The Golden Sparrow on Saturday 09/08/2014

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PUNE, AUGUST 9, 2014 | www.goldensparrow.com

SPORTS

CITY

PUNE’S PEOPLE WITH A PURPOSE

‘Making the sport creditable was a big task’ P 15

If we ignore rules, we will only have tragedies: Madhav Gadgil, ecologist P3

Transforming the lives of street children with education P2

Can they co-exist?

Signposts Rupee drops to five-month low The rupee was trading at a five-month low on Friday, dropping to 61.70 to a dollar, as foreign funds continued to sell their stocks and fresh concerns emerged over the situation in Iraq.

After plunging to its lowest level since March 5 with a drop of as much as 38 paise over the previous close, the rupee recovered a bit to 61.61 but the sentiments remained weak for the Indian currency.

Jaswant Singh hospitalised Former union minister Jaswant Singh was hospitalised after suffering a head injury, an official said Friday. “He (Singh) has sustained a head injury and has been admitted to the ICU,” said a doctor of the Army Research and Referral Hospital where the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was admitted early Friday.

Modi not our focus for Maha polls: Chavan

BY FP POLITICS Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who is on an overdrive to alter the public perception of his government, appears set to take on prime minister Narendra Prithviraj Chavan Modi. With the rebellion of senior Congress minister Narayan Rane now safely doused, and the issue of his own leadership of the state firmly settled by the high command, Chavan gave a series of interviews in which he did not shy away from taking on the former Gujarat chief minister.

The Maharashtra government is currently on an image-building blitzkrieg, with the idea for the publicity

overdrive having come from the former Gujarat government under Modi, whose aggressive campaigning and in-yourface publicity blitzkrieg ahead of the Lok Sabha elections is being seen by Congressmen as the key reason for the Modi wave.

But while his government may have taken a leaf from Modi’s book in preparation for the polls, the prime minister will not be the focus of the CongressNCP campaign for the assembly polls, the chief minister has said.

In an interview to Mint, Chavan said, “Modi is not going to be the chief minister of Maharashtra, so no question of him being made the focal point of our campaigning. We will go to the people with the work we have done in the past five years. We will tell the people, Maharashtra was the number one state and will maintain its numero uno status if we are voted back to power.”

Contd on p 10

RAHUL RAUT

As India changes, so does Rakshabandhan

Disha Deshmukh has been tying rakhi to her sister Durva (left) for the last five years

BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali Disha Deshmukh, a standard V student can’t wait for Sunday, August 10. It is the day when she will put on her new dress, make-up and most importantly, receive a gift of her choice.

This Rakshabandan, Disha is among

those many siblings who do not fret about not having a brother. She instead ties a rakhi to her elder sister Durva.

Traditionally, Rakshabandan is a festival that celebrates the love and bond between brothers and sisters. But today things have changed as sisters and single children have found novel ways to celebrate the festival.

Today sisters and single children have found ways to enjoy the festival “Disha was three when she walked up to me and asked, ‘Di, why don’t we have a brother? Everyone in her playschool had shared their celebrations on Rakshabandan and she was feeling left out. That is when I said, ‘I am here to protect you and am no less than a brother.’ So, since that year she has been religiously tying me a rakhi,” said Durva, a third year BCom student.

What Disha loves most about this festival is that “Durva-di gets me a gift of my choice. I mean it’s not my birthday or a special occasion but I still get to unwrap a gift.”

Contd on p 10

PHOTOMONTAGE BY THEREFORE DESIGN

SCIENCE superstition

Well-known scientist Dr Vijay Bhatkar clarifies his position on the ‘planchette controversy’ while praising Dr Narendra Dabholkar’s work. See Spotlight, P 13

Centre for Research in Consciousness planned Stung by the controversy generated by what he says is inaccurate reporting of his views, eminent computer scientist Dr Vijay Bhatkar has resolved to establish a worldclass Centre for Research in Consciousness in Pune.

This Centre will function under the ISpace India International Multiversity which he heads and will conduct research on the convergence of science and spiritualism.

A number of leading scientists from India and abroad will be associated with this centre, Dr Bhatkar said in an exclusive interview to The Golden Sparrow on Saturday. He said that such centres are being established in the United States, Europe and Russia.

“In fact, I want to conduct scientific research into the concept of ‘Swasamwedha’ and ‘Chaitanya Shakti’ as mentioned by Sant Dnyaneshwar in the Dnyaneshwari. This shall be the mission of my life from here on,” he said.

“This controversy has inspired me to start this centre. It will go into issues of consciousness, life after death,”

Dr Bhatkar said. He gave the analogy of a computer, where the hardware can be seen but not the software. Even if the hardware is destroyed, technology can be used to enable the data and the software to escape through wireless transmission and lodge in another computer.

“It is in this context that the Internet was created when the US thought that if the Russians bombed the Pentagon, then all the intelligence would be lost.

That was how the Internet protocol was born,” he noted. The research in consciousness will look into aspects of the soul, mind, meditation, life after death and other such issues. “Today science and spirituality are perceived separately; but the ancient Indian system of knowledge treats them as integral.

Science searches the nature of external reality. Spiritualism tries to search, who is it that is trying to search. ‘Science without spiritualism is half knowledge’. Swami Vivekananda expressed this thought for the first time in his Chicago talk that science and spiritualism must be pursued together,” he said.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

Garbage segregation begins at home P4

PUNE

“I feel that I have a reasonably good amount of money for all of which I don’t have much use. So I thought I should share it with my poorer countrymen .” - Sudha Murthy

Will new flyovers decongest roads?

P5

Canadian national Caroline Audoir de Valter’s organisation is changing the lives of domestic workers and their children

BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh When Canadian national Caroline Audoir de Valter took a break from her stressful corporate job in 2001 and came to India, little did she know that this country would become the base of her philanthropic work.

After her arrival, she travelled across the country and saw the grinding poverty.

“So many children on the streets, malnourished; it broke my heart. I found that India had 11 million street children back then. That was three times the population of Canada!” recalls Valter.

She began reaching out to NGOs in an effort to help, realising that scarcity of funds often roadblocked their good work. By 2006 she formalised this activity and founded Hope for the Children Foundation (HFCF) in Pune.

“The idea behind HFCF was simple. It was a way of reaching out to the underprivileged and to give others who want to ‘give’ the opportunity to do it – be it skills, money and time,” she said. HFCF works with the slum community in Wadgaonsheri and also supports other NGOs across Pune district.

The main focus of HFCF has always been nutrition, education and

humanitarian aid, including medical help and counselling, which are offered through various programmes. HFCF’s beneficiaries include women who are employed as domestic workers and their children, especially girls. Most of these women are single mothers (widowed or deserted) and some are HIV positive.

Shikshaki Asha is a flagship programme through which HFCF ensures that little girls go to school every day and most importantly stay in school. After school, the girls are given a wholesome meal at the HFCF centre and they are assisted in completing homework followed by playtime. Their mothers are given a free monthly ration comprising wheat, rice and pulses to encourage them to keep their children in school and out of child labour.

Valter believes that it is impossible to bring about any change in society until the mothers are empowered.

Under the Atma Nirbharata (self reliance) programme, women are given vocational training in candle/rakhi/diya making and tailoring. These products are marketed by HFCF as fund raising activities. In an effort to encourage those willing to learn, HFCF also conducts adult literacy classes.

Enterprising women are given micro-finance to start their own

RAHUL RAUT

Bringing smiles to the underprivileged

Valter believes that it is impossible to bring about any change in society until the mothers are empowered

Through Shikshaki Asha, the programme of HFCF founded by Caroline Audoir de Valter (right), efforts are made to ensure that needy girls go to school every day

businesses. Some women have improved their monthly earnings substantially and are engaged in catering, pickle making and tailoring or have opened beauty parlours and petty shops.

“We learn from grassroots experience and behind every programme there is a story, a person,” Valter said. HFCF has a new programme called Disha Darshan aimed

at career counselling and guidance for older children, which will also include training for office management.

Running an NGO is no child’s play and Valter faces a daily battle. From getting volunteers, raising funds, to bureaucratic red tape, the challenges are many. But she is unfazed. “I believe in my work and the challenges we face make us learn.”

Transforming the lives of street children with education

BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal

Class XII. Some are pursuing BCom, technical education, computer courses, nursing and other streams. One of the HIV affected girls has passed her fashion designing course and has got a job. Another boy is now an account in a well-known brand in Phoenix Market City.”

Helping Sarva Seva Sangh are organisations like Railway Protection Force, AFMC, YMCA, NAARI, SAARTHI and Women and Children Commissionerate.

neighbourhood is to form a reading group of a minimum of 35 members, including a volunteer who will take the responsibility of the ‘Granth In 2004, 49-year-old Vinayak Ranade met with an Peti’ (trunk containing 100 books). The facility can accident on the Pune-Mumbai highway that left be started online also and the ‘Granth Peti’ will be him critically injured. Bedridden for 18 months, rotated among the library service groups.

Ranade thought about the importance of books The initiative attracts donation that helps in and how they should be made available at the increasing the number of books and readers. doorstep for those who love reading.

Ranade travelled widely to ensure His vision turned into reality in the the success of this initiative. After form of the ‘Granth Tumchya Dari’ completing his diploma in printing (books at your doorstep) initiative by technology from Pune, he started a Nashik-based Kusumagraj Pratishthan. printing press in Nashik where he was Launched in Nashik in 2009, associated with the noted Marathi the Pratishthan collected `5 lakh in writer Kusumagraj. donations in two years and now has 500 “The accident changed my outlook trunks of books on various subjects in towards life. Instead of spending time in Marathi and English, worth `1 crore. making money, I engrossed myself into The initiative is a huge success in and Vinayak Ranade spreading awareness about reading and outside of Maharashtra. After a launch in its advantages. I realised that the habit Dubai, the organisation plans to extend of reading can be developed if books the facility to the US, Thailand and Japan. reach people on their doorstep,” he said.

The Pratishthan plans to reach out to working professionals who can join ‘Maze Granthalaya’ archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com (my library) for free and receive books on their doorstep. The organisation will start this facility in FOR BOOK LOVERS: Mumbai and Pune. The library service is available www.gtdkusumagraj.org or contact at 70 places in Pune.

9922225777, 9850611861 All one needs to start such a service in their RAHUL RAUT

“These children suffer from despair and low selfesteem and do not respond to normal patterns.”

GET IN TOUCH HFCF conducts an annual charity week from August 15-24. If you wish to volunteer call 27032015

Started in 2009, Kusumagraj Pratishthan’s ‘Granth Tumchya Dari’ has a vast collection of 500-trunk full of books and more readers

RAHUL RAUT

Unable to bear the physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his alcoholic father, 12-yearold Salman ran away from home in Paharganj in New Delhi and boarded a train. He reached Pune railway station, which became his home.

Six-year-old Shyam and his 10-year-old brother Ravi are staying at Sarva Seva Sangh for the past couple of months, whilst their mother begs for alms at the Pune railway station. They both dream of leading a life of respect, and the social centre is helping them realise it.

Father Babu Kakkaniyil is the director of Sarva Seva Sangh, a registered charitable society involved in the education, empowerment and rehabilitation of needy children. Started in Father Babu Kakkaniyil with the children staying at the Sarva Seva Sangh 1978, the organisation started focusing on the rehabilitation of parents. beginning. Some even run street children The Sarva away from our home. But from 1996. Over Seva Sangh when they return, they bring 1,600 street provides shelter with them more children. After children, including for 36 children, all, there is always food and some affected by while others bed waiting for them,” Father HIV/AIDS, and have been put Kakkaniyil said. children of CSWs up at different The organisation aims to help are being supported hostels across the these children find a purpose in by the Sangh. city. life. They are encouraged to get The children “ T h e s e an education and are provided the Sangh is children suffer books, clothes, food, shelter and helping, were from despair medicine. The Sangh has also ragpickers and and low selflaunched a mobile school for garbage collectors, esteem and do children at slums, pavements and or working at street not respond to construction sites. Besides the - Fr BABU KAKKANIYIL vendors or begging normal patterns. school, the Sangh also provides on the streetside.

We try to tuitions.

The children live They are children motivate them together as a family. who have left home due to abusive and teach the basics of personal Father Kakkaniyil said, parents, extreme deprivation and hygiene. Used to an independent “One of our students scored poverty, while some among them way of life on the streets, they 88.6 per cent in Class X and have been abandoned by their refuse to be disciplined in the another secured 78 per cent in

the centre are visible testimony to the commitment and hard work of Valter and her team. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com

Free books at your doorstep

Sarva Seva Sangh provides refuge and is trying to secure a life of respect for shelterless kids

BY BARNALEE HANDIQUE @ barnalee

“People in India are generous, but we must use those funds properly and win their trust,” she said, referring to controversies of mismanaged funds surrounding many NGOs. HFCF sends reports to all their donors, and invites them to the centre, to see the work for themselves and participate in its activities.

The happy faces that one sees at

barnalee.handique@goldensparrow.com Sarva Seva Sangh Vadgoansheri, Pune-411014 Call: 27031733 Email: sarvaseva@gmail .com

Staff and students of Seva Sadan School at Kothrud are using the free library facility of Kusumagraj Pratishthan. The organisation covers various schools across the state

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

PUNE

Pune is one of the fastest growing urban agglomerations in Asia. Population grew by a whopping 62.17 per cent between 1991 and 2001.

‘Blogs help you share experiences’ P6

‘City has old charm, needs better roads, cleanliness’ P7

‘If we ignore rules, we will only have tragedies’ ...says renowned ecologist Madhav Gadgil. In conversation with Manasi Saraf Joshi, he pinpointed the major factors that caused the Malin landslide

Madhav Gadgil

TGS NEWS SERVICE @GargiManasi Terming the Malin village landslide as unfortunate, noted ecologist Madhav Gadgil has blamed improper human intervention, wrongful implementation of the laws and a disregard of the rules of the land for this tragedy.

Malin village was swept away under a landslide on July 30, claiming over 150 lives.

In an interview to The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, Gadgil who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, said, “it is imperative for the government to include the local village people living in eco-sensitive zones while conserving such areas. The tragedy could have been averted if the government had not allowed windmills to come up in the forest region and banned the use of machinery like JCBs for levelling of the ground and other construction activity. Cultivation on the hillsides is not new to us, it has been an old tradition to cultivate on slopes,” he said, adding that the residents of Malin who belonged to the Mahadev Koli sect, were rehabilitated as their lands were taken for the dam construction.

They are traditionally forest dwellers and should have been given a right over

the forest produce as per the Forest Right Act 2005. However, instead of helping them in making their lives safe, the government completely ignored this fact and allowed the use of machinery for land cultivation and creating terraces without proper guidance. The fraudulent means which were used to keep a hold on the village and suppression of the villagers is also one of the reasons for the tragedy, he said.

In fact the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution

have granted various rights to gram sabhas/panchyats for planning the economy of a village in tune with nature. Unfortunately, it is seen that government machinery ignore this fact, putting to risk their lives and property.

According to the ecologist, the Malin region is not prone to landslides, as what happened in Uttarakhand.

“What we had anticipated while preparing the report on the Western ghats was soil erosion and landslide, but never human loss,” Gadgil said.

He said his committee’s report on the Western Ghats was completely ignored and presented wrongly before the people living in ecological zones creating a false picture. The Marathi summary by the government twisted the report completely. Similarly, the locals were provoked against the committee, saying that the committee was imposing various restrictions on them, when “in fact our entire recommendation was to include the local people fully while planning and monitoring the development in this region,” Gadgil said.

He noted that the roads constructed in the areas too had contributed to disturbing the natural infrastructure of these regions. manasisaraf@gmail.com

NDRF calls off rescue mission at Malin

NDRF personnels, carrying out the rescue operations at the landslide-affected Malin village

BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke The Pune district administration and National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) have called off the week-long rescue and relief operation at the landslide-hit Malin village in Ambegaon taluka.

The final death count was put as 151, with nine survivors.

Of the total village population, only 38 have survived, including five elderly women, the Pune district administration said. A total of 94 women and 87 men were killed in the landslide. The bodies of five persons were not recovered but their body parts were found. A total of 40 families were affected; 56 houses and cowsheds damaged and 72 farms and fields damaged in the tragedy.

Retired school teacher stands tall Retired school teacher Devram Dhavale did yeoman service as he consoled the bereaved and oversaw the post-mortem process at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Adivare village.

Dhavale, a resident of Asane village, lost his sister, three nephews and niece in the incident. He said two members of the family were missing. “But the villagers need me and I am here,” he said.

Dhavale had taught in many Zilla Parishad schools located in the backwaters of Dimbhe reservoir. “I was posted at the Malin school for 15 years and many, who died in the landslide, were my students,” he added. Known as Dhavale Guruji, he said that people from the village, including his relatives, have always sought his advice while undertaking important tasks.

He helped the villagers make a list of the missing persons, their properties and livestock. He also helped Pune Rural Police prepare Panchanama reports.

“The school had 28 students from the village. All of them were killed and now, there only the building remains,” he said.

gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com

Tale of survivors

Bank of Maharashtra executive director RK Gupta (4th from right) and general manager (resource planning) S Bharatkumar (3rd from left) flagged off a vehicle with relief material donated by the bank for Malin villagers

Manthan Awards laud innovation

Facebook Dindi team receives The Manthan Award (South West India) in the ‘e-Culture and Tourism’ category from Pandurang Taware, agro tourism specialist

PRACHI BARI @prachibari The Manthan Awards, which acknowledge the best practices in e-content, creativity, innovation and development, were presented in the city on Thursday. Of the 207 entries, 30 were selected for the awards in 15 categories.

Maharashtra won two awards in eBusiness and Finance Inclusion categories, including the entrepreneurial Finance Lab and PriceKart’s Magical Savings Google Chrome Extension, while Offeradda won in Community Broadcasting. In the category of district collector digital champion, Colis emerged the winner and in eNGO category Responsible Netism and Positive Saathi were the winners. In e Culture and tourism, Facebook Dindi were the youngest winners.

PREXAM.com and BalaeeKosh led the way in E Education, Learning and Empowerment while Chakra View won in e-entertainment and Games.

In the catergory of eGovernance, Maharashtra made a clean sweep with Sarathi leading the award board followed by Aam

Aadmi Beema Yojana, and Virtualisation. In e Inclusion and localisation, Ek Mukta won, while Poochh won in the social media category and SOS Stay Safe won in the eWomen and Empowerment category. Osama Manzar, founder and director, Digital Empowerment Foundation said, “Ever since the Manthan Awards were instituted in 2004 under the framework of World Summit on Information Society, it has given birth to several more entities.”

Dr Vijay Bhatkar who was a chief guest at the Award function, said, “Manthan Awards are important and though late, it is great to see it take place in Pune which is the seat of innovations. These awards are sort of a new wave and recognition from them means that young innovators are challenged further to create and innovate.”

Dr Srikar Pardeshi, Inspector General of Registration and Controller of Stamps, was happy to have won the Award for Sarathi.

“We are very happy that citizens have supported Sarathi widely and it has become a lifeline for many. This award is like the icing on the cake.” prachibari@gmail.com

The partially damaged house of Malin village, which became symbol of Malin landslide tragedy, belonged to 54 year old Raghunath Zanjare. Zanjare who works as a peon in a Manchar school escaped the tragedy as he was at school. He said the survivors were now concerned about their rehabilitation. He plans to remain at the village for another week to

retrieve his possessions from under the debris.

Temporary shelter has been created for the survivors at the Ashram Shala (school) at the neighbouring Asane village. An elderly couple, Sonabai and Bhimrao Ankush, whose house was saved in the landslide, said while they did not lose any relatives in the tragedy, their paddy fields were washed away.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

My little Chini’s rakhis P8

Signposts Gujarat focuses on tourist trade

Third Sahitya Gaurav Sammelan today

45th National Sanskrit Day City-based Sanskrit organisations have organised a function to celebrate the 45th National Sanskrit Day today at 4pm at Namdeo Sabhagriha of Pune University. To participate, contact Madhav Kelkar on 9422361995, Tushar Bhat on 9890093144, Shyamala Barve on 9922488790 or Pranav Gokhale on 9405923210.

India needs merit-based recruitment

The military recruitment quota of the under-subscribed states should be pegged at their current contribution

BY COL RAMESH DAVESAR (RETD) India with its religious, cultural and linguistic diversities is the only nation following the true tenets of secularism.

Likewise, the Indian Armed Forces is perhaps the sole institution truly symbolising our national culture, where people from all religions and the regions, while preserving their ethnic identities, are serving the nation as one cohesive unit. The armed forces have been very rightly called ‘mini India’.

The sole credit goes to the ageold and the time-tested military ethos imbibed by the soldiers right from their recruitment and further reinforced during the service. Over time, the armed forces, particularly the Army, in order to meet the social demands and also to achieve tacit political agenda, have undergone several changes in recruitment processes, during the preand-post-Independence period.

For example, the British, among other compulsions as also to keep the country divided on communal lines, had followed the concept of ‘Fixed Class Composition’, i.e. the various units and the regiments composed of particular caste/religion/region e.g., Sikh, Kumaon, Madras, Rajput and the Baluch Regts. This concept had its own merits and demerits.

After Independence, in order to broadbase representation and to give equal opportunity to all citizens, particularly the under-represented sections, but also to fulfill the abstruse agenda of diluting the representation of some communities, the then government enacted a new recruitment policy.

While maintaining the status quo of pre-Independence raisings, the

Keeping the forces and the national interests in mind, there is an inescapable need to review the current policy and revive ‘merit-based military recruitment’

concept of ‘All India All Class Composition’ was introduced in 1949 for subsequent raisings, thus implying the units would have ‘mixed class culture’; the raisings of the Infantry Regiments such as, the Brigade of Guards and the Mahar Regiments are a cases in point. Going a step ahead, during seventies, the states were allotted the recruitment quota in proportion to their recruitable male population (RMP), which resulted in drastic reduction in recruitment of a

few entities particularly the Sikhs.

Though the current policy strives for equal representation to all sections, at the same time it is fraught with serious fallouts. Leave alone ensuring parity, it has imposed avoidable injunctions on the deserving sections, implying that it is no longer a ‘merit based’ selection.

In other words it is the “reservation based” recruitment which suffers from the inherent disadvantage of

During the 70s, states were allotted the recruitment quota

Are we responsible citizens?

Garbage segregation begins at home

BY PRACHI BARI @prachibari Home-maker Vaishali Patkar has set a fine example on segregation of dry and wet garbage at home. As president of the Aundh Vikas Mandal (AVM) and chairman of Aundh Mohalla Commitee, she has turned her society around on the garbage segregation front.

A resident of Rohan Nilay-2, Aundh Road, Patkar is a core member of the National Society for Clean Cities, and has been working on creating awareness on this front. When she shifted to this society some six years ago, she was surprised that segregation was not practised there.

It took Patkar a week to convince the chairman and secretary and even

needed to cite a few separate waste bins and examples. She invited given it to all the owners Dr Rajendra Joshi, for collection of dry and Sanitation Inspectors wet garbage. The children and even the Zonal of the society too are Commissioner Vijay now aware of what is bioDahibhate to interact degradable waste and the and discuss about ill effects of plastic bags. segregation of waste.

In the forthcoming “It was difficult meeting of the society, at first to get full Patkar plans to introduce support from all the 60 different bins for collecting occupied flats from the soiled diapers and sanitary 78 flats but slowly after napkins thus helping the training, showing and collection team better.

- Vaishali Patkar constantly talking “We need to begin about segregation to the segregation at home the maids and flat only then can we help the owners, we managed to bring about a society on a whole,” she says. change,” states Patkar.

The society has invested in a prachibari@gmail.com

“It was difficult at first to get full support from all the 60 occupied flats.”

Letters to the Editor

TGS is interactive Our newspaper is interactive and you are welcome to write in to our various segments: • Letters to the Editor, email: editor_tgs@ goldensparrow.com; editor_tgs@gmail.com by post: The Editor, The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, 16411 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030, (Best letter gets a weekly prize) • Articles for the Relationships page relationships@ goldensparrow.com, relationships.tgs@gmail.com • The Way Forward with compassion & hope wayforward@ goldensparrow.com • Want to become an entrepreneur? For mentoring advice, write to our associates: mentoring@pune.tie.org • Get weekly events listed: listings.tgslife@gmail.com

compromising the quality. It must be remembered that unlike other services there are certain attributes which factor the military recruitment such as the family/community traditions, the individual motivation/willingness and the availability of desired physical robustness/fitness standards amongst certain classes.

It is due to these reasons that the states like Maharashtra, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal have been amongst the major catchment areas for recruitment. But the biggest casualty are Punjabis particularly the Sikhs who in spite of negligible a 2 per cent population share, have been leading the

recruitment in the armed forces. Their one time contribution of 30 per cent has now shrunk to just 15 per cent.

Conversely, bereft of these supporting factors Muslims with a 15 per cent population, have an appalling intake of just 2.5 per cent in the forces. Not only has the current policy affected the operational efficiency, but it has further imbalanced the already understaffed forces. As if the officers’ shortfall was not enough, the forces are now confronted with a serious deficiency of 32,431 “personnel below officer’s rank (PBOR) in the Army, 14,310 in the Air Force and 7000 in the Navy.

Additionally, deprived of job opportunities, the youth from the “catchment areas” are resorting to unlawful activities; amidst the fear of them joining anti-national ventures!

Once again the worst affected is none other than Punjab, where ‘drug peddling’ and the looming threat of revival of militancy is a consequential manifestation of unemployment.

Therefore keeping the forces and the national interests in mind, there is an inescapable need to relook the current policy and revive the “merit based recruitment” on all India basis.

The recruitment quota of the undersubscribed states should be pegged at their current contribution and the shortfall should be distributed among the “catchment area states” particularly the Punjab. Subsequently it should be rationalised keeping in view the states’ wise availability of qualified youth.

Also, in order to improve the Muslims’ representation, concerted efforts should be made, both by the government and the Muslim fraternity, to motivate muslim youth to join the armed forces.

RAHUL RAUT

Sahitya Gaurav Sanstha has organised the third Sahitya Gaurav Sammelan today at 4 pm, at Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad Hall, Tilak Road. The function will be inaugurated by the editor of Pune Post, Manohar Sonawane, while renowned poet Anjali Kulkarni will preside. Journalist Swapnil Pore, Prof. Suhasini Deshpande, Prabha Sonawane, Jayashree Bapat, Jayashree Kulkarni, Dr Indu Pandye, Kamal Paranjape and Madhavi Kavi will be felicitated on the occasion, informed Maghana Ghanekar.

“English is the new caste system. Half Girlfriend explores this aspect of our society today.”

—Chetan Bhagat on his new book ‘Half Girlfriend’

IANS (PIC FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY)

Tourism Corporation of Gujarat limited (TCGL) is offering a variety of packages to attract more tourists. Speaking at a press conference in the city recently, TCGL resident manager (Mumbai) Santan Pancholi said that the tourist oriented programmes will cover Gujarat’s flora and fauna, tribal culture, traditions, cuisine, handicrafts, wild life and fairs.

The Gujarat government has invested around Rs 65 crore and has joined hands with hoteliers and tour guide operators to promote the state as a tourist spot. The major events organised in Gujarat are Tarnetar Fair (August 29-31) and Navrati Festival (September 25-October 3).

Pancholi said, “Gujaratis celebrate 12,000 festivals in a year.”

TCGL is promoting the ‘The Saputara Monsoon Festival’. Saputara is located in Dang district on the Sahyadri Ranges. The hill station is known for its climate and natural beauty.

The two-night Rs 5000 per person Surat Monsoon Package Tour will cover sites like Eco point, Wagha Bari, Step garden, artistic village, Log hut, Saputara museum, Saputara Lake, Sunset point and ropeway. The one-day Rs 490 per person Dangs tribal tour will take one to Mahal forest, Shabridham, Waghai, Gira falls, Vansda.

Simply chocolicious!

P9

PUNE

Vaishali Patkar explaining the importance of segregating wet and dry garbage

editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com

Israel – Palestine conflict: Who is the real terrorist?

The on-going Israel - Palestinian confl ict has become a point of discussion today with many people commenting that they are trying to put forward a “neutral point of view” on their analysis of this confl ict. In my view it is very difficult to put forward a neutral viewpoint of this confl icthow can I not strongly feel about the plight of Palestinians in West bank and Gaza?

One may ask the question, who is the real terrorist?

Those who are being oppressed or the oppressors? An entire population of 6.5 million exists without access to water and is being termed terrorist.

Those who are denying them this access are being called a democratic and liberal state. Is bombing the world’s most densely populated city not terrorism?

Is the bombing of schools kids, denial of rights of food, shelter, freedom, and fair law, equal treatment not terrorism?

If after 2000 years Jews can have the right to return to their homeland, why can’t Palestinians have the same right?

Palestinian have accepted that 80% of

IOA officials tarnish India’s image at Glasgow

the land can remain with Jews and the rest 20% can be allocated to them, and allow their own people to come back who are in exile. What do you expect people to do when their children are bombed, when they are denied water and food; when their homes are taken away? Every citizen has the right to fight whosoever tries to exterminate them.

I accept the existence of Israel unlike many, but feel that is the duty of Israelis to give up the national policy of hatred.

It is now time for them to come forward with a peaceful solution and restore faith in humanity.

-Sachin Bahad (Bahad gets the prize for best letter of the week)

Now we have the unedifying and shameful episode of the IOA general secretary and wrestling official arrested for being involved in drunk driving and sexual assault in Glasgow during the Commonwealth Games. Th is is the result of persons muscling into prominent positions, sponsored by politicians and other interested parties.

These are serious crimes and attract stiff punishment unlike in our country which is very lenient in such cases. Why should the country’s envoy intercede on their behalf? Let them stew in their own juice for their follies. On their return they should be removed from their posts and punished severely for their misdemeanours which have brought shame to our country.

- Shanmugam Mudaliar

Disappointed with service at SBI Yerawada Banks are financial institutions and

all the monetary transactions made in these institutions are with supporting documents which serve also as evidence.

From time immemorial, starting from Paying Slip, requisition/application for DD, MT, PO or NEFT when presented to the bank, the account holders get a counterfoil with the seal of the bank, which could also be termed as ‘acknowledgement’. Now, it seems, with computerisation and with comfortable working atmosphere, the staff working in the bank are in the habit of neglecting their duties and/or responsibilities. My experience at SBI, Yerawada Branch, Pune, next to Hermes Heritage II & III CHS Ltd., Shastrinagar, was disappointing. Many banks nowadays do not put acknowledgement stamp on the counterfoil while depositing cheques. If the bank does not want to give the counterfoil, why is the slip provided with counterfoil? I think, doing away with the practice of giving the counterfoil to the account holder is not a good idea. The SBI Yeravada Branch, inaugurated in the fi rst week of April 2014, is still being run with

insufficient staff and it seems the branch manager is yet to be posted. The ATM of the bank situated at the other end of the commercial block is yet to be made functional.

Hope the authorities concerned would please look into this to improve the service by the bank to its customers.

- R.Nambiar

Write to Us Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow. com or mailed to 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.

CITY

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

PUNE

Two-wheeler riders have become most vulnerable to accidents in Pune, according to CIRT because of the high number of vehicles and absence of a mass transportation system

Get things done or lose mandate: Why Modi’s power strategy is wrong

Corralling carbon before it erupts

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Will new flyovers decongest roads?

With city vehicle population crossing the 30-lakh mark, work has begun on five new flyovers. But environmentalist Ranjit Gadgil feels flyovers alone are not the solution PIX BY ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

OFFICIAL VIEW Additional city engineer (projects and traffic) Shrinivas Bonala said that flyovers and underpasses will ease traffic in Pune city. There are more than 30 lakh vehicles on the roads according to the RTO. “For want of bypass roads, the traffic that is supposed to move outside the city limits, passes through the city aggravating the traffic congestion. PMC and other government bodies are planning to build flyovers, railway overbridges and underpasses to ease the increasing traffic congestion,” he said.

GADGIL SAYS (Clockwise from above) The upcoming flyover projects at Swargate, Gadital (Hadapsar), at COEP and on Satara Road (Dhankawdi area)

BY PRACHI BARI @prachibari Work on several new flyovers has begun in the city to ease traffic congestion.

Flyover construction is already under way on Satara Road (near Shankar Maharaj Math) in Dhankawdi area and three have been planned near the College of Engineering, Pune, (COEP) — starting from Wakdewadi to COEP Chowk; from COEP gate to Sangamwadi and COEP Chowk to Sancheti Hospital Chowk — and work for another flyover has began at Swargate.

Work on flyover at Dhayari Phata is complete. It is built over a canal and connects Nanded City to Dhayari Phata.

Construction began in 2011 and the flyover cost `30.12 crore.

The Hadapsar–Saswad Phata flyover at Gadital is partially complete, while work on

flyover that connects Saswad is underway.

PMC road department officials say that the flyover is 60 per cent complete and should be complete by October 2014. This flyover that costs `24.7 crore was stuck in litigation over a Hadapsar police station land dispute. The collector then alloted substitute land.

The contractor of the Ahilya Devi Chowk flyover, J Kumar, claims that it will ease traffic congestion at this busy intersection. The 1,300-metre bridge is constructed on a single column from the centre of the road with approaches on both sides. The upper part is 16 metres wide and six metre in height. This flyover is 50 per cent complete and is expected to be opened by the end of this year or in early 2015.

The COEP flyover comes under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and has been allotted a budget of `2,248 crore. About 95 per cent of this has been utilised. Three flyovers have

been planned under this scheme and work is underway. PMC additional city engineer Vivek Kharwadkar said that this project will be completed in three stages: the first from the Sangam bridge to Shoppers Stop is 890 metres long, the second stage is a 390 metres from Shoppers Stop to COEP, and the third stage is 380 metres, from COEP to Sancheti Hospital. This project costing around `68 crore will be completed in four years.

Maharashtra State Road and Development Corporation Ltd (MSRDCL) is constructing the flyover at Swargate junction (Jedhe Chowk). The cost of the project includes a vehicular underpass and a pedestrian underpass and is estimated to cost `157.85 crore. The project will be completed by December 2015. The flyover is 1,416 metres long and work has begun at the Laxmi Narayan theatre venue.

Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has been assigned

the Integrated Road Development Project in Pune Metropolitan Region. This `260-crore project includes 33 works, including six road improvement works, nine railway overbridges, widening of a railway overbridge, two river overbridges and 15 flyovers.

Janwani programme director and environmentalist Ranjit Gadgil said, “Flyovers are built to ease vehicular congestion at an intersection.

Fundamentally, this is the wrong approach to solving congestion because unless growth of cars and two-wheelers is addressed, the flyovers will become ineffective soon. Flyovers also make roads less safe for pedestrians, cyclists and disrupt the bus system, encouraging people to use their own vehicles and worsening the problem. Money spent on flyovers could be used to improve junction design, signals, improving facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. Worldwide, cities committed to improving the urban environment are demolishing flyovers and elevated highways and replacing them with parks, gardens and public spaces with great success.”

prachibari@gmail.com

Finally, bomb disposal squad gets top gear

2. Which college has Aakash Shah studied at?

3. What are the ground rules Sarita Brar follows in chocolate-making?

4. Who is the brain behind HFCF? 5. What is the name of the journal that states people in long-distance relationships often have stronger bonds?

6. Which serial directed by Smita Talwalkar catapulted actor Mrunal Kulkarni to fame?

7. What is the most important for singer Taylor Swift?

8. Which mood board theme is interior designer Roheena Nagpal working on?

9. Which are Karun Chandhok’s favourite books?

10. Which is Nivedita Saboo’s favourite holiday destination?

Contest # 7 winners 1. Pramil Cherukandan 2. Vipin Tembhare

Bakery bomb blast had also highlighted this issue.

It’s also remarkable if not shocking that BDDS personnel had no other option but to wear riding helmets and ineffective protective gear during the bomb defusing operation during the JM Road blasts incident on August 1, 2012.

The lack of gloves has also been a glaring oversight of the powers that be in ensuring the anti-bomb

squad personnel’s wellbeing. The suit procured after the Mumbai terror attacks were found to be sub-standard and were returned to the manufacturer. Now, after an inexcusable delay though it may be, the BDDS has finally received standard protective gear for its personnel. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com

Shiv Sena likely to concede Vadgaonsheri seat to RPI

With this issue

RPI corporator Dr Sidharth Dhende enjoys popular support in Ahmednagar Road area because of his medical practice ASHOK BHAT @ashok_bhat With the assembly election date to be announced soon, political parties in the city have begun finalising candidates. While the City Congress has asked for applications from aspithe Dr Sidharth Dhende rants, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has so far interviewed 84 applicants.

The Shiv Sena has an alliance with the BJP and Republican Party of India (RPI) for the 2014 assembly polls. With the RPI fielding a strong candidate in Vadgaonsheri, this seat is likely to be conceded by the Sena to the

RPI. Of the eight assembly seats in Pune city, the BJP had contested from Kasba, Shivajinagar, Parvati and Khadakwasla, and the Sena from Kothrud, Hadapsar, Cantonment (Reserve) and Vadgaonsheri seat in the 2009 polls.

The RPI joined the BJP-Sena alliance before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and BJP offered the Rajya Sabha seat of Prakash Javadekar to Ramdas Athawale of RPI. It is now the Sena’s turn to give a seat to RPI. Leaders of BJP and Sena have more or less accepted that the reserved seat in the Cantonment will be offered to RPI. Dr Sidharth Dhende is the only RPI corporator in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). He was elected for the second time from the open ward of Nagapure Chal panel.

Dhende’s medical practice has helped him win support.

In the forthcoming election, he

could represent the party from the Vadgaonsheri open constituency.

Dhende said that he is banking on the social network that he has developed in Ahmednagar Road area. “With the help of my supporters and alliance partners, we can win in Vadgaonsheri on any symbol,” he said.

He said that RPI is likely to contest on an independent symbol.

Like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), RPI candidates in the state are demanding one symbol on top priority.

Shiv Sena city chief Ajay Bhosale had earlier contested from Vadgaonsheri even though he is not a voter of that constituency but belongs to the Cantonment reserve constituency. Faced with an uphill battle in the assembly polls, the BJP – Sena combine is likely to concede the Vadgaonsheri seat to a qualified RPI candidate. enews.mediasurvices@gmail.com

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In the issue ON TH EI N

1. What has blogger Varun Venkit studied academically?

duties. Being of ancient vintage, the protective suit was also in a deplorable run-down condition due to wear and tear. And the lack of helmets meant that BDDS were forced to wear riding helmets during their assignments.

The 26/11 Mumbai terror incident brought the need for premium protective gear for antibomb squads into prime focus.

Before that the 2010 German

ON TH ER E

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 three lucky winners to receive gift coupons.

Pune city’s Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) has finally received a premium quality protective suit for its personnel.

Made in Canada, the protective apparel will ensure that the BDDS staff assigned to defusing bombs will be protected from injuries due to splinters, fire and shrapnel

resulting from bomb blasts. The cost of the suit has run into a few lakh of rupees, it is said.

Meanwhile, the suit used till now by the BDDS was procured by the state home department 18 years ago, and was largely ineffective in providing adequate protection.

Besides, the anti-bomb personnel were not provided helmets either, and were at extreme risk while undertaking their hazardous

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No. 8

BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke

(PIC FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE)

TGS Quiz Contest

Mindnumbing

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Beyond roti bhaji

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

Take public grievances online P 14

Distance makes love grow stronger and deeper P8

Europe is likely to be the first region of the world to unleash the true power of the Cloud as an estimated 95% businesses in Europe are SMEs

City Blogger Of The Week

‘Blogs help you share experiences’

Clinical psychologist and percussionist, Varun Venkit, tells Ishani Bose how blogging helps him communicate his ideas

He is a percussionist, clinical psychologist, drum circle facilitator, professor and the man behind Taal Inc, an organisation that aims to positively influence health and well being through rhythm, music and art.

These are the many facets of the life of Varun Venkit. However, not many know of his love for blogging.

“My life is an experiment. I believe in things which are not conventional and my blogs portray just that. My blog reflects how in a simple way, I’m working towards achieving good health and well being through Taal Inc,” says Varun.

His blog traces his journey over the years, especially Taal that was launched around 2003, when Venkit was in college and drumming was just a way of having fun. He started playing with a couple of bands in Pune and soon decided to set it up as a proprietorship.

“I’m trying to find an answer as to how drumming as a medium can help a person be more healthy. Drumming has physiological benefits. It has an effect on brain waves, and it plays a vital role in reducing stress. One will get to read all of that in my blog,” he says.

Apart from the health benefits that drumming has to offer, his blog also talks about the three basic objectives that Taal Inc looks to achieve: to conduct drum circles, teach djembe to children and a larger audience and perform as a band. “ In the drum circle activity, my role is essentially that of a psychologist. We organise

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

TGS NEWS SERVICE @ishani_bose

drum circles for children, alcohol and drug addicts, commercial sex workers etc and the activity tends to become more serious and therapeutic, depending on the group I’m working with. My blog also covers my experiences of conducting these sessions,” he says.

Some of Venkit’s blog posts are also travelogues. For instance, his blogpost, ‘Of Rhythms and More’, talks about his experience in Mexico. He has also written about his travel experiences to various countries such as Africa, Bali etc.

One of his blogposts, ‘Sambhal ani Gondhal’, which is a five-part series, speaks about the amalgamation of different cultures and music. “Like every rhythm in West Africa has a story and relevance, Sambhal ani Gondhal has a story of its own, which presents a very strong inclination to our own culture,” he says.

Venkit who teaches West African drumming at the Symbiosis Centre for Liberal Arts, got his students to do a presentation on the same Being a blogger for several years, Venkit believes that it is the best medium to share one’s

ideas. “My blog has helped people understand the spirit of what we are doing. Nowadays everything has to be put in advertisements and made attractive in order to get one’s attention, but blogs help you to share your experiences in the most natural way and present them just the way they happened,” he says.

Blogging, Venkit agrees, also acts as a first step to academic writing. “Over the last one year, I have done a lot of academic writing. I have written two chapters for the Oxford text book, which will be launched next year.

I also do a lot of research work on drumming and its impact on health and one of my papers has been published in the Canterbury Christ Church University on Arts and Health. Blogging surely helps you write regularly, apart from sharing wonderful life changing experiences with the world,” he says. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com

Witty bios are the rage on Twitter Twitter has taken bios to a whacky level. Three young men posted funny, quirky and unusual bios that were instant hits

BY ISHANI BOSE @ishani_bose “I’m that actor in some of the movies you liked and some you didn’t. Sometimes I’m in pretty good shape, other times I’m not. Hey, you gotta live, you know?” This is Hollywood star Tom Hanks’ Twitter bio.

Leaving aside the traditional way of sharing one’s personal details, qualifications, habits, hobbies and favourite sports, prominent and not-so-prominent users are now tweeting on who they really are in uniquely (sometimes strangely) witty, audacious and heartfelt way possible.

Twitter, as a medium of expression, is now turning into a creative canvas, where one may summarise one’s personality, opinion or anything else in 160 characters to introduce oneself and leave a lasting impression. For media professional Avinash Iyer @IyerAvin, who is among the most widely appreciated on Twitter, with over 4,000 followers (in the last count), bios need not always be typical, describing one’s traits, occupation and the like. His Twitter bio — I am someone who kisses only when the script demands — says it all.

A few people found it funny, quirky and amusing and CNN IBN has listed it as one of the ‘30 most popular badass, clever

WITTY TWITTY Sahil Shah (Sahil Bulla) Suno Bio aur Behno. I put the Pun in punishment and the ease in sleaze. Occasional Time Traveller and Comedian. Co- Authored the Bible (uncredited) Keede dé Bhide @bizzarebhide |Jackass of all trades, master of none|Arm-Hair philosopher|Prefer my eggs funny side up| Hackie Chan @hackiechan Geek. Nerd. Out of the herd | Makes PJs. Wears PJs | Bruce Wayne-ing it as a management consultant, Batman-ing it as a fiction/song writer Darth Hollow @hollowmaniac/I don’t take myself seriously, why should you? I fight cuteness & misandry with nude-art & the dark side of the Force. Can be bribed with Stationery and Beef.

and weirdly witty twitter bios’ in recent times.

Varun Kaul aka @EternalScrewUp went in for a rather ludicrous form of articulation, when it came to writing his bio, which reads, ‘I’m the guy, who bought man’s world, monk’s ferrari and your sultry neighbour’s lingerie’. “I chose Twitter as a preferred medium of social interaction primarily because of its anonymity. That meant that I could have a bio that didn’t really define me. In other words, I didn’t care enough to tell people

my hobbies/favourite sports/or the kind of person I was,” said Kaul.

“I have realised that everyone has a little bit of God Complex in them, more so on Twitter. Probably because it’s just the 160-character limit that gives the wrong impression,” he said. Hence, Kaul picked up a combination of three things that he felt were borderline brilliant in their class — A book called The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, a song titled The Man Who Sold The World and since everyone wants to get fresh with their respective neighbours, her lingerie.

To his surprise, a few people copied it as their own bios and some even left him a tweet saying: ‘Following you for your bio.’

Sahil Wasudev aka @laalfirangi’s Twitter bio Kabhi Raj Kabhi Prem reminds one of Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, all on an endless loop. “It expresses my love for the 90s Bollywood movies, my love for Bollywood style romance and mainly because I’m dating someone who loves Shah Rukh and I’m a huge Salman fan. Hence ‘Raj’ from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) and ‘Prem’ from all Salman Khan movies. Yes, a very Bollywood inspired bio,” he said.

Wasudev says that most people who follow him on Twitter have similar interests like him — movies, music and pop culture. “Whether you write about your interests/work/eat/poop or a random funny quote, a bio is the first thing a person reads before reading your tweets. If it is interesting enough, it generates curiosity to see more of your content thereby increasing your followers,” he said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com

‘Evil in society is an extreme disease’ Undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas talks about the preparations that go behind breaking stories. Ritu Goyal Harish explains TED is a global platform where people from different fields come together and speak for 18 minutes or less about their respective disciplines. It was started in 1984 by a non-profit organisation called Sapling Foundation, under the slogan--- Ideas worth sharing. Initially it organised conferences where matters related to technology, design and entertainment merged, but today it includes varied topics such as business, photography, art, science and the like.

TGS NEWS SERVICE @ritugh In a striking departure from the ordinary, a June 2014 TED Talk speaker was in disguise. His name is Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an undercover journalist who works in Ghana and other countries in the African subcontinent.

In a career spanning 14 years, Anas has uncovered many groundbreaking stories including the investigation of a Ghanaian psychiatric ward that led to a widespread awareness of mental health issues in Ghana and the passage of the 2012 Ghana Mental Health Act. In the talk he reveals the preparation that goes into his operations. “Before we go undercover, we follow the rules. And I’m only comfortable and I’m purged of fear whenever I am sure that all the steps have been taken. I don’t do it alone. I have

a back-up team who help ensure that the safety and all the systems are put in place, but you’ve got to take very intelligent decisions whenever they are happening.

If you don’t, you will end up losing your life.”

Amongst his fi rst “scoops” is a simple one. “Police officers were taking bribes from hawkers who were working on the streets. As a young reporter, I thought that I should do it in a different way, so that it has a maximum impact, since everybody knew that it was happening, and yet there was nothing that was keeping it out of the system.”

Anas says that his journalism is hinged on three basic principles: naming, shaming and jailing. “Journalism is about results. It’s about affecting your community or your society in the most progressive way” he adds.

Amongst the key stories Anas re-

counts is called the ‘The Spell of the Albinos’. “In Tanzania, children who are born with albinism are sometimes considered as being unfit to live in society. Their bodies are chopped up with machetes and are supposed to be used for some concoctions or some potions for people to get money.”

According to Anas, the undercover kind of journalism suits the continent of Africa where prosecution hinges on evidence. “And that has aided in me putting a lot of people behind bars.”

“Evil in society is an extreme disease. If you have extreme diseases, you need to get extreme remedies” he adds.

“Th is will not stop. I’m going to carry on with this kind of journalism, because I know that when evil men destroy, good men must build and bind,” Anas fi rmly states. http://bit. ly/1suDcqD ritugoyalharish@gmail.com

PUNE

TECH GURU

BY SORAB GHASWALLA This is an interactive column. Like today, every week, we will be replying to technology and internet related queries sent in by readers. You may email your questions with the subject line ‘Tech Guru query’ to tgstechguru@gmail.com

Before you click that selfie or groufie…

Many of you may have read about the heckling on Twitter of this girl who took a selfie at the former German concentration camp of Auschwitz. Or the heat generated in the wake of the US Prez Barack Obama’s selfie at Nelson Mandela’s funeral. Ah, selfies, that exercise in photographic self-indulgence by the narcissists among us.

So today’s column is about selfies, the etiquette that governs them, and the various tools/apps that help you click the “right one”.

But first, for those who have no clue to what a selfie is: it`s a photograph that one takes of oneself, and more often than not, shares it on a social network. Why? Go, figure.

That’s the young gen’s way of saying – this is who I am, perhaps?

A no-no No selfies at funerals, no selfies with dead bodies (even of animals), no selfies from disaster areas, none with the sick, the murdered or the homeless as background. No selfies from places with gruesome history - remember the Auschwitz camp controversy? Nudism? More or less, no.

Porno, of course not! Just apply the yardstick of decent human behavior, that’s all.

How best to click a selfie Technology has put the camera into the hands of the masses but unfortunately not the craft/sense of photography.

With some help, you can try and click a decent selfie: 1. Bathrooms, toilets, kitchens are not areas you would want to use as backgrounds.

2. As any two-bit photographer will tell you, each of us has a “good” and a “bad” side. I am talking of your face, silly, not your personality. Know yours and frame only the flattering side. Get the angle right, cutie pie. A Miley Cyrus twerk pose is best avoided.

3. Today’s smartphones, assorted apps,and social sites like Instagram give you a host of lighting options, filters and frames to choose from to edit your selfie before posting it. Use them but don’t fake ‘em.

Helpful apps and tools First, there were plain vanilla selfies, then came apps and gadgets that allow you to take hands-free or touchless selfies.

Apps: scores and scores of them – on Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry.

For those of you who own a Windows phone, there’s the ‘Selfie Cam’ app available for `55 that allows you to take HD quality selfies but only if your device has a front-end camera.(http://bit.ly/1uZJGBr) Then, there’s the SmileDrive Monopod with wireless bluetooth selfie clicker. Comes in a combo with Universal mobile selfiepod with mobile shutter.Available on Amazon India for `1,499. (http:// bit.ly/WVt5Qd) There’s a similar “selfie stick” freshly introduced in India.

This is an extendable metal rod with a holder at the end to attach a phone or camera. Allows you take selfies from top angles, with a manual trigger. Captures much This selfie by a monkey in an Indonesian jungle is at the centre of a copyright of the background. battle betweeen Wikimedia and an (http://on.fb.me/ English photographer XwCUUF) If you don’t want the stick, there’s the head band selfie monopod with tripod mount adapter for GoPro Camera available on Olx for `2,500. (http://bit.ly/1o497wQ) Remember, a phone with a front-end camera is a must.

Phones in the Indian market especially targeted at the selfie-crazy market: Sony Experia C-3 with a Pro Selfie camera (just released), Xiamoi Mi4 and Huawei Ascend G6.The Mi4 is available on Flipkart for about `12,000 (http://bit. ly/1zMjn0v) and G6 on Snapdeal for about `12,000 (http:// bit.ly/1tMguwa).

And before I sign off, bet you didn’t know group selfies are called groufies?

(Sorab Ghaswalla is a former old-world journalist who now wears many hats, entrepreneur, Internet consultant, Online Marketer, new media and technology journalist, and the Editor/publisher of four sites of his own, all related to the Internet, smartphones, start-ups and the Internet of things.

You may find him at www.newagecontentservices.com) (Disclaimer: The Tech Guru column is more in the nature of a reader-initiated, advisory feature. Readers are urged to check or confirm for themselves the features of all hardware/software mentioned here before making a purchase. Prices quoted are indicative and not final, and subject to availability of product/ service. This newspaper nor this column shall, in any way, be liable for any physical, personal or monetary damage/losses arising out of advice given herein).

ED UCATION

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

PUNE

“There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.”

— John Adams

Symbiosis wins inter-college debate Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication claimed first prize at the intercollegiate debate competition 2014 organised by Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management (VAMNICOM) in association with Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) and Young Communicators Club (YCC). Army Institute of Technology and Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies secured second and third positions.

Sixteen teams from Pune’s UG and PG colleges took part in the contest and topics included ‘Is foreign direct investment is relevant in Indian Market?’ ‘Are social networking sites more intended for causing anti-social nuisance?’ and ‘Is Indian politics moving towards presidential form of democracy?’

“We not only stress on making the subject interesting, we also make sure that it makes a long-term impact on the student.”

— Dinesh Lahoti, Edugenie

‘City has old charm, needs better roads, cleanliness’

Opine students of MIT Institute of Design who worked on ‘redesigning and understanding Pune city’

Students presenting a cultural programme at Orchid School in Baner on Thursday

Orchid School turns 10

Hendre awarded doctorate Rajeshwar Wamanrao Hendre has been awarded doctorate in the management discipline for his thesis titled ‘A study of HR Practices in Automobile Industry in Pimpri-Chinchwad Industrial Area, Pune with special reference to Health, Safety Rajeshwar Wamanrao and Welfare Hendre (From 2004-05 to 2009-10)’ by Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth. He completed the study under the guide Mukund Dongare.

Free lecture on lifecycle of stars The Aastronomica Club has organised a series of lecture on astrology on Saturday, and ‘how the Cosmos is’ on Sunday. The free lectures will be organised at NMV High School for Girls between 6.15 pm and 8.15 pm. Contact Amit Purandare on 9822393872 for details.

Indian teenager gets Microsoft award Sixteen-year-old Delhi student Arjit Kansal has been named the 2014 Microsoft Office Specialist World Champion in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010. Certiport, a Pearson VUE business and a test delivery solution provider for the global workforce and academic markets, announced the award recently.

RAHUL RAUT

Signposts

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Conclaves, contests and campaigns were organised to celebrate the anniversary

BY BARNALEE HANDIQUE @ barnalee

The MIT Institute of Design students’s exhibition depicted Pune city from an architect’s perspective. They also got a taste of dhol-tasha

MANASI SARAF JOSHI @GargiManasi “Pune needs to retain its old charm while embracing the modern world.” This is the observation by students of MIT Institute of Design (MITID) who were assigned the project of ‘redesigning and understanding Pune city’.

The students said that the city’s cleanliness, transport and traffic need a lot of improvement. Charuhas Korde of Nashik said, “I was given the Laxmi Road area. The blend of old and new architecture here is exemplary. But this part of the old city witnesses regular traffic congestions and road indiscipline.”

Shilanko Sinha of Kolkata said, “I covered Senapati Bapat Road. This long stretch sort of divides the ‘old and new’ of the city with modern buildings, shopping malls and branded stores lining one side of the road facing old houses, temples and

shops.”

The students have written a blog (http://www.loocate.blogspot. in) sharing their experiences and observations after covering different areas of the city.

The blog describes the poor and unhygienic condition of public toilets, especially on Jungli Maharaj Road. They have suggested that there should not be any temple or park in the locality.

Faculty and head of industry relations Harshit Desai said,

“The students found that the city has a blend of modern and old world charm. The students voiced apprehensions regarding people’s response but Puneites welcomed them.”

The students said that Marathi is the language of communication for people living at the peths and nearby areas, while Koregaon Park, Camp, JM Road and Deccan displayed a cosmopolitan culture.

They organised an exhibition of charts, models and pictures

covering various aspects of the city. Desai said that the objective of the event was to acquaint the students with surroundings through a designer’s perspective.

The project held in the second week of July, was carried out by first-year students assisted by their seniors and faculty.

“The batch of 326 students was divided into groups of 20 with one faculty helping each group”, Desai said. manasisaraf@gmail.com

Pursuing My Career

‘Running an NGO is like running an enterprise’ Establising Action for Pune Development has enabled Aakash Shah to get global recognition

BY AAKASH SHAH At the age of 16 (in 2012), along with 60 friends, I founded Action for Pune Development (APD), a youth-led NGO. Our members started with social work and tree plantation.

In 2012, on June 5, the World Environment Day, we planted 120 saplings at Vetal Tekdi.

A newspaper wrote about our initiative the next day. The article inspired us to plan more projects.

Then we worked for traffic awareness, orphanages, old age homes, the

environment, highway safety, women empowerment, women safety, education and empowering the handicapped people. We also raised funds for UNICEF by organising a trekking competition.

Involving young people was my aim and the organisation took to the idea of Youth Social Service Day. We reached out to 26,000 young people around the globe and urged them to do any kind of social work on September 6, 2013. We received support from 26,000 youths.

As I was leading the organisation, I learnt a lot of things. Team building, planning, executing, interacting, public speaking and other skills.

I come from a traditional business family. My father wanted me to become an entrepreneur. At the age of 17, I got an invitation from the International Falcon Movement – Socialist Educational International (IFM-SEI) to apply for a cooperative business plan competition.

I submitted a business plan of starting a cooperative computer institute, to educate poor people. The skills that I learnt while running APD has helped me and I received a scholarship in Manchester for cooperative business training.

Running an NGO is like running an enterprise! As an activist, unknowingly, I have became an entrepreneur.

The United Nations has recognised my work and appointed me Global Youth Advocate for ‘United Nations My World 2015’ and ‘World We Want Campaigns’. I am also as policy strategist for ‘World We Want Campaign’.

I never thought of working on a policymaking level for a global platform. Establishing an organisation and successfully running it have taught me a lot. As playing badminton at the national level involved extensive travel, it was also a learning experience in terms of interacting with different people. My parents have always supported me.

The Pradnya Niketan Education Society’s The Orchid School at Baner celebrated its 10 anniversary by organising a variety of programmes from August 7 to 9.

Known for its skill-based teaching methods, the school’s three-day celebration includes special performances, conclaves and felicitation events.

Talking about the “Thank you for being a role model” campaign that is part of the celebrations, the school’s principal Shilpa Solanki said, “We have students coming from different parts of the country. In this event we will honour individuals who have guided us and help shaped the vision of our school: of being locally rooted and globally competent.”

The first day of the celebrations started with ‘Kalanjali’, a tribute to all forms of art. Students participated in a concert focusing on holistic education to show that it is possible to rejoice in the harmonious coexistence of various art forms and viewpoints even while celebrating its individuality and uniqueness.

Educationists, policy makers and students deliberated on what is relevant and essential for students in today’s world and the way to achieve their goal at the event held on August 8.

The keynote address was delivered by CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi and theme note by CBSE head (innovation and research) Sadhana Parasharji, and Zensar CEO Ganesh Natarajan. The day concluded with the performance by Ghatam player Vikku Vinayakram and well-known percussionist Taufiq Quereshi.

The anniversary celebrations will conclude on Saturday with the ‘Innovators Conclave’. Sumit Dagar, Anoop Tapadia and Karan Chapekar will discuss ways to innovate with a purpose using science, technology and creativity. Veteran theatre and fi lm personality Mohan Agashe will speak on bringing art and science together to show that our universe is a confluence and a unified manifestation of all subjects. barnalee.handique@goldensparrow.com

Life’s Lessons

Importance of mentors, role models Every profession has its set of achievers who inspire us with their work. While everyone has an individual path to pursue based on one’s situations and circumstances, a lot can be gained by looking closely at those who inspire us and those who can guide us in our pursuit of success and happiness.

This is especially important for the young because it then gives a direction to their efforts.

Role models can be high achievers who are famous and who may also be people in our neighbourhood. For example, if you wish to pursue a career in biotechnology or a particular field of engineering, you would first identify a role model who has achieved the kind of success that you would like to achieve. If that role model is a person who is in your neighbourhood or in your city, then there is ample opportunity for personal interaction and guidance on the steps to take for the pursuit of a career in the desired direction. This provides valuable guidance which can be enormously time-saving.

A mentor is someone with achievement and experience in the chosen field who could also be a role model. A mentor is someone you can consult from time to time on the steps to take for the pursuit of your career. When a person agrees to become your mentor, he or she makes a commitment to give you time and attention and attend to your queries. doubts and questions.

Once you have decided what course you will follow in terms of a career, it is best to identify role models and mentors and benefit from their example and experience.

Experts point out that ‘a good mentor takes the time to understand what you would like to do and they make an investment in leveraging their time and resources to helping you achieve your goal’.

While mentors can help you with the ‘operational’ aspects of the pursuit of your career, role models are examples that you want to emulate. Successful people see the importance of both throughout the different stages of their life.

RE LATIONSHIPS

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

Happiness is not something ready made, it comes from your own actions.

- Dalai Lama

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

- Albert Einstein

My little Chini’s rakhis I met Chini when I went to Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh, as a member of a UNESCO team. We were on an assignment to educate the orphans and poor children living there.

I was staying in a house next to a church. Every evening when I returned from my visits to the nearby villages, I would see this little girl from the orphanage that was located on the church campus. She must have been no more than 6 or 7 years old and I was struck by her childish innocence.

One evening as I was having a cup of tea, the little girl came over to me and handed me a packet of biscuits. I was touched by her little gift and we started talking. She told me her name was Chini and I urged her to tell me more about herself.

Chini had never even seen her parents and she had been brought up by the Christians who ran the orphanage. After our first meeting, Chini would visit me almost every day and this brought us very close. On Rakshabandhan day, she tied a rakhi on my hand and also gave me a chocolate.

My assignment lasted six months and over that time, Chini and I had formed a bond that was more than friendship; it was more like family.

Alas, then came the time when my assignment was finished and I had to return to Pune. Chini cried like a baby as I bade her farewell.

On my return to Pune, I missed Chini a great deal and kept in constant touch with her, with postcards and letters. Chini also responded with postcards and letters of her own and she even sent me a rakhi and a chocolate at Rakshabandhan.

Chini would often write, asking me to return to Shahdol, so that we could meet. But that was not possible due to my work so I phoned her instead.

Speaking to her over the phone, I could hear how happy she was to talk to me.

In the mean time our correspondence continued.

Then came a time when her letters were less frequent and then stopped.

FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY

Sometimes angels come into your life with moments of joy and happiness...

BY SUMIT PAUL

Why do we keep postponing things?

When life itself is a span of time between two events called birth and death, why do most of us hide behind the foolish hope that some things last forever? Does not everything have a time frame – larger or smaller? Is it not true that whatever has a beginning must end somewhere? Why then do we keep postponing things?

Think about it. We don’t postpone what we want to do or like doing. We only postpone what we don’t like doing or things that are not as important to our minds as others. Even when we know that we have to do it today or tomorrow, we still postpone it, hoping that tomorrow will never come or the issue will resolve itself.

By experience, we know that anything postponed does not get ameliorated. It only gets aggravated, needing more time, attention and energy to sort out. We understand that a stitch in time saves nine. Then why do we postpone and procrastinate? Is there a confl ict between the head and the heart?

Indeed, the head (logic and reason) says, “Do it now,” but the heart (emotions and feelings) says, “Why bother now? Enjoy today. Isn’t there always a tomorrow?” Decisions – whether to do it now or later – get postponed and at times, shelved. It is seldom taken unless it becomes a ‘do or die’ situation or when there is no alternative. There is a heavy price to pay for the delay. At times it is too late. Yet, we defer many decisions.

Psychologists have discovered that those who are able to delay gratification ultimately do better in

life than others who are unable to do so. Can we do the unpleasant first and wait for more pleasant pursuits? Can we do difficult tasks first and the easy ones later?

Stephen Covey has said, “We must make promises to ourselves – and keep them.” My father used to tell me (whenever I went back on my commitments) that a man was known – not by the promises he made but by the promises he fulfi lled. “When you go back on your word,” he would say, “you are also fooling yourself.”

In the ultimate analysis, the choice is with us – to do it now or later. The thumb rule as far as choices are concerned is (we are told) that there is a price to pay for every choice we make.

It is up to us to find out what this price is and to decide if it is affordable or not. There is no point complaining later or making excuses.

We do have to prioritise at times but we must put a time-frame to everything we take up. Let us also remember that there is a feeling of exhilaration, a sense of achievement and a surge of confidence that can be experienced only after we swallow the bitter pill – after we do the job. Can we therefore follow the Zen Buddhist theory that the best place and time to do anything is – here and now?

Can we postpone procrastination?

For once, I’m tempted to say, “Let’s not hope, not keep hoping. Instead, let’s do it – now.”

(The writer is a multi-faceted personality who believes in responding with compassion and hope to the difficult situations in life.)

We must put a timeframe to everything we take up

And on Rakshabandhan day, I received Chini came into my life purely by a letter from the priest in charge of chance and then vanished so suddenly. the orphanage. He had informed me But her angelic presence and trusting that little Chini was no more. She had innocence are as real today as when I passed away owing to leukemia. I was met her for that brief enchanted time. more than heartbroken as I recalled her This episode also reminds me how letters, reminding me how much ephemeral life is and Tomorrow is To she missed my company. how easily we take Rakhshabandhan How I wish I had made Rakhshabandha all our joys and the time and visited her. relationships for Tomorrow is What had passed through granted. But the truth is that Rakhshabandhan her mind when she life is fragile and ephemeral was battling her and that people and things terminal illness? Was we love can be taken away in she frightened, alone, the blink of an eye. in need of a friend? How I wish I could I think of Chini and my heart roll back time. It’s more than two seems to break. She was an orphan decades since the time I met Chini. But deprived of the most basic joy and I find myself thinking her every day comfort of parents, home and security. and I have her postcards and letters to Did her parents abandon her or were remind me of her. they victims of a cruel fate?

I cannot define just what it was She could have grown up in the that created this bond between us, shelter and care of the orphanage but despite our being complete strangers, even that was denied to her by her fatal and despite the difference in our ages. illness. Was it God’s will that a poor

It will help them save your hard-earned money and spend it wisely

Guiding the child to make the right choice is essential

THERE ARE FOUR THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH MONEY • Save: Money can be saved in a bank account. It fetches you more money when you leave it there. Therefore, it is also a kind of investment.

• Share: Money can be shared for many purposes. When you want to buy candy and would like one for your friend also, you buy one for him and share.

• Spend: When you buy candy for yourself or your friends, you spend money. Once you spend the money it never comes back.

• Invest: When you invest money, money grows or multiplies. Putting it in a bank makes it grow.

It is also important to make children understand that ‘earning’ money is the only way an adult gets money.

Setting a goal helps a child makes a better choice; maybe the money can be saved to buy a toy that he’s been clamouring for, or maybe it can be put away for a sister’s birthday present etc.

Guiding the child to make the right choice is essential, but it is also important not to force them to choose what you think is right.

Such exposure helps your children decide on money matters especially as they grow up to earn a pocket money. As they grow into adults, it empowers them to make the ‘choice’ of what they should do with their money. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com

little orphan girl had also to endure physical pain and suffering of such an extreme level?

Is it true that those whom God loves die young? These thoughts however are no consolation to me as they do not help me to get over my sense of pain and loss, and that I will never see little Chini again.

If there is truth and justice in the world, why did an innocent little girl like Chini have to undergo such an ordeal? Why? Was she not due her share of earthly joy and comfort? Why did she live and die, a forgotten little child in faraway Shahdol? Why did her life end before it could begin to blossom? Why did I not visit her in that brief time when she was alive? I should have brought her with me when I returned to Pune. How was I to know that I was not going to see Chini ever again? All I know is that Chini will remain in my heart and mind forever…

Distance makes love grow stronger and deeper A recent study shows that people in long-distance relationships have stronger bonds and deeper communications than those in ‘normal’ relationships

BY ISHANI BOSE @ishani_bose Someone has rightly said, “The test of love is not when we are together. It comes when we are not together and realise that despite the distance, love is still there.” In a long-distance relationships, one has to be mature enough to understand this and same happened with 21-year-old Ipsita Banerjee.

A year ago, she was disheartened at the news of her boyfriend going to the US for two years for pursuing his higher education. However, things turned out quite the opposite of what she had anticipated.

“In the beginning, I was pretty cynical. I had seen far too many relationships (even the ones that were over five years old) hit the rocks due to long distance, and that made the whole prospect of staying apart all the more difficult. But once we were in the long distance mode, it did not seem all that bad, as we made it a point to talk every day. And strangely, we had far more things to talk about than the time we were together in the city,” she said.

It has been proved by a recent study published in the

RAHUL RAUT (PIC FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY)

“Teaching kids sound financial habits at an early age, gives all kids the opportunity to be successful when they are an adult.”

– Warren Buffet We hear parents lamenting, “My children don’t know the value of money,” spoken in the context of a new demand for a material thing that has been made on them, which is either unreasonable or beyond the financial muscle of the parents.

Admittedly, in recent times India’s social fabric has undergone a sea change.

Working parents, nuclear families and single kids, these are just some of those changes that have inadvertently driven our communities towards an era of consumerism.

From peer pressure to the pressure of being accepted as a global citizen, it is the age of ‘more’ and hence, it is essential to teach your children the value of money and what are the things one can do with it.

In the Indian milieu children are given money as tokens for festivals and even birthdays.

When you give your child money, give them the option to choose what they want to do with ‘their’ money.

The Way Forward

Is a problem bothering you and you are unable to decide what to do? Write in to us at wayforward@goldensparrow. com for advice and suggestions from C Ravindranath

Teach children about money

BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh

PUNE

Journal of Communication

by Hong Kong and Cornell Universities. It states that people in long-distance relationships often have stronger bonds and deeper communications than those in ‘normal’ relationships.

As part of the study, the researchers asked couples who were in long-distance relationships and geographically closer ones, to keep a detailed account of their daily

interactions for a week. They were also expected to maintain a record of how much they shared about themselves, and how much intimacy they experienced during that period.

The researchers found that couples in long-distance relationships tend to share more personal feelings and thoughts with one another. They also discovered that those in long distance relationship feel more

connected and responsive to their partner’s needs than the ‘normal’ couples do, thereby making them feel closer to one another.

They also tend to understand and gauge their partners’ behaviours, perceiving them as more likely to share personal thoughts and feelings and more responsive to their own thoughts. Th is, the researchers felt, is what enhances their good feelings about the long distance relationship.

The findings of the research don’t come as a surprise in a day and age when technology has helped make the world seem much smaller, feels 26-year old media professional, Akriti Bhargava. “I feel long distances are extremely over-rated. When there are social networking sites, emails, skype, google hangout and apps like whatsapp, hike, viber etc available, how can people still complain about long-distance relationships not working? It ultimately boils down to the couple in question, and on how serious they are to make the relationship work,” she says, adding that her relationship with her boyfriend worked perfectly well, when she moved to Canada for a year. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

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“Online shopping has not only saved the time and (helped people avoid) long queues at post offices, but also made the experience worthwhile.”

—Praveen Sinha, founder and MD of Jabong.com

MCCIA seminar on Corporate Governance The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) jointly with Raheja QBE General Insurance Company has organised a seminar on ‘Corporate Governance - New Companies Act 2013 - impacting the Management Liability’.

This seminar is open to all and will be held on August 12, 5pm to 8pm.

The seminar will seek to raise awareness on various forms of corporate liability exposures. A new era of ‘corporate governance’ has emerged with the passage of Company Bill 2013 in India.

There has been an increase in liability exposure of any organisation and also of management. The seminar will create awareness about potential implications of the New Companies Act 2013 and its relevance with respect to corporate governance. Kiran Kumar, chief underwriting officer and Rajeev Dogra, head, distribution will conduct the seminar. For more details, visit mcciapune.com (events).

ICT sector looks forward to a promising future Focus on the ICT sector, with a panIndia digital initiative, funding for start-ups and leveraging technology for good governments in the Union budget for 2014-15 are pragmatic and directional, the IT industry body Nasscom has said. “A slew of measures for the ICT sector along with initiatives on skilling, smart cities and ease of business reflect the thrust on role of technology in the budget,” National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) president R Chandrashekhar said in a statement from New Delhi. Asserting that the proposal to set up a Rs 10,000 crore fund for start-ups and entrepreneurs would act as a booster for the start-up landscape, Chandreshekhar said the budgetary allocation would drive innovation and solutions for the global as well as domestic markets.

Simply chocolicious!

Chocolates are hard to resist. Sarita Brar and her brand, ‘Sarita’s Chocolates’ wants to cash in on the same

BY SNEHA KRISHNAN

I haven’t yet come across someone who doesn’t like chocolates, or wouldn’t mind that extra run on the treadmill for that box of choco goodies. There’s no doubt that these soft and milky bite-size pieces of heaven secretly rule our hearts. So how about finding someone who’d make them for you just how you like them? With flavours and centre fi llings that would make you pop in two to three at a time, Sarita Brar makes chocolates that you dream of and has branded her creations as ‘Sarita’s Chocolates’.

EXCERPTS FROM THE INTERVIEW What got you to try your hand at chocolate making?

It was a very random decision, to be very honest. I just happened to read an advertisement in the paper for chocolate making classes and joined it. I tried out some of the stuff I had learnt, at my child’s birthday party and it became a big hit. Many of the parents came up to me fascinated about being able to make chocolates at home. I started improvising by trying new f lavours a n d

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shapes. I went to Mumbai to do more professional courses after which I thought of selling them so I took my first samples to Dorabjee. The manager really appreciated the chocolates, the new look and feel and there on I started supplying to stores.

What kind of chocolates do you make?

I make about 14-15 flavours of chocolates.

You can distinguish the flavours by the coloured wrappers.

Almonds, lemon, orange, butterscotch, crunchy, cashew are some of the flavours I make. Apart from these, I also make chocolates for festivals, New Year, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, etc and ensure that they fit the occasion in size, colours and flavours.

There are plenty of chocolate labels out in the market today. But I try and add new flavours and add my own touch to the products. It helps me to try out variations when I take personal orders as that way I give the client exactly what they want. I try new flavours like mint or butterscotch and improvise with the recipes to add something new to the chocolates.

I make soft centre chocolates on order as their shelf life is short and taste good only when consumed fresh. The rest of the chocolates have a good shelf

Company’s investment arm has announced a $40 million fund for early-stage firms real-time analytics platform software provider catering to manufacturing production floors. “The new venture investment is consistent with our track record of driving IT market growth through investment in the innovation economies,” the statement said.

The early stage funding under the India Innovation theme is a part of the $250 million the company had announced early this year on next generation technologies worldwide, including big data and analytics; the Internet of Things, connected mobility, storage, silicon and content technology ecosystem. “Our belief is the

beyond where I might not be able to give my 100 per cent.

the chocolates that fit the occasion with appropriate flavours, sizes and packaging.

What are the challenges you faced when it comes to marketing your chocolates?

Thankfully in Pune, there are shops which encourage new entrepreneurs and home makers in certain fields.

For the past 18 years I have been supplying chocolates to stores in the city and have noticed that most entrepreneurs don’t last. I feel I have survived in the market for so long because I give quality stuff and I have maintained that.

Did you face any challenges at home when it came to setting up the business?

Honestly, it was all manageable as my kids had their school and college and when they were away I was able to focus on my work. So it never clashed.

But of course during season times I used to be very busy so they never saw their mom. That used to make them a little upset. I would never get the time to make Diwali sweets for the family as I get bulk orders. So my daughter even today recalls about Diwali vacations where I would be busy with my orders and we’d have to buy ready made sweets.

What are the ground rules you follow in making your chocolates?

What is the reason for the steady growth of your business?

I monitor the quality of the chocolates and the ingredients I use. In the wholesale market you get any number of nuts and dry fruits and I ensure that I pick the ones that best suit the chocolate I make. I have noticed that most ‘mithai wallahs’ buy very sub-standard quality dry fruits, which is when I realised that if I don’t like what I buy from these sweet shops, how can I supply the same stuff to my customers. The almonds I buy are of top quality. I roast them myself to ensure that they are evenly done and not raw. This increases the shelf life of the products.

I charge the customer only what I’m being charged so this way they get quality chocolates at reasonable rates.

“What started as a small hobby then turned out into a big business.”

Cisco to fund start-ups in India BANGALORE: The investment arm of global networking products major Cisco has announced a $40 million (Rs.241 crore) fund for early-stage firms (start-ups) in India which are focused on products and technologies relevant to the country and other emerging markets.

“The funds will also be made in firms which work on cost-optimised designs, industry vertical solutions and applications on cloud computing,” the Indian subsidiary of the US global telecom products firm said in a statement. The first investment will be in Covacsis, a Mumbai-based

life of at least a year so I don’t have to worry about making them in bulk.

innovative application of technology can have a positive impact on India’s competitiveness, diversification of its industry base, its ability to create jobs and improve quality of life for its citizens,” Cisco India president (sales) Dinesh Malkani.

“By spurring and accelerating innovation, we want to help India evolve as a global hub for innovation and help us to become a defining player in taking technology investment in the region to the next level,” Cisco Asia Pacific & Japan managing director Joydeep Bose said.

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LENDING SUPPORT TO MSME ENTREPRENEURS

R K Gupta, executive director, Bank of Maharashtra addressing the MSME entrepreneurs at SME meet, Baramati. He stressed on the importance of credit rating by external agencies particularly for MSME borrowers. Also seen in the picture is R Harikumar, ZM, Pune East Zone

How challenging is it to keep up the sales of home-made chocolates when the Indian market is filled with imported ones today?

Everything imported is not good. We just have this idea in our heads that imported products are better than the local ones. Some of the imported chocolates I have had are so bad you can taste the butter and the coconut oil in them. Even some of the big brands are facing problems today with worms and insects and stale chocolates in stores. So at least in my small set-up I can manage to look into all the details and the hygiene factor and sell fresh chocolates. I have kept the business in my limits and don’t want to expand it

Tell us about the evolution of chocolate over the years?

Back then we had standard chocolates that had the same look. But today the demand for different types of Stores you can buy Sarita’s chocolates has increased radically.

Chocolates in We have different occasions, from baby showers where you have • Dorabjees • Hallmark (Fatima Nagar) packaging of pink and or blue • Paradkar (M.G. Road) chocolates to gold and silver for • Greetwell • Poona Club wedding anniversaries; I make

Attractive price and packaging Her chocolates start from Rs 60 for the infamous bonbons (cookies dipped in chocolate) and goes on till Rs 150 for 100 gms of chocolate which come in different packaging some in baskets too. She also makes gift hampers for birthdays, friendship days or even the upcoming Parsi New Year’s Day which are priced between Rs 800-1,000.

Direct vs indirect selling

START-UP MENTOR

Signposts

Vishwas Mahajan

This feature is a collaboration between The Golden Sparrow on Saturday and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), the world’s largest non-profit network of entrepreneurs. For additional questions about your entrepreneurial challenges, write to mentoring@pune.tie.org

I have made educational aid products, for schools and educational institutions. I want to understand how best to go about selling them. Should I create my direct sales force or try and look for channels?

– Samir Puranik Study market dynamics The fi rst thing you must do is to look at the market that you are serving.

It appears that you have developed new products that you want to sell.

Education market by its size and nature is large, it’s also fragmented, geographically distributed and the decision making is highly nonstandard.

Given this and the fact that you are coming up with new products, I would suggest you evaluate both, direct as well as channel strategy.

Evaluating direct sales strategy In the direct sales force strategy you would have to hire a large number of sales people who can meet prospective customers and sell you products. Remember that raising and managing a professional sales team in a geographically distributed area can take a lot of effort. It is in fact, a specialised job and you may also require substantial funds. Many product developers do not have the skill or the resources to raise and manage the sales force.

Also results of a field sales force take time to show and sales processes needs time to stabilises.

Evaluating indirect sales strategy The indirect or distribution channel for your products, on the other hand, can be companies that are in non-competitive businesses, but serves the same customers, which is an educational institutions.

It is possible that these companies have a relationship with the customers and they will be able to add your product into their portfolio. That way get cross-selling or up-selling opportunity. (read separate on these concepts.) The development of the channel will also require separate expertise. With this your costs of developing and hiring sales team may be lower and you may actually end up having a few people who can manage the channel.

Pros and Cons However, your channel partners actually sell a number of products to

the customers and the importance of your product relative to others in their portfolio will play a big role in their being able to sell your product.

If your products are in an initial stage, it is also very important to build your brand and get direct feedback from your customers about what they like and don’t like about the product.

Th is initial customer feedback helps the product to shape up in accordance to their needs. If you use channels, the chances are that you miss out some direct feedback that you can get through your own teams.

Recommendation I recommend a dual pronged strategy. Initially, you and your small sales team can focus on the areas close to your geography. You can then think of channel strategy as you go forward.

If you are going to sign the channel partnership, I also recommend that you don’t sign exclusive agreements, which will prevent you in entering the market or selling to customers in future once your sales agreement expires..

My recommendation is to create a hybrid strategy, focus on creating your own sales force in close geographical area fi rst, get some initial sales and brand, and then expand into the channel.

Vishwas Mahajan, president of TiE Pune Chapter, answers real life questions of entrepreneurs

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

Congress plight: Dynasty is to blame P 12

PUNE

“The Indian embassy in Tripoli has been issuing regular advisories to Indians, giving an update on the security situation, advising them to avoid conflict areas and to exit Libya with the facilitation of the embassy.”

— Minister of state for external affairs VK Singh

Modi govt should get things done to stay in power In his 70 days in office, despite some interesting moves on the foreign policy, the PM has projected political weakness rather than strength - the exact opposite of why this country elected him IANS

by R Jagannathan The NDA’s quandary over the Insurance Bill, which has the Congress and other parties ganging up against it to delay it in the Rajya Sabha, is one more indication that the Modi government has got its power strategy wrong.

The partial retreat over the UPSC aptitude test is another. In his 70 days in office, despite some interesting moves on the foreign policy front with neighbours, Modi has projected political weakness rather than strength - the exact opposite of why this country elected him in the first place.

One can try and rationalise the government’s actions and bumbling on several fronts (new to the job, assembly elections ahead, etc), but what is inexplicable is Narendra Modi’s seeming inability to understand why he is facing all-round opposition.

Everything that is happening now could have been predicted on 16 May itself. If Modi does not take stock and deal with issues head on, he is going to face the same fate that UPA-2 did - of squandering a positive mandate with little to show for it at the end of five years.

The two big truths about being Indian are an acute consciousness about power and who wields it, and the prioritisation of power over principle.

Principles are brought into play only when they are convenient. This means concurrence or consensus on any issue is almost never about ideology. It has

Modi can get all his legislation passed by calling a single joint session of parliament

to be bargained, bought, bartered – or bludgeoned.

If we accept these as intrinsically Indian traits, it means two things: those who have power must project it and use it for gaining ground and getting things done. And two, whoever has power will see unprincipled opposition to it. People from extreme ends of the ideological

spectrum will gang up to oppose those who have power. If you do not use your power, others will neutralise it sooner than later.

This is what we are seeing now on the insurance bill; this is what we are seeing in Bihar politics, where two bitter enemies (Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad) have joined forces to defeat the

BJP. This is what led the Congress to support the Aam Aadmi Party after 8 December last year (to keep BJP out), and this is what led Congress and BJP to join hands against Arvind Kejriwal’s rising popularity and scuttle the introduction of the Jan Lokpal Bill. It is another matter Kejriwal shot himself in the foot over this bill, but that was pure luck for BJP, not strategy.

I predict that in Bengal the Trinamool and Congress will work together at some point of time, thanks to the BJP’s rise in this state.

And, despite her alleged closeness to Modi, J Jayalalithaa is going to demand her pound of flesh every time Modi seeks her support. Nothing will come for free. In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress will ally with either BSP or SP the next time to defeat the party. In the coming months, Modi will not be able to take even the Shiv Sena, the TDP and the LJP’s support for granted, despite their being part of the pre-poll NDA alliance. It is worth recalling that the Sena dumped the BJP in the last two presidential polls. One does not see the Sena and the Akalis drifting away from the BJP, but their concurrence on issues cannot be taken for granted.

The message for Modi is simple: get things done fast, or lose the momentum and the mandate. Project power, and don’t be afraid of showing where you stand on issues. Any show of weakness allows the opposition to scuttle your plans. I have always argued that a government

that does not act fast when the sentiment is with it will soon lose the initiative and be pushed around by everybody. Even before the election results were out, I had written that Modi should use his first 90-100 days to get the difficult laws and legislation passed. He should also have called the Delhi assembly election immediately after 16 May. It would have been easiest to pull off when the Lok Sabha mandate was fresh in everybody’s mind and Kejriwal was down in the dumps. Now, it has given him time to recover.

Ideally, the first budget should have been a cracker on reform – not more of the same. If the next budget does not deliver big, Modi and Arun Jaitley would have lost the initiative forever.

Even now, nothing is lost. If Modi chooses to do so, he should get all his legislation – on labour, land acquisition, food security, insurance, etc – passed quickly by the Lok Sabha, and when the Rajya Sabha fails to pass them, call a single joint session of parliament and get them all passed in one go. Trying to do it piecemeal will not work. With every passing day, the opposition to the BJP will only grow.

At the end of 30 days in power, Modi blogged that he did not get the luxury of an extended honeymoon period; He, of all people, should have known that. He has to get his power act right. Now. (By special arrangement with Firstpost.com)

RSS London meet reveals outreach to Muslims Rahul’s sound and fury

RSS peaceniks think that it is the moment to tap into the Muslim anger against secular parties

“back channel diplomacy” to open up a dialogue with Muslims. The move is propelled by younger elements in the organisation who favour an engagement with liberal Muslims even though they are not clear about the terms of this engagement. In fact, it is more a stab at sussing out the Muslim mood than a concrete strategy to reach out to them.

The problem is that, like the modernisers in the Muslim community, the RSS modernisers have their own hardliners from the old school of RSS orthodoxy to contend with. So, they are treading cautiously and the idea at this stage appears to be simply to set the ball rolling by exploring informal channels of communication

between the two sides. As far as I could gather the RSS is not involving itself officially or directly in any such move leaving it to individuals and front organisations to take a punt. Thus, an ostensibly independent think-tank run by a senior BJP leader with close RSS links plans to bring together Muslim “intellectuals” for a brainstorming as part of a conference on international security etc in Goa later this year. The conference will have the organisational backing of Goa’s BJP government.

The view that this might be a good time to push for better relations with Muslims flows broadly from two factors: (1) a recognition of the changes happening in the Muslim community, especially among the youth, who have become more pragmatic in making political choices and are fighting against old ideological positions; and (2 ) the deep Muslim disillusionment with Congress-style secular politics which has done them no favours and yet made them look like beneficiaries of “appeasement”.

(Copyright: Firstpost.com)

As India changes, so does Rakshabandhan

Modi not running...

Contd from p1

In other recent statements, Chavan said he is prepared for a Gujarat model vs. Maharashtra debate on industry and development. In fact, over the past year, Chavan has often said the perception that Gujarat has surpassed Maharashtra on growth parameters is untrue and has called this a motivated positioning. Meanwhile, while the Maharashtra Congress is also set to engage a professional PR agency for its election campaign and image management, Chavan has indicated that other lessons learnt from the Lok Sabha election include Modi’s deft use of social media.

Speaking in Nagpur earlier this week, Chavan advocated the use of social media in the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra in a big way.

“Though the Congress government of Rajiv Gandhi had been credited with bringing mobile and computer technology, Congress has fallen short of social media. But during the (upcoming) Assembly polls, Congress will not lag behind in using it to ensure proper planning for voting and will engage a majority of youth voters with Congress,” Chavan was quoted as saying.

(Copyright: Firstpost.com)

Also, she does everything a brother would have done such as teach me how to ride a bicycle, climb trees and play football in our backyard, says Disha. Pravya S, an eight-year-old student who does not have any siblings learnt about Rakshabandan when she was four-year-old. Her entrepreneur father introduced her to the concept of this celebration.

“He told me that I should tie him a rakhi every year because he will protect me all his life. I was confused at first because he is my father and not my brother. I realise what he means. I don’t need an elder sibling to play or enjoy a festival as my father fills in all of this. He plays with me in the park, sits with me to study and also mock fights with me like a sibling does,” added Pravya, who also loves the gift aspect of the festival. She selects a gift right at the start of the year and keeps it in her list till Rakshabandan comes.

For Sayali Phadnis, her younger brother Abhishek Chitre is the apple of her eye. With a 10-year age gap between the two, Sayali has always had to play the protective one to Abhishek. “As a young boy he would often say that I will not let anyone harm you. But it has always been me protecting him, be it from our parents or his friends. I have always been the big brother,” shared Sayali, who works as a procure and logistic manager at Microline Pvt Ltd. “For years now, I am the one who buys him a gift on Rakhi. I love doing the same. I remember even as a child I would drop him to school and pick him up too. He is an introvert and I have to understand what he wants.”

Sayali is married but that does not stop the siblings from sharing the same relationship. “I am still the first one he calls when he is happy or sad.” anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com

Contd from p1

in Parliament is not going to revive Congress

by Sanjeev Singh The normally indifferent Rahul Gandhi trying to make his presence felt in Parliament should be good news for the Congress.

On Wednesday, while walking into the well of the House and speaking to the media outside, he was at least trying to convey the impression that the party was not leaderless and that he was in charge. The fear of a ‘palace coup’ – as remarked by Arun Jaitley - may not be what goaded him into action. However, it is still a case of too little, too late.

Matters of Parliament can be handled by experienced leaders; the real challenge for Rahul lies in getting the party organisation active again. He has to dismantle a coterie of leaders that seem to be controlling the Congress and left it alienated from the rank and file.

This is where he just doesn’t seem to be in the mood to do anything.

“A new generation of power and pelf-seekers are now dominating the affairs of the party,” former state minister from Uttar Pradesh and Congress MP from Siddharth Nagar, Jagdambika Pal had said when he quit the party in March this year. “There is a serious lack of communication and virtual absence of respect for old timers like me in the party. I find myself totally out of sync with this new dispensation”. Pal joined the BJP and is back in Parliament unlike the others who chose to stay put in the sinking ship.

With elections due in Haryana and Maharashtra later this year, most senior leaders are wary of facing the electorate. The likes of Narayan Rane in Maharashtra and Chaudhary Birender Singh in Haryana are making no bones about their anger against the high command in public.

Though the party has managed to convince Rane about staying back, it was done only after the party gave in to most of his demands. While Singh has been removed from the Congress Working Committee and has been served a show

IANS

Considering that I only ever get hate mail from Hindutva supporters I was slightly surprised when instead what I found nestling in my inbox last week was a polite message from a highprofile RSS figure whom I had never met before asking to meet me. He was passing through London, he wrote, and wondered if we could have a chat?

So, whisper, whisper, we met at a plush central London hotel where he was staying (the right-wing Urdu press could go to town with “Muslim Journalist in Secret Rendezvous with RSS Leader!”) and for nearly an hour --over cappuccinos and Scottish cookies-- we danced around the “Muslim Question “. Not so much as ideological adversaries, though both were acutely conscious of where the other was coming from, but as characters in a scriptless play trying to make sense of the plot we were landed with.

To cut to the chase, it seems that the RSS is trying to engage in a version of

IANS

by Hasan Suroor

cause notice for meeting BJP president Amit Shah last week, rubbing salt into the Congress’ wounds was former Faridabad MP, Avtar Singh Bhadana who quit the party this Tuesday.

“Under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda, the Congress in Haryana is on verge of extinction,” claimed Singh, four time MP and a strong Gujjar leader with grassroot support. “After giving feedback to Congress president, I was hoping that the party will take some action, but nothing was done,” he added, laying the blame squarely on the Gandhi family.

With their biggest Gujjar leader in the state resigning and another tall Jat leader (Singh) on the verge of joining the BJP, and Rahul not being able to accommodate their aspirations, the message to the rank and file is clear.

But nothing seems to be affecting Rahul Gandhi as he goes about doing his politics in the same manner as if nothing has changed. “He remains the same, we are tired of hearing of people addressing him as ‘Pappu’ and we feel ashamed,” he had said last month. The “primaries” system was introduced by Rahul in Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and National Students Union of India (NSUI) in 2008, but allegations of fake memberships are still as rampant as before.

Rahul needs to realise that with just 44 MPs he needs to do more than just accuse the Speaker of not hearing his views inside the House. The first would be to give an attentive ear to loyalists rather than the “coterie” that threaten the very existence of the grand old party.

(Copyright: Firstpost.com)

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

PUNE

‘Hosting U-17 World Cup would reflect our infrastructure capability’ P 16

“It is fundamental for governments to promote the absorption and retention of greenhouse gases, to progress towards sustainable production models that will allow us to achieve full food security.”

—Raul Benitez of UN Food and Agriculture Organisation

Worldwide, coal consumption in 2020 will be about twice what it was in 2000, states US Energy Information Administration

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

cleaning up their emissions,” said Stuart Haszeldine, a geologist at the University of Edinburgh. Capturing carbon, he said, “is the single best way of doing that.”

Yet it is no magic bullet. Because it requires so much energy, sucking up carbon reduces a plant’s ability to make electricity - the whole point of its existence. There are basic questions of whether carbon dioxide can be safely stored underground. And the technology is expensive. Updating the Saskatchewan plant alone cost $1.2 billion - two-thirds of which went for the equipment to remove the gas.

In the pine woods of Kemper County, Mississippi, another carbon-capture effort is taking shape, in a massive new power plant that will be fed a steady diet of coal from the strip mine next door. Bruce Harrington, the operations manager, likened the hulking beast to an anthill: It seems curiously quiet on

Aaron Phillips/The New York Times

ESTEVAN, Saskatchewan: So much soot belched from the old power plant here that Mike Zeleny would personally warn the neighbours.

“If the wind was blowing in a certain direction,” Zeleny said, “we’d call Robinson down the street and tell her not to put out her laundry.”

That coal plant is long gone, replaced by a much larger and cleaner one along the vast Saskatchewan prairie. Sooty shirts and socks are a thing of the past.

But as with even the most modern coal plants, its smokestacks still emit enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, the invisible heat-trapping gas that is the main contributor to global warming. So this fall, a gleaming new maze of pipes and tanks - topped with what looks like the Tin Man’s hat - will suck up 90 per cent of the carbon dioxide from one of the boilers so it can be shipped out for burial, deep underground.

If there is any hope of staving off the worst effects of climate change, many scientists say, this must be part of it, capturing the carbon that spews from power plants and locking it away, permanently. For now, they contend, the world is too dependent on fossil fuels to do anything less.

If all goes as planned, the effort in Saskatchewan will be the first major one of its kind at a power plant, the equivalent of taking about 250,000 cars off the road. And at least in theory, that carbon dioxide will be kept out of the atmosphere forever.

“Think about how far we’ve come,” said Zeleny, who recently retired after four decades here, most recently as plant manager.

Despite President Barack Obama’s push to rein in emissions from power

plants across the United States, coal is not going away anytime soon. The administration expects coal will still produce nearly a third of the nation’s electricity in 2030, down from about 40 per cent today, even if Obama’s plan survives the political onslaught against it.

The challenge is even more stark overseas. China already burns almost as much coal as all other nations combined, and its appetite keeps expanding.

Worldwide, coal consumption in 2020 will be about twice what it was in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration, and will continue to grow for decades.

Even the abundant natural gas unleashed by fracking, while cleaner than coal, is a major source of greenhouse gases.

Ultimately, many scientists say, those emissions will need to be trapped and stored, too.

“If you want to carry on using those fossil hydrocarbons, that means

“It won’t be easy at first, but it’ll work,” said Bruce Harrington (left), operations manager

Aaron Phillips/The New York Times

Corralling carbon before it erupts Cranes work on the carbon capture section of a power plant in Kemper County, Mississippi

the outside, but deep within an army of workers is cutting, welding and testing.

Disturb it, he said, and thousands of people will come pouring out.

Battling delays, the plant’s owner, Southern Co., hopes to have it open next year. But it is more complex than the Saskatchewan effort, and the price tag has ballooned to $5.5 billion, more than double the original estimate.

“It’ll work,” Harrington said. “It won’t be easy at first, but it’ll work.”

Though the world has known for decades how to capture carbon dioxide from power plants, scant progress has been made. The United States and other nations have paid for research and helped some projects - Canada gave $220 million to the Saskatchewan plant’s owner, SaskPower, and Southern Co. received $270 million from the Department of Energy - but the costs are high enough that few other power companies have done much beyond study the concept.

“There’s no market,” said Edward S. Rubin, a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, unless governments impose “a requirement to substantially reduce emissions.”

That is precisely what is happening here in Saskatchewan, given the Canadian government’s recent restrictions on coal plants both old and new. But whether Obama’s new rules are aggressive enough to spur a change in the U.S. remains unclear.

Carbon dioxide has been buried

around the world with few problems.

In Norway, a million tons have been stored every year since 1996, injected into sandstone about 914 metres beneath the North Sea. (By some estimates, that site alone could store as much carbon dioxide as the world could capture for years.)

There are basic questions of whether carbon dioxide can be safely stored underground Picking the right geological features could minimise the risk of earthquakes and leaks. But even then, storage wells would have to be monitored, presumably forever, at a cost someone would have to bear.

Most of Boundary Dam’s carbon dioxide will not simply be buried in storage wells.

Instead, the emissions from burning one fossil fuel, coal, will become a tool to

extract and consume yet another: oil.

After being sold and shipped through a 64-kilometre pipeline to an oil field, the carbon dioxide will be pumped into old wells, where it will mix with the oil inside, making it flow better.

The process is known as enhanced oil recovery, and while some of the carbon dioxide will come up with the oil, it will be compressed and injected again. Over time, nearly all of it should remain underground.

The oil and gas industry has done this for decades, mostly with naturally occurring carbon dioxide that accumulates underground. But each year in North America, more than 15 million tons of carbon dioxide from industry are used as well. Selling that carbon dioxide to the oil industry helps make a business case for capturing it at places like Boundary Dam. The practice could be expanded at many oil fields around the United States and beyond, experts say, potentially storing billions of tons of carbon dioxide and serving as a bridge to the day when it becomes necessary, and economical, to store the gas elsewhere.

Yet the prognosis for carbon capture is less clear. If the United States moves forward, China and other countries may make bigger strides as well.

“How this will play out over time is hard to tell,” said Rubin. “Inevitably, there will be a balance between technological capability, cost and political realities.” © 2014 New York Times News Service

By JANE E BRODY

We may think of ourselves as just human, but we’re really a mass of microorganisms housed in a human shell. Every person alive is host to about 100 trillion bacterial cells. They outnumber human cells 10to-1 and account for 99.9 per cent of the unique genes in the body. Katrina Ray, a senior editor of Nature Reviews, recently suggested that the vast number of microbes in the gut could be considered a “human microbial ‘organ’” and asked, “Are we more microbe than man?”

Our collection of microbiota, known as the microbiome, is the human equivalent of an environmental ecosystem. Although the bacteria together weigh a mere 1.4 kg, their composition determines much about how the body functions and, alas, sometimes malfunctions.

Like ecosystems the world over, the human microbiome is losing its diversity, to the potential detriment of the health of those it inhabits.

Dr Martin J Blaser, a specialist in infectious diseases at the New York University School of Medicine and the director of the Human Microbiome Programme, has studied the role of bacteria in disease for more than three decades. His research extends well beyond infectious diseases to autoimmune

conditions and other ailments that have been increasing sharply worldwide.

In his new book, Missing Microbes, Blaser links the declining variety within the microbiome to our increased susceptibility to conditions from allergies and celiac disease to Type 1 diabetes and obesity. He and others primarily blame antibiotics for the connection.

Caesarean deliveries encourage the growth of microbes from the mother’s skin, instead of from the birth canal, in the baby’s gut, Blaser said in an interview.

This change in microbiota can reshape an infant’s metabolism and immune system.

A recent review of 15 studies involving 163,796 births found that, compared with babies delivered vaginally, those born by cesarean section were 26 per cent more likely to be overweight and 22 per cent more likely to be obese as adults.

Some researchers have even speculated that disruptions of gut microbiota play a role in celiac disease and the resulting explosion in demand for gluten-free foods even among people without it.

Blaser cautions against the overuse of antibiotics, especially the broadspectrum drugs now commonly prescribed, and particularly in children.

“In Sweden, antibiotic use is 40 per cent of ours at any age, with no increase in disease,” he said.

“We need to educate physicians and parents that antibiotics have costs. We need improved diagnostics.

Is the infection caused by a virus or bacteria, and if bacteria, which one?

“Then we need narrow-spectrum antibiotics designed to knock out the pathogenic bacteria without disrupting the health-promoting ones,” Blaser said. © 2014 New York Times News Service

by IAN JOHNSON

WUHAN, China - In a small conference room overlooking this city’s smog-shrouded skyline, Huang Jinlai outlines his offer to China’s childless elite: for 180,000 euros, a baby with your DNA, gender of your choice, born by a coddled but captive rural woman. The arrangement is offered by Huang’s Baby Plan Medical Technology Company, with branches in four Chinese cities and up to 300 successful births each year.

As in most countries, surrogacy is illegal in China. But a combination of rising infertility, a recent relaxation of the one-child-per-family policy and a cultural imperative to have children has given rise to a booming black market in surrogacy that experts say produces more than 10,000 births a year.

The trade links couples desperate for children with poor women desperate for cash in a murky world of online brokers, dubious private clinics and expensive trips to foreign countries. “China’s underground market shows that there is a need for surrogacy in society,” said Wang Bin, an associate professor at Nankai University’s law school. “And where there is a need, there is a market.”

The rise of surrogacy is often linked to the increase in wealthier, better-educated Chinese couples waiting until their late 30s to start a family, a trend that makes it harder to conceive. Some academics say China’s severe air, water and soil pollution contribute to increasing infertility, although that claim has not been scientifically demonstrated.

Regardless, failure to reproduce is less of an option than it is in the West. Tradition holds that couples must have a child. A folk proverb warns that “among the three unfilial deeds, having no offspring is the worst.” Some women think they must have a child or their husbands will divorce them. Some couples seeking surrogacy have sadder stories, sometimes hoping to replace only children who have died. China’s unregulated market, with a network of roughly 1,000 baby brokers nationwide, often results in trouble.

One woman who asked to be identified only by her family name, Zuo, said a friend put her in touch with a woman from the countryside who had already given birth and needed more income. Another friend

Sim Chi Yin/The New York Times

A body’s bacterial China experiences a booming underground market in child surrogacy companions

A 30-year-old rural woman who asked to go by her surname, Kong, is six months pregnant and will earn $24,000 as a Baby Plan surrogate

recommended a private clinic in Beijing that would conduct the embryo implantation and follow-up treatments; a surrogate mother requires months of hormone shots to prepare her body for the implanted embryo and prevent its rejection. The surrogate became pregnant but said she wanted to keep the child and disappeared. “We paid 30,000 yuan as a down payment,” Zuo said. “And we got nothing and have no way to find the woman.”

Here in Wuhan, Baby Plan offers a more expensive,

but at times grimly controlled, programme. Chinese couples fly to Thailand, where surrogacy is legal, to donate their sperm and egg. A Chinese surrogate is flown there, too, and receives the implant. The three return to China and the surrogate is installed in a private apartment with a full-time assistant. To make sure she does not get ideas about fleeing with the customer’s fetus, she is cut off from her family and receives daily visits from a psychological counselor, Huang said.

If all goes well, the baby is born at a private clinic, which Huang says has an agreement with Baby Plan to accept the couple’s identity papers, legally registering the child as their own. Often, the couple never meet the surrogate. If the fertilisation works on the first try, Baby Plan makes a profit of 18,000 euros, Huang estimates, the same amount the surrogate mother makes. “The baby is guaranteed, as well as a DNA check,” Huang said. “Otherwise you don’t pay.”

One Baby Plan client is a 49-year-old professional from Shanghai who asked to be known only by her family name, Zhang. Zhang’s 18-year-old daughter committed suicide in 2012. Because of China’s singlechild policy, she was the only offspring of Zhang and her husband. After a year and extensive counseling, the couple decided that they could heal only if they had another child. A medical test, however, showed that Zhang’s eggs were probably too old to be fertilized. Zhang said she suggested to her husband that they use another woman’s egg. “At least with his sperm it will look a bit like her,” Zhang said of her dead daughter, her hands shaking. “It will be a bit like having my child back - half the blood will be hers, so my heart will be soothed.” Zhang’s surrogate is four months pregnant, and she recently visited the woman.

“It’s not easy for them either,” she said.

Huang said his surrogate mothers were all Chinese women recruited from the countryside by friends and family members. He said his upper-class clientele would not accept a foreign woman they regard as inferior as a surrogate, even though the cost is lower.

“Chinese don’t want their children carried by people who are more backward than they are,” he said.

Still, foreign women are widely used as surrogates. © 2014 New York Times News Service

TH E EDIT PAGE

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

PUNE

Editor’s pick

“If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.”

-Groucho Marx

Dabholkar murder, Science & Superstition To suggest that the Pune Police could powers were asked to provide clues to have traced the killers of the antithe whereabouts of the plane. superstition crusader Dr Narendra Therefore, Dr Bhatkar says that Dabholkar by trying to “communicate he sees no harm if the Pune Police too with his spirit” amounts to nothing undertook a “parallel approach” to solve short of insulting Dr Dabholkar’s legacy.

Dr Dabholkar’s murder which has foxed All his life, this selfless social investigators for a year now. worker fought valiantly against black He is right in his views when he says magicians, witch doctors and charlatans that as a scientist he believes in having an who tricked and exploited people for open mind about everything including generations by claiming that they could planchettes and séances. However, communicate with the dead. when a person of his standing and An entire industry exists on the influence extends support to something basis of this deception. Poor, gullible that is unscientific, unproven and grossly people, mostly illiterates from rural exploitative, he ought to have weighed areas have allowed the extreme torture the misuse and misinterpretation that of their womenfolk out of their faith in his statement could cause. The scientist such beliefs. Dr Dabholkar gave up his could have silently continued with his medical practice to wage a heroic battle research on the subject and spoken about against this throughout it only after arriving Maharashtra. To suggest at a conclusion; rather that the Pune Police The scientist than complain that he could have solved his has been quoted out of could have murder by resorting context by the media. to those very methods In the state that silently amounts to endorsing science and scientific this evil belief system continued with research are in today, and the unscientific and there is no evidence of medieval practice of his research either life after death planchettes and séances. or the possibility of The eminent on the subject communicating with the computer scientist Dr of dead people. and spoken spirits Vijay Bhatkar is right We know that there when he says that these about it only is something called belief systems and their “consciousness”, the after arriving nature of which is the claims are subjects of research. He has subject of intense debate. categorically told this at a conclusion As such, there is no newspaper that he does evidence of the existence not endorse planchettes of the soul. or any form of black magic and has no There are conflicting ideas, evidence about their efficacy. At the theories and schools of thought with same time, he maintains that without ardent supporters and critics. Entire valid scientific research, he would not religions, Hinduism and Buddhism like to reject the claims made by those being among them, have raised their who practice planchettes and séances. edifice on the premise of the atman, He is not wrong even on this point. karma, reincarnation and other belief Dr Bhatkar has emphasised that systems which cannot be established while he does not know whether scientifically with the knowledge that planchettes or séances work, he is mankind has today. well aware that leading investigating These very questions have agencies the world over have been troubled man for time immemorial applying these methods and leading with saints, seers, philosophers, mystics, research organisations and university scientists and researchers seeking departments have been conducting answers to the question “Who am I?” intense research into such subjects.

Am I this mortal body or something Extrasensory perception or ESP which immortal called the soul/ consciousness/ includes psychic abilities including spirit/ atman?

These are valid questions for research telepathy are subjects of intense research and Dr Bhatkar is within his rights to the world over. So also is the case with a investigate further. We wish him luck range of paranormal phenomena. and success in his research at the proposed The most recent example that Centre for Research in Consciousness he cites is the disappearance of the under the ISpace India International Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 when Multiversity headed by him. people claiming to possess psychic

Cartoon by: Sangrea.net

Congress plight: Dynasty is to blame

By Amulya Ganguli

Image courtesy: sciencedaily.com

Vol-1* lssue No.: 8 Printed and Published by: Shrikant Honnavarkar on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Printed at Diligent Media Corporation Ltd, Plot No. EL-201, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Mahape, Navi Mumbai.

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

Editor: Abhay Vaidya (Responsible for the selection of news under the PRB Act, 1867)

The imprecations directed at Rahul Gandhi - “joker” - and at his advisers - “rootless wonders and spineless creepers” - by sections of Congressmen and the recent signs of organizational disarray in several states suggest that it is still a far cry for the Congress where recovery is concerned.

The revolts by two important functionaries, Narayan Rane in Maharashtra and Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam, and by lesser known figures in Haryana, Jammu and West Bengal, show that the aftershocks from the Lok Sabha poll debacle will take time to die down - if at all.

Such signs of anger and dissent are understandable in the wake of the party’s worst ever performance. But what must be a cause of worry to its well-wishers is that the so called high command appears to be unequal to the task of restoring calm and confidence.

While the former prime minister has sunk even further out of sight, especially after the latest allegations that Manmohan Singh winked at the shenanigans of a judge for the sake of placating a demanding political ally, the DMK, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi haven’t given any indication that they have become aware of the basic reasons for the setback.

One explanation for their silence is that they are waiting for the report on the defeat which is being prepared by A.K.Antony. While the former defence minister may not have been the right person for the job in view of his closeness to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which is likely to prevent him from pointing out the family’s failures, it is odd that the report will be meant for Sonia Gandhi’s eyes only. Even

if bits and pieces of the document leak out, it will be another example - like the secrecy surrounding the Henderson-Brooke’s report on the 1962 Sino-India war - of the reluctance at the political and official levels to face the truth.

Such an ostrich-like approach is of little value, considering that at least some in the Congress have identified the main reason for its setback. As much is clear not only from the harsh comments quoted earlier but also from the observations of a former MP, Gulfaran-e-Azam.

According to him, “Parents try to make sure that their children become doctors or engineers, but despite their best efforts, the children are not able to become doctors or engineers. For 10 years, you (Sonia Gandhi) tried to make Rahul a politician, but still he is not able to give a speech, nor has he developed any political acumen”.

For Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the Mahatma’s grandson, it isn’t so much the individuals who are at fault as the party itself which “thinks it is meant for the

peacock throne from which alas the peacock has long since flown”.

Considering that he noted how the Congress has evicted leaders like Vallabhbhai Patel and Subhas Chandra Bose from its pantheon and even forgotten someone like Feroze Gandhi, whose criticism of the Jawaharlal Nehru government was the “the stuff of a legend”, it is obvious that the former governor of West Bengal is not an admirer of the dynasty which presides over the party’s destiny.

If these critiques - three by Congressmen and one by an eminent outsider - are read together, it is clear that the party’s first family is being held responsible for the defeat.

It is unlikely, however, that the accusations will be taken to heart by the Congress. The ingrained habits of sycophancy will make most of the party members look everywhere but at the real cause for the reverses. Yet, curiously, their refusal to recognize the stark reality will not dispel the belief that the party is doomed.

Even if rebels like Rane and Sarma

Meditation is elixir of life

By Anil K Rajvanshi

studies have shown the direct effect of meditation on DNA and gene expresLuc Montagnier – the French scientist, sion. For example a study has shown who received the 2008 Nobel Prize in that meditation helps in delaying the medicine for the discovery of HIV viprocess of ageing by increasing telomrus, has experimentally shown that it is erase activity. Telomerase is an enzyme possible to replicate and transfer DNA which repairs the DNA. Chromosomes strands from one test tube to another have caps of repetitive DNA called teloby simply passing a very low level elecmeres at their ends. tromagnetic (EM) radiation of 7Hz Every time cells divide, their telothrough them. meres shorten, which eventually prompts This is almost like teleportation of them to stop dividing and die. This relife and, if proved correct, could sults in the ageing process. Howbe one of the most revolutionary ever telomerase enzyme stops discoveries of modern times. The the shortening and meditation body is repaired, rejuvenated and helps in increasing the activity of kept healthy by production and this enzyme. Similarly another replication of good DNA. Any study done at Harvard University mutation or break-up of DNA showed that meditation directly leads to cancer and other ailaffects genes by switching them ments. Also under deep meditaon and off so as to combat the bad tion brain produces EM waves of free radicals which are THINK effects called theta and alpha waves produced when we are emotionranging from 4-12 Hz but mostly in the ally and physically stressed. range of 7-8 Hz. It is therefore possible All these studies have shown experthat deep and regular meditation helps imentally the positive effect of meditain rejuvenation of the body by helping tion at the cellular level in human body replicate good DNA. In Patanjali Yoga though the exact mechanism is still not it is said that “By Sanyam or deep mediknown. I feel Luc Montagnier’s work tation on the elements, a Yogi gets a of low level 7 Hz EM waves affecting perfect body of beauty, grace, strength the replication of DNA may hold the and hardness of a thunderbolt”. Meditakey to this puzzle. Similarly, during the tion is like an elixir of life. dreaming process the brain produces Deep meditation is basically focusing 4-7 Hz Theta waves. Sleep and dream the mind on a single thought for a long research has shown that deep sleep time. Patanjali describes it as Sanyam or and dreaming is very necessary for our a combination of contemplation, meditawell being and helps us in consolidattion and Samadhi. He says that when all ing our day-time memories and also in these three things are brought to bear on removing some of the frivolous ones. any object, its complete mastery results.

However it is quite possible that besides Recently some more scientific the memory consolidation, 4-7 Hz EM

waves may also help in rejuvenating the body and mind by enhancing the replication of DNA. In the DNA teleportation experiment, Luc Montagnier also showed that DNA template was teleported from its dilute solution in a test tube to another one containing only water. In effect it showed that low level radiation of 7 Hz produced a memory in water which matched the DNA molecule. Water with its unique weak hydrogen bond capability can form almost infinite number of structures and it seems the low level radiation simply helped in this process.

This ability of water to form “memory structures” under external influence could also be the basis of achaman ritual. Achaman – a ritual of sipping water after reciting Vedic mantras is supposed to have therapeutic effect on its practitioner. It seems that chanting of mantras creates a “memory structure” in water. This is almost like the homeopathic medicine where the high potencies do not have any original medicine in it but the “memory structure” of the medicine persists in water. Achaman may be acting like homeopathic medicine!

Meditation has been practiced through the ages in almost all religions and its therapeutic value on calming the mind has been well known, but the recent discoveries show that it also affects the body at cellular level and hence is a true elixir of life. © Anil K Rajvanshi The writer is Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Phaltan, Maharashtra. He may be reached at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com

or those who want to join the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal are motivated by personal ambition and search for political safety, the fact remains that if the high command had given even a faint indication that it had discerned the faultlines, including its own lapses, then the self-seekers might have felt that there was some hope that corrective steps would be taken.

After all, politics is a game for winners where even the losers must feel reassured that their time will come. In the case of the Congress, this guarantee cannot be provided by a token offer to step down made by Sonia Gandhi (rejected by a chorus of orchestrated protests) and by perfunctory excuses, as by general secretary Digvijay Singh, that the party could not communicate its “achievements” to the voters.

Nor can it be provided by Rahul Gandhi’s game plan that the party must reach out to the Dalits, minorities and the poor. It is this division of the electorate into targeted groups which is responsible for the Congress’ plight, for it ignores the middle class and the corporate sector, which party spokesman Manish Tiwari saw as the mistake which it made.

In its heyday, the Congress success was based on its appeal to all sections of the people with the promise of stable, forward-looking, non-sectarian governance.

Today, even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is realising that identity politics does not help. But the rootless wonders and spineless creepers are still clutching at straws.

(Tarun Basu is the chief editor of IANS who was recently in Beijing. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at tarun.basu@ians.in)

Limericks of the week

BY C Ravindranath

Whether it’s Bhutan, or Nepal The visited country becomes a pal To improve relations Between nations Which one should be his next call?

To involve the scriptures we strive And somehow manage to contrive To give a hue To any issue For on controversy, we thrive.

Before we finished eating the cake The next match, England did take It’s a tough fight But the bard’s right One swallow does not a summer make

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

PUNE

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

“Scientists must have an open mind” Dr Vijay Bhatkar is credited with leading the team that created India’s first supercomputer in 1991. A recipient of the Padma Shri, Dr Bhatkar, as Chancellor of India International Multiversity, is currently engaged in research into the synthesis of science and spirituality. He spoke extensively to The Golden Sparrow on Saturday editor Abhay Vaidya on issues relating to the planchette / séance controversy, on science, spiritualism and superstition and his enormous respect for Dr Narendra Dabholkar. Excerpts from the interview...

Dr Bhatkar, your recent comment about planchette and the Pune Police has created the perception that you support superstitious practices. What do you have to say about that?

I was both amused and disturbed by this because I was speaking in a different context altogether. There was a function for the release of a book titled Journey of the Soul: Life after Death by Dr Medha Khasagiwale and translated by my friend, the famous neurosurgeon Dr Deepak Ranade. Dr Ranade requested that I should release this book along with Mr Prataprao Pawar and there were many intellectuals attending this function. I was commenting on this subject and how interesting it was and while commenting on various issues like the soul, death, life after death, paranormal phenomenon, I said one of the subjects also covered in this book was planchette, which has become a very interesting subject for everyone today.

I did not refer to the police or anyone by name. In Marathi, what I said was: “Planchette baddal lihina kinwa planchette cha wapar karna he itka wavga nahi ahe.

(To write about planchette or to practice it is not so wrong.) The reason being that the use of paranormal phenomenon or ESP — not planchette — has been going on for a long time by the world’s well-known intelligence and counter-intelligence agencies like the FBI, CIA, Scotland Yard, KGB...I made this statement and went on to discuss the issue of death and life after death. This was a small part of my talk and after the lecture a journalist asked me innocuously, Planchette is used by the police, is that right?” I said that I didn’t know what planchette is but I know that it is extensively used. He picked that point and turned it into news, stating that I support the practice of planchette.

This was picked up by other media organisations and I was just asked one question repeatedly, “Do you believe in planchette or not?” I felt that my views were distorted. Then there were TV debates in which I did not participate.

We must recognise the fact that science itself is a belief system based on certain postulations which I can either prove or disprove based on assumptions on which I construct the edifice of science.

Even, people like Einstein or Niels Bohr raised questions and science took a different direction. For a long time we believed that the world was flat. But when Copernicus questioned that belief and said that planets revolves around the Sun and

into pieces, which is what happened with the creation of Bangladesh.

After the controversy, many thoughtful and intelligent people called me, saying they had positive experiences of planchette. So do I support planchette?

What I will say is that extrasensory perception (ESP) and paranormal phenomena are being used widely by intelligence and counter-intelligence and well-known agencies of the world. I won’t say whether I support it or not.

If you were asked, does planchette work?

What would be your answer?

Is there evidence? I do not have evidence because I never tired it. I would also not like to try it. I have seen a lot of material in favour and against planchettes on the Web. But I do not have any evidence. But do we have evidence about ESP? Yes, I have evidence about ESP in many wonderful ways, what I call spiritual ways.

What kind of evidence is this?

For example, evidence of prayers being answered; evidence of sankalps being fulfilled which was not possible in any circumstancesit may be a coincidence. I have many personal experiences of such powers and perceptions which may be called ESP. The question is, is personal experience an instrument (praman); evidence of knowledge?

So this takes us to the point has our science reached a level where we are able to understand ESP and other such phenomenon?

What do you call evidence of knowledge? One, evidence is direct perception — what I see, hear, smell, touch, taste — these are five instruments of knowledge which we call evidence of knowledge. Is that perception always correct? Because I see doesn’t mean that that is the truth. For example, I see a thing to be flat, but later we find that it is not true. The sky looks blue, you see a rainbow or a mirage — there are many examples of optical illusion.

“Science has never claimed finality. It will keep on discovering. Do extra-sensory perceptions exist? I do not know. My attempt will be to find out.”

Planchette and the Pune Police

BY GITESH SHELKE The Pune city or Pune rural police resorting to planchette (invoking spirits) is unheard of. The recent report about planchette being advocated by former city police commissioner Gulabrao Pol is the first instance where the police have tried to invoke the spirit of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, the anti-superstition crusader, in an attempt to identify the culprits responsible for his murder. However, prayers and promises (navas) to the gods seems to be common among the police. Dabholkar was slain by two unidentified assailants on the not the Earth, a paradigm shift happened.

So specifically with what happened in Pune where the Pune Police conducted a séance to investigate the murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, do you support such methods used by the police to investigate this murder?

I do not know whether planchette works or not. I do not know, I cannot say it is wrong. I cannot deny it because I have never done planchette myself. As a scientist I will never say that it does not exist. I have seen on the Internet that many people do it. Pandit Vasantrao Gadgil (Sanskrit scholar) was in the audience and he told me some time back that they used to do planchettes. They did a planchette when Pakistan was created and he wanted to find out what was the future of Pakistan and he did a planchette and called the ghost of Jinnah. According to him, a spirit came and said that Pakistan will be broken

— to abide by the truth. So by definition it cannot be “andh”- blind. I admire his work and I felt that the Andhashraddha Nirmulan bill must be passed. So when Dr Dabholkar was murdered, the first thing I said was that the greatest tribute to him would be to bestow this year’s Maharashtra Bhushan award on him. I also admire the work of the Andhrashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (ANIS) because they are dedicated to the cause of removing wrong beliefs.

When the Bill draft came, I said it requires deeper study and wide consultation should be done, with the warkari sampradaya for example, because they were opposing. Many spiritual leaders and others whom I respect were opposing it. I said the bill should be sent for wide consultation and modified and the government did that. I would say it’s not the final draft but a good draft.

If you were asked to distinguish between science and superstition, how would you distinguish the two?

Science must be based on evidence.

But there are many truths that are beyond sensory evidences.

In that sense there will always be a thin line. For example, Dr Mashelkar (eminent scientist) was asked at a Goa conference, “Do you believe in God?” He said ‘yes’. Now what is the evidence that there is God? If I am asked do I go to the temple? Do I pray? I will say ‘yes’. I have no evidence too.

As per Indian shastras (ancient writings on spiritualism), there are six evidences that were discussed — direct perception, inference or logic, “shabda”- the word held by someone in high esteem like Dnyaneshwar or Shankaracharya — this has been given the highest importance; analogical knowledge; innovation; the principle of absence. Then there are two secondary evidences — validity — customs and traditions which we follow though we don’t know their full meaning and possibility of things occurring, on which the entire science of fuzzy logic and probability has been developed. Science is a vast topic but we are taught it is based on only two things — direct perception and inference. Indian shastras teach the larger perspective of science.

Coming back to the question, how would you tell the common man that this is science and this superstition, ‘believe in this and don’t believe in this’.

I will use the instruments of knowledge to arrive at a conclusion.

In the existing knowledge that we have, would you agree that planchette is a superstition?

I will not say that right now. Because I have not tired, observed or initiated. I have to conduct research to find out whether it is true or not.

What, according to you, is superstition?

If I were to say ‘This is superstition, don’t do this’ what would you say?

I would say do not indulge in animal sacrifice, sometimes even children are sacrificed! They say they do it to propitiate God and this should be absolutely discouraged. Religious rituals done with an ulterior motive (is superstition). Even science being used for wrong purposes such as female foeticide. All wrong uses of science and religion is wrong.

How would you react to the Rs 21 lakh challenge by the Maharashtra Andhrashraddha Nirmulan Samiti asking you to prove the scientific basis for planchette?

Faith and blind faith are not static issues.

Our knowledge is continuously evolving.

So shraddha and andhashraddha should be continuously researched and should not be based on someone’s whims and fancies. This can go to any extent. Tomorrow you will question the construction of temples. There should be an evolution of our views too. The

bridge opposite Omkareshwar temple, on the morning of August 20, 2013. The post mortem revealsed that four bullets of the killers had found their mark.

Former Inspector General of Police S M Mushriff told this newspaper that he had not heard of planchette during his career.

“If there are temples or dargahs on police station premises, it is absolutely wrong and these should be removed, for a free and fair detection of crimes,” he said.

Another senior retired police officer also said that this was the first time he had heard of planchette used by the police.

Direct perception is an evidence of knowledge which may not always be true.

Inference based on logic is an evidence of knowledge, even as there are many layers of logic and logic itself is based on postulates. These are based on assumptions which can be questioned and as soon as some assumptions are proved wrong, the whole thing changes. Basically, everything is questionable and that is what Einstein did when he brought space and time together. Nobody had thought of the Theory of Relativity and the whole world was shaken.

What do you feel is the significance of Dr Narendra Dabholkar’s work in superstition eradication and the exploitation of people?

I admire and acclaim his work. I did have a dialogue with him on the definition of shraddha. “Shraddha (faith) according to me is Sat Dha-Satya cha dharan karna

ANIS should use their 21 lakh rupees for that. Instead of challenging me like this, they should use the money in this way, if they have Rs 21 lakh (laughs). They should use it for research into sharaddha and andha shraddha .

There is ambiguity about it.

A single sentence answer from you: If the police decide to do this planchette again to investigate into a murder, what would you say?

If they do it in a controlled condition, if they are satisfied that there is no other way...

When there is no way, they may do it under controlled conditions.

GHOSTS & ESP L: Women have been tortured in the name of being possessed by ghosts- something that Dr. Dabholkar fought against, (Photo credit: Creative commons on Flick.com) R: Journalism student Morley Chalmers has his telepathic powers tested by Dr. W. E. Mann of Western’s Sociology Department, USA. Extra Sensory Perception or ESP was seen as a form of quackery by most scientists, but Professor Mann unperturbed by this attitude compared ESP to the study of hypnosis which he said at one time was regarded as a hoax both by scientists and the general public.

Photo credit: www.redicecreations.com

‘I disagree with Dr. Bhatkar’s stand’ Arvind Gupta, Science educator: I do not believe in superstitions. There are many things about which scientists still know little and are still groping. Understanding comes slowly as new instruments and techniques are designed and more research takes place. Science is the only true way of investigating natural phenomenon. Rest are all speculations with no basis in the objective world.

I do not think the Pune Police should have resorted to planchette as a method of investigation. They are medieval and unscientific.

I D disagree with Dr. Bhatkar’s stand on using planchette as a method of investigations.

(Dr. Abhay Bang, Dr RA Mashelkar and Professor Jayant Narlikar were among those approached for their comments but were unavailable for various reasons.)

Is it a valid method of investigation?

I don’t know right now. But I can tell you that it is being used worldwide by various agencies. Even when the Malaysian plane (MH17) was lost and there was no clue, many people with psychic capabilities were approached to give clues and they made many sketches.

It may be done as a parallel resort, but what importance should be given should be left to the wise people. For example, if my child was lost in a yatra in Dehu and there is no clue; everyone is desperate. And if someone suggests let’s do planchette, is it wrong? If your child is lost, whatever be your station in life, you will do this.

I am not a scientist if I don’t have an open mind.

Scientific spirit is absent in such scientists: Anil Awachat- social worker and pioneering de-addiction activist

ARVIND GUPTA

ANIL AWCHAT

There is no scientific basis of planchette. There is no proof of souls etc. Kabir das and Tukaram are saints and have said that when a person dies, he’s gone Planchette is humbug. It is very sad that Bhatkar has endorsed planchette. Indian scientists are confused and live in two worlds.

Some scientists I know follow people like Satya Sai Baba who produce things from the air. How do they accept it? A scientist knows scientific discipline and must prove what he believes.

Planchette must be proved if he (Bhatkar) believes in it. There is no scientific spirit in such scientists. Scientific spirit must be applied in every sphere of life.

As told to Ritu Goyal Harish

Not against religion

August 20 will mark Dr Dabholkar’s first death anniversary

abhay.vaidya@goldensparrow.com

Planchettes, séances and Dr Dabholkar’s murder

Planchettes and seances are used to communicate with the spirits of the dead. They were in the news in Pune after it came to light that the Pune Police authorised a series of seances to communicate with the spirit of the late Dr Narendra Dabholkar, to obtain clues to the identities of his murderers.

The case remains unsolved to date. The news of the police using these means has raised public furore, it being ironic that superstitious practices were used to investigate an anti-superstition crusader’s murder.

TGS NEWS SERVICE Dr Narendra Dabholkar’s battle was not against religion but against superstition and all the exploitation done by promoting superstitious practices.

Shot while he was on his morning walk, on August 20 on Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune, Dabholkar felt deeply betrayed by Maharashtra’s politicians, who had failed to table the long-pending anti-black magic and superstition bill in the state assembly.

That happened swiftly enough after his death.

He felt sad about the selfserving lot of politicians in a state like Maharashtra, which had seen an uninterrupted string of social reformers over 150 years, beginning with ‘Lok Hitawadi’ Gopal Hari Deshmukh, till 1933, the year when Prabodhankar Thackeray died.

A doctor by training, Dabholkar hailed from Satara where he ran a clinic till 1982, after which he founded and devoted himself fully to the superstition eradication movement, the Maharashtra Andhashradda Nirmulan Samiti. He served as the editor of the Marathi weekly Sadhana founded by the legendary Marathi writer, late Sane Guruji.

An accomplished orator, Dabholkar during his many campaigns and tours throughout Maharashtra, sought to spread awareness about the destructive and illogical aspects of superstitions practices. Although hated and criticised by orthodox Hindu groups for denouncing rituals, Dabholkar repeatedly maintained that he respected all religions, but was against superstition. He pointed out forcefully and poignantly how superstitious practices hurt the poorest of the poor in rural Maharashtra.

MONEY MATT ER S “Financial peace isn’t the acquisition of stuff. It’s learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and INVEST. You can’t win until you do this.”

- Dave Ramsey, American financial author

Signposts Maharashtra steel major sets up inland container depot Viraj Profiles Ltd has set up a `90 crore world-class Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Tarapur in Thane district. The Vaishno Container Terminal ICD providing easy access to the Mumbai Port Trust and Nhava Sheva Port Terminals was inaugurated on Thursday by VS Krishnan, chief commissioner of central excise, customs and sales tax. This is the first foray by the $1.50 billion leader in stainless steel long products into the logistics sector, said Neeraj R Kochhar, company chairman and managing director.

Bharti Airtel raises `2,100 crore from share sale Bharti Airtel on Thursday raised approximately `2,100 crore (about $350 million) from a share sale in Bharti Infratel to comply with a rule that necessitates listed companies to have a minimum 25 per cent public shareholding, a company statement said here. With the offer for Sale, Bharti Airtel’s equity holding in Bharti Infratel has come down to 74.86 per cent, well ahead of the December 2015 timeline to comply with the SEBI’s minimum public shareholding norm of 25 per cent, it said.

Centre to set up E-toll plazas across India by 2015 Electronic toll plazas will come up across India by 2015, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday. Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Krishanpal Gurjar said the government had implemented the electronic toll collection system on 10 toll plazas on the MumbaiAhmedabad highway. He said the system will be implemented across India by 2015.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

“Despite sub-normal monsoon, we are confident of consolidating our market leadership by clocking growth in the double-digit in the rest of the fiscal.”

- Pawan Munjal, vice chairman, Hero MotoCorp

The technology that banks use, can land you in trouble

How a risk-free banking process promised by technology-driven banks can create problems for you

BY DR TV GOPALAKRISHNAN My experience with one of the largest private banks, among the more aggressive ones that came up in the 1990s, speaks a lot about how technology can be a bane instead of a boon. I left for a trip to the US and before leaving I called on the branch official to draw some foreign exchange, as also to ensure that in case I may need it, I should be able to execute my banking transactions through Internet banking, which is relatively secure and hassle free.

I also made a request in the prescribed format to ensure that the One Time Password (OTP), essential for Internet banking, be forwarded to my e-mail account in addition to being sent to the registered mobile number.

Further, as a matter of abundant precaution, I requested the official to help me on my request in case any need arises as high tech banking permits, encourages and welcomes e-mail contacts and correspondence to avoid personal interactions.

As a back-up and to avoid the title of a defaulter of credit card dues, I cleared all my credit card dues till the day of my departure as per the banks’ statement.

But the happiness of hassle-free banking was short-lived and I now find that I have become a defaulter for nonpayment of an insurance premium to one of the group’s associate companies, as well as a tax defaulter for not filing Income Tax returns by July 31!

The mistake I made was that I did not carry my debit card and did not sign up for the international roaming facility on my mobile phone, as these requirements were not made known to me by the branch officials. All thanks to the risk-free banking process promised by technology-driven banks.

ICICI Bank, one of the largest in India, has a system to register complaints and feedback at various levels,

through Internet banking, by email and personally with the relationship manager designated for all privileged customers. However, when one contacts them, the system only ensures that the customer gets standardised replies with regret couched in very polite language.

The bank responded quickly, saying that, “We regret that currently we do not have the process to send One Time Password (OTP) for resident customers on e-mail. For resident customers, the OTP is sent on the registered mobile number. Alternatively, we wish to inform you that you may call our 24-hour Customer Care, post authentication, they will be able to confirm to you the OTP generated for your transactions”.

The customer cannot have any complaints about the behaviour and tone (which is very polite), but definitely cannot expect any favourable response for his or her grievances. This is to be expected as machines take care of the grievances and human beings have a limited role in delivery and redress of

complaints.

I have been in constant and longwinded correspondence with the bank, since May 2014, about my inability to access to my Internet banking account, and inability to transact in the account for want of the so called OTP. The bank neither bothered to understand the problem in totality, nor did it care to arrive at a workable solution. The issue of the OTP, even though cumbersome, could still be resolved and I had a small share in the blame, but without one’s debit card, the technology would not allow any transaction through Internet banking and the bank has no solution or process to take care of this.

What is more shocking is that either the bank’s branch level personnel are either unaware or do not care to inform the customer, that it is essential to carry their debit card and registered mobile (obviously on international roaming) while going abroad.

All this, thanks to the risk-free banking processes offered by banks,

Take public grievances online Conscious citizens have been empowered by online grievance platforms. Use them!

BY VEERESH MALIK A lot of things are wrong with our roads. We grumble about it and then move on, because ‘things will never change’. That’s not so any more. And the reason for this is simple — two of the three priority areas for the present government are: public grievances and Centrestate relationships. Both of these, in turn, impact us as owners and operators of motor vehicles in India. I am narrating personal experiences over the past few weeks.

1) Advertisements from automobile companies that insult our intelligence are quite common. An example is the series of Honda Xtreme television commercials that had been running recently. The commercials showed people dressing up from head to toe while riding a motorcycle and, in the process, performing dangerous stunts.

Earlier, getting a complaint across would not have been easy. Now, we have an option— an online complaint to ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) on their website, or a written complaint sent in by post.

Here’s the timeline of events when I complained about the above-mentioned ad: 19 June 2014 - Online complaint 20 June 2014 - Complaint accepted 07 July 2014 - ASCI’s response: “Dear Mr Malik, Re: Your complaint C.6655(a) against the advertisement of Hero Xtreme. A similar complaint regarding the ad for Hero Xtreme (C.6655) was considered by the Consumer Complaints Council (CCC). As per their decision, the complaint has been UPHELD as the advertisement contravened Chapter III.3 of the ASCI Code (“Ads shall not, without justifiable reason, show or refer to dangerous practice or manifest a disregard for safety or encourage negligence.”). The CCC viewed the TVC and concluded that the TVC shows ‘an everyday activity being performed on the bike in an irresponsible manner’. We have advised the advertiser to withdraw or modify the ad before July 15, 2014 and have received their assurance

PUNE

without knowing banking in the real sense of the term and without considering a customer’s needs.

Meanwhile, I came across a news report in Business Standard that the bank has plans to introduce/ improve their services to non-resident Indian (NRI) customers. I think it would be better for the bank to improve its services for domestic customers first, before it attempts to introduce/ improve its services to customers outside the country.

Knowledge of banking is alien to its operational level staff and the human touch and interaction cannot be expected of them. These were virtues of banking in the 1990s and earlier periods. The present staff are expected to know and refer only to some standard checklist fed into the computer. Know your customer (KYC) norms and technology have also become more of a handicap than a help for customers when it comes to switching banks. When the domestic customers undergo harassment and harrowing experiences without any possibility of getting relief, one cannot even imagine the sort of suffering the NRI customers would undergo. The top management’s intentions are most likely good and laudable, but the fact remains that their intentions seldom percolate to the operational level and the ground realities are completely different and unpleasant.

Banks need to provide services based on customer needs and adopt processes built more on common sense, knowledge and human interaction wherever needed. KYC and technology are to be used only, at the most, as facilitators.

(Dr TV Gopalakrishnan is former chief general manager of Reserve bank of India) By special arrangement with moneylife.in

Plant shut since 2009, Midland stock up by 271%

BY MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM Midland Polymers used to manufacture polypropylene fi lm used in packaging.

Its plant was shut in 2009 and, since then, there has been no income from operations.

In 2013, this Indore-based company started ‘exploring’ projects in textiles, pharmaceuticals, securities trading and real estate. However, none of these businesses has taken shape and no operating income has been reported over the past year.

The only income generated has been from interest on investments.

Midland has been suspended in the past for not complying withlisting agreement. It has also failed to comply with other regulatory requirements (submitting shareholding pattern and corporate governance report). For the quarter ended March 2014, Midland (`) 75 60 45 30

271%

15 0 Jan-13

Oct-13

Jul-14

reported ‘other income’ of `42 lakh and net profit of `18 lakh. You would think that the share price of a dormant company would also remain dormant.

Not in India where stocks can be manipulated at will.

Despite no business activity for years, the stock price of Midland has shot up by 271 per cent from `5.66 on January 1, 2013 to `21 on July 10 this year.

We don’t expect the market regulator or the stock exchange to either notice this rampant manipulation or do anything about it. @moneylife

Fortnightly Market View

Keep the faith and hold on Market will be driven by pro-growth policies

BY DEBASHIS BASU

Television commercials like the series of Honda Xtreme showing people dressing up from head to toe while riding a motorcycle and, in the process, performing dangerous stunts, insult our intelligence

of compliance. Thank you for having referred this complaint to us.” Write to ASCI, if you don’t like the ad.

2) Citizens have always faced problems in dealing with regional transport offices (RTOs).

Recently, I was trying to help the wife of a friend who had passed away. His car was to be transferred to her name. To begin with, it took about nine months to get all the documentation ready. Since the RTO ‘permits’ three months for transfers, which is not enough time to get death certificates and other required documents, usually some penalties are imposed. Then, additional fees are payable to multiple private agencies involved in making the smart cards.

All this was done by April 2014, including a rigorous examination of the documents.

After eight visits to the RTO by my driver and three months of back and forth, I decided to go to the RTO at Sheikh Sarai in Delhi myself. No luck. I was informed by the staff and then by a consortium of three, sitting in the cabin of the MLO (motor licencing officer), that the signature of the owner

did not tally, and I would have to get fresh signatures of the ‘seller’. This, when the owner had died in July 2013 and all documents like death certificate, legal heirs and many other documents were right in front of them in the fi le! That is when I decided to push the issue, took a few photographs and returned home.

I fi led a few public grievances online and, by evening, everything had changed.

I received personal visits and telephone calls from the MLOs at Sheikh Sarai, and the registration certificate was hand-delivered at home. A short while ago, a very senior government servant from the ministry called up and asked me a simple question: What systemic solution would I propose to improve the current one? I said that, in the case of a motor vehicle registered in the name of an individual, the registration form should have an additional column for ‘nominee in case of death’. This would facilitate easy transfer, at a fee if required. File an online grievance if you have any problem with the RTOs. @moneylife

Over the past two weeks, the market has found it hard to make much progress. True, the post-Budget disappointment was replaced by sustained buying.

Many institutional investors, obviously, believe that the market is bound to head higher as the economy gains momentum and reforms take shape; and it is better to invest at every decline.

Indeed, throughout July, there was hardly any day when foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers. The Budget, which we felt was a wasted opportunity, does not seem to have dented their enthusiasm at all.

This is why, from the lows of July 14, the indices rallied and surpassed their previous peaks. The Sensex, which had hit 26,190 on July 8, went on to record a new high on July 25 at 26,300.

However, things have turned a bit gloomy since then.

Not only have the markets failed to head higher but have now turned decisively lower.

On Thursday, July 31, at the time of writing this piece, the Sensex was 25,895.

Let’s step back and check the weekly picture. While the Sensex is marginally higher than it was two weeks ago, it is barely up a few hundred points from the euphoria of early June.

A fatigue of sorts has set in and

FII Investment in July 1,920 12,05 490 -225 -940 -1,655 1 Jul-14

15 Jul-14

the index is likely to head lower.

The possible scenario is that the Sensex finds some support at around 25,300 and headshigher or, at least, stays within a range.

This is my preferred scenario.

The worst case scenario is a decline towards the lows of July 14 that is just around 24,900 on the Sensex and 7,400 on the Nifty.

Meanwhile, after the initial flurry of announcements and activity, the Modi sarkar has decided to go into a shell and largely ignore the mainstream media. This is a good thing and possibly shows that the government does not want to be distracted by useless chatter; but the downside is that we are left clueless. At some stage, the government needs to begin communicating its plans. If

30 Jul-14

not, it needs to act in a manner that indicates its thinking. The government has promised to be more effective. How exactly this will reduce inflation,lower interest rates and improve the climate of doing business remains to be seen.

Still, this market does remain a buy-on-the-dips market. My assumption is simple: the market will be driven by corporate performance and economic growth. Both these factors will be driven by the Modi government’s actions.

Such actions are unlikely to reduce consumption, increase wastage and create fresh hurdles for business. If anything, they will be pro-growth—whether we can see those actions just now or not. @moneylife

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

PUNE

SPORTS

“India’s bowlers are getting injured because of an excess of cricket. The BCCI needs to take a good look at the amount of cricket an international player is being put through.”

– Former India captain Kapil Dev

Signposts Rahi praises OGQ for their support PUNE: Pistol shooter Rahi Sarnobat, supported by Olympic Gold Quest, won the gold medal in the 25m sports pistol event at the 2014 Glasgow C o m m o n wealth Games.

Rahi, who hails from Kolhapur, trains, at the Shiva Chhatrapati Balewadi Sports Complex, Pune. Nonprofit foundation Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), launched by Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone, supported Rahi for training. The sports medicine team of OGQ, led by Dr Nikhil Latey, helped Rahi recover from a fracture in her shooting forearm, which happened about two months before the CWG. “Without OQG’s medical support it would have been hard for me to participate in the CWG,” said Rahi, who is now back in Balewadi to train for the World Championship which takes place in Granada, Spain from September 3. Manish Sabade, chairman and MD of Guardian Corporation is the head of the Pune Chaper of OGQ.

NEW DELHI: Leander Paes will skip India’s Davis Cup World Group playoff against Serbia to be held at the KSLTA Tennis Stadium in Bangalore Sep 12-14. The All India Tennis Association (AITA), which will meet here Aug 13 to select the team for the crucial tie, said that though Paes wanted to play, he will be unavailable due to “personal compulsions”. However, the Olympic medallist will play in the Sep 19-Oct 4 Incheon Asian Games.

The Davis Cup selection committee meeting will select the team for the tie against Serbia on Aug 13, AITA secretary general Bharat Oza said.

The winning country will qualify for the 2015 World Group while the losing country will contest in the Zone Groups. India qualified for the playoff when they beat South Korea 3-1 at Busan.

Happy hunting for India in CWG After Manchesters and Melbourne, Indian athletes notch up resepetable medal tally in Commonwealth Games in Glasgow

BY VETURI SRIVATSA GLASGOW: If you take away 2010 New Delhi, the benchmark for India at the Commonwealth Games has been 2002 Manchester when they crossed the 50-medal mark for the first time.

Before the Indians left for Glasgow, the expectations were pegged at somewhere between the Manchester tally and 2006 Melbourne where they claimed exactly 50. So, 64 should be taken as a reasonably happy figure, considering the turmoil the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) went through over the last four years.

To be fair to the national sports federations, they have been going through their routine with the government lending more than a helping hand. They make all the plans for training, competition and international exposure. They scout the world to get the best of coaches.

Unfortunately, no one seems to take seriously the 101 medals and the second position India achieved at home in 2010.

The refrain is: “What’s so big doing it in your backyard.” That’s uncharitable.

See how Scotland performed at home to finish fourth behind England, for whom also Glasgow is home, behind Australia and Canada and a rung above India.

India could have easily added a few more medals if only archery and tennis had not been dropped from the Games and also some sure medals from the wrestling and shooting events.

Archery and tennis accounted for 12 medals in New Delhi. In shooting 18 events have been dropped, including pairs event, that meant 14 medals which India won in 2010 are gone straightaway. The shooters were not the same confident lot they were in Delhi, though they still brought in 17 medals, 13 less than what they achieved at home.

Yet, Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt made sure that Indian wrestling continues to be on the upswing and, in all, five gold and six silver and two bronze were surely impressive. Vinesh Phogat and Babita Kumari brought in a pair of gold from the women’s section.

Spare a thought for all those officials

Indian hockey team received a warm welcome at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi - IANS

who perform a full-time job in conducting age-group national championships, spot talent and grom them. They never get the credit, they are only picked for wrong reasons like the corruption charges against the same officials who have also worked over the years to bring Indian sport to where it is. Before someone pipes up to say that the Indian sport has done well despite officials, there are officials and officials. There have been men who worked 24X7 going through the paper work impeccably and made sure India had a say at international forums, particularly at the continental level.

Don’t forget, there was nothing wrong with the conduct of the Games and the performances of athletes. It was an exceptional showing.

The contribution of some of the officials cannot be discounted even if the government had opened up its purse strings for the training of the athletes.

The athletes in private praise their federation officials, but the moment they face the camera they take the fashionable route of running them down! - IANS

‘Making the sport credible was a big task’

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish PUNE: Doping scanda;s have been haunting Indian weightlifting for a long period and it reached a high point when the International Weightlifting Federation banned the Indian Weightlifting Federation from participating in all international competitions for one year in 2010 and just ahead of the Delhi CWG, the Sports Ministry bailed them out paying a hefty fine of Rs3 crore.

Without much practice and training, Indian weightlifters managed to garner eight medals in Delhi and now they have come up with a sparkling performance in Glasgow, by winning 12 medals that included three gold, four silver and five bronze.

However, it wasn’t an easy task for the weightlifters to put the tainted past behind.

“It was a very difficult phase. That time, everyone was convinced that

Qatar bids for soccer with imported talent The host country of the 2022 World Cup did not have enough promising young players to compete at a reasonable level

DOHA: A little more than a decade ago, Andreas Bleicher, then a director of one of Germany’s Olympic training centers, arrived in the tiny Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, wooed there by its royal family to help turn the hopeless national soccer program into something worthy of the world’s respect.

There were plenty of reasons this would be difficult - the country hardly has a tradition of soccer excellence.

But there was one problem that seemed insurmountable. With a native population of only 300,000, Qatar simply did not have enough young players to form a team that could hope to compete.

“We were trying to build a national program with a talent pool the size of one you might find in a small United States city,” Bleicher said.

One of his early hires was Josep Colomer, a former youth scout generally credited with discovering Lionel Messi, perhaps the best soccer player in the world.

Colomer, known for his unorthodox ideas, soon began talking about importing talent to Qatar from Africa, where even children in the most farflung villages grow up playing the game. What if Qatar could send expert scouts throughout Africa on a mission to identify young, talented boys and offer them scholarships to come train at Qatar’s Aspire Academy, the new, glimmering sports institute bankrolled by the royal family?

From that simple premise unspooled a wildly ambitious plan that reached from the dusty fields of Senegal and Kenya to the cloistered royal palaces of

RAHUL RAUT

Leander Paes to skip Davis Cup tie

“I take great pride in playing for India and it is such a shame that I am not able to compete in front of the home crowd.”

– Squash player Dipika Pallikal

Omkar Otari (L) and Chandrakant Mali on their return to Pune

weightlifting is all about doping and they would criticise us for choosing such sport. We fought a long struggle to convince them that the game can be played without doping. After Delhi, the success in Glasgow proved that we have finally came over that phase,” said Omkar Otari, who won a bronze medal in men’s 69kg category.

Otari along with Chandrakant

Ear to the ground

How much do we, as television viewers, want to get inside a player’s head?

BY MALAY DESAI @malayD

By bringing the boys to the academies in Qatar and Senegal at such a young age, Aspire is shouldering the responsibility for their development not just as soccer players, but as people.

Qatar to a rundown stadium in a sleepy corner of rural Belgium.

In the first year alone, Qatar screened nearly 430,000 boys in 595 locations across seven African countries. More than seven years later, Aspire has screened 3.5 million young athletes across three continents and cherry-picked the most promising boys for odysseys that have spanned the globe.

The program’s limitless scale is in keeping with Qatar’s broader desires to establish itself as a major player in all of its pursuits. As for its soccer ambitions,

Qatar has a deadline to deliver a team that looks as if it belongs on the world stage: the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar will host.

Bleicher and Colomer insist they have sought out the best young African athletes as a way to provide highlevel competition for Qatari boys, and not, they maintain, so that African players can suit up en masse for Qatar’s national team. But there remains a possibility, albeit a remote one, that some African players could represent Qatar in 2022.

But naturalisation rules make it

difficult. Bleicher said he believes it is more likely that the African athletes end up representing their native countries, where their success would then reflect back on Qatar and its training program.

“If we naturalise a few players, what will happen?” Bleicher said. “Everyone will kill us. Everyone will see. We are not stupid, and neither is anyone else.”

Critics, though, have long been skeptical of Aspire Football Dreams, the name of the international recruitment program. © New York Times News Service

Mali, who also won a bronze medal in Glasgow, were given a rousing welcome in Pune.

Intrestingly, Otari, Chandrakant and his brother Ganesh Mali hail from Kurundwad village, near Kolhapur.

The trio started their career under the guidence from Pradeep Patil of Hercules Gym. ashish.phadis@goldensparrow.com

‘Game apne haath mein hai..awaaz, lights, kisi pe dhyan mat do!’

Wise words from Ravi Shetty, the U Mumba coach to his huddle in the Pro Kabaddi League last week. They were in Delhi, while I was on my couch back home, but thanks to a wire behind Shetty’s back winding up in a little black box attached to his hip, I felt part of the team. It was the latest in many recent instances when I was teleported right inside a sport, making me wonder, how far inside the game’s elements do we fans want to go?

In the intriguing times of television, we’ve made many memorable dives into the sports we love. In T20 cricket, you might recall how Shane Warne, at the beginning of his run-up against batsman Brendon McCullum in a Big Bash game, revealed to the commentators how he planned to get him out, then proceeded to do exactly that within moments. The format has also given us the ‘ump cam’, a camera fi xed on top of the umpires’ hats, which usually reveals nothing spectacular.

Formula 1 not only thrives on providing an intrusive TV experience to its viewer, it now depends on it. Surely the races would be snooze-fests without us not getting to hear radio exchanges between drivers and teams. In the Hungarian Grand Prix last fortnight, when British driver Lewis Hamilton was asked to slow down and let his team mate

overtake, he retorted, “I’m not letting him past me, if he gets close enough, he can overtake!” Any F1 fan would swear, these words were like gold nuggets.

This mic-ing up of players isn’t new, and has been instrumental in uplifting many professional sports. In USA, filmmaker Ed Sabol’s NFL Films began putting tiny mics on ‘football’ players, and the first-person perspective transformed the game into a cultural phenomenon.

Do we, all the millions of us, really want to get further inside our sportsmen’s stressed heads just to be entertained? I don’t. Agreed that telecasts are the soul of modern sport, and the medium creates heroes and inspires in ways no book can, but we must understand that the perennially nosey cameras and microphones affect a player’s behaviour, much as documentary film crews impact their subjects. Any self-respecting player on the field would refrain from talking to his ‘collar’, knowing it would reach us all and create unnecessary trouble. In cricket, for me, the stump mics are entertaining enough (YouTube narrates innumerable anecdotes of foulmouthing Gangulys and Gambhirs) and the occasional camera on top of helmets is beautiful. But that’s it.

Unfortunately for me though, the GoPro cameras, Google Glasses and the like are set to become the new streakers of sport in the future. And we might just raise a generation of politically correct players.

SPORTS “Xavi Hernandez is a player I appreciated as a person and also as a player. He was more important for us that the national team coach.”

- Spain coach Vicente del Bosque

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY AUGUST 9, 2014

PUNE

“Please see me as just one among you and treat me as an ordinary person. I somehow feel a bit uncomfortable with all this.”

- Cricketer Sanju Samson

‘Hosting U-17 World Cup would reflect our infrastructure capability’ Pune District Football Association treasurer Mandar Tamhane is positive that the international event will also help in developing a football culture

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis.ashish PUNE: India is gearing up to host the Under-17 World Cup in 2017 and so are the cities on the probable venues list.

The matches are likely to be played at Kolkata, Bangalore, Margao, Kochi, Guwahati and Pune. Expetedly, this international event will be a big opportunity for the Pune District Football Association (PDFA) to promote football culture in the city.

“The city has progressed rapidly in terms of grounds, clubs and development in the past 7-8 years. But holding a World Cup match would reflect our infrastructure and we can change the face of the sport at the local level with the help from FIFA’s development project,” said PDFA treasurer Mandar Tamhane.

For the record, Pune has over 150 clubs that participate in district leagues, while Pune FC and DSK Shivajians are performing well in national leagues. The city has hosted a few international

friendlies and was also a venue for the Indian football team’s training camps.

Tamhane gives credit to the Pune FC for the sport’s rising popularity at the local level.

“Pune FC was the first city team to enter the I-league. Their home matches were held at Balewadi where authorities have maintained the pitch. Playing host to these matches has helped the city get Under-23 India camps, Olympics qualifiers and AFC matches. We also got an opportunity to host the prestigious Federation Cup tournament. Now our priority is to be a World Cup venue,” he said.

ignored over the years.

Thankfully, that’s not the case in Pune. In recent years, the city has turned over a new leaf in the promotion of football. While Balewadi stadium has seen many international and national level contests, the grounds like St Vincent’s High School and Jeejeebhoy Ground of The Bishop’s School are the favourite venues for inter-school football tourneys. From Bharati Vidyapeeth’s floodlit grass ground to the compact arenas of HotFut Academy in Mundhwa, Pune has better options than any other city in Maharashtra.

LACKING INTERNATIONAL Football infrastructure developQUALITY GROUNDS ment and taking the sport to the - Mandar Tamhane The lack of quality football grounds is grassroots level have enabled the common in India. Pundits lament the national city to provide a valid alternative to side’s dismal performance at the international popular football hubs like Goa and level, but the most important aspect of providing a better West Bengal. platform to children who are keen to play this sport has been Another major factor in development of

“We missed a golden chance to have an astro-turf ground.”

grounds is the involvement of corporate groups. DSK group tied up with Shivajians Club and now their players train at a well maintained ground in Loni.

Pune FC has been developing their training ground in Mamurdi, while PDFA now has their own ground at Dobberwadi. However, the city is yet to get an international quality turf.

Tamhane said, “We missed a golden opportunity to have such a ground when FIFA had offered to install an astro-turf surface as part of development project.

They had set a condition that the ground should be owned by a district association or at least have the ground on lease for more than 20 years. We failed to t get an approval from the Pune Municipal Corporation and the administration was reluctant to give the Dobberwadi ground for more than five years.

Later, I came to know that FIFA has installed the turf in Kerala.” ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com

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