In recent years, probably the most talked-about promising technology is 'blockchain', which has primarily been linked to cryptocurrencies. But this technology has the potential to revolutionise a variety of industries, including finance and trade.  

On 15 October, the Finance Ministry's Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) began a prototype Electronic Cargo Tracking System(ECTS) initiative based on blockchain technology. The initiative seeks to achieve secure container documentation and GPS-based tracking.  

According to a recent tweet from Prasar Bharati News Services (PBNS), CBIC India “explores new frontiers for promoting #DigitalIndia by adopting blockchain for tracking movement of containers to a bonded warehouse”.  This warehouse is located in Delhi Customs' Inland Container Depot or ICD Tughlakabad Import Commissionerate. 

It was reported that the Finance Ministry has cooperated with the Asian Development Bank for this initiative.  The International Chamber of Commerce's 2020 Global Trade Survey found that the Covid-19 pandemic caused lockdowns and working from home are hastening the migration to digital commerce solutions, such as Blockchain.  

It noted that 44 per cent of surveyed banks said that as they aim to assure future growth, technologies like Blockchain, digital trade, and online trading platforms are important areas of development and strategic focus in the near term. More than half of those polled agreed that a growing number of document types used in trade might be digital.

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 100-crore milestone on Thursday and the economic recovery is expected.  

In the last seven years, the comprehensive entrepreneurial environment of India has gained tremendous support from its ruling government. Policy initiatives of the Narendra Modi government like Make In India, Skill Development India, MUDRA Bank, Digital India, Startup India, and now ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ are a few of the vital determinants of the upgradation of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.  

In the recent past, the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, also known as the growth engine of the Indian economy, has witnessed three macroeconomic events concerning its operation and survival. Demonetisation, goods and services tax (GST) implementation, and the black swan Covid-19 pandemic.  

India’s MSME sector is on the verge of attaining the pre-Covid levels, but several sectors continue to struggle, especially the ones pertaining to the clientele studying in schools, colleges, or working in offices. The precious metal sector is also reeling under the threat of an imminent third wave, thus denting the festive spending.

Many in India have been trying to falsely portray the latest horrific attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh as “isolated incidents” that are aberrations and not reflective of the ‘secular and syncretic’ culture of Bangladesh.  But they are wrong, and grossly so. 

The attacks this time (they started Wednesday last week and are continuing) are part of the Hindu genocide that commenced exactly 75 years ago in Noakhali where hundreds of Hindus were killed, countless womenfolk raped and forcibly converted to Islam, and Hindus displaced from their properties.

Since 1946, Hindus in Bangladesh have been attacked, maimed and killed, Hindu women (including minor girls) raped, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to old men or sold to brothels, millions of acres of land belonging to Hindus have been forcibly taken over and tens of thousands of Hindus have been evicted from their homes and denied livelihood.

That is why millions of Hindus have migrated to India since 1947. Had the continuing attacks on them been ‘isolated incidents’ and ‘aberrations’, millions of Hindus would not have fled their homes and heath and abandoned whatever little they possessed across the border to migrate to India and become ‘stateless citizens’ here over the last 75 years.

The widespread and well-coordinated attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh could not have happened without the complicity of ruling Awami League functionaries and leaders.  

And it was primarily because of the involvement of members of the ruling party that the police remained mute bystanders when Islamist mobs assaulted and killed Hindus, molested and raped Hindu women and girls, destroyed Durga Puja pandals, attacked, looted and desecrated mandirs and targeted Hindu homes and businesses. 

Top office bearers of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, the apex body of minority bodies in that country, told Swarajya over the phone from Dhaka, Chittagong and other parts of the country that the involvement of members and leaders of the ruling Awami League, as well as the radical Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, is very apparent.  

Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari, the general secretary of the ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness) in Bangladesh, has gone on record alleging that “some activists” of the Awami League were closely involved in the attacks on mandirs and Hindu religious institutions. He urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take strong action against her own party men involved in attacks on Hindus.  

An ISKCON mandir was attacked and desecrated in Noakhali district of Bangladesh, and two members of the order were brutally killed on Friday (15 October). Brahmachari warned that the order would not “sit and idly watch” attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.

While Centre has capped paddy (non-basmati) procurement quantity from Punjab at 170 lakh tonnes on MSP rates, the state is pushing for a revised estimate of 190 lakh tonnes. Experts, however, claim that even this figure will not serve the purpose. They want the state to work out an estimate based on sown varieties and not loosely on the basis of few prevalent varieties.  

Around 32 per cent area of paddy in Punjab is under long duration varieties which give nearly 85 to 100 mann (34 to 40 quintals) yield per acre.  Around 68 per cent area is under seven short duration varieties — PR-121, PR-126, PR-114, PR-112, PR -124 and PR-129, PR-127 — which take 123 days to 143 days including the nursery period.  

According to the Punjab Agriculture Department, 26.05 lakh hectares (LH) is under paddy this year and by this calculation Punjab has around 8.34 LH under long duration and 17.72 LH under short duration.  If the average yield of PAU’s surveys is considered, then average yield of long varieties and short varieties should be around 67.52 lakh tonnes and 132.85 lakh tonnes, respectively, and the total of which comes out to be 200.38 lakh tonnes which is around 10 lakh tonnes above the government’s revised target (190 lakh tonnes). 

Vice Chairman, Punjab Mandi Board (PMB), Vijay Kalra, said that their capping will create unrest among farmers. Every variety, he added, has its own potential yield and capping per acre yield will create lot of confusion.

Until a few days ago, the discussion around Kashmir was restricted to the huge influx of tourists this year, investment proposals and other detailed project reports pertaining to the development in the valley, infrastructure projects and connectivity, and ideas around governance to further economic development and social integration of the valley with the other parts of India.

However, the recent killing spree, aided by several terrorist groups, especially ‘The Resistance Front’ along with Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have shifted the discussion away from the development prospects to the underlying violence within the valley.

In Srinagar, a renowned local pharmacist and a street vendor from Bihar were targeted. Less than a week ago, two teachers were gunned down. They were first asked to step apart from their Muslim colleagues and then shot. Three Muslims were also killed in separate incidents, one of them being the president of a local traders’ body.

Even if we discount the religion factor for the sake of argument, given that even Muslims were killed by these terrorist groups, two questions arise. One, is this the end to the peace process that was ushered in the valley after the revocation of Article 370 and furthered by the buffer offered by the pandemic, and two, is this about eradicating certain religious communities from Kashmir completely or more?

As per the NFHS-4 (2015-16), in India, 27 per cent of women aged 20-24 years got married before attaining the legal minimum age of 18. For Rajasthan, the number stood at 35 per cent.  

The state assembly passed the Rajasthan Compulsory Registration of Marriages (Amendment) Bill, 2021 by voice vote to amend the Rajasthan Compulsory Registration of Marriages Act 2009. 

There is not much difference between the both. The 2009 act had stated the same, with the only difference being that the age mentioned was 21 years for both boys and girls. 

The Rajasthan government has decided to recall the recently passed marriage registration bill to re-examine it, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday, citing concerns that its provisions will encourage child marriages. 

Gehlot said that the state government will urge the governor to return the bill for legal consultations.  "There has been a controversy in the country that this law will encourage child marriage. We decided that it was not a question of our prestige. We will request the governor to return the bill we have passed," Gehlot said addressing a programme on International Girl Child Day.

 "I want to assure you that I will not compromise on that. We will get it re-examined and if we consider it necessary then we will take it forward or else we will not take it forward. We have no problem," the chief minister said.

India and China held the 13th Corps Commander-level talks on the Ladakh standoff on October 10. The meeting, which started at 10:30 am, lasted for around eight-and-half hours, and concluded at 7 pm.  

The 13th round of military talks was held in Moldo on the Chinese side of the LAC in eastern Ladakh. The Indian delegation was led by Lt Gen PGK Menon, the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps. 

The two sides discussed disengagement from the Hot Springs area in eastern Ladakh, Indian Army sources said.  The talks took place in the backdrop of two recent incidents of attempted transgressions by the Chinese troops - one in the Barahoti sector of Uttarakhand and another in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh.  

Last week, Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a brief face-off near Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh. It was resolved within few hours following talks between commanders of the two sides as per established protocols, people familiar with the development said on Friday.  Similarly, in August, close to 100 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) had transgressed the LAC in the Barahoti sector.

Last month, a 64-year-old cleric Maulana Kalim Siddiqui was arrested by Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorism squad (ATS) with accusations of illegal religious conversions, creating enmity, misuse of foreign funds and women trafficking.  

Siddiqui is widely popular among the Muslim population of India as well as neighbouring countries as a religious preacher. Since his arrest, Islamic institutions across the country, including Aligarh Muslim University, have been staging street protests, demanding his immediate release. 

 In a press note, the ATS described Siddiqui as “Khalifa of Ali Mian in Dawah activities”, that is, kingpin of conversion rackets in India. The note says he has converted more than five lakh non-Muslims to Islam, mostly in Haryana’s (notorious) Mewat.  

Siddiqui is the most prominent of all arrests made so far by Uttar Pradesh ATS in its ongoing crackdown on Islamic conversion groups in the state. Before him, Mohammed Umar Gautam, Mohammed Jehangir, Abu Bakar and Adam alias Prasad Kanwre, among several others, have been booked and jailed.  

A native of Muzaffarnagar district in UP, Kalim Siddiqui has been accused by the anti-terrorism agency of carrying out mass conversions in the guise of social welfare work.  The agency has said that Siddiqui uses the various trusts and non-government organisations run by him for his Dawah activities. 

These include Shah Walliullah Trust (Delhi), Global Peace Centre and Peace Mission (Mustafabad, Delhi), Madrassa Sabeel-us-Salam (Shaheen Bagh, Delhi), Dawat-e-Islam Trust (Mewat, Haryana) and World Peace Organisation (Delhi).  Of these, Dawat-e-Islam Trust in Mewat is said to have converted most people.

Millennia have passed since the dharma yudhha of the cousins shook the land of Bharata. But this history of our ancestors continues to fascinate us. Even today, we have passionate discussions about the people and their actions in the epic, fervidly defending our favourites and denouncing others. 

The number of works on the Mahabharata-adaptations, retellings and fiction-that still get written is a testimony to its enduring relevance.  While the general storyline is largely known, a lot of questions and myths prevail, such as-What was the geographical extent of the war? Did Drona actually refuse to take on Karna as his disciple? 

What were Draupadi's responsibilities as the queen of Indraprastha? Did she ever mock Duryodhana? Were the women in the time of the Mahabharata meek and submissive? What were the names of the war formations during the time? What role did the sons of the Pandavas play? Does the south of India feature at all in the Mahabharata? 

What happened after the war? These and many other intriguing questions continue to mystify the contemporary reader.  Author Ami Ganatra debunks myths, quashes popular notions and offers insights into such aspects not commonly known or erroneously known, based solely on facts as narrated in Vyasa's Mahabharata from generally accepted authentic sources. 

For a history of such prominence and influence as the Mahabharata, it is important to get the story right. So pick this book up, sit back and unveil the lesser-known facts and truths about the great epic.