THERE seems no end to provocation by the Chinese as they continue to take aggressive actions to keep the border with India hot. Still in a process of dialogue over the nine-month long stand-off in eastern Ladakh, China is now engaged in infrastructure construction acitivity along the Arunachal Pradesh border. Reports indicate that China has already constructed a new village near the border, on the banks of the Tsari Chu river. The place is at the centre of dispute between the two countries for a long time. India is keeping a close watch on the construction activities as the Chinese seem to working on their plan of keeping the neighbour busy in as many sectors possible along the 3,400 km long border. India has also increased its activities of infrastructure construction along in key border areas. The Ladakh stand-off has now necessitate acceleration in the construction activities all along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Lowering of guard with the false anticipation of a Chinese climbdown can be extremely detrimental for India. Maintaining high level of operational readiness to deal with all eventualities is imperative for India in the present circumstances.

 

 

The pandemic, while it brought the world to a standstill totally for some time at least, has also brought about many positive changes and revolutionised our thought process in myriad ways. The latest brainchild to go viral is an innovative wedding invite that had a QR code of Google Pay and PhonePe printed on it. The message, pretty obvious was also very simple - if for whatever reason one couldn’t attend the wedding, but one still wanted to bless the newlyweds, it could be done by simply scanning the QR code and sending blessings, as cash. This very clever idea is hassle free for the guests as well as for the ones receiving the gift. It saves a lot of time and effort in choosing the ‘right’ gift. Money, perhaps, is the best gift for a couple who are starting a new life together. Of late QR codes are becoming an integral part of wedding invites. And along with ‘save the date’ to ‘location of the venue’ to ‘RSVP’, to ‘download the wedding pictures’, the QR codes are being embedded for various purposes, in the process simplifying in many ways, the intricate and sometimes a very sizeable wedding invitation. The big fat Indian wedding, with the advent of digitalisation, has indeed become leaner.