Trick-or-treating is a Halloween ritual custom for children and adults in some countries. Children in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase “Trick or treat”. The “treat” is usually some form of candy, although in some cultures money is given instead. The “trick” refers to a threat, usually idle, to perform mischief on the homeowner(s) or their property if no treat is given. Trick-or-treating usually occurs on the evening of October 31. Some homeowners signal that they are willing to hand out treats by putting up Halloween decorations outside their doors; others simply leave treats available on their porches for the children to take freely. Houses may also leave their porch light on as a universal indicator that they have candy.

In Britain and Ireland, the tradition of going house to house collecting food at Halloween goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as does the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween. There are many accounts from 19th-century Britain and Ireland of people going house to house in costume at Halloween, reciting verses in exchange for food, and sometimes warning of misfortune if they were not welcomed.[1] In North America, trick-or-treating has been a Halloween tradition since the 1920s. The earliest known occurrence there of the Scottish Halloween custom of “guising” – children going from house to house for food or money while disguised in costume[2] – is from 1911, when children were recorded as having done this in Ontario, Canada.[3] While going house to house in costume has long been popular among the Scots and Irish, it is only recently that saying “Trick or treat” has become common in Scotland and Ireland. The activity is prevalent in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Puerto Rico, and northwestern and central Mexico. In the last, this practice is called calaverita (Spanish diminutive for calavera, “skull” in English), and instead of “Trick or treat”, the children ask, “¿Me da mi calaverita?” (“Can you give me my little skull?”), where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.

Kumaraswami Kamaraj (15 July 1903 – 2 October 1975, was the founder and the president of the Indian National Congress (Organisation), widely acknowledged as the “Kingmaker” in Indian politics during the 1960s. He also served as the president of the Indian National Congress for two terms i.e. four years between 1964–1967 and was responsible for the elevation of Lal Bahadur Shastri to the position of Prime Minister of India after Nehru’s death and Indira Gandhi after Shastri’s death. Kamaraj was the 3rd Chief Minister of Madras State (Tamil Nadu) during 1954–1963 and a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha during 1952–1954 and 1969–1975. He was known for his simplicity and integrity. He played a major role in developing the infrastructure of the Madras state and worked to improve the quality of life of the needy and the disadvantaged.

He was involved in the Indian independence movement. As the president of the INC, he was instrumental in navigating the party after the death of Jawaharlal Nehru. As the chief minister of Madras, he was responsible for bringing free education to the disadvantaged and introduced the free Midday Meal Scheme while he himself did not complete schooling. He was awarded with India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, posthumously in 1976.

“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. “Older men declare war. “Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. “The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”

UNO ADDRESS ON WORLD YOUTH SKILL DAY

World Youth Skills Day 2020 will take place in a challenging context. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures have led to the worldwide closure of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, threatening the continuity of skills development.

It is estimated that nearly 70% of the world’s learners are affected by school closures across education levels currently. Respondents to a survey of TVET institutions, jointly collected by UNESCO, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Bank, reported that distance training has become the most common way of imparting skills, with considerable difficulties regarding, among others, curricula adaptation, trainee and trainer preparedness, connectivity, or assessment and certification processes.

Prior to the current crisis, young people aged 15-24 were three times more likely than adults to be unemployed and often faced a prolonged school-to-work transition period. In post-COVID-19 societies, as young people are called upon to contribute to the recovery effort, they will need to be equipped with the skills to successfully manage evolving challenges and the resilience to adapt to future disruptions.

Why is World Youth Skills Day important?
Rising youth unemployment is one of the most significant problems facing economies and societies in today’s world, for developed and developing countries alike. The latest Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020: Technology and the future of jobs shows that since 2017, there has been an upward trend in the number of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET).

In 2016 there were 259 million young people classified as NEET – a number that rose to an estimated 267 million in 2019, and is projected to continue climbing to around 273 million in 2021. In terms of percentage, the trend was also slightly up from 21.7% in 2015 to 22.4% in 2020 – implying that the international target to reduce the NEET rate by 2020 will be missed.

Designated by the General assembly in 2014, the World Youth Skills Day is an opportunity for young people, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, and public and private sector stakeholders to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.

Malala Yousafzai born 12 July 1997 is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become “the most prominent citizen” of the country.

United Nations has declared July 12, which is Malala Yousafzai’s birthday, as Malala Day in honour of the young activist. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. The-then 17-year-old became the youngest recipient of the award.

A book will document the journeys of 25 exceptionally brave girls who fought oppression and defied regressive social norms for their right to education, the publishers announced ahead of Malala Day.

HarperCollins India has acquired the rights of the anthology which is compiled by Malala Fund and will be released in 2021.

Edited by Tess Thomas, editor of Assembly, the digital publication and newsletter of Malala Fund, the book will feature school-aged girls who are speaking out, tackling local issues in their communities and showing the next generation that they can do the same.

“Malala Fund created Assembly, our digital publication and newsletter, to help more girls tell their stories just like Malala Yousafzai did. This print anthology will feature personal essays by girls around the world about their fight for education and equality,” said Thomas.

The book has not been titled yet.

Krishan Chopra, publisher at HarperCollins, said the book is of enormous relevance.

“As a fallout of COVID-19, the dropout rate of girls in schools is expected to rise and the irony is that in academics, they are either equal or ahead of the boys, when given sufficient opportunities. We are delighted, therefore, to announce this anthology,” he said.

Commissioning editor of the book, Ananya Borgohain, added, “Because of COVID-19 and the lockdown, many people in India have lost their jobs, making it difficult especially for low-income households to sustain their children’s costs of education.

“It is important for people to know the stories that can give them not just hope but also crucial information about access to education. This is what this book will do.” – moneycontrol

‘Political Depression’ is a term being increasingly used to define the phenomena of uncharted and intense feelings of helplessness, grief and anxiety which occurs due to distressing social and political events. 

Politics plays a large part in a rapidly growing society and nation like India. Similarly, the political structure of a society can play a dominant role in the basic socialisation, ideology and lived experiences of an individual. However, what we tend to gloss over is the mental and physical impact of politics on the masses, especially those who involve themselves extensively into the political happenings in their nations and across the world.
Political Depression’ is a term being increasingly used to define the phenomena of the uncharted and intense feelings of helplessness, grief and anxiety in people which occurs due to distressing social and political events around them. Political Depression has mostly been observed amongst Millenials who are in the process of forming their own political understandings and in some cases, loyalties.
In April 2020, the Journal of Experimental Psychology in the United States conducted a research on ‘Political Depression?: A Big-Data, Multimethod Investigation of Americans’ Emotional Response to the Trump Presidency’. The study delved into how the 2016 presidential elections gave rise to pathological levels of election-related distress in liberal Americans. The study also addressed the likelihood of how public and professional discourses have increasingly overgeneralized concepts of trauma and psychopathology. The complex interconnections between the personal and political spheres bring us an unprecedented view of the psychological consequences of political events on human minds. However, this concept has not been studied in India, even though India is one of the youngest nations in the world which has the cheapest access to 4G internet services and a constant exposure towards politically distressing themes at home and across the world.
Is there an ideal way to deal with these crucial political differences amongst family members? “Just like any other concern, there is no stipulated way of dealing with difference in opinions. Having said that there are certain things that can be kept in mind to reduce anxiousness and helplessness. It’s important to understand that political exposure and news can be overwhelming and draining for some,” said Dakshita Sabharwal, Counseling Psychologist at LimeLighting Life.

An SIP or a Systematic Investment Plan allows an investor to invest a fixed amount regularly in a mutual fund scheme, typically an equity mutual fund scheme.

Why should you SIP?
One, it imparts financial discipline to your life. Two, it helps you to invest regularly without wrestling with market mood, index level, etc. For example, if you are supposed to put a fixed amount every month in a mutual fund scheme, you need to find time to do it. When you have the time, you might be worried about market conditions and think of postponing your investments. Or you might be thinking of investing more if the mood is optimistic. SIP puts an end to all these predicaments. The money is automatically invested regularly in a scheme without any effort on your part.You can start investing in a mutual fund scheme via SIP with a minimum of Rs 500.

Though the most popular SIP is investing a fixed amount every month, investors can customise the way they put money via SIPs. Many fund houses allow investors to invest monthly, bi-monthly and fortnightly, according to their convenience.

Apart from this, Step-up SIPs allow investors to increase the SIP amount periodically. ‘Alert SIP’ is another form of the regular systematic investment plan which sends an alert to the investor to buy more when the markets are down.

In case of the ‘perpetual SIPs,’ investors don’t have to choose the end date of the SIP. Once the goal is met, the investors can stop the SIP by sending a written communication to the fund house.

Fischer Black prize is awarded to a person to a financial scientist for a body of work that demonstrates significant original research that is relevant to finance practice.

Fischer Black Prize is a memorial prize awarded in honor of Fischer Black that rewards individual financial research. The prize was established in 2002 and first awarded in 2003. Eligible scholars must either be below 40 years in age, or under age 45 but not have been awarded a Ph.D. (or equivalent) by age 35. The prize is awarded biennially at the American Finance Association’s Annual Meeting.This award to honor a leading young finance scholar is analogous to the John Bates Clark Medal in economics and the Fields Medal in mathematics.

The award honors Fischer Black, a former General Partner at Goldman Sachs and Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among Black’s notable research accomplishments was the development (with Myron Scholes) of the Black–Scholes option pricing model. The awardee is chosen for having a body of research that embodies the Fischer Black hallmark of developing original research In years where no such candidate meets the rigorous standards, as was the case in 2005, no award is presented.

The Fischer Black Prize is one of two biennial awards presented by the American Finance Association (the other is the Morgan Stanley-American Finance Association Award For Excellence In Finance) in alternating years at its annual conference to scholars for bodies of research. The Association also awards two annual awards for individual research publications at its conference (Smith Breeden Prize and Brattle Prize).

The American Finance Association’s 2019 Fischer Black Prize is awarded to Professor Ralph Koijen of the University of Chicago. The prize is awarded to the person under 40 whose work best exemplifies the Fischer Black hallmark of developing original research that is relevant to finance practice.

Raghuram Rajan, the Joseph L. Gidwitz Professor of Finance in the Graduate School of Business, has been awarded the inaugural Fischer Black Prize from the American Finance Association.

Rajan’s Ph.D. thesis pointed out the downside to cozy bank-firm relationships long before these became apparent in detailed studies of systems like Japan’s. His recent theoretical work with Douglas Diamond, the Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance in the GSB, knits together the microtheory of banking with macroeconomic theory. Their research promotes greater understanding of the role banks play in the provision of liquidity, why this function makes banks so prone to systemic crises, and why changes in monetary policy have such a significant effect on bank lending.

Dalai Lama is a title given by the Tibetan people for the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest of the classical schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The name “Dalai Lama” is a combination of the Mongolic word dalai meaning “ocean” or “big” (coming from Mongolian title Dalaiyin qan or Dalaiin khan,translated as Gyatso or rgya-mtsho in Tibetan) and the Tibetan word བླ་མ་ (bla-ma) meaning “master, guru”.The Dalai Lama is also known in Tibetan as the Rgyal-ba Rin-po-che (“Precious Conqueror”)or simply as the Rgyal-ba.

The rôle of the Dalai Lama
Potala PalacePotala Palace, the Dalai Lama’s residence until 1959
The Dalai Lama is the head monk of Tibetan Buddhism and traditionally has been responsible for the governing of Tibet, until the Chinese government took control in 1959. Before 1959, his official residence was Potala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.The Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, which is the largest and most influential tradition in Tibet.The institution of the Dalai Lama is a relatively recent one. There have been only 14 Dalai Lamas in the history of Buddhism, and the first and second Dalai Lamas were given the title posthumously.According to Buddhist belief, the current Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of a past lama who decided to be reborn again to continue his important work, instead of moving on from the wheel of life. A person who decides to be continually reborn is known as tulku.Buddhists believe that the first tulku in this reincarnation was Gedun Drub, who lived from 1391-1474 and the second was Gendun Gyatso.However, the name Dalai Lama, meaning Ocean of Wisdom, was not conferred until the third reincarnation in the form of Sonam Gyatso in 1578.The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso.

“I thought I’d have to try and convince him,” she told Reuters in an interview from her home in Auckland.

“That moment of recording him, my goodness I was shaking like a leaf before I went in there,” she said.

Kunin did the initial recordings at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala in India.

Once back home, she worked with her husband Abraham and other musicians to produce music for the tracks.

“It’s an incredible honour. But it was unbelievably, daunting like the trust and responsibility. It’s immense,” Abraham Kunin said.

On a promotional video for the album, when asked why he had agreed to take part, the Dalai Lama answers: “The very purpose of my life is to serve as much as I can.”

The release comes five years after Patti Smith led the crowd at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival singing Happy Birthday to him for his 80th.

(Reporting by Sarah Mills; Writing by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)