The Israel-Palestine conflict has been the talking point across all major news channels around the world with various sections of the public taking sides and putting forward their views and opinions on the matter. Social Media is also ablaze with various hashtags trending and the 2 sides desperately trying to justify the atrocities and bombings being conducted by either side.
The situation has worsened over the past couple of days and most countries have put out restrained statements on the issue. What started as a protest against forced evictions, now has the full potential to escalate into a long drawn out conflict with increasing fatalities on both sides.
The focal point of the conflict in recent days has been the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem where Palestinians are being forced to evacuate by the Israelis.
On Monday, Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa compound, where thousands of worshippers had gathered to defend themselves from encroachment by Israeli settlers. Three hundred Palestinians and twenty-one Israeli officers were wounded. Hamas responded by firing hundreds of rockets from Gaza into Israel, some of which struck in Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, and other cities. Israel retaliated with a hundred and thirty airstrikes in Gaza.
Many countries have expressed their concern over the happenings at Jerusalem while also refusing to take a stand, as a political or diplomatic leaning towards either side could result in an internal upheaving within their respective countries.
The whole situation is being portrayed both as a Muslim vs Jew issue while some quarters prefer to position this as a property dispute. The evacuation of long time Muslims from Sheikh Jarrah has become an intense battle on social media as well with the call to stand in solidarity with both sides gaining momentum. Despite having formal diplomatic ties with Israel, India has also not issued a formal statement apart from expressing concern about the situation there.
The happenings in the most volatile region in the Middle East has dominated newspaper reports around the world pushing the COVID19 crisis in India to the backseat. The lack of international focus on the issue in India is hurting the attack by the Opposition parties on the NDA government.

Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/13/israel-palestine-conflict-manufactured-by-bjp-to-divert-attention-from-covid19-cases-in-india-claim-rahul-gandhi/

In a move that was not surprising to people who are closely following the political developments in the Indo-Pacific region, China has announced that it is launching an initiative to counter the India, USA, Japan and Australia alliance known as the Quad.
The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or the Quad is an informal strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, Australia and India that is maintained by talks between member countries. The grouping was initiated in 2007 by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, with the support of Vice President Dick Cheney of the US, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India.
The dialogue followed increased maritime activity in the Indo Pacific and mainly in the South China Sea in what was considered as an open message to China to curtail their illegal expansionist policy in the South China Sea. The Chinese government had initially responded by lodging a formal complaint with all the participant nations. They have also issued a decree to countries dependant on China to stay away from the Quad and resist all inclinations to participate.
Most recently, China had issued an open threat to Bangladesh to not engage with the Quad in any way to which Bangladesh responded saying that China should not interfere in Bangladesh’s internal matters and that being a free and sovereign country they will take their own decisions.
This has led to what many experts believe is a knee jerk response from China to save face and there is a consensus that it is not only ill-timed but also ill-fated. China has been open about its expansionist policies on land and sea. China is currently locked in territorial disputes with all its neighbours and has influenced countries to part with land in exchange for economic or political aid.
Being an alliance of countries who are not culturally or socio-politically similar have always failed and any alliance with China is destined to deliver the same result.
Our sources within the Chinese Communist Party or the CCP have told us that China cannot risk losing face again after the aftermath of the Bangladesh incident. He also let us know that the South China Sea is very important for the growth of China and that they will resort to any means to ensure that it is fully in their control.
We pressed on further to know more about the PENTA grouping. Our source told us that this will be an informal alliance whose core objective will be to safeguard the interests of the 5 member nations within the South China Sea. There will be a quarterly dialogue and joint military and navy exercises planned to counter the “offensive” tactics of the Quad.
Our source has also revealed that the 5 member nations who comprise the PENTA are Pakistan, Turkey, Cambodia, North Korea and Azerbaijan.
The grouping of the countries seemed completely random to us, which led to us digging for more information within the airtight chambers of the Communist Party. The reason we did not believe that this was an amalgamation of a group of like-minded countries was
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/12/china-launches-penta-alliance-to-counter-the-quad-after-bangladesh-rebuke/

Megastar Mammootty has been an icon in the Malayalam film industry for the past 50 years and has graced the screen in multiple languages in his long and illustrious career. He is widely regarded as one of the best actors in the country and the world.
The 69-year-old actor, born Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail made his debut in 1971 and has since gone on to garner 3 National Film Awards, 7 Kerala State Awards and 13 Filmfare Awards South. He was also awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award by the Government of India in 1988. He has acted in over 6 languages and also has one of the largest fan followings in the country.
Known for his fitness and good looks, Mammootty has constantly experimented with his looks on screen and is also known for taking up projects that kept challenging him over the years. He has acted as characters with definite shades of grey while also portraying the conventional hero with aplomb. He is known for easily switching between the stylish urban and the macho rural male with equal ease. The only heel in his armour is probably dancing, for which he has poked fun at himself in multiple movies.
A lawyer by qualification, Mammootty practised law for a few years before quitting to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. His son Dulquer Salmaan or DQ is a popular actor in the Malayalam and Tamil film industries while his brother Ibrahim Kutty is a well-known face in Malayalam television. His nephew Maqbool Salmaan is also an actor in Malayalam cinema.
Our sources in the Malayalam industry had told us a while ago that there were plans to begin work on a mega-budget biopic of the actor to commemorate Mammootty’s 50th year in cinema in 2021. The film was set to go on floors last year but was pushed forward after the first wave of the pandemic. The second wave has now threatened to push the start of the schedule even further.
The film’s story was set to chronicle the actors’ early life, entry into films, meteoric rise and relationships within the industry. Mammootty is also rumoured to have worked closely with the scriptwriters to ensure that no key moments in his life are missed out. Our source tells us that a high profile team was also set in place by the production house Friday Film House helmed by Vijay Babu. Mani Ratnam was to direct the film with Santosh Sivan, A R Rahman, Resul Pookutty, Peter Hein and Sabu Cyril set to join the project as well.
However, the whole project has hit a snag. The veteran actor is now claimed to have backed out of playing himself in the much-awaited biopic. This would have been an extremely rare scenario where an actor got to play himself in a movie about his life and Mammootty would have gone down in history as the only actor to do so in Indian cinema. Other notable personalities who have done this include Muhammed Ali and Howard Stern.

Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/11/megastar-mammootty-refuses-the-chance-to-play-himself-in-his-biopic/

The BCCI had announced a 20 man team that is set to travel to England for the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand followed by the test series against the England Team. Although there were no surprises in the composition of the Indian team, the duration of the tour and the amount of time that the players would have to remain in a bio bubble had certainly raised a few eyebrows.
The BCCI announced a 3-month tour itinerary, where the Indian team would start with an 8-day quarantine in India following which they will fly to England in a chartered flight and then remain in quarantine for another 10 days. This will be followed by a strict bio bubble that cannot be breached until the end of the tour. The players will be allowed to train once they reach England as they will technically have been in isolation for the past 10 days. No training will be allowed during the initial quarantine in India.
Keeping in mind the extended period that the players will be in the bio bubble, the BCCI has also announced that the players will be allowed to take their wives along for the tour, provided the wives also consent to follow the strict protocol that will be in place. This seemed to be a compassionate decision on the part of the BCCI who are usually accused of putting their players through a heavy workload and a packed international schedule every year.
Although some sports fans have alluded to the fact that as professional sportsmen, staying away from their families is part of the job, there has been no major voices raised from either the host country or the opposition team.
However, our sources within the BCCI have informed us that a group of players have written a letter requesting the BCCI to revoke the decision to allow players to bring their family along.
It is believed that out of the 20 players who have been selected to travel to England, 9 players have written to the BCCI to reconsider the rule that allows cricketers to take their wives along with them on the tour. Interestingly, only 3 players out of the 20 selected are unmarried. This means that only Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Shardul Thakur will be travelling without their significant other during this tour.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/10/indian-cricketers-talk-to-bcci-to-disallow-wives-in-the-bio-bubble-for-world-test-championship/

Indian households run the risk of running out of household or food resources faster than any country in the world during lockdown warn socio-cultural experts in the country. The lockdown restricts the replenishment of the food resources in the house leading to an unplanned shortage of daily supplies leading to a crisis, according to recent studies.
With various state governments across India implementing lockdowns due to the growing number of COVID19 cases, residents have been queueing up and planning out their shopping and purchase of basic requirements to last the lockdown period. Different states have different periods of lockdown which makes it difficult for us to draw a direct comparison among the states.
For example, Maharashtra implemented a 15-day lockdown, Kerala a 10 day one and Tamil Nadu was at 14 days. What is open and available although similar in most parts of the country, there are slight variations as well, which means things are available in some states whereas it might not be available in another.
The biggest mistake Indians do when preparing for a lockdown is that they only take into consideration the consumption of the food items and not the actual usage. Indians are notorious for using hacks or “jugaad” to get things done at a cheaper cost around the house. This is most true in the case of beauty hacks or secrets passed down from generations.
Every family in India has their recipes and top-secret concoctions that their grandmother used to swear by. This beauty tip is then passed down from mother to daughter becoming an essential part of our self-care routine.
This is not a phenomenon that is intrinsic to rural India where the reach of branded cosmetics is limited. The urban area and people from all walks of life also indulge in this practice. Even list celebrities like Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra have come forward and shared beauty tips that were passed on from their mothers. The number of beauty centric DIY channels on YouTube is another testament to the popularity of this form of beauty treatment.
Our sources within the Niti Aayog have informed us that the committee is concerned that this behaviour, which is culturally prominent in the subcontinent, is never taken into consideration in the various data modelling mechanisms around the world. This will lead to a miscalculation of how much food the average Indian household needs for a month resulting in the benefits rolled out by the government becoming insufficient.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/09/experts-warn-of-depletion-of-homemade-supplies-during-lockdown/

One of the shining stars of the startup scene in India, BYJU’s has decided to expand its market by venturing into a new segment of the population. This expansion was set to be officially announced this week, but the lockdown like situation in Bengaluru has prompted the company to delay the announcement by a few weeks to express solidarity with the country.
Despite a concentrated effort by a certain section of the society who claim that the whole operation including the subsidiaries and recent acquisition is extremely unethical and education is not their primary concern, BYJU’s have managed to continue showing growth and resilience.
What started as a regular tuition centre in the Indian city of Bengaluru in 2006, the growth to the most valuable edutech company in the world worth 13 billion USD has been spectacular, to say the least. The parent company Think and Learn Pvt Ltd was established in 2011 and they have been on an acquisition spree of late.
Over the past few years, they have acquired almost all the major edutech companies emerging in the Indian market and have consolidated themselves as the true market leader in the education obsessed country. The acquisitions include White Hat Jr, Osmo, Scholr, TutorVista and most recently Akash Educational services. The major backers of the company include Sequoia Capital, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Tencent and a host of others. They were officially listed as a Unicorn (a company with a valuation of USD 1 billion) in 2018.
This growth has not been free of controversies. There have been multiple claims of BYJU’s forcibly shutting down negative reviews, taking down videos and blocking Twitter and Facebook accounts of people who had raised issues with the way the company operates. There have been multiple claims of harassment from parents who were no longer interested in continuing subscriptions and also reports of extreme work pressure being piled up on their own sales staff to hit targets.
While speaking to our source at the BYJU’s HQ in Bengaluru, we were told that the company has grand designs for the future and plans to dominate the education market in India before taking over the world. They already have products for children at a pre KG level to the 12th standard. Future roadmaps of the company include providing services and products for children with their entrance exams as well.
What caught our attention was the attempt by BYJUS’s to target the result obsessed parents of children who are waiting for their children to turn 3 so that they can take a subscription to the app. Our source claims that there is a product ready to be launched that will target children between the ages of 1 – 3. This app will take away all the parenting requirements in terms of basic knowledge building that comes from a nurturing environment and place the toddlers in the safe hands of the company.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/08/byjus-to-launch-course-material-for-prenatal-babies/

In a startling move that goes in open defiance of the Telecoms Ministry’s porn ban which came into full effect in 2018, India’s most popular mobile internet provider is rumoured to be contemplating lifting the ban on over 800 pornographic websites. This will be done after carefully analysing the websites and will not be applicable on sites that indulge in child pornography.
The porn ban was put in place in 2 phases by the Indian government first in 2015 and then in 2018. This was considered to be a way to combat sexual abuse and crimes against women by restricting the influence porn seemed to have on the Indian population. Despite widespread protest against this ban, internet providers across the country implemented this ruling.
The ban however has not managed in curbing the violence against women and had only helped the general population understand the existence of VPNs (Virtual Private Network). This in turn had led to the increase of cases of internet fraud and phishing attacks on the Indian consumer. This is mainly because of the unrestricted downloads of fake and malicious VPNs from the app store. Many Chinese companies are also rumoured to have created apps just to collect information from Indian users.
With almost pan India coverage and competitive pricing, Reliance Jio has had a meteoric rise in the mobile data space. This has also led to other players in the market having to either consolidate and merge like Idea-Vodafone or completely exit the space. The extremely cheap pricing has also led companies like Airtel and BSNL to reduce their prices to stay competitive in the market.
At launch, Reliance Jio had almost rock bottom prices which led to easy adoption among the Indian population. The concept of offering phone calls and SMS for free while you only pay for the data was a crucial factor in both the product penetration into the market and also the accessibility to cheap mobile data contributed to the unprecedented growth of mobile-based apps and services in the country.
Our sources within Reliance Jio have told us that this open defiance of the government rules has been prompted by a couple of things.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/07/reliance-jio-to-lift-porn-ban-to-encourage-people-to-stay-indoors/

With IPL suspending its 2021 season due to the outbreak of the COVID19 virus within the various IPL camps, the new focus is on getting the international players safely home. The BCCI has started its plans to safely evacuate the players keeping in mind the international safety protocols and restrictions. This massive exercise is being coordinated by the BCCI with the support of the IPL team management.
Australia had announced stricter rules and a complete ban of visitors and Australian citizens from India sparking outrage among its population demanding that the Australians should be allowed to come back home. The Australian government had compounded these restrictions with fines and jail terms to those who return from India. The restrictions also include a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all entrants into the island country.
The Australian Prime Minister has been under a lot of fire recently for these decisions and has reluctantly rolled back the jail term included with this plan. The justification given is that Australia does not want to be engulfed by the third wave among its largely unvaccinated population. In a country with only a population of 25 million people, the vaccine rollout has been very slow drawing criticism from various sections of society.
Although almost all countries have implemented a travel ban against travellers from India, these were by far the strictest by any nation. Countries like the UAE, UK and a host of others have suspended flights indefinitely from India.
With the IPL no longer taking place, the BCCI is now under pressure to ensure that the player and support staff reach home safely. The largest contingent of players is from Australia, with Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson and Andrew Tye having already left earlier before the travel restrictions were put in place. Players from England, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, West Indies and Bangladesh have also been in touch with their respective boards to facilitate the travel back.
The BCCI has also announced that to facilitate the return of the Australian players, they will be routed through the Maldives where they will complete a mini quarantine before catching a chartered flight back to Australia.

Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/06/international-ipl-players-protest-preferential-treatment-given-to-aussies/

With the COVID19 virus showing no signs of slowing down and the heavy toll on the medical infrastructure of the country, many states are looking at offbeat methods to combat the virus. The central government is doing its best to meet the requirements of the different states but it has been obvious for a while that the states cannot be fully reliant on the Centre if they are to survive the pandemic.
This has lead to the states incorporating people from various walks of life in the committees’ setup up to counter the spread of the virus. This includes international design thinkers, policymakers and the general public.
The state of Maharashtra has been the worst hit among all the states in India across both waves and the impact it has had on the economic and functional elements of the government has been far-reaching. From being the epicentre for the migrant labour migration crisis to the struggles with providing basic amenities like hospital beds, the Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress alliance has had its hands full in recent times.
The handling of the crisis has been quite callous at times with almost no restrictions in place once the first wave had died down. This laid the foundations for the even deadlier second wave to take a firm grip on the lives of the residents of the state. The opening up of places like malls, movie theatres, gyms etc was essential to restore the economic condition of the state, but it was very much believed that the complete easing of the restrictions was not the best idea.
Currently, the state is facing a two-fold crisis. The first one is to contain the spread of the virus to reduce the load on the hospitals and the second one is to accelerate the vaccination drive. Both these measures have to be looked at with the same level of intensity to ensure that Maharashtra can overcome the virus and return to some semblance of normalcy.
With the Central government helping out by providing a fair share of the vaccine requirements via a quota, it is now the responsibility of the state governments across the country to purchase the remaining doses directly from the vaccine manufacturer. This along with the applied lockdown is set to bring the count of active cases and deaths in the state down in the following weeks.
Our sources within the higher ranks of the Shiv Sena has informed us that the government is looking for and new and improved delivery systems for the vaccine across the state. While plenty of options were discussed the government feels that they now have a perfect solution to get the whole state vaccinated in under 3 days.

Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/05/maharashtra-requests-sii-for-vaccine-in-chutney-form/

Days after not being able to win a single seat in the Kerala state elections, the BJP think tank has finally conceded that they got the whole approach completely wrong. The party leadership at the state level is not up to the mark and the consistently poor results despite the party investing a fair amount of time and effort from top leaders from the North has lead to the introspection.
The incessant trolling on social media has completely rattled the well-oiled election machinery and the emergence of the fact that they do not have one Kerala centric face for the campaigns lead to the decision to focus on developing leaders from within the state rather than importing leaders at election times from across the country.
The current Kerala BJP leadership is lacklustre, to say the least. Party President K Surendran, former MLA O Rajagopal, current MP V Muraleedharan and former State President Kummanam Rajashekaran have not managed to capture the imagination of the Kerala public. Even the introduction of “Metroman” E Sreedharan as the CM candidate and superstar Suresh Gopi as the star campaigner have failed to produce results.
A PR oriented campaign was proposed as the initial suggestion to counter this scenario but the absolute failure of Wayanad MP and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s antics like jumping in the sea to swim with fishermen, doing pushups and demonstrating Aikido have proven that the Kerala public is too smart to fall for such gimmicks.
Our source within the BJP headquarters at 11 Ashoka Road in New Delhi has confirmed that the religious, nationalistic vegetarian was not the ideal representation of Kerala. The new face of the party needed to be a modern, beef-eating, middle-aged man who regardless of educational qualifications is known to be suave and sinister at the same time.
A look at the recent Chief Ministers of the state seems to follow a similar trend which completely induces intrigue. The most literate state in the country and whose parental ideals are firmly set in education seem to forego that qualification when it comes to politics. This was displayed by the dismal showing of independent candidates and the V for Kerala initiative.
All the party needs to do is project a person with the following characteristics and the BJP IT cell combined with the financial muscle that the party has will be enough to deliver better results in the next election. They need to be slightly worried about the highly sophisticated Kerala troll army which practically destroyed any credibility that former party faces like Alphonse Kannandanam, Suresh Gopi and Kummanam Rajashekaran had.

Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/04/bjp-announces-hunger-games-like-format-to-select-kerala-face-for-next-election/