In India’s Gujarat, mothers navigate pregnancy with dream baby apps

In India’s Gujarat, mothers navigate pregnancy with dream baby apps
In this file photo, pregnant women wait in line for a vaccine in Chennai, India, on July 5, 2021. (AFP)
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Updated 05 February 2024
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In India’s Gujarat, mothers navigate pregnancy with dream baby apps

In India’s Gujarat, mothers navigate pregnancy with dream baby apps
  • One pregnancy app, known as DreamChild, claims to have 250,000 subscribers
  • Such apps give modern touch to the practice of instilling Hindu values starting in the womb

New Delhi: When she found out she was pregnant with her second child last year, Rinkal Ramani vowed to do things a little differently. 

For the last seven months, the 30-year-old has been following guided and routine prompts that appear on her phone screen in the hopes of nurturing her dream baby. 

“We can give a kid an education, a certificate, but we cannot give the sanskar, or purity, that comes only from the mother’s womb,” Ramani told Arab News. 

“I want an ideal child seeped in the Indian culture, who does not get swayed by other external influences.” 

Ramani is referring to a practice known as garbh sanskar, which is popular in the western state of Gujarat, and claims that the nurturing of a child and the creation of an environment conducive to instilling a Hindu value system begins in the womb. 

“I did not do the garbh sanskar course during my first pregnancy five years ago, and I feel that my 5-year-old girl does not listen to her parents — she quarrels, and she does not share. We decided to join the course so that my second kid is not wayward from the beginning,” she said. 

Along with an increasing number of women in Hindu-majority India, Ramani is subscribed to an app that combines traditional guidance with scientific research, offering wellness practices and dietary plans, as well as daily developmental activities ranging from yoga to story reading and lullabies. 

These apps, which have been taking off in Gujarat, act as a guide to child-rearing for many expecting mothers in India, as it transforms cultural and religious traditions passed down from elders into accessible formats and fact-checked curation that one can easily tap into from the palm of one’s hand. 

Dhaval Chheta, co-founder and CEO of one such app called DreamChild, said that over 250,000 women — mainly from Gujarat — are subscribed to it. 

“We decided and designed 25 daily basis programs for pregnant ladies … The app tells the mother how much she should walk, how much she should eat and drink, what activity she should practice – all these things are guided by the app,” Chheta told Arab News. 

Some days, expecting mothers like Ramani would be given a mental puzzle to solve, one of various activities requiring around 40 minutes daily to develop the child’s intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual quotients. 

The rise of garbh sanskar apps reflect a lifestyle change in Indian society, Chheta said, which has grown more dependent on smartphones and where a growing number of multi-generational families no longer live together. 

“We used to have a joint family, so many cultural practices and beliefs used to come to us as legacy. But now people are living an isolated life, our thought processes have also changed. Our challenges to lead a normal life have increased,” Chheta said. 

DreamChild, which was founded in 2018, hopes to reach 10 million parents by 2025, and is part of a larger mission to “make a new India,” he added. 

“India is the land of saffron, land of spirituality, land of Hinduism. Our core purpose is to make India a proud nation.” 

The rise of these pregnancy apps can also be traced back to the growth of garbh sanskar itself in Gujarat, where it is fairly well-known and taught through in-person courses.

Dr. Karishma Narwani, an Ayurvedic doctor and director of the Garbhopnishad Foundation who first taught the course over 15 years ago, said she has trained over 1,000 couples. 

“The children born after the garbh sanskar are different and superior and we are documenting these. We have noticed that (with) a mother who had a second child after following the garbh sanskar course, the child is healthier and without any genetical anomalies,” Narwani told Arab News. 

But for Gujarat-based sociologist Madhubhai N. Gayakwad, the rising practice of garbh sanskar is “a symptom of growing religiosity in society.”

He told Arab News: “As a sociologist I believe that religious influences play a great role in determining who joins the garbh sanskar program. If you look at the people who join the program they are heavily soaked in religious beliefs and practices.” 

Gayakwad added: “If we look from the perspective of a sociologist I don’t think the garbh sanskar can really bring you an ideal child … I believe that a child’s real development and his personality development takes place depending upon his upbringing, the situation in the family and circumstances.”


UK court awards Manchester bomb victims £45,000 over hoax claims

Updated 8 sec ago
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UK court awards Manchester bomb victims £45,000 over hoax claims

UK court awards Manchester bomb victims £45,000 over hoax claims
Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall over claims made in videos and a book that they were “crisis actors“
Judge Karen Steyn called Hall’s behavior “a negligent, indeed reckless, abuse of media freedom”

LONDON: Two survivors of the 2017 bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, on Friday won £45,000 ($58,000) in damages from a former TV producer who claimed the attack was a hoax.
Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall over claims made in videos and a book that they were “crisis actors” employed by the state as part of an elaborate deception.
Hibbert sustained a spinal cord injury in the attack, and his daughter suffered severe brain damage.
Hall argued that he was acting in the public interest by filming Hibbert’s daughter outside her home, but the High Court in London agreed with Hibbert’s claim for harassment.
Judge Karen Steyn called Hall’s behavior “a negligent, indeed reckless, abuse of media freedom” and on Friday ordered him to pay Hibbert and his daughter each £22,500 in damages.
Hall must also pay 90 percent of their legal costs, currently estimated at £260,000.
“The claimants are both vulnerable. The allegations are serious and distressing,” said the judge.
Jonathan Price, lawyer for the claimants, said that Hall “insisted that the terrorist attack in which the claimants were catastrophically injured did not happen and that the claimants were participants or ‘crisis actors’ in a state-orchestrated hoax, who had repeatedly, publicly and egregiously lied to the public for monetary gain.”
Hibbert welcomed the ruling, adding: “I want this case to open up the door for change, and for it to protect others from what we have been put through.
“It proves and has highlighted... that there is protection within the law, and it sends out a message to conspiracy theorists that you cannot ignore all acceptable evidence and harass innocent people.”
Islamic extremist Salman Abedi, aided by his brother, Hashem Abedi, killed 22 people and injured 1,017 during the suicide bombing at the end of the concert by the US singer.

US charges Iranian man in plot to kill Donald Trump

US charges Iranian man in plot to kill Donald Trump
Updated 08 November 2024
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US charges Iranian man in plot to kill Donald Trump

US charges Iranian man in plot to kill Donald Trump
  • Shakeri told the FBI he didn’t plan to propose a plan to murder Trump
  • The plot reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials

WASHINGTON: The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with assassinating the Republican president-elect.
Investigators learned of the plot to kill Trump while interviewing Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national identified by officials as an Iranian government asset who was deported from the US after being imprisoned on robbery charges.
He told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to put together a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.

Two other men who the authorities say were recruited to participate in other assassinations, including a prominent Iranian American journalist, were also arrested Friday. Shakeri remains in Iran.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.
The plot, with the charges unsealed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil. Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot.


Russia says summoned Canadian diplomat to reject Western sabotage accusations

Russia says summoned Canadian diplomat to reject Western sabotage accusations
Updated 08 November 2024
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Russia says summoned Canadian diplomat to reject Western sabotage accusations

Russia says summoned Canadian diplomat to reject Western sabotage accusations
  • Moscow said the Canadian diplomat “was told that these speculations” were being spread in a “coordinated manner, in the context of the hybrid war” being waged against Russia
  • Russia blasted the allegations as “false,” “unacceptable” and part of a “provocation” being led by the US

MOSCOW: Moscow summoned a Canadian diplomat on Friday to rebut Western allegations that Russia’s secret services had orchestrated a campaign to mail explosive packages to addresses in NATO countries, including Canada.
After a series of fires at DHL depots in Britain and Germany this summer, Russia was accused of being behind a brazen plot to ship explosive parcels via commercial airliners.
Ottawa expressed its concern earlier this week to Russian officials after Poland and Lithuania announced several arrests as a result of a probe into attempts to send parcels packaged with explosives on cargo flights to the United States and Canada.
“The deputy head of the Canadian diplomatic mission in Moscow was summoned and handed an official note in connection with the false accusations of alleged planned ‘Russian sabotage’ against NATO countries,” Russia’s foreign ministry said.
Moscow said the Canadian diplomat “was told that these speculations” were being spread in a “coordinated manner, in the context of the hybrid war” being waged against Russia by the West.
Russia blasted the allegations as “false,” “unacceptable” and part of a “provocation” being led by the United States.
Canada’s public safety ministry said Ottawa is “aware of and deeply concerned with Russia’s intensifying campaign, from cyber incidents and disinformation operations to sabotage activities.”
It confirmed the Canadian government had “expressed this concern directly to Russian officials and unequivocally stated that any threat to the safety and security of Canadians is unacceptable.”
The ministry added there was “no imminent threat” to the public but said Canada “will continue to monitor the situation very closely.”
Canada’s Transport Minister Anita Anand told reporters on Wednesday that she required “more information” on the alleged plot but said she would taking “additional steps” to ensure the safety of passengers and packages, without providing details.
The reported plot, involving civilian airlines, comes amid growing concern in the West at what it sees as Russia’s increasingly reckless espionage and sabotage operations inside NATO countries.
“Russian intelligence services have gone a bit feral, frankly,” Richard Moore, head of Britain’s MI6 secret intelligence service said in September in rare public remarks.


Governor Koike discusses areas of cooperation with Egyptian Prime Minister Madbouly

Governor Koike discusses areas of cooperation with Egyptian Prime Minister Madbouly
Updated 08 November 2024
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Governor Koike discusses areas of cooperation with Egyptian Prime Minister Madbouly

Governor Koike discusses areas of cooperation with Egyptian Prime Minister Madbouly
  • Dr. Mostafa Madbouly congratulated Koike on her re-election as Governor of Tokyo
  • The Prime Minister also lauded Japan’s contribution to implementing the Japanese Tokkatsu educational system

TOKYO: Governor of Tokyo, Koike Yuriko, who is visiting Cairo, met Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly on Friday at the government headquarters in the New Administrative Capital and discussed several cooperation initiatives, Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) officials told Arab News Japan.
The officials said Dr. Amr Talaat, Egypt’s Minister of Communications, and Information Technology; Ambassador Ahmed Shahin, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Asian Affairs; Mr. Katsunobu Takada, Chargé d’Affaires at the Japanese Embassy in Cairo, and Governor Koike’s accompanying delegation attended the meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, the Prime Minister warmly welcomed Governor Koike and her delegation. He underscored the strategic and historical relations between Egypt and Japan, a testament to the enduring bond that continues to flourish in various fields.
Dr. Mostafa Madbouly congratulated Koike on her re-election as Governor of Tokyo in July for the third consecutive term and expressed his hopes for continued close coordination on various areas of bilateral cooperation.
The Prime Minister also expressed his fervent hope that Japan’s Prime Minister, alongside Governor Koike, will grace the official opening ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum once the project is finalized. He also extended his gratitude for Japan’s substantial contributions to major development projects in Egypt, including the museum.
Dr. Madbouly highlighted the Grand Egyptian Museum project as one of the foremost examples of cooperation between Cairo and Tokyo, along with the Egyptian Japanese educational partnership, exemplified by the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology and Japanese Egyptian schools.
The Prime Minister also lauded Japan’s contribution to implementing the Japanese Tokkatsu educational system, affirming that Egypt is planning to expand this system. He attributed this decision to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s directive, acknowledging the system’s remarkable success and high quality.
Dr. Madbouly also highlighted the ongoing cooperation between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and TMG through the “SUSHI Tech Tokyo” initiative, a platform for promoting technological innovation, and the “Tokyo Innovation Base” platform, a hub for fostering entrepreneurial activities and technological advancements.
In turn, Governor Koike praised the bilateral cooperation between Egypt and Japan, expressing her happiness to visit Egypt, where she has unforgettable memories, having studied at Cairo University.
Koike also commended the well-organized 12th World Urban Forum, a global platform for discussing urban issues and solutions, which attracted a wide global audience.
In the meeting, Tokyo Governor Koike invited the Prime Minister, the Minister of Communications, and other Egyptian entities to participate in the upcoming “SUSHI Tech Tokyo” forum, scheduled for the first half of 2025. She noted that Japan has worked over the years to establish itself as a hub for startups and a welcoming environment for entrepreneurs.
Dr. Amr Talaat discussed several collaborative programs with Koike in information and communication technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and entrepreneurship. They explored the potential for experience exchange in business incubators for small projects across various sectors, including financial services, health care, and education.
Talaat highlighted that one of the main areas of cooperation with Tokyo’s government is in the startup and entrepreneurship sectors.
Governor Koike is in Egypt on the first leg of a tour of the region that includes Abu Dhabi of the UAE.


Germany brushes off Musk calling Scholz a ‘fool’

Germany brushes off Musk calling Scholz a ‘fool’
Updated 08 November 2024
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Germany brushes off Musk calling Scholz a ‘fool’

Germany brushes off Musk calling Scholz a ‘fool’
  • Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann took a playful dig at the US tycoon, saying that “on X, you have Narrenfreiheit,” which translates to the freedom to act like a fool
  • A tight-lipped Scholz simply called it “not very friendly“

BERLIN: German officials on Friday brushed off tech billionaire Elon Musk labelling Olaf Scholz a “fool” on his social media platform X after the dramatic collapse of the chancellor’s coalition government.
In a comment Thursday above a post about the implosion of Scholz’s long-troubled coalition, the world’s richest man tweeted in German: “Olaf ist ein Narr” — “Olaf is a fool.”
Asked about Musk’s comment, government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann took a playful dig at the US tycoon, saying that “on X, you have Narrenfreiheit,” which translates to the freedom to act like a fool.
The word refers to revellers during Germany’s traditional carnival season, which starts next week, having the freedom to act without inhibitions.
Historically, the term echoes the notion of the “jester’s privilege” — the right of a court jester to mock those in power without being punished by the king.
Asked later about the comment, a tight-lipped Scholz simply called it “not very friendly,” adding that Internet companies are “not organs of state so I did not even pay it any attention.”
Musk strongly supported US election winner Donald Trump, and is now positioned to take up a role in his administration as a deputy tasked with restructuring government operations.
It is not the first time the Tesla boss has had run-ins with German officials online.
Last year he said Berlin-funded migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean could be seen as an “invasion” of Italy, sparking a terse response from the German foreign ministry.
He has also expressed sympathy for some of the positions of Germany’s far-right AfD party, which has notched up a string of recent electoral successes and is riding high in the opinion polls.