Why BJP's Nationalism Is Like An Autoimmune Disease?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Patriotism confers upon nations a degree of protection against attack by indoctrinating citizens into defending their country even at a risk to themselves.

As such, it has its uses, since we crave the security afforded by a stable nation state. In certain circumstances, though, nationalism behaves like a hyperimmune condition, treating benign phenomena as hostileattacks. At that point, patriotism becomes a threat to the nation’s health rather than a guarantor of security.

Analysis: Asad Owaisi's AIMIM Stirs Up A Hornet's Nest

By SYED AMIN JAFRI | INNLIVE

The decision of All India Majlis-e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) to enter the Assembly poll fray in Bihar, albeit on a limited scale, has stirred up the hornet's nest. More than the political parties, the media appears to be perturbed and upset by AIMIM's move. TV channels and print media unleashed the propaganda that AIMIM's entry would help BJP at the cost of the Grand Alliance of “secular parties."

Analysis: Why 'Asad Owaisi' Doesn’t Stand A Chance In Bihar Or WB, Unlike Badruddin Ajmal In Assam?

By SNM ABDI | INNLIVE

Asaduddin Owaisi has tossed his topi (cap) into the Bihar election ring after dithering for a month. But Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)’s prospects in Bihar’s Seemanchal belt are bleak despite the unusually high percentage of Muslim voters in the 25 assembly seats Owaisi is eyeing in the backward region.

Special Report: Three Major Takeaways From PM Modi’s 'Big Meeting' With 'Billionaires, Bankers And Babus'

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

New Delhi’s No. 7 Race Course Road—Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s official residence—today (Sept. 08) hosted some of the country’s most high-profile bankers, industrialists and policy makers.

Modi spent about three hours with the 40-member group, packed with cabinet ministers, key bureaucrats and bankers, corporate leaders and economists. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan, Reliance Industries’ chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry and State Bank of India chief Arundhati Bhattacharya were in attendance.

Exclusive: 'Lack Of Sleep And Poor Working Conditions' Makes 'Police Stressed' Reveal INNLIVE Study

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

A lack sleep, irregular meals, low incomes and poor working conditions are some of the reasons attributed to higher stress levels among police personnel, according to a study conducted by INNLIVE research wing. 

The study, which interviewed over 300 constables, inspectors and police personnel of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, has outlined that inspectors have the highest level of stress followed by officers and constables. 

During the study, the policemen describe their job as “unlimited and unpredictable” with “insufficient sleep hours and irregular meals” which render their lifestyle extremely exhausting and unpredictable.

The study was recently published in Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. It pointed out that around 90 per cent of the police personnel were under stress to due high levels of accountability and political interference, 80 per cent of them were stressed due to long and odd work hours, frequent transfers and postings, 70 per cent of them due to change in priorities, due to political shakiness, difficulty in sanctioning of leaves, role conflict between “being family person” versus “police person,” adjusting with seniors and not being able to spend time with their family. 

“A major source of stress was factors such as frequent transfers, slow promotions, fear of suspension and punishment, difficulty in getting leave sanctions, insufficient staff and dis-satisfactory work distribution. Although constables were found to experience overall stress lesser than inspectors and officers, they were significantly most stressed up in the areas of environmental stress, travelling away from the organisation and work overload,” the study said. 

“As many as 80 per cent of the constables felt that at their office the working conditions were very unpleasant due to the absence of indispensable facilities like proper toilets, drinking water and refreshment. They were most stressed in this area with 70 per cent of them feeling strained while commuting their workplace against 30 per cent of inspectors and 10 per cent of officers. They had to use their own conveyance like bicycles or motorcycles for official purposes for which they were not given allowances promptly,” it said. 

In addition, to these findings the qualitative analysis revealed that constables felt more hassled than the inspectors and officers due to low salary structure, lack of housing and medical facilities and their inability to fulfill the demands of their families.

Moreover, there were more than 50 per cent of constables who sense their work hours as very long, they had to go for two work shifts consecutively and they were unable to spend time with their families. “They also face difficulty in adjusting with their bosses who were usually inspectors. They often feel that they were punished by their seniors without any proper inquiry and did not have any platform where they can express themselves,” the study said.

Does Global Stock Market Turmoil Signals BRIC Is Over?

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

Back in 2001, former Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill coined the acronym BRIC to highlight the immense economic potential of the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China in the decades to come.

They would be the economic engines of tomorrow, he wrote.

The BRIC nations, which cover a quarter of the world’s landmass and contain 40% of its population, had a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $20 trillion back in 2001.

Defeated In Odisha, Is Posco Conquering Maharashtra?

Maharashtra’s coastal district of Sawantwadi is set to see some change, come 2016. Almost 33 thousand acres in size, it has lately been gaining popularity as a tourist spot and for its wooden handicraft industry. But it is in the news these days as it’s set to host South Korean giant Posco, which has signed a MoU with Uttam Steel, promoted by the Miglani family, to set up a 3 million tonne per annum integrated steel plant.

POSCO stays undeterred by the unsuccessful attempt to set up a steel plant in Odisha. The 12 billion dollar project lays dormant as the Center and the company have come to an impasse.

Analysis: Another Massive Train Accident Proves The 'Need To Re-Examine' The 'Ailing' Railway Ministry Of India

On 5th of August 2015, two passenger trains ran headlong into a very billowy Machak river, between Khirkiya and Bhirangi stations on Khandwa-Irasi sections, some 160 km from Bhopal, in Northern Madhya Pradesh. Kamayani express connecting Mumbai to Varanasi and Janta Express from Patna, bound for Mumbai hit the river only minutes after each other following a late-night derailment, killing 29 passengers, a number that is currently being debated. 

Campus Analysis: Why I Think Studying A Semester Abroad Can ‘Make A World Of A Difference’ To Your Life?

Being in a nation obsessed with education and employment, no stone is left unturned to get the best. These options in the form of what is called a ‘Semester Abroad Program’ or a ‘Semester Exchange Program’ are a great way to provide a boost. 

Some of the prestigious colleges in India have taken this concept to another level and have developed specific programs to cater to the imperative need of globalization. Some primary examples come in the form of Institute of Management (IMT) Ghaziabad’s Dual Country Program (DCP), Management Development Institute Gurgaon’s Postgraduate Programme in International Management (PGPIM), and S.P. Jain’s Global MBA program.

How Much In Web Traffic Changing The News You Read?

If you’ve ever thought that the quest for more clicks is affecting the sorts of articles that get published in the media, a renowned marketing professor Pinar Yildirim wants you to know that you’re right. But it’s not quite the overarching impact that you might expect.

In this interview with INNLIVE, she talks about a new paper, “Clicks and Editorial Decisions: How Does Popularity Shape Online News Coverage?” The paper, which was co-authored by Ananya Sen, a doctoral candidate in economics at the Toulouse School of Economics in France, teases out the differences in how high-traffic stories get treated in terms of longer-term coverage.

Special Report: Did Mumbai Attacks Mastermind, Pak Terrorist Hafiz Saeed Plan 'Gurdaspur Terror Attack'?

After establishing the role of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the July 27 Gurdaspur terror attack, Indian intelligence agencies are trying to pinpoint the involvement of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief and 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

The three terrorists killed in Dinanagar were speaking Punjabi when slain senior Punjab cop Baljit Singh had challenged them to come out in the open before they killed him. 

How Can Online Advertisers Get Most Mileage For Money?

Advertisers often use multiple publishers for their online campaigns, but may not use the best metrics to decide which ones they should compensate. Should companies compensate the publisher who showed the last ad to a consumer before a purchase? Or, should they pay publishers every time they show the ads to prospective consumers?

Research by marketing professor Ron Berman finds that the “last touch” or “last click” method advertisers typically employ to compensate publishers is the wrong way to go about it. Berman’s research shows that the “last click” method entails a moral hazard in driving “adverse selection,” where publishers show ads to consumers who would buy the product anyway.

News Analysis: Did 'Yaqub Memon' Make A 'Big Mistake' By Trusting Indian Investigators And Government?

The unfortunate Mumbai blast convict Yaqub Memon finally got rejection for his all pleas to live in this world and ordered to get hanged on his 'birthday' when he turns 53 years, the gnawing question that will continue to stare us in the face is not if he ever participated in the conspiracy and its execution, but if the Indian investigating agencies betrayed him and used his own evidence to hang him.

The moot point is certainly not about law, but about ethics. If the evidence, even voluntarily submitted by him, proves his criminality, he deserves punishment. But if he was duped into a sense of safety, it was unethical because it would have made him complacent and thereby denied himself a fair shot at the legal avenues.

Why The 'Falling Price' Of Gold May Cause 'Optimism'?

By M H Ahssan - Editor in Chief

WEEKEND ANALYSIS: The love affair with gold as a financial instrument can be traced back for centuries. Gold prices have tumbled to a five-year low. As a tradeable commodity, the price of gold is largely linked to supply and demand. While supply remains fairly fixed, demand is shaped by the state of the global economy and investor perceptions of gold’s value as an asset – this is in turn shaped by the strength of the US dollar.

The intrinsic value of gold has long made this precious metal a useful resource in the absence of legal or reliable money. The ease at which gold may substitute for currency means that during turbulent economic times gold is a valuable asset to hold.

Coal-Based Power Plants: What Exactly Govt Is Missing?

By Likha Veer - Group Executive Editor

The draft notification specifying emission standards for coal-based thermal power plants is a welcome first step towards regulation, but needs much greater attention to detail and further calibration.

On 15 May 2015, the Government of India came out with a draft notification on emission standards for coal based thermal power plants, opening it up for public comments. Till the time, there had been no specific emission standards for thermal power plants, except in respect of Particulate Matters which was also very high when compared to global standards.

New Robot Journalists: ‘Quakebot’ Is Just The Beginning!

By Sarah Williams
Group Regional Editor - USA

EXCLUSIVE: When an earthquake hit Los Angeles recently, Ken Schwencke, a journalist and programmer for the Los Angeles Times, was first to get the news out. Woken up by the tremors at 6:25 a.m. on Monday, March 17, he went to his computer and found a brief story already waiting, courtesy of a robot — an algorithm he developed and named Quakebot.

Quakebot’s role in the swift reporting of the earthquake story has industry observers talking about the role of robots in the future of journalism. Among those at the forefront of robot journalism is Noam Lemelshtrich Latar, dean of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.

Mobile Arms Race: Why Privacy Is the Next Battleground?

By M H Ahssan - Group Editor in Chief

Recently, Apple and Google unveiled the latest iterations of their iOS and Android mobile platforms, respectively. While these were incremental enhancements from both companies, a war is brewing to make consumers’ smartphones even smarter, by using more personal data.

The two companies dominate the mobile platform space, and are now taking the fight to a new battleground that revolves around knowing users well enough to be proactively helpful, to deliver information that is contextually relevant and to make their devices act even more like a human personal assistant.

Money Matters In India: Some Indian CEOs Make More Than 400% On Their Employees Are Paid Monthly!

Exactly how much India's corporate honchos earn has been a matter of conjecture. Until now. That members of the C-suite make an incredible amount of money has always been known, but exactly how much – especially, compared to the average employee’s salary – has been a matter of conjecture.

Now, new regulations in India have mandated making that information public.

The Companies Act of 2013 and the new Corporate Governance Code by the Securities and Exchange Board of India require that listed firms disclose the ratio of remuneration of directors to the median employee salary.

An Open Letter: Why Indian Male 'Masturbate' In Public?

By Sarah Williams

A FOREIGNER'S VERSION: A few days ago I was sitting in a bus stop in Mumbai, India. The local guy that I had paid no particular attention to moved closer. From the corner of my eye, to my horror, I realised that he had pulled out his penis and was masturbating, staring intently at me. I felt sick.

As much as I hate to admit it, this isn’t the first time it’s happened to me. In fact, chances are, if you’ve ever been to India, you’ll have bumped into at least one traveller who has experienced this sort of behaviour, or heard of someone else who it has happened to. I’ve spent countless hours with other travellers picking apart why men do it; why they seem to think it’s okay, why dignity seems to disappear when there’s foreign female flesh on show.

Beware! The Rupee Notes In Your Wallet Are Carrying 'Killer Disease'- Causing Microbes And Destructive Viruses!

By Dr.Muneeb Faraaz

A genomic analysis of currency shows that paper money is home to pathogens and antibiotic resistant genes.

Beware the Rs 10 note in your wallet. That money is dirtier than you think. Paper currency in India carries a whole bunch of genetic material from micro-organisms – bacteria, fungi and viruses – and some of them may even be the antibiotic resistant variety.

Scientists at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi recently studied the microscopic environment of Rs 10, Rs 20 and Rs 100 currency notes that they collected from street vendors, grocery stores, snack bars, hardware shops, chemists and such places where one would expect to find money that has frequently changed hands.