If there is a national award for a party committee with the largest number of general secretaries, it should go to the district Congress committee in Kerala’s backwater-rich Alappuzha. The DCC there has 86 general secretaries! That’s not all: it has 10 vice-presidents!.

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee headed by the no-nonsense VM Sudheeran which last week put the jumbo DCC in place, has managed to appease all the factions and groups within the Congress. To be fair to the KPCC, it appointed only one president and one treasurer to the DCC.

The Alappuzha DCC is not alone in having jumbo committees. Many other districts have committees whose general secretaries could not be contained in one classroom. When it comes to setting up party committees, the faction-ridden Congress party in the State has always believed in the dictum of ‘big is beautiful’ — this helps to accommodate representatives of all the factions and groups. This time around, the KPCC was a bit too liberal. In view of the April-May Assembly election, the party doesn’t want local leaders to sulk and toy with the idea of contesting as rebel candidates. So, the bigger the DCC, the better.

Aspirational shift

There seems to be an aspirational shift among the youth of the country, according to a senior official from a general insurance company. While talking about the slow growth of private cars in the country, he said that unlike the earlier generation, owning high-end cars no longer seems to be a priority among young executives who would now rather invest in the latest gadget and rent or hire fancy taxis. Is there a new wind blowing in the air?

What’s brewing?

After the Italian firm Lavazza sold Barista to Carnation Hospitality last year, there has been speculation that the coffee chain is again on the block. Seems like its latest owner may sell it to a European buyer going by the fact that Sanjay Chabbra, the director of Carnation Hospitality, has been making several trips out of the country; even last week he was apparently at an undisclosed European destination. Kuch kuch ho raha hai.

Waiting for Santa

Guess who has sought Santa Claus’ help this Christmas? None other than the Kolkata Police. The city police have embarked on an awareness campaign on safe driving, this season; one of the things Santa Claus is supposed to do is make bikers wear helmets.

Unfortunately, so far, the ‘helmet’ Santa has been seen only on billboards. It is not known, if he will make an actual appearance on Kolkata’s streets. Deck the heads with safety helmets, goes the song this year.

Distant dimensions

Traffic and startups are both exploding in Bengaluru. While the traffic is reaching unmanageable proportions, startups are starting to use this phenomenon to their advantage. So it was funny when the two sort of came together recently.

A leading travel portal, which is listed on the Nasdaq, ran a cheeky ad that said travelling from Bengaluru to the Andamans was faster than travelling within Bengaluru! Now, that’s a new twist to time and distance calculations.

Thirsty crocs and other animals

A number of crocodiles and some other animals, including a leopard, have recently been straying into the fields in Medak district, Telangana, causing panic among local villagers.

Most of the water bodies, including the Manjeera reservoir near Sangareddy, have dried up because of the poor monsoon. That’s why these poor animals have been straying into agricultural fields and human habitation in search of water. Naturally, people are in a state of panic and the forest authorities are having a tough time herding the animals back to their original habitats.

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