thin strip of land called "Chicken's Neck" which connects India to seven northeastern states as well as Sikkim. Anti-India elements within the country and Bangladesh have long dreamed of cutting the chicken's neck to sever the northeastern states from India. With Bangladesh's strengthening ties with China, the risk to the Chicken's Neck has grown. A few weeks ago, ALM Fazlur Rahman, a retired major general and an adviser to Bangladesh's interim government, kicked up a storm with his Facebook post after the Pahalgam terror attack when India was planning to attack terror infrastructure in Pakistan. 'If India attacks Pakistan, Bangladesh should occupy seven states of North East India. In this regard, I think it is necessary to start a discussion on a joint military system with China," he wrote in Bangla. Though the Bangladesh government distanced itself from his remarks, they indicated a developing threat for India on its eastern border. Before him, Bangladesh interim government chief Muhammad Yunus made a controversial remark after his visit to Beijing, issuing a veiled threat about India's tenuous land link with its northeastern states. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Killer New Toyota 4Runner Is Utter Perfection (Take A Look) MorninJoy Undo Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday delivered a stern warning to Bangladesh to keep its eyes off the Siliguri Corridor. "They (Bangladesh) have two 'Chicken Necks', India has one. If they attack ours, we will attack their two chicken necks," Sarma said. The strategic fragility of the Siliguri Corridor Live Events You Might Also Like: If Bangladesh attacks our Chicken's Neck, we will attack its both Chicken's Necks: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma The Siliguri Corridor, referred to as the Chicken's Neck, is arguably one of India's most critical geopolitical vulnerabilities. Just about 22 kilometers wide at its narrowest point, this slender strip of land connects mainland India to its eight northeastern states, threading between Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Its importance cannot be overstated—it is the lifeline for nearly 45 million people in India's northeast, the transit route for military logistics, and a key axis of national integration. Recent political developments, including Bangladesh's shifting allegiances, increased Chinese activity near India's borders, and rising radical sentiments in the region, have reignited concerns about the corridor's long-term security. Many years ago, Sharjeel Imam, a PhD scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, had asked people during the stir against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to indulge in unlawful activities and block the Chicken's Neck to isolate northeastern states from the rest of India, hinting at a larger conspiracy against the integrity of the country. China's expanding military infrastructure near the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction has further heightened tensions in the region. The 2017 Doklam standoff underscored the corridor's vulnerability, prompting India to ramp up its defenses. The presence of a single railway line through the corridor as the primary supply route remains a strategic concern, as it could be a target in case of hostilities. China's aggressive posture, including its plans to develop the Lalmonirhat airport in Bangladesh near the Siliguri Corridor, magnifies the threat. This would enable Beijing to potentially exert soft and hard influence over the region, if not directly threaten the corridor itself. China's strategy of encircling India has long been recognized—whether through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), its deepening ties with Sri Lanka and Nepal, or now, its renewed engagement with Bangladesh. The possible development of Lalmonirhat airport near the Siliguri Corridor raises strategic alarm bells in Delhi. While ostensibly a civil aviation project, its dual-use potential for military operations is significant. You Might Also Like: India sends a billion-dollar message to Bangladesh If a coordinated threat ever emerges—say, China exerting pressure from the north and a hostile Bangladesh creating turbulence from the south—India could face an unprecedented dual-front crisis in the Siliguri region. The geographical constraints of the corridor would make rapid military mobilization difficult, while any insurgent or fifth column activity could paralyze logistics and delay response times. India's counter to the threat to the Chicken's Neck Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's statement on higher vulnerability of Bangladesh's own chicken's necks has brought forth India's strategic options in the region. Sarma said Bangladesh's own chicken's necks are far more vulnerable. "First is the 80 Km North Bangladesh Corridor - from Dakhin Dinajpur to South West Garo Hills. Any disruption here can completely isolate the entire Rangpur division from the rest of Bangladesh," he wrote on X. "Second is the 28 km Chittagong Corridor , from South Tripura till the Bay of Bengal. This corridor, smaller than India's chicken neck, is the only link between Bangladesh's economic capital and political capital. I am only presenting geographical facts that some may tend to forget." Chittagong Port, which handles most of Bangladesh's imports and exports, is connected to the country with the second chicken's neck Sarma mentioned. Sarma's statement is not just rhetorical. It is a reminder that India, too, has strategic options. A show of strength, without overt aggression, could serve as a deterrent. While India is adopting a layered and multi-pronged approach to secure its eastern flank -- hardening the Siliguri Corridor with infrastructure upgrades, widening highways, building parallel rail lines, holding security exercises and putting trade restrictions -- Sarma's comments highlight the hard leverage India enjoys on Bangladesh. You Might Also Like: Dragon's shadow near Siliguri? China aids revival of WW2-era Bangladeshi airbase near India's 'Chicken's Neck'
