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PUNE, NOVEMBER 15, 2014 | www.goldensparrow.com
SPOTLIGHT
TGS LIFE
Pune Connects with innovation & enterprise P8-9
Pune’s Pedal Pushers
Dear Srinivas Bonala,
Let’s restore these neglected subways and become
Swachh Pune Champions Open letter to Pune’s Chief Traffic Planner and Pune Municipal Corporation’s Additional City Engineer (Traffic), Srinivas Bonala. See p3
Signposts India successfully test-fires n-capable Prithvi-II missile India on Friday successfully testfired its nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile from a military base in Odisha, a senior defence official said. The indigenously-developed ballistic missile with a maximum range of 350 km was fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district, about 230 km from Bhubaneswar. IANS
NASA: Black hole producing mysterious particles The giant black hole at the centre of the Milky Way may be producing mysterious particles called neutrinos, say NASA scientists. Neutrinos are tiny particles that carry no charge and interact very weakly with electrons and protons. “Figuring out where high-energy neutrinos come from is one of the biggest problems in astrophysics today,” said Yang Bai from University of Wisconsin in Madison. IANS
SPORTS
ISRO to pump in `30 crore in Pune district firm Walchandnagar Industries to expand aerospace machine division for space technology BY ASHISH PHADNIS @ phadnis_ashish
And as their trusted partner for a long time, they have decided to fund us a machinery of approximately Rs 30-35 Walchandnagar Industries Ltd (WIL), crore for expansion. I feel this is a big known for delivering mission critical decision for us and we are happy that components for the Indian Space they want more from us,” said GK Pillai, Research Organisation managing director and (ISRO) for over four CEO of Walchandnagar decades is set to receiving Industries. funding of Rs 30-35 crore He said the process from ISRO to upgrade would be cleared in the its facilities for future next 6-7 months. “Basically missions. they are giving us specially E q u i p m e n t designed machines and manufactured by WIL, we will be churning out have been successfully components for them. It’s used in the recent Mission a mutual contract between GK PILLAI to Mars (Mangalyaan) us,” he added. mission besides the WIL has also launching of Rohini, been contributing to Sross, IRS, G-SAT and the Defence Research other satellites. and Development Riding high on Organisation (DRDO) ISRO’s confidence, WIL and the Ministry of is now planning to expand Defence since 1980. capacities. WIL’s defence production “India’s advanced division will undergo space programme has put expansion. us in an elite global group. Contd on p 10
“We are happy that ISRO wants more from us”
Slum kids overcome poverty, shine Children born in slums are climbing the ladder of education and taking up jobs ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
Instead they go to school, put in hours for study, help their parents with home work or even a part time job, but stay focussed on their dream...of untying the noose of poverty they are born with. This is not the case with all children born in slums but the numbers are significant. Says Vijay Shinde who lives in a two room shanty in Wanowrie, “About 30% to 40% families who live here in this vasti have their kids who are going in for higher studies or professional courses.” Like his son and daughter, Shubhum and Deeksha. Shubhum has just completed his diploma in Civil Engineering and is working Vijay and Vaishali Shinde with their children Deeksha (left) and Shubhum (right) towards a degree. So why didn’t he go in for a degree in civil engineering instead? BY NAMITA SHIBAD swept and swabbed houses. But Says Shubhum, “The thing is @ nshibad not any longer. that a degree course is very Poverty and illiteracy were the noose you Quietly and doggedly, Children’s expensive. Non-government inherited a generation back if you were young boys and girls are colleges charge Rs 30,000 Day born to a kaamwali (maid servant) and her rewriting their destiny. They pa as fees for a degree but at Special Wadia College where I studied watchman or rickshaw driver husband. live in one room shanties, they As a child you tagged along with struggle for wholesome meals and it was just Rs. 7,850.” your mother, sitting silently without any cool clothes but they do not accompany Contd on p 3 display of childish activity while she mama to her work.
Back to the arena P 16
The Robin Raphel Saga This is what happened in Washington that day
Abhay Vaidya, who was The Times of India’s Washington Correspondent during 1993-94, recalls that day in October 1993 when the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robin Raphel set off a diplomatic explosion by rejecting India’s Instrument of Accession vis-a-vis Kashmir Now in the news for being investigated by the FBI for possible espionage, ex-American diplomat Robin Raphel came into sharp focus for the first time in October, 1993. This was after a “background briefing” for journalists from South Asia in which she triggered a diplomatic explosion by rejecting India’s Instrument of Accession and the nation’s claim to Kashmir by virtue of this instrument. The Clinton administration h a d newly created a South Asia division under the State Department and Raphel was appointed as its first head. Raphel’s former husband Arnold was the US Ambassador to Pakistan and was killed in the 1988 plane explosion along with Pakistani President Gen Zia-ul-Haq. After a stint in New Delhi, Robin Raphel had moved to a posting in Washington. “Background briefings” which were meant to give the official US position on various issues were a routine with the press corps in Washington. We were allowed to report on these briefings but the person giving the briefing could only be identified in our news reports as a “senior administration official”. October 29, 1993 was one such day and this was Robin Raphel’s first
interaction in her new capacity with the South Asian journalists in the US capital. What struck me right from the start of the briefing at the US Information Agency’s Foreign Press Center was her light-hearted and casual demeanour. I was there as The Times of India’s Washington Correspondent and it seemed odd that a diplomat in a sensitive position like hers could be unguarded in what she was saying. This was the p e r i o d when
terrorism was at its peak in India. In the US, K ashmir was the top a g e n d a
Center, and Indian journalists were also engaged in press meets called by Kashmiri separatists, Khalistanis and Pannun Kashmir representatives, apart from covering official briefings and fresh developments. It was amidst this charged environment that Raphel, during her background briefing, rather carelessly and categorically told us assembled journalists that “the U.S. did not recognise” India’s Instrument of Accession and India’s claim to the state of Jammu & Kashmir by virtue of this instrument. Her precise words as recorded in the official American transcript were: “As I said, we view Kashmir as a disputed territory. We do not recognise...(pause)...that instrument of accession as meaning that Kashmir is forevermore an integral part of India. And there are many issues at play in that time frame, as we all here know.” The Indian press corps was barely a handful and present along with me at that briefing were NC Menon from the Hindustan Times, Bharat Bhushan (The
The FBI investigations and Raphel In a major development last week, the residence of Robin Raphel (67), a former senior US diplomat was searched by FBI investigators in connection with “access to classified materials” and possible espionage. A one-time ambassador to Tunisia and former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Raphel, after retirement, was employed by a firm lobbying for the Pakistan government. She was seen as openly pro-Pakistan in Indian diplomatic circles. for Indian and Pakistani diplomats. There was a virtual tug of war between both nations to get the US to make a favourable statement. The Kashmir tangle was the top subject of analysis for think tanks like the Stimson
Indian Express), C Raja Mohan (The Hindu), R Akhileshwari (Deccan Herald), CK Arora (UNI), TV Parshuram (PTI) and Aziz Hanifa from the IANS. Contd on p 10
CHILDREN’S DAY COMPETITION The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to eminent social worker Kailash Satyarthi in recognition of his crusade against child labour. As a tribute to him, we invite the Children of Pune to participate in
The Golden Sparrow’s Children’s Day Competition Children, send us your paintings, poems & essays on
CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA
Mention your name, age, standard, school’s name and contact number in your entry. Last Date for Receiving Entries: Saturday, 22nd November
3 Grand Winners & 5 consulation prizes in each category will be announced in this newspaper Entries may be sent to: contest.tgs@gmail.com or The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, 1641, Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune - 411030. Tel: 020-24324332/33
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
Pune says sayonara to Sathe Sensei P4
PUNE
“The rich findand theirheart. own If conscience; “Civil society needsintoIndia haveneed bothtohead all you to give ahearts, little ofitwhat they work. earn. We must learn the have is bleeding wouldn’t If you only have artyou of giving before the art solutions of living!”which do not heads, then are going to dictate touch the—Bindeshwar human chord.” Pathak, founder, Sulabh International — Deep Joshi, founder, PRADAN
How a desperate Sena misread BJP signals P7
Giving shelter, restoring honour Sister Lucy Kurien’s Maher has helped over 3,000 destitute women and 2,000 children in the past 17 years
The appreciation • Two American authors, William Keepin and Cynthia Brix, have authored a 400-page book, ‘Women Healing Women’, detailing Maher’s contribution • Maher has received many international and national honours, including: • June 2002: International Award by One World, Austria, for distinguished social service • International Award by Belgium for her services to the destitute women and children • June 4, 2006: Pramila Dandavate Mahila and Balseva Puraskar by Snehalaya, Ahmednagar, for outstanding activities for women welfare • November 14, 2009: Paul Harris Fellowship Award by Rotary Foundation of Rotary International • Global Women’s Summits 2011 Leadership Award From: Paula Felingham, Founder and CEO, The Women’s Information Network, USA
BY MANASI SARAF JOSHI @GargiManasi When actor Aamir Khan recently asked Maher executive director Sister Lucy Kurien in his popular television talk show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ if through prayer alone can a mental illness be healed, the latter said, “We need medicine and prayer. Once a sick woman wanted a priest to lay his hands on her and pray for her healing. I requested the priest to tell her to take medicines too. The father managed to convince her and the woman’s health improved.” The answer sums up Sr Lucy’s life dedicated to the poor and needy. Started in 1997 at Vadhu Budruk, 32 kms from Pune, Maher (‘Mother’s place’ in Marathi) is home to over 3,000 destitute women and children from Maharashtra, Kerala, Jharkhand and other states. The desire to start a shelter for the needy took shape when a sevenmonth pregnant woman, without any money, came to Sr Lucy seeking help one night. “I was working for another social organisation during that time. This woman desperately needed assistance. Later I came to know that she had burnt herself after a fight with her husband. I felt helpless, sad and guilty, and decided to start a home where such women can find solace,” she said. “I thanked God when Father
Actor Aamir Khan with Sr Lucy Kurien (second from left) during his visit to Maher for the television show ‘Satyamev Jayate’
Francis D’Sa and his son Austrian donated Rs one lakh for my cause, but found that the amount was not enough to buy a piece of land. Slowly, other benefactors extended help and we constructed Maher in 1997,” she said. Though initially it was a place for women, they joined along with their children. The women are trained in stitching, cane making and other vocations. Efforts are made to bring them into the social mainstream by
training them for self employment and by uniting them with their families, if traced successfully. “Many of our members work in malls and other places. We have a network of NGOs that helps us in rehabilitating the women and providing education to their children. We emphasise on gender equality and education, and have around 400 selfhelp groups,” Sr Lucy said. Maher has extended help to men
who are destitute or mentally disturbed. “We provide them medical help and try to rehabilitate them at their homes or keep them with us. Women who are mentally disturbed are also provided with medical care,” she said. Sr Lucy does not want more institutes like Maher to come up, as she feels that children should stay in their homes and women should get respect in their household. manasisaraf@gmail.com
Though initially Maher was a place for women, they joined along with their children. Later, the centre gave shelter to orphan children and those from broken homes
The organisation The beginning
include kindergartens, special coaching classes, placement, crèche, libraries, vocational training, self-help groups and technical training. Over the last 17 years, Maher has benefitted 3,219 women and 2,321 children.
Maher is an interfaith and caste-free organisation providing shelter and care to the destitute and battered women and children. Over the years, Maher’s activities have spread to the surrounding rural villages of Vadhu Budruk and even beyond Maharashtra. In recent years, it has opened children’s homes in Ratnagiri, Perumpilly in Kerala and Delatoli in Jharkhand. Maher has 24 projects covering nearly 850 children, 21 men and over 300 women. Its projects can be grouped into three categories: dedicated to women, children and general population. The organisation’s three prominent projects, include Mamatadham (home for abandoned and battered women), Kishoredham (home for orphans and children from broken homes) and Vatsalyadham (home for the mentally disturbed women). Their services
The future
Maher’s qualified staff and board of trustees comprise doctors, priests, nuns, social workers, business people, office workers, and volunteers from India and abroad. Financial support comes from donors in India and abroad, although most of the money funding Maher’s projects comes in small donations from friends. Maher’s future plans include a home for girls attending college, a production-training facility, a library chain in many villages and a home for women affected by HIV/AIDS.
Picking up a life of dignity Ragpicker Saru Waghmare has found respect and secured her children’s future
BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal
Saru Waghmare showing the ‘Tejaswini’ award that she received during the recent Pune Navaratra Mahila Mahotsav in recognition of her work
and shoo us away. The big change happened when I was featured in the popular talk show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ in 2013,” she said. Talking about her difficult past, Sarutai said, “Once, on a winter morning, I was bit hard by a stray dog when I was on the streets collecting waste. I was ill for nearly a month and cursed my fate. I thought of leaving this work.”
She, however, persisted with her work. “Today, my two sons and one daughter are well educated and settled in their lives. After joining KKPKP, I supervise the work, advice the young women team members about the importance of work and education. I tell them about maintaining good household and personal hygiene,” she said. manasisaraf@gmail.com
Somnath Marne, 34, is a known name in carrying out rainwater harvesting (RWH) projects and providing eco-friendly solutions for waste water in PimpriChinchwad. Hailing from Ravet and son of a plumber, Somnath is a living example of how dedication, hard word and sincerity can make one successful as an entrepreneur at a young age despite coming from a poor family. Somnath started as a ‘Rainbow Rainwater Harvesting Consultant’ in 2001 at the age of 20. The firm has installed over 1,500 RWH systems in housing societies and commercial complexes in the twin town in the past 13 years. “I started helping my father in plumbing work since I was in standard X. I had to drop out after completing my second year BA, and work as a plumber to support the family. I always valued water as an important source,” he said. Somnath observed that along with RWH, there is a need to harvest waste water. Through his second firm ‘Eco-friendly Solutions’ set up in 2007, Somnath has installed over 50 systems for kitchen and bathroom water recycling in Pimpri-Chinchwad. The recycled water is used for car washing and gardening. He is also providing the yearly RWH maintenance to 400 housing societies in the twin town. Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) executive engineers Ramdas Tambe and Pravin Ladkat have supported Somnath, who calls the duo his guiding force. Tambe gave the project of installing RWH system in PCMC head office at Pimpri to Somnath in 2000. When RWH become mandatory as per the Development Control Rules (DC Rules) in PCMC in 2004, Somnath’s company was the sole firm to provide RWH systems. He is now providing services to other cities in Maharashtra and Gujarat also. Around 400 villages in the Konkan belt now have RWH systems installed by Somnath’s firm.
Aniruddha Rajandekar
At a time when children of her age would go to school and enjoy ice cream, 10-year-old Saru Waghmare would collect waste from households, public waste bins, the streets and landfill sites, and rummage in the waste bins. Today, Sarutai (as she is fondly known), in her late 40s, is an inspiration for many such children and unprivileged girls to dream big and achieve more in life. One of the earliest members of the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), the Pune Navaratra Mahila Mahotsav recently gave Sarutai the ‘Tejaswini’ award, presented to women who excel in their respective fields. In the past, the award has been presented to eminent people, including Shantabai Kirloskar, Jayashree Firodia, Saraswati Rane, Sheetal Mahajan, Prachi Badve, among others. This is her 12th award, and it makes her proud about her untiring work and contribution towards a clean city. Speaking to ‘The Golden Sparrow on Saturday’, she said, “Drought in Osmanabad forced my illiterate and poor parents to migrate to Pune in the 1970s. My grandmother became a ragpicker and mother joined her. As it was difficult to make ends meet, I became a ragpicker too. My grandmother and mother died because of health issues, but KKPKP and SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling) helped me find a purpose in life.” she said. The informal status of ragpickers leads to unacceptable working conditions for many of them with regard to income and health issues. In most cases, ragpickers are women and children from low-income groups, the weakest groups in Indian society. For Sarutai, the NGOs showed her to earn a living with dignity. “My husband Shyamsundar used to do odd jobs. People used to treat us like animals
Somnath Marne’s enterprise has installed rainwater harvesting systems in 1,500 bldgs, provided kitchen/bathroom water solutions to 50 residential complexes
Aniruddha Rajandekar
BY MANASI SARAF JOSHI @GargiManasi
A plumber who succeeded as an RWH expert
At 34, Somnath Marne has two firms that provide water conservation solutions to many households and business establishments
His enterprise that started with little cash now has an annual turnover of Rs 2 crore and around 50 staff, including three civil engineers, one mechanical engineer, 20 labourers and 10 sub-contractors. Apart from attending workshops to keep himself updated with latest technologies in RWH and recycling water technology, Somnath also regularly holds water conservation awareness drives in schools and colleges of Pune. A recipient of many awards, he also participates in the annual Pavana Jaldindi. “Water is like a bank. If you want to replenish this bank for future needs, one should increase the deposits but people generally focus only on withdrawal. RWH and recycling are methods that should be adopted for the sake of future generations,” he said. archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
PUNE
The Ganesh Temple at Saras Baug is known as Talyatla Ganapati because it is constrtucted over a dried-up lake . The lake, after it perished left behind 25 acres of land. The entire Saras Baug was constructed on this land. - www.sarasbaug.in
Signposts COEP’s deemed varsity status in progress
Digitising of arms licences The city police have started digitising 34,000 arm licenses given away by the Imperial government between 1932 and 1947. Joint police commissioner Sanjay Kumar has entrusted the responsibility of to police constable Ravindra Ingavale, who has done courses like CDAC, MSCIT and others. Ingavale has already made online forms and response system for in house communication between police personnel during Ganapati festival, SMS schemes and major police recruitment drives.
TGS Quiz Contest
No. 22
nswers to the following 10 A 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.
1. Where did author Vikram Sathaye work before he became a stand-up comedian? 2. What trend has printmytee.in started? 3. What course Pune varsity is to start soon? 4. How much are bikes rented out for in the city? 5. What is Anand Deshpande’s three plan action? 6. Which fi lm by Paresh Mokashi was nominated for the Oscars? 7. What did TGS Life like at Bombay Bhel? 8. Which Hollywood star brought back chokers this season? 9. What are the dos while wearing gladiators? 10. Which is Dimple Somji’s favourite city?
Contest # 21 winners
Zehnaz Lokhandwala and Akshay Badve
Swachh Pune Champions Open letter to Pune’s Chief Traffic Planner and Pune Municipal Corporation’s Additional City Engineer (Traffic), Srinivas Bonala
THE GOLDEN SPARROW NOVEMBER 8, 2014
ON SATURDAY
PUNE
ON SATURDAY PUNE
THE GOLDEN SPARROW 8, 2014 NOVEMBER
City Subways are
MODERN COLLEGE (JM Road)
Cost: Rs 2.0 crores, sponsored by Bhosale Builders
SHANIWAR WADA
Locked & closed to pedestrians
SNDT FOB
Sponsored by The Bank of Maharashtra
( Karve Road ) Cost: Rs 20 lakh, steel structure
Opened: Oct 29, 1983
VANAZ CIRCLE
Opened: 1999
(Paud Road)
Cost: Rs 2.10 crores
Not used by public
Opened: December
ZILLA PARISHAD CHOWK
Dear Srinivas, As you are aware, most of the pedestrian subways in the city are in a sad and unpardonable state of neglect. We understand that these subways are under your charge and hence this open letter to you on behalf of the citizens of Pune. You are recognised as one of the most capable officers of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and understandably, Puneites have high expectations from you. As the traffic planner for Pune city, you have been trying to do your best amidst numerous constraints, the biggest of which is the absence of a satisfactory mass transportation system in a city like ours which is continuing to expand on all sides. We appreciate your efforts with the knowledge that it is a much larger issue which needs to be addressed in a more comprehensive manner. The subject of this open letter is the sad state of neglect of our pedestrian subways, which we have pointed out rather effectively last Saturday through a photo-feature in our issue dated November 8, 2014. An estimated `50 crore has been spent collectively on these eight subways, just two of which are in good use today. They are clean, well-lit and wellventilated and the citizens find them extremely useful in crossing roads during heavy traffic in the Deccan Gymkhana and the Pune Bonala Railway Station area. One portion of the subway at the Zilla Parishad Chowk is also used by the public. The rest of the subways are dark, dirty, deserted, locked in one instance, and in no way can be used by the public. This newspaper is making a simple request: Let’s work together with citizens’ groups and get just one subway restored to begin with. All it requires is a thorough clean-up, tamper-proof lighting and the provision of wardens or security guards at either ends. As in other cities, strong railings need to be maintained on the road dividers where these subways are located to ensure that people make good use of this public facility which is
2012
( Bundgarden police station)
Cost: Rs 3.5 crores Opened: 2008
drain? How many crores down the in the city are in a sad state Six out of eight subways as the public. Some are used of neglect and are closed to or as gambling dens. They convenient urinating spots Why can’t city subways are dirty, poorly lit and unsafe. ly for pedestrians? be restored and made user-friend avoidance of foot Also related is the complete Why waste public . pedestrians by over-bridges if they are so very exchequer and construct them Spotlight explores unpopular with the public?
DAHANUKAR CIRCLE ( Karve Road)
Cost: Rs 3.0 crores Opened: January 2013 (Ahmednagar Road)
CITIZEN’S SPEAK Sonal Pathak
Bhushan Astulkar
‘I appeal to people to use footpaths, subways and FoBs’
‘We will follow Pune station model’ BY ASHOK BHAT @ashok_bhat
The responsibility of subway maintenance in the city lies with the traffic planner department. city Additional (traffic engineer Shrinivas management and projects) of a Bonala said, “Construction than its maintenance. easier is subway subway has The Pune railway station As maximum traffic of pedestrians. in shops citizens regularly visit the (ZP) the subway and Zilla Parishad not an issue square subway, safety is at these spots.” over the The PMC has handed electricity maintenance, including the society bill, of the subway to members who run comprising IN PUNE also been PEDESTRIAN DEATHS the shops. CCTVs have 2012 – 123 installed by the society. this success 2013 – 119 “We are planning to use – 100 and will 2014 (Till October 31) model in other subways also, the Bhosale soon build 8-10 shops at culties faced Road. I can understand the diffi subway on Jungli Maharaj persons, Road by senior citizens and disabled People The new subway on Satara a few shops. but others can use these facilities. near Saibaba Temple has will help should use zebra crossings. Opening shops at subways motorists for of problems,” he said. The police have fined 6,704 lot a address and 75,000 halting on zebra crossings, red light, in motorists for jumping the ashok.bhat21@gmail.com 2014. October gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke
put in lot of The city traffic police have casualty efforts to bring down pedestrian is still figure in the city. But sadly, the is decreasing high even as the number requesting the every year. We have been (PMC) to Pune Municipal Corporation c conditions improve the road and traffi are striving to in the city. The police footpaths and have encroachment-free use the road chowks. Pedestrians should of risking infrastructure available instead roads. their life while crossing the footpaths, zebra I appeal to citizens to use and subways. crossings, footover bridges
Bonala
two Cost: Rs 2.25 cr, has elevators, stainless steel structure. Opened: 2012
Cost: Rs 6.61 crores Opened: 2013
The first thing is that it takes great effort to climb a FoB. I prefer crossing the road by halting addition, traffic by gestures. In are full bridges and the subways evenings of anti-socials during It is creepy and late afternoons. to be and scary as I don’t want could mugged. Another option be replication of Hyderabad’s Hills for escalators at Banjara pedestrian crossing.
There are footover bridges and subways in our area. However, hardly anyone uses persons them. I have seen elderly the road or youngsters crossing sad. is It beneath them. be Other alternatives must but provided to pedestrians, citizens must use whatever facilities available, to avoid at this point of time, deaths on the road.
Best
Not used by public
Prashant Inamdar, President Pedestrians First
neglected The authorities have at large. pedestrians and their safety The civic administration has built subways and FoBs at high cost, but these are not needed. Majority of the subways and FoBs constructed in the city are unused due to several reasons. Firstly, they have been without constructed and planning any without considering the subway interest and convenience option. Though PMC constructs these norms, of pedestrians. The or FOB by following IRC economical disabled friendly other pathways should be handrails options available to with provision for ramp/lift, movement of facilitate and guiding tiles. to the PMC the “We have pointed out pedestrians have been subways and poor use of existing deliberately neglected by method of the and FoBs. There is no standard body the civic
NGO SPEAK
constructed ‘Subways, FoBs’ are ’ under political pressure BY ASHOK BHAT @ashok_bhat
for traffic Parisar, an NGO working has opposed and other public issues, bridges (FoBs) subways and footover They claim that The survey constructed in the city. (PMC) building these structures. or FoB is the Pune Municipal Corporation for any proposed subway the provisions in contractors has not implemented Act, 1995, carried out by interested The Persons with Disabilities approved by the and the project gets Road Congress the project and the norms of Indian and FOBs. authorities. Sometimes, with footpaths (IRC) while building subways leads to the doing away director Ranjit Parisar programme PMC has already subways and cycle tracks. The subways for Gadgil said, “PMC constructs approved three pedestrian pressure. We or FOBs under political Road (Karishma to Rs 8.8 crore on Karve (Anandnagar have forwarded a memorandum stating Chowk) and Paud Road stand) and is the municipal commissioner Chowk and PMT bus our protest.” on Ganeshkhind the IRC planning yet another According to Gadgil, following he said. road level Road (near Central Mall),” guidelines ensures convenient ashok.bhat21@gmail.com and subway or crossing for pedestrians as the last FoB should be considered
movement. pedestrian facilitates are in a shabby However, many subways littered condition. They remained have become while at some places these pedestrians gambling dens. How can use such subways? The civic body has provided facility of elevators at the two FoBs located on Karve Road, but despite this they are not used properly. power Fluctuating supply and absence of lift assistance is the cause behind non use of these FoBs. Instead of spending crores on a project of subway or FoB, the civic body can such solution use cheap as making pedestrian refuge systems. allow signals, At pedestrian signals, paint zebra crossings and construct a safe refuge in the middle of the road which will allow pedestrians to cross the
Allow pedestrian signals, paint zebra crossings and construct a safe refuge in the middle of the road for pedestrians
authorities. The option of safe pedestrian refuge and has crossing zebra been neglected. The FoBs have 40-50 cannot expect steps on either sides. One persons to senior citizens or disabled these many climb up and climb down (Garware steps. The subway at Deccan and the Pune subway) has just five steps a ramp. railway station subway has useful and Such construction is
road safely. the concept In European countries, have became of subways and FoBs are being dated and new solutions is provision planned and one of them of safe refuge.
gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com
rest
amongst the
Bhat walk on the best and Gitesh Shelke and Ashok in the city worst subways and FoBs
‘These pathways are constructed ’ without planning of BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke
MAYUR COLONY FOB (Kothrud)
CHANDANNAGAR
use... Subways, FoBs not used beca
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sarang Awad
Toilets for women among priorities for new MCCIA president Extending support for the construction of toilets for women, schools and public to be a top priority BY TGS NEWS SERVICE
RAUT
Legal help and counselling will now just be a phone call away for senior citizens in distress. On the occasion of World Elders’ Day, Dignity Foundation launched a helpline. “This time, the re-launched helpline has around 26 counsellors, which are all senior citizens. They have been trained by professionals in Gero counselling,” said Sheilu Sreenivasan, trustee and founder-president of Dignity at a press conference on November 11.
Dear Srinivas Bonala, Let us restore these neglected subways and become
RAJANDEKAR & RAHUL
Helpline for senior citizens
Campaign your creativity P6
PICS BY ANIRUDDHA
College of Engineering Pune’s (COEP) proposal for the deemed university status received a positive response from the Union Government in early November, after five years of application. The Savitribai Phule Pune University has given the college a ‘no objection certificate’ regarding the deemed status. Anil Sahasrabuddhe, director, COEP believes that the college will achieve the status before 2015-2016 academic session commences.
Pune varsity to start virtual classrooms soon P5
GARWARE JUNCTION
PUNE RAILWAY STATION
( Deccan)
( Karve Road)
Cost: PMC does not
Modern College is locked. have details One of the oldest subways Opened: 1980 in the city is located in front of the heritage structure sad of Shaniwarwada. The that part of the subway is who use it FoB at Satara it is known only to locals, People did not use the their life by from frequently. Tourists risk (one which was relocated road road. Shivaji Hospital to crossing Bajirao road or the Sassoon General this issue and has been A public notice can solve Dhankavdi). This structure being used by The save the pathway from dismantled for flyover construction. are located beggars. FoB on Alandi Road (two an elderly one on the During peak hour traffic, on the BRTS route and crossing the Vishrantwadi busy woman, in her 80s, was remains junction) Karve Road at Mayur section unused. Colony stretches Both waving her hand to (Alandi Road and the motorists. It was Road) the Ahmednagar with great risk that have been widened by woman managed to the civic authorities cross safely with some riders and it has become two-wheeler increasingly difficult closely passing by. The for pedestrians to elderly lady did not use cross to the other side. the FoB located a few The FoBs have been feet away, a safe way prefer to to cross the road and provided for safety, but citizens citizens of the the junction. The elderly ignore them. cannot they that College area have complained The FoB in front of SNDT subway instead The Pune the road just above the by pedestrians climb the stairs of the FoB. on Karve Road is used illuminated but even of using it. It is properly Corporation (PMC) has many steps. But some Municipal having it located despite subway but no one the road people do not use it. The installed elevators at the FoB, people risk their life by crossing used by people on Karve Road is hardly uses them. under the bridge. urine. located on is FoB another and the pathway smells of Similarly, Paud road fire brigade The subway located at Karve Road near Kothrud gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com used by the ail.com near Vanaz circle is not it is also neglected by pedestrians, but ashok.bhat21@gm lit. properly busy junction. pedestrians as it is not who prefer to cross the JM Road near The subway located on Cost: Rs 3.16 crores
Opened: October 2008
The oldest subway at Shaniwarwada is known only to locals
BY GITESH SHELKE & ASHOK BHAT @gitesh_shelke & @ashok_bhat station, The subways at Pune railway Junction Zilla Parishad and Garware maintained (Deccan Gymkhana) are The Deccan well by the PMC. opened in 1980 Gymkhana subway was
is welland is triangular. The pathway constructed lit, open at the centre, and don’t have in such a way that pedestrians crossing. The to walk on the road for traffic in the subway is ideal for heavy use this subway area. Many pedestrians by the civic which is maintained well in front of the body. The subway located (ZP) at old building of Zilla Parishad
used. The Bolai Chowk is also frequently walk through signs help pedestrians to the opening without difficulty. But is filthy and towards Sassoon Hospital beggars have many drug addicts and made it their home. at located subway The Road Chandannagar on Ahmednagarto cross prefer is also not in use. People
The spotlight on Pune’s subways in The Golden Sparrow’s November 8 edition
Bhosale subway to get facelift Pune’s chief traffic planner and PMC additional city engineer (traffic) Srinivas Bonala plans to replicate the mini-market subway at Pune railway station at JM Road subway. PMC has already constructed nine shops and carried out repairs in the subway. These shops have been handed over to the land and estate department for auction or floating tender.
meant to ease traffic flow and promote public safety. Is this asking for a lot from a city whose annual civic budget is more than `3,500 crore? Can’t we restore just one pedestrian subway through voluntary effort as a part of the Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat movement? Can’t we at least initiate a Swachh Pune movement as a part of the larger Swachh Bharat movement? Can’t we become the Swachh Pune Champions of our city by beginning to do things that don’t cost money? Pune is blessed with a number of public-spirited NGOs and companies with good CSR initiatives. If PMC
so desires, the clean-up and regular maintenance of subways can easily be taken up by any of these bodies and establishments. All that you need to do is to make an announcement to this effect. Your efforts in this direction will be highly appreciated and result in the restoration of a valuable public resource that is suffering from neglect today. This newspaper is willing to wholeheartedly join you in this initiative. Let’s not lose any more time and work out an action-oriented plan. With warm regards, The Team at The Golden Sparrow on Saturday tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com
The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture’s (MCCIA) new president Satish Magar has chalked out an ambitious plan of various initiatives for the welfare of Pune city during his tenure over the next two years. Speaking at a recent press interaction, Magar said that in an effort to “enhance visibility and support of the MCCIA to government initiatives”, a drive would be undertaken for the Satish Magar construction of public toilets, toilets for MCCIA’s vision women and toilets in schools. Other initiatives would include “We at MCCIA aim to support for better transform lives & establish waste disposal, both an eco-friendly, bio-diverse domestic and indusenvironment that will nurture trial; beautification and propel towards creaof cities; support to tion of infrastructure and important initiatives education while emerging of Pune and Pimas the nucleus of technical & pri-Chinchwad muindustrial research, develnicipal corporations, opment & growth model of said Magar, who is the country. We will strive CMD of Magarto encourage preservation patta Township Deof heritage, energize lives, velopment & Coninspire progress, optimize restruction Pvt. Ltd. sources & implement ethical These goals practices towards a sustainwould be achieved able growth paving the way through the task towards a future of astoundforce dedicated for ing business possibilities.” manufacturing, infrastructure, agriculture & food processing, education & skill development and IT & electronics. Magar said the immediate task for the top team at the MCCIA would be to prepare an exhaustive memorandum in the next 30 days for the new government which would identify problems (segment wise), solutions and the way in which the solutions can be implemented. Under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandate, the MCCIA plans to provide effective guidance and support to its members for effective CSR. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com
PIC’s 2nd natl seminar Slum kids overcome poverty, shine on social innovation BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh Pune International Centre (PIC) in association with the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), Indian Institute of Management (IIM, Ahmedabad), International Longevity Centre-India (ILC – I) and Honey Bee Network has organised the second national seminar on ‘Social Innovation’, the only one of its kind in the country, on Monday (November 17). Last year the seminar had witnessed the participation of over 60 social innovators from across the country and this year PIC is expecting a similar turnout. Speaking to The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, Prashant Girbane, (Hon) Director of PIC said, “The seminar aims to convert knowledge gained through research for larger social good.” The leaders of the innovation movement in India Dr RA Mashelkar, President, PIC and Chairperson, National Innovation Foundation, Dr DR Mehta of Jaipur Foot, Prof Anil Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad, Dr Ravindran of Aravind Eye Care, Prof MadhavGadgil, Ecologist and Honorary member of PIC, Dr Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudalaya, eminent journalist Dr Dileep Padgaonkar of PIC and Anshu Gupta of Goonj among others will participate in this day long seminar. Vijay Kelkar, Chairman of Janwani is also intrinsically associated with this event. The seminar is open to all but attendees will need to contact Pune International Centre (See Box).
GET IN TOUCH Time: 9 am – 6.30 pm Date: 17 November 2014 Venue: Auditorium, YASHADA, Baner Road To participate call: Diya Pahuja on +91 7722071004 or email rsvp@ puneinternationalcentre.org ANJANI MASHELKAR INCLUSIVE INNOVATION AWARD The Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation Award constituted in 2011 honours an inclusive innovation that addresses the problems faced by the disadvantaged sections of the society as well as the elderly and offer an original and implementable solution. This annual award of Rs. 1 lakh is given to an individual or an organisation for an idea, prototype or a commercialised product, service and business model. The award was constituted to honour the memory of Dr R A Mashelkar’s mother, late Anjani Mashelkar who brought him up in the toughest of circumstances but never let it affect her courage and dignity. The award not only presents innovators with an opportunity to innovate for the most disadvantaged sections of society to begin the process of their inclusion, it also aims to sensitise innovators to the problems faced by those excluded from the society for one reason or the other. This year the organisers received more than 100 applications with innovations across a vast spectrum of subjects. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com
Continued from P1 In addition to this, in the government-run schools, all children who score 80% and above in their 10th get a cash prize of Rs 15,000. The Wadia College also gives a refund to those children whose family income is less than Rs 1 lakh pa. He now wants to work for a year to save the money required for a degree. For Shubhum, his marks opened the doors of higher education but for some kids even with good marks there are obstacles to be crossed. For 16-year-old Ganesh Sarak who has two sisters and a younger brother, clearing the JEE simply meant a reduced fee that was still difficult to pay. Says his father Subhash who is also handicapped and has a prosthetic left leg, “I lost my leg as a child and had a prosthetic one fitted. Which is why my work opportunities are severely limited. But I work as a watchman at the Apang Shala in Wanowrie and make Rs 3000 pm. Though Ganesh had got admission to an engineering college, we had to still pay Rs 20,000 as against Rs one lakh in the open category. We mortgaged my wife’s jewellery and received donations from various sources to pay Ganesh’s fees.” Ganesh has enrolled to do his degree in mechanical engineering after which he wishes to do his Masters and then appear for the IAS exam. “I want to be a collector.” These youngsters do not let money or any other obstacle come in the way of their dreams. Rahul Shinde always wanted to be a Chartered Accountant since childhood. He even managed great scores in his 12th (74%) and his BCom (80%). But the expensive tuition fees required to do the CA course was out of reach for his father who drives a rickshaw. Rahul took a break and got a job as an accountant with Dilip Oak and
Associates. “My starting salary was Rs 2,500, but now after six years I get paid Rs 16,000 and have managed to clear my Inter (CA) exam.” He is now on study leave and dreams of the day when he will be able to afford a two or three bedroom flat for his family. Apart from the obvious challenges of money, these youngsters have to tackle varied lifestyle norms that dominate adolescence. Whether it is carrying the latest android phone, or wearing hip clothes or owning a swank two wheeler. Says Deeksha who is doing her MCom (only because she could not afford the Company Secretary course) “we have our affluent friends who flaunt their clothes and phones, but we don’t even feel that we should have them. How can our parents afford so much when just paying our fees is so tough on them?” Shubhum has developed his own tactic to stay cool. Says he, “I have friends in several groups. Yes, smoking, drinking is an issue with some of the affluent kids, but I mix around with all so that if I have to stay away from those with bad habits, I still have other friends. Sharing my notes also keeps me in their good side.” No envy, simply because desire has been firmly contained. There’s no hopelessness of seeing their wants crashed simply because their focus is so deeply entrenched on their goal - of being able to free from the shackles of poverty. Engineering, Masters, and chartered accountancy seem to be a favorite amongst these kids. But for Vinayak Nevse a young man of 29, sound engineering was something that mesmerised him as a teenager. While still in school he tagged along with a friend to a sound recording studio in Mumbai. “I was so fascinated by the work they were doing I got mesmerised. I decided there and then that I would want to be a sound engineer,” he says.
So Vinayak started work as a helper with his friend and after a year became a sound engineer. Today he is working to raise a loan of Rs 20 lakh to buy his own equipment and start off on his own. “My work is magical. A few years back we had to finish the recording of some album in two days and I worked continuously for 45 hours non-stop to finish it. When you get into a studio you don’t even realise the time that has passed by. It’s only when you get out that you realise it’s day or night. It’s fascinating!” Corporate leader Lila Poonawala whose Foundation works towards helping young girls with access to higher education says, “I see farmers and single mothers who want to help their daughters become independent. There is such a huge demand for support for their girls to become engineers, nurses and pharmacists. I wish I could help more, even though we increase the number of girls we help every year.” This trend is largely on account of several factors, says Dr Saumitra Pathare, psychiatrist. “Communication technologies have shown the underprivileged what’s happening in the world and this has sown the seeds of aspiration. The government has done its bit by helping the deserving students with scholarships and cash prizes. And more importantly parents have realised the benefits of sending their kids to schools and colleges. All this has helped them change their lives for the better.” Vijay Shinde (father of Shubhum) says “I used to earn Rs 6000 pm and cycled 50 kms a day to my factory daily. My wife pitched in by doing housework. But all the sacrifices we made have been worth it. Today my children are well qualified for a much better life!” Sweet dreams are made of these. namitashibad@gmail.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
How independent are our dependent fellow Indians? P11
Signposts Reviving Hindi songs
PUNE
“The Earth, environment and all its resources are meant for all its resources are meant for all. Let us not waste anything. Let us not be selfish and use the earth and its resources for all. Let us protect and keep them clean.” —Bishop Thomas Dabre, Diocese of Poona
Relatives, friends recall Anne Frank as an icon P13
Pune says sayonara to Sathe Sensei The humble Japanese language teacher, who passed away on November 7, will always live in the hearts of his students BY PRACHI BARI @prachibari
Charushila Belsare
Yadein Purani (old memories), a programme celebrating old Hindi movie songs, will be held on November 17 at 4:30 pm at Matoshri Old Age Home, Karvenagar. Filmmaker Madhusudhan Ghanekar and singer Charushila Belsare will be the chief guests for the occasion.
World Book Week celebrations Mehta Publishing House is clebrating the World Book Week from November 14 to 21. The inaugural ceremony took place at Huzurpaga School, where children’s author Manjusha Ambdekar interacted with the students. During the week, lectures on creative writing, translation and book discussions will be held at the publishing house’s premise. The closing ceremony will take place at Padmaji Hall, Tilak Road at 6:00 pm. A discussion on ‘The relation between media, literature and reader’ will be conducted by dignitaries from Marathi print and television media.
Memorable shot: Sathe Sensei (extreme right) with one of the early batch of students learning Japanese at Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth
Sathe was so absorbed by the Japanese language and culture, that he launched his ‘JLPT Preparation Classes’ in 1996. “He could have taken up a high paying job at any MNC, but Sensei chose to teach and live a simple life. His daily routine began at 4 am with cooking Spartan dishes for himself and then preparing the notes for the day. Th is was his daily ritual,” says Shrikant Atre, who shared a bench with Sathe, while doing his Bachelor’s degree course in Japanese. Sathe was among the fi rst to complete his BA in
GIVING THE BEST SHOT RAHUL RAUT
Participants performing a one-act play during the final rounds of Ransangeet Musical One-Act Play Competition organised by the Theatre Academy on November 13, at Bal Shikshan Mandir, Mayur Colony
He began learning Japanese in the early 80s when there were hardly any takers for the language
Japanese. Sathe’s devotion and proficiency in the Japanese language spurred Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth to start a Japanese certificate course in 2004 that evolved to an advanced diploma in 2007. The Japan Foundation and Consulate General of Japan began a full time course and introduced Bachelors of Arts (Japanese) at TMV in 2008, with the fi rst batch of students graduating in 2011. A fullfledged Masters degree in Japanese was started in 2011, with elaborate focus
Punyabhushan for Cyrus Poonawala BY YASH DAIV @yash009 The 26th edition of the Punyabhushan Awards was held at Balgandharva Rangmandir, Pune on November 10. Cyrus Poonawala, founder of the Poonawala Group and Serum Institute of India, was presented with the Punyabhushan Award 2014, in acknowledgement of the breakthrough in immunobiological vaccine. The awards ceremony was attended by Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, BJP leader Prakash Javadekar, CMD of Pinnacle Group Gajendra Pawar and former director general of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research Raghunath Mashelkar. Poonawala was handed a trophy and a cheque for one lakh rupees by Murthy. Poonawala donated the award money to Baba Adhav’s Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), along with Rs 10 lakh from his side. Speaking on the occasion, Narayana Murthy said, “Success is all about bringing smiles and Poonawala has just clenched this definition.” Mashelkar lauded Poonawala and his institute’s dedication to
RAHUL RAUT
Madhusudhan Ghanekar
November 7, was indeed ‘Black Friday’ for students of Vinay Manohar Sathe (59), fondly known as Sathe ‘Sensei’, who died after he slipped and fell in his house. Sathe, a teacher of Japanese, had endeared himself to his students, with his amicable style that inspired one and all without exception. Sathe was the head of department (HoD) of the Japanese language, at Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth (TMV). I happened to meet Sathe at a Japanese education fair at Garware College, in 2003. Sathe’s stall ‘JLPT preparation classes’, was thronged with visitors browsing through books, and checking out the Origami and artifacts from Japan. “Konichiwa, Watashi wa Sathe Desu! Tumhala Japani bhasha shikayche ka? (Do you want to learn Japanese?),” he asked me with a smile, before telling me about the Japanese language course. It was through the martial arts of judo that Sathe was introduced to and eventually became enamoured with the Japanese language. He began learning Japanese in the early 80s when there were hardly any takers for the language. By 1992-93, Sathe had completed the advanced N2 level, despite working two shifts in a factory, that showed his dedication and interest in learning one of the world’s most difficult languages.
(From left) Mayor Dattatraya Dhankawade, founder of Punyabhushan Foundation, Satish Desai, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, founder of the Poonawala Group and Serum Institute of India, Cyrus Poonawala, Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, former director general of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research Raghunath Mashelkar, CMD of Pinnacle Group Gajendra Pawar and deputy mayor Aba Bagul
manufacturing life saving drugs and to the concept of health for all. Sharad Pawar, who was Poonawala’s classmate at Bishop’s School, recounted a few anecdotes from their school days. “Neither of us was good at academics. What my friend has achieved today is the result of his unbridled passion for life. Today two out of three children take a Serum vaccine,” said Pawar. yashdaiv@gmail.com
About Serum Institute of India Cyrus Poonawala established Serum Institute of India in 1966, with the objective of producing low cost vaccines. He was inspired by a veterinary doctor. Since then the institute has evolved, with state government contracts and such. Today the Serum Institute vaccines are available in 140 countries, with 80 per cent of the sales from UNICEF and Pan- America Health Organisation. The company has annual sale of $250 million with $107 million in profits. Poonawala was pronounced as the ‘vaccine leader’ by none other than Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Letters to the Editor
TGS is interactive
THE GOLDEN
NOVEMBER
SPARROW
8, 2014
PUNE
ON SATURDAY
“Modi himself talked about how hand washing important and is “The long-term I was like, ‘ Yay burden of illness hand-washing important and and diminished is well-being aff the Prime Ministe ects patients, their r also says so.” families, health and economies systems and is — Kajol, actress — John Beard, forecast to accelerate.” director, dept of ageing & life course, WHO
Make healt top priorityh your
The Way
sure that you eat healthy, exercise regularly and make your health your fi rst priority,” Dr Joshi says. anjali.shetty @ goldensparr ow.com
“It is a misconcept ion that you will have heart problems only later in life.”
What you
should do
• Avoid the lift and use the stairway at work or at home • Have small meals at regular intervals • Avoid junk food and aerated drinks, and eat fresh vegetables and fruits instead • Drink two litres of water/ liquids a day • Consume fibrous food like salads and fruits
‘Drug addicti on is a disease , not a moral failing’
Indian society is society’s sympath yet to come to terms with the issue of drug y and support addiction. Addicts to lead normal lives, says Ritu need Goyal Harish BY RITU GOYAL
Have you crossed the 5 stages of love?
LONDON : Researchers identified fi have ve would decide stages of love, which whether you able to cement would be the relationship midway. or leave addiction and is Each stage leaves addiction a victim. When he can be relived recaptured and among couples, him,” she says. we should support different life who face challenges together, A reformed latest survey drug addict, by the UK dating said a social eHarmony. worker website Indrajit Deshmukh The five stages echoes these views. “The building, assimilationare: butterfl ies, World Health Organisatio , honesty stability. Th n has declared and e first stage that addiction increases libido and it also is is a disease a time when people but people forget to eat. almost in India, including “Productivit psychiatrist y is not great s and counsellors, stage as people’s at this do not minds constantly understand wander. Interestingly says. he , people After he hit this,” to get pimples tend rock Deshmukh was sent into bottom, a relationship in the early stages of a year, after rehab for ,” psychologist which he has Papadopoul Linda os was quoted c lea n. He remained now runs a as saying. In stage two, NGO the body releases Santulan, founded called neurochemi cals, to rehabilitate in 2011, intense pleasure. triggering rushes of destitute addicts. of ‘happy anxiety’.It results in a feeling Deshmukh “Love moves wants the point where slightly further to society you are building to relationship,” understand your Papadopoul that os added. drug As you reach abusers question whether the third stage, the can redeem the relationship right or wrong themselves is and comes to the four witnesses fore. Stage normal lives. lead “The levels. Once the first rise in stress community the couple must has the first four get involved stages, the last crossed to help users. Perceptions stage brings increased levels and final need to undergo and intimacy of trust a change,” - leading to he says. relationship, a stable MailOnline reported. *Some names The survey protect privacy changed to of respondents found that 50 per cent reached this ritugoyalharish@gmail.co 23 per cent reported feeling stage while m a result. happier as IANS
For
ward With Comp assion & Hope
Be human and belong to the highest religi on
Dr Ashwini Joshi recomme nds a proper activity for a diet and regular diabetes-free life physical BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anj and are doing ali the needful awareness. in creating Dr Ashwini Preventing diabetes is most important Joshi believes a prevention that of diseases 18-35 age group,”issue, especially in the is necessary to ensure a Dr Joshi says. healthy life. Given the attention you The more working hours pay to your IT sector, a greater the regular exercise in the body, the benefits, the is difficult or schedule physician feels. consultant impossible to Joshi recommend keep. Dr “Of late, a s at least an exercise. “If non-infectiv hour of like Type 2 e you do not diabetics occurs problem go to a gym, just go for as 25, while a jog as early earlier it quality running or run. Use good would occur shoes. You in should past 40 years those run at least 4km a day. If of age. The current this is not possible lifestyles on and eating work days, do habits it at the are to be blamed weekend.” for this change A proper and rise diet is in diabetes indispensab cases,” le for said Dr Joshi, healthy living, who underlines a 150 per cent with the rise in hazards of a diabetes and sedentary cardiac lifestyle and problems. “It being is a overweight, misconcep regularly tion at her medical that you camps will - DR ASHWINI at IT companies. have JOSHI heart With problem MBBS, s DNB and MNAMS only later in (Medicine) life. A lipid qualifi says the young cations, Dr Joshi l a d e n diet will deposit health check-ups, generation ignores fats in our blood vessels, so diseases diabetes remain like cause blockages of the sugar levels undiagnosed, while the arteries. Make and dysfunction are causing damage to in vital body “Some companies organs. and employers however, are aware of the healthy lifestyle need for among their employees
RAJANDEKAR
• Letters to the Editor email: editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com; editor_tgs@gmail.com By post: The Editor, The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, 1641 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
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Article on health in TGS had valuable tips ANIRUDDHA
Our newspaper is interactive and you are welcome to write in to our various segments:
on linguistics, phonetics, pedagogy and literature. All this came about in a large part due to Sathe’s unstinting and single-minded efforts. Sathe was also instrumental in bringing in teachers from Japan as visiting faculty to the TMV. Today, TMV has a pool of 15 teachers. Last year, 29 TMV students were given scholarships to study in Japan. Sathe who visited Japan just once, was however well acquainted with the Japanese lifestyle and customs. He urged his students to absorb all aspects of Japanalogy, to be able to live in Japan without hassles. The social network is abuzz with condolences pouring in from all the corners of the world, in response to Sasthe’s untimely demise. Sathe was such a regular sight on the college premises, with his huge blue bag, crammed with a laptop, books etc, that his absence will be hard to come to terms with. More importantly, Pune and the Japanese students at TMV have lost a beloved teacher whose shoes will be hard if not impossible to fi ll. Over the years, Sathe had trained more than 6,000 students. Next year he would have celebrated his 60th birthday, and his colleagues had been talking about celebrating ‘Sathenchi Sathi’ already. But with fate dealing this blow, instead of ‘ja mata’ (till we meet again), it is time to say ‘sayonara’ (goodbye) to Sathe Sensei. prachibari@gmail.com
BY C RAVINDR ANATH human being. Everybody laughed. t has become What did I a fashion these do wrong?” days to talk about ‘sarvadharm This was a tough one but samabhava’ wife quickly or the equality a came to my rescue. my all religions. of asked, “Tell We say, “All She me, religions are the same. are there in how many children No religion your class?” to lie, steal tells nine,” my or do bad things.” us “Fiftydaughter answered. so, why is it If Gathering the that daughter wishes when my son or my wife told child close to her, to marry a person her, from another it is a bit strange “Don’t you think religion, I vehemently oppose it? Where that in a class 59 students, of does the equality there’s only one go at such moments? being?” This human was enough I was born for my daughter. She in a Hindu Brahmin never raised the topic again. family but eschewed Both all my religions daughters from chose my teens. My their partners wife and was brought are well-settled as a Christian. up in life. My elder She believes in her daughter recently confided to She reads the religion. me that Bible. She though she goes to church. initially felt odd and every night before She prays “out without a religion, of place” do none of these. going to bed. I she was very happy later happily married Yet, we have been been indoctrinate that she had not I have no doubt for nearly 40 years. d and labelled. She continues at all that we continue to shall do so in human being. to be happy as a To me, religionthe years left. If all religions is personal preference. are the To follow a same or equal, why do we need particular religion or to convert not is the individual’s people from one religion prerogative. to another? Historically, By is understandi mutual ng, religious bigotry it not a fact that to brainwash we decided not has been the of more bloodshed cause our children thinking into and violence they were in this world than anything Hindus, Christians or Why do we whatever. We else? need them up as brought disruptive entity such a divisive, human beings conviction that in the in our lives? to be good humans, I have it was not mandatory but smattering knowledge of to espouse any a few religions, religion. what I have from read, When she I confess I don’t heard and seen. daughter arrived was nine, my why we should really understand from school let religion play glum face. It with a an important took a bit of such persuasion role in our lives. to get her to amazed at open up. Her people’s observance I’m had asked each teacher khap panchayat which religion student in her class edicts and fatwas.of Can someone they belonged They in turn please to. enlighten me? had stated they Parsi, Hindu, were Catholic, Bohri... (The writer is and so on. “When a multi-faceted personality who my turn my daughter believes sobbed, “I said came,” with compassion in responding I was a and hope difficult situations to the in life.)
I
Is a problem bothering you and you to do? Write in to us at wayforw are unable to decide what advice and suggestion ard@goldensparrow.com for s from C Ravindra nath
With reference to the a r t i c l e ‘Make Health Your Top Priority’ in The Golden Sparrow on Saturday’s November 8 issue, as mentioned, age is not the only reason for many a health problems faced by people. Many health problems occur due to irregularities in diet starting with breakfast and ending with dinner. When one enters a particular segment in one’s career, the consequences and trauma with poor @ritugh
HARISH
turned over qa but two years new leaf, by before the had passed Ali Mirza reunion. was Now, seven 21 when he Ali is happily years later, was introduced married and his to drugs. wife has His been told addicti about on turbulent past. his continued “At for work I don’t almost want to seven give others years. the room His for parents sent assumption Ali s nor do I wish Mukta Puntambeka to several rehab to r sympathy” Ali get houses, paid says. for A counselling n u p by Shrivastava experts, but always relapsed was a he drug addict into addiction. gave up one for 20 They day and cut years before all ties with Ali. That was he Ali’s wake-up took control quit and call. of his life. “I am fortunate He has now that my disowned me been clean because it was parents for six years. that I realised He only that I was really then wary of revealinglike Mirza, is There was no alone. his past. one to care The problem lies or me. I had to in take responsibili cover for misconcept ions society’s damage I had ty caused to myself for the drug addiction. about family,” Ali and my “It is a says. disease like diabetes and For the fi not a moral rst time determined Ali was failing,” Anup to shake says. free addiction and remain clean of his Mukta up the pieces and pick of his life. Project Director Puntambek ar, “I to remain of Muktangan drug-free and managed a , prominent got myslef in time I de-addictio a steady job” centre in n Eventually the Ali said. even his parents same. “People city, feels the around and feel that addicts came took him back do it purposely. family fold, They don’t realising that into the understand that Ali had body and mind the person is a dependent on the
health management become apparent. Hence, it becomes mandatory for one to re-structure diet. The five basic points that are mentioned in the article should be strictly followed as these are simple methods. Added to this, consumption of hot water instead of the normal ice water is a must. Doctors can treat but the patients must help the doctor to treat them properly so that the consumption of medicines minimises. This is possible if the five basics mentioned in the article are followed strictly. -C V Narayanan
All nations should collectively tackle black money issue
Financial terrorism is a huge threat and the world needs to change the way banks and certain tax havens function. Money is about circulation
and not about being diverted to the so called ethical nations. Th is problem is not only in India but across the world. Money was invented as a replacement of the barter system and we have allowed it to rule and abuse rather than be used constructively. Financial institutions and tax havens need to be monitored and new laws need to be implemented. The movement of money has never been transparent and the biggest culprit are these so called ethical banks. They love money parked in their system and ask no questions. India has always faced a crisis and for us it is worse because we are an oil importing country. The Swiss banking system needs to be more secure. Countries of the world need to come together and reach a consensus. The banking system has to be more transparent and identities
need not be protected. The Indian banking system itself has its flaws and we have seen how loans were given to industrialists and the route to escape was easier. Money is not about just printing currency but having a system that can be monitored. -Sunil Melwani
The political circus The BJP and the Shiv Sena fi rst fought on sharing of seats in the Maharashtra assembly polls. After failing to reach an agreement, they broke their 25-year-old alliance. Finally, the BJP won 123 seats and the Shiv Sena, 63. The BJP should have made the Shiv Sena its ally in the government; but instead of following this natural course, both parties are continuing to distrust one another.
Th is break-up will have its political repercussions. God save Maharashtra! -Vijay Dattatray Patil
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.
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THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
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“A student can understand science subjects such as physics, chemistry, zoology and botany better in English rather than Odia. The medium of instruction in 90 per cent of the colleges in the state is Odia,” — Pradeep Panigrahi, higher education minister
SNAP registrations open till Nov 26 Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP) 2014 will be held in 30 cities across India on December 21. SNAP test consists of evaluation in three broad categories: General Knowledge, English and Quantitative. The latter two sections follow a UPSC exam pattern for the Indian Civil Service. The aptitude test enables students to admit themselves at 13 institutes at Symbiosis International University (SIU). To enrol, candidates must register online before November 26 at www.snaptest. org. After appearing for SNAP, students must apply to the Symbiosis institutes of their choice and follow the individual admission process of each institute.
Scholarships for district students The Lila Poonawalla Foundation will award scholarships to the post graduation and undergraduate students from various streams on November 21 and 22, at the Symbiosis Vishwabhavan Auditorium, Senapati Bapat Road. On November 21, the engineering scholarships will be awarded in presence of Parag Satpute, managing director, Sandvik Asia Limited and Per Heggenes, chief executive officer of IKEA Foundation. On November 22, students from medical, science and humanities streams will be awarded.
“This National Education Day we must pledge to establish norms and performance-based marks for learning process and outcome strictly and enforce them across the schools,” — Pranab Mukherjee, President
Pune varsity to start virtual classrooms soon It will be a boon for students studying in rural areas, says vice-chancellor Wasudev Gade BY MANASI SARAF JOSHI @GargiManasi The Savitribai Phule University of Pune (SPUoP) recognises the benefits of technology, and has become the first university in the state to digitally connect with over 400 colleges. The virtual classroom, therefore, will soon become a reality at SPUoP. In conversation with the The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, SPUoP vice-chancellor W N Gade said, “The virtual classroom will help in disseminating knowledge to students at rural colleges. Experts visit the va rsit y
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
Signposts
or colleges in cities, but miss out the colleges in rural areas, so those students are denied the opportunity to interact with the experts. Our virtual classroom will help these students in a big way.” “Other colleges will be helped by the SPUoP to install the necessary equipment. We will have two virtual classrooms, one at the varsity’s Mass Communication Department, and the other at the Department of Education or Sociology,” Gade said. The project will occur in two phases. In the first phase, 200 colleges will be connected, and the
WN Gade
Life’s Lessons
It’s important to read great books
I
TGS NEWS SERVICE
nward bound courses” says The Economist in its October 4 issue, are more powerful than outward bound courses. Many of us are familiar with outward bound courses – essentially team-building and self-development exercises organised from time to time by HR Departments in various companies in some remote resort. There are easy to difficult group activities and competitions in natural settings which are meant to help us discover our hidden strengths, improve friendships within our department/ organization and encourage stronger bonds with our team-mates. Some sessions at such weekend events focus on creativity and introspection and much of this has been found to be productive and useful.
The Economist makes a valuable point by suggesting that business leaders would benefit more by grappling with big ideas “rather than grappling with nature”. All this would require is sitting in a room and devoting time to study great books. Business leaders would thus be leading people “across an intellectual chasm” instead of leading people “across a ravine”. Citing the example of Reid Hoffman one of the founders of LinkedIn who studied philosophy at Oxford University, the newsmagazine noted that a number of American CEOs studied philosophy at university. Inward-bound courses would help boost “thought leadership”. Listening to great thinkers and reading books that have stood the test of time would
go a long way in developing thought leadership. The news magazine says that often, those who become super-successful become obsessed with material success and go down the wrong path. “Philosophy-based courses would help executives overcome their obsession with status symbols.” One would think that TED Talks format allows people to connect with new ideas and revolutionary thinking and falls in the category of inwardbound journey of the mind. Indeed, a number of top business leaders across the world have long realized the importance of going within from time to time to perform better as leaders in the world outside. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com
Pursuing My Career
‘CA teaches you perseverance, patience’
Natali Ghate lists the trials and tribulations en route to becoming a chartered accountant Chartered Accountancy is not everybody’s dream job. But large numbers of students - on an average 30,000 every year - in the past decade across India appear for the extremely arduous and difficult CA final exam. For me it was simply the challenge. I dreamt of the high I would feel after accomplishing this gigantic task. And there was the added bonus of my father being in the same profession. When I told him about my decision, he said, “You do know what CA stands for, right? It means ‘Come Again’.” And sadly, that’s the harsh reality; you could fail, and maybe more than once. This course is not for the faint-hearted. The course taught me humility, perseverance and patience. Of course, you know a fair bit of accounting and costing and you can file your own tax returns, but that can be learnt elsewhere too. I believe the greatest learning is that which develops you as a person and nurtures your character. I applaud the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for incorporating the three years of internship (articleship) period as part
CARE ER
of the course. It’s those three years that will help you decide whether you are going to make the cut or not. I was lucky to work in one of the reputed and leading medium sized CA firms in Pune. There was so much to learn and enjoy. I was able to work in varied areas such as Companies Act audits, Income tax audits, Finalisation and Consolidation of Trust’s accounts, Limited review of a listed company, inventory reconciliations, internal audit of sales and purchases, VAT and sales tax audits and many more. Once a CA, I took up a contract analysis job at Accenture. I didn’t do a lot of research to find out what I wanted to do. I just wanted to try out something different and that’s exactly what I did.
MY ADVICE... This course is intense and rigorous; only pursue it if you are going to enjoy learning and studying it. While preparing for the exams, understand very clearly what the examiner is looking for when a question is asked, and accordingly answer it. This, I feel, is the key to cracking the CA exam. You need to do a lot of practice to achieve this. Go through the revision test papers and the past exam papers as these are the excellent resources for guidance. Be open to the market and the industry when you are done and out looking for a job. When you don’t have a definite idea of what you want, you should be prepared to explore and learn to like what you do, or keep exploring until you find something you like! (As told to Ishani Bose)
remaining 200 plus colleges in the second phase. The process of issuing tenders is already under way and the actual work will start soon. It will take six to seven months to complete the project. “These classrooms would also help in running various online courses which again would be advantageous for students who cannot be physically present at the varsity,” he said. The lectures held in these classrooms would be transmitted by the colleges. The sessions would be interactive and address thousands of students at one time. “There is a faculty crunch and with this, we can overcome this problem. These classrooms are a regular feature in many western countries. We have allotted Rs five crore for it. The colleges would be given 50 per cent aid while remaining 50 per cent would be borne by the colleges themselves. Generally, one virtual classroom costs Rs seven to eight lakh,” Gade said. manasisaraf@gmail.com
City student selected for Antarctic expedition ’15 BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @Archana.Dahiwal
online at www.2041.com, and the team members are thereafter selected with regards to their potential to contribute. The expedition is scheduled for March 2015. Bhagwat has been given a regime to prepare physically and mentally for the expedition. “I have been on many treks but never on an expedition. I want to work in the field of sustainability and after I graduate, I plan to do my masters in this field,” he said.
Siddharth Bhagwat, a second year student of environment science at Fergusson College has been selected for the International Antarctic Expedition (IAE) 2015. Bhagwat, 20, will represent India as a member of ‘2041’ (www.2041.com) on IAE 2015, an NGO set up by Robert Swan, who has been leading expeditions to the Antarctic for many years. ABOUT 2041 Bhagwat studied at Sinhagad 2041 (www.2041.com) was founded Springdale High School. His mother by polar explorer, environmental leader and public speaker Robert Swan, who Sarita is a homoeopathic doctor and has dedicated his life to the preservation his father Shekhar is a civil of Antarctica by the promotion of engineer. “The selected recycling, renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects members from all over of climate change. The vision is to the world will explore the have committed leaders, emerging Antarctic Peninsula with from every corner of the society by experts and gain first-hand working together to create a experience of the continent’s sustainable world. In the fragile ecosystem year 2041, the ‘Protocol and observe its on Environmental magnificent Protection to the landscape, all while Antarctic Treaty’ learning about could potentially climate change, be modified or sustainability and amended. The what we can do to aim of 2041 is protect this great to work towards wilderness,” Bhagwat the continuing said. People who protection of the Antarctic Treaty want to contribute so that the last great to developing a wilderness on earth is sustainable lifestyle never exploited. and who have Siddharth Bhagwat contributed to the archana.dahiwal@ cause can apply goldensparrow.com for this expedition
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
Kashmir is slipping from under separatist P 10
A physicist named Russel Seitz found that billions ‘data-in-motion’ moving electrons on the Internet add up to nearly 50 gm, which is 2 ounces—the weight of a strawberry. —www.netforbeginners.com
From Elano’s goals to sheer unpredictability P 15
Campaign your creativity
Supreet Mangsule’s printmytee.in, is a designer’s platform, that has taken the online campaigning trend to a new level By Yash Daiv @yash009 Twenty four-year-old Supreet Mangsule, a post-graduate computer science student, has been proactive on the e-commerce scenario. He has been running an online brand store abuselifestyle.in since 2011. “Back then ecommerce was catching up. A year later, there was a boom in this sector. Innovation was the key to survival. Materialising printmytee.in seemed like a right idea then,” said Mangsule. This online crowd funding platform has been running for two years, establishing a trend of online campaigns in the rapidly growing e-commerce platform. “The whole idea was to start a website that involves the customers into producing the product,” he said. The idea materialised into a
Supreet Mangsule
What is crowd-funding? Crowd-funding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. A crowd funded project is sourced by three people namely the project initiator who proposes the idea and/ or project to be funded; individuals or groups who support the idea; and a moderating organisation that brings the parties together to launch the idea. Here designer is the initiator, the supporting individuals are the customers and the moderating organization is printmytee.in
determine the accomplishment of the campaign. If the designer fails to meet the target customers, the tee-shirts will not be dispatched and the customers will be
refunded. The T-shirts cost between Rs 400Rs 500. “People understood the concept. There were people from all over the country who wanted to design their own tee shirts,” said Mangsule. Currently, the website runs five to seven campaigns every month. So far he has undertaken 27 successful campaigns out of which his Breaking Bad campaign (inspired by a well-known TV series) was popular. “Most of the campaigns run successfully. However I feel that we could do better if people completely trust us with online payments,” claimed Mangsule. Ever since the website’s inception,people have been hesitant single payment option. The website tackles the issues on calls or through email. “I hope in the coming years the website’s popularity will win the universal confidence,” said Mangsule. On asking what techniques he would employ to survive against giants like Flipkart and Amazon he said, “These websites are like malls. You get everything here. Printmytee. is just a service provider to the designers.” yashdaiv@gmail.com
Need to maximise broadband, says Google India chief The Indian government should look at maximising broadband connectivity in the country to become a more competitive nation in the digital space. “The Indian government should make the broadband happen in the country. And also make online payment system more smooth,” Rajan Anandan, chairman, Internet and Mobile Association of India, who is also the
managing director, Google India. Anandan, who led over 20-member internet companies’ delegation to China recently, was addressing media persons at an infomal meeting here Wednesday. In India, the e-commerce industry is going to be $15 billion by 2014-end, compared to $450 billion in China. “In China, there is growth in personal incomes
and they now have disposable incomes at hand.” A study shows that personal income in that country has grown five times in 15 years. The other industry stakeholders, who accompanied Anandan to China, also stressed on the issue of easing online payment system in India that will provide a major boost to the e-commerce industry in
the country. Quoting a report, Anandan said, driven by the fact that people are increasingly spending more time on digital devices, in China in 2014 the digital advertisement industry is set to become $20 billion, overtaking television advertisement. It will be the second in the world after the UK. IANS
‘We are sitting for almost 9 hours a day’ Business innovator Nilofer Merchant’s TED Talk stresses on the need to integrate a more active lifestyle into one’s work life 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.
BY Ishani Bose @ishani_bose “What you’re doing right now, at this very moment, is killing you. More than cars or the internet or even that little mobile device that we keep talking about, the technology that you keep using every day ,is resulting in obesity, as on an average, we are sitting for about 9.3 hours a day, which is more than we’re sleeping,” said business innovator, Nilofer Merchant at a TED Global conference. At the conference she said that sitting is so incredibly prevalent that people are not realising the harm it’s causing them. “It’s almost become as prevalent and harmful as smoking is to this generation. There are a number of health hazards caused due to this, besides the impact it has to our waist. Diseases like breast and colon cancers are directly tied to our lack of physical activity. Ten per cent in fact, on both of those, six per cent for heart disease and seven for type 2 diabetes. These statistics should convince each one of us that it’s high time we start walking,” she said. What got Nilofer conscious about her health, was a social interaction. She was invited for a meeting but was asked by the
person concerned to come along for a walk wherein they would have the meeting. “It seemed a bit odd and I remember thinking to myself that it would probably be a wrong idea given that I would be at a loss of breath,
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
Cloud storage basics and pitfalls to avoid
“Campaigns enable people to display their skills” platform for designers to design the tee shirts and sell them through the website. “There are so many creative people around. The campaigns that are launched through the website enable them to display their creative skills,” said Mangsule. A campaign is a space where the designer submits his/her designs, adhering to the technical guidelines. The website then decides whether or not the design is fit to be campaigned. If it is approved, the designer is given the campaigning space on the website. He/she has to set a goal of estimated buyers and the selling price of the tee-shirt. “The campaign is to be shared through social media or fanbases. The number of buyers will determine whether or not the tee-shirts will be printed and shipped at the set price,” said Mangsule. A successful campaign is determined on the report scrutinised by Supreet on the 11th day from the campaign’s advent. The preorders
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trying to walk and talk all at one time, “she said. However, she realised how good the idea was and soon made it her own. “So instead of going to coffee meetings or fluoroscent-lit
conference room meetings, I ask people to go on a walking meeting, say for over 20-30 miles a week. It has changed my mind and I’m sure it will change yours,” she said. Nilofer always felt that one could either take care of one’s health or of one’s obligations but the concern was that sooner or later either of the two would always come at a cost of another. So after several hundred walking meetings, she learnt a few things. “First, there’s this amazing thing about actually getting out of the box that leads to out-of-the-box thinking. Whether it’s nature or exercise, it certainly works. And second, and probably the more reflective one, is just about how much each of us can hold problems in opposition when they’re really not that way. Maybe we can think about how to reframe those problems as having both things come true. Because it was when that happened with this walkand-talk idea that things became doable, sustainable and viable,” she said, while stressing on the need to walk and talk. “Walk the talk and you’ll be surprised at how fresh air drives fresh thinking, and in the way that you do, you’ll bring into your life an entirely new set of ideas,” she said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com
First there was the Cloud, then came the Public and Private Cloud. Duh? What am I talking of? Many of you must have heard of “Cloud Computing” or “Cloud” for short. (Not to be confused obviously with the one that sheds rain). Cloud computing is a relatively new IT development, changing the way (perhaps, forever) individuals and enterprises do their computing. In short, no longer are owned/localised-servers required for your computing tasks; you can use the Cloud for the same. Cloud computing means the use of a network of remotely-located servers, using the Internet as a tether, spitting out some very fast computations. The word Cloud is actually a metaphor for the Internet. So instead of using your own local resources, you outsource them via the Internet, hence, Cloud Computing. One component of Cloud computing is data storage. All kinds of data–personal, official; or images, files, videos, private files, you name it. Rather t h a n s t o r e all of it on your PC (with limited hard drive space) or on a shared server, you save it in the Cloud, and retrieve the data whenever you want. Better for data sharing, too – between you and friends or management and workers. By now, there are hundreds of different Cloud storage systems. Some are of the generic variety while others have a specific focus like the storing of e-mails or digital pictures. Here’s the difference between public and private Cloud: Public Clouds are based on shared physical hardware owned and operated by third-party providers. These are like the shared servers of an Internet Service Provider with many users logging in. Ideal for individuals, and small businesses. Examples are Amazon Web Services and IBM. Private Cloud, on the other hand, is like a private server, solely dedicated to you. Besides the plus points of the public Cloud, it also offers greater levels of control and security, so also customisation. Much used by medium to large enterprises. By the way, these days there’s a third category called the hybrid Cloud. Allows you to combine the best of both worlds and leverage on the strengths of each. Popular Cloud-based storage services are Dropbox and Google, but there are two things you must look out for while storing your data in the Cloud – reliability and security. Some of you must have read of the “nude” pics leak involving Hollywood celebrities who used iOS devices, following the hacking of Apple’s iCloud service. While going in for a Cloud-based storage system, you must check whether the service provider has the best encryption system or not. Check whether their authentication processes are in place; and for businesses, whether authorisation process (people allowed at various levels in a team (s) to use the same service) are well in place. Reliability, like I said, is the other big issue. No one wants a Cloud system that keep failing;it must be on 24X7, across all devices. One more thing – for individuals subscribing to one Cloud service, it may not be enough to take care of all their digital data needs since a service that saves images may not be ideal for saving text data. While these are some of the very basics to follow when you are thinking of moving to the Cloud, some extended research can throw more light and help you make up your mind on the service provider you want to sign up with. In India, there are scores of Cloud service providers like HP (http://bit.ly/1udWgec), Hooduku.com (http:// bit.ly/1pGMGAP), the Pune-based SysTools Software Pvt Ltd (http://bit.ly/142MEJQ) and ValuePoint Cloud services (http://bit.ly/1EtVH3f). (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. )
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY PUNE
Today’s Kasba Peth is the real heart of the city, growing from three little villages several centuries ago. - Samita Gupta’s Glimpses of Pune’s Heritage - A Mosaic
Signposts
Girls are not permitted in the Maulana Azad library of Aligarh Muslim University. The faculty believes that by allowing girls in the premise, boys will create unnecessary nuisance. Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal opposes the activity. “Education and Independence is every girl’s right. By prohibiting them into the library the institution is taking away their basic rights,” said Shamshuddin Tamboli, general secretary, Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal.
Diabetes education programme Diabetes Patient Club has organised a diabetes education programme, at Bal Vikas Mandir School, Lokmanya Nagar on November 16, between 5 pm and 8 pm. Dr Sanjay Gandhi, diabetologist, will educate the audience on ‘new concepts in diabetes’. Yoga will be demonstrated for diabetes patients by yoga practitioner Savita Gandhi. Free blood sugar check, consultation, ECG and podiascan (foot test) will be done at concessional rates for the participants. For more details, contact 020-24324977.
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Senior Sena leaders admitted that the party leadership had failed to tackle the political situation post assembly elections by Vishwas Waghmode Mumbai: Shiv Sena’s poor floor management in the Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday, allowing the BJP government to sail through the crucial trust vote, was one of the many examples of how it had committed such mistakes in last 15-20 days after the state polls. Political analysts say that it was a replay of actions of how BJP ditched the Sena during the seat-sharing talks when the BJP broke its alliance with its 25-yearold partner before the elections. While the BJP said that the decision not to include Sena in the government was decided beforehand, Sena leaders blamed the party leadership for its indecisiveness and failure to read the signals given by BJP in the last couple of weeks. On Wednesday too, Sena legislators failed badly in managing the floor as the Devendra Fadnavis-led government in Maharashtra sailed through the trust vote despite being in a minority. BJP passed the confidence motion by voice vote as the assembly Speaker said that the opposition parties did not demand
the division of votes. Actually, the Sena and Congress were caught unawares when the assembly Speaker changed the sequence of items on the day’s agenda confusing both the opposition parties in the House. NCP was silent in the House giving indirect support to BJP. While the BJP, under Fadnavis ensured top-end floor management, as their scripted plan unfolded, the Sena and Congress appeared confused and disillusioned. Defending the voice vote, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the entire process was done legally and whoever felt it was illegal could challenge it. In what could be termed as Sena’s eternal hope in this season, the Sena was hopeful of joining the government even a few hours before the trust vote as it struggled to clarify its stand. Senior Sena leaders admitted that the party leadership had failed to tackle the political situation post assembly elections. “Instead of being aggressive, the leadership was interested in false pride and self-respect. We should have announced our leader of opposition immediately after the election results
NCP was silent in the House giving indirect support to BJP
Rahul Raut
The city traffic police in action at Puram Chowk on Tilak Road on Wednesday. Errant two-wheeler riders are being fined every day
The city traffic police have initiated action against the city’s helmetless two-wheeler riders since Monday. The city police commissioner Satish Mathur has made it clear that those who oppose the police action will be booked. Speaking to this newspaper, Mathur said that wearing helmet while riding a motorcycle or a
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How a desperate Sena misread BJP signals
two wheeler is mandatory by law and two-wheeler riders should follow it. “It has been already implemented by the government and people have to follow the rules. We have not undertaken any special drive to implement the helmet compulsion,” he added. However, Mathur maintained that police will impose fine to the persons riding without helmets. Asked about people protesting against policemen
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in Mumbai, on November 11, 2014
or after the Modi cabinet expansion fiasco on last Sunday,” said a Sena leader. He said that by delaying the process, Sena’s desperation for power came into the fore, allowing NCP to take advantage of the situation. The party, which had just a day earlier said it would sit in the opposition if BJP took NCP’s support, was forced to propose its senior legislator Eknath Shinde’s name for the LoP’s post as the Congress had also sent a letter to the state legislature staking its claim for the same. Amid all these developments, Sena maintained that talks with the BJP were
still on. Party sources said that the leadership should have ideally declared its issue based support to the BJP just like NCP, to corner the BJP. It would have also forced NCP chief Sharad Pawar out of the scenario. “But, by playing the waiting game and showing eagerness to join the government, the Sena exposed its desperation to join the government,” said another Sena leader. Also, the talks over power sharing in Maharashtra never reached the table and there were no talks about the cabinet berths or the portfolios in last 15-20 days, Sena MP
Army Public School, Pune student Vaidehi Reddy is the winner of the sixth edition of the Doodle4Google contest this year
who are implementing the rule, Mathur said that he was aware of the protests and criticism that police face in the city when the helmet rule is implemented by the police. However, this time, police have decided to book protesters. “I will take stern action against such people. Though in a democratic way, it is the law of the land, the protest against the law is unacceptable,” he added. He said that even the Supreme Court (SC) has issued strict guidelines in this regard and how people can protest against it? “People install scratch guards on their cell phone screens but did not care for their heads,” he added. The city has about 35 lakh vehicles and two-wheelers constituted about 70 per cent of this number. Every year, about 200 two-wheeler riders are killed in accidents on the city roads. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com
By Ishani Bose @ishani_bose For 14-year-old, Pune girl Vaidehi Reddy, the winner of the sixth edition of the Doodle4Google (D4G) contest, art is an allconsuming passion. “Art is everything for her. Her day is not complete if she does not sketch or draw or paint something,” says her proud mother Gayatri Reddy. Vaidehi’s sketches and art, however are a far cry from her constant struggles since childhood. “Vaidehi is a slow learner and takes time to gauge numbers, words and complex scientific theories, in school. But hand her a paint brush and you’ll see her churn out beautiful and natural art works. She is gifted and way ahead of her age. She may not be that good with studies, but God has gifted her with this talent that will take her places,” Gayatri said. One of 12 finalists, the standard IX student of Army Public School emerged as the national winner of the Google
Vaidehi Reddy poses with her winning Doodle titled ‘Natural and Cultural Paradise - Assam’
contest, in Delhi recently. The theme of the contest was, ‘A place in India I wish to visit’, and Google had received entries of over a million aspirants, from more than 1,700 schools across 50 cities. Vaidehi’s winning doodle,
titled ‘Natural and Cultural Paradise – Assam’, appeared live on the Google (India) homepage on Children’s Day (November 14). “When Google4Doodle contest was announced in my school, I decided to participate
in the competition at once. Art is my life. I had visited Assam with my parents in 2011 and loved it so much that I decided to prepare the doodle on it,” Vaidehi said. Vaidehi has won an all expenses paid stay at Taj Guwahati, Assam, for four days and three nights, with her family, an HP Chromebook laptop, and several other goodies. All the other finalists too received a certificate of achievement and a Chromebook laptop. “We are extremely grateful to Google for this wonderful opportunity and reception we were given during the one-day trip to Delhi. It is heart-warming to see our daughter receive such widespread recognition at such a young age,” Gayatri added. Ask Vaidehi what she wants to pursue in the future and it doesn’t come as a surprise to know that it’s art. “I want to grow up to work as a graphics artist or a creative designer in Google or the Times group,” she said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com
Pics: Aniruddha Rajandekar
Has the city of Pune forgotten its war heroes? The war memorials to commemorate the Marathas of Pune who lost their lives during WWI, are utterly neglected By Reuben Paul @ReubenPPaul
Unattended Mahratta War Memorial at Camp
Chandrakant Khaire had told Firstpost earlier. On Sunday, the Shiv Sena, by sending Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai to Delhi for prime minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet expansion and then by calling him back from the Delhi airport itself made things worse, thus ending any scope of rapprochement with the BJP in the state. The BJP considered the incident a direct insult to the prime minister. Fadnavis’s swearing-in was yet another occasion, where Sena’s indecisiveness was exposed. After announcing that it would boycott the grand function, Uddhav made a surprise appearance at the Wankhede stadium following a series of calls from BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley and Amit Shah. However, BJP claimed that it had decided in the last month itself that the party would not include Sena in the government in Maharashtra. A BJP leader pointed out that party president Amit Shah had said in a statement in October that Congress won’t be in opposition in Haryana and Maharashtra. “So he clearly indicated that Sena will be in the opposition. It seems that Sena failed to understand it well,” he said. He said that BJP kept Sena engaged by saying that the talks are on with them over power sharing in Maharashtra. Sena has completely failed to read the signals given by the BJP and went on committing the mistakes from time to time, said a BJP leader. (By special arrangement with Firstpost.com)
Winning hearts with her art
Traffic police firm on enforcing helmet rule
TGS News Service @TGSWeekly
Understanding wills and nominations
Sandeep Mahankal/IANS
Muslim body opposes ban on girls at Maulana Azad library
3D way of learning human anatomy
Rahul Raut
NOVEMBER 15, 2014
Exactly a century ago, British Indian officer Lieutenant General Arthur Barett led the 6th (Poona) Division, comprising Maratha regiments to a bombarded river bank fort Fao in modern day Iraq. The sky was clear, the day was unbearably hot and swarms of mosquitoes stung the ill trained soldiers, who dodged enemy bullets simultaneously. The enemy, the Ottomans were eventually overpowered. This was the beginning of the illfated yet successful Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War which lasted till 1919, during which 92,000 soldiers, mostly Indian lost their lives. A century later, as the world commemorates their valour, their memorials in Pune remain almost
Littered and ill maintained corners of the citizen-funded War Memorial at Bolhai Chowk. (Right) Desecrated remains of a legacy forgotten
forgotten and ill maintained. The two memorials raised as tribute to the Marathas of Pune, who fought in Africa, Middle East and Europe, are located in front of Supply Depot in Camp and in front of Sassoon Hospital, near Bund Garden police chowkey. They are a constant reminder
of the utter neglect and disrespect of the local administration and more importantly, the citizens of Pune. “The war memorial at Bolhai Chowk near Bund Garden police station was funded by the citizens of Pune in the 1920s. They organised a fund-raising bazar for the cause and
built it to cherish the memory of the many Marathas from Pune who lost their lives in the Great War. It is sad that we as Indians have forgotten their sacrifice,” said historian Mandar Lawate. The Mahratta War Memorial at Camp was initially set up in front of Shaniwarwada in 1922 by the Prince
of Wales (who later became emperor of the British Empire) Edward VIII. It was later shifted to its present location in the early 1940’s. It paid tribute to 14 regiments based in Maharashtra of the Indian Army for its role in the Great War, largely to do with the Poona Division that spearheaded the Mesopotamian Campaign on November 6, 1914. Four regiments of the 14 are today battalions of the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment. The surroundings of both memorials are littered with stale food, plastic bags, rags, old shoes, bottles, and newspapers. It is obvious that these places are frequented more by the beggars and homeless rather than the respectable citizens of the city. “It is a great shame for us and the many descendents of the men who sacrificed their lives as we not only have forgotten them but ill maintained the sites of their remembrance in a city that has had a long tradition of soldiery,” said Lawate. And poignantly, the purpose of these memorials is, ‘Lest We Forget’. reubenpaul94@gmail.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
PUNE
NOVEMBER 15, 2014
PUNE
PUNE CONNECTS WITH INNOVATION & ENTERPRISE Ecozen’s solar-powered cold storage could revolutionise Indian agriculture
SEAP’s PuneConnect 2014 was a fabulous, day-long interaction with the growing start-up community in Pune. Team TGS on Saturday brings you an overview
The start-up shootout segment at PuneConnect2014 was won by Ecozen Solutions for their solar-powered micro cold storage technology for Indian agriculture. The Four finalists competed for the top prize in a game show like format of this session were Ecozen Solutions, The Green Raddiwala, Framebench and Scandid. All four demonstrated their products and were subjected to a question-answer round, judged by Renu Electronics founder Ajay Bhagwat, BMC Pune director Tarun Sharma and Seedfund managing partner Mahesh Murthy. Ecozen Solutions was established in 2009 by IIT Kharagpur graduates Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singal and Vivek Pandey with an aim to eradicate ‘poor energy management’. Their recent technological yield, the micro cold storage, works on thermal energy encapsulated by the means of solar panels. The storage caters to crops which have specific preservation requirements in terms of temperature, humidity and air composition. It was primarily designed to cater to rural area which has scarce electricity supply. “Some rural areas are not supplied with
electricity for more than eight hours. It directly impacts farming,” said Gupta. The team plans to go mobile to cater to these remote locations. “We will meet the sarpanch first and convey him the utility of the concept. Then we will ask
Their product innovation includes an Internetbased service request alert
the 12-hour window will spoil the crop, Gupta said that the thermal storage back-up will ensure that the crop stays intact until the service provider reaches the location. Ecozen aims to deliver 200 units by 2016 and 20,000 units in the country by 2020. They have chalked out a maintenance model to gauge the efficient scaling-up. “Currently, we are funded
T Micro Cold Storage
him to choose the best farmers from his village to whom we will demonstrate the product. If they agree, we will set up the storage for them in two days,” said Gupta. He feels that large-scale commercial farmers will be able to invest in the product. “Indigent farmers will be able to rent the storage until they raise a capital,” he said. The product innovation includes an Internetbased service request alert. “The company website will be alerted in case of a breakdown. We will ensure that out service providers reach the location within 12 hours,” said Gupta. On asking whether
he storage caters to crops which have specific preservation requirements in terms of temperature, humidity and air composition. It was primarily designed to cater to rural area which has scarce electricity supply. Ecozen aims to deliver 200 units by 2016 and 20,000 units in the country by 2020. They have chalked out a maintenance model to gauge the efficient scaling-up.
by Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Training Society (TIETS). Gradually we will engage with B-to-B partners and have regional centres who will foster client relations and services in the mapped radius,” said Gupta. Besides the appropriate energy harvest, micro cold storage also brings value proposition. Gupta feels that there will be considerable diesel conservation due to reduction in transportation costs. “The storage is portable, it will not consume electricity and there is no need for transportation,” he said. yashdaiv@gmail.com
START-UP MENTOR
Opportunities for innovation are everywhere
ThinkPune report was launched at SEAP’s annual event PuneConnect 2014
BY YASH DAIV @yash009
How do I come up with my business idea if I want to start my venture. Can you guide on the process? - Paresh Panchal
is probably worth noting is that looking for unexpected success isn’t quite as easy as it seems. We often focus on what went wrong and when things go better than expected, we credit it up to luck. An example of this is the huge success of mobile phones and mobile communication in India. Also, the smartphones are getting accepted at a rate not expected earlier. Th is spawns several opportunities for all types of mobile-
Contrary to what many would think, there may be a process to find your business idea. Peter Drucker, in his landmark book ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’, has suggested seven sources of business ideas. Let us understand this.
need to look for unexpected failure. I can’t think of no better recent example of unexpected failure than the recent failures of submarines and ships belonging to the Indian Navy. Th is catastrophe came out of the blue and even the best entrepreneur could not have anticipated it. However, there is a little question when such expectant failure would have an impact on almost every aspect of our defence procurement and lead the opportunity in many whelms. I know a few entrepreneurs who are working on building technologies to address this problem.
Success
Failure
Outside Event
HIGHT RELIABILITY
2. Incongruities Economics
Reality
Values
Rhythm
3. Process Need 4. Industry/ Market Structure Growth
Maturing
Converge
Model
5. Demographics 6. Changes in Perception LOW RELIABILITY 7. New Knowledge (see image). As an entrepreneur you have to constantly look for the unexpected, because an unexpected means something has changed. And change means an opportunity. UNEXPECTED SUCCESS The fi rst type of the unexpected event you have to look for is unexpected success. Big events are happening which you never saw coming. When you face with an unexpected success you have to lean into it, embrace it, embrace the fact that you found the opportunity for advance innovation. If you don’t capitalise on the success someone else will. What
based applications. As entrepreneurs we have to recognise that unexpected success is a symptom of underlying change and we need action to explore it. The question we need to ask ourselves when we see unexpected success is can we exploit the success and where can it beat us, what do we have to do to convert it into an opportunity, and how do we go about doing it. In other words, how can I turn the success into new enterprise. UNEXPECTED FAILURE What shall we be looking for when we are trying to innovate is that we also
OUTSIDE EVENTS After the unexpected failure, another source of innovation is unexpected outside the event, and they come out of the blue and changes everything. For an entrepreneur, this is a clear source of innovation. An example of this is the training and education industry. Earlier, conducting training would mean that the instructor and students come together at a physical location. However, the advent of telecommunication technologies has changed all this. Today, a lot more training is conducted online which has eliminated the need for physical proximity. Th is opens up whole new sets of opportunities for content delivery. SUMMARY Hopefully you are beginning to see that the opportunities for innovation really are everywhere. You just need to actively look for the change. Because the unexpected is the direct symptom of change, it’s the most reliable source of innovation, and generally the easiest to find. We will review other sources at another time. Vishwas Mahajan, president of TiE Pune Chapter, answers real life questions of entrepreneurs
PuneConnect 2014, gives a detailed account on Pune’s start-up scenario from the IT boom era. Today, with more than 350 corporate innovation centres in the city, Pune is looking forward to stronger technological based start-ups. Bhandari referred to Pune as the New York of India from a technological point of view. The city has been a fertile ground for national activities and set-ups right from the British era, when Pune was the key location for defencerelated activities. Post independence, national level laboratories and education institutes arrived to the city. In 1990, the information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) sectors grew rapidly. Today, Pune houses the second largest centre of giants like Infosys and IBM. It’s proximity to Mumbai and the presence of foreign banks makes Pune an accommodating space for all kinds of startups. “Twenty-five marquee venture firms have invested in Pune start-ups,” said Bhandari emphasising the current developments on the financial front. The ThinkPune report illustrates a pattern of initial investments that Pune based start-ups have taken up. According to the report, every 44 per cent of the entrepreneurs in Pune started up with their own savings while about 7 per cent borrowed from family and friends. Nearly 11 per cent got angel or strategic
TOP SPEAKERS
‘Pune can lead nation in software infrastructure building’
BMC Pune director Tarun Sharma, Ecozen Solutions founder Devendra Gupta and Saba Software managing director Gaurav Mehra
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@ THE EVENT 1. TiE Nurture programme awardees; 2. Yash Mehta of coffeetable.in; 3. Rajkumar Mundel (left) of Letsride.in; 4. A volunteer at Framebench stall; 5. Dashboard stall; 6. Aniruddha Fansalkar (left) at Monjin stall; 7. Ziya Shaikh at the Vegwash stall
Sharad Sharma moved to Pune in 2004 from the US. Part of the wireless ecosystem during that time, he said, “Back then, if somebody had said AT&T is ‘the’ largest voice paid international voice minutes carrier now but it won’t be the same in the coming 10 years, my answer would have been, ‘Are you crazy?’ But in 2009, Skype went on to become the largest paid voice carrier in the world. For me, as a telecom player, I could not have foreseen what we are witnessing today.” So this kind of non-linear change has come upon us, and it is an opportunity that gives the power of ecosystem to fill spaces. So, what does this mean for Pune? “My own hypothesis is that there is a sweet spot for Pune in this opportunity. There are two kinds of businesses: in front of and behind the curtain. The simplest metaphor here is the use of readymade and tailormade shirts. You did not want to shift but the ecosystem has shifted. This is the change taking place in business applications. Buyers no longer want tailormade applications. This is what is happening in some
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Chairman and managing director (CMD), Persistent Systems, Anand Deshpande pointed out that the industry should now start looking at challenges and responsibilities while running any organisation, especially start-ups BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali
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sensitive business applications, for mission critical work they may choose tailor-made but majority still prefers readymade. In this shift a lot new opportunity is opening and the nature is that it is filling wide spaces. People are buying whereas they could not do that earlier. In 25 years, TCS has over 1,100 customers and Infosys 888. Then there are companies like Freshdesk who are adding 1,000 clients per month. In this new model, Indian companies are selling globally and opening a whole new market for Indian start-ups.” Speaking on start-ups and their growth, Sharma said, “Pune has the potential to lead in software infrastructure building. New IT start-ups should concentrate on this emerging section of software development.” He said that rapid changes are taking place in the software and IT industry and startups should understand its dynamic nature while implementing the ideas. He also stressed on knowledge networking point. “In a city like Pune, entrepreneurs should give priority to knowledge networking. Expert entrepreneurs should guide the novice entrepreneur to establish a good start-up. This process should be non-commercial and must follow the ideal format.”
‘Barrier of fear to experiment has gone by and it’s time to act’
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investors in addition to their savings and borrowing from family members and friends. About 7 per cent used the funds they raised from selling their previous venture. He also informed the audience of the payment companies that have played a major role in emboldening the Pune ecosystem. “Recently, Mastercard acquired a city-based payment company. With favourable finance, start-ups have better scaling potential in the city,” said Bhandari. He added that most of the start-ups have started generating revenue and address the large global market. The report claims that nearly 51 per cent of the Pune-based start-ups have customers from India, that is, one out of every two start-ups in the city. Close to 22 per cent of them have only global customers, while over 27 per cent have customers from India as well as abroad. Despite being a favourable destination for start-ups, Pune has not got its fair share of recognition. The report was launched with the aim of helping Pune entrepreneurs to understand the kind of support available to them. “Companies like NASSCOM, MCCIA and Pune Coffee Club make Pune a different ground. They work with a single agenda, making Pune a centre of start-ups,” said Bhandari. yashdaiv@gmail.com
Cloud & mobility: Reason to cheer or fear?
Sharad Sharma, co-founder and governing council member of iSPIRT and CEO of BrandSigma, emphasises on the need to focus on first-time and aspiring entrepreneurs BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali
Peter Drucker’s Seven Sources of Innovation 1. The Unexpected
country’s start-ups,” said Maneesh Bhandari, director, Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), Pune division, IIM-A. The report that was launched at the
“Pune ranks second in terms of product based start-ups. It makes 21 per cent of the
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
Vishwas Mahajan
ThinkPune, a report released by IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (Pune) during PuneConnect 2014, promises to give the city better visibility PICS BY RAHUL RAUT
The innovative solar-powered micro cold storage technology developed by Ecozen Solutions for Indian agriculture was chosen as the most promising start-up at PuneConnect 2014 BY YASH DAIV @yash009
IIM-A wants the world to ‘Think Pune’
A three-point agenda was suggested by Anand Deshpande, chairman and managing director (CMD), Persistent Systems, at Software Exporters Association of Pune’s (SEAP) annual event PuneConnect 2014. He said, “We should look at what opportunities we have, what challenges we could face in the future and what are our responsibilities while running any organisation, especially start-ups.” He also mentioned that about 68 crore Indians are under the age of 25, hence it is the responsibility of start-ups to accumulate them in the jobs. Deshpande said that the opportunities in the market show a great rise on the technology roadmap and one needs to look ahead strategically. “India is a viable market for products and technology for entrepreneurs and consumers. With new technology
such as Cloud it takes significantly less (time and people) to do the same work. The barrier of fear to experiment has gone by and it is time to act,” he said. The challenges mentioned by him particularly included the timeframe required to build a product or service. “Automation will soon make jobs redundant. The whole equation for getting the job done in lesser time and with fewer people is causing serious issues. Our middle layer is out of sync with reality and will have difficulty in keeping up. Skill expectation requirements are changing. Just knowing one skill is not useful in the organisational pyramid,” he said. The industry has to leverage technology to get out of the vicious circle of ‘we are a developing country’. “We need a few dozen Alibabas, Amazons and Apples to come from India. We must be able to create jobs for 678,453,958 Indians,” he said.
anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com
(From left) K Vishwanathan, vice president operations, Eaton with Suhas Kelkar, chief technology officer, BMC; Ankur Agarwal, CEO, Clarion Technologies and noted independent consultant Nandkumar (Nandu) Kulkarni
BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @gitesh_shelke
“So any citizen can take picture of traffic violations and post it on their Facebook page and the police will have to take action A panel discussion on Cloud and Mobility, on it. Perfect example of Cloud and mobiland whether one needs to cheer or fear the ity! The reason to cheer is that Pune trafgrowth of this phenomenon was held at the fic police had expanded its enforcement by event. The discussion was moderated by K including citizens from the city,” he said. Vishwanathan, vice president operations, When it came to cheering the rise of Eaton with Suhas Kelkar, chief technol- Cloud and mobility, Kulkarni said, “A lot ogy officer, BMC; Ankur Agarwal, CEO, is happening in the mobile banking and Clarion Technologies and noted inde- mobile payments space. There are links pendent consultant Nandkumar (Nandu) in the chain: a typical mobile payment Kulkarni. involves the app, the merchant, payment “We are biased towards ‘cheer’,” said acquirer (bank), Visa or Mastercard and Agarwal as he admitted to this bepayer. There are nine different paring a big opportunity. “Now we ticipants coming into the chain. can do things, create applicaEach link the chain provides tions and businesses with opportunity for innovation, PuneConnect very little infrastructure services etc.” and with a little investment. According to him, the Panel With small teams you can challenge is that the mobile Discussion bring out ideas with global payment space start-ups lack impacts. If you have dreams, in the design aspect of these if you can think of something apps. “We are all techies but new or crazy, there is a huge opwhen it comes to user interface portunity,” he said. and user experience (it) is an area where But he was also cautious and stated we face a big challenge” he pointed out. that people like him who run enterprises Th is point was supported by Agarwal that took significant investment in infra- who said that the biggest challenge for a structure face competition from young Cloud designer was to design with the end engineers who are already exposed to the user in mind. “Most of the efforts start Dropboxes and Angry Birds, apps right with a technology focus and tech focus out of their mobiles and Cloud. If we don’t start-ups can only go so far. And if they change in the next few years, if we don’t are not technology focussed they are feabring our infrastructure and our apps at ture function focussed. Very few start-ups the same level as the new-age apps, people focussed on user experience,” he said. will be dissatisfied. That’s the challenge,” To the panellists it was evident that he said. Pune had a thriving ecosystem and that Coming from an enterprise software many more start-up successes could crop backdrop proffered Kelkar the opportu- up from the city that is currently touted nity to give many examples to both cheer to be number two in India. According to and fear Cloud and mobility. He chose to Agarwal, most of the start-ups came from highlight an initiative by Pune Traffic Po- Silicon Valley, because of its ecosystem. lice that has its own Facebook page where “Like-minded people, like-minded ideas. photos of offences and offenders are posted Pune is well placed that way” he said. not just by the cops but also by the general ritugoyalharish@gmail.com public.
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
Seeing a new future for nuclear site, after the toxic dust has settled P 13
The Robin Raphel Saga This is what happened in Washington that day Contd from p 1 The US had nothing new to say on Kashmir at that point of time and the press meet would have been uneventful but for the question from me to Raphel. What she had said unwittingly was explosive and threw Indo-US relations into a tizzy, as was seen in the days that followed.
(From left) Maharaja Hari Singh with Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru when the Instrument of Accession was signed in 1947
ISRO to pump in Rs 30 crore in WIL
The Walchandnagar Industry
Contd from p 1 “India’s defence sector is opening up in a big way and we are also enlarging our
defence division. We are already working on the research and development (R&D) of submarines, nuclear submarines, launchers and containers. Very soon we will be the major player in this area. We have also taken up few consultancies,” he said. Pillai praised the new government at the Centre for giving the defence sector a major flip. He said there was “clarity in thinking and speedy decisions”. Many tenders lying in the doldrums for a long time were being cleared swiftly, he said. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com
“In the face of right-wing offensive, there is a realisation among left parties of the need for cooperation.” — Prakash Karat, CMP General Secretary
The political resurgence in J&K Modi-Amit Shah duo has completely changed the game in Jammu and Kashmir
anti-India sentiment. By raising the BJP’s political profile in J&K, Modi has thrown a challenge to Kashmiris in the Valley to look at the world beyond their pond. Both the National Conference and the PDP, traditional rivals in the valley, are now fighting to gain traction for a significant share of the Muslim vote, only to find the BJP also making a pitch for it. Even more significant, by throwing hints about a possible Hindu chief minister for J&K, the BJP has forced the separatists to rethink too: they now know that if their boycott succeeds, they may actually be helping the BJP. A substantial vote boycott means seats will be won on low polling. This has revived hopes among the smaller Muslim parties that they too can win seats on the basis of a thin vote, especially if the Pandits thrown out of the valley are also able to vote. This is why the BJP is making overtures to the smaller parties and individuals with some credibility to either join the party, or be ready for post-poll alliances. It is fielding Hina Bhat, a dentist by profession, in Amira Kadal in the valley who will benefit from a thin Pandit vote and presumably a small Muslim vote too. And despite the obvious threat to her life from separatists, she is selling a vision of smart cities and expressway, says this Reuters ground report. Quite clearly, Narendra Modi has changed the game in J&K where the moral ground is slipping from under the separatists and the dynasts. This also brings dangers: Pakistan-based separatists will obviously try to step up the violence in the run-up and during – the five-phase elections. The security forces will clearly have to be on guard. But even if the terrorists strike it will mean the same thing: the ground is slipping under them. J&K is on the cusp of hope – like the rest of India. (By special arrangement with Firstpost.com)
BY R JAGANNATHAN The conviction of seven army officers in the Machil (Kupwara) fake encounter case of 2010 in Jammu and Kashmir should be seen as a piece in the BJP's gameplan where it is changing the game itself in this strife-torn state. The conviction has forced Chief Minister Omar Obdullah to acknowledge it as a "watershed" event, and the chances are it will impact sentiments in the state ahead of assembly elections due this month and the next. With a series of moves that began some time in December 2013, Narendra Modi has quietly shifted the chatter on J&K away from mere separatism to development and peace. Separatism is not about to decline suddenly, but the buzz around the state is changing quietly. The links to the nation are being reforged. Modi has probably been to J&K more than to any other states after being election. Enthused by the party’s terrific showing in the Lok Sabha polls, when it emerged as J&K’s biggest party in terms of popular vote and won three of the six seats (Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh), the BJP has changed its gameplan from merely seeing itself as a Jammu-based Hindu party to one that could well lead or be part of the next government. It is taking the fight to the Muslimdominated Kashmir Valley. He had said: “The conditions in Jammu & Kashmir are very sad and the current government is running an establishment filled with corruption. It is not only the responsibility of state BJP activists but every activist in every state to ensure that the BJP wins there. Both
IN THE
NEWS
By openly talking about being a part of the next government, the BJP has flung the gauntlet at the regional parties and the separatists
the political families of the state have misused the money meant for progress”. The PDP has been seen as softer on the BJP than the NC, but by attacking both Shah was essentially saying the BJP’s has set its sights very high in the state. In the 87-seat assembly, elections to which are due in five phases starting from November 25, the halfway mark is 44. But after initially targeting Mission 44, the party has now upped its sights to Mission 50. This is typical Modi – a man who believes in setting stretch targets to motivate the cadre. In the Lok Sabha election, once the opinion polls started showing a shift in mood towards the BJP, the original target of 272 and above was moved up to 300 and above with the party ending up somewhere in-between at 282. Mission 50, of course, is not achievable without the BJP making an entry in the Kashmir Valley, which has 46 of the 87 seats. The rest of the seats are in Jammu (37), where the BJP expects to sweep, and Ladakh (four). If the BJP has to have a snowball’s
chance in hell of becoming the largest party in the J&K assembly, it will have to win Jammu and Ladakh clear, and make inroads in the Valley where it has never once won a seat. Or it will have to get allies from among the smaller Muslim parties. The BJP is thus not only changing the gameplan, but the game itself by playing its cards smartly. The first part of the gameplan unfolded in December 2013, when Modi visited the state for the Lok Sabha campaign, where he openly called for a debate on article 370. He did not specifically say article 370, which allows J&K a special status, needs to go, but asked if it had served any useful purpose. The “secular” commentariat criticised the statement as a traditional BJP ploy to pander to the Jammu Hindu votebank, but with hindsight we can see where it fits in. It is part of the BJP’s larger goal of integrating J&K into the mainstream by subsuming state politics into its national gameplan. Till Modi entered the picture, J&K elections have always been about pandering to local sentiment, especially
Catch up with developments in Pune as the week comes to a close
Vandana Chavan, Shirole adopt villages Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) city unit chief and Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan has not only adopted Sadumbre village in M a v a l taluka but also Vandana Chavan organised a painting competition in the village for kids on the occasion of Children’s Day on Friday. Under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (MP’s model village scheme), launched by prime minister Narendra Modi in October, MPs have to adopt three villages and develop them as model villages from the funds in Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS). The theme of the Anil Shirole painting contest was ‘Sadumbre of my dream’ and children were asked to fill a form giving details about the family. Vandana will use the data to reach out to villagers. She plans to develop the village known for its association with Sant Tukaram Maharaj as a centre for meditation. Pune MP Anil Shirole has adopted Wadgaon (Shinde) village in Haveli taluka under the scheme.
RAHUL RAUT
My question to Raphael was straightforward and precise. It had emerged from a discussion two days earlier with the foreign affairs scholar Prof. Sumit Ganguly who was then a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC. Sumit mentioned during our discussion on Kashmir that India’s claims to this state stood firmly validated under international law by the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh with India. “This is one point on which the Americans and others have to concede,” Sumit had told me emphatically. Sumit clearly emphasised that the Instrument of Accession could not be contested under international law and India’s claim to Kashmir stood cemented by this document of history. We discussed that in this context, it would be interesting to know precisely the US position on the instrument. The discussion with Sumit was extremely productive for me and I was ready with my questions for Raphel at her scheduled briefing. The briefing began at around 4pm and routine questions on India, Pakistan, Kashmir and the US followed. These were questions relating to updates on Kashmir, nuclear non-proliferation, the Pressler Amendment, US failure to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism, etc., etc. Raphel had warmed up sufficiently and was at ease and it was towards the end of the interaction, that I put forth my question. As recorded in the official US transcript, my question to Raphel was: “The Indian government is saying that on the basis of the Instrument of Accession which was legal and legitimate, that Kashmir is an integral part of India. How does the State Department view this Instrument of Accession?” My question was very different from the usual ones and it had not been raised during my entire stint in Washington. Raphel didn’t think much of it; replied promptly and even went on to clarify when I sought an elaboration. She smiled charmingly and guffawed as she replied and it didn’t occur to her that she had committed a diplomatic faux pas with
grave implications. Surprisingly, none of the other journalists challenged Raphel there and then on what she had just said. The briefing ended, we exchanged pleasantries and moved on. The gravity of what she had said soon began to sink in while sipping coffee in the National Press Building’s food plaza. It was clear that Raphel’s remark would spark an angry reaction from New Delhi. As events unfolded from the very next day, the US diplomat’s thoughtlesslymade remark had deep repercussions on Indo-U.S. relations and the reaction in India was so very intense that it was described as a “diplomatic explosion”. There was no room for Raphel to claim she was “misquoted” as the FPC had provided an audio recording to the journalists for the sake of accuracy. All important official briefings were recorded by the staff at the FPC and a cassette would be handed to journalists on request. There was much excitement that night as I filed my dispatch from home to the Times of India’s foreign desk in Delhi. As expected, there were calls from my Foreign Affairs Editor Ramesh Chandran who wanted details, clarifications and follow-up reports. There was much analysis, commentary and outrage in India over Raphel’s remark as it suggested not just a major US tilt towards Pakistan but also the rejection of the Instrument of Accession which was at the heart of the Indian Union. Princely state after princely state had signed this instrument and agreed to become a part of Independent India. Email was not widespread then and all my reports had to be faxed to India. The Times, Delhi, wanted a copy of the Instrument of Accession, which I got over the phone from Vijay Sazawal of the Indo-US Kashmir Forum, and faxed it to Delhi. When I met Ambassador Siddhartha Shankar Ray and Chief of Mission, Ambassador Kanwal Sibal (with whom I had a warm rapport) a few days later, both were grim-faced. One former journalist of the ToI who was serving at the World Bank commented that my one question “had taken Indo-US relations, back by 20 years to the Nixon era”. My simple retort to such high priests- and there were many of them- was, “Was it the question which made the news or was it the reply?” I firmly believe that journalists should be dictated by the sanctity of their profession and feel free to ask questions they think appropriate. In fact, things turned in India’s favour as a result of the Robin Raphel fiasco as the Clinton administration was very keen to clear the air and pave the way for better relations. Within months of this episode, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott visited New Delhi with an invitation from President Clinton to Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, who left for Washington in May 1994. Raphel disappeared from the scene and was soon forgotten. It is only now that she has once again hit the headlines with reports of the FBI investigations into her affairs. abhay.vaidya@goldensparrow.com
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A painting exhibition titled ‘Golden Moments, Silver Stories’ of child artists from Kalaswad Kalakruti has been organised at New Art Gallery, Ghole Road. Paintings made by about 600 children are on display at the exhibition, which will remain open till November 16 from 11 am to 8 pm
Anglo-Indian and Christian communities. Now, the school has three campuses in the city, in Camp, Kalyaninagar and Undri with over 11,144 students. A Founder’s Day Service, presided over by Bishop Andrew Rathod of the Pune Diocese, was held at the Jaffarbhai Ground on Thursday. The closing ceremony will be the sesquicentennial Thanksgiving Service, to be held in April 2015.
Community radio launched at Yerawada jail
Bishop’s School holds Founders’ Day service The Bishop’s School, Pune Camp, is marking the 150th year of its foundation with a year-long celebration that includes an expedition to the Everest base camp, a get-together of its alma mater, a concert, and sports tournaments. The Bishop’s School was founded in 1864 with 15 students and one school master, to educate the children of the European,
The Yerawada Central Prison inmates now have a community radio. Film actress Rani Mukerji inaugurated the radio service at the prison last Tuesday. She also released the MaKa (Maharashtra Karagriha) logo, a brand name for jail products, including furniture and textiles. She donated an
ECG machine for women inmates. The community radio ‘Radio YCP’ is a public address system that was functional on the prison premises, but was used only for announcements. The prisoners will now be allowed to use the service for one hour daily for singing songs, bhajans, kirtans and giving legal guidance.
Cantonment residents to vote on January 11 Elections in the three Cantonment boards in Pune — Pune, Khadki and Dehu Road — will be held on January 11. The polls will be held in the 56 Cantonment Boards in the country on that day. In a letter issued to the cantonments, the defence ministry has directed them to prepare the election schedule. The last elections in the Cantonment boards were held on May 18, 2008 and their tenure ended on May 17, 2013.
Kedar Jadhav in Indian squad Pune’s right-handed batsman Kedar
Jadhav has been selected to represent India against Sri Lanka. Kedar’s free flowing style of batting secured him the best player of the year award in the last Ranji season for Maharashtra. Representing India A, Kedar scored 225 runs with an average of 53 in the four matches that he played against Australia A and South Africa A recently in Australia. He has earlier played for Delhi Daredevils (2010) and later for Kochi Tuskers, Kerala in the Indian Premier League, and represented West Zone in domestic cricket. He has 10 centuries and 13 half-centuries under his belt in First Class cricket since 2007.
India ties up with Korea Model Association The Badal Saboo Group (BSG), associated with PFW (Pune Fashion Week), has inked an international venture to support talent all over India. PFW has joined hands with Korea Model Association (KMA) to promote Indian fashion models and designers internationally and foster cross-border cultural and business relations of India with other Asian countries. Model auditions will be held pan India in top cities to hunt the ‘Face of India’ and the nominations will get an opportunit y to represent India at the Asia Festival 2015. Badal Saboo, managing Visit www. director, PFW along f a c e o f i n dia. with Yang Eui Sig, org website for chairman, KMA registration.
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
PUNE
“Studies suggest that yoga has an immediate quieting effect on the sympathetic nervous system and on the body’s response to stress” — Neha Gothe, Asst Prof at Wayne State University
“We have always been fed the notion that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and there is some evidence supporting this” — Dr Sarah Schenker, Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist (UK)
Can we provide a silver lining to those in the twilight zone, asks Anuradha Muralidhar
Life was a little better for the elders in the earlier decades, as the Indian social order depended on the joint family system. An individual depended on the investment that he made in his children to provide for him in the old age. This social order effectively catered to the security of the elderly. Today there is a reversal and we are facing a situation where both the government and the people need to take up this challenge. One out of ten senior citizens in the world lives in India, with a majority in the rural areas. The situation is far more grave for women as the incidence of widowhood is much higher, as it is customary for women to marry males, several years older. They rarely remarry and tend to live longer. Studies reveal, that much more than the physical pain, the mental agony inflicted on them is deep and immeasurable. The trend is accelerating, due to liberalisation and globalisation and with ‘individualisation’ and ‘commodification’ of the old. Ageing problems require grassroot level solutions and the government machinery is not always flexible and sensitive to the manifold needs of the elderly. In such a scenario, it is important for individuals, society, NGOs, government bodies, media, corporates to come forward and provide the much-needed lifeline for the old destitute. Remember, a few years on we all will have to face the same situation as ageing is inevitable. As children grow and get married, they either stay with their parents or move out. Problems arise in both cases and also because of numerous lifestyle issues. Globalisation has brought with it other problems. The son migrates leaving his parents behind. This trend is increasing by the day. Besides, living in a daughter’s house is considered a taboo. With a norm of one child where does the old take shelter? INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY Individuals can play an important role. Old people need help while crossing roads, railway tracks/bridges, while climbing stairs and other such activities. Just a smile and small courtesies from an individual makes their day. It gives them a sense of belonging. AWARENESS
With Compassion & Hope
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
How independent are our dependent fellow Indians?
The Way Forward
It is important for senior citizens to keep themselves fit to live healthy and stress-free life
What should the elder be aware of? Before the elder knows about the rights, they need to learn to accept the change at all levels, physical, mental and economical. Encourage individuals to make provision for their own as well as their spouse’s old age. EDUCATION & OLD AGE Our education does not teach us to cope up with realities of old age. Many people are left in a limbo when they retire. Used to a morning to night packed working schedule, they find it hard to dabble with so much time on hand. It is useful hobbies that come as a saving grace. People should come to terms and accept the change as a gradual part. It is even tougher for them to adjust because they hardly made friends during their working days. At home they find the children and spouse treating them differently. They need to spend their work schedule fruitfully. They can explore possibilities to provide selfemployment to their ilk, utilising the experience in a profitable enterprise. FINANCE FOR THE ELDERLY The government has not provided adequate social security and the family, government and the society often neglect the elders. Here are some suggestions given by the elders with regards to their financial concerns: • Those who are above 75 years of age need not file income tax. • Travel concessions could be made up to 75 per cent
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Insurance cover to be provided till death. There are many who have crossed hundred years and are going strong. Medicines can be given at minimum cost.
who can be taught to cope with the problems faced by the aged. But with globalisation, women are marrying late. Many couples have mutually decided not to have children. Those who do have, end up leaving them in creches, leaving little time for bonding. Also, traditional values are fast disappearing. The coming generation is bound to end up lonely and wanting company. The only difference will be, hopefully they will be flushed with sufficient funds to cover for their old age. I still recall the agonised cry of an old lady pleading with the doctor to speak- keep talking. She would say tears streaming down her cheeks, “Don’t check my blood pressure and heartbeats. Just talk…” Yes, old people do not need a great deal of love, but they do need a steady supply from people whom they can trust.
PROVISION FOR MEDICAL EXPENSES Chronic diseases like tuberculosis, hypertension, heart diseases, diabetes and cancer require huge amount of medical treatment. The caretakers may not have any resource to spare for longterm treatment. Consequently, they are left untreated or partially treated; throwing them to a long period of agony till death takes them away. VISION 2020 We Indians are lucky as we still have traditional values and have children
Ten commandments for happy ageing 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)
Save to stand by yourself at 60 and 70 years of age. Develop a hobby in which others would be interested. Part not with your property, only bequeath (leave it by will) Eat, exercise and relax in moderation. Be slow to criticise but quick to pardon. Understand and tolerate the younger generation. Help but do not hinder. Help in home making, baby sitting. Service to others is service to oneself. 8) Remember power and authority win enemies and no friends in old age. Love begets love 9) Have faith in God and trust in yourself will keep your body and mind in one piece. 10) Learn to smile at yourself. None of us is perfect.
3D way of learning human anatomy
Dr Shoukat Kazi’s 3D animation film that unravels the intricacies of the human anatomy will be a boon for medical students
Human anatomy has not changed over time, but the advances in technology has now enabled us, especially medical students to gain fresh new insights into this complex subject. In place of dreary old textbooks and two-dimensional illustrations, medical students can now study anatomy by using a 3D human body. The concept of medical animation is a familiar one in foreign countries, but it’s relatively new in India. Dr Shoukat Kazi, a pioneer in this field and director of Kazi Medical Classes in Vallabhnagar, Pimpri, has made a 70-minute animation fi lm, elaborating on the human anatomy, after working intensively on the project for several years. The fi lm has been well received in medical circles and inducted by several universities across India into their curricula. The DVD of the fi lm will be given with Asia’s most popular medical textbook. The Clinical Anatomy for Medical Students by Richard S Snell. “The new generation of students is
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish
Dr Shaukat Kazi explaining the functioning of human brain through his 3D animation film
more inclined towards visual graphics rather than old-style textbook images. This technique is widely used in foreign countries, but it’s very expensive and is not easily accessible for our students. Therefore, I decided to produce this fi lm,” said Kazi. However, it involved years of hard work and patience. “I was clueless about graphics, but wanted it to be extremely accurate, as it was to be used
by future doctors. So, for each and every part we consulted the experts in the field and would not hesitate to undertook the slightest change. The graphic designers I hired weren’t used to such precision work and left the job half done. After a few unsuccessful tie-ups with leading animation firms, Chinchwad’s Shantanu Kulkarni and his team of Arc’s Animation did the job,” said Kazi.
Kazi, who hails from the village of Gadhinglaj near Kolhapur, was a full-time faculty in DY Patil Medical College. In 1997, he started his coaching classes and soon established himself. However, he was always looking for new methods in teaching and developed 3D models using fibre glass, rubber, plastic, Plaster of Paris, threads and flexi boards. He has also written three books, namely, Exam oriented Anatomy below diaphragm, Exam oriented Anatomy above diaphragm and Exam oriented Anatomy for dental students. “Our next target is to produce a 1,000-minute fi lm for doctors and patients. Most heart or kidney patients don’t know about the complexities of their ailments or the clinical procedures they are undergoing, but if we could educate them about the functions of the heart and kidneys, the blockages and the surgeries through animation, then it would ease their pressure. They can even view animations of some of these conditions, such as a heart attack or procedures like an appendectomy,” explained Dr Kazi. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com
Why make fuss over failure BY C RAVINDRANATH
A
life spent in making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing,” said George Bernard Shaw. Who among us has never made a mistake? Yet, how many times have we avoided doing something just because we were not sure we would make a mistake? Why do we fear mistakes so much? Maybe it is something deeprooted in us, perhaps brought on by the repeated criticism and punishment received during childhood for our mistakes. Rightly has it been said that the greatest two obstacles to progress are the fear of criticism and the desire for approbation. We cannot bear the consequences of failure. We do not want to face the music after a mistake. Everyone knows it is human to err and failures are stepping stones to success. Do we really believe these adages? Why then is a mistake such an anathema? How many times have we missed opportunities just because we did not wish to risk failure and possibly, the fall-out of ridicule? How many times have we chastised our children for their mistakes? “Not failure but low aim is crime,” says another adage. Edison made a thousand mistakes before meeting w i t h success. The spider that motivated King Bruce of Scotland too failed several times before completing its web. Are we being too harsh on ourselves and others? Has success become such a compulsion that mistakes are
mistaken as luxuries? “It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved,” said Henry Longfellow. In simple words, “Relax, guys! It’s okay to make mistakes!” Should we allow success (or the desire for it) create such a pressure on us that we deny ourselves the simple pleasures of exploring new paths, attempting new things, trying out new dishes and relishing our mistakes? Nobody ever tasted success without taking risks. No child ever learnt to walk without falling down umpteen times. Even Sachin Tendulkar did not score a century every time he went out to bat. It is not failure per se but how we look at it that matters. Does failure bog us down or does it spur us into making different or greater effort? If a school dropout like Einstein can become such a great scientist, why do we have to make such a big fuss over failure? There can be no thing called success without something called failure, for if we always obtained the desired result, what would we compare them to? If everyone in the country received the same salary, would you call them rich or poor? One cannot experience pleasure without having experienced pain. Similarly, can we enjoy the heady euphoria of success without having tasted the bitterness of failure? The next time we make a mistake or witness one, can we be a bit more compassionate and say, “There’s always a next time!” Come on folks, let’s enjoy life. Mistakes are integral parts of the fun. (The writer is a multi-faceted personality who believes in responding with compassion and hope to the difficult situations in life.)
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
TH E EDIT PAGE
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
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Editor’s pick
“No matter how insignificant the thing you have to do, do it as well as you can, give it as much of your care and attention as you would give to the thing you regard as most important. — Mahatma Gandhi
Whither Maharashtra? in the previous government who ran the show for a full 15 years. A repeat of that display of one-upmanship and sniping at one another is not what the people voted for. Had this understanding dawned on the Sena, it would have calmly accepted its junior position in the post-poll alliance and, after a point, would not have pressed for more than its fair share of power. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray’s advisers seem to have failed to convince him on this score. It took hardly any time for the astute politician and NCP president S h a r a d Pawar to throw a spanner in the works to remain relevant in Maharashtra politics. A minority BJP government supported from the outside by the NCP is a clear invitation for instability in Maharashtra. Th is unnatural alliance cannot run for too long and but for the Sena’s intransigence, the NCP can now seek favours in return for favours shown to the BJP. In spite of all that has happened, there is a strong likelihood of a patch-up between the BJP and the Sena. The mandate of the people of Maharashtra is for a demonstration of good governance as promised by the BJP. Th is is possible only in an environment of political stability and this ought to be the fi rst priority of the fi rst BJP government in the state. @TGSWeekly editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Restore Pune’s pedestrian subways As things stand, this city is blessed with at least eight pedestrian subways constructed at an estimated cost of Rs. 50 crore. Two of these subways were sponsored privately- one by the Bank of Maharashtra near Shaniwar Wada and the other by the Bhosale Construction Group near Modern College. Just two of these subways are functioning well, while the rest have been transformed as monuments of civic apathy. They are lying in such a state of neglect that the substantial taxpayer’s money spent on them has gone to waste. Can Pune afford such wastage? These subways can be easily restored: They need to be thoroughly cleaned-up, well-lit with tamperproof lights and with the provision of security guards at either ends. Most importantly, the railings on the road dividers need to be stretched for a sufficient length and people prevented from crossing the road and using the subway instead. These subways were constructed precisely at points where there was a need for them. The volume of traffic is increasing exponentially year after year and safety for pedestrians ought to be a high priority for all. One can
understand that there is a reluctance to using foot overbridges in the city because they are found inconvenient by senior citizens and others who would be required to climb many fl ights of stairs to use them. In the case of subways, however, there is evidence that well-maintained subways are popular with pedestrians. Some traffic experts say that some subways were not planned well and therefore were not used by the public. Th is may be the case with a solitary example here and there; but certainly, this logic cannot explain why as many as six subways in the city have gone to seed. If the Pune Municipal Corporation so desires, the clean-up and regular maintenance of subways can easily be taken up by city-based companies as a part of corporate social responsibility. All that the civic body and its officials need to do is to make an announcement to this effect. With one and all appreciating and supporting the prime minister’s Swachh Bharat campaign, the least that this city can do is initiate a Swachh Pune campaign and restore just one subway for public use by way of a demonstration of what is possible.
Vol-1* lssue No.: 22 Printed and Published by: PRI – Media Services Private Limited CIN: U22222MH2012PTC232006 on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. CIN:U22200PN2014PTC151382 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)
Cartoon by: Vaijnath Dulange
Is there hope for Congress? BY AMULYA GANGULI The Congress high command, which means the mother-and-son duo of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, is mistaken if it believes that the deep nervousness among Congressmen about the party’s bleak future can be dispelled by a token offer of resignation by the two and a clean chit for themselves which they secured from a servile acolyte, A K Antony, in a report about the election debacle. The simmering of anxiety and discontent has continued with the split in the party’s Tamil Nadu unit providing the latest evidence of the disquiet. The rupture recalled an earlier break-up when a new party, the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), was formed under a veteran Congress leader of the time, GK Moopanar. Now, his son, GK Vasan, is the rebel. Among the important members who were a part of the TMC was P Chidambaram, whose son Karti has recently said the high command ‘culture’ must go at a time when the party has reached a ‘historic low’. There is little doubt outside the party and probably among large sections within it as well that the main reason for reaching this lowly stage is the lack of a credible leadership. Neither Sonia nor Rahul has measured up to the standards required to face the challenge posed by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Narendra Modi. Nor has the Congress formulated an ideology which has wide acceptance. The party’s lack of vision is evident from the fact that even the cornerstone of its philosophy, secularism, has come under attack from within the Congress. For instance, the loyal Antony has
IANS
The manner in which the BJP won the trust vote in Maharashtra on Wednesday, does not augur well for the state. The party made a good beginning by choosing Devendra Fadnavis, an able politician with a clean reputation, as the chief minister. Given the high number of seats that it won, the BJP rightfully deserves to be the driver’s seat in the state and the Shiv Sena should have willingly accepted its position after having come second with half the number of the seats won by the BJP. However, prudence is rare in politics. What was on display was greed, arrogance and lust for power, all driven by the false pride of who holds the crown of the Marathi manoos. By calling BJP’s mascot and prime minister Narendra Modi ‘Afzal Khan’ during the election campaign, the Sena went on to portray the BJP as ‘outsiders’ while trying to persuade the voters that they and not the BJP were the real representatives of the people of Maharashtra. At least after the results, the party leaders should have accepted the reality staring them in the face: that the people of Maharashtra want a stable government, jobs and development. The people have been fed up of the constant bickering between partners
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi with party leaders Karan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge call on former prime minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur to congratulate on receiving Japan’s Grand Cordon of the Paulownia Flowers award in New Delhi on November 8
noted in his report that the party’s practice of secularism has come to be associated with Muslim appeasement, a charge which has been made by the BJP from the 1990s with LK Advani coining the phrase, pseudo-secularism, to describe the Congress’s muddled version. Not surprisingly, Digvijay Singh, the senior general secretary of the Congress, acknowledged that the party made the mistake of not being equally vocal about both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalism. The Congress’ other deficiency is in the field of economic policy. The root of this failure lies in its inability to break free from the Nehruvian concept of socialism, manifested in a 1955 resolution calling for the establishment of a ‘socialistic pattern’ of society. As a result, the Congress never wholeheartedly accepted the economic reforms of its own government in 1991.
To a large section of Congressmen as well as the Left-leaning intelligentsia, not to mention the Communist parties, the reforms are a panacea for the country’s ills prescribed by what the Left calls the international finance capital represented by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Given this outlook, it is not surprising that the mother and son are again considering rolling back the Manmohan Singh-ChidambaramMontek Singh Ahluwalia brand of economics and returning to the pre-’91 days. Some of this regression was evident in the twilight years of the Manmohan Singh government when the reforms were virtually stalled with Chidambaram subsequently regretting the ‘mistake of taking the foot off the accelerator of reforms’. It goes without saying that the
India needs a ‘Swachh toilet’ Abhiyan ANIL K. RAJVANSHI
with anybody or trying to show off, but developed a ‘junoon’ to see how clean I When I returned to Phaltan from USA in could make the bathrooms. Besides this September 1981 and joined the Nimbkar was also an excellent physical exercise Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) since it was quite taxing to clean the as director, the first thing I noticed at bathrooms and hallways. NARI was filthy bathrooms. I continued this exercise even Luckily the Institute trustees had when I and my wife Nandini moved thoughtfully told the architect to put into married student housing. the toilet facilities a little distance away Bathroom and house cleaning of our from the main building. Otherwise apartment was my task! So when I with fi lthy and smelly bathrooms came back from the US and saw the inside the buildings, and very close to fi lthy bathrooms at the institute I the offices, it would have been difficult decided to take matters into my hands. for us to sit in our rooms. Phaltan in 1981 was a small rural I have a fetish for clean bathrooms town and our institute was around 7 – a trait that I acquired when I kms from it. So in those days was studying in the US In early no person would come so far stages of my education at the to clean the bathrooms or University of Florida I used to toilets. The institute building live in a dorm called Reid Coop. was inaugurated in 1980 and it Th is dorm was the cheapest seemed since then the bathrooms on-campus housing facility had never been cleaned. and was generally populated I circulated a small notice by foreign students. One of informing the staff that we THINK will all take turns to clean the the reasons it was cheap was because there were no janitorial toilets. Immediately there was a services. All the students staying there revolt and the 20-25 odd staff members were assigned the task of cleaning said that they were scientists and not the hallways, common kitchen and sweepers! This type of behaviour in the common bathrooms. land of Gandhiji was quite strange! So Initially I revolted against the whole this was my first real interaction with idea of cleaning a common bathroom, the NARI staff. but once the inevitability of the event I told them that as a director I will sank in, I took it as a challenge to clean clean it and so they should do likewise it thoroughly. I was not competing but they did not budge.
So I sent a second circular telling them that only those staff members who will clean the toilets will use it and the toilet key will only be shared with them. Rest can go to the fields. Only four staff members agreed to clean them. So I first showed them how to clean the toilets and only five of us used the toilet for almost two years before we could get somebody to come from the town and clean them regularly. For two years rest of the staff did not mind going into the fields. Naturally during those two years the toilets were spick and span! However an unintended outcome of this episode was that the word spread very fast that this new crazy Director asks his employees to clean the bathroom. So people stopped applying for jobs! I am delighted that the present prime minister has started the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan but I guess more than constructing toilets it is the mindset which needs to be changed before we can become a Swachh and hygienic nation. We have this attitude of sahibs and we always think that this type of work is below our dignity. Unless and until that changes we will remain a caste-ridden society. © Anil K Rajvanshi The writer is director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra. He may be reached at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com
deceleration would not have taken place without the approval of the Congress president and her ‘kitchen cabinet’, the National Advisory Council (NAC) comprising crypto-Communists. What is strange, however, is that despite the Congress’ resounding defeat in the general election, primarily as a result of the stalled reforms and the plummeting growth rate, the high command hasn’t seen the writing on the wall that the era of liberalisation has changed the mindset of Indians. Even the true-blue - or, rather, the true-red - Communists understood this new reality. Jyoti Basu, for instance, said that ‘socialism is a far cry’ and that ‘private capital has to be used for industrialisation’. This was an endorsement of the line of his successor as West Bengal chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya, who ardently wooed the private sector. It is possible that since Modi has stolen the reforms plank, the Congress believes that it has no option but to turn left. But any such move will further widen the gulf between the party and the aspirational generation, plunging the Congress into deeper gloom. One way out is for the dynasty to take a sabbatical, as former Congress MP Jagmit Singh Brar suggested, so that the party can start cutting loose from the apron strings of a family whose deficiencies in the matter of inspirational leadership or intellectual acumen are becoming increasingly apparent. The argument that the Congress will fall apart in the dynasty’s absence begs the question since it is disintegrating even now. (Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
Limericks of the week BY C RAVINDRANATH
The Sena’s experiencing throes Sitting in the opposition rows It’s no surprise Say the wise For that’s how politics goes. The champion of chess Has landed in a mess It’s no game of dice He must win twice And learn to deal with stress. So far it’s grown saffron But now, elections are on In Kashmir valley What will be the tally Will it now go saffron?
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2014
PUNE
With selections from The New York Times
“I have been clear about my concerns regarding the way in which the debates over immigration and Europe in this country are moving. There are critical issues to address... but, more than ever, responsible politicians and businesses need to defend Britain’s status as an open economy.” —UK’s Deputy PM Nick Clegg
Sharma smashes his way into records P 15
Relatives, friends recall Anne Frank as an icon TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMES
The personal stories relatives and friends tell are compelling, and not just when they intersect with Anne’s BY JOSEPH BERGER
killed but because the stories underscore their missions and serve as a draw for NEW YORK - Eva Schloss, a playmate raising funds. “She’s such an important of Anne Frank’s in Amsterdam whose figure for so many that having someone mother later married Anne’s father, connected to her - even if it’s a distant recalls an 11-year-old who hopscotched, connection - is exciting and meaningful shot marbles, gossiped and talked so to people,” said David G. Marwell, much her friends nicknamed her “Miss director of the Museum of Jewish Quack Quack.” Heritage and an expert on Nazi crimes. Anne also had an intense interest “The diary has been read by so many in clothing, boys and Hollywood stars people, and they get connected with this like Deanna Durbin. “When I told her powerful kind of icon. It would be easy I had an older brother, she said, ‘Oooh. for one’s cynicism to creep in, but I don’t I must come to your apartment and meet think so.” him.’??” Anne was a lively girl who could Smith, now 91 and living on the be something of “a busybody,” Monica Upper East Side of Manhattan, was Smith said about her honoured in November young second cousin - and by the Blue Card, she often had ink stains on an organisation that her slender fingers. assists aging Holocaust The memories, survivors. Schloss, who unremarkable as they lives in London, is on a may seem, are about a nine-event tour in the girl whose diary and New York-Philadelphia death from typhus in area sponsored by the Bergen-Belsen Chabad-Lubavitch. concentration camp at 15 A first cousin, have made her perhaps Buddy Elias, Anne’s the Holocaust’s foremost closest living relative and -Annemarie Bekker symbol of slaughtered the head of the Anne innocence. People are Frank Fonds in Basel, fascinated or moved by Switzerland, lectures the slimmest morsel of weekly in Europe. A information about her. When watershed half-dozen friends like Jacqueline van Holocaust dates come up on the calendar, Maarsen, who has written books on her like the anniversary of Kristallnacht, relationship with Anne, also speak often, the pogrom in Germany and Austria though in an interview van Maarsen on November 9-10 in 1938, Anne’s said it was difficult for her to explain the surviving relatives and friends are invited attention Anne continues to attract. to share tidbits as well as tell their own It is not unusual for the slender Frank often harrowing stories. house on an Amsterdam canal to draw Survivors who knew Anne retain 4,000 visitors a day. Last year, the house the sacred mystique of ancient scrolls drew 1.2 million visitors. Meanwhile, - touchstones to someone whose story the diary has sold more than 35 million helped cheat Hitler of his delusion of copies in 65 languages. The Anne Frank erasing Jews from the world’s collective Center in Manhattan, an affiliate of the conscience. And organisations appreciate Amsterdam house, sponsors a traveling these relatives not just because they give exhibition that was seen by 120,000 life to statistics like the six million Jews people across the United States last year.
“People can recognise things in her life story in their own life story.”
Mrs. Smith, who was born Dorothee Wurzburger, holding her German passport with an exit stamp from 1938
Anne Frank, the diarist Anne Frank, born June 1929, is a widely discussed Jewish victim of the Holocaust. Her family had to move to Amsterdam in 1933 after the Nazis took control over Germany. In 1940, the Netherland too was overtaken by Germany. As the persecutions increased in July 1942, the family went hiding into concealed rooms where Anne Frank started writing her diary. This wartime diary was posthumously published as ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’. It documents her experiences of the Nazi regime, the hiding and her relationship with her family. The last entry in this diary is August 1, 1944. Eight months later she passed away in a concentration camp.
“People can recognise things in her life story in their own life story,” said Annemarie Bekker, a spokeswoman for the house. The Frank house and the Swiss foundation battled over who was entitled to 10,000 documents and photographs linked to Anne, with the foundation winning a Dutch court judgment last year. According to a board member, Yves Kugelmann, the foundation is also unhappy that the Frank house and others have made out of Anne “a young
girl icon out of context of the history and her family context.” While it recognises Schloss’ story, it does not recognise her as a relative since she entered the family after Anne’s death. “When you deal with the history of the Shoah, you have to make clear what is a fact,” said Kugelmann, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. The personal stories relatives and friends tell are compelling, and not just when they intersect with Anne’s. Monica Smith was born Dorothee
Wurzburger in Stuttgart on May 10, 1923, six years before Anne, who was raised in Frankfurt. Her father was a manufacturer of steel used in MercedesBenz cars and was so important that the Nazis let him out of Dachau so he could continue conducting business. Smith first saw Anne as a child of 3 when both went to visit grandparents in Aachen. Smith’s grandmother and Anne’s grandfather were siblings, and their mothers were first cousins. The memories grow clearer after Kristallnacht. Smith’s parents put her on the Kindertransport to Holland that rescued 2,000 German-Jewish children, though one-third did not survive the Nazi occupation. Smith, who was about 15, spent weeks quarantined in a barracks sleeping on a mattress on the floor, was taken to a more rural camp, and then to the Burgerweeshuis, an orphanage housing 75 refugee children. Anne and her father, by then living in Amsterdam, visited the orphanage a dozen times, sometimes bringing treats. Smith also saw Anne’s older sister,
Margot, who was “totally different” quiet and demure. Smith remembers staying in the Franks’ modern apartment block on the Merwedeplein square and visiting Otto Frank’s spice-company offices on Prinsengracht - where he was to arrange for “the secret annex” that his family hid in for two years. And she remembers how engaged Anne and her father were with each other. “The two of them were very close,” she said. “Everybody knew who was a Jew,” she said. “So after the Nazis came, we were immediately attacked and beaten up and the teachers were watching it and not doing anything.” Her family ended up in Amsterdam, also living in the Merwedeplein apartments across from the Franks. The two girls were in a loose gang that played together in the square. Anne, she said, had a leader’s personality; she was a “big know-it-all,” occasionally “domineering,” who demanded attention. When the Nazis occupied Holland in May 1940, Jews were forbidden, among other things, to go to movies. They showed the Disney film ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ and the Christian children talked about it,” Schloss recalled. “For us it was already a tragedy.” In July 1942, when the Nazis began calling up Jews like Margot and Eva’s brother, Heinz, for work assignments in Germany, the Frank and Geiringer families went into hiding, with the Geiringers splitting up among a succession of Dutch resistance families. In May 1944, Schloss’ family was betrayed and wound up in Auschwitz. Only she and her mother survived. Otto Frank, knowing his wife had died, was also liberated at Auschwitz and returned to Amsterdam to await news about his daughters. Schloss’ mother and Otto became friends and eventually lovers. “He looked like a ghost,” she said. “One day he came to us with a little parcel. It was a diary. “It took him three weeks to read it,” she remembered, and “he said, ‘I didn’t really know my own child.’?” © 2014 New York Times News Service
Artificial intelligence Seeing a new future for nuclear as a threat site, after the toxic dust has settled BY NICK BILTON
JAMEC C. BEST, JR./NTY
Ebola sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Bird flu and SARS also send shivers down my spine. But I’ll tell you what scares me most: artificial intelligence. The first three, with enough resources, humans can stop. The last, which humans are creating, could soon become unstoppable. Before we get into what could possibly go wrong, let me first explain what artificial intelligence is. Actually, skip that. I’ll let someone else explain it: Grab an iPhone and ask Siri about the weather or stocks. Or tell her “I’m drunk.” Her answers are artificially intelligent. Right now these artificially intelligent machines are pretty cute and innocent, but as they are given more power in society, these machines may not take long to spiral out of control. In the beginning, the glitches will be small but eventful. Maybe a rogue computer momentarily derails the stock market, causing billions in damage. But the upheavals can escalate quickly and become scarier and even cataclysmic. Imagine how a medical robot, originally programmed to rid cancer, could conclude that the best way to obliterate cancer is to exterminate humans who are genetically prone to the disease. Nick Bostrom, author of the book “Superintelligence,” lays out a number of petrifying doomsday settings. One envisions self-replicating nanobots, which are microscopic robots designed to make copies of themselves. In a positive situation, these bots could fight diseases in the human body or eat radioactive material on the planet. But, Bostrom says, a “person of malicious intent in possession of this technology might cause the extinction of intelligent life on Earth.” A r t i f icia l-intel l igence proponents argue that these things would never happen and that programmers are going to build safeguards. But let’s be r ealistic: It took nearly a half-century for programmers to stop computers from crashing every time you wanted to check your email. What makes them think they can manage
armies of quasi-intelligent robots? Silicon Valley’s resident futurist, Elon Musk, recently said artificial intelligence is “potentially more dangerous than nukes.” And Stephen Hawking, one of the smartest people on earth, wrote that successful AI “would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last.” Two main problems with artificial intelligence lead people like Musk and Hawking to worry. The first, more near-future fear, is that we are starting to create machines that can make decisions like humans, but these machines don’t have morality and likely never will. The second, which is a longer way off, is that once we build systems that are as intelligent as humans, these intelligent machines will be able to build smarter machines, often referred to as superintelligence. That, experts say, is when things could really spiral out of control as the rate of growth and expansion of machines would increase exponentially. We can’t build safeguards into something that we haven’t built ourselves. So how do we ensure that all these doomsday situations don’t come to fruition? In some instances, we likely won’t be able to stop them. But we can hinder some of the potential chaos by following the lead of Google. Earlier this year when the search-engine giant acquired DeepMind, a neuroscience-inspired, artificial intelligence company based in London, the two companies put together an artificial intelligence safety and ethics board that aims to ensure these technologies are developed safely. Demis Hassabis, founder and chief executive of DeepMind, said in a video interview that anyone building artificial intelligence, including governments and companies, should do the same thing. “They should definitely be thinking about the ethical consequences of what they do,” Hassabis said. “Way ahead of time.” © 2014 New York Times News Service
The site was closed in 1997 and, after efforts at decontamination, sealed to the public BY PATRICK REEVELL VAUJOURS, France - On a walk through her garden on a recent afternoon, Lisa Leclerc ran a Geiger counter over her mushrooms. “See, normal,” she said, looking at a reading showing ordinary background levels of radiation. The reading may have been normal, but the situation perhaps was not. The garden was tidy, the hanging baskets well-tended. But the neat spot where Leclerc had set up her patio furniture was not a typical garden. It was a corner of a former nuclear weapons testing site. Leclerc was tending her flowers in a 19th century fort about 14 kilometres from central Paris, where for four decades scientists detonated hundreds of miniature bombs containing combinations of uranium and explosives. Formerly top secret, Fort de Vaujours was a key site for France’s nuclear arms program, with core components of the country’s first atomic bombs developed here in the 1960s. Scientists blew up more than half a ton of uranium in 2,000 explosions at the fort, often outdoors, just under 23 kilometres from the Eiffel Tower. There were no full nuclear detonations at Vaujours, but parts of the fort were coated in radioactive dust. The site was closed in 1997 and, after efforts at decontamination, sealed to the public. These days curtains flap from rows of overgrown buildings; radiation symbols and other graffiti cover the security post, which is filled, weirdly, with women’s shoes. The empty housing of a vast supercomputer sits in gloom; vines spill into laboratories. The ruins recall the post-apocalypse landscape of Pripyat, the Ukrainian town evacuated after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Yet even as new questions are being raised about its safety, the site has its admirers. Leclerc and her partner, Bruno Mellier, have converted a former ammunition store there into a homey kitchen and cleared a secret garden. A local mayor allowed the couple to occupy the place in return for keeping vandals
DMITRY KOSTYUKOV/THE NEW YORK TIMES
These machines may not take long to spiral out of control
Dilapidated and overgrown buildings at Fort de Vaujours, which is nine miles from the centre of Paris. Scientists blew up more than half a ton of uranium in 2,000 explosions at the fort only 14 miles from the Eiffel Tower. Now there is disagreement over whether the site should be redeveloped
away. They do not live on the former nuclear test site, they just spend their days off there. On the recent afternoon, they were drinking black coffee on a patio near the blast chambers. They said they had been entranced by the fort’s mystery. “I climbed through a hole in the fence, and after that I could never get out,” said Leclerc, a small woman with a bustle of red hair who now devotes herself to repairing the fort. “It was fabulous.” They are not the only ones with designs on the fort. Placoplatre, a subsidiary of the French conglomerate, Saint-Gobain, wants to demolish the fort to make way for a quarry for gypsum, a key ingredient in plaster. The company would extend a quarry it already operates next door, which would make it the largest gypsum producer in Europe, worth hundreds of millions of dollars and creating roughly 3,500 jobs. But others are concerned about the safety of the site, and more than 90,000 people have signed a petition to block the project, amid fears that demolition and digging will spread
any residual toxic dust. The dispute has drawn in the French government. Government regulators had said the site could be considered sufficiently clean for redevelopment. But in February, independent researchers found contamination in bunkers, embarrassing the regulators who had repeatedly said they could find no evidence of it and reviving a long-running controversy over the site’s safety. The environmental advocates who found the contamination have accused the Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety, a government agency, of either incompetence or a cover-up. “It’s very bad,” said Bruno Chareyron, head of the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity, an independent group campaigning for greater transparency around atomic sites and which found the contamination. In France, he said, the Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety “is the reference for monitoring radiation.” © 2014 New York Times News Service
MONEY MATT ER S
In a development that should bring comfort to India’s central bank to ease interest rates, the country’s factory output grew at 2.5 per cent in September even as retail inflation to a record low of 5.52 per cent during October. Industrial activity, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew by 2.5 per cent during September over the corresponding month of the previous year, government data showed on Wednesday. The IIP had increased by 2.7 per cent in September, 2013. In August, 2014 the industrial growth stood at 0.4 per cent, the Central Statistics Office data showed.
‘Indian economy to see growth picking up’ India is the only major economy that is projected to see a pick-up in its growth momentum, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Wednesday. The Paris-based think tank’s members are mostly developed countries and some emerging countries. The OECD readings for September are based on Composite Leading Indicators (CLI) that are designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity. “India is the only major economy where the CLI points to a pick-up in growth momentum,” OECD said in a statement.
Here is some bad news for IT engineering students: There will be fewer jobs in the sector by the time you all graduate and are ready to apply for one. According to a Crisil report, incremental recruitment by the IT services industry will halve by fiscal 2018, even though the industry’s revenue is likely to grow a healthy 13-15 per cent during the period. The rating agency sees the number of job additions declining to just 55,000 by 2018 from 105,000 in 2014. The trend is worrying because the IT sector accounted for nearly a quarter of the organised private sector employment in India in fiscal 2014. The sector employs about 3.1 million now, of which services account for 64 per cent. “The paradigm shift will come as IT services vendors struggle to crank up profitability in a milieu where global weakness is forcing their clients to optimise costs to hold on to margins,” a press release from the rating agency said. In reaction to this, IT services companies are rationalising their bench strength, improving utilisation rate and trimming operational costs, the agency said. The likely fall in recruitment despite higher revenue is a break from the past trend wherein the hiring and revenue growth went hand in hand. In 2014, the IT sector revenues stood at $118 billion. Of this, IT services’ share was $64 billion. IT services companies are gradually adopting just-in-time hiring and increasing the proportion of fi xedprice contracts in their portfolio, which reduces the need to maintain flab on the bench, the agency said. The companies are also migrating towards higher value service offerings such as consulting, intellectual property (IP)-based products and leveraging on
Fund raising via debt placement falls 34%
During Oct, Indian firms garnered `38,399 cr from debt on a private placement basis, lower than `58,578 cr in Sept BY MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM Fund mobilisation by Indian companies through private placement of corporate debt securities or bonds plunged by 34% to just over `38,000 crore in October 2014. In debt private placements, companies issue debt securities or bonds to institutional investors to raise capital. According to the data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), companies garnered a
If there is consensus about the positives, they’re not relevant
JOBS
IT sector 25%
2018
JOBS
More revenue per employee
IT JOB TREND
Hiring
New skillset Higher value service (IP & SMAC). the emergence of social media, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC). These initiatives will increase revenue per employee (RPE) at a compounded annual growth rate of 7 per cent between 2015 and 2018, said Ramraj Pai, president, business head – ratings, large corporates, Crisil. Higher employee utilisation will also help the companies delink hiring and revenue growth. “We also foresee a transformation in the recruitment pattern where employers become more focused and picky, increasingly seeking specific skill sets. This will lead to greater lateral hiring,” he said. As a result, IT job aspirants will have to develop lateral – even completely new – skillsets to make themselves more
Revenue
future-ready. Jobs growth in the private sector has been driven by the IT sector over the past decade, according to the press release. Recruitments went ahead of the revenue growth during the 2003-07. During the global financial crisis, between 2008 and 2010 the sector took a hit and so did the recruitments. During 2011-13, there was a moderate recovery in hiring and was still linked to revenue. But in 2014, there was a sharp fall in employee costs from 69 per cent of total costs in fiscal 2013 to 64 per cent in the last fiscal. This is the first signal of the coming jobs crunch in the sector, warns Crisil. (By special arrangement with Firstpost.com)
For last fortnight, the suggestion was that we will not get a significant rise soon in the Nifty and the Sensex. Th is turned out to be incorrect. The indices have put in an extremely strong rally, from the low they hit on October 17. The Sensex is up 2,200 points. But there is an extraordinary reason for this: Japan’s humungous stimulus measure. On 30th October, when the index was just above 27,000, the Bank of Japan decided to accelerate the purchase of government bonds to 80 trillion yen ($725 billion) annually. It has already been buying bonds of 50 trillion yen. The stimulus expanded by 60 per cent overnight. In response to this mind-boggling injection of overseas money, the Sensex was up by more than 500 points on last Friday, going in to breach 28,000 on Wednesday, November 5. Why would Sensex and other global markets rally because of Japanese stimulus? Because there is a feeling that this excess liquidity will flow into markets, like India, that are attractive. Th is has completely changed the picture, putting select stock markets around the world on steroids. Marketplayers are betting that India will be a major beneficiary from the easing in Japan and possibly the European Union. Now that the market has climbed to a new high, justifications of a continuing rally are coming in thick and fast. After all, there is nothing more logical and comforting than extending a line on a chart that has already risen from left to right, as the Sensex has.
total of `38,399 crore during October from debt on a private placement basis, lower than `58,578 crore raked up in September. Besides, the number of issuances fell to 279 in October from 312 in the preceding month. Fund raising through private placement has been lately subdued owing to a robust performance of the stock market. Moreover, companies are opting for initial public offer (IPO), qualified institutional placement (QIP) and rights issue route to mop up funds.
the new government added to the positive sentiment, with strong levels of purchasing being seen in the build up to Diwali,” the report added. However, in China jewellery demand for Q3 2014 was down 39 per cent year on year to 147 tonnes. “Jewellery remains the biggest component of gold demand, representing more than half of all demand at 534 tonnes, which is 4 per cent lower year-on-year. Jewellery demand was driven by India. UK and US demand was also strong,” the report said. IANS
There are several explanations. One, India stands out, compared to other emerging market economies, and should receive more capital inflows. Two, India has ‘sound fundamentals’ and a ‘stable and dynamic government’. Th ree, it has not even come of out of the economic slowdown. When it does, markets will roar. Four, global agencies will upgrade India’s rating. Five, inflation is headed down, leading to a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) soon. We don’t disagree with this picture but believe that this is the best-case scenario. In market parlance, there is something called ‘already in the price’. Th is refers to a situation that has a wide consensus about a future scenario. If the actual situation plays out according to this scenario, it won’t be a surprise for the majority of participants. If it’s not a surprise, the prices will hardly move. In fact, when the anticipated scenario materialises, the market will actually decline on selling by the smarter players. Anyone who is trying to list various factors that will push the market up, or down, must also assess whether others in the market already agree with that or not. If they do, those factors are ‘already in the price’ and not relevant anymore. We are bullish too. But, above a Nifty PE level of 22, future gains are hard to come by easily. They did, in 2007; but that was because of massive fund flows from the US. A sharp rally from here will require similar massive stimulus. If not, we would rather wait for a 5%-7% correction for the next upmove. @moneylife.in
India stands out, compared to other emerging market economies
Understanding wills and nominations Vimal Punmiya, who spoke at a Moneylife Foundation seminar, explained the processes, rules, laws and need for making wills that would help avoid confusion and litigation among inheritors BY MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM
Gold jewellery demand surges in India NEW DELHI: In India, gold jewellery demand witnessed a 60 per cent yearon-year increase to 183 tonnes in the third quarter (Q3) of 2014, according to the latest Gold Demand Trends report from the World Gold Council covering the period July to September 2014. “While the increase is partly reflective of the weakness in Q3 in India last year - when the government introduced import curbs and raised import duties - it also demonstrates the resilience of the country’s appetite for gold jewellery,” the report stated. “Improved consumer confidence in both the domestic economy and
loyment (2 Emp 01 or
JOB ADDITIONS
3.1 million currently(2014) employed
PUNE
Fortnightly Market View: Already priced-in BY DEBASHIS BASU
BY FIRSTBIZ STAFF
d Private S ect nise a g
Retail inflation falls to record low
Rating agency Crisil sees the number of job additions declining to just 55,000 by 2018 from 105,000 in 2014 in the services sector
4)
A benchmark index of Indian equities markets on Thursday was trading 65.37 points or 0.23 per cent up in the early session as the consumer durables sector gained. Good buying was observed in consumer durables, capital goods and auto sectors, while selling pressure was seen in oil and gas sector. The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,048.56 points, was trading at 28,074.27 points (at 9.28 am) in the early session, up 65.37 points or 0.23 per cent from the previous day’s close at 28,008.90 points.
Bad news for IT grads: Jobs will halve in 4 yrs
Or
Consumer durables stocks surge
NOVEMBER 15, 2014
“Easing of foreign investment caps in construction, enhanced FDI caps in railways and defence production are steps intended to overcome some of the investment implementation bottlenecks.” — External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj
“We have shown that when we cooperate, United States and China can make important contributions to security and prosperity in the region and around the world.” —US President Barack Obama
Signpost
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
“I had a client, who used to live with each of his four sons for three months in a year. In addition, every time, each son would make him prepare a new will. He ended up with about 32 wills in 10 years. However, you can avoid all these hassles if you know the processes, rules, laws and need for making wills,” says Vimal Punmiya, chartered accountant and Proprietor of Vimal Punmiya & Co. Speaking at Moneylife Foundation organised seminar on ‘Understanding Wills and Nominations’, Punmiya said, “Looking at how complicated and bureaucratic it is to deal with the legal and government machinery, it is better to have a clear will to make it easy for those who come after you.” “At least after 50, one must make a will. Making a will has obvious benefits, but in my experience, it also gives psychological ease of mind. Any wills and planning to reduce tax is OK but evasion is not. This is important to remember while making will as per the recent judgement from the Supreme Court,” he said. As always, the seminar drew a great crowd and more so, because of the speaker who conducted the seminar. Moneylife Foundation invited Punmiya to speak to the audience and take their questions, and he graciously accepted.
To begin with, Punmiya explained that with more and more nuclear families having increasing amounts of accumulated wealth and assets, wills have become more and more important to people today. He took the audience through the basics, beginning with the laws that govern wills. He explained how the law sees a will and what exactly a will means. “If one does not make a will, then his property will be inherited by legal heirs in accordance with the laws of
inheritance applicable to him. However, most of the people would like to dispose of their property according to their own wishes. Thus, there arises the need for making one’s will,” said Pumiya. Many in the audience were eager to know what the implications of wills executed abroad for their properties and assets held in India. Pumiya addressed these issues and the question of Codicils came up. He clarified the terminologies of wills and spoke about the different types
of wills. Having taken the audience through the intricacies of the types and procedures of wills, he turned focus to the nominations. Often, nominees become an important part of the whole story. He said that a nominee is like an executor, who is entrusted to manage the property or asset as per the nominator’s wishes after his death. However, a nominee cannot sell property unless he is a legal heir. Punmiya also talked about the several procedures involved in transfer of property or other assets after the death of a nominator. In previous seminars, he had said, nominees are often required when special children are involved setting up a trust in the name of that child with a trusted executor is commendable. Replying to a query, he said, “If you want the distribution to happen simply, that is possible. Or you can also make a will so that you can prevent sale of assets, which is also possible.” Punmiya has been a chartered accountant for 39 years. He has written books on subjects like transfer of flats, stamp duty, registration, capital gains and has been a prominent speaker on topics of public interest like the Union Budget, I-T & Audit Provisions and Stamp Duty & Registration. He has held top-ranking posts at cultural organisations and is the recipient of prestigious awards from trade bodies and voluntary organisations. @moneylife.in
SPORTS
NOVEMBER 15, 2014
PUNE
“We have the knack of rising to the occasion during big tournaments and can handle the pressure. As long as the focus is on the big matches, we will get very far. ” — Veteran Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene
“ Day-night Test cricket is being suggested, and it might draw newer audiences for its sheer novelty value. People could dash to the ground after a day’s work and unwind for a few hours.” — Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman
Hafeez suspected of illegal bowling action DUBAI: Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has been reported for suspected illegal bowling action during the first cricket Test against New Zealand, which Pakistan won by 248 runs in Abu Dhabi. The match officials’ report, which was handed over to the Pakistan team manager Moin Khan, cited concerns about the legality of the 34-year-old’s bowling action. Hafeez’s bowling action will now be scrutinised further under the ICC process.
Pele recovering after kidney surgery RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian football legend Pele is recovering in hospital after undergoing surgery to remove kidney stones. The 74-year-old was admitted to Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein hospital Wednesday after the cancellation of an event at the Pele Museum in the coastal city of Santos due to abdominal pain, reports Xinhua. “He had surgery to remove kidney stones and he is now in a stable condition and recovering,” the hospital said in a statement.
Kohli appointed WC ambassador DUBAI: India’s vice-captain Virat Kohli was appointed one of the ambassadors of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2015. Apart from Kohli, Australia’s Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson, New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum and Sri Lankan veteran batsman Kumar Sangakkara have also been named as ambassadors for the tournament.
From Elano’s goals to sheer unpredictability
NEW DELHI: We’re at the halfway stage of the inaugural Indian Super League — 28 matches have been played, 63 goals scored at an impressive 2.25 goals per game, 821 crosses have come in, 931 tackles have been made, 99 yellow and five red cards have been dished out and another 33 games remain in the football extravaganza which is no longer called ‘IPL-style tournament’, but has carved it’s own identity in just over a month. Seven league games have been played, the teams have a feel for each other and now the tactical battles will begin in earnest. From what we’ve seen so far, here are the seven takeaways from the Indian Super League: THERE’S NO BEST TEAM And that’s great isn’t it? Atletico de Kolkata and Chennaiyin FC sit at the top of the table with 12 points each — with FC Pune City a point behind and Mumbai City FC two points behind. Nobody’s a runaway number one yet. Both Atletico and Chennaiyin have lost games against teams they were expected to beat and have shown vulnerabilities in their three draws. FC Goa, who sit at the bottom, still have a mathamatical chance to finish in the top four. With no clear front-runner, the league stays alive longer.
ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN A team hammers in five goals one day and then lets in five within a week. A team made of unheard-of youngsters creates ripples with their fast-paced football and an initially drab, disjointed unit goes on a four-match unbeaten run. FC Goa get their first win with an injury time goal, Andre Moritz scores a hat-trick and then slips in the bathroom, Antonio Lopez Habas allegedly punches Robert Pires in the tunnel. Anything can happen in the ISL, making it more interesting.
PINCHHITTER MALAY DESAI
Off The Record
I
@MalayD
Viv, one of Wisden’s five ‘Cricketers of the Century’, was also one of the last ones to shun the helmet, which in turn would intimidate the opposition more. This is not to say that Kohli’s swagger is any less (although we’re sure Sir Viv didn’t resort to recalling mothers and sisters while celebrating a milestone) and the fear he inspires on the field too, especially while chasing, is worthy to compare. But us (and I mean the media and fans) putting forth a statistical yardstick to measure Kohli’s greatness, it casts an unnecessary weight upon him. The stand-in captain admitted he knew of the milestone before the game, which throws us back to a recent past when we pulled down the greatest batsman of the sport with an individual milestone. The ‘Hundred 100s’ mania perhaps sits on top of the irrelevant milestones list, and no surprise, it got to even a giant like Tendulkar. The final ton took seemingly light years to come, and Sachin was admittedly flustered enough toward the end to ask himself the ‘Why me?’ question. Who remembers adding batsmen’s ODI and test 100s before that? Wait, who remembers that cricket is a team game? Richards may be happy to see himself in Kohli (now that’s a big deal), but we know the latter is well on his way to get close to Tendulkar’s records in the long run. If we continue to create stumbling blocks of comparative milestones/records for him, the way ahead would just become longer for him and one pretty Ms Sharma in the pavilion. How about records such as ‘fastest captain to X number of wins’, anyone?
ELANO Eight goals in seven games, plus two assists and a couple of gobsmacking long shots which have thundered the crossbar, a magical run from left to centre to score a goal and the humility to get off his team bus last and walk straight to the school kids to sign an autograph for everyone of them — Elano is in India and he’s winning hearts. This is a guy winning games on his own at times and is under a manager who was famous for being part of shut-the-door Italian tactics. Sitting in the stands will give you an idea of how much he’s liked. Everyone knows him in India — and not because he is ex-Manchester City and Brazil, but because he’s from Chennaiyin FC. FOREIGNERS ARE SETTLING IN: Nicolas Anelka scores a couple of fine goals in 1-0 wins, David Trezeguet shows glimpses of his class that saw him become a Juventus legend, David James defies his age to make great diving saves, Alessandro del Piero pulls of nimble tricks, Luis Garcia unlocks defences. These guys are enjoying themselves in India -- and it’s showing in their football.
MANAGER POWER No manager seems to be under pressure to make decisions. Delhi Dynamos’ Harm Van Veldhoven hardly gives Del Piero a full 90 minutes. FC Pune’s Franco Colomba left Trezeguet out of squad and explained it by saying “No reason, maybe I don’t want to give a reason.” NorthEast United manager Ricki Herbert keeps selecting Indian GK Rehenesh over the vastly experienced Alexandros Tzorvas. As of now, it doesn’t look like managers are being forced to play to the crowd, and to that of the owners. PROFESSIONALISM Bans have come thick and fast in the ISL. Habas got suspended for four games and even Pires and Fikru Teferra got a couple of games for a half-time altercation. Colomba was sent to the stands for a game after celebrating on the pitch ala Jose Mourinho and Veldhoven is suspended for Delhi’s next match for dissent and clapping at the referee while walking off. The AIFF’s disciplinary committee has cracked down hard and the rules of anti-corruption are strictly followed. Firstpost
Elano Blumer in action
‘Carlsen’s games may not be entertaining, but contain dynamism’ World champion using his usual tactics against V Anand to make a mistake or grind slowly BY VENKATACHARI JAGANNATHAN CHENNAI: World Chess champion Magnus Carlsen’s style of play may be dry and not greatly entertaining but that does not mean his moves lack dynamism and creative ideas, say experts. The 23-year-old Norwegian plays a wait and watch game. Wait for the opponent to make a mistake or grind slowly, tire out the opponent in a long end game. An Indian chess player had earlier told IANS with astonishment: “I wonder whether Carlsen has a chess engine or computer inside his head. He plays exactly those moves suggested by chess engines.” A middle-aged player adopting such a style is understandable. It is baffl ing to see such a style from the 23-year-old world champion, said a senior chess player. Even grandmasters term Carlsen’s style as dry. However, not many agree with that view entirely. “Carlsen doesn’t play the most entertaining chess that often, but one should not exaggerate. His games do contain dynamism and creative ideas. One can’t be number one in modern chess without being an allround player,” said Grandmaster Anish Giri. IANS
n the week gone by, the most discussed sporting event of our country after Kohli’s kiss over mid-on towards girlfriend Anushka Sharma, was Kohli breaking Sir Viv Richards’ record of being the fastest to score 6,000 one-day runs. The West Indian legend had achieved it in 141 innings, a feat which stood for 25 years, before Kohli achieved it in five innings less. It feels great if you’re a jingoistic, number-crunching Indian, or a freelance statistician or, for that matter, Kohli. It etches a note in your heart that today’s Virat is better than yesteryear’s Sir Viv, even as your slightly sharper, old-timer brain begs to disagree. I present the case of the latter here, and for starters, Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, (knighted by the Antiguan government in 1999) was in his 14th year as an international cricketer when he achieved this. In his first few years, the second half of the 1970s to be specific, he faced Derek Underwood and Bob Willis, undoubtedly the fiercest of their time. The biggest weapon in Sir Viv’s armoury was the fear he inspired in the opposition, right from the moment he walked out, many times long after the outgoing batsman had left the field. There would be swagger written all over his walk, gait and later, his drives. His ignorance of the pacers’ aura, and another Sir, Ian Botham would come to know of this well, enabled him to play risqué shots all over the field, and remember this in an era when batsmen didn’t have the T20 guidebook imprinted in their mind. Not to forget,
Crowd support for FC Pune City
IANS
How much should we read into ‘records’ such as Kohli surpassing Sir Viv as the fastest to make 6,000 runs?
Pulasta Dhar notes seven takeaways as ISL reaches halfway mark
MORE STARS ARE COMING John Goossens and Jermaine Pennant just signed for FC Pune City and Djemba-Djemba is Chennaiyin’s latest recruit. Former Arsenal leftback Andre Santos arrived to FC Goa and has made an impact — all this shows that there is a pull that the ISL generates. The more it’s being played, the more people are talking about it. As Pennant said when asked by Firstpost on how the ISL was sold to him: “When the offer came I did my research, saw a few games -- I saw that it’s mighty competitive. It also gives me a chance to lend my experience to something new in a country where football can grow.” The more the merrier.
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THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
According to him, it is not Carlsen that one should be worried about. “Magnus will steer his opponents toward positions they are uncomfortable. He does not mind getting almost nothing out of the opening, as long as his opponents are out of the elements. The reason is
Magnus believes that he can beat anyone. He does not care for fancy wins,” Susan Polgar, a four-time women’s World chess champion, told IANS. “He only cares that he wins every game, if he could. Not many people have this kind of self confidence,” she added. As to Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand’s chances of regaining the title match following his defeat against Carlsen on Sunday, she said: “He (Anand) cannot allow Carlsen to get inside his head. If he can do this, he can bounce back. Right now, he is making mistakes he normally would not make against others. He is allowing Magnus to psyche him out.” “Anand is a fighter and I hope that he will fight. He cannot be timid. He cannot allow Magnus to steer the game towards the type of positions he likes,” she added. Anand has not been the favourite, and even less so after Sunday’s second game loss. But with seven games to go, there is hope among his fans, Giri said. Polgar said Anand has nothing to lose at this point. Win, lose, or draw -- he should fight like a champion, one game at a time. IANS
Sharma smashes his way into records Sharma becomes first batsman to score two double tons in ODIs
KOLKATA: Rohit Sharma bludgeoned his way into the record books by becoming the first batsman to score two double tons in One Day International (ODI) cricket -- and to add another feather to his cap, his 264 runs is also the highest individual score in the 50-over format. The 27-year-old Indian, who had scored 209 against Australia in November last year, thrashed a mediocre Sri Lankan bowling line-up to all parts of the ground in the fourth ODI of the five-match series at the Eden Gardens here. Rohit Sharma was run out on the final ball of the Indian innings after facing 173 deliveries. His record-
breaking innings comprised 33 fours and nine sixes. India piled on the runs against the hapless opposition and ended their innings with a mammoth 404 for five in 50 overs. “If Rohit doesn’t get out he will certainly get 250 today,” Mahendra Singh Dhoni tweeted after Rohit Sharma reached the 200-mark for the second time in his career. It was the fourth overall double ton -- all by Indians. Virender Sehwag held the previous highest score with his 219 against the West Indies in December 2011. Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar was the first batsman to reach the elusive 200 run-mark -- scoring 200 not out
Double ton scorers • • • •
Rohit Sharma (India) 264 vs Sri Lanka - Nov 13, 2014 Virender Sehwag (India) 219 vs West Indies - Dec 8, 2011 Rohit Sharma (India) 209 vs Australia - Nov 2, 2013 Sachin Tendulkar (India) 200 not out vs South Africa - Feb 24, 2010
against South Africa in February 2010. Zimbabwean Charles Coventry is the only non-Indian in the top 5 scorers list. His 194 not out against Bangladesh in 2009 was, at one point, the highest score in ODIs. IANS
SPORTS “It’s embarrassing that we are not even competing against India. We lost the way in the last 25 overs when India scored about 290 runs which is not acceptable in this format of the game.” — Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews
Pune FC to participate in King’s Cup, Bhutan PUNE: Pune FC squad will head north-east to the foothills of the Himalayas, as they participate in their first ever international open overseas tournament, the King’s Cup, Bhutan which begins from today. For Durand Cup finalists Pune FC, the King’s Cup will be the third international tournament, and they will carry the experience of playing in the AFC Champions League 2014 play-off and the AFC Cup 2014 group stage to Bhutan. Pune FC, who replaced Thailand’s Osotspa FC, are the third Indian side to participate in this year’s competition along with Kolkata’s Mohun Bagan AC and Assam Electricity Board.
City’s players-turned -coaches Updendra Muley and Deepti Chaphekar have decided to experience the thrills of competitive table tennis once again
“ All the records happen along the way. I probably need to work harder, and from here on the expectation would be more. I feel I have a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders.” — Indian opener Rohit Sharma
BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish PUNE: It’s not new for sportspersons to take up coaching after retiring from their playing career. However, very few decide to return to the playing area. Competing with the young energetic opponents half of your age, is not an easy task. But, Pune’s leading table tennis coaches Updendra Muley and Deepti Chaphekar have decided to take the plunge and are leading Pune district’s team in the state table tennis championship at Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex in Balewadi. Muley, who has been in the coaching profession for over two decades, has trained several talented paddlers
“We used to practice one stroke for two years. Now the players want to learn 10 strokes in just one year.”
Shruti Kotwal shatters three national records PUNE: Pune girl Shruti Kotwal smashed three national records in speed skating at the Olympic Oval Invitational in Calgary, Canada recently. Shruti clocked 2:38.52 to break her own national record she set a year ago, in the 1500m race. She then went on to set a record of 45.79 in 500m sprint. A graduate from Fergusson College, Shruti clocked 1:34.75 in 1,000m.
PUNE
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
PUNE: Local cyclist Gautam Taode finished fifth in the Men’s Open round at the Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge 2014 held in Indonesia recently. He was one among four (Piyush Chavan, Ignatius Chen and Vinay Menon) who represented India at the championship. Downhill racing comes under the discipline of mountain biking, where the terrain is harsh, covered with rocks and trees and uneven dirt track. Downhill bikers can risk serious injuries. Gautam had earlier achieved success this year, finishing third in the Himachal Downhill Mountain Bike trophy. He has signed up with Stärkenn Giants.
NOVEMBER 15, 2014
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Signposts City cyclist finish fifth in Asia Pacific tourney
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
- Updendra Muley
from Sharda Centre. Last time he represented Pune district was in 2006. Asked about the motivation behind returning to the competitive circuit after eight years, he said, “Currently I am top ranked in the veteran (above 39) age category in Maharashtra and am
Updendra Muley in action during Pune’s group stage match against Kolhapur district (R) Deepti Chaphekar
planning to participate in national as well international tournaments. So for practice purposes, I decided to play in the men’s category. But, it wasn’t a casual approach. When I play, I want to win.” Muley said, “Basically, I wanted to show the players the old school game. During our playing days we spent hours and hours aiming for perfection. So, I faced no problem in technique and skill. In fact, it’s the the young generation that is facing problems while playing against me. I do not make silly mistakes, unforced errors and consistently put the ball on table, and they are finding it hard to tackle this.” Talking about the changes he has observed in the sport, Muley said, “The power and speed has increased but so are the mistakes. The players are more
Yet to reach the peak: Bhullar
Ace golfer who is currently out of action due to injury, eyes medal in 2016 Olympics BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish
PUNE: Normally in any sport, younger players have the edge owing to better fitness and stamina, and they are on the peak of their performance in early twenties. In contract, the peak of golfers comes after the age of 30, said India’s ace golfer Gaganjit Bhullar. Bhullar was in Pune to conduct a golf clinic organised by Westin at Poona Golf Course. He shared insights and gave tips as part of the Westin brand’s global initiative Westin Wellbeing Movement. “Golf is a mental sport and apart from talent, what matters is the experience of playing different tournaments, visualising different shots that come along with age. I am just 26 now, and have four more years before I can peak in my performance. Any achievement before that will be a bonus for me,” he said. The Arjuna Awardee is currently out of action due to a wrist injury and is undergoing physiotherapy to recover before the Indonesian Open to be held in the first week of December. “Defending the Indonesian Open is currently on my radar. I have won that tournament twice and am really looking forward to defend the title. Therefore I have decided to skip three tournaments before that. I am just waiting to my hand to recover. As golf is a mental game, I go to the golf course everyday and imagine playing in the Indonesian Open,” said Bhullar, who targets getting in to the top 50 next year. “Getting into the top 50 will be a great boost. That will give me an opportunity to feature in all the Majors and WGCs. Then my aim would be 2016 Olympics. The good thing about Olympics is that only sixty players get an opportunity which increases the probability of winning,” he added. He said that since golf has been included in the Olympics, it is necessary to improve golfing Infrastructure in India. “I am confident that we have immense talent to compete with the likes of US, Russia, Japan, Korea and others. Every year some player is wining the Asian tournament. Recently, a kid from Haryana, Shubham Jaglan, won the under-10 Asian title. He is from a village where nobody have even heard of golf. He learnt the game by watching on YouTube. Although India has a few positives in young talent coming to the fore what’s lacking is the desire to win,” he said. He also stressed that golf should reach more people. “The sport remains expensive and we can’t do anything for that. What we can do is reduce the membership fees of golf clubs. In India, most of the golf courses are private. Their
aggressive but nobody is serious about accuracy. I remember our coaches never taught the next stroke unless we mastered the first one. We used to practice one stroke for almost two years. Now the players want to learn 10 strokes in just one year. They want everything fast and are not ready to spend enough time for that.” Meanwhile, Deepti who dominated district and state-level table tennis as a player, making a comeback after a gap of two years. Talking about the challenges she said, “Fitness is the key for playing in such tournament and I realised that I need to work a lot on that part. Thankfully, in this tournaments matches are played in best of five format. I would be difficult to play a best of seven match format.”
Talking about the motivation for making a comeback, she said, “Basically Pune district’s women’s team is weak. Ashlesha Bodas retired a long time back, Divya Deshpande shifted to Mumbai, while Devika Bhide represents Air India. Therefore I decided to step in. We are hosting this event and I want to make sure that we win at least a bronze medal here.” “Now as I have gained some confidence, I have decided to participate on a regular basis. I haven’t given a thought about representing state. May be next year I will be better prepared for that,” said Deepti, who is currently training talented youngsters like Gourav Lohapatre, Arohi Chhajed and Aneeha D’souza. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com
Pat Cash, Baghdatis and Radwanska to represent Pune Pune Marathas will play their first home match against Hyderabad at Balewadi on November 23 TGS NEWS SERVICES @TGSWeekly PUNE: Tennis Legend Pat Cash along with Australian Open runnerup (2006) Marcos Baghdatis and World No 6 Agnieszka Radwanska will represent the Pune franchisee Pune Marathas in the Vijay Amritraj promoted Champion Tennis League, from November 17. The christening of the city franchisee Pune Marathas and their Logo was unveiled by Indian tennis maestro and legend Vijay Amritraj in
the city recently. The principal of the Pune team, Milind Tamhane, cine star Shreyas Talpade were present on the occasion. The Pune Marathas will play their first home match on November 23 when they will face Hyderabad at the Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex. Next day, they will take on Bangalore. Puneites will have the opportunity of watching matches featuring
international stars Martina Hingis, Venus Williams, Feliciano Lopez, Mark Phillippoussis, Mikhail Youzhny, and Thomas Enqvist, who will be playing in the city for the first time. The Pune franchisee is owned by Mysport which has been promoted by Gaikwads of Rendezvous Group in year 2014 to conduct various sports programmes. “Pune Marathas will also be organising clinics in academies in the city, with an aim to create interaction between legend tennis stars and aspiring tennis stars with an aim to boost their moral and develop their interest,” said Tamhane. The tickets for the matches will available on Book my Show and at tennis clubs and academies in the city. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com
National league set to serve aces
Third edition of Premier Tennis League will be played at Deccan Gymkhana from Nov 27 TGS NEWS SERVICES @TGSWeekly
Bullar trying his hand during a golf clinic at Poona Golf Course
membership fees are high and there are a long waiting lists. We must follow the examples of countries like England and Sweden, where the golf courses are open to public and commoners can rent golf kits and play,” said Bhullar, who have fond memories of Pune where he won the sub junior championships way back in 2006. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com
PUNE: The third edition of the Premier Tennis League, India’s biggest national level tennis tournament, will be played at Deccan Gymkhana from November 27. This League, organised by Amanora Education Foundation will have five franchise-teams competing for top honours with each team boasting of iconic Indian players. These include Asian Games silver medalist and Olympian Vishnu Vardhan, Sriram Balaji, who has won
the ITF Futures singles title and five ITF doubles titles this season and Sanam Singh, silver medalist at the 2014 Asian Games and winner of two ATP challenger doubles titles this season. The other stars feature to grace on the court during the league include Saketh Myneni, Ramkumar Ramanathan, and Jeevan N. In the auction, Sharp Smashers and Dazzling Deuces roped in Sanam Singh and Jeevan N respectively for Rs 2,25,000. Meanwhile, Baseline Bombers and Vibrant Volleyers retained
their icon players, Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan respectively. Dazzling Deuces also retained Ankita Raina. Natasha Palha of Goa, emerged as the costliest women player, who was roped in by Vibrant Volleyers for Rs 1,10,00 followed by Prarthana Thombare (Baseline Bombers) and Sharmada Balu (Sharp Smashers) who cost Rs1 lakh each. The tournament will adopt the ‘All Play All’ format and each match will consist of 13 games. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com