My Scribles

There are nearly 400 million Muslims and Dalits in India. According to the 2011 census, Muslims comprise 14.2 per cent of the population, Dalits 16.6 per cent. Every third Indian is therefore Muslim or Dalit. For politicians a Dalit-Muslim combination forms an electoral juggernaut. In Uttar Pradesh, which has 20.5 per cent of India's total Dalit population (over 40 million out of the country's 210 million Dalits) and another 40 million Muslims, the combination could prove decisive. Mayawati has regained lost momentum after a series of atrocities on Dalits in recent weeks and the crude personal remark by BJP Uttar Pradesh vice-president Dayashankar Singh, expelled last week from the party and arrested on July 29. The Samajwadi Party's misgovernance could also nudge a part of its Muslim base to vote strategically for the BSP in order to keep the BJP at bay. With eight months to go for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, much can change on the ground. Polarisatio...

At no time in Indian history has a single journalist been as influential as Arnab Goswami is today. One of the weirder sidelights of the JNU controversy is the way in which a controversy-within-a-controversy has mushroomed on the back of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest. Many journalists have called for a boycott of Goswami and Times Now, the channel he runs. Angry articles have appeared - many of them written by senior journalists - slamming Goswami for the stand he has taken on the issue. Other TV anchors have broken with tradition to tweet against him. And at least one news channel has rearranged itself to seem like a downmarket clone of Times Now. What irks the journalists is not just the stand that Goswami has taken on the JNU issue. They are even more annoyed by the fact that this stand, and others like it in the past, are finding favour with viewers. For something like three years now, Times Now has been the number one English news channel in the markets that ...

Emirates has been voted the best airline in the world for 2016, according to a consultancy firm that surveyed millions of passengers worldwide. Skytrax, which runs an aviation consumer platform, presented on Tuesday the 2016 World Airline Awards at a gala ceremony held at Farnborough Airshow, which was attended by representatives of more than 40 airlines around the world. This year’s awards marks the fourth time that Emirates has won the top prize. Other Gulf carriers also made it to the top ten list, with Qatar Airways taking the second spot and Etihad Airways securing the sixth position. The awards was based on a comprehensive consumer survey conducted among 19.2 million air travellers between August 2015 and May 2016, covering a range of indicators, including seat comfort, cabin cleanliness, check-in and boarding experience, quality of staff service, among many others. The poll attracted feedback from more than 104 nationalities, which rated at least 280 low-cost and full-ser...

The 16-lane flyover bridge, which is part of the Dubai Water Canal project, has been under construction since November 2014. In January this year, the Roads and Transportation Authority (RTA) had opened the first part of the flyover — Sharjah-bound — for traffic. On Friday, the other six lanes of the Abu Dhabi-bound bridge were opened, while two more lanes are expected to open mid-July. The 800-metre-long flyover, located near Interchange two on Shaikh Zayed Road, rises up to 8.5 metres, allowing yachts and boats to operate underneath. The opening of the flyover fully will allow for the remaining canal drilling work underneath. Once ready, the 16-lane flyover will take motorists eight metres over Dubai Canal, a man-made waterway that will cut across Shaikh Zayed Road, Al Wasl Road and Jumeirah Road before emptying into the sea. Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, had said in a previous statement that, “by opening the sout...

The world’s largest Ferris wheel has officially been given a name: Ain Dubai. Ain, which means ‘eye’ in Arabic, was aptly given to the project as it intends to provide visitors with a bird’s eye view of Dubai’s splendid skyline. Photographs of the project’s construction has revealed just how much construction work is taking place on Bluewaters Island, located off the coast near Jumeirah Beach Residence. Two of the world's largest cranes – each comprising a 180 metre-long boom and boasting a lifting capacity of over 3,000 tonnes each – have soared over the construction site, setting the hub and spindle in place on top of the 126 metre-high legs. The spindle, with a diameter of 6.25 metres, was made of steel, similar to that used for nuclear plants, and was rolled and welded to serve its vital future purpose. Three special machines imported from Singapore undertook the fine-tuning work to produce circularity to meet incredible fine tolerances. Delivered with fully-fitted ...