Amazon miniTV – Amazon’s free video streaming service, recently released a sports drama series, Slum Golf which is being applauded for its strong and inspiring narrative along with deep rooted characters who have struck the perfect chord with audiences across India. Following the story of a young boy Pawan, who hails from the slums of Mumbai, the series sheds light on the hardships and societal differences he witnesses in his journey of becoming a professional golfer. Starring Sharad Kelkar, Mayur More and Arjan Aujla in pivotal roles, the series is streaming on Amazon miniTV for free.
Mayur More who essays the role of Pawan in the series,shared his experience and perspective of working in such a unique show. “The concept was quite different and it was the first time something like this was happening in India. There have been stories on golf before but this one is very interesting as it has so much detailing. The story where it takes place and where it ends is very interesting as well. I myself have not played golf before, not even thought of playing it. I remember watching a golf match in the Olympics and I tried to understand how it was played. The experience was quite unique and I thought that it would be interesting to do this. If we pull it off well, it will be the first of its kind in India,” he said.
Talking about his character, he further shared how he feels. He expressed, “If I weren’t portraying Pawan, I doubt I’d be taking on any other character. I really liked Pawan’s character and it was quite challenging to portray it. Obviously learning how to play golf was the biggest challenge in itself. I feel Pawan was the strongest character.”
Indulge in this endearing tale and experience the range of emotions with Slum Golf on Amazon miniTV available on Amazon’s shopping app, on Fire TV, and on Play Store.
Dainik Bhaskar, India’s largest newspaper welcomes Ms Preeti Arora as the Vice President and Head of Gurgaon Branch. She would be responsible for driving business partnerships to enhance the company’s offerings and expand its market presence. In this capacity, she will report to Satyajit Sengupta, the Chief Corporate Sales & Marketing Officer of DB Corp Ltd.
With over 20 years of extensive experience in Media Marketing, Ms Preeti Arora brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her new role as Vice President and Head of the Gurgaon branch at Dainik Bhaskar Group. Throughout her career, she has consistently demonstrated a proven track record of driving sustainable business growth. She had the privilege of working with esteemed media industry giants such as India Today Group and HT Media, further solidifying her expertise and reputation in the field. Her appointment signifies Dainik Bhaskar Group’s commitment to leveraging Preeti’s valuable insights to enhance operations and achieve continued success in the Gurgaon region.
Ms Preeti Arora will play a crucial role in leading and managing operations in the Gurgaon branch of the Dainik Bhaskar Group. Her appointment reflects the company’s commitment to strengthening its presence in Gurgaon and further enhancing its position in the media industry. Her strategic leadership and vision will contribute to the growth and success of the organization in the Gurgaon region.
Celebrating diverse and authentic queer narratives, The Rainbow Awards for Literature & Journalism (RALJ) launches its first edition today. The purpose is to recognize honest, compelling, and unadulterated storytelling around LGBTQIA+ lives by Indian queer and cis-het writers. It is also about articulating and creating a genre that builds awareness across society as well as providing the queer community a sense of belonging.
On the jury this year are author-activist Parmesh Shahani (Chair); editor Adrija Bose; writer and translator Anish Gawande; art historian, author and curator Dr. Alka Pande; actor, artist and writer Jyotsna Siddharth; transgender rights activist Kalki Subramaniam; author Parvati Sharma;journalist, writer and translator Poonam Saxena; and author-researcher Sindhu Rajasekaran. Queer rights activist, lawyer, and bioethicist Rohin Bhatt will act as coordinator of the awards.
RALJ invites writers to submit entries* across the categories of Literature (Fiction & Non-fiction) and Journalism (Features & Op-Ed), starting Friday, May 19, 2023, for a period of eight weeks. The award function will be held during the Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive, which returns this year on December 9 & 10, in Delhi.
Speaking about the Awards, the Founder, Sharif D Rangnekar said: “Queer life has been erased from our history for far too long. It is only over the past few decades that some folks have stepped up and written freely. It is essential that we build on the momentum set post the reading down of Section 377, so that we can claim and reclaim our space through literature and journalism which becomes part of history and the now.”
There are a number of allegations of crimes committed by the Chinese government or its citizens, including human rights violations, intellectual property theft, and cyber attacks.
Human rights violations: China has been accused of widespread human rights violations, including the suppression of political dissent, restrictions on religious freedom, and the mistreatment of ethnic and religious minorities. This is particularly evident in the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region, where reports of forced labor, mass detainment, and other forms of repression have been documented.
Intellectual property theft: China has also been accused of widespread intellectual property theft, particularly in the area of technology. Companies in the United States and other countries have claimed that their trade secrets and other proprietary information have been stolen by Chinese companies and individuals, often with the support or complicity of the Chinese government.
Cyber attacks: In recent years, China has been implicated in a number of high-profile cyber attacks against governments, corporations, and other organizations. These attacks have been aimed at stealing sensitive information, disrupting critical infrastructure, and engaging in other forms of cyber espionage.
It’s important to note that these allegations of crimes committed by China are often disputed by the Chinese government, which has denied many of the claims made against it. Nevertheless, the allegations have strained relations between China and many countries around the world, and have led to increased tensions and scrutiny of the Chinese government and its practices.
In conclusion, while the exact extent and nature of crimes committed by China is a matter of ongoing debate and investigation, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the country has engaged in a range of illegal and unethical activities.
New age content platform Social Swag, which is a collective brainchild of Akshay Kumar, Rana Daggubati Collective Artists and Mahesh Bhupathi has announced raising $3.5 million in a Pre Series A round. The round has been led by IMEF and Unicorn India Ventures, which has made its maiden announcement in a content creator economy specialist platform.
Some other HNI’s who participated in the round are Vinay Agarwal, Ritesh Deshmukh, Raghu Subramanian, Edward Menezes, The Shekama Family Trust, and The Blume Founders fund.
Started in 2020, Social Swag is building out a Celebrity/ influencer commerce platform and has been growing 40% m-o-m for the last 5 months and is poised to continue this trajectory as the online story in India continues to generate exciting outcomes.
Parth Gandhi who launched IMEF as an entertainment fund says, “We are backing various entertainment opportunities in India and with Social Swag’s offering across multiple products we believe they will become an outlier in the space. That is why we chose them as our first investment.”
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “As a fund, we strongly believe that the content creator economy is ripe for explosive growth. We have been tracking Social Swag for close to 6 months now and are very bullish on the moat they have been able to create vis-a-vis access to talent and building technology to make it accessible. We are excited to back them in their journey.”
Social Swag has multiple verticals of its offering like Masterclasses, Live learning and personal shout outs etc. The Company runs on a subscription model giving unlimited access to the curated content on the platform. Top celebrities and achievers like Lara Dutta, Bhavish Aggarwal, Abhinav Bindra, Akshay Kumar, Vicky Ratnani, Avinash Gowarikar are some of the most reputed names whose masterclasses are currently running on the platform. Social Swag aspires to build the biggest content platform which is made in India for the world.
Rana Daggubatti, an accomplished actor, entrepreneur & Co founder, Social Swag, says, “We are excited to welcome our new investors and our focus will remain to create a platform where various people will find relevant content for themselves across different products. These would be a mix of entertainment, self development, skill enhancement and passion content.”
According to a recent industry report, there are over 1,50,000 professional content creators in India who are able to monetize their services. The global content creators’ economy is estimated to be over $100 billion. Social Swag is rightly positioned to build its market leadership as the platform is backed by some of the most accomplished content creators and artists in India.
SNK Advisors advised Social Swag on the transaction.
About Unicorn India Ventures
Unicorn India Ventures is a Mumbai-based early stage fund house started in 2015 by Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar. The Fund has also launched a UK India cross border fund for funding UK startups looking to enter India. From its first Fund, UIV has invested in 18 companies like Inc42, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, NeuroEquilibrium, SmartCoin, Open Bank, Open app to name a few. Unicorn India has also announced Fund II, which is a Rs 300 crore fund launch
ed in 2019 which has invested in 15 companies so far.
About IMEF
IMEF (India Media & Entertainment Fund) is India’s first AIF focused on investing in Media, Entertainment and Technology Industry. IMEF invests in Credit, Special Situations and Equity opportunities across a wide array of Media & Entertainment businesses, including filmed entertainment, events, media, gaming and technology. IMEF is founded by Parth Gandhi and Systematix Group (a diversified financial services company).
The eye care nonprofit Orbis International announces its collaboration on new research published in the latest issue of the top-tier peer-reviewed medical journal PLOS ONE. The research outlines the findings of in-depth interviews conducted with parents and caregivers across India that were used to determine the top barriers to accessing sight-saving cataract treatment for their children. The research also identifies the top enablers – that is, the factors that motivate families – for seeking care. An understanding of these barriers and enablers can be used to improve parents’ timely uptake of services for their children.
Ensuring children receive cataract surgery in a timely manner – ideally, no more than three months following a diagnosis – is essential for preventing long-term negative effects on their vision. However, in India, child cataract surgery is often delayed significantly. For children born with the condition, the average age of treatment is 4 years old, while children who develop cataract(s) later are, on average, 8 years of age before receiving surgery.
“More children are blind in India than in any other country, and in over half of cases, sight could be restored with early intervention and treatment,” said Dr. Rishi Raj Borah, Country Director for Orbis India and a co-author of the new study. “Cataracts are no small part of this challenge. But ensuring that we increase access to quality eye care is not enough. We must also understand what holds families back from accessing that care, work to address those barriers, and double down on the factors we know are resulting in more children getting the care they need.”
Study Findings
The study found that the top three barriers were related to:
Environmental context and resources, including cost, even when surgery was available free of charge, due to related expenses like travel and lost wages; local health facilities not offering screening programs to detect cataracts or surgeries to treat them; and stressors, such as lengthy travel to hospitals or wait times for appointments.
Beliefs about consequences, including cultural beliefs based on spirituality and old practices, such as seeking care from local healers; concern about negative outcomes post-surgery; and a lack of appreciation for the importance of preventive eye care.
Social influences, including cultural norms that give low priority to eye care for children; and social pressure for parents to try alternate forms of treatment, such as herbal remedies.
On the other hand, the study found that top enablers were related to:
Social influences: The social structure of families and extended communities had a significant impact on whether parents sought cataract surgery for their children. A particularly powerful influencer was having someone available to support the parent or caregiver by accompanying them to the hospital or looking after their other children.
Beliefs about consequences: Parents who realized the importance of eye care for their child were more likely to take their child for treatment. Doctor-patient communication at the hospital was also vital because of the opportunity it provided to reinforce the importance of early treatment to the parents directly.
Motivation, goals and intention: When the parents had clear intention to provide early treatment for their child, they accessed the services early despite having economic challenges.
The comprehensive findings from this research have enabled Orbis to understand parents’ perceived barriers and enablers to accessing childhood cataract services, which will be targeted in all future interventions in India to improve timely uptake of cataract services by children.
Orbis’s Impact in India
India was one of the first countries where Orbis established a local office, and the organization has made far-reaching impact – for children in particular – over the past two decades. When Orbis began working in India in 2000, pediatric ophthalmology was not yet seen as a distinct specialty in India, and there was only one eye care center for every 100 million children across the country. Over the years, Orbis has developed a comprehensive network of 33 Children’s Eye Centers across 17 states, with one eye care center for every 20 million children.
In total, Orbis has conducted more than 17.5 million pediatric eye screenings, provided medical and optical treatment to 1.6 million children, performed 103,000 surgeries on children, and organized 180,000 ophthalmic trainings completed by doctors, nurses, community health workers and others in India.
About Orbis
Orbis is a leading global non-governmental organization that has been a pioneer in the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness for nearly four decades. Orbis transforms lives by delivering the skills, resources and knowledge needed to deliver accessible quality eye care. Working in collaboration with local partners, including hospitals, universities, government agencies and ministries of health, Orbis provides hands-on ophthalmology training, strengthens healthcare infrastructure and advocates for the prioritization of eye health on public health agendas. Orbis operates the world’s only Flying Eye Hospital, a fully accredited ophthalmic teaching hospital on board an MD-10 aircraft, and an award-winning telemedicine platform, Cybersight. For the past ten consecutive years, Orbis has achieved Charity Navigator’s coveted four-star rating for demonstrating strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency, placing Orbis in the top 3% of U.S. charities. In 2021, Orbis earned GuideStar’s platinum Seal of Transparency. To learn more, please visit orbis.org.
