World Focus by Abhishek Vasoo

Paolo Gentiloni’s visit is the first by an Italian Prime Minister in ten years and is aimed at strengthening bilateral political and economic relations with India. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni waves after his arrival at Palam Air Force station in New Delhi Sunday.(HT Photo) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni will meet on Monday to boost ties between the two countries after relations had turned frosty following a face-off over two Italian marines killing two Indian fishermen in 2012. Gentiloni who arrived on Sunday on a two-day visit, will have a 90-minute one on one meeting with Modi ahead of talks between the delegations of the two countries at noon. The two leaders will meet the top CEOs of each other’s countries. Gentiloni’s visit is the first by an Italian PM in 10 years — nearly four of which saw a strain in ties between New Delhi and Rome over two Italian marines killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coas...

The Panama Papers are documents which were leaked from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm offering legal and trust services. It is alleged that many of these documents show how wealthy individuals – including public officials – hide their money from public scrutiny. Panama Papers: What is it? It is a set of 11.5 million documents that were leaked from a Panama-based corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca. (Note: Panama is a Central American country). It is considered as the biggest leak in the history, even bigger than the WikiLeaks and the Snowden leaks. The documents contain detailed information (including those of shareholders and directors, and even passport information!) about more than 2.14 lakh offshore companies listed by the agency. It is alleged that the agency facilitated the rich and influential people to hide their wealth from public scrutiny, and thus evade taxation in their domestic domains. The alleged perpetrators vary from c...

If You Have Been Wanting To Get Inked, You Can’t Miss This Festival To the point: It will feature some of the best tattoo artists from around the world! Been wanting to get inked for a while? There couldn’t be a better opportunity for you! Delhi is about to host the third edition of Heartwork Tattoo Festival which will see tattoo artistes and enthusiasts from all around the world under one roof. If you have been contemplating about getting your first tattoo or the 10th one, for a while - it’s time you make up your mind. At the festival, there will be no boundaries as far as your imagination is concerned, for every artist will bring your thoughts to life on your skin. Specialties , designs , intricacy , detailing – all the aspects would seem like a cake-walk as some of the top artists from around the world take on their booth and get the needles ready. The festival will feature over 75 different participants from countries like the UK , Austria , A...

As any connoisseur of alcohol will tell you, one of the greatest joys of life is discovering new cocktails. Whatever the occasion – celebrating an achievement or bracing oneself up for some tough times ahead – a well-made cocktail is your perfect companion. Cocktails are also a good conversation starter at home parties. But for a New Year party you don’t want to stress out by experimenting on friends and relatives. Stick to the basic cocktails,  which have fewer ingredients and are easy to make. Each of these classic cocktails fits that description, and that is  perhaps the reason why they  have survived over the decades. Manhattan According to an apocryphal story, the drink was first made for Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchill’s mother, at the Manhattan Club in the 1870’s. But the fact remains that it was one of the five cocktails named after the different parts of New York City (Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queen’s and the Staten Island cocktail)...

Huge number of refugees and migrants have been shifting to Europe, from many countries like Syria, particularly since 2011. They see Europian Union (EU) as their asylum. With more number of refugees coming in at a time when the natives don’t want any more, the whole situation has developed into a crisis. This crisis is called European Refugee Crisis. The refugees are not only from Syria! More than 5 Lakh people have crossed to Europe by sea and land. Most of them are from Syria – troubled not only by civil war, but also by the most violent and inhumane atrocities by ISIS. But Syria is not the single source. They come from areas such as the Middle East (Syria, Iraq), Africa (Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Gambia), South Asia and Central Asia. According to International Organisation for Migration (IOM) statistics, a substantial number of refugees are also from Afghanistan and Pakistan too due to unending civil conflicts in these countries. The ...

Eliminating the hesitations of history, India and the United States have built a strong and strategic bilateral relationship and continues to contribute the stability and prosperity of the world. The first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru likened American Imperialism to that of British. He propounded and propagated the Non-Alignment Principle whereby India refused to join either the capitalistic US or the communist Soviet Union. India’s socialistic economic principles and deep scepticism to the US hegemony resulted in its predilections towards USSR much to the ire of the West. As the ideological Cold War ended after a myriad of international convergences and divergences, India was forced to look West given the paradigm shift in the geopolitics of the world and in Francis Fukuyama’s words “End of History”. Today both India and US are among the most vibrant foreign cohorts and strategic partners. India-USA: History of Relations The ...

A quick glance at both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store (and their 1.5 million apps), reveals a prime user acquisition opportunity for digital marketers in 2017-18. According to ComScore's Mobile App Report, in 2016 people spent more than 3 hours per month on the Top 1000 apps and that was 20X greater than the time mobile web visitors had spent on their top 1000 portals. Last year's innovations will be remembered for its many new tools, as well as innovative app processes, and the manner in which both helped smaller brands compete with the traditional giants of mobile user acquisition. So how exactly can start-ups and emerging brands join the brand-wagon of acquiring users on mobile? Smart Segmentation Every marketing strategy starts with a smart segmentation. Engaging users on mobile devices require a deep understanding of their needs, preferences and actions as they emerge from users' interactions with their mobile phones. In order to achieve this goal,...

The news of Harvey Weinstein's expulsion from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences over the weekend prompted victims to share their own experiences of sexual harassment and assault. The rich and famous of course can talk to the press, but what happens to the masses who often are never heard? Today they have an outlet in social media. In fact platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been flooded with women relating their own private experiences with sexual harassment thus far never expressed even to some of their dear ones. For the women in these stories, the mental anguish is real. The endurance of going into an office where someone constantly makes overt sexual references is hard to explain to those who have never experienced it. A 2015 study found that one in three women have been sexually harassed and that 71 percent did not report it. That's a staggering statistic. And yet for many, speaking about their troubles was not easy until now. But thanks ...

There is a reason why every other startup in the world loves to call their startup the #UberofSomething. This is because when it all comes down to brass tacks, the startup company valuation Uber tops the charts, leading by huge margins. The current total valuation of the on-demand Taxi booking company is estimated to be around $ 68 Billion as of 2017. Then China's Didi Chuxing comes in with a total valuation of $50 Billion as another On - Demand Taxi booking company. Now, you may be thinking, why are we talking about foreign startups like Uber and Didi Chuxing. Well, it is because startups are crucial for our nation's growth, we need to reflect on our Indian startups and save ourselves from getting into a pit from their learnings. We also need to work on crucial things that we are surely missing. It could be innovation that might be missing and a copy paste culture could be that one culprit which leads us down the wrong path or one where we just eventually become averag...