The Golden Sparrow on Saturday 11/04/2015

PAGES: 16+16 (TGS LIFE) | PRICE: `5

PUNE, APRIL 11, 2015 | www.thegoldensparrow.com

TGS LIFE

Why Simran is the new-age Sita

CITY

Cops are pushing a serious offence under the rug P3

`6.59 crores of your money down the drain

CITY

Only one of 52 schools for disabled has CCTVs P5

Ambitious plan to segregate waste at source and then process it at the dumping ground has failed miserably, courtesy PCMC; residents are using bins distributed by civic body for everything other than sorting wet and dry garbage See Spotlight, p8-9

Chaiwala arrested for a crime he never committed 26 yrs ago

GoI detains Mohammed Ali Vengadan to prevent him from smuggling in future. They were 26 years late and didn’t care to check that the farmer from Kerala never really committed the crime

Mohammed Ali Vengadan’s cousins Abduppa Vengadan(left) and Marackar Vengadan (right)

BY RAJIL MENON @RajilMenon On February 25 this year, 57-year-old Mohammed Ali Vengadan was in for a rude shock. Kerala Police approached him at his tea stall in Muthiramanna village, Mallapuram district and arrested him. The next day he was produced before a magistrate and then brought to Mumbai. On March 2, he was lodged in Arthur Road. Vengadan and his family’s repeated pleas to find out about the so called crime he was arrested for went unheard.

It was only once he was in Mumbai jail that he was handed a copy of an order issued by Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue dated February 27, 1989. It was a detention order under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA Act) accusing him of smuggling in 1989. To prevent him from smuggling again, the detention order was passed back then, but the authorities responsible for executing it

forgot about it for 26 years.

Also what the authorities forgot was to check Vengadan’s credentials or his paperwork before nabbing him.

Had they done so, they would have figured that around the time they claim he smuggled gold into the country, Vengadan was not even around. In 1989 he had gone to Mecca for a religious visit during which his entire baggage including his passport was stolen. According to a petition moved

Mohammed Ali Vengadan

by his cousins in Bombay High Court, Vengadan spent next five months doing odd jobs to fund his trip back to India.

He was nabbed by Mecca police while shopping for groceries, put behind bars for 16 days and later deported to India. Once in India, authorities at the airport saw his deportation order and let him go, as is usually the case.

Ever since he has been farming in his village and recently started a tea stall.

Vengadan’s has two sons Jamshed (25) and Nofel (23), a daughter Jasina (27) and wife Zainaba. His wife has taken ill ever since Vengadan was arrested.

That’s as far as Vengadan’s story goes. His lawyers stated in the petition that the GoI’s detention order for smuggling is not only 26 years late but does not concern him. It is for another person who misused Vengadan’s stolen passport in early 1989. The lawyers pointed out that around the time that Vengadan was struggling without his passport in Mecca, someone used his stolen passport to smuggle 14 gold bars weighing 1.6 kgs into India.

Contd on p4

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

MUMBAI

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

PUNE

“We are ready to relax the quality norms for procurement of wheat and other grains to provide relief to the farmers who are affected by the recent spell of unseasonal rainfall”.

- Ram Vilas Paswan, Food Minister

Will Govt act to save the Internet P6

S(h)ame old story P4

Yes Bank MD’s dream villa to become reality Two years after Rana Kapoor’s family acquired all the flats in Khursheed Abad building, they managed to evict a family occupying 186 sq ft servant’s quarters

BY YOGESH SADHWANI AND BAPU DEEDWANIA In May 2013, Yes Bank’s Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Rana Kapoor bought an entire building in tony Altamount Road, Mumbai.

The founder of fourth largest private sector bank coughed up `128.80 crores for the Khursheed Abad building which had six Rana Kapoor flats owned by Citi Bank and GlaxoSmithKline. His plans for converting it into a villa, however, could not take off all thanks to a servant’s family residing on the ground floor. Two years later, Kapoor has finally managed to strike a deal with Pandiyan family and evict them.

Kapoor paid a whopping `1.25 crore for a tiny space occupied by Raju Pandiyan and his family.

A week ago Raju Pandiyan (66) vacated the servant’s quarters spread over 186 sq ft and handed over the keys to the new owners – Imagine Estate Pvt Ltd, a company in which Rana Kapoor’s wife Bindu Kapoor and daughter Rakhee Kapoor Tandon are directors.

Pandiyans have now moved to Grant Road. “My family had been living in Khursheed Abad since I was 14 years old. We used to work for the original owners of the bungalow, Mistry family, who had gifted us the house (servant’s quarters) back then. The bungalow was later sold to two companies (Citi Bank and GlaxoSmithKline). We continued living in our house. After Kapoor Sir’s family bought the house, they started negotiating with us. I don’t want to get into the details of what all happened in last two years, but now finally the deal is through. We have moved out,” said

Raju Pandiyan. Before Imagine Estate Pvt Ltd bought the property, Citi Bank and GlaxoSmithKline used to occupy five flats and one flat respectively. The building is constructed on 12,357 sq ft plot.

Insiders revealed that after acquiring the property, they wanted to tear down the old bungalow and construct one of their own. The plush area has residences of Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla. Steel baron Sajjan Jindal too has bought a sprawling bungalow named Morena on Carmichael Road, not too far from

Khursheed Abad building.

However, Kapoor family’s plan to bring down the old structure to make way for new was stalled by Pandiyans.

Sources revealed that Raju and his wife Florin initially were not amenable to move out of the property. Later, when they did agree, negotiations took a while. On February 23, the two sides finally signed the deal. Pandiyan walked away with a cool `1.25 crores for the 186 sq ft property.

Sources revealed that now the Kapoors will finally go ahead with their plan to construct a villa. The family currently occupies a sprawling duplex in sea-facing Samudra Mahal, Worli.

When TGS team contacted Rana Kapoor to find out about his plans for Khursheed Abad now that Pandiyans have moved out, he declined to comment. “No comments please as this is a personal family matter,” he said via a text message. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

Khursheed Abad building that Rana Kapoor plans to convert into a villa

Soon, unfurling a tricolour near you Most expensive parking slot Mumbai-based businessman dreams of seeing the Indian national flag flutter over every important landmark in the city TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly Three years ago, an idea struck Rakesh Bakshi as he stared at myriad flags dotting the horizon in Istanbul, Turkey. Would it be possible for him to replicate a similar scene back home? The image stayed imprinted in the businessman’s mind when returned to Mumbai’s humdrum. In time, the dream, of seeing the Indian tricolour fluttering over as many of the city’s landmarks as possible, started to become a reality.

To begin with, Bakshi has planned five flag posts across suburbs in and around Mumbai. Work on the fi rst flag post, which is 100 ft tall and will bear a 30*20 ft flag, is going on in full swing since the aim is to unfurl it on May 1 at the hands of decorated armed forces personnel. “My father was in the armed forces and wherever we lived, I would see the national flag swaying high.

I would always feel a sense of pride in my country when I saw the flag. The tricolour instantly evoked a sense of patriotism,” recalls the 59-year-old. As a grown up, Bakshi only remembers seeing the national flag on national holidays, Republic Day and Independence Day. Work took the managing of a medium-scale pharmaceutical company to Turkey a few years ago and that’s where the interest in the national flag was rekindled.

“They had flags hoisted on tall buildings, mountains, almost everywhere. There was a particular flag in Istanbul that could be seen from any part of the city. That got me thinking,” says Bakshi. It took him three long years to work out the logistics of setting up the flag posts but Bakshi was resolute. “It’s easy to build a flag post. But maintaining a flag and ensuring that you are not lowering its dignity is most important. The Indian Flag Code needs to be strictly followed. Moreover, it is important to choose a perfect spot from where the flag can be seen,” he says, sharing the knowledge he has garnered over the years.

It wasn’t easy getting the information

A South Mumbai resident just bought a covered garage for Rs 67 lakhs from one of his neighbours

BY BAPU DEEDWANIA A parking lot in South Mumbai just got sold for `67 lakhs. You heard it right. Located on ground floor of Simla House on Napean Sea Road, the garage has been bought by a businessman residing in the building from another family, also residing in the housing society.

According to papers available with The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, Neel Atmaram Bhatia, 44, bought a covered garage spread over 300-odd sq ft for `67 lakhs. The garage was earlier owned by Taramati Navnitrai Mehta, 79. Both Bhatia and Mehta live in Simla House – while Mehta lives on

though. To begin with, he had to understand the Indian Flag Code. Then, Bakshi coordinated with various agencies to identify the right spots to construct the flag posts in various suburbs. Once that was in order, he sought permissions to construct the posts. The last thing on the agenda was to organise funds to implement the project.

Bakshi says, this was the easiest task. The industrialist simply dipped into his kitty and decided to fund the entire project all by himself. Th is is no mean feat. Even by a conservative estimate, a 100 ft high flag post would cost Rs 15 lakh. “A 100 foot flag post costs around Rs 10 lakh,” Bakshi says, rectifying the figure, “Moreover, for every flag post constructed, you ought to

DID YOU KNOW? The highest Indian flag post, at a height of 250 ft, is located in Faridabad, Haryana. The flag is 96x64 ft wide.

The second highest flag pole is at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s headquarters and stands at 222 ft.

The National Military Memorial, Bangalore, also boasts of a tricolour hoisted at 213 ft.

Former Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal, who fought the long legal battle to unfurl the tricolour at any location and by an ordinary citizen, too has hoisted a flag at the Central Park in Delhi, at a height of 90 ft.

have three flags – one that is put up at all hours; a backup, in case the regular one is damaged; and one for special occasions.

A 100 ft tall pole needs flags measuring 30*20 ft, each costing Rs 70,000.” Bakshi rattles off the facts and figures, not even stopping for a gulp of air. The national flag is evidently a matter of great pride for the businessman.

The fi rst flag post is being built in the sleepy township of Ambernath, 60 kms from Mumbai. Four others are in the pipeline and will be located in Badlapur, Ulhasnagar, Powai and at Mumbai University’s Kalina campus. “Ambernath is my fi rst home and Badlapur is where my factory is located. So, the fi rst two posts flags would be unfurled there. The third flag pole will be constructed at CHM College, Ulhasnagar. Back in college, I had represented Mumbai University in various sports activities and hence the fourth flag pole would be erected there.

The last one would be at Powai, where I live currently,” explains Bakshi. He aim to keep increasing the height of the poles and size of the flags with each installation. “The sole idea is that the flags should be visible from far off locations,” says Bakshi, adding that the height of the post and size of flags has nothing to do with setting a record or gaining popularity. Bakshi simply dreams of evoking a sense of national pride every time you see the tricolour. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

RECENT PARKING SLOT TRANSACTIONS A stilt car parking areas in Dhiraj Mansion, Peddar Road was sold for `10 lakhs by Prabha Mantri to Durmil Kacheria. The deal for the slot spread over mere 90 sq ft was registered in March 2015.

A 175 sq ft enclosed garage in The Dhanavantari Bhavan at Cumballa Hill was sold for `15 lakhs.

fourth floor, Bhatia lives on the fi fth floor of the housing society.

The deal, inked between the two on February 27 this year, is said to be the most expensive so far. are desperately on lookout for parking slots and will Simla House was constructed way back in the 60s jump at resale within the society. Th is seems to be and has around 245 flats in five wings. When TGS one of those transactions,” said Maheshwari. team approached the Bhatia household, while Neel Experts attribute exorbitant prices Bhatia was abroad, one of the family for parking slots to space crunch in members confi rmed the deal. “Right South Mumbai housing societies, now we haven’t thought of what to especially older ones. Most societies do with the garage. It is in shambles just have provision for one car per and needs to be fi xed before it can family, stilt or covered. Gradually, be used.” open spaces within the building are Real estate experts pointed out also allotted by societies to members that there have been sale of garages with growing number of vehicles in South Mumbai but none of them in families. Eventually when the have exceeded `40 lakhs. Severe space crunch in housing societies common area in the society runs to park four wheelers is said to be out, members tend to purchase main reason for such expensive parking slots from others who are transactions. not using them.

Shreegopal Maheshwari, a Even in new buildings in South well-known South Mumbai broker, Mumbai residents have to pay - SHREEGOPAL MAHESHWARI explained that over the years he through their nose for additional has seen several transactions of parking slots. While buying a flat, stilt parking lots (roof on top but residents in areas like Malabar Hill, open on all sides) and covered garages (completely Peddar Road, Altamount Road and some areas of enclosed with a shutter) in South Mumbai. “Stilt Worli, have to shell out anywhere between `10-25 lakhs for parking slots. Since sale of parking slots by parking lots normally go for anywhere between `10 lakhs to `lakhs, whereas a covered garage can fetch developers is banned by the Supreme Court, the cost maximum of `40 lakhs. Simla House deal seems of parking lot is built into the flat value. like an exception. Often people with high-end cars tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

“Often people with high-end cars are on lookout for parking slots and will jump at resale within the society”

WHAT CAN `67 LAKH GET YOU? With `67 lakhs in your hand, you will be able to buy a 1BHK spread over around 550 sq ft in Mumbai suburbs like Mulund, Dahisar, Kandivali and Borivali. In Pune, with that kind of money one will be able to buy a 2BHK

The first flag post is designed to be 100 ft tall and will bear a 30x20 ft flag. The aim is to unfurl it on May 1.

spread over 1,000-odd sq ft in Mundhwa, Pimple Saudagar, Wadgaonsheri, Wakad, Manjiri-Budruk, Balewadi, among several other areas.

Another option would be to look at high-end cars.

You will be able to afford -

BMW 5 Series 530d M Sport, Mercedes-Benz ML Class ML350 CDI, Mercedes-Benz E-Class E 350 CDI, Audi Q7 35 TDI q Premium plus, or a Porsche Boxster STD.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

Only one of 52 schools for disabled has CCTVs P5

PUNE

“As it became an emotional issue for passengers and rail fans, we have decided to manufacture a dining car which will be reintroduced in the Deccan Queen.”

- Narendra Patil, spokesperson, Central Railway TH

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Cops are pushing a serious offence under the rug

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JT CP says no action till victims come forward

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A week after TGS caught Bund Garden cops assaulting two students on camera, senior Pune police brass say they cannot do anything against their own men as they need the victims to come forward and complain

BY RAJIL MENON @RajilMenon We caught ruffians on camera ruthlessly beating up a mentally deficient eunuch. We also captured how the eunuch in his 20s approached Pune railway station police chowky under Bund Garden police station’s jurisdiction for help. He was not only turned down but assaulted by cops as well. Next, we captured cops beating up two students who dared to expose the cops assaulting the eunuch. Akshay Sonone dared to capture the police brutality on his cellphone but was made out. Cops chased him and his brother, beat them ruthlessly till they deleted the footage and also gave an apology letter. A week after The Golden Sparrow on Saturday exposed the cops, their seniors at police headquarters say there is nothing they can do. Without the victims – eunuch or the students – Pune police will not initiate action against their own.

Activists have slammed the Pune cops for their highhanded approach in the case. They believe it is nothing but an attempt by the senior police officials to protect their men, who have been exposed beyond doubt in videos captured by TGS. Anoop Awasthi, Founder of Legal Rights Society, and a Pune-based activist explained that after reading the story in TGS, he immediately rushed to Bund Garden police station and gave a written complaint to senior inspector. “I also approached senior

police officers and briefed them about the entire episode. I had demanded a fair inquiry by seniors in police force.

But I am appalled at the way everybody in police force is trying to push the case under the rug. I am left with no option but to now approach the judiciary to get justice for the eunuch and the two students. It doesn’t really matter if they are too scared to come forward.

My complaint is enough for the cops

cops had booked a murder witness, Nilesh Jadhav under a ‘false case’ and put him behind bars. “They are doing the same thing in students’ case as well.

ADVOCATE YP SINGH, former IPS officer and noted criminal lawyer

Police can’t get away by saying that since the victims have not come forward as yet, they cannot initiate action. Law states that they ought to initiate action on the basis of information received. ‘Information’ is the crux in the Criminal Procedure Code and not ‘source of information’. On the basis of videos, statements of witnesses and even of others, police can act and register an FIR against those who assaulted the eunuch and students. Senior police officials stating that since the victims have not come forward, they cannot do anything is not a legally tenable argument. If the cops fail to act, one can approach police commissioner. If he fails too, then a complaint can be filed with magistrate. One can approach High Court as well. Also, Human Rights Commission is a proper forum to take up this case.

to act, but as is obvious they are busy saving their own,” he said.

Ketan Tirodkar, former journalist and activist, also expressed anger at the way Pune police are dealing with the entire incident. Tirodkar has fi led Public Interest Litigation against Pune cops in a similar case of highhandedness. Not long ago the RAHUL RAUT

Anoop Awasthi arguing with a Bund Garden cop; Activist Ketan Tirodkar (inset)

First they did not help the eunuch who was being beaten by goons, then went on to thrash him. Not stopping at that they caught two students who captured the brutality on camera and thrashed them as well. Th is is exactly what Pune police do all the time,” said Tirodkar.

He added that under Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), there is no need for a victim to come forward and complain. “Anybody can give a complaint in writing and under the law, police have to fi le an FIR if it involves a cognizable offence. Th is is a clear case of assault and concealment of evidence. If police station concerned does not act then under CrPC, DCP of the area must initiate action. In this case neither police station, nor the DCP have acted. Law clearly states that all the officials concerned who are trying to scuttle the case will have to face music and can be put behind bars. I will take this case up in my PIL

which is already being heard by Bombay High Court,” said Tirodkar.

Several others also pointed out how cops do not need the victims to come forward to fi le a complaint. Cops know well that the eunuch is mentally deficient and will never come forward on his own. As for the students, when TGS team contacted their family, they said that the two were too rattled after the thrashing from police to come forward.

The case pertains to an incident that occurred on April 1 near Pune railway station. A eunuch was being beaten ruthlessly by some ruffians.

They accused him of sexually harassing women in the busy area. The eunuch ran to Pune railway station police chowky for help but was instead asked to leave. When he did not budge several cops thrashed him brutally with a belt.

Akshay Sonone, a student from Daund, who was in Pune for a competitive exam with his brother, dared to capture the police brutality on camera but was caught while doing so. Cops chased the two and thrashed them.

After an hour of thrashing, they let go of the two only after their uncle Rajesh Titade assured the cops that they would never squeal and also gave an apology letter in writing. Their clippings were deleted by cops. What the cops didn’t realise is that TGS team had captured most of the incident on camera. rajilmenon@gmail.com

Qualified for international paralympics, she awaits a helping hand Pooja Gaikwad will represent India in 60m backstroke event under blind category

She is blind. She is 14 years old. She has set swimming records at district, state and national levels despite coming from a poor background.

She has achieved the feat without any special coach. She has secured a place to represent the country at Para Open Games 2016 to be held in Delhi in July. To realise her dream to win a medal for the country, she needs an expert coach. And no one has come forward to extend help.

Pooja Gaikwad has defined grit, tenacity and relentless pursuit in her own terms. The VIII standard student of Poona School and Home for Blind at Kothrud qualified to take part in the 60 m backstroke event under blind category at the international-level event without any specialised training.

Till now, patrons of the school provided financial assistance as Pooja’s parents cited their limitations. With the international event demanding an expert coach, the girl is waiting for assistance from government bodies that have various ambitious schemes and programmes for handicapped students under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Admitting to not approaching the state

RAHUL RAUT

BY PRIYANKKA DESHPANDE @journopriyankka

government, Poona School and Home for Blind principal Sulabha Pujari said, “Why should we ask the government for financial aid for national players like Pooja. It is their (government) duty to fulfil the financial needs of such talents.”

When asked why players like Pooja has to run from pillar to post for assistance, State Directorate of Sports and Youth Services (DSYS), Pune, deputy director NB Mote said that he is yet to get the list of players who will be participating in the upcoming paralympic games.

“The paralympic association never sends the list to us. We have a separate fund for such players under the state sports ministry but are unable to sanction it for lack of application,” Mote said.

The youngest among five siblings, four sisters and one brother, Pooja’s parents are farmers owing

a farmland at Kalus village, around 10 km from Chakan.

Being the only child to be born blind, Pooja’s parents admitted her at Poona School and Home for Blind at Kothrud. With swimming being a part of the extracurricular activities adopted by the school, Pooja took an active interest in the sport.

She started winning in-house contests when she was in standard II and impressed teachers to focus on her swimming talent.

Initially, the school used to take Pooja to municipal pools for practice but winning local and regional-level tournaments demanded better training. In 2011, Club Solaris offered its Kothrud facility to Pooja when she was in standard V. She used to practice under the club’s regular coach three times a week.

Pooja made it to the Para Open Games 2016 list after her remarkable performance at national events. Over 15 countries, including Isndia, will be taking part in the event to be held in Delhi.

The open event will see participation from South Asian countries, Europe and America.

Pooja said, “Once I leave the school, who would help me succeed in swimming. My parents are poor. I want to win gold medals in international events and make my country proud.” priyanka.deshpande@goldensparrow.com

TGS Team caught up with Sanjay Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Police, Pune City to find out about proposed action against the errant cops who thrashed the eunuch and two students. Excerpts: The constables at the police chowky physically assaulted the two students who dared to capture police brutality on camera. Cops also thrashed a eunuch. Can police initiate action?

The victims should come forward to lodge a complaint and then law will take its own course of action. In this incident, the police can do an impartial enquiry if victims report the physical abuse.

Law does not permit us to initiate a suo-moto inquiry in such cases.

Victims are required to fi le a complaint or anyone in the blood relationship of the victim can fi le the complaint.

Are you aware of the entire incident?

I came to know about the incident. The police station staff said

that there are several complaints of women against the eunuch who has become a nuisance in the area.

If the two students, who were allegedly beaten up by the cops, feel that they are victims, they should report it to the senior officers.

Can police be a mute spectator to a eunuch being beaten by ruffians, merely because he is a nuisance?

Absolutely not. But here, the eunuch is troublesome and refuses to wear cloths despite repeated requests by policemen. He roams on the streets nude. People did take law in their hands, before police came to know about it.

Is it acceptable for the cops to thrash someone?

No.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

PUNE

“Despite an overwhelming response from public, several Marathi films have been relegated to the background when it comes to preferred time slots.”

- Girish Kulkarni, Actor and Director

Industrial units make sound business again

Jammu-Srinagar national highway: A horror

P10

P12 RAHUL RAUT

Of the 697 meetings of various committees and general board, 283 have been adjourned for some reason or the other

S(h)ame old story

BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal The numbers never lie. It seems the politicians of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) work hard only to get elected as corporators.

Between March 2012 and March 2015, 51 of the 91 general body (GB) meetings were adjourned. Likewise, subject committee meetings also get adjourned frequently.

Frequent adjournment of meetings causes delay in taking important decisions for the city’s development and exposes the elected members’ commitment and responsibility towards citizens after taking the oath of office.

Most of the adjournments take place to pay tributes to local and national personalities. Lack of quorum among members and using adjournment as a weapon to get rid of chaos in the House are the other reasons for the poor functioning of this Constitutional body.

As per the Bombay Municipal Act of 1949, meetings should be resumed after being stopped for 1015 minutes to offer condolences. But elected members seem to take it as an opportunity to skip the meetings altogether.

PCMC data shows that general body and subject meetings were adjourned 84 times for lack of quorum, 81 times for condolence and 103 times for trivial reasons in the past three years.

The sixth municipal election in Pimpri-Chinchwad was held in 2012

Seven years later, hockey players in Chikalwadi are still waiting for the stadium

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis.ashish

Most of Pune’s hockey stars, including Olympians Baburao Nimal, Joseph Phillips, Vikram Pillay and former India captain Dhanraj Pillay, are from Khadki. Majority of the city’s hockey teams still practice and play in this locality.

To nurture this talent and provide the budding players a platform to make it to the national side, Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) built Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hockey stadium in Chikalwadi, Khadki in 2008.

The lethargic approach of authorities has kept players from enjoying the benefits of sports facilities at the stadium even after seven years of construction.

Even a constant followup by sports enthusiasts has failed to stir the officials out of slumber.

“All tall claims and catchy promises about improving the stadium remains on paper.

About `2 crores were spent in building the stadium. An amount of `3.5 crores was sanctioned for renovation and a Mumbai-fi rm was supposed to install Astro Turf. But we are still struggling with murrum soil,” said one local hockey player who wished not to be named.

Hockey Maharashtra general secretary Manoj Bhore said, “We are trying our best to improve the stadium’s ground conditions.

Additional municipal commissioner Omprakash Bokaria has also extended support. Still the stadium’s proper use looks like a distant dream.”

He said that the plan to hold the Mayor’s Trophy inter-club hockey tournament at Chikalwadi ground was later shifted to Balewadi stadium after officials failed to give a go-ahead

despite organisers willing to fund the initial amount required for the improvement of the ground.

GROUND REPORT TGS Team found the sports facility in mess. The stadium has turned into a safe haven for illegal activities. Liquor bottles are strewn all over the place and fi lth litter the ground.

Even the woman security guard on duty was a mute spectator.

“Goons from nearby slums don’t heed to our warnings. So I am helpless and let them do whatever they want.

At least 2-3 guards should be posted to free the stadium from these hooligans,” she said.

Even the doors, tube lights, toilet blocks and floodlights around the ground are damaged.

Drainage system is done halfway and open ducts have become garbage pits.

“All tall claims and catchy promises about improving the stadium remains on paper.”

HISTORY In 2008, the stadium, spread over 21,200 square metres and with spectator capacity of 1,000, was built.

The ground was initially used for training by nearby local clubs like Rovers Sports Academy, Railway Police and Super XI. Within a few years, the stadium turned into a hot pick for liquor parties and gambling.

PMC’s appointment of security guards failed to protect the stadium from hooligans.

In 2010, an amount of `10 lakh meant for the stadium was diverted for completion of a community hall without any discussion in PMC general body meeting.

Two years later, PMC sanctioned `3.25 crore for renovation and approached a Mumbai-based fi rm for installing Astro Turf. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com

PCMC corporators gather to disperse

and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won with a thumping majority. The municipal body consists of 128 elected and five nominated corporators. The fi rst GB meeting after the election was held in March 2012. Of the 51 meetings that were adjourned between 2012 and March 2015, 41 were for paying tributes to political leaders and important personalities.

Adjournments marred the functioning of other committees.

Eighty-two of the 237 standing committee meetings were adjourned, including 41 for holding condolences.

The law committee meeting that is to be held every 15 days took place only 108 times in three years, and 50 were adjourned. Seven for condolences, 16 for lack of quorum and 27 meets were discontinued after just presenting suggestions.

Th irteen of the 66 meetings of women and child welfare committee were adjourned. City improvement committee met 108 times and 53 were adjourned. Sports committee’s 87 meetings saw 34 adjournments.

Social activist Maruti Bhapkar said, “Sweeping victory of a single party could not check these adjournments.

Elected members have failed in their duty. Biometric attendance system should also cover corporators so that citizens know the commitment of their elected leaders.”

Adjournments of civic meetings also waste time of heads of departments, senior municipal officials, and citizens and activists who sit in the gallery to see the proceedings. archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com

PCMC meetings held between March 2012 and March 2015 Meetings

Held

Adjourned

General Body

40

51

Total 91

Standing Committee

155

82

237

Law Committee

58

50

108

Women and Child Welfare Committee

53

13

66

City Improvement Committee

55

53

108

Sports Committee

53

34

87

The sorry state of affairs at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hockey stadium in Chikalwadi

Chaiwala arrested for a crime he Police station with two names never committed 26 years ago

Khadakwasla police station does not really have the area under their jurisdiction; seniors have given it another name as well

Contd from p1 The smuggler was caught on February 1, 1989 at Mumbai international airport by Customs and released few days later. On February 27, 1989 the Ministry of Finance, passed the detention order under COFEPOSA, as it normally does in smuggling cases.

The objective is to put the smuggler behind bars for a year so that he does not commit the crime again.

Those responsible for executing the order back then buried it. Over two decades later, they woke up and picked up Vengadan, whose stolen passport had been allegedly used to smuggle in 1989. The 57-year-old was to spend a year of his life in jail.

His cousins Abduppa Vengadan and Marackar Vengadan approached Mumbai based advocate Priyanka Ghosh, who moved a habeas corpus (find the body) petition in Bombay High Court. “After period of about 26 years, it cannot be said that there is any likelihood of this Detenue (Vengadan) being involved in alleged activities of smuggling, when there is no such record found with the Detaining Authority about his alleged involvement in any of the smuggling activities after 01.02.1989 i.e. alleged incident of smuggling,” the petition stated.

“That the Detaining Authority has not applied his mind that after

BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke

loss of his passport, the same was misused by some other person by replacing his photograph. That impersonator was subsequently, caught by the Police at the Sahar Airport, Immigration Department. Th is aspect was not looked into by the Detaining Authority and without application of mind, blindly, the detention order came to be issued against this Detenue (Vengadan). Prior to initiation of any such action, the Detaining Authority ought to have made confidential

enquiry,” further stated the petition.

On Thursday, April 9, division bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice AS Gadkari passed an order instructing the government to release Vengadan immediately.

“We are elated that our brother has been finally set free. We have been here in Mumbai for over a month as we had promised his wife and children that we will not return without him,” said Abduppa, Vengadan’s cousin brother. rajilmenon@gmail.com

It’s absurd! A police station with a name of a particular area but does not cover the area as such. Khadakwasla police station, which was inaugurated recently, is also known as Uttam Nagar police station. If only top brass in Pune had realised before inaugurating it that Khadakwasla area does not fall under the jurisdiction of the new police station.

But since the name was approved by the state home department, a change of name would require a sanction as well. Now the cops are making do with another name in brackets along with the original one.

The police station was inaugurated on April 4 by Girish Bapat, State Food and Drug Minister. Khadakwasla MLA Bhimrao Tapkir, city police commissioner Satish Mathur and joint commissioner Sanjay Kumar were also present. The police station was created to ease the pressure on neighbouring Warje police station, which had a vast area under its jurisdiction.

Khadakwasla village is located on the Sinhagad road and currently falls under the jurisdiction of Haveli police station in Pune rural police.

In principle it was decided by the state that Nanded, Kirkitwadi and

Recently inaugurated Khadakwasla police station

Khadakwasla villages, all under Haveli police, would be taken out of rural police’s control and merged with the city police commissionerate. However, the process is not yet complete.

While the areas and jurisdiction was still being worked out, government approved the new police station and called it Khadakwasla. Staff and senior police officers were allotted to the police station six months ago.

Days before the inauguration, when the senior officials realised that Khadakwasla is still not under their jurisdiction, they wrote to the state home department requesting

a name change to Uttamnagar.

Interestingly, the police station is located in Uttamnagar, so it made more sense to call it that. But the state home department is yet to revert on the name change. Merger of Khadakwasla village too is still under consideration.

Senior Police Inspector S G Pawar of the Khadakwasla police station said that a proposal has been already been sent to the Mantralaya for approval.

“Right now, the police station has two names. We want it to be single,” he concluded. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

P11

Only one of 52 schools for disabled has CCTVs

Rise and fall of Ramalinga Raju P14

WHATTA STYLE RAHUL RAUT

“I had a long term vision for PMPML, to build it into an institution. My stint here was too short for me to accomplish this.”

—Dr Shrikar Pardeshi, Chairman, PMPML

Tampons highlight sewer pollution

PUNE

BY PRIYANKKA DESHPANDE @journopriyankka The horrifying incident of rape of three physically challenged girls by peon at a residential school in Junnar in April 2013 has not yet shaken the government machinery to step up safety measures. Only one of the 52 schools for physically and mentally handicapped students in the district has closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) installed on their premises despite administration circulating a notice to schools three months back. The Kamayani Institute for mentally handicapped is the only school that has installed CCTVs. LAME EXCUSES VR Ruia Mook Badhir Vidyalaya When Team TGS visited the school at Lokmanya Nagar, the study hours were over but few students were still roaming on the campus. The security guard was conspicuous by his absence and no one stopped us as we walked straight to the school office. After confi rming that the school received the district

RAHUL RAUT

District administration circulated a notice making cameras compulsory in all such institutions

install the facility in the new building,” said Joshi.

BRIGHT SPOT Principal of Kamayani Institute for mentally handicapped Ashok Kulkarni said, “We installed five cameras after receiving the notice from district administration and later put up five more cameras.”

IDEAL PICTURE

Kamayani Institute for mentally handicapped is the only school to have installed CCTV cameras on their premises

administration notice on CCTV facility, senior clerk Samidha Kajrekar repeatedly kept telling us that there were more cons than pros of installing CCTVs. “The recent incidents of blatant misuse of CCTVs even in big retail shops show that installing the facility is dangerous,” said Kajrekar.

Sevasadan School for mentally handicapped students The student strength of this school at Erandwane is 75 and classes are held from 11 am to

5 pm for six days of the week.

The security guard seemed least bothered when we entered the campus. Here female students have to walk through deserted corridors to reach washrooms. No one stopped us from entering a classroom where kids were having lunch. Taking the issue lightly, principal Meghana Joshi said that a decision on CCTV facility would be taken by the school authorities in the next couple of months. “We are shifting to another building and would

Identified spots for installing CCTVs in schools 1) Deserted corridors 2) Near washrooms 3) In every classroom 4) Playground 5) Workshop rooms if any

IN POOR LIGHT District Social Welfare officer Sanjay Kadam said, “The CCTV facility at Poona School and Home for Blind is inadequate.” Sharing the reasons cited by school authorities for not installing the facility, Kadam said, “Some of the senior staff members told me that putting CCTVs in classrooms would ‘bring to light’ the teachers’ ability.” priyanka.deshpande@ goldensparrow.com

Where have tree-lined highways gone?

As per the Indian Road Congress, every road passing through rural areas should have minimum of 84 shade giving trees on one side

BY RAJIL MENON @RajilMenon At a recent environment activists’ meet, among other important issues, participants expressed their concern over the blatant disregard towards the stipulated number of trees lining the state and national highways.

A c c ord i n g to a directive of Indian Road Vinod R Jain Congress, each kilometre of a highway, passing through rural areas, is supposed to be lined by a minimum of 84 to 125 shade giving trees on either side of the road.

The space between trees must be between four to six meters, per kilometre. However, in most cases, activists say, the rules are tossed out the window easily. Vinod Jain, a tree activist, who was instrumental in framing the rules for the Maharashtra Tree Act, 1975, said that activists

should raise this issue vigorously in the fraudulently. Then, why should we coming months. pay toll for fraudulently acquired Activists, on their part, said that projects?” Jain sought to know, adding, they would send a memorandum to the “Planting trees is part of the road government seeking to implement the building contract and if the trees are Tree Act, National Rural Employment not planted, why should we pay toll for Guarantee Act incomplete projects?”

(NREGA), Pradhan According to Mantri Gram Sadak environmentalists, trees Yojna (PMGSY) and can help reduce the Indian Road Congress number of road mishaps.

(IRC), the apex body Nearly 30 percent of highway engineers people involved in road in the country, for accidents die due to better development of tyre burst, which occurs highways. because of a general rise In fact, the activists in temperature. further plan to not pay Trees can help tolls on roads that do control the temperature - VINOD R JAIN not have the prescribed and thereby prevent number of trees, or accidents. The activists where the contractor has even intend to organise not planted the number protests to make sure of trees in place of the trees cut to make that the right authorities hear them way for the road. out. “If appropriate action is not taken, “Until road contractors don’t then we will organise protest rallies. If acquire the lands the terms are not that doesn’t work either, we might even fulfi lled and in such a case a No dig roads where trees were supposed Objection Certificate (NOC) should to have been planted. We would not not be granted. If the NOCs are hesitate to consider a jail bharo andolan granted but the land is not acquired, too,” said Jain. the NOC could have been obtained rajilmenon@gmail.com

“We would not hesitate to consider a jail bharo andolan”

With a whole lot of motorists flouting traffic norms in their area, youth from Siddharth Nagar in Ramwadi on Airport Road have put up a cheeky notice on a one-way road. The notice has had very little impact on perennial rule breakers, who continue to ride in the wrong direction of the road. Youth have promised to come back with more. We will be waiting for the next idea the youth come up with.

1. Where is the highest Indian flag post located?

2. How much did the parking lot in South Mumbai cost?

TGS Quiz Contest

A

No. 43

nswers to the following 10 questions are embedded in the stories featured in this edition. Send us the correct answers at contest.tgs@ gmail.com and be one of the two lucky winners to receive gift coupons.

6. Who initiated Cineplay?

7. Who founded Touch Heart Music?

3. What is the name of the general secretary of Hockey Maharashtra?

8. Name the two bands Prateek Bhaduri is part of?

5. Who is the new coach for Puneri Paltan?

10. What is the name of Vir Das’s latest video?

4. What is the name of State Food and Drug Minister?

9. What is the name of the single that Karan Singh Arora has launched?

Contest # 42 winner Akanksha Gund

tECH

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

PUNE

While it took the radio 38 years, and the television a short 13 years, it took the World Wide Web only 4 years to reach 50 million users. — http://www.wtfdiary.com/

Trader who donates half his pay for the noble cause

BRTS needs to ensure pedestrians safety

P 13

P 15

Will Govt act to save the Internet

Network neutrality is the idea that your cellular, cable, or phone internet connection should treat all websites and services the same. The heart of Net Neutrality debate is simple. Will the ‘digitally empowered’ Modi government apply its mind to the issue?

BY DR ANUPAM SARAPH In a country where the Prime Minister is using every social media platform to reach out to his people and crying out aloud about his intention to empower every Indian through digital initiatives, his government is working very hard to do everything to kill digital India. Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s Ministry of Telecom and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has put aside public interest and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for ‘minimum government’ in how people access the Internet on the issue of ‘Net Neutrality’.

The Internet links billions of devices, including all your computers and mobile phones to those of others across the world.

However, the TRAI in an amazingly creative initiative, in a consultation paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-thetop (OTT) services released on 27 March 2014, is redefining the Internet as over-theor TSPs and Internet service providerstop (OTT) communications, OTT media, ISPs offer access to Internet to those e-commerce, Internet cloud services, social who pay them subscriptions. At different media and web content. The TRAI plans costs, subscribers can gain faster access to slice up these into individual parcels to any media or content on the Internet. and license and regulate the Suscription plans provide Internet. This means TRAI you choice to access and the telecom industry unlimited content or media want to favour one kind of or restricted by a volume content or media over the per month. However, your other on the Internet. choice of speed already The Internet industry restricts the maximum has grown because it has volume you may consume remained agnostic to per day. the media and content For those of us who consumed by its customers have low budgets, there is across the network. This a plan of slower speeds and unique property of Internet restricted volume. For those was first described by Prof who needed the speed or Tim Wu as net-neutrality. larger volumes, there are Net-neutrality enabled pricier plans. For many of us, a symbiotic relationship Internet has become a way between those who produced of life, and we have different content and media with those plans from different service -DR ANUPAM SARAPH who merely transmitted it. providers to match the needs Had the Internet chosen to to access Internet across our be parasitic to content and media creators multiple devices from laptops to mobile by censoring, throttling or restricting the phones. media or content transmitted through it, it The Internet access has penetrated would not have grown to the extent it has across India slowly but steadily as it brought today. value to those of us who consume it. Just as your use of Gmail brings business to The Business Models Google, or your posting videos brings Telecommunications service providers revenues to YouTube or your profiles on

“The Internet industry has grown because it has remained agnostic to media.”

social media sites earns them revenues, the content and media on Internet created by developers of various websites creates revenues for the TSPs and ISPs. Those who created this value have therefore, caused the Internet to grow. The business model of ISPs and TSPs offers the value of Internet to us by creating and delivering net-neutral access to the Internet.

What happens when the ISPs and TSPs fail to recognise the content and media creators as their partners to grow the Internet? Such ISPs and TSPs, who either are misadvised or have become greedy, will kill the goose that lays golden eggs, by providing access to a few websites rather than to the Internet as a whole. What they are doing is killing the Internet, site by site and ensuring the digital exclusion of India from the Internet. They are ensuring that the websites they exclude will no longer be able to reach out to their audiences in India or in fact anywhere across the world.

The Law and Public Interest It is strange that Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, a distinguished lawyer himself, has missed to see the ISP’s and TSPs violating the provisions of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP) and the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (CPA).

Restrictive trade practice under Section 2(1)(nn) of the MRTP means any trade practice, which requires a consumer to buy,

Snapdeal snaps up FreeCharge

Snapdeal buys mobile recharge firm Freecharge; becomes India’s largest mobile commerce company India’s leading online marketplace Snapdeal announced acquiring mobile transactions platform FreeCharge in a cash-cumstock deal for an undisclosed amount to become an m-commerce firm.

Though both the firms declined to share details of the deal, Snapdeal co-founder and chief executive Kunal Bahl told reporters here that most of the transaction took place in cash. “As private entities, we are not disclosing the cost of acquisition though most of it is transacted in cash with the remaining in stock options,” Kunal said.

The five-year-old New Delhi-based Snapdeal raised $1 billion (Rs.6,226 crore) in six rounds of funding since 2011 from marquee investors such as SoftBank, BlackRock, Temasek, eBay, Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and individuals like Ratan Tata of the Tata group.

FreeCharge, where users pay their mobile, DTH (direct-to-home) and utility payments through its m-commerce platform, raised $120 million (Rs 747 crore)

A mobile app for atrial fibrillation

The free mobile app is designed to help doctors manage patients with AF

from institutional investors like Sequoia Capital, Ru Net, Sofina, Valian Capital and Tyborne over the last four years. “ P o s tacquisition, Free-Charge will be our subsidiary with its cofounder and chief executive Kunal Shah as head of its operations. Its 200-member team will also become part of Snapdeal,” Bahl said.

With about 5,000 employees across the country, Snapdeal offers online shopping experience to millions of buyers for sourcing 11 million products in 500 categories from 100,000 sellers and get them delivered in over 5,000 cities and towns across the country. “We have seen a phenomenal growth in the previous fiscal (2013-14) with about 600 percent growth in 12 months, which made us the

fastest growing e-commerce firm in the country,” Bahl asserted.

The acquisition, touted to be one of the biggest deals in the e-commerce space, will make Snapdeal the largest mobile commerce firm offering a range of products and services, including financial services, mobile re-charge and utility payments to about 40 million customers nationwide.

“The age of monolithic e-commerce platforms is over. It’s time to build an impacting digital commerce ecosystem in India, which is multi-dimensional and inclusive,” Bahl pointed out.

“Being ahead of the curve, 85 percent of our transactions originate from mobile and have a high repeat customer behaviour,” FreeCharge co-founder Kunal Shah noted.

IANS

“We have seen growth in previous fiscal with about 600 percent growth in 12 months”

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) on announced the release of a new mobile app and screening programme to help prevent heart stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients.

According to the research findings by HKU and Taiwan’s Yang-Ming University, patients with AF have a five-fold higher risk of stroke than ordinary people. In Hong Kong, 12,000 cases of stroke are registered each year, among which, 25 percent are related to AF. To enforce the management of stroke prevention in patients with AF, the Department of Medicine of HKU initiated two new measures recently, namely, the AF management app and private doctors AF screening programme.

By using the five clinical calculators,

namely, stroke risk calculator, major bleeding risk calculator, quality of anticoagulation calculator, likelihood to good quality of anticoagulation calculator, and kidney function calculator, doctors can assess the ischemic stroke risk and major bleeding risk of patients with AF. Chan Pak-hei, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, HKU, said the app is user-friendly. Taking the stroke risk calculator as example, doctors only need to enter details of risk factors, such as age, high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiac failure etc., and the app can automatically calculate the risk of stroke each year. The app also allows patients to understand more about their health condition.

IANS

hire or avail of any services as a condition precedent for buying, hiring or availing of other goods or services. Any requirement to make any payment to any TSP, ISP or any other intermediary in order to allow your website to become accessible to all on the Internet on equal terms constitutes restrictive trade practice. Any requirement to make any payment to any TSP, ISP or any other intermediary in order to view any website of your choice on equal terms is also restrictive trade practice.

What should be done?

The government should be slapping the MRTP and Consumers Act on both TRAI and those TSPs and ISPs indulging in monopolistic or unfair trade practices.

It should be reconstituting the TRAI and the Ministry of Telecom to incorporate those who are not burdened with private interests, better still with those who promote public interests. It should initiate an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and an inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the serious compromise of public interests by the regulator who should have upheld the public interest.

As consumers of Internet, you should file a consumer complaint with the District Consumer Forums in your district. State in your complaint what service you consume from your service provider. Use the description to identify and specify the unfair trade practice, a restrictive trade practice and deficiency in service provided by your TSP/ISP. If you would like to ensure fair practice of being able to access any website on the Internet on equal terms or to be able to make your website be visible to anyone in the world without any restriction, it is time for you to stand up to the unfair trade practices. When net-neutrality was threatened in US, President Obama took a stand and did all he could to ensure netneutrality was not compromised.

Reach out You can reach Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on twitter @rsprasad and by email at ravis@sansad.nic.in.

If you are moved to report to the Prime Minister, his twitter handle is @narendramodi and @pmoindia.

Help the Prime Minister to protect his dream of digital India.

Now, Facebook Messenger on web too Now you can also access Facebook Messenger on the web and chat from your desktop computer. But one can already chat with contacts while using Facebook on the web so what’s the novelty?

Well, according to Facebook, the Messenger tool will help users chat without distractions that may come on the main page of the social networking site.

Messenger is its own platform, tied to but not reliant on Facebook itself.

The social network unveiled a web version of Messenger recently. The product is accessible at Messenger.com and resides outside of Facebook.

But the new Messenger tool would still require a Facebook account. Messenger. com is for users who want to message without the other distractions that Facebook can provide. If you’re messaging through Facebook, that means News Feed and your friends’ user profiles are nearby.

“Messenger.com is a way to keep messaging as the focus... Facebook has no plans to remove messaging from its core web service,” a spokesperson said.

The company already provided the application on mobile, requiring users to download the separate Messenger app in order to send and receive messages from their phone.

One of the reasons Facebook made this change on mobile was that it wanted to more easily build features into the messaging app such as a new developer platform that lets outside parties build features for Messenger. Facebook is further establishing Messenger as its own distinct platform by making sure it works anywhere.

The spokesperson said Messenger.com will support a lot of these features as well.

Messenger is already available to Englishspeaking users worldwide, and will launch with other languages in the coming weeks.

IANS

APP WORLD

Apps for seeking partners Ashley Madison iOS/Android, Free I first heard of Ashley Madison on the radio, where they did a bit of a marketing push. Brave, I thought, for a site/ app who’s tagline is “Life is short. Have an affair.” Ashley Madison’s pitch is exactly that a place to hook up with other people willing to cheat on their partners. Of course, that’s just one category a potential user of the site may fall into. The others include: l Attached Male seeking Females l Married Female seeking Males l Attached unmarried Female seeking Males l Single Male seeking Females l Single Female seeking Males l Male seeking Males l Female seeking Females Interestingly, there are more categories for a female user than a male.

Particularly peculiar was that males can only categorise themselves as “Attached” while females can choose “Married” or “Attached, unmarried”.

This feels vaguely sexist, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. When you fill in your profile, you need to specify your height and weight. The scale starts from 1.25m and 36kg, so petite men and women, kindly excuse. When you finally get into the app, you’re presented with Women/ Men in your area that you might be interested in. Colour me judgemental, but most of the profiles looked suspiciously solicitous and flirty. In that pandering to the male gaze sort of way. Evidently, most women in the Pune area who’ve signed up for Ashley Madison weigh 59kg. It all seems a bit iffy. Still, if you’re the sort that can seal the deal from a large set of leads, you might find what you’re looking for here. The app itself feels a little oldschool, unlike some of the others in this space. It could use a UI/ UX update to bring it in line with the others. And this is precisely why this author is a latemarried curmudgeon.

Where others would see potential, I’m seeing deficiencies in the app.

Tinder iOS/Android, Free Tinder is hot stuff. I’ve come across more than a few people using it, so I’m inclined to believe that it actually works as intended to get you connected to people willing to mingle. The app itself is dead simple. You’re presented with a photo of a person who’s made themselves available. You like or pass. If the other person also “Likes”, you’re connected and can chat within the app. You can choose to see only profiles within a specified geographical distance from you and also pick an age range. For the purposes of this review, I “passed” on all the ladies that I saw in the app. Twice. You have to wait until new matches become available. Tinder uses your Facebook profile to improve matching, so if you’re paranoid about Facebook privacy, you might want to check your privacy settings beforehand. It’s easy to discount apps like Tinder as a place to just hook up, but for my almost middleage self, it was refreshing to see actual people that were born before all portraits were pouty and EDM was a random bunch of letters.

DOWN Dating iOS/Android, Free Tinder may be the new hotness, but the idea isn’t new. A few years ago, an app called “Bang With Friends” burst on the scene to much excitement and controversy. The idea was much like Tinder, but limited to your Facebook social circle. You “liked” a profile, and if that person “liked” yours, you knew you both wanted the same thing, which was, well…

Naturally, there was a bit of a kerfluffle, and the app renamed itself to just “DOWN” as in “down to… well…”.

Today, it’s just called “DOWN Dating”, for a broader appeal. DOWN uses your Facebook profile to surface friends and friendsoffriends that you can express interest in. You could either be interested in a date or, well…

You might be excited by the fact that so many of your friends or their friends are on the app, but hold your horses. DOWN simply surfaces anyone who might match your interests and is of the correct gender.

Case in point: my wife showed up as a “hottest friend” of another friend, and I’m pretty sure neither use the app.

Shaadi.com iOS/Android, Free If all else fails and/or you already know what you want and what kind of person you’d like to spend a life with, there’s always Shaadi.com. The app, like the website, is comprehensive and requires a full profile, something I wasn’t inclined to fill.

That said, it’s a far more culturally acceptable way to find a life partner, or, from what I’m told, a partner period.

Heck, you single folk can even sign up and ask your parents to do the hard work. I’m fairly certain they’d beglad to.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

“We plan to use funds to focus on expanding our leadership across all channels as well as investing in the growth of our private label business.”

—Supam Maheshwari, CEO, Brainbees

PUNE

“Our strategy of innovating for the local market has played out really well and we intend to continue to do that as we go forward.”

—Pranay Chulet, Founder, Quikr

100rupis is for the masses

Welcome start for many entrepreneurs

Keerthi Kadam’s venture is a platform to buy and sell services and products for `100

RAHUL RAUT

BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh

If there is one phrase that would best describe fi rst generation entrepreneur 33-year-old Keerthi Kadam, it would have to be the ‘compulsive start-up guy’. He has three start-ups to his credit, one that he started as a student in the US, off which www.100rupis.com is the one he is currently focussing on.

A gold medallist in agricultural economics from Bijapur, Kadam ventured into technology out of curiosity while pursuing MBA in the US. In December 2013, he started Mynnd Tech, which launched www.100rupis.com. www.100rupis.com is a platform for people to buy and sell anything for `100. It could be a product or a service. An individual can be a buyer as well as a seller after a simple registration process. As of now, most sellers on the site offer digital services, such as content writing, logo, web programming, debugging, and website design for `100.

The idea for the website cropped up when Kadam scouted through freelancing sites working on projects from home. US-based Fiverr.com that offers services for 5$ was the inspiration. “I thought that a platform As a start-up founder, Keerthi Kadam believes that it is imperative to keep one’s focus on the business which offers services could help beat unemployment in India,” he said.

Kadam said that India has a lot The entrepreneur is now focusing spouse. “Dad trusted me since I was a kid. He is a of talent but many graduates remain on revamping the website and its stakeholder in the venture, though informally,” said unemployed. The website gives them functioning. “From performance, Kadam, who lives in a joint family with his parents an opportunity to explore their speed to seamlessness, we are also in Pune. talents and make money out of it. He making it more user friendly. The team Being the only entrepreneur in a family of hopes that this platform will help is also working on developing a process professionals in service isn’t easy. “Doubts also professionals have an additional source to evaluate a seller, an admin panel arise sometimes but I don’t get bogged down easily. of income. to approve or reject actions and many Problems and failures are our best friends; they make “Why `100? Because it is easy interventions that will help create an us who we are,” he said. to give away. It is a small amount to authentic experience for the user,” he As a start-up founder, he believes that it is encourage people to experiment. The said. imperative to keep one’s focus on the business. While price point is right to offer services to a Kadam admits to having faced he has many other plans, projects and ideas waiting to global audience,” he said. many roadblocks in the journey. “I be developed including a few for the benefit of rural - KEERTHI KADAM Kadam has also introduced lost a lot of money initially. Now my areas, (courtesy his agricultural degree) he has put multiples of `100. The site has 350 expenses are minimal, team size is them on hold to focus solely on this venture. users and about 93 listed services. small and overheads are low,” he said.

“I hope 100rupis.com will be my milestone startMost of the users are Indians, while 10 per cent are He attributes his determination to pursue his up,” he said. from the US. dreams to the support given by his parents and ritugoyalharish@gmail.com

“My expenses are minimal, team size is small and overheads are low.”

CIIE GrowthCamps provide start-ups an opportunity to collaborate with mentor and leading companies TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly Start-ups Navstik Autonomous Systems, LogicStack, Phonologies (India), Agnie Software and Coffeetable.in have every reason to thank Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) for inspiration and support.

CIIE GrowthCamp held in Pune chose the quartet across four domains – Financial Tech, Cloud, Analytics and Internet of Things.

The technology business incubator at IIM Ahmedabad helps India’s budding entrepreneurs set up innovative, disruptive and scalable ventures through mentoring, incubation, advising and funding initiatives. The verticals covered

by CIIE include ICT, web and mobile; cleantech and renewable energy and social impact.

The jury included CIIE Pune Operations director Maneesh Bhandari, mentor Mainak Bhattacharya, technology entrepreneur and mentor Amit Paranjape, ReliScore.com co-founder and CTO Navin Kabra and Moumita Sarkar. The two-day event provided start-ups with an opportunity to collaborate with an anchor corporate who acts as a mentor. The one-on-one talk with senior staff covered product strategy reviews, sales channel enablement and a CXO dinner that allows the participating entrepreneurs a chance to getting their idea across.

CIIE has been helping start-ups in the domains of Cloud infrastructure, Cloud computing, Enterprise mobility, Cloud virtualisation, Fintech, Payments,

Internet of Things, EGovernance, Aadhar, Analytics, Telecom, and Adtech.

According to Bhandari, Pune has one of the most cohesive start-ups ecosystems across major verticals like enterprise, infrastructure, biotech and clean-tech. The CIIE programme gives novice entrepreneurs a platform to get noticed by leading companies.

As per CIIE’s annual programme, a team visits cities like Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi and interviews a start-up for 10 minutes before picking up six for GrowthCamps. Start-ups also get a chance to be connected to CIIE-IIM Ahmedabad’s global community and learn about worldwide opportunities.

ENTREPRENEUR BENEFACTOR Set up by IIM Ahmedabad with the Centre and Gujarat government’s support, CIIE operates through an autonomous not-for-profit entity. CIIE IIM Ahmedabad hosts Startup Lounge across India. These informal events are part of screening process where participating start-ups get instant feedback from investors. Only start-ups that have already developed functional product and are already live on Internet are eligible to participate. Promising teams from start-ups are invited to GrowthCamps. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com CONTACT For query about CIIE IIM A’s Startup Lounge, drop a line at rajesh@weekendventures.org

Xiaomi sells over two million phones in 12 hours BEIJING: China’s largest smartphone maker Xiaomi has sold over two million phones in a 12-hour period, setting a Guinness World Record for mobile phone sales in the process, according to media reports on Thursday.

The company said it sold 2.11 million handsets in a 12-hour flash sale held to celebrate its fifth anniversary, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.

The half-day bonanza, which

brought in 2.08 billion yuan ($335 million) from sales of handsets and other accessories broke the previous record held by Alibaba’s Tmall, which sold 1.89 million handsets in November during a 24-hour event.

“This is beyond my imagination,” chief executive Lei Jun told reporters at the company’s headquarters in Beijing.

The new record has been certified by the official Guinness World Records and examined by auditor

PricewaterhouseCoopers, he said.

Xiaomi broke their record from the same event last year, which saw them selling 1.3 million smartphones. Mobile phones, accessories sold during the 12hour event, dubbed ‘Mi Fan Festival’, were discounted from Xiaomi’s already famously low prices. The company also sold 38,000 televisions, 2,00,000 fitness bands, and 2,47,000 of its brand new “smart” power strips.

IANS

THE FASTEST READS ON THE WEB

Flipkart partners with Mum’s dabbawalas Eyeing the vast potential in country’s renowned supply chain, e-commerce company Flipkart has tied-up with the ‘Dabbawalas’ of Mumbai to ensure efficient delivery to consumers.

A crowd-sourced delivery model to connect sellers and buyers to save delivery time is also on the cards.

Stiff competition among e-commerce fi rms such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon is prompting companies to ramp up logistics and delivery network and increase customer base. “Dabbawalas have been in the profession of transporting lunch boxes with absolute precision for more than 120 years. They are a huge inspiration on how to conduct business without any paper or administrative back-up to keep the costs down,” the Bangalorebased fi rm said in a statement. The fi rst batch of Dabbawalas have undergone training at Flipkart’s delivery centres.

Logistics analytics LogiNext draws funds from IAN

Coffee brand ‘Bonhomia’ raises $2mn from investors Delhi-based Indulge Beverages, a manufacturer of Bonhomia tea and coffee single serving capsules, is focusing on launching more variants and blends to offer a diverse product range to its clientele. The company launched its premium tea and coffee capsules brand ‘Bonhomia’ in March 2014. The start-up has announced a fund raise of $2 million dollars from a group of investors including Kanwaljit Singh (Ex Co Founder & Senior Managing Director, Helion Venture Partners), ShripadNadkarni (Director, MarketGate Consulting), Mr. Sarvesh Shahra (Business Head, Foods, Ruchi Soya Industries) and others.

LogiNext Solutions that offers advanced analytics to improve logistics and supply chain in an organisation has raised seed funding (of `3 crores) from Indian Angel Network (IAN). The Mumbai-based start-up was started by Dhruvil Sanghvi and Manisha Raisinghani, both graduates from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014. Loginext uses Internet of Th ings (IoT) and Big Data to optimise delivery networks, internal operations and other logistics services. It offers real time tracking and logistics analytics which helps track rail cargoes, trucks and couriers boys, and spot delivery bottlenecks.

We have more hooning and sliding action on our YouTube channel. Subscribe and comment.

Four cylinders, four doors, all-wheel drive. The CLA 45 AMG and Evo X misbehaving around the hills.

Wet conditions and the Jaguar V8 R Coupe addup to an impossibly fun afternoon spent mostly sideways.

We went to the top of the world in an insane rally Thar and a Suzuki V-Strom 1000. We came back too.

Look our for the alive logo in the magazine to watch the action unfold

Going back to when Toyota’s were cool, we drive a custom Supra with a big turbo and come away scared, and maybe a bit wistful.

w w w. a l iv e a r. c o m

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

PUNE

APRIL 11, 2015

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BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal

In January 2015, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) went on an overdrive. They distributed green and white bins for wet and dry waste respectively. The idea was simple – residents would segregate at source, sanitation workers would bring the two piles of garbage to the dumping ground, wet garbage would be converted to compost and dry would be recycled or disposed. Seemed like a reasonable idea and doable concept. Two months later, the plan has failed miserably.

So far, PCMC has managed to distribute the bins to 4,22,889 families. The number is growing by the day.

Ultimate goal is to reach out to each one of the 4,78,848 households. Bins for every house have been bought and `6.59 crores of public money has been spent only on procuring them. The bin set is used for everything other than keeping segregated garbage.

The main culprit for this absolute failure is none other than PCMC. While distributing the bins, the civic body forgot to tell the residents what was to be done with them.

Only in some of the areas did PCMC distribute vague pamphlets asking residents to segregate without really getting into details of what made for wet or dry waste.

The entire exercise was taken up just to abide by Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 which makes segregation at source compulsory. The Rules categorically state that it is the

Ambitious plan to segregate waste at source and then process it at dumping ground has failed miserably, courtesy PCMC; Residents are using bins distributed by civic body for everything other than sorting wet and dry garbage How PCMC is responsible for the mess!

responsibility of the civic body to spread awareness among citizens. “In order to encourage citizens, municipal authority shall organise awareness programmes for segregation of waste and shall promote recycling or reuse of segregated materials.

“The municipal authority shall undertake phased programme to ensure community participation in waste segregation. For this purpose, regular meetings at quarterly intervals shall be arranged by the municipal authorities with representatives of local resident welfare associations and non-governmental organisations,” the Rules state. PCMC made it a point to spend on bins to enable segregation, but didn’t care to do anything beyond that.

On ground, residents use the bins for storing their personal wares and even food grains. Each one of them has a unique reason for not segregating and using the bins given by PCMC. Some say the bins are too small, some claim they are too nice to be used as bins, while some go to the extent of stating that they might get stolen if kept

outside the house. The end result is that most households hand out non-segregated garbage to sanitation workers.

Those who do care to segregate are disheartened as conservancy workers mix the two and dump in a truck.

At Moshi garbage depot, situation is as it used to be earlier. Rag pickers and conservancy workers sort out waste manually.

Rag pickers still segregate waste manually at Moshi A trip to Moshi garbage depot on Nashik highway, 16 kms from Chinchwad, and one is startled. Th ings are still the way they used to be before PCMC enforced segregation at source. Around 120 employees of a private agency work along with PCMC conservancy workers 365 days a year, segregating, sorting and then packing off garbage for recycling or treatment.

It all begins with trucks carrying loads of garbage from PCMC limits arriving at the depot. The garage is spread out and for almost a week chemicals are sprayed on the heaps to douse the foul stench. Once the stench is considerably bearable, the garbage is laid out on conveyor belts. Rag pickers and conservancy workers stand on either side of the belts and pick out everything that cannot be turned into compost or treated. Dry waste is further segregated into what is recyclable and what isn’t. Wet waste is treated, while unusable dry waste is piled up in heaps to be dumped.

After days of compacting, it is buried using the capping method, which involves creating green lawns over the piles of garbage. In the fi rst phase, 1.2 lakh cubic meters of garbage was capped on 2.75 acres of land at an expenditure of `3.25 crore. Now in the second phase, around 3 lakh cubic metres of waste is being prepared to be capped on a six acre plot.

Employees at the garbage depot express anguish at the way citizens were not playing their role in easing the former’s plight. “If only residents realise what we go through and start segregating that things will truly turn around,” said a senior official present at the depot. Little did the official know that residents have very little role to play in this entire mess. archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com

T

he Golden Sparrow team went around Nigdi Pradhikaran area, which falls under ‘A’ zone of PCMC. What we saw left us numb.

A ghantagadi or door-to-door garbage collection van with three or four conservancy workers starts off by 7 am. While one of them sits at the back of the truck which has two compartments – one for wet waste and another for dry waste – the rest set out to collect garbage from every household. So far so good.

Now comes the part where everything that PCMC has been aiming for, seems like a sham. The workers who go out to collect garbage from households are armed with only one bin, in contrast to two that they should be ideally carrying for wet and dry waste. Most households also have only one bin placed outside. For citizens who don’t segregate, it doesn’t really matter if the worker is carrying one or two bins. But for those who do, it kills them to see that their garbage from their green bin (for wet waste) and white bin (dry waste) are mixed and put in the only bucket the worker is carrying. Once the bucket is full, worker goes back to the vehicle and dumps it all in one compartment. Here the worker sitting inside the vehicle puts up a charade of segregating, while the vehicle is moving. The worker packs dry waste in gunny bags and keeps them aside. The two compartments created at the back for wet and dry waste mean little to the worker.

Next, the vehicle is taken to Hegdewar Bhavan, Sector-26, Nigdi. This is where huge compactor bins are kept for ghantagadis to empty their load. All that the worker sitting inside the ghantagadi has been doing all along seems like a waste of time. The entire load from ghantagadi is emptied in a compactor which has no compartments for wet and dry waste.

The compactor then makes its way to Moshi.

In A zone alone there are 34 ghantagadis. They all assemble at Hegdewar Bhavan to get rid of their load from the day. In PCMC limits, which is divided into six zones, there are a total of 368 ghantagadis all of which have been acquired under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) funded by the Central government.

PICS

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Nigdi, Shinde household

M

adhuri Shinde, 37, has put the two bins given by PCMC under the JNNURM scheme to use in her garden. She has planted saplings in them. “The bins given by civic body are really small and just do not suffice for my family of six members. We generate a lot of garbage on daily basis. On days when we have guests over, even our regular bins overflow,” said Shinde. The Nigdi resident wants bigger bins and only then will be able to use them for segregation. As for segregation, she points out, “What is the point in doing so. The person who comes to collect ultimately dumps both wet and dry garbage we put out in one large bucket that he carries around.”

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Fact File

750

TONNES WASTE GENERATED EVERY DAY

S

hobha Nemade, 35, believes the two bins given by PCMC are too good to be used for dumping garbage. Instead she uses them for storing her household supplies and food grains. “They just gave us the two bins and didn’t tell us what to do with them. They also did not say from when we have to start using them. I realised that many of my neighbours continue to use the old bins, so I also haven’t bothered,” said Nemade. She cited a very practical problem with the bins given by PCMC. “They do not have handles, although they are of good quality. A garbage bin ought to have handles,” she said. She does have a point there.

TONNES WASTE FROM HOUSEHOLDS

250

40

TONNES GARDEN WASTE

TONNES HOTEL WASTE

2.25

`4,500

TONNES PLASTIC WASTE

Akurdi, Nemade household

460

PER TONNE AMOUNT SPENT ON CONVERTING WASTE INTO COMPOST

4,22,889 4,78,848 HOUSEHOLDS

HOUSEHOLDS

BINS DISTRIBUTED SO FAR

ULTIMATE TARGET

`6.59 CRORES

AMOUNT SPENT ON BUYING BINS

Chinchwad, Ravet, Soni household Joshi household I

n Pradnya Joshi’s house the two bins given by PCMC are lying in the dry balcony unused. The 40-year-old explains that there is no specific reason for her to not use them.

“Actually, I did not get time to replace my old buckets with the new ones here. I told my maid to do so but she also seems to have forgotten. I will start using them once the old ones wear out,” said Joshi.

F

or the Soni family, which has 10 members, the PCMC bins are way too small for them to even bother with the new gifts from the civic body. Payal Soni is using the green and white bins for storing her son’s toys. “My four-year-old son starts crying each time I try and get his toys out to use the buckets as bins. Moreover, they are too small for our family,” said Soni. She explained that her household generates a lot of paper waste, which alone occupies a lot of space even in a large bin.

The white bin meant for dry waste is just not big enough for a larger family,” added Soni.

JNP Society, Palande household

DILIP GAWADE, Joint Commissioner, PCMC

S

avita Palande uses the new bins on and off. Hers is a family of five members. Her grouse is that on weekends and on holidays when they are entertaining guests the two bins just aren’t enough. She ends up using a third bin, which makes no sense to her at all. “I started using the new bins immediately after they were given to us.

But on weekends and on festival days we generate a lot of garbage and I end up pulling out a third bin bucket as well. It’s too cumbersome to carry three bins out when the collector comes,” she said.

Ruston Colony, Sector 27 T

he society built in 1982 has 120 households. Majority of the families here use only one bucket, which essentially means that they do not segregate. Makarand Bhalekar, a member of the housing society said, “Few months back, PCMC staff came with truckloads of these bins and distributed them among the families. They took our signatures confirming the receipt and left. All of us were perplexed as to what was to be done with the new buckets.” Likes of Bhalekar feel that segregation at source is a good concept. “But PCMC ought to have told us what makes for wet and dry garbage. They should take citizens into confidence about something that is going to have a far reaching impact on our environment and health. Moreover, spreading some level of awareness won’t hurt the civic body,” said Bhalekar.

Model society

R Conservancy workers equipped with only one bucket mix dry and wet waste while collecting garbage house to house. It is then offloaded in the ghantagadi, which is then emptied in a compactor. The only attempt at segregation is made by the lone worker sitting inside ghantagadi who tries to separate plastic and paper from wet garbage while the vehicle is moving

R

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esidents of Swarganga Housing Society in Pimpri are a proud lot. The 225 families residing here ensure that only dry waste goes out of the society. Wet waste is treated within their society compound.

The housing society that came up in 2008, realised the importance of segregation and generating compost from wet waste six months ago. Earlier 12 barrels full of garbage would be taken away

by PCMC every day from the society.

Now this has come down to mere four.

The concept was suggested by the kids residing in the society. Elders took it up as a challenge and started working on it. First task was to promote segregation in every household.

That didn’t take too much time.

Non biodegradable waste is now dumped in white bins which are taken away by PCMC workers. As for green bins, which are used for wet garbage, there are strict instructions to conservancy workers to not take them away and instead empty them

within the society. The biodegradable waste goes to a pit spread over 5,000 sq ft area within the society. The area has been demarcated as compost pit where all the wet garbage is dumped and processed. The end result is a huge quantity of compost which helps the society grow organic vegetables.

Vijay Wable, treasurer of Swarganga Federation, explained that they have started ‘Swarganga Farming Program’ which grows organic fruits

and vegetables. “On Sundays, every household in the society gets half a kg of fruits and leafy vegetables. We also grow drumsticks, spinach, fenugreek, brinjal, carrots, coriander, etc.

Everybody here takes part in composting, farming, and distributing the fruits and vegetables. We are doing our bit by reducing the load on PCMC and at the same time leading healthier lives eating organic food,” Wable concluded.

Way to go Swarganga Society!

“We have distributed bins in 90 per cent of areas. Only Wakad and Ravet and some suburbs under the F zone are left. Over the next few days, we will cover the whole area.

It would be too early to judge the entire programme. It’s just begun. In the first phase we are distributing bins. In the second we will spread awareness about segregation among citizens and waste collectors. We are confident that once we spread awareness, all households will follow the programme. Once we are done educating them, and residents still fail to segregate, then our workers will pick up wet garbage on daily basis, but collect dry garbage only once a week.”

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

PUNE

Be safe and smart with your money P14

“Foreigners are great believers in the Brighu tradition. They are leaning towards traditional concepts like Brighu astrology, meditation and vegetarianism. Followers of the Brighu tradition come from all religions.”

— Brighu Shastri Ramanuj Sharma

Industrial units make sound business again Aniruddha Rajandekar

Experts cite market flexibility, change in government and fuel price reduction for recovery

BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal

Industrial units of Pimpri-Chinchwad are on revival mode after a prolonged slowdown. Struggling to survive a few years back, many factories are now facing labour shortage to meet the demand.

Industry experts cite market flexibility, change in government and fuel price reduction as reasons for recovery.

One of the biggest industrial belts in Asia with around 8,000 small and medium scale enterprises (SME), Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial belt suffered for over a decade due to global recession and poor government policies.

Raw materials were lying unused

Material worth `70 lakh was lying unused at Gautami Engineering Works situated at Jyotiba Nagar in Talawade during recession

Nitin and Anita Bankar

in various units for lack of orders.

Units showed signs of recovery from December 2014.

Speaking to TGS, Pimpri Chinchwad Small Industries Association (PCSA) president Nitin

Bankar said, “Forging and component industries started getting orders from October 2014. Many units are hiring labour to complete orders in time.

With industrial units facing shortage of skilled manpower, labour’s bargaining

power has increased.”

Bankar and his wife Anita are proprietors of Gautami Engineering Works situated at Jyotiba Nagar in Talawade industrial belt. The couple’s fabrication unit deals with sheet metal

press parts, structural and industrial fabrication, p i p i n g fabrication, stainless steel fabrication and machining, shearing and Satish Paithankar bending.

Sharing about his unit’s revival, Bankar said, “Almost `70 lakh material was lying unused in my factory.

It was difficult to manage overhead costs. Now, I have enough work orders in hand.”

He attributed the change in industrial scenario to opening of market towards the end of 2014 after a new government took office at the Centre.

The other reason was opening up coal mining to Indian and foreign private companies.

“These measures boost industrial economy. In 2006, many power plants were set up after the government declared subsidy but there was no coal to run these plants. The previous government seized the coal market and industrial economy is connected to this segment,” Bankar said.

Satish Paithankar, owner of SP Enterprises located at Talawade and manufactures machine parts said, “The market situation has improved since past six months. Many unit owners are facing labour shortage and their

hiring rates have shot up from `100 per day to `250-300.”

He said that fall in fuel prices and abolition of octroi have helped revive the industry in PimpriJayant Kad Chinchwad.

Jayant Kad, the owner of ‘Vijaya Engineering’ situated at Chikhali-Kudalwadi industrial belt and manufacturers automobile components, spare parts and accessories said, “The industry boom has not resulted into any positive effect on auto-component sector due to export vehicles.

Other industries are reaping benefits.”

S a n j a y Tor k h a d e of Discover Sanjay Torkhade Tooling and Precision Works and Discover Auto Stamping at Talawade that manufactures press tool, press components and assemblies said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swadeshi Move’ will benefit auto industry. archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com

Teachers tell pupils Wedding albums get zingier to break rules

Wedding photography trends are changing by the day, making photographers to work hard, but they aren’t complaining

By Barnalee Handique @barnalee

Faculty and students at SSPMS School and College ride on the wrong side of the road to save a detour

BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke It’s a done thing here to violate traffic rules. Faculty and students from SSPMS School and College couldn’t really care less about observing traffic norms. They just believe in taking the shortest route possible to get to their destination. Shockingly, they do so right under the nose of Regional Transport Office. Three notices from police to the educational institution also haven’t changed anything in the last six months.

Located on Rajabahadur Mill Road, near RTO, teachers, staff members and students prefer riding on the wrong lane of the carriageway, just to save a detour. Most of the rule breakers are the ones who stay in old parts of the city, Kothrud, Deccan or in the western suburban areas. Ideally they should go right up to Jehangir Hospital chowk and then negotiate a U-turn. Instead they take a short cut. While riding on the wrong side motorists have to cross RTO’s office on the same road.

Traffic police have initiated several drives and penalised offenders in the recent past but to no avail. When fining offenders didn’t work, traffic police decided to send notices to the educational institute. But even that has not worked.

“So far, we have served them three notices requesting them to obey traffic rules and keep a tab on their staff and students,” said Inspector Rajkumar Shere attached to traffic planning unit.

Shere expressed shock at the fact

that instead of training them to be good citizens, the faculty and staff is encouraging them to flout norms by doing so themselves. “Rarely, we fine the students. But yes, we do go after teachers, peons and professors,” he said.

Despite three notice letters in the past six months, the college authorities have not taken appropriate steps to avoid traffic violation, Shere claimed.

TGS Team took a trip to the spot only to find that all those attached to the educational institute violated the traffic rules blatantly. A traffic cop could helplessly see them riding on the wrong side as he was busy manning traffic.

Shere said that errant riders not only risk their lives but also congest traffic. He admitted that those going to the educational institute have to take a long detour to take a U-turn. “We have written to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to check the feasibility of a signal near the health commissioner’s office after opening the divider,” he said.

Ajay Patil, treasurer, All India Shri Shivaji Memorial Society that runs the institutions, said that the educational institution has written four applications to the city traffic police requesting them to install a signal and a way from the road divider from the adjacent lane that can be used by students and staff to reach the other side of the road safely.

“However, nothing has been done so far. We have been following up the issue with the police and civic authorities for the past two years,” he said. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com Aniruddha Rajandekar

Staff and students of SSPMS School and College take shortest route to reach their destination leading to congestion on the stretch and traffic violation

The countdown to your wedding has begun. If you aren’t made of sterner stuff, it could be a nerve wracking task getting the tiny details organised. You have made a list of all the important tasks that need attention. But have you got in touch with the wedding photographer and planned out the event?

The days when wedding photography meant clicking group pictures awkwardly standing in attention for the sake of the camera are a thing of the past. Bollywood and Hollywood themes have also come and gone. People want to include more technology into their wedding photography and they are willing to invest more for it too. Till some time ago, creative photographers even tried cropping pictures to super impose them on a colourful background. This trend, too, passed away quickly.

These days, wedding photography is a much more planned affair, if that’s possible. As weddings take on gigantic, near-Disneyland proportions, photographers are also thinking out of the box and offering a variety of services like coffee table books, albums, and photo booths, some even collaborate with copywriters to conceptualise a story line. Clearly, much planning is required for the event.

Everything is done with the bride’s and groom’s consent. The process could start as early as two to three months before the wedding. The photographers meet the bride, groom, family members and their close relatives to get a clear idea of what they really want. To ensure family and friends remember the dates of the ceremonies a number of people opt for the Save The Day option.

“It is sort of a curtain raiser to the event, which includes a series of images.

Usually, there is a story line to go along with these images. For instance, the bride is waiting for the groom and he is late. The bride gets angry and the groom tries to pacify by giving her flowers and chocolates. She isn’t easily convinced and it’s only after he offers the ring that the bride concedes and smiles. These various moments are captured by the photographer,” explained Ajay Sadhwani, who owns the Wanowrie-based Studio Shanti Photography. In the last year, Ajay has been the official photographer for 15 such events across the country.

Expectations vary from client to client but the challenge is to get the

Wedding photography is a much more planned affair that yesteryears and the process starts two to three months before the marriage

right pictures. The most important role for the photographer at these events is to form an emotional bond with the bridal family to capture perfect, natural shots.

Rahul Taware, owner of Knots Forever, said, “It is about interacting with the clients and their family members at a one-on-one basis. Once they know and are comfortable with us,

it becomes easier for us to take pictures. photographs are edited. Off thousands Even while capturing different moods of photographs, only about 1,000 are of the wedding, we ensure that the presented to the couple. essence of the various Umesh Nikam, relationships is not lost. another wedding It is about blending the photographer, reveals, guests into the frame.” “ Po s t-pro duc t ion Weddings are not work is tedious. The just about the bride and photographs are clicked groom but also about over three to five days, relatives and close but it takes about three friends of the families. weeks to complete the On such occasions, post production work. guests usually prefer to We have to take care observe the rituals and of minute details like entertainment from far. the colour, theme and Ajay believes that background.

Besides - AJAY SADHWANI everyone’s involvement presenting coloured make the ceremony a lot photographs, we also more fun, “Parents usually have a say in incorporate black and white ones into Indian weddings. They want to make the wedding album to give it a different sure all the guests who have attended feel.” the wedding are captured in a picture.

These days, newly-married couples It took us sometime to convince the also get their pictures clicked during, guests to do away with staccato poses. or after the honeymoon. To make them Usually, I pick a peppy Bollywood comfortable, photographers go to the number and ask the guests to lip dub extent of taking them to an outing and to it.” Everyone gets so involved in pampering them with food and drinks the singing that it is easier to capture just to get the perfect shot. candid shots. barnalee.handique@ After the wedding is done with, goldensparrow.com

“I pick a Bollywood number and ask the guests to lip dub to it.”

ENVIRONMENT “Tobacco snatches away the best years of a user’s life, hampering social well-being. Pictorial warnings of 85 per cent can go a long way in preventing youngsters from getting addicted to tobacco products.”

—V.P.Gangadharan, eminent medical oncologist

H EALTH

Already grappling with air pollution, Pune’s working population is down with hyperlipidemia (high blood cholesterol). Indus Health Plus 20142015 abnormality report states that 35–40 per cent of city’s population, including 20 per cent of working people, is suffering from the aliment that increases the risk of disease of the blood vessels leading to stroke and heart disease.

The report indicates strong inclination towards sedentary lifestyle leading to increase in lifestyle diseases, including hyperlipidemia. The study found 15-20 per cent of working population is dependent on junk food from streets, cafés and other outdoor outlets. A poor diet with less intake of iron has increased anemia and vitamin deficiency cases in the city.

India Health Plus preventive healthcare specialist Amol Naikawadi said, “Health is a state of harmony of food, mind and body. It is important for people to have a well-balanced diet.

Easily available packaged, processed, ready-to-eat and half-cooked food should be replaced by fresh and

PIC FOR REPRESTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY

TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly

A poor diet with less intake of iron has increased anemia and vitamin deficiency cases in the city

nutritious eatables.”

The study covering 13,917 males and 9,228 females found 25 per cent of both sexes suffering from eye problems due to lack of iron-rich diet. Usage of laptops and computers for more than 10 hours coupled with 2-3 hours with cellphone at night were cited as other reasons for weakening eyesight.

Sahyadri Hospital clinical dietician Malvika Karkare said, “Health means

physical, social and mental well-being.

To remain healthy one should have a balanced diet. Washing, cleaning and method of cooking are important to maintain food nutrition and quality.”

According to the study, obesity cases have increased in the city by 5–6 per cent every year. Women especially in the age bracket of 28–40 years are at higher risk of obesity as compared to men because of stress, high intake

A few thoughtful changes in the kitchen will go a long way to better your child’s eating habits and health

Change your own eating habits and the family will follow. After all children learn from the people they emulate and parents are the best role models.

With youngsters getting more and more involved in sports activities, their nutritional intake plays a major part in optimal growth and development.

Swati Chandrashekhar, an expert in

the field, throws light on nutrition for children. “It is all about training children to acquire healthy eating habits, what, when, and how to eat and drink before, during, and after an activity. Young athletes, who follow a planned diet, always have an edge over those who don’t. More so, these children display better self control when it comes to personal choice,” says Swati.

Monitoring your child’s nutrition is

the best way to promote healthy eating. Ideally, this has to begin at birth, and practical application should start from weaning foods. Family Swati involvement in Chandrashekhar a child’s eating patterns is very important because it ensures that the child doesn’t feel neglected or punished.

“Children have lesser will power to control temptations than adults, so it is always a better practice to make them aware of smarter choices in food. Healthy food does not mean boring food! Once you decide to adopt healthy eating, you can experiment with different food types and styles, and have fun. Your family gradually becomes committed to the task, and slowly, it turns into a lifestyle,” adds Swati.

Healthy eating starts becoming a fun activity with the entire family involved in shopping, planning, preparation, and serving of meals. If your child is eating healthy, you are bound to follow it too, which means good food practice for the entire family. anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com

It also gives you a chance to work on your creativity and culinary expertise. Try including your child while planning your meal. The child feels responsible for the meal choice and, in turn, will always be less fussy about the meals.

• Cook with your child: Children love to cook. It always acts like a therapy when you involve your child in a meal preparation throughout the process shopping, cleaning, cutting, cooking and serving. Ensure you choose easy, yet healthy recipes. Allow them to do

things their way, ensuring you are around for a helping hand. While serving meals ensure each family member tastes the preparation and compliments the child for the efforts s/he has undertaken. This is one lesson that teaches the child to respect the effort that goes into preparing a meal.

• Including fresh foods should be a priority. Discourage the use of instant foods. Discourage children from buying sweets, crisps and colas. If it’s not in the house, it is harder for a child to consume junk.

WHERE TO BEGIN? • Set meal timings and follow them: Children tend to snack less if meals are served at appropriate intervals. It also works well on reducing the urge to eat fried and sweet foods.

• Plan your weekly menus: Shopping for a planned menu is very easy. It is much easier to cook healthier with a plan than on the spur of the moment. Planned meals give you an opportunity to consider the nutritional inputs of the menu.

PUNE

Tampons highlight sewer pollution

Tampons absorb traces of whitening chemicals, enabling scientists to detect sources of sewage pollution expensive. “The main difficulty with LONDON: Tampons may not be an detecting sewage pollution by searching obvious scientific tool, but engineers for the optical brighteners is finding from the University of Sheffield in cotton that does not contain these Britain have found in them a new utility chemicals. That’s why tampons, being - using them to identify the sources explicitly untreated, provide such a neat from where sewage is discharged into solution,” Lerner noted. the river.

“Our new method may be The natural, untreated cotton in unconventional - but it’s cheap and it tampons readily absorbs chemicals works,” he pointed out. The study used commonly used in toilet paper, laundry laboratory trials to detergents and determine how much shampoos.

These detergent would chemicals are also need to be in the known as optical water to be picked up brighteners. by the tampon test.

The study When a tampon published in was dipped for the Water and just five seconds Environment into a solution Journal showed that containing 0.01ml when tampons are - DAVID LERNER of detergent per suspended in water litre of water - over contaminated by 300 times more dilute than would be even very small amounts of detergents expected in a surface water pipe - the or sewage, they would pick up optical optical brighteners could be identified brighteners and glow under UV light. immediately and continued to be “More than a million homes have visible for the next 30 days. their waste water incorrectly connected The technique was then trialled into the surface water network, which in the field by suspending tampons means their sewage is being discharged for three days in sixteen surface water into a river, rather than going to a outlets running into streams and treatment plant,” explained professor rivers in Sheffield and then testing the David Lerner who led the study.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult tampons under UV light. to detect where this is happening, Nine of the tampons glowed, as the discharge is intermittent and confi rming the presence of optical cannot always be seen with the naked brighteners - and therefore sewage eye and existing tests are complex and pollution.

IANS

“Our new method may be unconventional - but it’s cheap and it works”

What’s cooking?

ANJALI SHETTY-SHIRSATH @shetty_anjali

APRIL 11, 2015

“We have decided to re-categorize industrial sector depending on their pollution potential. Earlier, the categorization was not reflecting the pollution potential. This is an important step.”

— Prakash Javadekar, Environment Minister

Junk food affects cholesterol levels among working class Indus Health Plus Abnormality Report states 35-40 per cent citizens suffer from hyperlipidaemia

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

of junk or packaged food coupled with eating out twice or thrice a week.

The report stated that food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases. Consumption of unhealthy food causes anaemia, obesity, heart issues, hyperlipidaemia, stomach infections and other metabolic disorders. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

PUNE

“India has been inspired by the intelligent manner in which restoration and heritage conservation has been married with the goal of reviving traditional crafts, employment creation, education, improving health and urban renewal in the Humayun’s Tomb project” —President Pranab Mukherjee

There is a unique cosmopolitan feel to the city P 15

Jammu-Srinagar national highway: A horror If it rains or snows, the road is closed due to landslides and when it is sunny, shooting stones threaten the lives of travellers

By Sheikh Qayoom Jammu: If you hear that the JammuSrinagar national highway is not a road but a horror, don’t take this to be an overstatement. Muster up the courage to undertake the journey, provided the highway is open, as it remains closed most of the time.

Built in 1926 by the erstwhile Dogra ruler Hari Singh for transporting him, his family and the royal court between Jammu and Kashmir’s winter and summer capitals, the over 300-km-long road is still one of the most treacherous in the world.

For those who live on the Valley’s side of the Jawahar Tunnel, built in the 1950s across the Pir Panjal Mountains, the highway is the lifeline for over 6.5 million people. All essential supplies, including grains, pulses, vegetables, mutton, poultry, petroleum products and medicines are brought to the landlocked Valley through this road.

The tragedy is that if it rains or snows, the road is closed due to landslides and when it is sunny, shooting stones threaten the lives of travellers.

Driving my own car, it took me 15

“The fact is the road remains closed even after the official declaration”

The highway’s most treacherous portion is surely the 24-km stretch from Ramban town to Ramsoo village where landslides, shooting stones, slippery conditions and gushing seasonal streams threaten the traveller every inch of the way

hours to my home in north Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, an arduous wait for my family, which kept calling on my cellphone, anxious about my welfare.

On a clear day, the journey would have taken about eight hours.

The highway’s most treacherous portion is surely the 24-km stretch

Increased stress results in road rage’ The increase in stress levels, indifference towards victims and impulsive nature are a few factors responsible for the increasing incidents of road rage in the city with the recent one resulting in the death of a 38-year-old man.

Despite the Delhi Police’s efforts to curb the menace by arresting over 350 culprits in 265 such cases between 2010 and 2014, road rage incidents have only increased in the past five years.

The latest incident, in which 38-year-old Shanawaz was beaten to death in Delhi’s Turkman Gate area by five men in an i20 car after a spat over yielding space in a traffic jam, has once again exposed the high stress, leading to aggression among the people.

Experts attribute the rise of incidents of road rage to ‘stress’. “It’s not about a mental disorder, it’s about the state of mind of people living around us,” said Samir Parikh, director of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Fortis Healthcare. Parikh also said that it is the loss of human

and slip down taking the road away.

Pine trees are today part of the This year we have Sher Bibi where landslide debris that lies on the two shooting stones hit the highway sides of the small stretch that has every minute,” an official engaged in been cleared by the authorities to maintenance work said, requesting enable one-way traffic. After you cross anonymity as he was not authorised to Nashri, 30 feet of road is nowhere to be speak to the media. seen ahead of Chanderkote.

“You are fortunate to have passed Traffic police are regulating oneSher Bibi without a hit. The smaller way traffic here after an earthmover shooting stone hits break your filled the missing stretch with stones windshields and the and earth. bigger ones take you “You have to redo down the 400-foot the whole thing after deep gorge”, the official 10 to 20 vehicles pass added. on this earth-filled This year, a portion as it sinks 200-metre stretch under their weight,” of the road vanished said the driver of the at Magarkoot and earthmover, who has the Border Roads been working for 10 Organization (BRO) hours without a break has created a one-way on Tuesday so that pass on the debris of the nearly 500 vehicles half-cleared landslide. could pass.

From early 1960s till “Authorities often - Abdul Rashid Baba 1970s, the worst stretch say they have opened of the road was “Nashri” the highway for (Place of Likely Destruction) ahead of one-way traffic. The fact is the road Batote town in Doda district. Long remains closed even after the official stretches would slip down, blocking declaration”, Abdul Rashid Baba, a the highway for days and even months. tormented traveller on the highway, Massive afforestation and gentling said. It had taken me 15 arduous hours of the steep slope had taken care of to reach home. Everyone was thankful this once most dreaded stretch on this the journey had been completed highway for many years. The bad news without a mishap. After all, safely is that this year, Nashri is back to its crossing Nashri, also referred to as old tricks - the entire mountain side the Devil’s Picnic Spot, was no mean has come down along with all the good achievement! work the soil conservation authorities (Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at had done there. sheikh.abdul@ians.in)

connection that is behind the road rage incidents. “We somehow have lost the human-to-human connection and easily lost control over ourselves. We don’t think about the consequences on others because the empathy towards them is less,” Parikh added.

A Delhi Police officer said the perpetrators do not care who the victim is - whether a common man or a policeman. “The anger of road rage culprits has reached such an extent that they do not even hesitate to kill policemen, as seen in the case of traffic constable Mana Ram,” the officer said.

Mana Ram was dragged for 150 metres before being crushed under the wheels of a car at the Zakhira flyover on June 14, 2014 after he had signaled the vehicle to stop for violating a noentry rule. Sanjay Pattanayak, senior psychiatrist at Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health, says, “Some people have very a impulsive personality, they do not think about the consequences and they take law into their own hands.”

IANS

from Ramban town to Ramsoo village where landslides, shooting stones, slippery conditions and gushing seasonal streams threaten the traveller every inch of the way.

To add to the horror, the stretch has names those produce goose pimples.

The stretch between Ramban

The naked plumber from Bengal Kolkata: While nudity is considered taboo in civilised society, a man from West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district has not put on a shred of cloth to hide his modesty in the past 43 years -- but is revered and respected by all.

Subal Burman can be seen roaming around dring the day in Chandamari village, going for plumbing assignments or stopping at a stall to have a cup of tea after working hard for the day.

“Be it rain, summer or winter, I have spent 43 years of my life like this,” said Burman. The reason for living life the nudist way is his allergy to clothes.

“Wearing clothes made me feel sick, my jaw would get locked,” he said.

Burman enjoys spending his time with children who often take a ride on his bicycle.

While the sight of a naked man may shock outsiders, the villagers rather see him as a godly figure.

“We revere him, unless godly you can’t do such things,” says a woman from the village which is some 700 km from Kolkata.

“We all love and respect him. We have not perceived his nakedness as something abnormal or a problem for us,” says a woman who grew up seeing Burman the way he is.

With his long tresses and naked appearance, he may seem to be a hermit. However, he has been a political activist for the past two decades.

“I am a BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) activist since 1995. I was brought into politics by (late union minister) Tapan Sikdar and I have great respect for (former prime minister) Atal Bihari IANS Vajpayee,” says Burman.

and Ramsoo has landslide sectors called “Khooni Nallah” (Stream of Blood), “Sher Bibi (Abode of the lioness), Panthal (Devil’s Overhang) and Magarkoot (Abode of Gorrilas), among others.

“During the last few years the mountain at Panthal used to cave in

5,000-year-old astrological tradition thrives in Punjab

The ‘Brighuan di gali’ is a destination for people from all parts of the country and even from abroad as they seek out the Brighu Shastris, who rely on the Brighu Samhita

By Jaideep Sarin Hoshiarpur (Punjab): Just asking for an address in the Railway Mandi area of this Punjab might elicit blank stares. But the moment I uttered the word ‘Brighu’, I was not even allowed to say anything more and the directions followed to the T. One particular street in the area is virtually dedicated to the Brighu astrologers who are keeping alive a 5,000-year-old tradition of looking into the past and gazing at the future.

The “Brighuan di gali” (street of the Brighu astrologers) is a destination for people from all parts of the country and even from abroad as they seek out the Brighu Shastris who, despite facing stiff competition from Internet-driven modern-day astrology, still rely on the Brighu Samhita, a religious book (granth) that, as per legend, was penned

by Rishi Brighu over 5,000 years ago.

“We continue to get a lot of people from all over the country and from across the world. Many of those coming here include foreigners and NRIs,” Brighu Shastri Ramanuj Sharma said.

“Foreigners are great believers in the Brighu tradition. They are leaning towards traditional concepts like Brighu astrology, meditation and vegetarianism.

Followers of the Brighu tradition come from all religions,” said Sharma, who has a doctorate in Sanskrit.

He said that the Brighu Samhita has been safely kept in the common

Once an individual shares with the Brighu Shastri his details like name, date and place of birth, parents’ name and the like, the search begins for his details in the Brighu Samhita storehouse of three families here. “The granth lies in a strongroom and weighs tonnes. An index has been devised for the available pages of the granth so that only the required portions are picked up when required,” said Sharma, 43, a third-generation Brighu Shastri in his family. Once an individual shares with the Brighu Shastri his details like name, date and place of birth, parents’ name and the like, the search begins for his details in the Brighu Samhita. Since it is not physically possible to check all documents, the Brighu families have indexed them.

“If the name is found, the individual is called and told about his past lives

and future. It is even mentioned in the documents whether the person has to be physically present to come and see his past and future. Everything is read from the exact document concerning that person and he is supposed to note it down. Sometimes, if the person, living abroad or, for some other reason, is unable to come, then our staff writes down for them and the same is e-mailed to them or sent by post,” Sharma pointed out about the process.

Politicians like former president Zail Singh, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, union minister Maneka Gandhi and former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal and film stars Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Sanjay Dutt and Bollywood’s famous Kapoor family, among others, have come calling on the Brighu Shastris. But not everyone’s details may be recovered from the granth. The original Brighu Samhita, a massive database of charts of millions of people, was partially lost during various invasions of the country in the 12th and 13th centuries. It was a chance incident that a Brahmin family discovered a major part of the granth with a junk dealer here in 1923.

However, not everyone is ready to believe in the Brighu tradition. “I have got my records checked. Some part of it was true but all major happenings in my life were not there. I cannot believe in it blindly. But some people believe in this a lot,” Hoshiarpur resident Bhagwant IANS Singh said.

Plaiting hair mark of womanhood: Goa minister Vol-1* lssue No.: 43 Editor: Yogesh Sadhwani (Responsible for the selection of news under the PRB Act, 1867) Printed and Published by: Shrikant Honnavarkar on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. CIN:U22200PN2014PTC151382 and printed at PRI – Media Services Private Limited CIN: U22222MH2012PTC232006 at Plot No. EL-201, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Mahape, Navi Mumbai.

Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. 1641, Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411 030, Tel: 020-2432 4332/33.

Dhavalikar is of the opinion that children should be admitted to schools where they can be influenced by Hinduism Panaji: After kumkum (vermillion) and sarees, Goa Minister for Factories and Boilers Deepak Dhavalikar on Wednesday said plaiting of hair was once celebrated as an element of Indian women’s glory.

“In our ancient culture, applying kumkum, wearing saris, plaiting your hair was linked to the glory of Indian womanhood. This is getting destroyed,” said Dhavalikar.

Defending his wife Lata’s comment

on Sunday in which she linked rape to the Western culture, the minister told reporters on Wednesday that children should be admitted to those schools where they can be influenced by Hinduism alone.

“If children go to a convent, then they do not understand our culture early on. They do not get attached to our culture. They go towards a different culture. If this happens, what will happen to our culture?” the

minister said.

“Therefore, instead of admitting children to convents, children should be admitted to schools where they will learn our culture, where there will be an influence of Hinduism on their minds,” he added.

He sided with his wife who had advised parents not to send their wards to convent schools and said that saying ‘namaskar’ instead of ‘hello’ was a good phone etiquette. “Everyone has a right

to propagate their own religion. What wrong has she done?” Dhavalikar asked.

The minister, known for making controversial statements, demanded that India should be made a Hindu nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Lata Dhavalikar, according to the minister, is a member of two Hindu right-wing organisations, namely Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.

IANS

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

“Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force” —Anthony Blinken, Deputy National Security Advisor

It is fighting fit for Puneri Paltan this time P 16

Trader who donates half his pay for the noble cause Matt Wage is an exemplar of a new movement called ‘effective altruism’, aimed at taking a rigorous, nonsentimental approach to making the maximum difference in the world

BY NICHOLAS KRISTOF Matt Wage was a brilliant, earnest student at Princeton University, a star of the classroom and a deep thinker about his own ethical obligations to the world. His senior thesis won a prize as the year’s best in the philosophy department, and he was accepted for postgraduate study at Oxford University.

Instead, after graduation in 2012, he took a job at an arbitrage trading firm on Wall Street. You might think that his professor, Peter Singer, a moral philosopher, would disown him as a sellout. Instead, Singer holds him up as a model.

That’s because Wage reasoned that if he took a high-paying job in finance, he could contribute more to charity. Sure enough, he says that in 2013 he donated more than $100,000, roughly half his pretax income.

Wage told me that he plans to remain in finance and donate half his income. One of the major charities Wage gives to is the Against Malaria Foundation, which, by one analyst’s calculation, can save a child’s life on average for each $3,340 donated. All this suggests that Wage may save more lives with his donations than if he had become an aid worker.

“One thought I find motivating is to imagine how great you’d feel if you saved someone’s life,” Wage says. “If you somehow saved a dozen people from a burning building, then you might remember that as one of the greatest things you ever did. But it turns out that saving this many lives is within the reach of ordinary people who simply donate a piece of their income.” Wage is an exemplar of a new movement called ‘effective altruism,’ aimed at taking a rigorous, nonsentimental approach to making the maximum difference in the world. Singer has been a leader in this movement, and in a book released in April, he explores what it means to live ethically.

The book, ‘The Most Good You Can Do,’ takes a dim view of conventional charitable donations, such as supporting art museums or universities, churches or dog shelters. Singer asks: Is supporting an art museum really as socially useful as, say, helping people avoid blindness? After all, an American aid group, Helen Keller International, corrects blindness in the developing world for less than $75 per patient. It’s difficult to see how a modest contribution to a church, opera or university will be as transformative as helping the blind see again.

Even though he’s one of the founders of the field of animal rights, Singer is skeptical of support for dog rescue organisations. The

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An opthalmic nurse in Mali working for Helen Keller International performs a $40 eye surgery that addresses a painful source of blindness

real suffering in the animal world, he says, is as to be able to donate 99 percent and prevent in industrial agriculture, for there are about 50 even more cases of blindness? times as many animals raised and slaughtered I want to take my wife to dinner without in factory farms in the United States each guilt; I want to be able to watch a movie year as there are dogs and cats that are pets without worrying that I should instead be in America. The way to ease the pain of the buying a bed net. There is more to life than greatest number of animals, he says, is to focus self-mortification, and obsessive cost-benefit on chickens. calculus, it seems to me, subtracts from GiveWell, a website the zest of life. Second, reflecting the ethos humanitarianism is noble, but of the effective giving so is loyalty. So are the arts, and movement, recommends I’m uncomfortable choosing particular charities for one cause and abandoning cost-effectiveness.

Its all others completely. For top recommendations at my part, I donate mostly to the moment are Against humanitarian causes but also Malaria Foundation, to my universities, in part out GiveDirectly (transferring of loyalty to institutions that money directly to the very once gave me scholarships. poor), Schistosomiasis Third, I fl inch at the idea Control Initiative of taking a job solely because (inexpensively combating it’s high-paying - even if the a common parasite), money is to be given away. and Deworm the World Bravo to Matt Wage, who Initiative (deworming says that he relishes his work - Peter Singer children). as an arbitrage trader (now Singer himself donates based in Hong Kong), but I’m about one-third of his income to charity, he not sure this would work for everyone. Still, says, and I admire his commitment. Still, I Singer’s argument is powerful, provocative wonder about three points. and, I think, basically right. The world would First, where do people draw the line? If be a better place if people were as toughthey are prepared to donate one-third of their minded in how they donate money as in how incomes to maximize happiness, then why not they make it. two-thirds? Why not live in a tent in a park so © 2015 New York Times News Service

“The way to ease the pain of the greatest number of animals, he says, is to focus on chickens”

From pariah to martyr after death in Kabul

Farkhunda, the Islamic law student, had raised her voice against illiterate mullahs who would sell good-luck charms at a historic shrine in Kabul

BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

often the final word. “She has improved the status of women in Islam and in our community,” Farid said. “I KABUL, Afghanistan: In indignant tones, the believe Farkhunda is now giving more hope to more Islamic law student told her family about the women.” But Farid allowed that her female students superstitious practices she had witnessed earlier were less optimistic. When a new school year opened that day at a historic shrine in Kabul. She had seen recently, only two of the 30 enrolled female students illiterate mullahs sell good-luck charms and visitors appeared for her class; male attendance was better. who were convinced that prayers offered in the Usually, she said, it is the opposite when the school shrine were bound to come true. year begins. Female students, who are more isolated, Over a family dinner, the student, a 27-year-old show up for the first lectures, while the male students woman named Farkhunda, vowed to return and skip class to hang out.

Then she heard from female students who said speak out against what she deemed superstitious they were afraid to be in public after watching how and un-Islamic behaviour. That decision - and what quickly the mob had formed against Farkhunda. awaited her at the shrine - has convulsed Kabul.

“How can I sit here in class with boys? I’m afraid When she returned there, in late March, and of them,” Farid said, recounting what students told began chastising people for their ignorance, an her. Farkhunda herself came from an educated attendant at the shrine countered with a far more family, her father an engineer and her mother a high dangerous accusation: This woman, he shouted, was school graduate, said an infidel who had burned her brother, Mujibullah, the Quran. A sparse who has taken his sister’s crowd quickly became a name as his surname. mob of hundreds, and the She had studied math men railed at her, beat her, at a university before set fire to her body. switching to Islamic Since then, Farkhunda r ive Site of ul R studies at a madrasa. b has been transformed a K Shrine While her parents from a woman so despised initially told reporters that officials had defended that Farkhunda was her lynching, into a Kabul mentally ill, her brother celebrated martyr. And said they did so only at more, she has emerged the behest of the police, as the rarest of Afghan who thought it would figures: a female religious Kabul River defuse tensions. champion who ventured Mujibullah said that into a shrine to preach Farkhunda first went to Islam and was felled by Logar River the shrine - known as ignorant men. the Shrine of the King of “Farkhunda was a Two Swords and said to true Muslim, a religious where an early Islamic hero,” said Shahla Farid, AFGHANISTAN be conqueror in Afghanistan a law lecturer at Kabul 10 Miles had died fighting Hindus University and a member - out of generosity, to bring clothing to the needy. of a commission appointed by the Afghan president But she was appalled at what she saw as heretical or to investigate the death of Farkhunda. “Here a superstitious practices there, and she ranted about woman challenged a man and defended Islam.”

The shrine attendant who falsely accused her of them at dinner that night, vowing to return, her burning the Quran now sits in jail, as do more than brother said. When she went back to the shrine two dozen other men accused of a role in her death, on March 19, she preached in the courtyard for which was captured in numerous cellphone videos. hours, warning visitors away, urging them to pray There are growing calls for the public executions at the mosque across the street. She denounced the of those who were responsible. Banners depicting attendants who cleaned the shrine - some of whom Farkhunda’s face grace the spot where she was killed. sold charms - as “two-rupee beggars.” Later, one And her family, first told to flee the capital for their of the shrine attendants, Zain-ul-Din, leveled his own safety, has proudly taken her name as their accusation against Farkhunda. He may have even surname. The country’s Religious Affairs Ministry produced charred pages from somewhere, declaring has pledged to rid shrines of fortune tellers and them to be pages of a Quran she had burned.

Deputy minister for religious affairs, Dai-ul-Haq peddlers of good-luck charms, whom Farkhunda Abid, said his investigation had clearly established was preaching against when the crowd turned on her.

Farkhunda’s innocence. He said that the shrine After more than a decade of efforts to improve attendants were clearing ‘hundreds of thousands of the standing of Afghan women, violence against rupees a month’ selling good-luck charms. them occurs across much of the country with © 2015 New York Times News Service impunity. A man’s accusation against a woman is

Narrow home built during great depression seeks a long future The Grand Street home is one of a number of renowned ‘skinny houses’ in the US and Europe

BY LISA W FODERARO MAMARONECK, New York: The redshingled house on Grand Street shares several attributes with its neighbours.

It has three stories, a full basement, hardwood floors and a neat yard. But one thing has always set this house apart, turning heads on nearby Interstate 95 and, in March, prompting New York officials to recommend its addition, along with 21 other properties and districts, to the National Register of Historic Places: It is just a little over 3 metres wide.

Called the Skinny House, the gabled structure stitched into a modest street in this Westchester County suburb has a back story to rival its unusual architecture.

It was built in 1932 by Nathan T Seely, an African-American carpenter who, with his brother Willard, had a successful home-building business that catered to the waves of black Southerners moving north as part of the Great Migration.

According to the state’s submission seeking a historic designation for the Skinny House, the Seely brothers bought tracts of land in the Village of Mamaroneck and set out to build houses, duplexes and multifamily buildings.

“The mission of the company is outlined in Seely’s brochure entitled ‘Homes For Coloured People,’” according to the submission to the National Park Service, which oversees the national register. “The opening paragraph states, ‘Every coloured man needs a home.’”

But the once-thriving business, which included a secretary, a lawyer and six Mack trucks, crumbled after the stock market crash of 1929. During the Great Depression, few Americans, let alone working-class blacks in service jobs, could afford to buy a new house.

The Seely brothers’ business went bankrupt, and Nathan Seely lost the seven-room house he had designed and built in 1926 on Grand Street for his own family. Created with his wife, Lillian, in mind, the house “showcased many amenities considered very modern at the time,” the submission said. But Seely’s stroke of misfortune would soon lead him to erect the Skinny House.

In 1931, a neighbour on Grand Street, an Italian immigrant named Panfilo Santangelo, gave Seely a 3.8-metre by 30.5-metre strip of land from his own property to build a home. The finger of land, which Seely had earlier sold to Santangelo, ran between the two men’s houses, including the property she lost when the depression began.

“That’s the kind of man he was,” Nancy Picarello, 65, said. (Picarello has lived next to the Skinny House for many years.) With little money to purchase new building materials, Seely salvaged and

Nancy Picarello, right, and her mother, Ida Santangelo, in front of the “Skinny House” in Mamaroneck, N.Y. State officials recommended that the 10-foot-wide home, built in 1932 by Nathan T Seely, be added to the National Register of Historic Places

recycled everything from railroad ties to windows to banisters - even a chicken coop - to incorporate into his house, which was 11.3 metres long. He included elements of charm and conveniences for his wife as well,” the state submission said. “Besides the three ornate gables in the front facing facade, he added a ledge for flowerpots just under the second level window.” To ensure that wind did

not blow the house over, he fastened the structure to the ground with steel cables on each side that are still visible today.

The Grand Street home is one of a number of renowned “skinny houses” in the United States and Europe.

Amsterdam stands out for its collection, the narrowest being a building at 22 Oude Hoogstraat that was constructed in 1733 and stands just 2 metres wide.

The neighbourly origins of Seely’s Skinny House set it apart from other similar structures, which are sometimes called “spite houses,” because those who built them often did so to annoy their neighbors. According to the state submission, a “spite house” built in Alexandria, Virginia, around 1830 was erected “to fill an alley after the neighboring property owner grew tired of carriage wheels scraping against the walls of his house.” “ M a m a r one c k ’s Skinny House stands as the polar opposite of a spite house,” the submission said. “It reflects friendship and compassion between neighbours, rather than animosity.” After Seely died in 1962, members of his family continued to live in the Skinny House until 1986. Ida Santangelo, 92, the daughter of Panfilo Santangelo, bought the house in 1988 and has mostly rented it out to tenants, the submission said. She still lives two houses away.

Two years ago, however, Santangelo and her daughter, Picarello, discovered after starting to renovate the kitchen that the house had become infested with termites. The house is now vacant,

as the family decides whether to pay for repairs or, possibly, turn it over to a local historical society. “They ate through everything,” Picarello said, referring to the termites as she pointed to damaged wood frame in the kitchen during a recent tour of the house.

If, as expected, the federal government agrees to place the house on the national register, the designation could help a nonprofit group, like a historical society to obtain grants to fi x the damages caused by the termites.

In the meantime, descendants of both Seely and Santangelo are working to keep the story of the Skinny House alive. Seely’s great-granddaughter, Julie Seely, a doctor, wrote a screenplay titled ‘Skinny House’ in 2011. There is also a website devoted to the house. On Grand Street, Santangelo has photo albums, news clippings and a rudimentary guest book that is spread across her dining room table. Over the years, she has asked visitors who arrived on the block in search of the famous house to sign her black-and-white composition notebook. © 2015 New York Times News Service

To ensure that wind did not blow the house over, he fastened the structure to the ground with steel cables on eachside

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

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MONEY MATT ER S

“Going forward, the accommodative stance of monetary policy will be maintained, but monetary policy actions will be conditioned by incoming data.”

—Raghuram Rajan, RBI Governor

Tata Motors not to divest stake in group firm PUNE: Automotive major Tata Motors Ltd. clarified that it was not selling stake in the group firm Tata Technologies Ltd. (TTL). Refuting media reports, the Pune-based company said in a statement here that it had no intention to sell majority or strategic stake in TTL, which was strategically important for its business.

Tata Motors holds 72.32 percent equity stake in TTL along with its subsidiary, while rest of the Tata group has 15.47 percent. “Media reports of Tata Motors divesting 90 percent of its stake in TTL are incorrect,” the statement noted. The $38.9-billion (Rs.232,834 crore) Tata Motors is a market leader in commercial vehicles.

Telecom regulator lowers tariff ceiling for national roaming Aiming to give some benefit to the mobile phone subscribers, the telecom regulator has reduced tariff ceiling for national roaming calls and messages and has mandated telecom service providers (TSPs) to offer a special roaming tariff plan.

These changes will come into effect from May 1 next. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has set the ceiling for outgoing local calls while roaming at 80 paise per minute from Rs.1 while it reduced the calling rate to Rs.1.15 per minute from Rs.1.50 a minute for STD calls (intercircle). Incoming calls on roaming will be charged at the most 45 paise per minute from 75 paise that was charged earlier .

Rise and fall of Ramalinga Raju

Before falling from grace by admitting to India’s biggest accounting fraud, B. Ramalinga Raju was once a poster boy of the Indian IT industry who rose to fame with a solution for the highly-feared Y2K crisis at the turn of 20th century He was once considered the IT czar and the Bill Gates of Andhra Pradesh, who founded and built Satyam into one of the top IT companies in India.

B. Ramalinga Raju even shared the dais with Bill Clinton when the then US president visited Hyderabad in 2000.

A special CBI court sentenced Ramalinga Raju, his two brothers and seven others to seven years in prison in what is described by the Central Bureau of Investigation as the biggest corporate fraud in India’s history.

The 60-year-old Raju, who already spent 32 months in jail before he was granted bail in 2011, has returned to prison. It was in 2009 that this poster boy of India’s IT industry had a dramatic fall when he resigned as chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. while admitting that the company’s account books and profits were inflated over many years.

He was arrested and sent to jail.

From the cosy environs of his posh bungalows and state-of-the-art offices to the claustrophobic confines of Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad, life suddenly took a cruel turn for him.

The son of an agriculturist and hailing from West Godavari district in coastal Andhra Pradesh, he launched business in textile weaving and construction in 1977. He had no engineering background but his brother-in-law D.V.S. Raju, an engineer, inspired him to enter the IT sector by setting up Satyam Computer Services in 1987.

Proving his entrepreneurial skills, Raju built Satyam into a IT bellwether.

One of the pioneers of offshoring, it started remotely delivering IT services to some clients in the US in 1991. The

IANS

Signpost

“While retaining the traditional set of sedan buyers, the new City has been able to attract a large number of young buyers. Thirty percent of the customers have bought the City as their first car.”

— Jnaneswar Sen, Senior vice president, Honda Cars India

success with offshoring was followed by the Y2K boom, which catapulted Satyam to the top league.

Satyam ventured into the internet business through Satyam Infoway in 1988. After surviving the dotcom bust, it started concentrating on software

services. In the mid 1990s when Hyderabad was emerging on the world IT map, Satyam was the biggest name and it was no wonder that he shared the dais with the likes of Bill Clinton.

Raju was also well respected for his involvement in corporate social

Be safe and smart with your money

Moneylife Foundation continued its successful series on financial literacy with its flagship seminar in Pune MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM Moneylife Foundation conducted yet another successful, educative and highly interactive seminar - ‘Be Safe and Smart with Your Money’ in Pune, after a long gap of almost two years. Th is was the fourth Moneylife Foundation event conducted in Pune since 2010. The event, which witnessed a packed audience, was held at the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA).

The flagship seminar has two distinct sessions separated by a tea break. The fi rst is by Sucheta Dalal, managing editor of Moneylife and founder trustee of Moneylife Foundation. The next session is by Debashis Basu, editor and founder trustee of Moneylife Foundation.

How to be safe with your money?

Dalal’s session was titled ‘How to be safe with your money’.

She started by pointing out that financial products are fundamentally different from cons u mer products. You can test-drive Sucheta Dalal a car but you cannot testdrive a mutual fund; the fate of your investment becomes clear only after a year or more. Moreover, in the real world brand names mean something. Not so in financial world. However, people translate their experience of buying consumer products into financial world and later repent their decision.

Advising investors to see through the sales pitch, Dalal said, “Companies need to sell products and services to earn money, the media focusses on advertising revenues and may not hesitate selling news, while the intermediaries are concerned about their commission and sales target.

Therefore, the buyer needs to see through this sales pitch and chose

responsibility.

Byrraju Foundation and the Satyam Foundation earned him reputation through various projects, especially the 108 medical emergency services in Andhra Pradesh and the other states.

Raju also had a long list of awards, including the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Services award 1999, the Dataquest IT Man of the Year Award 2000, the Asia Business Leader Award 2002, and the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance.

Satyam was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001 and the revenues exceeded $1 billion in 2006 and $2 billion mark in 2008.

It remained the fourth largest IT services fi rm for a long time with operations through the parent company and subsidiaries in as many as 65 countries. A few weeks before the scam came to light, it had reported annual revenues of $2.4 billion and a total employee size of 53,000.

The trouble for Satyam began in December 2008 when it announced plans to buy two Maytas fi rms owned

by Raju’s sons. He had to call off the deal within hours due to opposition by the shareholders. The share price started tumbling.

The same month World Bank blacklisted Satyam for eight years on grounds of data theft and bribing bank officials. After the scam, Tech Mahindra took over Satyam Computers in a government-sponsored auction and the new entity was named Mahindra Satyam.

The Satyam brand became history in 2013 with the merger of Mahindra Satyam with Tech Mahindra.

IANS

Sugar mills facing closure due to disparity in prices The price of sugar, both in the domestic market and the international market even with the export incentive, does not make the whole business viable.

No wonder, several large sugar mills are seriously considering closure as an option due to this disparity in prices According to Abinash Verma, Director General of Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the sugar mills are continuing to be under terrible stress due to the increasing burden of arrear dues to farmers, which has crossed Rs 15,000 crore so far, and may go beyond Rs 17,000 crore by the end of this month. The backlog of last year to cane growers is said to be over Rs 2,600 crore.

In the meantime, the global sugar prices have also fallen, and, after many delays, petitions and protests, at last the government agreed to an export incentive of Rs 4,000 per tonne for raw sugar. By the time the Indian government announced this incentive, and permitted the export of 1.4 million tonnes, not only the international prices have fallen, but our competitors, like Brazil and Thailand, have now their own sugar to offer in the market.

Because of this change in the international market, even the Rs 4,000 per tonne incentive offered has become unworkable, and an additional Rs1,500 may help in making some exports. So far, in spite of the clearance for 1.4 million tonne exports, only 18,000 tonnes appear to have been committed.

Additionally, ISMA feels that it is time some serious thought is given to this industry in regard to financial restructuring, conversion of working capital to term loans, rescheduling of payments besides offering interest free loans to the industry. These would help revive the industry which is in dire straits with huge arrears to farmers and banks.

IANS

Can we simplify some procedures for NRIs?

If a foreign government has already apostilled a document, then why it needs attestation from the Consulate General?

SREE IYER

the financial product based on six mantras”.

The six mantras, articulated by Dalal, include - not to lose money, insure for securing future, avoid credit and investment traps, focus on few safe products, avoid emotional traps and maintain financial hygiene.

Many have lost huge amounts of money in pyramid, MLM, chain marketing and chit funds such as Herbalife, Amway, Saradha, Rose Valley, SpeakAsia, Gold Quest or Qnet. There are various chain marketing schemes which operate at every level in the country and cheat even the poorest of people. “The main danger of all such schemes is, those early entrants, who earned high returns initially, usually re-invest all money in the scheme and eventually lose everything when the scheme collapses,” she said.

Dalal then cautioned the audience about internet scams - mainly email traps, like the lottery scam, being sent out in the name of Reserve Bank of India, its governors, wife of Raj Rajrathnam and so on. Then there are job scams, where people are offered the ‘so-called jobs’ in top companies.

However, any respondents to such emails end up losing their money.

She also advised the audience against falling prey to phishing scams.

Several times, people, who have no knowledge about stock markets, are lured with promises of huge returns in shortest possible time.

Trading schemes, like Nifty trades, Forex derivatives and oil futures, all have brought grief to investors, and

investors should stay away from such offers, she said.

Dalal, explained credit history, credit score and reports which are becoming increasingly important.

She said, “All your borrowings and repayments for credit card, student or education loan and other loans, are tracked by credit information companies, like CIBIL, Experian, CRIF Highmark and Equifax. The credit history remains with the credit bureaus for seven years and any default can affect one’s future borrowings”.

How to be smart with your money?

In the second session, ‘Be smart with your money’, Debashis Basu, editor and publisher of Moneylife and founder trustee of Moneylife Foundation, took the audience through simple steps for investing smartly. To start with, he suggested saving at least 25% of your income. While Indians save a lot, they keep their money safe in bank deposits. Unfortunately, this is just the wrong thing to do especially for those who are in the highest tax bracket.

Usually we have different financial goals, such as saving on taxes, buying a house, child’s education etc. Basu explained the different financial products available which can help meet these goals. Further, he explained the risk and returns associated with each financial investment.

Most people don’t see the huge risk of inflation eating away their wealth. Basu asked the audience to calculate everything in post-tax and post-inflation basis. He also took

the audience through the pluses and minuses of different asset classes such as fi xed income, gold, real estate, stocks/ equity mutual funds and insurance.

Most Indians prefer to invest in gold and real estate. Basu pointed out that most investors don’t know what influences gold prices and this makes gold investing more of a speculation.

He explained that the price of gold is driven by the six factors (mainly the movement of the dollar and rupee).

The investors are unaware of any of them. On real estate, Basu pointed out that we really don’t know the returns we would get from Debashis Basu our real estate investments because not enough data is available.

Stocks and equity mutual fund schemes are the best route for long term wealth creation, based on past data. Th is is because well-managed businesses create profits which get reflected in the stock prices. But by nature, stock investments are volatile.

They may decline sharply if they are overvalued. If you really want to gain from the enormous wealth that stocks and funds can create, you have to understand this and stay patiently invested in good funds or a bunch of good stocks, advised Basu. Apart from the returns, Basu explained the risks involved in various asset classes.

The clock was ticking down and I was getting desperate and I needed some Indian diaspora (or foreign nationals) good luck and to my pleasant surprise, wanting to do business in India have the person standing behind me in the to still go through laborious processes line, a fellow Indian American who too for simple things, taking up a lot of had come to apostille some documents time and money. If you live abroad and was coincidentally a Notary too! We want any document to be recognised found a quiet corner and Gary Sahota by the Government of India, it has to walked me through the process, took be Notarised by a Notary Public, then signatures and I was done before the Apostilled (An “apostille” is a form counter closed. of authentication issued to documents How often does it happen that you for use in countries that participate in have a person with the exact skill set the Hague Convention of 1961 - India right when you need him? As we were is a signatory) and finally attested by leaving, I remarked to Gary that “he the Consul General of made my day” and he India in that country. ever so humbly pointed The originals have to be upwards and that said it sent across to India for all. Touching moment! further processing.

He knows all I had to get some the kinks in documents attested and G o v e r n m e n t it took me full two days procedures and getting of running around to things done fi rst time get it done. is considered a miracle!

Day 1: First off, Day 2: Armed the person advising with Notarised and me from India did apostilled documents, not know the process I set sail to SFO and - SREE IYER correctly and told me this time too, ran into to go to the Indian the same official at the Consulate (the closest counter and got the one to me is at San Francisco (SFO), documents submitted by 10:30am. about 100 kms) to get the documents To my surprise, I was asked to come apostilled. It was a long two and a half back by 4pm. My whole day was spent hour drive. By the time, I reached there just waiting around to get the signed it was already 11am and the Indian documents.

Consulate accepts applications only till If a foreign government has 12 noon. Apostilling for those who live already apostilled a document, then in the SFO area is done at Sacramento, why should it again be attested by the about 200 kms away. By now, it was Consulate General? Furthermore, why noon and I had to rush across to get it should I do this process for a document done by 4pm or I would have lost a day. that the Government of India issued to Therefore, off I went to Sacramento me? Do they not trust their own card? and about halfway there, I stopped at In my humble opinion, an a Notary Public’s office and got my apostilled document is enough proof documents notarized. of the genuineness of the document.

“An apostilled document is enough proof of the genuineness of the document.”

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

“Many civic infrastructure projects are incomplete and have suffered due to the time wasted due to the election code of conduct in place during the state and Lok Sabha elections.”

— Nanda Lonkar, NCP corporator

PUNE

“We are hoping for reconciliation and we are still in AAP, expecting a positive turn. The party has come this far after three years of hard work by the volunteers.”

— Maruti Bhapkar, Social activists

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

BRTS needs to ensure pedestrians safety BRTS needs to implement a foolproof bus service with passenger safety

I commute by buses regularly to work.

It has been my observation that there are a certain irregularities in the whole system. I think that the steps taken by Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Manhamandal Limited (PMPML) need a closer look.

There is no doubt that the trial run set by the organization of the Intelligent Transit Management System’s (ITMS) on a part of the Alandi BRTS corridor was a success. The system informs the passengers about the bus route and the next stop. Also the passenger information system, timetable and arrival of the next bus displayed at all bus stations are an added advantage.

But merely installing ITMS does not make BRTS a successful project.

For it to run smoothly the BRTS needs to roll out as per conceptualised norms and features.

The introduction of BRTS appears to have been done in a random, thoughtless and hasty manner, rather than with any vision with detailed planning and execution.

Shabbir Kachwalla

The pilot project, Katraj- SwargateHadapsar corridor was approved by the PMC in 2006. But neither prefeasibility study nor a detailed project report was prepared.

Even after the completion of flyovers- the pilot project is not restored. PMC has no confi rmations even after spending Rs 1, 000 crore on the phase one project.

The actual bus operations are likely

CITIZEN JOURNALIST

to be delayed as major issues like safe access for pedestrians, construction of terminals are going on. The authorities have still not identified the bus terminal at Wagholi. Though the PMPML officials have ensured round the clock securities at all bus stations on the 16km Vishrantwadi-Wagholi stretch only five buses have been installed with ITMS units so far. In future they plan on installing this system in 500 buses.

There are still a lot of impending issues that needs to be addressed like damaged bus stations and lack of pedestrian safety measures.

The Municipal Corporation has concentrated on spending funds on infrastructure but has completely ignored edge to edge development. The authorities have still not taken steps to clear encroachments on footpaths and have not acquired land as per the development plan to make the road width consistent.

Till now the demands have not been met though the authorities have been making promises. I hope they take the necessary action so that passengers can safely cross the road to the bus station.

Pune has earned for itself a place of distinction on the map of India, is a unique place in every respect

The quality of education is much higher in Pune compared to other cities in India

country- and even the globe!

With excellent educational institutes in the city, people come here to study and end up making Pune their home.

The standard of living and a mix of cultural ethos have brought transition from Pune being a dignified industrial destination to becoming a youthful and vibrant city.

What makes me proud is the fact that Puneites are not only acknowledged in the rest of the country, but even abroad!

Amongst the intellectuals and professionals, there lies a depth of creativity and progressive expansion.

If one maps the success chart of other metro cities, then Pune is way

Richard Barooah, General Manager, Holiday Inn, Pune

ahead of all. Pune’s employment growth scenario has been very very impressive.

Today, the service sectors make Pune a standalone e c o n o m i c powerhouse in all respects, with a rate of job generation that is hard to match.

Mumbai may offer the best of business, Delhi the seat of power, Chennai in the sphere of arts and culture, Kolkata the seat of creativity, Hyderabad the seat of IT and trading but Pune has the best of all worlds.

The credit goes to its strategic location, proximity to Mumbai, through the corridor of e way and the climate, Pune has become an ultimate destination to start a business, career or just to settle down permanently.

NON-NATIVE

PAROLE

I have been living in Pune for a decade now, and I am in love with this city! I secured a job at Lemon Tree Hotels in Hinjewadi.

I had heard highly about the city, but initially it took me some time to adjust here. My job profi le gave me a chance to travel to various parts of the city and interact with new people everyday. The warm hearted and friendly nature of Puneites captured my heart.

The city represents well-read, warm, friendly and hospitable people.

But best of all there is an exceptional cosmopolitan feel to this city that is very hard to replicate elsewhere in this

EDITOR

It was very sad and disheartening to Resources should not have walked into know about the police force’s attitude a school function towards the eunuch. Are they not rightful citizens? Do they not have equal rights? After reading the article ‘Don’t you ever re dare to expose the Pune cops’. u ever da Don’t yose the o I couldn’t fathom the reason p x e to why he was abused mentally and physically. He had approached the police station for protection and instead of arresting his attackers, he was asked to leave and beaten mercilessly. The college students were also harassed for no reason. About the law officers, the less said is better. This is not the first time such an incident has happened.

Isn’t it the duty of citizens to come forward when such incidents are happening right in front of their eyes?

It is a wakeup call for Puneites to join hands and fight for such causes.

The article “Practice before you preach’ was an eye-opener. Girish Mahajan, Maharashtra’s Water OW ON

I am from Th impu, Bhutan. I came to the city four years back to pursue my studies from Indian Law Society (ILS) College. During the fi rst couple of weeks of my stay, I found everything very different- the culture, people and the food.

Language was the barrier for me, and hence interacting with my fellow classmates became challenging.

Gradually, as the weeks passed by, the city made me feel comfortable. The food here is very spicy. I love the zesty misal pav, vada pav, and the climate here too is very pleasant.

FROM FOREIGN

SHORES

I have made Pune- my city, and my home too. During weekends, I try to explore other parts of the city. Every street, every corner resonates with the spirit of youthfulness.

What I love most is the meeting of the two rivers- Mula and Mutha, the urbanization of the city as well as the old Pune heritage structures like the Shaniwarwada and the Aga Khan Palace harmoniously existing side by side.

Also I like the infrastructure here

Penjor Tshering

and the ever promising governance.

The city that is also the cultural capital has its conservative traditional values

intact. If you ask, what I want from a city life, these points would probably be in my list, decent infrastructure, awesome nightlife, less traffic, job opportunities, favorable climate and a proper education structure. Pune is one of those cities that have it all.

Pune has also been an education hub and one of the fastest growing cities in India. I am also happy that the city offers the pleasures of the modern developed society, being at par with any developing nations. The city offers the best IT jobs to young aspirants. I am glad to learn that even today the city is well-regarded as the ‘Oxford of the east.’ Just like a lot of others, I am proud to be in love with Pune.

Puneites lets join hands to fight police brutality

LETTERS TO THE

N SPARR THE GOLDE 2015 PUNE

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

There is a unique cosmopolitan The youth city of India feel to the city

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ally up a ment ones lessly beat en cops ruth on their cellph Bund Gard capture the torture to y this week stop you. Earl students who dared power to g in their for help. Two do ever ythin approached them 5 They will ch who had ilessly deficient eunu d and thrashed merc trace were also

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BY RAjiL bus sday. The pm on Wedne is as always It’s 1.45 Pune station and out, stop near buses getting in ng und shouti busy with the compo gers, hawkers inside attention of passen their the for g a run to attract uters makin in his early and comm then, a eunuch He is being rides. Just stand. of out of the men, most 20s runs os. He half a dozen chased by g sticks and bambo 6 none of them wieldin g for mercy but keeps begginseem to care. rs d to be his attacke s, who preteny beaten 9 The ruffian brutall clothes. have already messia hs, and even torn his single a the eunuch g. There is not , who He is bleedin g on the eunuch rs. clothin attacke of piece from the to escape and assault is trying with him manages catch up ow 3 But they He someh and clutches, him yet again. from their rs won’t give to escape attacke police a that the for g realisin makes a run d. ourhoo up, the eunuch 7 in the neighb chowk ie Es ApproACH EUNUCH for HElp Garden police poliCE Bund that he Once inside thought helping the eunuch chowk ie, instead of rs, who safe. But would be his attacke a cop arresting him and metres away, “Chal 20 were barely the chowk ie yells, eunuch sitting inside lost).” When the down (Get instead sits a cop bhaag re 10 budge and ie, refuses to outside the chowk him. He abuses at on the floor and hurls and tells comes out at the attackers ere. then looks the fight elsewh Take him them to take anything here. like. police “Don’t do do what you feel be Bund Garden outside to leave and 4 you can’t 1) Eunuch cop asks him ie, elsewhere down againhis A police chowk hands here,” chowkie. gets up, but sits for This is a men baying law in your 2) Eunuch familia r that the seen taking lathis as he realises who seemed minutes and too far cop, not sticks Within blood are with bamboo said the to get rs eunuch attackers.

The attacke 3 & 4) Men too far for the with the not compound ts drivers falls in place. waiting chowkie studen everything kshaw and taxi out of police one of the two beating the the bus nab are autoric the vicinit y of of them 5) Cops is a d a clip in who capture who park claim that the eunuch d by the women. being thrashe eunuch stand. They keeps harassing seems Sonone and 6) Akshay hand, nuisance d to police again on the other in no position cops being escortethrashed yet The eunuch and is was 7) Sonone He just from the e deficient, where he defence. chowkie, running for cover mental ly chowki ng in his ns to hurl the police 8) Eunuch leaving to say anythi block and threate after him with close. ruffians er and These catch up picks a paver rs if they come 9) Goons l men came togeth few times. than it at his attacke d him a 10) Severa beat up the eunuch we slappe have known better one ruthlessly said on our bEgi Ns g from boys should a sting on us,” Team. some clips do TorT UrE eunuch not budgin und, We have TGS “They found to try and ie compo With the bles to the and deleted them. to leave him. the chowk get him bashing of the constables too asked us phone and an apolog y letter any the his spot inside rs also trying to They start up and Other consta a big deal about matters in given them we will not repeatic for compound. the eunuch gets , and his attacke s to take eunuch. make that decide so pathet nt. time, Pune station and not cop s promised This we out, the kicking the again. I feel g toward drivers incide . A cop know that on CHAsE He starts ithun (wear your incident. such thing ing to record the starts runnin away. The the cops frEsH nt his hand. r chase begins in the for our ani nig Little did 500 metres when they are able says the of the incide heads even bother ts who are here Yet anothe good most and one and . ed ‘Kapde ghal get out of here),” with e, had ed – as earlier othhis bike had captur ne.

We are studen Akshay Sonon has gather s youngsters chase him him they beat him gets on than he was one clothes and now is joined by several then a crowd said manages where the the other our cellpho by autorickshaw exams,” i. Just In all this, chowk ie to witnes to get near eunuch somehow direction ts, while cop, who of the a word. g up railway g the khakh k pair of the are simply of the studen to even utter we say sticks. The the safety of the Y spEA gone. Some were initially beatin They outside er men donnin rs throws a torn s and Assistant if rattled him. to Most people show. The attacke AUTHoriT was too contacted to make drivers give up on told us that They have drivers, who, too join the chase. ters. the melee. g the one of the eunuch. Cops scream wear When TGSof Police (Cantonment cops have and us. youngs g, enjoyin on the audience and the eunuch “The ruin the at up station he the r will get standin also shorts they and to not return Shinde, foot behind ses and checking time he Commissione anything the blows later, they set out on and addres appear for cops keep Atmacharan students, who rs NoT tell the eunuch down. Each on his between minutes bashing to to nab two sitting Division) our full names YoUNgsTE college y.

Good ten Er kick him are here intermittently ten minutes of managed the lodge a his shorts the we cops had Aksha EiTH “If take the that nded eunuch police, ED They said up, cops said, know spAr pleased. had surrou the up by the whips. Good exams,” to get the shorts chowk ie, tries to get inquir y. could maternal youngsters. us. We haven’t six cops manage on were beatenI will conduct an int, I Back at the inside. All one competitive Sonone’s I of the three , wear his and cops ribs. At leastwho was crouching ts,” let go of of the ters Titade, . “For now they wanted The cops were , compla int, not lodge a compla Rajesh “Sir please ng. We are studen two youngs were frantic cries do what the eunuch the chowk ie. y against seemed rattledI don’t want beaten. while anythi getting up. and had been If they do suo-moto inquir But uncle, too hitting the hear outside obviously being recorded youngsters, without footage a floor outside had comm them out. trouble,” he said the cops were slapped for few the two will order that his that they have got ed we get “If the were earlier two. They any stomach On seeing pleaded repeatedly happy proud away provid who into had were and turn the d get were sters they it’s urge the men the cops young them to The cops two criminals, who t.” He added, ties by being dragge and a cop. Now obeyed. But and started using eunuch, in too. Theytorture d the two t to Their torture of the inciden h) of brutali other him, join and whiske are brough are immediately.d TGS nabbed the by auto drivers more lashes,eunuch once again. favourite chasing and chowk ie boys. They expose them.

They spotte the to get their with a wooden victim (eunuc from the trying to for the two and thrashed. who had patta on kshaw drivers the cops int, the half an hour. when make strap youngsters ie extract The cops, the autoric ts lodge a compla lasted a goodonly around 3 pm, ErA the chowk patta though. Cops to the two said, “Why the tool, a leatherused by police to during FIR for spots oN CAm kicks. came to local residen be registered as It was Team talking uncle, spared the CAUgHT one of the cops that handle, often from criminals al uncle, will A es, slaps and maternal d. But incident cop goes and their want to side up with e.

Just then their matern they were release ama the crowd. do with punch gations.” confessions . One of the menac that fishy in the episode on s with a maafin further investi would you is nothing but a chowk ie THE ng something and return interrogation what if they signed two students He bACk oN was shooti are you doing? known chowk ie here. So eunuch. not before foCU s youngster inside the ade device, better assault es women letter). Theget out of the of the with the ne. “What He harass (apolog y get busy to EUNUCH joke?” one his cellpho the homem Fresh round of the cops this is a managed tells the focus their attackers While finally drivers You think s. Another one pm. is as the patta. begins. The auto who by 3.41 wearing eunuch chowk ie youngsters, the eunuch cops scream the youngster helpless on the eunuch ter, back to nab chowk ie’s pin the khakhi attention crowd to Just then, the youngs r, pain in the and cops one of the men in in n, ng anothe betwee still writhi blue shirt. evidently with down, whilewhips him. In s. pour it who was companion too follow water and repeatedly buckets of now has started scoots. The they bring , who by his body on the eunuch more places on from bleeding

toting a gun. It was not safe as children were around and also for the fact that was a setting a bad example for other party leaders. How can school children be a threat to him? When our political leaders always have a team of security officers protecting, there is no reason for the leader to carry firearms. When a situation arises, will they be able to use it? Are they trained? I think carrying a firearm adds to their glamour quotient of the and that’s the reason they carry a firearm to every event. Also, before condemning their colleagues, leaders should check what is happening in their own backyard.

I hope leaders realise and rectify their mistakes after reading articles which points out the mistakes they have made.

— Gagandeep Mitra

Colourful Elephant

The article ‘Find out what it takes to paint an elephant’ was insightful. I was unaware about the art of elephant

such articles in their issues.

— Deepak Khurana

Guns and politicians

painting and the colours used for it.

It was enlightening to know that the primary colours are made by using sugar and water and that sugar gives thickness and brightness to the colour. It must be a mammoth task to painting an elephant.

I can’t imagine the time, labour and litres of paint required to complete the task.

Nevertheless, it was an interesting read and TGS should come up with more

The article ‘Practice before you preach’ was an eye-opener. Girish Mahajan, Maharashtra’s Water Resources should not have walked into a school function toting a gun. It was not safe as children were around and also for the fact that was a setting a bad example for other party leaders. How can school children be a threat to him?

When our political leaders always have a team of security officers protecting, there is no reason for the leader to carry firearms. When a situation arises, will they be able to use it? Are they trained?

I think carrying a firearm adds to their glamour quotient of the and that’s the reason they carry a firearm to every event.

Also, before condemning their colleagues, leaders should check what is happening in their own backyard.

I hope leaders realise and rectify their mistakes after reading articles which points out the mistakes they have made.

— Priyesh Sonawane

Write to Us Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com, editor_tgs@gmail.com or mailed to The Editor, Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt Ltd, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030. The Best Letter of the Week will receive a special gift from Venus Traders, Pune’s finest stationery departmental.

SPORTS

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY APRIL 11, 2015

PUNE

“ Hopefully, more kids will see there’s a player of Indian descent on the court and we can get a couple more Indian NBA players.”

— Basketball player Gursimran ‘Sim’ Bhullar

Signposts Dalvi, Rana win Kundalika marathon Manoj Rana from and Sayuri Dalvi from Mumbai won the men’s and women’s title in the Kundalika River Half Marathon organised by Runbuddies.Club at Kolad, Raidgad district recently. A total of about 500 amateur runners from all across the state took part in the race, with an uphill elevation of 45 degrees, making the event as one of the toughest half marathons in the country.

“Le Mans is one of the greatest races in the world and my ambition to be the first Indian on the podium is still burning strongly within.”

— Indian racing driver Karun Chandhok

Fit Puneri Paltan optimistic this time Newly appointed Arjuna awardee coach Ashok Shinde aims semifinal berth in Pro Kabaddi League

NO WOMEN’S LEAGUE YET Introduction of women’s version was supposed to be the gradual progression after the unprecedented success of Pro Kabaddi League 2014. Even actor Abhishek Bachchan, who owns Jaipur Pink Panthers team, had announced about his plans to start a women’s kabaddi league. However, it seems that spectators will have to wait for another year.

“The organisers had expressed their plans for introducing such a league, but we haven’t heard anything yet. I doubt that the league will take place this season,” Shinde said.

Sampada, Satish to lead state team Pune’s Sampada Buchade and Thane’s Satish Nair will lead Maharashtra’s boys’ and girls’ teams respectively in the National Junior Athletics Meet to be held in Goa from April 16. The team was selected during the State Junior Athletics competition.

All India triathlon event on April 18 Pune District Triathlon Association (PDTA) and Deccan Gymkhana (DG) will jointly conduct the Pune Triathlon - first All India Invitational National Triathlon and Aquathlon Meet, powered by Scott Sports on April 18. The event will witness over 300 athletes from different parts of India. International medallist Pooja Chaurushi (Gujrat), national champion Tejashree Naik have confirmed their participation. Last day of registration is April 12. For details log on to www.punetriathlon.com.

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis.ashish With Pro Kabaddi League’s fi rst edition in 2014 bringing the sport’s glory back on field, Pune with its rich history of playing the contact game took part as Puneri Paltan.

The presence of top Indian coach Ramphal Kaushik and experienced Vazir Singh as captain failed to take the team to podium success. Puneri Paltan finished last with just two wins in 14 games.

With new coach Ashok Shinde and support staff, Puneri Paltan is training hard to make a mark in the league’s second season that will kickoff from July 2015.

Speaking to TGS, Shine said, “Injuries hampered Puneri Paltan’s

Puneri Paltan team (wearing red and blue jersey) could win only two of the 14 games played in the Pro Kabaddi League 2014 (File photo)

performance last year. The India. Kaushik, his predecessor, had bench strength was weak, so won the best coach award of Central Kaushik had no option but Industrial Security Force (CISF) in to experiment with injured 2011. players. Raiders played as “Unlike mud kabaddi defenders and it affected tournaments, this league demands the team’s game causing the more speed and endurance. team morale to dip.”

The contest’s tight schedule Shinde, an gives players less time Arjuna awardee to recover and injuries coach and selection occur during the c om m it t e e game. Hence, former member of Maharashtra Ranji Chhattrapati pl ay e r-t u r ne dAshok Shinde sports awards, physio Mahendra works with Air Gokhale and his

City’s Ironman Radkar aims to set up triathlon academy

Kaustubh Radkar bags the World Iron Man title in Triathlon for the 11th time, making him the first Indian to do so; plans to promote the sport in India TGS NEWS NETWORK @TGSWeekly

RADKAR’S PARTICIPATION IN IRONMAN EVENTS Arizona, USA in 2008 Penticton Subaro, Canade in 2009 Lake Placid, USA in 2010 Core D Allena, USA in 2011 Lake Placid, USA in 2012 Port Macquarie, Australia in 2013 (May) Wisconsin, USA in 2013 (Sept) Frankfurt, Germany in 2014 (July) Lankavi, Malaysia in 2014 (Sept) Fortaleza, Brazil in 2014 (Nov) Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 2015

Pune’s very own Kaustubh Radkar recently won 11th Ironman, one of the most grueling triathlon events in the world. He equaled the world record of winning the prestigious Ironman titles in six continents. He is the fi rst Indian and Asian to achieve this feat.

After his successful stint at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Radkar arrived in Pune recently. During the interactions, he said that he wants to pass on his experience to next generation and create more awareness about the sport.

“In India, triathlon event is not very popular and a few are aware of Ironman, which is widely popular all over the world. Therefore we are planning to initiate a triathlon academy at Deccan Gymkhana. The process is still in pipeline but we are trying to chalk out plans in near future,” he said.

Radkar is currently training a group of athletes that includes 18-year-old Shubham Kajale from Pune and three middle-aged athletes Anand Gangwal, Kshitij Belapure and Dhananjay Kavade. “Shubham will KNOW ABOUT IRONMAN An Ironman Triathlon is a series of long-distance triathlon races organised by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) consisting of 3.86km swimming, a 180.25km bicycle ride and a full marathon (42.2 km) run, raced in that order and without a break.

It is widely considered as one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world. Most Ironman events have a strict time limit of 17 hours to complete the race. Any participant who manages to complete the triathlon within these timings becomes an Ironman.

triathlon in Pune, regular tournaments should be organized. “We can start with mini-triathlon events to encourage the commoners and youngsters to take part in it. Deccan Gymkhana and Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi are a few good venues to conduct triathlon events, that include swimming, cycling and running,” he said.

He further added, “We need to follow the strict guidelines set

by World Triathlon Corporation.

We must keep roads vehicle free for 180km stretch for cycling and 42km for running. Such events can be held at Lavasa or Amby Valley.”

Kaustubh Radkar

participate in next year’s Ironman to be held in Taiwan. If he completes the event, he will be youngest Indian to do so,” said Radkar.

PROMOTING THE SPORT Radkar stated that to promote

FUTURE PLANS Radkar is just one step away from qualifying for the World triathlon championship. Any athlete, who completes 12 Ironman events, gets selected for the worlds. “Next year I am participating in an Ironman event in Zurich, where I am positive to give my best. If I win this event, I will be qualified for the World championship to be held in Hawai in 2017,” he said. Radkar also stated that he aims to finish at least 25 Ironman events before calling it off. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

team will focus on players’ fitness. A new team of dieticians, mental trainer and other support staff has also been appointed. Players will get facilities like any IPL cricketer,” said Shinde, who aims semifinal berth this season.

With Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) increasing the number of reserve players to 20, Shinde said that the new limit will give coaches ample options to experiment.

TEAM BUILDING According to the league contract, the team owners have to retain their players for at least three seasons but

Shinde hinted that players might lose their place on fitness ground.

“Our focus is on fitness as it was a major concern last year. We are not releasing any player but will not hesitate to replace any unfit one. We have conducted two fitness camps and will have another just before the tournament. Players have to work hard on their fitness,” he said.

TALENT HUNT Kabaddi has reached international level but it is basically a rural game.

Puneri Paltan’s talent hunt programmes in rural areas like Raigad, Sindhudurg and Marathwada is an effort in the right direction.

“We are looking for young promising kids whom we can train in the next two-three years. Some of them are already part of our fitness camps to acclimatise them with mat format and glamour quotient,” Shinde said. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com

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