In existential philosophy, Jean Paul Sartre is most famous for his quote, 'existence precedes essence.' Here, Sartre believes that human beings have immense freedom to define, create and recreate their 'selves'. However, Sartre believed that human beings do not wish to acknowledge this freedom and are often comfortable with fixed social, political or economic identities ascribed to them. Here, Sartre defines the concept of 'Bad Faith' as a condition where individuals lead inauthentic lives in order to escape the innate freedom of being able to continuously define themselves. He glorifies the idea of authenticity and states that human beings can never experience freedom without it.

The tyranny of happiness. This idea that it’s something that we should have. None of us really know what it is, but we’re told that we should have it, that it’s promised to us as a birthright... it’s like being obsessed with a cloud.

Ayn Rand is a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is best known for her two novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called 'Objectivism. '
"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
-Ayn Rand, Appendix to Atlas Shrugged

Through her philosophy of objectivism, she supported rational and ethical egoism and rejected any and all forms of altruism. She goes on to challenge the moral code of altruism - the precept that man’s moral duty is to live for others.
She defines altruism as -
“An ethical system which claims that man has no right to exist for his own sake; that the sole justification of his existence is the service he renders to others and that self-sacrifice is his basic virtue, value and duty. Altruism regards man, in effect, as a sacrificial animal.”

Mirroring is the performance or reversal of stereotypically misogynist actions by women, often for feminist purposes: eg. reverse cat-calling.

Femvertising, refers to the use of feminist ideals by brands to sell their products. This involves an exploration of women’s stories, presentation of female protagonists and promotion of pro-female messages— all of this when done by advertisers results in what we call ‘femvertising’. A famous example is Nike’s campaign titled ‘Da Da Ding’ which garnered over 2.8 million views on YouTube within one week of its publishing. Critics emphasise that these forms of advertising usually rely on and strengthen conventional stereotypes surrounding the role of women in society. They claim that all messages of empowerment are conditioned by brand's needs for driving up sales. Therefore, by selling confidence and empowerment, women are conditioned into consuming products that otherwise may have no personal value for them.

Otis is an intelligent and insightful high school student, with a deep understanding of human emotions and psychology. He is also the son of a sex therapist, which gives him a unique perspective on sex and relationships. However, despite his knowledge, Otis is socially awkward and sexually inexperienced, struggling with anxiety and self-doubt. It is at this point he meets Maeve, who is a tough, independent and fierce woman. She is intelligent, resourceful and street-smart, with a sharp wit and a talent for problem-solving. Together, they start giving sexual advice to students on campus because Maeve identifies Otis's ability to do the same, and also her own need for money. Over time, they form a close friendship, and Maeve starts opening up to Otis, revealing her complicated family background and her feelings of abandonment. They realise they work very well as a team and eventually develop romantic feelings for each other. However, because of their personal issues, they fail to communicate with each other about this which drifts them apart, also shutting down their infamous business on campus.

Otis then meets Ruby who is known for her outgoing personality, confidence and flirtatious behaviour, and has been mean to most high school students, including Maeve and Otis. Otis and Ruby feel a sexual connection towards each other, so they start seeing each other casually. Over time, Otis witnesses the vulnerable side of Ruby, and wishes to get to know her better. Ruby falls in love with Otis, and confesses the same but Otis does not like her to the same extent, so they decide to break up, even though Ruby is willing to work for their relationship.
Otis reconnects with Maeve after a long time, and both of them realise that they are still in love with each other. This time, they confess. However, Maeve has to leave to another city for her undergrad, and their relationship again falls in a realm of uncertainty.

Divya, Arjun and Kuttan are three cousins who grew up together and share a very close bond. Divya has completed her graduation and aspires to do her MBA from IIM, but is compelled to marry the workaholic corporate executive Shivadas aka 'Das' because of her parents' astrologer's suggestions. After their wedding, Divya moves to Bangalore as Das is settled there.
Divya feels emotionally alone as Das continues to ignore her. Her only solace is the time she gets to spend with her cousins, who have also moved to Banglore.
But Divya and Das's personal life keeps falling into despair.

After an argument, one day, Divya, upon inspecting a room in their apartment that Das never let anyone enter, is shocked to find it filled with photos and possessions of a strange girl. In horror of not having a place in Das's heart and life, she leaves him and returns home to Kerala in sorrow.
Divya and Das are in the middle of getting a divorce, when Arjun learns that a few years back, Das was a former bike racer. He then went by the name Shiva and was the leader of his biking gang. Shiva had given up on racing after he was involved in an accident that killed his love Natasha. Upon knowing what happened, Divya decides to return to Bangalore. She gradually wins over a repentant Das and soon arranges for him to meet Natasha's parents. After the meeting, Das is able to let go of his past. Divya forgives him and they get their marital life on track.

Rue is a troubled teenager who struggles with addiction and mental health issues. She is intelligent, introspective, and fiercely independent, but also emotionally vulnerable, deeply impacted by her own struggles with addiction and mental health. She often feels disconnected from the world around her, and has difficulty expressing her emotions and connecting with others.
Jules is a transgender girl who moves into town with her father, seeking a fresh start after a difficult past. She is artistic, creative, and free-spirited but struggles with issues of self- doubt, identity, and relationships.
Rue and Jules meet and strike up a friendship, which eventually develops into a romantic relationship, both of them feel this unusual rush that breaks them away from the real world everytime they are together.

Their personal journey is closely tied to their relationship with each other, as they are able to find solace in each other; their love for each other can be seen as a beacon of hope in an otherwise bleak world.
However, Rue's struggles with addiction and mental health becomes increasingly pronounced, leading to a number of intense and emotionally charged conflicts between the two. This severely impacts Jules because over time, she feels unheard, neglected and hollow with Rue. This is also the period she wishes to explore her sexual identity, and tries to communicate with Rue about it but there seems to be a gap always. Despite this, Rue is actively trying to fight to maintain her sobriety and find a sense of purpose in her life, as that motivation largely stems from her relationship with Jules.

When this struggle with her feelings for Rue and her own identity remains unresolved over a period of time, Jules fails to communicate her commitment issues to Rue. Eventually, she meets a woman, Anna through a dating app. She turns to Anna for comfort and understanding, and they end up having a sexual encounter, post which Jules is consumed by guilt and regret. She realizes that she is unable to trust Rue due to her history of addiction and emotionally instability, which prevents her from fully opening up about the situation with Rue.
Over time, she also acknowledges that her decision to cheat on Rue was never a simple act of selfishness or cruelty, but a manifestation of her own struggles with identity, self- doubt, and confusion, and the challenges of navigating relationships in a world that can be both confusing and overwhelming.

Classical theism is a philosophical and theological term used to describe a particular view of God. It is based on the idea that God is an eternal, immutable, and perfect being who exists outside of time and space, and who created the universe and everything in it. According to classical theism, God is the ultimate source of all existence and is completely self-sufficient.

Pantheism, on the other hand, is a philosophical and religious belief that everything in the universe is an expression of the divine, and that the divine is synonymous with the universe itself. It upholds the poetic sense of the divine within and around human beings, and that everything that exists is a part of God. In other words, expressions of the divine as intimate, rather than as alien, as indwelling rather than remote, characterize pantheism as contrasted with classical theism. For the purpose of this debate, only one of these beliefs can exist so sides cannot argue coexistence.

The Druze religion is a monotheistic faith that originated in the 11th century in the Middle East, with roots in Islam. It is mainly practiced in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel (where they are present in high numbers), with smaller communities in other countries. There isn't much that people know about this faith because of its secretive nature, and its teachings being shared only with members of their community. While the Druze faith is not well-known globally, it has had a significant impact on the history and culture of the Middle East. However, due to the secretive nature of the religion, there is still much that is not fully understood about the Druze faith.

Throughout, the Druze religion has faced threats and persecution from other dominant religions in the Middle East because of its secretive nature.
In modern times, the Druze community has faced challenges in countries such as Syria and Israel, from both the government and extremist groups during the ongoing Syrian civil war. In Israel, the Druze have faced challenges in maintaining their distinct religious and cultural identity in a predominantly Jewish state.

In 2017, artist Sam Durant's sculpture titled "Scaffold" generated significant controversy. The sculpture was a representation of seven gallows used in historic U.S. government executions. Including those of abolitionist John Brown and later 38 Dakota (a native American tribe) men. The sculpture had been exhibited in Europe three times and was supposed to be presented in the United States. However, It received significant backlash from Native American activists who said it trivialized one of the ghastliest episodes in Dakota indigenous history. Later, following the initial outcry, Durant, who is white, came together with Dakota elders and museum officials and agreed to remove "Scaffold." When asked about the significance of the sculpture, Durant stated, " In a way, these things to me symbolized certain aspects of American history: class war, genocide of Native Americans, slavery. So, in the work, it was a fairly straightforward representation of these structures. The Dakota people basically saw something that looked like a monument to their massacre....As one person said to me, 'That's a killing machine."

Often hailed as the most successful exhibition of photography ever put together, "The Family of Man" by Edward Steichen was displayed for the first time at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955. Some 273 artists from 68 countries contributed to this collection. It contained photographs of people from various parts of the world and was meant to emphasise a unique cycle of human existence surrounding events like life, marriage, childbirth, death. Steichen stated that "These photographs are a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world." The exhibition was conceived as a manifesto for peace and the fundamental equality of mankind.
Roland Barthes criticised the exhibition for removing the historical specificity behind these images. The images were taken out of their contextual set up and used by Edward to fit his conception of a universality of human experiences. Others criticised this for being an act of 'aesthetic colonialism' and that these images wash over the existence of issues surrounding race and class.

Dadaism at its core is an art movement to create nonsense for the sake of nonsense.
Dada artists are known for using "readymades", the term is coined by Marcel Duchamp, which means manipulating existing or everyday objects to be presented as art.
The Fountain is Duchamp's most notorious "readymade" which he presented for exhibition to the 1917 Society of Independent Artists under the pseudonym R. Mutt.
Despite it's ordinary, functional and rather mundane appearance, Fountain has been described as one of the most influential artworks of the 20th century.
However, there has been a lot of discourse around whether it's an art or not.
Duchamp's Fountain really was a urinal. He had no involvement in designing or making the urinal that was the raw material for his artwork. Duchamp's Fountain embodies a statement about art itself.

Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA is a law that gives unbridled power to armed forces and central police to search and arrest without warrant and shoot on suspicion for "maintenance of public order". Over time, several reports have been released demanding the absolute repeal of AFSPA for the human rights violations and mass killings caused by armed forces in the states where it was enacted, as well as the misuse of power by these armed forces in general. The Supreme Court, however, has upheld the constitutionality of AFSPA in a 1998 judgment (Naga People's Movement of Human Rights v. Union of India). In this judgment, the Supreme Court held that a suo-moto declaration can be made by the central government.

However, it is desirable that the state government should be consulted by the central government before making the declaration; the declaration has to be for a limited duration and there should be a periodic review of the declaration once 6 months have expired; while exercising the powers conferred upon him by AFSPA, the authorized officer should use minimal force necessary for effective action. Furthermore, the Supreme Court acknowledged that AFSPA has become a symbol of oppression in the areas it has been enacted, as a result of which the government needs to address the affected people and reassure them of favourable action. Secondly, the government should consider the imposition and lifting of AFSPA on a case-by-case basis and limit its application only to a few disturbing districts instead of applying it for the whole state.

"The Government of India, in 2019/2020, had rolled out 4 labour codes with the intention of them surperceding the existing 150-odd labour law regulations in the country. However, the Government of India is yet to operationalise the same (by implementing 'Rules' which will lay out the process which people can follow to get their rights under the said codes enforced). Without such Rules, the labour codes hang in a limbo, where, despite being enacted, they do not yet have legal enforceability. The codes seek to introduce various liberal labour norms: by standardising basic salary requirements (such as minimum wages), consolidating social security and welfare requirements, while also keeping in mind the interests of employers and making hiring and firing easier for them.

This is in contrast with the old labour law regime which is currently operational, as the old regime has a heavy employee-bias, which makes issues like firing, closing down operations, and similar actions considerably difficult for employers. This has resulted in many employers skirting the law, by keeping the number of employees working for them just short of legal thresholds (say, by employing 19 individuals, to skirt around labour regulations - which may require a minimum of 20 employees to become operational). This has been a major contributor to the development of the large informal economy that currently exists in India. As India will now be entering its general election year, liberal reforms such as the implementation of the labour codes would surely become a contentious political issue."

Minimum standards of welfare are cases where, as a baseline, there is equality of opportunity for all individuals. This typically includes things like public institutions of education, which are government funded and are largely accessible to the majority of citizens, and provide comfortable employment opportunities guaranteeing a dignified standard of living; public healthcare institutions which provide inexpensive medical support to individuals; public housing which allows individuals to buy/lease properties for reasonable and accessible rates. Equality of opportunity, as a principle, can typically function alongside various other capitalistic institutions which are deemed to inject inequality into society - these may be expensive healthcare options for people, expensive and luxurious condominiums, immensely high-paying jobs (as long as, say, a reasonable minimum wage, required to meet the basic necessities for a dignified life, exists within the state), and so forth.

Burna Boy is one of the most successful African Artists, spearheading the popularisation of afrobeats globally. He was invited to perform at Coachella, one of the most prominent American music festivals in 2019 - one of only 3 African Artists invited that year. Coachella's official poster starts with the headliner and then other artists are listed in decreasing font, a tradition followed for years. Burna Boy's name was mentioned on the poster in very small print, and he called out the organisers on social media for disrespecting an 'African Giant.' When he did perform at Coachella, the audience numbers were very underwhelming.

"Ghostwriter used Al Technology to create a song called ""Heart on My Sleeve"", editing his voice to sound like that of Drake and The Weeknd.
The song received 1.4 million on-demand streams in the USA prior to its removal. "

"Netflix has recently released the trailer for its new documentary series
- "African Queens: Queen Cleopatra " which follows Egypt's last pharaoh, Cleopatra, who fights to protect her throne, family and legacy.
The series stars British actor Adele James as the iconic monarch. However, Netflix is currently facing backlash for allegedly "blackwashing" the heritage of the queen.
The creative choice to cast a biracial actor to play Cleopatra is a nod to the centuries-long conversation about the ruler's race. During the time of her reign, Egypt's population was multicultural and multiracial.
Cleopatra's race was unlikely to be documented, and the identities of her mother and paternal grandparents weren't known. Some speculate she was a native Egyptian woman while others say she was Greek."

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP) is a pipeline that will transport oil produced from Uganda’s Lake Albert oilfields to Tanzania where the oil will then be sold onwards to world markets. Apart from increasing employment opportunities, the project is touted to increase Uganda and Tanzania’s foreign direct investment by 60% and generate annual revenues of up to US$2 billion from oil exports to countries including China and India. Developers insist the projects will transform the social and economic fortunes of Uganda and Tanzania. But they face significant resistance from local communities and civil society organisations. The organisations claim the oil extraction and pipeline will pose serious environmental and social risks to protected wildlife areas, lakes and rivers, forests, wetlands, national parks and communities throughout Uganda and Tanzania. They are also skeptical about making these countries extremely dependent on fossil fuels, something which could make them more economically vulnerable than before.

"Some of the fastest growing and largest economies of the world have been moving towards decreasing their dependence on the US Dollar for international trade and central bank currency reserves, with the intent of circumventing the USD. "

The weaponization of trade, the imposition of sanctions and the exclusion from SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) by the US triggered de- dollarisation as countries displaying diplomatic and economic autonomy are wary of using US-dominated global banking systems.

The most notable bloc of countries actively exhibiting this behavior are the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.) Russia and China have recently announced intentions to rely more on local currencies with Russia itself changing its Reserve Currency to Yuan. China and Brazil struck a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the US dollar as an intermediary. There are even discussions around launching a new common currency in the group that allegedly would be backed by gold; the decision for the same is expected at the next BRICS meeting in August 2023. However, national currencies have a limited convertibility, currency fluctuations affect long term investments and there is still an increasing reliance on dollars by most countries.

"Ex-post antitrust policy, (the current norm), advocates for the regulators taking steps against corporations once they have been shown or are deemed extremely likely (due to a contemplated action - say a merger) to engage in/promote anti-competitive behaviour. Some critics say that this has allowed the growth of the Big Tech corporate titans, as the eventual outcome of their rapid growth could not have been predicted 20 years ago when they were allowed to
function in relaxed regulatory environments.

Conversely, ex-ante antitrust policy, advocates for pre- emptive steps barring companies from taking certain steps altogether. For instance, an oil company can be prohibited from acquiring certain kinds of ESG-oriented startups, unless it agrees to certain conditions; or large conglomerates can be barred from horizontal acquisitions (broadly, acquisitions of competitors) altogether. Regulators are currently pushing for this category of policy.