The Golden Sparrow on Saturday 09/05/2015

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PUNE, MAY 9, 2015 | www.thegoldensparrow.com

TGS LIFE

When work brings the odd ones together

CITY

Godhra tweet hate teen is attention seeker: Cops P5

Community conversations

Toying with science for young minds P 10

Man-Leopard conflict reaches a tipping point in Junnar

Pune MLAs yet to surrender their LPG subsidy

Not long ago Prime Minister urged those who were well off to give up their LPG subsidy. While 4,500 citizens have done so, of the eight MLAs, only three have surrendered See p4

25 hours on he lived to tell the tale Covered in thorns, suffering a hip dislocation and a severe head injury, Sagar Pawar waited in the wilderness for over a day to get medical attention See p3

Four leopard attacks and two deaths have caused a turmoil among residents of the villages surrounded by the Sahyadris. Villagers say the leopards have ventured into their territory, experts claim it’s the other way round

See Spotlight, p8-9

MUMBAI

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

PUNE

“We will not tolerate private builders who are trying to make a gradual entry into chawls and plan to stall the redevelopment.”

- Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister

Cars running on air? Indians show a way P6

Pune MLAs yet to surrender their LPG subsidy P4

No company in India today is safe from hijacking and piracy attempts: HC

Justice Gautam S Patel, who was hearing the third case of corporate hijacking, stated that there is a storm coming, and unless the Ministries of Corporate Affairs and of Information Technology batten these digital security hatches immediately, there will be a catastrophe

BAPU DEEDWANIA When was the last time you checked if your company was still yours? If you are one of those who believe that your data uploaded on Ministry of Corporate Affairs website is all secure and you are safe, you are wrong.

Multiple cases of corporate hijackings have been reported in recent times.

Th ree such cases reached Bombay High Court, which has now taken a serious note of the situation and asked two central ministries - Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Ministry of Information Technology – to wake up and take immediate measures to put an end to hijackings and piracies.

On April 29, Justice Gautam S Patel of Bombay High Court, who was hearing one such matter of corporate hijacking executed without much hassle, merely by obtaining a fraudulent digital signature of one of the directors, said, “Not a single corporate entity in any sector is today safe from these marauders. Prescience is a dismal thing. All of this is entirely because of slipshod, ill-conceived, illinformed and indifferent approaches to digital security.”

Justice Patel was hearing the case of Maneklal Mansukhbhai Private Limited (MMPL), a company that has a huge land parcel in Bandra, where real estate prices are upwards of Rs 80,000 per square foot these days. The company incorporated in 1923 was being represented by senior counsel Mustafa Doctor along with advocate Gaurav Mehta.

The scamsters in the MMPL case had figured loopholes in the system, obtained fake digital signatures of one of the directors, and fi led returns on the Registrar of Companies (RoC) website using the signature. These days, it is mandatory for companies to fi le their returns or records online.

Digital signatures are to be obtained by directors from one of the eight authorised and licensed ‘Certifying Authority’ appointed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Within a short span of obtaining fake digital signature of the director, the fraudsters had thrown all the directors out of the company (including the one whose signatures had been forged) on paper and inducted their own men.

Th is gave them complete control of all the assets of the company including the 13,233 square metre prime plot in Bandra, Mumbai. They were all set to dispose off the land parcel when the entire fraud came to light.

The High Court, pointed out that this was the third case in which the mandatory e-fi ling protocol at the RoC was illegally used to “effect what is nothing less than a complete corporate hijacking.”

“I had set out the modus operandi being used by certain fraudsters to obtain false digital signatures and to then use these digital signatures to access the RoC’s database in respect of selected companies, and thus effect illicit share transfers, purport to record minutes of bogus and illegal general meetings, reconstitute the entire board of the victim company, and, in sum and

Now diaries inspired

by YRF movies Film production house announced a licensing deal with Doodle Collection for colourful, fashion-forward diaries MUMBAI: If you’re a film buff and have loved movies like “Kabhi Kabhie” to the spunky “Band Baaja Baraat” from the Yash Raj Films (YRF) stable, get your hands on a limited edition range of diaries inspired from the banner’s popular films.

YRF has announced a licensing deal with Doodle Collection, a platform which offers colourful, fun and fashion-forward diaries and notebooks, which are made to inspire people to experience the joy of writing.

As part of the deal, typographic designs in the diaries will also be inspired from fi lms such as “Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year” and “Chak De! India”, with a special emphasis on the banner’s hit movie “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”.

“A perfect blend of Bollywood and lifestyle, these diaries are a must have for the romantic souls, creative geniuses and for all movie buffs to collect and treasure,” the statement read further.

The diaries are available on the Doodle Collection website (https:// www.doodlecollection.com/our-diaries/ YRF-Merchandise) as also with major

stationery retailers across India, apart from online portals like Flipkart, Amazon and Fashionara. These are priced upwards of Rs 199.

IANS

THE CASES

MMPL taken over using fake signatures of deceased director MMPL was started by Maneklal Sheth and his wife Saubhagya Luxmi who were its first shareholders. Later their children also became shareholders. In December 1934, MMPL acquired a substantial property in Bandra admeasuring 13,233 square metres.

MMPL’s directors neglected the company’s affairs for quite some time. The name of the company was struck from RoC in 1961. However, in 1976, its name was restored in the records.

In the meantime, the Bandra property was developed and tenanted.

After Maneklal and his wife, their son Rajendrakumar Sheth along with grandsons Rajesh and Sanjay became directors of the company between 1954 and 1982. The three held the entire equity share capital of MMPL. From 2006 onwards, an amendment to the Companies Act required all filings with the RoC to be in electronic form. Companies were required to obtain a Corporate Identity Number (CIN), and Directors were required to obtain a corresponding Directors Identification Number (DIN). For the purpose of this e-filing, digital signatures were required to be obtained in the manner prescribed by the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Rules made under it. Following this, in February 2007, Rajendrakumar was issued a unique DIN. In April, 2010, Rajendrakumar passed away. Rajesh and Anil then acquired his entire

shareholding and thus became the only two directors of MMPL. From then on, till date, they have been operating its bank accounts, receiving rents from the tenants of the Bandra property and paying all the property taxes.

Early this year, in January 2015, Sanjay was informed that a certain Ajay Harinath Singh, a complete stranger to the entire enterprise, had been spreading the word in the market that he had acquired MMPL’s Bandra property.

Rajesh and Sanjay Sheth got concerned and had the RoC records checked. It was then that they found that since December 2014, records had been uploaded to the RoC’s website by Kamlakar Patil, Mohammad Salim Lakhani and one Waman D Dethe. The records showed Ajay Harinath Singh, along with Patil, Lakhani and one Ajay Varma as directors of MMPL. All of these documents were uploaded at more or less the same time in December 2014. In short, the Sheths had been thrown out and their company taken over by complete strangers.

In these uploads, the two directors found several false and fraudulent documents. Most shocking amongst them was an affidavit supposedly affirmed by Rajendrakumar Sheth on December 5, 2014, despite him having passed away four years earlier, on April 9, 2010. The records also showed a fraudulent digital signature certificate having been issued to Rajendrakumar and showed him as a present director.

Complaints were then immediately lodged with various investigative authorities. They also

approached Bombay High Court, which has now ordered that all the old records be restored.

DDPL taken over using fake signatures of existing directors DDPL Global Infrastructure Pvt Ltd is a company with four directors. In March 2015, the Company Secretary, Rathi & Associates, checked the profile of DDPL on the portal of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and were alarmed to find that the signatory details for the company had been changed. Two other persons were shown as signatories or directors.

These persons were entirely unknown to DDPL and its directors. DDPL’s directors immediately approached the local police station in Kandivli, Mumbai and cyber crime cell.

It was found that one Alok Mishra had obtained fraudulent digital signatures of one of the directors from E-Madhura, one of the licensed certifying agencies by Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Using the fake signatures Mishra got himself appointed as an additional director of DDPL in February 2015. Investigations revealed that Mishra obtained the fake digital signature of an existing director without much hassle. He approached E-Mudhra with an application and attached fake documents of existing DDPL’s directors. Without verifying the signature was issued. The rest was easy.

This case too came up before Bombay High Court and records were restored in the name of the four original directors.

substance, to effect a clandestine and illicit takeover of an entire company.

I said then that what I had before me was perhaps the tip of the iceberg, but I did not then imagine that within a month I should have before me yet another instance of this criminality, one that potentially threatens the entire corporate sector,” states the order by Justice Gautam S Patel.

HC raises an alarm The Bombay High Court has raised concern over digitisation and the need for security in the digital world.

Justice Patel’s order states that while RoC is required to accept only e-fi ling, necessary additional layers of security that should apply to a sensitive and important portal, and interface such as the RoC have not been mandated by the Ministry. “The reasons are unclear.

I do not think that it is possible any longer to persist with these delusions that because certain matters are digital they are, by definition, secure, or that

Legal system preventing trafficking trials MUMBAI: A new report that highlights the legal challenges faced by victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in India was released recently.

“Putting Justice First: Legal Strategies to Combat Human Trafficking in India” — the report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Freedom Fund was based on research done with the support of antitrafficking organisations, lawyers and survivors of human trafficking.

“The report identifies a number of significant impediments within the Indian legal system that are preventing trafficking trials from taking place like the lack of protection for the victims and their families, and poor investigation and persistent confusion related to the correct applicability of existing laws,” a statement said.

The report calls for the implementation of key recommendations like training community members as para-legals to provide initial legal support and counselling to victims, especially in the rural communities.

It further advocates providing trafficking survivors with practical and legal support for the duration of their legal proceedings, which includes ensuring physical safety, transportation for pursing legal cases, and help accessing economic entitlements.

those who use digital technology are all necessarily honest. All the evidence before me is to the contrary.

Emphasising digital technologies for their speed and convenience is one thing. Certainly these technologies have their benefits. But to not put in sufficient safeguards, checks and balances against their abuse is a reckless endangerment of the public interest.

Digitisation is not an end in itself.

Digital signatures are being used even in Courts, including our own Supreme Court. The need for security in these

matters cannot be overemphasised,” said Justice Patel.

Pointing out the cases before HC within a month that dealt with corporate hijackings, Justice Patel said, “These cases tell us one thing: there is a storm coming, and unless the Ministries of Corporate Affairs and of Information Technology batten these digital security hatches immediately, there will be a catastrophe. Every effort must be made to avert that scenario. It will not do to retrofit necessary security protocols after the event.”

It goes on to state, “I do not think that it is too extreme a suggestion that no company in India today is safe from these hijacking and piracy attempts.”

In his MMPL order, Justice Patel pointed out that the fact that this is the third such case in less than a month in itself should alert the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Registrar of Companies to the clear and present danger posed by the present e-fi ling practices, requirements and protocols to the entire corporate sector.

“I do not think that going after the perpetrators in case after case is any kind of a solution at all. This is clearly something for the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Ministry of Information Technology to take up on a priority basis,” the order dated April 29 states.

The order also states that the RoC and the Ministries must immediately issue an advisory to all corporates to check their uploaded data and confi rm correctness by a specified date. bapudeedwania@gmail.com

Restaurant churns biggest jalebi, imarti world record

Saatvik food joint Sanskriti breaks Guinness World Record with a 37-kg imarti of average nine feet diametre with assistance from chef Sanjeev Kapoor MUMBAI: Mumbai’s Saatvik food restaurant Sanskriti has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest imarti (a sweetmeat) in the world. It has also surpassed the Limca Book of Records.

With support from celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Sanskriti broke the Guinness World Record for the largest imarti in the world on May 2 in the Indian sweets category.

The restaurant broke the record with a 37 kg imarti with an average nine feet diametre. Headed by Gaurav Chaturvedi, a team of 12 people took three hours and 48 minutes to make it.

Apart from this, the team made the largest jalebi in the world. They broke the record for the Limca Book of Records on May 3. The sweetmeat weighed 18 kg with a diameter of nine feet, breaking the previous record of 8.2 feet. It took three hours and 53 minutes to make.

“It’s a proud moment for us and I’m very happy that the purpose with which we attempted this event is achieved,” said Sapna Chaturvedi, founder director of Sanskriti restaurant, said in a statement.

IANS

Celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor making imarti with Sanskriti food joint staff

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

Godhra tweet hate teen is attention seeker: Cops P5

PUNE

“Those working against the party have no moral ground to speak of ideology. These resignations will not dent the party in any way.”

- Abha Muley, Executive Committee Secretary, AAP

25 hours on he lived to tell the tale

Covered in thorns, suffering a hip dislocation and a severe head injury, Sagar Pawar waited in the wilderness for over a day to get medical attention

Mother Mangal watches over the bed-ridden Sagar Pawar, who, with his left leg in a cast, is going to take quite some time to recover

BY Yogesh Sadhwani @yogeshsadhwani Lying in his 10x7 feet house in Taljai slums, Sagar Pawar is better known as the man who defeated death.

The 21-year-old fell off a speeding Indrayani Express and survived for 25 hours without any medical help. With a severe head injury, hip dislocation and bruises all over his body, he lay writhing in pain in bushes full of thorns for hours before he got help.

These days he is recuperating at his home, as people from the vicinity keep stopping by just to get a glimpse of the man who many believe has been gifted a second life.

Sagar remembers every bit of the entire horrifying incident, from the time he fell, to the time he was brought to a Pune hospital. He was awake and conscious through it all.

distance of 264 km in four hours flat.

The incident occurred on April It just has three halts 13, when Sagar between Solapur and was returning from Pune and travels at an Chikhalthan village average speed of 65 km is Solapur district. per hour. Just before the He had gone there on Bhigwan river bridge April 12 along with his along the route, Sagar friends to attend the fell off the train. “I village jatra or festival. blanked out initially.

After an entire day of It was still bright and revelry and fun, the sunny when I regained next day, the group of full consciousness.

20 odd men left for their I think I must have home in Taljai slum - SAGAR PAWAR blanked out for half an in Padmavati locality, hour or so. I was lying Pune. They boarded in a ditch next to the the Indrayani superfast tracks. I was trapped (Solapur-Pune) from in the thorny bushes. I tried moving Jeur at around 3.30 pm. Barely an but in vain as I couldn’t move my hour into the journey, Sagar, who was left leg, and my entire body had been standing near the door, lost his balance pierced with thorns,” he said. To make and fell. the situation worse, he was bleeding The superfast train covers a

“The only thing I was sure of was that I want to live.”

profusely from his head.

Initially he did cry out for help but eventually gave up. “I realised that I was in the middle of nowhere. I tried thinking hard if I had spotted a village in the vicinity on multiple trips to Chikhalthan before, but couldn’t think of any. I figured that instead of wasting my energy by screaming for help, I should lie still. The more I panicked, the thorns would make it worse,” said Sagar.

As it grew dark, Sagar lay still. He stayed up all night hoping that one of his friends would come back with help and trace him. But no such help came his way through the night. The only consolation was that there were no wild animals in the isolated spot. At the crack of the dawn, Sagar mustered up the guts to try and move again. “I knew that if I lay in the bushes, I would bleed to death and it would be days before somebody would find my body. If there was a bleak chance of survival, it was only by climbing out of the ditch,” said Sagar. But the challenge was to get out since his hands were bleeding, left leg was not responding at all, and his head was throbbing due to the injury.

“I somehow managed to use my bleeding hands and right leg to push myself up. But I couldn’t completely get out of the ditch due to a mound of sand.

All I could do is get out of the bushes,” said Sagar. He once again lay still, hoping that someone would pass by soon. As the sun grew brighter, Sagar’s hopes of getting help were fading away. “The only thing I was sure of was that I want to live. I wasn’t willing to give up without a fight. I never really gave up the hope of surviving,” said the 21-year-old who used to do menial jobs to help his family.

At around 7 am, he heard someone passing by. “The person was talking over the phone loudly. I started screaming for help. Thankfully, the guy was able to locate me and drag me out. He was a resident of some neighbouring village and was walking to another village,” said Sagar. The villager put him under a tree and called for help from local railway employees, who in turn informed the railway cops.

“The railway employees called up the police, who wanted to know if I had a valid train ticket. When I said

Mother and aunt fight over custody of wealthy specially abled girl

Both want her guardianship. District officials have decided that neither of them are good enough for her

by PRIYANKKA DESHPANDE @journopriyankka Priya Pawar (name changed), a mentally challenged girl, is caught up in a silent but deadly fight, for her very life. The 28-year-old Aundh resident is trapped in a tug of war over her custody between her own mother and her paternal aunt. Tragically, the motive behind the tussle between her mother and aunt, is not their love for Priya, but rather it is the extensive property her deceased father left for his only child, in the hope that the money would be used for her welfare and well-being. However, things have not turned out for the girl as her father had wished.

At present, the District Social Welfare Department is dealing with Priya’s case, the first of its kind since the Local Level Committee (LLC) was established in 1999 under the National Trust Act, for the appointment of legal guardian for the welfare of persons afflicted with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities.

When the case came before the LLC a few months back, district collector Saurabh Rao appointed a sub-committee to deal with this case. District social welfare officer Sanjay Kadam is one of the key members of the committee.

Speaking to the The Golden Sparrow, Kadam said that the safety of the girl is the top priority

of the committee.

“Without indulging the claims of Priya’s mother and her aunt too much, we will see that she is in safe hands,” said Kadam. Elaborating on the case, Kadam said that Priya’s mother is a divorcee, who left her (Priya) soon after her birth.

“Since then, Priya’s father and her paternal relatives raised her at Jalgaon. However, when her father died in 2011, her mother who lives in Pune, sought her guardianship.

Being a natural guardian, it was easy for her to get Priya’s custody,” informed Kadam.

The real drama started after Priya was in her mother’s custody for a few

years, and her paternal aunt started claiming her custody. “Her aunt stated in her letter to us that Priya’s mother frequently withdraws

money from the trust fund set up by her father. Contradicting this, her mother said that Priya’s luxurious lifestyle impelled her to withdraw the huge sums of money from the trust,” said Kadam. He added that Priya’s aunt has also alleged that her mother is not able to look after her and that she was missing from home for a few days.

Priya’s Intelligence Quotient level is 58 and she has mild mental retardation. “We had come to the conclusion that, we would give custody of Priya to an organisation which looks after specially abled children. That particular organisation would give us the quotation of monthly expenses of Priya and we would release that specific amount from her trust,” said Kadam. The committee’s next meeting is on May 12, where a decision would be taken. priyankka.deshpande @goldensparrow.com

Fact file Since February 26, 2006, as many as 1003 specially abled kids have been given for adoption in Pune district. These kids have been adopted legally either by their parents or by relatives who have blood relations with the child. The LLC which is chaired by the District Collector, has all the rights to monitor and appoint a legal guardian. The guardian should provide the disability certificate of the child and an affidavit that the guardian has a blood relation with the child. After giving a child for adoption to a legal guardian, social workers frequently visit the home where he/she is being raised.

that my ticket was with my friends, the cops refused to come. The local villager and railway employees were too scared to take me to a hospital, so they called up my family here in Pune,” said Sagar. Typical of such situations, none of those who saw Sagar were willing to help, as they felt that he might die on the way and that they would land in trouble. With the cops too refusing to help, Sagar was kept under the tree for the next seven hours, till his family arrived.

“I received a call at around 9 am, stating that my son was badly injured that I must rush to the spot.

I took my son, my brother and a friend of Sagar to the spot,” said Mangal Pawar, Sagar’s mother.

She had been worried since the previous day as all his friends who had gone for the jatra had returned except her son. “I thought something bad had happened to him. But then I thought may be my son stayed back but forgot to inform us,” said the mother.

Sagar’s family reached the spot at around 2 pm and were shocked to see the injuries all over his body but were overjoyed that he had survived.

“It was nothing short of a miracle.

He had survived the night despite the bleeding and injuries. Even after he was found, the villager and railway staff did not rush him to a hospital.

He had survived under a tree for over seven hours. It was almost as if he had been gifted another life,”

said his mother.

His family hired an ambulance and brought him straight to Sassoon Hospital in Pune. “We were told that there was no point in taking him to a smaller hospital as his injuries were serious. Instead of losing time jumping from one hospital to another, we brought him to Pune,” said Mangal, who works as a maid. A couple of days later, doctors at the hospital operated on Sagar’s hip and fixed it. On April 26, he was discharged to recuperate at home. It will be a while before the 21-year-old will be able to move around. For now he is confined to a mattress in one corner of the tiny house. His elder brother Mahesh, father Dashrath and mother take turns in giving him sponge baths. He has a cast around his left leg and hip along with an iron rod for support.

“I have decided never to travel by train again. I am petrified of the word these days,” said Sagar, who has visitors walking in and out throughout the day. yogesh.sadhwani@goldensparrow.com

There is a constant flow of visitors to Sagar Pawar’s house at Taljai slum

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

PUNE

“Considering the scarcity of water and the excess pumping of ground water, the State Government is planning to ban borewells more than 200 feet deep.”

— Babanrao Lonikar, Minister for Water Supply

Toying with science for young minds P10

Pune MLAs yet to surrender their LPG subsidy When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the ‘Give it up’ campaign in March this year, urging well-off citizens to surrender their LPG subsidy, over two lakh citizens from across the country heeded his plea. After a month, the number has risen close to four-lakh mark, and it’s increasing by the day. In Pune district alone, 4,500 families have surrendered their subsidy. But not many of our crorepati MLAs from Pune have taken the PM’s request seriously.

Of the eight elected Members of Legislative Assembly, only three have surrendered their subsidies.

The remaining five gave reasons ranging from lack of time, to not being aware of the campaign, among others, for not giving up their LPG subsidies. Interestingly, all the eight are from the BJP. Member of

Rahul Raut

BY PRIYANKKA DESHPANDE @journopriyankka

Parliament from Pune, Anil Shirole was among the first few in the district to give up the subsidy.

Jyoti Kadam, district supply officer of the supply department,

confirmed that only three of the eight MLAs have returned their subsidies so far. “Guardian Minister of Pune, Girish Bapat, MLA from Shivajinagar constituency, Vijay

Kale, and MLA from Kothrud constituency Medha Kulkarni have so far given up their subsidies,” she said. Regional sales manager of BPCL Sandip Pawar also confirmed that MLAs Bhimrao Tapkir, Yogesh Tilekar, Jagdish Mulik and Madhuri Misal were their customers. “None of them have surrendered their subsidies so far,” informed Pawar.

Similarly, Dilip Kamble, state minister for Social Justice, has also not surrendered his subsidy.

The government spends upwards of Rs 18,000 crore every year on LPG subsidies. The subsidy largely depends on the international crude oil prices. In the financial year 2016, if the average price of a barrel is $60, the subsidy would work out to Rs 18,000 crore, and Rs 25,000 crore if the prices shoot up to $70/barrel. There are 15.3 crore LPG consumers, of which 24 lakh are in Pune district. priyankka.deshpande@goldensparrow.com

Jagdish Mulik (33), MLA Vadgaonsheri

Assets: Rs 104 crore + Subsidy: Not surrendered

Vijay Kale (57), Shivajinagar constituency

Yogesh Tilekar (40), Hadapsar constituency

This first time MLA was among the few who had surrendered the LPG subsidy. But the modest leader shied away when we asked him about his deed. He said that he did what he thought was right but did not want to talk about it.

Asset: Rs 3 crore + Subsidy: Not surrendered

The active BJP leader defeated Shiv Sena’s Mahadev Babar in his bastion and went on to become the MLA from Hadapsar. But on the household front, he seems a little ill-informed. Asked about his LPG subsidy, he took a long pause.

He asked his brother whether they had the subsidy in the first place. He initially said that his family had not even applied for the subsidy, so there was no question of returning it. On being told that we had perused the records and that his name was on the list of beneficiaries of the subsidy, he said, “Due to my busy schedule, I do not get time to look into my domestic issues. My brother may have submitted a form for returning the subsidy after PM Modi appealed for it.”

Madhuri Misal (50), Parvati constituency Girish Bapat (63), Kasba Peth constituency

Asset: Rs 3 crore + Subsidy: Surrendered Three-term MLA and a senior member of the party, Bapat was the first to surrender his subsidy to the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. He however could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Asset: Rs 72 crore + Subsidy: Not surrendered

MLA for two terms, Misal is also a president of the Satish Misal Education Foundation. Till 2014 she was the only woman MLA from the city. Asked about the LPG subsidy, she quipped, “I surrendered my subsidy immediately after MP Anil Shirole gave up his. I did not publicise it like other politicians.”.

On being told about that her name did not figure in the list of people who had returned the subsidy, she said she will produce the receipt of the return. By the time TGS went to press, Misal had not produced the receipt.

Dilip Kamble (52), Cantonment constituency and State Social Justice Minister

Asset: Rs 14 lakh + Subsidy: Not surrendered

A senior leader of the party and a minister in the existing cabinet, Kamble claims he has been very busy and hasn’t been able to return the subsidy. He told TGS that his busy schedule has not permitted him to surrender the LPG subsidy. “I was busy with the State Assembly Session. I also had to go to London to work out the details of taking over Ambedkar Bhavan there.

As soon as I come, I will initiate the process of surrendering my gas subsidy,” said Kamble.

Medha Kulkarni (44), Kothrud constituency

Asset: Rs 3 crore + Subsidy: Surrendered

A teacher turned politician, Kulkarni surrendered her subsidy after PM Modi’s appeal. “Even if I had forgotten, my husband would have never allowed me to forget.

In fact he was the one who was constantly after me to surrender the subsidy,” said Kulkarni. The first time MLA was prompt to send us a copy of the receipt of the surrender.

P12

Not long ago Prime Minister urged those who were well-off to give up LPG subsidy. While 4,500 citizens have done so, of the eight MLAs, only three have surrendered How to surrender your LPG subsidy Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech during Urja Sangam, an International Energy Summit, held in New Delhi on March 27 appealed that those who were well off should give up their LPG subsidy.

He pointed out that the money saved would help the government in catering to the weaker and poorer sections of the society.

The hope was that most citizens would voluntarily give up the subsidy. District administrations too were to spread the word among LPG users. The government has also provided online and offline options for those who want to surrender the subsidy.

Those who want to give up their subsidy online can do so through www.mylpg.in. There is an option of doing it at your LPG dealer’s office as well.

You just need to submit Form 5 to the distributor.

“We are not forcing anyone to give up their subsidy. There is nothing wrong or illegal in taking it (subsidy). It is just that those who want to voluntarily come forward to give it up, they can follow the procedure,” said Jyoti Kadam, district supply officer.

Presently, subsidised gas cylinder is delivered for Rs. 450, while non subsidised ones are sold at Rs. 700-750.

Citizens who gave up their subsidies Vinayak Aphale, Interior Designer

The richest among all the eight MLAs in the city, Mulik was a General Secretary of BJP in Pune. He is a farmer and a businessman. The MLA was clueless of any such campaign to return the subsidy. He claimed he was not even aware that he was getting the subsidy in the first place. “I do not remember that I took the facility of any such subsidy,” Mulik said. On being told about the PM’s appeal to return the subsidy, he said, “If the Prime Minister had made an appeal to return the subsidy, I will certainly give it up right away.”

Asset: Rs 22 crore+ Subsidy: Surrendered

‘India Inc lax on sexual harassment issue’

Bhimrao Tapkir (54), Khadakwasla constituency

Asset: Rs 1 crore +

Tapkir shot into the limelight after he became the MLA for the first time in 2011. He defeated deceased MNS MLA Ramesh Wanjale’s wife Harshada from Khadakwasla constituency. His constituency has several villages, and Tapkir is extremely popular among the rural masses. “I never filled the form to take the subsidy in the first place, so there is no question of returning it.” Little does he know that as per records he is a beneficiary of the subsidy.

A resident of Kothrud, Aphale gave up the gas subsidy after hearing the PM’s appeal. “The PM’s speech at the International Energy Summit in New Delhi last month made me think about giving up the LPG subsidy. “Why would I seek such a small amount of subsidy when I can afford to pay the full price?” said Aphale. The first time he got the subsidy in his account, he received a mere Rs 190. “I felt pathetic about claiming the sum. I immediately made up my mind to give up the subsidy. It was a small contribution from a citizen to his country,” said Aphale. He was quick to add that the money saved from subsidies should be utilised for the development of the nation.

Abhay Patil, IT professional Abhay Patil gave up his subsidy much before the Prime Minister urged people to do so. As soon as he got to know that taking the subsidy was optional, he did not take it. The IT professional believes that instead of doling out the subsidies to all and then urging people to return them, the government should come up with a mechanism to give it only to the select few who are below the poverty line.

“The amount of subsidy is the smallest share of my earnings and I think that instead of giving these subsides to all the citizens, the government should set some criteria for it,” said Patil. He added, “I think it is a good move. I firmly believe that even ration cards should be given only to those people who cannot afford to purchase food grains at the market price.”

Sumita Kale, Economist Being an economist, Sumita Kale knows that it will make a huge difference if more and more people come forward to give up the LPG subsidy. “I have surrendered my subsidy in the month of March. The small amount which I would have saved had I not returned it, will really not make any difference to my finances. Moreover, I am confident that the sum will help a lot in nation building,” said Kale.

Kale added that the government should not only appeal to the citizens to give up the gas subsidy, but should also cancel the subsidies given to VIPs. “When I shared the idea about giving up the subsidy with my friends, the foremost thing they said was that our leaders and ministers should give it up first,” said Kale.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

“The economic well-being of people, low air fares, education and other such reasons had led to a rise in demand for passport service like never before.”

—Rajendra Jagtap, Additional Municipal Commissioner, PMC

Waging a green war P11

PUNE

Advisory board cautions SEBI on commodities markets ops P14

Godhra tweet hate teen is attention seeker: Cops

BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke

Amitesh Singh was one of most talked about names on social media throughout this week. He shot to limelight or rather became infamous all thanks to a tweet from his handle @AmiteshSinghBJP. His tweet with hashtag GodhraAgain urged people to kill 3,000 members of the minority community.

Within minutes of the tweet going up, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah shared it stating, “These are Mufti Syed (current J&K Chief Minister) & @jkpdp’s allies. Amazing how far one can fall for power.” This was on May 2.

Over the next few hours Amitesh became a national figure, at least on social media, with thousands of people abusing him openly on Twitter.

What made things worse was that his profile stated that none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed him on Twitter and that he is vice president of Pune’s Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of BJP. Moreover, one of the tweets from the handle stated that he was grandson of Nandkumar Singh Chouhan, Member of Parliament from Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh.

All this put together, gave enough fodder to twitteratti to launch a diatribe against Amitesh, an engineering student from Pune. While on social media people were busy calling Amitesh names, his Twitter handle was deleted. Amitesh also deleted his personal profile on Facebook.com. He also brought down Pune Confessions page on Facebook that he had been running for the past couple of years.

With each passing day, situation only got worse. Nilim Dutta, Chairman of Unified People’s Movement and Director of Strategic Research & Analysis Organisation, wrote to Pune police commissioner seeking action against Amitesh.

“By not only instigating violence but by specifically calling for killing of 3000 Indian citizens of a certain community, he has committed various offenses under sections 121/ 121A/ 153/ 153A/153B/ 295A/298/ 307 etc of the Indian Penal Code. This e-mail may be considered as a formal complaint and turned into an FIR and a case may thus be registered and the said person be investigated and brought to justice,” stated

‘I will never get onto social media ever again’

The 19-year-old Pune engineering student told The Golden Sparrow hours before his arrest on Tuesday

the mail written by Dutta to Pune police chief KK Pathak on May 4.

BJYM Pune President, Ganesh Ghosh Khandaalkar said, “Amitesh Singh is not even a member of our party, let alone an office-bearer. We have never even heard his name. We have in fact sent out a few BJYM volunteers to trace Singh, who is maligning the party’s image.”

On May 6, Amitesh was arrested by Bund Garden police. Identified as Amitesh Vijaysinh Kate, the 19-year-old is a resident of Bibvewadi. He admitted his crime and told investigators that he put up the tweet to attract attention and is in no way attached to BJP. Inspector Satish Nikam of Bund Garden police station, who questioned Amitesh over his hate tweet, said, “He told me that he created a shadow Twitter handle in the name on @AmiteshSinghBJP and put up the tweet. He claims that he did not have any ill-intentions behind it and did not know the ramifications either,” Nikam said. Nikam told TGS that Amitesh created the shadow profile and added BJP to it, to grab eyeballs. “He is not a member of the party, neither he was assigned any post in the party.

He claimed that he was vice president of BJYM’s city unit. We have verified all the details from the BJP city unit and no one with such a name was enrolled in the party. We suspect that he uploaded the controversial tweet to seek attention.”

Amitesh has been remanded to police custody till May 9 by a local court. The 19-year-old is a second year engineering student from a reputed college. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com

At a time when world was baying for his blood, The Golden Sparrow traced Amitesh.

The 19-year-old was too scared to even step out of his house. He claimed that his exams were scheduled to begin from May 11, but he hadn’t gone to his college or his classes in two days, ever since the controversy erupted. Son of a small-time road contractor, the second year engineering student from a reputed Pune college claimed he had nothing to do with the tweet. He said that his account was hacked and that he is being made a scapegoat just because he is a BJP supporter.

Excerpts: Why did you put up such a tweet?

I did not put up that tweet, I swear on my mother, who is battling cancer. I came to know of it only when I started getting calls from my friends on Sunday (May 3). I tried logging into my account but it had been deleted by then. I saw screenshots of the tweet online and was petrified. I am an ordinary teenager who just completed 18 years of age yesterday.

When I checked my personal Facebook profile and Pune Confessions page, people were abusing me and threatening me. I got scared and immediately deleted the two. The hacker edited my profile and put up that Prime Minister followed me and that I was vice president of BJYM. Why would somebody hack your account?

I have no clue. The only thing that occurs to me is that because I am open supporter of BJP. I have no post in the party, neither am I even an official member of the party.

HC goes tough on encroachment, civic administration feels the heat PCMC demolition drive was stalled due to lack of machinery, manpower for two years

BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal In a major demolition drive in April, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) demolished 284 unauthorised constructions. Similarly, the Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA) demolished nine constructions.

Both the authorities acquired 9.36 acres of land in prime locations of the twin township. The approximate value of the land is Rs 100 crore.

PCMC and PCNTDA conducted the major demolition drives after the order of the Bombay High Court.

PCMC acquired 4.86 acres of land, while the PCNTDA got hold of 4.50 acres of land in the month of April, during the demolition drive. To conduct the demolition drive, PCMC had sought additional staff from the district collector as well as personnel from the city and rural police.

A PCMC official spokesperson said that the civic body had received an order in the month of February, in which the High Court noted that the PCMC had demolished only 825 of the 66,000 unauthorised constructions. The court directed the PCMC to undertake a special drive in April.

Accordingly, PCMC chief issued a letter to the district collector, seeking additional staff to carry out the large scale demolition drive. Similarly, the High Court also issued the directive in March to the city and rural police to provide the manpower to the PCMC. The demolition drive of PCMC had been stalled due to the lack of machinery and manpower for the last two years.

The PCMC had carried the demolition drive in six zonal wards and acquired 4.20 acres of land, including The zone-wise details of demolition drive conducted between April 1 and 30 Zone

Structures demolished

sq ft land acquired

A

66

34,035

B

14

16,913

C

26

30,207

D

65

72,156

E

29

14,425

F

34

15,500

BRTS cell

47

28,508

Total

284

4.86 acres

concrete structures and temporary sheds. While 47 illegal structures were demolished on Bopkhel-Alandi road and Kalewadi phata to Dehu-Alandi BRTS routes, nearly 0.65 acre (28,508 sq ft) area was vacated. The demolition drive was conducted at Nadhenagar at Kalewadi, Jadhavwadi, and Sonawane Vasti. archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com

Drive to continue Explaining in detail about the demolition drive, an encroachment cell PCNTDA official spokesperson said that the authority conducted the biggest demolition drive at Survey Number 12/19, where a five-storeyed illegal structure was demolished and 4,800 sq m land was acquired. One acre of land was acquired at sectors number five and eight after demolishing a commercial shop and garage.

Similarly, 40,000 sq ft of land at sector nine, 6,000 sq ft of land at sector six and 35,000 sq ft land at Rahatni, 200 sq m of land at Kalewadi was acquired during the April demolition drive.

The PCMC and PCNTDA will continue the demolition drive till the onset of the monsoon, claimed the official.

Why should anyone believe your hacking theory?

There are way too many gaps in the story that hackers wanted people to believe.

To begin with my original handle was @ Amitesh_Singh. The hackers changed it to @AmiteshSinghBJP just to give party a bad name. Secondly, if the Prime Minister indeed followed me, as the hacked profile stated, how would I have mere 300-odd followers?

Wouldn’t my follower count have gone up the minute PM started following me? Also, if one was to assume that I am a youth wing leader of the party, why would PM follow an ordinary leader from Pune?

I am not grandson of Khandwa Member of Parliament. Most importantly, with just 300-odd followers, my tweet went viral within minutes of it being posted. Obviously somebody wanted to rake in controversy, hacked my profile, edited it, posted the tweet and then spread the screenshots, just to make BJP look bad. And since I am an open

supporter of BJP based out of a small town, I guess I was an easy target. I am just an ordinary teenager, who is studying engineering. I hail from a middle class family. In fact, around the time the tweet went up, I was nursing my mother at a hospital. She was admitted in a hospital for breast cancer surgery on Monday and was discharged only on Sunday (May 2). I got her home late in the evening and have been taking care of her. My father is a small- time road contractor and suffers from oral cancer. I am their only son. And if I was who I claimed to be in that hacked account - vice president of BJYM, grandson of an MP and followed

by PM on Twitter - why would I be holed up like this?

Even if one was to believe your story of your Twitter account being, why did you delete your personal Facebook profile and Pune Confessions page?

I was scared. People were hurling abuses at me there. I did not know what to do. I have decided that after this episode, I am not getting on to social media ever again.

You have photographs with BJP leaders from Pune all over social networking sites?

I am a staunch BJP supporter and have met these leaders. I had gone to meet them and had taken photographs with them. However, I am not working for any political party.

There is a tweet about Khandwa MP being your maternal grandfather, is that true?

It is a fabricated screenshot. My maternal grandfather passed away several years ago.

tECH

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

PUNE

The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute, less than half the normal rate of 20.

— http://www.wtfdiary.com/

Adjusting to celebrity after the llama escape

Civic services are poor in Pune

P 13

P 15

Cars running on air? Indians show a way

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Scientists claim solar energy can be integrated with fuel cell devices to generate energy that could power green vehicles

By Sahana Ghosh Kolkata: Cars that run on air and puff out water vapour as exhaust? Well, Indian scientists claim solar energy can be integrated with unique devices called fuel cells to generate clean energy that could power green automobiles and much more.

At a time when carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles have come under the scanner for problems related to climate change, fuel cells are being seen as promising alternatives to fossil fuels.

And fuel cell vehicles are a reality now. In fact, in November last year, Toyota unveiled the Mirai, one of the first hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles to be sold commercially. Honda also displayed its sleek, new environmental friendly car engineered on the same principle.

Trending on Google is the latest fashion

Normcore? So last year. String bikinis?

Most definitely over.

Even interest in skinny jeans may be waning, if 6 billion fashionrelated queries by Google users are any indication of this year’s most popular trends.

Instead, consumers are Googling tulle skirts, midi skirts, palazzo pants and jogger pants, according to the company, which plans to start issuing fashion trend reports based on user searches twice a year. The new trend aggregations are part of the company’s bid to become a bigger player in e-commerce and fashion beyond its product search engine or advertising platform.

In its inaugural report, Google distinguishes between “sustained growth” trends, like tulle skirts and jogger pants; flash-in-the-pan obsessions like emoji shirts and kale sweatshirts; and “seasonal growth” trends, or styles that have come back stronger every spring, like white jumpsuits. It makes similar distinctions among sustained declines (peplum dresses), seasonal ones (skinny jeans) and fads that are probably

over and done (scarf vests).

Lisa Green, who heads Google’s fashion and luxury team, said the company had begun working with major retailers, including Calvin Klein, to help them incorporate realtime Google search data into fashion planning and forecasting.

“We’re interested in being powerful digital consultants for our brands, not just somebody they can talk to about what ads they can buy online,” she said.

Google’s foray into the fashion world is part of a wider scramble to define, inform and tap into how people search online for everything they can buy, be it clothes or jewelry or groceries or furniture.

The search giant has long experimented with e-commerce through services like Google Shopping, which lets shoppers compare prices among different vendors, and the recently introduced Shopping Express, which lets users make grocery purchases from local retail stores and receive them on the same day or the next one. For Google, product search is increasingly important for its mainstay business of selling ads alongside search results, including fashion search results.

For now, Google says it will share this database free to retailers and trendfollowers in the hopes of winning partners and clout in the fashion arena. © 2015 New York Times News Service

could drive such fuel cells out of air.

“In principle, you can capture oxygen from air and use a photovoltaic cell to convert oxygen to hydrogen peroxide. So on a sunny day, you could use that to produce electricity and water,” said Mandal, an associate professor at the institute’s Department of Chemical Sciences.

The researchers have shown a new route that makes a hydrogen peroxide-based fuel cell 140 times more active.

Published online in the Journal of The American Chemical Society (JACS), the study is co-authored by students Anand Pariyar, Gonela Vijaykumar, Mrinal Bhunia, Suman Kumar Dey and Santosh K Singh.

They have displayed the use of a novel iron-based substance to speed (act as a catalyst) up the energy generation - the key to the

fuel cell’s high performance.

“This makes the procedure not only energy efficient but also cost-effective since we did not use conventionally used platinum catalyst, which is very expensive. Moreover, hydrogen peroxide storage and transportation is very easy compared to hydrogen,” said study co-investigator Sreekumar Kurungot from CSIR-NCL, Pune.

Mandal added: “Eventually, with more technological breakthroughs, hydrogen peroxide fuel cells should be able to power automobiles using oxygen from the air. In addition, the hydrogen peroxide-based fuel cell is now considered the best option for use as a power source at space stations, remote military camps and for underwater power requirements.”

(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)

Microsoft has a far-out vision

IT major is already a different place from the infamously balkanised one Nadella inherited Peter DiCampo/The New York Times

BY HIROKO TABUCHI

“One of the major drawbacks of fossil fuel is that it generates greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide. Also, due to incomplete combustion it produces a deadly poison like carbon monoxide,” Swadhin Mandal, a scientist at Kolkata’s Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), told IANS. But in a fuel cell, hydrogen combines with oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water - which makes it eco-friendly.

Due to the storage and safety concerns of hydrogen, the focus now is on hydrogen peroxide as the source.

Mandal and his collaborators at IISERKolkata and the Pune-based CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory have gone a step ahead to make the technology more energy-efficient.

According to the expert, by using solar energy tapped via photovoltaic cells, one

BY NICK WINGFIELD Last June, in the basement of the Microsoft visitor center in Redmond, Washington, Todd Holmdahl, a Microsoft hardware guru, and others nervously walked Satya Nadella, the new chief executive, through a demonstration of a secret project.

More than a hundred people had toiled for several years on the ambitious effort, which would eventually be called HoloLens. At the time, the HoloLens headset was a clunky web of straps, wires and electronics. But it was able to project images onto lenses in front of people’s eyes, adding virtual landscapes and objects on top of the view of the natural world.

The team leaders thought this augmented reality product had the potential to be the next big thing in consumer technology, as groundbreaking as the PC and the smartphone.

But this was Microsoft, the company that had managed, time and again, to take ingenious innovation and bungle it on the way to store shelves. Microsoft had its software on smartphones years before Apple released the iPhone. Few cared. A full decade before the Apple Watch, Microsoft introduced its own computer on a wrist. It did not take off.

The HoloLens team members were confident in their creation. But they worried that Nadella, a two-decade Microsoft employee then looking at cost-cutting measures and mass layoffs, would kill it for being too risky and far-out.

Nadella didn’t flinch “He said right away, ‘This is something that we’re going to do,’” Holmdahl said. “We are going to create a new product category, and this is the type of thing that Microsoft should be working on.”

That response says a lot about the reshaped Microsoft that Nadella envisions - one with fewer internal fiefs and with more willingness to favor big bets on new technologies over protecting legacy cash cows. Part of that rebuilding occurred at a Microsoft conference recently in San Francisco, where he sought to mend Microsoft’s frayed relationship with software developers, making it easier for them to convert apps written for Apple and Google’s mobile operating systems to run on Windows.

In a recent interview, Nadella, 47, said

Satya Nadella

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Steven Bathiche, a Microsoft researcher who works on the firm’s Surface tablet, demonstrates new stylus technology, in Redmond, Washington. New chief executive Satya Nadella envisions a Microsoft with fewer internal fiefdoms and more willingness to favor big bets on new technologies

he and the company had learned from its mistakes. His Microsoft understands, he says, the discipline needed to build products that look and feel polished. Every part, from hardware to software to online services, must work in harmony.

“One lesson learned is you’ve got to finish the scenario with excellence,” Nadella said.

“You just cannot stop. You have to complete this, and I think that’s where Apple has taught us all what experience excellence means in the creation of categories.”

In some ways, Microsoft is already a different place from the infamously balkanised one Nadella inherited from Steven A Ballmer in February 2014.

Not long ago, the company had about a half-dozen internal systems for managing the development of software; Nadella is pushing everyone to use a single one, in the belief that top-notch Steven Bathiche internal tools will help it create top-notch products.

He has taken up an effort started under Ballmer to end the factional strife inside Microsoft, making the 118,000-strong workforce nimbler. At the meeting about HoloLens, Nadella told the team how he wanted the project to proceed. It was not going to be organized like Xbox, the company’s video game system, which developed as a semiautonomous republic. He wanted the group to be fully integrated into Microsoft.

That meant collaborating with people developing Skype, the company’s online voice and videoconferencing service, as well as the Windows and video games teams. The HoloLens group had already started moving in this direction even before the meeting with Nadella, but his orders galvanized them.

Microsoft says HoloLens will go on sale “in the time frame” when Windows 10, its new operating system, is released this summer.

In other words, the HoloLens is only a crucible for the new borderless Microsoft that Nadella is seeking to create. No pressure.

Translating Innovation Into Sales A big part of Microsoft’s fate rests with its research arm, the quasi-academic group responsible for conjuring breakthroughs that will keep Microsoft relevant for generations to come. Nadella is trying to avoid missed opportunities. He has pushed researchers and product engineers to work closer than ever before. HoloLens, too, is jammed with technologies that started in Microsoft Research, including the display technology used to paint virtual images on lenses in front of people’s eyes. If HoloLens has any chance of becoming a breakout hit, it will need must-have applications - add-ons that will do for augmented reality what wildly popular services like Instagram and Snapchat have done for smartphones.

Changing the Game At the Microsoft conference in San Francisco, the company showed examples of how HoloLens will be used. In one, a medical school expects to adopt HoloLens to let students learn anatomy.

In another, a building developer plans to have clients explore finished architecture while on a project still in construction. One current Microsoft executive said HoloLens would cost significantly more than a game console, which runs more than $400. Brad Silverberg, a venture capitalist in Seattle and a former senior executive at Microsoft, said he was encouraged that the company was doing that rather than playing catch-up in smartphones.

“That battle is already fought and lost,” Silverberg said. “You’ve got to change the game.” © 2015 New York Times News Service

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THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

“The gradual improvement in the consumption environment has helped our business perform well on all operating parameters.”

— Sunil Duggal, CEO, Dabur India

““The emerging markets represent the largest opportunity in online food delivery and we are committed to create the most convenient way for ordering and delivering food.”

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Audionub does away with middlemen, for artists’ sake

Akshay Tikhe and Ameya Adhyapak have teamed up to bypass middlemen who make it difficult for artists to get noticed

BY ANJALI SHETTY-SHIRSATH @shetty_anjali When drummer Akshay Tikhe and electronic music producer Ameya Adhyapak got together to collaborate on a track, they realised the need for a platform that negates middlemen.

The duo, being extremely musically inclined, decided to have a democratic platform for musicians to come out, express themselves and spread happiness.

“When we were thinking about collaborating on a track, we realised that a record label had no reason to entertain us. Record labels are choosy and judgmental about what artists and music they want to promote.

Audionub is a place where there are no judgments. You may also record the sound of brushing your teeth and upload it. We are building in an idea of a free space for artists to showcase their talent,” says Akshay.

India still does not have a pro artist platform. There is nothing to support them as such, wherein they can put their product and price it accordingly. “We have not made any profits at all. We are about to launch it for the public next month. For now, a lot of artists are signing up and checking it out. We want them to get comfortable fi rst, then listeners can join in,” adds Akshay.

The other business model in process is to take cuts for record labels.

Audionub is a month old and yet

PUNE

Successful ventures attract foreign money

Global investors eyeing the growth of Indian technology start-ups, helping entrepreneurs fund their businesses The success story of Indian tech startups has attracted prominent investors.

Venture capital fi rms, hedge funds and capitalists want to be a part of the country’s growing e-commerce market.

Let read the facts. Only 300 million Indians, or less than 25 per cent of the country, are Internet users, falling behind the world’s most populous country China.

A c c o r d i n g to Google India managing director Rajan Anandan, India has over 200 million Internet users and by 2018 almost half the country will be connected through the Internet. Around 500 million people will be online by 2018.

The value of the online store Flipkart, whose backers include Tiger Global and the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s fi rm DST Global, rose to $11 billion from $3 billion in one year. The valuation of Snapdeal, a leading e-commerce site backed by SoftBank, rose to $2 billion from $350 million in 2014.

Despite India’s most e-commerce players not reaching their break even, investors are ready to be a part of the growing industry. They are willing to burn fingers as they perceive that the economy is vibrant.

Many e-commerce start-ups are putting the investor interest and money into good use. Flipkart tripled its staff strength in one year. It hired

two Google executives Punit Soni as its chief product officer and Peeyush Ranjan as its head of engineering.

The quality of start-ups in India has made tech investors to put their money in these ventures even as a lot of business deals depend on the country’s political structure. Pepperfry, a furniture seller, raised financing from Bertelsmann and Norwest Venture Partners, and its rival Urban Ladder was backed by Steadview Capital Management and SAIF Partners.

Experts see India’s e-commerce market at an inflection point. A recent Morgan Stanley report titled “The Next India” said Indian e-commerce would expand to $100 billion in revenue by 2020, from $2.9 billion in 2013, making it the world’s fastest-growing market.

Mobile commerce platform, Paytm, plans to acquire 100 million wallets by 2015 from the over 50 million wallets it has now, according to their company statement.

Paytm declaring that it would spend Rs 500 crore in 2015-16 to promote its brand, beginning with a fi lm campaign on the ongoing IPL, is evidence enough that the growth scale is real and achievable. Experts cite that investors consider India as the land of opportunity after China.

Agencies

Experts see India’s e-commerce market at an inflection point

Akshay Tikhe (left) and Ameya Adhyapak are building in an idea of a free space for artists to showcase their talent

to open to the general public. They develop out of Chennai and are designed by Two Design based out of Pune.

About the challenges Akshay says, “Artists usually don’t believe things come for free. Convincing them to

come on board has been the biggest challenge. Once they agree, there is no catch. Then they try and figure out what else they can get out of it.”

Another aspect that has been an issue, is the fact that reaching out to conventional genres has been difficult.

“With all due respect to the form, they are very rigid. Converting them is very difficult. Fusion styles are coming from a fusion background.

Traditional mediums are still skeptical,” Akshay says. anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com

Setting up firm made easy In another move to make doing business in India easier, the government launched the singleform registration for new businesses, reducing red tape in incorporation of businesses from the currently required up to eight forms.

“Versions of e-forms INC-7 and INC-22 are modified wef from May 1, 2015. Stakeholders are requested to plan accordingly,” the corporate affairs ministry said in a notice on Labour Day. Entrepreneurs now need to only fi ll out one form — INC 29 — to start a business, which will make compliance and reporting easier.

Currently, even for a singleperson company, the forms required include INC-1 for approval of the name of the company, INC-7 for registration of the company along

with memorandum of association and articles of association, INC22 for intimation of registered office, DIR-12 for each director, and separate ones for allotment of director identification number (DIN) and digital signature certificate.

To improve the ease of doing business, the government has relaxed the procedures for setting

up companies by introducing an integrated electronic application form.

INC 29 can be used for registering one person, private, public and producer companies.

“The facility to fi le integrated application for incorporation in form INC 29 is available as an option to the process for separate applications for allotment of DIN, reservation of name and incorporation of a company,” the Ministry said.

The government is looking at ways to improve India’s position to top-50 in terms of ease of doing business globally.

India ranked 142nd out of 189 countries on the World Bank ’s latest Ease of Doing Business Index due to bureaucratic hassles and a maze of regulations.

Agencies

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Infosys co-founder Kris invests in IT firm Infosys Ltd co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan invested in Uniphore Software Systems, a Chennai-based speech recognition solutions firm, along with other investors, the company said on Thursday. “The first round (series A) of funding will fuel our global expansion and product and core technology development plans,” Uniphore said in a statement here but did not disclose the amount Gopalakrishnan and others invested.

The company’s solutions extend the power of speech to revolutionise human-machine interaction and allow any software application to understand and respond to natural human speech. “Continuing on my theme of backing inclusive innovations, I am optimistic of the success of Uniphore. As man-machine communication is a complex problem to solve, the software firm’s vision lends possibility of finding a solution to it (problem),” Gopalakrishnan said.

Food delivery start-up Box8 raises Rs 21 cr

Applicate gets Rs 3.5cr from angel investors Applicate, a software product to help consumer-facing companies manage workforce better, has raised Rs 3.5 crore from a dozen high net worth individuals to expand operations across the country. Investors include Rishi Vasudev, Flipkart’s vice-president for fashion retail, Amit Gupta, vicepresident of PE fi rm Urban Infra, and Rajiv Nayan, director business development at TCS Canada. The company was founded June 2014

by Kumar and Deepak Rewadi, a former General Motors executive.

About 3,000 employees across eight organisations currently use the app.

Mumbai-based food delivery startup Box8, founded by IIT graduates Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta in 2012, has raised around Rs 21 crore in Series A funding from Silicon Valley based early-stage venture capital fi rm Mayfield. The funding will be used to build technology across the two platforms, mobile and web. Box8 is currently present in Mumbai, has 22 delivery units across the city. The company claims 80 per cent of their daily transactions come from repeat customers. The funding will also be used to increase footprint across other Indian cities. Box8 has also received funding from Kaushal Aggarwal of Avendus Capital, Dheeraj Rajaram of MuSigma and Indian Angel Network.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

PUNE

MAY 9, 2015

PUNE

Man-leopard conflict reaches a tipping point in Junnar PICS BY ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

Four leopard attacks and two deaths have caused a turmoil among residents of the villages surrounded by the Sahyadris. Villagers say the leopards have ventured into their territory, experts claim it’s the other way round

BY GITESH SHELKE AND ASHISH PHADNIS

Forest officials are leaving no stone unturned to avoid any more attacks and have placed several traps in the region

In leopard’s kingdom

The leopard attacks in Junnar area have triggered a huge wave of fear and panic in the surrounding villages, and the troubled villagers have launched a diatribe against the forest department. Several public meetings have been held in which forest department has been criticised for inaction.

The forest department has now taken several steps - night patrolling is a regular feature and traps have been installed at several locations.

TGS team accompanied the patrolling party. Armed with a tranquiliser gun and a rescue van in tow, the officials kept checking the cages every two-three hours near Dingore village situated on the KalyanAhmednagar highway to see if a leopard had been trapped.

The dense sugarcane fields were dotted with isolated houses. Farmers kept going to their fields to turn on their water pumps. During the day, power supply is not constant forcing the farmers to water their fields in the night. A forest official, on conditions of anonymity, said, “The villagers are not ready to change their habits and even two deaths, today we met a mother who was planning to sleep in the open courtyard with her baby.

We literally drove them to sleep inside and bolted the doors. Though we are patrolling here all night long, we just can’t let such incidents happen.”

The official added, “Traps and cages are a temporary solution. We are trying to create awareness amongst villagers. We have asked them to take all necessary preventions and avoid the animals. But it will take time.”

The forest official’s assessment proved to be true – we came across an elderly man walking alone on a street without a stick or torch. It was nearly 2 am and the patrolling van made sure that the lone traveller reached his home safely.

Later in the night, the team also came across a few revellers, who were returning from a marriage party. They were aggressive and wanted to know if the forest officials were doing their job properly. They seemed unaware of the deadly danger posed by the leopards.

Later in the night, dogs started barking, indicating that a leopard was somewhere near. The patrolling suddenly started looking everywhere but did not spot the carnivore. The team spotted pug marks the next morning - a female leopard and her cub had passed through village that night.

Trap cages camouflaged in fields; Experts get ready with their tranquiliser guns before patrolling (above)

The otherwise sleepy villages are active at all hours these days. Four attacks and two deaths later, villagers in Junnar Taluka have suddenly woken up to a grave reality of life – leopards have ventured into their territory and should be driven out at any cost. Or is it the other way round? If experts are to be believed, changing human behaviour and lifestyle is largely responsible for the attacks. The humans have ventured into territories in the Western Ghats which were ruled by leopards not so long ago.

First leopard attack was reported in Junnar in 2009. Ever since the region was been quiet until November 2014, when another attack took place. Since April 17, this year leopards have attacked three people killing two. Surrounded by the Sahyadris mountain range, the region has a healthy leopard population. Humans too have prospered here thanks to booming sugarcane cultivation. The two have co-existed for decades.

Long-term planning is the key

planning, he said, “It has been observed that the leopards in Junnar area are mainly found in sugarcane fields. The reduction of reserved forests and increasing number of human settlements has forced the leopards to shift their habitat. If we have to push these animals back to the forest, we must create an ideal habitat for them. Reforestation, creating water sources in the area will lead to an increase in the number of herbivorous animals and eventually they will attract leopards.

It will surely take a few years, but the villagers must understand the leopard is a crucial part of our ecosystem and eradicating them won’t solve our purpose.”

Dr Ajay Deshmukh, who works as veterinarian for Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre, said, “The

human settlement is increasing and it has dislocated the leopards from their original place. Earlier, the leopards were seen regularly but it wasn’t a crisis. Th is is not a problem of this particular village or Junnar.

Th is is a issue of our entire Western Ghats.”

About long-term plans, he said, “Even today, most of the villages don’t have toilet blocks and they use the fields for the purpose. It has been observed that leopards normally attack these people. So to avoid this, the government should provide toilet blocks to each and every village in leopard-prone areas. Secondly, agriculture department or animal husbandry should help the villagers in building concrete cowsheds. Even MSEB should play a role and should avoid power cuts during night.”

Not long ago farmers used to stay in the villages and come to the farms on the outskirts only during the day.

However, now they have shifted their homes to near their fields. Dense sugarcane farms have always been home to leopards. They often hide their new born cubs in the fields.

Forest officials explained that a few decades ago farmers lived in close to each other in villages. Now, the space in the villages has remained the same while the families have grown. The villagers have migrated to the farms and constructed houses there. Nowadays, the families prefer to stay on their farms, their work place. It not only saves them time, but also with a lot more space available, they can have cattle and other livestock. Allied activities are yielding financial benefits to these families.

In the last few years, the forest officers and local villagers have found leopard cubs in the sugarcane farms. Experts point out that easy availability of water and food for the cubs makes the sugarcane farms lucrative even for leopards.

At the same time, the numbers of cane farms is on the is. They cover a large area of the taluka and villagers are cultivating sugarcane even on grazing lands. The forest area therefore is decreasing in the taluka.

F

by the law.

4. The government should provide finance to install solar-powered water pumps. Th is will curtail night visits to farms to start water pumps to water the fields.

5. The MSEDCL should provide electricity during the day (threephase power) for water pumps and two-phase power at night.

6. More manpower should be recruited by the state forest department to safeguard forests and villagers. Local unemployed youth can be recruited.

7. Leopards should not be allowed to cross the forest boundaries.

8. The forest department should provide food and water to the leopards in the jungle. It will avoid loss to humans

cubs miraculously survived with two of them sustaining minor burn injuries. The hatred for the bibtyas is such that the locals will not think twice if they get a chance to kill them, forest officials believe.

For now, the forest department has laid multiple leopard traps in and around villages.

After night long patrols, wherever they spot pug marks the next day, cages are moved. The idea is to simply capture animals venturing into so called human territory and release them in the wild again after few days. This, they know is far from a permanent solution. Simultaneously, the officials are trying to drill into the minds of locals that they ought to change their lifestyles – no more sleeping out in the open, use toilets and not defecate in the open, no late night walks, among others. But villagers are not so comfortable accepting these changes.

At the same time, the leopards cannot be contained in their natural habitat, as over the years, the dense forest has shrunk. Humans have encroached into the forest.

Villagers often find leopard cubs in their cane farms. Each time they are found, villagers, most of whom have smart phones, fish out their devices and start taking selfies. The entire village takes turns in posing with the cubs before the rattled creatures are handed over to the forest department officials.

Last week in Narayangaon, two cubs were found on a cane farm, and another four cubs in another adjacent field. The mother leopard growled at the villagers, following which the villagers and farm labourers set the remaining cane in the field ablaze. Two cubs sustained minor burn injuries.

“The same happened in the farm where two

Dingore village

T

he Mandlik family home is in the Amleshivar vasti, Dingore village, on the banks of the river Pushpavati. On May 3, two-year-old Sai Mandlik was playing in the verandah of his house with his grandmother sitting barely a couple of feet away. Other members of the family were inside watching television.

“I was sitting in the house and my wife

O

n April 17, another leopard attack took place at Tejewadi village, not too far from Khamundi. A family of four, had come to Tejewadi for the holidays and were staying with a farmer.

Father and the three-year-old girl were sleeping in the verandah of the house when a leopard came prowling. It grabbed the girl by the shoulder and tried to flee. Her father woke up just then and started screaming, punching and kicking the leopard. The leopard retreated, leaving the child behind.

Injured leopard cubs kept in the field to be reunited with their mother; injured cub (inset)

The misconception

four-year-old female leopard was trapped in the vicinity of Dingore village on Thursday morning. The forest officers had kept seven cage traps in and around the village.

Veterinary doctor Ajay Deshmukh of Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre, in Junnar, said that the trapped leopard was taken to the rescue centre. “It is not yet confi rmed if she (the leopard) had attacked humans in the last two months or so,” he added.

The leopard will be kept under observation at the centre for the next few days. Forest officials said that it is very tough to identify leopards which have attacked humans. The forest officers have decided to continue with the traps in the villages.

Villagers believe that a leopard is seeking revenge from the humans. They talk about how four years ago, a leopard cub was run over by a biker and died. The residents of Dingore villager said that the cub’s mother witnessed the accident and started chasing the vehicle. “We suspect that the mother leopard is taking her revenge,” members of the Mandlik family said, as many others around them nodded in agreement.

Leopards and Junnar

J

A

attacks on the humans.

11. Immediate action by the forest and police authorities after the incidents of attacks on humans. Alert response mechanism should be in place.

12. Plantation of more trees in the designated forest areas.

I

Tejewadi villlage

The forest officers looking for pug marks where leopard was spotted in Dingore

Finally trapped

and to the livestock.

9. Provision of finance for constructing compound walls around homes.

10. Ban loud music systems mostly used during parties and wedding functions. The loudspeakers cause panic among the leopards, sparking

neighbours rushed out. They ran in the direction where the leopard had taken the baby boy. “We found Sai body not too far away from our house. The boy had injuries on the face, neck and on the head,” the family said.

Leopard attacks are not new to the Mandlik family. “Earlier, the big cats used to take away our goats, calves or hens. In 1994, a villager was attacked by a leopard near the river,” Baban said.

“We have been spotting leopards for a while now but they have never harmed humans before,” Baban added.

The family thinks that with the decreasing green cover in the forest areas at the foothills of the mountains, the leopards are preying on dogs, hens, goats, or calves, and are also drawn by water in the sugarcane fields.

“We now think that the leopard has become a man-eater and is targeting children,” another senior member on Mandlik family said.

Another attack was reported in Dingore in November 2014. A woman residing in the village had gone to the jungle in the foothills of the village. She was walking towards her home in the evening, when she spotted a leopard. As she began to scream, the leopard pounced on her but fled as victim continued to scream, leaving her scratched and bruised.

n the wee hours of April 17, five-year-old Pravin Dudhawade was picked up from his house by a leopard and taken to a nearby hill.

The Dudhawades stay in an isolated area not very far from state highway in Junnar taluka. They hail from Sangamner taluka in Ahmednagar and migrated to Khamundi village five years ago.

Pravin’s father Devram (27) said that the incident took place at around 5 am. “My mother woke up and went out in the fields to answer nature’s call. My son followed her and as soon as he reached the threshold of the house, a leopard pounced on him,” he said.

The boy’s mother saw the leopard running with her child and raised an alarm.

The neighbours gathered and they made calls to the forest and police officers. A search was launched and hours later his body was found on top of a cliff.

cubs were found without their mother. The villagers took selfies with the cubs in the field and took videos. It disturbed both the cubs as well as their mother,” said Dr Ajay Deshmukh, who works as veterinarian for Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre.

The two cubs were immediately reunited with their mother, who was lingering in the vicinity. “If she passes from the field where the cubs are kept, she will take them away,” he said.

“We have re-united about 20 cubs with mother leopards in the last five years. We do not want them to keep them in confinement,” Dr Deshmukh said.

Villagers and local MLA putting forth their demands to the forest officers

was with my grandson. She didn’t even realise when the leopard picked up the child and fled.

It came and vanished like a ghost with the boy.

As she realised that the child had disappeared, she screamed as she saw the leopard beyond the cowshed in front of the house,” said Baban Mandlik, Sai’s grandfather.

Hearing her screams, family members and

Khamundi village

Leopard cubs and selfie culture

What villagers want orest officers from Pune District, local Gram Panchayat members and others had organised a meeting of the villagers on the man-animal confl ict in Dingore village on Wednesday afternoon. The villagers were urged to speak their mind on the issue. Here are few points that the irked villagers put forward: 1. If a leopard has become a man-eater or if it is spotted near the homes, the villagers should be allowed to kill it immediately.

2. The law should be changed to allow the killing of the wild cats.

3. As humans are punished when they commit a crime, the same should be applicable to leopards. Leopards should also be punished appropriately

Moreover, from the pattern they are yet to confirm if the wild cat can be termed a man eater. But with locals raging with fury, forest officials do not want to take any chances.

With the situation fast getting out of hand, forest officials and experts equipped to deal with the crisis have been called in. Armed with transquiliser guns, they patrol through the night to keep an eye on leopards or bibtyas, as they are popularly known, venturing into human territory. While capturing the wild animal is only a short term solution, largely to pacify the villagers, the forest officials’ biggest concern is that if a permanent solution is not found soon enough, there will be mayhem.

Insiders reveal that another attack on humans would only spell doom for the leopards in the region. For locals have already begun to set their own fields on fire, where they suspect, a leopard could be hiding or may have given birth to babies. In one such incident at Narayangaon, locals set a cane field on fire just because they figured that a leopard had given birth there. Four

Why leopard attacks are on the rise

T

he forest department believes that social awareness, reforestation and prevention can be solutions to avert a humananimal confl ict The man-animal confl ict in Junnar area is not new. For several generations the villagers and the leopards have co-existed without any trouble. But this co-existence has now taken a downturn with the recent spate of leopard attacks.

The angry villagers have blamed the forest officials and demanded immediate action – either kill these leopards or shift them to another locality.

However, if the forest department is to be believed, the only solution to put an end to this confl ict is long-term planning.

Jeet Singh, chief conservator of forests, Pune, who visited the villages affected by leopard attacks, says, “We must realise that killing or moving the leopards is not a practical solution. They have been living here for years and we must deal with the situation without damaging the eco-system. The forest department is working on two goals - fi rst is security of the villagers and second is creating awareness. We have installed several trap cages and our patrolling team is keeping a tab on the animals’ activity. We have put up posters in every village indicating the dos and don’ts in leopardprone areas. Th is will surely help in reducing the attacks.”

Talking about the long-term

The situation got out of hand only recently.

On April 17, five-year-old Pravin Dudhawade was taken away by a leopard from his house in Khamundi village and his body found on a hill hours later. On the same day, in Tejewadi village, a leopard tried taking away a three-yearold child sleeping next to her father. The father woke up just in time and put up a fight. The beast retreated leaving the child behind. The girl was badly injured but survived the attack. The tipping point was on May 3, when two-year-old Sai Mandlik was taken away by a leopard from the verandah of his house in Dingore village.

Sai’s grandmother, who was also sitting outside, noticed the bibtya running towards the edge of field with her grandson and raised an alarm. Men from the household went after the leopard, who managed to escape, leaving the corpse behind.

Ever since locals from several villages in Junnar have been up in arms, demanding nothing less than a ‘death penalty’ for the man eater leopard. The forest officials are unsure if all the attacks are doings of the same creature.

Four attacks since Nov 2014

A female leopard was caught at Dingore village on Thursday morning

unnar is the biggest home for the leopards in the state with about 45–50 of them in jungles spread over 70,000 square hectares of land.

In the last year, seven leopards have died in the region. Out of the seven, four leopards were died after falling in wells, while one of them met with an accident. Others died natural deaths.

In the last one year, leopards have killed 1,100 goats and hens owned by the farmers.

Since November, the leopards of Junnar have attacked four human beings, killing two children.

So far, the forest department has given compensation to the farmers to the tune of Rs 17 lakh. For a human life, compensation is Rs 8 lakh, and Rs 5,000-7,000 for a goat.

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

PUNE

“Without a single drop of blood, Buddha conquered the hearts of the people of the world. India is fortunate to have crores of his followers from neighbouring countries like Thailand, Korea, Bhutan and Japan.”

— Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya, Nagaland, Assam and Tripura Governor

Kids will miss this road safety guardian

With grace and poise

ASI Pawar has done a yeoman job of inculcating road safety etiquette in a legion of city students

The Indian classical dance form of Kathak has managed to maintain its glory in the times when western dance forms are all the rage, thanks to the initiative

BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke

Neha Muthiyan was honoured with the prestigious Kanak Bhushan award at the Brahma Vasant Utsava

BY ZAINAB KANTAWALA @kantawalazainab Bringing one of India’s finest dance forms to the city is Neha Muthiyan, Kathak dancer, teacher. She also runs a magazine entitled ‘Loud Applause’, which is dedicated to enriching every dancer’s journey, and has information regarding different dance art forms. Her hands are full, but she makes time for her passion every day – ‘Kathak’.

She was honoured with the prestigious Kanak Bhushan award at the Brahma Vasant Utsava held recently. “I received the award for upcoming dancer category at the hands of the legendary Dr Kanak Rele. It was a very proud moment for me, as many dignitaries from the field of dance were present,” she says.

Neha stepped into the arena of dance at the tender age of eight. A talented girl for whom dance is an inseparable part of her daily life, the credit for this she gives to her guru. “I was always inclined towards dancing. It started as a hobby, which later became my passion. I owe everything to my guru Shambhavi Dandekar. My parents, my husband and in-laws too have been extremely supportive. And without their support I wouldn’t have been what I am today,” she says.

Neha is a dancer whose performances are marked by grace and poise, and she has performed at various festivals in and around the city, such as Mudra Dance Festival, International Dance Day, Pune Festival, Shaniwarwada Festival and many more.

Neha has performed solo

on platforms like Kolhapur Mahotsav, Kavya Nrutya Unmesh where her choreography for the Marathi poem ‘Gada’ was greatly appreciated.

She has also displayed her artistry at the Indian Cultural Centre in Malaysia. “Performing outside India is different. The audiences abroad do observe you. They are emotional, critical and analytical about your performance.

They are very receptive and want to know about Indian culture, so they look up to us. Whereas here in India, people know about the dance form, they know what to expect out of a classical dance performance.”

She believes Indian dance is not just about moving your body but it engages the mind in challenging ways. “Getting on to the correct postures serves a very

Hindu, Muslim girls marry earliest; Jains, Christians later

BY KHABAR LAHARIYA & PRACHI SALVE

If you are a girl — educated and from an economically stable family — from an urban area, either Jain, Christian or uppercaste Hindu, the chances are you will not be married before adulthood (18 years), according to a new report.

SOME OTHER HIGHLIGHTS Teen pregnancy is nine times higher among illiterate women than among those who have finished school.

Women from cities marry two years later than rural counterparts; the richest women marry four years later than the poorest.

Tribal Assam, which allows younger women to have sex outside of marriage, has a high age of marriage.

The age at marriage is mostly rising within the lower castes, but at a slower pace than within the upper-castes, indicates a seven-state report from Nirantar, a Delhibased advocacy. Jain women marry the last (at a median age of 20.8 years), preceeded

by Christian women (20.6 years) and Sikh women (19.9 years). Hindu and Muslim women have the lowest median age at fi rst marriage (16.7 years).

Hindus and Muslims together account for 973 million, or 80 per cent of India’s 1.2 billion people, according to the 2011 census.

Teenage pregnancies and motherhood are higher for Hindus and Muslims (16 per cent) than for any other religion, making clear the relationship between early marriage and teenage pregnancies.

WHAT DETERMINES CHILD MARRIAGE? Family income, location (urban and rural), community, caste and education are directly correlated with an Indian girl’s age of marriage, according to the Nirantar report - Early and Child Marriage in India: A Landscape Analysis.

WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS HAD IT WORST Nearly 17 million girls between the ages of 10 and 19 — six per cent of the age group — are married, asIndiaSpend has reported, many to older men. Th is is an increase of 0.9 million from the 2001 census.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, leads the list of states reporting child marriage.

Women in the highest family income bracket (this includes families that can afford all the 33 assets mentioned under a government wealth index) marry more than four years later than women in the lowest wealth quintile, according to data from the Nirantar report.

IF YOU LIVE IN A CITY, YOU MARRY LATER Women from urban areas, on average, marry more than two years later than their rural counterparts, according to the Nirantar report. The median age at marriage among urban women was 18.8 years, compared with 16.4 years among rural women. A quarter of all women aged 15-49 in urban areas have never been married, compared with 17 percent of rural women.

Another important facet of the report was its look at states with low child marriage rates such as Kerala and Assam and its attempt to draw learnings from them. In both states, education for women and a matriarchal society were identified as two factors that have helped ensure a low percentage of girls getting married between the ages of 10 and 19, 11.7 per cent in Kerala and seven percent in Assam.

(In arrangement with Indiaspend. org, with which Prachi Salve is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.

This story has been produced in partnership with Khabar Lahariya, a rural, weekly newspaper)

A billionaire at the intersection of business and power in China P14

important role in dance. Also reaching out to the audience with the blend of music and abhinaya with the correct emotion to keep them mesmerised, is a difficult art.”

So what is does dance mean to her?

“Classical dance gives me a lot of selfsatisfaction. It enriches you as a person.

Youngsters should be encouraged to take up classical dance as a career,” she replies. zainab.kantawala@goldensparrow.com

He is fondly known as ‘Pawar Sir’ among his students, and he has trained no less than eight lakh students in the last 17 years, as part of the Road Safety Patrol (RSP) initiative of the city traffic police.

Assistant Sub Inspector AB Pawar retired from the State Police service on Friday. He had spent almost half of his tenure training students and employees of software firms and the corporate sector.

The city police runs its RSP programme in 285 schools in Pune and 100 schools in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Pawar had been at the helm of the programme for 17 years.

“I have not served at a police station or any executive branch of the police in the last 17 years but I do not have any regrets. I think that I was involved in a nation-building activity and I have trained students from different schools in this same spirit,” he said. However, Pawar who shared a great rapport with the school kids, knows that he is going to miss his interaction with the youngsters.

Pawar is of the opinion that the new generation is smart and learns things quickly. “Not only do they learn quickly, but they also implement the traffic rules and discipline they have acquired when they are on the road,” he said.

Pawar conducted RSP parades, and in his classes, he explained in detail about traffic regulations, road signs and other traffic related issues such as safety and road etiquette. “I taught my students about how accidents are often caused due to human error and rarely by the surroundings or by nature,” he said. Accidental deaths on roads could be reduced significantly if children are groomed in traffic rules at an early age, he believes. That is the reason why

Assistant Sub Inspector AB Pawar has trained eight lakh students while in office

he thinks that traffic regulations and road safety are subjects that should be included in the school curriculum.

Pawar, who had passed his SSC examinations, said that he used to conduct 40 lectures a week for students or for corporate offices. “I have obtained training from the Byculla training institute and after the rigorous training, I decided to join the traffic branch and then shifted to the RSP. It also helped me update my knowledge on traffic issues,” he said.

Pawar said that his aim was to guide youth from wrongdoing, not just in terms of traffic rules. “I will be happy if my students continue to follow traffic rules on city roads and on highways.

Such discipline will help reduce accidents,” he said.

After putting in a lifetime of service, Pawar is a contented man, as he says that he has been rewarded with satisfaction and the respect of his students and colleagues.

Pawar lives in Pune with his wife, two children and mother. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com

Toying with science for young minds

Four youths now hold telescope making, science toys workshop for kids after their skill was ‘underpaid’ by organisers

BY RAJIL MENON @RajilMenon

Love for stars and beyond brought them together, and finding their skill being ‘underpaid’ united them to start a venture alone.

Tushar Purohit, Sonal Thorve, Maharudra Mate and Shivaji Mane have been a part of conducting workshops on telescope making for many years.

“NGOs and other organisations would call us as their resource persons, conduct workshops and earn a decent amount from parents and other participants but give us just enough money to cover travel expense. We were taken for granted, and decided to organise workshops on our own and charge nominal amount from students and other participants. Our focus would be to create awareness and develop interest in astronomy and science among children,” said Purohit, who took a liking to astronomy from his college days (19921994), and has been teaching telescope making in workshops all over India since 2000.

“Although I am a commerce graduate and taxation expert, teaching children how to make telescope gives me a lot of satisfaction as I am trying to inform young minds,” Purohit said.

The scientific public outreach programmes organised by Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) brought the quartet together.

After completing her MSc in physics from Wadia College (Pune) in 2011, Thorve joined IUCAA’s scientific public outreach programme. She has expertise in conducting astronomy workshops.

ITI graduate Mate, 33, daily travels 75 km from

Participants are busy identifying the parts of telescope and assembling them at the workshop

hometown Daund to teach kids at IUCAA where he works as technical assistant.

Mane, 31, was surprised to see scienceinnovator Arvind Gupta on IUCAA campus.

The seventh standard pass had enjoyed seeing the well-known scientific toy-making expert on Doordarshan a few days ago before he accepted a housekeeping job offer at the science centre.

Later, Gupta asked Mane to join the rural outreach programme as the scientist does not need a graduate for the job that includes generating awareness about science among children studying in VIII-X standard in rural areas.

Maharudra Mate (second from left), Tushar Purohit, Sonal Thorve and Shivaji Mane, standing behind the students, are the four organisers of the science toys and telescope making workshop

A part of the rural outreach programme for nine years, Mane was also holding workshops for NGO and is a member of Arvind Gupta toys team.

THE FIRST WORKSHOP The four held their first telescope making and science toys workshop at Gunvatta Umed hall, 564 B, Ramanbaug Chowk on May 4. “Twenty-one people registered for the workshop,” said Mane.

Saraswati Chavali, a homeschool parent, who attended the workshop for her son Anand, said that she is getting informed to pass on the knowledge to Anand in a gradual manner.

Vansh Chawla, 14, from Wakad, learnt to make a direct current motor using an Eveready battery at the workshop. The IX standard student of Podar International School (Pimpri) said, “I learnt the principle on which the latest Japanese trains run.”

Eight-year-old Durga Prasad Kulkarni, a IV standard student of Lok Seva School, was amused by the sprinkler she had made using straws.

“She took some time to figure out the science behind it,” Mane said.

Varad More, 11, of Mar Ivanios School at Pimple Gurav, said that he is liked spiral string and beads toy the most.

“Telescopes were made using PVC pipes and other toys can be made from easily available materials,” said Purohit. rajil.menon@goldensparrow.com

Environment “Waste management rules have to be taken to the people, as rules are of no use without the participation of the people.”

— Prakash Javadekar, Union Environment Minister

By Zainab Kantawala @Kantawalazainab

Vaibhav Dugar helps farmers and anybody else who is interested in setting up organic farms and growing plants

The harm that pesticides do...

• Did you know that an apple can be sprayed up to 16 times with 36 different pesticides, or that a single strawberry can contain 22 different pesticide residues? These chemicals, worth approximately $64.5 billion, that are sprayed each year, are not only harming man but also the ecosystem.

There are around 405 marine dead zones, where no life exists in our waters. The causes are attributed to the high amount of chemicals found here that results in low oxygen levels. Such levels do not support life, hence the term ‘dead zones’. The largest of such zones is around 70,000 sq km, which is approximately 120 times the size of our city, Pune or five times the size of the district of Pune! And that is just one of them.

• Nutrient and mineral levels in organic food can be as high as 12 times than conventional chemical intensive-food. So you will need to eat 12 apples from a conventional farm, to match the levels found in one organic apple.

If you work on the respective weight and the price, organic food will also prove to be cheaper, along with its health benefits!.

Waste not: Turning food scraps into energy

The US generates about 34 million tonnes of food waste in a year CLEVELAND: Well before the start of a Cleveland Indians game at Progressive Field, as players warmed up on the jewel-green field, it was business as usual in the garage behind left field for C L Gholston, a dishwasher.

He had wheeled down gray bins full of kitchen scraps - pineapple and melon rinds, carrot shavings and tomato ends - that were all part of the mix he fed into a contraption he calls the energy machine.

Built by InSinkErator, the garbage disposal maker, the machine grinds all types of food waste, including skin, fat, f lesh and bone, into a slurry that is later transformed into energy and fertiliser at a plant operated by the renewable energy company Quasar.

As governments and industry seek to reduce emissions of methane - a more powerful heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide - by limiting the amount of organic waste in landfills, large food processors are looking for new ways to get rid of their leftovers.

Food waste, an estimated 34 million tonnes a year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent figures, is the largest component of landfills, which are responsible for roughly 18 per cent

of the nation’s methane emissions.

Here in Cleveland, the Indians began using the process last year, following the Browns, who started in 2013, and a casino has recently joined the effort. InSinkErator’s system, called Grind2Energy, is winning customers elsewhere as well, including at some Whole Foods stores in Boston.

“We’re a wasteful nation,” said Steven M Smith, Quasar’s chief financial officer.

The company, he said, repurposes “material that is either being landfilled, incinerated - that’s not good for the economy - and we extract the energy and concentrate the nutrients, and we have water at the back end.”

Both InSinkErator and Quasar see potential in their system, which uses naturally occurring bacteria to speed up the decomposition process. Less than 5 per cent of American food waste is recovered and recycled, but it can be a potent source of energy for electricity, heat and transportation fuel.

As government policies shift to encourage extracting the energy

from organic trash, the United States is beginning to catch up.

The East Bay Municipal Utility District in California, for example, has been funneling food waste from restaurants and other large producers to a digester for years as part of a federal pilot program, and some cities have experimented with similar diversion efforts. Harvest Power, a startup backed by Waste Management and Kleiner Perkins and based in Waltham, Massachusetts, has been operating a facility in Orlando, Florida, since 2013 that turns waste from Disney World into fuel and fertilizer.

In theory, adding food to digesters processing manure or sewage has advantages, said Chad Kruger, director of the Washington State University Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, chief among them that it increases methane production. But without an infrastructure in place to handle, transport and process the material, building that kind of energy system has been too difficult and expensive to spread widely.

And Gholston, who makes about eight trips to the energy machine during games and took roughly six minutes to process about 9 kilograms of food scraps, said it had changed his habits.“It made me think about being green at home,” he said, as hundreds of Progressive Insurance employees wearing aprons like their pitchwoman, Flo, prepared nearby for pregame festivities. He and his wife recycle more now, but he is also simply fond of the contraption.

“I enjoy big machines,” he said, pointing out how the slurry moves from the grinding apparatus up through tubes into the tank. “I’m just a guy that likes any machine.” © 2015 New York Times News Service

Food waste is ground and turned into energy and fertiliser

Credit Michael F McElroy / The New York Times

A food worker at Progressive Field prepares vegetables, whose scraps are recycled, for the Indians season opener in Cleveland. As governments and industry seek to reduce emissions of methane by limiting the amount of organic waste in landfills, large food processors are looking for new ways to use food waste to generate energy.

PUNE

solutions to it, especially in food. Ek Titli Farms provides sustainable agricultural practices through which people can grow food in any space,” says Vaibhav.

From growing food, to creating organic farms and promoting renewable energy, Ek Titli does it all. Vaibhav believes that instead of discussing environmental degradation, one has to act in his/her own way to save it. “When we choose organic farming or its produce, we say ‘yes’ to sustainable practices and we say ‘yes’ to living in harmony and in balance with nature. We not only ingest chemical free food, but also very nutritious and mineral rich food,” he adds.

They have been encouraging people to go organic by producing their own food. Provide them a space of any size and they’ll help you grow food on it. Even a small gallery or even unused bottles and cans are enough to grow vegetables at home, he says. “One can grow the plants anywhere. Just cut the bottom of a bottle, fill it with soil, sow the seed and hang it in a window with its tapering side down. The plant will start growing from the tapering side,” said Vaibhav.

Asked about the name ‘Ek Titli’, Vaibhav says, “It’s said that the flap of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the planet can trigger a cyclone on the other side.

This is known as The Chaos Theory or The Butterfly Effect. We wish to be that butterfly, the Titli, which is creating change.”

Besides their website, ‘Ek Titli.Org’ is an initiative to spread the word about clean and green initiatives. zainab.kantawala@oldensparrow.com

Keep moving, to stay ahead of arthritis

Adopting a sedentary lifestyle can only aggravate the problems of arthritis JANE E BRODY I was a fanatical tennis player for decades until my increasingly painful arthritic knees forced me to stop playing. The knees were replaced two years later, but by then, I had filled in my life with other activities, including a daily 5-kilometre walk and aerobic swim, and cycling for exercise and errands.

Now I also walk a puppy four times a day.

I have made many new friends and, much to my surprise, I don’t miss tennis at all.

Osteoarthritis is something nearly all of us can expect to face if we live long enough. A quarter of the US population has it, and the percentage is expected to rise significantly in the years ahead.

Two-thirds of people with arthritis in the United States are younger than 65, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

“Arthritis affects more than 52 million adults in the United States and is the most common cause of disability,” the CDC states. Yet it often takes a back seat to other chronic ailments in treatment and public awareness.

When the pain of arthritis results in a decline in physical activity, as it commonly does, the risk of developing a chronic health problem like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes rises and performing the tasks of daily living becomes increasingly difficult.

The big question now is how the growing number of adults with arthritis will cope with a painful, disabling and as yet incurable disease. Although

Paul Roger­s/The New York Times

Ek Titli is a venture by young enthusiast Vaibhav Dugar, who have given up his engineering career to find a green solution

DIANE CARDWELL

MAY 9, 2015

“The estimated proportion of multi drug resistant TB cases in India is not increasing. It is less than three percent among new TB cases and between 11 to 19 per cent among retreatment TB cases.”

— JP Nadda, Health Minister

Waging a green war Are you fed up of vegetables that are laden with pesticides?

Do you know how to grow t o m a t o e s organically in your backyard?

Then meet Vaibhav Dugar, your guide to growing organic Vaibhav Dugar vegetables at home.

Va i bh a v is a Telecommunications Engineer and a marketing geek, but his love for nature has made him turn his back on a lucrative career. He is now completely dedicated to the promotion of organic farming and green living in the country.

He helps people set up their own organic farms, and provides a platform for people who want to do something for a cleaner community and a greener environment. He started the ‘Ek Titli’ Foundation to help farmers and anybody else who is interested in setting up organic farms and growing plants.

“Several observations led us to start Ek Titli. We wanted to address environmental concerns and provide

H ealth

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY

several commonly affected joints - hips, shoulders, ankles, wrists and elbows as well as knees - can be replaced by artificial ones, not everyone affected is a candidate for surgery, and the operation itself leaves some people with activity limitations.

When people fail to delay the progress of arthritis, a multicenter study that Conaghan directed showed, it is likely to progress from causing difficulty using stairs to pain while walking; then standing, lying or sitting; and finally while in bed. Elizabeth M A Hensor of the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine was the lead author of the study, published in January in Arthritis Care & Research. © 2015 New York Times News Service

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

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“Modi Government deserve credit for creating the most centralised government in India’s recent history. Ministers hardly matter. Even bureaucrats feel paralysed because all key decisions are pending in the PMO for decision” — Sonia Gandhi, President of the Indian National Congress party

A city that spoils you for good P 15

‘India Inc lax on sexual harassment issue’ Corporate India turning a blind eye towards over issue of sexual harassment of women at the workplace, points out an Ernst and Young survey conducted this year

NEW DELHI: Nearly a third of the companies operating in India are yet to constitute the mandatory panel against sexual harassment at workplace, with the incidence of noncompliance higher among domestic entities, reveals a survey.

The Ernst and Young survey reveals that 40 per cent of the respondents were yet to train the members of their internal complaints committees even though it is mandatory under the law that came into force in December 2013.

The survey was conducted between January and April 2015 through an online questionnaire hosted on EY’s website in India. It received 129 responses from the survey, the consultancy said.

Another finding: 44 per cent of

There has been a significant increase in incidents of sexual harassment of women at the workplace in India, from 2011 to 2014

the respondents did not display the penal consequences at a conspicuous places, as also required under the

Stretch marks, a worrisome issue

Wearing a sari after pregnancy becomes an embarrassing experience

NEW DELHI: If one goes by a survey, most new and expecting mothers consider stretch marks as one of the most worrisome issues with respect to their physical appearance.

According to the Yummy Mummy Survey by Nielsen, one of the most worrisome issues with respect to their physical appearance as stated by 84 per cent of new and expecting mothers are stretch marks.

The Yummy Mummy Survey also uncovered that there are several beliefs around stretch marks which are still prevalent amongst new and expecting mothers. For instance, 76 per cent agree that stretch marks happen only on the tummy.

“It is common to develop stretch marks on the breasts, thighs, hips, lower back and buttocks when there is rapid stretching of the skin like weight gain in these areas.

“Stretch marks can appear anywhere on the body, but it is more likely for them to form where larger amounts of fats are stored in the body,” Kiran Coelho, who’s been the gynaecologist to Bollywood actresses like Shilpa Shetty, Lara Dutta and Mandira Bedi, said in a statement.

“Though many of my patients worry about stretch marks, very few are aware of the facts. As many as 66 per cent new and expecting mothers agree that stretch marks have no cure,” she added.

One of the key findings of the survey was that stretch marks were found to pose not only physical but social challenges as well.

In India, where the traditional sari is worn to most special occasions (especially post pregnancy), 80 per cent

Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

What is more, the lack of awareness about constituting the panel was 67 per cent among electronics and

telecom firms, 59 per cent in banking showed noticeable rise in sexual and financial services firms, and 40 per harassment at the workplace: From 170 cent each in IT, and advertising, media cases in 2011, to 167 in 2012, 249 in and entertainment companies.

2013, and 336 in 2014.

The nature of complaints: 47 per Ernst and Young said there was cent for physical contact and advances, hope yet. “It is not impossible for 13 per cent over demand or request for corporate India to provide a safe place sexual favours, 37 per cent over sexually of work for their women employees,” it colored remarks, and four per cent over said. Its prescription: display of pornographic content.

Constitute internal committees “The government’s intent is to put Ensure the presiding officer is a a brake on such cases,” said Arpinder woman at a senior level Singh, partner and national leader of Not less than two members from fraud investigation and dispute services employees committed to the women’s with Ernst and Young. cause Sexual harassment as per law One member from non-governincludes unwelcome acts or behaviour mental organisations - whether directly Formulate and dissemior by implication nate internal policy listing all - such as physical aspects including remedy contact and Drive awareness through advance, a demand online and off-line training or request for sexual Investigate complaints favours, making and take strict action against sexually colored perpetrators remarks, showing Monitor timely submispornography, etc. sion of reports by panels to The study the government Treat sexual harassment as also quoted -ARPINDER SINGH misconduct under service rules data compiled Initiate action for such by the National misconduct.

Commission IANS for Women that

“The govt’s intent is to put a brake on such cases.”

Goa to add casinos, move gambling ships The state earns Rs 125 crore annually from onshore and offshore casinos

By Mayabhushan Nagvenkar

new and expecting mothers agree that they think wearing a sari during or post pregnancy becomes an embarrassment because of stretch marks showing.

The Yummy Mummy Survey also uncovered that there are several dated myths surrounding pregnancy which are still followed by new and expecting mothers or fathers in India.

For instance, the size of the stomach can identify the gender of the baby and the survey reveals only 40 percent of new and expecting mothers or fathers disagree that a heavy baby bump is welcoming a baby girl.

Ask these new moms and momsto-be what they associate with being a “Yummy Mummy” and 62 percent new and expecting fathers associate maintaining body post pregnancy as much as pre pregnancy with Yummy Mummy, 67 percent new and expecting fathers associate beautiful skin with Yummy Mummy.

As many as 91 per cent of them have admitted to actively taking steps to make their wives a Yummy Mummy.

(IANS)

PANAJI: The five glitzy offshore casinos anchored in the Mandovi river, which are now contemporary landmarks in the state’s capital, will be shifted upriver to other locations, even as an anti-corruption outfit claimed that five more casinos could soon be given operating licences.

Speaking to IANS on the sidelines of a tourism ministry event here, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, whose Bharatiya Janata Party had vouched to rid Goa of casinos as a prepoll promise, dodged questions over whether his government would grant licences to more casinos, in addition to the dozen-odd gambling facilities already functioning in the state’s fivestar hotels.

Asked to respond to a charge by NGO Generation Next that one more offshore casino and four onshore casinos were in the process of being licensed by the BJP-led coalition government, Parsekar said: “Not at all, at least not in the Mandovi... Even we are planning to shift this in the interior elsewhere”.

Asked specifically if his government would grant licences to more casinos, Parsekar cryptically said: “No additional offshore casinos,” refusing to comment on whether more onshore casinos would be allowed.

Goa, one of the top beach and nightlife tourism destinations in the country, first opened up to casinos in the late 1990s under the then Congress regime, which amended the Goa,

Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, to provide licences to one offshore casino and a string of five-star hotels.

In its 2007-12 stint in power, the Congress once again granted licences to seven more offshore casinos, of which only four now survive.

Additionally, nearly a dozen onshore casinos operate out of Goa’s five-star resorts.

According to government data, the onshore and offshore casinos annually contribute nearly Rs 125 crore (approx $20 million) to the state’s treasury.

Ahead of the 2012 state assembly polls, the BJP, which had led a sustained campaign against the casino industry for several years, had promised that if voted to power, its government would rid the Mandovi river of the casinos.

After coming to power, then chief minister Manohar Parrikar and now his successor Laxmikant Parsekar however did a u-turn on the promise made in the BJP poll manifesto, by insisting that the casinos will have to stay put because of the quantum of revenue they contributed to the state’s coffers.

Soon after his appointment as chief minister in November last year, Parsekar even said that doing away with casinos would send a wrong signal to future investors of casinos in Goa. The casino about-turn has been a subject of much public criticism.

Last week, an anti-corr uption

The casino about-turn has been a subject of much public criticism

NGO said at a press conference that the BJP government was all set to grant licences to four onshore and one more offshore casino.

“This is a fraud committed by the BJP government with the people who elected this dispensation to power,” Generation Next president Durgadas Kamat said. The allegation came a day after a spokesperson for the home ministry, the licensing authority for casinos, said that a floating hotel with an in-house casino had received inprinciple clearance.

“The licence for the floating casino is not a new one. We are only transferring an existing licence to the floatel (a floating hotel, the first in the state) owned by the same casino company,” a home ministry official told IANS, requesting anonymity.

Goa attracts every year nearly three million tourists, of whom several thousand account for the footfalls in the casinos.

(IANS)

US concerned over NGOs’ situation Adverse fallout feared from government’s regulatory steps for NGOs

Vol-1* lssue No.: 47 Editor: Yogesh Sadhwani (Responsible for the selection of news under the PRB Act, 1867) Printed and Published by: Shrikant Honnavarkar on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. CIN:U22200PN2014PTC151382 and printed at PRI – Media Services Private Limited CIN: U22222MH2012PTC232006 at Plot No. EL-201, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Mahape, Navi Mumbai.

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

The BJP had made a pre-poll promise to rid Goa of casinos, but this would send a wrong signal to future investors, the chief minister thinks

NEW DELHI: The US envoy to India Richard Verma on Wednesday voiced “concern” over reports about “challenges faced by NGOs operating in India”, as the government has put the US-based Ford Foundation under the scanner.

Speaking at the Ananta Aspen Institute on the Foundations of the US-India Strategic-Plus Relationship, the ambassador said: “I read with some concern the recent press reports on challenges faced by NGOs operating in India.”

“Because a vibrant civil society is so important to both of our democratic traditions, I do worry about the potentially chilling effects of these regulatory steps focused on NGOs,” he added.

Verma said that during his tenure he hoped to find “many areas of agreement and forward progress” with his official and unofficial friends, “but I also know there will be times when we disagree, and I look forward to those conversations too”.

He said, “It is a suggestion that our democratic traditions are strengthened when we use discussion and debate to improve.”

“Therefore, we can build resilience in our bilateral relationship by having frank discussions on all matters

of shared concern, including the importance of civil society and free expression to the promotion of a more peaceful, prosperous, and stable future.”

On Tuesday, the government said the Ford Foundation had funded some NGOs which are not registered under the provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, as well as the Sabrang Trust which is linked to activist Teesta Setalvad.

“There are inputs from security agencies that some amounts have been credited from Ford Foundation to some NGOs which are not registered under the provisions of FCRA, 2010,” Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha.

“Hence, to keep a watch on such recipients, the credits from Ford

Foundation have been put under prior permission category under FCRA, 2010,” he added.

Last month, the government put international donor Ford Foundation on the watchlist for funding organisations not registered under the FCRA. Verma said that in the world of today “a great deal of the search for the refinements that can improve our governments is undertaken by civil society organisations”. He said after President Barack Obama visit and that of several top officials, the two sides are engaging on more than 70 initiatives, “everything from space to vaccines” includimg “launching a civil nuclear contact group”.

(IANS)

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

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“Pakistan and Australia enjoy close and cooperative relations. There are 80,000 overseas Pakistanis living in Australia, contributing to the progress and development of the country” — Julie Bishop, Australian Foreign Minister

Pune FC colts finish runners-up P 16

Adjusting to celebrity after the llama escape Nick Cote/The New York Times

A pair of llamas have become the talk of their town after their brief escape and recapture

BY Rick Rojas

PHOENIX: Their brush with freedom was over, and now the most notorious llamas in Arizona, if not the United States, were back in their dusty backyard, peeking out of their pen with their long necks and big eyes.

They were home, although their lives were anything but the same.

“There are the two jailbirds right there,” Bub Bullis, their owner turned warden, said. He looked at Kahkneeta (tall and white, about 5 years old) and Laney (short and dark, about a year old) as yet another visitor leaned against the bars, angling his phone for a selfie. “Yes, I’m talking to you.”

The camelid pair captured the attention of the world, or at least much of the Internet, one afternoon in February when they made a break for it after a visit to an assisted-living residence in Sun City.

Instead of politely stepping into their owner’s trailer, the llamas ran, weaved and evaded - Kahkneeta typically in the lead, Laney not far behind - as they were pursued by locals in golf carts and cooks from the residence waving heads of lettuce.

Their escape became a spectacle as news helicopters hovered overhead, broadcasting images of the curious creatures looking jaunty and defiant as they turned Sun City, a retirement community west of Phoenix, into a playground for an hourslong game of tag.

“I wanted to get back into running, but that’s not how I planned to do it,” said Karen Freund, Bullis’ wife.

This being Arizona, someone pitching in had a rope and the skill to lasso the animals. But the #llamadrama (as the Twitterverse

Bub Bullis and one of his llamas, Kahkneeta, at his home in Phoenix, Ariz. Kahkneeta and another llama recently gained national attention when their escape during a visit to an assisted living residence and the ensuing attempts to wrangle them, broadcast by news station helicopters, was shared widely on the Internet

tagged it) was just beginning, encasing the llamas, their owners and others in a bubble of viral fame. Bullis and Freund had limousines arriving at 3 am to whisk them to morning-show interviews, crowds swarmed them and the llamas on a visit to a horse-racing track, and a stream of camera crews dragged equipment into their backyard to check out Kahkneeta and Laney as they returned to life in the pen.

“For a while, it was someone here every single day,” Freund said.

The situation also caught the attention of officials at the US Department of Agriculture, who contacted the owners about whether

they exhibited the llamas in a way that required a license.

Bullis, 51, and Freund, 55, said they had not made a profit for showing their llamas - the appearance at the racetrack, for instance, raised money for wounded soldiers - and did it infrequently.

Tanya Espinosa, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Department, said that, for the moment, Bullis and Freund did not face any penalties for taking the llamas out in public.

“The best thing for us to do is determine whether the business needs to be licensed, and then we can discuss anything else with the owners,” she said.

Laney has bounced back from the public ordeal. But Freund said the experience had gone straight to Kahkneeta’s head. Back in the pen, the llama still has a bit of defiance in her system, and she has grown distant. Freund worries she has post-traumatic stress.

“She’s a little harder to handle now,” she said. “She knows if she takes off, she can do whatever she wants.

She was always my llama, and now she holds me accountable for everything that happened.”

The couple, both of whom retired after about 20 years with the Phoenix Police Department, were introduced to llamas about a decade ago on a vacation

11 am lunch outing to McDonald’s, in Colorado. While hiking, they hired a mah-jongg lessons, candy testing llama to haul their lunch. They became on National Jelly Bean Day. So, in enamoured of the animal, a cousin of comparison, llamas clopping down the the camel and the alpaca. Llamas are hallway was a sight to behold. cool-tempered, often used as therapy “We were more excited about it animals and nimble enough to handle than the llamas - they were calm, we an obstacle course, a requirement at were not,” said Claire Mevius, 96, llama shows. who carries a photo of herself with Soon after that encounter, the Kahkneeta in her purse. “I don’t like couple got their first llama, DeBeers, petting dogs and cats. That llama neck who was busy on a recent morning felt great. I didn’t object to it at all.” licking a block of salt. Now, they After the llamas escaped, the have nine living in their backyard, residents mostly followed the unfolding the animals becoming a hobby for drama on television, occasionally them in retirement. looking out their window. “Excuse the “They’re like a potato chip,” Freund expression,” said Louise Johnston, 88, said. “You can’t just have one.” Each “but all hell broke loose.” llama, she said, has a personality of its “It was exciting, it was dangerous own. DeBeers, for instance, does not - not only for them, but for people,” like to be petted, but he is a worker, she added. content to carry a pack all day. And “It was something you don’t expect Glam, one of the girls? “She’s just to see,” said her friend Fran Rhudy, pretty,” she said, “and she knows it.”

The couple took three of their llamas also 88. to the retirement home in Sun City, the Residents said that family and Carillons, that day to see friends from all over a friend, a former llama called to ask about the rancher who had to give llamas, and that, among up his animals when he themselves, it was the moved there. (The third topic of conversation for llama, Alejandro, gave up weeks, one fueled by the early in the great escape.) film crews who came to Richard Falkenberg, interview them. (Still, 83, had always loved some were already over showing off his own it. “Are we talking about llamas, which he would the llamas again?” one take to fairs and events in woman groaned over a horse trailer he called an afternoon game of - richard falkenberg his “llamosine.” Before pinochle.) his wife died, he would A member of the take her favourite llamas community’s writing to see her in hospice care. club, Rhudy was “They’re just gentle and wonderful inspired by the llamas to write a poem. animals to work with,” he said. “The A local TV station posted the piece on first time people would feel that fiber, its website, and her friends boast that they would be amazed, and the llama she is now a published poet: would just stand there and wouldn’t do Wow Wow Wow anything.”

Whatever do I see The Carillons has about 80 A large white animal residents, most of them in their 80s, Much bigger than me with the oldest 103. The window Looking through my window looking into the caregivers’ office is Surprising she and me! lined with fliers for coming events: an © 2015 New York Times News Service

“They’re just gentle and wonderful animals to work with.”

Calling it a night: Letterman legacy

Maimed defending Afghanistan, then left behind

NEW YORK: In a single bound, David Letterman seemed to leap the full length of the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater, racing from backstage as if he’d been thrust forward by the fanfare played by his longtime bandleader, Paul Shaffer, and his CBS Orchestra, and by the rumble of his announcer, Alan Kalter, bellowing his name - “Daaaaay-vid Leh-terrrr-maaaaaaaan!”

It was a routine Letterman, 68, has performed countless times but will repeat no more after May 20, when he will preside over his last episode of “Late Show,” the CBS franchise he established and has hosted since 1993.

No home viewers were watching as he twirled his microphone around, walked it across the floor like a dog and leaned on an expensive broadcast camera. “Everything OK at home?” he asked the crowd. “Everything OK at work?” Met with mostly cheers, he laughed and added: “You don’t find yourself filled with some kind of emotional longing? Are we emotionally stable?”

But how could these fans not be riddled with angst, knowing that in a few weeks, Letterman would bid a heartfelt good night to all of this, after a run of more than 33 years in late-night television - even longer than the three-decade tenure of his mentor, Johnny Carson. After that last show,

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan: Saheb had a problem: His left leg had been blown off by a Taliban bomb and he could not afford a prosthesis. He also had a solution: His 11-year-old daughter, Noor Bibi, whom he sold last year for $3,000 to pay for a new leg.

Saheb is among the tens of thousands of soldiers and policemen who have been wounded fighting for the government in the country’s long-running civil war.

Faced with inadequate or nonexistent official support, many are resorting to desperate measures to survive.

Others who are getting support find themselves on the margins of a society that treats people with disabilities as outcasts.

In a war with a fatality rate that rises each year, the number of those who survive attacks but are disabled permanently is soaring as well, overwhelming the resources available from the Afghan government and charitable organisations. Even by the most conservative estimate, Afghanistan has 130,000 disabled people who had served in the police or other security forces, 40,000 of whom had amputations, according to government figures for those receiving pensions. The total is almost certainly much higher because the government releases no figures on disabled former members of the regular military.

Many, like Fardeen, 24, a former police sergeant who lost his right leg below the knee to a Taliban bomb in 2013, which also destroyed his left ankle and foot, do not get even the meagre pensions to which they are entitled.

Fardeen, who like many Afghans has one name, instead waits until dark and then rolls his wheelchair into the heavy evening traffic in the Macrorayan neighbourhood of Kabul to beg - while praying that none of his former colleagues see him.

“Sometimes I hear the girls in the

Damon Winter/The New York Times

by DAVE ITZKOFF

he will head home to his wife, Regina, and 11-year-old son, Harry, and try to figure out what comes next.

Late-night television will feel the loss of Letterman, one of its most innovative and unpredictable broadcasters, who in 1982 took a sleepy NBC time slot following Carson’s “Tonight” show and transformed it into a ceaseless engine for Top 10 Lists, Stupid Pet Tricks and a decade’s worth of pioneering comedy bits.

Letterman is leaving a late-night biosphere very different from the one he helped thrive, and Letterman is about to be replaced by Stephen Colbert, the politically astute smart aleck of “The Colbert Report.”

During his preshow set an audience member from Newberg, Oregon, asked if Letterman had any advice for that city’s impending graduates, Letterman replied, “Treat a lady like a whore, and a whore like a lady.” After some laughter at this seemingly unLetterman-like joke, the host chuckled to himself and said: “I don’t know why I would say something like that.”

“What do you care?” Shaffer said.

But no matter how hard he has tried to hide it over the years, Letterman does care. As he said, more sincerely, to the man who had asked for graduation advice, “If you do good things for people, it will never stop making you feel good about yourself.” © 2015 New York Times News Service

David Letterman relaxes in his dressing room before a taping of “The Late Show,” at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, April 20, 2015

Nearly four decades of war have left a legion of Afghans with assorted disabilities and consequent difficulties

by Randal C Archibold

A trio of young Afghans at a prosthetic centre

cars saying, ‘Look at that handsome young man. Why is he begging in the street?’” he said, sitting with a blanket over his legs. “They don’t see what’s down there.”

The scope of the problem is daunting.

In just one fighting season here in the southern province of Helmand last year, a single Afghan police battalion, the 2nd Police Battalion in Sangin, had 154 men disabled by their wounds - out of 344 in all, according to Dr Abdul Hamidi, head of the Helmand Police Clinic.

“This year is worse than all previous years; it’s really bad,” Hamidi said in December.

Members of the Afghan National Police or army who are disabled are supposed to get a pension equal to their last salary for life. Survivors of those who are killed should get the same pension. But a combination of corruption, mismanagement and

daunting bureaucracy keeps many from getting paid.

Officers with the Afghan Local Police, who are paid by the government for fighting, get nothing when they are wounded, even though they have a disproportionately high share of casualties in places like Helmand, where fighting is intense.

That is why Saheb, who also has one name, found himself so desperate.

An Afghan Local Police commander in Paktika province, Saheb was wounded when his vehicle hit a land mine while in pursuit of Taliban fighters.

Months after his injury, he had stopped receiving his salary, and he was not entitled to a pension.

In Kabul and at six other locations around the country, the International Committee of the Red Cross runs rehabilitation centers that

Afghanistan has 1,30,000 disabled people who had served in the police or security forces

fit prostheses for free, teach patients how to walk again and provide job training. But Saheb could not afford transportation to go to the nearest center, in Kabul, and to stay there for the months of therapy he would need once he got a prosthesis.

“It was a very sad moment for me,” he said. “And it was a very sad moment for her as well,” he added, referring to his daughter, Noor Bibi. The girl was unhappy about being sold for marriage, he said, but “in Pashtun society, when the father wants something, the daughter has to give it, even if she is not happy.”

Saheb was not happy either.

“Selling my daughter was worse than losing my leg,” he said. After getting his new leg in Kabul, Saheb returned to his village in Paktika province, where he remains jobless.

Alberto Cairo, who runs the orthopedic rehabilitation program for the Red Cross, said there were plenty of facilities to help Afghanistan’s wounded get back on their feet. But what is more difficult, he said, is helping people survive in ommunities where wheelchair ramps and other accommodations are unknown or impractical, and where they often find themselves shunned.

Fardeen, the former police officer, says that is what befell him. His wife took their two children and left, and his father threw him out of his house.

He burst into tears telling his story. “I live in a hell of difficulties,” he said.

Officials at the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyred and Disabled said they had no record he had ever applied for his pension. Fardeen said that he had, but had never received the money.

Nearly four decades of war have left an estimated three million people disabled, said Abdul Khaliq Zazai, executive director of Accessibility Organization for Afghan Disabled. © 2015 New York Times News Service

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

PUNE

MONEY MATT ER S

“Currently we are present in baby massage and baby digestive category with turnover of around Rs 130 crore.

But we are looking to expand steadily in the segment.”

— Ramarao Dhamija, head, Dabur

Signpost Why some companies fail at Twitter A data analysis by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) has revealed that among top 50 companies that handle their Twitter accounts better are American Airlines, Bank of America, Kraft Foods, Dish Network, Verizon and Facebook.

Starbucks share the “worst 50” space with Burberry, American Express, Allergan, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, United Health Group and Hewlett-Packard.

For the study, the team used data analysis to identify patterns and quantify degrees of engagement.

After analysing 3,50,000 tweets across 300 companies, they were able to pinpoint which brands are winning at Twitter and which are not. “Social media is not merely a place for people to chat with each other and for brands to talk at their customers,” the HBR report stated.

Priority status for solar power will aid smaller players The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently revised its priority sector lending (PSL) guidelines. Now medium enterprises, social infrastructure and renewable energy (RE) will form part of priority sector, in addition to the existing categories. This has brought excitement to the stake-holders.

The central bank’s move basically means that banks are now mandated to provide a percentage of their annual adjusted net bank credit (ANBC) or the credit equivalent amount of off-balance sheet exposure, whichever is higher, to RE project developers seeking finance.

Bank loans with a limit of Rs 15 crore (approx $2.5 million) will be made available for RE power generation (solar, wind, biomass, and micro-hydro) and for non-conventional energy-based public utilities such as street lighting systems and remote village electrification. For individual households, the loan limit will be Rs 10 lakh per borrower.

“The company is looking for new opportunities for supply of carbon black to internationally renowned tyre companies in different parts of the world.”

— Sanjiv Goenka, chairman, Phillips Carbon Black Ltd

Advisory board cautions SEBI on commodities markets ops International Advisory Board says framework is essential for financing of start-ups given their potential in India Chennai: The Indian market regulator was advised to conduct a thorough due diligence and gap analysis before going forward on the issue of commodity derivatives, said Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

In an issued statement, SEBI said its International Advisory Board (IAB) had advised it should conduct a thorough due diligence and gap analysis before articulating the vision for the commodity derivatives segment.

SEBI had constituted the IAB in 2011, as part of the measures to respond to the challenges arising out of the global financial crisis.

The role of IAB is to guide SEBI with its advice on future direction for the organisation, taking into account relevant global experiences, emerging challenges and latest developments in the regulatory space. The fifth meeting of IAB was held on May 1 and 2.

At the meeting, the IAB was apprised of the recent policy announcement of the Indian government to bring the regulation of commodities markets under the jurisdiction of SEBI. The IAB had cautioned SEBI that commodities markets operate in a different eco-system, have legacy

issues and need domain knowledge for efficient regulation, and hence the need for due diligence.

“SEBI should concentrate more on studying the risks and the structure of the market, including various aspects like contract design, warehouse receipts and quality control of underlying commodities in the initial period,” IAB said.

“The emphasis during this period should be on avoiding any crisis in the market. Market development may be

visited only after fully understanding the strengths and weaknesses of commodities markets,” IAB added.

On the issue of compensating the victims of insider trading offences at the meeting, it was agreed that the biggest challenge in this area was the careful identification of the victims and the amount of loss suffered by them in the process.

“It was observed that in most parts of the world this identification is done through an adjudication process, where

these aspects are decided by judicial authorities,” IAB said.

Insider trading and compensating victims cannot be looked in isolation.

The entire market infrastructure and systems need to be first strengthened to match up and complement the Insider Trading Rules. A holistic overall view is required to be taken in this area.

Naming and shaming the offender will also be an effective tool.

On the issue of carving out a regulatory framework for market-based financing of technology start-ups, IAB said that a framework is essential for financing of start-ups given their potential in India, as the economy of India is poised to grow at a faster pace.

Given the high-risk high-return trade-offs involved in financing of start-ups and the regulatory concerns of ease of raising capital versus investor protection, entry barriers to ensure participation of only sophisticated investors in the initial stage is a good idea. There is also a need for a balanced regulatory approach towards valuation of start-ups as conventional valuation approach may not be applicable in the early state of their operation.

IANS

Auditor faults Reliance’s marketing margins in dollars India’s official auditor has faulted the petroleum ministry for causing excess subsidy on urea of over Rs 200 crore by permitting Reliance Industries to charge a marketing margin on its Krishna-Godavari gas in dollars and not in rupees. “The production sharing contract for KG-D6 block did not provide for marketing margin component,” the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said in a report tabled in Parliament.

“The contractor (Reliance), however, has been charging marketing margin based on the energy equivalent of gas supplied — ie $0.135 per mBtu (million British thermal units),” the report said. “Marketing margin for GAIL (the state-run company) was fixed in Indian rupee, whereas the contractor (Reliance) was charging this in terms of US dollar,” said the report, referring to the margin, which is fixed over the government-approved sale price for domestic gas.

The report said the ministry had in May 2010 fixed a marketing margin of Rs 200 per thousand cubic metres.

But charging it in dollars instead of rupees for a commodity produced, marketed and consumed domestically “is incongruous with Indian market”, it added. Exchange rate fluctuations meant the margin, which was Rs 244.31 per unit in 2010-11 increased to Rs 325.51 per unit in 2013-14, the report said.

IANS

India is one of world’s fastest growing economies: IMF

By Arun Kumar Washington: India’s growth rate is expected to rise to 7.5 per cent this year and next, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world, according to the IMF’s latest economic health check.

The other Asian giant China’s economy is slowing to a more sustainable pace - 6.8 per cent GDP growth in 2015, and 6.3 per cent in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund’s Regional Economic Outlook for Asia and the Pacific.

Growth in Asia and the Pacific will continue to outperform the rest of the world, and is expected to remain steady at 5.6 per cent in 2015, easing slightly to 5.5 per cent in 2016, said the report.

Growth will be driven by domestic demand, underpinned by healthy labour markets, low interest rates, and the recent fall in oil prices.

The global recovery, while moderate and uneven, will continue to support Asia’s exports, says the report. The IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook calls for a strong push for structural reforms across most, if not all, economies

in the region. The report notes that in addition to boosting productive capacity, structural reforms can help rebalance growth toward consumption, which remains a priority for some major Asian economies.

Major reform areas include measures to address supply-bottlenecks in India, state-owned enterprises, and financial liberalisation in China, and initiatives to raise services productivity, and labour force participation in Japan.

Maintaining flexible fiscal and monetary policies to effectively manage aggregate demand will remain important in the

future, say the report’s authors.

The report noted that lower oil prices have provided an opportunity to undertake further fiscal reforms aimed at lowering energy subsidies, and measures have been taken in a number of countries, including India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

This will be particularly important to increase resilience to shocks, and to contain the buildup of systemic risk associated with shifting financial conditions, and volatile capital flows, the report said.

Asia, which accounts for nearly 40

per cent of global output, but contributes nearly two-thirds of global growth, will remain the global growth leader, even though potential growth-the economy’s speed limit-is likely to slow, it said.

But the outlook could be vulnerable to adverse events, says the report.

Most Asian policymakers have in place broadly appropriate interest rate and fiscal policy settings, although the risk of renewed financial volatility may warrant a somewhat tighter monetary policy stance in some countries, it said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun. kumar@ians.in)

A billionaire at the intersection of business and power in China Adam Dean/The New York Times

Prime ministers send Wang Jianlin thank-you notes, and Hollywood’s biggest stars fly to China when he summons them

BY MICHAEL FORSYTHE

HONG KONG: He controls thousands of movie screens around the world, serving more filmgoers than any other cinema chain. He has invested billions of dollars in real estate projects across four continents. He is building skyscrapers that will redraw the skylines of London and Chicago.

He is shopping for a Hollywood studio.

There are as many as 430 billionaires in China, more than in any country besides the United States. But Wang Jianlin stands out, and not just because he is the richest person in Asia, with a fortune estimated at more than $35 billion.

As his real estate and entertainment empire expands overseas, Wang, 60, has emerged as the rare private-sector tycoon in a position to advance Beijing’s interests abroad, with clout in industries and communities around the world.

Prime ministers send him thank-you notes, and Hollywood’s biggest stars fly to China when he summons them.

How the son of a foot soldier in Mao Zedong’s Communist Revolution catapulted into the top tier of the global elite is an archetypal story of China’s transition to capitalism and the outsize opportunities it presents those with talent or connections - or, in Wang’s case, both. His story, though, is also singular: He built one of the world’s most valuable real estate portfolios in a nation where the state retains ownership of all land.

A yearlong examination of his success by The New York Times casts a light on the murky intersection of business and power at the heights of the Chinese economy, where market competition is often warped by the whims of Communist

Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Wanda Group, in his office in Beijing. Wang, Asia’s richest person, has emerged as the rare Chinese private-sector tycoon in a position to advance Beijing’s interests abroad, with clout in industries and communities around the world

Party leaders. Entrepreneurs have powered rapid growth in China for more than three decades.

But even the most successful businessmen here must still reach some accommodation with the party, which only a generation ago operated a socialist planned economy.

Wang says he has prospered by delivering what ambitious party officials crave: showcase real estate developments that propel economic growth and bolster their careers. In return, he says, the officials sell him the rights to develop choice parcels of land at prices far below what his competitors pay.

His conglomerate, Wanda Group, is best known in China for its signature Wanda Plazas, massive shopping complexes with cinemas, office towers, hotels and apartments. Since building the first one in the northeastern city of Changchun in 2002, he has opened more than 100 of them in at least 70 other Chinese cities, generating the revenue that now finances his ambitions abroad.

But there is an aspect of his relationship with the authorities that Wang never raises in

interviews and that has gone unreported in the many accounts of his success published in China and abroad: Relatives of some of the nation’s most powerful politicians and their business associates own significant stakes in his company.

An extensive review of corporate records filed with the government identified several such investments made from 2007 to 2011, when Wanda was privately held and rarely sold shares to outsiders. Among those given an early chance to buy a stake in his company was Qi Qiaoqiao, an active investor who is the elder sister of China’s current president, Xi Jinping. (She sold or transferred her shares in the company in October 2013 to a longtime business associate.)

Other early investors included a business partner of the daughter of former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, and relatives of two other members of the ruling Politburo at the time, Jia Qinglin and Wang Zhaoguo, according to the records and interviews with family members and business associates.

Together, their stakes in Wang Jianlin’s

real estate division, Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, were valued at $1.1 billion when it held an initial public offering in Hong Kong in December. Their shares in Wang’s cinema subsidiary were valued at $17.2 million when it listed separately in January. Their holdings in both companies are worth more than $1.5 billion now.

There is no indication that any of the politicians whose relatives and business associates owned shares in Wanda intervened on the company’s behalf in any of its dealings with the government.

Nor is there evidence that any of the politicians personally benefited from the windfall that these investors reaped. The investors and officials did not respond to written questions or could not be reached for comment.

Wang declined an interview request and did not respond to written questions submitted to Wanda. But in public remarks, he often uses the same phrase to describe how he manages his relationship with the authorities: “Stay close to the government and distant from politics.”

“It’s a fact that China’s economy is government-led, and the real estate industry depends on approvals, so if you say you can ignore the government in this business, I’d say that’s impossible,” Wang told state television in a February interview. “I’d say it’s hypocritical and fake to say that. But at the same time, for example, we don’t pay bribes.”

In 2012, Wang purchased AMC Entertainment Holdings, the second-largest theater chain in the United States. By year’s end, his empire in China would include 66 Wanda Plazas, 38 five-star hotels, 980 cinema screens and 57 department stores, not to mention 63 karaoke saloons. Within a year, he would break ground on an $8 billion movie studio and theme park in the coastal city of Qingdao.

Wang has emerged as an outspoken advocate for his homeland. In interviews and speeches, he tends to present himself as the pragmatic face of big business.

“Wang Jianlin is a perfect instrument for that from the party’s point of view,” said Joseph

Nye, the Harvard professor who coined the term “soft power” and was the panelist scolded by Wang at Davos.

Wang is effective in part because he is no longer simply a Chinese real estate developer. As Beijing sought to cool its property sector in recent years, he diversified by shifting investments abroad and into the culture and entertainment sector, including his network of movie theaters, which became the world’s largest in 2012 with the purchase of AMC’s 4,000-plus screens in the United States.

The strategy coincided with a policy push by the Chinese leadership to expand the nation’s cultural influence both overseas and at home, where younger generations have increasingly turned to Western music, television and films.

A communiqué issued by the party’s Central Committee in October 2011 cited an “urgency for China to strengthen its cultural soft power and global cultural influence.”

“After this document, Wanda started to put a lot of effort into developing the cultural industry,” said Zhang Lihua, a scholar at the TsinghuaCarnegie Center for Global Policy in Beijing.

In addition to investing in the movie industry, Wanda has opened a series of amusement parks that promote Chinese culture, including one that features a building in the shape of a Chinese teapot and that Wang says will compete with a Disneyland under construction in Shanghai.

“No matter how good Disney is, it is still American culture,” he said after the groundbreaking ceremony last year. “We hope to use Chinese culture.”

Wang often notes that the Chinese market will be twice the size of the North American market by 2023. Foreigners need to heed this new reality, he warned when he hosted the 2013 groundbreaking of his Qingdao studio.

“Those in the world film industry who realise this first and are among the first to cooperate with China,” he said, “will be the first to reap the benefits.” © 2015 New York Times News Service

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

“Maintaining law and order is the responsibility of the incharge of the police stations. The in-charge should be aware of the criminals in his jurisdiction and take preventive action.”

— KK Pathak, Pune Police Commissioner

PUNE

“We received the circular stating that ‘Horn Ok Please’ violates the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles Act, 1989. We have informed the local police to take action.”

— Jitendra Patil, regional transport officer

Pune has made it to the mega city league, but it still lags behind in terms of basic civic services Recently there was a seminar that involved prominent personalities, to discuss the future of Pune city, which is on the fast track to become a mega city. The seminar was in regard to the challenges we will face in becoming a mega city and the solutions to the same.

My main concern is, are we really going to become a mega city just because there is an increase in population? The city clearly lacks behind when it comes to developmental planning and infrastructure.

People keep migrating as it offers them jobs and educational opportunities, but what about living comforts? No doubt the city has been booming with townships, IT parks, malls, automobile showrooms and educational institutes, this doesn’t mean the city is developing?

The standard of life the city provides to its citizens is what determines the city’s growth and development.

The term mega city to me is one which is self sufficient, well equipped with all sorts of infrastructure,

Ashwini Deshpande

from water to public transport to environment to education, and not only for the present population, but for the future generations to come.

For that, what we need is to understand the problems first and face them. Time and again our leaders as well administrative officers have gone abroad to visit developed countries and

Citizen Journalist

observe the means they have used to tackle their problems. But they have always failed in providing any solutions or implementing them. Our system itself needs to be changed.

All the problems which we are facing today, every city of the world has gone through, be it garbage or traffic or water, but then they have a responsible organisation to deal with it.

The governing bodies which control development and infrastructure like water, power and communication of Pune city and surrounding areas should take steps for the city’s development.

The concerned officials of the organisations should have individual development plans of their own and execute it. These organisations are collecting taxes from the residents for the infrastructure they are providing or supposed to be providing. But they all have failed in their duties.

We have MSEB or MSEDCL for power, BSNL for telephones and other private players for mobile services. We have PMPML for public transport, we have water supply in fringe areas with Jeevan Pradhikaran and roads in fringe

A city that spoils you for good

From education to nightlife, Pune ticks all the points in the checklist for being the best city inj India

genuine people around. I have met the most wonderful people here and have made lot of friends. The weather here is always pleasant, except for the summers.

From the very posh localities in Koregaon Park, to the bookstalls at Appa Balwant Chowk, Pune offers everything.

The Fridays here are the best, when a lot of rock bands from all over the country come here to perform. Once you are done with the Hard Rock Cafe and Shisha, there are always more party places to venture out to. Pune never fails to excite your imagination. Just a drive through the roads of Camp, or sitting at Magarpatta or even at the outskirts of Wagholi takes all your frustration away. The city is green and clean. Having your own vehicle here is very important, as public transport is not reliable. Thanks to my friends, I

now speak Marathi fluently.

I am a foodie and love trying out different dishes. My favourite breakfast joint is ‘Good Luck Café’ at FC Road.

I like the bun-maska-omelette and Irani chai.

I love eating at Shahji Paratha House too. And the bhakarwadi from Chitale and crispy potato wafers from Budhani are something I cannot do without. One of the best things about Pune is that it is surrounded by hills and you can easily go for a trek on a weekend. At the onset of the monsoons, these areas are heavenly.

Pune is also the safest city I know. You can ride and roam at night without being worried about getting mugged or robbed. You ask a passerby or autorickshaw driver for an address and he will tell you every detail about it, like they feel it’s their duty to help you reach your destination.

non-native

Ankit Singh

I have stayed in Pune for over three years now. I came here to pursue my education. Having lived in Delhi, adjusting to life here was diff icult at f irst. But steadily I realised that Punekars are probably the most

parole

rahul raut

Civic services are extremely pathetic in Pune

areas are being done by Zilla Parishad, which are supposed to be in tune with municipal corporation development plans. And lastly, the water supply of the municipal corporations is governed

Be it a local or an expat, Pune never fails to impress.

Whoever comes here, is sure to fall in love with the city

I came to Pune in 2006. The mild weather and amazing climate is what brought me here all the way from Italy.

Of course this has changed, and it is hotter today compared to what it was ten years ago. But Pune has everything an expat needs.

It has a great atmosphere, and despite being a relatively small city, it offers services available in big cities. It is complete in its own way.

I am passionate about horses and absolutely love Japalouppe in Talegaon Dabhade and the race course in Fatimanagar. These are the places is where you will find me. The Pune race course is one of the best. Despite

from foreign increasing traffic and population, these spots provide solitude and refreshing energy. The Fatimanagar area is quite peaceful.

My wife usually shops at Dorabjee, and Pune has quite a few of these efficient grocery stores. For fresh vegetables, we love Shivaji Market. The restaurants in Koregaon Park are good as they offer multiple cuisines in one area. They are good for a nice outing.

Editor

Francesco Camiolo

Pune needs a more organised and programmed development. There needs to be road discipline and proper regulation with the skyline. Or else in a few years we are going to miss the beautiful view of the city. Also there are many narrow lanes in Pune which often see traffic congestion.

With regards to pedestrian safety, we need more footpaths and walking areas. Today, footpaths are encroached

upon by vendors or two-wheeler users. This needs attention from the authorities. The city has the potential to do so much and improve the traffic situation and infrastructure.

One of the best things about Pune is that it is surrounded by hills and you can easily go for a trek on a weekend. At the onset of the monsoons, these areas are virtually heaven-like. I love to go on rainy bike rides to places like Lonavala, Lavasa, Tamhini ghat, Mulshi and Sinhagad. All these are pretty close by and are awesome places for rainy rides.

After being here for so many years, Pune is still the same. It is still a place where the young and old, traditional and modern co-exist in harmony. We have a Shri Krishna Misal but we also have a Hyatt. I love the age old charm of its wadas and forts.

The best and worst thing about Pune, for me, was and is the same - a peaceful, laidback and slow-paced life.

I also like the way people celebrate all the festivals with equal enthusiasm.

Provide better toilets Compensate the rape victims

The story on ‘Feed the corrupt, use a public toilet’ is something that everyone has faced, but no one spoke about it, since it’s a matter of just five rupees. Recently I was travelling to my hometown, and had to catch a train from Pune station. The public toilet there was in a miserable condition.

They only look good from outside.

But the real picture can be seen only after stepping in. They stink. Even the premises of some public toilets

remain unaddressed like public health, education, public safety or security as well art, sports and biodiversity, which we never take into account when we use the term infrastructure.

Something for everyone

shores

Letters to the

by the irrigation department and the organisations are at loggerheads over the exact volume of water supplied.

This is just the tip of the iceberg; there are many other issues which

are messy, which makes it difficult for visitors to go to the rest rooms. The people manning the toilets had a ready answer when I asked about the lack of maintenance: “This is all we can do for the money you pay.” Countless travellers face the same issue at most pay and use public toilets. If these public toilets do not serve the needs of the public, then it’s high time the authorities came up with a better idea.

—Samreen Khan

of Sheetal Kamble touched me. After going through so much hard work and pain, she is not giving up. From part time work as a technician, to doing the household chores and cleaning, she is doing it all. She is moving on, and refuses to look back.

—Vijay Satpute

The story on ‘State not serious about compensating rape victims’ was an eye opener. We all believe in the all is said and done concept. But that is surely not the case with the state government. It is a shame that a progressive state like ours is still not following the Manodhairya scheme to compensate and assist rape victims. It’s important to implement it as soon as possible. Even though I believe rape is not an accident where a money claim will heal the wounds, but at least it will help assist to stabilise the financial situation, and get over the medical expenses. Hope the authorities step up.

—Prachi Rananaware

Never give up The spotlight article on youngsters coming from underprivileged backgrounds making it big was really inspiring. It is really commendable

A hub for sportsmen

that these guys are getting to live their dream. Their stories of struggle towards meeting the ends, facing rejection and still not giving up are something that youngsters should look up to. The story

The story titled ‘Gujarat’s loss is Pune’s gain’ was an interesting read. The city is not far from becoming a hub for sports, as it provides a platform for aspiring sportsmen. It really is a matter of pride that these sportsmen have chosen Pune over so many other established cities. Also the city is host to so many national and international tournaments. It’s certainly is good news for the city as reputed players like Ankita Raina and Tejaswini Muley have shifted their base here. The city also offers state-of-the-art stadiums, and proper infrastructure to these players.

—Vaishnavi Pingle

Write to Us Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com, editor_tgs@gmail.com or mailed to The Editor, Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt Ltd, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030.

SPORTS

THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015

PUNE

“Basketball is young in India but in the future, I surely see a big group of kids getting into basketball and NBA. I definitely see the jump.”

— Sim Bhullar, Indian origin NBA player

Signposts Ikon group tennis tourney from May 9 Om Dalvi Memorial Trust will organise the Ikon Group trophy district ranking men’s tennis championship, under the auspices of Pune Metropolitan District Tennis Association (PMDTA) at Maharashtra Police Motor Transport Gymkhana, Aundh, from May 9. The event will be played in men’s singles and doubles categories. For details contact Ramayya (9822552355).

Aishwarya, Ella in Maharashtra squad Pune FC Women’s ‘B’ team players Aishwarya Gadekar and Ella Dubey have been selected to represent the Maharashtra Under-15 squad in the AIFF Sub-Junior National Football Championship. Twelve-year-old Ella, a student of the Viman Nagar-based Symbiosis International School, is a defender, while 13-year-old Aishwarya is a student of Camp-based St Mary’s School, and plays as striker.

Ratnaparkhe shines for Cadence CA An all-round performance by Paras Ratnaparkhe helped Cadence Cricket Academy beat Solapur district by six wickets in Maharashtra Cricket Association’s senior invitation one-day league at PYC Hindu Gymkhana. Ratnaparkhe picked two wickets (2-27) and then proved his is good with the willow too by slamming a ton (101) for the winning team.

The future of Indian tennis Aryan Goveas, who recently shifted his base to Pune, is eyeing a berth on the Davis Cup squad in the near future

BY ASHISH PHADNIS @phadnis_ashish Aryan Goveas is currently ranked as India number 3 and Maharashtra’s number 1 player in the boys’ under-18 age group,. Considering that Aryan has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years, Aryan is the new and rising star of Indian tennis. Though the 16-year-old still has a long way to go, he already has his big time plan in place, which is to get into the Indian Davis Cup team.

“Right now I am focusing on my game. I have to play a lot of tournaments, get better, and earn valuable points. But in the next two-three years, my plan is to get into the Indian Davis Cup team. Though I might be considered as a reserve player, but still getting there will be a big deal for me,” said Aryan, on the sidelines of the men’s national tennis tournament at Deccan Gymkhana.

The youngster, who is playing in his fourth men’s tournament, managed to get into the summit clash by beating Raghav Jaisinghani of Madhya Pradesh.

En route, the unseeded player had stunned second seed Jayesh Pungaliya (pre-quarters) and sixth seeded Maninder Singh (quarterfinals).

“Compared to ITF juniors, I consider playing in the men’s tournament to be easier. In ITF, you have to give your best each and every time. But here you can get a chance to make a comeback. I had reached the semis in the fi rst ever men’s tournament, I played in Mumbai,” he says.

About the reasons why he wants to play men’s tournaments, he said, “My motive is to get points. I have to keep increasing my ranking.”

PU NE, A NEW HOME Aryan, son of Reena and Bruno Goveas, spent his childhood in Mumbai and was a star player at Khar Gymkhana. However, last year he shifted his base to Pune with his coach Aditya Madakekar.

“When Aditya sir started training in Mumbai, I was his fi rst student. Since then I have been working with him. He knows me quite well and didn’t want

to move to any other coach. So, when he shifted to Pune, most of his students like me also followed him,” said Aryan.

Currently, Aryan trains with his coach at Club Solaris in Kothrud.

“For the fi rst two months I found it difficult to adjust but now I am used to it. The weather is pleasant and atmosphere is good for tennis. The club owners always support players in every possible way.

Even the level of tennis in Pune is much better than it is in Mumbai. Most of the talented youngsters in Maharashtra now train in Pune. Although, they play in different academies, we always interact with each other and also train together,” added Aryan.

RECENT PERFOR M ANCE Aryan won his maiden ITF junior title in Pune last December and finished runner-up at Kolkata in ONGC ITF juniors. But after that he has failed to live up to his promise.

Explaining the matter, he said, “Playing abroad is way different than playing in India. It’s always beneficial to play on home ground. In Thailand and Malaysia, the weather is too hot and humid. The main task

KNOW ABOUT ARYAN Aryan became the first player since 2004 from Maharashtra to be picked for representing the country in the Junior ITF championships held in Manilla, Philippines and the Junior World Championships held in Malyasia in 2012. His selection was based on his performance in the national junior tennis circuit and his improved ranking in the under-14 category of All India Tennis Association. Aryan was the national runnerup in single in the boy’s under-14 category national championship held in 2012. He won ITF junior title in Pune in 2014 and was runner-up in Kolkata in January this year.

City to witness top cuiests in action World Championship Snooker Selection Camp to be held at Poona Club from May 12 TGS NEWS NETWORK @TGSWeekly Top Indian cueists will converge in Pune for a six-day Poona Club-World Snooker Selection Camp, wherein three-member Indian teams will be selected for the World 6-Red Snooker Championship and World 15-red Snooker Championship.

“We at Poona Club are hosting top Indian cueists, who will show their green baize skills to earn the right to represent our country,” said

Sunil Handa, honorary secretary of the Poona Club Billiards and Snooker department.

Twelve top Indian cueists will be in Pune to take part in the selection camp-cum-tournament from May 12 to 17. The selection tournament is being held to pick Indian teams for the World 6-Red Snooker Championship in Pakistan and the World 15-Red Snooker Championship scheduled in Cape Town, South Africa.

“The selection tournament will be open to the public and interested sport

lovers can come and watch live action at Poona Club,” added Khinvsara,” said Rajan Khinvsara, president of the Billiards and Snooker Association of Maharashtra (BSAM).

The 6-Red Snooker Selection camp will have 10 cueists taking part, from May 12 to 14. The 15-Red Snooker Selection camp will have 8 cueists. The camp will run from May 14 to 17.

The top 3 finishers from each of these camps will make up the Indian team for the upcoming world championships.

Pune FC colts finish runners-up TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly Pune FC fi nished their campaign in the Under-19 I-League as runnersup in the fi nal phase held at the DSK Football Field in Loni. With five wins, a draw and a loss, Pune FC ended the fi nal phase with 16 points, three behind champions AIFF Elite Academy of Goa (19 points).

In doing so, Pune FC became the highest fi nishers not only from the city but also from the state in the competition ahead of DSK Shivajians who fi nished 7th (4 points).

The runners-up fi nish for twotime former champions Pune FC this year was creditable, after falling short on qualification to the fi nal phase in 2013-14.

“Pressure brings the best out of me. I stay a lot calmer when I have a target in mind and I know how to pace an innings.”

— Mumbai Indians batsman Ambati Rayudu

Interestingly, of the five wins logged in the fi nal phase, Pune FC came from behind on three occasions – DSK Shivajians (0-2 down to 4-2 win), United SC (0-1 down to 3-2 win) and Chanmari FC (0-1 down to 2-1 win). Also, Pune FC was the only team to remain unbeaten against AIFF Elite Academy.

Overall, Pune FC logged a total of eleven wins in the entire competition, six in the zonal and five in the fi nal phase, with two draws and two losses.

Earlier this year, Pune FC had emerged victorious in the Maharashtra Zone for the second time after their initial zonal triumph in the 2011-12 season.

Maintaining their trend of setting records, Pune FC netted a staggering 31 goals in 8 games at an average of a

Pune FC under-19 team pose for shutterbugs after the finel

little under four goals per game, the highest among the 22 participating teams in the zonal phase.

Furthermore, the goal difference of +22 in the zonals was also the best.

Meanwhile, a total of 12 players contributed to Pune FC’s 45 goals this season, their highest ever goal tally in an U19 I-League campaign. Having netted ten goals, striker Arif Shaikh fi nished as the highest goal-scorer for Pune FC, followed by striker Farukh Choudhary (8) and midfielder Altamash Sayed (7).

Moving into the fi nal phase, Pune FC were the second highest scorers, with 14 goals, behind AIFF Elite Academy (18 goals), and was one of the only two teams to have claimed five wins. tgs.feedback@goldensparrow.com

is to acclimatise with the weather. In ITF junior Grade 1 held in Thailand, I was playing well but couldn’t convert my chances, as I was getting cramps due to the extreme heat.”

HEIGHT ISSUE Aryan believes that he is all set for the Junior Grand Slams and might play junior Wimbledon this year. The only thing stopping him is his rapid increase in height.

“I am still growing so my height has been increasing and continually changing my centre of gravity. So, I can’t set my game and I have to keep it changing according to the changes in my body. I have even consulted a few doctors, and they say that by the end of this year my height would stop increasing. But if I push too hard before that, I might suffer from back injuries. So, I am pushing myself slowly,” says Aryan, who is now playing a few tournaments and will be travelling to Hyderabad and Mysore.

“My plans depend on my performance in the next six months.

My priority is to get ATP points, because only then do people start noticing you. For that, I am planning to train in Spain for few weeks. I have already trained at the Tennis Val Academy in Valencia, but this time I am planning to train at a different academy. I may also play some future tournaments,” he said. ashish.phadnis@goldensparrow.com

RAHUL RAUT