With parliament being disrupted over the newly released list of opposition leaders, journalists and union ministers who were targeted by the Pegasus spyware, the Delhi Chief Minister is reported to have thrown a fit in his private chambers.
Pegasus is spyware built by the Israeli cyber arms company NSO which is designed to monitor and share information like messages, emails, passwords and even Whatsapp messages. Considered to be one of the most sophisticated spyware of its kind, Pegasus is capable of infecting all latest and currently used versions of Android and iOS up to version 14.6. The virus is named after the Greek mythical creature Pegasus, who was a flying horse.
Although the company itself has denied any wrongdoing, they have stated that they provide their product to governments for internal surveillance and national security. The Indian government including Home Minister Amit Shah has vehemently denied the use of the Pegasus spyware by his government to spy on Indian citizens.
The list of Indians whose phones were part of the cyberattack includes Indian National Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi,  Abhishek Banerjee who is the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, political strategist Prashant Kishor, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, Jagdeep Chhokhar, founder of the transparency non-profit Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang, and Hari Menon, the India head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Indian government has repeatedly stated that it had nothing to do with these attacks and had not planned or initiated the espionage on its citizens.
Internationally the main target of the spyware were Arab royalty, over 600 political leaders and government officials along with their close aides, journalists, human rights activists and approximately 200 business leaders. The Pakistan government was one of the most severely hacked organisations with even Prime Minister Imran Khan and his close aides being monitored.
The Pegasus malware can enter your phone and be installed via SMS, iMessage, Direct download and WhatsApp. The malware can then take access to many areas of your phone and can harvest data and information from it without much difficulty. Some of the data it can harvest include SMS, Emails, photos and contacts. It can also record calls, read WhatsApp chats, access your calendar, activate your microphone or camera and get access to your GPS data or location.
There were multiple allegations levelled against NSO from 2018, these latest allegations and the new list of disclosed numbers was part of the efforts of the international human rights group Amnesty International. The first time this was brought to international attention was in August 2016 when an Arab activist received a message with a link claiming to be proof about torture in UAE jails. The iPhone penetration of the virus was the main reason for the spyware to gain international notoriety.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/20/arvind-kejriwal-miffed-that-he-was-not-spied-upon-by-pegasus-malware/

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has been under fire for the new population control bill that it plans to pass in the parliament soon. To give a more concrete look to the whole proposal, the UP government has decided to present the bill in parliament with a full-fledged campaign plan including the appointment of Sunny Leone as the brand ambassador.
The government which is facing elections next year has embarked on a journey to announce a whole bunch of new initiatives and projects including the bill designed to control the population of India’s most populous state. The opposition parties are terming this as a deliberate ploy to divert the attention of the public from the failure of the government.
The new bill which will be presented in the parliament during the next session has both incentives for people who follow the new rule and also has deterrents for flouting it. This is not the first time that a state in India has announced a 2 child policy to curb population growth. This has earlier been implemented by the  Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand at various points in time. Some governments also rolled back the policy after pushback from the citizens themselves.
Some of the incentives for adhering to the new policy include a preference for single children in government jobs, free health insurance and coverage for a single child until the age of 20, subsidy towards buying a plot or house from the Housing Board or Development Authority, preference to single children in admission to all educational institutions and rebate on electricity and water bills.
Some disincentives for not following the policy include no promotion in government jobs, restriction of ration card holders per household to 4, bar on receiving any kind of government subsidy and also being barred from contesting local body elections.
Experts believe that India does not require a 2 child policy as the TFR or Total Fertility Rate has been steadily falling and in the next few decades, India would not have a population problem on its hands. The “young population” that we are so proud of today would transition itself to an ageing population if such policies are implemented.
Political leaders of various parties were quick to jump and criticise the move as anti-Muslim, as the Muslim community is associated with large families with more than  2 children in each household. Further fuel was added to the fire when another section of the society claimed that the Hindu community should not come under this policy so that they can combat the rising Muslim population in the state.
Our sources tell us that in an attempt to get mass acceptance to the proposal, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to enlist former adult movie actress and Bollywood star Sunny Leone as the brand ambassador.
Sunny Leone rose to popularity in the country when she transitioned from an adult movie star in the USA to a Bollywood actress. She also appeared in the TV reality show, Bigg Boss where she was approached by Mahesh Bhatt to play a role in his film Jism 2. She has since acted in multiple languages in full-fledged roles and also in item songs. She lives in both Mumbai and the USA with her husband and 3 children.
The usual Brand Ambassador for almost all of UP’s government programs has been Amitabh Bachchan but for this initiative, a more relatable face was required says our source.

Read the full article at2: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/19/sunny-leone-to-be-appointed-brand-ambassador-for-uttar-pradeshs-population-control-program/

Gurugram, 16/07/2021
A group of millennials have filed a petition with the Delhi High Court to restrict the number of “uncles” in a residents association as they are making the lives of other younger residents difficult with their rules and regulations.
The term “uncle” is being used by the petitioners to describe retired men over the age of 55 who are usually homeowners within the same residential complex. By restricting the number of uncles in the association, a more objective association can function taking into consideration the issues faced by the younger generation.
One of the petitioners told us, “It is a classic case of feeling irrelevant. Most of these uncles had highly respectable careers and were at the top of their companies. Once they retire, they have nothing to do. So they join the association in the hope to have some kind of social life.”
“The decisions they take are purely based on what they think is right. For example, returning after 11 pm is not allowed only because they go to sleep before that. They think that no one else needs to be awake after that. This is a kind of moral policing in a way. What makes them different from VHP or Bajrang Dal members?”
Another petitioner felt that it was more of an emotional issue. “All these uncles have sons and daughters who do not live with them. They are no longer able to enforce rules and control their lives. So, they take it out on us and try and control ours.”
The court is yet to decide whether they will hear the petition.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/16/petition-filed-to-restrict-number-of-uncles-in-resident-and-housing-associations/

An aspiring Indian actress, on the promise of anonymity, has claimed that the “casting couch” system is still very much active in the Indian movie industry. She asserts that it’s not just mid-level directors and actors who try to take advantage of an actress but even top directors, actors and other professionals are in on it.
Casting couch is the term given to the process whereby a director, actor or technician working in the industry promises to give an aspiring actor or actress a role in a film in exchange for sexual favours. The promises are usually fake and the actor or actress is then strung along for months in the promise of that role which rarely happens.
Industry insiders say that many of these actors and actresses go on to become familiar faces on the big screen while some even reach the pinnacle of their craft. The ones that do not make it despite agreeing to the proposition either go back home with their dreams shattered or end up in one of the high-end escort services in the city.
Many actors and actresses like Surveen Chawla, Kalki Koechlin, Ranveer Singh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Kangana Ranaut, Tisca Chopra, Mamta Kulkarni, Sameera Reddy and Prachi Desai have spoken out about the experiences they had in the industry with many of them refusing to toe the line. There have been cases of actresses like Payal Rohtagi accusing director Dipankar Banerjee and the infamous case where Preeti Jain took Madhur Bhandarkar to court over casting couch allegations.
This phenomenon is not exclusive to Bollywood. There have been plenty of similar instances and allegations levelled against directors, producers and actors in the southern film industries as well.
Even Hollywood is not immune to this system. When the whole Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in the USA, many actresses revealed the kind of forced sexual gratification and “compromises” that they were subjected to. Charlize Theron, Thandie Newton, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence etc are just a few of the actresses who have come forward with their stories.
The actress who is now making these claims had landed in Mumbai from Coorg to fulfil her dream of becoming an actress and working opposite Hrithik Roshan. Being a former model and a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, she believed that she had both the looks and the skills to make an impact in the industry.
She went about the usual route – dropping of her portfolio at various production houses, studios and even tried dropping by film shoots in the attempt to talk to the director. Despite being dedicated to her approach and trying everything possible in her arsenal, she was not able to get an audience with anyone. Five months into her struggle, she finally received a call from a reputed film director who had seen her portfolio.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/15/casting-couch-is-a-very-real-thing-in-bollywood-claims-aspiring-actress/

Pakistan has been working hard to contain the spread of the COVID19 virus in the country with government and health officials trying desperately to get the bulk of rural Pakistan to ditch the dogmas and superstitions and vaccinate themselves. These efforts are being done against the backdrop of multiple political tensions both externally and internally.
A series of bomb blasts outside the house of international terrorist Hafiz Saeed had left 3 people dead and over 20 people injured near the Board of Revenue Housing Colony in Lahore. This is just the latest of the various similar incidents around Pakistan for which the country had repeatedly tried to implicate India on the international scene. These allegations were made by Pak’s National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf last week.
This is not the first time that Pakistan has claimed that India or its citizens were behind such terrorist activities within the country. Kulbhushan Yadav, an Indian citizen accused of being a RAW agent is still lying in Pakistani jails despite the support received from the international community and the International Court of Justice for his freedom. Pakistan also claims to have other RAW operatives in its custody but has not furnished any further details.
These accusations are generally brushed under the carpet by both Indian and international authorities as Pakistan’s handling of terrorism has always been circumspect. Pakistan however, seems to be determined that this time around, the noise they make in international circles will be loud enough to make everyone sit up and take notice.
India has been on the receiving end of terrorism originating from Pakistani soil with the attacks on Pathankot and multiple cases of attacks in J&K in the recent past. India has also maintained that unless Pakistan addresses the issue of its borders being used to propagate and promote terrorism, there cannot be any talks between the two countries. This affiliation of the political parties and the army with recognised terrorists has been one of the main reasons that Pakistan continues to remain on the FATF greylist.
The Pakistani establishment has now come forward with proof that the Indian influence on Pakistani soil is increasing by the day and that India is responsible for the series of suspicious activities across the country.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/14/indian-influence-inside-pakistan-at-an-all-time-high-claim-pakistani-officials/

Bengaluru police were forced to arrest 4 people after getting complaints of a drunken brawl at one of the hottest bars in Indiranagar yesterday. All four detainees were in their late 20s and according to the bar had consumed an insane amount of beer.
Eyewitness accounts say that everything was going normal until the main accused, Sajith K, a native of Pattambi in Kerala, started arguing with another table about the Euro Cup football final between Italy and England.  Very soon, the arguments spiralled and ended up in a full-blown fistfight.
It is believed that the main point of the argument was about the performance of both Italy and England in the final. While Sajith, who was wearing a stained England jersey, the others were wearing blue and were out to celebrate the victory of their team. Indistinct chatter about "Home" and "Rome" were heard throughout the argument.
Although outnumbered 3:1, Sajith kept fighting back until the police arrived to break up the fight. All 4 perpetrators were taken to the Indiranagar police station where all of them confessed to being drunk. Sajith was charged with unruly behaviour and creating a nuisance in a public place while the other three were let off on a personal guarantee.
Sub Inspector of Indiranagar police station told us, "We had no choice but to arrest him and charge him. Normally we will just ask them to apologise to each other and let them off with a warning. However, this fellow not only refused to apologise, but he also kept shouting that he is an England football team fan and this kind of behaviour is his birthright."
Sajith will be produced before the District Magistrate today to see if he had any changes in his statement after sobering up.

After Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced the dates for NEET 2021, there was a huge sigh of relief from students across the country who were uncertain how their further education would pan out. With the announcement of the dates, format and the assurance that the number of centres would be increased to ensure the following of social distancing, both parents and students have got back to their preparations.
This announcement however came as a shock to the students from Bihar who were quite perturbed by the government’s insistence that social distancing would be strictly followed.  They believe that it is unfair and would lead to the decimation of Bihar’s most profitable industry.
A student from Patna said, “This is against our cultural norms and traditions. Social distancing would mean that it would be impossible to copy during the exam. How can our Chief Minister Nitish Kumar allow this to happen? He should threaten to pull out of the NDA.”
The exam copying industry is rampant in the state of Bihar and is known to go to great lengths to ensure that its customers are satisfied. However, this year they are not too certain. One of the key lynchpins of the so-called “exam mafia” spoke to us on the promise of anonymity.
“We will need to recruit more manpower which would mean lower profits. We are still not sure what the government meant by social distancing. The increase in the number of centres would mean that we will have to spread our resources quite thin. This may result in us not delivering on our promises and parents refusing to pay us. In a year, the whole industry would collapse.”
Parents we spoke to also echoed the same opinion that the copying experts need to figure out how they will tackle this situation.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/13/bihar-neet-2021-aspirants-claim-social-distancing-will-destroy-its-most-profitable-industry/

Maverick billionaire Sir Richard Branson kicked off the space tourism industry yesterday by becoming the first person to fly into space on his winged rocket yesterday. He along with 5 crewmates from the Virgin Galactic division of the Virgin Group achieved this feat when they soared to 55 miles above the New Mexico desert.
The richest man in the world and founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos is also scheduled to go into space with the first official flight of Blue Origin, his own space company. The flight is scheduled to happen on July 20th. It is widely speculated that the main reason Sir Richard preponed his flight by 3 weeks so that he can beat Bezos.
The trips being provided by Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Bezos’s Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX are also different. While Virgin Galactic takes passengers up to a height of 80 kilometres, which is the line accepted by the USA as the start of space, Blue Origin will take passengers further past 100 kilometres or what is known as the Karman line. Both these trips are suborbital trips that are meant to provide the travellers with a few minutes of weightlessness followed by a sighting of the curvature of the earth.
The SpaceX flights on the other hand are orbital flights meant to take the passengers around the world in orbit and meant to last a few days, unlike the trips that are being provided by both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. The SpaceX trips will also be much more expensive and are set to start operations next year.
Many experts including Neil DeGrasse Tyson have contented that these trips cannot be considered “Space Travel” in their true sense and is more of the novelty of being in space for a few minutes. In essence, this is more like a joy ride at an amusement park rather than a full-blown trip to space. These trips last approximately 20 minutes with the “astronauts” experiencing almost 8 minutes of weightlessness.
The whole experience is not cheap with each passenger having to shell out between $200,000 to $250,000 per trip. Despite the price of the trip, Virgin Galactic has claimed that over 600 tickets have already been sold to celebrities and millionaires from over 60 countries.
This whole billionaire space race is not just limited to the Western Hemisphere. Billionaires in India are also warming up to the whole concept and have been closely following the developments around the world.
Our sources at Reliance Industries, home of the richest man in Asia, Mukesh Ambani is looking at options to enter the space race himself. With ISRO still in its nascent stages in terms of space travel, it has become obvious that there would need to be a fair bit of outside help bought in to help with JioSpace.
Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/12/after-sir-richard-branson-jeff-bezos-elon-musk-indian-billionaires-show-interest-in-space/

After receiving a mixed response to the trailer of Hungama 2, veteran film director Priyadarshan is reportedly gearing up to remake Nadodikattu, the classic Malayalam film starring Mohanlal and Srinivasan.
The moment the trailer of Hungama 2 dropped, there were clamours from Malayalam movie fans that this was a scene by scene remake of the super hit 1994 film Minnaram. The Mohanlal, Shobana, Jagathy and Thilakan starrer was a comedy masterpiece and is still revered among fans as one of Priyadarshan’s best works.
The original 2003 film Hungama starring Akshaye Khanna, Aftab Shivdasani and Paresh Rawal was also based on the Priyadarshan directed Malayalam movie Poochakkoru Mookuthi starring Mohanlal, Shankar and Nedumudi Venu.  This however has no relation to the yet to be released Hungama 2 in terms of storylines or characters.
We had reported earlier that Priyadarshan was planning to release a music album with 99 jokes but that project seems to have been put aside while this project takes precedence.
The movie Nadodikattu is the story of 2 unemployed men constantly trying to come up in life and the series of misadventures that lead up to them becoming CID officers. The main characters Dasan and Vijayan are deeply entrenched in the minds of the average Malayali and has inspired memes galore.
Our sources within the team behind the project have told us that the main reason Nadodikattu was chosen for remaking was that the original film had 2 sequels as well. This means that the production house and Priyadarshan has a trilogy on their hands.
Our sources say that the initial cast would include Varun Dhawan and Rajpal Yadav in the main roles with Paresh Rawal, Anupam Kher and Dilip Joshi reprising other important roles.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/09/after-minnaram-priyadarshan-has-eyes-firmly-set-on-nadodikattu-remake/

After an unprecedented run of good form, England has finally reached the finals of a major tournament since the World Cup of 1966. The perennial underachievers of international football have finally given their fans something to cheer about.
We had earlier reported that there was a prevalent discontent about the fact that 3 countries of the UK were participating in the Euro Cup despite voting to leave the European Union. The general sentiment was that England, Scotland and Wales should choose not to participate in solidarity with the referendum passed by the people.
This whole episode would have been forgotten but the performance of the English football team this year has created quite a bit of intrigue as logically speaking they do have a 50 – 50 chance of winning this tournament. This is turning out to be an ideological battle that poses the question, is victory in a sports tournament more important than the moral and political stand taken by a nation?
This discussion has had a far-reaching impact with more EU nations tending to agree with the British public. They believe that the wishes of the British public should be taken into consideration and are also looking at ways to appease them.
Many experts believe that kicking the English Premier League out of the UEFA might not be the right decision but with the rising influence of English teams in the Champions League and for airtime on TV, other leagues around Europe are feeling the pinch.
While this conundrum is threatening to overshadow all the celebration that might accompany an English victory in the finals, our sources within the FA had some very shocking news.
It is rumoured that the English football team will be moving its affiliation to the CONMEBOL or the South American version of the UEFA. If England does win the Euro Cup 2021, they will prove that you do not need to be part of a political union to participate and win a tournament. This will also save them the embarrassment if they are asked to officially leave the UEFA.
The CONMEBOL is the world’s oldest continental confederation. It only fits that the worlds oldest football association becomes a part of it. With Messi all set to retire in the next couple of years, the English stars will need to contend with the likes of Vargas, di Maria and Neymar Jr.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/07/08/england-to-switch-participation-to-copa-america-after-euro-2021-finals/