Meet To Set Agenda
While BJP president Amit Shah has launched the ‘sampark se samarthan’ programme to meet prominent people to talk about the Narendra Modi government’s programmes, party general secretary Ram Madhav organised a strategic session for social media influencers. Around 50 people who have big online following, and those who set the agenda for debates on social media, were invited for a daylong session on Sunday. Apart from Madhav, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar and CEO of MyGovindia Arvind Gupta also had sessions with them to decide strategies ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Shah also met them. These people are expected to help the BJP to set the agenda for debates in the run-up to the polls.
Second Inning
IIM-Kozhikode is the first institute to appoint its own director under the new IIM Act. Debashis Chatterjee, who headed the institute from 2009 to 2014, was selected for a second term this month. But for a brief period, immediately after the announcement, it seemed like he would not be able to join to IIM-K as director. This is because his parent institute, IIM-Lucknow, felt that Chatterjee has not done the two-year cooling-off stint after he finished his term as IIM-K director in 2014. The IIM Lucknow Board even wrote to the HRD Ministry for clarification. The government came to Chatterjee’s rescue by directing the institute to relieve him.
Looking Back
Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey on Sunday organised a memorial meeting for victims of Uttarakhand landslide of 2013 at his official residence. Choubey had been in Uttarakhand at the time of the disaster with 15 of his family members. Seven had succumbed in the aftermath. He had also written a book, Trinetra, on the experience. He says he had been encouraged to do so by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.