The Golden Sparrow on Saturday 09/07/2016

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PUNE, JULY 9, 2016 | www.thegoldensparrow.com

Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

YET TO TRANSFORM VILLAGES ADOPTED BY OUR MPS

Don’t litter in Katraj, you are under surveillance Katraj corporator installs CCTV and speaker near garbage bin, and reprimands wrong-doers who dump their garbage outside of the bin See p05

‘My mother would have been alive...’

Two years after PM announced the scheme to develop villages, not much has changed, at least in villages See p08-09 adopted by our very own Members of Parliament

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THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

PUNE

UN: Fight extremism with social media P 13

“The aim of education is to lay the foundation for life on the basis of which societies are created. It is the duty of the education sector and we accept this challenge. Our mission will be to ensure quality education reaches all.”

- Prakash Javadekar, Human Resource Development Minister

India pitches for US money in urban sector P 14

Jindal Drugs’ owners buy Rs 220 cr triplex in South Mumbai Deal makes flat costliest in the country

Mangal Prabhat Lodha, who is also a Member of Legislative Assembly from Maharashtra, has bought an apartment spread over 2,385 sq ft on 34th floor for Rs 37.55 crore. Abhisheck’s wife Vinti Lodha also recently bought an apartment on 27th floor of the luxury tower for Rs 26.30 crore.

BY YOGESH SADHWANI @yogeshsadhwani Mumbai witnessed the most expensive real estate deal on Thursday (July 7). Owners of Jindal Drugs bought a triplex apartment in Lodha Altamount, a high-end building in South Mumbai.

In the deal registered on Thursday, the Jindals have paid around Rs 220 crore to the Lodha Group to acquire a triplex spread over 13,900 sq ft (carpet area).

Jindals bought 37th, 38th and 39th floor in the luxury building that is under construction on a plot formerly owned

by US Consulate. Papers in possession of TGS reveal that Jindal Drugs paid Rs 58.61 crore for 37th floor, Rs 59.15 crore for 38th floor and Rs 90.26 crore for the 39th floor. Over and above they paid Rs 10.41 crore for stamp duty and registration. Additionally, the buyers have paid for common area maintenance charges, land under construction reimbursement charges, building protection deposit, provisional property tax, sinking fund, among others. The total amount paid by the new owners is upwards of Rs 220 crores, making flat costliest in the

(L to R) SK Jindal, Abhisheck and Vinti Lodha, Mangal Prabhat Lodha

country. It is also the highest price per sq ft paid so far – Rs 1.60 lakh.

The triplex comes with 16 parking slots. Every resident gets access to private jets for five years. The luxury building has everything that one could ask for – world class gym, a club with private dining room, private screening room and guest rooms. The podium has a sports ground, kids’ play area, swimming pool, barbeque area, among other features. The rooftop has covered swimming pool and a lounge area. On hospitality front, the luxury tower offers in-residence room service, housekeeping, and membership to

a high-end spa. The apartment also comes with state-of-the-art security systems for residents.

HOME TO WASHINGTON HOUSE The plot on which Lodha Altamount is being constructed was earlier home to Washington House owned by the US Consulate. Lodha Developers acquired it in December 2012 for Rs 342 crores.

NOT THE FIRST TIME Th is is not the fi rst time that owners of Jindal Drugs are setting a bench-

mark. Way back in 2012, Jindals had bought a flat in South Mumbai’s Tahnee Heights for Rs 39 crores. They had shelled out Rs 1.20 lakh per sq ft. The highest price paid till then for a residential flat was Rs 1.02 lakhs per sq ft.

LODHAS TO BE NEIGHBOURS Several members of Lodha family have bought flats in the project.

Lodha Group’s Managing Director Abhisheck Lodha has bought two flats on 18th and 34th floor. He has paid Rs 37.30 crore for a flat spread over 2,385 sq ft and Rs 25.42 crore for another spread over 1,737 sq ft. His father

PREVIOUS DEALS The highest price paid per sq ft so far was Rs 1,57,880. A Mumbai basedc businessman Shyam Jatia bought a an apartment spread over 6,320 square feet in Carmichael Residences for Rs 90 crore. With duties, taxes and other charges, the flat cost former chairman of Pudumjee Industries Rs 99.78 crore.

Prior to that 34-year-old actor Ranbir Kapoor, had bought a 2,469.60 sq ft apartment for Rs 35 crores in Pali Hill.

His deal was registered on April 27 this year. In the past, Mumbai has seen deals ranging between Rs 1.2 lakh and Rs 1.35 lakh per sq ft. In 2013, a sea-facing flat in Darshan Apartment, Malabar Hill building was sold for Rs 57 crore, at Rs 1.35 lakh per sq ft. In the same year, a duplex in Worli’s Samudra Mahal was sold for Rs 43 crore, at Rs 1.18 lakh per sq ft. In 2012, a flat in Tahnee Heights on Napean Sea Road was sold for Rs 39 crore, at Rs 1.2 lakh per sq ft. yogesh.sadhwani@goldensparrow.com

Did Naik’s speeches inspire Bangla terrorists? Poor road signs cause most accidents Islamic preacher Zakir Naik comes under the scanner for his hate speeches and role in terrorist activities

BY SANTOSHEE MISHRA @santosheemishra

Th is is not the fi rst time that Mumbai based Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik has come under the scanner for his role in inspiring youths, and his alleged role in terrorist activities. Dr Naik was earlier questioned by the state Anti-Terrorism Squad.

On July 7, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered a highlevel probe against Dr Naik, whose speeches apparently inspired two of the terrorists who killed 20 persons in Bangladesh last week.

The city’s top cop Datta

Padsalgikar is conducting an inquiry against Naik, and former chief K P Raghuvanshi of the state ATS has come out openly and mentioned that Naik was Zakir Naik questioned by one high ranking officer over the 11/7 serial train blasts in the city.

Talking to The Golden Sparrow, Raghuvanshi said, “Zakir Naik’s inspirational speeches to the youths

HC raps MCGM for illegally razing lifeguard structure The Bombay High Court ticked off the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) for its “highhandedness” in “illegally” demolishing a lifeguard workstation at the suburban Juhu beach and directed the civic chief to initiate an inquiry against the errant officers.

A division bench of justices AS Oka and AA Sayed asked MCGM Commissioner to set up the enquiry, which should be conducted by an officer of the rank of Additional Municipal Commissioner, to ascertain who was the officer or officers who is/are responsible for ordering the demolition of the said structure.

The order was passed by the bench while hearing a petition fi led by the ‘Juhu Beach Lifeguards Association’ challenging the civic body’s “arbitrary” action of pulling down the work-station.

The structure was set up by the association in 2010 after taking the requisite permission from the MCGM. The petitioner claimed that the civic body illegally demolished the base station of lifeguards in March this year.

According to MCGM, the direction to raze the structure was given on receipt of several complaints from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) which is the owner of the land in question, and from a local MLA. The civic body, however, could not submit any document to support its argument.

“The corporation has not followed due process of law before demolishing the structures. It has shown highhandedness and is a wrong-doer. The civic body has taken law in its own hands,” the HC observed.

The HC directed that the inquiry shall also contain the decision on reimbursement of the damages caused to equipment of the lifeguards and also asked MCGM to submit the inquiry report before it within a month.

“After holding such inquiry the officer appointed will have to record clear findings naming the officer responsible for such illegal action. A report in this regard should be submitted (within) a month from today,” Justice Oka said.

The association has sought reimbursement of Rs 66 lakh from the corporation to repurchase the equipment damaged during the demolition.

PTI

in context with terrorism and other related activities came to light post 11/7 train serial blast of the year 2006.

He was questioned by a Senior ATS officer. We had strong conventional theory of his inspirational speeches being inspiration to the alleged accused of the 11/7 train blasts.

However it failed badly in terms of evidence materials.”

Naik is banned in the UK and Canada for hate speeches and incitement against other religions and communities. His channel ‘Peace’ does not have a license to broadcast in India, but it is available in many parts of the country.

THE 11/7 TR AIN BLASTS Seven serial blasts ripped through Mumbai’s suburban railway network at peak hours on July 11, 2006, leaving at least 147 dead and several injured.

The blasts began at 6.20 pm, when a bomb in a First Class compartment in a Western Railway suburban train running from Churchgate to Borivali exploded between Khar and Santa Cruz stations. In the next ten minutes, six more explosions occurred in Bandra-Khar Road, Jogeshwari-Mahim Junction, Mira Road- Bhayander, Matunga- Mahim Junction and Borivali. santoshee.mishra@goldensparrow.com

Two-thirds of the motorists in the megapolis, known for its potholed roads in the monsoons, have blamed the poor road signs and lack of warnings as the main reasons for the mounting accidents, according to a survey. The motorists who participated in the survey picked the western suburb of Dindoshi, and the eastern fringes of Vikhroli and Chembur as the deathtraps in the city for them during the rainy season.

There are not enough road signs and warnings during the rains which are leading to higher road accidents

in the city during the monsoons, said the survey commissioned by Chevrolet (GM India).

Accidents rise during the season (June-September) as more than 89 per cent of motorists change the way of driving during the rains, it said.

Over one-third, or 35 per cent of the respondents, cited defective roads as the main cause of accidents followed by fault of the driver of the other vehicle (26 per cent). The survey, which saw participation from 1,269 people, was carried out by Nielsen and ValueNotes.

PTI

Saiyan Bane Kotwal Road repairs scam: BMC Ab Darr Kahe Ka chief engg sent to custody Two officials are accused of clearing bills of contractors without verifying the status of the “repaired roads” in the city

Arrested BMC engineers Ashok Padmsingh Pawar, Chief Engineer, Road & Traffic and Uday Namdeo Murudkar, Chief Engineer, Vigilance being taken to the court in the BMC roads irregularities case, in Mumbai

Two Brihanmumai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief engineers were remanded in police custody by a local court till July 11 after they were arrested in connection with alleged multicrore road repairs scam here.

Chief engineers - Ashok Pawar (57) and Uday Murudkar (54) - were held on Wednesday late evening and were produced before the court Thursday, which sent them to police custody till July 11, a senior police official

said. The two are accused of clearing bills of contractors without verifying the status of the “repaired roads” in the city, the officer said.

Both the engineers are under suspension since April this year, following a primary inquiry into the alleged scam involving shoddy work by contractors in 34 roads of south Mumbai, western and eastern suburbs, and runs into nearly Rs 354 crores.

Before suspension, Pawar

was posted as chief engineer of civic body’s Road and Traffic Department, while Murudkar chief engineer of Vigilance Department. BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta had suspended the two officers for their alleged failure to supervise construction of the said roads after they were found guilty prima facie by an inquiry committee of the civic body.

Mumbai police have already arrested 22 people in this connection, all private road repair contractors, out of which 20 are out on bail.

BMC commissioner instituted an inquiry into alleged malpractices of Road Department and contractors and initiated action against them after Mumbai Mayor Snehal Ambekar drew attention of the BMC last year in October over poor road quality. Mehta submitted a report to the mayor in this regard in April. BMC also lodged FIRs yesterday against six contractors and two third-party auditors, for their alleged involvement in the scam.

PTI

PSI’s wife accused of harassing Bhandup residents TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly

The residents of Tembhi Pada near St. Antony’s Church in Bhandup are a frightened lot. And their call for police help is apparently futile as the perpetrators are related to a sub inspector attached with Bhandup Police Station.

According to the residents, Sejal Patil (48), a divorcee who is apparently married to Bhandup Police Station Sub-Inspector Suresh Jadhav (52), and her son Suraj from earlier marriage, are threatening them and their children for the past one month. The couple is constructing a house at Tembhi Pada near St. Antony’s Church in Bhandup and Sejal and Suraj are not allowing neighbours to use the public tap.

Pragati Ajay Jagnale, a constable attached with Bhandup Police Station and resident of Tembhi Pada in Bhandup, has lodged a written complaint (Non-cognisable offence) to Bhandup police station about Sejal and Suraj.

“Sejal and Jadhav are constructing a one-plus in Tembhi Naka without any permission from Municipal Corporation. I have also written to the civic authorities. Jadhav’s wife does not allow anyone to take water from the public tap. Suraj slapped me and Sejal

Police Sub-Inspector Suresh Jadhav with his second wife named and identified as Sejal Patil

boasts that no one can harm them as all the complaints would be going to Bhandup police station where her husband is posted,” Jagnale alleged.

Even as there are more than five non-congnisable offences registered against Sejal and Suraj, the Bhandup Police station has only fined Suraj on Jagnale’s complaint.

Bhandup Police Station Senior Inspector Sripad Kale said,” We have initiated an inquiry in the matter.”

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-VII) Rajesh Pradhan said, “Marriage of any person is an individual call and I am no one to interfere in it.”

Despite repeated attempts all Jadhav could say was, “Call me later, I am busy.” tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

PUNE

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

PUNE

“It was long felt that we need good infrastructure to cater to the needs of scholars. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute decided to undertake campus modernization and renovation of heritage buildings. Despite technical difficulties, we are making progress.”

—Shrikant Bahulkar, Secretary, BORI

Cheaper by the dozen!

Farmers to get low interest crop loans

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‘My mother would have been alive...’

RAHUL RAUT

Nandabai Pardeshi’s grieving son believes that had Ambika Vashisht rushed his mother to a hospital instead of fleeing, she would have been alive

BY VICKY PATHARE @Vickypathare2

“Before she left for work, grandmother told us not to go out of the house until she returned. She assured me that she would arrange for my college fees, but she never came back,” said a tearful Prafulla Mallav, 15, grandson of Nandabai Ramdas Pardeshi , who died on Tuesday afternoon after being hit by a car at Mula House Road, Khadki, Pune.

Nanda Ramdas Pardeshi, 50, Sulochana Pardeshi, 50, and Shakuntala Kachi, 56, residents of Shantinagar, Yerwada, worked on contract basis as gardeners in Ammunition Factory, Khadki (AFK).

They were returning to work after lunch at around 1.30 pm, walking on a foothpath, when they were dashed from behind by a car driven by a woman, who left behind her car and fled. Nanda Pardeshi succumbed to multiple head injuries, while the other two women were seriously injured.

Nanda Pardeshi is survived by her three children. After her husband died, the responsibility of looking after the family fell on Nanda’s shoulders.

Her son Shankar does not keep well and is unable to hold a job. Her elder daughter Kusum passed away a few years ago, leaving behind two children.

Clockwise: Nandabai’s (inset) grieving family at her kuchcha house in Shanti Nagar slums; Car driven that rammed into pedestrians and Ambika Vashisht

The two kids had become Nanda’s responsibility since Kusum’s death.

Nanda’s younger son Santosh, who is completely shattered by his mother’s untimely and sudden death, and along with his overpowering grief, he is also extremely worried and uncertain about what the future holds for his family.

“My dad died many years ago, but my mother took over his responsibility quickly. She earned around Rs 6000 from her job, and also used to make garlands to make ends meet. She used to wake up at 5 am and then went to sell the garlands, which she made after coming home from work, and cooking our meals and doing household work.

She would stay up till 2.00 am to make the garlands, and slept for just three hours. Her life was a continuous story of struggle, but she never gave up,” said Santosh.

“Our family is already in debt owing to the money we had to borrow for my sister’s marriage. My mother was the backbone, a pillar of support for our family, which came crashing down due to the negligence of a reckless driver,” he said. Nanda’s death has left the entire family in a state of shock, and the fabric of their existence seems to have been ripped apart, their foundation shattered, now that she is gone. The debt-ridden family lives in a rented tin shack in

Shantinagar. Now Santosh is the sole earning member of the family. Of the Rs 8000 he earns monthly, Rs 3000 goes towards the house rent.

Prafulla now has no money to take admission to standard XI, in spite of scoring good marks in the board exam.

He has decided to quit studies, and take up a job to support the family. And with Nanda gone, who is going to cook for them?

“After my mom, there is no one to take care of my niece who is deaf and dumb. My nephew is very young and not grown up enough to take care of her. My elder brother has health issues as he is disabled in the left leg and

can’t work. My whole world has come crashing down, with my mother’s death.

I am going through a terrible pain that cannot be expressed in words,” said Santosh.

The women driver Ambika Vashisht, 38, wife of Lt Col Dev Mohan and resident of Dehradun was in Pune on holiday, to spend time with her husband and daughter. Ambika was arrested on Wednesday morning at 11.30 am, and was released on bail by a holiday magistrate court in Shivajinagar, within a couple of hours, on furnishing a surety of just Rs 10,000. She will never know what devastation she has caused by her careless driving, which has left the

three families devastated, and one of the families in a lifetime of intense sorrow.

The nighbourhood was in a state of mourning after Nanda’s death, and the residents are aghast over the incident.

After driving in a reckless manner, that left the three women seriously injured, and lying in a pool of blood, Ambika fled from the spot, without a thought for the grievously injured women.

“I think that my mother and the other two were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Shankar Pardeshi, elder son of Nanda Pardeshi.

“I am disabled in my left leg and can’t work due to my ill health. The woman driver who caused my mother’s death, belongs to a rich family and she is well educated. She may be back at her work and her regular routine, unaware about the grief and hardship that our family members are going through.

If she had acted like a human being, helped my mother and had taken her to hospital in time, my mother’s life could have been saved,” said Shankar.

One of the injured women, Sulochana Pardeshi said, “I don’t remember anything and how I landed in hospital. We were returning from lunch when a car driven at high speed dashed us from behind. My whole family and I have been shattered by the incident. I am in a state of shock and don’t even want to remember the pain that I went through at that time. I still have a lot of minor wounds on my body and stitches on my head. How can people be so negligent, and not care about the lives of others? She did an inhuman thing by fleeing from the spot. If she had helped us, my friend Nanda would have survived,” said Sulochana. vicky.pathare@goldensparrow.com

Growing backlog of cases forces the principal bench to come up with a plan to dispose of pending cases GARGI VERMA @missgverma The National Green Tribunal is not finishing cases fast enough, or so the Principal Bench believes.

In a letter addressed to all the zonal benches, the Principal Bench has sought an ‘Action Plan’ to deal with the backlog of cases. The plans need to be ready before July 15, 2016, the letter reads.

According to the letter, exclusively with team TGS at present, the decision to create specific action plans was taken in the eleventh Full House Meeting Resolution held on May 28 at the principal bench located at New Delhi. According to the sources in NGT, Pune bench, the letter has come as the backlogs have been on the rise in the tribunal. “One of the agendas of the meeting was the increasing

backlogs, and the slow judgment. The tribunal was set up in order to clear the environment related issues fast,” said an official at the Pune Bench, requesting anonymity. “However, all zonal benches have a huge pile of backlogs already,” he said.

The letter, signed by S K Karkhale, the Western Zone Registrar, based in Pune, acting as the Registrar for the Principal Bench on vacation duty, clearly mentions that the zonal benches needed to prepare an “action plan” after internal discussion and abide by it. The same needs to be submitted to the Principal Bench for scrutiny by July 15. It is interesting to note, however, that the Pune bench doesn’t have a permanent justice yet as the acting Justice U D Salvi’s tenure was only till Friday, July 8. gargi.verma@goldensparrow.com

RAHUL RAUT

NGT asked to make action New flyover, old traffic jams plan for faster disposal

One of the exit points of the newly constructed Y-shaped flyover at Jedhe Chowk in Swargate has turned into an accident-prone spot. The Rs 157-crore flyover project bagged by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and inaugurated on May 27 starts from Satara Road near Laxmi Narayan theatre and bifurcates from Jedhe Chowk towards Sarasbaug Road and Shankarsheth Road.

Grade separator work will start on the side of

Shankarsheth Road towards Sarasbaug.

Regular bottlenecks on peak hours are seen on the narrow road at the exit of the flyover stretch that leads to Shankarsheth Road, as the spot is located in front of the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) Swargate Depot. The traffic from Tilak Road, flyover and PMPML depot converge on this narrow road causing traffic jams. The July 7 accident involving a 22-year-old engineering

student Akash Jadhav, who slipped at the exit while coming from Laxmi Narayan Theatre to Shankarsheth Road, should be a wake-up call for authorities to take immediate steps to regulate traffic at this spot. PMPML Public Relations Officer Subhash Gaikwad said, “The flyover has reduced the road width at this spot.

We have written to MSRDC to put signboard and speed breaker at this place and are awaiting response.”

It is costly for vehicles to linger at Pune airport Parking lot contractor at Pune Airport asks for Rs 85 even when private four-wheelers are not exceeding the seven-minute limit

BY SUSHANT RANJAN @sushantranjan

The next time you are going to Pune International Airport to see off or receive friends or family, remember to carry an extra Rs 100 in your wallet.

The parking contractor at the airport forces the driver to pay Rs 85-Rs 100 if a private vehicle or cab fails to leave the airport complex within seven minutes.

A total of 130 flights operate from Pune airport, with about 15,000 passengers passing through it daily. The passengers come to the airport in about 5,000-odd four-wheelers.

Some passengers, who use late night flight, complain that the parking contractor is charging extra even if they

wait for five minutes. Pune Airport Director Ajay Kumar said, “It is not in my knowledge that contractors are charging extra without exceeding seven minutes. Passengers should come forward and give us written complaints.

We will take action against the contractor.”

According to Ajay Kumar, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has implemented the rule at all international airports. “At Pune airport there is shortage of space in the drop-off and pick-up areas. Initially the free waiting time was only five minutes.

We received some complaints that five minutes was not enough. So we extended it to seven minutes” he said.

Rashmeet Kaur, 21, said that she paid extra without waiting more than seven minutes. She said, “On June 30, it was 10 o’clock, I had gone to the airport to see off my cousin. We had to give her luggage and we had booked a cab over there that was going to take us back. But due to some reason we had to wait at parking bay.

We just waited five minutes. When we returned, the parking contractor forcefully charged us Rs 100. We argued with them.

But, they did not let the cab move unless we paid more money.”

Vimantal Police Station Senior Police Inspector Sanjay B Naik Patil said, “We received some complaints from passengers and we sent them to Airport Authority. It is up to them what kind of action they will take against contractors.

“Contractor has been hired by airport

authority. They are not in our jurisdiction. We can only take complaints and forwarded it to Authority.

If something serious happen with any of passengers we will take action” he added further.

The supervisor of the service, Prakash Mhaske admitted that some of his boys

Only if a vehicle waits for more than seven minutes that the driver has to shell out parking charges.

However, at Pune airport contractor has been extorting from even those who are barely around for 4-5 minutes. Sunil Rajput (right), posted at the parking lot, was spotted forcing drivers to shell out

were involved in charging extra for vehicles owners. He told TGS, “I also received some complaints regarding forceful over charging those vehicles not exceeding the time. Again, I will also ask our boys. It will not happen again.

“In the peak hour there are huge traffic jams inside the premises. Most of the vehicle owners wait more than seven minutes. When we ask to pay extra, they start arguing with us,” he said.

As airport authorities have made an extra charge mandatory for all vehicles in the drop-off and pick-up areas stopping for more than five minutes. The surplus charge aims to ease traffic congestion around the terminal. The charge is Rs 85 for cars and Rs 100 for SUVs, if the time between entry and exit exceeds seven minutes.

Air traffic has increased at Pune and the number of passengers is growing by the day. And consequently there are more private vehicles at the airport. A private car or taxi is entitled to five minutes of ‘free waiting’ on the airport premises, most of which is usually spent queuing up at the entry and turning left and right to reach the arrival section at the other end of the cavernous parking lot. The contract has been allotted to SS Multi Services at Pune Airport. There is one person at the entrance and another at the exit point, who track the vehicles. sushant.ranjan@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

Pistorius gets 6-yr-jail for murdering Reeva

Robot Betty is trainee manager

“Keeping in mind the ongoing admission process in schools and colleges, we have asked officers to interact with the principals to avoid any law and order problems.

Detailed instructions have been issued to all the police stations.”

— Rashmi Shukla, Pune Police Commissioner

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P11

Pune’s safe city tag take a beating

BY YOGESH WAGH @YogeshWagh1857

JUNE 16, 1.30 AM, CHATUSHRUNGI POLICE STATION A 24-year-old Army Captain posted at city-based College of Military Engineering (CME), Dapodi, was kidnapped and looted when he was on his way home from a party at JW Marriot on Senapati Bapat Road. The officer was waiting for his friend to arrive with his car from the parking lot when four unidentified men in white Innova stopped and offered him a lift home. When the captain, who was drunk, refused their offer, the men forcibly pulled the captain into the SUV and sped off. The captain was driven through the city for around five hours and released only at around 7 am. He was driven through the areas of Pimple Saudagar and Bhosari, where they also changed cars.

He was beaten, assaulted and threatened throughout the ride. He was robbed of his ATM card, but when the kidnappers could not withdraw money they took away his cellphone before dropping him at Bhosari.

Pune city is known for its educational institutes, industrial houses and IT companies and projects an image of a ‘professional city’ as one finds that the city is wide awake round the clock.

For people to work confidently and productively in such an energetic and vigorous city, they need to feel not only safe but also believe that they are protected. The increasing number of crime in the city questions whether Pune is safe, especially its roads. It was always said that Pune is safe and the crime rate is low as compared to other cities of Maharashtra, and women find it safe to use city roads and jaunts day and night. TGS traces the cases of persons being looted, killed in the last month.

JUNE 12, 2.30 AM, WARJE POLICE STATION In a shocking case of loot and murder, 35-year-old autorickshaw driver Bajrang Balram was hacked to death near Ganpati Matha in Warje. The deceased was bludgeoned and multiple wounds found on body. Balram, a resident of Shivane near Karve Nagar, was attacked when he was riding his two-wheeler and proceeding towards his home, carrying a bag containing Rs 2.5 lakh. A few men accosted him when he reached his locality Ganpati Matha and killed him. The police initially thought that Balram for money but the bag containing cash found recovered from the crime scene. Further probe revealed that Balram was killed on grounds of personal hostility.

JUNE 23, NOON, WARJE POLICE STATION

Well-known Hindustani classical vocalist Pandit Mukul Shivputra (60), son of famous classical singer Pandit Kumar

Peth to Seven Loves Chowk. Again they threatened him and asked him for the ATM pin. Severely abused, Sheikh gave away the pin details of two accounts. The looters withdrew from an ICICI ATM at Market Yard, a sum of Rs 18,000 (Rs 5,000 from one account and Rs 13,000 from another). Then again the victim was shoved back into the car and they drove towards Gangadham Chowk, proceeding towards Kawasar Bagh Masjid, Lullanagar. There two of the men sitting by the side of Sheikh got down and taking this opportunity the victim pushed the other two looters out of the car and escaped. After sometime, he hired a rickshaw and went towards Pulgate and alerted his relatives. The victim and relatives went to the place from he had escaped and found the car abandoned by the looters.

The city is also witnessing incidents where misguided youths have started abusing, thrashing and hurting people randomly on roads, when they could not find money to drink alcohol. A gruesome act of violence was committed by three youths on a motorcycle at Hadapsar. They attacked three people with sharp weapons, including a knife without any provocation and the violent attack seemed to be just for the fun. The victims included Anurag Awasthi, Dattatraya Vithal Darekar and Tapeshwar Saha, who were stabbed by these men, who were unknown to each other and shocked by the attack. The two arrested minors revealed that they committed the crime as they were frustrated because they could not raise money for their daily intake of alcohol. They were drunk and needed money for drinking alcohol. The accused have a criminal record. Pune has seen cases of random vandalising of vehicles. But this was the first case where people were violently attacked and caused bodily harm.

JUNE 27, 2.15 AM, SHIVAJINAGAR POLICE STATION Santosh Walsange, the 33-year-old doctor residing at Shirur, was waiting at Shivajinagar ST Stand for the bus that will take him to Aurangabad to visit

Don’t litter in Katraj, you are under surveillance

his family when a cab driver enquired him about his destination. The doctor accepted the cab driver’s offer to take him to Aurangabad and also agreed to share the cab with another person. When the car reached Shimla Office Chowk in Shivajinagar around 2.15 am, the cab driver and the other passenger threatened and took away all his valuables, including Rs 6,100 and three gold rings and one gold chain, all valued at around Rs 1.42 lakh. The crime took place at one of the busiest places in the city.

JULY 4, 3.45 AM, DECCAN POLICE STATION In another shocking incident, call centre employee Amol Tulsidas Thombre of Karvenagar and native of Osmanabad had just returned from home to Pune, his place of work, and was waiting for the bus to take him to his flat on Jungli Maharaj Road near Sambhaji Garden. When he got down from the private bus at the place where passengers are usually dropped, two people on bike threatened to kill him at knifepoint. Thombre tried to fight

them off and hurt his left hand thumb.

Fearing for his life, the victim gave away his valuables, including mobile phone and Rs 5,000.

JULY 5, 1.30 AM, KOREGAON POLICE STATION Interior decorator Elias Ahmed Sheikh alighted from his car to attend to nature’s call on Bund Garden Road near Wadia College Chowk. Sheikh, who works in Mumbai and resides at Dhanori in Pune, was talking on his cellphone conversing with his wife while returning to his car when two people on Pulsar motorcycle met him. They started abusing, scolding and thrashing him. While the duo was abusing him, four persons in bikes joined them and shoved Sheikh into his own car. One of them drove the car and passed through Sassoon General Hospital towards Vijay Sales Corporation. They took away Rs 10,000 from the victim and threatened him to give details about his ATM pin.

On refusal, he was severely beaten. By now the car was plying through Nana

POLICE SPEAK DCP (Crime) PR Patil told TGS that crime has not increased but dipped considerably. “Police operations have become well-organised and response to dial 100 is very efficient and timely. Beat marshals on regular rounds have increased people’s confidence. What would add to the efficiency of police is fast and prompt interventions by citizens. They should not be afraid of involving themselves with the police, rather they should work alongside the police and increase their effectiveness.

Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla assured that policing will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a smart city. “People-friendly and smart policing are my priorities. We have to be well-prepared to eradicate crime from the city,” she said. yogesh.wagh@goldensparrow.com

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Katraj corporator installs CCTV and speaker near garbage bin, and reprimands wrongdoers who dump their garbage outside of the bin

BY TUSHAR RUPANAVAR @tusharrupanavar

For the last two years, The Golden Sparrow has covered Pune like no one else

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TEJAS GAIKWAD

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) garbage bins overflowing with trash, that attract stray dogs and such, are a common sight around the city. The citizens who just throw their rubbish around carelessly, so that instead of in the bin, it is cast outside. Besides the foul odour, such garbage bins also attract scavenging animals, which adds to the health hazard and unhygienic situation.

Corporator Vasant More from panel number 76, Katraj area, has however, come up with a solution to this problem. More has installed two CCTV (close circuit television) cameras near the bin, to keep a watch on how people throw garbage, in the bins or out. Th is has had the effect of people taking care to throw their garbage properly, into the bin, and the area surrounding the bin remain clean and neat. There is also a speaker installed on a pole near the bin. If anybody throws garbage out of the bin, someone in More’s office, announces on the speaker, and directs the person to throw garbage properly into the bin.

The residents of Katraj are happy with More’s initiative of installing CCTV cameras to keep the area clean.

Pune city generates 1800 metric tonnes of garbage daily, of which only 1000 metric tonnes is processed, so there is an unresolved problem of 800 tonnes of garbage. Th is remaining garbage is openly dumped at garbage depots at Phursungi and Devachi Uruli.

People living in areas close to the garbage bins said, “Since CCTV cameras have been installed near the bin, people are throwing their garbage properly into the bin. Th is bin in Katraj area has been there for long, but earlier people used to throw garbage near the bin but not in the bin, leaving this area smelly and dirty. It attracted stray dogs, which are also known to have bitten people. Th is is a key intersection of Katraj, where there is revenue (talati) office and Bhairavnath temple, so this

Recent incidents of murder, loot, vehicle vandalism expose the city’s efforts toward smart city mission

JULY 1, 10.30 PM, HADAPSAR POLICE STATION

Gandharv was manhandled and robbed at Warje. Shivputra, who stays with the family of his relative Priya Acharya of Warje, had left home around noon to Sarasbaug. He called Acharya after two hours to inquire if anything has to be brought from the market as he was heading home. Acharya called Shivputra when the latter did not come home by 3.30 pm only to hear a different voice on the other end that Shivputra has been manhandled and his bag stolen. Later, Shivputra reached home and said that he has been robbed. He told the police that he has an argument with a few vegetable vendors at Warje-Malwadi Market and four men manhandled him and snatched his bag that contained Rs 75,000, an ATM card, a bank passbook, and other documents such as driving licence.

PUNE

area is always crowded. Now that the CCTV has been installed, if anybody throws garbage outside the bin, he/she immediately gets an announcement from More’s office, telling them to throw the garbage properly into the bin. The people are aware about the CCTV and speaker, so they throw their garage into the bin.”

About the CCTV, Katraj corporator Vasant More said, “Just declaring that Pune is included in the smart city list will not make Pune smart. To make our city smart, we all must use smart ideas first. For that everybody has to work in a clever manner. Bins overflowing with garbage are a big problem in Pune city.

The main reason behind this is that people throw their garbage near the bin and not into the bin. If one person starts throwing garbage out of the bin, others follow suit, and in no time the whole area is dirty and smelly. So we have installed CCTV cameras and a speaker to keep

watch on people throwing garbage out of the bin. The people in my office can see such people and direct them over the speaker to throw the garbage properly into the bin. Now people of my ward too are aware about the CCTV and speaker, and they also tell other people to throw garbage properly into the bin. When the garbage bin gets full, my office peon calls the ward office of PMC, and asks them to clear the bin.

The CCTVs and speaker have brought about a tremendous change, and now the area around the bin is clean and neat. This is a scientific method to keep garbage bins clean in the city. PMC has 157 corporators. If everybody installs one CCTV camera to keep watch on garbage bin in his own ward, 157 bins will remain clean and help our city remain clean. This will automatically help in the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan of the central government.” tushar.rupanavar@goldensparrow.com

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THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

PUNE

“The Pune residential market has been witnessing phenomenal changes with the demand for housing shifting from areas around the city centre to far-flung locations. It continues to remain one of the best performing markets for the residential segment.”

— Shantanu Mazumder, Director–Pune, Knight Frank India

British MPs call for legalising prostitution P 13

Hospitals refuse to admit CGHS patients City hospitals are refusing cashless treatment to central employees, as CGHS officials have failed to clear outstanding bills

BY DNYANESHWAR BHONDE @dnyanesh1 Sumeet Bhargav, (name changed), 31, a central government employee working in the sales tax department, Pune, was referred to a private hospital for several blood tests, and X-ray by a doctor at a wellness centre in the Range Hills area last week, as he was not feeling well despite primary treatment. Being a central government employee, all the medical tests, treatment, and operation expenses are cashless under the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), so Sumit did not carry any money with him. But to his surprise, he was asked by doctors at Ruby Hall Clinic to deposit more than Rs 4000 for the

tests, as they had stopped treating central government patients in the hospital because of pending payment from the CGHS officials. Having no option, Sumeet and his friend Amit Singh paid Rs 2365 through debit card for the small tests, and skipped the costly tests like dengue.

It seemed that CGHS owed a whopping Rs five crore to Ruby Hall Clinic, because of which patients like Sumeet are forced to spend their own money, for no fault of theirs. The scheme was restored within a week, after requests by CGHS officials, but the outstanding amount has not been paid.

CGHS is the medical welfare scheme introduced by the Government of India under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in 1978, in Pune, for central government employees.

Currently there are 50 empanelled (authorised) private hospitals, nine wellness centres and one polyclinic in Pune that provide comprehensive medical care facilities to serving and pensioner employees, their family

members, and other entitled categories for a token contribution. Of the 50 private empanelled hospitals on the CGHS list, 26 have passed the mandatory recognition of National Accreditation Board of Hospital and

There’s no sign of school scholarship tests as yet

Twenty-year-old farm labourers’ daughter treated for rare kidney disease at Sassoon Hospital TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly

bring down his morale, we have decided to not participate this year.”

The examination council had earlier revealed that there were going to be serious changes in the pattern. It was proposed that rather than having the three 100 marks papers, which included the first and second language in the first paper, Maths in the second paper and History in the third paper, they make it two papers with 150 marks and 75 questions each with first paper of first language and Maths, while the second paper of other subjects. According to Leena Bhate, 60, a teacher who has been tutoring students for scholarship exams since the past thirty years, it will be too much for the tiny tots. “Kids generally do not have that kind of patience to solve so many questions at once. They have smaller tests in school and even those are descriptive. Multiple choice questions need more patience and presence of mind. Children can prepare for it, if they have practice material. Right now, there’s no clarity as to what all subjects are going to be included. It is not the right way to go,” she said.

However, parents are willing to go

scheme for a week, but after requests

by CGHS officials, we restarted it.”

Varshuket Biradar from Hardikar Hospital in Shivajinagar, said that they have outstanding of Rs 48 lakh from 2011. “We have tried to contact the officials several times, but they didn’t respond. We also visited Delhi CGHS office but it was of no use.”

TGS contacted Dr K M Biswas, additional director of CGHS, who had piles of uncleared CGHS forms on his table. He said that they have outsourced the scheme to a third party, who checks the forms before submitting them.

“The delay by the agency is causing the outstanding dues. He refused to disclose exactly what the outstanding amount to the hospitals was.

There are crores of rupees to be cleared regarding central government employees by CGHS officials of 26 empanelled private hospitals in Pune.

The pending amount is compelling the hospitals to either stop the scheme, or ask the patients themselves to pay from their own pockets.

Dnyaneshwar.bhonde@goldensparrow.com

Sassoon docs cure girl of rare kidney ailment

GARGI VERMA @missgverma

The state education department’s lackadaisical approach has been exposed in the delayed proceedings of the annual scholarship exam conducted by the Maharashtra Government. While students and their parents are clueless about the Middle School Scholarship and Higher School Scholarship exam, the pattern of which was changed for this academic year, after more than 30 years of existence; school administrations and teachers are worried as the syllabus has yet not been revealed.

Mother of 10-year-old Jaideep Lokhande, Dr Girija Lokhande is very worried these days. Her son had been preparing for the state scholarship exam.

“It’s not so much about the scholarship money, as it is about instilling the value of education and good performance,” she said. However, last year, her son’s batch was disappointed as the state education board and examination council had cancelled the exam. For this educational year, it was decided that the scholarship test, that had to be conducted for standard IV and VII, would now be conducted for standard V and VIII for the middle and senior school respectively.

Girija wasn’t the only one who was surprised by this move. Several parents have decided that their children won’t be participating in the scholarship exam this year. According to grade 5 student Nitin Potdar’s mother, Surbhi Potdar, “It will be difficult to prepare as the syllabus is not yet known. So, rather than let him participate half-heartedly and then losing which will

Healthcare Providers (NABH), and Quality Control of India (QCI). The remaining 16 hospitals have been given stay orders up to July 31 due to noncompletion of NABH or QCI norms.

As per the scheme, the beneficiaries

can avail of healthcare services from these hospitals free of cost. However, the pensioners and the dependents can avail of cashless treatment, while the working employees have to reimburse the claim applying to the CGHS scheme within 90 days of discharge from the hospital.

Hospitals of all systems of medicine, including Allopathy, Homoeopathy, Ayurveda, Unani, Yoga, and Siddha are within the ambit of CGHS. The rules and regulations are laid down from time to time by the Directorate of CGHS, with has its office in Mukundnagar, Pune.

Not only Ruby Hall Clinic, but several other hospitals have outstanding dues. S D Uttekar who is the co-ordinator at the Lokmanya Hospital in Chinchwad, said, “Our amount of more than one crore rupees towards the CGHS scheme is pending for the last two years. Despite this we are treating patients.”

Co-ordinator at Ruby Hall for the CGHS scheme, Manoj Kumar said.

“There is Rs five crore outstanding dues of CGHS. We had stopped the

the extra mile, if only the state education board shows them the way. “Surely if it is a scholarship test, it won’t be very easy. But a little warning of what’s coming is welcome.

We have no idea what to teach the kids anymore,” explained Shrabani Ray mother of 10-year- old Shriya.

The education department is unaware of any development. An official, requesting anonymity said, “It’s the entire state’s matter. We have no idea when it will come, since it’s not in our hands. We can only wait.” According to the Examination Council commissioner, RV Godhane, however, “The syllabus is expected to come any time now. We had to wait as it was being completely overhauled.”

The change in age groups and pattern has happened keeping in mind the RTE admissions. Sources claim that since a lot of children take admission in standard I under RTE, they ought to be given the similar opportunities as the other children. So, the age group has been adjusted in a manner so that all children are at the same level of learning. gargi.verma@goldensparrow.com

Geeta Uttam Ghayal, 20, from Samata Colony, Osmanabad, was brought to Sassoon General Hospital by her mother in April this year, as she was suffering from nausea and stomach pain. She had undergone treatment at a private hospital in Solapur for one and half months but to no avail. After undergoing several tests in Sassoon Hospital, she was diagnosed with ‘Rapidly Progressive Glomerulonephritis’ (RPGN), a kidney disease (syndrome) seen rarely in young people, in which the patient need dialysis support. After one and half month’s treatment, which cost Rs one lakh, she was discharged from hospital last week, cured and free to lead a dialysis-free life.

Geeta has returned home to her seven sisters and brother. Being from a poor background, the Rs one lakh fee was waived, and she was treated free of cost by social medical superintendent Kiran Kamble.

RPGN is a syndrome of the kidney that is characterised by a rapid loss of renal function. It is a rare auto-immune disease in which antibodies attack individual’s kidneys and lungs. If left untreated, it rapidly progresses into acute renal failure, necessitating dialysis for life or even death.

RPGN involves severe injury to the

Geeta Ghayal

kidney part called glomeruli (structures in kidney made up of tiny blood vessels).

But Geeta and her parents were unaware of these medical facts, as she was complaining of stomach pain and vomiting six months ago. Geeta was taken for treatment to Ashwini Sahakari Rugnalaya ani Sanshodhan Kendra, Solapur, a private hospital. But after one and half months in hospital, and Rs 60,000 in medical fees, she was not cured.

“Doctors from that hospital conducted biopsy test of kidney of my daughter, and even carried out a small operation, but it was not successful. Her condition worsened, so we insisted on a discharge and brought her to Sassoon,” said Geeta’s mother Laxmi.

Geeta was admitted to ward number 19 in April. Her body was swollen and she was unable to digest any food. The doctors conducted a CT scan and others tests, after which it was diagnosed that Geeta was suffering from RPGN. The doctors started treating her with medication.

Dr Nirali Chandan, resident doctor of medicine department and nephrologist Dr Nikhil Bharadwaj were the ones who treated her.

“Her kidney had got swollen and it had formed antibodies that were causing the vomiting. After conducting hemodialysis four times, we gave her ‘plasmapheresis’ 13 times. But her body was not responding to the treatment. So we administered four monoclonal antibodies injections which helped her,” said Dr Nirali Chandan. “The disease is seen in old patients but rarely in young ones,” she said.

The treatment cost of around Rs one lakh was paid by medical social department’s Kiran Kamble. “As Geeta is poor, we raised her medication expenditure through kind donors. Now she is fine and can come for follow-up check-ups” said Kamble.

Geeta is a second year student of Arts in Osmanabad. She is the seventh daughter of Uttam and Laxmi, who are farm labourers. Her brother Prakash is in standard XII. Her parent wanted a son, and they had eight daughters, but after Prakash was born, they did family planning. The parents worked hard and gave the eight daughters education so that they could be self-reliant. Two of Geeta’s sisters are teachers, two are constables, one is an engineer, and the remaining three, including Geeta, are studying at a local college.

“I want to become an officer by studying for competitive exams. My three married sisters help us financially, thanks to which we are able to get an education,” said Geeta. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

PCMC gifts seed boxes in a bid to increase green cover PCMC comes up with novel way to increase green cover in the twin township, by presenting boxes to guests and dignitaries containing seeds of various trees

BY VICKY PATHARE @Vickypathare2 Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has come up with an innovative idea to increase the green cover in the twin cities. Flowers and garlands are given as traditional custom to the guests at most functions, but, now instead of shawls, garlands or mementos, the civic body will present boxes containing seeds of more than six varieties of plants. The PCMC will be the first municipal corporation in the state to launch such a green initiatives.

The PCMC Environment Department has decided to give boxes of seeds to visitors and guests, and this will also be used during felicitations at civic functions. The seed box will contain seeds of

peepal, babul, banyan, sisam, kanchan, kadamb, jambhul, neem, mahaneem, tamarind, amla, guava, arjun, hirda, behda, bel, mehandi, desi bamboo, nirgud, hibiscus, parijatak, ashwagandha, karanj, pimpran and kanher. Also included will be a message that reads, throw seeds, grow plants and plant trees... shadows increase where there are trees, there is life…

The PCMC organises environment conservation related programmes throughout the year. Dignitaries and various committees from the country visit the PCMC. They are presented flower bouquets which are thrown away after the programme. This has led the Environment Department to gift boxes of seeds to its guests.

PCMC spends a lot of money on purchasing gift articles for dignitaries. Now, PCMC will procure 2,000 boxes costing Rs 100 each on a pilot basis.

The expense will be borne by the civic environment department.

PCMC Environment Department Executive Engineer Sanjay Kulkarni said, “The initiative of gifting a seed box has been launched by the Environment Department, PCMC from June 5, on the occasion of Environment Day. This initiative has been appreciated by citizens. The seeds are of

good quality and the plant can grow even if the seed is only one or two inches inside the soil.

“As part of the Green Maharashtra drive, PCMC planted nearly 13,000 saplings across the city. PCMC wants to increase its green cover to 35 per cent. Last week, during palkhi, on trial basis, we gave away over 1,500 boxes to warkaris in the Sant Tukaram Maharaj palkhi procession.

In a fresh approach to increase green coverage in the city, the civic body plans to distribute these boxes to environmentalists, nature lovers, social organisations, Ganesh mandals and corporators,” said Kulkarni.

Environment activist Raju Savle said, “The PCMC’s seed box gift initiative is good but after launching this initiative, who will check how many seeds have been planted? There is a need to spread the message that trees should be planted and conserved all around the year. The distribution of boxes will be an effective way to spread the message of environmental awareness.

“The Environment Department of the PCMC hasn’t taken any action against the increasing pollution in the city. PCMC must also think about the pollution and cutting of trees issues,” he said. vicky.pathare@goldensparrow.com

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

“Social work is an emotionally demanding profession, suggesting that particular attention should be given by social work employers to the workplace environment and social worker support.”

— Laura Biggart, Lecturer, University of East Anglia

“Social work is about human rights, not assessing the life out of people.”

— Rob Mitchell, Social worker for adult services, Calderdale, England

Here young girls learn football for free

Rocky Arokiaswamy and Agnell Pillay’s Commandos Academy encourages female participation in sport

BY VISHAL KALE @IamVishalK With the football fever on internationally, the number of followers of the game has also increased. Two city-based young footballers are living their dreams and helping others realise theirs. Rocky Arokiaswamy and Agnell Pillay, both 23, are regulars for local football team Commandos FC (A Team).

The duo has started a football academy for young enthusiasts, and female footballers are taught for free.

“In India sports, especially for girls, is limited. The young girls are advised to stay away from games or they are more into academics. Lack of physical activity makes them addicted to social networking, which is harmful. By teaching them for free, we are encouraging them to lead an active life involving physical activities,” Arokiaswamy said.

Hailing from a humble background, Arokiaswamy and Pillay started Commandos Academy in January and train around 8090 youngsters at Kroot Memorial School Ground, Wanowrie. One of their students Viraj Nawar will soon join Mumbai’s Barcelona Football Academy, one of the finest academies in the country.

Love for football got them together, as they bonded while playing for the same team.

The idea to start a club developed due to lack of a premiere coaching club in the city. “People keep talking about Barcelona, Liverpool and other club academies, but it’s all in the basics.

So, why couldn’t we seriously take the basics and take the love for football to great heights.

We weren’t financially stable or even had a lot

Rocky Arokiaswamy (R) and Agnell Pillay coaching girl players at their academy

of encouragement in football while growing up. We see kids who can’t afford a kit or even shoes. We wanted to help them. If we could provide encouragement and guidance to the kids, why not,” Arokiaswamy said.

Pillay lost his dad as a child and is staying with his brother Melvin, who is a horse rider, and his sister-in-law after his mother passed away four years ago. Arokiaswamy’s dad is an autorickshaw driver, mother a homemaker, and brother works in oil industry.

Arokiaswamy and Pillay are professionally trained coaches and work as private coaches apart from handling their academy. “Our families weren’t happy about the academy.

They wanted us to support them financially and football does not bring in money. They wanted us to study and get a job,” Pillay said.

The two didn’t have proper kits and used to get injured more often while playing.

However, their love and passion kept them fi rm to march forward with the academy.

They struggled to get a playground for the academy as many schools and organisations

having playgrounds turned down their offer.

The duo is grateful to the nuns of Kroot Memorial School for giving their playground with the promise to take responsibility for any damage to property.

The duo has approached many people and organisations for funding and sponsorship but as of now the academy is run from their own pockets. Both work as coaches in different school academies. The money earned by way of teaching young boys football at the academy, goes back to the club as it is spent on getting equipment. “We don’t want any profit from this academy,” Pillay said.

Arokiaswamy and Pillay have plans to expand the academy and are planning for Under-19 team for Commandos FC to take part in district-level matches. “We want some of our students to get into the Indian Super League, I-League. For that, we send them to bigger teams to learn,” Arokiaswamy said.

Th ree of the Commandos Academy students also play for Pune City FC U15 ISL Team. vishal.kale@goldensparrow.com

A unique storyteller IT professional makes grandma’s stories come alive with music

BY ABHA PANDIT @abha_pandit Entertainment has come a long way, from grandmothers telling stories to the neighbourhood children to masala-fi lled Bollywood fi lms. Here is a Puneite who combines the oldfashioned and the trendy to churn out an interesting and interactive form of storytelling. Hemant Baliwala, an information technology (IT) professional, is using his love for stories to reach out to like-minded people. Interactive storytelling is different from traditional methods.

Instead of a monologue, the storyteller takes help from the audience to move the plot along. The entire story is enacted instead of just being told and the experience is one of complete involvement. Musical accompaniment lends the mood to the tale, as different scenarios are created.

The 35-year-old considers himself a natural extrovert and a chatterbox, the traits that led him to become a storyteller. “In interactive storytelling, the audience plays an equally important role, since the story cannot move forward without the audience’s help. I try to ask them questions, usually about what they think is going to happen next and then proceed with the story after gauging their reactions,” said Baliwala. He started off by taking sessions at Aman Setu School and Gurukul School before moving to solo shows. Now, he mostly performs at public spaces like Pagdandi Books, Chai Cafe and Gyan Adab Centre, reaching out to a wider audience.

Hemant is taking the art forward in his own way, by introducing

Storytelling sessions of Hemant Baliwala (below) attracts large audience

collaborations with artistes who excel in different mediums. “I like to keep the interactions as organic as possible and try to collaborate with various artistes for each event, which lends a unique touch as they bring in their own creativity,” he said. For his event at Pagdandi last week, Baliwala teamed up with Vedashree Mahajan, a child artiste, who played a character in his original ‘Jugni’ series of stories.

In his coming performances, he has plans to work with dancers as well as other artists. Hemant’s wife Niha Jain, an HR manager, lends live music accompaniments to all his performances.

The biggest challenge he faces is keeping the entire audience engaged for the duration of the performance.

Since he began with public shows, everyone, right from children to senior citizens, drops in to listen.

“Because of the varied age group, it becomes important for me to tweak my performance so that everyone fi nds something they will enjoy. I have to change the language and mellow it down if there are children sitting in

the audience,” he said. It also becomes difficult to remember the entire plot, since there is absolutely nothing for reference during the performance.

Unlike plays, this happens in close proximity to the audience, with no fourth wall separating the two.

T h r o u g h the medium of interactive and musical storytelling, Baliwala tries to send out certain messages by way of his stories. “By depicting certain situations in my stories, I want to give subtle messages about life, without sounding too preachy,” he said. Using his art to talk about sensitive issues like the need to disregard dark complexions in India, he hopes he can reach out and connect to his audiences. “Instead of just entertaining my listeners, I would love it if they took home something good out of the whole process,” he feels. As for his future plans, Baliwala wants to collaborate with visual artists and publish his original stories as graphic novels, so that they can be easily accessible to everyone. abha.pandit@goldensparrow.com

“Instead of just entertaining, I would love listeners take home something good out of it.”

PUNE

Fight food waste, eat more Food Dosti app rewards customers for ‘clean’ plates at food joints TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly Demanding workplace and hectic lifestyle encouraging people to eat outside has led to opening of food joints at every street corner. And one of the consequences of this urban change is food wastage, and it can occur anywhere in the food supply chain — production, processing, storage, transportation, and consumption.

Pune-based techno-social start-up SamvadSocial Technologies Private Limited claims to have conceived and developed India’s first comprehensive zero food wastage application suite ‘Food Dosti’.

SamvadSocial Technologies Founder-Director Sanjeev Neve, 45, said, “The free mobile application launched on July 8 will address food wastage. To encourage the habit of zero food wastage, this app will allow those who visit restaurants and eateries regularly to earn reward points for not wasting food they are served. We are basically covering three ‘food handlers’ — restaurants, non-profits and customers. Zero food wastage will reduce production cost for restaurant owners and surplus food available in the food joint is broadcasted using the app and connected to nonprofits so that they can upcycle it to the needy.

So, this online platform connects restaurants, non-profits and customers to contribute towards a greater cause.”

Food Dosti’s useful features include ‘portion saver’ where customers have the facility of ordering only half a dish at a restaurant that uses this app. The app aims to bring about a change in customer’s food habits, by incentivising zero food wastage.

The app launch by SamvadSocial Technologies is an extension of their ongoing awareness campaign for zero food wastage cause through their collaborative platform ‘My Indian Dream’. “We invite, share and work on visions, thoughts and ideas through our platform ‘My Indian Dream (www.myindiandream.in)’ to identify those tangible ideas that can be implemented collaboratively to help address common issues in daily life,” Neve said, adding that their fi rm’s objective is to utilise the outreach of social networks and apps productively for a common benefit.

“I prefer to call the apps that we develop and deploy as ‘Socially Useful Social Applications’ (SUSA) as it for a social cause,” Neve said, who decided to start the venture after working in the processing sector of IT industry for over 20 years. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

Sanjeev Neve (left) and his team; (inset) Food Dosti app

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

There is no public transport to connect this village to the main city

In Wadgaon Shinde village, which has been adopted by Anil Shirole, the only school has a new projector and computers installed along with a water ATM which has been beneficial

the Gram Panchayat office. It is free for the public.

Previously residents used to go Lohegaon for postal work. Now, the post office has also started working since April,” he said.

Wadgaon Shinde resident

While the drainage lines have been dug up, the pipes continue to be missing and this is causing several health hazards to the nearby residents

Bhagwan Narayan Shinde, 57, works with the government sector. He is happy with the progress of the village, saying that he never imagined that any such scheme would be started, and that an MP would adopt the village. “We have seen progress in the past 18 months. We used to drink supply water, but his initiative has provided us filtered drinking water. We pay one rupee and get five litres of water, and if we pay Rs five, we get 20 litres of water.

This is progress. But we expect the road conditions to improve as soon as possible.”

Engineering student Harshad Shinde, 22, said that nothing has changed in the village. “Everything is the same as it was before. There is no public transport to connect this village to the main city.

Villagers are commuting by six-seaters.

We pay Rs 15 to reach Lohegaon. If public transport starts from the village, we will have to pay only Rs five to Rs 10.”

Navnath Shinde, 26, works for a chartered accountants firm in Rasta Peth. “If we want change, we have to change our mindset. The MP comes every three months and he plants trees, and inaugurates some thing. But who is responsible to maintain things? We will have to maintain everything. This is our village and we have to take care of things.”

Overall the residents are satisfied with the progress of the village, but they are still awaiting reliable electricity supply and a primary health care centre. The owner of a shop said on condition of anonymity, “The village is suffering owing to irregular electric supply. There are five to six hours power cuts every day. Apart from this, we are waiting for a permanent health care centre. There is one doctor in the village, but he runs a private clinic. The Gram Panchayat conducts health camp every three months.”

People’s participation is a key aspect behind the development of Karandi

K

arandi village, in Shirur tehsil, in the district of Pune, was adopted by Shirur Lok Sabha MP Shivajirao Adalrao Patil under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, on November 10, 2014.

Karandi, with a population of 5,250, is 39 km from Pune, on the Pune-Ahmednagar Road, on the b order of Shirur and Ambegaon. Shiv Sena leader Shivajirao Adalrao Patil has won the Shirur Lok Sabha seat three times in a row, by large margins, despite the Shirur Lok Sabha constituency tehsils being a bastion of the Nationalist Congress Party.

Thanks to the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahmandal Limited (PMPML) bus service, youth of Karandi travel to Pune for their education and even work. With its proximity to

PICS BY: TAJES GAIKWAD & RAHUL RAUT

W

adgaon Shinde village was adopted by Pune MP Anil Shirole on November 9, 2014.

People have heard of Wadgaon Shinde as it is close to Pune and also since it has emerged as a template of village development.

According to the 2011 Census, the location code or village code of Wadgaon Shinde is 556208. It is in Haveli tehsil of Pune district, 15km away from Pune. The total geographical area of village is 607 hectares, and it has a population of 3,069.

There are 591 houses in Wadgaon Shinde.

Residents of Wadgaon Shinde feel that since Shirole adopted the village, it has seen slow and steady progress. The installation of Wi-Fi and availability of filtered drinking water and ATMs, have changed the face of the village. The Swachh Bharat Mission has also inspired residents to build toilets in their homes. Of the 591 families in the village, 540 have already built toilets. Even the below poverty families are building toilets in their homes.

Gram sevak Ganesh Hemaji Walkoli told TGS, “When we got to know about Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, and MP Anil Shirole adopted this village, we are confused about how to make this village an adarsh village. The question has been raised in front of the district administration. Then some members and officials were sent to Baramati for training.

Anil Shirole visits the village and meets the residents and asks them about the progress, every three months. Because of him, WiFi facility has been introduced in

Wagholi industrial area, Karandi youth are employed there. The village has 13 elected panchayat members, of which seven are women. The gram panchayat office, talati (revenue) office, conference room, gramsevak, sarpanch, deputy sarpanch offices, are all under one roof.

Karandi has a well-tended garden, which is a boon for children and senior citizens. The gramsevaks and talati come to the village daily. Thanks to the online facility, caste, domicile, income certificates are easy to get.

Karandi gets water from Chaskaman dam, and sugarcane is the main crop cultivated in the village. There are four dairy farms, which are a source of income for the village. It is

not wholly dependent on agriculture, as village youths are getting jobs in industries. The overall situation of the village is good. The wells in the village have enough water, and borewell water is released in the wells, so there is no water shortage in Karandi. The village library gets five Marathi dailies.

On the downside, Karandi does not have a primary health centre, and the primary school building is in a sorry state, and is in urgent need of repairs. There are 32 families below the poverty line in the village.

Ninety-five per cent of the residents have their own toilets, but the remaining five per cent do not, so they have no option but to defecate in the open.

MP Adalrao Patil chalked out a Rs 33 crore

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Saansad Adarsh

YET TO TRANSF ADOPTED B

Two years after PM announced the scheme to develo adopted by our very own

BY TUSHAR RUPANAVAR, SHAILESH JOSHI & SUSHANT RANJAN @TGSWeekly

P

rime Minister Narendra Modi, soon after taking over the reins of power, launched the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, on the birth anniversary of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan, on October 11, 2014, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. The aim of this scheme was to develop villages of the country with the help of the Members of Parliament. A Lok Sabha member can choose a Gram Panchayat with a population 3000 to 5000 in the plain areas, and 1000 to 3000 in hilly, tribal and difficult areas within his/her constituency. Rajya Sabha members can choose villages

development plan for the village, of which work worth Rs four crore has been completed. Karandi village has its own website www.grampanchyatkarandi. co.in, and the village recently got ISO 9001-2008 certification for its gram panchayat office.

Since MP Patil adopted the village under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, pending works are cleared immediately by the Zilla Parishad and state government, and it is making progress on the path of development. People’s participation is a key aspect behind the development of Karandi.

About Karandi’s development, high school teacher Omprakash Jadhav said, “Patil had given laboratory apparatus to the high school last year. Then Patil gave funds to village high school for constructing two classrooms now this work is under construction.”

Karandi Sarpanch Lalita Shinde said, “MP Shivajirao Adalrao Patil personally visited the village many times. Initially Patil made the development plan for our village Karandi, and soon after he started implementing the plan with the help

The roads in Karandi village, which has been adopted by Shivajirao Patil, are full of potholes and extremely accident prone while the Gram Panchayat building is well decked up

from the state from which he/she was elected. MPs elected from urban constituencies, can choose villages from nearby rural constituencies, and nominated MPs may choose villages from rural areas of any district in the country.

Inspired by the principles and values professed by the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, the primary goal of the scheme was to develop three Adarsh Grams by March 2019. One would be achieved by 2016, and thereafter five villages per year would be selected and developed into Adarsh Grams by 2024.

The MPs have to envisage the integrated development of the selected village across multiple aspects, such as agriculture, cleanliness, dignity of women, social justice, spirit of community service, eco-friendliness, peace and harmony, mutual co-

The only primary school in Karandi village is facing infrastructural problems with broken walls and benches

of various government machinery. Our proposed animal husbandry hospital is now under tender process. For that we have Rs 76 lakh. The MP installed 40 LED lights on the streets of Karandi under his area fund. He has also given Rs eight lakh for a crematorium (Dashkriya Ghat). The construction is completed and it is now being used by the residents. We recently rebored 11 borewells, for which we got Rs 2.5 lakh from Zilla Parishad on the request of MP Patil. Karandi is now on the path of development under the guidance of our MP Shivajirao Adalrao Patil.”

A youth from village, Sagar Varpe said, “Our MP is working hard for the development of our village Karandi.

Since he has chosen our village for the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, our village has got a better identity on the district level. Patil allocated Rs one crore from various schemes for Internal roads in the village. Th is summer we dug deep Continuous Contour Trenches (CCT) in village nullahs to control the rain water. Rain water stored in our land will increase our ground water level automatically.

Most importantly, our MP has given us free WiFi in our village, which has a range of around one km, and it is very helpful for the youths taking higher education.”

Karandi resident Shivaji Darekar said, “Since MP Adalrao Patil adopted our village, the district collector and tehsil officials come to our village regularly, which never happened before.

So our village is now on the path of development.”

A gram sevak (village development officer of state rural development department) said, “Karandi village is very much ahead in terms of development compared to other villages. MP Adalrao Patil continuously visits Karandi and reviews every work in the village development plan. He personally arranges meetings with the district collector, and other officials regarding pending works. Our farmers have done excellent work in micro irrigation as well with the help of Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. We have built a Samaj Mandir (community temple) for Dalits under the Dalit empowerment programme.”

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

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h Gram Yojana

FORM VILLAGES

BY OUR MPS

op villages, not much has changed, at least in villages n Members of Parliament operation, self-reliance, local self government, transparency, accountability in public life, health, education, sanitation, environment, livelihoods and infrastructure development.

The PM had chosen villages, as a village is the basic unit of development, so as villages develop, the overall picture of the nation would change automatically.

Social mobilisation of the village community is a key aspect MPs have to focus on, and bring about a reduction in hazards like alcoholism, smoking, substance abuse, drugs/tobacco/gutkha use among all age groups of the population.

But the downside of the plan was that the central government did not reserve funds or make extra allocations of budget for the scheme. As a result, MPs had to integrate schemes of central and state government

to implement development programmes with the help of Zilla Parishads, district administration and the state government. MPs have to organise meetings with district collectors for the development of village and effective implementation of schemes. As the MPs did not have special funds, effective implementation of schemes is a tough task. Two years after the launch of the scheme, MPs now have to choose new villages for the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

The Golden Sparrow undertook a fi rst ever review of villages adopted by MPs elected from the four Lok Sabha constituencies from Pune district in the 2014 general election. TGS team visited the four villages adopted by Pune MP Anil Shirole, Baramati MP Supriya Sule, Shirur MP Shivajirao Adalrao Patil and Maval MP Shrirang Barne.

Carrying cans of water to their house from about a km away is a regular affair for the Dalit community living in Dapodi village which is adopted

by Supriya Sule. Even the roads in this locality are in a sorry state

The Dalit community is upset as roads have not been constructed in their areas

D

apodi village, in Daund taluka, Pune district, was adopted by Baramati Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, on November 9, 2014..

Dapodi village is 67 km from Pune. It has a population of about 4000. A majority of the villagers are dependent on agriculture and sugarcane is the cash crop in Dapodi village.

The roads in the village are in a really bad state. Landlords have constructed concrete roads in their areas, but roads have not been constructed in Dalit areas. The Dalits are unhappy with Supriya Sule’s working methods, and express their grievances openly.

Drinking water is supplied by tankers to the village. There are two wells, water from which villagers take for their daily use, and they depend on water tankers for drinking water. The village does not have a drainage line. There is no state transport bus service in Dapodi. The village has 10 to 12 hours power cuts every day. There are more than 150 families in Dapodi below the poverty line and MP Sule has not made any plans for their upliftment.

Gram Panchayat member Sunil Rupanavar said, “Since our village was adopted by MP Supriya Sule, our village development has speeded up. Sule has given us a kitchen for our school through her MP fund. Now the school compound work is going on under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. Supriya Sule has promised to install Pune District Co-operative Bank ATM in our village. We have built six public toilets.”

MP Supriya Sule’s local representative for village Dapodi for implementing the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, Rambhau Tule said, “Surpiya Tai has given a library to our village through Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. We also constructed a study room for students of our village. We have installed UPS in the study room for continuous power supply. Water supply is a major concern in Dapodi, so Supriya Tai, with the help of Pune Zilla Parishad and her own MP area fund, planned a Rs 2.5 crore water pipeline from Aatoba Lake to our village. It will benefit our village and adjacent areas as well, as they will get water through this pipeline.

We have also installed solar panels on the roof top of the library, so that we are able to give power supply to our primary health centre and library during power cuts. There are as many as 25 self help groups in our village operated by village women. Supriya Tai took efforts to give small bank loans for self help groups. Tai has also

The village has a reading room which has a solar back-up plan to ensure that it is never left in the dark

given ten goats to the poor people of our village. Recently through Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, we have constructed a crematorium (smashanbhoomi) worth Rs five lakh in our village. We have constructed a water tank in Dalit areas for water supply.”

Dapodi village Dalit resident Mangesh Chavan said, “We are very upset over roads not being constructed in Dalit areas. They have constructed roads in almost all areas of the village but they did not build roads in Dalit areas intentionally. Some landlords of the village have encroached on Dalit crematorium area, but MP Sule did not pay attention to the matter.”

Village resident Nishigandha Chavan said, “Supriya Sule is helping all women’s self help groups of our village. I have purchased a mini tractor through self help groups at low interest rate. Supriya Tai always helps women’s self help groups of our village. We have given training like sewing to self helps group women. Supriya Tai installed 240 LED lights in our village.

Supriya Tai also gives shops at Bhimthadi Jatra in Pune to sell products made by our village women. One of our village women, Sunita Shendkar, purchased a papad machine and she is now running a papad business.”

Potholed roads, no sewage facility, school lacking infrastructure...

B

andhapada village, in Uran taluka, Raigad district was adopted by Maval Lok Sabha MP Shrirang Chandu Barne.

Bandhapada village is 117 km from Pune city. It is near the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), on the western sea front and is surrounded by the backwaters of the Arabian Sea. It has a population of 3900. The village is spread in three revenue villages and five padas, so it has a group Gram Panchayat. The village school has classes up to standard X. The smell of fish is in the air at Bandhapada, due to the backwaters. It has had heavy rains since last week, and the farm lands are full of rain water. The roads are in a bad state as they have not been repaired in the last few years, and the heavy rains have only made matters worse, with broken patches and potholes galore.

The Gram Panchayat office is housed in a rented room. Land for development is an obstacle as being near JNPT, farmers are getting crores of rupees for their lands, so nobody wants to give land for government projects. There is no sanitation facility, well, sewage lines/nullahs, so sewage water gets mixed with rain water.

Bandhapada resident Kishor Patil said, “Our MP Shrirang Barne has come to our village 5-6 times, since he adopted

our village for the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, on November 7, 2014. Our major concern is that our school building is in a state of collapse, so we have demanded funds for a new school building from MP Barne.”

Bandhapada Sarpanch Bhavana Mhatre said, “We have proposed total 94 development works under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana for our village. Out of these, we have decided to do 60 works on a priority basis in the next few days.

We have given fertilisers to 50 farmers under this scheme and installed 16 solar lights. We have an industrial area in our village limits, so under the CSR corporate social responsibility from these companies, and MP Shrirang Barne’s fund, we have developed a Nana-Nani park for our village. Bandhapada did not have its own garden, and now we have fulfi lled our promise. Water supply system development is now our top priority, for which we have purchased a water fi lter as well. Recently we have started work of our own Gram Panchayat in 18 R (guntha) land, on which we plan to build a Gram Panchayat office, multipurpose hall and library. For that we have allocated total funds of Rs 60 lakh. Our village Bandhapada’s school building is in critical state, so we have given application to

One can find stagnant water on the roadside in Bandhapada village adopted by Shrirang Barne. This is home to mosquitoes and several other health hazards

MP Barne and companies in the village limits to support the school building plan financially. We have made a Rs three crore plan for the school building, which will have classrooms from KG to standard X.” Bandhapada resident Kailas Mhatre said, “Self help groups of our village women are very active, and provide training in tailoring, and beauty parlour work to village women. These women have become self-reliant. We have asked for 30 sewing machines to the Zilla Parishad and MP Barne for our village women. MP Barne is helping in the speedy development of the village. But the Raigad Peasant and workers party is in power at the Zilla Parishad, and they restrict our projects at the ZP level.”

But 194 families of Bandhapada do not have a basic facility like toilets. The birth ratio of girls is higher than boys, which is commendable. The boy-girl ratio is 950:1000. The Sarpanch has declared to give Rs 3000 Kisan Patra for girls’ births, and the scheme is getting a good response from the villagers. Literacy rate of the village is almost 95 per cent.

Bandhapada high school standard X result is 100 per cent every year.

Maval MP Shrirang Barne said, “The central government launched the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, but did not allocate any funds for the scheme. How can MPs develop villages without funds? I have used Rs 50 lakh from my area fund in development works of Bandhapada village, which I have adopted. I have written to the rural development department of the central government to extend my adoption of Bandhapada village till 2019, because as per central government announcement, MPs have to choose another three villages from 2016. So I have decided to develop Bandhapada village properly under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.”

One of the signs of development in this village is the well-built Nana Nani park which is a treat for all children living there

The only primary school in Bandhpada village is lacking infrastructral development

A new garbage collection van has been making the rounds in the village (above left) while the gram panchayat is still under construction (above right)

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

PUNE

TECH/START-UP

“Employee benefits and rewards as a space has remained the same for decades.

Companies are forced to use age-old practices for the lack of a wholesome and better solution.”

— Bhavin Turakhia, Co-Founder & CEO, Zeta

Common code exists in various laws P 12

New avatars of Windows 10 and Android are coming Microsoft and Google are updating desktop and mobile OS respectively

What’s new in Android 7.0

Android N (currently in Developer Preview status) is now officially christened Android Nougat. It’s the 12th nicknamed version of Android and will be released to the public in the autumn of 2016. But don’t expect phone makers to port it till early 2017.

BY ANAND PARTHASARATHY The late Canada-born Media Mughal, Marshall McLuhan once said: “If it works, it’s obsolete!” This becomes blindingly obvious if you buy a new laptop, tablet or smartphone. Most of us PC users are still comfortable with an older version of the operating system (OS) like Windows 7 and have resisted the regular exhortations, popping up on our screens, to upgrade for free, to Windows 10. We bank on the tried and tested principle: ‘If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’.

But how time flies! Windows 10 is a year old — and Microsoft has just announced the first Anniversary Update of Windows 10, on August 2 — free for the 350 million devices which are already using the system.

Mobile phone users can be pardoned for a similar feeling of being swept off their feet by the pace of events: Only a minority of such users have updated to the current version of the Android OS — Marshmallow 6.0. Many phones don’t upgrade automatically and the makers usually develop amnesia about customers once they have made the sale. Now Google has announced that the next release of Android version 7.0 will be out in this quarter — and will be called Nougat continuing the tradition of alphabetically naming them after confectionary. A small disappointment for lakhs of Indians who lobbied to have it called Neyyappam after the South Indian sweet — but that’s another story.

Key new features

Android Nougat icon unveiled at Google headquarters last week

Both Microsoft and Android chose to announce their OS updates through blogs rather than formal announcements — which is why you may not have heard about them from mainstream media. We have trawled the blog trail on your behalf, sifted fact from hype and provide you with a summary of key new features you can look forward to in Windows and Android.

l Android Nougat introduces a split-screen multiwindow mode, in which two apps can be snapped to occupy halves of the screen l Seamless updates are also introduced, following Chrome OS. Software updates will be able to install in the background and run with only a reboot. This is possible because of the introduction of two system partitions, one for use and the other for updates.| l Android Nougat will be the OS where Google fully supports Virtual Reality devices like headsets. It will incude Daydream, a set of VR headset and controller hardware standards. l A new “Data Saver” mode restricts background mobile data usage, and can trigger internal functions in apps that are designed to reduce bandwidth usage, such as capping the quality of streaming media among other examples. Browsers like Opera have been offering this and Google is playing Catch-Up. l A new set of human emoji is also included in this version, with support for skin tones

What’s new in Windows 10 Anniversary Update We were late in India to get Cortana, the digital voice assistant, but now that she is here, many of us are hooked by the easy path she offers to get information or schedule reminders. Post-August, she will be even easier to reach — sitting outside the lock screen. This means you don’t have to go through the log-in process just to ask Cortana a question. And after PCs and phones she will now be available on the Xbox gaming console too.

There are two other new features, one seemingly looking forward, the other back: Windows Hello, the biometric password tool will be standard on the Windows browser — Microsoft Edge.

It supports three types of biometric recognition: face, fingerprint, and iris.

The Windows update will allow a host of other devices to unlock your PC without the always —

forgotten passwords. To open mail or an app, you could use a fingerprint scanner on a companion device like the Microsoft Band, a health wearable, that, though not formally launched in India, is already available here for around Rs 17,000.

The other innovation in Windows 10 will appeal to those still uncomfortable with digital note taking. It is called Windows Ink and lets you write on your device as you do on paper, creating sticky notes, drawing on a whiteboard, and easily “sharing your analogue thoughts in the digital world”.

There are a lot of tweaks to improve the Edge browsing experience and the Windows Defender anti-malware service. May be finally, some more of us conservative ones, will be encouraged to be brave and embrace Windows 10!

Cheaper by the dozen!

Samsung goes whole sale — launching 44 TV sets with 11 innovations between them You have to be really long in the tooth to remember the original 1950 comedy classic with the same title as this piece, which starred Clifton Webb — but you might remember the 2003 Steve Martin starrer with the same name and its 2005 sequel.

It is politically incorrect in India to make jokes about families with 12 children — but a Korean TV maker who churns out new sets and launches them in India by the dozen? That’s OK! On July 6, Samsung launched dozens of new TV sets — 44 to be exact — across three categories: the premium Ultra High Definition range which Samsung calls SUHD, with proprietary Quantum Dot colour technology; the mid-segment range of Internet-ready smart TVs and the surprise of the pack: Joy Beat TV, a made-for-India music TV range.

V Sudhakshina who was there at the Delhi launch event, writes: With its jumbo launch, Samsung has a headstart on competitors, with an offering to suit every pocket from Rs 28,000 to Rs 24 lakhs — nicely timed for the upcoming spending (sorry, festive!) season.

Samsung claims that its Quantum Dot Display, delivers 64 times more colour shades than a conventional UHD TV and can “express” up to 1 billion colours in detail. We don’t know what ‘express’ means and we didn’t even begin to count a billion colours — but all we can say is the image from a high definition source like Blu-ray is quite stunning with even the deepest shadows revealing some detail. This goes hand in hand with high dynamic range (HDR) which in dummy’s language means a 1,000-fold difference in the contrast between lightest and

darkest images. Be prepared to shell out between Rs 1.8 and Rs 2.4 lakhs for a SUHD TV. Mid-price range TVs these days come with Internet access through your home WiFi. The Samsung Smart TV launches this week, remove one common irritant: having to juggle multiple remote controls that come with TV, set top box, game console, video player... Samsung Smart TVs automatically recognise the type of external device connected to the TV and set users control all of them with the Smart Control Remote. A Smart Hub lets you switch from one source to the other, be it live TV, Pay TV or VCR. Users can also share content seamlessly between PC, phone and TV or stream using Bluetooth. The Smart range has a price band of Rs 34,500 for a 32-inch model to Rs 7 lakhs plus for an 88-inch TV. Touted as ‘ India’s own Music TV’ , Samsung’s Joy Beat range is designed in India to meet the desi demand for superior ‘Bollywood class’ sound. This it achieves with front-facing woofers (for a good bass) coupled with tweeters to deliver the higher frequencies. The Joy Beat range costs Rs 27,900 (32 inch) to Rs 69,500 (49 inch).

IndiaTechOnline

Nestle India whose Bar One is a nougat based sweet, gave its light hearted take on how Google might have stumbled on the name of its new version.

Marketing engineers!

‘Amura’ in Sanskrit means wise, intelligent, sharp-sighted, astute. Take a new concept like digital marketing and pour in equal measures of these four attributes. Add a pinch each of sales, advertising and customer relations. Stir well, heat and serve.

The result can be tasted at a web platform called Sell.Do (‘SellDotDo’), an innovative digital solution, crafted at Balewadi, Pune headquarters of Amura, an IT products and services company cofounded in 2011 by five graduates from the College of Engineering Pune — Vikram Kotnis, Ketan Sabnis, Vinayak Katkar, Pratik Rokade and Kiran Narasareddy. Some like Managing Director Kotnis, rounded off their education in the US and worked with global firms before founding Amura.

This allowed the quintet and their team of developers to understand what exactly small and medium enterprises in India looked for when it came to the tools of marketing, sales and customer relations — and why existing options including some big global brands did not provide a cost-effective solution. The result was Sell.Do — a solution which added another ingredient — advertising — to the usual marketing-sales combo

and ended up as a one-stop shop for enterprises who needed to capture and track online and offline customer leads, manage sales teams, run email and other digital campaigns, tailor advertisement campaigns, evaluate impacts... in short a complete solution from click to closure.

As of now there are few competing products — and Amura has quickly acquired over 150 clients for its platform and sold 2500 user licenses. These licences are tailored to be affordable by a wide spectrum of user companies, ranging from Rs 2,999 per month to just over half a lakh rupees per month.

In the process, Amura has made a name for itself in the real estate business, with an overwhelming majority of their clients coming from this sector. But the 200 Amura staffers like to think of themselves as ‘marketing engineers’, and are exploring other areas: Education is already a promising arena and by August, the Sell.Do platform will become more generic, all set to make to small and big enterprises, a Godfatherlike ‘offer you can’t refuse’: “Get on with your core competence and entrust the job of finding and keeping your customers to our platform”.

IndiaTechOnline

Amura co-founders with some members of their Pune-based creative team

Smart Phone reviews Phonetabulet

Launched last week, the Xiaomi Mi Max is a phone and phablet rolled into one!

Xiaomi has just launched the Mi Max in India with a jumbo 4850 mAh battery that promises to keep you going for two days between recharges, not bad considering that with a screen size of 6.5 inches, this device is more phablet than phone. With a screen resolution of 1080 by 1920 it is a full HD device - necessary if you want to use the large size to watch movies. Both RAM (3GB) and on board storage of 32 GB (Rs 14,999) or 4GB and 128 GB (Rs 19,999), speak for a phone on steroids, as does the 16 megapixel rear camera with 5 MP selfie front camera.

It’s no slouch weightwise, at 203 grams.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 650-powered 4G device takes dual GSM SIMs - helpfully micro or Nano SIM. The finger print sensor is conveniently placed on the back.

We can’t imagine users carrying a phone this big comfortably in their pants - but if they are OK with custom-stitching the pockets in their swinging blue jeans, the Mi Max might be a snug fit.

Functional Beauty The OnePlus 3 is a canny mix of design and performance The first thing that grabs your attention with the OnePlus 3 is its aesthetic design. Built with anodized aluminum, it features a unibody metal frame with curved edges.

Weighing 152 grams and just 7.3 mm thickness, the device is slim and sleek with a sturdy grip. It comes with a 5.5 inch screen with 1080p Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display and a pixel density of 401 ppi. Another interesting feature of the OnePlus 3 is its huge RAM: With a whopping 6GB this smartphone is capable of giving a tough competition - memory-wise - to high-end laptops or desktops. Of course there is the debate on how practical and effective it is for a smartphone to have such huge RAM? If you are someone who does heavy lifting (data-that is) through your phone, this might be helpful.

The device runs on a quadcore Snapdragon 820 processor. It features OnePlus’ proprietary Oxygen OS on top of Android Marshmallow. The internal storage is 64GB. We feel that the non-expandable storage is restrictive for such heavy performing device. The 16 megapixels rear camera comes with 4K recording feature at 30 fps. The front camera has 8 megapixels resolution with f/2.0 aperture. This dual-SIM device is 4G and NFCenabled. This last feature will be increasingly important as the world moves to a contactless payment regime.

The 3000 mAh non-removable battery comes with the DASH fast charging feature. OnePlus 3 is now available on Amazon for Rs. 27,999.

Budget Friendly

The Panasonic Eluga Note is a value-for-money device packed with some pretty decent features We got our hands on the recently announced Panasonic Eluga Note at its launch event in Delhi earlier this week - and here’s what we think. This is one of the few devices in India to feature an infrared sensor also known as the IR Blaster with a smart remote control app, which can convert your phone into a common remote control to operate all home appliances like television, air conditioner, etc. A definite plus point! Sporting a 5.5-inch body, Panasonic lists this device under its phablet category. Design-wise the Eluga Note features a plastic body with a textured back. Weighing 142 grams with 8.1 mm width, it feels light-n-sleek and can be operated single-handedly.

Images are bright and colourful on its full-HD display with 1080x1920 pixels resolution and pixel density of 403 ppi.

The primary camera of 16 megapixels with auto focus and triple LED flash is a decent performer.

The front camera is only 5 megapixels, which might not impress the selfie lovers. The Eluga Note comes with latest Android 6.0 with Panasonic’s FitHome 2.0 UI on top, which allows few gesture controls and thumb app access.

It runs on a 1.3 GHz Octacore Processor with 3 GB RAM. The 32 GB internal memory is expandable up to another 32 GB via micro SD card. The dual-SIM device supports VoLTE (Voice Over LTE) as well as 4G LTE data. It packs a decent battery life with 3000 mAh. Priced at Rs 13,290, the Panasonic Eluga Note will be available from next week at phone stores across country.

Reviewed by Vishnu Anand and V Sudhakshina (IndiaTechOnline)

ENVIRONMENT “Development and environment go together.

They are not against each other. We need to look at the issue in this manner.”

— Anil Dave, Environment Minister

38.7% Indian kids stunted, suggests report India has fared worse than even some sub-Saharan countries in terms of number of children who are stunted, according to a report on global nutrition.

With 38.7 per cent children in the country suffering from stunting, India ranks 114 in the list of 132 countries surveyed. The percentage is much higher than the global prevalence of stunting at 23.8 per cent, as per the latest Global Nutrition Report (GNR).

“At current rates of decline, India will achieve the current stunting rates of Ghana or Togo by 2030 and that of China by 2055,” noted the report.

Currently, China ranks 26, which is 106 notches above India, while Ghana and Togo rank 52 and 80, respectively.

However, India and other countries are winning their fight against this form of malnutrition, the report says.

“India almost doubled the rate of stunting reduction in the past 10 years compared with the previous decade.

That is highly significant given that India is home to more than one-third of the world’s stunted children,” GNR said.

Other important finding of the survey is that families with people suffering from cardio-vascular diseases spend 30 per cent of their income on treatment of the ailment.

The report also noted an increase of nearly 58 per cent in the cost of hospitalisation due to cardio-vascular diseases in the country in the period between 1995 and 2004.

The report is an annual assessment of countries’ progress in meeting global nutrition targets established by the World Health Assembly and commitments made at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in 2013.

PTI

Researchers analyse pro-ISIS chatter, social media hashtags used as “signals” to trace groups

For the study, researchers monitored pro-ISIS groups on VKontakte, the largest online social networking service in Europe

Researchers have developed a model to identify behavioural patterns among online groups of ISIS supporters that could provide cyber police and antiterror watchdogs a roadmap to their activities and help predict terror attacks.

Researchers from University of Miami in the US identified and analysed second-by-second online records of 196 pro-ISIS groups operating during the first eight months of 2015.

They found that even though most of the 108,000-plus individual members of these self-organised groups probably never met, they had a striking ability to adapt and extend their online longevity, increase their size and number, reincarnate when shut down - and inspire “lone wolves” with no history of

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

An intelligent and highly sophisticated robot developed by a research team of University of Birmingham in the UK is joining the world of work as a trainee office manager.

The robot, named Betty, will greet guests at reception and carry out tasks at the Transport Systems Catapult, based in Milton Keynes, in the UK, for a twomonth trial period.

Betty’s duties will include patrolling the offices, assessing how many staff members are in the office outside working hours and monitoring the environment by collating data on clutter,

office temperature, humidity and noise.

She will also check fire doors are closed and desks are clear. A highly sophisticated robot, Betty runs Artificial Intelligence-driven software developed by an international research team led by the University of Birmingham.

Betty is part of the £7.2 million EUfunded STRANDS project where robots are learning how to act intelligently and independently in realworld environments while understanding 3D space and how this changes over time from milliseconds to months.

Nick Hawes, from the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham, who leads the STRANDS project, said: “For robots to work alongside humans in normal work environments it is important that they are both robust enough to operate autonomously without expert help, and that they learn to adapt to their environments to improve their performance.”

TSC Chief Operating Officer Mark Ruddy said: “At the TSC, we are excited to be hosting the STRANDS project.

Betty should feel right at home here.”

PTI

extremism to carry out horrific attacks.

“It was like watching crystals forming. We were able to see how people were materialising around certain social groups; they were discussing and sharing information - all in real-time,” said Neil Johnson from University of Miami.

Generalising a mathematical equation commonly used in physics and chemistry to the development and growth of ad hoc pro-ISIS groups, researchers witnessed the daily interactions that drove online support for these groups, or “aggregates,” and how they came together and multiplied prior to the onset of real-world campaigns.

Researchers suggest that by concentrating just on these relatively few groups of serious followers - those that

Protein that may help fight ageing identified Researchers say they have identified a protein that acts as a powerful protectant against free radicals which cause cell damage and death, ageing and disease.

Scientists have sought new ways to repel free radicals for years.

Now, a new University of Michigan study outlines the discovery of a protein that acts as a powerful protectant against free radicals.

Ironically, the protein is activated by excessive free radicals. Human mutations of the gene for this protein are previously known to cause a rare, neurodegenerative disease.

Lysosomes, which comprise the cell’s recycling centre, are crucial for cleaning up injured and dying parts of the cells, said lead researcher Haoxing Xu, associate professor at the University of Michigan (U-M) in the US. When lysosomes “sense” an overload of free radicals, they activate a calcium channel on their membranes. This triggers the expression of many genes and the production of more and stronger lysosomes, which rev into overdrive to rid the damaged parts of the cells. Free radicals are guilty in the ageing process, Xu said. The study was published online in Nature Communications.

PTI

People are more likely to protect women than men People are more likely to sacrifice a man than a woman when it comes to both saving the lives of others and in pursuing their self-interests, a new study has found. “Our study indicates that we think women’s welfare should be preserved over men’s,” said Oriel FeldmanHall, a post-doctoral researcher at New York University.

In one experiment, study subjects read one of three versions of a “Trolley Dilemma” - a commonly used technique in psychology studies. In the trolley scenario, subjects read one of three versions of the dilemma, where each vignette described a man, woman, or gender-neutral bystander on the bridge.

The participants were then asked how willing they were to “push the man/woman/person onto the path of the oncoming trolley” in order to save five others farther down the track. The results

showed that both female and male subjects were much more likely to push the male bystander or one of unspecified gender than they were the female bystander.

In another experiment, subjects was given 20 pounds and told that any money they held at the end of the experiment would be multiplied up to 10-fold. The subjects interacted with other individuals — the researchers’ confederates. The subjects were told that if they decided to keep the money, these individuals would be subjected to mild electric shocks. However, if they gave up the money, it would prevent the shocks from being administrated. Here also women were less likely than men to be subjected to shocks. The answers suggested that social norms like women are less tolerant to pain, it is unacceptable to harm females, and chivalrous behaviour were followed.

PTI

JULY 9, 2016

PUNE

“Preventing obesity in the early childhood years may be a cost-effective way to tackle the obesity crisis, improve the nation’s health and reduce the economic burden of obesity.”

— Alison Hayes, Associate Professor, University of Sydney

Novel model to track ISIS activities online

Robot Betty is trainee manager

Nick Hawes from University of Birmingham with Alan Nettleton at the company with Betty the Robot

H EALTH

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

discuss operational details like routes for financing and avoiding drone strikes - cyber police and other antiterrorist watchdogs could monitor their buildup and transitions and thwart the potential onset of a burst of violence.” This removes the guess work. With that roadmap, law enforcement can better navigate what is going on, who is doing what, while state security agencies can better monitor what might be developing,” said Johnson.

“So the message is find the aggregates - or at least a representative portion of them - and you have your hand on the pulse of the entire organisation, in a way that you never could if you were to sift through the millions of internet users and track specific individuals, or specific hashtags,” Johnson said.

Study suggests any online “lone wolf ” actor will only truly be alone for short periods of time, he added. For the study, researchers monitored proISIS groups on VKontakte, the largest online social networking service in Europe. They searched pro-ISIS chatter manually, identifying specific social media hashtags, in multiple languages, which they used as “signals” to trace the more serious groups. The hashtags were tracked to online groups, and the data was fed into a software system. The results were repeated until the chase led back to groups previously traced in the system, researchers said. The findings were published in the journal Science.

PTI

Say ‘I think I can’, and better your act Telling yourself that you can do better can actually improve your performance at a given task, a new study has claimed.

Over 44,000 people took part in an experiment to discover what motivational techniques really worked.

The participants were divided into 12 experimental groups and one control group. In conjunction with BBC Lab UK, Professor Andrew Lane from University of Wolverhampton and colleagues tested which physiological skills would help people improve their scores in an online game.

The study examined if one motivational method would be more effective for any specific aspect of a task. The methods tested were self-talk, imagery, and if-then planning. Each of these psychological skills was applied to one of four parts of a competitive task: process, outcome, arousal-control, and instruction, researchers said.

People using self-talk, for example

telling yourself “I can do better next time” - performed better than the control group in every portion of the task.

The greatest improvements were seen in self-talk-outcome (telling yourself, “I can beat my best score”), self-talk-process (telling yourself, “I can react quicker this time”), imagery-outcome (imagining yourself playing the game and beating your best score), and imagery-process (imagining yourself playing and reacting quicker than last time).

Researchers also found a short motivational video could improve performance. Participants watched a short video before playing the online game. ‘If-then’ planning was found to be one of the least successful of this study, despite being an effective tool in weight management and other real life challenges, researchers said.

The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

PTI

Free will necessary to know your true selves: study Diminishing a person’s belief in free will may lead to them feeling less like their trueselves, ultimately driving them to depression, a new study suggests. ”Whether you agree that we have free will or that we are overpowered by social influence or other forms of determinism, the belief in free will has truly important consequences,” said Elizabeth Seto from Texas A&M University in the US. Researchers manipulated people’s beliefs in free will to see how this would affect the subjects’ sense of authenticity, their sense of self. To influence the feeling of free will, nearly 300 participants were randomly separated into groups and wrote about experiences that reflected free will or showed a lack of free will.

They were then asked questions to evaluate their sense of self. Those in the low free will group showed significantly greater feelings of self-alienation and lower self-awareness than those in the high free will group, researchers said.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

PUNE

“Most of the benefits of fertilizer subsidy and minimum support price go to farmers who have irrigation facilities and that are mostly large farmers.”

— Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj

IPS officer to check cow smuggling CHANDIGARH: Haryana government entrusted IPS officer Bharti Arora with the task of supervising and monitoring the functioning of teams constituted in all the districts of the state to check slaughter and smuggling of cows.

While stating this here, an official spokesman said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has approved a proposal to this effect.

The headquarter of Arora for this assignment will be at Bhondsi in Gurgaon district. 62 Non-Gazetted Officers and 224 Other Rank Police Personnel have been posted in police teams for this purpose, he said.

The state police has also launched a 24-hour helpline number-8284030455 to report incidents of cow smuggling or slaughter, he said.

The information regarding any such incident will be conveyed to police officials, who would send special teams to the concerned area, he added.

As many as 307 cases have been registered between January 1 and April 30, 2016 under Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act 1960.

Also, 85 cases have been registered under Punjab Prohibition of Cow Slaughter Act 1955. During this period, 191 cows have been rescued and 446 persons have been arrested.

The spokesman said during last year, the state government had enacted the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act which has a provision of imprisonment of up to 10 years in case of cow slaughter.

PTI

Common code exists in various laws

How can you police the net, asks NCW

Law Commission Chairman Justice (retd) BS Chauhan said the code has been in place in many laws and not been linked to religion; panel will take time to present report

New Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (right) had said the decision to refer the Common Code matter to the law panel should not be linked to the UP election due next year

NEW DELHI: Amid a raging debate over the implementation of a uniform civil code in the country, Law Commission Chairman Justice (retd) BS Chauhan said the code has been in place in many laws and not been linked to religion.

The government had last month asked the law panel to examine the implementation of the common code.

While the move was opposed by some political parties and activists, ruling BJP had hailed it.

“It (uniform code) had never been linked to religion in many cases,” Justice

Chauhan told PTI. Supporting his observation, he said Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Evidence Act, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act and UP Abolition of Zamindari Act are some legislations where a common law is applicable to all without consideration of religion.

He said these laws do not discriminate on religious lines. “These laws have been observed for years and no one has raised any question.

Most people are perhaps unaware that common code exists in many laws,” he

Farmers to get low interest crop loans NEW DELHI: Farmers will get short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh at a subsidised interest rate of 4 per cent this fiscal, provided they repay in time, or else a higher rate of 7 per cent will be charged.

“The Central Government will provide interest subvention of 5 per cent per annum to all farmers for short term crop loan up to one year for loan up to Rs 3 lakh borrowed by them during the year 2016-17. Farmers will thus have to effectively pay only 4 per cent as interest.

“In case farmers do not repay the short term crop loan in time they would be eligible for interest subvention of 2 per cent as against 5 per cent available above,” said an official statement issued after the Cabinet meeting.

The subvention scheme is applicable for all farmers availing short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh for one year, Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Interest subvention scheme is for public and private sector banks,

Subdued demand may hit India growth P 14

in addition to cooperative banks, regional rural banks and NABARD for providing short term crop loan to farmers.

Further, in order to give relief to small and marginal farmers who would have to borrow at 9 per cent for the post harvest storage of their produce, the government has approved an interest subvention of 2 per cent. This means the effective interest rate is 7 per cent for loans up to six months.

Also, “to provide relief to the farmers affected by natural calamities, the interest subvention of 2 per cent will be provided to banks for the first year on the restructured amount,” the release added.

Government has set an agricultural credit target for banks at Rs 9 lakh crore for the current fiscal, up from Rs 8.5 lakh crore 2015-16.

The interest subvention scheme was earlier implemented by the Finance Ministry. It was transferred to the Agriculture Ministry this year.

PTI

said. He, however, said it is too early for him to say anything concrete on the Law Ministry reference.

“We will have to examine the various issues involved, segregate them and then talk to various people on those lines...we will have to see whether it is time to regulate the various laws in one go or in phases or to regulate them (in one common code) at all,” he said.

He said the Commission will take time to present its report to the government. After sorting out various issues, it will seek public opinion by perhaps putting up a consultation paper on its website.

Taking over as the new Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad had said the decision to refer the matter to the law panel should not be linked to the election in Uttar Pradesh due next year. Prasad said there was a need for “wider consultation” on the issue before arriving at a decision. Implementation of a uniform civil code is one of the core issues of BJP and the Sangh Parivar but the NDA governments in 1998 and 1999 and the current dispensation headed by Narendra Modi have put the contentious issues like scrapping of Article 370 giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir and construction of Ram temple on the back burner.

PTI

New Delhi: Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Maneka Sanjay Gandhi after a Cabinet meeting at South Block in New Delhi

NEW DELHI: A day after the Women and Child Ministry stepped in to protect women from online trolls and asked National Commission for Women to monitor such cases, NCW Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam raised strong objections and asked how could one police the net.

“You can’t police the net. It is an open space, it is like a galaxy almost.

There are billions of twitter accounts and no organisation can keep an eye on twitter. It is not physically possible for anybody to say we are following everybody’s twitter...

“The problem with cyber crime is also that it is a very specialised crime.

It can be dealt with by experts. Only the police can actually take action on this”, Kumaramangalam said.

However, the day after Maneka Gandhi announced that victims of online abuse and troll could file a complaint by sending her an e-mail at gandhim@nic.in, her inbox was swamped with several grievances.

The ministry introduced

AP survey to cover 1.48 cr households

WEAVING HISTORY

Visitors looking at the world’s largest Wooden Charkha that was unveiled at T-3 Departure Forecourt, IGI Airport in New Delhi

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh government will conduct a ‘Smart Pulse Survey’ for collecting socio-economic data of 1.48 crore households in the state. The first phase of the survey will commence on July 8 with enumerators collecting details of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at his riverfront residence at Vundavalli near here.

The first phase of the survey was supposed to begin on June 20, but was put off as training of the personnel was not completed in time.

The state Cabinet on June 1 decided to conduct the survey to determine the socio-economic status and collect all other relevant details of each household in the state. Revenue and civic staff would go round the houses and collect the data during the above dates.

Citizens could provide their details over the Internet as well.

PTI

Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh Modi and Shah are leaving nothing to chance to replicate the success of BJP in 2017 LS Poll in state

BY SUNIL GATADE

Vol-III* lssue No.: 04 Editor: Yogesh Sadhwani (Responsible for the selection of news under the PRB Act, 1867) Printed and Published by: Shrikant Honnavarkar on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. CIN:U22200PN2014PTC151382 and printed at PRI – Media Services Private Limited CIN: U22222MH2012PTC232006 at Plot No. EL-201, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Mahape, Navi Mumbai.

Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. 1641, Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411 030, Tel: 020-41220010.

#IamTrolledHelp so women could raise an alarm on Twitter apart from e-mailing complaints. The hashtag was one of the top twitter trends through most of the day. The ministry will now have its own women cyber cell and a Joint Secretary has been designated to look into such complaints.

“This morning, I received several complaints through e-mail. So, we have decided that we will have a women cyber cell where each complaint will be looked into,” Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said.

She will be having a joint meeting later this week with representatives from Twitter, Facebook as well as police department to work out a strategy to address complaints of online abuse.

Maneka said “we are talking to both Twitter and Facebook but mostly Twitter because of the sheer number of abuse and foul language used on this forum. We will have a discussion with Twitter, Facebook and police to develop a strategy”.

PTI

Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh scheduled early next year is going to be an exciting affair. It being common knowledge that ‘road to New Delhi goes via Lucknow’ , rival parties are putting up their best foot forward to come up winner in the prestigious polls.

Lok Sabha elections are schduled in middle of 2019 and before that the Uttar Pradesh polls would be the best barometer of things political.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah are leaving nothing to chance to replicate the success of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in UP in next year’s polls.

But the general feeling is that as of now the ruling party at the Centre faces an uphill task. The BJP had secured 71 seats in the Lok Sabha polls out of total 80 seats from the state making mincemeat of its rivals under a Narendra Modi wave.

That election had witnessed a duck for Mayawati’s BSP, just five seats for the ruling Samajwadi Party of Mulayam

Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav with Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahli greeting Muslims on the Eid-ul-Fitr festival at Eidgah in Lucknow

Singh Yadav and only two seats that of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi for a shocked Congress. Now Mayawati is being seen as number one in the state with local people fed up with the ‘misgovernance’ of the Samajwadi party in which law and order is a major problem.

However, the BSP also faces problems given the fact that its number two leader in the state Swami Prasad Maurya left the party only last week making serious allegations against Mayawati.

The 2007 victory in Uttar Pradesh by BSP supremo Mayawati is considered a defining moment in Indian politics given the fact that it was the first time a regional party made it so big in the crucial state on

its own. Last elections, the Samajwadi Party secured a majority on its own by riding on the anti-Mayawati sentiments.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav faces an uphill task despite being able to emerge from the shadows of his father and a young leader in his own right.

But the fact is that the Samajwadi Party carries much baggage despite Akhilesh trying to project himself as a young face with a fresh agenda and seeking to assert himself in the backdrop of tussle among his heavyweight uncles and senior ministers.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi knows pretty well that his test is in Uttar Pradesh. He has deployed

poll strategist Prashant Kishore to help and assist the state unit raising a host of questions about his own ability and competence. Ghulam Nabi Azad has been brought as the new General Secretary in charge of the state by Gandhi but questions remained how fit is the organisation ahead of the crucial battle. Demands are gaining ground that Priyanka Gandhi be made face of the party in the state. Congress had secured just 28 seats in the 403 member Assembly in the 2012 polls in which Rahul Gandhi was the star campaigner Politics of Uttar Pradesh has been dominated by regional parties BSP and SP for the past 15 years with the national parties playing a second fiddle.

After the victory in Assam, the BJP is in a buoyant mood but is grappling for an issue that could catch people’s imagination. Right now, its attempt appeared to be to project Modi as “Upwallah” on one side while on the other to communally polarise the state through issues like alleged exodus of Hindus from Kairana.

One thing is however clear that the Assembly polls would be a keenly contested affair given the fact that the electoral verdict in the politically key state would have far reaching implications.

PTI Feature

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

A never-say-die attitude works for Pooja P 16

UN: Fight extremism with social media UNITED NATIONS: The nature of terrorism, including the increased radicalisation of individuals through social media, has changed over the last decade and violent extremism can only be eradicated by including preventive measures, the United Nations chief said in a report to the 193-member General Assembly.

Ban Ki-moon’s study calls on member states to employ conflict resolution, empower youth, develop educational opportunities and embrace human rights in the battle against terrorism. The report is part of the General Assembly’s two-year review that ends yesterday of the UN’s 10-year-old global counterterrorism strategy. “We need to pay more attention to why individuals are attracted to violent extremist groups,” Ban wrote. In September 2006, the General Assembly adopted a strategy to support national, regional and international efforts to battle terrorism.

Its basic tenets included prevention, the building up of countries’ capacities to fight terrorism, strengthening the UN’s role, as well as ensuring the rule of law. Members adopted by consensus a resolution yesterday incorporating many of Ban’s suggestions as the world body seeks to adapt to developments in international terrorism and violent extremism over the past decade.

Ban noted that in recent years terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, Al-Qaida and Boko Haram “have shaped our image of violent extremism and the debate on how to address the threat.”

He said in recent years these groups have effectively used social media to communicate their “ideas and exploits.”

Iraq war based on ‘flawed intelligence’

BY ADITI KHANNA

Catherine Calothy, an anti-terrorism official in France’s ministry of foreign affairs, welcomed the recommendations for preventing radicalisation. She said she hoped for a swift military defeat of (the Islamic State), but said the phenomenon of radicalization would continue.

“Prevention is an issue that no state can ignore,” she said.

Ban said young people should be empowered by supporting their participation in activities that prevent violent extremism and engage them in decision making at national and international levels, especially those from under-represented groups. He also pointed to the importance of education and jobs and called on member nations to develop communications strategies to counter the social media messages of violent extremists. Britain’s Ambassador to the United Nations Matthew Rycroft applauded the resolution and said it raises the “global ambition to do more together” to fight terrorism after a decade in which the UN as a whole could have been more effective.

AP

Oxford to counter male image with portraits Seeking to counter its image as having a male bias, Oxford University has commissioned artists to paint dozens of new portraits of living figures connected to the prestigious institutuion representing diversity in gender, race, disability and LGBTQ. The portraits will cost 900 pounds each and comes along with a sticker campaign with the words “next in the frame” around the world famous university asking staff and students to nominate suitable subjects by the end of this week, ‘The Sunday Times’ reported.

The university said the first phase of its “Diversifying Portraiture” project, launched in 2014, involved collecting 250 existing portraits of people who had “challenged the stereotypes and preconceptions of their times” and putting them online. It was now looking for suggestions for “fresh portraits of living figures connected to Oxford representing our diversity in gender, race, disability and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer) identity”.

PTI

“This November, US will have a very clear choice to make between visions of where America should go. This isn’t even really a choice between left and right or Democrat and Republican, but about whether we have an America that works for everyone.”

— Barak Obama, US President

Chilcot report states Blair did not exhaust all peaceful options before joining the war

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his wife Yoo Soon-taek in Beijing

LONDON: Tony Blair led Britain into an ill-planned, badly executed and illegal war to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein based on “flawed intelligence”, an inquiry into the US-led 2003 invasion today said in a damning indictment of the former prime minister’s decision to go to war. “We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort,” John Chilcot, the chairman of the official inquiry into the war set up in 2009.

The UK did not exhaust all peaceful options before joining the invasion of Iraq, the former senior civil servant said.

He also said judgments about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction “were presented with a certainty that was not justified” and post-war planning was “wholly inadequate”.

His 12-volume, 2.6-million-word report on the Iraq war comes over seven years after the inquiry was ordered by then prime minister Gordon Brown in 2009. Reacting to the report, Blair claimed it absolves him of any “lies or deceit” even as he expressed “sorrow and regret” for the 180 British soldiers were killed in the war from 2003 to 2009.

The Labour party stalwart, 63, who was in charge when the UK joined

Protesters holds placards outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, shortly before the publication of the Chilcot report into the Iraq war

US forces to invade Iraq in 2003, said he will take “full responsibility” for any mistakes made but stressed that Chilcot’s ‘Iraq Inquiry’ makes clear there was no “falsification or improper use of intelligence”.

“I will take full responsibility for any mistakes without exception or excuse. I will at the same time say why, nonetheless, I believe that it was better to remove Saddam Hussein and why I do not believe this is the cause of the terrorism we see today whether in the Middle East or elsewhere in the world,” Blair said in a statement.

Delivering a crushing verdict on Blair who was prime minister when the UK decided to go to war alongside the US to unseat Hussein as president of Iraq, Chilcot said, “When the potential for military action

arises, the government should not commit to a firm political objective before it is clear it can be achieved. Regular reassessment is essential.

“The UK’s relationship with the US has proved strong enough over time to bear the weight of honest disagreement.

It does not require unconditional support where our interests or judgments differ,” it said. Chilcot’s long-overdue report spans almost a decade of UK government policy decisions between 2001 and 2009. It covers the background to the decision to go to war, whether troops were properly prepared, how the conflict was conducted and what planning there was for its aftermath, a period in which there was intense sectarian violence.

PTI

Pistorius gets 6-yr-jail for murdering Reeva PRETORIA: South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to six years in jail for murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home three years ago.

High Court judge Thokozile Masipa listed several mitigating Oscar Pistorius factors for sentencing him to less than half the minimum 15-year term for murder, including the athlete’s claim he believed he was shooting an intruder.

“The sentence that I impose on the accused... is six years imprisonment,” she said.

Pistorius, 29, hugged his family before being taken out of the court in Pretoria to begin serving his term.

The double-amputee Olympic and Paralympic sprinter was freed from prison last October after serving one year of a five-year term for culpable homicide — the equivalent of manslaughter.

But an appeals court upgraded his conviction to murder in December.

Pistorius shot Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 2013, saying he mistook her for a burglar when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet.

The sentencing may not be the end of the long legal battle, as Pistorius or the state could launch a final round of appeals against the length of the prison term.

PTI

UK poised to get second woman PM

SPACE MISSION

It is May versus Leadsom in all-woman contest after Gove was eliminated from Conservative party leadership race

Boys play with a football under a Soyuz rocket installed as a monument in Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The Russian rocket carried US astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin and Japan astronaut Takuya Onishi

British MPs call for legalising prostitution A cross-party group of British MPs led by Indian-origin lawmaker Keith Vaz has called on the UK government to decriminalise sex work and prostitution, fi rst time in decades that Parliament has considered the “polarising” subject.

The House of Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee (HAC), which is chaired by longest serving Indian-origin MP Vaz, had conducted a review into the practice and released its interim report last week.

“Th is is the fi rst time that Parliament has considered the issue of prostitution in decades. It is a polarising subject with strong views on all sides,” Vaz said in a statement.

“As a fi rst step, there has been universal agreement that elements of the present law are unsatisfactory.

Treating soliciting as a criminal offence is having an adverse effect, and it is wrong that sex workers, who are predominantly women, should be penalised and stigmatised in this way.

The criminalisation of sex workers should therefore end,” he said.

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The HAC said the UK Home Office should immediately change existing legislation so that soliciting is no longer an offence and brothelkeeping laws allow sex workers to share premises, without losing the ability to prosecute those who use brothels to

control or exploit sex workers.

The committee called for “zero tolerance” of organised criminal exploitation of sex workers and demanded legislation to delete previous convictions and cautions for prostitution from the record of sex workers, as these records

make it much more difficult for people to move out of prostitution into other forms of work if they wish to.

“The committee will evaluate a number of the alternative models as this inquiry continues, including the sex-buyers law as operated in Sweden, the full decriminalised model used in Denmark, and the legalised model used in Germany and the Netherlands,” Vaz said.

The interim report released on July 1 will be followed by final recommendations based on a study of the various models.

Britain has around 70,000 prostitutes who make an average of 2,000 pounds (USD 2,653 or Rs 1.7 lakh) a week, according to the report’s estimates.

Sex workers in Britain charged an average of 78 pounds (USD 103 or Rs 6,925) for services and had around 25 clients per week.

Under present UK law, it is not illegal for consenting adults to buy and sell sex but soliciting it is not permitted.

PTI

Britain is poised to get its fi rst woman Prime Minister in more than a quarter of a century since Margaret Th atcher as the race to succeed David Cameron after the Brexit vote narrowed down to home secretary Theresa May and energy minister Andrea Leadsom.

May will now go head to head with Leadsom in an all-woman contest after justice secretary Michael Gove was eliminated from the Conservative party leadership race with the least votes in the second round of voting.

“Th is vote proves the Conservative party can come together,” May said after she received the backing of 199 Tory MPs compared to Leadsom’s 84 and Gove’s 46.

May and Leadsom will now begin their campaigns to convince the wider Conservative party membership around the country for a fi nal round of voting with the winner set to be declared on September 9.

It is now certain that the winner will go on to become Britain’s second female Prime Minister after Margaret Th atcher.

July 7 results were announced at Westminster by Conservative MP Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee.

There had originally been fi ve contenders to succeed Cameron, who had announced his resignation after Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) in June 23 referendum.

The contest now moves to its fi nal stage with the Conservative Party’s 150,000-strong membership deciding between May, a Remain campaigner with a long track record in government, and Leadsom, a strong Brexit campaigner with a background in business by postal ballot.

The race had thrown up its share of controversies with Gove’s campaign chief, Nick Boles, allegedly texting MPs to vote tactically in favour of his candidate.

His message read: “What if Theresa stumbles? Are we really confident that the membership

Theresa May

Andrea Leadsom

won t vote for a fresh face who shares their attitudes about much of modern life, like they did with IDS [Ian Duncan Smith]? It triggered a backlash, forcing Boles to apologise and claiming that Gove had no knowledge of his message.

It had led May to urge her supporters to not vote tactically as she once again called for a “proper contest”. The 59-year-old has gradually emerged as the candidate with the most backing among both remain and leave camps within the Tory party, despite having supported Cameron during the EU referendum campaign.

“Under Theresa’s leadership, the motives of the Conservative Party will never be in any doubt,” said Indian-origin minister Priti Patel, a Brexit supporter who threw her support behind May. PTI

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

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MONEY MATT ER S

“Indian economy is too robust and resilient to be affected by exit of any individual. If you look at where the growth comes from, it comes from domestic consumption.”

— Naushad Forbes, Vice-President, CII

Signpost SC notice to Centre, on plea on P-notes Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre, RBI, market regulator SEBI and CBI on a plea seeking a direction that the offshore portfolio investors, who invest in the Indian stock market through participatorynotes, should not be allowed to withdraw the money till further orders. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan issued the notice on the interim application, which was filed by advocate ML Sharma in his pending PIL seeking CBI probe against Indian offshore bank account holders named in the Panama papers. P-notes are derivative instruments issued by registered foreign portfolio investors to overseas investors to enable them trade in stock market here without getting registered with SEBI.

Subdued demand may hit India growth Moody’s says policy changes may improve business environment and productivity growth

India’s growth over the coming years will be challenged by lacklustre global demand, high corporate leverage and impaired credit supply, Moody’s Investors Service said.

The passage of land acquisition and Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill has stalled, which illustrates that “political friction will keep the reform process uneven and slow-moving,” it said.

“Domestic political developments amid an uncertain global environment in 2016 are likely to keep the market sentiment volatile,” Moody’s said in ‘Inside India’ report.

It however expects India’s mediumterm potential to be supported by the gradual implementation of further targeted policy reforms, improving the business environment, state of infrastructure and productivity growth.

Moody’s said passage of bankruptcy law and NPA recognition in banks would be credit positive, if it leads to improved bank capitalisation levels, renewed loan growth and robust risk processes. “Growth will be adversely affected by high leverage of some large corporates that will also weigh on credit demand, while impaired assets in the banking system will negatively affect credit supply,” Moody’s Senior VP and Manager Marie Diron said.

Moody’s said lower nominal growth affects government revenues, suggesting that the government will have to rein in

‘Tax department must trust assessees’ Making a case for increasing the taxpayer base, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the government’s intention is to keep taxation rate “moderate” and emphasised that tax department needs to start trusting the assessees.

He also said that all grey areas are being made clearer when it comes to taxation and the tax department.

“Ease of communicating with tax department is going to continue. All the grey areas, the unclear areas I think by virtue of clarifications and notifications are now increasingly becoming clear,” Jaitley said. In the last few months, procedures have been simplified and the “assessees have never seen such an easy and friendly approach of the taxation department”, he noted.

His remarks also come against the backdrop of various initiatives being taken to ensure that the taxation system becomes more friendly towards taxpayers. Listing out various measures aimed at simplifying the procedures, Jaitley said dispute resolution mechanism has been put in place at the appeals stage

“Growth will be adversely affected by high leverage of some large companies, which will also weigh on credit demand, while impaired assets in the banking system could negatively affect credit supply.”

— Marie Diron, Vice President, Moody’s Investors Service

with respect to tax matters.

Jaitley said the tax rate would be reasonable while the tax base has to be much larger and “the tax department has to start trusting the assessee and the taxpayer”.

In a strong message to those evading tax, Jaitley said such people would face serious action and that the government is plugging the escape routes.

“Those who were involved in the Liechtenstein accounts, those who are involved in the HSBC accounts and which were held to be illegal, are now facing prosecution. Those holding illegal accounts as disclosed in the Panama papers will also meet the same fate. We have revised our (tax) treaty with Mauritius so that there are no such routes available where people get away with earning income in India and not paying taxes. “So, investors and taxpayers are going to be taxed on the basis of residence-based principles,” Jaitley said. Currently, the country has a taxpayer base of about 5.4 crore people.

PTI

corporate pricing power, will hold back investment activity for at least several quarters.

“Despite an accommodative monetary policy stance, we expect growth in domestic fi xed asset investment to remain lacklustre,” it said.

Outlining India’s growth challenges, it said lacklustre global demand constrains exports, which account for around 20 per cent of GDP. Also two years of drought have dampened consumption, with weak rural incomes and higher food inflation lowering purchasing power.

Global rating firm says Britain’s exit from the European Union would have only ‘limited impact’ on India’s financial markets as exports to the UK and the rest of the European Union account for 0.4 per cent and 1.7 per cent of the GDP respectively

spending to meet its deficit target.

“This will leave little room for fiscal measures to support investment or offset potential negative external or domestic shocks, which continue to pose downside risks to our forecast of around 7.5 per cent real GDP growth in the next two years,” it added.

It said Britain’s exit from the European Union would have only “limited impact” on India’s financial markets as exports to the UK and the rest of the European Union account for 0.4 per cent and 1.7 per cent of the GDP respectively. Moody’s expects macroeconomic policies to contribute to sustained robust growth, and thereby allow for gradual fiscal consolidation.

The US-based agency has a ‘Baa3’ rating on India with a positive outlook. .

Moody’s said the positive outlook on the sovereign credit rating incorporates the implementation of policies, as well

Brexit is not good for world: SBI Chairperson India will need to “re-examine” and “renegotiate” the trade access with the EU and UK after Brexit, according to SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya who called the development a “step back” amid globalisation.

“I believe that we will benefit more by globalisation.

Brexit is actually a step back in the sense that you are going back from being connected to being on your own.

If you look at it ideologically, I would say Brexit is not something that probably is good for the world,” Bhattacharya said during a live Facebook chat with the former Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Sree Sreenivasan.

Bhattacharya, who is currently in the city, will be meeting investors and rating agencies.

PTI

as measures to improve fiscal, inflation and external metrics.

The move towards inflation targeting and improved monetary policy credibility contributes to maintaining inflation at moderate levels.

“We assume that the impact on inflation of the significant increases in public sector wages and pensions as most of the Pay Commission’s recommendations are implemented, will be limited in size and short-lived.

Meanwhile, ongoing fiscal consolidation contributes to more moderate inflation, which will help contain risk premia and thereby financing costs,” Moody’s said.

It said India’s low income levels and potential to improve productivity offer opportunities to ‘catch-up’ GDP growth at levels higher than similarly rated peers over the longer term. It said continued high corporate leverage, low nominal domestic growth and lack of

Raising FDI via hybrid instruments may come with riders The government may put certain conditions on domestic companies that are keen to bring in foreign investments through optionally and partially convertible debentures.

According to the proposal of the Finance Ministry, domestic companies can issue hybrid instruments like optionally and partially convertible debentures to foreign players with the condition that they have to be converted into equity shares based on ‘fair market value’ within a stipulated time. Hybrid instruments are intrinsically debt instruments which give the holder an option to convert into equity at a later date.

The notification on hybrid instruments eligible for FDI is likely to be issued by RBI later this month after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approves it, a Finance

PE investments halve in six months; investors wait & watch After a ‘dream run’ last year, private equity investments eased in the first half of this year with deals worth USD 5.8 billion, down nearly 46 per cent as investors went on a ‘wait and watch’ mode.

According to News Corp VCCEdge, private equity (PE) investments in India, excluding real estate, deals worth USD 10.6 billion were recorded during the January-June period of last year.

There were 643 deals, down 13 per cent compared to 737 deals a year ago.

Moreover, median deal value too was down to USD 1 million from USD 1.58 million.

Sector-wise, information technology, financials, industrials, consumer discretionary and utilities were the top five sectors to attract significant

private equity capital during the quarter.

India’s financial capital, Mumbai, continues to be a hotbed for M&A while Delhi NCR leads the private equity activity in the country, the report added.

The year so far has seen a stark increase in angel investments, while

Bharat Mission and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). “Naidu has strongly pitched for US investments in urban sector in India explaining the opportunities under new initiatives of the government to a host of US policy makers, officials and corporate,” Urban Development Ministry said.

Naidu held “extensive” discussions with US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets Arun Kumar, former New York Mayor and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies

Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor of New York Alicia Glen and officials of US Trade Development Agency.

He also held talks with chief executives and senior officials of several leading companies like KPMG, IBM and Master Card, besides addressing US-India Business Council.

Bloomberg, whose organisation is associated with holding Smart City Challenge competition in India, acknowledged the “new vigour” for recasting the Indian urban landscape

Framework on less-cash payments systems Reserve Bank has brought in a framework for moving towards a society less dependent on cash transactions and also making mobile banking services a preferred choice of a wider mass with its Vision Statement termed as ‘Payment and Settlement Systems in India’.

The Vision-2018 reiterates RBI’s commitment to encourage greater use of e-payments by all sections of society so as to achieve a “less-cash” society.

“The policy efforts will also focus on ensuring that access to mobile banking services is seamlessly provided to the large number of users of non-smartphone handsets in multiple languages,” it said.

The broad contours of Vision-2018 revolve around the 5Cs: Coverage, Convenience, Confidence, Convergence and Cost. Coverage is enabling wider access to a variety of electronic payments services, convenience is to offer ease of use of products and processes while confidence hinges on promoting integrity

Ministry official said. “Optionally and partially convertible debentures will be construed as hybrid instruments which have to be converted into equity within a specified date at the fair market value,” the official told PTI. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the 2016-17 Budget had announced that a basket of eligible instruments will be brought in to include hybrid ones that will expand the scope of tools that foreigners use to invest in India. “The basket of eligible FDI instruments will be expanded to include hybrid instruments, subject to certain conditions,” Jaitley had said.

As of now, only those which are fully and mandatorily convertible into equity within a specified time is reckoned as part of equity under the FDI policy and eligible to be issued to persons residing outside India.

institutional funding across venture and late stage have slowed down considerably.

While the Southern States like Karnataka continue to top in cornering investor capital, North Indian states like Rajasthan and Punjab pip Western states like Maharashtra in deal volume and value growth, the report said.

Karnataka with 144 deals worth USD 2,318.76 million pipped Maharashtra with 141 deals worth USD 1,141.91 million.

Delhi with 98 deals worth USD 508.76 million was third in terms of volumes, while Haryana attracted USD 735 million, the report added.

In value terms, while the eastern region saw over 68 per cent decline, the western region saw over 60 per cent fall in PE investments.

India pitches for US money in urban sector India has strongly pitched for US investments in its urban sector missions, highlighting various initiatives of the government for recasting the country’s urban landscape.

Addressing the US policy makers, officials and corporate leaders here on Thursday, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu listed out various schemes of government under urban sector such as Smart City Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, Swachh

BY KALPANA MANDAL

Lastly, it said, high leverage for some large corporates weighs on credit demand while impaired assets in the banking system negatively affect credit supply.

Government’s policy response will likely have mixed results. Imposition of minimum import prices for steel, for example, will be mildly positive for the sector. By contrast, expensive telecom auctions in 2016 will contribute to a further increase in leverage in the telecom sector, which is yet to digest last year’s auction outcome, Moody’s said.

PTI

of systems, security of operations and customer protection. Convergence envisages ensuring interoperability across service providers while cost is to make making services price effective for users as well as service providers.

“Building a robust payments infrastructure in the country to increase the accessibility, availability, interoperability and security of the payment systems will continue to remain a key objective”, states the document.

RBI said the proposed new policies

to be framed under the Vision with focus on electronic payments will influence trends in payment systems in the country.

“The high mobile density in the country is being increasingly leveraged to offer payment services by a wide range of payment service providers so as to enable an on the-go, faster payment experience to the customers”, it said.

Service providers will be encouraged to use technology to provide innovative easy to use mobile based payment solutions in an interoperable environment

without compromising on security.

The banking sector regulator will also review the existing on prepaid payment instruments (PPIs), mobile banking guidelines and White Label ATM (WLA) guidelines. RBI expects the Vision to result in a continued decrease in the share of paper-based clearing instruments; growth in individual segments of retail electronic payment systems — NEFT, IMPS, card transactions, mobile banking.

PTI

and said that it is a “win-win situation” for all, the statement said.

The US companies told Naidu that they are working on proposals to take advantage of investment opportunities under Smart City Mission and other initiatives, it said. United States Trade Development Agency has already inked MoUs with Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh for assisting in developing Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam as smart cities.

PTI

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY JULY 9, 2016

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VOX POPULI temperament to listen to a lecture on economics, politics and philosophy.

When: July 15, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Where: Classic Rock Coffee Co., Kalyani Nagar

FINAL DR AFT

each inspired by the characters and the story. Support you house and let that banner fly high.

When: Ongoing Where: The Irish House, Phoenix Market City, Viman Nagar

CERTIFICATE COURSE IN FINE ART

Imagination Roof, an art studio at Bhosale nagar in association with Art Circle is introducing a certified course in Fine Art by Ruve Narang.

The course will cover everything from sketching to painting using water and acrylic colours, among other things.

The registerationf or the course is Rs 2000 and the students must carry their own material.

When: Starting July 9 (every Saturday), 10 am to 12 pm Where: Imagination Roof, Bhosale Nagar

WORLD BURGER TOUR

K ARL MAR X IN K ALBADEVI

GET HIGH ON GAME OF THRONES

If you worship the Mother of Dragons, our very own Khaleesi or call yourself a diehard fan of Jon Snow Irish Bar is the place to be. As the Game of Thrones fever takes over, The Irish House will launch a special drinks menu for all you fanatics out there.

The Dragons, The Wall, Hand of the King, Seven Kingdoms, Winter is coming and Sunspear are all cocktails,

Directed by Manoj Shah the play Karl Marz in Kalbadevi is about Karl, played by Satchit Puranik’s rage when he realises that the two words which he fathered - communalism and socialism are being used as negatives in the modern day world.

He is desperate to clear his name and ends up in Kalbadevi due to some quirky reasons. He waits impatiently to speak up his mind but it seems like no one in the town has the time or the

AFGHAN STUDENT ARRESTED FOR STALKING CLASSMATE

CITIZEN’S TWEET TO CM SENDS MSRTC DRIVER BACK TO DRIVING SCHOOL

Priya Malkhani Entrepreneur Personally I don’t think it’s a good idea. People living close to eateries, shops and malls will face increased noise level and disturbance at night. This is not fair at all as these families could have children and senior citizens living with them and it might take a toll on their health too. It is only going to create a lot of nuisance than there already is. Increased pollution and waste of resources is a given. It is best we keep night for sleeping.

Srimoyee Negi Student Although it may sound like a fun idea, having eateries, malls and shopping centres open 24 hours a day, there are several other things that need to be kept in mind.

Human resource exploitation is the first. We need to check whether the malls will allow three to four shifts instead of the usual two shifts through the day so that the workers aren’t burdened. Secondly, resources like water and electricity are at the risk of being exploited too. The amount of garbage collected and it’s improper disposal is a another disadvantage. However, it can still be a great idea if things are dealt with properly.

Aman Shaikh Student For students like me, the bill is godsend. With this bill, it is easier on our pockets as well ensures our safety. It is a welcome move on the government’s part because apart from the economic benefits coming from the extended working hours, it also increases security around the city.

At the same time it is essential that it does not pose as a nuisance to their surrounding neighbourhoods, especially if you consider eateries and malls in residential areas.

TEJAS GAIKWAD

WEEK THAT WAS

ZEPHYRTONE

Take your Saturday high up a notch as Zephyrtone gets all set to drop some super commercial sounds as they spin your favourite club hits to big room sounds. Started in 2015, Zephyrtone comprises a vivacious pairing of electronic music’s freshest duo, Sayan and Zephyr. They are known for

Have a ball with the World Burger Tour as they start off the season with a menu showcasing Local Legendary burgers from all over the world. Indulge in variations such as Lebanese Veggie Burger, Istanbul Kafta Chicken Burger, Italian Chicken Burger, Indian Tandoori Chicken Burger, Miami Cuban Beef Burger to name a few. This will be accompanied by an enticing array of cocktails such as El Matador, Citrus Summer Shandy, Melonpalooza, Crisp Sipper, Watermelon Hoedown and more.

When: Ongoing, 12:00 pm to 12:30 am Where: Hard Rock Cafe, Koregaon Park

Shweta Singh Engineer Everything has its own pros and cons. So does this. On one hand while this may be a good thing especially for people working in shifts it might also pave way for illegal activities by many because of the odd hours. The fact that currently they aren’t open round the clock puts some rules in place for youngsters and others as they might not have anywhere to go once everything shuts. It’s too early to say if this is a good thing or not.

D i v i s ion a l Controller of MSRTC, Nitin Maind said that when they got to know about the incident, they immediately took action. Sandeep Bhalekar, the driver, defended himself, and said, “When I entered the ghat section, my bus was behind a heavy truck. I was trying to go ahead. On Monday, the MSRTC authorities sent Bhalekar for driving training. He said, “I am in training right now and I am learning again how to drive a bus.”

A tweet to Maharashtra Chief Minister was all it took to discipline a Shivneri driver, who was speeding and cutting lanes on Mumbai Pune Expressway. A doctor from Pune was travelling back to the city from Mumbai in a cab when she saw a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation’s (MSRTC) Shivneri bus bullying other vehicles. She immediately took to Twitter. The chief minister responded with promise to initiate action.

The same day the driver was sent back to driving school and an inquiry initiated.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY PUNE

E WE K

JULY 2, 2016

City’s oldest Agiary being restored to its pristine state

EDITOR

LETTERS TO THE

BY YOGESH WAGH @YogeshWagh1857

PICS: TEJAS GAIKWAD

BY SALONEE MISTRY @SaloneeMistry

Amidst the bustle and congestion of Nana Peth lies a picturesque building, which is 173 years old. With abundant greenery on its premises, the white and gold structure is beginning to get its sheen back. Started last year, the first phase of restoration of the S R Patel Agiary is already complete, and the second phase is underway. Established on June 5, 1843, the agiary was built by Sorabji Ratanji Patel, after whom it is named. This is the oldest among the three agiarys in Pune. Over the years, the number of Parsis frequenting the place has diminished, and the structure had started to take on a worn down look.

Jehangir Vakil, a member of the seventh generation of the Patel family, works in the construction business. He

Kaiyan Mistree

became a trustee three years ago, and decided to take up the restoration and started gathering funds. His friend Kaiyan Mistree from Mumbai, who is an architect, is also working on the project.

“The plan is to make the Agiary look as close to the original as possible. We are

taking help from my grand aunt, who is jogging her memory to help us with the colour scheme and smaller details of the place,” said Jehangir. He decided to start the restoration when the roof looked like it was about to cave in. The wiring was also a huge problem and was the first thing they dealt with. The task is to manage doing the restoration as smartly as possible. They do not have a lot of funds at their disposal, and have to account for the future, and so restore it in a manner that requires minimal maintenance.

In the first phase, the room where the fire is, and the exteriors of the place were taken care of. The Farohar, which is the symbol of Zoroastrianism, can be found at several places, both in the interiors and exteriors of the Agiary. Most of the designs and motifs, be it in the interiors or the exteriors, are all done by hand to recreate the aura they had 173 years ago.

“While we are doing our best to

Jehangir Vakil

restore everything back to how it looked when it was built, there are a few modern touches to the interiors of the structure.

This is my first restoration project and I am happy with the way the first phase panned out, and I am also hopeful that we will be able to raise enough funds for the next phases,” Jehangir said.

Through crowd funding they had hoped to raise about Rs 50 lakh for the three phases, and a little to store away for the future. The first phase cost them close to Rs 20 lakh, the second should be about Rs 15-20 lakh as well, and the remaining will be used for maintenance. The community hall and other areas of the Agiary once finished, will be let out for functions, and this too will become a source of revenue for the Agiary to sustain itself.

Jehangir and Kaiyan are glad that people are helping out in any way they can. The vendor from whom they bought the paints, gave them at his cost price, since it was for a good cause. The labourers too are willing to work at low or no wages, since it is for a religious cause. Every little bit counts, they say. salonee.mistry@goldensparrow.com

The RTO department of Maharashtra has taken a serious view of traffic rule violations on the Pune- Mumbai Expressway. It is now sending notices to people who have infringed the rules, particularly to those of whom they have visual evidence.

The infringements include driving a motor vehicle at excessive speed, driving dangerously, lane cutting and other rules mentioned in the Motor Vehicles Act 1988.

The driver and/ or the car owner, after receiving the notice, has to provide a written explanation within seven days and physically come to the RTO office with his/ her license. If they fail to follow this process, the RTO will take necessary legal action.

The increasing number of accidents in recent times due to negligent driving on the PuneMumbai Expressway has forced the

Medieval rules continue in metro cities I was considerably disgusted reading the story about JJ Garden in Camp not allowing ‘unmarried couples’ to spend time inside the park. With the progress our society claims to Unmarried couples barred have made, it is appalling from this Pune garden how authorities consider it unlawful and immoral for members of opposite sexes to meet if they aren’t married. The guards and the establishment automatically assume that they are indulging in wrongful acts in public places. It is completely unfair of them to presuppose that members of the opposite cannot just be friends without anything fishy going on. On top of everything, the guard identifies married women as those who wear a mangalsutra and apply sindoor on their foreheads. This narrow-minded view and refusal to change is the reason Indian society is the way it is, even in the 21st century.

- Megha Shah

BY GARGI VERMA @missgverma

If you are looking for a place to meet and spend some time with your friends of the opposite sex, the JJ Garden in Camp area of Pune is strictly out of bounds for you. A signboard, not unlike a Puneri paati, clearly declares that ‘unmarried’ couples are not allowed in the park.

The Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Garden, opposite the JJ Agiary in Camp, has a paati hung on the lamp post at the entrance of the garden. The notice written on it is in Marathi, and translates into, “Unmarried couples are not allowed inside the park.”

The notice, put up by the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB), whichis in charge of the garden, aims to keep out young unmarried couples out of the garden. The security guard positioned at the gate actually checks if young couples entering the park are married or not. “Generally, married couples are identifiable, as the women wear sindoor and a mangalsutra. However, I question most couples,” explains Shrikant Yadav, the guard.

According to the guard and other staff at the garden, the rule has been laid down to stop the ‘obscene activities’ youngsters indulge in, in parks. “The park is meant for children and senior citizens. Thus, only families are allowed in. We don’t want youngsters doing what they do and creating a ruckus. Thus, this rule has been implemented,” said Yadav. The small board bearing this notice was put up only a couple of months ago, but the rule has been implemented by the guardsfor the past six months.

“The park is now getting a makeover, new facilities are being installed. So we do not want the youngsters to come and destroy them,” he said. When team TGS asked him if he had actually caught couples indulgingin obscene activities, he evaded the question and said that he had been there for only a month. “Incidents must have happened in the past, hence the rule has been made,” he responded, grudgingly.

Young couples have tried everything to bypass this archaic rule. “Sometimes the girls come

in first, and a little while later the boys join them inconspicuously,” Yadav informed. The guard or other staff then identify them and shoo them out of the premises. “Due to the presence of Garden Wada-pav, the park is a good hangout place.

Not all of us are couples; some of us are friends. However, since we are not married, we can’t go in,” said a 21-year-old girl in the parking area of the park, as she sampled the wada-pav.

When the PCB was approached, they confirmed the presence of such a notice. Rupali Bidkar, a PCB member from Ward 1 where the park lies, said, “Yes, we have put up the notice. It was put up after we received multiple complaints from the residents around the park. They complained of obscenity and the ruckus created by the youngsters in the park. There were also complaints from colleges around the park that the students were skipping lectures and passing time in the park. So, the board met over this issue and it was decided to banish the youngsters from the park.” gargi.verma@goldensparrow.com

RTO department to take strong action. Reputed city builder D S Kulkarni was involved in an accident recently, where he survived, but his driver lost his life.

RTO Anand Patil told TGS that they have taken this step due to the increasing number of accidents on the Expressway. “There is no checking allowed on the express way so we are recording videos of traffic rule in f r ingements and sending notices to the violators.

We have started this action on pilot basis. Our squads spot v e h i c l e s breaking traffic rules, along with the time and spot. This is done without disrupting the flow of traffic on the Expressway.”

The fines are not steep but they make people realize that they are breaking rules. The police take action with speed guns but there are loopholes in this process. Big cameras are needed on the Expressway. yogesh.wagh@goldensparrow.com

PIC

OF

The Koregaon police have put behind bars an obsessed man, and his two friends, who were continuously harassing a girl in a one-sided love BANKER’S DREAM OF It was the dream of owning a Maruti affair. Afghanistan nationals Ahmed Sultan OWNING A GYPSY TURNED Gypsy that drove the 26-year-old assistant Zahir, 23, Ahmed Sharif Abdul Gafar, 20, and HIM INTO A BURGLAR accountant of a nationalised bank to ‘befriend’ Sher Afzal Bashir Ahmed Noorastani, 22, were an elderly couple in Parvati Paytha and burgle arrested for stalking a young girl, with the intent ‘‘The water situation is serious this year. We have been falling short of catering among five house of trying to force her to accept Zahir’sIndia proposal. drinking water needs till July for the past fewtheir years. The state irrigation after brutally attacking them on countries will see department makes all plans for the city and now it needs to review the water quota and30. requirement. ’’ high under-5 deaths June The Dattawadi Police have arrested In her statement to the police, the victim said — Prashant Jagtap, Mayor P12 Akshay Ashok Kadam, on July 3. The crime that knows the accused since February 2016 as he Nowtook get place noticed June 30 morning when Kadam was a student of her college, and a member of her for rash driving on of Keshav Gokhale (78) and entered the house group. They were acquaintances, but in March Mum-Pune Eway Gokhale (74) and ran way his wife Mrunalini 2016, he called her and declared that he loved Jehangir Vakil, Kaiyan Mistree undertake the mission to restore the 173-year-old S R Patel Agiary to its former glory with the golden bangles worn by Mrunalini her and wanted to have a relationship with her. after assaulting them. The accused was She refused, but instead of accepting her decision, charged under Sections 394, 452 and Section Zahir continued to stalk her. They were produced 328. He was presented before the court on July before the Shivajinagar court and were remanded 4 and granted police custody till July 8. to police custody for one day.

THE

FUNK ANOMICS LIVE

The three bass music heads who like to bring their own style to their music come live in Pune this weekend.

With a sound that is designed for the dancefloor and made up of beautiful crunchy bass lines, coupled with pumping grooves the trio is sure to keep you in the best of your spirits.

Groove to their funky beats and have the most perfect end to your day.

When: July 9, 9 pm to 11:30 pm Where: High Spirits, Koregaon Park

Watch veteran playwright Girish Joshi’s Marathi play Final Draft which has been translated into English by Jaideep Mujumdar. It showcases the interactions and conversations between an unpredictable professor of script-writing and his shy student who is lagging behind in her coursework.

What begins innocuously as a class on scriptwriting eventually culminates with self-realisation and important life-lessons. The end leaves one with a flood of thoughts along with a smile.

When: July 9, 7 pm to 8:30 pm Where: Gyaan Adab Centre, Kalyani Nagar

providing energetic progressive house sets along with live vocals.

When: July 9, 9:00 pm to 12:30 am Where: Euriska, Koregaon Park

The Union Cabinet has approved the model shops and establishments bill, which proposes to allow shops, malls and eateries to remain open 24 hours a day. The state of Maharashtra has not yet spoken out in support of the bill, even though owners are keen on its approval. Is it a good idea?

READ AND WALK THE MESSAGE: A student of Krantiveer Lahuji Vastad Salve e-learning school in Yerawada walks past a wall that says it all

Inspiring everyone to lead an eco-friendly lifestyle

Helping young inmates lead a life of dignity

The story about Puneites who have incorporated eco-friendly methods into their daily lives, is one that was an eye opener.

Everyone is of the impression that using cloth instead of plastic bags will make their lives count as contributions to the environment.

In reality, these four families have gone the extra mile to find innovative ways to reduce environmental damage to the extent that they can.

Shailaja Deshpande’s HOW ECO-FRIENDLY story about creating IS YOUR LIFESTYLE? her own cleaning products from organic materials and the Athavale family who have designed a cycle pump, were the two which I admired the most. Making detergent using soap nuts is something I definitely want to try out in my own home. I hope many more people are inspired by the wonderful work being done by these families, and everyone ends up contributing to saving the environment in a larger way.

- Sugandha Lele PUNE, JULY 2, 2016 | www.thegoldensparrow.com

Understanding the implications of climate change and a carefree urban lifestyle, these families are moulding their lives to save the environment

For the most part, we assume that juvenile delinquents are incorrigible. But they are simply children who lost their direction somewhere along the way. Even though their mistakes are big ones, the article about Preshti convinced me that everyone can get a second chance at life. By holding counselling sessions for the inmates and engaging them in constructive activities and therapy, they are gradually steering them towards better things in life. Although their mistakes are grave, they no longer have to become their identities and these youngsters can move on with their lives in a dignified manner. Kudos to Nikita Nagar and her team for creating such a positive impact on so many lives!

- Rohan Gidwani

Putting their lives in danger to earn their bread

We find it very easy to complain about our comfortable jobs, just because the traffic on the roads is too much or our bosses are too mean. Not once do we think about the other side of the spectrum, of the people who actually have a right to complain, because they risk their lives every day to make ends meet. We don’t think about these urban professions like sewage cleaners, snake catchers or window cleaners, simple because they don’ fall into the same categories as us. The spotlight story in last week’s issue highlighted the hazards these workers face, and how much danger they are really in. I am not an expert in these matters, but I am sure there is some way for these professions to be made safer so that the workers’ health is not at risk throughout.

- Aashna Joshi

Write to Us

Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com, yogesh.sadhwani@goldensparrow.com or mail it to The Editor, Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt Ltd, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY PUNE

SPORTS

“ Everyone has access to young Indian talents and every team comes well prepared to the auction. It’s rare to find young talents that are unheard of and you can pick out for really cheap — Rahul Dravid, Former Indian Batsman

Signposts City archers dominate nationals Pune archers dominated the Mayor’s Trophy National Archery tournament held in Mumbai, grabbing 20 medals including 11 gold recently. Sameer Zende, Tushar Fartade, Eesha Navlakha, Snehal Mandhre and Vedant Dhudhane won triple crowns while Rushish Meshram and Mrudul Data won a medal each.

Pune FC emerge division champs Pune FC Under-19 team edged out DSK Shivajians by three points to emerge Super Division league champions. The team scored 49 points in 17 matches, securing 16 wins and one draw, while DSK Shivajians finished second with 46 points, winning 15 matches, with one loss and one draw. Deccan Rovers A, grabbed 41 points to finish third.

Smita selected for World softball Pune’s Smita Gangurde has been selected to represent India in the upcoming World Softball tournament to be held at Canada from July 15. Total 30 nations will take part in this tournament.

“In a country with such huge population, it is very sad that we don’t have enough medallists, we are not organised but we have huge potential.”

— Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Union Minister

A never-say-die attitude works for Pooja The city paddler puts behind the heartbreak of missing out on the Rio Games and sets her sights on the 2018

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish International table tennis player Pooja Koparkar would have created a history, if she had pushed herself a little harder. The India number 3, was real close to get a ticket to the Rio Olympics when she defeated strong contender Manika Batra in the qualifiers. However, she experienced heartbreak as she lost the next two matches and realised that there was no trip to the Rio Games for her, nothing except returning home to Pune and wondering what might have been. During the Asian Qualifiers held in Hong Kong, Pooja started well with a 11-7, 11-9, 10-12, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7 win against world ranked 115 Manika.

However, in the next two matches, she suffered disappointing defeats against K Shamini and Mouma Das. If Pooja had won at least one match, she would have shared top place with Manika and considering the league win, Pooja should have been on a plane to Brazil.

“It was quite a disappointing performance.

But, I must give credit to Shamini and Mouma, who played superbly that day. I think experience played a key role, as they both have ample experience of playing at high-wire tournaments,” said Pooja, on the sidelines of the district ranking

Koparkar-Choudhari win doubles event For the first time in the district ranking tournament, a doubles event was introduced and it reached a high point when Aniket Koparkar faced his wife Pooja in the final.

Koparkar who paired with coach Rohit Choudhary, registered a hard-fought 11-2, 11-1, 10-12, 7-11, 11-6 win over Pooja and Devika Bhide in the final.

“We played for the first time as opponents, and it was quite fun. We all enjoyed it,” said Pooja. table tennis tournament at Sanmitra Sangh, Kothrud.

“However, I haven’t lost hopes. I am still young and can surely try again for the 2020 Olympics. What I have learnt from this narrow failure is that experience is the key in such crucial matches. And I am sure it will come handy for me during the next qualifiers,” she said.

Pooja praises her counterparts, saying that Manika and Mouma are a fearsome pair and have the ability to beat any strong paddler. However, considering the mighty Chinese, Korean and

Renavikar claims double crown Shubankar Renavikar claimed a memorable double crown, winning the youth and the men’s singles at the Atul Enterprises Trophy Pune District Ranking Table Tennis Tournament, organised by Radiant Sports Academy. Shubhankar, seeded 14, stunned eighth seeded Manthan Shah 4-0 in the youth boys’ final, and then went on to beat top seeded Debdoot Chatterjee 10-12, 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-4.

Meanwhile, top seeded Vaibhavi Kher out rallied second seeed Neha Mahangade 4-0 to claim the youth girls’ title. Top seeded Pooja Koparkar registered a facile 4-0 win over second ranked Devika Bhide.

TEJAS GAIKWAD

Japanese players, reaching the top eight would be an achievement for India, she says.

Several times national champion in age groups and silver medalist in Commonwealth Youth Games (2008), Pooja shifted to Pune after marrying international table tennis player Aniket Koparkar. She is ranked 260 in the world and has been working hard to get into the top 100.

“The current graph of my performance shows that I can be in the top 150 in the next two years. I have planned some tournaments according to that plan.

I played Croatia and Slovakia Open, followed by Bulgaria and Czech Open.

These challenger tournaments are best for Indian paddlers to improve ranking as there is a little participation from China and Korea,” she said.

Th is year, Pooja has won two gold medals in team and mixed doubles events during the South Asian Games held at Shillong, while she was a member of the Indian team for the 2016 World Team Table Tennis Championships at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Talking about the preparations, she said, “Most of the time, we train at the India camps. And when I am at home, I train with my husband, who is an international paddler. He along with coach Rohit Choudhary and other players like Shubhankar Renavikar, Devika Bhide and Chinmay Datar give me a good sparring practice.”

www.colorleaves.in

JULY 9, 2016