India, China can together create

RNI No. GUJENG/2014/57876
GARVI GUJARAT
økhðe økwshkík
GARVI GUJARAT
(Published Daily from Ahmedabad)
EDITOR: ASHVINKUMAR KESHAVLAL RAMI
Regd. Office: 131, Dharmnagar Society, Highway Road, Sabarmati, Ahmedabad-380 005. Gujarat, India. (M) 93283 33307, 94266 33307, 98253 33307
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Email : [email protected]
Volume-01
After KO, Congress
is dancing and
punching in the
ring again
It was a telling picture
when Sonia Gandhi, amid
the countdown to the Modi
government's first anniversary, rose in the Lok Sabha
to savage the Centre over
corruption, probity, RTI,
the whistleblowers Act and
CVC. Surprised observers
noted the new confidence
in Congress, given that
barely 11 months ago it
was routed for all-pervasive
graft. The UPA government it
led got dubbed as mostcorrupt ever. Critics call it
"gall", others "belief". But on
the evidence of Congress's
aggression in Parliament and
outside, a party that faced
an existential crisis not long
ago - 44 MPs in the House
of 543 - has dusted itself
from the knockout blow.
It's throwing punches in the
ring again. Given the
severity of the rout, few
expected it to be back so
soon. The single biggest
factor in Congress's quick
reinvention as opposition
has been its ability to
reconcile to the defeat.
This contrasts with BJP's
failure to adapt to shocking
realities of the 'India
Shining' debacle. The
Congress cause seems
facilitated by the sheer
scale of its decimation. In
its rout, it has taken the
easy route falling back on
its "pro-poor" plank,
painting the rival "procorporate". The strategy
seems thought through,
culled from a study of
Modi's bizfriendly Gujarat
stint. The party thinks the
"pro-rich" epithet easily
sticks on BJP and easier to
sell politically in a country
of poverty and regular
calamities. Aiding Congress is its institutional
memory of handling
defeats. If it didn't give up
as expected, it was
because Indira Gandhi's
rout in 1977 was touted as
worse. Rajiv Gandhi's
defeat over Bofors did not
turn Congress into a
terminal case. All defeats
could be tackled. Congress
started attacking right from
the start, on the offensive
despite defeats in
Maharashtra, Kashmir,
Haryana and Delhi in the
aftermath of the Big One.
Reeling under the Delhi
polls killer blow, it saw
hope in the bloody nose
that Modi-led BJP received.
When BJP promulgated a
probusiness land acquisition bill, Sonia turned it into
a political taboo, scaring its
potential supporters over
the political costs. She
seized leadership of a
grouping of naysayers,
evident in the 13-party
protest march to
Rashtrapati Bhavan. This
helped the party reassert
its role as lead opposition.
Comforting Congress is
Rahul Gandhi's return with
the intent of long-term
engagement. It lifted the
mood of post-defeat uncertainty. To insiders, the
comeback via the sabbatical
route is intelligent in its
timing, rooted in
Congress's early reconciliation with defeat. If Rahul
is firing randomly in the Lok
Sabha and on TV, and still
finding the mark, it is
because enough time has
elapsed for people to lend
an ear to the opposition.
Six months ago, with
distaste for Congress still
fresh and Modi basking in
his messianic glory, few
wanted to hear the Congress or the Gandhis. So
much so, Old Guard
rumblings against Rahul
seem to be waning. If
anything, there are
suggestions that he stay
the course and exude the
Gandhi gravitas.
Issue-283
•
Email : [email protected]
Dt. 17-05-2015 Sunday
V.S. 2071
•
Website : www.garvigujarat.co.in
Vaishakh Vad-13
‘India, China can together create
world that ser ves humanity’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the opening ceremony of the Centre for Gandhian
and Indian Studies at Fudan University, in Shanghai on Saturday.
SHANGHAI, Launching the
Centre for Gandhian and Indian Studies at Fudan University, Mr. Modi said India and
China should work together to
eliminate poverty. Pitching for
cooperation between India and
China, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Saturday
said the two should together
touch new heights of progress
to eliminate poverty, which
will benefit the entire world as
one-third of global population
lives in the two countries.
Launching the Centre for
Gandhian and Indian Studies
at Fudan University in Shanghai, he said India and China
have
historical
and
civilisational ties and they can
together create a world that
serves the humanity. “It is said
that 21st century belongs to
Asia. One-third of the world
population belongs to these
two countries. So if India
and China work together to
eliminate poverty, one-third
of the global population will
be rid of this problem, which
will be beneficial for the
entire world,” Mr. Modi said
addressing the students and
faculty of the university in
Hindi. “Therefore, India and
China should together touch
new heights of progress involving sensitivity towards
humanity and philosophy of
Lord Buddha and experiments of Mahatma Gandhi
so that we can give to the
world a system, which is
dedicated to welfare of humanity,” he said. Invoking
Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Modi
said, “The world today is
going through two major
crises — global warming and
terrorism. Solutions to both
lie in Gandhi’s teachings.
Gandhi is still relevant.”
“Mahatma Gandhi may have
been born in a corner of
India but he was a global
citizen,” Modi said, adding
that the apostle of peace
could have shown the way
out of the crises that the
world is going through today.
Modi govt shuns
fast-forward,
goes slow and
steady
He was supposed to
mount a fullscale assault
on the government, or
rather, the establishment.
An outsider who resented
the imperious ways of the
Delhi Durbar and having
stormed the Capital in
defiance of the Lutyens
zone elite, Narendra Modi
was expected to be an
insurrection. A year on,
predictions of an Indian
version of dismantling of
the "system" akin to
Mikhail Gorbachev's
perestroika, haven't come
true. Instead, the style he
has adopted fits more with
the description of "change
with continuity" that
sociologists have for
decades used to describe
India's cautious flirting
with modernity. The
abolition of the Planning
Commission and the
creation of Niti Aayog
served more as a statement of annoyance with
the Nehruvian model,
rather than the first of a
series of steps needed to
bring down the edifice the
first PM raised and his
legatees sustained.
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Mumbai woman files
Clintons earned $30m in
FIR against Leone for
16 months, report shows
‘destroying Indian culture’
MUMBAI: A police first
information report has
been filed against Sunny
Leone after a woman
from Dombivli complained
that the adult filmturned-Bollywood actor is
"promoting obscenity and
destroying Indian culture
and society with her
website". The Thane police say no action in the
case will be taken as of
now. They say the
website cannot be
blocked either. The complainant, Anjali Palan,
who reportedly works
with
the
Hindu
Janajagruti Samiti, alleged that upon learning
that "Leone promotes ob-
scenity in society through
her porn videos", she visited
the
website,
sunnyleone.com, and indeed found pornographic
content.The woman has
sought action not only
against Leone, but also
against all those who uploaded her videos on the
site. Thus, Leone and unnamed persons have been
booked by the Thane police at Ramnagar police
station in Dombivli
(East).Senior inspector
Sunil Shivarkar said the
police registered the FIR
as after getting the complaint, "we went through the
website and found that the
content was objectionable".
WASHINGTON: Hillary and
Bill Clinton earned over $25
million for delivering more
than 100 speeches since 2014,
according to financial disclosure forms released by the
Clinton campaign. Hillary
Clinton, the front-runner for
the Democratic presidential
nomination in 2016, also
earned $5 million in royalties
for her book, "Hard Choices,"
which was released in June,
according to the forms. The
Clintons' income puts them at
least in the top 0.1 per cent of
the US population, the Wall
Street Journal reported. Economic inequality has been a
top campaign theme for Democrats for the past several years
and Clinton in April voiced concern about the hefty paychecks
of some corporate executives
NEW DELHI: The NDA government has cleared around
40 new defence acquisition
proposals, worth over Rs 1 lakh
crore, setting a scorching pace
over the last one year. It has
also revived several longpending mega projects, which
were virtually stuck in files during A K Antony's eight years at
the helm in the defence ministry. But the follow-through has
been relatively slow to ensure
the proposals swiftly head towards inking of actual contracts or turn into concrete
projects on the ground. The
new much-touted defence procurement policy (DPP) is yet to
be finalised, there is still some
uncertainty over the entire
"Make in India" thrust, and the
annual defence budget has not
registered any concrete
hike."There is much faster decision-making at the top, either
in approving or scrapping
modernisation proposals. But
the bureaucratic bottle-necks
remain and the procedures are
yet to be streamlined," said a
senior official. But a committee
of civil and military experts,
which includes former home
secretary Dhirendra Singh and
former MoD director-general
of acquisitions Satish
Agnihotri, is now reviewing the
changes in the new proposed
DPP."Around 90% of the work
has been done to drastically
overhaul the DPP of 2013. It
should be announced by July,"
said an official. The changes
range from easing of norms for
arms agents and blacklisting of
armament companies to ways
to simplify the cumbersome
arms acquisition procedures
and push the "Make in India"
policy in defence production,
as was earlier reported by TOI.
The MoD is also tightening
screws on DRDO and its 50
labs, five defence PSUs, four
shipyards and 39 ordnance factories to ensure they deliver on
in an email to supporters. But
the Clintons themselves have
faced criticism for high speaking fees, which for Hillary
Clinton have gone up to
$250,000 since she left the
helm of the State Department
in 2013. Liberals have criticized her for taking money
from financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, for
speeches they say make her
beholden to big business. Last
year, Hillary Clinton was criticized for saying she and her
husband were "dead broke"
when they left the White House
in 2001, even though Bill Clinton
made millions of dollars giving
speeches after his presidency.
Republican presidential contender Marco Rubio also filed
disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission, the
time in a cost-effective manner, apart from there being a
determined push to encourage
the private sector to enter defence production in a major
way. All this is certainly
needed. Take, for instance,
the long-pending project for
construction of six new advanced stealth diesel-electric
submarines in India with foreign collaboration. The defence acquisitions council in
October last year gave the renewed green signal to this
project, which had got "acceptance of necessity" for
around Rs 50,000 crore way
back in November 2007.
Defence proposals worth Rs 1L cr got govt nod
Washington Post reported.
They show the US senator
from Florida owes at least
$450,000 and as much as $1
mn on three mortgages, including a home equity line of
credit, the newspaper said.
His assets, which include
checking and savings accounts, college funds for his
children and a rental property
in Tallahassee, are worth between $361,018 and
$1,035,000. Presidential candidates are required to file the
financial information with the FEC
within 30 days of declaring their
candidacy, although they can
seek up to two 45-day extensions. Republican candidates
Senators Ted Cruz of Texas
and Rand Paul of Kentucky
sought extensions rather than
file on Friday, the Post reported.
Page-04
Rs. 00.50 paisa
Angry Virat Kohli gets
into argument with
umpire Dharmasena
HYDERABAD: Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper
Virat Kohli along with
glovesman Dinesh Karthik got
into a heated argument with
umpire Kumar Dharmasena
after the match officials continued with final two overs of
Sunrisers Hyderabad innings
despite steady drizzle. Having already lost 2 hours and
40 minutes of play due to
steady downpour, the match
was curtailed to 11 oversper-side. It was during the
10th over that it again started
drizzling and the rain really
picked up in the final over of
the innings. It was during
the fourth ball of the final
over when Kohli misfielded
as the soapy white ball
slipped out of his palms. An
agitated Kohli tried to draw
the attention of the umpires
as it was steady downpour.
Kohli in his desperate bid
was trying to make a point
about the pitch getting wet
due to downpour. By the
time the over ended, the temperamental Indian Test captain walked towards umpire
Dharmasena asking him animatedly about why the match
was not stopped when rains
picked up. While other umpire Anil Chaudhary, who is
also from Delhi tried to calm
Kohli down, the RCB skipper
didn't carry on the argument
for long even though
Dharmasena seemed quite
upset. It didn't help as
Karthik picked up the argument from where Kohli
had left as Dharmasena
didn't seem one bit amused.
Acting chief secy post
row intensifies in Delhi
NEW DELHI: The confrontation between Delhi lt governor and the AAP government
on Saturday intensified with
chief minister Arvind Kejriwal
asking senior bureaucrat
Shakuntala Gamlin to not take
charge as acting Chief Secretary of the city, a day after she
was appointed to the post by
Jung. A senior Delhi government official said that in his
letter to Gamlin, Kejriwal has
said that her appointment is
against the set rule. In view of
this, she should not take
charge as acting chief secretary of Delhi. READ ALSO: LG
names acting chief secretary,
Delhi CM attacks 'unconstitutional' order The move came
a day after lt governor Najeeb
Jung gave the additional
charge of chief secretary to
Gamlin, a 1984-batch IAS officer, hours after she wrote a
scathing letter to Jung claim-
ing that she was pressurised
by a senior bureaucrat in CM's
office not to be in race for the
post due to her alleged proximity to BSES discoms. Slamming the LG's move, the AAP
government had on Friday said
the LG cannot bypass the
elected government and chief
minister Arvind Kejriwal and
that he acted against "the Constitution, GNCT of Delhi Act
and the Transaction of Business Rules." Jung had
promptly rebutted the AAP
government's allegations saying under Article 239 AA of the
Constitution of India, saying
the lt governor is the representative of State Authority in
Delhi. Chief secretary K K
Sharma has left for the US on
a personal visit due to which
the government had to appoint an acting chief secretary. Gamlin is currently
serving as power secretary.
RJD-JD(U) fight over
seat sharing in Bihar
PATNA: Days after their merger was ruled out, RJD and
JD(U) have got locked into a tussle over who gets to contest
how many seats in Bihar elections. Senior RJD leader and
former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh brought
the simmering tension in the open by demanding that the
party should be allotted at least 145 seats of the total of 243
seats, drawing a sharp riposte from Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.
Wipro sued in US by former
employee over wage issues
BENGALURU: Wipro
said it will defend all
pending lawsuits against
it after an Indian employee filed a class action complaint against it
in a US court, alleging
violation of local labour
laws. Media reports indicated Wipro employee
Suri Payala had recently
filed a complaint in Superior Court of the State
of California, alleging
that Wipro failed to com-
pensate him for overtime and make other
wage settlements. According to the complaint,
Payala worked with Wipro
for the first six months of
2014 as a computer technician and was working
on a project that USbased
DirecTV
outsourced to India's
third-largest software
exporter. Payala could
not be reached for comment. Wipro in an email
said while it would not
comment on pending litigations, it would "vigorously defend these allegations."
A
Wipro
spokesperson
said,
"Wipro a b i d e s b y t h e
laws of every jurisdiction where we do business." This is not the
first time that an Indian IT firm has faced
a lawsuit or class action complaint from
former or current employees.
Modi-Li selfie dubbed ‘most power-packed selfie in history’
NEW YORK: The iconic
selfie taken by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi with Chinese
premier Li Keqiang during his
current visit to China is being
hailed by western media as
one of the most "power-packed
selfie in history". The Wall
Street Journal, in a news report titled 'Did Modi Just Take
the Most Powerful Selfie in
History,' said that the prime
ministers of the world's two
biggest countries "leaned on
each other ...for what may be
the most politically power-
packed selfie in history." It
said Modi pulled out a
smartphone during his visit to
Beijing's Temple of Heaven,
"extended his arm and cozied
up with Chinese premier Li
Keqiang for the shot. "That
put two of the most powerful
people in countries with a combined population of around 2.5
billion people - more than onethird of humanity - in the same
frame with no official photographer involved," the WSJ report said. An article in Forbes
said that the selfie, which gar-
nered 2,200 shares within two
hours of Modi posting it on his
Twitter account, is being
"billed the selfie of the world's
two mightiest". "Modi and Li
drive economic policy in their
respective countries, two of
the world's fastest-growing
large economies," the Forbes
article said. The Indian Prime
Minister is one of the world's
most followed on Twitter with
12.3 million followers. A tweet
from news outlet CNBC said
that "two world leaders just
took the most-powerful selfie
ever. "The leaders of two of
the world's fastest growing
countries just made selfie
history....Sure, a picture can
say a thousand words--but it's
not every day one can speak
for over a third of the world's
population," the CNBC report
said. It added that combining
GDP from both countries, the
selfie captures more than USD
10 trillion. The Wall Street
Journal noted that the Indian
Prime Minister is "no stranger
to selfies" and had used one in
his 2014 election campaign.
Modi was also the first world
leader to use a Twitter Mirror,
an exclusive app that produces
autographed selfies and posts
them to Twitter on his tours, it
said. Modi has taken selfies
with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott during a
visit to his country in November. The report cited
other powerful selfies that
have created records of
their own, including the
2014 Oscar selfie taken by
host Ellen DeGeneres with
Hollywood giants Meryl
Streep, Bradley Cooper,
Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita
Nyong'o, Brad Pitt and
Angelina Jolie Pitt. The selfie
received more than 921,000
retweets in less than 40
minutes and went on to get
more than a million
retweets. In 2013, US President Barack Obama and
Britain's Prime Minister
David Cameron posed for a
selfie with Denmark's Prime
Minister Helle Thorning
Schmidt at a memorial service for Nelson Mandela in
South Africa, an image that
however was criticised by
some who said it was
i na p p r o p r i a t e f o r t h e
leaders to take a selfie
a t s u ch a solemn occasion.
2
Ahmedabad. Dt. 17-05-2015 Sunday
Editorial
Right to have a
childhood
The Union Cabinet’s approval of a set of amendments to
the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986
raises serious doubts and concerns. One of these proposes
to ban the employment of children below 14 years in all
occupations except family enterprises and the audio-visual
entertainment industry, on condition that such work does not
interfere with their education. One amendment proposes to
regulate “adolescents” in the 14-18 age group by prohibiting
their employment in hazardous occupations unsuitable to
their age. There is no doubt that the 1986 Act itself needs to
be amended. First, the law has proved to be weak and
ineffective in curbing child labour. Second, it is in contradiction with Article 21-A of the Constitution and the Right of
Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 that
makes schooling compulsory for all in the age group of six to
14 years. Third, the 1986 Act does not regulate adolescent
labour as mandated by ILO Conventions 138 and 182.
Although the government’s intention to amend the Act is to
be appreciated, what is deeply problematic is its intention to
exempt from the ban employment in family enterprises. It is
suggested that poverty and socio-economic conditions in
India justify children helping their families in certain occupations where the possibility of any harm coming upon them
does not exist, provided that they balance the work with
schooling. This may sound reasonable but may prove unworkable. The law potentially opens loopholes that will
sustain or even encourage child labour, creating a regulatory
nightmare. Here the government fails to recognise that
family enterprises can also prove to be exploitative and
oppressive for children. ‘Family enterprises’ fall in the
unorganised sector, making them an amorphous legal category that is hard to govern. Such a law will adversely affect
girl children who are often forced into domestic work, or
Dalits and those from the minorities who work out of dire
poverty but are ultimately denied the joys of childhood.
Moreover, instead of just tinkering with the 1986 Act, the
government needs to comprehensively overhaul it, focussing
on the rehabilitation of children rescued from traumatic
working conditions. This requires an interlinking of ‘rescue,
rehabilitation and schooling’ through greater coordination
among Ministries and organisations, and the inter-locking of
the provisions of existing laws such as the RTE Act, the
Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976; the Factories
Act, 1948; the Beedi and Cigar Workers Act, 1996 and so on.
It is meanwhile also disheartening that the budget allocation
for the Ministry of Women and Child Development
has been reduced from Rs.18,588 crore to Rs.10,382 crore.
The dead warriors
On the face of it, the series of attacks on bloggers in
Bangladesh — the latest victim is Ananta Bijoy Das, mowed
down by machete-wielding killers in Sylhet — suggests the
hand of intolerant Islamic fundamentalists affiliated to various militant groups. These groups have targeted bloggers for
their “atheistic” and “secular” views over the last few years.
The victims include Avijit Roy, the pioneering hand behind the
popular Bangladeshi free thinkers’ blogging platform, MuktoMona. Roy and others used the Internet to voice their strong
concerns and provocative views against conservatism and
fundamentalism in Bangladesh, making them ready targets
of the violent Islamist groups. When you dig deeper, though,
these attacks are unmistakably another sad testament to the
long-raging battle for the country’s soul. The bloggers are
among those who would want to hold on to the ideal of a
secular state that was conceived after the historic war of
liberation against the then West Pakistan in 1971. On the
other side are fundamentalist malcontents who have never
accepted that ideal, and drawn their inspiration from the
collaborators of that period of war. Ever since the Sheikh
Hasina-led Awami League government in 2010 started
the long-pending process of indictment of Jamaat-eIslami leaders for the brutal war crimes during the
liberation war, the contradictions have become sharper.
When one of the leaders, Abdul Quader Mollah, was
convicted, spontaneous agitations erupted in Dhaka
culminating in the Shahbag protests in 2013 demanding
capital punishment for those convicted for the war crimes of
1971. While it must be unequivocally said that these demands
are not entirely just, for capital punishment is barbaric in
itself, the demand is rooted in the country’s violent history.
The sharp political polarisation in Bangladesh, despite a
majority of the people favouring punishment for war criminals, has led to the rejuvenation of Islamic forces that were
supported at some points by the leading Opposition, the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Secular and progressive
bloggers such as Roy and others had taken the side of those
opposed to the Jamaat-e-Islami and other radical Islamist
forces ranged on the other side. The government has since
accepted some of the demands of the protesters on this
issue. But the Sheikh Hasina regime is bogged down by the
polarised political equations in Dhaka and has not aggressively taken on those who have targeted the bloggers,
making them soft targets for the radical Islamists. How
many more bloggers would have to give up their lives before
the government realises that their battle is essentially the
same as that for justice for the war crimes of 1971?
Garvi Gujarat
2
Get real with public sector banks
Governance, management and operational issues
of public sector banks need to be resolved to secure quick reforms. Instead, the government is all
set to pursue some grand design
The Narendra Modi government wants a comprehensive overhaul of public sector
banks (PSBs), which account
for more than 70 per cent of
assets in India’s troubled banking sector. It’s hard to quarrel
with the idea: what could be
more attractive than a revamped and shining public
sector? It is important, however, to focus on what can be
achieved quickly. The government must do what it takes to
revive bank lending and private investment at the earliest
rather than pursue ‘reforms’
that would keep PSBs in limbo
for an extended period. There
are three sets of issues in
PSBs: governance, management and operational issues.
The key governance issues
concern the composition and
functioning of the board. The
important management issue
is the selection of the CEO.
The operational issues are the
resolution of non-performing
assets (NPAs) and the infusion of capital in banks. It’s
useful to take stock of where
we are and where the government intends to go. The government is moving in the direction suggested by the P.J.
Nayak committee’s May 2014
report on bank governance.
For starters, it has decided to
separate the roles of the chairman and managing director
(CMD) in all PSBs except the
State Bank of India. Bank chairmen will be selected by a panel
headed by the Reserve Bank
of India Governor. The case
for separation of roles — that
there was too much concentration of powers in the hands
of the CMD — is not very
persuasive. Bank boards have
one representative each of the
government as well as the
RBI. They also have two or
more executive directors as
well as representatives of both
officers and workers of the
bank. It is not true that the
CMD could act as he or she
liked. The Nayak committee
had wanted the roles to be
separated at the end of a
three-phase period. The committee reckoned that PSBs by
then would have acquired substantial autonomy, and that
the power to appoint chairmen, independent directors
and the CEO would have devolved fully to the boards. The
government has chosen to
separate the two roles at the
very beginning. There are two
dangers in doing so. First,
however distinguished the
panel that will select the chairman, it is always possible for
the government to influence
the chairman once he or she is
appointed. The result would
be to pit a political appointee
against the CEO who has to
deliver results. Second, the
chairman may have his or her
own agenda; this would render the CEO ineffective. It
would have been better to
defer the separation of roles
until PSB boards had begun to
function effectively with independent directors. Now that
the decision to separate the
roles has been taken, it is vital
to strengthen the boards. The
Nayak committee argued that
PSBs do not have independent
directors at all. They have directors nominated by the government – these, the committee stated, cannot be said to
be independent. They also
have directors elected by
shareholders. Since it is Life
Insurance Corporation of India that calls the shots as an
important shareholder, the
shareholder directors are not
independent either. “PSBs
improved their performance
after bank reforms commenced in 1993-94 and con-
tinued up to 2010-11 ” Further, the Nayak committee
contended that private banks
did better when it came to
having independent directors.
This contention must be
strongly refuted. Directors on
the boards of private banks
are chosen by the promoter or
management and are therefore hardly independent of either. If anything, the PSBs are
a little better off: a government-appointed independent
director is not beholden to the
CEO for his appointment and
hence can act independently
of the CEO. There is an unresolved issue of governance in
India: can a director appointed
by the dominant shareholder
— whether government or a
private owner or management
— be said to be truly independent? As this issue is not likely
to be addressed in a hurry, the
best we can do until then is
ensure that independent directors have the credentials
to add value to the board. The
government proposes to
achieve this by setting up a
Bank Boards Bureau (BBB) as
recommended by the Nayak
committee. The BBB will select CEOs, independent directors and bank chairmen. It will
consist of three former bankers, two eminent professionals and the Secretary of the
Department of Financial Services. The Finance Ministry,
through its website, has invited applications for the post
of independent director. Some
of the best people are unlikely
to send in applications; they
will join only if invited. The
BBB will need to scout for talent. According to some reports, the Prime Minister’s
Office will first vet candidates
for the post. It will then send a
shortlist to the BBB which will
make the final selection. When
Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr.
Modi got politicians removed
from the boards of these enterprises and replaced them
with professionals of repute.
The Chief Minister’s Office
played a key role in selecting
independent directors for
these enterprises. This approach resulted in better
boards and improved performance. Why not replicate this
approach at the Centre instead of creating another body
for the purpose? Next, the
management issue. A professional body to select CEOs for
PSBs is by no means a novel
idea. In the past, we had an
Appointments Board which
was headed by the RBI governor and included eminent professionals and a Finance Ministry official. Yet, this distinguished body was not able to
get appointments of bank CEOs
right. The political will to let
the Board do its job was absent. It was the Finance Ministry that decided the appoint-
ments. The BBB’s outcomes
cannot be very different unless the government is willing
to let it function independently.
And if the government is willing to let go, why not stay with
the Appointments Board? If
the government can entrust
the selection of bank chairmen to a panel headed by the
RBI governor, why not do the
same for CEOs and independent directors? The Finance
Ministry has thrown open the
CEO’s job in five leading PSBs
to private sector professionals. The initial response, it
appears, was not satisfactory.
Some requirements have
since been relaxed so that
there is wider pool of applicants. Flexibility in respect of
pay has been promised,
meaning the appointee will
not be governed by PSB pay
scales. The government
seems to have bought the
contention of the Nayak committee that PSBs have not
performed, and a huge gap
between private and public
sector performance has
opened up because the public sector lacks the right talent and the right incentives.
These are both dubious
propositions. PSBs improved
their performance after
bank reforms commenced
in 1993-94 and continued
up to 2010-11. If there has
been a deterioration since,
it is mainly for two reasons.
First, PSBs got into infrastructure financing in a way
in which private banks did
not. Second, the selection
of the CEO went wrong in
many cases. Getting the choice
of CEO right is half the battle
won. Incentives can be addressed in due course. Finally,
the operational issues in PSBs
need to be quickly resolved.
The issue of stalled projects is
being addressed. Lenders will
have to write down some of
their loans and promoters have
to take a hit with bank loans
getting converted into equity.
At the same time, the government must infuse more capital into PSBs. This is one area
in which banking policy has
disappointed the most. PSBs
cannot be expected to perform unless they are given the
necessary capital. They need
about Rs. 20,000 crore by way
of government equity every
year for the next five years. In
2014-15, the new government
promised Rs. 11,200 crore and
ended up infusing Rs. 6,990
crore in nine PSBs. In 201516, it proposes to provide Rs.
7,940 crore. Who so? Because
the government wants
underperforming banks to
improve their performance
first before asking for more
capital. Such an approach is
seriously flawed. Improvement in performance will follow infusion of capital; it cannot precede the latter. That,
after all, was the logic behind
the bailout of banks that failed
in the sub-prime crisis. The
government can bring out a
sea change in PSBs by doing
just three things: appointing
the right CEOs, backing them
with the requisite capital and
bringing independent directors of competence and stature on board. These can be
done expeditiously with the
existing mechanisms and
the existing talent in PSBs.
It is more important right
now to secure quick outcomes in banking than to
pursue some grand design.
Bring forth the Northeast
I grew up in a small town
called Haflong in Dima Hasao
District (formerly called North
Cachar hills) in Assam, amid
the regal Barail ranges. These
mountains housed ethnically
diverse peoples from the
Dimasas and Jemes to the
Hmars, Bengalis, Kukis and
Nepalis. Haflong was a sleepy
hollow, peaceful and tranquil, in the 1980s and early
1990s, but the later years
were not kind to this small hill
town. Armed insurgencies
ravaged it and ethnic rivalry
between the dominant community and the minorities
created a feeling of distrust
and fear mongering. The town
has seen little real development since I left it in 1997,
and appears caught in a time
warp. The weakness of state
institutions such as the autonomous district councils
have not helped matters much
either. In order to take stock
of how much has changed or
remained the same in the
last 20 years, and to see the
visible impact of the Union
government’s development
and infrastructure schemes
announced in the last few
years for the region, I visited
Assam and Meghalaya recently. I travelled from
Guwahati to Kaziranga onto
Majuli, the largest river island
in the world. The road between Guwahati and Kaziranga
has changed for the better,
with smooth and wide surfaces, tranquil and lush green
tea gardens and clean surroundings. Kaziranga itself has
demonstrated entrepreneurial tourism with bamboo cottages for tourists and little use
of plastic — an inherent thrust
on eco-tourism. The resort
was teeming with animals;
we spotted Rhinos every few
minutes, along with wild buffaloes, deer and elephants.
However, the road to Majuli
from Kaziranga appeared as it
was in the 1990s: potholed
and damaged. Once we arrived at Nimati ghat near Jorhat
to cross over to the island
traversing the Brahmaputra,
the ferries, overloaded with
people and vehicles, felt arcane and dangerous. Cars and
bikes precariously hung on to
them. The ride up to the ferry
from the ghat for the cars was
extremely risky with some of
them nearly toppling over onto
the Brahmaputra. Majuli, the
land of the ancient Asom Satra
tradition, showed some signs
of local entrepreneurship with
Mishing community-type cot-
tages for tourists and local
handicrafts in display. Yet,
these were not showcased in
a manner that tourists would
find easy to view. What is
therefore required is an efficient project with local handicrafts and weaving housed in
the same building for wider
impact. Local people told us
that they are in favour of community tourism — where outsiders come to Majuli and stay
with a community in order to
absorb better the local traditions and warm hospitality.
However, the first step to make
this aspiration a possibility is
to build an inland river ferry
service that is safe, ghats that
have bathrooms for travellers,
clean surroundings and easy
loading facilities. Very few
tourists would dare to take the
life-threatening ride across the
Brahmaputra on rickety ferries; this is a great tourism
revenue loss for Majuli. From
Majuli, we travelled back to
Guwahati and then took to the
hills of Meghalaya. This route
was a pleasant surprise — the
roads have been widened in
this area and a part of the
Asian Highway project, in fact
Shillong itself, looked spruced
up. Some foreign tourists I
met on my way to Cherrapunji
listed the things that made
Meghalaya attractive: clean
and frequent toilets in public
spaces, attractive tourist sites
such as the famous caves that
are connected by paths, now
beautified and made easy to
traverse, and clean surroundings. However, the absence of
good public bus connectivity
was listed as one of the priorities for the State. For long,
India has discussed and debated the ‘Look East’, now
called ‘Act East’, policy, as
well as better road and rail
connectivity that would boost
tourism and investments in
the Northeast. However, while
the policy discusses what it
would include as its goals —
development, connectivity to
Southeast Asia, more economic growth, etc — very few
local people understand why
it is important for them, or
how it will improve their lives
on a daily basis. And as Simon
Sinek, in a thought-provoking
Ted Talk on ‘How Great Leaders Inspire Action’, reminds
us, unless people understand
why they do what they do,
they will not accomplish much.
At this point of time, the ‘Act
East’ policy appears to be
driven by Delhi, and has perhaps not been able to inspire
How Bihar mended its ways
local people to the extent
it should. There is enormous potential in Assam
and Meghalaya for development. This is why there
needs to be inspired imagination. We can imagine
Moreh in Manipur becoming a border town with
smart hubs for business
buttressed by the concept
of eco-tourism. This will
generate local employment and attract visitors.
Arunachal Pradesh and
Nagaland are immensely
beautiful and people there
have great potential, but
they often bemoan the lack
of opportunity and infrastructure. It is here that
long-term vision and
imagination are critically
required; a state that can
develop sound infrastructure and business will benefit its people. Community
tourism can assist people
who are in dire need of
resources. However, this
imagination has to be generated and supported by
the States which are best
equipped to understand local realities. To establish
conditions for development and peace, we will
have to start locally, today.
The State’s recent experience shows that even the worst-governed States can reform their public distribution system and make good use of the National Food Security Act.
“In Lalu’s days we had a lal
card [BPL card], with Nitish
we got coupons, and when
Manjhi came we got this new
ration card”. This is how Anuj
Paswan, a Dalit resident of
Tetar village in Gaya district,
sees recent changes in Bihar’s
public distribution system
(PDS). His account is not quite
accurate, but it does convey
the heightened political relevance of these matters in
rural Bihar. A stream of recent
reports indicate that Bihar’s
PDS has improved in recent
years. National Sample Survey data, matched with official data on PDS allocations
from the Central Government,
suggest leakages in the range
of 75 to 90 per cent throughout the 2000s. The latest estimates, however, show a dramatic decline – from 75 per
cent in 2009-10 to 24 per cent
in 2011-2. Further evidence of
positive change emerges from
at least four independent surveys, led by researchers from
the Delhi School of Economics, the National Council of
Applied Economic Research,
the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) and the World
Bank respectively. Some of
these reports have led to premature euphoria in the national media. One leading daily
even described Bihar as India’s
new “PDS poster boy”. This
certificate overlooks the fact
that it is mainly in comparison
with its earlier dismal record
that Bihar is doing so well.
Compared with other States,
Bihar’s PDS is still far from the
best. Nevertheless, Bihar’s
recent progress is of much
interest for two reasons. First,
it shows that even India’s
worst-governed States are
capable of reforming their
PDS. Second, if not a poster
boy, Bihar has at least been a
pioneer in terms of the imple-
mentation of the National Food
Security Act (NFSA), and this
early attempt to roll out the
Act has important lessons for
other States. A recent survey
of 1,000 rural households in
Banka, Gaya, Purnea and
Sitamarhi districts sheds further light on the status of the
PDS and NFSA in Bihar. The
sample households were selected at random from the
Socio Economic and Caste
Census list. Out of 1,000
households, 89 per cent were
eligible for PDS entitlements
under the NFSA (in the sense
that they did not meet any of
the official exclusion criteria)
– this is quite close to the
mandatory coverage of 86 per
cent in rural Bihar. Among
eligible households, 83 per
cent had a new ration card
and had started receiving PDS
rice or wheat under the Act.
Another 4 per cent or so had
retained their Antyodaya
cards, which remain valid. The
remaining 13 per cent, however, were still waiting for
their ration card. It was not
entirely clear whether this gap
was due to administrative delays or hoarding of ration cards
by corrupt middlemen. Households with a new ration card
are entitled to 5 kg of
foodgrains per person per
month under the Act, at Rs.3/
kg for rice and Rs.2/kg for
wheat. In practice, most of
them received a little less and
paid a little more. On average,
these households were able
to purchase 77 per cent of
their entitlements during the
month preceding the survey
(November 2014). This figure
is broadly consistent with recent estimates of PDS leakages in Bihar from the studies
cited earlier. It confirms that
the days of mass embezzlement are over. On the other
hand, it suggests no further
progress in plugging the leakages in the last two or three
years. Note, however, that
part of the gap between purchases and entitlements may
reflect supply bottlenecks
rather than leakages. Indeed,
the quantities of PDS grain to
be distributed in Bihar shot up
after NFSA came into force,
and it seems that the system
is still trying to cope with the
logistic burden of enhanced
allocations. One manifestation
of this problem was a very
erratic distribution schedule.
Ideally, PDS rations should be
distributed on fixed days every month (to facilitate public
monitoring and vigilance), and
in any case within the month
when they are due. In Bihar,
however, PDS rations are often distributed one month or
even two months behind
schedule. This makes it very
difficult for people to track
their entitlements, and opens
the door to corruption. Other
useful insights emerged from
this survey, both positive and
negative. The new list of ration cards (and of household
members on each ration card)
is linked to the Socio-Economic
and Caste Census, making it
possible, in principle, for anyone to verify his or her status.
The new list is more logical,
reliable and inclusive than the
earlier “BPL list”, notorious for
its arbitrariness. However, the
new list of ration cards is not
in the public domain as things
stand. This defeats the whole
purpose of achieving greater
transparency. Bihar still has
a long way to go before it
achieves poster boy status.
The progress achieved so
far reflects the partial adoption of PDS reforms that
have proved effective elsewhere,
notably
in
Chhattisgarh. However,
major gaps remain: PDS
dealers in Bihar still operate in an environment of
arbitrariness and impunity
(one of them shrugged his
shoulders when we confronted him with evidence
of corruption, claiming that
this was the norm). Aggrieved households still
have no effective means of
securing a response to their
grievances. Further PDS
reforms are urgently
needed, but vested interests are likely to dig their
heels in the process. The silver lining is that the public
distribution system and the
National Food Security Act
have become politically
charged issues in Bihar. This
is in sharp contrast with the
situation that prevailed in the
2000s, when wholesale looting of the PDS failed to trigger
active protests. The run-up to
Lok Sabha elections last year,
and to Assembly elections this
year, seems to have prompted
the Bihar government to initiate serious PDS reforms. Opposition parties, for their part,
are constantly challenging the
government’s claims and
keeping it on its toes. This
political awakening around
food security issues is a positive development and gives
some hope of further
progress in the near future.
Garvi Gujarat
3
Ahmedabad. Dt. 17-05-2015 Sunday
3
On a different pitch: Jyothika Bollywood: She is in control
Jy
othika is bac
k in 36 V
ayadhinile af
ear break
ot
ally
Jyothika
back
Va
aftter an eight yyear
break.. TTot
otally
involved in her marriage and motherhood, the actor who used to be
super busy
ys that nothing matt
er
s tto
o her more than her kids
busy,, sa
says
matter
ers
Matrimony has snatched
many a good actress. Some
return after acrimonious
breakups to play supporting
roles. You forget a few who
disappear into oblivion but
miss a Simran or a Jyothika
not only for their unquestionable talent but their pleasant
on-screen presence. Jyothika
has designed her destiny, be it
personal or professional. ‘36
Vayadhinile’ is eagerly
awaited, purely because her
fans get an opportunity to see
her perform again. She’ll not
go on a signing spree, but
await a film that befits her
talent and impeccable image.
I had accused Surya of snatching away a good actress. Thank
you, but it was a mutual decision. I tied the knot when I
was 27. There’s a time and
age for everything, so got
married and had kids. There
was no thought of returning to
films for at least five years. It
was all planned. You quit at a
high after winning accolades
for ‘Vetaiyadu Vilayadu’ and
‘Mozhi’. Surya says he didn’t
stop you from acting. That
was entirely my call. We were
waiting for his family’s approval which took more than a
couple of years. If we had got
the nod earlier I wouldn’t have
done those films. Marriage
was the first priority. Luckily,
those films came during the
wait. As an artiste it took me
to a high but I was not going to
postpone the wedding. I didn’t
miss work. I had my first child
before our first anniversary.
So was it all worth giving up?
To be frank every bit of motherhood is worth it. I was very
comfortable being away from
cinema. I wonder why. The
expectations my return is generating makes me realise I’ve
not acted for eight years. The
time was spent watching my
kids grow and I didn’t have
time to breathe. I’m hyper by
nature. I like to take them to
all the classes and their outdoor activities. I don’t connect
the word hyper with you. Has
parenthood made you calm
and composed? Well, hyper in
the sense I don’t like to leave
them with a maid. I want to do
everything for them myself.
That’s a way of spending maximum time with them. I’ve
eased up now since my daughter is eight. I’m still doing it for
my son. I have become very
composed. Post marriage
there’s a lot of giving, be it
time or energy. Your priorities
become the last. You don’t
make what you want to eat.
It’s always about what the
family wants. That’s not a complaint. It’s a joy. Incidentally
today’s Mother’s Day. Your
mother pulled you out of school
and put you in cinema which is
strange. You only hear of parental opposition to joining cinema. I’m very proud of what
she did. Opportunities come
to everybody at some point of
time. In my case it was early.
I was being offered work when
I was in high school. She said
it was my choice but wanted
me to get out and work. If I
had studied it would have been
another ten years. I’m proud
because I took the right decision. I’d have been educated
but how experienced in life I’d
have been is a question mark.
You probably wouldn’t have
met Surya. Yes, I came to a
strange city, learnt a new language and met Surya which is
one of my biggest achievements. I’ve made a name for
myself. Life has given me a
balance. If the same happens
to Diya and Dev I’d do likewise. A Punjabi girl who studied in Bombay and came to
Madras -- it must have been a
struggle initially. I was very
young and still in the family
cocoon so I held my mother’s
hand. It was very fearful to
step into the film industry
where you’re the only female
amongst a crowd of men. It
was a new world but a great
experience. My mother stuck
around till she felt I was comfortable. She left me with a
help and returned because I
have a younger brother.
Nagma, my sister too helped.
You eventually reached a stage
where you could recommend
Surya to a director. (Laughs)
We both started together. We
were friends for a long time.
That turning into love took five
years. It just so happened that
Gautam had signed me first
for ‘Kakhkha Kakhkha’ and was
looking for a hero. I mentioned Surya. He watched
‘Nanda’ and was impressed. It
all fell in place. Do you regret
the fact that you didn’t learn
Tamil to dub your lines? Yes I
do, and that’s with capital letters. There’s so much I want
to convey even on shows. I’m
facing the media after 16
years. I get self conscious
using difficult words. It rolls
in my mind in English and I
translate into whatever
Tamil I know. I keep asking
Surya how I sounded. Conveying something should not
sound like I’m preaching.
Not dubbing has been a regret. I tried to dub for ‘36
Vayadhinile’. My dubbing
was good but I didn’t sound
like a middle-class Tamil girl.
Accent is very important. Not
knowing the language is a big
minus. You’ve lost a lot of
weight. You didn’t seem to
bother during your heydays.
That’s a state of mind with
married women. It was not
because I was making a comeback. You start aging fast af-
ter motherhood. You start looking different. I met the right
people at the right time. My
Yoga instructor Gayathri is very
determined. I’ve been working out for the last six years. It
was at a stage where I realised
that I was married to Surya
and couldn’t afford to look
bloated. I’d put on thirty kilos.
Once you start working out it’s
an addiction. If you did want to
make a comeback in a heroine
centric role there was
‘Kahaani’ and ‘Queen’. Why
did you choose this film?
‘Kahaani’ was offered to me
two years ago when I wasn’t
keen. The project didn’t seem
to have a good team. They
came to sign me first and
nothing seemed right. ‘Queen’
wasn’t offered to me. This
film too came when I wasn’t
too keen. My son is just five
but it’s the message. It blew
me because I identified with
the character. I wanted the
film to reach a wider audience. Are you here to stay? I
haven’t planned anything. I
will do films if they’re better
than ‘36 Vayadhinile’. I’m not
here for money. I will not bargain my precious time with my
kids for cinema. It has to be
worth the time. Was revealing
your age difficult? We wanted
an age related title. Other than
being feminist, the film is about
being proud of your age. I’m
proud of my age. There was
opposition but this seemed apt.
Age is just a number and you
should be proud. I’m sure I’ll
be more proud when I’m fifty.
Call it loss of innocence or coming of age, the
Hindi film heroine is making her choices and
the audience is lapping it up, sa
ys Anuj K
umar
says
Kumar
Last week, in the myriad
symbols of constipation that
“Piku” proffered, writer Juhi
Chaturvedi also burst the gas
of virginity that shrouded the
Hindi film heroine for a long
time without shouting from
the roof tops. Bhaskar
Banerjee, the father of “Piku”
tells a prospective suitor that
his daughter is not a virgin.
She is not only financially
independent but sexually as
well. It is written in such an
every day manner that the
audience don’t need an antacid to digest it. Piku is not
just multi-tasking, she moves
on different planes simultaneously. Her rational approach doesn’t make her an
atheist. She wants to clear
the office files and the kitchen
sink with equal gusto. Juhi,
who earlier struck a rapport
with the audience with her
refreshing take on the contours of mother-in-law and
daughter-in-law bond, in
“Vicky Donor”, says Piku is a
girl of 2015 and she doesn’t
need to reflect on what a
Hindi film heroine has been
doing all these years. “The
film is for transparency between father and daughter.
In many of our films the
youngsters boast about their
relationships but when it
comes to sharing them with
their parents the film goes
silent.” In a way it is an
antithesis to “Dilwale
Dulhaniya Le Jayenge”
where the daughter took the
entire film to tell the father
about what she wants. Juhi
says Bhaskar is not against
marriage. “He says marriage
should have a purpose. A
girl is not for serving food
during the day and to have
sex at night.” Do such fathers exist around us? “Many
father these days know what
their daughters are up to.
They might not talk about it.
And even if they don’t I would
like to see them.” The film
strikes at the roots of the
conservative values, but Juhi
holds that values change. “I
come from Lucknow, a city
known for its conservative
values but my parents allowed me to stay alone in
Delhi and never questioned
me about my relationships.”
She goes on to add that this
doesn’t mean morality has
no value. “Piku is not sleep-
ing around with 10 men. And
she is not a teenager. She is
30 and the film clearly talks
about sex as a need.” Where
it leaves the male character?
Aanand is at work. “Life doesn’t
end with marriage. I wanted
to discover it.” But even before you say it he says, “It is
not about extra-marital affair.
want to be used as a commodity and both are not dependent on men.” For him
Datto is reflection of the rise
of the Haryanvi women.
Is he in danger of becoming a
weaker sex, at least on screen?
Piku’s friend Syed comes with
benefits but doesn’t demand
his territory. Rana also knows
where to draw the line. Juhi
says these are mature men
who know that the emotional
and physical needs of a woman
are different and it is not always that she finds a man
who can fulfil both. Does such
independence threaten the social fabric? “At the end Piku
says that her father has given
her enough to be in control of
her life but it doesn’t mean
she is not giving her relationship with Rana a chance.” Director Aanand L Rai is no different from Juhi. Much before
“Queen” happened, he gave
us Tanu, a small town girl who
could take on any city girl in
confidence and cool quotient.
As he comes up with the sequel of “Tanu Weds Manu”
where Tanu gets a lookalike in
the form of Datto, a Haryanvi
athlete, Aanand says he wants
to explore life after marriage.
It used to be a subject of TV
serials and his brother Ravi
Rai was a master of it. Now
Hindi cinema is rediscovering
the details of domesticity,
I always feel a director’s personality reflects in his work
and for me it is not an extramarital affair.” He said something similar when a section of
intelligentsia
termed
“Ranjhaana” as a showcase
for stalking. “The way I have
been brought up there is a
middle class boy in me. I am
able to read my audience better because I am one of them.
The majority is me. The people
who were talking about it as
stalking were actually staying
at the 40th floor of a sea
facing South Mumbai housing
society. They don’t understand
that in small towns holding
hand is still difficult. I am giving a new perspective to real
India.” Aanand says he always knew that Tanu is the
new Bollywood girl. “She
comes from a small town and
is no less than any metro girl
because small town is breaking its stereotypes. There are
Café Coffee Days, there is
Internet and there is aspiration.” When it comes to confidence, Aanand says Datto is
no different from Tanu. “If
one can make London run
around her the other one can
run around London. Both don’t
“They are equally adept at
kitchen and the ring and if
they prefer to be in the
kitchen it is their choice.”
Both Juhi and Aanand are
excited at the response of
the industry and the audience. “What I am excited
about is the originality of the
stories. Good, bad or ugly
they are original. It is not
that I saw some Korean film
and am trying to adapt it. I
can see a small town from a
different perspective,” says
Aanand. Is it becoming nostalgic for the guy who migrated from a small town
and now can pay Rs. 250 for
a film ticket and splurge on
the popcorn and cold drink?
“In a way, yes because NRI
romance or shooting abroad
is no longer aspirational. Today a middle class family can
afford to go to London by
saving some money. The audience wants to stay with
something realistic, rooted.
He wants to spend some
time with Tanu or Rani.”
Taking a cue from her character Bhaskar, Juhi sums up,
“The audience is always high
IQ. It is the writers and directors who have to catch up.”
Cookstoves and the climate DDA
to e-auction
152 premium flats Bringing back the
A promising area of change for the better
In the last article, we considered the climate impact of
India’s love for milk (short
summary: not good). This time
we will consider another aspect of our food: how we cook
it. Most readers of this newspaper will perhaps not have
more than the slightest acquaintance with wood-fired
stoves. Most of us are still
wondering whether or not to
voluntarily give up our LPG
subsidies (more than 3 lakh of
us have). But millions of Indians cook with stoves fuelled
with wood, dung or some other
form of biofuel. That’s not a
good thing. Why? For several
reasons. We'll deal with three
here: the warming impact of
the black carbon in the smoke
generated from using these
stoves; the negative health
impacts of the smoke, and
third, the negative consequences of the smoke on agricultural yield. "Biofuel” or
wood stoves are quite inefficient: they don’t allow the
biofuel (for simplicity, let us
call this wood) to burn fully:
witness the telltale blackish
smoke that emanates from
them. The primary constituent of this smoke is what scientists call “black carbon” and
it warms the world. Black carbon, or soot, absorbs the sunlight directly in the air and
releases the trapped energy
as heat, warming the air (I'll
pass now on the albedo and
cloud formation effects). Many
leading scientists believe black
carbon to be the most potent
warming agent after CO2.
While the climate benefits of
reducing black carbon are
clear, there is some uncertainty on how much benefit
we will get. Why? Because the
smoke that emanates from a
cookstove is a complex cocktail of chemicals, some of the
which (like soot) warm the
climate while others cool it
down. This means that cutting
smoke may not slow down
warming by as much as some
models predict. The second
reason: Health. According to
the World Health Organisation,
4.3 million people die globally
each year due to indoor air
pollution (the small particles
in the sooty smoke travel deep
within the lungs causing many
ailments including heart disease and cancer). A million
die every year in India from
indoor air pollution, and the
primary cause of this pollution
is the use of biofuel cookstoves.
While there is so much attention on outdoor pollution from
will take care of this, even in
a relatively developed state
like Tamil Nadu, more than
eight million of a total 16
million households use firewood to cook some of the
time. The third significant
negative
impact
of
cookstoves is the creation of
tropospheric (or ground
level) ozone. While ozone in
the upper atmosphere is a
good thing - absorbing ultraviolet rays and preventing
cancer, it is not good at the
ground level. Why? Because
it lowers crop yields. In a
negative impacts of using
those stoves. Second are financial barriers to adoption
of more efficient cookstoves.
Often, in rural situations men
make the financial decisions
of the household and they are
less enthused than women
(who bear the brunt, especially in terms of health) in
investing in efficient
cookstoves. Third, the design
of cookstoves needs to ensure
the efficient burning of a diverse variety of fuels and generate enough heat to cook
what people are used to eat-
vehicles, very little popular
attention is directed towards
indoor air pollution and its
causes. The burden hits hardest on women (the primary
cooks) and the very young
children (who stay by the
women). Moreover, the
health burden is being transmitted to the next generation because even the unborn children are affected
by the smoke. We also need
to consider the effort and
time taken to gather firewood. This again falls hardest on the women of the
household, often on the girls.
Lest you say development
context of so much farmer
pain from crop damages, this
is an under-appreciated reason why agriculture may be
suffering. To sum up: most
Indians cook with wood fires
(technical name: solid fuel
cookstoves). This is bad from
at least three perspectives:
health, the climate and agriculture. The negative impact
falls hardest on those least
able to cope with it: the poor
women and children. So why
is the use of wood-stoves
continuing? First and foremost, due to lack of awareness. Many users of wood
fired stoves do not know the
ing. Doing this while keeping
the stoves cheap and sturdy is
a significant challenge. This
is an exciting area where
many NGOs and startups are
taking action. Many startups
are experimenting with
cookstove design; others
with providing microfinance
and marketing to help more
households adopt cleaner
cookstoves. And as awareness builds up that efficient
cookstoves save health and
money in the medium term,
increasing numbers of
households are transitioning
to using more efficient
stoves. There is hope.
in CWG Village
next month
NEW DELHI: Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is all
set to auction 152 premium
apartments at Commonwealth
Games Village in June. The
land owning agency will conduct an electronic auction and
has fixed Rs 7 crore as the
reserve price for the 3BHK
units. The authority is likely to
earn over Rs 1,000 crore from
this sale. The auction has been
pending for a long time as
Delhi government had requested 60 flats for its official
housing pool in 2012. Due to
this DDA withheld the auction,
but Delhi government hasn't
given a response till now. "We
had earlier written 2-3 letters
to the newly-elected government. Now, we are going to
send a letter again to confirm
whether they still want the
units. If no response is received, then we will auction
them," said Balvinder Kumar,
vice-chairman, DDA. Officials
say the government will have
to pay the money for the flats
upfront. Sources said the auction process is likely to be
completed by June end. Of the
711 flats with DDA, 378 were
taken by the central government for its official housing
pool, 74 were sold in June
2012 and 45 were converted
as official quarters for DDA
employees. There are 62 flats
which are under litigation due
to dispute between DDA and
the developer. "We are left
with 152 flats, all 3BHK units
with plinth area of 3,000
square feet," said a DDA official. This is for the first time
that DDA will be conducting eauction and is likely to advertise it next week. Officials said
adequate time will be given to
the interested bidder to register for the e-auction. The cost
to DDA for CWG flats in 2009
was around Rs 11,000 per
square feet. The authority sold it
for Rs 22,000 per sq feet in 2012.
golden era
Meet Shiv
aji Chatur
.D.Sundarrajan, tw
o of
Shivaji
Chaturvvedi and TT.D.Sundarrajan,
two
Chennai's most experienced theatre artistes.
One of them is 71 years old,
and the other, 76, but their childlike glee and enthusiasm for life
is infectious. They don many
hats between the two of them directors, producers, businessmen, magicians - and once they
get on stage, they’re livewire
actors. Meet Shivaji Chaturvedi
and T.D. Sundarajan, or TD, as
he is fondly known as, who have
been in Tamil theatre for half a
century. “TD and I worked in the
same company, and both of us
were active in theatre troupes
from our college years. There
were more than 125 sabhas in
the city then, so we used to stage
a play almost every day with our
troupe ‘Stage Creations’, which
we still work with at times. We
even toured Delhi, Calcutta,
Hyderabad, Madurai and pretty
much wherever Tamil communities resided,” reminisces
Shivaji on their early days. Today, they’re best known for
Shraddha, a theatre company
founded in 2010 that stages
Tamil plays four times a year.
“We felt theatre had taken a real
beating in the city. Now, there
are less than 10 sabhas. So after our retirement, we wanted
to revive the beauty of old theatre and bring back the Golden
Era, so we started Shraddha
with the help of Prema
Sadhadhivam,
G.
Krishnamoorthy and Kathadi
Ramamoorthy.” It is open to all,
age no bar. “We don’t believe in
writing scripts based on the cast
available. That limits the creativity and thinking of the writer
as well. We will choose artistes
for the characters, not characters for the artistes. Students,
housewives, anyone can join,
and we will train them,” says TD.
He adds: “We ask a writer for a
story, go through it, and if we
decide to turn it into a play, most
of the time we will ask the writer
to direct it himself. We don't
hold rights to the play. After we
perform it, we move on to another play, but the writer is free
to stage it himself. This way, we
can spread the reach of good,
serious theatre as much as we
can.” The company’s mission is
to ‘bring life to the stage, and
bring the stage to life’. In a bid
to prove that, all their plays have
had novelties. For Valai, the
musical. I was the oldest member of the cast, obviously, but I
danced too,” chuckles TD.
When asked how they manage
to maintain the old-school theatre magic and constantly innovate at the same time, they
cheekily reply, “Well, that's
Shraddha for you!” The recipient of the Brahma Gana Sabha
Special Award for promoting
Tamil Stage, the company
wants to spread the charm of the
old-time theatre to youngsters
stage was divided horizontally,
not vertically as it is always done,
to represent two different
places. One of their most successful plays, Vyugam, was
done completely in black and
white, costumes, lighting and
all. Vidhuran, was a play performed completely in mime by
a group of engineering students. A number of short plays
staged by them were a hit
amongst the younger crowd.
The plays have also bagged a
number of awards. “We have
brought a horse on stage, and
also created an 18-foot-long luminous octopus for a children's
as well. “We might be above the
age of 70, but a lot of our friends
are in their 20s!,” laughs Shivaji.
“We promote all kinds of theatre. We encourage college students to work with us and we also
want to institute a prestigious
award for young artistes. But
unfortunately, today, the audience is willing to pay Rs.150 to
see trash films, but not Rs.50 for
a beautiful play. Artistes too
need to broaden their minds
and venture out of their own
theatre troupes. Writers
need to be open to change
and start writing plays.
How else will the art grow?.”
4
Ahmedabad. Dt. 17-05-2015 Sunday
Garvi Gujarat
4
Senior citizen on
Payment for materials was mission
Utterly
Amul:
5k
mango
to adopt strays
farmers plan co-op
made to a ghost company: Cops
Gandhinagar: State CID
(Crime) on Thursday arrested
former IAS officer-turned-hotelier Sanjay Gupta for alleged
irregularities worth Rs 113
crore in the Gujarat government-owned Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ah
medabad (MEGA), which he
headed from April 2011 to
August 2013. In March,
Karunashankar Mehta, a
Gujarat Administrative Service
officer who conducted a technical audit in MEGA, filed FIR
alleging irregularities before
CID (Crime) without naming
Gupta. The complaint said
work orders were issued without any tendering process for
land filling in Bhat and Motera
while Gupta was executive
chairman of MEGA. The FIR
named seven ex-managers of
MEGA namely Radhesh Bhatt,
Switen Doshi, Balchandra Kak
lute, Lalit Chaudhary , Tarun
Bhatiyar, Sudhanshu Parmar
and Rahul Upadhyay . MEGA
has accused them of creating
false records for financial
gains, making false payments
and causing financial loss to
the state exchequer. SG
Parmar, DySP CID (Crime),
said, “During investigations,
Sanjay Gupta's involvement
came to light. It was revealed
that payment for materials,
which were never delivered,
was made to a ghost company
.“ Technical audit revealed
that against MEGA's claims of
20.67 lakh sq m land filling
worth Rs 194.56 crore, work
was done over only 9.42 lakh
sq m area. Bogus bills for land
filling work over 11.24 lakh sq
m were allegedly cleared without any work done on the
ground. The value of this material as per the prescribed f
rates comes to Rs.113.22
crore. “Sanjay Gupta was
called for questioning at CID
crime office. After recording
his statement, he was
arrested.Gupta will be produced in court on Friday ,“
said Parmar. t Gupta quit IAS
in 2002 and joined Adani group
for sometime before starting
Fresh wet spell hits Amreli mangoes
Rajkot:Unseasonal rains lashed many villages of Khambha
and Dhari taluka of Amreli for the
fourth consecutive day on Thursday .
The rains were recorded in Borala,
Rabarika, Khadadhara, Chakrana and
other villages of Khambha taluka. Due
to the squally weather, trees were
uprooted in these village and checkdams began overflowing with rain
water. Showers, especially in villages
of Dhari, have damaged Kesar mango
crop as fruits from many trees got
dropped due to heavy wind and showers. The mango orchard owners are
facing the onslaught of erratic weather
for the fifth time this year and have
suffered almost 80% loss in
production.Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials issued a rainfall warning for the next three days. “Light to
moderate rains or thundershowers would occur at isolated places in
the Saurashtra region during the next three days,“ IMD officials said.
his hospitality business. He was
roped in for the ambitious
metro project by Narendra
Modi-led Gujarat government
in 2011. Gupta's relationship
with other bureaucrats associated with Metro project was
far from cordial. His arrest
was preceded by a countercomplaint by Gupta in his defense before a magisterial
court against former chief secretary and MEGA director
Manjula Subramaniam, CEO
Rajesh Mehta and chief engineer J J Shiyani accusing them
of creating false document to
cause harm to his reputation
and hatching criminal conspiracy. He requested the court
to quash the FIR against
him and other ex-employees.
DGP stresses
on cybercrime
detection skills
Ahmedabad: At a crime
conference organized in the
DGP office in Gandhinagar on
Wednesday , DGP P C Thakur
stressed on the development
of detection skills in
cybercrime.The DGP addressed police commissioners, SPs, Range IGPs and additional DGPs at the conference. “In this age of internet,
we need to develop skills in
how to deal with various types
of cybercrimes. We've cyber
cells in almost all cities and
major districts, besides the
cyber cell of the CID (crime).
With more gadgets and expertise, we will very soon be
able to tackle cyber criminals,“
said Thakur. Senior police officials said other issues such
as the crime situation in the
state, strategies to tackle organized crime and maintenance of public law and order
were also discussed at length.
Rs 61,000 tablet turns
out to be piece of stone
Ahmedabad: Chirag
Nayi, a resident of
Navrangpura, expectantly
opened a package on Tuesday as he had ordered the
latest model of a high-end
tablet from an online shopping portal. But the happiness fizzled out soon after
the content turned out to be
a piece of stone. Nayi on
Wednesday approached
Gujarat University police with
an application of complaint
for cheating against the
online portal. He also moved
the consumer forum in the city
. “I had ordered the tablet a
few days back as the deal was
good and had made a payment of Rs 61,000 online as
the website does not give cash
on delivery (COD) option for
deals above Rs 50,000. I re
ceived the delivery on Tuesday evening. Everything, including the papers, was in
order. I don't understand at
which stage the tablet was
replaced with a stone. I had
purchased the tablet for
someone else,“ Nayi told TOI.
He said that they have approached the portal with the
complaint. The family also
decided to approach the consumer forum. Consumer protection activists said that
with the rise in e-commerce
because of lucrative offers,
the number of cheating
cases has also increased.
Activists said that the portal would be contacted by
the rights forum as well.
Govt sets up team for 11
new education channels
Ahmedabad: The state
government has set up a
sevenmember committee to
air 11 new education channels which will be set up
through
BISAG
(Bhaskaracharya Institute for
Space Applications and GeoInformatics) for long distance
education. The channels will
be used for education
programmes and studies from
class V to professional courses.
These channels will be for
both school and colleges. It
was in November last year
that the ministry of information and broadcasting granted
a no objection certificate for
the use of 36 megahertz bandwidth for the educational and
development programmes in
the Gujarat. In early 2011, the
state government had raised
a demand for the permission.
This was the pet project of
former chief minister and
now Prime Minis ter
Narendra Modi, however, it
was hanging fire as the UPA
government failed to give
the NOC. According to officials, the use of the transponder will enable the state
in delivering education
programmes to the schools,
colleges, universities and for
imparting medical education,
technical education and skill
development knowledge. The
officials said that the committee has been given the task of
deciding the content to be
aired. The team will also decide on the timings. The department has also asked the
members to finalize the names
of the subject experts who
would be roped in for preparing the material. The officials
said that Gujarat is the only
state in the country to have in
place a state-wide network
of information communication technology that covers
all its 18,000 villages, 225
talukas and 26 districts.
SC fines Centre Rs 20k for not
filing status report in PoW case
Ahmedabad: The Supreme Court has imposed a
fine of Rs 20,000 on the Centre for not filing status report
on the action it has taken to
bring the prisoners of 1971
war (PoW) from Pakistan prisons after 44 years. The apex
court had sought report on
two occasions - first in September and then in November
2014. The court has been asking for this report in response
to an appeal filed by the Centre against Gujarat high court's
order passed on December
23, 2011 asking the Union
government to take up the
issue of PoW with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to
bring the soldiers back to India from the jails of
neighbouring country . In response to a PIL filed by former
general Jagjit Singh Aurora
through advocate K M Paul,
the HC had ordered the Centre to give compensation to
the families of 54 PoWs who
did not return to India. The
Centre accepted this order,
but took exception to the direction to take up the issue
with the ICJ. After the 1971
war ended, India returned
93,000 Pakistani soldiers and
in turn Pakistan sent 624 Indian PoWs back. But there
was no news of 54 Indian
soldiers for all these years.
Besides asking the government to pay the families of
the PoWs, the HC had directed the Centre to file a
petition before the ICJ to
expedite the return of the
soldiers that have been languishing in Pakistan prisons.
In 2011, the HC said that the
Centre had been “guilty of
inaction and not protecting
rights of citizens, who defend
the country's boundaries“ by
not approaching the ICJ so
far. In January 2010, the high
court had fined the defence
ministry Rs 20,000 for not filing appropriate reply in the
case for over 10 years
despite repeated notices.
Surat: Stunned over an
infant girl being girl being
mauled to death by stray dogs,
a senior citizen who is also a
social worker has of worker
has offered to take care of the
stray dogs on the city roads.
He has urged the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) to
give him 7,000 sq mt land to
build an animal shelter. Ashok
Mistry, 64, associated with the
city-based Jivan Vikas Trust,
has written a letter to the
municipal commissioner and
the mayor urging for land in
the outskirts where he intends
to set up a home for stray
dogs and a veterinary hospital. Talking to TOI, Mistry said,
“I was aghast after what happened to the infant girl.The
population of stray dogs has
increased phenomenally in the
last couple of years and sterilization is not the answer to
curb the menace.“ “SMC could
simply bring the stray dogs
from every nook and corner of
and corner of the city at the
home for dogs where we will
take care of their food and
other facilities.There are numerous donors in the city who
are ready to fund the project,“
he said. “I will be meeting the
mu nicipal commissioner and
the mayor in the next two days
in this regard,“ Mistry added.
Mayor Niranjan Janjmera told
TOI, “I have received a letter
from a senior citizen regarding the issue. Since it is a
policy decision, I can't take de
cision on my cision on my
own. This is a good idea and
good idea and I fully endorse
it and will try to help him in
whatever way possible. Even we
want to make the city dog free
and a separate home for stray
dogs is the only answer to this.“
Sindha murder: 3
accused detained
Surat: Three accused in the murder of Amit Sindha, a
syndicate member of Veer Narmad South Gujarat Uni versity
(VNSGU) and youth BJP leader were detained from near
Ankleshwar on Wednesday. The prime ac cused, Divyesh
Sikligar, has also been detained. Sikligar, a gym trainer, and
others were detained from near Golden Bridge near An
kleshwar, sources said, add ing that police had laid a trap
with the help of Sikligar's girlfriend Bhumika Dilk hush to nab
them. The two other accused are believed to have helped
Sikligar in staying out of reach of po lice. “Sikligar has been
de tained and his arrest will be declared soon,“ said a senior
police officer. According to sources, police took help of
Bhumika, who is at the centre of entire case. After Sindha's
murder, Sikligar made several calls to Bhumika. He also
called her on Tuesday to get details of police action. Sources
said that Sikligar asked Bhumika to run away with him. He
then asked her to come near Gold en Bridge between
Anklesh war and Bharuch. Police kept watch on Bhumika
from a distance and detained the accused when he came to
meet her. Sikligar's last location was found near Indore in
Madhya Pradesh. His location was traced near Vadodara on
Sunday and later he went to Indore.Police teams from
detection of crime branch and Khatodara police station chased
Sikligar up to Indore and then traced him to Bharuch on Tuesday.
Rs 600cr plan to
revamp Guj ports
Gandhinagar: The Gujarat
Maritime Board (GMB) has
chalked out a Rs 600crore plan
to upgrade six ports with complete mechanization of cargohandling and better systems
in place to reduce pollution.
The ports that will be revamped include Okha,
Porbandar, Bhavnagar,
Navlakhi, Bedi and Magdalla.
The mechanization will also
increase the cargo-handling
capacity at these facilities by
around 20%, officials close to
the development told TOI. The
need for upgradation stems
from the rap that GMB re
ceived from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB)
which had ordered stopping
of all operations at Navlakhi
Port due to severe pollution
caused by coal. The National
Green Tribunal (NGT) has also
directed GMB to keep pollution
levels at the ports in check.
The import of coal at these
government-run ports has significant ly increased over the
last few years. Besides the
fear of NGT and pollution
watchdogs, private ports like
Mundra are giving the ageing
state-run ports a tough time
by offering much better standards of cargo-handling, infrastructure and service. The
equipment at these six ports
are wearing away and that
has adversely affected their
efficiency in terms of average
ship turnaround time, berth
occupancy and output, cargo
contamination and environmental issues, said sources in
the GMB. In the first phase of
the fiveyear revamp plan,
Navlakhi Port in the Gulf of
Kutch will be taken up for
upgradation. Navlakhi
handles maximum coal
among all the GMB ports.
This will be followed by
Bhavnagar and Magdalla in
the second phase. As part of
the plan, GMB will develop
new tailor-made coalhandling
solutions through mechanization and install dust suppression system at all the ports to
minimize pollution due to coal.
Parties vie for best
delimitation deal
Ahmedabad:The Ahmedabad District Collectorate has finalized new delimitation proposal for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and has sent it to the State Election Commission
for the necessary action. BJP office-bearers said that the city will
now have 48 wards instead of 64 and the number of corporators will remain 192. The government has decided to have four
corporators in each ward. The officials said that the news that
16 wards are getting reduced led to scare among BJP sitting
corporators who later made representations to the state
government and senior officebearers of the party , requesting
them to ensure that their seats remained safe. The leaders,
citing examples of Jamalpur, Khadia and Kalupur, said that the
delimitation should not disturb the social structure. The corporators suggested that two minority wards should be merged
and the population should be made to the required limit of
around 1.20 lakh. Even the Congress corporators fear that the
BJP will try to merge minority-dominated wards with
majority dominated ones. Nearly eight wards and 24
seats are dominated by the minority community . The
Congress apprehends that these seats will be affected in the
delimitation process. The party has decided to raise objections if there was any reduction in the number of minority seats.
Mob attacks VMC teams
in meat market
Vadodara: The officials of the market and security
departments of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC)
were attacked by a mob at Jetalpur. The officials had gone
to the market to check the meat shops there. Officials in the
VMC said that they had decided to conduct a check at the
market, as they had been receiving complaints regarding
hygiene being compromised at the market and shops disposing material in the drainages there. It was also suspected that many shops here were illegal and operating
without permissions. VMC security director Mangesh Jaiswal
said that the team led by market superintendent Vijay
Panchal and other officials had gone to the market. “They
raided shops and seized material. A mob gathered and
started pelting stones on the officials,“ said Jaiswal.
Ahmedabad: Taking a
leaf out of Amul's cooperative
movement, 5,000 mango orchard owners across Gujarat
are joining hands to create a
cooperative. This means that
mango lovers in various urban
centres will get mangos at
reasonable rates and that too
without any calcium carbide
ripening. Farmers of Kutch,
Dharampur, Kaprada and Gir,
with the help of a group of
NGOs, hope to remove
middlemen and agents from
the equation. “Till date,
mango farmers' produce is
purchased by a consortium of
agents who then market it in
cities through a network of
wholesalers and retailers. It
was this nexus between
agents and the sellers that
created hefty price rise as
also illegal use of carcinogenic calcium carbide to
quickly ripen the fruits. The
farmers lost out in this pro-
cess because they get pittance
from the agents. On the other
hand, the agents and the
mango sellers make huge profits,“ said Raju Dipti, chairman
of Disha, one of the leading
NGOs supporting the initiative.
Cooperative shops will be set
up
in
Ahmedabad,
Gandhinagar, Vadodara and
Surat. “We shall test 1,500
tonnes of mango for pesticides
and traces of other chemicals,
if any. Once we are satisfied
that the mangos do not have
any chemical contaminants,
we shall market them at our
shops. It's a winwin situation
for customers and the
famers.Customers will get
good quality fruits at reasonable rates while farmers will be
benefited with a bigger profit
margin,“ director of Disha,
Natu Makwana. Chairman of
Madhur Dairy of Gandhinagar
District Dudh Utpadak Sangh
Limited, Shankarsinh Rana,
said: “We have set up a retail
outlet at the mango festival Gujarat Keri Mahotsav 2015 which was inaugurated in
Gandhinagar on Wednesday
and will continue till June 20.
We endeavor to assist mango
producers in the state in supplying high quality mangoes
directly to consumers. These
direct linkages between producer organizations and consumers will help producers in
understanding and better fulfilling the needs of consumers.“ “The initiative also provides an opportunity to consumers to directly support
the goal of sustainable economic development of
mango farmers in Gujarat.
From next year onwards,
this experiment will be replicated in all districts of
Gujarat where we shall
rope in all cooperative societies working for mango and
othervegetablefarmers,“headded.
Eye donation: Ahmedabad
district falls 316 short of target
Ahmedabad: The National
Programme for Control of
Blindness (NPCB) data shows
that Ahmedabad district -which
has 14 talukas and 556 villages -fell 316 short of its set
target of 2,625 donated eyes
in 2014-15. At times, eyes are
putrefied as the ideal cold
chain is not maintained while
transporting them from rural
areas to a blood bank. “The
ideal temperature to preserve
eyes is four degrees. It should
also not be less than four degrees as ice formation will
damage the eyes,“ says senior ophthalmologist Dr Rupal
Bhatt, of MNJ Institute of Ophthalmology on Civil Hospital
campus. Most eyes are also
discard ed for being infected
or not in a good shape. The
remaining are sent to medical
colleges for re search by PG
ophthalmology students. Many
harvested eyes are rendered
useless because of infections
like viral, Hepatitis B, and HIV
. Also, eyes cannot be transplanted if the donor was alcoholic or died drowning. Institute director Dr Shashank Patel
said in several cases, officials
have to extract eyes even
when they are not in good
condition. “We don't want to
give a message that donated
eyes are out rightly
rejected.We want to encour-
age people.“ “In Gujarat, more
than 10,000 eyes are required
every year, but only 5,000 are
acquired. Of this, just 2,000
donated eyes are used for
treatment of corneal blindness
-3,000 (60%) are either
wasted or used for research,“
Dr Bhatt said. In areas where
eye banks are far away, eyes
-after harvest -can be preserved for 24 hours in a
thermocol box filled with ice
cubes and kept at four degrees temperature. Soon after death, eyes should be
closed and ice should be
kept on them as when the
surface is open, the damage happens the maximum.
Surat: The fate of around
50,000 workers employed in
more than 1,200 jacquard
weaving units in the city hangs
in balance as weavers are
planning to cut the production
by operating the units for just
six hours a day. The move has
come following dwindling demand of jacquard fabrics and
competition from digital textile fabrics in domestic and
international markets. Sachin
Jacquard Weavers Association
(SJWA) members said that
jacquard fabrics are costly
compared to those weaved on
water-jet and shuttle-less
looms. The prices of jacquard
fabrics have gone down by Rs
9.5 per metre to Rs 17 per
metre in the last few days
while the demand for digital
fabrics has picked up in most
of the domestic markets including Delhi, Kolkata,
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh
and Punjab. The 1,200 units
have an installed capacity of 1
lakh jacquard weaving machines. The daily production
of jacquard fabrics is pegged
at 60 lakh meters that has
come down to 25 lakh
metres per day . Mahendra
Ramoliya, who owns 600
jacquard machines, said,
“We are operating at 25 per
cent of our capacity . There
are 500 workers in my unit
working six hours a day . I am
paying their full monthly
wages between Rs 18,000 to
Rs 20,000.The weavers have
the capacity to pay full wages
for just two months.“ Around
1,200 weavers are expected
to attend a meeting convened
by the jacquard weavers association at Sachin GIDC on
May 15 when they are likely
to discuss announcement of
summer vacation of 20 to
25 days to reduce the production. Ramesh Patel, a
jacquard weaver, said, “The
demand is set to pick up
after July when the market
will prepare for the festival
season. But till then we
have to wait and sustain
our workers. We can't
afford to lose our workers.“
Surat’s jacquard workers
brace for hard times
RMC’s ‘smart system’
makes staff punctual
Rajkot: For the last 10
days people could be seen
standing in queues at various offices of the Rajkot
Municipal Corporation
(RMC). These are not citizens queuing up to avail benefits of a government
scheme, but employees of
RMC standing to mark their
attendance under the `Smart
Pay Roll System' which used
face detectors to register
attendance of all employees.
After the success of the pilot
project where seven face
detectors were installed at
RMC's offices, the civic body
has now scaled up the
`Smart Pay Roll System' and
now covers all its 170 offices
including civic centres and
zonal offices across the
city.In total, 170 face detec-
tors have been installed
where employees stands before the device and his or
her attendance automatically
gets registered in a central
server. “The reporting time
for employees at various offices is 10:30am and leaving
time is 6:10pm. But we had
noticed that most of them
were coming late and going
home early . Now, with this
system the time of arrival
and leaving office is registered automatically ,“ said a
senior RMC official. “Because
of this system, employees
have started arriving on time
and in some cases, earlier.
Because, if any employee is
late by more than 15 minutes, system registers half
day's leave on his or her
record,“ he added. Since the
entire system is linked to the
central server, employees
have to apply for leave online.
“Earlier, we had noticed that
some employees went on
leave but did not inform the
concerned department about
their leave period. But now,
with this system, employees
have to apply for leave when
they do not come to work or
else they would be marked
as absent,“ said a source.
RMC has installed face detectors at its 42 ward offices, three civic centres,
three zonal offices, 36 water and drainage pumping stations and libraries and other
offices. The field staff have
been asked to go to the nearest civic body office and get
their attendance registered
using the face detection device.
1 dead, 17 hurt in Bavla accident
Ahmedabad: One man
died and 17 people were
injured in a accident involving two buses and a
trailer
on
the
BavlaBagodara highway
late on Tuesday night.
Bavla Police have detained
the trailer driver for the
accident. Four of the injured are critical and have
been rushed to a private
hospital in Ahmedabad and
the Government Health
Centre (GHC) in Bavla.
According to Bavla police,
Deepak Samdarshi, a native of Baliya, UP, who was
currently living at a hotel in
Bavla, registered a complaint stating that he was
in a staff bus near Rupal
crossroads, around two kilometers from Bavla on the
Bavla-Bagodara road at
11.45 pm on Tuesday .A
trailer struck the bus while
trying to overtake it. “The
collision was so se vere
that the bus rammed into
another bus ahead of it. A
man in his thirties, identi-
fied as Shabad Kumar
Shanti Kumar, died on
the spot whereas passengers in two buses,
one is the staff bus of a
wind energy company ,
sustained injuries. The
employees were returning home to Ahmedabad
and nearby areas. We
rounded up the trailer
driver and started investigations to ascertain the reason
for the accident,“ said
a Bavla police officer.
RNI No. GUJENG/2014/57876 Printed, Published & Owned by AJAYKUMAR RAMANLAL PRAJAPATI and Printed at Vansh Corporation, A/8, Shayona Golden Estate, Shahibag, Ahmedabad - 380 004
and Published from 131, Dharmanagar Society, Highway Road, Sabarmati, Ahmedabad - 380 005. Editor : ASHVINKUMAR KESHAVLAL RAMI