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CHIEF GUEST
KING KHAN TO SPICE UP THE INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF MELBOURNE AUG 8-17 2019
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COVER STORY
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Chief Guest King Khan to spice up the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2019
By Neeraj Nanda
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ELBOURNE, 13 June: Indian movie super star Shah Rukh Khan will be the chief guest at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne-2019 (IFFM-2019), 8 to 17 August 2019. This will be the coveted festival’s 10th year, showcasing the best of Indian cinema. From a grassroots festival to a state government backed festival and an awardee of several global awards, the IFFM, is the biggest Indian film festival in the Southern Hemisphere. This year the festival is set to celebrate the central theme of ‘courage’, which is engraved in the inclusivity and diversity of the Indian film business. Commenting about the festival, the Victorian Premier Hon. Daniel Andrews says: "The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne is a much-loved event that celebrates the strong relationship between Victoria and India and our own vibrant Indian community. This event has grown significantly over the past decade and with the extraordinary Shah Rukh Khan here, this year's festival is shaping up to be the biggest and most exciting yet." Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley says: "A celebration of film, community and culture, the Indian Film Festival puts Melbourne in the spotlight and attracts
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more than 35,000 people each year. The Bollywood and Indian film industry is the biggest in the world and in addition to supporting this festival, we've announced a new Bollywood and Indian Cinema Attraction Fund to bring more film productions from India and the subcontinent to Victoria. Perhaps we'll even lure Shah Rukh Khan back to our shores again!" King Khan as he’s admirably referred to globally will be opening the festival officially on the 8th of August, 2019 along with the other festival guests and in the company of the ‘Premiere of Victoria’ Hon. Daniel Andrews and Mitu Bhowmick Lange, the director of the esteemed festival. A Mind Blowing Films media release quotes, Shah Rukh Khan, saying, “I’m honoured and delighted to accept the invitation from the Victorian government and the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne to open their festival as their chief guest. industry of our magnitude and diversity deserves to be celebrated with great passion and fervour, which is what the festival embodies. I’m particularly pleased with the theme of the festival this year which is courage, an emotion that resonates with storytellers who really have the might to change the society and the world. I have had great memories of shooting for CONTD. ON PG 3
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COVER STORY
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Chief Guest King Khan to spice up the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2019
CONTD. FROM PG 2 Chak De India in Melbourne and look forward to being back again, this time to celebrate Indian cinema”. Director of the festival, Mitu Bhowmick Lange says, “We are so elated with the news of Mr. Khan joining us to be our chief guest. He’s truly an icon of Indian cinema internationally, a global icon, who millions and millions follow and look up-to. The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne has always strived to bring the best Indian cinema here in Melbourne and bridge a gap between the fans and the actors whom people love and admire. We are looking forward to hosting Mr. Khan in Melbourne.” The festival has films like Andhadhun (Hindi), Gully Boy (Hindi), Super Delux (Tamil), Chuskit (Ladakhi), Chippa (Hindi), Ahaa Re (Bengali) among others. A few films will be shown free at the Federation Square and the Telstra Bollywood Dance Competition will enthral the
We are so elated with the news of Mr. Khan joining us to be our chief guest. He’s truly an icon of Indian cinema internationally, a global icon, who millions and millions follow and look up-to. audience. Full details of the ten days’ festival’s movies, guests, opening, other and closing events and masterclasses etc. will be announced soon. More information can be accessed at www.iffm.com.au. Srk Photos - @iamSRK
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COVER STORY
Some of the movies in different languages with English subtitles that can be seen at the IFFM-2019 MOVIES: BEYOND BOLLYWOOD: *Ahaa Re (The Two Lovers) Bengali *Chippa Hindi *Care of Kancharapalem Telugu *Chuskit Ladakhi *Namdev Bhau - In Search of Silence Hindi/Marathi * Super Deluxe Tamil *Widow of Silence Urdu Film India World: *Blinded by The Light English
* Ek Aasha - Made in Melbourne Hindi
DOCUMENTARIES AND SHORTS
Widows of Vrindavan Bengali
The Last Color Hindi
SCREENINGS @ FEDERATION SQUARE
FROM THE SUBCONTINENT:
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
*ROOBHA English/Tamil * The Sweet Requiem Tibetan HURRAH BOLLYWOOD *Andhadhun Hindi * Gully Boy Hindi
Hindi Sui Dhaaga Hindi OTHER PROGRAMS/ EVENTS ETC. AWARDS NIGHT OPENING NIGHT FLAG HOISTING TELSTRA BOLLYWOOD DANCE COMPETITION PANEL DISCUSSIONS & MASTERCLASS CLOSING NIGHT All info at www.iffm.com.au
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Amma’s Ashram celebrates ‘Embracing Peace – A multicultural celebration’ By SAT NEWS DESK
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ELBOURNE, 15 June: Embracing Peace 2019, a multicultural event hosted by MA Centre (Aust) Foundation, was celebrated on the evening of Saturday 15th June. The Amma’s Ashram, Carrum Downs became an oasis for cultural and social connectivity starting with a prayer for world peace and harmony. The evening also brought together spiritual leaders, dignitaries, numerous professional artistes and the public to celebrate the rich multicultural heritage of our local communities. Speakers included Ms. Sonya Kilkenny (MP – Carrum), and Mr. Mel Yates (Director - Australian Charity and Not-for Profit Commission (ACNC), supported by the Victorian Multicultural Commission and Victorian Government (Multicultural Affairs and Social Cohesion Division, Department of Premier and Cabinet). This year, the theme ‘Grace in Action’ highlighted the significance of enlivening compassion and acceptance through selfless service. Amma’s organisation was especially proud to honour three community leaders – Mr. Chidambaram Srinivasan,
Ms. Geeta Devi and Ms Suteeporn Sullivan; who have selflessly volunteered their services over many years to societal activities. The MA Centre (Australia) Foundation is a not for- profit organisation inspired by the world humanitarian leader, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (also known as ‘ Amma’). Through her inspiring life of love, inner strength and self-sacrifice, Amma has motivated people all over the world to be more selfless, compassionate and to dedicate free time to social service. For more information, visit www. ammaaustralia.org.au for more information. —Supplied
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‘The Making of Nivedita’ successfully staged By SAT News Desk
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elbourne: The Making of Nivedita, a play on the life of Miss Margaret Nobel, an Irish lady, builds on the twin themes of women’s empowerment and West meets East. Based on the remarkable life of Sister Nivedita who established the first girls’ school in India and had a tremendous influence on all the Indians at the turn of 20th century. The play in English, staged at the Kel Watson Theatre, Forest Hill College on 11 May attracted a full house. The organisers reveal, the play was well received and they have been approached for repeat performances a regional tour in Victoria, interstate performance and a performance in the US. “The experience was
amazing - a magical and talented cast including child actors, dancers, music director & singer, lights & the production team’, they told SAT. Sister Nivedita was a disciple of Swami Vivekananda and the play told her story in a transparent way touching the different episodes of her life. The play came to a poignant end with Swami Vivekananda passing away and Sister Nivedita displaying a forceful sense of loss. The drama was tastefully entwined with dance and music to convey the period and the emotions of the main characters. Big kudos to Mouli Ganguli, Seema Gupta and their associates who orchestrated the whole show under the guidance of Swami Sunishthananda. The cast who brought
to life the main characters of Sister Nivedita, Swami Vivekananda, Shri Ramakrishna and Sharada Devi were namely Anshu Adrekar, Raj Mukherjee, Pritom Dutta, Debashree Roychowdhury. The lively narrator was Sonam Singh. Well done to all the cast and crew of the “The making of Nivedita”. The Vedanta Centre of Melbourne needs to be commended for presenting this powerful play. - With inputs from Mouli Ganguly and Manglam of the Vedanta Centre of Melbourne.
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Indra Nooyi catches up with Minister Gabrielle Williams By SAT News Desk
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ELBOURNE: The Minister for Women, Youth and Prevention of Family Violence, Gabrielle Williams MP, met with International Cricket Council director and former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi at Victoria’s Parliament House recently to discuss gender equality and women’s leadership. The pair discussed Victoria’s nation leading work on gender equality – including conducting the first ever Royal Commission into the Prevention of Family Violence. The Victorian Government has committed to implementing all 227 recommendations of the Royal Commission and creating a more inclusive, responsive, safe and accountable family violence system that supports all Victorians. The pair also turned to their efforts to champion diversity and the power of education to empower women in
To inspire the next generation of sports stars, the Victorian Government secured the Women’s T20 World Cup final. schools, workplaces and the role that government and business can play to support young women to take up leadership roles in the workplace and across society. To inspire the next generation of sports stars, the Victorian Government secured the Women’s T20 World Cup final at the MCG on International Women’s Day in 2020. Both Ms Nooyi and the Minister looked forward to celebrating one of the biggest events in women’s sport next year and the message it offers girls and cricket fans in Melbourne and all around the world.
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community
Kaushaliya Vaghela mentions new bus route 426 in the Parliament By SAT News Desk
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aushaliya Vaghela MP, mentioned in the Parliament’s upper house the addition of a new bus service in the Western Metropolitan Region. She said, “The Andrews Labor government has worked diligently to provide good, reliable and muchneeded services that will connect commuters in my electorate to schools, work and many lively hubs in the local area.
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Bus route 426 will soon start servicing Westwood Drive. The route realignment would bring services into the area and connect residents to Caroline Springs Square and trains on the Sunbury rail line.” “I requested the Hon. Melissa Horne, Minister for Public Transport to ask the relevant department to communicate these benefits to local residents to ensure they are able to utilise this new service to its full advantage, she says in a Facebook post.
Consul General for Sri Lanka meets Federal Assist Minister Hon Jason Wood. By SAT News Desk
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elbourne: The newly appointed Consul
General for Sri Lanka in Victoria , South Australia & Tasmania Mr Kapila Fonseka and Consul Ms Nilusha Dilmini today made a courtesy call
on Hon Jason Wood Federal Assist Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs at this Electoral office in Berwick Victoria.
Mr Fonseka who is a senior career diplomat who has served in Berlin, London and New Delhi , will now be based in Melbourne. As part of
the Multicultural team Ranj Perera and Johann Dias Jayasinha joined the meeting at Berwick.
L-R Johann Dias Jayasinha, Ms Nilusha Dilmini – Consul , Mr Kapila Fonseka Consul General Sri Lanka , Hon Jason Wood and Ranj Perera . Photo: SNNI
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Source: SNNI
community
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Melbourne protest over 'police brutality' against Sikh man in India By Neeraj Nanda
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ELBOURNE: The Sikh community organised a peaceful protest in front of Indian Consulate General Office, Melbourne on Friday, demanding action against the police officials who were involved in the alleged brutal beating of a father-son duo in New Delhi last week, reports the SBS.
SBS Report (24 June, 2019): Protesters gathered outside the Indian Consulate General's Office at St Kilda Road in Melbourne on Friday and handed over a memorandum, demanding justice in this case. “The Victorian Sikh Community is totally dismayed, shocked and particularly concerned about the brutality and inhuman behaviour of the Delhi
Police,” the memorandum read. “Sikhs are peace-loving community; however as noted from various reports an atmosphere of fear and shock has been created and exists against the minorities everywhere in India.” Protesters were seen holding banners mentioning, ‘We need justice’, ‘We reject atrocities by Delhi Police’, and ‘Justice for Minority’. Three policemen involved
in the incident have been suspended and an inquiry into the violent clash in underway. Last week, videos circulated on social media showed Sarabjit Singh an auto driver- chasing a policeman with a sword in his hand. Another video showed a number of policemen beating him up with batons. Mr Singh's teenage son was also thrashed. Police claimed Mr Singh
Small Business Bus: Free business advice from an experienced mentor
By SAT News Desk
O
perated by Small Business Victoria, the Small Business Bus visits Melbourne and regional Victoria as a 'travelling office on wheels'. It offers friendly, professional assistance and expert advice from an experienced
business mentor from the Small Business Mentoring Service (www. sbms.org.au). Find more details about eligibility criteria and how a mentor can help you on the Small Business Bus program page (www. business.vic.gov.au/supportfor-your-business/grants-andassistance/small-business-bus). www.southasiatimes.com.au - (03) 9884 8096, 0421 677 082
attacked a policeman with a sword and injured him after his vehicle grazed a police vehicle. “The [vehicle] hit a police van. An argument began when the driver of the police vehicle asked the driver of the vehicle to accompany him to the police station. [Mr Singh] responded by pulling out his sword and later attacking the policemen,” said Delhi Police spokesman Madhur Verma.
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Victoria’s budget 19/20
$27.1 million for culturally specific aged care homes & buying land for two new Indian aged care facilities in Melbourne’s west and south-east
By SAT News Desk
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ELBOURNE, 27 May 2019: Victoria’s diverse communities will benefit from expanded language programs, more support for multicultural organisations and land for three new aged care homes catering to Chinese and Indian senior citizens. The Andrews Labor Government is ensuring Victorians from culturally diverse backgrounds get the support they need to contribute and participate fully in the community through the Victorian Budget 2019/20. As promised, we’re giving families peace of mind by investing $27.1 million to upgrade seven existing culturally specific aged care
homes, buy land for two new Indian aged care facilities in Melbourne’s west and southeast, and land for a Chinesespecific aged care home. Minister for Aged Care Luke Donnellan says, “Our parents and grandparents have contributed so much to our state – it’s fitting we make sure they get the care, dignity, and the culture and language needs they deserve in their later years.” This comes on top of our $3.6 million investment to provide more than 900 of Victoria’s multicultural senior groups with $4,000 so they can hold activities, excursions and religious celebrations as well as upgrade and purchase equipment, such as fridges or barbeques. In total, these groups represent more than 70 different ethnicities and
religions. Minister for Multicultural Affairs Richard Wynne says, “By supporting our multicultural communities, we’re helping strengthen Victoria – it’s our diversity that makes us what we are today.” “New aged care homes, more support for senior citizen groups, as well as backing ethnic media outlets and multicultural events are just some of the ways we can ensure our rich diversity lives on.” These investments for older multicultural Victorians honour the sacrifices and the contribution they made when coming to Australia to build a new life for themselves and a world of new opportunities for their children.
A $7.5 million investment will deliver on the Labor Government’s commitment to help promote cultural heritage by expanding community language schools so that about 2,000 of our littlest Victorians can learn their mother tongue or that of their pre-school mates. The Indian film industry will be encouraged to head to Victoria to film more of their Bollywood blockbusters as part of a $3 million fund which is expected to bring several film productions to the state. “We will continue to combat prejudice and discrimination where it occurs, with $2 million invested in the new AntiRacism Action Plan,” says a budget media release.
New aged care homes, more support for senior citizen groups, as well as backing ethnic media outlets and multicultural events are just some of the ways we can ensure our rich diversity lives on.
Village Cinemas stops release of Punjabi movie ‘Dastaan E Miri Piri’ after protests By SAT News Desk
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ELBOURNE, 3 June 2019: New Punjabi movie ‘Dastaan e Miri Piri’ scheduled to release at the Village Cinemas, Sunshine on 5th June has been stopped in Victoria after protests by members of the Sikh community. Members of the Sikh community yesterday (2 June) demonstrated against the animation film outside the Village Cinema, Sunshine but disbursed after Victoria Police intervention and promise to look into the matter. A meeting was held today with Victoria police representatives, protesters and Village cinema authorities and it was decided not to release the movie, say informed community members. Though the movie release announcement is still on the Village Cinemas website. Dastaan e Miri Piri, directed by Vinod Lanjewar
Members of the Sikh community yesterday (2 June) demonstrated against the animation film outside the Village Cinema, Sunshine but disbursed after Victoria Police intervention. with classification M (Animated violence) depects the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind ji, in violation of long standing principle that Sikh Gurus should not be depicted in any visual form, still or moving.
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MUSINGS
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THE AUTOPSY
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ELBOURNE: We just saw the historic election victory of the BJP along with NDA. 350 seats! Unheard and unseen in any democracy. More seats than in2014. No incumbency either which is adefinite feature of a democracy. Let us firstlook atfactors which were against the BJPwhen they went to the hustings: # the epic failure of demonetisation, which resulted in more than a crore of workers out of work and lakhs of small businesses out of business not withstanding more than a hundred deaths in queues outside banks. # the chaotic introduction of GST which was launched with so much fanfare from the Parliament House as if India got its independence once again. Businesses are still struggling to cope with so many rates of tax. Never seen anywhere in an industrialised economy. # the record number of unemployed in the past 45 years. # the ever- increasing number of farmers’ suicides in the past 5 years. # the mob lynching of innocent Muslims on the suspicion of eating or transporting beef. # the ever- growing number of women’s and girls’ rapes, particularly, of Dalits in the last 5 years. # the flights of criminals like Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, VijayaMallaya and Bhai Choksy with thousands of crores. # the waning of BJP’s popularity reflected in losing state elections in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, a few months ago. # PragyaThakur (Sadhvi) saying in public that Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’sassassin, had always been a national hero and would remain so in future. # According to Arvind Subramaniam, Modi’s former economic adviser, even the GDP growth ratewas inflated from 4.5 to 7 %. # Unlike 2014 there was no Modi wave this time. # and, of course, the biggest scam of the Independent India, Rafale, where the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, one of the most respected and successful public sector company was sacrificed at the altar of Anil Ambani to the tune of 30 lakh crore. And, now, the advantages of the incumbent
The epic failure of demonetisation, which resulted in more than a crore of workers out of work and lakhs of small businesses out of business not withstanding more than a hundred deaths in queues outside banks. of personnel and military hardware.(it is another story that Pakistan retaliated the very next day and destroyed a couple of Migs and captured an Indian pilot.) These were grave breaches of moral code of conduct. The Commission gave the BJP clean chit. (no word on one of the three Commissioners who dissented from these blatant judgements. )
India’s Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi practising Yoga in a mass Yoga demonstration, on the occasion of the 5th International Day of Yoga 2019, at Ranchi, Jharkhand, India on June 21, 2019. Photo: Press Information Bureau, New Delhi. government: # Modi was still the most popular leader. # the disunity and chaos among the opposition ranks;state leaders had their own personal and family interests at the elections. # Very few alliances could be made because of the leaders’ egos. # Even leaders who could fetch only ten seats were dreaming of becoming the Prime Minister. # The BJP and its allies had successfully polarised the country along religious and caste lines to their advantage during their 5
years in office. # The BJP Road Show in Kolkata, where idols of Vidya Chand Sagar were vandalised, helped the party to get a foothold and gain seats. It is said that many if not all protesters were non Bengalis. A moment for Mamta Banerjee to reflect. # The Election Commission of India: It was seen as no longer an independent and statutory agency under the constitution. It behaved and worked like a section of the Prime Minister’s department throughout the electioneering:
It closed its eyes when top leaders of BJP were asking in rallies for votes in the name of 40 CRPF jawans killed in Pulwama; it looked sideways when government employees were asking officials to provide inputs of areas where leaders were going to address rallies ; it shut its eyes when the NAMO channel kept propagandising 24x7 right up to the eve of the last phase of the election and was fast asleep when party leaders were boasting about surgical strikes at Balakot without detailing how much success they achieved across the border in terms
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And last but not the least the EVMs: EVMs are the most unreliable tools at the election booths. Even the countries who invented these machines do not use them. Germany, France, USA etc. have no faith in this tool. The highest courts in Germany banned use of EVMs because they are vulnerable to manipulation and hacking. 20,000 machines went missing in this election and the Election Commission has no answer. Isn’t it a wonder that even in states where Congress won elections like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh a few months ago, the Congress scored a zero. All the polls in the last yearabysmally proved wrong. The Bahujan section of the community has been demonstrating at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for a fortnight along with experts who are publicly showing how EVMs can be used to alter votes and reverse results in a party’s favour and more so in a country like India where most rural electorates (70% of the population) are not computer literate. —Author’s personal views
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AUSTRALIA
JUNE-july 2019
30 years since Australia first connected to the internet, we’ve come a long way By Justin Zobel*
w
hen Australia joined the global internet on June 23, 1989 – via a connection made by the University of Melbourne – it was mostly used by computer scientists. Three decades later, more than 86% of Australian households are connected to the internet. But it was a slow start. At first, network capacity was limited to very small volumes of information. This all changed thanks to the development of vastly more powerful computers, and other technologies that have transformed our online experience. One of those technologies is probably in front of you now: the screen. Look at how you view the web, email and apps today: not just on large desktop screens but also handheld devices, and perhaps even an internetconnected wristwatch. This was barely imaginable 30 years ago. Connected to the world By the time Australia first connected, the internet had been developing for 20 years. The very first network had been turned on in the United States in 1969. Australia too had networks during the 1980s, but distance and a lack of interest from commercial providers meant these were isolated from the rest of the world. This first international link provided just 56 kilobits of national connectivity. A 20th of a megabit for the whole country! That is not even enough to play a single piece of music from a streaming service (encoded at 128kbs), and it would take a week for a movie to be transferred to Australia. But at that time digital music, video and images were not distributed online. Nor was the internet servicing a large community. Most of the users were academics or researchers in computer science or physics. With continuous connection came live access. The most immediate impact was that email could now be delivered immediately. At first, email and internet news groups (discussion forums) were the main traffic, but the connection also gave access to information sharing services such as Archie (an old example here) and WAIS, which were mostly used to share
software. There was connection too, in principle at least, to the newly created world wide web, which in June 1989 was just three months old and largely unknown. It wouldn’t become significant for another four years or so. This turning-on of a connection was not a “light in a darkened room” moment, in which we suddenly had access to the resources that are now so familiar to us. But it was a crucial step, one of several developments maturing in parallel that created the technology that has so drastically transformed our society, commerce and daily lives. Within just a few years we were surfing the web and sending email from home. The technology develops The first of these developments was the internet itself, which was and is a cobbling-together of disparate networks around the globe. Australia had several networks, ranging from the relatively open ACSNET (now called AARNET) created by computer science departments to connect universities to, at the other extreme, proprietary, secure networks operated by defence and industry. When Melbourne opened that first link, it provided a bridge from ACSNET to the networks in the United States and from there to the rest of the world. Just as important were developments in the underlying technology. At the time, the capacity of the networks was adequate - just. As the community of users rapidly grew, it sometimes seemed as though the internet might utterly break down.
By the mid-1990s bandwidth (the volume of digital traffic that a network can carry) increased to an extent that earlier had seemed unimaginable. This provided the data transmission infrastructure the web would come to demand. Another development was computing hardware. Computers were doubling in speed every 18 months, as had been predicted. They also became much cheaper. Computer disks were also growing in capacity, doubling in size every year or so. The yet-to-appear web would require disk space for storage of web pages, and compute capacity for running servers, which are applications that provide a door into a computer, giving users remote access to data and software. In the 1980s these had been scarce, expensive resources that would have been overwhelmed by even small volumes of web traffic. By the early 1990s growth in capacity could – just – accommodate the demand that suddenly appeared and homes were being connected, via dial-up at first. A new operating system But it is a third concurrent development that is, to me, the most remarkable. This is the emergence of the UNIX operating system and of a community of people who collaboratively wrote UNIXbased code for free (yes, for no charge). Their work provided what is arguably the core of the systems that underpin the modern world. UNIX was created by Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson and a small number of colleagues at AT&T Bell Labs, in the US, from 1970. At that time, operating
systems (like iOS on today’s Apple phones) were limited to a single type of computer. Code and programs could not be used across machines from different manufacturers. UNIX, in contrast, could be used on any suitable machine. This is the reason UNIX variants continue to provide the core of Apple Mac computers, Android phones, systems such as inflight entertainment and smart TVs, and many billions of other devices. The open source movement Along with UNIX came a culture of collaborative code development by programmers. This was initially via sharing of programs sent on tape between institutions as parcels in the mail. Anyone with time to spare could create programs and share them with a community of like-minded users. This became known as the open source movement. Many thousands of people helped develop software of a diversity and richness that was beyond the resources of any single organisation. And it was not driven by commercial or corporate needs. Programs could embody speculative innovations, and any developer who was frustrated by errors or shortcomings in the tools they used could update or correct them. A key piece of open source software was the server, a computer system in a network shared by multiple users. Providing anonymous users with remote access was far from desirable for commercial computers of the era, on which use of costly computing time was tightly controlled.
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But in an academic, sharing, open environment such servers were a valuable tool, at least for computer scientists, who were the main users of university computers in that era. Another key piece of open source software was the router, which allowed computers on a network to collaborate in directing network requests and responses between connected machines anywhere on the planet. Servers had been used for email since the beginnings of the internet and initially it was email, delivered with the help of routers, that brought networked desktop computing into homes and businesses. When the web was proposed, extending these servers to allow the information from web page servers to be sent to a user’s computer was a small step. What you looking at? The last component is so ubiquitous that we forget what is literally before our eyes: the screen. Affordable computer displays in the 1980s were much too limited to pleasingly render a web page, with resolutions of 640x480 pixels or lower, with crude colours or just black and white. Better screens, starting at 1024x768, first became widely available in the early 1990s. Only with the appearance of the Mosaic browser in 1993 did the web become appealing, with a pool of about 100 web sites showing how to deliver information in a way that for most users was new and remarkably compelling. The online world continues to grow and develop with access today via cable, wireless and mobile handsets. We have internet-connected services in our homes, cars, health services, government, and much more. We live-stream our music and video, and share our lives online. But the origin of that trend of increasing digitisation of our society lies in those simple beginnings - and the end is not yet in sight. This article was amended at the request of the author to correct the amount of data accessible from the initial link. *Pro Vice-Chancellor, Graduate & International Research, University of Melbourne SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION, 21 JUNE 2019. (UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS LICENCE)
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India: Newspapers readers "decline" as social media picks up
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new report, “Social Media & Political Behaviour” by Lokniti – Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, has revealed that the rise of social media platforms in India in the recent past “has been accompanied by a steady decline of traditional media over the years”, including newspapers and TV. According to the report, “In 2014, 29 percent of voters had said that they read newspapers daily. In 2019, this figure declined to 18 percent in our survey. Similarly, the proportion of those watching TV news daily has declined from 46 percent in 2014 to 35 percent now.” On the other hand, the report states, “The use of social media among voters in India has grown by leaps
and bounds”, pointing out, “Back in 2014, merely one of every ten voters (9%) was found to be using Facebook”, but this figure doubled “to 20 percent by 2017, and then increasing further to 32 percent during the recent 2019 Lok Sabha elections”. Similarly, the usage of WhatsApp which was 22 percent in 2017 and “has now increased to 34 percent”, the report says, adding, “The only other social media platform that currently matches the popularity of Facebook and WhatsApp in India is YouTube”, which is used by nearly 31% of the respondents. Then, Instagram is being used by 15%, and Twitter 12% voters, “a six-fold increase in the last five years” Source: Counterview, 15 June, 2019.
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south asia 18 South Asia Timestimes
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EVM: Struggle for secrecy, transparency and verifiability should continue By Nilotpal Basu
L K Advani, who had spearheaded the campaign for reverting back to paper ballots. The basic arguments on the two sides of the debate have been technology use and cost effectiveness on the one hand, while transparency, verifiability and secrecy on the other. Why it is so vital to ensure that there is no discrepancy in the voting process, between casting, recording and counting of the votes? Democracy provides legitimacy to the government based on people’s will. People’s will is expressed through the votes based on the principle of secret ballot. Not only the votes need to be recorded and counted correctly; the recording and counting process must be accessible to and verifiable by the lager public. This makes a discrepancy of even one vote unacceptable. This is not a utopian demand, but universally accepted by democracies across the world. It is the importance of this crucial issue that prompted 66 former officers of IAS and IPS, people with high integrity to talk of the ‘obdurate’ conduct of the ECI and their questionable response on the issue of EVMs.
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EW DELHI: After the protracted elections came to a grinding halt on May 19, the nation waited with bated breath for the results. 23rd May was the D day. However, the post poll interregnum was not quiet. The unprecedented acrimony and the divisiveness had marked these elections with most of the exit polls and the corresponding rollercoaster in the share market led to another round of heated argument in the television studios. Since the campaign was hotly contested, this was not surprising. With most of the exit polls giving it to the BJP, the debate revolved around the past records and the fallibility of such an exercise. But, perhaps the most significant debate was on the reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) acting in tandem with Voter Verifier Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). In a way this debate was a spill over of the running battle between the opposition parties and the Election Commission of India(ECI). In the past, quite a few of the opposition parties had in fact demanded that the electoral system reverted back to paper ballots. Subsequently, most of them came around to the view that EVM records be matched with VVPAT count; not content with the insistence of the Election Commission on the infallibility of the machines, 21 opposition parties approached the Supreme Court. The apex court after two rounds of consideration accepted the proposal that matching the EVM record with VVPAT count was a comparatively more reliable way to address the concern. The court directed the EC to match such records for five booths in every assembly segment. However, the court left it unstated how the randomisation would actually work. Since there was no clarity, the ‘combined opposition’ discussed with the EC to do this matching at the very beginning of the counting process. This demand stood the ground of reason for the principle of randomisation. If a part was corrupted the entire stock needed to be
checked! The EC, however, flatly refused the demand! There is no final authentic statement from the EC about the exercise as yet. THE GENESIS OF MACHINES USED The use of EVMs was developed and tested by the PSUs, Electronic Corporation of India Limited(ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited(BEL) in the 1990s. The use of these machines was introduced between 19982001. The EVMs had been now used in all general and state assembly elections since 2004. However, there has been doubt over the reliability of these machines. There has been series of meetings between the political parties and the ECI with many rounds of technical demonstrations
where the Commission has consistently insisted that the chips or micro controllers are absolutely tamper free; the design, manufacture, the constituency wise and polling centre wise distribution, place them beyond the scope of any manipulation. The EC had also insisted that unlike some other countries, Indian EVMs are beyond online access and each micro controller is custom designed and has a unique identity, devoid of any reprogrammable software environment. But, the fact that voters themselves couldn’t view the recording of their choice formed the background for VVPAT coming into use in 2014. In a phased manner, now in 100 per cent of the polling booths,
the system operates with EVMs and VVPATs acting in conjunction. However, while this addresses the concern of the voter for self-verification about the recording of one’s vote with one’s own eyes, the question mark remains; because the final matching of the two is limited to an insignificant fraction of the total polling exercise. It is in this backdrop the EC’s unilateral refusal of the opposition parties demand has further compounded the trust deficit. RISING SUSPICION Though, doubts have been sounded over the years, not merely by the present opposition, voice over the reliability of this system was sharply articulated even by the topmost BJP leader
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THREE CRUCIAL QUESTIONS The first of these pertains to the issue of mismatch between the number of EVMs manufactured by ECIL and BEL and those received by ECI. The discrepancy was brought out by a petition based on authenticated RTI replies. RTI documents brought out glaring discrepancies in procurement, storage and deployment, apart from grave financial irregularities. For example, ECI claims that it has received 10,05,662 EVMs from BEL between 1989-90 and 2014-15. The ECI also stated that it received 10,46,644 EVMs from ECIL between 1989-90 and 201617. On the other hand, BEL recorded that it supplied 19,69,932 EVMs to ECI between the years 1989-90. Similarly, ECIL stated that it had supplied 19,44,596 EVMs. The mismatch between the figures supplied by the two manufacturers and that received by the ECI is apparent. CONTD. ON PG 19
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EVM: Struggle for secrecy, transparency and verifiability should continue CONTD. FROM PG 18 Where are the excess machines? The query continues to go begging! Consider this question in conjunction with the large number of unregulated movements of vehicles with EVMs and VVPATs from polling centres to the store rooms widely reported in the social and main stream media during the election. The second question pertains to mismatches between votes polled and votes counted by two web portals, ‘Quint’ and ‘Newsclik’. By trying to meticulously collate the data put out by the ECI website, their calculations are highly disturbing. Stung by the questions, the ECI came out with a disclaimer through a press note. The ECI explained that the voting figures put out earlier (and in certain instances, removed) were of a provisional nature, not actual cumulative figures based on those submitted by individual presiding officers across the country. The question, however, is why this statutory disclaimer was not put out at the outset? The controversy on these ‘phantom votes’; the discrepancy between polling and counting figures, is ECI’s own making! The failure of the ECI to clarify issues has certainly compounded the disquiet in public mind. The final crucial issue pertains to the computer chip or micro controllers embedded in the BEL/ECIL manufactured EVMs and
VVPATs used in the current election. BEL has stated that its chips are manufactured by NXP, a multimillion dollar US Corporation. ECIL, however, refused to disclose the manufacturer for its micro controller. Both had always maintained that micro controllers used in EVMs are ‘One Time Programmable’ (OTP). However, NXP’s website indicates that features of micro controllers produced by the company have three kinds of memory, SRAM, FLASH and EEPROM. Experts on the subject confirm that a computer chip which includes FLASH memory cannot be called OTP. The ECI has not yet decided on the September 2018 recommendations of the Central Information Commission (CIC) to get a competent authority to examine whether detailed information about the source code used in the EVMs can be placed in the public domain to ensure public trust in the EVM based voting system; but
nothing has happened on the ground. This discussion can go on with information available through RTI queries. But the fact remains, that the trust in the system depends vitally on the verifiability of recording. IN LIEU OF A CONCLUSION The trust of the people must be irrefutably addressed. What is striking about the Lok Sabha elections 2019 is the big question mark over the role of the ECI itself. Our Constitution makers had envisaged a robust and independent role for the ECI by providing sweeping powers to the body under Article 324 for ensuring free and fair poll and a level playing field for all contesting political parties. Many reforms and legislations enacted under that provision have been adopted to ensure this independent and bipartisan character in keeping with the changing times and growing requirements of
democratic standards. However, many changes during the last five years initiated by the government have vitiated the atmosphere. The first and foremost is the anonymous and theoretically limitless corporate funding to political parties through electoral bonds. Corporate cronyism embedded in this new system has brought out staggering results. Centre for Media Study (CMS) report shows that Rs 60,000 crores was spent in 2019 Lok Sabha elections of which the BJP has spent about 45 per cent. Does this represent a level playing field? Equally, the conduct of the ECI on the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) during the pendency of the election has raised sharp questions. A large number of petitions made by various opposition parties, including the CPI (M), were left unanswered. These pertained to the flouting of not just the MCC, but specific directions of the ECI itself by the prime minster. These
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pertained to electoral appeals with communal undertones and those claiming the ownership of the military feat of the Indian armed forces. These obviously helped the BJP to project his personae as ‘supreme protector’ of the nation and its people! While the ECI promptly responded to complaints against ‘other’ leaders, it remained extraordinarily reticent on Modi-Shah. It is only when the Supreme Court was seized with this question of non-response and came down heavily on ECI’s plea of inadequacy of powers; the ECI was forced to respond, issuing clean chits to Modi-Shah. Therefore, on all questions, ranging from the duo’s speeches to unlicensed broadcast by the NaMo TV and PM’s address on strike against live satellites, ECI was seen to be providing justification for the government. Therefore, the debate over the credibility of the EVM-VVPAT driven electoral system is not a question in isolation. While there can be no definitive conclusion for abandoning; but there is enough ground to strive for a foolproof solution for verifiability of the electoral system. Therefore, without belittling the need for technology, use and the cost factor, the current EVM- VVPAT system in vogue without further improvements cannot bring this debate to rest in our quest for a free and fair election. Source: PD, 23 June, 2019.
south asia 20 South Asia Timestimes
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JUNE-july 2019
Hard road ahead for Lankan tourism after blasts and riots By P. K. Balachandan
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OLOMBO: The Sri Lankan tourism industry is on the hard road to recovery from the devastation caused by two very violent episodes in April and May and the political crisis which these triggered. The April 21 multiple suicide blasts, allegedly carried out by local affiliates of the Islamic State (IS), had killed 250 persons including 47 foreigners. In mid-May, there were anti-Muslim riots not far from the tourist hub and capital city of Colombo. Both episodes led to political turmoil which, in mid-June, appears to be building up rather than subsiding. All these have put a question mark over the speedy recovery of the tourism industry which is Sri Lanka’s second biggest foreign exchange earner after workers’ remittances from the Middle East. While the government is sanguine about an early revival,trade has a dim view of the immediate prospects. Trade says that the funds and concessions offered to lift the crippled industry do not match the need, and that the political fallout of the blasts do not help change the perception abroad that Sri Lanka is still unsafe. Government says that the industry is likely to recover faster than expected thanks to the relaxation of travel advisories by the developed nations which account for most of the high spending tourists, says Kishu Gomes, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA). “The relaxation of travel advisories by the developed countries will help the sector recover in less than the world average of 13 months,” Gomes told The Citizen. The SLTDA chairman admitted that tourist arrivals had come down by 70% in May (37,000) as compared to the same month in 2018. Arrivals from major contributor, India, which were 34,167 in May 2018, had plummeted to 9,288 this May. “We expect the fall to be 50% in June as compared to June 2018, given the steady improvement in the situation in the country,” he said. The tourism industry accounted for 4.9 percent of Sri Lanka’s GDP in 2018. That year, 2.3 million tourists had visited the island, bringing in about US$ 4.4 billion. That was an increase of nearly
12% from the earnings in 2017. Before the blasts, the government’s aim was to increase the annual arrivals to 2.5 million in 2019 from 2.3 million in 2018, and increase earnings to from US$ 4.4 billion to US$ 5 billion. But reaching the target this year appears to be difficult given the impact of the blasts. In the government’s view, the aid package offered to the devastated industry is adequate, “though industry will also want more,” as Gomes put it. The initial estimate of the loss to the tourism industry was US$ 1.5 billion (as stated by Finance Minister MangalaSamaraweera). But recently, the Economic Reforms Minister Dr.Harsha de Silva put it at Rs.62 billion or about US$ 351 million. It is reported that the State banks have got more than 1000 applications of loans from the tourist industry to the tune of Rs.8 billion. The brunt of the terror strikes was taken by the biggest luxury hotels – Cinnamon Grand, ShangriLa and Kingsbury. It is the big hotels which rake in the moolah for the country. “And it has been government’s policy to develop the high earning sector to the maximum as this sector earns the maximum for the country, though the commitment to encourage the budget and homestay sectors stays,” Gomes pointed out. According to Gomes, Sri Lanka has 90,000 rooms out of which 40,000 are in the small, budget and homestay sector. It is estimated that about 500,000 people are connected to tourism in some way or the other, as shop keepers, owners of restaurants, and householders who offer
home stays and transporters. Taking their families into account, the total number of dependents is one million in a total Lankan population of 21 million. According to the World Bank, the blasts have brought down the Lankan GDP growth rate from 4.5% to 3.5 %. The government has given a one-year moratorium on capital loans; VAT had been reduced from 15% to 7%; and soft loans have been made available from the Enterprise Lanka Fund, Gomes pointed out. The government has set aside Rs.1.5 billion for the small hotel and informal sector, under which come restaurants, shops selling curios and home stay facilities. These could get loans up to Rs.5 lakhs at zero percent interest to be repaid in three years and with a facility for an year’s extension. But these loans can be taken only from the Regional Development Banks. “The industry itself is pulling itself by the bootstraps. We are confident about a quick recovery because of the built-in strengths of the Lankan hospitality industry. We have renowned homegrown hotel companies like Cinnamon Grand, Jetwing, Amaya and Dilmah, which have heightened their marketing overseas,” Gomes pointed out. Cinnamon Grand, Kingsbury and Shangri-La have re-opened. “The small scale sector, as a whole, had not been doing well. But it is encouraging to note that there is a surge in applications for authorized homestay facilities,” Gomes pointed out. The SLTDA chairman drew attention to the fact that the tourism industry has not cancelled any of its programs
lined up for this year. "Sri Lanka will not be beaten by terror. We will take this opportunity to demonstrate to the global media, tour operators, airlines and the world that Sri Lanka is committed to security," Gomes said. It is pointed out that even established tourist destinations have taken more than 13 months to recover. Indonesia took one year to recover from the Bali bombings in 2002. Kenya took two years perhaps because it faced two major incidents in almost two consecutive years in 2013 and 2015. Turkey had taken approximately a year and a half. “Therefore it will redound to our credit if Lanka recovers within 13 months,” Gomes said. The tourism industry, as such, has a dimmer view. It raises the issue of the adequacy of the aid package and of security, or more precisely, “perceptions of security” in the minds of the foreign traveler, especially those wanting to come on a holiday. The Tourist Hotel Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President SanathUkwatte, has asked the government to underwrite the working capital loans amounting to Rs.12 billion for a year, to meet monthly salaries, employees’ benefits, and utilities. THASL complains banks have been reluctant to lend to the small scale sector. Ukwatte quotes Central Bank of Sri Lanka figures to show that it is crucial to bring tourism back to health as it is the second highest foreign exchange earner after inward remittances. The President of the Colombo City Tourist Hotel Association President M.Shanthikumar has pointed
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out that in the lean season (ie: the present season), hotels normally have only 40 to 50% occupancy. But presently, due to the blasts, it is 5 to 10%. Saliya Dayananda of the Cultural Triangle Hoteliers’ Association said that the average earnings had come down from Rs.250,000 per day to Rs.135, 000 for three days. Hashim Mohammad, an inter-city van driver said that he had lost 80% of his custom as he had specialized as a tourist driver. Chandra Mohotti, Senior Vice President of Galle Face Hotels said that the immediate announcement of the involvement of Islamic State (ISIS) in the blasts had heightened the threat perception globally. “Tourists press the panic button when the ISIS mentioned,” he commented. According to Mohotti, more than the actual threat, the popular perception of the threat is more important in determining tourists’ behavior. The anti-Muslim riots after the blasts, and the political instability that intensified as a result of blasts, also created a feeling of insecurity in the minds of tour operators, who could come up alternative destinations, the experience hotelier pointed out. ArunTambimuttu, who owns resorts in Batticaloa, said security is the main concern. “For us, tourism is a question of livelihood. But for the tourist, it is a question of life itself. In the absence of government guarantees, hotels and resorts will themselves have to put in place security arrangements. We in Batticalao are working on this. If all goes well, security will be provided from the time of arrival to departure,” Tambimuttu said. M.Shanthikumar said that bringing down room rates will not bring in custom unless security is guaranteed. Adding another dimension, Chandra Mohotti said that up to date facilities at the airport and domestic air services should be provided. And the industry should come up with innovative products such as circuits for special interest groups. “Destinations don’t remain the same. They keep changing and can be created too,” the veteran hotelier said. Source: thecitizen.in
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ENTERTAINMENT
southSouth asia times 21 Asia Times
SBS launching free-to-air World Movies channel from July 1
By SAT News Desk
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ELBOURNE: Australian movie buffs are in for a bonanza with the SBS launching a national channel dedicated to international cinema with the launch of SBS World Movies free-to-air and in HD, from 1 July 2019. The new channel was previously called World Moviesavailable on Pay TV service Foxtel and SVOD service, Stan. The dedicated 24-hour channel will feature a diverse range of movies reaching all corners of the globe, building on SBS’s long legacy as the home of distinctive and multilingual films. A story in tv.blackbox.com.au says, “While the addition of the new channel will be a boom for movie fans, some viewers may be disappointed to learn the new service will not include Uncut versions of foreign titles. The original World Movies on Foxtel secured a special “narrowcast licence” from the government, allowing the channel to broadcast R-rated films. This will not be allowed for the free-to-air version meaning a number of acclaimed foreign films will have to be edited to an MA15+ standard before broadcast.” “SBS has a long and proud history in distinctive films including the well-known Friday night movies of the '80s, the World Movies channel previously only available via subscription services for almost 25 years, and more recently, our extensive selection on SBS On Demand where our catalogue will be boosted by the movies we acquire for this new channel. SBS World Movies free-to-air is an exciting next step in the evolution of our film offering,” says a SBS media release. SBS Managing Director, James Taylor, said: “Movies provide people with the opportunity to escape to worlds outside of our own, with stories that entertain and inspire us, make us think, laugh and even cry. International cinema does this in a truly unique way, and has been an important part of SBS’s offering for decades,
giving Australians the opportunity to delve into cultures through cinematic masterpieces captivating audiences around the world. “People come to SBS for content they don’t find anywhere else. SBS World Movies has a proud tradition of showcasing the best international films, reflecting the diversity of global cinema, and we’re excited to further evolve this offering and make it available to all Australians for free this July.” According to the SBS media release, “SBS World Movies will be a celebration of the diversity of global cinema with at least half the titles on the channel in a language other than English, and featuring everything from European art-house films to the best of Bollywood cinema, romantic comedies to anime, award-winning favourites, acclaimed new releases, and much more.” “The channel will broadcast more than 700 films each year, with international titles including recent award winning and critically acclaimed films such as Amanda (France), The 12th Man (Norway), Just A Breath Away (France, pictured second from left), Ash is the Purest White (China, pictured above left), Aligarh (India, pictured above, right), Girl (Belgium), Killing of a Sacred Deer (UK, pictured above second from right), and many more. Launch titles will be announced in the coming weeks, “the media release says. SBS World Movies will also feature curated seasons of special programming to mark cultural events, festivals and celebrations such as Diwali, Lunar New Year, International Women’s Day and Mardi Gras. Each week, the schedule will feature a Women in Film doublebills, as well as Festival Favourites and a showcase of films from countries with emerging film industries. SBS World Movies will broadcast in HD on channel 32 alongside SBS’s existing channels, SBS, SBS VICELAND, SBS Food and NITV. SBS World Movies will also be SBS’s third HD channel. Sources: SBS Media release SBS site and tv.blackbox.com.au
Sangeet Sandhya Open forum for music lovers – classical, semi-classical & film music
Saturday 2.2.19 Saturday 6.4.19 Saturday 1.6.19 Saturday 3.8.19 Saturday 5.10.19 Saturday 7.12.19 -
Gia Pndit (vocal) TBA Shraddhanand Reddy (vocal) Hashmat (vocal) Radhey Shyam Gupta (sitar) Shubhangi Pandey (vocal)
Swar Sandhya Open forum for music lovers; Karaoke – Popular Indian Music Bring your own music, perform and enjoy
Saturday 5.1.19 Saturday 4.5.19 Saturday 7.9.19
Saturday 2.3.19 Saturday 6.7.19 Saturday 2.11.19
Venue: Brandon Park Primary School,
Time: 8.00pm
1-5 Ninevah Cr Wheelers Hill Free Entry, with ample parking, Free tea, coffee and biscuits Contact: Phone- 0402 074 208 or 0407 559 113 email- sangeetswarsandhya@gmail.com www.facebook.com/sangeetsandhya
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south asia 22 South Asia Timestimes
By Emily Thampoe
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NITED NATIONS, Jun 17 2019 (IPS) - In a world that is becoming more and more industrial by the day, air pollution appears to be on the rise. While there have been efforts in major cities to combat the grave effects that pollution can have on the overall health of its citizens, there is still more progress to be made. Karen Beck Pooley, a Professor of Practice of Political Science and the Director of Lehigh University’s Environmental Policy Design program, told IPS: “One thing that we’ve always known but we haven’t paid as much attention to until fairly recently is the degree to which people’s immediate environments affect their health.” The importance of recognising air pollution as a prevalent problem was emphasised by the theme of the recent 2019 World Environment Day, with official celebrations held in this year’s host country, China. Additionally, reports such as the one released
recently in Sarajevo, and titled “Air Pollution and Human Health: The Case of the Western Balkans”, highlighted the adverse effects on the public. Talking on the implications of air pollution, Catriona Brady, Head of the World Green Building Council’s Better Places for People campaign told IPS that, “air pollution is considered to be the biggest environmental threat to human health today”. “Research shows that over 90% of people across the world are exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution, which includes both the population in big cities and small communities. The effect this pollution has on citizen health is quite horrifying – studies suggest that almost every organ of the human body can be affected by toxic airborne particles, and this is resulting in an approximate 7 million premature deaths each year.” Pooley notes that the actual planning of cities can have an impact on the amount of pollution produced, saying that, “The way we build our cities and the way people organise
ENVIRONMENT
their lives in them, affect how much we need car travel or truck traffic. Or environmentally dirty things that we need like trash facilities and where these things are located and who’s living in the midst of the effects of those things.” While there are positive plans, such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to phase out coal usage in his country by 2030 or Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s plan to ban single-use plastics from being used in the country’s national parks, there are also efforts being made on both smaller and larger scales worldwide. Pooley observes that, ““At the moment, most of the environmental conservation work and attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and things of that nature are coming from cities.” Brady says that her organisation, “has embarked on a global ‘Air Quality in Built Environment’ campaign, in partnership with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. “With this work we’ve been raising awareness about the role of buildings and cities in generating
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emissions and air pollution, both inside and outside of buildings, and highlighting strategies that can be valuable to mitigate these. Step one is monitoring – as we can’t reduce what we can’t measure.” She also said: “We’re advocating for the roll out of air quality monitors to provide detailed data on emissions across the world. With this data we’re equipped with the necessary information to lobby our policy makers to make changes needed to clean up our energy grid, buildings, and air quality.” Pooley states that citizens can make small changes that will be helpful as well. “Cutting down on car travel can be a big help, because so much pollution comes from cars. So, the more places that are walkable and bikeable and the more trips that are made by something other than cars, the less pollution we’ll have.” Day to day actions can be quite helpful but having policies put in place may also help deter the harmful effects that poor air quality is having on the lives of those who inhabit such areas. Brady suggests
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something similar, while also maintaining that citizen action is important. Policy initiatives – such as the recent London Ultra Low Emission Zone – can help catalyse action towards clean air. Policy enforcement around energy generation, building energy efficiency, construction practices, transport, waste and many other factors are vital to preserve citizen health. “But the role of the citizen is also important; reducing the emissions from our lifestyle in terms of energy consumption and choices, diet, and transport methods are all achievable for the individual,” said Brady. “And if you’re worried about being exposed to pollution by cycling or walking to work, then it’s worth knowing that you’re generally exposed to far higher levels of pollutants in a car in traffic or in an underground system!” With world leaders proposing plans to help deter ruinous environmental effects and with cities implementing new policies to help out, it is clear that progress is being made in helping to create cleaner environments to live in.
JUNE-july 2019
INDIA POLL ANALYSIS
southSouth asia times 23 Asia Times
Despite NDA gaining 5%, geography of its votes only 'marginally' changed in five years By Christophe Z Guilmoto*
away from the Hindi belt, the states where Hindi is used as lingua franca. In such areas, local parties, including the Congress and Communist parties, fight against each other for local dominance and the BJP’s nationalist and conservative agenda appears somewhat irrelevant to Hindu voters.
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uch ink has already been spilled on the 2019 general elections in India. The sheer scale of the triumph of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the defeat of the Indian National Congress (INC) has impressed commentators as the NDA, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), gained 353 seats among the total of 542 seats in the Lok Sabha (the Indian parliament). The NDA has secured seats in almost all Indian states and the BJP clearly ceased to be the strictly north Indian party it once was. In this paper, we want to show how a formal spatial analysis of the election results shows the unique geographical footprint of the BJP vote and how its recent progression follows obvious spatial patterns. The strength of the BJP in the Lok Sabha does not reflect its real vote share. India’s “first-past-the-post” electoral system favours the largest parties, and as a result, the strength of the BJP and its allies in the parliament (63% of 542 seats) does not reflect its vote share (45%). This system also grants an advantage to smaller regional parties since their electors are geographically concentrated, as illustrated in Punjab, West Bengal, or Andhra Pradesh. Keeping these features in mind, it is important to examine the actual percentage of votes won by the NDA rather than just the distribution of seats. Our map shows the share of votes for the NDA based on the official data published by Ashoka University, with additional information on the NDA Lok Sabha seats. A heterogeneity of voting behaviour The map first shows the heterogeneity of voting behaviour across India, with scores by the NDA ranging from less than 5% in the south to more than 70% in its strongholds of Western India. Yet in spite of the NDA progressing nationwide by more than 5%, the geography of its votes has only marginally changed over the last five years. Unlike in regional elections characterised by the “antiincumbency” phenomenon – when voters express their dissatisfaction against the incumbent party by voting
against it – the NDA retained the vast majority of seats obtained in 2014. The highest NDA scores remain concentrated in a few states of western and northern India, the coalition having in particular gained all the seats in a single regional block, stretching from Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarkhand in the northwest to Rajasthan and Gujarat. When studied through the lens of spatial analysis, the singular geographical impact of the NDA vote appears unmistakable. Constituencies influencing each other The national index of spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s I, which measures the strength of similarities between adjacent observations), has reached 0.73: this means that the correlation between NDA votes in one constituency and those in the neighbouring constituencies is as high as 73%. This is a very strong level of spatial dependence compared to other social, religious or economic indicators, which confirms the pronounced geographic patterning of the NDA votes in 2019. This stable and regular distribution of voting behaviour contradicts the proverbial volatility of India’s regional politics last illustrated in 2018, when the BJP lost the local elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. This geographic structure also demonstrates that these spatial patterns owe less to the vagaries of local political coalitions and candidates than suggested by media reports. In addition, the NDA vote has spread over the years to new regions of India, loosening up the geographical concentration around its
historical bastions. Votes for the coalition are now more evenly distributed from one constituency to the next, mirroring the gradual regional spread of the BJP’s influence toward the east and the south. The index of spatial autocorrelation has in fact increased since 2014 (I=0.69) and previous research shows that it has been on the increase since 1999 (I=0.43). Discontinuity Yet if you look closer, you can still distinguish areas of distinct spatial discontinuity, which are contiguous constituencies where the NDA strength drops significantly. The most pronounced discontinuity line corresponds to southern and eastern Karnataka, a state where the NDA recorded an almost flawless victory: its vote share abruptly falls from around 50% to less than 20% when one crosses the boundaries to Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The NDA share declines slightly less dramatically in Tamil Nadu, thanks to its local alliance with the local AIADMK. Similar steep declines in voting shares are also on display in the northeast (Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim) as well in the Muslim-dominated constituencies of Kashmir. The NDA percentage also drops by half when one enters Andhra Pradesh from Odisha or Punjab from neighbouring Rajasthan and Haryana. These cases of discontinuity contradict the otherwise high level of spatial autocorrelation highlighted earlier and points to the presence of strong regional parties that rejected any alliance with the BJP or to the presence of strong social heterogeneity along religious or ethnic lines. More broadly, this corresponds to vigorous regional political traditions
Several islands of organised resistance Apart from these clear-cut regional break lines acting as barriers to the progression of the BJP-led alliance, the map also points to several islands of organised resistance to the NDA. Three small such clusters of nonNDA MPs emerge in BJPdominated states: two in northwest and eastern Uttar Pradesh and one in western Maharashtra. Note the near absence of isolated non-NDA constituency in northern India. The resistance to the pressure of the NDA’s campaigning and ideology is organised around local bastions in which opposition parties have been able to preserve a dense network of politicians and activists. The combined strength of mobilization in adjacent localities and consistencies appears crucial for political survival in front of the BJP juggernaut. Do these spatial patterns correspond to unchanging features of Indian politics? The relatively stable contours of the BJP votes over several elections and the permanence of its strongholds would suggest so. Securing peripheral regions to build a new political geography Our mapping also points to the interesting geography of the NDA’s recent progression since 2014. New seats taken by the NDA coalition in 2019 are not randomly distributed on the map and illustrate its spatial diffusion away from the BJP core areas. For instance, the NDA had gained its new sets in peripheral Karnataka, with two new seats in the northeast and five in its southeast tip. Similarly, the seven new seats grabbed in Bihar by the NDA in 2019 are all located in the state’s most eastern tracts next to West Bengal while the five seats gained in the northeast form a contiguous block from Manipur to southern Tripura. The BJP’s foray into West Bengal (eight seats gained)
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follows clear spatial patterns from adjacent states to the south of the state, with the Kolkata metropolitan area now encircled. The NDA has also gained ground in Telangana (three new seats) from its porous northwest border with Madhya Pradesh and in western Odisha (four new seats) from nearby Jharkhand. It notably established for the first time a bridgehead by reaching the Bay of Bengal in northern Odisha (two new seats).
Grassroots organisations at the forefront With the exception of south India’s current sanitary cordon, this geographical propagation is a unique feature of the BJP’s progress over the last three decades. It is very different from the segmented regional patterns of the Congress vote, which are scattered over India, with strongholds in the north, the south and east. It also underscores the role of local processes of political conversion through grassroots organisations, in addition to the national media blitz and regional coalition building. As to the tight barriers to BJP progression in southern India, there is no reason to believe that they will withstand indefinitely the pressure from India’s hegemonic party. Not only could the BJP join forces with local partners – as it did in Andhra Pradesh in 2014 and Tamil Nadu in 2019 – but also the spatial divides noticeable earlier along the West Bengal or the Telangana borders seem to have all but collapsed during the latest election. It is time to recognise the map of the NDA’s electoral success for what it is: the signature of a successful diffusion drive of a consistent political ideology across the country that might, in the absence of organised resistance, incorporate in the near future more territories of south and east India. Without a consistent spatial perspective, we risk losing sight of its actual momentum. *Senior fellow in demography, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France. This paper was first published in The Conversation. Republished under the Creative Commons license.
south asia 24 South Asia Timestimes Sydney Film festival
JUNE-july 2019
Sydney Film festival award winners announced at the closing night gala By SAT News Desk
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YDNEY, The 66th Sydney Film Festival tonight awarded Parasite by renowned Korean Director Bong Joon-ho the prestigious Sydney Film Prize, out of a selection of 12 Official Competition films. The $60,000 cash prize for 'audacious, cuttingedge and courageous' film was awarded to Bong Joon-ho at the Festival’s Closing Night Gala awards ceremony and event at the State Theatre, ahead of the Australian Premiere screening of rock ’n’ roll comedy Yesterday. Accepting the award, Bong Joon-ho said: “This Festival is really amazing, especially the audience… really special and extraordinary. This is the most meaningful prize for me - in this beautiful city and beautiful theatre, and one of the most beautiful audiences in the world.” Indigenous director Erica Glynn was awarded the Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary’s $10,000 cash prize for She Who Must Be Obeyed Loved, a celebration of the life of her mother, the trailblazing Indigenous filmmaker Alfreda Glynn. Charles Williams took out both the $7000 cash prize for the Dendy Live Action Short Award, and the $7000 RoubenMamoulian Award for Best Director in Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films, for All These Creatures, which also won the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes. The $5000 Yoram Gross Animation Award went to Lee Whitmore’s Sohrab and Rustum. The Event Cinemas Australian Short Screenplay Award, a $5000 prize for the best short screenwriting, was awarded to Michael Hudson of Ties That Bind, for its narrative simplicity and complex perspective on family violence. Victoria Hunt’s film Take received a Special Mention for its weaving of found material and dance into a powerful story about the repatriation of stolen Indigenous art. The $10,000 Sydney-
UNESCO City of Film Award, bestowed by Create NSW to a trail-blazing NSWbased screen practitioner, went to Darren Dale and Rachel Perkins of Blackfella Films, with Deborah Mailman presenting the award to filmmaker Rachel Perkins. Minister for the Arts Don Harwin said: “Since the 2009 increase in NSW Government support, this truly impressive cultural event has grown by over 80% in attendance and scale to become one of the leading international Film Festivals operating around the world today. Across the past 12 days, we have supported 22 titles shown: from Opening Night’s Palm Beach, Judy and Punch, Lambs of God through to the Screenability shorts.” “One of the great things about this Festival is that it lives on across regional centres over the course of the year ahead. Through the Travelling Film Festival, this year eight NSW locations will enjoy
highlights as part of the tour, starting in Newcastle next weekend. We will also add five additional locations in 2020. It’s all part of the NSW Government’s expanded $5 million funding commitment over the next four years,” he said. Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore said: “As it proves year after year, Sydney Film Festival is an irresistible drawcard and a great standard-bearer for Sydney’s life and culture. The many venues across the City were crowded with avid film-goers whether here, or at the Dendy Cinemas in Newtown and Opera Quays, or the Art Gallery and outdoor screen in Pitt Street Mall.” “From the Adam Goodes film, The Final Quarter, which has rightfully stirred so many consciences, to tonight’s closing screening, Yesterday, the Festival has brought so much great cinema to its audiences,” she said. Sydney Film Festival
CEO Leigh Small said: “There were many sold out sessions – 160 – across the Festival this year, which had the highest attendance to date of 188,000.” Sydney Film Festival Director NashenMoodley said: “This year, the Festival presented a great number of superb films from emerging and acclaimed filmmakers like Bong Joon-ho who was with us at the festival to present Parasite. Our juries have been nothing short of astonished by the calibre of storytelling. It’s a testament of the Festival’s spirit of championing impactful films that leave lasting impressions, long after you’ve left the cinema.” “From impassioned standing ovations to wonderful red carpets graced with screen icons, these 12 days have seen filmmakers from across the globe and eager Festival audiences alike laughing and crying together, celebrating important
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stories that deserve to be told.” THE SYDNEY FILM PRIZE On awarding the Sydney Film Prize to renowned Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, Jury President John Maynard said: “Parasite has an outrageous disregard for genre conventions – it is tender and brutal; beautiful and harsh; funny and tragic and a masterwork in its exploration of class.” Winner of the Palme d'Or, Bong Joon-ho’s followup to Okja (SFF 2017) is a thrilling, satirical take on income inequality as told through two families. The Festival Jury was comprised of Australian producer John Maynard (Jury President); Australian filmmaker Ana Kokkinos (Blessed, SFF 2019); actor and director from Brazil, Wagner Moura (Marighella, SFF 2019); from New Zealand, filmmaker Gaylene Preston (My Year with Helen, SFF 2017); and CONTD. ON PG 25
JUNE-july 2019
asia times 25 Sydney Film festival southSouth Asia Times
Sydney Film festival award winners announced at the closing night gala CONTD. FROM PG 24 Indian artist and filmmaker Ritu Sarin (The Sweet Requiem, SFF 2019). Previous winners include: The Heiresses (2018), On Body and Soul (2017), Aquarius (2016), Arabian Nights (2015); Two Days, One Night (2014); Only God Forgives (2013); Alps (2012); A Separation (2011); Heartbeats (2010); Bronson (2009); and Hunger (2008). The competition is endorsed by FIAPF, the regulating body for international film festivals, and is judged by a jury of five international and Australian filmmakers and industry professionals. THE DOCUMENTARY AUSTRALIA FOUNDATION AWARD FOR AUSTRALIAN DOCUMENTARY The Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary was awarded to She Who Must Be Obeyed Loved from Indigenous filmmaker Erica Glynn. The Jury comprising Australian filmmaker Robert Nugent, Chinese director Jialing Zhang (One Child Nation, SFF 2019), and producer Toni Stowers in a joint statement said: “This year’s collection of Australian documentaries has taken us across the world and deeper into Australia.” “We would like to emphasize how difficult it was to make a final decision with such passionate films. We would like to thank all the filmmakers for sharing thought-provoking stories that make us laugh, cry, disagree and care. The beauty of storytelling lies in its creative diversity yet sadly we have to pick one winner.” “The film is a reminder of the continued work and importance that of reflective representation of Indigenous communities to all platforms of media. Traversing through very personal and dark moments, the documentary is a poignant yet intimate firsthand testament, yet still find moments to laugh.” “It’s a gracious and closeto the-heart documentary that encompasses both the strength and spirit of Freda Glynn, a pioneer of
Indigenous film and TV. The filmmaker’s dance between both personal and social history and the importance of recognising and recording all experiences and not leaving anyone behind.” Kaye Harrison’s Sanctuary received a Special Mention, for its bold yet intimate look at the traumas of punitive borderprotection institutions and bureaucratic policies caused in asylum seekers. 2019 marks the sixth year the prize has been supported by the Foundation. Previous winners include: Ghosthunter (2018), The Pink House (2017), In the Shadow of the Hill (2016); Only the Dead (2015); 35 Letters (2014); Buckskin (2013); Killing Anna (2012); Life in Movement (2011); and The Snowman (2010). In 2009 the inaugural prize was shared between Contact and A Good Man, and each film received a $10,000 cash prize. The 12 finalists for the 2019 Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary are listed
HERE. THE DENDY AWARDS FOR AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILMS A jury comprising Australian film editor Dany Cooper (Judy & Punch, SFF 2019), New Zealand International Film Festival former Director Bill Gosden, and Macedonian filmmaker TeonaStrugarMitevska (God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya, SFF 2019) judged the festival’s short film awards. The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films were awarded to Charles Williams for All These Creatures (Dendy Live Action Short Award, and RoubenMamoulian Award for Best Director), and Lee Whitmore for Sohrab and Rustum (Yoram Gross Animation Award). The Festival’s short-film competition celebrates its 50th year in 2019; and has been sponsored by Dendy Cinemas for over 30 years. Winners of the Best Live Action Short Film award and the Yoram Gross Animation award, sponsored by Yoram Gross Films, are Academy Award-eligible, opening new pathways for many
Australian filmmakers. These ground-breaking awards have kick-started the careers of many prominent filmmakers, with past competitors Warwick Thornton, Ariel Kleiman, Cate Shortland, Jane Campion, Phillip Noyce and Ivan Sen among Dendy Awards alumni. EVENT CINEMAS AUSTRALIAN SHORT SCREENPLAY AWARD The Event Cinemas Australian Short Screenplay Award was awarded to Michael Hudson, director of Ties That Bind, for its narrative simplicity and complex perspective on family violence. Victoria Hunt’s film Take received a Special Mention for its weaving of found material and dance into a powerful story about the repatriation of stolen Indigenous art. Sponsored by Event Cinemas, Luke Mackey, General Manager of Operations, Australian Cinema Circuit at Event Cinemas said: “Event Cinemas is once again proud to be a partner of the Sydney Film Festival and to once again sponsor the Screenplay Award.
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Film begins with the story, words, characters and the world created by the writer. We congratulate all nominees this year and look forward to seeing this years talented writers become important story tellers that will shape our cinema experiences in years to come.” The Australian short films eligible for the 2019 Event Cinemas Australian Short Screenplay Award are listed HERE. Winners of all Sydney Film Festival awards are presented with the Festival’s signature mesmeric swirl award, designed and handmade in Sydney by Festival partners Dinosaur Designs. The UNESCO Sydney City of Film Award The $10,000 SydneyUNESCO City of Film Award, bestowed by Create NSW to a trail-blazing NSWbased screen practitioner, went to Darren Dale and Rachel Perkins of Blackfella Films, with Deborah Mailman presenting the award to filmmaker Rachel Perkins. Source: Sydney Film Festival media release, Jun 16, 2019.
south asia 26 South Asia Timestimes
SPORTS
JUNE-july 2019
Global business leader Indra Nooyi calls on Australia to fill the MCG on International Women’s Day 2020 By SAT News Desk
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ELBOURNE, 20 June: Globallyrecognised business leader and International Cricket Council Director IndraNooyi has put out a rallying cry for Australia and the world to celebrate equality and empowerment at next year’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Australia 2020. Mrs. Nooyi, twice named on TIME’s global list of ‘100 Most Influential People’ and visiting Australia this week for speaking engagements, was taken on tours of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Sydney Cricket Ground, which will host the final and semi-finals of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup respectively, to be played across six host cities from 21 February – 8 March 2020. Speaking from the middle of the MCG, which will host the final on Sunday 8 March, International Women’s Day, Mrs. Nooyi discussed the ambition of breaking the world attendance record for a women’s sporting fixture, which is currently set at 90,185. “If you're not here at the MCG on 8th March 2020, watching the Women's Final, you're missing something incredibly special because
it's going to be a major turning point for women's sport,” said Mrs. Nooyi. “We’re going to bring all of the fans of cricket and women's sports together here to say, ‘let's celebrate women, let's celebrate the game of cricket, let's celebrate the finals.’ So I'd actually issue a call to all people interested in women's sports and cricket in particular, ‘Make sure you buy your tickets, now!’ Blockbuster doubleheader semi-finals will be played at the iconic SCG on Thursday 5 March 2020. Speaking about the impact of full venues for the semi-finals and final, Mrs. Nooyi said; “Families would be out here, women would be out here, a lot of young people would be out here, because they're going to look and say, ‘I too can be that person on the field. I too can achieve greatness.’ I think it's the most aspirational event on March 8th and I want to be sitting there with tears rolling down my eyes saying, ‘We made it!” Mrs Nooyi, the former Chair and CEO of PepsiCo, was recently named to Amazon's board of directors, and in 2018 was appointed to the International Cricket Council board as its first
independent female director. Victoria's Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Martin Pakula, said: “As the first woman to serve on the board of the International Cricket Council, Indra is a gamechanger for international cricket. “I welcome her to Melbourne on behalf of the Andrews Labor Government, as we continue our efforts to level the playing field for women and girls at all levels.” “We’d love to see the MCG full for the women’s final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 on International Women’s Day and Indra’s support will strengthen our chances of realising that ambition.” In 2020, Australia will host two ICC T20 World Cups, with the women’s and men’s tournaments to be played as standalone events across Australia: ICC Women’s T20WC: 21 Feb – 8 Mar 2020 ICC Men’s T20WC: 18 Oct – 15 Nov 2020 Tickets to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup are on sale now at tickets. t20worldcup.com with adult prices from $20 and all kid’s tickets are $5. Tickets to the men’s event will go on sale later in 2020.
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SPORTS
JUNE-july 2019
southSouth asia times 27 Asia Times
Indian Women’s Hockey team beat Japan 3-1 to win the FIH Women’s Series Finals Hiroshima 2019
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iroshima (Japan), 23 June 2019: An impressive Indian Women’s Hockey team on Sunday won the FIH Women’s Series Finals Hiroshima 2019 after defeating hosts Japan 3-1 in the Final held here at the Hiroshima Hockey Stadium. The Indian team was helped by an early goal from Captain Rani in the 3rd minute, but conceded an equalizer in the 11th minute as Japan’s Kanon Mori scored. A brace from Gurjit Kaur scored in the 45th and 60th minutes saw India register an emphatic victory. The World No. 9 Indian team had already qualified for the FIH Olympic Qualifiers 2019 on Saturday after securing a place in the Final of the competition. A fantastic start to the first quarter for India saw them take the lead in only the 3rd minute as Captain Rani stepped up to score from her team’s first Penalty Corner. The Indian skipper struck the ball sweetly along the ground and beat the Japanese Goalkeeper Akio Tanaka on her right side to give India a 1-0 advantage. India’s dominance saw them win their second Penalty Corner in the 9th minute, but the team gave a foul away in the execution. Japan were unable to create opportunities for themselves as they could only manage two circle entries in the entire first 15 minutes. But, when they did enter the circle
on the second occasion, the Japanese forwardline combined to score an equalizer from their very first shot at goal. It was Japan’s Sakurako Omoto who picked up the ball at the 25-yard line, and played in a pass on the right flank to Yuri Nagai on the baseline, who then played a pass across goal which was successfully deflected by Kanon Mori onto the Indian Goalkeeper Savita, who could not react in time and conceded the goal. The second quarter also saw India maintain possession which saw Forward VandanaKatariya miss a glorious opportunity in the 18th minute as she picked up a loose clearance from just outside the striking circle, and ran into
it to take a strike, but her shot went just wide of the post across goal. Japan, on the other hand, also started to get into their rhythm, and tried to create chances by using the flanks, but India’s defensive cohesion made sure that they did not concede again. World No. 9 India controlled possession well as they made 5 circle entries compared to Japan’s zero. The likes of SushilaChanuPukhrambam and LilimaMinz stepped up to help break Japanese attacks, and rotated the ball comfortably to create opportunities for India. However, a better performance by the Japanese defense in the final few minutes of the second quarter meant that both the teams went into the half-
time break level at 1-1. India stepped up their attacking flair again in the opening minutes of the third quarter winning two Penalty Corners, but could not convert them into a second goal. Both the teams tried to look to take the important lead, with Japan making two circle entries and getting two shots away, while India made 8 entries and took 5 shots. However, the last of those 5 shots was the one which gave India the lead as constant pressure on the Japanese in the latter stages of the third quarter saw India win another Penalty Corner through Captain Rani. It was dragflicker Gurjit Kaur who was India’s saviour yet again as she dispatched the ball into the top left corner of the
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Japanese goal to give her side a 2-1 lead in the 45th minute. India managed the fourth quarter well as they maintained possession in the initial minutes with Navneet Kaur and Rani having opportunities to seal the victory with a third goal but their efforts were kept out by the Japanese Goalkeeper. But on the other side of the field, India defended well from Penalty Corners to avoid conceding an equalizer. With just five minutes remaining in the match, Japan decided to take off their Goalkeeper for an extra outfield player, and that helped them in creating some opportunities, however, it also worked against them in the last minute of the match as Gurjit Kaur, the Top Scorer of the Tournament, scored her second goal of the match through a Penalty Corner to make it 3-1 and wrap up the victory for India. The list of award winners from the Indian Women’s Hockey Team: Best Player of the FIH Women’s Series Finals Hiroshima 2019: Rani Top-Scorer of the FIH Women’s Series Finals Hiroshima 2019: Gurjit Kaur The Indian Women’s Hockey Team have qualified for the FIH Olympic Qualifiers 2019 set to take place later this year, which is a qualifying event for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Source: hockeyindia.org
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11AM-12 PM SATURDAY Sinhalese............................ 7 am to 8 am – 92.3 FM TAMIL TSydney amil..................................... 12-12.30 97.7 FM & SBS Radio 2 pm – 88.3 FM Indian.................................... 5 am to 62am - 92.3 FM Melbourne 93.1 FM & SBS Radio Sun, Mon, Wed, Sat Punjabi.......................................... 12-2 am – 92.3 FM 8-9 PM Indian................................ 9 pm to 10 pm – 92.3 FM Punjabi.................................................. 11 pm to 1 am urdu Sydney 97.7 FM & SBS Radio24/7 2 Radio stations Melbourne FM & SBS Radio (Subscription) 2 Indian Link93.1 Radio Wednesday & Sunday 18000 15 8 47 6-7 PM Radio Santa Banta (Internet) Santabanta.com.au WORLD NEWS AUSTRALIA RADIO SydneyJhankar 1107AM88.6 & SBSFM; Radio 1 Thursday; 8 to Radio Every Melbourne 1224AM & SBS Radio 1 10 pm; Contact: 94668900 or 0411247320 or Monday & Friday 9404 2111 6-7 am & 6-7 PM
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PLACES OF WORSHIP HINDU Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple 57 Boundary Rd, Carrum Downs, Melbourne, Vic 3201, Ph: 03 9782 0878; Fax: 03 9782 0001 Website: www.hsvshivavishnu.org.au Sri Vakratunda Vinayaka Temple 1292 - 1294, The Mountain Highway, The Basin, Vic 3154, Ph: 03 9792 1835 Melbourne Murugan Temple 17-19 Knight Ave., Sunshine VIC 3020 Ph: 03 9310 9026 Durga Temple (Durga Bhajan Mandali) Neales Road, Rockbank, Vic 3335 Ph: 03 9747 1628 or Mobile: 0401 333 738 Hare Krishna (ISKCON) Temple 197 Danks Street, Middle Park Vic 3206 Ph: (03) 9699 5122 Email: 100237.354@compuserve.com Hare Krishna New Nandagram Rural Community Oak Hill, Dean’s Marsh Rd., Bambra VIC 3241, Ph: (052) 887383 Fax: (052) 887309 Kundrathu Kumaran Temple 139 Gray Court, ROCKBANK Victoria 3335 Ph: 03-9747 1135 or M: 0450 979 023 http://www.kumarantemple.org.au/ Sankat Mochan Temple 1289 A North Road. Huntingdale Morning: 10.30 am – 12.30 pm daily Evening: 4:30 pm – 8.00 pm daily Site: http: www.sankatmochan.org.au Contact: 0427 274 462 Shirdi Sai Sansthan 32 Hailey Avenue, Camberwell Vic 3124;Ph: (03) 9889 2974; Site: shirdisai.net.au Sai Baba Temple, 50 Camberwell Road Aum Sai Sansthan Temple 76 Albert Street (Enter From : Bear Street) MORDIALLOC VIC - 3195 Website : www.aumsai.org.au Contact : 0468 362 644
SIKH BLACKBURN Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha 127 Whitehorse Road, Blackburn VICTORIA 3130, Ph: (03) 9894 1800 CRAIGIEBURN Sri Guru Singh Sabha 344 Hume Highway, Craigieburn VICTORIA 3164 (see map), Ph: (03) 9305 6511 KEYSBOROUGH Gurdwara Sri Guru Granth Sahib 198 -206 Perry Road, Keysborough VICTORIA 3073 (see map) LYNBROOK Nanaksar Taath, 430 Evans Road,
Lynbrook VICTORIA 3975, (03) 9799 1081 HOPPERS CROSSING Sri Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha 417 Sayers Road, Hoppers Crossing VICTORIA 3029, Ph: (03) 9749 2639 WERRIBEE Gurdwara Sahib Werribee 560 Davis Road, Tarneit VICTORIA 3029 PH: (03) 8015 4707 SHEPPARTON Gurdwara Sahib Shepparton 240 Doyles Road, Shepparton VICTORIA 3603 PH: (03) 5821 9309
JAIN Melbourne Shwetambar Jain Sangh Inc 3 Rice Street, Moorabbin, Vic - 3189, Australia. Phone: +61 3 9555 2439 info@melbournejainsangh.org http://www.melbournejainsangh.org
MUSLIM Melbourne West Mosque 66-68 Jeffcott Street, Melbourne Ph: 03 9328 2067 Broadmeadows Mosque 45-55 King Street, Broadmeadows Ph 03 9359 0054 Islamic Call Society 19 Michael Street, Brunswick Ph: 03 9387 7100 Islamic Centre of Australia 660 Sydney Road, Brunswick Ph 03 9385 8423 Australian Islamic Cultural Centre 46-48 Mason Street, Campbellfield Ph: 03 9309 7605 Coburg ISNA Mosque 995 Sydney Road, Coburg North Coburg Mosque (Fatih Mosque) 31 Nicholson Street, Coburg Ph 03 9386 5324 Deer Park Mosque 283 Station Road, Deer Park Ph 03 9310 8811 United Migrant Muslim Assn. 72 George Road, Doncaster Ph 03 9842 6491, Footscray West Mosque 294 Essex Street, Footscray Glenroy Musala 1st Floor, 92 Wheatsheaf Road, Glenroy Heidelberg Mosque Corner Lloyd & Elloits Streets, West Heidelberg Islamic College of Victoria (Mosque) 201 Sayers Road, Hoppers Crossing Ph 03 9369 6010 Huntingdale Mosque 320-324 Huntingdale Road, Huntingdale Ph 03 9543 8037 Al Nur Mosque 34-36 Studley Street, Maidstone Meadow Heights Mosque Hudson Circuit, Meadow Heights Springvale Mosque 68 Garnworthy Street, Springvale
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EMERGENCY CONTACTS EMERGENCY CONTACTS Police, Fire & Abulance ........................ 000 Victoria State Emergency Service (SES)....................................... 132 500 Traffic hazards and freeway conditions.......................... 13 11 70 Gas escape........................................... 132 771 Poisons information........................ 13 11 26 Maternal and Child Line................ 13 22 29 Parentline........................................... 13 22 89 Kids Help Line......................... 1800 551 800 Lifeline (provides confidential telephone counselling)................. 13 11 14 Suicide Help Line.................... 1300 651 251 Animal Emergencies.................. 9224 2222
INDIAN CONSULATE Indian Consulate Address: 344, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia P.O. Box No: 33247 Domain LPO Vic 3004 Consular Enquiries: +61-3-9682 5800 (9.30am-12.30noon only) General Enquiries (other than Consular): +61-3- 9682 7836 Fax No:+ 61-3- 9696 8251 Email: consular@cgimelb.org Web site: www.cgimelb.org Indian Consulate Consular services are handled by VFS Global Visa / Passport / PCC / IDLV / PIO / OCI services contact VFS +61 2 8223 9909. Address: Part 4 Suite, Level 12, 55 Swanston Street, Melbourne VIC 3000 Site : www.vfsglobal.com/india/australia/ Services handled by Indian Consulate Melbourne itself: OCI Misc. services, Registration of Birth, Birth Certificate, Renunciation of Indian Citizenship, Surrender of Indian Passport, New Passport Details on PIO, Transfer of Valid Visas, Marriage Certificate, Affidavit for Applying Child’s Passport in India, Documents Attestation.) Student Welfare Officer in the Indian Consulate Melbourne Consulate General of India, Melbourne Address: 344, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC – 3000 Phone: 03-96826203 Fax: 03-96968251 Email: cgo@cgimelb.org Website: www.cgimelb.orgExternal website that opens in a new window Contact person for Students welfare: Mr. Nirmal K. Chawdhary Designation: Deputy Consul General Mobile: 0430020828
HIGH COMMISSION FOR PAKISTAN,CANBERRA 4 Timbarra Crescent, O’Malley ACT 2606 (Australia), Tel: 61-2-62901676, 61-2-62901676, 62902769, 62901879 & 62901031, Fax: 61-262901073 Email: parepcanberra@internode. on.net, Postal Address: PO Box 684, Mawson ACT 2607 (Australia)
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contd from previous page Suite 536, No 1 Queens Road,
Sri Lanka Consulate Melbourne VIC 3004 Telephone: +61 3 9290 4200 Fax: +61 3 9867 4873 Email:mail@slcgmel.org Web: http://www.slcgmel.org
Bangladesh High Commission, Canberra 43, Culgoa Circuit, O’Malley, ACT-2606 Canberra, Australia, Ph: (61-2) 6290-0511, (61-2) 6290-0522, (61-2)6290-0533 (Auto hunting). Fax : (61-2) 6290-0544 E-Mail :hoc@bhcanberra.com
Consulate of Nepal, Melbourne Email: cyonzon@nepalconsulate.net.au Level 7, 28-32 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Ph: (03) 9650 8338 Email: info@nepalconsulate.net.au
TV GUIDE SBS1 – Daily NDTV News - 11:05 am - Monday to Saturday. (From New Delhi, India). Urdu news SBS1 - PTV News – 9.30 am - Every Sunday – (From Pakistan).
SOUTH ASIAN Garments Roshan’s Fashions 68-71 Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175 Ph: (03) 9792 5688
Vic 3175, Ph: (03) 9791 9227 Site: heritageindia.net.au
DVDs, Music CDs & Film Stuff Baba Home Entertainment 52C Foster St., Dandenong 3175, (03) 97067252
Travel Agents Gaura Travels 1300 FLY INDIA or 1300 359 463 info@gauratravel.com.au Travel House 284 Clayton Road, Clayton 3168 Ph: (03) 95435123, Mobile: 0425803071 mail@travelhouse.com.au
lAWYERS MLG Lawyers Ronny Randhawa 144 Sydney Road, Coburg Vic Ph 9386 0204 & 138 Walker Street, Dandenong Vic Ph: 9793 9917 Mobile : 0402 256 712 Vera Lawyers Kusum Vaghela Level 1, Suite 2, 373 Lonsdale Street, Dandenong Vic, Mobile: 0433 827 124
Jewellery Bhadra Laxman Jewellers 22ct Gold Jewellery / Silver Pooja (03) 9846 7661
Raj Rani Creations 83-A Foster Street, Dandenong, Vic 3175 Ph: (03) 9794 9398 desi estyle 76 Foster St., Dandenong 3175 (03) 87744853; 0413707685 Heritage India 54-56 Foster Street, Dandenong,
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south asia 32 South Asia Timestimes
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