Patricia Scotland takes over as Commonwealth Secretary-General

Dominica's Patricia Scotland has taken over as the first woman Secretary-General of the 53-member Commonwealth, succeeding India's Kamalesh Sharma.
The 60-year-old was welcomed yesterday at Commonwealth headquarters in Marlborough House, London.
"I am determined that we are going to work together on tackling violence against women and girls, deal with the existential threat of climate change, promote trade and good governance, champion the health, well-being and human rights of our citizens, and ensure young people have the opportunities they need for the future," Patricia said in her firstofficial address in London.
Arriving straight from avisitto the Caribbean, she was escorted into Commonwealth Headquarters by the Caribbean High Commissioners and introduced by Dominica's acting High Commissioner to the UK, Janet Charles.

The new Secretary-General shared her vision for the Commonwealth, stating "Working and acting as one people - one family - we can make a different future".
In her speech, she described herself as "a classic child of the Commonwealth" - born in the Caribbean and brought up in London.

She highlighted her journey of "firsts" - from the first black woman to join the Queen's Counsel in the UK, the first woman to hold the position of UK Attorney General and the first woman Commonwealth Secretary-General.
She has succeeded Sharma who was appointed Secretary- General in 2007 and 2011.
She said she had been "rather sad" at being first and looked forward to supporting new generations of female leaders.

She highlighted tackling domestic violence as one of her top priorities, a problem, she said, that is "literally stealing our futures".
Born in the small village of St Joseph in Dominica, she said she knew only too well about thethreat of climate change. She urged the organisation to work together and make good on commitments agreed at the global Paris Climate Conference last December.
Boosting Commonwealth trade and creating better opportunities for young people, who make up 60 per cent of the Commonwealth population, she commented, would also be at the top of her agenda.
Judge Firdous Azim said the stories from the Asia region

were really remarkable, representing a wide array of themes and styles.
"Humour, which is always a difficult mood to convey in a short span of time, was also one of the hallmarks of the stories from the Asian region," Azim said.
She said 'Cow and Company' embodies all the best qualities in the stories. "It is politically grounded, funny and keeps the reader engrossed as the story twists and turns and shows the connections between culture and commercial interests."
South African novelist and chair of the judges Gillian Slovo, called Kulkarni's story "a witty satire that engagingly immerses the reader in its world."

"As a novelist accustomed to the luxury of the long form it has been a treat to discover writers who manage to crystallise such different experiences into so few words. The stories we have chosen for the shortlist are in turn comic, touching, poetic, mysterious but always fresh and unexpected," she said.
Meanwhile Kulkarni who has won the British Academy Brian Barry Prize in Political Science (2015) for his research on religion, property rights and violence against women in colonial India says the short story is part of a larger project.
"It is a result of taking an advisor's words to heart - 'what you cannot do in history, you push to literature'" Kulkarni said.