Innholdsfortegnelse for January 23, 2017 i India Today

In the plush living rooms of cities, in kirana shops, factories and in the fields, there has been little conversation in the past two months that goes beyond demonetisation. Indeed, it has dominated India’s mindspace. With the recent announcement of five state elections in the next eight weeks, talk is now focused on whether the voter will endorse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s audacious gambit. No state matters more in this than the country’s most populous one, Uttar Pradesh. More than the elections in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand or Manipur, the UP result will be the acid test for both the BJP as a party and for the Modi government’s policies. In the 2012 assembly elections, the BJP finished third, bagging only 47 seats. But just two years later, they returned with…

PATEL RAPPED RBI governor Urjit Patel may defend himself ably, but his very appearance before the public accounts committee (PAC) on January 20 will be perceived as an erosion of the central bank’s credibility. Before he faces the PAC, though, Patel has already been sent a list of 10 tough questions, chief among which is, whose decision was it to ban the high-denomination 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Coming as it does just before the budget session and the assembly elections, this can only lead to a lot of negative play for the government. SON OF THE SOIL The Maharashtra state government will find innovative use for the soil excavated from the Rs 98,000 crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. Transport minister Diwakar Raote says it’ll be used to reclaim 16…

“If I were giving a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life, I would say to him, pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio,” said Wilbur Wright. As I read J.D. Vance’s fascinating, if troub ling, memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, this quote came back to me. Hillbilly Elegy is a book apparently everyone in America is tal king about. It is supposed to explain the Trump phenomenon to its out-of-touch elite. Vance started his life in Middleton, Ohio. Wright grew up just 25 miles north in Dayton. But in the century that separates these two gentlemen, Ohio society seems to have changed unmistakably for the worse. That there is a problem in many white working class communities is clear. Angus Deaton showed…

JANUARY 9, 2 0 1 7 Demonetisation made PM Modi the newsmaker of the year “Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move undoubtedly makes him the newsmaker of the year. However, the real test of his policy change is whether it leads to a positive result for the masses or not” MANJU PANT, via e-mail Dragged into Tomorrow Narendra Modi towered above all others in 2016 (The Gamechanger). His connect with the people went beyond rallies and speeches. While he was the toast of the nation for the daring and successful surgical strikes across the LoC, he also divided the nation with his equally brave policy moves on demonetisation. It was Modi’s policies that made the year ‘eventful’, and ensured that he was never far from the thoughts of friends and foes alike.…

MONEY OUT, MONEY IN... 15.44 lakh crore of currency in `500 & `1,000 denominations demonetised `15 lakh crore of this is estimated to be already deposited in the banks 97% of the total value of demonetised currency has returned to banks CASHLESS LOTTERY If a large percentage of the demonetised currency had not returned to the banking system, that would have been a windfall for the government. Here’s how it wor Every currency note has these words: “I promise to pay the bearer the sum of XXX rupees” That means the RBI backs every currency note with its reserves That is, every piece of currency is a liability of the central bank `If some of the cash had not returned to the system... ...the RBI’s total liability (“I promise to…

For the BJP, the battle for Uttara khand goes back to the slight it suffered at the Congress’s hands last year, when chief minister Harish Rawat won the May 10 trust vote in the assembly, compelling the Centre to withdraw President’s rule and reinstate his government. BJP president Amit Shah had then vowed to wrest the state from the Congress at any cost. Starting with rallies in 44 constituencies where it did not have MLAs to ‘expose’ alleged horsetrading by Rawat, the BJP worked to strengthen its organisational base, forming booth-level committees in all 70 constituencies. What the BJP does not have, however, is a single face to project as chief ministerial candidate. It has four former CMs—B.C. Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Vijay Bahuguna (who left…

With only eight weeks to go for the assembly polls in Manipur, apart from a few face-offs between the Congress and the BJP, there is little happening on the ground in terms of grand political campaigns. A much talked about anti-incumbency factor affecting the prospects of the Congress and a possible ‘BJP wave’ prompted by the party’s performance in neighbouring Assam and developments in Arunachal Pradesh did prompt some state Congress stalwarts to change course but recent developments have tilted the balance back in favour of the party. The first act started on November 1 when the powerful United Naga Council (UNC) called for a shutdown in all Naga-dominated areas and imposed an economic blockade on the state’s highways, following the announcement by Chief Minister O. Ibobi that Jiribam and…

Why is it difficult for Marathas to get reservations? As far as reservations in education and government jobs are concerned, the Marathas are not considered a socially backward community. This is because of their presence in a number of elected bodies. They constitute the majority in the state—the largest majority in any state of the country. However, in a democracy, the majority community will always have greater representation. That does not mean the community is not economically or educationally backward. A good illustration of this is that both the minister and his peon belong to the same class. Therefore to consider them ‘socially forward’ is an injustice to a majority of the population. What is the provision for quotas in the Constitution? The Constitution is against specific quotas for any…

it DIDN’T TAKE A FILM FOR SARA ALI KHAN TO announce her arrival to Bollywood. Daughter of Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh, the 22-year-old’s appearance at stepmom Kareena Kapoor Khan’s birthday bash in a crop top, showing off her toned midriff, was declaration enough. Sara, who may or may not make her debut opposite Hrithik Roshan in a Karan Johar produced film or Zoya Akhtardirected Gully Boy, isn’t the only one whose celebrity ranking is determined by her appearance or where she hangs out. A graduate of Columbia University with experience in theatre in US, Sara doesn’t have an Instagram account like Boney Kapoor and Sridevi’s elder daughter, the 19-year-old Janhvi Kapoor, with thousands of followers. Instead she is following her dad’s advice and staying off social media: “Everybody…

The Book of Dhaka is the result of a collaborative creative writing project between Comma Press and several writers/translators, publishers and institutions from Bangladesh, India and the UK, working toward a common goal: to broaden the reader base for literature that was once meant for a specific target audience in a regional language (in this case Bengali or Bangla) in order to help ‘unify experiences’. This collection of 10 short stories in translation by various writers combine classic, modern and contemporary literature, explo ring themes such as love, longing, misfortune, heartbreak, fear, failure, corruption of the soul, loneliness, violence, class divide and lunacy. Most of the stories are openended. K. Anis Ahmed’s Introduction mentions, “In 1952, East Pakistani Bengalis fought against the West Pakistani imposition of Urdu above their own…

THE PERFECT SHOT RAKESH PRAKASH PHOTOGRAPHY Here’s how your wedding can look like the celebrity wedding pictures you have been looking at for inspiration. Rakesh Prakash, a popular wedding photographer in the city who started five years ago, has shot several celebrity weddings and could be shooting yours next. “Most of them (celebrities) reached out to me through word-of-mouth and then they helped me get more celebrity weddings,” says Rakesh Prakash. He believes that each wedding has its own story to tell and prefers shooting it like a photojournalist— focussing more on the storytelling than the documentation. Prakash also offers wedding film videos, destination wedding shoot, pre and post-wedding shoots. Details www.rakeshprakash.com Price Rs 2 lakh onwards THE WEDDING HELPERS STUDIO V7 IF YOUR INNER BRIDEZILLA is getting the better…

Last Man Standing Some weeks ago, a man named Lokendra Pratap Singh invited the media to a film screening at the Lucknow Press Club. Claiming to be a TV producer from Mumbai, he said he had made a film on the life and death of Phoolan Devi, the bandit-turned-MP who was murdered in the summer of 2001. As Lucknow’s perennially gossip-seeking journalists watched the show, they found a portly politician telling his party president that it would be electorally advantageous to “get rid” of Phoolan even though she was a colleague. Their resemblance to the two most important men in the Samajwadi Party (SP) was obvious. Having shown his little film, Mr Singh promptly disappeared. For much of his audience, though, he had already done his job—make an allegation the…

For many years now, I’ve kept all my travel meds in a white cotton pouch bearing the slogan, My Body is My Business. I think of the pouch as a private joke about one aspect of my body: my health. And I inwardly chuckle every time I think of its origins: it’s made by a group of sex workers, for whom of course the business of the body has yet another meaning. It’s their way of telling society to bugger off, to mind its own business. Don’t take it out for a walk at night. Cover it up. Keep it indoors. These were some of the things we heard about women’s bodies in the aftermath of the Bengaluru molestations on New Year’s Eve. A few days later, we woke up…

CJI JAGDISH SINGH KHEHAR DoB 28.08.1952 DoR 27.08.2017 “The Supreme Court is so short of judges that it’s becoming difficult to manage day-to-day work” Led the five-judge Bench that struck down the NJAC Act. A workaholic, he is the first to come and the last to leave BENCH MEMO Favourite phrase: “without fear or favour”. Presided over 2G to Sahara to BCCI and IPL trials UP CLOSE Served as chief justice of Uttarakhand and Karnataka high courts JUSTICE DIPAK MISRA DoB .03.10.1953 DoR 02.10.2018 “Judiciary is the last bastion of public reliance. Judges need to reduce alienation of the common man” Has been with the apex court for seven years and is in line to become 45th CJI. Proactive bench, asks detailed questions BENCH MEMO Authored judgment mandating cinema halls…

If you were Thomas Friedman, eating breakfast with corporate titans, playing tennis with secretaries of state, travelling to Davos and Sydney, Iraq and Niger, one moment watching African emigres in Libya scrambling onto a boat bound for Europe, the next giving a lavishly remunerated talk about that experience in a gilded boardroom, perhaps you too would write as he does. Let me try: Sitting on a beanbag at the Googleplex, on a sunny day in Santa Clara, I ask Sergey and Larry, my go-to-guys when I want to be educated about the future, to describe the glorious revolution they are leading so that I can transcribe their vision in a column. I look out the window at a car driving itself and it occurs to me that this is why…

LADY GAGA Kirti Kulhari, best known for Pink, won’t have to share the spotlight with other actresses in her next film. Playing a poetess with a stammer, she is the eponymous heroine of Madhur Bhandarkar’s Emergency drama Indu Sarkar. NOTE WORTHY Filmmaker Kiran Rao recently made a convincing pitch as a playback singer. She joined Ajay Gogavale for Toofan Aala, a Marathi track for Paani Foundation’s Satyamev Jayate Water Cup Big Daddy Salman Khan looks set to follow in the footsteps of Aamir Khan as he plays father to a 13-year-old girl. This one’s a dance drama to be directed by Remo D’Souza, requiring Salman to shake a leg himself. ROAD KING Saransh Goila, popular as sadak chef for his televised street journey through India, is embarking on a Delhi-Bangkok…