Are voters delivering more decisive mandates?.Namo Shivai..

Are Indian voters empowering governments with more decisive mandates? This is the emerging wisdom among many experts and observers of Indian politics. 

Hare Krishna.

For instance, pollster Pradeep Gupta, in his book, How India Votes: And What It Means, has argued that new forms of technology are enabling increased communication between voters during the rough and tumble of the campaign period. This, in turn, is enabling voters to consolidate their opinions about a given candidate or party’s odds of winning, leading to a shift of support away from likely losers. Voters, the argument goes, are learning how to rally behind election winners, giving them supersized mandates.

This thesis seems eminently plausible. A cursory glance at recent assembly elections suggests that landslides abound. The Aam Aadmi Party’s sweep in 2015 and 2020 in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s 2017 victory in Uttar Pradesh, and the Left Front’s and Trinamool Congress’s decisive wins in Kerala and West Bengal, respectively, in 2021 — all point in the same direction. Yet anecdotes can be misleading. In fact, our analysis of historical data on Indian elections suggests that this popular wisdom may well be misguided..

This thesis seems eminently plausible. A cursory glance at recent assembly elections suggests that landslides abound. The Aam Aadmi Party’s sweep in 2015 and 2020 in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s 2017 victory in Uttar Pradesh, and the Left Front’s and Trinamool Congress’s decisive wins in Kerala and West Bengal, respectively, in 2021 — all point in the same direction. Yet anecdotes can be misleading. In fact, our analysis of historical data on Indian elections suggests that this popular wisdom may well be misguided..

We looked at data from 249 assembly elections, taking care to code all parties and pre-poll coalitions in state polls going back to 1980. Because some parties that claimed to be in alliance did not actually adopt robust seat-sharing arrangements, we considered parties to be in a “true” coalition only if they did not run against each other in more than a handful of races.

Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey.

The unusual etymology of five simple words...Shri Radhey Shri Radhey....

Hare Krishna hare Krishna

This Sunday, I want to share my fascination for the English language. I’ve done it before, of course, but when third waves, winged horses, limping economies and less-than-thrilling Olympics are depressing our spirits, this could be the little boost you need. What I intend is not fiercely cerebral or complicatedly grammatical. Nor does it have anything to do with the illogical pronunciation of the language. It’s about five simple words we probably use every single day: Pretty, tall, silly, naughty, and sad. But it is about their etymology.

Shri Radhey Shri Radhey..

Now, it’s not surprising to find that words change their meanings over time. For instance, to be gay today is very different to what that adjective meant in the 1920s. Mummy, as a 90-year-old, would often introduce generals with the line, “We first met when he was a gay young man”. For her, gay was always merry and carefree.

Shri Radhey Shri Radhey..

A recent article by Simon Horobin, a professor of English at Oxford, reveals that, when they first came to be popularly used, each of the five words I’ve chosen meant something very different to what it does today. It’s a bit like “disinterested”. We use it to mean not interested. Originally, it meant impartial. Or “fulsome”. Historically, it meant insincere. Today, fulsome praise is taken as a compliment.

Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey..

Now, when “pretty” first entered the dictionary, as a derivative of a word from Old English, it meant cunning. By the 15th century, the word described something cleverly made or artful. Slowly, thereafter, it was used to call someone attractive or good-looking. But you still get hints of its origin when you remember it can be used ironically as in “pretty kettle of fish” and “pretty state of affairs”..

Tall” in Old English meant swift or active. By the 15th century, it came to mean handsome or elegant. Its usage relating to height began a century later. From there spring its metamorphic extensions to mean large as in “tall order” or exaggerated as in “tall story”.

Shri Radhey Shri Radhey...

These changes in meaning may seem surprising but they’re really not. Professor Horobin says, “Several common adjectives that describe physical appearances began life referring to dexterity and pliancy”. “Handsome”, for example, originally meant easy to handle, while “clever” meant dexterous. Believe it or not, “buxom” meant obedient. That’s definitely no longer true!

Shri Radhey Shri Radhey...

Let’s now come to “silly”. In Old English, it meant happy or fortunate. In due course, that became “pious” or “holy”. Then, says the professor, “because the innocent are easily taken advantage of it came to signal a person deemed weak or helpless”. Thereafter, it was used to suggest rustic or lacking sophistication. Its modern meaning of “foolish” was, I guess, the inevitable next step. But if you want to call me silly, I hope it’s in the original sense?.

In Old English, to be naughty was to be poor, literally to have naught or nothing. Perhaps this is why it was later used to describe someone as immoral and, in a weakened sense of that term, mischievous or disobedient. Today, the adjective is usually reserved for children. But its use to mean “indecent” survives. In the 1980s, Salman Rushdie used the word to coin a rather clever phrase “naughty but nice” to sell cream cakes. Monty Python created the term “naughty bits” to politely refer to genitals.

Shri Radhey Shri Radhey.

“Sad” has, perhaps, the most strange etymology of all. In Old English, it meant “full”. These days, it’s been replaced in this sense by “satisfied” or “sated”. But in the 14th century, “sad” came to mean settled, firm or resolute. According to the prescient professor, the modern meaning sorrowful is, perhaps, a throwback to the Old English usage “where the word already carried a sense of being weary or tired of something, reflecting the way that satisfaction quickly shades into ennui.

Shri Radhey.shri radhey.

Finally, try and make sense of this. I’m using the five words in their Old English sense. He was tall and pretty, I was naughty but silly, and both of us were sad!.

Hare Krishna hare Krishna Krishna Krishna hare hare

Hare Rama hare Rama Rama Rama hare hare.

At UNSC, India’s values and interests converge Shri Radhey.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), with a mandate to maintain international peace and security, is the centrepiece of global multilateralism. It selects the UN Secretary-General and plays a co-terminus role with the UN General Assembly in electing judges to the International Court of Justice. Its resolutions, adopted under chapter VII of the UN charter, are binding on all countries.

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However, the UNSC’s governance structure — which was designed at the end of World War II and has five permanent members with a veto — needs reforms to reflect contemporary realities. This is essential for the sake of multilateralism and an effective UN.

India was elected to the UNSC for the eighth time in 2020 and began its two-year term this January. It is the council’s president in August and is, rightly, using the pulpit to focus on areas of vital interest affecting international peace and security. The presidency also offers India an opportunity to underscore its credentials as the world’s largest democracy, an economic behemoth and underline its commitment to the UN, including as the largest contributor, over time, to UN Peacekeeping. This is a stellar record for a permanent place on the horseshoe table. 

In recent months, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has underlined the imperatives for UNSC reforms and India’s strong stakes. It is, therefore, in the fitness of things that he will become the first Indian PM to chair a UNSC meeting on August 9. He will preside over the meeting, virtually, on the issue of maritime security, a subject which will be on the UNSC table for the first time for a comprehensive debate.

Given the huge role of sea-borne trade in human wellbeing, ensuring freedom of navigation and safety on the seas is a global imperative. For India, maritime security is also important given its sea-facing geography and civilisational links developed over millennia through seafaring. It is, thus, once again in the fitness of things that India should push towards a comprehensive approach to maritime security.

The unusual etymology of five simple words

This Sunday, I want to share my fascination for the English language. I’ve done it before, of course, but when third waves, winged horses, limping economies and less-than-thrilling Olympics are depressing our spirits, this could be the little boost you need. What I intend is not fiercely cerebral or complicatedly grammatical. Nor does it have anything to do with the illogical pronunciation of the language. It’s about five simple words we probably use every single day: Pretty, tall, silly, naughty, and sad. But it is about their etymology.

Now, it’s not surprising to find that words change their meanings over time. For instance, to be gay today is very different to what that adjective meant in the 1920s. Mummy, as a 90-year-old, would often introduce generals with the line, “We first met when he was a gay young man”. For her, gay was always merry and carefree.

A recent article by Simon Horobin, a professor of English at Oxford, reveals that, when they first came to be popularly used, each of the five words I’ve chosen meant something very different to what it does today. It’s a bit like “disinterested”. We use it to mean not interested. Originally, it meant impartial. Or “fulsome”. Historically, it meant insincere. Today, fulsome praise is taken as a compliment

Tall” in Old English meant swift or active. By the 15th century, it came to mean handsome or elegant. Its usage relating to height began a century later. From there spring its metamorphic extensions to mean large as in “tall order” or exaggerated as in “tall story”.

These changes in meaning may seem surprising but they’re really not. Professor Horobin says, “Several common adjectives that describe physical appearances began life referring to dexterity and pliancy”. “Handsome”, for example, originally meant easy to handle, while “clever” meant dexterous. Believe it or not, “buxom” meant obedient. That’s definitely no longer true!.

Radhey radhey...

What if Olympics were held in space? Nasa astronauts, cosmonauts offer a glimpse

While the Tokyo Olympics is nearing its end, a different set of games were held in space by astronauts and cosmonauts. Based on the spacecraft they took to the International Space Station (ISS), the crew members of the orbiting laboratory split into teams for the first-ever space games, including synchronized floating and no-hand ball.

Nasa astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who arrived at the space station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, were on Team Dragon. Nasa astronaut Mark Vande Hei and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos were on Team Soyuz.

In the video, the two teams can be seen competing against each other in no-hand ball. As per the game rules, the players must get the ping pong ball through the hatch seals without touching the ball with any of their body parts. They were allowed to use only their breath to move the ball around. The second round was ‘synchronised floating’, a game similar to synchronised swimming.

The ISS has now more than 20 years of continuous human presence. According to Nasa, people from 19 countries have visited the space station, which has hosted more than 3,000 research investigations from scientists, researchers, and students from more than 108 countries and areas. In April, the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Soyuz spacecraft delivered the seven-member crew for a six-month science mission in microgravity.

Planning to relax more curbs, call on local train travel soon: Maharashtra CM.. Radhey Radhey.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Saturday the state government is planning to bring in more relaxations in the ongoing restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) but utmost caution is needed at this step. “The Maharashtra government is going to grant more relaxations but we are taking every step cautiously. A decision will be taken for local train passengers as well. We need to ensure that these relaxations do not trigger another wave of Covid-19,” Thackeray said while addressing a function organised by BEST, according to news agency PTI.

The Maha-Vikas Aghadi government on August 2 eased Covid-19 restrictions in 25 districts of Maharashtra, including the capital Mumbai, where the rate of infection is lower than the state average. Some of these relaxations include allowing essential and non-essential shops to stay open till 8pm and permitting hotels and restaurants to function with 50 per cent of their seating capacity till 4pm. Gyms, spas, yoga centres and salons can now remain open till 8pm with 50 per cent of their capacity and government and private offices can function with full attendance.

There has also been a constant demand for allowing fully vaccinated people to travel on local trains, which is one of the most crucial modes of public transportation in Mumbai.

There are 11 districts in Maharashtra, including Pune, Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Ratnagiri, where no relaxations have been given as per the August 2 order, since their Covid-19 positivity rate is greater than the state’s average.

Is Afghanistan paying for Zalmay Khalilzad’s oversights? Shri Radhey Shri Radhey..

As the Taliban makes advances across Afghanistan capturing villages and key cities and the US prepares to complete its withdrawal from the country before the end of the month, the focus has landed on Zalmay Khalilzad. Khalilzad, the Afghan-born US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, said earlier this week that the Afghan government is too weak to win a negotiated settlement without a new military strategy.

The special envoy’s comments came on a day a car bomb blast was reported followed by sporadic gunfire in Kabul near the heavily fortified Green Zone. Several civilians and Taliban members died in that attack. Afghan defence minister General Bismillah Mohammadi survived an assassination attempt involving a car bomb and Taliban hit squad.

As the Taliban is rapidly advancing throughout Afghanistan, experts have expressed apprehension that the insurgents aim to re-establish their harsh brand of Islamist rule, including the repression of women and the independent media, by force. Local media reported earlier this week the Taliban dragged a 21-year-old woman out of a car while she was on her way to the Balkh district centre and shot her dead for not wearing a veil.

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Khalilzad, who was appointed as the special envoy three years ago, and the then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said at that time that he would assist “us in the reconciliation effort." A Pashtun like many members of the Taliban, Khalilzad was seen by many as someone who understood the nuances of Afghan culture land and spoke both Pashto and Persian fluently. However, many Afghans have time and again pointed out his advocacy for and business dealings with the Taliban before the September 2001 attacks.

But now the veteran US diplomat has painted a bleak picture of the peace process and said that “at this point, they are demanding that they take the lion's share of power in the next government given the military situation as they see it.”

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Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has said in an opinion piece in the Washington Examiner that it’s time the US recalled Khalilzad home. “His judgment proved wrong, and he has lost control of the process. Rather than interfere where Afghans no longer want him, it is time to investigate the intelligence failures, poor assumptions, and misjudgments that tainted the peace process from day one,” Rubin wrote on Friday.

Radhey radhey..I will be glad and thanked to all the person who support me and follow me with all my ability..