Innholdsfortegnelse for December 28, 2020 i India Today

In a move designed more to buttress her socialist credentials than for any compelling economic reason, Mrs Indira Gandhi nationalised 14 of India’s largest private banks, which held 85 per cent of the country’s deposits, in 1969. Over the years, these nationalised banks have deepened bank penetration in the rural hinterland and increased credit to agriculture, although some have argued that this could just as well have been achieved by exercising social control over private banks. Meanwhile, the collateral cost to the Indian economy has been enormous as it set in motion a gravy train on which politicians and crony businessmen have taken a free ride ever since. There have been loan melas where banks were forced to extend credit with little chance of recovery, thanks to electorally-dictated populist compulsions.…

Vijay Mallya Former Chairman, United Breweries and former owner, Kingfisher Airlines The case. Owes Rs 9,000 crore to 17 Indian banks; charged with fraud and money laundering Banks involved. SBI, PNB, IDBI, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, among others Nirav Modi/ Mehul Choksi Founder, Nirav Modi/ Promoter, Gitanjali Gems The case. In a Rs 14,000 crore scam (as of 2018), they took credit from overseas branches of Indian banks on the basis of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking and Letters of Credit issued by PNB’s Brady House branch Bank involved. PNB Rana Kapoor Co-founder, YES Bank The case. Arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2020 in a money laundering and banking fraud case involving Rs 4,300 crore Bank involved. YES Bank Chanda Kochhar/ Deepak Kochhar Former MD and…

The Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, promulgated in Uttar Pradesh, states that no person shall convert or attempt to convert through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, allurement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage. If a marriage is conducted for the sole purpose of an unlawful conversion or vice-versa by a man of one religion with a woman of another, it shall be declared void. All offences under the ordinance are cognisable and non-bailable. A person who desires to convert must give a notice of at least 60 days to the district magistrate that the same is being done without force, coercion, undue influence or allurement. The person performing the conversion will also have to give a month’s notice. The burden of proving that the conversion…

Any couple, irrespective of religion, may marry under the Special Marriage Act, 1954, applicable in the entire country. A notice must be sent to the marriage registrar 30 days before the scheduled date of the marriage. All details provided to the marriage officer are published in a notice and displayed at the marriage office. The details include the couple’s names, their dates of birth, ages and occupations, parents’ names, and their addresses and phone numbers, along with their photographs. Any person can raise an objection to the proposed marriage during the 30-day period. If the marriage officer upholds the objection, the couple can appeal in a district court within 30 days of such a refusal. The decision of the district court shall be final in the case. Experts argue that…

HOMEMADE Netflix An anthology shot in the lock-down. Recommended—The Lucky Ones, Couple Splits Up While in Lockdown LOL & Penelope COFFEE & CIGARETTES YouTube Directed by Jim Jarmusch, the anthology, all black-and-white vignettes, features some delightful conversations SMALL AXE Amazon Prime International Steve McQueen directs five films centred on the lives of London’s West Indian community between the late ’60s and the early ‘80s THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS Netflix The shorts by the Coen Brothers feature their trademark blend of gritty violence and dark comedy…

Biswajit Chatterjee Seen in films like Mere Sanam (1965), Do Kaliyan (1968) and Sharaarat (1972), he usually starred opposite renowned actresses like Asha Parekh, Waheeda Rehman, Mumtaz Rakhi She debuted in Bollywood with Sharmeelee(1971).Her other hits includeHeera Panna(1973),KabhiKabhi (1976) and more Mithun Chakraborty Debuted with Mrinal Sen’s Mrigaya (1976) but followed it up with commercial films like Disco Dancer (1982) and Gunda (1988) Sharmila Tagore Debuted with Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar (1959) and followed it up with Hindi hits, like Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), Aradhana (1969) and more Suchitra Sen She ruled the screens in Bengal for over 20 years and was part of the golden duo with actor Uttam Kumar. Her cult hindi filmsinclude Devdas (1955), Mamta (1966) and others Utpal Dutt Aa pioneering figure from the modern Indian…

Q You have over 300 films to your credit. What does it take to stay in the game for 40 years? It’s the audience’s love that has kept me relevant. What’s also important is how passionate one is about their work. When you start out, there is a lot of hunger, but once you get success, it vanishes. I, though, do every film like it is my first. I work with languages, dance, body language and facial expressions; it’s the variety, the masala which has ensured I endure. Q How much do you ad lib when you act? Without our input it won’t happen. Writers and directors want me to elevate the words and make them my own. It is part of the system now. In Baazigar, one of the…

On December 15, Covid cases per million in Uttar Pradesh were 2,781--much less than the country’s average of 7,300 A total of 390 testing labs are currently conducting Covid tests in UP, including 258 government and 132 private labs; UP has become the first state in the country to do more than 20 million Covid tests The rate of the RT-PCR test in the state has been fixed at Rs 700—the lowest in the country In all 75 districts of UP, Covid patients are being monitored via the Integrated Covid Control Room equipped with a ‘facility allied desk’, ‘home isolation desk’, ambulance desk, ‘public grievance desk’ and ‘doctor support desk’ Covid patients in UP are being treated in 62 level-1 hospitals, 494 Covid Care Centres, 95 level-2 hospitals and 26…

India’s banking sector is frequently under the spotlight, and usually for unflattering reasons—from an insupportable pileup of loans gone bad (non-performing assets or NPAs in banking parlance) to outright fraud to cronyism or worse. The rot is endemic, has hit banks small and big—including some well-regarded names—and is by no means limited to the public sector. If government-owned banks like Punjab National Bank (PNB) and State Bank of India (SBI) have embarrassed themselves, names like YES Bank and ICICI Bank in the private sector have also made headlines for the wrong reasons. The list of banks of dubious honour is long, including, most recently, Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LV Bank), which the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) had to step in to bail out. The Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated the crisis…

Uttarakhand: The Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2018, says marriages for the sole purpose of religious conversion can be declared null and void if a petition is filed by either of the spouses. Himachal Pradesh: In 2019, the state enacted a law relating to conversions. It has a specific clause on conversions for the purpose of marriage or interfaith runaway marriages. The state is now mulling a separate law to curb religious conversions for marriage. Uttar Pradesh: The Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance, 2020, prohibits converting a person’s religion by marriage. The law makes a DM’s nod mandatory for such a conversion. Madhya Pradesh: The proposed MP Religious Freedom Act, 2020, prohibits conversion by marriage or any other fraudulent means. Karnataka: The BJP government has adopted resolutions for…

› On November 30, 2020, the Karnataka High Court held that liberty relating to the personal relationship of two individuals could not be encroached upon by anybody, irrespective of caste or religion › The Allahabad High Court, on November 11, 2020, said two adults were free to choose their partner. The two-judge bench said the high court’s judgments in two previous cases of interfaith marriages—wherein it had observed that “conversion just for the purpose of marriage is unacceptable”—were “not good law”. › In September 2019, a two-judge Supreme Court bench said it was not averse to interfaith and inter-caste marriages since such relationships promoted “socialism”. “If they marry each other under the law, why should there be problems?” observed the bench › In 2018, the SC upheld the right to…

Nikkhil Advani’s affinity for the authentic is well-established. As director of thrillersD-Day and Batla House, and producer of Airliftand LucknowCentral, Advani and his partners at Emmay Entertainment gravitate towards narratives rooted in reality. “Even if we do fictional, we tend to ask, ‘Who would this character be based on’?” says Advani. “It helps us see the story better.” Reality, though, is not how Advani found fame. That came as director of the KaranJohar-producedKal Ho Naa Ho. His cinematic journey, he says, began with assisting directors Saeed Mirza and Sudhir Mishra, known for their socio-political works. For Mumbai Diaries, the cast playing doctors and nurses underwent a medical workshop Advani is all set to make his web series debut in early 2021 with Mumbai Diaries: 26/11—a fictional story set against the…

IN 1956, historian and polymath Damodar D. Kosambi famously complained about “the straits to which the formal historian is reduced in India”, due to lack of material. For all the strides historians have made since, history has become an even more bitterly-contested discipline for political and ideological reasons. The figure of Abdur Rahim Khan towers above all acrimony over history—and not just because his influence spread across the reign of four of the six great Moghul emperors. In classical circles, he is ‘Khan-i-Khanan’, a powerful Mughal general, governor, statesman, polymath. In popular culture, he is one of Akbar’s ‘Navaratnas’ whose verses are part of school curriculums. But in folk memory, he is merely ‘Rahiman’ or ‘Rahim Das’, the Bhakti poet memorised and repeated for the earthy wisdom and emotional succour…

The protests over the contentious farm laws have derailed the BJP’s plans for elections in Punjab. First, the party’s oldest ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal, walked out of the NDA in September. And now the outrage of the state’s farmers has reportedly forced BJP chief J.P. Nadda to defer moves to induct defectors from other parties. Poll season kicks off in Punjab in February 2021, with campaigns for nine municipal corporations. Assembly elections are due in early 2022. Given the BJP’s weak rural base in the state, it will be interesting to see how its famed election machinery plays catch-up. Backdrop of Elections A picture of the Dakshineswar Kali temple as the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s virtual meet with Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev on December 11 has invited…

9,600 SQ. KM Total protected forest area in Rajasthan, about half the minimum 5% geographical area each state is required to have 3 national parks in the state (Ranthambore, Keoladeo and Mukundra Hills). Notifications to declare the Desert and Sariska sanctuaries as national parks pending because of existing human habitations 25 wildlife parks in Rajasthan, six conservation reserves THE HUMAN COST » Shifting 61 villages out of the 1,113 sq. km Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) in Ranthambore could create space for 25 additional adult tigers. Moving out 29 villages from the Sariska CTH can add 10 adult tigers to the existing population of 13. Governments are wary of displacing people for fear of losing their support—and vote. Relocation means loss of livelihoods and access to forest resources, which makes it…

THE PROBLEMS Unprofitability. Indian banks are among the most unprofitable in the world. Almost half of India’s banks were loss-making in 2019, according to Refinitiv data High NPAs. Worth Rs 10.4 lakh crore as of 2018, they severely constrict lending ability State ownership. Over 70 per cent of banks are state-owned, more than in most emerging markets Governance and HR issues. PSBs have CEOs on rotation, fewer incentives, less hiring flexibility to attract top talent Government obligations and interference in decision-making and running of banks Covid-19. NPCI data and Macquarie Capital research show that bounce rates on the NACH (National Automated Clearing House) platform stood at 40% in volume at October-end Poor credit outgo. India’s banks issue half of what China’s banks do. Outstanding bank credit has to double from…

➼ A 2013 study, based on the India Human Development Survey (2005), conducted by the University of Maryland and the National Council of Applied Economic Research, noted that 2.21 per cent of all women in the 15-49 age group had married outside their religion. ➼ In October 2005, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council alleged that 4,500 girls in the state had become victims of ‘love jihad’. In 2009, then Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy said 2,667 women had converted to Islam since 2006, but none was a forced conversion. ➼ A probe by the National Investigating Agency in 2018 examined 11 interfaith marriages in Kerala and found no proof of coercion. ➼ Of the 19,250 marriages registered in Delhi between January and September 2019, only 589 were interfaith. ➼ In…

Zee5’s upcoming howdunit Black Widows shows two of West Bengal’s most recognisable faces in one shot—Swastika Mukherjee and Raima Sen. Directed by Bengali filmmaker Birsa Dasgupta, the Hindi series stars Shamita Shetty, Mona Singh and Mukherjee as leads along with actors Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Sen and many other familiar Bengali actors. In one of his memorable roles this year, Chattopadhyay, who plays a sensitive young doctor in Clean Slate Films’ Bulbbul, released in June on Netflix, has just treated the young lady of a manor for a mystifying injury that has broken both her legs. When it is time to leave, the zamindar (Rahul Bose) says imperiously to Paoli Dam (the sycophantic sister-in-law) to ensure that doctor babu is suitably compensated. While Bose has long straddled the world of…

This summer, when migrant workers streamed out of India’s locked down cities, one of the recurrent images of their long walks to their home villages were the packets of biscuits that were, sometimes, all they had to eat, or that would be distributed by authorities and people from passing cars. In her latest book, The Biscuit: The History of a Very British Indulgence, historian Lizzie Colling-ham unwraps the complex history of this simple food item—both in terms of its role as basic sustenance, as in the workers’ marches; and the idea of a biscuit as a kind of civilisational nicety. The latter goes with the other image of biscuits in India: perennially perched on the chai saucer,a necessary accompaniment to the liquid life force that flows through government and other…