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PUNE, NOVEMBER 1, 2014 | www.goldensparrow.com
TGS LIFE
BY MAHESH VIJAPURKAR
The message of the freshly sworn-in chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s cabinet is likely to be clear: “It’s us, none else”. Bharatiya Janata Party is asserting its primacy by not having any other person from any other party, including its smaller allies. Save one MLA from Rashtriya Swaraj Paksh, none were elected but all are aspiring for posts in the new ministry. Loksatta has it that those who migrated to the BJP from other parties, notably from the Nationalist Congress Party — but with some stain on their record — may not find a Devendra Fadnavis place, at least for now. They shifted loyalties because they needed a platform and the BJP needed winners. Their rewards will need to wait. The big question hanging over the ministry formation is whether the Shiv Sena forms a part of the government later or not. That they were kept out at Friday’s swearing-in is, thus, significant. More so, given the event being planned on the scale of a coronation. The Durbar Hall in the Raj Bhawan was inadequate for the pomp and show planned. Fadanavis on Friday took charge amid much fanfare as the first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister of Maharashtra and got his briefings from the crucial departments on Thursday. (Two colleagues, Eknath Khadse and Vinod Tawde were with him during the meetings, implying they may be in the top tier of the new hierarchy.) This kind of alacrity is unusual. The usual practice is for MLAs to wait for ministerial slots, even lobby for them and then vanish to their
constituencies in order to be felicitated. Some ministers in the past rarely attended cabinet meetings in the initial weeks, slowing down the process of the changeover. The constituency has precedence; after, all the next set of votes comes from there. Devendra Fadnavis’ moves since Wednesday implies a change of approach he intends to bring with him. Some initial ideas, in broad brush strokes, have been shared with some senior officials. It is clear that he is pl a n n i n g to replicate the same governance system as Narendra Modi. Lokmat on Friday reported that he intends to form a Chief M i n ister ’s Office, on Narendra Modi the lines of the PMO which is the most important power and decisionmaking centre. Officials have been asked to study its contours for replicating it in Mumbai’s Mantralaya. In an interview to Pudhari, another Marathi daily, he has said minister’s kith and kin would be barred from posts in ministries, including as private assistants and officers on special duty. Those who worked with Congress-NCP ministers would be kept out too, with the antecedents of new appointees to be whetted with Intelligence inputs. At least for now, the BJP’s confidence is propped up by the Nationalist Congress Party’s outside support whose strategy is to abstain from voting in the legislature. However, this is a fraught strategy for pounds of flesh will be sought as return favours. How Devendra Fadanavis manages the contradictions will be interesting to see. (By special arrangement with Firstpost.com)
Riding dangerously P 16
How widespread is dengue? P3 RAHUL RAUT
Pune is safe for women P2
Dissing Sena, mini-Modi takes charge in state
SPORTS
CITY
“No child labour in Pune”
Says State Labour Commissionerate In the last 10 months, the State Labour Commissionerate found just three cases of child labour in Pune after conducting 27 raids and screening 374 children. What exactly is happening? See Spotlight P 7
Children working in eateries and tea stalls in the city is a common sight
Union Carbide ex-chief Warren Anderson is dead
WASHINGTON : Warren Anderson, who headed Union Carbide when a gas leak in its Bhopal pesticide plant killed thousands, is dead, the New York Times reported. Anderson died on September 29 at a nursing home in Vero Beach, Florida, aged 92, the Times said. His death, not announced by his family, was Warren Anderson confirmed from public records. Anderson flew to Bhopal four days after the world’s worst industrial disaster and was arrested. But after paying bail
RAHUL RAUT
RUN FOR UNITY RECEIVES ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE
he left India and never returned to face trial. Indian authorities made multiple requests to extradite him, and officially labelled him a fugitive. A judge declared him an “absconder”. Toxic gas leaked from the Bhopal Carbide plant on the night of December 2-3, 1984, killing over 3,000 people instantly and thousands over the years. The plant made insecticides. The disaster left many thousands injured and maimed, many suffering lung cancer, kidney failure, liver disease and serious eye disorders after coming into contact with methyl iso cyanate (MIC). In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470 million to the Indian government to settle litigation stemming from the
disaster. The settlement was denounced by rights activists as peanuts in view of the tragedy. Anderson at one point of time “ruled over an empire with 700 plants in more than three dozen countries”, the Times said. After the Bhopal horror, “for the first time in his life, Anderson couldn’t sleep; at one point he holed up for a week at a hotel... “He and his wife, Lillian, spent evenings reading newspaper articles about the tragedy to each other,” the daily said. When they went to restaurants, he was afraid to be seen laughing because people “might not think it was appropriate”. IANS
5-storey bldg collapses at Narhe-Ambegaon
Signposts India would’ve been different if Patel was PM: Naidu Urban development minister M.Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said that if Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel had become the first prime minister of India, the fate of the “country would have been different”. Speaking at the function at Vijay Chowk to mark Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary as National Unity Day, Naidu said Sardar Patel was foremost among leaders who had made sacrifices for country’s freedom. Naidu said millions of people in the country have a feeling that history has not done justice to Sardar Patel, the first home minister of India. P10
Prez congratulates Pankaj Advani President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday congratulated cueist Pankaj Advani on winning his 12th world title in World Billiards Championship in Leeds, Britain. In his message, Mukherjee said: “I am extremely delighted to know that you have achieved your 12th World Title in Leeds, and become the first player to win the grand double thrice...Please accept my hearty congratulations and best wishes.” IANS
Oceans were always there on Earth BY TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly
A large number of Puneites participated early on Friday morning in Ekta Daud (unity run) organised by the government in the city. It began from Khandojibaba Chowk in Deccan and concluded at the Police Parade Ground, Shivajinagar
A five-storey building at Bhoomkarmala in Narhe Ambegaon area, off the Katraj bypass, collapsed during the wee hours, on Friday. No one was injured in the incident and one person was rescued from the debris. Rescue work is going on, the city fire brigade said. The Sitaram Society building, where work was left incomplete by its builder, had developed cracks and there were some suspicious crumbling noises, a few days ago. The residents were therefore aware of the impending danger and many had
vacated their flats before the building came crashing down. The fire brigade received the emergency call at 3.07 am on Friday and a rescue and relief team was sent immediately to the spot. One person, who was in the parking area of the building, was caught under the falling debris, and rescued unharmed. The Narhe Ambegaon belt is infamous for illegal constructions and several buildings have been constructed without proper permissions and without following the proper construction guidelines. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Debunking previous theories that water came late to Earth well after the planet had formed, researchers have significantly moved back the clock for the first evidence of water on Earth and in the inner solar system. “The answer to one of the basic questions is that our oceans were always here. We did not get them from a late process as was previously thought,” claimed lead scientist Adam Sarafian from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts. One school of thought is that planets originally formed dry due to the high-energy, high-impact process of planet formation. IANS
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
“The rich in India need to find their own conscience; “I namedtomy newa project Thlearn e scheme give little ofGyan whatKey theyVachanalaya. earn. We must the is simple art — you donate Rs5,000, we buy 180 books that will of giving before the art of living!” interest secondary school students.” —Bindeshwar Pathak, founder, —Pradeep Lokhande, founder, ruralrelations.com Sulabh International
Doing business with social responsibility P5
Working for rail passenger’s comfort
Returns on the bountiful deeds
One man’s devotion to improve a rural school has made an enormous difference
Railway Pravasi Group chairperson Harsha Shah’s efforts to apprise railway authorities of issues facing passengers has been a fruitful journey
She has been the voice for railway passengers in Pune for over 20 years, putting across their issues, on board and off board, before the railways. Harsha Shah is the chairperson of Railway Pravasi Group on citizen forum that pushes for better service to passengers. Popularly known as ‘Deccan Queen’ among her friends, the sixty-three-year-old began her association with the railways in 1962 when she took a train journey with her uncle late Shantilal Shah, the founder of Railway Pravasi Group. Hailing from Sangli and belonging to a family that is in grocery business, Harsha said, “My uncle used to travel between Mumbai and Pune frequently and always preferred trains. He used to talk to co-passengers and write letters to senior railway authorities about the problems that commuters face.” Harsha also travelled by train to cities like Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad for business purpose. “In those days, the PuneMumbai highway used to remain chock-ablock for hours at Khandala Ghat section and trains were very safe,” she said. She also started discussing issues related to daily commuting with the railway authorities. “The problems have remained more or less the same in the past 30 years despite the massive growth of Indian Railways,” she said. Harsha wrote her fi rst letter to the Central Railways after a train journey from Pune to Indore took six days. “I had gone to maternal uncle’s house near Indore. The
Birthday on tracks The practice of celebrating the birthday of India’s first super fast train Deccan Queen, the daily train between Pune and Mumbai, on June 1 was started by late Shantilal Shah. Harsha celebrates the day with passengers by cutting a cake and distributing sweets. The train is washed a day before and the engine is decorated.
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh.shelke
YASH DAIV @yash009
Railway Pravasi Group chairperson Harsha Shah’s efforts to apprise railway authorities of issues facing passengers has been a fruitful journey
long-delayed journey forced me to write a letter to the railway authorities demanding more trains on this route,” she said. She said that the network of Indian Railways is spread over 62,000 kms, but no new route has been finalised in many years. “Even as the number of passengers has increased manifold over the years, the railway reservation service is still a messy affair,” she said. on the whole, she was appriciative of the online booking facility. Harsha cited dirty coaches, toilets and stations, track safety, safety on board and on the platform, unhygienic food, corruption, lack of timeliness of trains, passenger safety and crowding of stations/platforms by people without travel and platform tickets as the main issues that passengers face “These concerns must be brought to the notice of railway authorities,” she said.
She said that Pune needs more fast trains even though the number has touched 180.” Harsha was instrumental in starting a railway reservation booking counter at Shankarseth Road and crusading for many trains, including the Pune-Indore train. Her suggestions have also been incorporated in the Union Railway Budget in the past. “From the time I headed the Railway Pravasi Group in 1993, I have written letters to authorities at different railway zones demanding over 350 trains,” she said. “I am just a voice, sometimes I am heard sometimes rejected, but this has not disturbed me. The dialogue creates a bridge between commuters and service providers,” Harsha said. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com
“I will work for the society until I have the strength to,” said Suresh Paranjape, a retired bank officer. During his stint with Bank of Maharashtra, he has led several unions and has been the leader for All India Bank Employee’s Association (AIBEA) for fi fteen consecutive years. “I believe in giving to the society. For those of us who have the means should employ them in selflessly working for other,” said Paranjape. He has devoted himself into improving the conditions at Jivan Vardhini School for the mentally challenged, at Saswad since 2010. “I used to visit the school even before my retirement to make donations, and spend time with the children. There has been always been a sense of attachment,” said Paranjape who took the initiative of developing the school’s infrastructure. With a continuous flow of donations, the fund today, comprises of Rs 14 lakhs. It is exclusively dedicated to the betterment of students at Jivan Vardhini. Balasaheb Zende, the founder of Jivan Vardhini requested Paranjape for a concrete involvement with the school after two years of social service. “I started looking at the infrastructural development. The school functioned through a congested building and a hostel. The major task was to gather funds to improve the conditions,” said Paranjape. The task of charity seemed herculean at its outset, turned out to be an influx of gratitude. People, whom Paranjape had helped with their finances and through difficult bank procedures, helped him gather funds. “I had never expected any favour in return of things that I did for people. I realized that a good deed is never forgotten. The cause received donations from Rs 500 to Rs 50000,” said Paranjape. Within five months, the school gathered two lakh rupees. 24 months later the school had gathered enough funds to renovate the congested school building into a two-floored building with improvisation in hostel facilities. Neighbouring land was acquired for rupee per square foot with a special appeal to the state government. “The large open space has benefitted the children’s health,” said Paranjape, who is grateful towards the goodwill that the initiative basks in. “We have received donations in the form of stationery, meals, toys and cash. A small cheque of Rs 2000 can sponsor a day’s meal,” said Paranjape. The school has seen drastic change in terms of active participation. School teachers work on regular pay-rolls but the hostel wardens and caretakers work on minimal or no wage. “The dedication is admirable. It is place that houses selflessness and a content feeling. The parents of these children, who previously anxious about situation at school
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Making the green dream come true P4
PUNE
Call for donations Established in 1989, Jivan Vardhini Matimand Viddhyalaya has rehabilitated specially-abled children of the economically backward. The school runs on government schemes and donations alone. To donate call Suresh Paranjape on 9850717916 or Balasaheb Zende on 9922489232.
or whether or not they could afford the child’s expenses, are not worried today,” said Paranjape. In the coming years he wants to increase the age limit of the children accepted at the school. Currently 95 children between the ages of 6-18 reside at the school. “By increasing the age limit I think we will relieve children who are locked up in homes, away from any social activities and gatherings, as soon as they finish schooling,” said Paranjape. He also wants to introduce paper-bag making, lantern making etc. “To take the cause forward we need more donations. People have been selfless to our cause and I hope we will never have problems with this initiative’s future.” yashdaiv@gmail.com
Providing opportunities for rural youths Vikramaditya Acadeny imparts specialised training to youths to make them eligible to take up challenging jobs in the armed forces BY TGS News Services @TGS Weekly Vikramaditya Academy, a division of VB Foundation was launched in 2013. The main aim of launching this Academy was to provide
opportunities for youths from rural and semi- rural areas of Maharashtra in the armed forces. It is seen that after completing their Class X and XII board examination while away their time. Some are lost and do not know what career to take up. They are also unaware of the number of jobs available in the various armed forces. It was to bridge the gap between the youths and armed forces that this academy was launched, “reveals Vaishali Gadgil, CEO and Promoter of Vikramaditya Academy. Gadgil wants to educate the youth and make the youth skilled before they join the forces. The main aim of the academy is to establish a common platform between the employable and trained youth and defense services and academia. In short, Vikramaditya Academy ( VA) is a premier institute that offers and imparts specialised training to youths to make them eligible to take up challenging jobs in the Indian Armed Forces, Paramilitary Forces like the CISF, CRPF, BSF etc, State police forces and other Auxiliary and Private
security services. Once the idea germinated, my team and I were hunting for the right place where we can set up our office and set up a classroom. We were also trying to tie up with an institute with an open ground where we can impart physical training to the students. Gadgil funded the project from her savings as she wants it to be self sustaining. The course has been designed to train the youths for careers in 16 different forces of India like army, navy, air force, Maharashtra police, BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBF, SRPF, RPF, SFF, Coast guards, home guards, NSG, Private security and SSB. Youths who are aged between 17 to 25 years and have cleared the class X boards can apply for this course. The main aim of the academy is designing and delivering the courses for the forces, preparing the youths for the competitive exams, counseling and guiding them for a career in the forces. The duration of the course if for 1 year. The syllabus has been scientifically planned and it has classroom studying, physical training, personality development training. The classroom syllabus has been designed to train youths for the entrance exam of the forces. It includes coaching on seven subjects like General knowledge, English, Marathi, science and Mathematics. The training is imparted by certified teachers and trainers. Every
Railway Pravasi Group chairperson Harsha Shah’s efforts to apprise railway authorities of issues facing passengers has been a
week weekly tests are conducted to assess the students. The biggest challenge we faced was that the youths were unaware of the career opportunities available. Secondly, they had a very wrong perception about the forces. So we started generating information and imparting it to them. Moreover we also had to orient and convince their parents about the job vacancies in the forces. Besides, the course, workshops are held once a month to groom the students and guest lecturers from that particular area are invited to deliver lecture. The classes start at 2pm; 2 hours are devoted for classroom training and two hours for physical training. Special visits are also organised for the students to Bombay sappers, NDA, DRDO and various Army institutes where the youths can see, learn and eventually this
experience expand their horizons. Students have to pay only Rs 19,000 for the course, out of which Rs 2000 is allocated for providing two set of uniforms-one set for the classrooms and the other set for physical training. Books and study material are also provided to them. Students do not have to bear any other costs. The Academy has two centres … one in the city and the other in Nashik. The classroom training in Pune and Nasik has started on June 15 and on August 19 respectively. Presently, there are 35 students who are undergoing the course. Kiran Paradkar was pursuing a course in Botany from Modern College, Mumbai when he read about the institute in an advertisement. He immediately got in touch with the organisation and enrolled for the course. Four months later, Kiran is
considered one of the brightest students in his class. “Besides the subjects that are being taught in the course, I have gained confidence in myself and the determination to do something in life. The teachers encourage me and are always there to guide me,” he said. Akash Sawant was a student of Pirangut Junior College, when he read a pamphlet about the institute. The placements looked promising and his friends had already joined the course. He is happy that he is a part of the academy. He says, “The course is designed in such a way that it brings out the best in every student. I love the adventure and trekking expeditions and the events organised at the institute. The regular interaction with my teachers and classmates has improved my communication skills.” editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
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Model UN: Opening new horizons P6
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Pune was 1.7 °C (35 °F) on January 17, 1935. — www.imdpune.gov.in/Temp_Extremes/¬histext2010.pdf
An era of maintaining land records BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke The 125-year-old heritage building of Pune Archives has many visitors. People visit this place to obtain important old land records to support their stance on a particular piece of land. Earlier, the Pune Archives used to receive about 200 applications seeking details of different pieces of land located in 16 districts, in Western Maharashtra. Land records of certain parts of Gujarat and north Karnataka is also available at Pune Archives. For the last two years, the office has been receiving 2000 applications annually. This economic year, the Archives is expecting about 2,000 applications seeking details of the land records and the figure has already received 922 applications. The land records are available in Modi and English languages. There are six categories of the land records at Archives, which are political (division of the land mass), personal (personal property), temple (land belonged to the temples and other religious places), watan land (land given in Inam), Gav Kamagar (land reserve for the entire village community). Land records have been preserved since 1850. The British government had formed Inam Commission in 1848 and record keeping had started. Senior Archive officer said that generally people, who are aggrieved and suspect that their land has been encroached by someone else, attempt to get some record from Archive. These are mostly Inam lands. “Copies of the original record are made and are handed over to the applicant. The applicant gets the document translated from Modi to Marathi or English. However, it is not known how such documents are useful in the courts.”
TGS Quiz Contest
A
No. 20
nswers to the following 10 questions are embedded in the stories featured in this edition. Send us the correct answers at contest.tgs@gmail.com and be one of the three lucky winners to receive gift coupons. 1. What is the percentage of breast cancer patients of all cancers in Pune?
How widespread is
There is sufficient stack of Vitamin B tablets and other medicines in PMC hospitals and dispensaries. For information and assistance, the PMC Helpline may be reached at 020-25508474.
What is Dengue? Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles.
ASHOK BHAT
The contagion spread through mosquitoes, the dengue epidemic has affected 3675 people and caused eight deaths in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Civic Officials have expressed serious concern over the continuity spread of the disease post-monsoons. While political representatives claim that the disease has risen to alarming proportions, pune municipal corporation (PMC) officials state that it is well under control. On October 29, newly elected MLA Vijay Kale, along with BJP leader in PMC Ganesh Bidkar, corporaters Ashok Yenpure, Madhuri Sahastrabudhe and BJP Shivajinagar President Nana More, met civic commissioner Kunal Kumar to voice to their concerns over the spread of dengue in the city. Following the meeting, Kale laid blame on the civic administration fogging was not the ideal solution as for failing to deal with the hazard in mosquitoes were found to be immune an adequately effective manner. He to the pesticide-kerosene mix. He also pointed out that ten patients had died in expressed concern over the inadequate the last week, and that the disease was supply of anti-dengue medicine. now affecting not just slum dwellers but A d d i t i o n a l also residents of housing commissioner Rajendra societies, specially in the Jagtap said 599 denguevicinity of rivers. related complaints were In Bidkar’s The PMC has received in the last month Shivajinagar Assembly on the PMC helpline. Constituency, cases attributed He said the civic body of dengue were found was conducting drives in housing societies the rise in at the ward office level, at Aundh and Sangamwadi, on both viral diseases and medical officers and sanitary inspectors sides of Mula river. The to climate were visiting public civic administration and private hospitals to was not taking adequate change gather more information steps to stop the spread on the spread of dengue of the disease, he said. in the city. Kale said that a The measures taken blood test for dengue by the PMC over the last two months costs Rs 3,500, which the poor cannot for the prevention and control of afford. He suggested that the civic dengue had begun to show results, he body should bear this cost as the said. commissioner had special powers to Jagtap attributed the rise in viral deal with medical situations, as per diseases to the change in climate. 67(3) c of PMC act. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com The newly-elected MLA said
‘Dengue spread a matter of concern’
Metro, BRT projects back in focus, says civic chief
‘We need Alternative Politics’
TGS NEWS SERVICE With election fever having subsided, Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar has assured to focus on traffic problems in the city. The Metro rail and BRT projects will be given the highest priority, he said at a press conference early in the week. Last week, Kumar made a visit to Delhi to make a presentation
before the Public Investment Board (PIB) to prepare the ground for the establishment of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the Metro project. He said all the pre-requisites had been fulfi lled and the SPV would be formed within a week. “We have requested Ahmedabad BRT to prepare a report for BRT implementation in Pune. The report is expected in the next few days,” he said.
FOR A CAUSE
3. Which brands have been designed by Lokusdesign?
4. What are the names of the blogs by Sujay Khandge?
5. Which was singer-actor Monica Dogra’s debut fi lm?
6. Which cause is actor-model Milind Soman supporting?
7. Which three words describe Alpana Kirloskar the best?
8. Where does warden Tirthraj Bhatia hail from?
What causes Dengue? Dengue virus is primarily transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, typically found in the tropical countries.
Prevention 1. Use mosquito repellents, even indoors. 2. When outdoors, wear longsleeved shirts and long pants tucked into socks. 3. When indoors, use air conditioning if available.
Dengue has created havoc like situation in the city. In the last couple of month hundreds of dengue cases have been reported across the city. There Dr. Bharat are several Purandare, factors that have Infectious Disease contributed to physician, Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, spread of dengue Pune fever. Firstly, the city has grown exponentially. The population has increased and the civic authorities have been unable to keep pace with this. Though they have been trying to
spread awareness and curb breeding of mosquitoes, they have not been successful. The weather of Pune is also conducive for mosquito growth. In places where water is stagnant, the mosquito eggs take about 7 days to breed i.e from eggs to a full grown mosquito. Moreover, people themselves are not aware of dengue fever. Drinking water that has been stored should be consumed within seven days. To protect oneself, one should wear full sleeves shirt and trousers. In the exposed area like face, hands and neck one should apply mosquito repellent. Mosquito coils helps to repel mosquitoes to a certain extent. Abrupt fever is one of the most important symptoms of dengue fever. If the fever doesn’t subside for
4. Make sure window and door screens are secure and free of holes. If sleeping 5. areas that are not screened or air conditioned, use mosquito nets.
Dengue patients found in Pune in each month of 2014 30 Oct 2014 Month No of Patients Deaths January 52 February 26 March 11 April 18 May 34 June 249 July 630 August 591 September 902 October 494 till Oct 29 6 2 to 3 days, then one should get the dengue test done. In most cases, the patient suffers from high-grade fever. The symptoms are body ache, joint pain, headache, muscle and eye pain. barnalee.handique@goldensparrow.com
AAP leader Yogendra Yadav says Narendra Modi’s policies are ‘anti-India’ BY ISHANI BOSE @ishani_bose Renowned political analyst, psephologist and public speaker-turnedpolitician/ leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Yo g e nd r a AAP leader Yadav, said that Yogendra Yadav prime minister Narendra Modi is fundamentally opposed to the idea of India. Speaking on the importance and future of Alternative Politics in India at a function organised by the party’s local unit in the city recently, Yadav said, “Our Constitution is based on democracy, which emphasises equal
rights for everyone; development, that will benefit everyone; and diversity, which must be celebrated rather than destroyed. And the present government’s policies will challenge these aspects in the long run.” “While the Congress-led UPA government has been discredited because of corruption, non-performance, vote-bank politics and fooling the minorities with false promises, the BJP-led government is merely a substitute and not an alternative as it participates in the same kind of governance and corruption as the former, and in certain aspects are just like each other,” he said. He said that the Modi government was identified as ‘majoritarianism’. “The only good thing that happened in Lok Sabha (LS) polls 2014 was the ‘massive fall’ of the Congress party. Although Modi’s political, economic and socio-cultural policies have given some respite to
the common man, it could potentially destroy the fundamentals on which the country stands. We need to change the nature of politics itself and bring in an alternative ideology and thought process in the country,” he said. He said that the Congress was thriving on the support of minorities by giving them false promises and propagating ‘farce’ secularism. “The LS polls 2014 was an eye-opener for minorities,” he said, adding that the assembly polls 2014 in Maharashtra and Haryana exposes the Congress party’s crisis of viability. “Congress Jahan Baith Jati Hai Uthti Nahin Hai (Congress fails to get up from where it sits). Our electoral history shows that wherever the Congress has fallen below 20 per cent vote share in any state, it has been unable to recover. This could deepen the vacuum in the Opposition,” he said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com
Corporate Excellence Award to Malhar
9. What is the chef’s speciality at The Beer Cafe? 10. Who conducted the motherdaughter photography exhibition at Independence Brewing Co?
TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly
Contest # 19 winners 1. Ravinder Kumar 2. Arpita Kamath
Adequate stocks in civic hospitals
DENGUE?
RAHUL RAUT
2. Which real-life models were demonstrated were demonstrated at the aeromodelling workshop held recently?
BJP, Sena must learn from CongNCP’s mistakes P12
Milind Soman was in the city to promote SBI Pinkathon Pune to be held on November 16. The model-actor has been passionately involved with the cause for a while now.
The LOKMAT Corporate Excellence Award, presented by World Marketing Council and CMO Asia will be given this year to Anand Malhar of Malhar Communication, Jalgaon. The Corporate Excellence Award recognises and honours companies and individuals who have helped raise India’s corporate disclosure standards through their practices. The award was started with a belief
that societal improvement is an essential measure of b u s i n e s s p e r fo r m a n c e . It has been given to those professiona ls who have Anand Malhar evolved beyond the board room. Such a corporate executive have the potential
to deliver advance solutions to meet the ever increasing challenges. Malahar Communication is renowned in prime cities of Maharashtra for making advertisements for print, electronic, outdoor media etc. Under Anand Malhar’s leadership, the enterprise strives to continuously innovate their products and services. The ceremony will take place on November 13 at Taj Land Ends, Mumbai. The award will consist of a trophy and a citation. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
‘Blogging craze will last forever’ P8
Signposts Check-up camp for diabetic patients Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital and Research Centre will organise a free leg check-up camp for diabetes patients on November 2 from 10:00 am at the hospital premise. Experts will advice the patients over non-healing wounds and other leg ailments that a diabetes patient faces. The admission to camp is limited. For details contact 020-40151072.
‘Ideal Mother’ awards on Nov 2 Dhorde Patil Charitable Trust will give the Ideal Mother Award and Senior Lawyer Award to people with exceptional contributions in relevant spheres. The function will take place at Balgandharva Rangmandir on November 2 at 11:30 am. Former president Pratibha Patil will be the chief guest for the programme.
Fourth Pashan Sanskrutik Mahotsav Pashan Sanskrutik Mahotsav will take place from October 31 to November 2. Celebrated singers Hariharan and Vikku Vinayakram along with actress Sharvari Jamenis will be present for the events. Advocate Ujawal Nikam and famous Shivcharitra lecturer Nitin Bangude will enlighten the audience with lectures on relevant topics, on the consequent days. The inaugural function will take place on the first day at 6:30 pm at Shubjtej Garden, Pashan-Sus Road.
‘Diwali with a Purpose’ on Nov 1 Care India Medical society will celebrate ‘Diwali with a Purpose’ an occasion for cancer patients on November 1. The function will take place at Garden Court, Taj Blue Diamond, Pune, from 10:30 am. SR Bannurmath, chairperson, Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission will be the chief for the occasion. For more details contact 020-26441808 or 020-26450093.
100 years of Date Panchang It’s been 100 years of the panchang/ Hindu Calendar composed by the generations of Date family. On November 1 the centenary edition will be launched at Balgandharva Rangmandir, at 5:00 pm. Started by Lakshman Date in 1838, the panchang editions have been religiously created and dispatched by the generations. Maharashtra has relied on Date panchang for the festival related information. The recently launched e-version has made it accessible globally.
“To deliver quality education to underprivileged children and youth across India, Pratham designs and implements large-scale programmes to teach basic reading and arithmetic at the primary school level.” — Bala Venkatachalam, executive director, Pratham USA
Riding dangerously P16
Making the green dream come true Lunkad Greenland II at Viman Nagar has been recognised as a ‘green’ society, thanks to the initiatives of its residents RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh Located in the heart of Viman Nagar, Lunkad Greenland II has been recognised as a ‘green’ society due to the initiatives adopted by its 57 home owners, a benchmark for the over 12,000 housing societies of Pune to emulate. In 1999, when the fi rst residents moved, Viman Nagar was reeling under severe water shortage. The half hour a day water supply by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) was not enough. The society had to pay for water supplied by tanker. “We were paying almost Rs 28,000 per annum for tankers,” said Rajeev Singh, secretary of the society. Th ings changed when a new managing committee, under the chairmanship of a retired Army officer Col Shashikant G Dalvi, adopted rooftop rainwater harvesting (RWH) in 2002, which cost the society the equivalent of its annual water tanker bill. By 2003, the society did not depend on tanker-water and became one of the fi rst housing complexes in the city to adopt RWH. The society faced a new challenge when it decided to adopt vermicomposting to recycle wet waste. “We were sad to see what was happening at Urali Devachi,” Singh said. The society constructed seven compost pits in over two different areas of the society. Each pit is marked for one day of the week. Due to the lack of space, a part of the open parking
Monetary benefits of going ‘Green’ • Society has been availing 5% rebate on property tax per year since 2010-11 • The maintenance of the society is as low as Re 1 per square foot. A two bedroom apartment owner pays approximately Rs 14,000 per annum • Water tanker bill is zero • Electricity management has led to savings of Rs 50,000 per annum on electricity bill for common areas
Residents of Lunkad Greenland II have been undertaking various eco-friendly initiatives to make it a ‘green’ society
space had to accommodate the pits, while three pits were constructed in the visitor’s parking area. The manure is used to maintain the green space in the society. To reduce their carbon footprint, the society also adopted effective electricity managements. “We surveyed the common areas, replaced two tube-
lights with one energy efficient CFL without affecting the illumination,” said Maruti Deokar, managing committee member, who took the lead in reducing power consumption. The society also monitors the water pump run and for optimum utilisation of electricity,reduced its run to twice a day.
An inspirating ensemble
The All India Marwari Yuva Manch has been working for the upliftment of society since the launch of its first branch in Guwahati in 1977 TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly The All India Marwari Yuva Manch (AIMYM) Pune branch celebrated its Pancham Utsav (fifth anniversary) at the Ganesh Kala Krida Manch on October 31. The celebration included a cancer detection seminar, a widows and widowers remarriage meet, donation of 11 ambulances, presenting of the Marwad Bhushan Puraskar to social workers and the Ramdev Jamma Jagran, a night puja for Ramdev baba, in Rajasthan. Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Baramati MP Supriya Sule and Pune MP Anil Shirole were present on the occasion. Opening the first branch at Guwahati on October 10, 1977, AIMYM expanded to 23 cities of the north-eastern states, by 1983. The first national convention was held at Guwahati in January 1985. AIMYM
Members of AIMYM inaugurating the cancer awarenes camp on the occasion of their fifth anniversary
now has over 685 branches across the country, with its headquarters at Delhi. AIMYM, the largest social organisations in India, aims to mobilise the Marwari youth for the betterment of society. Its membership is open to Marwari men and women between the ages of 18 and 40. The Manch holds programmes
where callipers and artificial limbs are donated and undertakes ‘protect girls’ and ‘clean water’ projects. It provides prosthetic limbs and rehabilitative aids to the disabled. Artificial limbs, (Jaipur prostheses) and polio callipers are provided at AIMYM camps across the country. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Letters to the Editor
TGS is interactive
Responsible citizens Th rough workshops, residents have been taught the benefits of using clay idols during the Ganesh festival. Residents also do the visarjan within the premises, while the nirmalaya goes into the compost pits. “Our children, who we do not take to the city for visarjan due to the
crowds, now see how a clay Ganesha idol melts before their eyes,” said Seema Garg. The society does not face water shortages in summer but, residents willingly adopt simple measures of conservation, like abandoning daily cleaning of cars to use less water. The society conducts awareness programmes for residents on health, environment, use of plastics. “Public consciousness needs to be inculcated,” said Virendra Braganza, treasurer, who stresses the need for such interventions at the society level. Sudesh Arora, a teacher, said, “We feel that if we can do it, anyone can. It is also a good way to teach our children about adopting eco-friendly measures.” “All these measures have become a way of life,” says resident Shabbir Malubhoy. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com
Yerawada jail inmates take to goat breeding GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke Keeping live stock and horticulture are farmer-oriented activities that the inmates of Yerawada Central Prison will be learning. The prison inmates from the open prison section have been working on the department’s 200 acres of farm land. But of the land is barren. The prison authorities want to plant lemon and guava saplings. Deputy inspector general (prisons) Rajendra Dhamne said that the barren land will be soon converted into farmland. “We will plant lemon and guava saplings. We already have drip irrigation facilities,” he added. Dhamne said that the prison department will acquire 25 goats and the number will rise to 100 in a few months. “We will train inmates in sheep and goat rearing techniques and how to earn revenue from the business,” he added. The prison department has sought the help from non-government
organisations (NGOs) in Phaltan, Satara and Pune government agencies. Dhamne said that they aim to rear good breeds of live stock. “We will sell male goats during Eid and it will teach inmates how to earn money from goat rearing,” he said. The male goats will be sold at Pune and Mumbai markets. Last year, the prison department made a profit of Rs 4 lakh from its banana yeild, cultivated at Yerwada farms. This year, the prison department will have another banana yield. Also, this year, instead of Indrayani rice, the inmates have planted Sahyadri rice which produces more and longer grains. “It is a better crop than others and majority of the rice is consumed inhouse,” he added. Also, the women inmates are growing different vegetables in the farms that too are consumed at Yerawada and if yield is more, the vegetables are sent to other prisons in the state. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com
editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
What happened to the Clean India campaign during Diwali?
Our newspaper is interactive and you are welcome to write in to our various segments: • Letters to the Editor email: editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com; editor_tgs@gmail.com By post: The Editor, The Golden Sparrow on Saturday, 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
PUNE
When prime minister Narendra Modi initiated the ‘Clean India’ campaign, we all felt a sense of responsibility. But our actions during the Diwali week have put us to shame. We seriously need to change at an individual level and should not expect the government to keep intervening. We feed cows, dogs and other animals to wash off our sins but rarely care about the plastic bags that we give along with the food. It’s fine to feed the animals but we shouldn’t contribute to the litter around us. Pune is a city of contrast as an educational hub which is on a litter spree. A lot more will be required than the initiative set rolling
by Modi. It is worth asking, are we culturally inclined to litter the state and the city? We just cannot keep applauding the PM and then go back to our ways. - Chirukandan P K V (Gets prize for best letter)
passengers to lodge complaints, but passengers don’t go to that extent. This problem cannot be solved just by levying fines. The autorickshaw drivers need counselling on good behaviour. —Vijay Dattatray Patil
Autorickshaw drivers need counselling
Eliminate role of black money in property deals
It has been observed that auto-rickshaw drivers in and around Pune are often arrogant and unwilling to ply their vehicles for short distances. They often harass passengers for providing them small change even after the autorickshaw has been engaged for a long distance. Many times, these drivers deny the services to senior citizens, sick persons who need to travel short distance. Although the Pune RTO has procedurally asked the affected
This refers to news reports that the Parliamentary Committee has invited suggestions with regards to the registration of immovable properties. Amendments to the Bill should include measures to eliminate role of black money in property deals. Already steps have been taken in some states to have circle-rates higher than prevailing market-prices of land. This should be followed in all the states. Land-owning agencies of various governments (union
and state) should decide circle-rates on basis of latest auction-rates in concerned area. Otherwise inputs provided by economic and other intelligence agencies can be used to find prevailing marketprices of land to fi x circle-rates which should be reviewed at least annually. Sharp cut in stamp-duty should be made by charging it at just two per cent determined on basis of higher of the deal-price and circle-rate. Capital gain should be reduced to 10 per cent instead of present 20 per cent. However, procedural change in computing capital-gain can be made whereby such reduced capital-gain may be computed on basis of net earnings by sale of property over the original purchase-price. The principle behind such low rates of stamp-duty and capitalgain should be to encourage people to voluntarily opt for clean transactions
which would give much more revenue through stamp-duty and capital-gain. - Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Write to Us Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow. com or mailed to Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt Ltd, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030. The Best Letter of the Week will receive a special gift from Venus Traders, Pune’s finest stationery departmental.
CITY
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
PUNE
The construction of Pataleshwar temple, JM Road, was left incomplete because of a planar fracture (discontinuity in the volume of the rock being carved) at the back of the sanctum. Further sculpting was determined as unsafe.
‘30 yrs later, we will not give up fight for justice’
From a generic prelude to a brand
P 12
P9
Doing business with social responsibility The company has set up a model village in Aurangabad. “In that village, we have undertaken natural resource management programmes, education, health initiatives etc. Chandrakant Patil In the last sixseven years, we have developed 18 dams in that area, (around Aurangabad and Jharna districts) and these dams are a boon for about 30,000 people during summer,” said Chandrakant Patil, Head CSR for Sterlite Technologies Ltd. At Sterlite, the CSR programme is focused on community development .
MCCIA’s BG Deshmukh IAS Award for Excellence in CSR was presented to firms doing valuable, community work By Ishani Bose @ishani_bose
1) KPIT Technologies Ltd, Winner of the year 2014
volunteer teachers from KPIT visit 25 municipal schools to teach them Science. Under the zero Garbage project, the company aims at undertaking solid waste management through the use of technology. KPIT’s CSR team also visits ponds in nearby villages of Pune, under the Farm pond activity, to ensure that they are clean and that the water level is maintained. “Every employee is given four hours during their worktime for CSR. It’s a commitment that every employee of the company has taken very seriously, and is one of the core values of our company,” she said.
Chote Scientists, Solid Waste Management and Zero Garbage Initiative and Farm Pond activity are among the CSR activites undertaken by KPIT Technologies Ltd, Renuka Krishna one of the fastest growing global product engineering firms and IT consulting partner in automotive and transportation, manufacturing and energy and utilities. KPIT’s head of CSR, Renuka Krishna says, “Doing CSR activities is one of the core values of our organisation and every employee in our organisation is committed to these activities.” Since children should be introduced to science at a very age, over 800
2) Rourkela Steel Plant, Special Award for CSR activities The only firm outside Maharashtra to win this award, Rourkela Steel Plant, a unit of the Maha Ratna CPSU Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has been working towards building harmonious relationships with the local community. This has contributed to inclusive growth of the organisation. The CSR activities of Dhirendra Mishra the company span over 300 villages and more than two lakh people. “The broad categories under which we have been handling the CSR initiatives are education, health
With the passage of the New Companies Act, 2013, CSR has been made compulsory for all Indian companies. This year, the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) introduced the BG Deshmukh IAS Award for Excellence in CSR for outstanding work in this area. Here’s a glimpse of the work done by the award wining firms:
Signposts Passport Seva Camp Passport Seva Camp will be organised on November 1 and 2 at Shri Rajarshi Shahu hall, Tarabai Park, Kolhapur. 300 appointments released on October 24, received an overwhelming response from Kolhapur and Sangli districts. The appointed applicants may visit the venue with Application Reference Number (ARN) with the required original and attested photocopies of documents. Walk-in categories, on-hold and tatkaal applications will be undertaken at the camp.
Scientist Raghunath Mashelkar at one of the CSR activities organised by KPIT Technologies Ltd
and sanitation, income generation, infrastructure development and water supply,” said Dhirendra Mishra, Assistant General Manager, CSR, Rourkela Steel Plant. 3) Reliable Autotech Pvt Ltd, Nashik, Special Award for CSR Activities in SME Sector Teaching Learning Community (TLC), Nashik First, Nashik Run, organising blood donation camps, tree plantation, organising free diagnostic and surgical camps through their Indorewala Memorial Trust, educating, training and rehabilitating blind children through their Jagruti Blind School, are among the CSR activities undertaken by Reliable Autotech. Founded in 1984, with a vision of
Flying high A two-day aero-modelling workshop held at Muktangan Exploratory Science Centre
Discussion on right to information Sajag Nagarik Manch (SNM) is organising a discussion meeting on ‘Right to Information: Present Situation and Challenges’ on November 2 at 5:00pm at IMDR hall, BMCC road. “The utility of this law that was passed 9 years ago is still not realised by 80 per cent of the masses”, said Vivek Velankar, member, Sajag Nagarik Manch. The session will raise topics like the relevance of law, its trivialisation and actual utility.
Subhadra Joshi remembered Social activist Shubhadra Joshi passed away on October 26. She is prominently known for her work for uplifting women’s condition through various initiatives. A programme was held at Sane Guruji Smarak, Parvati on October 28 to pay final respects to the deceased. Social activists Baba Adhav and Bhai Vaidya along with Pune City Congress’s president Abhay Chhajed were present for the occasion.
Women help J&K flood victims Shri Manilal Nanavati Vocational Training Institute donated their day’s wage to the flood victims of Jammu and Kashmir. A programme was organised on October 17 at the institute Rs 17,000 was put together.
Ajit Sapre with workshop participants and the crafted aero-models
TGS News Service @TGSWeekly Known for organising innovative workshops during summer and winter vacations, Mukatangan Exploratory Science Centre, Senapati Bapat Road, organised a two-day aeromodelling workshop on October 28 and 29. Retired wing commander Ajit Sapre instructed students on making aerodynamic models of popular plane models. “Such courses orient students towards a career in the air force,” said Sapre, who taught 30 students from Class V to IX, from various schools. “Apart from encouraging creativity, such workshops were satisfying and rewarding”, he said. Sapre explained concepts by showing audio-visual clips of birds like the wandering albatross and the bee hummingbird and said aviation dynamics are largely influenced by the wing mechanism of these birds. “Leonardo da Vinci made a flying gear for the human being back in the 16th century. It was not very successful. Today, we can fly faster than any bird, if not as efficiently as natural.” he said emphasising on the remarkable growth of the aviation industry. He demonstrated several aeromodels, from kites to thermocol models, of celebrated aircraft like the
Spitfire and FPG Glider, explained their basic functioning and identified thier components. Through a remotecontrolled live model, he demonstrated the mechanism of propeller and inbuilt engines. As part of aeroplane modelling activities, he first taught the students to make simple models through a single sheet of paper, while emphasising the symmetrical nature and clean folds. Students then devised the paper models and launched them across the classrooms. The second part involved using foam, plastic, carbon fibre, balsa (light wood) and templates for making static models. “Repairing, modifying and improving are the three important aspects of aero-modelling,” he told students as they prepared their foam models. On the following day, Sapre introduced flying models that were crafted out of balsa, plastic and paper. These models worked on a rubberwinding mechanism. While teaching he also talked of concepts of physics like thrust, Newton’s law and lift against gravity. Students diligently crafted the planes and flew them across the room. They answered questions relating to physics and aeroplanes in general. The two-day workshop ended with Sapre flying his remote-controlled aeroplane. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
being a global player in the Automative and farm equipments component market, this firm has undertaken in various social activities apart from their professional commitments. “We started TLC in 2005 with the aim of learning from one another and creating a ripple Anil Patil effect. Last year we also collected over 1000 Ganesh idols and nine trucks of Nirmalya and prevented them from being immersed in the water,” said Anil Patil, Business Head of Reliable Autotech Pvt Ltd.
The company has completed 30 years and has come up with three facilities in Nashik, one in Chakan, one in Chennai and one in Sanand, Gujarat. 4) Sterlite Technologies Ltd, Appreciation for CSR Activities A firm specialising in optical fibre, fibre optic cables, power conductors and high voltage power cables, under its CSR activities, Sterlite’s Pune office offers nursing and tailoring training, which is imparted to people at large, 30 per cent of who are victims of family violence, divorcees, underprivileged and dropouts who are directly given jobs a after a year after completing their degrees. The certificate course is sponsored set up by Pune Tilak Vidyapeeth and YCMOU, Nasik.
5) Appreciation for CSR Activities Mahindra Intertrade Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. and Ramelex Pvt Ltd, received ‘Appreciation for CSR’ citations from the Ram Jogdand MCCIA for their contribution in this area.Founded by Ram Jogdand, CSR activities undertaken by this firm include extensive promotion of bio-gas, research and development for advanced agriculture methods in Amakheda, Washim, work through the Geetai Humankind Development Trust and the Ehsas and Janadhar programmes. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com
ED UCATION “As a university we are concerned to find out if we are really delivering on our mandate. The best people to answer that question are not in the university, but those who are now outside of the university, our alumni.” — Satish Shetye , Vice Chancellor, Goa University
Signposts Educationist PB Kulkarni no more PB Kulkarni, president of Pune Vidyarthi Griha passed away on October 24 at the age of 81. Kulkarni is credited for starting the InPB Kulkarni stitute of Printing Technology, Pune, the first printing college in Asia in 1985. He also headed the Pune Press Owner’s Association and All India Master Printers Association. He has also worked for the Savitribai Phule Pune Univeristy senate for five years.
Creative courses for women Maharishi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha’s Shri Manilal Nanavati Vocational Training Institute will introduce new courses for women from November 1. A diploma in beauty culture and hair dressing will along with short courses bag-making, razai making and cushion making will be taught by professionals. For admission contact 020-25471099 or 8983119983.
CARE ER
@GargiManasi Gone are the days when rivalry between two college students could be seen prominently through inter-college debates, competitions and other such platforms. Now, social networking sites have replaced all other platforms. A cursory look on the pages made by a few prominent city colleges gives us the essence, trends and attitude that the students carry with them. For example, students from Fergusson College feel that their college is synonymous with the city name Pune. They also believe that the name of the college is enough to introduce you. As they take pride in the name of the college, they say “You are in Fergusson
NOVEMBER 1, 2014
PUNE
“Our engineers and scientists must be equipped to address new-age problems with new-age answers. Economic growth and educational progress share a symbiotic relationship. The role of NITs becomes even more critical in view of the ‘Make in India’ and the ‘Digital India’ initiatives.” —President Pranab Mukherjee
Model UN: Opening new horizons The model United Nations introduces students to the world of international relations and diplomacy BY RITU GOYAL HARISH
About model UN
@ritugh Aparna Bose, a Fergusson College XI standard student participated in a youth conference this year that opened up a new world for her. “All those years of studying political science in school finally made sense,” said Aparna. She had attended the fi rst conference conducted by Pune Model United Nations (Pune MUN), a youth organisation founded in April 2013 by 20-year-old Mayur Ahuja, a third year student at the College of Engineering Pune (COEP). MUN is an educational simulation and academic competition in which students learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations (Source: Wikipedia.com). The fi rst MUN was held in the 1920s when the UN was known as the League of Nations. The Pune MUN is based on MUN models worldwide. Ahuja to started Pune’s own MUN ,“To give Pune’s youth the chance to understand and participate in global politics, policy making and look at a possible future career in international civil services.” Participants of MUN conferences are assigned to committes where each committee has to study the countries and issues they represent. They are trained to research and make their presentation at the conference, which
The Pune Model UN Conference was held from January 17-19, 2014 had 657 delegates. It was Pune’s largest youth conference. The next Pune MUN is to be held on 17-18 January 2015. 450 students have already registered and the organisers hope that this conference will see 800900 students participating. Log into www.punemodelun.org for more details.
Students advocate for different countries at a MUN session. They discuss problems of their countries and try to find solutions
is a formal affair. Aparna as part of a special political and de-colonisation committee, was assigned Somalia, “A country that I didn’t know had been at war for over two decades! The agenda of the committee was peacekeeping” she said. Aparna had to track daily news on Somalia and adopt other methods
of research. Her mother Mohua, a teacher said, “For the fi rst time, I saw her using Twitter and Facebook, not just for chatting, but for following UN sites, Somalia Government sites where she got regular updates.” The Model UN gives its ‘delegates’ (participants) the opportunity to develop and hone their public
Colleges and their pages on social networking sites MANASI SARAF JOSHI
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
when every other person is either at Oorja, Muktachand, Wallstreet, Flora, Quorum or Statistica. Then, Sir Parshurambhau College (SP) students are proud of their institution and are thankful to the past students who helped the current students in terms of financial help, giving training, conducting workshops, sessions to enrich them with tips from professional lives. SP Katta is a landmark for every SPians. It is a platform to vent out your anger, feelings, attitude, thoughts, personality they feel. Nowrosjee Wadia College students have put up a contest for fan of the week”, for best post or picture. The alumni page too of the college talks of the memories with every step in the college. Brhin Maharashtra Commerce
College students prefer to discuss and deliberate over the current affairs, the political scenario and subtle social transition that is taking place in the society. The posts include newspaper clippings, invitations to various social gatherings. These pages are also used by the students for giving tips which are related to their day to day life that includes cleaning of the computer screen, tips to solve difficult examples, getting away with examination blues
and many other. However, there are many confession pages where few students have taken disadvantage of the social networking sites, to defame the teachers, friends. Many confession pages also speak indecently about girls. But nevertheless, on a large scale these pages are forum to catch the youths, their thought process and the direction of their lives. manasisaraf@gmail.com
Pursuing My Career
I want to be a Japanese language interpreter
Tejaswini Gopal Ghanekar bagged a Japanese government scholarship. She now looks forward to a cultural exchange I was in 8th standard when I was introduced to Japanese by my mother’s friend. I have studied this language for 13 years and I can say that it has been a fulfi lling experience. The reason why I chose to study this language is because of my love for their culture. Currently, I am an undergraduate BA Japanese student at Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth. I would like to become an interpreter in future. Recently, I received Monbukagakusho Scholarship (established 1954) given by Japanese Government, which I feel has drawn me closer to my goal. There are around 92,000 students from 160 countries around the world who have studied in Japan, under the Monbukagakusho Scholarship program. I have selected Saitama University, for their strong cultural environment, to pursue this entirely sponsored programme. I look forward to performing Kathak in Japan, an absolute experience as it will be, of doing a bit of our culture on a different platform.
Talking of a cultural exchange I think a veritable melange would only happen when an element of our cultures would fuse with theirs. I realised that their Taiko drums, which I came to know while researching universities, could be used as part of Kathak training. I shared this idea with my mentor guru Madhu Apte and she was delighted by the idea of this connection. It was when I began researching Taiko drums that I came across Saitama University which not only offered me my research interest but also encouraged research on various cultural subjects. I am grateful to have gotten this opportunity to understand two cultures in tandem with each other. When I return back from Japan after my stint I hope to find new avenues in dance along with Japanese. (As told to Prachi Bari)
speaking, research, negotiation, drafting, convincing, marketing and oratory skills. “It is a formal setting and we can’t use random words. We have to engage in meaningful dialogues and have to be diplomatic. We have to know enough about the country we represent to defend it against accusations by another country,” said Aparna.
Aparna enjoyed the experience so much that she has volunteered to be an organiser of the next MUN to be held in Pune in 2015. “The MUN gave Aparna the poise and confidence to be herself, to take responsibility for her words and actions and to see the world with greater awarness,” said her mother. The Pune MUN had to have a larger objective. Ahuja said, “After deducting the expenses we had incurred at the fi rst conference, we were able to donate 500 USD to the UN World Food Program (WFP) to be allocated to the “Child Hunger” program,” he said. He hopes that the 2015 meet will raise 1000 USD for the UN WFP. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com
Children want life skills education in school NEW DELHI: Poor, marginalised children from eight countries Wednesday demanded inclusion of life skills education in school curriculum. These children are a part of the Children’s Development Khazana (CDK) - a voluntary bank run by children between 9-18 years with guidance of adult facilitators. “For the past two years I have been saving my money for my future with CDK and have also been able to help my family in difficult times. Life skill education should be taught to all,” Karthik, a CDK member from Mumbai, said in a statement. Only poor marginalized rural, urban and tribal communities’ children can be members of CDK, started in 2001. “I now understand the benefits of saving money. I am now even encouraging my parents to save money and not waste it on alcohol and other unnecessary things. If this is incorporated then everyone will get
empowered,” Martin, CDK member from Madagascar, said. Started in India, CDK is now helping children in seven other countries - Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Madagascar and Ghana. Within India, the programme is operational in 10 states and union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Kerala, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. “Children’s participation is the basic premise on which CDK is designed, implemented and promoted, with children coming together as collectives to take action for their empowerment. CDK has become a lifeline to poor children. They can today fall back on their savings and advances to tide over a crisis at home,” said Rita Panicker, director. IANS
Life’s Lessons
Goal Setting
W
ould you embark on a major journey without any destination in mind? Certainly not. But that is exactly the situation when a life is spent without any goals or objectives in mind. It is helpful to learn early in life how to set goals, small and big, and go about achieving them. Achievers in all fields, be it sports, business, public or professional service know the knack of setting and achieving goals. “The process of setting goals,” says Mindtools.com, “helps you choose where you want to go in life.” “By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you’ll see progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind,” says this life coach. The habit of setting and achieving your goals will also boost your self-confidence and help you understand yourself better. Goal setting essentially involves identifying clearly what you wish to achieve and then breaking that goal into specific tasks that will take you towards that goal. A lifetime goal would be the one that gives you the big picture of what you wish to do with your life. Sooner or later, all of us begin to think of our individual lifetime goals, the sooner the better.
The goals will keep changing, but broadly, we should have clearly defined goals for our career, finances, education, family and our personal space. We can have goals for public service; goals to hone our skills or talent in the arts and music and of course, a goal to keep ourselves fit and healthy for a better quality of life. Most New Year resolutions fail because they stop at wishful thinking and the desire is not converted to goals and the process of goal setting. To become successful, every goal needs to have a vision; the goals need to be achievable; a set of tasks need to be identified to take us towards the goal and a realistic time-frame needs to be fi xed to achieve results. It is necessary to periodically review our goals to see if we are moving in the desired direction and take the help of mentors whenever necessary. Mindtools.com has devised a useful mnemonic to help us remember the essential elements of goal setting. SMART Goals are: S – Specific (or Significant). M – Measurable (or Meaningful). A – Attainable (or Action-Oriented). R – Relevant (or Rewarding). T – Time-bound (or Trackable).
SPOTLIGHT
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
PUNE
RAHUL RAUT
ACTIVISTS SAY
Nitin Pawar
This working boy was found at a roadside eatery in Kothrud
“No child labour in Pune”
Nakul Kate
In the last 10 months, the State Labour Commissionerate found just three cases of child labour in Pune after conducting 27 raids and screening 374 children. What exactly is happening?
Practically every busy junction on the city roads has children begging for alms or selling toys. There are children working illegally in a number of eateries, tea stalls, dhabas and automobile repair garages, especially in the fringe areas of the city. The State Labour Commissionerate, located at Wakdewadi, is however convinced that child labour is not prevalent in Pune. Assistant Labour Commissioner SB Bagal told this newspaper that since January 2014, the labour office conducted 27 raids in different parts of the city after receiving tip-offs. During these raids, 374 children were screened and only three boys under the age of 14 were found and rescued from a eatery at Hadapsar. “We rescued all the three minor boys, who had migrated to the city and were found working at a food joint at Hadapsar,” he said. Following a tip-off from an activist, the department put together a team and raided the eatery with the help of the police, rescuing the three boys. Bagal said that the anti-child labour task force was formed in 2009 at the district level comprising labour commissionerate officials, the police, NGOs and revenue officials. He attributed the success of this department - as measured by just three child labour cases in the city - to “the continuous raids conducted during the year” by his department. Bagal stressed that the “number of child labourers in the
city is continuously decreasing.” A senior officer at the labour commissionerate said that people often lodge false complaints of child labour to harass their enemies. “We cross verify such calls by conducting raids and often find that the child concerned is above 14 years of age,” he said. This official said that it is the duty of the citizens to inform the labour commissionerate if they spot children working in hazardous conditions or as domestic servants. “However, people do not inform us,” he said. Is this an accurate picture of a city free of child labour? Nakul Kate, a child rights activist and member of Child Welfare Committee points out how children can be found working in numerous establishments in the city, which can be raided and the children can be rescued. What cannot be detected as easily is, children working as domestic servants. Such cases come to light only when something goes wrong, he says Kate recalled how he along with fellow activists had rescued children from restaurant kitchens, dhabas and auto
SB BAGAL
Child labour in the city is continuously decreasing
garages. He had even conducted a raid in a housing society flat on B T Kawade Road a couple of years ago. There they found a young, under-age girl from Madhya Pradesh working as a housebound domestic servant . The working IT couple would frequently beat up the 10-yearold girl for not doing her household chores properly. It was the neighbours who informed Kate, leading to the raid and the girl’s rescue. Nitin Pawar, conveneor, Ang Mehnati Kastakari Sangharsha Samiti said that child labour is an urban phenomenon and it is continuously increasing. “If one asks me to rate where the child labour is used more, I will rate domestic help at the top, followed by hotels/ tea stalls/eateries and then garages,” he said. The children in the garage and roadside eateries can be spotted easily but it is very difficult to spot a child working in homes. “A majority of the children working at the tea stalls and hotels are from North India,” he said. The Ang Mehnati Kastakari Sangharsha Samiti enrols such children in night schools, and have sent five children has been sent to the school while many others have been taken out. “The flaw lies with the system, system of the society and of the law. System exploits the children and minors have become new force of
Anuradha Sahasrabudhe, Director, Dnyana Devi Childline “Poverty is one of the main reasons why children are forced to work and stay away from schools. In poor families, where there are three or more children, the oldest child is expected to add to the family income. They are often underage and legally not permitted to work. Every week we receive around five to six complaints about child labour from the city and the suburbs. These are cases of children working in households, garages, labour camps, hotels and other organisations. We have different ways of dealing with such cases. There is no blanket rule. Firstly, we investigate the case, procure information and interview the owner. If the child is under 14, we inform the child labour office in the city. If the child is above 14, we file an FIR and hand over the case to the police. We provide medical support and counselling to the child. In many cases, children are forced to work to earn money for the family.
casual labourers,” Pawar said. Poverty is the main issue. The parents and children need to survive and the entire family works, including minor children. “This is the flaw in the system. We need proper employment for the parents,” he added. Some children run away from their homes and are forced to work. Some are orphans. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com RAHUL RAUT
CHILD LABOUR & BEGGING
WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY ON CHILD LABOUR? If anyone, employs a minor in his hotel, company, industry, garage or as a trainee, he can be punished with one year imprisonment and fine up to Rs 20,000,as per the provisions of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986. The Factories Act of 1948, prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory. The law also placed rules on who, when and how long can pre-adults aged 15–18 years be employed in any factory. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act of 2000 states that it is a crime, punishable with a prison term, for anyone to procure or employ a child in any hazardous employment or in bondage. Also, The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009, mandates free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 years. Th is legislation also mandated that 25 % of seats in every private school must be allocated for children from disadvantaged groups and physically challenged children. IMPORTANT DAYS FOR CHILDREN November 14, Children’s Day November 20, Universal Children’s Day January 24, National Girl Child Day June 12, World Day Against Child Labour
WHAT OUR TEAM FOUND... A team of The Golden Sparrow on Saturday spotted two Hindi speaking children, working at a small eatery in Kothrud, near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue. Both the boys are around 10 years of age. The kids, called by all as Chotu, were serving tea and vada pav to customers.
These children spend their nights on the eatery premises and are looked after by the owner. Another minor was spotted working in a hotel located at Aranyeshwar, off Satara road. He was cleaning utensils in the hotel editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Children who are forced into begging for alms is looked after by the Charity Commissioner and Social Service Cell of the city police. The Special Cell has rescued 22 children since January 2014, from different road junctions in the city and Pimpri – Chinchwad. Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Nikam said that these children were found begging at traffic. They were taken to court and were then shifted to observation homes at Shivajinagar and Nana Peth.
Children can be found working in many places in the city which can be raided to rescue kids ‘We receive 5-6 complaints every week’
Says State Labour Commissionerate
BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_Shelke
If one asks me to rate where child labour is used most, I’ll put domestic help at the top
CHILD LABOUR IN PUNE
In bakeries Eateries Roadside tea stalls and eateries Pan stalls Small auto garage Domestic help
AN INCIDENT A nine-year-old girl was kept as a domestic aide by a couple in Vimannagar working in IT. The couple from Madhya Pradesh had brought the girl, the daughter of a poor relative to Pune to look after their child and to do household chores. The couple often beat up the girl for small mistakes. This continued for about a year. Finally, the girl gathered courage and decided to flee. She jumped from the balcony of the first floor and climbed the high walls of the society to get away undetected but sustained a fracture in her leg while jumping off the compound wall. She was later spotted by a few people and was taken to the hospital by some Samaritans. At hospital she told the doctors her story who in turn informed the police. The couple was thereafter arrested by the Yerawada police.
Be ashamed of this Nobel Prize BY ABHAY VAIDYA @vaidya_abhay Notwithstanding the purported absence of child labour in Pune as reported by the State Labour Commissionerate, the fact remains that we Indians have become blind and insensitive to child labour around us. Thus, it took a bunch of Westerners to draw our attention to this cruel reality. And this they did by conferring the world’s highest award on the New Delhi-based crusader Kailash Satyarthi. Who is Kailash Satyarthi? we asked because he was virtually
unknown to most of us in the middle/ upper middle class. The Nobel Prize is a matter of pride for us because it recognises the untiring efforts of not just Satyarthi but all the other activists engaged in the crusade against child labour Th is award is also for all those activists working for the upliftment of the underprivileged and the exploited. For the rest of us in middle and upper middle class India, it ought to be a matter of shame because we have failed to prevent child labour just as we have failed to keep our cities clean. Why do we well-heeled
Indians continue to patronise those commercial establishments
Kailash Satyarthi
such as eateries, auto garages and pan stalls which illegally employ child labour? What are we doing as individuals to ensure that every child is in school, or at least out of poverty? What about our friends and family who bring young girls from Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and other backward regions to work as domestic servants in their homes? As the wellknown columnist Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar has said, child labour will end in India only when income levels rise among the poorest and when we have good schools for the poor.
The beggars on the streets are part of an organised racket just as young girls are forced into prostitution to satisfy the lust of adults. What can we do as individuals to strengthen the crusade against child labour in India? Becoming sensitive to the problem around us is the fi rst step. The second step would be to think of our own contribution to dealing with this problem. Th is was the beginning for Kailash Satyarthi. Th is can also be the beginning for the rest of us. abhay.vaidya@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
Run for Unity: PM Modi’s masterstroke pushes Indira Gandhi to irrelevance P 10
According to Michael Stevens and Vsauce calculations, a 50 kilobyte email message uses the footprint of 8 billion electrons. —www.netforbeginners.about.com
‘Young women more prone to breast cancer’ P 11
‘Blogging craze will last forever’ Sujay Khandge believes that blogging has broadened his horizons BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali Sujay Khandge has been fascinated by the Internet since college. That’s why he has ventured into online marketing. “I started a few blogs on Blogspot in 2007, as a hobby. There I used to share articles about online marketing. After my MBA, I started a blog on online marketing and photography and in six months, it started appearing on leading search engines. This was when I began pursuing it as a hobby,” said Khandge who has been associated with strategic online marketing and digital branding for seven years. He has worked in the finance, consumer pharmacy, gambling, fashion, adult and consumer electronics fields. About the evolving digital marketing tools Khandge says, “The impact of these on consumer behaviour pushed my analytical mind and I started expressing my thoughts through blogging.” Sujay also has blogs about trekking and hiking. “I’ve trekked across the beautiful and amazing Sahyadri mountains. I am a mountain climber and a nature lover. I have been to 56 forts in and around
variety of top e-commerce sites,” the research revealed. Using complex algorithms that crunch data from users’ profi les and past activity, e-commerce websites manipulate search results or customise prices without the user’s knowledge. Th is study tracked searches on 16 popular e-commerce sites and found that six of these sites used some form of
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
Secure your website or blog from hackers
Maharashtra. Overwhelmed by the beauty I saw around me, I began to shoot photographs. Thousands of photographs later, I noticed some striking patterns in my photos and started my photo blog,” Khandge started his Digital Branding Blog in 2007. “I wanted a blog to express my views on digital branding. I also needed a tool to impress others and soon it grew into a hobby,” he said. He reads a lot of blogs, which inspires him. Seth Godin’s blog helped him the most initially.. “I like blogging because it is a good source
My Personal Blogs: http://ksujay.blogspot.com/ - D Hawk Digital Branding Blog http://my-photo-graphy.blogspot.com/ - Hiking Photography Blog http://sujayphotoblog.blogspot.com/ - Photography blog
for learning and exploring. It also allows you to have fun and talk to people who are far away. It is not just about talking to people or getting help all the time. It is also a source that opens up to new and better opportunities,” says Khandge. Sujay also believes that blogging helps him learn from his mistakes. “I had a lot of issues in the beginning as English was not my first language,” he said. However, he used this opportunity to learn the language. “Use your hobbies to showcase your talent through blogging. In the digital age, one’s is one’s identity,” advises Khandge. He believes that blogging as a medium of expression will last forever. “The only thing that may change is the form of blogging. The bloggers who succeed will be the ones who have better content. There is no thumb rule for success apart from being unique,” Khandge says. anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com
Online shopping: Why do the best prices elude you? Online shopping is not always transparent and depending on your luck, you may end up paying more for the same product on the same site than what your friends spent, new research shows. E-commerce websites manipulate data to make some shoppers pay more than others, the findings showed. “Overall, we find numerous instances of price steering and discrimination on a
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personalised pricing. Th is kind of selective pricing is also much harder to detect on e-commerce sites. “I get this question from people all the time: ‘How do I get the best price?’ The truth is I don’t have a good answer,” said study co-author Cristo Wilson, assistant professor at Northeastern University, the US. “It changes depending on the site, and
the algorithms they use change regularly. Good advice today might not be good advice tomorrow. The point is that as a consumer, you are at a disadvantage unless it’s transparent,” Wilson explained. The findings will be presented in the 2014 Internet Measurement Conference in Vancouver, Canada, next month. IANS
Almost everyone you know today is into running a website or a blog, right? Launching a blog, personal or otherwise, is many a time the first step in embracing the online life. At the other end of the spectrum, real world businesses are increasingly becoming part of the online landscape by launching a website or an app. But starting a site is a job half-done. Did you know that every site requires a certain amount of maintenance too? Part of the upkeep includes keeping your site secure from hackers. If you are not careful, your site can soon become a labyrinth of avenues through which malicious perils may be passed on to your readers or customers. Malware can get in through a number of ways – the images you post, through the hosting platform itself, the web apps you use, the ads that are posted on your site or even through the comments posted. Once that happens, Google and other search engines, and even social networks like Facebook will mark your site a hot potato, leading to other things such as a drop in Google Rank, or being labelled spam. Which means months and even years of painstaking work coming to a nought, overnight. On the security front, no site owner can afford to ever sit back and claim that his job is done. Sitesface vulnerability attacks every passing day. Cyber criminals can bring down sites or worse, even take control of them. So today, I shall tell you how to keep your site safe, listing several precautionary steps you can take to ensure it is never “hot-listed”. First and foremost, you need never to be afraid of updates. Always keep your blogging platform or software updated because updates address known vulnerabilities in the system. Passwords are also another way for intruders getting inside your blog. I have said this before, shall repeat here for the benefit of our readers, do not make it easy for hackers by using ‘123456’ or something so silly as your admin password. Another relatively easy way of getting inside a blog is to misuse the default ‘admin’ login account. If you are the administrator of your site, create another login account and delete the generic ‘admin’ account. Plugins or new apps for your blog or website should only be downloaded from a trusted provider. Do a complete background check before going ahead with the download. Install site security scanning software. For the WordPress platform, there are many plugins available. For others, there is software like the MTvScan which scans your site’s Content Management System to prevent attacks. Provided by the Maharashtra-based company, esds (http://bit.ly/12NpyGg), this scanner comes in free and paid versions, depending on a client’s requirements. There are other Indian companies such as v2Web (http://bit.ly/1rv8Sb3) that provide pro-active website scanning service.
The power of dreaming big Multi-talented and multi-faceted businessman Parag Shah, outlined what it takes to dream big at the recent Tedx Pune Conference 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 Once there was a village boy who lived in the world of dreams. His mother used to give him 25 paise everyday, which he spent on story books. The more he read, the more he dreamt and soon he was lost in his world of dreams. Fast forward to the present. The village boy now owns a chain of photo finishing labs, a vending machine business, real estate business, aviation business and more. He is none other than Parag Shah, Founder Chairman of Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (FLAME). At the recent Tedx Talk in Pune, Shah spoke on ‘What it takes to dream big and how one’s dreams define one’s trajectory in life’. “I don’t know what it takes for a person to dream big. What I do know is that each one of us is a unique piece of art created by God and that each one of us has a unique way of dreaming which sets forth the way to achieving all that we can and more,” Shah said. Shah is also the chief mentor of Management, Innovation, Design, Arts and Social Sciences (MIDAS), a not-for-profit foundation established primarily to nurture and mentor entrepreneurs, innovators, designers, artists and social scientists. He is also the Managing Director of Oxford Golf and Country Club. Shah is a first generation entrepreneur, who believes that if it hadn’t been for his dreams, he would never have made it this far. “Why should one dream big? If nothing else, dreams give birth to hope. Hope is the basis of everything. Growing up, I had so much despair around
me that it would have been impossible to get this far, without dreaming. I needed hope to get me this far,” he added. Shah is renowned for transforming entrepreneurship education by bringing together strategy, critical thinking and innovation. Shah has also earned the title of ‘India’s biggest distributor for Nestle’ in their vending machine operations. “The trajectory of one’s life depends on how lofty or short-sighted one’s dreams are. If one dreams big, one will be able to achieve big and if one dreams small, then no matter how hard he tries he won’t be able to go too far. I have learnt that when you are driven by your dreams, then money just becomes a by-product, and one’s aim of doing something great and achieving that greatness takes precedence,” he said. However, Shah agrees that the process of dreaming big and achieving those dreams is not easy. “Doubts of failure may come but a good entrepreneur always bounces back. One needs that kind of resilience. The problem is that our society doesn’t tolerate or respect failure. But failure can teach a lot. So our society needs to be reconditioned so that failure is soon as the stepping stone for success,” he said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com
Images are another way your site can get malware from. Here’s a simple tip: If you are using a new source, view the HTML code to ensure that it does not contain file names ending in .php or .exe. The file name of a typical image file ends in .jpg or .gif. Web applications like visitors’counters, slideshows, and the like can also become potential vehicles for hackers, so only add those apps that have been okayed by your blogging platform. On the other hand, if you are a web app developer, you may be pro-active and use HP India’s penetration testing tool (http://bit.ly/12NpyGg) to mimic real world attacks in order to plug all possible vulnerabilities entry points. (Sorab Ghaswalla is a former old-world journalist who now wears many hats, entrepreneur, Internet consultant, online marketer, new media and technology journalist, and the editor/publisher of four sites of his own, all related to the Internet, smartphones, start-ups and the Internet of things. You may find him at www. newagecontentservices.com) (Disclaimer: The Tech Guru column is more in the nature of a reader-initiated, advisory feature. Readers are urged to check or confirm for themselves the features of all hardware/software mentioned here before making a purchase. Prices quoted are indicative and not final, and subject to availability of product/service. This newspaper nor this column shall, in any way, be liable for any physical, personal or monetary damage/losses arising out of advice given herein.)
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
PUNE
“During my graduation days in Delhi, I came across several people who wanted to lose weight and look beautiful. This made me realise that there is a market for my business proposition.” — Vandana Luthra, founder and mentor, VLCC
“We try to know the pulse of our audience, start looking at vibrancy, humour, content which is relevant or contextual, recipes, content which is festival focused, topical.” —Amit Bhartiya, co-founder, LocalBaniya
From a generic prelude to a brand
Signposts Course on direct taxes
Founder-director, LOKUS design, Shekhar Badve recounts twelve years of perseverance that has made LOKUS design the enterprise that it is today
Mahratta Chambers of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) is organising 13th Direct Taxes Practices Course (DTPC XIII) from November 3. This certificate course has an intensive curriculum in taxation, it will benefit of the industry executives, working professionals and students. The course aims at furnishing the participants with the legal and practical knowledge of direct taxes. For admission contact Kiran Joshi on 020-25709182.
Session on import substitute products MCCIA is organising an interactive session on ‘Identifying and Manufacturing Import Substitute Products’ on November 5 at3:00 pm. The event will take place at Navalmal Firodia Centre for Excellence, Bhosari. This session will guide people from Micro Scale and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) on the various issues regarding selection of a product for import substitution. Shekhar Kulkarni, IIT alumnus will be the fac. The entry for MCCIA members is free. For others, it is Rs 500.
Inspiring change through leadership MCCIA is organising a seminar on ‘Inspiring Change through Leadership’ on November 7, at 9:00 pm, at Bajaj Gallery, ICC towers, SB Road. The seminar will discuss challenges of building rural India, leadership challenges in healthcare and leadership and growth mindset. Anand Deshpande, managing director and CEO Persistent Systems, MS Unnikrishnan, Managing Director and CEO Thermax, Pradeep Bhargava, director, Cummins India and several others will be the faculty.
BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali Twelve years ago, Shekhar Badve, a post graduate from National Institute of Design (NID), Ahemdabad came back to Pune to set-up LOKUS design with his batch mate Milind Risaldar. With limited financial resources (Rs 750 approximately) and a single computer, Badve and Risaldar put their considerable experience into setting up the enterprise. “I had worked in the tool designing stream and was averse to taking up another job. Milind and I were sure we wanted to work for ourselves. We were young, passionate and thought we could take on the world,” said Shekhar. L O K U S design seemed like a rebellious move at its outset. However the plan - Shekhar Badve was chalked out carefully. “Milind’s uncle Ravi Akolkar ran an earth-mover equipment business. He was kind enough to give us small space within his office, for us to start. He gave us one year’s time to materialise LOKUS design. We would either have to pay rent or vacate after the deadline. It gave us an incentive to work diligently,” said Shekhar. The road for LOKUS design was rough initially. Their fi rst assignment was to design an inhouse company trophy for Universal Constructions. They were paid Rs 5000 for the project, but they incurred a final expenditure of Rs 6000. “I had to borrow Rs 1000 from a friend,”
“ITC was our necessary break in terms of visibility”
The makers of LOKUS design: (left to right) Shekhar Badve, Siddharth Kabra and Milind Risaldar
recounted Shekhar. Shekhar and Milind were joined by Siddharth Kabra in 2003, as the director of LOKUS design.”His presence has helped us maintain the necessary equilibrium. He is ‘sane’ and streamlines things,” said Shekhar. In the same year they secured a project from ITC. “It was our necessary break in terms of visibility,” said Shekhar. The
A few brands that LOKUS design is associated with
work-flow was seamless for four years, until 2008 recession hit the business scenario. The team which comprised of 85 members by then was cut down to 55. However, the team braced itself and within next two years they secured a project worth 1 crore from Bilcare, a research company. Besides the recessional hurdle, it was challenging for the team to convince the entrepreneurs of the importance of design. “To our disadvantage we did not have a tangible product to show. Thus we had a hard time convincing the bankers and big brands. After some initial scepticism they finally trusted us with the work,” said Shekhar. Of the experiences garnered over the decade Shekhar feels that any start-up should prioritise on producing a tangible product
About LOKUS Design LOKUS design is a global provider of innovative industrial design solutions (product design, system design, medical products, packaging etc.). They have worked on brands like Hindustan Unilever, ITC, BP Global, Smirnoff, Sharp, Godrej, Havells, Cadbury, Mahindra & Mahindra, Videocon, Larsen & Toubro, Dabur, Ranbaxy, Park Avenue, Bajaj Finserv, Honeywell and Suzlon.
before venturing into the market. “And then of course securing good funding,” he added. “Gone are the days when you could make do with a generic start,” he emphasised. anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com
START-UP MENTOR
Generating reveneu in South Korean industries sign a the intital start-up phase MoU with MCCIA Vishwas Mahajan
Question: We are a group of students, we have started a venture on the campus. Venture involves buying of textbooks required in Engineering and Management education and renting them to students. While there is a demand for this, we are struggling with revenue. Please guide.
— Akash Saha
First of all congratulations for starting your venture in your college campus itself. As you know, college campus is a great place to think of new ventures and start them. During this phase in life, one is highly creative state of mind and have no inhibitions in trying out things that can eventually become big business. Today’s large companies such as Google and Facebook were started by their founders when they were in the college. So it’s great to see young enthusiasts starting their ventures in their college campus. YOUR BUSINESS MODEL : Now coming to your venture. Based on our discussion that we had, your venture looks at addressing the student market place for text books. A) Text books tend to be standardised over long period of time say 3-5 years B) They are expensive for student to invest in the textbook and throw them away in the end of the semester. C) Students requiring those textbook can actually rent them rather than buying,
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
Th is means that you have very well defined market place that requires specific goods you can reach them very easily on the campuses. All these things makes your idea a veryviable business proposition. However, you have indicated that you have struggling with revenues and profitability. ELEMENTS OF COST IN YOUR BUSINESS : Let me suggest that we do a cost analysis of the business. Your primary cost consist of buying the books. Your ability to rent these out for a fee, get them back and recycle them for the next batch for renting determines your throughput of the system. I suspect that you have overlooked the marketing costs that are needed to reach out to the student community and ‘convert’ them to be renters. The usage of the book and the wear and tear can create a problem for you. When the book is rented for the fi rst time, it is in a good condition. But to ensure that when the book comes back it is in the good condition so that it can be re-rented. You are proposing to hard bind these books for longevity. Th is is an element of cost not taken into consideration earlier. REVENUE AVENUES FOR YOUR BUSINESS : Primary: You have factored ‘book rentals’ as primary way of generating revenues. Your assumption is that when you buy a book for Rs100, you could rent it out to the student at Rs30- Rs40 and reuse this book over four five six iterations. Th is way, your can actually not only recover the cost of the book and also generate revenue from that.
Additional Avenues: Let us look at how you can generate additional revenue from the same business and here are some ideas: 1) Look at the advertising revenue on the cover, back cover and inside covers. Your books are going and sitting at the student’s shelf for the whole semester. Students are buying things, food, clothes, accessories. You can find the advertisers who wants to reach out to your community. 2) Coupons: The Student when they rent a books from you, you can continue to give them coupons from the food joints or the cloth shops such that they will be able to generate revenue from the usage of those coupons. 3) Tie-ups with other related service providers. You other related service providers who provide others services to the students would be a good channel to get through to your end customers. What I have given above are just some of the ways you can increase the revenue channels for your business. Who knows, you may be able to rent out the books for free as your revenues from other sources may outpace the revenue that you generate from the books. In summary, I would like to say that as a part of your business model, an entrepreneurshould think of ALL the possible ways that the revenue can be generated. Vishwas Mahajan, president of TiE Pune Chapter, answers real life questions of entrepreneurs.
TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly
A delegation from Gunsan City, South Korea signed a MoU with Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) on October 29 to promote business collaboration. Led by Jong-Yool Kim, director, Korea Ajay Mehta Industrial Complex Corporation (KICOX), the delegation consisted of people from different industrial sectors of Gunsan City. Anant Sardeshmukh, director-general, MCCIA said, “The MoU has four important rationales namely, exchanging information r e g a r d i n g strategies, promote participation in cluster development, support contact between enterprises Jong-Yool Kim and work towards skilled workforce.” Jong-Yool Kim told the conference that it was the right time for Gunsan City to collaborate with MCCIA. “South Korea has good relations at the centre and the state. We have seen tremendous changes in the country and such a MoU will be optimally productive at this point,” he said. Gunsan City was referred to as a Anant strategic industrial Sardeshmukh base by the
delegates. “Automobile, plant manufacturing, aviation simulation etc sectors comprise a large part of the delegation. Our companies can promote their facilities through MCCIA,” said Ajay Mehta, managing
director, MCCIA. Companies like Khed Economics, DIGIT 5, Spectra Tek, Perfect Pins etc interacted with the delegates further in specially arranged one to one meetings. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
Daring fare, from the Amazon’s mouth to yours P 13
Raja, Kanimozhi formally charged in money laundering case
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“Northeast region of India must have good connectivity with the neighbouring countries and other southeast Asian nations to boost trade and business besides to improve people to people contacts.” — Helen LaFave , US Consul General in Kolkata
Run for Unity: Modi’s way to ‘forget’ Indira Gandhi October 31 known as Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary will now be marked by Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary BY Sanjeev Singh
Kanimozhi and Raja
New Delhi: The special court hearing the 2G spectrum allocation case has framed charges of money laundering against former telecom minister A. Raja, his party colleague and DMK MP Kanimozhi and the other accused. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge O.P. Saini framed the charges Friday. The accused have been booked under various sections dealing with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. Others who were formally charged by the Enforcement Directorate included Swan telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables directors Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Bollywood producer Karim Morani, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal, Kalaignar TV director Sharad Kumar and P. Amirthan.
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The above companies, as also Cineyug Media and Entertainment, Kalaignar TV, Dynamix Realty, Eversmile Construction, Conwood Construction and Developers, DB Realty and Nihar Construction were also booked. The directorate said it came to light that an amount of Rs.200 crore was paid by the promoters of Swan Telecom, using their group firm Dynamix Realty, to Kalaignar TV via Kusegaon and Cineyug in the garb of a legitimate financial transaction. The accused tried to pass the payment off as a loan/share application money, it said. The payment, the charge sheet said, was illegal gratification for, and on behalf of, Raja and his associates in lieu of illegal favours given to the Swan Telecom for the grant of telecom licence, the Enforcement Directorate contended. IANS
New Delhi: Congressmen better grin and bear it. 31 October is no more about Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary; the Narendra Modi government has managed to make it irrelevant by superimposing on it another national icon, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. These towering personalities of Indian history would not have liked being placed on conflicting sides of a political divide a bit, but the BJP government is too busy scoring ideological points at the moment to think about propriety. If the Congress was afraid that the government would end up appropriating all its icons, including Mahatma Gandhi, the NDA is doing worse: it’s making the deities in its pantheon redundant. The ‘Run for Unity’ being organised by the NDA government is as a much a tribute to one of the nation’s founding fathers as it is about giving a short shrift to Indira’s martyrdom. While Modi has openly banked on Sardar Patel in his previous campaigns for Gujarat Assembly elections, he has now given it a national hue. Government offices near Raisina Hill will be closed in the afternoon today. It will be followed by a pledgetaking ceremony for the country’s unity in various government offices, public institutions and Public Sector Undertakings (PSU’s).
The NDA government has already announced that Patel’s birth anniversary will be celebrated as Rashtriya Ekta Divas (National Unity Day). Patel was instrumental in unifying the country by bringing various princely states under one roof as India’s first Deputy Prime Minister. Though most Congressmen remained mum, some did lash out against the NDA’s latest move. “Indira ji and her sacrifice don’t need patronage from anyone. She still rules the hearts of our poor,” says Akhilesh Pratap Singh, national spokesperson Congress. “It was only the Congress party that contributed to the freedom struggle, the rest remained subservient to the British. Why does the BJP forget that it was Patel who banned the RSS,” he adds. But the NDA remains unfazed as PM Modi has grand plans afoot on Sardar Patel’s 138th birth anniversary. Another radio address to the nation followed
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
“With Modi in complete control, the narratives around 31st October hinges on Sardar Patel and anti-Sikh riots” -Shivraj Parshad, CEO and Founder Brevis LLP
Catch up with developments in Pune as the week comes to a close
Sanjay Dutt makes paper bags efficiently Paper bags made by actor Sanjay Dutt, who is under imprisonment at the Yerawada Jail in Pune were sold in the jail’s showroom, the Hindustan Times reported during the week. Quoting jail authorities, the newspaper said that Dutt was given the task of making 35 paper bags everyday but he and his friend, Yusuf Nullawala made about 100 bags daily. Dutt was then asked to stop making bags as the jail showroom consumed not more than 20 bags daily. A 10-day Diwali exhibition was featured at the showroom, displayinhg things made by prisoners for sale. Dutt has been in the jail since last May.
Sharma ruined my life, says Ajay’s suicide note The city police will investigate the suicide incident of prominent city hotelier Ajay Choradia, the second eldest son of businessman Ishwardas Chordia, who allegedly ended his life in his hotel DoubleTree By Hilton earlier this week. The police have recorded the statements of family members and checking cellphone records. The suicide note, addressed to wife, two brothers and family members, found near the body mentions the name of one Sharma for ruining his life. Ajay was the chairman of Panchshil Hotels Private Limited that owns business hotel DoubleTree By Hilton in Chinchwad. The police said that Ajay (48), a resident of Koregaon Park, hanged himself from the fire extinguisher pipe in his office on the hotel premises on October 27. Ajay is survived by his parents, wife, two children, and brothers. His elder brother Atul and younger brother Sagar look after the Group’s real estate business Panchshil Realty, including high-end residential buildings, premium office space and
PMC issues property tax bills online
Sanjay Dutt was given the task of making 35 paper bags at the Yerawada Jail everyday but he and his friend, Yusuf Nullawala made about 100 bags daily.
hospitality, including two hotels Courtyard By Marriott and JW Marriott - which are under the management of the Marriott chain of hotels.
Annual musical treat for citizens in Dec The annual Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav, the city’s event for music connoisseurs, will be held between December 11 and 14. The festival will be held at the New English School, Ramanbaug. Shrinivas Joshi, the president of Arya Prasarak Mandal that organises the festival, said that it is the 62nd festival. The organisers will soon release the festival’s schedule.
Serum Institute to invest Rs 1,000 cr in in city Vaccines major Serum Institute of India will invest around Rs 1,000 crore in the next three years to set up a new manufacturing facility in Pune, said Serum Institute of India CEO and executive director Adar C Poonawalla. The company will be making vaccines for
pneumonia, rotavirus, dengue and other diseases in the plant. Serum Institute of India is the world’s fifth largest vaccine manufacturer by volume with an installed capacity of over one billion doses of different vaccines annually. It currently has two manufacturing plants in Pune and the Netherlands. Poonawala said, “It will be through internal accruals. We don’t believe in taking much debt to fund growth and expansion. That is why our focus is on organic growth and small acquisitions.”
Indo-Japanese cultural fest from November 8 Pune will host a two-day IndoJapanese cultural fest from November 8. Danseuse Manesha Sathe said that the fest will be a melange of Japanese and Indian music and dance art forms. The dancers from Japan will perform Kathak while Indian artist will showcase Taiko – the Japanese drums. Dancer and composer Yasuhito Takimoto from Japan will feature in the performances. Takimoto said that the language of the artists remains same and the performance will deliver a message of peaceful world.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will issue property tax bills on mails, to avoid confusion and chaos. It was observed that many property owners, especially residential apartment owners, were not receiving tax bills on time or never got it. Such persons were fined by the civic body for delayed payments. City has about eight lakh property owners – commercial and non commercial – and many of them had complained to the PMC authorities about delays in receiving the tax bills. Also, property owners can download the property tax bill from the PMC’s website (http://propertytax.punecorporation.org) by keying in the property tax number.
Double crown for Kirrtane Veteran city player and former Davis Cupper Nitten Kirrtane won the men’s singles and doubles titles at the Pune Open Tennis Tournament, organised by NS Sports Academy at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts recently. In the singles, Kirrtane outplayed second seed Jayesh Pungaliya 8-2 and later paired with Ketan Dhumal to beat Tejas Chaukulkar and Mukund Joshi 6-4 in the doubles final. Meanwhile, Ankita Raina justified her India number 1 ranking by winning the women’s singles title, defeating Mumbai’s Sonal Phadke 6-0, 6-3.
by a ‘March Past’ by Police, Central Armed Police Forces, NCC, Home Guards etc in major cities and towns in the evening. The agenda seems to be clear, to keep ‘Indira at bay’. “With Modi in complete control, the narratives around 31st October hinges on Sardar Patel and anti-Sikh riots,” says Shivraj Parshad, CEO and Founder Brevis LLP which deals in Media, Training and Advocacy. “For the first time in three decades, India Gandhi’s death anniversary has been consigned to the back pages. The media also seems to be rallying around a new flag,” he adds. Centre also decided to give an additional compensation to over 3000 victims of the 1984 anti Sikh riots this Thursday, and is pulling all stops to ensure that National Unity Day turns into
an overwhelming success. For the NDA, it may be a commemoration to reiterate that India stands together when it comes to facing any threat to its integrity, but in reality it is a political masterstroke. The Congress has now become acutely aware of Modi’s intentions and has been working overtime to do the balancing act, after all both Patel and Indira belonged to their party. “No one can demolish the legacy of our leaders. It is there for everyone to see, be it Sardar Patel or Indira Gandhi,” counters Ajay Maken, Congress media chief. “Congress president had herself written to the then PM in 2012 that Government of India should celebrate/ organize such events only for Mahatma Gandhi, rest should be left to political parties or Trusts to do so. Narendra Modi has just taken a step in that direction,” he adds. Though the Congress is maintaining a straight face over Sardar Patel overshadowing Nehru’s daughter, the discomfort does find its way out. So far the grand old party has just been kept busy trying to counter what NDA government has been doing, a systematic approach to keep the Nehru-Gandhi name out of public memory. It’s time the Congress moved from just being vigilant to proactive as Modi attempts to make their political icons fade in the background in the current political scenario. Firstpost.com
India would’ve been different if Patel was PM: Naidu
Venkaiah Naidu
New Delhi: Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu Friday said that if Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel had become the first prime minister of India, the fate of the “country would have been different”. Speaking at the function at Vijay Chowk to mark Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary as National Unity Day, Naidu said Sardar Patel was foremost among leaders who had made sacrifices for country’s freedom. Naidu said millions of people in the country have a feeling that history has not done justice to Sardar Patel, the first home minister of India. Naidu also made a veiled attack on previous Congress governments, saying that both Nehru and Patel were like eyes and ears of Mahatma Gandhi but Patel had not got his due. “Sardar and Nehru were like two eyes and ears of Mahatma Gandhi. But where does Patel lie in the scheme of things after his death (in 1950),” Naidu said. He said Patel single-handedly unified India after Independence at a time of trial and tribulation. “Such a great person. People used to think and I was also one among them that had Sardar Patel been the first prime minister of India, the fate of India would have been different, the
situation would have been different. That was feeling of millions of people across the country. What has happened has happened,” Naidu said. He said history had often proved that “every crisis has found its man”. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that rulers of some provinces were toying with the idea of separation and ruler of Hyderabad was keen to join Pakistan but Sardar Patel brought about integration of the country with total resoluteness. “Do our history books, school curriculum present a fair and balanced account of such legacies?...Should we not give a balanced account of history to our post-Independence generation? This is the objective of our government’s decision to observer Sardar Patel’s anniversary as Rashtriya Ekta Divas,” Naidu said. He said freedom came about due to hard efforts and sacrifices of many great leaders and Sardar Patel was “foremost of such leaders both during and after Independence”. Naidu said observance of Patel’s anniversary as National Unity Day was not intended to belittle any other legacies or contribution of great leaders. “Pure and simple, our intention is to do justice to words and deeds of IANS Sardar Patel,” he said.
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
PUNE
“I think it’s important to have closure in any relationship that ends. You should always have a sense of clarity at the end and know why it began and why it ended.” —Jennifer Aniston, actor and businesswomen
“We have a very good network system of health care but the functioning of that network is not very strong. For posts in primary health care centres, even specialists apply as it is a government job, which is bad for both the patient and doctor.” —Prof Naresh Gupta, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi
‘Young women more prone to breast cancer’
The Way Forward With Compassion & Hope
Happiness knows no retirement
Dr B R Das says preventive measures can curb the growing incidence of breast cancer
Dr B R Das
YASH DAIV @yash009 “According to Population Based Cancer Registry (PBCR), breast cancer accounts for 31.3 per cent of cancer cases among women in Pune”, said Dr BR Das, president, SRL Diagnostics (a lifestyle disease and cancer diagnostic centre), revealed at a press conference
on breast cancer prevalence, at Deccan Redezvous, Apte Road, on October 28. There is an alarming rise in the number of cases since 2009, especially in the women of ages 25-30. “Fifty two per cent of the breast cancer cases affect young women,” he said. Out of the several reasons environmental changes and stress are the key factors that trigger cancer, he said. The large cities have seen an alarming growth in cancer case. “The research demonstrates a pattern. Urban areas like Pune and Mumbai have more number of cases than any city from the north-east. In a city area, the pollutants and contaminated food can impel the silent cancer genes that everybody possesses,” said Dr Das. Ageing and family history are also factors in the cause of the malignant disease. “80 per cent of cancer cases are hereditary. If a woman is diagnosed with cancer after the age of 50, then her progeny is at a greater risk of acquiring the disease,” said Dr Das.
Modifiable risk factors • • •
Pregnancy after the age of 30 makes the woman vulnerable to cancer Breastfeeding should be encouraged. Those women who do not breastfeed are at a higher risk Women who take hormone replacement therapy are at a 20 per cent risk of acquiring cancer
Preventive measures •
•
Every woman after the age of 20 must examine herself every month.They must undergo clinical examination every three months Women after the age of 40 must take a mammographic screening annually
There are measures to prevent the genetic transmission. The BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 are predictive tests of cancer, can determine whether or not the gene is mutated. “If the gene is mutated, the person can prevent cancer by altering her eating habits or through certain medicines,” said Dr Das. “Awareness of these tests will solve a lot of problems. These tests should be a part of mainstream diagnostics,” he said.
This diagnostic test has its downsides. The fact that she could get cancer disturbes the patient being tested. In such cases genetic counselling is necessary. “The person needs to believe that cancer can be cured after an early diagnosis. Stress does not help the circumstance as it is a prominent factor that triggers cancer,” said Dr Das. yashdaiv@gmail.com
‘One-third India’s women, children underweight’ NEW DELHI: India’s improved ranking in the Global Hunger Index is good news, but the country still has a long way to go as one-third of its women and children under five still underweight, experts. India improved its position from 63rd in 2013 to 55th in 2014 in the Global Hunger Index released recently. “India has clearly made progress towards improving nutrition, but the road ahead is still long,” said Purnima Menon, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI and co-director of POSHAN. “The evidence - from within India and from other countries - tells us that gains in maternal and child nutrition come from actions in several sectors and that leadership must also come
from all levels,” she said. “The data for Nutrition in India), both initiatives released by the government which led by IFPRI. Pramod Kumar Joshi of was used in computing the IFPRI said focus Global Hunger Index now needed to be put has shown a decline in on how to effectively under-nutrition. It has implement the national dramatically improved food security act. “How India’s rank,” she said it can be revised. We are while briefing the media also looking at various about a conference on options like Public under-nutrition being Distribution System and held here. direct cash transfer.” The two-day Lawrence Haddad, conference is being who has worked jointly hosted by extensively to improve Transform Nutrition and the nutrition situation -Lawrence Haddad POSHAN (Partnerships in Maharashtra, said in and Opportunities to that state, there were still Strengthen and Harmonize Actions issues like open defecation, which were
“The decline in undernutrition rates did not happen overnight.”
affecting overall health. “The decline in under-nutrition rates did not happen overnight. It took a lot of time around 10-15 years,” he said. Stuart Gillespie, senior research fellow at IFPRI and CEO of Transform Nutrition said: “Leadership has been absolutely pivotal. Inadequate capacity is the reason for failure”. “India is unusual in that even the delivery of nutrition-specific interventions requires two ministries. The health ministry and the women and child development ministry have to work together,” he added. Shenggen Fan, Director IFPRI, listed three ways to deal with nutrition issues in India namely -- improving agriculture, social protection and specific interventions like sanitation. IANS
BY C RAVINDRANATH
M
ost of us dread retirement and old age. While retirement brings in a sudden change we are unwilling or unprepared to take on, old age creeps into our lives insidiously, a fact we reluctantly realise only when we are addressed as ‘uncle,’ or ‘auntie’ if not ‘ajoba’ and ‘aji.’ When we were young, we were either too busy to think of old age or pushed the unpleasant thought away from our minds. Is retirement such a bad event? Are we not making place for the next generation? Can we hold on to anything (including our own lives) forever? Relinquishing the known, giving up a lifestyle long used to and welcoming change are not easy but at times are inevitable. The wise either prepare for the change or are flexible enough to take retirement in their stride. Others suffer, both before and after retirement. “I’m very happy now because I have all the time in the world. I can do what I want to and am really enjoying my life painting, playing the harmonium, meeting long-lost friends and getting beaten by my colony kids in chess,” said a friend who had retired a couple of months ago. He may have retired from his job but had definitely not retired from being happy. Many of my friends have taken up social causes, volunteering to work for the visually impaired, the mentally ill or the differently abled. They say it keeps them occupied and also gives them the gratification of having been useful to the deprived and vulnerable sections of society. “I’m now finally finding some meaning in life, some
justification for my existence,” were the significant words of a friend who had retired recently. “I know that the body becomes weak with age. Physical capabilities will reduce. These can be taken care of by exercise, diet and medication if necessary. What does not reduce is the capability to be happy and create happiness,” said another friend, who has been a senior citizen for nearly a decade. “I’m enjoying my old age,” he added. The common factors among all these people were that they remained as active as they could, socialized a lot, kept company with children and youngsters and gave up the desire to be always proven right. They completely changed my understanding of old age. Not one of them bemoaned his or her lot. They found new meanings to their lives. “I’m not going to tell my son what his duty is or should be,” said one elderly mother of an NRI. “He is an adult. He knows his priorities. I know my duties and priorities.” The proud mother teaches music to children at an orphanage. Her husband coaches them in chess. Wrinkled but happy faces, tired but with unflagging enthusiasm, these men and women embody the beauty of the sunset, bringing its colour and romance into their own lives. Of course there are others who grumble and groan, making heavy weather of a natural process called ageing. Which category would we like to belong to? I have no doubt at all that there is a lot of grace in growing old. (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
Delayed motherhood Proper breathing is key to body, mind control faces another risk A study suggests delayed first pregnancy raises the risk of babies being born with Down’s syndrome NEW DELHI: The increasing trend of late marriages and delayed first pregnancy raises the risk of babies being born with Down’s syndrome, a study revealed Wednesday. Conducted by pathology specialist Metropolis Healthcare Ltd, close to 40,000 prenatal screenings - which help in revealing the disorder in the foetus - were processed for the study. Of the 2,996 mothers aged between 35 and 40 years, 21.89 percent tested positive for Down’s syndrome during pregnancy, while 7.78 percent of the 9,965 mothers aged between 31 and 35 years had the risk, the survey said. Deepak Sanghavi, head of the depa r tment
of clinical chemistry and accession at Metropolis Healthcare Ltd, said: “With the increase in the maternal age, the likelihood of having a child affected with Down’s syndrome increases considerably.” “A woman who is 40 years old at the time of conceiving a child is at 16 times greater risk of giving birth to a baby affected with Down’s syndrome, compared to a woman who conceives at the age of 25,” he added. Down’s syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes mental retardation and abnormal physical growth among children and occurs when an individual has a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21. It increases the risk of congenital heart defects, respiratory, hearing problems, childhood leukemia, and thyroid conditions and affects about one in 800 babies worldwide. In India, every year, more than 23,000 babies are born with Down’s syndrome. O c t o b e r is observed as Down’s syndrome awareness month globally. IANS
The modern lifestyle has turned us into veritable couch potatoes who barely take in half a litre of air per breath. That is only one-eighth of the requirement BY AMAR CHANDEL Breathing is the most essential and frequent activity that we engage in from birth till death. Yet it is one of the most neglected aspects of our existence because we erroneously presume that it is entirely an involuntary function. The end result is that this giver of life has been ignored, leading to numerous unwanted consequences. Our lungs have the capacity to take in about four litres of air in each breath. In olden times, we used to take this full quota when we were active throughout the day, fi rst as hunter-gatherers and then as crop growers. The modern lifestyle has turned us into veritable couch potatoes who barely take in half a litre of air per breath. That is only one-eighth of the requirement. Our diaphragm barely moves if we are sedentary, with the result that the lower part of our lungs hardly gets any oxygen. The shocking shortfall not only causes numerous aches and pains and diseases but also leads to negative emotions like anger, anxiety and stress. Air is available free of cost, but we have to make a deliberate effort to ensure that we take in our full quota. The most important item on the todo list is to set aside at least one hour every day for exercises which make us moderately breathless. Regular brisk walking is an ideal starting point. In the process we will be taking a lot of air willy-nilly. You can also train yourself to
take in more oxygen even when at rest. The technique is called yogic or diaphragmatic breathing. Lie down or sit comfortably. When you start inhaling, fi ll your belly from the lowest part up so that by the time you have taken the full breath, your tummy is protruding as well as the chest. Hold for a few seconds and then start exhaling while at the same time contracting your belly. Th is should be done preferably on an empty stomach. So reserve five minutes for this practice before breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. After you have practised for some weeks, start spending all your spare time in mindful breathing. Suppose you are having to wait at traffic lights. Instead of ruing the delay, utilise the time for diaphragmatic breathing. As your practice increases, 4 Ltr. air capacity
you will notice that you have started pumping your belly without even noticing. Interestingly, many of those who lead a sedentary life tend to do exactly the opposite. They contract the belly when they breathe in and expand it when they breathe out. If you too are making that mistake, make a persistent effort to correct it because this kind of breathing is worse than not moving the belly at all. Please note that you are not pumping air into the belly. It is going into the lungs only. It’s just that when you expand the belly, the diaphragm is forced to move down and the lungs can take in more air. You will soon find that your stress level has started going down. The air that you breathe, besides nourishing your body, has a vital 1/8th capacity used
The air that you breathe, besides nourishing your body, has a vital force called ‘Prana’ force called ‘Prana’. The more air you pump in, the more vitality you have. There is an additional advantage. Th is pumping action strengthens your abdominal muscles and helps in reducing the waist size. The yogic way of breathing which involves ‘Kumbhaka’ (making a big belly after a deep inhalation and holding the breath for a few seconds) and ‘Rechaka’ (expelling all air and holding for a few seconds while the belly has been pulled in) helps one increase the lung capacity to as much as six litres. IANS (Amar Chandel, the author of two self-help books, including “Perfect Health in Twenty Weeks”. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at asknature@gmail.com.
TH E EDIT PAGE
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
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Editor’s pick
“We all have limited energy and the idea is to conserve it and make a change.”
- Kailash Satyarthi, Crusader against child labour, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
BJP, Sena must learn from CongNCP’s mistakes It is all very fine for self-serving politicians to say that there are no permanent enemies in politics. However, the people who vote these politicians to power - and also punish them mercilessly - are unlikely to forget and forgive easily. The BJP and the Shiv Sena need to bear this in mind on the historic occasion of the swearing in of the first-ever BJP-led government in the State. The BJP and its first chief minister in Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, undoubtedly deserve their moment in the sun. What is however, disappointing is the continuing rancour and mistrust between the BJP and the Sena, who are seen by the common people as natural allies. By now, these two parties should have settled their differences and presented a show of solidarity before the people of Maharashtra. Right from the word go they should have demonstrated their sincerity in addressing the much-neglected issues of Maharashtra, rather than allow the NCP to promote a climate of political instability in the state. The people of Maharashtra have
been witness to the ugliness with which senior leaders from the NCP and the Congress treated one another while enjoying the fruits of power for a full three terms. Rather than serving the state and its people, here were these leaders busy throwing barbs at one another and making a fool of themselves before the public. The BJP-Sena must not make the mistake of walking this same path. This is not what the people voted them to power for. The people of Maharashtra want stability in the state and along with it, a demonstration of good, efficient and corruption-free governance. The people have welcomed the choice of Fadnavis as chief minister as he holds the potential to deliver on the promises made to voters. The BJP, as a far more responsible party than the Sena, needs to focus on delivering these promises and not get distracted by the politics of one-upmanship with the Sena. There is absolutely no need for this because the BJP has clearly emerged as the party of choice in the state. Likewise, it would make sense for the Sena to accept the reality and present a united front with the BJP. In spite of its many mistakes and failures, the previous Sena-BJP government has some prominent infrastructural projects to its credit, notably the PuneMumbai Expressway. There’s now much work to be done in terms of jobs creation, reforms in school and higher education, better infrastructure in the cities and attention to core issues such as power generation, agriculture, irrigation and water conservation. Little of this will be achieved if the two parties fritter away the opportunity given by the voters to run this state. The people of Maharashtra do not want these two parties to repeat the mistakes of the previous coalition. This, the BJP and the Sena must never forget. @TGSWeekly editor_tgs@ goldensparrow.com
Eliminating child labour in India The State Labour Commissionerate located at Wakdewadi has officially informed this newspaper that there is hardly any presence of child labour in Pune. According to a senior official at this office, just three cases of child labour were detected in the city in the past 10 months. This was also the case during 2013, he said. And yet, within a matter of hours, a photographer from this newspaper clicked pictures of underage children working at tea stalls and vendors in the city, not to mention children selling toys and trinkets at traffic junctions. Officialdom continues to rest in its state of apathy when it comes to child labour even though this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was conferred on the relatively unknown crusader against child labour, Kailash Satyarthi. As noted in these pages, while we honour
and applaud the extraordinary work done by Satyarthi and all other nameless and faceless crusaders working in this area, we ought to hang our heads in shame over the continuing prevalence of child labour in the country. Extreme poverty in the country is a primary reason for this continuing evil and all efforts need to be directed towards poverty alleviation and the creation of good quality schools for the poor. We, as individuals engaged in our varied pursuits, may not be able to conduct raids against child labour like Satyarthi; but certainly, we can contribute our mite to promoting education and poverty alleviation. This in itself would go a long way towards restoring the lost childhood of many of the unfortunate children trapped in child labour across the country.
Vol-1* lssue No.: 20 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
‘30 years on, we will not give up fight for justice’ BY RANJANA NARAYAN Like Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal who devoted his life to tracking down and prosecuting war criminals, senior advocate H S Phoolka says he will not give up in his fight for justice for the 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims. He says though three decades have elapsed “we have to prove the law of the land is supreme” to punish the guilty and hopes the Narendra Modi government will do its bit. Phoolka, who has written to union home minister Rajnath Singh demanding a memorial for victims of the carnage in New Delhi, said that in the past 30 years “at each and every stage attempts were made to scuttle justice and shield the culprits”. “It is in the interest of the country that the issue needs to be taken to its logical end and the rule of law should be upheld... We will not give up, and pursue the cases with the same zeal as Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal,” Phoolka, 59, who has been relentlessly battling for justice for victims of the anti-Sikh riots, told IANS in an interview. The senior lawyer, who was himself chased by a mob during the riots following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, says the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) when in opposition fully supported punishment for the riot guilty. Over 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed in the riots in many parts of Delhi following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards in the aftermath of storming of the Golden Temple by the army to flush out Sikh militants hiding there. He says the Akali Dal had raised the matter of a missing chargesheet against Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in parliament and also held demonstrations. “They have been in power for the past five months but are yet to do anything about it,” he added. The SAD is part of the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance central government. Phoolka said the short-lived Arvind Kejriwal government of Delhi had constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to reopen and reinvestigate 237 cases which had been closed by police and never sent for trial. “After his resignation the SIT was stalled and remains stalled by the present government,” said Phoolka. He says he has written several times to Rajnath Singh on the case of reinstating the SIT and on the missing chargesheet against Sajjan Kumar, but “received no reply so far”. He said he
has also written to the SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, giving them a deadline of November 1 to act on the cases against Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler or face an agitation. Phoolka said the cases against both the Congress leaders, who are accused of instigating mobs to attack Sikhs, should be taken up without delay. Many similar cases of the 2002 riots were reopened in Gujarat and had led to convictions, said Phoolka. He also said that under a prime minister’s relief package, an amount of Rs 150 crore was still waiting to be distributed to the victims. Asked if a memorial to the victims would not stir afresh the memories of the riots, Phoolka said: “Memories are bitter when you don’t talk about them. We need to talk and talk so that the bitterness disappears, and it (the memorial) will be a sign that our sufferings are acknowledged.” Phoolka was 29 when he started visiting the relief camps for the victims of the anti-Sikh riots whose homes were burnt down. “Since then I have been part of each and every major battle, and fighting for justice for the victims.” Though 30 years have elapsed, “we need to prove that the law of land is supreme and irrespective of the time elapsed there are so many innocent
The importance of self-reliance BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Th is rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve There is a time in every man’s education for the whole distinction between when he arrives at the conviction that greatness and meanness. It is the envy is ignorance; that imitation is harder, because you will always find suicide; that he must take himself for those who think they know what is better, for worse, as his portion; that your duty better than you know it. It though the wide universe is full of is easy in the world to live after the good, no kernel of nourishing corn world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to can come to him but through his toil live after our own; but the great man bestowed on that plot of ground which is he who in the midst of the crowd is given to him to till. keeps with perfect sweetness the The power which resides in him is independence of solitude. new in nature, and none but he knows The objection to conforming to what that is which he can do, nor does usages that have become dead to you he know until he has tried. is, that it scatters your force. It Not for nothing one face, one loses your time and blurs the character, one fact, makes much impression of your character. impression on him, and another If you maintain a dead church, none. contribute to a dead BibleA man is relieved and gay society, vote with a great party when he has put his heart into either for the government or his work and done his best; against it, spread your table like but what he has said or done base housekeepers, — under all otherwise, shall give him no screens I have difficulty to THINK these peace. It is a deliverance which detect the precise man you are. does not deliver. In the attempt And, of course, so much force is his genius deserts him; no muse withdrawn from your proper life. But befriends; no invention, no hope. do your work, and I shall know you. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates Do your work, and you shall reinforce to that iron string. Accept the place the yourself. A man must consider what divine providence has found for you, a blindman’s-buff is this game of the society of your contemporaries, conformity. the connection of events. Great men For nonconformity the world whips have always done so, and confided you with its displeasure. And therefore themselves childlike to the genius of a man must know how to estimate a their age, betraying their perception sour face. The by-standers look askance that the absolutely trustworthy was on him in the public street or in the seated at their heart, working through friend’s parlour. If this aversation had their hands, predominating in all their its origin in contempt and resistance being. like his own, he might well go home What I must do is all that concerns with a sad countenance; but the sour me, not what the people think. faces of the multitude, like their sweet
faces, have no deep cause, but are put on and off as the wind blows and a newspaper directs. The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them. But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. (An excerpt from Essays: First Series by the author)
citizens who died, but the law is not dead,” Phoolka told IANS. He said he is still in touch with the families of the victims. One of them, Satpal Kaur was 13, the eldest of four daughters, when a mob killed her father, mother, brother and uncle. Kaur became like a mother to her younger sisters. Today her son is studying Masters in Commerce, said Phoolka. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has been scathing in its criticism of failure in bringing the culprits to book, which it said reflects the country’s “weak efforts” to fight communal violence.” Ten government-appointed commissions and committees have investigated the deadly attacks against thousands of Sikhs in 1984... Independent civil society inquiries found complicity by both police and leaders of Gandhi’s Congress Party. Yet, three decades later, only 30 people, mostly low-ranking Congress Party supporters, have been convicted for the attacks that resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries,” HRW said in a statement. “No police officer has been convicted, and there were no prosecutions for rape, highlighting a comprehensive failure of the justice system,” it said. (Ranjana Narayan can be contacted at ranjana.n@ians.in)
Limericks of the week BY C RAVINDRANATH
What ill times have befallen us For posts and positions, all the fuss I think it’s sinister That being a minister Is not an onus but just a bonus. Now that we’re getting traces Of money in different places Let’s go for the stash And get back the cash Even if it blackens a few faces. I got this by E-mail How our politics ail After the voting The silver coating Is, horses are for sale!
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
PUNE
With selections from The New York Times
“The ‘Big Bang’, that today is considered to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the creative intervention of God, on the contrary it requires it.” —Pope Francis
Rooney set for Manchester derby return P 15
SIMON ROMERO BELÉM, BRAZIL: To start things off right at Thiago Castanho’s laboratory of Amazonian culinary revelations, take a sip of his signature cocktail, which blends cachaça, made from sugarcane, and jambu, an herb with analgesic properties whose flowers look like yellow and pink eyeballs. Sit back and let the jambu create a pleasant tingling sensation on the tongue. Then on to the food. Try the cassava flat bread with dried shrimp, or a cheese made from the milk of water buffalos from Marajó, an island at the mouth of the Amazon River. Move on to plates like smoked mapará, a fish that tastes like eel, and then finish things up with a dessert of cupuassu fruit prepared with a sprinkling of flour made from manioc and the fruit of babassu palms, and Castanho’s ambitions grow clear. He wants to show the world that a bounty of little-known ingredients found in the Amazon has the potential to turn the cuisine of Latin America’s largest nation on its head. “When people think of the Amazon, they envision the expanses of rain forest, maybe some settlements here and there,” said Castanho, a reserved 26-year-old who dresses like a surfer and speaks
almost in a whisper. “They forget that human beings have lived in the Amazon for thousands of years, experimenting throughout that time with the ingredients at their grasp,” he said in an interview at his restaurant, Remanso do Bosque. “It’s a little subversive, I know, but I think it’s time for the rest of the world to be exposed to some of these sublime creations.” A more conventional route for an ambitious Brazilian chef would have been to open yet another restaurant in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and dining capital, where tattooed celebrity chefs have gathered in such large numbers that Julio Bernardo, an acerbic food critic and blogger, is gaining celebrity status for taking them down a notch. But while Castanho studied at a culinary school in Campos do Jordão, an outpost of fauxSwiss chalets in the hills of southeast Brazil, he opted to return to his home city, Belém, a bustling Amazonian river outpost with a metropolitan population of 2.2 million located more than 2,400 kilometers to the north of São Paulo’s concrete canyons. Castanho has become one of Brazil’s most innovative chefs as he pioneers a culinary renaissance in Belém, a oncethriving center of the Amazon rubber trade which went into a long decline in
A vendor sells acai berries at the Ver-o-Peso market in Belem, Brazil. Thiago Castanho, who has become one of Brazil’s most innovative chefs, wants to show the world that a bounty of little-known ingredients found in the Amazon has the potential to turn the cuisine of Latin America’s largest nation on its head
the 20th century, remaining a backwater in the view of many Brazilians. “No one is more curious or demanding than Thiago,” da Silva said. “He’s always looking for something new.” Few places in Brazil offer the fi xings for terroir cuisine quite like Ver-o-Peso, named for the large scales on which harvests from points across the Amazon
The malaria fighter
Although he does nothing to court publicity, many malaria fighters call him one of the most quietly effective leaders in public health DONALD G. MCNEIL JR BA WA PIN, MYANMAR: After a knee-toknee chat with this hamlet’s chief in the local malaria clinic as rain hammered the tin roof, Rear Admiral R. Timothy Ziemer reached into his pocket for his usual thank-you gift. The clinic was well run, and there was a big turnout of mothers grateful for the free mosquito nets. R Timothy Ziemer Accepting the thick goldcolored coin with President Barack Obama’s face on it, the chief looked as thrilled as if he had won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “They’re not official,” Ziemer confessed later in an interview. “I buy them in a souvenir shop in the Reagan office building for $4.50 each.” The moment illustrates how this 67-year-old retired Navy flier who is the coordinator of the President’s Malaria Initiative gets things done: on the ground, with little cash and less fanfare, in faraway African and Asian villages. Although he does nothing to court publicity in status-obsessed Washington, many malaria fighters call him M YA N M A R one of the most quietly effective leaders in public health. “All the organizations fighting malaria work more closely than they did eight years ago,” said Ray Chambers, the private equity investor and co-founder of Malaria No More who is now the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria. “I think that’s due in no small part to Tim and his personality. He’s not seeking individual credit and he works for the team - but his trains run on time.” Since he took the job in 2006, worldwide malaria deaths have dropped 40 percent, to about 600,000 a year from 1 million. A RESILIENT LEADER Ziemer’s self-effacing, penny-pinching approach - he flies coach everywhere, an aide said privately - has helped make him a political survivor. On a four-day visit to the country this summer, he did pay official calls on the health minister and two national laboratories. But he also flew and drove for hours to chat with village chiefs, local malaria educators, rural doctors and pharmacists, rubber tappers and road builders. “The people who just go to meetings in hotels aren’t the ones who matter,” he said. “They enjoy each other’s shrimp, then go home and forget everything.” In Zambia, he said, he shut down a $200,000 program “when I asked where our money was going and I got the ‘stunned owl’ look.” The admiral - who
goes by Tim, or just “Z” to old Navy pals - does a good stunned-owl imitation. MOTIVATED TO SERVE As his convoy of State Department vehicles navigates dirt roads in the lush mountains around Ba Wa Pin, he nods down one steep river valley and says, “This looks just like where I grew up.” From infancy through high school, he lived in Ban Me Thuot, in the central highlands of French Indochina, in what is now Vietnam. The son of Christian and Missionary Alliance missionaries, he spoke Rade, the local mountain tribe’s dialect, ate coconut “lakewater Popsicles,” chased French convoys begging the soldiers to throw chocolate and played in tunnels dug by the Japanese during World War II. It was the kind of small town where the mail was delivered by a postman wearing a loincloth and riding an elephant, said Connie Fairchild, a vice president of World Relief, an evangelical charity group, who grew up next door in another missionary family. She recalled stringing tin-can telephones between their houses so they could chat - and how their fathers built a compound for people with leprosy together. “Tim would often go there with his dad,” she said. “I think seeing people ostracized like that made a big impact in his life.” Later, when the French pulled out, a small U.S. military base was built nearby. “Tim went over and talked with the soldiers a lot,” she said. “In school, he was just a natural leader,” she added, recalling times he taught classmates to walk on stilts and organized jump-rope sessions for 100. “He was good-looking, athletic, smart and kind. All the girls liked him. But he was devoted to Jodi,” she added, referring to Jodi Evans, the daughter of missionaries working in Pleiku, a nearby town. The two were later married, and still are. A DIFFERENT APPROACH The malaria initiative was founded in 2005, backed in the US Congress by liberal proponents of foreign aid and conservatives with ties to evangelical churches with missionary hospitals like the one run by Ziemer’s father. At the time, the government’s anti-malaria efforts were in a shambles. They were backing outdated drugs, and most of the budget went to consultants designing ad campaigns telling Africans to buy mosquito nets - which most could not afford. Congress authorized $1.2 billion for the first five years, specifying that the bulk of it be spent on goods to be given away free or at subsidized prices - not on consultants. The initiative now supports efforts by 25 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. © 2014 New York Times News Service
are weighed. Here, fish of all shapes and sizes are sold next to rain forest fruits like the sweet-and-sour tasting bacuri (resembling a rounded papaya) or the greenish egg-shaped uxi. Ver-o-Peso is also where Castanho comes to buy açaí, the dark purple berrylike fruit which is a staple in this part of the Amazon. Before dawn each morning on the
market’s cobblestone wharf, wholesalers sell baskets of fresh açaí harvested by families in villages near Belém. Beyond the market, the inspiration for many of Castanho’s dishes comes from the streets of Belém, a 4-centuryold city where the jungle constantly seems to be seeking to reclaim its dominance.
So many mangoes, for instance, drop from Belém’s trees that drivers complain of mechanics profiting from repairing cars damaged by falling fruit. Vines envelop abandoned graffiti-splattered colonial homes, making it seem as if parts of the city have been allowed to evolve into elegant ruins even as contemporary high-rises soar above them. Castanho grew up in the lower rungs of the restaurant business, delivering pizzas for his father’s pizzeria in Belém. But he was immersed in Belém’s cooking traditions when his parents opened Remanso do Peixe, a restaurant serving food from Pará, the immense Amazonian state that is almost twice the size of Texas. After attending culinary school, Castanho moved across the Atlantic to Lisbon to work for Vitor Sobral, the chef known for reinvigorating Portuguese cuisine, before returning to Belém to open Remanso do Bosque. “Thiago is seizing the idea that the future of cooking may rest more in the diversity of ingredients than in technical experimentation, and that the Amazon is uniquely endowed to go down this path,” said Carlos Alberto Dória, a sociologist who writes widely about Brazil’s food traditions. “Why should the Swiss be such giants in the world of chocolate when Switzerland doesn’t grow any cacao?” he asked. “We have all the ingredients we need in the Amazon to produce worldclass cuisine,” he continued. “Maybe all that’s needed to take things to the next level is some imagination.” © 2014 New York Times News Service
Negro? Prieto? Moreno? A Question of Identity for Black Mexicans Mexico has increasingly looked out of step with other Latin American nations that have included questions of race on their census forms RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD JOSÉ MARÍA MORELOS, MEXICO: Hernán Reyes calls himself “negro” - black plain and simple. After some thought, Elda Mayren decides she is “Afromexicana,” or African-Mexican. Candido Escuen, a 58-year-old papaya farmer, is not quite sure what word to use, but he knows he is not mestizo, or mixed white and native Indian, which is how most Mexicans describe themselves. “Prieto,” or dark, “is what a lot of people call me,” he said. This isolated village is named for an independence hero, thought to have had black ancestors, who helped abolish slavery in Mexico. It lies in the rugged hills of southwestern Mexico, among a smattering of towns and hamlets that have long embraced a heritage from African slaves who were brought here to work in mines and on sugar plantations in the 16th century. Just how many people are willing to share that pride may soon be put to the test as Mexico moves to do something it has not attempted in decades and never on its modern census: ask people if they consider themselves black. Or Afromexican. Or “moreno,” “mascogo,” “jarocho,” or “costeño” - some of the other terms sometimes used to describe black Mexicans. What term or terms to use is not just a matter of personal and societal debate, but a longstanding dilemma that the government is hoping finally to resolve. An official survey of around 4,500 households in October asked about African descent and preferred terms as part of plans to include the question on a national housing and population survey of 6.1 million households next year, a broad snapshot of the country in between the main censuses. It has not yet been decided if the question will be on the full census in 2020. The sample next year would allow for a rare, official estimate of the total black population in Mexico - a number that until now has been the subject of educated guesses of tens of thousands. “It is a big, important move,” said Sagrario Cruz-Carretero, an anthropologist at the University of Veracruz who studies Mexico’s African descendants and has participated in meetings with the census agency, known as INEGI for its initials in Spanish, to push for the move. “The black population has been invisible.” It was only last November that Mexico’s largest bakery, Bimbo, undergoing an international expansion, abandoned the name
ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Few places in Brazil offer the fixings for terroir cuisine quite like Ver-o-Peso, named for the large scales on which harvests from points across the Amazon are weighed
LALO DE ALMEIDA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Daring fare, from the Amazon’s mouth to yours
Workers load a truck with papayas in Jose Maria Morelos, a village that has long embraced a heritage from African slaves, in Mexico
of its popular chocolate cake bar, “Negrito,” or little black one. The cartoon boy with the big Afro remains on the package, although he has also evolved over the years from a dark-skinned, cannibal-like figure to a light-complexioned skater dude. A casting call last year seeking models for a television commercial for Aeroméxico, the nation’s largest airline, asked for “nobody dark skinned,” conforming to the overwhelmingly white complexions portrayed across the media here. The airline and the advertising agency later apologised. When it comes to official classifications of race and ethnicity, the census has typically asked only if an indigenous language is spoken at home and, if so, which one. That information has been used to evaluate the size of the Indian population (about 6 percent of the total of 112.3 million). Although Mexico’s indigenous peoples persistently rank at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, the country takes pride in its indigenous heritage and carefully preserves the remnants of ancient civilizations. The coalition of scholars, community groups and activists that has been pushing for the census question has gained traction for a number of reasons: renewed attention to non-Spanish cultures after a 1994 indigenous uprising in the southern state of Chiapas; a civil society grown more vociferous since the first democratic handover of the presidency after the 2000 election; and a sense that Mexico was falling behind in international agreements it had signed over the years to confront racial discrimination. Mexico has increasingly looked out of step with other Latin American nations, including Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, that have included questions of race on their census forms. “Gradually, we have been moving toward this step,” said Ricardo Bucio Mújica, president of the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, a government agency formed 11 years ago. As for Mexico’s black population, he added, “If it is not known how many there are, their conditions, there can’t be an agreement on the part of the
government for their inclusion at large.” While traveling outside of their communities, black Mexicans say they are stopped routinely by the police and accused of being illegal immigrants from Cuba or Central America. That unfamiliarity comes in part because Mexico’s black populations, often to escape persecution and discrimination, historically never moved in large numbers to big cities and have kept largely to themselves in scattered communities in three southern states: Oaxaca, Guerrero and Veracruz. In this village in Oaxaca, black ancestry is taken for granted, even among people who also have clear indigenous blood lines. Israel Reyes Larrea, who named his daughter “Africa” and has devoted a room in his house to a collection of memorabilia from the black communities of Mexico, said he was “Afro-Indian” - with a great-grandmother of African descent. But since moving here a couple of decades ago and marrying a black woman, he describes himself as black. “It is not just about blood,” he said, “but how you see yourself culturally and politically.” His son, Hernán, 22, participates in a troupe that performs the “Danza de Diablos,” a traditional ceremony with devil masks and African-style drumming and dancing, one of a number of customs brought here by ancestors of African heritage and still practiced in this isolated region. The isolation of the African-Mexican communities, whatever the reasons for it may be, has left many with decrepit schools, roads and services - a neglect and deep poverty that has bred resentment. Escuen, the farmer, said he could barely make ends meet. He supports the census question as a way to bring attention to the community. “It doesn’t matter much here what we are called, they are all the same, as long as they give us some help,” he said. Indeed, a number of people did not see the fuss behind being counted. “If they ask me,” said Inocente Severo García, a fisherman here, “I will say, ‘I am Mexican.’” © 2014 New York Times News Service
MONEY MATT ER S “With the economy stabilising, the interest rate structure may remain benign for the next decade. So, it makes sense to invest in these high-yield bonds now.” —Vikram Dalal, MD, Synergee Capital Services
Signpost US body probes India’s trade policies under Modi The US International Trade Commission (USITC) has launched an investigation to examine “significant changes” to India’s trade and investment policies since the new Modi government came to power. The quasi judicial federal agency said it was undertaking an investigation of India’s trade and investment policies at the request of two Congressional panels - the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance. In 2013 too, the panels had jointly asked the USITC “to investigate Indian policies that restrict US trade and investment” and their effects on the US Economy. The commission said it would submit its report on that probe on December 15, 2014. The two panels said they were requesting the new probe “Given the recent national elections in India and the formation of a new Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, and our interest in receiving the most comprehensive and up-to-date information possible.” The USITC said its new probe “will provide information about any significant changes by the Indian government to the trade and investment policies identified in the Commission’s ongoing investigation.” “The USITC will also include information on any new relevant new trade and investment policies and practices in India, focusing on the period from mid-2014.” The panel said it expects to deliver the report to the committees by September 24, 2015. The USITC will hold a public hearing in connection with the investigation on April 7. It has also invited written submissions for the record before June 2. Indian officials had declined to appear before the commission during its earlier probe. But the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as also some US companies told it that American and other foreign firms have tremendously benefited from India’s opening up. IANS
NOVEMBER 1, 2014
PUNE
“Retirees who invested for regular tax-free returns should continue holding these bonds. Since the coupon rates are quite attractive, don’t sell now.” —Suresh Sadagopan, founder, Ladder7 Financial Advisories
Why investors lose, rogue promoters gain Why are investors of DLF and FT asked to pay the price for their promoters’ behaviour? BY SUCHETA DALAL On October 10, the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) closed a very reluctant, seven-year investigation into dubious disclosures by DLF Limited by barring the company, its chairman KP Singh and key directors from the capital market for three years. When the news hit the market, the stock crashed 28%. It was the biggest fall since its second listing in 2007. Some Rs7,500 crore of marketcapitalisation vanished in a day as the shares, which were offered at Rs525, in a highly controversial and hyped up initial public offering (IPO), dropped to just over Rs100. But, in contrast to its action against the Sahara group, SEBI has not covered itself in glory this time. If anything, the buck for DLF’s dubious disclosures should stop at the regulator and not the small investor. The action against DLF, and similar such actions, highlights a basic flaw about SEBI’s penal action: Why is the retail investor constantly punished when regulators, investment bankers, auditors and companies fail to act? But SEBI is not alone in this. The ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), on October 22, in a similarly bizarre order, has hit the investors of Financial Technologies (FT) by ordering a forced merger of the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL). This, again, is a regulatory failure. There is no investigation into why the ministry of consumer affairs granted an investigation to permit NSEL and another spot exchange promoted by the NCDEX to be set up in the first place. The FT stock crashed over 20% after the draft order was issued. Would someone explain how FT’s retail investors are any less the victims than NSEL’s investors? Equity
COMPANY REGULATOR SEBI SMALL INVESTOR investment is about informed risk-taking, not a gamble. But why are minority shareholders in India being made the victims of lack of clarity on the part of regulators? Punish the promoters of DLF and FT by all means; but why destroy companies and their minority investors for regulatory failure, or promoters’ mischief and regulators’ laxity? SEBI’s action against DLF seems more like a headline grabbing antic aimed at pleasing a new government that may not be so cordially disposed towards the company. In the process, it has also hit bankers who need to recover nearly Rs20,000 crore from DLF. Predictably, DLF has appealed the order and the huge expenses incurred on exhausting all its legal remedies will also be borne by the company’s shareholders. Let’s take a quick look at the DLF case: • SEBI permitted DLF to re-list through an IPO, in 2007, without going into the details of a complaint filed by one KK Sinha who had land dealings with the company. • SEBI, probably, thought DLF would be smart enough to take care of Mr Sinha’s issues. But remember, the same DLF,
A story of Mr Everybody’s financial life! T
his is a story of two persons namely “Mr Everybody” and “Mr Advisor”. During my various financial planning seminars I happened to create this character “Mr Ever ybody ” and made a story. So here it goes, Mr Rishabh Parakh Advisor was a financial planner and a friend of Mr Everybody’s father. During Mr Everybody’s college days, Mr Advisor used to talk to him for his future financial life and Mr Everybody promised him that he would take his advice and plan his investments when he starts working. So when Mr Everybody got his first job, Mr Advisor met him and reminded him of his promise and advised him to invest right then as there are hardly any liabilities and even a small amount invested monthly can create a big corpus. But to his surprise Mr Everybody said; “uncle are you crazy, as I have just started my life, let me enjoy first and more importantly “abhi mera time kaha aaya he”. I would invest but later. Mr Advisor agreed and waited for few years; the next time when they met; Mr Everybody shared the good news of him getting married. Mr Advisor got excited and suggested Mr Everybody to invest right away as he is entering in to a new phase with bigger responsibilities. But to his surprise Mr Everybody laughed and said uncle don’t you know the marriage expenses
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
in today’s time and the monthly expenses thereon. How could I even think of investing now; I will surely invest but let me get settled first. They again met after a few years and before Mr Advisor could remind Mr Everybody for investing, he offered him a piece of cake as he just celebrated the first birthday of his son. “Mr Advisor” immediately insisted that this is a high time to invest carefully. To his surprise again; Mr Everybody said “uncle don’t you know that now a days a fees for a good play school is more than an MBA college fees; I need to manage that first. I can’t invest the amount you are asking and anyways I am already investing for 80C and other tax planning investments. The same scenario repeated at various life stages later on and when Mr Advisor finally asked Mr Everybody’s again to invest; he said “ ki ab bacha kya he, my time has already gone to make my finances better”! Moral of the Story! Does this story mean that Mr Everybody never invested? Can we conclude that Mr Everybody resides in almost everybody? No, Mr Everybody did invest at various stages but mostly
for tax savings or investing without any comprehensive goal based financial planning. My main motive is to highlight the fact that there is a huge difference between what you have done with your financial life & what you could have done to make it better. Everybody wants to become somebody and in that quest, they forget the importance of early i.e. timely investments. There is always going to be a huge difference between what you have done with your financial life & what you could have done! The art is not investing in the best products but lies more in investing timely. An untimely investment and that too in the wrong financial products can lead you to serious financial trouble and you should always do a thorough research before investing; invest only in plain vanilla products based on your financial plan and avoid complex commission driven products which are designed purely to benefit your agent. The writer is a Chartered Accountant and the founder director of Money Plant Consulting, a Tax & Investment Advisory Service Provider firm.
Smart tips to come out of the trap of Mr Everybody & getting rich! • • • • • • • •
Save 10-15% of your income by default Invest monthly and via ECS ie direct debit to your bank account Buy the first house ASAP Defer your expenses Buy pure life insurance term plan Spend only in cash, avoid plastic money i.e. credit or debit cards Stop using a credit card and even debit card too except wherever necessary Avoid malls & buy from a small kirana store to avoid impulsive and unnecessary buying
which had previously de-listed its shares in a hurry in 2003, had gone to great lengths to ditch minority shareholders who had held on to their stocks (there were only 1,100 investors and DLF eventually had to provide benefits to 250-odd). Despite their stupendous personal wealth, DLF’s promoters showed the same arrogance and callousness in dealing with Sinha whose dogged fight has ultimately forced SEBI to act. • A similar attitude probably led to the Competition Commission of India imposing a fine of Rs630 crore on DLF for abusing its dominant position to hurt a set of apartment owners at Gurgaon. If anything, DLF’s attitude to its minority investors of 2003, its Gurgaon flat-owners and Mr Sinha raises serious questions about the quality of independent directors and legal advisors that this company has appointed. • KK Sinha had a claim of Rs31.09 crore against Sudipti Estates (over development of land), a subsidiary of DLF, in May 2006, when its first red herring prospectus was filed. Immediately thereafter, a series of legal contortions and transfers of
Case of stock manipulation: Shreejal Info Hubs
ownership of shares occurred and, when DLF filed a fresh prospectus in 2007, Sudipti Estates was no longer shown as a subsidiary. But Sinha refused to be brushed off. He conducted his own investigation, filed a first information report and, eventually, moved court to show that the de-subsidiarisation was a sham and the shares were transferred to the wives of key management personnel. • Were investment bankers involved in the scheme? Kotak Mahindra was one of the lead managers. Its associate, Kotak Bank, provided loans to the three housewives (married to DLF’s managers) to buy the shares of Sudipti Estates to create the fiction of an independent company. • Given that DLF’s splashy re-listing at the peak of the global financial market mania was touted to create the most valuable company in India, wouldn’t you expect its legal advisors and investment bankers to advise the company to settle Mr Sinha’s dispute? Such was DLF’s arrogance that the same petty games
that it played to shake off 1,100 retail investors who had clung to their shares after the 2003 delisting, was in evidence in the Sinha case. • But Sinha wasn’t going away. He moved court against SEBI’s ‘deliberate inaction’. The regulator still did not act. It dragged its feet, obfuscated and argued that Sinha, who was not an investor, had no locus standi on the matter. SEBI’s excuses for not investigating the details provided by Sinha were that Sudipta Estates was an unlisted company and that DLF’s promoters had denied his allegations. • Embarrassingly, the Delhi High Court had to point out to SEBI that its stand on action against unlisted companies was exactly opposed to the Sahara twin companies’ case. It ordered the regulator to investigate and also pulled it up for dragging its feet. • After a BJP-led government came to power, SEBI’s actions picked up speed and we have a half-baked order in less than four months. Why did SEBI not act against the investment bankers, Kotak Mahindra, who certify that the disclosures in the prospectus are true, fair and adequate? In this case, the involvement of the investment bankers is evident. Is it because SEBI officials know that the pressure to delay action against the realty giant had nothing to do with the investment banking community and was entirely about the promoter’s clout? We know that too; but, by ignoring the statutory role of investment bankers, it encourages them to collude with dubious management and makes a mockery of the checks & balances built into the regulatory processes. Only if they are forced to pay a price, will investment bankers take their job seriously, instead of bleating about being guided by lawyers and audit firms. In a DLF-like situation, the corrective action would be a monetary penalty against the promoters and ringfencing the company from their actions. (Sucheta Dalal is the managing editor of Moneylife. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2006 for her outstanding contribution to journalism. She can be reached at sucheta@moneylife.in)
Credit reports: rightfully ours Will RBI insist on one credit report free annually? BY SUCHETA DALAL
BY MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM Shreejal Info Hubs (Shreejal) claims that it is into information vending and financing business. Looking below the surface, we found that Shreejal has a murky past. First known as Cellulose & Chemicals, its name was changed to Ask Me Info Hubs in 2007. Two years later, the company came to be known as Shreejal Info Hubs. In 2006, Shreejal was debarred by the market regulator for three years as it was found indulging in nongenuine trading transactions, giving misleading appearance of trading and manipulating its own stock price. However, the order was revoked by the Securities Appellate Tribunal in 2007 as “it could not be said that the appellants were responsible for any manipulation in the scrip of the company”. So much for our regulations! Let off the hook, price-rigging is rampant again seven years later. Over the past 15 months, the stock moved up by an unbelievable 1700% or 17 times. As expected, fundamentals have no relation with the price movement. With average quarterly revenues of Rs3 lakh-Rs4 lakh, Shreejal reported negligible profits in the past three years. @moneylife.in
Kirit Somaiya, Member of Parliament (MP), who inaugurated Moneylife Foundation’s Credit Helpline, narrated the story of how former Union minister Suresh Prabhu found himself marked a defaulter for no fault of his. A p p a r e nt l y, a telephone c o m p a n y had failed to Dr Kirit Somaiya disconnect a mobile number and was piling on the minimum charges with interest that made him a ‘defaulter’. This story is repeated all over the country with multiple variations; none of them has the same quick resolution that Prabhu probably had. Some multinational banks have sold off their defaulter portfolios to recovery agencies without any attempt to clean them up. Consequently, thousands of people have been served legal notices with exaggerated demands. This is forcing victims to seek help from ‘debt doctors’ or ‘credit repair’ agencies who, along with credit recovery agencies, are indulging in extortion! A third set of people are completely innocent victims of an identity mix-up within credit information companies (CICs) whose data algorithms match up multiple borrowings of people from different lenders to create a credit profile.
Sometimes, this goes horribly wrong and people who have no borrowing or good credit record are shown as defaulters. Moneylife Foundation has helped resolve a couple of such cases. The biggest issue, though, is the absence of information. The Credit Information Bureau of India Limited (CIBIL) is currently running an advertising campaign that grossly exaggerates the advantages of a high credit score. CIBIL enjoys the firstmover advantage and has become the generic name for credit scores. This also adds considerably to its bottom-line because it is allowed to charge for its credit reports and collects a hefty Rs450 to give you your credit score! This historical and extortive practice needs to be changed. In the US, every person with a credit history is entitled to get one free credit report from every credit rating agency. Typically, an American will get an annual credit report from at least four credit bureaus operating there. The same big global names operate in India—TransUnion with CIBIL, Experian and Equifax (with CRISIL) and a fourth which is called Krif. One of the issues that Moneylife Foundation would like to take up with the RBI, and through Somaiya’s promise of help, is that Indians too should get their credit report free every year at least by email (to keep costs low). This will ensure that a Suresh Prabhu is not shocked at finding himself a defaulter when his son is going abroad. And innocent victims of identity mixups will know of problems long before they apply for a loan. @moneylife.in
SPORTS
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY PUNE
“Performing against Australia always gave me a lot of satisfaction because I knew, if you perform against them, everyone takes notice of your performance. ” — Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar
“ At the beginning of the year I set the goals of winning a Grand Slam, a gold medal and WTA year-end championship. Now that I have achieved these goals, I will try and be number one.” — Tennis player Sania Mirza
SAO LEEDS: Pankaj Advani outplayed England’s Robert Hall 1928893 in the final of the IBSF World Billiards championship (timed format) to complete a grand double. The 29-year-old had won the title in the points format (150-up) last week. Advani, who took a stranglehold of the match leading 746-485 at the half-way mark, thus became the first player ever to win titles in both formats thrice, following his double in 2005 and 2008.
Odisha offer Rs 1 cr for gold medallists BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government announced a Rs 1 crore award for sportspersons from the state for winning gold medals in the Olympics, World Championships and the Asian Games. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has decided to double the cash award given that the centre gives to medal winners, a release from the chief minister’s Office (CMO) said. The chief minister hopes that it would encourage the budding talents of the state
Harinder Pal, Dipika bag squash titles CHENNAI: Sao Harinder Pal Sandhu and Dipika Pallikal emerged champions in the fourth and concluding leg of the JSW-PSA Challenger squash circuit. Sandhu defeated top seeded Egyptian Karim Ali Fathi 11-8, 11-3, 116, while Pallikal accounted for second seed Misaki Kobayashi of Japan 11-6, 11-2, 11-8.
The skipper missed three matches due to suspension followed by a minor foot injury MANCHESTER: Manchester United are likely to welcome back captain Wayne Rooney from suspension for their visit to Premier League champions Manchester City on Sunday, hoping the striker can add to his record scoring tally in the derby. Rooney, who missed three matches because of a red card last month and hopes to recover from a minor foot injury picked up in training, tops the all-time goal-scoring list for Manchester derbies having netted 11 in 22 games for United. The return of the England striker will add a further spring to manager Louis van Gaal’s step, after United snatched a 1-1 home draw with league leaders Chelsea last week thanks to Robin van Persie’s stoppage-time goal. “It’s a massive boost for us to have him back,” United defender Luke Shaw told British media this week. “It’s something I think he’s looking forward to. Wayne hates sitting on the sidelines watching.” The 20-times English champions, after a dreadful campaign last term under David Moyes, have endured a torrid time away from home so far this season and are six games without a win on the road in the league, their worst run for 18 years. Van Gaal and some of his new-look team will be experiencing a Manchester derby for the first time but Shaw, a closeseason signing from Southampton, is sure the recent arrivals understand the fierce rivalry. “It’s pretty obvious what this match means to the fans and the club,” the 19-year-old said. “I don’t think I need to be told about it and the others (new signings) will be aware too. “It’s a massive occasion for everyone involved in it. We need to come out
BY TIM DAHLBERG It was a fight so epic it had to have a name. Muhammad Ali gave it one, and then gave boxing one of its most memorable moments when he stopped the fearsome George Foreman to recapture the heavyweight title in the impoverished African nation of Zaire. It was the Rumble in the Jungle, and it’s still a big part of the Ali lore today. Forty years have passed since the two men met just before dawn on Oct. 30, 1974 to earn $5 million put up by dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, but time has done nothing to diminish its place in boxing history. Foreman was the brooding heavyweight champion who destroyed Joe Frazier and Ken Norton without breaking a sweat. Ali was, well, Ali. “You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned,” Ali crowed before the fight. “Wait till I whup George Foreman’s behind.” Few believed the bombastic Ali, whose oratorical skills at the time seemed better than his boxing skills. He wasn’t the same fighter who was forced into exile for refusing the draft, and many wondered why he had even agreed to the fight. “People were praying before the fight that Ali doesn’t get killed,” said Bill Caplan, who was Foreman’s public relations man in Zaire. “No one thought Ali had a chance, and that included George.” But Ali turned it into a home match, embracing Zaire from the moment his plane touched down at the Kinshasa airport, where thousands were waiting for his arrival. Before speaking, he asked
his right-hand man, Gene Kilroy, what the people of Zaire hated most. “I told him white people. He said, ‘I can’t tell them George Foreman is white,’” Kilroy recalled. “Then I said, ‘They don’t like the Belgians, who used to rule Zaire.’” Ali stepped out on the tarmac and yelled out: “George Foreman’s a Belgian!” The crowd erupted, chanting “Ali boma ye, Ali boma ye (Ali, kill him).” If Foreman was miserable in Africa right from the start, it got worse when he was cut days before the fight and it was postponed six weeks. Foreman wanted to go to Paris to recuperate and train, but the fear was that if he left he wouldn’t come back. Kilroy, meanwhile, suggested to Zaire officials they might want to confiscate passports to keep him there. The day before the fight, Foreman and Ali made separate trips to the presidential palace to pay homage to Mobutu, the brutal dictator who wanted to put his country (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) on the world map. The fight would finally unfold in the steamy darkness of equatorial Africa at 4 a.m., with machine gun-carrying soldiers watching the crowd from ringside and Joe Frazier among the
one player,” he said. Following their draw at Old Trafford, Chelsea will be looking to steal a march on their Manchester rivals when they host their own local adversaries Queens Park Rangers on Saturday. In scintillating form since the start of the season, Mourinho’s men have dropped only four points in their opening nine games, conceding late goals to draw at both City and United, and have a four-point lead at the top of the table. They are likely to have Diego Costa available again after he missed the trip to Old Trafford due to a hamstring problem and the Spain striker will be looking to add to the nine league goals he has scored in seven appearances this season.
firing on Sunday.”
United last weekend left them third on 17 points. Boss Manuel Pellegrini is not concerned by the champions’ form and pointed out they are in a better position than they were this time last season. He was also unmoved by Rooney’s United return. “I think Rooney is a very important player for Manchester United but I think that big teams never depend on
BETTER POSITION United’s indifferent away form has been costly, with the team eighth in the table on 13 points, 10 adrift of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea at the summit. City have suffered their own stuttering start to their title defence and a 2-1 defeat at in-form West Ham
Forty years passed to the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ interested spectators. Ali’s plan was to come out and hit Foreman with a hard shot to let him know he was there to fight, not run. He landed it and a flurry of quick right leads, but by the end of the round Foreman was landing some powerful punches of his own that forced Ali to the ropes. Much to the dismay of his corner, Ali stayed on the ropes, allowing Foreman to throw looping punches that seemed to be landing. Ali would later call it the “rope-a-dope” strategy, which would later seem even more brilliant because it was conceived on the fly. In the final seconds of the fifth round, Ali hit Foreman with a series of punches that seemed to sap whatever power Foreman might have still had on his shots. Finally, late in the eighth round he landed a combination with a final right hand that seemed to crumple Foreman in pieces. As the champion was going down, Ali could have landed one more punch, but he pulled back. “He had mercy on me,” Foreman said recently. “Would I have done the same for him at that time? No.” At ringside, longtime Associated Press boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. was dictating the action back to an editor in New York, hoping someone was on the other end of the line. The fight had barely ended when a torrential rainstorm flooded the stadium and the dressing rooms of both fighters. “I think it was one of the top-10 upsets in boxing,” Schuyler said. And forty years later, the Rumble in the Jungle still lives up to its name. — Firstpost
Wayne Rooney’s six career red cards
VILLA DROUGHT QPR climbed off the foot of the table with a 2-0 home win against beleaguered Aston Villa on Monday but with all of their seven points this season coming at Loftus Road, their hopes of a surprise result at Chelsea will be slim. With the loss to Harry Redknapp’s side, Villa extended their run of five straight league defeats without scoring a goal. Paul Lambert will hope his side can score their first in over eight hours of football to reignite the early season form that saw them reach second in the league when they host Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, who are enduring their own slump. Second-placed Southampton look to continue to dumbfound their pre-season critics when they travel on Saturday to Hull City, who proved a stern test for Liverpool in a goal less draw at Anfield last weekend. (With special arrangement with Firstpost)
• 27/09/2014: Manchester United v West Ham: Rooney was sent off in the 59th minute with Manchester United 2-1 up. • 07/10/2011: Montenegro v England: Rooney’s second international red card came in a Euro 2012 qualifier in Montenegro. He was dismissed in the 73rd minute with England 2-1 up. • 21/03/2009: Fulham v Manchester United: Paul Scholes was sent off in the 18th minute and Fulham were already winning 2-0 when Rooney saw red in the 89th minute. • 01/07/2006: England v Portugal: Perhaps Rooney’s most infamous red card came in the quarter-final of the 2006 World Cup for kicking out at Cristiano Ronaldo. He was sent off in the 62nd minute. • 14/09/2005: Villarreal v Manchester United: Rooney saw red in the 65th minute of Manchester United’s 0-0 draw at Villarreal in the Champions League. • 26/12/2002: Birmingham v Everton: Rooney’s first red card came in the Premier League for Everton on Boxing Day, 2002. The score was 1-1 when he was sent off in the 81st minute.
IANS
Advani: first ever to bag triple double
Rooney set for Manchester derby return IANS
Signposts
IANS
NOVEMBER 1, 2014
Performances after changing my coach have been very good: Saina NEW DELHI: Top Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal said Thursday that she was surprised by her sudden capitulation and subsequent loss in the women’s singles quarter-final of the French Open Super Series against Chinese World No.2 Shixian Wang. The Olympic bronze medallist said she hoped to learn from the mistakes committed during the game to mount a stronger challenge against the topranked Chinese players in the yearending Super Series Finals in Dubai, starting Dec 17, adding that one title triumph will increase her confidence and performance levels considerably. “I came very very close to entering the semi-final of the French Open. I was leading 14-8. I generally don’t lose matches from such positions but it was a bit surprising to me as well to lose from such a position. I should have taken a break in between. But sometimes in high pressure matches you tend to make mistakes and I have to learn from them,” Saina said here. However, the World No.5 said she
was feeling positive about her form and believes that she is on the right track since changing her coach in September this year. She split with her longtime coach Pullela Gopichand and is currently playing under the guidance of U. Vimal Kumar. “My performances after changing my coach have been very good. I have become more consistent. I am happy to be the sole Indian who is consistently challenging the Chinese players for the top spot which proves my consistency,” said the 24-year-old. “Changing my coach is not a longterm or a short-term plan. It was done to improve my game a little bit. I have trained under Gopi sir for nearly 10 years and I wanted a subtle change to see if there is any improvement in my game.” She stressed on her belief that a title triumph is not far away and she needs to be patient to achieve it. “The win is not far. I know the amount of effort I am putting in my game and I need to be patient. Of
course it is tough to break the Chinese dominance in the rankings as all are very fit and strong players,” said the Hyderabadi. “But I am the only one giving them a tough fight and I am just waiting for the fi rst win under my new coach. But improvements won’t happen drastically. It will happen slowly and I am on the right track.” Saina said that her recent rise in the rankings is an acknowledgement of her consistent performances this year where she has won two titles and recently appeared in quarter-finals of Denmark and French Open, losing to Shixian on both occasions. “My performance this year has only gone up. I have done very well this year, won two titles. The players I have lost to are only the top-3. I am sure one good win will make a huge difference to my game and make an even better player next year. I just need some more time to settle under my new coach. Then things will improve,” she remarked. — Firstpost
SPORTS “ I wanted to be part of the ISL, but if I don’t get Kolkata as the football team, then I don’t want to play football in my life.” — Actor Shah Rukh Khan
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2014
PUNE
“It’s not the ideal kind of preparation for a tour to India. India is a tough place to play cricket in and you need preparation to play India in India.” — Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews
Riding dangerously
Football’s big bazaar moment
City cyclist Gautam Taode to participate in Asia Pacific Downhill Bicycle Challenge this month RAHUL RAUT
If you overlook the ISL’s glam quotient, there are reasons it will add much needed substance to Indian football DOWNHILL CYCLE A downhill cycle weighs around 16-20 kg (35-45 lb) with it custom carbon fibre parts, air suspension, tubeless tyres etc. Downhill frames get anywhere from 170-250 millimetres (7 to 10 inches) of travel and are usually mounted with a 200-millimetre (8-inch) travel dualcrown fork.
PROTECTIVE GEAR Full-face helmets provide the highest level of protection including a jaw guard. Helmets are mandatory at competitive events. Body armour and pads protect the rider’s limbs and trunk in the event of a crash. Upper body armour includes a spine protector that comprises plastic or metal reinforced plastic plates. First aid kits enable mountain bikers, to treat abrasions or splint broken limbs.
BY REUBEN PAUL @ReubenPPaul
Dastur School. “I was on my way to Lulla Nagar when I saw someone with a BMX (Specially designed bicycles used for sprint races on off-roads). I was stunned when I saw him doing a wheelie and immediately tried it at home.” Said Gautam about the beginning of his cycle obsession. Gautam mastered the technique on the hilly terrain of Salunke Vihar Society. Wheelies and Stoppies became his favourite pastime. He and his friends played ‘thieves and robbers’ and relay cycle races in the society. The pastime turned into the passion, when Gautam decided to participate in the Nepal National Downhill Championship in 2011. He missed a podium finish but was the first Indian to take part
PUNE: “Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry” said iconic writer Jack Kerouac, half a century ago. City-based Gautam Taode, a downhill cyclist who will represent India at the Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge to be held in Indonesia in November, is a Kerouac clone. HUMBLE BEGINNINGS Gautam, 23 was born in an army family, resident of Salunke Vihar Society. He wasn’t very keen on academics, but shone in athletics wining in the 200m, 400m and 100m hurdles events in school regularly. He also played football, roller hockey at the state-level representing
injuries and so it is considered to have a high risk sport, but the thrills outweigh the fear,” said Gautam. After years of practice in Nepal, Gautam achieved success this year finishing third in the Himachal Downhill Mountain Bike Trophy. For the Asia Pacific Downhill Challenge, he has signed up with Stärkenn Giants.
and complete the event. “Downhill racing comes under the discipline of mountain biking, where the terrain is harsh consisting of trees, rocks and uneven dirt track. Downhill bikers literally ride down a hill risking serious
Kerala fight back to win 2-1 against FC Pune City at Balewadi
IANS
How the Kerala Blasters got their first ISL win
ions of a lot of other managers in the league. So, did the holiday help? “Not training a day before actually helped us, yes,” Kerala’s goal scorer CS Sabeeth said. One would be forgiven to think that a holiday can have such a big effect on a team, but it can. Roy Keane writes in his autobiography, ‘Second Half ‘that he would take his team gokarting after a loss or a few gruelling games. “Take the day off, lads,” he would tell his team. On another occasion he took them all out to watch a rugby match — paying himself for a private box. On both occasions, his team won the following game. Footballers do get paid for playing a game they love — but sometimes, staying off the pitch can help. But it was not just a day off that did
the trick for the Blasters. Pune were clearly getting hit through the right channel again and again. In the second half, we saw their tireless attacker Ian Hume play down that area running the show through the middle in the fi rst. Both their goals came from that side — one a corner that was won after Hume entered the channel and passed it central to Sabeeth whose shot was deflected, and the second a Hume run and cutback for Penn Orji to slot in. Colomba also said that due to the bombardment down the right, he had to change his plans: “My intention was to bring on Gurung on the left but then I thought I’d rather bring in (KwangIl) Park to provide cover in left midfield. So my intention remained an intention.” — Firstpost
Every sport has its ‘Big Bazaar’ moment. From being played and followed by a regional minority, it is spotted by seafarers and merchants and taken to newer lands. If it flourishes, it’s developed by associations and then, packaged in shiny, attractive formats and sold to the masses with its supplements – merchandise, TV rights, stadium tickets and more. For Indian football, which was in the throes of a sarkaristructure ever since most of us were born, its big bazaar moment was in 2006, when FIFA chief SeppBlatter visited India. The funding that followed made corporate interests take notice, and within a year, the regressive ‘National Football League’ folded to make way for the I-League, which, pundits agree, has been the best thing to happen to Indian football. Th is Diwali, with the kicking off of the Indian Super League, the beautiful game is being perceived with much hope, that of the revival of Indian football. Does the product, the tournament, if we shred down the hype and glamour, have substance in it for us to keep believingin the Indian football story? A fortnight on, it’s apparent that the quality of football is a marked improvement over that in the I-League. The reason for this is obvious; every team is packed with foreign players, so watching 14 European/West Asian imports do their tackles and passes itself is a treat. On the fl ip side, it also
exposes the discerning viewer to the holes in the Indian players’ skills, especially in defence. Kolkata’s Arnab Mondal, Cavin Lobo and Denzil Franco and young stars from the NEUFC (North East United Football Club) have been revelations. When the hype settles, many of them will travel to and train with affi liate European clubs in the future. (To draw an IPL parallel, Ricky Ponting and McGrath rubbing shoulders with Kolkata’s and Delhi’s boys upped the latter’s skills immensely) I-League brought home the EPL culture of corporates running their clubs with serious professionalism, investment and accountability (Bengaluru FC and Pune FC being the cases in point), and the ISL’s franchises will only proliferate this. While the players get top-of-the-line training equipment, it comes at the cost of a sword over their necks,which would fall with repeated poor performances. For the audiences, the stadium and TV experience has been gratifying (the fi rst week’s TV ratings are high, although not as high as those of the Pro Kabaddi League!), but the spectators need to be involved, noisily at that, through the 90 minutes. Apart from adding to a good telecast, it pumps life into the game. The orgasms of goals are exciting, but the foreplays of setting them up too must be cheered for. There arethose who tune in to spot Bollywood stars, and thisglamour quotient has been criticised, but we must accept this to be an Indian reality. Like our football is a few decades behind global levels, our fandom too is far from the time when masses will tune in only for sportsmen, not stars. The ISL road, now inaugurated with much fanfare, is a work-in-progress, let’s hope itconstructs an expresswayfor India’s return to world football.
Stage set for mega Supercross event Pune, Nashik and Kolhapur to host the invitational league from November 8 TGS NEWS SERVICES @TGSWeekly PUNE: Top national and international riders will be seen in action in the CEAT Pune Invitational Supercross League from November 8. The third edition of the event has transformed into a three-city league which promises to be a mega event and will revolutionise the motocross and supercross in India. For the fi rst time, the championship will be held on a franchisee-based model. A total of 40 national riders and
BY PULASTA DHAR PUNE: David James and his Kerala Blasters were lounging in the hotel lobby at around 4 pm on the day before their match against FC Pune City. Half an hour later, Nirmal Chettri walked into the area for an interview — talking without any time constraint — he was relaxed, as was the squad when they walked towards him near the poolside — one of them taunting him ‘zyaada matt bol’ (don’t talk too much). It was at this time that we learnt that the Blasters weren’t training the day before the match. On the same day, at around 6 pm, the home team trained at the Police ground. It’s customary for teams to train for about an hour on the eve of a match, Kerala though, decided it was not needed. They came to Pune on the back of a hard-fought draw against Atletico de Kolkata in Kolkata on October 26. On the same day, Pune had beaten FC Goa 2-0 at home. Cut to match-day — Pune lost a one-goal lead to a hard-pressing, dogged and energetic Kerala team that fought back to win 2-1. At the postmatch press conference, we heard contrasting opinions. “Playing every three days is very hard — today’s result shows it. We used up a lot of energy in the previous match — physically as well as mentally. Th is result will teach us that it’s not easy to repeat good performances back-to-back in this league,” said Pune coach Franco Colomba, echoing opin-
PRACTICE ROUTINE “Experience is my education” says Gautam. He exercises regularly at the gym and occasionally rides his motorbike in open grounds for thrill. Gautam trains alone as there are no downhill rider groups in Pune. Gautam’s dreams of bringing downhill racing to India in a big way.
BY MALAY DESAI
eight international riders will be part of the auction pool and will be roped in by eight teams. The auction will be held on November 2. Interestingly, all franchisees are Pune-based and SKP High Rollers, San Racing, Aranha Racing, Team Amanora Park Town, BU Bhandari Motorsports and Bhalla Royale have confi rmed their participation. The fi rst round of the league will be held in Nashik (November 8-9), followed by Kolhapur (November 15-16) and the final round will be held in Pune on December 12-14.
“As a sport, Supercross is gaining popularity in India, support and facilities to the riders have started coming up at various locations. It’s time to give the riders and spectators along with the sponsor a better platform for racing. Good tracks, facilities, wide range of branding for sponsors and last but not the least, a lot of respect for the riders. Ceat Pune Invitational Supercross League promises to do the same,” said former international rider and event director Eeshan Lokhande during a press interaction recently. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com