The Weekly Focus Edition 104
The development of India
75 years ago, India was declared an independent nation. We sang, danced, and celebrated with joy, but the real plight of our nation was hopeless. But since then, we have developed multi-fold and are now among the global superpowers. Still far from ideal, but significant progress has been made, and we have grown immensely. Here are some simple statistics:
Population then- 379 million Population now- 1393 million
Life Expectancy then- 37 years Life Expectancy now- 71.2 years
GDP (inflation adjusted) then- 30.6B$ GDP (inflation adjusted) now- 2.62T$
Literacy Rate then- 12% Literacy Rate now- 77%
Poverty Rate then- 80.7% Poverty Rate now- 13.4-16.5%
Clearly, India has been progressing at a fast rate since independence. More and more people have been coming out of poverty, and more and more people are getting educated. India’s middle class is increasing, while it's extremely poor class has been decreasing. It is safe to say we are a developing country.
To put this development into some sort of perspective, an average annual income was ₹265 in 1947, and is now ₹150,326. To further put this into some perspective, here's how long it would take for an average Indian to earn enough money to buy daily items in 1947:
1947 2022
Toothpaste- 15 days Toothpaste- 1 Day
Shoes- 2.6 months Shoes- 4 days
Omega Watch- 8.4 months Entry range watch- 7 days
Medium range typewriter- 2.1 years Medium range laptop- 2.4 months
Phillips Refrigerator- 5.8 years Standard Refrigerator- 24 days
Morris minor economy car- 28.4 years Entry Level Car- 2.2 years
This shows how almost everything we consider bare necessities today used to be absolute luxuries for the average citizen back in 1947. From over 90% of our population living in villages in 1947, that number is now down to 65% and decreasing now. Infant mortality rates and fertility rates have exponentially decreased as well. Developed Urban Metropolises have sprung all over India, with cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata all boasting estimated GDPs above 100 billion dollars. This independence day, rather than comparing ourselves with the developed countries we aspire to be, let's applaud the journey that we’ve been through. Jai Hind!
WhatsApp's new features
WaBetaInfo reports that the platform is working on the ability to set an avatar as a profile picture. For those of you who don't know, WaBetaInfo is an online platform that reports on upcoming WhatsApp features.
WhatsApp now offers emojis, GIFs, stickers and more to make your conversations more interesting. The social media platform is reportedly working on animated WhatsApp avatars inspired by emojis. WhatsApp users can use them as masks during video calls. You can also share them as stickers in private and group chats. Meta's other social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and even Facebook Messenger) offer users 3D avatar functionality. Now it looks like WhatsApp will get this feature soon.
WaBetaInfo previously reported that the feature is in development and will likely come in a future update. WhatsApp's avatar feature is still in development, but it is reported that users may be able to use these avatars as profile pictures as well. According to the report, users can customize their avatar by choosing a background color for their profile picture. We also share screenshots of upcoming features in the WhatsApp beta for Android. However, the company adds that the ability to set an avatar's profile picture will also be available in his WhatsApp beta for iOS and desktop beta.
Nominees for the 2022 Men's Ballon d'Or.
Real Madrid's Karim Benzema is the frontrunner for this award after pushing the Los Blancos to La Liga and Champions League doubles last season, but there are many other big names as well.
Lionel Messi landed his seventh Golden ball in 2021, but the Argentinean has endured a difficult debut in Paris in his season. His teammate Neymar also missed out on the 30-man shortlist. This list includes-
Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
Rafael Leao (AC Milan)
Christopher Nkunku (RB Leipzig)
Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid)
Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
Luis Diaz (Liverpool)
Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)
Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
Casemiro (Real Madrid)
Heung-Min Son (Tottenham)
Fabinho (Liverpool)
Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Mike Maignan (AC Milan)
Harry Kane (Tottenham)
Darwin Nunez (Liverpool)
Phil Foden (Manchester City)
Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich)
Sebastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund)
Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
Dusan Vlahovic (Juventus)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Joao Cancelo (Manchester City)
Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain).
The winner will be crowned on October 17th in Paris
Other News
Legendary investor and icon Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala passed away on 14th of August.
Famous author Salman Rushdie has been stabbed multiple times in New York City. His attacker has been charged with attempted murder.
William Roto wins the Kenyan Presidential elections amid claims of rigging.
Russia releases a statement saying it’s ready to provide its allies with modern weapons.
Another team of US lawmakers visit Taiwan, causing a further stir.
Sports News
FIFA suspends the Indian football body with immediate effect after influence from third parties
India ended the CWG 2022 campaign with 22 golds,16 silvers and 23 bronze medals, ranking 4th overall.
Serena Williams says she will retire from tennis after the US Open later this year
Manchester United are at the bottom of the Premier League Table for the first time in the club’s history
Fact or Fiction
1) Dogs sniff good smells with their left nostril
2) Human noses and ears get bigger as we age
3) No number before 1,000 contains the letter Q
4) You can thank the Romans for calling Christmas “Xmas”
5) The # symbol isn’t officially called hashtag or pound
6) Movie trailers originally played after the movie
7) Tesla invented a car controlled by a joystick
8) The Chinese government saved every public message from 2006 through 2017
9) The CIA headquarters has its own Starbucks, but baristas don’t write names on the cups
10) President Dwight Eisenhower had a pet hyena
A LETTER TO SOCIETY
dear society, what have you done?
do you realize your mistake?
all these people putting up facades
for somebody else's sake
13 year old girls in school
starving themselves into shape
pushing themselves into toxicity
nightmares they can't escape
young men under the influence
of the pain absorbing alcohol
raping girls on corner streets
how could they resist a short skirt's call
the poor man never gets respect
the riches of the rich expand
humanity at its all time low
humans getting out of hand
lets salute the white supremacy
built on the blood of the black
maybe the grave of their dreams
compensates for the white skin they lack
so the teenage girl thinks anorexia is joy
and the rapist walks away a free man
the whites still dominate the world
are we really doing the best we can?
so maybe we generate more money
and maybe technology has grown
but we live in denial of significant issues
accepting wrongs we shouldn't condone
by Aanya Bhaduri
Written by Vivaan Dharamshi
Edited by Nirvaan Zaveri
Article 2 and 3 by Krishnav Bubna
Guest Poem by Aanya Bhaduri
Fact or Fiction by Nikunj Gupta
Statistics from TOI
Answers:
1) Fact
2) Fact
3) Fiction (Q denotes rational numbers and does not appear before 1,000; but the real surprise is that even A is not present till the number 1,000!).
4) Fiction (It was actually the Greeks, and in their language Chi (the starting of Christ’s name) is very similar to X).
5) Fact
6) Fact
7) Fiction (Surprisingly, it was actually Mercedes who invented such a car!)
8) Fiction (The U.S. government were the ones who had saved public tweets, not messages).
9) Fact
10) Fiction (It was President Theodore Roosevelt, not President Dwight Eisenhower).