The Fastest Fingers’ Green Quiz

Date and Time: 21.09.2015, 3.00 PM

15 Questions
30 Minutes

And two winners!

Yes, we have two winners for the Fastest Fingers’ Green Quiz 2015. Only two people managed to answer all the questions correctly within the stipulated time.

Our Green Quiz Winner is Swati Gambhir who marked all correct answers in just 13 minutes.

Our first runner-up is Seemab Tasneem who also got all the answers correct in exactly 29 minutes!

                                                  Congratulations to all the winners!!

And for everybody who is interested in knowing the correct answers, here is the full list:

QUIZ ANSWERS

     1.     With which animal did Xan - a young boy – develop a deep friendship in the 2005 film ‘Duma’ directed by Carroll Ballard?
a)     A lion cub
b)    A young chimpanzee
c)     A cheetah cub
d)    A small python

       Answer: C, A cheetah cub

     2.    Once covered with kikar trees and wild bushes and known as a hunting ground for partridges, which area close to our Jai Singh Road office was developed after evicting the villagers of Madhoganj, Jaisingh Pura and Raja Ki Bazar?

       a) Rashtrapati Bhawan
       b) Parliament House
       c) Connaught Place
       d) India Gate
Answer: C, Connaught Place
   3. Which of the following is not a greenhouse gas?
a)     Carbon dioxide
b)    Methane
c)     Sulfur dioxide
d)    Nitrous oxide

Answer: C, Sulfur dioxide

      4. The discovery of Eris in 2005 led International Astronomical Union (IAU) to systematically define which term for the first time?

     a) Comet
     b) Planet
     c) Equinox
     d) Galaxy

Answer: B, Planet
This discovery led to Pluto being reclassified as a dwarf planet.

      5.   A small surviving population of which animal, once believed to be extinct, was located by the famous conservationist E P Gee in a remote swamp near the Loktak Lake?

a) Hangul
b) Sangai
c) Hog Deer
d) Barking Deer

Answer: B, Sangai
Also known as the Manipur brow-antlered deer. Found in the Keibul Lamjao national park.

       6.    Leslie Kaufman’s article "Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft is Rough on Forests",
published in The New York Times is connected to which of the following environmental campaigns.

a) Toilet tissues
b) Luxurious notepads
            c) Fine printing paper
d) Newspapers

Answer: A, Toilet tissues
Particularly soft tissues . Millions of trees harvested in North America and in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada to prepare such tissues, although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material.


7.  Who is the author of “The Closing Circle: Nature, Man and Technology”?
a)     Aldo Leopold
b)    Barry Commoner
c)     James Bonwick
d)    Alfred W. Crosby

Answer: B, Barry Commoner

8 With which organization will you associate the publication “The Limits to Growth”?
a)     United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
b)    The Club of Rome
c)     The Club of Florence
d)    The Audubon Society

Answer: B, The Club of Rome

9. What kind of an animal is the ‘Nilgai’?
a)     A deer
b)    A bovine
c)     An antelope
d)    A porcine

Answer: C, It is the largest Asian antelope

10. Identify the incorrect statement among the following:
a)     Dodo was a bird found in Madagascar
b)    Passenger pigeons were once abundant in India
c)     The one-horned rhinoceros was once found as far west as Peshawar
d)    Cheetah is now extinct in India

Answer: B, Passenger pigeons were once abundant in India


11. Who conceived and pioneered the ‘Deep Ecology’ movement?
a)     Henry David Thoreau
b)    Aldo Leopold
c)     Peter Singer
d)    Arne Naess

Answer: D, Arne Naess – a Norwegian philosopher

12. Which of the following is found only in India (endemic to India)?
a)     One-horned rhinoceros
b)    Nicobar megapode
c)     Great Indian bustard
d)    Tiger

Answer: B, Nicobar megapode this bird is confined to the Nicobar Islands of India

 13. In which Indian State is the Buxa Tiger Reserve located
                a) Bihar
                b) West bengal
                c) Jharkhand
                d) Assam.

Answer: B, West Bengal (Alipurduar district in North Bengal)            

14. Name a substance that is responsible for acid rain.
             a) Sulfur dioxide
            d) Carbon dioxide
            c) Nitrogen dioxide
            d) Nitric Acid.

Answer: A, Sulfur dioxide

15. Which of the following is not a fish?
a)     Anglerfish
b)    Goldfish
c)     Silverfish
d)    Angelfish

Answer: C, It is an insect

On Behalf of Mother Earth

Tenzing Topzer Bhutia

I remember when I dreamt of giving life to you

Another life added, a special plan I'd devise for you

Your brothers and sisters prancing around, looking on!

I'd made up my mind, I'd put my best in you, Son

So I put a reflection of my essence in your being

Gave you a mind and soul to comprehend; made you a human being.

Thought with all these qualities you would take care of me

Your brothers and sisters don't understand, 

But I hoped you would be there for me

And as you took your first steps, I was so proud to watch you grow

From a position of weakness, you used your mind, increased your potential many-fold.

But as you rose higher, I noticed you were taken over by greed and desire

You started demanding more, asking for much more than you require

Your siblings looked on in horror, and now they're terrified

Of the monster you're becoming, of that lust and greed in your eyes

You tried to unravel and discover me in the name of science and technology

You slowly uncovered me, exploiting everything I have, and called it industry

Look at me now, I'm a shadow of who I was just a few hundred years ago

I used to be beautiful, now I'm just growing bald and filled with smoke and holes

 Like a mother she keeps giving

To an ungrateful child that keeps receiving

Expecting much more and then a little more

Let's ask ourselves....

Will she remain the abused or turn into someone we care for?

How Green is My Office?

- Shoma Choudhury

I am a little Spider plant. That’s my pet name. My ‘good name’ is Chlorophytum comosum. Actually I am Chlorophytum comosum IV, since this is the fourth time my mentor is trying to make me grow. I live or try to live in a small black and white pot on a desk on the 3rd floor of the YMCA Building on the famous Jai Singh Road of New Delhi. And I die very often.

Every time I take a bit of root, some disaster happens to me and I dry out. Like this one time a kind gentleman thought I was dead and kidnapped my pot and took me away and tucked the pot into a dark corner of the pantry. My mentor searched and searched for me for three whole days and by the time I was rescued, I was dead. Or rather that was Spidey II. Spidey I was our true blue ancestor. She was the one who did us proud. Oh, the tales we could sing of her glories!! She was a lush green one. She had long green leaves and was very healthy, but we moved offices and she left the sunshine and daylight and fresh air of Tolstoy House behind and came here. We don’t get much fresh air or day light here you see. I am taken for some walks by my mentor, but all the blinds are drawn and there aren’t many windows that can be opened. Me, along with my other green friends, are set out along a window sill (sealed) for some sunlight during the morning hours), but you see, I need fresh air to grow. I simply must have fresh air to be healthy.

Spidey I died soon after we moved here. I think she missed her friends the pigeons too much, and the blue sky that she could see from her window sill. Spidey II’s sad tale I told you about. Spidey III, my predecessor had just managed to take root and was doing quite well when our mentor went for a holiday. And somehow people forgot to water her. And she withered away. She wasn’t too strong, the poor thing. Now me. I too, was doing quite well, when M went off again on a tour… (she does seem to travel quite a bit.. hmm, maybe that needs to be fixed) and despite plenty of filtered sunlight and water, I just can’t seem to settle down. Can any of you help me please? Tell me what is wrong, how can I drop roots and make this my home?

The Green Week Cyclothon

 Team : Saijleen Bedi, Deepak Chhabra, Ruchika George, Amit Kumar, Divya Sharma, Namita Singh, Shamim Khan, Atul Udaipuria, Tenzing Bhutia, Meer Mehtaab Hussain, Syed Zaki, Meghal Arora, and Nitesh Kumar

Lead : Ashish Purwar

Today we started the Green Week celebrations with a cyclothon. We chose 14 riders under the mentorship of Ashish Purwar. As the clock struck 7:30, we started from our office premises after clicking some awesome pictures.

The cycle trip route was Office - India Gate - South Avenue. As we started, the first hurdle came in form of a puncture.  Meghal got her bike punctured just few meters away from our office. Ashish promptly repaired the puncture, we headed towards India gate via Ashoka Road in no time. Most of the riders in the group were new to biking but everyone seemed really seasoned. It was a beautiful day. We reached India gate, our stop 1 and clicked some pics.

From India Gate, we biked towards the South Avenue. Although the traffic was getting heavier, we reached the south block and clicked some memorable pictures and videos.

After this, happy in our hearts and proud of what we had achieved, we started our rides back to office. A lovely breakfast was arranged by the office and we felt energized and happy. 

The best part of this experience was that many people got to know about the benefits of cycling. This is also the initiation of the T&F cycling group.  

Few More pics.

Somewhere near Dalhousie road

Back to office

Our Champs.

Our Route

Thanks,

Ashish Purwar

Let’s do the Green Twist!

Over the last three years, my attitude towards ‘Informa Green Week’ has gone from apprehension to enthusiasm via cautious optimism. Along the way I have encountered a lot of creative and outlandish ideas (to many of the latter, I confess to being an active instigator) and had the pleasure of working with disparate groups and teams across TnF India. What continues to surprise is the wholehearted way in which people participate and the hard work put in when they do. Like all such group endeavors, Green Week too has its share of sceptics, stragglers, fence sitters and other non-participating species. The good news is that participation has been growing each year and this year, by correlating Green Week with CSR volunteering, we hope to swell the ranks of enthusiasts further.

We have all been receiving messages on the range of activities, from cyclothon to green quizzes; art therapy to solar engineering, with stops for poetry, sculpting, photography and food.  All with the promise of a packed 4 days this week.

One enduring thought that remains with me and sees a resurgence every year during green week is the desire for us to be ‘green workers’ and ‘green lifers’ all year round! The pledges many of us have made as part of green week this year, and we seem to be leading on these globally, will certainly contribute to this process. It would be great to carry these through every day of every year by reducing wastage of electricity, water and paper at work and at home. We have a lot of new dads, and few new moms, among TnFers this year and it would be great if they take a pledge to bring up a green kids brigade. In the gated community in which I live, my mother along with a bunch of little girl residents runs a club called ‘Nature Girls’ who both practice and preach green living and playing. The club is now so ‘successful’ that the boys’ brigade is insisting they be included and the name changed accordingly! In our little enclave the green twist is in!

It will be great to see this dance spread….Happy Green Week!

Nitasha

Corporate Culture

Why corporate culture matters

Your corporate culture has a bearing on your brand's performance; otherwise Jeff Bezos wouldn't be worried

Alokananda Chakraborty

Jeff Bezos is known to often keep one seat empty at Amazon conferences and tell the other attendees to assume that the seat is occupied by the most important person in the room: their customer. The internet giant he runs tracks its performance against some 500 measurable goals. Nearly 80 per cent of those relate to customer objectives. It is said that Bezos is even more careful about what customers don't want. So there is a veritable army of people at Amazon working to eliminate page loading and shipping delays, defective and out-of-stock products.

Most former executives, researchers and analysts have some anecdote about his obsessive focus on the customer.

So some 10 days ago when a damning front-page report appeared in The New York Times that depicted Amazon as a vicious place to work in and Bezos as a ruthless taskmaster, many were rattled. Was that the same person who is known to coddle his customers? Some said, it was a well-known fact and has been sporadically reported as well. Others said, well you don't run a business to make all people happy. But while the incidents alleged by the article were yet to sink in, Bezos wasted no time to refute the story. In an internal memo he said, "I don't recognise this Amazon and I very much hope you don't, either."

Even if what was described in the story wasn't 100 per cent true, it was clear Bezos was keen on avoiding a public relations disaster. It is easy to see why. A lot of readers who commented on The New York Times story said they didn't want to patronise Amazon anymore. Social media was agog with discussions that made it apparent that a huge majority of people taking part in those discussions felt conflicted about giving their money to a company that might be as nasty as the article described.

Such a report might not have been damaging in the past, but research shows that today, consumers do care about the culture that drives a company or the brand they would like to patronise. Adage.com's critique on the subject quoted a 2012 study by consumer insights company, The Intelligence Group, in which an overwhelming majority of the consumers surveyed said that a company's ethics and practices were key factors in deciding what brands they would buy. Dubbing this as "wallet activism", the survey found that in the past many respondents had stopped supporting a brand/company because of something they learned about its corporate practices or ethics. Among those were Walmart, McDonald's, BP and Gap.

Clearly, the work culture you have nurtured at the company - or even the public representation of that work culture - is just as important as your product development or advertising efforts. Some scholars would go as far as to consider it more important, because your work culture decides your ability to attract talent and therefore everything that comes out of the assembly line. While a poorly-conceived television commercial or Big Billion Day sale might not help your business, the effects of such ill-designed moves are at best temporary. They wouldn't 'alienate' consumers to the point that they start seeing a brand in a negative light or feel ashamed or embarrassed to pick it up from the shelf the next time they visit a grocery shop.

In a nutshell, The New York Times article was an attack on Amazon's culture and everybody today understands what it could mean if such a thing was allowed to blow up. No wonder in his memo Bezos also wrote: "… if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR. You can also email me directly at jeff@amazon.com. Even if it's rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero."

Human resource managers have long said that people are their company's biggest strength. The way Bezos has jumped to defend Amazon managers and its culture clearly shows how you treat those people matters.

InnerChef - beat that midday hunger growl

Do you get midday hunger pangs? Want to dig into something light, also keeping in mind that it isn’t too heavy on the pocket?
 

Well, there’s just the perfect place for you, which is a brilliant example of ‘snack-y’ food that, besides being tastefully packaged, tastes fabulously well (the chef/owner also sends a warm personalized note to add that extra touch). I discovered this place in the virtual city of Facebook and decided to give it a try, which to my surprise, has a feature of delivering in the time slot that suits you. What more would you want if you wanted to catch a quick bite in-between your conferences/meetings.
 

The InnerChef is known best for its range of Mediterranean and Italian cuisine. The combos and fresh bagels are particularly the highlight of the menu. And don’t be fooled by the quantity you see in the picture, it’s much more! For someone who is weight conscious, there is an amazing range of salads too. Along with the combos, InnerChef also delivers complimentary fresh juices along with a ‘cookie with love’ to complete your meal. And to all you good people with a sweet tooth, check out its range of desserts as well!

This place has definitely satiated my hunger pangs at work. And I would thoroughly recommend InnerChef to everyone.

So, don’t delay, and order soon!

You can begin by clicking this link: http://www.innerchef.com/

I know I certainly will!

Bhawna Chauhan

New Joinees in the T&F India Club

The T&F India Club announces the new joinees:

1. Bhavita Daga joins us as the new Activity-In-Charge. She has always been an integral part of our team supporting Bhawna Chauhan. She comes from the BIS team.

2. Swati Gambhir joins us from the Europa World Statistics team as the new Activity-In-Charge. Along with the regular club activities, her primary responsibility will be designing and updating our Cafeteria display board on monthly basis.

3. Shikha Garg from the Europa World of Learning and a self-professed foodie joins us as the Food and Hospitality In-Charge. We look forward to more delicious moments!!

4. Anveshi Gupta from Europa World Directory joins us as the new Media-In-Charge, primarily responsible for regularly updating the T&F India Facebook page as well as the T&F India food blog.

Please join me in congratulating them and wishing them all the best in their new positions.

Sanjay Dutta