Latest news with #Chakravarty
Indian Express
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Telangana govt's expert group to formulate first-of-its-kind ‘Composite Backwardness Index'
The Telangana government's expert working group has decided to formulate a first-of-its-kind 'Composite Backwardness Index' using the caste census data to measure disparities across the 243 sub-castes enumerated in the survey. The expert working group, constituted by the Telangana government on March 7 this year under the chairmanship of Justice Sudarshan Reddy (Retd.), met here to discuss and analyse data collected under the caste survey conducted in the state. The survey was formulated to study, analyse and interpret data collected under the Social Education Employment Economic Political Caste (SEEEPC) Survey of 2024. Drawing inspiration from the principles enshrined in the Constitution, the expert working group will formulate a 'Composite Backwardness Index' for each of the sub-castes of Telangana. Praveen Chakravarty, the convenor of the expert working group, said the 'Composite Backwardness Index' will be a numerical and objective measure of the relative backwardness of each sub-caste computed through a quartile based statistical analysis using all parameters of the SEEEPC data. He said the expert group will use up to 43 parameters split between rural and urban areas under seven categories namely social, education, living standards, occupation, income, movable and immovable assets and access to banking and finance to compute a holistic measure of backwardness. It may be recalled that the Mandal Commission report used 11 parameters to compute relative backwardness of sub-castes. Chakravarty said the expert group has finished statistical and data work and had a detailed discussion of the findings of the Composite Backwardness Index (CBI) in its meeting today. 'There was a consensus agreement on the CBI method, the parameters used for analysis, the graphical representation and the larger findings. The expert group will move to the next phase of drafting of the report and expects to submit the report to the government of Telangana in a month's time or before,' he added. The report will present as ordinal ranking of relative backwardness of each sub-caste based on the CBI score as well as ranking of each sub-caste on each of the seven categories and parameters used for evaluation, said Chakravarty. The expert group's next meeting will be held soon for discussion and approval of the final report. The expert group has also recommended that the Telangana government provide a natural language interface using Artificial Intelligence to the SEEEPC dataset in aggregate form without revealing any household specific information and make it available for further analysis for the larger research fraternity. The expert group consists of nine full-time members and other special invitees with expertise in sociology, caste studies, history, policy, law, economics, statistics and other domains who are working in an honorary capacity to prepare a report of their findings of the SEEEPC survey. The expert group's earlier three meetings were held in Hyderabad. The Telangana 2024 SEEEPC exercise is a robust survey of 3.55 crore people with 75 fields of information about each person covering social, economic, educational, identity, occupational and living aspects of their daily lives. It enumerates people across 243 sub-castes and an option of 'No Caste' for those who do not wish to divulge and 'Others' for those who do not fall into any of the sub-castes listed in the enumeration manual. The survey methodology is rigorous and scientific, making this one of the largest such exercises involving caste identities in the history of independent India. This dataset provides very rich and granular information of disparities across various social groups and its potential causes. Of the 243 sub-castes, 73 sub-castes constitute 96 per cent of the entire population of Telangana, the survey said. These include ten sub-castes of Scheduled Castes, seven sub-castes of Scheduled Tribes, 45 sub-castes of Backward Classes and eleven sub-castes of Other Castes.
Indian Express
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
In Pune on May 9, man with a green funnybone and a wake-up call
'Ever wondered why Valentine's Day and World Pangolin Day are celebrated back to back?' asks one pangolin to another. 'No, but we're endangered and I love where this is going,' replies the second pangolin as a full moon glows on them. Elsewhere, there is Donald Trump in a MAGA cap. 'Today, this great nation stands at par with Iran, Libya and Yemen…,' says the US President. Ripping open the jacket of his suit to reveal a heart inscribed with 'Drill Baby Drill', he adds, 'in being the only countries outside the Paris climate agreement.' The cartoons, with a playful mix of tongue-in-cheek wit and edgy artwork, are by Nagpur-based Rohan Chakravarty. Chakravarty might not be a familiar name, but that is because his fans know him as Green Humour. Green Humour is considered the world's largest online collection of cartoons, comics and illustrations on wildlife and the environment. In December 2013, it was picked up by the international comics platform Gocomics and became the first series of cartoons and comic strips from India to be distributed globally. Green Humour has received awards from the United Nations Development Programme, WWF International and the Royal Bank of Scotland, among others. Chakravarty has been invited to make live art at COPs 26 to 29, the United Nations climate change conferences. On May 9, the cartoonist and illustrator will make a rare trip to Pune, at Pagdandi Bookstore, to discuss Bird Business, his new book that delves into the surprising lives of birds. More than 100 birds have been covered in the book as the author highlights the many peculiarities among birds that laymen and even bird watchers often overlook. The Nicobar megapode, for instance, is only found in the Great Nicobar, and it is from the only family of birds known to compost. There are greater racket-tailed drongo, which is an accomplished mimic and can reproduce metallic jingling sounds, and birds that dance, mimic and flirt. 'I've been bird watching for around 20 years, and everything I've learnt on this journey has gone into creating the book. When I started Green Humour, it was a sort of distraction for me from the rut of animation because I used to do a lot of corporate projects as an animator. I needed something to challenge myself more creatively. Over time, as I started to secure columns and spaces for Green Humour in the media, I began to realise that it comes with responsibility,' says Chakravarty, who is trained as a dentist. 'Initially, it would only be the science and the conservation community that would engage with my work. Later, people from all walks of life started to engage with it. That was when even my narrative started to get longer and more complex, and include a lot of not just wildlife conservation but also the politics around it. I tried to show that this is not just an environmental matter but also a social and a political one,' says Chakravarty. Bird Business has resulted from Chakravarty's conviction that field guides that are available on birds and bird watching only tell you how to identify some birds and never go beyond that. 'This book tries to bridge the communication gap in a visual and entertaining manner,' he says. Chakravarty himself goes out every morning, usually in the company of his two dogs, to observe birds. As he speaks about his fascination for the Greater Painted Snipe, a bird in which the gender roles are starkly reversed, so that it is the female that indulges in courtship displays, courts one mate after another and leaves her eggs to the care of mates. Chakravarty is afraid that a climate disaster is looming closer, and many species are on borrowed time. 'I am not a very optimistic person in this matter. Though I try to project as much optimism as I can through my art and my cartoons because I think I owe it to my readers, especially younger ones, I don't have much hope left anymore. Ever since I started out, it has just gotten consistently worse year after year,' he says. Chakravarty is a pioneer in making art exclusively on the environment and climate change, but several artists across forms are now making their voices heard on the issue. He, however, is worried as the days get hotter every year. As an artist, though, he is fighting on. 'I am at a stage where I research hard and put everything I can into a comic or a piece. I put it out there and let viewers decide how to interpret it and apply it to their lives,' he says. Dipanita Nath is interested in the climate crisis and sustainability. She has written extensively on social trends, heritage, theatre and startups. She has worked with major news organizations such as Hindustan Times, The Times of India and Mint. ... Read More
Hindustan Times
01-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Bengaluru founder accused of lying about ₹4.2 lakh salary says it's ‘common in tech'
When the Bengaluru-based co-founder of a tech company shared a screenshot of his salary on X, it was supposed to be a lighthearted tweet about one of the perks of being an entrepreneur - getting to set your own salary. Instead, it devolved into accusations of lying and flexing on social media for clout, with dozens of people accusing the co-founder of exaggerating the number or faking the screenshot while claiming his salary was too high to be believable. Abhishek Chakravarty, the Bengaluru-based co-founder of Youform, took to X to share a screenshot that shows ₹420,000 was credited to his ICICI bank account. 'You run a small SaaS that gives you freedom to choose a magic number for your salary,' he wrote, tongue firmly in cheek and a winking emoji to convey the lighthearted tone of his post. Chakravarty was clearly leaning into the cheeky undertone of the number '420'. But instead of laughs, his post invited scrutiny, with many accusing him of dishonesty. Some people claimed that the co-founder of Youform had faked the screenshot, pointing to the 'incorrect' placement of commas in the message. Many also said that his monthly salary of ₹4.2 lakh was too high and accused him of bragging on social media. 'I wish you had a better editing skill (Rs. 4,20,000.00) to be precise it comes like this buddy when it gets credited,' a user wrote. 'Not to undermine your efforts or achievements, but Indian banks still count in tens, thousands, lacs and so on, so the number should have had a ',' after 4, like '4,20,000', be it an international transaction or anything,' another X user named Yash added. 'Yes, it's a completely fake screenshot, any number in lakh would look like this,' a user named Mridul wrote. Abhishek Chakravarty, who previously built and sold Botflow, lashed out at critics, inviting them to a video call to verify for themselves. 'Want to come on a video call to see it is right and then apologise in public?' he asked one person. 'Come over a video call to see it live and then apologise in public,' he told another. Chakravarty also dismissed people who said the salary was too high, claiming it is common in tech to earn this much. In response to a person supporting him, the Youform co-founder wrote: 'Seriously! Also, they don't realise how common is this figure as a salary in tech.' When asked why he was getting triggered, he said: 'Man I am not justifying the income, I am saying this because you are trying to defame me here on my timeline. Either come and disprove it or stay away.'
Scroll.in
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
How India got entangled in the geopolitical games in 1950s Ceylon
In November 1955, the governor general of Ceylon, Oliver Goonetilleke, invited the Indian high commissioner, Birendra Narayan Chakravarty, to spend a few days as his guest in the hill station of Nuwara Eliya. The meeting went well – at first. 'I had a good opportunity of talking with him freely on various subjects, though later when the Pakistan High Commissioner also came as a house guest, the talks became somewhat restrained,' Chakravarty wrote in a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs. Chakravarty's letters reveal a picture of the diplomatic relationship at the time between India and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. On the surface, it might appear that the two enjoyed warm diplomatic ties after they attained independence from Britain, but in truth, there were tensions simmering between them. What was souring the relations especially was the lack of clarity on India's role in the island. Should India have a hands-off approach? Or should it be more involved? Geopolitical assistance In Nuwara Eliya, Goonetilleke expressed disappointment that India was not giving Ceylon more geopolitical help. 'The Governor-General also asked whether it is not possible for Mr. Nehru whose views are listened to with the greatest respect in the world, to take up the causes of the closest neighbours like Ceylon and Burma more earnestly,' Chakravarty wrote. 'He cited, for instance, when Ceylon had the rubber-rice trade pact with China, the US stopped the supply of an essential commodity like sulphur to the great distress of Ceylon.' In 1952, Ceylon, facing a severe rice shortage, had signed a trade agreement with China called the Rubber-Rice Pact to exchange rubber for rice. The agreement, which lasted for three decades, infuriated the United States, which was intent on stopping the spread of communism to South Asia. To punish Ceylon, Washington invoked the Mutual Defence Assistance Act that prevented it from giving aid to any nation that was selling strategic materials to communist countries. Goonetilleke told Chakravarty that India could have stepped in in this situation. 'No attempt was made by India to intercede with the United States on behalf of Ceylon,' Chakravarty cited Goonetilleke as saying. 'India is a great nation and she is not afraid to incur the displeasure of either the East or the West in advocating the cause of world peace.' Such remarks were normally taken with a pinch of salt by Indian envoys, especially since the Ceylonese ruling class' real thinking was in plain view in the local press and political mouthpieces. To many of them, India was not an intermediary but a meddler. In Nuwara Eliya, though, Goonetilleke expressed a different sentiment. 'He thought that there should be even closer unity between India, Burma and Ceylon,' Chakravarty wrote in the letter to the Indian foreign ministry. 'I said that within our limitations, we try to do what we can for our neighbours. I cited, for instance, the Prime Minister's efforts to win Russian support for Ceylon's admission to the UN and our taking up the case of Burma in connection with the presence of the KMT [Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party] troops in north Burma.' Chakravarty told Goonetilleke that India had no intention of 'thrusting' itself in the affairs of another country, when there was 'so much unjustified talk that we are anxious to get the leadership of Asia'. 'I assured the Governor-General that if on any particular issue, Ceylon wishes to have the support of India, we would do all we can to help them,' he added. 'Hero of Bandung' While Goonetilleke may not have been entirely insincere in reaching out to New Delhi, it is unlikely that Ceylon's prime minister John Kotelawala would have supported the idea. A graduate of Christ's College in Cambridge, Kotelawala had a strong dislike for Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In the mid-1950s, Nehru was widely regarded as one of the greatest statesmen in the world. He wanted good relations with both China and the US, although with the US, that did not always work. In contrast, Kotelawala leaned a lot more towards Washington. One time this difference came into sharp focus was after the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung in 1955. While almost every participating nation praised Nehru's leadership, the Colombo press lauded Kotelawala for standing up to both the Indian prime minister and Chinese premier Zhou Enlai. An article in the official journal of Ceylon's United National Party claimed that 26 of the 29 nations at the conference hailed Kotelawala as the 'Hero of Bandung'. 'Sir John saved the conference from pious but empty talk,' the journal wrote. 'They would have otherwise gathered round to hear the usual sermon on the need for 'peace,' 'understanding,' 'accord,' 'goodwill' etc., etc., of which J. Nehru is such a sanctimonious parrot.' This editorialising should be seen in the context of Ceylon's domestic politics, where SWRD Bandaranaike's promises of pro-Sinhala Buddhist policies were gaining him popularity among the electorate and posing a threat to Kotelawala's position. The journal of the United National Party added, 'The conference, including Nehru, would have kow-towed to Chou En-lai. Nehru and Chou would have hatched plots in secret, as in fact that arch conspirator Krishna Menon tried to do, and the 27 other delegates would have been expected to say 'Ehei' to the 'Big Two.'' Another admirer of Kotelawala's supposed Bandung conquest was the West. When he returned home from the conference, Western ambassadors greeted him at the airport and the US ambassador Maxwell Henry Gluck reportedly complimented him on a job well done. 'Is it proper for the American Ambassador to treat our Prime Minister as a teacher who would treat a pupil what that pupil had carried out a particular piece of work creditably,' Senator Somasundaram Nadesan asked in parliament in response to the US ambassador's remarks. Kotelawala remained unfazed and stepped up his anti-Nehru, anti-India rhetoric. Media attacks Chakravarty's information officer gave him a reason for this bitterness. He said the leading Ceylonese media proprietor Esmond Wickremesinghe (father of former president Ranil Wickremesinghe) had told him in a private conversation that Kotelawala's hatred of Nehru stemmed from the belief that the Indian prime minister deliberately sabotaged Ceylon-backed peace talks between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. Even newspapers that were critical of Kotelawala's foreign policy and pro-American views began to turn on India after the Bandung conference, something the Indian High Commission suspected was on account of government coercion. 'It is time that Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru was told where he gets off,' The Times of Ceylon said in an editorial. 'He was given the hint by Sir John who told him in effect in the face of half the world that he did not relish the role of Small Brother. It is quite apparent that the gentleman who has been posturing before young and pitifully credulous nations as the Grand Seigneur of Asian politics is suffering from political auto intoxication.' When clippings of these articles and a political cartoon in the Ceylon Observer by the well-known Collette were sent to the Ministry of External Affairs, Foreign Secretary Subimal Dutt was not pleased. 'It would be absurd to expect any dispassionate consideration of outstanding issues between our two countries with people of this way of thinking,' he wrote to Chakravarty in a letter. 'The other side is not obviously in a mood to seek a reasonable settlement of the Indian problem.' This was a reference to the issue of citizenship for Indian-origin plantation workers on the island. For his part, Chakravarty was justifiably sceptical of Goonetilleke's friendly overtures as it was the governor-general who had presented a gold medal on behalf of the island's Social Services League to Kotelawala in honour of his 'services' in Bandung. American involvement Meanwhile, the US kept working to keep both India and Ceylon free of communist influence. Declassified memos sent by the Indian High Commission in Colombo to the foreign ministry in New Delhi suggest that Americans took credit for the communists' failure to win the 1955 Andhra assembly election. These memos state that US officials visiting Colombo openly bragged about helping Nehru in the election, keeping the communists at bay. The Americans were also keen to ensure there was no pan-Asian solidarity. In a letter to Foreign Secretary Subimal Dutt, Chakravarty wrote, 'The British have bases in Ceylon, which the US could always use in the event of a war. There was no special need therefore to draw Ceylon into the US sphere of influence, unless the object is to take her out of the influence of 'neutralist' India, and thereby weaken the growing Southeast Asian solidarity, which is not to the liking of Mr. [US Secretary of State John Foster] Dulles.' When Chakravarty met Goonetilleke, he realised the full extent of American involvement with the Ceylonese government. 'This influence has become very considerable during the last year or so, because the Ambassador has been promising US aid,' Chakravarty wrote in his letter to the Indian foreign ministry. 'Apparently, he went even to the extent of telling the Prime Minister to take the American aid into account into framing the current year's budget!' Chakravarty mentioned that nothing came out of the ambassador's promises and that Kotelawala considered him 'to be almost a buffoon'. The Indian high commissioner believed there could be drastic changes in the island's foreign policy. 'It seems that they are going to wait for another few months to see what USA does,' Chakravarty wrote. 'At the end of that period, Ceylon may probably revise her policy. A policy of wooing China and the Soviet Union may then begin.' He added that Kotelawala may visit the two communist giants. 'You may recall that the late Liaquat Ali Khan had once threatened to go to Moscow, and that led the Americans to take greater interest in Pakistan,' he wrote. 'Ceylon is perhaps hoping for the same result.' In 1956, the United National Party lost the general election and Kotelawala retired from politics. One of the first geopolitical moves of SWRD Bandaranaike, who became prime minister of Ceylon, was to take over the British naval base in Trincomalee and remove British naval personnel from the island. After that, with their staunch ally out, the Americans could not get a stranglehold on the island. A lot of the damage to India-Sri Lanka relations in the Kotelawala years was repaired after 1956, but then, another challenge emerged between them in the form of ethnic strife on the island. Today, for the time being at least, the South Asian neighbours seem to have reached some sort of a meaningful understanding that they never enjoyed in the 1950s, but the US and China still continue to wrestle for influence in Sri Lanka.
