Evening Post

New Delhi 

Huma Quereshi is all set for an International movie with director Gurinder Chadha.

She will be seen in Gurinder's upcoming film 'Partition: 1947.'

In an interview, when Huma was asked about her experience with the 'Bride and Prejudice' director, she said, "She is a strong filmmaker. I love working with strong people because they push you to perform better and give your best. I had always wanted to work and was excited to do so."

Talking about the movie, the 'Badlapur' actress said, "Its a story of India about on partition and thrown light on why it happened.The script is based on documents that were declassified by the British government sometime back."

'Partition: 1947' focuses on the events in the final pre-Independence days, gives glimpses of Lord Mountbatten's swearing in, his conversations with imminent leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the romance between two Indians who work closely with the British, and the building tensions in India as the slogan "Hindustan-Pakistan" is repeated.

This directorial venture, a historical drama, is vastly different from Chadha's previous films, which were light-hearted and focused on the culture of the Indian diaspora.

'Partition: 1947' releases on August 18. 

ANI

New Delhi 

HTC Corporation ("HTC"), a pioneer in innovative, smart mobile and virtual reality technologies, today announced its Independence Day Sale to celebrate Independence Day in the India market. The offer is applicable from 9th- 12th August on Amazon.in with free shipping until stocks last.

As a part of the independence day celebrations, all new customers will get an opportunity to buy the VIVE at a reduced price of Rs. 87,990 from its current price of Rs 92,990.

With the purchase of HTC VIVE, customers will also receive Rs. 3,000 Steam gift card that can be redeemed. In addition, customer will get bundled copies of Richie's Plank Experience, Everest VR and a month's free subscription of Viveport.

VR is transforming our homes and enterprises, and we want to celebrate it by giving our fans an opportunity to buy Vive product at an attractive price. Vive is immensely popular in India and fast becoming the preferred way in which customers wants to experience content.

The first complete VR solution, HTC VIVE was launched in April 2017 at Rs. 92,990. VIVE delivers unprecedented realism and immersion, with hundreds of VR apps that let people experience content like never before.

Vive owners can access a great variety of content at Viveport (www.viveport.com). Viveport is HTC's global app store dedicated to the global app store for virtual reality, democratizing access to the most diverse selection of VR apps and content across education, design, art, social, video, music, sports, health, fashion, travel, news, shopping, creativity tools and more. HTC VIVE includes wireless VR controllers, room scale movement and Head Mounted Display featuring a built in camera. 

New York 

After issuing an ultimatum to North Korea for threatening the United States, President Donald Trump, in a series of tweets,said that the US nuclear arsenal is now "far stronger and more powerful than ever before."

President Trump on Wednesday touted the strength of the country's nuclear arsenal.

Trump expressed hope the U.S. would not have to use this "power," but remained confident in the strength of the country.

Trump tweeted,"My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before...."

Trump further tweeted,"...Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!"

Trump said Pyongyang will "face fire and fury like the world has never seen," during a photo op at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen... he has been very threatening beyond a normal state. They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before," he said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday, however, said he doesn't believe there is "any imminent threat" from North Korea and urged Americans to remain calm.

"What the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un can understand, because he doesn't seem to understand diplomatic language," Tillerson said.

"I think the president just wanted to be clear to the North Korean regime on the U.S. unquestionable ability to defend itself, will defend itself and its allies."

New Delhi 

Congress President Sonia Gandhi's veiled dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its comments on the Quit India Movement, has attracted support from other leaders.

Congress leader, Renuka Chowdary told ANI, "Certain political parties had no role to play in the movement and they continue to disrupt the functioning of the country."

She added that certain parties would never understand the foundations of India's independence.

Communist Party of India leader D. Raja, said "The RSS and the BJP are trying to falsify and rewrite history. This is where the caution must be kept. They are trying to impose their ideology on the country."

National Conference (NC) leader, Farooq Abdullah said, "It's true that the country is developing but the people are being divided.We are being divided on the basis of our religion."

Earlier, Sonia Gandhi recalled the Quit India Movement struggle and added that secularism and free speech are in danger today's NDA and BJP-ruled India.

Taking a jab at the BJP, she said, "Some organisations opposed the Quit India movement".

Hyderabad

Nearly 4,000-year-old bone ornaments, a capstone and other rare objects belonging to the megalithic age have been found at different sites near Hyderabad, a senior official of Telangana’s archaeology and museums department said today. The bone ornaments were found in Narmetta area, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, during excavations conducted at different sites from March to May this year by the department, its director N R Visalatchy said.

“The ornaments are basically cut bone pieces, but (are) very precisely cut, all of equal shape, design, which in the 100 years of history of the department of archaeology and museums we have never come across,” she said.

The archaeologists have also found a capstone (a large flat stone) which was in the shape of an “anthropomorphic (having human characteristics) figure,” said Visalatchy. The bone ornaments show that the technology prevailed even then to precisely cut the bones and the mathematical sense to make them of a precise size, she said.

“It also implies a certain sense of aesthetics. (They are) clear geometrical figures with exact size. There was a certain sense of calculation, certain technology, aesthetecity involved,” the official said.

The scientific analysis of the bone pieces would throw more light on its different aspects, she said, adding that its carbon dating (determination of age or date of organic matter) would also be done.

“2000 BC to 500 AD is the timeline (as to how old the bone pieces are),” she said, adding that a skeleton with a skull was found at another burial site.

“This will be a boost to us in having a scientific approach towards the understanding of the megalithic culture,” she said.

The department, one of the oldest in the country, had undertaken many excavations in the past, she added.

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK 

The male Google engineer fired for circulating a memo decrying the company's diversity hiring program became the center of a heated debate on sexism, drawing scorn, cheers and even a job offer on Tuesday from WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.

James Damore, 28, confirmed his dismissal from Alphabet Inc's Google on Monday, after he wrote a 10-page memo that the company was hostile to conservative viewpoints shaped by a flawed left-wing ideology.

The manifesto was quickly embraced by some, particularly on the political right, branding him a brave truth-teller. Others found his views, which argued that men in general may be biologically more suited to coding jobs than women, offensive.

Assange, who is praised in some circles for exposing government secrets and castigated by others as an underminer of some nations' security, offered Damore a job.

"Censorship is for losers," Assange wrote on Twitter. "Women & men deserve respect. That includes not firing them for politely expressing ideas but rather arguing back."

Legal and employment experts noted, however, that companies have broad latitude to restrict the speech of employees. Some argued that Damore's views left Google little to no choice but to terminate his employment, since he had effectively created a hostile work environment for women.

Damore said in an email on Monday that he was exploring a possible legal challenge to his dismissal. His title at Google was software engineer and he had worked at the company since December 2013, according to a profile on LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn page also says Damore received a Ph.D. in systems biology from Harvard University in 2013. Harvard said on Tuesday he completed a master's degree in the subject, not a Ph.D. He could not immediately be reached on Tuesday.

The world's tech capital, Silicon Valley has long been criticized for not doing enough to encourage gender equality.

Most headlines have centered on powerful female executives hitting the glass ceiling or on sexual harassment lawsuits.

Many women in the industry say that less visible day-to-day bias often impedes their careers.

Industry experts note that in the early days of tech, it was mostly women who held the then-unglamorous jobs of coding. But as the value of top-notch programming became clear, it became a mostly male domain and the vast majority of programmers in the tech industry are now men.

Some argued that although they may not agree with Damore, the company had gone too far in firing him.

"Dear @Google, Stop teaching my girl that her path to financial freedom lies not in coding but in complaining to HR. Thx in advance, A dad," Eric Weinstein, managing director at California investment firm Thiel Capital, wrote on Twitter.

Bernice Ledbetter, who teaches leadership to business students at Pepperdine University, praised Google for taking decisive action. She said it would be a different matter if Damore were writing on a personal blog rather than in a memo.

"He's walking dangerously between who he is personally and who he is professionally," Ledbetter said in an interview.

Others raised concerns that Damore would discriminate against his female colleagues in peer review.

Damore wrote in an email to Reuters on Monday that he was fired for "perpetuating gender stereotypes." His memo had said that he sought the opposite.

"I'm also not saying that we should restrict people to certain gender roles," Damore wrote in his memo. "I'm advocating for quite the opposite: treat people as individuals, not as just another member of their group (tribalism)."

His arguments were praised by those who view so-called "political correctness" as a left-wing device to suppress conservative speech.

John Hawkins, the owner of the Right Wing News website, summed up his take in a Twitter post: "James Damore: Writes memo respectfully saying Google suppresses conservative views. Google: You're fired for having conservative views."

Others compared Damore with Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who last year chose not to stand for the U.S. national anthem before games, in protest over police violence.

None of the NFL's 32 teams were willing to sign Kaepernick during the recent off-season.

"Kaepernick and Damore should've been aware that expressing controversial opinions at work has consequences," Twitter user Greg Lekich wrote from his account, @Xeynon.

Damore said he would fight the dismissal, noting that he had filed a complaint with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board before the firing.

Google, owner of the world's most used search engine, is based in Mountain View, California. The company said it could not talk about individual employee cases.

V.SRINIVAS

India’s economic history over the past 70 years has been marked by several critical milestones amongst which are the crisis years of 1966, 1981 and 1991 and India’s emergence from the economic crisis as the fastest growing major economy of the world.

India’s balance of payments position was under pressure throughout 1965. As the year 1966 opened, exchange reserves had already been reduced to a low level. In March 1966, a stand-by arrangement of US$ 200 million was approved by the IMF.  Rupee was devalued by 36.5 percent to bring domestic prices in line with external prices, to enhance the competitiveness of exports. The US dollar which was equivalent to Rs. 4.75 now rose to Rs. 7.50 and the pound sterling from Rs. 13.33 to Rs. 21. The Government declared a plan holiday. The fourth five-year plan was abandoned in favor of three annual plans in the wake of disruptions in the economy on account of two years of drought, two wars, and the devaluation of the rupee. The annual plans guided development with immediate focus on stimulating exports and searching for efficient uses of industrial assets. The devaluation failed; it did not achieve its objectives. The promised foreign aid did not materialize.

The balance of payments situation changed dramatically in 1979-80. Inflation soared from 3 percent in 1978-79 to 22 percent in 1979-80. The external terms of trade worsened significantly owing to higher prices for imported petroleum and fertilizers. Trade deficit zoomed. Government undertook deficit financing on an unprecedented scale. In 1981, to meet the short term cyclical imbalance, India drew SDR 266 million of the SDR 500 million approved under the compensatory financing facility (CFF) from the IMF. The main elements of the Government’s strategy for restoring the viability of balance of payments was an increase in the domestic production of petroleum and petroleum products, fertilizers, steel, edible oils and non-ferrous metals. India’s strategy for bringing balance of payments under control paid rich dividends. The Government voluntarily decided not to avail of the balance of 1.1 billion SDR under the Extended Fund Facility of the IMF.

The IMF programs of 1966 and 1981 helped tide over periods of high inflation and difficult balance of payments position faced at that point of time. That said, they were modestly successful in bringing economic reforms to the Indian economy. India entered the 1990s with structural rigidities and imbalances in the economy, pronounced macroeconomic imbalances despite a significant growth rate of 5 percent. Several adverse domestic and external developments precipitated in the balance of payments (BOP) crisis in 1991. From this crisis, emerged a comprehensive reform agenda backed by an IMF program which was effectively implemented.

On August 27, 1991, India approached the IMF for an 18-month stand-by arrangement in an amount equivalent to SDR 1656 million. The adjustment strategy entailed a set of immediate stabilization measures adopted in July 1991 most notably a 18.7 percent depreciation of the exchange rate and further tightening of monetary policy including increase in interest rates, designed to restore confidence and reverse short term capital outflow. A comprehensive program built around the twin pillars of fiscal consolidation and a radical structural reform to shift away from past policies was adopted. In many ways, the IMF program of 1991/92 ensured India’s integration into the global economy.

The global financial crisis which began in 2007 took a turn for the worse in September 2008 with the collapse of several international financial institutions. Indian stock markets witnessed a 60 percent loss in values, foreign portfolio investment slowed down and rupee lost 20 percent value against the dollar reaching Rs. 50/ dollar. Expectations that the Indian economy is ‘decoupled’ from the West were completely belied. A substantial fiscal stimulus was provided through two packages on December 7, 2008 and January 2, 2009. The Reserve Bank of India took a number of monetary easing and liquidity enhancing measures including the reduction in the cash reserve ratio, statutory liquidity ratio and key policy rates. The objective was to facilitate funds from the financial system to meet the needs of productive sectors.

India’s economy was one of the first in the world to recover after the global crisis. Prompt fiscal and monetary policy easing combined with a fiscal stimulus had brought growth to pre-crisis levels. Capital inflows were back on the rise and financial markets regained ground. Growth was projected to rise from 6 ¾ percent in 2009-10 to 8 percent in 2010-11. India faced challenges in managing capital flows and sterilized intervention was pursued to help reduce exchange rate volatility.

On October 8, 2016 the Indian Finance Minister addressed the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) during the Fund-Bank Annual Meetings presented India as the fastest growing major economy globally with GDP growth at 7.2 percent, foreign exchange reserves of USD 372 billion, current account deficit of (-) 1.1 percent and CPI inflation at 5.05 percent. The Government showed deep commitment to fiscal consolidation, lowering the cost of credit to private sector and help price stability. Subsidy reforms were undertaken with better targeting of subsidies by linking oil subsidies with aadhar. Government constituted an empowered monetary policy committee and fixed an inflation target of 4 percent with a tolerance level of +/- 2 percent for the period 2016-2021. The GST represents a major milestone in tax reforms. The economic transformation from an IMF program country to the world’s fastest growing major economy represents a significant success story for the Indian economy at 70.

BY MANJARI KATJU

An excerpt from Manjari Katju’s Hinduising Democracy: The Vishva Hindu Parishad in Contemporary India.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) gained public recognition through its Ramjanmabhoomi campaigns in the 1980s. It continued to grab headlines in India till the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992. After the demolition it led a relatively quiet life and did not storm news headlines as regularly as before—except during elections. The VHP’s moving away from a career of high publicity between the mid-1990s and 2013 was a strategic turn brought about by a change of political circumstances and weakening of support for its big campaigns like Ramjanmabhoomi, the demand for a Ram temple at Ayodhya considered by some to be the place of Ram’s birth. The toning down of its voice and a change in focus in this period was because of these reasons rather than due to a loss of interest in public activity. Its relative quietness symbolised a shift of terrain, a change of mobilisational strategy. From lofty programmes that were not paying many dividends in hegemonising the idea of Hindu nationhood, it moved its focus to work at the grass roots. It intensified this work both in urban and rural areas. 

The VHP looks upon itself as a religio-nationalist organisation, a leader or guru representing all Hindus. This persona was bestowed upon it by the RSS. It sees itself as advocating Hindutva and engaged in hinduising society by correcting the ‘ills’ which have come upon Hindus. It is not a political party and has not entered the electoral arena in an organisational capacity. However, some of its members do contest elections. They do so as BJP candidates. Such members have straddled the boundaries between the VHP and BJP and sometimes also between VHP, BJP and RSS. The VHP drew on the ideas of V.D. Savarkar (1883-1966), former president of the Hindu Mahasabha, and M.S. Golwalkar (1906–73), the second sarsanghchalak of the RSS, to lay the foundation of its work. While Savarkar gave a theoretical grounding to Hindutva and shaped it as an ideology, Golwalkar gave it functional power and tried to operationalise it as a hegemonic force.

It is from outside the electoral sphere that the VHP attempts to make interventions in Indian politics. As a religious organisation it makes efforts to influence policy and change the course of politics. It is from this standpoint that it has attempted to build a critique of democracy and alter the conception of citizenship. It also critiques the Constitution of India and calls upon the Indian state to pay closer attention to ‘Hindu interests’. Its identity as a religious organisation is important for it to build a stand on political questions and influence public opinion. It has tried to cultivate a sadhu persona, one who has taken up the task of reform and revitalisation of the Hindu religion and community, which over time has helped it build popular support. It is interesting that it has continued to strengthen its self-identity as a religious organization.

The VHP’s self-image is that of a religious organisation working for religious reform and national interest. It sees itself as an organisation trying to preserve and protect Hindus from attacks and deviations. Its main area of activity is the Hindu–Muslim and the Hindu–Christian fault line where it actively builds campaigns against these minorities and ‘secularists’. With this stance, it tries to influence public opinion on political matters and is an active campaigner for the BJP.

It is not that the VHP has changed itself completely from what it was earlier. In fact, it carries forth its original ideology zealously in its work. I go back to some of its ideas and views before 1995 for the sake of explaining its contemporary stances about politics and society. But the VHP has modified its work patterns according to the altering patterns of Indian politics. There are both continuities and breaks in its working, something that has to be taken note of.

With the BJP’s Hindu right wing government in power after winning absolute majority in the general elections of 2014, the VHP has become vocal about its ideological beliefs. In the words of late Ashok Singhal, “In 800 years, a day has now come in which we can say we have a government which is committed to protecting Hindutva. Our values will be gradually established in the country… Hindus have come back to power in Delhi after Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan lost it in the 12th century”. 

This victory is seen by the VHP as the Hindutva victory for which VHP and the RSS had worked hard. The communally provocative speeches of VHP leaders in 2014 and 2015 clearly convey that they have regained much of their enthusiasm which had waned during 10 years of UPA rule. The VHP is hopeful that it will realise its ideological goals, especially the building of the Ram temple though it has not planned any agitation. According to VHP leader Pravin Togadia, an agitation is launched only when an opponent is in government, and since the government at the centre is “of our brother Narendra Modi there is no need for VHP to start a movement or agitation” for the Ram temple.

Manjari Katju is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad. This article is an excerpt from her book, ‘Hinduising Democracy: The Vishva Hindu Parishad in Contemporary India’.