By-polls for 13 assembly seats across 7 states: 10 seats went to INDIA bloc.
In the US, Biden is still adamant to continue in the race, despite several hints, warnings to withdraw.
Generally, typical Indian families’ expenses on typical wedding costs vary: Rs. 0.03-1 Crore, 3-4 times the annual household income on the wedding. More than the investment on education. Quite a lot of it goes into clothes, jewellery, catering, photography, events and guests. Guesstimates for India suggest: weddings account for 10% of Rs.100 lakh Crore retail market; 60% is food and grocery. In contrast, the wedding budget of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant may be in the order of Rs.5,000 Crore. 5000 times the normal elite wedding budget. A mother of all weddings. Richest family of India may afford this easily, I guess. With who is who of India, and outside marking their attendance.
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, CGF, is the organization behind GPH. Otherwise it is a grant-maker, using a mix of philanthropic instruments – grants, scholarships, investments, open calls, prizes, convening, advocacy, direct action et al with focus on equity and sustainability. What is more right, to be a philanthropy giving grants for projects, to give leveraging funds for meeting the strategic gaps, to position competent individuals in projects, to give lump sum for the grantee to leverage for deepening, scaling et al, to give corpus so that grantee uses steady income from the corpus, to supplement another philanthropist, to recognize ‘potential’ through prizes etc., or a hybrid of all this? Maybe size, focus, mandate have some influence on how the philanthropy gets going. It can also be a direct action entity, an angel investor for initiating, a critical leadership supporter, a technical supporter-handholder-trouble shooter, a cohort builder, a soft social venture capitalist.
APCNF, Rattan Lal and SEKEM have received the GPH 2024 jointly for their substantial contribution to global food security, climate resilience and ecosystem protection. The Jury Chair said: “They have demonstrated in an exemplary fashion how climate resilient and sustainable food systems can be developed and put into practice.” CGF President said: “We believe their stories will inspire others to apply similar approaches in other regions and help us build a sustainable future for all.” GPH is recognizing these climate actions and solutions as they inspire hope, promise and possibilities; for scaling deep, up. APCNF is the largest agroecology program with a million farmers as on date in the world. World Food Prize winner, Rattan Lal is a world renowned soil scientist, who highlighted the interconnectedness of soil health to human and planet health. SEKEM and EBDA are enabling regenerative farming, with 10,000 farmers on board as on date, through Economy of Love Standard.
NF, an integral part of Viksit Bharat, should reach majority land by 2047, 85% smallholders by 2039, all their land in the next 5 years. All villages/GPs by 2034. All agro-climatic zones, districts, blocks by 2029. What are all required for this galvanization, mobilization, people’s movements? Can our central and state governments dedicate Rs.50,000 Crore in the next 5 years? This is not even 20% of one year’s fertilizer subsidy. Can we have 50,000 NF champions for all blocks, sub-blocks in 5 years?
Can we – producers, consumers, service providers et al, get ready, be prepared and nudge our way? Can we get ready to cope with it going viral anytime soon? Can we start walking, warming-up?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, if we huddle together, flow. In N? yagnayoga for 7L.
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