Innholdsfortegnelse for 28 March 2022 i India Today

Jobs are the lifeblood of an economy. High unemployment and soaring prices are like bad cholesterol that clogs the arteries of economic growth, causes immense misery to citizens and spells doom for political fortunes. The inconvenient truth for the Modi government is that the Indian economy had already been on the decline before the pandemic hit and almost went into rigor mortis when it did strike. Consider this: in the fourth quarter of 2019-20, just before Covid-19 set in, GDP growth had plunged to an underwhelming 4 per cent from the peak of 8.6 per cent two years earlier. The pandemic months saw an even steeper fall, with GDP growth for the 2020-21 fiscal year turning a negative 7.3 per cent. For the first time in 40 years, the economy…

AJIT PAWAR, Finance minister (NCP) CHARGE: Bought Jarandeshwar Co-op Sugar Mill for Rs 65.75 lakh, lower than the market price in 2010. Pawar says, “Let ED investigate, I was cleared of all charges” NAWAB MALIK, Minorities welfare minister (NCP) CHARGE: Bought a three-acre plot in Mumbai for Rs 75 lakh, lower than its actual price, from an aide of Haseena Parkar, sister of gangster Dawood Ibrahim ANIL DESHMUKH, Ex-home minister (NCP) CHARGE: Allegedly sent Rs 4.7 crore in extortion money to family-controlled trust, Sai Shikshan Sanstha ANIL PARAB, Transport minister (SS) CHARGE: Illegally constructed a palatial resort on farmland in hometown Ratnagiri PRAJAKT TANPURE, MOS, Urban development (NCP) CHARGE: Purchased Ram Ganesh Gadkari Cooperative Sugar factory in Nagpur at a price much lower than the actual HASSAN MUSHRIF, Rural development…

Job applied for: Non-technical categories in railways Total vacancies: 35,281; Total applications: 12.5 mn Rakesh left his home at Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh in 2015, a year after completing his graduation in chemistry from Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University. He hoped the exposure in national capital Delhi would help him get a secure government job that would do justice to his degree in chemistry. Seven years later, he is yet to land his dream job. In 2019, he was driven by desperation to apply for the non-technical popular categories of jobs in Indian railways such as guards, clerks and timekeepers. When results were announced earlier this year, he learnt he had been placed in a level-5 job, based on his performance in what he assumed to be a screening test.…

Job applied for: Optometrist in government hospital Total vacancies: 46; Total applications: 525 Aresident of Sirathu, a non-descript town in UP’s Kaushambi district, Rahul appeared for the 10+2 board examination (science stream) in 2012 and followed it up with a two-year diploma course in optometry from a private institute in nearby Prayagraj. He found employment as an optometrist in several private hospitals, but at a miserly salary of Rs 5,000 a month. Desperate, Rahul was always on the lookout for a government job. So, when the state health department started the process of recruiting optometrists for 46 posts, Rahul wasted no time applying for it. Unfortunately, he was not selected. And the government has not recruited any optometrist since. Staring at a bleak future, Rahul shifted back to his home…

Job applied for: Multi-tasking non-technical staff Total vacancies: 20,902; Total applications: 3 million He may be preparing for several competitive exams, including for the Bihar Civil Services, but Gulab has his heart set on the police sub-inspector’s post. This native of Akbarpur village in Nawada district has left the comfort of home—which has electricity, internet, television, home-cooked food and plenty of open space—to park himself in a 12ft x 8ft room at a boys’ hostel inhabited by a bunch of like-minded youth. Their company, he says, “helps him stay grounded and motivated”. In 2019, Gulab took the examinations for recruitment to the Bihar Police and the Staff Selection Commission examination, but could not clear either. “Government jobs are the only hope for students like us,” says Gulab, whose elder brother…

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) was set up in 1992 by a group of leading financial institutions at the behest of the Indian government. Among these institutions was the IDBI, or the Industrial Development Bank of India. CHITRA RAMKRISHNA (left), a trained chartered accountant, started her career as a management trainee at IDBI. Then IDBI chairman S.S. Nadkarni asked her to join the NSE’s founding team. In the initial years, Chitra would travel across the country trying to convince brokers to trade through the NSE. She was instrumental in setting up a pan-India V-SAT network, introduced internet trading and customised products for investors, soon transforming NSE into among the world’s top, modern exchanges. In April 2013, she became the first woman to head an exchange in India. In the three…

“I dare say that there isn’t much happening in the male actor space,” says Vidya Balan. “It is a better time to be a female actor today. Look at the kind of female roles you get to see. Every actress is doing interesting work.” Balan is undoubtedly on point here. From Deepika Padukone in Gehraiyaan (2022) and Alia Bhatt in Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) to Taapsee Pannu in the upcoming Shabaash Mithu, the present ubiquity of female protagonists seems proof that more women are being given the parts they need to flex their acting muscles. Over the years, as Balan won acclaim for performances in films like The Dirty Picture (2011) and Tumhari Sulu (2017), she championed the cause of female-driven narratives. One might even say it was Balan who helped…

Following AAP’s massive victory in Punjab, there was speculation that the party could be the new pivot around which an Opposition alliance coalesces. The Opposition parties, though, are still to warm up to the contender. Not a single top leader among them, including Congress’s Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, state chief ministers Mamata Banerjee, M.K. Stalin and Uddhav Thackeray, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, posted the customary congratulatory tweet. That said, despite the political hostilities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick to take to Twitter to congratulate AAP the day the election results came out. No Upper Berths? Before the scheduled organisational polls to elect the next Congress president, the grand ol’ party faces another crisis—ensuring Rajya Sabha berths for party veterans. In April, Anand Sharma and A.K. Antony…

Job applied for: Forest watcher, Kottayam district Total vacancies: 12; Total applications: 2,700 A. Basheer, from Poovar, a tourist village at the edge of Kerala, has been trying for a government job for 18 years. After a B.Com. degree, he has appeared multiple times in the examinations held by the Kerala Public Service Commission, the agency that handles public recruitments in the state. In 2018, he was ranked 187th in the list for the 400-odd posts for forest watchers in Kottayam district. But the PSC gave appointment advice memos to only three people in the merit list. The remaining posts were filled with temporary appointees. Basheer approached the Kerala High Court against the appointment of temporary forest watchers for the existing vacancies despite the valid merit list. The case is…

Job applied for: Senior secondary teacher Total vacancies: 31,000; Total applications: 1.6 million Bikaner resident Surabhi topped the Rajasthan Eligibility Exam for Teachers (REET) Level 2 for senior secondary posts in government schools. For just 31,000 jobs, 1.6 million candidates took the test conducted by the Rajasthan Board of School Education in September 2021. Being the topper turned out to be a nightmare as she was trolled on social media for cheating and started getting abusive calls. In February, CM Ashok Gehlot cancelled the examination amid allegations that around 300 candidates had access to the leaked paper The cancellation has not just stymied Surabhi’s hope for a government job, but also added another social pressure. “I am told that unless I make it to the top 10 again, it would…

THE URGENT CHALLENGE FOR MANN IS RESTORING THE CREDIBILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT AND BRIDGING THE TRUST DEFICIT WITH THE PEOPLE Ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the assembly election in Punjab, social media has been flooded with videos of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s past satires eviscerating politicians, bureaucrats and the police. The comedian-turned-politician is a master of the art of political satire; indeed, since 2014, Mann’s wit-laced oratory has created its own niche even in the Lok Sabha. But now that he is chief minister, the shoe is on the other foot. The burdens of running a government are upon him and, for once, he will be the target of satire and much more. On March 16, Mann took oath as chief minister at the native village of…

DR R.H. PATIL Founder, Managing Director, NSE The architect of NSE, he revolutionised and democratised stock trading. Died in 2012, aged 74 CHITRA RAMKRISHNA Former CEO, NSE Part of NSE’s founding team along with other colleagues from the IDBI, she rose to become its joint managing director in 2009 and was promoted to CEO in April 2013. While she transformed NSE into one of the most modern exchanges in the world in this time, she also started attracting allegations of corporate misgovernance. Currently under arrest and in CBI custody Former chairman, NSE Was part of the government committee set up in the late 1980s to suggest an overhaul of stock markets and was one of the members who recommended the setting up of NSE. A key member of the founding…

On March 13, Mumbai Police officers reached the Malabar Hill home of leader of the opposition Devendra Fadnavis to question him on the data leak case that had rocked Maharashtra in 2021. The case pertains to confidential data on the postings of senior police officers, allegedly obtained by the state intelligence department by tapping the phone calls of politicians and power brokers. This is the first inquiry the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance government government has initiated against the BJP leader and former chief minister, and is reportedly retaliation against central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducting raids on ministers of the ruling alliance. The police reaching Fadnavis’s doorstep was a reaction to a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) inquiry conducted on Sanjay Pandey, the new Mumbai police…

KHADYA SATHI Subsidised ration for all Annual outlay: Rs 5,000 crore Beneficiaries: 90 million LAKSHMIR BHANDAR Monthly income support for women Annual outlay: Rs 16,000 crore Beneficiaries: 16 million KRISHAK BANDHU & KISAN CREDIT CARD Crop insurance and loans for farmers Annual outlay: Rs 5,000 crore Beneficiaries: 6.2 million SWASTHYA SATHI Free health insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh a year Annual outlay: Rs 2,000 crore Beneficiaries: 75 million MATSYAJIBI CREDIT CARD A new loan scheme for fishing communities Annual outlay: Yet to be announced Beneficiaries: 600,000 (targeted) STUDENT CREDIT CARD Loans of up to Rs 10 lakh for higher studies Outlay: Rs 54 crore spent so far Beneficiaries: 14,000 so far…

Job applied for: Secondary/higher secondary teacher Total vacancies: 17,400; Total applications: 300,000 Jinat is among the droves protesting the delay in recruitment of school teachers in Bengal. The West Midnapore native, who’s married to a jobless PhD holder, has been waiting to land a secondary/higher secondary teacher’s job since 2016. One of 300,000 applicants for 17,400 vacancies, she never got a call, despite being on the merit list. Finally, in her second month of pregnancy, she joined the protests and suffered a miscarriage. Back at the demonstration site after having lost everything, she says: “I have nothing to fear anymore. My father is 65 and has suffered a stroke. I take tuitions to run my family.” The exam to select upper primary teachers, too, is in a mess — 14,339…

The arrest of Chitra Ramkrishna, former MD and CEO of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), on March 6 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the ‘Himalayan yogi’ and ‘co-location’ scams has turned the spotlight yet again on the fall from grace of the ‘queen of the bourse’. That’s how Forbes India had described Ramkrishna in 2013 when it chose her as the ‘Woman Leader of the Year’. In 2016, Business Today elevated her to its ‘hall of fame’ after listing her among the country’s most powerful women for over five years in a row. That was also the year her fall began, with the NSE board and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) finding serious governance lapses in the stock exchange she helmed, leading to her…

Few would have predicted that a nearly three-hourlong, A-rated heavy political drama on the persecution of Kashmiri Pandits by separatist militants and their subsequent exodus from the Valley in 1989-90 would become a blockbuster. Made on an estimated budget of Rs 15 crore, The Kashmir Files amassed around Rs 60 crore within five days of its release, with the collections growing by the day. Trade forecasts suggest that, at this pace, the film will collect Rs 300 crore. The Kashmir Files has struck such a chord with the audience that multiplexes are adding more shows to meet the demand and single screens are embracing the film, especially in the Hindi-speaking belt. Written and directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, best known thus far for Hate Story and The Tashkent Files, the…

Q. Compared to other gods and goddesses, is Shiva an easier deity to theorise? In some ways, he was more difficult to theorise. Other gods fitted neatly into the Vedic pantheon, but Shiva was always the outsider. The way he dressed, smoked, ate—was totally outside, totally beyond the normal. In the end, I think what led to him being accepted is the fact that he was all-encompassing. Q. Given our strong tradition of Shaivism, isn’t it odd that we do so little for those on the margins? Yes, that’s a national weakness. We have never had enough empathy for the backward. It doesn’t matter if for the past 75 years we have tried to abolish poverty, Covid has pushed many crores back into the lower income status. Even though this…