ISSUE #02
ECONOMICS
Ayodhya, The Ram Mandir BOOM
The Ram Mandir construction has sparked a significant economic boom in Ayodhya. Tourism is the key driver, with pilgrim numbers expected to reach 300,000 daily. Land prices have soared, attracting big investors to develop hotels, resorts, and residential projects.
Government initiatives further fuel the growth. Projects worth ₹85,000 crore are planned under the Ayodhya Master Plan 2031, including a new airport and improved infrastructure. This surge in tourism and development creates new jobs, boosting local income and business opportunities.
However, challenges remain. Managing the rapid growth without compromising Ayodhya's cultural heritage and ensuring equitable benefits for all residents are crucial concerns. Overall, the Ram Mandir's economic impact is undeniable, transforming Ayodhya from a pilgrimage town to a potential economic hub.
A preview of the Ram Mandir design as it nears completion.
Gaza’s economic struggle
Gaza's economy, long strained by conflict and restrictions, faces a complex and fragile situation. The impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has obviously taken a toll on the economic situation of the region.
Israeli and Egyptian restrictions limit movement of goods and people, hindering exports and access to vital resources. Over 50% of Gazans are unemployed, fuelled by limited job opportunities and a struggling private sector. Nearly 60% of Gazans live in poverty, struggling to afford basic necessities. Repeated conflicts damage infrastructure, impacting water, electricity, and sanitation.
However, there is still hope! Several international aid organisations have dedicated themselves to improving the situation in Gaza. Long-term stability and conflict resolution are crucial for unlocking Gaza's potential and building a thriving economy.
China dominating EV markets
China's EV surge is electrifying the global market, leaving Western firms in its dust. Their dominance, fuelled by subsidies and production prowess, threatens market share and profits, potentially sparking job losses in the West. China accounted for over half the global sales of EVs in 2023. This is due to their low prices, as the producers operating there have access to a variety of cheap resources. The question still remains- is the West ready for this challenge?
By Vihaan Poddar
SPORT
NFL Action, NBA Play-In Tournament and Golf Suprises
In the world of sports, the NFL and NBA have been bustling with activity. In the NFL, the playoffs have seen the Kansas City Chiefs advancing past the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional Round, with Patrick Mahomes playing a pivotal role. The NFL Championship Weekend was set, highlighting significant performances and records, such as Mahomes and Travis Kelce surpassing Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski for the most playoff touchdowns by a QB-receiver combo.
On the NBA front, the season has been packed with thrilling games and remarkable achievements. The NBA Play-In Tournament is a prelude to the playoffs, deciding the 7th and 8th seeds in each conference through a series of games. The teams placed 7th and 8th get two chances to qualify, while the 9th and 10th must win two consecutive games. This format ensures intense competition before the playoffs start. The 2023-24 NBA Play-In Tournament is scheduled from April 16 to April 19, with the playoffs kicking off on April 20 and concluding no later than June 23 . The NBA Rising Stars event, set for February 16, is another highlight, showcasing the league's up-and-coming talents. This event, along with other All-Star Weekend festivities, draws fans' attention to the skills and potential of the league's younger players
On the golf scene, it has been a interesting weekend. With Rory Mcliroy winning the Dubai dessert classic 2 years in a row after a huge upset coming second in the Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek golf club the week before. Nick Dunlap( US junior Am winner 2021)(US AM winner 2023) has won the AMEX championship as a college sophomore, becoming the second youngest golfer to win on the PGA tour behind Jordan Speith, also becoming the next amateur to win a PGA tour even after Phil mickilson in 1991.
By Ji Li
GENERAL HEADLINES
Mickey? Is that you?
As the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, the copyright of the iconic rodent from the Steamboat Willie cartoon expired. As couples kissed each other on New Year’s Eve, the entertainment giant known as Disney, kissed the 95-year copyright goodbye. Mickey has officially entered public domain.
There is a small catch though…
People can only use the original versions of Mickey and Minnie, as they appear in Steamboat Willie. Other details introduced in later years like their white gloves, Mickey’s classic red pants, Minnie’s polka dots, and their high-pitched voice, are off limits.
Disney still has a registered trademark on Steamboat Willie Mickey as a company mascot. People just have to make sure that they should clarify that it isn’t an official Disney production.
I’m terrified to see what the public does
Creative minds have already jumped at this opportunity to take people’s childhood and turn into a psychological horror, as usual.
Just like Winnie the Pooh, they just had to announce a horror movie for Mickey (WHY). It is known as Mickey’s Mouse Trap, which already tells you all that you need to know. Here we have a Mickey covered in bloodstains hunting people down.
As if a movie wasn’t enough, Nightmare Forge announced a horror game which involves an absolutely unhinged, bloody version of Mickey hunting you and your friends down in a dark warehouse.
I guess we will have to see how this ends up turning out: a blessing, or a curse, or both.
New year, old me: I tried
Finally, it is the year of 2024. We have welcomed the year with impressive fireworks displays, popped bottles of champagne, and…New Year’s resolutions. Ah yes, the promises we make, that we almost never keep. These promises that are accompanied with saying that “2025 is gonna be my year frfr,” originates from 4000 years ago from the Babylonians. Unironically, it hasn’t changed since then.
Well, what are the odds?
You might be thinking “I’ll never give up on my resolution, this writer is crazy.” Trust me, the odds are stacked against your favor. 26% of people give up on their resolution within the first week, only 36% make it past the first month, and only 9% successfully keep their resolutions. Funny thing is, approximately 60% of young adults (18-34) make New Year’s resolutions, whilst people who are older than 55 are 3.1 times less likely to have resolutions compared to younger adults. Seems like they learned their lesson and are watching us make the same mistakes they did. However, we are making progress, I haven’t seen a single person on social media make the comment that 2024 is going to be their year, I guess we finally learned that after 4 years of trying *insert 2020 flashbacks here*.
It's not hopeless though
But there is hope. The recurring themes with failed resolutions are that they are either over-ambitious or non-specific. For example, pledging that I would lose 20 kgs by the end of the year would be an example of something over-ambitious, or I want to get stronger would be an example of something non-specific. It would be a better idea to set a resolution with checkpoints. Say your goal is to lose 5 kgs by the end of the year. Set 5 different checkpoints throughout the year and measure your progress using that. This is the concept of decomposition, making a big goal into a group of smaller goals to feel more feasible.
By Samar Shah
MEDICAL
Hidden danger: Binge drinking and genes amplify cirrhosis risk
They add that having type 2 diabetes places people who binge drink at even greater risk.
Experts say the study findings could help identify people who need targeted interventions to prevent liver disease. Alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver is often thought of as a disease related to chronic alcohol misuse, but new research is reporting that this deadly liver illness may also be triggered by binge drinking.
Researchers pinpointed this startling connection by comparing two groups: those who drank within daily limits with low genetic risk, and those who engaged in binge drinking with higher genetic vulnerability. The latter group faced a sixfold greater risk of developing cirrhosis, highlighting the devastating synergy between these factors.
The researchers noted that this risk was even higher among drinkers with type 2 diabetes.
Their findings were detailed in a studyTrusted Source published in the journal Nature Communications. In cases where all three risk factors are present — binge drinking, genetic disposition, and the presence of type 2 diabetes — drinking patterns may play a more significant role in development of cirrhosis than the volume of drinking, according to the researchers from University College London, the Royal Free Hospital, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge.
“Many studies that look into the relationship between liver disease and alcohol focus on the volume of alcohol consumed,” said Linda Ng Fat, a first study author and a senior research fellow at the University College London, said. “We took a different approach by focusing on the pattern of drinking and found that this was a better indicator of liver disease risk than volume alone. The other key finding was that the more risk factors involved, the higher the ‘excess risk’ due to the interaction of these factors.”
“This research is important because it reveals that it’s not just how much you drink overall but the way that you drink matters,” said Pamela Healy, chief executive officer of the British Liver Trust. “Drinking a lot, quickly, or drinking to get drunk, can have serious consequences for your liver health.”
Researchers said the each factor raised the risk of liver disease even when viewed in isolation. For example, those who engaged in heavy binge drinking, categorized as having 12 units of alcohol in a day at some point during a given week, were three times as likely to develop alcohol-related cirrhosis.
The risk for those with a high genetic predisposition was four times higher and the risk for those with type 2 diabetics was two times higher.
How binge drinking damages the liver
Dr. Theodore Strange, told Medical News Today that the research makes an interesting distinction between the health risks of binge drinking as opposed to the sheer quantity of alcohol consumed.
“This needs to be studied more as there may be something that genetically predisposes some people to have more serious liver injuries from binge drinking that may be due to just the shock of that amount of alcohol to be processed so quickly as opposed to more sustained amounts over time,” he said.
Strange said the “shock of binging could possibly overwhelm the liver’s ability to metabolize alcohol” and may “acutely affect the ability of the cells of the liver to survive because of acute damage, which they may be genetically prone to.”
“Binge drinking puts immense strain on the liver, which is responsible for metabolizing alcohol,” Adam Zagha, the founder of Numa Recovery Centers and a certified mental health and addiction treatment who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today. “When alcohol is consumed in excessive amounts, the liver is unable to keep up with the detoxification process, leading to the accumulation of toxins and the development of liver cirrhosis over time.”
By Tang Li
POLITICAL FINANCE
The Illusion of Money
Where does money come from? Those of you who study economics may reply with a fun story about the adventures of a man with apples bartering his way to bread; suddenly, the genius idea of money is magically implemented, and everyone lives happily ever after. The only issue with this story is that it is entirely made up. According to historians, barter-based economies never existed. The "father of modern economic thought," Adam Smith, originally popularized the myth of barter, taking the idea from Aristotle, who admitted he just guessed.
So, instead, let me tell you the true history of money.
Firstly, money is not a "thing." Any item can be worth a dollar, be it a can of coke, paper money, or numbers on a screen, but none of them is a dollar. Money is a tool for managing debt, an IOU (I owe you), and it is in this very form that we first find money. Written on ancient clay tablets, we see systems tracking who owed what to whom. But there is an issue: what would stop people from refusing to recognize the debt? Imagine the following scenario: You are in a room, and I offer you two leaves in exchange for your shoes - you would all refuse. But suppose there are now two armed guards at the door who will only let you leave if you give them a leaf; suddenly, my offer seems quite enticing.
Now, let me ask you this: where in your life do you need to pay money to stop armed guards from locking you in a room? Taxes. It is these very taxes that provide money its "value." This is true for every monetary system ever observed. The evolution from clay tablets to coins and bills was mostly a measure to fight forgery.
By Riccardo Martinico
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Unlocking Cosmic Powers through Explosive Innovation : CERN’s Antimatter Factory
In the realm of physics, there’s a factory, the Antimatter Factory, producing the most explosive substance known to man. Nested at the heart of CERN, the European organisation for Nuclear Research, the factory has been tasked with producing anti-matter since 1995. Anti-matter in and of itself is quite a peculiar entity, comprised of particles similar to those of regular matter but with opposite electrical charge. Upon collision, the meeting of these oppositely charged particles unleashes a large explosion.
CERN approves two new experiments to transport antimatter.
Antimatter isn't just a spectacular show of destruction; it also offers tantalizing prospects for the future. Beyond its explosive potential, antimatter holds the key to revolutionary technologies. One of the most exciting possibilities is spacecraft propulsion. The sheer energy released from small amounts of antimatter could propel spacecraft to incredible speeds, significantly shortening travel times to distant planets or even the stars. In medicine, antimatter could be a game-changer for precise diagnostics. Antiparticles can be used as probes to visualize the human body at the molecular level, enabling earlier disease detection and more targeted treatments.
However, realizing these potential applications remains a formidable challenge, given the immense cost and difficulty of antimatter production. Nevertheless, the quest to harness this cosmic power continues, driven by the dream of unlocking the secrets of the universe and transforming our future in ways we can only imagine.
By Sai Sidhanth Manoharan Jayanthi
