Innholdsfortegnelse for June 5, 2017 i India Today

PATRIOT GAMES Wielding sticks and swords and taking careful aim with rifles, Bajrang Dal members were working hard at a ‘self-defence’ camp intended to prepare them for conflict with terrorists. The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). Camps have been organised for enthusiastic cadres across Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In one video, the ‘enemy’ were outfitted in skull caps. VHP president Pravin Togadia denied there was anything controversial about the camps. “[The] Bajrang Dal has been organising Yuva Shaurya Prashikshan camps for the past 25 years,” he said, “to make the youth of the nation healthy.” Togadia went on to claim that the Bajrang Dal had reduced the number of sick people in the country by encouraging physical fitness and should be thanked for…

He’s keeping them guessing. But the buzz about Shankersinh Vaghela, former chief minister and current leader of the Congress in the Gujarat assembly, is that he’s on his way out of the party. It is also being said that he’s looking to resettle his son, Mahendrasinh, currently a Congress MLA, in the BJP—Vaghela’s original political home. The man, of course, is known to exercise his political options. In September 1995, Vaghela revolted against chief minister Keshubhai Patel and a year later split the Gujarat BJP to become CM with Congress support. Eventually joining the Congress, he held top posts, including that of Union textiles minister in UPA-I. Vaghela’s latest machinations began this month with the ‘un-following’ of 30 senior Congress leaders, including party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, on Twitter. He also…

NICARAGUA $50 billion gamechanging Chinese plan to connect Pacific and Atlantic ECUADOR Accounts for 60% of FDI, copper mines, oil drilling, dams ARGENTINA Building railway lines VENEZUELA Biggest creditor with $50 billion loan NIGERIA Husab, one of the world’s biggest uranium deposits, acquired by China ANGOLA Roads, railways built by China in exchange for oil KENYA Building Mombasa- Nairobi railway DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Biggest high grade copper deposit in Kamoa developed by China $1 TRILLION China’s planned outward investment in next five years $330 BILLION Existing outstanding loans of China Development Bank (2016) 12,000 KILOMETRE Length of the Yiwu-London transcontinental rail network CORRIDORS PLANNED 1 Eurasian Continental Bridge 2 China-Mongolia-Russia corridor 3 China-Central Asia-West Asia corridor 4 China-Indochina Peninsula corridor 5 China-Pakistan Economic corridor 6 Bangladesh-China-India- Myanmar corridor Silk…

HELICOPTERS $16-20 BILLION* How many: 1,000 The number and cost of light- and medium-sized helicopters needed by the air force, navy and army over the next decade ARMOURED FIGHTING VEHICLES $10 BILLION* How many: 2,000 What the Indian army wants under its Future Ready Combat Vehicle programme to begin replacing its T-72 main battle tanks SINGLE-ENGINED LIGHT MULTI-ROLE FIGHTERS $10 BILLION* How many: 100 The cost for the IAF to replace all its 230 MiG-series aircraft, set to be retired by 2024 CONVENTIONAL SUBMARINES $8 BILLION* How many: 6 What the Indian navy will spend on buying six submarines equipped with air-independent propulsion and cruise missiles On a steamy Saturday evening in New Delhi, the Union ministry for defence (MoD) approved the broad contours of a policy that will spell…

Given that the Sensex, the broad equity market indicator, is near its lifetime high of 30,000, the dilemma before most investors is: where will it go from here? Is the growth for real and will it take the Sensex higher, or is it a bubble and likely to burst? Those who missed the current rally must be wondering if it’s the right time to enter the market or if it makes better sense to wait till the market corrects itself before investing. Investment gurus have always cautioned against trying to time the market. Anytime is a good time to invest in equities, provided that you are investing for the long term. If, regardless, you are timing the market, then investing all your money at one go can be disastrous. Also,…

The 25 images in this forthcoming exhibition from Tasveer, the Bengaluru gallery showcasing Indian photography, are an earnest portrayal of the impact of racism on the psyche of its victims. Done in the formal portrait style—where subjects ‘sit’ for pictures—this is the work of a promising Bengaluru-based photographer, Mahesh Shantaram, who was traumatised by the mob attack on a Tanzanian woman in January last year. With his grief as a filter for his lens, he took pictures of African youths in several cities across India. This, with the intent to draw attention to their individuality and humanity. Shantaram’s pictures have a distinct ability to ‘extract’ and examine his subjects, even in the most chaotic situations—like a garish middle class wedding or a hectic election campaign (subjects of his earlier work).…

The quintessential jeep was, and continues to be, a lifestyle thing in Bhopal. Not always connected to the brand, a Bhopali ‘jeep’ could be a Ford GPW, a low bonnet Willys MB, a Willys M606, an M38 A1 or even a later Mahindra equipped with jholas— one attached at the back and a smaller one near the dashboard. Bhopali jeeps are often unpainted, or only have a coat of primer, and continue to find patrons, with owners never having to think about resale values. Arriving in Bhopal as the wheels of choice for Nawab Hamidullah Khan, the early jeeps were mainly used in shikaar. Wealthy farmers also used them to ferry themselves to and from their farms. The jhola at the back carried anything from dead game to beaters to…

London’s Tiger Bay just made its Indian debut in Ahmedabad with a sprawling restaurant at Bodakdev that’s high on décor and quality food. They have different outdoor seating sections but we suggest you pick Nautical if you go there on a pleasant evening. It gives you the feel of being on an island with fountains lending the ambience a calming touch. The food is world cuisine with a mix of Italian, Middle Eastern, Mexican and Indian. A lot of international staples have been given an Indian twist, which is already making it a popular choice among the city’s foodies. So they have cheesy nachos, arancini or rice balls in picante sauce, the traditional hummus with pita, falafel and paneer tikka. The twist on the menu is the pao bhaji quesadilla…

SECRET IN THE CITY IS IT AN ART GALLERY, A SHOP or a museum, you wonder when you first lay your eyes on the graceful white building of the newly opened The Z’s Precinct. But it's all this and more, for this recently restored Kolkata-style bungalow in a tree lined corner of Dover Lane looks timeless in its beauty, reflecting the bygone years. Owner Rajesh Sen’s vision was to “restore the house to its original look without masking its age or character, whilst making it attractive in today's scenario.” This vision finds expression in many nooks and corners of The Z Precinct—in the old furniture that has been restored and used to display the wares and bright red oxide and terrazzo floors. The verandah is wrapped in glass so that…

A close study of the latest quarterly report on employment released by the Labour Bureau reveals some alarming data. At a time when the economy is growing at a little over 7 per cent, job creation has not kept pace, growing only 1.1 per cent in the nine-month period from April to December 2016 compared to a year ago. Only 2.3 lakh jobs were created during the period in eight key sectors, nowhere close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-talked-about promise of adding 10 million jobs a year, which has embarrassed the government when it celebrates three years of power at the Centre. These supposedly labour-intensive sectors include manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, accommodation and restaurants, IT-BPO, education and health. What makes it even more worrying is that a million aspirants…

The government is touting it as the biggest tax reform since Independence. Its critics (and there are a few) call it a good idea that has been mangled beyond recognition. The final iteration of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), after rates were determined for all goods and services on May 19, answers to both descriptions equally. There is no doubt the GST is a giant step forward in simplifying the tax regime. By prescribing a single tax rate for a good/ service irrespective of the state it originates in, or the state it gets consumed in, GST brings a certain order to taxation. But we didn’t go the whole hog. Other countries that implemented GST went with a single tax rate (or at best two). Here, the Centre and…

IAS officer Puneet Yadav’s fervent Facebook posts last month about his inability to attend to his 80-plus ailing parents in Agra have put the Mamata Banerjee government in a bit of a spot. The evidently harassed West Bengal cadre officer’s emotional outburst has exposed an embarrassing truth—the pall of fear shadowing the state’s civil bureaucracy, more specifically officers of the central administrative and police services. Believe it or not, under ‘Didi’s rule’, state cadre officers seeking central deputations are frowned upon. IAS and IPS officers are also actively dis c ouraged from putting such req uests in writing. At best, they can make verbal requests to the chief secretary. Nearly a dozen such requests have been pending for over a year despite the DoPT (the central government’s department of personnel…

The times are such that states are competing to build grander, larger- than-life statues to celebrate icons from history. So it’s no surprise that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh has unveiled plans to instal a 108 foot tall sculpture of Adi Shankaracharya on the banks of the Narmada at Omkareshwar. The state proposes to register the Adi Shankaracharya Sanskritik Ekta Nyas, a public trust that Chouhan will chair, to execute the project. And like in the Statue of Unity—the Sardar Patel project in neighbouring Gujarat—the trust will run a 15-day (June 15 to 30) campaign to collect recyclable metal for the project from across the state. This, the CM hopes, will invoke a sense of pride and ownership amid people vis-a-vis the project. Having pledged to contribute…

AS he sits sipping morning tea at his 11, Akbar Road residence in Delhi, the first thing BJP chief Amit Shah does is scan the papers for news of the party from the eastern and the southern states. He even has an aide specifically tasked with the job of gleaning news of the success of BJP programmes, or rifts in non-NDA parties and public agitations against the ruling dispensations. All these are flagged for discussions with the party’s point men in the south and east—Kailash Vijayvargiya, Ram Madhav and P. Muralidhar Rao, in charge of Bengal, the Northeast and Tamil Nadu-Telangana, respectively. The focus of the new Chanakya of Indian politics is quite understandable. If the BJP has to come to power again at the Centre in 2019, it must…

Ever wondered if there is a formula to double your money? Turns out there is—it is called the Rule of 72. Apply it, and you will know the number of years it will take for your money to double. The formula is simple, and the magic number is 72. Divide 72 by the annual rate of return on an investment to determine roughly how long it will take your to double your money. For example, if you are getting an 8 per cent return on an investment, it will take around nine years for your investment to double in value. However, shift that investment to an instrument that gives a 15 per cent return and you can double your money in just five years. The logic is obvious: the higher…

The British empire may have forced us to pay for our own oppression but it had its compensations. So as the sun flares over another Indian summer, let’s raise our chilled glasses to the imperialists who begat Indian beer. The pioneer, apparently, was one Henry Bohle who set up businesses in Meerut and Mussourie in 1825. The latter thrived for some years in the hands of the Mackinnon family, seeding a ferment of hill station breweries that stretched from Murree to Shimla, Kasauli and Ranikhet and on to Darjeeling. Edward Dyer, in particular, bought up or established a chain of breweries in the Himalayas and is credited with launching Asia’s first beer brand, ‘Lion’, which was produced in both Murree and Kasauli. Dyer would sire (and later disown) the notorious…

India produces close to 1.5 million engineers every year, putting both US and China far behind in creating tech honchos of the future. The ever-increasing obsession with engineering as career attracts millions of fresh school graduates every academic year to scout for good engineering colleges across the country. While government-funded institutes have always been around, the need to be innovative keeping competition in view, has led to mushrooming of different private engineering colleges, which ride high on research, technology and international collaborations. The question troubling most engineering students but is which college is the best? Based on several parameters such as top courses offered, innovation laboratories, and research and development centres, here is our list of 30 best engineering colleges, that are at par with global standards in innovation, infrastructure…

Are you looking for international experience and diversity or do you want to try out a different academic paradigm? Here are five tips to help you shortlist your course. IDENTIFY YOUR CAREER GOALS If you need a full-time immersive learning experience to gain knowledge and acquire credentials for career prospects, a short-time course abroad will not be equally valued as a long-term course in many educational and professional sectors pertaining to medicine, engineering, science, and finance. SUIT YOUR ACADEMIC NEEDS Short-term courses are best leveraged to strengthen your areas of interest before you pursue them in your undergraduate. If you have already decided on your area of study, head for a long-term course. It is oriented towards providing you a comprehensive educational scaffolding and personal growth PERSONALISE THE EXPERIENCE Studying…

SECRET IN THE CITY A DRIVE THROUGH THE crowded streets of Ahmedabad takes you to Mirzapur, a locality that’s a far cry from the swanky neighbourhoods of the city. Here you see poverty, some filth and the Conflictorium—India’s first museum dedicated to conflict—tucked away in an old but refurbished building. Here, art has been curated on the theme of struggle, war, pain and conflict. Few residents of the state’s most modern city have even heard of it. But locals often walk in, undisturbed by any barricades or entry fees The museum was set up in April 2013 by Avni Sethi, 27, an artist and dancer who conceptualised the Conflictorium as an interactive space that addresses the concept of struggle through art in varied forms—poetry, installations, artworks and workshops. The 1985…

G athered together in their hundreds, possibly thousands, on May 21, Dalits protested the violent clashes breaking out in Uttar Pradesh for weeks now. Jantar Mantar, Delhi’s designated spot for demonstrators, was awash with blue caps and flags. This impressive show was engineered by the newly prominent Bhim Sena, founded in Saharanpur in 2015. On May 5, Dalits in Shabbirpur village allege, over dozens of their houses and shops were burned down by Thakurs. The violence, which left one dead and at least 16 seriously injured, was the culmination of months of feuding over the installation of an Ambedkar statue and a memorial procession for Rajput king Maharana Pratap. There has been more violence and the death of a Dalit youth as recently as May 23, in the wake of…

God will decide, Rajinikanth says, when he will join politics. “He wants me to be an actor now. If he wants me to be something else, I will play that part as well,” he adds. But the 66-year-old Tamil superstar was clearly hedging, not prepared to spell out his plans just yet. He dropped many hints while interacting with crowds of doting fans over five days—May 15 to 19—in Chennai. “I’m a pachai Tamizhan (true Tamilian),” Rajinikanth grandly declared on the concluding day, while exhorting followers to brace for a battle to usher in change. After four hugely successful decades as an actor, he’s now evidently gearing up to follow actor-politicians like M.G. Ramachandran and J. Jayalalithaa into politics. Many believe now would be a great moment for Rajinikanth to…

At his news conference on May 12, when Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad attacked Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family for their alleged involvement in shady land deals, it was seen as an acknowledgement by the BJP central leadership of Sushil Modi’s efforts to expose Lalu’s “undisclosed properties”. The evidence Modi had painstakingly collected over the past few months proved very useful for the BJP’s central leadership to discredit the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief, particularly at a time when opposition groups were hoping to use Lalu’s connections across party lines to cobble together a common front. Not only has Lalu been forced to acknowledge the ownership of the “dubiously acquired properties”, the revelations may have also widened the rift in Bihar’s ruling coalition. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his…

On May 22, the Central Bureau of Investigation’s special court in Delhi sentenced former coal secretary H.C. Gupta and two other serving government officials—K.S. Kro pha and K.C. Samaria—to a two-year prison term. Earlier pronounced “guilty” of wrongdoing in the allocation of a coal block in Madhya Pradesh to a private firm, Kamal Sponge Steel & Power Limited (KSSPL), in 2008, the three were also ordered to pay individual fines of Rs 1 lakh each. Besides the bureaucrats, the court imposed a Rs 1 crore penalty on the company and a personal fine of Rs 30 lakh and three-year jail term for its MD, Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia. What should ordinarily have passed off as just another judicial decree suddenly had the entire civil bureaucracy on its feet. The convictions, in…

THE SUN IS SETTING over Machhimar Nagar, one of Mumbai’s 45 koliwadas or villages that are home to its indigenous Koli fishing community. At the jetty, a few small wooden boats painted bright red, orange, blue and yellow lie upturned; some rest on the muddy shore lined with plastic bags while others are anchored a few metres into the water, bobbing with the waves. The city skyline on either side of the creek makes for a pretty picture. And soon, if the Maharashtra government has its way, an imposing statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji will bedeck the horizon. The proposal for the Rs 3,600 crore memorial, which includes a 190 metre statue of Shivaji on 40 acres of reclaimed land over a rocky outcrop 3.6 km from Girgaum jetty and 2.6…

Your needs will invariably vary at different points in your life, and will also likely be different from another person’s. So your parents may have retirement on their minds while you’re angling for a trip abroad next year, or you may be looking to buy an SUV while your friend is worrying about putting her daughter through college. Smart investing requires that you fix a timeline to your goals depending on how near or far in the future they lie. Also, that you do not put all your eggs in one basket; rather you create separate baskets for each goal through informed decision-making. This helps you build a well-rounded portfolio that can withstand any volatility in the market. Here are a few pointers on how to classify your goals and…

BILL HAYES, the author of Insomniac City Insomniac City by Bill Hayes is the story of two love affairs running on parallel tracks. The first focuses on the author and the distinguished neurologist, Oliver Sacks, the object of his affections, and the second is the love affair between him and New York City. Hayes is almost fifty when the book begins—with the death of Steve, his partner. Steve died of a heart attack, ironically, on a day when the ‘insomniac’ Hayes was asleep. Unable to bear the heartache, Hayes moves from San Francisco to New York City, where he meets and falls in love with Sacks, a man thirty years his senior, who has ‘no knowledge of popular culture after 1955’ and ‘zero interest in celebrities or fame’ (to the…

Craft beer first hit Gurugram and Pune around 2008. A year later, the first brewpub opened its doors in Bengaluru. Today, the garden city boasts nearly 30 microbreweries with 20 more slated to open over the next two years. What makes craft beer stand out? Without getting into beer geekery, the combination of small hand-crafted batches, high-quality ingredients and innovative brewing techniques result in beers that are superior in taste and quality to their mass-produced cousins. Even with 30 breweries, we’re still new to the art, so only a handful of outlets stand out. —John Eapen The writer is a Bengaluru-based brewery consultant and beer sommelier Windmills Craftworks A microbrewery and jazz theatre rolled into one, this is the ‘Ritz’ of brewpubs. It has four house beers on tap—Helles (light…

Watering Holes MONKEY BAR New in town Not many well-known chains choose to open an outlet in Kolkata. But when they do, the city’s residents give it a warm welcome. At Manu Chandra’s Monkey Bar, small things make a big difference. Barely a year old, this gastro pub’s large windows provide a fantastic view of the city; there is something magical about watching the sun washing over Victoria Memorial that puts you in a happy mood. But even minus the view, Avantika Saraogi, 24, local partner, is confident that Monkey Bar would have drawn in people’s attention. “Our USP is that we give equal importance to food and drinks—both are equally good here,” she says. The brand’s already established reputation has made it quite the go-to-destination. Popular picks here include…