In a world where finance stays an intimidating and complex topic for most, there exists a beacon of hope, a young and determined female entrepreneur, Kashvi Jindal. Her story is one of an insatiable curiosity for all things financial, and an unwavering determination to turn her fascination into a force for good. From discussing hedge funds to the humblest conversations with household staff, Kashvi’s journey is an inspiring one through the corridors of finance, illuminated by the mission to empower those who often exist in its shadow.

Ever since she was a child, the world of finance has captivated Kashvi Jindal. Growing up with a father who founded a hedge fund, she was exposed to countless discussions about business and market trends. Even as a child, she could be found eagerly asking questions about finance, despite not fully grasping the concepts. This early fascination with finance became the guiding star that led Kashvi to enroll in an AP Micro and Macroeconomics course during her tenth grade.

As Kashvi’s interest in money management grew, she began engaging in conversations about financial matters with people from various walks of life and household staff like housemaids and cleaning workers at her school. Through these conversations, Kashvi became acutely aware of a pressing societal issue — the lack of accessible information about finance and the economy. It was during these exchanges that her passion to make a positive impact was ignited.

This spark of inspiration led Kashvi to launch Invest The Change at the tender age of 16. This platform aimed to provide individuals with a fundamental understanding of saving and investing.

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Our thoughts have tremendous energy and they have the power to make or mar us. For example, if a student has failed in the final exams, he/she may think that his/her life is totally ruined and may decide to end his/her life as the result of such thinking. However, if that student thinks that failures are a part of life and his/her life is not over with one failure or repeated failures, and as a result he/she resumes his attempts, then that student’s thinking will build his/her life meaningfully and make it worthwhile.

As you begin your academic year after the summer holidays, it is wise to take charge of your thought patterns to make your lives meaningful and successful. The greatest discovery today is that a person can change his future by changing his thought patterns and acting accordingly! Our set ways of behaviour have been formed by our thoughts and beliefs. We are creatures of habits. A new type of thought pattern can set the stage for new habits that can empower and fulfil our life. Now, if you are serious about achieving your goals then you have to change your thinking patterns to have a new type of life that you have decided to live.

Therefore, change the focus in your life. The more you train your thoughts to focus on something, the more likely you will be able to achieve it. Set meaningful goals to achieve it. Then, harness your energy to achieve your goals that are beyond the ordinary, that which are enduring and valuable. Consider setting your focus on goals that would help not only yourself but also the overall happiness and welfare of everyone connected to you.

This year, 5 June marks the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day. The degrading quality of life is a great threat to our existence and survival on earth. We have offered a few articles in this issue dealing with the subject, including an article on a few steps to minimize plastic pollution. Can you think and take steps to make our ecosystem more safe, supportive and sustainable?

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All of us commit mistakes knowingly or unknowingly due to reasons such as ignorance, peer pressure, etc. But we remember that if we said or did something wrong as kids or teens, we were either ridiculed or punished. Sometimes, we were also bribed to act right in return for things we loved. But did it really teach us a lesson? Not at all!

Behaviour corrected with punishments, ridicule or even bribery is a negative reinforcement. Kids will avoid doing wrong only to save themselves from the punishment or for favourable gain. Once the reinforcement is removed, the behaviour might be resumed. Instead, if we morally reason out with the wrong by focusing on triggers that caused the action, rationalize to children how such actions can impact their personality and the wider society and advise them to stay on the right path irrespective of whether they knowingly or unknowingly committed the mistake, we can make them understand why they shouldn’t commit the mistake to make it non-repetitive for the future and secure their welfare.

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You can fly without ‘wings’, proves Jessica Cox, who became the first pilot with no arms. Jessica suffered a rare birth defect and was born without arms, though prenatal tests showed there was nothing wrong with her. Though she was born with this rare congenital disease, she had a great spirit. She has succeeded in becoming a psychology graduate, and can write, drive a car, brush her hair, talk on her phone, and type 25 words a minute, all only using her feet! Jessica, from Arizona, USA, is also a former dancer and double black belt in Taekwondo, and has a no-restrictions driving license. She took three years instead of the usual six months to complete her lightweight aircraft license, and practised 89 hours of flying, becoming the first pilot with no arms.

We have several personalities in history who accomplished great feats in life in spite of their physical limitations and unfavourable social and economic conditions. Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, recall the battles you have won and fears overcome. Your march towards achieving your destiny will require willpower, sacrifice and dedication. It might even hurt you while you make persistent progress in achieving your goal, but you will find it worth the trouble. Helen Keller has rightly said, “The struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and Godlike. It teaches us that although the world is full of sufferings, it is also full of overcoming it”.

Everyone faces problems and challenges in life; they are not stop signs, but guidelines. What matters is how you learn to overcome them and use them to your advantage. Associate with people who will inspire you, people who will challenge you to rise higher, people who will empower you. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and loved more than you are aware; so be confident, whatever your New Year resolution you can achieve it.

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Why one film studio decided to embrace the power of modern media to take on the skin care industry.

Imagine you are sleeping peacefully at home, and you wake up to find yourself caught in the eye of a hurricane. The air blows gently where you stand, yet a few metres away, trees are being uprooted and the wind roars with indiscriminate fury. You squint and try in vain to catch a glimpse into the distance. You can only imagine the full extent of change and upheaval that is underway.

Now take the power and the mystery of that hurricane — the ruthless force with which it upends the old establishment, the momentum with which it builds, and the difficulty of predicting the path it will take — and imagine that power in the palm of your hands.

Now you see what I see. For the last two decades, since the dawn of the modern internet, humanity has been building itself a new nervous system. The change it will deliver to the structures of our society will be, just like a hurricane’s impact on a Kansas prairie, drastic and difficult to anticipate.

No longer do we live our lives in isolated clans, passively receiving information from established media entities. Technology has fired the gatekeepers. Now everybody has a microphone and a global audience, and all you need in order to change the world is an authentic idea and the ability to express it in a manner that grabs attention.

So if you had a camera, and got your friends together to express an idea to the world, what topic would you pick? Would you talk about protecting the environment, or recite a poem about gender equality, or share your thoughts on music, pastries, or politics? What ideas are important to you? Think about it. Yours may be the voice that takes our society in spectacular new directions.

Earlier this year, my friend Indraneel and I decided to embrace the power of the hurricane. We asked ourselves, if we ruled the airwaves, what message would get beamed into people’s ears and eyes across the globe?

The answer came fast: self-respect, love, happiness, and all that is truly worth having in life can never be bought. They have to be discovered, by looking within, and embracing the innate goodness that we were all born with.

It’s a challenging message. How were we to present the idea of loving yourself without coming across as pseudo-bohemian whackos? And even if we managed to seem credible, what difference would our modest efforts make when large FMCG corporations work day and night to convince us that there is a void in our lives which only their products can fill?

To maximize the modest leverage we had as young filmmakers, we decided to focus on a particularly troubling area of modern consumerism: skin colour creams and the history of discrimination that they depend upon.

Awareness campaigns such as Dark Is Beautiful had already paved the way for us, and we had a feeling we could add a strong, fresh voice to the chorus.

We wrote a script, and roped in our friend Robin Chaurasiya, founder of the NGO Kranti, to produce the video with us. Kranti is a residential school for talented girls, most of whom have faced serious hardships in their past.

Robin provided the filming location, the girls at Kranti signed up to be our actors, Indraneel brought his camera, we rented lights, and voila — our homegrown film set was ready to go.

We finished #EmbraceYourColor, distributed it as widely as we could, and even got coverage in some popular magazines and websites. It was an empowering experience for all of us. Large companies still dominate traditional broadcasting with their crafty depictions of sugar-induced happiness and lotion-induced beauty. But look closely and you’ll see the hurricane of modern communication gradually levelling the playing field. Everyday the storm breaks new ground, creating more opportunities for motivated youngsters to express themselves and shape global values. It’s only a matter of time before you and I learn to fully harness the power of the changing wind.

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