Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2, 2018 i India Today

One day, they will turn this into a blockbuster,’ began a May 15, 1993, india today story about the bizarre turn of events which saw Bollywood’s then hottest star Sanjay Dutt being arrested for accepting an AK-56 rifle from underworld-linked movie producers. Well, 25 years later, they have. Next Friday’s release, Sanju, is the biopic of a man who has been on the cover of india today twice—neither of them, I must add, for his cinematic oeuvre: May 15, 1993 (Underworld Connections), and August 13, 2007 (Tragic Hero). The charge of possessing an assault rifle eventually saw him serving out a five-year prison sentence in 2016 and is a key twist in the movie star’s chequered life. It coincides with Bollywood’s fascination with biopics. Films on Milkha Singh and Neerja…

It has been nearly three years since the BJP-led NDA government signed a “framework agreement” with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah)—the largest of all Naga insurgent outfits—to reach a final settlement on the half-a-century-old demand for a separate ‘country’ for the Naga people. There is no sign of a permanent deal yet, but the ambush of Assam Rifles soldiers (four were killed) by the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) militants in Nagaland’s Mon district on June 17 has raised fresh questions about the peace process. This was the second such attack within a month. On June 5, suspected NSCN(K) militants attacked the 41st battalion of the Assam Rifles in Mon. Located in the eastern part of the state, Mon is one of the four districts close to…

The opposition Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) twin victories in byelections at Gomia and Silli on May 31 have served up another shocker to the Raghubar Das government. The past two-and-a-half years have seen Jharkhand’s BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government lose five of the six bypolls held in the state. The string of defeats has raised questions on the ruling coalition’s prospects in next year’s state assembly polls as well as the Lok Sabha elections, which are expected to be held simultaneously next year. Contrary to the rough ride it has now become, Das, who took charge as Jharkhand’s 10th chief minister in December 2014, had an unusually smooth beginning. Starting out with a simple majority in the 82-member assembly, he enjoyed an independence that none of his nine predecessors did.…

BJP president Amit Shah is slated to visit Bengal on June 27, and he will be making a special stopover in Purulia—alongside the tribal districts of Jhargram and West Midnapore—which gave the party a firm footing in the recent panchayat elections. The saffron party won 602 seats against the ruling Trinamool Congress’s 726 here. In Jhargram, the BJP and independents wrested 399 seats, topping TMC’s tally of 371. Indeed, the BJP has taken 18 per cent of the vote across the state to emerge as the main opposition to the TMC. The once formidable Left Front and the Congress have been left straggling at 4.5 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively. Saffron spin doctors are upbeat, saying ‘Ebar Bangla (This time Bengal)’, the BJP campaign to conquer the state,…

FEBRUARY 20 Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash alleges assault by AAP MLAs at Kejriwal’s official residence over delays in a TV campaign. A number of civil servants down tools in protest JUNE 11 Kejriwal and cabinet colleagues Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai go to L-G Anil Baijal’s official residence, refuse to leave unless Baijal orders the IAS officers to end their strike JUNE 13 Sisodia goes on hunger strike, a day after Jain did. Four BJP leaders and rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra begin their own protest in the waiting room of Kejriwal’s official residence JUNE 16 The CMs of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala seek the L-G’s nod to meet Kejriwal, but are refused. At a NITI Aayog meeting the next day, they ask the…

We all know Rajkumar Hirani the editor, director, writer and producer. But there is another hat he wore back in the 1990s—that of a model/ actor. In his early days in Mumbai, Hirani, a freelance editor, on the request of his ad film directors, stepped in to endorse a few products. Of the 15-odd commercials Hirani did, one of the most popular ones was of a man who smiles as he watches two teams of brawny men backed by an elephant try and break a block of wood. “Maante hi nahin,” says his character. “Arre kitni baar samjhaya hai yeh Fevicol ka majboot jod hai, tootega nahin.” Hirani set up his own ad production house, Canvas Films, in 1994. These days he prefers to be behind the camera.…

The India Today Group’s Best Universities Survey, 2018, was conducted by New Delhi-based research agency Marketing and Development Research Associates (MDRA) between November 2017 and May 2018. Nearly 100 universities across four streams—general, technical, medical and law—participated in the survey. Only those universities offering full time, in-classroom courses and have churned out at least three passout batches till academic year 2017-18 were considered. They were ranked on the basis of the postgraduate courses offered. For objective ranking, MDRA has carefully chosen more than 120 attributes to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons of universities. These performance indicators were clubbed into five broad parameters—reputation and governance, academic and research excellence, infrastructure and living experience, personality and leadership development, and career progression and placement. The evaluation was based on current year…

Development of national platforms for teaching and learning. The National Digital Library is one example. Similar other platforms should include a national computing and analytics platform A strong national faculty development and quality improvement programme A scheme for academic and research collaboration with top international institutions as an extension of the GIAN programme that enables intensive research in key areas A national research network by integrating and building current and new facilities and enabling sharing of resources for high-end research Developing enabling mechanisms for the best technical experts in industry and R&D laboratories to participate in research programmes of the country through new degree formulations at Masters, PhD and post-PhD levels…

• You cannot afford the repayment easily: Defaulting on payments will harm your credit score • You are a shopaholic: Avoid using your credit card or other credit lines for purchases that you don’t really need • The loan lacks rationale: Do not take a loan just because it’s an attractive offer • Income is uncertain: Avoid a loan if you aren’t sure about sustaining your earnings • Borrowing against your retirement: Saving for the retirement corpus takes a long time—avoid putting it at risk…

From growing up in Bihar to working as a theatre usher in New York so that he could watch plays for free, Vinay Pathak has made his way to becoming one of Bollywood’s most versatile actors, with a slew of new films in the works. “Chali China isyettobe shot so I can’t divulge much about it,” says Pathak, whose Khajoor Pe Atke hit cinemas last month. “Abhi Toh Party ShuruHuiHaiandTashkent Files are thrillers. The former is a political satire, and the latter an investigative political thriller.” For the long-time character actor, the role of the younger brother in a small town family in Khajoor Pe Atke was familiar territory. His next two projects will see him playing a spy and a soldier, he says. “A well-written script is the first…

Author Kirk Wallace Johnson’s prose glitters like the tropical bird feathers he describes in this story of a 20-year-old American flautist’s theft of some $250,000 worth of bird skins. One of the summer’s most talked about books in the US, the tale is rich with detail and colour. Johnson embarks on a high-speed tour of Victorian fashions, the secretive world of salmon-fly-tying and environmental degradation—all in pursuit of a charismatic and unusually wily villain. The rare feathers belong to the “skins”—dead birds with their innards removed but feathers intact—stored in the Natural History Museum of Tring, a small town in Hertfordshire, about 44 miles northwest of London. The skins are rare for three reasons. They belong to endangered species of birds. A number of those that were stolen belonged to…

OCTOBER Shoojit Sircar’s story of a young man in love with a comatose colleague was praised at home and abroad for earning the emotions it depicts—a rarity here, there and everywhere. Amazon Prime THE STAIRCASE The craze for real world whodunits (The Jinx, The Making of a Murderer, Serial) continues with this French series following the trial of novelist Michael Peterson, accused of murdering his wife, Kathleen Peterson. Netflix SUCCESSION Brian Cox shines in this Lear-esque drama about a patriarch seeking to divide up his media empire. Three guesses why stories about repugnant billionaires are trumps this season? Hotstar…

Tweight loss cycle is a story that starts with the realisation that extra fat has to be lost, an understanding that could have either gently dawned or crash landed on the head after seeing the latest picture one is tagged in. The sudden awakening then leads to a determination: not only to lose weight but to lose weight now. A trendy diet is googled, main meals are replaced with milkshakes and a crazy exercise regimen is started. Only to cease as suddenly as it started because no human body can withstand a protracted war on its well-being. Weight cheerfully slides back up, and motivation woefully slides further down. Wounds are licked till the next time a tagged picture presents itself. This, in essence, is the weight loss cycle, where you…

My experience in dealing with families while doing their financial planning is the basis of this article and over time I have seen these mistakes being repeated time and again. I always encourage women to participate in the exercise of sorting out their money dynamics—through financial planning—even when they may not be working for money. Here I must acknowledge that actually a few of the financial blunders committed by families could have been avoided if the decision-maker had heard about the objections raised by their feminine counterpart. Not participating in the financial decision-making process I have witnessed women largely relegate the financial decision-making process completely to their male counterparts due to which the family ends up missing out on balanced money saving plans. I have an instance to quote, where…

ROHAN CHHABRA AND KRITI CHAUDHARY CO-FOUNDERS RE-CULTURE, DELHI WWW.RE-CULTURE.COM With a desire to transform the semantics of everyday objects, Rohan Chhabra and Kriti Chaudhary started Re-culture in 2014. Chhabra has a background in industrial and fashion design, while Chaudhary is a ceramicist and product designer. Interestingly this Delhi-based design collaborative came into being when the duo, who had their own independent practices, found a common ground for their interdisciplinary ideas. “As a team we believe in ideas that are generated through the design process and culture at large. In our products we aim to achieve a combination of enlightenment and enchantment by re-culturing the language of everyday things,” says Chaudhary. So, they project personalities onto inanimate objects giving them a sense of playfulness and ambiguity. NO PRIZES FOR GUESSING Their…

Trial by Social Media Are people in a free society entitled to be prejudiced? Is it Pooja Singh’s right to demand that she be assigned a “Hindu representative” to deal with her problem? Airtel informed Pooja that “both Shoaib and Gaganjot are part of our customer resolution team”, but it would have been nice if they had responded to her ridiculous “request” with a polite refusal. It is not grandstanding or ‘virtue signalling’ for a private company to say it cannot comply with an unreasonable request in what is still a multicultural, secular, pluralistic country. Alongside Pooja’s ugly bigotry sits the ugliness of those whose kneejerk response to every perceived offence is to resort to threats and abuse. It is why Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli should have known better.…

“As far as the next Chief Justice of India is concerned, the convention is clear. The sitting CJI will name the most senior judge as his successor. When the name comes to the government, we will discuss it... but no one has the right to doubt our intentions” Law minister RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD addressing speculation that Justice Ranjan Gogoi might not be named chief justice of India when present incumbent Dipak Misra retires on Oct. 2. Prasad was firm that procedure would be followed. This would require the CJI to nominate Justice Gogoi. But the latter was one of four Supreme Court judges who held a press conference in January to question the allocation of cases of “far-reaching consequences” to certain judges for presumable political reasons. The last time the…

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s dharna inside Lt Governor Anil Baijal’s residence threatened to overshadow the NITI Aayog’s Governing Council meeting in the national capital on June 17. While the duo was not present, four chief ministers came out in support of Kejriwal. Another CM, Puducherry’s V. Narayanasamy, recalled his standoffs with the state’s Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and asked PM Narendra Modi why he isn’t asking Bedi to stop ‘harassing’ him. Modi’s response raised guffaws: “You have smartly handled her. I have not heard anything from there for some time. You have managed peace.” At lunch, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar prodded the PM to protect “good friend” Narayanasamy from Bedi’s interference. “Don’t worry,” said Modi. “Narayanasamy is a khiladi. He will manage.” GURU DAKSHINA From July, school textbooks…

INQUIRIES SHOW TAMPERING IN THE ALLOCATION OF PROJECTS WORTH OVER Rs 1,000 CRORE Just months ahead of the state assembly polls, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan administration’s much-tom-tommed transparency initiatives, the e-tendering of government contracts, is under a cloud. Preliminary inquiries have revealed tampering in the allocation of at least three projects worth over Rs 1,000 crore. And even as the state police’s economic offences wing (EOW) started investigations, the opposition Congress has promised to have the ‘scam’ probed by a judge of the Supreme Court. It all started in April after a private construction company complained of discrepancies in the e-tendering of a waterworks project under the public health engineering department (PHED). An inquiry by a senior state government official led to the cancellation of three tenders with outlays of…

FORMER STATE CONGRESS CHIEF SUDHEERAN HAS CALLED THE DECISION TO ‘GIFT’ KC(M) THE RS SEAT A “BLUNDER” The state Congress leadership’s bid to woo K.M. Mani, head of its on-off regional ally Kerala Congress (M), by supporting his son Jose K. Mani’s candidature for the Rajya Sabha, has triggered outrage within its own ranks. Many leaders, particularly the younger Congress lot, are livid with former chief minister Oommen Chandy who orchestrated the move. Meanwhile, former state Congress chief V.M. Sudheeran has called the decision “a blunder” that would do little to consolidate the position of the United Democratic Front (UDF). “The party has yielded to Mani’s blackmail and manipulation,” he said, “who knows what his (Mani’s) next move will be?” Sudheeran was pointing to the KC(M) chief’s 2016 decision to…

Dec. 2014 BJP makes significant inroads in the Jammu region where it bags 25 of the 37 seats to emerge as the second largest party in the state Feb. 24, 2015 After seven weeks of negotiations, BJPPDP form an alliance; Mehbooba says “government not for power sharing but to win hearts” Mar. 2015 First signs of strain show in the government over the release of hardline separatist leader Masarat Alam, with the saffron party slamming the “unilateral” decision and warning that such decisions would not be tolerated Jan. 2016 Mufti Mohammad Sayeed dies; Mehbooba made PDP chief Apr. 4, 2016 Mehbooba Mufti takes oath as the first woman chief minister of the state Jul. 8, 2016 Security forces kill Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in Anantnag. Resultant protests lead to deaths…

I live a real life. I don’t live a reel life,” says Sanjay Dutt in BBC’s 1996 documentary To Hell and Back. “I live like a normal human being should live. If that’s called wild, then I think all of us are wild in some ways.” Dutt’s idea of ‘normal’ may be warped, for not all can have the privilege of surviving a life that includes a dangerous stint with drugs, illegal possession of a weapon, conversation with the underworld, court hearings and prison time. That topsy-turvy life of Bollywood’s bad boy gets the big screen treatment in Sanju. More than Dutt, the bigger draw of Sanju is the man behind it—Rajkumar Hirani. A filmmaker with the Midas touch, Hirani has aced the fine art of drawing audiences to cinemas.…

Ranbir Kapoor was only 10 years old when he saw his first reel icon, Sanjay Dutt, in real life. Accompanying his father, Rishi Kapoor, to the shoot of Sahibaan in Kashmir in 1992, the young Kapoor was mesmerised by the sight of the actor whose poster he had on his cupboard to rival that of his sister’s favourite, Salman Khan. “He had the Saajan look,” recalls Kapoor, “long hair, an earring. He was chilling between shots, smoking a cigarette and walking with style.” The young Ranbir thought Dutt was “super cool”, way cooler than his own dad. With such a fond memory, one would think that Kapoor would be eager to play his idol on the big screen. Instead, he admits, there was reluctance and self-doubt. “The responsibility to play…

Q. What have been the major reforms in the last four years to improve university education? A. We have given more autonomy to higher education institutes, pushed for research and innovation, improved the quality of education and introduced digital learning. But for results to show, you need time. We are working in the right direction, taking all stakeholders into confidence. Q. Critics say the government is interfering too much in universities, such as the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the University of Hyderabad. A. There is no question of interference. Instead, we are creating a mechanism to grant more autonomy. We passed the IIM bill to make these institutes more autonomous. We must trust our best institutes—if we don’t, they cannot grow. Our new philosophy is to fund and forget. Just…

Anuradha Roy is not a natural polemicist. Physically slight and mild-mannered, she seems too quiet, too self-contained to seek out trouble. This is to misunderstand her, to be misled by appearances. Her novels—a celebrated 2008 debut, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, and subsequent prize-winning books, The Folded Earth and the Booker-longlisted Sleeping on Jupiter—don’t shy away from confrontation, from horror, violence and injustice. Neither does her journalism. ANURADHA ROY’S latest, All the Lives We Never Lived, features historical figures and a narrator named after a Fyodor Dostoevsky character…

Five years after Bombay Talkies hit Indian cinemas, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar return with an anthology of shorts inspired by desire. Released on Netflix, their varied interpretations cross socioeconomic and demographic boundaries, defy conventional notions and leave viewers with plenty to take away from the films. In Bombay Talkies, Banerjee’s Star, featuring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, stole the show. This time Zoya Akhtar, too, makes her mark with a mature film about a maid (Bhoomi Pednekar) involved in a secret relationship with her employer. Though it offers a refreshing critique of the hypocrisy of the urban middle class, the film fails to evoke a deeper understanding of the emotional dynamics at play. Banerjee has the best ensemble—Manisha Koirala, Sanjay Kapoor and Jaideep Ahlawat—and presents a harmonious blend…

Viswanadha Satyanarayana (1895-1976) was the first Telugu writer to be given the Jnanpith award. Now, in scholar Velcheru Narayana Rao’s translation, we have two of his novellas available in English. Rao describes these as ‘oral novels’—Satyanarayana was given to dictating his books to scribes—and says a challenge of the translation process was to reconcile the rhythms of stories told with the stories written. In Ha Ha Hu Hu, a gandharva—8 feet tall with a horse’s head—is found lying unconscious in London’s Trafalgar Square. As he recovers, someone realises that “the animal could talk; its language was Sanskrit; it did not eat unless it had bathed; it meditated before meals. There was excitement all over Europe. A trainload of Sanskrit scholars arrived in London”. The gandharva—detached, noble, unimpressed by the material…

Q. You made headlines for refusing to go to Iran and calling the headscarf a “direct violation of my basic human rights”. Everything I wanted to say about not wearing the headscarf, I’ve already said it in my (Facebook) post. I will not amplify it. My profile as a chess player has nothing to do with my decision. It would have been the same irrespective of my profession. Q. When the Indian women’s team took on the men in a workout challenge a couple years ago, you almost bested Grandmaster S.P. Sethuraman in a push-up contest. You think you could beat him now? That plank competition with Sethu during the Chess Olympiad 2016 was fun! Rematch—yes, why not? I am playing table tennis and football these days to keep fit…

ON FINDING THE COURAGE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE AMI SHROFF, 45 Managing Trustee, Srujan, Not-for-profit organisation, Mumbai 1 Being awestruck is not enough Allow the greatness of others to spur you into action. My mother’s vision and bold decisions stirred me to do more and be more. It’s not enough to applaud the actions of others, unless we emulate great behaviour. 2 Cultivate your own dream Make a difference in your own way. And help others believe in themselves, polish their craft and create the right exposure and process for taking one small step every day, followed by another and then another. Your dream doesn’t have to match with someone else’s vision and accomplished just one way. 3 Leave a legacy Be remembered for how you make others feel about…

There are times to sit and watch, And then there are times to rise to the occasion and be counted. In the life of a nation, it is not every day that the divisive tendencies, of one or the other kind, threaten to destroy its very fabric. The unfolding of events in the legal profession since January 12, 2018, ironically also the birth anniversary of the great spiritual monk of India—Swami Vivekananda—has been a rolling ball of moss, growing bigger every day. It was on this day that four senior most judges of the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented move, called for a press conference and revealed that not all in the Supreme Court was in order. They categorically said that they had met with the Chief Justice of India,…

How many stories have you read about breakfast being the most important meal of the day and how dinner must always be kept light? One every day I am sure. But what about lunch, the meal that comes right in the middle of our working day and which more often than not gets either skipped or eaten hurriedly? We are all guilty of not putting in enough thought into this equally important meal. It’s time to change and talk about lunch. A balanced meal eaten midday can go a long way to help offset everyday stress and the wear and tear to the body. A heavy meal, on the other hand, can lead to fatigue and sleepiness. So, don’t go for whatever’s convenient or at hand such as bread pakora…

Like every journey, motherhood also comes with its share of preparation, excitement, anxiety and surprises. The initial few days post birth may seem overwhelming for a young mother. Waking up multiple times at night to baby’s cries causes sleep deprivation and the initial discomfort of breastfeeding, all the while recovering from childbirth, makes you restless. Tending to the needs of the child 24x7, life with a newborn is not easy and your body undergoes physical, hormonal and emotional changes. Here are a few tips and tricks about how to care for yourself as well as your baby in the exciting but often frustrating first weeks post birth. BREASTFEEDING BASICS Breastfeeding is a natural process but it can be difficult for some new mothers. Nursing is smoother for women who breastfeed…

AANCHAL GOEL, 28 AND SUGANDH KUMAR, 30 PARTNERS, OBJECTRY, DELHI WWW.OBJECTRY.COM Delhi-based studio, Objectry is more than just a play of form and materials—its geometry meets functionality meets minimalism that is rooted in a deep understanding of traditional art and crafts. The brainchild of Aanchal Goel and Sugandh Kumar, the duo started Objectry in 2015 after a stint with an export house where they worked with metal and went their separate ways (Goel experimented with pottery and Kumar opted for woodwork). “Objectry is an attempt to make products of basic utility interesting. We achieve this by exploring various Indian handicrafts and giving them a crisp and modern aesthetic,” says Goel. In the three years since they started they have successfully created products, furniture and interiors of a few retail stores…

Sound Check Sometime you just have to let Google do it. The company’s new Google Home and Google Home Mini devices allow you to listen to music, podcasts, radio, news and audiobooks. You can do everything from playing YouTube videos to viewing Google photos. If that wasn’t enough it also allows you to plan your day, get directions, the weather forecast, check flight status and remember where you parked your car. Is there anything it can’t do? PRICE 4,099 (Home Mini); 8,999 (Home) AT www.store.google.com A HEALTHY SOLUTION Most juicers use centrifugal force where the extreme heat destroys essential enzymes and cause oxidation. Slow juicers, however, first crush and then press the fruit, so very little heat is generated and the nutrient level stays intact. TTK Prestige’s new slow juicer,…

Quirk Factor ALL THAT JARS The next time you decide to throw away a glass jar, think twice, for there are a lot of creative ways it can be reused. That's where Nargis Miyajiwala, 32, comes in. Miyajiwala always loved glassware and would rarely discard the pieces. A need to repurpose her vast collection drove her to start All That Jars. Under her brand, Miyajiwala makes everything imaginable with glass jars to help add a touch of quirk to one's home. “I would paint bottles and jars for friends. One one occasion, a designer friend in Bangalore suggested that I put them up at an exhibition. I did so and they sold like hot cakes, and so I began exhibiting in the city regularly,” says Miyajiwala, who previously worked as…

It’s a compelling story Ryan Holiday tells: the destruction of the Gawker media empire as an act of revenge by PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel, through a proxy legal war fronted by Hulk Hogan. In 2007, British entrepreneur Nick Denton’s Gawker Media, in its Silicon Valley gossip-rag blog Valleywag, had outed entrepreneur-investor Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, in a post titled ‘Peter Thiel is totally gay, people’. Thiel called Valleywag Silicon Valley’s Al Qaeda. Fast forward to 2012. Gawker published an extract from a leaked tape of former wrestler Hulk Hogan having sex with a friend’s wife. They ignored a cease-and-desist order from Hogan, and even a court order to remove the video. Hogan was furious. Thiel had found his protagonist, but the world didn’t know it. Hogan sued Gawker for…

The crisis of India’s water resources starts with the data. But the NITI Aayog report shies away from pointing fingers India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and millions of lives and livelihoods are under threat.” This dire warning from the NITI Aayog Composite Water Management Index report released last week was overdue. But the realisation of its objective of transforming water management in India will require a considerably more rigorous and objective exercise than the Aayog has performed. The NITI report is candid: “It’s a matter of concern that 600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress in the country… with nearly 70 per cent of water being contaminated, India is placed at 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index.”…

THE CM’S HEALTH ISSUES HAVE LED TO SUGGESTIONS THAT HE GIVE UP KEY PORTFOLIOS Goa Revolution Day this June 18 saw Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar take the stage in Panaji after three months’ treatment for pancreatic cancer in the US. On his return three days earlier, he typically opted to take a commercial flight from Mumbai rather than the charter arranged for him. He arrived at Goa’s Dabolim airport, as casual as before, in his signature bush shirt and trousers. And before returning to his curtailed routine, the CM stopped for prayers at his family deity, Devki Krishna, in Panaji. Parrikar is still not fully okay, though, the fatigue from dealing with his condition is evident. “I will work for 6 to 7 hours daily with some rest. I won’t…

Sachin Pilot is taking no chances. Despite scoring victories in three crucial byelections in February, the Rajasthan Congress chief is aware that he needs to maintain the momentum till the state assembly polls in December. Winning the state, he knows, could potentially boost the Congress’s Lok Sabha prospects next year, not just in Rajasthan, but across several states. Currently out on his ‘Mera booth mera gaurav’ campaign, Pilot has already visited 17 districts in a bid to energise the 50,000-odd booth managers recruited by the party. His poll strategy has evidently drawn lessons from the BJP’s 2013 assembly poll successes. “He (Pilot) first takes feedback, understands the problem before offering advice or devising plans,’’ says a veteran Congressman who was once sidelined for his outspokenness, but has now been rehabilitated…

In this soccer season, most Indians are rueing the fact that a country of 1.3 billion people cannot produce 11 men to play in the football world cup. But that’s not the only field India lags in globally. The state of university education is another one. In ancient times, universities such as Nalanda and Taxila made India a centre of higher learning. Though there were many factors leading to a disruption of that historical legacy, the hard truth today is: of the 850 Indian universities, none features among the top 20 in any global ranking. The only solace is that 24 and 42 Indian universities found place among the top 1,000 universities of the world in the QS and the Times Higher Education ranking, respectively. The recently released QS Ranking,…

Judged by international standards, the quality of higher education in India—a few shining exceptions apart—has been unsatisfactory. Recent developments, fortunately, are showing rays of hope. Two years ago, I had the opportunity to observe some of our universities and colleges and the institutions that govern them as a member of the TSR Subramanian New Education Policy drafting committee (2015-16). That the report never surfaced is an old story. Even so, the shortcomings we observed (then) were disheartening. Degree shopping, rote learning, mindless regurgitation—often bolstered by cheating—were the bane of the higher education system. Teachers’ unions held principals to ransom and students did not care if lectures weren’t held. The magnitude of political interference at the state level was staggering and seemed to be ruining the quality of education even in…

Micro and nano fluidics/ filtration research leading to new devices for energy, water, medical devices and chip cooling Advanced methods for design, verification and security, covering areas related circuit design, automotive application, railway safety Advanced research in climate change covering oceans, rivers, land, atmosphere, coastal belts, agriculture, water and other natural resources Geoscientific exploration results have enabled us to revisit history of the Indus Valley civilization, Varanasi, Puri, Chandraketu, revealing new insights Clean energy-related studies covering solar, bioenergy, hydrogen, batteries, electric and hybrid vehicles Research in autonomous vehicles, internet of things, artificial intelligence, data analytics, social and complex networks have revealed new insights in wide-ranging areas covering human behaviour, natural resources and engineered systems Rural and farming technologies have been developed, which have transformed lives in remote areas…

Last year, writing about Ranikhet, where she lives and from where she and her husband, Rukun Advani, run their independent academic imprint Permanent Black, Roy argued that “India’s impressive GDP growth figure is meaningless to people in the hinterland”. Telling the nasty, brutish and short life story of Jogi, a troubled taxi driver who hung himself from a deodar tree using his wife’s sari for a noose, Roy notes that a town like Ranikhet, mired in poverty and joblessness, is a “rural rat trap... With such hopelessness, the impulse for violence is a hair’s breadth away”. Some weeks ago, briefly in Delhi on the way to London for the release of her new novel All the Lives We Never Lived, in the incongruous setting of a coffee shop in a…

IT TOOK Joe Thomas Karackattu, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, two years and a 20,000-km-long journey to uncover the forgotten history of the Chinese of Kozhikode. But Guli’s Children, a 43-minute documentary and labour of love for the scholar, shows it was well worth the effort. Begun amid the fishing docks and mosques of Kozhikode, his search leads him to a remarkable discovery in small-town China. When he was a boy, the Chinese were an unexplained but ubiquitous presence—from Chinese silk and fishing nets to a Silk Street in Kozhikode, Karackattu tells us. “China could have been next door or thousands of miles away, but it was embedded into the daily life and vocabulary,” he says. He traces the journey of the Chinese traders of…

THE BALLAD OF AYESHA Inam Ahmed renders Anisul Hoque’s Bengali novel Ayeshamangal into English. The story of Ayesha, who learns that her husband has been sentenced to death, but not whether he’s been actually executed. THE LORD AND MASTER OF GUJARAT Continuing the boom in literary translations, this is the second book in K.M. Munshi’s Patan trilogy. THE CLAY TOY-CART One of the foundational works of Sanskrit drama, Shudrak’s story of a courtesan who falls in love with a broke merchant was the inspiration for Girish Karnad’s Utsav.…

Ten winning letters from the India Today Woman online poll will receive L’Oreal Paris products. Winners will be notified by email. Letters may be edited for space and clarity. TO WIN MORE EXCITING PRIZES CHECK OUT OUR NEXT QUESTION OF THE MONTH AT WWW.INTODAY.IN NO It’s only a perception It has always been thought that women are more inclined towards arts and humanities, the so-called less technical subjects. But that’s not the case. Times have changed and things are very different now than they used to be. Women today are not only studying science at the undergraduate and postgraduate level but are also taking it up as a career option and are training to be physicists, scientists and researchers. So, it is a field slowly and steadily being taken over…

“DON’T BE AFRAID OF STARTING IN A NEW DIRECTION” Radhika Chopra FOUNDER, NO. 3 CLIVE ROAD, DELHI threecliveroad.com When she was 14 years old, she was involved in a car pile-up that left her neck shattered. Paralysed from the neck down, she spent a year learning to walk again, and had to start writing with her left hand. That same year, she graduated as valedictorian of her high school class. But it’s typical of Radhika Chopra that this story is the last thing she mentions as you prepare to leave her home. FROM THE ARTWORK ON THE TEA TINS TO EXPLAINERS ABOUT EACH BLEND, CHOPRA IS INVOLVED IN DRIVING EVERY ASPECT OF THE BRAND Chopra comes from an adventurous Sikh family and moved to the US when she was nine…

The first woman CEO of a private bank in India, she retired as chairman of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation India in 2015 but that has only spurred her onto greater things. As chair of the FICCI Sustainability Energy and Water Council as well as the India Sanitation Coalition (ISC), Naina Lal Kidwai is spearheading much-needed collaboration between corporate India and non governmental organisations to ensure that India does not merely reach its goal of becoming open defecation free by 2019 but goes beyond by treating its faecal waste, and creating wealth for an army of new entrepreneurs. She has poured a lifetime worth of learning for anyone who wants a cleaner, healthier nation into her new book, Survive or Sink: An Action Agenda for Sanitation, Water, Pollution and Green…

The changing designs and colour palettes influence flower trends every year. With 2018 seeing a shift from the lively and enigmatic Pantone green to a dramatically provocative and thoughtful shade of purple—the ultraviolet, the colour forecasting company couldn’t get any better as the hue is associated with inspiration, meditation, mindfulness, tranquillity and royalty. Coming home to such an ambience is inspiring. Here are a few suggestions on how you can create a mesmerising look in your living space with shades of purples. BUILD UP DRAMA WITH FLOWERS such as pansies, iris, phlox, hydrangea, vanda orchid, petunia, verbenas, freesia and agapanthus. These floral beauties when combined with classic whites, greys and beiges, will provide the right amount of contrast and drama without being too distracting and loud. VIOLET CAN SPRUCE UP…

I was always taught not to question our elders. They knew best. And I had to follow. So, when religion and godmen were introduced into my life at 18, I knew not to question, but to stay in awe and follow the commands. That was 25 years ago. Not much has changed today. We follow godmen blindly because we are taught to believe that whatever they’re saying and doing is best for us. But are they truly? Today, we are all looking for spirituality. Something that gives meaning to this existence that is beyond failure, disease, unhappiness or even money, for those who have it. We have faith, but what can we do with it? Who will guide us? And suddenly, the demand for godmen is created. And unlike with…

ANICA KOCHHAR, 35 ARCHITECT AND FOUNDER PHENOTYPE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO, DELHI WWW.PHENOTYPE.IN Anica Kochhar was 11 when she realised her love for architecture—with the lines and drawings that make a structure complete and composite—and decided to pursue the subject seriously. Armed with a bachelors degree from the Pratt Institute, New York, she started working with architecture firm Morphogenesis when she returned to India. She went on to do her masters in urbanism at the Architectural Association, London, and decided to launch Phenotype Architecture Design Studio soon after. With a portfolio of projects ranging from residential architecture, pre-fabricated construction to retail and restaurants in Delhi, as an architecture firm they take thrie design cues from the site’s constraints and client’s brief. “This allows us to play, push, experiment and also shed…

SACHIN BANDUKWALA, 40 AND MELISSA SMITH, 34 FOUNDING PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT AND PARTNER, BANDUKSMITHSTUDIO, AHMEDABAD WWW.BANDUKSMITHSTUDIO.IN If you are looking for a fresh approach to architecture and design that also looks into the impact it makes on the environment and its surroundings, head straight to banduksmithstudio in Ahmedabad. Established in 2011 by Sachin Bandukwala and Melissa Smith the studio ‘works with the processes of construction, and materials available, to create a design that fits perfectly in each particular location and the surroundings in which it is placed’. “Our work engages processes of making through built projects that explore the boundaries of material and craft in the context of contemporary Indian construction. Projects come at any scale, and the practice shifts from furniture and object design, to interiors, renovations, additions, and residential,…

There is something about a Khosla Associates design that makes you stop and take notice. Maybe it’s the way it seamlessly interacts with its surroundings, or the fact that it is a melting pot of vernacular and contemporary architecture, or perhaps because a building is viewed as more than just the sum of its parts. The Principal Architect, Sandeep Khosla studied architecture at Pratt Institute, New York. Upon returning to India he worked as an associate with architect Charles Correa in Mumbai before establishing his eponymous firm in 1995. In 2000 he was joined by Amaresh Anand, a graduate of BMSCE College Bangalore, who is currently a director at the firm. The duo have a large body of work ranging from private residences and corporate offices to retail and hospitality…

olour is what gives interiors their character. Most spaces come alive with new energy as a coat of fresh paint can give the room an instant makeover. Similarly, a bright-hued accent piece or furniture can transform the living space without much effort. Warm tones add drama and personality to a room and are preferred in some climates while cool colours convey a sense of calm. Our experts help you decode colours for your home. LIVING IT UP The living room is where you entertain guests. The colours you use here help set the tone. The quickest way to revamp this space is by painting the walls. Asian Paints, for example, declared Passion Flower as the colour of the year. The shade is an amalgamation of warm mustard and radiant amber…