Amma: A tenacious leader who broke the glass ceiling

December 6, 2016

Chennai, Dec 6: Her supporters hailed her as 'Amma' (mother) and 'Puratchi Thalaivi' (revolutionary leader); her critics called her a ruthless autocrat who usurped democratic processes. But in a state where the reel is inexorably fused with the real, Jayaram Jayalalithaa proved herself to be one of the most tenacious politicians who served the state as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for three terms. Known as Tamil Nadu's iron lady, Jayalalithaa, who hails from Mysore, is famous for her tough, spontaneous and populist decisions.

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Mentored by her senior acting colleague and former state Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa formally joined All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in 1982, at the age of 34. She worked hard to climb the party ranks to become the propaganda secretary, much to the chagrin of seasoned partymen, and was soon nominated to Rajya Sabha. MGR may have brought her to politics, but she rose to the top purely on her own merits, breaking new grounds for women.

When MGR was taking treatment in the US for his illness, AIADMK had to face the Parliamentary and Assembly polls in 1984. Jayalalithaa spearheaded her party to a spectacular victory, proving that she is equal, if not better, than her mentor when it comes to galvanising her party. After MGR's demise in 1987, AIADMK split vertically with Jaya heading one of the factions. In 1989 polls, she was elected from Bodinayakkanur and became the first woman leader of the opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly.

In February that year, the party united under her leadership and she was elected the General Secretary. In 1991, Jayalalithaa led her party to a crushing victory to become the second woman Chief Minister of the state; MGR's widow Janaki being the first as she led a government that lasted for just 28 days. Jayalalithaa also became the first woman leader to complete a full term in the government, ruling the state from 1991 to 1996.

One specific incident that defined her early career as a legislator was the brawl inside the Tamil Nadu Assembly during which her sari was torn and abuses were hurled at her. A tearful and dishevelled Jayalalithaa left the Assembly complex that day vowing to return as Chief Minister, something she managed with in two years. Allegations of massive corruption made her government unpopular and she lost the 1996 elections to her rival DMK, which lodged several cases against her that she continues to fight until now.

Known for her strict handling of state bureaucrats, Jayalalithaa never hesitated to punish the civil servants who failed to discharge their duties. Jayalalithaa's early years were spent in Bengaluru, where she studied at Bishop Cotton Girl's School. As her family moved to Chennai, she went to the Presentation Convent Church Park School, where, after matriculating in 1964, she won a Government of India scholarship for higher studies.

Her dream of further studies was abruptly cut short, when her mother Sandhya persuaded her to act in films at the age of 16. She soon grew busy acting in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and even doing a movie in English. Her only English movie titled 'Epistle' was released in 1961 and was produced by Shankar Giri, son of former President VV Giri. The most memorable of her Bollywood movie was Izzat, in which she played opposite Dharmendra, who later joined the BJP.

A voracious reader, Jayalalithaa was known to carry books to the film set and read between shots. Her favourite authors include Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw, Danielle Steel, Pearl S Buck and James Hadley Chase. She maintains a large library with several collections. Asked what she thought of the description of her as “iron butterfly”, Jayalalithaa said: “I agree with the description 'iron', but why 'butterfly'? I don't think the word 'butterfly' fits me at all."

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Facebook on Monday launched a new consumer marketing campaign in India titled 'More Together'. India is the first country in the Asia Pacific region where such a campaign is being rolled out.

It is also the first time that Facebook is rolling out a 'high decibel campaign of this stature in India', the company said in a statement.

It is also the first time that Facebook is rolling out a 'high decibel campaign of this stature in India', the company said in a statement.

"India is at the heart of Facebook and one of our focus areas this year is to tell the exciting story of a service that is deeply embedded in the fabric of India," said Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India.

The campaign would have multiple campaigns over the next few weeks in eight languages and the one will be set in the context of Holi.

Facebook in 2019 introduced a new company logo to further distinguish the company from the Facebook app.

The company recently announced the appointment of Avinash Pant as the Marketing Director for India operations, to drive the consumer marketing efforts across the family of apps.

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Agencies
July 13,2020

New Delhi, Jul 13: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has blocked Bharti Airtel's Platinum and Vodafone Idea's RedX premium plans that offer faster data speeds and priority services to customers as both the plans were violating net neutrality norms.

The telecom watchdog has asked Bharti Airtel to explain within seven days how such a similar plan being launched does not violate the rules of net neutrality.

Vodafone Idea's RedX plan has been in the market since November 2019. They made some modifications in May 2020 and the Bharti Airtel was soon going to launch a similar plan.

According to TRAI, the higher speed for premium customers discriminate against others and violates net neutrality.

Responding to TRAI's move, Airtel spokesperson said: "We are passionate about delivering the best network and service experience to all our customers. This is why we have a relentless obsession to eliminate faults and have been consistently recognised by international agencies as the best network in terms of speed, latency and video experience."

"At the same time, we want to keep raising the bar for our post-paid customers in terms of service and responsiveness. This is an ongoing effort at our end," the spokesperson said.

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Agencies
July 18,2020

New Delhi, Jul 18: India's national cybersecurity agency CERT-in, has warned people of credit card skimming spreading across the world through e-commerce platforms.

Attackers are typically targeting e-commerce sites because of their wide presence, popularity and the environment LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP), the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) said in a notice on Thursday.

Recently, attackers targeted sites which were hosted on Microsoft's IIS server running with the ASP.NET web application framework, it said.

Some of the sites affected by the attack were found to be running ASP.NET version 4.0.30319, which is no longer officially supported by Microsoft and may contain multiple vulnerabilities, CERT-In said.

The notice also included a list of best practices for website developers including the use of the latest version of ASP.NET web framework, IIS web server and database server.

The advisory is based on research by Malwarebytes which found that this skimming campaign likely began sometime in April this year.

Credit card skimming has become a popular activity for cybercriminals over the past few years, and the increase in online shopping during the pandemic means additional business for them, too, Malwarebytes said in a blog post, adding that attackers do not need to limit themselves to the most popular e-commerce platforms.

Researchers from global cybersecurity and anti-virus brand Kaspersky had warned in December last year that more cybercriminal groups will target online payment processing systems in 2020. 

It said that over the past couple of years, so-called JS-skimming (the method of stealing of payment card data from online stores), has gained immense popularity among attackers. 

Kaspersky researchers in their report said they are currently aware of at least 10 different actors involved in these type of attacks.

Their number will continue to grow during the next year, the report said, adding that the most dangerous attacks will be on companies that provide services such as e-commerce as-a-service, which will lead to the compromise of thousands of companies.

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