Historic handshakes, famous hugs

The Obama-Castro Kodak moment joins a legion of other symbolic meetings 

Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida, USA. But for almost half a century, the distance between the two countries appeared a lot more. Driven by a policy rooted in the Cold War, the US severed all diplomatic ties with Cuba for more than 50 years. But that changed on March 2016, when US President Barack Obama stepped out of a two-hour meeting with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in Havana. The cordial handshake that followed was historic – symbolic of crashing barriers and an improved economic tie between the two neighbours. It wasn’t the first of its kind. Check out some other momentous handshakes and embraces that were talked about globally as well as locally: [Updated on July 2018]

Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis

February 2016

“Finally!” That was the word with which Pope Francis gave Patriarch Kirill a hug, marking the first encounter in history between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch in the nearly thousand years since Eastern Orthodoxy split with Rome. The two met in a private room in Cuba’s Jose Marti airport, bridging a schism over a three-hour meeting. “We are brothers,” Pope Francis added.

Gerald Levin and Stephen Case

January 2000

When the AOL-Time Warner merger was announced, the combined companies boasted a market cap of $350 billion. The high-five between Gerald Levin of Time Warner and Stephen Case of America Online marked the biggest merger and acquisitions of all time, pegged at $165 billion. Years later, after the deal failed, former Time Warner chief Jeffrey Bewkes reportedly called it “the biggest mistake in corporate history”.

 

Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif

December 2015

The most surprising and talked about guest at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony in May 2014 was his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. But it was Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore a year later, on December 25, where the duo’s hugs and handshakes were seen as a significant sign of thawing in the icy relationship between the two neighbours. The media dubbed the stopover, “A Christmas miracle”.

Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan 

November 2015

The Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan feud of 2008 was one of Bollywood’s biggest spats… until it ended over a quick hug at politician Baba Siddique’s Eid party in 2014. The frozen vibes began thawing and on his 50th birthday in November last year, Shah Rukh shared the image of the duo in a thick embrace, wrestler-style. The picture broke the internet, with 18,000 retweets and 33,000 favourites. 

Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat

September 1993

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and

Palestinian Liberation Organisation Chairman Yasser Arafat signed
the Oslo Accords at the South Lawn of the White House. Standing in between the two men who had been bitter enemies for decades, President Bill Clinton coaxed Rabin and Arafat for a symbolic handshake, the men’s first. Unfortunately, the Oslo Accords failed to live up to the promise of that sun-soaked handshake.

Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi

December 2010

French footballer Zinedine Zidane head butted Marco Materazzi of Italy for allegedly hurling spiteful words at the 2006 World Cup final. It was the biggest Football World Cup controversy ever. It took four long years before the duo reconciled. The two reportedly hugged and made up during an accidental meeting in the lobby of a Milan hotel. Because it was impromptu, the moment was never captured.

Arvind Kejriwal and Lalu Prasad Yadav

November 2015

Kejriwal and Yadav hugging each other at the swearing-in of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister sparked controversy. Many have interpreted the hug as an act of compromise on the part of Kejriwal and a betrayal of the AAP’s principled stand against corruption. Kejriwal later explained that it was Lalu who “pulled and hugged” him, and that he was still opposed to Lalu’s “record of corruption” and “dynasty politics”.

 

Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in

April 27, 2018

The famous handshake, followed by photo-op and meeting between North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (across the Military Demarcation Line that divides the two Koreas) was the result of a remarkable thaw on the peninsula sparked by the Winter Olympics earlier in the year. The two countries pledged to work for ‘complete denuclearisation’ of the Korean peninsula.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un

June 11, 2018

Donald Trump’s ‘alpha male’ handshake with Kim Jong Un in Singapore marked the first meeting ever between a sitting US president and the leader of North Korea. With cameras of the world’s press trained on them, Trump and Kim displayed an initial atmosphere of bonhomie that’s marked as a major diplomatic breakthrough.  

Wacky wearables that stole the show at CES 2016

The Las Vegas tech show gave a glimpse of what to expect in wearable tech this year 

The wearables marketplace is transforming age-old fashions into high-tech operations with collaborations between sensors, low energy Bluetooth, cloud computing, flexible membranes et al. Here are some the promising gamechangers of 2016:

This watch can control the BB-8 droid

Sphero’s latest Star Wars wearable wristband will let you control the BB-8 with Force gestures. The Force band looks like a digital watch (without the screen) and is packed with sensors that can control BB-8’s movements. The band is not going to enter production until later this year.  

Now, control your shoe with a smartphone 
The Digitsole Smartshoe 01 footwear is definitely a first of its kind. It connects to a smartphone app for automatic shoe tightening, calorie tracking and foot heating, as well as adjusting shock absorption. The shoes, slated for retail in October, will also offer step counting and calorie tracking. It will retail for $199.

A smart wellness belt like never before

This year Samsung has outdone itself with a smart belt that analyses things like waistlines, eating habits and physical movement. The information collected by the WELT smart belt is analysed by an app that makes recommendations for better health. The WELT is a prototype as of now. It looks like a normal belt that’s loaded with sensors that pair up with your smartphone. 

Finally, X-ray-like vision is a reality

Intel’s Daqri smart helmet allows X-ray-like vision to effectively see through walls, pipes and other solid objects. Powered by Intel’s M7 chip and RealSense 3D camera, the helmet is specifically designed for industrial use. Touted as the most powerful augmented reality headset on the market now, the Daqri smart helmet will be available in the first quarter of 2016.

 

This one’s a personal emergency response device

GreatCall’s Lively Wearable can be worn on either the wristband or around the neck. It pairs with a smartphone via Bluetooth. It offers a mobile emergency response service via a one-touch button that connects senior citizens to trained healthcare agents in emergency situations. Scheduled to be available for purchase from the spring of 2016, the device will cost $99.99.

Smartphone with an inbuilt projector

The ASU Cast One smartwatch is definitely going to make you feel like James Bond. The Android Wear smartwatch is capable of 720p resolution, throws videos up to six and a half feet and can create a display as big as 60 inches. Although with a battery of just 700mAh, you might be better off sticking to cartoons than entire movies.

Rise of the robots, Hollywood style

Hollywood robots are no match for Rajnikanth’s 'Chitti'. Yet they are designed to achieve wonders and too good to be true

Remember Ultron — the accidental creation of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner — who gives himself a metal body, plots the earth’s destruction and sends hundreds of drones to swarm the Avengers? The big action finale of Avengers: Age of Ultron can be the perfect metaphor for robot invasion in movie theatres. If Hollywood is obsessed with sci-fi, they’re often incomplete without the metal marvels having charismatic personalities. We are talking of robots that can be menacing, uniquely intelligent and can save the day like super heroes. Here are some of the unforgettable movie robots and why:

TARS
He’s the sarcastic space robot, the real breakout star of Interstellar. With rectangular structures, he doesn’t have a face (but he does have screens) to flaunt. He’s witty, speaks fluently and can be programmed to be a better suited companion. While many robots tend to encounter monumental engineering problems to cross even a room, TARS can actually travel through black holes, move through water and willing to sacrifice himself to help his space-friends.

David
He’s the android attendant who served as a crew member aboard the spaceship  Prometheus. David is calm, emotionally sensitive, has unlimited memory and can perform critical surgeries. He’s fluent in all known languages and can even communicate with the extraterrestrial 'Engineers'. He activated the virtual map of the galaxy inside the alien craft and has the ability to navigate it. And that’s not all. David can continue to function even after getting decapitated.

Terminator T-850
In the battle between humans and machines, he’s our masiha. With metallic endoskeleton covered with living tissue, he looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger sans expression in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Programmed for extreme missions, he can drive just anything as well as fire lethal weapons with precession. He doesn’t have onboard weaponry like the T-X (hybrid infiltrator cyborg), but can withstand plasma fire, reboot and even revert alterations from (T-X’s) nanobots. Hasta la vista, baby. 


Atom
A washed-up junkyard bot that challenged, mocked and almost defeated the mighty Zeus — Atom is a true 'people’s champion' in Real Steel. While other bots rely on remote and voice commands, Atom has an additional shadow mode capability and mimic its handler’s movements with flawless accuracy. He is small in front of most fighters, but he can take hits and just keep on going. And he’s not the shortest bot in Real Steel World Robot Boxing. Toolbox is.

BB-8
Finally, here’s the super-fast rolling droid that became a 'star' even before the Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens hit the theatres. It has a robotic ball for a body, topped with an equally robotic head that not only doesn’t fall off but also lets the body move freely below it. At the time of posting this piece, techies across the world are wondering just how it moves (the winning theory is ‘magnets’).

Turn ‘social’ for engagement at workplace

If employee engagement is imperative as a business tool today, nothing can beat the social media to achieve the desired results  

It doesn’t matter who you are — an entrepreneur, CXO or a fresh recruit in an MNC — you just can’t ignore the omnipresence of social media! Not surprisingly, organisations globally are leveraging the strength of social media to interact and engage with stakeholders, crowd source ideas/ solutions, build brands, campaigns, crisis mitigation et al. Within an organisation, it is also a critical tool for effective employee engagement and communication.

As the modern workplace is turning mobile and diverse, social media is the answer to operational changes, employee relations and in-house campaigns. But first thing first: social media doesn’t survive in a silo. And even if it does, it should not be evaluated in isolation. Its effectiveness within an organisation bears a direct co-relation with fundamentals of the organisational culture and other tools of internal communication like in-house magazines, the intranet, staff meetings, videos, emails, message boards, etc.

With more and more Millennials making their way into the workforce, communications today are about speed, accuracy and seamless exchange of data and ideas. So, in a modern office, it’s about webinars, micro blogging, pictures and videos, applications, instant messaging and more. One of the fundamental hallmarks of these is proactive interaction, which leads to engagement.

In a complex work environment, social media is the platform to correct mistakes, apologise and acknowledge not-so-pleasant feedback among internal stakeholders. This is critical for an organisation to bring down internal glass-barriers and maintain a collaborative culture along the hierarchy. It only helps build confidence in an employee and make him feel connected when he/she receives a social recognition online, made part of a decision making process — something which the pay packet cannot ensure. This results in an upturn in creativity and innovation, and overall improvement in work quality.

Issues of security and compliance in a workplace can no longer restrict an employee from being on the social media. It’s time organisations see its employees in a different light — not as potential time-bombs that could go off without warning, but as engaged, proactive brand ambassadors.  

Mobile video advertising’s the way to moolah

Are you among those who believe that poor data pack ecosystem in India is going to play spoilsport in the smartphone buzz? You may not be totally mistaken, but silver lining’s on the horizon — in contrast to 2012 Q4, most of the telecom players in India are slashing their 3G rates by 60-70 per cent now, followed by leading telecom players recently announcing that on-the-go 3G charges are going down by another 80 per cent.

These developments will make way for scale, and top mobile video advertising players, like Vdopia, are banking on it. Technologies to monetise mobile video advertising are in place and it’s a matter of time and scale before they start raking in the moolah. While, it’s true that India is predominantly a 2G market, Vdopia’s patented technology [.VDO] allows video advertising to happen seamlessly over 2G and 3G mobile devices automatically. The technology identifies the mobile device’s capability, if one’s running it on a 2G or 3G and it streams video accordingly. And the quality of the video output is same in both 2G and 3G. How? Technically speaking, it’s frame-rate-per-second that gets deferred.

But, given the fact that mobile advertising is less than 4 per cent of the overall advertisement pie in India, what is the kind of consumer attention one can look at looking at? During my recent meeting with Srikanth Kakani, co-founder and CEO of Vdopia, an air of optimism from this Stanford alumnus greeted me. “Consider the growth trajectory of mobile TV. By the end of 2012, the entire mobile TV ecosystem in India, if I just count the apps, was not even $1 million. By the third quarter of 2013, the whole ecosystem today stands at $10 million. Advertisers cannot ignore it,” said Srikanth.  

In pic: Srikanth Kakani, co-founder and CEO, Vdopia. Pic credit: Dalip Kumar

Next, look at the pure numbers: we have 27 million smartphones in India now, according to the latest IAMAI report. The report says that 40 per cent of internet accessibility in 2014 in Indian market will come from mobile devices. And the data players are realising this. Today, none of their ads talk about call rates. It’s data. What we are witnessing today is, mobile handsets are coming closer to Rs 6,000 price bracket, data packs are coming bundled in the phone, and it’s penetration in tier 2 and tier 3 cities is also poised to happen, because the conversion from feature phone to smartphone is happening at the rate of 40 per cent annually in India. At the end of 2014, India will already have 100 million smartphones with data pack and video capability. When the market is explode at this speed, the direction of monetisation or the marketing-dollar spend will also have to move in that direction.  

In fact, when it comes to video advertising, mobile is more flexible than other mediums, which make it cheaper — not because an advertiser is going to spend less money, but what he spends per impression in mobile will be much less than any other medium. That way, an advertiser will be spending less money per effective impression he is getting in mobile. And the best part: Srikanth claims, “TV advertising is fiction!” He reasons that how does one know if a TV ad is seen by the audience? How can one confirm if the audience didn’t ignore a TV ad by turning to other channel(s)? You don’t know, but in the digital platform you know. Television may be a popular platform for advertisements, but Srikanth’s incredulous unless analytics or data supports the claim. It’s a bold statement to make, but Srikanth stands his ground.  

The law of attraction

A lot has been said and written about brand appeal, brand trust and loyalty. But did you realise all these brand properties are also governed by the basic laws of attraction? If appeal is the inherent force of attractiveness of a brand that interests, stimulates or makes a brand desirable (or not), trust forms the basic platform for any exchange, which largely depends on the powerful intangible force — attractiveness.
Why attractiveness? When I spoke to N Chandramouli, CEO, Trust Research Advisory, in Delhi sometime back, he explained the rationale: “If one attempts to send a rocket from earth to the moon, and need to chalk out a trajectory, he needs to know the forces that govern these planetary bodies. Likewise, if you want to take your brand into a certain trajectory, you will need to know the forces that govern the brand.” The forces that determine attraction, broadly, are rational and emotional appeal, which are usually part of many contemporary communication exercises.
To understand this, let’s look at Amul, India’s most attractive brand in the food and beverage category and 18th among all categories, according to India’s Most Attractive Brands 2013, a study by Chandramouli's Trust Research Advisory. Its emotional quotient leads to a patriotic feeling Amul, the taste of India). From butter to ice-cream, the rational quotient of Amul lies in its undisputed quality of products. Its aspirational quotient is the happy feeling the brand tends to bring in, and recognition of the brand among competitors as well. Consistency with ‘utterly butterly delicious’ Amul girl, for over a half century now, is the hallmark of its communication quotient.
Every brand has to attract its audience. Having said that, attractiveness arises from various facets of a brand that helps in creating an overall aura around it. Not surprisingly, brands spend billions in marketing and advertisements trying to be attractive to customers. If the basics of attractiveness quotient are understood and applied to brands, there are immense benefits to be reaped, says the study.

And this romance with brands is no different from humans. Their bond with consumers might, in many cases, begin with an intense desire, and, with the right approach, turn into understanding and companionship. Attractiveness of a brand, by textbook definition, is its intangible force which goes beyond the physical appeal. It is the overwhelming pull which unconsciously but irresistibly draws the audience towards itself, and every such intimacy has a different tale to tell.
Taking on the competition to local mobile manufacturers after toppling Nokia to become the market leader in India, Samsung Mobiles surely have many a tales to tell. After all, it is no mean feat to emerge as the most attractive brand in the country! The aggressive marketer tops the list of India’s Most Attractive Brands 2013 among all categories, closely followed by Sony and Nokia, according to a recent research-based report by Trust Research Advisory. India’s fourth most attractive brand is LG.
Samsung’s key lever definitely lies in its turnaround strategy. Till a couple of years back, there wasn't much expectation from Samsung in the mobile handset category. Then suddenly it transformed to offer customers some great products in terms of technology, innovation, pricing and performance. Now look at Apple. Apple has become a great brand by virtue of its exclusivity. Restricted accessibility is in the DNA of Apple¬ — a conscious strategy to keep customers interested.
Samsung Mobiles, on the other hand, is an available brand that is also good in many respects. Marketers believe, this is where Samsung will gain in the long run. After all, a brand cannot keep its customers on the edge forever. Nokia, has also been a robust and available brand. But it lost market and attractiveness to Samsung due to a lack of enthusiasm to hard-sell products. Samsung doesn’t rest; it is always hungry and survives on a positive desperation, says the study. It is one brand that is truly paranoid about its customers, in a positive way.

Trouble in the air

Born and brought up in this industrial city, Durgapur still charms me with its cosmopolitan mix, spread-out neighbourhoods, civic infrastructure and the development possibilities it still holds. But if we look at the last 10-15 years, the city has failed to develop in a sustainable manner. Overnight our playground at the centre of the city was stolen! For some crores of rupees, our football ground was converted into a mall. The ‘compensatory playground’ built beside Srijoni auditorium at City Centre is not open for all. The ambitious city today hosts the ruined hillock of Devi Choudharani, dead Damodar (river) and shows of deforestation at large.

The only ‘work’ the ADDA and the municipal jokers did in the last couple of decades (I think I am justified to be pessimistic here) is to sell-off land for residential and commercial spaces. Irrespective of how much revenue the local administration raked in during the last two decades, condition of the Sub-Divisional Hospital, encroachments and road condition of the city barely improved, while the poison in the air continue to choke our lungs.

In fact, the one issue that was never addressed (wonder if it will ever) is the poison in the air the city has been carrying for the last five decades. Air pollution is killing the residents here! To kill someone, a community or an entire population, slowly over a period of time, is as much terrible a crime as killing someone instantly. Do we have a regional office of West Bengal Pollution Control Board in Durgapur? Even there is one, it’s a joke anyway.

What I fail to understand is, why the educated and ‘enlightened’ people of the city are so reluctant to address the issue of air pollution. Why did the tax payers never questioned the logic of setting up sponge-iron factories right on the outskirts of the city? I fail to understand what is stopping the local media to raise this long-standing concern of the city — air-pollution. Sheer event-reporting is not journalism enough.

Can someone tell me if people at the helm of affairs in the ADDA and Municipal Corporation are also residents of Durgapur? If they are, they must also be inhaling the same industrial poison. Doesn’t this ring a bell in their minds too? Some of these may be a part of ‘Maharatna’ companies and mega industrial conglomerates. But nothing can take away the people’s right to live a healthy life. If Bokaro Steel Plant and Bhilai Steel Plant (also SAIL units) can have in place pollution control system (electrostatic precipitators or electrostatic air cleaners), why can’t Durgapur Steel Plant? Things do not change for good automatically; it’s the people who herald changes.

The local political class here (red, saffron or green), like their country-wide brethren, is great at lofty speeches and race for power and position. They have better things in life and in their political career to do than taking up an issue that is ‘invisible’ and ‘not immediately affecting’ the lives of their vote banks. Let’s accept, we can’t really trust our elected representatives in such issues.   

So long the people of this city remain self-centred (in my word, selfish!), Durgapur and its population will continue to be at the receiving end of bureaucratic greed, political hypocrisy and industrial poison. The worst part: Bhopal gas tragedy attracted global attention because it wiped out the population of a city overnight, but no one will know about Durgapur. Because the people here chose to die a slow and silent death.