Shillong The Natural Beauty

N kavya

Shillong the capital of Meghalaya is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful hill stations in India. Known as the โ€˜Scotland of the East, if one wants to see the natural charm of the North East then there are numerable places to visit in Shillong, the breathtaking greenery, swaying pine trees, cascading waterfalls, azure lakes, botanical gardens, and museums displaying the enriched culture of the Khasis, all make Shillong a perfect holiday destination. Although you can visit the place all through the year, the best time is considered between October to march.

5 Amazing reasons to consider Shillong you’re next holiday destination

1. Visit the mesmerizing waterfalls & lakes

  • umiam lake was initially established as a dam or a reservoir. It is quite popular among tourists and is a perfectly picturesque location to enjoy the stunning views. To the adventure activities that one can do here such as boating, kayaking, etc.
  • Meghalaya is the home to several beautiful cascading waterfalls. The Elephant waterfalls and the Bishop and Beadon waterfalls at Shillong are one of the most beautiful ones. On the outskirts of the city, is a gushing waterfall that looks like an eagle with its wings spread to Eagle Falls. You can even visit the nearby waterfalls such as The Seven Sister Falls, Dainthlein Falls, and Krang Suri.
  • Wardโ€™s lake, locally known as pollock lake or Nan Polok, is an artificial lake in Shillong, Meghalaya, India.

2. Appetizing cafes and cuisines to warm you’re heart and enjoy the incredible Khasi folk tales and cultures

  • โ€ข Shillong has an array of appetizing cuisines starting from lip-smacking street food to mouth-watering Khasi dishes. Shillong also has some best and most wonderful cafes where you can have your coffee. Khasis was the worshipper of nature and almost anything related to nature has an interesting folk tale behind it. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian restaurants here offer delicious food.
  • โ€ข Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous cultures provides a very comprehensive overview of the many tribes indigenous to North-East India.
  • โ€ข The police Bazar is the most colorful place in Shillong. It has modern shops as well as an array of traditional shops selling exquisite handicrafts from Meghalaya. You can also dress up in traditional Khasi costumes and click some pictures.

3. The Intriguing Living Root Bridges

  • โ€ข Once you are in the Shillong and are heading to places like Cherrapunjee or Mawlynnong, the scenic beauty of the roads is unmatched. Deep in the tropical forests of Meghalaya shrouded in rain and cloud, lies these root bridges. These are the roots of ancient rubber trees or Ficus Elastica that have been trained by the Khasi tribesmen to grow in a tangled mess, and then they were intertwined to form single and double-decker root bridges. Mawlynnong is considered to be Asiaโ€™s cleanest village.

4. Visit the laitlum canyons and The. Shillong peak

  • โ€ข The laitlum canyons are a delight to the eyes, at great heights, it is an edge of the hill surrounded by greenery all around. Our eyes will witness stretches of green all around and laters of rocky hills.
  • โ€ข Shillong peak is the highest point in Shillong at a height of 6449ft. you will get a panoramic view of the city from Shillong peak.

5.The ultimate experience of caving & visit the sacred groves

  • Meghalaya has the longest system of caves in the Jaintia Hills. The Mawsmai caves near Cherrapunjee consisting of amazing stalactites and stalagmites are quite a famous tourist spot. Arwah caves for a surreal experience.
  • The Mawphlang Sacred Forest lies around 25km from Shillong. This grove is natureโ€™s museum with rare and amazing plants, orchids, flowering trees, and butterflies.

To reach Shillong the nearest airport and railway station is in Guwahati. Then you can hire a cab as it takes around 2-3 hours to reach there. Enjoy the mesmerizing art work created by mother nature itself.

History of India & Indian National Movement.

Early times the Indian subcontinent appears to have provided an attractive habitat for human occupation. Toward the south it is effectively sheltered by wide expanses of ocean, which tended to isolate it culturally in ancient times, while to the north it is protected by the massive ranges of the Himalayas, which also sheltered it from the Arctic winds and the air currents of Central Asia. Only in the northwest and northeast is there easier access by land, and it was through those two sectors that most of the early contacts with the outside world took place.

Within the framework of hills and mountains represented by the Indo-Iranian borderlands on the west, the Indo-Myanmar borderlands in the east, and the Himalayas to the north, the subcontinent may in broadest terms be divided into two major divisions: in the north, the basins of the Indus and Ganges (Ganga) rivers (the Indo-Gangetic Plain) and, to the south, the block of Archean rocks that forms the Deccan plateau region. The expansive alluvial plain of the river basins provided the environment and focus for the rise of two great phases of city life: the civilization of the Indus valley, known as the Indus civilization, during the 3rd millennium BCE; and, during the 1st millennium BCE, that of the Ganges. To the south of this zone, and separating it from the peninsula proper, is a belt of hills and forests, running generally from west to east and to this day largely inhabited by tribal people. This belt has played mainly a negative role throughout Indian history in that it remained relatively thinly populated and did not form the focal point of any of the principal regional cultural developments of South Asia. However, it is traversed by various routes linking the more-attractive areas north and south of it. The Narmada (Narbada) River flows through this belt toward the west, mostly along the Vindhya Range, which has long been regarded as the symbolic boundary between northern and southern India.

India’s movement for Independence occurred in stages elicit by the inflexibility of the Britishers and in various instances, their violent responses to non-violent protests. It was understood that the British were controlling the resources of India and the lives of its people, and as far as this control was ended India could not be for Indians.

On 28 December 1885 Indian National Congress (INC) was founded on the premises of Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit School at Bombay. It was presided over by W.C Banerjee and attended by 72 delegates. A.O Hume played an instrumental role in the foundation of INC with an aim to provide Safety Valve to the British Government.
A.O Hume served as the first General Secretary of INC.
The real Aim of Congress is to train the Indian youth in political agitation and to organise or to create public opinion in the country. For this, they use the method of an annual session where they discuss the problem and passed the resolution.
The first or early phase of Indian Nationalism is also termed as Moderate Phase (1885-1905). Moderate leaders were W.C Banerjee, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, R.C Dutt, Ferozeshah Mehta, George Yule, etc.
Moderates have full faith in British Government and adopted the PPP path i.e. Protest, Prayer, and Petition.
Due to disillusionment from Moderates’ methods of work, extremism began to develop within the congress after 1892. The Extremist leaders were Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, and Aurobindo Ghosh. Instead of the PPP path, they emphasise on self-reliance, constructive work, and swadeshi.
With the announcement of the Partition of Bengal (1905) by Lord Curzon for administrative convenience, Swadeshi and Boycott resolution was passed in 1905.


ONE INDIVIDUAL MAY DIE; BUT THAT IDEA WILL, AFTER HIS DEATH, INCARNATE ITSELF IN A THOUSAND LIVES.

-Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Dubal Collaboration Plans To Build ‘Food Secure Future’ Centers Around India


Food secure future is a significant issue for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) yet in addition for India. Worldwide Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), truth be told, cautions that evolving environment, developing worldwide populace, rising food costs and natural stressors will uncertainly affect food security in the coming many years. Notwithstanding, industry specialists and strategy creators accept that the UAE and India can up their synergistic endeavors to handle food security issues towards accomplishing food independence.



This is because the United Arab Emirates is India’s third largest trading partner with the bilateral trade of US$ 59.1 billion in 2019-20. Furthermore, it is a well-known fact that India wants to work very closely with the UAE as a reliable partner in food security. India’s food corridor is slated to attract investments to the tune of US$ 7 billion. Dubai can be a gateway for Indian companies in agriculture and food processing sector to take their products and services globally. This is the opinion of Dr Aman Puri council general of India.

According to him the UA should not be looked at as just a market of 10 million consumers rather it is is beneficial to the entire middle East and North African region. It is considered food secure due to its ability to import food from international markets.



The food technology valley aims at promoting innovation in agriculture to achieve food security from sustainable sources. Dubai is already adopting the new age farming technologies, vertical farming, smart farming, aeroponics, hydroponics, LOT and other new technologies have resulted in a 53% increase in output in agriculture.

The capital intensive nature of the Emirates aptly suits India which needs funding infusions for infrastructure creation. All the sovereign wealth funds have an investor bill capacity of around US$ 1.2 trillion which is growing at a rate of 18 % per annum.



India is on the threshold of a landmark change in the nature of food processing it is now moving towards value-added process and ready to eat foods. Thus, there has never been a better time for the Indian companies to tap the opportunities that the UAE and Dubai throw up. With the peceeding opportunities, both UAE and India face a common challengeas well, in the creation of value chain perspective, that is, end-to-end, farm-to-fork. So, moving forward, the two countries can deepen their collaboration and help each other in achieving this goal.

-Ananya Kaushal

The problem of poverty in India

In India, poverty is presently estimated by fixing a poverty line based on a differentiated calorie-norm. This means that the level of poverty depends upon the capacity of a person to purchase food and a person who can buy specific amount of food to cross the poverty line margin for nutrients and calorie intake is above the poverty line. Whereas, the person who cannot buy enough food to meet the required nutrition value of calories and carbohydrates is below the poverty line. This level is not the correct parameter to check the level of poverty.

A task force of the Planning Commission in 1979 defined the poverty line as that per capita expenditure at which the average per capita per day calorie intake was 2400 calories in rural areas and 2100 calories in urban areas. Average per capita expenditures incurred by that population group in each State which consumed these quantities of calories, as per the 1973-74 survey of NSSO, were used as the poverty lines.

The debate on the extent of poverty in India has been a matter of global interest in the recent years. The primary reason for the global interest in the debate is that the levels of poverty in India and China have come to exert significant influence over the trends in world poverty itself.

Within India too, there has been growing contestation around poverty estimates, particularly in the period of economic reforms. First, there are persistent disagreements among economists on whether the rate of poverty decline after economic reforms was slower than in the preceding period. Secondly, the shift to targeted, rather than universal, welfare schemes has witnessed the use of poverty estimates to decide on the number of households eligible to access these schemes. The report of the Expert Group on the estimation of poverty, chaired by Suresh Tendulkar, is the latest input to the โ€œGreat Indian Poverty Debate.โ€

It is to be noted here that many subsidies and programs are launched by the government but these additional increments do not reach the actual people that are in need of them. Instead it is sent back to the businessman and thus a lot of profit is earned on these subsidized goods. Thus, to lower the level of poverty in India, schemes have to be launched in order to directly benefit the people in need.

The Hindu states that, “A final issue with the report, of much long-term consequence, relates to the wisdom of abandoning the calorie norm. It is indeed true that the levels of calorie intakes are not well correlated with nutritional outcomes. However, abandoning the calorie norm altogether and taking solace from the fortuitous fact that calorie intakes appear adequate at the new poverty lines is an arbitrary proposition. It is unclear whether there is any basis, theoretical or empirical, for this relationship to hold true across time.”

the Tendulkar Committee has pitched for a policy position that is stranded between the harsh realities of poverty in India and the fiscal conservativeness of a neo-liberal framework. The real challenge lies in preserving the positives from the report, and strongly persisting with the demand for a universal social security system.

– Ananya Kaushal

Major geopolitical developments and itโ€™s impact on India

Over the past several weeks, a number of important developments have taken place which may appear disconnected at a glance but in fact add up to a significant shift in regional and global geopolitics.

ONE, the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan and the complete takeover of the country by the Taliban. This resulted in chaos and overall disruption of the semblance of peace the country earlier possessed. With the Taliban claiming the residents of the country are happy with their takeover and the disrupted president on the run, the future of the country appears in shambles.

TWO, significant domestic political changes in the Peopleโ€™s Republic Of China. This includes the ideological and regulatory assault against its dynamic private high-tech companies and now recently, its real estate companies. As a result, it has a heightened risk perception among international business and industries which had seen China as a huge commercial opportunity until now. While the economical affairs of the country are entirely their own to manage and govern, there will be a lasting impact on the general job opportunities.

THREE, the announcement of the Australia-UK and US (AUKUS) alliance which represents a major departure in US strategy by its commitment to enable Australia to join a handful of countries with nuclear submarines. The alliance clearly portraits Australiaโ€™s strategic choice to firmly support USA despite its considerable economic and commercial equation in China.

FOUR, the convening of the four nation Quad physical summit (India, Australia, Japan and the US) IN Washington. This reflected a major step towards its formalization as an influential grouping in the Indo-Pacific going beyond boundaries and into a personal level of safeguarding.

These four developments together present India with both risks and opportunities. While the latter outweighs the risks henceforth. It would indeed be fitting to say a future of uncertainties awaits the entire world. Are these measurements a preparation of the unseen future or simply precautions is something only time will reveal.

Written by : Ananya Kaushal