Tag: G20

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2024-47

About: the world this week, 17 November to 23 November 2024: The War bugle missiles; arresting Israel; Iran’s Supreme Leader; Germany shakes; hypersonic India; Adani in trouble; G20 Brazil; Miss Universe 2024; and the Sexiest Man Alive.

Everywhere

Ukraine’s Missiles

In what could be perhaps be the next level in the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine fired United States-supplied long-range missiles into Russia, supposedly a day after the US gave its permission for such attacks. Ukraine used the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) in a strike on Russia’s Bryansk region this week. Five missiles were shot down (by Russia) and one damaged without significant effect. Ukraine also used British missiles at targets inside Russia. All this despite warnings by Russia that it would view such action as a major escalation.

Meanwhile, this week, Russian President, Vladimir Putin approved changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, setting out new conditions under which the country would consider using its arsenal. It now says an attack from a non-nuclear state, if backed by a nuclear power, will be treated as a joint assault on Russia.

Then in the middle of the week, Russia launched an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) at the city of Dnipro in Ukraine in what would be the first use in this war of a weapon designed to deliver long-distance nuclear strikes. It was also to show the world that Russia means business and would not hesitate to retaliate. ICBMs are strategic weapons designed to deliver nuclear warheads and are an important part of Russia’s nuclear deterrent.

Arresting Israel

This week, in an outrageous act, The International Court (ICC) of Justice in The Hague issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Galant (in addition to a dead Hamas’ Commander). This evoked a strong response from incoming US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who said: “The ICC has no credibility and these allegations have been refuted by the US Government. Israel has lawfully defended its people & borders from genocidal terrorists. You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January”.

Iran’s Supreme

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, aged 85, is reportedly seriously ill, with his second oldest son, Mojtaba Khamenei, likely to succeed him.

Khamenei has served as Supreme Leader since 1989 following the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, the first to hold the title. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei’s 35-year-long rule makes him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest-serving Iranian leader of the last century after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

As supreme leader, Khamenei is the most powerful political authority in the Islamic Republic. He is the head of state of Iran, the commander-in-chief of its armed forces. And can issue decrees and make the final decisions on the main policies of the government, in economy, the environment, foreign policy, and national planning. Khamenei has either direct or indirect control over the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, as well as the military and media. There seems to be nothing he doesn’t control!

Shaky Germany

Olaf Scholz, Germany’s least popular Chancellor on record, is facing growing calls within his Social Democrats (SPD) Party to step aside and let his Defence Minister Boris Pistorius lead the party into next year’s federal election.

Germany is set to hold a snap election on 23 February 2025, after Scholz’s ideologically diverse three-way coalition of SPD, Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) collapsed last week following months of infighting.

Scholz, 66, has said he wants to run for a second term and SPD leaders this week individually backed his bid, counting on his experience paying off – despite the party languishing in third place behind the opposition.

However, the final decision is likely to be announced at a party congress in January. And this week, a raft of lesser-known, regional politicians called for a rethink in what would be an unprecedented move – akin to that of the US Democrats in July in persuading President Joe Biden to drop his re-election bid.

India Goes Hypersonic

While the world was asleep, India quietly tested its first hypersonic missile with the ability to strike beyond 1500 kms and capable of speeds of upto more than 5 times the speed of sound at about 6,200 kmh. With this indigenously developed missile technology, India joins an elite club of a small group of nations consisting of the United States, Russia, and China, which have demonstrated similar hypersonic capabilities.

India’s hypersonic missile, developed by the state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and industry partners, is designed to carry payloads for the armed forces. A Government statement said that flight data confirmed the successful terminal manoeuvres and impact with a high degree of accuracy.

The test-firing took place from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the eastern coast of Odisha state, last Saturday.

Adani Again

In other India news, in what appears to be a far-fetched overreach, the US Government indicted India’s Adani Group of bribery, in regard to supplies for solar power projects sourced from the US.

This Wednesday the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced charges against Gautam Adani, 62, Sagar Adani, 30, and six others. They are accused of orchestrating a USD 265 million bribery scheme to secure solar energy supply contracts from the Indian government. These contracts were projected to generate profits of nearly USD 2 billion (Rs 16,880 crore) over two decades.

The charges are that, following the promise of bribes to Indian government officials between July 2021 and February 2022, state electricity distribution companies entered into power supply agreement with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). This is a public sector undertaking, that acts, among other things, as an intermediary for power procurement – under the Manufacturing Linked Project scheme of the Government of India. The States involved are, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jammu & Kashmir.

Indian media had this to say, “The indictment against Adani is thin on evidence & details. It is not a judicial order but a hatchet job – bribes alleged, but no clarity on the officials or the quantum involved. This reeks of a strategic attack on India’s growth via its industrial giants”.

G20 Brazil

The 2024 G20 Rio de Janeiro Summit, the 19th meeting of Group of Twenty (G20), a Heads of State and Government meeting, was held at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro from 18th to 19th November 2024. It was the first G20 summit to be hosted in Brazil. Additionally, It marked the first full G20 summit with the African Union as a member, following its inclusion during the previous summit in 2023.

The goals of the Summit were; social inclusion and the fight against hunger; energy transition and sustainable development in its social, economic and environmental aspects; and reform of global governance institutions.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Joe Biden, and Indian PM Narendra Modi were among the leaders who participated.

PM Modi underlined India’s commitment to bringing 250 million people out of poverty. He emphasised India’s strategy of fusing conventional practices with progressive tactics. And recognised the urgency of implementing digital transformation and making it accessible to everyone especially the deprived. Digital transformation has greatly empowered Indian citizens, who now have easy access to resources through their mobile phones.

Iron Boxing

Think boxing, and almost instantly either Muhammad Ali-The Greatest-or Mike Tyson– Iron Mike-flashes across your mind. Tyson was one of the most fearsome heavyweight champions of all time during his heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Late last week he tried to make a comeback in an intergenerational heavyweight battle.

The boxing bout was between 27-year-old social media influencer-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul and the now 58-year old Tyson. The fight was streamed live on Netflix and played out in front of a sold-out crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Paul beat Tyson by unanimous decision to win, in an event that failed to live up to its enormous hype. Fans were left largely disappointed as Tyson showed his age and was never able to generate any offense against his opponent, landing just 18 punches to Paul’s 78.

Tyson said he had no regrets about his defeat. “This is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night. No regrets to get in the ring one last time. I almost died in June. Had eight blood transfusions. Lost half my blood and 11 kg in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight, so I won”.

Looking back, Mike Tyson’s life is absolutely insane. He robbed houses, spent lots of time in jail; got his prison counsellor pregnant; was convicted of rape and sent to jail; bit opponent Evander Holyfield on both ears- during a fight; assaulted two motorists after a traffic accident and was jailed; used the urine of his wife and infant kid to pass doping tests; held kilos of cocaine; owned tigers that ate his neighbours…and much more ferocious stuff -not for the faint-hearted. Perhaps the scariest man on the planet?

Miss Universe 2024 – It’s a Woman

Late last week, on 16th Saturday, 21 year oldMaria Victoria Kjaer Theilvig of Denmark was crowned Miss Universe 2024. She is the first Danish woman to win the dazzling event, held in Arena CDMX, Mexico City, Mexico. She beat 120 other contestants in a more traditional competition than 2023 that featured plus-size, married, and transgender women. The First Runner-up is Nigeria’s Chidimma Adetshina, and the Second Runner-up is Mexico’s Maria Fernanda Beltran. India’s Rhea Singha failed to make it to the top 12. The New Miss Universe was crowned by last year’s Title Holder – Miss Universe Nicaragua, Sheynnis Palacios.

Kjaer Theilvig is a professional dancer and Entrepreneur and aims to become a Lawyer. She is blonde (the first blonde winner since Australia’s Jennifer Hawkins in 2004) and blue-eyed. And was Miss Denmark 2021 and Miss Universe Denmark 2024.

On the sidelines, avid watchers of the competition were sarcastically celebrating the winner being a biological woman following the pageant’s decision permitting transgender women to participate.

The Crown of Miss Universe has changed twelve times over the course of its 70-year history. This year it’s a new Crown called The Jewelmer Lumiere de l’Infini Crown unveiled on 13 November 2024. It is designed by Philippine-based luxury jewelry company Jewelmer, known for specializing in golden Philippine South Sea pearls. It was handcrafted by master jewellers using traditional Filipino and French jewelry design and making techniques, particularly the Place Vendome technique. Each of the golden pearls was harvested and prepared in 377 steps. The design of the crown is meant to encapsulate and evoke the long history of beauty with the Miss Universe Organization and its Queens. Its gold and platinum metal foundations resemble those of the waves and the dance of the universe, which are adorned with hundreds of diamonds and 23 golden South Sea pearls. The biggest golden pearl featured at the top-center of the crown represents the sun, bursting with diamond-adorned golden rays. The French Lumiere de l’Infini translates to ‘Light of Infinity’ and shining Infinitely’ or Infinite Brilliance.

The Sexiest Man Alive 2024

People is an American weekly magazine that specialises in celebrity news and human-interest stories with the stated goal of ‘connecting people’ to the pulse of American culture. The first issue of People hit the stands in the year 1974.

People has been granting the Sexiest Man Alive title every year, since 1985 when actor Mel Gibson discovered he was the sexiest man alive. Since then, People has found 36 sexiest men (hopefully alive). The list includes a galaxy of stars such as: Sean Connery, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Nick Nolte, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, George Clooney (twice), Michael B. Jordan, Brad Pitt (twice), Pierce Brosnan, Ben Affleck, Johnny Depp(twice), Jude Law, Matthew McConaughty, Matt Damon, Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum, Adam Levine, Chris Hemsworth, David Beckham, Dwayne ‘the rock’ Johnson, Blake Shelton, Idris Elba, John Legend, Michael B. Jordan, Paul Rudd, Chris Evans, Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy)- last year 2023.

In the year 1993 instead of sexiest man alive, People named Actor Richard Gere and Supermodel Cindy Crawford as the ‘Sexiest Couple Alive’. However the couple split after a year, and Richard Gere went on to win the title on his own in 1999 – a second time,

The Award is chosen by paying close attention to comments and what the general public says on celebrity coverage throughout the year. People’s Editors consult focus groups, which inform discussions among higher-ups in the magazine and the editorial staff is asked to give their own input. They also talk to other celebrities, including women to ‘win’ their views. People starts thinking about who could be next year’s Sexiest Man the day after the last one is published. They consider ‘everyone’, to begin with. Research is done, including focus groups. The magazine editors hold top-secret meetings to decide on the winner.

This Year, People crowned American Actor and Filmmaker John Krasinski, 45, as the Sexist Man Alive – 2024.

He is known for his role as Jim Halpert in the TV sitcom, The Office , where he was also a producer and occasional director. He directed, co-wrote and co-starred in the 2018 horror film ‘A Quiet Place’, for which Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Krasinski has given us one of TV’s most beloved characters and, in recent years, has evolved his sense of style.

On the personal side, Krasinski began dating English actress Emily Blunt in November 2008, became engaged in August 2009, and married her in July 2010- that’s a steady series! He now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his steady wife of 14 years and daughters Hazel, 10, and Violet, 8. Actress Emily Blunt joked that she would wallpaper their house with the Magazine cover if her husband received the crown – that needs to be checked out! These days Krasinski is calling his own shots and appreciates the life he’s built together with Blunt. “It’s that beautiful thing where when you’re married to someone, you’re constantly learning and changing and evolving,” he says. “And I’m so lucky to go through all that with her.” Not that his new title will change anything: “I think it’s going to make me do more household chores,” he jokes. “After this comes out, she’ll be like, “All right, that means you’re going to really earn it here at home”.

More sexy and crowning stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Powder-up with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-37

About: the world this week, 10 September to 16 September 2023; G20 and Sherpas; Morocco’s Earthquake; Libya’s floods; Bravehearts in the Indian Army and Police; a virus Outbreak; US Open Tennis, and Asian Cup Cricket.

Everywhere

G20

This week, the Group of Twenty Nations (G20) Summit 2023, under the presidency of India, concluded in New Delhi on 10th September, with significant outcomes. India pulled-off a stunning diplomatic consensus and delivered a signed Declaration, in keeping with the motto of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’, of this year’s summit.

The African Union was admitted into the G20. Prior to this, the only African member was South Africa. Now the African Union, which represents the 55 countries in the African continent, was given full membership, like how the European Union (EU) is represented.

A commitment was made to develop a new, India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) that will bridge ports across two continents, making it easier to trade, export clean energy, and expand access to reliable clean electricity.

The IMEC will consist of two separate corridors, the east corridor connecting India to the Arabian Gulf and the northern corridor connecting the Arabian Gulf to Europe. It will include a railway, which will provide a reliable and cost-effective cross-border ship-to-rail transit network. And supplement existing maritime and road transport routes-enabling goods and services to transit to, from, and between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe. Along the railway route, participants will enable laying cables for electricity and digital connectivity, as well as pipes for clean hydrogen export. This corridor will secure regional supply chains, increase trade accessibility, improve trade facilitation, and support an increased emphasis on environmental social, and government impacts. And unlock sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the region.

This IMEC project falls under the umbrella of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII), an initiative led by Western nations to support infrastructure projects worldwide.

The IMEC corridor could become a viable alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has steadily established global connectivity linkages with the Chinese market through extensive shipping, rail, and road networks, since its conception 10 years ago.

The G20 leaders agreed to pursue tripling renewable energy capacity globally by 2030, and accepted the need to phase-down unabated coal power, but stopped short of setting major climate goals. And did not provide any plan to amend existing policies and targets in order to achieve the target of ramping-up of renewables.

On the Russian-Ukraine War, G20 nations agreed that states cannot grab territory by force and highlighted the suffering of the people of Ukraine, but avoided direct criticism of Russia.

How does such a consensus happen? Who works to get the diverse nations to agree? They are brought about by ‘Sherpas’.

A Sherpa is the personal representative of a Head of Government, who prepares an international summit. They are quite influential, but without the authority to make a final decision about any given agreement. Typically, each member nation at a summit-say the G20-is represented by one Sherpa chosen by the head of the respective participating nation.

The name is derived from the Sherpa people, a Nepalese ethnic group, who serve as mountaineering guides and porters in the Himalayas: they do all the heavy lifting so that the person they assist may ‘reach the summit’.

India’s G20 Sherpa was Amitab Kant who divulged that the most complex part of the entire G20 was to bring consensus on the Russia-Ukraine War. This was done over 200 hours of non-stop negotiations, 300 bilateral meetings and 15 drafts.

That’s a lot of toil and ‘carrying work on the back’.

Earthquake in Morocco

Last week, on Friday, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Marrakesh – a city of world heritage status- in Morocco. In remote mountain areas, entire villages were flattened.

The epicentre was in the High Atlas Mountains, 71 kilometres (km) south-west of Marrakesh. But the tremors were also felt in the capital Rabat, some 350 km away, as well as Casablanca, Agadir and Essaouira.

It was the North African country’s deadliest earthquake since 1960 and its most powerful in more than a century.

This week, the death toll soared to more than 2900, while the number of people injured climbed to over 5400.

Help and relief is pouring-in from countries around the world.

Floods in Libya

Libya has been mired in conflict and chaos since the year 2011 when longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising that broke the North African state and spawned myriad rival militias competing for power.

This week, a catastrophic flood killed thousands of people in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, sweeping away entire neighbourhoods with their residents, and washing many bodies out to sea. Thousands of people are missing. Officials believe that there could be 18000 to 20000 dead, based on the number of districts hit.

The reason is said to be the powerful Storm Daniel that swept into Libya last weekend, unleashing record amounts of rain as it made landfall. The rain dumped by the storm filled a normally dry riverbed, or wadi, in the hills south of Derna. The pressure was too much for two dams built to protect the city from floods. They collapsed, unleashing a torrent that ran through the city.

Bravehearts

This week, in a devastating encounter with Pakistan backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Terrorists, three Officers, including two from the Indian Army and a Policeman were killed in action. The Army and Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Police had launched a joint search operation for terrorists hiding in the Garol Forest, Kokernag in Anantnag District, when they came under heavy fire in the rugged terrain and dense forest. In the gun-fight during the fierce encounter, Bravehearts Colonel Manpreet Singh and Major Aashish Dhonchak of the 19 Rashtriya Rifles along with J&K Police Deputy Superintendent Himanyun Muzamil Bhat suffered gun-shot wounds, and later succumbed to their injuries.

There will be a ‘return of fire’, for sure, by the Army and the Police.

Outbreak

The State of Kerala is racing to contain a new outbreak of the deadly Nipah virus, in the district of Kozhikode, which has killed two people and infected at least six. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has its tails-up, visiting the areas, to review the status, conduct a scientific study on the source of the virus and detail the measures to be adopted to contain its spread.

Kerala has seen four outbreaks of Nipah since 2018, the last of which occurred in 2021.

Originally, the Nipah virus was discovered during an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia in 1999, who might have contracted the virus through infected livestock and their secretions. In India the first Nipah virus disease outbreak was reported in Siliguri town in 2001, followed by a second outbreak in Nadia district in 2007 – both in the State of West Bengal. The next incidence was in 2018 in Kerala’s Kozhikode District.

Fruit Bats, known as Flying Foxes, are the natural host of the Nipah Virus, which can be transmitted from animals to humans – primarily from bats or pigs – or through human-to-human contact.

Transmission can occur from direct contact with infected animals, consuming contaminated food or through close contact with infected people.

Prevention can be by avoiding consumption of fruits partially eaten by bats, and avoiding drinking raw date palm sap, toddy, or juice. Risk of infection from fruits contaminated with urine or saliva from infected fruit bats can be prevented by thoroughly washing the fruits and peeling them before consumption.

Mild symptoms of the disease include fever and headaches, vomiting, sore throat, and muscle aches. In severe cases, it can be an acute infection of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), respiratory issues, seizures leading to personality changes or a coma.

The mortality rate is high, at 40 – 70% in Nipah virus cases, compared to Covid19 cases.

A study found that Kerala is particularly vulnerable to spill over of diseases from bats to humans. And it is the home of more than 40 species of bats.

There is no cure for the Nipah Virus caused infection and there is no vaccine to prevent infection. The treatment consists of simply managing the symptoms and ensuring those infected have as much rest as possible and stay hydrated.

US Open

The United States Open Tennis Championships – the US Open – is a hardcourt tennis tournament held annually in Flushing Meadows -Corona Park, Queens, New York City. Chronologically, it is the fourth and final Grand Slam Tournament of the year – after the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon.

Nineteen years old American teenager Coco Gauff, the world No.10 women’s singles player, defeated Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a dramatic comeback, to win the Women’s Singles US Open final. This is her first career Grand Slam title.

Gauff, seeded sixth, started slowly in front of an expectant home crowd, but grew in confidence to wear down second seed Sabalenka in the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In her run to the final, the Gauff twice lost the first set of a match, once in the first round against Laura Siegemund and again in the third round against Elise Mertens.

The star-studded crowd erupted with applause after Gauff’s home-turf victory which makes her the youngest and first American teenager to win the US Open since Serena Williams took the title in 1999. Fans jumped to their feet in unison, as Gauff collapsed to the floor. Celebrations stretched all-across the US as celebrities, fellow tennis players, and several ex-Presidents gave the Coco Gauff their seal of approval as she fulfilled the potential she had first displayed as a 15-year-old defeating Venus Williams at Wimbledon.

With the victory, Gauff becomes the third American teenager to win the US Open title, joining Williams and Tracy Austin. She is set to move up to No. 3 in the WTA singles rankings, and co-No. 1 in doubles along with compatriot Jessica Pegula.

Gauff has won three WTA titles this season, including the biggest of her career in Cincinnati just before the US Open. The competition was the second Grand Slam final of Gauff’s career after reaching the French Open final in 2022, where she was swiftly defeated by Poland’s Iga Natalia Swiatek.

In the men’s singles Serbia’s Novak Djokovic defeated Russia’s Daniel Medvedev in straight sets to capture his fourth US Open title and his 24th Grand Slam title tying with Australia’s Margaret Court for the most in the history of tennis. He is one Grand Slam away from reaching a new pinnacle, which will be hard to beat.

Djokovic holds 10 Australian Open Titles, 3 French Open Titles, 7 Wimbledon Titles and 4 US Open Titles.

Asia Cup Cricket

The 2023 Asia Cup is the 16th edition of the men’s Cricket Tournament. The matches are played as One Day Internationals (ODIs) – 50 overs per innings – with Pakistan as the official host. It is the first Asia Cup to be held in multiple countries: with four matches to be played in Pakistan and the remaining nine matches to be played in Sri Lanka between 30 August and 17 September 2023. In the total of 13 matches, six are league matches, six are super-four matches and then the one final.

The tournament is being contested by 6 teams, with Sri Lanka entering the field as the defending champions.

This Sunday, in the Super-Four stage match, India walloped Pakistan winning by 228 runs in the highest ever margin, in terms of runs, between the countries. India made 356/2 in 50 overs and Pakistan 128 in 32 overs. Virat Kholi and KL Rahul scored unbeaten centuries, creating pre-Diwali fireworks in the Premadasa Stadium.

Pakistan had won the toss and decided to bowl, but the Indian fire was something they could not handle.

More infectious stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Stay updated and calm with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-36

About: the world this week, 3 September to 9 September 2023; Invasion; The G20 in India; Sanatana Dharma; Barbie; and the Rolling Stones.

Everywhere

Invasion

In what is easily one of the worst attacks in months, in the Russia-Ukraine war, Russian missiles struck a market in a Town in eastern Ukraine killing 17 people.

The attack on Kostiantynivka, in the region of Donetsk left about 32 others wounded. Kostiantynivka is close to the front lines around the city of Bakhmut and most often loaded with military personnel.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive enters its fourth month and the war, started by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, is only getting bloodier. The United Nations has said that more than 9500 civilians have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.

G20 in India

The Group of Twenty Nations-G20-2023 Summit, is being held in New Delhi on 9 and 10 September 2023. It is the first such summit to be held in India as well as in South Asia. It will be chaired by India’s Prime Minister under the current G20 Presidency of India, as well as it being the hosting country.

World Leaders, from across the globe will arrive to discuss: Green Development, climate finance & LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment); accelerated, inclusive and resilient growth; accelerated progress on sustainable development goals (SDG), technological transformation and digital public infrastructure; women-led development; and multilateral institutions of the 21st Century.

Significant outcomes are expected after multi-level meetings and discussions.

Key participating countries are the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, China, Japan, Italy, Australia, European Union.

New Delhi is being spruced-up and ‘culturally decorated’ to receive participants, and serve them the ‘taste of India’.

In a first, the invitations for the G20 were sent out in the name of the ‘President of Bharat’, which created a frenzy ‘country name change’ speculation in the media. In the Constitution of India, Bharat is an alternate name and was always used when the Government communicated in Hindi.

Sanatana Dharma

This week the buzzword in India – on almost everybody’s tongues – was the word ‘Sanatana Dharma’. Everyday someone was offering a definition and social media was flooded with tons of them.

‘Sanatana Dharma’ is the name by which, what is now known as the religion of Hinduism was known before words such as ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’ even came into being. There was no need for any other name, as over 3000 years ago, as it was ‘the way of life’ and perhaps the only religion around-after religion as we know it today, was defined. Sanatana Dharma encompasses a wide range of beliefs, practices, and traditions that have evolved over thousands of years.

Sanatana Dharma means ‘eternal or absolute duty’ and is transcendental and universal. It is the absolute set of duties or religiously ordained practices incumbent upon all human beings, regardless of class, caste, or sect. In general, Sanatana Dharma consists of virtues such as honesty, not harming living-beings, purity of thought and action, goodwill, mercy, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, generosity, and asceticism. Sanatana Dharma is the same for everyone.

While Sanatana Dharma is the ‘ideal and absolute’ duty – call it spiritual – of a person, there are other duties that one needs to engage in, to sustain himself in life according to his inherent characteristics – call it material- which is bundled under what is called Varnashrama Dharma or ‘One’s Own Duty’.

Varanasharma Dharma depends upon the intrinsic nature (svabhava)-social classifications-and the situation or stage in life (svadharma) of a person.

These two Dharmas – Sanatana and Varnashrama – are not be confused with one another: one is universal and eternal; while the other is ‘personal and internal’.

As one goes through life, the potential for conflict between the two types of Dharma will occur and how to go about it in any particular situation is beautifully explained in the Bhagavad Gita. E.g., between the duties of a skilled warrior fighting a war to establish good over evil and the general injunction to practice not-harming or non-injury on the battlefield, one’s own duty must prevail.

Now, what’s this thing about one’s nature, caste, class, and the kind?

One’s personality manifests in the outside world of the living, depending upon the domination of one or more combinations of three basic types of intrinsic qualities in all of us, called ‘gunas’: The Good – called Sattvik (Sattva); The Passionate – called Rajasik (Rajas), and the Dull- called Tamasik (Tamas). No person ‘exclusively possesses’ any one of these gunas and they are present in each one of us in various degrees.

The Sattvik are the highly evolved: scholarly, intellectual, pure, honest, wise, engaged in continuous study and learning, pursing knowledge and truth, maintaining equanimity at all times, and being noble in their dealings. They recognise different living beings as expressions and manifestation of the one and the same truth – oneness of the World. A Sattvik person serves the world in a sense of self-fulfilment and inspired joy.

The Rajas are the restless, wanting to conquer the world with their physical and mental powers, valour, ambition, and desire for material success and ownership. They recognise plurality of the world by reason of separateness. They are constantly undertaking tasks of heavy toil involving great strain and face the consequent physical fatigue and mental exhaustion of their activities.

The Tamasik are the dull, unreasonable, lazy, and prone to inactivity. They consider the world as existing for their pleasure alone, failing to recognise anything existing beyond their ego. They are self-centred, generally fanatical in their path and devotion, and in their views and values in life. They hardly enquire, question, or try to discover the cause of things and happenings. They have no regard for the consequences of their actions. They surrender their dignity, capacity, and subtle facilities all for the sake of pursuit of a delusory goal in life, and instant gratification.

Based on the inner mental make-up of a person – not always determined by heredity or accident of birth -it became a practice to classify and prescribe different duties or tasks for each person, in ancient times. Again, not based on the texture of a person’s skin, the colour of his hair.

The predominantly Sattva, with a little Rajas and minimum Tamas, were called Brahmanas-the spiritual and learned, the Priests, the Gurus; the predominately Rajas, with some Sattva and a dash of Tamas, were called the Kshatriyas – the Kings, Rulers, and Warriors; the predominately Rajas with less of Sattva and some Tamas, were called the Vaishyas – the businessmen, merchants, craftsmen, landowners; the predominantly Tamas, with a little of Rajas and only traces of Sattva were called the Sudras – the common unskilled workers, servants, peasants.

In medieval times we did not have medical, engineering, law or other degrees and this classification was an intelligent means of choosing people for gainful employment. The four classifications or castes were never intended to be ‘walled structures’, but a means of putting a person to work based on his inclinations and attitudes to draw out the best in them.

Unfortunately, down the ages, the classifications lost much of their meaning and have come to signify a heredity birth-right in society, a mere physical distinction that divided society into castes and sub-castes. And people built walls around their caste groupings, as superior, inferior; and later another outside the caste system called ‘untouchables’ crept in, which was never meant to be. For. e.g., a true Brahmana is necessarily a highly cultured Sattvik person with almost perfect mastery of his mind and control of his senses. And can raise himself to the highest levels of self-control by meditation and other ‘rightful’ means. One cannot be a Brahmana or obtain the qualities by birth alone, without striving and deserving.

Dharma is often translated as ‘duty, religion or religious duty’ and yet its meaning is more profound, defying concise English translation. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit root ‘dhri,’ which means ‘to sustain.’ Another related meaning is ‘that which is integral to something. For e.g., for the sake of illustration, the dharma of sugar is to be sweet and the dharma of fire to be hot. Therefore, a person’s dharma consists of duties that sustain him, according to his innate characteristics. Such characteristics are both material and spiritual, generating two corresponding types of dharma, as elaborated in the preceding paragraphs.

Sanatana Dharma came to be called Hinduism when the Greeks who invaded northwestern India under Alexander The Great designated the people living on the banks for the River Indus (River Sindhu in Sanskrit) as ‘Indoos’ or ‘Hindus’.

Going further, and nearer home to the present times, the Supreme Court of India said the following about the Hindu Religion:

“Unlike other religions in the World, the Hindu religion does not claim any one Prophet, it does not worship any one God, it does not believe in any one philosophic concept, it does not follow any one act of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not satisfy the traditional features of a religion or creed. It is a way of life and nothing more”.

Hinduism does not have a founder. It is a fusion of various traditions. To put it in another way, it is like ‘free’ Linux software – say, with Sanatana Dharma at the core – around which ‘other systems’ are developed and built, each one freely choosing a path accordingly to his nature. This unlike, say ‘licensed’ Microsoft software, which is strictly walled and controlled. Sanatana Dharma, that is Hinduism, predates the word ‘secular’ and in many ways is all-embracing, all-accepting, and truly modern.

Hinduism is believed to be one of the World’s oldest religions with scriptural texts dating back to over 3000 years: the Vedas is one of them. Also in contention is Zoroastrianism, founded in Persia (now Iran), and Judaism – the foundation of all other Abrahamic religions and the oldest monotheistic religion (rising from Moses’ Ten Commandments). Next we have Jainism, which originated in India; Confucianism with roots in China and believed to be in existence for over 2500 years; then we have Buddhism, again originating in India, about 2500 years ago.

Polytheism, although not one specific religion is perhaps the oldest form of practiced religion often occurring in pagan practices that aimed to worship a plethora of Gods. The earliest forms were seen in Egyptian myths and recorded on Sumerian tablets. Example are the multiple Gods of Ancient Egypt, Greece and of the Roman Empire.

For religion to emerge, be used, and spread they should be a human civilization, right?

Most scholars place the earliest cradles of civilization in modern-day Iraq (Mesopotamia), Egypt, India (Indus Valley), China, Peru, and Mexico, beginning between approximately 4000 and 3000 BC. These ancient complex societies formed cultural and technological advances, several of which are still present today. A great many of the details of modern life, have origins that go back for thousands of years to the ancient cultures in their respective regions.

With this background, if a responsible person holding political office in India, says Sanatana Dharma should be eradicated like we do mosquitoes, dengue, and the kind, he must definitely be out of his mind. And very uneducated, un-evolved, and wholly drowned in Tamas.

Barbie

The movie Barbie, which released world wide in July 2023 has officially become the year’s biggest box office hit, after the doll’s big-screen earnings overtook the Super Mario Bros. Movie movie’s total.

Barbie has now made over USD 1.38 billion (bn) globally, which has taken it past the USD 1.36bn earnings by the ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’. Barbie has also helped the United States summer box office reach the USD 4bn mark for the first time since the pandemic.

The ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ is an American computer-animated adventure comedy film based on Nintendo’s Mario video game franchise. It is produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and written by Matthew Fogel. The film is about brothers Mario and Luigi, Italian-American plumbers who are transported to an alternate world and become entangled in a battle between two fantasy Kingdoms.

Rolling Stones

This week, the Rolling Stones announced their first album of original music is 18 years, called ‘Hackney Diamonds’. The band, who formed more than six decades ago said it ‘heralded a new album, new music, new era’. The album will be the first since the death of the band’s drummer Charlie Watts in August 2021.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood – the surviving core of the band – announced the new Album with clips of a new song, ‘Angry’ this Wednesday at an event in Hackney, London. Hackney Diamonds will feature 12 tracks and be released on 20 October 2023, preceded by the lead single, Angry.

The new album will feature Steve Jordan in Watts’ place, a drummer the band knew from ‘way back’ and who filled Watts’ place on tour. Said Sir Mick Jagger, “Of the album’s 12 tracks, most are with Steve, but two are tracks we recorded in 2019 with Charlie”.

American Actress Sydney Sweeney famous for the TV series ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Euphoria’, features in the up-beat music video for the song.

Over the week, I listened to the song and saw the music video with Sydney Sweeney sprawled all over in an extremely edgy leather crop top busier, paired with sexy star cutout pants. She rides in the back of a red Mercedes-Benz convertible on Sunset Boulevard, writhing and playing air-guitar on the hood of the car. It’s an absolute blast – I had my tongue hanging out for more! The Stones are definitely on a roll.

More rolling stories coming-up in the weeks ahead. Dance with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-09

About-the world this week, 26 February to 4 March 2023: the struggle in Iran; migrants to Italy; getting to the Earth’s core; origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, Nigeria’s Presidential Election; Trains in Greece; Israel and Palestine; India’s northeastern State Elections.

Everywhere

The struggle in Iran continues and this time the news is about 650 girls being deliberately poisoned. Though none have died, dozens have been admitted to hospital with respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. This and other chemical attacks on women, seems to a revenge for the role young women played in the recent protests against forced hijab, and against the Islamic Regime.

This Sunday, more than 80 migrants and refugees died when their boat capsized off the coast of Southern Italy. This included a one month old baby and twin toddlers. The vessel carrying about 200 people, broke apart while trying to land near Italy’s Crotone. On board the boat, which had set out from Turkey a few days earlier, were people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Obviously, these refugees were escaping the oppressive regimes or poor living conditions in their respective countries, seeking a better life elsewhere.

The United Nations Missing Migrants Project has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the Central Mediterranean since 2014. More than 220 have died or disappeared this year alone-and we have just started- it estimates.

Italy is one of the main landing points for migrants trying to enter Europe by sea, with many seeking to travel on to richer northern European nations. But to do so, they must brave the world’s most dangerous migration route.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has urged the European Union to act to stop clandestine migrant boat journeys. Italy accused migrant rescue charities for encouraging migrants to make the dangerous sea journey to Italy, and sometimes work in partnership with traffickers.

There are also calls for more regular migration channels to Europe, and action by Governments in the region to address multiple causes pushing people to try the sea crossings. And often ending in disaster.

That’s a haemorrhage of human life in such troubled spots of the world.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, it is about 530 days since the Taliban banned teenage girls from school. Afghan women and girls continue to be denied education by the ruling Taliban in their tunnel-vision governance of the Country. And this is impairing and pushing back basic freedom for women in Afghanistan.

It’s about time Space research is given some space, to rest awhile. And for a change, Scientists have turned their eyes inward, to what lies beneath our feet.

We learnt in school that Planet Earth comprises four layers-moving from the outside to the inside: an outer rock crust, then a rocky mantle, an outer core made of molten-liquid magma, and a solid metallic inner core – about 2440 kilometres (km) wide.

Scientists have long wondered what really lies at the very centre of the Earth. And the latest research findings suggest that our planet has a distinct ball of iron – a 640 km ball of iron-nickel alloy -within its metallic core, which actually is a hidden layer, or an ‘innermost inner core’. This is according to a new study published this week in the journal Nature Communications.

The monumental finding suggests that the Earth has five major layers instead of four. And detecting the new layer, more than 1600 km beneath our feet, is significant. If offers new details scientists could use to help unlock some of the oldest mysteries about our planet and how it was formed, how it has evolved, and how it will continue doing so. It also enables better understanding of Earth’s magnetic field.

Now we know that we cannot simply dig through the Earth from one end to the other, without hitting an iron ball wall.

When the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, there was a strong suspicion that it could have been caused by a laboratory accident in China’s Wuhan. We were then so engulfed in fighting the coronavirus that we paused that ‘origin button’ to find ways of managing the effects of the pandemic. Now we are almost done, and the proverbial skeletons are crawling out of the Chinese cupboard.

The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, Christopher Wray wasn’t wary at all when he acknowledged that the FBI believes the Covid-19 pandemic was likely the result of a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China. Of course China, on its part, infuriated by the accusation, simultaneously pointed fingers at the United States.

A John Hopkins Hospital Doctor has also said that it is no brainer that the coronavirus was from a lab. And the origins were never a secret? Maybe we may never really know?

In Nigeria the result of the Presidential Election was announced and Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared the winner. The elections were controversial, with Opposition Parties decrying it as rigged.

Tinubu, of the ruling All Progressive Congress Party defeated Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, and Peter Obi, the popular Third Force candidate. This is one of Nigeria’s most fiercely contested Elections since returning to democratic rule in 1999.

Tinubu hails from the same party as outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari and previously served as the Governor of Lagos State. Tinbu will serve as Nigeria’s 5th President.

On the wheels of the recent train derailing accident in the United States comes a head-on collision between two trains, near the city of Larissa, Tempi, Central Greece, killing dozens of people and injuring scores of others. The two trains, a Passenger Train carrying more than 350 people and a Freight Train collided, both of which were travelling for several kilometres on the same track. At some point, the Passenger Train had changed tracks and switched to a cargo-track setting-up the head-on collision.

Greece has a poor track record of railway passenger safety compared with other countries in Europe. It has the highest railway fatality rate per million train kilometres from 2018 to 2020 among 28 nations on the continent.

Israel and Palestine are forever at each other’s throats in what seems to be a never-ending war in the over 100 years conflict. In recent times, especially since the start of this year, there has been an intensification of violence between the warring factions, with deaths mounting on both sides.

The current violence is mainly taking place in the West Bank and East Jerusalem – areas occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war, which began to escalate in March 2022.

In a period of days, Israel was rocked by a series of deadly Palestinian attacks and the Israeli military launched an open-ended operation in the West Bank in response, resulting in nightly raids into the occupied territories.

Israel says it has to continue its operations to weaken the militant groups and thwart attacks, while Palestinians say the attacks are a response to Israel’s actions and overwhelmingly more powerful military. There is also no political peace process, which could offer the prospect of a permanent solution, leaving decades-old grievances – the Palestinians’ want of a state and Israel’s want of security chief among them – festering.

Each side blames the other, but there are also longer-term underlying causes.

Palestinian attackers and those who support them say they are fighting Israel and the occupation and avenging Israeli assaults.

Some of the Palestine attacks have been carried out by ‘lone wolves’-individuals who were not acting on the orders of an organisation. Other attacks have been carried out by Palestinian militant groups, including the newly formed ‘Lions’ Den’, whose popularity on the Palestinian street has surged.

Israel’s ongoing operation in the West Bank, called ‘Break the Wave’, is targeting militant groups with arrest raids to stop them from launching attacks. The raids, however, are often taking place in densely populated refugee camps and other urban areas, where they meet resistance from gunmen and often turn bloody.

This week there was a flood of visits to India, by other countries, to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers Meet under the chairmanship of India. Russia and the US briefly met face-to-face in a you-dare, I-dare, cinematic fashion, the first since the Russia-Ukraine War. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to end the war and urged Russia to reverse its suspension of the New START nuclear treaty.

India’s efforts to bridge differences and produce a joint statement stumbled due to differences over the war. However, an ‘outcome document’ was produced.

In India news, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heading the Government at the Centre kept its winning streak in State elections that come its way – this time in northeastern India. Three States swooned to the BJP’s charms.

The State of Nagaland got its first-ever couple of woman MLA’s and the BJP kept its Government allying with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP). The major alliance partner NDPP improved its performance this year by 7 seats, winning 25 of 60 seats seats. The BJP won 12 seats and the relationship continues.

The two women who created History are, NDPP’s Hekani Jakhalu from the Dimapur seat, who won by 1536 votes, and NDPP’s Salhoutuonuo from Western Angami constituency, who won by a razor-thin 7 votes.

In the Sate of Tripura, the BJP won a majority on its own – just crossed the half-way mark. In the State of Meghalaya it was a hung result and it tied-up with the National People’s Party (NPP) after winning 2 seats to the NPP’s 26 and hopes to form a Government with others joining in.

While the Congress Party of India was being trounced all over India and bleeding seats – except for a few solo ‘historic’ wins- its key Leader, trimmed his beard slipped into a suit-boot mode, and sporting a new look, visited his Alma Mater, Cambridge, in London, United Kingdom. He lectured students on the art of ‘Learning to Listen in the 21st Century’ and about promoting ‘new thinking’ in democracy. He also bashed India with, ‘Indian Democracy is under attack’, which is not good for his and India’s health.

He peddled lies such as claiming he had the Pegasus malware in his phone and that he was told by ‘intelligence officers’ that his calls are being recorded. The fact is, no evidence of the Pegasus malware was found in a Supreme Court inquiry. He and many other politicians who claimed they were being snooped on and tried to raise a political controversy over it, never submitted their phones to the probe panel. Of the 29 phones that were submitted, only 5 were found to be infected with ‘some kind of malware’ and none of them was confirmed to be Pegasus.

An Ambassador ‘lies’ abroad for the welfare of his country. A scion of India’s Grand Old Party, lovingly called ‘Pappu’ in India, lies abroad to defame India. Some never learn.

Meanwhile, we are listening and thinking, for sure. Maybe, grow a new beard to trim later on?

More growing-up stories and uplifting ones coming in the weeks ahead. Vote for World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2022-46

About –the stories of the world this week, 13 November to 19 November: The United States counts, Iran protests fester, India bleeds, G20 meets, mission to the moon, India’s private sector enters Space, and a sequel to a blockbuster movie.

Everywhere

After the counting in the United States (US) Midterm Elections cantered along -on horseback -over the darkness of last week, the results are finally seeing cracks of dawn and spilling over to this week. With all its advancement, the US takes an awful lot of time to draw its guns and get the votes counted. I reckon Americans can sling a rocket to the Moon and back before ‘em votes are shot down.

The Blue Democrats retained control of the Senate (total 100 seats) with 50 seats to the Red Republicans’ 49. This was made possible by Senator Catherine Cortez Masto who was re-elected in the State of Nevada with a ‘hour-glass margin’ of over 6000 votes. A win is a win. A run-off in the State of Georgia December later this year could take the tally to 51-49.

In the House (total 435 seats), the Republicans gained control, just managing to obtain a majority -218 seats against the Democrats’ 210 seats. President Joe Biden may stumble to get Bills passed over the remaining two years of his Presidency.

The nationwide protests in Iran, against the draconian Islamic Dress Code for woman fires on. Iran is facing one of its biggest and most unprecedented shows of dissent and defiance following the death-in-custody of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman detained by the morality police for not wearing her hijab properly.

A Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO (IHRNGO) group claims that Iranian security forces have killed at least 326 people since the protests erupted two months ago. It includes 43 children and 25 women, and the number is an ‘absolute minimum’.

Meanwhile, an Iranian court has issued the first death sentence linked to recent protests, convicting an unnamed person of ‘enmity against God’ and ‘spreading corruption on Earth’. Iran’s Revolutionary Court issued the sentence to a protester who set fire to a government building. Now, some fear that more than 1000 others who have been arrested could face similar charges, potentially carrying the death sentence.

It was a bloody week in India, bleeding with news on two counts.

One, the killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were ordered to be released by the Supreme Court of India. This after being found guilty, sentenced to death, then commuted to life, and now freed.I guess you can just about do anything in India and get away with it?

Recall, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in May 1991 by a suicide bomber belonging to the Tamil separatist organisation, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during an Election meeting in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. 16 other people died and about 43 were injured in the bombing on that fateful day. In one of the best known manhunts in India’s history and successful tracking-down of the perpetrators, those involved were either killed or caught, arrested, and successfully convicted.

The release of the convicts followed unbelievable, hyperactive rallying by Political Parties in the State of Tamilnadu-mainly the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). They competed with one another in getting them released, on the ground of being Tamilians and unconscionably pandering to Tamil sentiment. And of course, the Court garnishes the reasons with the ‘mandatory’ good-behaviour in Jail.

I was devastated by the release of convicts who killed a Prime Minister of the Country in a carefully executed macabre plot. And consider it a global disgrace. The Supreme Courts in all its sagacity has probably weakened the country. The guilt of the released convicts in the brutal assassination Rajiv Gandhi and many others who were killed, for no fault of theirs, was beyond doubt. Commuting the death sentence to make it a life sentence is mercy. Freeing them is mockery. Worse still giving them airtime, celebrating their release, extracting sympathy bites, is horrific. Why does a ‘bad man’ get all the ‘honour’ a good man should get by default?

Two, the story that hogged the headlines for the greater part of the week was about the gruesome murder of a woman, Shraddha Walkar, by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala, who after killing her, chopped her body to pieces, bought a refrigerator to store it and slowly disposed off the body parts over a period of five or more months. Shraddha had eloped from her Home in Mumbai, to New Delhi, breaking all daughter ties with her parents, but a concerned father happened to check her out and unable to find her filed a Police complaint, leading to the investigation. The murderer has been arrested and there are no visible traces of remorse on him.

Shraddha has asked Aftab to marry her and one disagreement led to another resulting in the killing.

What are we turning into, savages in the bygone days?

The Group of 20

The Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum consisting of 19 of the World’s major economies and the European Union which meets annually to tackle major issues related to the global economy. This year they met on 15 and 16 November, in picturesque Bali under the Presidency of Indonesia. Last year it was Italy. And the Presidency passes to India for the year 2023 with Prime Minister(PM) Narendra Modi taking over from Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, not the best of friends, had some tough talk going between them and sparks flying, over PM Trudeau being a leaking sieve by passing on everything discussed, to the Media. Xi told him it’s no appropriate and that’s not the way a conversation is conducted.

One of the outcomes of G20 Bali-Indonesia was that ‘most’ members condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and came close to using the word ‘war’ to describe what we all know simply as the ‘Russian-Ukraine War’. Wow!There were some murmurs of ‘eschewing’ use of nuclear weapons. And the European Union, Denmark and Norway announced a USD 20 million deal to decarbonise Indonesia’s coal-powered economy.

Return Ticket To The Moon

In ancient Greek mythology, Artemis is the daughter Greek God Zeus- the Sky and Weather God- and the twin sister of Apollo. US’ NASA first put man on the Moon with the Apollo 11 mission on 29 July 1969 and is returning to the Moon with… you guessed it, the Artemis Mission. And, naturally a woman to the Moon.

Artemis is the goddess of hunting, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She preferred to remain a maiden goddess and was sworn never to marry, and was thus one of the three Greek virgin goddesses-the others being Athena and Hestia.

Tracing the history of man on the moon, a total of 12 men have walked on the moon in six moon landings. This was accomplished with two US pilot-astronauts flying a Lunar Module on each of six NASA missions across a 41-month period starting 29 July 1969, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11, and ending on 14 December 1972 with Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt on Apollo 17. Gene Cernan was the last man to step off the lunar surface.

In summary, twenty-four US astronauts have traveled to the Moon; three have made the trip twice, and twelve have walked on its surface. Here are the names.

Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin (Apollo 11), Charles Conrad, Alan Bean (Apollo 12) , Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), David Scott, James Irwin (Apollo 15) John Young, Charles Duke (Apollo 16), Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17). Four of America’s moonwalkers are still alive: Aldrin, David Scott, Charles Duke, and Harrison Schmitt.

Moving forward from Apollo, Artemis I is an uncrewed test flight that will provide a foundation for deep space exploration and demonstrate the capability to return humans to the Moon. It will demonstrate the performance of the new Orion Spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS), and test capabilities to orbit the Moon and return safely to Earth.

The primary objective is to thoroughly test integrated systems before crewed missions, operating Orion in a deep space, testing Orion’s heat shield, and recovering the crew module after re-entry, descent, and splashdown. The flight will pave the way for future missions, including landing the first woman and first person of colour on the surface of the Moon.

The mission team encountered a number of setbacks in the lead-up to this week Wednesday morning’s launch, including technical issues with the mega moon rocket and two hurricanes that have rolled through the launch site. But then, count Artemis to self-heal and comeback.

The SLS carrying Orion blasted off from NASA’s modernised spaceport at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, this 16 November. Propelled by a pair of five-segment boosters and four RS-25 (Aerojet Rocketdyne, Liquid-fuel cryogenic) engines, the rocket reached the period of greatest atmospheric force in 90 seconds. The solid rocket boosters then burnt through their propellant and separated after about two minutes, and the core stage and RS-25s depleted propellant after eight minutes. After jettisoning the boosters, service module panels, and launch abort system, the core stage engines were shut down and the core stage separated from the spacecraft, leaving Orion attached to the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) in orbit. As the spacecraft made an orbit of Earth deploying its solar arrays in the process – to build its muscles- the ICPS gave Orion the big push it needed to leave Earth’s orbit and travel towards the Moon. This manoeuvre, called the trans-lunar injection, precisely targets a point about the Moon that will guide Orion close enough to be captured by the Moon’s gravity.

Orion separated from the ICPS about two hours after launch, after which ICPS deployed ten small satellites, known as CubeSats, along the way to study the Moon or head farther out to deep space destinations.

As Orion continues on its path from Earth orbit to the Moon, it will be propelled by a service module provided by ESA (European Space Agency) that will course-correct as needed along the way. The service module supplies the spacecraft’s main propulsion system and power.

The outbound trip to the Moon will take several days, during which time engineers will evaluate the spacecraft’s systems. Orion will fly about 97 kilometres (km) above the surface of the Moon at its closest approach, and then use the Moon’s gravitational force to propel Orion into a Distant Retrograde Orbit (DRO), traveling about 64,000 km past the Moon. This distance is 48,000 km farther than the previous record set during Apollo 13 and the farthest in space any spacecraft built for humans has flown. Orion will also stay in space longer than any human spacecraft has without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.

For its return trip to Earth, Orion will get another gravity assist from the Moon as it does a second close flyby, firing engines at precisely the right time to harness the Moon’s gravity. And accelerate back toward Earth, setting itself on a trajectory to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.

Once the spacecraft has passed this extreme heating phase of flight, the forward bay cover that protects its parachutes will be jettisoned-crew module separates from service module- Orion’s two drogue parachutes deploy first, at 7600 m, and within a minute slow Orion to about 160 kph (kilometres per hour) before being released. They are followed by three pilot parachutes that pull out the three main parachutes which will slow Orion’s descent to less than 32 kph. The spacecraft will make a precise landing within eyesight of the Recovery Ship off the coast of San Diego in the Pacific Ocean.

Three ‘passengers’ will fly aboard Orion to test the spacecraft’s systems and collect data for future missions with real astronauts.

A suited manikin (model of the human body) named Commander Moonikin Campos occupies the commander’s seat inside Orion to provide data on what crew members may experience in flight. Two additional seats in Orion will be occupied by manikin torsos, called phantoms, manufactured from materials that mimic human bones, soft tissues, and organs of an adult female. Named Zohar and Helga, the torsos will be fitted with more than 5600 passive sensors and 34 active radiation detectors to measure radiation exposure as part of the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE), an international effort including the German Aerospace Center, the Israel Space Agency, and NASA.

Zohar will wear a radiation protection vest, called AstroRad, while Helga will not. The study will provide valuable data on radiation levels astronauts may encounter on lunar missions. It will evaluate the effectiveness of the protective vest that could allow crew to exit the storm shelter and continue working on critical mission activities inspite of a solar storm.

The Artemis I Mission duration is about 25 days, 11 hours, 36 minutes. Total distance travelled 1.3million miles. Splashdown will be on 11 December 2022.

Absolutely exciting, what ‘flies ahead’ in the weeks to come.

The Prarambh of India’s Private Space Adventure

India’s Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) wasn’t making any friends to chill out with and was shamelessly engrossed in effortlessly launching Satellites into space. Could get lonely at times. The Government noticed and in June 2020 arranged to open the Space sector to private players so that ISRO could find some partners and have a relationship, Live-in? Maybe? Private players were allowed to use various ISRO resources to make the cut, use, and study Space.

This Friday, India’s first privately built rocket, Vikram-S (named after India’s pioneering Space Scientist Vikram Sarabhai), developed by Hyderabad based startup Skyroot Aerospace successfully blasted off from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, creating history. The mission was called Prarambh (the beginning) and Vikram-S will help test and validate 80 % technologies for future suborbital missions especially the upcoming Vikram-I in 2023.

Suborbital? What’s that? Suborbital launch refers to vehicles that travel high enough to travel to the edge of outer space, but do not have the energy to achieve orbit around the Earth. Typically, they reach speeds of 2 to 6 times the speed of sound and curve back to kiss dear Earth. In comparison, an orbital spacecraft has to travel fast enough to orbit the Earth without falling back due to gravity, which involves speeds of about 25 times the speed of sound.

The 6m tall rocket, Vikram-S, is a single-stage solid fuelled, suborbital test launch vehicle, which took about two years to develop. It weighs about 545 kg and, in its maiden flight carried three customer payloads belonging to SpaceKidz India, and BazoomQ Armenia and N-Space Tech India – who all reported that they are happy with the outcome.

The launch also served as a technology demonstration to showcase the capabilities of Skyroot which has used its propulsion system, Kalam 80, and spin stabilisation system for the rocket.

Skyroot eventually plans to pitch itself as a company offering one of the quickest and most affordable rides to Space, and could become part of ISRO’s journey to evolve into a preferred destination for cost-effective launch of satellites. Skyroot expects more than 20,000 small satellites to be kicked into Space in the coming decade and aims to position itself as a serious player through mass producibility and affordability. They are hoping that launching satellites into Space will soon become as easy as booking a cab-quick, precise, and affordable!

Root for the skies, it’s for the asking!

Please Yourself

When the movie Black Panther hit theatres in February 2018, it opened to a stellar USD 202 million weekend. It then went on to make USD 1.3 billion worldwide and garnered multiple Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The film is considered to be one of the best and biggest blockbusters from the comic book genre and from the Marvel Studios- the most lucrative brand in all of Hollywood, United States.

With this in black and white and in the background screen, the sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever released this week, opened to an estimated USD 180 million in North America – that’s sizeable. This time the film had to do with without star Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in 2020.

The opening is one of the best premieres of the year and makes the superhero film the highest-grossing debut ever for the month of November. The original record belonged to ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,’ which made USD 158 million in November 2013.

Black Panther: Wakanda, stars Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett as the princess and queen of the fictional African country of Wakanda. And appears to be a fitting sequel to one of the most popular films of all time.

More thrilling stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Launch yourself into the Space of World Inthavaaram, forever.