Sulabh Swachh Bharat (Issue-3)

NEW YEAR SPECIAL 2017

Delhi No. F. 2 (S-45) Press/ 2016

Vol-1 | Issue-3 | January 8, 2017 | Price ` 5/-

sulabhswachhbharat.com

EMPOWERING THE NATION

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COVER STORY

TOILET AT CENTERSTAGE Modi has brought toilets to the mainstream

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GIRL CHILD

PRIDE IN THE GIRL CHILD Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is the new mantra for nation

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QUARTZ

BILLIONAIRE CLUB

The movies which made entry in the exclusive club

INSIDE 1. TOILET

Toilets at the Centerstage 2. AADHAAR

Basis for clean economy

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3. DIGITAL PAYMENT

Digitalising Living

4. BLACK MONEY

Currency changed

5. JAN DHAN

People’s Own Account 6. SKILL INDIA

All About Skilling India 7. DIGITAL INDIA

India Goes the Digital Way 8. VFX

Revolutionising the Films 9. HINDI

Reviving the Lost Glory

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10. INLAND WATERWAYS

Routing the River

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11.COMMUNITY RADIO

The People’s AIR

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12. MOHALLA CLINIC

New Healthcare

13. MINORITIES

Modi for Minorities

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14. RURAL ELECTRICITY

Lighting Up Lives

15. GIRL CHILD

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

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16. HIGHER EDUCATION

Setting Standards

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17. RENEWABLE ENERGY

Scintilla of Self Sufficiency

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THAT WILL BLOOM IN 2017 India enters into 60th year of its independence with lots of hope and belief. We present to you 17 ideas which have the potential to realise the hope

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Robin Keshaw

ICTOR HUGO wrote the account of historic French coup d’état of 1851 in his book ‘Histoire d’un Crime’ (The History of a Crime). In the final chapter, he wrote “One can resist the invasion of armies; one cannot resist the invasion of ideas”. Due to this line, Hugo is often attributed with the quote – “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come”. History has been witness to manifestation of Hugo’s statement innumerable times.

The road to human progression is built of these innumerable ideas whose time came and they got realized. India has been a melting pot of ideas since time immemorial. Many of these ideas took years in making, while some of them are going through the trial by fire (read test of execution) to prove their mettle. Many of these are still in nascent stage, yet have an unbound potential. 2017 is going to be a crucial year for a lot of such ideas where they will start taking up a concrete shape.

In this special issue of Sulabh Swachh Bharat, we are focusing on 17 such ideas which have the ability to transform the nation in 2017.

IMPACTFUL IDEAS

One of the primary functions of a government is to correctly identify its citizens and ensure that government services are delivered to the right beneficiaries. India has struggled quite long at this; loopholes and leakages have been rampant. With existing infrastructure in right places, Aadhaar and Jan Dhan are two schemes which will bring a paradigm shift in governance in this country. Digital India will buttress the provision of services to every household and improve the data availability, which has been a pain point for the policymakers. Black money is another issue which has been plaguing India. Recent strikes of government against black money combined with a fresh impetus on digital ...Continued on Page 2

02 Cover Story Toilet

JANUARY 8, 2017

...Continued from Page 1

money will be having long term impact on the mindsets and attitudes of people.

Infrastructure forms the backbone of an economy. Few areas where India has perennially faced issues are energy and transport sector.

Renewed focus on renewable energy and inland waterways will have long term ramifications for these sectors respectively.

Infrastructural focus will create more employment opportunities for our youth. But, employability of our youth or rather lack of it has been another contentious issue.

Higher education has received a fresh lease of energy, while Skill India is preparing an army of skilled youth who will be job ready. IT sector has proved to be a job generation engine for many years.

One of its niche segments, VFX is bringing lots of capital and employment opportunities to Indian shores in recent times.Poor health, hygiene and sanitation have huge social and economic costs.

Delhi’s mohalla clinic is pertinent solution to the problem of universal health coverage. A World Bank study has pointed out that the economic burden of poor sanitation is almost 5.2% of India’s GDP. Toilet construction and related behavioral changes have caught the fancy of our nation like never before. With Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, gender empowerment is reaching far and wide. An umbrella of schemes is specifically targeting the upliftment of minorities, many of whom have been left behind earlier. Almost 70% of India lives in villages. Rural empowerment becomes imperative if India needs to surge ahead. As India takes long strides on its way to achieve 100% rural electrification, strong foundations of an empowered India are being laid. Information dissemination is another tool of empowerment for rural communities and community radio is playing an active role in this regard. Hindi has faced stepmotherly treatment for quite long.

A strong revival of the language is on the anvil, with people realizing its importance in societal development.

As we step into 2017 with renewed hopes and strong resolve, we will be witness to amalgamation of the impact they will be creating. We will be closely following their execution and assessing their impact to understand them better.

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TOILET

TOILETS AT THE CENTERSTAGE Toilets were once seen as nondescript structures. Recently, they have captured nation’s imagination and have become talk of the town

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Prasann Pranjal

OU must have seen Vidya Balan and Amitabh Bachchan campaigning for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Both the stars are focusing primarily on toilets in every house. It’s very important to have toilet at home but can you believe toilet can be responsible for disqualification of an electoral candidate? Or it can suspend someone from his or her job?

Can toilet be a deal breaker in marriages?

Or it can be a reason for felicitation by Prime Minister? Believe it or not all the above examples are true. India is witnessing all such incidents recently.

Toilets have become the talk of the town and it has captured the fancy of the whole nation.

In recent past, nomination of a panchayat by-polls candidate was

rejected just for the reason that he didn’t have a toilet at his home. According to Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Evam Gram Swaraj (Amendment) Rule, 2016, it is mandatory to have a toilet with running water in the residential premises; otherwise the person is not eligible to contest the panchayat elections. Santosh Pandram of Rampurmal village in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh was the first one in the country to face the brunt of state’s new Panchayat Raj amendment, 2016. A similar decree was issued by the Chief

PM NARENDRA MODI HAS PRIORITISED TOILET BEFORE WORSHIP AND GIVEN THE SLOGAN ‘FIRST TOILET THEN TEMPLE’ IN ONE OF HIS ADDRESSES TO THE NATION

Secretary of Jharkhand government. As per the regulation, all such state government employees who don’t have a toilet at their home by January 10th, 2017 would be suspended.

One more interesting incident from Madhya Pradesh came into light last year. Suraj Singh Gurjar, a resident of Siroh Madhya Pradesh was denied to take the marriage procession by helicopter in April, 2016 because he did not have a toilet in his house. The state administration gave him tough time and their clear message was ‘first make a toilet in your house then bring the bride by helicopter.’ Recently, lots of girls have denied to get married in family where they don’t have a toilet. Neha from Lucknow has set example by turning down her marriage proposal where there was no toilet at in-law’s house. This is not all; there is a provision

JANUARY 8, 2017

Some Major Steps Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched in 2014, with an impetus on sanitation Celebrities, activists, organizations, everyone is spreading awareness on toilet usage More than 2.5 crore toilets have been built with a amazing record breaking speed The target is to make our India a complete open defecation free country by 2019

Toilet Cover Story

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Toilets Reported

PM announced Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on 2nd Oct 2014 More than 2.5 crores toilet were built in various rural areas More than 1,10,000 villages have become ODF (open defecation free) Sikkim, Himachal & Kerala have acquired the status of ODF (open defecation free) states.

1,23,73,589

Haryana, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Punjab will be ODF by March 2017.

Toilet Built in 2016-17

1,35,546

No. of ODF villages declared Source: sbm.gov.in

of penalty for open defecation in several places in the country, including Madhya Pradesh. Lots of households have been denied government aid if they don’t have toilet in their houses.

Kunwar Bai, a 104 years old woman from a small village in Chhattisgarh became a living testimony of the proverb – ‘Where there is a will there is a way’. She sold all her goats, her only source of income, to build toilet in her house. Prime Minister Modi got so much impressed by her initiative that he not only felicitated her but also touched her feet. Now, Kunwar Bai has become a synonym for hygiene and cleanliness.

There is news coming in related to toilet building every day from several parts of the country. Toilets, which were never talked of much, have become the centre of discussion and appraisal now. Building toilet has become an important agenda not only for government and administration but also for the masses. One can recognise the importance of toilet and sanitation as PM Modi has prioritised toilet before worship and said ‘First toilet then temple’ in one of his addresses. The awareness towards the importance of toilet has spread due to the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’.

He laid emphasis not only to clean the surroundings but also to construct toilets which is a prerequisite for sanitation and hygiene. There is a plan to build around 120 million toilets by 2019 across the country. This will be done under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in order to become completely open defecation free country. The total plan outlay is worth Rs 1.96 lakh crores. It has shown its impact positively due to

the political will to prioritise the need of building toilets. Consequently, more than 2.5 crore toilets in rural and 25 lakh toilets in urban areas have been constructed within the span of two years. Whereas more than 1 lakh villages and around 400 cities are open defecation free today.

administration and locals. Due to this combined effort, the mission has resulted into a huge success story. Along with that, the process of getting grants for building toilets has been made easier and the amount of the grant which was 9,000 rupees earlier has also increased to 12,000 rupees per house hold.

WORK IN MEGA SPEED

CLEAN INDIA- GREEN INDIA

There is no doubt that prior to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, there were several schemes pertaining to this area. Many people had already built toilets in their households. This is equally true that the work had never been done at this speed ever before. There were only 32.70 percent families in rural areas who had toilets in their houses. The previous government in year 2005 and 2012 initiated programs like ‘Nirmal Gram Puraskar’ and ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ respectively for building toilets. It was sad that the output of those programs was negligible.

According to the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, in the year 2012-13, 46,72,235 toilets were built, whereas during the year 2013-2014, Presently, our mothers and sisters are forced 50,36,308 toilets were to defecate in open. Do we like this and is it built. Whereas till October not our responsibility to arrange for toilets at 31st, 2014, 13,82,420 toilets were built. It 2.5 CRORE TOILETS least? One task which I would like to begin means total 1,10,90,963 On Independence Day from today, is toilet in all schools of India and a toilets were constructed the ramparts of Lal Qila, the separate toilet for girls. When we stand here until 31 October, 2014. If Prime Minister remembered on next 15th August, we should be confident we look at progress speed Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of that there is no school left in the country of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, ‘Clean India’. Here he tried to without separate toilets for boys and girls. the speed of work is quite encourage all of us for realizing good.

Within the span of two the dream of ‘Rashtra Pita’. He NARERNDRA MODI years the number of toilets initiated Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on 15th August, 2014 speech built has reached up to 2.5 crores.

2nd October 2014. His idea is to The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a achieve the mission of cleanliness by collaborative effort of government, 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma.

Due to such initiatives of building toilets, states like Sikkim, Himachal and Kerala have acquired the status of ‘ODF’ i.e. open defecation free. Haryana, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Punjab are next in the pipeline to reach this target

by March 2017. Few other states are also thriving to achieve the same status.

In three states Mizoram, Meghalaya and Manipur eighty percent work of constructing toilets has been completed.

While West Bengal, Goa, Tripura and Arunanchal Pradesh are soon to reach 70 to 79 percent of its target.

PM Modi took oath on 27th may, 2014 and he announced Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on 2nd October 2014. In this short span of time this mission is touching new horizons of success.

Along with the initiatives of the government, cooperation of the local administration and awareness amongst people has given pace to this project.

The positive orientation of women has acted as booster for this project and they are actively engaging in its implementation. Regarding this issue the administration is strict and determined than ever before. Lot of behavior and mindset changes have been observed. If the work of toilet building continues at this pace, we will achieve the target of 100 percent open defecation free country before 2019.

04 Cover Story Aadhaar 2

JANUARY 8, 2017

AADHAAR

BASIS FOR CLEAN ECONOMY Though the people did not respond positively to the UID, the humungous numbers of card holders indicate that the benefits are showing

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Sharad Gupta

HIS was the big idea that was conceived and kickstarted by the Congress led UPA government but it was finally implemented by the BJP-led NDA government. And Prime Minister Narendra Modi is harvesting the fruits of Aadhaar number - created and issued

by Unique Identification Authority of India.

UIDAI was created in January 2009 as an organisation affiliated to Planning Commission of India with an aim to issuing one unique dentity number to each citizen thereby removing more than one identity and to enable easily and cost-effective verification of citizen’s identity. The first Aadhaar was issued on September 29, 2010 to a citizen of Nandurbar in Maharashtra. The number is issued only after biometric verification including iris and fingerprints and is issued free of cost.

Though Prime Minister Modi had some apprehensions of Aadhaar database being misused, but once convinced about its genuineness he harnessed its full potential - routing everything though Aadhaar be it food or LPG subsidies or railway reservation or bank account. This would mean, that the government now transfers the money meant to be given to a person whether it’s old age pension, LPG subsidy or even PDS subsidy - directly in to his bank account. This would rule out eliminate the role of middlemen.

And statements like - less than 16 per cent of government money trickles down to the people it is meant for - are fast becoming a thing of the past.

Earlier, to fulfill their KYC (know your customer) requirement as mandated by the government, banks used to ask for customer’s PAN (Permanent Account Number of Income Tax Department) before opening a bank account. But with barely four crore tax payers in the country, many people did not have a PAN. Aadhaar solved this issue as well.

With over 108 crore Aadhaar cards having been issued already, the scheme’s has covered almost 94 per cent adult

population of the country.

And that was why PM Modi was so sure about the success of his decision to demonetise 500 and 1,000 rupee currency notes. With almost everybody having a bank account been given a unique identity number, manipulating bank accounts won’t be easy, Modi must have calculated.

That he had planned well in advance for demonetisation, was clear when he asked banks to open Jan Dhan (zero balance) accounts with a debit card, for each and every person in the country.

Some economic thinkers had forecasted that with everyone having access to plastic money, the Government will reduce access to paper money. But, its extent - 86 per cent of entire currency in circulation - was hard to be conceived.

It might have been an area of concern that only 67 per cent children in the 5-18 age group and 20 percent of those aged zero to 5, were having Aadhaar number,

ANOTHER BOLD MOVE OF THE MODI GOVERNMENT IS TO CREATE THE EQUIVALENT OF AADHAAR OR A UNIQUE ID FOR NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS

but the fast pace at which Aadhaar number is being issued, it can be safely assumed that the day is not far when even children would be having their Aadhaar as soon as they take first few breaths in the world. Government figures show that approximately seven lakh Aadhaar numbers are being issued every day. That he was keen to introduce a cashless economy was indicated by his zeal to promote Aadhaar. At an elaborate meeting of officials of several ministries including IT, Petroleum, Finance, Banking, Agriculture and Rural Development, he had reviewed progress of the UIADA scheme and the benefits accruing out of it.

The meeting concluded that the ground situation was changing very fast and people had actually lapped up Aadhaar and benefits associated with it.

The Prime Minister was informed that more than Rs61,000 crore had been distributed to more than 30 crore

Congress’ programme of a unique identitifcation number for each person is being harnessed by BJP Pension, LPG, PDS subsidy and government money being directly transferred to a person’s bank a/c PM’s top level meeting concluded that the people had actually lapped up Aadhaar and its benefits

beneficiaries using the direct transfer system during 2015 alone. This included payments under the rural employment scheme or MNREGA, as well as subsidy benefits for LPG cylinders.

The meeting concluded that the government was making big savings because of far fewer leaks in the transfer of benefits, and that a major improvement has arisen from weeding out fake or duplicate beneficiaries. As many as 1.6 crore bogus ration cards have been deleted leading to a saving of 10,000 crore to the Government during last year. And linking MNREGA payments with Aadhaar, led to a savings of 3,000 crores- nearly 10 percent of the entire annual budget of the reform.

So far, 25.48 crore bank accounts, over 71 per cent cooking gas connections and over 45 per cent ration cards are linked with the identification programme. The UIDAI authenticates over 40 lakh transactions per day.

The total number of Aadhaar Enabled Payment System transactions has gone up to 10.76 crore as on March 31, 2016, as against 46 lakh logged till May 31, 2014. And after demonetisation, per day transactions are estimated to have gone past 20-25 crores.Another bold move of the Modi government is to create the equivalent of Aadhaar or a unique ID for non-governmental organisations or NGOs participating in state-run schemes. 71,000 NGOs have been registered so far.

As demonetisation decision shows, the Prime Minister is committed to implement tough economic reforms and he is even ready to put his entire political capital at stake for it. A bitter pill administered to a patient doesn’t endear him at the moment. The patient, however, does show gratitude after being cured.

Digital Money Cover Story

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people about digital transaction.

There has been a surge of digital payment platforms, especially after demonetization Infrastructure for cashless payment is becoming robust and pertinent education is being imparted Rural India is also investing itself in this digital mode of payment and reaping the benefits

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DIGITAL PAYMENT

DIGITALISING LIVING Cashless economy is being sold by the government and it is getting a a push from private players as well

F

Anupama Yadav

OR travelling in auto rickshaws or coming back from office in metro train, for education or for living with self respect to buy clothes or to sell paddy, paying electricity bills or buying veggies,now everything is easy without cash.

The television commercial MumkinHai (It’s possible)features a montage of consumers across age groups, economic strata and occupation, as the voice-over explains, various options such as downloading UPI app,e-wallet or dialing *99# on a feature phone or switching to AADHAR linked payments to go cashless.

The advertisement ends with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech urging people to become part of anti-corruption movement by making India cashless and go the Digital way.

Paytm,Mobikwik has shot up from 17 lakh, recorded on November 8 when demonetization was announced – to 63 lakh as on December 7, (growth of 271 per cent).

In terms of value, the surge has been 267 per cent from Rs 52crore daily to Rs 191crore now. Transactions through Rupaycards (e-commerce and point of sale) were up 316 per cent at 16lakh daily (3.85lakh on Nov 8).

According to UpasanaTaku, co-founder of Mobikwik, “Payment options are coming across many essential services which will give fillip to cashless economy.

Once customers develop habit of cashless payment it will be difficult to go back.”

MAHA-EXAMPLE To promote cashless transaction, Maharashtra Chief Minister was seen PAYMENT HICCUPS buying oranges through digital mode. He Mangal Kumar, a vegetable seller in also launched Maha-wallet to fight cash Indore has recently signed up with Paytm crunch post demonetization. but does not know how to operate a smart According to Amitabh Kant, CEO phone. He hopes that switching to digital NitiAyog, “To make India a Digital payment will boost his business but he payment country demonetization must has to depend on his cousin to help in his lead to minimal cash and over time India account. Similar is the story of Pawan, the must become cashless. Various methods only apparent hitch is lack of knowledge by which all transactions can be done to use their smart phones. digitally; there are wallets, prepaid cards According to government data the debits cards USSD by which one can use number of daily transactions through mobile AADHAR payment.” e-wallet services likes oxygen, A nation-wide toll-free helpline number ‘14444’ will be launched to educate people and provide support related to BANKS HAVE BEEN URGED TO cashless mode of transaction.

GIVE PRIORITY TO TRIBAL To educate people on digital VILLAGES FOR DIGITAL transaction, Ministry of Electronic and INITIATIVES AND BEEN Information Technology launched freeDIRECTED TO IDENTIFY VILLAGE to-air channel DigiShala which will be MARKETS WHERE DIGITAL available on Doordarshan DTH platform TRANSACTIONS CAN BE USED and Cashless India website to educate

GAUNTLET OF DIGITAL WALLET As currency disappears people are steering towards online options, doubling downloads of payment apps. Ironically, even the Kirana stores and investors alike now want to tie with digital wallet start ups.

Paytm and Mobikwik have together acquired 13 million new users in just 14 days and the numbers are surging each day. The ensuing cash crunch have led customers to steer towards digital wallets like those run by Paytm, Mobikwik,Citrus, FreeCharge, to pay electricity bills buy groceries from local kirana store owners or even pay a rickshaw puller.

Digital wallets are now shifting towards brick and mortar merchants and other online to offline sectors to expand their offline merchant network. Most players have announced zero transaction fees for merchants on mobile payments and waived off the fee on transferring money from wallets to bank accounts.

SBI has its own wallet service called Buddy, ICICI Pocket and HDFC bank ltd PayZapp, Ziggit by IDFC bank. Even the large telecom services like BhartiAirtel ltd and Vodafone India Pvt ltd too have mobile payment solutions. Airtel Money and Vodafone M-Pesarespectively targeted at their own customer base largely for mobile recharge and remittances.

Certainly, electronic wallets are becoming popular in India, along with the growth of e-commerce. A report of RNCOH a research firm, estimates that the business of e-wallet itself (not the business done through wallets) at Rs 350 crore currently that is expected to more than triple to Rs 1210 crore in 2019.

RURAL UTOPIA The Union Finance Minister has recently declared that tens of thousands of villages will soon be equipped with card swiping machines to boost cashless payments. To ease the frustration and speed up the switch to cashless spending a slew of measures were announced to incentivize the demonetization drive including cardswiping machines for villages.

There will be two point of sales machines provided to every village which has population 10,000 and 100,000 villages will be selected for this purpose.

This will benefit farmers covering atotal population of 750 million.

Information Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has asked banks to adopt villages and created awareness about digital payment in them. Banks have been urged to give priority to tribal villages for digital initiatives and been directed to identify village markets where digital transactions can be used.

06 Cover Story Black Money 4

JANUARY 8, 2017

BLACK MONEY

CURRENCY CHANGED, COUNTRY NOW Demonetization is a bitter pill introduced by the government to cure the country of many ills. Such strong decisions are laughed at in the short run; benefits will be reaped in the longer term only

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SSB Bureau

ONGRESS vice president Rahul Gandhi is planning to bring earthquake in the country. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee is planning a ‘brawl’. Mayawati is in mood to win elections before polling only. Kejriwal is searching for even tiny thread of corruption. Be it Lalu Prasad Yadav or Mulayam Singh Yadav , Shiv Sena’s Thackeray and communist leaders, all are sitting with stretched angry faces. The only reason behind their frustration is demonetization announced by PM on 8th November 2016. Due to this, there is a chaos everywhere. Citizens are standing in bank’s queue whereas opposition leader are busy in questioning the government.

Opposition is in attacking mood.

Winter session of parliament couldn’t run because of rumpus created by opposition on demonetization. Even the reprimand from President Pranab Mukherjee didn’t work. The elderly leader Lal Krishna Advani appealed, to let the parliament work. Nothing worked on the leaders who were busy opposing ‘demonetization’. Looking

On 8th of November, 2016, government decided to cease the usage of 500 and 1000 rupees notes It left everyone in helter skelter, right from the common man to the administrative functionaries The long term benefits of this scheme will benefit India in multiple ways in the future

at the attitude of these leaders, it is very much clear that opposition won’t let the house run before elections to be held in the five states.

This is the reason a few are comparing demonetization (notebandi) with sterilization (nasbandi). While few

others think this is a mega scam by the government. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is claiming that the money worth Rs. 8, 00, 00 crore money is involved in this scam. Although all these blame games and allegations has not changed the attitude of government towards demonetization and black money. It’s getting difficult for terrorists to work without money. They looted three banks in need of new Indian currency. After demonetization the stone pelters in the valley are bound to vanish. Even the Maoists and their movements are getting weak due to demonetization. Eight hundred bank accounts related to Maoists in Jharkhand are under scrutiny.

In the fight against black money, demonetization is going to act as a weapon. This is the reason opposition is not getting the whole courage to target it openly. Still, they are doing something or other to affect the mission of demonetization.Citizen of India are with PM Narendra Modi. This is why whether opposition parties are questioning against demonetization or they are protesting on road, they have not got success anywhere. Due to demonetization people are facing all kind of problems. Still they are supporting it. Congress and communists

IN THE FIGHT AGAINST BLACK MONEY, DEMONETIZATION IS GOING TO ACT AS A WEAPON. DUE TO DEMONETIZATION PEOPLE ARE FACING ALL KIND OF PROBLEMS. STILL THEY ARE SUPPORTING IT are trying to instigate the people. Till now all of them have faced failure only.

Here the question arises, Why Rahul Gandhi and other leaders are not ready to understand the scheme which is very much clear to the common man?

Situation after demonetization is difficult for both the government and the opposition. Especially PM is facing all kinds of challenges. Government is bothered about the long queue in front of banks. People are not supporting the opposition. So even they are going through tough time. Opposition is feeling more troubled because if through demonetization, government becomes successful to check black money. It will be a big add-on to the aura of PM. Here, it will get almost impossible for opposition to fight against him. Long back, when Indira Gandhi was the PM, Jyoti Basu had suggested her for demonetization. Now, his party men along with the Congress are against Demonetization.

Government was very much aware that demonetization is the only way for the disclosure of black money. This is the reason they had prepared themselves on many front. On one side, government is trying to gather information against corrupt bank officers who are involved in making black money white illegitimately. On the other hand, ED and Income Tax department is conducting raid at different places. Due to this, every day millions of black money is discovered from different part of India. Officers involved in the raid are getting black money from houses, offices and even from the washrooms.

CBDT chairman Shushil Chandra said, till now they have raided 291 places. Till now they have recovered Rs 302 crore in cash and jewellery, whereas they have recovered anonymous properties of around Rs 26000 crore.

Investigation is going on for the account in which two lakh or more has been deposited after demonetization.

People who have somehow deposited their black money in account are not at all safe. The message is quite clear, by hook or by crook, government is going to put halter on black money from getting white. Government has given last opportunity to the individuals involved in tax theft to declare their

JANUARY 8, 2017

money. Along with it, PM Modi has also announced Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana .This is to ensure that the money collected through demonetization will be used for the development of poor people.

Government has planted a seed of clean and developed economy. It is going to be fruitful by 2017. Large amount of black money gets invested in real estate. Government is aware of it from past many decades. In the year 1988, the laws were made to regulate it. Congress and its government never felt the need to notify it. Janta government came into power in year 1977 and then Prime Minister Morarji Desai had banned currency notes of larger denomination. This was also symbolic only, as they had declared it before hand only. After demonetization government is going to target anonymous properties. Prime Minister has himself admitted it. During his speech in Goa, he made it clear that his next target is going to be anonymous properties. In year 2017, government is going to work on it. In year 2017 only government is going to take steps against corrupt bank officers too.

With changing currency, the country will keep changing. PM has indicated it clearly. The truth of CDs of sting operations, against bank is with finance minister. This will also be revealed in 2017. Reserve bank has ordered other banks to keep the CCTV footage of bank after 8th of November. Till now story of mix-up has come out from few branches only.

In 2017 the government will investigate against it and then the whole muss created by the ‘gods of wealth’ will be identified.

People were presuming that government is not taking any big or harsh decision. On many issues government stepped back too. This was making this presumption even stronger. Demonetization has entirely changed the thought of people. Now, people are getting assured of government’s capability to take any kind of decision. The decision against black money could be harm the position of PM Modi. As people involved with black money are not going to like it anyway. PM himself is well aware of it. He wants to take this country in the direction of development and success. To achieve this mission, PM is walking on the path of challenge, danger and risk in this chilling winter. PM Modi wants to walk on this rough path of struggle because this is going to take the nation to the desired destination.

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Jan Dhan Cover Story

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JAN DHAN

PEOPLE’S OWN ACCOUNT When Modi government took decision to open Jan Dhan Account, a few made fun of this decision. With the passage of time its utility is very much visible Satyendra Singh

O

N October 8, 2016, PM Narendra Modi banned the use of Rs 500 and 1,000 note. It affected millions of people in India. Maniya Devi of Buxar District of Bihar had no clue what to do with her savings. She had managed to save a small amount from her earnings without letting the family know. Now she was in fix; if she gives the money to anyone else in the family, they would not return it.

After the initial shock was over, she realised that she was not so much in a soup. After all, she had a Jan Dhan account, and the government was saying that saved money could be deposited there. The boon of Jan Dhan account worked for her. When the government acted upon a strong Supreme Court order two years ago and brought this scheme, people had no idea how important it would be in the future. In January 2014, the Manmohan Singh government had brought a motion for demonetisation, but they couldn’t carry it through in the Parliament with the BJP and other opposition parties obstructing Parliamentary proceedings.

The Modi government, after coming to power in the centre in mid-2014, started Jan Dhan scheme. The government had planned to deposit all subsidies directly

How it will help the poor Account need not have minimum balance Interest on deposited money Rupees one lakh accident insurance Transfer of money all over India Account holders can enjoy subsidies directly Overdraft facility after six months Per family overdraft of Rs 5,000 Debit card facility for every account holder Life insurance up to Rs 30,000 Some Facts (figures in crore) Total accounts Rural area Urban area

25.83 15.76 10.07

A/c without money 22.96%

to these accounts. In this changing economic situation this scheme is going to be fruitful in many ways. Jan Dhan account definitely is going to help out people in government’s cashless economy idea. Most importantly, it’s going to be a tool to save the poor labourers from exploitation.

Around 250 million Jan Dhan accounts have been opened till now.

After demonetisation, poor people realized how the Jan Dhan account could become their savior Around 250 million Jan Dhan accounts have been opened so far, most of them in government banks As the number of accounts without cash reduces, the Jan Dhan scheme is going to be successful

Most of the accounts are in government banks while a few are there in private banks too. Though people could have opened their accounts on zero balance, yet, they deposited millions of rupees.

According to government’s data till November 8, 2016, around Rs 45,000 crore was deposited in these accounts.

Most of the accounts had a few thousand rupees. Banks had complained regarding this, and said there were hardly any regular transactions. Demonetisation has changed this woe of the banks, if not of the poor people who hold these accounts.

As the number of accounts without cash reduces, the Jan Dhan scheme is going to be successful. Although after demonetisation also, in 23 percent of Jan Dhan accounts there is not even a single penny has been deposited, accounts with a few thousand in them have now reached up to two lakh. The maximum amount allowed to be deposited in Jan Dhan account is Rs 50,000. In this case, the government is planning to bring schemes through which the additional amount will be transferred on the name of account holder. In this situation, it’s going to be great help the poor.

08 Cover Story Skill India 6

JANUARY 8, 2017

SKILL INDIA

ALL ABOUT SKILLING INDIA Education is significant but applying them to practical work requires skill

the target under PMKVY and state government for the remainder. The centre will allocate 25 per cent of the approved expenditure to the states.

According to Skill Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, this is a big step towards empowering the youth, with more effective training and robust monitoring.

The Union Government allocated around Rs 5,040 crore for skill development across ministries in budget 2015. Certainly, it is an indispensable step for expanding the mission of skill India.

Apparently, most of the job seekers going for skilling programmes are from rural India. Under the existing government-funded programmes, they usually undergo short duration (twothree month) training in sectors such as retail, hospitality, information technology-enabled ser v ice, construction, etc. Notably, many of

IN THE LAST FISCAL, UNDER PHASE 1 OF PMKVY THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TRAINED AROUND 1.97 MILLION PEOPLE AGAINST A TARGET OF 2.4 MILLION Anupama Yadav

“R

AKESH Kumar comes from a poor family, and even after completing his graduation he did not get a job, leading to which he fell into depression. But his despondency vanished when his friend told him about Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and various courses taught under this scheme to help people like him.

“I visited the institute along with my friend and saw how skill training is imparted by professional trainers. I took admission in electrical course and now after 40 days of my training, I have learnt a lot. Now I can do 2BHK house wiring, 3BHK house wiring and industrial wiring on my own. I am confident to have bright future ahead of me and a job of my choice,” says Kumar.

Similar is the story of Rukmani in Dhaulpur village of Rajasthan who found her new life through stitching garments. “Before starting the stitching school, we were given training for seven days. We were also given a sewing machine and taught how to use it.” The woman here stitches finished garments which fetchs them independence as they earn 7000 per month.

APPLIED EDUCATION Education is significant but applying them to practical work requires skill.

Obtrusively, it is not taught as a degree programme. The colossal mismatch between education, employability and employment has been lurking in the face of the country since the advent of modern education system.

The country has a vast population of educated people who are jobless The reason behind this is that our education system is not much job-oriented The Ministry for Skill Development was created to capitalise India’s demographic advantage

The first and the foremost step that the current incumbent government took in shaping the skills landscape was the creation of separate Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, which in the last one year has invested heavily on restructuring and re-energizing the skill ecosystem in the country. It has made some significant efforts in ensuring coordination and convergence across all initiatives and schemes that were active in the skill ecosystem. The year 2014 saw the launch of ‘Skill India’ led by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to leverage the potential of India’s aspiring youth thereby equipping them with skill required to acquire sustainable livelihood. In just 15 months, MSDE has made great strides in streamlining and reinvigorating India’s skilling ecosystem.

The ministry was created to capitalise India’s demographic advantage and has so far seen 73 per cent jump in its allocation. In comparison to China, which has 80 per cent skilled workforce, the National Sample Survey Organisation shows India has just four per cent skilled workforce.

CENTRAL CONCERN The central government will be responsible for meeting three fourth of

them get placed with urban employers such as retail stores, restaurant chains, housekeeping or domestic business process outsourcing firms in cities such as Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.

PRACTICAL CALL The NDA government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to expand the opportunities for those all set for employment, to meet the requirement of industry which has often complained that the potential recruit do not possess required skills.

Notably, Cabinet has approved National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme under which five million people are to be trained by 2019-20 at the cost Rs 10,000 crore. Under PMKVY, six million people will be trained for handling specific jobs and 4 million certified as possessing vocational skills required for employment in industries under the recognition of prior learning programme.

In the last fiscal, under phase 1 of PMKVY the central government trained around 1.97 million people against a target of 2.4 million. As the structures become more robust and the feedbacks are incorporated, Skill India will prove to be a brilliant tool for harnessing the demographic dividends.

JANUARY 8, 2017

7

Digital India Cover Story

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DIGITAL INDIA

INDIA GOES THE DIGITAL WAY PM Modi has dreamed of an improved life for the citizens of India and better administration with the help of digital technology. Digital India is the vehicle Prasann Pranjal

D

AYA Shankar Upadhyay, a resident of Mirza Pur, Uttar Pradesh, had to wait for his turn for long in order to sell his paddy crop in the market. Sometimes he also had to depend on the middle men. But now he feels hassle free due to the e-kray Pranali (Electronic purchasing system). It allows him to purchase an online token and sell the crop as per the token number. Therefore zero wastage of time and no traps of middlemen.

Ram Kripal Sahni who lives in Jhanjharpur, Bihar and has come for a treatment in AIIMS feels at ease by getting online appointment with the doctor through e-health facility. He only visits AIIMS as per the schedule fixed by the doctors and not all the time standing in the queue outside the hospital. Not long time back it was like a dream beyond reach for people availing such facilities sitting at home but the Government of India has made this dream transform into reality through its Digital India policy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated this ambitious programme on 1st July 2015 which aims at connecting all rural and urban areas with t h e internet.

BUSINESS TRANSPARENCY

The Digital India programme will be a stepping stone in digitalizing every work, bring about changes in every spectrum and to make the country future ready.

Its main purpose is to convert the current system of the country into e-economy. The policy lays higher

PM NARENDRA MODI HAS DREAMED OF EMPOWERING THE PEOPLE OF INDIA THROUGH DIGITALIZATION THE DAY HE HAS TAKEN THE CHARGE OF THE GOVERNMENT AT THE CENTRE

emphasis on bringing transparency in the administerial works of government and making it more effective. It also tends to put the bureaucracy culture to an end and connect all the government departments with each other digitally so that it works for the people more efficiently. More work will be done through e-kranti and e-governance. The main projects in this line are DigiLocker system in which the documents will be put online. Programmes such as mygov. in, Swachh Bharat Mission are available on the mobile phones through apps.

Online registration is available through e-hospital facility; National scholarship portal is the easiest way for students to gather all the information regarding various scholarship programmes. The high-speed digital highway

i.e. Bharatnet will connect 2.5 lakh panchayats with each other. Work on eeducation is in progress to make the education system better and give a boost to online education. To stop the cases of forgery through fake signatures

Benefits

Digital India programme spans across multiple sectors of governance and administration It will lead to new employment generation and better delivery of services The high-speed digital highway, Bharatnet will connect 2.5 lakh panchayats with each other.

Broadband highways Smartphones for all Internet access for all E- Governance E- Kranti (Electronic revolution) Information for all Employment opportunities Policies to make India future ready

the government is now promoting e-signature. Better internet accessibility through wi-fi and next generation network is one of the core agenda of the government.

TRANSFORMING INDIA Wi-fi facility will be made available in 2.5 lakh academic institutions and all universities in the country by 2019. It will cost Rs 13,000 crore and will create job opportunities directly for 1.7 crore people and indirectly for 8.5 crore people across the country. 2.5 lakh villages will get the facilities of high internet and universal phone connection. 4 lakh community internet access points will be developed. Around 1.7 lakh people will get training and employment opportunities in the fields of IT, telecom and electronics.

E- Governance and e- services facilities will be implemented in all the government departments.

PM Narendra Modi has dreamed of empowering the people of India through digitalization the day he has taken the charge of the government at the centre.

The dream of Digital India seems to be a reality very soon through digital revolution in the country. There will be internet in every village, all facilities will be available online, no tension for signing zillions of documents, school bags will be lighter, no serpentine queues outside hospital, no delays in government work and ultimately no corruption because India goes digital!

10 Cover Story VFX

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JANUARY 8, 2017

VFX

REVOLUTIONISING THE FILMS Indian movies are getting out of the closet and experimenting heavily with VFX. India is becoming a hub for the visual effects and animation industry Geeta Singh

W

HY Did Kattappa Kill Bahubali? This question had taken the social media by storm since the film’s release. Telugu director S S Rajamouli achieved international fame by his magnum opus epic Baahubali: The Beginning. Despite the fact that the story of the film was told countless time in different movies but the visual grandeur of the film Bahubali in almost every scene, be it the waterfalls, the song sequences, the castle scenes or the war field visuals made it an epic

CGI (COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGES) IS ALSO ADDED TO THIS VFX TECHNOLOGY. CGI INVOLVES MODELLING 3D OBJECTS IN A COMPUTER AND RENDERING OUT IMAGES OF THOSE OBJECTS

blockbuster. The movie certainly created a new yardstick for VFX in Indian cinema and was a solid answer to the likes of Hollywood blockbusters viz Avatar, 300, Lord of The Rings, etc.

Movies such as Dhoom 3, Kabali and Sultan in the Indian film industry are making increased use of VFX technique.

TERMINOLOGY VFX means special visual effects images that are created in post production. In essence, they are any image that appear in a film that could not be photographed during primary cinematography for whatever reason. Examples of VFX

would be fantasy creatures whose physiology makes it impossible to create them, sets that are too large and expensive to build physically or stunts that are so dangerous it’s safer to produce them in post production via various means. Visual effects encompass any kind of effect that wasn’t shot directly in the camera and was created in post production.

Notwithstanding, the Hollywood movies have been using visual effects since a long time. But that time these effects were created by combining multiple elements together to create the illusion that they were shot by the same

VFX is increasingly becoming part of the movies and TV shows in Indian entertainment industry VFX industry has a huge potential for employment generation as well as capital investment Most filmmakers have started expanding their horizons by thinking and writing scripts around VFX

camera at the same time. These days this is entirely done with a computer but it is used to be done using a technique called optical compositing, which involves exposing multiple layers of film together.

CGI (CGI means Computer Generated Images) is also added to this

JANUARY 8, 2017

VFX Cover Story

VFX HAVE BEEN SEEN IN LEADING BIG BUDGET FILMS (100 CRORES PLUS) LIKE BAHUBALI, SULTAN, KABALI, RA.ONE, KRISH, DHOOM 3, READY AND GOLIYON KI RAASLEELA - RAMLEELA

VFX technology. CGI involves modelling 3D objects in a computer and rendering out images of those objects.

The elements that are used in visual effects include the live action plates shot on set, separate practical elements shot with the camera, like explosions or fire, models and miniatures, or elements generated with a computer. So CGI is a part of the visual effects process. There are plenty of visual effects shots these days that are created entirely with CGI elements but we would still call it visual effect shot.

INDIAN PRODUCTIONS Salman Khan’s Sultan was almost like a storm at the box office. With 300 crores earning at the box office, the film is so far the highest grosser of 2016.

Considering the fact that this film was based on wrestling, its scale was obviously larger than any other Bollywood film. While Salman Khan too worked hard on his body but the VFX also played an important role in bringing to you what you really saw on the screen.

When Sultan’s producer Yash Raj Films released the VFX break down of blockbuster on social media it left everyone stunned. Had it not been for VFX, the feel throughout the movie wouldn’t have been the same. Earlier too, VFX have been seen in leading big budget films (100 crores) like Bahubali, Ra.One, Krish, Dhoom 3, Ready and Goliyon ki Raasleela - Ramleela. These productions are reckoning highly on VFX and CGI technique for its success and popularity.

Director Rajamouli roped in National Award Winner V Srinivas as a visual effects supervisor for Baahubali. The film boasts of 90% CGI work which accounts for 2500 VFX shots. Makuta VFX based in Hyderabad was chosen as principal visual effects studio and was responsible for more than 50% of the computer-generated imagery in the film.

GAINING MOMENTUM Although, not as popular as the global post-production industry, but with around 300 animations, 40 VFX and 85 game development studios and more

11

than 15,000 professionals working in this space, we have certainly started gaining momentum in this space. Jeremy Lee, senior lecturer in Animation and VFX, Sheffield Hallam University says, “I believe that the animation and visual effects industry in India has a very optimistic future, not only with the film industry but also gaming companies which are always looking for a talented, young and enthusiastic workforce.”

Significantly, the VFX industry in India, at present, is being pegged at Rs 43.5 billion and is expected to grow significantly to Rs 87.1 billion by 2020.

This indicates that the movie-making value chain is moving towards a transformation and the Indian media

and entertainment industry is set to realise enormous possibilities opened

by VFX, both for domestic films as well as for outsourced projects from the West.

TRP GRABING FUNDA FOR TV Previously, horror and mythological serials like Mahabarat, Aahat were very popular but had very poor quality of special effects. Even good story lines were killed due to poor quality of the scenes. Taking a cue from Bollywood, which has progressed much in recent years in terms of VFX quality, the Indian TV industry too is now pumping a lot more money and energy into VFX. With genres such as supernatural and

mythology being received fairly well, the industry appears to be determined to feed the audience with a superior quality of special effects.

Some of the recent shows have taken many by surprise with their VFX quality — cases in point are Siya Ke Ram, Naagin, Nagarjun, Brahmrakshas, Yeh Hai Mohabbatein and Chandranandini.

According to the creative director Sandiip Sikcand, VFX is another expression of the growing power of the small screen. He is a creative director of Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. Sandiip says, “Television has become a larger medium of telling stories and as creative directors, we are always looking at ways to enhance the quality of storytelling.”

In the time when TV serials are finding difficult to get loyal viewers production houses are finding VFX a successful mantra to get popularity.

Amid tight schedules and fixed deadlines, VFX is very time taking and expensive technology for daily soaps yet producers are ready to take this risk.

Daily soap director Rohit Raj states, “Earlier VFX was very expensive and expertise was hard to come. But these days there are a lot of people doing it.

Just the last three-four years have seen Bollywood films make major use of VFX. Films like Baahubali have made VFX in the mainstream medium. And because TV has a trend of copying the film industry, so this is a natural progression for the small screen.”

Vertexvolt, leading VFX studio, which has done VFX for leading epic serials like Mahadev, Hatim and Siya Ke Ram starts working intensively for more than 9 to 12 months before the serial goes on air. VFX designer Hardik Gajjar says, “We have teams of 130 people each, who work two shifts, so that the VFX is ready in time for telecast.” He said, “For Siya Ke Ram my team started working eight months before the show went on air.”

Adding to TV medium and after successful animated versions like Chhota Bheem and Bal Hanuman VFX has an immense potential to convert comic book cartoon characters like Chacha Choudhary and Sabu into games and animation. Witnessing the rising confidence of both Indian and international filmmakers in Indian postproduction studios, the future seems brilliant for domestic VFX artists and the industry at large.

12 Cover Story Hindi 9

JANUARY 8, 2017

HINDI

REVIVAL OF THE LOST GLORY Hindi is spoken by a large number of people worldwide. Its glory faded in the din of globalization. Slowly, it is reviving its lost charm

There are different variants of Hindi in the form of Rajasthani, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, etc Hindi is gaining grounds in the academic circles of foreign universities and research centres Digital and media space is also witnessing a revival in terms of content and outreach

I

Satyendra Singh

N 1991, Narasimha Rao government came in to power at the centre. It was during his regime that the financial policy of India started changing. People started hypothesizing on the effects of globalization. One of them was negative effect of globalization on our languages and culture. It was suspected that globalization is going to directly affect our regional languages and culture. But, all of it has been proven wrong. Now it seems globalization has strengthened our language and culture. As a society, we are growing stronger. Our culture and language will be more publicized.

Strength of a society and its financial prowess depends on its work efficient population. Prime Minister Modi has proved this strength throughout the world in just two and half years of his tenure.

Tally giving the right pictures on the number of Hindi speaking people in the world is contradictory in itself. People working against Hindi keep playing with the numbers. Reason is very much clear; they want to show its reduced number. Jayanti Prasad Nautiyal has done an analysis on it. Number of people speaking Mandarin is just little more than a billion. Nautiyal says while we look for Hindi speaking people we just count people speaking ‘khadi boli’.

We leave the regional languages like Rajasthani, Haryanvi, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Brajbhasha, Awadhi etc.

People against Hindi will tell it a number game.

If we check the reality in these regions, here mode of education is Hindi only. Due to the absence of language consciousness, they might use to register their regional language as their mother tongue. This has become a weapon for the people who are against Hindi. They argue, Hindi

UNITED NATIONS IS GOING TO TRANSMIT A HINDI PROGRAM ON ITS WEB RADIO AS WELL.

restricts development of these regional languages. As people are getting rational, these useless allegations are decreasing.

Hindi is getting popular in non Hindi belt too. Hindi Cinema, serials and of course electronic media has played a vital role in making Hindi popular in non Hindi speaking areas.

This is to be noted that the total population of world is around 7 billion.

Accordingly, every sixth person in the world is Hindi speaking. Even Chinese people are making efforts to learn Hindi. An officer from Hindi Sansthan of Central government informed, “In last 20-25 years, the number of foreigner students opting for Hindi as subject has increased.” In countries like China, Japan, Australia, US and European nations, Hindi has occupied a significant spot in academic circles. Oxford University Press has already started online dictionary for Hindi. Dr. Prem Singh, Head of Hindi department in Delhi University, served as visiting faculty in Sofia university of Bulgaria.

He says, “In foreign countries, there are two aspects of Hindi language. One is related to the NRIs who are doing creative writing like poems, stories, dramas etc. On the other hand, people are involved in teaching and studying Hindi too.” Jawaharlal Nehru had established Hindi chair in foreign universities. Now, Professors going from India for those chairs are contributing valuably there. Europeans feel Hindi language is the conveyor of Hindi culture. This is their basic reason behind learning Hindi. There was a time when foreigners used to love Hindi as a language but now that is somehow invisible. A Hindi teacher in Delhi

JANUARY 8, 2017 University says, India is emerging as a big market. So, people are learning Hindi for their industrial interest. Huge population of India and economic development has its impact too.

In last two and half years, Modi government has intensified the propagation of Hindi too. This is one of the implications of PM’s foreign tour.

PM Modi has realized that the world is looking at the possibilities of growing Indian economy. He has convinced the world that India is the best country in terms of investment and business. It is clear that if a country is going to do business with India, they have to communicate with people in Hindi.

Language of manufactured product might be English but the language of consumer is Hindi itself. To achieve their profit, producers have to communicate with consumers on their level itself.

You can use Paytm app in Hindi. This shows the need and strength of Hindi.

This is mere an example. Most of the private companies are encouraging Hindi language to make their product more impactful in market.

Due to new technique, Hindi could be read, spoken, written and taught

HINDI IS FLYING HIGH IN THE GULF COUNTRIES, EUROPE, US, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, SRI LANKA AND SINGAPORE. overseas too. Internet has made Hindi available for all. You write here in Hindi in India and it will reach to America.

Talk about Anna movement or Nirbhaya agitation both got driven by the social media only. People who are new in the world of social media could be astonished by the impact of Hindi over here. At last, Hindi has got its international perspective. Apart from the neighboring country, Hindi is flying high in the gulf countries, Europe, America, Canada, Australia and Singapore. Apart from the financial growth the impact of PM’s foreign trip should be seen in the context of social and cultural aspect too. PM Modi confidently delivered speeches in Hindi in front of NRIs on the foreign land.

This makes NRIs proud of their language. Indian leaders delivering speech in Hindi on the stage of United Nations is not at all new. In this respect also Modi government is one step ahead. He is now trying to establish Hindi as official languages of United Nations. There is good news too for Hindi lover. Now, United Nations is going to transmit a Hindi program on its web radio as well.

10

Inland Waterways Cover Story

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INLAND WATERWAYS

ROUTING THE RIVER

The flagging off of MV Giri and MV Joy Basudev in August started the realisation of the project

The costeffective and environmentally sound system using rivers for transportation is being revived

India has some 14,500 km of inland waterways, but only 4,500 of these are being used today Government is developing the NW-1, with World Bank assistance and plan outlay is Rs 4,200 crore

Robin Keshaw

N

ITINGADKARI, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, had remarked, “For taking any material from Mumbai to London or Mumbai to Dubai is easy and cheaper compared to taking it from Mumbai to Delhi”.

Under the layers of apparent sarcasm, there were vestiges of a resolve too, a resolve to change the situation. On August 12, when he flagged off the vessels MV VV Giri and MV Joy Basudev from Varanasi, his resolve seemed to start bearing fruits.

With a consignment of 25 Maruti cars, VV Giri was headed to Kolkata, covering a distance of 1,100 km. This was a historic journey, as this was the longest a large cargo vessel had travelled on the National Waterway-1.

NW-1 stretches from Allahabad to Haldia; a distance of 1,600 km.It was notified way back in 1986 but is rarely used for cargo movement.

LOST GLORY India is a land of rivers. But, of the existing 14,500 km of waterways, only 4,500 km (five NWs) has caught the attention of policymakers till now.

Except for few pockets in West Bengal, Assam and Kerala, even these waterways were severely underutilized.

In India, only 3.5 per cent of the total goods and passenger traffic uses inland waterways, while the figure is 47 per cent for China. In China, around two lakh cargo vessels use the inland waterways system, while in India, less than 1,000 vessels ply on inland waterways.

Lack of suitable infrastructure was a major impediment in the growth of waterways. Due to seasonal variation of water flow, maintaining the Least Available Depth (LAD) for the vessels to ply becomes difficult. There are very few proper inland ports in India, which are designed for efficient loading and unloading. This inflates the cost for the contractors as they had to involve manual labour.

Navigation becomes an issue as the cargo routes are not properly mapped.

NEW RESOLVE In 2016, the government decided to go all guns blazing to tap the potential of waterways. Under National Waterways Act, 2016, 106 new waterways were notified. Under Jal Marg Vikas project, government is holistically developing the NW-1,

w i t h assistance from World Bank. Plan outlay is Rs 4,200 crore.

Along with the infrastructural components like river terminals, bank and slope protection, channel surveys etc., government is also developing electronic maps, integrated GPS systems, river information systems ina phased manner. Government efforts have brought the spotlight on the inland waterways.

Waterways transport involves huge financial benefits.

Cost of transportation by waterways is 30-50 paisa per tonne per km, while the cost for rail and road is Re 1 and Rs 1.5 respectively. Indian roads have not been very conducive for the cargo movement; incessant delays keep adding to the cost.

As the pressure shifts on the waterways, there will be direct benefits – easing the road traffic, curbing the CO2 emission, lowering the number of road accidents. As the public and private investment in waterways increase, huge employment opportunities are also on the anvil.

Inland Waterways Authority of India chairman Amitabh Verma said, “The overall investment in the Jal Marg Vikas Project will lead to direct and indirect employment of more than 50,000 persons in Bihar alone.”

Development of inland waterways is going to tackle multiple problems at once. Infrastructural projects have long gestation periods. 2016 witnessed the comprehensive nudge given by government, 2017 will be the year when the real progress will be achieved which will be an indicator of the impact.

14 Cover Story Community Radio

JANUARY 8, 2017 connected very easily to the programmes if the medium of communication is in regional language.

Community radio has a very large audience reach in our country. The central government is going to promote the community radio stations across the country in order to enable students and farmers with educational information and farming skills.

Community radios are set up by local NGOs which develop local participatory programming Community radio is a kind of ‘to the people, for the people and by the people’ system It costs Rs 15 lakh to set up a radio station, of which at present only half is being subsidised

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COMMUNITY RADIO

THE PEOPLE’S ‘AIR’ The community radio addresses a dire need in far flung areas, sharing of local knowledge locally

S

Shivaji Dubey

ULMAN SINGH, a farmer in a small village in district Jalandhar,Punjab, listens to the agricultural programme broadcasted on the Avatar Community Radio on a daily basis. He gets the information of the latest farming technology, solutions to several farming issues and weather reports in his regional language.

Up in the hills of Uttarakhand, in the dusty little Chamba town, the community radio station Henvalvani takes up issues of environmental conservation and directly asks the listeners to come up with their suggestion for the administration.

Henvalvani, name after the local river gurgling down below the radio station, has been entertaining the audience for quite some time.

The locals, with the help of Ford Foundation support, harnessed the

expertise of an environment specialist to understand the linkages between humans and the environment. Today, they help warn people about road closures due to landslides, or even predict high rainfall and inform people on what action to take in case of a disaster.

“There is a growing demand for such programmes,” said Ravi Gossain, the head of Henvalvani. “Our listeners have been insisting that knowledge regarding climate change and environment must be disseminated.”The Henvalvani also charges small fees from local businesses for running their advertisements to meet the expenses of the station.

Avatar Community Radio or Henvalvani are just some of the several community radios running across the country. What’s special about community radios is that the programmes are broadcast in regional languages with the locals operating the radio stations. The audience gets

PEOPLE’S VOICES The station manager of community radio ‘Gurgaon Ki Aawaz’, Vandana Thapliyal says, “Community radio is a kind of ‘to the people, for the people and by the people’ system.” There are currently 245 operating radio stations in the country, however there are another 179 community radio broadcasted in the country. These community radios have an audience of 2.5 crore people across the country.

Recently I&B Minister Venkaiah Naidu announced that the government is providing a 90 percent subsidy for establishing a community radio in seven northeastern states of the country while a 75 percent subsidy in all the other states.

It takes approximately Rs 15 lakh to setup a single community radio station.

So far, the government was providing a maximum subsidy of 50% of the cost.

Back in year 2002, the government made policies to establish community radios for educational purposes and again for NGOs in year 2006. According to this policy, these community radios can be established and operated by NGO and educational institutions. The broadcasted programmes must have at

THESE RADIO STATIONS ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY POPULAR BECAUSE THEY USE THE LOCAL DIALECT AND DEAL WITH LOCAL CONCERNS

JANUARY 8, 2017 least 50 percent contribution from the local residents. The antenna of these radio stations must not exceed 30 meters and should cover a range from 5 to 10 kms.

RISING GRAPH These community radio stations are getting quite popular among the people because of the local language used in their news and informational programmes. The first community radio was established in Anna University, Chennai named ‘Anna FM’ back in 2004. But the number of these radio stations has been rising ever since. According to I&B ministry, the number of these community radio stations was 28 in year 2007 while it was 184 in year 2015. The number is expected to further rise exponentially considering the government’s subsidy.

ALL PLUSES It can help spread educational, health, environmental and sanitary awareness in the public domain.

There is a student operated community radio named ‘Radio Jamia’ in Delhi’s JamiaMilliaIslamia University. Its range is up to 10 kms.

It broadcasts educational programmes for the university students while they also broadcast health related and other programmes for the neighbouring residents.

Rajamal Patel of Jhansi also listens to the ‘Khet Khalihaan’ programme on the community radio ‘Radio Buldelkhand’ every day. He says, ‘I got the number of a farm scientist on the radio. After talking to the scientist, I processed cow dung and urine into compost. So we don’t need chemical fertilizers anymore”.

The ‘Avatar Community Radio’ enlightens the public towards environment. As a result, the public is contributing in cleaning the nearby drains. A radio named ‘Radio Kisan’ runs in Odisha. It broadcasts farming related programmes and weather prediction for the farmers.

It also warns the locals of storms.

The reach of mainstream media is still limited in the rural areas of the country. Besides, the content in them is not attuned to the informational needs of grassroots people.

Amidst this, these community radios are empowering the people.

In this age of information, knowledge is directly related to empowerment.

A true, vibrant democracy stands on the edifice of information, which is accessible by all.

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Mohalla Clinic Cover Story

MOHALLA CLINIC

NEW HEALTHCARE Lancet journal has praised the Delhi’s cloud-based, pilferage-free medical care system at the grassroots

D

Robin Keshaw

INESH KEWAT, a vegetable seller, has fainted thrice in past one week. He didn’t want to visit the government dispensary due to the abnormally long delays. His daughter, Neha, was told by her teacher about Mohalla clinic in her area. At the Azadpur clinic, the doctor examined Dinesh and asked for his blood test. Within minutes, his test report was out. For an adult male of his age, Dinesh’s hemoglobin levels were abnormally low at 11.2 g/dl. He was prescribed the medicines which he got from the pharmacist right over there.

Within 20 minutes, Dinesh and Neha walked out of the clinic with a relief on their face.

Close to 1.5 million patients like Dinesh have been catered to by 106 such mohalla clinics of Delhi in last one year.

As the name suggests, each clinic covers a mohalla, roughly a population of 10,000 residents. The structures set and the processes followed in mohalla clinic are intended to provide relief to the common man without any hassles and unnecessary delays.

PROBLEMS GALORE Indian healthcare system is in dire need of revamp. We are a nation of 1.3 billion people and with just 9.29 lakh doctors registered with Medical Council of India (MCI), we have an alarmingly high doctor-patient ratio of 1:1674. These figures in states like Bihar will startle you to the core, with one doctor serving 28,391 patients! Globally,only 17.87% of the total health expenditure is taken care of by the individuals themselves. But in India, this figure stands at 57.57%.

These statistics are a mere representation of the sorry state of affairs.

The ground realities are much more poignant. India can’t become a superpower with an unhealthy, unproductive population. Indian hospitals have faced undue pressure due to dilapidated primary health care system.

Most of the cases which land up in government hospitals could have been treated at primary or community level, if we had robust systems in place. As per

Union Health Ministry’s data, India has a shortfall of 22% in Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and a massive shortfall of 32% in Community Health Centres (CHCs).

UNIQUE MODEL Mohalla clinics brought a renewed focus on primary health care. Mohalla clinics offer a unique model where consultation, medicines and diagnostics services are provided under one roof and are free for people from all walks of life. Delhi government claims that the setup cost of mohalla clinic is mere Rs. 20 lakhs, as

The system caters to a ‘mohalla’ typically with a population of just 10,000 people The clinics are low-cost, high-efficiency ones with the consultation, tests and medicine ‘Medicine ATMs’ dispense the drugs after screening the prescriptions thus stopping pilferage

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compared to Rs. 5 crores for a dispensary.

Most of the mohalla clinics have been setup in rented spaces, thus saving huge costs. The doctors, who are recruited on contract basis, are paid Rs 30 per patient as consultation charges.

The processes at Mohalla clinics have been setup keeping in mind the patients’ convenience. A token system is followed for the people visiting the clinic. Everyday 80-100 patients are served in a clinic and average wait time is 20-30 minutes, depending on the crowd. Once the details of patient are fed digitally, the doctor examines the patient thoroughly and prescription is generated. The prescribed medicines are made available, free of cost, right over there. The case details of the patients along with biometric listing are uploaded on the cloud, which can be accessed instantly. Case history is very important in medical field and its digital access saves a lot of time.

Swasthya Slate, a medical device developed by Dr Kanav Kahol, is making the diagnostic tests a cakewalk. It is integrated with the cloud based system to upload the test data instantly. Some of the clinics are also equipped with medicine dispensers, which reduce the pilferage in the system. The sensors in the ‘medicine ATMs’ screen the prescription and dispense the medicines, ensuring transparency and efficiency. The use of technology to cut the costs and streamline the processes is proving to be a boon for the mohalla clinics.

POWER OF THE IDEA Recently, Lancet journal had all praises for the mohalla clinics. “Evidence from around the world shows that increasing access to publicly financed primary care is the best way to accelerate health coverage. Mohalla clinics appear to be putting this strategy into operation.

There is already a good case for scaling this up in Delhi and potentially in other Indian states because people seem to like these services,” said Robert Yates, Senior Fellow at Chatham House, London, UK, after a recent visit to a clinic in Delhi.

As per the NSSO report, 44 out of every 1,000 individuals get hospitalized every year. A decade back, the figure was 31, showing a sharp increase of more than 40% in hospitalization cases. The number is bound to increase in future and unless Indian health infrastructure is equipped to handle this, it would face a significant loss to GDP due to rising healthcare costs. Mohalla clinic offers a low-cost, replicable and sustainable model, which is bringing the healthcare right at the doorsteps. UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3) targets, “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. Mohalla clinics are going to be very effective in meeting this goal.

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JANUARY 8, 2017

“The difficulty lies,

not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones

”

-John Manyard Keynes The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money’, 1935

SHARAD GUPTA A journalist with 30 years experience, working as a Senior Editor with ‘Parliamentarian’

VIEW POINT

THE WATER GAMES Water is indispensable for human progress. As the clamour around water increases, India needs to streamline its water strategy

THE GROWTH STORY

STEALTHY & STEADFAST Indian GDP shot to 2.30 lakh crore dollars, making it the 6th largest economy

A

MIDST the kerfuffle of long queues of demonetization, India has become sixth largest economy in the world leaving Britain a way behind. According to Forbes, the present GDP of Britain is 2.29 lakh crore dollars and India’s GDP has reached to 2.30 lakh crore dollars. India is now world’s sixth largest economy by GDP after America, China, Japan, Germany, and France. Forbes estimate indicates that this will prevail in the year 2017 as India’s minimum economic growth will be 6 per cent and Britain’s growth rate will decline from 1.8 per cent to 1.1.

As per the initial estimate, India was to go ahead of Britain in 2020 however this happened in 2016 itself. The reason is post Brexit slump. After getting separated from European Union pound tumble down by 20 per cent. But this can’t belie India’s success.

Going ahead of Britain will certainly burgeon India’s confidence. Unfortunately, in terms of per capita income, India is far behind Britain. It can’t be denied that GDP is just a parameter of development and growth however it does not show spurt in human and social development level. Significantly, there are several indicators of human and social development in which India is facing several challenges. The central government has been persevering in this direction. We can expect better results in future. In terms of GDP growth, India’s journey is not easy. A lot has to be done in the sphere of investment, export and employment. After becoming sixth biggest economy many responsibilities and challenges are lying ahead. The priority will be to fill the lacunas in the basic amenities like education and health. The success must be celebrated but still there are miles to go.

Editor-in-Chief

KUMAR DILIP Edited, Printed and Published by: Monika Jain on behalf of Sulabh Sanitation Mission Foundation, owned by Sulabh Sanitation Mission Foundation Printed at: The Indian Express Limited A - 8, Sector -7, NOIDA (UP) Published at: RZ - 83, Mahavir Enclave, Palam - Dabri Road, New Delhi - 110045 (India) Corporate Office: 819, Wave Silver Tower, Sector - 18, NOIDA (UP) Phone: +91-120-6500425 Email: editor@sulabhswachhbharat.com, ssbweekly@gmail.com

W

ATER water everywhere but glaciers are shrinking fast because of warming up not a single drop to drink. This of our climate, on the other hand we are unable adage has come to symbolise the to tap monsoon water allowing it to run off into ecological scenario in Asia in the ocean. general and in India in particular.

Some efforts at water conservation are being A vast tract of land in India especially in arid made to address the issue - river linking being one areas like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, of them. An almost full to the brim Sabarmati river Telangana, Vidarbha and parts of Karnataka, flowing across Ahmedabad is a shining example Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha reel under of this experiment. Till a huge canal was dug to moderate to severe drought every year because of pour water from Narmada river into Sabarmati, scanty rainfall. the latter used to look like a small drain. Now it On the other hand, a large swathe of land gets has been turned into a tourist spot because of the submerged due to floods during every monsoon beautified river front. season. This is caused mostly due to release of Another method to conserve rainwater is water excessive water into rivers originating in China harvesting. It’s not a new thing discovered by and Nepal. modern science. Rather, we have been conserving Farmers have been committing suicide rainwater in ponds and underground reservoir because of both kind of natural calamities. Has for ages. There are numerous remnants of such anybody bothered to fathom the underground tanks constructed reasons for these natural disasters more than a century ago. These striking India with impunity? The tanks used to get filtered rain water ajor source causes are known and so are the through a series of ducts and store of water to us remedies. it to be used till next monsoon Basically it is gross season. are glaciers mismanagement of water Now another dimension is being and monsoon resources. Major source of water added to put this issue in the form to us are glaciers and monsoon of inter-continental conflicts over rains rains. While on the one hand water. First it started with China

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JANUARY 8, 2017 building dams after dams over Brahmaputra which is lifeline of not only Eastern India but also Bangladesh.

With over hundred and fifteen transnational rivers and lakes originating from China and flowing downstream, China is in a position to create artificial draught in neighbouring countries whenever it wants.

Most of the dams being built by China are in Tibet which was illegally annexed by China in 1950s. Besides India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have been adversely affected by China’s super-selfish water policy.

China has built 6 major dams on Mekong river which flows into Southeast Asia. China has also been appropriating a large amount of water from Lily river currently. making Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan facing the heat from Chinese policies. Kazakhstan’s lake Balkhash is at the risk of shrinking substantially because of overdrawing of water from Lily river

by China.

There is a pattern to the way Chinese functions. Aral sea located on the border with Uzbekistan, for example, has almost dried up within last 40 years because China is diverting water from Irtysh river, which supplies drinking water to Kazakhstan’s capital Astana and feeds Russia’s Ob river. ZIn this maddening global race to corner potable water, India is suffering nless we of terms prepare now, we because of reference of won’t be able 1960s Indus water treaty to save our with Pakistan. tomorrow The treaty allows Pakistan to appropriate more than eighty per cent water of the six rivers covered under this treaty.

India has been threatening to review the terms of reference of Indus water Treaty time and again because Pakistan has been patronising cross border terrorism in India. After Uri attack Prime Minister Modi made it amply clear that this is completely unacceptable to India.

Pakistan can’t continue getting uninterrupted water supply from us and continue to wage a proxy war by training, hosting and sponsoring terrorists out to damage India.

Though India has not initiated any International arbitration on the subject, those knowing Modi’s nature that once he makes up his mind, he does operationalise his decisions.

Demonetisation is a live example of this streak in his nature.

This is high time for India to firm up its water policy. Because of its rapid urbanisation - according to a Mckinsey report 41 per cent of India’s population will be living in urban areas by 2030 with more than 60 per cent population of Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat having already moved to cities - there is going to be sudden spurt in water requirement. Unless we prepare now, we won’t be able to save our tomorrow, without water of course.

U

ROBIN KESHAW

The author is a graduate in Computer Science from BITS, Pilani. He is presently helping to settle a migrant community, focusing on their education needs

UPFRONT

P

OLICY discourse in any country keeps transforming its geometry. It imbibes the collective learning and progression of society and keeps evolving. Last year, Indian social paradigm saw some major shifts in the attitude of policymakers towards the most neglected sections of society. This will be having a permanent impact on the development discourse of our country.

Disabled persons, now honourably termed ‘divyang’, have always faced the apathy of society. This year, The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill was passed which has followed a right-based approach for the ‘divyang’. There are clear imprints of empathy when we are talking about their protection from abuse, violence and cruelty, their reproductive rights and above all equality and non-

Oped

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‘DEVELOPING’ EMPATHY

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill was passed which has followed a right-based approach

discrimination.

Some of the bills which were introduced but are pending before the Parliament also shows signs of attitudinal change are The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill and The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill. Both of these bills are catering to the section of society which have been long ignored.

A section of the transgender bill

exclusively talks about ‘Recognition of identity of transgender persons’.

Such language is not very novel in policy paradigm, but it is reflective of the times to come. The amendments proposed in Maternity Benefit Act, 26 weeks of maternity leave, crèche facility at workplace, etc, shows the gender sensitivity of the policy paradigm.

Needless to say, the policy and its execution are poles apart. It took India more than 150 years to completely abolish the Sati, after passing the Act way back in 1829. But, right strides have been taken. The signature of the policy framework is slowly changing and new elements are entering the policy space. It is right time to talk more about love, empathy, inclusion, pluralism at the top which will slowly percolate down to the societal ladders.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR but the story has included in it few important sms number, website and social media addresses to register complain or avail any service offered by the railway department. Government is also taking initiatives to make our experience better with Indian railways by conducting programmes. The story is informative.

Charu Arora, Delhi

Dear Editor With reference to the cover story ‘Clean Railway Clean India’ the story casts lights on various efforts taken by the Ministry of Railways and at the same time it successfully informs the reader about the rights that a commuter is entitled to while traveling by Indian railway. Most of the time we do not practice the rights and facilities given to us due to unawareness or lack of information

Dear Sir, With reference to the story of Roshan Sodhi in Newsmakers section in Sulabh Swachch Bharat. The story is highly inspiring that how a small boy understands the intricacies involved in the elections. It is commendable to think on such profound subject at the tender age he is and I would like to congratulate your team for bringing this news in the public domain. It not only encourages the children to continue the good work but also brings the matter into the government’s notice that electoral reforms need immediate attention.

Alok Kumar, Pune

Dear Sir, With reference to the story Through Priya’s Mirror, it is sad to learn that women are subjected to atrocities like acid attack even in 21st century but the story at the same time brings hope as it focuses at the courage and self realization. ‘You are more than your face’ should be the mantra for new generation women is all I would like to say.

Rasika Singh, Patna Dear Editor, From The story ‘Sulabh goes cashless’, it is good to learn that the Sulabh toilets now have facilities for cashless transactions. When right from a small vegetable vender to big entrepreneur is getting ahead with the cashless policy, this facility should also be open for cashless transaction.

This is quite helpful as sometimes we don’t have small money like 2 rupees or 5 rupees change but through SBI buddy facility at Sulabh we need not make a fuss over change.

Nisha Khanna, Ghaziabad

Please mail your opinion to - ssbweekly@gmail.com or Whatsapp at 9868807712

18 Cover Story Minorities

JANUARY 8, 2017

The current status of minorities is not very encouraging in terms of their living standards Government is pursuing a slew of measures to ensure their upliftment and growth USTTAD, Nai Manzil, Nai Roshni are some of the schemes which are being actively implemented

Minorities are being provided holisitc support from the government to bring them to mainstream

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people because equal efforts have been laid on creating awareness amongst people. Obviously when people are better informed and know about their rights, they proactively try to get benefits of policies and schemes. We have shortlisted a few policies and schemes launched or rejuvenated by Modi Government that have a great potential to reap better fruits in the times to come.

MINORITIES

MODI FOR MINORITIES

S

Sfoorti Mishra

EVERAL governments have come and gone since India gained independence. All of them had launched various policies and schemes for the benefits of minorities in the country. But the expectations from the current government are high in terms of benefiting minority communities as team Modi has mastered the art of management. It is expected from them that due to their good governance and

great management skills, the real benefits would reach to those who actually need them and not just on papers. Moreover it will help the PM to reinstate his secular image amongst the minority. Therefore much attention has been paid to this political responsibility in the BJP led government that firmly believes in Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas.

Although making schemes and policies benefiting minorities is not a new thing but this time it is expected that they will reach to large number of

1. USTTAD

Last year, government launched a scheme, Upgrading Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development (USTTAD), for the artisans belonging to minority communities. It is a welfare scheme focusing on preservation and upgradation of traditional ancestral arts and crafts skills and thus enabling the artisans, weavers and craftsmen to get employment. These trained craftsmen and artisans will further train the younger generation to facilitate the knowledge flow from one generation to the next. The scheme also focuses at USTTAD Fellowship for

ARTICLES 25 AND 30 IN THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION HAVE LAID THE RIGHTS OF RELIGIOUS, CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC FREEDOM FOR EVERY CITIZEN OF THE COUNTRY

Research and Development, support to crafts museums for curating traditional arts/ crafts, support to minority craftsmen/artisans for marketing their products. Recently the government organized an event called Hunar to provide platform for selling the products made by minority artisans in the International Trade Fair. Thus the government has not only encouraged these people at the manufacturing level but also taken efforts to make sure that the end products are sold.

2. PROGRESSIVE PANCHAYAT

The Progressive Panchayat programme was first launched in Mewat region in Haryana. Minorities ministry plans to conduct hundred such panchayat programmes in order to have direct communication with minority communities at the grass root level. “Earlier, people from minority communities were cheated by merchants of votes. Now there will be no such business of votes, but an agenda of development to ensure welfare of the communities,� Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Minister of State for Minority Affairs said. It is first of its kind and is a uniquely designed outreach programme which is expected to inform people about developmental activities in social, educational, health and infrastructural sectors. The programme will seek the help and suggestions of locals to improve the schemes and policies made for the communities in different sectors.

3. NAI UDAAN

It has been noticed that there is negligible presence of minorities in the higher rank services. There may be many reasons for the same. It may be lack of awareness or financial support.

The current government seems to be committed for upgrading minorities in this arena. Therefore, Nai Udaan has been implemented to help students prepare for the mains exam of these services. It aims at providing financial support to the minority candidates clearing prelims conducted by UPSC, Staff Selection Commission and State Public Service Commissions to adequately equip them to compete for appointment to Civil Services in the Union and the State governments and to increase the representation of the minorities in the Civil Services. The scheme would cover 800 candidates for financial support throughout the country. Of these 568 would be Muslims, 96 Christians, 80 Sikhs, 32 Buddhists, 7 Parsis and 17 Jains. Total family income of the candidates from all sources should not exceed Rs. 4.5 lakh per annum.

JANUARY 8, 2017 4. NAI MANZIL

A new scheme “Nai Manzil” that was launched in 2015 as an integrated education and livelihood initiative has been approved with Rs. 650 Crore and it is expected to benefit about 1 lakh minority youth. The World Bank has agreed to support the programme with 50% funding. Rs. 155 Crore has been allocated for 2016-17 for implementation of programme. This scheme is also noteworthy as it combines the formal education along with skill development for school dropouts which will significantly enhance their career growth. Notably the rate of school dropouts amongst the minority communities mostly Muslims is higher in comparison with other communities. Therefore Ministry of Minority Affairs has made serious efforts to promote education and employment among minority communities and taken important initiatives in last two years.

5. NAI ROSHNI

Articles 25 and 30 in the Indian constitution have laid the rights of religious, cultural and linguistic freedom for every citizen of the country. It has also put emphasis on the gender equity but there is a big gap in the noble intentions and actual realization as the women especially from minority communities lag behind in the socio-political strata Thus realizing the need to better the status of minority women the government is obligated for women empowerment.

Nai Roshni a leadership development programme for minority women. It aims at empowering and instilling confidence among minority women by providing knowledge, tools and techniques for interacting with government systems, banks and other institutions at all levels.

Empowering women, especially mothers, is even more important because she nurtures and moulds the character of her offspring and thus the whole generation. The effort would encourage minority women to move out of the confines of their home and assume leadership roles and assert their rights in accessing services, facilities, and opportunities.

The programme includes various training modules related to women leadership, educational programmes, health and hygiene, financial literacy, life skills, legal rights, digital literacy, etc. In last two years of the NDA Government, Ministry of Minority Affairs has trained more than 1.30 lakh women with Rs.28.98 Crore in 24 States.

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Rural Electrification Cover Story

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION

LIGHTING UP LIVES Government’s efforts are not only illuminating the homes of rural Indians but also their lives Prasann Pranjal

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ARICHA is a small village in Samastipur district of Bihar. People there have spent their nights in the darkness, with the company of lamps and lanterns for years. These days one can see even the village streets are lit up brightly. The dish antennas on the roofs, TV and refrigerators and other electronics in many of the households is enough to mark the presence of electricity in the village.

Electricity in every household is changing the course of this village.

It’s not suitable to compare Bihar and Gujarat in terms of progress. But the village Jankhiya in the Gir Sanctuary of Gujarat has quite a similar story.

Almost seven decades after the independence of country, the villagers here had never seen a light bulb. But now light bulbs have brought brightness into their lives.

Maricha and Jankhiya- these villages in separate states are on the opposite sides of the country. One is in the far end of east and the other in west. Their geographical locations and cultural identities are completely different from one another. But rural electrification has brought something common in the both of them. These are just mere example to showcase the electrification in the villages of our country. Every state government has supported the Centre’s appreciable initiation of ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojna’ to electrify every nook and corner of the country.

VILLAGES LIT UP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated his bid to electrify the rural India in the November of 2014, through

THE GOVERNMENT IS WORKING HARD TO PROVIDE ELECTRICITY IN THE RURAL AREAS AS WELL AS BETTER UTILITIES TO USE IT AND CONTROL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION the scheme ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojna’. This scheme costing up to Rs 43,033 crore is set to achieve complete rural electrification in India by 1st May, 2018. The Ministry of Power, under this scheme , granted approval to 921 projects to electrify 1,20,804 un-electrified villages, completely electrify the 3,14,958 partially electrified villages and provide free electricity to 396.45 lakh below poverty line households. Today, 5,89,585 villages out of the country’s total of 5,97,464 villages are completely electrified.

According to the Central Electricity Authority of India’s (CEA) progress report on rural electrification, almost the entire country will be electrified by May, 2017.

Only 7,824 villages are left to be electrified in the country.

In October 2016, Central Minister Piyush Goyal considering the progress so far said every village of the country will be electrified by May 2017. This project will be completed a year before the set 1000 days target.

LEDS SHOW THE WAY

Lack of electricity proves to be the biggest hindrance in rural development Government’s target of electrifying every village by 2018 is quite ambitious yet achievable LED bulbs have brought a new revolution by saving huge costs of power consumption

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The government is working hard to provide electricity in the rural areas as well as better utilities to use it and control electricity consumption. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded the reach of LED bulbs to street lights and every household declaring it as the ‘Prakash Path’- way to light, on 5th January 2015 under the Ujala Scheme: Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for all.

The government is committed to change all 77 crore incompetent and energy consuming light bulbs with LEDs. It is expected to save energy load up to 20,000 MW every year, 100 billion kWH of energy and bring about an acute decline of 80 million tonnes of green house gases. A sharp reduction of 40,000 crore in consumer electricity bill is also expected. According to the pace of LED distribution, by the end of 2017 every household might have an LED bulb.

20 Cover Story Beti Bachao Beti Padhao 15

JANUARY 8, 2017

BETI BACHAO BETI PADHAO

PRIDE IN GIRL CHILDREN Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign has reinvigorated the urge to protect the girl child male), low economic productivity, rise in crimes and violence against women, etc. Keeping all this in mind, ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ (BBBP) scheme was introduced in October, 2014. This was formally launched by PM Modi on January 22nd, 2015 from Panipat, Haryana, with an emotional appeal to the people of India, saying “he comes as a bhikshuk (beggar) to beg for the lives of daughters”.

Robin Keshaw

“M

HARI chhoriyaan chhoron se kam hai ke?” Reads the poster of ‘Dangal’ as Aamir Khan (read Mahavir Phogat) sits with her four daughters, poised yet fierce. The story traces the life of Mahavir Phogat and how he trained his daughters, Geeta and Babita, who went on to clinch gold medals in 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games respectively. The Phogats belong to the Balali, a small village in the state of Haryana. The state is notorious for its attitude towards women. It has the lowest Child Sex Ratio (0-6), 834 females per thousand males, amongst all the states in India. ‘Dangal’ movie’s punch line is a signal of the times to come.

A NATION WITHOUT WOMEN India’s gender story has been hostile towards the fairer sex. History hadn’t been very kind to them; sati, dowry system are just few of the examples highlighting their plight. The 21st

century was supposed to be a progressive one. But if the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) is an indicator of societal progression, Indian data shows a regressive trend. In 2001, the CSR was 927, which dropped down to 918 by 2011. It is amongst the lowest in the world.

Some of the reasons attributed to this disturbing trend are female infanticide, sex selective female abortions, high maternal mortality, intra household discrimination of the girl child in food, education and healthcare resulting in their higher mortality and lesser competence, etc. These are the outcomes of a much deeper malaise which runs through our society. It is widely believed that lineage and inheritance runs through the male child, that it is the son’s responsibility to take care of the ageing parents, men are the caretakers of the family, etc. The result of the prevailing depraved mindsets is the continuous decline in gender equality indicators.

Social scientists have pointed out the social consequences of such low numbers – marriage squeeze (low availability of marriageable females per

A 21ST CENTURY NARRATIVE The key elements of the scheme include ‘strict enforcement of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC & PNDT) Act, nation-wide awareness and advocacy campaign and multi-sectoral action in select 100 districts (later increased to 161) which had low CSR. There is a strong emphasis on mindset change through training, sensitization, awareness raising and community mobilization on ground.’ It is a tri-ministerial effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development (WCD), Health & Family Welfare (HFW) and Human Resource Development (HRD).

In the past, numerous schemes had been initiated to address the issue, but with little success. With BBBP, the strategy is three pronged – preventing

It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of WCD, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and HRD Ministry The hashtag #SelfieWithDaughter was promoted on social media, which caught world’s attraction “I urge you to sow five plants when your daughter is born to celebrate the occasion” – PM NarendraModi

sex selective abortion, ensuring survival and protection of girl child and ensuring education of the girl child.

Administration has tightened its claws around the diagnostic centres that have been illegally carrying out sex determination. Strong focus has been given on mindsets and behavioral changes rather than ad-hoc approaches.

District and block level targeting has enhanced the implementation as well as monitoring of the scheme. For mobilization and sensitization in the communities, Anganwadi Centres have been involved. HRD ministry is specifically focusing on universal enrolment of girls and decreasing their drop-out rates.

FAR REACHING EFFECTS In Haryana, where the BBBP programme was launched, efforts have already started bearing the fruits. Haryana health minister Anil Vij told that there has been considerable improvement in the sex ratio in 18 districts of the state due to the awareness and intensive inspection campaigns being run under the ‘BetiBachaoBetiPadhao’

BETI BACHAO BETI PADHAO SCHEME HAS BROUGHT THE NATION’S ATTENTION BACK TO A VERY FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE OF OUR SOCIETY – PATRIARCHY programme.

He also said that the sex ratio in 12 districts has crossed the 900-mark.

Mansa district in Punjab has launched an initiative to inspire its girls to be educated. Under its ‘Udaan - Sapneya Di Duniya De Rubaru (Udaan- Live your Dream For One Day)’ scheme, the Mansa administration invites proposals from girls belonging to classes VI-XII. These girls have the opportunity to spend one day with a professional they aspire to be — doctor, police official, engineer, IAS and PPS officers, among others.

BBBP scheme has brought the nation’s attention back to a very fundamental issue of our society – patriarchy. Over the years, the structure of patriarchy had suitably modified itself to ensure that fairer sex also remains the ‘weaker sex’. BBBP has started making dents into that structure.

Very soon, every father will have the same pride and poise as Aamir Khan in ‘Dangal’ movie’s poster, while standing with their daughters, with the punch line reverberating in the background –“Mhari chhoriyaan chhoron se kam hai ke?”

Higher Education Cover Story

Indian higher education system hasn’t been able to live upto its expectations Brain drain is hindering India’s potential to harness its demographic dividends Government’s comprehensive push to raise the standards of higher education will bear fruits

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HIGHER EDUCATION

SETTING STANDARDS Developing higher education system to international standards is among government’s top agendas.

Pallavi Singh

C

o-founder of Sun Microsystems, CEO of Adobe, Co-founder & CEO of Slideshare, CTO of Cisco – what’s common among these?

You might have guessed it by now. Yes, they are all Indians. This ‘powerful Indians at Silicon Valley’ list is on top of already famous Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella, CEO of Google and Microsoft respectively. As much as we would like to take pride in their achievements, the sad reality is that despite their talent, they needed foreign shores to claim their success.

WORLD-CLASS HIGHER EDUCATION India has been a laggard in higher education and research. Due to this very reason, almost quarter million Indian

youth leave for foreign shores, with US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand being their favorites. As India is getting ‘younger’, the issue of brain drain needs to be tackled strategically to avoid the probable fallouts. Government has been actively pushing for reforms in the higher education space to bring it par to the global standards. Years of inertia and sluggishness requires a comprehensive push. Recent moves by government in higher education space have set the ball rolling.

The budget for 2016-17 proposed

THE GOVERNMENT’S AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS TOWARDS THIS SITUATION WILL EVENTUALLY COUNTER THE PROBLEM OF ‘BRAIN DRAIN’

that twenty universities will be developed as ‘world-class institutions’.

They will be given more autonomy and freedom from regulatory regime to develop their course structures and decide their admission procedures. In order to improve the present quality of higher education in the country, the government has initiated several programmes. Ucchatar Avishkar Yojna (UAY) and Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) would be targeting institute-industry linkages and research in science-engineering-technology paradigm to ‘enable, empower and embolden the nation for inclusive growth and self-reliance.’

Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) has been approved to give a major push for creation of high quality infrastructure in premier educational institutions. Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN) is another programme inviting expert professors from universities around the world for guest lectures in our institutions.

Around Rs 1.75 lakh crore was spent on education last year which is expected to

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further increase this year. According to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, around 4 percent of the country’s GDP is spent on education, 1 percent of it is on higher education alone. This amount is will be further increased this year.

The impact of the government’s efforts is starting to surface. According to a report by Reserve Bank of India, the number of students going abroad for further studies has declined for the first time in the last four years. According to the RBI’s estimation, this year Indian students have spent over $1.98 billion on studies abroad while the sum was $2.47 billion last year. This is a significant decrease in the expenses on studies abroad. Actually, prestigious institutions like IITs and IIMs have flooded across the country in the last eight year. There has also been a significant increase in the number of institutions like Indian Institute of Science Education and Research,

INDIA LEARNING FROM GERMANY Just like India, Germany too lacked a competent educational system a decade ago. So they worked hard. Germany now spends around 10 percent of their budget on education. In 2005, the centre along with the state governments started an excellent initiative to promote research in universities.

The government is now spending millions to promote research in a few selected universities as well as attract talent from around the world.

With this, Germany has turned their education system around within a decade. As India proceeds on their footsteps we may come across similar outcome.

National Institute of Technology and other quality institutes. It is reflective of positive response towards higher education in the country.

The government’s affirmative actions towards this situation will eventually counter the problem of ‘brain drain’ and develop a world class education system in the country. Changes in education sector take years to manifest. With the right approach and systematic implementation, the day is not far, when India will not only retain its talent, but will also attract talent from foreign shores.

22 Cover Story Renewable Energy 17

JANUARY 8, 2017

RENEWABLE ENERGY

SCINTILLA OF SELF SUFFICIENCY India’s dependence on coal for its energy needs is not sustainable.

Focus on renewable energy will enable its long term energy requirements

TO RECKON In 2014, when Prime Minister announced 100 GW as target for solar energy, India was producing just 3 GW of solar energy and our total renewable energy capacity was 33.8 GW. We are very near to achieve this target. In January 2015, government set a new target to be ramped up by the year 2022. This was beyond solar energy including set for wind and biomass energy. “Renewable energy plants that we are setting up today will provide affordable power for our children in future,” said Piyush Goel at an Energy Conclave.

As per government records till 31 September 2016, India has total installed power capacity of 3,06,358 MW. Out of which thermal energy (coal, gas, and diesel) accounts for 213228 MW, while nuclear energy accounts for 5,780 MW, hydropower energy is 43,112 MW and the renewable power (solar, wind, biomass and small hydro plant) accounts for 44,236 MW. TARGET TO BOOST PRODUCTION

Anupama Yadav

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ishaan chuk maaf nahi neechu nishan(missing the target can be forgiven setting a low target cannot) said by a Gujarati poet. A line above exactly fits to Narendra Modi’s style of setting up target and moving ahead on it. India had launched a new initiative to double the renewable energy capacity of 55,000 MW by 2017. There by exploiting the non conventional energy sources such as wind power and energy from the biomass.

The beautiful Sunderbans was dark at night before the renewable energy reached there. It was like a dream for the people residing there to light their house with a little bulb. Now with this renewable source of energy people here has got their dream come true. This small change has touched the life here in many ways. In the bright light of solar bulb Pushpa and women and other women are cooking more delicious food. Instead of kerosene lanterns now kids are studying in solar lanterns. Doctors are treating their patients in bright solar light and new born are opening their eyes even at night safely in a lighted room.

These solar lights are changing house wives in to an entrepreneur. Laxmi use to be a house wife before, now she owns a small shop, here she rent out solar lantern to villagers. In her shop she has solar charging station also; people come and charge their lantern here. Laxmi is very happy as she has become

economically independent. Just like Laxmi many other ladies are also making their life brighter doing the same business. Young cadre of solar technicians is getting trained in the villages, to empower and create a cleaner planet.

According to Union Minister of Coal, Power and Renewable Energy Piyush Goel, India may increase its solar energy capacity four-fold during by the next fiscal year ending March 2017. He further explained, today our solar

India has a huge potential to develop renewable energy infrastructure to meet its needs Government has set a target to achieve 100 GW of solar energy by year 2022 As per National Solar Energy Federation, India is ranked 11th in terms of solar energy generation.

GANDHIAN PHILOSOPHY OF SELF CONTAINED VILLAGES WILL BECOME A REALITY WITH THE USE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY, THUS HARNESSING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR A BETTER NATION

capacity is 4,500 MW and the capacity addition target of this year is 12000 MW. During 2016-17, 12000 MW would be added in solar sector alone.

Significantly, during next fiscal year, we are going to get addition 15,000 MW Renewable energy.

India is witnessing a huge paradigm shift in context of solar power. Airports (Kochi went fully solar in 2015), Delhi Metro, solar powered toll plazas, farmers, cooperatives, canal top solar generation in Gujarat, a solar powered blood bank in Arunachal Pradesh and the list goes on. Prominently, the focus is on speed, skill and scale to accelerate reforms and progress in energy sector rather than subsidies.

India has 237 million people without access to electricity. According to International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2015 report, to fill the lacuna, government is providing electricity to all by trying to boost production of both coal and renewable energy. By 2030 India plans to have around 850 GW of power by using both coal and renewable energy, While, government is planning to achieve 40 per cent of cumulative electric power using the renewable energy. But even then coal will remain an important component in India’s energy basket.

SURYA MITRA SCHEME The government is promoting its Surya Mitra skill development scheme in a prominent way and has completed training for a large number of youth.

Apparently, with increasing number of developers lining up their mega solar power project, India’s solar power generation capacity is expected to get almost double by March 2017. National Solar Energy Federation of India estimates, the power generation from solar energy will rise to 10,000 MW. Currently India’s solar power production is 5129.81 MW and it is going to increase to 10 GW (10,000) by March 2017. Several big projects are lined up in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat and Tamilnadu.

BIO MASS POWER PLANT The bio mass power plant has regained interest. As it can not only generate electricity but also help dispose agriculture waste burning in a carbon neutral manner. The government already provides assistance of Rs 20 lakh per MW for setting up biomass power plant and Rs 15 lakh per MW for co generation projects like sugar mill.

Such plants cost around Rs 4.5-6 crore per MW. while generation expense is around Rs 3.25-4.00 per KwH. Renewable is still in infancy and it need to grow in future with the growing demand. The Gandhian philosophy of self contained villages will become a reality with the use of renewable energy, thereby harnessing science and technology for a better nation.

JANUARY 8, 2017

ENVIRONMENT WASTE MANAGEMENT

INDIA’S UTTAR ON ENVIRONMENT

A 163 year old municipality of Uttarpara has won a global award for its wealth-from-waste programme

Environment

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Uttrapara, a small township of 10.9 sq many term as a miracle,” said Dilip km on the banks of the River Ganga in Yadav, chairman of the municipality, the Hooghly district (population of who received the award in Mexico City. about 200,000), is one of India’s 415 The initiative in Hooghly is part of cities. However, a visit to the township the Rs 170-crore Kolkata Solid Waste will startle you with its clean, garbage Management Improvement Project and free roads. covers the civic bodies of UttarparaEvery morning, municipal workers Kotrung, Konnagar, Rishra, Serampore, are on a mission to collect household Baidyabati and Champdani. It has been garbage from every doorstep and funded by Japan International segregate them into bio-degradable and Cooperation Agency. non-degradable solid waste placed in “The project also provides designated bins and carry employment to the them in vans having lowest denominators of separate chambers and the society,the human dump them separately at t is a model for scavengers, who are now the transfer centre. and work in the whole country employed At the main centre, the m o re hu man e to emulate as it conditions,” Yadav added. non-degradable waste is temporarily stored before “Earlier, we would be generates being compressed and shooed away by the local revenue dumped at the sanitary people. This project has landfill. Here ragpickers not only helped us work scour the garbage to in a safer environment collect non-degradable items like plastic but also earn respect,” said Tapan Majhi, to sell to waste dealers. They are a rag picker. provided with masks, gloves, gumboots With rapid urbanisation, the country and uniform by the municipality, and it is facing a massive waste management is ensured that they wear these while challenge. Over 377 million urban sifting through the garbage. people live in 7,935 towns and cities The bio-degradable waste goes to the and generate 62 million tonnes of adjacent compost plant.

The municipal solid waste per annum. Only municipality sells the bio-manure 43 million tonne is collected, 11.9 produced at the plant from its counter million is treated and 31 million tonne and through marketing agents. The is dumped in landfill sites. municipality collects 12-14 tonnes of Uttarpara can become a role model waste every day and produces 3-4 tonnes for India, as the new solid waste of manure daily. management rules that mandate all local “I had personally gone door-to-door bodies with a population of one million asking people to support this movement. or more to set up waste processing Within two years we have achieved what facilities withi in two years.

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Indira Seal

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ery few people outside of West Bengal have even heard of the name. Well, it was the first municipality set up in India in 1853.

And now, each time you choose to buy manure of the brand ‘Jibon Jyoti’, not only do you contribute to a global movement towards organic food, you also showcase to the rest of India and

the world the efforts of this town with a huge cultural legacy.

The initiatives of Uttarpara-Kotrung Municipality, a 163-year-old administrative body, has helped the Kolkata Solid Waste Management Improvement Project bag a global award, defeating contenders, Auckland and Milan in urban solid waste management category in the C40 Mayors’ Summit held in Mexico City.

GREENING AFTER VARDHA

RE-GREENING CHENNAI City’s green cover has been mauled by Cyclone Vardha. If it is to be re-greened, experts insist on planting indigenous varieties rather than exotic ones N Asokan

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n the recent Vardha cyclone more than anything else, Chennai city has lost its green cover. Chennai has lost both exotic and indigenous trees that were once found all along the roadsides and parks. Gulmohar and copper pods are the common exotic tree varieties that were mostly uprooted.

But the experts in Chennai have now started to say that Chennai should reforested with indigenous trees.

Mango, Neem, Java plum, Anjan, peepil, Crepe Myrtle, Portia, Madras Thorn

and Banyan are the few indigenous trees in Chennai that were the least affected when compared with the exotic trees.

Some experts even point out that the salt sprays, fierce winds, inundation and Palmyra trees, which were native to high temperature. Only the indigenous Chennai city before its trees could be able to expansion and still exist with stand it. Experts in some places, stand social activists urge ccording to and erect even after Cyclone the Tami lnadu one estimate Vardha. They recommend government and NGOs more palm trees to be to consult tree experts the city has planted for the purpose of before going for a new lost 30,000 green cover.

Green Drive.

Being a coastal area, According to one big trees Chennai faces tidal fluxes, estimate the city has lost

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30,000 big trees, which is quite alarming and worrisome, as the coming summer is going to be very harsh, everyone fears.

The local tree lovers are planning to distribute indigenous tree seeds embedded inside balls made up of cow dung and other ingredients to be thrown in vacant lands in the suburban areas .

The Tambaram People’s Collective, a team of activists, has 30,000 seed balls, all of indigenous trees, ready for replanting.

“We have followed tribal method to make these seed balls. Just before or during rainy season, we have to throw them in vacant lands. During monsoon, the balls outer covering will dissolve and the seeds will sprout. This is a natural process. It is better than planting sapplings. In this process trees will adapt themselves to available resources,’’ says a member of the Tambaram People’s Collective. They also ask for youngsters’ participation in the process of re-greening their loved city.

24 Photo Feature

JANUARY 8, 2017

Rural India

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Photographer: JAIRAM

1 1. Who cares for money? Run for fun, friends!

2. Closed behind the ghunghat, they cook in the open 3. Time has etched its demands on a once beautiful face 4. Ah! the pleasure of sharing time with the nai, not just a shave

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5. Wetlands shrinking, so here they are in furrowed farmland!

6. Cane-gain: waiting for the sugar to ooze out from the cane 7. Swachhata: starting from the grassroots in her gaon 8. Mixed-veg cooked over the dung hearths... rural flavours 9. Carting a legacy: the daily slow ride to the market this winter 10. Gur, the sweetness of life brewing in the bhatti

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JANUARY 8, 2017

Photo Feature

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26 Good News

JANUARY 8, 2017

NEWS IN BRIEF

FREE BICYCLES, FREE UNIFORMS

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CCORDING to the Bihar government’s new rules, secondary school students with 75% or more attendance will receive a bicycle and a school uniform.

About 80,000 schools have classes up to 10+2 in the state. Among the schools, there are 2.22 crore students up to class 8th.

According to Bihar education project, only 65% of students have 75% attendance.

The project’s state program officer, Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, says that, “students will be facilitated with proper u n i fo r m and bicycle only if they have 75% of attendance”.

In the state, to attract the students, government provides the students with school uniform for students of Std 1 to 8 and school uniform with a bicycle for students of Std 9 to 12 of the eight divisions of 38 districts in the state.

Earlier, camps were conducted in schools for providing school uniform and bicycle. But this year onwards the money required is now deposited in the accounts of the student. The budget for bicycles is Rs 100 crore, while Rs 400 crore will be spent for the uniform of the students of Classes 1 to 8.

DIGI ANGANWADI

No More Airline Dump

ODF CHHATTISGARH

National Green Tribunal slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on the airlines emptying toilet tanks in air, banning the activity from happening in future.

Puneet Dubey

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ATIONAL Green Tribunal directed aviation regulator DGCA to issue a circular to all airlines, whose planes are involved in the ‘air dumping’, to pay Rs 50,000 as environmental compensation.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Swatanter Kumar passed a slew of directions while disposing of a plea of a retired army officer alleging dumping of human excreta by aircraft over residential areas near the IGI Airport here. Normally, the waste in the aircraft tanks are disposed of by ground handling personnel once the plane lands. However, there are cases where lavatory leaks occur in the air.

The tribunal asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to issue circular to all ground handling services and airlines to ensure that they do not release waste from human waste tanks while landing or anywhere near the terminals of the IGI Airport. “DGCA shall also issue directions that aircraft on landing shall be subjected to surprise inspection to see that human waste tanks are not empty.

If any aircraft is found to be violating such circular or (their) tanks are found empty on landing, they shall be subjected to environment compensation of Rs 50,000 per default,” the bench said.

GENDER SEX RATIO

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F the army of 24 lakh Anganwadi workers communicate with the parents who come to them that they must use cellphones to pay and accept salaries, to buy and sell vegetables, then we can create a new future and a new nation,” Maneka Gandhi said. The Women and Child Development Minister was speaking at an award ceremony, where a short presentation was made to familiarise Anganwadi workers with Unified Payment Interface or UPI and e-wallets.

Shantidevi, another Anganwadi worker for nearly 30 years from Jharkhand’s Latehar, said, “People have phones but not smartphones. However, if this is made compulsory then we will have to do it.”

She said district authorities have been carrying out a campaign about cashless transactions and training people. She too has been tasked to train 10 other people in her village.

NEWS IN BRIEF

CLEANLINESS NGT

C The direction came on the plea of Lt Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya who has sought action against the airlines and levy of hefty fines on them for endangering the health of residents, terming their act as violation of the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’.

While issuing directions, the green panel also said it was “surprised” to note the stand taken by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) that on analysing the samples taken from the petitioner’s house, it could be ascertained that it was excreta but its source could not known.

“We are surprised to note the stand of CPCB to the extent of coliform and the kind of splashes created on the houses of the petitioner as well as others clearly demostrate that it was human excreta,” the bench said. It added that the amount collected shall be deposited with CPCB for using it for environment protection and a quarterly report shall also be submitted by DGCA before it.

Sex Ratio Rises in Haryana State benefits from Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

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Pallavi Singh

ARYANA Health Minister Anil Vij said that the Health Department had intensified its campaign to curb illegal centres and doctors involved in sex determination throughout the state.

As many as 24,947 inspections were conducted and registration of 613 centres has been suspended or cancelled, whereas 448 centres were sealed and FIRs were lodged in 185 cases, he said. Vij said that

apart from this, 68 persons including 44 doctors have been convicted.

The state Medical Council had suspended 14 licences after conviction by the court.

The sex ratio in six districts is between 875 and 900 girls per 1,000 boys. Sirsa has registered the highest sex ratio at 926 girls per 1,000 boys, Panchkula at 924, Fatehabad and Palwal at 917, Karnal at 915, Hisar at 914, Panipat at 913 and Ambala at 910, Vij said.

HHATTISGARH government has announced 4,869 gram (village) panchayats, 33 development blocks and two districts (out of 27) as open defecation free (ODF). “The Prime Minister’s ‘Clean India Mission’ (rural) is yielding exciting results in the state.

Within just about two years of launch of the drive, we have made two districts along with 33 development blocks open defecation free,” a senior official from Chhattisgarh’s Panchayat and Rural Development Department said.

The state has 10,971 gram panchayats.

While 8,582 villages under 4,869 gram panchayats have so far been declared as ODF, the aim is to cover remaining 11,127 villages of 6,102 gram panchayats

by October 2, 2018, he said. Besides, of the 90 Vidhayak (MLA) Adarsh Grams (adopted by legislators in their constituency to develop into model villages), 67 villages were declared as ODF.

INSURANCE FOR POOR

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OINCIDING with the 92nd birthday of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched the ‘Atal Amrit Abhiyan’, which will give comprehensive coverage for six disease groups. The health assurance scheme will cover all individuals in eligible families with annual income below Rs 5 lakh, both BPL and APL. The scheme will cover 437 diseases that have been again segregated into six disease groups, namely, cardiovascular, cancer, kidney, neo-natal, neurological conditions and burns. The insurance will be cashless at the point of delivery and all the members of an eligible family will be given a health card with unique identification number to avail the facilities under the scheme.

A separate society will be set up under the aegis of Department of Health and Family Welfare and it will be responsible for administration of the scheme.”Health always remains a commitment of the present government and with the launching of Atal-Amrit Abhiyan, access to quality treatment will be a reality for the all the citizens,” Sonowal said.

JANUARY 8, 2017

DEMONETISATION

DIGITAL INDIA

Cashless Assistant ‘Digishala’ Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has launched a TV channel named ‘DigiShala’.

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Shivaji Dubey

IGISHALA’ is a free-to-air channel which is broadcast nationally on DD free-DTH service with a potential viewership of two crore across the country.To achieve the objective of educating, enabling

and informing citizens about cashless economy, the government has also initiated ‘Digi Dhan Abhiyan’. “DigiShala will enable and empower every citizen of the country, especially farmers, students, Dalits and women in rural areas to learn the usefulness and benefits of digital payment in our everyday life,” Ravi

Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and IT, told reporters here while launching the TV channel.

Prasad said that as digital payment increases, the tax base of the nation will also increase. “It will make the whole nation honest as tax will be paid and the country’s GDP will go up,” Prasad added.

On “DigiShala”, citizens will be informed and educated about various digital payment options through step by step demos of digital payments using UPI, USSD, Aadhar-enabled payment systems, e-Wallets and cards.

Linking demonetisation to Digital India, the government intends to boost digital payments through credit and debit cards, internet banking, e-Wallets and mobile apps. The government is in favour of moving towards an economy where ‘cashless transactions’ outweigh the ‘cash transactions’. In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently urged people to “embrace e-banking, mobile banking and more such technology”.

Whether India was prepared on the cyber security front, Prasad said that the government will take all measures to secure the digital transactions. The minister said people have already adopted e-commerce to a large extent.

The central government through Nabard will also support ‘Rural Regional Banks’ and ‘Cooperative Banks’ to issue “Rupay Kisan Cards” to 4.32 crore ‘Kisan Credit Card’ holders to enable them to make digital transactions at POS machines, micro ATMs and ATMs.

Good News

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NEWS IN BRIEF

VILLAGERS’ ROAD

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ILLAGERS of Boro Robi in Dima Hasao district of Assam have constructed a 6-km road on their own, connecting their isolated village to the world.

After the initial survey, it was decided to construct the road to connect Boro Robi with Zaikang village which has a motorable road built under MGNREGA scheme. “The stretch is around six km. The villagers of BoroRobihad to cross a hill from Jatinga side. We decided to build the motorable road so that people can at least commute without any difficulty,” Aching Zeme, a social entrepreneur said.

The social worker had asked the village to contribute Rs 20,000 for the project before starting of the work.

Apart from various parts of the country, donations have poured in from abroad also, he informed. The construction of the road started on November 26 and it has been completed this week. About 30 villages in Dima Hasao have no road at all.

NCPCR SCHOOL SURVEY

EDUCATION READING MELA

Project Smile

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Delhi government announced to provide special assistance to children with learning disabilities

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Manas Mittal

ELHI government had launched “Every Child Can Read” campaign on Teacher’s Day (September 5) this year which lasted till Children’s Day (November 14). “The government has identified 35,000 such children who will be tested for learning disabilities and thereafter would be provided appropriate learning support,” said a government statement.

According to the results of the campaign, around 5 per cent children could not go beyond identifying alphabets. “These children will have to

take screening tests

by Special Education Teachers and counsellors to identify if any of them have learning disabilities,” the statement said.

“Based on the results of the screening tests, the Special Education Teachers and Counsellors will be allotted groups of children for specialised support based on their specific learning disability,” it added. Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said with special attention, these children will achieve success in school and in life.

“When we launched ‘Every Child Can

Read campaign’, the government was serious about reaching every child in our schools. Project Smile will ensure that no child will be left behind as a result of their learning disability,” he said. According to the government, additional one lakh students learned to read “advance stories” (having an excerpt of about 100 words from the text book of Class 6) during the reading campaign.

ATIONAL Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is carrying out a survey on safe and secure schools in the country, with the data being collected directly from students. The exercise will be conducted in 80,000 private and public schools. A questionnaire comprising of 72 questions has been prepared on different parameters including safety against abuse, social and emotional safety, quality of mid-day meals, school transport, toilets, drinking water facilities, infrastructure like playground, classrooms, among others. Students will be required to fill the questionnaires themselves.

“We are undertaking this study as the Sustainable Development Goal 4 requires us to ensure inclusive and quality education for all. Often, we see that girls drop out from schools because of lack of toilets or a safe environment. This survey will help us in addressing some of those concerns,” PriyankKanoongo, Member, RTE and Education, NCPCR said.

28 Unsung Heroes UNSUNG HEROES

JANUARY 8, 2017

SANDHYA & SARIT

MOUNTAIN DISCOVERY

In 3 Idiots, an engineering topper is seen training Laddakhi students into science .That was a reel story, here’s a real one…

Inside a large hall, Sarit Sharma is monitoring a group of girls who are fiddling with bulbs, switches and resistors, creating their own electrical circuits.

Welcome to Aavishkar, a 3 IdiotClimactic place where science and math crawl out of the textbooks and enter into the fond laps of young ones.

Aavishkar was started by Sandhya and Sarit, both PhD from Iowa State University in the US. They were both working as researchers in Minnesota when the desire to watering back their roots brought them back to the mountains of Himachal Pradesh.

They got in touch with the Sambhaavnaa Institute there and started working on science modules for local students. Later, they got support from the Palampur Rotary Foundation to set up their own centre, which they called Aavishkar (or discovery).

The couple works on inculcating a scientific and mathematical thinking in the students through inquiry based approach and ‘learning by doing’ methods.

Sandhya and Sarit believe that learning should always be a joyful

experience. It should be able to drive ‘curiosity, creativity and critical thinking’ in the students. Stories, visuals and models are an integral part of every lesson, where students are pushed to ask questions and find their own solutions.

The couple organizes many science and maths camps for students as well as training sessions for the teachers.

‘Hamaari Shikshaa’ is a workshop conducted by Aavishkar to train the young professionals who are interested in education-related issues.

Tribal girls from Bihar, who are supported by an NGO, Nari Gunjan, attend the camps organised by Aavishkar to get the exciting flavour of science through experiments.

Education as a birth right is a fine slogan. India has pledged itself to become a ‘soft’ superpower based on its superior average intelligence quotient.

But census reports reveal school dropouts because of science and math.

Exclusive schools like Mirambika in posh South Delhi may cater to rich parents’ kids in the vicinity, but that is not the solution.May be the SandhyaSarit model is an answer.

Learning should be able to drive ‘curiosity, creativity and critical thinking’

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WELVE-YEAR-OLD Anjali is creating her own skateboard using wood and rubber. She is not into some schooldictated project, she is just playing in a ‘school’ in Palampur, up in the hills of

Himachal Pradesh.

At some distance, Sandhya Gupta is flying paper gliders with a group of boys, teaching them the concepts of aerodynamics in the most practical way possible.

NEWSMAKERS BAIJAYANT JAY PANDA

LOKSABHA MP JAY PANDA WILL RETURN HIS SALARY India faces humongous loss due to wasted Parliament sessions.

This MP from Odisha compensates the nation for its loss

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iju Janta Dal (BJD) MP is in News now a days. He has decided to return his salary for the month. He has decided it because the winter session of parliament couldn’t run properly. Panda said, from past four-

five years he returns the salary proportional to time wasted in Parliament.

Panda is elected for Lok Sabha from the Kendrapara constituency in Odisha.

Panda is MP from past 16 years. First he was selected for Rajya Sabha in year 2000 and continued till 2009. After that in he got selected for Lok Sabha in year 2009 and 2016. Panda said, from past 16 years he never interrupted working of Parliament.

It is worth pondering that for one minute’s preceding in parliament costs around two lakhs fifty Thousand, whereas one hour’s preceding costs one and half crore. Government spends 9 crore for just one day’s proceeding of parliament. Jay Panda said, “Parliament couldn’t work and money got wasted. So, to compensate it, like every year I am offering to return my salary proportional to time wasted in Parliament”.

Jay Panda will return 85 percent of his salary and incentives. Of course this is quiet appreciating step.

VASANT SHARMA

THE ROTI GUY This old man is single handedly feeding many homeless and needy people

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man named Vasant Sharma daily travels 6 km in bicycle to collect and distribute chapattis to the homeless and the needy people. He does this on a daily basis without any fail. By the grace of God, this old man has not came across any disease. Everyday Vasant

Sharma, rides on his bicycle and knocks at 250 houses and gets either chapattis or pulses. The collection work is done till 5 o’clock. The distribution work is completed by 6 o’clock.

His works of social service started when some people came to him last year. They were in search of a person who would be able to go to the town and get help from others so that they can put their hands and help those people who were homeless and were forced to begging and those who were disabled.

Earlier, when he got this news, he refused the offer but when he realised that he’ll be providing service to the poor people and the blessings he’d be getting from them, then he decided to accept the work of social service.

After witnessing such a whole hearted devotion to his job, the people who hired him, tried to pay him for his job, but he refused. By his individual efforts an NGO named ‘Roti’ was set up which has provided free lunch boxes to 250 houses in which women fill these lunch boxes with food items. We need many more people like Vasant Sharma, who can selflessly devote themselves for the society.

JANUARY 8, 2017

L I F E

I S

IN CONVERSATION

S P A R K L I N G

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SAIYAMI KHER

Former medium pacer seems to have dropped cricket and picked up Bollywood games

GOSSIP JUNCTION

EMMA STONE

The famous Hollywood actress wants her ideas to be taken seriously

Billionaire Club Year 2016 saw a roller coaster ride at the box office with few hits and many misses, writes Ashim Chakravarty

T

he Mumbai film industry has its own unusual ways.

Box office collection, magic of stardom, film’s performance are the striking factors for the review. Here is an overview of the 365 days of the bollywood.

FORLORN HOPE WITH ONE BIG HIT Wazir, Chalk and Duster, Airlift, Jugni, Kya Kool Hain Hum-3, Saala Khadoos, Mastizade, Sanam Teri Kasam were the films released in the first three months of the year but all led to disappointments. During this period more than a dozen movies were released.

However, only Airlift and Sala Khadoos were considered movies worth watching. Saala Khadoos did business quite well at the same time Airlift became the first movie to enter Dangal, Sultan, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, the much coveted 100 crore Airlift were some of the mega hits club. It was perhaps 49 year old of last year Akshay Kumar who could do this wonder again.

Many of the big ticket movies

Snapshots

didn’t perform well at the box office as per the expectations Bollywood needs directors who can strike the right balance between creativity and collection

THE TRAGIC FALL The beginning was astounding however the next three months was a somersault ...Continued on Page 26

30 Lead Story

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(From left to right) Ranbir and Anushka in Ae DIl Hai Mushkil; Salman-Anushka starrer Sultan; Akshay Kumar in Airlift

as the movies like Ghayal Once again, Fitoor, Neerja, Aligarh, Jai Gangajal, Kapoor & Sons, Rocky Handsome, The End, Fan, Nil Battey Sannata, Baaghi, One Night Stand, could not reach 100 crore mark. Except Neerja not even a single movie can qualify for the category of decent movies.

Ghayal Once Again, Fitoor, Fan, Ki & ka could not do well. In Ghayal Once Again Sunny Deol proved that he is a good actor but not the director.

After Kai Po Che, director Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor was chink in his armour.

This actually proved that he has not yet become much experienced to tackle with such subject. On the other hand, the movie Fan made Shah Rukh realize that he has lost his charm. The meager 60 crore business has proved this fact.

The director of Ki & Ka, R. Balki, after Shamitabh, has indicated once again that he has lost his rhythm. It certainly indicates to the paucity of good directors in film industry.

‘SULTAN’ ON THE ROLL Several films were released this year too however Sultan was on the roll. The ‘Sultan’ of Salman Khan did business of 320 crore in India and 584 crore in world. This proved that that viewer in our country loves entertainment. They do not accept any fluff. This however has been proved by box office collection of 1920 London, Azhar, Sarabjit, Veerappan, Houseful 3, Do Lafzon Ki Kahani, Teen, Udta Punjab, Raman Raghav, Great Grand Masti, Madari, Dhishoom. Houseful 3 comedy was stale this is why they had to be satisfied in business of 80 cr. Amidst these, some good movies were also released like Sarabjit, Veerappan, Udta Punjab,

Raman Raghav, Madari but people did not spend money in multiplexes. The viewers who spend money are somehow punishing directors like Gauri Shinde, Abhishek Chaubey, Anuraag Kashyap, Anirudh Rai Chaudhary, Reepu Dasgupta, Deewakar Banerjee. The high prices of multiplexes makes viewer not to spend excess money.

Instead they spent money on Indra Kumar’s sex comedy Great Grand Masti.

Ironically, the film was leaked on internet even before its release.

Prakash Mehra must have learnt lesson from it. Dangal was however a saving grace, as it touched 100 crore figure in just 3 days. Aamir Khan’s film had a grand opening due to its strong storyline and stellar performances.

Tutak Tutak Tutiya, Saat Uchakke, Rock On 2, Tum Bin 2, Force 2, Kahaani 2, Befikre, Wajah Tum Ho are other released films of these three months. In Befikre, Aditya Chopra was seen on entirely different track.

Similarly, serious director Sujoy Ghosh was left behind in Kahani 2 but this could not be said about perfectionist Aamir Khan as his new film Dangal can easily break the AAMIR KHAN’S MOVIE records of many DANGAL CAN EASILY blockbusters.

ANOTHER HIT The month of September and October saw release of movies like Mohanjodaro, BREAK THE BOX OFFICE Rustam, Happy Bhaag Jayegi, SHAH RUKH RECORDS OF MANY Flying Jat, HAS LOST HIS BLOCKBUSTERS Akeera, Baar CHARM Baar Dekho, Last year was Freaky Ali, Raaz not very lucky Reboot, Pink was in hit movie category, for Shahrukh Khan. It is often said that Akeera did business of 30 crore which King Khan has lost his charm. His aura was far below the expectation. and stardom seems to be on a slippery Ashutosh Govarikar’s 100 crore slope and so are his movies’ collection.

Mohanjedaro could not even recover its The box office report of his newly cost of production which was 67 crore. released film Fan, Dear Zindagi is not On the other hand Shakun Batra’s film satisfactory. Moreover, his often Baar Baar Dekho has got the status of controversial statements have reduced the most boring film of the year. his fan following.

TALL CLAIMS ALL SHALLOW From October to December, Ajay Devgan starrer Shivay and Shah Rukh’s Dear Zindagi could not do business of 100 crore and proved that the magic of big name is effervescent only for limited time. Director of Mirzya, Rakesh Om

AKKI ON THE RIGHT TRACK In this case, Akshay’s efforts are quite laudable. He did not leave the company of serious directors for several years.

The outcome was the films like Airlift and Rustam, and Toilet Ek Prem Katha this year.

ANUSHKA ON THE TOP Be it sultan or Ae Dil Hai Mushkil , this year Anushka Sharma passed with flying colors. Not even a single film of Deepika was released this year. On the other hand Priyanka’s Jai Gangajal could not make its mark. This really worked for Anushka. She is getting all big movies these days.

SMALL MOVIES DISAPPOINT Last year there was plethora of small films. For cine lovers it is hard to reckon them as these were the films that could not manage to go beyond the budget of 1 crore to 5 crore. Trade expert Amod Mehra says that the reason behind making of these movies is the reason that they do business of 10 crore. But infelicitously most of the movies don’t even reach that mark, as their shows are cancelled in most of the multiplexes. To run a single show at least 5 to 10 people are required.

Among small films released this year Chalk and Duster, Saala Khadoos, Neerja, Aligarh, Nil battey Sannata, Do Lafzon ki kahani and Madari was laudable.

WHERE ARE EFFICIENT DIRECTORS? Perhaps this year transpires a pungent truth. Abhishek Chaubey, Anurag Kashyap, Gauri Shinde, Remo D’Souza.

Shakun Batra, Nishikant Kamath, Farhad-Sajid, Manish Sharma, Ravi Jadhav, Suhail Khan are not among those directors who can run the industry. We need plethora of directors who can deliver super hit movies consistently. After all the box office collection is a sinew for Bollywood movies. Alas! There is an apparent crisis of hit movies this year.

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FACE TO FACE WITH

Saiyami Kher

JANUARY 8, 2017

In Conversation

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Critics have not been very kind with your debut film Mirzya.

So what’s up next?

These days I am busy in endorsement of my modelling. Have got some offers in movies but I am not in a hurry. Mirzya was far below my expectations but that does not disappoint me. However, you know that my name has come from Sanskrit word saiyyam and these days I am actually implementing it, thereby interacting less with the media too.

But soon I will come up with something good.

You wanted to be a sportsperson but how come you landed in the field of acting?

You are right. Since childhood I was interested and curious about sports. I used to play cricket and badminton. I played for the Maharashtra state cricket team also. I was a real tomboy. In an age when girls think about fashion and beauty, I was determined to build up my stamina and took to swimming and cycling. This is why I got admission in Mumbai’s St. Xaviers College on the sports quota.

Did you get offers for big screen the moment you came to Mumbai?

Not really, I decided after coming to Mumbai that I will be a professional cricketer. But I lacked the fitness level required for it. This is why even after being called for the women’s cricket team I could not be selected. For me playing at the national level was pivotal, but did not happen. On the other hand, people say I am attractive so I got offers in modelling. I have done modelling on the ramp for some big brands. I got enough publicity as a model, especially for the Kingfisher calendar.

Modeling is all about moving towards films, right?

No, it did not happen with me. During my college days I was more fascinated by theatre. I learned acting at the workshop of Nadira

I was a real tomboy. In an age when girls think about fashion and beauty, I was determined to build up my stamina Babbar and Neeraj Kabir. People in the theatre circuit found my acting fine. They all encouraged me to try my luck in movies.

“Pacing Up in Tinsel Town” Former medium pacer Saiyami Kher seems to have dropped cricket and picked up Bollywood games, even though her debut, Mirzya, bombed. Excerpts of an interview with Sulabh Swachh Bharat

You are the granddaughter of yesteryear actress Usha Kiran.

Then why did you begin with Telugu movies?

My father Adwait Kher and mother, Uttara Mhatre (herself a beauty pageant winner) were well known models in the eighties. My parents wanted to keep me and my elder sister away from the world of glamour; this is why they settled us in Nashik. The truth is when I got the offer of the Telugu movie ‘Rey’ I wastotally occupied in modelling. I easily agreed for acting in movies. Besides, I do not give any credit to anyone for making my career. Till today I haven’t asked for any favours from Tanvi Aunty or Shabana Aunty.

A large part of your childhood was spent working in a restaurant?

Aangan, Bombay Talkies, and Tandoor were our family’s three restaurants in Nashik. Aangan shut down but the other two were there. After school my elder sister and I used to stay there in the kitchen of the restaurant.

But don’t think that we were allowed by our parents to eat anything from there. Mummy and Papa used to bring food for me from home. When we grew up, we started helping in management work like taking orders and serving food. I have done almost everything in my hotel.

Can you cook food?

Very well! I make nice roomali rotis, sweet dishes and many other items.

‘Aryaner Deen Ratri’, but that never took shape. However, I am still lucky because I could do the narration for his film, ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi”.

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JANUARY 8, 2017

J U N C T I O N

Xmas at Hospital Reality TV show host NICK CANNON will spend Christmas in the hospital due to complications related to Lupus disease. Though Cannon, who has twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife and singer Mariah Carey, insisted he was healthier than he’s ever been because he has done so much research into Lupus. But it’s an irony that The “America’s Got Talent” host will spend the festive season under the care of medical staff.

Action for Auction Celebrities are getting in on the action by auctioning off gifts and experiences.

Aerosmith star Steven Tyler and actor KURT RUSSELL will sell off their hot wheels at the annual Barrett-Jackson classic car auction next month for charity. Tyler will sell off his 2012 Hennessey Venom GT Spyder and donate proceeds to his charity. A 1956 Austin Princess once owned by late singer John Lennon will also be up for auction.

Hollywood Underdog Indian-origin British actor DEV PATEL, featured in movies like “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, is very much excited about his next flick ‘Lion”. Patel says he likes to do movies with “underdog stories”.

In the film, Patel plays Brierley. “I’m drawn to underdog stories, and there was so much about it, so (many) shades of grey,” said the actor.”Lion” is a true story about an Indian boy who falls asleep on a train only to wake up and realise he is hundreds of miles from home in a strange land where he does not speak the language.

I am Serious!

Actress EMMA STONE may be lauded as one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actresses, but she says her ideas are not taken seriously.

“There were times when I’ve been told that I’m hindering the process by bringing up an opinion or an idea,” she said. Stone added that there have been several instances where she improvised a line or joke that worked, only to have it given away to her male co-stars.

Dream Come true It’s a dream come true for Actress KRITI SANON. Kriti says she had never thought of becoming an actress. She is just two years old in Bollywood but has already managed to bag four films, including one with superstar Shahrukh Khan.

She made her Bollywood debut in 2014 with “Heropanti”, then featured in “Dilwale” starring Kajol and Shahrukh Khan and has two films in her kitty -- “Raabta” and “Bareilly Ki Barfi”.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Licensing) Delhi No. F. 2 (S-45) Press/ 2016 VOLUME - 1, ISSUE - 3 Printed by Monika Jain, Published by Monika Jain on behalf of SULABH SANITATION MISSION FOUNDATION and Printed at The Indian Express Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, NOIDA (U.P.) and Published from RZ 83, Mahavir Enclave, Palam-Dabri Road, New Delhi – 110 045. Editor Monika Jain