DesiReflections

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) is an EU body in charge of the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  The European Commission takes part in the meetings of the EDPB without voting rights. The secretariat of the EDPB is provided by the EDPS. The EDPB will be at the centre of the new data protection landscape in the EU. It will help ensure that the data protection law is applied consistently across the EU and work to ensure effective cooperation amongst DPAs. The Board is not only issue guidelines on the interpretation of core concepts of the GDPR but also be called to rule by binding decisions on disputes regarding cross-border processing, ensuring therefore a uniform application of EU rules to avoid the same case potentially being dealt with differently across various jurisdictions.  Fall Out GDPR has come into effect on this Friday. Internet users in the bloc have had to deal with unforeseen consequences, including  blocking access...

I met Punit Pania yesterday at Independence Brewing Company. an happening watering hole in Lokhandwala area just before his stand-up comedy act. In fact he was generous enough to share his space with The Book  Club event on first floor of pub, he shared his journey from a safe Corporate Den to the wild world of stand-up comedians. Punit is a Non-Gujju born and broughtup in Gujju dominated Society in Kandivali East as a protected child, where his parents did not allow him to travel any place beyond the reach of auto rikshaw ! Not only that her mother was so protective that she was happy to concede her son's intent to start a pathological lab in the area so that he come every day for maa ke haath kaa dopahar ka khana ! But destiny thought otherwise, after spending seven years in Corporate World , Punit became a stand-up comedian.  Protected, safe and secured years of salaried existence, he came out of the closet. Punit is the single man behind Chalta Hai Comedy – a...

Mumbai 19.05.2018. Today I was at Sardar Patel Technology Business Incubator ( SP-TBI)  for an event 'Founder Speaks'.This incubator functions at Bhavan's campus in Andheri Suburb of Mumbai. SP-TBI invited Satyajit Roy, founder and CEO of an starter EGK Foods Pvt Ltd. He was in coversation with SwitchMe founder Aditya Misra.  Satyajit narrates his journey in a very passionate way. Before his present venture there were five failed ideas. “I decided to aggregate all the chatwalas under Mychatwala, where one could get bhel, batata puri and sev puri delivered to the doorstep. Another launch was pet insurance, which exists worldwide but almost doesn’t exist here. Then came organic mushrooms,” reminisces Satyajit. Soon, things came to a standstill. “I was running out of savings, running out of people’s trust. It also boiled down to not trusting myself,” . The entrepreneurial spirit of Satyajit refused to die down though. He burned all his savings in his fail...

Hidden Jewel of Bombay Royal Opera House How many tourists and visitors to this city know existence of Royal Opera House ?  Sadly very few.  After last renovation completed two years back the place has restored it's glory.Even if you do not visit this place for seeing play, show or performance, go to see it's architecture, design and  also to relax for a while,  enjoy continental food  from superb menu of it's open air restaurant or shop from souvenir shop. I have seen Royal Opera House, London few years back but  saw our very own Opera House here in the heart of SoBo yesterday ,  believe me I simply awestruck, in certain way it gives run of money to it's cousin in London. It is rightly touted as the city's Cultural Crown Jewel and India's only surviving Opera House. The original idea for the space was conceived way-back in 1908 by Maurice Bandmann, a famous entertainer from Calcutta, and Jehangir Framji Karaka, who headed ...

Mumbai 17.05.2018. I was invited at Royal Opera House near Churni Road to be a part of performance of a group called The Fantasy Orchestra based at Bristol and Paris. The Fantasy Orchestra Initially I had a feel that I am at a village carnival and village performers are enjoying singing, dancing with fancy props. something started to happen between the band and the audience… RD Burman, Shadows, Doors, Strawberry Fields, White Rabbit, Move On Up… everyone was drawn into a kind of audience-band unity that’s very rarely achieved in Western culture. When you launched into Bohemian Rhapsody I had a moment of cognitive dissonance, like “Oh no, you can’t play that…”, but I quickly got swept into the brilliance of it, singing along with everyone else. It felt genuinely revolutionary, what you were doing, like the folk music , reclaiming the songs for the people, or something. The intensity of the audience’s energy by the end of that — totally off the scale. I have no idea how the ...

Columbia Global Center,  Mumbai invited  Tejaswini Ganti, Associate Professor at New York University to talk on Bollywood. Ganti has done research   over two decades of research on the Mumbai film industry, she reflected on some of the insights and lessons she has gained over time and the methodologies necessary for studying media industries, especially commercial film production. She demonstrated the value of embracing the element of uncertainty and critically examined statistical records and market data to arrive at a more holistic understanding of the Mumbai film industry. The talk is being organized as part of the Center's Mumbai as a City of Knowledge initiative. Tejaswini has to her credit  'Producing Bollywood: Inside the Contemporary Hindi Film Industry and Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema. She talks about on what has been characterized as a perennial problem for the Hindi film industry—the inability to accurately measure comm...

12.05.2018. Today I attended Screen Writers Association (SWA)'s event 'Vartalap' with Varun Grover songwriter, scriptwriter and standup comedian. Nearly 150 prospective screen writers attended the event. Varun is in news in recent months for all the right reasons. He has to his credit one national award for his lyrics and for being engaged by Netflix as writer for their first Indian series. Varun Grover is lyricst, screenplay writer and standup comedian but has ‘no idea’ which of the job descriptions define him the best. But ask his fans and they’ll tell you that each one of them is his forte. His honest, witty, current, and thought-provoking jokes always leave the audience with something to take back home. Born in Sundernagar, Himachal Pradesh, Varun spent his adolescent years in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. After graduating in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, he worked in a software company for some time before moving to Mumbai ...

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recently taken a much needed step, which can transform the way companies function. If implemented in the right spirit , it can improve the Corporate Governance drastically. What is so New SEBI has asked the listed companies to split the post of Chairman and Managing Director , and have atleast six independent directors including a woman on the Board. It has set-up a deadline of April 1, 2019 for induction of six independent directors. As regard splitting the post of CMD, the deadline will be April 1, 2020. Uday Kotak Panel SEBI had appointed Uday Kotak Panel to give its recommendations on improving Corporate Governance. The Panel had submitted its recommendations last year in the month of October. The regulator's board accepted 40 out of 80 recommendations made by the Panel. Current Scenario   Currently, several listed companies have combined Chairman and Managing Director's post, popularly call as CMD that overlap the...

Vedas are other name of 'the sacred knowledge'.The vedic literature is organized into four segments, viz. : 1.  Rigveda , the Vedas of the verse 2.  Samveda , the Vedas of songs 3.  Yajurveda , the Vedas of sacrificial Text 4.  Atharveda , so named after Atharvan, the mythical priest of the past ages. Upnishads are theological and philosophical reflections about the essential nature of things. They are also called Vedanta, literally meant - end of Veda, the final goal of the Veda, because it was, as a rule, located at the end of the Brahmana. Upnishads are also literally called 'confidential session' with the teacher, later meant as 'secret lore' because it used to be imparted to the pupil towards the end of the period of instruction. The seers of the Upaniṣhads were bent upon entering into the kernel of Reality by casting off all vestures which limit human life, and attaining a kind of attunement with it, if necessity arose, and the unconditioned was plumbed ...