Special Features

MAKING A DIFFERENCE Shubham Group’s CEO Arjun Mehta is widely credited for conceptualizing a unique and innovative model for acquisition of land from the farmers. The farmers who owned the land were involved as ‘Partners in Progress’ in housing and urban development. Known for developing one of Rajasthan’s largest integrated coaching hub “Landmark City—Abhinav Kota” spread over an area of 36 lakh sq ft on Jaipur highway, real estate firm Shubham Group has recently launched 11 major projects in Kota. The Shubham Group has today created a name for itself in real estate business. It has delivered to the citizens of Kota numerous residential and commercial complexes of finest quality as also established itself successfully in other parts of Rajasthan,

MAKING A DIFFERENCE Cleanliness is next to godliness and Dr Karthik Narayanan, Managing Director of Sabari Consultants, understands it well. Because of his initiatives, Sabarimala devotees visiting the Lord Ayyappa temple are having a swachh experience. An annual happening, every year lakhs and lakhs of pilgrims start visiting Sabarimala from November 16th to January 20th the next year. As the temple is situated in the Periyar tiger reserve, a dense forest, devotees have to trek through the tough forest path to reach the Lord Ayyappa temple. There are 1,150 toilets in the Sannidhanam camp in Sabarimala but a very few in the Pampa base camp of Sabarimala. And so keeping those clean is a big challenge. Adding to this is

MAKING A DIFFERENCE It is befitting to dedicate Vivekananda’s birthday, January 12, to the youth of the country whose entrepreneurial ambition and consumerist desires need be exposed to countervailing moral and ethical values for bringing sanity to their attitudes and actions. It makes for a compelling case as today’s youth are fed on a celebrity overdose in a market-driven consumerist culture. Unlike other growing economies that face the risk of an ageing workforce, India is poised to become the world’s youngest country with 64 per cent of its population in the working age group by 2020. This ‘demographic dividend’ offers a great opportunity for the country. Not just by numbers, the youth make 34% contribution to the country’s Gross National

MAKING A DIFFERENCE To feed the growing population, India clearly needs a second green revolution that is broad-based, inclusive and sustainable; the farmers need to produce more without the environment getting any more depleted. This was clearly understood by the government and to feed the growing population and make farming a more sustainable and profitable business the Narendra Modi Government has decided to introduce customized fertilisers (CFs) across the country. According to Department of Fertilisers, to address the special need of a region or crop and to optimise the benefit of fertilisers in a cost-effective manner, farmers and fertilisers companies are being asked to focus on customized fertilisers. The government is planning to introduce customised fertilizers in an attempt to

MAKING A DIFFERENCE Nanki Manjhi, a 70 – year – old tribal woman, was beaten to death in Jharkhand’s Giridih district, barely 180 Km from the state Capital, Ranchi December last year. Another, elderly woman was thrashed and paraded across the localities. The duos were branded ‘witch’ before they were pulled out, assaulted and paraded in full public view. The aggrieved families revealed that the widows were dragged out from their respective houses just a couple of day after the death of the 10–year–old son of a villager Ramu Tuddu. The deceased was ill for more than a week before he died. The matter came to limelight only after a group of villagers, including the local panchayat officials, came to

MAKING A DIFFERENCE His Excellency SUHAIL MOHD AL ZAROONI is a businessman from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an Emirati Collector,Prolific Writer, Author, Guinness Book World Records holder and Philanthropist. His Excellency is a trailblazer having a chequered past glittered with accolades. The fact that he is the first ever Emirati after the Royal family of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be awarded with Two Guinness World Records is a milestone in itself. Suhail Al Zarooni’s collection is second to none in the world. His collection of Miniature and Dinky Car collection won him the Guinness Records. He started building his empire by setting up companies harnessing the power of human intellect and perseverance. His empire now spread over several

WOMEN SAFETY Women, all around the world, are unsafe; in their own homes, their places of work, their neighbourhoods, or on some random street corner at the darkest hour of the night wearing ‘slutty’ clothes. The fact of the matter is, despite all the giant steps mankind has taken since Neil Armstrong, we cannot tell a woman, representing, as she does, half of the world’s people, that she is safe. That she will not be violated, assaulted, abused, raped or condescended to about how it was somehow her fault, in her lifetime. Because odds are, she will be. As a global community, we should be ashamed. To establish over that we live in an unsafe city, nay, an unsafe world

ARCHIVE Asound and efficient transport infrastructure is the key to boosting economic growth and in turn, to alleviating poverty and promoting sustainable development. Inland water transport system ensures both, by way of providing access, mobility and connectivity and generating employment at the grassroots with lesser environmental footprint and cost. In our civilization, rivers have played a crucial role as a mode of transport in carrying people and goods. Even in the present era, many countries depend heavily on inland water transport, especially for large and bulky cargo. India is a land of rivers. It has 7500-km long coastline with approximately 14,500 kms of navigable waterways. This offers a huge potential for developing a cheaper and greener mode of transport. But

MAKING A DIFFERENCE The joy in the eyes of 5-year old Anjali was apparent as she gladly received her present of books and colour pencils from us.  Although she was too awestruck to even say ‘thank you’, but that was immaterial for us as we knew that this gesture of ours was making a difference to Anjali and other students of this school in the vicinity of a valley located in Uttarakhand, where there are about 100 odd students who come to study everyday from half a dozen villages around. It was a call from our native village which we could not ignore and planned to visit there after almost 25 years.  Though we have succeeded in our own professions

MAKING A DIFFERENCE If you were earning 8,000 rupees a month and had couple of mouths to feed, how much would you spend on helping poor patients in getting admission to hospitals?  Are you crazy? With 8000 a month with four mouths to feed, how can you expect me to spend even a penny on such charity!!  Most of us would answer in a similar tone. But, Ravi Saxena thinks otherwise. Ravi runs a tea-stall at a roadside in East Delhi’s Ghazipur area.  His monthly earning is just about Rs 8,000.  He works for 20 days a month.  What does he do for rest of the 10 days?  Well, in those 10 days, he helps poor patients get admission to