Shah Rukh Khan urges Davos set to fight sexism

Agencies
January 23, 2018

Switzerland, Jan 23: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan on Monday urged the economic elite to break down barriers of discrimination against women as they gathered for the Davos forum.

The 52-year-old star of Indian blockbuster movies such as "Chennai Express" and "My Name is Khan" appeared at a celebrity gala ahead of the official start on Tuesday of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.

He received an award for his charitable work for victims of acid attacks.

"From them, I have learned how courage can catalyze victimhood into heroism," he told the audience of international business leaders and officials.

Australian actress Cate Blanchett also received an award for her work with refugees and British singer Sir Elton John for his campaigning on HIV/AIDS.

The Davos meeting brings some 3,000 delegates from business, politics and civil society, to discuss ways to "make the world a better place", in the words of the WEF.

Among the issues on the agenda this year are gender equality and harassment, after allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful men in Hollywood spawned the #MeToo movement.

Khan brings heavy star power to the agenda, as one of the biggest celebrities in India, where high-profile cases of sexual violence have caused shockwaves in recent years.

"We, the powerful, need to get out of the way, to pick the barriers apart, the ones that give us names and races and colours and hierarchies," he said.

"That is what I have learned from my beautifully scarred women," he added, referring to the acid victims.

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News Network
June 3,2020

New Delhi, Jun 3: India registered its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with 8,909 more cases reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 2,07,615, while the death toll rose to 5,815 according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 1,01,497 while 1,00,303 people have been cured/discharged/migrated.

According to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, out of all the states, Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases with 72,300 patients followed by Tamil Nadu with 24,586 cases.

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News Network
May 14,2020

London, May 14: Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Thursday urged the Central government to accept his offer to repay 100 per cent of his loan dues and close the case against him.

While congratulating the Centre for introducing Rs 20 lakh crore relief package to boost the economy amid the coronavirus lockdown, Mallya, lamented that his repeated attempts to pay back his dues have been ignored by the Indian government.

"Congratulations to the Government for a Covid 19 relief package. They can print as much currency as they want BUT should a small contributor like me who offers 100% payback of State-owned Bank loans be constantly ignored? Please take my money unconditionally and close," he tweeted.

Earlier this month, Mallya had sought permission to appeal against a ruling ordering his extradition to India in Britain's highest court the UK Supreme Court.

The application comes two weeks after the High Court in London - the UK's second-highest court - dismissed Mallya's appeal against a lower court ruling that he be sent to India to face charges of defrauding a consortium of Indian banks of more than Rs 9,000 crores relating to the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines in 2012.

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Mumbai, Jan 4: After the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur constituted a panel to decide whether legendary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem 'Hum Dekhenge' is offensive to Hindu sentiments, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar had a cryptic take on the burning controversy.

"Best time for the rich & small businesses to make money as most of the population are engaged with a revolutionary poet named Faiz," Sircar said in a tweet.

The poem, penned down by the iconic poet in 1979, came into limelight again recently during the protests against CAA and NRC in IIT Kanpur.

Earlier on Thursday, senior lyricist Javed Akhtar rejected the claims about the poem being 'anti-Hindu'.

IIT Kanpur on Thursday had set up a committee to look into the issue.

The move came after a complaint that the students who took out a peaceful march in the campus on December 17 against the Citizenship Amendment Act and in solidarity with Jamia Millia Islamia students, sung it as a mark of protest, which hurt the sentiments of other communities.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians who faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

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