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HAPPY DIWALI
TEN MAHA GOALS
City BJP MLAs to target traffic, safety issues ASHOK BHAT @ashok_bhat
for 2014-19
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
Maharashtra, which historically has been progressive, reformist and economically-dynamic, suffers from serious deficiencies: High poverty levels among 20% of the population, continuing neglect of healthcare and school education and extreme regional disparities. The state now stands on the threshold of change under a new government. The priorities listed in the Pune International Centre’s ‘Progressive Maharashtra’ report merit our attention. See Spotlight on P7 INSIDE
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For the first time in Pune’s history, all six MLAs from the city now belong to the BJP, in addition to the MLAs from Hadapsar (Shirur Lok Sabha constituency) and Khadakwasla (Baramati LS constituency). These MLAs now stand empowered with their party set to form the government in Maharashtra. At the Centre, it is once again prime minister Narendra Modi’s BJP-led government which is at the helm of affairs. The elected BJP MLAs feel that this leadership role at the state and national levels will give them a big boost in addressing the critical issues facing Pune city. Their primary goal would be to improve Pune’s infrastructure, address the problem of traffic congestion and provide better security to the citizens. Re-elected from Kasba Peth, Girish Bapat is the senior-most BJP MLA who has been in the state assembly for the last 20 years. Vijay Kale, who dislodged Congress’s Vinayak Nimhan from the Shivajinagar constituency, was member of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for 20 years and has also worked as chairman of the Maharashtra Housing and Regional Development Authority (MHADA- Pune region) for five years.
Worsening traffic congestion in Pune needs to be addressed on priority
Dilip Kamble, elected for the second time as MLA, was minister of state for social welfare during 1995-99, while Madhuri Misal and Bhimrao Tapkir are second-term MLAs. The other MLAs, Medha Kulkarni, Jagdish Mulik and Yogesh Tilekar are serving corporators at the PMC. These MLAs said that even as they would seek to focus on Pune’s traffic issues, the cooperation from the NCPCongress, which controls the PMC, would be vital in getting projects off the ground. On their part, the BJP MLAs would
be proactive in getting swift clearances from the state government for issues concerning Pune, such as additional funds or implementation of the CCTV project for Pune city. “Traffic congestion in Pune is a serious issue and this will be one of our priorities,” Vijay Kale said, echoing the view of his fellow MLAs. Former minister Dilip Kamble said the administration works at a faster pace when approached with a solution in hand. This would be the approach on a number of pending issues, he said. ashok.bhat21@gmail.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
Making Aundh a better place to live P4
PUNE
e richeducating in India need find their own conscience; “Santulan“Th is now 3,500tochildren through schools to giveSchools a little not of what they children earn. Weamust the on the quarries. only give brightlearn future art of giving beforeMost the art of living!” but they reduce child labour. school children bring their —Bindeshwar Pathak, founder, younger siblings as it is their responsibility to care for them.” Sulabh International — Bastu Rege, founder, Santulan
Plan to decongest MG Road takes gear P5
Suicide-prevention NGO needs volunteers Volunteers have been creating awareness and providing healthy outlets for frustration
common in this generation and is not unusual for them to resort to such aggressive acts.
BY BARNALEE HANDIQUE @barnalee Arnavaz Damania launched Connecting, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in July 2005 to prevent youth from committing suicides. Damania, the former President of Indian Women’s Hockey Association said, “I am a survivor and I was greatly affected by the demise of a relative in the family. We were lost, but going on with our daily chores. But being a very positive person, I decided to do something for the society. It was then I realised that counselling is very important for the victim’s family, relatives and friends. With this in mind I started Connecting.” Firstly, she looked up other organisations working for the same cause. She listed people and institutions to approach. American Federation of Suicide Prevention (AFSP) put her in touch with Aruna Jha who runs Asian-American Suicide Prevention Initiative in Chicago. Dr Jha conducted a seminar on awareness creation that led to the formation of the group. Since its inception, Connecting volunteers have been counselling, suicide prevention and facilitation programmes, to create awareness and provide healthy outlets for anger and frustration. “Suicidal tendencies can be seen in persons who are unable to cope with the physiological pain. Before reaching this juncture, the person tries to find ways to make the pain
“Our volunteers counsel families of suicide victims to deal with the trauma.” - Arnavaz Damania
bearable but cannot find a solution. He finds it difficult to cope with problematic issue. The victim suffers prolonged bouts of isolation before giving indirect indications that he is at the end of his tether. Connecting is the neutral point of contact for the victim, the helpline offers empathy that is usually unavailable to him,” says Damania. The reasons leading to suicide can be many. It can be a fast paced lifestyle, peer pressure, relationship issues and problems with studies, competition, performance pressures etc. Juggling profession with personal life is not possible. Rage and despair is quite
According to statistics released by the National Crime Report Bureau on suicide cases in the country are more or less static. Many cases are not reported. Bobby Zachariah, CEO, Connecting, says, “We come across many suicide cases where cause of death has been recorded as accidental death. The stigma surrounding mental illnesses and suicides is a taboo. Also, after a suicide attempt or suicide death, survivors or their families find it difficult to relate to their relatives and neighbours due to various reasons (e.g. they feel that they may be blamed as the cause of the death). Since suicide is a crime by law, there are many survivors who do not access treatment due to the fear of law.” Connecting runs a helpline from 2pm to 8pm that receives 200 to 300 distress calls every month. The helpline is run by more than 70 volunteers who are from different age groups and professional background. There are also volunteers from Holland and Germany answering calls in the helpline. “Many of our distress callers speak English. Hence this helps our international volunteers to communicate with the callers. The international volunteers do a lot of programme planning which helps in excellent implementation of these programmes. They also have a working knowledge of local languages.
Bobby Zachariah, CEO, Connecting and Sanjay Palressa, volunteer peer education programme, in a counselling session
They also interact with survivors and counsel families of suicide victims to deal with the stress and trauma,” says Damania. Volunteers visit the homes of suicide survivors and interact with family on issues like distress, guilt, shame, confusions, anger and other such feelings. Th is also helps others, who are struggling with the suicidal thoughts, to open up and share their feelings. Another approach to suicide survivor support is visiting the survivors in the hospital. In addition to the emotional trauma, they also struggle with the physical trauma caused due to the suicide attempt. The volunteers find out about the confl icts that caused the suicide attempt. The
From addict to saviour ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
“Experience is the best teacher,” said a wise man. This adage has defined Indrajit Deshmukh’s, life’s mission. Who knows better than an addict what another addict goes through, what he feels when in the throes of a drug-induced high, what he suffers when he has to quit to start life anew. Deshmukh turned an addict when he was just 19 on the streets of Mumbai. He didn’t care if he woke up in a gutter after a brown sugar stupor, as long as he was able to get his next ‘fi x’. Now Indrajit is reaching out to other addicts after he was able to keep ‘clean’ (drug-free) for almost a decade. “We need to stop focussing on why a person gets into addiction. It is more important to know how to get out of it, and stay out,” he says. In 2011 he co-founded Santulan, a rehabilitation centre at Gokhalenagar. The NGO offers street addicts and the destitute, a roof over their heads, medicines, counselling and food. Santulan also helps them get off the drugs by offering detox, and a chance at a new life through vocational training and employment assistance. “All the facilities are offered free of cost since resources are short for these addicts, most of them daily wagers and migrant workers who have access to daily money that helps them buy drugs. The lack of paperwork (identity proofs etc.) means that they cannot get into a government-supported or run centres,” he points out. Santulan was started primarily because NGOs and rehab centres across the country tackle the issue of dependency on drugs but don’t address the issue of rehabilitation. Since it was started, about 110 people have been assisted to get gainful employment. Santulan is a self-sustaining entity that need never be dependent on outside sources as The tap may run dry at any time. To achieve this, Santulan runs a tiffin service, which is handled completely by the inmates (32 men as of now) from cooking to delivering and handling of funds. They have no paid staff and the whole place is driven by volunteers, “Psychiatry students from Fergusson College help us with the acitivities,” adds Deshmukh. The cooked food is delivered to students living in the area. “Problems only surface when the cook is high (on substance) and the quality of
barnalee.handique@goldensparrow.com GET IN TOUCH Connecting Trust Dastur Girls School Modelina Road, Pune 411001 Connecting Helpline Nos: 18002094353/9922001122 Office No-9689003044
Abhishek Kawitkar, founder-director, Tree Public Foundation, has planted over 80,000 trees under his green projects
“It is more important to know how to get out of addiction, and stay out.” - Indrajit Deshmukh
food goes down,” he chuckles. In his quest to understand the issue of addiction Deshmukh underwent several courses and found that pre-existing psychological and biological conditions are big contributors to addiction. He was intrigued by eminent Canadian physician Dr Gabor Maté’s studies, and the connection between impulse control disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, anxiety and addiction. In 2012, he started Practical Life Skills (PLS), which is a rehab centre run from Baner and where research work in this field is undertaken. “We have changed the treatment modalities for addicts and employ techniques
to volunteers will be a great impetus to the programme.” “We also need funding to implement the programmes. Th is includes volunteer training costs and implementation costs (travel, coordination costs etc.). We are looking for programme partners who share the vision with us,” she added.
Giving nature a chance
Indrajeet Deshmukh is helping addicts have another chance at a normal life BY RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh
facilitated discussions between patients and relatives results into reconciliation. Connecting is partnering with Udhar Foundation, to deal with farmers’ suicides in Yavatmal. Th is project works with the suicide survivor families and communities to identify root causes of suicide and have capacity to deal with them. Connecting is a volunteer based community initiative. The organisation is dependent on volunteer initiatives to implement the programmes. So, more volunteers are required who have compassion for the cause. Damania says, “We need a place to base ourselves. We are using the premises provided by Dastur School Trust from the time of our inception. But a permanent place that is accessible
such as an art based therapy promulgated by the World Centre for Creative Learning Foundation and many more,” he adds. He sees young girls addicted to meth (methamphetamine) enrol in PLS and is more determined to approach addiction with wisdom and compassion. “People don’t recognise addiction as a disease and think it’s a moral issue” he rues. He is working towards creating awareness about addiction and early intervention programmes where parents and other significant adults can recognise the signs of addiction. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com
BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali Despite a corporate job, Abhishek Kawitkar has always felt the need to work for the environment and save it. He loves nature and has always explored it via treks and expeditions. “Environment is under the biggest threat today. No powerful government, no corporate or individual can withstand nature’s fury, so we need to act in time. My friend Abhijeet Bund and I are rational thinkers, not environmentalists. We decided to act first. That’s how Tree Public was born,” said Abhishek, 31, who operates Tree Public Foundation from an office space on SB Road. “Our motto is ‘If you are republic of India you are Treepublic of India’. Tree Public is a registered NGO with a mission to create a culture of respect for nature by replenishing the available land with maximum green cover. Along with enhancing the green canopy being the NGO’s core objective, we are equally focused to inculcate ‘green thinking and green ideas’ through interactive forms of creative environmental arts,” Abhishek says. The foundation also organises inter-school ‘Environment Theatre Festival’ with environment and birds as its central theme. “The Green Festival is exclusively for school students where they can express their environmental concerns in a creative form. Each participating school gets a chance to showcase their performance on stage in the span of 10 to 20 minutes. Birds: their importance, relationship with nature and human being is the theme this year,” said Abhishek. To highlight environmental issues, Abhishek is using art as a means. “During our research and exploration, we realised that art would be a creative way to express
Abhishek Kawitkar with saplings
The Environment Theatre Festival The Theme for ETF 2014 is ‘BIRDS – Their importance & Relationship with Nature & Human Being’. This green festival is targeted for school students and is scheduled between November 24 and 27 for selections, whereas the grand finale of the festival will be held on December 6. There are no registration or participation fees for the event. The last date for the schools to register and confirm their participation is October 30. Interested schools can contact Tree Public Foundation: www.treepublic.in or Email: etftreepublic@ gmail.com or Call + 91 9011996999 – 020-65101217/18
Programmes by Tree Public • Project ‘Building the oxygen hub’ in Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore • 10,000 lakh trees to be planted and sustained by 2017. • ‘Let’s Green our Neighbourhood’ campaign for Pune, Mumbai & Bangalore; to plant 1,00,000 lakh trees by 2015 in all three cities • Green Ambassador Programme (GAP) • Imparting technical, methodically programme based training with mind mapping technique with 100 schools in Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore
and present ideas that could lead to save the environment. That is the reason we have been devising our activities and festivals. The interactive way spotlights the issues, eventually leading to constructive action,” he said. He talks of the hurdles they faced, “Gigantic tasks lay ahead of us, there was an acute nonavailability of land and funds. We
had limited expertise and technical know-how about tree plantation. There was limited time period at our disposal, and I had to juggle between my professional job and tree plantation. In spite of this, we managed to get all the required parameters in place and have planted 80,000 trees,” he said anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum was established in 1962 by Dinkar Kelkar in memory of his son. It was gifted to the Maharashtra government in 1975. The museum has 20,000 artefacts, all personally collected by Kelkar.
‘Media houses have other interests’ P6
Imtiaz Jaleel, make Rafiq Zakaria your role model P12
Families celebrate cracker-free Diwali Children spread home the message that fireworks cause noise and environment pollution
Diwali is associated with family get-togethers on a grand scale and spending the evenings lighting diyas and bursting crackers. But this year it was different. Most of the Puneites stayed away fireworks. It was a festival of lights sans the sparkles for families. The Pandit family residing at Shikra Housing Society in Karvenagar kept away from crackers this year after their daughter Tanmaya, a standard VII student of Abhinav English Medium School, explained to them about the illeffects of crackers. “My teacher had asked me not to burn crackers because the smoke from them harms the environment. Then we will not be able to breathe properly. So I have asked my parents to say no to crackers,” the 12-yearold said. Her mother, Vrushali Pandit and a nutritionist, said, “Earlier, we could not imagine Diwali without firecrackers but our two daughters told us about the harm caused by smoke and noise, not only to environment but also to old people, asthma patients, infants and hospitalised patients.” Makarand Pandit, who runs a technical writing firm, said that
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal
(Top) From left, Chinmaya, Vrushali, Makarand and Tanmaya celebrating the festival without crackers at their Kothrud home. (Above) Siddhi and Riya with their mother Veena Washimkar at their residence in Dahanukar Colony
the family used to spend around Rs 5,000 on crackers. But the family did not buy firecrackers this year,
after his daughter attended an ecofriendly Diwali workshop on making handmade lamps, lanterns and learnt
Firecrackers light up business
Crackers’ sale has gone up, thanks to poll results and Chinese 3D variety. The increase is despite the 10-12 per cent rise in price. A shopkeeper, Mahesh Khond of Mahesh Phataka Mart on Mhatre Bridge, said, “Last year, we had 40 per cent less sale.”
about celebrating the festival in an eco-friendly manner. “We gave the money spent on crackers to our servant,” he said. The family of Prashant Washimkar, staying at Rohan Prarthana, Mahatma Society, near Gandhi Bhavan are celebrating Diwali without crackers for three years. A former executive director of an IT firm, Washimkar said, “My flat is surrounded by trees. I found that the high level of noise generated by crackers disturbs birds. Feeling guilty, I stopped bursting crackers.” “Fireworks is associated with Diwali’s festive atmosphere. To retain the celebration aspect, we made faral at home and decorated the house with diyas and lanterns,” he said. Prashant’s elder daughter Siddhi is studying at Fergusson College and Riya is a standard VII student of Symbiosis School. Siddhi also volunteers for an NGO. “Sound and pollution have become synonymous with Diwali, fading the real meaning of the Festival of Light. The campaigns and awareness programmes about air and sound pollution should also be carried out at residential areas, gullies and slums so that common people should know the meaning of silent zones,” Siddhi said. archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com
Ved-Bhavan to hold silver jubilee celebrations BY TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly Ved-Bhavan, the school at Kothrud annex in Chandni Chowk that teaches Vedas, completed 25 years on November 2 0 1 3 . Governor K Vidy a sa g a r Rao and scientist Dr Vijay Bhatkar will be attending the silver Moreshwar Ghaisas j u b i l e e celebrations that will begin from October 28. Ved-Bhavan director Moreshwar Ghaisas said that various programmes have been
organised between October 28 and November 4. The main attractions are traditional religious programmes, including performances by classical vocalists and singers. Historian Udayan Indulkar will present a lecture with audio visual presentation of temples in India and the world on October 31. A seminar on four branches of Vedas is organised that will be attended by Governor K Vidyasagar Rao and Dr Vijay Bhatkar on November 2. The entry to all cultural programmes is free. A blood donation camp will be organised on the campus between 3 pm and 6 pm on November 1. The school will light 25,000 oil lamps (pantya) on November 6. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
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THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
Faith’s rehabilitation P8
Zindadil Award to Mangalatai Shah Zindadil Award 2014 will be given to Mangalatai Shah for the rehabilitation of HIV positive and AIDS affected children through her Prabha-Hira Pratishthan, Pandharpur. The function will take place on October 29, at Sahitya Parishad Hall, Tilak Road from 6 pm onwards. Veteran social activist Renutai Gavaskar will present the award to Shah.
Mothers of speciallyabled children feted Ninad Foundation, Pune felicitated mothers of specially-abled children on the occasion of Vasubaras, October 21. Gopilal Sharma, social worker, said, “A mother of a specially-abled child brings him or her up against all the odds.” He added that the specially-abled, when given proper education can become successful. Alka Anturkar, one of the felicitated mothers said, “specially-abled children are thought of as burden. But these children are really special. They have taught us how to live happily.”
CSR by Radisson Blu Hotel The Responsible Business Team of Radisson Blu Hotel, Kharadi has taken up infrastructural improvisations at the Bhatkya Vimuktajati Sikhan Sanstha Orphanage since August. The initiative has resolved water scarcity issue for the 457 children by installing bore well. They have recently improved library facilities by adding books and shelves. The team has also organised free dental camps, eye check-ups and physiological and dermatological checkups through the months of September and October. Radisson Blue has collaborated with World Vision and UNICEF and has undertaken many children from the rural parts of India.
Beware of Diwali schemes “There is a rise in offers and lottery prizes during Diwali. Most of the schemes are sham as no result is declared,” said Sagar Shinde, president, Consumer Protection Organisation. He has also suggested several controlling measures to scrutinise the genuineness of the festive schemes. It primarily includes official registrations of offers with the district collector. Also the organisation feels that rhe results of the lucky draws should be reported to the state government.
“A girl child who is even a little bit educated is more conscious of family planning, health care and, in turn, her children’s own education.” —Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited
Making Aundh a better place to live Aundh Vikas Mandal is solving local issues with the help of PMC and ward office BY PRACHI BARI @prachibari Starting off with just a handful of concerned citizens, Aundh Vikas Mandal (AVM) has now evolved to a group that includes IT professionals, entrepreneurs as well as home-makers. AVM focuses on and deals with issues of residents of Aundh, Aundh Road, Baner, Baner Pashan Vaishali Patkar Link Road and Balewadi. Set up in January 18, 1998, AVM at that time was offered support by the then ward officer Sudame and municipal commissioner Devvrat Mehta. AVM founder president Sarayu Sanghvi set up Mohalla committees. “Some of the ward officers like Suresh Jagtap
and Vijay Dahibhate, who helped us, are now in higher posts and continue to extend their support,” said Sarayu Sanghvi “AVM’s prime focus is to keep the localities clean and maintain hygiene. We make the utmost efforts but due to the activities of some errant residents, we are yet to attain 100 per cent cleanliness. But the efforts of our ward officers, municipal staff and members have resulted in our mohalla becoming a model of cleanliness,” said Vaishali Patkar, president of AVM. “Ward officers have to work within the framework of rules set by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). It took us eight months to remove the illegal steel barriers put up by a prominent city industrialist’s family,” said Chitra Subramaniam, ex-president of AVM. “As open piece of land called Ganesh Baug has turned into a garbage dump, AVM with the support of the ward office and the garden department, transformed what was a garbage dump
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
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Members of Aundh Vikas Mandal during the cleanliness drive
into what we have named Nana Nani Park. It has a playground for children, benched and even a gazebo,” said Subramaniam. AVM has been instrumental in the installation of traffic lights at Parihar Chowk, at the intersection of Sanghvi Kesri Road and ITI Road.
“AVM aims to continue its efforts to deal with the issues residents in our localities face,” said Vaishali Patkar. “AVM deals with all kinds of issues. Now we have taken up the problem of paving of the sidewalks on Vikas Sapatnekar Marg in Anand Park that
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is taking far too long. Chaotic traffic, haphazard parking of vehicles on Sapatnekar Marg and the problem of irregular garbage collection are other issues we are dealing with,” said AVM member Dhananjay Rao. prachibari@gmail.com
A shutterbug clique Film, book, capture Giripremi’s Everest expedition The Photographic Society of Pune, founded in 2001, provides a platform for photographers
Pune-based Giripremi documented their Everest trip in a 60-minute film and 200-page book BY MANASI SARAF JOSHI @GargiManasi
The Photographic Society members make a happy picture
BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali Photography enthusiasts Sunil Kapadia, Manav Jain, Jitendra Koparde, Shreeram Deshpande, Rajesh Waje, Suresh Rankhambe and Babasaheb Bhosle, decided to reach out to others who wanted to become photographers. They formed the Photographic Society of Pune (PSP) in August 12, 2001. The photography club, under the leadership of Surendra Nawade, an engineering professor at Cusrow Wadia Institute of Technology, Pune, who joined the group in 2002, is going places. “Our group’s motto is to devote time to photography for photography’s
sake. We hold programmes that act as platforms for amateurs, hold exhibitions and lectures,” said Nawade. On Thursdays, the group organises events that include lectures, slide shows, demonstrations and studio evenings. The club also has monthly contests and gives away awards, including the photographer of the year. “The members are taking the group from strength to strength by their keen interest and proactive participation. It is a club by the photo enthusiasts, of the photo enthusiasts, and for the photo enthusiasts,” he said. Nawade said that the club has organised educational trips to Jaisalmer, Goa, Munnar and Dharamshala. anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com
The story of city-based Giripremi’s successful expedition to Mount Everest and Lhotse- the third highest peak in the world- now stand captured in a fascinating fi lm and a book that were released early this month. While the book is titled “EverestGhosta Eka Dadhyasachi” the fi lm “Tharar Lhotse Everest” is of 60 minutes duration. “The aim behind shooting the fi lm was to have a first hand experience of the mission and make it memorable,” said Bhushan Harshe, who successfully climbed the peak in 2013 and also shot the fi lm. The fi lm captures the journey of five members who could reach right up to the summit. “Shooting at below minus temperature was itself a challenge. It was next to impossible to do the shooting as the camera lens and battery would betray you anytime”, he said. Presenting numerous anecdotes about the fi lming of the expedition, he said the battery had to be kept near the body to maintain the temperature. “We could not carry more than one battery as it would add to our load making it difficult for us to climb,” he said. He pointed out that while channels like Discovery or National Geographic paid over Rs. 8 crores with special cameras and crew to shoot the Everest, the Pune expedition was using SLR cameras and handycams for shooting.
(From left) Manish Sabade, N K Mahajan, Kiran Yadnopavit, Col. H S Chouhan (Retd), Anand Palande, Vijay Joshi, Bhishmaraj Bam, Wonghchu Sherpa, Umesh Zirpe
“We had bought American Go Pro cameras which are specialised adventure sports cameras,” Harshe said, pointing out that the entire budget of the expedition was very tight, at Rs. 3 crores.” All effort was made to capture the various moments and thrill of the expedition and adventure. The total shooting was of nearly 8-9 hours and it was the skilled editing of member Kiran Yadnyapavit which successfully captured the drama in an hour’s duration. Team leader Umesh Zirpe and other members wrote down their memories of the Mt Everest and Lhotse
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expeditions of 2012 and 2013. As with the fi lm, the same passion is seen in the efforts behind the book. “The team members documented the expedition so extensively that every chapter could have been a book by itself. But Kiran divided it into nine crisp and interesting chapters fitted into 200 pages,” said Harshe. He said the book and the fi lm are worthy of being called a collector’s item. The objective behind producing them is to inspire the youths to contribute towards social causes and stay fit and healthy in life. manasisaraf@gmail.com
editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Made-in-India paper for currency notes is a good step Prime minister Modi’s government should be complimented for its initiative to use Made-in-India paper for printing currency notes. It is indeed shocking that India could not produce even paper to print currency even till the 67th anniversary of Independence. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the last several years has been hinting on trials of plastic currency notes for ten rupee denomination notes. This has however not been implemented so far. Experiments should be made to introduce plastic notes of other denominations too, in case the idea is successful. This will increase the life of currency notes. An altogether new series of currency notes in different denominations should be simultaneously issued but in smaller sizes to save cost on printing. The size of currency notes was last reduced about half a century
ago when notes of Re 1, Rs 2 and Rs 5 were quite common in circulation. With coins in denominations of Rs 10 already introduced, the RBI should now discontinue printing notes of these denominations. Instead, notes in a new denomination of Rs 200 may be introduced. With the network of banks now extended even to remote areas, and installation of ATMs in large numbers, India should follow advanced countries like UK and US and stop printing currency notes of higher denomination of Rs 1,000 to check the menace of black money and fake currency which are ruining the Indian economy. —Madhu Agrawal
Toffee, the substitute for one rupee change
The enigma of the one rupee coin is
very interesting and it can be called as toffee-nomics. When the coin is not available, one is given a toffee or sweet that has an MRP of Re 1. Most of us accept this as change but we never realise that this replacement may have a base price that is less than Re 1. It indicates that we have a parallel economy which has nothing to do with the theory of textbook economics. Shopkeepers are more than willing to indulge in this concept because the Re 1 coin is forever missing. Beggars and their sidekicks are behind the actual rot. They sell change at a premium of about 10 to 15 per cent. We just have to do some simple
calculations and see that Re 1 sweets can be bought in the wholesale market for less than one rupee. This means money can buy a replacement for less than its value. —Sunil Melwani
forgetting their rivalry and political differences, to make it a grand success. —Vijay Dattatray Patil
Parties should celebrate Nehru’s birth anniv together
Letters to the Editor may be emailed to editor_tgs@goldensparrow. com or mailed to Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt Ltd, 1641 Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411030. The Best Letter of the Week will receive a special gift from Venus Traders, Pune’s finest stationery departmental.
To commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, a new official committee has been formed with Narendra Modi as its head and many important personalities (also from the Congress) as its members. But, the Congress has other plans. The party has invited 50 international dignitaries for the function. Since this celebration would be of national importance, both, the BJP-led NDA and the Congress should unite
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CITY
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
‘Innovation brings new ideas to fruition’
The Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park at Katraj is a 130-acre zoo, divided into 3 parts: an animal orphanage, a snake park, and a zoo. It also includes a 17 ha lake.
Signposts Abbas Award for Sumitra Bhave, Sapkal
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Plan to decongest MG Road takes gear Traffic police clear bylanes for parking, implements alternative parking
Sumitra Bhave
On the occasion of 100th birth anniversary of Padma Shree Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Balraj Sahani Sahir Ludhianvi Foundation will felicitate Sumitra Bhave, director, writer and social activist and Anil Sapkal, screen-writer and film producer, with the Khwaja Ahmad Abbas award, on October 26, at Niwara Ashram, Navi Peth. Bhave has directed several classic films like Doghi, Vasturoop, Devrai, Nital, Astu etc. She has made about 40 short films, five telefilms and two TV serials. Her films have been lauded with national and international awards. Gabhara, a film written by Anil Sapkal, won the first prize at Maharashtra Film Festival. His poems have been translated in Hindi. As the occasion also marks the death anniversary of Sahir Ludhianvi, Anand Mokashi will give an audio-visual presentation on ‘Ludhianvi: A Great Shayar’ on the same day.
Passport Seva camp on November 1 & 2 Passport Office, Ministry of External Affairs, has organised a ‘Passport Seva camp’ on November 1 and 2, at Shri Rajarshi Shahu Sabhagruha, Indumati Circuit House Campus, Tarabai Park, Kolhapur. A total of 300 appointments (150 on each day) will be released on October 24 at 12 noon. Online appointment is compulsory to attend the camp. The procedure for submission of the form is to register, pay and take an appointment online at the website www.passportindia.gov.in.
The alternate parking system, started on MG Road from Tuesday, has given more road space for vehicle users
BY GITESH SHELKE @gitesh_shelke The city traffic police launched an elaborate plan to decongest MG Road, a prime location in Camp for citizens who throng the place for its numerous shopping options, from October 21. The main issues facing the busy stretch are haphazard parking of vehicles and encroachment by street vendors. Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Sarang Awad said, “Our two-week detailed study covered all aspects of traffic on MG Road.” Every day, between 10 am and 11 am, 372 cars, 315 autorickshaws and 1,813 motorcycles pass between the two chowks — Triluck Chowk
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
Do not miss... Discover the palace’s fine architecture of Italian arches, its exquisite structure and spacious lawns. The five halls where Gandhi and the others were lodged now serve as a museum. The hall that housed Naidu has a handwritten transcript of Gandhi’s message to Indians just before his arrest on August 8, 1942. The place also has daily use objects and clothes of Kasturba and Gandhi, presented by their daughter-in-law in 1988, placed neatly in glass shelves. See the memorial on Gandhi where his ashes are kept in a tomb in the palace garden near the samadhis and a stall that sells textiles and souvenirs. anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com How to reach Situated on Ahmednagar Road, the palace is just 4-5 km from Pune Airport and Pune Station and 7-8 km from Shivajinagar Bus Stand. The place is about 3 km from Yerawada and Koregaon Park. Timings 9.30am-5.30pm, throughout the year except on national holidays. Entry fee is Rs5 for adults and Rs2 for children. A guide is also available.
and Mohammed Rafi Chowk — on MG Road. The number of vehicles moving between Mahavir Chowk and Dr Ambedkar Statue Chowk during the same time is 1,037 cars, 852 autos, 1,894 motorcycles and 37 buses. Hence, about 3,820 vehicles pass from the main stretch of the road in just one hour! The width of the stretch between Triluck Chowk and Mohammed Rafi Chowk is 30-35 ft, while the remaining part of MG Road is 6070 ft wide. Awad said that haphazard parking has left only half of the road for vehicular movement. “Before initiating the plan, it was necessary to identify the parking lots that are available nearby,” he said. The traffic department identified
the bylanes of MG Road, East Street and Koyaji Roads for parking, and found that these roads can accommodate only 435 four-wheelers and 950 two-wheelers,” he added. Awad said that alternative parking has been implemented to decongest the road. “The parking is separate for two and four-wheelers. On every alternate day, the parking for two-wheelers and four-wheelers is changed on either sides of the road,” he said. The bylanes has been freed of hawkers and garbage to facilitate parking. “Double parking has been banned giving motorists and pedestrians more road space,” the senior traffic officer said. gitesh.shelke@goldensparrow.com
Pune Metro plan attracts 5,000 suggestions, objections
Aga Khan Palace
Built by the Imam (leader) of Nizari Ismaili sect Aga Khan III (Sultan Mohammed Shah) in order to provide employment to drought-hit people in 1892, Aga Khan Palace is now known for its connections with Mahatma Gandhi, his wife Kasturba Gandhi, his secretary Mahadev Desai and Sarojini Naidu. These freedom fighters were interned in the palace between August 9, 1942 and May 6, 1944. The magnificent palace donated by Aga Khan IV (Prince Karim al-Husayn Shah) to India in 1969 currently houses Gandhi’s memorial, Kasturba and Desai’s samadhis, and photographs and portraits of Gandhi during the freedom struggle. Gandhi National Memorial Society that took over the national monument as its governing body in 1980 is working towards making the historic structure into a ‘living’ memorial of ‘Ba and Bapu’. Archaeological Survey of India declared the palace as a ‘monument of national importance’ on March 3, 2003. The society’s secretary Shobhana Ranade said that various activities and events are organised throughout the year to help visitors understand the philosophy of Gandhi and the history of freedom movement.
Raghu Rai to release book on Kumar Gandharva TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly
Have You Been To…
BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali
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‘Kaljayi Kumar Gandharva’ (Timeless Kumar Gandharva) featuring 45 interviews, essays and poems will be released on November1
RAHUL RAUT
Anil Sapkal
Falling oil prices may demand more reforms
BY ASHOK BHAT @ashok_bhat The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) received around 5,000 suggestions and objections regarding the Metro project. Citizens were invited to express their opinions as part of the draft development plan of city. Around 250 suggestions and objections were emailed and most of them are related to FSI. The public notice published by the PMC had stated that the civic body wants to include provisions mentioned in the Metro proposal in the Development Control (DC) rules of old and new city areas. Key points of the proposal include a nodevelopment zone within 10 metre of the proposed route. A no-objection certificate will be compulsory for any construction within 50 metre of the proposed alignment. It also calls for provision of 4 FSI for developments within 500 metre along the route. The FSI proposal is included as a fund raising model. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had proposed the 4 FSI on either side of the Metro corridors for greater population densification through vertical development of residential and commercial properties. The civic officials said that the 4 FSI model is not only for fund raising. According to the Metro passenger survey conducted by IIT, the population density is not sufficient for giving required numbers of passengers every day. The 4 FSI plan will increase the population density along the corridor. Even as the PMC’s share in the `10,000-crore project is just 6 per cent, raising `600 crore is a big task and DMRC suggested FSI. “We will be examining each suggestion and objection before sending the report to the state government, and incorporating the provisions in the DC rules after the government’s approval,” said PMC city engineer Prashant Waghmare. In June 2012, the state cabinet approved the 14.925-km elevated route from Vanaz to Ramwadi and had set a 2017-deadline for the completion of phase-I of the project. The revised estimated cost of the project is now pegged at `10,183 crore. The Chinchwad-Swargate corridor will now cost `6,960 crore and the Vanaz-Ramwadi route will cost `3,223 crore. The total cost (for both corridors) has increased by nearly `2,199 crore, as compared to the 2009 estimates. ashok.bhat21@gmail.com
On the occasion of 90th birth anniversary of legendry Hindustani classical singer Kumar Gandharva, eminent photographer Raghu Rai will release a book titled, ‘Kaljayi Kumar Gandharva’ (Timeless Kumar Gandharva) on November 1, at the Yashwantrao Chavan Auditorium in Kothrud. Similarly on November 2, an audio visual on the musical life of Kumar Gandharva will be showcased at the archives theatre in the National Film Archive of India. The two-day event has been jointly organised by Kumar Gandharva Pratishthan (Devas), Lalit Kala Kendra of Savitribai Phule Pune University and Ashay Film Club. Kumar Gandharva was well known for his unique vocal style and his nonacceptance for being bound by any particular gharana. But, something that not many people know about him is that in his twenties he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was strictly advised to discontinue singing. However, he never let that become an obstacle in his way. During the time when he could not perform, he spent his time listening to the music that evolved around him, which involved beautiful age-old traditional folk and classical renditions that gave him the inspiration to emerge out of his situation and create a mark in the world of music. His daughter Kalapini Komkali and Dr Rekha Inamdar Sane, professor, SNDT College, have co-edited the two volumes of the book. It features 45 interviews, essays and poems by those
who knew and understood his musical brilliance. While the first volume is in Marathi, the second one is written in Hindi and English. The two volumes include rare and distinct photographs, clicked by well-known photographers like Raghu Rai and Avinash Pasricha, and from the archives that are available with the Komkali family. Writers of the first volume include Pu La Deshpande, Vasant Bapat, Arvind Mangrulkar, Rajiv Sane, Shama Bhate among others, while for the second volume (Hindi and English book), the authors include Ashok Vajpayee, Linda Hayes, U R Ananthamurthy and others. “The most important thing to note is that they are not translations of one another but two separate books,” said Satish Jakatdar, co-founder, Ashay Film Club. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
PCNTDA demolition drive gets back 80 hectare Market value of the freed land is nearly `2,000 crore
Pimpri-Chinchwad New Township Development Authority intensified the demolition drive from December 2011
BY ARCHANA DAHIWAL @ArchanaDahiwal The Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA) has freed nearly 80 hectare (200 acre) from encroachment between 2011 and 2014. An authority official told ‘The Golden Sparrow on Saturday’ that the market value of the freed land is nearly `2,000 crore. The authority had intensified the demolition drive from December 2011 after serving notices to its owners had evoked poor response. PCNTDA is one of the development authorities of the Pune Metropolitan Region (PMR) responsible for the development of urban areas. The authority was formed in March 1972 to provide affordable housing to the industrial workers of PimpriChinchwad city. Bhosari, Moshi, Chikhli, Nigdi, Chinchwad, Wakad, Akurdi and other villages fall under the PCNTDA limits. As per the official records of PCNTDA, of its total land for acquisition of 2,600 hectare, the authority has been able to acquire and develop 1,850 hectare since 1972. It lost 265 hectare due to illegal encroachment and 200 hectare could not be included
for various reasons. Under the former chief executive officer Yogesh Mhase, PCNTDA demolished over 2,200 unauthorised structures, mostly belonging to political leaders and builders, since 2011. In the past 40 years, PCNTDA has failed to meet the increasing demand for houses. The acquisition of 200 acre has given hope to citizens who need houses. Mhase was of the view that if Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and PCNTDA jointly propose new housing projects in the twin town, around 35,000 houses can be built on the acquired land. Of the land that has been acquired through demolition drive by PCNTDA, around two lakh houses can be built and the move can help in narrowing the gap between housing supply and demand. PCNTDA has permission to use only one floor space index (FSI) for construction of its housing projects whereas MHADA housing projects’ permissible limit is 2.5 FSI. Hence, more houses can be built under the joint venture. A proposal to this plan has been sent to the state government for approval. archana.dahiwal@goldensparrow.com
ED UCATION “Linking education with technology is essential to integrate studies with modern-day lifestyles and expectations.” —Aman Mittal, Deputy Director, Lovely Professional University
Rahul Kanse won the first prize at the 3D Diwali: Design, Develop, Decorate competition for his intricate design of Lakshmi-Puja set-up. The competition was organised by DesignTech CAD Academy from October 6 to 10. Students had to develop 3D Models of Diwali related artefacts using advanced CAD software solutions offered in the training institute. Sachin Chougule, founding director, DesignTech Systems, said, “This contest not only gave students a platform to display their creativity and designing potential but also their proficiency in making the best use of CAD software.”
Paediatric psychology course at Sunminds Sunminds Institute, Pune is offering an online postgraduate certificate course in Paediatric psychology. The course will cover topics like child development, child disorders, learning difficulties and therapy, counselling etc. The theory classes will start from November 1, followed by an internship, submitting of case studies or attending Sunminds fast-track course. Course fee is Rs 20,000, inclusive of detailed handouts and starter’s kits. Registrations are open till October 28. For details, contact Dr Sanyogita Nadkarni on 08149700772.
All India Survey on Higher Education 2014-15 launched NEW DELHI: The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry Wednesday launched the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2014-15, an annual, web-based, pan-India exercise on the status of higher education in the country. The annual survey collects data on several parameters, including student enrollment, examination results, education finance and infrastructure. The data helps in making informed policy decisions and conducting research in education development. “So far, the ministry has released the final reports of the AISHE 2011-12 and provisional reports of the AISHE 2012-13, which are in the public domain. While the survey exercise is in its fourth consecutive year now, the AISHE 2013-14, launched on June 17, 2014, is also underway,” said an official statement. “With the launch of the AISHE 2014-15 in October, the time lag in dissemination of higher education statistics has been eliminated,” added the statement. IANS
PUNE
“The very promise of distance education is being able to study the same content as a full-time course without having to compromise w on work, time or equality.” —Ramesh Murthy, Director, Distance Education, Sikkim Manipal University
‘Media houses have other interests’ Click it the right way
Senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta released ‘Mediarise’, a student publication
Any graduate can join the media photography course at the Savitribai Phule Pune University’s Ranade Institute BY MANASI SARAF JOSHI @GargiManasi
(From left) Madhavi Reddy, HoD, Department of Communication and Journalism, Pune University, Amruta Mahajan and Abhishekh Bhosale, student editors of Mediarise, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and PUWJ president Mahendra Badade at the release of the magazine
TGS NEWS SERVICE @TGSWeekly Unlike in the past when newspaper owners were genuinely passionate about the welfare of the country, media houses today have more political interests, and newspapers and TV stations are misused to protect these interests. These sentiments were expressed by eminent journalist and political commentator Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, while addressing students of the Savitribai Phule Pune University’s Department of Communication and Journalism. Thakurta, who was one of the members of a sub-committee formed by the Press Council of India (PCI) in 2009 to examine the paid news phenomenon, was in the city on October 18 to release a students’ publication called ‘Mediarise’. Thakurta released the annual magazine at the Patrakar Bhavan auditorium. President of the Pune Union of Working Journalists (PUWJ) Mahendra Badade and the
The Annual Mag The Mediarise magazine (in English and Marathi) published by the Department of Communication and Journalism cover various subjects, including budget of a gram panchayat, women self-help groups, state tourism, development and economy. Majority of the topics are related to development stories on socio-economic aspects.
Varsity’s department of communication and journalism head Madhavi Reddy were present. Giving examples of corporate ownership of media houses, Thakurta said that this had become an established trend today. Many media houses have ventured into other businesses such as setting up of power plants, coal mining and construction, while many corporate houses had acquired substantial stakes in media enterprises, he said. “If media is not a
profitable business, why are corporates starting newspapers, magazines or news channels?” he asked and said that there were many reasons for this. One of the key reasons was to influence readers and viewers, and the other was to acquire clout while dealing with politicians. He pointed out that the National Capital Region (Delhi) alone had 16 English dailies, something that was not seen in any city of the world. India has about 900 news channels and 91,000 registered newspapers, but those which are influential and get the biggest chunk of the advertising pie are just a handful, he said. Thakurta questioned the government’s monopoly in radio news broadcasting at a time when print and TV news had been liberalised and privatised. He said that a petition fi led by him and others was pending in the Supreme Court on this issue. The senior journalist also lambasted politicians and media houses for paid news articles that essentially amounted to cheating the readers. editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
The Department of Communication and Journalism of Savitribai Phule Pune University, started in 1956, has been in the forefront of media education. Keeping in tune with the changing times, the department has recently started a certificate course in media photography. From next year the course will run parallel with other courses. Assistant professor Sanjay Tambat said, “With technological advent, almost all the newspapers are in colour and this has put a high demand on good quality pictures.” “But at the same time, though we have many talented press photographers, the need to have a formal education was felt. Last year we had conducted a workshop with Pune Union of Working Journalists (PUWJ). During the deliberations it came to fore that a formal education with certificate or diploma will equip the photographer
with additional skill. The deliberations and key findings of this conference with some more information have been transformed into the course work,” he said. With renowned faculty, the classes for this six-month certificate course are held on Saturdays and Sundays for the convenience of the professionals. The course is not just for mediapersons but amateurs can also enrol. Selections are based on an entrance test. Any graduate is eligible for the test. There are 30 seats and the course fee is Rs 15,000 per student. The course is self supporting, said Tambat. The course focuses on handling of the cameras, nuances of the photo for media and other such aspects. “The procedure to start the course began last year. We have taken the necessary permission from the management council and the academic council, besides that the course is the result of collaboration between PUWJ and department with two coordinators each,” said Tambat. manasisaraf@gmail.com
Protecting the endangered species Vikas Naikwadi has been awarded the Young Scientists Fellowship for Salai (Boswellia Serreta) conservation BY MANASI SARAF JOSHI @GargiManasi Pune’s young environmentalist Vikas Naikwadi has been passionate about protecting and conserving the rare and endangered species of Salai (Boswellia Serreta), which is useful for curing arthritis, lung and kidney diseases. To encourage and support his work, the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, awarded him Young Scientist Fellowship. Under this, he received a grant of Rs 22,20,000.
Vikas, who stays in Sangvi and works as an assistant professor in CT Bora College, Shirur, is the youngest professor to receive the award. W h i l e talking to The Vikas Naikwadi Golden Sparrow on Saturday, he said, “I have received grants for the micropropogation protocol for the preparation of seedlings of Salai
which is diminishing at a fast pace. This species is found in India and other countries like Yemen, Pakistan, South Africa and Oman. The species, which grows on the hill slopes, is listed under the endangered species by the environment panel. The research will help in forestation of hilly barren land, conservation of threatened plant species and availability of valued gum,” he said. “The gum, which is extracted from the trunk of the tree, has high medicinal value. The tree is as tall and strong as a drumstick tree. We can find this species on the hilly terrain of Katraj ghat and in the Western ghat,” he added. “It is seen that to extract the gum, the trunk of the tree is given a heavy blow that eventually affects the tree badly. To
Pursuing My Career
‘I always wanted to be a dance instructor’
Mihir Gandhi’s stint as an instructor with Shiamak Davar’s Dance Academy strengthened his love for his work BY MIHIR GANDHI
RAHUL RAUT
OCTOBER 24, 2014
PICTURE FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE
‘3D Diwali’ contest at DesignTech
CARE ER
RAHUL RAUT
Signposts
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
I was not keen on studies since my schooldays. Dancing has been my forte since primary school. My first stage performance was on a Michael Jackson song, back in standard II. I have always looked forward to a career in dance, irrespective of the academic pressure that I faced from elders. I took up dancing seriously when one of my friends introduced me to Shiamak Davar’s classes. I joined the troop and performed at several places. The troop also performed at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in 2008. I met Shiamak and celebrated his birthday. Little did I know that he himself would train me in future. Then the Shiamak’s one year programme (OYP) happened where he trained our batch.
We performed at Selcouth, a Shiamak Davar Production. It is a grand dance show that primarily takes place in Mumbai. It was a rejuvenating experience, performing on his choreography before a large crowd. Post-OYP, I joined a special potential batch (SPB) and honed my skills as an instructor and trained in the trademark ‘Shiamak’ style. After the end of the programme, I was auditioned by Shiamak himself and was selected as one of his academy instructors. The move branded my dancing skills. My association with Shiamak’s brand has taught me many things. Firstly, one must love their work in order to succeed in it. Secondly, dancing is a full-time paying job contrary to what others say. It feels good to support yourself. In the future, I see myself assisting Shiamak and ultimately becoming a choreographer. (As told to Yash Daiv)
save the tree and to plant the seedlings, the fellowship is given to a person from the rural areas,” he informed. Besides helping in conservation of this species it will also motivate the youth from the rural areas to go for higher education. “The grants, which I received through this fellowship, will be used for tissue culture of the seedlings of this tree,” he said. It was used in preparing Ayurvedic and Unani medicine. Naikwadi has been guided by professor D T Nikam, from the Department of Biology, Savitribai Phule Pune University. “We are also looking into the technical aspect to increase the number of seedlings,” he said. manasisaraf@gmail.com
Life’s Lessons
Ways to de-clutter your life
L
ife can sometimes get overwhelming and one way to get a sense of control is to follow these suggestions by Alex Malley, chief executive of CPA Australia. One of the simplest things to do is maintain a daily “To Do” list and go along checking out things as the tasks stand completed. “It really gives you a sense of accomplishment,” says Alex.
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Make a Plan: If there’s a mental block on 2 what to do in a particular situation, it helps to start jotting down ideas, says Alex. They don’t have to be perfect but as you jot down your thoughts, a rough plan will emerge on how to proceed in a difficult situation.
Importance of a routine: Give yourself 3 set time, says Alex, “for checking emails, completing tasks, making calls, whatever you need to get done”. Practicing sticking to strict times will help you get used to meeting deadlines, he says.
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Forward Th inking: One way to avoid stress on future tasks is to start working on it the
moment you get it. Even thinking about a future assignment and taking small steps towards it would help meet deadlines comfortably. Breaking large tasks into smaller ones: 5 Th is is one of the standard ways to tackle big projects. As Alex says, “Instead of
looking at a huge project as a whole, break it down into mini project phases. It won’t feel so overwhelming that way. If you mentally reward yourself for completing each smaller facet, the journey towards the goal becomes much more manageable.”
Stay Calm: While working towards all of 6 this, it is important to keep calm and carry on, he says. “Stressing out doesn’t help, it only makes things worse. Take a deep breath, and then calmly start collecting your thoughts.
Avoid Distractions: Frequent interruptions 7 or distractions can rob you of your concentration. The way to deal with this is to
step away from distractions and noisy spaces. “Block out some time to get organised,” is a valuable suggestion.
MAHA POLLS 2014
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
People of Maharashtra have voted for Development BY ABHAY VAIDYA @vaidya_abhay What we, the people of Maharashtra are witnessing today, is nothing short of a watershed moment. By their vote, the people of the state have made amply clear what they want. The people are thirsting for responsible governance. They want better cities, good roads, jobs for the youth, a departure from caste politics and freedom from corruption. Some things are very clear: The mandate in Maharashtra is neither for Hindutva nor for the Marathi manoos. Indeed, the Marathi manoos has voted along with others in large numbers and all of them want the new government to focus on just one basic goal: Development. The Congress-NCP alliance government stands rejected because it failed on all these fronts and made a mockery of the people’s faith in the power of the vote. It is the same common man from the state who has voted them out of power, fatigued by the politics of rivalry, one-upmanship, bad governance and corruption.
As we noted in our editorial on October 18, the people of Maharashtra have rejected the narrow, parochial and divisive politics in the name of the Marathi manoos. Yes, the Marathi manoos wants justice, fairness and preference over others in his own state; but more than that, he wants jobs, a revival of the local economy and affordable education. He wants to see better infrastructure in the neglected parts of the state such as Marathwada and Vidarbha. Even in a place like Mumbai, the state’s capital, the voter has become proactive and positive and not negative by demanding that “outsiders” leave the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been speaking the language of development and this has found resonance in Maharashtra. What exactly is meant by development? While the politicians who would form the new government have their own ideas and priorities, these are unlikely to be far different from those listed out by the Pune International Centre (PIC). Still in its infancy, this body is fast emerging as a pre-eminent think tank of India with a number of
leading scientists, economists, subject experts, journalists, industrialists and ex-bureaucrats at the helm of affairs. In its latest initiative, the PIC has published its Progressive Maharashtra report (Policy Road Map 2014 – 19) authored by the eminent scientist Raghunath Mashelkar and former chairman of the Finance Commission, Vijay Kelkar, outlining the key issues that ought to be the priorities for the new government. Contributors to this document included six other
subject experts. Taking a holistic view of Maharashtra, the report notes that apart from being India’s leading industrial state, more importantly, Maharashtra “has been the harbinger of modern renaissance in India”. It has played a leadership role in the reformist movements in the country, in promoting a liberal
democracy and in pioneering t h e cooperative movement. Such giants and tireless crusaders as Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Lokmanya Tilak, Jamshetji Tata,
Maharishi Karve, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, D R Gadgil and a host of others took this state to the pinnacle of the socio-economic initiatives and interventions of their age. Sadly, the state has lagged behind miserably on a number of human development indicators over the last few decades. As noted in the report, although Maharashtra enjoys a high average per capita income, nearly 20% of the population remains below the poverty line. Literacy and health indicators lag behind many others states such as Goa and Kerala while significant improvements are needed for better access and quality of school education. Almost all these issues go hand-inhand with regional disparities which remains a chronic complaint in the state. The PIC report presents a road map to address all of these issues and would prove of immense value as the new government undertakes new initiatives for the state. Presented below are some highlights of the report. abhay.vaidya@goldensparrow.com
TEN MAHA GOALS Maharashtra, which historically has been progressive, reformist and economically-dynamic, suffers from serious deficiencies: High poverty levels among 20% of the population, continuing neglect of healthcare and school education and extreme regional disparities. The state now stands on the threshold of change under a new government. The priorities listed in the Pune International Centre’s ‘Progressive Maharashtra’ report merit our attention
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WATER MANAGEMENT
As a public good, ‘Minimum Norm’ based availability of water i.e. 140 litres per day per capita should be provided to all citizens of Maharashtra. The access to water would be equal to everyone in every area. Adequate storage of water on regional basis would be an essential prerequisite for this purpose. • Policies towards usage by agriculture and industry for productive purposes have to be designed taking into consideration sustainable agriculture, productivities involved and their capacity to accelerate growth. • In the medium and long term, policies should aim to incentivise productive use of water that would help extract the value of this natural resource rationally. • Local governments should take up the projects of recycling of water and sewage treatment as the most urgent priority.
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TOWARDS NEW AGRICULTURE
Maharashtra’s agriculture is now poised for significant market induced shifts and deserves the necessary policy pushes which would usher in the era of new technology driven agriculture. The initiatives necessary for this would be: • Review and amendment of Tenancy legislation to widen and streamline official leasing of land. • Entire sugarcane cultivation must be mandated to switch to drip irrigation. • Micro irrigation must be promoted. • The practice of managing water supply allocation and rotation through Water User Associations should be extensively and speedily implemented. • Watershed Development Mission must be launched and completed in the next 10 years. • Food Processing Technlogical Mission should be implemented and the Horticultural Mission must be strengthened for Vidarbha, Konkan and Marathwada. • Dry-land and Rain-fed farming Development Mission should be implemented. • Access to agricultural credit must be enhanced. • The experiences of novel market systems like e-chaupal, Rayatu bazaar or Maharashtra’s own Shetkari Bazaar, should be incorporated in promoting alternative mandis.
MANUFACTURING & INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
The growth of the manufacturing sector will have to be one of the key drivers of future economic growth and while there are many initiatives needed, the most critical policy move would be to reduce the unease arising out of high cost of doing business in Maharashtra. Greater attention would have to be paid to Infrastructure & Connectivity in the state, New Growth Drivers in Manufacturing, Labour Reforms, speedy implementation of the Goods and Service Tax; Skill Development; Establishment of SME Clusters, empowering of medium enterprises and incentives to attract FDI in key segments.
Maharashtra Today =
` today
` 3 yrs ago
Maharashtra’s economy today is as big as India’s economy three decades ago
Serious inter-regional and intra-regional disparities in income
20%
of population below poverty line
School education needs to be improved
Goals for 2014-19 • Achieve double digit rate of growth in real income and parity in average per capita income in middle income countries • Adhere to fiscal responsibility & targets • Accelerate growth in backward regions
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GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS
Improved governance is the key to achieving economic progress in Maharashtra, for which significant and meaningful administrative reforms need to be undertaken. The primary and the most important
HEALTH FOR ALL
Maharashtra’s vision of Universal Health Coverage should incorporate four dimensions of universal health assurance: a) Access to a wide range of preventive, curative and rehabilitative health services at different levels of care. b) Health coverage that is inclusive of all sections of the population c) Health protection that promotes and protects health through its social determinants and d) Delivery of services at an affordable cost. The authors have elaborated on the steps necessary to achieve these goals.
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Being blessed with higher irradiation, Maharashtra can put solar energy at the top of its agenda in securing energy security. Maharashtra needs to contribute 20% (4GW) towards the national goal of building a base of 20GW by 2020. The state needed to add another 3.5 GW to achieve this goal and this can be done through a State Solar Policy (1GW), State Solar Parks (2GW) and Rooftop (0.5 GW).
13% 15.32% for 2012-13
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DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBAL POPULATIONS & AREAS
As per 2011 Census, Maharashtra has 10,510, 213 people belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST) which is 9.35% of the state population. Scattered in 15 districts and more than 80 talukas, the tribal people constitute the most deprived and neglected section of Maharashtra. Over the last six decades numerous schemes and administrative arrangements have been attempted but without significant success. The following measures are needed: a) Tribal Sub-Plan funds should not be used for general sector schemes like irrigation, power, health and education. b) Section 3.1 and 5 of Forest Rights Act should be vigorously implemented to ensure community ownership rights. c) There should be a price support mechanism for non-timber products sold by tribals. d) Urgently implement all land reforms and land distribution programmes meant for tribal people within the next two years and remove all the anomalies in land records.
PROMOTING ENERGY SECURITY THROUGH SOLAR ENERGY
Share of Maharashtra in India’s GDP averaged around in the last decade; is now estimated at
reform at the state level is acceptance of the principle of ‘subsidiary governance’ by the state at the state level and decentralization in tune with the ARC recommendations. At the state, regional and district levels, the focus needs to be on the following: a) Make the administration transparent, corruption free and accountable to the people
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b) Make the administration efficient in its decision-making process c) Make the administration competent to deal with the liberalized and globalised world. d) Make the administration responsive to the needs of marginal groups and laggard regions.
REFORMS IN EDUCATION
The severe deficiencies in access and quality of education need to be addressed at the earliest to complement the needs of the growing economy. • Three expert committee reports (Dr Anil Kakodkar, Dr Arun Nigavekar and Dr Ram Takwale) await their fruitful adoption and implementation in policy. Their recommendations need to be implemented urgently. • Policy reform related to private/foreign universities has to be undertaken urgently. • The state government needs to go into mission mode to take care of special groups such as caste and gender. Special groups of students with special talents need to be recognized and catered to.
KEY MISSIONS TO REALIZE VISION OF 4GW BY 2020
To eliminate regional disparities sustainably, Maharashtra needs to evolve through two distinct tracks simultaneously- firstly, the state government needs to liver some of the basic public goods and services across all the regions on equalized basis and secondly, the state must initiate policy efforts to harness regional comparative advantage and accelerate the economic potential of the region.
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RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Maharashtra has made a good beginning by establishing the Maharashtra State Innovation Council. It must now develop a powerful innovation ecosystem with physical, intellectual and cultural constructs. This would call for idea incubators, technology parks, a donducive intellectural property rights regime and a “patent, publish and prosper” culture. There should be a climate to provide encouragement to scientists who have the passion to become technopreneurs, potent inventorinvestor engagements and passionate innovation leaders.
The policy for growth acceleration would have the following elements: a. Providing physical infrastructural impetus with necessary investments b. Facilitating development of skills and institutional capacities c. Stimulating private investment through lowering the cost of doing business, and d. Undertaking Big-Push projects that would create credibility for the government’s intent apart from providing backward and forward linkages.
The PIC Report
More than
50% of state population lives in urban areas
Literacy & health indicators lag behind other states such as Goa, Kerala Vijay Kelkar
and reduce regional disparity by half • Reduce poverty ratio level to single digit • Assure quality compulsory education for all children till 10th Standard • Provide universal healthcare coverage, beginning with most backward areas • Make cities with municipal corporations Wi-Fi enabled within five years • Provide broadband connectivity in all
parts of the state within five years • Institutionalize at least one Community College in every taluka • Ensure a Solar Energy Mission for Marathwada and other high irradiation areas • Promote the forests as a productive sustainable resource for tribals in hilly regions
The Pune International Centre was established by a group of eminent persons from Pune in 2010 to create a world class think tank, promote an environment for free and frank
RA Mashelkar
debates and to provide a platform to promote arts and culture. PIC’s founding members included the late cabinet secretary BG Deshmukh and socialist Mohan Dharia. The Centre is headed by former CSIR director-general RA Mashelkar as president and former chairman of the Finance Commission, Vijay Kelkar as vice-president. The Progressive Maharashtra
Pradeep Apte
Prashant Girbane
report was authored by Mashelkar and Kelkar with inputs from a number of experts in various fields such as Prof. Pradeep Apte, Development Economist, Fergusson College; Prof Abhay Pethe (Professor in regional development and urban economics, University of Mumbai); Dr. Chandrahas Deshpande, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Prashant Girbane and Sumita Kale.
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
AIMIM’s win uncovers fading influence of secular parties P 10
The term “surfing” the internet was coined in 1992 by an upstate New York librarian Jean Armour Polly, aka “Net Mom.” —www.buzzfeed.com
‘Your body sends out signals, listen to them’ P 11
Faith’s rehabilitation
TECH GURU BY SORAB GHASWALLA
City bloggers have created dog adoption networks by putting up posts on their blogs for distressed strays and abandoned pets BY YASH DAIV @yash009 In the past decade, blogs and social media were occupied with concerns pertaining to Indian Pariah dog and the abandoned pets. Several city based bloggers have raised the issues of adoptions, rescuing missions, foster homes and medical care, through their blogs. These blogs have in turn become empowering platforms, easily accessible to public to contribute through adopting or informing about the plight of any distressed animal. None of these blogs are run for commercial reasons. They were started purely out of the bloggers’ love and concern for the canines Aishwarya Vishwanathan’s ‘Adopt a Stray’ blog rescues stray dogs Adopt a Stray was started in 2008. Vishwanathan, who was scared of dogs as a child, took up the cause of helpless animals when one day she found a scrawny looking puppy at her door. “He had followed my mother all the way home who had fed him biscuits and milk and forgotten all about him. But Bruno (we named him), was destined to become an integral part of the family, l feel,” she said. Today with 60-65 adoptions per year, Adopt a Stray has become a common name when it comes to dog adoptions. It has grown into a large network with volunteers in almost every area of the city, who foster or report distressed dogs. In addition to the stray dog problem, there is an alarming rise in the number of abandoned pets in the city. In future, Vishwanathan hopes that through the blog and the monthly adoption camps,
people will accept the Indian Pariah dog like they have accepted different breeds.
Sanjay Sayani
“When dogs are abandoned it has a damaging effect on them”
Aishwarya Vishwanathan of Adopt a Stray, with her pet dog Bruno
RESQ’s website blog has heart wrenching anecdotes about the animal rescues RESQ was started in 2007 by Neha Jangle and Tanya Kale. They have a helpline through which they receive calls about distressed strays. A van is immediately sent to the location and medical care is provided to the dog. The website has a blogging section dedicated solely to the rescue stories written by people.
“These anecdotes are an effective medium in getting across the RESQs success as well as the cause of helping the ignored stray dogs and cats at times. Social media and blogs have had an impact on the people with concerns pertaining to strays and abandoned pets,” said Rewa Bodas, helpline operator. yashdaiv@gmail.com
Facebook to locate your stolen passwords In a bid to keep its users’ accounts safe, social networking site Facebook has created an automated service that monitors the web for stolen email addresses and passwords. The service checks credentials to see if they match those being used on Facebook. Once it finds a set of stolen credentials, it passes the data into a programme that analyses it in computer language. An automated system then checks it
against the Facebook database to see if any of the email addresses and hashed passwords match login information on Facebook, Daily Mail reported. “Theft of personal data like email addresses and passwords can
This is an interactive column. Like today, every week, we will be replying to technology and Internet related queries sent in by readers. You may email your questions with the subject line ‘Tech Guru query’ to tgstechguru@gmail.com
When web browsers freeze or crash
Sanjay and Aparajita Sayani started ‘Helping Needy Animals’ after they had seen struggling strays
With nine pets and 22 other dogs which they have adopted in their society, Sanjay Sayani, a journalist, believes that adopting any pet is a commitment. “The person has to understand the instinct, the hunger and everything else associated with the pet,” he said. The blog Helping Aparajita Sayani Needy Animals that was started five years ago by Sanjay and Aparajita Sayani, works by putting up posts about fostered or rescued dogs. With five to six adoptions per month, Sanjay Sayani is immensely content with the satisfaction that comes from helping these dogs. Sayani claims that they receive a large number of abandoned cases during Diwali. Crackers make the dogs uncomfortable and they tend to run away out of confusion or frustration. “When they are lost or abandoned it has a damaging effect on their psyche,” he said. In future, he wants to turn the blog into a fullfledged website.
PUNE
have larger consequences because people often use the same password on multiple websites,” Facebook’s security engineer Chris Long wrote in a blog post. “We built a system dedicated to further securing people’s
Facebook accounts by actively looking for these public postings, analysing them and then notifying people when we discover that their credentials have shown up elsewhere on the Internet,” he said. If it finds a match, Facebook notifies the affected user the next time they log in and guides them through a process to change their password, the report added. IANS
SMSing one’s way to success
Even though many of us may have moved on to conducting much of our online business on a smartphone, we continue to also depend on table-top PCs or laptops. Which involves the use of Internet browsers like Internet Explorer, the open-source Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. Essentially, web browsers are nothing but sophisticated computer programmes that allow surfers to access web pages. Browsers require regular maintenance or they, too, suffer from the occasional glitch like any other software. So today, we look at browser care, some common browser afflictions and ways of tackling them. There are some thumb rules for good maintenance: ensure that you have the latest version of the browser installed, and always clear your cache (pronounced Cash). This is like a default data capturing machine. The browser, by default,takes note of all the websites you visit, while certain common elements of these sites like logos, etc, are stored on your PC’s hard drive. One of the plus points of this is it helps frequently visited websites load faster. But you need to also clean it out occasionally. All browsers have a ‘history’ tab which you can click on and then hit the ‘delete’ button. When you do that, all the cookies (little bits of data), temporary internet files, download history, form data, can be deleted. An occasional purge of your cache is often required for better browser performance. Install a good anti-virus program. Computer viruses enter your PC through a web browser. There are plenty of malware out there that can give your browser some bigtime trouble. A piece of code can force your browser to develop a mind of its own, and it will keep re-directing you to a site you may not want to look at. Malware can even change browser settings. Another common problem to strike browsers is crashing and freezing. Opening too many tabs in a single browser, for example, may lead to browser freeze, so open only a reasonable number, not 15 tabs at one go! Sometimes, a browser may not be able to “read” the web object it’s been assigned so it may clam up. A virus may also create this same problem. If your browser does not work out the freeze problem on its own, it is deemed “crashed”, making it necessary for you to re-start it. Again, downloading the latest browser version helps. Sometimes, a browser may close on its own, which is also called crashing. Could happen if there’s a virus floating in your computer’s innards or because of other problems like low virtual memory. If your browser crashes frequently or suddenly starts loading at a slower than normal rate, it almost always means only one thing – the computer is probably low on virtual memory (a combo of your PC RAM and temporary disk space). You generally receive a warning message from your OS when this happens. But there are ways and means of deleting virtual memory, some even specific to an OS like Microsoft Windows. Normally, if you are using a PC of vintage variety, the issue of low VM will often crop up. The best ways to stop spam, one source of online virus, is to use what are called as ad-blocking programmes.
Ravi Ghate, a college drop out-turned-social entrepreneur recently gave a TEDx Talk in Pune about the bulk SMS services that he pioneered TED is a global platform where people from different fields come together and speak for 18 minutes or less about their respective disciplines. It was started in 1984 by a non-profit organisation called Sapling Foundation, under the slogan — Ideas worth sharing. Initially it organised conferences where matters related to technology, design and entertainment merged, but today it includes varied topics such as business, photography, art, science and the like.
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
BY ISHANI BOSE @ishani_bose Ravi Ghate is not ashamed to call himself an academic failure. “I’m a mere 12th class pass and a second year polytechnic diploma failed student,” he says. But what makes him such an inspiring personality is the fact that he did not let his failure be an obstacle and instead worked hard for the under privileged section of the society. This in return has brought him international acclaim today. At the recent TEDx Talk organised in Pune, Ghate spoke about his brain child, International Communication Technology(ICT) and the social initiatives that he and his team have been undertaking over the years. “My father was a gardener at Sindh Society (Aundh) and my mother used to make godhadis (blankets) for a living. In 1992-93, after I failed my polytechnic exams, I started a cable TV business. But my
life truly changed after I met the great Gandhian thinker, the Late Balasaheb Bharde in 1996,” he said. It was Bharde who introduced Ghate to Dr. Vijay Bhatkar in 2000. Thereafter he worked with Bhatkar in a project conducted by Pune University and Bhatkar’s Education-to-Home, whose sole aim was to spread computer literacy across Maharashtra. “In those days, there was a huge digital divide between those who knew how to operate a computer and those who didn’t. Dr Bhatkar wanted someone to travel across the state and spread computer literacy and I accepted the challenge. I went across the state and set up about 750 computer institutes and through those institutes more than 2,50,000 students were imparted with computer literacy education,” he said. These students belonged to the rural, tribal and backward classes of the society. Soon Ghate realised that he had to speak to all of these students (belonging to Nandurbar, Kolhapur, Gadchiroli, Mumbai etc) simultaneously, which would be a cumbersome process. That is when he developed an SMS based software, through which he could send 1000 text messages in one go. “Through this software, I could relay the message across the states in one minute. It was the first innovation that my
team had made,” he said. Ghate started using the basic SMS text to deliver hyper local news in some of the remotest parts of the country. He also started appointing unemployed youth or college dropouts in villages as his franchisee reporters. These reporters were then assigned the duty of going door to door, signing up people for this service. By enrolling for this service, the villagers could get to know all that was happening in their respective villages through text messages on their mobile phones. Ghate also developed the urban to rural student mentoring initiative through his text message services. “Students from the remotest areas are not aware of the opportunities available in the educational world at large. Through this service, we tried to connect these students to their privileged counterparts in the cities so that they can seek help and guidance from them in shaping their career,”he said. It is the fourth year since this programme has started and it has also won Vodafone Mobile for Good award. He also won the National Youth Award in 2005’06. Ghate and his team have also won an award on the national level for the best use of social media. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com
The well-known ones are Adblock Plus on Firefox or Adblock on Google Chrome. Here’s where you can download it from - http://bit.ly/1c1HA7P.You may even use paid versions of ad blocking software like the one provided by Norton India (http://bit.ly/1t1k7xy). If all this does not work wonders, try something called a web accelerator. This is a proxy server/software that cuts down website download time. This can be installed at the website end, server end or at the user end as installable software. There are some available in the Indian market. One of them is the Max Internet Optimizer which claims to increase your Internet and surfing speeds dramatically. You may download it from here http://bit.ly/1wiH8uP. (Sorab Ghaswalla is a former old-world journalist who now wears many hats, entrepreneur, Internet consultant, online marketer, new media and technology journalist, and the editor/publisher of four sites of his own, all related to the Internet, smartphones, start-ups and the Internet of things. You may find him at www. newagecontentservices.com) (Disclaimer: The Tech Guru column is more in the nature of a reader-initiated, advisory feature. Readers are urged to check or confirm for themselves the features of all hardware/software mentioned here before making a purchase. Prices quoted are indicative and not final, and subject to availability of product/service. This newspaper nor this column shall, in any way, be liable for any physical, personal or monetary damage/losses arising out of advice given herein.)
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
“I do things seamlessly. It never works when you put boundaries. You can always find time to do things you’re passionate about. I don’t like to be defined in any particular way.” —Rajshree Pathy, MD, Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals
‘Innovation brings new ideas to fruition’
Signposts Meeting with South Korean delegate
Affordable excellence is the need of the hour, said Dr Mashelkar, at the launch of Anil Rajvanshi’s e-book ‘Romance of Innovation’
A business and institutional delegate from Gunsan Province, South Korea is visiting Pune on October 29. Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) is organising an interactive session followed by possible one-to-one meetings. Interested candidates are requested to submit their company profiles for consultation to facilitate the meetings. For details, contact Madhura Chipade on 020-25709213.
Delegate to visit Metz Expo Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) is organising visitors’ delegation to Metz Expo, Moselle in France on December 9. Organised by Euro India Technology Sourcing (EITS) and MOSELLE Development Agency, this expo will present the candidates with great opportunities in meeting potential partners. To participate, send in your company profile and business interests to Sateesh Kulkarni on sateesh.kulkarni@cci.in. Contact +91 9810533609 for more details.
BY ISHANI BOSE @ishani_bose Innovation is the successful exploitation of a new idea in any field of the market. For this to take place, three things are essential: speed, scale and sustainability. If you don’t innovate with speed, your competitor will take over. Second is the scale at every level and third is sustainability because whatever innovation one comes up with, it has to survive without government subsidies or other artificial support systems. “It means it must be a good business model,” said R A Mashelkar, eminent scientist and chairman of the National Innovation Foundation-India. He was speaking after releasing an e-book titled ‘Romance of Innovation’ by Dr Anil K Rajvanshi at the
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) on the Savitribai Phule Pune University campus on October 20. C-DAC’s director-general Rajat Moona presided over the event. Mashelkar said that ‘affordable excellence’, which is using cutting-edge science to deliver low-cost technology for the poor, is the need of the hour for India. He cited the example of last year’s winner of the Anjani Mashelkar Inclusive Innovation Award that went to a 28-year-old innovator for creating a touch HD (high definition) device to detect one’s haemoglobin level, by simply putting it around one’s finger. Th is young innovator was motivated by the needless deaths of women due to anaemia in rural India. Since women in rural areas were against giving blood out of some antiquated beliefs, the young innovator came up with a non-invasive method to check for haemoglobin levels. For this, he used h i g h- e nd technol-
START-UP MENTOR
Pune Google Developers Group (GDG) is organising DevFest 2014 Android Wear Special on October 26, from 5 pm onwards, at Pune International Incubation Centre, Karve Nagar. The entry is free.
RAHUL RAUT
DevFest 2014 on October 26
Vishwas Mahajan
“What we are focusing on is to come up with tools that can tailormake learning according to the needs of the student and at the same time increase connectivity between teacher, students and parents.” —B Jayashankar, co-founder and director, KNEWCLEUS
RA Mashelkar
Angel investing is a complete risk based investment
This feature is a collaboration between The Golden Sparrow on Saturday and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), the world’s largest non-profit network of entrepreneurs. For additional questions about your entrepreneurial challenges, write to mentoring@pune.tie.org I have been working on a product idea and after two years of intense work I have completed the development of my product. I am happy to tell you that I have secured a large order from two of India’s large corporates. Now I need finance to build and deliver the products. Can I go to an angel investment? - Anukul Pethkar
Having secured marquee large corporate customers for your product is indeed a great achievement. Congratulations. The funds needed are for the purpose of building the product in bulk, placing them with these customers and generating revenue. Right? The revenue model that you have discussed is rental as well as subscription/ advertisement revenue that your product will generate. Based on cash flow statement and the investment statement that you have given this does looks like a promising business opportunity. However, as you have indicated you need finance to build these products, deploy them and support them before the cash flow can begin. Let’s talk about the possible ways of raising the finance. I am aware that you have suggested in your question about the angel investing as one possible way to get it. We will compare this with other ways of securing funding, so that you can choose the most optimum manner in which you can raise finance for this order. ANGEL INVESTING: Angel investing is a complete risk based investment and typically companies raise angel investing rounds to support the initial product development and expenses to create a ‘minimum viable product’ idea. Angel investing is primarily based on the confidence of investor in you as a person. The risks are quite high in the
beginning when the investor is betting is on you as an entrepreneur. There are several success stories and also several failures of an angel investing. However, I would like you to look at some of the alternate methods, as well. YOUR CURRENT STATE OF BUSINESS : Given the state of your business which is: 1. Product has been developed and is ready 2. You have an order from your customers and 3. Finance needed is for manufacturing the product and taking care of working capital. THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE OPTIONS: 1. Commercial Banks: Banks can lend you working capital limits against these orders. While it is true that most bank will ask you for some collaterals, it is possible that a bank can find a creative way in which it can finance you to execute this order. They may ask you to securitise your cash flows but with little collateral you may be able to secure working capital from the bank. These days bank are pretty aggressive and given the right proposal they will definitely be willing to look at it.
2. NBFCs: Look at funding from NBFC type of institutions. These companies are not banks and are less driven by the rules that drive banking industry. We have often seen these NBFCs are more liberal in extending finances to entrepreneurs. Their terms may need further analysis but they can work more efficiently and more quickly to give you the funds you need. There are several NBFCs in the private sector that you can work with. 3. Customer Advance : There is no better way to finance your business than by customer giving you the advance against his order. Have you asked your customers for this? It actually make sense to ask if you haven’t already. Most customers are happy to extend advance to entrepreneurs like you against their order. That would be a huge relief for you. As customers they will not charge you interest. It is also in their interest to help you as they have already validated your product. Using your product is going to give you additional revenues and this is a classic win-win situation. In the fi rst option that you proposed (angel investing), you will actually give away equity. Whereas in other ways, you may pay interest or finance costs that may be a little more than bank interest. In the case of last one ( customer advance), you may not need to pay interest at all and still secure the finance that you need to deliver your business. My advise to you is to consider/ explore all alternative before you choose how to finance your product development, product manufacturing and your interim cash flow. Good luck! Vishwas Mahajan, president of TiE Pune Chapter, answers real life questions of entrepreneurs.
ogies to deliver this test at barely Rs 10, Mashelkar said. “An innovator is someone who does not know that it cannot be done. He went ahead and proved the concept of affordable excellence. If you go in for making more from less, you’ll get it for more and more people. That is true innovation,” he said.
Whatever innovation one comes up with, it has to survive without government subsidies or other artificial support systems
He stressed that he was against the concept of ‘jugaad’ because it means being happy with whatever little we do or have. “That is an attitude most Indians have and we should change that for good. And I’m glad that Anil’s book has thrown light on it,” he said. ishani.bose@goldensparrow.com
Praise for Dr Rajvanshi
Anil K Rajvanshi
Mashelkar praised the book’s author Anil K Rajvanshi, an IITKanpur and University of Florida alumnus, who left the US to settle in Phaltan in Satara district in the 1980s at the insistence of his wife Nalini. This was where Rajvanshi, assisted by his wife, undertook a number of
VC funds inflow to reach $1.2 bn this fiscal: Maandate NEW DELHI: Online financial marketplace platform Maandate said that it expects the venture capitalist fund to reach a near $1.2 billion by the end of this fiscal from nearly $700 million inflows last fiscal, representing a growth of 71.42 per cent. According to the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) online platform, the euphoria and strong fundamentals of the economy is also expected to attract nearly double the VC funds which can reach nearly $2 billion in the fiscal year 2015-16. “We see a strong traction towards inbound M&A activity in technology, material and other growth start-up enterprises in India. As the economy further recovers the expected inflows are also anticipated to increase,” Abhijit Maheshwari, chief executive, Maandate, told IANS. Maheshwari further said that he expects the PE (private equity) firms to also increase exits from existing projects, so as to build a case for larger capital commitment into the Indian economy. “There is a risk of fresh PE capital flow stalling if the existing PE funds do not find right exit in near-term now or in the next 18 months when the economy picks up further momentum,” Maheshwari said adding that with a stable currency and positive economic movement has given added advantage to PEs to exit and re-enter into new projects. On the out flows from India, Maheshwari, said that special interest is seen in technology, engineering space and in companies that provide market access and technical expertise in Western European and the US market. “Medium sized engineering firms, component manufacturers, technology companies and others in Germany, Netherlands and UK are of special interest for Indian companies at the moment,” Maheshwari further said. “Domestically a stable government, better implementation of policies, buoyant stock market, adequate liquidity and adherence to corporate governance norms will increase the attractiveness of Indian firms for foreign fund participation,” Maheshwari added. Maandate.com is a first-of-its-kind platform that assists private companies to prepare for exit, pursue acquisition and access growth capital. IANS
innovations as director of the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). “It certainly wasn’t easy letting go of a comfortable life in the US and relocating to a very small rural town, with hardly any facility to conduct research and development (R&D). However, if one were to ask Rajvanshi what truly motivated him to do so, he would say that it was his inner Junoon (passion) that led him to do meaningful and satisfying R&D work in a place like Phaltan, where even to make a single phone call one had to travel all the way to Pune,” Mashelkar said. Rajvanshi has presented his life-changing and inspiring journey at Phaltan in the book. It is a human interest story of R&D in a rural setting. “I call the book, Romance of innovation, as it is a story of what little we were able to accomplish at NARI, simply based on a very selfish reason of doing something meaningful in our lives. The book
also gives an account on how much more needs to be done in the area of providing basic amenities to rural population. I hope that some bright researchminded reader will take up this challenge,” Rajvanshi said.
An online platform for developing skills
Amit Rele’s SlateOne.com is building knowledge sharing skills
For Amit Rele, founder of SlateOne.com, the journey has just started
BY ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali With firms trying to reduce headcount and develop the skill pool at the floor and individual levels, SlateOne is helping resourcing managers, measure, track and develop employee skills. The firm offers a platform that indicates the managers about employee’s primary, secondary and tertiary skills and intelligently helps them develop it. A telecom engineer and a postgraduate in business administration, Amit Rele, 40, launched SlateOne. com in 2012. “It is an intelligent skills management platform that gives learning and resourcing managers to analyse the staff and develop employee skills,” he said. For an entrepreneur every day is a challenge, but the biggest target for Amit was to find a right team that shares his passion and vision. “We chose members selectively.
Sales is a big challenge. Having a very limited budget and meeting customers is a huge task,” Amit said. He was helped with initial investment by an incubation partner in developing the product. Association with the learning and development industry for more than 14 years gave Amit the requisite experience and confidence to take the plunge and start the venture. He thought it was time to get the right innovation in this space. “It is a software having a service model where organisations pay up a licence fee for the usage of the platform,” he said. On future plans, Amit said, “We are two years old and the business is picking up. Our clientele includes Indian and foreign customers. The market response is encouraging but we still have a long way to go.” anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
Modi’s Man Friday is the biggest winner of assembly polls BY FP POLITICS
BY R JAGANNATHAN
off the talks when the Haryana Janhit Congress insisted on a 50:50 division plus chief ministership as the condition to continue the alliance. “Your demands are disproportionate to your strength as indicted during the LS elections,” a blunt Shah supposedly told Bishnoi, a prophecy that came true on election day, when HJC lost both the Lok Sabha seats it contested. In Maharashtra, ET quotes party sources as saying, “The first meeting between Shah and Uddhav showed what will happen... there was no chemistry... Uddhav expected to be treated as the senior partner... He could not swallow a new BJP saying it wanted more seats. Shah increasingly began to feel that BJP alone had a better chance. Shah reportedly controlled every aspect of the BJP campaign the entirety of which had to be squeezed into two weeks. A large part of this was the deft deployment of the Modi shastra. Now that he has established himself as the king of poll strategy, what lies ahead for the BJP President? Will he take the BJP where no partyman has gone before: the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu? Until now, Shah has scored big against a weak opponent that is presently facing decimation. But if he can crack the strongholds of powerful regional parties, Shah will be without doubt the greatest electoral strategist in recent political history.
Cracking the strongholds of regional parties will make Amit the greatest electoral strategist in recent political history
Move to empower women panel opposed NEW DELHI: Men’s rights groups, fighting for shared parenting in case of divorce, on Thursday protested the central government move to empower the National Commission for Women (NCW) with powers to direct police to arrest the accused in crimes against women. In a missive to law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Bangalore-based NGO Child Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP) said: “If the NCW is elevated, it will lead to a complete disintegration of the Indian judicial system.” “Often the reason that is used to justify the demand for elevation is comparison with the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) and powers of a court that the NHRC has,” said the letter signed by CRISP president Kumar V Jahgirdar. “However, we would like to call out critical and fundamental differences between the NHRC and the NCW and why a court powers to the NCW would be disastrous to the Indian jurisprudence.” “A legal system operates on the principle of impartiality and neutrality, which is the fundamental premise in any legal system. In this regard the NCW and the NHRC cannot be compared,” Arnab Ganguly, founder president of
AIMIM’s win uncovers fading influence of secular parties
Delhi-based NGO INSAAF (Indian Social Awareness and Activism Forum), told IANS. He said: “The NCW is an organisation exclusively for women, and hence would never be impartial as a civil court in matters involving men and women. The NCW will be a kangaroo court at best.” Justifying the suo motu powers given to the NHRC to investigate, the letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said the NHRC is an inclusive organisation with a charter to uphold the human rights of all, irrespective of men, women and children. “If the NCW is accorded powers of a court, then all statutory bodies and minority welfare institutions would also be fully justified in demanding status of courts exclusively for their welfare efforts,” it said. Also, if women can get courts which have a charter to uphold the legal and social rights of women only, why not men also be provided with similar biased courts which would be sympathetic to the cause of men only, Jahgirdar asked. Ganguly said his NGO would protest on the issue and present a memorandum to all members of parliament. IANS
The Maharashtra election results are confirmative of a national-cumregional mini-trend that has been visible over the last five to seven years: Muslims are steadily deserting the socalled “secular” parties and opting for more radical Muslim identity-based “communal” parties. As communal parties go, there are none so rabidly communal as the AllIndia Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), a Hyderabad-based Islamic party that has, in the past, been associated with anti-Hindu violence going as far back as the old Nizam-run state of Hyderabad before the state was merged with the Indian Union. AIMIM won two seats in the Maharashtra assembly elections (Byculla in Mumbai and Aurangabad central), and gave a big scare to the ultimate winners in three other seats (Aurangabad East, Nanded South and Parbhani), having led or come a close second in each of these seats during much of the early rounds of counting. The outfit, which shot to fame last year after one of its leaders, Akbaruddin Owaisi, made a rabidly communal hate speech, is headed by Asaduddin Owaisi, who has also warned of a “third wave” of Muslim radicalisation after visiting Assam post the 2012 Bodo-Muslim clashes in Kokrajhar district. AIMIM made its first impact in Maharashtra when it grabbed many seats in the Nanded Municipal Corporation polls of 2012. Even though the Congress led by Ashok Chavan won the elections by winning 41 of the
IN THE
NEWS
discovery by the Muslim electorate of identity politics – exactly as the BSP and the Republican parties did for Dalits and the Samajwadi and RJD did for Yadavs and OBCs. Beyond the AIMIM, there has been a gradual – and possibly inevitable – rise of several Muslim parties. As I have noted before, parties ranging from the old Indian Union Muslim League (IUML, largely restricted to Kerala), to the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF, in Assam), not to speak of the traditional Kashmir Valley parties like National Conference and the PDP, are now being complemented by the rise of smaller region-based Muslim parties in places as far apart as Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and even Maharashtra. In the 2012 Jangipur Lok Sabha poll in Bengal, Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit barely squeaked through in a by-election, thanks to the arrival of two Muslim parties into the fray. Between them, the Welfare Party of India and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) polled 41,620 and 24,691 votes, largely Muslim votes. As opposed to this, Mukherjee won by barely 2,500 votes. A little more polarisation, and he could have lost miserably. The slow, but steady, rise in Muslimbased parties is likely to radically change the basics of Indian politics. It is not possible for any national or regional party – and especially those with claims to the secular vote – to treat Muslims as a vote bank.
File photo of AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and party leader Akbaruddin Owaisi
81 seats, what got missed in the air of Congress self-congratulation was the rise of the AIMIM. From one seat, the party rose to 11 in the corporation, marking its arrival in Maharashtra as a potent communal force. In the past, the Muslim vote in Maharashtra either went to the Congress, NCP or the Samajwadi party (in pockets of Mumbai and Bhiwandi). This time, the AIMIM has replaced the Samajwadi party as the preferred choice among Muslim-only parties. In 2009, the Samajwadi party got three seats; this time it got only one. However, it would be a mistake to see the AIMIM vote in isolation and as being restricted only to Maharashtra, for it is a part of the new Muslim’s search for options beyond the failed secularism of “secular” parties like the Congress and Samajwadi Party. We saw this happen even in the recent Lok Sabha polls, where the BJP
scored a big win in Uttar Pradesh because Muslims were in a quandary over which secular party to vote for. The BJP won even in traditional Muslim strongholds like Rampur and Saharanpur, where in the past only Muslim candidates have won. This time, Muslims could not bring themselves to vote en bloc for traditional secular parties like the Congress, Samajwadi or the BSP - and handed victory to the BJP as the Hindu vote polarised. Muslims are now seeing the secular parties for what they are: protectionist rackets run only with an eye on a bloc Muslim vote. This is the context in which we must see the rise of the AIMIM. Young Muslims seem to have decided that if they have to be a vote bank, they might as well opt for a Muslim party that speaks for them instead of using proxies in the secular parties. One reason for the decline of the Congress in recent years is the
(By special arrangement with Firstpost.com)
Catch up with major developments in Pune as the week comes to a close
Zanjrewadi, Malin survivors’ next home? The district collectorate is in the final stage of selecting a place for the permanent rehabilitation of Malin landslide-affected villagers. A committee headed by district collector Saurabh Rao is looking out for an appropriate location for rehabilitation. In the landslide that struck the village of Malin on August 30, 151 people were killed. The officials surveyed and identified land at nearby villages for permanent rehabilitation. They said that around 13 acres will be required for rehabilitation to be completed in a year. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has given its clearance for Zanjrewadi hamlet near Malin for rehabilitation. The district administration will construct houses and provide utensils to the affected persons from the funds sanctioned by the state government.
MANS launch helpline The Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS) launched a helpline 7588806688 on Monday to assist people who are duped by black magicians, godmen and others or need assistance and counselling. MANS said that the state-level helpline will be operational from Satara. However, it is not a toll-free helpline. Callers will be directed to the nearest MANS volunteer. The helpline will enable MANS to keep a record and examine complaints.
ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR
There were many winners on Sunday when the Assembly election results were declared in Maharashtra and Haryana. But the one who needed a big victory the most may have been party president Amit Shah, whose credentials as the electoral wizard were dented somewhat by the UP bypoll results last month. After being credited with delivering the BJP an unprecedented 71 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, many were quick to point to the bypolls as evidence that Amit Shah may have been a flash in the pan. A man who overplayed the polarisation card to his party’s detriment. Not any more. The Assembly elections have cemented Shah’s reputation as the yodha of electoral politics, more so now that he had scored big at the state level. True, Shah had the benefit of excellent timing, with the state assembly polls coming just five months after the astounding Modi wave swept the Lok Sabha polls, and against the same old weak adversary, the debilitated and discredited Congress party. However, state politics are usually a completely different ballgame compared to the Lok Sabha elections. Smaller local bodies are the turf of regional parties, and they are often unparalleled in terms of organisational capability. The issues on which polls are fought are different larger national questions rarely, if ever, become the planks on which electoral outcomes are decided. In this situation, Amit Shah’s first big move — breaking with regional allies — was always going to be a risky move. According to the Indian Express, even a number of Shah’s ‘well wishers’ had cautioned him against breaking off the two alliances with HJC and the Shiv Sena in Haryana and Maharashtra, respectively. According to this Times of India report, it was Shah who told Kuldip Bishnoi to settle for 25 seats and called
“Threatening Congress over black money will not help. The people want the black money to be brought back, have they got even `500 back?” — Abhishek Singhvi, Congress spokesperson
IANS
A train ride from Iraq’s past into an uncertain future P 13
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Kumbhar wants ACB under RTI
Members of Chaitanya Hasyayog Mandal organised the annual Deepotsav on the occasion of Vasubaras, the first day of Diwali, at Shaniwarwada on Monday
the office from Major General Velu Nair. Nair has been appointed as senior consultant (medicine) in the office of Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS). Venkatesh completed his graduation from Government Medical College, Mysore. He was commissioned into the Indian Army in 1979. He studied MS (ENT) from the Bombay University in 1986. He is also trained in Cochlear Implant and Neurotology.
Music created through junk
demonstrated how they use junk items as percussion instruments to create their music to spread the message of keeping our surrounding clean. About 40 social workers were trained each day by 40 musicians across the city in a week. A seven-minute performance caught the attention of visitors at Magarpatta on October 19. Making music using household items such as buckets, utensils and other junk as percussion instruments along with Djembes, lajems, drum sticks, tambourines, shakers and others was appreciated by the people. The members of flash mob shouted ‘Swach India Clean India’ to spread the message of cleanliness.
CSIR allows free access to its works
MD Venkatesh is AFMC dean Major General MD Venkatesh, an ENT specialist, has been appointed dean and deputy commandant of the Armed Forces Medical College (AF MC). He takes
data for students, academicians and upcoming researcher and scientists. The city Unit of Research and Development of Information Products (URDIP), under the CSIR, has set up a central harvester, which will provide gateway to about 95,000 research papers that have been uploaded till date.
The waste pickers of SWaCH Pune, members of Deep Griha NGO and Music Matters have joined hands to create music from junk. The members
Academicians and researchers can now easily access research papers and journals published by the 28 laboratories affi liated to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). They will not have to pay heavy fees to get these informative documents. The department of science and technology (DST) has created a free separate website (www.csircentral.net) for this purpose. The website will carry latest
City-based Right to Information (RTI) activist Vijay Kumbhar has appealed to the state government to withdraw its notification that exempts the state anticorruption bureau (ACB) from the RTI Act, 2005. The outgoing government had issued a notification exempting the ACB from the RTI Act. Kumar claimed that ACB has been intentionally exempted to deprive citizens from obtaining information on corruption cases. Kumbhar is following up a few cases with the ACB and was denied information based on the notification issued by the government recently.
Shardul, Rucha win Pune Mayor Cup Shardul Gagare was the best performer from Maharashtra and was awarded the Pune Mayor Cup in the Open section while Lu Shanglei of China defeated Serbia’s Aleksander Indjic to win the World Junior Chess title in Pune on Sunday. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi was the best Indian finisher with nine points and was placed fifth. In the girls section, Rucha Pujari was the winner of the Pune Mayor’s Trophy. Alexandra Goryachkina (16) settled for a short draw with Anna Iwanova Sunday to raise her points tally to 11. Sarasadat Khademalsharieh of Iran defeated Srija Seshadri of India to bag the bronze. Padmini Rout was the best Indian finisher with nine points and was placed fourth.
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
“I feel the decision to donate organs is a very personal decision. I have pledged my organs and believe that awareness will lead to more and more people wanting to do it.” —Tina Anil Ambani
Relationships are eternal. The ‘separation’ is another chapter in the relationship. Often, letting go of the old form of the relationship becomes a lesson in pure love much deeper than any would have learned had the couple stayed together. —Marianne Williamson, spiritual teacher
‘Your body sends out signals, listen to them’ Your kidney may be just another organ of your body for you, but ignoring its ailments can be dangerous and lifethreatening. Social worker Meena Kurlekar through Shirish Hari Kurlekar Charitable Trust aims at creating awareness on kidney ailments ANJALI SHETTY @shetty_anjali Social worker Meena Kurlekar’s world came to a halt on July 7, 2007, when her husband had to be rushed to the hospital and was advised dialysis. “We did not even know what dialysis is and to top it all, my husband had to drive himself to another hospital Chaitrali Wagh for treatment. Life was never the same after that day, but I decided not to give up and take each day as it comes. I realised despite all the exposure and education if I was unaware of kidney ailments, then there must be many like me not aware of kidney complications,” she said. Thus to spread awareness about kidney ailments she founded Shirish Hari Kurlekar Charitable Trust in 2007 and got it registered in 2012, when she lost her husband. NIP IN THE BUD Kurlekar added that kidney ailments are silent killers as they come out in the open all of a sudden. “It is very unfortunate that we pay very little heed to our body signs. Our body tries its best to let us know when it is tired or suffering. But we pay no attention. Through my personal experience and cases at the Trust, I have seen that kidney ailments are the most ignored. People conveniently assume that kidneys are not as important as the
ORGAN DONATION SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED The trust helps underprivileged patients for d i a l y s i s , medications and r e h a b i l it a t i o n . “Apart from monetary help, a dialysis patient needs counselling and support. A Mina Kurlekar patient’s family life is turned upside down when dialysis starts. A lot of times families desert patients or plainly refuse to visit them. At this time, doctors need to counsel and treat them with extra care,” she said. Another issue that is prevalent is the fact that people are still sceptical about organ donations. “Money and funds come in one way or the other. What really needs improvement is awareness on organ donations.
The justunjust discord H
Avoid self-medication Keep sugar levels under control Exercise regularly Address kidney ailments quickly Get blood tests done regularly to check for blood urea, keratin and uric acid
heart or any other organ. Kidneys are essential for proper bodily functions and it is high time we took special care of it,” she added.
With Compassion & Hope
BY C RAVINDRANATH
How to avoid kidney ailments? • • • • •
The Way Forward
Families refuse to donate organs of brain dead or accident victims. I don’t intend to hurt any sentiments but there is no written record that one should not donate their bodies or organs. One should realise that their one organ can bring life to a dying patient. This needs to be addressed immediately.” She went on to add that kidney ailments are not curable so one should take preventive measures at an early age. “Regular check-ups after the age of 40 are a must. One should keep a tab on their sugar and blood pressure levels. Today we have various communication channels but fail to communicate with ourselves. Talk to your body and understand what it needs. Your body is your temple. If you can’t take care of it, then it will give up and you will lose your life battle.” anjali.shetty@goldensparrow.com GET IN TOUCH Reach out and help: Shirish Hari Kurlekar Trust 02024483050/9422305760 minakurlekar@rediffmail.com
The gloom of reviving an old liaison
ow many times have we seen people protesting to the policeman that others have been allowed to get away for the same traffic violation? “When so many have been let away, why am I being singled out for punishment,” is their common argument. There is a sense of resentment because we feel it is unfair to let some go scot free while we are being penalised. We feel this is grossly unjust. Is it? Is it logical or practical to postulate that either all offenders should be caught and punished or none at all? Where is our sense of fairness and justice when we are lucky to get away while someone else is caught? I am yet to see a person turn back, go to the policeman and say, “I too jumped the red light. Fine me as well.” When we break the law or commit an offence, if we must be really fair, we must own up our action and be ready to face
the consequences. Why should we compare ourselves to others? Comparisons are odious. Are we making excuses, justifying our misdemeanour and arguing simply to avoid the repercussions of what we did? Is it not true that only we are responsible for what we say and what we do? Somebody steals but does not get caught. Th is does not make us want to steal. There could be several reasons but the two that immediately come to my mind are a) we don’t trust our luck and fear we may get caught and b) we feel stealing is wrong and will not do so even when the chances of discovery are slim. Regrettably, my experience is that the majority refraining from stealing or taking a bribe do so only for the former reason. Such persons will take a bribe if they get an opportunity and when caught, say how unjust the system was. “People swallow in lakhs and crores and nobody does anything to them. I’m being punished for just a few hundred rupees.”
One rupee or one crore rupees – are they both not bribes? Can we say, “Up to Rs. 200 is permissible. Only demands over Rs. 200 can be called bribes.” The seriousness of the crime can be quantitatively differentiated. Qualitatively, it remains a crime. If I have committed a crime or offence, it remains a crime or offence even if someone else gets away with a similar or more serious crime. If we believe in karma or the sequence of natural consequences (the cause and effect phenomenon), even those who escape the long arm of the law will have to face repercussions. Even if we don’t, the least we can do is to take ownership for our action and pay the price for it. Do we have the courage to do so or are we going to continue to spew explanations, excuses and justifications? (The writer is a multi-faceted personality who believes in responding with compassion and hope to the diffi cult situations in life.)
Is a problem bothering you and you are unable to decide what to do? Write in to us at wayforward@goldensparrow.com for advice and suggestions from C Ravindranath
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RITU GOYAL HARISH @ritugh Temptations come knocking on one’s doorstep in many forms. To many men and women, it can come in the form of a lover or paramour from their past. As social interactions become easier by the day, getting in touch with long lost friends from school, college and even lovers has become just as easy. Getting back in touch with a romantic partner from the past can ignite a host of feelings in the minds of people. Caught in the humdrum of lives lived in clockwork routine, an old friend or paramour is like the breath of fresh air that a person longs for. The old friend come riding on the feelings of a happy past - when lives were carefree, when the stress of an impending promotion, a child’s college admission, or a fast disappearing hairline - were non-existent. They bring with them nostalgia laden moments and cherished memories that promise to bail them out of their current lives. People find themselves getting carried away. From a lunch date to renew old ties to sneaking a weekend away, the cesspool of lies and deceit grows as the need to hang on to the past and the feelings of happiness grows too. But the onset of an association that not only threatens to sweep you off your feet and redeem you of your current existence, it also puts your existing relationship (be it a marriage, or a committed relationship) in jeopardy. An ‘Ex’ introduces another
IANS, PICTURE FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY
A current relationship might suffer due to rekindling of an obsolete romance
dynamic into a relationship, where even the most secure relationships will falter. People fall prey to the memories of attraction and romance that are based on the past. Some find themselves growing increasingly irrational with spouses and partners. They pick fights, show disinterest or worse, play the blame game projecting the former lover as a saviour little realising that the old liaison may not be as rosy as it seems. Whatever be the memories, the
fact is that people change over a period of time and the person you knew 20 years ago will have changed too. It is also important to remember that all relationships have a romantic phase that ends in 1-3 years. According to psychologists, the desire to end a current relationship for a lover from the past must be based on more than just feelings of passion and romance. It must be done with eyes open and a clear mind. ritugoyalharish@gmail.com
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THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
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Editor’s picks
Anything is better than lies and deceit - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
The predictably unpredictable Sharad Pawar accepting the reality of its performance in the elections and work out an honourable arrangement with the BJP, the Sena tried to drive a hard bargain with the BJP- to the point of forcing the BJP to think of other options. The ‘tiger’ has since mellowed and a BJPSena government should now be on the anvil. The Congress and the NCP deserve to sit on the sidelines after having squandered the mandate given to them by the people of Maharashtra over three terms. Similarly, no tears are being shed for Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) which is in complete tatters. The Marathi manoos has made it clear that he does not approve of cowardly attacks on poor bhelpuri wallahs and construction workers or the politics of intimidation and the destruction of public property. The Marathi manoos and the other voters of Maharashtra want peace, stability, communal harmony and development. They want the state to move forward and not remain a prisoner of the politics of caste, communalism and corruption. Can Narendra Modi, Uddhav Thackeray, Devendra Fadnavis and Nitin Gadkari walk their talk or deliver on their promises? The voter in Maharashtra is watching, and in the words of Sharad Pawar, “is cleverer than the politician”. Do not take the Indian voter for granted. @TGSWeekly editor_tgs@goldensparrow.com
Muslims & Politics
Imtiaz Jaleel, make Rafiq Zakaria your role model
Former Pune Correspondent of NDTV, Sayed Imtiaz Jaleel is now The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) MLA from the Aurangabad Central constituency. Contesting elections for the first time in his life, he defeated the sitting Shiv Sena MLA Pradeep Jaiswal by a thumping lead of nearly 20,000 votes. The predominantly Muslim voter in this constituency voted for the Hyderabad-based MIM, notably over the Congress and the NCP political parties that have traditionally laid claim to the Muslim vote in the name of secularism. MIM’s debut in the Maharashtra Assembly with three seats- two from Aurangabad and one from Byculla,
Mumbai, has raised alarm in certain quarters of Maharashtra as this party led by Asaudin Owaisi has engaged in rabid, communal politics in the past. Imtiaz is known personally to many journalists in Pune who can vouch that he is truly secular, liberal and development-oriented in his outlook. He has been projected by the MIM because of his clean, noncontroversial image and as the moderate voice of the party. MIM’s victory in Maharashtra is primarily a response from the insecure Muslim voter to the rising assertion of the Hindutva brigade nationally, and as one would now expect, regionally. This is also an indication of disillusionment with the Congress and the NCP whom Muslims have traditionally supported. Muslims in Marathwada- one of the most backward regions of Maharashtra, have been thirsting for development on all fronts. Imtiaz, who has promised to focus on development, must walk his talk and draw inspiration from the life of that great nationalist, Rafiq Zakaria who was deeply pained by the divisive politics of communalism. We wish Imtiaz well as he embarks on his political career.
Vol-1* lssue No.: 19 Printed and Published by: PRI – Media Services Private Limited CIN: U22222MH2012PTC232006 on behalf of Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. CIN:U22200PN2014PTC151382 Printed at Diligent Media Corporation Ltd., Plot No. EL-201, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Mahape, Navi Mumbai. Published at Golden Sparrow Publishing Pvt. Ltd. 1641, Madhav Heritage, Tilak Road, Pune-411 030, Tel: 020-2432 4332/33. Editor: Abhay Vaidya (Responsible for the selection of news under the PRB Act, 1867)
Cartoons (L to R) by: Keshav (Courtesy The Hindu) and Aruna (Courtesy India Legal)
Falling oil prices may demand more reforms BY SAROJ MOHANTY One single international development that has not received the kind of play it deserves in the Indian media but is keenly watched in policy-making and strategic circles is the falling prices of oil - despite the geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East and Nigeria - whose impact could be felt in government finances, business, trade and consumer spending, if the trend continues. The price of oil has plunged by more than a quarter since June. On Friday, it held above $80 a barrel. Analysts ascribe quite a few reasons for the slide in prices -- a threat of recession in Europe, cooling off of growth in China, the shale boom in the US and steady production from OPEC member states. And all these hold considerable significance for India’s economy and diplomacy. Low priced oil was the engine of growth in post-War world and as recently as that of 1990s. On the flip side, the fall in oil prices in the 1980s battered the Soviet economy and led ultimately to its disunion. The crash in prices now has enormous implications for hydrocarbon-dependent economies like Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and even countries in the Middle East, which since the Arab spring have raised their public spending. Because the business of oil is not exactly business alone. Over the decades, oil has been a highly political commodity, a critical element of cooperation and conflict in international relations. It has had a role in important developments like the oil crises of the 1970s, petrodollar recycling, Third World indebtedness and the two Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003, the
IANS
On October 11, a full week before the Maharashtra Assembly election results began pouring in, this newspaper in a front-page report asked, “Which way will the winds blow for Sharad Pawar?” The report drew upon the many surprises and fl ip-flops that Pawar has been infamous for in his five-decadeslong career and asked point-blank: “Will the NCP align with the BJP in the name of ‘development’? As the electoral results trend became clear on October 19, the NCP lost no time in announcing that it would extend “outside support” to the BJP “in the interest of stability in Maharashtra”. No one but no one was fooled by this announcement. There was much laughter at NCP’s expense on TV debates as the people of Maharashtra, by now, know for sure that Pawar is predictably unpredictable and an opportunist of the fi rst order. It cannot be forgotten that Pawar had gone to the extent of calling the BJP mascot and prime minister Narendra Modi a “Hitler” of our times. Th is was obviously aimed at trying to corner the Muslim vote by generating the fear of violence and instability in Maharashtra in the event of a BJP-Sena victory. Or did Pawar want to hastily extend an olive branch to the BJP in return for a softer stance towards NCP leaders who are facing allegations of corruption in irrigation and other scams? One does not know what transpired behind NCP’s announcement which certainly helped the BJP by bringing the Shiv Sena to its knees. Rather than
Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen negotiations on climate change. In the current scenario, some analysts see a clear mix of geopolitics with the energy business. Columnist Thomas Friedman goes to the extent of saying that the low price of oil has “the feel of war by other means”, a potent US weapon against Russia, which is not on good terms with Washington over Ukraine, and Iran, which is negotiating a deal on its nuclear programme before the November deadline. There is also talk of President Barack Obama considering lifting restrictions on crude exports imposed in the 1970s. Some other analysts say the Gulf members of the OPEC cartel led by Saudi Arabia are driving down prices to retain market share and thwart the US move of driving
them out of business with its shale gas. However, in this high game of strategic competition India seems to be a clear beneficiary as prices are said to remain depressed for the remaining months of the year, despite the approaching winter. India imports three-quarters of its oil and high oil prices have fuelled inflation and stunted the development of other sectors of the economy. Now sectors like transport, airlines and energy-intensive industries could breathe easy. The government’s subsidies bill on account of oil and fertiliser would see a fall, helping the fiscal situation. The trade gap could also shrink with the current account deficit under check. The fall in oil prices would also boost consumer spending as lower prices
What is good education? ANIL K RAJVANSHI
was ample time given for outdoor activities and other creative activities. Kavita Burumle (not her real name) Extra tuition was not allowed by the spent two years in a coaching classe in school. Kota, Rajasthan preparing for medical In the initial stages it was very exams. She comes from a small rural difficult to get students because the town of Maharashtra and hence stayed parents were horrified at the thought of in a hostel in Kota. sending their children to a school which Unfortunately, despite spending two did not focus on competitive exams. years and money in coaching classes, she The principal, who was an American could not get into any decent medical but naturalised Indian citizen, went school. from house to house requesting parents Her days at the coaching classes and to send their wards to our school. After self-study used to start from 6 am and our elder daughter scored well in the ended around 9 pm. Similarly, before state secondary board, the Phaltan she came to Kota her parents residents woke up to the value would send her to tuitions. She of education in our school. And had no time to play and the study when our younger daughter got robbed her of her childhood. a position in the board, then Children all over India go people realised that it is one of through this grind for what? the best schools in town and By creating a whole today for 25 or 30 seats we get generation of uni-dimensional around 150 to 200 applications. citizens we are playing with fire. Our children benefited This is not the only way for greatly from this school. Our THINK elder daughter went to do her children to excel. There are other models that give well-rounded PhD in mechanical engineering education. Such models exist all over in the US and is presently a researcher in the country. I will describe our small a major US firm. Our younger daughter experiment in this area. did her masters in education from Tata When I and my wife came back in Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and 1981 from the US to stay in the small now teaches in our school. rural town of Phaltan in Maharashtra, Most of the schools put a there were no good schools. Hence, tremendous burden on children to study when the time came for our daughter’s for competitive exams so that they do not education we helped start a Marathi have any time to play and children are medium primary and later on high attending one class after another. This school for them. Thus whichever class robs their childhood and we are creating my elder daughter went into, the school a generation of extremely focused added that. children who only know how to react The basic premise of our school to the pressures and inputs and have no (Kamla Nimbkar Bal Bhawan) was to time and inclination to think, reflect give an all-round education. So there or get involved in any other creative
activity. Besides they are constantly in fear of failing or missing out on passing exams, etc. We are creating a generation of Indians who start their life with fear. Also as children they would like to play and indulge in childhood activities but because of school and parent pressure they start telling lies to hide these activities. So what is the remedy? The solutions have to come both on national and personal level. On national level we need to increase drastically the number of educational institutes in every sphere; give autonomy to them; have a good national watchdog for maintaining the quality of education and create one exam board for the whole nation. Besides, there should be compulsory subjects taught at all levels on humanities, social sciences and how to become good citizens. We also need to create avenues for gainful employment for children who want to do things other than engineering and medicine. All there efforts will take a long time to show their effect and hence the reforms in education need to be done now. On personal level each one of us has a duty to teach our children good behavior and honesty. This is the only way to create a better India. However this is easier said than done. Because we can only teach good behavior to our children when we practice that ourselves. So the future of India really starts with us! © Anil K Rajvanshi The writer is director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra. He may be reached at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com
mean higher disposable income. And a lower inflation, in turn, could facilitate an easing of interest rates earlier than expected. Thus, the lone international development of lower oil prices has made India’s macro-economic scenario look much better than what it was a few months ago. Taking advantage of the situation, the government on Saturday deregulated the diesel price. And with success in the latest round of assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may now feel emboldened to push through more reforms to lift growth. (Saroj Mohanty is a senior journalist and strategic affairs analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at saroj.m@ians.in)
Limericks of the week BY C RAVINDRANATH
Law’s arm has a long reach In dispensing justice to each It didn’t fail To put Jaya in jail But what lesson did it teach?
Our PM is going places And coming up with aces He sets new trends In making friends But leaves a few red faces.
While others engage in wars We are focussing on Mars Since the rocket Is light on the pocket We should now aim for the stars!
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
With selections from The New York Times
“The United Nations will continue to stand with her (Malala Yousafzai) against extremism and for the right of girls everywhere to be free of violence, to go to school and to enjoy their right to an education.” —UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
West Indies Board’s task force to probe India tour pull-out P 15
Replicating Alzheimer’s brain cells in a petri dish Dominick Reuter/The New York Times
The system allows researchers to quickly, cheaply and easily test drugs that might stop the process in the first place GINA KOLATA
“The discovery is a real game changer & a paradigm shifter.”
The Boston neuroscientists Doo Yeon Kim, left, and Rudolph E. Tanzi grew diseased cells in a petri dish as a way to quickly and cheaply test treatments
strike them specifically in order to stop devastation in the brain. Tanzi is now starting an ambitious project to test 1,200 drugs on the market and 5,000 experimental ones that have finished the first phase of clinical testing - a project that is impossible with mice, for which each drug test takes a year. With their petri dish system, Tanzi said, “we can test hundreds of thousands of
BAGHDAD: Saad al-Tammimi is in his fourth decade working for Iraq’s railroads, a career that has taken him all around his country, and around the Middle East. Nowadays, though, he can go only from Baghdad to Basra, across the relatively calm Shiite-dominated south of this war-torn country. “If we have a problem and have to stop, it’s safe,” he said on a recent evening as he drove his regular route. “Even the Sunnis feel comfortable going to Basra.” With so much violence, neglect and political dysfunction here, it has been years since passenger trains leaving Baghdad went anywhere other than Basra. In recent years, however, grand ambitions to link the country by railroad had begun taking shape. Freight trains shuttled goods around Iraq, and a few years ago there were test runs of a new train service between Mosul and Turkey. But as the militants of the Islamic State have advanced around the country, those efforts have halted. At least al-Tammimi has a new train to drive, a sleek and shiny one built in China that glides out of the station at dusk and through the closedin thicket of this city. It almost kisses the storefront awnings and low-slung homes that line the track as it moves past waving families, boys playing soccer and trash being burned, before reaching the rural south, past endless rows of date palms, on an overnight journey to Basra. Inside are the luxuries of first-class rail travel, including flat-screen TVs and refrigerators in the sleeper cabins. Rowdy young army recruits, answering the call to arms from their Shiite religious leaders and on their way to basic training, crowd the brightly lit cafe car. The food is second-rate - cold fried chicken and soggy French fries - but there is
a good falafel joint in Hillah, a town on the way; if you call in advance, sandwiches will be waiting at the station. The new train is a small but noticeable sign of progress - of oil money spent in the interests of the public - in a country consumed by violence and corruption that is quickly coming apart in the face of an onslaught by the Sunni militants of the Islamic State. It is also a reminder of what has been lost in Iraq and in the broader Middle East. “Before was different,” said Ahmed Ali, who for 31 years has held various jobs for Iraqi Republic Railways, the state rail authority, and now works as a cashier in the cafe car. “I used to meet the educated people, the uneducated, the actors, the poets, the poor man. Many different groups.” He adds, “Now, everything is gone.” On alternate evenings at dusk, the new train, which was introduced in recent months and would operate at high speed if it were not for the woeful condition of Iraq’s tracks, leaves for Basra. On the other nights, an older train, built by the French and in operation for almost three decades, makes the same 12-hour trip. As the country is being pulled apart by the Islamic State insurgency, the men of the railways are dreaming of knitting it back together. In his office at the station, Hamid Ali Hashim, a project manager, lays out a map on a table and traces his finger from Jalawla in the northeast, a city that has seen fierce fighting against Islamic State militants, to Sulaimaniya in the Kurdish north, and across to Mosul. It is one piece of an ambitious, $60 billion rail project that at this stage feels aspirational at best - one that Hashim said, “would mean all the villages and cities in Iraq would be linked.” “This,” he said, with a degree of optimism rare in Iraq these days, “is the goal.” © 2014 New York Times News Service Bryan Denton/The New York Times
Passengers bound for Basra head out to board a new, Chinese-built train in Baghdad, the only passenger rail service currently operational in Iraq. Bought with public oil income, this Chinese-built train is a small sign of progress, but also a reminder of what has been lost in Iraq, once a nexus of rail travel throughout the Arab world
Alain Le Yaouanc strongly believes he should have been given more time to pay back his debts AIDA ALAMI PARIS: Alain Le Yaouanc’s work was once shown with the greats - among Mirós, Max Ernsts, Picassos and Giacomettis. He was a close friend of the author Louis Aragon and hailed by the poet Alain Bosquet as one of France’s greatest Alain le Yaouanc artistic geniuses. But that was a while ago. In recent years, lost in his own creativity, isolated in his studio and forgetful of the world and the realities of survival, the 74-year-old artist stopped showing and his work stopped selling. On October 22, after some financial setbacks, he was set to be evicted from his home and studio of nearly 50 years. Many are worried that Le Yaouanc’s plight is endangering his works, a rich part of France’s 20th-century cultural legacy, and the authorities are trying to find a way to make sure that none of the paintings, sculptures, collages and other objects piled up in the 93-square-metre space are lost or damaged. “There is a strong will by this city to preserve the works of Le Yaouanc, as the work of an artist of this magnitude must be,” said Hector Raffaud, chief of staff of Bruno Julliard, the deputy mayor of Paris. “It is not very easy to find a working solution that is viable. Even though the artistic quality is unquestionable, this is still a private matter, a private patrimony that doesn’t belong to the city of Paris.” As for himself, Le Yaouanc (pronounced yah-WONK) has said he would not leave, that the authorities would have to carry him out, and this is no idle threat. In July 2013, when he first faced eviction, he locked himself in and threatened to kill himself. His son, in tears outside, persuaded the local authorities to give his father more time. It all started a decade ago, after Le Yaouanc took out a loan of 123,000 euros (around $160,000) from a Belgian bank to send a massive marble sculpture of his from Texas to Beirut, as a gift to the city. He used his apartment as collateral but soon found himself unable to repay the loan. A Lebanese friend assumed the loan, but on the condition that Le Yaouanc agree to sell the apartment to his creditor for 700,000 euros (about $900,000) in the event of default. After a series of bad financial decisions, Le Yaouanc lost everything, including the apartment, now estimated to be worth at least 1.25 million euros ($1.6 million). The city offered him a small apartment, but he turned it down because it could not hold even a tenth of his artwork, he said. Now, he has a few days to pack up, not nearly enough time, he says, to move and
Works by Alain le Yaouanc at his home in Paris
relocate decades of artwork. “What is asked from me is physically impossible,” Le Yaouanc said recently, shirtless as always when he works, and pulling on his long white beard. He strongly believes he should have been given more time to pay back his debts and keep his apartment. “How can a country of rights, one which says it cares about art, ask such a thing from a citizen?”
The Ministry of Culture is about to provide a few thousand euros to help the artist move his work to a space lent by a friend of the family. Le Yaouanc was still hoping for an extension on his moving deadline so he can continue his work in peace. “I haven’t started my life yet,” he said. “I still have so much more to create.” © 2014 New York Times News Service
With this issue
In the issue S
Too true to be true
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Keeping it simple
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TIM ARANGO
© 2014 New York Times News Service
As debts pile up, an artist faces eviction in Paris
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The new train is a small but noticeable sign of progress - of oil money spent in the interests of the public - in a country consumed by violence, corruption
plaques and tangles. The controversy over how and why Alzheimer’s gets going dates back three decades when Dr George G Glenner, who died in 1995, proposed a simple process. Beta amyloid starts to accumulate in the brain. It turns into plaques. Neurons respond by making tangles. The combination proves fatal for brain cells and dementia sets in. “He said, ‘This is how the disease starts,’?” Tanzi said. “But for 30 years there was no proof that amyloid drives the rest of the disease.” Some said the amyloid hypothesis was correct and the drugs failed because they were not potent enough, when the disease was well established. But others asked if amyloid was the right target. Even those who insisted on the amyloid hypothesis often elaborated on it, saying first amyloid accumulates and then a litany of other things go wrong, cell damage and inflammation and molecular stress, that finally lead to tau and tangles. “There was a big black box of things going wrong,” Tanzi said. Tangles formed with nothing but the presence of amyloid plaques. And drugs that block beta amyloid prevent both plaques and tangles from forming, Tanzi and his colleagues reported. “This provides strong support to the amyloid hypothesis and essentially cinches the serial link between amyloid and intracellular tangles,” Doraiswamy said. Now, he added, the challenge is to show that drugs that work in this system also help patients.
Lauren Fleishman/The New York Times
A train ride from Iraq’s past into an uncertain future
drugs in a matter of months.” He already has used his system to look at drugs designed to prevent the formation of amyloid, the protein that clumps into plaques. The drugs, he reports, prevented both plaques and tangles in the petri dishes. Some are in clinical trials and it is not known if they work in people. One was tested in patients and failed because it was too
IND U
Nature in October. Leading researchers said it should have a big effect. For the first time, and to the astonishment “It is a giant step forward for of many of their colleagues, researchers the field,” said Dr P Murali created what they call Alzheimer’s in a Doraiswamy, an Alzheimer’s reDish - a petri dish with human brain searcher at Duke University. “It could cells that develop the telltale structures dramatically accelerate testing of new of Alzheimer’s disease. In drug candidates.” doing so, they resolved a Of course, a petri dish longstanding problem of is not a brain and the petri how to study Alzheimer’s dish system lacks certain and search for drugs to crucial components, like treat it - the best they had immune system cells, until now were mice that that appear to contribute developed an imperfect to the devastation once form of the disease. Alzheimer’s gets started. The key to their But it allows researchers success, said the to quickly, cheaply and lead researcher, Dr easily test drugs that Rudolph E Tanzi of might stop the process Massachusetts General in the first place. The - Dr Sam Gandy Hospital in Boston, crucial step, of course, was a suggestion by his will be to see if drugs that colleague Doo Yeon Kim work in this system stop to grow human brain cells in a gel where Alzheimer’s in patients. they formed networks as in an actual The discovery, said Dr Sam Gandy brain. They gave the neurons genes for of the Icahn School of Medicine at Alzheimer’s disease. Within weeks they Mount Sinai in New York, is “a real saw the hard Brillo-like clumps known as game changer” and “a paradigm shifter.” plaques and then the twisted spaghettiKaren Duff, an Alzheimer’s like coils known as tangles - the defining researcher at Columbia University, features of Alzheimer’s disease. praised the work as “a tour de force” but The work, which also offers strong cautioned that once Alzheimer’s starts, support for an old idea about how the tangles can take off on their own and disease progresses, was published in may need to be attacked by drugs that
toxic. One hope is to find drugs for other diseases that are known to be safe and work on Alzheimer’s in the petri dish. He also found an enzyme needed to make tangles after plaques are present. When he blocked that enzyme, plaques formed but not tangles. The enzyme is another potential drug target, he said. Gandy wants to use the system to study the effects of genes that predispose someone to have Alzheimer’s, especially the most powerful one, APoE4, which contributes to about half of all Alzheimer’s cases. No one really knows how or why it is linked to the disease, Gandy said. I think I would go after that to begin with,” he said. Tanzi said that once his group had gotten the idea of growing neurons in a gel, setting up Alzheimer’s in a dish system had been straightforward. Group members used human embryonic stem cells - those cells that can become any cell of the body - and grew them with a mixture of chemicals that made them turn into neurons. They gave those neurons Alzheimer’s genes and grew them in wells in petri dishes that were lined with a commercially available gel. Then they waited. Sure enough, we saw plaques, real plaques,” Tanzi said. “We waited and then we saw tangles.” All that was required to start the process was the Alzheimer’s gene, which made cells produce an excessive amount of a normal protein, beta amyloid. Previously, researchers had tried to grow the disease in a dish of liquid but the neurons did not connect or develop
D
Euro chic
MONEY MATT ER S “It is common to see investors selling much sooner than they should. They book profits early rather than participating in the full cycle.” — Raghvendra Nath, MD, Ladderup Wealth Mgmt Pvt Ltd
Signposts Investor accounts at NSDL, CDSL cross 2cr India’s two depositories, National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) and Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) added over 10 lakh investor accounts since September 2013 to take the total number of investor accounts to 2.25 crore at the end of September 2014. The total number of investor accounts at the depositories stood at about 2.15 crore in September 2013. Individually, the total number of investor accounts at NSDL was 1.34 crore as of September-end 2014 as against 1.29 crore in the same period last year. CDSL had as many as 91.23 lakh investor accounts at the end of September this year, a sharp jump from 85.60 lakh accounts in the year-ago period.
Sensex gains 211 pts; auto stocks zoom A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed on Wednesday’s trade up 211.58 points or 0.80 per cent on the back of positive global cues and domestic reform process which picked pace with announcements of coal block auctions and diesel deregulations. The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,782.57 points, closed the day’s trade 26,787.23 points, up 211.58 points or 0.80 per cent from the previous day’s close at 26,575.65 points.
Wipro sees demand environment steady Wipro Ltd is upbeat on growth prospects in this fiscal, as demand environment remains steady for IT services worldwide. “The demand environment continues to hold steady. In north America, we see discretionary spending return. In Europe, we see opportunities for growth given lower levels of outsourcing penetration,” Wipro chief executive TK Kurien said.
Ignore the Flipkart bloomer. Get smart and save money by using the Internet marketplace. Tips from personal experience BY R BALAKRISHNAN The Internet is emerging as THE marketplace of the future. Recently, we saw the traditional brick and mortar shopkeepers moaning about the big ‘sale’ on Flipkart and Snapdeal. As I write this, Amazon’s mega Diwali sale is yet to reveal its full impact. Yes, many buyers had a poor experience on buying online, but these will only make the services better and not drive people away from the Internet. In terms of sheer convenience and variety of choice, there is nothing like Internet. One of the biggest changes most of us have experienced is the way we buy railway tickets. Complaints about ‘tatkal’ notwithstanding, the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) have done a phenomenal job. Recollect what we used to do before the Internet and the benefits are hard to deny. The only fly in the ointment, as far as I am concerned, is the unwarranted and unreasonable ‘surcharge’ that we are forced to cough up for booking rail tickets online. Logically, the Railways save on manpower and physical infrastructure costs when people buy online and they should have been offering a discount compared to the prices at ticket windows. Their monopoly has seemingly made them arrogant and extortive. The Internet is getting rid of intermediation in a rapid manner. It also helps producers reach corners of the world they would never otherwise have reached (Read the classic book on this titled The Long Tail by Chris Anderson). Ten years from now, first time air travellers would not even know of something called a ‘travel agent’. In stock markets like ours, jobbers have vanished. Today, the brick and mortar stores have less and less reason to exist. Alibaba, the Chinese online mega-seller is clocking close to a billion dollars in online sales EVERY DAY! Assuming that our economy is around one ninth
How we understand risk is different from usual perception Which would you choose? A raffle draw offering a car as the prize, or a raffle draw offering not only a car, but a chance to win from a small collection of lower-value prizes such as a laptop, T-shirts, etc. Logically, one would feel the second raffle draw is more compelling as your chances of winning something are greater. However, according to a new research by associate professor of marketing, Uzma Khan, and graduate student Daniella Kupor, of Stanford University, the opposite is true (stanford. io/1v5yAJ0). According to them, the promotion offering only the car will seem more valuable and will be the draw you are likely to enter. Khan calls this behavioural effect as ‘value atrophy’; by adding additional prizes, the chances of winning the car are less and the whole promotion will appear less valuable. In the course of their experiments, they analysed how people react when asked to choose travel insurance. Participants were asked to imagine that they were headed on a trip to Guatemala and were thinking about buying travel insurance. They had to decide how much they would pay for two different types of insurance: one that covered the cost of treating serious injury while abroad, and another that offered the same level of coverage as well as the costs of minor cold and ‘flu’. The researchers found that people were willing to pay more for the insurance that covered only serious injury. The mere addition of the smaller prospects to the larger one, in effect,
OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
“We need to start thinking smarter. The bonus is a big chunk of money that should be invested in products like fixed deposits, term plans or systematic investment plans (SIPs), etc.” —Anirudha Basu, COO, Yogi FinAdvisory Services
Seven tips to ‘win’ e-commerce battle
Value atrophy BY MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY
reduced people’s willingness to pay for a technically better product. According to their research, value atrophy can occur in negative and positive scenarios, affecting the accuracy of assessments of threat as well as benefit. In another experiment, participants were told about a new drug that could help treat hypertension while causing some side-effects. One set of participants was told that the drug may increase the likelihood of cancer, whereas the other set was told that the drug may increase the likelihood of cancer, dizziness, cold hands and feet, asthma, tremor and/or insomnia. Here, again, participants mentioned that they would choose the drug with multiple side-effects. Rationally, the drug with multiple side-effects would be considered more dangerous. Khan mentions that this behavioural finding can be linked to several different aspects of life. “Laws that are designed to help consumers by informing them of every possible side-effect of a potentially harmful drug can actually play into the hands of pharmaceutical companies, ultimately distorting the overall picture of the risks involved. Or consider the insurance industry, which is built on the very sophisticated pricing of risk, where people could be unwittingly exposing themselves to substantial danger.” These findings can also be used to a good effect, as Khan points out—in public-health awareness campaigns. The message of ‘smoking causes lung cancer’ would be much more effective than one that provides a detailed rundown of all the negative consequences. @moneylife
This behavioural finding can be linked to different aspects of life
of China, a company like Alibaba can easily do sales of around $150 million (over `900 crore) each day in India. Given India’s diversity and income disparity, I do not expect the sudden demise of the physical shop. I see both co-existing in the long run. A news report said that Amazon is setting up a brick and mortar shop in the US. I fail to see the logic, unless it is a display point for some items.
discount for you. And you feel nice about it. The Internet has changed all that. Today, I do my homework on the Internet before even going to an oldfashioned shop. I have been using online extensively and would like to share the following tips for taking advantage of the ecommerce boom.
Internet marketplaces often have dubious pricing or ‘hidden’ addons. For example, on many travel websites, they sell ‘travel insurance’. By default, they include the charges for this and are less than honest in giving you a choice in the matter. Without legally compelling you to buy it, they try and sneak it past you. Similarly, after you have chosen and done everything, you will find a ‘convenience fee’ slapped on to the ticket. The fares displayed usually tend to exclude this. Again, the best thing to do is to use the power of Internet and compare prices across websites. The airline sites sell tickets directly too and often without any added convenience fees.
1. Most ‘sales’ like the Flipkart, Snapdeal or Amazon sales, are token ones (a small quantity on offer at deep discounts) and are designed primarily to keep you on the website and get you to click
3. It is not that all is rosy when you buy online. To me, where I buy from, becomes important. I like sites, which are known to do background checks on the sellers/ buyers they put up. Some sites offer some products with their ‘assurance’ too. I dislike dealing with unknown or small-time websites since they could be offering or seconds or simply something different.
5. The important thing while buying online is to keep ‘records’. It would mean capturing screenshots of orders, acceptances, money transfers etc. Usually all orders are recorded by e-mail and it is important to keep these e-mails for redressal. 6. There is also the problem of the subsequent flood of spam. You may consider maintaining a separate mail ID for this purpose. The retailers have scant respect for privacy and you will find that if you shop for something, Google or someone would have tracked you and this information is then liable to be used by spammers. When exploring any market place, it is best to first log out of all your identities, clear the cache and use a high privacy browser option (incognito, as the Google Chrome browser calls it). There are advanced softwares that could help you mask your IP address as well.
The important thing while buying online is to keep ‘records’
Today, everything from services (insurance, banking, travel, hotel bookings, movie tickets, rail tickets) to goods (from books to electronic items) are available online. The demographic change also is such that fewer people find time to go out and compare products and prices in different shops or malls. The Internet allows me to compare products at peace. When I do go to physical shops selling durable products, I find them to be less than transparent. In most shops, prices are not displayed and in a typical white goods shop, the salesman will whip out an ‘MRP’ list and then ‘work out’ a special
‘buy’ on something or the other. A ‘discounted’ price may not really be discounted and you could even end up paying a premium. For instance, on the day Flipkart made their big splash, there were enough of items being available at lower prices at physical stores as well as other Internet marketplaces. So do not trust one electronic marketplace ever. Keep checking constantly at various sites. There are also some aggregators, which provide comparisons of prices online. 2. Like their offline counterparts,
Do ‘alternative investments’ serve any purpose?
fakes deliver
4. The common grouse against Internet marketplaces is that the redress seems tough. When you buy from a physical shop and have a problem, you can fight, argue and get your money back. On an online platform, the seller or manufacturer of the product is far removed and you are transferred from one call centre to another. Here, we need to rely on the reputation of the website and have an action plan to create enough nuisances for them in case of a problem, so that they will provide quick redress.
Complacency about stocks Future returns are good only if you buy stocks when they are undervalued BY R BALAKRISHNAN
David Merkel
BY MONEYLIFE DIGITAL TEAM Remember, these investments have their own unseen set of risks Investing only in stocks and bonds seems to be old-fashioned for some investors, or it is made out to be so by advisors and investment banking firms. They are pushing loads of ‘alternative investment’ products, such as art funds, realty funds, commodity funds, etc. One often gets carried away with the glib talk of analysts and investment managers promoting such investments. “Just beware the slick marketing pitches designed to make you feel inferior because you’re not one of the ‘cool kids’ investing in illiquid private securities,” says David Merkel, founder of Aleph Investments, because, “After the next bear market, many ‘cool kids’ will find that they have lost a lot of money along with everyone else, if their alternatives mature in the bear market,” he cautions. “The idea was, you need to provide alternative investments to your clients, because clients can’t earn what they need to in stocks and bonds...,” writes Merkel on his blog—alephblog.com. The catch? “The money is committed, and you have no way to get liquidity from the companies until the 10 years are up,” says Merkel. There is no volatility in the portfolio because you don’t see it. Are alternative investments useful at all? Merkel says alternative investments “are subject to the same economic forces as stocks and bonds, and once you strip out the effect of the additional leverage, they perform about the same. The same logic applies to hedge funds.” @moneylife
7. The Internet has made a huge difference in not just buying but also selling items. To share a personal experience, I wanted to change my car, so I approached several of old school dealers and their quotes ranged between `4.50 lakh and `5.25 lakh. I put up an ad on OLX and indicated a selling price of `6.50 lakh (I checked out online selling prices for cars of a similar profile). On the SAME DAY, I closed the deal at nearly `6 lakh. No brokerage was paid. In buying and selling on the Internet, however, the important thing for a user is to not forget the principle of ‘CAVEAT EMPTOR.’ As a consumer, it is undeniable that the convenience of buying from the living room is here to stay and grow. Sooner the producers and other players recognise this and develop active strategies to address this segment, the better for their survival. @moneylife
Globally, asset prices are going up far beyond their fundamentals, primarily on account of excess liquidity being pumped into the system by central bankers. When money is easy to come by, there is competition to buy assets and ramp up their prices higher and higher. We see money chasing risky assets, with no worries about overpricing. Every asset manager wants to get his hands on something different in the race to garner money and showcase a different PowerPoint presentation. Investors, who are normally conservative, throw caution to the winds and move money from safe assets to risky assets. So far, they had neglected risky assets, but are now chasing them at higher prices. What has changed so much? Is there a real economic recovery that will accelerate earnings growth to a level that will justify the multiples that we see across the board? Is our GDP growth shifting to a higher plane? What I find disturbing is the play between inflation and interest rates. Both are being stubborn and, each time, the bulls use the argument that it can only get better. I see that most analysts and broking houses are now pricing in optimistically drawn estimates of FY16-17 to justify their recommendations. A politically strong mandate is yet to get converted into strong economic
actions. Winds of change have not yet been translated into policies. And, if we read the statements, there is clearly a mixed message of populism and capitalism. I am sure that capitalism will prevail, but the temptation to be Left and Right at the same time seems to be a message that I glean from the words and deeds of the government. The Sonia Ga nd h i-i nspi red Food Security Bill has now been made bigger in scope and some states have already announced more and more freebies. Add to this, the sickness in the government banks on account of poor lending plus regulatory setbacks (the coal mining sector) and things don’t look great. Interest rates are still ruling high. Liquid funds are offering 9% returns! So I would rather put more money into fi xed-income assets than equities today. I am not arguing with those who say that you can always find something to buy. However, I will leave it to the professionals to place their bets. Another sign of complacency is
Conservative investors move money from safe assets to risky assets
the reportedly renewed popularity of portfolio management schemes (PMSs). It looks like a new bunch of investors is being treated as lambs to the slaughter. Investors do not seem to care about the inefficiency of the scheme, the payouts and the low hurdle rates that are on offer. To put the tax hurdle in perspective, let us understand that a PMS has to deliver extra 50% returns, just to be comparable. Most broker-run PMSs have high churning simply to feed their brokerage arms. I would like to see SEBI ensure that PMS run by brokers are not charged any brokerage. Let the broker earn his money on fund management and not use it to churn and loot the money through brokerage. As the market realises that its expectations are not being met, there is bound to be a reaction that will make equities more affordable. I am not suggesting, for a moment, that people get out of equities now. I am a strong believer in equities. However, if you put a lot of money into the markets now, be prepared for a lower return. Returns are higher when there is pessimism and valuations are low. When markets are in a stage of bullishness that translates into high valuations, most of the upside is gone. So, at this stage, it makes more sense to keep the money in fi xed income. If you are comfortable with risk and poor liquidity, it is a good time to buy three- to five-year bonds at current yields (around 10%-11% for AA rated paper). If good times really materialise, interest rates will come down and you can make some capital appreciation on the bonds too. @moneylife
SPORTS
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
“I wouldn’t compare anyone to Wasim Akram, that’s for sure, because he’s a legend and has done wonders for Pakistan over the last decade or so.” — Pakistan coach Waqar Younis
“ WE WON ...!! Thank you Chennai... you were marvellous! And the team excellent! Thank you Rajnikanth for coming to cheer our team” — Amitabh Bachchan on ISL team Chennaiyin FC’s victory
Doubles queen deserves more respect
Signposts
BY HARESH RAMCHANDANI
Rogerio set to break Giggs world record RIO DE JANEIRO: Sao Paulo goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni is one victory away from earning his fourth Guinness World Record by eclipsing a mark held by Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs. The 41-year-old will become the footballer with the most victories for the same club if Sao Paulo defeat Chapecoense in Brazil’s Serie A championship on Wednesday, reports Xinhua. Rogerio and Giggs currently share the record with 589 wins.
European Champions League standings PARIS: Following are the European Champions League standings for Groups E to H after Tuesday’s matches (tabulated under matches played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, against, points), according to Xinhua. GROUP E GP W D
L
GF
GA P
Bayern Munich
3
3
0
0
9
1
Roma
3
1
1
1
7
9 4
Manchester City 3
0
2
1
3
4
2
CSKA Moscow
3
0
1
2
3
8 1
9
GROUP F Paris SG
3
2
1
0
5
3 7
Barcelona
3
2
0
1
6
4 6
Ajax
3
0
2
1
3
5 2
APOEL Nicosia
3
0
1
2
1
3 1
GROUP G Chelsea
3
2
1
0
8
1
7
Schalke 04
3
1
2
0
6
5
5
Maribor
3
0
2
1
2
8 2
Sporting Lisbon 3
0
1
2
4
6
1
FC Porto
3
2
1
0
10
3 7
Shakhtar Donetsk
3
1
2
0
9
2 5
BATE Borisov
3
1
0
2
2
1
Athletic Bilbao
3
0
1
2
2
4 1
GROUP H
3
Chennaiyin beat Kerala Blasters 2-1 in ISL CHENNAI: Chennaiyin FC beat Kerala Blasters FC 2-1 in an Indian Super League (ISL) match at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here Tuesday. Elano Blumer (14th minute) and Bernard Mendy (63rd) scored for the hosts while Iain Hume came up with the lone goal for Kerala Blasters in the 50th minute. The Chennaiyin side went on the offensive from the beginning and was rewarded with a spot kick after defender Gurwinder Singh made a flying tackle on Abhishek Das. Brazilian international Elano made no mistake in placing the ball to the right hand bottom corner of the goal to make it 1-0 for his side. Kerala Blasters worked hard to try and find an equaliser but a strong Chennaiyin defence managed to thwart their attempts till the 50th minute when Hume scored a goal off a Victor Herrero Forcada corner to make it 1-1. It took another 13 minutes for Chennai to regain the lead as Mendy attempted a bicycle kick to score after Elano’s free-kick was directed towards the French defender through a header by Harmanjot Khabra. Kerala Blasters failed to find the net despite making several chances later on. With this win, Chennaiyin are now in second spot in the standings with six points from two matches while Kerala, still without points from two matches, are lying at the bottom. IANS
has been to the semi-finals at all the playing with her. Mind you, she is a other majors. terrific fighter, never gives up easily. This And while the lack of a women’s is the beauty of her game.” doubles slam does undermine her With Black, Sania has qualified doubles legacy, Mirza makes up for that for the season-ending WTA Tour to a fair extent with her three Grand Finals in Singapore for the first time, Slam mixed doubles titles (two of them where only the top eight singles players with Bhupathi). She only needs the and doubles teams are invited to play Wimbledon title to complete a career another incredible first for the Indian. Mixed Doubles slam. Naturally, Sania is excited and looking While Sania acknowledges that forward to capping off her season and doubles comes naturally to Indians, she her partnership with Black on a highnever trained to be a great doubles player. note. “This is my first time in the yearNor does her game match end event and I’m really the ideal prototype of a excited. It’s not easy doubles specialist. The because obviously only two major strengths of the best teams are there, any doubles player are but hopefully we can their serve and their win.” volley – both of which In 2015, Sania will were glaring weaknesses partner the current when Sania came on the world No. 4 Su Wei scene. But what she lacks Hsieh, of Chinese for in those departments, Taipei, on the circuit. she makes up with her Hsieh, who turns 29 in blistering forehand and January, has won two her fighting qualities. of the last six slams in Her current partner, women’s doubles with 35-year-old Cara Black, Chinese partner Shuai - CARA BLACK is a former doubles Peng and Sania will World No 1 and has be hoping to win that won five Grand Slams in women’s and elusive women’s doubles slam next year. mixed each. So she certainly knows Beyond that, there’s the Rio a thing or two about what it takes to Olympics in 2016 where Sania will be be a good doubles player. “Sania is a a medal contender in the mixed doubles great supportive partner. She hits the with either Paes or Bopanna. Hopefully ball harder than any other girl on the for the Rio Games, the AITA will have circuit. Her power rattles the opponents. learnt their lesson from the 2012 London It is a huge weapon for us. I think we selection fiasco and will let Mirza decide complement each other well. Her power who she should partner. at the back and me at the net. She is After all, chemistry and respect basically setting things up for me at the are important factors in any doubles net. We have a lot of other variations to partnership. Mirza has certainly earned our game as well.” the right to call the shots when it comes Another notable partner of Sania, to Indian doubles, even if she has not the flamboyant American Bethanie yet earned the respect she so very much Mattek-Sands, also one of her closest deserves for her doubles game. friends on the tour, had this to say about the Indian. “Somehow, I am at home (Credit: Firstpost)
“Sania is a great supportive partner. She hits the ball harder than any other girl on circuit.”
A file picture of Sania Mirza (front) and Cara Black
life off-the-court. But by the time Sania hangs up her tennis boots, she may have rescripted her legacy into that of a doubles specialist. And a great one at that. 2014 has been no fluke for Sania. She now has 21 WTA doubles titles in her career with as many as 12 different partners and has won at least one WTA doubles
title every year since her breakthrough win in 2004 except for two seasons (2005 and 2008). The one glaring absence in her resume is a women’s doubles Grand Slam title. Sania has reached the championship round at a Slam only once in her career (with Russian Elena Vesnina at the 2011 French Open) and
‘Walsh withdraws West Indies Board’s task force to probe India tour pull-out resignation’ Tweets Union sports minister after Indian hockey coach Terry Walsh takes the decision after meeting SAI NEW DELHI: Union sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted on Wednesday that Indian hockey coach Terry Walsh has withdrawn his resignation after a meeting with the Sports Authority of India (SAI). “I am happy that after SAI’s efforts Terry Walsh is back. Looking ahead for a bright future for hockey in India,” Sonowal tweeted. The 60-year-old hockey coach, who guided the Indian men’s team to the Asian Games gold after 16 years, created big flutter when he tendered his resignation on Tuesday, citing ‘difficulty in adjusting to the functioning of the country’s bureaucratic system’. “I hereby tender my resignation as the chief coach of the Indian men’s hockey team as I am finding
“I am finding considerable difficulty in adjusting to the decision making style of the sporting bureaucracy in India”
considerable difficulty adjusting to the decision-making style of the sporting bureaucracy in India which I believe, in the long term, is not in the best interests of Indian hockey or its players,” Walsh wrote in a letter to SAI director general Jiji Thomson on Tuesday. Walsh also cited personal reasons as one of the causes for quitting the post. “I am not willing to continue with the constant time away from my family in Australia. My current commitment places too much stress on my personal life,” the 60-year-old said. Walsh’s decision triggered a blame-game with the SAI contending that Walsh was unhappy with the functioning of Hockey India (HI) rather than the nodal agency, leading to his quitting the post. “He (Walsh) made a visit to our office and met Sudhir Setia, executive director (Teams) wherein he expressed his anguish regarding working in a suffocating atmosphere in the federation. We are totally unaware of what happened in HI,” Thomson said in a statement on Tuesday. Terry Walsh, who guided the Indian men’s hockey team to the Asian Games gold after 16 years, on Tuesday had resigned as the chief coach citing ‘difficulty in adjusting to the functioning of the country’s bureaucratic system’ but the Sports Authority of India (SAI) contended that the Australian was unhappy with the functioning of Hockey India (HI) rather than the nodal agency. The SAI director general also said that the Australian could have discussed with him the issues of concern before taking the decision. “If Walsh had any complaint about the functioning of SAI, he could have very well come and discussed it with us.” However, Walsh, who was contracted from October 2013, had wished to be involved with Indian hockey in the future. IANS
BCCI to move court against WICB, suspends bilateral tours
IANS
Rogerio Ceni
Quick, what’s the first name that comes to your mind when you are asked who India’s best doubles player is currently? Leander Paes? Mahesh Bhupathi? Rohan Bopanna? How about Sania Mirza! Kidding, right? Well, not at all! Consider the stats and decide yourself. Paes is down to No 29 in the world rankings and won his first doubles title of the year only last month; Bhupathi has walked away from the game after playing just a handful of matches in the first half of the season to concentrate on his tennis league; and Bopanna is down to No 28 in the rankings after winning one title earlier in the season with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, who he has now split with to team up with Canadian Daniel Nestor for the early part of the 2015 season. Sania, on the other hand, has had one of the best seasons of her career till date, winning two titles with partner Cara Black, besides reaching four other finals on the WTA Tour. The Indian, who turns 28 next month, peaked at No 5 in the doubles rankings a few weeks ago and is currently No 8, which would have been higher had she not skipped the WTA Wuhan Open in order to represent India the Asian Games (Incidentally, Paes and Bopanna both missed the Games in order to focus on improving their doubles ranking). But doubles prowess is not something that first comes to mind when we think of Mirza. What does come to mind is perhaps her wasted potential in the singles game (as recent as a few weeks back, Vijay Amritraj said he wished Sania had played singles longer) or her marriage to a cricketer from across the border or her glamorous
IANS
Sania, No 8 in doubles rankings, had one of the best seasons of her career till date, winning two titles with partner Cara Black, besides reaching four finals on the WTA Tour
Following the fourth ODI at Dharamsala, the West Indies players chose not to complete the tour because of an ongoing payment structure dispute with the WICB and West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA)
BRIDGETOWN BARBADOS: The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has decided to establish a task force to probe the circumstances leading to the dramatic pull out by its cricketers from an ongoing tour of India. WICB, at an emergency meeting of directors here on Tuesday, decided to form the task force which will be comprised of critical stakeholders, reports CMC. The probe body will meet all parties involved in the dispute, including the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) and the players, before reporting its findings to the board. The WICB announcement comes on the back of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announcement Tuesday that it would “initiate legal proceedings” against WICB following the sudden pull-out of its team from the tour. BCCI also suspended all bilateral tours to the West Indies. India were scheduled to play five series against the West Indies in the next eight years, including four visits to the Caribbean.
“The West Indies Cricket Board regrets, and is deeply embarrassed by, the premature and unfortunate end to the recent tour of India,” WICB said in a statement Tuesday. “The WICB once again expresses to the BCCI and all stakeholders especially the cricket loving public of the West Indies and India - sorrow for the events leading up to this development.” The WICB also said it would request a meeting with the BCCI as well as arrange an urgent debriefing with the West Indies team management unit. “In light of the long-standing good relationship between WICB and BCCI, which goes back decades and has produced numerous mutual benefits, the WICB looks forward to meeting with the BCCI to discuss these decisions which can have serious implications for West Indies cricket,” the statement said. “WICB believes that a way can be found to repair the damage that has been caused and to ensure that similar events do not recur, with the focus being on the betterment of the West Indies
and world cricket.” West Indies players are angry with WIPA over a change in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the WICB which, they claim, results in a drastic reduction in their earnings. The pullout, the follow through of an earlier threat, has angered the BCCI and soured its relationship with the WICB. “The WICB thanks all stakeholders, particularly the ICC, BCCI, their broadcasters and sponsors for their patience and understanding in this matter and looks forward to the continuation of a strong relationship between our Boards,” the statement added. “The WICB is committed to acting as expeditiously as the situation allows, and will provide further information to the public as soon as it is appropriate to do so.” The West Indies are due to play South Africa in three Tests, three T20 matches and five One Day Internationals (ODI) from the middle of December 2014. IANS
SPORTS “My target is to win gold in the Rio Olympics in 2016 and I have already started my preparations.” — World Champion wrestler Olympian Sushil Kumar
Signposts Pavlasek knocks out Devvarman PUNE: Third seeded and Davis Cupper Somdev Devvarman’s disappointing run on the ATP Tour continued as he went down to lower ranked Czech Republic’s Adam Pavlasek 3-6, 6-7 (3) in the pre-quarterfinals of the KPITMSLTA Challenger tennis tournament here on Wednesday. Devvarman, ranked 143, was not his usual aggressive self. His Davis Cup teammate and seventh seed Yuki Bhambri along with unseeded Saketh Myneni kept Indian hopes alive by advancing to the quarters.While Bhambri overcame Belgian Germain Gigounon 7-5, 6-4, Myneni put out fifth seeded Japanese Hiroki Moriya 6-1, 6-2. Devvarman’s miserable week was complete when he and N Vijay Sundar Prasthanth lost the doubles quarter-final tie to the top seeded Thai twins Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana 6-7 (4), 3-6.
Bhaichung inducted to AFC’s hall of fame Former Indian football team captain Bhaichung Bhutia has been inducted to the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Hall of Fame, the continent’s football governing body confirmed on Wednesday. “It’s a great honour for me. I need to thank AFC for finding me competent enough. I also need to thank AIFF for their continuous support,” he said.
9 held for branding Assam athlete a witch Nine people, including seven women, have been arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy for branding an Assam athlete as a witch, the police said on Wednesday. Debajani Bora, a javelin thrower, who had won gold in the 2011 National Masters Championship in Haryana, was attacked by the villagers of Cherekali near Diphu after a meeting at the Naamghar (the community prayer hall) concluded that a ‘witch was hidden’ within Debajani that caused some deaths in the village.
Pistorius jail term is fair: judge Olympic and Paralympic sprinter faces the sentence for killing his girlfriend and model Reeva Steenkamp
Oscar Pistorius (C) arrives at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria
Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius started his five-year jail sentence on Tuesday for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, marking the end of a trial that has gripped South Africa and millions around the world. His uncle, Arnold Pistorius, indicated he would not appeal. As judge Thokozile Masipa gave her decision on the 27-year-old’s culpable homicide conviction, Pistorius, whose downfall has been likened to that of American football star OJ Simpson, stood resolutely in the dock. Once the execution site for opponents of South Africa’s former white-minority government, the jail is now home to the country’s most hardened criminals, including the man known as “Prime Evil”, apartheid death squad leader Eugene de Kock. In delivering her decision, 67-yearold Masipa stressed the difficulty of arriving at a decision that was “fair and just to society and to the accused”. “It would be a sad day for this country if an impression were created that there is one law for the poor and disadvantaged, and one law for the rich and famous,” she said. Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate and model, died almost instantly on Valentine’s Day last year when Pistorius shot her through a locked toilet door at his luxury Pretoria home. Prosecutors pushed for a murder
conviction, but the athlete maintained he fired in the mistaken belief an intruder was hiding behind the door, a defence that struck home in a country with one of the world’s highest rates of violent crime. Steenkamp’s family said it was satisfied with the sentence. In Steenkamp’s hometown of Port Elizabeth, a handful of family friends at a bar owned by her parents raised their hands in recognition of the fiveyear sentence. “I thought he would walk,” said 50-year-old Martin Cohen, who worked as a race horse trainer with Steenkamp’s father, Barry, who suffered a stroke shortly after his daughter’s killing. The state prosecuting authority, which has two weeks to decide whether to launch an appeal against the verdict, said Pistorius was likely to serve at least a third of his sentence in prison or 20 months. On a separate conviction for firing a handgun in a packed Johannesburg restaurant, Pistorius was given a threeyear suspended sentence. Even if he is freed early, Pistorius will not be able to resume his athletics career until his full term is served, the International Paralympic Committee said, ruling out any appearance at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He is known as “Blade Runner” because of his carbonfibre prosthetics. Copyright: Firstpost.com
She says no to medal, AIBA says no way to world championships Boxer Sarita Devi faces action for Asian Games protest BY FP SPORT AIBA, the amateur boxing’s governing body, has provisionally suspended India boxer L Sarita Devi for an unspecified period for her emotional protest at the 2014 Asian Games. Sarita burst in to tears at the medal ceremony and refused to accept her bronze medal. Sarita will miss the World Boxing Champions in Jeju, South Korea next
month. AIBA has also suspended Sarita’s three coaches - Gurbakhsh Singh Sandhu, Blas Iglesias Fernandez and Sagar Mai Dhayal - as well as Adille Sumariwalla, who was India’s Chef de Mission
at the Asian Games held in Incheon last month. Her case will now be reviewed by AIBA’s disciplinary commission. Sarita said, “I have not received any communication from AIBA as of now. When I will see the letter, I will decide what I have to do.” On the other hand, coach Sandhu was optimistic about the situation and said the matter will be resolved soon.
THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 24, 2014
PUNE
“We are delighted to announce that Jelena Djokovic gave birth to a wonderful, healthy and a lovely boy, called Stefan.” — Tennis player Novak Djokovic
Big Boss House
Cricket may have millions of fans, but they must know that until 2023, they will eat out of the hands of just two men– Srini and Murdoch BY MALAY DESAI In mid-2012, an infographic by the French blog Convergence Alimentaire went viral on the Internet for explaining that nearly all the hundreds of products we consume every day are owned by just 10 multinationals. Earlier, a graphic displaying how ninety per cent of American media was owned by just six corporations too had hinted at the times of consolidation we live in, where a few exert control over many. With the STAR Group buying broadcast rights to all ICC cricket competitions until 2023, it’s worthwhile for you, the fan, to know the hands that will rock your cradle in the coming years. In January this year, with Mr N Srinivasan at the helm, the ICC redrew its revenue distribution model, putting the ‘big three’, India, Australia and England in the lead. A core reason behind this was the upcoming broadcast rights bidding, for the World Cups, World T20s and Champions Trophies - two each. Where are all the six events going to be held? Surprise surprise, either in India, Australia or England. Here’s another fact-you-probablyknew-but-didn’t-chew-on: STAR India and STAR Middle East have won broadcasting rights to the ICC events. STAR is owned by the 21st Century Fox,
which is owned by Australian-American business magnate Rupert Murdoch. If the battle in India was between Sony (MSM Limited) and STAR, and the latter’s deep pockets won it, in England it was between BT Sport and Sky Sports. While BT Sport is owned by an MNC telecom giant, Sky is a subsidiary owned by Murdoch. Guess who won the UK rights! Yes, Sri Sri Rupert! So how will Rupert and Srini affect your game, you ask? For starters, let’s take it as a given that the international cricket calendar, aka the Future Tours Programme, puts ICC events on top of its priority list. These would be held, of course, not within the months of AprilMay or September-October, ie windows for IPL and Champions League respectively. The rest of the year remains free for cricket boards to fill with assorted bilateral series of little relevance, that too with due allegiance to their domestic T20 leagues such as Australia’s Big Bash and the Carribean Premier League. For an instance of how pointless this non-ICC-event cricket could get,
simply look at the ongoing India versus Sri Lanka-who-replaced-West Indiesbecause-TV-rights-are-God Series. And where does this leave Test cricket? For now, the ICC World Test Championship, featuring the top four test teams of 2016, is to be held in 2017 but it might just be shoved/postponed, cancelled if the ‘big two’ hit upon an alternate plan that promises bigger bucks. Remember, it will be a year when the IPL could have a new telecaster (*cough, we wonder who) after MSM’s 10-year-contract expires. The only long-form competition worth awaiting for remains the Ashes, which has put up quality cricket and drama every four years. Starting 2015 though, the five Test series have been rescheduled to occur every two years, in a classic attempt of killing the goose which lays golden eggs. This also means that England will host the Ashes 2019 immediately after they host the World Cup! Let’s hope the goose doesn’t limp out retired hurt too soon.