In my Tier 69 NLU, most people communicated in the local language, which wasn't Hindi. Bus boards were in that language. So I decided to learn reading that script, and learn it in 3-4 days. I can understand the gist of what's said in that language, but can't speak it.

(Won't say which college it was, but it's a coll

They're right. Focus on tax law. Haven't you heard, "death & taxes... something something". Also, very few people pursue tax as they're afraid of numbers. But it's a very lucrative field. At the same time, once you graduate from LLB, you can't invest more years in MBA, CA or CS and with this dual degree pursue much better options.

As an intern, not even at T1, I had this one A0 in the disputes team that had a vendetta against me for some reason. I remember researching on something quickly and handing in the work to her, she told me 'how could you do it in 5 minutes if its taking me so long?', used to scream at me after calling me to her cubicle for no reason at all. I could barely get any work done. That one internship experience ruined my love for law firms altogether. Now, 4 years later, I have interns under me and despite whatever work they give me, I try to be as helpful as I can.

Terrible experience at a Bombay Tier -1, it’s been many years but this PA (now a partner), infamous for her behaviour, used to make me sit in office till 12 at night literally everyday, because she wanted to avoid the Bombay traffic back to her home. Once, when I asked her if I can leave because my mother was in town, she replied that why am I so eager to go back, “am I getting action at home?”. Also this is just one of the stories. Every weekend coming to office was a thing because she stayed in suburbs and wanted to come towards town on Sat to party as cool places were this side of the town.

Sure, here you go:

Narendra Modi’s two Indias: economic miracle or billionaire’s Raj?

With a third term in sight, the PM has transformed his country but inequality is soaring and his Hindu nationalism is more divisive than ever. Oliver Shah goes in search of the real Modi

Picture caption: With index fingers marked with an indelible ink, supporters of Narendra Modi in Varanasi cast their vote in the final stage of India’s national elections

Oliver Shah
, Varanasi
Sunday June 02 2024, 12.01am, The Sunday Timess

Sitting cross-legged on the top floor of his Sanskrit school in Varanasi, Anil Shastri delights in scrolling through photographs on his phone of himself with Narendra Modi’s siblings and their late mother. He has known the Indian prime minister since he was a young man in the western state of Gujarat, where Modi also grew up and which he ran for more than 12 years as chief minister.
Along with pupils at the school he has just completed an 11-day prayer marathon in aid of Modi’s campaign for a third term in charge of the world’s biggest democracy. The final round of voting in India’s epic six-week general election took place across eight states on Saturday in a record heatwave that had partly been blamed for lower turnout than in the previous two contests. Among the 57 constituencies going to the ballot box was the holy city of Varanasi, Modi’s seat in the populous but impoverished northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
An aggregate of five early exit polls suggested that Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance would win about 365 seats in India’s parliament, well above the 272 needed for a majority. The polls put the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance on 142.

However, Modi had set a target of winning at least 400 seats, which would have given him a super-majority. The BJP and the coalition presently have 352 out of 543 seats. Official results will be released on Tuesday.
Asked why he feels so passionately about the need to make Modi India’s longest-serving leader since Jawaharlal Nehru, Shastri, 57, raises a forefinger and answers in English: “Discipline.”

Modi, 73, goes to bed early, wakes early and works all day, Shastri says. He takes decisions quickly — “he doesn’t wait for dessert”. Shastri also worries about a higher birth rate among the Muslim population. He thinks Modi — a strongman who has long made political capital out of undermining India’s biggest minority group — will “protect our Indian culture”.

Picture caption: Anil Shastri at his Gujarat Samaj Sanskrit school in Varanasi

There is another, more prosaic, strand to this voter’s enthusiasm. “Lighting,” he says, again in English. “Development of all the solar lighting.”
Shastri’s eldest son, 19-year-old Bhagyesh, chimes in. He claims Modi has done more for the economy in the past decade than previous leaders did in almost 70 years after independence, mentioning infrastructure projects such as a delayed bullet train from Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s biggest city, to the finance hub of Mumbai. He even uses the phrase “levelling up”.

Picture caption: The Vande Bharat Express, India’s first semi-high-speed train, travels from Delhi to Varanasi in under 10 hours

This is the winning recipe that Modi has refined since he swept to power in 2014 promising India’s 1.4 billion people achhe din, or “good times”.
He has sought to embed a brand of Hindu nationalism that looks back to an era not just before the British Raj but the Muslim conquests of northern India centuries earlier. This year alone he consecrated a Hindu temple on the site of a destroyed mosque in Ayodhya, changed the law to fast-track citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants and warned that his political opponents wanted to redistribute Indians’ wealth to “infiltrators” — a none-too-subtle dog whistle in the same direction.

In a rare intervention his predecessor as prime minister, Manmohan Singh, released a public letter last week accusing him of “indulging in the most vicious form of hate speeches”.
Modi’s government has acquired an increasingly despotic character over the course of its first ten years — raiding the BBC’s offices after it aired a documentary critical of the prime minister and arresting opposition politicians such as the Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, who was freed to noisy effect last month. Although he operates through a tight inner circle that includes the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, and the home minister, Amit Shah, Modi has in many respects turned the BJP into a cult of one man. Its slogan in the elections is Modi ki guarantee — “Modi promises”.

Picture caption: Modi attends the inauguration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, believed to be the birthplace of the Hindu god
INDIAN PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU/EPA

Through actions such as carrying a red cushion through the new Ram temple in Ayodhya — a role that would previously have been the preserve of the priestly Brahmin caste, not a low-born individual such as Modi — he has even tried to align his image with that of Lord Ram, considered the supreme being by Hindus. With his white beard, impeccable garb and considered manner of speech — he often engages in slow question-and-response exchanges with crowds at rallies — Modi looks and sounds the part of a quasi-religious figurehead. In interviews during the campaign he has declared himself sent by God.
“I am sure he thinks of himself as the absolute chosen one to run this country,” Sugata Srinivasaraju, an author and journalist, says. “The kind of language he uses, the way he walks around, the way he speaks — all this has been completely transformed since 2014.”
The “chosen one” has simultaneously taken credit for the country’s powerful economic growth, driven by massive investment in modern physical and digital infrastructure.

The so-called “India stack”, a digital ID with a government-provided payment interface and data storage service layered on top — has brought 500 million people into the banking system and allowed the state to pay billions of dollars in benefits direct, without leakage to middlemen. (The digital ID, known as Aadhaar, was started by the previous government but embraced by Modi’s.) As a result, even in remote villages you will find stallholders selling coconuts who will take payment via mobile apps such as PhonePe.
The number of airports in India has doubled to 149 in the past decade and the government is building 10,000km of roads a year, including an eight-lane expressway from Delhi to Mumbai. In February Modi’s government announced a record 11.1 trillion rupees (£104 billion) of annual spending on capital projects, more than triple the amount it allocated five years ago.
Yet average economic growth of 5.6 per cent a year between 2014 and 2022, while far stronger than the average of other developing countries, has been weaker than the 6 per cent or higher achieved by past governments since the liberalisation of the economy in 1991. Unemployment is high, especially among young people and women, with only 100 million of the 1 billion workforce in formal jobs.

Picture caption: Women queue to vote in Dharamshala. The gender gap in voter turnout is falling, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

AMARJEET KUMAR SINGH/ANADOLU/GETTY IMAGES

While the proportion of Indians living in extreme poverty has fallen from 18.7 per cent in 2015 to 12 per cent in 2021, according to World Bank data, inequality has soared. The richest 1 per cent own 40 per cent of the country’s wealth. The top 1 per cent of earners account for 22.6 per cent of all income — the highest number since data going back to the 1920s.
The economists whose report made the claims, including Thomas Piketty, wrote: “The Billionaire Raj headed by India’s modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces.”

At the forefront of this new Raj are Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, and Gautam Adani, another billionaire. These early backers of Modi have seen their wealth multiply by about five and 13 times respectively since he became prime minister, according to figures from Forbes.
Ambani’s Reliance Industries empire includes Jio, the mobile phone company that transformed Indian telecoms and crushed competition in the sector when it launched free voice calls and dirt-cheap data in 2016. Without Ambani’s democratisation of mobile phones, which includes selling a $12 handset with 4G capability, India’s digital revolution might not have happened — at least not at such an astonishing pace.
Adani’s eponymous conglomerate, which came under attack from a hedge fund last year, is the country’s biggest port operator and thermal coal producer. When the government privatised six airports in 2018 after loosening the rules to deepen the pool of potential bidders, Adani Group controversially bought all of them. Ambani and Adani between them control much of India’s media. Adani’s hostile takeover of New Delhi TV (NDTV) last year, which was followed by an exodus of senior journalists, was seen as a watershed moment for media plurality. It was NDTV that reported the first exit polls.
Asim Ali, an independent analyst based in Delhi, argues that what might be dubbed Modinomics — a big state channelling activity through a handful of loyal tycoons — is in keeping with the prime minister’s social populism. “This very small crony network … is how you run a one-man show in a big country,” he says. “Modi, by his nature, is a very authoritarian person. The whole model is based on controlling every aspect of the economy, society, polity. The economic model should be seen along with the political model, which is to build a very authoritarian state where everything goes through the centre.”

Picture caption: Varanasi, in the country’s Hindu heartland, is seen as a symbolic stronghold for Narendra Modi’s party

RITESH SHUKLA/GETTY IMAGES

Modi’s focus on infrastructure is evident on his home turf. In Varanasi, roads have been widened, street lighting improved and the ghats — or steps — leading down to the river Ganges beautified.

He won the constituency with 56.4 per cent of the vote in 2014 and 63.6 per cent in 2019. Judging by comments from voters streaming out of polling booths he will hold it again comfortably, mostly thanks to these tangible civic efforts. Mahendra Kumar Pathak, a 39-year-old stock market trader, gave a typical response. He said he had voted BJP because “Modi-Ji”, to use his honorific, had “worked on a lot of things — roads, construction”.

But Ali questions whether India’s impressive headline GDP performance truly trickles down. “We have top-heavy economic growth, which is not filtering down to the common masses of the country,” he says. “A big challenge in this election is the economic discontent that’s bubbling up.”

At a rally near Varanasi, Rahul Gandhi — scion of the family that has produced three Indian prime ministers, and leader of the Indian National Congress, the biggest party in an anti-Modi coalition — tells a raucous audience that the prime minister works only for the rich, not the poor.
In the crowd is Vinod Sahani, a taxi driver. He voted for Modi in 2014 but blames the government for increases in his cost of living. Sahani says a litre of petrol has gone from about 70 rupees (66p) a litre in 2014 to more than 100p a litre. “Everything is very expensive,” he says. “Modi’s always saying the wrong thing — every time it’s a different type of talking.”
Modi forged his model for governing in Gujarat. Born in modest circumstances in the town of Vadnagar, where his father had a stall near the railway station, he married as a teenager but left his young wife to devote himself to Hinduism. After a journey that he says took him to monasteries in the Himalayas, he climbed the ranks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a Hindu nationalist movement, one of whose members assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Modi was transferred to the BJP, the movement’s political arm. He came to prominence in 1990 when he helped to organise the march that preceded the destruction of Ayodhya’s 16th-century Babri mosque by a Hindu mob two years later.

Picture caption: The ceremony at the Ram temple marks the transformation of an idol into deity, giving Modi the ability to accept prayers

INDIAN PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU/EPA

Modi was made chief minister of Gujarat in late 2001. A few months later at least 59 Hindus were killed returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya. Modi called it a “violent act of terrorism” and was accused of standing by as riots erupted in which more than 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims. He was banned from travelling to America for almost a decade. It was not until 2022 that India’s Supreme Court endorsed an investigation that found he did nothing wrong. Some 31 Muslims were eventually convicted for an arson attack on the pilgrims’ train.
Modi doubled down on his discriminatory rhetoric, describing refugee camps for Muslims who lost their homes in the riots as “baby-making factories”. He found this delivered electoral success: the BJP held Gujarat emphatically in 2007 and 2012. He combined his muscular Hindu-first domestic policies with a pro-business approach, hosting a bi-annual summit, Vibrant Gujarat, and slashing regulations. Among the first to invest were Ambani and Adani. When Modi became prime minister in 2014 he made the flight from Gujarat to Delhi in Adani’s private jet.
Many see Modi’s sniping at India’s 200 million Muslims, who make up 14 per cent of the population, as an attempt to curry favour with Hindu voters in the less educated, poorer and yet more electorally significant north. (Hindus make up about 80 per cent of the total.) Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the two most populous northern states, have double-digit poverty rates but account for 120 of the 543 seats in parliament. That’s only nine seats fewer than all five southern states combined.
The south has benefited from far higher inward investment. As well as Mumbai, international giants such as Amazon and Goldman Sachs have chosen to open offices in affluent and well-educated southern cities such as Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The BJP won none of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu at the previous election. “Modi and his divisive politics are hated here,” says G Sundarrajan, a robotics entrepreneur from the southeastern state’s capital, Chennai. “Whereas we focus on building schools, hospitals, industries, roads, in the northern part of India they focus on building temples and demolishing mosques. The investment climate is better in the southern part of the country because we have no religion in our public spaces. You can’t sit every day and think, ‘Will somebody break my place of worship? Will somebody kill in the name of having beef or pork?’”
The prime minister’s constituency is being racked by just such a dispute. A campaign is under way to move the 17th-century Gyanvapi mosque, which stands next to the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Hindu temple, enlarged by Modi in 2021. Rajesh Shukla, a senior BJP figure who describes himself as an adviser to the campaigners, denies that Islamophobia is at play. “The word ‘Islamophobic’ I think itself was created by a few western writers,” he says.
Abdul Raheem would beg to differ. His family has been weaving silk saris in Varanasi’s Muslim quarter for more than a hundred years. He keeps a framed letter sent by the governor of Bombay to his grandfather in 1959 praising him for “trying to pull the art out from the traditional ruts in which it had got”.

Picture caption: Abdul Raheem, who sells saris, says Varanasi’s weaving trade is in decline

OLIVER SHAH

Raheem says that until 2014 Hindus and Muslims lived like “brothers and sisters”. He says Modi is “injecting poison into every human being” and that his reign has been negative for the city’s weavers. “We are getting more poor,” he says. “Most of the looms are closed.”
For now world leaders and tycoons seem determined to keep ignoring this dark side of Modi’s India. Last year Elon Musk described himself as “a fan of Modi’s” and said that India had “more promise than any large country”. In April the chief executive of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, said Modi had done “an unbelievable job” and criticised western liberals for “lecturing” him.
Smaller companies know they need to toe the line. Kanwal Jeet Jawa, chief executive of the Japanese air-conditioning manufacturer Daikin Industries’ Indian business, says the market is the “most promising and encouraging in the entire world” — in part thanks to the government’s “stable economic policies”.
Those who diverge find themselves backtracking quickly. After the head of Asian Paints made an unguarded comment about trying to find India’s “real GDP” on a call with analysts during the election, the company put out a statement saying he had in no way “meant to question the sanctity of the [official] GDP numbers”.
After a frantic six weeks, relative calm descended on India’s politics this weekend. Modi ended the campaign with a slick photographed and videoed meditation retreat at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial off India’s southern tip. When he emerges, a third term will test whether his idiosyncratic blend of Hindu nationalism and Modinomics can keep the country together.

Hello everyone,

I am from Manipur. Would like to know -

Who are top lawyers in Biglaw firms Tier 1/2/3 (Trilegal, Amarchand's, Tatva etc) who belong to North East? (Partners/PA/even SA)

PLEASE NOTE - by north east I mean lawyers from Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim.

Not people from West Bengal, Assam, Tripura or people from Bengali/North Indian backgrounds. I know some of them work in corporate firms. And they are mostly from Bengal who settled in North East.

From North East states,

Has anyone made partner?

How many north eastern law students get recruited on an yearly basis?

Are there any challenges in going to a Tier 1 firm for people from North East?

Would be very helpful andm motivational if anyone can tell success stories.

Hello!

I am from a private tier 2 college and in my final year. I have a decent amount of internship experience in Real estate. I need to learn a lot. Can anyone suggest firms in Mumbai with good real estate team (both work and pay wise)?

Given that-

1. I have no connections

2. Average grades

3. Decent work experience in Real Estate

Bro, just focus on your law school, extra curriculars and internships, why you want to do CFA?

Having said that, if you genuinely have interest to combine it has law+finance in near future, go for it provided that you have enough time after your law school.

Because most of the law students don't have time to do all this.

Oh the naming and shaming tactic? Has it worked yet for your intended targets? Named in legal proceedings? So what? HC only directed the LCC to not get bogged down by technicalities of limitation. But will you able to prove what you allege? EC had heard you out in full. And then your ghostwritten petition via SJA. Has anything changed? NKC is on course to get a renewal or at least continue doing what keeps the powers that be happy.

And please don't rant about some political upset happening on June 4. Wasn't 2019 LS a big upset, locally? Did anything extraordinary happen at NUJS? We got NKC for Lord Taluk. Why will things necessarily change now.

So-called central forces have saturated south bengal. And yet tag teams of state police and regime affiliated hoodlums run amok. Why and how can a distant Delhi do anything here? It was and still isn't interested.

Most importantly, NKC will continue doing what he does because the profits are party agnostic.

Such nice fantasies you cook up. Maybe if you had done your job instead of peddling random baseless gossip anonymously, then you might have managed to make something of your own life instead of having to vent your frustration against your colleagues. Your entire rant consisted of made up stories and it is amusing to figure out how despite all the regime changes over all these years, your inefficiency and insidiousness have not elicited any respect from neither the admin nor the students and not even your colleagues. You must lead a sad life.

Seriously, what really are the sins of NKC? Ofc he was well aware of the antecedents of this faculty member (then assistant prof) when he took charge of NUJS.

NKC actually went out of the way to promote this assistant professor to associate prof. However, two assistant profs (both alumni) submitted documentary evidence of academic misconduct etc. NKC couldn't make it disappear because the same was shared with some others as well. The matter was refer for preliminary fact-finding to the then Addl AG who opined that there was incriminating material. By then another advocate well-known to AG was brought in for "legal opinion" and the same was tailored to provide a loophole just enough to squeak in the promotion. NKC also held off all other pending inquiries, which would have had adverse outcomes. Those inquiries have been reactivated now.

So, the big question is what really soured between NKC and this teach. NKC did not oppose (actually he proposed) the teach's inclusion in powerful sub-committees constituted by the EC to suggest ways how pension can be provided to NUJS faculty and staff members.

So, I ask again what really are the sins of NKC esp concerning this faculty member?

The Wire: How VVPATs Can Be Manipulated To Change Your Vote

TLDR:

- EVM Is unconstitutional because my vote must be directly stamped on a paper and I can touch it. In a machine I cannot directly touch it and confirm who I voted for. I can only see the VVPAT receipt.

- Mischief can happen in the programming of the control unit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBvSq3Hfve0

Hello everyone,

Before stating my query, I would like to introduce myself. I am an upcoming third-year student at a Tier III NLU. As my third year is about to begin, I will soon be diving into major law subjects. My goal is to pursue a career in the judiciary, so what should be an ideal approach.

Is there anyone who has prepared for the judiciary while attending college and can offer some guidance? I am reaching out here because there are not many resources available for guidance on judicial services.

Thank you.

PS : Kindly refrain from posting irrelevant comments.

For noobs: here's the unofficial caste system in NLUs. This caste system affects your friends circle and dating life. This is the ugly truth which NLU-ites will hate to admit.

I have listed 8 broad castes, but within each castes there are sub-castes based on region, school etc. A whole hierarchy exists within these sub-castes as well. For example, ranks can be an issue. People literally introduce themselves as "Hi, I'm Aarav, CLAT merit list rank 5". It means I am superior to merit list rank 20. Even skin colour and genetics can be an issue. A Muslim batch mate of mine used to claim that his ancestors are from Iran, so he is superior to other Muslims with dark skin. Another batchmate told me he is a "Brahmin Christian" (whatever the F that means: it's apparently a thing in Kerala). Similarly, you have the Iyer-Iyengar rivalry.

People say you need to go to an Indian village to experience class and caste. Not really. Your average NLU is just as bad -- probably even worse.

1. Merit listers from elite backgrounds

2. Merit listers from non-elite backgrounds

3. Domicile candidates from elite backgrounds

4. NRI candidates from elite backgrounds

5. SC/ST/OBC candidates from elite backgrounds (e.g. child of an IAS officer from SC/ST quota)

6. Domicile/EWS candidates from non-elite backgrounds

7. NRI candidates from non-elite backgrounds (this can happen, e.g. a child whose family is rich but not well-educated, such as rich farmers, and this reflects in the child's socialisation and acculturation --- I have seen such cases)

8. SC/ST/OBC candidates from non-elite backgrounds

I see all the comments you have got in reply to your request. That should give you an idea of the team you are joining. On a serious note, it’s not the best team to work with. There may be good clients and work, but that is not worth the way the partners treat the team. Pl be prepared to forget about your personal life. ▮▮▮

Don't forget the first 30 years or so of Congress rule, especially the years under the "great" SS Ray. Really made his grandpa proud. Those who got away with murder and mayhem then continue to profit to this day. Many are powerful TMC politicos and ministers. Madam Kindness took inspiration from him.

The excesses of Left and TMC often eclipses the horrors that Congress unleashed back then. Eventually history will repeat again when we get Congress/TMC mukt Bengal or India. As always, the sheep are caught between the devil and the deep sea.

My advise would be don't go by fund names/ suggestions from internet forums. Either spend a small amount and hire a good investment company like Geojit (there are many others), or read up and do some research using websites like https://www.mutualfundssahihai.com/en

Mint does an annual ranking of mutual funds by rate of returns - top 15, top 20 every year. Check that out as well: https://www.livemint.com/mutual-fund/mf-news/top-mutual-funds-these-15-equity-mf-schemes-delivered-the-best-return-in-three-years-do-you-own-any-11712208267419.html

Depends on the kind of work you want to do.

a. If you re looking to do transactional work - international taxation, general commercial law, AI&tech law, international IPR especially patents, international investment law.

b. If you are looking for civil society/UN/I-NGOs: International law (especially refugee law, international criminal law, international humanitarian law), human rights law, law and development.

c. If you are looking for academia - in addition to both of the above, comparative constitutional law (especially in Europe), international law (all branches)

Court seniors ki face value par chalti hai, unki argument par nahi

I've been working with an AoR since 2013

Warna Sarish Halve ki argument sun kar lagega ki ise to district judge bhi discard kar de.

That's why I'm telling ki OP has never entered a SC courtroom.