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30th March 2013 Pre Conference Issue

Interview with the Secretary General

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“Something they’ll surely remember...” says Aayush Kalra, the Secretary General and the flag bearer of NSIT Model United Nations Conference. With a zeal that would inspire the most lackadaisical of people, he has proved his mettle in the MUN circuit. He agreed to take some time out from the pre-MUN pandemonium to

interact with Manaved Nambiar.

Why have you picked these par-ticular agendas?

The main reasons why we picked these agendas in particular were that these topics were fresh, rele-vant and had hardly been discussed thoroughly in any other MUN’s. We hope to liven things up a bit.

What makes NSIT MUN unique?

The very fact that we are basical-ly an engineering college is what makes this whole venture unique. Not only that, this is also the last MUN of the season and I’m pret-ty sure this is something they’ll cherish throughout their lives.

How does it feel to occupy the prestigious position of Secretary General?

Trust me, it’s been great. I would like to thank my seniors for this opportunity since I am a 3rd year student and we’ve got students up to the 4th year. It’s been a mat-ter of great honour and prestige.

What’s your opinion of the Secre-tariat?

In my opinion, they are the best team an OC would ever hope for. Wherever they go, they spread so much of energy and zeal that one cannot help being inspired by

them. Everyone has put in loads of hard work and you will see that for yourself come Saturday.

What is your message to the multitude of people who will come to NSIT on 30th and 31st?

I just want to tell all of you to come with a free and open mind. Do en-joy the experience, not to men-tion the delicious food. All of us should aim to push our standards and make sure that, when you go back home, you have changed for the better. Also, as a side note, I applaud the efforts of the IP Team and feel that it’s doing a great job.

United Nations General Assembly | NSIT MUN 2013 uester The

Love it or loathe it, the advent of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites has not only rev-olutionized our lives, it has made the world globally connected and easily accessible. But as it is cus-tomary, with “pros” come the “cons”; these sites not only threat-en our privacy, one of our funda-mental rights as humans, but also lead to cyber-bullying, stalking, assaults, defamation and various other illegal activities. The ques-tion arises of how we draw a line between our right to use these sites and our right to privacy.

In this technology savvy world, another important point that needs to be raised is that unlike in the past, when property used to be considered a mere material object or asset, intellectual prop-erty has taken utmost precedence now. It can be considered as most valuable and expensive, but un-fortunately, like all other proper-ties, it has become a prime good for stealing. Intellectual Property

theft is a growing concern which costs businesses billions of dollars annually and, with the news that IP thieves are most often current or former employees, businesses should take a proactive approach to preventing these incidents. Other issues are piracy and Copy-right Infringement. In our busy schedules, when we do not have time to spend an extra thirty min-utes to go to a cinema or catch a show on time, it is often appealing to use one of those websites that link you to free, online videos. Not all realize that this is a case of piracy and consists of illegal copies of movies and TV shows.

It can only be hoped that by the end of the proceedings of the General Assembly, the committee will be able to propose a suitable resolution-something that could protect our intellectual proper-ties without limiting our free-dom of thoughts and expression.

Utkarsh Sharma

Tech Bane or Tech Boon?

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Meet theExecutive Borad

ChairpersonVandana Anand

Vice ChairpersonShubha Jain

United Nations Security Council | NSIT MUN 2013 uester The

The 15 year long Vietnam was probably one such war which changed the whole of United State’s foreign policy and taught US what not to do in future. It was a war which drew criticism not only from the world community, but even from the American public.

Vietnam happened to be an-other pawn of the US-Soviet Cold War. United States was pas-sionately loyal in their Cold War foreign policy of containment, which was aimed to prevent the spread of Communism. This fear of the spread of Communism was heightened by the U.S. “domino theory,” which stated that if one country in Southeast Asia fell to Communism then surrounding countries would also soon fall.

Hence US started this prolonged war between nationalist forces at-tempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist gov-ernment. With help from the Unit-ed States, South Vietnam carried out an election only in their region rather than countrywide. After eliminating most of his rivals, Ngo Dinh Diem was elected. His leader-

ship, however, proved so horrible that he was killed in 1963 during a coup supported by the United States. But since Diem had alienat-ed many South Vietnamese during his tenure, communist sympathiz-ers in South Vietnam established the National Liberation Front (NLF) in 1960 to use guerrilla warfare against the South Vietnamese.

As combined forces against the capitalist influencers increased, US felt instigated to send in their first ground troops into the country after the North Vietnamese fired directly upon two U.S. ships in in-ternational waters. This marked the beginning of a prolonged war, a war which would probably be remembered for the bio chemi-cal weapon ‘Agent Orange’, and also for the various inhuman suf-ferings of the Vietnamese peo-ple. By entering the Vietnam War without a goal to win, US Presi-dent Johnson set the stage for fu-ture public and troop disappoint-ment as the US found themselves in a stalemate with the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong.

Amlan J. Das

A War Not to Remember

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Meet theExecutive Borad

ChairpersonMayank Vashishta

Vice ChairpersonTannishtha Bhattacharjee

United Nations Human Rights Council | NSIT MUN 2013 uester The

The lust of power, territory and money often drive us away from humanitarianism, and a prime evidence of that is the Israel-Palestine conflict. 60 years ago Israel got its independence and since then the two sides have been fighting for no good.

NSIT MUN has taken an initiative to put this agenda under the man-date of the Human Rights Council and bring the atrocities into lime-light. Human rights have been de-scribed as ‘the inalienable funda-mental rights entitled to a person by the virtue of being a human’. But the situation in Israel defies all and any definition of human rights.

There have been many unsuc-cessful attempts to negotiate for a two-state solution, involving the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside an in-dependent Jewish state or next to the State of Israel. West Bank and Gazawas readily accepted this solution but Israel is still try-ing to encroach on the so called “Palestinian” territory. The Pal-estinians consider Gaza to be the world’s biggest prison, doling out inhumane treatment, with the situation being no better in West

Bank. Israel uses airstrikes, regular armies, paramilitary groups, ter-ror cells and individuals to have an upper hand on the situation.For the last decade the socio eco-nomic situation in Gaza has been steadily declining. Years of conflict and closure have left 80 percent of the population dependent on international assistance. The tight-ened blockade imposed following the Hamas takeover of Gaza has decimated lives and livelihoods, resulting in the impoverishment of a highly skilled and well edu-cated society. Despite adjust-ments made to the blockade by the government of Israel in June 2010, restrictions on imports and exports continue to severely ham-per recovery and reconstruction.

But the fact of the matter is that all this violence has been ne-glected or portrayed variously by major nations which are active members of the United Nations.

The International Press at NSIT hopes to see active brainstorming at on the part of our diplomats and the outpouring of interesting solu-tions to the problem. We hope that this anti-Semitism will soon end. Ankit Bagga

Birth of Israel or Demise of Palestine?

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Meet theExecutive Borad

ChairpersonSiddhart Soni

Vice ChairpersonSasha Bhatnagar

Shanghai Cooperation Organization| NSIT MUN 2013 uester The

“Farmer Haji Zerak greets his visi-tor in the usual way of Afghani-stan’s eastern Pashtuns. A light touch with his right hand on the other man’s left shoulder, then a warm handshake - symbolising in Islamic teaching both men’s sins being washed away. But this is not supposed to be a social call. His visitor, the local district gov-ernor, has arrived in Achin with a posse of heavily-armed policemen and a team of labourers wielding long sticks. They have come to his isolated mountain hamlet in Nan-garhar province to cut down Haji Zerak’s fields of poppy. The opi-um they produce is the source of most of Europe’s heroin demand and illegal. But things are rarely as they seem in Afghanistan.”

This excerpt, taken from a BBC News article, stresses the uncer-tain and vulnerable condition of Afghanistan as of now. It was af-ter NATO took responsibility to strengthen this nation by safe-guarding its interests, in both po-litical and military spheres, that hope was reassured. For a nation that is regarded as one of the least developed countries, replete with poor healthcare and education facilities, the withdrawal of NATO

forces threatens to leave the fate of Afghanistan completely unpre-dictable. This is where the Shang-hai Cooperation Organisation steps in. The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation creation, which was proclaimed on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (China) by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Re-public of China, the Kyrgyz Repub-lic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Re-public of Uzbekistan. Its prototype is the Shanghai Five mechanism.

The SCO hopes to mould Afghani-stan’s future by improvising and ‘reconstructing’ a peaceful econ-omy and a politically stable coun-try. Afghanistan wishes to avail the status of a full membership in the SCO, which is currently doubtful.

At NSITMUN 2013, we hope that the committee discussions are mind engaging, well sought and not too far-fetched. Delegates are expected to bring forth bril-liant ideas about how the SCO will function cordially in order to become the ray of hope that Afghanistan desperately needs.

Ridhi Singh

A Scraped Condition or Is There Hope?

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Meet theExecutive Borad

ChairpersonKeshav Gupta

Vice ChairpersonDikshant Malik

uester TheThe International Press | NSIT MUN 2013

“Not all who wander are lost" “We’re all mad here.” - Alice in Wonderland “In time, all unanswered questions dissolve into stardust.”

Head of International PressSukaran Thakur

Editor-in-ChiefAayushi Sinha

Associate EditorMenkah Ahlawat

“Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!” “A simple person who likes to read faces through his Camera ‘’

“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”

Creative EditorAnushree Malik

Editor of PhotographyVanshaj Mehta

Director of Press ConferencesSanskriti Srivastava

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s

definition of your life; define yourself.”

“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

“ Brimming with energy; Easy going, jovial and a blabbermouth.”

ReporterVaisakh Subrahmoni

ReporterManaved Nambiar

ReporterRidhi Singh

Meet theInternational Press

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The International Press| NSIT MUN 2013 uester The

“If you find your mentor crazy, you should tend to be insane”

“Frank and Forthright, Life for Me is like a Staircase. Either Step Aside Or Get

Stepped Up!”

“I am sociable and prude and too innocent to be rude”

ReporterAmlan J. Das

ReporterUtkarsh Sharma

ReporterAnkit Bagga

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” “Life is like photography. We develop from the negatives.”

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

ReporterTaashi Priya Khurana

PhotographerRhea Guliani

PhotographerSanjeet Singh

“I always underpromise and overdeliver. I don’t wait for the iron to get hot, instead I

prefer heating it with the blows of my ham-mer.”

“If you can dream it you can do it - Walt Disney”

“I am very passionate about my work , be it Music or Digital Art . With utmost dedication , I want Artist At Work Productions to be one

of the best main stream labels.”

ReporterPrakhar Rishi

CaricaturistMerian Tete

VideoographerRahul Maheshwari

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