A girl looks at a giraffe at ZSL (the Zoological Society of London) London Zoo on the first day of its reopening since lockdown restrictions eased in London, Britain
The UK government is currently carrying out a review on the ethical dilemmas around vaccine passports and overseas travel…reports Asian Lite News
For the UK government, vaccination of children will be the “next big ethical debate” as the country seeks to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, local media reported.
The government is currently carrying out a review on the ethical dilemmas around vaccine passports and overseas travel, Xinhua news agency quoted a Sky News report as saying on Wednesday.
The latest development came as US drug company Pfizer announced that trails of its vaccine show 100 per cent efficacy and a strong immune response on 12 to 15-year-olds.
It is understood that children are less likely to be seriously ill with or die of coronavirus, but they can easily spread the disease to adults.
Pfizer has said it will ask for emergency US and European authorization for younger age groups.
It remains unclear what will happen in the UK as the current vaccines are authorised only for adults.
Nearly 31 million people have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the official figures.
According to Ethiopian government figures, the conflict has displaced around 2.2 million people, while 4.5 million people are in need of emergency aid.
Access in parts of southern and southeastern Tigray has been curtailed for a month and the road from Alamata to Mekelle, the regional capital, remains closed, blocking humanitarian response in the area…reports Asian Lite News
The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia’s conflict-ridden Tigray state remains extremely dire, a UN spokesman said.
Access in parts of southern and southeastern Tigray has been curtailed for a month and the road from Alamata to Mekelle, the regional capital, remains closed, blocking humanitarian response in the area, Xinhua news agency quoted Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as saying on Wednesday.
An estimated 2.5 million people in rural areas have not had access to essential services for the last four months, he said.
“We continue to receive concerning reports of attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including the looting and vandalization of health centres, schools, as well as several cases of sexual and gender-based violence. All of which are unacceptable,” he told a daily press briefing.
People display photos of Tigrian deceased fighters during the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) at Mekelle Stadium in Mekelle, northern Ethiopia. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde/IANS)
The conflict continues to drive massive displacement across the region, with tens of thousands of people arriving in the towns of Shire, Axum and Adwa over the last weeks, he said.
The UN, along with its humanitarian partners on the ground, is scaling up the response and has assisted more than 1 million people with food baskets.
More than 146,000 displaced people have received emergency shelter and vital relief items and distribution is ongoing for nearly 60,000 people.
Over 630,000 people have received clean water, said the spokesman.
To date, two-thirds of the targeted districts have been accessed through 50 mobile health teams compared to 25 per cent last month.
The response is, however, still inadequate to reach an estimated 4.5 million people who need life-saving assistance, he said.
“We urgently need more funding to make sure we can urgently assist affected people.”
Ethiopia launched a military offensive in November 2020 to diminish the power of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules the region and has been critical of the central government. Also read:Eritrean troops to leave Ethiopia’s Tigray
On Wednesday,Afghanistan logged seven deaths in separate targeted killings across the country…reports Asian Lite News
About 60 people lost their lives and many others wounded in targeted attacks across Afghanistan in March, according to official figures released on Thursday.
On a single day on Wednesday, seven people were killed in separate targeted killings across the country, according to the figures published by Xinhua news agency.
The increased targeted attacks in recent months have caused concern among the ordinary people, particularly government employees and members of security forces.
On Tuesday, three female health workers were shot dead as gunmen opened fire on a polio vaccination team in Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province.
On March 21, Zubair Lalandari, a senior official of office of the Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, and four of his family members were killed in a bomb attack on the outskirts of Kabul.
No groups or individuals have claimed responsibility for nearly all of the recent targeted attacks.
However, Afghan officials accuse the Taliban militant group for the attacks.
On March 17, the personnel of National Directorate of Security (NDS), the country’s national intelligence agency, arrested a 12-member terrorist group in Lashkar Gah, who were involved in a string of targeted killings and bomb attacks in Helmand.
About 60 people were killed and many others wounded in targeted killings across the insurgency-hit country in February.
The US President has invited 40 world leaders including Modi for a virtual leaders summit on climate scheduled for next month, reports Asian Lite News
US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, will be visiting India next week, as part of his first Asia tour, for consultations on increasing climate ambition ahead of US President Joe Biden’s Leader’s Summit on Climate.
It will be his first trip to Asia since taking office early this year. Kerry will be travelling to UAE, India and Bangladesh from April 1-9.
John Kerry is the second top official of the Biden Administration visiting India. In March, US Defence secretary Lloyd Austin visited New Delhi.
Taking to Twitter, Kerry said, “Looking forward to meaningful discussions with friends in the Emirates, India, and Bangladesh on how to tackle the climate crisis.”
“Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will travel to Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, and Dhaka April 1-9, 2021, for consultations on increasing climate ambition ahead of President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate April 22-23 and the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change later this year,” a statement by State Department read.
US President Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a virtual leaders summit on climate scheduled for next month.
The leaders’ summit on climate will underscore the urgency – and the economic benefits – of stronger climate action, according to a statement by the White House on Friday.
The two-day summit will be held from April 22 to 23.
It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow.
The summit is meant to position Biden, and the U.S., as the global leader in meeting the climate change challenge and boost his stature.
“By the time of the summit, the U.S. will announce an ambitious 2030 emissions target as its new Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement for limiting the damage from climate change, the White House said.
Biden has asked all U.S. government agencies to come up with ways to cut greenhouse emissions and harness green energy.
He appointed former Secretary of State John Kerry to be his international emissary for climate change, reflecting the high priority it has on his agenda.
He is reaching out to the leaders of China and Russia, whom he has harshly criticized over their human rights record and their international rivalry with the U.S., to work together on the climate agenda despite their differences.
Biden wants countries around the world to take steps to limit emissions to a level that would limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius “in order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change,” the White House said.
“The president urged leaders to use the summit as an opportunity to outline how their countries also will contribute to stronger climate ambition.”
India will be under U.S. pressure to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by being shown as the world’s third-highest emitter of greenhouse gases after Beijing and Washington.
However, that picture is misleading as on a per capita basis the U.S. emissions were nearly nine times that of India.
An Indian emitted only 1.96 tons of greenhouse gases in a year, while an American was responsible for 16.56 tons.
For all the posturing and preaching, Biden or the climate change activists in the U.S. are not going to bring down the U.S. per capita emissions anywhere near the Indian level while demanding that India cut down its emissions overall.
India is already promoting green energy to eventually eliminate fossil fuel-generated electricity. It is reportedly working on a goal of achieving a net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Climate Summit will be Modi’s second multilateral virtual meeting with Biden. Earlier this month, Biden and Modi were joined by Prime Minister Yoshihide Sugo of Japan and Scott Morrison of Australia at a summit of the Quad.
Jerusalem, Sept. 13, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a briefing on COVID-19 pandemic in Israel at his office in Jerusalem, on Sept. 13, 2020. Israel will reimpose a nationwide lockdown for three weeks, beginning on Friday, to slow a rapid resurgence of coronavirus infections, the government decided on Sunday. (Yoav Dudkevitch/JINI via Xinhua/IANS)
Netanyahu urged Naftali Bennett, leader of the far-right pro-settler Yamina party, and Gideon Sa’ar, leader of the right-wing New Hope party, to help him put together a coalition…reports Asian Lite News
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on his right-wing rivals to join forces to form a right-wing government coalition under his leadership.
In his first remarks since the March 23 inconclusive elections, Netanyahu on Wednesday urged Naftali Bennett, leader of the far-right pro-settler Yamina party, and Gideon Sa’ar, leader of the right-wing New Hope party, to help him put together a coalition, reports Xinhua news agency.
“It is time to put our differences behind us,” he said in a televised statement.
According to Netanyahu, together with allied parties and Yamina and New Hope, he could form a coalition of 65 members and gain a firm majority in the 120-member Parliament.
Naftali Bennett(Twitter)
“Let’s form a stable right-wing government that would last for years,” the long-time leader said.
Sa’ar however, has rejected Netanyahu’s call.
The New Hope’s main campaign promise was to replace Netanyahu.
On Wednesday night, Sa’ar repeated his promise and said he will not join a government with Netanyahu as Prime Minister.
Earlier on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin called for “unusual collaboration” in forming a new government to solve the country’s lingering political stalemate.
The elections on March 23, Israel’s fourth in two years, ended once again with no clear winner.
Biden described the plan as “a once-in-a-generation investment in America” and compared its scoped to the space race of the 1950s and 1960s when the US confronted the Soviet Union…reports Asian Lite News
US President Joe Biden has unveiled an ambitious $2 trillion plan to overhaul the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure and create jobs while putting the country on its way to “win the global competition with China”.
Outlining it in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, he called the plan “a once-in-a-generation investment in America” and compared its scoped to the space race of the 1950s and 1960s when the US confronted the Soviet Union and won the race to the moon.
The first phase of it, called the ‘Jobs Plan’, aims to modernise transportation infrastructure — the roads, bridges and airports, he said.
Although couched as an infrastructure initiative, this plan has a much wider ambition.
It ranges from spurring scientific and industrial research to incentivising adoption of electric vehicles and from boosting domestic manufacturing to building affordable housing.
“It grows the economy in key ways. It puts people to work to repair and upgrade what we badly need. It makes it easier and more efficient to move goods, to get to work, and to make us more competitive around the world,” the President said about its basic agenda.
It is to be financed through an increase in corporate taxes from 21 per cent to 28 per cent and hiking taxes on those making more than $400,000 a year.
Biden acknowledged that the US was one of the major economies where public investment in research and development as a share of GDP has declined constantly over the last 25 years.
“We’ve fallen back. The rest of the world is closing in and closing in fast.”
Through decades of neglect and underinvestment, the roads, rails and local train systems in many places are crumbling, and many of the airports are outmoded and wouldn’t compare to the most modern ones in Indian metro cities.
The US electrical grid has catastrophically failed in several places, most recently in Texas last month with power outags over several days.
Biden’s plan, if successful, would inject the needed capital and give the political impetus to modernising the infrastructure as the US creeps up from under the Covid-19 devastation.
Having recognised the competition with China that has made massive investments in building its infrastructure and its scientific and industrial capabilities and extending its reach abroad, Biden made Beijing the backdrop to his endeavour.
His plan, he said, “will grow the economy, make us more competitive around the world, promote our national security interests, and put us in a position to win the global competition with China in the upcoming years”.
“It’s going to boost America’s innovative edge in markets where global leadership is up for grabs a” markets like battery technology, biotechnology, computer chips, clean energy, the competition with China in particular.”
The American Jobs Plan is the largest American jobs investment since World War II.
Globally he framed it as a race between democracies and autocracies.
“That’s what competition between America and China and the rest of the world is all about. It’s a basic question: Can democracies still deliver for their people? Can they get a majority?
“I believe we can. I believe we must,” the President noted.
But democracy is what stands in the way of his plan as he is buffeted by the left and right.
He will need the backing of at least 10 Republican Senators to get the 60 votes needed in the evenly divided Senate to get the plan approved while keeping his base intact.
The main sticking point is his proposal to raise taxes.
Appealing to them, he said that the Republicans “know China and other countries are eating our lunch. So there’s no reason why it can’t be bipartisan again”.
Former President Donald Trump had promised a massive infrastructure plan during the 2016 election campaign but was so distracted by his less pressing obsessions that he never got around to seriously pursuing it before Covid-19 hit the world.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said he was unlikely to back Biden’s infrastructure plan.
“It’s called infrastructure, but inside the Trojan horse it’s going to be more borrowed money, and massive tax increases on all the productive parts of our economy.”
A way around the Republican Senate roadblock would be for the infrastructure legislation to be treated as an amendment to the budget, which would need only 51 votes. And that’s what Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer are preparing for.
The American Jobs Plan is a once-in-a-generation investment in America. It will: ✅Modernize 20,000 miles of highways, roads, and main streets ✅Repair 10,000 bridges desperately in need of upgrades ✅Replace 100% of our nation’s lead pipes and service lines
But Biden will also face opposition from his Democratic Party’s left.
Indian-American Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal called for a “bolder” and more comprehensive plan that would tackle climate change more aggressively.
“It makes little sense to narrow his previous ambition on infrastructure or compromise with the physical realities of climate change,” she said.
House of Representatives member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists group, had proposed a $10 trillion plan.
She compared Biden’s plan to the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief passed by Congress earlier this month and tweeted that the President new proposal “is not nearly enough. The important context here is that it’s $2.25 trillion spread out over 10 years”
I think when I choose a character, I look at it as a challenge and if it is something that I have done before, I try to make it better,” Amrutha speaks with Yashika Mathur.
OTT is a normal platform for the present period of film industries. Actress Amruta Khanvilkar is gearing up for the release of her Marathi film “Well Done Baby” on OTT. She says her job is to act well and not be concerned about which platform her project releases.
“I feel any kind of work that gets a bigger audience is a win-win situation. I think I am getting the best of both worlds. Before lockdown, two of my very big films were released. One was ‘Malang’ in Hindi and ‘Choricha Mamla’ in Marathi, and both did really well. I think for actors it is important to do our job and not think about which platform (the work) is going to be released. When you work with dedication, everyone sees it. Across platforms, what I can do is see what I bring to the table,” she told .
She added: “For me, choosing scripts does not depend on whether it is a feature film or an OTT project. For me, the script, the director, the story and the entire ensemble is important and not where it’s going to be showcased.”
The actress has worked in digital space earlier, in the series “Damaged”. Reflecting on why digital platforms can have an edge over feature films, Amruta feels it has to do with the availability of stronger content.
“I feel very confident while doing my work and choosing my character. It is irrespective of it being a project on OTT or feature films It’s just that OTT gives you an edge over choosing bolder and more content driven films other than feature films. I think when I choose a character, I look at it as a challenge and if it is something that I have done before, I try to make it better,” she says.
Talking about “Well Done Baby”, which also stars actor Pushkar Jog, Amruta says: “My character is a very strong, stubborn, career oriented girl, who is working through a failed marriage and in the process of that, she gets pregnant. How she has to tackle her dreams and aspirations along with her baby along with the baby starts taking a toll on her. A very common thing between me and my character is that she is very connected to her mom. I had a blast performing this character.”
Aditi started out in the 2006 Malayalam film “Prajapathi” and came to Bollywood with “Delhi-6” three years later…writes Anjuri Nayar Singh.
Aditi Rao Hydari owns a good collection of good choice films. Aditi has been acting in films for a decade and half now, but she admits she still feels like a newcomer at the start of every film.
“With every film, I feel like a newcomer. When I walk into the set, it’s a new character, new pace, new feeling, new co-stars, new house, new set, new location — everything is new,” she told.
In fact, the actress adds that she is often clueless on the set of a new film.
“So, when I walk down the set, when they say action, I feel like I don’t know what I am going to do. I have elephants in my stomach! I don’t know the girl that I am playing, if I can do justice to her or not, whether my director will be happy or not, whether I will be able to breathe life into his vision and see a smile on his face,” she says.
However, Aditi adds that once the camera starts rolling, things fall into place.
“But once the camera starts rolling, I give the first shot and I feel like this is my home, this is my love, my father, my mother. These are the everyday clothes that I pull out from my closet. It just feels okay. It feels like it’s yours. Till that happens, it is scary!” she says.
Aditi says that right before a film starts, she is very excited. “Two days before I start filming, I am like a hungry kid. I can’t sit quietly. You know how a hungry kid behaves? I behave like that,” she says.
Aditi started out in the 2006 Malayalam film “Prajapathi” and came to Bollywood with “Delhi-6” three years later. The actress, who was recently seen in the OTT-released film “The Girl On The Train”, will next be seen in the Tamil film “Hey Sinamika”, the multilingual “Maha Samudram” and the OTT anthology “Ajeeb Daastaans”.
Telugu actor Allu Sirish insists “Vilayati sharaab” was not a planned step. “I don’t know how did this land in my lap. This is a stroke of luck or something…reports Asian Lite News.
Geetha Govindam fame Rashmika Mandana is a very familiar figure in the film industry now. Rashmika will make her Hindi debut with “Mission Majnu”, but before that she surprised fans when she entered the Hindi showbiz scene with an appearance in the music video of Badshah and Yuvan Shankar Raja’s latest hit, “Top Tucker”.
Telugu actor Allu Sirish, too, has taken the Hindi music video route to enter pan-Indian mindspace. He appears in the new Darshan Raval track “Vilayati sharaab”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE_Hiv7ltEk
Are music videos the new big ticket for regional actors aspiring to woo Hindi-speaking markets? Trade analyst Atul Mohan believes that for regional actors, doing Hindi music videos is part of their “pan-India goal”.
“Times are changing. With the success of ‘Baahubali’, ‘KGF’ and dubbed films, the dynamics of the market has changed. Now, actors like Prabhas and Vijay Deverakonda are promoted as pan-India stars. Everyone wants to go pan-India, to increase popularity. Music video seems to be the new favourite. It is one of the steps to achieving the pan-India goal and increase the face value,” he tells.
Telugu actor Allu Sirish insists “Vilayati sharaab” was not a planned step. “I don’t know how did this land in my lap. This is a stroke of luck or something. Even while doing the video I didnt think how many views I would get. I just enjoyed it so much. I wish I could just again shoot the video because it was so much fun,” he says.
Singer and music composer Nakul Abhyankar, has composed music for Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films and is known for his track “Thumbi Thullal” (Cobra), “Azhage” (Tamil film ‘Action’) among others. In his opinion, the collaborative effort of bringing artistes of the North and the South always reaps good results.
“Movie releases have reduced because of Covid and hard truth of any film industry is that if you are out of sight, you are out of mind. What Badshah did with Top Tucker was great. It was good to see the North and the South come together with Badshah on one side and Yuvan (Shankar Raja) and Rashmika on other side,” he says.
He adds: “It’s a good thing to see big names being involved in independent music scene. It’s a good thing but I would also love to see musicians come up along with actors and make a bigger impact.”
Foodpreneur Sameer Dhar meets Asian Lite’s FnB columnist Riccha Grrover to share the story behind Village Degh
Foodpreneur Sameer Dhar who believes that change is the only constant in life. While setting up a delivery kitchen and scaling up his brand Village Degh in post pandemic times, he decided being a part of that changed landscape and thinking beyond linear and hence decided to reinvent his creative, sustainable business model with real-time focus. Sameer shares about his unique brand as an ode to culinary heritage…
Village Degh’s Sameer Dhar
RICCHA GRROVER- Tell us about your delivery brand of heritage Indian food Village Degh. What traditional cooking methods do you use?
SAMEER DHAR- The Brand name is Village Degh. Its heirloom Indian recipes and centuries old cooking techniques, It’s all about going back 100+yrs in the history, using the traditional methods of cooking. The concept is basically of 4 points.
1-STOVE- Heating process-
When we go back to the ancestral era, cooking was primarily done on Chulhas, so we had to design a modern day cooking range with efficiency and at the same time smokeless. So we designed the Chulha according to our need, with a cooking rage and a dum (slow heat) range, with fire Bricks. We can surely say that this is the first ever commercial chulha in the world with efficiency and 100% smokefree.
2-Utensils & equipment –
The equipment used in primitive era were majorly of copper, stone, soil and wood. So, we had to source all equipment from different corners of India. Be it for pounding, grinding or making dips, we procured stone mortar & pestle of different sizes. We have different equipment for different purposes. For dry spices we have OKHALS, for dips we have silbattas, for we grinding we have different Okhli, for grinding we have Chakki. Meanwhile we got the wooden ladles, customized pestles, thanks to certain villages still existing in India. Further for storage of green vegetables, we surely do need refrigeration sometimes. For that we developed an underground off-grid refrigeration system, that manages temperature between 9-11 degrees irrespective of the outside temperature.
3-Ingredients
Any food is basically known by its ingredients; they have to be fresh. Although everyone uses this basic in buying green vegetables, but do we use it in dry ingredients. Are we sure about spices, what year crop are we using- e.g. – Green Cardamom, crop of 2020 vs 2018, it’s all about aroma. Same goes with organic produce or dairy. It has to be fresh. So we procure whole spices and then grind them in-house.
4-Packaging
As a Village Degh brand, we have to engage in the primitive techniques. So packaging has to reflect the brand, that has to pass on a message to the consumer about the brand. Hence cloth tapes, muslin cloth, Indian post card, wooden crates. The clay pots- handis have to be porous, unlike the terracotta pottery, that can’t breathe. The detailing is precise.
RG- What have been the challenges to the FnB industry in Covid-19 times and what difficulties have you overcome an FnB entrepreneur in these time.
SD- The Covid-19 has devastated the industry greatly, as this industry is completely based on human collaboration from all sides. Be it from the backend operations or the front end guest relationships. The impact has been very huge and it has more or less reduced the industry a lot as compared to pre covid-19 times. In such circumstances, change is the only constant, and we have to be flexible enough to manoeuvre the bends. Devising just in time tactics and tuning to the market situations is the key.
Our core business- Nowhere Terrace brew pub café- a dine in café with one of the largest breweries in Gurgaon is still shut, as it was nearly impossible to manage with 100% compliances as per Covid-19 protocol. We will be back with our dine-in by April.
Meanwhile, Village Degh a completely quarantined kitchen came to rescue to accommodate and engage the team. The post-Covid-19 period seems to be promising as majorly the businesses are managed on bottom line now, rather than the Top Line. Pre-Covid-19 times were for investors, soft funding, seed funding completely based on Charts, Projections, Futuristic. But now it is going to be Bottom Line, day to day profitability, Long term vision based on short term performances.
RG- How is a meal from Village Degh different from other Indian restaurants? What makes it unique. What are the top 3 dishes you recommend a first time diner to try?
SD- The comparison is not right; we cannot compare apples to oranges. Village Degh prepares food with “PATIENCE & PASSION ON CHULHA” – It’s similar to granny’s home cooked food, because we may try our best but we can’t put the granny’s emotions in it, Our Food will surely remind you of granny’s meal, that’s what our benchmark is.
The Top 3 Dishes that we would recommend are 1) Beramkhan Dal Gosht – its goat meat cooked with pulses. 2) Mirzapuri Shammi Kebab Kathal – Vegetarian Kebab’s, but impossible to distinguish from Mutton Kebab. 3) Kadhao Kheer – Dessert – Rice, Milk and dry fruits.
RG- Share with us how you used your restaurant spaces as emergency kitchens during COVID lockdown times and your social responsibility and meal distribution projects at that time.
SD- Well on Lockdown day in India 23rd March 2020, the only thing that was worrying me was the team, how are they going to survive. As a restaurateur, our team usually get breakfast, lunch, dinner at the restaurant. So most of them who stay alone in the city don’t have cooking facilities in their rooms. We started with the immediate team that was stuck around the restaurant plus the security guards and maintenance team of the Mall plus some ATM guards etc, we started preparing 100 meals for lunch and dinner. By 28th March we were doing 1500 Meals per day and by 4th April we were doing 3300 meals a Day. At this point the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram approached us for food and we were more than happy to volunteer for the same. From 5th April onwards we were doing 35000 meals a day. The funding for all 1.8million meals- 55% of Gurugram food demand- that we did was completely managed by individuals, friends and family and Patrons of Nowhere. How we managed to procure the Utensils, laying of a new gas pipeline for the stoves, it was a mammoth task. Managing a team of 85 people, with Covid-19 Protocol cooking 2000Kgs of rice and 800kg of pulses, a feat achieved by the blessings of the supreme.
RG-What words of advice do you have for budding FnB entrepreneurs? What is it that keeps you inspired in your profession?
SD-Innovation and Focus is the key, that’s what keeps me inspired always too. Keep Innovating.
RG- Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?
SD-Taking Village Degh concept to various metro cities of India is being planned.
RG- What have been your biggest highs in the Village Degh project and what is your vision for it in the future?
SD- The Biggest high is making it work. Village Degh doesn’t have any referral frame, only concept and an age old traditional experience, that had to be pulled up from scratch into reality. The day we were able to prepare Food for the first time in the traditional Kitchen, it was Bliss. After that is the consumer wow and repeat orders. We have three-year projections and plan with us. First we have to set up 30 satellite distribution or franchise setups across Delhi NCR- so that the food prepared in single Base kitchen in Gurugram reaches these outlets and is then served within a 5km radius to the patrons. After that we shall be replicating the same in other cities or overseas.
Flipping through the pages of History and inspired by food memories each dish at Village Degh is all about how Indian food was cooked a century ago in Indian villages and about the heirloom recipes that passed down from generation to generation, village by village
At Village Degh those handpicked recipes are cooked for hours on spit fire with patience & passion to recreate those nostalgic flavours of an era gone by.
Every dish has special Potli Masala hand pounded in an okhli or the coarsely grinded Silbatta chutneys made by the khansamas at Village Degh are ensured of passion, taste and hygiene.
