Innholdsfortegnelse for March 7, 2016 i India Today

Last December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi triggered off a bout of anxiety within the Indian army. “At a time when the major powers are reducing their forces and relying more on technology, we are still constantly seeking to expand the size of our forces,” he said, addressing the Combined Commanders’ Conference, a crucial once-a-year gathering of commanders from the three services, onboard the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. “Modernisation and expansion of forces, both at the same time, is a difficult and unnecessary goal.” The PM’s reference was to the army, which had been raising a new mountain strike corps (MSC) comprising 90,000 soldiers since 2014. In 2013, the UPA had sanctioned the corps—an offensive formation meant to cross the Himalayas and capture Chinese territory on the Tibetan plateau in the…

EXPERT VIEW Your employer ded ucts TDS on an estim ated basis presuming that you will avail of all potential deductions and allowances. By submitting proof, you validate this assumption and do not pay extra taxes that you may claim a refund on. Vaibhav Sankla, Director, H&R Block Around Dec-Jan every year, you get a mail from HR about submitting the investment/rent/housing loan proofs for the financial year which sends all of us, as employees, into a bit of panic. Are you confused as to what is to be submitted as investment proof to save tax? What will happen if you don’t submit on time? Worry not, follow our guidelines below and save yourself a lot of heartache. WHY SUBMIT INVESTMENT PROOF • It helps your employer make final adjustments…

EXPERT VIEW Price pattern is indicative that upwards momentum is likely to continue. So it is worth buying on dips now as the prices are likely to tread higher towards Rs 32,200/10 gm ($1,350 an ounce) from a medium-term perspective. Jayant Manglik, president, retail distribution, Religare Securities All the current factors which are driving the yellow metal price are likely to remain unchanged, leading to further upside. This goes with a caveat—volatility is the new constant. A gradual increase is desirable and more sustainable than sudden spikes or drop in prices. Keyur Shah, CEO, precious metals business, Muthoot Pappachan Group UP, UP & AWAY… The rise in gold prices in international markets since the start of the year has been too quick to comprehend On a year-to-date basis, the yellow…

THE SOCIAL NETWORK Here’s the amount of time people spend on various social network sites daily Source: Pew Centre for Research Updated Feb 2016 All figures are in minutes viral video A cover of Justin Bieber’s Sorry rendered in various musical styles wowed 2 million Demi Lovato’s impersonation of musicians Cher and Christina Aguilera amused 7 million The story of a man’s heartbreak pushing him to lose weight touched over 1 million web wow Let’s Dance A video of five men doing the bhangra to Fetty Wap’s song 679 has attracted 80,000 likes and 50,000 comments. Posted by LearnBhangraApp, a school based in North Carolina, it features five dancers doing bhangra steps that surprisingly match the rap song. web win Kiss & Draw Agents of Ishq, a website dedicated to…

1# MAGICAL WEAVES Designer Gaurang Shah’s new collection, Kalpavriksha—Tree of life is a homage to the ageold craft of jamdani. Inspired by the tree of life philosophy, his creations are resplendent blends of Indian textiles and traditional weaving. Kantha of Bengal, Zardosi of Hyderabad, Kasuti of Hubli, Marodi of Rajasthan, Chikankari of Lucknow, Kashidakari of Kashmir, Bandhini from Kutch and Parsi Gara from Mumbai feature in his look book, translating into saris that are nothing short of works of art. AT Gaurang, Road No 1, Jubilee Hills TEL 23555089 2# NIGHT WOK ON ALL SATURDAYS At Syn, saturday midnights are all about Chinese street noodles, Som tam from Bangkok, Japanese ramen and Singaporean Chili crab, besides a full menu of Asian street food. PRICE Rs 850 all inclusive per person…

In Conversation BRATYA BASU Q. What made you take up Sri Aurobindo’s life for a play? Boma is a deconstruction and an intimate observation of a revolutionary. There are two aspects to a revolutionary—who the state calls revolutionary or a terrorist. Another thing is that when we talk about our past, our tendency is to glorify it. In this saga I have kept it absolutely objective. Nobody is beyond the truth. There was no intent to glorify and Aurobindo is not the main focus of the play. This is more about the interrelation between the Jugantar Samiti and all the hardcore revolutionaries. Though it is their inner conflicts and those of the Bengali middle class that come to the surface—which are relevant even today. For me it was a way…

SEDITION LAWS IN INDIA A RANGE OF LAWS ON THE STATUTE BOOKS THAT DEAL WITH SEDITION 1 INDIAN PENAL CODE (IPC), 1860 Section 124A, which includes terms like “hatred” and “contempt”, along with “disaffection” 2 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE (CRPC), 1973 Contains Section 95 which gives the govt the right to forfeit material punishable under Section 124A 3 UNLAWFUL ACTIVITIES (PREVENTION) ACT (UAPA), 1967 For claims of secession, questioning territorial integrity and causing disaffection against India 4 PREVENTION OF SEDITIOUS MEETINGS ACT, 1911 Criminalises meetings likely to promote sedition or disaffection. Continues to be on our statute books. “It’s simply anti-national.” Delhi police commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi shook his head sombrely, as he spoke to a television interviewer on February 23. “There is an urgent need to expand the scope of…

Nineteen people dead at last count; hundreds of vehicles —private cars, police jeeps, cargo-laden trucks, even standing railway rakes—burnt down; scores of public and private buildings, including ministers’ homes, still smoking after deliberate arson; fear and an impossible-to-ignore caste divide across the state. This surely cannot be the ‘Happening Haryana’ that rookie chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had in mind when he, some say, pompously chose the catchy tagline to sell the state as India’s premier investment destination four months ago. Now, just a week short of the grand Happening Haryana investor summit he promised in Gurgaon on March 7-8, not only is the event in peril, but Khattar’s 16-month-old government seems to have come unhinged and in need of handholding from New Delhi. A former RSS pracharak who, despite…

YET TO WALK THE TALK PM Modi has said all the right things to the armed forces but little has happened on the ground. Jointmanship, or the closer integration of forces and budgets that would deliver more bang for the buck, is yet to take o_. 1 PERMANENT CHAIRMAN CHIEFS OF STAFF A single-point military advisor to the government. Will push joint planning and budgets of the three services. First proposed in 2001 (as Chief of Defence Staff). Revived in 2013, yet to be sanctioned 2 SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND Unified command to integrate special forces of all three services Proposed in 2002, yet to be sanctioned 3 SPACE COMMAND Integrated space surveillance assets of all three services to be headed by an IAF officer Proposed in 2013, yet to be…

EXPERT VIEW When comparing investments in fixed interest, look at rate of interest and tax implications for equivalent periods. For short term—up to six months’ requirement, a liquid fund may be a better option. Lovaii Navlakhi, Founder and CEO, International Money Matters Since the last one year, there has been a demand to reduce interest rates on small saving schemes following a 125 basis point reduction in repo rate by the Reserve Bank of India. Finally, the government has reduced interest rate on small saving schemes to align them with bank fixed deposits. So where should you park your cash for short-term needs: post-office time deposits or bank FDs? CHANGE IN RATES • The govt has reduced the 25 bps spread one-, twoand three-year term deposits have over govt securities…

Abode Under the Dome: State Guests at Raisina Hill, 1947-67 and their subsequent visits by Dr Thomas Mathew Publications Division, I&B ministry Pages 328; Price Rs 2,300 There are many pleasures in Abode Under the Dome, once you learn how to read it without buckling under its substantial weight. There are anecdotes which are curious, comic and quite extraordinary. There’s Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker on a visit to India in 1958, receiving an advisory from the external affairs ministry when he goes off to Kota on a tiger hunt with the Maharaja. His image, he is told, will suffer badly if he actually shoots a tiger, or worse, if he is eaten by one. There’s USSR’s Leonid Brezhnev, on a visit in 1973, whose entourage insists on a Lifebuoy…

How many new-age fitness enthusiasts remember what gyms looked like back in the ’90s? Claustrophobic, basement-converted spaces, with low ceilings and bulky equipment, frequented by men pumping iron. Sweat-slathered floors were testimony to the frenzied pace set by the trainers, hardcore boy scouts intent on pushing their clients to build muscles. The usual suspects at these gyms were image-conscious men and women working away on that half inch of imaginary flab, piling on layer upon layer of muscle. Zoom now in to 2016 and its drastically altered picture. Natural light, swathes of floor space in pop colours, yoga mats and exercise balls have nudged their way into the sacred zone of barbells and multi-purpose bench-press machines. Evident from the redesigning of modern gyms, conventional strength training is just one part…

FAST APPROACH CLEANSE HIGH SINDURA BORRA, 28, BECAME “DEDICATED to detox” after experiencing the healing effects of a disciplined regime during a long-drawn spell of flu. After she returned from California, US, in 2014, she decided to bring home the experience and started the online portal, Cleanse High, shortly afterwards. “Toxins are everywhere and the body needs regular detoxification. While water is excellent for flushing out toxins, you can’t survive by just drinking water through the day—you need something to boost your energy,” explains Borra. Unboxing eight glass bottles of beverages that form the detox diet for a single day regime, she says, “These drinks are packed with vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices to provide nutrition while you skip eating all solid foods for a day.” The bottles are all…

NO MORE HUNGER GAMES,’ IS what you read on the website of The First Meal, and that’s what the young founders of this venture strive to achieve by delivering healthy breakfast all over town, from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. “I would get restless in the mornings after working till the wee hours on an empty stomach. There’s how the idea of an online breakfast delivery germinated,” shares Yuv Raj Poosarala, 26, a former techie. His friends, Saswata Shankar De, 25, Suraj Prakash Subedi, 23 and Ravi Varma, 25, found the idea inspiring enough to quit their corporate careers and join as partners. With a new menu designed by them every day of the week, these boxed breakfasts are calorie counted and contain a variety of options including the staple…

On February 21, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dressed in a white kurta and gilt stole, spoke to a gathering of farmers in the town of Bargarh in western Odisha. In reality, however, Modi was addressing the television cameras that would relay his words to a larger audience across the length and breadth of the country. His message was that black marketeers and disgruntled NGOs with foreign funds were “conspiring” to destabilise his government and defame him. The reference, naturally, was to the imbroglio surrounding the February 12 arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, student leader of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi on charges of sedition, but the context was left unmentioned. It was an ironic line of reasoning on several counts. For one, the speech was reminiscent of another…

Going purely by data, India’s reservation policy demands a review. At first glance, it seems a fair game as 49.5 per cent government jobs and seats in educational institutions are reserved for SCs, STs and OBCs who constitute 61.2 per cent of India’s population. But a closer scrutiny explains why the entire debate over reservation, and a contentious one at that, is rooted in the V.P. Singh-led government’s decision to extend quotas to OBCs, based on the recommendations of the Mandal Commission. The biggest reason for the quota rush is the lack of adequate opportunities in the private sector, especially beyond the metros, which makes government jobs highly sought after. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that public sector jobs are shrinking. The total number of public sector jobs…

“Our victory in the assembly polls is certain,” says C.K. Padmanabhan of the Kerala BJP. “The Congress has decayed to the core and the CPI(M) has forgone its principles, it’s no longer the worker’s party. So it’s advantage BJP. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the only party which has credibility today.” The former state president of the party was being wildly optimistic (the BJP has never won a seat in Kerala), but it’s true that the coming assembly polls could be its best chance to open its account in God’s own country. The BJP does have a fresh tag associated with it, since it’s pitching itself as a third alternative to the time-tested coalition systems of the UDF and LDF. But its percentage voteshare is still way behind the other…

EXPERT VIEW VPF/PPF savings are considered the most important source of income postretirement. However, Indians are also exploring avenues like investments and annuities, insurance and property rental income. We saw this sentiment mostly consistent across India’s top six metros. Shantanu Sengupta, Head, Consumer Banking, DBS Bank, India DBS, in its December 2015 India chapter report ‘On Planning for a Successful Retirement’, observed that 77 per cent Indians planned for their retirement and 40 was the average age they started planning for the same. To help them achieve their retirement goals, mutual funds too have come forward with multiple schemes that encourage disciplined and systematic investment. MUTUAL FUND OPTIONS • UTI Retirement Benefit Pension • Franklin India Pension Plan • Reliance Retirement Fund • HDFC Retirement Savings Fund • Tata Retirement…

AGAIN A FAKE TWITTER This time, Delhi police commissioner B.S. Bassi fell for it—a parody Twitter account of journalist Ravish Kumar—and defended his (mis)handling of the JNU crisis manfully. “Committed to CONSTITUTION, NATION & TRUTH. SelfStyled Appraisers may better introspect.” This was the second time in a fortnight he was fooled. NO POST-OFFICE IN KASHMIR? Really? Posters for a Feb 9 event announce: ‘Poetry reading: The country without a post office.’ Hyderabad engi neer K. Karthik takes it literally, files RTI application. The answer? J&K has 1,699 post offices. Pandit: “Shiela Rashid #VicePresident #JNU who is a #KashmiriMuslim shld be interrogated She had also opposed #BabaRamdev in #JNU.#Nationfirst.” KEJRIWAL INSULTS HANUMAN Who doesn’t know that there’s no love lost between Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and PM Modi? But things went…

THE FILM, 3 IDIOTS, CHANGED the course of 37-year-old Nikhil Shrivastava’s life. “The line that Amir Khan says to Madhavan about taking a risk versus regretting not doing it for life had me giving up investment banking in London and returning home to India to pursue my entrepreneurship dream,” he says. But his venture, Freshies Gourmet Salad, wasn’t the result of a well-thought out business plan. “I had no idea whatsoever about what my business would be for months after my return. I just knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” says Shrivastava. His interest in healthy food prompted Shrivastava to start the healthy diets deli that serves over 30 varieties of salads, the recipes of which are all his own. “We don’t have a chef in our kitchen…

DHANESH SHARMA, 26, doesn’t call himself a writer although sometimes his custom-baked vegan breads are sent out to the guests with a line or two scribbled spontaneously. “That’s how the name Poets and Oats came about, when I was still baking from home before the café was launched a year ago. I never thought that I would call myself a baker one day,” he says, recalling his short stint as a school teacher, before he turned full-time entrepreneur. Being vegan and health conscious, Sharma decided to start baking his own bread, almost on a whim, when he saw that many commercial brands claimed their breads were made from whole wheat but that was not strictly the case. “In complete activist mode, I began researching on home baking and came up…

Meet Bhairav Shankar, 27, and you know that there’s an artist and scientist that creatively coexist in him. He is not just a theatre enthusiast, an aspiring novelist and a blogger, but also a techie. And that is the field he’s looking to make a difference. Like his father, filmmaker Mani Shankar of Tango Charlie fame, his creative inclination is towards hologram technology too. In the campaign for the Gujarat elections of 2012, his contributions for the Modi holograms were immense and impressive. His current passion though is what might just be the lightest wearable health monitor. “Wear Flip during a workout and it turns into a fitness monitor, or an emergency alert device for the elderly and simply a stress indicator for someone in a desk job,” says Shankar,…