THE LADY WHO DESIGNED PARAM VIR CHAKRA :-Contributed by Shri Gopidas Debnath through Grand Ole Times FB

Savitri Khanolkar, a Swiss national whose real name was Eve Yvonne Maday de Maros, married to an Indian Army officer, Vikram Ramji Khanolkar. In 1929, she met Vikram Khanolkar, a young Indian Army cadet undergoing training at Sandhurst, who had come to Switzerland for a break.

She was still a teenager then; however, both fell in love although Vikram was much older than her. She came to India in 1932 and married Vikram in Lucknow. After marriage, she changed her name to Savitri Bai.

In spite of her European background, she quickly adapted to Indian culture and traditions. She became a vegetarian, learnt to speak fluent Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit. And also learnt Indian music, dance and painting. She called herself an European with an Indian soul, and never liked being called a foreigner.

She had a deep interest in Puranas, which she read extensively, and also studied India's ancient history and its legends. It was due to this that Major General Hira Lal Atal, the first Indian Adjutant General of independent India, asked her help in designing the Param Vir Chakra. Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the Puranas, Savitri Bai thought of Rishi Dadhichi, who had given up his own body for Indra to make the deadly Vajra, or thunderbolt. She came up with the design of a double Vajra,

The Param Vir Chakra is cast in bronze. In the centre, on a raised circle, is the Ashok stambh, surrounded by four replicas of Indra's Vajra and flanked by swords.

Incidentally, the first recipient of the PVC, Major Somnath Sharma, was the brother-in-law of Savitri Bai's elder daughter Kumudini, who died while fighting at the Battle of Badgam during the 1948 war with Pakistan.

After her husband passed away in 1952, Savitri Bai sought refuge in spirituality and spent her later years with the Ramakrishna Math. She also wrote a book on the Saints of Maharashtra. She passed away on 26 November 1990 at the age of 77 after leading a truly remarkable life. A Swiss national of mixed Hungarian-Russian descent, married to an Indian Army officer had designed the ‘Param Vir Chakra,’ the highest military award in India!

The lady who Designed...

PARAM VIR CHAKRA.

Savitri Khanolkar, a Swiss national whose real name was Eve Yvonne Maday de Maros, married to an Indian Army officer, Vikram Ramji Khanolkar. In 1929, she met Vikram Khanolkar, a young Indian Army cadet undergoing training at Sandhurst, who had come to Switzerland for a break.

She was still a teenager then; however, both fell in love although Vikram was much older than her. She came to India in 1932 and married Vikram in Lucknow. After marriage, she changed her name to Savitri Bai.

In spite of her European background, she quickly adapted to Indian culture and traditions. She became a vegetarian, learnt to speak fluent Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit. And also learnt Indian music, dance and painting. She called herself an European with an Indian soul, and never liked being called a foreigner.

She had a deep interest in Puranas, which she read extensively, and also studied India's ancient history and its legends. It was due to this that Major General Hira Lal Atal, the first Indian Adjutant General of independent India, asked her help in designing the Param Vir Chakra. Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the Puranas, Savitri Bai thought of Rishi Dadhichi, who had given up his own body for Indra to make the deadly Vajra, or thunderbolt. She came up with the design of a double Vajra,

The Param Vir Chakra is cast in bronze. In the centre, on a raised circle, is the Ashok stambh, surrounded by four replicas of Indra's Vajra and flanked by swords.

Incidentally, the first recipient of the PVC, Major Somnath Sharma, was the brother-in-law of Savitri Bai's elder daughter Kumudini, who died while fighting at the Battle of Badgam during the 1948 war with Pakistan.

After her husband passed away in 1952, Savitri Bai sought refuge in spirituality and spent her later years with the Ramakrishna Math. She also wrote a book on the Saints of Maharashtra. She passed away on 26 November 1990 at the age of 77 after leading a truly remarkable life. A Swiss national of mixed Hungarian-Russian descent, married to an Indian Army officer had designed the ‘Param Vir Chakra,’ the highest military award in India!

With the PVC, Savitri Khanolkar also designed the Mahavir Chakra, the Vir Chakra and the Ashok Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award. In India's official order of precedence, the PVC is second only to the Bharat Ratna.

She deserves great respect,

NOT because she was a foreigner,

BUT,

it is because of her sincere respect towards India's culture, traditions, languages, literature and her great contributions to this land

#gopidas

1.6K1.6K

217 Comments

516 Shares

Like

Comment

Share

#gopidas

CBI books PSL Group for cheating Canara Bank to tune of Rs 428.50 cr Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com

 

The CBI has filed a case against PSL Group and its directors for allegedly cheating Canara Bank to the tune of Rs 428.50 crore by defaulting on credit repayments, officials said. The agency on Thursday conducted searches at seven locations in Mumbai and Kutch, Gujarat, resulting in the recovery of incriminating documents, they said.

In addition to the company, the CBI has also named its directors Ashok Yogender Punj, Rajender Kumar Bahri, Chitranjan Kumar, Jagdishchandra Goel and and Alok Yogender Punj as accused in the case.

Acting on a complaint by the bank, the CBI has taken over investigation after the registration of the FIR.

It is alleged the accused entered into a conspiracy to cheat Canara Bank during 2016-19 and sought sanction of various credit facilities, the officials said, adding the accused misrepresented the account books, misutilised the funds of the bank and diverted receivables from its debtors.

"It was further alleged that the loan amount received from the bank for various projects was utilized for purposes other than for which it was availed. An alleged loss of Rs 428.50 crore (approx) was caused to Canara Bank," a CBI spokesperson said.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/cbi-books-psl-group-for-cheating-canara-bank-to-tune-of-rs-428-50-cr/articleshow/94227878.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

A new space race? China adds urgency to US return to moon Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com By Ellen Knickmeyer, AP

 

It's not just rocket fuel propelling America's first moonshot after a half-century lull. Rivalry with China's flourishing space program is helping drive NASA's effort to get back into space in a bigger way, as both nations push to put people back on the moon and establish the first lunar bases.

American intelligence, military and political leaders make clear they see a host of strategic challenges to the US in China's space program, in an echo of the US-Soviet rivalry that prompted the 1960s' race to the moon.

That's as China is quickly matching US civil and military space accomplishments and notching new ones of its own.

On the military side, the US and China trade accusations of weaponizing space. Senior US defense officials warn that China and Russia are building capabilities to take out the satellite systems that underpin US intelligence, military communications and early warning networks.

There's also a civilian side to the space race. The US is wary of China taking the lead in space exploration and commercial exploitation, and pioneering the technological and scientific advances that would put China ahead in power in space and in prestige down on Earth.

"In a decade, the United States has gone from the unquestioned leader in space to merely one of two peers in a competition," Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, declared this week at a Senate Armed Services hearing."Everything our military does relies on space."

At another hearing last year, NASA administrator Bill Nelson brandished an image transmitted by a Chinese rover that had just plunked down on Mars.

"The Chinese government ... they're going to be landing humans on the moon" soon, he said. "That should tell us something about our need to get off our duff."

NASA, the US civilian space agency, is awaiting a new launch date this month or in October for its Artemis 1 uncrewed test moonshot. Technical problems scrubbed the first two launch attempts in recent weeks.

China likewise aims to send astronauts to the moon this decade, as well as establish a robotic research station there. Both the US and China intend to establish bases for intermittent crews on the moon's south pole after that.

Russia has aligned with China's moon program, while 21 nations have joined a US-initiated effort meant to bring guidelines and order to the civil exploration and development of space.

The parallel efforts come 50 years after US astronauts last pulled shut the doors on an Apollo module and blasted away from the moon, in December 1972.

Some space policy experts bat down talk of a new space race, seeing big differences from John F. Kennedy's Cold War drive to outdo the Soviet Union's Sputnik and be the first to get people on the moon.

This time, both the US and China see moon programs as a stepping stone in phased programs toward exploring, settling and potentially exploiting the resources and other untapped economic and strategic opportunities offered by the moon, Mars and space at large.

Beyond the gains in technology, science and jobs that accompany space programs, Artemis promoters point to the potential of mining minerals and frozen water on the moon, or using the moon as a base to go prospecting on asteroids - the Trump administration in particular emphasized the mining prospects. There's potential in tourism and other commercial efforts.

And for space more broadly, Americans alone have tens of thousands of satellites overhead in what the Space Force says is a half -trillion dollar global space economy.

Satellites guide GPS, process credit card purchases, help keep TV, radio and cell phone feeds going, and predict weather. They ensure the military and intelligence community's ability to keep track of perceived threats.

And in a world where China and Russia are collaborating to try to surpass the US in space, and where some point to private space efforts led by US billionaires as rendering costly NASA rocket launches unnecessary, the US would regret leaving the glory and strategic advantages from developing the moon and space solely to the likes of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Tesla magnate Elon Musk, Artemis proponents say.

The moon programs signal that "space is going to be an arena of competition on the prestige front, demonstrating advanced technical expertise and know-how, and then also on the military front as well," said Aaron Bateman, a professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University and a member of the Space Policy Institute.

"People who are supportive of Artemis and people who see it as a tool of competition, they want the United States to be at the table in shaping the future of exploration on other celestial bodies," Bateman said.

There's no shortage of such warnings as the Artemis program moves toward lift-off. "Beijing is working to match or exceed US capabilities in space to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership," the US intelligence community warned this year in its annual threat assessment.

A Pentagon-commissioned study group contended last month that "China appears to be on track to surpass the US as the dominant space power by 2045." It called that part of a Chinese plan to promote authoritarianism and communism down here on Earth.

It's sparked occasional heated words between Chinese and US officials.

China's space program was guided by peaceable principles, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in July.

"Some US officials are constantly smearing China's normal and reasonable outer space undertakings," Zhao said.

Flying on the mightiest rocket ever built by NASA, Artemis 1 aims for a five-week demo flight that would put test dummies into lunar orbit.

If all goes well with that, US astronauts could fly around the moon in 2024 and land on it in 2025, culminating a program that will have cost USD 93 billion over more than a decade of work.

NASA intends that a woman and a person of colour will be on the first US crew touching foot on the moon again.

Lessons learned in getting back to the moon will aid in the next step in crewed flights, to Mars, the space agency says.

China's ambitious space program, meanwhile, is a generation behind that of the United States. But its secretive, military-linked program is developing fast and creating distinctive missions that could put Beijing on the leading edge of space flight.

Already, China has that rover on Mars, joining a US one already there. China carved out a first with its landing on the far side of the moon.

Chinese astronauts are overhead now, putting the finishing touches on a permanent orbiting space station.

A 1967 UN space treaty meant to start shaping the guardrails for space exploration bans anyone from claiming sovereignty over a celestial body, putting a military base on it, or putting weapons of mass destruction into space.

"I don't think it's at all by coincidence or happenstance that it is now in this period of what people are claiming is renewed great-power competition that the United States is actually investing the resources to go back," said Bateman, the scholar on space and national security. "Time will tell if this turns into a sustained program."

Competition isn't necessarily a bad thing, said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Does rivalry with the Chinese "ensure greater sustained interest in our space program? Sure," Coons said. "But I don't think that's necessarily a competition that leads to conflict.

"I think it can be a competition - like the Olympics - that simply means that each team and each side is going to push higher and faster. And as a result, humanity is likely to benefit," he said.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/a-new-space-race-china-adds-urgency-to-us-return-to-moon/articleshow/94228128.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

WE THE INDIANS ARE GETTING LOOTED BY OUR OWN POLITICIANS.

 

Up 60% in a year but MF managers don’t find this private bank alluring enough Money managers’ apathy towards Yes Bank has come at a time when it has proven itself to be one of the best-performing ones. The stock is up nearly 60 percent from its 52-week low in September last year. SHUBHAM RAJ SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 / 02:09 PM IST MONEYCONTROL NEWS

 

Money managers’ apathy towards the bank has come at a time when it has proven itself to be one of the best-performing ones. The stock is up nearly 60 percent from its 52-week low in September last year. So far, in the current year, it has delivered 27 percent.

Yes Bank has definitely surprised many on the Street with its spirited performance. There has been some triggers that have improved the outlook of the bank. The bank has sold its toxic assets to an asset restructuring company (ARC).

Kranti Bathini of Wealth Mills Securities, a Mumbai-based broking firm, said the stock has risen due to a number of positives – prominent among them being deposit growth that shows confidence is coming back for Yes Bank.

NPAs likely to come down

The bank signed a binding term sheet with JC Flower to transfer stressed assets worth Rs 48,000 crore. This is likely to bring down the non-performing assets (NPA) levels. The proceeds from the sale will also add to capital infusion.

This infusion is in addition to the stock issuance to Carlyle and Advent International, with each potentially acquiring up to a 10 percent stake in the bank. Beyond this, the bank’s financial performance has also improved substantially. Its profits have increased while credit growth is in the mid-teens - on par with many of its peers.

Despite that, there are very few active funds that hold the stock; in fact, just two – SBI Multi Asset Allocation Fund and Tata Quant Fund. The latter incidentally booked partial profits by selling some shares of Yes Bank during August.

MF managers see better opportunities

It is not that MF managers have anything against the bank. Their apathy is likely due to the simple reason that there are better opportunities in the private banking space. MF managers usually avoid talking about individual stocks but they have not shied away from talking in favour of large private banks. Their recent actions are also walking the talk.

SBI Mutual Fund, the largest mutual fund company, bought more shares of ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank during August. HDFC MF also bought shares of HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and Axis Bank. ICICI Pru MF is the only one in the top three that sold shares of private banks rather than buying them.

Analysts have also been gung-ho about large private banks. Analysts from Morgan Stanley see up to 40 percent upside in ICICI Bank. Incidentally, there is not a single ‘sell’ call on the bank. Besides, analysts’ opinion on HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank and Federal Bank are also quite positive. In comparison, Yes Bank is not coveted by analysts.

An analyst with Nirmal Bang who has a ‘sell’ rating on the stock said the stock may have risen due to cash infusion and bad loan sale, but return ratios are not favourable. Thus, he is pessimistic about the stock.

Some analysts also point towards the fact that Yes Bank’s margins are nothing to write home about. At 2.4 percent (in Q1FY23), the net interest margin is significantly below many of its peers.

Moreover, most of its shares are locked right now. Analysts at ICICI Securities said “supply overhang post the expiry of lock-in shares” is another concern. The broker has a target price at Rs 14 with a ‘hold’ rating on the stock.

According to data available on Bloomberg, just one analyst from ULJK Financial has a buy rating while eight have ‘sell’ and five have ‘hold’ calls on Yes Bank. Consensus return potential is negative 19 percent from hereon.

“Is everything perfect for Yes Bank? No. It still needs to show better performance in other aspects such as credit growth,” Bathini said, adding that, at this juncture investing in Yes Bank is only suitable for high-risk investors.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

SHUBHAM RAJ is a journalist with over five years of experience covering capital markets. His last stint was with The Economic Times where he wrote on daily happenings in stock markets and led IPO reportage. He also wrote on mutual funds and cryptocurrencies.