Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i India Today

The third Budget presented by the Narendra Modi government reminded me of a rather overloaded but interesting sentence from the 2014-15 Economic Survey prepared by the Finance Ministry about India needing a “persistent, encompassing, and creative incrementalism”. In many ways, this Budget was so aptly captured by this sentence. No Big Bang reforms but such ingenious creativity that it is difficult to categorise the Budget. If I were to imagine the Budget as an animal, it would have the huge body of the UPA with its heavy dose of dole economics, the head would be large too representing Modinomics with its emphasis on infrastructure investments and simplification of tax procedures, the tail would be the selective privatisation in public transport and food processing, and the legs would be the same…

Documentaries do not earn you profit. Nor is there space to screen them. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Oscar feat could change how we see documentaries. Making documentaries has always posed a problem in India. One needs to ask two questions. Firstly, do we have public venues where one can screen these documentaries? And secondly, can one recover the cost of making these documentaries—do we have a system? The answer to both these questions is no. There is no way you can recover money within the country. You can earn a profit only if you sell it to a PBS in America or if you have a BBC buying it. By and large, however, there are no avenues for sale in India itself. Furthermore, there are no screening possibilities in cinemas, nor is…

All budgets are exercises in balancing economics with politics. Poised on the cusp of two precarious precipices—a severe rural distress plaguing the countryside and two consecutive election reverses in Delhi and Bihar—finance minister Arun Jaitley did a rejig, letting politics determine economics. The exercise has led to Budget 2016 being seen as “more Modi than Jaitley”. But finance ministers the world over implement budgets approved by the primus inter pares, the prime minister in a cabinet government. Eyeing Budget 2016 as an opportunity, and burdened by a struggling farm sector in need of succour, the finance minister decided to put India on the backburner for a while, and address Bharat instead. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is a standard budgetary practice. Since all budgets are transfer of payments, either from…

West Riffa, Bahrain’s second largest city, is home to the Gulf sheikhdom’s extremely well-heeled, including the king and several of his ministers. It boasts of an iconic clock tower, the national stadium and rows of wellfurnished four-storeyed residential buildings. Sona (not her real name), a 22-year-old housewife-turned-beautician from Kochi, describes one such low-rise as being straight out of hell. She was lured by recruiting agents in Kerala who promised her a job, imprisoned here by a human trafficking network for 59 days and forced to sleep with hundreds of men who flocked to the city on weekends. She was among a dozen women imprisoned in one of three sparsely furnished flats of the building, tortured and forced to entertain 8-9 expatriate workers each day, each of whom was charged Rs…

KAUR AGENDA Nimrat Kaur’s baddie act as ISI agent in Homeland has clearly not gone unnoticed in foreign lands. The actress, who had her first Rs 100-crore hit in Airlift, is off to Vancouver to shoot for sci-fimystery series Wayward Pines. With M. Night Shyamalan as executive producer, Kaur will play architect and wife of series regular Jason Patric. Unlike Homeland, Kaur will have a longer run as she has been signed on for two seasons. POIGNANT TALE Emraan Hashmi pens his then fouryear-old son Aayan’s struggle in The Kiss of Life: How A Superhero and My Son Defeated Cancer. NORTH STAR Bollywood has given Diljit Dosanjh a warm welcome. After Udta Punjab, his next release is Phillauri with Life of Pi star Suraj Sharma and Anushka Sharma. HOW WAS…

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, is offering Indian students undergraduate scholarships worth 5,000 euros. These scholarships are available for full-time undergraduate programme or certificate programmes. The eligibility varies for each but proficiency in English is recommended for all. They cover tuition fees, boarding, round trip transportation, internship and field-study expenses. Trinity College Dublin offers a number of scholarship opportunities for prospective and current students interested in study or research at Ireland’s leading university to assist students of limited means. Trinity is the only Irish university in the world’s top 100 universities. Students can apply before May 31 on the website www.rotary.org Belgium/Flanders Fellowship The fellowship is available for undergraduate (bachelor) and graduate (master) students who are currently enrolled in universities in Flanders or specific Asian countries which include…

DOS ► Attempt easy questions first. Choose sections that have less risk and more gain. ► Double check before marking the OMR sheet. ► Carefully read the entire question paper in the first five to ten minutes. ► Take up adequate number of mock tests online through a known source in case you have registered for JEE in online format. DON’TS ► Begin with the question you don’t know about . ► Get upset if any section is tough. You can score in other sections. ► Don’t guess if you have no idea about the concept involved in a question. ► Don’t be nervous if you find the paper tough, since it is the relative performance that counts. Put your best analytical skills to work, it will take you ahead.…

“We plan to invest in infrastructure and automation, rather than choosing to diversify in other lifestyle segments” Ashish Shah, Co-founder, Pepperfry What is it? When Mumbai-based Ashish Shah, 34, and Ambareesh Murti, 42, founded Pepperfry, a home décor and furnishings platform, they weren’t rookies to the world of e-commerce. Both were associated with eBay for about nine years and had a fair idea about online buyers. In June 2011, when they launched the website, to provide a marketplace where people could shop for home essentials, online competitors had already conquered the electronics, books and gadgets market. Both Shah and Murti knew that the next phase of evolution would be in fashion and home décor space. After running for two years, they realised that the positive feedback on their furniture and…

From being dubbed the go-between for my client and the media, to being perceived as running a business that specialises in drafting press releases—the full scope and effectiveness of a tool as dynamic as PR (public relations) is grossly undermined. As influencers have also begun operating beyond the ambit of the traditional press, PR has evolved into a business of integrated multi-platform campaigns that requires creativity and intelligence in equal measure. Content, being an integral part, can be used to create the desired impact for a brand. Role of public relations Let’s examine what we do as PR firms. This exercise is an indispensable part of maintaining an entity’s image while also continuously conveying the message to its target group that may include customers, investors and the layman. When a…

Travel makes you sentimental as you assess the vast memory closet of half-forgotten vacations you have taken over the years. Some are the spoils of childhood, others are keepsakes we have accumulated through the years as we journey solo, with family and even with once intense loves. Whatever your reason to travel, the desire to be anonymous in a space halfway around the world remains strong and we continue to seek experiences that make us feel insignificant and powerful at once. Our cover woman, Marion Bartoli, is a tennis legend who has travelled extensively, partly because of her career and partly because she was bitten by the travel bug early on in her life. In our cover piece, the winner of the 2013 Wimbledon singles who was in Delhi for…

“It is comparatively comfortable for a woman to be at a very senior position in a wellstructured corporate. IN THE UNORGANISED SECTOR, THE MEN’S CLUB CAN BE REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE taking orders from you.” When this PhD degree holder in Management from Chandigarh’s Panjab University left a cushy job at Bharat Petroleum to join the Mehar Baba Charitable Trust as the CEO three years back, it was not just about exploring a different life. “At the risk of sounding clichéd, we all reach a stage where it is no longer about enviable positions or a fat pay packet but a desire to see one’s efforts translate into greater good. There is an indescribable satisfaction one derives from the happiness of others,” says Amandeep Kahlon Sandhu. Sandhu, who has spearheaded a major…

FEBRUARY 29, 2016 India’s reaction to the exclusive Mood of the Nation Poll “Resurgent Rahul is not resurgent enough to dislodge Modi. Though he is attacking the BJP on a daily basis, he’s not a patch on the Modi government in terms of political maturity.” A. SRIKANTAIAH, Bengaluru This Ain’t No Hard Hitter Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das has done a commendable job at the administrative level (Hard-Hitter at the Crease), but his disconnect with the masses is quite evident. For example, many schools and colleges in Ranchi and the rest of the state were shut down for two to three months because the premises and staff were being used for the panchayat elections. Helpless students ran from pillar to post to get a chance to forward a complaint to…

India is now a three-speed economy. Double-digit growth is confined to a section that comprises sectors such as e-commerce, travel and stock markets and accounts for 30 per cent of the GDP. Another section comprising mainly industries, which also accounts for 30 per cent of the GDP, is growing in single digits. And a third section, comprising primarily agriculture and construction, is clocking negative growth. Arun Jaitley’s 2016 Budget targets the bottom and middle rungs. In this backdrop, were the architects of the trickledown theory to visit today’s India, they would probably advocate a ‘trickleup theory’. Having long believed that demand can be augmented by boosting industry and trade, which in turn extend employment and earnings to the lower strata, they will now have to consider that economic growth can…

SEPTEMBER 2012 Kerala police intelligence wing set up micro team to gather info on sex rackets operating in the state. Team set up after Varapuzha and Paravoor sex scandals. JUNE 2014 Team expanded and att ached to cyber cell starts monitoring social media where many sex rackets offered escort services; track advertised mobile numbers JULY 2015 At high-level meeting, state police chief T.P. Senkumar and core team members decide to launch operation against online sex trafficking AUGUST 2015 Kerala police gets complaint about paedophile FB page ‘Kochu Sundarikal’. Police track page administrator Ummer, five others who posted comments. SEPTEMBER 2015 Police names it Operation Big Daddy, starts cracking down on paedophile, trafficking networks SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 Operation in Kollam results in arrest of seven persons, including a 19-year-old college student…

India Today Conclave, 2016 It’s back. It’s crackling with high-octane energy. It’s current. It’s brilliant. The all-new India Today Conclave sets a new gold standard in summits through an intense, razor-sharp twoday event that is unconventional in form and style. Are there limits to freedom of expression? Is India a breakdown country or breakout nation? What is RSS’s Vision 2020? Is the world equipped to deal with the ISIS threat? Can ageing be cured? Every question that matters today has an answer from the best experts and finest analysts in the world. Want to know how the government is working towards delivering results? Plug into four ministers who make India work. Roads. Railways. Energy. Manufacturing. Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal give quick presentations. Want…

Simran Mishra, 17, cracked her Class 12 exams. Hailing from Bhagalpur district in Bihar, she is now pursuing a bachelor’s in business administration, BBA, at the Lalit Narayan Mishra Institute in Patna. Next, she hopes to do her MBA from a top institute and land a well-paying job at some top corporate house. The eldest of three sisters, she also wants to bankroll her sisters’ higher education. There is one hurdle, though. Simran has studied in Hindi medium throughout in school. “I cannot fulfil my dream unless I become fluent in English,” she says. “I need to learn English, and communicate seamlessly in the language.” The shy but determined girl, therefore, went online in search of a spoken English coaching centre. And that’s how she came across the British Lingua…

AUTHOR, THE GREAT INDIAN OBSESSION, MUMBAI I was recently at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, where India’s exasperating diversity was in full display. I was in a campus which housed a majority of Hindi speaking students studying in an institute with English as the medium of instruction; in a city that is majorly Bengali speaking. Later that evening they grooved to a Kannada song written by a Muslim poet and the following day, they grooved to a Marwari song originally sung by a Muslim folk singer. Even in such diversity, there are some things that make one uniquely Indian. While much has been written about some of the country’s biggest obsessions such as cricket, cinema and religion, let me tell you about a lesser discussed Indian obsession. Since Independence…

When I was young, my mother would always say to me, ‘Anando, you were born singing in the cradle. Even while you were developing cognition, you rarely cried, only sang’, and I knew I had an operatic voice,” says the robust and mellifluously toned Anando Mukherjee, 38, who is possibly the only operatic tenor of Indian origin today. Born in a predominantly Bengali household in Patna, Mukherjee’s influences were largely derived from his artistic extended family and parents; his father being a surgeon and mother, a professional pianist. The revelation came as he sat in front of the radio, aged 13, listening to a beautiful, romantic and lush voice on the Indian national radio, as he describes it. The song that overwhelmed him and marked his foray into operatic singing…

DILSHAD MASTER Adventure Enthusiast, Writer Dilshad is an avid traveller, having explored more than 20 countries; she loves writing about her travels and uses social media to urge friends to see the world. She is also the co-founder of a crowd-sourced e-magazine FarInto Traveller that connects like-minded travellers. She savours her glass of Merlot and is constantly on the lookout for the perfect trekking shoes. SIMRAN SETHI Author & Food Educator Simran Sethi is a journalist and educator focused on food, sustainability and social change. Named environmental “messenger” by Vanity Fair, and a top 10 eco-hero by the U.K.’s Independent, she is the author of Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love. She is an associate at the University of Melbourne’s Sustainable Society Institute and a recent…

Celebrity Photographer Within each one of us, there exists a nomad who seeks the world outside; within this nomad, we carry our home with us. Japan drew me in twice in 2015. Fortuitously. The dichotomy of serendipity could not be more pronounced. The seasons were in the throes of change each time. In April, it was the advent into spring, and in November, we celebrated the passage into autumn. The cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It’s a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful, but that it is also tragically short. The notion is called wabi-sabi life. I’ve always been fond of Diesel as a brand and I’ve seen the collaborations Japan does for Diesel Art Gallery in Tokyo. When Diesel India came to me…

Omega’s lofty associations, even beyond the obvious one with the inimitable James Bond franchise, strikes a chord, given that it was the first watch to be worn on the moon. Even though the Speedmaster is no stranger to the lunar surface, in this striking new timepiece, Speedmaster Moonphase, it is the realistic representation of the moon that is most extraordinary. The high resolution image, in sharply contrasting black and white, is almost as detailed as a NASA photograph, so that a closer look even reveals an astronaut’s footprint. True to its name, the timepiece displays the phases of the moon, and is also balanced visually, with twin two-handed subdials, to create a symmetrical look. With a stunning sun-brushed blue dial, ceramic bezel, stainless steel case and all new rhodium-plated circles…

Professional dancer Sahiba Singh, 29, always wanted to set up a space just for dance, not as a commercial studio but as a community for dancers and everyone who wanted to learn dance and enjoy it. “I wanted to have a dedicated space where we could introduce people to dierent dance forms, coupled with wellness and fitness. My friend, Aastha Gulati, 29, who was also a professional dancer, had the same dream. Together we created Nivesaa in 2014,” says Singh. Nivesaa comes from the Sanskrit word 'nivesh', which means investment. “We want everyone to invest in themselves, in their body, mind and spirit. Our studio is based on the three principles–move, connect and transform, which is basically dance, fitness and wellness," says Singh. At Nivesaa, the duo teaches beginners and…

“WHY RESTRICT STORYTELLING ONLY TO THE PRINT MEDIUM? LET US NOT FORGET THAT BOOKS AND APPLICATIONS ARE JUST MEDIUMS, THE STORIES DO NOT CHANGE. THEN WHY THIS BIAS AGAINST TECHNOLOGY?” Nayantara Surendranath She says she gets children. That she thinks like a child. That the ‘connection’ with children has forever been there, and will be there forever. “Maybe it’s to do with the fact that I had to face a lot of struggle in my childhood. It was an isolated phase of my life. My father was with defence so we frequently moved cities. So, by the time you found a friend and started relating to them, it was time to move,” remembers Bangalorebased visual artist Nayantara Sarah Surendranath, who has done the illustrations for the children’s book, A Pair…

My house in Gurgaon is beautiful. The architecture and interiors are near perfect. But when I sleep, and the word home crosses my dreamscape, it is always that building in Kashmir that appears. The one at Sheetal Nath, Sathu Barbar Shah, in Srinagar. I lived there. Maybe I still do. Let me tell you what I remember most about that house—it had a huge log on the third floor. The house had patterns of old bricks,” whispers major contemporary artist Veer Munshi, who along with thousands of Kashmiri Pandits, was forced to leave the Valley in 1990 after threats by militants. Munshi’s house was burnt in 1993. But he insists that it is still “alive” in many ways. “Homes don’t get demolished. They live inside us. They grow there,” says…

Made in INDIA Part of the problem with the budget exercise these days is that it’s become inextricably linked with political rhetoric and policy announcements. Manmohan Singh used it to announce his high-profile delicensing programme in 1991, P. Chidambaram used it to promote his so-called dream budget last year. And now Yashwant Sinha has used it to unveil an unabashedly pro-rural budget. And yet, with bombshells like announcing an intention to divest government stake in public sector undertakings and cut staff, using the guise of raising revenue from disinvestment. Often in all this, the way the finance minister says things becomes more important than what the finance minister says. It leads to a cult of the finance minister, and a profit and loss exercise for the government becomes a crucible…

Question: Which of the Indian prime ministers do you think Narendra Modi has modelled himself after? Answer: Definitely not his party predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee. The jury is still out on which past prime minister Modi resembles a third of the way into his term. But uncanny similarities were being noticed between him and Indira Gandhi in the run-up to the Union Budget, and after it was tabled in Parliament on February 29. It is not just their way of functioning (both are regarded as autocratic) or their charisma (both led their parties to famous victories on their personal popularity) but increasingly in how they define their common enemies and priorities once the odds stack up against them. If Indira spoke of the “foreign hand” that constantly plotted to destabilise…

Asif Kapadia just won the Oscar for the Best Documentary feature for Amy, the story of the singer-song writer who rose to international fame with her song Rehab. This is big news, really huge news: British Asians are a strong voice in the British film and television industry. So how did Kapadia get to that stage in Hollywood? Kapadia is a 43-year old who hails from the great formless expanse of Hackney in North East London. He is an affable, serious chap. His film training started at film school in Newport, Wales which, let’s face it, is not an auspicious start to any film career. In fact, Kapadia attending the inspiringly named Newport Film School is the single most important Film Fact about Newport. His first feature film, the multi-award…

1 Patna alone had an estimated 100 English coaching centres where nearly 50,000 students come every year to learn English 2 British Lingua, which set up its first centre in Patna in 1993, is the biggest player. Chennai-based Vita is another. 3 Most of those who come to these centres are people who want to make a career in the services industry. Professionals in marketing , insurance banking or HR jobs also approach these institutes to brush up on their English-speaking skills. 4 Fee for the course can range anywhere between Rs 3,500 for a three-month course and Rs 6,000 for a five-month course. 5 It takes three to four months for a student to attain efficiency in speaking the language. After the first week, students are asked to introduce…

AXIS BANK TEAMS UP WITH COURSERA FOR EMPLOYEE TRAINING Coursera will design tailor-made curriculums relevant to Axis Bank’s employees, in sync with industry demand, covering topics such as leadership, data analytics and innovative thinking from among 1,700 courses o_ered by top universities across the world. Employees will get open access to certification training courses on Coursera. THALES AND IIT BOMBAY TO JOIN HANDS ON RESEARCH SCHEMES Thales, a French electronics company, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to create a jointly supervised PhD fellowship scheme starting July 2016. Through this fellowship scheme, Thales and IIT Bombay seek to fortify the Indo-French scientific collaboration. EMPLOYEES PREFER TO WORK AT MULTINATIONAL FIRMS Nearly 88 per cent employees working with Indian companies say that if…

MATHEMATICS Quadratic equations and expressions, complex numbers, probability, vectors, matrices in algebra; circle, parabola, hyperbola in coordinate geometry; functions, limits, continuity and differentiability, application of derivatives, and definite integral in calculus. TIP Try to do as many quality problems as possible to develop confidence PHYSICS Kinematics, gravitation, fluids, heat and thermodynamics, waves and sound, capacitors and electrostatics, magnetics, electromagnetic induction, optics and modern physics. TIP Practicing quality problems again is important. If concepts are clear, then this subject becomes more interesting. CHEMISTRY Coordination chemistry and chemical bonding in inorganic chemistry, electrochemistry, chemical and ionic equilibrium, mole concept in physical chemistry and organic chemistry. TIP Go through the periodics and read NCERT for inorganic chemistry. For organic, first build up your basic concepts and then start practicing and for the physical…

“Assessments should be based more on analysis, problem-solving and understanding, rather than being mere tests of memory” KIRAN KARNIK FORMER PRESIDENT, NASSCOM “State governments should carefully map schools and then drive consolidation by creating more integrated institutions” ASHISH DHAWAN FOUNDER AND CEO, CENTRAL SQUARE FOUNDATION “We need to rethink our structure of learning by shifting focus to communication and critical thinking” POOJA THAKUR PRINCIPAL, JUNIOR SCHOOL, THE SHRI RAM SCHOOL, DELHI “Most schools are nothing more than day care centres, and are poorly managed” MADHAV CHAVAN CO-FOUNDER, PRATHAM “Teachers need to bring back energy to their classes and we must connect it with innovation and diversity, why should we have a standardised education system for a heterogeneous society?” MEETA SENGUPTA EDUCATIONIST “Budget schools aren’t the answer for taking higher education…

Supermodel thin, tottering on vertiginous heels in Dior couture, it’s difficult to picture this delicate wisp of a woman as the aggressive Wimbledon Singles champion of 2013. But losing 30 kg in a year, doesn’t even begin to outline the spectacle of epaulettes the tennis star carries so gracefully. Marion Bartoli, winner of the 2013 Wimbledon, was in Delhi for a whirlwind trip to promote the French Open as Ambassador of Rendez-Vous à Roland-Garros. Committed to the development of clay courts in India, Bartoli, now a jewellery and apparel designer, shared with us her love for India, Indian jewellery and her most intimate and inspired wanderings across the globe. FIRST OVERSEAS TRIP, JAPAN Japan was my first overseas trip when I was 15 years old. My father travelled a lot…

“I think I have always been obsessed with equality. EVEN AS A CHILD I WOULD DEMAND TO EAT AS MUCH AS MY BROTHER WHO IS SEVEN YEARS OLDER. THAT MADE ME A CHUBBY child but I still saw a lot of sense in that.” “I think if I am kind to the persons around me, treat them with respect irrespective of their appearances and external details, it might just make a difference,” says human rights activist Rubina Singh. For Singh, who shifted to the US for a few years and was there when 9/11 happened, many things changed. “I was reintroduced to the idea of justice and equality. Something changed in me,” she says. In August 2011, this young lady started the Chandigarh chapter of Hollaback, an organisation that fights…

GUEST COLOUMN Punjab is alive and kicking—dancing to the thumping music. Flipping through the various music channels of Punjab, you can’t think otherwise. You cannot even imagine that with this computer generated vibrancy in the songs that this could be a state gasping for breath. Every second, a Punjabi aspires to be a singer. There’s nothing wrong with this dream, provided you can sing. So we have a medley of ‘wannabe’ singers, mediocre singers, good singers and our singing superstars. Well, if you count their entourage and their menacing bouncers that count for almost half of the state’s population. The rest is, of course, planning to go abroad by any means. If you’re lucky, you go by the pedigree, by money, by status. If not so privileged, then, like Columbus,…