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Journalism of Courage
Thanking the stars: The Election Commission’s new song to encourage electors to become voters features the Who’s Who of the film and music industry. Sung in 12 languages by the likes of Sonu Nigam, Hariharan, Mika Singh, Alka Yagnik, Papon and K S Chithra, among others, ‘Main Bharat Hoon’ was released on the National Voters’ Day on Wednesday.
While the song is written and produced by Subhash Ghai, the music video features actors Anil Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi and Sidharth Malhotra, to name a few. Thanking the stars, some of whom were present at the launch event, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar pointed out that they had all performed pro bono.
Feeding friendship: Guests at the President’s banquet for Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi were regaled with the tune of ‘Enta Omri’, an Egyptian classical song which portrays feelings of freedom, romance and gentleness, and Indian numbers such as ‘Ek pyar ka nagma hai’ and ‘Yeh dosti hum nahi todenge’. After food for the soul, the real menu featured an all-vegetarian fare comprising dishes such as Dal Raisina and Dahi Gujiya.
The friendship angle, so to speak, was represented, among others, by Subz Koshari, the Indian version of Egypt’s popular Koshary, and in the desserts section Rabri-Jalebi, which was dubbed as India’s counterpart to popular Egyptian delicacy Meshabek.a
Present, not so pleased: All government employees are required to register themselves with the biometric attendance system. But how much this system is followed in offices outside Delhi remains a question. Let alone remote areas, even in Noida, next-door to the national capital, an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Education is finding it difficult to implement the system.
Some senior consultant-level officials at National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) are learnt to have been reluctant to register themselves with the system. The NIOS administration had to recently circulate a note naming such officials.
