Yes, eating potatoes will NOT make you fat!!!

How many times have you heard that you should avoid potatoes if you are on a diet?   The little innocent thing has earned such a bad reputation as “unhealthy and fatty food “ that dieters run away simply by the mention of its name. But do you know that potatoes are a recommended diet food, especially for those who lack essential vitamins and fibre in their body?

The potato isn’t inherently bad and it shouldn’t be treated as such. However, when the potato is smothered in cheese, mashed with mayo and doused in sour cream or is deep-fried, it loses its inherent properties.  Boom News lists six reasons why you should love potatoes and eat it too!

Good for people with high blood pressure:  The skin of the potato is loaded with potassium, which plays a crucial role in lowering blood pressure. One large spud baked with the skin on contains at least 1,600 milligrams of potassium, nearly half the recommended amount for an entire day and almost four times as much as a medium banana. Potato also serves as an essential electrolyte key to hydration and athletic performance.


Potatoes are a good source of vitamin C: Think of vitamin C, think of potatoes! Do you know that one medium sized potato has 45% of your daily requirement of vitamin C? Not only is vitamin C essential to boost your immune system, studies also show that having adequate amounts of vitamin C can keep stress levels down by stopping the secretion of stress hormones.

 Potatoes contain fibre. The skin of the potatoes is the healthiest for its fibre content. Fibre aids in weight-loss, keeps your heart healthy and improves digestion. Eating a potato with its skin can be a good way to put more fibre into your diet. To get more health benefits from the skin, try topping it with broccoli and salsa.

Top content marketing trends to look forward to in 2016

The online market is constantly changing and getting your content across to your audience keeps getting more difficult and complex. New technology and tools are constantly emerging and it takes a lot of effort to keep up with the growing competition. Content marketing strategies that worked in the previous year might not generate the same results in the next few months. We just crossed the mid-point and started the second half of 2016. We have already seen some trends this year and the same shall continue to dominate the remaining 2016 as well. Let us discuss what is hot right now in content marketing.

1.       Videos will continue to dominate: Video is everywhere right from Facebook newsfeeds to WhatsApp family groups. In 2016, over 70% of the traffic consisted of video content and this trend is going to continue in the rest of the year forward as well. According to a research case study from Cisco, video content is going to make 95% of the entire online traffic by 2020. With the 4G internet access going main stream, people are going to consume more and more videos as videos are easier to consume, digest and share.

2.       Attention Spans shall continue to decrease: With over 3500 advertising and marketing messages which on an average person is exposed to every day, the attention spans are falling. So the content has to be generated with the strategy of grabbing the attention immediately without any delay or it risks the chances of getting noticed at all.

3.       Drip content feeding: Breaking a large piece of content into smaller chunk of contents and distribute it over a duration of time has always worked better than the original single piece of content. The simple reason why this strategy always works is that the drip fed content always has a longer lasting impact on the mind of the readers which can never be achieved by the single longer piece of content. It also gives the business multiple chances to connect with the readers which is important in establishing connect and recall. Companies have recognized this opportunity and are taking serious advantage of it in engaging their target audience. They shall continue to do so in remaining 2016 and later.

Is rape inevitable during wartime?

Wartime rape and sexual violence has been a part and parcel of conflict since war itself, yet it never received the much needed attention until the early 1990s when massive widespread violation of sexual abuse and rapes were carried out by the Bosnian Serbs against the Bosniak Muslim women and girls in Bosnia-Herzegovina war during the 1992-1995 conflict. The mass rape and sexual violence carried out in that conflict brought the media, academia and human rights organisations together to look for immediate solutions. Following the Rwanda Genocide in 1994, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has accepted that rape during wartime is a form of genocide and crime against humanity. Many scholars and academia thereafter have voiced their concern on sexual violations and rape that happens invariable in conflicts. Scholars argue that rape is used as a deliberate ‘line of attack’ or strategy to demoralize and dehumanise the “enemy”. (Allen, Beverly (1996) Rape warfare : the hidden genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, University of Minnesota Press) It is used as a deliberate attempt to destroy the community’s social fabric, and terrorize the community into flight. For example, the rampant and unyielding violence of sexual abuse and rape has labelled Congo as the rape capital of the world. Rape has been viewed as an unfortunate but inevitable part of every war.¹ (Becoming Abject: Rape as a weapon of war: BÜLENT DIKEN AND CARSTEN BAGGE LAUSTSEN). However, taking an exception to this rule, there were scholars like Elisabeth J. Wood and Dara Kay Cohen who have directed our attention to various conflicts where rape and sexual violence is almost negligible during war. E.J. Woods in her articles, Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare?  cities various examples of conflicts where many armed groups refrained from sexual violence and rape. For example, Woods  leftist insurgent groups, and secessionist ethnic groups who do not engage in mass rape in spite of frequent interaction with civilians. (When war time rape) Woods cited these conflicts as examples where the armed group resorted to other forms of violence against the civilians but rarely engaged in rape and sexual violence. Confirming the same views stated by Woods, this essay will go on to prove that there is variation in sexual violence during different conflicts. This essay will prove this by citing various examples of conflicts where rape and sexual violence was predominately absent. In the first part of the essay, it will draw examples of various conflicts and armed groups around the around.  Instances like the 26 year old civil war fought between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE, the on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine or the El Salvador Civil War fought between 1979-1992. In all these war, despite of the orthodox believe that rape is an unfortunate part of conflicts, we have instances of one or both the parties refraining from rape and sexual violence. The second part of the essay challenges the existing theories and believes of rape and deconstructs some myth associated with rape and sexual violence during wartime. Seeking further explanation and causation for variation of rape in various conflicts by certain groups, this essay in the third part argues that factors like leadership qualities, cultural norm, future constituency, fear of loss of support from civilians and distraction are the main reason why we see the absence of sexual violence in some conflicts. In the last and the concluding part, the essay concludes that though rape and sexual violence has been rampant in certain conflicts, is not always used as a means to dehumanise the enemy. We also take a look at the possible ways how policy makers and academicians can take a leaf out of this example and can look forward in drafting some policies which might help to prevent such atrocities during war. This essay would also like to state that though rape of men during war is also an issue gaining much attention of late, yet owing to constrain of space, this essay deals with rape as a whole and does not dissect between men and women rape.

Citizen journalist: Shoving the way towards a brighter future

Journalism is evolving and in a big way, thanks to the internet. With the onset of various social media like Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc, the definition ‘Journalist’ is not what is used to be some decades back. Social sites like Facebook and Twitter has changed the way we get our news and information. While disseminating information, there is a new breed of journalism that has evolved. Popularly known as the citizen journalist, these new age journalists have open public forums for discussion and provides invaluable information that can democratize media, as well as a nation. Media tools that were once exclusively held by big companies have evolved over the Web and are now part of what the public owns. Twitter is often more real-time than the news channels and people have engaged with news outlets in ways publishers never envisioned.

The London riot is one of the most high-profile acts of a citizen journalism which had a wide-spread revolt. The Twitter played an important role for the media and during the cleanup. A database of more than 2.6 millions riot-related tweets have revealed the ways in which the network was used during the disturbances During the uprising in Egypt, Al-Jazeera’s citizen media service, Sharek, received 1,000 camera-phone video uploads. The use of social media during the Arab Spring, which began in late 2010, has been well documented, and citizen journalism is considered by some to have come into its own during the ongoing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

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Nearer to home, though the use and availability of internet to the Indian population is limited as compared to the west, yet a perfect example of citizen journalism was witnessed when  people reported from the streets during the multiple bombings in Mumbai where  23 people were killed and 131 injured as a result of three blasts in the city at rush hour. Mumbai residents out-reported conventional news suppliers by using Twitter and Facebook as phone lines were down. Says, Ramanuja Dutta, digital editor of a news-based website, “We’re entering a new age of government transparency because the internet makes so much more information available to so many more people.”

Blogging is another tool that has proven useful to the citizen journalism movement. Organizations like Community United Against Violence (CUAV), which fights to end the oppression of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) community, are using blogs to tell the stories that the mainstream media are missing. Another blogging site, southasianphilanthropy.org inspires South Asians to become more involved in philanthropy and volunteering. The project highlights efforts of charities, non-profits, and other organizations led by South Asians or contributing to change for South Asians and the diaspora. The blog discusses issues like human rights, international development, disaster relief, non-profit issues, and domestic violence.

But what is actually citizen journalism? Though the definition varies depending on who or what we are talking about, the most simple definition can be, Citizen journalists are usually defined as journalism done by non-journalist. Citizen journalism can refer to anything by people picking up a camera, or writing stories in the blog, through analysis. The act can be as simple as an involved community member posting entries on a public wiki or uploading photos and videos to a media-sharing site.” If we adhere to the definition of Wikipedia, “Citizen journalists are those people who play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information in a public forum. Says Sankhaneel Barua, a freelance journalist, “Citizen journalism in the simple sense is news collected and published online by people like you and me. We aren’t reporters by any stretch, but citizen journalism websites give us an opportunity to speak as interested observers. It is freedom of speech without any censorship in its unadulterated sense.”

Right to Information: How safe are RTI activists?

 The RTI bill that was passed in the parliament in 2005, was all about empowering Indian through information which gave new meaning to the motto "seek and you shall find." But for some of us it meant “seek and you die”. That was the fate of over twelve RTI activists last year who sought information to bring about transparency in the public domain. The death of these righteous people bring one question to our mind. Is it worth taking all the trouble for the good of the common public at the risk of one’s own life? Says a Guwahati based lawyer, Kunjabala Devi, who has filed many RTIs, “The lives of RTI activities are always under threat, but that doesn’t mean we cease to seek information for the public good.” 

There have been lot of debates and discussions in the parliament for the protection of these activists but there has been no conclusive decision so far. Yes, RTI activities are perhaps the most susceptible victims of the society, but sadly the law passed in 2005 mentions no protection for these activists. The case of Delhi based, RTI activist Ravinder Balwani leaves a lot of questions to be answered. Balwani was found dead in the capital following a mysterious hit-and-run incident. Balwani is not just an isolated case. Who doesn’t remember the famous Shehla Masood murder in the open day lights?  A case that shook the nation and left a permanent question mark regarding the safety of RTI activists.

Many activists routinely face serious physical assaults as well as other punishment for bringing the corrupt under a scanner and demanding greater government transparency. There were also incidents where a RTI activist has been implicated in false cases just to strangulate their voices. However, it is not just only the RTI activists that have to bear the wrath of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, but evidences prove that even policemen and social activist have been murdered for “intervening too much into matter that seemed fishy.” There are many such incidents that go unnoticed in the media or no formal police complain has been has registered.

Data in your food:

There was a time when all of us used to look for taste in our food, then came the time of health conscious, upward, mobile Indian, who used to look for vitamins and carbs in the food items. But now is the time of data science, data analytics, when from our desks and laptops in our air conditioned offices, we look for data in our food. What people are eating, what are they liking, and how can we use these insights to improve the quality of our food, health of customers and ROI of our organizations.

There are 2 cases where some brilliant analytics was done, but both created a different experience for customers. This further re-iterates that just analytics by itself won't solve anything, we need to ensure that we stay true to our marketing theories: